My lineage consists of Buffalo Soldiers, Tuskegee Airmen and civil rights protesters. Six years ago, when I first met my biological father, I didn’t know this. A few weeks ago, one of my Christmas gifts was a DVD documentary that chronicled the 1958 Dockum’s Drugstore sit-in, which took place in Wichita, Kan., and unbeknownst to […]
Eric Tullis
Bio: Eric Tullis lives in Chapel Hill, where he writes about music and basketball.Twitter: http://twitter.com/erictullis
Posted inMusic
Triangle rappers contemplated mixtapes more than connections with the local music community
Of the nearly 200 albums released in the Triangle this year, hip-hop artists issued fewer than a dozen, and that’s being charitable. Rather, they seemed to spend much of 2009 begging their fans to anticipate new mixtapeshot, new unauthorized joints that stood mostly no chance of galvanizing any scene here. It’s an instructive number because […]
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Raekwon Cat’s Cradle
Raekwon’s hoarse voice was no detriment on Sunday night. It could have been a totally legit alibi for him to pull out of the show and allow his new Ice Water labelmates, Capone-N-Noreaga, to carry out the meat of the ocassion, but instead, The Chef persevered and gave his Wu-Tang fanatics what they came to […]
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Pete Rock, DJ Premier and the praise of disciples
That hip-hop producers Pete Rock and DJ Premier remain among the most musically and culturally important in hip-hop’s lifespan isn’t up for debateonly celebration. Pete and Primo have separately amassed two of the most venerable and sizable discographies in music: They’ve composed originals and remixes for everyone from Branford Marsalis and Michael Jackson to Christina […]
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Mike Posner’s”You Don’t Have to Leave”
Listen up! or stream it below. If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. Musically, Michigan and North Carolina are kindred spirits: That is, for every underground hip-hop act that comes out of Michigan, North Carolina introduces an equal amount of artists. The one thing that North Carolina hasn’t really […]
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Playfully serious, Thee Tom Hardy offers area hip-hop new verve
Listen up! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. Sitting at the bottom corner of a three-story south Durham home, East End Studios looks like an inconspicuous Jenga block from the outsidejust a door beside a garage, nothing fancy. Once through the front door, though, it’s difficult not to […]
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Download ZO!’s “…Just Visiting Too” with NC vocalists
Surely I’m not the only one who’s always had a super crush on that adorable, freckled-faced, Saturday Night Live alumnus Maya Rudolph. Also, I’m sure that I’m not the only one who’s recently discovered that she is the daughter of the late singer Minnie Ripperton, mostly known for her 1975 single “Lovin’ You”. In the […]
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UNC gets Fabolous for Homecoming? And now, Anoop?
On Monday, UNC’s Carolina Union Activities Board made the last-minute announcement that hip-hop artist Fabolous will headline its Homecoming 2009 concert Sunday, Nov. 1, at Memorial Hall. Now, just days later, two members of Student Congress are questioning the decision to bring Fabolous. Last year Gym Class Heroes and The Avett Brothers co-headlined the homecoming […]
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9th Wonder fights the good fight in Chicago.
Usually, when artists show up at a record store on a Tuesday morning, it’s to promote the release of their latest project, but on Oct 20th, N.C.-based producer 9th Wonder, Mississippi emcee David Banner and a number of other musicians spent their day outside of a Chicago, Ill. record store to help promote something far […]
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Live: Mayer Hawthorne is no pretender, even in that cardigan
Mayer Hawthorne Local 506, Chapel Hill Monday, Oct. 5 R&B’s white-guy invasion isn’t anything new. Though pasty dudes have been taking soul music for popular test drives off and on for the past few decades, recent history has Justin Timberlake’s meritless pop-culture importance to remind us of just how milquetoast it all can be. But […]