Brand Nubian: One For All and All For One
Social consciousness, the black diaspora and controvertial, charged lyricism blended with pure funk breaks and a creative sampling aesthetic. These were the characteristics of the New York Five Percenters, Brand Nubian and their first album One For All; a document of black music activism and a crate digger’s bible. iCrates untangles the samples and disseminates...
Funk and the Favelas: Talking Baile Funk with DJ Daniel Haaksman
DJ Daniel Haaksman hasn’t looked back on baile funk since his first trip to Brazil in 2004. Grimy, loud and frenetic, it’s a sound that speaks directly from the favelas of Brazil about the plight of the working poor. He talked to us in Berlin about this cheeky Latin American genre’s circuitous story. Baile funk...
Latin American Revolution Rocks
Across the history of Latin American music there have been remarkable bands and composers that have stood for an ideal and have screamed for revolution and change. Playing a major roll in transmitting political awareness to people, these musicians raised the hopes and beliefs of countries suffering under the tyranny of tough regimes and their...
The Specials and Rock Against Racism
Over time the entire body of work of any given musical artist becomes boiled down to a specific purpose; sometimes a specific song. History allows us to look back and classify, often also to simplify in order to better understand. The Specials are a band that time has been kind to; a band whose formation,...
Let’s Work Together by Wilbert Harrison
Timeless hippy stomp dug up on a beautiful Sue Records Inc. reissue with an even nicer label than the original! “Working together” (Ike & Tina Turner in 1971) or “coming together” (Beatles in 1969) or “sticking together” (Brian Ferry in 1976) was very important theme of the early 70s hippy movement and, for me, epitomises...
Spirituals on Vinyl
The darkest chapters of a people’s history sometimes evince the size of their spirit. More so when the chapters are recorded not in prose but in verse and song. The spirituals accrued by slaves in bondage acquire this deep significance and have become an essential cultural artefact in American musical history. Considered one of the...
Aussie Hip Hop – The Next Generation with The Tongue
Australia is a country which isn’t usually associated with hip hop, but with the growing popularity of a diverse range of artists out there, ‘Aussie Hip Hop’ is on its way to becoming one of the most popular genres on the Australian scene. With the help of independent record labels – set up by the...
Are You Scared of Revolution? The Last Poets, Gil Scott-Heron & The Watts Prophets
“Time is running out on lifeless serpents reigning over a living Kingdom”. One of the opening lines of The Last Poets’ debut album accurately articulates the zeitgeist felt by radicals on both ends of the political spectrum circa 1970 in America. Reports of police brutality, race riots and assassinations were flooding the news. Long-time FBI...
RAVE Documentary… From the underground to the mainstream via the BBC
One for all the warehouse deviants – Be true to your roots. A charmingly innocent exposé of the early rave scene aired on the BBC in 1992 revealing the “realties” of the underground rave scene to the horrified British public for the first time… Featuring “Smokey Joe” Brodie and the classic Arsenal away strip of...
Hugh Masekela – Masekela
South African musician Hugh Masekela has been releasing albums of conscientious music since 1962. Of the many socio-political albums he’s released it is his 1968 album simply entitled Masekela that is the most powerful. It is a timeless proclamation about the constant struggles that face most resistance movements. iCrates took a closer look at the messages...
Bigger Than Hip Hop
It is one of those instantly recognizable bass lines. The boom of Dead Prez’ 1999 hit “Hip Hop” still gets parties pumping and heads bobbing in unison all across the Globe today. Add the mantra-like chorus to the mix and you have a timeless hip hop classic which for many provides the only reference point...
Sing It Loud: Jazz and Protest in the Music of Nina Simone & Billie Holiday
Nina Simone and Billie Holiday are two of the greats. Matriarchs in a long line of enlightened performers. They are remembered for the fire in their bellies as much as the warmth in their hearts, and embody the ability female jazz singers’ have to deliver clarity on the social issues peculiar to the black female...
