The Last Wailer
“I won’t say I was shocked to find that Bunny Wailer lived in a poor area. It wasn’t a slum, and he has always preferred to live humbly. (When he ditched the Wailers’ first world tour in 1973 over disagreements about the direction of the band, he famously went and lived in a ramshackle cabin by the beach, surviving on fish from the sea and writing songs.) Still, the degree of shabbiness surprised me, and Llewis remarked on it, too. How long has Bunny Wailer’s music—songs that he participated in making—been in every dorm room, every coffee shop, and he was driving an aged and dusty Japanese sedan? That was serious baldhead math.
The New Rules (and Kings) of Hip Hop
“Hip hop was, by all outward appearances, dead. The only viable alternative was barely viable: the staid, keep-it-real, hip-hopper-than-thou underground scene that, frankly, has been a big ol’ parody of itself since early on in the decade. So it wasn’t much of a surprise that me, Nas, and many members of the hip hop-listening public had bid our beloved genre adieu. All good things come to an end and that, in my view, was exactly what had happened to hip hop.
OK Go's Damian Kulash on the Future of the Music Business
“Music is getting harder to define again. It’s becoming more of an experience and less of an object. Without records as clearly delineated receptacles of value, last century’s rules—both industrial and creative—are out the window. For those who can find an audience or a paycheck outside the traditional system, this can mean blessed freedom from the music industry’s gatekeepers.
Murder Music
“Dancehall is hugely controversial—inside and outside Jamaica. Detractors echo many of the same complaints voiced against American hip-hop, including that the music promotes misogyny and violence. But the brief against dancehall far exceeds criticism inveighed against any other genre of popular music. Dancehall is a crucible for Jamaica’s irreconcilable notions of class and masculinity and identity. Most of all, dancehall is accused of fomenting vicious anti-gay violence.
(via longform)
Ray Davies on Insecurity, Solo Work and the Kinks
“The great Ray Davies says he’s the most insecure person I’ve ever met. Coming from someone so afflicted, that’s a remarkably bold statement because he cannot know what the competition is. Whatever it might be, he implies, he can trump it. If his statement is a bit contradictory, it’s also consistent with the 65-year-old songwriter, who is as rich a mixture of forthright views and chronic self-effacement as anyone you’ve ever met.
Jimi Hendrix, the Patron Saint of Alt-Blackness
“Oh yeah, everyone could tell he was a black guy by ethnicity (although they might have missed the Cherokee part of his lineage), but he wasn’t seen as a full-fledged member of the black cultural legacy. He dressed too weirdly, he played his guitar too loudly, and he had no discernable connection whatsoever to any black tastemaker or cultural tradition. Hendrix was seen by black people as a rock star, and rock was seen by black people as something that black people did not do.
Please Allow Me To Correct a Few Things
“Imagine if Mick Jagger responded to Keith Richards about his new autobiography.
The Bluffer’s Guide to Freestyle
“If you tell an average person you love freestyle music, you’ll likely have them scratching their heads, or possibly asking you about the art of rapping off the cuff. But to a large amount of Latinos and other club-going people who grew up in New York City and Southern Florida during the mid to late 1980’s, freestyle music was an unavoidable part of pop culture.
The State of Jay-Z's Empire
“He’s worth an estimated $450 million and hobnobs with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. How the Brooklyn-born performer has become the leading music impresario of his generation.
