We Recommend
I highly suggest hitting the one-year anniversary of S.P.'s "We Out Here Showcase." This goes down Saturday, June 18, at Clover Park Technical College in the McGavick Center, building #23. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. with a $10 cover. S.P. is a Washington
Military Life
Air Force veteran and military spouse Virginia "Ginny" Krause keeps her hands full as a foster parent while raising three children. Since arriving at Joint Base Lewis-McChord three years ago, the Krauses have fostered two long-term children and one emergency placement and provided respite care for other foster parents. "My wife
Music
It all started with the DJ. This ain't a Hip-Hop 101, class, so I'm not going to break down the history, but when hip-hop started in the South Bronx, the DJ was the most important element. Fast-forward 30-some years and it's not quite the same. A lot of shows nowadays don't
Music
The Tri-Cities hip-hop scene started much later than the scene in Tacoma. Perhaps the first time people took note of it was around 1995, because of a compilation Shao Sosa was on. Shao (formerly known as Shaolin) is basically the father of Tri-Cities hip-hop. In the late '90s he released
Online Newspapers
Once Camp Lewis was built, soldiers in-processed, trained and shipped out to Europe, including the 91st Division, which left in the late spring of 1918. While the 91st had many names, the nickname the soldiers chose to carry with them as they boarded trains was the Wild West Division. At one
Music
These days music is digital and mostly free. How does this impact us? Well, for one, big-name local artists are now able to release albums at will, with or without an album-release show or listening. On this note, Doughkain, one of the most respected artists on the streets, is back at us
Music
I've always been attracted to bands with big, full sounds. Maybe it's because I grew up listening to music from the ‘50s and ‘early ‘60s, which frequently reveled in lush productions and sweeping, romantic compositions. This was music that intended to use every inch and power of the recording studio
Music
J-Mar Da Sik is back with Du4Self Records to hit us with another mixtape, Off With Their Heads. The mixtape drops May 27 and will be available on datpiff.com and du4self.com. Da Sik is celebrating the release of the mixtape with a ridiculously packed album-release show at the Gruv Lounge (also
We Recommend
J-Mar Da Sik is back with Du4Self Records to hit us with another mixtape, Off With Their Heads. The mixtape drops May 27 and will be available on datpiff.com and du4self.com. Da Sik is celebrating the release of the mixtape with a ridiculously packed album-release show at the Gruv Lounge (also
Arts
Photography - the writing with light - comes down to vision. It is the ability to see a final result in your mind's eye, and then to make it so with a camera. Local military have been doing that for years through membership in the Tacoma Photographic Society. "There is a quiet
Music
Tacoma is inundated with street-hop. Lots of MC's put out music, from the Hill to the Eastside to the Southside to the Sway - and everywhere in between. There's so much reality-rap in this city that it can be hard for the consumer or fan to pick out the
Stage
The Hound of the Baskervilles at Lakewood Playhouse is not the spooky version of the story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle but a spoof on it by Stephen Canny and the British comedy troupe Peepleykus (pronounced people like us). It is a Monty Python-style skit expanded to about two-and-a-half hours
Music
He's back. Only one MC from Tacoma has gotten big enough to where those two words mean anything. Not that he ever left us. The MC I speak of has consistently been opening for the biggest national acts that hit Sea-Tac. He's one of the few Tacoma MCs who get good looks
Travel
Outlet malls are well worth the time to visit. As I walked around the mall in North Bend, I marveled at the variety of products offered by such stores as Banana Republic and Lane Bryant to Kitchen Collection and Pendleton. Outlet malls feature scores of stores offering well-known consumer product brands, with
Music
Go back to 2005-06 in yo mind. What you'll find is hip-hop hustlers still selling their new releases out of the trunks of their rides. The only online promo action is MySpace. There's no Facebook, Twitter, Reverbnation or 253hiphop.com. It was just music and grind. These days were ruled by Jay
Music
My dad sat me down and showed me The Rocky Horror Picture Show on an old VHS tape when I was 12 years old. This is a fact that I love to throw in his face every time he questions any odd behavior. Still, as much as I lovingly tease
Music
I know this is hard to believe, but I have another solid mixtape to report on this week. The crazy thing is: the next two weeks will be just as heavy. So, without further delay I present to ya'll Gazmo the Great's iBeast. This is a pretty high-caliber mixtape. Notable guest
News Front
The United Service Organizations, or USO, hosted their annual Red, White and Blue Golf Classic at The Golf Club at Newcastle, June 16, as a celebration of the Northwest branch's 50-year anniversary, but the main focus was still supporting the troops. Becki Beach, a member of the USO, said although she
Music
We've already had a bunch of high-profile mixtapes and/or albums drop this year from some of the top Tacoma MC's. One in particular is getting mad spins, critical acclaim and props from heads all over Sea-Tac. I speak of Havi Blaze's solo mixtape, Purple and Gold the Balance. Havi keeps it
Music
Last week I said we were lucky to have a live weekly hip-hop night. I lied. We have two! While the weekly hip-hop night I mentioned last week happens at El Perron every Wednesday night, there's also an all-ages cipher/freestyle session every Sunday at the Graffiti Garages on South Ninth and Broadway
