The Last Poets/Merger: Acklam Hall, Notting Hill, London
Live Review by Paul Rambali, NME, January 1978
CHANCES OF seeing The Last Poets I would have thought were only marginally better than those of seeing The Beatles. ...

The Funky Four + One: Rap, Rap, Rap
Report and Interview by Richard Grabel, NME, May 1981
Young South Bronx unwraps the rapping revolution ...

Rap, Rap, Rapping At Top 10’s Door: Kurtis Blow and Company
Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, June 1981
Twas the night before Christmas and all
through the house...
Hold it, hold it. That’s PLAYED OUT.
Don’t give me all that jive
About things you wrote before I was ...

Grandmaster Flash: Flash is Fast, Flash is Cool
Profile and Interview by Richard Grabel, NME, September 1981
THE SOUTH BRONX lies just across a thin stretch of the Harlem River from Manhattan, but it could be worlds away. ...

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five: Live in Los Angeles
Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, November 1982
FLASH – AAAAH! Saviour of the Universe. Saviour of my sanity, anyway. "The Message" shines out from amongst the New Musik murk they play out here ...

The Rap Machine Turns You On
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, December 1982
Various: Rapped Uptight (Sugarhill) ...

Hip Hop: A Guide
Guide by Dave Rimmer, Smash Hits, April 1983
IN 1979 A record called 'Rapper's Delight' by the Sugarhill Gang introduced us to rapping. Similar stuff soon followed — Kurtis Blow, Grandmaster Flash and the ...

A B-Boy's Progress
Profile by Carol Cooper, Village Voice, September 1983
WHEN RAP WAS first struggling out of the youth-center playgrounds and into big-time notoriety, Kurtis Blow was there. ...

Rap It Up! Street-corner jive that brought discos alive
Retrospective by David Toop, The History of Rock, 1984
Unless you were a streetwise native New Yorker, the source of the new underground black music that was appearing on disc in 1979 seemed unfathomable. Records ...

Afrika Bambaataa: Bambaataa Of The Bronx
Interview by Mark Cooper, No.1, March 1984
The Grandmaster of hip hop lectures Mark Cooper on the meaning of the Funk ...

Double Dee & Steinski: Masters Of Mixed Fortunes
Profile and Interview by Simon Witter, NME, June 1985
2009 NOTE: hip hop, humour and catholic taste collided in a cloud of mad skills on Double Dee & Steinski's mastermixes. ...

Mantronix: Heaven, London
Live Review by Simon Witter, NME, 1986
WE WENT to Heaven, and it looked like the Bronx. Wall-to-wall black B-boys, hoods, whistles, and two unprettified lads doing their thing against a tinsel-rain backdrop ...

Def Jam: The Rap Brat Pack
Report and Interview by David Toop, The Face, March 1986
THE GREATEST CREATIVE CONVERGENCE IN 20th Century music has been the American Jewish/Black independent record company. Reel 'em off: Herman Lubinsky and Savoy Records, Hy Weiss ...

LL Cool J: Float Like A Butterfly, Sting Like A Beat Box
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, August 1986
LL COOL J COMES on like a rap version of Muhammad Ali, taking delight in clever wordplay with a showman's sense of timing and a throbbing ...

Kurtis Blow: Kurt's Kingdom
Interview by Sean O'Hagan, NME, November 1986
WHAT ARE WORDS WORTH? ...

LA Dream Team: California Dreamin'
Profile and Interview by Simon Witter, NME, December 1986
WHEN AN unknown band like The LA Dream Team put a single out on their own label, and 250,000 people buy it, they've got to be ...

Salt 'n' Pepa: Cool, Hot & Vicious (Next Plateau)
Review by Carol Cooper, Village Voice, January 1987
I DON'T KNOW about you but I've been waiting quite a while for a girl rap group to duplicate the success of platinum playboys like Run-D.M.C. ...

The Beastie Boys: Lay it Down, Clowns!
Profile and Interview by Chuck Eddy, Creem, May 1987
"They took the doors off their hinges and moved them around. They flooded two floors with the fire hoses. They plugged up the toilets and destroyed ...

The Beastie Boys: Burden of the Beasties
Report and Interview by Jack Barron, The Guardian, May 1987
WHEN THE Beastie Boys step on stage in Brixton tonight at the start of their British tour everyone – the media, authorities, and fans alike – ...

Various Artists: Genius Of Rap — The Sugar Hill Story
Review by Dave Rimmer, Q, August 1987
"I SAID A HIP, HOP..." starts the rap by The Sugar Hill Gang's Wonder Mike over a riff faithfully copied from (though only much later credited ...

Coldcut Get Hot
Profile and Interview by Mark Sinker, NME, November 1987
SONGS HAVE become fragile. The things that held them together – the value of the individual voice, the neat edges of recorded product – are being ...

Kid'n Play: Rap Without The Crap!
Interview by Simon Witter, NME, 1988
Lean, mean and squeaky clean, the bullshit-free beats of Kid'n Play have earned them plenty of dubious accolades, from "the yuppies of rap" to "Salt'n'Pepa in ...

