Yes I have been slaving away at a new layout for the ole ‘fly. It fixes a lot of bugs we were having on the back end. Including the RSS feeds which are now fully functional. We updated the shows section with a lil bit more slick of an interface. We ALSO added the nifty music player on the left there for all your newest RF music needs. I’m sure the look will still change and morph a bit in the weeks to come as the problems surface but until then, enjoy the new digs! Email me if you find anything going horribly wrong on the site and you think it should be fixed. Thanks y’all.
1988: The Year Rap Broke. If you caught last week’s installment, you already know what an important year 1988 was for hip-hop, and not just because Yo! MTV Raps saw its debut. The Golden Era brought us classic after classic, and videos were no exception. With so many heaters, I’ve been hard-pressed to select the best. I couldn’t fit ‘em all in last week, so here’s a few more showstoppers from 1988. Check ‘em on out. And watch the video up top while you’re at it. Highlights include the always “foine” Darlene the Syndicate Queen; Ice-T’s classic Raiders script cap (if you didn’t rock this style of hat back in the day, and/or the blocky-letter Starter joints, what the fuck were you wearing? A Kangol?); a snippet of one of the older Yo! theme songs, which includes the classic “Yeeeeeah Boyeee!!” over a beat that just isn’t that tight; and Ice-T describing a summer tour line-up that will make your Walkman weep. Peep it.
Readers of a certain age (meaning old) will remember Jim Henson’s Muppet Show, a staple of my childhood featuring puppets, Dizzy Gillespie, and Elton John. Well, not in every episode. But sometimes. The Muppet Show is like Arsenio…it had a lot of dope guest performers, and it was canceled prematurely. OK, after 120 episodes. But still, I could have used a few more. The house band (Electric Mayhem) was tight; the show featured edgy, culturally insensitive humor (the Swedish Chef); and there was a recurring character who basically rolled around throwing dynamite at everyone. Combined with the cavalcade of guest stars, The Muppet Show was high/low concept art at its very best. Seriously–Lou Rawls, Johnny Cash, and puppets. What more could you want? I still don’t think this subversive little show was for kids, and I’m guessing it influenced an entire generation of budding young freaks to be even weirder than their parents were.
So, what’s my point? Well, this week will see the debut of The Muppet Show #1, the first issue in a new comic book series devoted to your favorite purveyors of fur and foam rubber. But will I be buying it? Read the rest of the Pull List and see!
1988–The Year Rap Broke. Minor cultural milestones like the Village Voice’s “Hip-Hop Nation” cover story and the debut of Yo! MTV Raps were part of a creeping but widespread recognition on the part of the mainstream media that hip-hop was here to stay. And while it had begun to make its mark on many of us years earlier, they don’t call this the Golden Era for nothing. Even a cursory glance at the best-loved songs of 1988 reveals one masterpiece after another. In that age of pioneers, new styles were being invented every day–if you even had a style, it was a new one (unless you were rapping like Busy Bee), because none of it had been done yet. Originality was the watchword.
As musical artists pushed themselves to create a new sound, so too did their visual counterparts. The MTV Empire was in full effect, and it was clear that video ruled the day, but hip-hop was still creating the unique visual styles that came to define it. Until Yo! came out, most of the hip-hop material that had been available on the screen (big or little) was from the Old School. Beat Street, Breakin’, Wild Style, Krush Groove–hungry hip-hop shorties like myself devoured these gems when they dropped, but by 1988 their depiction of the culture (both visually and musically) was out of date. The new style of speak needed a new style of seeing to go with it. 1988 was the tipping point, and the styles it gave birth to are still being explored today.
The good folks over at Fog City Wrestling hit me up about a week ago and asked to use the song “One More Shot” for the intro to their podcast….
Well since I love wrestling, and I love the fog city it seemed like a perfect match. Speaking of perfect match… watch this video!
Besides featuring a tune by me, there’s a 4 way femme-fatale match match between Erica D’Erico, Morgan, Nicky The NY Knockout, and Fire.
After the match there’s a music video from Mike Relm featuring Del tha Funkee Homosapien. The next event is on March 28th at the DNA Lounge and you best believe that RL will be in the stands. Fog City!
Wait a minute, now. Didn’t Yo! MTV Raps start in 1988? Why would they go back in time to play videos from 1987? Well, there weren’t as many rap videos back then as you might think. But, more than that, 1987 had some songs so large, they’re still livin’ today. In the year of Yo’s inception, here’s a couple of oldies but goodies you might have seen on that 13″ screen. I know I did.
You down with R.I.P.? Yeah, you know me. If you haven’t been following Grant Morrison’s run on Batman these last few years, then maybe you don’t know about the bad times for Batman (close your eyes, Richie). I don’t wanna ruin anything, but let’s just say that the last arc (Batman R.I.P.) tore some pretty big holes in the fabric of the DCU. And someone’s gotta fix ‘em. So who’s got the biggest needle and thread? According to DC teasers, it’s probably one of the fine folks pictured above. All I can say is, I really hope Hush isn’t the new Batman.
