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"content": "\u003cp>The new five-part HBO series \u003cem>White House Plumbers,\u003c/em> about the men behind the Watergate break-in, begins just like the movie \u003cem>All the President’s Men:\u003c/em> The time is the early 1970s. The place is the Watergate Hotel and office complex in Washington, D.C., where some mysterious men are trying to gain illegal entry to the Democratic election headquarters there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But all of a sudden, as in some alternate dimensional timeline, the familiar details stop being familiar. The would-be burglars can’t even pick the door lock — and a superimposed message explains the confusing difference to viewers. It reads: “There were four Watergate break-in attempts. This was attempt number two.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13928385']Right away, you know this new \u003cem>White House Plumbers \u003c/em>series is in great hands. Specifically, it’s in the hands of writers and creators Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck, both of whom worked on HBO’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/05/08/721427745/veep-draws-to-a-close-its-freewheeling-cynicism-still-a-delight\">\u003cem>Veep\u003c/em> \u003c/a>and \u003cem>The Larry Sanders Show\u003c/em>. The director of multiple episodes is David Mandel, who directed episodes of \u003cem>Veep \u003c/em>and \u003cem>Curb Your Enthusiasm\u003c/em>. And the many executive producers include \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2017/04/26/525575857/veep-executive-producer-on-making-a-show-about-the-craven-desire-for-power\">Frank Rich\u003c/a>, who’s also an executive producer on \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/series/1045640636/succession-recaps\">\u003cem>Succession\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. So this group knows how to tell a story in unexpected ways, and to find the humor even in the more serious situations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After starting with that less familiar Watergate break-in, \u003cem>White House Plumbers\u003c/em> flashes back even further, to the moment when the Plumbers were formed, and then takes it forward from there, through the various break-ins, and to the Watergate hearings and a bit beyond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuKM2sTTmHg\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The principals in this particular telling of the story are \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2007/01/23/6969249/watergate-figure-e-howard-hunt-dies-at-88\">E. Howard Hunt\u003c/a>, played by Woody Harrelson, and G. Gordon Liddy, played by Justin Theroux. These two larger-than-life schemers were at the heart of the Plumbers, a clandestine group created by the White House to investigate such press leaks as the Pentagon Papers, government documents that had been slipped to \u003cem>The New York Times\u003c/em> and other papers by military analyst \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/01/19/579101965/daniel-ellsberg-explains-why-he-leaked-the-pentagon-papers\">Daniel Ellsberg\u003c/a>. They were called the Plumbers because, well, plumbers locate and stop leaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hunt and Liddy partner and set out to, among other things, bug the Democratic National Committee headquarters. It’s not quite a \u003cem>Mission: Impossible,\u003c/em> but in the hands of this crew, it takes several tries, and even then, after listening devices are planted, there are problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13927815']The dialogue is rich throughout \u003cem>White House Plumbers, \u003c/em>and so are the performances and characters. Harrelson is wonderful — exploding like Ralph Kramden one minute, simmering like Macbeth the next — and the supporting cast is a very deep bench, serving up unexpected treasures every episode. There’s\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2016/10/16/497974017/its-very-lonely-kathleen-turner-stars-as-joan-didion-in-magical-thinking\"> Kathleen Turner \u003c/a>as lobbyist Dita Beard! And \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2016/02/06/465726353/not-my-job-we-quiz-lena-headey-on-games-worse-than-game-of-thrones\">Lena Headey \u003c/a>from \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/series/1041961732/game-of-thrones-recaps\">\u003cem>Game of Thrones\u003c/em>\u003c/a> as Hunt’s wife, Dorothy! And \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2016/05/12/477786807/actor-gary-cole-on-veep-and-why-office-space-endures\">Gary Cole\u003c/a> as FBI executive \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2017/09/28/553434688/in-mark-felt-the-man-who-brought-down-the-white-house-deep-throat-isnt-so-deep\">Mark Felt\u003c/a> – who, though he’s not identified as such here, in real life was the infamous Deep Throat of \u003cem>All the President’s Men. \u003c/em>And lots, lots more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parts of \u003cem>White House Plumbers \u003c/em>are laugh-out-loud outrageous — but other parts do make you feel for some of these people, and, of course, compare that scandal to more contemporary ones. It’s definitely worth seeing, and savoring. \u003cem>All the President’s Men\u003c/em> is one of my favorite movies of all time — and \u003cem>White House Plumbers\u003c/em> is good enough to be shown as a very long, all-Watergate double feature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 Fresh Air. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/\">Fresh Air\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27White+House+Plumbers%27+puts+a+laugh-out-loud+spin+on+the+Watergate+break-in&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The dialogue is rich throughout \u003cem>White House Plumbers, \u003c/em>and so are the performances and characters. Harrelson is wonderful — exploding like Ralph Kramden one minute, simmering like Macbeth the next — and the supporting cast is a very deep bench, serving up unexpected treasures every episode. There’s\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2016/10/16/497974017/its-very-lonely-kathleen-turner-stars-as-joan-didion-in-magical-thinking\"> Kathleen Turner \u003c/a>as lobbyist Dita Beard! And \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2016/02/06/465726353/not-my-job-we-quiz-lena-headey-on-games-worse-than-game-of-thrones\">Lena Headey \u003c/a>from \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/series/1041961732/game-of-thrones-recaps\">\u003cem>Game of Thrones\u003c/em>\u003c/a> as Hunt’s wife, Dorothy! And \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2016/05/12/477786807/actor-gary-cole-on-veep-and-why-office-space-endures\">Gary Cole\u003c/a> as FBI executive \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2017/09/28/553434688/in-mark-felt-the-man-who-brought-down-the-white-house-deep-throat-isnt-so-deep\">Mark Felt\u003c/a> – who, though he’s not identified as such here, in real life was the infamous Deep Throat of \u003cem>All the President’s Men. \u003c/em>And lots, lots more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parts of \u003cem>White House Plumbers \u003c/em>are laugh-out-loud outrageous — but other parts do make you feel for some of these people, and, of course, compare that scandal to more contemporary ones. It’s definitely worth seeing, and savoring. \u003cem>All the President’s Men\u003c/em> is one of my favorite movies of all time — and \u003cem>White House Plumbers\u003c/em> is good enough to be shown as a very long, all-Watergate double feature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 Fresh Air. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/\">Fresh Air\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27White+House+Plumbers%27+puts+a+laugh-out-loud+spin+on+the+Watergate+break-in&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A New ‘Fatal Attraction’ is Definitely Aware of Your Critiques of the Original",
"headTitle": "A New ‘Fatal Attraction’ is Definitely Aware of Your Critiques of the Original | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Fatal Attraction\u003c/em>, Adrian Lyne’s 1987 blockbuster that spawned an untold number of pre-internet memes and feminist theory academic papers, ostensibly concludes with the hetero nuclear family restored to its “natural” state: The manic, very unwell homewrecker Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) has been shot dead out of self-defense by Beth (Anne Archer), the wronged wife of Alex’s one-time fling Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas). The final scene has police taking Dan’s statement and an image of a family portrait of the Gallaghers with their young daughter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But an eight-episode series “reimagining” of the movie, created by Alexandra Cunningham and premiering Sunday on Paramount+, wonders: What if things had gone differently? What if we better understood what drove Alex to become unhealthily obsessed with Dan? What if we got Beth’s side of the story? What if Dan \u003cem>really\u003c/em> had to atone for his affair gone awry?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928389\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928389\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fa_102_mm_0725_0010_rt-8cc620eb0d8b519923565ccb215f2a4dd02e046d-1-scaled-e1682620072240-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A white man with pale skin and unkempt hair sits at a cafe table, hands clasped together and looks up.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fa_102_mm_0725_0010_rt-8cc620eb0d8b519923565ccb215f2a4dd02e046d-1-scaled-e1682620072240-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fa_102_mm_0725_0010_rt-8cc620eb0d8b519923565ccb215f2a4dd02e046d-1-scaled-e1682620072240-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fa_102_mm_0725_0010_rt-8cc620eb0d8b519923565ccb215f2a4dd02e046d-1-scaled-e1682620072240-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fa_102_mm_0725_0010_rt-8cc620eb0d8b519923565ccb215f2a4dd02e046d-1-scaled-e1682620072240-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fa_102_mm_0725_0010_rt-8cc620eb0d8b519923565ccb215f2a4dd02e046d-1-scaled-e1682620072240-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fa_102_mm_0725_0010_rt-8cc620eb0d8b519923565ccb215f2a4dd02e046d-1-scaled-e1682620072240.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The reimagining of the 1987 blockbuster takes a different approach, with Dan (Joshua Jackson) trying to clear his name. \u003ccite>(Michael Moriatis/Paramount+)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So many “what ifs”; so little necessity for them to be answered in the form of an uninspired reheat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='pop_105090']Creatives attempting to modernize a fraught cultural touchstone often like to \u003ca href=\"https://manabouttown.tv/products/joshua-jackson-covers-man-about-towns-winter-spring-2022-23-issue\">wield their primary source’s outdatedness\u003c/a> as a shield against critiques of unoriginality, to the point where it’s become a full-on Hollywood cliché. Disney \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/27/movies/aladdin-disney-diversity.html\">established an entirely new genre\u003c/a> using this tactic, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/01/22/1074399208/and-just-like-that-has-a-diversity-girlfriend-problem\">plenty of other\u003c/a> franchises have done it, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Fatal Attraction \u003c/em>2.0, which stars Joshua Jackson as Dan the family man who strays, and Lizzy Caplan as Alex the scorned and unwell woman, likewise tries really hard to mount an enlightened case for its existence. It opens in the present day, with a grizzled Dan up for parole after serving 15 years in prison for murdering Alex. (He’s extremely contrite: “I chose to take her life … I’ve come to atone,” he tells the parole board.) It also moves the action away from Reagan-era New York into early Obama-era Los Angeles and juggles multiple timelines. (Because, of course, we must have a therapy-tinged understanding of our leads’ troubled origins.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yet like so many others of its ilk, \u003cem>Fatal Attraction\u003c/em> can’t overcome the sense of reboot fatigue it inherently emits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D4XI66Vd3E\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan’s remorseful speech to that parole board is convincing enough, and he’s back out in the world, ready to rejoin society and attempt to reconnect with his ex-wife Beth (Amanda Peet) and now college-aged daughter Ellen (Alyssa Jirrels), who was just a kid when all the chaos with Alex went down. But also he “didn’t kill that woman,” he will later insist, “and I’m going to prove it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ah, yes — it’s worth noting that \u003cem>Fatal Attraction \u003c/em>is also a procedural of sorts, as Dan attempts to clear his name with the assistance of his mentor and friend Mike Gerard (Toby Huss, bringing welcomed comedic relief), a retired detective. The other major plot thread in this web of deceit takes us back some 15 years earlier, as the script traces Dan’s downfall from a respected criminal attorney to a convicted felon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13897161']Jackson and Caplan are actually well-suited for what the creators seem to be going for; he’s the ideal vessel for a version of Dan who embodies the hypocrisy of the “nice guy” (as opposed to the smarmy nature of Michael Douglas’ performance) and she’s great at rendering Alex’s mental instability as subtler and more grounded than Glenn Close’s interpretation. On paper, it checks off many of the progressive boxes: Dan’s willingness to avoid consequences for his actions at any cost is scrutinized, the criminal justice system is (somewhat) critiqued, and Alex isn’t outright dismissed as a “crazy” person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unfortunate that the show relies so heavily upon wringing drama and suspense out of Alex’s demise — perhaps a byproduct of our current era’s obsession with crime and murder narratives. This being a miniseries rather than a tight two-hour drama, there’s more time to sit with these characters (and many more) and get multiple versions of the same experiences, and yet that also means much of the runtime lacks the immediacy and chaotic energy that pulsated throughout the original film. (This is barely a spoiler, but no bunny is boiled, though Caplan’s Alex does far more sinister things in her quest for Dan’s affections. Nor is there an overwrought sex scene in an antique elevator — what little heat that is had between Dan and Alex will hardly satiate those who have complained about Hollywood’s relative onscreen abstinence.) This isn’t an erotic thriller so much as a mildly spicy murder mystery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928390\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928390\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fatal-c33b8855a60fab3357f7e85f7a9597eb65f1d60b-scaled-e1682620185828-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A pale woman sits in a courtroom, face impassive.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fatal-c33b8855a60fab3357f7e85f7a9597eb65f1d60b-scaled-e1682620185828-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fatal-c33b8855a60fab3357f7e85f7a9597eb65f1d60b-scaled-e1682620185828-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fatal-c33b8855a60fab3357f7e85f7a9597eb65f1d60b-scaled-e1682620185828-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fatal-c33b8855a60fab3357f7e85f7a9597eb65f1d60b-scaled-e1682620185828-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fatal-c33b8855a60fab3357f7e85f7a9597eb65f1d60b-scaled-e1682620185828-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fatal-c33b8855a60fab3357f7e85f7a9597eb65f1d60b-scaled-e1682620185828.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The eight-episodes series wonders what if things had gone differently? \u003ccite>(Monty Brinton/Paramount+)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The show ultimately collapses under the weight of a convoluted reveal and an utterly preposterous ending that seems designed to serve as a cliffhanger for a possible second season — for what reason, I couldn’t possibly tell you. That conclusion also completely undermines any modern sensibilities and empathy the show intended to bestow upon Alex throughout the previous seven episodes. By the time the credits rolled, all I could wonder was: What was the point of all of that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As has been pointed out many times before — \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2012/10/17/162895778/two-very-different-working-women-at-the-movies-25-years-ago-this-week\">including by my colleague Linda Holmes\u003c/a> — movies like \u003cem>Fatal Attraction \u003c/em>make for an interesting experience partly because they so obviously emerge from larger collective anxieties of their time. In the case of the 1987 version, it played as a cautionary tale and did somewhat accurately reflect (and reinforce) a certain mainstream perspective about gender and sexuality, however sexist and conservative it was at the time. In 2023, it’s hard to place what fears this new \u003cem>Fatal Attraction \u003c/em>seeks to address. Maybe it’s the fear of telling a story about a straight white guy facing the consequences of his actions without the safety net of an established IP. But that’s hardly interesting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=A+new+%27Fatal+Attraction%27+is+definitely+aware+of+your+critiques+of+the+original&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Fatal Attraction\u003c/em>, Adrian Lyne’s 1987 blockbuster that spawned an untold number of pre-internet memes and feminist theory academic papers, ostensibly concludes with the hetero nuclear family restored to its “natural” state: The manic, very unwell homewrecker Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) has been shot dead out of self-defense by Beth (Anne Archer), the wronged wife of Alex’s one-time fling Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas). The final scene has police taking Dan’s statement and an image of a family portrait of the Gallaghers with their young daughter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But an eight-episode series “reimagining” of the movie, created by Alexandra Cunningham and premiering Sunday on Paramount+, wonders: What if things had gone differently? What if we better understood what drove Alex to become unhealthily obsessed with Dan? What if we got Beth’s side of the story? What if Dan \u003cem>really\u003c/em> had to atone for his affair gone awry?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928389\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928389\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fa_102_mm_0725_0010_rt-8cc620eb0d8b519923565ccb215f2a4dd02e046d-1-scaled-e1682620072240-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A white man with pale skin and unkempt hair sits at a cafe table, hands clasped together and looks up.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fa_102_mm_0725_0010_rt-8cc620eb0d8b519923565ccb215f2a4dd02e046d-1-scaled-e1682620072240-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fa_102_mm_0725_0010_rt-8cc620eb0d8b519923565ccb215f2a4dd02e046d-1-scaled-e1682620072240-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fa_102_mm_0725_0010_rt-8cc620eb0d8b519923565ccb215f2a4dd02e046d-1-scaled-e1682620072240-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fa_102_mm_0725_0010_rt-8cc620eb0d8b519923565ccb215f2a4dd02e046d-1-scaled-e1682620072240-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fa_102_mm_0725_0010_rt-8cc620eb0d8b519923565ccb215f2a4dd02e046d-1-scaled-e1682620072240-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fa_102_mm_0725_0010_rt-8cc620eb0d8b519923565ccb215f2a4dd02e046d-1-scaled-e1682620072240.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The reimagining of the 1987 blockbuster takes a different approach, with Dan (Joshua Jackson) trying to clear his name. \u003ccite>(Michael Moriatis/Paramount+)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So many “what ifs”; so little necessity for them to be answered in the form of an uninspired reheat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Creatives attempting to modernize a fraught cultural touchstone often like to \u003ca href=\"https://manabouttown.tv/products/joshua-jackson-covers-man-about-towns-winter-spring-2022-23-issue\">wield their primary source’s outdatedness\u003c/a> as a shield against critiques of unoriginality, to the point where it’s become a full-on Hollywood cliché. Disney \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/27/movies/aladdin-disney-diversity.html\">established an entirely new genre\u003c/a> using this tactic, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/01/22/1074399208/and-just-like-that-has-a-diversity-girlfriend-problem\">plenty of other\u003c/a> franchises have done it, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Fatal Attraction \u003c/em>2.0, which stars Joshua Jackson as Dan the family man who strays, and Lizzy Caplan as Alex the scorned and unwell woman, likewise tries really hard to mount an enlightened case for its existence. It opens in the present day, with a grizzled Dan up for parole after serving 15 years in prison for murdering Alex. (He’s extremely contrite: “I chose to take her life … I’ve come to atone,” he tells the parole board.) It also moves the action away from Reagan-era New York into early Obama-era Los Angeles and juggles multiple timelines. (Because, of course, we must have a therapy-tinged understanding of our leads’ troubled origins.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yet like so many others of its ilk, \u003cem>Fatal Attraction\u003c/em> can’t overcome the sense of reboot fatigue it inherently emits.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/5D4XI66Vd3E'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/5D4XI66Vd3E'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Dan’s remorseful speech to that parole board is convincing enough, and he’s back out in the world, ready to rejoin society and attempt to reconnect with his ex-wife Beth (Amanda Peet) and now college-aged daughter Ellen (Alyssa Jirrels), who was just a kid when all the chaos with Alex went down. But also he “didn’t kill that woman,” he will later insist, “and I’m going to prove it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ah, yes — it’s worth noting that \u003cem>Fatal Attraction \u003c/em>is also a procedural of sorts, as Dan attempts to clear his name with the assistance of his mentor and friend Mike Gerard (Toby Huss, bringing welcomed comedic relief), a retired detective. The other major plot thread in this web of deceit takes us back some 15 years earlier, as the script traces Dan’s downfall from a respected criminal attorney to a convicted felon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Jackson and Caplan are actually well-suited for what the creators seem to be going for; he’s the ideal vessel for a version of Dan who embodies the hypocrisy of the “nice guy” (as opposed to the smarmy nature of Michael Douglas’ performance) and she’s great at rendering Alex’s mental instability as subtler and more grounded than Glenn Close’s interpretation. On paper, it checks off many of the progressive boxes: Dan’s willingness to avoid consequences for his actions at any cost is scrutinized, the criminal justice system is (somewhat) critiqued, and Alex isn’t outright dismissed as a “crazy” person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unfortunate that the show relies so heavily upon wringing drama and suspense out of Alex’s demise — perhaps a byproduct of our current era’s obsession with crime and murder narratives. This being a miniseries rather than a tight two-hour drama, there’s more time to sit with these characters (and many more) and get multiple versions of the same experiences, and yet that also means much of the runtime lacks the immediacy and chaotic energy that pulsated throughout the original film. (This is barely a spoiler, but no bunny is boiled, though Caplan’s Alex does far more sinister things in her quest for Dan’s affections. Nor is there an overwrought sex scene in an antique elevator — what little heat that is had between Dan and Alex will hardly satiate those who have complained about Hollywood’s relative onscreen abstinence.) This isn’t an erotic thriller so much as a mildly spicy murder mystery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928390\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928390\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fatal-c33b8855a60fab3357f7e85f7a9597eb65f1d60b-scaled-e1682620185828-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A pale woman sits in a courtroom, face impassive.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fatal-c33b8855a60fab3357f7e85f7a9597eb65f1d60b-scaled-e1682620185828-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fatal-c33b8855a60fab3357f7e85f7a9597eb65f1d60b-scaled-e1682620185828-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fatal-c33b8855a60fab3357f7e85f7a9597eb65f1d60b-scaled-e1682620185828-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fatal-c33b8855a60fab3357f7e85f7a9597eb65f1d60b-scaled-e1682620185828-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fatal-c33b8855a60fab3357f7e85f7a9597eb65f1d60b-scaled-e1682620185828-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/fatal-c33b8855a60fab3357f7e85f7a9597eb65f1d60b-scaled-e1682620185828.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The eight-episodes series wonders what if things had gone differently? \u003ccite>(Monty Brinton/Paramount+)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The show ultimately collapses under the weight of a convoluted reveal and an utterly preposterous ending that seems designed to serve as a cliffhanger for a possible second season — for what reason, I couldn’t possibly tell you. That conclusion also completely undermines any modern sensibilities and empathy the show intended to bestow upon Alex throughout the previous seven episodes. By the time the credits rolled, all I could wonder was: What was the point of all of that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As has been pointed out many times before — \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2012/10/17/162895778/two-very-different-working-women-at-the-movies-25-years-ago-this-week\">including by my colleague Linda Holmes\u003c/a> — movies like \u003cem>Fatal Attraction \u003c/em>make for an interesting experience partly because they so obviously emerge from larger collective anxieties of their time. In the case of the 1987 version, it played as a cautionary tale and did somewhat accurately reflect (and reinforce) a certain mainstream perspective about gender and sexuality, however sexist and conservative it was at the time. In 2023, it’s hard to place what fears this new \u003cem>Fatal Attraction \u003c/em>seeks to address. Maybe it’s the fear of telling a story about a straight white guy facing the consequences of his actions without the safety net of an established IP. But that’s hardly interesting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=A+new+%27Fatal+Attraction%27+is+definitely+aware+of+your+critiques+of+the+original&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Jerry Springer, the onetime mayor and news anchor whose namesake TV show featured a three-ring circus of dysfunctional families willing to bare all on weekday afternoons including brawls, obscenities and blurred images of nudity, died Thursday at 79.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At its peak, “The Jerry Springer Show” was a ratings powerhouse and a U.S. cultural pariah, synonymous with lurid drama. Known for chair-throwing and bleep-filled arguments, the daytime talk show was a favorite American guilty pleasure over its 27-year run, at one point topping Oprah Winfrey’s show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Springer called it “escapist entertainment,” while others saw the show as contributing to a dumbing-down decline in American social values.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Jerry’s ability to connect with people was at the heart of his success in everything he tried whether that was politics, broadcasting or just joking with people on the street who wanted a photo or a word,” said Jene Galvin, a family spokesperson and friend of Springer’s since 1970, in a statement. “He’s irreplaceable and his loss hurts immensely, but memories of his intellect, heart and humor will live on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Springer died peacefully at home in suburban Chicago after a brief illness, the statement said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On his Twitter profile, Springer jokingly declared himself as “Talk show host, ringmaster of civilization’s end.” He also often had told people, tongue in cheek, that his wish for them was “may you never be on my show.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After more than 4,000 episodes, the show ended in 2018, never straying from its core salaciousness: Some of its last episodes had such titles as “Stripper Sex Turned Me Straight,” “Stop Pimpin’ My Twin Sister,” and “Hooking Up With My Therapist.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a “Too Hot For TV” video released as his daily show neared 7 million viewers in the late 1990s, Springer offered a defense against disgust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Look, television does not and must not create values, it’s merely a picture of all that’s out there — the good, the bad, the ugly,” Springer said, adding: “Believe this: The politicians and companies that seek to control what each of us may watch are a far greater danger to America and our treasured freedom than any of our guests ever were or could be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also contended that the people on his show volunteered to be subjected to whatever ridicule or humiliation awaited them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928367\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ezgif-4-279a866730-800x540.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"540\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928367\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ezgif-4-279a866730-800x540.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ezgif-4-279a866730-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ezgif-4-279a866730-768x518.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ezgif-4-279a866730.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Springer greets supporters at a rally on Fountain Square in Cincinnati, Ohio on June 3, 1982. \u003ccite>(Associated Press)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gerald Norman Springer was born Feb. 13, 1944, in a London underground railway station being used as a bomb shelter. His parents, Richard and Margot, were German Jews who fled to England during the Holocaust, in which other relatives were killed in Nazi gas chambers. They arrived in the United States when their son was 5 and settled in the Queens borough of New York City, where Springer got his first Yankees baseball gear on his way to becoming a lifelong fan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He studied political science at Tulane University and got a law degree from Northwestern University. He was active in politics much of his adult life, mulling a run for governor of Ohio as recently as 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He entered the arena as an aide in Robert F. Kennedy’s ill-fated 1968 presidential campaign. Springer, working for a Cincinnati law firm, ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1970 before being elected to city council in 1971.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1974 — in what The Cincinnati Enquirer reported as “an abrupt move that shook Cincinnati’s political community” — Springer resigned. He cited “very personal family considerations,” but what he didn’t mention was a vice probe involving prostitution. In a subsequent admission that could have been the basis for one of his future shows, Springer said he had paid prostitutes with personal checks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then 30, he had married Micki Velton the previous year. The couple had a daughter, Katie, and divorced in 1994.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Springer quickly bounced back politically, winning a council seat in 1975 and serving as mayor in 1977. He later became a local television politics reporter with popular evening commentaries. He and co-anchor Norma Rashid eventually helped build NBC affiliate WLWT-TV’s broadcast into the Cincinnati market’s top-rated news show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Springer began his talk show in 1991 with more of a traditional format, but after he left WLWT in 1993, it got a sleazy makeover.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TV Guide ranked it No. 1 on a list of “Worst Shows in the History of Television,” but it was ratings gold. It made Springer a celebrity who would go on to host a liberal radio talk show and “America’s Got Talent,” star in a movie called “Ringmaster,” and compete on “Dancing With the Stars.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928366\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ezgif-4-b5eb5fd9cf-800x550.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"550\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928366\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ezgif-4-b5eb5fd9cf-800x550.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ezgif-4-b5eb5fd9cf-160x110.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ezgif-4-b5eb5fd9cf-768x528.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ezgif-4-b5eb5fd9cf.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Talk-show host Jerry Springer rehearses dance steps with partner Kym Johnson at a dance studio in Chicago on Aug. 25, 2006, as he prepares for his appearance on the celebrity competition show ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ \u003ccite>(Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“With all the joking I do with the show, I’m fully aware and thank God every day that my life has taken this incredible turn because of this silly show,” Springer told Cincinnati Enquirer media reporter John Kiesewetter in 2011.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well in advance of Donald Trump’s political rise from reality TV stardom, Springer mulled a Senate run in 2003 that he surmised could draw on “nontraditional voters,” people “who believe most politics are bull.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I connect with a whole bunch of people who probably connect more to me right now than to a traditional politician,” Springer told the AP at the time. He opposed the war on Iraq and favored expanding public healthcare, but ultimately did not run.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Springer also spoke often of the country he came to age 5 as “a beacon of light for the rest of world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have no other motivation but to say I love this country,” Springer said to a Democratic gathering in 2003.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Springer hosted a nationally syndicated “Judge Jerry” show in 2019 and continued to speak out on whatever was on his mind in a podcast, but his power to shock had dimmed in the new era of reality television and combative cable TV talk shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was lapped not only by other programs but by real life,” David Bianculli, a television historian and professor at Monmouth University, said in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the limits Springer’s show put on his political aspirations, he embraced its legacy. In a 2003 fund-raising infomercial ahead of a possible U.S. Senate run the following year, Springer referenced a quote by then National Review commentator Jonah Goldberg, who warned of new people brought to the polls by Springer, including “slack-jawed yokels, hicks, weirdos, pervs and whatnots.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the informercial, Springer referred to the quote and talked about wanting to reach out to “regular folks … who weren’t born with a silver spoon in your mouth.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Jerry Springer, the onetime mayor and news anchor whose namesake TV show featured a three-ring circus of dysfunctional families willing to bare all on weekday afternoons including brawls, obscenities and blurred images of nudity, died Thursday at 79.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At its peak, “The Jerry Springer Show” was a ratings powerhouse and a U.S. cultural pariah, synonymous with lurid drama. Known for chair-throwing and bleep-filled arguments, the daytime talk show was a favorite American guilty pleasure over its 27-year run, at one point topping Oprah Winfrey’s show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Springer called it “escapist entertainment,” while others saw the show as contributing to a dumbing-down decline in American social values.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Jerry’s ability to connect with people was at the heart of his success in everything he tried whether that was politics, broadcasting or just joking with people on the street who wanted a photo or a word,” said Jene Galvin, a family spokesperson and friend of Springer’s since 1970, in a statement. “He’s irreplaceable and his loss hurts immensely, but memories of his intellect, heart and humor will live on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Springer died peacefully at home in suburban Chicago after a brief illness, the statement said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On his Twitter profile, Springer jokingly declared himself as “Talk show host, ringmaster of civilization’s end.” He also often had told people, tongue in cheek, that his wish for them was “may you never be on my show.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After more than 4,000 episodes, the show ended in 2018, never straying from its core salaciousness: Some of its last episodes had such titles as “Stripper Sex Turned Me Straight,” “Stop Pimpin’ My Twin Sister,” and “Hooking Up With My Therapist.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a “Too Hot For TV” video released as his daily show neared 7 million viewers in the late 1990s, Springer offered a defense against disgust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Look, television does not and must not create values, it’s merely a picture of all that’s out there — the good, the bad, the ugly,” Springer said, adding: “Believe this: The politicians and companies that seek to control what each of us may watch are a far greater danger to America and our treasured freedom than any of our guests ever were or could be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also contended that the people on his show volunteered to be subjected to whatever ridicule or humiliation awaited them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928367\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ezgif-4-279a866730-800x540.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"540\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928367\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ezgif-4-279a866730-800x540.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ezgif-4-279a866730-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ezgif-4-279a866730-768x518.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ezgif-4-279a866730.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Springer greets supporters at a rally on Fountain Square in Cincinnati, Ohio on June 3, 1982. \u003ccite>(Associated Press)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gerald Norman Springer was born Feb. 13, 1944, in a London underground railway station being used as a bomb shelter. His parents, Richard and Margot, were German Jews who fled to England during the Holocaust, in which other relatives were killed in Nazi gas chambers. They arrived in the United States when their son was 5 and settled in the Queens borough of New York City, where Springer got his first Yankees baseball gear on his way to becoming a lifelong fan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He studied political science at Tulane University and got a law degree from Northwestern University. He was active in politics much of his adult life, mulling a run for governor of Ohio as recently as 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He entered the arena as an aide in Robert F. Kennedy’s ill-fated 1968 presidential campaign. Springer, working for a Cincinnati law firm, ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1970 before being elected to city council in 1971.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1974 — in what The Cincinnati Enquirer reported as “an abrupt move that shook Cincinnati’s political community” — Springer resigned. He cited “very personal family considerations,” but what he didn’t mention was a vice probe involving prostitution. In a subsequent admission that could have been the basis for one of his future shows, Springer said he had paid prostitutes with personal checks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then 30, he had married Micki Velton the previous year. The couple had a daughter, Katie, and divorced in 1994.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Springer quickly bounced back politically, winning a council seat in 1975 and serving as mayor in 1977. He later became a local television politics reporter with popular evening commentaries. He and co-anchor Norma Rashid eventually helped build NBC affiliate WLWT-TV’s broadcast into the Cincinnati market’s top-rated news show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Springer began his talk show in 1991 with more of a traditional format, but after he left WLWT in 1993, it got a sleazy makeover.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TV Guide ranked it No. 1 on a list of “Worst Shows in the History of Television,” but it was ratings gold. It made Springer a celebrity who would go on to host a liberal radio talk show and “America’s Got Talent,” star in a movie called “Ringmaster,” and compete on “Dancing With the Stars.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928366\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ezgif-4-b5eb5fd9cf-800x550.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"550\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928366\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ezgif-4-b5eb5fd9cf-800x550.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ezgif-4-b5eb5fd9cf-160x110.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ezgif-4-b5eb5fd9cf-768x528.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ezgif-4-b5eb5fd9cf.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Talk-show host Jerry Springer rehearses dance steps with partner Kym Johnson at a dance studio in Chicago on Aug. 25, 2006, as he prepares for his appearance on the celebrity competition show ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ \u003ccite>(Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“With all the joking I do with the show, I’m fully aware and thank God every day that my life has taken this incredible turn because of this silly show,” Springer told Cincinnati Enquirer media reporter John Kiesewetter in 2011.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well in advance of Donald Trump’s political rise from reality TV stardom, Springer mulled a Senate run in 2003 that he surmised could draw on “nontraditional voters,” people “who believe most politics are bull.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I connect with a whole bunch of people who probably connect more to me right now than to a traditional politician,” Springer told the AP at the time. He opposed the war on Iraq and favored expanding public healthcare, but ultimately did not run.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Springer also spoke often of the country he came to age 5 as “a beacon of light for the rest of world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have no other motivation but to say I love this country,” Springer said to a Democratic gathering in 2003.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Springer hosted a nationally syndicated “Judge Jerry” show in 2019 and continued to speak out on whatever was on his mind in a podcast, but his power to shock had dimmed in the new era of reality television and combative cable TV talk shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was lapped not only by other programs but by real life,” David Bianculli, a television historian and professor at Monmouth University, said in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the limits Springer’s show put on his political aspirations, he embraced its legacy. In a 2003 fund-raising infomercial ahead of a possible U.S. Senate run the following year, Springer referenced a quote by then National Review commentator Jonah Goldberg, who warned of new people brought to the polls by Springer, including “slack-jawed yokels, hicks, weirdos, pervs and whatnots.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the informercial, Springer referred to the quote and talked about wanting to reach out to “regular folks … who weren’t born with a silver spoon in your mouth.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Danny Masterson’s Rape Retrial: Key Things to Know",
