“Sometimes you have to get rid of everything” —Kanye West Ye… Yeezy… Yeezus… Kanye To Tha West… “Is Mr. West in the building?”… to MAGA hat wearing Trump supporter… and possibly the most hated celebrity living right now. This year has been an interesting one for the hip-hop legend. It’s almost safe to say that […]
“Bruce and I grew up watching the same TV shows. Roy Rogers used to say ‘Yippee ki yah, kids.’ So it had to become ‘Yippee ki yah, motherfucker’ in the movie. That line was from me. Whenever you think you’re writing a line that’s going to catch on, it never does. A lot of people, […]
When it comes to writing on Queer film and studying its history, you have to become an archaeologist— dig through archives of film, and like an excavator— discover a small piece and somehow place it among the rest of the pieces in order to analyze the foundations of it. Film studies of Queer representation is […]
Hip-hop, the aesthetic lifestyle of breakdancing, street art, and rap music has always been a celebration of the culture around it, namely the culture of Black America. Rap music, in particular, became a cultural doorway that allowed African Americans to deliver their message to the world around them. At the same time, rap was always […]
“I was in the living room of Dondy Bastone’s house, I was 15 and it was 1977. The song that he put on was Psycho Killer and I absolutely freaked out, it was like nothing else I had ever heard and made me feel things I had never felt… Some very strange things happened to […]
“But listen, you don’t need to be worried about these Alt-Right guys. They don’t want to fuck with Black guys. They just really hate the Jews.” It is one week after 32-year-old Heather Heyer was struck and killed by a James Alex Fields with his silver Dodge Challenger while protesting the White suprematists’ rally to […]
Star Trek: Discovery premiered Sunday, September 24, 2017 to less than stellar reviews. Set a decade before Star Trek: TOS (The Original Series), Discovery follows the exploits of the USS Discovery during the Federation/Klingon Cold War. (For the uninitiated, the Federation is a sort of interstellar United Nations, while the Klingons are, well, the bad […]
“You go through things like we went through as a band, and people started to split apart, become more like oil and water. But early on, you see the sweetness that was there. It was the three of us against the world, trying to establish ourselves, and that’s the experiment of a band.” – Andy […]
“Musicians are like politicians. They’re the last people who should be making music, just like politicians are the last people who should be running things.” -Nigel Godrich It sounds “busy.” It sounds “layered.” It sounds “sparse.” It calls to mind this band or that band, and it sounds like something new and different. Something integral […]
In the previous article, I discussed the theme of James Cameron’s catalogue of movies involving humanity vs. technology. Cameron goes back and forth about how the use of technology can be both a benefit and a burden for mankind, and we as an audience will know how he will pose technology in the movie depending […]
James Cameron burst onto the scene in 1984 with The Terminator, and two years later in 1986 he released his second feature, ALIENS (to pretty much near-unanimous praise); thus Cameron had already begun a love/hate relationship with technology. As a storyteller and a director, he was well aware of the possibilities of technology, both as […]
“You’re driving in a hurricane and you see three people at a bus stop. One is an old lady and she’s sick. One is your best friend and he saved your life. And the third is the lady of your dreams. Now check it out, you only have room for one in your car, which […]
I was watching the new Showtime series, White Famous, this past week and this line jumped out at me… “Diversity’s real important to me right now.” There’s something so funny about it. Though it’s spoken quite earnestly, the intent is very clear… Diversity is only important because that’s what networks and large conglomerates think the […]
“People were literally scared of my records. There have been so many rumors about me and my records. People got the first album, and they would just make up stories. They’d get into an accident and be like, ‘I got into an accident because I was playing that tape.’ It wasn’t like we helped ourselves […]
“My whole thing was, just being me. Now, you look around the NBA and all of them have tattoos, guys wearing cornrows. Now you see the police officers with the cornrows. I took a beating for those types of things.” -Allen Iverson It’s a hot day in September, New York’s frenetic energy is juiced by […]
To get myself in the mood to write about the impact of bloghaus on pop culture for a real-life magazine (SHOUTOUT CONTROL FOREVER)… On Saturday night August 5th, instead of schlepping out to HARD Summer to see the breakout superstars of the beloved musical era, I went to Echoplex to check out a $10 bloghaus-themed nostalgia […]
“Everyone calls it hip hop, but we aren’t hip hop. Our records are always like “yeah that UK Hip Hop”, we are like grime music, its a completely different thing.” -Jelacee, Stooki Sound Michael Ebenazer Kwadjo Omari Owuo, Jr. has made it. Last year he charted on the UK billboard top 10, wen’t #1 with […]
Welcome to Neon Black where we talk all things pop culture, music, art, and film. This week the guys talk about Offset announcing the new Migos’ album – Myspace loses all music between 2003 and 2015 – Meek Mill’s new documentary – The Beastie Boys – and new music from LSD, Lux Prima, and Anderson […]
ScHoolboy Q Returns The always amazing ScHoolboy Q has finally unleashed new music. “Numb Numb Juice” is what we expect to be the first single off of Q’s upcoming fifth album. The single is short, but far from sweet as Q rips through with cold bars and intense flows. The modern trap production is also […]
Night Gestalt, the moniker for the keenly experimental and ambient IDM music from Olof Cornéer, returns today, March 15 with new single, “A Social Contract.” Marking the lead track from Night Gestalt’s sophomore album, New Glasir, “A New Social Contact” takes on a life of its own through arpeggios and vivid sonic textures. Click here […]
November 6, 2014. I anxiously attended my very first concert during my freshman semester at the University of Oregon. I’d never been a fan of large crowds, being touched or bumped into by random strangers due to childhood fits of claustrophobia from having a big frame. Weeks prior, my then roommate convinced my frugal ass […]
Kehlani — pregnant, glowing, and making music like she never left. The ethereal songstress dropped her nine-song mixtape on February 21, 2019, which is just weeks before her baby is due. According to The Fader, the title While We Wait serves as symbolism for her second studio album she plans to drop later this year. It’s also an […]
Welcome to Neon Black where we talk all things pop culture, music, art, and film.
“Aggregate is a unique word. As a noun, it indicates different elements brought together in the same place. As a verb, it seeks to collect and assemble disparate pieces to create a more cohesive whole. This column seeks to do both of those things; breaking down some important stories in print journalism each week and […]
Beware the Ides of March! Ever since Julius Caesar got a bunch of knives in the back, March 15th has become synonymous with betrayal. That’s why this month, we’re covering the only natural response to such a thing: sweet, sweet vengeance. Here are some picks to satiate that bloodlust…or maybe just help you laugh it […]
Class is in session. Deadly Class that is, and as the bell sounds the commencement, the ass-kicking begins against the backdrop of a badass soundtrack. The action-packed SYFY show is doing what many have failed to do—keeping ‘80s alternative music alive and well, which is something that I think we can all agree is timeless. For those […]
