Share
THROWBACKS AND BACKPACKS
Rap gets its own Lollapalooza
By Zach Baron
Wednesday, July 30th 2008 at 3:42am
This most wistful of hip-hop festivals basically posits that good rappers don’t age. Thus Tribe Called Quest, the Pharcyde, De La Soul, and Mos Def can headline Rock the Bells without one good ’00s-era album among ’em. New York rap stalwarts Nas, Method Man, Redman, Raekwon, and Ghostface at least bring some fire, though there’s not necessarily so much new material there either. From a sociological perspective though, the alliances are fascinating: Hipsters (Spankrock, Cool Kids, Santogold, Amanda Blank) are apparently deemed more acceptable than, say, the LOX; meanwhile, they’re being paired on the lower half of the bill with political radicals (Immortal Technique, Dead Prez) and throwback traditionalists (Kidz in the Hall, Wale). The common thread, if there is one, is something elusive—is it that most of these guys aren’t inclined to curse much? Or maybe they all disapprove of gun violence? Whatever the link, everybody here can rap, which, come to think of it. . . .
Sun., Aug. 3, noon, 2008
Recent Articles
More by Zach Baron
Apocalypse Sometime: Ron Currie Jr.'s Everything Matters!
A decorated young writer pitches a screwball of a second novel
Lit Seen: A Heavy Rotation Playlist
Pink air! Origami irony! Writers on the albums (and songs) that shaped them.
COME AS YOU ARE
Déjà vu with Mr. Dream and Acrylics
COME AS YOU ARE
Déjà vu with Mr. Dream and Acrylics
Diamonds Are Whatever: Clancy Martin's How to Sell
A former jeweler offers a gem of a debut novel
Site Search «
Most Popular
-
Michael Jackson: The Man in Our Mirror Black America's eulogies for the King of Pop also let us resurrect his best self
-
The Queer Issue: Rachel Maddow, the New Sexy The Butch is back, with a poster girl
- An Unlikely Rescuer from the Jaws of Debt
-
The Queer Issue: The Rise of Rentboys Hustling goes legit
-
The Next Frontier of the Stem Cell Debate "Snowflake" babies, embryo "adoption," and being pre-born again
| buy, sell, trade 12,221 | musician 3,635 |
| rentals 19,079 | jobs 2,483 |
| adult entertainment 28,532 | |
| classifieds | backpage.com | Post ads for free! | |
|---|---|