Today was a proud day for my inner hip-hop journo. The J-School featured not only 1, but 2 intellectual hip-hop heads who took the stage to share their success with the journo-youngstas. Generally, these aren’t the types of cats who are sweated by the academy, but with at least 2 of the journo-youngsters dedicating their Masters work to hip-hop themes, it’s a sign that the mainstream has totally taken the edge out of things. I can’t wait to read these Masters projects.
One of the alums, a man whose career I’ve followed for some time now because of his dedication to hip-hop journalism (in addition to yoga?) has really added some cultural knowledge to the history of the form in his book, The Big Payback. He was interviewed on stage in a private event just for our Spring Prep Day. He explained his book writing process (two hours of sleep while writing his tome and holding down a day gig) and read from his book. His 600 page joint is being heavily touted by all manner of smart opinion makers such as NPR and O-Dubb. 
The section of his book that he read had to do with Andre Harrell, but since I was mad hungry the only thing that stuck out to me was when he said something about Beefsteak Charlie’s. You’ll have to read the book to figure out what that’s all about.
Do you remember those old Beefsteak Charlie’s commercials?
For more on Dan’s book, check out these radio and online interviews:
—URB
channibalsmith.com 