Nicki Minaj

MC Magic: Becky G's "Becky from the Block" Brings the Barrio to the Mainstream

I have always said that everyone likes new, whether it's a new car, new clothes, a new house, or even just new shoes. Becky G from Inglewood, California, is that "new" in today's hip-hop game. Join me this week as I take you on a ride to discover some fresh new talent from one of those run-down ne ... More >>

Here's How Not to Approach a Journalist on Facebook

Dear Spence When your singer, who goes by the name of Daniel David Spence on Facebook, first approached me on Facebook to become my "friend," I strongly considered accepting his request to friend me. After all, I work in digital marketing as a social media strategist, and I accept everyone who requ ... More >>

Top Five-Must See Shows in Phoenix This Week

Holy crap! What a weekend. We had the soggy-but-stellar Carnaval Eléctrico with Cold War Kids, Hanni El Khatib, Mergence, and more at Crescent Ballroom, the raucous Rampage Fest with Nü Sensae, White Lung, Allah-Las, and more at Sail Inn, and a thoroughly enjoyable-but-exhausting performance by Ma ... More >>

Trent Franks Makes List of the 10 Weirdest Members of Congress

Stop Hating on the 2013 Coachella Lineup

Each year, like many of you, I impatiently wait for the Coachella lineup to be announced. Sometimes it's disappointing (if Daft Punk says they're not touring, chances are they're not playing the festival), but there's always going be a few redeeming artists. At best the lineup will be amazing, and i ... More >>

What Is "Seapunk," and What Did Rihanna and Azealia Banks Do To It?

I can't believe there's actually a Twitter war going on (when isn't there a war on Twitter?) over the legitimacy of #Seapunk. What's that "hashtag seapunk," you ask? Imagine if you took Lisa Frank's fetish for porpoises, ran it through crappy late-'90s Geocities GIFs, and added some terrible, too- ... More >>

Top Five Must-See Shows This Week

Yeah, yeah, yeah...we get it. Mondays suck (we've read Garfield). But it means the start of a new week, which means a bunch of killer shows in and around Phoenix. And here are a few of the coolest -- our top five must-see shows this week.

Madonna, US Airways Center, 10/16/12

Madonna @ US Airways Center| 10/16/12With a long history of being a proven provocateur, it makes sense that Madonna has managed to piss a lot of people off since kicking off her MDNA tour. There was that nip slip in Istanbul, and a reference to our current president as a "black Muslim," so one ha ... More >>

Your Music Guide to the Arizona State Fair

Rob Zombie's Guitarist John 5 Has a Motto: "More is More"

"I love Phoenix," Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 says excitedly. "Rob [Zombie] and the other guys in the band, they like the colder weather, but for some reason I love the really hot weather." He pauses, then anxiously asks, "It should be really warm there still when I'm there in September, right?" ... More >>

Matisyahu and The Dirty Heads Offer Non-Traditional Reggae

Songwriter Michelle Blades Walks a Tightrope

You Ready for the State Fair? A Guide to the Veteran's Memorial Coliseum Schedule

See also: Snoop Dogg at the Arizona State Fair See also: Judas Priest at the Arizona State Fair It used to be that playing the state fair circuit meant you were a has-been, that your rock 'n' roll career had gone belly up (you know, like billed after the puppet show, Spinal Tap-style). Maybe it' ... More >>

Jackie Morales, What Are You Listening To?

Jackie Morales Morales is the mid-day DJ for 101.5-FM Jamz. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? Of course, 101.5! What's the first album you bought? I honestly don't go out and buy very many albums, but when I heard Mariah Carey's Em ... More >>

Drake's Club Paradise Tour, Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion, 5/10/12

Drake's Club Paradise Tour featuring Meek Mill, 2 Chainz, French Montana, Waka Flocka Flame, J. Cole, and Drake Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion Thursday, May 10 See also: Drake's Take Care Is a Conflicted, Compelling Statement Check out the complete Drake Club Paradise Tour slideshow There wa ... More >>

Drake's Take Care Is a Conflicted, Compelling Statement

Waka Flocka Flame @ Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion

Our 12 Favorite NSFW Videos (NSFW. DUH.)

