Pitchfork

-- Rap biopic alert! The former music writer Cheo Hodari Coker, who adapted the script for the Biggie biopic Notorious from his own surprisingly great Biggie book of the same title, has signed on to write a Run-DMC biopic. According to the Hollywood Reporter, he'll adapt Bill Adler's book Tougher Than Leather: The Rise of Run-DMC for the horribly named production company DJ Classicz, which hopes to secure the involvement of Run, DMC, and Russell Simmons. Weirdly enough, this won't be the first Run-DMC biopic, though the last one had basically zero basis in fact and also had Blair Underwood playing Russell Simmons. And lest you think Coker only adapts biopics from books about rappers who were murdered (though, honestly, that wouldn't be a bad career niche), the Hollywood Reporter reports he's also writing a movie called Lowriders, which I really hope is like The Fast and the Furious except with lowriders.

-- The story of DMX's recent headfirst slide into insanity now has a climax: On Friday, an Arizona judge sentenced the once-great rap star to 90 days in prison and 18 months probation on charges of theft, drug possession, and animal cruelty, The New York Times reports. Please, please let this guy get his life back together.

-- Prog-metal nerds rejoice: Swedish pastoral death metal kingpins Opeth will spend the month of May touring the U.S., bringing epic Norwegian Viking metal survivors Enslaved along with them. Average song length at this show is going to be well into the double-digits.

-- Justin Greaves, a former member of doom metal institutions like Electric Wizard and Iron Monkey, now fronts the awesomely named stoner-folk band Crippled Black Phoenix. In Crippled Black Phoenix, he gets help from plenty of acquaintances who want to prove how down they are with doom metal, like Mogwai bassist Dominic Aitchison. On April 15, Portishead's Geoff Barrow will release 200 Tons of Bad Luck, the band's second album, on his own Invada Records.

-- Warp Records is riding a nice little wave lately with Jamie Lidell and Flying Lotus, and the long-running IDM label hopes to keep it going with its latest discovery, electro-pop producer Tim Exile. Warp, in association with Planet Mu, will release Listening Tree, Exile's third album, on March 17.