NO TRIVIA

May 18, 2012 – Twenty years after the Pharcyde's debut, Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde, it seems like that pack of self-deprecating MCs are finally getting the credit they've always deserved.

May 18, 2012 – LoveRance's "UP!” is currently number four on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop chart, with a rather curious "featuring" credit: "LoveRance featuring Iamsu! & Skipper or 50 Cent." "UP!" was a minor hit last summer and began sneaking onto radio playlists in the fall. It seemed of a piece with Chris Brown's similarly spare "Strip.” Then, Tyga's "Rack City" arrived and brought with it a sudden, nationwide demand for minimalist hip-hop.

May 17, 2012 – A French presidential candidate — now president — using a viral political advertisement featuring a song from Watch the Throne, Jay-Z co-signing president Barack Obama's pro-same-sex marriage sentiments, and the president shouting out Young Jeezy and slow jamming the news, are all reasons to rejoice in the cultural and political exchange that hip-hop has enabled.

May 11, 2012 – I've been thinking a lot about André 3000 starring in this Jimi Hendrix biopic. The biopic is one of the worst movie subgenres because conflating someone's life into two hours and hitting all the "necessary" dramatic beats just never works out. By the time the studio's bad ideas and test-screened audience comments and all that are considered, a life story's been cleaned up and compacted beyond recognition.

May 11, 2012 – In certain rap-Internet circles, Future's Pluto is album of the year (here at SPIN, it's an Essential). To many though, it's a big joke. This dismissive Onion AV Club review, which misquotes lyrics from "Straight Up," (the reviewer hears "she a big booty freak and she foreign" as "she a big booty freak and she fart") is illustrative of a certain kind of hip-hop fan ready to assume the worst and laugh Pluto away.

May 9, 2012 – Does this count as Trillwave? Via Matt Sonzala's Austin Surreal, via wherever the hell he spotted it: A wacky beer ad featuring ZZ Top inside one of those walk-in beer fridges, blasting out a rawk-and-blooz cover of Screwed Up Click classic "25 Lighters" by DJ DMD feat. Lil Keke and Fat Pat.