Always Rob Base

Movie of the Week / Revolutions On Air: The Golden Era of New York Radio 1980 - 1988

Red Bull Music just keeps doing it. This recently produced short documentary about the early days of hip hop radio in NYC is pure magic - I cannot recommend it enough.

For info on a roundtable discussion (May 27, NYC) featuring some of the folks who appear in the film, click here.  And for even more info, read the feature on the Red Bull site which has plenty of YouTube & Soundcloud samples for your aural delight.

Movie of the Week: Beats, Rhymes & Life - Travels of A Tribe Called Quest

Movie of the Week: The Funky Four Plus One at the Kitchen (Nov. 22, 1980)

The Funky Four: K.K. Rockwell, Li'l Rodney C!, Keith Keith, Jazzy Jeff & Sha Rock.

Watch below or here.

. Hat tip to Glen E. Friedman and The Kitchen

Big Bank Hank (Sugarhill Gang) RIP

Big Bank Hank - RIP

Def Rugs: There's nothing like an EPMD or Raekwon logo to say "Welcome"

As they say, "Hip hop from the ground up." When filling out your holiday gift wish list this year, you may want to consider these interesting hip hop rugs from DefRugs.com. Hat tip to Andy Schwartz.

New Book of Note: Glen E. Friedman's My Rules compendium now available

We love to see our favorites doing well, and one of our favorite photographers, Glen E. Friedman, has a new book out NOW! My Rules compiles the original My Rules zine from the early 80's, as well as his two books, Fuck You Heroes, and Fuck You Too. Plus, he says that 30% of the images have never been published before. This is gonna be a whopper of a book!

Rizzoli (the publisher) website 

Order My Rules on Amazon

Stupefied: The Glen E. Friedman Playlist

Contributors include:

TONY ALVA
IAN MacKAYE
ICE-T
LANCE MOUNTAIN
HENRY ROLLINS
LL COOL J
DUANE PETERS
KEITH MORRIS
CHUCK D.
RODNEY MULLEN
RAKIM ALLAH
JAY ADAMS
MILO AUKERMAN
DARRYL McDANIELS
ALAN “OLLIE” GELFAND
JELLO BIAFRA
RICK RUBIN
JEFF HO
TONY (CADENA) BRANDENBURG
ADAM HOROVITZ
GARY “DR. KNOW” MILLER

Introductions by

C.R. Stecyk III and Shepard Fairey

Afterwords by

Lisa Fancher and Gary Harris

Obituaries of note: Earl Morrall, Bob Hoskins, Al Feldstein, Paul Goddard, and DJ E-Z Rock

Earl Morrall - RIP

Bob Hoskins - RIP

Al Feldstein - RIP

Paul Goddard - RIP

DJ E-Z Rock - RIP

Movie of the Week: Beat This! A Hip Hop History (1984)

 Here's an amazing doc from 1984 from the BBC on the still nascent (at the time) hip hop scene. Astounding & beautiful...

Appearances include Easy A.D., Almighty K.G., Arthur Baker, Afrika Bambaataa, Drew Bundini, H. Rap Brown, Grandmaster Caz, Charlie Chase, Brim Fuentes, G.L.O.B.E., Kool Herc, Lisa Lee, Malcolm McLaren, Pow Wow, Sha Rock, and Tony Tone.

Hat tip to Dangerous Minds

Lost & Found: Boogie Down Productions’ Criminal Minded practice tapes

I stopped keeping up with the latest hip hop much longer ago than I'd care to admit. When I WAS into it, however, one of acts that you could not ignore at the time was Boogie Down Productions, whose Criminal Minded (1987) was certainly a stunning debut, and has definitely gone down as one of the great hip hop albums in the genre's history. That should go without saying. 

Last week DJ Kenny Parker, via the Frozen Files show on East Village Radio, shared the tracks you can listen to below - BDP practice tapes from the mid-80's as they shaped what became Criminal Minded. Fascinating stuff especially in light of the fact that hip hop bootlegs (and I don't mean mix tapes) still seems to be a somewhat under-exploited thing. But hey...I could be wrong about that. Enjoy these old school beats.

