At the Red Bull Music Academy website, there are lectures in the form of interviews with a variety of hip hop luminaries, mostly producers. The lecture series started in 1998 in Berlin, with its most recent lecture in Toronto earlier last year The interviewers consistently ask great questions, and Jeff Chang, author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, even does a few of the interviews.
The interviewees range from legends like DJ Premier, DJ Red Alert & Hank Shocklee to future legends like Just Blaze, Black Milk and ?uestlove. This site is a goldmine for any real ‘head, definitely worth your time. Lectures are available in text, streaming video form and audio via podcast .
I’ve only watched the Oh No & Black Milk lectures so far, and they’re great.
Here’s a brief explanation of the the Academy off the site itself.
In a nutshell, what is the Red Bull Music Academy?
The Red Bull Music Academy is an event that travels the world. A yearly celebration of all the journeys and breakthroughs, all the dreams and intricacies that go into the music we love. In between checking gear, chatting on tunes, and spinning in clubs, you’ll get a rare glimpse into local musical hybrids in different countries each year. Believe! And in your free time, you can talk to people from around the world who started revolutions in sound. They’re the people we look up to, and they’re looking to you for a fresh perspective in turn.
(Props to Dart at Poisonous Paragraphs for pointing this out to me)
Red Bull Music Academy is such an amazing program. I had the honor of being a part of the 2004 session in Rome. Totally life changing…
DC Hip Hop has a good streak going with 3 participants in the last three sessions. Somebody keep that up!