Author: Alex Ogg
Publisher: Omnibus Press
ISBN: 0857121081
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 330
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Book Description
The Def Jam label gave America hip hop. But who gave America Def Jam? Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin did. The Men Behind Def Jam examines the most unlikely history of the legendary label that started life in a student dorm and went on to introduce the world to LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, DMX and Jay-Z. Hustler-incarnate Russell Simmons and ex-punk Rick Rubin, the odd couple, fought and triumphed against all predictions to change the course of popular music forever. Here is an honest appraisal of these rival personalities, the quarrels, the successes and the failures of the spectacular Def Jam adventure. With Rubin and Simmons now pursuing other interests, the label continues with others at the helm, but the story of Def Jam’s birth and coming of age makes for one of pop music’s most feisty and fascinating legends.
Author: Stacy Gueraseva
Publisher: One World/Ballantine
ISBN: 9780307520395
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
In the early ‘80s, the music industry wrote off hip-hop as a passing fad. Few could or would have predicted that the improvised raps and raw beats busting out of New York City’s urban underclass would one day become a multimillion-dollar business and one of music’s most lucrative genres. Among those few were two visionaries: Russell Simmons, a young black man from Hollis, Queens, and Rick Rubin, a Jewish kid from Long Island. Though the two came from different backgrounds, their all-consuming passion for hip-hop brought them together. Soon they would revolutionize the music industry with their groundbreaking label, Def Jam Records. Def Jam, Inc. traces the company’s incredible rise from the NYU dorm room of nineteen-year-old Rubin (where LL Cool J was discovered on a demo tape) to the powerhouse it is today; from financial struggles and scandals–including The Beastie Boys’s departure from the label and Rubin’s and Simmons’s eventual parting–to revealing anecdotes about artists like Slick Rick, Public Enemy, Foxy Brown, Jay-Z, and DMX. Stacy Gueraseva, former editor in chief of Russell Simmons’s magazine, Oneworld, had access to the biggest players on the scene, and brings you real conversations and a behind-the-scenes look from a decade–and a company–that turned the music world upside down. She takes you back to New York in the ‘80s, when late-night spots such as Danceteria and Nell’s were burning with young, fresh rappers, and Simmons and Rubin had nothing but a hunch that they were on to something huge. Far more than just a biography of the two men who made it happen, Def Jam, Inc. is a journey into the world of rap itself. Both an intriguing business history as well as a gritty narrative, here is the definitive book on Def Jam–a must read for any fan of hip-hop as well as all popular-culture junkies.
Author: Samantha Bennett
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1501344110
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 257
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Book Description
From the Fairlight CMI through MIDI to the digital audio workstations at the turn of the millennium, Modern Records, Maverick Methods examines a critical period in commercial popular music record production: the transformative digital age from the late 1970s until 2000. Drawing on a discography of more than 300 recordings across pop, rock, hip hop, dance and alternative musics from artists such as the Beastie Boys, Madonna, U2 and Fatboy Slim, and extensive and exclusive ethnographic work with many world-renowned recordists, Modern Records presents a fresh and insightful new perspective on one of the most significant eras in commercial music record production. The book traces the development of significant music technologies through the 1980s and 1990s, revealing how changing attitudes and innovative techniques of recording personnel reimagined recording processes and, finally, exemplifies the impact of these technologies and techniques via six comprehensive tech-processual analyses. This meticulously researched and timely book reveals the complexity of recordists' responses to a technological landscape in flux.
