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AARON CARNES on July 16, 2012
In February, unknown San Jose rapper Antwon released the video for his song “Helicopter,” which quickly became the subject of music blogs all over the internet, most notably spin.com. It’s now creeping up on 80,000 views and counting.
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Peanut Butter Wolf works in mysterious ways. The South Bay music legend pioneered sophisticated production in San Jose’s underground scene in the early ‘90s, before founding the Stones Throw label and signing hip-hop revolutionaries like Madlib, J Rocc and J Dilla. And he’s still engineering musical mini-movements, as Boston band Sonnymoon learned…
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AARON CARNES on June 19, 2012
For 34 years, the Puerto Rican festival, El Dia De San Juan, has brought traditional Puerto Rican foods, dance and music to San Jose. For music, that of course means salsa and meringue, but the folks behind the event didn’t want the festival to only feature traditional Puerto Rican music.
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DAVID MA on June 5, 2012
“I like candied yams, I never jeopardize who I am!” says Andre Nickatina, the renowned West Coast rap veteran who’s making a highly anticipated tour stop at Santa Clara’s Avalon Nightclub this week. Formally known as Dre Dog, Nickatina has achieved luminary status through slanging tapes and CDs hand-to-hand, most of which…
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San Jose rapper Antwon has been getting a lot of attention lately. In February, he released his video “Helicopter,” which has becoming the subject of many blogs. The video mixes footage from Steve McQueen’s 1968 car chase flick Bullitt with shots of Antwon and his crew wandering around train tracks, drinking malt…
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“Obviously, people are going to make assumptions based on who my father is,” says Salvador Santana. To put it another way, they’re not expecting the son of Latin-rock superstar Carlos Santana to be collaborating with Del the Funky Homosapien, GZA from Wu-Tang Clan, or Mellow Man Ace, younger brother of Cypress Hill’s…
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A huge “South Bay Urban Block Party” is set for April 22 at 7th and Martha in downtown San Jose. Exact details have yet to officially be released, but headliners are expected to include local hip-hop legend Peanut Butter Wolf, as well as Planet Asia, Zion I, Locksmith and Sahtyre.
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“We kill the alive to praise the dead,” is how Robert Glasper summed up the current jazz scene in his interview on NPR last week. In other words, if you can’t relate to jazz, he’s feeling you. And he’s making big waves for trying to change that, especially in the wake of…
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On November 10, 1891, Arthur Rimbaud died. On November 10, 2011, on the 130th anniversary of the hapless French poet’s death, Drake’s album “Take Care” was leaked. And for the last four months, he’s unknowingly embarked on a tour to resurrect Rimbaud’s central thesis of maddening love – in packed arenas across…
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Aaron Carnes on February 29, 2012
What would happen if a bunch of freestyle rappers started a jam-band? It might sound impossible, but that’s exactly what happened to San Jose’s Rebelskamp. Four members of this rock, funk, avant-garde, free-form, genre-busting quintet (along with Kung Fu Vampire) were at one time the local freestyle rap crew, LSB.
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