Since its inception in the 1970s, hip-hop has consistently displayed a certain level of homophobia. Whether looking at the lyrics of the seminal tune “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (in which two F-bombs are dropped) or tracks by Eminem such as “Criminal” (“A homosex, hermaph, or a trans-a-vest / Pants or […]
I grew up in Santa Cruz, a then-sleepy beach town in Northern California that had a severe hippie hangover well into the 1970s and ’80s. The soundtrack of the 1960s was omnipresent, as were reminders of Vietnam. I clearly recall the father of my best friend in third grade; he had lost a leg fighting […]
Since I was about 18 years old, I can honestly say that I have compared every man I dated to Jarvis Cocker. I have every one of the LPs by Pulp, the band he started as a precocious 15 years old. I have his solo albums. I remember going to see him on the first […]
I have been a hip-hop head as long as I can remember. OK, that is a lie. It goes back to when I was about 10 years old. My cousin had brought a piece of cardboard and a pair of fingerless gloves to Thanksgiving. After we ate our meal, we went out to my grandmother’s […]
I lived in San Francisco for over 15 years. June was, of course, the big kick-off of summer for those lucky days we got sun; I lived in Glen Park for most of my time in the city by the bay, the fog so thick at times that we nicknamed our apartment Skull Mountain for […]
In the early 1990s, the Pacific Northwest in the United States was a hotbed for new ways of approaching traditional frameworks of culture. A generation before, punk had created and perpetuated the idea that you did not need to be a virtuoso or even vaguely proficient to start a band; one just needed the chutzpah […]
In 1985, 17-year-old Ben Margulies found himself living in New York City and playing in a band called King Holiday. Things seemed to be going great; the group’s first show at the infamous CBGB got them signed to a development deal with Elektra Records. However, nothing ever came from the arrangement. Though King Holiday seemed […]
There is no other Tom Jones. As he approaches his 80th birthday, the icon still is as interesting, sexy, and irreverent as always. In a culture where youth is prized pretty much above all else, Sir Jones is an education in canny business sense, bravery, and reinvention- often against all odds. The inability to predict […]
Diana Ross was already on her tenth solo studio album when 1980 rolled around. The icon had successfully navigated three different musical shifts having been in the game for over two decades. Early success as part of The Supremes had seen her score 12 number one singles on the Billboard charts, the group being hailed […]
With so many incredible hits already under his belt, it now seems surprising that it was not until his ninth studio album- Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy– that Elton John entered the Billboard top 200 in the US at the number 1 spot on the first week of release. The LP was rumored […]
