Jay Z

Latest Articles

The Big Hurt: Pop eroticism, faux sincerity, and sperm motility

Music News in Brief
I am a man who loves a good corporate doofus, and this week's glistening-prize-hog-doofus quote goes to TOM WELCH , Wal-Mart's senior music buyer, who manages to make Foreigner sound even squarer than Foreigner.
By DAVID THORPE | August 05, 2009

The Big Hurt: MJ murder mystery, Aerosmith injuries

Music News in Brief
Much as I hate to bring up Michael Jackson again, I was intrigued by sister La Toya's allegations that he was knocked off for his publishing assets.
By DAVID THORPE | July 22, 2009

Smack downer

Hip-Hop Misogyny: It Ain’t What It Used To Be
I haven’t come hereto academically justify West Coast credos about assimilating hoes into housewives. Instead I’ve come to mourn the commercialization of misogynistic rap lyrics.
By CHRIS FARAONE | July 23, 2009

Chief roca

Jay-Z at Mohegan Sun, July 10, 2009
For imposter pimps in top hats, frighteningly dumb suburban barbarians, and hypocritical hip-hop frauds like me, Jay-Z's Mohegan Sun show this past Friday was a gala shindig complete with pre-and-after-party gambling and boozing.
By CHRIS FARAONE | July 16, 2009

Review: Atmosphere at House of Blues

Game changer
There are two things about Atmosphere MC Slug that provoke endless fury in linguistically thugged-out Internet rap snobs everywhere.
By CHRIS FARAONE | May 18, 2009

He's not a doctor . . .

. . . but he plays with one in LA. As hip-hop's newest secret weapon, Dawaun Parker is helping resuscitate rap's biggest stars.
Around this time four years ago, contemporary hip-hop tastemaker Dawaun Parker faced the same dilemma that most soon-to-be music-school grads negotiate: should he become a performer, a songwriter, or a barista?
By CHRIS FARAONE | May 18, 2009

You Might Know Dawaun Parker Better Than You Think

By CHRIS FARAONE | May 18, 2009

Get shorty

Lady Sovereign hits new heights
"It's not like Jay-Z saw me on the street and discovered me and made me into a superstar! I was doing my thing already."
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | April 30, 2009

Beef stakes

Joe Budden, live at the Middle East Downstairs, March 5, 2009
In quality, record sales, and image, hip-hop has taken a savage beating in the past half-decade.
By CHRIS FARAONE | March 10, 2009

The bulletproof cred of M.O.P.

Hardcore heroes
In their decade and a half as thug-rap ambassadors, Brooklyn's Mash Out Posse have made some moves that lesser outfits might have caught shit for.
By CHRIS FARAONE | January 26, 2009

Final Marinate at the Milky Way

We out
As we've been reporting for months now, the Milky Way isn't closing, it's moving into swank new digs just a few blocks from its longstanding Jamaica Plain nook.
By CHRIS FARAONE | January 20, 2009

An abridged history of the Roots' collabs

Tangled up
Collaborations
By CHRIS FARAONE | January 20, 2009

2008 Listravaganza Part 2

The lighter side of music in 2008
Everything you wanted to know about the year in music, in tidy lists of 10.
By BOSTON PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | January 05, 2009

Listen!

10 pop and jazz discs you need
10 pop and jazz discs you need
By JIM MACNIE | December 23, 2008

Review: Vampire Weekend and Black Kids live

WFNX's Miracle on Tremont Street, Orpheum Theatre December 7, 2008
Somehow, I ended up with extra tickets for last Sunday's Vampire Weekend show, and I gotta tell you: I couldn't give these things away.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | December 09, 2008

A meme deferred

Michael Eric Dyson changes the subject at Harvard
Nobody knows exactly what Obama means yet, but Dyson is having a great time figuring it out.
By RICHARD BECK | November 14, 2008

Joe the rapper

Joe Budden, Freeway, and the enduring authority of street rap
"One thing I've learned is that if you write about reality, you'll never run out of material."
By CHRIS FARAONE | November 17, 2008

McCain in the membrane

The Maverick-iest candidate has hip-hop support from R.A. the Rugged Man
Four tracks into his Monday Monster Jam performance, Brooklyn rap czar Jay-Z stops the music and points to a freeze-frame image of George W. Bush on the titanic screen above the TD Banknorth Garden stage.
By CHRIS FARAONE | November 03, 2008

CMJ in one day

The Gray Lady of indie music fests ain’t what she used to be
The Gray Lady of indie music fests ain’t what she used to be
By CHRIS FARAONE | November 30, 2008

Interview: Talib Kweli

Black star
If one hip-hop album crystallized the schism between underground authenticity and mainstream monotony, it was Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star (Rawkus).
By CHRIS FARAONE | October 21, 2008

Mirror ball

Fables of deconstruction
The stirring pop hits of the day can’t help but reflect the refracting cracked mirror of our nation’s increasingly emotion-laden psyche.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | September 08, 2008

Where has all the Gonzo gone?

In the first presidential election since the death of Hunter S. Thompson, we finally realize what we've lost
On top of everything else they’ve blighted over their awful eight-year reign, the Bushies did this: they killed Hunter S. Thompson.
By MIKE MILIARD | July 28, 2008

Fight song

Letters to the Boston editor, July 25, 2008
Your total inability to recognize deserving candidates has me . . . amused?
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | July 23, 2008

Green initiative

Hip-hop’s heads go on Wale watch
In an era when the major labels ignore just about everybody without a nickname that rhymes with “sleazy,” it was no small feat for Wale to land a deal with Interscope Records earlier this year.
By BEN WESTHOFF | July 21, 2008