RZA (Rapper)

Cannibal Ox Is Back, But Is Anybody Listening?

You may have missed it, but no one would blame if you did because you're not alone. In March, legendary indie hip-hop group Cannibal Ox announced they were making a comeback in a big way, launching a new album, their very own record label, and a Kickstarter campaign to fund it all. The last time Ca ... More >>

The Five Best Songs That Sample the Beatles

Pop and R&B superstar Frank Ocean has recently opened up to MTV News that he's been on a Beatles and Beach Boys binge when seeking inspiration for his upcoming second full-length record. While it's not exactly surprising to hear of a young artist gorging himself on Beatles classics for ideas, it is ... More >>

The Best Hip-Hop at SXSW 2013

I remember going to SXSW a few years ago without a place to sleep, less than $100 to spend, no agenda, badge, wristband, or RSVP. I bar-hopped up and down Red River, made friends, snuck into Stubb's, ate cheese pizza and drank Lone Star. After years of busting my ass as a music photographer and wri ... More >>

The Way We Die Now

Movie violence has never been better — or more reckless.

Last Night: RZA at Warehouse Live

RZA Warehouse Live October 16, 2012 At three separate intervals of Tuesday night, Wu-Tang Clan leader RZA took to a table, grabbed a bottle of alcohol and declared, "Tonight isn't about me rapping -- it's about a celebration." Indeed it was. The Clan head and master of Shaolin had been hard at wor ... More >>

The 5 Best Shows In Houston This Week: October 15-18

Metric House of Blues, October 15 Along with future members of Stars and Broken Social Scene, Metric front woman Emily Haines went to an arts high school in Toronto, and started the group with guitarist James Shaw after returning from college in Montreal and Vancouver. Metric has found it difficult ... More >>

RZA

What Are the Seven Best Songs to Come Out in 2012?

The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place -- lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good -- so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Something you always wanted to ask a rapper? E-mail sheaserrano@gmail.com. ... More >>

Happy Birthday RZA!: 5 More Creative Outlets For the Wu-Tang Abbot

The Wu-Tang Clan is full of big personalities we know and love. And while Method Man may have had the most success away from the group, Ghostface Killah is the most fun to parody online, and Ol' Dirty Bastard is the most beloved, in terms of influence on hip hop as a whole the most important member ... More >>

Hip-Hop, Interrupted: 7 Rappers That Should Be More Active

Hip-hop is a genre full of guys who put out a new album or mixtape seemingly every single month. They just can't stop, even when they're incarcerated in some cases (see: Lil Wayne, Gucci Mane, and TI). It's as if rapping really is as much of a competition as they make it out to be and they're in a r ... More >>

Last Night: Wu-Tang Clan at House of Blues

It's probably not bad advice to say that if you're planning to catch a Wu-Tang show, you better be ready to lose control. Method Man, for one, hates lazybones. His twin requirements for an ideal concert: weed and energy. "The energy that you give to us, we gonna give back to y'all," Meth proclaims, ... More >>

Wu-Tang Clan

Ask A Rapper: Picking Wu-Tang Tracks With DeVille

The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place -lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good- so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Have something you always wanted to ask a rapper? Email it to sheaserrano@gmail. ... More >>

Top Five Movies That Influenced Hip-Hop Culture

​Rappers love to imagine their lives as movies. They see bits of their lives on the big screen and turn to those cinematic treasures to help them make sense of their immediate environment: "If Tony Montana can rise to meteoric heights, so can I; if Frank Lucas can make it out of the game alive ... More >>

Twin Miami Sound Machines Drive HBO's Latino List

Rocks Off is on the phone with perhaps one of the great photographers of this era, critically acclaimed and award-winning photojournalist Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. His brainchild, The Black List - a collection of intimate, up-close photos of the great black leaders and personalities of our time - ... More >>

What's The Leading Cause Of Poor Record Sales?

