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CHRIS FARAONE

Latest Articles

Amadeus the Stampede | House of Broken Mirrors

Leedz/Traffic (2009)
For a shattered MC whose life story reads like Basketball Diaries, Kids, and Requiem combined and set in modern black Boston, the leather-throated hardcore rhyme horse has composed a focused solo debut.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | April 14, 2009

Clik tracks

Buckshot and Black Moon get live
Hide your naughty daughters and aspiring MC sons: Brooklyn’s Duck Down is that kingly retrofitted, incomparably propped hip-hop label that all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to fuck with.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | April 13, 2009

Another damn study

Timothy Jay, PhD, discusses words his colleagues won't
Some people argue that scholarly inquiry about profanity is pointless, and even laughable.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | April 13, 2009

Crossing fingers

A long-time Downtown Crossing shopkeeper sees the neighborhood’s silver lining
When Red Sox World Series trophies need buffing, third-generation Downtown Crossing silversmith Mike Davis gets the phone call.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | April 08, 2009

Quite Nyce & Raydar Ellis | Champs vs. the League

Brick (2009)
Boston's very own Brick Records is generally good for at least one of each year's most grounded desert-island-worthy rap releases, and Champs vs. the League fills the bill.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | April 06, 2009

Amnesty International liberates City Hall

The kids are all right
Old-school Jamaica Plain and Cambridge hippies had better step up their game.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | April 01, 2009

Will Brandeis lose its swagger?

Pass the Hat . . . Again
Ethnomusicologically invigorated Brandeis students and alumni are hoping for an outburst of criticism for the probable downsizing of Wayne Marshall.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | April 02, 2009

Due Dilla-gence

Termanology bestows belated props on Jay Dee
Extraordinarily missed Detroit beat stylist J Dilla (a/k/a Jay Dee) was righteously benevolent.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | March 31, 2009

Things fall apart

Hip-hop finds room to move at South-By.
As hipster, electronic, indie-rock, and rap cultures converge, MCs are taking cues from their other-genre contemporaries who rely on everything from stage props and antics to self-mutilation in the quest to entertain.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | March 25, 2009

Get sprung

A bumpin' crop of spring hip-hop
Between the packages that turn up on my Jamaica Plain doorstep and the envelopes that stuff my Phoenix mailbox, I have enough music to start a mixtape spot in Downtown Crossing.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | March 18, 2009

From your biggest fan

An open letter to Canibus (sans Dido interludes)
I e-mailed but you're still not calling. (I left my cell, my office, and my home number at the bottom.) You must not have got 'em; there must have been a problem with your servers or something.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | March 19, 2009

Brother Ali | The Truth Is Here

Rhymesayers (2009)
My "greatest rapper" list reads differently from most. Ghostface Killah resides at the zenith, beside Rakim's throne, and Minneapolis truth agent Brother Ali.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | March 17, 2009

Cheer of a black planet

Hip-Hop Worldwide: More Than a Nation conference
It's hip-hop week at Harvard University. And while that statement is far less ironic than it would have been 15 years ago, it's still relatively humorous.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | March 11, 2009

Beef stakes

Joe Budden, live at the Middle East Downstairs, March 5, 2009
In quality, record sales, and image, hip-hop has taken a savage beating in the past half-decade.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | March 10, 2009

Keelay & Zaire | Ridin' High

MM (2009)
Keelay and Zaire's tracks bounce lovelier than Joe Budden's girlfriend on that trampoline.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | March 10, 2009

Blackballed

If Chuck Turner is innocent, why is he aligning himself with a coterie of disreputable African-American leaders?
Turner might want to avoid hitching his fortunes to those of such utterly disreputable pols as former DC mayor Marion Barry, ex-Newark mayor Sharpe James, and Dianne Wilkerson.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | March 10, 2009

Union electrical workers decry biotech greed

Conflict between the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
When young nerds were told that they would one day boss around guys who pummeled them in grade school, consoling parents and teachers should also have warned their prodigies about labor unions.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | March 04, 2009

Master of ceremony

George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic live at House of Blues, February 25, 2009
As if Ash Wednesday weren't already the best party night of the year in Boston, George Clinton and his motley crew swung their tour bus through Lansdowne Street last night.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | March 03, 2009

Present perfect

Mickey Factz is here to catch your asses up.
For some hip-hop heads, artists like Mickey Factz represent everything that reeks in rap. Between his bypassing the rugged underground, blowing up on-line, and occasionally kicking Kanye-esque arrogance, he's an easy target for so-called purists.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | March 02, 2009

Black History Month lands on City Hall

Panther Party
Members of Boston's Black Ministerial Alliance might resent New Black Panther Party soldier Jamarhl Crawford for his persistently blasting them as crooks and opportunists.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | February 25, 2009

Review: Dashah | Rap Burglar 2.5

Ill Insanity/Redline
Dashah is the sort of artist who inspires wack rappers to retire early.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | February 24, 2009

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