MIKE D TALKS SAMPLING, DEF JAM'S NOHO HOME

Plus a head's up about my Substack's direction

The last few months has marked a major change in what and when I post on Substack. I started a series of short visual essays where I visit lost or forgotten music locations in New York City. I’ve posted over forty on my YouTube page and have a few that I’ve shot but have yet to post. It’s been a both fun and sobering, since they’ve become a bit of a map of New York’s transformation from a cultural center full of edgy clubs, legendary studios and treasured homes to a land of condos. I would have that half of the sites have been replaced by glass and steel housing that would only charm an architecture student. I’m not saying all the clubs that have are gone were paradises, but most had a scuffy charm in short supply these days.

I’ve also started work on a new non-fiction book. It’s a long overdue look at the ‘80s and ‘90s in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, which housed an incredible collection of black artists who excelled in film, TV, music, comedy, theater, spoken word and rap. I directed a documentary on the area over ten years ago called Brooklyn Boheme and I’m excited to be able to expand on the subject in book form.

What that means is that here at Substack I’ll likely be posting fewer long essays as more of my writing time goes towards the book. I have a couple of longer pieces underway that I’ll be posting soon, but they’ll likely be fewer over the winter as I dig into my long form project. So I wanted to give the people who’ve supported this page a head’s up as we approach the fall.

In the latest post in my Follow the Sound series is a look at 298 Elizabeth Street, which was the home of Def Jam Records and Rush Management in the late ‘80s. It was a place I visited often and have some fun personal stories to tell.

Speaking of Def Jam, in my Legacy series I posted to clips from a lively conversation with the Beastie Boys’ Mike D about records the rap trio sampled and the impact of funk on their sound. We get to see Mike behind the drums as well. Both clips are footage that didn’t make it into the documentary Finding the Funk (which you can rent or buy on Amazon.) More from Mike coming later in the week.