Spinner http://www.spinner.com Spinner http://www.spinner.com/media/feedlogo.gif Spinner http://www.spinner.com en-us Copyright 2013 Blogsmith, LLC. The contents of this headlines and excerpts feed are available for limited commercial distribution. You may repost this feed to your site provided you link back to the original story, do not edit the material, and do not remove this copyright notice. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/ Public Enemy's Chuck D Challenges Young Rappers to 'Say Something' http://www.spinner.com/2012/09/07/public-enemy-chuck-d-young-rappers/ http://www.spinner.com/2012/09/07/public-enemy-chuck-d-young-rappers/ http://www.spinner.com/2012/09/07/public-enemy-chuck-d-young-rappers/#comments Filed under: , , ,


Stephen Lovekin, Getty

During Public Enemy's recent Toronto show, frontman Chuck D spoke out against the language of modern rap music, calling hip-hop "an art and a craft, not a hustle." When you call hip-hop a hustle, according to D, you're using the language of "scavengers," not artists. In private, he adds that hip-hop isn't just an art and a craft, it's also a public service.

"I'm a servant. I'm just here to serve the people," Chuck D told Spinner after the show. "Hip-hop is like my military."

The man who famously called rap music "the black CNN" says that artists are obliged to say something meaningful in their lyrics, and that too many MCs fall short of that mark. ]]> Chuck DChuck D rapChuckDFlavor FlavFlavorFlavLondon Paralympic GamesParalympic GamesPublic EnemyPublic Enemy Chuck DPublic Enemy rapPublicEnemy Chris Dart 2012-09-07T12:00:00 00:00 Zeds Dead: Switch From Hip-Hop to Electronic Gave Them Their Breakout http://www.spinner.com/2012/07/27/zeds-dead-switch-from-hip-hop-to-electronic-gave-them-their-bre/ http://www.spinner.com/2012/07/27/zeds-dead-switch-from-hip-hop-to-electronic-gave-them-their-bre/ http://www.spinner.com/2012/07/27/zeds-dead-switch-from-hip-hop-to-electronic-gave-them-their-bre/#comments Filed under: , , ,


Zeds Dead Facebook

Zeds Dead didn't set out to be electronic music superstars. In fact, according to Zack "Hooks" Rapp-Rovan -- who makes up one-half of the band along with partner Dylan "DC" Mamid -- there was a time not so long ago when the pair didn't even particularly like electronic music.

"I never listened to electronic music in high school or anything like that, with the exception of Prodigy and stuff that was a little bit popular in the mainstream," he said. "I thought it was all just gino beats and driving around in your Civic listening to 'Sandstorm.'"

Zeds Dead started life as a hip-hop producers. They adopted their current, dubstep-flavored sound after getting frustrated with hip-hop and discovering the breadth of electronic music almost simultaneously. ]]> Mad DecentMad Decent Zeds Deadyonge-dundas squareZeds DeadZeds Dead Mad DecentZeds Dead Yonge-Dundas Square Chris Dart 2012-07-27T13:00:00 00:00 Datsik Rising: Dubstepper's Career Started With Challenge From Excision http://www.spinner.com/2012/05/25/datsik-excision/ http://www.spinner.com/2012/05/25/datsik-excision/ http://www.spinner.com/2012/05/25/datsik-excision/#comments Filed under: , ,


Dim Mak

Dubstep producer and DJ Datsik may not be a full-fledged star yet, but he's certainly not far off.

In addition to having remixed a diverse array of artists, including everyone from Diplo to the Wu-Tang Clan, he also recently finished the 45 city Deadmeat tour -- which he co-headlined with house superstar and labelmate Steve Aoki -- and had a coveted late-night time slot at last month's Coachella festival.

It turns out that all of this success comes, at least indirectly, as the result of an uncharacteristic display of drunken arrogance from the otherwise almost shockingly humble Kelowna, BC native.

Datsik, who's known to his mother as Troy Beetles, was first introduced to dubstep after seeing fellow British Columbian Excision play a set at 2008's Shambhala festival. A bedroom hip-hop producer since his early teens, Datsik was instantly converted. A few weeks later, he tracked down Excision at a club in Kelowna and made a bold statement. ]]> DatsikDatsik musicexcisionExclusive Chris Dart 2012-05-25T15:00:00 00:00