Timothy Norris

ScHoolboy Q

ScHoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, Dizzy Wright
XXL Freshmen Live 2013
Club Nokia
5-18-13

Better Than... Actually being a freshman in high school

Since 2008, hip-hop magazine XXL has named its "top freshmen" each year, and on Saturday night the bulk of them performed at Club Nokia. Black Hippy crewmates Schoolboy Q and Ab-Soul were included in the group, and one expected they would perform together. But that was not the case, even though each performed tracks that had the other originally featured.

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Timothy Norris

Paid Dues Independent Hip-Hop Festival
San Manuel Amphitheater
3/30/13

Traffic was hellish. Parking was a mess, the outhouses were a disaster, the lines for food were ridiculously long, and one edifice labeled "will call" was not, in fact, will call. The dust was Coachella-like, and after the boiling sun set it was freezing. Cell phone service was spotty. Sound from two of the stages bled into each other, and one merch booth's sound system was so loud you couldn't hear the show being performed nearby.

See also: Our Paid Dues slideshow

Still, Paid Dues was a success. Girls wearing "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe" t-shirts (and little else) mingled with face-tatted dudes wearing "We Trippy Mane" sweatshirts and conscious dudes talking about "real hip-hop." If we learned anything, though, it's this: Hip-hop is back, if it was ever really gone. Below are reviews of four noteworthy sets.

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Timothy Norris

Meek Mill, Rick Ross, Big Sean, 2 Chainz, Kendrick Lamar
Power 106 Cali Christmas
Gibson Amphitheatre
12/14/12

Ah, the holiday season in L.A. -- a crisp chill is in the air, every twinkly light installment and bit of tinsel available has been vomited onto that particular property on Los Feliz Blvd. and Power 106 radio host Yesi Ortiz squawks about "sold-out Cali Christmas" after each song.

We trudged Grinch-like through a cold mist to get to the concert last night. But we ended up feeling touched by the spirit. It might have been the midgets dressed as elves handing out candy canes, the girl in the sequined Santa hat passing back her blunt, or the pair of people who proposed marriage on the Jumbotron above.

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Dan Monick

Instrumental albums -- also known as beat tapes -- give hip-hop producers a direct connection with fans, without any of those annoying lyrics on top of them.

These can often be a nice change of pace. But make no mistake, they aren't albums to zone out to, or to put on while you do a crossword puzzle, they're fierce, compelling works in their own right. Below, then, are our top five (mostly) instrumental albums from L.A. producers this year.

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Kendrick Lamar's good kid, m.A.A.d city is the frontrunner for hip-hop album of the year, and one of its most discussed verses comes from his Black Hippy crewmate Jay Rock. Far from new to the game, Jay Rock has put out music both on major labels and independently, he's been in boardrooms and boarded houses, toured internationally and outshone Game and Lil' Wayne on tracks -- all while recording in-house from Carson. So it's not too difficult to imagine him "up in them projects where them niggas pick your pockets" as well as "getting shaded under a money tree" like he raps on Lamar's "Money Trees."

See also: *Our cover story on Kendrick Lamar
*Our feature story on Schoolboy Q

The elder statesmen of Black Hippy -- the "it" crew in hip hop, also comprised of Lamar, Ab-Soul and Schoolboy Q -- Jay Rock first made noise with his Watts Finest series in 2006. After landing a deal at Warner Bros. with some help from mentor Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith, Rock released the blistering "All My Life" (ft. Lil' Wayne) in 2008 but soon found himself without radio play or promotion. Thus began a three-year stalemate with Warner Bros. that would eventually result in signing a joint venture with Tech N9ne's Strange Music imprint. But seeing as his crewmates have been taking over the blogosphere, the stars seem to be aligning as he preps the follow-up to his 2011 debut Follow Me Home. Our interview is below.

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Rebecca Haithcoat

Kendrick Lamar
Club Nokia
October 17, 2012

From a distance, it looked like a lazy protest was being staged at L.A. Live last night -- a handful of people dressed alike in baggy white t-shirts wandered the sidewalk or propped themselves up on fire hydrants, occasionally waving placards that announced Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar's album title and release date. From the balcony outside Club Nokia, someone hollered, "When I say Kendrick, you say Lamar! Kendrick!" One dude looked up and offered a halfhearted response.

So his street team wasn't the most dedicated. Kendrick Lamar is. In a rare musical feat, he performed two shows last night at Club Nokia, one at 9:15 and one at 11. (We attended the first.)

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Our Best Of issue just hit stands! We found our fairy tale, and now we present it to you: 435 of the most fabulous things in all of Los Angeles. From the city's most amazing restaurants to its tawdriest dive bars, from its edgiest art exhibits to the top spots for live music, we've got it all covered. It truly is the Best of L.A. -- and, in a city this awesome, that's really saying something.

Don't forget to download our super-useful Best Of app as well.

Below, peep our choices from the issue for best rapper, best punk band, best Latin alternative band, best rap collective, best DJ, and best singer-songwriter.

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