Last year hip-hop lost one of its greatest icons. Such was the reputation that Guru, or Keith Edward Elam to use his government name, built during his lifetime that the legacy he leaves behind needs very little introduction. …Read More.
One of the world’s greatest wordsmiths, Gil Scott-Heron, has died in hospital in NYC, aged 62. Often coined as the Godfather of Rap, a title that he refused to acknowledge – and little wonder given his anti-commercialist sentiments – he preferred instead the term Black American Musician.
A career spanning some forty odd years saw him perform poetry and spoken word, often backed by jazz and blues with a heavy African influence. He published two novels, The Vulture and The Nigger Factory, penning the first of these at the age of 19. …Read More.
Horrorcore emerged in the late 1980s, perhaps as a reaction to the hippy hop of De La Soul or an evolution of NWA and the Geto Boys’ brutal gangsta rap.
Despite the aesthetic dichotomy between heavy metal and hip-hop the genres have shared many similarities, especially at the extreme end of rap. A morbid fascination with murder and violence was a preoccupation for Kool G Rap, KRS 1 and Anthrax alike during the late 1980s. …Read More.
Big L
Return of the Devil’s Son
SMC Recordings
Posthumous albums are always a risky business, at their best they can stand to assert and compliment the pre-existing legacy, such as in the case of J Dilla’s Jay Stay Paid. At worse they can be messy affairs that serve to diminish what was so great about the artist in the first place; this tends to be a far more
Sad news emerged last week as punk svengali Malcolm McLaren passed away due to mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer.
Best known for managing the Sex Pistols he was also quick to recognize the many parallels between punk and hip-hop, despite the stylistic differences of the two genres. And in many respects McLaren introduced the UK to hip-hop via the much sampled Duck Rock album which he produced alongside post-punk guru Trevor Horn in 1982.
DJ Premier displays his typical musical erudition with this tribute mix which you can stream here or download from Premos’ blog.
It’s 13 years to the day since the passing of Biggie Smalls. On the 26th of March it will be 15 years since Eazy E died of AIDS and the 11th of April is the Day Proof (D12) was shot dead. With this in mind, recent Mercury Prize winner Wayne Lotek has put together this dope tribute mix for all the fallen soldiers. And it’s free to download here.
Featuring the recently deceased Apache, MC Breed, Proof, Poetic/Grym Reaper(Gravediggaz), Eazy E, Big Pun, Ol Dirty Bastard, Big L, 2Pac and of course The Notorious B.I.G. Obviously there’s too many dead rappers to feature on one mixtape, but maybe he’ll do a volume 2 if this get’s enough downloads. Who would you put on?
Biggie Smalls R.I.P
