February 24, 2017
The Game
“He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster…when you gaze long into the abyss the abyss also gazes into you.” – […]
July 25, 2016
Majestic Waste
Jay Z and Kanye West’s Watch the Throne (2011) album was a watershed moment in hip hop, specifically, and American culture broadly, though to say this is a bit redundant, […]
June 6, 2016
The Data Mine of Rap
The Raplyzer is a computer program that automatically analyzes rhymes from rap lyrics and ranks rappers according to their Rhyme Factor. Created by Eric Malmi, a doctoral student in Computer […]
April 5, 2016
The Classic Crates Time Capsule: A Proposal
I play it cool I dig all jive That’s the reason I stay alive My motto as I live and learn Is dig and be dug in return —Langston Hughes, […]
March 30, 2016
Phife’s Islands
The third death of A Tribe Called Quest occurred last week with the passing of Phife Dawg. The first death came after The Love Movement, when the group broke up; […]
February 23, 2016
Postscript to My Kanye West Posts
I’m a human being. . . I’m an artist, bro . . . —@kanyewest, February 13, 2016 Since I wrote about Kanye’s arrogance, based mainly in interviews and lyrics from […]
February 17, 2016
“I Am Warhol”: On the Arrogance of Kanye
But if you guys that’re investing in the arts, y’all want to invest in the school in Brazil, y’all wanna go to Africa, I am standing up and I’m telling […]
February 9, 2016
“We All Slaves”: Kanye’s Theory of Power
Back in the days, if slaves had they own money they could buy they own freedom. We all slaves, we slaves to Nike, we slaves to Benz, we slaves to […]
January 31, 2016
Kanye West’s New Slave Daguerreotypes
Kanye West premiered his song and video “New Slaves” by projecting it on the exterior walls of 66 buildings throughout the world. The shots in the video have only two […]
December 28, 2015
From Cop Killers to Killer Cops
The news cycle is quite strange now. One of the hottest topics—black men, and boys, many of them unarmed, shot and killed by police—is certainly old news. I have never […]
December 4, 2015
Slang Cinema: On Camp Lo and Ski Beatz
If you were a hip hop head in the late 1990s, then you probably remember the exact spot on earth you were standing when you first heard Camp Lo’s first […]
November 9, 2015
Enough Beauty to Ruin Your Day: From Ella to Dilla
Technically, I don’t understand jazz. Emotionally, I feel the power of Louis Armstrong, Wayne Shorter, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughn, Brian Blade, Miles Davis, and others. I do not […]