LL Cool J: Rap – A Storm In A Teacup
Report and Interview by Lloyd Bradley, Q, January 1988
WITH WORLDWIDE sales of his second album, Bigger And Deffer, approaching the three million mark (50,000 in Britain) three times more than the last David Bowie ...

Ultramagnetic MC's
Interview by Simon Witter, NME, April 1988
THE EXPLANATORY enthusiasm of New York's most impressive, left-field rap newcomers cuts the crisp late-winter air like a drum solo in a public ...

Eric B & Rakim: The Motormouths Speed On!
Interview by Simon Witter, NME, July 1988
With the American music biz finally embracing hip hop, Eric B & Rakim – contract expired – have been able to cash in their uncompromised credibility ...

Pop Will Eat Itself (and Public Enemy): Scrapping With Rap
Report and Interview by Steven Wells, NME, October 1988
AS DEF JAM'S happy rap panto rolls through Europe, Pop Will Eat Itself and Public Enemy are getting on fine. Unfortunately the hordes of Belgian B-Boys ...

EPMD: Taking Care Of Business
Interview by Simon Witter, NME, February 1989
Within three weeks of it's release, EPMD's first album had reached the No. 1 spot on America's black chart. With its follow up Unfinished Business threatening ...

Lip-Smacking LA: Delicious Vinyl
Report and Interview by Simon Witter, NME, February 1989
New Yorkers, the creators of hip hop, have never been receptive to outside beats, and in the past only the Philly scene has given them cause ...

The Beastie Boys: Paul's Boutique
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, August 1989
PRANKSTERS TO THE last, The Beastie Boys slide into their comeback album so quietly and casually that you double check the volume knob on your stereo ...

Public Enemy: Fear of A Black Planet
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 1990
OVER THE past three years, Public Enemy have made the single most concerted attempt to take rap's inchoate fury and sonic insurgency, and commandeer it for ...

U.S. Rap: Listen Up!
Report and Interview by Mark Cooper, Q, January 1990
RAIN IS STREAMING down in sheets on the Long Island suburb of Hempstead but, inside Public Enemy's headquarters, the group's leader Chuck D is just getting ...

Roxanne Shanté: Bad Sister ****
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, February 1990
RECORDED BETWEEN laundry loads in 1985 when she was fourteen years old, Roxanne Shanté's first single, 'Roxanne's Revenge', was a spontaneous storm of sassy rap turmoil ...

Public Enemy: Fear of a Black Planet ; Professor Griff and the Last Asiatic Disciples: Pawns in the Game
Review by Ira Robbins, Request, April 1990
IN THE 1960s, youthful poets, inspired by radical politics and Woody Guthrie, took up acoustic guitars to deliver topical commentary in a folk music setting. The ...

A Tribe Called Quest: People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm ***
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, April 1990
INASMUCH AS THE arch and arty New York hip-hop foursome A Tribe Called Quest exudes any enthusiasm at all on its debut album, that enthusiasm shows ...

Public Enemy: Fear Of A Black Planet
Review by Lloyd Bradley, Q, May 1990
PUBLIC ENEMY ARE one of the last, relevantly active crews from the second wave of hip hop that included Run-DMC, LL Cool J, Mantronix and The ...

Public Enemy: Confrontation
Report and Interview by Mark Dery, Keyboard, September 1990
"Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and ...

Ice Cube
Interview by Robert Gordon, Creem, 1991
Robert Gordon takes on Ice Cube over racism, sexism, homophobia and society ...

Poison The Hood: Niggaz with Attitude
Retrospective by John Mendelsohn, unpublished, for Playboy, 1991
On a spring evening in 1991, the late Eazy-E accepted the invitation of Dr. Dre, his fellow member of the notorious "gangsta" rap group NWA, to ...

Public Enemy: Fightin' The Hype
Interview by Nick Hasted, Deadline, 1991
A WEEK AGO the Brixton Academy, jammed to its shadowy rafters, waited to listen to Public Enemy. ...

Mantronix: The Incredible Sound Machine
Review by Lloyd Bradley, Q, April 1991
FIVE YEARS AGO, hip hop duo Mantronix were among the best there was: techno-boff Mantronik's search for that perfect beat involved the unlikeliest noises fed through ...

De La Soul: Malice In Wonderland
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, May 1991
With their new album, De La Soul Is Dead, the founders of the hippy hop movement have turned their back on peace, love and positivity. SIMON ...

Massive Attack Prepare To Storm The US!
Profile and Interview by Kris Needs, Rockpool, August 1991
The following feature appeared in New York industry magazine-tipsheet Rockpool on the eve of Massive Attack's introduction to the US market, their Blue Lines debut, for ...

Ice-T
Interview by Andy Gill, Q, September 1991
IN WHAT MUST HAVE been a classic, once-in-a-lifetime meeting of the Ts, Ice-T once taught Mr T to rap. You remember Mr T: burly black dude, ...

Beats International: Play That Funky Music, White Boy
Report by Mat Snow, Q, November 1991
SOME POP MUSICIANS know stardom has arrived when the crowds at the in-store signing have to be kept back by a police cordon. For others, it's ...

Walking With Panthers: Hip Hop and the Legacy of Black Power
Essay by Simon Witter, Sky, 1992
Rap chic, radical chic, Hollywood chic. In 1992 everyone wants a belated piece of the Black Panther Party’s guerilla chic. Simon Witter cuts through the ignorance ...

