With the announcement of next year’s Moogfest already casting a 100-plus-act shadow over Durham’s three-year-old Art of Cool Festival, the homegrown jazz and soul spree can’t afford too many more setbacks before next May. But early this morning, Art of Cool announced an unfortunate lineup change for next year’s event: Due to “unforeseen circumstances,” Detroit […]
Eric Tullis
Bio: Eric Tullis lives in Chapel Hill, where he writes about music and basketball.Twitter: http://twitter.com/erictullis
Posted inMusic
Can the expressive singer Cécile McLorin Salvant offer a popular entry into jazz?
Cécile McLorin Salvant Saturday, Dec. 12, 8 p.m. $10–$34 Duke’s Baldwin Auditorium 1336 Campus Drive, Durham 919-684-4444 www.dukeperformances.duke.edu Even if you have yet to notice, jazz is inching back toward the mainstream musical consciousness. Thanks especially to some high-profile hip-hop collaborators, jazz acts such as Thundercat, Kamasi Washington and Robert Glasper suddenly seem ubiquitous, unexpectedly […]
Posted inMusic
Rapping against Silent Sam: At UNC, a cypher in front of an intolerant statue
Given the mass shooting that unfolded last week in San Bernardino, local law enforcement’s swift responses to two, unrelated 911 calls just beforehand from UNC-Chapel Hill, reporting alleged armed individuals on campus, now seem like even less of an overreaction. But even after UNC’s Public Safety Department deemed everything “all-clear,” there still remained an entirely […]
Posted inMusic
Before #BlackLivesMatter, they had “Black Hoods”: An interview with Durham’s Language Arts
“We sort of became these D.I.Y. all-stars. We learned by doing,” says Aden Darity, about his past years at UNC-Chapel Hill with bandmate and longtime friend Pierce Freelon. It’s been six years since the two have performed on the same stage together as the Durham rap duo Language Arts, but on Saturday, they’ll reignite some […]
Posted inReviews
Record review: Montana Stax’s Ouija
The cover art for Montana Stax’s diss track, “N.I.N.A.,” pictures the Raleigh rapper dressed in semi-drag, standing in front of shelves of purses and red-bottom Christian Louboutin heels. The petty image was meant to effeminize Stax’s nemesis, the Raleigh rapper Nino Ru. But when you skip the layers of offensive gimmickry, the track itself actually […]
Posted inMusic
9th Wonder, Talib Kweli and Indie 500’s obsession with independent hip-hop: A review
In September, Angel Diaz unloaded on the self-proclaimed real hip-hop fans. Writing for Complex Magazine in quasi-defense of Drake and Future’s What a Time To Be Alive mixtape, Diaz lampooned “old head, super lyrical motherfuckers,” or the subset of rap fans who believe hip-hop has lost its way. “Can’t be listening to Talib Kweli rap […]
Posted inArt
Indies Arts Awards: Durham poet Dasan Ahanu uses hip-hop education and action to inspire more work
2015 WinnersGreg Lowenhagen and Cicely MitchellEmil KangKym RegisterDasan AhanuChris Tonelli Previous winners North Carolina has retained a poet laureate for nearly seven decades. In that time, however, North Carolina has never had an African-American poet laureate. Dasan Ahanu can barely imagine a scenario where that might happen. “There is a whole group of faith-based and […]
Posted inMusic
Live: N.C. Central’s homecoming concerts restore the faith in Faith Evans
Bad Boy Reunion Show Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham Friday, Oct. 30, 2015 Outkast, Destiny’s Child, A Tribe Called Quest, Public Enemy, The Notorious B.I.G. and a handful of other legends have headlined N.C. Central University’s homecoming festivities in years past. Most of those were in the early ’90s when the school’s homecoming concerts were […]
Posted inMusic
Check out Made of Oak’s “silent rap video” with Toon and Well$
In August, one-half of the Durham electro-pop duo Sylvan Esso—Nick Sanborn, or Made of Oak—shared a bill at Kings with Chapel Hill rapper Well$. Since that night, rumors that the two were exploring collaborations have abounded. For Well$, that meant an invaluable opportunity to rethink and recalibrate his solo direction; for Made of Oak, it […]
Posted inNews
Does Black Wall Street need to be blacker?
There’s a little bit of Black Wall Street embedded in Tobias Rose’s DNA. His grandfather worked for North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co., the oldest African-American insurance company in the country, which was originally headquartered in the same building as Mechanics and Farmers Bank, just a few doors down from Komplex, the graphic-design firm Rose […]