"Howie could get along with anybody. He was friends with both Johnny and Joey Ramone. Hells Angels, skinheads, drag queens, comic-book nerds, art collectors, fashionistas-they all loved him."
"I feel like the first album, it was very hectic, it was a rush. It was like, all of a sudden, overnight craziness. So now that I'm settled in, I feel like I know more about my direction and what I want to do, what I want to say."
Mamdani began rapping in high school, releasing socially conscious songs in his 20s on subjects ranging from Indian flatbread to colonialism. He has described himself as a C-list rapper following in the footsteps of his childhood heroes, including the indie-rap group Das Racist.
Pacha New York aims to serve as a meeting point where global electronic artists, local creatives, and next-generation audiences can converge, fostering a vibrant dance culture.
Detroit techno, austere and futuristic, grew out of Black/queer culture, sci-fi escapism, and the repetitive language of automobile factories. San Francisco's techno, on the other hand, fused an outdoor hippie aesthetic with ecstatic, UK-derived beats that had crowds mass-hallucinating UFOs on Ocean Beach at dawn. Both shared a deep funkiness, however—remember when people of all shapes and colors once danced wildly?
In celebration of Black History Month, a photo installation at Brooklyn Borough Hall is putting "Brooklyn's Finest: Legends in Focus" in the spotlight, paying homage to Brooklyn's hip-hop history and the photographers who chronicled the evolution of the borough's hip-hop culture and the arts during the genre's most pivotal years. Images include the historic 1998 "Greatest Day in Hip-Hop History" photo by Gordon Parks, featuring influential rappers, DJs, producers and artists gathered on a Harlem brownstone stoop;
Between our daily coverage, our Notable Releases and Indie Basement columns, and our monthly punk and rap roundups, we post tons of new music all the time here on BrooklynVegan. In an effort to keep track of all the new music we're excited about, we've been posting a new playlist each week with many of the songs we love that were (mostly) released that week.
The rapper, known on his tax form as Charles Wingate and known by his old Harlem associates as Charley Rambo, made his name in the rap game during an all-too-brief run in the 2000s, as one of the most colorful members of Jim Jones' Byrdgang, his solo offshoot from the Diplomats (although due to his growing up with rappers Cam and Mase, Max is like honorary Dipset).
Helicopters, you could say, is a reaction to the lack of action or misaction we have witnessed over the last three years (but in reality, throughout my whole life) in regard to the blatant slaughtering and exploitation of our brothers and sisters around the world. The manipulation, lies, and treachery that the powers that be rain down upon us with absolute impunity.
"Many found the music offensive, the dancing objectionable, and the popularity of both with young people verging on a mental health crisis." So writes music historian Susan C. Cook about ragtime, the heavily syncopated ancestor of jazz that arose in the late 1800s. Like all things, ragtime's subversiveness faded over time, and, a century later, the works of Scott Joplin and other practitioners had been relegated to carnivals and fairs, their jaunty piano melodies now evoking quaint notions of old-timey fun.