95 North. . . The Newspaper

Lauryn Hill, of Orange County New Jersey, still stands today as one of the greatest female rappers of all time. Her career, which started out with the famed super-group (featuring Wyclef Jean) the Fugees churned out deeply meaningful, soulful hip-hop in songs like  "Killing me Softly ", which explored emotional territory previously unexpressed in mass-selling hip-hop. The Fugees owed much of their success to Hill's talent as a singer, rapper, and musician. She's handy with the guitar, political theory, and theology, a triple-threat of sorts that armed her to compose songs that were confrontational, meditative, and most of all. . . true. Hill built on her success with the Fugees by cutting one of the most critically claimed and essential hip-hop albums of all time, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill , released in 1998 (the golden year of rap? Outkast's Aquemini   was released the same year). Fame did something funny to Lauryn Hill, like it does to so many ot...

Recently, I had the pleasure of listening to an entire John Prine album all the way through (for the first time). You'll be glad to know I came out the other end with a generous feeling- no doubt brought on by the sly humor and gentle tenderness of the songs featured on Fair and Square . There's something incredibly life-affirming about Prine's songs. Whether he is doing so purposely or not, Prine seems to propose that the answer to life challenges is to 1) acknowledge they exist, and 2) laugh about them.  So these songs . . .what've we got?  Prine favors simple, folk and country based arrangements. His vocal delivery is the exact opposite of Bob Dylan's: there's no intensity, but there's also no quiet resignation, either. It's midwestern matter-of-fact that'll blow your mind.  Here are my favorite songs: " The Glory of True Love ": You can have your lunch in London, and your dinner in St. Paul, but no momentary, material...

From the opening fade in at at the beginning  Street Legal , a hazy and humid, hungover morning emerges. America's ragged hero meets us out in the fields, amidst flag banners and ancient pageantry. Bob Dylan is here, declaring that it's been "sixteen years. . . sixteen years ". Indeed, it had been a long sixteen years. Sixteen years since a young Robert Zimmerman put out his first self titled album out in 1962. By the late 1970's, Bob appeared worn, was divorced, and had been spit up and thrown around by the press and the public. He was looking for answers. They'd arrive a year later. However, the questions always come first. The questions and turmoil that lie at the heart of 1978's  Street Legal  make their faces clearly shown on three important tracks: "Changing of the Guards", "Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)", and "Where are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat)". The first track off of Street Legal , "...