AltWeeklies Wire
King Mez's My Everlasting Zealnew

As far as rap in The Tar Heel State goes right now, King Mez is our leader. And like The Listening a decade before it, this is the new classic text. (self-released)
Jazz pianist Robert Glasper doesn't have time for a dead formnew

"Nine times out of 10, when you turn on [a jazz radio station], they're playing stuff from like 1950. It makes the music sound old—like it's already done and now we're just paying homage."
INDY Week |
Eric Tullis |
03-31-2012 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Robert Glasper
The Boast and Bluster of Rapper Big Poohnew

"I adjust to any circumstance/ handle my affairs/ shake the hatred off, show 'em I don't really care/ No we don't compare/ I'm on another stair/ case in point, you ain't fuckin' with my last year."
INDY Week |
Eric Tullis |
02-28-2012 |
Profiles & Interviews
Chuuwee & Sundown's The Millennium Falconnew

Instead of sitting on a pile of Sundown's emailed beats, Chuuwee decided to catch a flight to North Carolina for an 11-day, 12-song recording spree.
Tags: Chuuwee & Sundown
Jozeemo's True Identitynew

East Durham rapper and longtime rabble-rouser Jozeemo claims his latest LP is his last. But he can't quit now; the fun is just getting started.
Tags: Jozeemo
Five Words with LiLanew

Durham's other live hip-hop band talks ambition and inclusion.
INDY Week |
Eric Tullis |
12-21-2011 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: LiLa
Kooley High's David Thompsonnew

As it relates to Kooley High, hang time means relevance and continued musical growth—two things they accomplish here, even if the crew is a little fragmented. (Mecca Records)
Rapsody's For Everythingnew
On For Everything, Rapsody's third full-length project overseen by producer 9th Wonder, her sex appeal and tomboyish, B-girl charisma work in tandem.
Tags: Rapsody
The Away Team's Scars & Stripesnew

The relationship between beatmaker Khrysis and lead emcee Sean Boog has persevered, a fact that's more impressive than the music they continue to make.
Tags: The Away Team
Rapper Big Pooh's Dirty Pretty Thingsnew

With Dirty Pretty Things, Pooh doesn't party as much as he used to, but Durham vocalist Darien Brockington returns from his spiritual hiatus on the penetrating "Soul Music."
Tags: Rapper Big Pooh
N.C. Hip-Hop Day Sent Mixed Messages About Local Rapnew

9th Wonder's detractors insist he's got no right to proclaim #nchiphopday as a monolithic movement unless his goal is to put everyone on the map.
Brooklyn MC Jean Grae Gets Ready to Go "Music Heavy"new

"My persona/ personality is not made up, it's honest and vulnerable. From choosing what I wear every day to my tattoos -- I try to be inappropriately appropriate."
INDY Week |
Eric Tullis |
09-08-2011 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Jean Grae
Actual Proof's Still Hotter Than Julynew

(Jamla Records) On the latest project from this North Carolina hip-hop duo, Enigma and Sundown find themselves trying something larger—less spring-and-snap action and more knockout, bare-knuckle boxing.
Tags: Actual Proof
Heather Victoria's Graffiti Diarynew

A Jamla recording artist, Victoria is a freshly minted, B.E.T.-black songstress trying to repave the bridge that R&B icon Mary J. Blige built from soul to hip-hop.
Tags: Heather Victoria
King Mez: The King's Khrysisnew

This six-song set of self-assured work with N.C.'s best beat statesman, Khrysis, is a proclamation of the aggressiveness previously missing from some of Mez's work.
Tags: King Mez, The King's Khrysis