Run-DMC

The 10 Best Male Rappers of All Time

Since the birth of hip-hop, male rappers have been bringing their unique viewpoint to the art of rhyme. Today, we're shining some long overdue light on their important contributions to rap. We're proud to present our list of the 10 finest male rappers, from the smoking-hot hardbodies to the true lyr ... More >>

Props to Hip-Hop's iLLspokinn on NYC's Fastest-Growing Rap Tribute

Friday night, the Props to Hip-Hop classic rap tribute showcase plays its biggest show yet at B.B. King. For the past two years, TruStatement Entertainment's Props to Hip-Hop concert series has created an audience for a live hip-hop homage. With a full band playing the beats and some of the city' ... More >>

The Top 20 NYC Rap Albums of All Time: 20 - 11

Any list of the Greatest New York Rap Albums of All Time is, essentially, a list of simply the Greatest Rap Albums of All Time. The genre was invented here, after all, and over the years -- from early days to Golden Age and onward-- the city's hip-hop history has been an embarrassment of riches. Fas ... More >>

Hip-Hop for Dogs: The Worst Dog Hip-Hop Book Ever?

If you like your music blog experiences to be timely and relevant, I suggest you stop reading now. This piece is neither. It concerns a book from five years ago that's as inconsequential now as the day it was published. This book hasn't dropped a track on Soundcloud, and it's not in a Twitter fight ... More >>

Diggy+OMG Girlz+Jawan Harris

Breakfast Bills, Weight Contests, And Good Morning America: Fact-Checking The Myths About The Fat Boys

The early rise of the Fat Boys is an unfairly overlooked rap story. Having broken through as mainstream figures in the mid-'80s, an ascent helped by collaborations with Chubby Checker, William "The Refrigerator" Perry and Robert Englund's Freddy Krueger character, the oversized hip-hop trio have bee ... More >>

Q&A: Big Fun In The Big Town Director Bram Van Splunteren On The '80s New York Hip-Hop Scene

"The Beastie Boys were just silly," says Dutch-based documentary maker Bram Van Splunteren. "You couldn't do a serious interview with those guys. They were just goofing around. We had them rap down the phone but I don't remember any kind of content from that interview." Back in the mid-'80s, Splunt ... More >>

Kiss-FM, RIP

New York's urban radio pioneer goes dark after 30 years

Kiss-FM, R.I.P.

On Thursday Kiss-FM announced that after 30 years, it would stop broadcasting on 98.7 FM and join forces with WBLS, its longtime rival in the "adult urban contemporary" radio format in New York City. The stations will merge under the motto "One Family, One Station, Our Voice," with several Kiss-FM p ... More >>

Blondie (12) Faces Off Against Run-DMC (5) In SOTC's March Madness Tournament

​The Round of 64 for Sound of the City's own version of March Madness—in which you, the Sound of the City voting public, help determine the quintessential New York musician—finishes up this week, with the Round of 32 scheduled to kick off Monday. (The schedule and results so far are he ... More >>

Wax Is For Anthrax: Drummer Charlie Benante On 8 Anthrax Rap Experiments

​The unstoppable, zombie-slaying Anthrax album Worship Music is their first in 21 years with classic vocalist Joey Belladonna, and naturally, it's full of thrash that hearkens back to the halcyon days of Jams shorts and up-flipped caps. However, if rap fans check out "Devil You Know," they mig ... More >>

Q&A: Pusha T: "Instant Gratification Versus Slow Grind? I'll Take The Former."

​90% of his friends are behind bars. His oldest brother is a recovering drug addict. His other brother has long since repented. All that and Pusha still wants to, well, push. "That's what happens when you Michael and they treat you like Tito," he raps on the hook for "I Still Wanna." For the f ... More >>

MUSIC TO MY EYES

A visual evolution of the New York sound

Q&A: Brother Ali on Rock the Bells and The Importance of Getting Touched By Ghostface

Cover of Ali's The Truth is Here EP Of the many details that differentiate Brother Ali from your average rapper, it is important to note that after delving deep into the painful dissolution of his emotionally abusive marriage on his 2007 album The Undisputed Truth, Ali wraps things up by telling h ... More >>

Ten Pioneering Pieces Of Hip-Hop Street Art

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Triple Self Portrait. All images courtesy the Eric Firestone Gallery.​Street art has enjoyed a steady resurgence in rap over the last few years, with Kanye West and the Clipse jostling to let KAWS design their album and magazine covers, 50 Cent and Busta Rhymes appearing ... More >>

The Choice Is His: Black Sheep's Dres Picks The Five Best Bar Mitzvah/Sweet 16-Rocking Hip-Hop Classics Of All Time

Dres still loves "The Humpty Dance," just like the rest of us.​Few hip-hop songs rival the mass-anthemic appeal of Black Sheep's "The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)." A tweaked incarnation of an album track on M.C. Dres and producer Mista Lawnge's 1991 debut A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, it endeare ... More >>

