News

A John Doe who accused pioneering hip-hop artist Afrika Bambaataa of child molestation and sex trafficking has won a civil case in New York State’s Supreme Court. Court records reviewed by Rolling Stone reveal that the plaintiff’s motion for a default judgment was “granted without opposition” by Judge Alexander M. Tisch because Bambaataa, who has faced numerous accusations of molesting boys, never showed up to court.

The suit was filed in 2021 and alleged that “from 1991, when the Plaintiff was merely 12 years old, to 1995, the Plaintiff was repeatedly sexually...

Advocacy organization Hip-Hop Stands with Survivors has filed an FCC complaint against New York radio station Hot 97 and Funkmaster Flex over comments the DJ made about Afrika Bambaataa, who has been accused of multiple allegations of child molestation.

On August 17, Bambaataa, the seminal hip-hop figure and Zulu Nation founder whose real name is Lance Taylor, played a DJ set on Funkmaster Flex’s show. It was a rare public appearance for Taylor, who’s facing an open civil case for child sex trafficking. He hasn’t done many public performances...

Last november, just before the Latin Grammys in Seville, Spain, a crowd huddled in front of a club called Sala Cosmos, where the Brazilian superstar Anitta was co-hosting a massive party with Instagram. It got too massive: The venue was at full capacity, but that didn’t stop people from shoving toward the door, eager to get in. Some of them spilled onto the sidewalk, dancing to the muffled, breakneck Brazilian funk beats echoing from the DJ booth.

Inside, Anitta was the life of the party, ass up and twerking...

Image Source: Everett Collection

Hip-hop has transformed music, and the world at large, since it was conceived 50 years ago. In a relatively short time, it's made a massive impact on every aspect of pop culture - and fortunately, there are a lot of great documentaries that chronicle the unforgettable, twists, turns, and triumphs that made hip-hop what it is today.

Many of these documentaries offer fascinating insights into hip-hop's exponential growth, such as 1995's "The Show" and 2016's "Hip-Hop Evolution," which both examine exactly how the genre became a worldwide, multibillion-dollar industry. Some of them also focus on individual artists, like 2003's "Tupac: Resurrection," a documentary narrated entirely by Tupac Shakur himself. Others focus on specific music scenes, like Ava DuVernay's "This Is the Life," which centers Los Angeles's alternative rap scene in the 1990s, while others delve into the technical aspects of hip-hop and rap, like Ice-t's...

Ryuichi Sakamoto, the Oscar-winning composer, musician, actor, singer, producer, writer and activist from Japan, has died. He was 71.

Sakamoto died on March 28 of cancer, recording company Avex said in a statement posted to Twitter Sunday that thanks his medical teams in Japan and the U.S. and asks for fans to respect the privacy of his family at this time.

“While undergoing treatment for cancer discovered in June 2020, Sakamoto continued to create works in his home studio whenever his health would allow him to. He lived with music until the very end,” the statement says, noting a private funeral among close family has already taken place.

During a career that saw him scoring more than 40 films, including The Last Emperor (1987), Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) and The Revenant (2015), Sakamoto also received two Golden Globes, a Grammy Award and a BAFTA.

Born in Tokyo in 1952 to a clothes designer mother and literary editor father,...

Dozens of people gathered at City Hall in New York City on Monday as part of a demonstration calling for Rocky Bucano to step down as Executive Director, President and Chairman of the Universal Hip-Hop Museum (or Uhhm) because of his alleged ties with the Universal Zulu Nation. Journalist Leila Wills, who co-founded the advocacy organization Hip-Hop Stands With Survivors, organized the demonstration to advocate for survivors of child sexual abuse, including the alleged survivors of The Universal Zulu Nation founder Afrika Bambaataa. “[We want] Rocky Bucano to step down, because if...

After a long and heart-wrenching break-up last year, my final task in the moving-out process involved lugging box-after-box of back-breakingly heavy, hernia-inducing vinyl records. Woeful, sure, but what really made all those heaves and humps solemn was that I actually find a huge chunk of those records – mainly the hip-hop ones I bought as a young man and never sold – to be absolute trash today. Vile, bigoted, offensive trash. Welcome to the life of grown-up music fans everywhere: concerned about cultural sensitivity and back pain in equal measure.

It wasn’t always like this. I cut my teeth as a DJ playing hip-hop. The first time I ever played a club was bottom-of-the-bill supporting turntable pioneer Grandmaster Flash. In a maverick move, during a misunderstanding about DJ equipment, he went out of his way to tell me I was a disgrace to hip-hop. Maybe he was right, ultimately. The stuff...

After a long and heart-wrenching break-up last year, my final task in the moving-out process involved lugging box-after-box of back-breakingly heavy, hernia-inducing vinyl records. Woeful, sure, but what really made all those heaves and humps solemn was that I actually find a huge chunk of those records – mainly the hip-hop ones I bought as a young man and never sold – to be absolute trash today. Vile, bigoted, offensive trash. Welcome to the life of grown-up music fans everywhere: concerned about cultural sensitivity and back pain in equal measure.

