There’s no disputing that Ricky Powell was there at the golden age of hip-hop – he’s got the photos to prove it, tons of them, and a few stories to tell as well. In the early 90s he earned himself a cable access show called Rappin’ With The Rickster. VHS recordings of the shows have been restored to DVD for this newly released Rappin’ With the Rickster DVD courtesy of NY connoisseurs, Five Day Weekend.

The thrill of seeing The National play in the sunshine on a loading dock with just thirty-forty Silverlake hipsters in attendance was a hard-to-believe moment… But now there’s proof!

It’s difficult not to be seduced by these images of innocent teenage romance from director Tyrone Lebon, who was commissioned by Mount Kimbie to create a visual score for ‘Would Know’, the first single off their hyped debut album, called Crooks and Lovers.

The video is awesome! Like destructively, explosively, politically incorrectly awesome. It features a young woman basically getting revenge on… Everything. Nothing is spared. Please do not try this at home…

“Born Free” has proven controversial already, largely due to its graphic nudity and limb-exploding violence. But where it proves truly incisive and genius is in how it plays on societal prejudices against redheads.

It’s not exactly a mash-up, and it isn’t quite fan fiction… But what it is is compelling. We discovered this strange pop art mutation via the website of one of our favorite bands Holy Ghost: two indie/dream pop Noo Yawk hipster mainstays, Jorge Elbrecht (of both Violens and art collective Lansing-Dreiden) and Chairlift singer Caroline Polachek, collaborated on a song that seems have been designed to fit perfectly when played alongside superstar Justin Bieber’s “Never Let You Go” video.

A hoveled apartment complex gets raided: scenes of crack smoking, fatty fornication, and relentless brutality by somesuch security force. Within a sea of carrot-topped and supposed ne’er-do-wells is an/our anti-hero, one FAS-afflicted scowl you could confidently diagnose with ODD. A group of ginger freedom fighters sporting red kaffiyehs hoot and holler, ineffectual. As a short film the video is completely engrossing, a perfect storm of car crash sad, odd, and violent, filmed beautifully and expensively. Something’s happening, right?

Erykah Badu is a pretty lady, so when she takes off her clothes, people notice.

A video from the great Northwest, a meeting of big heads, and one seriously long lick.

We loved The Hurt Locker, and felt it deserved all the Oscars it raked in. It was edgy, it was tough, it was accomplished, it was indie: bravo, Hurt Locker, and bravo, Kathryn Bigelow! However, while The Hurt Locker did make Bigelow the first woman to take home a directing Academy Award, it’s not her greatest cinematic work. No, that would have to go to her late-’80s music video for New Order’s “Touched By The Hand Of God”!

The XX have been omnipresent since the release of their debut album in 2009, topping year end lists for the haunting, unique sounds on their instant-classic, self-titled debut LP. But the profile of the U.K. indie trio has been skyrocketing, and in the most unexpected places.
First, Apolo Ohno’s recent AT&T Olympic commercial used the XX’s [...]

Radio 1 super personality Zane Lowe has declared Tinie Tempah’s new single “Pass Out” as the hottest record right now in the world. It’s a certified banger! The track compiles various Brit sounds including grime, dub, and drum & bass – all wrapped up in an explosive pop tune.

As announced on Anthem magazine’s website last week, Vampire Weekend dropped a new single and video from the album Contra, “Giving Up the Gun.” While the band has been steadily crossing over (#1 on the charts), the band still hangs on to their more alternative roots. In the video, helmed by The Malloys (N.E.R.D., White Stripes, Silversun Pickups, etc.)…

LCD Soundsystem releasing a new album is kinda like, I don’t know, the second coming? And it seems like it’s actually gonna happen, due to these videos tidbits LCD’s leader, James Murphy, has started releasing. The first preview clip is a little mini-documentary, providing a peek into their recording environment.

Gil Scott-Heron’s video for “Me And The Devil”, out Feb 22. Taken from his forthcoming album “I’m New Here” which takes this music legend into new territory sonically (and here visually), a post-apocalyptic landscape filled with dark grimy beats. It’s a refreshing yet honest take on the blues classic, as the revolution seems at hand and Heron is the MC.

Watching a young version of the Beastie Boys perform grunge rock is kind of like watching Dan Marino throw darts. While they definitely appear and sound unpolished, you know they have the mechanics to get the job done, thus the potential to go on to bigger and better things. But this video, from New York’s public access program The Scott and Gary Show, was shot in 1984; Hip-Hop wasn’t lucrative yet.

The city of Baltimore has declared today Frank Zappa Day in honor of the iconoclastic rock musician and composer, born there on Dec. 21, 1940. He would have been 69 years old, and probably doing what he always did best — shredding convention and exploding the notion of what you can and can’t do with the same old tools of production. Just check out what he did on the Steve Allan show in 1963, where he plays a bicycle…

Bell is making local LA waves playing his own unique brand of hip-hop that blends indie-rock with electronica. This year he dropped the “Good News: The Mix-Tape,” which features remixes of songs by artists as wide-ranging as Pink Floyd, Lily Allen, Gang Gang Dance, Jose Gonzalez, Peter, Bjorn & John, Duran Duran, and Neil Diamond. Yes, Neil Diamond. Catch him here in a recent performance, a new song featuring Acey Alone.

One day, sports will evolve to this caliber. Mix blood-sport table tennis with a healthy appetite for destruction and you would have this. What an epic match.

An amazing concept paired with amazing animation. Everything goes from being slightly connected to combined and overwhelmed in a matter of minutes.