Beastie Boys | Licensed to Ill (album) The Joke Nobody Got Licensed to Ill was a satirical album everyone took at face value, an inside joke that went Diamond and outsold every rap record before it, cobbled together from borrowed parts and happy accidents. “There were tons of guys singing along to ‘Fight for Your […]
Licensed to Ill Was Never Supposed to Work Read More »
Fugees | The Score Slayed Everyone With a Feather In 1996, while East Coast and West Coast hip-hop waged war, three Haitian-American kids from New Jersey snuck up from behind with borrowed sounds and a basement studio budget of $135,000. “The East Coast and West Coast were in an arms race to see who could
The Fugees Built a $135K Basement Into a Monument Read More »
Kendrick Lamar | Not Like Us The Kill Shot Nobody Expected Rap’s most devastating diss track broke the genre’s own rules, it sounds like a block party, not a threat. That’s exactly what made it so dangerous. You can dance to the most devastating diss track in rap history. That fact alone tells you something
Kendrick Beat Drake With a Party Song Read More »
Eminem | Lose Yourself The Shot He Almost Missed Barbra Streisand read the winner’s name at the 75th Oscars, and the man who wrote the song was asleep at home. That detail pretty much explains how “Lose Yourself” ended up bigger than hip-hop. Barbra Streisand read the winner’s name at the 75th Academy Awards, and
One Take in a Lunch Break Changed Everything Read More »
