COMBAT CAPITALISM – THE SHAME OF MAYWEATHER VS MCGREGOR

Posted on July 15, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged Amanda Nunes, athlete, boxe, boxing, brock lesnar, capitalism, combat, combat sports, Conoc McGregor, Dana White, Dimitrius Johnson, entertainment, fight, Floyd Mayweather, George St Pierre, Jay Z, Jon Jones, martial arts, MMA, money, mysogyny, press conference, profit, racism, sexism, sport, sports, toxic masculinity, UFC, wrestling.

by Toby Gill

Content warning – sexism, domestic abuse, racism, two very rich men being awful.

Last night, combat sports enthusiasts of the world gathered around their television sets. At the end of a long day’s work, they sunk into their sofas – remote in one hand, perhaps a Bud in the other. Of course, as they have been saying to their less knowledgeable friends for months, this whole fight is simply a farce. Of course, just like everyone else, they are obviously going to watch it. This week has been the world tour: a series of hugely anticipated pre-fight press conferences. Fans now watch eagerly – just to see if there could be some substance to this fight after all.

What they have been greeted with is a steaming, grotesque, shameless turd-like insult to everything they hold dear.

DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK

Posted on January 22, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged 2016, adele, Amy Winehouse, arts, At The Drive In, Black Sabbath, Bloc Party, Blur, BRIT, charts, comeback, Ed Sheeran, Grime, Guns'n'Roses, James Bay, Jay Z, kanye west, LCD, music, music industry, nostalgia, NWA, pop music, popular music, radio, Sam Smith, Stormzy, Take That, teenage.

by Mike Vinti

We’re barely a month into 2016 yet it’s becoming plain to see the musical trend that’s going to dominate the next twelve months: comebacks.

For as a long as there’s been a history of popular music there have been comebacks, it’s a natural part of the scene. The bands and musicians you idolise as a child and throughout your teenage years hold a special place in your heart and that’s always going to translate into a desire for more music and more shows form those artists; nostalgia is a powerful force.

Of, course, where there’s nostalgia, there’s money. Artists that have been around for longer can charge more for tickets, command larger production budgets and utilise the demand from fans to open doors not available to their more contemporary peers. This is doubly true for those than have been away and come back again. From Blur to Black Sabbath, Take That to Jay-Z, the combination of die-hard fans and risk averse record label execs sets the stage perfectly for a comeback if you’ve been officially out the scene for more than five years. Money and nostalgia, it seems as simple as that, right?Continue Reading

THE WHITE BOY’S GUIDE TO GANGSTA RAP

Posted on August 6, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged America, black america, DMX, Dr Dre, Eminem, gangsta rap, hip hop, Ice Cube, Ice-T, Jay Z, music, music review, Nas, NWA, race, rap, Snoop Dogg, straight outta compton, The Notorious BIG, Tupac, vince staples, Wu Tang Clan.

by Mike Vinti

Since its inception gangsta rap has been a thorn in the side of the establishment. Brash, violent and loud, its explosion in the late 80s and 90s tore up the rule book of hip hop and reshaped the genre in its own image, introducing the world to the harsh reality of life on the streets of black America. With the cinematic release of ‘Straight Outta Compton’ a week away (August 15^th) it only seems fitting to look back at some of gangster rap’s greatest and explore its legacy thirty years on.

Gangsta rap is hip hop’s bratty younger brother, fed on the social conscious rhymes of early hip hop but filled with the anger of a generation excluded from the yuppie party of the eighties. Like punk before it, its church is broad, ranging from the smooth, sun-drenched rhythms of G-Funk, to the hard edged, sample heavy boom bap of Wu Tang Clan. Frequently criticised by those on the left and the right for glorifying violence and misogyny, scapegoated for the prevalence of crime in black communities, and beloved to many a hip hop head, the story of gangsta rap is the story of poverty in America, as relevant to this day as it was back in ’86.Continue Reading

TIDAL ANNOUNCED NEW ELECTION STREAMING SERVICE FT. MUMFORD AND SONS

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Inter|national and tagged Britain, conservative, ge15, general election, government, greens, Jay Z, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Marxist, media, music, music review, politics, satire, UKIP, writing.

by Mike Vinti

On May the 7^th our fair isles will take to the polls. Across this (hopefully) green and pleasant land, the great multi-headed beasts, known to our political class as hard-working families, will be herded into schools and council buildings to cast their vote. It’s going to be, without a doubt, the most anti-climactic, and longest, election of our times. And what’s worse, E4 won’t be on all day.

But there’s good news guys! Jay Z’s new streaming service, Tidal, and your corporate Media overlords have teamed up to bring you a brand spanking new, musical, multi format, interactive #Election2k15!

To a soundtrack of thundering synthetic drums and the beeps of Britain’s metaphorical life support machine, the great shamans of the BBC, Channel 4, ITV and *whisper it* Sky, will debate, debunk and defibrillate #Election2k15: Now That’s What I Call Democracy.Continue Reading

Jay Z

COMBAT CAPITALISM – THE SHAME OF MAYWEATHER VS MCGREGOR

DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK

THE WHITE BOY’S GUIDE TO GANGSTA RAP

TIDAL ANNOUNCED NEW ELECTION STREAMING SERVICE FT. MUMFORD AND SONS

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