Sunday, January 4th, 2004

Check new “backstory” section on the left bar for my favorite shit from the last 5-6 years. I resisted this for years out of sheer embarrassment (again…island ways), but when the book edits are done, a brother needs work so what the hell. Fatter archives, going back to the early 90s and hopefully including classic (4 years now–sheeit!) 360hiphop politic ditto stuff (not only by me), when the site properly relaunches later this year.

posted by @ 12:29 am | 0 Comments

Saturday, January 3rd, 2004

JUST FOR THE RECORD

Because the hate continues to pour into the inbox and the conspiracies are beginning to circulate, I wanted to let yall know just for the record, I AM NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE GOTDAMN DA CAPO SERIES!!!

For yall folks coming late to this, I ranted about the series about a month or so ago, causing a minor shitstorm in my inbox and a little fuss on ILM. I got assigned a piece to develop the rant into something passably coherent.

At SFJ’s suggestion, I interviewed the series editor to find out the process of selection. At the end of our conversation, he asked me to give him a list of folks to include in his solicitation email, which I did. When he sent it out at the end of the year, I posted the solicit email address to this blog. Pro-democracy public service.

(The whole episode was reminiscent of school days. Take over the administration building on Monday at lunch. Get arrested by dinner. Get a call on Tuesday morning. Meet with the administration on Wednesday. Sell out within 48 hours.)

Now folks are filling my inbox like I’ve become a gatekeeper for the Da Capo series! Irony lives, in Berkeley, big time.

Serves me right I guess.

The Bay Guardian story is coming out on Tuesday. Hopefully that’ll be the end of the story. Probably not.

posted by @ 10:16 pm | 0 Comments

Saturday, January 3rd, 2004

Year End Lists Don’t Have To Suck

YEAR-END LISTS DON’T HAVE TO SUCK…

Cuz Michaelangelo Matos has made them fun again! Check the Seattle Weekly’s 2003 in the Mix and his essay. Elsewhere, Jess Harvell’s year-end is an endlessly interesting grok that had me sprinting for Amoeba and Limewire.

Voting for the Pazz and Jop closes Monday and I’m already scurrred. Since 1997 or 8 (or 9), my gripe has been that the P+J has lost all relevance. Despite record numbers of voters every year, chronic low turnout from the non-white under-35 crowd ensures the list represents nothing close to a real snapshot of critical interests. (And no, please don’t ask me to do the dirty work, I already sent out the email address for the Da Capo Best Of.)

To me, the commentary reads less like the hot and often rudely funny culture-clashes of yesteryear than carefully constructed, artful and bloodless attacks on perceived straw targets (prediction: many words on Liz Phair and death-of-album) or canned one-liners (tho Jon Dolan has elevated that format to an artform). Aside from JD, why wait for that when you’re already in the blogosphere? Anyway, more critics, less drama this year: will Outkast survive the backlash to lock top album honors? Will R. Kelly surprise all by taking the single title from Beyonce? And what kind of outcry might that unleash? Back to sleep, yall.

One thing most year-end lists–not to mention the Voice’s pretty belated package–did make me feel was a major spasm of regret that I spent most of The Year Dancehall Broke on the sidelines. My sincere, heartfelt plea to editors and writers: more context, please? Your farin-ness is showing. (Here’s the part where I wish I could refer folks to an anthology of Rob Kenner’s collected writings.)

One thing you learn from growing up on an island: things and time will tell.

Respect,

Your Dancehall Pedant

posted by @ 9:16 am | 0 Comments

Saturday, January 3rd, 2004

Best whatthefuck moment of New Year’s Eve: Bonecrusher doing the worm on BET!!!

posted by @ 7:44 am | 0 Comments

Wednesday, December 31st, 2003

Last quote of the year, unearthed from a 1986 Voice book review by Robert Christgau of Steven Hager’s Hip Hop, Nelson George, Sally Banes, etc. Fresh, and David Toop’s Rap Attack. (This one is not on his website.) Again, from 1986…!

“…to fuss about the exploitation of hip hop is quite often to take sides against the hip hoppers themselves–even though in the end that exploitation is certain to prove a juggernaut that the hip hoppers (and even the exploiters) can’t control. To counsel purity isn’t impermissible, but it’s certainly complicated, with ramifications that stretch far beyond the scope of this review, or indeed of any piece of writing of any length on any similar subject that has ever come to my attention.”

That, friends, 18 years down the line, remains what the lit-critters like to call a “rupture in the text”, what b-boys and b-girls call “the break”, what salseros call “montuno”, and what we hip-hop journalists have to recognize as the central recurring theme/paradox of our day-jobs (uh, such as they are and allthat)…

Happy New Year yall.

posted by @ 12:57 pm | 0 Comments

Tuesday, December 30th, 2003

STICK A BUSH

Hey it’s almost 2004. Time for some action. So I’ve revamped the left bar, with all new hotlinks for activism.

Two that I really want to highlight–and will keep coming back to in the oh-quad–are the League of Independent Voters, a project launched by Billy Upski Wimsatt of Bomb The Suburbs and No More Prisons fame, and the National Hip Hop Political Convention, spearheaded by a number of leading hip-hop activists.

