Frank Owen
Frank Owen was born in Manchester, England and in the mid 1980s began his career at Melody Maker where he specialized in hip-hop and house music. In 1987, he moved to New York and became the Music Editor at Spin magazine. In the mid 1990s, he started writing for the Village Voice where he penned a string of controversial cover stories about the seedy underbelly of New York nightlife, which became the basis for his first book Clubland: The Fabulous Rise and Murderous Fall of Club Culture a.k.a Clubland Confidential (2003). Four years later he published No Speed Limit: The Highs and Lows of Meth which he wrote high on speed.
For the last decade, Frank Owen has been an investigative reporter for Playboy magazine specializing in drug and murder stories. He has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsday, Vibe, Elle, Miami New Times, Maxim, and many other outlets.
He currently lives in Miami Beach with his wife Lera and their two children, Spike the dog and Max the cat.
81 articles
List of articles in the library
Aretha Franklin: Who's Zoomin' Who? (Arista)
Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 27 July 1985
SINCE HER Atlantic heyday, critics have bemoaned Aretha's descent into the rhetoric of showbiz glamour. They want her to return to the transcendent flights and ...
Womack and Womack: Soul Wars: Womack And Womack: The Dominion, London
Live Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 21 September 1985
TEXTURING INTIMACIES with the grain of their extraordinary, conflicting voices, Womack And Womack have almost singlehandedly rescued the dramas and gestures of love from the ...
Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 5 October 1985
FROM HER early days with Labelle doing cover versions of the likes of 'Won't Get Fooled Again', to her collaborations with Talking Heads, Bill Laswell ...
Sun Ra & his Arkestra: The Fridge, Brixton, London
Live Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 30 November 1985
IN A VAIN attempt to create something approaching a jazz boho ambience, someone had covered the walls of the Fridge with arty French slogans. One ...
Peter Stringfellow: The Peter Principle
Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 4 January 1986
With his glittering night club The Hippodrome, working class entrepreneur PETER STRINGFELLOW seeks to bring glamour into everybody's life. But, asks Frank Owen, is he ...
Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 25 January 1986
StreetSounds supremo and entrepreneur of the modern dance MORGAN KHAN thinks the Welfare State sucks, that charity begins at home and that the Union Jack ...
LL Cool J: Radio On: LL Cool J: Radio (Def Jam)
Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 8 February 1986
LABEL OF THE MOMENT Def Jam's first album release in this country is the debut of the newest star in the hip hop firmament, 18-year-old ...
The Beastie Boys, LL Cool J and Def Jam: Escape From New York
Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 8 February 1986
New York's superhip Def Jam label has burst upon the Great British Public via a distribution deal with CBS. Frank Owen, tireless beatbox gumshoe, endured ...
Cherrelle, Alexander O'Neal: Cherrelle and Alexander O'Neal: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 8 March 1986
IN THE LATEST edition of Monitor, Chris Stubbs suggests that soul music's fading calling card is now sex music. And it's certainly true that the ...
Ariwa Posse, The Mad Professor: Ariwa Posse and The Mad Professor: The Wild Bunch
Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 15 March 1986
Keen young sociologist Frank Owen grabs a stetson and pursues ARIWA POSSE and their mentor THE MAD PROFESSOR. Reggae will never be the same again. ...
Betty Wright: Getting It Wright
Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 15 March 1986
BETTY WRIGHT is back with 'Pain', but she doesn't feel any because she's got religion. Frank Owen is in two minds. ...
Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 22 March 1986
Dr Frank Owen returns with the backbeat on MANTRONIX, another pair of boys from the land of hip-hop. Is this finally the end of live ...
The Cramps: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 22 March 1986
The Living Dead ...
Kurtis Blow: A Blow-By-Blow Guide To Rapping
Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 5 April 1986
At the ripe old age of 25, KURTIS BLOW is the Godfather of Rap. Here, he takes Frank Owen through his personal step-by-step guide to ...
Pop Journalism: Write or Wrong?
Overview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 24 May 1986
Is it pop we're disillusioned with, or pop journalism? Is Paul Morley the curse or the saviour of the scribbling classes? Frank Owen takes a ...
Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 14 June 1986
AS if he hasn't got enough on his plate, what with producing Motorhead and Fourth World funking all over the place, BILL LASWELL's gone and ...
Gil Scott-Heron: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 5 July 1986
NORMALLY, I HATE protest pop, especially the born-again Methodism of the likes of Bragg and Moore with that heavy evangelical tone. So why do I ...
