It's safe to assume that when April Hill left the relative stability of her job at a Wall Street powerhouse firm to pursue her love of music, she couldn't have predicted that the country's financial sector would sink to shockingly low depths and her drastic career shift would seem like a smart move. But it has. Hill was recently selected by readers of the independent soul movement's standard bearing web site, SoulTracks, as co-recipient of......

Entering its fourth year of existence, the Can A Sista Rock A Mic? Festival will be taking place October 8-11. Last year's lineup featured seasoned veterans Bahamadia and MC Lyte, among others. This year, there's a heavy emphasis on female up-and-comers who look to make names for themselves in the near future. As it has in the past, CASRAM puts a premium on artistry and providing a venue for acts that deserve greater attention. Wednesday:......

The depictions and roles of women in hip-hop debate has raged on and off for several years now with varying degrees of depth. Most of the arguments posit that the relationship between women and hip-hop isn’t positive by using lyrical content and music videos by male artists as exhibits A and B. After the requisite freedom of speech assertions made during the rebuttal, the talk dies down again and the status quo remains. Often lacking......

>> The 3rd annual Can A Sista Rock A Mic? Festival kicks tonight off at the Rock and Roll Hotel. Bahamadia and Emoni Fela among others will be performing tonight, stay tuned for a full preview from us later. 9 p.m., $12. >> Like we mentioned in the jazz agenda, pianist Abdullah Ibrahim is one of the most influential jazz musicians to come out of South Africa, and tonight he'll be at Blues Alley......

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......

Before we kick off this week's suggestions, a quick note about Sunday's show at the Black Cat. The Lovely Feathers were good, Dr Dog was great, and The Spinto Band was freakin phenomenal. What a tremendous bunch of characters those guys are, we haven't seen head shaking like that since That Thing You Do. TUESDAY: >> We'll be honest -- we can't exactly picture Trent Reznor playing in an amphitheater. But it's a plan so......