Respect Due To The GURU This is fucked the fuck up. I can’t add anything to the piece I wrote in March other than to say Rest In Peace Keith Elam…a true Master of the Ceremony. I can still remember the first time I heard the ‘Positivity’ remix on the radio….
Author: Robbie Ettelson
Kill That Noise – Rap Rumors That Don’t Matter
You could be excused for believing that I spend every waking hour obsessing over rap trivia while preparing for my next interview with an obscure hip-hop character, but that’s not really the case. Admittedly, a lifetime of perusing linear notes and thumbing through old rap magazines can tend to have some unwanted side-effects, but beyond…
TJ Swan’s Lost Single
First there was The Search For TJ Swan, followed by the Tribute and eventually this: tj swan is my father…i mean sperm doner..he fell off and is gonna stay off..he doesnt take care of his daughter’s (he has 3) i am his 1st daughter n i want evryone to know he’s a liar and a…
Producer, Engineer or Beatmaker?
Some things are hard to define. What exactly is the role of the ‘Executive Producer’ on an album? Is it the guy who paid for the record to be made? The dude who decided which beats to use and which guests to invite? Or the character who sat up the back and simply nodded his…
Rick Rubin – The Man, The Myth
When Rick Rubin is written about in the media, he is either portrayed as “the most important producer of the last 20 years” or as the shaggy ‘Wolfboy’ guru who carries lapis lazuli Buddhist prayer beads and dislikes footwear. While many of the startlingly broad range of musicians that have worked with Rick gush his…
10 Things I Discovered From The Book ‘Def Jam, Inc.’
Somehow or other, I recently found myself at the local library, where I stumbled across a book titled Def Jam, Inc. The author, Stacy Guerseva, did a great job of recalling the history from the early days of the label based in Rick Rubin‘s dorm through to the powerhouse that it would eventually become. Of…
Toney For Mayor?
Guess some Nas stans got a little butt-hurt over the last piece. Of course, they failed to read the part where I declared that “there’s no denying that Nas is one of the greatest MC’s of all-time” and shed tears over the fact that I didn’t list ‘If I Ruled The World’ as a ‘classic’….
How Can Nas Be Garbage?
“With the exception of G Rap, Nas has more dope songs then anyone from Queens and just as many as any other rapper in the world” – Johnny Hardcore Following this challenge of sorts by a guy who seems to have taken his screen name from a male pr0n star, let’s take a look at…
Meyhem’s Top Five Songs That Represent Queens
During the interview with Meyhem which I dropped yesterday, I asked him which three songs he’d play to someone who’d never heard hip-hop from Queens before. He gave me five…
Counter Strike Spotlight: Meyhem Lauren
You might know Meyhem from his work with J-Love, as he’s hosted the majority of his mixtapes and appeared on all of J’s street CD’s, and is also a member of The Outdoorsman crew. Not to mention his outstanding contribution to the Counter Strike tape (‘Animal Science’ feat. Roc Marciano) and numerous dope songs he’s…
Bartenders > Weed Holders
At the Raekwon show the other night, I witnessed the next generation of weed holding. Several members Ice Water were helping out The Chef on stage as you might expect, but it wasn’t long before one of the co-stars tired of vocal back-ups and abandoned his mic in favor of taking care of the drinks…
Roc Marciano – Marcberg Album Review
This is Critical Beatdown for 2010. While it doesn’t exactly share any similarities in terms of the beat science presented, Marcberg is a game-changer. Much like the impact of Ultramagnetic MC’s long-awaited debut, you’ve never really heard an album like this before. No guest producers, over-used hooks or any type of traditional song-structure for that…