Tone Loc: Cool Hand Loc
Review by Mat Snow, Q, January 1992
Is Tone Loc too funky or what? ...

Loving The Alien In Advance Of The Landing
Essay by Mark Sinker, The Wire, February 1992
"IN THE MEANTIME," he said, speaking relentlessly but mesmerically softly, as gurus will, "I finally went to Chicago. I determined not to be a musician – ...

Salt 'N' Pepa
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, May 1992
Salt is a member of New York rap act Salt 'N' Pepa, makers of hits such as 'Push It' and 'Let's Talk About Sex'. Of late ...

Rap and Rebellion
Comment by Mark Kemp, Option, July 1992
"We have been more unified in the last four days than we have been in the last 30 years...To the brothers and sisters out there: don't ...

House of Pain: House of Pain (Tommy Boy)
Review by Carol Cooper, Village Voice, July 1992
SPUN OFF from the inspired lunacy of Cypress Hill rapper B-Real's 'Gee, Officer Krupke' whine, the semi-Celtic cartoon called House of Pain is a concept whose ...

Check Yo’self At The Door: Cryptoheterosexuality And The Black Music Underground
Essay by Carol Cooper, Vibe, 1993
I) Time Considered as a Helix of Semilegal Nightclubs ...

Run DMC/Onyx/Boss: Palladium, NYC
Live Review by Ian Christe, Your Flesh, Summer 1993
PASS TWO METAL detectors and a sixteen-point patdown, then descend three stories of padded stairs into a vast ancient theatre outfitted with video ...

Sean 'Puffy' Combs
Interview by Frank Broughton, i-D, 1994
"IT'S ALL GOOD."
Puffy’s conversation is peppered with this little nugget of current street-talk. ...

Snoop Doggy Dogg: A Pussycat?
Interview by Robert Sandall, Q, April 1994
Who's a busy homeboy then? His CV already bulges with a prison sentence, a US Number 1 LP and a still-fresh murder charge. Now, gangster rap ...

Now Is Not The Time To Talk To Snoop Doggy Dogg.
Interview by Angus Batey, unpublished, May 1994
Originally written for the NME, this article was not published ...

Jungle!: The Last Dance Underground
Report by Kodwo Eshun, i-D, May 1994
Jungle is a fierce and frenzied soundtrack to inner city Britain in '94. Based around raw, ragga-influenced white labels, raves and pirate radio stations, it's a ...

Warren G: Regulate…G Funk Era
Review by Carol Cooper, Newsday, 1995
IN THE early to mid ‘80s, two of the most successful rap records concerned vigilantism. The Rake’s 'Street Justice' and Kool Moe Dee’s 'Wild Wild West' ...

A Guy Called Gerald: Wicked Guy!
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, March 1995
A GUY CALLED GERALD is at the forefront of junglist innovation and future-shock technological experimentation. A guy called SIMON REYNOLDS joins him in virtual space. ...

Cypress Hill: III – Temple Of Boom
Review by David Toop, Mojo, December 1995
HIP HOP innovations are so swiftly assimilated and processed into cliché that their initial impact can become lost in foggy video memories of oversized hats, peculiar ...

Public Enemy’s Back Pages
Retrospective by Ian Fortnam, Vox, 1996
WITH INDIEDOM firmly in the grip of the inane and the insipid, the doleful delinquents of 1986 were in dire and desperate need of a new ...

De La Soul
Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Sunday Times, July 1996
IN 1989, DE LA Soul's debut album Three Feet High And Rising was hailed by New York's Village Voice as "the Sergeant Pepper of hip hop". ...

OutKast In The Promised Land
Interview by Miles Marshall Lewis, The Source, August 1996
FINAL EXAMS AT Morehouse College were a bitch. Nearly four in the morning on a starry autumn night years ago, I found myself making a trek ...

Neneh Cherry
Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, September 1996
WHEN NENEH CHERRY was a toddler, she met Miles Davis. She remembers his gravelly growl of a voice, and recalls him opening his trumpet case to ...

Fugees: Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles
Live Review by Cliff Jones, Mojo, October 1996
COOL ALWAYS HAS CONTEXT. Tonight that context is the growing awareness that hip hop and black American music in general have embraced a new set of ...

DJ Kool Herc and Grand Wizard Theodore
Interview by Angus Batey, NME, May 1997
DJS KOOL HERC and Grand Wizard Theodore, who recently played in London as support to the Chemical Brothers, may not be up there with yer Carl ...

Tricky: Rock City, Nottingham
Live Review by Tom Cox, Uncut, June 1997
THE END of the millennium is nigh! Most men will perish and the rest will get extremely stressed out and have to take lots of Valium! ...

Hour Of The Gun: The Wasted Life And Brutal Death Of Tupac Shakur
Profile by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, July 1997
EVEN BY THE BRUTAL STANDARDS OF thug life, his was a particularly merciless encounter. It took less than two minutes for Mike Tyson to pummel Bruce ...

Wu-Tang Clan: Wu-Tang Forever
Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, July 1997
THEY LIVE in a house, a very big house, in the country. But considering that much of their energy, vision and ground-breaking ferocity derives from their ...