Run-DMC: Run DMC: Raising Hell (London)
Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 19 July 1986
BOYS FROM THE COUNTY HELL ...
Profile and Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 19 July 1986
Out of the subway and into the charts, hip hop is stronger than it's ever been, with dazzling new talents like LL Cool J and ...
Chip E., Frankie Knuckles, Marshall Jefferson: Chicago House: Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, Part 1
Report and Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 16 August 1986
In the first of two instalments, Atlantic-hopping Frank Owen introduces DJ International, home of CHICAGO HOUSE music, the finest club beat of the moment ...
Candi, Darryl Pandy: Chicago House: Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, Part 2
Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 23 August 1986
At the centre of the House stands the figure of the deejay. But the Chicago Sound is not all cross-fading, mixing and sampling, as Frank ...
Working Week: Ronnie Scott's, London
Live Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 6 September 1986
NOW YOU HAS JAZZ! ...
Just Ice: Sleeping Bag Records #1: Sleeping Around
Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 20 September 1986
In New York City, centre of sexual paranoia, Frank Owen tracks down JUST ICE, Sleeping Bag recording artist and hip hop's numero uno misogynist guy ...
Dinosaur L, Arthur Russell, T La Rock: Sleeping Bag Records #2: Sleeping Around
Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 27 September 1986
Last week Frank Owen unearthed the warped machismo of JUST ICE. Now, in the second part of his investigation into SLEEPING BAG RECORDS, he corners ...
The Smiths: Home Thoughts From Abroad
Report and Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 27 September 1986
While THE SMITHS tour America, controversy still rages over their single, 'Panic'. Does the refrain 'hang the deejay' really harbour racist tendencies? Frank Owen tracks down ...
Report and Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 15 November 1986
Hard core rapper JUST ICE is out on bail following a murder charge. Frank Owen talks to him and investigates the background to the case ...
Schoolly D: Triumph Of The Ill
Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 15 November 1986
SCHOOLLY D arrived in Britain for his tour with BAD with a fearful reputation. He was reputed to take a Magnum along to interviews, once stalked the streets with ...
Fela Kuti: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 29 November 1986
COSTUME DRAMAS ...
Report and Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 6 December 1986
To hip hop or not to hip hop, that is the question. With their new album, Music Madness just in the shops, Frank Owen travelled to NYC, home of MANTRONIX, to ...
The Beastie Boys, Oran "Juice" Jones, LL Cool J, Run-DMC, Slayer: Def Jam: License to Thrill
Report and Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 20 December 1986
RICK RUBIN and RUSSELL SIMMONS are the creative mavericks behind the outrageous antics of THE BEASTIE BOYS and RUN DMC and a whole host of ...
Oran "Juice" Jones, Run-DMC, Slayer: Def Jam #2: World Domination Enterprises
Report and Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 3 January 1987
In the second part of his investigation into DEF JAM records, the world's hottest label, Frank Owen charts the careers of RICK RUBIN, RUSSELL SIMMONS, ...
Salt 'N' Pepa: Salt-N-Pepa: Femme Fatales
Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 3 January 1987
If you thought rap was misogyny central, listen up. SALT-N-PEPA are bitchin' back on behalf of the gals. Frank Owen gets an earful. ...
Tashan: Chasin' A Dream (Def Jam)
Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 3 January 1987
THE ADULT NET ...
The Pop Tarts: Downtown: Life After Death
Report and Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 17 January 1987
Downtown New York is where people are famous for being famous, but you're only famous if you're on the guest list. Downtown is the home ...
Salt-N-Pepa: Salt 'N' Pepa: Hot, Cool And Vicious (Next Plateau)
Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 31 January 1987
THE SPICE IS RIGHT ...
Sheila E.: Sheila E: Sheila E (Paisley Park Records)
Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 28 February 1987
WHAT A strange place Paisley Park must be! It's as if the accoutrements of Sixties head culture synthesized with Seventies body culture to produce an ...
Public Enemy: Hip Hop Wig Out '87: Public Enemy – Def Not Dumb
Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 21 March 1987
In the first of a series of reports from New York, Frank Owen steals the rhythm of the moment as he surveys hip hop's newest ...
Interview by Frank Owen, Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 28 March 1987
IN THE SECOND REPORT FROM NEW YORK ON HIP-HOP'S LATEST ULTRA-NOW TALENTS, SIMON REYNOLDS SURVEYS THE MONSTROUS AND MIND-BLOWING TALENT OF THE SKINNY BOYS WHILE ...
