Further to my article of last week on the two new rapping and singing Wunderkinder, B.o.B and Drake, I just wanted to add a few comments about the reception of their debut albums and what it might say about hip hop criticism today.
My colleague over at Rapspot, Toobs, dug both albums (warning: Danish), preferring B.o.B’s, […]

The synthesis of rapping and singing surely has its prehistory in church, and found precursors in such acts as the Last Poets, while on record it goes back to the early days of hip hop, when The Fatback Band invited Tim Washington onto their 1979 record for “King Tim III (Personality Jock)”, which was shortly […]

The picks of the week from around the web.
RSA Animate: David Harvey breaks down in simple terms the financial crisis from his perspective, accompanied by some great instructional white-board cartooning (above).
Amoeblog: Billyjam interviews hip hop legend Krs-One in depth, on the occasion of the release of his new book The Gospel of Hip Hop. As […]

Wow, it’s been three weeks. They just disappeared. But yeah, I did want to make a few points related to this year’s Roskilde Festival, before the subject gets way too old. It was a great time as usual, but rather poignantly for the year in which it celebrated its 40th anniversary, the festival seemed to […]

One of the most positive musical surprises this year for yours truly has been the recently released Distant Relatives, which sees reggae scion Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley and hip hop veteran Nas teaming up for an Afrocentric album on the theme of our common heritage.
Far from an assured success, the collaboration and the thematic focus […]

The inimitable ‘Li Se’, in whose “extended network” I find myself, has finally opened the floodgates and is committing to writing the kind of intellectual effluvium that people in said network have come to appreciate in conversation over the years. Written on the principle, appropriated from Charles Bukowski, of ‘not trying’, it is blogging as […]

Last week, another of the pioneers of early hip hop culture, Rammellzee passed away. A versatile multimedia artist and cultural theorist, he remained at the margins of hip hop culture as it evolved into a worldwide, commercially successful phenomenon, marching to the beat of his own drum.
From hitting the A train is 1974 and bombing […]

Gary Shider of Plainfield, NJ and long-time funkateer of Parliament-Funkadelic fame, has passed away. He was the one in the diaper, rocking the guitar. Plus he was one of the architects of the P-Funk sound, overshadowed in the earlier years by fellow guitarist Eddie “Maggot Brain” Hazel but was just as important a constituent of […]

Sweden’s finest step up for a tribute to Guru (RIP), and what a terrific tune it is! Promoe over “Full Clip”, Supreme over “Above the Clouds” “Royalty” & “Who’s Gonna Take the Weight”, which Timbuktu then takes over with much enthusiasm. It ends with a bang. Nice one, guys!

For those of you who read Danish, my piece on Guru is now up in translated form over at Rapspot.
Also, I wanted to plug my man Frederik Høyer-Christenen’s photos — we both attended some of Gang Starr’s great shows in Copenhagen in the early 90s. Unfortunately, Frederik didn’t bring his camera to their first […]

“It’s mostly the voice, that gets you up/ And mostly the voice, that makes you buck/ Some got flavor, and some got skills/ But if your voice ain’t dope, then you gots to CHILL”
–“Mostly tha Voice” (1994)

The recent passing of Keith Elam, a.k.a. The Guru (1961-2010 RIP), reminds us of an era in hip hop, […]

Keith Elam aka. Guru Rest In Peace.

As you might be aware, legendary impresario and cultural activist Malcolm Mclaren passed away about a week and a half ago. It’s a little late, but I wanted to add my own little tribute here, because besides his cred as the Man at the Crossroads of punk, he had a brief but fruitful involvement with […]

Med bogen Natasja har Karen Mukupa og Rasmus Poulsen ristet en mindesten til dansk reggaes største talent og en af landets fineste sangere gennem de sidste tyve år, Natasja Saad, der i 2007 tragisk omkom i en bilulykke på Jamaica i en alder af 32 år. Det er på sin plads, for Natasja havde længe […]