Reachin’ Not Drowning: Songs in Conversation About Abortion

The personal is political and sometimes – as in the case of abortion – the political is personal.

“Nobody Speak” – Pulling Back the Curtain on Trumpist Politics

You wanna hear a good joke? Nobody speak, nobody get choked.

Hip Hop Levels Up: Sammus & Pieces in Space

Sammus embraces the kind of freedom afforded to grassroots, independent artists who don’t have corporate overseers menacing with strange gazes and mandates to sellout.

The International Comics Art Forum 2016

An overview of the 2016 International Comics Art Forum conference in Columbia, SC.

Back to the Old School: 5 Classic Hip Hop Albums You Need to Learn

“You know what you need to learn? Old school artists don’t always burn!”

“Hip Hop Started Out in the Art” – Tom Brevoort, Post-Racial Hip Hop & Comics

You can’t separate hip hop from race without looking like you’ve separated your head from sense.

Songs In Conversation: I Can Go For Dialogics

Dialogics represent the rejection of a finality of meaning. It moves back and forth like a crossfade.

“Movies, Museums and the Hall of Fame” – Beat Street & the Past Future of Hip Hop

Hip Hop got up big time, and I love that, but its focus on cultural production left its political potential untapped.

“It’s Not About a Salary. It’s All About Reality. . .” KRS-One, ‘My Philosophy’ & Discursive Tension

By All Means Necessary a record that tries to consciously address a variety of issues in the communities of people listening to it, while not sacrificing the braggadocio and arrogant subjectivity that so often gives hip hop its energy and fun.