It wasn’t always like this. I cut my teeth as a DJ playing hip-hop. The first time I ever played a club was bottom-of-the-bill supporting turntable pioneer Grandmaster Flash. In a maverick move, during a misunderstanding about DJ equipment, he went out of his way to tell me I was a disgrace to hip-hop. Maybe he was right, ultimately. The stuff...

Journalist Jonathan Abrams spent the last four years compiling an enlightening, entertaining, and deeply researched history of hip-hop. Abrams traces the music’s humble beginning in the Bronx and DIY block parties to some of the most popular music in the world today. In this exclusive excerpt from “The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop,” Abrams tells how the infamous 1977 New York City blackout helped electrify a sound and cultural force.

Lemonade From Lemons

Bronx, New York, 1973–1979

Clive Campbell migrated as a child with his family...

When singer Trevor Daniel topped one billion streams on Spotify for his breakout track “Falling,” the 27-year-old joined the ranks of Billie Eilish, Drake, Justin Bieber, Cardi B, and Ed Sheeran and other major global artists to hit the milestone.

Daniel can credit the emo-rap track’s success largely to TikTok. Despite its 2018 release, the song took off two years later as millions began to download the video-sharing app while cooped up at home during the onset of the pandemic. Daniel’s viral jumpstart led to collaborations with Selena Gomez...

Okieriete Onaodowan will play the title role in the upcoming AMC sci-fi comedy series “Demascus.”

The six-episode, half-hour series follows Demascus, a 33-year-old Black man who goes on a journey of self-discovery by delving into the world of digital psychiatry and using an innovative new technology that allows him to experience different versions of his own life.

Onaodowan is best known for starring as Dean Miller in the ABC drama and “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff “Station 19,” as well as playing James Madison and Hercules Mulligan in the original Broadway cast of “Hamilton.” He also played Afrika Bambaataa in Netflix’s “The Get Down” and Anthony in HBO’s “Ballers,” along with voicing Timbourine Toucan in “Tuca and Bertie” and multiple roles in “Robot Chicken,” which both air on Adult Swim. On the film side, Onaodowan’s credits include “A Quiet Place Part II,” “Person to Person” and “Thanks for Sharing.

Lee “Scratch” Perry, the monumental reggae singer, producer and studio wizard who pushed the boundaries of Jamaican music — and as a byproduct, rock, hip-hop and dance — with his explorations into dub, has died at the age of 85.

The Jamaican Observer reports that Perry died Sunday at the Noel Holmes Hospital in western Jamaica. Cause of death was unknown at press time.

Andrew Holness, the Prime Minister of Jamaica, tweeted Sunday, “My deep condolences to the family, friends, and fans of legendary record producer and singer, Rainford Hugh Perry Od, affectionately known as ‘Lee Scratch’ Perry.

In the new Missy-Elliott-directed music video for “Twerkulator,” rap duo City Girls thrive as a dance-attack takes over an unsuspecting town.

At the helm of the “Twerkulator” video, Elliott channels the bright, surreal cinematography that helped her earn her (long overdue) MTV Video Vanguard Award in 2019. The video begins with Elliott’s hurried voice issuing a familiar warning to citizens of a neon soundstage cityscape. When they scatter, the metropolis is revealed to be filled with gyrating designer lamps, living beauty supply store mannequin heads, and a towering clock with...

John “Ecstasy” Fletcher, rapper and founding member of the pioneering hip-hop group Whodini, has died at the age of 56. The group’s Grand Master Dee confirmed Fletcher’s death to Variety. No cause of death was provided.

News of Fletcher’s death was first revealed by the Roots’ Questlove, with many others in the rap community also mourning the death of the Whodini rapper. “One Love to Ecstasy of the Legendary #Whodini,” Questlove wrote on social media. “This man was legendary and a pivotal member of one of the most legendary groups in hip hop.

What distinguishes Steve McQueen’s Red, White And Blue, co-written with Courttia Newland, from their collaboration on portraying a Blues party in Lovers Rock, and McQueen’s Mangrove on the Mangrove Nine, co-written with Alastair Siddons (all three screening in the Main Slate programme of the New York Film Festival), is the use of songs in the soundtrack. Mica Levi is the composer for the extraordinary Small Axe anthology, and here Gloria Jones, Afrika Bambaataa (Planet Rock), Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (White Lines after Liquid Liquid’s Cavern), Al Green, and Billy Joel mark time and comment on the relationship between Leroy Logan (John Boyega) and his father (Steve Toussaint).

A young Leroy (Nathan Vidal) in school uniform waits for his father to pick him up after music lessons. Two white policemen come up to the little boy to search him and his...

Tupac Shakur’s teenage love letters and the Notorious B.I.G.’s “King of New York” crown are two of the top lots up for sale at the first Sotheby’s auction dedicated fully to hip-hop, taking place September 15th in New York.

