This summer must be a particularly frustrating time to be an unsigned hip-hop artist. The southern rap offensive continues with wave after wave of purp-sipping, leaning, rocking and snapping singles which, although from time to time laudable, tend to wear thin (though they do make for some amusing YouTube fodder). So while Young Joc is telling us where it’s going down (apparently the mall, though I was recently at Pentagon City and the place was…

There are really two Ice Cubes. There is today’s Ice Cube: rapper, actor, executive producer, and production studio owner. And then there is the furious, Kalashnikov-toting iconoclast of two decades ago, whose existence was acknowledged by 2006’s Cube as predating the birth of many among the sweaty throng at the 9:30 Club. I couldn’t help but feel sheepish at that point, realizing that while I was playing with blocks and smearing apple sauce all over…

While there are many blogs out there that are little more than self-indulgement ramblings or highfalutin attempts at taste-making, according to a post I just read on Boing Boing, we can actually use this populist technology to engender social change, or something like that. So if you were as bewildered and disappointed as we were by the results of the Post’s Best Bets poll last year, we ask that you rally behind a noble cause…

If you just can’t keep yourself from licking your hands and/or those delicious train poles while riding the Metro, the folks at City Mitts may have a solution for you. The City Mitt gloves are made out of a “brand new antimicrobial microfilter embedded with silver ions” which they claim will “prevent the growth of bacteria.” Similar anti-bacterial silver treatments have been given to some cellphones, as well. The gloves are designed to provide sufficient…

While many current satellite radio subscribers signed up with XM or Sirius to join the fart-joking, stripper-exploiting bandwagon of Stern, Opie & Anthony et al. in their flight from the FCC’s fist of decency, I’m sure an even larger number are happily paying their monthly fees because it means they no longer have to put up with the programming decisions of corporate FM radio. It has been a little over a year since Infinity Broadcasting…

Commenting on yesterday’s consideration of Mall privatization, worried reader Edward replied: “If you’re really thirsting for more sidewalk cafes, privatizing is *not* the answer. Next thing you know the Smithsonian will start to charge admissions…” Though Edward was thinking hypothetically, admissions fees may become a reality for the Smithsonian if a recommendation by Rep. James Moran is heeded. During a congressional hearing yesterday addressing institutional problems of concern to both the Smithsonian Institute and Congress,…

Whether it’s pizza, slurpees, or wifi, getting something for nothing is a thrill that few can resist. There’s just something about the allure of the freebie that somehow multiplies the value of the object a hundredfold. Every time free cone day rolls around, we all stand in line for more time than it would take to make the ice cream ourselves (including the necessary cow milking). But who are we kidding? We love free stuff,…

Though at times locally maligned for its police-confounding off-shoots, hip-hop’s historical recognition is long overdue at an institution whose mission is the chronicling of American people and American culture. So we were pleased to see Boing Boing relay the news that the National Museum of American History will establish an exhibit of hip-hop artifacts entitled “Hip-Hop Won’t Stop: The Beat, the Rhymes, the Life” including “photographs, posters, handwritten lyrics, clothing and costumes, videos and interviews…

Whether you are a homeland security pundit, closet xenophobe, or simply a concerned Washingtonian, odds are you were at least a little alarmed by the recently announced acquisition of P&O Ports by Dubai Ports World, a shipping firm owned and operated by the government of the United Arab Emirates. The acquisition has local ramifications — P&O Ports operate Baltimore’s port. Lest we become too comfortable with our port-less city economy, we mustn’t forget that we…

Whether you welcome or oppose the velvet-gloved hand of gentrification, a potentially off-putting effect of urban renewal is the rise in attitude that often accompanies a rise in property value. The local bloggers at Hollywood for Ugly People recently recounted an unpleasant run-in with the doorman at the Chi-Cha Lounge, a U Street bar: “Sorry man. I can’t let you in wearing those sneakers,” the scrawny “bouncer” said to us. “What? Are you kidding me?”…