Over the last few weeks a couple tracks from Wugazi — a mash-up project of Cecil Otter and Swiss Andy that brings together the hip-hop of the Wu-Tang Clan and the post-punk of Fugazi — have gone viral. Today Wugazi releases the entire album, 13 Chambers, as a free download at www.wugazi.com. It’s what I’ve been listening to today, and it’s fantastic.

I’m puzzled, however, by Rolling Stone‘s brief comment about the project on their Tumblr: “Punk and rap music may seem to be at the opposite ends of the genre spectrum, but the masterminds behind Wugazi – a groundbreaking mash-up project that blends hardcore band Fugazi with the hip-hop of the Wu Tang Clan – are turning this idea on its head.”

Are punk and hip-hop really at “opposite ends of the genre spectrum”? I’m not so sure. I do not listen to a lot of hip-hop, though I should, so I cannot speak as an expert by any means. But a few years back I gave a guest lecture on punk rock and the prophetic for a course at the University of Toronto called “Music, Prophecy and Culture” taught by Brian Walsh. A few weeks later another doctoral student gave a lecture on prophecy and hip-hop. The overlap of the originating impulses of these two “genres” could not be more obvious to those of us in the course. And it seems to me that the speed and excitement with which the Wugazi project “went viral” among fans of both punk and hip-hop suggests that there is more to it than mere mash-up entertainment. For fans of this music, this is not a disorienting mash-up along the lines of George W. Bush singing “Give Peace a Chance.” Something about it makes perfect sense.

I would not want to simply reduce punk and hip-hop to the “same thing,” but I do think Rolling Stone‘s parroting of a slice of the dominant narrative of popular music in relation to “seemingly opposite” genres offers an opportunity to think more deeply and with more complexity about the relationship of punk and hip-hop.

Michael Iafrate
Parkersburg, West Virginia
USA

If your rock and roll bible in the 80′s was Creem Magazine (which it was for me) then you’ll be happy to read this article in the Detroit News heralding its comeback.  Creem started in Detroit, MI and quickly became the national go-to news source for all things rock and roll.  Great writers like Lester Bangs and Dave Marsh cut their music journalism teeth in its pages.  Underground cartoonist R. Crumb created the magazine’s mascot, Boy Howdy.  Anyone remember him?!

Let’s hope it is a triumphant return for Creem and that it sticks around for a long time!

Dave Nantais

Detroit, MI