A white boy’s relation to rap music is a precarious thing. Sure, white folks had previously infiltrated jazz and almost completely conquered rock and roll, African Americans’ previous musical inventions...
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My exposure to rap music during my first couple years of grad school (1993-95) was quite limited in comparison to what it had been in undergrad. I really don’t remember...
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Sometimes I sense that living in contemporary America must feel like nonstop walking on eggshells, always worrying that something you could say might offend. I’ve lived in Spain now for...
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A Tribe Called Quest made their mark by incorporating jazz into their laid-back hip-hip grooves. The beats are minimal and crisp, the embellishments spare, making Q-Tip and Phife Dawg’s cool...
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I don’t know why, exactly, but there seems to be a gap in my awareness of rap music. During the last few years of the ‘80s, Sonic Youth and the...
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I first heard Public Enemy in the summer of 1987. I’d read a record review of their debut album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show somewhere and picked it up. (I...
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After the sudden death of his brother and the dissolution of their group KMD, Daniel “Zev Love X” Dumile disappeared from the hip hop scene entirely, sleeping on the streets...
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KMD—essentially the brainchild of brothers Daniel “Zev Love X” and Dingilizwe “DJ Subroc” Dumile, along with with Onyx the Birthstone Kid—were hard at work on the follow-up to their mostly…
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