Still waiting for the Kid Cudi to attempt a Ziggy Stardust remake album, but not in a good way. The pros and cons of rap concept albums
Category: Features
In-depth coverage
Who Is The Most Boring Rapper Alive?
Six years ago I asked who was New York’s most boring rapper, but never got around to polling the results. Following on from my piece about Common – and the fact that there are a number of new contenders for the throne – I’ve assembled a list of twelve candidates based on previous responses and…
The Wacky World of 2LP Repressings
At some point in every rap fan’s life, there comes the day when you have pretty much every album worth owning but realize that all those late eighties and early ninties albums that were designed to fill up a 74 minute compact disc were doomed to whisper-quiet single vinyl pressings that you could only hear…
The worst songs from the best rappers
Just as a broken clock is right twice a day, even the best of the best rapper dudes have delivered the odd clunker. The rules of engagement are as follows: 1. The crappy song in question must have been released while said rapper was in their prime rather than during the inevitable late career auto-pilot/mentalist…
Who was MC Kool Breeze Steve?
If the YouTube comment section is to be believed (which it is, natch), this is a tape rip of a party on Feb 14, 1986 at Central High School in Philly where DJ Cash Money and DJ Jazzy Jeff first publicly unleashed the infamous ‘Transformer’ scratch. It also featured Kool Breeze Steve, who rolled with…
No Country for Old (Rap) Men: Stuff that Tupac Was Better at Than Joey Bada$$
In response to Joey’s claim that he is better at rapping than Tupac… Stuff that Tupac Was Better at Than Joey Bada$$
Ranking Kool G Rap’s Albums
There’s a new Kool G Rap album due some time in the near future titled Return of the Don, featuring Sean Price, Raekwon and Saigon. Following on from the KRS-One LP ranking I thought I’d take a shot at ranking the discography of the greatest MC of all time.
Three Cheers For The Engineer
From soundtracks to sounds trash. Ammirite? Three Cheers For The Engineer
An in-depth study of EPMD’s Jane saga
I like to think that Jane somehow snuck in to the photoshoot for the ‘Golddigger’ single. The Jane saga is the longest running series in rap, and also the most confusing. It’s almost as if Erick and Parrish have completely forgotten what happened in each previous episode, as there is very little continuity between each…
The legacy of top-heavy LPs
All that talk about classic albums the other week got me thinking, can a front loaded rap album stand up against something that’s strong from start to finish? The legacy of top-heavy LPs
Which four rap classics should Harvard have honoured first?
The good news is that Harvard University will be honouring a minimum of ten hip-hop classics every year for future study and appreciation. The bad news, it seems, is that they’ve put 9th Wonder in charge of curating it and notate everything with links to Rap Dummy. I’m assuming that the enormous importance of pioneering…
Fans or fam? The changing role of the rap audience
An in-depth discussion or just my version of Fake Deep Universal? Fans or fam? The changing role of the rap audience