The rap blogs are abuzz today about rap superstar 50 Cent, but it's not because of a hot new song or a premature leak of his new record Terminate On Sight. No, if the blogs are in a frenzy it must mean only one thing: beef.

Beef (friction or hostility...

So with a new year comes the latest "it" band here in New York City, and this time around it's Vampire Weekend, a quartet of Columbia alums whose otherwise straightforward indie-pop comes heavily infused with Afro-Pop guitar licks and ethnic rhythms. This unusual accoutrement has resulted in a higher-than-usual...

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I've found myself temporarily living back in my native North Carolina for a month. It's an exciting yet strange feeling; I haven't lived in the south for five years and it takes some getting used to all over again. Hearing "Sir" without it coming from the...

As 2007 winds down, it's about that time to reflect on this year's releases and separate the true contenders for a "best of" list from those that simply attained mediocrity. I've got my sure picks: Bloc Party's A Weekend In The City brought just the right emotional depth and busy...

Living in New York, it's mandatory in your everyday life to zone out and enter a cocoon of personal space, be it in the subway, waiting in line at restaurants, or even just walking down the block. In a sense, it's an escape -- a chance to block out all...

It happens from time to time: you'll walk down the street or through a store and suddenly a particular scent will waft by and you're momentarily transported to a place long ago and far away. That one corner of the grocery store radiates a potato-and-cabbage smell that just screams Aunt...

My friends and I play this game every so often wherein one selects a celebrity and sets up a hypothetical situation that he or she might be encountered in. It's then up to the rest of us to decide whether we would in fact engage in said situation, or simply...

I suppose it's been a pretty lackluster summer so far for me, musically speaking. Despite the critical praise, I've been rather underwhelmed by a lot of the recent high-profile releases. Neon Bible reminds me of a disc ripe with Funeral b-sides and castaways. Spoon's latest LP...

I, Paul Nair, being of sound mind and body, do hereby confess to the following atrocities:

1) Immensely liking the 2003 Good Charlotte single "The Anthem"
2) Owning an extensive amount of Dipset-related merchandise, including but not limited to: various mix tapes and solo albums by such visions...

I noticed the other day that Pitchfork had awarded the coveted "Best New Music" tag to the After Dark compilation, a shimmery homage to Italian dance music of the late 1970s and early 80s, most of which was created using laptops and modern recording equipment. I took a listen...

From time to time I'll feel the need to shout forth from the virtual rooftops regarding a particular musical or literary interest of mine. These appeals are usually rooted in my desire for more exposure afforded to a particular artist, and they usually fall on deaf ears. (For the record,...

I was perusing the dog-eared copy of Spin in our living room the other day when I happened upon a pretty interesting oral history of the Us Festival, that orgy of prog rock and new wave engineered by Apple's Steve Wozniak in a sleepy California town back...

When I was your age -- hold on, let me set aside my cane and adjust my pipe; much better -- finding good independent music (for that matter, finding bad independent music) meant undertaking the musical equivalent of walking five miles to school in the snow.

Location helped (I...