"Please listen to my demo!" That particular plea may no longer be heard coming from plucky upcoming rappers, what with the Internet age and all, but there's an undeniable pull about getting to hear the industry-ears-only dusty tapes that begat some of hip-hop's finest album moments. This week sees the release of a collection of Queen Latifah's Flavor Unit associate Latee's previously demo-only tracks; each is produced by future Jay-Z collaborator Mark The 45 King and hails from the early '90s, and the whole shebang is released as a premium-priced vinyl-only offering from the Diggers With Gratitude stable.

The Flavor Unit prospered from over the river in New Jersey, so here's a run-down of six great '90s New York City rap demo tapes that are now just a Mediafire muddle away. (Note: The Internet is filled with a lot of alleged and actually unreleased material; we've plumped for the perceived demos that come closet to offering up a stand-alone listening session, as opposed to one-off tracks. Curate this lot together as a playlist and you won't be disappointed.)

More >>

Last round, Blondie safely navigated past Hollis, Queens icons Run-DMC and the trio's aggressive, raw rap sound. This time, the Debbie Harry-fronted new wave ensemble faces off against Nas, hip-hop's one-time prodigal son turned full-time Bill O'Reilly antagonizer. Will the quasi-rap stylings of Blondie's "Rapture" prove to be the key weapon in the group's arsenal against Nas's single-genre steez?

More >>

​The Round of 64 for Sound of the City's own version of March Madness—in which you, the Sound of the City voting public, help determine the quintessential New York musician—is a little jam-packed today, with six matches on the docket. (The schedule and results so far are here; the full, updated bracket is here.) This time out, we head to the Queens division, where Nasty Nas takes on the New York band whose early career served as a portent for the Internet hype cycle, the Strokes. Check out the arguments in favor of each below, and vote at Facebook for your favorite.

More >>

That's dedication right there.

As the baseball season nears, the announcements of the season's schedule of promotions steadily increases, and over the weekend the Mets announced that for their 50th anniversary they'd be throwing a three-show postgame concert series in 2012. The lineup: the hesher-pop outfit REO Speedwagon (June 15), powerpop titans Cheap Trick (July 20), and the religious post-grunge outfit MercyMe (August 10). The bands are from Champaign, Illinois; Rockford, Illinois; and Greenville, Texas, respectively. That's right—there are no New York bands on the bill, which seems quite silly given that this city is crawling with musically inclined fans of the team and even has a DIY venue named after the Mets' former home. To that end, here are six New York-based acts who might not mind having the 2012 version of the Metropolitans as their opening act. Perhaps those of us who feel passionate enough about this issue can organize a trip to this season's triumphant return of Banner Day (May 27!) in order to lobby for one or all or these choices?

More >>

Benjamin Lozovsky

ALSO: See more photos from Jay-Z's show at Carnegie Hall

Jay-Z
Carnegie Hall
Monday, February 6

Better than: Slacking off.

The age-old question about how one might get to Carnegie Hall rattled in my brain as I headed uptown last night, en route to Jay-Z's first of two performances at the hallowed Midtown space. "Practice" is the cheeky answer that people give, but as Jay showed last night with his benefit for the United Way of New York City and the Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation—Carnegie Hall's first concert where a hip-hop artist topped the bill—ambition is just as key.

More >>

Common
Highline Ballroom
Monday, December 19

Better than: Holiday store displays involving snow globes and marionettes.

On "The Sixth Sense," a DJ Premier banger and one of the greatest cuts to come out of the second golden age of hip hop, Common chided that "this industry will make you lose intensity."

That was 11 years ago. In the ensuing years, few other conscious-minded MCs have embraced the entertainment industry with the vigor of Chicago's long-standing ghetto poet laureate. He's had lots of character roles in major Hollywood productions and a prominent starring role in a Queen Latifah romantic vehicle involving the weird courtship of a basketball player; he's written a memoir; and he scored a recurring role as a freed slave on a critically acclaimed AMC series.