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"content": "\u003cp>Five months after a deadlocked jury led to a mistrial for actor Danny Masterson, the former star of \u003cem>That ’70s Show\u003c/em> is on trial again in a Los Angeles court. Masterson is accused of raping three women between 2001 and 2003. He could get 45 years in prison if convicted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are the key elements, characters and issues that will factor into the retrial.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Direct discussion of drugging\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13908728']A judge is now allowing the prosecution to say directly that Masterson drugged all three women before raping them, in what may be the biggest difference from the first trial. Previously, the drugging could only be implied when the women testified to feeling disoriented, losing memory and going unconscious to a degree that could not be explained by the alcohol they had consumed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In opening statements Monday, Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller said all three women had consumed drinks Masterson had given them, and that the “evidence will show that they were drugged.” The defense says there is no such evidence beyond the women’s stories. And defense attorney Philip Cohen made clear to jurors that “there is no drugging charge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>New role for Scientology\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Church of Scientology loomed large at Masterson’s trial. It could loom larger still in his retrial, with Judge Charlaine Olmedo allowing expert testimony on Scientology that she denied the first time.\u003cbr>\nMasterson is a prominent member of the church. All three of his accusers are former members who grew disillusioned with the institution in the aftermath of their alleged assaults, saying that church officials told them what had happened to them was not rape, and that its policies prevented them from going to police. The church vehemently denied having any such policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two opposing experts set to testify embody the stark cultural divides the church sometimes creates. The prosecution’s expert, Claire Headley, is a former official in Scientology’s leadership group, known as the Sea Org, who became a staunch church foe, suing it in 2009 over her experience. The defense’s expert is Hugh Martin Whitt, a current high-level Scientologist who is Headley’s estranged stepfather.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The defendant\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Masterson, 47, an actor since childhood, got his major break when he was cast as Stephen Hyde on the retro sitcom\u003cem> That ’70s Show\u003c/em>, which also starred Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Topher Grace and would run on Fox from 1998 until 2006. At the time of the alleged assaults, his career was at its peak, and his house near Hollywood with a backyard pool and Jacuzzi was a social hub. It was also, according to prosecutors, the scene of all three crimes. Masterson had pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have repeatedly denied all of the allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The first accuser\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One of the women Masterson is charged with raping was born into a Scientology family and was part of Masterson’s circle of friends. Nearly all of those closest to her were members, including the late Lisa Marie Presley, who also left the church long before her death in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13918217']The woman said that when she stopped by Masterson’s house to pick up a set of keys in 2003, he gave her a drink that left her sick and badly disoriented, and raped her in his bedroom upstairs. She first filed a police report, which did not lead to an arrest, in 2004. She returned to authorities in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The second accuser\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The first accuser to take the stand at the retrial is a model and actor who was Masterson’s girlfriend from 1996 to 2002. She previously testified that Masterson grew increasingly physically and sexually abusive in their years together. She said that it eventually led to him raping her twice late in 2001, though he is only charged with one instance, a morning when she woke to find Masterson raping her. She would go to police 15 years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The third accuser\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The third woman at the center of the trial had only recently met Masterson through mutual friends in the church, which she had joined as a teenager. She testified that in 2003 that Masterson invited her to his house, where they were alone. She said she was clear that she wanted no sex, but he convinced her to get into his jacuzzi then took her to his bed, where he raped her. She went to police in 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they were victims of sexual abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Investigation and arrest\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Police revealed they were investigating Masterson in March of 2017. Hollywood’s #MeToo firestorm would begin about six months later, and in the midst of it Masterson would be written off \u003cem>The Ranch\u003c/em>, a Netflix Western comedy where he had reunited with Kutcher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was arrested and charged with three rapes in 2020, and in 2021 a judge ruled the evidence was strong enough for him to be tried.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928258\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928258\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1228579762-scaled-e1682448084811-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Two men stand side-by-side in court, wearing suits and pandemic-era face masks. One has short curly hair, the other has white straight, chin-length hair.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1228579762-scaled-e1682448084811-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1228579762-scaled-e1682448084811-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1228579762-scaled-e1682448084811-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1228579762-scaled-e1682448084811-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1228579762-scaled-e1682448084811-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1228579762-scaled-e1682448084811.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Danny Masterson and his lawyer Thomas Mesereau at Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, Los Angeles in September 2020. The actor was arraigned on rape charges. \u003ccite>(Lucy Nicholson - Pool/ Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>The first trial\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Masterson’s monthlong first trial began last October. Masterson, free on bail, was accompanied to court by a large group of friends and family with ties to both Scientology and the entertainment industry, including his wife and the mother of his child, actor and model Bijou Phillips.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13908090']The three accusers gave emotional and often traumatic testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mueller argued that the evidence pointed clearly to Masterson being a “rapist” who created an environment in his home that allowed him to prey on women.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cohen argued that the women’s testimony was hopelessly riddled with contradictions and inconsistencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, fewer than half of jurors voted to convict on any of the counts. Nevertheless, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office decided to try again with a new set of jurors, and the women agreed to take the stand again.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The lawyers\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Mueller and Cohen will reprise their roles in the retrial. But Masterson this time will also have the services of high-profile attorney Shawn Holley, whose clients have included Michael Jackson, Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg, Axl Rose and Lindsay Lohan. She had to miss the first trial with prior commitments representing former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer in his own sexual assault proceedings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Copyright 2023 Associated Press. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/\" rel=\"noopener\">visit AP\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Five months after a deadlocked jury led to a mistrial for actor Danny Masterson, the former star of \u003cem>That ’70s Show\u003c/em> is on trial again in a Los Angeles court. Masterson is accused of raping three women between 2001 and 2003. He could get 45 years in prison if convicted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are the key elements, characters and issues that will factor into the retrial.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Direct discussion of drugging\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>A judge is now allowing the prosecution to say directly that Masterson drugged all three women before raping them, in what may be the biggest difference from the first trial. Previously, the drugging could only be implied when the women testified to feeling disoriented, losing memory and going unconscious to a degree that could not be explained by the alcohol they had consumed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In opening statements Monday, Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller said all three women had consumed drinks Masterson had given them, and that the “evidence will show that they were drugged.” The defense says there is no such evidence beyond the women’s stories. And defense attorney Philip Cohen made clear to jurors that “there is no drugging charge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>New role for Scientology\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Church of Scientology loomed large at Masterson’s trial. It could loom larger still in his retrial, with Judge Charlaine Olmedo allowing expert testimony on Scientology that she denied the first time.\u003cbr>\nMasterson is a prominent member of the church. All three of his accusers are former members who grew disillusioned with the institution in the aftermath of their alleged assaults, saying that church officials told them what had happened to them was not rape, and that its policies prevented them from going to police. The church vehemently denied having any such policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two opposing experts set to testify embody the stark cultural divides the church sometimes creates. The prosecution’s expert, Claire Headley, is a former official in Scientology’s leadership group, known as the Sea Org, who became a staunch church foe, suing it in 2009 over her experience. The defense’s expert is Hugh Martin Whitt, a current high-level Scientologist who is Headley’s estranged stepfather.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The defendant\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Masterson, 47, an actor since childhood, got his major break when he was cast as Stephen Hyde on the retro sitcom\u003cem> That ’70s Show\u003c/em>, which also starred Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Topher Grace and would run on Fox from 1998 until 2006. At the time of the alleged assaults, his career was at its peak, and his house near Hollywood with a backyard pool and Jacuzzi was a social hub. It was also, according to prosecutors, the scene of all three crimes. Masterson had pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have repeatedly denied all of the allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The first accuser\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One of the women Masterson is charged with raping was born into a Scientology family and was part of Masterson’s circle of friends. Nearly all of those closest to her were members, including the late Lisa Marie Presley, who also left the church long before her death in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The woman said that when she stopped by Masterson’s house to pick up a set of keys in 2003, he gave her a drink that left her sick and badly disoriented, and raped her in his bedroom upstairs. She first filed a police report, which did not lead to an arrest, in 2004. She returned to authorities in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The second accuser\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The first accuser to take the stand at the retrial is a model and actor who was Masterson’s girlfriend from 1996 to 2002. She previously testified that Masterson grew increasingly physically and sexually abusive in their years together. She said that it eventually led to him raping her twice late in 2001, though he is only charged with one instance, a morning when she woke to find Masterson raping her. She would go to police 15 years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The third accuser\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The third woman at the center of the trial had only recently met Masterson through mutual friends in the church, which she had joined as a teenager. She testified that in 2003 that Masterson invited her to his house, where they were alone. She said she was clear that she wanted no sex, but he convinced her to get into his jacuzzi then took her to his bed, where he raped her. She went to police in 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they were victims of sexual abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Investigation and arrest\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Police revealed they were investigating Masterson in March of 2017. Hollywood’s #MeToo firestorm would begin about six months later, and in the midst of it Masterson would be written off \u003cem>The Ranch\u003c/em>, a Netflix Western comedy where he had reunited with Kutcher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was arrested and charged with three rapes in 2020, and in 2021 a judge ruled the evidence was strong enough for him to be tried.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928258\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928258\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1228579762-scaled-e1682448084811-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Two men stand side-by-side in court, wearing suits and pandemic-era face masks. One has short curly hair, the other has white straight, chin-length hair.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1228579762-scaled-e1682448084811-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1228579762-scaled-e1682448084811-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1228579762-scaled-e1682448084811-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1228579762-scaled-e1682448084811-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1228579762-scaled-e1682448084811-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1228579762-scaled-e1682448084811.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Danny Masterson and his lawyer Thomas Mesereau at Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, Los Angeles in September 2020. The actor was arraigned on rape charges. \u003ccite>(Lucy Nicholson - Pool/ Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>The first trial\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Masterson’s monthlong first trial began last October. Masterson, free on bail, was accompanied to court by a large group of friends and family with ties to both Scientology and the entertainment industry, including his wife and the mother of his child, actor and model Bijou Phillips.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The three accusers gave emotional and often traumatic testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mueller argued that the evidence pointed clearly to Masterson being a “rapist” who created an environment in his home that allowed him to prey on women.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cohen argued that the women’s testimony was hopelessly riddled with contradictions and inconsistencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, fewer than half of jurors voted to convict on any of the counts. Nevertheless, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office decided to try again with a new set of jurors, and the women agreed to take the stand again.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The lawyers\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Mueller and Cohen will reprise their roles in the retrial. But Masterson this time will also have the services of high-profile attorney Shawn Holley, whose clients have included Michael Jackson, Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg, Axl Rose and Lindsay Lohan. She had to miss the first trial with prior commitments representing former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer in his own sexual assault proceedings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Copyright 2023 Associated Press. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/\" rel=\"noopener\">visit AP\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Harry Belafonte, Civil Rights Giant and Humanitarian Entertainer, Dies at 96",
"headTitle": "Harry Belafonte, Civil Rights Giant and Humanitarian Entertainer, Dies at 96 | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Harry Belafonte, the civil rights and entertainment giant who began as a groundbreaking actor and singer and became an activist, humanitarian and conscience of the world, has died. He was 96.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his New York home, his wife Pamela by his side, said Ken Sunshine, of public relations firm Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With his glowing, handsome face and silky-husky voice, Belafonte was one of the first Black performers to gain a wide following on film and to sell a million records as a singer; many still know him for his signature hit “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5dpBWlRANE\">Banana Boat Song (Day-O)\u003c/a>,” and its call of “Day-O! Daaaaay-O.” But he forged a greater legacy once he scaled back his performing career in the 1960s and lived out his hero Paul Robeson’s decree that artists are “gatekeepers of truth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5dpBWlRANE\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He stands as the model and the epitome of the celebrity activist. Few kept up with Belafonte’s time and commitment and none his stature as a meeting point among Hollywood, Washington and the civil rights movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte not only participated in protest marches and benefit concerts, but helped organize and raise support for them. He worked closely with his friend and generational peer the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., often intervening on his behalf with both politicians and fellow entertainers and helping him financially. He risked his life and livelihood and set high standards for younger Black celebrities, scolding Jay Z and Beyoncé for failing to meet their “social responsibilities,” and mentoring Usher, Common, Danny Glover and many others. In Spike Lee’s 2018 film \u003cem>BlacKkKlansman\u003c/em>, he was fittingly cast as an elder statesman schooling young activists about the country’s past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte’s friend, civil rights leader Andrew Young, would note that Belafonte was the rare person to grow more radical with age. He was ever engaged and unyielding, willing to take on Southern segregationists, Northern liberals, the billionaire Koch brothers and the country’s first Black president, Barack Obama, whom Belafonte would remember asking to cut him “some slack.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte responded, “What makes you think that’s not what I’ve been doing?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928238\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928238\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harry Belafonte attends the 2016 Library Lions gala at New York Public Library on November 7, 2016 in New York City. \u003ccite>(Gary Gershoff/WireImage)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Belafonte had been a major artist since the 1950s. He won a Tony Award in 1954 for his starring role in John Murray Anderson’s \u003cem>Almanac\u003c/em> and five years later became the first Black performer to win an Emmy for the TV special “Tonight with Harry Belafonte.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1954, he co-starred with Dorothy Dandridge in the Otto Preminger-directed musical \u003cem>Carmen Jones\u003c/em>, a popular breakthrough for an all-Black cast. The 1957 movie \u003cem>Island in the Sun\u003c/em> was banned in several Southern cities, where theater owners were threatened by the Ku Klux Klan because of the film’s interracial romance between Belafonte and Joan Fontaine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His \u003cem>Calypso\u003c/em>, released in 1955, became the first officially certified million-selling album by a solo performer, and started a national infatuation with Caribbean rhythms (Belafonte was nicknamed, reluctantly, the “King of Calypso″). Admirers of Belafonte included a young Bob Dylan, who debuted on record in the early ’60s by playing harmonica on Belafonte’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRVlYpDAOEI\">Midnight Special\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Harry was the best balladeer in the land and everybody knew it,” Dylan later wrote. “He was a fantastic artist, sang about lovers and slaves — chain gang workers, saints and sinners and children. … Harry was that rare type of character that radiates greatness, and you hope that some of it rubs off on you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMXBJW1PuU8\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte befriended King in the spring of 1956 after the young civil rights leader called and asked for a meeting. They spoke for hours, and Belafonte would remember feeling King raised him to the “higher plane of social protest.” Then at the peak of his singing career, Belafonte was soon producing a benefit concert for the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama that helped make King a national figure. By the early 1960s, he had decided to make civil rights his priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was having almost daily talks with Martin,” Belafonte wrote in his memoir \u003cem>My Song\u003c/em>, published in 2011. “I realized that the movement was more important than anything else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Kennedys were among the first politicians to seek his opinions, which he willingly shared. John F. Kennedy, at a time when Blacks were as likely to vote for Republicans as for Democrats, was so anxious for his support that during the 1960 election he visited Belafonte at his Manhattan home. Belafonte schooled Kennedy on the importance of King, and arranged for them to speak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was quite taken by the fact that he (Kennedy) knew so little about the Black community,” Belafonte told NBC in 2013. “He knew the headlines of the day, but he wasn’t really anywhere nuanced or detailed on the depth of Black anguish or what our struggle’s really about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte would often criticize the Kennedys for their reluctance to challenge the Southern segregationists who were then a substantial part of the Democratic Party. He argued with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the president’s brother, over the government’s failure to protect the “Freedom Riders” trying to integrate bus stations. He was among the Black activists at a widely publicized meeting with the attorney general, when playwright Lorraine Hansberry and others stunned Kennedy by questioning whether the country even deserved Black allegiance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Bobby turned red at that. I had never seen him so shaken,” Belafonte later wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928235\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639-800x652.jpg\" alt=\"Two Black men in the 1960s dressed in formal evening wear.\" width=\"800\" height=\"652\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928235\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639-800x652.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639-1020x831.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639-160x130.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639-768x626.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">American actor and singer Harry Belafonte with American actor Sidney Poitier at the New York premiere of director George Stevens’ film, ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told,’ in which Poitier starred, New York City, circa 1965. \u003ccite>(Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1963, Belafonte was deeply involved with the March on Washington. He recruited his close friend Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman and other celebrities and persuaded the left-wing Marlon Brando to co-chair the Hollywood delegation with the more conservative Charlton Heston, a pairing designed to appeal to the broadest possible audience. In 1964, he and Poitier personally delivered tens of thousands of dollar to activists in Mississippi after three “Freedom Summer” volunteers were murdered — the two celebrities were chased by car at one point by members of the KKK. The following year, he brought in Tony Bennett, Joan Baez and other singers to perform for the marchers in Selma, Alabama.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When King was assassinated, in 1968, Belafonte helped pick out the suit he was buried in, sat next to his widow, Coretta, at the funeral, and continued to support his family, in part through an insurance policy he had taken out on King in his lifetime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Much of my political outlook was already in place when I encountered Dr. King,” Belafonte later wrote. “I was well on my way and utterly committed to the civil rights struggle. I came to him with expectations and he affirmed them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>King’s death left Belafonte isolated from the civil rights community. He was turned off by the separatist beliefs of Stokely Carmichael and other “Black Power” activists and had little chemistry with King’s designated successor, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy. But the entertainer’s causes extended well beyond the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He mentored South African singer and activist Miriam Makeba and helped introduce her to American audiences, the two winning a Grammy in 1964 for the concert record \u003cem>An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba\u003c/em>. He coordinated Nelson Mandela’s first visit to the U.S. since being released from prison in 1990. A few years earlier, he initiated the all-star, million-selling “We Are the World” recording, the Grammy-winning charity song for famine relief in Africa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte’s early life and career paralleled those of Poitier, who died in 2022. Both spent part of their childhoods in the Caribbean and ended up in New York. Both served in the military during World War II, acted in the American Negro Theatre and then broke into film. Poitier shared his belief in civil rights, but still dedicated much of his time to acting, a source of some tension between them. While Poitier had a sustained and historic run in the 1960s as a leading man and box office success, Belafonte grew tired of acting and turned down parts he regarded as “neutered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sidney radiated a truly saintly dignity and calm. Not me,” Belafonte wrote in his memoir. “I didn’t want to tone down my sexuality, either. Sidney did that in every role he took.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928231\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460-800x514.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a dark jacket holds up a peace sign against overhead wires\" width=\"800\" height=\"514\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928231\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460-800x514.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460-1020x655.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460-768x494.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harry Belafonte joins more than 300,000 people in the hitherto biggest peace demonstration in Germany, October 1981. \u003ccite>(Klaus Roseullstein bild via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Belafonte was very much a human being. He acknowledged extra-marital affairs, negligence as a parent and a frightening temper, driven by lifelong insecurity. “Woe to the musician who missed his cue, or the agent who fouled up a booking,” he confided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his memoir, he chastised Poitier for a “radical breach″ by backing out on a commitment to star as Mandela in a TV miniseries Belafonte had conceived, then agreeing to play Mandela for a rival production. He became so estranged from King’s widow and children that he was not asked to speak at her funeral. In 2013, he sued three of King’s children over control of some of the civil rights leader’s personal papers. In his memoir, he would allege that the King children were more interested in “selling trinkets and memorabilia” than in serious thought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He made news years earlier when he compared Colin Powell, the first Black secretary of state, to a slave “permitted to come into the house of the master” for his service in the George W. Bush administration. He was in Washington in January 2009 as Obama was inaugurated, officiating along with Baez and others at a gala called the Inaugural Peace Ball. But Belafonte would later criticize Obama for failing to live up to his promise and lacking “fundamental empathy with the dispossessed, be they white or Black.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte did occasionally serve in government, as cultural adviser for the Peace Corps during the Kennedy administration and decades later as goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. For his film and music career, he received the motion picture academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, a National Medal of Arts, a Grammy for lifetime achievement and numerous other honorary prizes. He found special pleasure in winning a New York Film Critics Award in 1996 for his work as a gangster in Robert Altman’s \u003cem>Kansas City\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m as proud of that film critics’ award as I am of all my gold records,” he wrote in his memoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was married three times, most recently to photographer Pamela Frank, and had four children. Three of them — Shari, David and Gina — became actors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh1ow6zKapQ\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harry Belafonte was born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. in 1927, in a community of West Indians in Harlem. His father was a seaman and cook with Dutch and Jamaican ancestry and his mother, part Scottish, worked as a domestic. Both parents were undocumented immigrants and Belafonte recalled living “an underground life, as criminals of a sort, on the run.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The household was violent: Belafonte sustained brutal beatings from his father, and he was sent to live for several years with relatives in Jamaica. Belafonte was a poor reader — he was probably dyslexic, he later realized — and dropped out of high school, soon joining the Navy. While in the service, he read \u003cem>Color and Democracy\u003c/em> by the Black scholar W.E.B. Du Bois and was deeply affected, calling it the start of his political education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the war, he found a job in New York as an assistant janitor for some apartment buildings. One tenant liked him enough to give him free tickets to a play at the American Negro Theatre, a community repertory for black performers. Belafonte was so impressed that he joined as a volunteer, then as an actor. Poitier was a peer, both of them “skinny, brooding and vulnerable within our hard shells of self-protection,” Belafonte later wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte met Brando, Walter Matthau and other future stars while taking acting classes at the New School for Social Research. Brando was an inspiration as an actor, and he and Belafonte became close, sometimes riding on Brando’s motorcycle or double dating or playing congas together at parties. Over the years, Belafonte’s political and artistic lives would lead to friendships with everyone from Frank Sinatra and Lester Young to Eleanor Roosevelt and Fidel Castro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928230\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742-800x779.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a suit stands against a brick building in the 1960s\" width=\"800\" height=\"779\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928230\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742-800x779.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742-1020x993.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742-160x156.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742-768x748.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Singer Harry Belafonte in his film debut as Mr. Williams, School Principal, in ‘Bright Road.’ \u003ccite>(John Swope/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>His early stage credits included \u003cem>Days of Our Youth\u003c/em> and Sean O’Casey’s \u003cem>Juno and the Peacock\u003c/em>, a play Belafonte remembered less because of his own performance than because of a backstage visitor, Robeson, the actor, singer and activist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I remember more than anything Robeson said, was the love he radiated, and the profound responsibility he felt, as an actor, to use his platform as a bully pulpit,″ Belafonte wrote in his memoir. His friendship with Robeson and support for left-wing causes eventually brought trouble from the government. FBI agents visited him at home and allegations of Communism nearly cost him an appearance on \u003cem>The Ed Sullivan Show\u003c/em>. Leftists suspected, and Belafonte emphatically denied, that he had named names of suspected Communists so he could perform on Sullivan’s show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the 1950s, Belafonte was also singing, finding gigs at the Blue Note, the Vanguard and other clubs — he was backed for one performance by Charlie Parker and Max Roach — and becoming immersed in folk, blues, jazz and the calypso he had heard while living in Jamaica. Starting in 1954, he released such top 10 albums as \u003cem>Mark Twain and Other Folk Favorites\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Belafonte\u003c/em>, and his popular singles included “Mathilda,” “Jamaica Farewell″ and “The Banana Boat Song,” a reworked Caribbean ballad that was a late addition to his “Calypso″ record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We found ourselves one or two songs short, so we threw in `Day-O’ as filler,″ Belafonte wrote in his memoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYYkJ0kwNss\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was a superstar, but one criticized, and occasionally sued, for taking traditional material and not sharing the profits. Belafonte expressed regret and also worried about being typecast as a calypso singer, declining for years to sing “Day-O″ live after he gave television performances against banana boat backdrops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte was the rare young artist to think about the business side of show business. He started one of the first all-Black music publishing companies. He produced plays, movies and TV shows, including Off-Broadway’s \u003cem>To Be Young, Gifted, and Black\u003c/em>, in 1969. He was the first Black person to produce for TV.