Scientific Findings

Meet Music's Next Superstar: Shia LaBeouf

By Brittany Spanos Tue., May 21 2013 at 11:45 AM
Categories: History, Scientific Findings

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Shia feelin' some feelings in a Sigur Rós clip
Last week, actor and LSD-enthusiast Shia LaBeouf and synth-pop duo Future Unlimited debuted the gloomy video for "Haunted Love" directed by none other than everyone's favorite Michael Bay leading man. LaBeouf has had many an odd foray into music video. From a thirty-minute musical of interpretive dancing to sad Icelandic piano music, let's look back at some LaBeouf deep cuts and no longer regret that his film Disturbia and Rihanna's song of the same name were not related.

See also: The Top Five Music Videos Directed By Razzie Award "Winners"

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History

The Five Best NYC Rap Albums That Never Happened

By Chaz Kangas Fri., Mar. 29 2013 at 2:31 PM
Categories: History

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Nas
This week, while we've taken a loving look back at the finest album-length offerings that the home of hip-hop has contributed to the genre, we're also reminded of the empty spaces in our record collections where masterpieces should sit. It's heartbreaking enough that rap in an album form didn't catch on until long after The Crash Crew had an opportunity to record a proper full length, but the feeling of flipping through old issues of The Source and seeing advertisements month-after-month of rap albums that were never released made us feel like abandoned children. The music industry is a cruel place, and these surefire smashes never reaching store shelves is perhaps the most torturous evidence why. These are the five best New York rap albums that never happened.

See also:
The Top 20 NYC Rap Albums of All Time: The Complete List

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History

Ralph McDaniels Celebrates 30 Years of Video Music Box

By Chaz Kangas Fri., Mar. 15 2013 at 3:45 AM
Categories: History

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"Video Music Box's" Ralph McDaniels
New York is not only the birthplace of hip-hop culture, but the home of the first television program to broadcast rap videos. Video visionary Ralph McDaniels launched "Video Music Box" 30 years ago and now, three decades and a global phenomenon later, the hip-hop nation is ready to celebrate. Among the events focusing on the anniversary is tonight's All Hail the Queen: A Tribute to Women in Hip-Hop event that looks to bridge hip-hop's generation gap with performances from today's up-and-coming female MCs paying homage to the ladies on the mic that paved the way. We spoke to "Uncle Ralph" about how his game-changing program came to be.

See also: Ralph McDaniels Keeps Hip-Hop Culture Moving Forward

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History

Five Important Moments in the Career of Philadelphia Freeway

By Chaz Kangas Wed., Nov. 21 2012 at 3:30 AM
Categories: History

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Freeway
This Monday one of Philadelphia's favorite sons, Freeway, performs at the Highline Ballroom. One of the most consistent MCs for over a decade, the sheer volume of quality Freeway tracks makes it easy to forget he's had one of the more interesting career trajectories of any rap artist this millennium. As he preps for the release of his new album Diamond in the Ruff on Babygrande, let's take a look back at Freeway's wild ride.

See Also:
- Freeway Preaches to the Choir
- Is Roc-A-Fella Coming Back?


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History

Fabrice Morvan Tells The Story Of Milli Vanilli In His Own Voice

By Maura Johnston Wed., Aug. 24 2011 at 10:30 AM
Categories: History, Milli Vanilli

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This week's edition of the podcast put out by the storytelling outfit The Moth features a tale told by Fabrice Morvan, formerly one-half of the disgraced pop duo Milli Vanilli, now recording artist trying to make it on his own. As you might expect, it's a thumbnail sketch of his career, and it's a fascinating, sad story that begins with a recounting of the tense moments leading up to Milli Vanilli's Grammy win, discusses the genesis of their hair and the seductive charms of the music industry, and has Morvan singing a few bars acapella—because even though producer Frank Farian used other voices to craft the (out of print, which is a worse fate than it deserves, "authenticity" issues or no) Girl You Know It's True, both Morvan and his now-deceased bandmate Rob Pilatus wanted to sing. The podcast's available for free download at iTunes and is certainly worth the 14ish minutes of your time, especially if you're thinking of going into the world of dance-pop and have a sorta-sleazy producer wooing you; a few clips from the record, which might be the best-selling album to not be commercially available, after the jump.

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History

Ten Steps To Shabazz Palaces: Tracing Ishmael Butler's Path Between Digable Planets And The Present

By Phillip Mlynar Wed., Jul. 6 2011 at 9:00 AM
Categories: Digable Planets, History, Lists, Phillip Mlynar, Shabazz Palaces

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Back in the early '90s, Ishmael Butler came to rap prominence as Butterfly in the group Digable Planets. These days, he's taken on the moniker Palaceer Lazaro and records as the lead voice in Sub Pop's first hip-hop signing, Shabazz Palaces. It's a metamorphosis that Butler has left deliberately shady, refusing to flesh out the biographical details between his two rap lives and leaving Shabazz Palaces' history defined largely by anonymity. But while it's tempting to use some sort of cocoon metaphor to describe Butler's grand artistic reinvention, he's left behind a trail of musical crumbs and curios that map out his gradual development.

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History

Kool Herc's Top Three Old-School New York Hip-Hop Venues

By Phillip Mlynar Mon., May 16 2011 at 11:00 AM
Categories: Featured, History, Kool Herc, Lists

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Kool Herc plays the genesis figure in hip-hop's fable; the first party the Jamaican-born, Bronx-raised DJ threw in the recreation room of his building at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in 1973 is credited with formalizing the genre. From behind two turntables Herc spun the short, percussive sections of (often) soul and funk songs; on the dance floor in front of him, kids would kick moves that eventually became known as breaking. Before hip-hop's holy old school trinity of Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash and Grand Wizard Theodore, there was Herc. As Herc puts it today, "That's the reference point for hip-hop right there."

Backed up by the might of his Herculoids crew and a sound system comprised of a gargantuan wall of speakers, Herc continued to hold down the key DJ position during the period of hip-hop history that unfurled before the first rap records were released in 1979. Herc excelled in a creative playground of high school gymnasiums and local nightclubs, not the recording studios of corporate record labels that would scramble around to try and monetize hip-hop. In advance of his appearance at fellow old-school giant Melle Mel's 50th birthday party at BB Kings tomorrow--which will have a lineup spanning several rap generations--Herc looks back on his three most notable old-school hip-hop venues.

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