Lupe Fiasco

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 >>

Lessons I Learned From Nelly

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 >>

What Makes a Hip-Hop Classic?

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 Twangfest eBay Auction: Plenty of Records, Posters and Memorabilia Remain

Twangfest 16 has come and gone in a blurry four nights of expert bands ranging from quiet folk to raging rock. What we saw in person was excellent and the evidence suggests the rest was that way, too. And now it's time for the annual Twangfest auction, where KDHX (88.1 FM) puts up a mess of records, ... More >>

Ten Musicians Wearing Vans: R.I.P. James Van Doren

Roy Basten​Vans co-founder James Van Doren died in October at his home in California. The news went public last week; he was 72 years old. James started the company that made the essential skate shoe with a group including his brother Paul back in 1966. Vans are among the most iconic shoes ... More >>

Ten Musicians Who Support Occupy Wall Street

Adbusters​"Occupy Wall Street" started out as a 1,000-person mid-September protest in a New York City park against, among other things, financial disparity and corporate influence. Since that time that protest has grown into a nationwide movement, spurring on the creation of "Occupy" spinoffs ... More >>

Lupe Fiasco At The Chaifetz Arena, 9/29/11: Review, Photos, Setlist

Lupe Fiasco | New Boyz Chaifetz Arena September 29, 2011 The world is going mad as Lupe Fiasco leaps onto the stage, flying in from somewhere behind the black curtain to take his pulpit behind the microphone stand. "I really think the war on terror is a bunch of bull shit..." He is rapping "Wo ... More >>

Tef Poe On What The Scene Needs, Where He Is In Life and His New Song "Satellite" (Listen)

Courtesy of Tef Poe​"I'm trying my best to introduce a new Tef Poe sound every time I release something. My goal is to make some of my misplaced aggression sound beautiful," says Tef Poe. His undiluted honesty and clarity of vision have always made Tef one of the most arresting rappers in St. ... More >>

Midwest Rapper Frankie Flowers Turns Struggles Into Stories

Frankie Flowers has a story to tell. ​In January 2008, Frankie Flowers could either put the little money he had toward rent or studio time. He had moved down to Los Angeles from his hometown Milwaukee a few months before to pursue his hip-hop career. He lived with his uncle, who worked at Univ ... More >>

The Twangfest eBay Auction: Signed Memorabilia, Box Sets, a Skateboard and more

Art Chantry poster from the Twangfest auction​Twangfest 15 came and went in a four-day blur of Americana and damp floors. The post-Twang comedown includes, as it always does, an auction of music related items to benefit KDHX. Right now, there are some 150 things you can bid on, including sign ... More >>

Lupe Fiasco Calls Obama the "Biggest Terrorist," then Explains Why He Doesn't Vote

Doesn't look like Lupe Fiasco is going to get invited to perform at the White House anytime soon.​Damn it, Lupe. Perhaps no other active rapper injects his music with such intelligence, such thoughtful ideas, such reasonable positions. The Chicago native put the Midwest on the map as a hotbe ... More >>

New Album Releases: Lupe Fiasco, R.E.M., Kurt Vile, Bruce Cockburn and more

(New albums are typically released on Tuesdays, i.e., today. What can you spend your hard-earned pennies on this week? Find out below.) Bruce Cockburn's Small Source of Comfort​*Bruce Cockburn, Small Source Of Comfort American Noise reviewed Cockburn's latest, saying: "Personally, Bruce Cockb ... 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 >>

Interview: Janelle Monae Discusses Androids, "the Other" and Making the Music That Moves You

Andrew Zaeh​Janelle Monae has the voice of an R&B diva, the dancin' feet of a young James Brown and style so unique she puts Lady Gaga to shame. Originally hailing from Kansas City, Kansas -- an article in our sister paper, the Pitch, explains more -- Monae travelled to Atlanta by way of New ... More >>

Hip-hop jack-of-all-trades Black Spade is the force behind local rap collective the Force

Win a Pair of Tickets to the First North Coast Music Fest in Chicago! See Chemical Brothers, Nas & Damian Marley, Benny Benassi, Paul van Dyk and more

Click for a larger version​From September 3-5 -- that's this weekend -- the first North Coast Music Festival is happening in Chicago's Union Park. The lineup is pretty fantastic: Umphrey's McGee, Paul van Dyk, Benny Benassi, Chemical Brothers, De La Soul, Moby (as a DJ) and Lupe Fiasco are the ... More >>

New (Local) Music Thursday: New Band Bruiser Queen Lives Up to Its Name, While Vandalyzm Gets Feisty

​Bruiser Queen is playing its first show tomorrow night at the Firebird. That's the new band featuring drummer Jason Potter of defunct garage-punks Left Arm, bassist Ben Ellebracht and Morgan Nusbaum, bassist of indie-pop act the 75's. (Don't worry: That band is still together and playing.) BQ ... More >>