The auction will feature more than 120 items spanning hip-hop’s history, from its late-Seventies origins through its mid-Eighties to mid-Nineties “Golden Age,” up to the present day. Per a statement, there will be a mix of “iconic artifacts, contemporary art, one-of-a-kind experiences, fine art and vernacular photography.

Betty Wright, an influential singer whose soulful voice won her a Grammy Award for Where Is The Love, has died at age 66. No cause of death was revealed by her niece, who confirmed her death.

Beyond performing, Wright operated her own record label, Mrs. B Records, and her own publishing company, Miami Spice.

Born Bessie Regina Norris in Miami, Florida, in December 1953, Wright began singing gospel music. She was 18 years old when she first hit the charts with the 1971 song Clean Up Woman, which became her signature song. She later recorded the chart hits No Pain (No Gain) and Mother Wit, achieving a gold record for the latter on her own label.

Singer Chaka Khan had asked for prayers for Wright earlier this month. Wright was still an influence, being referenced as late as March in the TV show Unsung by DJ Khaled and Lil Wayne for her song, Tonight Is the Tonight.

Farewell to the great Florian Schneider, co-founder of Kraftwerk, the German electronic duo who changed everything about the way music sounds. “Kraftwerk is not a band,” Schneider told Rolling Stone in 1975. “It’s a concept. We call it ‘Die Menschmaschine,’ which means ‘the human machine.’ We are not the band. I am me. Ralf is Ralf. And Kraftwerk is a vehicle for our ideas.” As his longtime collaborator Ralf Hütter once said, Schneider was the “sound fetishist” of the group — the machine in the mensch-machine.

Kraftwerk always reveled in their reputation as cerebral technocrats.

Florian Schneider, co-founder and keyboardist of the influential German electronic music group Kraftwerk, has died at the age of 73.

“Kraftwerk co-founder and electro pioneer Ralf Hütter has sent us the very sad news that his friend and companion over many decades Florian Schneider has passed away from a short cancer disease just a few days after his 73rd birthday,” the band said in a statement.

“In the year 1968, Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider started their artistic and musical collaboration,” the statement continued. “In 1970, they founded their electronic Kling Klang studio...

Steven Van Zandt is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s release from a South African prison by rereleasing his 1985 multi-artist protest LP, Sun City.

The album contains not just his protest anthem “Sun City,” but also Peter Gabriel’s “No More Apartheid,” and “Silver and Gold,” written by Bono along with Keith Richards and Ron Wood. It hasn’t been available on vinyl since its original release.

Van Zandt wrote “Sun City” in response to rock acts like Queen, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Linda Ronstadt, and Cher performing...

The 22-year-old North Bergen, New Jersey, rapper-singer 070 Shake, a.k.a. Danielle Balbuena, hit mainstream radar via Kanye West’s Wyoming sessions, functioning as fluid spirit animal/superego on Ye’s “Violent Crimes” and “Ghost Town,” and Pusha T’s “Santeria.” Born to a Dominican immigrant mom, Shake grew up on Lauryn Hill and My Chemical Romance. The flows come hard and soft, in English and Spanish, with verses suggesting a fierce, strong, proud, brave, spiritual being who’s also hungry, searching, scared, self-loathing, and self-destructive. Like plenty of humans, especially in their early twenties.

Before even opening a physical copy of Beastie Boys Book, you already know that Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz are great storytellers – it’s one of the qualities that makes their music great. So it’s no surprise that these nearly 600 pages are jam-packed with hilarious anecdotes about everything from a long-con prank involving a cursed piece of jewelry that Adam Yauch pulled on Horovitz to the guys walking Lee “Scratch” Perry through Greenwich Village’s famed Halloween parade. Beastie Boys Book also offers fascinating first-person accounts of post-punk New York City in the Eighties,...

These days, Ice-t‘s résumé reads like a long biblical scroll. He’s one of the original pioneers of gangsta rap via seminal releases like “6 in the Mornin,‘” one of the greatest hip-hop songs of all time. He’s hosted and produced multiple TV shows and documentary films, including The Art of Rap and the VH1 documentary Planet Rock: The Story of Hip-Hop and the Crack Generation. That’s on top of a hefty acting filmography, which includes starring roles in films like New Jack City; his now-defunct reality TV series Ice Loves Coco,...

Operating in the subgenre of talking-head art doc, where a filmmaker close to their subject sit and talk with friends about the good ol’ days, Sara Driver’s Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat may not be the most engaging way to tell this story. Basquiat, himself a star of Downtown 81, has been a subject of fascination for many filmmakers from fellow painter Julian Schnabel’s director debut Basquiat in 1996 to Tamra Davis’ 2010 documentary The Radiant Child. Boom for Real, focuses its lens on the Lower East Side of 1978, a waste land of buildings torched by landlords for the insurance money, an open city in the shadows of the Williamsburg Bridge.

Driver tells the story through the eyes of those that were there from gallerists to hip hop icons like Afrika Bambaataa and Fab 5 Freddie who merged new wave and hip hop as the gallery and...

