Every Friday, I write a quick little essay in the space before pimping what I wrote over the past week. This week, I had nothing. I’ve been looking at this blank page for a few hours.
So let’s talk about writer’s block.
I Supported Sam Hinkie and “The Process”
Flashback Friday Flop: “Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age”
Welcome back to the latest edition of Flashback Friday Flop, a weekly feature in which I examine a hip-hop album from years ago that was considered a flop, either critically or commercially or both, when it was released and see if it has gotten better – or worse – over time.
This week: Public Enemy’s Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age (1994)
It is difficult to overstate the importance of Public Enemy. The architects of four powerful, groundbreaking albums from 1987 to 1991, including what many (myself included) believe is the greatest hip-hop album of all time, Chuck D, Flavor Flav, and company created politically-charged, aggressive, sonically-stunning, suped-up hip-hop music that spoke truth to power and shined a light on the plights of the black community. Chuck D, along with Rakim, KRS-One, and the other greats of the late 1980s, was instrumental in rap rhymes becoming more nuanced and complex.
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A Unique Opportunity: On Ta-Nehisi Coates Writing “Black Panther”
Last year, Ta-Nehisi Coates, a national correspondent for The Atlantic and a celebrated writer on race in the United States, published Between the World and Me, a book that is presented as a letter to his teenage son about being a black man in America.
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Intelligent Goons: “Black Superhero Music” Reviewed
“A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns.“
– Mario Puzo, The Godfather
Society demands that we be easily categorized. We are defined not only by our race, gender, geographical location, and political leanings, but also by the things we buy, wear, and drive, and how we choose to spend our days and nights.
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Documentary Tuesday: “Style Wars”
Before hip-hop was a global phenomenon that produced billions of dollars in profit, it was the sights of the sounds of the streets, incorporating the four elements of hip-hop – MCing, DJing, B-Boying, and graffiti.
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A Book Detailing the Rise of Humans Changed My View of Life
A “quake book” is one that shakes your foundation and alters your worldview. After you finish it, you are fundamentally changed.
