Loading ...Hip-hop pioneers Run-DMC, still-at-it metallurgists Metallica, guitar hero Jeff Beck, doo-wop group Little Anthony & the Imperials, and soul survivor Bobby Womack are this year’s performer inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, the Cleveland-based museum that will enshrine (a certain type of) music that’s defined as “rock” for years to come, or at least as long as enough people want to pay the admission fee. The induction ceremony takes place on April 4, and this year it’s taking place in the museum’s home city, and not in splashy old New York City. Also being honored that night: sidemen Bill Black (bassist for Elvis Presley), DJ Fontana (drummer for Presley), and Spooner Oldham (session musician for Percy Sledge, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan)—and rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson, who’s this year’s early influence of choice. I hope that she gets her “covered by a band of now” due during the ceremony, which is going to air live this year on Fuse (they’re taking over broadcast duties from VH1 Classic); some examples of why after the jump.
Posts Tagged ‘Run DMC’
Project X Hits the Hip-Hop Nostalgia Circuit
As part of Idolator’s continuing effort to geekily analyze every music chart known to man, we present a new edition of Project X, in which Michaelangelo Matos breaks down top-ten lists from every genre imaginable. After the jump, he sits through VH1’s latest TV-based listicle, 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs, and finds a few poignant moments among the MC Hammer jokes:
Evidence In Jam Master Jay’s Death Belatedly Given To MTV, Possibly Police
Almost six years after the murder of Jam Master Jay, MTV has come in contact with a man who claims to have the Run-DMC DJ’s two-way pager, which allegedly was left at a club in Milwaukee days before his shooting. Despite a headline claiming that the pager is “possibly a crucial piece of evidence in his murder,” it’s not until we’ve reached the end of the piece–after we get to read personal messages sent to the pager the night of Jay’s death–that we’re told why this wasn’t given to the police during President Bush’s first term. Turns out the police never “reached out” to Eric “Shake” James, and I guess this is the kind of “possibly crucial piece of evidence” one needs to be asked to hand over. MTV’s got the NYPD’s private line, though, so once they’ve published some of the heartbreaking contents of the pager, they’ll try to hook-up a meet-and-greet.
Top 5 Band Logos Missing From The 25 “Best Band Logos”
Ah, nothing quite fills a slow-ass holiday Monday better than list gripery. At first, as I read this rundown of the 25 “Best Band Logos,” all I could think was “they better remember the Misfits skull. They better remember the Misfits skull.” Well, they did remember to include the Misfits skull (phew), while managing to hit most of the canonical choices when it comes to rock logos (Metallica, Van Halen, the Grateful Dead skull, the Stones lips, et cetera). But while you might pitch a kvetch about the obviousness or ordering–Phish ahead of Public Enemy’s crosshairs? The Scissor Sisters ahead of almost everyone at No. 5??–can you really fault the folks at Spinner for forgetting a few of your own faves while sifting through forty years of pop music iconography? This is the Internet, after all, where counter-lists are plentiful unto pointlessness. That’s why I cobbled together a list of five personal pop design highlights, any one of which could maybe, you know, be subbed in for H.I.M.’s “heartagram” or the backwards Korn “K.” (Just sayin’.)
Maybe it’s ‘cuz I’ve only had one cup of coffee this morning, but please tell me if you can figure out how the headline “Run DMC Rapper Starts New Career Lobbying For Abortion Rights For Adoptees…” connects up with a story about “Darryl McDaniels… More »
Could Crucial Evidence In The Jam Master Jay Shooting Be On Some Dude’s Neck?
It’s been over five years since Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay was killed by an unknown assailant while at the Queens studio that was his home base, and in that time very little progress has been made in the shooting’s investigation. But a half-decade later, Jay’s former partner, Randy Allen, is claiming that police have long known about a “telltale characteristic” the killer wore around his neck.
It May Be Time To Walk Away From “Walk This Way”
This morning, we read the news that the surviving members of Run-DMC would be flying out to London to perform “Walk This Way” with Aerosmith at the Hyde Park Calling festival. The news of what, by our count, is approximately the 354,945th live performance of the collaborative cover since its original release in 1986 made us wonder when, if ever, we’d be able to listen to the song without instinctively groaning “Oh man, not again.”
