Sylvia Robinson (1936-2011)
Sylvia Vanderpool Robinson — the woman who produced the first commercially successful hip-hop record and perhaps the first female record producer in history — died this morning of heart failure. She was 75. (I know that some accounts have her birthday in 1938, not 1936, but from family accounts I believe the earlier date is […]
Why Eminem Isn’t Elvis
(Written for HuffingtonPost Black Voices) In July, RollingStone.com commissioned Village Voice pop music columnist Chris Molanphy to craft a feature called “Introducing the King of Hip-Hop.” The request came after the success of Molanphy’s previous post for the website, “Introducing the Queen of Pop” — in which Molanphy measured female music artists’ commercial performance in nine […]
Dan Charnas In Vibe Magazine’s “Juice” Issue
Me upon hearing the news: “You guys have an issue about Jews? Nice!” Many thanks to the good folks at Vibe for this inexplicable honor. One of those kinds of features that you read, but never imagine you’d be in. Great to share a page with dream hampton for the first time since our days […]
Honorable Mention From The Dean
Music criticism may be going the way of the CD in the Internet age, as critics no longer have much of a lead on fans in procuring new music, and fans have more platforms than ever to share their opinions directly with each other. We have, alas, become the squeezed-out middlemen. But folks my age […]
Two New York City Summer Events
I’ve been honored by two invites to some pretty cool events in New York City this month. Hope y’all can come. First, on Saturday, July 23, from 2:30p – 3:45p, I will try to fight the feeling that I’m pretty much out of my league while appearing on a Harlem Book Fair panel with Nelson […]