A Houston news radio station changed formats last week:
“. . . Rechristened Boom 92, the station declared that it would become the first major market radio station dedicated to classic hip hop. Instead of Drake and Nicki Minaj, it would play “the hip hop you grew up with”—assuming that you grew up with Dr. Dre and Missy Elliott. If that sounds awesome to you, you’re going to love a recent Boom 92 playlist.
In many ways, this is an idea whose time has come, which is another way of saying that hip-hop, and its first-wave fans, are, well, old. Dre will be 50 in February; Ice-T is just 10 years away from his first Social Security check. Licensed to Ill topped the Billboard charts in 1987; three years later, hip-hop made up one-third of the Hot 100. By 1999, it was the country’s best-selling genre, with more than 81 million albums sold. The fans who propelled the early boom probably don’t know Young Thug from Rich Homie Quan, and don’t want to.
Korean novelty pop star Psy (Park Jae-sang) hosts LA’s Snoop Dogg (Calvin Broadus, Jr.) on a binge-drinking tour of Seoul in a new music video. The hard part must have been convincing Snoop to forgo his customary herb for Korea’s potent soju(소주) distilled spirits, the best-selling booze in the world.
Members of the classic rap crew Sugarhill Gang are from Englewood, New Jersey. Newsman Brian Williams grew up in Middletown, on the Jersey Shore. Maybe that’s what motivated this supercut-and-paste of Williams performing Sugarhill’s 1979 hit “Rapper’s Delight.” Nice assist from Lester Holt, too.
Jimmy Fallon brought video editor John McDonald and his amazing found-sound rap videos to the Tonight Show with him. Wise move.
More:
“‘Bang, Bang!’ Brian Williams and Lester Holt Cover ‘Rapper’s Delight,'” Ronnie Polidoro and Mary Kozelka, NBC News
“The Rap- ification of Brian Williams,” Ben Teitelbaum, Newsweek
If you play loud music in your car while in the parking lot of a Florida convenience store on a Friday night, expect to be shot dead. It’s not murder.
If you stop your car for a few minutes in the parking lot of a Florida convenience store on a Friday night and you judge the music emanating from another car poses a threat to your life, remove the 9 millimeter pistol from your glove compartment and blast away. It’s not murder.
If you stop your car for a few minutes in the parking lot of a Florida convenience store on a Friday night and you instigate a confrontation with a group of teenagers in another car, remove the 9 millimeter pistol from your glove compartment and blast away, even as the other car is leaving the scene with the dead body of a young man you have just shot dead lying in the backseat. It’s not murder. It’s Florida justice.
[Looking for the program of the Swearing-In Ceremony (starts 11:30 AM 20 January 2009)? It’s here.]
We went down to the Pre-Inaugural Concert Sunday afternoon, exiting the Farragut West Metrorail station about 2:30 PM and walking down 18th Street, NW to the Lincoln Memorial and National Mall. Motor traffic was banned from the area, just as it is during World Bank meetings. There was a party atmosphere as the crowd ambled along, and Springsteen‘s voice echoed up from the performance.
The area nearest the Lincoln Memorial concert site was already at capacity and security checkpoints were closed, so we watched the concert on the three giant Jumbotron screens set up between the World War II Memorial and the Washington Monument. The jubilant crowd was friendly and well-behaved, and people of all ages and origins from all around the nation and the world joked and chatted amiably, exchanging notes on the music and performers, expressing their relief, joy, and hopes. It may have been a pseudo-event, but the feelings were genuine.
One DC Inaugural Weekend event seems rather … effervescent; even a bit … gassy. It’s the Refresh the World Symposium on January 19th, presented by Spike Lee, Howard University and PepsiCo.
The event at historic Cramton Auditorium (2455 Sixth Street, NW) is free to college students, and features Spike Lee (natch) with fave celebs Rev. Al Sharpton, Bay Buchanan, Sean Combs, Arianna Huffington, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty, Queen Latifah, Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Michelle Rhee, Dr. Cornel West, and more. Pepsi says topics will include the economy, education, race, gender, hip-hop, carbonated beverages, and other vital national issues.
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