Interview in Music Journalism Insider

I first worked with Todd Burns back in 2013 when he commissioned me to write a “loop history” of one of my fave loops of all time: dembow. Of course, RBMA is no more, nor are various other outlets for music writers. In the light of this changing and precarious landscape, Todd has been devoting […]

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Ich kann ein bisschen Reggaeton verstehen

ila, a German magazine devoted to Latin America published a special issue on reggaeton this summer, including an interview with yours truly. If you kann ein bisschen Duetsch lesen (like those of us who studied vergleichende Musikwissenschaft in graduate school), then you can click on that link in the last sentence and read it there. […]

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The Origin Story Is Genius Tho…

There’s an archived video of the panel I moderated last week during the Together fest. It begins with a six minute opening from me, then I introduce my esteemed co-panelists — Boima, Poirier, Ripley, Max, and Jesse — and we finally REALLY get into the convo about 10 minutes in. From there it’s a solid […]

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Reggae Reverberations, Skype Narration Stylee

Last month I spoke over Skype with Roifield Brown, a British-Jamaican producer working on a series of podcasts and a short film devoted to the international influence of Jamaica’s distinctive shapes and forms, or in his words: How Jamaica Conquered the World. It’s no doubt one of many many tributes to the likkle but tallawah […]

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Jivin’ Ladybug Picnic

Today I’ve got a Q&A with Jared Demick at his site The Jivin’ Ladybug, a “Skewered Journal of the Arts” or in slightly plainer terms, “an online arts journal devoted to word-whittlers, picture-pizzazzers, & sound-slingers, all over this here globe!” Though the latter most obviously describes me, and the middle option may seem more dubious, […]

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Rethinking Music Industry w/ Nancy Baym

For this week’s “Back Talk” — the Q&A that runs on the back page of the Phoenix — I had the pleasure to pose a few questions to Nancy Baym, a scholar who’s work (& Twitter feed) I’ve been following for a few, especially as my own research turns more to questions of music “industry” […]

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Talking Music & Media, Whirled & Jamaican, Self & Other

A couple items to share, pardon the self-centeredness, but hey, this is a blog, right? First, hot off the virtual presses: Radio Berkman has just posted a snappily edited podcast featuring yours truly in conversation with the one and only Ethan Zuckerman about world/whirled music, globalghettotech, jerkbow, tribal, moombahton, and platform politricks, among other things. […]

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A Country That Was In Another Country

Since we’re back to the topic of the wide and contested world of reggaeton, it felt fortuitous to find in my inbox this morning a link to a new interview with Renato, Panamanian pioneer of reggae en español. With the effective prodding of Peter Szok, a history professor from Texas, Renato helps to further flesh […]

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World Music 2.0 (and W&W) on Afropop Worldwide

Afropop Worldwide has a new program, airing currently on terrestrial radio in the US (and soon to appear online as streamable audio), which focuses on a subject near&dear to the heart of this blog: world music 2.0, aka nu-whirled music, aka global ghettotech. Or as they put it — Afropop Worldwide takes us into the […]

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one plus one equals three

This spring, after Nettle’s Boston visit, an ol’ fan of /Rupture and the Toneburst Collective told me that she still had a copy of a vintage /Rupture mixtape. On cassette! You know, from back when “mixtapes” were actually tapes. I borrowed it and digitized it and emailed it to Jace. I also asked if I […]

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Zunguzung Revelations

photo by Brent Hagerman In the first comment on my Zunguzung Meme post, Droid asked the perfectly reasonable question, Is it possible that Zunguzung itself is an adaptation of someone else’s work? It’s something I’d been wondering myself, of course — for about as long as I’d been noting the melody’s long legs, really. In […]

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linkthink #519292: Loosing My Mind [sic]

Shaggy feat Trix & Flix – Feel The Rush | The Heatwave Blog – dancehall reggae and bashment “la cumbia cienaguera” of samim’s “heater” fame (and a hit in its own right in south america for decades) gets yet another odd reanimation via shaggy and the euro 08 football cup :: and round and round […]

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linkthink #5939: Nestle’s Crunk

Dr Pepper Sabrosura Radio Ad Dr. Pepper propels its latest campaign con cumbiaton! :: “Treat your taste buds to Dr Pepper while you indulge in our latest radio ad featuring the best Cumbia to a Reggaetón beat you´ve ever heard!” :: i think calle 13’s got em beat on that count, tho (tags: cumbia reggaeton […]

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linkthink #4825: Like Food

Happy 15th Birthday, Jungle | Mashit DJ C celebrates jungle’s 15th birthday (tags: djc blogpost jungle mixes UK london 90s rave) Passing Strange – Review – Theater – New York Times congrats to stew on his broadway opening! (tags: theater race rock LA amsterdam review) Battleground States Conference Tellem « UNFASHIONABLY LATE analysis of the […]

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linkthink #853889: LOLdier Boy Tellem

Spannered | Globalistas Pt. 1 | Wayne Marshall | music | features | artist interview props to spannered for (re)publishing the full interview transcripts from camilo rocha’s piece on “globalista” DJs :: part 1 = me! (tags: interview global ghettotech worldmusic DJ internet) Spannered | Globalistas Pt. 2 | DJ /rupture | music | features […]

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linkthink #18t3965: Ninjabread Man Edition

Just to make things a little extra personalized in the age of linkthink, ‘low me to add, Sasha-style, a (generally) random photo for your imaginative conneckees — Sucker Free » Dr. Dre Drops A Mixtape vintage mid-80s dr.dre mixtape :: i could listen to these for days (tags: 80s hip-hop mixtape mp3s dre LA) Earplug […]

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linkthink #86356

YouTube – Ernie and Bert go BRUTAL another fun, simple sesame street remix (h/t wordthecat) (tags: remix sesamestreet video youtube humor music hardcore drumming) Anthology Recordings accding to ethan z: “Anthology is an all-digital reissues label. They strike deals with artists who’ve retained copyright to their works, or had rights revert to them, and digitize […]

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Globalistas e Baptistas

Not long ago, w/r/t global gobbledecrunk, I referred to an interview I gave recently to a Brazilian journalist. The journo in question is Camilo Rocha, who doubles as a DJ (& has a fab disco mix over @ Spannered). The piece was just published in Folha de Sao Paolo, apparently Brazil’s biggest newspaper. I don’t […]

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