The following essay was produced as part of the 2017 Nyff Critics Academy, a workshop for aspiring film critics that took place during the 55th edition of the New York Film Festival.

Arnaud Desplechin may be the only filmmaker with a literary sensibility who understands the storytelling power of rap. His dialogue resembles a specific brand of French intellectualism that manifests in maladroit humor, and he maintains a general focus on epic, convoluted structures and literary motifs — soliloquies that break the fourth wall, omniscient narration, and strongly developed characters (which tie directly with his consistent lengthiness). His characters, while gauche, are irrevocably more privileged — they are artists and filmmakers, occupying large houses and indulgent with their resources.

This is why rap becomes a key contrasting factor in several of his films: Hip hop is not for the bourgeoise. The social issues that the lyrics of the rap songs often tackle have...

The Roland Tr-808 drum machine is responsible for some of the most influential music from the 1980s through the present day, from artists as diverse as Phil Collins and Lil Wayne. The new documentary “808” chronicles the story of the drum machine that changed the course of music. Narrated by Beats 1’s Zane Lowe, the film features commentary and interviews from Pharrell Williams, Afrika Bambaataa, Questlove, the Beastie Boys, Damon Albarn and more. It also features a journey to Japan where Roland found Mr. Ikutaro Kakehashi reveals the untold reason for the machine’s mysterious early discontinuation just as it was turning up on more hit records than any other drum machine. Watch an exclusive clip from the film below.

Read More: ‘808’ Trailer: New Documentary on the Iconic Drum Machine Features Questlove, Pharrell and More

The film is directed by Alexander Dunn and co-written by him and Luke Bainbridge. Dunn previously...

Baz Luhrmann's resplendent, hyperactive Netflix series The Get Down documents hip-hop in the days before it was truly documented. A colorful, graffiti-strewn 1977 Bronx tableau about a gifted, lovesick poet named Ezekiel (Justice Smith) who finds himself drawn into the burgeoning culture exploding at block parties, the series sets the action years before docudramas like Wild Style, Kurtis Blow's performance of "The Breaks" on Soul Train and rap was etched to vinyl — even before landmark pieces like Robert Ford Jr.'s Billboard breakdown "Jive Talking N.Y. DJs" started...

Baz Luhrmann has always had ambition. From his sweeping Cannes debut “Strictly Ballroom” to his wholly reimagined take on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” he’s always been known for an uncompromising vision.

And whether you’re taken aback by Luhrmann’s manic, melodic, cinematic constructions or addicted to his propulsive filmmaking style, it should come as no surprise that his first foray into serialized storytelling is as wild as it is ambitious.

Labeled “among the most expensive [TV series] in history” by Variety’s Cynthia Littleton (and only pseudo-refuted by Luhrmann in THR’s follow-up story), “The Get Down” was, indeed, a lengthy production featuring many moving pieces, a non-traditional episodic structure and a young, largely untested cast. But it was not a project Luhrmann entered into lightly — nor were its challenges driven by the wrong reasons. Luhrmann was steering the ship the whole way, making decisions based on...

[Editor’s Note: Our own Scott Drebit hosted panels last weekend at the sixth annual Calgary Horror Con. At the three-day event, Scott caught up with Ari Lehman, the first actor to ever play Jason Voorhees, to discuss his years in the ’80s New York City music scene, performing onstage in Africa, and singing and playing the keytar in his punk rock/heavy metal band First Jason.]

Congratulations on melting everyone’s faces off Friday night with your solo performance as First Jason.

Ari Lehman: Thank you! That’s why we’re there, to melt faces, to melt brains. That’s kind of you to say. I love playing First Jason’s songs on the electric keytar; it has a certain kind of sound, it’s very loud. But usually I have the emotional and musical support of my bandmates; my drummer, whose name ironically is Bass Amp, and our guitarist, Eddie Machete—they give me so much support, and it just makes me feel great having them there. So I felt that it came off well; but it was an adjustment. The audience was so receptive and it was a great experience for me, too, playing that way.

I was there with my niece, and I knew of the band, but I assumed it was just you.

Hot Docs has announced 14 documentary features that will screen in this year¹s Special Presentations program, joining 15 selections previously announced. Special Presentations features a high-profile collection of world and international premieres, award winners from the recent international festival circuit and works by master filmmakers or featuring some star subjects.

Notable subjects featured as part of the Special Presentations program include activist Bobby Sands ("Bobby Sands: 66 Days"), musicians David Byrne, Nelly Furtado and St. Vincent ("Contemporary Color"), filmmaker Brian de Palma ("De Palma"), former NFL defensive back Steve Gleason ("Gleason"), Canadian rapper Shad and hip-hop stars Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash ("Hip-Hop Evolution"), Afghan rapper and activist Sonita Alizadeh ("Sonita"), artist Frida Kahlo ( "The Legacy Of Frida Kahlo"), and comedians Mel Brooks, Sarah Silverman and Carl Reiner ("The Last Laugh").

