At the end of the Heavy D & The Boyz track “A Bunch of Niggas” — a monumental cut featuring the Notorious B.I.G., Busta Rhymes, Guru and Rob-O — Heavy defiantly declares that he won’t stop his craft until somebody says, “That nigga Heavy D was rough in his day.” Well, it’s unfortunate that his time was cut so short, but no one can say that Heavy D didn’t get his props. Mr. Big Stuff, born Dwight Myers, was a hip-hop innovator, mixed various styles and spat with the delivery of KRS-One and the lightheartedness of Posdnuos. He was an […]

[Artwork by BIGBOITHOMAS84] Yesterday Mural Arts Program directer Jane Golden announced during a morning press conference at Headhouse Square that a mural of The Roots will be going up on South Street. The exact location remains TBA (somewhere between 3rd and 6th Streets) but the mural is expected to be completed by July of next year. The artist has yet to be selected and Golden encouraged interested parties to submit a proposal. A delighted Mayor Nutter was also in attendance, calling The Roots the “best band in America, if not the world,” and noting that he listens to them every […]

WHYY’s Dave Davies made an unwitting cameo on The Daily Show last night in a don’t-know-whether-to-laugh-or-cry segment wherein Stewart explained that the difference between National Public Radio and conservative talk radio isn’t some bogus right wing/left wing divide. One is legit news for the mild at heart. The other is a toxic distortion of reality for people with hate in their hearts. Fact.  PREVIOUSLY: EXIT INTERVIEW: Dave Davies, A Reporter’s Reporter

NEW YORK TIMES: Joe Paterno’s tenure as coach of the Penn State football team will soon be over, perhaps within days or weeks, in the wake of a sex-abuse scandal that has implicated university officials, according to two people briefed on conversations among the university’s top officials. The board of trustees has yet to determine the precise timing of Paterno’s exit, but it is clear that the man who has more victories than any other coach at college football’s top level and who made Penn State a prestigious national brand will not survive to coach another season. Discussions about how […]

RELATED: Arriving at the Astro, Waits pulls up in a 1985 Suburban, an unlikely ride for a man known for driving cars made before Kennedy was assassinated. “I refuse to call it a Suburban – I call it a Bourbon,” he says. He’s dressed head to toe in dark blue denim, a lived-in pair of boots and his trademark porkpie hat – a rabbit-fur Stetson he bought in Austin while in town for a rare live performance at the recent South By Southwest festival. We head over to the nearby Mission Cafe, an unassuming greasy spoon, for eggs and sausage. […]

BOSTON GLOBE: It didn’t take long for academics to realize punk was interesting?—?that there might be real ideas lurking under the crashing and banging. Before the ’70s were even over, a young cultural theorist from England named Dick Hebdige had published a book called “Subculture: The Meaning of Style,” in which he analyzed punk among working-class youth in Britain, and traced its intellectual roots to avant-garde movements like Situationism and Dada. A handful of other writers took their shots at defining what seemed like an exciting, if brief, cultural moment. Then, instead of burning out, the punk tribe splintered in […]

EDITOR’S  NOTE: Yes, I am one of the ‘celebrity judges’ for tonight’s Literary Death Match at World Cafe Live. Not sure what to expect but in the immortal words of Private Psycho in Stripes: “All I know is, finally I get to kill somebody.” LDM: Ever since our wonderfully raucous LDM Philly debut in May, we’ve been counting the seconds until we could return to the land of cheesesteaks and Brotherly Love for an epic showcase at World Cafe Live with designs on trumping our debut! Join us for a night of revelry in the written and spoken word as four […]

WASHINGTON POST: Sharon Bialek, a Chicago woman who worked at the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s has come forward to say that Herman Cain sexually harassed her while she was looking for a job. In graphic detail, Bialek described an encounter with Cain that happened in July of 1997 in Washington D.C. that left the woman shaken and embarrassed. After being let go by the NRA foundation, Bialek, who had met Cain on several occasions during conferences and at a dinner, reached out to Cain to obtain guidance on getting a new job.?Former Godfather’s Pizza chief executive Herman […]

KEYSTONE PROGRESS: The fate of Pennsylvania and our nation is in your hands. This year’s election has huge implications for our families, our communities, and our Commonwealth. Our goal is to make smart, informed voting based on progressive values easier for you. So we surveyed PA’s leading progressive organizations to produce a Progressive Voter Guide based on their endorsements — one-stop shopping for highly informed recommendations about the races on your ballot. The Progressive Voters Guide identifies the candidates with the most progressive track records in Pennsylvania. We recognize that there are other progressive candidates on the ballot, but we […]