The Top Ten St. Louis Concerts of 2009

We reviewed a lot of shows this year -- nearly 100, judging by the number of posts in the "Show Reviews" archive. Deciding which 2009 concerts comprised the creme de la creme wasn't easy, to say the least. However, the following stood out from the pack. What did we miss? What were your favorites thi ... More >>

Slideshow: Top 50 Concert Photos of 2009

On Monday, we'll be counting down the top ten concerts of the year in St. Louis. (Thoughts? Add 'em below! Still compiling...) In the meantime, web editor Nick Lucchesi spent hours combing through slideshows and reviews and cherrypicked 50 of 2009's best concert photos. Whew. I had forgotten about m ... More >>

Review Photos: Lupe Fiasco and Black Spade at Live on the Levee

Review coming soon. For now, here's a few pics, starting with one of the many mysterious green meanie masks in the crowd. Green meanie masks were handed out by Black Spade and co., jean shorts were not.​

St. Louis Weekend Concert Calendar: Friday, July 31 to Monday, August 3

Friday, July 31 *Fear/Agent Orange/DI/Total Chaos/Bloodhook, Fubar *Ratattack/The Livers/Black for a Second/Target Market, Firebird *Guster/Joe Stickley's Blue Print, Live on the Levee *Leslie and the Lys, Mad Art (7-9 p.m.) *Arc Angels/Soul Cowboys, The Pageant *Fattback/Old Lights/Monads, Off Br ... More >>

Tomorrow! Teresajenee at the Jazz Spot

In this week's paper, I spoke with effervescent local singer/songwriter/R&B/soul/soft-rock etc. artist Teresajenee, who is just releasing her first album, The Ecklectic. (The many genre signifiers reflect how difficult it is to pigeonhole her!) She has a lot of things going on (more on that soon), b ... More >>

Top 10 Things (Under $10) This Weekend, July 31-August 2

It's the weekend, yay! But you have no money (No!) What to do? Check out these ten events going on around St. Louis. Stay on budget and enjoy the first weekend of August. And, if you're looking for a concert calendar, look no further than A to Z.See Guster on Friday night under the Arch. Free!​Gus ... More >>

Lupe Fiasco

8 p.m. Saturday, August 1. Live on the Levee, Gateway Arch and Jefferson Expansion Memorial.

Happy Birthday, Punk: The Vans Warped Tour turns fifteen years young

RFT Music Awards Nominees & Showcase Performers

St. Louis Concert Announcements: Week Of May 25

Pageant *18 & Life: The Favazz and KSHE Anniversary Show starring Joe Dirt and the Dirty Boys Band and The Who Band: A Tribute to the Who, Friday, June 19 *The Robert Cray Band, Tuesday, July 7 *The Wallflowers, Sunday July 26 *Rusted Root, Monday, July 27 *Xavier Rudd, Saturday, August 8

Complete Fair St. Louis/Live on the Levee Lineup for 2009!

To go along with yesterday's announcement of Sonic Youth on July 17, here's the entire line-up for Fair St. Louis and Live on the Levee -- below! Fair St. Louis: Friday, July 3 6:00 p.m. Magnolia Summer 8:00 p.m. Counting Crows Counting Crows

Vintage Vinyl's Top 50 Best-Selling CDs and Top 25 Best-Selling LPs of 2008

Vintage Vinyl just released its list of best-selling LPs and CDs of 2008. (Physical product? Remember that?) Interesting to see how many local releases -- and how much hip-hop/R&B/rap -- is on the CD list, while how much old (and new) indie rock is on the LP list. Looks like you kids are downloa ... More >>

Chuck Berry performs at Virgin Mobile Festival in Balitmore

Lollapalooza Photos

Forever Changes: Chick Corea's Return To Forever reunites and shows neo-jazz fusion groups how it's done

Rising Up: Roots' drummer
?uestlove ruminates on their new album, touring with Erykah Badu and the present state of hip-hop

Download Trackstar's Boogie Bang 13 Here

Lollapalooza 2008 Lineup Leaked: Radiohead, NIN, Wilco, Kanye West, Explosions in the Sky, Love and Rockets, The National, Lupe Fiasco, more!

Fist City: Rockwell Knuckles aims to punch through St. Louis hip-hop's glass ceiling

2008 Bonnaroo Lineup Announced: Metallica, Pearl Jam, Sigur Ros, Jack Johnson, Death Cab for Cutie, more

Blake Lewis

Audio Day Dream 
(Arista/J)

Battle of the Beats

A culture war is rocking within St. Louis’ underground hip-hop scene.

2007 RFT Music Showcase

Week of May 31, 2007

Lupe Fiasco

7 p.m. Friday, April 20. Grant Gymnasium on the campus of Webster University (470 East Lockwood Avenue, Webster Groves).

Coachella, Ho!

Young Emcee

Kids don't listen to what teacher's putting down? Gabe Moskoff, a.k.a. DJ Trackstar, wants to reach them through rap.

Hoot-enanny

Local artist Nite Owl earns a record deal, while Pierce Crask and Falling Martins release a record.

2006: The Year in Music

Week of December 28, 2006

Yo! RFT Raps

Week of July 19, 2006