As part of some cruel joke, my editor at Acclaim thought it would be amusing to force me to listen to Snoop Doggy Dogg’s second album, which was released nineteen years ago today. No Country For Old (Rap) Men: Looking back at Snoop’s sophomore struggle
Author: Robbie Ettelson
Download: A Salute To New Flips of Old Breaks
This is a slightly different approach to the usual ‘A Salute To…’ series, in that it’s a collection of face-offs of two tracks that flip a well-worn loop in a fresh new way, plus a couple of bonus instrumentals that rework classic breaks. It’s worth noting that Diamond D beat Salaam Remi to the punch…
DJ Pizzo [HipHopSite.com] – The Unkut Interview
I did some work with DJ Pizzo this year over at Cuepoint, but previous to that I’d been a loyal customer of the main mail-order hip-hop stores, one of which was HipHopSite, which was founded by Pizzo and Warren Peace in 1996. He explained how the wild west that was the early internet allowed their…
No Country For Old (Rap) Men: Mourning The Death of the B-Side
Records are the bane of my existance, as they’re an absolute bitch to transport when you move, are highly susceptible to flood damage and take up far too much space around the house. The one thing they do have going for them, however, is the b-side. http://www.acclaimmag.com/music/country-old-rap-men-mourning-death-b-side/
Download: A Salute To EZ Elpee
After cutting his teeth over at Big Beat with The Artifacts, Mad Skillz and Junior M.A.F.I.A, EZ Elpee made important contributions to the catalogs of Queens artists such as Royal Flush, Capone-N-Noreaga and Mobb Deep. Equally adept at delivering smooth joints with R&B hooks as he is constructing traditional street records, EZ put his stamp…
Download: Clever 1 – Caveman Cuisine Album
Making his own contribution to the Food Rap genre, Clever 1 from the Buze Brovaz describes Caveman Cuisine as ‘Based on food references, titles and concepts – some of our creative versatile work. Story telling, metaphorical literature with a twist type shit. I do the chef thing real heavy so I felt like giving a…
Searching For Subliminals – A masterclass in paranoia
The sad truth is that there are legions of unpaid interns working for ‘culture’ websites whose prime objective is to scour the lyrics of Drake/Kanye/Jay-Z for anything even vaguely resembling a subliminal diss. While a lot of late eighties rap could be relied on for rival MCs to straight-up call out the competition by name,…
No Country For Old (Rap) Men: Advertising’s Huge Crush on 90s Rap
Selling stuff to aging rap fans is like shooting fish in a barrel, or so most ad execs would have us believe. No Country For Old (Rap) Men: Advertising’s Huge Crush on 90s Rap
Download: A Salute To The Trackmasters
While we now consider the Trackmasters to be just Poke and ‘Red Hot Lover’ Tone, it originally included Alex Richberg and Frank Nitty in the early days. After cutting their teeth on Finesse and Synquis, Tone’s first solo album and working with Chubb Rock, the crew really put themselves on the map when they added…
Three Bizarre Incidents Involving Rap on British TV
All of these clips are equal parts bizarre and amazing. The first features interviews with Schoolly-D and Mantronix while they were on tour in the UK, while overlaying ‘witty’ comments and alleged statistics about violence at rap shows in a manner which suggests that the producers of the segment were either taking the piss or…
Download: A Salute To Big Jaz Productions
The career of The Jaz aka Big Jaz aka Jaz-O is tricky to summarize. On one hand, he had to deal with being eclipsed by his young protege, which is always going to be a blow to the ego. On the other hand, Jay-Z did seem to attempt to repay the favor by offering to…
No Country For Old (Rap) Men: Future and Fetty Wap Deserve Their Own Genre
I’m not mad at these dudes for doing some weird shit. No Country For Old (Rap) Men: Future and Fetty Wap Deserve Their Own Genre