…In My Life…

This year is going to be a long one… During the fall semester, I will be working on three projects: my honors thesis on Psychosocial Politics of Percussion in Hip Hop, a Jazz paper comparing the reception of early Jazz and the reception of Hip-Hop and a paper on the racial and cultural representation in […]

I’m An Alien Living In the Ghetto…

This song is called “I’m Excited” and it is by DJ Shadow and Afrikan Boy. The American DJ, Hip-Hop producer and songwriter is known as a prominent figure in the development of instrumental Hip-Hop. Olushola Ajose (aka Afrikan Boy) is a London grime/Afrobeat rapper originally from Nigeria and has worked with M.I.A. in addition to […]

Remembering Aaliyah

This is the tenth anniversary of Aaliyah leaving us and I still miss her. Very few Hip-Hop/R&B singers today can compare to how cool she was as a singer, dancer and budding actress. To this day, I still listen to all three of her albums that she made before she passed and wonder how far […]

What Ever Happened to Hip Hop?

“It began with the beat of the drum. With the beat, came a voice for those without one. From this voice, came a movement. Overcoming the odds, the originators of hip hop took their music from block parties of New York City streets to world wide radio waves. During the early years, the music and […]

Taking It From the Streets: The Making of Modern R&B

Yesterday, I came across another documentary that was directed by John Akomfrah, who directed “The Last Angel of History.” The Vh1 documentary is “Urban Soul: The Making of Modern R&B,” and it covers the history of R&B from the 70s to now and how artists, like Chaka Khan, The Fugees, Lauryn Hill, and Mary J. […]

“Down Down Baby, Down Down the Roller-coaster”

Do any of you remember that hand-clapping game when you were younger? Now, think of the Nelly song “Country Grammar.” They sound familiar, don’t they? When I heard “Country Grammar” for the first time a decade ago, I did not realize the connection. But this week I finished reading Kyra Gaunt‘s “The Games Black Girls Play: […]

Gil Scott Heron: A Poetic Revolutionary

Yesterday, I was sad to find out that singer and poet Gil Scott Heron died at the age of 62. Best known for his poem and song, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” Heron was one of the important links between the 60s Beat poets and the Black Arts/Power Movement, and the Hip Hop and […]