Unhappy Halloween, Gravediggaz
Two presidential terms ago, I bowed deep before a momentous election to the Gravediggaz, hoping to exorcise eight years of apocalyptic Republican rule. Here we go again.
hip-hop
The (Blessed) Return Of El-P
Correcting an historical injustice, El-P’s singular, relevant back catalogue will finally return to the land of material and digital reality.
DJ Shadow Chronicles Our Pathetic Age
Givng thanks on Thanksgiving for the letters DJ Shadow has been sending, explaining why and where and how the music from his latest, perhaps greatest effort, Our Pathetic Age, was born.
Mulatu Astatke’s Eternal Return
Few have sequenced the genes of future music as much as Mulatu Astatke, whose dizzying sonic explorations have skillfully skipped across jazz, soul, funk and much more. Those new to Mulatu of Ethiopia seeking a launch window might as well start with a new reissue of … Mulatu of Ethiopia.
Exclusive: Boots Riley Brings a Guillotine to Oz
The Coup‘s frontman is looking for our nation’s heart and power, as the 2012 general election nears.
Prince of Cats Is Straight Outta Shakespeare
Like many culture vultures, Wimberly is something of a reboot specialist.
Cancer Cures El-P’s Droned Dystopia
Drones overhead and smartphones in hand, we drift through panoptic lives and push-button wars. It sometimes feels like most songwriters couldn’t give a crap, but not hip-hop visionary El-P…
DJ Shadow Ready For Total Breakdown
“As long as the old stuff is given a context and doesn’t overshadow the new, I think it’s a healthy exercise for me, and one that recalibrates me for whatever new musical path lies ahead,” said Shadow.
Occupy Hip Hop
“I hope hip hop can open itself to the possibilities that Occupy Wall Street presents. If we can use its power, we may see some lasting change from this after all.”
DJ Shadow: The Less You Know The Better
Shadow’s musical embrace is warm and wide. Return it.
DJ Shadow: The Internet Is Not Your Savior
It’s a democracy failure Davis saw crushed up close, given his proximity to Silicon Valley, where titans like Apple and Google sprouted from technological culture jammers into the undisputed masters of Wall Street’s universe.
Geek The Beatles: Paul McCartney Brings Tomorrow Never Knows Back to the Future
Paul McCartney is working on a new project utilizing vintage gear he once used to make tape loops for The Beatles’ landmark track “Tomorrow Never Knows.”
Moby Makes Sense of Destroyed Media
Moby has been making music across media and genre for over three decades now. Which means he’s watched genres bleed into each other, technology kill the music industry as we […]
Hip-Hop Lives!
[Rob Swift] July 8th, 2010 will officially go down in history as one of the most epic nights in NYC hip-hop. I mean, isn’t it obvious? It’s 10:00 am and […]
Best Music of the Millennium (So Far)
What’s crazy is that few saw it coming.
Q-Tip Resurrects Kamaal the Abstract
A Tribe Called Quest architect Q-Tip created a hypnotic solo album that stretched hip-hop’s envelope years ago. So why did it just drop today? File this one under “Lessons the […]
To-Do List For All Tomorrow’s Parties
Named for the famous Velvet Underground song and founded by Barry Hogan, All Tomorrow’s Parties has defiantly offered bleeding-edge music, comedy and more since its inception.
Hip-Hop’s Good, Great and Not Great
Mos Def’s hyper-aware culture raps keep it smart the whole way.
Mr. Lif Walks the Talk
“Whether you’re a suit with a desk job or a creative artist, you are still programmed to work. You can never ultimately escape from your responsibilities.”
Aceyalone Rejuvenates Lonely Hip-Hop
Aceyalone is one of hip-hop’s unsung virtuosos. No longer. On the freestyle vet’s latest effort The Lonely Ones, every soul genre is freaked and every song is stunning. It’s still […]
Dalek’s Industrial-Hop Tactics Takes Brains
People these days don’t seem to understand that hip-hop is much more diverse than the stoopid shit you see on MTV, when it’s showing music videos, that is. Its palette […]
All Hail Curumin’s Tropicalia-Hop!
On the hunt for exceptional music? Check out Curumin, who has delivered one of the finest efforts of the year in Japan Pop Show. It’s a cultural and sonic bleed […]
Rest in Pieces, Gravediggaz
Long before popcorn torture porn owned the mallrats or the Pentagon started contracting packs of robots to hunt down non-cooperative humans, Gravediggaz owned horrorcore.
Ask DJ Shadow Returns!
LONG BEFORE DJ Shadow became an electro-hop legend, he was answering questions online from scrubs like me. Where did you get the guitar riff for “High Noon?” Who the hell was Colonel Bagshot? Do you owe David Axelrod back pay? Then he got too busy to bother.
The End Of The Jews? An Interview With Adam Mansbach
“ The thing I love about being a novelist is that with each project you invent a new world. You approach it with a different set of aesthetic and structural ideas, and you grapple with a different series of problems in figuring out how to tell the story.”