Category: Nas
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A Partial Crack Playlist
Although crack sales and addiction were ramping up in 1983, when Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel recorded this song, they’re referring to the powder cocaine of the 1970s, not to rock cocaine (crack). Note that Melle Mel portrays a Baron Samedi-like character in the video. “Dopeman,” N.W.A., 1988 Too Short, “The Ghetto,” 1990, which draws…
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“Ethiopian” Songs: Love and Theft
[Trigger/content warnings: lots of racist and ableist imagery and language.] In 1768, English playwright Isaac Bickerstaffe and Charles Dibdin — librettist and composer, respectively — presented their comic opera The Padlock at London’s Drury Lane Theatre. Dibdin portrayed the role of Mungo, a black slave from the West Indies, and his aria “Dear Heart! What a…
From Spirituals to Hip Hop MUS 113 SUNY Broome 