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Black Spade

Been humming along all day to your recently pirated copy of Tha Carter III and need a hip-hop fix?

Check out tonight’s line-up at The Gramophone in the Grove.

Almost every artist nominated for best hip-hop act in the 2008 RFT Music Awards will be performing.

The bill includes Rockwell Knuckles (also nominated for best self-released album), Vandalyzm (also nominated for best live act), Family Affair, and Gotta Be Karim. If that’s not enough, two of the nominees for best hip-hop DJ, Needles and Crucial, are spinning.

The headliner is Lou ex-pat rapper/producer Black Spade, who might be the most talented of them all.

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Voting ends at midnight on Sunday, June 1 (or the wee morning of Monday, June 2, in other words).

-- Annie Zaleski

So, the RFT Music Showcase is merely a month away: It takes place on Sunday, June 1. The voting will go live on our Web site this week! Bands will be contacted shortly to play the showcase. The ballot? Still here.

Feel free to chime in with any questions/comments in the space below.

-- Annie Zaleski

With the 2008 RFT Music Awards showcase a mere two months away (save the date: June 1, all day and night in the Loop), it's time to unveil this year's nominees, which were compiled via a combination of my opinion and the thoughts of 70-plus musicians, venue employees and other music scene denizens. So without further ado, this year's nominees are:

Best Americana/Folk:
*Caleb Travers & Big City Lights
*The Linemen
*Rough Shop
*Rum Drum Ramblers
*Theodore

Best Untraditional Americana/Folk:
*The Bottle Rockets
*Bad Folk
*Magnolia Summer
*The Monads
*Rats and People

Best Blues Artist:
*Bottoms Up Blues Gang
*Big George Brock
*Tom Hall
*Marquise Knox

Best DJ:
*DJ Karizma
*Flex Boogie
*Rob Lemon
*Scotty Mac
*Rob Gray

Best Eclectic/Uncategorizable:
*Conformists
*Raglani
*Eric Hall
*.e
*Quief Quota

Best Funk/Soul/R&B:
*Dogtown Allstars
*Lamar Harris
*Upright Animals
*Kim Massie
*Nite Owl

Best Garage Band:
*Left Arm
*The Blind Eyes
*The Nevermores
*The Tripdaddys
*The Vultures

Best Hard Rock/Metal:
*Cross Examination
*Harkonin
*Head On Collision
*Shame Club
*Heroes of the Kingdom

Best Hip-Hop DJ:
*Crucial
*Needles
*Mahf
*Trackstar
*Charlie Chan
*K-Nine

Best Indie Band:
*Target Market
*Bunnygrunt
*The Hibernauts
*Jumbling Towers
*Say Panther
*So Many Dynamos

Best Jazz Artist:
*Willie Akins
*Hamiet Bluiett
*Erin Bode
*Dave Stone Trio
*Brian Sullivan Quartet

Best Live Act:
*Victoria
*Jon Hardy & the Public
*The Feed
*7 Shot Screamers
*So Many Dynamos
*Vandalyzm

Best Local Release (on a label):
*Grace Basement, New Sense (Dren)
*Shame Club, Come On (Small Stone)
*Ludo, You’re Awful, I Love You (Island)
*The Pubes, Peat Sounds (Roadhouse Tunes)
*Riddle of Steel, 1985 (Ascetic)
*Earthworms, Bottle Full of Bourbon (F5)
*The Monads, Ornery (Big Muddy)

Best Local Release (self-released):
*Jon Hardy & the Public, Working in Love
*The Hibernauts, Periodic Fable
*The Bureau, We Make Plans in Secret
*Rockwell Knuckles, Northside Phenomenon
*Various Artists, The Space Parlour: Live in St. Louis Series 2007
*Rats & People, The City of Passersby

Best New Artist:
*The 75s
*The Livers
*Wooden Kites
*The Blind Eyes
*Museum Mutters

Best Punk/Hardcore:
*Nerve Parade
*The Humanoids
*Ded Bugs
*The Pubes
*Cardiac Arrest
*Lye By Mistake

Best Pop Band:
*Gentleman Auction House
*Jon Hardy & the Public
*Grace Basement
*Sex Robots
*The Feed

Best Rap/Hip-Hop Artist:
*Earthworms
*Family Affair
*Midwest Avengers
*Rockwell
*Vandalyzm
*Gotta Be Karim

Best Reggae Band:
*Dub Kitchen
*Dubtronix
*Murder City Players
*Yard Squad

Best Rock Band:
*Victoria
*The Incurables
*Riddle of Steel
*7 Shot Screamers
*Wormwood Scrubs

-- Annie Zaleski

Yes, the 2008 edition of the RFT's music showcase is Sunday, June 1, 2008.

I suggest you add our MySpace profile, which is linked here.

Between that and this blog, we'll have all of the information. It's just three months away!

For last year's results/details, click here.

-- Annie Zaleski