Hip Hop Music

Out Voting… Hopefully You’re Doing The Same

We’ll be back later…  Please take the time to vote today and endure what may turn out to be somewhat lengthy delays and inconveniences.   Regardless of your political affiliation and beliefs, this is an extraordinary opportunity to make a significant diference on both a local and national level.  Remember… voting is more than a right, … Read more

MF Doom’s Dirty Downfall: More Ways To Kill Your Fanbase

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For the most part, the editorial policy here at Crate Kings is to avoid mentioning people or events that don’t deserve positive coverage, but for the sake of balanced opinion and reader warning, something has to be said about the recent MF Doom concert fakery.

We can all agree that it says a lot when Kno of CunninLynguists feels the need to publicly chime in and write "An Open Letter To MF Doom" addressing the now numerous MF Doom shanigans and acts of disrespect.  I guess Doom didn’t get the memo detailing sure fire ways to alienate your fan base.  What’s really sad is that many, including myself, have been essentially searching for ways to hand over buckets of revenue to this character.  Instead we receive nothing more than a game of snatchees with our hard earned dough, endless excuses, and most recently, lackluster impostors.

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Remaining Authentic With Your Music

Every once in a while I get an email asking when I’ll release another volume of sample & breaks mixes.  Well, sorry to say that at this point it doesn’t look like there will ever be another installment.  This is actually due to a couple of reasons, but it mainly comes down to an issue … Read more

Music Roundup: May 2008

So we’ve finally completed the move from Microsoft to all Apple (the upcoming 3G iPhone brings an instant smile) and to celebrate migration to the iPod it seemed like a perfect time for an audio roundup. Reggae heads will no doubt wonder where DJ Trends has been hiding.  His One Drop Radio podcasts and Welcome … Read more

Pete Rock vs. DJ Premier Live At L.A.’s Crash Mansion

Here’s an event for the ages… Pete Rock vs. DJ Premier as they go head to head in  a monumental DJ battle live at L.A.’s Crash Mansion.  Primo sets is off with Steve Miller Band’s "Fly Like An Eagle" while Pete Rock uses his turn to heat up the crowd with James Brown’s "Funky Drummer".  … Read more

Pardon Our Appearance While Rebuilding Aka Server Crash

I want to apologize to everyone about the site being down for the past few days.  On Saturday, March 1st our hosting provider Hostican suffered a catastrophic hard drive failure and completely lost all data for a number of clients.   After having the drives sent to a data lab for recovery, I was finally notified … Read more

Common Day Officially Declared By City of Chicago

According to Power 92.3 FM, Chicago has officially declared September 20th to be Common Day in honor the native South Side MC. Coincidentally, he’ll be performing tonight at the Chicago Charter One Pavillion along with Joss Stone, which I’m sure will be a crazy show.  Unfortunately, I’ll be unable to attend the festivities due to … Read more

50 Cent Declares War On Def Jam After Lying About Kanye West Bet

According to preliminary numbers it looks like 50 has already lost his sales challenge to Kanye West.  We all knew he wouldn’t honor the bet and retire rapping, but after blaming lagging sales on his own label, he’s declaring war on Def Jam and by threatening to release independent albums for each one of Def … Read more