August « 2011 « Soul-Sides.com

BACK FROM THE DEAD: INCOGNITOS MIXTAPE (ON TAPE!)

Back in 1999, I created the first version of my Incognitos mixtape (back when mixtapes were actually on cassette). As with the newer digital version, the idea here was to focus on “gems that slipped through the cracks” – songs that, for whatever reason (poor airplay, limited distribution, sample clearance, etc., never really saw much light.

I had sent a box of tapes to a national distributor, based in the Bay Area, and years later, they sent me back all the unsold stock, which was around 150+ copies. They languished in my [...]

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THE SIDEBAR #14: SASHA FRERE-JONES

Apologies for the hiatus since the last Sidebar1 but this one arrives just on time with the end of summer nearing. Sasha Frere-Jones is the pop music critic for The New Yorker as well as culture editor for The Daily and, generally speaking, has been one of the definitive voices on pop music of the past 10 years.

I first “met” Sasha about 10 years back, through a now-defunct listserv (remember those?) for other music writer nerds. It was extremely gratifying to see him [...]

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THE GREAT RAP PURGE: PART 4

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The purge continues; I’m up to the “J” section now. Here’s a few from the last set of crates I cleaned through:

Icey “J”: It Takes a Real Man
From 12″ (JBM, 1989)

I’m not sure why “It Takes Two” needed an “answer” record; it’s not like dude was dissing anyone by name. But most likely, Icey J was trying to get some shine by stirring up controversy in dissing Rob Base. This won’t rank anywhere near “The Bridge is Over” territory but I was [...]

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WE LIKE IT LIKE THAT: SUPPORT THIS BOOGALOO DOCUMENTARY

Earlier in the year, a documentarian named Mathew Ramirez Warren contacted me about a possible interview. Mathew is putting together a full-length film on the history of Latin boogaloo – We Like It Like That – and obviously, this is a topic near and dear to me. Before he came out to interview me, he sent me a few clips of what he had already shot.

I was floored.

The story of Latin boogaloo, in my opinion, has been remarkably ignored. There are any number of theories to explain that relative absence (we don’t have [...]

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REMEMBERING ASHFORD AND LEIBER

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I can’t do proper justice to the legacy and accomplishments of the late Nickolas Ashford and Jerry Lieber, two of America’s great songwriters, both of whom passed yesterday. Jay Smooth has a great Ashford tribute post up while Funky 16 Corners hooked one up for Leiber, including a few of the songs I was going to include on my site.

I will say this much: the amount that songwriters contribute to the world is almost never, ever repaid back in the recognition we give them. Singers [...]

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A HISTORY OF BEEF, PART 1 OF ?

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Let me first make it clear that my point here isn’t to air out dirty laundry or put folks on blast. At this point, most of what I’m talking about all took place about eight years ago; in music years, that might as well have been an eon back. Much of it seemed silly at the time.1 Nearly a decade later, it really just feels like some fun anecdotes to spill and I hope that’s how they’re taken.