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte made history in 1968 by filling in for Johnny Carson on the “Tonight” show for a full week. Later that year, a simple, spontaneous gesture led to another milestone. Appearing on a taped TV special starring Petula Clark, Belafonte joined the British singer on the anti-war song “On the Path of Glory.” At one point, Clark placed a hand on Belafonte’s arm. The show’s sponsor, Chrysler, demanded the segment be reshot. Clark and Belafonte resisted, successfully, and for the first time a man and woman of different colors touched on national television.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1970s, he returned to movie acting, co-starring with Poitier in \u003cem>Buck and the Preacher\u003c/em>, a commercial flop, and the raucous and popular comedy \u003cem>Uptown Saturday Night\u003c/em>. His other film credits include \u003cem>Bobby\u003c/em>, \u003cem>White Man’s Burden\u003c/em>, and cameos in Altman’s \u003cem>The Player\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Ready to Wear\u003c/em>. He also appeared in the Altman-directed TV series \u003cem>Tanner on Tanner\u003c/em> and was among those interviewed for \u003cem>When the Levees Broke\u003c/em>, Spike Lee’s HBO documentary about Hurricane Katrina. In 2011, HBO aired a documentary about Belafonte, \u003cem>Sing Your Song\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mindful to the end that he grew up in poverty, Belafonte did not think of himself as an artist who became an activist, but an activist who happened to be an artist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you grow up, son,” Belafonte remembered his mother telling him, “never go to bed at night knowing that there was something you could have done during the day to strike a blow against injustice and you didn’t do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to his wife, Belafonte is survived by his children Adrienne Belafonte Biesemeyer, Shari Belafonte, Gina Belafonte and David Belafonte; two stepchildren, Sarah Frank and Lindsey Frank; and eight grandchildren.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Harry Belafonte, the civil rights and entertainment giant who began as a groundbreaking actor and singer and became an activist, humanitarian and conscience of the world, has died. He was 96.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his New York home, his wife Pamela by his side, said Ken Sunshine, of public relations firm Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With his glowing, handsome face and silky-husky voice, Belafonte was one of the first Black performers to gain a wide following on film and to sell a million records as a singer; many still know him for his signature hit “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5dpBWlRANE\">Banana Boat Song (Day-O)\u003c/a>,” and its call of “Day-O! Daaaaay-O.” But he forged a greater legacy once he scaled back his performing career in the 1960s and lived out his hero Paul Robeson’s decree that artists are “gatekeepers of truth.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/H5dpBWlRANE'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/H5dpBWlRANE'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>He stands as the model and the epitome of the celebrity activist. Few kept up with Belafonte’s time and commitment and none his stature as a meeting point among Hollywood, Washington and the civil rights movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte not only participated in protest marches and benefit concerts, but helped organize and raise support for them. He worked closely with his friend and generational peer the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., often intervening on his behalf with both politicians and fellow entertainers and helping him financially. He risked his life and livelihood and set high standards for younger Black celebrities, scolding Jay Z and Beyoncé for failing to meet their “social responsibilities,” and mentoring Usher, Common, Danny Glover and many others. In Spike Lee’s 2018 film \u003cem>BlacKkKlansman\u003c/em>, he was fittingly cast as an elder statesman schooling young activists about the country’s past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte’s friend, civil rights leader Andrew Young, would note that Belafonte was the rare person to grow more radical with age. He was ever engaged and unyielding, willing to take on Southern segregationists, Northern liberals, the billionaire Koch brothers and the country’s first Black president, Barack Obama, whom Belafonte would remember asking to cut him “some slack.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte responded, “What makes you think that’s not what I’ve been doing?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928238\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928238\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harry Belafonte attends the 2016 Library Lions gala at New York Public Library on November 7, 2016 in New York City. \u003ccite>(Gary Gershoff/WireImage)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Belafonte had been a major artist since the 1950s. He won a Tony Award in 1954 for his starring role in John Murray Anderson’s \u003cem>Almanac\u003c/em> and five years later became the first Black performer to win an Emmy for the TV special “Tonight with Harry Belafonte.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1954, he co-starred with Dorothy Dandridge in the Otto Preminger-directed musical \u003cem>Carmen Jones\u003c/em>, a popular breakthrough for an all-Black cast. The 1957 movie \u003cem>Island in the Sun\u003c/em> was banned in several Southern cities, where theater owners were threatened by the Ku Klux Klan because of the film’s interracial romance between Belafonte and Joan Fontaine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His \u003cem>Calypso\u003c/em>, released in 1955, became the first officially certified million-selling album by a solo performer, and started a national infatuation with Caribbean rhythms (Belafonte was nicknamed, reluctantly, the “King of Calypso″). Admirers of Belafonte included a young Bob Dylan, who debuted on record in the early ’60s by playing harmonica on Belafonte’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRVlYpDAOEI\">Midnight Special\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Harry was the best balladeer in the land and everybody knew it,” Dylan later wrote. “He was a fantastic artist, sang about lovers and slaves — chain gang workers, saints and sinners and children. … Harry was that rare type of character that radiates greatness, and you hope that some of it rubs off on you.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/kMXBJW1PuU8'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/kMXBJW1PuU8'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Belafonte befriended King in the spring of 1956 after the young civil rights leader called and asked for a meeting. They spoke for hours, and Belafonte would remember feeling King raised him to the “higher plane of social protest.” Then at the peak of his singing career, Belafonte was soon producing a benefit concert for the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama that helped make King a national figure. By the early 1960s, he had decided to make civil rights his priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was having almost daily talks with Martin,” Belafonte wrote in his memoir \u003cem>My Song\u003c/em>, published in 2011. “I realized that the movement was more important than anything else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Kennedys were among the first politicians to seek his opinions, which he willingly shared. John F. Kennedy, at a time when Blacks were as likely to vote for Republicans as for Democrats, was so anxious for his support that during the 1960 election he visited Belafonte at his Manhattan home. Belafonte schooled Kennedy on the importance of King, and arranged for them to speak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was quite taken by the fact that he (Kennedy) knew so little about the Black community,” Belafonte told NBC in 2013. “He knew the headlines of the day, but he wasn’t really anywhere nuanced or detailed on the depth of Black anguish or what our struggle’s really about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte would often criticize the Kennedys for their reluctance to challenge the Southern segregationists who were then a substantial part of the Democratic Party. He argued with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the president’s brother, over the government’s failure to protect the “Freedom Riders” trying to integrate bus stations. He was among the Black activists at a widely publicized meeting with the attorney general, when playwright Lorraine Hansberry and others stunned Kennedy by questioning whether the country even deserved Black allegiance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Bobby turned red at that. I had never seen him so shaken,” Belafonte later wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928235\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639-800x652.jpg\" alt=\"Two Black men in the 1960s dressed in formal evening wear.\" width=\"800\" height=\"652\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928235\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639-800x652.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639-1020x831.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639-160x130.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639-768x626.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">American actor and singer Harry Belafonte with American actor Sidney Poitier at the New York premiere of director George Stevens’ film, ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told,’ in which Poitier starred, New York City, circa 1965. \u003ccite>(Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1963, Belafonte was deeply involved with the March on Washington. He recruited his close friend Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman and other celebrities and persuaded the left-wing Marlon Brando to co-chair the Hollywood delegation with the more conservative Charlton Heston, a pairing designed to appeal to the broadest possible audience. In 1964, he and Poitier personally delivered tens of thousands of dollar to activists in Mississippi after three “Freedom Summer” volunteers were murdered — the two celebrities were chased by car at one point by members of the KKK. The following year, he brought in Tony Bennett, Joan Baez and other singers to perform for the marchers in Selma, Alabama.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When King was assassinated, in 1968, Belafonte helped pick out the suit he was buried in, sat next to his widow, Coretta, at the funeral, and continued to support his family, in part through an insurance policy he had taken out on King in his lifetime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Much of my political outlook was already in place when I encountered Dr. King,” Belafonte later wrote. “I was well on my way and utterly committed to the civil rights struggle. I came to him with expectations and he affirmed them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>King’s death left Belafonte isolated from the civil rights community. He was turned off by the separatist beliefs of Stokely Carmichael and other “Black Power” activists and had little chemistry with King’s designated successor, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy. But the entertainer’s causes extended well beyond the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He mentored South African singer and activist Miriam Makeba and helped introduce her to American audiences, the two winning a Grammy in 1964 for the concert record \u003cem>An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba\u003c/em>. He coordinated Nelson Mandela’s first visit to the U.S. since being released from prison in 1990. A few years earlier, he initiated the all-star, million-selling “We Are the World” recording, the Grammy-winning charity song for famine relief in Africa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte’s early life and career paralleled those of Poitier, who died in 2022. Both spent part of their childhoods in the Caribbean and ended up in New York. Both served in the military during World War II, acted in the American Negro Theatre and then broke into film. Poitier shared his belief in civil rights, but still dedicated much of his time to acting, a source of some tension between them. While Poitier had a sustained and historic run in the 1960s as a leading man and box office success, Belafonte grew tired of acting and turned down parts he regarded as “neutered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sidney radiated a truly saintly dignity and calm. Not me,” Belafonte wrote in his memoir. “I didn’t want to tone down my sexuality, either. Sidney did that in every role he took.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928231\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460-800x514.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a dark jacket holds up a peace sign against overhead wires\" width=\"800\" height=\"514\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928231\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460-800x514.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460-1020x655.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460-768x494.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harry Belafonte joins more than 300,000 people in the hitherto biggest peace demonstration in Germany, October 1981. \u003ccite>(Klaus Roseullstein bild via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Belafonte was very much a human being. He acknowledged extra-marital affairs, negligence as a parent and a frightening temper, driven by lifelong insecurity. “Woe to the musician who missed his cue, or the agent who fouled up a booking,” he confided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his memoir, he chastised Poitier for a “radical breach″ by backing out on a commitment to star as Mandela in a TV miniseries Belafonte had conceived, then agreeing to play Mandela for a rival production. He became so estranged from King’s widow and children that he was not asked to speak at her funeral. In 2013, he sued three of King’s children over control of some of the civil rights leader’s personal papers. In his memoir, he would allege that the King children were more interested in “selling trinkets and memorabilia” than in serious thought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He made news years earlier when he compared Colin Powell, the first Black secretary of state, to a slave “permitted to come into the house of the master” for his service in the George W. Bush administration. He was in Washington in January 2009 as Obama was inaugurated, officiating along with Baez and others at a gala called the Inaugural Peace Ball. But Belafonte would later criticize Obama for failing to live up to his promise and lacking “fundamental empathy with the dispossessed, be they white or Black.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte did occasionally serve in government, as cultural adviser for the Peace Corps during the Kennedy administration and decades later as goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. For his film and music career, he received the motion picture academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, a National Medal of Arts, a Grammy for lifetime achievement and numerous other honorary prizes. He found special pleasure in winning a New York Film Critics Award in 1996 for his work as a gangster in Robert Altman’s \u003cem>Kansas City\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m as proud of that film critics’ award as I am of all my gold records,” he wrote in his memoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was married three times, most recently to photographer Pamela Frank, and had four children. Three of them — Shari, David and Gina — became actors.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/Zh1ow6zKapQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/Zh1ow6zKapQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Harry Belafonte was born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. in 1927, in a community of West Indians in Harlem. His father was a seaman and cook with Dutch and Jamaican ancestry and his mother, part Scottish, worked as a domestic. Both parents were undocumented immigrants and Belafonte recalled living “an underground life, as criminals of a sort, on the run.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The household was violent: Belafonte sustained brutal beatings from his father, and he was sent to live for several years with relatives in Jamaica. Belafonte was a poor reader — he was probably dyslexic, he later realized — and dropped out of high school, soon joining the Navy. While in the service, he read \u003cem>Color and Democracy\u003c/em> by the Black scholar W.E.B. Du Bois and was deeply affected, calling it the start of his political education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the war, he found a job in New York as an assistant janitor for some apartment buildings. One tenant liked him enough to give him free tickets to a play at the American Negro Theatre, a community repertory for black performers. Belafonte was so impressed that he joined as a volunteer, then as an actor. Poitier was a peer, both of them “skinny, brooding and vulnerable within our hard shells of self-protection,” Belafonte later wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte met Brando, Walter Matthau and other future stars while taking acting classes at the New School for Social Research. Brando was an inspiration as an actor, and he and Belafonte became close, sometimes riding on Brando’s motorcycle or double dating or playing congas together at parties. Over the years, Belafonte’s political and artistic lives would lead to friendships with everyone from Frank Sinatra and Lester Young to Eleanor Roosevelt and Fidel Castro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928230\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742-800x779.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a suit stands against a brick building in the 1960s\" width=\"800\" height=\"779\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928230\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742-800x779.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742-1020x993.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742-160x156.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742-768x748.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Singer Harry Belafonte in his film debut as Mr. Williams, School Principal, in ‘Bright Road.’ \u003ccite>(John Swope/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>His early stage credits included \u003cem>Days of Our Youth\u003c/em> and Sean O’Casey’s \u003cem>Juno and the Peacock\u003c/em>, a play Belafonte remembered less because of his own performance than because of a backstage visitor, Robeson, the actor, singer and activist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I remember more than anything Robeson said, was the love he radiated, and the profound responsibility he felt, as an actor, to use his platform as a bully pulpit,″ Belafonte wrote in his memoir. His friendship with Robeson and support for left-wing causes eventually brought trouble from the government. FBI agents visited him at home and allegations of Communism nearly cost him an appearance on \u003cem>The Ed Sullivan Show\u003c/em>. Leftists suspected, and Belafonte emphatically denied, that he had named names of suspected Communists so he could perform on Sullivan’s show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the 1950s, Belafonte was also singing, finding gigs at the Blue Note, the Vanguard and other clubs — he was backed for one performance by Charlie Parker and Max Roach — and becoming immersed in folk, blues, jazz and the calypso he had heard while living in Jamaica. Starting in 1954, he released such top 10 albums as \u003cem>Mark Twain and Other Folk Favorites\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Belafonte\u003c/em>, and his popular singles included “Mathilda,” “Jamaica Farewell″ and “The Banana Boat Song,” a reworked Caribbean ballad that was a late addition to his “Calypso″ record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We found ourselves one or two songs short, so we threw in `Day-O’ as filler,″ Belafonte wrote in his memoir.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/DYYkJ0kwNss'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/DYYkJ0kwNss'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>He was a superstar, but one criticized, and occasionally sued, for taking traditional material and not sharing the profits. Belafonte expressed regret and also worried about being typecast as a calypso singer, declining for years to sing “Day-O″ live after he gave television performances against banana boat backdrops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte was the rare young artist to think about the business side of show business. He started one of the first all-Black music publishing companies. He produced plays, movies and TV shows, including Off-Broadway’s \u003cem>To Be Young, Gifted, and Black\u003c/em>, in 1969. He was the first Black person to produce for TV.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte made history in 1968 by filling in for Johnny Carson on the “Tonight” show for a full week. Later that year, a simple, spontaneous gesture led to another milestone. Appearing on a taped TV special starring Petula Clark, Belafonte joined the British singer on the anti-war song “On the Path of Glory.” At one point, Clark placed a hand on Belafonte’s arm. The show’s sponsor, Chrysler, demanded the segment be reshot. Clark and Belafonte resisted, successfully, and for the first time a man and woman of different colors touched on national television.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1970s, he returned to movie acting, co-starring with Poitier in \u003cem>Buck and the Preacher\u003c/em>, a commercial flop, and the raucous and popular comedy \u003cem>Uptown Saturday Night\u003c/em>. His other film credits include \u003cem>Bobby\u003c/em>, \u003cem>White Man’s Burden\u003c/em>, and cameos in Altman’s \u003cem>The Player\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Ready to Wear\u003c/em>. He also appeared in the Altman-directed TV series \u003cem>Tanner on Tanner\u003c/em> and was among those interviewed for \u003cem>When the Levees Broke\u003c/em>, Spike Lee’s HBO documentary about Hurricane Katrina. In 2011, HBO aired a documentary about Belafonte, \u003cem>Sing Your Song\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mindful to the end that he grew up in poverty, Belafonte did not think of himself as an artist who became an activist, but an activist who happened to be an artist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you grow up, son,” Belafonte remembered his mother telling him, “never go to bed at night knowing that there was something you could have done during the day to strike a blow against injustice and you didn’t do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to his wife, Belafonte is survived by his children Adrienne Belafonte Biesemeyer, Shari Belafonte, Gina Belafonte and David Belafonte; two stepchildren, Sarah Frank and Lindsey Frank; and eight grandchildren.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Sinister Twin Sisters Wield All the Power in the Latest ‘Dead Ringers’ Adaptation",
"headTitle": "Sinister Twin Sisters Wield All the Power in the Latest ‘Dead Ringers’ Adaptation | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2005/03/17/4934043/david-cronenberg-on-a-history-of-violence\">David Cronenberg\u003c/a>’s 1988 movie \u003cem>Dead Ringers, \u003c/em>like the book on which it was based, was all about birth, death, love and power — but mostly from the male point of view. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4273728\">Jeremy Irons\u003c/a> played twin gynecologists: an impulsive and sometimes predatory doctor named Elliot, and a more reserved doctor named Beverly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elliot enjoyed using his position of authority to seduce some of his infertility patients, and even some of Beverly’s, by pretending to be his twin brother. This new six-episode Prime Video adaptation of \u003cem>Dead Ringers \u003c/em>preserves all of that. But showrunner Alice Birch, who created this TV version, changes it, too, by giving its female characters all the power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Birch’s credits include \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/04/29/847617296/normal-people-is-a-love-story-to-cherish\">\u003cem>Normal People\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2017/07/13/536642559/lady-macbeth-a-new-bride-flouts-the-rigid-rules-of-society-and-humanity\">\u003cem>Lady Macbeth \u003c/em>\u003c/a>and Season 2 of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/series/1045640636/succession-recaps\">\u003cem>Succession\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. Here she’s assembled a writer’s room populated entirely by women. The result is like a polar opposite of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/09/15/1123153313/the-handmaids-tale-season-5-recap\">\u003cem>A Handmaid’s Tale. \u003c/em>\u003c/a>Women are in positions of power, both as doctors and as wealthy medical donors, and aggressively pursue both their ambitions and their passions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA_XOruRFfU\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For this new \u003cem>Dead Ringers, \u003c/em>the Mantle twins, Beverly and Elliot, are played by \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2016/08/27/491613525/rachel-weisz-plays-with-identity-in-complete-unknown\">Rachel Weisz\u003c/a>, who was so brilliant opposite Olivia Colman in the period movie \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/11/28/670833369/the-favourite-sou-smart-sou-wicked-sou-witty-sou-gououd\">\u003cem>The Favourite\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>She’s brilliant here, too, opposite herself. Her Beverly wears her hair in a tight bun, while Elliot wears her hair down and flowing — but viewers can also tell the twins apart by everything from posture to vocal tone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13927815']It’s a masterful acting achievement, up there with such multiple-role showcases as \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2014/04/18/303758926/tatiana-maslany-on-looking-herself-in-the-eye\">Tatiana Maslany\u003c/a> in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2015/04/17/400199569/clone-drama-orphan-black-returns-as-complex-and-complicated-as-ever\">\u003cem>Orphan Black\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2010/04/01/124902112/toni-collette-keeping-track-of-multiple-personalities\">Toni Collette\u003c/a> in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2009/01/16/99454416/the-united-states-of-tara-diablo-cody-serves-up-diablo-cody-goodness\">\u003cem>The United States of Tara. \u003c/em>\u003c/a>As Elliot, she’s in her office, counseling a married couple when the pregnant wife excuses herself to use the bathroom. The amoral Elliot takes the opportunity to focus on the husband, and play with him like a toy — flattering him, seducing him, then humiliating him, all in the space of one quick bathroom break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twin sister Beverly is a lot more reserved — so much so that when she has the chance to examine Genevieve, an imposingly attractive actress played by Britne Oldford, she runs to Elliot for help. Elliot understands that her sister has a crush on the actress, so Elliot offers to take Beverly’s place in the exam room and not only deliver to Genevieve the bad news about her latest medical results — but, as Beverly, to begin to flirt with her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This relationship turns into a very twisted love triangle. And at the same time, there’s a more professional seduction going on. The twins are courted by a pair of super-wealthy investors, a big pharma billionaire and her trophy wife, who are interested in funding the twins’ research and birthing facilities. Their discussions allow \u003cem>Dead Ringers\u003c/em> to dive deeply, and very heatedly, into such issues as abortion, medical experimentation and the very definition of human life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13927532']One twin sister wants to push the envelope scientifically, and sometimes questionably. The other wants to make the delivery of babies as natural and comfortable a procedure as possible. The twins begin to clash — professionally, personally, romantically — and their reality begins to blur.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Directors Sean Durkin and others make the visuals as intense as the psychological rivalry: lots of mirrors and blood, and more and more surprises the longer the drama builds. Michael McKean from \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/08/16/1117671911/better-call-saul-finale-soars-as-a-meditation-on-consequences-and-regret\">\u003cem>Better Call Saul \u003c/em>\u003c/a>has a small but sinister role, but doesn’t show up until episode five. And Brittany Bradford, in a single scene as a ghostly apparition, shows up even later … and, like so much of this new \u003cem>Dead Ringers, \u003c/em>will haunt you in ways you won’t soon forget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 Fresh Air. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/\">Fresh Air\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Sinister+twin+sisters+wield+all+the+power+in+the+latest+%27Dead+Ringers%27+adaptation&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2005/03/17/4934043/david-cronenberg-on-a-history-of-violence\">David Cronenberg\u003c/a>’s 1988 movie \u003cem>Dead Ringers, \u003c/em>like the book on which it was based, was all about birth, death, love and power — but mostly from the male point of view. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4273728\">Jeremy Irons\u003c/a> played twin gynecologists: an impulsive and sometimes predatory doctor named Elliot, and a more reserved doctor named Beverly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elliot enjoyed using his position of authority to seduce some of his infertility patients, and even some of Beverly’s, by pretending to be his twin brother. This new six-episode Prime Video adaptation of \u003cem>Dead Ringers \u003c/em>preserves all of that. But showrunner Alice Birch, who created this TV version, changes it, too, by giving its female characters all the power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Birch’s credits include \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/04/29/847617296/normal-people-is-a-love-story-to-cherish\">\u003cem>Normal People\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2017/07/13/536642559/lady-macbeth-a-new-bride-flouts-the-rigid-rules-of-society-and-humanity\">\u003cem>Lady Macbeth \u003c/em>\u003c/a>and Season 2 of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/series/1045640636/succession-recaps\">\u003cem>Succession\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. Here she’s assembled a writer’s room populated entirely by women. The result is like a polar opposite of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/09/15/1123153313/the-handmaids-tale-season-5-recap\">\u003cem>A Handmaid’s Tale. \u003c/em>\u003c/a>Women are in positions of power, both as doctors and as wealthy medical donors, and aggressively pursue both their ambitions and their passions.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/FA_XOruRFfU'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/FA_XOruRFfU'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>For this new \u003cem>Dead Ringers, \u003c/em>the Mantle twins, Beverly and Elliot, are played by \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2016/08/27/491613525/rachel-weisz-plays-with-identity-in-complete-unknown\">Rachel Weisz\u003c/a>, who was so brilliant opposite Olivia Colman in the period movie \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/11/28/670833369/the-favourite-sou-smart-sou-wicked-sou-witty-sou-gououd\">\u003cem>The Favourite\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>She’s brilliant here, too, opposite herself. Her Beverly wears her hair in a tight bun, while Elliot wears her hair down and flowing — but viewers can also tell the twins apart by everything from posture to vocal tone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>It’s a masterful acting achievement, up there with such multiple-role showcases as \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2014/04/18/303758926/tatiana-maslany-on-looking-herself-in-the-eye\">Tatiana Maslany\u003c/a> in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2015/04/17/400199569/clone-drama-orphan-black-returns-as-complex-and-complicated-as-ever\">\u003cem>Orphan Black\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2010/04/01/124902112/toni-collette-keeping-track-of-multiple-personalities\">Toni Collette\u003c/a> in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2009/01/16/99454416/the-united-states-of-tara-diablo-cody-serves-up-diablo-cody-goodness\">\u003cem>The United States of Tara. \u003c/em>\u003c/a>As Elliot, she’s in her office, counseling a married couple when the pregnant wife excuses herself to use the bathroom. The amoral Elliot takes the opportunity to focus on the husband, and play with him like a toy — flattering him, seducing him, then humiliating him, all in the space of one quick bathroom break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twin sister Beverly is a lot more reserved — so much so that when she has the chance to examine Genevieve, an imposingly attractive actress played by Britne Oldford, she runs to Elliot for help. Elliot understands that her sister has a crush on the actress, so Elliot offers to take Beverly’s place in the exam room and not only deliver to Genevieve the bad news about her latest medical results — but, as Beverly, to begin to flirt with her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This relationship turns into a very twisted love triangle. And at the same time, there’s a more professional seduction going on. The twins are courted by a pair of super-wealthy investors, a big pharma billionaire and her trophy wife, who are interested in funding the twins’ research and birthing facilities. Their discussions allow \u003cem>Dead Ringers\u003c/em> to dive deeply, and very heatedly, into such issues as abortion, medical experimentation and the very definition of human life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>One twin sister wants to push the envelope scientifically, and sometimes questionably. The other wants to make the delivery of babies as natural and comfortable a procedure as possible. The twins begin to clash — professionally, personally, romantically — and their reality begins to blur.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Directors Sean Durkin and others make the visuals as intense as the psychological rivalry: lots of mirrors and blood, and more and more surprises the longer the drama builds. Michael McKean from \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/08/16/1117671911/better-call-saul-finale-soars-as-a-meditation-on-consequences-and-regret\">\u003cem>Better Call Saul \u003c/em>\u003c/a>has a small but sinister role, but doesn’t show up until episode five. And Brittany Bradford, in a single scene as a ghostly apparition, shows up even later … and, like so much of this new \u003cem>Dead Ringers, \u003c/em>will haunt you in ways you won’t soon forget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 Fresh Air. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/\">Fresh Air\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Sinister+twin+sisters+wield+all+the+power+in+the+latest+%27Dead+Ringers%27+adaptation&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Bill Hader Gets Deep on Human Nature in ‘Barry’ Final Season",
