Robert Thomas Christgau is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became an early proponent of musical movements such as hip hop, riot grrrl, and the import of African popular music in the West. He was the chief music critic and senior editor for The Village Voice for 37 years, during which time he created and oversaw the annual Pazz & Jop critics poll. He has also covered popular music for Esquire, Creem, Newsday, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Billboard, NPR, Blender, and MSN Music; he was a visiting arts teacher at New York University. CNN senior writer Jamie Allen has called Christgau "the E. F. Hutton of the music world–when he talks, people listen."
Timothy Jerome Parker, better known by his stage name Gift of Gab, was an American rapper best known for performing in the Bay Area hip hop duo Blackalicious along with DJ Chief Xcel. He was also a member of Quannum Projects, a Bay Area hip hop crew and record label, and performed and recorded as a solo artist.
Pazz & Jop was an annual poll of top musical releases, compiled by American newspaper The Village Voice and created by music critic Robert Christgau. It published lists of the year's top releases for 1971 and, after Christgau's two-year absence from the Voice, each year from 1974 onward. The polls are tabulated from the submitted year-end top 10 lists of hundreds of music critics. It was named in acknowledgement of the defunct magazine Jazz & Pop, and adopted the ratings system used in that publication's annual critics poll.
SoleSides Greatest Bumps is a 2000 compilation album released by Quannum Projects and Ninja Tune. The album was compiled by DJ Shadow and is a retrospective of the work of SoleSides, consisting of material recorded between 1992 and 1997. It was ranked at number 5 on CMJ's 2001 hip-hop chart.
A2G is an EP by American hip hop duo Blackalicious. It was originally released on Quannum Projects in 1999. It peaked at number 21 on the UK Independent Albums Chart.
Lateef Kenneth Daumont, better known by his stage name Lateef the Truthspeaker, or mononymously as Lateef, is an American hip hop artist from Oakland, California. He is a member of several hip hop groups such as Latyrx, Lateef and the Chief, and The Mighty Underdogs. He was a member of the SoleSides collective, and is a founding member of SoleSides' successor crew Quannum Projects.
Nia is the debut studio album by American hip hop duo Blackalicious. It was released in Europe by Mo' Wax on August 30, 1999, and re-released in the United States by Quannum Projects on February 29, 2000, with a slightly altered track listing.
Latyrx is an American alternative hip-hop duo consisting of Lateef the Truthspeaker and Lyrics Born. The partnership grew from the Solesides collective at the University of California, Davis.
Lifesavas is a hip hop group from Portland, Oregon. Their style exhibits tag-team rhymes, matter-of-fact storytelling and a soulful production. The emcee's styles and song writing skills are showcased in the arrangements of a funky collection of subject matter and concepts.
Same !@#$ Different Day is a compilation album by Lyrics Born. It was released on Quannum Projects in 2005. It peaked at number 27 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart, as well as number 28 on the Independent Albums chart.
Later That Day is the debut solo studio album by Lyrics Born. It was released on Quannum Projects in 2003. It peaked at number 40 on the Billboard Independent Albums chart.
The Album is the first studio album by Latyrx, an American hip hop duo consisting of Lateef the Truthspeaker and Lyrics Born. It was released on Solesides in 1997, and it was re-released on Quannum Projects in 2002.
John Kenneth Dust, better known by the stage name Pigeon John, is an American rapper based in Los Angeles, California. He is a former member of L.A. Symphony.
The Mighty Underdogs was an American hip hop supergroup from the San Francisco Bay Area. It consists of rappers Gift of Gab and Lateef the Truthspeaker and producer Headnodic.
Firewire is the debut solo studio album by American hip hop artist Lateef the Truthspeaker. It was released via Quannum Projects on November 8, 2011. Recorded over the course of four months in Oakland, California, it includes contributions from DJ Shadow, Lyrics Born, Del the Funky Homosapien, and Dan the Automator.
General Elektriks is the musical project of French keyboard player, composer, singer, and producer Hervé Salters. He also uses the moniker RV, a contraction of the pronunciation of his first name in French.
The Whitefield Brothers are a German funk band. The band, which consists of brothers Jan and Max Weissenfeldt, was previously known as the "'Poets of Rhythm"' beginning in 1991. Under this name, they were signed to the Quannum Projects label after they were discovered by Lyrics Born. As the Whitefield Brothers, they released their debut album In the Raw in 2001 and their second album, Earthology, in 2010. The making of Earthology took 15 years, and the album received generally favorable reviews from music critics.
Droppin' Science Fiction is the first studio album by The Mighty Underdogs, an American hip hop group consisting of producer Headnodic and rappers Lateef the Truthspeaker and Gift of Gab. It was released by Definitive Jux on October 14, 2008. It peaked at number 50 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart.
Blackalicious was an American hip-hop duo from Sacramento, California, made up of rapper Gift of Gab and DJ/producer Chief Xcel. They are noted for Gift of Gab's often tongue-twisting, multisyllabic, complex rhymes and Chief Xcel's soulful production. The duo released four full-length albums: Nia in 1999, Blazing Arrow in 2002, The Craft in 2005, and Imani Vol. 1 in 2015. Gift of Gab died in June 2021.
Tsutomu William "Tom" Shimura, better known by his stage name Lyrics Born, is a Japanese-American rapper, singer, and producer. He is one half of the duo Latyrx with Lateef the Truthspeaker.
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