Hat tip to Fact Mag and Unkut.

New Documentary: Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton (This Is Stones Throw Records)

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Wild Style 30th Anniversary - Reunion & Screening in NYC on Monday

Make plans now for a Special 30th Anniversary Reunion & Screening of the classic hip-hop film WILD STYLE with Live Performances and Appearances by:

The Chief Rocker Busy Bee, Grand Wizard Theodore, The Cold Crush Brothers, The Fantastic Rodney C, and a reunion of all the stars of WILD STYLE including Fab 5 Freddy, Lee Quinones, Lady Pink, Patty Astor & Charlie Ahearn!

6-8pm Live Show
8pm Screening of WILD STYLE
FREE!

More info here.

At the original Amphitheater at East River Park at the FDR Drive entrance at Cherry Street, F M J Z trains to Delancey Street Essex Street.

New documentary: Jamel Shabazz, Street Photographer

It seems you can't shake a stick these days without coming across a really cool music-based documentary. Charlie Ahearn, best known for being the filmmaker responsible for Wild Style, as they say, back in the day, has a new one making the rounds at the moment - Jamel Shabazz: Street Photographer. Covering Shabazz's influential shots from the early days of the New York hip hop scene, it gives life to the several excellent book collections that include his work like Back In the Days, A Time Before Crack, and others.

Jamel Shabazz: Street Photographer will be screening, starting today, through August 8 at Lincoln Center. For times & tickets click here.

Happening Now Thru August 10: THE AFRIKA BAMBAATAA MASTER OF RECORDS OPEN ARCHIVE at Gavin brown's enterprise

Gavin Brown’s enterprise and Johan Kugelberg/Boo-Hooray Gallery, together with Afrika Bambaataa, the Universal Zulu Nation, and Cornell University Library announce the public archiving of one of the most important record collections in the history of hip hop:

The Afrika Bambaataa Master of Records vinyl archive
From July 11 through August 10, Kugelberg and his team will be organizing, cataloguing, and documenting Afrika Bambaataa’s peerless vinyl collection at Gavin Brown’s enterprise, Monday through Friday between 12 – 5 PM. Visitors are encouraged to stop by, hear some great music and see how the cultural artifacts of this important strand of American history are preserved.

Open archiving, like an archeological dig or a group of students viewing biological research in a museum, is an important and rarely seen part of the process of documenting history. Before the Afrika Bambaataa archive moves to its permanent home at Cornell University’s Hip Hop Collection in the Fall of 2013, Johan Kugelberg and Gavin Brown’s enterprise offer visitors a unique opportunity to experience what is arguably the most important gathering of vinyl in the history of hip hop while it is sorted, organized, archived (and DJ'd) in full view of the public.

Gavin Brown's enterprise is located at 620 Greenwich Street, NYC, and can be reached at 212-627-5258 or via email here.

Universal Zulu Nation
Cornell Hip Hop Archive
Bambaataa Visiting Scholar 

Kickstarter Project of Note: Graffiti Rock 30th Anniversary

Holman by Arne Svensen

Michael Holman - he of the band Gray, associate of Jean Michel Basquiat, and general scenemaker on the downtown scene of early 80's NYC - has something else he'd like you to know about, and its worth a look. He was one of the earlier promoters of hip hop & graffiti culture in New York. Not only did he do a lot to bring hip hop downtown (literally), he also conceived of and hosted a short lived, but nevertheless influential TV show, Graffiti Rock. Not unlike American Bandstand or Soul Train in format, its difficult to imagine now that Graffiti Rock was absolutely groundbreaking at the time as hip hop was incredibly new as a genre. And besides the almost novelty hit status of "Rapper's Delight" in 1979, the genre was a long way from being socially acceptable. 

It turns out that 2014 will be the 30th anniversary of the show, and to celebrate, Holman is working on a retrospective collection of the show and related materials to release. He's also working on a documentary about the show, and hip hop culture at the time which will be packaged together with the Graffiti Rock collection. Watch the video below, and if you're so inclined, donate to his Kickstarter.

