Sampling has been an integral part of Western music for decades, from the French musique concrète composers of the 1940s, to the introduction of commercially available instruments like the Mellotron and the MPC, to today, with Beyoncé using Star Search intros and snippets of TED Talks in her songs and Jay Z and Kanye lifting from Blades of Glory . In […]
It is the summer of Pharrell Williams. The producer/crooner/rapper’s voice and new-age without the nuance outlook are currently coursing through two of the summer’s biggest hits: Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky,” and Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines.” It’s a strange moment for the 40 year old, who, with the legendary production duo the Neptunes, turned early 2000s […]
“There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY you’re getting in,” Pace rep told my editor. She’s been getting calls about Jay-Z all day. “It’s a closed set.” Jay-Z was shooting a Mark Romanek-directed music video inside a gallery in Chelsea, lip-syncing and dancing with half the New York art world as cameos. When Tweets alleging “Jay-Z is doing performance […]
After schooling New Yorkers on etiquette via numerous unsanctioned interventions, artist Jay Shells channeled his love of hip hop music and his uncanny sign-making skills towards a brand new project: “Rap Quotes.” For this ongoing project, Shells created official-looking street signs quoting famous rap lyrics that shout out specific street corners and locations. He then […]
Within this 12-year run, minus a few distractions, ANIMAL has afforded me an unprecedented opportunity to throw art parties, get a tiny bit of free shit — we totally should have asked PR firms for more stuff — and most importantly, promote hundreds and hundreds of artists. Although I like to think of ANIMAL as […]
To comment on the ways women characters are portrayed in video games, which, in case you’ve been living under a rock, is not often very good, 8-bit artist Jude Buffum created this striking series of pieces. In each, a female character from a classic game is portrayed as a sex worker on one of those […]
“Beastie Boys Square” may not happen, and “Christopher Wallace Way” is as good as dead, but Shane Rossi is giving some solace to fans of New York City hip hop. On Friday, February 7th, the Bronx resident and hip hop fan placed a sign at 163rd Street and Rogers Place in the BX, marking the […]