Both are grass-roots efforts to get the hip-hop generation up into it and involved in the 2004 elections and beyond. Check them out and see you all on the frontlines next year…

posted by @ 7:13 am | 0 Comments

Tuesday, December 30th, 2003

John Nichols on Joe Strummer. Has Strummer become the punk Dylan? Guess I’m not really mad at that.

posted by @ 6:14 am | 0 Comments

Monday, December 29th, 2003

Can’t Stop Won’t Stop Reading List, Part 2

SMELLS LIKE A READING LIST, L-Z

Below, the long-promised, unduly withheld, non-canonical, strictly zentronix-style list of stuff I’ve read and dug, L-Z.

Here’s the reading list A-K.

McDonnell, Evelyn and Powers, Ann, ed. Rock She Wrote

Of all the so-called “Best of” anthologies, this one rings the truest. McDonnell and Powers began their project in the Bay Area while they were still working for the pre-New Times version of the SF Weekly as a labor of love. Nearly 70 women get their writing on from the early 70s to the early 90s. Endlessly enjoyable.

Morales, Ed. The Latin Beat

Brand new book by longtime Voice contributor that smartly examines the influence of Latin music on American and global pop. If you dig this, you should also hunt down the groundbreaking study by John Storm Roberts, The Latin Tinge.

Marcus, Greil. Lipstick Traces

When the other most influential critic alive painted his masterpiece, it read like this. His Mystery Train and Invisible Republic are also often great, but his obsessions with Dylan and Elvis often seem to demand parody. This one, though, is such a cult classic, it became an Off-Broadway play.

Palmer, Robert. Deep Blues

Never mind Martin Scorsese. This is the one you want. One of the all-time best.

Reynolds, Simon. Generation Ecstasy

A critic who tirelessly classifies and names the entropic genre proliferation of electronic music like a fizzy botanist somehow also manages to be one of the most provocative. This book has set off a million arguments, but the prose is pure blissed out fandom. Great discography. His blog is here.

Savage, Jonathan. England’s Dreaming

An epic history of the emergence of British punk that spans the personal and the political, covering all the perspectives—from fan in the crowd to fly on the wall to philosopher in dog collar. Nearly 600 pages, but so edifying, you’ll still want more.

Shapiro, Peter, ed. Modulations

Anthology largely including folks from The Wire—writers like Shapiro, Rob Young, Simon Reynolds, Mike Rubin, David Toop, Kurt Reighley, and Kodwo Eshun—that present an overview of electronic music from Stockhausen to Autechre. Nice to look at too.

Tate, Greg. Flyboy In The Buttermilk

A collection of groundbreaking, iconoclastic essays mostly from the Village Voice during its late 80s-early 90s peak. Includes definitive essays on Public Enemy, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Miles Davis, as well as eye-openers on William Gibson, Don DeLillo, and Rammellzee. I’ll get in trouble for saying this but to me he’s way better than Bangs. Certainly has been to hip-hop journalism what Bangs was to rock journalism.

Toop, David. The Rap Attack

The other book in the Old Testament of hip-hop journalism. Unlike Exotica and Ocean of Sound, it’s concrete, musicological, and incisive. The first editions’ essay format is vastly superior to the later versions’ chronological catch-up, but that’s just me quibbling. The discographies have set off many a digger’s journey.

Tosches, Nick. Unsung Heroes of Rock’n’Roll

Only covers 1945 to 1955, and only chooses to focus on the bizarre, weird, and fabulous. One of The Wire editor Peter Shapiro’s favorite books, “for largely inventing wise-ass music journalism”.

Wang, Oliver, ed. Classic Material

Another brand new book. Attempts to create a canon of hip-hop records with some of the hottest young hip-hop journalists (and warmed-over post-young me). Kinda like Stranded for the hip-hop era, but much better, IMHO! All shameless plugs aside, raises the interesting question of what hip-hop journalism needs to conquer next, now that it’s begun to canonize its music (and next year with Raquel Cepeda’s book, canonize itself). How does hip-hop journalism recover its progressive spirit when it’s entering its downward arc?

Vibe Hip Hop Divas

Much much better than the title suggests. Edited by Rob Kenner, it’s largely a collection of definitive stories that originally appeared in the magazine. But also includes a timeline, boxes on emerging artists, and Cristina Veran’s indispensable essay on the female old-school pioneers.

The Vibe History of Hip Hop

As history it tastes great, but is ultimately less filling. As a collection of the best hip-hop journalists writing at the top of their game, though, it’s incomparable. Danyel Smith’s intro and Ben Higa’s early LA rap essay are my favorites, though Sacha Jenkins, Rob Marriott, and Chairman Mao and many others rep lovely as well. Unfortunately, most of these folks probably won’t be appearing in “Da Capo’s Best Music Writing [Year X]” anytime soon.

posted by @ 10:59 am | 0 Comments

Monday, December 29th, 2003

FYI…here’s a story in the Chronicle about the transformation of the Vietnamese American community in San Jose over a police shooting of an immigrant woman.

posted by @ 10:44 am | 0 Comments

Sunday, December 28th, 2003

IT’S ON THE WAY, I PROMISE!

Steve Oney’s pain is your pleasure: 17 Reasons Why It Took Me 17 Years To Write My Book. Best wishes for 2004, yall.

posted by @ 3:29 pm | 0 Comments



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