Week after week, you can count on DJ Bro-Rabb, a core member of Durham’s long-standing DJ crew The Butta Team, to drop one of his signature Throwback Thursday mixes via Twitter. He’s either flaunting his expertise on thematic mixes like “Fly R&B” and “Bedroom Chill” or decoding the discographies of select soul and hip-hop icons […]
Eric Tullis
Bio: Eric Tullis lives in Chapel Hill, where he writes about music and basketball.Twitter: http://twitter.com/erictullis
Posted inReviews
Record review: Rapper Big Pooh’s Words Paint Pictures
Though North Carolina’s Moral Monday movement helped produce one of the state’s first protest-music subcultures in years, the focus of its sounds and songs felt limited. The NC Music Love Army’s output stemmed mostly from legislation circulated by the state’s General Assembly, not years of ongoing state-sponsored attacks on black and brown lives. The contributions […]
Posted inMusic
Durham poet Dasan Ahanu named Harvard fellow
For the third time in recent years, Harvard University has selected another leader from the Triangle’s arts and academic community for the school’s hip-hop mission. On Monday, area poet Dasan Ahanu announced he had been chosen as the 2015–2016 recipient of the Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellowship at Harvard. The nine-month fellowship at Harvard’s Hip-Hop Archives […]
Posted inMusic
Rapsody gets a bump from Kendrick Lamar, but stop with the pandering questions
Less than 48 hours after the release of Kendrick Lamar’s sophomore LP, To Pimp a Butterfly, interviews with the album’s only featured guest rapper—Jamla Records’ first lady, Rapsody—began popping up on big-name spots like Complex, Spin, NME and MTV. The interest in the backstory of how the Snow Hill, North Carolina native made the cut […]
Posted inReviews
Record review: Gentlemen Contender’s Blank Narrative
The more the area’s young rappers remove themselves from the Triangle’s fabled, hip-hop template epitomized by Little Brother and now propagated by 9th Wonder, the better it will be for us the listeners. Let’s call this Triangle hip-hop’s Blank Slate Era, where eager up-and-comers have room to author their own sound and scene, with only […]
Posted inArt
Hip-hop and comedy both thrive on tight timing
THE RAP BATTLE FEAT. KAILA MULLADY Friday, Feb. 13, 11:30 p.m. DSI Comedy Theater 462 W. Franklin St., Chapel Hill 919-338-8150 www.dsicomedytheater.com When I asked Kaila Mullady if she had ever considered taking out an insurance policy on her mouth, à la the old rumors about Jennifer Lopez insuring her butt, she wasn’t bothered by […]
Posted inMusic
The politics of opinion, TV and saucy songs: An interview with (and a new song from) Pam Saulsby
Last July, longtime Triangle news anchor Pam Saulsby purged her home of all televisions. At the time, she was still employed as the co-anchor of WNCN’s evening and nightly newscasts, but two months later, Saulsby announced via Instagram that she had been fired from WNCN after having been there for only two years, following a […]
Posted inMusic
Beat Making Lab’s Stephen Levitin talks coconuts with Deepak Chopra
Chapel Hill producer and percussionist Stephen Levitin, or the Apple Juice Kid, recently found himself inside a tête-à-tête with New Age movement cultivator and best-selling author Deepak Chopra on the spiritual guru’s web series, One World. It might seem strange, but this doesn’t seem like a far-fetched notion when you consider the spiritual curiosity inherent […]
Posted inMusic
Raleigh’s King Mez shows off new video for “Reggie Miller”
When we picked King Mez’s Long Live the King LP as one of 2014’s top 25 Triangle albums, we knew that he was out in Los Angeles working with Aftermath Records. But we had no idea that the Raleigh emcee was also out there moonlighting as a valet parking attendant, stealing and joy riding with […]
Posted inMusic
With hip-hop collaborations, civil rights protests and feature films, Goapele strives to expand her R&B’s influence
Goapele Friday, Dec. 12 9 p.m. $25–$30 Motorco 723 Rigsbee Ave., Durham 919-901-0875 motorcomusic.com In Ava DuVernay’s silent, short film The Door, Oakland-bred soul singer Goapele Mohlabane makes a cameo. She appears as the friend of a grief-stricken protagonist. In an effort to push her pal past the turmoil of a recent divorce, Goapele shows […]