​Last week, the music world laughed up a hiccup as Lil Wayne pranced around the VMA stage in nut-suffocating, Le Tigre-inspired jeggings. While that performance affirmed that Wayne is no fashion guru, his chart performance a week later reminded us that he's very good at something else-selling ... More >>

Saturday Night: Ghostface, Raekwon & Mobb Deep At House Of Blues

Photos by Marco TorresRaekwon (left) and Ghostface Killah​Rock the Bells Tour feat. Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Mobb Deep, Cappadonna, Supernatural & Fat Tony House of Blues August 12, 2011 Near the end of Ghostface and Raekwon's hourlong set Saturday night, Ghost stood near the stage like he ... More >>

10 Great Instances Of Rappers Honoring Other Rappers

​People often forget that hip-hoppers are humans, too. They breathe, sleep, eat, and salivate at the sight of buttermilk donuts just like us. And, every now and then, they'll geek over other rappers, just like us. It would have been so much easier to compile a list of rappers dissing other ra ... More >>

iLL LiaD: Greek Tragedy Is Gangsta

The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place - lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good - so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Have something you always wanted to ask a rapper? Email it to sheaserrano@gmai ... More >>

Last Night: Wu-Tang Clan At Numbers

Photos by Marco TorresMethod Man presses the flesh. See a slideshow of the Killer Bees (and several of H-Town's finest, who opened) here.​Wu-Tang Clan Numbers December 12, 2010 Sunday night's Wu-Tang Clan show ended around 2:30 this morning, after five or six openers and more than five hours ... More >>

Wu-Tang Clan's Best Pop-Culture References

​Rocks Off can't rightfully remember the last time the whole Wu-Tang Clan was ever in Houston, if they ever have been. For some reason, we keep wanting to think they came once with Rage Against The Machine around 1997. In 2007, they came to Dallas on the Rock The Bells summer tour with Nas, Ta ... More >>

Wu-Tang Clan

Meridian's Problems Persist; Wu-Tang Moved Back To Numbers

Photos by Marc Brubaker​Just when it seemed like Meridian was on the comeback trail, a mysterious power outage and shows both canceling and relocating to different venues over the weekend have raised more questions about the problem-plagued venue at 1503 Chartres. Sunday, My Onstage Events an ... More >>

Next to Nothing

Paul Haggis shows no improvement.

Five Groups We'd Pay To Break Up

​Why do people support so much bad music? What if people paid awful bands to quit instead? Weezer fans are willing to try. Sick and tired of being let down by his favorite band, last week a fan jokingly offered Weezer $10 million to split up. Naturally, this had Rocks Off thinking of other ac ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Why 2010 Is Going To Suck, Pt. 2

We covered the first half of 2010 a couple of days ago, to resounding snores, but that won't keep me from exercising my First Amendment right to complain about derivative cinematic entertainment I could otherwise easily avoid. Now then...The A-Team -- June 11 I like how shows like Beavis and Butth ... More >>

The Kids Are All Right: Hip-Hop Finally Comes of Age, Part 2

​5. DOOM, Born Like This (Lex) The man behind the metal mask, Daniel Dumile, emerges from a mysterious exile to turn in his best effort since 2004's Madvillainy collaboration with Madlib. The dense verbiage and the beats (some of them reclaimed from the late J. Dilla) are familiar, but DOOM's time ... More >>

Modern-Day Jedis - or Wannabe Jedis - In Pop Music

​"For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times... before the Empire." - Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars Sounds pretty impressive, doesn't it? Almost like there somebody had put together a detailed, well thought-out s ... More >>

Turning the Screw: Lil Wayne, Hip-Hop and the Election, Wu-Tang Clan, Danity Kane, The Kanye

Turning The Screw: Crew54, DJ AM & Travis Barker, G- Unit, Pharrell, Eminem, Nate Dogg, Kanye, Wu-Tang vs. UFC and More

GZA

Wu-Tang Clan

8 Diagrams

Ghostface Killah

Is Ghostface as dumb as he wants you to think he is?

Underground Kingz

CD review

This Just In: Rock the Bells Canceled

Beat Kings

Beat Kings: The History of Hip Hop

Snap to It

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

Visit the Scenic Woods

Jaa Rules

Martial arts sensation Tony Jaa makes the most of his screen debut

Dance, Dance Revolution

This was the year electronic dance music got its head --

and its ass -- out of the past

Dance, Dance Revolution

This was the year electronic dance music got its head -- and its ass -- out of the past

Dorkula

Blade confronts the ultimate vampire, and geeks everywhere rejoice

Dishing the Dirt on Dirty

We chronicle the greatest moments of Ol' Dirty Bastard

A Good Buzz

Jim Jarmusch serves the perfect blend: Coffee and Cigarettes

Gettin' Windy in the City

The Chicago clip crew gleefully gabs on in Barbershop 2

Killah Priest

Thursday, July 3

Sumpin' Filthy

Local punker/chef Filthy McNasty is the Ginuwine article

Turning Japanese

Forest Whitaker brings an adopted honor code to the streets in Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog

Men in Black

Method Man and Redman have a Blackout, tour with Family Values

Rotation