March 2013
6 posts
Onyx & The Mad Face Invasion: The 20th Anniversary...
The first time I ever heard an Onyx song I didn’t even know it was them. Back in 1991, my boy Vanguard (who’d later produce tracks for O.C. and KRS One) gave me a mixtape with no tracklist. The only song I couldn’t identify was a track I assumed was called “Ah, And We Do It Like This” because it was repeated in the song’s chorus. Back in those days this was a common occurrence so I thought...
The Redbox Diaries: An Anatomy Of Film Addiction
Hi, my name is Steve “Dart” Adams & I’m a film addict, I suspect that I first became addicted to movies sometime around 1981. See, back then cable as we know it didn’t exist. Instead of being consolidated under one single provider, everyone was free agents in the Pay TV game as different companies in each region provided these services. In Boston, circa 1980 there was...
New Edition’s “Candy Girl” Turns 30: A...
We all know about New Edition being five cats from Orchard Park Projects in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood. We all know about their career being kicked off 30 years ago with a hit single called “Candy Girl” but there’s so much more than that to the story. These five teenagers announced to the music industry and the world that there was (still) talent in Boston. Not only were they from Boston but...
The Improbable Ascent Of Christopher Wallace...
In the March 1992 issue of The Source, Matty C who ran the Unsigned Hype column picked a demo tape of straight up gutter street rap from some Brooklyn cat named Biggie Smalls over some looped up beats as his DJ 50 Grand did cuts. It didn’t even contain any fully structured songs but that raw demo tape was still easily head and shoulders above anything else that was submitted to him at the time....
Dart Adams On MTV's Hottest MC's List (And...
This past week has been chock full of Twitter and Facebook debates about MTV’s latest Hottest MC’s In The Game list. Every passing day they reveal more of the list and we get the (often unhappy) reaction of the artist picked, the (often unhappy) reaction of the fans and then we have everyone’s take on both the list and the reactions of the individual artist’s place on...
It Ain't Over! © Teddy Riley
On the afternoon of February 28th, 2010 I made my first post on my new Tumblr which I had named Bastard Swordsman. I had a three year run at Poisonous Paragraphs (2007-2010) and as of January 1st, 2010 I was writing on the collaborative blog Bloggerhouse with Eric of When They Reminisce and Travis of Wake Your Daughter Up. You might be thinking to yourselves, why did you start another site when...
January 2013
1 post
The State Of Black Film: ALONGWAYTOGO © Gang Starr
One year ago today, George Lucas executive produced a film about the Tuskegee Airmen and their service in the European theater during World War 2 called “Red Tails”. It was released through Lucasfilm & 20th Century Fox with the cast being anchored by big name actors Cuba Gooding Jr. & Terrence Howard. Many film experts and enthusiasts hoped that audiences would go see the...
December 2012
7 posts
Dart Adams' Top 100 Hip-Hop Albums Of 2012
2012 was a pretty good year as far as Hip-Hop releases were concerned. There were a great amount of excellent slept on albums that were completely overshadowed by mainstream projects this year that deserve some shine. I went back through the hundreds of albums I’ve heard over the past calendar year and meticulously picked my top 100 albums from this previous calendar year.
The following 100...
Unchained Melody (Dart Adams On "Django...
I’m a film nerd. You might know me mostly as a music historian & a Hip-Hop writer but I’m a writer period. I fell in love with the medium of film at pretty much the same time I fell in love with the written word and Hip-Hop culture, at the age of 3. Between 1978 and now I’ve immersed myself in film watching multiple genres of films spanning numerous countries. When I began...
8 Comic Books That Should Be Adapted To Cable...
I actually decided to do this list before I wrote the other pieces that came before it on “Bastard Swordsman”. Then the whole “Rap Radar vs. Hot 97/major leagues vs. minor leagues” debacle happened and the Newtown, CT tragedy occurred making posting this list drop on my priorities list. Now that I’ve done a few end of year lists I figured it was a good time to post...