Yet despite his extra-curricular successes, Common's passionate musical and poetic side remains intact. "The Sixth Sense" was ultimately a grimy yet cerebral love story about hip-hop and the fragile urban culture it has the power to uplift. Out celebrating the release of his ninth studio album, The Dreamer/The Believer, at the Highline Ballroom Monday night, Common was at his finest.

More >>

via VH1

VH1 Divas Celebrates Soul
Hammerstein Ballroom
Sunday, December 18

Better than: Whatever Ryan Seacrest is going to cook up for VH1 Soul.

Last night's VH1 Divas taping existed both as a performance and self-contained, 24-hours-out advertising opportunity for its broadcast. (Tonight at 9 ET!) TV tapings are always strange to experience first-hand, given the way they're designed for after-the-fact consumption; there are lots of long lulls in the action for the purposes of commercial breaking/set redesigning, and in "let's all get together and put on a show" scenarios like this one there are TelePrompTers with lyrics ready to assist the under-rehearsed. Despite the breaks and assists, though, this taping didn't have the hermetically sealed feeling of ones I attended during the pre-social-media era—people were encouraged to tweet and Foursquare check-in and let their pals on social media know what they were experiencing via corporately provided hashtag. In the 21st century, after all, all publicity is.

The night's bent toward soul meant that most of the acts on the bill had pipes and cred—Chaka Khan, Mavis Staples, Martha Reeves, and Wanda Jackson represented for the pre-music-video era, while the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Ledisi, Jill Scott, and Jennifer Hudson were among the new-schoolers. Jessie J's tireless, apparently unending promotional campaign also continued here; her new party trick involves her stuttering out words instead of singing them in toto, a tic that serves to both illuminate the bleatiness of her voice and make her seem even more malleable and annoying. She's the opposite of a diva, her jet-black-dyed artifice doing a miserable job of covering up the void within; I expect either a turn to Christian rock or the "mysterious" leak of a sex tape within the next 12 months.

More >>

Rappers loved Amy Winehouse. The British warbler might not have collaborated with rap chaps to the extent that Mary J Blige has, but when she passed away earlier this year she did so leaving behind a discernible trail of hip-hop goodies. And the songs suggest there was a genuine bond and shared mentality between Winehouse and her rap suitors, unlike many a cobbled-together rapper-meets-singer tryst.

The posthumous project Lioness: Hidden Treasures, which has input from longtime Winehouse producer Salaam Remi and guest spots from Nas and ?uestlove, comes out this week. Here are Winehouse's ten most persuasive dalliances with the rap world.

More >>

The posthumous collection of previously unreleased Amy Winehouse tracks Lioness: Hidden Treasures comes out next month, and today "Like Smoke"&0151;a track where Nas rhymes and Winehouse sings over a crisp, Salaam Remi-produced beat—premiered on Hot 97. The musical bed is apparently from 2008, but Nas's verse seems to be of more recent vintage (note the references to Occupy Wall Street and him maybe getting married again); Winehouse's vocal performance is yet another stark reminder of both her talent and how sad it is that said talent was overshadowed by the problems plaguing her life. Clip below.

More >>

@SoBayBay/Twitpic

Nas
Pier 54
Thursday, October 20

Better than: watching the show from a few yards further into the Hudson River.

On Pier 54, a wooden finger that pokes into the Hudson River, Nike's Jordan Brand held a party in celebration of Carmelo Anthony's new shoe, the M8. The sanitation department sits directly south, New Jersey to the west—it can be a pretty shitty location (ha ha), but it looks nice when you don't think about the surroundings.

Overhead, a helicopter darted, Jordan logo painted on the side. Out stepped Carmelo, in a jersey and sweatband... and he then dropped fifty feet into the water with a huge splash. "Carmelo" was an incredibly life-like hologram that would later shoot through the water like an orca to post up and later dunk on a neighboring building, with water explosions and light effects and minds blown. If it sounds crazy, it was. If it doesn't, it's because there aren't really words to describe it. (This must be how my mom felt when she saw a beatboxer perform for the first time and didn't know where the sound was coming from.)

More >>