February 2012
64 posts
“The first rap album I bought was Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde, and even in third...”
– Brandon Soderberg’s “No Trivia” blog is now on Spin.
I also clearly remember my introduction Bizarre Ride, it was my first foray into “weird” rap after 2 or so years of immersion in whatever LA gangsta stuff I could get my hands on. I remember reading some magazine in...
“Just like you have women and men calling you out for this, I know there are just...”
– You really should read dream hampton hold Too $hort accountable for his recent judgment lapse. Now if a rapper who people actually pay attention to anymore would take a stance similar to this.
“A human being behind Horse_ebooks could either intensify or diminish its myth....”
– “How I Found the Human Being Behind Horse_ebooks, The Internet’s Favorite Spambot.”
The consistent RTs are irritating—many of my smartest, most un-unfollowable Twitter pals have fallen for what I like to call “Spam With A Wink”—but I get why people like it....
Human Beings, Not "Narratives."
I understand what Matthew means in this post, and I’m 100% sympathetic to others who share his view. It is not mine (you can find mine on Twitter). The sort of violence that Chris Brown perpetrated on Rihanna’s body is inexcusable, and the argument can and has easily been made by many that he’s not only been underpunished for it, but perhaps even rewarded for “getting over...
“There was David Guetta, flopping about like a Muppet behind the mixer, jabbing...”
– Philip Sherburne on the Grammys’ lame dance music simulacrum.
Cr4Bdbgs: Blargh →
cureforbedbugs:
marathonpacks:
cureforbedbugs:
Reading through some semi-recent academic journals today, and I stumbled upon a study that claims that exposure to short-term “highly sexual imagery” in hip-hop videos (and only hip-hop videos) is correlated with male viewers’ “more traditional” values about gender norms and “more tolerance” of rape.
There are countless reasons why this is a...
Cr4Bdbgs: Blargh →
cureforbedbugs:
Reading through some semi-recent academic journals today, and I stumbled upon a study that claims that exposure to short-term “highly sexual imagery” in hip-hop videos (and only hip-hop videos) is correlated with male viewers’ “more traditional” values about gender norms and “more tolerance” of rape.
There are countless reasons why this is a flawed study (I’m not going to bother...
strippertweets: when did you stop beating your... →
strippertweets:
Just as a service worker’s tolerance for asshole behavior from a customer rises in direct proportion to how much he spends, so too will music fans overlook an artist’s morally repugnant private life in proportion to the assumed value of his output. People hate Chris Brown because he is too famous for music that is not good enough to replace his womanbeating as the first thing...
"It's going to sound like I'm a wanker, but I was... →
WHO IS CRAFTWORK
“And as more middle-class families like the Gulbransons land in the safety net in...”
– “Even Critics of Safety Net Increasingly Depend On It.”
“If we’re imagining—pure speculation here, folks—that the awards are not doled...”
– SF-J on Grammy politics.
EDIT: one more. “Woman-beating rage-broccoli Chris Brown lip-synced his single ‘Turn Up The Music’ (without being threatened by Sir Elton John) and danced roughly as well as a third-rate Chicago footwork dancer. He ended his performance by back-flipping...
“Her idea was to take one of the common rhythms from the Malian repertory and...”
– Wayne Marshall, “Is ‘Africa’ ‘Actually’ African?”
“I mean, let’s face it, you make a record, you want people to buy your...”
– Whitney Houston, interviewed by Anthony DeCurtis, 1993.
“Her second album, ‘Whitney,’ laid out the rough scheme she followed...”
– Sasha Frere-Jones.
“I was a kid working at Tower Records in San Francisco when Whitney Houston hit....”
– Ann Powers.
“Houston was the queen of Adult Contemporary—but her adultness made her not quite...”
– Jody Rosen.
“Rapleaf is a firm that claims to help marketers ‘customize your...”
– “A Guide to the Digital Advertising Industry That’s Watching Your Every Click.”
Joseph Turow’s new book looks really interesting if you’re into stuff like this.
“1. Go through your piece and flip the gender of your descriptive phrases’...”
– “How Not To Write About Female Musicians: A Handy Guide.”
"If I had went to bed, I would have won 150... →
“Despite interviewees saying that they did not personally like Jobs, many said...”
– “FBI’s Steve Jobs File: He Will ‘Distort Reality…to Achieve His Goals.’”
“Something sounded familiar last week when I heard U.S. Education Secretary Arne...”
– “Who Really Benefits From Putting High-Tech Gadgets in Classrooms?”
Anyone out there ever seen a journalistic/academic...
I seem to remember a feature on it somewhere maybe.
“I don’t think the insularity of the indiestry is any different in character or...”
– “The Lana Bottle.” Dave Moore gets at Lana Del Rey’s reception w/r/t Paris Hilton’s in 2006. Lots of great stuff here.
“In baseball, players are competing mainly against the difficulty of the sport...”
– David Remnick, “Back in Play” (“Directors Cut” version)
“The suites themselves, which are still under construction, will be unabashedly...”
– “Jay-Z Determined to Make the Nets Stylish.”
“The rise of 5-Hour began in the spring of 2003, when Bhargava found himself at a...”
– “The Mystery Monk Making Billions With 5-Hour Energy.”
"You want a beat? Alright, I'll help you out. Take... →
Early contender for quote of the year.
Florence Green, Last World War I Veteran, Dies at... →
markrichardson:
In 2006, I had a random thought: Were any veterans of WW I still alive? I crunched some numbers and it seemed unlikely—the vet would have to be well past 100. But then I googled it and discovered that there were, as of May 2006, still 74 remaining. A Wikipedia page had all of their names, where they served, where they lived now, how old they were. I started tracking it, and they...
“Sophomores who had scant playing time in their rookie seasons are not supposed...”
– “Asian Harvard Grad Somehow Succeeding In New York; Or, Why I Love Jeremy Lin.”
“During the 1988 presidential race, the nation’s most plugged-in political...”
– “Non-Stop News and Noise in the Age of Twitter.” Rare useful bit from HuffPo.