Sad news today, as the original hip-hop radio DJ Mr. Magic has apparently passed away from a heart attack. Magic was winding down his run as NY hip-hop’s kingmaker by the time I got up on things in the late ’80s, but his “Rap Attack” show with Marley Marl on WBLS, as well as Red Alert’s competing slot on KISS-FM, was the first place I got to hear hip-hop in a concentrated dose. That probably means a whole lot of nothing to anyone under, say, 27 but, for most of the ’80s, hearing one hip-hop song on the radio was like getting that valuable rookie in your pack of baseball cards. There was really nothing like the satisfying feeling of checking in to a two-hour show where you heard nothing but the stuff especially since, for me, it was technically “passed my bedtime” by the time it came on. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve avoided writing a proper M.J. post (this notwithstanding) ’til now for one simple reason. I prefer to use my writing to illuminate what is not well known or present viewpoints that are not well represented. With the whole world simultaneously eulogizing Mike in every way imaginable, that just did not seem possible.

Yet it doesn’t seem appropriate to avoid the subject. I was born in 1979, the year of Off The Wall. My earliest, foggy memories come right in late ‘82, early ‘83—you know, Thriller times. My first concert, in July 1984, was the Jacksons’ Victory Tour. Now, these are by no means unique experiences. But, for someone who never tried to sing or dance, Mike’s influence on the direction of my life was profound. See, I was the original MTV kid. As one of the first families in my neighborhood with cable in the early ’80s, our house was regularly visited by our teenage neighbors, who would come over specifically to view the channel. Beginning at the age of four, watching hours of music videos became just as much a part of my daily routine as Sesame Street. As a result, I absorbed pop music more intensely and thoroughly then many other kids, beginning right around the time of Michael’s breakthrough onto MTV in ‘83 with “Billie Jean.” Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been almost a month since my last post. In that time, I got my ass kicked by some labor intensive writing projects, turned 30, went out to California for my first full on vacation in years, came back home, did some more work. Somehow, to the detriment of whatever momentum I had before that point, blogging about music was the furthest thing from my mind through it all. Ready to get back to business, though.

Reviewed the new UGK in this past week’s issue of Time Out. Can’t get enough of this album. Except that god damn Akon track. I don’t hate Akon as much as some other people, but Christ, way to mess up a potentially great thing. Several weeks after writing it, I stand by my five-out-of-six rating, though.