The audio-visual mashup masters known as The Eclectic Method strung together a series of film clips to re-tell Hova's classic story of dealing with a racist cop who wants to search his car and other haters. more ›

Watch the new video for "Ni**as in Paris" from Jay-Z and Kanye West, comprised of "Watch The Throne" tour footage. Also: heed the epilepsy warning. They're not playing around. more ›

If reports are true that Hova and Sasha Fierce have chosen Oprah Winfrey to be Babyoncé's godmother, this kid could be the Messiah. more ›

In the sense that the iconic rappers' sampling house apparently didn't clear a sample of Syl Johnson's "Different Strokes" which appears on the duo's Watch The Throne record. more ›

The "Kanye Song-A-Week" project, while not as much fun as our Kanye Tweet of the Week, is still pretty awesome, especially if your a Kanye apologist like several of us (particularly myself and Tankboy) are. The "Good Friday" songs from Kanye have all been pretty solid and certainly whet our appetite for Kanye's next full-length, due in November. The latest effort, "So Appalled," features 'Ye's BFF Jay-Z as well as the Wu's RZA, Clipse's Pusha-T (who guested on "Runaway" that Kanye performed at this year's VMAs), Swizz Beatz, and Cyhi the Prynce. It's another solid entry into the Kanye Canon and, hey, at this rate, by the time that new LP comes out, we'll have virtually two LPs worth of Kanye music. more ›

For a guy without a new record (yet; more on that in a second), we've talked quite a bit this summer about Mr. West here at Kanyeapologist. Since Memorial Dayish, 'Ye released the pretty awesome single "Power," gave his support to LeBron, joined Twitter where he only follows Justin Bieber (no, really), and talked to the interwebs about jeans. We already know that new record of his is (probably) out in mid-November (just in time for Christmas) so it's appropriate that Kanye has now decided to play Santa. On Sunday, Kanye announced via some tweets that he's putting out a new song of some sort every Friday and how much of an altruist he is. more ›

Clear your calendar or set up your TiVo, because six short days from now Betty White is hosting Saturday Night Live. By now you probably know the backstory: after some hilarious TV appearances and a Super Bowl commercial that went viral, a Facebook campaign to draft White as host caught fire. And the powers that be at NBC actually went for it. more ›

From the "How Did We Miss This" File, this clip comes from last weekend's NBA All-Star festivities. It's only a few seconds, starting around the :40 mark, but Benny The Bull didn't make friends with Jay-Z and P. Diddy when he did the Single Ladies dance. Come on, HOVA, lighten up! [via] more ›

Back in September we lined up with hundreds of Chicagoans outside the House of Blues for a chance to see Jay-Z's Samsung-hosted elusive free show. And like many of the same people we queued in line with that evening, we went home unable to even make it as far as the venue doors. more ›

Bitching and moaning about how terrible the Grammys are is just as tired as the awards show itself, so we'll do our best to avoid it. This year's show had its share of highs (the Radiohead/USC Marching band collab, the chance of MIA giving birth on stage and forcing Lil Wayne to deliver the baby) and lows (Queen Latifah calling the group of Kanye, Jay-Z, TI, and Lil Wayne "The Rap Pack") but we still had a reason to watch as some Chicago-based artists were up for some awards. more ›

It's hard to believe but we've gone nearly a week without a post on our beloved MC. Let's end that drought: it seems Mr. West will release a new single, "Love Lockdown," next Monday, September 8 and possibly a new album by the end of the year. Also, more on the way from Jay-Z. And if you haven't heard it yet, be sure to check out Hova's collaboration with Mr. West, "Jockin' Jay-Z." (or see video below). Of course, nothing from the man himself. But we're sure it's only a matter of time... more ›

Friday, April 25: more ›

At some point today, Fall Out Boy will be playing an invite-only show at House Of Blues to celebrate the release of their new album, Infinity on High. Okay, stop your laughing. To folks with asymmetrical haircuts and teenagers whose composition books are dripping with despondently poetic ink, this is a big deal. And, to a certain extent, it’s sort of a big deal for Chicago as well. Sure, the new disc is probably not... more ›

Ring the alarm! Beyonce's on the lookout for a whopping 40 back-up dancers, and she's coming to Chicago on her search. She searched in Atlanta and Los Angeles before stopping in her hometown of Houston, TX, on Saturday for another round. New York and Chicago are her final two stops. Thirty dancers will be chosen from each city and flown to L.A. or New York, where the final 40 will emerge. The open call for... more ›

Some days when Chicagoist is busy reading the trades, it’s almost enough to put us to sleep. Thank goodness for that that intravenous caffeine drip. Lately, these stories all have a “Chicago Connection”. From working with Jay-Z and Kanye West on his debut album to garnering three Grammy nominations, Lupe Fiasco has had some dreams come true. He’s decided to take Oprah’s advice and dream even bigger for what comes next. His high hopes include... more ›

Jay-Z was in town Saturday afternoon at the Riviera for all of 30 minutes. By Sunday morning he had completed his whirlwind tour of the country, 7 cities in 24 hours. Chicagoist suspects Jay-Z has found the least expensive way to tour the nation on a private jet, as long as the tour takes less than 24 hours, you only have to rent the jet for one day. The craziness was to announce his new... more ›

