Blazing Arrow
''Blazing Arrow'' is the second studio album by American hip hop duo Blackalicious. It was released on MCA Records on April 30, 2002. It peaked at number 49 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart. Critical reception Steve Huey of AllMusic gave the album 4.5 stars out of 5, saying: "All the pieces add up to not just one of the best rap albums of 2002, but one of the richest, most captivating albums to emerge from hip-hop's artsy new underground." Chris Dahlen of ''Pitchfork'' called it "one of those classic summer albums that crams in so much sound and so much life that listening to it is like going to a block party, all-day concert and a family reunion all at the same time." ''Pitchfork'' placed it at number 46 on the "Top 50 Albums of 2002" list. ''Exclaim!'' listed it as one of the Top Ten albums of 2002. ''Kludge A kludge or kluge () is a workaround or quick-and-dirty solution that is clumsy, inelegant, inefficient, difficult to extend and hard to maintain. This term is used in d ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Blackalicious
Blackalicious was an American hip-hop duo from Sacramento, California, made up of rapper Gift of Gab and DJ/producer Chief Xcel. They are noted for Gift of Gab's often tongue-twisting, multisyllabic, complex rhymes and Chief Xcel's soulful production.Edwards, Paul, 2009, ''How to Rap'': The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. 322. The duo released four full-length albums: '' Nia'' in 1999, ''Blazing Arrow'' in 2002, '' The Craft'' in 2005, and ''Imani Vol. 1'' in 2015. Gift of Gab died in June 2021. Career 1992–1999: Early years, Quannum Projects, ''Nia'' album While Tim Parker (Gift of Gab) and Xavier Mosley (Chief Xcel) spent their early childhood years in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area respectively, the two first met while attending John F. Kennedy High School in Sacramento, California. At the time, Gift of Gab was known as Gabby T, while Chief Xcel went by the stage name of DJ IceSki. After graduating from Kennedy High in 1989, the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States. The publication has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes. It is owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong and published by the Times Mirror Company. The newspaper’s coverage emphasizes California and especially Southern California stories. In the 19th century, the paper developed a reputation for civic boosterism and opposition to labor unions, the latter of which led to the bombing of its headquarters in 1910. The paper's profile grew substantially in the 1960s under publisher Otis Chandler, who adopted a more national focus. In recent decades the paper's readership has declined, and it has been beset by a series of ownership changes, staff reductions, and other controversies. In January 2018, the paper's staff voted to unionize and final ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lifesavas
Lifesavas is a hip hop group from Portland, Oregon. Their style exhibits tag-team rhymes, matter-of-fact storytelling and a soulful production. The emcee's styles and song writing skills are showcased in the arrangements of a funky collection of subject matter and concepts. Formation Vursatyl and Jumbo met playing basketball and ripping free-style in Portland city parks. Initially working on different projects out of the same makeshift studio, the two decided to join creative forces. DJ Rev Shines joined them, creating a trio. Chief Xcel from Blackalicious discovered the Lifesavas and invited the group to perform in San Francisco with Blackalicious Quannum Projects. Vursatyl was invited to perform backup vocals for Blackalicious during their live performances. Soon after, Jumbo and Shines joined Vursatyl on tour, opening for Quannum artists Blackalicious and Latyrx. That led to a record deal on Quannum Projects in 2003, where they released their debut album ''Spirit In Ston ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jaguar Wright
Jacquelyn Suzette Wright-Johnson (born May 17, 1977), better known by her stage name, Jaguar Wright, is an American R&B and neo soul singer, songwriter and narrator. She is part of the Okayplayer collective. Wright has performed and collaborated alongside rap acts such as The Roots, Jay-Z, and Blackalicious. She was born and raised in New Jersey before moving to Philadelphia at around 12 years old. Career Wright was brought to the attention of hip-hop group The Roots in 1998, which eventually led to her going to tour with them. She later appeared as a back-up singer for Jay-Z in 2001, and appeared in a Coca-Cola advert as part of the brand's "Nu Soul" campaign. She has released two solo albums to date: ''Denials, Delusions & Decisions'' in 2002, and ''Divorcing Neo 2 Marry Soul'' in 2005. Wright also recorded an album entitled ''...And Your Point Is?'' which was due for release in 2003 on MCA Records (who also distributed her debut), before the label folded. However, many o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ben Harper And The Innocent Criminals
Benjamin Chase Harper (born October 28, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae, and rock music and is known for his guitar-playing skills, vocals, live performances, and activism. He has released twelve regular studio albums, mostly through Virgin Records, and has toured internationally. Harper is a three-time Grammy Award winner and seven-time nominee, with awards for Best Pop Instrumental Performance and Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album in 2004 and Best Blues Album in 2013. At the 40th Blues Music Awards ceremony, Harper's joint composition with Charlie Musselwhite, "No Mercy in This Land", was named Song of the Year. Early life Harper was born in Pomona, California. His late father, Leonard Harper, was of African-American and Cherokee ancestry, and his mother, Ellen Harper Verdries ( Chase), is Jewish. His maternal great-grandmother was a Russian-Lithuanian Jew. His parents divorced when ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Keke Wyatt
Ke'Tara Shavon "Keke" Wyatt (born March 10, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter, actress and television personality. After performing in a number of girl bands and working as a songwriter during her teenage years, in 2000 she garnered national attention after her successful collaboration with fellow R&B singer Avant, In 2001 her rendition of " Nothing in This World" led to a nomination for the Best New R&B/Soul/Rap Artist award at the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. After a number of charting collaborations and solo releases, in 2017 she starred as a cast member in TV One's '' R&B Divas: Atlanta'', which featured the lives of five 1990s chart-topping R&B singers. She was featured in all 3 seasons of the show. She also performed with the group at events such as Essence Music Festival. In her career, Wyatt released official studio albums, including ''Soul Sista'' (2001), ''Who Knew?'' (2010), '' Unbelievable'' (2011), and her latest and recent release, ''Rated Love'' (2016). ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lateef The Truth Speaker
