Hip Hop Blogs

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Explicit Content Only

What would it sound like if you took all of the clean words out of N.W.A's "Straight Outta Compton"? Something like this.

(It'll be especially dope when someone throws the instrumental behind the "Full version in real time.")

Profanity's become such a non-issue, but even now, 15 years later, "Straight Outta Compton" is still one cuss-laden track. A few weeks ago I was listening closely to another track from the same album and realized that there were only one or two couplets that didn't have a curse in them, and many of the lines ended and rhymed the curse. You can only rhyme "bitch" so many ways...

iPod DJ Mixer

Will this finally kill the hip-hop DJ's reliance on vinyl at parties? Peep:

Of course not. DJ's are nostalgic by nature. But one iPod could replace ten crates of records. That's powerful if a DJ knows how handle their music correctly.

The Best Damn Rap Show

This cd is making me believe again. I've been skeptical of my indie hip-hop heroes lately. Things aint the same as '97. But this cd, a team-up from one of my favorite beatsmiths, Mighty Mi, and colorful emcee Vast Aire is just so fun to listen to.

Best songs? The Workover is gorgeous, and Fighter Pilots is straight gutter. Listen to samples.

Hashim, the Feminist

I'm contributing to another blog.

Peep Good for a Girl- connecting women, hip-hop, and women in hip-hop. It's part of the follow up effort from the  Feminism in Hip-hop Conference that happened this weekend in Chicago. My hope is that  it will be a clearinghouse for info and discussion on this rolling meme about women in hip-hop that's been happening this year.

I love that this conversation is happening organically, from inside the culture first. Props to the wonderful Raquel Wilson and Miranda Jane for letting a guy like me be down with the movement. I feel excited about what can happen this year.

Also, take notice of and join the hip-hop feminism email group.

I'm co-signing the One Campaign

Ian is right.

How can I not pay attention to the situation in certain parts of Africa where thousands are dying of preventable diseases and AIDS everyday? Pause on that for a second.

Overwhelming, right? That sense of hugeness of the problem always froze me, instead of moving me to action. I regularly give to charity and volunteer my time to the keeeds, but the emergencies in Africe always left me feeling like, "What the heck can I do that would make a real impact?"

Well, One.org has given me that answer. Raise awareness. Spread the word. Hey, that's what I do best.

Lil Jon and Friends at Webster Hall 4/9

I'm going to the Lil Jon and Ying Yang Twins concert. I predict this will be the most fun I have a concert all this year. You can get free tickets, if they're still available, or watch the live webcast.

The Birthplace of Hip-hop

As you read the history, follow along with the story on this map.

GGG-GMAIL!

50 Cent and Google team up to present GGG-GMAIL!:

GGG-Gmail is an experiment in a new kind of webmail, built on the idea that you should never have to put up with any wack-a$$ s--t in your inbox. Some of the hot GGG-Gmail features are...

Heh. This is what the internet was created for.

Open Letter to Mark Harris

Dear Mark Harris,
after reading the first paragraph of your article, "Edutainment: The Rise and Fall of Hip-hop's Intelligensia" I was able to predict everything you wrote in the rest of it. Y'see, multiple times every year I read something that starts like this:

"Despite the recent emergence of literate, topic-driven rappers like Kanye West, Talib Kweli, and the Roots, hip-hop remains a genre that subsists largely on messages of hyper-machismo, lechery, violence, and crass materialism. But for a brief, shining period in time -- from about 1988 to 1992 -- rappers bragged not about how much "bling" they had or how many people they shot, but about how intelligent they were."

Mark, your argument is cynical and nostalgic, old and overdone. You put down hip-hop's current stars, while bigging-up the glorified past. Man, that's just too easy.

However, going over your piece point-by-point is also too easy (and also unfair, since this type of lazy mistake happens to the very, very best of us). So instead, I'll point to an article that covers the same subject, yet is measured, interesting and thank goodness shorter than what you wrote. Peep Oliver Wang's take on the past and present of conscious hip-hop.