Ricky Powell's Official Guide to Rappin' With The Rickster, His Legendary '90s Public Access TV Show

Sitting on a park bench in Washington Square Park on a Thursday afternoon, with a small silver transistor radio clutched in his left hand and his trusty Minolta AF2 Hi-Matic camera slung around his shoulder, 49-year-old Ricky Powell breaks off from conversation to yell at a gaggle of teenage girls ... More >>

LL Cool J, satanist: Studies in Crap presents Dancing With Demons

Each Thursday, your Crap Archivist brings you the finest in forgotten and bewildering crap culled from basements, thrift stores, estate sales and flea markets. I do this for one reason: Knowledge is power.​ Dancing With Demons: The Music's Real Master Author: Jeff Godwin Date: 1988 ... More >>

Cruelty-Free Pre-Thanksgiving with Lou Reed, Others at Tavern on the Green

​Planning to tuck into a nice, fat turkey this Thanksgiving? What are you, sick? Turkeys are your animal companions. Repent of your carnivorism in the traditional way -- with celebrities! On November 22, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, Russell Simmons will host "Celebration FOR The Turkeys" ... More >>

Rock Hall Show at MSG Includes A Couple of Jersey Guys

The Rock and Roll Hame of Fame 25th Anniversary events kicked off last night at Madison Square Garden with key Jersey representation, including sets by Paul Simon of Newark and Bruce Springsteen of Long Branch. Here's Simon and former collaborator Art Garfunkel really milking "Sounds of Silence." ... More >>

Run-DMC, the Musical?

​It's happening, according to Liz Smith (?!). Paula Wagner, Tom Cruise's producer, has apparently been shepherding Rev Run and DMC around Broadway, collecting inspiration for an original musical. "I feel their story lends itself perfectly to the stage," Wagner told Smith. "This project has bee ... More >>

Run-DMC/Jam Master Jay Street Sign Dedicated in Queens

The corner of 205th Street and Hollis Avenue in Queens is now officially "Run-DMC JMJ Way," by way of homage to the rap group and its murdered DJ, Jam Master Jay. The sign was hoisted on Sunday (after being announced back in July), and Run spoke at the ceremony, telling the crowd "I lived right do ... More >>

Jam Master Jay Memorialized on Tiny Green Sign

Hollis, Queens's Run-DMC will join Joey Ramone and the week-long promotional tour for U2's last album (R.I.P.) in having their name memorialized as a New York City street sign. The corner of 205th Street and Hollis Avenue in Queens will be renamed "Run-DMC JMJ Way," in dual homage to the slain Jam M ... More >>

City Council Honors Michael Jackson, White People Walk Out

Today the city council held a moment of silence for Michael Jackson and councilmembers Inez Dickens and Helen Diane Foster gave the King of Pop a nice tribute, but just as things got underway several members walked out. Staten Island's James Oddo confirmed to Azi Paybarah that he walked out in resp ... More >>

Jimmy Fallon and Mos Def Pander to Aging Rap Fans

More proof that Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is targeted straight at rap nerds: Mos Def and Jimmy Fallon spontaneously covering Run-DMC's "It's Tricky." Also: points to Mos Def for doing the classic shutting-down-the-white-guy-rapping thing after like nine seconds. Below, Mos and the Roots do "Ca ... More >>

Little Anthony & The Imperials, Run-D.M.C. to Rock Hall

We know it's silly, but we're excited for homeboys Little Anthony & The Imperials and Run-D.M.C., who have just been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Imperials began in Brooklyn -- Little Anthony, aka Jerome Anthony Gourdine, grew up in the Fort Greene projects -- and Run-D.M.C. i ... More >>

CMJ: Mr. Brainwash at the Fader Fort

Best of NYC 2008

Back to the streets

All Tomorrow's Parties: Now In List Form!

5 Questions for DJ Bitman

Chrisette Michele's I Am

Classy, chaste belter only occasionally resembles your mom breakdancing

The Killers: Not Enough Like Def Leppard

Spaghetti Eastern

The Lordz, Brooklyn rap-rock's preeminent wiseguys, crank the bass and wax Soprano

Coming of Age

1976–1985: Punk to Pomo, Basquiat to Breakdancing

'Spin' Sugar

Public Enemy, D.M.C., Lady Sovereign rock Spin magazine's 20th Anniversary party

Shell-Toed Superstar

Nas, Missy Elliot, and the Beasties celebrate the redesign of the Run D.M.C. Adidas

NY Mirror

Back to the beat: Taking classes from hip-hop's old school

Re-make/Re-model

Jam Master Jay, 1965–2002

Rhythmic Heart of the Kings of Rock

Hip-Hop Hooray

Right to Work

Summer's Out of Reach

Music

Hip-Hop Goes Commercial

Rappers Give Madison Avenue a Run for Its Money

Music

The Princess Diaries

Play Mixy for Me

Rock Boxed

Music

Breaking's New Ground

Generation Next Spins on its Head