Photo by Eric TullisOn and on: Erykah Badu spins in Raleigh’s Five Star, while 9th Wonder looks on. Erykah BaduFive Star, RaleighFriday, Nov. 2 The celebrity DJ hustle earned a bad rap when Jersey Shore‘s Pauly D started pissing people off with his outrageous booking prices and piss-poor skills. But it’s a lot different when […]
Eric Tullis
Bio: Eric Tullis lives in Chapel Hill, where he writes about music and basketball.Twitter: http://twitter.com/erictullis
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Live: Miguel loots my libido in Raleigh
Give it up: Miguel MiguelLincoln Theatre, RaleighWednesday, Oct. 10 It’s never fun to be a concertgoer among stuffy rookies who don’t see a live show as an opportunity for a party: They complain if you bump into them, step on their shoes or express any amount of excitement that threatens their personal space. You’d expect […]
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9th Wonder remixes Robert Glasper
Back in March, we interviewed the hip-hop-influenced jazz pianist Robert Glasper. His group, Robert Glasper Experiment, was headed to Durham for a two-night residency at the Casbah in support of their new album, Black Radio. During our chat, Glasper spoke of his fondness for local Grammy-winning producer, 9th Wonder: “Doesn’t he live out there? I’m […]
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Jozeemo speaks out before his final show
Last week, outspoken Durham rapper Jozeemo announced that his performance at tonight’s Wrath of the Godz hip-hop show at Casbah would be his last, after more than 10 years of wrangling with a promising music career that never quite took off. In the place of tough-guy street raps and outrageously obscene web videos, he’ll be […]
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Realer Music Group releases 72-10
The Realer Music Group releases 72-10 with special guests Tab One, Lazarus, Kourvosier and DJ Swirlz at the Casbah Saturday, Aug. 11, at 10 p.m. Tickets are $12–$15. Though profuse, sports analogies in hip-hop generally don’t compute when one considers that athletes actually test their wills and skills against one other, while emcees are largely […]
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King Mez’s My Everlasting Zeal
King Mez online Website Tumblr Facebook Twitter Raleigh rapper King Mez is a prefect of hip-hop moralsa bright, value-driven hip-hop enthusiast whose lyrics and Jordans have just as much if not more value than his self-made diadem. Perhaps because of that high-ethics approach, King Mez has delivered a freshman masterpiece, My Everlasting Zeal [stream/download], a […]
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Edgar Allen Floe’s Floetry in Motion
Since 1999, Justus League alumnus Edgar Allen Floe has carried his baritone through the area’s stratified rap scenes relatively quietly. He’s responsible for one of the League’s most well-known early singles, the Curtis Mayfield-sampling 9th Wonder classic, “Righteous Way To Go.” But he hasn’t found himself caught up in crew drama or relying solely on […]
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Thee Tom Hardy’s Guerrilla Broadcast
The allure of recording under a Grammy-winning producer like 9th Wonder on his Jamla Records label is obvious enough; former Jamla emcee Thee Tom Hardy knows this better than most anyone. His three-year relationship with 9th included the release of two expertly assembled mixtapes, Curse of Thee Green Faceded and Secret of Thee Green Magic. […]
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With Tutankhamen, 9th Wonder wants you to buy the beats
Tight spelling? Unless you’re an aspiring emcee looking for some quick beats to rhyme over, it might be hard to wrap your dollar bills around any legitimate hip-hop producer’s instrumental releases. Many of us don’t have any use for background boom-bap without vocals, anyway. But in 9th Wonder’s case—where many of his devoted followers pride […]
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Bull City Soul Revival digs Durham’s musical history from a dusty drawer
Soul Souvenirs: Durham’s Musical Memories from the 1960s and 1970s runs through the end of the month at St. Joseph’s Hayti Heritage Center in Durham. It is free and open to the public. Bull City Soul: Say it out loud. At first, the words crawl from the mouth, snarling and then a bit forceful. As […]