LIL WAYNE

Latest Articles

By | January 01, 0001

artist: Tricia Rose, Brown University’s hip-hop scholar, discusses rap’s creative crisis

Keeping it unreal
Some 40 years in, rap is nothing less than a cultural juggernaut. But it has not lost its power to provoke.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | January 19, 2011

2010: The year of Videogum

An interview with Gabriel Delahaye
In September, a video was bouncing around the Phoenix offices.
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | December 22, 2010

Transcript: The Phoenix interviews M.I.A.

In September 2004, Diplo still had to explain who M.I.A. was.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | October 06, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

The Big Hurt: Vince Neil acts his age

Plus The Situation singled, Drake unsurpassed, Pete Doherty denied, Lou Reed exonerated
By the time you read this, the Situation will have his first single out on iTunes. Yeah, that the Situation.
By DAVID THORPE | June 22, 2010

Kings of Queens

Why Mobb Deep are still the fittest
When it comes to legendary hip-hop duos, Southerners salute UGK and OutKast, whereas nostalgic heads anoint EPMD, and eclectic contrarians endorse Organized Konfusion.
By CHRIS FARAONE | June 26, 2010

The Big Hurt: Reed goes to the dogs

Plus Weezy debudded, Ant derided, Michaels bandanna’d
More evidence of the sickening barbarity of America’s penal institutions: Lil Wayne is being hassled because officers found headphones and the charger for an MP3 player in his cell.
By DAVID THORPE | May 25, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Kid vicious

Juiceboxxx cares not for your nerdcore
It’s not easy being a rapper from Wisconsin. Just ask 23-year-old hip-hop lifer Juiceboxxx.
By LEOR GALIL | April 08, 2010

Easy does it

Treme tours New Orleans
Writer/producer Eric Overmyer was quoted in a New York Times Magazine article last month, but it’s worth repeating: “ Treme is not the The Wire .” He went on: “Those who are expecting The Wire or wanting The Wire may be frustrated.”
By JON GARELICK | April 08, 2010

The Big Hurt: Lightfoot lives!

Plus Weezy tweets and Mayer backpedals
Last week, the world was gripped in the terror of a GORDON LIGHTFOOT death scare when a realistic-looking Twitter obit was picked up by several Canadian papers.
By DAVID THORPE | March 02, 2010

The Big Hurt: Aussie asses sued off

Plus creepy Macca spawn sings; iffy Ringo joke aborted
MEN AT WORK — best known for their 1983 hit "Down Under" — have just had their pants sued off by a dead schoolmarm and her 78-year-old Girl Scout song.
By DAVID THORPE | February 16, 2010

The Big Hurt: Billboard Top Hip-Hop and R and B songs

Who charted?
This week, a jolly traipse through one of Billboard 's most artistically fecund charts: "Top Hip-Hop and R&B Songs." What wonders await?
By DAVID THORPE | January 26, 2010

The Big Hurt: The decade ahead

Music predictions for the pubescent millennium
As a new decade dawns, it's time to cast a curious eye toward the future.
By DAVID THORPE | January 12, 2010

Throwback shame

Nice try, Tiger. But sports crime in 2009 was ruled by the ghosts of Foxboro past.
Well, another year in sports crime has come and gone.
By MATT TAIBBI | January 11, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Swollen Members | Armed to the Teeth

Battle Axe (2009)
I’m not completely sure why the mere mention of Swollen Members rubs so many underground rap snobs the wrong way.
By CHRIS FARAONE | November 18, 2009

The Big Hurt: Checking the Billboard Hot 100

Who charted?
As usual, I won't be able to make it through the full 100, but seven is just as good, right?
By DAVID THORPE | August 25, 2009

Jay Reatard | Watch Me Fall

Matador (2009)
Jay Reatard is the Lil Wayne of the Memphis garage-rock scene.
By MIKAEL WOOD | August 25, 2009

Flying solo (and duo)

Elijah Ocean and Dave Gutter get busy taking it slow
Think about everything you know about Elijah Ocean and Dave Gutter: Ocean's work fronting the heavy rock trio Loverless, say, or his lead-guitar turn in the radio-rock foursome All the Real Girls; Gutter's piercing vocals out front of Rustic Overtones, or his white-hot bounce in the lead of Paranoid Social Club.
By SAM PFEIFLE | August 05, 2009

Fightin’ words

Blaq Poet wants to battle
Rudy Giuliani ran his city the way a bachelor does his pad — shoving clutter and disaster out of sight while showcasing redeeming qualities.
By CHRIS FARAONE | June 30, 2009

Busta Rhymes | Back on My B.S.

Universal Motown (2009)
Increasingly surrounded by Soulja Boys and Lil Waynes, Busta Rhymes has of late taken on the look of hip-hop's Father Time.
By MIKAEL WOOD | June 02, 2009

The Big Hurt: The week in beef (in brief)

Ross at a loss; Weezy throws hissy
A recessed economy means fewer chains to go around, so it's been a fine week for a-fussin'-and-a-feudin'.
By DAVID THORPE | April 21, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

35. Lil Wayne

CHEESE WEEZE
He may be the best rapper alive, but Lil Wayne’s starting to look like an extra from the “Thriller” video. And now, on the heels of his awful “Let It Rock” collabo with emo wannabe Kevin Rudolf, the erratic N’awlins spitter is threatening to morph into a guitar hero — even though his ill-fated SNL foray into shredding was hailed in the blogosphere as the worst solo, ever.
By Boston Phoenix Staff | March 25, 2009

The Big Hurt: Weezy goes free, Miley turns bitter, Martin still lame

Music news in brief
The good news: the 2006 drug charges against Lil Wayne have been dropped after a judge ruled that the search leading to his arrest wasn't proper.
By DAVID THORPE | March 19, 2009

Get sprung

A bumpin' crop of spring hip-hop
Between the packages that turn up on my Jamaica Plain doorstep and the envelopes that stuff my Phoenix mailbox, I have enough music to start a mixtape spot in Downtown Crossing.
By CHRIS FARAONE | March 18, 2009

The Big Hurt: We floss econo

Cleaning up rap's act could equal big savings
You might recall a slew of ominous articles in 2007 proclaiming that hip-hop was through. Sales were way down, and the culprits were clear: jewelry, violence, and naughty dancing.
By DAVID THORPE | March 11, 2009