Tag: column

Girls! Re-defining rap genre

by Magda Rucinski Can you keep up, 2013? 2012 was the year of girl rappers. Not since the ‘90s, when Missy Elliot and Lauryn Hill ruled the old school, have hip-hop and rap scenes witnessed …

Drugs and music

text: Michael Raine “Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise,” stated the English poet Thomas Gray in 1742. Though eloquent, it’s a rather ridiculous statement. Truth, even tough …

Is the Tupac hologram overrated?

text: Michael Raine By now, anyone with an Internet connection or cable subscription has seen the recent awe-inspiring/cringe-inducing virtual resurrection of Tupac Shakur. When an eerily …

A wild guess at the musical future

text: Michael Raine Predicting the future is a risky endeavour at best and a completely pointless one at worst. Predictions, whether they are about pop culture or the apocalypse, most would …

Whose job is it to play new music?

text: Michael Raine | photography: Brian Patterson Good new music, particularly what is generally termed “indie music,” hardly gets played on the radio. It’s an old lament, one that has been …

Stealing versus paying homage

text: Michael Raine Borrowing, stealing, ripping-off, plagiarism, whatever euphemism or disparaging term you want to give it, there’s a long history of it in popular music. Those well-versed …