Everybody's Crazy © Nas
We are in an exponential age, which means that things can potentially degrade and deteriorate at an alarming rate as well as progress, grow and spread. Integrity is at an all time low. Hypocrisy is at an all time high. It’s extremely tough to to stand up for your beliefs if you’d like to keep your job & benefits in an economy where we’re still in a recession and possibly...
Execution Of A Chump © Gang Starr
Back on December 5th, I was on Twitter and I saw a tweet from Brian “B.Dot” Miller of Rap Radar run across my timeline via an RT that seemed extremely hypocritical to me so I decided to add my two cents to it and RT it myself. It ended up looking like this:
RT @bdotTM: mainstream rap music sounds like this: swag, molly, rich, flexin’ (repeat). [But y’all don’t...
Even 25 More Cult Films (Of The Internet Age)...
I’ve gone 9 months without making yet another cult films of the Internet Age (1996-) list now. Seven months previous to that I resurrected a series I began way back on Poisonous Paragraphs in 2007. Over these past 5+ years I’ve listed close to 500 films of every imaginable genre and before it turns 2013 I should add another 25 jawns to the scroll. I used to watch a gang of films...
How Touré Failed Hip-Hop AND America (Deluxe...
On July 13th, Touré wrote a piece that was published by The Washington Post titled “How America And Hip-Hop Failed Each Other”. Touré’s piece quickly made the rounds through the Hip Hop blogosphere. I personally read it from AlLindstrom.com via Twitter and I have to say that I have more than a few issues with his article. In regards to much of the data that Touré used regarding the war on drugs,...
October 2012
1 post
Classic Material © Leaders Of The New School
I’m sure you’ve all seen Elliott Wilson’s video about whether or not Kendrick Lamar’s new album “good kid, m.A.A.d city” is a classic album that deserves all of the hype, praise and attention that’s currently being lavished on it. I’m sure you’ve seen the Facebook and Twitter debates about the same subject. There have been quite a few opinion...
September 2012
2 posts
The Middle Children Of History present Final...
The life cycle of the Sony PlayStation gaming system began on September 9th, 1995 but it was almost two years into it’s existence when one of the games that ultimately helped it become the best selling game system on Earth was released in North America. The English translation of the ground breaking and highly influential game “Final Fantasy VII” was released on September 7th, 1997 in North...
Revenge Of The 80's presents Street Fighter (1987)
August 30th, 1987 was the day gaming as we knew it was changed forever. On that day, Capcom released the first “Street Fighter” cabinets in arcades all across this great nation of ours. “Street Fighter” was a quantum leap in the fighting game genre. It employed a one on one, single combat against several opponents format (like “Karate Champion”, “Karateka” &...
July 2012
3 posts
The State Of Hip-Hop: Rap's Mid-Life Crisis
Rap is currently in a strange space it has never occupied before. There are a wide assortment of relevant artists still signed to majors with careers that span more than a decade. From the introduction of the first Rap records in 1979 to the first legitimate wave of classic Rap albums in 1984 the landscape of underground and mainstream Rap has never before experienced such a phenomenon. Hip-Hop...
Rap Is An Art, You Can't Own No Loops © Keith...
Much of the Hip Hop world was outraged over Lupe Fiasco’s single “Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free)” which was pretty much the same beat as Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth’s tribute to their fallen friend Troy “Trouble T-Roy” Dixon of Heavy D & The Boyz “T.R.O.Y. (They Reminisce Over You)”.
There are some that don’t think it’s a big deal, provided Pete Rock & C.L. got their proper credit...
Len Bias & Reggie Lewis: The Greatest NBA...
25 years ago, the Boston Celtics picked local college star Reggie Lewis with the second to last pick in the 1st round of the 1987 NBA Draft. Reggie Lewis was a Baltimore product that was the 6th man on what was considered the greatest high school squad of the 80’s. He played 4 seasons under future coach of UConn Jim Calhoun @ Northeastern University (1983-87) and led them to 4 consecutive...
