Kanye West

Inside the Offices of 50 Cent

Springsteen at the Super Bowl? Ugh. Why Not Kanye?

Concert of the Year Countdown: #1 Kanye West

Show: Kanye West's Glow In The Dark Tour at Jobing.com Arena on June 8 The year was only half over, but I knew this was the best show I'd see back in June. Of course, I never knew how many shows I'd be seeing, employed as feature writer at The East Valley Tribune at the time. Still, Kanye, Lupe, Ri ... More >>

Top Ten Hip-Hop Albums Of 2008

By Dan Leroy A couple of weeks ago, an expert on the Harry Potter series told an audience of high school kids how lucky they were to have this Big Shared Experience--these seven books and 41,000 words in common. What does Harry Potter have to do with hip-hop in 2008? In an age when many year-end ... More >>

Top Ten Hip-Hop Albums Of 2008

By Dan Leroy A couple of weeks ago, an expert on the Harry Potter series told an audience of high school kids how lucky they were to have this Big Shared Experience--these seven books and 41,000 words in common. What does Harry Potter have to do with hip-hop in 2008? In an age when many year-en ... More >>

Desert Heat

America's idol and a hoops star keep Phoenix's mercury rising

Kanye West

Graduation
(Island Def Jam/Roc-A-Fella)

Trak Record

Montreal turntable phenom A-Trak has quite the résumé for such a young DJ

Twista

Eye of the storm

Get Down With Dave

Chappelle returns with a raucous Party

Hip-Hop's Trends in 2005

A genre as big as Texas

Hip-Hop Sans Hova

Still no Jigga, but Kanye, some lovable Limeys and a great Beyoncé substitute held it down

Common

Be
(Geffen)

Kanye West

Takes a lick and keeps on rollin'

Kanye West and the Art of Award Show Interruptions

Watch out, Taylor Swift, you're next -- especially if that already opened bottle of Hennessy is any indication.​ In a move that is shocked no one, Kanye West once again bum-rushed the stage to interrupt an acceptance speech. At last night's MTV Music Video Awards, the Late Graduator himself took t ... More >>

Katharine McPhee's New Hair, Kanye Interupts Obama, Details on New Vampire Weekend

Electric Mustache: Electric Mustache Is Blog of the Week!Idolator: Katharine McPhee: Over Her Brown Hair, Not Over Classic Adult-Contemporary StylingsIdolator: Kanye West: Back To Reality?NME: The Strokes' Julian Casablancas reveals release date for debut solo albumPitchfork: Vampire Weekend Announc ... More >>

Sept. 15 In Blogs: Kanye West, Modern Steak, and Darrell Ankarlo

​In the 24-hour news cycle it can be difficult to keep up. We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times' blogs. Today's entries: Up on the Sun: Kanye West, Lady Gaga Plot Tour: Phoenix is First Stop Royal Filth Kicks Off Next Weekend Chow ... More >>

Michael Jackson Family Reality Show, Ida Maria's Boston Freakout, Kanye West Photoshop Craze

Electric Mustache: Listen To Electric Mustache On BreakThru RadioIdolator: I Knew That Having Ida Maria On The Perez Hilton Tour Would Be A Bad IdeaNME: Jackson family reality TV show on the wayNME: Bon Jovi joins ex-Nirvana members in condemning Guitar Hero over Kurt CobainPitchfork: Devo Reissue C ... More >>

The Killers Vs. Kanye

The Killers are fun but vapid, like their hometown

The Killers Are Fun but Vapid, Like Their Hometown

The Killers are fun but vapid, like their hometown

Kanye West /Lady Gaga Tour Is Donezo, "Killed" by "Fame"

Phoenix fans will not be able to witness Kanye and Gaga's latest tour, as it was canceled before it even started​ Well that was an interesting few weeks, now wasn't it? First it was announced that Phoenix's US Airways Center would be the first date (November 10) on the upcoming Fame Kills tour fea ... More >>

Lady Gaga Announces New "The Monster Ball" Tour, Screws Over PHX

The pants-less one, Lady Gaga, has announced her new North American tour and Phoenix is nowhere to be found.​Lady Gaga, that lightning rod of weirdness and pop music giant, has announced her new North American tour, appropriately dubbed "The Monster Ball." It was a month ago when she and professio ... More >>