Ultramagnetic MCs: Critical Beatdown (Roadrunner/Next Plateau)
Review by Angus Batey, NME, September 1997
KOOL KEITH is Liam Howlett's favourite rapper. And this relic from an age before 'Diesel Power' and Dr. Octagon shows why. ...

Rakim
Profile and Interview by Angus Batey, NME, November 1997
THERE'S A shadow across Rakim's face, but his brown eyes are shining. The man who is for many the greatest rapper ever to have picked up ...

Jay-Z: Vol.2…Hard Knock Life (Roc- A-Fella/Def Jam)
Review by Amy Linden, Vibe, 1998
ALTHOUGH RAPPER Jay-Z may be new to mainstream America, he has been a rising star in the hip hop community for years. ...

The Greatness of Gang Starr
Report and Interview by Amy Linden, unpublished, 1998
IN 1997 EMI Records was in the process of folding, and among the groups who were up for grabs was Gang Starr, a veteran NYC hip ...

De La Soul: Bar Cuba, Macclesfield
Live Review by Rob Chapman, Mojo, 1998
As part of a British mini-tour ahead of an album set for September, America’s most innovative hip hop outfit came to a small, friendly club in ...

Roni Size and Reprazent: Collective Consciousness
Report and Interview by David Stubbs, Vox, January 1998
Dust off your bus pass and get down with RONI SIZE and REPRAZENT. There's Bristol beats aplenty, Genghis Khan gets a look in, and skipping the ...

Hip-Hop: Puppets On A String?
Essay by James Maycock, The Guardian, January 1998
How & Why Black Rappers Exploit Racial Stereotypes (With references to historical precedents through 20th century) ...

KRS-One Launches 'Hip-Hop Appreciation Week'
Report by Frank Tortorici, Addicted To Noise, February 1998
Rapper brings rap and music community together to raise awareness. ...

Tricky: Angels With Dirty Faces
Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, June 1998
HEROES DON'T last long these days. Partly because the scene is shallow and restless; partly because cynicism is always muttering, "Why do we need heroes anyway?" ...

A Tribe Called Quest
Report and Interview by Angus Batey, NME, September 1998
SO, JUST WHAT do you do when love breaks down? When the fabric that holds the fundamentals of your life together finally unravels? You probably gather ...

After The Love Is Gone: A Tribe Called Quest
Interview by Miles Marshall Lewis, The Source, October 1998
DRESSED IN A black T-shirt with THE LOVE MOVEMENT emblazoned in silver on the back, baggy jeans, and a blue denim fisherman's cap pulled down low ...

There's Something about the Beastie Boys
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Request, December 1998
I can still remember the morning, way back in the sweaty London summer of 1983, when three skinny New York wiseasses burst into the New Musical ...

Coolio
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, 1999
Coolio stands centre-stage holding a rubber johnny aloft. "How many o’you been fuckin’?" he hollers. "Huh?" Two thousand of what one can only describe as Hamburgers ...

Adventures on the Wheels of Steel: DJ Kool Herc and the Birth of Hip Hop
Book Excerpt by Bill Brewster, Frank Broughton, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life, 1999
Take a Break

Face your partner, holding hands. Tap one foot behind the other and bring your feet together again. Repeat with your other foot. (Your partner ...

Marley Marl
Interview by Alex Ogg, unpublished, 1999
Marley Marl talks about his inadvertent "invention" of the drum sample and his involvement in the first Eric B and Rakim record. This was originally intended ...

The Life And Times Of Jay-Z: An Interview
Interview by Dan Gennoe, Flipside (UK), 1999
REMIND SHAWN CARTER, aka Jay-Z, that his last long player, Vol.2...Hard Knock Life, which spawned the Annie-sampling single of the same name, sold 5 million copies ...

DMX: Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood (Def Jam )
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, Village Voice, January 1999
It's like, we all got two sides to us, and it depends on what side of the bed you wake up on. That will depend on ...

The Roots: Things Fall Apart
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, Village Voice, March 1999
USED TO BE, a hiphop love song was something like Rakim's 'Mahogany' or Shallah Raekwon's 'Ice Cream'- tunes celebrating shorties from around the way; hardrocks need ...

Apocalypse Now: The Roots
Report and Interview by Miles Marshall Lewis, Spin, March 1999
THE ROOTS' new album, Things Fall Apart, bears all the signs of the Big Statement. There are five separate covers, each featuring a disturbing historical paragraph ...

Soulless Diva: Lauryn Hill
Comment by Everett True, The Stranger, April 1999
I'M NOT DENYING she has looks, and talent, and a silky-smooth voice which can seduce even the most cynical listener. ...

Good Boys Of Rap
Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, April 1999
Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five And Melle Mel: 'Adventures On The Wheels Of Steel' (Sequel)
The Sugarhill Gang: Rapper's Delights (Sequel)
Various Artists: Sugarhill Club Classics (Sequel)
West ...

Puff Daddy: Forever (Bad Boy)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Village Voice, September 1999
The first thing I asked him to do was get me a tape from the studio. He came back with it in five minutes. The studio ...

