Last week, as projections of blinking eyeballs danced across the wall of Soho's W.i.P. during the album preview of WZRD (Wicked Awesome/HeadBanga Muzik/Universal Republic), one couldn't help but draw parallels between the distressed protagonist of Vladimir Nabokov's The Eye, Smurov, and Kid Cudi, who makes up one half of the record's titular duo. The perception and nebulousness of identity is at the heart of Nabokov's novel, and WZRD will inevitably inspire people to scratch their heads (and, in some cases, jeer) at the idea of who, exactly, Kid Cudi is. At last week's session, the man who helped make skinny jeans and backpacks fashionable in certain hip-hop circles was a sight to behold, wearing a fantastic bedazzled Prada shirt (it shimmered under the dim pink lights), Balmain jeans and Converse. His short 'fro was traded in for a smooth, pressed look somewhat reminiscent of soul singers of yore. "He's rock 'n' roll now," noted a confused onlooker.

WZRD isn't the next chapter in Cudi's Man on the Moon trifecta, nor is it really a hip-hop album at all. alt-rock stalwarts like Nirvana and The Pixies, it's a confusing and depressing—but, like Cudi himself, ultimately engaging—record.

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Dan Dealy/KEAPHOPE Collective

DMX
S.O.B.'s
Thursday, February 23

Better than: Time travel.

Shot in grainy black-and-white in NYC's notorious Tunnel nightclub, the 1998 music video for DMX's first single "Get At Me Dog" was pure, unadulterated hip-hop; it set X apart as a raw, menacing rapper at a time when the genre was inundated with braggadocio, lyrical fluff and one too many shiny suits. X stripped away the genre's materialistic veneer and replaced it with real-life pain and achingly honest emotion, winning crossover success (he is the second rapper in history, after Tupac Shakur, to have released two albums in the same year that debuted at No. 1) without relinquishing credibility. Perpetual legal issues, erratic behavior and battles with addiction over the past decade or so have all but stalled that career and what was touted as his grand homecoming show—the first in years—was seen as a potential disaster. That is, if the Yonkers rapper even showed up to perform at all.

DMX not only showed up last night; he took the sold-out crowd at S.O.B.'s right back to the Tunnel.

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Common
Catch, NYC
Monday, December 12

Better than: Waiting until 12/20/2011.

Common has always been a bit of a rap conundrum to me. There's no denying he's talented—"I Used to Love H.E.R." is arguably the greatest ode to/about/inspired by hip-hop of all time—but somewhere between the snoozer Finding Forever and the polarizing genre-bender Universal Mind Control, the rapper kind of lost me. He didn't fall off; he just seemed to sputter. Maybe it was the natural evolution of the backpack rapper growing up, or the aftereffects of gaining Tinseltown fame. Either way, there appeared to be a schism between "classic" and "nouveau" Common.

Last night, the rapper previewed his ninth studio album and reconciled those halves, appealing to O.G. sensibilities while staying fresh. Com and his DJ gave a throng of journalists, record label types and open-bar guzzlers a sneak peek of The Dreamer/The Believer—out December 20—and shuffled between between album cuts, acapella verses and fun, impromptu freestyles. Commentary was kept to a minimum, but the music spoke for itself.

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Young Jeezy
Sunshine Cinema
Tuesday, November 29

Better than: Combing his Wikipedia page.

Perhaps Young Jeezy's biggest weakness as an artist is the information that's out there about him, or the lack thereof. Four albums and a plethora of mixtapes deep and even ardent fans like myself admittedly know very little about the man behind those guttural trap-rap bangers and deliciously elongated ad-libs, save for a smattering of his legal run-ins and imbroglios with fellow rappers—and, of course, his snowman emblem.

Enter A Hustlerz Ambition: The Documentary, the new biopic narrated by actor Samuel L. Jackson that chronologically recounts how the man born Jay Jenkins evolved into Young Jeezy and available as part of the deluxe edition of Jeezy's forthcoming Thug Motivation 103: Hustlerz Ambition. The roughly shot film combines interviews with Jeezy (oft-taped Swisher Sweet in hand) and his family and colleagues (Jay-Z, Diddy) with childhood photos and concert footage.

