Gilbert pokes fun at race issues in a lighthearted way. His stage voice, gravelly but high-pitched, reminds you of Dave Chappelle’s outrageous impersonation of Rick James on Chappelle’s Show. His name was originally “El Un Negro,” and the phonetic similarity is a joke on first-time listeners who mishear the name as something potentially racist.
.

Lately, Black Resume has turned Porter’s Pub, a venue on the UCSD campus, into one of the best spots for live hip-hop.

Imagine, then, as many as eight DJs spinning and scratching at the same time. It’s not exactly convenient, but that’s what happened during The Skratch Lab, a show held at Til-Two Club in City Heights last Sunday afternoon.

Orko Eloheim is one of San Diego’s most influential and prolific hip-hop artists, but he remains an enigma.

Johaz The Alina Marin Theory (self-released) Johaz has been relatively quiet. While fellow Deep Rooted member Mr. Brady has released a bevy of EPs and albums since the group’s last album in

Room E Penguin Child (Brilliant Something) Once you discover that Room E is a skinny Asian dude who produces instrumental hip-hop, you might be tempted to think of that other skinny Asian dude who produces instrumental hip-hop: Nosaj Thing, who sits at the center of L.A.’s thriving beat scene. But the labels —musical and ethnic—are where the similarities end. While Nosaj Thing and his cohorts mine production glitches to conjure new shades of darkness, Room E embraces a lighthearted aesthetic on Penguin Child, his first full-length album.
.

This month, Crowel will drop Welcome to the City, a self-released digital EP that finds him collaborating with a young, untested local producer named AbJo.

We music writers at CityBeat have diverse, sometimes wildly divergent tastes. So, it’s hard for us to say what album deserves to be called the best in 2011.

Pedalay The Boss’ latest album, Issue #1, sounds so refreshing. Pedalay, a Southeast San Diego rapper, is nerdy enough to spit abstract imagery and title his album like it’s a comic-book series.

An Emerald Hills Blood from San Diego, League weaves tales of crime and poverty with sharp insight, vivid detail and empathy for those who’ve been cast farthest away.