NO TRIVIA

April 27, 2012 – Gonna be one of those guys that talks about some New York party you totally weren't at and all, but man Waka Flocka Flame performing at SPIN's party for the new issue was nuts. Waka played an entire set! Wooh Da Kid was there! People were dancing! Usually these types of things are as perfunctory as possible, with the center of attention wandering up and half-assedly playing the new single and calling it a night.

April 27, 2012 – I know you're tired of the Tupac hologram talk, but it's hard for me to shake that spectacle from my mind. Like I said last week: A big dumb CGI Tupac was Dr. Dre's big idea, while the mega talented multitudes of Black Hippy hung out somewhere on the Coachella premises. It speaks to Dre holding tight to a '90s vision of massive rap stardom and event-making that doesn't really exist anymore.

April 26, 2012 – When you're Goodie Mob and you're dressed in costumes best described as Jobriath meets C3PO meets Earth, Wind, and Fire, and the world's sexiest douchebag, Adam Levine, is emphatically nodding his head to your latest single, "Fight to Win," a Queen-esque a platitude-filled, pomp and circumstance, no-burner with lots of Cee-Lo singing and not much Goodie Mob at all, you've done fucked up.

April 20, 2012 – As Phillip over at Control Voltage observed, Record Store Day doesn't tend to be too exciting for fans of stuff that doesn't have guitars. And Record Store Day has a particularly dicey relationship with rap music.

April 20, 2012 – Last week, I received a package in the mail from a Chicago artist and DJ named Meaghan Garvey. It made my day. Included were Illuminati-themed prints of Nicki Minaj and Rick Ross, some hand-drawn Notorious B.I.G. stickers, and "The Illustrated Juicy," a 31-page chapbook that moves through the lyrics of Notorious B.I.G.'s "Juicy," with a drawing accompanying every few lines.

April 19, 2012 – Something is going on with this Future album. Or it's the logical conclusion of something. Maybe something is being turned into a new something. I really don't know. Flicking around in the background of Pluto, fighting with all of that incessant Auto-Tune, is the familiar stomp of Southern hip-hop. But Future's kicking against that aggressive sound with his effects-assisted sincerity.