Award winners from the recent international festival circuit include "Life, Animated" (Directing Award: U.S. Documentary, Sundance 2016), "Trapped" (U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Social Impact Filmmaking, Sundance 2016), and "Sonita" (World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary and Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary, Sundance 2016).

Special Presentations will screen as part of the 2016 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, running April 28 to May 8. Ticket packages and passes as well as single tickets are now on sale online and at the CraveTV Box Office at Hot Docs House, located at 610 Markham Street.

Special Presentation titles are below:

"The Age of Consequences"

D: Jared P. Scott | USA | 2016 | 78 min | World Premiere

Sounding an alarm over the critical and disturbing effects of societal inaction, this revealing film highlights the irreversible impacts of climate change‹resource scarcity, mass migration and conflict‹through the lens of global stability and national security.

"American Movie"

D: Chris Smith | USA | 1999 | 107 min | Cinema Eye Legacy Screening

In this beloved cult classic, an aspiring filmmaker struggles to complete a hilariously lo-fi horror film, only to be derailed by personal demons and the staggering ineptitude of his production team.

"Bobby Sands: 66 Days"

D: Brendan Byrne | Ireland, UK | 2016 | 105 min | World Premiere

This riveting account of a turning point in the Troubles in Northern Ireland is taken straight from the diary of Bobby Sands, who led protests of imprisoned Irish Republicans and a hunger strike with momentous consequences.

"Contemporary Color"

D: Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross | USA | 2016 | 96 min | International Premiere

An extraordinary lineup of top music stars including event mastermind David Byrne of The Talking Heads, Nelly Furtado, St. Vincent and more perform live with 10 ³colour guard² teams‹perfectly synchronized students in pep-rally choreography‹in this one-of-a-kind, kaleidoscopic event.

"De Palma"

D: Noah Baumbach, Jake Paltrow | USA | 2015 | 107 min | Canadian Premiere

From Carrie to Mission: Impossible to Scarface and beyond, Brian de Palma has created some of cinema¹s most iconic work. In this career-spanning, funny and candid conversation, he reveals his unique perspective on life, work and the past 50 years in film.

"Gleason"

D: Clay Tweel | USA | 2016 | 110 min | International Premiere

At age 34, former NFL defensive back and New Orleans hero Steve Gleason was diagnosed with Als. With limited time left to live, he purposefully records his spirited and inspiring life‹a heartfelt time capsule for his newborn son.

"Hip-Hop Evolution"

D: Darby Wheeler | Co-d: Scot McFadyen, Sam Dunn | Canada | 2016 | 90 min | World Premiere

Acclaimed Canadian rapper Shad travels to the Bronx and Harlem to talk with hip-hop¹s originators and biggest stars‹Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash among others‹tracing its evolution from underground to global phenomenon.

"The Last Laugh"

D: Ferne Pearlstein | USA | 2016 | 85 min | International Premiere

Mel Brooks, Sarah Silverman, Carl Reiner, a 90-year-old Auschwitz survivor and others uproariously debate and test the limits of comedy¹s ultimate taboo: how to joke about the Holocaust, or if it¹s even ethical to try.

"The Legacy of Frida Kahlo"

D: Tadasuke Kotani | Japan | 2015 | 89 min | Canadian Premiere

A renowned Japanese photographer inventories iconic Mexican artist Frida Kahlo¹s wardrobe and personal belongings, recently discovered 58 years after her death, lending deserved importance to fashion and ³women¹s work,² while resurrecting the dead through clothing and talismans.

"Life,Animated"

D: Roger Ross Williams | USA | 2015 | 91 min | International Premiere

Disney cartoons play a key role in helping a young autistic boy communicate and understand the world around him in this moving testament to coming-of-age through fantasy, from Academy Award­winning director Roger Ross Williams.

"Sonita"

D: Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami | Iran, Germany, Switzerland | 2015 | 90 min | Canadian Premiere

After her family attempts to sell her into marriage, a young Afghan refugee in Iran channels her frustrations and seizes her destiny through music. Grabbing the mic, she spits fiery rhymes in the face of oppressive traditions.

"Sour Grapes"

D: Jerry Rothwell | USA, France | 2016 | 96 min | World Premiere

Controversy erupts when an unassuming young man floods the American market with fake vintages valued in the millions, bamboozling wine snobs and the super-wealthy alike, in this suspenseful tale of excess on the eve of the 2008 crash.

"Trapped"

D: Dawn Porter | USA | 2016 | 80 min | International Premiere

American women¹s right to abortion is no longer clear, as 288 dubious laws slyly crafted by the right have decimated access. While a watershed Supreme Court battle looms, witness the human stakes of the right to choose.

"Under the Gun"

D: Stephanie Soechtig | USA | 2016 | 110 min | International Premiere

With razor-sharp arguments and insight, Stephanie Soechtig and Katie Couric (the team behind Fed Up) craft a gripping indictment of American gun culture, meeting communities shattered by shootings and exposing the politics that allow the epidemic of violence to persist.

