Music Journalism

Did you know that the Philippines has the oldest hip-hop scene in Southeast Asia? And that rap and hip-hop are not synonymous? Yeah, I know: who the hell cares. I miss the days when all I had to do was write about Stonefree. Or The freakin' Purplechickens.

Just came across this amusing overview of a bunch of music magazines, by a Dr. David Thorpe, who is quite possibly not a medical doctor. I'm guessing he has a Ph.D. in Applied Physics or something, but that is just a wild guess. Anyway, I love what he wrote about Rolling Stone:

When many of us think of music journalism, we think of passages like “Hurtling across the Mojave Desert, half-blind from the sun and half-crazy from the delectable Afghan hash, I exchanged a portentous glance with the beautiful man-monster who calls himself Gary Cherone. ‘This is real,’ I thought. ‘This is now. This is Extreme.” Rolling Stone practically invented this bullshit.

Funny, and true. Am just glad this guy has never even laid eyes on PULP magazine.

"As I sucked on my last cig and chugged down my third Red Horse for the night -- at the same time, so you can imagine the mess -- I asked the living rap legend seated across me what he thought of the local hip-hop scene. He launched into a monologue involving the origins of hip-hop culture, and the founders and pioneers of Pinoy rap. As I watched his lips move, I slowly slipped into a sort of muffled state, as if invisible elves had packed my head with cotton into an invisible box, and I wondered: will we ever build a distinct and honest Pinoy hip-hop culture of our own? And furthermore, can't this guy afford a deodorant?"