June 2012
1 post
Is This The End? © New Edition AKA I Am A Celtic...
There are 30 NBA franchises, of those 30 slightly more than half of them make the playoffs. For all but one of those 16 teams the season will end in a loss. A few short hours ago, the Boston Celtics had their season end in an extremely disappointing fashion. Had it been like previous seasons, I could normally look forward to the draft which is about three weeks away. I would typically look...
May 2012
1 post
Searchin' 4 Meaning © Laster
In the past three weeks several things have happened that led me to writing this piece. The deaths of Adam “MCA” Yauch, Chuck Brown, Donna Summer and Hal Jackson are among them. It started to make me think about how these changes might subconsciously affect people from my generation given how much things have already changed in the world around us in these exponential times. I call...
March 2012
2 posts
Joy In Repetition © Prince
One thing I’m guilty of (that infuriates my brother to no end) is watching and reading the same things over and over again. My brother doesn’t understand why I’d watch “The Social Network” every time it comes on cable. Or why I’m pissed off that I can’t stream “High Fidelity” or “Almost Famous” on Netflix. My copies of “Down...
Dart’s Next 25 Favorite Cult Films Of The Internet...
Seven months ago I made the conscious decision to write about film again (or at least do a film related post). I felt that by not doing so I was omitting an element that was ever present in my previous blog (As is evident from my old series’ in Poisonous Paragraphs that I began way back in 2007) and it was needed given how much I discuss film in my regular everyday life.
In the past 6 + months...
February 2012
1 post
Nothing Like This © J Dilla
Today is the sixth anniversary of the passing of James Dewitt Yancey, a man widely acknowledged by many as the greatest Hip Hop producer ever. We knew him as Jay Dee and later on J Dilla to avoid confusion with contemporary Hip Hop & R&B producer Jermaine Dupri. The game hasn’t been the same since Dilla passed away. The first time it really hit me that Jay Dee was actually killing...
January 2012
2 posts
Born Into The 90's © R. Kelly & The Public...
I previously touched on the era that led to the birth of the original backpackers (1990 & 1991) as it was a transition period between the First Golden Era Of Hip Hop (1986-89) and what would eventually become the Second Golden Age Of Hip Hop (1992-96) in a piece called “A B-Boy’s Alpha © Cannibal Ox (The Evolution Of the Backpacker 1991-2011)”. I went into depth about the...
Top 100 Hip Hop/Rap Albums Of 2011 (According To...
I’ve grown to abhor doing these end of year lists. I’m currently entering my 6th year of Hip Hop blogging and as opposed to becoming a celebration of the best and often most overlooked Hip Hop releases of the year, it’s merely a long list of albums that were largely ignored by the majority of Hip Hop fans and Rap music listeners. I see these lists differently because of the...
December 2011
2 posts
Survivin' In The 80's © Andre Cymone
This particular post was inspired by my younger brother and I watching the documentary “The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975” yesterday with his sister (my niece) yesterday afternoon. While I was born in 1975 & he was born in 1978 we were well aware of this era and what happened through our mom and older siblings (our eldest sister was born in 1967 and our eldest brother was...
Enjoy The Silence © Depeche Mode
Twas the weekend before “undun” dropped and all through the Hip Hop bloggerverse sites are posting videos from it and Twitter is alight with talk of the album, including shining review after shining review of it. However, on some of these sites, not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse. This is odd given that when other major label album dropped these same sites either heavily...
November 2011
3 posts
Tags, Throwups & Pieces: Another Extended Blogging...
In the world of graf writing as in the world of blogging there are different philosophies as how to go from being a toy to becoming All City or attaining the title of King. In graf you can bomb relentlessly with tags displaying your your unique handstyle opt for throwups to save time and get up quicker and more frequently and when time and space are no issue, put effort towards banging out a...