Netflix, the world's leading Internet TV network, today announced premiere dates for several upcoming comedy series and kids series, the renewal of its acclaimed drama Marvel's Jessica Jones and casting on the highly-anticipated series Black Mirror. British star Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Beyond the Lights, Concussion and Doctor Who) and Canada's Mackenzie Davis (The F Word, Halt & Catch Fire and The Martian) have been cast in lead roles in one of the episodes of the Netflix original series Black Mirror. Owen Harris (Kill Your Friends) will direct the episode. Created and written by Charlie Brooker, the series is produced by House of Tomorrow, and Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones serve as executive producers.

Netflix also announced that Marvel's Jessica Jones will return for a second season. Currently streaming its first season on Netflix, Marvel's Jessica Jones is a suspenseful, edgy look into the life of Jessica Jones, one of the most popular...

The 2015 Hip Hop Hall of Fame Awards Show is set to film for national television broadcast in New York City this fall. Legendary Hip Hop Mc Roxanne Shante returns as hostess of the event. Fans can pre-order tickets directly from the Hhhof at Eventbrite (http://Eventbrite.com/HipHopHallofFameAwards) starting this Friday, September 11th. The annual event now moves permanently to Celebrate Hip Hop History Month in November in conjunction with the Universal Zulu Nation Anniversary. The Hhhof Institutional Inductee Class will be led by Afrika Bambaataa for Lifetime Achievement, Harry Belafonte's classic Hip Hop Film "BeatStreet" now celebrating 30 years, Sal...

Rubble Kings

Directed by Shan Nicholson

USA, 2010

Draped in graffiti, a rickety old subway train makes its way across a rugged slice of New York that looks more like Mad Max than Mad Men. Only seconds into director Shan Nicholson’s documentary Rubble Kings, the audience understands that the residents on display in the film’s South Bronx ghettos live in a place that barely qualifies as America. The Bronx in the early seventies was a ruthless kingdom, where the only laws that mattered were those imposed by the hoodlums that claimed your block. Rubble Kings takes a look at the rise of New York City’s gang life in the early seventies while also making the case that the emergence of hip-hop played a large role in New York gang culture’s decline.

Narrated by John Leguizamo, Rubble Kings examines the rise of New York City gang life in...

Wikipedia

DJing is an art form. Since its early days as a staple of 1970s discos and 1980s hip-hop, it has gradually become a curatorial style of musical presentation that is practised by many, but perfected by few. From the four-to-the-floor consistency of house and techno, to the breakbeat insanity of jungle, to the Mc-backing UK garage and grime producers of the early 2000s, to the blaring HD bass-heavy drops of modern day Edm, DJing is dance culture’s foundation.

There have been so many gifted DJs that have gone on to become true legends of the format. Frankie Knuckles, Carl Cox, Ellen Allien, Kevin Saunderson, Afrika Bambaataa, Goldie, Annie Mac, Aphex Twin, Slimzee, Total Freedom, Derrick May, Nina Kraviz, DJ Rashad… The list of DJs that have taken the medium into new and exciting areas across its history is endless, and covers many genres and many eras.

Sadly, the...

By the end of the Summer of Love in 1967, the Bronx was a warzone overrun by gangs and violence like a real-life scene from The Warriors. The recently released documentary Rubble Kings explains how the warring sets made peace in the Seventies and paved the way for the birth of hip-hop. The first five minutes of the film, which is now available as part of the BitTorrent Bundle below, are streaming above.

The story begins with Carlos "Karate Charlie" Suarez and "Yellow" Benji Melendez, who came together to form a...

At the moment, Baz Luhrmann is working on his take of New York City in the 1970s in the upcoming Netflix series "The Get Down," but the story of what really went down, told by the people who were there, is on the way with "Rubble Kings." And today we have the exclusive trailer and poster for the documentary. Directed by Shan Nicholson, narrated by John Leguizamo, and produced by folks including Dito Montiel and Jim Carrey, the movie tracks the dangerous years of 1968 to 1975, in which the city's gang war reached devastating and bloody heights. But from within that scene also came peace, and the flourishing of hip-hop culture that would define a generation. Featuring Yellow” Benji Melendez, Afrika Bambaataa, Blackie, Carlos “Karate Charlie”Suarez, D.S.R, Ed Koch, Felipe Luciano, Harlem Cody, Jazzy Jay, Jee Sanchez, Joe Conzo, Kool Herc, Lorine, Marshall Berman, Nono, Red Alert, Rolando Ruiz,...

Arms and the Dudes

"The Hangover" filmmaker Todd Phillips has used his Instagram account to post the first photos from his upcoming feature "Arms and the Dudes". Jonah Hill and Miles Teller star in the project about a Miami-based small business who bid on U.S. military contracts and started raking in big money.

Boston Strong

Swedish filmmaker Daniel Espinosa ("Child 44," "Safe House") has dropped out of the Boston Marathon bombings drama "Boston Strong" citing "creative differences".

