Republican strategists think they can win over the Black vote by trashing Justice Jackson.
Tag: Ice Cube
Politics is wrestling
The fights are fake but the folks pulling the strings behind the scenes are real.
Money Talks is the Friday sequel we all deserved
Now we know what really happened to Smokey: he befriended Charlie Sheen to make a bad buddy movie.
In Original Gangstas, Ben Westhoff digs into the messy histories of the west-coast rappers who transformed hip-hop
The new book Original Gangstas examines the lives of Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and Snoop Dogg in uncompromising detail.
Riot Fest’s hip-hop undercard
Even if you ignore the festival’s marquee names, you can find plenty of rappers with top-shelf skills.
A ridiculous and occasionally useful guide to Riot Fest 2015
The festival has been a punching bag so far this year, but with luck it’ll turn out more like a piñata—and either way, the Reader is getting in a few swings.
A dozen Riot Fest acts in doughnut form
You can blame Drive Like Jehu drummer Mark Trombino and his punny pastry shop for inspiring this foolishness.
Straight Outta Compton plays it safe by sticking to interpersonal drama
The N.W.A. biopic devolves into trash talk and diss tracks.
Straight Outta content: N.W.A’s legacy and Chicago’s newest rap group, W.W.A
Four Chicago rappers form a supergroup that pays homage to N.W.A as the iconic LA group’s biopic rolls into theaters.
Adolf Hitler, Charles Dickens, Tom Clancy, and the rest of this week’s screenings
New reviews and notable screenings in this week’s issue
Ride Along and the pissed-off ghost of Joseph L. Mankiewicz
The new Ice Cube action comedy is a movie without a skeleton.
Win a Closed Sessions CIMMfest prize pack
Try your hand at rap-related movie trivia and win a pair of tickets to Closed Sessions’ CIMMfest showcase and a limited label T-shirt.
12 O’Clock Track: Kendrick Lamar, “Swimming Pools (Drank) (Mano 93 Nostalgia remix)”
A familiar sample flipped for a new jam
Early Warnings Roundup
This week’s Early Warnings include the Black Angels, Elvis Costello, the Fleshtones, Human Eye, Ice Cube, Kamelot, Low, Willie Nelson, Phosphorescent, Pinback, and Urge Overkill.