http://jesseserwer.com/blog Jesse Serwer is a freelance writer with a focus on music, culture and New York Wed, 25 Aug 2010 05:17:51 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Gang Starr was my favorite rap group. They were the best hip-hop duo, period. Others had bigger impacts (Run-DMC and OutKast, perhaps) but Guru and Premier were better for longer. Their second, third and fourth albums were landmarks but their last two albums were probably, front-to-back, their strongest. And it ... http://jesseserwer.com/blog/?p=334 Wow, it's been two months since my last post. And all I have to offer is some links. I have a Chris Rock interview is in this week's Time Out New York. We talked about funerals, Pootie Tang and the infamous James Brown alien abduction episode of Miami Vice. Speaking ... http://jesseserwer.com/blog/?p=332 I wrote a review of Gil Scott-Heron's I'm New Here for today's Washington Post. I think it may be the best album of the young year. (I didn't bother to listen to many January releases, so I can't say this with certainty). After a veritable drought recently, this week's new ... http://jesseserwer.com/blog/?p=331 It's been a while since I've posted on any current matters so I thought I'd put together a little roundup of recent published work. In December, I had the opportunity to interview Mariah Carey for Time Out New York's "Hot Seat" section. Mariah is from around my way in L.I., ... http://jesseserwer.com/blog/?p=329 While speaking to former Too Poetic DJ Freddie "Kaos" Cox recently, he let it slip that there was an unreleased album the group had submitted to Tommy Boy in 1989. Long story short, I've been sitting on the interview for the past month and a half waiting on the LP, ... http://jesseserwer.com/blog/?p=270 Known for the 1990 Zakia Records fast-rap gem, "Massive Material/Run For Cover," Bolaji Barber recently re-emerged with a new album project called The Vinyls on his own Hotstyle Music label. I recently caught up with the North Babylon native over the phone from his new hometown of Orlando and, it ... http://jesseserwer.com/blog/?p=317 Only the first one gets a pic this time DJ QUIK AND KURUPT—BlaQKout (Mad Science) This was the year of the "temporary" rap duo, as declining record sales and other factors led everyone from EDO.G and Masta Ace to Buckshot and KRS-One to pool their resources into one-off collaborative albums. BlaQKout ... http://jesseserwer.com/blog/?p=284 I wasn't planning on writing a "Best Of" list this year, seeing as no one asked me to (What's up with that?) Fine, I've never been all that interested in these things anyway. But as I've read list after list these past few weeks, I noticed that few of the ... http://jesseserwer.com/blog/?p=283 Jonzhaft the Psychopath. All photos/flyers courtesy Oxygen North Babylon, which borders Wyandanch to the south, is not a place many people associate with hip-hop. It's a predominantly white town. But both LL Cool J and Freddie Foxxx grew up here, and the area has produced many other, less heralded rap ... http://jesseserwer.com/blog/?p=290 "Wyandanch Week" (Really a once-a-week series of installments) continues with producer/engineer/studio head James Nathaniel "Nate" Tinsley. Eric B. & Rakim, Groove B Chill, Too Poetic, Sid & B-Tonn—if they're rappers from out of Wyandanch, they did their first studio recordings in Nate's basement studio. Moving into house music in the ... http://jesseserwer.com/blog/?p=282