Apr 05 Oh my God, it’s an homage! A writer imagines the story behind Beastie Boys’ ‘Sabotage’ video By Joshua Barajas Fan and author Jeff Gomez wrote a five-act novel that seeks to fill in the narrative gaps around the music video for the 1994 song “Sabotage.”… Continue reading
Apr 01 Watch 7:28 How rapper Nipsey Hussle gave back to the community that raised him Grammy-nominated rapper Nipsey Hussle died Sunday after being gunned down in broad daylight in Los Angeles. In addition to his successful music career, the native of south L.A. was an entrepreneur and activist, dedicated to initiatives supporting youth and the… Continue watching
Jul 27 Watch 7:46 The wisdom of hip-hop gets respect in a new museum exhibit By Jeffrey Brown At the Oakland Museum of California, a new exhibit traces decades of history of hip-hop, an industry and culture that's both mainstream and underground, global but rooted in the local. Jeffrey Brown reports. Continue watching
May 09 Watch 8:24 The stark, chaotic power of Donald Glover’s ‘This Is America’ Infectious in beat, jarring in violence and imagery, Donald Glover's new music video "This Is America" touches on painful racial history and our contemporary culture of mass entertainment and murder. Jeffrey Brown talks with Rolling Stone contributor Tre Johnson about… Continue watching
Jan 29 Twitter Chat: Grammy Awards embrace diversity, but is there still work to be done? By Lora Strum This year, is it enough for hip hop artists to simply have been nominated at the Grammy awards? Have the ideas they’ve raised in their music about equality, politics and oppression made an impact without an artist taking home a… Continue reading
Jan 26 Watch 8:26 How the U.S. became the hip-hop nation By Charlayne Hunter-Gault The Grammys are catching up with public opinion by recognizing hip-hop artists in its top categories this year. At Harvard University's Hiphop Archive & Research Institute, the genre and its history is the subject of academic study as a brilliant… Continue watching
Dec 21 Watch 3:33 Turning silence on police shootings into poetry By PBS News Hour Hip-hop is the soundtrack to poet Marcus Wicker's daily life, and his love for the music comes out naturally in his writing, which addresses topics like the violence perpetrated against black bodies. Wicker offers his Brief but Spectacular take on… Continue watching
Nov 28 After years of pop music wins, 2018 Grammy nominations favor hip hop and R&B By Lora Strum The 60th annual Grammy Award nominations offered some surprise snubs, a lack of traditional pop nominees and a strong showing by today’s leading hip-hop artists. Continue reading
Sep 06 Here’s every state’s song of the summer (no, it’s not all ‘Despacito’) By Elizabeth Flock America's song of the summer was the reggaeton hit "Despacito." But it wasn't the top song everywhere. Continue reading
Mar 25 Watch 3:27 Remembering the lives of Garry Shandling and Phife Dawg By PBS News Hour Two groundbreaking artists died this week. Comedian Garry Shandling, star of the Emmy-winning “The Larry Sanders Show,” and rapper Malik Taylor, who co-founded the Grammy-nominated group A Tribe Called Quest under the stage name Phife Dawg, died within two days… Continue watching