Hip-Hop

The first response on listening to Baron Zen, a turn-of-the-'90s jack-of-all-synths who was helped by the young Peanut Butter Wolf, is that it couldn't possibly have been made then. The funky-but-melodic keyboard tones have the hooky electro style of Daft Punk but the taste of James Murphy.

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In case you haven't noticed, the Download Music crew is back in San Francisco after a massive week of music at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. We've been posting like crazy to Crossfade about some of our favorite shows; we picked a handful of top artists for our Best of SXSW playlist; and we cut a special SXSW episode of our weekly music show Crossfade TV as well, highlighting great performances by the likes of Duffy, Lou Reed, Ice Cube, Explorer's Club, These Are Powers, Enslaved, and Guilty Simpson.

Slide on over to CNET TV for … Read more

Not only isn't the St. Louis artist a garden-variety hip-hopper, he's not even a garden-variety soul-hop/jazz/rocker. Spade mixes the hybrid's familiar moves--glowing basslines; an earthy, organic vibe--with trickier rhythmic forays and unpredictable production.

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A hip-hop student of the older-than-old-school radio jock Marley Marl, New York-proud Pete Rock has built a solid career on equally sturdy rhymes and decent beats that skate the line between thug rap and backpacker hip-hop. If Nas wasn't so militant or if Wu Tang were consolidated into one person, the result would be very Pete.

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Today is the first day of South by Southwest 2008! And while many people who aren't in Austin could care less, music lovers and industry folks consider this event the real "March madness." A projected 1,600 bands will be in and out of Austin over the next four days, which will create a seemingly endless wall of sound which begins around noon each day and ends after last call. Yeah, sure it's a lot of fun but if long lines and Mardi Gras-size crowds aren't your thing, you can experience the bands of SXSW … Read more

You won't hear up-and-coming rap star Flo Rida griping about fans pilfering his songs on P2P sites, or complain that technology is hurting the music industry. Don't talk to him about so-called digital divides either.

As one of rap music's fastest rising stars, Rida, 28, is new enough to music success that fans are still precious to him. This is a guy who used to shout out his cell number during performances.

This "personal touch" has helped, he says. His song "Low," recently spent 13 weeks as the top-selling ringtone in the country, … Read more

Patterson describes the title of his latest, "Wines & Spirits," as sounding "biblical," but it's the songs that really belong in church. Rich vocal harmonies and sermon-strength lyrics point straight to gospel, while funked-out bass lines and biting synths earn their own believers.

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A former Slum Village member, a beatsmith for Madlib, MF DOOM, Common, Busta and many more, an increasingly cherished solo artist--by the time of his recent death at age 32, Jay Dee had made the rap game his plaything. Jay's last LP "Donuts" finds new troves of soul inside taut hip-hop beats.

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If Carlos Santana had come up in the hip-hop era instead of the blues-rock one, who's to say he wouldn't be making stuff just like his son Salvador? On "SSB," Carlos's kid grows up and steps out of pop's shadow with a driving mash of Latin and funk. The coup is some very familiar guitar work.

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