Most Popular
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The Talk of the Green Iguana
Will American voters elect the first gay vice president in November?
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The She-Zebra
Will Erin Meehan be the first female ref in the NFL?
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Are We There Yet?
Jeez, can we just embrace the electric car already?
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Guitar Zero
Maybe the next generation won't even play instruments. Clapton and Hendrix? So passé.
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Accidental Hit Man
Sure, Paul Brandreth talks like a wiseguy. But is he a cold-blooded killer?
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Your Mom Thinks He’s Hot (6)
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Man-Child in the Promised Land (5)
Pop star Sean Kingston hopes the party's just begun
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The Talk of the Green Iguana (3)
Will American voters elect the first gay vice president in November?
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Guitar Zero (2)
Maybe the next generation won't even play instruments. Clapton and Hendrix? So passé.
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Shooting the Moon (2)
Aim high or aim low, you're bound to hit something, even if it's the sleep button
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Cheat Sheet to Langerado
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Licensed to Chill
How the Beasties went from hip-hop pranksters to musical renaissance men
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Paul Potts
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Not Your Father's N Word
Eight months after its "burial," the world's most dangerous epithet is more popular than ever in hip-hop
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Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
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Owen Wilson And His Hat Visit FTL
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Pruitt Egged By CNBC's Cramer
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Palm Beach Post Publisher Giuffrida Stepping Down
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G. Love and Special Sauce Hit Langerado
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Langerado Last Night: Matt Pond PA and the Walkmen
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Langerado: No Vampire! Denied!
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Recent Articles By Jake Smith
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The Poor House
110 SW Third Ave., Fort Lauderdale, 954-522-5145
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3073 NE Sixth Ave., Wilton Manors, 954-567-2432
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Battle Axis
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National Features
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Houston Press
"It Was Like an Armageddon Movie"
For days after Hurricane Rita, a Texas prison was hell on earth.
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SF Weekly
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Our columnist knows Ralph Nader's running mate all too well.
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The Pitch
How Not To Be a Rap Star
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Village Voice
Project Runaway
What becomes a gossip columnist most?
By Michael Musto
Subject(s): Renda Writer
Renda Writer's personal motto, according to his website, is "pimp yourself." It's a constant theme throughout the 33 tracks on his second full-length, Eclectic Poetic, an album that is half hip-hop and half spoken word. Writer's beat-backed tracks like "We're All Connected" and "3:15 am" outshine the a cappella ones. Luckily, though, Writer doesn't fall into the trap of trying to sound like some tough-guy poet turned rapper. He pulled off the incredibly difficult task of laying down a disc full of spoken-word tracks that's worth listening to twice. The opening song "Who Am I?" is a series of statements that lay out his personality and where he's coming from, followed by the obvious question, "But who am I?" Throughout the two-minute track, it becomes clear who Writer is — a white heterosexual guy from South Florida who's working as a salesman somewhere. But ultimately, the guy was born a poet. Two of the best songs feature local singers and poetry buddies. On "Love Games," the sultry vocals of Boca Raton's Cat Shell add a jazzy flair; "Brand New" brings in a didgeridoo-wielding Xavier Hawk, a local tribal hip-hop singer who lays down some interesting beat box-style vocals to back Writer's lyrics.
The lyrics throughout Eclectic Poetic are self-exploratory and can slip into clichés, and the album works best on the hip-hop-style tracks (the ones where he sounds more like Eminem than Anne Sexton). But overall, Writer manages to be insightful without being preachy. And for a poet, that's what really counts. Check out www.rendathepoet.com.
