| The Bronx is the cradle
of hip-hop civilization. Afrika Bambaata, Grandmaster Flash
and the Furious Five, The Sugarhill Gang, The Rock Steady
Crew -- all come from, or got their start in, this much
maligned borough that alwasy keeps it real. Or reel, as the
case may be.
Nearly two decades later,
Seanchai and the Unity Squad are performing a brand of
socially-biting rap that can trace its attitude straight
back to Melle Mel firing off :The Message.' They play their
first Bronx gig this Friday at Sam Maguire's, Broadway and
W. 262nd Street.
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| This column is already on
record lauding Byrne and his fellow 'Fenyunz' as instigators
on a bland pop landscape. But when a well-respected vetran
Hot Press journalist singles out your record as Album of the
Year, that's heady stuff.
Eamonn McCann recently
wrote, "Just in the way that the Pogues could have only come
from London, the Unity Squad are made in New York, and look
for rebel inspiration not only back down history but out
wide across the world, which of course is well-represented
within the city limits . . . This is the most now Irish
album for an age, made in the space where 'RA and the rastas
met and apprehending something beyond either or both." High
praise indeed.
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