hip-hop, Niki Boyle

Why? - Mumps, etc.

Yoni Wolf’s hipster-friendly fourth album is inventive but lacks heart

Yoni Wolf – part-founder of indie label Anticon and band leader of alt hip hop ensemble Why? – is the very definition of a musical hipster. He sports thick-rimmed glasses and a moustache; he crams high and low-brow references cheek by jowl into his…

You Are God

Bleak Polish drama about hip hop group Paktofonika

You Are God follows the career trajectory of Magik, Fokus and Rahim, aka Polish hip hop group Paktofonika. Trudging through their various dead-end existences in the bleak region of Silesia, the trio banded together to create something representative of…

Azealia Banks – O2 ABC, Glasgow, Sat 29 Sep 2012

High energy performance from the Harlem hip hop artist

Before Yung Rapunxel takes to the stage tonight, the crowd are put through a thorough preparation session. The gimp-mask-and-leather-shirted support act Zebra Katz lets everyone know this is not a family show, and Banks’ own DJ Cosmo performs a half…

THEESatisfaction, Young Fathers – Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Sun 3 Jun 2012

Soulful house party set from the Seattle hip hop duo

Seattle hip hop/soul duo Stas and Cat, aka THEESatisfaction, are perfectly suited to the DIY music scene. With just two microphones and a laptop in the way of stage set-up, you can easily imagine them playing house parties (an image aided by the video…

Trailer from Ice T's Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap

New documentary marks new wave of hip hop films

Hip hop, like most trends to grace the cinema, comes in waves. The last big one was in the early 1990s, with the likes of Boyz N The Hood, New Jack City and Menace II Society following the era-defining late 1980s releases of NWA's Straight Outta Compton…

Young Fathers, Liquid Room, Tue 13 Sep

Joyless hip hop show at odds with club setting

Club night Zzzap! is squarely aimed at the fun-loving, party-hearty student crowd: there’s a booty-shaking combo of house and techno music, an easygoing atmosphere on both the dancefloor and the smoking terrace out back, and a name spelt with three Zs…

Make Sparks and Three Blind Wolves among highlights of T in the Park’s T Break stage 2010

The acts for this year’s T Break stage have been announced, and there’s quite a few names to get excited about. Glasgow guitar-pop purveyors Make Sparks have been garnering a lot of attention recently, not least from the authority on such subjects, the…

Stanley Odd - Oddio

(Circular) Stanley Odd are, with Young Fathers and Northern Xposure, part of a hip hop scene currently on the rise in Scotland. Rather than sticking to the gangsta-rap themes of guns, bitches and bling preferred by certain Stateside artists, the…

Cypress Hill - Rise Up

(Priority) Seriously. Although this is Snoop’s record label, even the Doggfather takes a break from the chronic sometimes. Despite (uninspired) contributions from Tom Morello and Daron Malakian, this is a one-note affair, too addicted to weed to let…

Cincinatti three-piece Why? set for Glasgow date

Humorously blunt lyrics accompanied by sumptuous melodies, tender harmonies and the occasional hip-hop edge – sound like your cup of tea? Us too. You may care to check out this beardy three-piece from Cincinatti – whose interracial lovelorn rap ballad…