Rapping to the Beat

Funny as it may be, I’m pretty sure Run DMC’s “Roots, Rap, Reggae” (featuring Yellowman) is the first “reggae” song I ever knew. As an occasionally awkward and awfully chintzy attempt at reggae via New York, it’s an odd introduction in nuff ways. On the other hand, there are a couple moments in the song, […]

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Global Hip-hop

Since I’m in a syllabus sharing mood, I figured I should finally get around to posting the one I put together in Spring 2008 for a course on “Global Hip-hop.” A series of case studies examining how hip-hop travels outside the US, what it carries with it, and how people adapt its forms to their […]

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Real Talk, Lads

So, yeah, inundated by mixes, but finally got a chance to check out last month’s Rinse FM set by Butterz (ft. Terror Danjah), which shows grime (& its bastard cousin, dubstep) alive&well & wot-u-call-it as ever. Comfortably contentious even! Esp w/ the notion that grime might be less than alive & well. I love the […]

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Notes on Neighborhood

Although my research/interests often turn to (trans)nationalism, lately I’ve been thinking less about nationhood and more about neighborhood — not in terms of an actual space or place (though that’s part of it), but something more akin to neighborliness, to being a good neighbor, to finding an ethics of neighborhood in an intensively globalized/mediated era. […]

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linkthink #3846: Kamikaze Narcissist

The Second Plane – Martin Amis – Book Review – New York Times “The genital theory of history may be novelistically useful, but it is analytically silly.” :: that, and other gems, in a skewering review by leon wieseltier (tags: book review nyt islam middleeast orientalism 911 writing) Guess The Country [30 PICS] – world […]

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linkthink #5373: Fremd Im Eigenen Land

MC GRINGO- BLOG – – – LIVE FROM RIO DE JANEIRO mc gringo has a blog! (h/t masala) (tags: funkcarioca blog rio brazil germany) … [update: for some reason, several other del.icio.us.ly tagged items didn’t appear a few days ago, so here are a few that i’m “push” publishing] … Phonautogram – Thomas Edison – […]

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