RIP Chester Bennington

I had just come out of a movie with my phone off. It's amazing how much one can miss in a mere two hours. I'm not pardoning people who use their cellphones in movies, no way, I think those folks should be jailed, but I'm just saying that sometimes it is stunning how the world can change in two hours. In the two hours today, the news broke that Chester Bennington, lead vocalist of Linkin Park, had taken his own life. As I sat in the car, having just turned my phone on, I was devastated.

I had only just been listening to the band a day or so ago. Linkin Park is one of those acts who may fade from one's memory, but all it takes is a few seconds of any song, and one remembers and realizes what an amazing construct they are. I had heard just a clip of "In the End" the other day, and was soon listening to Hybrid Theory on my laptop on continuous for a bit. They were amazing.

I am old, waaay old, but the emergence of Linkin Park reenergized me in a way that is hard to describe. I've mentioned it here before, but in high school I was the kid who always carried a radio around with me, I was always on top of what was new and 'cool' in music. I had made a promise to myself way back when, that if I got old, I would never lose that. Ah, to be young and naïve.

Sometime in the 1990s however, I did get old, and my interest in new music waned. I figured, oh well, it came with the thinning hair and the crow's feet, just deal with it. Then came a music channel called MTVX. I immediately gravitated toward it, and in its heavy hard rock rotation I found new bands that I connected with - like Papa Roach, Limp Bizkit, Korn, System of a Down, Disturbed, and Linkin Park.

For someone like me who had always liked the hard rock aspects of some rap, Linkin Park's blending of metal with hip hop was a dream come true. I became a big fan. Chester Bennington's melodic howls and lead vocals contrasted with Mike Shinoda's crisp casual raps over a metal tapestry of sound. Yeah, I dug these guys. "Faint," "In the End," and "Bleed It Out" remain my all-time favorites.

Over the years Chester has also worked on side projects such as fronting Dead by Sunrise, and attempting to fill the late Scott Weiland's shoes in Stone Temple Pilots for a couple years, and left shortly before Weiland himself passed. Chester apparently died by his own hand, hanging himself, but details are still forthcoming. He was only 41.

Straight Outta Compton

Straight Outta Compton ~ I find it hard to believe that this film was so ignored by the Oscars. The #OscarsSoWhite controversy becomes crystal clear for anyone who has seen Straight Outta Compton as it should have garnered multiple nominations for Best Actor and Supporting Actor, as well as Best Film, Best Director, and that's not even mentioning the various music and sound categories. What the hell happened here?

Besides that incomprehensible omission, Straight Outta Compton is obviously the biography of N.W.A., and specifically Easy-E, Ice Cube, and Dr. Dre. Yeah, I know, there are more members of the group, including the one the film completely ignores, but let's face it, if you make a movie about the Beatles, you're really only focusing on John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Big guns only, ya know?

The film is amazing. I can't say enough about the performances by Jason Mitchell, Corey Hawkins, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Ice Cube's son, playing the young Ice Cube, and Paul Giamatti as evil promoter Jerry Heller. The music is fantastic, a time capsule of the 1990s and how N.W.A. changed hip hop and rap into something harder and more real, a sound of the street, and specifically Los Angeles in a time of violence.

Again however, omission seems to be a theme when it comes to Straight Outta Compton. With the real Ice Cube and Dr, Dre, as well as Easy-E's widow as producers on the flick, one might assume they want to sweep any dirty laundry under the rug. There are very few women in the movie, save Carra Patterson, who aren't just there for the party or the sex. And no mention is made of Dre's numerous domestic violence charges against women.

All that aside, this is a brilliant film, must-see for folks into N.W.A. and the music of the time, a true time capsule, and a terrific movie.

DJ E-Z Rock Dead at 46

Even though the song was released in 1988, there wasn't a club - dance, rock, otherwise - that this song wasn't played at least once a night throughout the 1990s. "It Takes Two" by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock was the song. Love it or hate it, its insane popularity cannot be denied.

Hip hop pioneer DJ E-Z Rock, born Rodney 'Skip' Bryce, teamed with lifelong Harlem friend Rob Base to create the song, died yesterday from undisclosed circumstances at the age of 46. The album It Takes Two went platinum and yielded two other hits besides the title track. The song changed the world of sampling and itself was sampled by dozens of other artists.