Why There More Than Likely Won’t Be Another...
One of the biggest complaints I hear from heads that can recall the two previous Golden Eras of Hip Hop is that mainstream/major label Rap/Hip Hop has strayed too far from what made many of us initially fall in love with it. Now, it’s almost 2012 and things still aren’t getting any better. If anything it seems things may be getting exponentially worse for Rap music quality wise. For those of us...
What Happens To A Dream Deferred? © Langston...
I was in the 7th grade at Boston Latin School and my big brother Dave and his friends were picked to be in a Black History showcase. In it, the showcase ended with the acting out of the famous Lorraine Hansberry play. The sad part is while my mother and sister both had the book I’d never even attempted to read it. I remember catching pieces of the movie with Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee in...
October 2011
2 posts
Everything Is Everything © Donnie Hathaway
Let me rehash my day for you all. First off, it’s a holiday so there’s no mail. Secondly, I’m watching my nephew for the extended weekend. Third, benefits don’t kick in until the 11th and it’s the 10th so I can’t shop for food until tomorrow and I’m down to three slices of bread in the loaf so only the nephew gets the luxury of having toast with his...
Dig! © Ondi Timoner
Nostalgia has all but been ruined by advances in modern technology. There was a time growing up when I was convinced that there were things or details from my past that I’d never be able to find again. Things, products and items that would just go completely forgotten about as the years passed. Now even trivial minutiae can be looked up, searched for and found thanks to search engines....
September 2011
1 post
Things Fall Apart © Chinua Achebe
It’s finally over. The dread I’ve been feeling for the past four weeks came to a head earlier tonight. I’m familiar with this feeling, actually. Growing up in Boston being a Red Sox fan I’ve had it often. The last time I had it was back in October 2003, I almost forgot what it felt like. Back then Red Sox fans expected everything to go wrong. They HOPED things would go...
August 2011
8 posts
25 Hip Hop Album Fails Complex Forgot To...
First off, let me just say that I was more than pissed off at a fair amount of the selections on Complex’s recent list of “The Worst Rap Album Fails” which was compiled and written by Chris Yuscavage.
In particular, the inclusions of albums such as Eric B. & Rakim’s “Don’t Sweat The Technique”, Brand Nubian’s “Everything Is...
100 Hip Hop Jawns That Changed My Life (Compiled...
Here we go! This is the final edition of the “100 Hip Hop Jawns That Changed My Life” series. Rather than just pick 100 random songs from Hip Hop history, I decided to back back through my life as really think about the songs that influenced me on a personal level throughout my young life.
Most young people get into music between the ages of 9-13, during this time they begin to develop their...
100 Hip Hop Jawns That Changed My Life (Compiled...
In this edition of “100 Hip Hop Jawns That Changed My Life” we are now deeply entrenched in what has been unanimously considered the first Golden Age of Hip Hop music. During this time in Rap music there were numerous innovators and greats in direct competition at all facets of the artform.
Whether it be lyricism, production or in terms of DJ’ing every discipline had reached it’s apex it...
100 Hip Hop Jawns That Changed My Life (Compiled...
The last edition of “100 Jawns That Changed My Life” covered the years of 1983 to 1985. During this time, Hip Hop and Rap went from being a subculture that some thought was a fad to a national then global phenomenon after the fallout from the release of two seminal Hip Hop films, “Style Wars” & “Wild Style”.
After these two movies were released, Hollywood and Madison Avenue came calling....
100 Hip Hop Jawns That Changed My Life (Compiled...
I will continue with my introspective, semi autobiographical and chronological countdown of 100 Hip Hop jawns that changed my life. The first 20 songs spanned the years of 1979 to 1983 and these 20 cover the years of 1983 to 1985. Why is that? Simple, because the first steady wave of consistent LP releases began in 1984, after Hip Hop broke nationally post the spread of the seminal...