Q-Tip: Amplified (Arista)/A Tribe Called Quest: The Anthology (Jive)
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, Village Voice, December 1999
THE GREATEST AESTHETIC lesson to learn from past masters like David Bowie and Madonna is the value of reinvention. ...

OutKast: Stankonia (Arista)
Review by Amy Linden, XXL, 2000
ECLECTICISM IS NOT usually associated with hip hop. Most artists, especially those who sell, want to maintain their base, yet in an effort to keep current ...

Craig David
Interview by Dan Gennoe, Front, 2000
With The Artful Dodger and a cry of "Re-e-wind, the crowd say bo selecta!" Craig David boinked his way up the Christmas charts. Only God, Cliff ...

Jay-Z: Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter (Roc-A-Fella)/Rakim: The Master (Universal)
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, Village Voice, January 2000
THIS ISN'T A generation-gap piece, really. I ain't even 30. But a lot of folks ain't authentically feeling Rakim Allah; they just takin' the "experts' " ...

Wuclear Fission: A Nutcase and a Point Guard Rise Above Wu-Tang’s Solo Overkill
Overview by Eric Weisbard, Village Voice, February 2000
THE STUPIDEST, greatest, lovingest, most problematic-yet-simple moment in pop last year was a guy not content to be called Ol' Dirty Bastard letting it all hang ...

Cypress Hill: Astoria, London ****
Live Review by Keith Cameron, The Guardian, March 2000
THE ONGOING debate about the decriminalisation of cannabis seems redundant when a substantial proportion of the 1,800 people shoehorned into the Astoria have voted with their ...

The 'I Hate You So Much Right Now' Woman: Kelis
Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, April 2000
STRIDING PURPOSEFULLY down one of the seamiest streets in Soho, 20-year-old Kelis (pronounced kuh-leece) Rogers is a day-glo ...

Kelis: The Harlem Hurricane Blows Up A Storm
Interview by Chris Roberts, Uncut, April 2000
IT'S SCARILY early on a Monday morning and she says she's as out of it as I am ("I love the night, it just seems so ...

Macy Gray/Mos Def: Roseland Ballroom, New York City
Live Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, Spin, May 2000
IF THERE WAS ever any doubt, the huge plaque onstage honoring the gold status of Mos Def's Black on Both Sides made it clear: The slow ...

Cypress Hill: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, June 2000
CYPRESS HILL'S 1993 breakthrough Black Sunday straddled every hip-hop fault line. Racially, Italian-American rapper B-Real joined Latinos DJ Muggs and Sen-Dog in a traditionally black-American art. ...

Jurassic 5: Quality Control (Interscope)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Village Voice, July 2000
"IN THE sixties we believed in a myth – that music had the power to change people's lives," Stanley Booth writes in the afterword to a ...

Tupac Shakur
Retrospective by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, August 2000
TUPAC AMARU SHAKUR seemed to consider himself immortal, and there are certainly many who still refuse to believe the 25-year-old rapper died after a Las Vegas ...

The Last Poets: Progenitors of Rap
Retrospective and Interview by David Dalton, Gadfly, September 2000
Perhaps it was the Vietnam War dragging on, nightly television footage of bombed villages, body bags and helicopters dropping flaming glue on Vietnamese farmers or the ...

De La Soul: Art Official Intelligence (Mosaic Thump)
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, September 2000
NO ONE who saw the packed, mostly young, black crowd reveling in the house party atmosphere of De La Soul's last UK gig in 1997 can ...

Wyclef Jean: The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book (Columbia)
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, Village Voice, September 2000
EVER HAVE A bright idea, a 1000-watt bulb so blazin that it inevitably slides into the collective consciousness of pop culture? Even if the brainstorm was ...

Wookie: Garage Convert
Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, October 2000
'RINSE IT OUT for us, mate!' The bag being handed over in the foyer of this small but bustling recording studio is not full of dirty ...

Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band
Interview by Angus Batey, Mojo, November 2000
THE AVUNCULAR 56-year-old American sat in a suite in London's Dorchester Hotel doesn't immediately strike you as a rock'n'roll type, but Michael Viner has quite a ...

The Way They Are: Eminem and Friends
Review by Cleothus Hardcastle, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
HIP HOP, you don’t stop. Whatever it is that this hybrid of street poetics and processed beats represents for modern culture, it ain’t going away. And ...

Wu-Tang Clan: Can't Go to Sleep
Interview by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, January 2001
WHAT THE HELL is going on with hiphop right about now? Rap's most popular, most talented MC â€" at one point in the running to grace ...

Eminem: Love, Hate And The Only Important Pop Star Left
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, February 2001
Eminem: Evening News Arena, Manchester ...

Rhymes & Misdemeanours: Missy Elliott Gets Her Freak On
Interview by Amy Linden, Rock's Backpages, April 2001
The expression "It takes a village to raise a child" has quickly morphed from sage African proverb to the "Have A Nice Day" of social engineering. ...

Partners in Rhyme: OutKast
Profile and Interview by Paul Lester, The Guardian, May 2001
One of them is a blonde-wigged, teetotal vegetarian who reads Pushkin. The other breeds pitbulls in his spare time. Together they have been called the "greatest ...