New Music This Week

The big music news is the release this week of The Marshall Mathers LP 2 from Eminem. Previewed a bit on iTunes and on "Saturday Night Live" this past weekend, this looks like another winner. He keeps coming back, even when we've thought we've had enough of him. And I say that with love, because I'm a fan. Several songs stand out in the colossal twenty-one track endeavor, some that peek back into the happily diseased head of Slim Shady.

The sampling of classic rock tunes may drive some older listeners away. I know more than a few folks my age that not only dislike rap and hip hop, but completely lose their minds when rappers sample music of their youth. I say, deal with it, and listen to how it's been altered, re-imagined, and in same cases, improved.

One of the songs in question, "Berzerk," takes on the groove of Billy Squier's "The Stroke" to splendid effect. Also grabbing the classic rock rift of "Time of the Season" by the Zombies is Shady's "Rhyme or Reason," one of the better rap mash-ups in recent years. I also dug "Headlights" featuring Nate Ruess, "Desperation" featuring Jamie N Commons, "Baby," and "Evil Twin." A viable and hard new release, welcome back.

Tuesday also saw the release of the new album from Adam WarRock, The Middle of Nowhere. I love me some nerdcore, and Adam WarRock is my favorite of the genre. While he is the king of the genre sound, he's also trying to break into more mainstream hip hop, but no matter how he tries, the nerd is still at the core, and I love it.

Tracks like "High School Reunion," "Internet Crush," and "Shoulda Beens" hit close to home in a essentially non-nerd way, but the real thrust here is comics as per usual (not that there's anything wrong with that). "Sinestrocore," "J.A.R.V.I.S.," and "B.S.F.X." fill the nerdcore void with flair and pizzazz, and Tribe One, MC Frontalot, and Schaffer the Darklord, among others, also drop by. Love this album, and can't wait for more. Check out Adam WarRock at his website, Twitter, and YouTube.



And then there's Skinn Jakkitt's self-titled album, including the song "Epiphany," seen below:


For more of Skinn Jakkitt, you can check them out on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

RIP Chris Kelly

RIP MCA

We are losing far too many folks from the music world of late. News came earlier today of the passing of Adam Yauch A.K.A. MCA of the Beastie Boys. The hip hop pioneer had been fighting cancer for several years. He was 47.

In the early 1980s Yauch formed the Beastie Boys with Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock), Mike Diamond (Mike D) and Michael Schwartz (Mixmaster Mike) - and changed the face and style of music for decades afterward. I first encountered them in college with the novelty tune "Cooky Puss," and a year or so later when I saw the music video for "She's On It," I was hooked, a Beastie fan for life.

We've lost one of the fun, funky and forceful voices of my generation, MCA will be missed.

Beats, Rhyme & Life

Beats, Rhyme & Life ~ One of the misnomers I hate most is the term 'one hit wonder,' mostly because it's rarely true. It's one of the reasons I started the sub-blog here called "Lost Hits of the New Wave," because things were not as we are currently told they were. For instance if I was to mention to you A Tribe Called Quest, most folks, and a great majority who were not around when they were happening will use that term 'one hit wonder' and say they love "Can I Kick It." Just not true.

The truth is however that I came to the Tribe later than most folks. I loved "Can I Kick It" but I also began to notice that every time I heard a song by the group, I dug it. When I realized this, I got into them. As I said, later than most folks, but I love them, and let me assure you, A Tribe Called Quest is no 'one hit wonder.' The documentary Beats, Rhyme & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest directed by actor Michael Rapaport is a testament to that legacy.

Through interviews and of course music the film documents the group's beginnings in Queens and we get to know Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jarobi White as they came up and became stars in the hip hop music world. Like a cool extended episode of "Behind the Music," we get the lowdown on why they looked like they did and especially how Q-Tip was sampling before samplers and melded jazz into hip hop. It also takes the group to the end of the road as well.

This documentary is the real thing, it's about friendship, music, culture, and passion - and the evolution that all of it goes through over the years. Check it out, recommended.





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Just a reminder, The Virtual Book Tour for THE HUNGRY HEART STORIES by Fran Metzman is featured today at Marie Gilbert's blog with an interview with the author, and continues tomorrow on Mieke Zamora-Mackay's blog. Don't miss it! For a full list of Blog Tour stops, go here.