"headTitle": "Bill Hader Gets Deep on Human Nature in ‘Barry’ Final Season | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>“In every man, of course, a demon lies hidden — the demon of rage,” says the intellectual brother, Ivan, in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s \u003cem>The Brothers Karamazov\u003c/em>, a theme to which the Russian novelist frequently returns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is also a theme central to the HBO series, \u003cem>Barry\u003c/em>, whose fourth and final season premieres on Sunday, as the show’s titular hit man seeks to convince himself and others that he is ultimately a good person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='pop_102826']And while Bill Hader, the co-creator and star of \u003cem>Barry\u003c/em>, is reluctant to advertise the influence that Dostoevsky and other Russian authors have had on his Emmy-winning series, he disclosed that this kind of exploration of morality played a significant role in his creative process when he set out to make the show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m always like, ‘Yeah, I don’t watch a lot of TV.’ But I leave out that part, that I was reading big Russian books,” Hader laughed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the suggestion of his friend, author George Saunders, Hader took an interest in Russian literature and immersed himself in novels like Leo Tolstoy’s \u003cem>Anna Karenina\u003c/em> and \u003cem>War and Peace\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927817\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927817\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.08.03-PM-800x533.png\" alt=\"A older white man stands in a prison yard wearing blue hospital scrubs. Several figures are visible behind him.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.08.03-PM-800x533.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.08.03-PM-1020x679.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.08.03-PM-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.08.03-PM-768x511.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.08.03-PM.png 1364w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stephen Root’s Fuches is in a cycle of revenge and betrayal with Hader’s title character. \u003ccite>(HBO via AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One aspect of these stories which Hader sought to bring to \u003cem>Barry\u003c/em> was their contentment in probing philosophical questions about human nature, violence and revenge without necessarily expecting to find answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Barry\u003c/em> is billed as a comedy, though its dark content can preclude some from being able to enjoy its humor. It follows a Marine veteran-turned-hit man (Hader) who tries repeatedly but fails to denounce his profession after he takes an interest in acting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the premise sounds absurd, that’s because it is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a bad, bad logline,” said Stephen Root, who plays Fuches, Barry’s handler and old family friend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But many of the show’s stars, including seasoned actors like Henry Winkler, sang the praises of \u003cem>Barry\u003c/em> for its originality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4lf2LKZwoY\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although limited to 30-minute episodes, \u003cem>Barry\u003c/em> isn’t afraid to punch above its weight class, with clear inspiration from lauded cinema and prestige television like \u003cem>The Sopranos\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Twin Peaks.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13927532']Hader, described by his co-stars as a “total cinephile,” relied heavily on his extensive knowledge of film when considering how the series would grapple with weighty questions like whether humans are intrinsically violent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What’s always been really interesting to me, actually, is inherent violence within people,” Hader said, citing films that have played a role in his meditation on the subject, including \u003cem>A Clockwork Orange\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Goodfellas\u003c/em> and Terrence Malick’s \u003cem>The Thin Red Line\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout the show, Barry struggles to break out of a ceaseless cycle of carnage, while maintaining over and over that he is not defined by his past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927818\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927818\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.12.27-PM-800x532.png\" alt=\"An older man sits at a kitchen table in a silk dressing gown. He stares vacantly ahead, the weight of the world on his shoulders.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.12.27-PM-800x532.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.12.27-PM-1020x679.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.12.27-PM-160x106.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.12.27-PM-768x511.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.12.27-PM.png 1368w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Henry Winkler’s hapless acting teacher, Gene Cousineau, represents the moral center of the show in many ways. \u003ccite>(HBO via AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By the end of the third season, Barry’s actions have — either directly or indirectly — driven nearly every character to the precipice of violence. While those around him frequently describe Barry as “a violent guy,” they themselves are almost always willing to pull the trigger when the opportunity for revenge presents itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But although Hader wanted to avoid facile portrayals of characters who are purely good or purely evil, he also hopes it is apparent that Barry is not someone he wants audiences to root for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13926773']“It was weird how people did have sympathy for him. I think the thing was just trying to make him human,” Hader said. “But what I always never want to lose focus of is that, you know, he murders people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final season further explores the implications of its characters’ descent into crime and punishment, though the line between fantasy and reality is increasingly blurry, prompting the viewer to wonder how much, if any, of season four is meant to be understood as “real.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Barry\u003c/em> often alludes to its self-awareness in its portrayals of both Hollywood tropes and murder. The horror that Barry’s former acting teacher (Winkler) expresses in season four at the thought of “glorifying a psychopath” feels like a kind of nod to the show’s humanization of a killer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927816\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927816\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.03.42-PM-800x533.png\" alt=\"Two men stand side-by-side in a sports bar gesturing to a friend. One is young but entirely bald and wearing a sports jacket. The other is Latino with slicked back hair and mustache and ’70s-style leather jackets.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.03.42-PM-800x533.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.03.42-PM-1020x680.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.03.42-PM-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.03.42-PM-768x512.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.03.42-PM.png 1368w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Anthony Carrigan and Michael Irby provide both humor and some heart to ‘Barry.’ \u003ccite>(HBO via AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Barring its bleak subject matter, \u003cem>Barry\u003c/em> is very much a comedy whose tendency to get dark is ameliorated by humor, though those moments of respite become increasingly rare and increasingly absurd as the show progresses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Winkler said that didn’t stop their “fearless leader” from occasionally breaking out of character and into laughter throughout the making of the show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’d see his shoulders bounce up and down because he’s laughing. You have to remind him, ‘You’re in the scene, Bill,’” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Copyright 2023 AP. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/\">visit AP\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The final series of ‘Barry’ begins on HBO on April 16, 2023.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The fourth season continues to probe philosophical questions about human nature, without necessarily providing answers.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>“In every man, of course, a demon lies hidden — the demon of rage,” says the intellectual brother, Ivan, in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s \u003cem>The Brothers Karamazov\u003c/em>, a theme to which the Russian novelist frequently returns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is also a theme central to the HBO series, \u003cem>Barry\u003c/em>, whose fourth and final season premieres on Sunday, as the show’s titular hit man seeks to convince himself and others that he is ultimately a good person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>And while Bill Hader, the co-creator and star of \u003cem>Barry\u003c/em>, is reluctant to advertise the influence that Dostoevsky and other Russian authors have had on his Emmy-winning series, he disclosed that this kind of exploration of morality played a significant role in his creative process when he set out to make the show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m always like, ‘Yeah, I don’t watch a lot of TV.’ But I leave out that part, that I was reading big Russian books,” Hader laughed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the suggestion of his friend, author George Saunders, Hader took an interest in Russian literature and immersed himself in novels like Leo Tolstoy’s \u003cem>Anna Karenina\u003c/em> and \u003cem>War and Peace\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927817\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927817\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.08.03-PM-800x533.png\" alt=\"A older white man stands in a prison yard wearing blue hospital scrubs. Several figures are visible behind him.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.08.03-PM-800x533.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.08.03-PM-1020x679.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.08.03-PM-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.08.03-PM-768x511.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.08.03-PM.png 1364w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stephen Root’s Fuches is in a cycle of revenge and betrayal with Hader’s title character. \u003ccite>(HBO via AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One aspect of these stories which Hader sought to bring to \u003cem>Barry\u003c/em> was their contentment in probing philosophical questions about human nature, violence and revenge without necessarily expecting to find answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Barry\u003c/em> is billed as a comedy, though its dark content can preclude some from being able to enjoy its humor. It follows a Marine veteran-turned-hit man (Hader) who tries repeatedly but fails to denounce his profession after he takes an interest in acting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the premise sounds absurd, that’s because it is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a bad, bad logline,” said Stephen Root, who plays Fuches, Barry’s handler and old family friend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But many of the show’s stars, including seasoned actors like Henry Winkler, sang the praises of \u003cem>Barry\u003c/em> for its originality.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/_4lf2LKZwoY'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/_4lf2LKZwoY'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Although limited to 30-minute episodes, \u003cem>Barry\u003c/em> isn’t afraid to punch above its weight class, with clear inspiration from lauded cinema and prestige television like \u003cem>The Sopranos\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Twin Peaks.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Hader, described by his co-stars as a “total cinephile,” relied heavily on his extensive knowledge of film when considering how the series would grapple with weighty questions like whether humans are intrinsically violent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What’s always been really interesting to me, actually, is inherent violence within people,” Hader said, citing films that have played a role in his meditation on the subject, including \u003cem>A Clockwork Orange\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Goodfellas\u003c/em> and Terrence Malick’s \u003cem>The Thin Red Line\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout the show, Barry struggles to break out of a ceaseless cycle of carnage, while maintaining over and over that he is not defined by his past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927818\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927818\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.12.27-PM-800x532.png\" alt=\"An older man sits at a kitchen table in a silk dressing gown. He stares vacantly ahead, the weight of the world on his shoulders.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.12.27-PM-800x532.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.12.27-PM-1020x679.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.12.27-PM-160x106.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.12.27-PM-768x511.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.12.27-PM.png 1368w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Henry Winkler’s hapless acting teacher, Gene Cousineau, represents the moral center of the show in many ways. \u003ccite>(HBO via AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By the end of the third season, Barry’s actions have — either directly or indirectly — driven nearly every character to the precipice of violence. While those around him frequently describe Barry as “a violent guy,” they themselves are almost always willing to pull the trigger when the opportunity for revenge presents itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But although Hader wanted to avoid facile portrayals of characters who are purely good or purely evil, he also hopes it is apparent that Barry is not someone he wants audiences to root for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It was weird how people did have sympathy for him. I think the thing was just trying to make him human,” Hader said. “But what I always never want to lose focus of is that, you know, he murders people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final season further explores the implications of its characters’ descent into crime and punishment, though the line between fantasy and reality is increasingly blurry, prompting the viewer to wonder how much, if any, of season four is meant to be understood as “real.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Barry\u003c/em> often alludes to its self-awareness in its portrayals of both Hollywood tropes and murder. The horror that Barry’s former acting teacher (Winkler) expresses in season four at the thought of “glorifying a psychopath” feels like a kind of nod to the show’s humanization of a killer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927816\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927816\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.03.42-PM-800x533.png\" alt=\"Two men stand side-by-side in a sports bar gesturing to a friend. One is young but entirely bald and wearing a sports jacket. The other is Latino with slicked back hair and mustache and ’70s-style leather jackets.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.03.42-PM-800x533.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.03.42-PM-1020x680.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.03.42-PM-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.03.42-PM-768x512.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-14-at-12.03.42-PM.png 1368w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Anthony Carrigan and Michael Irby provide both humor and some heart to ‘Barry.’ \u003ccite>(HBO via AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Barring its bleak subject matter, \u003cem>Barry\u003c/em> is very much a comedy whose tendency to get dark is ameliorated by humor, though those moments of respite become increasingly rare and increasingly absurd as the show progresses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Winkler said that didn’t stop their “fearless leader” from occasionally breaking out of character and into laughter throughout the making of the show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’d see his shoulders bounce up and down because he’s laughing. You have to remind him, ‘You’re in the scene, Bill,’” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Copyright 2023 AP. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/\">visit AP\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The final series of ‘Barry’ begins on HBO on April 16, 2023.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "‘Yellowjackets’ Goes Deeper Into the Darkness in New Season",
"headTitle": "‘Yellowjackets’ Goes Deeper Into the Darkness in New Season | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Season one of \u003cem>Yellowjackets\u003c/em> ended with the phrase “let the darkness set us free,” and season two dares to venture into the darkness with little to no remorse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13925365']The breakout Showtime series blends horror, adventure, comedy, drama and more in an eerily harmonious way as two primary timelines unfold: The first feature a girls’ soccer team stranded in the Canadian wilderness in the ’90s, while the second focuses on the surviving teens now navigating adulthood and dealing with the trauma of the wilderness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first season is really about them making peace with their new surroundings and season two is about the surroundings closing in on them. It’s about the isolation and all the terrible things that can come from that,” said co-showrunner and co-creator Ashley Lyle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As viewers venture back into the wilderness with the surviving teens, there seems to be a dark presence and looming energy over their time. This second season raises the question of how much the audience will visibly endure, as the girls are physically, emotionally and psychologically pushed to the limit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krFohHX8WeU\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was personally blown away. The first script made me gasp several times. I love the way the episode ends,” said Christina Ricci, who plays Adult Misty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13926515']Melanie Lynskey, who portrays Adult Shauna, said she was nervous about how the writers would amplify each storyline from the previous season. “I just was like, ‘Oh my God! They did it. They really did it.’ Every script. I was like, ’They did it again!’ It’s really impressive,“ said Lynskey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Samantha Hanratty and Sophie Nélisse, who play the teen versions of Ricci and Lynskey’s characters, said that episodes five and six surprised them the most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hanratty says that episode five had her “jaw just on the floor” when watching back footage. “I can’t believe Misty did what she did; I’m not ready for this,” said the actor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927533\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927533\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-1.58.11-PM-800x523.png\" alt=\"A white woman with a blond curly bob sits in a dark room. She is wearing dowdy spectacles and a sweater.\" width=\"800\" height=\"523\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-1.58.11-PM-800x523.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-1.58.11-PM-1020x667.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-1.58.11-PM-160x105.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-1.58.11-PM-768x502.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-1.58.11-PM-1536x1004.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-1.58.11-PM.png 1698w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christina Ricci as adult Misty in ‘Yellowjackets.’ \u003ccite>(Showtime)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nélisse said episode six is a huge moment for her character: “I knew it was going to happen at some point, but I didn’t know the twists and turns it was going to take me on, and I was mostly just nervous I wouldn’t live up to the task. And I cried a little because I was like, ‘I won’t be able to do it.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Yellowjackets\u003c/em> quickly became a fan-favorite series after its premiere in 2021 as fans scoured the internet for answers to their burning questions. The show has been renewed for a third season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This season explores the world of cults and potentially the supernatural. However, Tawny Cypress — who plays Adult Taissa — says it’s all up for interpretation since it is not clear if a supernatural entity has any power over either teens or adults.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927534\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927534\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.01.50-PM-800x510.png\" alt=\"A black woman with long curly hair sits at a diner table, a coffee cup in front of her, a table-top jukebox at her side.\" width=\"800\" height=\"510\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.01.50-PM-800x510.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.01.50-PM-1020x650.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.01.50-PM-160x102.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.01.50-PM-768x490.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.01.50-PM-1536x979.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.01.50-PM.png 1760w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tawny Cypress as adult Taissa in ‘Yellowjackets.’ \u003ccite>(Showtime)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think the supernatural is really interpretive. There’s not necessarily anything that’s been said yet that’s written in stone,” said the actor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Co-showrunner Jonathan Lisco agrees and said the writers want to take the audience on an exploration of possibilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that we’ve got to be careful about labeling exactly what’s happening and instead exploring the possibilities of what’s happening. That’s really where we’re at,” said Lisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are broad definitions of the term supernatural, but what we always want to explore is whether or not there is a presence in the woods that is making them do this, or whether or not energetically these women coming together alchemically produce that kind of darkness and bring out the worst in each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927535\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927535\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.07.50-PM-800x497.png\" alt=\"A middle-aged white woman with short dark brown hair sits on the floor, her back leaned against a bed. She looks worried.\" width=\"800\" height=\"497\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.07.50-PM-800x497.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.07.50-PM-1020x634.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.07.50-PM-160x99.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.07.50-PM-768x477.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.07.50-PM-1536x954.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.07.50-PM.png 1616w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Melanie Lynskey as adult Shauna in ‘Yellowjackets.’ \u003ccite>(Showtime)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The trailer for season two also reveals more surviving characters. Fans got a sneak peek of Van — portrayed in the present by Lauren Ambrose — and Lottie — portrayed in the present by Simone Kessell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kessell praised Courtney Eaton’s portrayal of Teen Lottie in the first season. “She set the foundation, and I got to paint the house,” said the actor. “Courtney had done such a beautiful job of creating the dark Lottie and the visionary that is Lottie.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The young actors said that at the end of a long day of filming, they turned to self-care and community to take themselves out of their character’s survival mode.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13927142']“It’s a lot of recommending yoga classes to each other,” Liv Hewson said playfully. Eaton and Nélisse lived together and chose to decompress by listening to music on the way home and sitting in silence watching television.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would say that to kind of decompress of the day, it really helped taking off my wig and getting rid of the dirt from under your nails and skin and just coming back to your own skin and feeling fresh again,” Eaton added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Season two premiered on Showtime on March 24 and already has fans raving about the unexpected twists and turns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ricci, who has starred in films like \u003cem>The Addams Family\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Penelope\u003c/em>, said that fans are drawn to supernatural thrillers because they provide a sense of escape from reality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think sometimes being able to see the problems of real life through an extreme metaphor, it’s easier to process things. It’s more fun to follow along. But we still feel how much it resonates emotionally for us,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Copyright 2023 AP. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/\">visit AP\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Season 2 of the fan-favorite show explores the world of cults — and potentially the supernatural.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Season one of \u003cem>Yellowjackets\u003c/em> ended with the phrase “let the darkness set us free,” and season two dares to venture into the darkness with little to no remorse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The breakout Showtime series blends horror, adventure, comedy, drama and more in an eerily harmonious way as two primary timelines unfold: The first feature a girls’ soccer team stranded in the Canadian wilderness in the ’90s, while the second focuses on the surviving teens now navigating adulthood and dealing with the trauma of the wilderness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first season is really about them making peace with their new surroundings and season two is about the surroundings closing in on them. It’s about the isolation and all the terrible things that can come from that,” said co-showrunner and co-creator Ashley Lyle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As viewers venture back into the wilderness with the surviving teens, there seems to be a dark presence and looming energy over their time. This second season raises the question of how much the audience will visibly endure, as the girls are physically, emotionally and psychologically pushed to the limit.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/krFohHX8WeU'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/krFohHX8WeU'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was personally blown away. The first script made me gasp several times. I love the way the episode ends,” said Christina Ricci, who plays Adult Misty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Melanie Lynskey, who portrays Adult Shauna, said she was nervous about how the writers would amplify each storyline from the previous season. “I just was like, ‘Oh my God! They did it. They really did it.’ Every script. I was like, ’They did it again!’ It’s really impressive,“ said Lynskey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Samantha Hanratty and Sophie Nélisse, who play the teen versions of Ricci and Lynskey’s characters, said that episodes five and six surprised them the most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hanratty says that episode five had her “jaw just on the floor” when watching back footage. “I can’t believe Misty did what she did; I’m not ready for this,” said the actor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927533\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927533\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-1.58.11-PM-800x523.png\" alt=\"A white woman with a blond curly bob sits in a dark room. She is wearing dowdy spectacles and a sweater.\" width=\"800\" height=\"523\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-1.58.11-PM-800x523.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-1.58.11-PM-1020x667.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-1.58.11-PM-160x105.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-1.58.11-PM-768x502.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-1.58.11-PM-1536x1004.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-1.58.11-PM.png 1698w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christina Ricci as adult Misty in ‘Yellowjackets.’ \u003ccite>(Showtime)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nélisse said episode six is a huge moment for her character: “I knew it was going to happen at some point, but I didn’t know the twists and turns it was going to take me on, and I was mostly just nervous I wouldn’t live up to the task. And I cried a little because I was like, ‘I won’t be able to do it.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Yellowjackets\u003c/em> quickly became a fan-favorite series after its premiere in 2021 as fans scoured the internet for answers to their burning questions. The show has been renewed for a third season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This season explores the world of cults and potentially the supernatural. However, Tawny Cypress — who plays Adult Taissa — says it’s all up for interpretation since it is not clear if a supernatural entity has any power over either teens or adults.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927534\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927534\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.01.50-PM-800x510.png\" alt=\"A black woman with long curly hair sits at a diner table, a coffee cup in front of her, a table-top jukebox at her side.\" width=\"800\" height=\"510\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.01.50-PM-800x510.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.01.50-PM-1020x650.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.01.50-PM-160x102.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.01.50-PM-768x490.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.01.50-PM-1536x979.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.01.50-PM.png 1760w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tawny Cypress as adult Taissa in ‘Yellowjackets.’ \u003ccite>(Showtime)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think the supernatural is really interpretive. There’s not necessarily anything that’s been said yet that’s written in stone,” said the actor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Co-showrunner Jonathan Lisco agrees and said the writers want to take the audience on an exploration of possibilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that we’ve got to be careful about labeling exactly what’s happening and instead exploring the possibilities of what’s happening. That’s really where we’re at,” said Lisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are broad definitions of the term supernatural, but what we always want to explore is whether or not there is a presence in the woods that is making them do this, or whether or not energetically these women coming together alchemically produce that kind of darkness and bring out the worst in each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927535\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927535\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.07.50-PM-800x497.png\" alt=\"A middle-aged white woman with short dark brown hair sits on the floor, her back leaned against a bed. She looks worried.\" width=\"800\" height=\"497\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.07.50-PM-800x497.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.07.50-PM-1020x634.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.07.50-PM-160x99.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.07.50-PM-768x477.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.07.50-PM-1536x954.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-07-at-2.07.50-PM.png 1616w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Melanie Lynskey as adult Shauna in ‘Yellowjackets.’ \u003ccite>(Showtime)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The trailer for season two also reveals more surviving characters. Fans got a sneak peek of Van — portrayed in the present by Lauren Ambrose — and Lottie — portrayed in the present by Simone Kessell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kessell praised Courtney Eaton’s portrayal of Teen Lottie in the first season. “She set the foundation, and I got to paint the house,” said the actor. “Courtney had done such a beautiful job of creating the dark Lottie and the visionary that is Lottie.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The young actors said that at the end of a long day of filming, they turned to self-care and community to take themselves out of their character’s survival mode.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It’s a lot of recommending yoga classes to each other,” Liv Hewson said playfully. Eaton and Nélisse lived together and chose to decompress by listening to music on the way home and sitting in silence watching television.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would say that to kind of decompress of the day, it really helped taking off my wig and getting rid of the dirt from under your nails and skin and just coming back to your own skin and feeling fresh again,” Eaton added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Season two premiered on Showtime on March 24 and already has fans raving about the unexpected twists and turns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ricci, who has starred in films like \u003cem>The Addams Family\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Penelope\u003c/em>, said that fans are drawn to supernatural thrillers because they provide a sense of escape from reality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think sometimes being able to see the problems of real life through an extreme metaphor, it’s easier to process things. It’s more fun to follow along. But we still feel how much it resonates emotionally for us,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Copyright 2023 AP. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/\">visit AP\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "bay-area-hip-hop-1980s",
"title": "How Bay Area Hip-Hop Found Its Sound in the 1980s",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927363\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/that_s_my_word_____featured_image__3_-800x450.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927363\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/that_s_my_word_____featured_image__3_-800x450.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/that_s_my_word_____featured_image__3_-1020x574.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/that_s_my_word_____featured_image__3_-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/that_s_my_word_____featured_image__3_-768x432.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/that_s_my_word_____featured_image__3_-1536x864.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/that_s_my_word_____featured_image__3_.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the mid-1980s, after years of street dance, DJing and graffiti sharing equal space, rapping took center stage. The Bay Area’s bass-heavy sound would arrive at the end of the decade. (Clockwise from top left: Too Short, MC Hammer, Dominique DiPrima, Club Nouveau, and Motorcycle Mike.) \u003ccite>(Steve Ringman/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images; Al Pereira/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images; SFSU Television Archives; Raymond Boyd/Getty Images; Hodisk Records)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Editor’s note\u003c/strong>: This story is part of \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop\">That’s My Word\u003c/a>\u003cem>, KQED’s year-long exploration of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop\">Bay Area hip-hop\u003c/a> history, with new content dropping all throughout 2023.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">I\u003c/span>t’s a wintry January evening when Bas-1 brings me to Del the Funky Homosapien’s house in the East Bay. For much of the afternoon, Bas — the \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/old-school-fool-1/\">Oakland native\u003c/a> who’s worked with Digital Underground and released \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bas-1+full+album+mentally+astute\">his own solo records\u003c/a> — has schooled me on the origins of the Bay Area hip-hop sound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bas lists numerous rappers from the ’80s, and not just Todd “Too Short” Shaw, the East Oakland rapper who famously hustled homemade cassette tapes. I’ve never heard most of the names Bas mentions: MC Chocolate Milk, Windell Baby Doll, Davy Def, Buddy Bean, Reggie Reg Rock Ski.ter, M.C. Tracy, Rock Master Fresh, Nic Nack, Kimmie Fresh, and the Acorn Crew with Grandmaster Fresh (a rapper later known as “DJ Daryl” Anderson, famed for producing tracks like 415’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuZ6CAwZmys\">Side Show\u003c/a>” and 2Pac’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAJfDP3b5_U\">Keep Ya Head Up\u003c/a>”).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13924126']Many of these early Bay Area rappers never put out a commercially available record. Instead, their work is mostly confined to locally distributed cassette tapes — collectors call them “gray tapes” — that are now nearly impossible to find. They publicly broadcasted these tapes throughout neighborhoods, utilizing boomboxes and car stereos as well as stereos at house parties. “None of them sound like Too Short,” says Bas. “Some of these people didn’t put out recordings, but they were known.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout the 1980s, Bay Area hip-hop was an artistic movement struggling for a distinct identity. The first half of the decade was defined by street dance and aerosol art as much as rap and DJing. But as local youth began to absorb the sounds emanating from national hotspots like New York, they created a distinctive style all their own — one that would make a global impact in the years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Del’s house, Bas queues up an extraordinary live video clip of \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u3eiG9BtdE\">Mac Mill, Emperor E, and DJ Anthony “K-os” Bryant\u003c/a> performing at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11690787/when-oakland-was-a-chocolate-city-a-brief-history-of-festival-at-the-lake\">Festival at the Lake\u003c/a>, a now-defunct annual event held at Lake Merritt, in 1988. (Alex “Naru” Reece, who organized the showcase where Mac Mill performed, clarified in a follow-up conversation that it didn’t happen during Festival at the Lake. He also says the showcase was filmed in 1986 for a 1988 video compilation.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mac Mill and Emperor E go back and forth, trading sound effects and dense Oakland slang as K-os cuts and scratches copies of Long Island band Original Concept’s deathless bass classic, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai4VC0NUxl4\">Knowledge Me\u003c/a>.” Bas praises Mac Mill’s unusual “Arabian” style, which the latter deployed nearly a decade later with the 1995 single “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_f0TB3Igro\">Arabian Hump\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u3eiG9BtdE\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, Bas-1 calls Chris “CJ Flash” Jourdan, an OG who worked with Timex Social Club, the Berkeley teen band whose 1986 electro-funk classic, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVce2IeYcTg\">Rumors\u003c/a>,” represented the first national breakthrough for Bay Area hip-hop culture. As Bas broadcasts CJ Flash’s voice from his phone through Del’s stereo equipment, CJ Flash spends the next hour or so describing a fledging scene where poppers and boogaloo dancers, not rappers or DJs, were the prime attractions. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These ensembles drew from a street-dance tradition that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13891300/reclaiming-the-legacy-of-oaklands-boogaloo-dance-culture\">dates back decades\u003c/a>. Their kinetic performances ignited crowds at high schools, house parties, and public spaces like Justin Herman Plaza and Union Square in San Francisco and UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza. Battles even took place on the street, with crews traveling to different neighborhoods around the region to seek out rivals. “You could meet with people on their turf and get down, and hopefully not get thumped in the process,” says CJ Flash. Many Bay Area hip-hop pioneers got their start in dance crews, including Club Nouveau’s Jay King (who pop-locked with The Unknowns), DJ King Tech (who was known as Wizard, and danced with Master City Breakers), and Flash himself (who \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub1TtnI4dh8\">performed with UFO\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub1TtnI4dh8\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By contrast, rapping was a relatively new and undeveloped skill, the lowest element on the hip-hop totem pole. “Anybody could rap. Anybody could say a bunch of basic rhyme words with no style and flavor,” says Bas, noting as an aside that “most folks couldn’t understand the lyrics anyway.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How is a discussion about street dancers connected to an exploration of the Bay Area hip-hop sound? It’s important to understand the conditions under which the genre emerged locally.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Turntables, Casios and Homemade Tapes\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As KQED’s Eric Arnold explains in “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13924126/the-bay-area-was-hip-hop-before-there-was-hip-hop\">The Bay Area Was Hip-Hop Before There Was Hip-Hop\u003c/a>,” foundational elements such as spoken word, funk, and rhythm & blues existed locally well before New Jersey trio Sugarhill Gang arrived with “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKTUAESacQM\">Rapper’s Delight\u003c/a>” in the fall of 1979.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13923978']At the same time, the Bay Area was not the Bronx, where breakbeat culture catalyzed and fermented. Bronx DJs, MCs and B-boys like Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Caz, the Rock Steady Crew and many others gained renown among mid-’70s New York youth long before “Rapper’s Delight.” By contrast, as CJ Flash explains, it took much of the 1980s for Bay Area youth to develop the cadences and rhythms we now associate with modern rap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back then, enterprising musicians couldn’t purchase studio software and distribute their own music on an internet platform like Soundcloud. Recording equipment was expensive. An unsigned artist needed the financial and business expertise to manufacture vinyl and cassettes with artwork, much less convince record stores like Leopold’s Records in Berkeley to carry them. (Recordable CD-Rs weren’t widely used until the 1990s.