Subject: Mos Def

• Original Style

  The Roots makes rap come alive live

  March 11, 1999

• To Do: Listen to S.O.S. Radio, Hang Out with Wyclef

  October 3, 2007

• No Pimps Allowed

  Common and Black Eyed Peas dare to raise the artistic standards of hip-hop

  November 16, 2000

• Master Blaster

  Cody ChesnuTT sees rock and roll, and he wants to repaint it black

  February 27, 2003

• Turning the Screw: DZA, Trae, Al Sharpton, Common, Beyonce, Akon, Mos Def, Vanilla Ice and a Whole Lotta Obama

  November 10, 2008

• Turning the Screw: Promise Pseudo, Soulja Boy, Scarface, Rick Rubin, Akon, T.I., Doug E. Fresh, the Bee Gees and More

  Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off's weekly rap post. It probably won't rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies. Single of the Week: "Sunny," Promise Pseudo Wire To Wire We disliked Soulja Boy, and then we read this Scarface interview where 'Face said he respected him, so now we respect him too. We're sheep. Oh, and for those of you all who know who she is, scroll down to about halfway through the article where he's asked abo

  December 22, 2008

• Rap Space

  June 3, 1999

• Turning The Screw: Spitten King, Paul Wall, The Kanye, KiD CuDi, Steve Lobel, Common, Weezy, Rick Ross, Pastor Troy, Mos Def, Grand Puba, The Chuck E. Cheese Conspiracy

  Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off's weekly rap post. It probably won't rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies. Single of the Week: "The Gold Room," Spitten King Wire To Wire: A regular reader of Turning the Screw (who asked to remain anonymous) passed along a 2008 mixtape of Paul Wall's greatest hits. (Available here.) We made it through, like, four songs, and then, inexplicably, we started making I'm-[adjective]-like-[noun]

  March 23, 2009

• Artist of the Week: Caretta Bell

  Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com. Photos courtesy of Caretta Bell Caretta Bell opened the Arena Theatre's Keith Sweat/Bell Biv DeVoe MLK weekend concert in January.We are all about making predictions, assumptions or whatever. Did you know that we've gu

  April 1, 2009

• Artist of the Week: Outspoken Bean

  Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com. Photos courtesy of Outspoken BeanUp until recently, we were pretty well of the mindset that spoken-word poetry was basically, er... "wack" seems like the right word. We'd seen it on that show that Mos Def hosts a few ti

  April 8, 2009

• Cadillac Records Can't Handle the Truth

  Spinning Blues into Lies

  December 4, 2008

• Be Kind Rewind Is a Muddle

  Michel Gondry attempts to celebrate DIY filmmaking, but comes up short, stale and flat

  February 21, 2008

• 2007 Music Year in Review

  December 13, 2007

• Hello, Houston!

  April 23, 2009

• Little Brother

  Little Brother performs Friday, June 29, at Warehouse Live, 813 St. Emanuel, 713-225-5483. Orgone and DJ Haul also perform.

  June 28, 2007

• Snap to It

  Comeback kids, rhymin' Limeys and songs about partying defined Hip-Hop Nation in 2006

  December 14, 2006

• Hard Ride

  Stuck with Bruce Willis in rush-hour traffic? You could always walk

  March 2, 2006

• Get Down with Dave

  Chappelle returns with a raucous Block Party

  March 2, 2006

• Bum Rap

  50 Cent wants to be an actor...but he's not

  November 10, 2005

• Meow Mix

  DJ delight Miss Kittin spins purrfect grooves

  October 13, 2005

• Rockin' Renewal

  The imminent launch of new venue Warehouse Live makes it official: Downtown is now Houston's live music hot spot

  October 13, 2005

• The Roots, with Floetry

  Wednesday, June 8, at HUSH, 15625 Katy Freeway, 713-330-HUSH.

  June 2, 2005

• Blowhards

  Project Blowed celebrates ten years of hip-hop innovation and improvisation

  May 26, 2005

• Jokes? What Jokes?

  The Hitchhiker's Guide is harmless -- well, mostly harmless

  April 28, 2005

• Steal These Albums

  The ten most dangerous and radical hip-hop records of all time

  March 31, 2005

• Extended Sentence

  A convicted pedophile earns his release but can't escape from himself

  January 13, 2005

• Feelings, Nothing But Feelings

  The New York Times misses the point in its attack on "rockism"

  November 11, 2004

• Playbill

  June 3, 2004

• This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

  April 8, 2004

• Kanye West

  College Dropout (Def Jam/Roc-A-Fella)

  February 19, 2004

• Rappin' Up Gifts

  A lucky seven underground hip-hop releases to slip into Christmas stockings this year

  December 18, 2003

• Best Hip-hop Radio Show

  Vinyl Frontier

  September 25, 2003

• Mark Ronson

  Here Comes the Fuzz (Elektra)

  September 25, 2003

• Safe, Cracked

  The Italian Job, a remake better than the original, is a steal

  May 29, 2003

• Sexual Healing

  A racist Billy Bob gets funky in Monster's Ball

  February 7, 2002

• The Malcolm X Files

  Spike Lee's scathing satire of network television goes out with a bang

  October 19, 2000

• X-ecutioners' Song

  Four New York turntablists redefine the art of deejaying

  October 12, 2000

• Talib Kweli

  June 18, 2009

• Zin Balance

  July 2, 2009

• This Week In Beyonce: B Acts... Like What?

