Mar 26 Watch Wu Tang Clan’s GZA Raps About Science Wu Tang Clan's GZA performs a rap from his new album Dark Matter. Continue watching
Dec 22 Watch The Year in Music Jeffrey Brown talks to the Los Angeles Times' Randall Roberts about the year in music. Continue watching
Dec 10 Watch Anthology Traces Rap’s Lyrical Journey, Poetic Roots Is rap music a form of lyric poetry? A new anthology, published by Yale University Press, makes the case. Jeffrey Brown reports. Continue watching
Dec 10 Friday’s NewsHour: Rap Reconsidered for New Scholarly Anthology A new work of scholarship, "The Anthology of Rap," recently published by Yale University Press, offers a look at the art form on its own terms: a collection of rap lyrics, offered up like lyric poetry, from the last twenty… Continue reading
Aug 10 Conversation: Lollapalooza 2010 By Molly Finnegan Lollapalooza, one of the biggest summer music festivals in the U.S., wrapped up Sunday. Jeffrey Brown catches up with music critics Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot. Continue reading
Aug 27 Jessye Norman, the Roots Team Up for Langston Hughes’ ‘Ask Your Mama’ Five years ago, Emmy Award-winning composer Laura Karpman stumbled across a copy of Hughes"Ask Your Mama." She was instantly struck by the power and potential of the piece, believing it cried out to be realized as a 21st century multimedia… Continue reading
Aug 26 Island Hopping As hip-hop has evolved into an established international culture and multi-billion-dollar industry far removed from its underground urban origins, some artists are bringing the genre back to its conscientious and groundbreaking roots. The Blue Scholars, a Seattle-based, Hawaiian-influenced duo, is… Continue reading