Tonight (10pm) marks the fifth annual installment of VH-1's Hip Hop Honors, a program saluting the contributions of the genre's pioneers and players. This year's honorees include: De La Soul, Slick Rick, Naughty by Nature, Too Shot and Los Angeles' own Cypress Hill. For the last 20 years, the Hill has been rocking mics with their Cannabis laced brand of genre twisting music that combined hip-hop with elements or rock and Latin music. Sen......

If you put together a dream lineup for a hip hop show, chances are it would look something like this year’s Rock the Bells festival. This year’s incarnation featured the reunion (finally!) of one of the most acclaimed hip hop outfits in history, A Tribe Called Quest as well as the first performance in years from California’s own Pharcyde. But was from top to bottom a who’s who of Hip Hop both past and present.......

“Its late, it’s a Monday night, you all got to be up early tomorrow for work and you’re here with us.” These were the words shouted over the mic last night at the Viper Room by Krispy, one-half of The Knux. The truth is Krispy, who performs alongside his younger brother Al, was saying exactly what I was thinking when I initially read the invite for last night’s festivities. A late Monday night on the......

Blue Scholars Bayani Rawkus Records Teaming up with Massline and Rawkus Records to release their second full-length album, Bayani (due out on June 12th), Blue Scholars reaffirm their goal to mobilize minds and bodies towards liberation. The group fuses personal experiences with political stances and Baha’i spirituality. The album kicks off with “Baha’i Healing Prayer,” setting the spiritual undertone and openness of the album. The following 14 tracks fit nicely into the group’s laidback style,......

I know we all spend way too much time raiding MySpace (come on, we all see those crazy drunken profile pictures of virtually everyone we’ve ever met), but my endless journey through procrastination has not gone in vain. The PLUGG CITY TOUR is enough for me to admit to my (more than) sporadic scavengers around the MySpace realm. Imagine this: you send a message to the rapper Rhymefest via MySpace with a subject line......

I had the misfortune to show up late to see Beastie Boys at Hammerstien Ballroom in NYC in '98 where A Tribe Called Quest was opening and apparently playing their last NYC show. So, i jumped at the opportunity to see them at the Wiltern last Sunday night, where Q-Tip, Phife Dawg and Ali Shaheeh Muhammad reunited after 8 years apart. Playing third, Tribe's set lasted an hour, which I heard a lot of......

James Ellroy (reading) @ Skylight Books A Tribe Called Quest @ Wiltern Willie Nelson, Ryan Adams, Neko Case @ Hollywood Bowl Tracy Lawrence @ House of Blues Polyphonic Spree @ The Henry Fonda Carlos Guitarlos @ The Liquid Kitty Jews & Mexicans @ Mr. T's Bowl La Traviata @ Dorothy Chandler Bonnie Raitt @ Santa Barbara Bowl Megadeth, Lamb of God, Overkill @ Hyundai Pavilion photo by the slow wonder via flickr......

Maybe Austin is just like LA, after all. Much like how we do when we're home, we missed the premiere of a film but didn't miss the after party. Hooligans, a film about, well, soccer hooligans is probably very good and a lot of fun but we didn't see it. Instead we saw the star of the film, Elijah Wood, do an iPod DJ set at the end of the night at Maggie Mae's......