See also: Miniature Tigers Get Sexy @ Crescent Ballroom We've documented the fact that Miniature Tigers' new album, Mia Pharaoh has no shortage of totally sexy songs. The group's latest video, "Sex on the Regular" furthers the vibe, featuring a fox lady with a singing vagina. You know, because no ... More >>

The Best of SXSW Music: Thursday 3/15/2012

If you're familiar with chaos theory, which in its basic form is the attempt to find patterns in the random acts of shit on Earth, then you may understand the difficulty that comes with describing a full day at SXSW. To break down the bright, scintillating chaos, Village Voice Media's roving music e ... More >>

Silent-J on EDM's Popularity, His Beat-Mixing Philosophy, Working With Miss Krystle, and How 300 Inspired His Tracks

​Despite what his nom de guerre of Silent-J might portend, Jimmy Ng is rarely at a loss for words. Ask him his opinion on the current state of electronic dance music or what skills are necessary to succeed as a DJ these days and you'll get an earful from the veteran producer and mixer jock. Such ... More >>

Controversial Super Bowl Halftime Show Better Than 2011 But Still Nothing Special

​Unlike in 2011, this year's Super Bowl halftime show didn't make me feel like I had entirely wasted 12 minutes of my life. The performance wasn't anything special, but it certainly wasn't bad. Madonna pleased America as best she could, and for a 53-year-old pop mama, she did very well.It was ... More >>

Ludachrist at UK Thursdays, 1/26/12

Ludachrist UK Thursday at School of Rock Thursday, January 26 The scene: Two dudes in plaid vests, decorative cross necklaces dangling from their necks. The song: "Jump," by Kriss Kross, colliding with "Ass" by Big Sean, then samples of Nicki Minaj fading into AC/DC's "Thunderstruck." Boom. The ... More >>

Ash Avenue Comics Staff on Galapagos, Faces, and Drainbow

Welcome to the latest installment of our weekly feature, Sound Off, in which Jason P. Woodbury is joined by a different guest each week to listen to and discuss three tracks from local Phoenix artists. If you would like your songs to be considered for future Sound Off columns, please email music@new ... More >>

10 National Releases to Look Forward to in 2012

​Looks like 2012 is going to be a big one. Quite a few giant records are dropping this year.Some of them are timely followups, while others have been a long time coming (hello No Doubt). Some have release dates, and the dates of others have yet to be announced. We're pretty stoked about them eithe ... More >>

Sound Off: Peachcake's Stefan Pruett on Moe'Z Art, Hemoptysis, and Decker

Clockwise from top left: Moe'Z Art, Decker, Hemoptysis, Peachcake​Welcome to the latest installment of our weekly feature, Sound Off, in which Jason P. Woodbury is joined by a different guest each week to listen to and discuss three tracks from local Phoenix artists. If you would like your son ... More >>

Blondie's Chris Stein on Panic of Girls, Wild Style, and Modern Pop

Blondie's Chris Stein and Debbie Harry ​Blondie guitarist Chris Stein sounds slightly surprised by my call. "Hello," he asks, with a strange kind of hesitance. But it just takes a second for him to start going, rattling off details about the new Blondie record, Panic of Girls. The record is not ... More >>

Lil Wayne: Rap's Most Dependable Weirdo Coming to US Airways Center

​Perma-stoned New Orleans rapper Lil Wayne has been hip-hop's eccentric golden boy for five years now. On the heels of his magnificent breakthrough album Tha Carter II, Wayne went apeshit, releasing mixtape after groundbreaking mixtape. Some of them, like 2006's Dedication 2 and Lil Weezyana, ... More >>

Rolling Stone Chooses New Queen of Pop

A new queen of pop has been crowned by Rolling Stone, according to Idolator.Rolling Stone put 16 female pop stars head to head in the ultimate statistical showdown to see who would reign as queen. Competitors included Adele, Beyonce Knowles, Britney Spears, Carrie Underwood, Christina Aguilera, Katy ... More >>

Nicki Minaj's 10 Best Rap Lines, with Photos

Photo illustration by Shawn Anderson​Ah, Nicki Minaj. She's a woman of pure beauty and pure poetry. In honor of her appearance opening up for Britney Spears Wednesday, June 22, here are 10 of her most thought-provoking raps. Eat your heart out, world!

