The rapper from Odd Future, whose disappearance became a pop music mystery, speaks out on where he went: Coral Reef Academy, a therapeutic retreat for at-risk boys in Vaitele, outside of the Samoan capital of Apia:
As Odd Future became more popular, though, his absence was harder to ignore. While Ms. Harris remained largely silent, ‘Free Earl’ became a slogan, a hashtag, a mantra. Odd Future fans began to see her as an antagonist. At one point a threatening note was left on her door.
‘I could have never imagined in my wildest dreams that this decision to send him away to a school that had the kind of support for his emotional well-being that he needed would turn into a story about locking him away,’ she said. To explain her son’s absence, she added, ‘I would’ve had to have talked about his personal life in a way that I think would’ve been really unfair.’
“Earl Sweatshirt Is Back from the Wilderness.” — Jon Caramanica, New York Times
On the 25th anniversary of “Licensed to Ill,” an oral history of the birth of the Beastie Boys.
Then we were like, ‘Oh, shit, we should get a D.J.! Like rap groups. They have a D.J.!’ Nick Cooper knew about this guy Rick Rubin who went to NYU and would throw parties and had turntables. And a bubble machine. We were like, ‘If we had a fucking D.J. and a fucking bubble machine, we’d be fucking killing it.’
“Rude Boys.” — Amos Barshad, New York magazine, April 24, 2011
Everyone spends their days writing in Chongqing.
An anonymous author’s novel written on the walls of an abandoned house in Chongqing, China
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YUP
CQSCENE is pleased to announce the release of the second issue of our sister-magazine ChungKing Express. Be one of the first to get your hands on a copy Tursday night(April 17, 21:00) at Da Rasta in Shapingba. Only 100 copies available, so get there early!
Just saw this…thank you @spinmagazine (Taken with instagram)
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Michael Eric Dyson on Hip-Hop Accountability at Brown
“At the end of the day, hip-hop culture is a vibrant powerful, commercial laced and laden form of expression that expresses the worst and the best of what it means to be a fragile human being in the process of existential evolution in a culture that both supports and subverts our fundamental humanity and identity.”
- Michael Eric Dyson on Hip-Hop Accountability at Brown University
He goes on later to say that the first and formost accountability of the artist is to make great art, not to worry about offending someone — “you offend me when mediocrity and wack-assed-ness.”
Watch the whole video of MED and Boyce Watkins here.
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I visited an ex-Long Beach Crip who is trying to break Cambodia’s cycle of through breakdancing.
Samsonite Man: Breaking The Cycle With Cambodia, Crips & Education
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I spoke to Jin in Hong Kong about his story for HipHopDX.
Samsonite Man: Catching Up With Jin In Hong Kong, Talks Career, Gimmick Stigma, Fellow Asian Emcees
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