The film tells of the aftermath of the attack which left dozens permanently injured, and how the city came together to heal itself. Espinosa is coming off the period Soviet drama "Child 44" which has had a disastrous run so far in cinemas. [Source: THR]

Ratchet and Clank

Focus Features has revived the Gramercy Pictures which it will use for releasing genre films such as the upcoming "Insidious: Chapter 3," "Sinister 2," and "London Has Fallen...

Chicago – CIMMfest, the Chicago International Movies and Music Festival, has become one of the fastest growing and buzzworthy Chicago film festivals in recent years. Combining film, tribute events and live performances – and centered in and around the neighborhood of Wicker Park from April 16th through the 19th, 2015, – CIMMfest is not so much a festival as a organic happening.

The 2015 edition of CIMMfest is bigger, bolder and lights up with star power. Besides some of the highlights listed below, there is a jam-packed variety of films, music and events from April 16th through the 19th. For more information, including purchasing passes, click here.

CIMMfest Highlights: The Movies…

’808:The Movie’

Photo credit: CIMMfest

Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock ‘n’ Roll

Thursday, April 16th, 7pm, The Logan Theater, 2546 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago

During the Vietnam War, Cambodian musicians crafted a sound from the various rock music styles sweeping America,...

I've seen Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky only once before and I wasn't a big fan. That was 14 years ago now though and I can't remember much of what bothered me about it so to hear the news Warner Home Video is finally releasing it on Blu-ray (preorder it here) has got me a little intrigued to revisit it, not to mention the fact it's coming with an alternate ending, which appears it will actually be added directly to the film rather than just presented as a special feature. amz asin="B00HETGCFM" size="small"The announcement reports the original theatrical cut runs 138 minutes, while the version with the alternate ending runs three minutes longer at 141 minutes. Crowe's official website wrote about the upcoming release back in January and, well, I'm sorry to say they lied just a smidge about that release date push as the new Blu-ray won't arrive...

Gza and Tom Morello hit up The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Tuesday night for the live debut of their one-off collaboration "The Mexican," the Wu-Tang Clan rapper's cover of Babe Ruth's 1972 single (the British rock band, not the New York Yankee). For this rendition of the flamenco-flavored, Morricone-inspired cut, Tonight Show house band the Roots fill in for Unknown Mortal Orchestra, who appear on the studio version that was released last month.

It's a routine performance until the three-minute mark, when the Rage Against the Machine guitarist unleashes one of his trademark,...

This year promises a bumper crop of hip-hop films – here's how to get up to speed with the genre

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I was never sold on The Kids Are Alright and I never got the joke about Spinal Tap – but I understand the power of a good hip-hop documentary. For hip-hop fans who weren't around to witness battle raps in the Bronx or block parties in downtown NY, hip-hop docs are a valuable commodity. This year will see two new additions to the genre: Can't Forget New Jersey looks at the migration of hip-hop out of NY and there's also For The Record: The Story of Latin Hip Hop. If the hip-hop forums are to be believed, there is also a film in the pipeline about Eazy-e's life. Those of you lucky enough to be within striking distance of New York can get...

What chilled most about murder mystery Mayday was the claim of an ancestral right to wear green man makeup

You'd naturally think Aidan Gillen killed Hattie, the 14-year-old May Queen, in the woods above the village. Ever since he played transgressive super-hottie Stuart in Queer as Folk, he's worked sneering lips and leering eyes as a series of reptiles, chancers and scumbags – dodgy mayor in The Wire, slimy counsellor in Game of Thrones, venal banker in credit-crunch drama Freefall. Why not add murderer to the list?

In Mayday (BBC1), he's similarly sinister: a bad dad who thumps his son for nothing and buries his grief over his dead wife in video game marathons. Plus he has a mysterious bag locked in a cupboard. Could it be a body-bag full of May Queen? Possibly. Harold Pinter called Gillen "dangerous" when he was in The Caretaker, which is damning evidence. The prosecution rests,...

This month commemorates the 10-year anniversary of the opening of the Scratch DJ Academy, the New York-based institution that offers courses in DJing and music production. October 30 also marks a decade since the passing of the legendary hip hop DJ Jam Master Jay.

On October 30, the academy will host a special event at New York City's Canal Room to celebrate the 10-year milestone and the legacy of the trailblazing Run Dmc member.

Since its inception, the art of DJing has evolved from two turntables in the parks of urban America to a lucrative multimillion-dollar global business. Granted, today's celebrated party rockers are ubiquitous across pop culture, thanks to the likes of pioneers such as DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, Grand Wizard Theodore, Afrika Bambaataa and the late Jam Master Jay, to name a few.

The path to attaining such skills might have been a bit inscrutable -- at least until...

