Dr. Dre

The Day RFT Music Died

You may have noticed over the weekend, starting on Thursday, that RFT Music was largely inaccessible. Users of Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox and likely others were blocked by warnings of malware, looking very similar, if not identical, to the one you see above.

Washington University: Officials Suspend Sigma Alpha Epsilon After Alleged Racist Pledge Prank

The Washington University chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity is in hot water today after allegations surfaced of a pledge activity that involved photographing black students and reciting a rap with racial slurs. University administrators have officially suspended the SAE chapter and are now ... More >>

Kendrick Lamar is Coming to Chaifetz Arena April 17

Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar will be coming to St. Louis on Wednesday, April 17. Joining the critically-acclaimed rapper will be DJ Steve Aoki, founder of Dim Mak Records and an electrifying showman in his own right. Aoki is also nominated for a Grammy in this year's upcoming awards show, in the ca ... More >>

Black Spade & Nato Caliph's Cassette EP Force Majeure: Review

Force compatriots Black Spade and Nato Caliph commit their long-running musical kinship to tape for the first time on Force Majeure. And I mean "tape" literally -- this nine-song program (featuring two interludes and a remix) is being released on cassette and .mp3, and the abbreviated format shows t ... More >>

Homespun: Black Spade & Nato Caliph

Force Majeure
f5 Records

Kendrick Lamar's Debut is One of the Most Important Hip-Hop Albums of Our Era

Editor: Tef Poe is an artist from St. Louis City. Through powerful imagery and complicated honesty, he has earned a reputation as one of the best rappers telling the story of St. Louis, which is about much more than one place. Poe has been featured in music publications such as XXL and Urb Magazine. ... More >>

The Demonization of Chief Keef and Lil JoJo

Editor: Tef Poe is an artist from St. Louis City. Through powerful imagery and complicated honesty, he has earned a reputation as one of the best rappers telling the story of St. Louis, which is about much more than one place. Poe has been featured in music publications such as XXL and Urb Magazine. ... More >>

Rodney King and The Psychotic World We Live In

Editor: Tef Poe is an artist from St. Louis City. Through powerful imagery and complicated honesty, he has earned a reputation as one of the best rappers telling the story of St. Louis, which is about much more than one place. Poe has been featured in music publications such as XXL and Urb Magazine. ... More >>

The Case Against Holograms, Which in Honor of Freddie Mercury Needs to be Made Right Now

A few days after Tupac Shakur came back from New Mexico appeared as a "hologram" during last month's Coachella festival, cynics wondered aloud about the optical illusion becoming a trend. Somebody even put together a humorous "poster" advertising next year's show, which consisted exclusively of eith ... More >>

Hologram Musicians: The Legal Implications

There's no denying that the "hologram" of Tupac Shakur that debuted at Coachella this year is provocative. Some see the visual effect as a celebration of a well-regarded rapper's legacy. Others see the spectacle as a disturbing example of the uncanny valley theory on a particularly grand scale. No ... More >>

Best of Coachella's Final Day

See also: Our complete Coachella coverage By the third day of Coachella's second weekend -- the sixth and final day of this year's festival -- folks had more or less learned to ignore the dust and the heat. Here are our intrepid writers' favorite things about the final hours of the 2012 event.

Best of Coachella Day Three

See also: *The Best Of Coachella: Saturday, April 14 *Top Ten Awkward Coachella Dance Move GIFs Wow, that was fast! In a whirlwind of top-notch performances from legends and buzz bands alike, pool parties, and rain, Coachella's first weekend is over. Here are our scribes' favorite moments from Sund ... More >>

Six Best Coachella Death Matches

You may know that the Coachella festival begins this weekend, in which Indio, California is overtaken with every type of person from hippies to people who like watching bands outside and camping yet deny being hippies. The impressive lineup has a few notably similar acts who may not be rivals but st ... More >>

Alert: SXSW Coverage Ahead

"What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area." -- Tommy Lee Jones, The Fugitive You don't have to spend much time at South By Southwest to know that all of the above building ... More >>

Coachella in St. Louis: Make Your Own Spring Festival Without Leaving Home

The Coachella 2012 lineup is out, featuring the Black Keys, Radiohead, Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg and roughly half of Pitchfork's Top 50 Albums of 2011 list. But California is far away and three day passes (officially) cost your left eyeball and firstborn child. Fortunately, many of the Coachella highligh ... More >>

Coachella 2012 Lineup: Black Keys, Radiohead and Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg Headline

Coachella has just announced its 2012 lineup. The festival, which will take place over two weekends in April, will feature the Black Keys, Radiohead, Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg as headliners, and it doesn't exactly drop off from there: Pulp, Cat Power, M83, the Shins, Bon Iver, Noel Gallagher, Feist, Jeff ... More >>

