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CHRIS FARAONE

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McCain in the membrane

The Maverick-iest candidate has hip-hop support from R.A. the Rugged Man
Four tracks into his Monday Monster Jam performance, Brooklyn rap czar Jay-Z stops the music and points to a freeze-frame image of George W. Bush on the titanic screen above the TD Banknorth Garden stage.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | November 03, 2008

CMJ in one day

The Gray Lady of indie music fests ain’t what she used to be
The Gray Lady of indie music fests ain’t what she used to be

By: CHRIS FARAONE | November 30, 2008

Tax evasion

There is such a thing as a stupid question
There is such a thing as a stupid question

By: CHRIS FARAONE | October 29, 2008

The Streets | Everything is Borrowed

Vice (2008)
Even though his heavy drug phase seems to be largely over, Borrowed is Mike Skinner's Sgt. Pepper .

By: CHRIS FARAONE | October 22, 2008

Philly busters

In the studio with Jedi Mind Tricks
Jedi Mind Tricks frontman Vinnie Paz instructed me to meet him at a barren studio beneath a highway overpass in South Philly, where they were at work on their latest, A History of Violence (now out on Babygrande).

By: CHRIS FARAONE | October 24, 2008

Interview: Talib Kweli

Black star
If one hip-hop album crystallized the schism between underground authenticity and mainstream monotony, it was Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star (Rawkus).

By: CHRIS FARAONE | October 21, 2008

Battling Scientology

Anonymous's Gregg Housh is committed to bringing down the Church of Scientology. Is he a gadfly or a goon?
In a world wracked with uncertainty, there is at least one thing you can bet on: pick a fight with the Church of Scientology, and its leaders will fight back — always with vigor, often with a vengeance, and sometimes with litigation that can be long and costly.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | October 23, 2008

Socialist studies

Um, Dianne Wilkerson and Sonia Chang-Díaz? Meet the Socialist Workers Party candidate who’s running for your Second Suffolk Senate District seat.
With his frosty hair, necktie, and wire glasses, William Leonard resembles Barry Bostwick, the actor who played Mayor Randall M. Winston Jr. on the sitcom Spin City .

By: CHRIS FARAONE | October 22, 2008

Mad dissent

NYOIL at Northeastern
Few rappers practice what they teach, but Staten Island’s NYOIL — a former member of the early-’90s outfit the U.M.C.’s and current revolutionary rap stalwart — acts as loudly as he rhymes.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | October 15, 2008

Mission: accomplished

Organic hip-hop’s good and good for you
Way before Audible Mainframe snatched the title of Boston’s dopest live hip-hop group and bolted for the West Coast, Roxbury’s Mission pursued a similar course of action.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | October 10, 2008

Brooklyn Academy | Bored Of Education

Gold Dust Media (2008)
The stakes are treacherous when a group wait 13 years to drop a debut album.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | October 08, 2008

Termanology | Politics As Usual

Nature Sounds (2008)
This one should be considered a “How To” manual for regional rap stars who are poised to detonate worldwide.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | October 01, 2008

Blunt object

The political fight over a November marijuana-reform ballot question has sparked a Battle of the Bong
Question 2 supporters claim Massachusetts district attorneys committed “at least 15 violations of Massachusetts campaign-finance and election laws” in the runup to the marijuana-decriminalization vote.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | September 25, 2008