Honorable Mention From The Dean

Music criticism may be going the way of the CD in the Internet age, as critics no longer have much of a lead on fans in procuring new music, and fans have more platforms than ever to share their opinions directly with each other. We have, alas, become the squeezed-out middlemen. But folks my age […]

New York Magazine “Approves” The Big Payback

I’ve had a number of peak experiences since the release of The Big Payback, some public (like being interviewed on radio and in print) and some more personal (the emails and Tweets and phone calls from friends, family, colleagues and strangers alike). But there’s a special thrill for me in The Big Payback making New […]

Critical Raves for “The Big Payback”

Dan Charnas’ The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop (New American Library, December 7, 2010) is already getting big love from critics: Charnas’ “exhaustive, engrossing history of the genre” is #8 on the “Must List” — Entertainment Weekly “A classic of music business dirt-digging as well as a kind of pulp epic.” […]

Dan Charnas Spotlighted On AtlantaPost.com

“The Big Payback: The History Of The Business Of Hip-Hop” hits the blogs with The Atlanta Post‘s profile, “The Economic Machine Behind Hip-Hop.” Many thanks to Ali Abidi, who had the dubious honor of conducting the first interview that yours truly has done on behalf of the new book. Special thanks to Nazneen Patel for […]

She’s so out there, she’s in there.

Erykah Badu has finally given us a new album, only her third full LP of new music in, oh, eleven years. Now she says she’s learned to use iChat and Garage Band, so she’s got two, maybe three more albums coming this year. “New AmErykah, Pt. 2” in the Spring. Then her alterego “Lowdown Loretta […]