Rolling Stones 2008 Hot Issue spotlights acts like Band of Horses and Vampire Weekend (more on that here). All week, we’ve been taking a look at Hot Issue hits and misses from the past twenty-one years (because nobodys cultural thermometer is accurate all the time).
Hit: “A savior,” we called him. “The hip-hop Proust.” Whatever insane expectations we placed on Nas, the Hot Rapper of 1994, hes lived up to them. He’s since feuded with Jay-Z and somehow survived, he married the girl whos milkshake brings all the boys to the yard (Kelis), and hes one of the few rappers who has credibility enough to claim Hip Hop Is Dead. Unfortunately, Nas hotness didnt rub off on his 1994 Hot List page 64 neighbor, Hot Athlete/Baltimore Orioles Jeffrey Hammonds, who finished his disappointing baseball career in 2005 after playing for six teams over the course of twelve years.
Miss: In his 2002 Hot Singer-Songwriter write-up, we (and his Wikipedia page) had the audacity to mention Cory Branan in the same sentence as peers Ryan Adams and Bright Eyes. Branans The Hell You Say lead to appearances on David Letterman, Carson Daly and our Hot List, but it would be another four years before Branans sophomore album 12 Songs was released to little fanfare. Branan also probably wins the award for Hot Lister with the smallest MySpace following (7,458 fans as of right now).
Related Stories:
- Hot Issue Hits and Misses: “OK Computer” and “Cockamamie”
- Hot Issue Hits and Misses: The Replacements and Wilson Phillips
- Hot Issue Hits and Misses: Coldplay and Enuff ZNuff
More...
