The Hip-Hop Society is having its first cypher of the year tonight from 8 to 10pm in the IRC backyard (552 w 114th). There will be lots of people freestyling, live instruments, and free food!!

 
Bwog extends its heartfelt congratulations to Dr. John D. Clarke, MD, FAAFP, and (evidently) badass MC, whose anti-H1N1 rap beat out over 200 competitors to win Flu.gov’s 2009 Flu Prevention PSA Contest.

Looks like Clarke, who graduated from Columbia’s very own medical school, returned to Alma Mater to earn his MC as well: his swine-bashing video is filmed on the overpass between EC and the rest of the world, with the law school, Amsterdam Avenue, and assorted academic buildings in the background.

In the minute-long PSA, a lab-coat clad Clarke spits lyrics such as “Hand sanitizer I advise ya get it, why?/it makes germs die when you rub and let it dry” over an impressively catchy beat. Check it out- this just may be the best informational music video since back in ’86, when another doctor taught us all to stroke.

Image via Daily Intel

What happens when you mix dirrrrty, sexxxy hip-hop with Apple computers? One crazy dance party. Bwog staffer Hannah Goldfield elaborates (photos by Hannah Goldfield and Merrell Hambleton).

I first heard Spank Rock while nodding off in the backseat of a friend’s car. Someone had added a few bonus tracks to the end of an otherwise mellow indie mix and we all snapped to attention when suddenly it sounded like an NES had been plugged into the cigarette lighter.

The song was “Rick Rubin,” named after the co-founder of Def Jam–who is credited with inventing “rapcore,” the fusion of hip hop, heavy metal and alt-rock–and sure to bring you straight back to the days of Super Mario Bros. After listening to another–”Bump,” whose brilliant refrain goes, “Behind my Game Boy I got game, girl”–I was hooked. Their full debut album, YoYoYoYoYo, which I got my hands on a few weeks later, did not disappoint.

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Jamal Joseph, the new chair of the School of the Arts film department, apart from being a former Black Panther, Harlem theater stalwart, and all-around artist/activist, also has the unique distinction of having authored a recent biography of slain rapper Tupac Shakur.

Joseph gave Shakur, who made a posthumous $5 million last year, the royal treatment, with his Tupac Shakur Legacy being packaged as an “‘interactive biography,’ with removable reproductions of Tupac’s hadwritten lyrics, notebook pages, personal memorabilia, and a CD featuring rare interviews.”

And, yes, we got this from the CU homepage, and, yes, there is a Q&A with Joseph up on the site.