Neil Kulkarni
Neil Kulkarni has been writing about pop since 1994 in a career characterised by an unerring determination to make his writing the very best on the planet. Starting at Melody Maker in 1994, Kulkarni was one of the few print-dissidents to the mainstream in the Britpop era and has been a ferocious champion of extreme music and hip-hop for nigh-on 20 years through publications as diverse as DJ, Bizarre, Uncut, Terrorizer, Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Bang, Plan B, Careless Talk Costs Lives, Loose Lips Sink Ships and the Quietus website. Hugely influential on a whole generation of new critics, he's a writer that inspires fear in his peers, awe in his readers and divides opinion wherever his words drop. After spells as a DJ and broadcaster he's still writing and is currently a lecturer in media and music at a college in his beloved home town of Coventry.
List of articles in the library by artist
Britney Spears: Baby One More Time (Jive)
Review by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, March 1999
I WOULDN'T, actually. Jailbait. Pastels. Popsox. Mall rat. Sure, all the obvious jokes cover up the fact that this is a document of pure venality. ...
Graham Coxon: The Leadmill, Sheffield
Live Review by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, July 2000
MAYBE THE whys and wherefores don't matter. Maybe it's pointless trying to figure out the real reasons for people coming here. Nobody could really have ...
Ice Cube / Gravediggaz: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, September 1994
TRY AND tie down hip-hop with yer baggage and it always finds a way to bust loose. Never mind asking "Has Rap Gone Too Far", ...
Cypress Hill, Ice Cube: Cypress Hill: Do Believe The Hype
Interview by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, September 1995
CYPRESS HILL's self-titled debut album changed the face of hip hop. Their second, Black Sunday, was the rap crossover LP of the early Nineties. But ...
Dilated Peoples: 'Hip-Hop Culture Has Suffered. We Want To Reverse That'
Interview by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, October 2000
IT'S NOT JUST PUNK AND METAL THAT ARE KICKING OFF STATESIDE — SO IS HIP-HOP AS DILATED PEOPLES TELL US ...
Dr. Dre, Eminem, N.W.A.: Dr. Dre: 10 Reasons Not To Forget About Dre
Comment by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, November 2000
THOUGHT DR DRE HAD SLIPPED OUR MINDS, DID YA? NOPE — US MUTHAF***AS WERE JUST ACTING LIKE WE HADN'T REMEMBERED THE HIP-HOP POWERHOUSE. HERE'S WHY ...
Live Review by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, April 1999
20 Minute Party People ...
Foo Fighters: Have We Got Foos For You
Interview by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, April 1996
Foo Fighters are back with a new single, 'Big Me', and a fresh determination to not let adulation force them into a Nirvana–type corner. Melody ...
Interview by Neil Kulkarni, Plan B, April 2007
WHAT ARE you playing at? "Not what you think" whispers Infinite Livez, Big Dada's most wayward emissary and co–creator (alongside Swedish electrojazz–duo Stade) of a ...
Kenickie: Electric Ballroom, London
Live Review by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, June 1998
HEY, LITTLE rich girl, where did you go wrong? The 'Nick should never have moved to London. Left home, met all these glittery chuckleheads, built ...
Marilyn Manson: Alternative Cult Star
Interview by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, September 1997
He's seven-foot tall and rips his stomach to shreds with a half-broken bottle on stage. But, heh, he's still little Brian to his mum. We ...
Method Man, RZA, Ghostface Killah, Wu-Tang Clan: Wu-Tang Clan: Martial Lore
Special Feature by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, May 1997
Public Enemy's fall from grace left hip hop without a heroic focus. Enter WU-TANG CLAN, a crew from Staten Island whose ever-changing line-up has produced ...
Peace: Tiny, Smug and Blissfully Ignorant Minds: New British Indie and Peace's In Love (Columbia)
Special Feature by Neil Kulkarni, fuckyouneilkulkarni.blogspot.co.uk, April 2013
"I. Man's perceptions are not bound by organs of perception; he perceives more than sense (tho' ever so acute) can discover." — William Blake, ...
Live Review by Neil Kulkarni, Quietus, The, July 2011
Neil Kulkarni breaks his no-festival rule and braves the corporate overkill of Wireless to see his Pulp. His verdict? They "now stand mighty amidst the ...
Screaming Trees: Riverside, Newcastle
Live Review by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, November 1996
FOR A gig you might've expected to be a pissed–up, beery slop, all bum–notes and chaos, it's all in the subtleties of feel. This is ...
Soundgarden: Apollo, Manchester
Live Review by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, September 1996
PERFECT. AS only the superficial can be. ...
back to LIBRARY
Best Databases: RBP is Runner-up in Best Niche category
Video: Johnny Marr talks about Rock's Backpages
download eBooks and audio interviews
RBP on Spotify: The Very Best of 40-year-old Virgin
RBP Album Club, June 13th: Miki Berenyi and Lucy O'Brien celebrate a Blondie classic
Essential Listening: Green Day grilled by Roy Trakin
RBP Album Club, July 11th: Nick Hornby and Nick Coleman celebrate Southside Johnny's debut
Essential Reading: Bud Scoppa's 1971 Byrds classic