If you’re still fiending for another documentary on Brazilian music check out Tropicália (2012), an in depth and intimate look at the Tropicália (aka Tropicalismo) movement of music, arts, poetry, theatre and film culture from the late 1960s. The Tropicália movement practice “cultural cannibalism,” a post-modern, remix approach to music, arts, poetry, theatre and film, taking from indigenous Afro-Brazilian music and culture, and mixing them with western styles, and the avant-garde. Tropicália artists played around with being on the fringe, but were not averse to being …
Category: Writing
Last Friday Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Teebs, Taylor McFerrin and Mono/Poly played Tokyo, Skinkiba at ageHa. No cameras were allowed. Foreigners were spotted throughout the crowd. When I walked into the venue Simi Lab, a Japanese hip-hop group was on stage. Man, they tried, but their music and performance didn’t offer anything original. It just wasn’t interesting, but at least they weren’t embarrassing. I wasn’t cringing, put it that way. Artist and producer Teebs greeted the crowd with a Japanese thank …
In a conversation “By Such and Such,” poet, musician and actor Saul Williams recites a poem about hacking and talks about issues and the ideas swirling around in the head of humanity: narcism, Pete Seeger, and the kinetic space that he was raised in, between his preacher father and teacher mother, professional advocates for personal empowerment. “Reality like truth is going to prevail,” he said. He recommends that everybody study acting; a lesson in existing and how to fully posses your body. …
The Roots’ drummer Questlove is doing a six part essay series entitled, When the People Cheer: How Hip-Hop Failed Black America for Vulture. Even as The Roots gracefully slide into their third decade as a relevant cultural force, Quest questions hip-hop’s sustainability. How can rebellious music or a movement be mainstream? How can it remain both popular and meaningful? He uses Kendrick Lamar as an exception to the rule in order to prove that, as an artist, you either have to be one …
Okayplayer just posted, “Rottweiler Choir” a poem by the great poet Saul Williams, written for Amiri Baraka’s funeral. Williams performed it at the funeral in honor of a soldier that remains unbreakable, not passed, but transformed…in a perpetual state of forever. Read below. This NGH died for something.i I don’t go for old age. I don’t go for disease. I say murder. Which poets die of natural causes? Which poems kill? I saw the rifles pointed. Jesse Jackson with that blood on …
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