Soulja Boy Thinks he’s the Hottest MC in Hip Hop–WTF??

Uh…yeah. And Amy Winehouse is the most sober singer in England. Neither statement could possibly be true but according to MTV…Soulja Boy puts himself ahead of Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Kanye, and whoever else is out there right now as the hottest rapper alive. If we were talking about looks, maybe,…

Throwback Tuesdays: Biz Markie!!

There’s something about the video for “Just a Friend” and the song in general that was pivotal for an entire generation to get a better understand of what hip-hop really is. Up until this song went national, most hip-hop singles were either serious, message driven tunes of the “White Lines”…

Club Action

With the conversion last year of the old Jackie Gleason Theater to the Fillmore Miami Beach, Miami-Dade County gained yet another live music venue. And it was yet another enticement for bands to play down here, rather than make the rest of us trek up to Broward or even Palm…

New Times Turns 20

The beef began with a fish. Fueled by liquor, it ended with Miami New Times owner Mike Lacey launching a bottle at its editor Jim Mullin. “One of our sarcastic writers called [legendary newscaster] Ann Bishop ‘a bossy old trout’ in, I think, the first ‘Best of Miami’ issue,” Mullin…

Letters from the Issue of January 17, 2008

Thanks, We Think Now you’ve got it: Jason Handelsman’s January 10 article about Rick Ross, “Still Hustlin’,” was 10 times better than the garbage he wrote about Bigg D (“Bigg Pimpin’,” December 13). The focus was on Rick Ross and his music, not on fried chicken and strippers. Thanks! John…

StreetWorks – NW 167 St. and Palmetto Expressway

After missing my exit on the Palmetto Expressway, the one that leads to NW 167th Street, because some dude couldn’t show me some common courtesy. I had to take the long way back onto the expressway. I looked to my left as i traveled up the ramp back onto State…

Letters from the Issue of January 10, 2008

A Wicked Check into the Boards Chris, can you skate backward?: Brett Gillin proves in his January 3 article “The Whiny One” that he knows nothing about hockey or Sidney Crosby. It’s one thing to talk about something he knows about, but it’s another to repeat things he has heard…

The Shows Go On

I know, a couple of weeks ago I talked smack about year-end lists while dispensing a roundup of my favorite local albums of 2007. But I couldn’t resist one more, especially with the previous issue’s national roundup of the year in music. For some local flavor I racked my brain…

Letters from the Issue of January 3, 2008

Standing Up for Stacey She’s won some too: I am writing to you five days after reading Bob Norman’s December 20 story “Stacey and Friends,” about my wife, Stacey Honowitz, because I didn’t want to have a knee-jerk reaction to it. I am absolutely incredulous that your publication could allow…

Zombies Storm South Beach

Click here to check out a slideshow from the Zombie Walk. I was playing fast and loose with other people’s money, and I came up dead one morning in a Dumpster wearing this amazing outfit,” a guy named Jesse says as one of his brown eyes peeks down at me…

Letters from the Issue of December 27, 2007

Homeless Harangues No sympathy here: I am having a hard time finding sympathy for the men in “The People Under the Bridge” by Isaiah Thompson (December 13). They assaulted the innocence of children, as far as I’m concerned. They forfeited their right to state support (I’m not particularly sure I…

Some “Worsts” For the Year in Music

The Worst Things In Music This Year, according to Ben Westhoff! 1. Worst Album: the Arcade Fire, Neon Bible This cerebral garbage entertained about 100 people, none of whom didn’t either live in Canada or work as a music critic. Speaking of critics, it’s hard to agree with Sasha Frere-Jones…

Miami’s Best Albums of 2007

It’s that time of year again — the end, that is, when High Fidelity-style geeks compile High Fidelity-style best-of-the-year lists. There are slobbering dissections of Spoon’s Ga Ga Ga Ga, blathering babble about Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible, and a crock of criticism of M.I.A.’s Kala. If that’s what you want,…

Letters from the Issue of December 20, 2007

Homeless The Terminator is better than we are: Thank you so much, Isaiah Thompson, for shedding light on this tragic situation in your December 13 article “The People Under the Bridge.” Florida should be ashamed of itself. I can’t believe this is what the sex offender “hysteria” has led to,…

Classic Common Sense

Talk about a throwback! Here’s some old school Common from 1994 off of his Resurrection album. He was still going by Common Sense at the time and still living on the Southside of Chicago…not doing Gap ads, not making movies, not wearing cardigans, and definitely keeping his rhymes simple and…

Throwback Tuesdays: Suck My Kiss

“Hit me, you can’t hurt me…Suck My Kiss” It’s been a long time since this video got any spins on the major Viacom stations and as far as the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ catalogue goes, that’s really a shame. It’s a really well-shot video, especially for the time frame and…

What do Atreyu and the Whopper Have in Common?

What do the band and the burger have in common? This hungry scene kid loves them both, and he’s pissed off when one goes missing! KEEPIN WHOPPERS BR00TAL D00D! (Okay, I feel silly passing on an ad, but this is kinda ridic.) — Arielle Castillo…

‘Lectric Friends

Back in the mid-Nineties, the Miami-birthed noise act Kreamy ‘Lectric Santa was playing now-defunct Miami Beach venue Washington Square. Suddenly the club’s musical director, a guy named Doc Wiley, cut off the sound. “There’s nothing like tripping on acid and being drunk, and being told by the club’s sound guy:…

Letters from the Issue of December 13, 2007

Thanks for the Tip Danny is not to be missed: It has been many years since I attended the theater, but Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, reviewed by Brandon K. Thorp in “Soul Porn” (December 6), was about the best reintroduction I could have experienced. My wife and I…

Raw Meat

It’s 11:30 p.m. on a Friday at Churchill’s Pub (5501 NE Second Ave.), and Miami filmmaker Aiden Dillard, age 26, is positioning the legs of an inflatable doll on his shoulders. She wears a pink chiffon dress and sequin Santa hat. “Ho, ho, ho, it’s that gift-giving time of year,”…

Prodigy vs. The Prodigy: A Primer

Booze and music trivia sometimes go hand in hand. Imagine that you’re half way sloshed at your favorite speakeasy and (true to form) the tongue starts loosening up. The jukebox across the room sucks, and to pass the time, you start talking about your favorite bands. Talking Heads (right on)…