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Foreword: Roadhouse Blues
Foreword written by Carlos Acevedo for Bob Batchelor’s book Roadhouse Blues: Morrison, the Doors, and the Death Days of the Sixties, available from Hamilcar on November 8. *** Almost alone among the Flower Power acts along the Sunset Strip or down in Laurel Canyon, the Doors radiated menace. Only the band Love, fronted by the pugnacious Arthur Lee, could compete with Jim Morrison and Co. for atomizing the plastic veneer of a Los Angeles fantasia—that of a West Coast paradise awash in good vibrations. As Bob Batchelor outlines in Roadhouse Blues, the short but explosive career of the Doors dovetailed almost seamlessly with the rise and fall of the pseudo-utopian Sixties. No matter what the Mamas and the
Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em: How Hip-Hop Became Boxing’s Biggest Motivator
The following is an excerpt from Beatboxing: How Hip-Hop Changed the Fight Game, by Todd D. Snyder. This is a section from Chapter 3 “Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em”, pages 57-62. Copyright © 2021 Todd D. Snyder. *** The story of how hip-hop music became the official soundtrack to boxing gyms around the world parallels the culture’s meteoric rise to mainstream popularity. Long before rap music took over the Billboard charts, break dancing captured the imagination of the American public. In the early days of hip-hop, the emerging dance form served as the main physical expression of the culture’s rhythmic sensibilities. Pioneering DJs such as DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash perfected the art of isolating
Diss KO’s: Rap’s Best Disrespectful Punchlines
Todd D. Snyder’s Top Five (Disrespectful) Boxing References in Hip-Hop Songs This article is written by Todd D. Snyder, author of Beatboxing: How Hip-Hop Changed the Fight Game (November 16, 2021). This “Top Five” post is part of a series leading up to the publication of Beatboxing. See the previous article on “The Top Five Boxer Cameos in Rap Videos.” *** The stories I tell in Beatboxing: How-Hop Changed the Fight Game focus largely on hip-hop’s impact on professional boxing. I say largely because it would be wrong to assume the influence isn’t reciprocal. No musical genre comes close to covering the sport of boxing like hip-hop. If you were to compile a list of hip-hop’s most important and influential albums,
Blog
Foreword: Roadhouse Blues
Foreword written by Carlos Acevedo for Bob Batchelor’s book Roadhouse Blues: Morrison, the Doors, and the Death Days of the Sixties, available from Hamilcar on November 8. *** Almost alone among the Flower Power acts along the Sunset Strip or down in Laurel Canyon, the Doors radiated menace. Only the band Love, fronted by the pugnacious Arthur Lee, could compete with Jim Morrison and Co. for atomizing the plastic veneer of a Los Angeles fantasia—that of a West Coast paradise awash in good vibrations. As Bob Batchelor outlines in Roadhouse Blues, the short but explosive career of the Doors dovetailed almost seamlessly with the rise and fall of the pseudo-utopian Sixties. No matter what the Mamas and the
Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em: How Hip-Hop Became Boxing’s Biggest Motivator
The following is an excerpt from Beatboxing: How Hip-Hop Changed the Fight Game, by Todd D. Snyder. This is a section from Chapter 3 “Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em”, pages 57-62. Copyright © 2021 Todd D. Snyder. *** The story of how hip-hop music became the official soundtrack to boxing gyms around the world parallels the culture’s meteoric rise to mainstream popularity. Long before rap music took over the Billboard charts, break dancing captured the imagination of the American public. In the early days of hip-hop, the emerging dance form served as the main physical expression of the culture’s rhythmic sensibilities. Pioneering DJs such as DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash perfected the art of isolating
Diss KO’s: Rap’s Best Disrespectful Punchlines
Todd D. Snyder’s Top Five (Disrespectful) Boxing References in Hip-Hop Songs This article is written by Todd D. Snyder, author of Beatboxing: How Hip-Hop Changed the Fight Game (November 16, 2021). This “Top Five” post is part of a series leading up to the publication of Beatboxing. See the previous article on “The Top Five Boxer Cameos in Rap Videos.” *** The stories I tell in Beatboxing: How-Hop Changed the Fight Game focus largely on hip-hop’s impact on professional boxing. I say largely because it would be wrong to assume the influence isn’t reciprocal. No musical genre comes close to covering the sport of boxing like hip-hop. If you were to compile a list of hip-hop’s most important and influential albums,
