Word: albums
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Homicide was working as a hip-hop radio deejay in Los Angeles before he joined the pop-rock band Sugar Ray in 1994. At first he was a mere sideman--on the band's 1995 album Lemonade and Brownies; he's not even in the group photo on the back cover. Then again, the picture is a supremely geeky shot of the band riding on a roller coaster, so maybe being left out was a blessing in disguise. In any case, Homicide says, today he's "cut in on publishing and merchandising, and I'm a full-fledged member...
Multi-instrumentalist Moby, whose new album Play (V2) is heavily sample-based, is skeptical about the idea that deejays will ever be regarded as true artists. "I think being a deejay is a creative act, but I have a hard time seeing it as a musical act," says Moby, who worked as a deejay for about eight years and recently deejayed at the MTV Video Music Awards. "I see a good deejay as being a really amazing technician as opposed to a being a musician." Still, a good deejay can be a canny promoter. At the MTV awards, Moby says...
There are also those who question whether deejay culture is being homogenized by merging with rock. DJ Premier has been busy of late: he collaborated with Limp Bizkit, he provided scratching on Lilith Fair veteran Paula Cole's new album and he worked on rapper Mos Def's brilliant new CD, Black on Both Sides (Rawkus). It's a sign of how divided feelings are that, on his album, Mos Def takes a lyrical swipe at hip-hop tinged rock-pop acts, including one his producer DJ Premier worked with, Limp Bizkit. "I ain't tryin' to slow your groove...
...Europe, deejay culture is more widely accepted. Bands like Roni Size's Breakbeat Era--whose new album, Ultra-Obscene (XL/ 1500/A&M), is a winner--and Portishead--whose 1994 album, Dummy, is a classic--build their sound around the turntable. But in the U.S., turntable rock is just starting to have a real impact...
Freberg was an enormously talented composer whose intricate rhymes and uncanny ear for song styles would have made him a Tin Pan Alley success even without the satire. On his great United States of America album, Freberg portrayed Ben Franklin as a prickly conservative who balked at signing Tom Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. The two founding fathers sing a number that includes this exchange...