  Rocks Off can't argue with the fact that Beyonce Knowles is a stone-cold fox when she gets on the microphone and belts out a song, dripping in glitter and wearing a barely-there outfit. Her voice is at once menacing and thundering, but also femininely fragile. Plus she has to be super-cool behind the scenes for Jay-Z to call her his girl, because we are pretty sure he doesn't dig on crazy women as much as we do. But sweet baby Jesus, she can't read lines or emote into a camera unless she's filmi

  July 1, 2009

• The Last Roundup: Broken-NCYDE, Jenny Lewis, H.A.W.K. & Z-Ro, Something Fierce and More

  29-95's Joe Mathlete introduces the world to "crunkcore" artist Broken-NCYDE. Prima Donna meltdown or not, Jenny Lewis still has talent. If only she had manners. We Wore Masks screens her "See Fernando" video. Southern rap is still alive. Thankfully, Cocaine Blunts knows this, giving us H.A.W.K. and Z-Ro's "Diggin' the South." Houstonist remembers Dave Rask.

  July 14, 2009

• Distant Early Warning: Bob Saget, Loggins & Messina, Mos Def, the Queers and More

  The Atomic Punks (Van Halen Tribute): Fri., Aug. 21. House of Blues. Bob Saget: Fri., Nov. 20. House of Blues. Cedric The Entertainer: Fri., Aug. 28. Arena Theatre. Derek Webb: Sat., Oct. 24. House of Blues. Mushroomhead, (hed)pe, Ethreal, Made In Vain: Sat., Sept. 5. Meridian. KMFDM: Fri., Oct. 23. Meridian. CHANGED. Loggins & Messina: Sun., Sept. 27. Arena Theatre. Mos Def, Jay Electronica: Wed., Aug. 19. House of Blues.

  July 21, 2009

• Summer Stock

  August 6, 2009

• Mos Def

  August 13, 2009

• Aftermath: Mos Def at House of Blues

  Larami Culbertson​ 9:30 p.m.: Just walked in to see the place pretty well filled. Snoop is playing through the speaker system. If you walk into a venue and "Gin and Juice" is playing, you can take that as a sign that you're going to have a good time. Well, that or that a riot is going to break out at some point in the evening. Either way, you're a winner. 9:44 p.m.: Jay Electronica, who will forever be known as Erykah Badu's husband, just wandered out on stage. Some lady behind us very politel

  August 20, 2009

• Turning the Screw: Clinton Sparks, Bun B & Slim Thug, More Bun B, Jazzy Jeff, Erykah Badu, Pitbull, Big Mello, etc.

  Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off's weekly rap post. It probably won't rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies. (Super, Super Cool) Single of the Week: "Pack The Gat," Clinton Sparks feat. Bun B and Slim Thug Wire To Wire If there's a rap concert anywhere in Houston, do not be surprised to see Bun B called out on stage. We're not completely sure, but we suspect there's some sort of message that Rock City is trying to relay with th

  August 24, 2009

• ACL 2009 Day Two: Aftermath

  Photo by Mark C. Austin​Was it something we said or did? Aftermath openly gushed about how great the weather was on Friday and how it seemed that maybe, just maybe, we were going to finally attend an Austin City Limits (ACL) that didn't consist of heat and dust. Well, it seems that the powers-the-be misunderstood what our words of thankfulness and decided to perpetuate the lack of oppressive heat and dust by having it rain all day long. As in, Aftermath arrived at Zilker Park just after n

  October 4, 2009

• ACL 2009: Best Tweets Of The Weekend

  Armed with our sort-of handy cellphone we were able to Tweet from ground level at the festival, with sometimes hilarious and vulgar results. Mostly the latter, because we are foul people. Over time, our Twitter updates devolved into angry rants, as you will see below.@hprocksoff sez:Oh god they really did fix the grass out on Zilker. I wanna take acid and lay on it for years.Beatles Rock Band is set up in a tent by Xbox360. Thanks for copping our hustle, you dicks.Some of these cats at Coheed co

  October 4, 2009

• Inside the Rappers Studio

  October 8, 2009

• Rocks Off's Picks for This Weekend's Fun Fun Fun Festival

  You can think of this weekend's Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin as the indie, metal, and hip-hop little brother of the more staid Austin City Limits Music Festival. The fourth edition of the two-day event held in Waterloo Park in Austin starts tomorrow afternoon. Per our stated life path, Rocks Off will be there covering all the bands, fans and assorted debauchery that all that comes with. This year's line-up is rife with musical pioneers, unsung heroes, along with the usual "It" bands that you will

  November 6, 2009