Dark Shadows; Wrath of the Titans; Top Cat; Something from Nothing – The Art of Rap; Strawberry Fields

Heralded by a laugh-out-loud trailer that painted it as the kookiest comedy of the year, Tim Burton's Dark Shadows (2012, Warner, 12) arrived in cinemas as a head-scratchingly weird mess of a movie more notable for its deadpan drollery and bizarre tonal shifts than for the advertised rib-tickling kitsch. Based on an arcane TV show little known here in the UK, this casts Johnny Depp as 18th-century vampire Barnabas Collins, escaping centuries of entombment to reclaim his now ruined family estate in the cultural void of 1972.

Faced with rebellious teens, garish wardrobes and "tiny songstrels" hiding within television sets, Barnabas attempts to reassert his authority over Eva Green's witchy temptress, with the help of Michelle Pfeiffer's haughty matriarch, Helena Bonham Carter's sozzled shrink and an apparently ageless Alice Cooper. Flitting from...

Ithaca, N.Y. — Hip hop pioneer DJ Afrika Bambaataa (bam-bah'-tah) has been appointed to a three-year term as a visiting scholar at Cornell University.

The appointment announced Tuesday was made by Cornell University Library's Hip Hop Collection in conjunction with the Ivy League school's music department.

Bambaataa will visit Cornell's upstate New York campus several days each year to talk to classes, meet with student and community groups, and perform the music he helped create and expand. His first visit will be in November.

Cornell officials say the university's library contains the largest national archive on hip hop culture, documenting its birth and growth by preserving thousands of recordings, fliers, photographs and other artifacts.

If you haven’t heard Brooklyn Shanti’s gorgeous track ‘Rani Rani’, stop reading now, and remedy that straight away. But don’t stop there! The Brooklyn based Bengali has been making music for nearly his entire life– just check out www.brooklynshanti.com for a taste of his back catalogue. With a track (‘Pyaari Pyaari’) in the upcoming family comedy From Sydney With Love, Brooklyn Shanti’s brand of beautifully uplifting, heartfelt hip hop is set to reach an even wider audience – which can only be a fantastic thing!

The incredibly upbeat music man was kind enough to take the time to tell us about what’s in a name, his hip-hop philosophy, where to find new tunes and what it’s like making music for films.

You’ve been making music your whole life, right? Was there a specific point you decided to channel your abilities into hip-hop...

If you were not familiar with the multimedia artist Ai Weiwei, the title of the new documentary “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry” would almost seem like a countercultural taunt, perhaps with a hip-hop undercurrent. The reference is apt in regards to his art, which is at turns edgy agitprop and charmingly cheeky, much like the boundary stretching of early rap music. And with his moony eyes and mischievous grin, Ai Weiwei would not be out-of-place next to the politically-charged likes of the young Run Dmc, or even Afrika Bambaataa. A rebel with a cause, we meet the gregarious Ai Weiwei as both a merry prankster and a serene spirit. The immediate contradiction in his presence is glaring: even with his soft-spoken demeanor, he’s instantly the life of the party, radiating warmth when he modestly speaks of the opportunities found by those that see his art, those that can decipher the...

★★☆☆☆ Tracy Marrow, better known as Ice-t, makes his directorial debut with Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap (2012), a comprehensive account of the cultural impact of rap music. Starting in New York, Ice-t tackles the origins of the genre through interviewing a series of pioneering artists and exponents, including Afrika Bambaataa and Melle Mel, in order to discover the conditions that facilitated the emergence of this new art form back in the 1980s.

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Music fans, rest assured. Tom Cruise, a bunch of garish costumes and set design, and the hair metal tunes from "Rock Of Ages" won't be your only option this weekend at the movies. For those looking for a more satisfying musical outing, head to your local arthouse for "Something From Nothing: The Art Of Rap," a documentary that explores the birth of hip hop and how it has turned into a global phenomenon.

Premiering earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, the film is co-directed by Ice-t and Andy Baybutt ("The Band Aid Story") and takes an in-depth look at the craft of rhyming, with interviews from some of the biggest stars in rap, including Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Caz, Nas, Mos Def, Eminem, Chuck D, Krs-One, Run-dmc, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg. And not only that, it's a great soundtrack to boot. Boastings artists like Nas, Wu-Tang Clan,...

In the wake of Minaj's feud with Hot 97, MTV News examines what real hip-hop is and who gets to decide.

By Rob Markman

Nicki Minaj in the "Starships" video

Photo: Young Money/Cash Money/Universal

A funny thing happened on the way to Summer Jam. All hip-hop hell broke loose after an off-the-cuff comment by a radio DJ led rap's reigning queen to pull out of the year's biggest rap concert. Nicki Minaj versus Hot 97 has no doubt become the biggest rap gossip of the week, but once the drama subsides, an eternal discussion will still linger: What is real hip-hop? And who gets to decide?

In one corner there's rap purist and Hot 97 radio personality Peter Rosenberg, who trashed Nicki's RedOne-produced crossover machine "Starships" in front of concertgoers just hours before she was scheduled to take the stage. In the other corner there is Nicki Minaj, whose pop success...