The Wu-Tang Clan ain't nuthin to PLAY CHESS wit. WuChess.com is the worlds first online chess and Hip-Hop community. You can create and share profiles with your friends and triumph over enemies on the 64 squares. Not just against people in your neighborhood but from all over the world. Play live chess with people from all over the world and get your learn on. Blog.
posted on Jul 17, 2008 - View this thread

Smart Shorties is a new CD being marketed to teachers that takes the beats from popular rap songs and rewrites them to the multiplication tables, with the intent of improving kids' math skills. Forbes has a nice roundup on it's history, and NPR has done a featurette on it as well At the very least, it's certainly worth a listen for the chuckle potential, but in addition to that, it's an interesting example of the now-booming Edutainment industry, something that not only spans CD's, but also computer games and even standalone video game consoles.

also, Smart Shorties is certainly not the only "Hip-hop in the classroom" product out there, nor is it the first.
posted on Jun 8, 2008 - View this thread

Enka is popular Japanese music which started to become popular in the Showa era after World War II. Until very recently, it's pretty much been popular only with the older crowd or in karaoke. Recently, though, a popular young star from Philadelphia has brought about a resurgence with the younger crowd. Look at his videos and be amazed. Presenting Jero.
posted on Jun 2, 2008 - View this thread

Wu-Tang Clan's RZA Breaks Down His Kung Fu Samples by Film and Song. Kung-fu's influence on hip hop has been around since the '70s, when B-boys busted Bruce Lee moves while break-dancing. But in 1993, gritty rap supergroup the Wu-Tang Clan released Enter the Wu-Tang (36-Chambers), the first chart-topping album to kick up raw rhymes with dialog sampled from underground Hong Kong flicks.
posted on Nov 17, 2007 - View this thread

Though there are many who bemoan the current state of Detroit, one man is trying to make a difference- Smiley, the Hip Hop Clown. Artist DeMarcus Hughes assumes the persona of Smiley, producing his own brand of hip-hop and taking his message whereever it can help. Want to see him in action? Here's Smiley's MySpace page, with videos and music.
posted on Nov 8, 2007 - View this thread

The Wu-Tang Clan presents 215 mp3s. (via)
posted on Apr 29, 2007 - View this thread

Hip hop history— It's the Rub! Along with a handful of other shows, Brooklyn hip hop lovers The Rub compile a history of hip hop. Eleven parts through 1989.
posted on Apr 28, 2007 - View this thread

The 50 most underplayed and under-appreciated rap tracks according to ohword.com, all in one download. Some of my favorite hip-hop music blogs. For those who aren't hip-hop fans, an exhaustive list of MP3 blogs.
posted on Feb 18, 2007 - View this thread

Make a mixtape highlighting a young artist, have that artist proclaim his delight about the project on the CD, reignite that artist's career, repeat, then, the RIAA has you arrested for counterfieting. The RIAA continues its vain struggle to understand the new music economy. In the meantime, at least one company gets it, offering DRM-free CD downloads of obscure titles.
posted on Jan 18, 2007 - View this thread

Mr. Magic's Rap Attack. An important figure in the world of hip-hop radio, Mr. Magic debuted in 1983 on WBLS-FM in New York City with the first exclusive rap radio show to be aired on a major station. Billing itself as Rap Attack, Magic's show featured Marley Marl as the DJ and Tyrone "Fly Ty" Williams as the show's co-producer. You can get down on it via this classic episode (realmedia) from December 1986, courtesy of WFMU's Aircheck archives.
posted on Dec 21, 2006 - View this thread

WaxDJ.com - an excellent source for free downloads and streams of original electronic music mixes of all sorts, from seasoned pros to beginning bedroom amatuers, all told numbering in the hundreds or thousands. My current brand new favorite is the very diverse and well-versed Detriot/Chicago techno stylings of DJ Rubsilent. Recomended mix: Future Funk 23: (Direct MP3 link) (Streaming mp3 link) But don't let me divert you - search for your favorite local DJ or browse for new ones.
posted on Oct 11, 2006 - View this thread

Laws for an Outlaw Culture. Robert Greene is an unlikely guru for the Hip Hip Nation - a geeky white freelance writer & filmmaker. But his 48 Laws of Power have been embraced by the movers & shakers in the Hip Hop scene as their path to personal power. He's also written another book you may have heard of, The Art of Seduction. And he's just started his own blog.
posted on Jul 12, 2006 - View this thread

