CONCERT REVIEW New talent, stale rhymes
I’ve been meaning to see Wale for a long time. As an immensely talented, aspiring rapper from the D.C. area myself, it means a lot to see a native from the tri-county blow up the way that Wale has. Now, our average young, rapless MIT reader should understand: for such a big city, D.C. is quite a different beast than a place like New York or Los Angeles. Sure there’s still plenty of hood projects, drug corners, crime and poverty to talk about. But on a day-to-day basis, people worry more about the temperature of their Chinese food and lines at the DMV than getting a bullet in the head or their mild but burgeoning crack addictions. After all, D.C. is the nation’s capital, surrounded by modest but serene suburbia on all sides. The most I’ve ever feared for my life in my 12 years of residency was the summer I interned at the Naval Research Lab and had to take a metrobus through Anacostia — I did crossword puzzles.
INTERVIEW On YouTube, musicianship, and guitars
Andy McKee is one of the best fingerstyle guitarists in America, currently signed onto the Razor & Tie record label. He is famous for achieving over 40 million views on YouTube to date for his signature song, “Drifting.” McKee is currently on the Guitar Masters tour, along with fellow fingerstyle players Antoine Dufour and Stephen Bennett. I sat down with him to chat about the tour, being a guitarist, and life in general.
INTERVIEW A matchstick chat with Travie McCoy
Travie McCoy is perhaps best known for being the frontman of the alternative hip hop band Gym Class Heroes. More recently he’s recognized for the song “Billionaire” with Bruno Mars, and his debut solo album Lazarus. I spoke to Travie McCoy about Lazarus, and unfortunately, what I was hoping to be long, romantic fireside chat was cut to 15 minutes by his mean ol’ publicist — I could only squeeze in a matchstick worth of conversation.
INTERVIEW American culture and six-headed babies
Last Tuesday, I had the chance to sit at a round table interview with Nick Frost and Simon Pegg, the comedy duo starring in and directing the upcoming alien comedy film Paul. The duo is perhaps best known for their two previous works, Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, part of their Blood and Ice Cream trilogy. We spoke to Nick and Simon about a range of topics, from what it was like to work with the actors in Paul, to American culture, to 6 headed babies.
ALBUM REVIEW Lupe’s Third
Lasers is an album to die for. Just ask Lupe Fiasco himself, who once revealed to The Guardian that at one point during its production, he was “super-depressed, lightly suicidal, at moments medium suicidal — and if not suicidal, willing to just walk away from it all completely.”