The SPIN Interview: Mos Def
A product of the Brooklyn projects during the 1980s crack era, Mos Def is a hip-hop lifer, despite his frequent forays into Hollywood.
By Charles Aaron 07.18.09 11:05 AM
Dante "Mos Def" Smith walks the walk and talks the talk -- literally. This past May, he led me on a four-hour interview ramble around Manhattan's SoHo and West Village, stopping into bodegas and smoke shops, greeting fans, giving hugs and pounds, posing for cell phone photos, like the hip-hop ambassador of some conscious-rap dream sequence.
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Cage: Out of the Shadows
Having battled his demons on the mic before Slim got shady, Cage tries to reinvent rap-rock and take you on the next downward spiral.
By Thomas Golianopoulos 07.17.09 11:08 AM
One morning in 2004, Chris Palko woke up in Middletown, New York's Elizabeth A. Horton Memorial Hospital, terrified that he would be committed again.
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The Last Temptation of Steve-O
All the Jackass star ever wanted was to be famous for doing insane stunts. But after a suicidal flameout landed him in a psych ward, what's left for a kinder, gentler self-mutilating exhibitionist to do?
By David Peisner 06.20.09 4:00 PM
At 8:00 on a cool, sunny April morning, Stephen Glover walks barefoot across a leafy side street in Pasadena, California, toward a white Chevy pickup. The blue oxford shirt he borrowed from his roommate is unbuttoned and hanging open.
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Regina Spektor's Joy Ride
A somber ditty about the fickleness of God isn't your typical summertime hit, but the old-world, otherworldly Regina Spektor isn't your typical rising star. Under the boardwalk with pop's unlikeliest diva.
By Ellen Carpenter 06.20.09 3:51 PM
"Aaaaaaaaaaaahh!
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The SPIN Interview: Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Cocker found fame as Britpop's gawkiest sex symbol, first by releasing fantastic songs like "Common People" with Pulp, then by bum-rushing Jacko at an awards show. "People still come shake my hand because of that," the singer says. "So I can't really regret it."
By Josh Modell 05.22.09 10:30 AM
Jarvis Cocker walks into Chicago's Star Lounge Coffee Bar, and though physically striking -- tall and glamorous in natty thrift-shop chic and substantial spectacles -- no one seems to recognize him.
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Hot Leg: Into the Light
Five years ago, Justin Hawkins was fronting the U.K.'s biggest band -- until he succumbed to the very clichés the Darkness were lampooning. Now, as he tries to kick-start Hot Leg, he's hauling his own gear, sleeping on floors, and trying not to make the same mistakes twice.
By David Peisner 05.22.09 10:10 AM
Steel Panther stride onstage around 1 A.M. at La Zona Rosa on the second night of Austin, Texas' annual South by Southwest music festival. The mock-metal band's joke isn't subtle: four guys with poodle hair and spandex pants performing foul-mouthed odes to fat girls, Asian hookers, and the primacy of heavy metal.
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