Ben Folds on Making the Most of a Misunderstood Career

Courtesy of the artist.​This Sunday, Ben Folds performs a sold-out show at Powell Hall alongside the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. We talked to the versatile, potty-mouthed and misunderstood performer during a rare moment of rest between rehearsing for one of his many orchestral concerts and j ... More >>

Six Best Blatant Drug References In Song

​Drugs are a crucial part of the classic triumvirate of rock & roll; very few things in our society are of enough import to rival "sex." As a result, drugs have been mentioned and implied in countless songs crossing every imaginable genre. I'm sure there's some Indonesian Gamelan track about o ... More >>

Tef Poe fights against complacency, and defies pigeonholing, with War Machine

Interview: Tef Poe on War Machine, His Fantastic New Album

courtesy of Tef Poe​Tef Poe's War Machine is a nineteen-track tour de force. The Force member's musical versatility has always been his calling card, and so it's not surprise that Machine embraces diversity and defies pigeonholing. Genre-wise, it touches on warm R&B, ominous hip-hop, celebrato ... More >>

Devin the Dude

7 p.m. Friday, September 17. Pop's, 401 Monsanto Avenue, Sauget, Illinois.

Vandalyzm's Megatron Majorz Redux Hits iTunes Hip-Hop Charts

Vandalyzm is now gunning for Dr. Dre.​One of St. Louis' finest is currently sandwiched between 50 Cent and Notorious B.I.G. on the iTunes top 200 hip-hop albums chart. No, it's not Nelly (though his new single "Tippin' in da Club" is at a respectable 34 on the singles chart) -- it's Vandalyzm.The ... More >>

Top Sellers at Area Record Stores: Week of January 11 to 17

Although Vampire Weekend dominated both stores this week, I would just like to note that Dr. Dre's The Chronic was a top seller at Vintage Vinyl last week. Proof that it's always Dre Day. Euclid Records 1. Vampire Weekend - Contra 2. Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind 3. Tom Waits - Glitter & Doom L ... More >>

Homespun: Phaseone, Thanks But No Thanks

In this week's paper, Christian Schaeffer reviews Phaseone's Thanks But No Thanks. He had this to say:As a songwriter, Phaseone relies on a few pet sounds: '80s orchestral synths, sharp-edged hi-hats and loads of reverb. His use of samples is tasteful and discreet (you'd have to be a hell of a crate ... More >>

Homespun: Phaseone

Thanks But No Thanks
(self-released)

All Forked Up: Pitchfork Music Festival Day 1

That's Doug Martsch of Built to Spill behind that hat.It's the end of Day 1 of Pitchfork Music Festival here in Chicago, which by Sunday, should see 40 bands play and welcome 50,000 -- ahem, hipsters -- through the fences of Union Park. More than a few bands who have made their way through St. Louis ... More >>

Royce Da 5'9"

9 p.m. Monday, September 22. The Gramophone, 4243 Manchester Avenue.

'90s Hip-Hop Jam of the Week: 2Pac Dr. Dre, "California Love"

Uh Huh Her

9 p.m. Friday, May 2. Blueberry Hill's Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Boulevard, University City

Dr. Dre to Release...Sparkling Vodka?

The Game

Doctor's Advocate (Geffen)

B-Money's Beat Kicks Off the New Jay-Z

Busta Rhymes

The Big Bang (Aftermath)

Critical Fatwa

Ja Rule

Healthy Distrust

Hip-hop's trends in 2005

Pimping All Over the World

B-Sides gets gangsta with Burt Bacharach, imagines a rainbow of worldly bands and dissects the nuances of two trumpets

Boyz N the Studio

Hustle & Flow is short on action, long on scenes of recording

Various Artists

The Very Best of Death Row (The Row)

The Game

The Documentary (Aftermath/G-Unit/Interscope)

MC Eiht

Friday, November 19; the Duck Room

Conservatives? Anyone?

Ben Stein at UMSL

50 Cent

Get Rich or Die Tryin' (Shady/Aftermath Records)

Eve

Eve-Olution (Ruff Ryders/Interscope)

Attitude Check

Four discs trace the development of the original gangstas

Fog Advisory

In our humble opinion, RFT contributor Andrew Broder is headed for rock stardom

Playing Dr.

The members of Dr. Zhivegas have lives beyond the stage

Eminem

The Marshall Mathers LP (Aftermath/Interscope)

Roll Call

Cleaning out the inbox yields interesting results

Guys and Dolls

Music and lyrics by Frank Loesser; book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows (Webster University's Conservatory of Theatre Arts)

LOOTPACK

Soundpieces: Da Antidote (Stones Throw)