“We were totally blind sided by the first attacks,” rapper and producer M.Sayyid said about the January 2015 Paris terror attacks. For his Parisian wife, him and his 14-year-old daughter moved to Paris in 2013. “It was ambitious,” he said. He was living in the French Capitol, out of his New York, Yonkers element. “I felt really uncomfortable not being in control.” The second wave of horror would happen in November of that same year, surpassing what was already thought …
Category: Features
The importance of Ikeda Manabu’s work can’t be overstated or more timely. This is anti-automation. It’s what you get when you take away the screen, look at the world and just draw it. He worked 10 hours a day for three and a half years to produce his latest piece, “Rebirth.” It’s a 13 x 10 foot painting within a painting that’s within a painting. The narratives that weave throughout it are like strings of tangled sentences. “Rebirth” is Manabu’s …
Rapper and producer M.Sayyid is ¼ of the avant guard rap crew Anti-Pop Consortium. Formed in 1997, APC also consist of rappers and producers High Priest, Beans, and producer Earl Blaize. They were at the forefront of experimental hip-hop, pushing the music’s boundaries across new textures and off-kilter compositions. All four members were individual artists with distinct aesthetics and their collaborative output made it evident. Sounding the way paint looks when it unfolds underwater, APC’s abstract rhymes and synthesized production …
Malik Taylor aka Phife Dawg transitioned on March 22, 2016, from complications resulting from diabetes. His was 45 years-old. He was a husband, father, brother, and a member A Tribe Called Quest. Phife Dawg’s passing is a closing portal to my childhood. It was 1991 and I was a Orlando suburban kid, pimping my Afrocentric Cross Colours gear and big purple suede Karl Kani shorts. If it weren’t for my baggy clothes, I was so skinny that I could turn …
The first time I met Harlemite rapper, producer, filmmaker, and actor Mtume Gant aka Core Rhythm, was in our Harlem Renaissance class at SUNY Purchase College. Gant usually had the most to say when it came to class discussions about our reading assignments. He was so vocal and passionate that I felt intimidated to raise my hand. Thoughtful, and progressive ideas effortlessly sprung off his tongue. There were few places where our opinions diverged. Most times, I was envious of …
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