Art By Brad Beatson. Left and Right Swiping By Paul Thompson, Torii MacAdams, and Jeff Weiss
| Queensbridge’s Best Kept Secret: DJ Hot Day | October 8, 2014 |
Harold Stallworth love to hear the stories, again and again. Circa 1986, Queensbridge park jam legend DJ Hot Day was tapped to remix New Edition’s “Once In a Lifetime Groove.” The original record was featured on the soundtrack for Running Scared, a ditzy buddy cop flick starring Gregory Hines and Billy Crystal. Dubbed the “Master […]
| Large Professor Salutes God’s Son: “In the Scrolls” Featuring G-Wiz | September 24, 2014 |
Harold Stallworth takes care to never say the year. Few rappers live to enjoy a level of acclaim so universal that praise and applause, no matter how deserving, runs the risk of coming across as cliché. “In The Scrolls,” slated to appear on Large Professor’s forthcoming solo album, Living Legend, finds the good professor saluting […]
| Friend or Foe: Your Old Droog | June 16, 2014 |
Harold Stallworth is but one of Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s many pen names. With the release of his self-titled debut EP, an elusive Coney Island-based rapper by the name of Your Old Droog has leapfrogged the likes of Ali Vegas, Mic Geronimo, The Game, and Biggie’s mock baby picture to become the most convincing Nas impersonator […]
| Spring Mix – Has-Lo | May 28, 2014 |
Has-Lo is hordeable, sportable, and totally affordable Spring is my favorite time of year. It’s not as hot as summer. Not as brutally cold as winter. Full of anticipation. Everything spreads out in front of us, waiting to be experienced. Once it got warm, you know school is coming to a close for the year. […]
| Spring Mix – Zilla Rocca | May 20, 2014 |
Zilla Rocca is a 5 O’clock Shadowboxer holding the sector After the hellish winter we suffered along the east coast in 2013-2014, where 60 inches of snow pelted us into psychological mince meat, the spring of 2014 has been a mirage of sorts – 80 degree temperatures overtaken by rain, cool nights, and beautiful sunny […]
| Spring Mix – Harold Stallworth | May 13, 2014 |
Harold Stallworth will always roots for the villain. This year’s spring has been absurdly slow in arriving to Washington D.C., but better late than polar vortex. Bidding farewell to old man winter is a bittersweet occasion, seeing as how my dearest strains of music and fashion were born out of blistering winds and torrential snowfall. […]
Paul Thompson hits blunts hard as Ray Mercer “Mama should have cuffed me to the radiator” – Nas, 1999 The critical revisionism on It Was Written is a good thing. In recent years, Nas’ sophomore effort has finally been recognized as the frantic, vital look at New York that it is—all affecting crime tales and […]
When Nas yells that it feels like the 90s in here, it’s because they look they’re having fun. The problem with most older rappers is that the music feels like a joyless exercise, a studied attempt to remember the adrenaline of their youth. Illmatic was nobody’s idea of a “fun” record and I’ve always thought […]
| Teach You How to Teach: A Guide to Great Rap Tutorials | April 1, 2014 |
Abe Beame heard that you look like MC Hammer on crack. Everyone’s talking about YG and DJ Mustard’s Compton throwback, My Krazy Life and its standout track, “Meet the Flockers”. In the song, YG gives us a brief overview on the fine points of home invasion. The song is glorious, but it’s hardly the first […]
