“Otis” and Its Remixes

Barack Obama: Born in the Trap?

The New Horrorcore

The New Horrorcore The second wave of horrorcore is over, and it has been for about a decade.  Originating in the early 90s, the (fairly well-defined) first wave of horrorcore included every third song from The Geto Boys, Gravediggaz, and NOT BONE THUGS-AND-HARMONY STOP INCLUDING THEM.  The second wave, lasting from 1998 to somewhere in [...]

A Critique of Talib Kweli’s 100 Greatest Rap Songs List: Part 5

Final and DONE!   30. “Juicy” by The Notorious B.I.G. “Juicy” The Argument For: Not much.  “Juicy” is just one of the 10 greatest hip-hop songs ever made. Other than that, it doesn’t have much going for it. The Argument Against: Do you get the “Rappin’ Duke” reference?  No, you don’t. I didn’t either, until [...]

A Critique of Talib Kweli’s 100 Greatest Rap Songs List: Part 4

50. “Runnin’” by Pharcyde “Runnin’” The Argument For: “Alternative hip-hop” is not my specialty.  By “alternative,” I mean bands like Pharcyde, Hieroglyphics, Juarassic 5, The Roots, and to a lesser extent ones like ATCQ, Brand Nubian, and De La Soul.  Oh, and Del.  Anyway, my point is that it’s not my thing and I don’t [...]

A Critique of Talib Kweli’s Greatest Rap Songs List: Part 3

Hey I picked this back up again!  Another round of 20.   60. “Sound of the Police” by KRS-One “Sound of the Police” The Argument For: There are some who contend that KRS-One is one of the five greatest rappers of all time based on his critical involvement in the classic Boogie Down Productions album(s) [...]

A Critique of Talib Kweli’s 100 Greatest Rap Songs List: Part 2

And we’re back!   80. “Lose Yourself” by Eminem Lose Yourself The Argument For: As an Eminem junkie, I can tell you that this song is the culmination of his abilities as a lyricist and quite possibly the very best Eminem song ever.  It also won an Oscar.  So it has a lot going for [...]

A Critique of Talib Kweli’s 100 Greatest Rap Songs List: Part 1

So, you may have heard that Talib Kweli was recently asked to name his top 100 hip-hop songs by Rolling Stone, presumably so that they can put out their own list of the top 100 hip-hop songs that, if their list of 100 singers is any indication, will probably be terrible and leave out 2pac [...]

Will Smith’s Forgotten Homophobia

  by Zack Rearick   As a rapper, Will Smith (aka The Fresh Prince)’s greatest legacy is his squeaky-cleanness. Smith’s mini-beef with Eminem (which “culminated” in his response track, “Mr. Nice Guy”) was indicative of Smith’s perception in the modern rap world. When Em said “Will Smith ain’t gotta cuss in his rap’s to sell [...]

Justin Bieber’s “Otis” Freestyle

by Zack Rearick   That Canadian pop superstar Justin Bieber has been trying to break into the rap game says a lot about how hip hop works in this newest decade. J-Biebs has kicked flows on legitimate venues like Hot 97′s Morrning Show and Power 106, and the fact that he’s able to do so [...]

Ol’ Dirty Bastard: Still No Son to His Aesthetic

by Zack Rearick     From the beginning, the three pillars of rap-music-subject-material have been the following: getting money, getting women, and keeping it real. Naturally, when talking about an art form which has as diverse a history as rap, one must recognize that three subjects have been approached from a million different angles. When [...]

The Paper Fetish

The Paper Fetish by Claire Bateman Who knows how many murdered trees I have known postmortem, piece by pulverized piece of chemically whitened flesh, & milled surfaces, some smooth, some ragged with small teeth, some deckle-edged & fancy, others plain, cut & rolled with a curled lip, & the dry scent of tree death.

Video Review: Stepped on My J’z by Nelly

by Zack Rearick Sometimes you see something so profoundly disturbing that you have to share it with other people, if only to make sure that they see it too. Such is the case with the video to Nelly’s 2008 not-at-all-hit single “Stepped on My J’z.” The racial implications in this song are so multi-layered-ly disturbing [...]

On Missing Home, But Never Returning

by Meghan K. Barnes I come from the first city known for legalized gambling in the United States, which is also known for its abundance of addicts, prostitution, and criminal origins— Atlantic City, New Jersey.  I would be lying if I said this city didn’t seem magical when I was a child.  That I didn’t love the [...]

“Otis” and Its Remixes

by Zack Rearick Here are the three things you need to know before we watch the video for Kanye West/Jay-Z’s single “Otis”: The first single Kanye West and Jay-Z released after they had announced they would be making an album together was “H.A.M.” Though it had a substantial impact on America’s lexicon, the song wasn’t [...]

Alan Seeger vs Video Games? Well…kinda!

by Jason Mott The big business of marketing video games has become, well, big business.  Twenty years ago all you really had to advertise was the fact that you’d actually made a game.  Throw up a few screen shots, maybe a decent catchphrase or, perhaps, a blue hedgehog or charming Italian plumber and you had [...]