Down to The Roots
Report and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Chicago Tribune, July 2001
TO UNDERSTAND WHY the Roots are the world's best live-on-stage hip-hop act, you have to look past the front line of rappers and check out the ...

The Search Is Over: N*E*R*D
Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, August 2001
THEIR NAMES MIGHT not be familiar, but you'll know Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo by the sounds they make. As multi-million selling production team the Neptunes, ...

Tricky: Blowback (Anti)**
Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, August 2001
Trip hop supremo Adrian Thawes returns, restored to health, and helped by guests Cyndi Lauper and Red Hot Chili Peppers ...

A Q&A With Michael Franti
Interview by Stevie Chick, unpublished, Spring 2001
MICHAEL FRANTI has been one of the most consistently insightful, incisive, and intelligent voices in politicised pop music for almost 15 years now. ...

The True Life Adventures Of Flash
Sleevenotes by Bill Brewster, Frank Broughton, Nuphonic Records, 2002
Chapter 1

FLASH ISN’T THE type of guy to start talking about "How it feels...", but that’s just what you want to ask him. How does it ...

Forward To The Roots
Interview by Amy Linden, XXL, 2002
FOR THE LAST FEW YEARS the city of Philadelphia has sponsored the Philadelphia College Festival. Held directly across the steps of the Art Museum (home of ...

OutKast: Kicking up a Stank (Arista) *****
Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, March 2002
Best of dirty South rappers' first three albums interspersed with new material ...

AUDIO: The Streets (2002)
Interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages Audio, March 2002
Mike Skinner talks about finding his voice, making Original Pirate Material, writing, politics, getting high and about life ...

UK Rap: The word on The Streets
Interview by Gavin Martin, The Independent, March 2002
WHEN MIKE SKINNER, aka The Streets, the 22-year-old lyrical king of British rap, discovers I live within the sound of Bow Bells, he's immediately curious. "Are ...

Q-Tip: Abstract Poetics
Interview by Miles Marshall Lewis, The Source, April 2002
THINGS ARE ABOUT to change. Trust. The rap industry may soon find itself caught out there as many hiphop fans seek sounds more suited for the ...

Biggie and Tupac: directed by Nick Broomfield
Review by James Slack, Rock's Backpages, June 2002
WHATEVER your take on Broomfield and his bumbling public school fecklessness, there's no denying the bloke makes riveting documentaries. Following up the chilling Kurt and Courtney, ...

Eminem: The Eminem Show (Aftermath)
Review by Peter Murphy, Hot Press, June 2002
WELCOME TO artimitateslife.com, a multi-streamed gush of live webcam feed where we get to see Mr Marshall Mathers as Truman trapped in some Gollywood remake of ...

Lauryn Hill: MTV Unplugged 2.0
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, Village Voice, July 2002
I can faithfully, honestly say that hiphop is dead. – Q-Tip

Hiphop being counterculture, underground culture, that's sorta dead. It's all mainstream. It's just a ...

MC Romeo: Alpha Romeo
Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, August 2002
IN THE TOP floor of the London bus that is taking me to interview fast-talking UK garage heartthrob MC Romeo, an effervescent group of black kids ...

AUDIO: Wyclef Jean (2002)
Interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages Audio, August 2002
From the Fugees to Tom Jones, Haiti's very own Wyclef Jean talks hip hop, crack vs. music, martial arts and Cab ...

So Solid Crew: Crew's Control
Profile by Pete Paphides, The Guardian, October 2002
They raced from zero to inner-city heroes in one summer, then stalled in scandal. But don't write off So Solid – there's a serious business brain ...

Tom Jones and Wyclef Jean
Report and Interview by Angus Batey, Touch, November 2002
SO YOU'RE sitting there, in the London Metropole hotel, chatting to Wyclef Jean about his new LP, Maqsquerade. ...

Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Bronx: On The Unlikely Origins Of The UK Hip Hop Movement
Retrospective by Greg Wilson, electrofunkroots.co.uk, 2003
THEY SAY THAT lightening doesn't strike twice, but where there's a rule there's always the exception. Case-in-point concerns that maverick maestro of musical mayhem, Mr Malcolm ...

Russell Simmons's Rap
Interview by Miles Marshall Lewis, The Nation, January 2003
RUSSELL SIMMONS, known for decades as Rush to his friends, is of average height and build for a man his age (45), with a clean-shaven face, ...

Against The Grain: Common
Interview by Miles Marshall Lewis, The Source, March 2003
EIGHT DAYS BEFORE Jimi Hendrix's sixtieth birthday, Common sits comfortably in the guitar god's apartment sipping Poland Spring. ...

50 Cent: Ghosts vs. Boasts
Comment by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, March 2003
Jaded Hiphop-Purist Insight #1: You cannot spit in the wind without being hit by 2Pac and the Notorious ...

Letter from London: The Streets and Ms Dynamite
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Los Angeles Times, March 2003
WHEN THE BEATLES flew over from England in the '60s, it seemed the whole of young America gathered at the airport to scream a ...

Run DMC: The Best of Run DMC
Review by Gavin Martin, Daily Mirror, April 2003
Run DMC inspired a generation to turn hip-hop into a multi-billion dollar industry, says GAVIN MARTIN ...

