Whether consciously or not, rappers have understood the concept of branding since the on-and-on-to-the-break-of-dawn days. You can listen to everything from the "The Breaks" to "Crank That" and figure out pretty quickly that they were performed by Kurtis Blow and an autistic 4th Grader with a rudimentary understanding of Pro Tools, respectively. You don't see that sort of self-promotion in other genres. Thom Yorke doesn't ad-lib "Radiohead, up in this bitch!" in the middle of "Paranoid Androi
On May 5, 1989 the L.A. Weekly printed a cover story, written by Jonathan Gold, about N.W.A., the most notorious band in the U.S., let alone in Los Angeles.
Twenty years after the release of their first album, N.W.A and the Posse, we are happy to present Jonathan Gold's article online.
(Cover photo by Howard Rosenberg)
August ’88: Eazy E props his Air Jordans up on a desk, stares at the ceiling, and leaves the room whenever the beeper on his belt goes off, which is often. He answers mos
In addition to opening punk club the Masque, LA DIY music giant Brendan Mullen, who died at age 60 yesterday after suffering a stroke on Saturday, was a longtime LA Weekly music writer whose prescient insight and in-the-trenches curiosity captured the experience of being a music head in LA in the 80s, 90s and 00s. We're currently working through old Weekly issues to find some more gems, but for now, here are a handful of Brendan Mullen pieces that illustrate the point.
On the eve of the fir
