The latest from Dillon and Batsauce is a call to arms with a guest turn from one of the more esoteric hip-hop artists of all time: Kool Keith. “Ready on the Left” is fueled by a magma-deep ostinato bass line anchoring swirling samples and chiming chords; peppered with blink-and-you’ll-miss-them processed-and-decaying tones and single percussive strikes. Savvy and mellow-boast rhymes abound …
On New EP, Jacksonville Hip-Hop Artist Willie Evans Jr. Explores High-Level Concepts with Nuanced Cool
Prolificity, patience, and discernment are all evident in the mix-mind of Willie Evans Jr. The Duval-based hip-hop polymath has been creating music and cultivating the overall contemporary Southeastern rap scene for so long—25+ years and counting—that it seems as if he was always been present. Evans is woven tightly into the Full Plate label-scene, an imprint that has codified and …
Butcher Brown, Son Little Announce April Show at Ponte Vedra Concert Hall
Jacksonville-based fans of all things jazzy, soulful and funky have a date with a killer double bill this spring, when Butcher Brown and Son Little’s newly announced southeastern U.S. tour comes to Ponte Vedra. Active since 2013, Richmond, Virginia’s Butcher Brown released one of JME’s favorite albums of 2023 in Solar Music, and that title tells you a lot about …
Latest Single from Kale That Raps Offers a Healthy Dose of Duval Hip-Hop Soul
The certain Northeast Florida Renaissance of forward-thinking and progressive hip-hop has produced another impressive artist in the form of Kale That Raps. Taken from his recent Summer Feels Like… EP, the track “A Heartbeat” is an impressive three-minute mix of soul and languid-yet-assured raps from Kale. A dream-like production of otherworldly backing vocals, ethereal to the point of levitation, a …
D.C. Rapper Sa-Roc Commands Respect on “Talk To Me Nice”
Ahead of her fall Talk To Me Nice tour, D.C.-born emcee Sa-Roc has shared a new single and video of the same name, our first preview of the as-yet-untitled follow-up to her 2020 Rhymesayers Entertainment debut, The Sharecropper’s Daughter. Produced by resident Rhymesayers studio-wizard Sol Messiah, “Talk To Me Nice” uses both its lyrics and instrumental to send one unmistakable …
Atmosphere Choose “Still Life” in New Video, Detail Tour De Friends
Atmosphere shared their umpteenth album in May’s So Many Other Realities Exist Simultaneously, and this week, the Minneapolis indie hip-hop veterans followed their latest LP with a music video for standout track “Still Life,” plus a new set of November tour dates. Rapper Slug (Sean Daley) and producer Ant (Anthony Davis) collaborate with East London vocalist Murkage Dave on the …
50 years ago, Teenagers Partied in the Bronx — and Gave Rise to Hip-Hop
When Jerry Leader was growing up, he made himself a toy set of DJ equipment. Two empty cereal boxes were the turntables. For the records, he cut circles out of cardboard. The needle, a plastic spoon. He would sing to himself, “mixing” the tracks. Leader grew up in an 18-story apartment building in the Bronx, New York City, during the …
JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown are Here to Blow Up your Function
On the rap internet, “scaring the hoes” has become code for a certain type of hip-hop: anything abrasive or weird or super-lyrical, designed for repeat close listening. More broadly, the phrase has evolved into a euphemism for any rap considered unfit for a party or similar social setting. To play Death Grips at the function is to scare the hoes. …
Shawny Binladen and the Rise of Sample Drill
After Pop Smoke’s tragic death in 2020, many wondered what would become of New York drill, and many naysayers claimed it died with him. Over the next year, several booming voices would knock at that door, but the man who broke it down was one who raps in whispers. 27-year-old Queens rapper Shawny Binladen’s reimagination of drill music opened up …
David Jolicoeur, De La Soul’s Trugoy the Dove, dies at 54
The most formative musical memory of my youth occurred 30,000 feet over central California in the summer of 1989. I was almost 17, flying on a school trip from LA to the Bay Area, and popped into my Walkman was an album I had just picked up from my local record store, Moby Disc: De La Soul’s 3 Feet High …
The Best Live Music in Jacksonville this Week
The JWJ Hip Hop Fest returns, Rhiannon Giddens and Valerie June at Ft. Mose and more
Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Salsa Gilberto Santa Rosa – Tuesday, February 14 Florida Theatre | Downtown Jacksonville Six-time Grammy Award-winning bandleader, “El Caballero de la Salsa,” the great Gilberto Santa Rosa performs at the Florida Theatre on …
Asamov, the Influential Jax Hip-Hop Group, Finally Gets its Due
Recent years have seen more mainstream attention being given to local rap artists than ever before. But the stars of today are newer, younger artists, most of whom have never known anything but the digital future we’re currently living in. There was, however, a whole generation of local legends who never got the hype they deserved. And Asamov sits atop …
Hip Hop, Hooray | Downtown Jax’s JWJ Hip Hop Festival celebrates a distinctive culture and a true American art form
“Hip Hop”, as we know it today, was officially born in the Bronx, NYC, in September of 1973. As we approach the 50-year anniversary of the world’s most dominant cultural asset, the influence of hip-hop has spread into virtually every aspect of American life. That is just as true right here in Northeast Florida, which has nurtured its own dense …