Categories
Hip-Hop Rap

The Godfather of the Hip-Hop Magazine

A one-on-one interview with Brian Nagata, the man behind RapZines

For us hip-hop superfans that came of age long before the internet and streaming era, we had to get our fix in other ways. Years before blogs and social media, we got our info from the scant TV programs that focused on the culture – Yo! MTV Raps; Urban Xpressions; Rap City – but most of our knowledge and insight came from publications.

The Source was the bible, but there were others. Only in these magazines could we get a regular diet of in-depth features, reviews, and previews of everything happening in and around the music.

No one appreciates that fact more than Brian Nagata, the founder, owner, and operator of Rapzines.

Categories
Art Books Documentaries Films Learning

“The Booksellers”: A Documentary for Bibliophiles and Collectors

“The relationship of the individual to the book is very much like a love affair.”

Anyone that has studied or researched the finer points of books, particularly rare books, knows that it is a more complicated and layered world than most would imagine.

How do you identify a first edition? What makes a book rare? What is an “antiquarian” book? What makes a book valuable? And who are these people that dedicate their lives to answering such questions?

Categories
Art Books Life

Anything Can Be Art

We’re a nation of clutter. We’re a society of packrats. We love our stuff.

Categories
Books Life Nostalgia Passion

When Collecting Becomes an Obsession

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Like many ’80s babies, I was a huge card collector when I was kid. I bought, sold, and traded baseball, basketball, football, and even some hockey cards with my friends. We’d have card collecting parties where everyone would bring boxes of the cards with which they were willing to part and we’d act like we were in an adolescent version of Boiler Room.