To say Haz Solo is ambitious is an understatement. Last year, the Milwaukee rapper and producer unveiled his plans to release a whooping 16 albums/mixtapes of material, and though it seems he'll fall short of that insane goal, he's nonetheless made impressive progress. HAZ SOLO>, his latest release, available for free download on his Myspace page, is the best I've heard from him yet. ...

The rappers appearing at V100’s latest Jamfest, Lil Boosie, Yung Berg and Hurricane Chris, are uniformly shrill, arrogant and odious—traits that all of them have leaned on to turn out some improbably good singles. Louisiana crunk tot Hurricane Chris’ defining single is “A Bay Bay,” a schoolyard chant with a whizzing synth line and a nagging chorus that taunts the listener long after the song ends. The low-budget “A Bay Bay” sounds like it was recorded in the backseat of a Buick compared to co-headline Yung Berg’s...

I'm one of the louder voices in the chorus of hip-hop fans who claim that DJ Premier is pretty much the best producer in the history of the genre. His crackling, popping beats have the uncanny ability to make just about anyone rapping over them sound good-even, in one unlikely Limp Bizkit song, Fred Durst. I'm gone for the week, so posts to this blog will be canned and infrequent, but in my ...

One of the Twin Cities’ best known emcees and one of its best known DJs, respectively, Eyedea and Abilities return to Milwaukee with their polished two-man act of sly, subversive battle raps and quick, beat-changing cuts. A trio of Milwaukee hip-hop mainstays have come out for the duo’s 10 p.m. show at the Stonefly Brewery tonight: The Rusty Ps, Kid Cut Up and King Hell Bastard will all open...

Kanye West cemented his star-making reputation when he produced Common’s 2005 hit Be, a soulful, down-to-Earth album that resuscitated Common’s career after 2002’s ambitious but muddled Electric Circus. Common teamed up with West again for much of 2007’s Finding Forever, a respectable sequel that never fully captured the simple charm of Be, but for Common’s upcoming album, Universal Mind Control, the conscious...

One of the few Milwaukee rappers with ties to both the alt-rap hip-hop scene of the city’s East Side and the grittier, club-rap scene of the North Side, Prophetic stakes out an agreeable middle ground, embracing both sounds without succumbing to conscious-rap moralizing or thug-rap clichés. The slick production of his new album, Mo Profit, Mo Progress, finds a sonic middle ground between laid-back alt-rap and bombastic...

Nas has long been the most stoic and dead serious of all the major emcees. Especially since he returned to critical favor after his brief but image-killing flirtation with floss in the late '90s, he's been careful to avoid any hint of vice or banality. Of his four most recent albums, two explore his ever-consuming Jesus complex, one eulogizes the genre he loves, and the latest somberly charts the remnants of slavery. He carries the weight of the world-and the cross-on his self-beleaguered shoulders. While his one-time rival Jay-Z indulges . . .

I'll have a more thoughtful review of the show in next week's Shepherd, but I can't resist the opportunity to beam a little bit about last night's Nas/Talib Kweli show. I'm often jaded about local rap concerts�I'm always turned off by the inordinate number of openers, short sets and considerable delays�but last night's show at the Rave was just about perfect. Even the sound was good. Last time ...

Given Nas’ inability to explain on his previous album exactly why hip-hop was dead, the media understandably greeted Nas’ latest album, originally titled Nigger, with great skepticism. Against the odds, though, the rapper created a piece of art that proves that its controversial original title wasn’t just a . . .

[I was told this weekend that DMC appeared at some of Milwaukee's Harley-Davidson 105th anniversary festivities, and I was reminded of my last-minute lunch with the guy two years back. I dug through my archives and found the blog post I hastily wrote-up after the encounter and have republished it here.] Oct. 5, 2006 The vague voicemail message that tipped me off wasn't a hoax af...