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 »