Eminem: Cleaning Up
Profile by Nick Hasted, The Independent, June 2003
In the hood: Eminem is pulling out all the stops for his European tour ...

Eminem: Milton Keynes Bowl
Live Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, June 2003
HE'S THE LEADING pop icon of his generation, the undisputed Elvis of his era, and for many of the 65,000 fans who attend his concert, it's ...

Dizzee Rascal: Bringing It All Back Home
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, August 2003
THE FIRST TIME you hear Boy in da Corner, it's a jolt. The debut album of 18-year-old Dizzee Rascal has just been nominated for the Mercury ...

Outkast: Southern Swelter
Interview by JoE Silva, Remix, August 2003
WE ARE rolling in a ridiculously immaculate Land Rover beneath a calm Atlanta skyline just after sunset. ...

50 Cent: Wembley Arena
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, September 2003
JUST HOURS after winning an impressive trio of MOBO awards at the Royal Albert Hall, gangsta rap superstar 50 Cent played his biggest UK show to ...

Wiley
Interview by David Hemingway, unpublished, September 2003
A transcript of an interview that subsequently became an XLR8R feature ...

Bubba Sparxxx: Deliverance (Interscope); Kentucky Headhunters: Soul (Audium/Koch)
Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, Village Voice, September 2003
SO THE GRAPEVINE has Hollyweird pondering a film based on late-1970s TV Dixiana The Dukes of Hazzard. The Grandfather Clause prevents me from voting for Brad ...

Yes Yes Y'all and it don't stop, to the beat y'all and it don't stop
Comment by Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, October 2003
RBP's very own Mark Pringle got invited to curate the inaugural exhibition – Yes Yes Y'all: hip hop from scratch – at the Hospital in London's ...
To see an illustrated version of this article, click here

Justin Timberlake joins N.E.R.D.: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Josh Rinkoff, Rock's Backpages, November 2003
WHITE, BLACK, Jewish, Muslim. Butcher, baker, candlestick maker. They are all here tonight. Where I hear you ask? Babylon? Brent Cross? No. Tonight I am ...

Missy Elliott: This is Not a Test
Review by Ben Thompson, The Observer, November 2003
WAY BACK IN 1997, when Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott launched her debut album Supa Dupa Fly with the touching dedication "To my mom... I would not trade ...

Black Eyed Peas: Give Peas Peas A Chance
Interview by Gavin Martin, Daily Mirror, December 2003
HOW THEIR ANTI-WAR SONG AND A FAMOUS FRIEND HELPED BLACK EYED PEAS HIT THE JACKPOT. BY GAVIN MARTIN ...

The Beastie Boys
Interview by Amy Linden, Complex, 2004
IT'S A RAINY March morning in NYC; the Beastie Boys are in the house, or rather the photo studio and the topic on the table is ...

Gangsters: Snoop Dogg and Michael Imperioli
Report and Interview by Amy Linden, Complex, 2004
"What is it about the gangster mythology...that grabs those of us, especially men outside 'the life'? What is about guys like (the late) John Gotti, who ...

Dizzee Rascal: Boy In Da Corner
Review by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 2004
PRECOCIOUS BOW roughneck Dylan Mills knocked up his first single (scabrous teen pregnancy shocker 'I Luv You') in downtime from his school music class at the ...

OutKast: Speakboxxx/The Love Below (Arista)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, 2004
THE YIN AND YANG of epicene dandy André 3000 and straight-up, pit-bull-ownin’ Big Boi may yet prove OutKast’s undoing. If so, the duo at least left ...

Ice Queen Kelis Blows Her Cool
Interview by Gavin Martin, Daily Mirror, January 2004
KELIS IS BACK WITH A SAUCY ALBUM AND A BAD ATTITUDE ...

Grand Central: Label of Love
Profile by David Hemingway, Record Collector, February 2004
THE UK'S PREMIER soul label, Grand Central, has released music by a hip-hop artiste who cites the Smiths as his greatest influence, a future-funk musician whose ...

N*E*R*D: Fly or Die (Virgin)****
Review by Ben Thompson, Observer Music Monthly, March 2004
IF ITS ILLUSTRIOUS predecessor – 2001's visionary soft-porn psychedelic soul masterpiece In Search of... – was anything to go by, the release of a new N*E*R*D ...

Dead Cert: The Streets
Interview by Ben Thompson, The Observer, April 2004
'I LOVE THE NAME "The Streets",' muses 24 year-old Mike Skinner - at once the mercurial creative-director, canny CEO and flaky spokesmodel of that thriving entertainment ...

The Beasties and their Boroughs
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Los Angeles Times, May 2004
"HEY, BUCKINGHAM PALACE!" says Mike Diamond in high, pinched New York tones as Beastie Boys' mini-bus swings past the ugly royal pile. "Hence all the flags. ...

The Streets: Apollo, Manchester
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, May 2004
THE DEBUT ALBUM by Mike Skinner, a.k.a. The Streets, (Original Pirate Material) was a touching, thoughtful ode to all the aspects of modern Britain its media ...

Gil Scott-Heron: Chasing The Heron
Report and Interview by James Maycock, The Times, July 2004
On location with Gil Scott-Heron In New York City ...