Let's look back at a week in which no site in the -ist network adopted anyone from Africa... -Austinist reveled in the dumb antics of some U.T. law students and posted some great audio from former New Orleans natives who've decided to stay in Austin. But the best news for Austinist? They were voted Best Local Entertainment Web Site by the local Austin alt-weekly. Congrats, Austinist. -DCist gloried in being told their musical tastes made... more ›

Celebrate Ben Franklin's 300th birthday with the Bikini Bandits and Phillyist! (NSFW). Speaking of Mr. Franklin, send in a picture of Ben (or Ed Rendell) with a red tongue and win a free t-shirt. And they might have the next YearlyKos in Philly. more ›

Ice Cube vs. Oprah. The ultimate Celebrity Death Match. more ›

Punk rock manager and band wrangler Danny Fields once said “when the music moves from the music section to the front page of the newspaper, you’re in trouble.” By that measure, R. Kelly’s been in trouble for a while. But there was good news for him in both sections of the papers this week. more ›

Chavez elected after barely campaigning, and, of course, Obama beat the crap out of Keyes more ›

To the surprise of no one, R. Kelly filed a $90 million dollar lawsuit Monday in the wake of an alleged pepper spray attack by Jay-Z associate Tyran "Ty Ty" Smith and the subsequent cancellation of their joint "Best of Both Worlds" tour. more ›

It appears that the “unfinished business” between R. Kelly and Jay-Z is going to stay that way. more ›

Chicago rapper & producer Kanye West has received a record number of nominations for Britain's Music of Black Origin (Mobo) awards. Finalists for the awards were announced late yesterday and Kanye was nominated in 7 categories, best video, best collaboration (twice), best single, best album, best producer, and best hip-hop act. The awards show is in its 9th year and is the largest urban awards show in Europe, which makes it ironic that it is dominated by American acts such as Kanye, as well as Alicia Keys, Outkast, & Brandy. Even the host, Pharrell Williams, is American. more ›

Everybody loves his mashup albums these days. There have been countless revolving around Jay-Z and his "farewell" The Black Album, from The Slack Album (Jay-Z meets Pavement) to The Black and Blue Album (Jay-Z meets Weezer, a.k.a. Rivers Gets a Cap in his Ass) to Danger Mouse's justly heralded Jay-Z meets the Beatles project The Grey Album. (Chicagoist thinks these albums come into being when the DJs behind them think up a clever album title.) There was even the Jay-Z-Metallica mashup The Black on Black Album. Jay-Z � we're getting real tired of typing "Jay-Z" � ever the brilliant marketer, made all this possible by making a-cappella versions of Black Album tracks readily available. more ›

The once mighty Wu-Tang Clan are, sadly, all starting to go their separate ways. RZA is now off scoring movies � like Tarantino�s Kill Bill � and, with cohort GZA, busy making cameo appearances with Bill Murray ("Bill Murray!") in Jim Jarmusch movies and on segments of Chappelle�s Show. Method Man can currently be seen on the silver screen - and alongside Tom Arnold - in Soul Plane and the small screen in Fox�s Method & Red. (The latter show will probably be canceled after a few episodes. Isn�t that Fox�s standard procedure with sitcoms these days?) Ol� Dirty Bastard is out of jail and on Jay-Z�s Roc-A-Fella label. Ghostface Killah, meanwhile � now just innocently known as Ghostface, probably to appeal to the kids � continues to forge on and actually make music. He�ll bring his powerful MC skillz � Chicagoist hereby promises to never write that word again � to the House of Blues tonight. Tickets are $22.
more ›

Country-music fans (yes, both of you) rejoice: Chicago transplant Kelly Hogan will play a pair of shows tonight at Hideout. But the real music story is tomorrow night, when there are so many quality bands playing in the area that we decided to give you a day�s warning to make the torturous decision. At the Empty Bottle will be the Mountain Goats, a.k.a. John Darnielle. (Chicagoist just loves singer-songwriters that pretend to be full-fledged bands, e.g. Cat Power, (smog), Destroyer, Iron & Wine, and Bonnie �Prince� Billy.) Darnielle will perform his unique, literate brand of lo-fi folk pop, and here�s hoping his awesome acoustic cover of Ace of Base�s �The Sign� makes the setlist. Archer Prewitt from local heroes The Sea & Cake will open. At Metro, weirdo Neutral Milk Hotel wannabes the Decemberists will play � probably in costume � their songs about pirates, soldiers, movie characters, and real-life novelists after the equally strange Chicago-area popsters Head of Femur open. And at House of Blues, check out Danger Mouse � the brilliant mind behind the justly lauded Beatles-Jay Z mash-up �The Grey Album� � performing with Brooklyn cohort Jemini. The duo�s recent collaboration �Ghetto Pop Life� evidences further wizardry with hip-hop tricks both underground and mainstream. No matter which show you choose, each will be a great way to kick off the weekend. more ›