Q & A’s
After beginning his career as a child prodigy of sorts, Keyboard Money Mike went on to have a long and varied career in the music game, and was involved in the earliest records of Ultramagentic MC’s and KRS-One before he was made the Vice President of B-Boy Records. These days he’s involved with everything from…
Hardknocks delivered something unique when they dropped the School of Hard Knocks album in 1992. It stood-out both musically and lyrically as a sophisticated blend of hardcore rhymes and groove-heavy beats that sounded nothing like any other record of the era. Then they promptly vanished…leaving a lot of unanswered questions for rap fanatics who knew…
Around the time of Stark’s R&B album and Chef’s Cuban sequel, I interviewed the two of them for Hip-Hop Connection Digital. Here are some of the parts that I didn’t feature in the original piece that mainly cover some of the old days of Staten Island rap. Robbie: What were the early days like on…
The second half of my conversation with Mario, who speaks on some of the more technical aspects of engineering and mixing, as well as working on Ready To Die and winning a Latin Grammy. Robbie: How many songs that were left off Hell On Earth? Mario Rodriguez: There were a lot of song that weren’t…
With a career in the music industry spanning over 30 years, Mario ‘Not Rude’ Rodriguez has worked on a lot of records as an engineer and mixer. Amongst his hip-hop projects, he’s been involved with records from Mobb Deep, LL Cool J, Biggie Smalls and Public Enemy to name a few. For the first part…
The best thing about getting an interview or feature published in print is having my words paired-up with original photography. Google image search is fine for your everyday blog post type of thing, but nothing beats having a crisp shot of the artist that nobody has. Enter Alexander Richter, who has provided shots for a…
Continuing from Part 1, Trag discusses dealing with depression, mentoring MC’s and the origin of his military state of mind. Robbie: Can you tell me more about the fall-out from your second album? Tragedy Khadafi: I’ve been rhyming since I was nine and I started writing songs when I was eleven, so I’ve been rhyming…
Photo: ARMEN Tragedy Khadafi is considered to be the blueprint of the Queensbridge style of rhyming, which has become world-renowned thanks to artists like Nas, Mobb Deep and Cormega. Even though he never achieved the commercial acclaim of some of those who followed in his footsteps – due to a variety of personal and professional…
I’m not even going to attempt to explain who the Internets Celebrities are – that’s what the ‘About’ section of their site is for, dummies! Okay, since you’re clearly too lazy and/or hungover to crawl over to your laptop and wipe the Cheezel dust from your fingers, I’ll provide a Twitter-proof rundown in less than…
Press days are one of the worst things about the interview game. Speaking to some dudes about their new album after they’ve spent the whole day answering the same corny questions is rarely a recipe for quality Q&A material. That being said, here are the better parts of my session with DJ Muggs and Ill…
From his independent heater ‘Cannibal Town’, through to his The Hitman album and his work as a member of the Maniac Mob on The D&D Project, founding Flavor Unit soldier Double J has been doing his thing to rep Jersey City over the years without getting caught out by the music game. Robbie: When did…
[left to right] Molecules,Chucky Smash & Cee-Low If you’re a fan of Showbiz & AG‘s Runaway Slave (and if you’re not, kill yourself) then you should recall your first introduction to The Legion, as they chanted ‘Who’s It On?’ in one of the skits. Soon afterwards they signed to Dres‘ One Love imprint and dropped…