March 5, 2016
Ghost City
Yesterday, someone asked me if I missed Columbus. I said that I missed certain people, and that I supposed I missed the city, too. “What places do you miss?” she […]
October 14, 2015
The Literal Underground: On Bernie’s Hip Hop Night
In Columbus, our underground hip hop night was literally underground. Bernie’s Distillery sat below North High Street, accessible through a black staircase that carried you down 10 feet, past a […]
August 14, 2015
Rap Athenas: From Juvenile’s “Ha” to A$AP Rocky’s “Peso”
There are two hip hop videos that remind me of the birth of Athena. The goddess leaped out, full-grown and armor-clad, from Zeus’s skull. It is an unexpected ending to […]
March 12, 2015
How to Write Human: Outkast’s Art of Storytellin’
Literature is at its best when it humanizes its characters and, by extension, its readers. The poetry of the duo Outkast, comprised of Big Boi and Andre 3000, peels back the […]
November 28, 2013
Happy Birthday to “Midnight”
A few weeks ago, an important literary event went unnoticed in the literary world: Midnight Marauders turned twenty. Midnight, the third album of legendary hip hop group A Tribe Called […]
September 22, 2013
Relentless: Moose Tracks and Donald Goines
I’m a binge ice cream eater, partial to Moose Tracks. For a long time, I favored chocolate. But late one night a couple years back, after my companion and kids […]