David Guetta's Single Leaks, Pentagon Investigator Gets Involved

​Just as any artist would be, DJ and producer David Guetta is understandably quite upset over the recent leak of his new song, according to Rolling Stone.Guetta has gone above and beyond to catch the sleazy hacker who leaked his new single "Where Them Girls At?" which features Nicki Minaj and Flo ... More >>

Is a Sober Lil Wayne a Good Thing?

Britney Spears Makes 'S&M' Remix, Signs Nicki Minaj as Tour Opener

​For the first time in a long time, it's finally been a good week to be Britney Spears. Britney has teamed up with Rihanna to make a remix of Rihanna's hit "S&M," according to Consequence of Sound.The power-pop duo has been teasing the track on Twitter, writing both to their fans and back and ... More >>

Odd Future's Top 5 Most Shocking Videos (NSFW)

Warning, these are not Not Safe For Work. Or people in the Midwest.

Tony Morales, What Are You Listening To?

Tony Morales​Tony Morales Morales is the pit master at Big Earl's BBQ and owner of Desert Smoke BBQ. Cheer him on at the Arizona Barbecue Festival this Saturday, March 26 at the Scottsdale Waterfront. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? ... More >>

Incoming: Dashboard Confessional, Dokken, Lil Wayne, The Twilight Singers, Foreigner

Foreigner circa 1981​No, you don't have double-vision -- veteran rockers Foreigner are playing a show at Wild Horse Pass' Ovations! Live Showroom this April. The band, formed in 1976 by former Spooky Tooth member Mick Jones, have cranked out numerous smash hits -- "Cold As Ice," "Feels Like The Fi ... More >>

A Recap of the 2011 Grammy Awards: A Quick, Easy Guide to What Happened

Dan MacMedan, USA TodayNicki Minaj, doing what she does best: always trying to get attention.​The 2011 Grammy Awards kept things classy this year: There wasn't even a single mention of Ke$ha during the entire show!Good job, Grammy people! Thanks for taking out the trash this year. Aside from the l ... More >>

Girl Talk: The Full New Times Interview

​This week's print edition of Phoenix New Times ran a shortened version of an interview with Gregg Gillis, a.k.a Girl Talk, the mashup mastermind who will tear the Marquee Theatre apart brick by brick on March 23.As promised, here's the full transcript of that interview -- all 4,200 words of it.

Willie Nelson Messed with in Texas: Caught with 6 Oz. of Marijuana

​Willie Nelson was arrested in Texas on Friday for possession of six ounces of marijuana on his tour bus, according to People.The 77-year-old country star was on his way to his ranch in Austin when he got stopped in El Paso at a border patrol checkpoint. Furthermore, he could face up to six months ... More >>

Eminem Recording New Tracks With Dr. Dre

​Eminem has confirmed he's recording with Dr. Dre again, according to MTV News.Marshall announced on Satellite Radio that he and Dre are brewing up something good, saying that he might rap over one of Dre's new beats.After one more single gets released from his latest album, Recovery, Eminem plans ... 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 >>

Top 10 Female Pop Stars Who Look Like Drag Queens

The hair looks like a wig, her eyebrows look painted on, and the eyelashes seem like falsies​It's pretty clear Katy Perry is all woman--the pop star was even named 2010's "Sexiest Woman Alive" by Maxim magazine. But even the singer herself has admitted there have been many times where she's felt l ... More >>

Diddy's "Hello Good Morning" Makes Your Boyfriend Feel Like a Groupie

​Even though Sean "Diddy" Combs is much better at producing train wreck television (Making the Band) then he is at rapping, for some reason, his horribly monotonous track "Hello Good Morning," by Diddy-Dirty Money, is still getting radio play, and it's not even a song that is lady-friendly in the ... More >>