The anecdotal evidence of my own Facebook feed tells me that a lot of people don’t know what “free speech” actually means. "PC culture" isn't trampling on your right to free speech. Milo Yiannopoulos's rights to free speech aren't being violated if UC Berkeley or UC...
Make The Grammys Great Again We all got some serious deja vu when Adele was graced with the Album of the Year Grammy award and melted into a tearful speech about why Beyoncé should have won instead. “Beyoncé should have won.” How many times have we heard this now?...
Being a female journalist is a double-edged sword. While I am somewhat more likely to be allowed access to sensitive or intimate spaces or events, I am also less likely to be taken seriously as a human/professional. I am more likely to find myself in dangerous or...
The Mekons wrapped up their fifteen-day tour this weekend, starting in Chicago at The Hideout and finishing in Cambridge at Middle East. They stopped for a few days in New York City, playing a concert at the Bowery Ballroom on the 21st and recording a new album before...
Sneakers are a staple of hip hop culture. Nike, specifically, has pretty much cornered the market on Hip Hop Fly. I am a conflicted but nevertheless willing participant in this phenomenon: I love kicks. I’m not the only one with this weakness: a quick Google search of...
Despite all the recent discourse about musical appropriation, it is still unclear to me exactly who is appropriating which music. The default answer seems to be “white people are appropriating black music” but this seems inaccurate, or at least unspecific. Hip hop has...
From the moment my plane coasted onto the Nashville tarmac, it was clear that I was in the south. The flight attendant with a fake tan and a southern accent came on the loudspeaker to wish a high school cheerleader the best of luck in her upcoming competition. “We’re...
William Electric Black’s >When Black Boys Die is tragic, hilarious, self-aware, involving, and idealistic. The Theater for the New City performance space is intimate, with characters sometimes towering over the audience on a raised center stage, or shouting over us...
The internet has been abuzz with Kanye West’s latest Grammys scandal, excoriating him for disrespecting Beck, a humble and genuinely talented musician. It should be said, however, that West’s antics in 2015 were far more tame than his treatment of Taylor Swift in...
Those of us lucky enough to see the Eco-Music Big Band this weekend at Zinc Bar in the Village were privy to social innovations capable of big change, and musical innovations already making big sound. The Eco-Music Big Band is a 15-piece jazz band that is heavy on...
Most of the time I applaud Rihanna for what I see as her unapologetic feminism. She owns her body and her sexuality so openly and overtly that it’s almost aggressive. Female celebrities tend to be demonized for in-your-face eroticism, but male celebrities are given...
I had forgotten that the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade plowed straight up 5th avenue. Increasing numbers of daydrunk teenagers and twentysomethings stumbling past me as I walked East down 50th street should have tipped me off but I had braced myself on the subway for...
Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly needed to happen. It might be one of the most important albums that’s dropped at least since Nas dropped Illmatic, which is not even necessarily the same as “the best album since ______,” although I think that’s true, too. Every...