Monthly Digest #1: April 2021
RIP DMX, RIP Black Rob, RIP Shock G, Nipsey Hussle Biography & Documentary
Welcome to the first edition of my monthly digest where I share cool and interesting stuff I’ve been reading, watching or listening to lately.
I wish I had started with lighter content, but April was particularly tragic, as we lost within a few days 2 legends (DMX and Shock G) and a solid veteran who was way more than just a one “Whoa” hit wonder (Black Rob). May they rest in peace.
The loss of DMX, Black Rob, and Shock G in such rapid succession, coming so soon after the passing of Double K and Prince Markie Dee, serves as a reminder that we in hip-hop media need to amplify veteran artists' voices and help them tell their stories while they're still alive.
we should start publishing obituaries for our favorite musicians while they're still alive and call it music criticism
The infrastructure to support DMX and Shock G into middle age didn’t exist, Sheldon Pearce writes. Both went largely underappreciated until it was too late.
🐕 RIP DMX 🐕
December 18, 1970 - April 9, 2021
RIP DMX. No one radiated more agony, pain, and atomic energy. The Cerberus from Yonkers, who suffered for all of our sins and his own. Maybe the rawest rapper of all-time, no pretense or frills, just pure adrenaline, lawless genius, and reckless abandon. The struggle incarnate.
A requiem for DMX, a superhero who anyone could relate to, whose existence embodied & transcended the struggle, from the School Street projects to the pitfalls of fame. The realest of the real ones. May he finally have found peace after a lifetime of pain.
#MyLatest — On Earl Simmons aka DMX. A man whose grief + pain made for some of the most transparent music we’ll ever hear. But through it all, a man who showed us what real resiliency and finding peace in a life full of chaos truly looks like. R.I.P., Dog.
Wrote about the legacy of DMX, who became one of the biggest stars hip-hop has ever seen on precisely his own terms
For @VICE , I wrote about DMX's inimitable run as 2000s B-movie action star and the ease and fun he showed on screen
#BehindTheBeat is our series where we talk to rap producers about the making of their most iconic beat.
Here's a look back at our first edition, where @DAMEGREASE tells us about crafting DMX’s “Get At Me Dog.” 🙏🏿
bit.ly/351xSFp
(illustration by: @Popephoenix)
Over the next week, we're running "The Pick of the Litter," a series dedicated to the best songs of DMX.
First up is @pahwa_nitish on "4,3,2,1."
Check out here for the rest of the series, including songs such as “Slippin”, “Stop Being Greedy”, “Come Back In One Piece”, “Damien”, “Get At Me Dog”, etc.
🖤 RIP BLACK ROB 🖤
June 8, 1968 - April 17, 2021
RIP Black Rob, one of the great millennium-era crime rap novelists, gruff but with Harlem slickness, who endured fire & brimstone to briefly reach the apex, before gravity and the law took hold. Of course, "Whoa," which owned the world for a full year, the platonic tunnel banger.
"[I] never had nothin, never went to school, was always on the streets, always takin' money. But [I] changed. God blessed [me] for my talent...God blessed that kid Rob to do something with his life." -- Black Rob in The Source, January '99
Wrote a @GQMagazine piece on why eulogizing black men gone too soon is tiring, ironically enough. RIP Black Rob. gq.com/story/black-ro… #BlackRob
Not an easy task for me in the slightest bit, but I tried to capture my thoughts on Harlem icon Black Rob’s life, career and transition from Earthly life for @vulture. Thanks to the amazing @Dee_Lockett for guiding me through this.
🥸 RIP SHOCK G 🥸
August 25, 1963 - April 22, 2021
RIP Shock G, psychedelic rap pioneer, one of the 1st & best to translate funk into hip-hop. A high concept genius, who discovered 2Pac & invented sex packets. Our Groucho Mark: raunchy, hilarious & weird. Burger King bathrooms would never be the same. Humpty Hump lives forever 🥸
When I interviewed DJ Quik a few years ago, I asked him about his early years and who he was chasing. I figured the obvious answers would be EPMD and Dre but he said "Digital Underground." They were true funk innovators, which sometimes got masked by the novelty hits and humor.
