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E160: Richard Grabel on Hip Hop + Kool Lady Blue + Beastie Boys

E160: Richard Grabel on Hip Hop + Kool Lady Blue + Beastie Boys

FromRock's Backpages


E160: Richard Grabel on Hip Hop + Kool Lady Blue + Beastie Boys

FromRock's Backpages

ratings:
Length:
66 minutes
Released:
Sep 11, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode

Description

In this episode we invite Richard Grabel to reminisce about his long career as a journalist and music-biz lawyer.
We hear how Richard had his mind blown by an early CBGB double-bill of Television and the three-piece Talking Heads — and about his first reviewing efforts as a student at the University of Pennsylvania. He describes how he got his foot in the door at New York Rocker – reviewing one of Lowell George's last shows for editor Andy Schwartz — and then at the NME on a 1978 visit to London.
Richard's classic reports on NYC's early rap scene provide a perfect opportunity for us to ask him about his visits to the South Bronx and his interviews with Kurtis Blow and Grandmaster Flash. He's also namechecked in a clip from Bill Brewster & Frank Broughton's 1998 audio interview with Brit rap promoter Kool Lady Blue, whose legendary nights at the Roxy club in Chelsea he discusses with his hosts.
After reflecting on the rise of the Beastie Boys and the story of how rap's "flash-in-the-pan" novelty status led to the genre's global domination, Richard explains how he became a high-profile lawyer for such alt-rock bands as Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr.
After Mark quotes from interviews with Betty Davis, Jackson Browne and George Michael, Jasper concludes the episode with remarks about pieces on Smash Mouth, *NYSNC and the 16-year-old Lorde.
Many thanks to special guest Richard Grabel.
Pieces discussed: Kurtis Blow, The Funky Four + 1, Grandmaster Flash, Kool Lady Blue, Run-DMC, Beastie Boys, Beastier Boys, Beastiest Boys, Jackson Browne, Ray Parker Jr., Betty Davis, George Michael, Smash Mouth, Blue-eyed soul and Lorde.
Released:
Sep 11, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

They were so much older then, they're younger than that now: Mark Pringle and Barney Hoskyns reel in the years and riff on all that's new this week in the world's biggest library of music journalism — definitive interviews with legends of the last 60 years by the pop press' greatest writers ... and much much more. The RBP podcast is produced by Jasper Murison-Bowie and is a proud part of Pantheon — the podcast network for music lovers.