Who’s to blame for this unfortunate development? NERD made looking gay and yelling “ironic” lyrics hot for a minute, while Missy Elliott made shitty rapping over 808’s all the rage, before Kanye ‘Liberache’ West made fruity sunglasses blow-up…combine them together and you’ve got “Party Rocking”. Let’s take A-Trak‘s description of The Cool Kids when I…
Author: Robbie Ettelson
Keith Shocklee – The Unkut Interview, Part 2
Continuing my conversation with The Bomb Squad‘s Keith Shocklee, we discuss the early days of Public Enemy, park jams and some of their outside projects. DJ Johnny Juice told me about how you guys made-up a bunch of group names and then filled the spots? Keith Shocklee: What we was doing was a low-scale Motown…
Keith Shocklee – The Unkut Interview, Part 1
Long Island was the proverbial underdog in the mid-80s. While The Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens all wrestled for rap dominance, Strong Island residents would journey into the city to check out shows before returning home to deliver their own twist on what they’d witnessed. It turns out that, somewhat removed from whatever trends were dominating…
Cheech Wizard Short
This is better with the sound down… Vaugn Bode interview Part 1:
DJ Johnny Juice and Son of Bazerk – The Unkut Interview
The original Kings of Pressure Public Enemy and The Bomb Squad were ahead of their time in more ways than one. Beyond the sonic innovation and hardcore lyrical content, the crew also pioneered the kind of self-sufficient work-ethic and forward thinking that would later be repeated as part of the RZA‘s Wu-Tang master plan. The…
Pete Rock – The Unkut Interview
Here’s my interview with Pete from Hip-Hop Connection magazine for anybody who may have missed it. Even though he proved to be one of my more challenging interview subjects, I think you’ll enjoy this a little more than the million other Q&A’s he did to promote the NY’s Finest album. Robbie: You worked with Marley…
Nutrageous – Raw Nuts Review
Photo by Kristina Hill Flushing has already produced some outstanding rappers, and Nut-Rageous continues that tradition with this entertaining collection of some of his vinyl releases and some new tracks. A lot of his tracks remind me of dope mid-90s indy stuff, but not on some throwback tip. Nut adds his own twist to all…
Interview Mixed Grill [Termanology, Tame One, Lord Jamar, Esoteric, DJ Crucial and Wax Tailor]
Here’s a bunch of old interviews I did for print that I never got around to posting, mainly because they weren’t really in-depth. So instead of having to hear about what ever album these guys were promoting at the time, I’ve picked out the most interesting two or three quotes and thrown ’em all together….
Plug Tunin’
Internet soldiers: Your boy is back. That’s right, it’s YN. Text a friend to text a friend. And thanks to the homie Robbie Ettelson, we got a special thing goin’ on. It’s called Hard Body Female Spit Vol. 1 – aka 16 tracks of feminine fire that my Australian mate and I cooked up through…
TJ Swan Sighting
OK, now I understand why the TJ Swan project never got green lighted. It’s also worth noting that letting chicks wear your Kangol is “mad romantic”.
Great Moments In Rap Pt. 3 – Mikey D Vs Melle Mel
Photo by D-Nice MIKEY D VS MELLE MEL DATE: 1989 VENUE: New Musical Seminar Battle for MC Supremacy @ the Marriot Marquis THE COMPETITORS: Mikey D, the young upstart from Queens who went on to work with Paul C and replace Large Professor in Main Source; Melle Mel, the pioneer MC who had a worldwide…
Attention: Hip-Hop Is Not A Woman
There have been so many shitty trends over the course of hip-hop’s relatively brief life-span that it’s tough to pin-point the worst. Novelty dances named after comedians? The Roxanne wars? Weed songs? Love ballads? Tracks titles including the words “Represent: or “Keep It Real”? Nah, it has to be that tired old “Hip-hop music =…