Cutmaster DC, King Sun: Hip Hop Wig Out '87 #3: The Harlem Shuffle — King Sun and Cutmaster DC
Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 4 April 1987
IN THE THIRD OF OUR REPORTS on rap's now explosion of new talents, Frank Owen journeys to Harlem to bring you the news on happening ...
Profile and Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 11 April 1987
YOU MAY KNOW ARTHUR RUSSELL FOR HIS WORLD OF ECHO ALBUM. THEN AGAIN, YOU MAY REMEMBER DINOSAUR L OR THE NECESSARIES OR... WELL. FRANK OWEN TAKES US ON A TRIP ...
Schoolly D: Philadelphia Story
Report and Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 9 May 1987
ON THE EVE OF HIS BRITISH TOUR AND WITH A CRACKING SECOND ALBUM ON THE WAY, SCHOOLLY-D SHOWS FRANK OWEN AROUND HIS HOME TOWN. PICS: JANETTE BECKMAN ...
Schoolly D: The Royal Holloway College, Egham, Surrey
Live Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 16 May 1987
"AN ULTIMATE character," is how David Stubbs has labelled Schoolly-D. Bad, badder, baddest, and baddest most ill. "My name is Schoolly-D and I'm running amok. ...
Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 23 May 1987
BRONX AGE MEN ...
Run-DMC: Run DMC: Homeboy's Home Truths
Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 23 May 1987
ON THE EVE OF THEIR BRITISH TOUR, RUN DMC EXPLAIN TO FRANK OWEN THE STRENGTH OF SILENCE, THE POWER OF GOOD EXAMPLE AND THE WAY THE HISTORY ...
Report and Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 13 June 1987
WITH BIGGER AND DEFFER, HIS SECOND LP, LL COOL J HAS INFLATED THE BOUNDARIES OF MEGALOMANIA. FRANK OWEN MEETS THE SELF-ACCLAIMED WORLD'S GREATEST RAPPER TO ...
Frankie Knuckles: Groovemaster No.1: Frankie Knuckles
Profile and Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 20 June 1987
IN 1980, Chicago was the centre of the anti-disco campaign that was, at that time, sweeping America. Two local DJs, Steve Dahl and Jerry Meier, ...
Boogie Down Productions: Scott La Rock: Wasted in the Zoo
Interview by Frank Owen, New Musical Express, 26 September 1987
Less than a month ago, the Bronx rap supremo SCOTT LA ROCK was tragically shot dead in a street brawl, the very day he'd signed a ...
Live Review by Frank Owen, New Musical Express, 28 November 1987
TEN YEARS ago, Cabaret Voltaire gave the appearance of being needed on the principal that today's avant-garde is tomorrow's ready-to-wear. These days there's nothing as ...
Fab 5 Freddy, Max Roach: Fab 5 Freddy & Max Roach: Hip Hop Bebop
Report and Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, October 1988
Max Roach says the new Charlie Parkers are in hip hop. The inventor of modern jazz drumming celebrates the new generation with wild stylist Fab ...
Report by Frank Owen, Spin, October 1988
WITH A defiant swagger, home-boy style '88 says, "Say it loud, I'm fake and I'm proud." Gucci may be good, but fake Gucci is what's ...
Ten City: Foundation (Atlantic)
Review by Frank Owen, Spin, June 1989
I, A HONKY away-from-homeboy, first heard the deep house anthem 'Devotion' by Chicago's Ten City (here included along with their other two club hits, 'That's ...
Review by Frank Owen, Spin, August 1989
BACK IN THE late 70s, Detroit DJ the Electrifyin' Mojo would climax his nightly progressive funk'n'rock show with an on-air ceremony he called "Landing the ...
Profile and Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, October 1989
New Jersey has become a hothouse of hot house music. Adeva takes you there. ...
Chaka Khan: Life Is A Dance: The Remix Project (Warner Bros.)
Review by Frank Owen, Spin, October 1989
LIKE A DRUG, dance music needs harder and harder hits to sustain the same level of pleasure. What would have been a seismic drum track ...
The Beastie Boys: Paid In Full
Report and Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, October 1989
The Beastie Boys say their old record company is withholding millions of their dollars. Def Jam's Russell Simmons says he taught the Beastie Boys how to walk and talk. A ...
Big Daddy Kane: It's a Big Daddy Thing (Cold Chillin'/Reprise)
Review by Frank Owen, Spin, November 1989
LIKE HIS ground-breaking debut album, Long Live the Kane, It's a Big Daddy Thing finds Kane in the forefront of the most important new direction ...
