Domingo: The Most Known Unknown

You’ve heard Domingo, you just might not realize it. This East New York, Brooklyn producer has been at it for two decades as a go-to guy for the self-proclaimed “’90s sound.” Behind such records as Blahzay Blahzay’s “Danger,” Fat Joe’s “Success” and Masta Ace’s “No Regrets,” Domingo has more credits than an Oliver Stone film. […]

Macromantics: Down Bottom

In today’s “Everyone listens to everything” age, finding Mobb Deep and Australian punk-pop group Noise Addict on someone’s iPod isn’t so unusual. In the mid-90s, though, bridging the gap between New York street rap and pop-friendly Aussie tunes took a bit more explaining. For 26-year old Noise Addict guitarist-turned-rapper Macromantics (born Romy Hoffman), growing up […]

Tiye Phoenix: Phoenix Rising

With a lack of female representation in Hip-Hop’s front line, one woman has surpassed the generic life span of most performers. Having been immersed in drum patterns, melodies and sixteens for close to two decades and a member of the all female Soul Food Symphony, Tiye Phoenix is breaking the mold in whichever way she […]

NYOIL: Hostile Takeover

Lynching is a word synonymous with murder. Staten Island’s NYOIL, tired of seeing the metaphorical death in the eyes of “shorties around his block,” decided to fight back by spittin’ truth. Voicing his frustrations through his edutainment style of MCing brought forth the October 2006 release of NYOIL’s (pronounced N.Y. Oil) self-produced single “Ya’ll Should […]

K-Os: Morning Sickness

My friends dragged to me to a club on a snowy Saturday night, when I would have likely just stayed home, selfishly reading or digitizing dusty vinyl. The DJ was spinning the usual suspects of Jim Jones, M.I.M.S., and T.I., when all of a sudden, Howler Monkey (the peculiarly named DJ) threw on “The Man […]

Plies: Mum’s the Word

Plies’ tagline is “I’m not a rapper, I’m a hustler who can rap.” That said, amidst talk of Hip-Hop’s death, does anybody want to buy an album for 1-900-Hustler-like tips? Plies thinks so, offering his experiences as potentially life-changing to the listener. The Ft. Myers, Florida rapper claims that his raps are non-fiction, and he’s […]

Fabolous: Back II Burn

It’s been over two years since Brooklyn’s own Fabolous has dropped his last album, Real Talk, a lot of “breathing” room. Atlantic Records chose the thunderous street anthem Breathe as a first single and it was well received by audiences – but not as much as it was when found its way onto the mixtape […]

MC Serch: Back to the Grill

Hip-Hop culture is definitely something Serch knows well. The Jewish MC released four albums in his career and executive produced Nas’ first album, the critically acclaimed Illmatic. But there’s more to Serch than just his past, there’s his future. Next month, he will release a new project, Many Young Lives Ago: The 1994 Sessions, which […]