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This helps explain why so many rappers utilized turntables and Casio keyboards, and then recorded their songs using the microphone input on relatively cheap stereo equipment. Captured on recordable cassettes like Maxell and TDK, some of these “gray tapes” simply had stickers with handwritten titles. More often, they weren’t labeled at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927410\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Naru.BoxofTapes.CloseUp-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927410\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Naru.BoxofTapes.CloseUp-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Naru.BoxofTapes.CloseUp-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Naru.BoxofTapes.CloseUp-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Naru.BoxofTapes.CloseUp-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Naru.BoxofTapes.CloseUp-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Naru.BoxofTapes.CloseUp.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A box of handmade Bay Area rap tapes, part of Naru’s home archives. \u003ccite>(Mosi Reeves)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In those days, Too Short was an outlier, a Fremont High School student who canvassed East Oakland spots like Arroyo Park, \u003ca href=\"https://medium.com/@bayareahiphoparchive/in-conversation-with-56fae687e9c\">selling copies of “Game Raps”\u003c/a> at a few dollars a pop. Since Short was originally from Los Angeles, he relied on rap partner Tony “Freddy B” Adams to show him around the Town. The duo \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#too-short-and-freddy-b-start-making-handmade-tapes\">made customized tapes for local drug dealers and players\u003c/a> in the city’s nightlife — now known as “special request” tapes — shouting out the customers’ names in their raps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Short was a hustler,” says CJ Flash. “He had a style of telling stories that was so outlandish and so funny that word got around.” Short and Freddy B developed the trademark “Biiiiitch!” catchphrase, and Short has often said that he and Freddy B intended to get famous together. Unfortunately, Freddy B was in prison when Short released his landmark “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwVJTvOO4yY\">Freaky Tales\u003c/a>” tape in 1987. (Adams is \u003ca href=\"https://www.dailyrepublic.com/all-dr-news/solano-news/local-features/from-too-hort-colleague-to-christian-missionary/\">now a minister\u003c/a> at Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Fairfield.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927341\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 676px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/TooShort.SFExaminer.1984.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"676\" height=\"455\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13927341\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/TooShort.SFExaminer.1984.jpg 676w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/TooShort.SFExaminer.1984-160x108.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Too Short in 1984, at the age of 18. \u003ccite>(Katy Raddatz/San Francisco Examiner/Bancroft Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Others like Sir Quick Draw, Mac Mill, and Chief Naked Head (later known as Premo; he passed away in January of 2023) simply gave away their tapes or let friends copy or “dub” the originals. As Richmond rapper \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13925761/magic-mike-richmond-calvin-t-rap-hip-hop\">Magic Mike explained in a recent interview with Dregs One\u003c/a>, dubs of his tracks circulated as widely as Germany. “It was more or less trying to make a name for yourself…you had to make a tape,” adds CJ Flash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most importantly, Bay Area hip-hop in the ’80s was a primordial soup of youngsters figuring out what the local sound would be. The answers wouldn’t arrive until near the end of the decade. “The Bay Area was behind,” says CJ Flash, comparing it to more advanced regions like Los Angeles, South Florida, and New York. “We never thought about radio.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘A Pivotal Moment’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Alex “Naru Kwina” Hence remembers the first time he heard the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” as a 14-year-old preparing to attend Oakland High School. “When the song went off, everybody ran outside, like, ‘Did you hear that song?!” he laughs, calling it one of the best moments of his life. “It was a pivotal moment, bro. We literally started rapping the song and trying to remember it.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naru called himself Sir Quick Draw, an alias inspired by Hanna-Barbera cartoon \u003cem>Quick Draw McGraw\u003c/em> as well as the fact that, as a runner, “I was hella fast.” He took inspiration from Kurtis Blow, the Harlem rapper who scored major hits like 1980’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzl-2g5HhaI\">The Breaks\u003c/a>.” And Naru almost immediately began recording his voice on tape. His first original song was “The Caveman Rap,” which was inspired by Brooklyn rapper Jimmy Spicer’s 1980 single “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkGLco0tGqc\">Adventures of Super Rhyme\u003c/a>.” Naru can still recite those verses from memory: \u003cem>Now people come and take a trip in time with me / Back to that sweet year one million B.C.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I still got that old-school flavor, man,” he admits. “Hip-hop was more fun for me back then.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927368\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Naru.Boxes_.1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"840\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13927368\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Naru.Boxes_.1.jpg 600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Naru.Boxes_.1-160x224.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Naru Kwina, who recorded under the names Sir Quick Draw and Em Cee Quick, poses with his home archives. \u003ccite>(Mosi Reeves)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But rap in the Bay Area didn’t take off right away. “Most people would rap other people’s songs. They’d just repeat what they heard on the radio,” says Naru. Aspiring MCs honed their craft by congregating at Eastmont Mall, “trying to impress the girls, and getting our names on our derby jackets.” And when Tom Tom Club’s 1981 hit “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECiMhe4E0pI\">Genius of Love\u003c/a>” dropped? “Everybody rapped over that joint, man. Too many people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s worth remembering that hip-hop was a phenomenon developed essentially by Black and Brown children. Rapping, pop-locking, spray-painting aerosol art on neighborhood walls, even DJing: These were youthful forms of play and creative expression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bas, who grew up in North Oakland, remembers \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#at-fishermans-wharf-a-street-dance-destination-emerges\">popping and “roboting” at Pier 39 on Fisherman’s Wharf\u003c/a> in the late ’70s as a child. “You have people like Ben [James] from Live Incorporated doing pantomime and roboting,” he says, noting one of the better-known dance crews. Dancers competed for attention and tips that they could spend on Snickers bars and arcade games. “Battle-wise, you had to have skill and talent to a certain caliber in order to truly be out on the Wharf or on Market [and Powell] in front of the cable cars,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927321\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1298788791-800x547.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"547\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927321\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1298788791-800x547.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1298788791-1020x697.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1298788791-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1298788791-768x525.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1298788791.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A street dance crew called The Vita Family perform at Pier 39 in 1986. \u003ccite>(Liz Hafalia/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Local newspaper stories focused on the emergence of hip-hop as a youth obsession. Enterprising teachers incorporated it into their lesson plans. On high-school campuses, fledgling DJs like Joseph Thomas “G.I. Joe” Simms Jr. at El Cerrito High School and groups like the Devastating Four proliferated. At house parties, mobile DJ crews spun the latest electro, boogie-funk, and rap hits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gatherings at schools, churches, and community centers typically reserved a few minutes for fledgling local rap and dance crews to perform. This was also the era of \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#nancy-reagan-visits-oakland-and-coins-the-phrase-just-say-no\">the Reagan Administration’s “Just Say No” campaign\u003c/a>, and kids were often asked to help spread an anti-drug message through raps. “Inspired by rapping groups such as Sugar Hill, Run DMC, Jeckyl and Hyde and Mell (sic) and the Furious Five, teen-agers create their own raps mostly for fun and to bring attention to themselves,” read a June 29, 1985, story in the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13925415']In the first half of the decade, street dance remained a focal point. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/12/04/1140504217/double-dutch-fantastic-four-holiday-classic\">Double Dutch jump-rope competitions\u003c/a> sponsored by McDonald’s drew thousands to Lincoln Square Center in Oakland. The San Francisco Street Breakers held a fundraising benefit, “Super Break Sunday,” at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts in 1985. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ironically, street dance “got played out” after the success of Hollywood movies like \u003cem>Beat Street\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Breakin’\u003c/em>, and rap music moved to the center of hip-hop culture. Quickening the process were concerts by Black music stars like the \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#the-fresh-fest-comes-to-oakland\">Fresh Festival\u003c/a>, the first national hip-hop tour, with headliners Run-DMC at the Oakland Coliseum. Local radio tentatively began to experiment with rap, notably KMEL-FM and its mix DJs such as Michael Erickson and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13828163/watch-cameron-paul-give-a-masterclass-in-early-djing\">the late Cameron Paul\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927323\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/FreshFest.Flyer_-1020x1517.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"952\" class=\"size-large wp-image-13927323\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/FreshFest.Flyer_-1020x1517.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/FreshFest.Flyer_-800x1190.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/FreshFest.Flyer_-160x238.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/FreshFest.Flyer_-768x1142.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/FreshFest.Flyer_-1033x1536.jpg 1033w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/FreshFest.Flyer_.jpg 1345w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A flyer for the Fresh Festival, which arrived in Oakland in 1984.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“By 1985, there was this incredible scene in the South Bay,” says Adisa “The Bishop” Banjoko. As a teen DJ in San Bruno “who looked like Urkel,” he remembers traveling far and wide to buy records, from Creative Music Emporium in San Francisco to T’s Wauzi in Oakland. Meanwhile, nightclubs like Mothers and Studio 47 brought a fusion of hip-hop, freestyle and techno. “San Jose had underage hip-hop teenage clubs, and no other city had those,” he says. (Banjoko later became a rapper, a journalist, and now promotes jiu-jitsu, meditation and chess with his company \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/real64blocks/?hl=en\">64 Blocks\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in Oakland, Naru continued making tapes. “I come from a musical family. My cousin’s the Maestro” — a.k.a. producer Keenan Foster, who has worked with Too Short, Dru Down, and Askari X — “and a lot of my family sings. I got a drum machine, a little Yamaha keyboard. I would play my bass lines. We had double-cassette decks.” He collaborated with Taj “Turntable T” Tilghman, “who was dope on the turntables.” Turntable T eventually bought a Roland TR-808 drum machine, the instrument du jour for def beat MCs. “When that 808 came, that was it. Everyone loved that deck. \u003cem>Boom!\u003c/em>”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Gray tapes” that circulated weren’t the EP and album-length releases we’re familiar with today. Some tapes only had one song per side; or maybe just one song on one side, period. Artists were judged not only by their ability to rap engagingly for several minutes, but also to chop up a familiar beat like Whodini’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5r0i2ZAbCc\">Friends\u003c/a>,” transforming it into something fresh and original; or even make rudimentary 808 beats. For example, Too Short drew attention for “rapping the longest,” as Bas explains, leading to songs that lasted eight or nine minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927334\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Adisa.portrait-800x682.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"682\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Adisa.portrait-800x682.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Adisa.portrait-1020x870.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Adisa.portrait-160x136.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Adisa.portrait-768x655.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Adisa.portrait.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adisa Banjoko in the 1980s. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Adisa Banjoko)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Those tapes were everywhere. Everyone was trying to see what was possible,” says Banjoko. In 1987, he began making raps under the name MC Most Ill. His first song was “Rhyme Junkie.” “The truth was, some of it was really cool but a lot of it actually also sucked, because [the art form] was brand new. … The quality control was not there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On August 18, 1984, the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> published an article called “Rapping with Too-Short,” the first story on the 18-year-old prodigy. Pacific News Service journalist Anthony Adams called Short’s songs “preacher-like yarns over pre-recorded music,” and noted that one of them was about automaker John DeLorean, whose conviction for cocaine trafficking made national news. Short claimed he and his partner Freddy B sold over 2,000 tapes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003cem>Chronicle-Examiner\u003c/em> also frequently interviewed \u003ca href=\"https://www.dominiquediprima.com/\">Dominique “Lady D” DiPrima\u003c/a>, a New York transplant and San Francisco State University student who rapped, sung, and organized events. DiPrima possessed a rich family pedigree — her father was the jazz writer Amiri Baraka, her mother the beat poet Diane DiPrima. In late 1984, \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#home-turf-premieres-on-kron-tv\">KRON-TV recruited her to host \u003cem>Home Turf\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, a Saturday-afternoon program that became appointment viewing for local teens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everyone had a crush on Dominique,” says Naru, giggling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927320\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/DominiqueDiprima.HomeTurf.SFSU_-800x541.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"541\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/DominiqueDiprima.HomeTurf.SFSU_-800x541.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/DominiqueDiprima.HomeTurf.SFSU_-1020x690.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/DominiqueDiprima.HomeTurf.SFSU_-160x108.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/DominiqueDiprima.HomeTurf.SFSU_-768x520.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/DominiqueDiprima.HomeTurf.SFSU_-1536x1039.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/DominiqueDiprima.HomeTurf.SFSU_.png 1540w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dominique DiPrima, pictured here hosting a 1987 episode of ‘Home Turf’ on KRON-4. \u003ccite>(SFSU Television Archive)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>The First Bay Area Rap Record Opens the Floodgates\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One of the under-acknowledged aspects of early hip-hop is the way elder Black musicians shepherded young artists into the recording industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The late Sylvia Robinson, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, initially emerged in the mid-’50s as one-half of Mickey & Sylvia, who scored a national hit with “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SwMB9v1pQ4\">Love Is Strange\u003c/a>.” As a ’70s solo artist and producer, Robinson made slinky, Eartha Kitt-like erotic disco capers such as “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA2X1040_gY\">Pillow Talk\u003c/a>” and “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPScEJ66_m4\">Sweet Stuff\u003c/a>.” After discovering hip-hop when she heard DJ Lovebug Starski at a party, Robinson formed Sugar Hill Records, and turned three rapping teens she found in New Jersey into its first act, the Sugarhill Gang.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This process of soul veterans working with young people resulted in independent 12” singles that mirrored — if not yet accurately capturing — the nascent rap sound at a time when big companies virtually ignored it. With his Mercury Records contract, Kurtis Blow was the only act with a major album deal. A handful of other pioneers like DJ Hollywood scored one-off 12” deals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A similar process played out in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R_h9BCuvBE\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first Bay Area rap record is widely considered to be Phil “Motorcycle Mike” Lewis and the Rat Trap Band’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4Odk2Vu70s\">Super Rat\u003c/a>,” a 1981 boogie-funk single notoriously released by East Oakland heroin kingpin Milton “Mickey Mo” Moore’s Hodisk Records. The name “Hodisk” was a cheeky reference to his onetime side business as a pimp. (Moore has since reformed and is now a pastor in West Oakland.) In fact, Mickey Mo boasts in his 1996 autobiography \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qy6RNV6f5w\">The Man: The Life Story of a Drug Kingpin\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, “Hodisk Records became the first record company on the West Coast to release a rap record.” (The first L.A. rap record, Disco Daddy and Captain Rapp’s “The Gigolo Rapp,” was also released in 1981.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mickey Mo has another claim to rap lore: In 1980, he \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#the-first-rap-performance-on-a-major-stage\">helped finance an Oakland Coliseum concert\u003c/a> headlined by L.A. funk band War, with the Sugarhill Gang as a supporting act. Journalist Lee Hildebrand’s pre-concert interview with the Gang in the \u003cem>Oakland Tribune\u003c/em> was the first mention of rap music in the local press. A second funk-rap novelty, Steve Walker’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB9jCLUWwBY\">Tally Ho!\u003c/a>,” also appeared in 1981. In 1983, San Francisco’s Debo & Brian released the electro-funk EP \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgv_AfTbEng\">This Is It\u003c/a>\u003c/em>. The momentum had started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had made this vow that I would never ever do anything having to do with rap,” laughs Claytoven Richardson. During his long career, the Berkeley-born, Oakland-raised Richardson worked with Aretha Franklin, Kenny G, Whitney Houston, Elton John, and Celine Dion. But in the early ’80s, he was best known as a singer, producer, and arranger with hot dancefloor jazz-funk bands like Bill Summers & Summers’ Heat. His anti-rap stance reflected the music industry at large in the 1980s. “Nobody had the foresight to see that it would morph and change and do the things that it’s done,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927369\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 625px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ClaytovenRichardson.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13927369\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ClaytovenRichardson.jpg 625w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ClaytovenRichardson-160x90.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Claytoven Richardson pictured in March 2023 in Los Angeles, California. \u003ccite>(Steven Simione/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Still, Richardson couldn’t avoid the increasingly popular genre when he scored a production deal at Fantasy Records, the onetime Berkeley jazz label also known for innovative acts like Sylvester and Cybotron, as well as one-off singles generated by a “throw it against the wall and see if it sticks” philosophy. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the records Richardson produced in that anything-goes environment was Mighty Mouth’s satirical complaint, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU1hAFnrtU8\">I’m All Rapped Out\u003c/a>.” (He wasn’t the only one annoyed over rap; perhaps out of wishful thinking, a 1985 \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> article referred to the “fast-fading hip-hop scene.”) A vocalist named Lawrence Pittman didn’t show up for the session, so Richardson performed the lyrics himself. However, Pittman showed up to rap on Mighty Mouth’s second single, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqfQcLbemE4\">The Roaches\u003c/a>,” which parodied Whodini’s electro hit, “Freaks Come Out at Night.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other scattered local raps appeared between 1985 and 1986. Former boogaloo dancer Jay King, just home from a stint in the Air Force and splitting time between Sacramento and Vallejo, formed a group called Frost and released “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hObIekxeoSg\">Battle Beat\u003c/a>.” His friends Denzil Foster & Thomas McElroy produced it, as well as another electro-rap track, Sorcerey’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ap6uw-kX8o\">Woo Baby\u003c/a>.” Pittsburg rapper James “Red Beat” Briggs issued “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7dUlMEZUSc\">Freak City\u003c/a>,” which was later remixed by N.W.A. co-founder Arabian Prince. And there was Rodney “Disco Alamo” Brown, from Richmond, whose 12” “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K-pXg1DY98\">The Task Force\u003c/a>” is \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#richmonds-task-force-memorialized-on-wax\">an early example\u003c/a> of Bay Area rap chronicling street life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927313\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1206295164-800x484.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"484\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927313\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1206295164-800x484.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1206295164-1020x618.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1206295164-160x97.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1206295164-768x465.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1206295164.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Too Short, pictured at his manager’s house in Oakland on September 21, 1987. \u003ccite>(Steve Ringman/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most importantly, Too Short’s rising buzz led to a deal with deep East Oakland entrepreneur Dean Hodges’ 75 Girls label. Released in 1985, the resulting \u003cem>Don’t Stop Rappin’\u003c/em> was the first official album by a local rapper. While fans of a certain age still treasure protean electro-funk tracks like “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2ywke376NQ\">Girl\u003c/a>” — which E-40 referenced on his 1998 hit, “Earl, That’s Yo Life” — the album couldn’t compare to his raunchy and wickedly hilarious “special request” tapes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was during this period that Naru finally got his chance in the studio. Since 1984, UC Berkeley station \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#college-radio-makes-its-mark\">KALX-FM\u003c/a> served as home to “Music for the People,” a Sunday-morning community affairs and music show hosted by the late Charles “Natty Prep” Douglass, as well as DJs like Billy “Jam” Kiernan (who also broadcast on San Francisco State University station KUSF-FM), David “Davey D” Cook, and funkster Rickey “The Uhuru Maggot” Vincent. When Naru won \u003ca href=\"https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/107287\">a 1986 rap contest hosted by Billy Jam on KALX\u003c/a>, he earned a deal with Bay Wave Records, a local imprint distributed by Hollywood-based Macola Records. Richardson was hired to produce the session.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLlNn1Zh1ww\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Quick Draw] was a great rapper. He had a lot of great lyrics and ideas,” says Richardson. On “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLlNn1Zh1ww\">Rapaholic\u003c/a>,” Richardson and session engineer Michael Denten (who later worked with Spice 1 and E-40) accompanied Quick Draw’s dexterous and energetic raps with sharp-angled percussive edits and sound effects reminiscent of The Art of Noise and Mantronix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Respect to Claytoven,” says Naru, who not only continues to make music but also owns a company, \u003ca href=\"http://hiplearning.org/\">Hip Learning\u003c/a>, that promotes childhood education with rap. He wasn’t entirely satisfied with the “Rapaholic” experience: “They made the record sound hella more polished. It was [supposed to be] a little more underground than that.” However, he adds, “[Claytoven] taught us a lot in the studio about the mics they use and how to mix. It was a good experience.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927411\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SirQuickdrawFlyer.72dpi.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"889\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13927411\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SirQuickdrawFlyer.72dpi.jpg 600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SirQuickdrawFlyer.72dpi-160x237.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A photocopied flyer advertising Sir Quick Draw’s single ‘Rapaholic.’ \u003ccite>(Mosi Reeves)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>A Radio Breakthrough — And a Kid Named Hammer\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As the trajectory of Bay Area hip-hop waxed and waned, three catalyzing moments brought the scene into focus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first was an R&B track. Timex Social Club’s “Rumors” captured the pulse of Bay Area youth culture, from Marcus Thompson and Alex Hill’s skittering electro-funk bass and drums to singer Michael Marshall’s distinctly regional accent and coy recitation of schoolyard gossip (“Did you hear the one about Michael? Some say he must be gay…”) Produced by Jay King and Denzil Foster and released on King’s Jay Records in February 1986, it mushroomed into a top ten \u003cem>Billboard\u003c/em> pop hit and dominated radio all year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVce2IeYcTg\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But by the summer, Timex Social Club was falling apart and trading accusations with King over money and credit. The group’s only album \u003cem>Vicious Rumors\u003c/em> — by that point it was just Michael Marshall — featured drum programming from CJ Flash and a shout-out to KALX’s Natty Prep, who helped break “Rumors” on his “Music and Life” show. Marshall retreated from the spotlight before \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#i-got-5-on-it-remix-a-meeting-of-greats-recorded-in-alameda\">re-emerging as the hook man\u003c/a> on the Luniz’ 1995 smash “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERtkpnXLrL4\">I Got 5 on It\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After breaking with Timex Social Club, King formed a group called Jet Set and signed a deal with Warner Bros. Records. The group changed their name to Club Nouveau before debuting with the single “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKWhkjXV5uM\">Jealousy\u003c/a>.” A follow-up, the Bill Withers cover “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbyjaUJWWmk\">Lean on Me\u003c/a>,” went to number-one on the \u003cem>Billboard\u003c/em> Hot 100, while Club Nouveau’s debut album \u003cem>Life, Love & Pain\u003c/em> went platinum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927310\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1346275851-800x489.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"489\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927310\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1346275851-800x489.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1346275851-1020x624.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1346275851-160x98.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1346275851-768x470.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1346275851.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Singers Samuelle Prater, Jay King and Valerie Watson of Club Nouveau performs at the U.I.C. Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois in August 1987. \u003ccite>(Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>King’s growing stardom rippled across the Bay and reached Felton Pilate, the Vallejo keyboardist, singer, and producer best known as a driving force in Bay Area funk stars Con Funk Shun. The two had already worked together on King’s onetime rap group Frost; Pilate engineered that record. Pilate soon added one of King’s projects, Sacramento R&B/rap group New Choice, to a growing slate of projects he produced and engineered at his Felstar Studios.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Felstar Studios was the culmination of work he had begun while not touring and rehearsing with Con Funk Shun. At his home studio on Sandpiper Drive in Vallejo, Pilate helped assemble records for fledgling local artists. “I never thought of myself as just a studio,” he says, where he simply records his clients. “I have a little experience here. I’ve got several gold albums. Here, let me pass on some of this knowledge.” When asked if he considered himself a mentor, he demurs, even though that’s arguably what he was. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Pilate opened Felstar Studios on Sonoma Boulevard, his trusted associate was James Earley, a young engineer whom he credits for adding a more contemporary sensibility to the Studios’ output. Among the locals who came to them were M.V.P., a family trio consisting of Earl Stevens, Danell Stevens, and Brandt Jones. Their 1988 12”, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfLuAL6DueI\">The Kings Men\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, also included Tanina Stevens and Angela Pressley, who called themselves Sugar ‘N’ Spice. The members of M.V.P. updated their stage names to E-40, D-Shot and B-Legit, added Tanina as Suga T, and \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#the-clicks-down-dirty-ushers-in-mobb-music-era\">evolved into The Click\u003c/a>, arguably becoming the most famous rap group to emerge from Vallejo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927370\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/MVP.e-40.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"700\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13927370\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/MVP.e-40.jpg 700w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/MVP.e-40-160x160.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">M.V.P., a 1988 Vallejo rap group featuring Busy D, E-40 and Legit (L–R). The three would later add E-40’s sister Suga T and become known as The Click. \u003ccite>(Gerry Ericksen / Rushforce Records)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1986, Pilate and Earley both had solo deals at Berkeley’s Fantasy Records. It was there that Pilate met a former Oakland A’s batboy named Stanley “Holyghost Boy” Burrell through Fantasy Records producer Fred L. Pittman. “Fred would often hire me to do keyboard arrangements for him,” says Pilate. When Pittman asked him to play keys for Holyghost Boy, Pilate responded, “Hey Fred, why don’t you let me take the reins on this?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a classically trained jazz and classical musician, Pilate didn’t think much of rap, even though Con Funk Shun not only included a rap verse on a 1982 single, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ9GHVTI-EE\">Ain’t Nobody Baby\u003c/a>”; but also made “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmmzvN7raB0\">Electric Lady\u003c/a>,” a 1985 hit produced by Larry Smith of Whodini fame that landed in the top five of \u003cem>Billboard\u003c/em>’s Black Singles chart. “Musically, I wasn’t a fan, but as a producer, I said, ‘I can do this,’” he says. “Like everyone else, Con Funk Shun wanted to be relevant, and rap was all over the radio.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tracks Burrell brought to Pilate consisted of him rapping over sparse Yamaha RX5 drum-machine parts. Pilate responded by going into “study mode.” He listened to the rap stuff that was getting airplay like Doug E. Fresh & the Get Fresh Crew. As a result, the skittering percussion on Burrell’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akVWFiptGNY\">Let’s Get It Started\u003c/a>” is reminiscent of the go-go-inspired arrangements on Doug E. Fresh hits like “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sGw9GSCiYU\">The Show\u003c/a>” and “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UtqnKIF7kE\">All the Way to Heaven\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927325\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.VIdeoShoot.NewParish.Getty_-800x565.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"565\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927325\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.VIdeoShoot.NewParish.Getty_-800x565.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.VIdeoShoot.NewParish.Getty_-1020x720.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.VIdeoShoot.NewParish.Getty_-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.VIdeoShoot.NewParish.Getty_-768x542.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.VIdeoShoot.NewParish.Getty_.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">MC Hammer films the music video for ‘Let’s Get It Started’ at Sweet Jimmie’s nightclub in downtown Oakland, March 19, 1988. \u003ccite>(Deanne Fitzmaurice/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“My thing was to make it more music-driven than beat-driven,” says Pilate. In many cases, he simply “listened to what [Burrell] was talking about and wrote a straight R&B song underneath it.” He also gives credit to Earley, who helped refine the drum programming and brought “that younger ear” to the project. They incorporated stock horn stabs from a battery of Juno, Roland, and Yamaha drum machines. Meanwhile, Kent “The Lone Mixer” Wilson and Bryant “D.J. Redeemed” Marable added rhythmic scratches by cutting up Curtis Mayfield and Beastie Boys records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the demos were finished, Fantasy Records dropped Pilate, Earley and Burrell from their deals. “They weren’t really sure how to market any of us,” says Pilate. Then, he chuckles, “The next time I ran into the Holyghost Boy, he had changed his name to MC Hammer.” After forming Bustin’ Records in Fremont with financial help from Oakland A’s ballplayers like Mike Davis and Dwayne Murphy, Hammer turned the Pilate demos into three 12”s — “Ring ’Em,” “The Thrill Is Gone” and “Let’s Get It Started” — and the 1987 album \u003cem>Feel My Power\u003c/em>. “I was like, man, those were rough mixes! You were supposed to come back and let me fix that!” Pilate laughs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Everyone involved in Bay Area hip-hop has vivid memories of MC Hammer blowing up. Near-mythical stories of his local takeover abound, like attending local concerts surrounded by a massive crew; or tearing up the dance floor at The Silks, a popular nightclub in Emeryville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927324\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.Pilate-800x727.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"727\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927324\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.Pilate-800x727.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.Pilate-1020x926.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.Pilate-160x145.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.Pilate-768x698.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.Pilate.jpg 1058w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">MC Hammer and Fenton Pilate in modern times. Pilate engineered and co-produced MC Hammer’s first recordings. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Felton Pilate)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Today, it’s worth revisiting \u003cem>Feel My Power\u003c/em> and 1988’s \u003cem>Let’s Get It Started\u003c/em>. Released after Hammer signed with Capitol Records, \u003cem>Let’s Get It Started\u003c/em> found Hammer and Pilate remixing those original demos while adding vital new tracks like “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sZVcXzSE3M\">Pump It Up\u003c/a>.” The results are bombastic and vibrant dance-floor jams as ecstatic as anything by Kid ‘n’ Play and Salt-n-Pepa. Hammer’s subsequent leap into pop superstardom with 1990’s \u003cem>Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em\u003c/em> and the ubiquity of “U Can’t Touch This” obscure just how great those early tracks are.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Eight Woofers in the Trunk\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>MC Hammer’s major-label arrival in 1988 capped a year of Bay Area hip-hop on the cusp of national exposure. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Too Short issued \u003cem>Born to Mack\u003c/em> in the fall of 1987 on his Dangerous Music label, Jive Records picked it up. (Dangerous Music also issued \u003cem>Dangerous Crew\u003c/em>, a compilation of vital Bay Area acts like Spice-1, Rappin’ 4-Tay, and the female duo Danger Zone.) Digital Underground’s playful and psychedelic “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zQ1frcgSbI\">Underwater Rimes\u003c/a> / \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpBNB20wVo0\">Your Life’s a Cartoon\u003c/a>” led to a deal with Tommy Boy. Local talent waited in the wings, including rapper/producer Paris (A.T.C.’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHpiPWfOBk4\">Cisco Jam\u003c/a>”), Sway & King Tech (\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBJujmVXiwE\">Flynamic Force\u003c/a>\u003c/em> EP), Dangerous Dame (“\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Frj4j09GE\">The Power That’s Packed\u003c/a>”), and MC Twist and the Def Squad (“\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lZz7qhjfjw\">Just Rock\u003c/a>”). And the late Cameron Paul, known for his “Beats & Pieces” breakbeats, remixed Queens trio Salt-n-Pepa’s 1987 track “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPkdk1oMmtE\">Push It\u003c/a>” into a global phenomenon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13828164\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2018/03/CameronPaul-800x496.jpg\" alt=\"Cameron Paul reveals his mixing secrets.