Lateef Daumont, better known by his stage name Lateef the Truthspeaker, or mononymously as Lateef, is a hip hop artist from Oakland, California (United States). He is a member of several hip hop groups such as Latyrx, Lateef and the Chief, and the Mighty Underdogs. He was the founding member of the Solesides collective, which became Quannum Projects. Life and career Lateef was raised in East Oakland, where his father was security detail for the Black Panthers. His mother, a Panther medic, was a roommate and political associate of Angela Davis. He is of African American and Puerto Rican descent. He has released several mixtapes such as ''Ahead of the Curve'' (2007), ''Truth Is Love'' (2009), and ''Truth at Sea'' (2011). His solo debut album, ''Firewire'', was released in 2011. It features contributions from Chief Xcel, Del the Funky Homosapien, the Grouch, Lyrics Born, Dan the Automator and DJ Shadow. He was also featured on the songs "Wonderful Night" and "That Old Pair of J ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chali 2na
Charles Stewart (born June 26, 1971), better known as Chali 2na, is an American painter and rapper, associated with the groups Jurassic 5 and Ozomatli. He is known for his bass-baritone and quick delivery rapping style. Personal life Early life As a young boy, Stewart moved to South Central Los Angeles, where the group Jurassic 5 was formed in 1993. He was raised by his grandmother, a practising Christian, he later converted to Islam. His stage name is a reference to Charlie the Tuna, the deep-voiced animated mascot of StarKist Tuna. He and Cut Chemist became friends in high school. Together with Mark 7even, they were part of a three-man group called Unity Committee. The Unity Committee crew would often spend Thursday nights performing at the Good Life Café, where rappers and spoken word poets showed off their skills in an open mic format. They were, along with another three-person troupe called the Rebels of Rhythm, routinely chosen as the crowd's favorite performers. The t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gil Scott-Heron
Gilbert Scott-Heron (April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011) was an American Jazz poetry, jazz poet, singer, musician, and author, known primarily for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and 1980s. His collaborative efforts with musician Brian Jackson (musician), Brian Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz, blues, and soul music, soul, as well as lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles by Scott-Heron. His own term for himself was "bluesologist", which he defined as "a scientist who is concerned with the origin of the blues".Onstage at the Black Wax Club in Washington, D.C. in 1982, Scott-Heron cited Harlem Renaissance writers Langston Hughes, Sterling Allen Brown, Sterling Brown, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen and Claude McKay as among those who had "taken the blues as a poetry form" in the 1920s and "fine-tuned it" into a "remarkable art form".Gil Scott-Heron in a live performance in 1982 wi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kludge (magazine)
''Kludge'' was a Los Angeles-based online music magazine devoted to long-form music journalism, album reviews, music news and interviews. It included a media section and a discussion forum. Founded in 2000 by editor-in-chief Arturo Perez, the magazine developed a reputation for its extensive coverage of underground and independent music. ''Kludge'' had a combined staff of over twenty writers, editors, graphic designers, and photographers. It included writers from various backgrounds, ranging from academics and professional journalists to first time writers. After its establishment, the site rapidly expanded to include live reviews, interviews, streams of albums, and year-end features. ''Kludge'' had frequently partnered with Virgin Megastores for presenting new works and promoting new artists. While the site's readership numbers never reached the levels of Pitchfork Media's, it did receive many notices in the press for the quality of its writing. It has been quoted by publicati ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Exclaim!
''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 issues per year, distributing over 103,000 copies to over 2,600 locations across Canada. The magazine has an average of 361,200 monthly readers and their website, exclaim.ca, has an average of 675,000 unique visitors a month. History ''Exclaim!'' began as a discussion among campus and community radio programmers at Ryerson's CKLN-FM in 1991. It was started by then-CKLN programmer Ian Danzig, together with other programmers and Toronto musicians. The goal of the publication was to support great Canadian music that was otherwise going unheralded. The group worked through 1991 to produce their first issue in April 1992, with monthly issues being produced since. Ian Danzig has been the publisher of the magazine since its start. James Keast ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Spin (magazine)
''Spin'' (stylized in all caps) is an American music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione, Jr. Now owned by Next Management Partners, the magazine is an online publication since it stopped issuing a print edition in 2012. History Early history ''Spin'' was established in 1985 by Bob Guccione, Jr. In August 1987, the publisher announced it would stop publishing ''Spin'', but Guccione Jr. retained control of the magazine and partnered with former MTV president David H. Horowitz to quickly revive the magazine. During this time, it was published by Camouflage Publishing with Guccione Jr. serving as president and chief executive and Horowitz as investor and chairman. In its early years, ''Spin'' was known for its narrow music coverage with an emphasis on college rock, grunge, indie rock, and the ongoing emergence of hip-hop, while virtually ignoring other genres, such as country and metal. It pointedly provided a national alternative to ''Rolling Stone's'' more e ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |