“Other People’s Property” is a very good book that is at its best when its author acts like a DJ. But don’t get it twisted: [Jason] Tanz sees hip-hop as text more than as sonic phenomenon or, for that matter, stone groove. “Other People’s Property” is made up of nine journalistic pieces, each a mix of reportage and personal reflection about race and the industry of hip-hop. It’s freaky, equally in love with Western philosophers such as Jean Baudrillard and the classic albums from hip-hop’s golden era. In a very hip-hop effort to get his shine on, the author mashes up his prose, cutting in and out of reportage and confessional styles.
This cutting edge documentary not only unmasks the faces of seven individuals addicted to graffiti, but it exposes their thoughts, feelings, faults and fears — an avenue unrivaled by any graff film to date[…]”Graffiti is like the United Nations. There is a representative from all corners of the earth. Black, white and the many shades in between, man or woman.”
To commemorate what would have been Jam Master Jay’s 41st birthday, Sticky Fingaz and Canadian music personality Raoul “Deejay Ra” Juneja have recorded a public service announcement in honor of the late co-founder and DJ of Run-DMC.
Rapper/actor/filmmaker Ice Cube and Emmy Award winning filmmaker R.J. Cutler have teamed to create a six-part documentary series titled “Black.White,” which will be broadcast on cable network FX.
Two families, one black and one white, share a home in the San Fernando Valley for the majority of the show.
The Sparks, who are black and hail […]
There is nothing quite so comforting as a bad-bad explanation of a social phenomenon. All you do is take two things you don’t like — say, rap and riots — and suggest that one causes the other. Thus, in the aftermath of France’s riots, it seemed that many French politicians knew exactly who to blame. One hundred and fifty-three members of the lower house of Parliament and 49 senators backed a petition by conservative lawmaker Francois Grosdidier asking the justice minister to press charges against seven acts: singers Smala, Fabe and Salif and the rap groups Lunatic, 113, Ministere Amer and Monsieur R. The petition wants them charged with inciting racism and anti-Semitism, and inflaming, if not actually causing, the rioting.
Larry Willmore, the creative force behind The Bernie Mac Show, is currently developing a ‘Hip Hop influenced’ show for NBC. The show titled The Raftons, is based on a clueless corporate executive who finds himself having to run his younger brother’s business. His younger brother just happens to be a rising hip-hop mogul and the older brother is no fan of the music and has a hard time trying to relate to the business side of Hip Hop.
Is Hip Hop African music or not? This is a question that has provided the most elusive answers yet as the music take the entertainment industry on the continent by storm. Malawi is slowly responding to hip hop music but does the genre have any place in this country? Levi Kabwato talks to a local hip hop artist, a producer and a disc jockey to find out.
Rapper Kurtis Blow stands in the front of the church wearing a black do-rag, scratching records old-school, accompanied by a drummer in a hooded sweatshirt and a keyboardist in a New York Jets jersey. The congregation is on its feet, dancing. “Shake it out,” says the Rev. Stephen Pogue of the Greater Hood Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church in Harlem. “Shake it out for Jesus. On your feet for 90 seconds.
Black Eyed Peas have been lined up to help brand the all new Intel product line. Hip hop group the Black Eyed Peas will be helping Intel by promoting its new brands announced this week. The rap group will be performing at Intel’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this Thursday (January 5th) to announce the all new chips, Centrino and the multimedia based Viiv.
