Tag Archives: Rap

Seems like it to me, and also to Pierre Bennu: I know you’ve been thinking it. And if you haven’t, you probably haven’t been paying attention. The art we once called hip hop has been dead for some time now. But because its rotting carcass has been draped in platinum …

“Sharia sharia Allah says it’s so A child steals bread His hand must go AND COVER THAT WOMAN UP FROM HEAD TO TOE” Okay, that was bad – I couldn’t resist. Meet our own indiginous strict Muslim hip-hop group, Native Deen: “So always be proud, you can say it out …

Starpolish did an interview with Jam Master Jay just six weeks before he was murdered: STARPOLISH: It’s no secret that Run DMC is singled out as being the band that broke hip hop to the mainstream while still maintaining every ounce of credibility along the way. First and foremost, I …

8 Mile is out today. I am so not an Eminem fan: other than a (very few) catchy little numbers (“Trailer park girls – please stand up – wikky wikky Slim Shady”), nothing about this pud interests me at all (he’s making fun of white trash??). White rapper? So what, …

Jam Master Jay is buried/Top 10 Run-DMC

Run-DMC DJ Jam Master Jay (Mizell) was murdered last night. See reports here and here. Even though he has been around for 20 years, he was only 37. Here are tributes from the Run-DMC website: I’ll never forget that fabulous concert from front row seats in Washington DC in 1986: …

Eminem appears to have transcended barriers by focusing on class over race, living out a sociologist’s dream: The Bronx River Houses are hallowed ground in the hip-hop world, one of the neighborhoods where young African-Americans and Hispanics helped create a new art form in the 1970’s. The housing project in …

Samplers of the world rejoice: in my own mind, recognition is the key to the sampling issue. I’m very glad to hear a judge agrees: A federal judge in Nashville has issued the first major ruling in a massive lawsuit over royalties related to rap artists’ sampling of music recorded …

Legendary Sugar Hill Recording Studio destroyed by fire: An early morning fire on West Street in Englewood, New Jersey, destroyed the Sugar Hill recording studio, which is believed to be the place that the Sugarhill Gang recorded “Rapper’s Delight” in the late ’70s. The fire began at 2 a.m. ET …

Last March, in conjunction with the Rock Hall Induction ceremonies, Cleveland.com conducted a readers poll: Who should get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? The results are here. Cleveland.com Managing Producer Johanna Hoadley and I did a special episode of the Cool Tunes radio show to play music …