Written by Sean Ward | Photography by Philip Litevsky Everybody knows that Toronto has a reputation as a complacent audience. We go to a live show and we mostly stare at it like it’s television, clapping politely and maybe even whooping a bit in all of the right places. It’s hard for an artist to [...]
Little Brother perform at the Mod Club as part of a tour promoting their recent album, Get Back. I always love seeing Little Brother perform live. The Durham, North Carolina troupe caught my ear a few years back with the Chittlin’ Circuit mix tape and then the follow-up debut The Listening. 9th Wonder’s production was [...]
Written by Noah Goodbaum | Photography by Philip Litevsky Fire and brimstone, blood, sweat and tears. Fearless, ferocious, indomitable. Headstrong in the face of turmoil and danger, as implacable as the elements. That’s Brother Ali. Or rather, that’s the vibe Brother Ali gives off on record throughout most of his two officially released albums, Shadows [...]
Written by Noah Goodbaum Let me admit something to y’all: When it comes to Canadian hip-hop, I’m generally a bit of a skeptic. I taught myself that critical assessment of skillz has to come before hometown or national pride when evaluating an artist, and I had myself believing that, when measured by this oh-so-exacting scale, [...]
With so much happening in the city, not the least of which preparations for ManifesTO, we’ve been busy, to say the least. Talib Kweli dropped by the Phoenix late last month to promote his new album Eardrum, and Jean Grae came along to support the Blacksmith movement. Unfortunately, our resident correspondent Noah couldn’t make it [...]
This is a late one since I had too many events with actual reviews to post first. These photos are from the same event as the Little Brother shots I posted a while back, only at night. Unfortunately, ?uestlove didn’t make it to the show, but the awesome folks over at REMG more than made [...]
Written by Noah Goodbaum | Photography by Philip Litevsky I don’t really know Jesse Ohtake. Before the night of Saturday the 24th, I don’t think I’d ever met Jesse Ohtake. I knew the name ‘Jesse Ohtake’—enough reputable cats an’ dames in the T-Dot rap scene scream his name that it sorta occurred to me I [...]
Written by Noah Goodbaum | Photography by Philip Litevsky Dear God I hope Down With Webster don’t read this. For denizens of virtually any locale that doesn’t boast the initials N, Y, and C—hell, probably even in NYC—going to local rap shows is a little like enduring a production of “Romeo & Juliet” put on [...]
I finally got to check out one of the bands that excited me most in the last few years – Little Brother. Phonte and Big Pooh, sans recently departed band-mate and one of the hottest producers in the game today, 9th Wonder, took the stage at the Rogers Picnic two Sunday’s ago at the Historic [...]
Lots of Wikipedia schooling today for everyone. I didn’t end up covering the entire Four Elements Festival, but a concert celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Wild Style can’t be missed.