Harlem's in the house. More specifically, 5-10 year old rappers from Harlem are in the house. Unbridled innocence, spacey '80s electro-scifi production and candy as a metaphor for candy. Brought to you by the fine folks at WFMU.
posted on Jul 6, 2006 - View this thread

Banned in D.C., not to mention the rest of the U. S. A. --British-Sri Lankan rapper M. I. A. (myspace page, with music), aka Maya Arulpragasam, has apparently been denied entry into the United States to record her next album, a follow-up to the surprise success of her first major release, "Arular." Could it have been this album that pricked the ears of immigration officials? Or maybe these lyrics ("Sunshowers," available at myspace)?
posted on May 22, 2006 - View this thread

@149st is a comprehensive study of classic NYC subway graffiti. It features profiles of many legendary artists, including an interview with Rammellzee who has some strange theories. The site for the definitive '82 PBS documentary Style Wars has some great galleries and video clips as well.
posted on Jan 21, 2006 - View this thread

Everybody knows that gangsta rap promotes sexism, homophobia... and fascism. Take Bushido, for instance - the Berlin rapper of Tunisian descent that all the neo-Nazis love. Confused? (nyt) Well, so are the Germans. And then we're not even talking about Fler, whose "This is black-red-gold, hard and proud!" nationalist lyrics never fail to piss off the German papers (in German), and who likes to pose in his videos with a nice symbolic eagle. (Then again, Helmut Kohl didn't mind.) Still, Fler's flag-waving, eagle-loving rhymes are no match for Bushido's "Salute, stand to attention, I am the leader like 'A'". The A stands for Adolf, you know.
posted on Jan 12, 2006 - View this thread

Rappers I Know - FMJU presents 31 days of the "best shit you've never heard" for download. Featuring Talib Kweli, De La Soul , Oh No (Madlib's brother), J-Zone and the Kanye West "George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People" Gold Digger remix, a response to Hurricane Katrina from The Legendary Knock Out Boyz. ...and much, much more.
posted on Sep 8, 2005 - View this thread

ay yo trip!
posted on Aug 30, 2005 - View this thread

All roads lead to Apache. From Bert (.mp3) to Nas (.mp3), surf (.mp3) to electronica (.mp3), the audio genealogy of one influential tune. (via Soul-Sides)
posted on Apr 21, 2005 - View this thread

"I Ain't Lazy" (lyrics NSFW) featuring Skratch Bastid, John Smith & Pip Skid. A day-in-the-life indie hip-hop video directed by Jason Lapeyre featuring another top notch crew of PCRs.
posted on Apr 16, 2005 - View this thread

Jazz, Funk, Soul, Disco joints sampled in House, Hip-hop, and others [via memepool]
posted on Jan 24, 2005 - View this thread

I can't stop watching this video (QT), and the rest of the videos directed by Ruben Fleischer are rather punchy too. I'm not really big into this genre but this director has a really good eye...
posted on Nov 24, 2004 - View this thread

Queen + Hip-Hop Mashups = A Night at the Hip Hopera Better than the Grey Album? Cease and desist in 3, 2, 1...
posted on Sep 22, 2004 - View this thread

Commodore 64 Hip-Hop that you might enjoy, depending on your tolerance for lowfi obsoleet funk freakin.
posted on Jun 16, 2004 - View this thread

Hip-hop turntablism at Berklee College of Music? I think it's a great idea, although I'm not sure that this is really what their typical student is looking for. Though apparently the book is already quite popular.
posted on Feb 11, 2003 - View this thread

First there was L. L. Cool J vs. Kool Moe Dee and the Bridge Wars. Then came Biggie and Tupac with the west coast, east coast rivalry. Now rap battles have transcended mediums, I give you Ludacris vs. Bill O'Reilly. Word.
posted on Sep 27, 2002 - View this thread

Congress members urge hip-hop industry to self-regulate. I'm glad that when I was reading this headline, I wasn't drinking. I imagined Coca-cola all over my screen. I thought to myself: 'hip-hoppers are doing a good enough job regulating themselves, look at Biggie, Tupac, Freaky Tah, et al.' And Rep. Earl Hilliard, D-Ala., suggested a ratings system similar to the movie industry's. Oh yeah, we all know how well they work.
posted on Jun 14, 2001 - View this thread