Music
In the late 90s and early 2000s, I worked for the Tacoma Facts newspaper. The Facts is the oldest, longest running African-American newspaper in the Pacific Northwest and they still publish in Seattle. I was given the job because owner/editor Dennis Beaver liked my spoken word/poetry. Beaver let me write
Music
The quality of Tacoma hip-hop has really increased. There have always been talented artists doing their thing here, but even just a few years ago there was a lot less dopeness out there. I remember only being able to really like and appreciate a handful of the hip-hop that our
Music
Many blogs and websites will let ya know who are the hottest MCs in the game. I give kudos to those spots. I frequent them often. These sites have a plethora of trendy, hipster, white guy, frat-hop and cool guy fashionista hip-hop. One thing these online entities usually lack is
Music
The world is forever changing. Remember when it was standard procedure to burn CDs or get some CDs of your album made? This is happening less and less as most music has fully moved onto and become digital. This affects Tacoma in many ways. One thing happening is the emergence
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It's no accident that the Holy Trinity of Hip-Hop, the godfathers of our very culture, was DJs Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash. Hip-hop would be spoken word and mimes if it was not for the DJ laying down the musical landscape, the audible soundtrack to our lives. The
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Tacnology Entertainment is a four-man, hip-hop group consisting of Sleezie, Bounce, CoopDavilleone and Shadow. If ya pay attention to 253 hip-hop, then you definitely have seen, heard or met Bounce. I believe I met Bounce just over five years ago. He was $krilla's hype-man. If you are a 253 hip-hop
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Hip-hop is in full swing in Tacoma. There are often shows at The New Frontier Lounge, The Loch's, Jazzbones, El Potrero, Latitude 84, Backstage Bar & Grill, Vinum and O'Malley's. I'm sure I'm missing a couple other spots. I feel as if hip-hop has finally broken through in Tacoma. There
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Sonny Bonoho - one of the few Tacoma artists to break into the underground national hip-hop scene - has been busy preparing new material for this year's SXSW, which is in Austin, Texas March 12-17. I thought it would be a good idea to bring to light what Bonoho has
Music
Who are the streets talking about? I have been hearing Starr's name a lot. He is a diverse MC - who is respected on the battle-circuit, but also for making good music. This double - threat has eluded many a hip-hop artist. I know we can all think of dope
Music
One of the more successful rappers from Tacoma is Tak Patron. Tak has steadily gained true respect from the streets, his lady fans and now nationally. Slowly but surely, with a steady grind of thinking man hustle; he's calculatingly taken chess-like steps to advance his career. What Patron has done