Author: Mark Beaumont
Publisher: Omnibus Press
ISBN: 0857127926
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 421
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Book Description
Jay-Z: King of America is the first in-depth biography to dissect the life and music of the most successful rapper of all time. From crack dealing on the mean streets of New York to million dollar deals at the highest echelons of music industry, Jay-Z’s story is a whole new kind of American Dream. Updated to include recent turbulence with Kanye West, rumours of an affair with Rhianna, his latest album Magna Carta Holy Grail and troubles with his streaming service Tidal, this is the most complete biography of Jay-Z available. Author Mark Beaumont has interviewed Jay-Z, Kanye West, Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Damon Dash, Dr Dre, Rick Rubin and more. Revealing insights from these encounters inform this no-holds-barred biography of a great American success story. Along his winding path Jay-Z shattered barriers in rap music and has done more than anyone to make the genre the global crossover success it is today. This book includes detailed accounts of all 12 of his albums, including the seminal classic Reasonable Doubt, the landmark Blueprint trilogy and his latest gem, Magna Carta Holy Grail. Mark Beaumont traces Jay Z’s ascent to hip-hop’s throne and his pivotal role in forging modern rap music. Taking in all of the drug busts, knife attacks, entrepreneurial brilliance, premature retirements and secret weddings, this is Jay-Z’s hard knock life fully exposed… “Definitely THE book to own this Christmas, and takes his rightful place at the top of our book chart.” - RWD magazine (Leading UK urban music mag)
Author: Nick Hasted
Publisher: Omnibus Press
ISBN: 0857127160
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 336
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Book Description
The Dark Story of Eminem is the best-selling, ground-breaking biography of Marshall Mathers, tracing his fierce rise from the schools and factories of Detroit to global superstardom – Now updated to investigate the violent death of his best friend Proof, his debilitating drug addiction, four-year disappearance from the public view and his triumphant comeback album Recovery. In researching this phenomenal story, Nick Hasted spent much time in Detroit, tracking down friends and foes of Marshall Mathers. In racially-divided Detroit the future rapper experienced first-hand the social conflicts that would fuel his later radicalism. From the depths of being a suicidal no-hoper, he triumphed against his class and triumphed against prejudice; despite being continually reviled, sued and criticised, Marshall Mathers forged his way to becoming a defining cultural force of the early millennium. This unflinching portrait also lays bare Eminem's relationships with his much-hated mother, his teenage soul-mate Kim Scott, his mentors Dr. Dre and The Bass Brothers, and his own protégé 50 Cent. Never before has a book delved so deep an poignantly into this troubled figure. “A serious and even handed account.” – Q magazine "This is the best of a sudden flurry of biographies charting the rise of this brilliant, troubled Detroit rapper.” – Daily Telegraph
Author: Jon Stratton
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351561707
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 238
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Book Description
Jon Stratton provides a pioneering work on Jews as a racialized group in the popular music of America, Britain and Australia during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Rather than taking a narrative, historical approach the book consists of a number of case studies, looking at the American, British and Australian music industries. Stratton's primary motivation is to uncover how the racialized positioning of Jews, which was sometimes similar but often different in each of the societies under consideration, affected the kinds of music with which Jews have become involved. Stratton explores race as a cultural construction and continues discussions undertaken in Jewish Studies concerning the racialization of the Jews and the stereotyping of Jews in order to present an in-depth and critical understanding of Jews, race and popular music.
Author: Eddie S. Meadows
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136992561
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 916
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Book Description
Despite the influence of African American music and study as a worldwide phenomenon, no comprehensive and fully annotated reference tool currently exists that covers the wide range of genres. This much needed bibliography fills an important gap in this research area and will prove an indispensable resource for librarians and scholars studying African American music and culture.
Author: Colin Larkin
Publisher: Omnibus Press
ISBN: 0857125958
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 4183
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Book Description
This text presents a comprehensive and up-to-date reference work on popular music, from the early 20th century to the present day.
Author: Jason Tanz
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1608196534
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 276
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Book Description
Over the last quarter-century hip-hop has grown from an esoteric form of African-American expression to become the dominant form of American popular culture. Today, Snoop Dogg shills for Chrysler and white kids wear Fubu, the black-owned label whose name stands for "For Us, By Us." This is not the first time that black music has been appreciated, adopted, and adapted by white audiences-think jazz, blues, and rock-but Jason Tanz, a white boy who grew up in the suburban Northwest, says that hip-hop's journey through white America provides a unique window to examine the racial dissonance that has become a fact of our national life. In such culture-sharing Tanz sees white Americans struggling with their identity, and wrestling (often unsuccessfully) with the legacy of race. To support his anecdotally driven history of hip-hop's cross-over to white America, Tanz conducts dozens of interviews with fans, artists, producers, and promoters, including some of hip-hop's most legendary figures-such as Public Enemy's Chuck D; white rapper MC Serch; and former Yo! MTV Raps host Fab 5 Freddy. He travels across the country, visiting "nerdcore" rappers in Seattle, who rhyme about Star Wars conventions; a group of would-be gangstas in a suburb so insulated it's called "the bubble"; a break-dancing class at the upper-crusty New Canaan Tap Academy; and many more. Drawing on the author's personal experience as a white fan as well as his in-depth knowledge of hip-hop's history, Other People's Property provides a hard-edged, thought-provoking, and humorous snapshot of the particularly American intersection of race, commerce, culture, and identity.
Author: James R. Norton
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc
ISBN: 9781404205154
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 58
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Book Description
Presents the life and career of Hip Hop star Russell Simmons.
