| The day we lost MCA | May 4, 2012 |
Sadly the rumors appear to be true: Beastie Boy Adam Yauch AKA MCA has passed away at the age of 47 after a protracted battle with cancer. As readers of the site might guess, this is absolutely devastating for our motley crew of long standing Hip-Hop heads and we’ll be taking some time to write […]
| Don Cornelius, R.I.P. | February 1, 2012 |
All apologies to the Don Mega and Cartagena, but there was only one Don. The late Cornelius, who put himself to sleep at the age of 75. I spoke with him once for the LA Times in late September of 2010, right around the time the Best of Soul Train was being released. The conversation […]
| R.I.P. Hubert Sumlin (1931-2011) | December 12, 2011 |
On a cold winter morning, before you had your first cup of coffee, Hubert Sumlin’s guitar was permanently hushed in a funeral home in an anonymous town in New Jersey. Mick Jagger and Keef footed the bill because that’s what you do when you have a billion bucks built off the clean yet filthy guitar […]
| DJ Quik – Heavy Mr. Big Stuff | November 13, 2011 |
David Blake dropping the most elegiac tribute to Heavy D yet. The fact that Quik cooked this up in a night or two would be mind blowing if it was anyone but Quik. In his 41st year, his chop game stays soulful and vicious. Between Quik and Ish from Shabazz Palaces, he has shredded all […]
| R.I.P. Heavy D: 1967-2011 | November 10, 2011 |
Chris Daly co-wrote the “In Living Color” theme song. The Overweight Lover has left the house. The Jamaican born, money earnin’ Mount Vernon-raised, Dwight Arrington Myers, passed away earlier this week on November 8th, 2011, apparently due to “respiratory distress.” While he may not have been regularly heralded as one of the all-time greats of […]
| Sach O: RIP DJ Mehdi | September 13, 2011 |
Sach O used to bump Princes de La Ville on a near daily basis in high school. Sad news for the world of beatmaking today as Parisian producer DJ Mehdi passes away. While his international audience knew him best as a new school electro producer affiliated with Ed Banger, I’ll always remember him for his […]
| Sach O: R.I.P Gil Scott Heron | May 28, 2011 |
Sach O shouldn’t be writing before coffee. I suppose if I’m up posting this early on a Saturday, I should say something about the untimely passing of Gil Scott Heron. I’m not a fan of writing obituaries for people I never met so I’ll keep it brief: look past all of the “forefather of Hip-Hop” […]
| Nate Dogg Tribute: The Next Episode | March 18, 2011 |
The news of Nate Dogg’s death hit as I touched down in Austin. I have yet to recover. Expect some legitimate tributes from me next week. In the meantime, I believe my appreciation for the man was best expressed by my 2006 hypothesis that the nation’s woes were attributable to a dearth of Dogg. Starting […]
| Not A Blogger Redux: Can’t Deny It: Nate Dogg (1969 – 2011) | March 18, 2011 |
Doc Zeus and Doc Dre attended the same medical school. Celebrity deaths in the Age Of Twitter can often make placing an artist’s legacy in the proper context difficult. The rush to lionize a public figure in the wake of their passing often leads to otherwise marginal personalities in the annals of pop culture to […]
| The Dream Shatterer: In Memory of Big Pun | February 8, 2011 |
Dead rapper week lingers on with the one and only son of Tony Montana. 11 years ago yesterday, Chris Rio went ham for his last time, proving the deleterious effects of cash, swine, and 700 lbs. worth of cholesterol. By dint of his untimely death, Pun gets the red carpet rolled out each year, despite […]