\" width=\"800\" height=\"496\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13828164\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/03/CameronPaul.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/03/CameronPaul-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/03/CameronPaul-768x476.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/03/CameronPaul-240x149.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/03/CameronPaul-375x233.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/03/CameronPaul-520x322.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cameron Paul, who provided the spine of New Orleans bounce music with ‘Brown Beats’ and recorded a smash-hit remix of Salt ‘n’ Pepa’s ‘Push It,’ was also a prominent club and radio megamix DJ in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(YouTube)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Incidentally, the first local group to score a major label deal wasn’t Hammer, but Surf MCs, a Berkeley group that Profile Records promoted as a Beastie Boys-like rap/rock crossover. Their 1987 album \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojCAqdBA7uA\">Surf or Die\u003c/a>\u003c/em> proved a flop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet the third moment that catalyzed Bay Area hip-hop wasn’t a singular record like Timex Social Club’s “Rumors,” or an artist like Hammer and Short. It was the sound of walloping, all-enveloping bass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Made for surgically enhanced car and jeep stereos, the bass colossus is as much a feature of hip-hop in the mid-’80s as the pounding Roland TR-808 machine, from Rick Rubin’s production on LL Cool J’s “Rock the Bells” and T La Rock’s “It’s Yours” to Rodney O and DJ Joe Cooley’s “Everlasting Bass” and Dr. Dre’s work on Eazy-E’s “The Boyz-N-The Hood.” It also mirrors the crack-cocaine epidemic that began to blight and distort communities across the country. As street life turned treacherous, the specter of the hustler, and whether to become one, cast a growing shadow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13925761']“Then the new style came, the bass got deeper / You gave up the mike and bought you a beeper / Do you want to rap or sell coke? / Brothers like you ain’t never broke,” Too Short memorably rapped on his 1989 hit, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvfUUOO0xoM\">Life Is…Too Short\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Banjoko recalls how the presence of gangs transformed local shows. “You would see a bunch of people dressed up together [in the same gear], and you might assume they were a rap or dance crew. They were young drug lords,” he says. “You could get trampled, beat up or robbed by any of them. I remember 69 Ville being massively deep at the Fresh Fest and the [Run-DMC] Raising Hell tour. They were terrifying, straight up. You were going to tuck your chain, you were going to take your Kangol off, or they were going to take it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927326\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/HughEMC.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"409\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13927326\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/HughEMC.jpg 600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/HughEMC-160x109.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hugh EMC, the San Francisco rapper whose 1988 single ‘It’s the Game’ unflinchingly chronicled street life. \u003ccite>(Soul Sonic Records)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Rap imagery became more honest and explicit. Some like Richmond rapper Magic Mike, San Francisco’s Hugh EMC (“\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_p7L0eJfKI\">It’s the Game\u003c/a>”), and Oakland’s Hollywood (“\u003ca href=\"https://www.discogs.com/release/641778-Hollywood-Stay-Heart-And-Soul-Raps-Just-A-Battlefield\">Gangster Rap\u003c/a>”) seemed to embrace the hustler ethos, while cautiously adding verses about the consequences of that lifestyle. Then there was Oakland rapper Morocco Moe, whose “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogNoOCIVPrI\">Task\u003c/a>” criticized how law enforcement brutalized communities in the War on Drugs: “Their intentions are good/But their actions are wrong.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every Black neighborhood was infested” with crack, says Vallejo producer Khayree Shaheed. “There was an influx of money coming into young Black men, but there was also a lot of death occurring.” The epidemic also marked his entry into the world of rap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a descendant of the Bay Area’s vaunted funk tradition, Khayree spent the ’70s and early ’80s playing bass guitar for bands like Grand Larceny, Body Mind & Spirit and Touch of Class (with keyboardist Rosie Gaines, who later joined Prince & the New Power Generation). His travels took him across the U.S. and even to Japan, where Touch of Class lived and performed for several months. (Though his bands made demos, there are no official recordings to date.) When asked about the first time he heard rap, Khayree cites “jazzoetry” ensembles like The Last Poets, not the Sugarhill Gang. And as a youth growing up on Lofas Place in Vallejo, he spent plenty of time following Con Funk Shun, hoping to apprentice with the biggest band in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927412\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.1979.DockoftheBay.72dpi-800x510.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"510\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927412\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.1979.DockoftheBay.72dpi-800x510.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.1979.DockoftheBay.72dpi-1020x651.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.1979.DockoftheBay.72dpi-160x102.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.1979.DockoftheBay.72dpi-768x490.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.1979.DockoftheBay.72dpi-1536x980.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.1979.DockoftheBay.72dpi.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vallejo musician Khayree Shaheed, playing bass onstage in 1979. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Khayree Shaheed)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Khayree was in his mid-20s when Rod “I.C.E.” Andrews and Dan “Luvva D” Morrison a.k.a. the Luvva Twins brought Khayree a demo they had made on a Casio keyboard, “Hubba Head.” The song title was slang for a crack addict, and the duo described the “hubba head’s” descent into addiction with charismatic punch. They arranged the music and rapped most of the lyrics, while Khayree dropped a short verse and added guitar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Khayree had already spent time at Pilate’s home studio, honing his writing and production skills. (“I always enjoyed working with him,” says Pilate.) Now, he brought “Hubba Head” to Pilate, and the two prepared it for release. Setting up his own label, Big Bank Records, Khayree distributed two hundred copies of the 12” to DJs and influencers. “The record was super popular in the streets,” says Khayree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pArkWvlAebg\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After “Hubba Head,” Khayree began working with Jay King, a fellow graduate of Vallejo High School. The opportunity to write and produce New Choice’s 1987 single “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-VLZQ4X1yA\">Cold Stupid\u003c/a>” and most of the quintet’s 1988 debut, \u003cem>At Last\u003c/em>, gave him important experience on a major project and financial stability. By fusing bass, funky R&B and hip-hop breakbeats, New Choice reflected a parallel R&B movement that both influenced and was inspired by the hip-hop scene. Similar Bay Area acts included Oakland’s Tony! Toni! Toné!, who parlayed backing sessions for Sheila E. and Tramaine Hawkins into a major-label deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flush from his experience with New Choice, Khayree was ready to start his own company. “I’m listening to EPMD’s \u003cem>Strictly Business\u003c/em>,” he says, inspiring the name of his second label, Strictly Business Records. He knew that Mike “The Mac” Robinson, who also grew up on Lofas Place, was a rapper. Robinson hailed from a musical family: his uncle Steve “Silver” Scales was a well-traveled Vallejo funk percussionist who played with Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, and the B-52s. (Though it would be a delicious coincidence, Scales didn’t perform on “Genius of Love.”) Khayree encouraged Robinson to take music more seriously. Meanwhile, Robinson’s mother drew the memorable Strictly Business logo: an open briefcase, ready for business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1988, Khayree released The Mac’s three-song EP, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.discogs.com/release/805531-The-Mac-Im-Ah-Big-Mac\">I’m Ah Big Mac\u003c/a>.” Heard now, what immediately stands out is the unique \u003cem>tone\u003c/em> of the bass. “We used synthesizers that had dumb-fat bass lines,” explains Khayree in reference to himself and Too Short as well as future Bay Area colleagues like Ant Banks. By comparison, he says, other regional scenes relied on a “natural” bass guitar or samples from records. “You feel it through your whole body. … You can get it with a bass guitar, depending on how you EQ the bass and what you run your guitar through. But you’re \u003cem>never\u003c/em> going to touch the subs and the depth of a Minimoog, of the Oberheim Ovx, or the Roland Juno 106.” The EP’s highlight is its B-side “The Game Is Thick,” which centers on a sample of Prince’s “D.M.S.R.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927371\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/TheMac.GameisThick-800x498.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"498\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927371\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/TheMac.GameisThick-800x498.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/TheMac.GameisThick-1020x635.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/TheMac.GameisThick-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/TheMac.GameisThick-768x478.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/TheMac.GameisThick.jpg 1537w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Khayree and The Mac (L–R), pictured on the cover of The Mac’s ‘The Game is Thick.’ \u003ccite>(Phil Bray / Strictly Business Records)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1989, Khayree remixed and re-released “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCxGl7Ok1YI\">The Game Is Thick\u003c/a>” as a standalone 12” with a memorable cover photo: Khayree looking super-clean in a grey suit, clasping a briefcase, with The Mac in a red-and-black bomber jacket. Khayree calls the style “pimping.” “We didn’t mean pimping so much as getting prostitutes to work,” he explains. “It’s an attitude, and it’s a musical style.” The “game” is a metaphor for life in the Black community. Street slang illustrated complex situations, whether it was dealing with the repercussions of a raging crack epidemic, or simply navigating the tensions of everyday living. Meanwhile, The Mac’s “cool, silky, pimpish” flow and Khayree’s synthesized bass production proved a clear predecessor to the ’90s mob-music sound that took over Bay Area rap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13924167']Upon release, “The Game Is Thick” didn’t make a major impact, and most copies went to local DJ pools. “We promoted records out of the trunk,” says Khayree. “We went from Bobby G’s Soul Disco in San Francisco to [Rico Casanova’s record pool] The Pros in Oakland.” Still, “The Game Is Thick” remix received a mention in Davey “D” Cook’s April 7, 1989 “Beats & Breaks” column for \u003cem>BAM\u003c/em> Magazine. “Let me tell you, it’s hyped to the max,” Davey D wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With Khayree’s encouragement, the Mac taught himself how to produce music with synth keyboards. He also introduced Khayree to another Vallejo artist, Andre “Mac Dre” Hicks, who became Strictly Business’ second act. By the time The Mac was shot and killed on July 23, 1991 in what Khayree calls “a case of mistaken identity,” the two had recorded dozens of tracks and released a third and final 12” protesting police violence, 1990’s “Enuff of Tis Sh-t!” One of The Mac’s beats posthumously appeared on Mac Dre’s 1993 track, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slA_s7tSjMU\">The M.A.C. & Mac D.R.E.\u003c/a>”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927413\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.KoolMoeDee.72dpi-800x523.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"523\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927413\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.KoolMoeDee.72dpi-800x523.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.KoolMoeDee.72dpi-1020x666.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.KoolMoeDee.72dpi-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.KoolMoeDee.72dpi-768x502.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.KoolMoeDee.72dpi-1536x1003.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.KoolMoeDee.72dpi.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Khayree with Kool Moe Dee at the 1988 BRE Conference in Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Khayree Shaheed)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Mike had a big, big loving heart,” remembers Khayree, sounding wistful. He emphasizes how The Mac left behind a daughter, “Mac” Reina Robinson, and a pregnant girlfriend who gave birth to his son, Mike. At one point, Khayree plays a voicemail of The Mac passionately singing a funky, swinging hook, as if to counteract the stereotype that rappers aren’t musicians. He talks about how The Mac’s way of playing simple, evocative keyboard notes for maximum effect echoes in the work of his famed protégé, Mac Dre. “I miss him,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Area rap broke wide at the end of the decade, leading to a 1989 story in the \u003cem>New York Times\u003c/em>, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/10/arts/rap-by-the-bay-oakland-emerges-as-a-force-in-pop.html\">Rap by the Bay: Oakland Emerges as a Force in Pop\u003c/a>.” Not every local pioneer who laid the groundwork would enjoy the fruits of that success. But their stories are essential to understanding how local hip-hop came of age, and everything that came after.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927363\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/that_s_my_word_____featured_image__3_-800x450.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927363\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/that_s_my_word_____featured_image__3_-800x450.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/that_s_my_word_____featured_image__3_-1020x574.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/that_s_my_word_____featured_image__3_-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/that_s_my_word_____featured_image__3_-768x432.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/that_s_my_word_____featured_image__3_-1536x864.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/that_s_my_word_____featured_image__3_.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the mid-1980s, after years of street dance, DJing and graffiti sharing equal space, rapping took center stage. The Bay Area’s bass-heavy sound would arrive at the end of the decade. (Clockwise from top left: Too Short, MC Hammer, Dominique DiPrima, Club Nouveau, and Motorcycle Mike.) \u003ccite>(Steve Ringman/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images; Al Pereira/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images; SFSU Television Archives; Raymond Boyd/Getty Images; Hodisk Records)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Editor’s note\u003c/strong>: This story is part of \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop\">That’s My Word\u003c/a>\u003cem>, KQED’s year-long exploration of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop\">Bay Area hip-hop\u003c/a> history, with new content dropping all throughout 2023.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">I\u003c/span>t’s a wintry January evening when Bas-1 brings me to Del the Funky Homosapien’s house in the East Bay. For much of the afternoon, Bas — the \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/old-school-fool-1/\">Oakland native\u003c/a> who’s worked with Digital Underground and released \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bas-1+full+album+mentally+astute\">his own solo records\u003c/a> — has schooled me on the origins of the Bay Area hip-hop sound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bas lists numerous rappers from the ’80s, and not just Todd “Too Short” Shaw, the East Oakland rapper who famously hustled homemade cassette tapes. I’ve never heard most of the names Bas mentions: MC Chocolate Milk, Windell Baby Doll, Davy Def, Buddy Bean, Reggie Reg Rock Ski.ter, M.C. Tracy, Rock Master Fresh, Nic Nack, Kimmie Fresh, and the Acorn Crew with Grandmaster Fresh (a rapper later known as “DJ Daryl” Anderson, famed for producing tracks like 415’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuZ6CAwZmys\">Side Show\u003c/a>” and 2Pac’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAJfDP3b5_U\">Keep Ya Head Up\u003c/a>”).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Many of these early Bay Area rappers never put out a commercially available record. Instead, their work is mostly confined to locally distributed cassette tapes — collectors call them “gray tapes” — that are now nearly impossible to find. They publicly broadcasted these tapes throughout neighborhoods, utilizing boomboxes and car stereos as well as stereos at house parties. “None of them sound like Too Short,” says Bas. “Some of these people didn’t put out recordings, but they were known.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout the 1980s, Bay Area hip-hop was an artistic movement struggling for a distinct identity. The first half of the decade was defined by street dance and aerosol art as much as rap and DJing. But as local youth began to absorb the sounds emanating from national hotspots like New York, they created a distinctive style all their own — one that would make a global impact in the years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Del’s house, Bas queues up an extraordinary live video clip of \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u3eiG9BtdE\">Mac Mill, Emperor E, and DJ Anthony “K-os” Bryant\u003c/a> performing at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11690787/when-oakland-was-a-chocolate-city-a-brief-history-of-festival-at-the-lake\">Festival at the Lake\u003c/a>, a now-defunct annual event held at Lake Merritt, in 1988. (Alex “Naru” Reece, who organized the showcase where Mac Mill performed, clarified in a follow-up conversation that it didn’t happen during Festival at the Lake. He also says the showcase was filmed in 1986 for a 1988 video compilation.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mac Mill and Emperor E go back and forth, trading sound effects and dense Oakland slang as K-os cuts and scratches copies of Long Island band Original Concept’s deathless bass classic, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai4VC0NUxl4\">Knowledge Me\u003c/a>.” Bas praises Mac Mill’s unusual “Arabian” style, which the latter deployed nearly a decade later with the 1995 single “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_f0TB3Igro\">Arabian Hump\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/5u3eiG9BtdE'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/5u3eiG9BtdE'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Then, Bas-1 calls Chris “CJ Flash” Jourdan, an OG who worked with Timex Social Club, the Berkeley teen band whose 1986 electro-funk classic, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVce2IeYcTg\">Rumors\u003c/a>,” represented the first national breakthrough for Bay Area hip-hop culture. As Bas broadcasts CJ Flash’s voice from his phone through Del’s stereo equipment, CJ Flash spends the next hour or so describing a fledging scene where poppers and boogaloo dancers, not rappers or DJs, were the prime attractions. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These ensembles drew from a street-dance tradition that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13891300/reclaiming-the-legacy-of-oaklands-boogaloo-dance-culture\">dates back decades\u003c/a>. Their kinetic performances ignited crowds at high schools, house parties, and public spaces like Justin Herman Plaza and Union Square in San Francisco and UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza. Battles even took place on the street, with crews traveling to different neighborhoods around the region to seek out rivals. “You could meet with people on their turf and get down, and hopefully not get thumped in the process,” says CJ Flash. Many Bay Area hip-hop pioneers got their start in dance crews, including Club Nouveau’s Jay King (who pop-locked with The Unknowns), DJ King Tech (who was known as Wizard, and danced with Master City Breakers), and Flash himself (who \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub1TtnI4dh8\">performed with UFO\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/ub1TtnI4dh8'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/ub1TtnI4dh8'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>By contrast, rapping was a relatively new and undeveloped skill, the lowest element on the hip-hop totem pole. “Anybody could rap. Anybody could say a bunch of basic rhyme words with no style and flavor,” says Bas, noting as an aside that “most folks couldn’t understand the lyrics anyway.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How is a discussion about street dancers connected to an exploration of the Bay Area hip-hop sound? It’s important to understand the conditions under which the genre emerged locally.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Turntables, Casios and Homemade Tapes\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As KQED’s Eric Arnold explains in “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13924126/the-bay-area-was-hip-hop-before-there-was-hip-hop\">The Bay Area Was Hip-Hop Before There Was Hip-Hop\u003c/a>,” foundational elements such as spoken word, funk, and rhythm & blues existed locally well before New Jersey trio Sugarhill Gang arrived with “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKTUAESacQM\">Rapper’s Delight\u003c/a>” in the fall of 1979.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>At the same time, the Bay Area was not the Bronx, where breakbeat culture catalyzed and fermented. Bronx DJs, MCs and B-boys like Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Caz, the Rock Steady Crew and many others gained renown among mid-’70s New York youth long before “Rapper’s Delight.” By contrast, as CJ Flash explains, it took much of the 1980s for Bay Area youth to develop the cadences and rhythms we now associate with modern rap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back then, enterprising musicians couldn’t purchase studio software and distribute their own music on an internet platform like Soundcloud. Recording equipment was expensive. An unsigned artist needed the financial and business expertise to manufacture vinyl and cassettes with artwork, much less convince record stores like Leopold’s Records in Berkeley to carry them. (Recordable CD-Rs weren’t widely used until the 1990s.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This helps explain why so many rappers utilized turntables and Casio keyboards, and then recorded their songs using the microphone input on relatively cheap stereo equipment. Captured on recordable cassettes like Maxell and TDK, some of these “gray tapes” simply had stickers with handwritten titles. More often, they weren’t labeled at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927410\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Naru.BoxofTapes.CloseUp-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927410\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Naru.BoxofTapes.CloseUp-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Naru.BoxofTapes.CloseUp-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Naru.BoxofTapes.CloseUp-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Naru.BoxofTapes.CloseUp-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Naru.BoxofTapes.CloseUp-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Naru.BoxofTapes.CloseUp.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A box of handmade Bay Area rap tapes, part of Naru’s home archives. \u003ccite>(Mosi Reeves)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In those days, Too Short was an outlier, a Fremont High School student who canvassed East Oakland spots like Arroyo Park, \u003ca href=\"https://medium.com/@bayareahiphoparchive/in-conversation-with-56fae687e9c\">selling copies of “Game Raps”\u003c/a> at a few dollars a pop. Since Short was originally from Los Angeles, he relied on rap partner Tony “Freddy B” Adams to show him around the Town. The duo \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#too-short-and-freddy-b-start-making-handmade-tapes\">made customized tapes for local drug dealers and players\u003c/a> in the city’s nightlife — now known as “special request” tapes — shouting out the customers’ names in their raps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Short was a hustler,” says CJ Flash. “He had a style of telling stories that was so outlandish and so funny that word got around.” Short and Freddy B developed the trademark “Biiiiitch!” catchphrase, and Short has often said that he and Freddy B intended to get famous together. Unfortunately, Freddy B was in prison when Short released his landmark “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwVJTvOO4yY\">Freaky Tales\u003c/a>” tape in 1987. (Adams is \u003ca href=\"https://www.dailyrepublic.com/all-dr-news/solano-news/local-features/from-too-hort-colleague-to-christian-missionary/\">now a minister\u003c/a> at Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Fairfield.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927341\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 676px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/TooShort.SFExaminer.1984.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"676\" height=\"455\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13927341\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/TooShort.SFExaminer.1984.jpg 676w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/TooShort.SFExaminer.1984-160x108.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Too Short in 1984, at the age of 18. \u003ccite>(Katy Raddatz/San Francisco Examiner/Bancroft Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Others like Sir Quick Draw, Mac Mill, and Chief Naked Head (later known as Premo; he passed away in January of 2023) simply gave away their tapes or let friends copy or “dub” the originals. As Richmond rapper \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13925761/magic-mike-richmond-calvin-t-rap-hip-hop\">Magic Mike explained in a recent interview with Dregs One\u003c/a>, dubs of his tracks circulated as widely as Germany. “It was more or less trying to make a name for yourself…you had to make a tape,” adds CJ Flash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most importantly, Bay Area hip-hop in the ’80s was a primordial soup of youngsters figuring out what the local sound would be. The answers wouldn’t arrive until near the end of the decade. “The Bay Area was behind,” says CJ Flash, comparing it to more advanced regions like Los Angeles, South Florida, and New York. “We never thought about radio.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘A Pivotal Moment’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Alex “Naru Kwina” Hence remembers the first time he heard the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” as a 14-year-old preparing to attend Oakland High School. “When the song went off, everybody ran outside, like, ‘Did you hear that song?!” he laughs, calling it one of the best moments of his life. “It was a pivotal moment, bro. We literally started rapping the song and trying to remember it.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naru called himself Sir Quick Draw, an alias inspired by Hanna-Barbera cartoon \u003cem>Quick Draw McGraw\u003c/em> as well as the fact that, as a runner, “I was hella fast.” He took inspiration from Kurtis Blow, the Harlem rapper who scored major hits like 1980’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzl-2g5HhaI\">The Breaks\u003c/a>.” And Naru almost immediately began recording his voice on tape. His first original song was “The Caveman Rap,” which was inspired by Brooklyn rapper Jimmy Spicer’s 1980 single “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkGLco0tGqc\">Adventures of Super Rhyme\u003c/a>.” Naru can still recite those verses from memory: \u003cem>Now people come and take a trip in time with me / Back to that sweet year one million B.C.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I still got that old-school flavor, man,” he admits. “Hip-hop was more fun for me back then.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927368\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Naru.Boxes_.1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"840\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13927368\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Naru.Boxes_.1.jpg 600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Naru.Boxes_.1-160x224.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Naru Kwina, who recorded under the names Sir Quick Draw and Em Cee Quick, poses with his home archives. \u003ccite>(Mosi Reeves)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But rap in the Bay Area didn’t take off right away. “Most people would rap other people’s songs. They’d just repeat what they heard on the radio,” says Naru. Aspiring MCs honed their craft by congregating at Eastmont Mall, “trying to impress the girls, and getting our names on our derby jackets.” And when Tom Tom Club’s 1981 hit “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECiMhe4E0pI\">Genius of Love\u003c/a>” dropped? “Everybody rapped over that joint, man. Too many people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s worth remembering that hip-hop was a phenomenon developed essentially by Black and Brown children. Rapping, pop-locking, spray-painting aerosol art on neighborhood walls, even DJing: These were youthful forms of play and creative expression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bas, who grew up in North Oakland, remembers \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#at-fishermans-wharf-a-street-dance-destination-emerges\">popping and “roboting” at Pier 39 on Fisherman’s Wharf\u003c/a> in the late ’70s as a child. “You have people like Ben [James] from Live Incorporated doing pantomime and roboting,” he says, noting one of the better-known dance crews. Dancers competed for attention and tips that they could spend on Snickers bars and arcade games. “Battle-wise, you had to have skill and talent to a certain caliber in order to truly be out on the Wharf or on Market [and Powell] in front of the cable cars,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927321\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1298788791-800x547.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"547\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927321\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1298788791-800x547.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1298788791-1020x697.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1298788791-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1298788791-768x525.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1298788791.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A street dance crew called The Vita Family perform at Pier 39 in 1986. \u003ccite>(Liz Hafalia/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Local newspaper stories focused on the emergence of hip-hop as a youth obsession. Enterprising teachers incorporated it into their lesson plans. On high-school campuses, fledgling DJs like Joseph Thomas “G.I. Joe” Simms Jr. at El Cerrito High School and groups like the Devastating Four proliferated. At house parties, mobile DJ crews spun the latest electro, boogie-funk, and rap hits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gatherings at schools, churches, and community centers typically reserved a few minutes for fledgling local rap and dance crews to perform. This was also the era of \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#nancy-reagan-visits-oakland-and-coins-the-phrase-just-say-no\">the Reagan Administration’s “Just Say No” campaign\u003c/a>, and kids were often asked to help spread an anti-drug message through raps. “Inspired by rapping groups such as Sugar Hill, Run DMC, Jeckyl and Hyde and Mell (sic) and the Furious Five, teen-agers create their own raps mostly for fun and to bring attention to themselves,” read a June 29, 1985, story in the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In the first half of the decade, street dance remained a focal point. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/12/04/1140504217/double-dutch-fantastic-four-holiday-classic\">Double Dutch jump-rope competitions\u003c/a> sponsored by McDonald’s drew thousands to Lincoln Square Center in Oakland. The San Francisco Street Breakers held a fundraising benefit, “Super Break Sunday,” at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts in 1985. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ironically, street dance “got played out” after the success of Hollywood movies like \u003cem>Beat Street\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Breakin’\u003c/em>, and rap music moved to the center of hip-hop culture. Quickening the process were concerts by Black music stars like the \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#the-fresh-fest-comes-to-oakland\">Fresh Festival\u003c/a>, the first national hip-hop tour, with headliners Run-DMC at the Oakland Coliseum. Local radio tentatively began to experiment with rap, notably KMEL-FM and its mix DJs such as Michael Erickson and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13828163/watch-cameron-paul-give-a-masterclass-in-early-djing\">the late Cameron Paul\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927323\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/FreshFest.Flyer_-1020x1517.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"952\" class=\"size-large wp-image-13927323\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/FreshFest.Flyer_-1020x1517.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/FreshFest.Flyer_-800x1190.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/FreshFest.Flyer_-160x238.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/FreshFest.Flyer_-768x1142.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/FreshFest.Flyer_-1033x1536.jpg 1033w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/FreshFest.Flyer_.jpg 1345w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A flyer for the Fresh Festival, which arrived in Oakland in 1984.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“By 1985, there was this incredible scene in the South Bay,” says Adisa “The Bishop” Banjoko. As a teen DJ in San Bruno “who looked like Urkel,” he remembers traveling far and wide to buy records, from Creative Music Emporium in San Francisco to T’s Wauzi in Oakland. Meanwhile, nightclubs like Mothers and Studio 47 brought a fusion of hip-hop, freestyle and techno. “San Jose had underage hip-hop teenage clubs, and no other city had those,” he says. (Banjoko later became a rapper, a journalist, and now promotes jiu-jitsu, meditation and chess with his company \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/real64blocks/?hl=en\">64 Blocks\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in Oakland, Naru continued making tapes. “I come from a musical family. My cousin’s the Maestro” — a.k.a. producer Keenan Foster, who has worked with Too Short, Dru Down, and Askari X — “and a lot of my family sings. I got a drum machine, a little Yamaha keyboard. I would play my bass lines. We had double-cassette decks.” He collaborated with Taj “Turntable T” Tilghman, “who was dope on the turntables.” Turntable T eventually bought a Roland TR-808 drum machine, the instrument du jour for def beat MCs. “When that 808 came, that was it. Everyone loved that deck. \u003cem>Boom!\u003c/em>”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Gray tapes” that circulated weren’t the EP and album-length releases we’re familiar with today. Some tapes only had one song per side; or maybe just one song on one side, period. Artists were judged not only by their ability to rap engagingly for several minutes, but also to chop up a familiar beat like Whodini’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5r0i2ZAbCc\">Friends\u003c/a>,” transforming it into something fresh and original; or even make rudimentary 808 beats. For example, Too Short drew attention for “rapping the longest,” as Bas explains, leading to songs that lasted eight or nine minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927334\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Adisa.portrait-800x682.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"682\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Adisa.portrait-800x682.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Adisa.portrait-1020x870.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Adisa.portrait-160x136.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Adisa.portrait-768x655.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Adisa.portrait.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adisa Banjoko in the 1980s. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Adisa Banjoko)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Those tapes were everywhere. Everyone was trying to see what was possible,” says Banjoko. In 1987, he began making raps under the name MC Most Ill. His first song was “Rhyme Junkie.” “The truth was, some of it was really cool but a lot of it actually also sucked, because [the art form] was brand new. … The quality control was not there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On August 18, 1984, the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> published an article called “Rapping with Too-Short,” the first story on the 18-year-old prodigy. Pacific News Service journalist Anthony Adams called Short’s songs “preacher-like yarns over pre-recorded music,” and noted that one of them was about automaker John DeLorean, whose conviction for cocaine trafficking made national news. Short claimed he and his partner Freddy B sold over 2,000 tapes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003cem>Chronicle-Examiner\u003c/em> also frequently interviewed \u003ca href=\"https://www.dominiquediprima.com/\">Dominique “Lady D” DiPrima\u003c/a>, a New York transplant and San Francisco State University student who rapped, sung, and organized events. DiPrima possessed a rich family pedigree — her father was the jazz writer Amiri Baraka, her mother the beat poet Diane DiPrima. In late 1984, \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#home-turf-premieres-on-kron-tv\">KRON-TV recruited her to host \u003cem>Home Turf\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, a Saturday-afternoon program that became appointment viewing for local teens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everyone had a crush on Dominique,” says Naru, giggling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927320\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/DominiqueDiprima.HomeTurf.SFSU_-800x541.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"541\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/DominiqueDiprima.HomeTurf.SFSU_-800x541.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/DominiqueDiprima.HomeTurf.SFSU_-1020x690.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/DominiqueDiprima.HomeTurf.SFSU_-160x108.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/DominiqueDiprima.HomeTurf.SFSU_-768x520.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/DominiqueDiprima.HomeTurf.SFSU_-1536x1039.