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Young Jeezy (Thug Motivation 103 listening session)
Quad Recording Studios
Thursday, November 3

Better than: Waiting until December 20.

Young Jeezy's Thug Motivation 103: Hustlerz Ambition had become the stuff of hip-hop lore over the past few years. A perpetually delayed release date coupled with a glut of mostly underwhelming early singles had people lumping the album in with perpetually-in-limbo relases like Detox and the follow-up to The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. The deluge of somewhat comparable rappers—most notably Rick Ross—who came up in the interim and the general capriciousness of hip-hop fans didn't help, either.

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Mac Miller

Mac Miller
Quad Recording Studios
Wednesday, October 27

Better than: Waiting until 11/8/2011

"Turn it up loud because I like to listen to it loud," Mac Miller gleefully prefaced as his debut album blared over the speakers. Joint in hand--sometimes alternated with a bottle of champagne--and cloaked in a hooded sweatshirt with a pair of slide sandals with socks, the wunderkind known for goofy lyrics about mogul Donald Trump and turkey sandwiches previewed Blue Slide Park (slated for 11/8/2011 release) to a small group of hip-hop journalists and influencers last night at Quad Recording Studios.

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CMJ Day Three: Iggy Azalea

Better than: Writing your own mea culpa.

When I saw that Iggy Azalea was performing at CMJ, my scathing reviewer senses began tingling.

The Australian femme fatale is the kind of artist that incites fervor among the hip-hop cognoscenti with her raunchy lyrics and barely-there outfits, not to mention the perception that she might be the white-girl flavor of the week. Thanks to her videos becoming YouTube sensations of a sort, she's been called the next incarnation of Kreayshawn (a cheap shot); many observers have figured that her 15 seconds of Internet fame would quickly dissipate. After all, a musical repertoire founded upon such profound tracks like "Pu$$y"—don't forget the dollar signs—deserves to be euthanized immediately.

Or so I thought.

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The Diplomats & Vado
Best Buy Theater
Friday, September 30

Better than: Waiting for the next big NYC hip-hop collective to appear.

"It ain't over! Fuck y'all talkin' about?" Cam'ron emphatically declared at one point during Friday night's celebration of the Diplomats' debut Diplomatic Immunity. He was right. The Diplomats—Cam, Jim Jones, Juelz Santana and Freekey Zekey—have managed to reign as one of NYC's definitive hip-hop groups, despite in-fighting and a relatively limited body of work.

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J. Cole
Roseland Ballroom
Sunday, September 25

Better than: Rolling your pennies for a rainy day.

A dollar bill doesn't go very far in this city, but last night it bought a ticket to see J. Cole come into his own. A Dollar & A Dream, dubbed in honor of the rapper's three songs of the same name, was part celebration for release of his debut Cole World: The Sideline Story (in stores Tuesday), part opportunity for his loyalists to see him play without maxing out their parents' credit cards. An overwhelmingly young crowd—many of whom seemed to be students at Cole's Queens alma mater, St. John's University—filled Roseland to witness a show with no guest stars, no hypeman, and no scantily clad dancers. Instead, Cole captivated the rapt audience with the help of two keyboardists and the impressive, yet not overbearing turntable skills of DJ Dummy.

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Big Sean
Best Buy Theater
Monday, September 19

Better than: Playing video games alone in your mom's basement.

Earlier this summer, the Detroit rapper Big Sean played show at Irving Plaza that could have been described with the word "pandemonium. Know that last night's Big Sean concert—a launch party for Gears Of War 3 attended by backpack-toting fanboys, a paltry smattering of ladies and Xbox suits—could not have been further from that experience. I easily breezed to the front of the venue and enjoyed what felt like an intimate living-room performance by the pretty boy ambassador of snapbacks and hashtag rhymes, who put on quite a lengthy set compared to most corporate-sponsored fare. But it was clear from the onset that attendees were more interested in zapping members of the Locust Horde and scuffling over tie-in swag than enjoying good hip-hop. Several people even somehow managed to play the game with laser focus during the entirety of Sean's set. Talk about commitment!

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