Kanye West Not Dead Despite Massive Rumors/Speculation

No, Kanye West is not dead, despite the widespread rumor from early Wednesday morning​Sometimes you wake up, check out what's the buzz for the early day and something magical/bizarre/all too typical falls into your lap. Wednesday morning  just so happened to be the perfect example of one such ... More >>

Aries of Diamond Jacks Gentlemans Club

Benjamin LeathermanClick "More" for an undistorted peek. Welcome to Stripper Songs, a weekly feature that proves not all Phoenix strippers bump and grind to Warrant's "Cherry Pie" of Flo Rida's "Low."Of the dozens of adult cabarets and peepshows littering the Valley landscape, Diamond Jacks Gentlema ... More >>

Kanye Finally Apologizes with New Song for Taylor Swift

​It took Kanye West long enough to give Taylor Swift the musical apology many say he's owed her for a long time. In fact, it took him almost a year. But finally, the apology has arrived in the form of a song called "Devil in a New Dress." Surprisingly, he actually sounds remorseful. Good to know ... More >>

The MTV Video Music Awards Get Worse Every Year

​MTV's annual Video Music Awards have been working their way steadily downhill for a few years now.This year's show was pretty damn near the bottom of the slope, one would hope. The 2010 iteration included predictable performances, a lack of pans to stars in the crowd, and a lack of award winners ... More >>

Kanye West (Sort-Of) Acts Like a Man on "Runaway"

Kanye West​Not surprisingly, preppy hip-hop star Kanye West managed to inject a lot of energy into his show-closing performance of "Runaway" at Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards. He started out playing a loop which served as the backdrop for the song, then he danced around in his bright red suit, al ... More >>

Kanye West: Still the Busiest Mofo in America

​Kanye West has been in music news nearly every day for the past week. You'd think this guy was taking over the world or something.'Ye has been releasing a new track every week on his Twitter (@kanyewest) and has named the weekly occasion G.O.O.D. Fridays. Collaborations have included Chris Brown, ... More >>

Kanye's New Album Cover Banned in U.S. (NSFW)

​Kanye West is back to doing what he does best: shocking the world. According to Pitchfork, Kanye isn't pleased about his racy album cover being banned in the U.S. though.The album artwork, which is the work of artist George Condo, features a nude pair, one with a drink in hand and the other an ar ... More >>

Kanye West Responsible for "Worst Part" of Bush Presidency

THIS was the worst part of Bush's presidency. What that guy on the right said that night.​It's soapbox time, everybody.In a recently taped interview with Matt Lauer, George W. Bush claimed that Kanye West's candid outburst on the September 2, 2005 Concert for Hurricane Relief telethon -- "George B ... More >>

10 Album Covers That Have Been Banned [NSFW]

​A few weeks ago Kanye West announced on his Twitter page that the original artwork for his upcoming album My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy had been banned here in the US.Technically, the artwork wasn't banned. Instead Kanye's record label, strongly suggested that the album artwork be replaced f ... More >>

Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

​It's fitting that rapper/producer/loudmouth Kanye West starts off his song "Runaway" with the following lyric:"And I always find, yeah / Always find / Something wrong / You've been putting up with my shit just way too long."You're right, Kanye, we've been putting up with your fucking nonsense sin ... More >>

Kanye West Hospital Waiting Room Churro

​ You may or may not be familiar with the recent meme sensation of Selleck Waterfall Sandwich or Bea Arthur Mountains Pizza. I for one am a moderately mid-sized fan of these memes. I wanted to leave my own mark on the world so I am poorly ripping them off with Kanye West Hospital Waiting Room C ... More >>

Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

​Artist: Kanye West Title: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Release date: November 22 Label: Roc-A-Fella Fitting, perhaps, that Kanye West's new record, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, is one of the final 15 or so new records that I'll be listening to before this Nothing Not New project t ... More >>

The Parting Gifts: Strychnine Dandelions

​Artist: The Parting Gifts Title: Strychnine Dandelions Release date: November 9 Label: In the Red Last week, I didn't have many good things to say about the new record from Kanye West. This morning, a white co-worker walked into my office and said, "I read what you said about Kanye West. Whe ... More >>