Digital Underground: Rock The Art House
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, November 1989
Digital Underground are the hip hop band of the future. Freaky, funky, mechanically minded and experimental. ...
Black Box, De La Soul, Stetsasonic: Sampling: Bite This
Report by Frank Owen, Spin, November 1989
When De La Soul sampled a Turtles oldie, the Turtles weren't flattered. So they sued. Does their legal action threaten the existence of hip hop? Is ...
Report by Frank Owen, Spin, December 1989
Once divided by a well-guarded aesthetic border, the hip hop and house scenes are now mixing. And hip house is the new style. ...
Report by Frank Owen, Spin, January 1990
Ecology is the greatest thing on a lot of rock stars' minds these days. But what about all the plastic wrap on their albums? ...
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, February 1990
Rapping about bass and booty, Miami rap is party music with a foul mouth. And 2 Live Crew are the nasty rulers of the Miami ...
Report by Frank Owen, Spin, February 1990
On the dance floors and radio stations of New York City, reggae is stronger than ever. ...
Public Enemy: Public Service: Public Enemy
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, March 1990
With their third album, Fear of a Black Planet, about to be released, Public Enemy proclaims the death of European predominance. Pop goes Afrocentric for ...
Ice Cube, N.W.A: NWA: Hanging Tough
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, April 1990
Hounded by the FBI and acclaimed as the new, new Sex Pistols, NWA's rise has been rapid and sensational. But now that chief spokesman and ...
Lee Atwater: Chairman of the Blues
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, June 1990
Twenty years ago, a young down-home Southern white boy fell in love with black music and became a hot R&B guitarist, backing the likes of ...
2 Live Crew: Fear Of A Black Penis
Report and Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, September 1990
A media moral panic about their alleged obscenity has catapulted Miami rappers 2 Live Crew to national notoriety. FRANK OWEN reports from Florida. ...
Geto Boys: Censorship Isn't Def American
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, November 1990
Sexually explicit and graphically violent, the Geto Boys are Rick Rubin's latest rap signing. Now Geffen won't release their album. FRANK OWEN reports. ...
Faith No More: Artists Of The Year
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, December 1990
WHETHER HE'S advising Sassy readers to take drugs, kill babies, and steal everything, or wearing a shirt with multiple images of Jesus Christ jacking off ...
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, January 1991
...is on the psychedelic tip, on the one-world tip, and on the conscious tip. But most of all, the group's on the making-house-music-intelligible-to-the-masses tip. ...
LL Cool J: Mike Tyson vs. LL Cool J
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, January 1991
BOTH WEAR the mask of the invulnerable ultra-man. Both are naked aggressive — one physical, one metaphorical. Both are in a business where the competition ...
Retrospective by Frank Owen, Vibe, November 1993
For over a decade, Larry Levan ruled the dance-music world from his roost in the DJ booth at New York's legendary Paradise Garage. Last November, ...
Report by Frank Owen, Vibe, December 1993
While no one was looking, a new kind of R&B became the dominant force in pop music. And still it gets no respect. ...
One Dove: Disc-O-Tech: One Dove
Profile by Frank Owen, Vibe, March 1994
THEY'VE BEEN called "the Cocteau Twins just back from Ibiza" and "King Tubby meets the Beach Boys." But perhaps it's dubmeister Jim McKinven who put ...
Retrospective and Interview by Frank Owen, Vibe, December 1994
Most of what you know about the old school is wrong. ...
The Prodigy: Irving Plaza, New York
Live Review by Frank Owen, Rolling Stone, 24 August 1995
EVERYBODY KNOWS that Brits can't rap or dance: They lack flow. True to form, the Prodigy's unexceptional rapper (Maxim Reality) and two clumsy dancers (Leeroy ...
Report by Frank Owen, The Village Voice, 25 June 1996
Looking for Angel: Did King of Club Kids Michael Alig really Kill Angel Melendez? Or is it all a hoax? By Frank Owen ...
Report by Frank Owen, The Village Voice, 26 May 1998
A CIRCLE CLEARS in the middle of the gloomy basement at Konkrete Jungle and into the arena glides 20-year-old Face, top rocking to the mechanical ...
Report by Frank Owen, The Village Voice, 9 February 1999
New details about Tunnel drug overdose allegation ...
Wu-Tang Clan is Sumthing ta Fuck Wit
Report by Frank Owen, The Village Voice, 23 May 2000
The world-famous Staten Island hip-hop collective has a government informer working within its ranks; at the same time, the group is being investigated by the ...
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