“A man never forgets his first barbershop,” Allah says. “The smells, the sounds, the imagery. That’s what I do."
REAL DEAL: GOLDEN-ERA BARBERSHOP LIFE IS ALIVE AND WELL IN ROXBURY
Golden Era
WHEN THE MOB RAN RAP MUSIC IN BOSTON: TDS MOB WAS THE HUB’S FIRST HUGE HIP-HOP HOPE …
I interviewed Kool Gee the day after he rocked Wally’s. At his request, we met at the place where the TDS Mob story begins—the stoop of the old Tower Records on the corner of Newbury Street and Mass Ave. From there, he took me back to 1989, when TDS ran the calendar with a year of rap perfection.
LAWTOWN’S FINEST: THE LYRICAL RISE AND TRAGIC DEATH OF MASS RAP LEGEND SCIENTIFIK
"He was gone before his time ... People didn’t really get to experience his full potential like we did … He was right on the cusp of doing some even bigger stuff musically [that] could have been commercially successful.”
THE UNTOLD STORIES OF HUB HIP-HOP
Like so much history about communities of color, the narrative of Boston hip-hop has been largely buried, ignored, forgotten. Thankfully, there remain innumerable artists, writers, fans, and even academics who, in the storytelling tradition rap music is rooted in, have kept dope alive via marvelous multimedia tributes. This whole package is dedicated to them.
WHEN THE MOB RAN RAP MUSIC IN BOSTON: TDS MOB WAS THE HUB’S FIRST HUGE HIP-HOP HOPE …
I interviewed Kool Gee the day after he rocked Wally’s. At his request, we met at the place where the TDS Mob story begins—the stoop of the old Tower Records on the corner of Newbury Street and Mass Ave. From there, he took me back to 1989, when TDS ran the calendar with a year of rap perfection.
