Word: masterful
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Master P introduced something new to contemporary pop: shameless, relentless and canny cross-promotion. Each of the releases on his New Orleans-based No Limit label contains promotional materials for his other releases. His established artists (like Snoop Dogg) make guest appearances on CDs released by his newer acts, helping to launch their debuts. And his performers are given to shouting out catchphrases like "No Limit soldiers!" in the middle of their songs--good advertising for the label when the song is being played on the radio...
Corporate America's infatuation with rap has increased as the genre's political content has withered. Ice Cube's early songs attacked white racism; Ice-T sang about a Cop Killer; Public Enemy challenged listeners to "fight the power." But many newer acts such as DMX and Master P are focused almost entirely on pathologies within the black community. They rap about shooting other blacks but almost never about challenging governmental authority or encouraging social activism. "The stuff today is not revolutionary," says Bob Law, vice president of programming at WWRL, a black talk-radio station in New York City...
DIED. SADIE DELANY, 109, pioneer educator and co-author, with her late sister Bessie, of the best seller turned Broadway hit Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years; in Mount Vernon, N.Y. Daughter of a slave, she got her master's degree in education at Columbia and became the first black woman to teach home economics in New York City's public schools. "I never let prejudice stop me from what I wanted to do in this life," she said. "Life is short; it's up to you to make it sweet...
...glittering diamond ear stud, he is taking a break from recording his new album, Forever, to explain the world according to Puffy. "Kids don't want to be like Mike anymore," he says, referring to a certain recently retired athlete. "Their heroes are rappers. In five years if Master P and I endorse a presidential candidate, we could turn an election. Hip-hop is that deep...
...Power and success didn't change Puffy," says one former associate. "He's always been a great businessman and a master manipulator." Combs rules Bad Boy with a firm, sometimes ruthless hand, controlling a dozen producers and rappers, supervising them in the studio, approving their lyrics and sometimes even dictating the color of their shoes. If he is tough, Combs says, it's because "there's never been an opportunity like this, even back in the Motown days. Very few people have the chance to be their own boss, to own what they create." Sometimes, to lead...