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Category: Spotlight

Spotlight

Forty Years of The Wire and Hip-Hop

mreeves June 5, 2022 No Comments Wire magazine

This year marks four decades of avant magazine the Wire. Throughout, the British publication has frequently if fitfully championed interesting rap artists.

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Spotlight

Opening Acts: When the Tide Is High

mreeves June 4, 2022 No Comments Opening Acts

Wu-Tang Clan’s second album, Wu-Tang Forever, elicits a discussion on the end of imperial eras. Plus, thoughts on Kendrick Lamar’s new album and a Fat Joe TV doc on A&E.

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Spotlight

Opening Acts: Rock & Rap’s Imperfect Hall

mreeves May 12, 2022 No Comments Opening Acts

This week’s entry discusses the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which inducted Eminem on May 4; and picks a few nuggets from Ben Merlis’ oral history of the Juice Crew and Cold Chillin’ Records.

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Spotlight

Opening Acts: The Best Rapper Alive Since…

mreeves April 28, 2022 No Comments Opening Acts

This week brings a new column of hip-hop happenings past and present: Opening Acts. The inaugural edition mulls over a GQ cover story on Future, Alchemist vs. Get on Down, a reissue of Godfather Don’s Hazardous, and the UK group Caveman.

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Reviews Spotlight

Curren$y & The Alchemist, Continuance

mreeves March 2, 2022 No Comments Curren$yThe Alchemist

Continuance is the latest in a series of well-received collaborations between Curren$y and the Alchemist, engaging an audience in thrall with classicist tropes.

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Reviews Spotlight

Sole & DJ Pain 1, Post American Studies

mreeves March 2, 2022 No Comments DJ Pain 1Five DecadesSole

On his latest collaboration with DJ Pain 1, Sole delivers an anarchist broadside against global inequity and US hegemony.

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Scenes Lists & Things Spotlight Writing About Music

A Company Flow Fan’s DJ Bag in 1997

mreeves February 21, 2022 No Comments Company FlowHip-Hop 1997

As I spent the weekend revisiting Company Flow’s Funcrusher Plus — an album I once had on constant rotation — I began to wonder…what other records did I spin as an amateur DJ in 1997?

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Interviews Profiles Spotlight

Count Bass D: Acting Out

mreeves February 6, 2022 No Comments Count Bass D

In a 2007 interview for Creative Loafing Atlanta, Count Bass D discussed his career and his album, Act Your Waist Size.

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Best Of Spotlight

Notable Hip-Hop Albums of 2021

mreeves December 28, 2021 No Comments Hip-Hop 2021Year In Review

Hip-hop in year two of the pandemic felt deeply unsettled and chaotic, with a dearth of aesthetically vital artists who dictated the culture and served as targets to rebel against. Despite it all, good rap music still exists.

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Spotlight Visuals

Inspired by Shel Silverstein: MidaZ the Beast, Mavi

mreeves December 18, 2021 No Comments album artMaviMidaZ the BeastShel Silverstein

In the past two years, album covers for MidaZ the Beast and Mavi have drawn inspiration from Shel Silverstein’s 1974 children’s collection, Where the Sidewalk Ends.

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