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/DominiqueDiprima.HomeTurf.SFSU_.png 1540w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dominique DiPrima, pictured here hosting a 1987 episode of ‘Home Turf’ on KRON-4. \u003ccite>(SFSU Television Archive)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>The First Bay Area Rap Record Opens the Floodgates\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One of the under-acknowledged aspects of early hip-hop is the way elder Black musicians shepherded young artists into the recording industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The late Sylvia Robinson, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, initially emerged in the mid-’50s as one-half of Mickey & Sylvia, who scored a national hit with “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SwMB9v1pQ4\">Love Is Strange\u003c/a>.” As a ’70s solo artist and producer, Robinson made slinky, Eartha Kitt-like erotic disco capers such as “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA2X1040_gY\">Pillow Talk\u003c/a>” and “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPScEJ66_m4\">Sweet Stuff\u003c/a>.” After discovering hip-hop when she heard DJ Lovebug Starski at a party, Robinson formed Sugar Hill Records, and turned three rapping teens she found in New Jersey into its first act, the Sugarhill Gang.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This process of soul veterans working with young people resulted in independent 12” singles that mirrored — if not yet accurately capturing — the nascent rap sound at a time when big companies virtually ignored it. With his Mercury Records contract, Kurtis Blow was the only act with a major album deal. A handful of other pioneers like DJ Hollywood scored one-off 12” deals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A similar process played out in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/2R_h9BCuvBE'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/2R_h9BCuvBE'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The first Bay Area rap record is widely considered to be Phil “Motorcycle Mike” Lewis and the Rat Trap Band’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4Odk2Vu70s\">Super Rat\u003c/a>,” a 1981 boogie-funk single notoriously released by East Oakland heroin kingpin Milton “Mickey Mo” Moore’s Hodisk Records. The name “Hodisk” was a cheeky reference to his onetime side business as a pimp. (Moore has since reformed and is now a pastor in West Oakland.) In fact, Mickey Mo boasts in his 1996 autobiography \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qy6RNV6f5w\">The Man: The Life Story of a Drug Kingpin\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, “Hodisk Records became the first record company on the West Coast to release a rap record.” (The first L.A. rap record, Disco Daddy and Captain Rapp’s “The Gigolo Rapp,” was also released in 1981.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mickey Mo has another claim to rap lore: In 1980, he \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#the-first-rap-performance-on-a-major-stage\">helped finance an Oakland Coliseum concert\u003c/a> headlined by L.A. funk band War, with the Sugarhill Gang as a supporting act. Journalist Lee Hildebrand’s pre-concert interview with the Gang in the \u003cem>Oakland Tribune\u003c/em> was the first mention of rap music in the local press. A second funk-rap novelty, Steve Walker’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB9jCLUWwBY\">Tally Ho!\u003c/a>,” also appeared in 1981. In 1983, San Francisco’s Debo & Brian released the electro-funk EP \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgv_AfTbEng\">This Is It\u003c/a>\u003c/em>. The momentum had started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had made this vow that I would never ever do anything having to do with rap,” laughs Claytoven Richardson. During his long career, the Berkeley-born, Oakland-raised Richardson worked with Aretha Franklin, Kenny G, Whitney Houston, Elton John, and Celine Dion. But in the early ’80s, he was best known as a singer, producer, and arranger with hot dancefloor jazz-funk bands like Bill Summers & Summers’ Heat. His anti-rap stance reflected the music industry at large in the 1980s. “Nobody had the foresight to see that it would morph and change and do the things that it’s done,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927369\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 625px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ClaytovenRichardson.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13927369\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ClaytovenRichardson.jpg 625w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/ClaytovenRichardson-160x90.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Claytoven Richardson pictured in March 2023 in Los Angeles, California. \u003ccite>(Steven Simione/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Still, Richardson couldn’t avoid the increasingly popular genre when he scored a production deal at Fantasy Records, the onetime Berkeley jazz label also known for innovative acts like Sylvester and Cybotron, as well as one-off singles generated by a “throw it against the wall and see if it sticks” philosophy. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the records Richardson produced in that anything-goes environment was Mighty Mouth’s satirical complaint, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU1hAFnrtU8\">I’m All Rapped Out\u003c/a>.” (He wasn’t the only one annoyed over rap; perhaps out of wishful thinking, a 1985 \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> article referred to the “fast-fading hip-hop scene.”) A vocalist named Lawrence Pittman didn’t show up for the session, so Richardson performed the lyrics himself. However, Pittman showed up to rap on Mighty Mouth’s second single, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqfQcLbemE4\">The Roaches\u003c/a>,” which parodied Whodini’s electro hit, “Freaks Come Out at Night.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other scattered local raps appeared between 1985 and 1986. Former boogaloo dancer Jay King, just home from a stint in the Air Force and splitting time between Sacramento and Vallejo, formed a group called Frost and released “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hObIekxeoSg\">Battle Beat\u003c/a>.” His friends Denzil Foster & Thomas McElroy produced it, as well as another electro-rap track, Sorcerey’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ap6uw-kX8o\">Woo Baby\u003c/a>.” Pittsburg rapper James “Red Beat” Briggs issued “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7dUlMEZUSc\">Freak City\u003c/a>,” which was later remixed by N.W.A. co-founder Arabian Prince. And there was Rodney “Disco Alamo” Brown, from Richmond, whose 12” “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K-pXg1DY98\">The Task Force\u003c/a>” is \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#richmonds-task-force-memorialized-on-wax\">an early example\u003c/a> of Bay Area rap chronicling street life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927313\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1206295164-800x484.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"484\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927313\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1206295164-800x484.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1206295164-1020x618.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1206295164-160x97.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1206295164-768x465.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1206295164.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Too Short, pictured at his manager’s house in Oakland on September 21, 1987. \u003ccite>(Steve Ringman/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most importantly, Too Short’s rising buzz led to a deal with deep East Oakland entrepreneur Dean Hodges’ 75 Girls label. Released in 1985, the resulting \u003cem>Don’t Stop Rappin’\u003c/em> was the first official album by a local rapper. While fans of a certain age still treasure protean electro-funk tracks like “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2ywke376NQ\">Girl\u003c/a>” — which E-40 referenced on his 1998 hit, “Earl, That’s Yo Life” — the album couldn’t compare to his raunchy and wickedly hilarious “special request” tapes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was during this period that Naru finally got his chance in the studio. Since 1984, UC Berkeley station \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#college-radio-makes-its-mark\">KALX-FM\u003c/a> served as home to “Music for the People,” a Sunday-morning community affairs and music show hosted by the late Charles “Natty Prep” Douglass, as well as DJs like Billy “Jam” Kiernan (who also broadcast on San Francisco State University station KUSF-FM), David “Davey D” Cook, and funkster Rickey “The Uhuru Maggot” Vincent. When Naru won \u003ca href=\"https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/107287\">a 1986 rap contest hosted by Billy Jam on KALX\u003c/a>, he earned a deal with Bay Wave Records, a local imprint distributed by Hollywood-based Macola Records. Richardson was hired to produce the session.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/dLlNn1Zh1ww'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/dLlNn1Zh1ww'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>“[Quick Draw] was a great rapper. He had a lot of great lyrics and ideas,” says Richardson. On “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLlNn1Zh1ww\">Rapaholic\u003c/a>,” Richardson and session engineer Michael Denten (who later worked with Spice 1 and E-40) accompanied Quick Draw’s dexterous and energetic raps with sharp-angled percussive edits and sound effects reminiscent of The Art of Noise and Mantronix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Respect to Claytoven,” says Naru, who not only continues to make music but also owns a company, \u003ca href=\"http://hiplearning.org/\">Hip Learning\u003c/a>, that promotes childhood education with rap. He wasn’t entirely satisfied with the “Rapaholic” experience: “They made the record sound hella more polished. It was [supposed to be] a little more underground than that.” However, he adds, “[Claytoven] taught us a lot in the studio about the mics they use and how to mix. It was a good experience.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927411\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SirQuickdrawFlyer.72dpi.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"889\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13927411\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SirQuickdrawFlyer.72dpi.jpg 600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SirQuickdrawFlyer.72dpi-160x237.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A photocopied flyer advertising Sir Quick Draw’s single ‘Rapaholic.’ \u003ccite>(Mosi Reeves)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>A Radio Breakthrough — And a Kid Named Hammer\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As the trajectory of Bay Area hip-hop waxed and waned, three catalyzing moments brought the scene into focus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first was an R&B track. Timex Social Club’s “Rumors” captured the pulse of Bay Area youth culture, from Marcus Thompson and Alex Hill’s skittering electro-funk bass and drums to singer Michael Marshall’s distinctly regional accent and coy recitation of schoolyard gossip (“Did you hear the one about Michael? Some say he must be gay…”) Produced by Jay King and Denzil Foster and released on King’s Jay Records in February 1986, it mushroomed into a top ten \u003cem>Billboard\u003c/em> pop hit and dominated radio all year.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/jVce2IeYcTg'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/jVce2IeYcTg'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>But by the summer, Timex Social Club was falling apart and trading accusations with King over money and credit. The group’s only album \u003cem>Vicious Rumors\u003c/em> — by that point it was just Michael Marshall — featured drum programming from CJ Flash and a shout-out to KALX’s Natty Prep, who helped break “Rumors” on his “Music and Life” show. Marshall retreated from the spotlight before \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#i-got-5-on-it-remix-a-meeting-of-greats-recorded-in-alameda\">re-emerging as the hook man\u003c/a> on the Luniz’ 1995 smash “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERtkpnXLrL4\">I Got 5 on It\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After breaking with Timex Social Club, King formed a group called Jet Set and signed a deal with Warner Bros. Records. The group changed their name to Club Nouveau before debuting with the single “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKWhkjXV5uM\">Jealousy\u003c/a>.” A follow-up, the Bill Withers cover “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbyjaUJWWmk\">Lean on Me\u003c/a>,” went to number-one on the \u003cem>Billboard\u003c/em> Hot 100, while Club Nouveau’s debut album \u003cem>Life, Love & Pain\u003c/em> went platinum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927310\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1346275851-800x489.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"489\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927310\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1346275851-800x489.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1346275851-1020x624.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1346275851-160x98.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1346275851-768x470.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-1346275851.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Singers Samuelle Prater, Jay King and Valerie Watson of Club Nouveau performs at the U.I.C. Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois in August 1987. \u003ccite>(Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>King’s growing stardom rippled across the Bay and reached Felton Pilate, the Vallejo keyboardist, singer, and producer best known as a driving force in Bay Area funk stars Con Funk Shun. The two had already worked together on King’s onetime rap group Frost; Pilate engineered that record. Pilate soon added one of King’s projects, Sacramento R&B/rap group New Choice, to a growing slate of projects he produced and engineered at his Felstar Studios.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Felstar Studios was the culmination of work he had begun while not touring and rehearsing with Con Funk Shun. At his home studio on Sandpiper Drive in Vallejo, Pilate helped assemble records for fledgling local artists. “I never thought of myself as just a studio,” he says, where he simply records his clients. “I have a little experience here. I’ve got several gold albums. Here, let me pass on some of this knowledge.” When asked if he considered himself a mentor, he demurs, even though that’s arguably what he was. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Pilate opened Felstar Studios on Sonoma Boulevard, his trusted associate was James Earley, a young engineer whom he credits for adding a more contemporary sensibility to the Studios’ output. Among the locals who came to them were M.V.P., a family trio consisting of Earl Stevens, Danell Stevens, and Brandt Jones. Their 1988 12”, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfLuAL6DueI\">The Kings Men\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, also included Tanina Stevens and Angela Pressley, who called themselves Sugar ‘N’ Spice. The members of M.V.P. updated their stage names to E-40, D-Shot and B-Legit, added Tanina as Suga T, and \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#the-clicks-down-dirty-ushers-in-mobb-music-era\">evolved into The Click\u003c/a>, arguably becoming the most famous rap group to emerge from Vallejo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927370\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/MVP.e-40.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"700\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13927370\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/MVP.e-40.jpg 700w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/MVP.e-40-160x160.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">M.V.P., a 1988 Vallejo rap group featuring Busy D, E-40 and Legit (L–R). The three would later add E-40’s sister Suga T and become known as The Click. \u003ccite>(Gerry Ericksen / Rushforce Records)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1986, Pilate and Earley both had solo deals at Berkeley’s Fantasy Records. It was there that Pilate met a former Oakland A’s batboy named Stanley “Holyghost Boy” Burrell through Fantasy Records producer Fred L. Pittman. “Fred would often hire me to do keyboard arrangements for him,” says Pilate. When Pittman asked him to play keys for Holyghost Boy, Pilate responded, “Hey Fred, why don’t you let me take the reins on this?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a classically trained jazz and classical musician, Pilate didn’t think much of rap, even though Con Funk Shun not only included a rap verse on a 1982 single, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ9GHVTI-EE\">Ain’t Nobody Baby\u003c/a>”; but also made “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmmzvN7raB0\">Electric Lady\u003c/a>,” a 1985 hit produced by Larry Smith of Whodini fame that landed in the top five of \u003cem>Billboard\u003c/em>’s Black Singles chart. “Musically, I wasn’t a fan, but as a producer, I said, ‘I can do this,’” he says. “Like everyone else, Con Funk Shun wanted to be relevant, and rap was all over the radio.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tracks Burrell brought to Pilate consisted of him rapping over sparse Yamaha RX5 drum-machine parts. Pilate responded by going into “study mode.” He listened to the rap stuff that was getting airplay like Doug E. Fresh & the Get Fresh Crew. As a result, the skittering percussion on Burrell’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akVWFiptGNY\">Let’s Get It Started\u003c/a>” is reminiscent of the go-go-inspired arrangements on Doug E. Fresh hits like “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sGw9GSCiYU\">The Show\u003c/a>” and “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UtqnKIF7kE\">All the Way to Heaven\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927325\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.VIdeoShoot.NewParish.Getty_-800x565.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"565\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927325\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.VIdeoShoot.NewParish.Getty_-800x565.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.VIdeoShoot.NewParish.Getty_-1020x720.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.VIdeoShoot.NewParish.Getty_-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.VIdeoShoot.NewParish.Getty_-768x542.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.VIdeoShoot.NewParish.Getty_.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">MC Hammer films the music video for ‘Let’s Get It Started’ at Sweet Jimmie’s nightclub in downtown Oakland, March 19, 1988. \u003ccite>(Deanne Fitzmaurice/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“My thing was to make it more music-driven than beat-driven,” says Pilate. In many cases, he simply “listened to what [Burrell] was talking about and wrote a straight R&B song underneath it.” He also gives credit to Earley, who helped refine the drum programming and brought “that younger ear” to the project. They incorporated stock horn stabs from a battery of Juno, Roland, and Yamaha drum machines. Meanwhile, Kent “The Lone Mixer” Wilson and Bryant “D.J. Redeemed” Marable added rhythmic scratches by cutting up Curtis Mayfield and Beastie Boys records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the demos were finished, Fantasy Records dropped Pilate, Earley and Burrell from their deals. “They weren’t really sure how to market any of us,” says Pilate. Then, he chuckles, “The next time I ran into the Holyghost Boy, he had changed his name to MC Hammer.” After forming Bustin’ Records in Fremont with financial help from Oakland A’s ballplayers like Mike Davis and Dwayne Murphy, Hammer turned the Pilate demos into three 12”s — “Ring ’Em,” “The Thrill Is Gone” and “Let’s Get It Started” — and the 1987 album \u003cem>Feel My Power\u003c/em>. “I was like, man, those were rough mixes! You were supposed to come back and let me fix that!” Pilate laughs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Everyone involved in Bay Area hip-hop has vivid memories of MC Hammer blowing up. Near-mythical stories of his local takeover abound, like attending local concerts surrounded by a massive crew; or tearing up the dance floor at The Silks, a popular nightclub in Emeryville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927324\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.Pilate-800x727.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"727\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927324\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.Pilate-800x727.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.Pilate-1020x926.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.Pilate-160x145.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.Pilate-768x698.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Hammer.Pilate.jpg 1058w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">MC Hammer and Fenton Pilate in modern times. Pilate engineered and co-produced MC Hammer’s first recordings. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Felton Pilate)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Today, it’s worth revisiting \u003cem>Feel My Power\u003c/em> and 1988’s \u003cem>Let’s Get It Started\u003c/em>. Released after Hammer signed with Capitol Records, \u003cem>Let’s Get It Started\u003c/em> found Hammer and Pilate remixing those original demos while adding vital new tracks like “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sZVcXzSE3M\">Pump It Up\u003c/a>.” The results are bombastic and vibrant dance-floor jams as ecstatic as anything by Kid ‘n’ Play and Salt-n-Pepa. Hammer’s subsequent leap into pop superstardom with 1990’s \u003cem>Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em\u003c/em> and the ubiquity of “U Can’t Touch This” obscure just how great those early tracks are.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Eight Woofers in the Trunk\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>MC Hammer’s major-label arrival in 1988 capped a year of Bay Area hip-hop on the cusp of national exposure. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Too Short issued \u003cem>Born to Mack\u003c/em> in the fall of 1987 on his Dangerous Music label, Jive Records picked it up. (Dangerous Music also issued \u003cem>Dangerous Crew\u003c/em>, a compilation of vital Bay Area acts like Spice-1, Rappin’ 4-Tay, and the female duo Danger Zone.) Digital Underground’s playful and psychedelic “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zQ1frcgSbI\">Underwater Rimes\u003c/a> / \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpBNB20wVo0\">Your Life’s a Cartoon\u003c/a>” led to a deal with Tommy Boy. Local talent waited in the wings, including rapper/producer Paris (A.T.C.’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHpiPWfOBk4\">Cisco Jam\u003c/a>”), Sway & King Tech (\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBJujmVXiwE\">Flynamic Force\u003c/a>\u003c/em> EP), Dangerous Dame (“\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Frj4j09GE\">The Power That’s Packed\u003c/a>”), and MC Twist and the Def Squad (“\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lZz7qhjfjw\">Just Rock\u003c/a>”). And the late Cameron Paul, known for his “Beats & Pieces” breakbeats, remixed Queens trio Salt-n-Pepa’s 1987 track “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPkdk1oMmtE\">Push It\u003c/a>” into a global phenomenon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13828164\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2018/03/CameronPaul-800x496.jpg\" alt=\"Cameron Paul reveals his mixing secrets.\" width=\"800\" height=\"496\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13828164\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/03/CameronPaul.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/03/CameronPaul-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/03/CameronPaul-768x476.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/03/CameronPaul-240x149.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/03/CameronPaul-375x233.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/03/CameronPaul-520x322.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cameron Paul, who provided the spine of New Orleans bounce music with ‘Brown Beats’ and recorded a smash-hit remix of Salt ‘n’ Pepa’s ‘Push It,’ was also a prominent club and radio megamix DJ in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(YouTube)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Incidentally, the first local group to score a major label deal wasn’t Hammer, but Surf MCs, a Berkeley group that Profile Records promoted as a Beastie Boys-like rap/rock crossover. Their 1987 album \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojCAqdBA7uA\">Surf or Die\u003c/a>\u003c/em> proved a flop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet the third moment that catalyzed Bay Area hip-hop wasn’t a singular record like Timex Social Club’s “Rumors,” or an artist like Hammer and Short. It was the sound of walloping, all-enveloping bass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Made for surgically enhanced car and jeep stereos, the bass colossus is as much a feature of hip-hop in the mid-’80s as the pounding Roland TR-808 machine, from Rick Rubin’s production on LL Cool J’s “Rock the Bells” and T La Rock’s “It’s Yours” to Rodney O and DJ Joe Cooley’s “Everlasting Bass” and Dr. Dre’s work on Eazy-E’s “The Boyz-N-The Hood.” It also mirrors the crack-cocaine epidemic that began to blight and distort communities across the country. As street life turned treacherous, the specter of the hustler, and whether to become one, cast a growing shadow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Then the new style came, the bass got deeper / You gave up the mike and bought you a beeper / Do you want to rap or sell coke? / Brothers like you ain’t never broke,” Too Short memorably rapped on his 1989 hit, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvfUUOO0xoM\">Life Is…Too Short\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Banjoko recalls how the presence of gangs transformed local shows. “You would see a bunch of people dressed up together [in the same gear], and you might assume they were a rap or dance crew. They were young drug lords,” he says. “You could get trampled, beat up or robbed by any of them. I remember 69 Ville being massively deep at the Fresh Fest and the [Run-DMC] Raising Hell tour. They were terrifying, straight up. You were going to tuck your chain, you were going to take your Kangol off, or they were going to take it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927326\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/HughEMC.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"409\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13927326\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/HughEMC.jpg 600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/HughEMC-160x109.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hugh EMC, the San Francisco rapper whose 1988 single ‘It’s the Game’ unflinchingly chronicled street life. \u003ccite>(Soul Sonic Records)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Rap imagery became more honest and explicit. Some like Richmond rapper Magic Mike, San Francisco’s Hugh EMC (“\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_p7L0eJfKI\">It’s the Game\u003c/a>”), and Oakland’s Hollywood (“\u003ca href=\"https://www.discogs.com/release/641778-Hollywood-Stay-Heart-And-Soul-Raps-Just-A-Battlefield\">Gangster Rap\u003c/a>”) seemed to embrace the hustler ethos, while cautiously adding verses about the consequences of that lifestyle. Then there was Oakland rapper Morocco Moe, whose “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogNoOCIVPrI\">Task\u003c/a>” criticized how law enforcement brutalized communities in the War on Drugs: “Their intentions are good/But their actions are wrong.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every Black neighborhood was infested” with crack, says Vallejo producer Khayree Shaheed. “There was an influx of money coming into young Black men, but there was also a lot of death occurring.” The epidemic also marked his entry into the world of rap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a descendant of the Bay Area’s vaunted funk tradition, Khayree spent the ’70s and early ’80s playing bass guitar for bands like Grand Larceny, Body Mind & Spirit and Touch of Class (with keyboardist Rosie Gaines, who later joined Prince & the New Power Generation). His travels took him across the U.S. and even to Japan, where Touch of Class lived and performed for several months. (Though his bands made demos, there are no official recordings to date.) When asked about the first time he heard rap, Khayree cites “jazzoetry” ensembles like The Last Poets, not the Sugarhill Gang. And as a youth growing up on Lofas Place in Vallejo, he spent plenty of time following Con Funk Shun, hoping to apprentice with the biggest band in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927412\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.1979.DockoftheBay.72dpi-800x510.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"510\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927412\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.1979.DockoftheBay.72dpi-800x510.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.1979.DockoftheBay.72dpi-1020x651.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.1979.DockoftheBay.72dpi-160x102.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.1979.DockoftheBay.72dpi-768x490.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.1979.DockoftheBay.72dpi-1536x980.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.1979.DockoftheBay.72dpi.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vallejo musician Khayree Shaheed, playing bass onstage in 1979. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Khayree Shaheed)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Khayree was in his mid-20s when Rod “I.C.E.” Andrews and Dan “Luvva D” Morrison a.k.a. the Luvva Twins brought Khayree a demo they had made on a Casio keyboard, “Hubba Head.” The song title was slang for a crack addict, and the duo described the “hubba head’s” descent into addiction with charismatic punch. They arranged the music and rapped most of the lyrics, while Khayree dropped a short verse and added guitar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Khayree had already spent time at Pilate’s home studio, honing his writing and production skills. (“I always enjoyed working with him,” says Pilate.) Now, he brought “Hubba Head” to Pilate, and the two prepared it for release. Setting up his own label, Big Bank Records, Khayree distributed two hundred copies of the 12” to DJs and influencers. “The record was super popular in the streets,” says Khayree.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/pArkWvlAebg'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/pArkWvlAebg'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>After “Hubba Head,” Khayree began working with Jay King, a fellow graduate of Vallejo High School. The opportunity to write and produce New Choice’s 1987 single “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-VLZQ4X1yA\">Cold Stupid\u003c/a>” and most of the quintet’s 1988 debut, \u003cem>At Last\u003c/em>, gave him important experience on a major project and financial stability. By fusing bass, funky R&B and hip-hop breakbeats, New Choice reflected a parallel R&B movement that both influenced and was inspired by the hip-hop scene. Similar Bay Area acts included Oakland’s Tony! Toni! Toné!, who parlayed backing sessions for Sheila E. and Tramaine Hawkins into a major-label deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flush from his experience with New Choice, Khayree was ready to start his own company. “I’m listening to EPMD’s \u003cem>Strictly Business\u003c/em>,” he says, inspiring the name of his second label, Strictly Business Records. He knew that Mike “The Mac” Robinson, who also grew up on Lofas Place, was a rapper. Robinson hailed from a musical family: his uncle Steve “Silver” Scales was a well-traveled Vallejo funk percussionist who played with Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, and the B-52s. (Though it would be a delicious coincidence, Scales didn’t perform on “Genius of Love.”) Khayree encouraged Robinson to take music more seriously. Meanwhile, Robinson’s mother drew the memorable Strictly Business logo: an open briefcase, ready for business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1988, Khayree released The Mac’s three-song EP, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.discogs.com/release/805531-The-Mac-Im-Ah-Big-Mac\">I’m Ah Big Mac\u003c/a>.” Heard now, what immediately stands out is the unique \u003cem>tone\u003c/em> of the bass. “We used synthesizers that had dumb-fat bass lines,” explains Khayree in reference to himself and Too Short as well as future Bay Area colleagues like Ant Banks. By comparison, he says, other regional scenes relied on a “natural” bass guitar or samples from records. “You feel it through your whole body. … You can get it with a bass guitar, depending on how you EQ the bass and what you run your guitar through. But you’re \u003cem>never\u003c/em> going to touch the subs and the depth of a Minimoog, of the Oberheim Ovx, or the Roland Juno 106.” The EP’s highlight is its B-side “The Game Is Thick,” which centers on a sample of Prince’s “D.M.S.R.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927371\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/TheMac.GameisThick-800x498.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"498\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927371\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/TheMac.GameisThick-800x498.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/TheMac.GameisThick-1020x635.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/TheMac.GameisThick-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/TheMac.GameisThick-768x478.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/TheMac.GameisThick.jpg 1537w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Khayree and The Mac (L–R), pictured on the cover of The Mac’s ‘The Game is Thick.’ \u003ccite>(Phil Bray / Strictly Business Records)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1989, Khayree remixed and re-released “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCxGl7Ok1YI\">The Game Is Thick\u003c/a>” as a standalone 12” with a memorable cover photo: Khayree looking super-clean in a grey suit, clasping a briefcase, with The Mac in a red-and-black bomber jacket. Khayree calls the style “pimping.” “We didn’t mean pimping so much as getting prostitutes to work,” he explains. “It’s an attitude, and it’s a musical style.” The “game” is a metaphor for life in the Black community. Street slang illustrated complex situations, whether it was dealing with the repercussions of a raging crack epidemic, or simply navigating the tensions of everyday living. Meanwhile, The Mac’s “cool, silky, pimpish” flow and Khayree’s synthesized bass production proved a clear predecessor to the ’90s mob-music sound that took over Bay Area rap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Upon release, “The Game Is Thick” didn’t make a major impact, and most copies went to local DJ pools. “We promoted records out of the trunk,” says Khayree. “We went from Bobby G’s Soul Disco in San Francisco to [Rico Casanova’s record pool] The Pros in Oakland.” Still, “The Game Is Thick” remix received a mention in Davey “D” Cook’s April 7, 1989 “Beats & Breaks” column for \u003cem>BAM\u003c/em> Magazine. “Let me tell you, it’s hyped to the max,” Davey D wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With Khayree’s encouragement, the Mac taught himself how to produce music with synth keyboards. He also introduced Khayree to another Vallejo artist, Andre “Mac Dre” Hicks, who became Strictly Business’ second act. By the time The Mac was shot and killed on July 23, 1991 in what Khayree calls “a case of mistaken identity,” the two had recorded dozens of tracks and released a third and final 12” protesting police violence, 1990’s “Enuff of Tis Sh-t!” One of The Mac’s beats posthumously appeared on Mac Dre’s 1993 track, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slA_s7tSjMU\">The M.A.C. & Mac D.R.E.\u003c/a>”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13927413\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.KoolMoeDee.72dpi-800x523.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"523\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13927413\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.KoolMoeDee.72dpi-800x523.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.KoolMoeDee.72dpi-1020x666.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.KoolMoeDee.72dpi-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.KoolMoeDee.72dpi-768x502.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.KoolMoeDee.72dpi-1536x1003.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Khayree.KoolMoeDee.72dpi.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Khayree with Kool Moe Dee at the 1988 BRE Conference in Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Khayree Shaheed)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Mike had a big, big loving heart,” remembers Khayree, sounding wistful. He emphasizes how The Mac left behind a daughter, “Mac” Reina Robinson, and a pregnant girlfriend who gave birth to his son, Mike. At one point, Khayree plays a voicemail of The Mac passionately singing a funky, swinging hook, as if to counteract the stereotype that rappers aren’t musicians. He talks about how The Mac’s way of playing simple, evocative keyboard notes for maximum effect echoes in the work of his famed protégé, Mac Dre. “I miss him,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Area rap broke wide at the end of the decade, leading to a 1989 story in the \u003cem>New York Times\u003c/em>, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/10/arts/rap-by-the-bay-oakland-emerges-as-a-force-in-pop.html\">Rap by the Bay: Oakland Emerges as a Force in Pop\u003c/a>.” Not every local pioneer who laid the groundwork would enjoy the fruits of that success. But their stories are essential to understanding how local hip-hop came of age, and everything that came after.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "there-are-plenty-of-doomsday-climate-stories-extrapolations-is-about-the-everyday",
"title": "There are Plenty of Doomsday Climate Stories — ‘Extrapolations’ is About the Everyday",
