Legendary experimental musician, poet, multi-media artist and occultist Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, who was diagnosed with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia in 2017, died earlier today at age 70. Around this time last year and midway into a two-plus year battle against the disease the industrial music pioneer, who first came to wide acclaim as the founding member of Throbbing Gristle, had to be rushed into a NYC area hospital in what was reportedly a critical situation. “She was unable to breathe without oxygen” after her lungs became “blocked with fluid, which her doctors had previously attempted to remove with a suction needle,” wrote friend and associate of the artist Jason Louv at the time in an email to fans and friends of Genesis P-Orridge that also acted as both an update on the artist's health and a plea for help for the under-insured artist's GoFundMe page to combat ever escalating medical bills.  

The envelope pushing, notoriously prolific Genesis P-Orridge leaves behind a vast and impressive legacy.  Creating under a myriad of pseudonyms that have included Griselda, PT001, Godstar,  DJ Doktor Megatrip, and Pearl Necklace, the British born Genesis P-Orridge (aka Genesis Breyer P-Orridge) had long been a provocateur.  The five-decade career of the long self-identified "third-gender" artist with the s/he and h/er preferred pronouns (although some still referred to the artist as "he" or "she") is most widely known for being the founding member of the seventies pioneering industrial music group Throbbing Gristle. 

As announced earlier today, this year’s Record Store Day, initially planned for April 18th, is being postponed by two months until Saturday June 20th, 2020.  This decision seems both wise in light of the overwhelming impact of the COVID-19/Coronavirus threat that has already impacted so many big events being canceled or postponed (EG: Coachella and SXSW) and with news this week, following Trump’s ban on European air travel and with states such as California banning club/public events of over 250 people, countless nightclub events, artist tours and concerts are all been put on hold for now.

In their official announcement earlier today the folks at the Record Store Day headquarters wrote in part that, “We’ve decided that the best of all possible moves is to change the date of Record Store Day this year ….We think this gives stores around the world the best chance to have a profitable, successful Record Store Day, while taking into consideration the recommendations of doctors, scientists, the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control, and the need to be good citizens of both local and worldwide communities.” 

Longtime hardworking hip-hop duo Atmosphere officially released their latest excellent album back in mid December in digital format but this past week have followed up with the welcome physical versions; the Whenever 2LP vinyl version and the Whenever CD version of the album. Note that the original late 2019 release of this album coincided with the timing of the power duo's reissuing on vinyl, also via their Rhymesayers Ent, of their bygone bangers Seven's Travels 3LP,  God Loves Ugly 2LP and Headshots: Se7en [Anniversary Edition] 2LP.  As expected from the ever reliable longtime duo of emcee Slug and producer Ant  this latest full-length release does not disappoint as witnessed by the album's singles/videos of the tracks "Bde Maka Ska,"  "Lovely (feat. Nikki Jean)," "Love Each Other" and the most recently released  "Dearly Beloved (feat. Musab & Muja Messiah)" (see video below). Other standout tracks on the 43 minute, 12 song album include "Postal Lady" and the album title track that features guest spots from Murs, Haphduzn and Gifted Gab; the latter being the Seattle femcee, not the similarly named NorCal Solesides/Quannum emcee GIft of Gab. Now an elder in the game of hip-hop Slug has not lost any of his legendary lyrical edge or sense of humor;  interspersing funny self-effacing "dad rap" observations into his witty flow.

                            Public Enemy  Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Black 2LP (Def Jam)


In these challenging times with the daily news headlines typically troubling, be it the latest reports on the seemingly unstoppable coronavirus or the 2020 presidential campaign, for many hip-hop fans music offers a welcome escape from the stress-inducing reality of the increasingly scary world outside. However more and more it seems that hip-hop has become entangled with these news headlines, especially in this past week, when several news headlines have converged with hip-hop and thereby diminishing the music’s escapist/healing effects.

While on the more dorky end of the spectrum of political news and hip-hop colliding was former Democratic candidate Tom Steyer dancing with rapper Juvenile on stage a week ago, leading the political news meets hip-hop headlines was the story of dispute surrounding a Public Enemy supported Bernie Sanders rally in LA last Sunday that long-flakey PE member Flavor Flav wanted no part of, and resulted in the longtime revolutionary rap crew kicking him out of the group with the official statement that PE would be “moving forward without Flavor Flav.” Following the controversy of the ousting of Flav, PE main-man Chuck D took to social media this week to stress how it really had nothing to do with Bernie Sanders per se and that Flav’s decision to not perform (for no fee like all the other artists) was simply about money.

                                                         Hip-Hop Top 5 Albums @ Amoeba 03:02:2020