hip hop

Why Beyonce’s Superstardom Doesn’t Fade

Mary Kinney

Beyond this, by launching an album unannounced at midnight, Beyoncé allowed everyone to listen and interpret at the same time: this is rare nowadays. The Internet has codified and decentralized the listening and viewing periods, so it is very much about the individual listening right now rather than what everyone is watching because it's on MTV. Comments sections and major launches often create a rush on YouTube or other listening sites, but these shared experiences are extremely rare. For the first time in ages, critics and fans had a shared experience Because of this phenomenon, most reviews were written within mere hours of Beyoncé’s release. The initial reactions were in consensus: unabashed praise.

How the Big Sound of Hip-Hop Went Indie

Daniel Sternkopf

Kitwana also talks about how some labels have veteran black artists at their helm, but that they aren’t the ones making important label decisions. Kitwana quotes from Wendy Day, who has spent the past 13 years fighting against what is often described as a sharecropping system, and states “It’s very much an industry dominated by white men in their fifties… That’s who’s empowered, that’s who’s running things, that’s who’s saying yea or nay to signing checks. And the music industry is still run 100 percent by white corporations” 

Hip Hop Legend Big Daddy Kane + Las Supper = Soul Sensation

Alysia Stern

Grammy Award winner Big Daddy Kane is an inventive New York “Hip Hop” legend who emerged in the mid-1980s. Big Daddy Kane was the catalyst behind Jay Z’s career. He is known to have gotten his start as Kane's hypeman. As an actor, he debuted in Mario Van Peebles' Posse.  Kane’s song "Ain't No Half Steppin' was named #25 on the list of the 50 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time by Rolling Stone Magazine, which also called Kane "a master wordsmith of rap's late golden age and a huge influence on a generation of MCs."

The Comeback Kids: Bizarre Ride Live Makes Its Mark on Hip-Hop

Alysia Stern

The Pharcyde is a soulful hip-hop group from the early 1990s. After a breakup, four of the original members have reunited. Fatlip, SlimKid3.  along with Pharcyde producers J-Sw!ft & L.A. Jay are now performing as Bizarre Ride Live. The animated and enthusiastic group is best known for the hit singles "Drop", "Passin' Me By" and "Runnin,'" as well as their first album, Bizarre Ride II the PharcydeHighbrow Magazine recently met with and interviewed the band.  

 

Paying Homage to Punk and Hip-Hop, Death Grips Rebels Against the Mainstream

John McGovern

A new independent group, Death Grips, merges punk and hip-hop, amongst a kaleidoscope of other genres, creating tracks filled with boldness, impatience, licentiousness and jolts of unfettered creativity. But the group’s chaotic sound isn’t exactly hedonistic or apathetic; it is, at its core, a call to the audience to create themselves. If Sir Philip Sidney was resurrected, he would probably approve: for not only do they delight the audience, but they move the audience to action. 

Hip-Hop’s Evolution: Forsaking Political and Social Awareness for Material Gain

Natalie Meade

The  hip-hop visionaries  who passed away during the 1990s were an inspiration for emcees today, but why does the mainstream music of today largely disregard the ongoing issues? If one can look past the explicit nature of the music during the ‘90s, it is evident that it was politically charged. The overt lyrics were meant to draw attention to the conditions that most inner-city Blacks could not escape, but it seems as though most artists today are afraid to sacrifice a dollar for the sake of kinship.

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