100 Hip Hop Jawns That Changed My Life (Compiled...
This is not a list of the greatest Hip Hop songs ever. Nor is it a list of the songs with the greatest beats or lyrical content. This list is deeply personal and autobiographical. Writing has helped me to overstand myself and through writing I can more easily understand the world around me. I think, therefore I am and I am, therefore I write. That being said I first felt the need to do this post...
Dart’s Next 50 Favorite Cult Films Of The Internet...
My last post was fueled mostly by anger and it showed. People keep congratulating me for it but I didn’t think I did that good a job on it personally. I decided to instead write about something I actually loved for a change and resurrect one of my old series’ from Poisonous Paragraphs that I began way back in 2007.
I haven’t done a cult movies list since December 2009 so I...
Watch The Throne But Mind The Gap...
I’ve been dreading this day for a long time now. Ever since Kanye West & Jay-Z began the serious push for “Watch The Throne” once the cover art was revealed more than a month ago. I saw it and I immediately thought of when I saw the many different versions of Kanye West’s cover art. This album was simply not made with me in mind. When I finally heard the album, my...
July 2011
3 posts
BOOK REVIEW: The BeatTips Manual by Amir "Sa'id"...
I’ve been obsessed with the field of Hip Hop production since the 1st Golden Era of Hip Hop (1986-1989) so it should come as no surprise that I’d be interested in reading the “The BeatTips Manual”. From the opening chapter it was apparent that this isn’t the average book about Hip Hop production.
As opposed to approaching the subject from a purely academic standpoint removed from the culture....
Hollywood Shuffle © Robert Townsend
Back in the Summer of 1986, my sister had finished her freshman year at Wellesley College and she brought her schoolbooks back with her. One of them being this thick yellow book about the long and storied history of Black cinema. I read that book from cover to cover and I became acquainted with Oscar Michaeux and his pioneering plus I found out about all of the work Melvin Van Peebles had to put...
Project: Wideawake © Chris Claremont & Bob McLeod
On August 26th, I’ll officially enter my 5th year of blogging. The game has changed dramatically from the days back when I used to read Soul Sides, Vinyl Athletes, Broke B-Boys, Eric’s Archives, DaveyD.com, Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop, Cocaine Blunts, B Side Wins Again, DallasPenn.com, Rappers I Know, Wake Your Daughter Up and Rock The Dub. See, these blogs had something to...
June 2011
1 post
Game Of Thrones © George R.R. Martin
The last time we were in a Hip Hop Golden Age (1992-96) was also the last time there was a great amount of quality competition at the major label level of Hip Hop/Rap music. At the top of that widespread competition was the Hip Hop battle royale for the once mythical title “King Of New York”.
The original King Of New York concept was derived from Abel Ferrara’s 1990 cult...
May 2011
2 posts
Take It Personal © Gang Starr
Few of you that follow this blog now know that around the same time I’d originally decided to go back into having a personal blog (I’d discontinued Poisonous Paragraphs New Years Day 2010 in order to focus all of my efforts on Bloggerhouse), the news came down that Guru was in a coma. I scrapped all my previous blog ideas after hearing that. I was in complete shock.
Since...
I'm A Fuckin' Walking Paradox. No, I'm Not! ©...
I’m often asked how to become a successful blogger. I usually answer “Do the opposite of whatever you see me do”. I also often get asked why I haven’t cracked the so-called blogger ceiling after almost 5 years of nonstop writing. I know why. It’s because I’m too fuckin’ awesome and people are just jealous of me.
It’s because the entire Hip Hop...
April 2011
3 posts
No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn © Beastie Boys
If you read my previous post “I Wonder If Heaven Got A Fat Beats?”, I was trying to make it to New York at some point during the final week it’s retail store in Manhattan was still in existence. I didn’t succeed. I then vowed to make it to New York for any of the Dilla events or the Beat* Society showcase in February. That didn’t happen, either. Folks probably...
