Mitchy Slick: rapper in exile

San Diego’s biggest hip-hop artist loves the city, but a gang injunction keeps him away

By Quan Vu

Charles Mitchell, aka rapper Mitchy Slick, doesn’t exactly feel welcome in his hometown. Despite being San Diego’s most famous rap export, his visit home in April was extremely low-key.

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Wednesday, February 27,2013
Music Feature

The wrath of Odessa Kane

Local rapper embraces his role as a ‘cultural worker’

By Quan Vu

When Frankie Quiñones speaks, his soft voice carries a surprising weight. He speaks solemnly, choosing his words carefully.

Wednesday, November 7,2012
Music Feature

Michael Quiñones makes the ‘raw shit’

Local artist's hip-hop sounds haunting but beautiful

By Quan Vu

It’s a Friday night in October, and local rapper and producer Michael Quiñones is setting up a projector at Headquarters Café, a coffeehouse in El Cerrito that might be the ideal new spot to showcase his music.

Wednesday, October 3,2012
Notes from the Smoking Patio

Awol & Gamma get conscious on 'SinSerious'

Rappers show potential with new album

By Quan Vu

When rappers like Common and Mos Def got big in the 1990s, record companies concocted a new label, “conscious hip-hop,” to neatly package their sociopolitical-themed music and exploit an older, more affluent and often elitist demographic.

Wednesday, July 25,2012
Music Feature

Piff California Herrera speaks the truth

Local rapper acts as a positive voice for the Southeast

By Quan Vu

On a Saturday afternoon in June, local rapper Perry Wilkins Jr. stares out across several houses. Dressed in a flannel shirt with rolled-up jeans and boat shoes, he’s hanging out on a large wooden balcony at “The Flight Deck,” the home of a friend, on a steep hill in Encanto, in San Diego’s sprawling 4th City Council district.

Tuesday, July 3,2012
Music Feature

Parker & The Numberman bring the ruckus

San Diego hip-hop trio goes all out, all the time

By Quan Vu

On a Saturday afternoon at Ranchos Cocina restaurant in North Park, Jack King, Jamal Smith and Brandon Zamudio bounce off each other electrically. Between the three members of local hip-hop group Parker & The Numberman, you can hardly get a word in.

Wednesday, May 30,2012
Music Feature

A look at San Diego’s ‘beat scene’

From Skrapez to Room E, here are the local acts to watch for

By Quan Vu

The first installment of Critical Beatdown—a monthly series dedicated to a new class of glitch-laden, avant-garde, instrumental hip-hop and electronic music known simply as “beat” music—took place at Kava Lounge in January 2011. A year-and-a-half later, the series is going strong.

Wednesday, April 25,2012
Music Feature

El Gun Legro ain’t no joke

Outlandish rapper grapples with issues of race

By Quan Vu

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.

Wednesday, March 28,2012
Music Feature

Black Resume make Porter's Pub a home for hip-hop

Booking and promoting live shows, rap group rejects the pay-to-play model

By Quan Vu

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

Wednesday, March 21,2012
Notes from the Smoking Patio

Hip-hop DJs get together at The Skratch Lab

Ongoing series helps build community in local scene

By Quan Vu

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.