Det er nu et par måneder siden Natasjas posthumt udsendte danske debutalbum I Danmark er jeg født udkom, og det står på ingen måde svagere, nu tragedien er kommet lidt mere på afstand. Tværtimod. Man aner konturerne af en klassiker. Et album, der med fintindstillet fornemmelse fanger sin tid og samtidig anbringer sig i dens…
Thoroughly entertaining to see hip hop legend KRS-One expound on how he admires Kanye West, but really feels 50 Cent a whole lot more, in this AllHipHop interview from the VH1 Hip Hop Honors show back in October. This is one of the people most fully immersed in hip hop culture, but this really shows…
Bedre sent end aldrig! Danmarks bedste lydsystem vandt, efter et beklageligt uheld i 2005, endelig den titel de hele tiden skulle have haft, da Rootsman Hi-Fi vandt det andet Danske Soundclash-mesterskab d. 3 november. Ville have postet om det tidligere, men har ligget lidt underdrejet (og gør det fortsat). Hele aftenens program, optaget direkte fra…
Det er svært at karakterisere Under Byen som et rockband i ordets traditionelle forstand. Deres musik, tekster, instrumentering, ja hele deres opstilling på scenen, er vel nærmere at betragte som en helhed der, når det fungerer, vitterlig slår gulvet væk under publikum.
Bobby Byrd, potent soul singer, patron of the young James Brown, co-founder of the Flames, and hard-working plug 2 to the Godfather of Soul, passed away yesterday in his Loganville, Georgia home. He was 73. His passing, and that of his long-time musical collaborator last year, are landmarks towards the end of an era of…
The latest chapter in the event-rap sideshow currently running full bore to dropping sales is Kanye West’s meltdown backstage at the MTV Video Awards, after he, despite having been nominated in five categories, won nothing, and was denied the opening spot in favour of Britney Spears. Non-event as that may be, it is nevertheless fascinating…
When one looks at the top stories in hip hop today, it is no wonder that sales are plummeting faster than in any other genre. While once the media were abuzz with Ice Cube’s at times ill-advised but nevertheless truly provocative statements, Biggie and Pac’s tragic feud which exposed the underbelly of ghetto fame, or…
Back from Roskilde, feeling elatedly exhausted as always. It was the wettest festival on record, which was quite an experience. I’ve never seen anything like Thursday. People were wading in mud halfway up their hips, and the 20 hours of relentless precipitation was prodigious. It was pandemonium. Fortunately music makes such problems moot (for much…
It’s been a while ‘cos I’ve been busy. Still am, but I still wanted to check in here with some notes on this week’s musical happenings in Copenhagen and environs. I’m back in Denmark for a little while here, and started out my stay with a session featuring Beenie Man (pictured above) who, amongst other…
This is so sad. I can’t really bring myself to write about anything else at the moment. It is, however, some solace that so many people have been showing their love these last days. And there are also some news about what happens now. People interested in helping Natasja’s mother and family give her a…
Today brought incredibly sad news. Danish dancehall queen Natasja Saad has died in a car crash in Jamaica. A fixture in Danish hip hop, reggae and dancehall since the late eighties, when she performed on stage for the first time, she had both an astonishing talent and true star quality. I first saw her on…
It’s incredibly sad to hear of the death of pop culture journalist Daniel Robert Epstein’s sudden death at the way-too-young age of 31 a couple of days ago. Epstein was a hugely prolific journalist specializing in interviews with an astonishingly broad range of artists and pop culture personalities. His interviews were engaging and to the…
As he himself promised, El-P’s new album, I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, is less personal than its predecessor, the solo debut Fantastic Damage (2002). Where that album to a large extent was introspective, this one presents a more distanced perspective. I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead is a panorama to Fantastic Damage‘s kaleidoscope. Although the nerve…
This concludes my 2003 interview with El-P and Aesop Rock. Here’s part I and here’s part II.