"Be peaceful and enjoy your time on Earth as much and as often as you can. The more you do, the more it becomes you."–Shock G
Part one of our three part piece on Shock G is now live.
Words by Alice Price-Styles waxpoetics.com/article/digita…
Part 2: Shock G eschews grand theft auto for a career in the music industry.
In an effort to be crowned Upper Northern VA's leading expert on all things Shock G., i wrote a couple of things for a couple of folks about the Burger King Bathroom Legend.
Here's the playlist you need: thewitzard.blogspot.com/2021/04/tribut…
And here are more words:
My plan was to do more writing this year. That hasn’t happened for a number of reasons. But I did want to say a few words about the great Shock G. Readhowyalike. #RIPShockG
Wrote a tribute to Gregory Jacobs, aka Shock G, Humpty Hump, Edward Ellington Humphries III, and MC Blowfish. The mastermind of Digital Underground and the eternal freak of the industry.
May his memory be blessed with peace and humptiness forever.
In his tribute to Shock G, journalist Eric Arnold remembers the late rapper as a man who "came along at a time when Bay Area hip-hop was beginning to heft national gravitas and helped push it over the hump."
“I’m sorry,” he says with a quiver in his voice. "But I just get so emotional thinking about the past. I’m so happy that people are finally paying attention to my work,"- My 2010 VIBE interview with Shock G. Rest In Power to hip-hop's UNSUNG music man.
.@paulxt: "What made Shock G's music special was in the cleverness of his syntax, the modulation of his voice, the depth of his grooves. It was as if he came from somewhere else entirely"
Quick re-up since it went up late last night: Some brief thoughts on Shock G, hip-hop’s true Dr. Funkenstein and yet another legend gone far too soon
One of my fav Shock G moments was the OG version of Pac’s “Do For Love.” Just Pac rapping, backed only w/ drums & keys. And who was on those keys but Shock G himself, setting a whole mood w/ nothing but piano chords. May we all succeed in trying to make a $ out of 15 cents.
RIP Shock-G/Humpty Hump. I remember when NWA’s road manager Atron said he had a group called Digital Underground. He played DOWHATCHALIKE video & I went crazy. I had to sample DU on JACKIN FOR BEATS and WHO’S THE MACK. And nobody had a better stage show. A true Bay Area original.
The funeral of rapper, musician and producer Gregory “Shock G” Jacobs was held in Tampa, where he grew up and launched his music career.
The Digital Underground co-founder also died there at the age of 57.
🏁💙 NIPSEY HUSSLE BIOGRAPHY & DOCUMENTARY 💙🏁
Renowned Hip Hop journalist @RobertJKenner writes the 1st in-depth bio of #NipseyHussle, mogul, artist, and activist whose transformative legacy inspired a generation. Quincy Jones calls it "a beautiful tribute to a legendary artist.”
In stores now! bit.ly/3cSGkJU
Veteran hip-hop journalist Rob Kenner's new Nipsey Hussle biography 'The Marathon Don't Stop' is out today.
We talked to Kenner about the book, which attempts to give the rapper and community organizer the recognition he deserved in life: bit.ly/2PpTkig
The first time Donald Trump was impeached wasn’t in Congress. It was in a song by YG and Nipsey Hussle. @RobertJKenner writes
4 parts series DEXTER BROWNE, NIPSEY HUSSLE , & THE GANGS OF LA- w exclusive never seen before pics. The stunning hidden story of Nipsey's' mentorship by a Trinidadian Howard-educated engineer who simultaneously was documenting the rise of Black Hollywood:
Additional readings on Rob Kenner’s blog:
Don’t Let the Water in the Boat: Thinking of Nipsey Hussle Two Years Later
Nipsey Hussle’s Final Act Continues: Fighting Gentrification
Last but not least, one of the best and most heartfelt Nip tribute tracks received the video treatment on the 2-Year Anniversary of his passing:
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