By Hua Hsu, eMusic ContributorBefore there was a family, there was the Dungeon — otherwise known as Rico Wade's mom's basement. It was in the magically stank Dungeon — described by Cee-Lo as "a crawl space with a bench… more »
By Andrew Parks, eMusic ContributorIf you can deal with incessant East Village Radio drops, Mark Ronson premiered "Back to Black" — André 3000 and Beyoncé's Amy Winehouse cover for the Great Gatsby soundtrack — on the New York station… more »
By Elisa Ludwig, eMusic ContributorEddie Huang, celebrity chef, TV host and author of the memoir <em>Fresh Off the Boat</em>, is pretty sure that hip-hop saved his life when he was a bullied, racially "other" kid growing up in Florida.… more »
By Andrew Parks, eMusic ContributorBig Boi — the star of eMusic's latest Jukebox Jury feature — has stoked the fire of OutKast reunion rumors by agreeing to appear on two remixes that happened to feature André 3000 in the… more »
By Andrew Parks, eMusic ContributorJust when you thought no one could top DMX's raucous rendition of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," Big Boi has stepped in with a spot-on reading of that Dr. Seuss classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas.… more »
By Christina Lee, eMusic ContributorInside his own Stankonia Studios on November 27, Big Boi sat on a stool onstage, nodding furiously to "Descending" – the ambient conclusion to second solo album Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors. Suddenly, one of… more »
By Andrew Parks, eMusic ContributorIf the tracklisting for Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors is any indication, Big Boi has rebounded from the endless delays of his last solo LP with a record that embraces his eccentricities as much as… more »
By eMusic Editorial Staff, eMusic ContributorThe posse-rap album has become a rite of passage for rap superstars. Either just before or right after you've snagged your shoe line and/or headphone endorsement, the crew album is up next: the time to… more »
By Hua Hsu, eMusic ContributorThe approach toward the year 2000 was an ominous one: the techno-paranoia and doomsday millenarianism of Y2K, that mythic string of zeroes finally upon us. Whether it was this forward-looking urgency or not, it was… more »
By Hua Hsu, eMusic ContributorIt was a break-up record without any real allusions to the break-up. Instead, they holed up in their separate corners and emerged with radically distinct versions of the Outkast legacy. Andre's half tried to establish… more »
By Hua Hsu, eMusic ContributorIt was a break-up record without any real allusions to the break-up. Instead, they holed up in their separate corners and emerged with radically distinct versions of the Outkast legacy. Andre's half tried to establish… more »
By Hua Hsu, eMusic ContributorReleased a few months after Still Standing, Outkast's third album marked a turning point for the duo. They produced most of the album themselves and it feels intimately "theirs." This was an album obsessed with… more »
By Hua Hsu, eMusic ContributorEmboldened by the success of (and perceived slights toward) Southernplayalistic, Dre and Big Boi put a great deal of thought into their follow-up. It had only been a couple years since their debut but they… more »
By Hua Hsu, eMusic ContributorAndre and Big Boi met, as many teenagers do, at the mall. They were 16, aspiring rappers in a city brimming with talent but few opportunities to be heard beyond it. The Dungeon became their… more »
By John Schaefer, eMusic ContributorYou will either have a lot of fun with this record, or none at all. If you are a classical music purist with no use for popular music and find the word "bitch" on a… more »
By Hua Hsu, eMusic ContributorIt started with a note of relief. Our computers had survived; we had made it. The clocks had passed midnight into the year 2000, not 1900, and all those tanks of propane and fresh water cached… more »
By Hua Hsu, eMusic ContributorOn September 7th, a federal appeals court in Cincinnati, Ohio, all but closed the book on sampling in hip-hop. A three-judge panel ruled that recent federal laws pertaining to the piracy of digital recordings also… more »
By Michelangelo Matos, eMusic ContributorThe player and the poet; the funk-faithful homeboy who raises pit bulls and the slightly spacey guitar-wielding dandy who takes movie parts; the championship singles act whose albums work best as whole units: What about… more »
