Veteran hip-hop writers Andrew Emery (Hip Hop Connection, Fat Lace) and Chairman Mao (ego trip, XXL Mag) have both penned intelligent articles which take a far more open-minded approach to all the the trendy tight-jeans rappers than my own five-minute, hateful rant against the smedium shirt brigade. I’ve also notices that Wikipedia now also mentions…
Category: Print Work
The Return of Rapsloitation
If you’ve ever had the misfortune of having to sit through Breakdance 2: Electric Boogaloo, Rappin’ or even Posse, then get ready for more cinematic horrors in the not-too-distant future. Yeah, you guessed it – they started shooting the effin’ Biggie Smalls movie. After holding a nation-wide audition for the lead, the producers (I’m assuming…
T La Rock Interview Pt. 2 – The Lost Tapes
Continuing my talk with “Super Rapper” T La Rock, we discuss the origins of his name, working with Mantronik, bootleggers and unreleased recordings. T is currently developing a biopic called ‘The T La Rock Story’ with “a very powerful producer from Hollywood” named Bonnie Timmerman (who was the Casting Director on Man On Fire, Carlito’s…
T La Rock Interview Pt. 1 – The Story of It’s Yours
T La Rock is so entrenched into the history of hip-hop that he actually attended Kool Herc‘s first parties. After nine years of deejaying, breaking and emceeing locally in The Bronx, as well as introducing his brother Special K of the Treacherous Three to rap, T finally decided to take the next step and begin…
DJ Vicious Lee (Def IV) – The Unkut Interview
Even though Rap-A-Lot Records is closely associated with Houston’s 5th Ward, most of the groups on the early roster were originally from New Jersey or New York, which resulted in some interesting blends of styles. The Def IV’s Nice & Hard album is a perfect example, as it introduced an upbeat, sample-heavy sound that was…
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…
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…
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….
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…
Brother J Interview/X-Clan Vs BDP
Here’s one from the vaults – an interview with Brother J from the end of 2006 that was published in Modern Fix. I lost the original transcript where we discuss his production but until I get a chance to re-type it this will have to do. His comments on the BDP situation are especially interesting….