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"content": "\u003cp>In some ways, \u003ca href=\"https://tv.apple.com/us/show/extrapolations/umc.cmc.4uoqxmxlnipm9zsc88bkjyjx4\">\u003cem>Extrapolations\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is typical eco-thriller fare. The Apple TV+ series depicts a planet on the brink of environmental crisis, where ordinary human beings battle increasingly hostile elements, and a villainous tech tycoon seeks to take over the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet in contrast to apocalyptic climate change dramas, like\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2004/05/28/1915138/questionable-science-behind-the-day-after-tomorrow\"> \u003cem>The Day After Tomorrow\u003c/em> \u003c/a>and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2014/06/29/326154752/in-snowpiercer-a-never-ending-train-ride-and-a-society-badly-off-track\">\u003cem>Snowpiercer\u003c/em>, \u003c/a>\u003cem>Extrapolations\u003c/em> doesn’t dwell on the End of Days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We wanted to focus on what we call the ‘messy middle,’” series creator Scott Burns told NPR in an interview. “Because before we get to the end, there’s a lot of life that we’re all gonna have to go through.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN6oWKPxwx0\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the barrage of daily news headlines devoted to climate change, there still aren’t many fictional TV shows and movies that deal with the topic. And those that do tend towards disaster, picturing the end of life on Earth as we know it. But \u003cem>Extrapolations\u003c/em> attempts to walk the line between fiction and scientific fact to tell the story of what’s at stake for our planet over the next few decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Dramatizing the ‘messy middle’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The messy middle dramatized in \u003cem>Extrapolations\u003c/em> unfolds over roughly three decades starting about 15 years from now. Burns said he wanted to make climate change feel immediate, especially to young people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you are 15 or 16 right now and you watch our show, you’re gonna be alive in 2070 when our show ends,” Burns said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13879441']Burns said much of the show’s sense of immediacy about the near future stems from digging into — and making predictions based on — science. His team drew on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/reports?gclid=Cj0KCQjwt_qgBhDFARIsABcDjOcKowrqXgMothLpqDQdMQBek9Xfo8J0tKQi6Hzu2KrFAZU1oDNC6cQaAmLQEALw_wcB\">U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports\u003c/a> and consulted with climate scientists to come up with storylines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the episode set in the year 2046, for instance, global temperatures have risen to an alarming 1.8 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Sienna Miller plays a conservationist struggling to save species from going extinct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ocean temp is over 90 most days. Krill is gone. Almost. Food column is collapsing,” Miller’s character, Rebecca Shearer, laments.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Putting data on screen\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Burns is no stranger to putting climate data on screen. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/05/04/476717308/after-10-years-an-inconvenient-truth-is-still-inconvenient\">\u003cem>An Inconvenient Truth\u003c/em>, \u003c/a>the Oscar-winning 2006 documentary he co-produced, is essentially a giant PowerPoint presentation packed with a bunch of statistics about global warming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://theconversation.com/ten-years-on-how-al-gores-an-inconvenient-truth-made-its-mark-59387\">Studies\u003c/a> demonstrate how \u003cem>An Inconvenient Truth\u003c/em> helped bring climate change into the cultural conversation. But after it came out, Burns found himself asking if there were ways he could harness fiction rooted in science to highlight the problem’s urgency in a more visceral way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13924912']“I think that climate change is different when it’s portrayed on a graph than when it is portrayed in a story with characters who look and feel like the audience,” the producer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When deciding what story to tell about the climate change future we could face, Burns said he wasn’t interested in depicting worst-case scenarios.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We felt that if we did that the show would be very vulnerable to criticism, that we were just sensationalizing,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A series grounded in scientific facts\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>To experts like University of Colorado Boulder environmental studies professor \u003ca href=\"https://www.colorado.edu/envs/maxwell-boykoff\">Max Boykoff\u003c/a>, the predictions in \u003cem>Extrapolations\u003c/em> seem, for the most part, well-grounded in science.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way in which they talked about forest fires and water scarcity and poor air quality and public health challenges are all the kinds of things that we are writing about,” Boykoff told NPR in an interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are some aspects of \u003cem>Extrapolations\u003c/em> that do seem a little far-fetched to the scholar, such as the notion that by 2046, humans would be able to talk to animals in English — among them, a humpback whale voiced by Meryl Streep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13925067']Nevertheless, Boykoff said he’s excited to see a mainstream TV show tackle climate change so credibly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Few people pick up and read peer-reviewed literature on a daily basis,” Boykoff said. “And so when it comes to climate change, the way in which entertainment media is engaging with it is critically important to helping a global population understand what we’re facing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why, Boykoff said, in our era of misinformation, it’s crucial for creators to get the science right.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Any climate story is better than no climate story\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>But other experts say having a firm foundation in science isn’t the most important thing when it comes to telling compelling climate change stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m less concerned with writers getting it wrong and that being damaging, than I am with us continuing to ignore [climate change] in the worlds of our stories,” said Anna Jane Joyner, the founder and CEO of \u003ca href=\"https://www.goodenergystories.com/\">Good Energy\u003c/a>, a nonprofit that supports movie and TV production in the climate change space with research and connections to experts. The company did consulting work on \u003cem>Extrapolations\u003c/em>. “Even just talking about climate change in your story is more beneficial than not,” Joyner said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.goodenergystories.com/offerings/research\">Good Energy study\u003c/a> revealed that between 2016 and 2020, fewer than three percent of scripted television shows and films even mentioned climate change, let alone had storylines related to the topic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joyner said she wants this to shift, because she understands how persuasive the types of entertainments can be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13907576']Even over-the-top offerings like \u003cem>The Day After Tomorrow\u003c/em> show how impactful pop culture can be on raising public awareness around climate change, as a \u003ca href=\"https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2004_11_Before-and-after-The-Day-After-Tomorrow.pdf\">2004 study in \u003cem>Environment\u003c/em> journal\u003c/a> focusing on audience responses to that movie showed. The study concluded that, “some commentators had predicted that the film would bring more public attention to the issue of global warming than the publication of most scientific articles, reports, or congressional testimonies, and this prediction appears to have been correct.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joyner said Good Energy is helping to conduct a similar study around audiences responses to \u003cem>Extrapolations\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Audio and digital stories edited by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/881642560/ciera-crawford\">\u003cem>Ciera Crawford\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/493126084/ravenna-koenig\">\u003cem>Ravenna Koenig\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. Web copy edited by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/348743704/beth-novey\">\u003cem>Beth Novey\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=There+are+plenty+of+doomsday+climate+stories+%E2%80%94+%27Extrapolations%27+is+about+the+everyday&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In some ways, \u003ca href=\"https://tv.apple.com/us/show/extrapolations/umc.cmc.4uoqxmxlnipm9zsc88bkjyjx4\">\u003cem>Extrapolations\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is typical eco-thriller fare. The Apple TV+ series depicts a planet on the brink of environmental crisis, where ordinary human beings battle increasingly hostile elements, and a villainous tech tycoon seeks to take over the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet in contrast to apocalyptic climate change dramas, like\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2004/05/28/1915138/questionable-science-behind-the-day-after-tomorrow\"> \u003cem>The Day After Tomorrow\u003c/em> \u003c/a>and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2014/06/29/326154752/in-snowpiercer-a-never-ending-train-ride-and-a-society-badly-off-track\">\u003cem>Snowpiercer\u003c/em>, \u003c/a>\u003cem>Extrapolations\u003c/em> doesn’t dwell on the End of Days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We wanted to focus on what we call the ‘messy middle,’” series creator Scott Burns told NPR in an interview. “Because before we get to the end, there’s a lot of life that we’re all gonna have to go through.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/TN6oWKPxwx0'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/TN6oWKPxwx0'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Despite the barrage of daily news headlines devoted to climate change, there still aren’t many fictional TV shows and movies that deal with the topic. And those that do tend towards disaster, picturing the end of life on Earth as we know it. But \u003cem>Extrapolations\u003c/em> attempts to walk the line between fiction and scientific fact to tell the story of what’s at stake for our planet over the next few decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Dramatizing the ‘messy middle’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The messy middle dramatized in \u003cem>Extrapolations\u003c/em> unfolds over roughly three decades starting about 15 years from now. Burns said he wanted to make climate change feel immediate, especially to young people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Burns said much of the show’s sense of immediacy about the near future stems from digging into — and making predictions based on — science. His team drew on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/reports?gclid=Cj0KCQjwt_qgBhDFARIsABcDjOcKowrqXgMothLpqDQdMQBek9Xfo8J0tKQi6Hzu2KrFAZU1oDNC6cQaAmLQEALw_wcB\">U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports\u003c/a> and consulted with climate scientists to come up with storylines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the episode set in the year 2046, for instance, global temperatures have risen to an alarming 1.8 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Sienna Miller plays a conservationist struggling to save species from going extinct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ocean temp is over 90 most days. Krill is gone. Almost. Food column is collapsing,” Miller’s character, Rebecca Shearer, laments.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Putting data on screen\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Burns is no stranger to putting climate data on screen. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/05/04/476717308/after-10-years-an-inconvenient-truth-is-still-inconvenient\">\u003cem>An Inconvenient Truth\u003c/em>, \u003c/a>the Oscar-winning 2006 documentary he co-produced, is essentially a giant PowerPoint presentation packed with a bunch of statistics about global warming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://theconversation.com/ten-years-on-how-al-gores-an-inconvenient-truth-made-its-mark-59387\">Studies\u003c/a> demonstrate how \u003cem>An Inconvenient Truth\u003c/em> helped bring climate change into the cultural conversation. But after it came out, Burns found himself asking if there were ways he could harness fiction rooted in science to highlight the problem’s urgency in a more visceral way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I think that climate change is different when it’s portrayed on a graph than when it is portrayed in a story with characters who look and feel like the audience,” the producer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When deciding what story to tell about the climate change future we could face, Burns said he wasn’t interested in depicting worst-case scenarios.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We felt that if we did that the show would be very vulnerable to criticism, that we were just sensationalizing,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A series grounded in scientific facts\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>To experts like University of Colorado Boulder environmental studies professor \u003ca href=\"https://www.colorado.edu/envs/maxwell-boykoff\">Max Boykoff\u003c/a>, the predictions in \u003cem>Extrapolations\u003c/em> seem, for the most part, well-grounded in science.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way in which they talked about forest fires and water scarcity and poor air quality and public health challenges are all the kinds of things that we are writing about,” Boykoff told NPR in an interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are some aspects of \u003cem>Extrapolations\u003c/em> that do seem a little far-fetched to the scholar, such as the notion that by 2046, humans would be able to talk to animals in English — among them, a humpback whale voiced by Meryl Streep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Nevertheless, Boykoff said he’s excited to see a mainstream TV show tackle climate change so credibly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Few people pick up and read peer-reviewed literature on a daily basis,” Boykoff said. “And so when it comes to climate change, the way in which entertainment media is engaging with it is critically important to helping a global population understand what we’re facing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why, Boykoff said, in our era of misinformation, it’s crucial for creators to get the science right.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Any climate story is better than no climate story\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>But other experts say having a firm foundation in science isn’t the most important thing when it comes to telling compelling climate change stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m less concerned with writers getting it wrong and that being damaging, than I am with us continuing to ignore [climate change] in the worlds of our stories,” said Anna Jane Joyner, the founder and CEO of \u003ca href=\"https://www.goodenergystories.com/\">Good Energy\u003c/a>, a nonprofit that supports movie and TV production in the climate change space with research and connections to experts. The company did consulting work on \u003cem>Extrapolations\u003c/em>. “Even just talking about climate change in your story is more beneficial than not,” Joyner said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.goodenergystories.com/offerings/research\">Good Energy study\u003c/a> revealed that between 2016 and 2020, fewer than three percent of scripted television shows and films even mentioned climate change, let alone had storylines related to the topic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joyner said she wants this to shift, because she understands how persuasive the types of entertainments can be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Even over-the-top offerings like \u003cem>The Day After Tomorrow\u003c/em> show how impactful pop culture can be on raising public awareness around climate change, as a \u003ca href=\"https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2004_11_Before-and-after-The-Day-After-Tomorrow.pdf\">2004 study in \u003cem>Environment\u003c/em> journal\u003c/a> focusing on audience responses to that movie showed. The study concluded that, “some commentators had predicted that the film would bring more public attention to the issue of global warming than the publication of most scientific articles, reports, or congressional testimonies, and this prediction appears to have been correct.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joyner said Good Energy is helping to conduct a similar study around audiences responses to \u003cem>Extrapolations\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Audio and digital stories edited by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/881642560/ciera-crawford\">\u003cem>Ciera Crawford\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/493126084/ravenna-koenig\">\u003cem>Ravenna Koenig\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. Web copy edited by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/348743704/beth-novey\">\u003cem>Beth Novey\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=There+are+plenty+of+doomsday+climate+stories+%E2%80%94+%27Extrapolations%27+is+about+the+everyday&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Ali Wong, Steven Yeun Serve Up Epic Feud in Netflix’s ‘Beef’",
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"content": "\u003cp>In these days of rage — from hate-tweeting threads to public confrontations — one thing is pretty clear: “Beef” is on the menu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Served up by Ali Wong and Steven Yeun, the new television show created by Lee Sung Jin drops Thursday on Netflix. The 10-episode \u003cem>Beef\u003c/em> follows an epic feud between two strangers, played by Yeun (\u003cem>The Walking Dead\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Minari\u003c/em>) and Wong (\u003cem>Always Be My Maybe\u003c/em>), that stems from a wild case of road rage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFPIMHBzGDs\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plot points may go to the extremes for entertainment but Yeun believes \u003cem>Beef\u003c/em> actually says a lot about society, and he’s “proud” of that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just see a giant mirror up to all of us,” he said in a recent interview. “We’re living in a lot of isolation, building a lot of stories up in our head. Maybe all we really want to do is connect to somebody.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong agreed, adding that their characters Amy and Danny keep their feud going because each finds it strangely enjoyable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13926773']“They’re letting walls down. They’re seeing each other at their ugliest,” Wong said. “There’s a deep acceptance that’s obviously very cathartic and very necessary. I think that’s the most unexpected and beautiful part about our show.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The more Danny and Amy reveal their true selves to one another, the more they hide from their loved ones. Amy grits her teeth and smiles at her husband George, as she secretly resents that she’s the family provider, taking her away from quality time with their young daughter while George stays home and creates bad pottery. George, in the meantime, feels inadequate that his wife is the breadwinner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just wish you’d unload the dishes sometimes,” George complains to Amy in a scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I barely have time to eat off those dishes,” she replies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once any partner has a sort of resentment that they hang on to and suppress, and it’s not communicated, it boils into something else,” said Joseph Lee, who plays George. “Something will explode at some point.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Portraying so much anger actually helped Yeun to choose to take a more Zen-like outlook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At first it was cathartic to play anger. I was just like, ‘Cool, that’s fun.’ Then after a while, I was like, ‘I’m tired,’” Yeun said. “To be angry for this long is so tiring. Like, what are we doing? Why are we so angry? It was just very clear to me, to like, just chill, so it was illuminating for me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13926515']Wong is quick to point out that despite the rage expressed on screen, offscreen it was very different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a lot of joy being had in between takes that we don’t see on camera … like me and Steven laughing,” Wong said. “The friendship I developed with (castmate) Ashley Park and a lot of the other people is like by far the best outcome of the show, no matter how it’s received.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Copyright 2023 AP. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/\">visit AP\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Beef’ premieres on Netflix on April 6, 2023. \u003ca href=\"https://www.netflix.com/title/81447461\">Details here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In these days of rage — from hate-tweeting threads to public confrontations — one thing is pretty clear: “Beef” is on the menu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Served up by Ali Wong and Steven Yeun, the new television show created by Lee Sung Jin drops Thursday on Netflix. The 10-episode \u003cem>Beef\u003c/em> follows an epic feud between two strangers, played by Yeun (\u003cem>The Walking Dead\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Minari\u003c/em>) and Wong (\u003cem>Always Be My Maybe\u003c/em>), that stems from a wild case of road rage.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/AFPIMHBzGDs'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/AFPIMHBzGDs'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The plot points may go to the extremes for entertainment but Yeun believes \u003cem>Beef\u003c/em> actually says a lot about society, and he’s “proud” of that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just see a giant mirror up to all of us,” he said in a recent interview. “We’re living in a lot of isolation, building a lot of stories up in our head. Maybe all we really want to do is connect to somebody.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“They’re letting walls down. They’re seeing each other at their ugliest,” Wong said. “There’s a deep acceptance that’s obviously very cathartic and very necessary. I think that’s the most unexpected and beautiful part about our show.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The more Danny and Amy reveal their true selves to one another, the more they hide from their loved ones. Amy grits her teeth and smiles at her husband George, as she secretly resents that she’s the family provider, taking her away from quality time with their young daughter while George stays home and creates bad pottery. George, in the meantime, feels inadequate that his wife is the breadwinner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just wish you’d unload the dishes sometimes,” George complains to Amy in a scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I barely have time to eat off those dishes,” she replies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once any partner has a sort of resentment that they hang on to and suppress, and it’s not communicated, it boils into something else,” said Joseph Lee, who plays George. “Something will explode at some point.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Portraying so much anger actually helped Yeun to choose to take a more Zen-like outlook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At first it was cathartic to play anger. I was just like, ‘Cool, that’s fun.’ Then after a while, I was like, ‘I’m tired,’” Yeun said. “To be angry for this long is so tiring. Like, what are we doing? Why are we so angry? It was just very clear to me, to like, just chill, so it was illuminating for me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Wong is quick to point out that despite the rage expressed on screen, offscreen it was very different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a lot of joy being had in between takes that we don’t see on camera … like me and Steven laughing,” Wong said. “The friendship I developed with (castmate) Ashley Park and a lot of the other people is like by far the best outcome of the show, no matter how it’s received.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Copyright 2023 AP. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/\">visit AP\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Beef’ premieres on Netflix on April 6, 2023. \u003ca href=\"https://www.netflix.com/title/81447461\">Details here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "‘The Big Door Prize’ Asks: How Would You Live if You Knew Your Life’s Potential?",
"headTitle": "‘The Big Door Prize’ Asks: How Would You Live if You Knew Your Life’s Potential? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The premise, at least, comes straight out of \u003cem>The Twilight Zone\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the small town of Deerfield, a mysterious machine appears one day in the general store. Sit inside its booth, which surrounds you with an eerie blue glow, and the apparatus dispenses a card that reveals your life’s potential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='pop_109055']And if AppleTV+’s \u003cem>The Big Door Prize \u003c/em>was in fact a \u003cem>Twilight Zone\u003c/em> episode, or for that matter a Stephen King novel, you’d know what to expect next: A moralistic tale that posits a vision of humanity as venal, petty and grasping. The machine’s presence would tear the town’s families apart, sunder friendships and stoke seething resentments that would soon bubble over into inevitable violence, because these pathetic townsfolk refused to content themselves with their sad little lots in life. The sinister (possibly infernal?) machine exposed their empty, meaningless lives, and mocked them for daring to imagine an existence other than the one they were stuck with. Stupid hicks. With their \u003cem>dreams\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thankfully \u003cem>The Big Door Prize\u003c/em> isn’t interested in that particular tidy, condescending formula.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Writer/creator David West Read’s previous gig was \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/04/07/828866063/the-schitt-s-creek-finale-gave-david-a-happy-ending\">\u003cem>Schitt’s Creek\u003c/em>,\u003c/a> which gives you a clearer sense of what to expect. On that series, the main characters’ big-city hauteur eventually melted away to an abiding (if often grudging) appreciation for life in a small town. In \u003cem>The Big Door Prize\u003c/em>, Read has taken \u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/563865/the-big-door-prize-by-mo-walsh/\">M.O. Walsh’s 2020 novel \u003c/a>of the same name and washed it in the gentle waters of the \u003cem>Creek\u003c/em>, dialing back the book’s darker themes for a more nuanced and generous take on the people who make Deerfield their home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Said townsfolk are, it will not shock you to learn, quirky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because this is TV, and that’s the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu-KfLd-d9U\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Make it quirk\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>But it’s not quite so simple: A series like\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2016/11/25/503157421/gilmore-girls-returns-on-netflix-just-in-time-for-a-holiday-binge\"> \u003cem>Gilmore Girls\u003c/em>\u003c/a> called upon the wacky residents of its impossibly bucolic setting only infrequently, and only then to dutifully manifest their characteristic oddness in a quick scene or two per episode, before sinking back into the whimsical, undifferentiated background. But \u003cem>The Big Door Prize\u003c/em> features a true ensemble cast of characters, many of whom become the focus of individual episodes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This ensemble is led by a magnificent Chris O’Dowd, who stars as Dusty, a preternaturally affable teacher at the local high school. O’Dowd is leaning hard into the character’s hapless-goofy-Dad charm, here, and it proves impossible to resist. He gives Dusty, who at first seems perfectly content with his life, a winsome, searching quality that intensifies over the course of the season; he knows himself, but wonders, wryly, if there’s more to know. As his wife Cass, Gabrielle Dennis strikes similar but complementary notes; she’s also grounded and happy, yet the card she receives from the machine leaves her pondering her future — idly at first, then much, much less so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13926947']The couple’s teenage daughter Trina (Djouliet Amara) is still reeling from a recent tragedy, but finds a fraught kind of comfort with Jacob (Sammy Fourlas); both actors invest their characters with intelligence and wit that keep them from coming across as the kind of sulky, underdrawn teens that populate the CW.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Again and again, characters that could have been thinly drawn yet still funny — Izzy, the town’s narcissistic mayor (Crystal Fox), Beau, Jacob’s macho father (Aaron Roman Weiner) and bluff restaurant owner Giorgio (Josh Segarra, great as always) — are given the time and attention to surprise us with layers of emotion and absurdity that make them rounded and real.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At some point early in the season — it was somewhere around the wedding episode, which features a character performing a wildly ill-considered dance number, and the townsfolk reacting to it — I realized I’d gone from laughing at these characters to laughing with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Beyond the \u003cem>Zone\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Given the cynicism of its premise — small towners get shown their true potential — it’s only natural to expect that \u003cem>The Big Door Prize\u003c/em> would seek to speak to, and reassure, our most cynical selves. And I suppose it could be read as a cautionary tale about what happens when we place too much faith in technology, even if said technology is mysterious and possibly supernatural.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13926773']But in showing characters attempting to shake themselves out of their unexamined lives, \u003cem>The Big Door Prize\u003c/em> never contents itself with ridiculing their previous complacency. Instead, it spends its time (and thus, our time) delighting in their newfound curiosity and drive, their willingness, their openness, their sense of purpose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What makes us most human, it seems to say, isn’t our pettiness, our greed, our self-satisfaction, or any other moral failing that Rod Serling would step out from behind some shrubbery to lecture us about at the end of a \u003cem>Twilight Zone\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Big Door Prize \u003c/em>instead suggests that it’s the act of striving for something — not necessarily for something better, or something more. Just … for \u003cem>something\u003c/em>. It makes a strong case that we are at our best, our most human selves, when we allow ourselves, finally, simply, to try.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27The+Big+Door+Prize%27+asks%3A+How+would+you+live+if+you+knew+your+life%27s+potential%3F&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘The Big Door Prize’ premieres on Apple TV+ on March 29, 2023. \u003ca href=\"https://tv.apple.com/us/show/the-big-door-prize/umc.cmc.2rjxcljdjz4h47vjdxnytcn23?mttn3pid=Google%20AdWords&mttnagencyid=a5e&mttncc=US&mttnsiteid=143238&mttnsubad=OUS20191000_1-652823703969-c&mttnsubkw=147103945855__vcrindm5_\">Details here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The premise, at least, comes straight out of \u003cem>The Twilight Zone\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the small town of Deerfield, a mysterious machine appears one day in the general store. Sit inside its booth, which surrounds you with an eerie blue glow, and the apparatus dispenses a card that reveals your life’s potential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>And if AppleTV+’s \u003cem>The Big Door Prize \u003c/em>was in fact a \u003cem>Twilight Zone\u003c/em> episode, or for that matter a Stephen King novel, you’d know what to expect next: A moralistic tale that posits a vision of humanity as venal, petty and grasping. The machine’s presence would tear the town’s families apart, sunder friendships and stoke seething resentments that would soon bubble over into inevitable violence, because these pathetic townsfolk refused to content themselves with their sad little lots in life. The sinister (possibly infernal?) machine exposed their empty, meaningless lives, and mocked them for daring to imagine an existence other than the one they were stuck with. Stupid hicks. With their \u003cem>dreams\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thankfully \u003cem>The Big Door Prize\u003c/em> isn’t interested in that particular tidy, condescending formula.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Writer/creator David West Read’s previous gig was \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/04/07/828866063/the-schitt-s-creek-finale-gave-david-a-happy-ending\">\u003cem>Schitt’s Creek\u003c/em>,\u003c/a> which gives you a clearer sense of what to expect. On that series, the main characters’ big-city hauteur eventually melted away to an abiding (if often grudging) appreciation for life in a small town. In \u003cem>The Big Door Prize\u003c/em>, Read has taken \u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/563865/the-big-door-prize-by-mo-walsh/\">M.O. Walsh’s 2020 novel \u003c/a>of the same name and washed it in the gentle waters of the \u003cem>Creek\u003c/em>, dialing back the book’s darker themes for a more nuanced and generous take on the people who make Deerfield their home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Said townsfolk are, it will not shock you to learn, quirky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because this is TV, and that’s the law.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/Mu-KfLd-d9U'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/Mu-KfLd-d9U'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003ch3>Make it quirk\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>But it’s not quite so simple: A series like\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2016/11/25/503157421/gilmore-girls-returns-on-netflix-just-in-time-for-a-holiday-binge\"> \u003cem>Gilmore Girls\u003c/em>\u003c/a> called upon the wacky residents of its impossibly bucolic setting only infrequently, and only then to dutifully manifest their characteristic oddness in a quick scene or two per episode, before sinking back into the whimsical, undifferentiated background. But \u003cem>The Big Door Prize\u003c/em> features a true ensemble cast of characters, many of whom become the focus of individual episodes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This ensemble is led by a magnificent Chris O’Dowd, who stars as Dusty, a preternaturally affable teacher at the local high school. O’Dowd is leaning hard into the character’s hapless-goofy-Dad charm, here, and it proves impossible to resist. He gives Dusty, who at first seems perfectly content with his life, a winsome, searching quality that intensifies over the course of the season; he knows himself, but wonders, wryly, if there’s more to know. As his wife Cass, Gabrielle Dennis strikes similar but complementary notes; she’s also grounded and happy, yet the card she receives from the machine leaves her pondering her future — idly at first, then much, much less so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The couple’s teenage daughter Trina (Djouliet Amara) is still reeling from a recent tragedy, but finds a fraught kind of comfort with Jacob (Sammy Fourlas); both actors invest their characters with intelligence and wit that keep them from coming across as the kind of sulky, underdrawn teens that populate the CW.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Again and again, characters that could have been thinly drawn yet still funny — Izzy, the town’s narcissistic mayor (Crystal Fox), Beau, Jacob’s macho father (Aaron Roman Weiner) and bluff restaurant owner Giorgio (Josh Segarra, great as always) — are given the time and attention to surprise us with layers of emotion and absurdity that make them rounded and real.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At some point early in the season — it was somewhere around the wedding episode, which features a character performing a wildly ill-considered dance number, and the townsfolk reacting to it — I realized I’d gone from laughing at these characters to laughing with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Beyond the \u003cem>Zone\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Given the cynicism of its premise — small towners get shown their true potential — it’s only natural to expect that \u003cem>The Big Door Prize\u003c/em> would seek to speak to, and reassure, our most cynical selves. And I suppose it could be read as a cautionary tale about what happens when we place too much faith in technology, even if said technology is mysterious and possibly supernatural.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But in showing characters attempting to shake themselves out of their unexamined lives, \u003cem>The Big Door Prize\u003c/em> never contents itself with ridiculing their previous complacency. Instead, it spends its time (and thus, our time) delighting in their newfound curiosity and drive, their willingness, their openness, their sense of purpose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What makes us most human, it seems to say, isn’t our pettiness, our greed, our self-satisfaction, or any other moral failing that Rod Serling would step out from behind some shrubbery to lecture us about at the end of a \u003cem>Twilight Zone\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Big Door Prize \u003c/em>instead suggests that it’s the act of striving for something — not necessarily for something better, or something more. Just … for \u003cem>something\u003c/em>. It makes a strong case that we are at our best, our most human selves, when we allow ourselves, finally, simply, to try.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27The+Big+Door+Prize%27+asks%3A+How+would+you+live+if+you+knew+your+life%27s+potential%3F&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘The Big Door Prize’ premieres on Apple TV+ on March 29, 2023. \u003ca href=\"https://tv.apple.com/us/show/the-big-door-prize/umc.cmc.2rjxcljdjz4h47vjdxnytcn23?mttn3pid=Google%20AdWords&mttnagencyid=a5e&mttncc=US&mttnsiteid=143238&mttnsubad=OUS20191000_1-652823703969-c&mttnsubkw=147103945855__vcrindm5_\">Details here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The California Report",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/26099305-72af-4542-9dde-ac1807fe36d5/kqed-s-the-california-report",
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"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcram/feed/podcast"
}
},
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"id": "californiareportmagazine",
"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Magazine-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcrmag/feed/podcast"
}
},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.cityarts.net/",
"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
"title": "Close All Tabs",
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"info": "Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/CAT_2_Tile-scaled.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"order": 1
},
"link": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"code-switch-life-kit": {
"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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}
},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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},
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
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"here-and-now": {
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/hiddenbrain.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510308/podcast.xml"
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
"id": "how-i-built-this",
"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/6c3dd23c-93fb-4aab-97ba-1725fa6315f1/hyphenaci%C3%B3n",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
}
},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
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"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
"meta": {
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0OLWoyizopu6tY1XiuX70x",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-Our-Watch-p1436229/",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
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