Added bonus - watch the episode of Graffiti Rock below the Kickstarter video.

The New York City Breakers on the set of Graffiti Rock. Shot by Martha Cooper.

On the scene: White Mandingos at the New Museum

The White Mandingos (Murs, Darryl Jenifer of Bad Brains, and Sacha Jenkins SHR) made their live debut at the New Museum this past Friday night. Liz M was there, and managed to snap this shot of their setlist. Check them out on Facebook and Soundcloud.

Pick up their debut album now

It makes me wonder how I keep from going under

Source

Rhapsodic City: Music of New York, Part 2

In case yesterday's post looked a bit unwieldy, here's a nice little succinct video about the Rhapsodic City: Music of New York program coming up at the NY Public Library.

Rhapsodic City: Music of New York - a new series at the NY Public Library

Here is an incredibly ambitious and fairly thorough program starting soon at the New York Public Library presenting a history of music in New York City via a mix of panels, films, documentaries, and performances. Scroll down slowly - I've attempted to present the schedule in a neat & easy to read format. Links are provided for each individual event. 

All events included in the Rhapsodic City: Music of New York series take place at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (40 Lincoln Center Plaza) unless otherwise noted below, and are free and open to the public.

This spring, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts presents Rhapsodic City: Music of New York, a new six-week long interdisciplinary series exploring the city's distinct role in the formulation, emergence, and legacy of some of the most exciting music movements in the 20th century.

Tackling a different music style or subject each week -- hip-hop, punk, the folk music revival, Prohibition-era jazz, Mambo and Salsa, and the Brill Building's heyday -- Rhapsodic City: Music of New York features panel discussions with icons and experts, performances by leading artists, special film screenings and presentations of the Performing Arts Library's remarkable collections.

Highlights from the series include a discussion of punk style and sound with Blondie's Debbie Harry and Chris Stein; performances by Jazz Age Lawn Party founder Michael Arenella, Grammy-nominated bandleader Bobby Sanabria, and Joe McGinty from the Losers Lounge Band; a celebration of women in hip-hop; and an exploration of Greenwich Village in the '50s and '60s led by Elijah Wald, author of the book that served as source material for the Coen Brothers' latest film.

"At The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, we are deeply aware of how vital music is to this city's cultural fabric," said Jacqueline Z. Davis, Barbara G. and Lawrence A. Fleishman Executive Director of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. "Using our vast archival materials -- including sheet music, films, recordings and more -- Rhapsodic City: Music of New York provides an opportunity for us to illustrate some of the most compelling examples of how New York inspires new genres of music, and how musical styles from around the world have become part of the city's own cultural narrative, creating a distinctly New York story."

All events included in the Rhapsodic City: Music of New York series take place at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (40 Lincoln Center Plaza) unless otherwise noted below, and are free and open to the public. Continued after the jump.

Kickstarter project of note: Rubble Kings

About two and half years ago(!), I ran the trailer for a documentary on the history of the New York gang culture, and its eventual influence on hip hop, called Rubble Kings. (The same team also made an excellent film connecting hip hop and the post punk downtown scene in NYC of the late 70's/early 80's called Downtown Calling that has yet to see any sort of wide release.) Well, its taken a bit of time, but the film's makers have just launched a Kickstarter campaign to finish the project. Get the scoop & donate here. Visit Rubble Kings on Facebook here.

Now, when the hell will we get a copy of Downtown Calling?!

From 1968 to 1975, gangs ruled New York City. Beyond the idealistic hopes of the civil rights movement lay an unfocused rage. Neither law enforcement nor social agency could end the escalating bloodshed. Peace came only through the most unlikely and courageous of events that would change the world for generations to come by giving birth to hip-hop culture. Rubble Kings, the most comprehensive documentation of life during this era of gang rule to date, tells the story of how a few extraordinary, forgotten people did the impossible, and how their actions impacted the world over.