The Origin Of Woke
- By u.net
- Jul 10, 2018
“Woke is definitely a black experience — woke is if someone put a burlap sack on your head, knocked you out, and put you in a new location and then you come to and understand where you are ain’t home and the people around you ain’t your neighbors. They’re not acting in [...]
Gentrification & Subway Dancers
- By u.net
- Jul 04, 2018
Priscilla Ward breaks down just how gentrification and the police are criminalizing ‘Showtime’ for a generation of youth looking to make a way for themselves. Gentrification is shifting the culture of MTA’s underground performance ecosystem, particularly for African American and Hispanic youth. Police are finding a means of controlling what [...]
The Soundtrack to #BlackLoveMatters
- By u.net
- Feb 21, 2018
Almost 50 years after its release, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” may be the most recognizable Soul duet ever recorded. It’s easy to think that the song’s timelessness has every thing to do with the musical bond that Gaye and Terrell shared, in the studio and on [...]
THE ORIGINS OF WALL WRITING
- By u.net
- Sep 08, 2017
Hip-hop is plagued by mythology.
Whether it is the idea that Brooklyn disco DJ’s invented the music, or that breaking comes from capoeira, or that a short-lived gang truce is what gave the culture life, there seems to be no shortage of people eager to take credit for one or another aspect of hip-hop. What’s worse, [...]
The 10 Best Jazz Rap Albums
- By u.net
- Aug 29, 2017
Back when A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip was a teenager, the legend goes, his father overheard him playing some hip hop and said it reminded him of bebop. That connection, drawn in the opening seconds of Tribe’s 1991 album The Low End Theory, at first seems a little odd. Musically, late [...]
EMPIRE SKATING RING
- By u.net
- Jun 07, 2017
Empire Roller Skating Center first opened its doors on Empire Boulevard in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, way back in 1941. Across the street was Ebbets Field, when it was still the Dodgers’ ballpark. Over the following six decades, Empire saw as many changes as the neighborhood around it, including a series [...]
The History of the Fade
- By u.net
- Dec 29, 2016
Ebony.com series detailing the origins of black roots - If there was ever a haircut that exemplified coolness, it has to be none other than the fade. The hairstyle originated in the U.S. military around the ‘40s and ‘50s. Since the military is known for having strict grooming standards, it’s no [...]
No HalfSteppin, the NYTimes Review !
- By u.net
- Dec 29, 2016
The most valuable and also vexing thing about nightclubs is that you can’t get in. Not to the good ones, at least. Not unless you are in the know, or in good standing with people who are, or are diligent and passionate and perhaps willing to part with a bit [...]
No Halfsteppin
- By u.net
- Dec 17, 2016
My first ever book in english it's out: No HalfSteppin. Published by Wax Poetics and co-authored with Paradise Gray aka the Architek from the mighty X Clan, the book an oral and pictorial history on the legendary NY city club The Latin Quarter and the birth of the Golden Age. [...]
Anti-apocalypse Mixtape
- By u.net
- Dec 17, 2016
Here’s a quick, 30-song mixtape for the organisers, writers, thinkers, movers and dreamers who are in the constant struggle against the white supremacist, anti-queer, anti-Muslim, ableist, nativist, populist hot mess that we’re in right now — which predated this particular election cycle. If you’re like me and you need music to function, [...]