Research

Minstrels, Slaves and the Rebirth of Hip-hop's Soul

PUBLISHED Nov 17, 2016

This past June, I attended Hip-hop Is Dead! (or Is It?), an "editorial art exhibition" curated by Danilo McDowell-McCallum, aka Equinox 199...

David Byrne and Luaka Bop

A World Apart

PUBLISHED Nov 17, 2016

It was a provocative and counter-intuitive gambit coming from the source. "I hate world music," read the opening sentence of David Byrne's...

100 Records That Rocked 100 Issues of Exclaim!

PUBLISHED Nov 17, 2016

"You've gotta check this out," is the music fan's rallying cry, the primal need to share a sonic experience. When Exclaim! was started back...

Church on the Dance Floor

The Loft, Paradise Garage and Body & Soul

PUBLISHED Nov 17, 2016

Sometimes the excitement over the contemporary dance scene resembles the confusion of Babel — an explosion that has the languages of house,...

Boston's Big Bang

PUBLISHED Nov 17, 2016

Every few years the aggressive music underground ebbs and flows, interjecting new life into a fragmented whole that is constantly mutating,...

Xensational Ninja Xoundz

PUBLISHED Nov 17, 2016

The record company you've founded is about to celebrate its tenth anniversary. There will be a triple CD retrospective to chronicle the inc...

The Great Pretenders

PUBLISHED Nov 17, 2016

The legend is almost irresistible. The tormented life of Marvin Pontiac, born Marvin Toure, of an African father and Jewish American mother...

Skinny Ties and Scooters

Retrofitting the Mods

PUBLISHED Nov 17, 2016

The last fight I got into was ten years ago, outside Montreal's Stanley Pub. I was 16 years old, alone and wearing my three-button suit, pa...