Word: defs
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Aesop Rock Labor Days (Def...
...bass noises. Devoid of charisma, he is a bastion of grim determination and pure skills. And best of all, he is Underground—known only to the backpacking elite, his primary means of publicity for several years was the internet. Now on New York City’s Def Jux label—which has already made a name for itself with a critically acclaimed album from Harlem’s Cannibal Ox—Aesop is in a prime position to burst out of his independent bubble and reach unsuspecting audiences worldwide. His latest creation, Labor Days...
Every so often, when catchy music, clever marketing and the right timing come together, one record company captures prevailing tastes in a way that enables it to define the musical essence of an era. Motown did so in the 1960s with soul; Def Jam followed in the '80s with rap; and Interscope ruled the mid-'90s by mixing rap and metal...
...African entrepreneur Clive Calder, Jive (and its parent company, Zomba) rode the teen wave to an estimated $800 million in sales last year, making it the world's largest independent label. Jive's 6.7% U.S. market share placed it well ahead of better-established labels, including Arista (4.9%) and Def Jam (3.9%). This year Zomba (which also includes Verity, a gospel label, and Silvertone, a blues label) could pull in as much as $1 billion...
That's a cry that surprisingly few black rap acts in America have taken up, with some notable exceptions. The masterly, literate self-titled debut of Black Star (Mos Def and Talib Kweli) is a virtual symphony of African internationalism. The group's name alludes to Marcus Garvey's back-to-Africa nationalism, and the lyrics paint a red, green and black mural stretching from Coltrane to Du Bois to Ishmael Reed to Derrick Bell. Brown Skin Lady is a love song both to a woman and to Africa itself ("I know women on the continent got it/Nigeria and Ghana...