XLR8R allegedly published a story I wrote on Baltimore’s finest MC, Labtekwon, in their June/July issue. I haven’t seen the magazine but the story’s available online. One of the things I wanted to (and did) with this piece was focus on Lab’s videos. Despite their limited production values—he shoots and edits most of them himself—they capture what he’s about more fully than the video oeuvre of almost any other contemporary rapper I can think of, mixing and matching Egyptian imagery and old school hip-hop signifiers with gratuitous yet somehow endearing T&A. Ironically, it was catching the most absurdly gratuitous of his videos (for “Uhnnn Huhnnn”) on the late BET Uncut that opened me to his music: it’s hard to imagine why in 2009, but in 2004 the idea of a rapper straddling the Mush Records/Anticon axis dropping a straight up, grimy booty video was very refreshing and almost revolutionary. I’ve been a fan ever since. Read the rest of this entry »

Apologies for another post drought. Here’s links to some work I’ve published recently:

Review of Bronx hip-hop pioneer Disco Wiz’s autobiography, It’s Just Begun, in this week’s Time Out

Review of Cam’s Crime Pays in last week’s Time Out

Profile on Dam-Funk in the May issue of XLR8R

Q&A with U.K. Afro-club producers Radioclit in the May issue of XLR8R

Review of Tanya Morgan’s Brooklynati from May 7 issue of Time Out

Random travel article on New Haven, CT that I wrote for Time Out Read the rest of this entry »

Published a piece in the current (Feb. 5-11) issue of Time Out New York on Newark/Philly’s Brick Bandits and Brick City club music, Bmore’s Jeruz-ified cousin. A fun one to do, seeing as these guys are making some great music that hasn’t gotten much (any?) press. Wish I’d had more space, as there were a number of things I’d have liked to touch on in greater detail, namely house music’s entrenchment in Newark/North Jers hood culture (even Redman got his start DJing house records, as DJ Tameil, a childhood friend/neighbor of Redman’s, told me). And, most importantly, how great the tracks on the Bandits’ recent Mad Decent EP is. As I stated in the article, Brick City club producers generally offer a more polished take on Baltimore club then their Maryland counterparts. My two favorite tracks on the EP, Mike V’s “Feelings” and DJ Sega’s “Colours,” have a kind of soothing, calming quality to them—an impressive feat considering their frenetic pacing. “The Chase” by Rob3, from the Bandits’ Chicago affiliates Ghetto Division, which I didn’t get to mention in the piece, is also worth a listen. That one’s definitely not soothing, though.

While writing this story, I got to reading about Club Zanzibar, the downtown Newark nightspot where Tony Humphries, Larry Levan, Francois K and others resided in the 80s. (I think Aly-Us, who were from the area, shot their uber-low budget video for their gospel/soul/house classic “Follow Me” there, too). This tribute page is pretty fascinating.

More Brick Bandits:

DJ Sega made a Bmore club theme out of Quagmire from The Family Guy.

Bizarre fan-made video for DJ Sega’s remix of the Kill Bill theme.

Tim Dolla mixtape motherlode