Dance Dance Evolution

Festival focuses on cutting edge dance and film

Pitchfork's Top 10 Albums of 2010 Explained

Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig​The wonderful people over at Pitchfork just released their 10 best albums of 2010 today. In what should have came as no surprise, Kanye West took the top spot. His latest album had been given a notorious perfect 10 a month ago and, if Rolling Stone and Spin have anyth ... More >>

Top 25 Lists of 13 New Times Contributors

Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig​The wonderful people over at Pitchfork just released their 10 best albums of 2010 today. In what should have came as no surprise, Kanye West took the top spot. His latest album had been given a notorious perfect 10 a month ago and, if Rolling Stone and Spin have anyth ... More >>

Six New Times Contributors Name Their Top 10 Records of 2010

Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig​The wonderful people over at Pitchfork just released their 10 best albums of 2010 today. In what should have came as no surprise, Kanye West took the top spot. His latest album had been given a notorious perfect 10 a month ago and, if Rolling Stone and Spin have anyth ... More >>

Kanye West's "Monster" Video Leaks

Look who's mean muggin'​It's a pretty slow day today as we creep towards New Year's Eve and all of that excitement. I'm still deaf from last night's Steve Aoki show, but that didn't stop me from watching a leak of the latest video from Kanye West -- "Monster." It's pretty rough right now and has b ... More >>

Kanye's 'All of the Lights' Video Removed From YouTube For Inducing Seizures

​An organization called Epilepsy Action got YouTube to take down Kanye West's new music video for his song "All of the Lights," according to Stereogum.After receiving numerous calls about people being affected by epilepsy after watching Kanye's video, Epilepsy Action took a stand and made som ... More >>

From Print: Blogs Teased in Our March 3 Issue

​This week, New Times ran a list in our print publication highlighting some of the most interesting posts published at Up On The Sun over the past week.Here are links to those posts. Why did Kanye West's new video get temporarily pulled from YouTube? What is Yoko One going to talk about at SxS ... More >>

Kanye West's SXSW Show Already Has People Lined Up

Jonathan Lucio would like to sell you his SXSW badge... He doesn't need it anymore, he's spending his day waiting to see Kanye West.​People are already lined up waiting to get into Kanye West's hyped-up show at South By Southwest.Only 1,000 people will get into the super-exclusive show, which is w ... More >>

Drake Returns to His Roots, Performs at a Bar Mitzvah

​Young Money rapper and former Degrassi: The Next Generation actor Drake got in touch with his Jewish roots and performed at a bar mitzvah in New York City this past weekend, according to MySpace Music News.The intimate performance was for bar mitzvah boy Andrew Zucker, son of former NBC/Univ ... More >>

Kanye West Releases Final Version of "Monster" Video

Well howdy there, partner​You may recall that just over five months ago, a leaked version of the video for Kanye West's song "Monster" hit the Internet. Featured in it was the presumed violence towards undead women, two equally-annoying versions of Nicki Minaj and a whole lot of mean-mugging by We ... More >>

Black One on Sampling Artists, Kanye West, and Why Phoenix's Hip-Hop Scene Reigns Over Tucson's

​Expat RecordsJason Ikner is Black One​I had never met a rapper who claims to like Adele, the Black Keys, and dubstep. That is, until I spoke to local hip-hop artist Jaron Ikner, commonly known as Black One. Black One draws from different sections of the record store than your average backp ... More >>

Miss DJ MJ on Mouse Powell, Ladylike, and Sluggo ft. HavocNdeeD

Clockwise from top left: Miss DJ MJ, Mouse Powell, Ladylike, Sluggo​"I know hits when I hear them," Miss DJ MJ says, hanging out in the New Times office. I believe her. She's been on the air for ten years, working as music director at Power 98.3. She recently left the station, but not before ... More >>

Top 10 Songs of 2011: Christina Caldwell

White Denim​Welcome to another installment of Up on the Sun's 2011 Review. Over the next week, we'll be counting down our favorite songs, shows, national and local releases of 2011. This installment comes from Christina Caldwell, who came on board as a major contributor to Up on the Sun this y ... More >>

Ten Movies Kanye West Should Have Starred In

​Kanye West is currently scouting locations for a short film in the vein of "Runaway" that will be filmed somewhere in the Middle East in March. Government officials based out of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Doha are in the middle of a bidding war to get Yeezy's contract, The New York Observer report ... More >>