Jake Paine

"There’s a big difference between my books and Behind the Music," explains author and longtime music critic Brian Coleman. "The denouement of Behind the Music is how you got over your drug use, or maybe you die. It's never celebrating how great those groups are; it’s what they did to......

From Beyonce to Madlib, Garth Brooks to Mos Def, musicians love their aliases. For writer, musician and producer Kenneth James Gibson, this is a vast understatement. Of the more than 13 different projects under his belt, 10 are solo acts produced under various guises, including pendics.shuffle, Eight Frozen Modules, and......

Janette Beckman's lens somehow always seems to always capture the intersection of gritty and cool. Born in London, England, Janette is a product of the '70s punk movement. Like the music and lifestyle her art embodied, she soon crossed the ocean to New York, and has lived there since the......

On the 1996 night Tupac Shakur was killed in Las Vegas, Suge Knight was nabbed for violating his probation (for stomping a guy); he spent five years in prison. During this time, Knight's former high school classmate and head of security, Reggie Wright Jr., took over the bulk of Knight's......

In the early 1990s, Boston producer Joe Mansfield made hits for rappers Ed O.G. & Da Bulldogs. His instrument? The Akai ASQ10 sequencer. As his discography advanced, he began accumulating machines that manipulated and enhanced his sounds. "I know I've got too many of these things," he says. "I've always......

You may have seen VH1's TLC biopic last month, called CrazySexyCool. (Here's our review.) Drawing 4.5 million viewers, it was the highest-rated cable movie of 2013, as well as Vh1's biggest film in history. But while the work, starring real-life musicians Lil Mama as Left Eye, Keke Palmer as Chilli......