D-Day or We-Day?

cross posted to freethedjs.com Accding to this MTV spot, Lil Wayne, among others, appears totally unwilling to challenge the RIAA’s position on mixtapes (despite them playing an essential role in launching or revitalizing many a rapper’s career). Pull quote via the Diplomats’ DukeDaGod: If they had a mixtapes seminar, that would be hot. Have the […]

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Taking the Boat to the Bank

Got a brief review of Pitbull’s El Mariel in this week’s Phoenix. As it happens, I also have a quotation in another, longer review by Jose Davila for the Miami New Times, also published this week. In short, I like the album, esp any tracks propelled by Mr.Collipark’s ATLien Afro-Cubist crunkstep, and i admire Pitbull’s […]

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Free the Mixtape Makers

You prolly heard already, but I gotta add my voice to the chorus — The RIAA CIAA (!) continues desperately chasing its own tail — and seriously disrupting people’s lives in the process. This time they’re not suing grandmas or grandkids, they’re arresting mixtape DJs — people who crucially promote their product — and seizing […]

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Bigger Than Jesus

Well, it’s finally true: James Brown is dead. But if anyone’s legacy is certain to be long, it is JB’s. Who could (re)imagine modern music without the Godfather of Soul — or future music without the Minister of Super Heavy Funk ? Long live James Brown. Loop, loop on. [audio:http://wayneandwax.com/wp/audio/funky-drummer.mp3]

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The Party Line

When the NYT prints something like this — Hamas, a radical Islamic movement that is considered a terrorist group by Israel and the West, , , , it tends to remind me of, The Harvard Lampoon, a semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine, , , , & […]

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Another Crunk Genealogy

Considering what a solid series it’s been so far, I’m quite proud to present — Blogariddims ¡Blogaritmos! 11: “Another Crunk Genealogy” crunkyclave / dembowsalsa / raggyton / bhangrabounce subscribe to series | download mp3 (60:54 | 83.6mb) Of course, given the all-around excellence of the contributions to date, never mind the massive mix Heatwave dropped […]

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Are These the Breaks?

Last week there was a message posted to the dancecult list, which, in the process of recommending a couple of Nate Harrison’s fine videos, asserted, not uncommonly, that the Amen break was “the most sampled rhythm ever, the very foundation of most rap, techno and jungle.” Now, undoubtedly the Amen break is one of the […]

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Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See

Jesse Kriss, whose History of Sampling visualization was long ago big upped here at w&w, has updated his Visual Scratch project (as formerly demo’d here) with the assistance of Boston’s DJ Axel Foley. I take no small satisfaction in having connected these two technicians. When Jesse described to me his intention to represent a number […]

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¿Que Fue?

That review of the new Tego album in the Phoenix that I’ve been telling y’all about has finally seen the light of day. You can find it in the digital fishwrap here, but I’m going to go with my standard practice of reprinting the original on this humble blog since inevitably a word or two […]

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linkthink #426: Textual Promiscuity and Other Forbidden Delights

/// Go go text-sharing blogs: Greg Scruggs offers up Paul Sneed’s’s doctoral thesis on funky Rio. /// Kerim argues for an Open Source Anthro, asking “Can the Subaltern Google?” /// While we’re at it, allow me to point you to an article I’ve got in a forthcoming “hip-hop issue” of Callaloo: “Giving Up Hip-hop’s Firstborn: […]

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Slim Pickins

Imagine being asked to open up for an old school hip-hop DJ. Y’know, one of the innovators, the originators, the architects. Pretty good deal, right? An opportunity not to be missed. Now imagine being given a list of tracks you can’t play. Fair enough, you think. Gotta leave some crowd pleasers and ol’ stand-bys for […]

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