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No Country for Old (Rap) Men: Sorry M.O.P., I’m finally tapping out
After 25 years of loyal Mash Out Posse support, having copped every album they dropped (ignoring the one where they yelled old songs over geetars), gone toe-to-toe against Combat Jack by arguing they...
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No Country for Old (Rap) Men: A brief history of posse cuts
The posse cut is a rare creature that, when executed correctly, can epitomise everything that is great about rap: dazzling wordplay, high-octane intensity and the spirit of fierce competition, all...
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Origins, intricacies and a better tomorrow with The RZA
The mastermind responsible for the mighty Wu-Tang has finally reunited with the original crew to celebrate their 20th anniversary with a new album and a new approach. The RZA has been more focused on...
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No Country for Old (Rap) Men: A Better Season Tomorrow?
21 years ago, Wu-Tang Weren’t Nuthing Ta Fuck Wit. These days, the W is still revered by some fierce loyalists, but your general rap fan is only really checking for Raekwon, Ghostface and the...
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No Country for Old (Rap) Men: DJ Premier closes the door on D&D Studios – an...
Although the iconic recording studio on the fourth floor of 320 West 37th Street has traded under the name of HeadQCourterz since DJ Premier and Charles Roane took over from its original owners,...
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Interview: O.C.
O.C. came up as part of Organized Konfusion’s extended family, and was signed to Serchlite Music right after Nas so he’s no stranger to elite level lyricism. He went on to join the Diggin’ In The...
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No Country for Old (Rap) Men: Nas live at The Forum, Melbourne
Nas performing Illmatic in its entirety? That’s a gig that anyone with even a passing interest in rap would be crazy to turn down. As such, a cynical curmudgeon such as myself managed to drag my...
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No Country for Old (Rap) Men: Predicting future Kanye West collaborations...
Now that Kanye West has wheeled out Sir Paul McCartney for that Guess Jeans commercial/song with Rihanna and mind-numbingly awkward video, it’s inevitable that he’ll soon set his sights on some more...
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No Country for Old (Rap) Men: Albums that fell tragically short of their...
There are more than enough horrible rap albums in existence, but the ones that really sting are those that had the potential to be great. This is a topic that I could write a book about at this point...
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No Country for Old (Rap) Men: The Lessons Hip-Hop Forgot
In a recent interview I conducted with Tommy Boy Records founder Tom Silverman, he concluded with the following: “Hip-hop really disrupted the music industry. Now it’s really ripe for disruption...
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No Country for Old (Rap) Men: DOOM and the art of rap re-recordings
For all of the press coverage that MF Doom has received over the years, I’m yet to read anything addressing his penchant for consistently offering cover versions of his songs, in the same way that jazz...
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No Country for Old (Rap) Men: Too smooth, too soon
Big Daddy Kane was undoubtedly one of the finest MCs of his era, bringing a level of verbal dexterity only matched by fellow legends such as Kool G Rap and Rakim, but with the added advantages of a dry...
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No Country for Old (Rap) Men: The search for Fake Hip-Hop
Few things can sour an otherwise amusing evening than having the DJ and/or rapper dude that is currently on stage bellowing out instructions involving either throwing your hands in the air if you ‘love...
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No Country for Old (Rap) Men: Can I kick it? No you can’t
For the 25th anniversary of A Tribe Called Quest’s breakthrough debut album, the awkwardly-titled People’s Instinctive Travels And The Paths of Rhythm, Q-Tip and the gang have announced that a special...
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No Country for Old (Rap) Men: Lies old rap fans will tell you
With the inevitable passage of time, every music genre spawns its contingent of grumpy old men, who insist that ‘back in my day’ everything was better. Recently, pioneering MC Melle Mel has been going...
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No Country for Old (Rap) Men: The Game: Talented underdog or the world’s...
Now that the second disc of The Game’s new double-album, The Documentary 2 (and 2.5) is out, I have no choice but to conclude that Jayceon is in possession of incriminating photographs/videos/financial...
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No Country for Old (Rap) Men: Future and Fetty Wap deserve their own genre
You may have noticed that the mainstream media have a habit of labelling any African-American musician who doesn’t wear a suit as a ‘rapper’ by default (Chris Brown being the first example that comes...
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No Country for Old (Rap) Men: Advertising’s huge crush on ’90s rap
What is it about car commercials on TV and nineties rap? Most recently, we’ve seen rapping hamsters performing Black Sheep’s ‘The Choice Is Yours’ for the Kia Soul in 2010, the Ford Mustang ad that...
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No Country for Old (Rap) Men: Mourning the Death of the B-side
The simple joy that was the B-side of a rap single is something that has moved out of the popular lexicon as a result of technology moving on, but still hasn’t been adequately replaced. Sure, we have...
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No Country for Old (Rap) Men: Looking back at Snoop’s sophomore struggle
When Dr. Dre decided that it was time to jump ship from Death Row Records, it proved to be the most damaging split of a super-star producer and a label since Marley Marl cut ties with Cold Chillin’....
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