Martina Topley-Bird
Interview by Dan Gennoe, GQ, July 2004
MARTINA TOPLEY-BIRD'S debut album, Quixotic, has been a long time coming. So long in fact, that it's become the stuff of myth, with rumours of collaborators, ...

Dizzee Rascal
Profile and Interview by Lulu Le Vay, X-Ray, August 2004
TUESDAY JULY 29th 2003. It has only been three weeks since teen ghetto rapper turned breakneck industry sensation Dizzee Rascal was pulled off his scooter in ...

Kanye West
Interview by Amy Linden, Complex, Summer 2004
When Kanye West's much anticipated debut The College Dropout hit stores in early February, it's blend of inventive production, via a by now trademark predilection for ...

The Streets: The Hardest Way To Make A Living (679) ****
Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, 2005
MIKE SKINNER'S EXISTENCE has been transformed by success and fortune. It's a fortune accrued by observing, in startlingly prosaic detail, a life of Wetherspoons and scams, ...

Black Eyed Peas: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by David Sinclair, The Times, February 2005
CAN IT ONLY be 18 months since the Black Eyed Peas were jostling each other for space on the tiny stage of the 400-capacity Jazz Café? ...

Big Verdict: Lil' Kim Is Seriously Fucked
Comment by Amy Linden, Village Voice, March 2005
ON MARCH 3, in the midst of her highly publicized trial in Manhattan Federal court, a clearly beleaguered Lil' Kim issued a statement through the popular ...

Hip-Hop Violence: Pop Goes The Weasel
Report by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, March 2005
FOR THE RECORD: guns don't go bang but pop, a noise a lot like a jumbo bottle of champagne being opened. As this was a hip-hop ...

Estelle: Urban Ambassador
Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Metro, April 2005
IT'S BEEN A long time coming, but finally things are moving for the feisty Fulham-born singer and rapper Estelle. Fast. So fast, in fact, that she ...

Dizzee Rascal: Electric Ballroom, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, May 2005
DIZZEE RASCAL saunters on stage sporting the infectious grin of a boy who feels that every day is Christmas. Though he starts with 'Sittin' Here', the ...

LL Cool J, Faith Evans: Grant Park, Chicago
Live Review by Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, July 2005
NOW WE KNOW why the Ladies Love Cool James: it’s not for his remarkably buff 40-something body (though they do love that); not even for his ...

Natural Born Show-off: Kanye West
Report and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, August 2005
PRESS PLAYBACKS tend to be uncomfortable affairs. A record label, eager to unveil its latest prestige release but terrified of a stray copy leaking on to ...

OutKast: Idlewild
Review by Dan Gennoe, Q, 2006
ANYONE FEARING that the Day-Glo brilliance of 2003's triple Grammy winner, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, might have marked the height of the Atlanta duo's R&B powers can ...

Peaches: Filth and Fury
Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, July 2006
For Peaches, the famously X-rated rapper, the personal has just got political. Caroline Sullivan hears about her beef with Bush ...

Ice Cube: Respectability? It Can Wait
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, August 2006
He went from gangsta notoriety to Hollywood stardom. Now Ice Cube has returned to the studio – to show today's rappers where they've gone wrong. By ...

Fergie Admits Drugs Shame!
Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, September 2006
THE THREE GIRLS on the south London station platform couldn't have been more than 13, and as they waited for the train, they were singing, "My ...

The Roots: They're A (Funky) American Band
Profile by Jason Gross, Creative Loafing, October 2006
"WHAT KIND OF music do they play?" a Def Jam receptionist innocently asked, when queried about the Roots. Although self-classified as a rap group, the Roots' ...

Ghostface Killah: Coronet, London ***
Live Review by Angus Batey, The Guardian, October 2006
"IF YOU listen to my lyrics, you'll know I'm a soul baby," confesses Dennis Coles midway through a typically eccentric set. "And you've got to have ...

Why The Grammys Have Ditched Rap
Comment by Edward Helmore, The Guardian, December 2006
RAP MUSIC, and the commotion, fur and bling that often accompanies its biggest stars, will be noticeably absent from the Grammy awards in Los Angeles in ...

Dizzee Rascal: 'I Was Just Being Cheeky'
Interview by Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, Financial Times, June 2007
TOP OF the world, that's how Dizzee Rascal feels. Early sales of his new album Maths and English indicate a top-10 hit. "It's a couple of ...

Kanye Kick It? Kanye West: Central Hall, Westminster
Live Review by John Doran, playlouder.com, August 2007
The world's self-proclaimed biggest and best rap star doesn't do anything by half – including throwing a tantrum as John Doran found out recently when he ...

The Roots: It's Like A Jungle Sometimes...
Report and Interview by Angus Batey, The Guardian, April 2008
They are a hip-hop purist's dream, constantly touring and constantly praised. But behind the scenes, the Roots have a fight on their hands. Angus Batey joins ...

Grandmaster Flash: All Hands On Deck
Profile and Interview by Andrew Purcell, The Guardian, February 2009
They thought he was mad, they spat him off stage, he hit the drugs... But Grandmaster Flash gave 'DJ' a whole new meaning. Andrew Purcell meets ...