I went big for this, taking on 30 of the 300 albums. Click through this hulking document for my posts on (in alphabetical order, no spoilers): Arcade Fire, At the Drive-In, Beastie Boys, Beck, Belle & Sebastian, Björk, Bright Eyes, Broken Social Scene, Clipse, Cloud Nothings, Dirty Projectors, the Flaming Lips, the Fugees, Frank Ocean, GZA, Interpol, Jimmy Eat World, Justin Timberlake, the Microphones, My Bloody Valentine, Neutral Milk Hotel, Pixies, Portishead, the Postal Service, Radiohead, TV on the Radio, the Unicorns, Vampire Weekend, the xx, and Wilco. So many of my all-time favorites in here, and so many I’d never had the chance to write about.

Underground Rap Takes on Gabriel Giffords Shooting, Tea Party Hate, Antoine Dodson

March 1, 2011February 24, 2011

Sole, a.k.a. Tim Holland, rages amidst angry tea partiers.

Is it just me or is smart rap getting pissy these days? There’s something in the water east of California, I’m convinced, because Isaiah Toothtaker and his Tuscon, AZ, cohorts are whipping up some dastardly, devilish rhymes. And Big Sole, formerly of Anticon, is out in Denver, churning out what may prove to be the most fiery, on-point agit-prop rap of the new century. I had the pleasure of debuting a couple of videos from these dudes.

First, check out “White Rage,” by Sole and featuring a glorious sermon by the one and only Evangelist J.B. Best (a.k.a. Pedestrian). Then, watch the menacing clip from the Toothtaker, co-directed by Walter Gross.

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