Click here for Blowfly’s Indiegogo campaign page. Clarence Reid and his alter ego Blowfly have released hundreds of songs and albums since starting a recording and songwriting career in Miami in the early ’60s. From straight ahead pop hits like Betty Wright’s “Cleanup Woman,” to groundbreaking classics like “Rapp Dirty,”…
Amos Larkins II invented Miami Bass production. As an in-house artist/producer/engineer for Henry Stone and Morris Levy’s Sunnyview Records label, he came up with regional and international hits on a signature style of party rap with sustained 808 kicks that dropped like no others. They became the prototype for a…
Fifteen years ago, graffiti artist Crook was on his way to prison for writing his name on walls. Today, his art is in a museum. The events may seem mutually exclusive, but Miami’s outlaw street art folklore is intrinsic to the city’s identity. That’s why HistoryMiami, the coolest Smithsonian-aligned cultural…
“Pretty” Tony Butler’s Music Specialists Inc. may be Florida’s first black-owned, million-record-selling independent record label. With Butler’s confidence in his ear for hits, he launched a studio in the heart of Liberty City and took on the recording industry. At its peak, the company owned its own pressing plant and…
Y’all ready for this? Dun dun, dun dun dun dun dun. One of the most recognizable sports anthems in modern American sports history, 2 Unlimited’s “Get Ready for This” first arrived in this country in 1991, and nobody would play it on the radio. Techno was virtually unheard of in…
Bass parties were invented when people started stretching animal skins, beating them with sticks, and dancing around the fire back in the Flintstones days. In Miami during the 1980s, that beat became electronic and it was called bass music. The style has spawned global phenomenons, like Gucci Crew’s Cabbage Patch…
Miami is the undisputed world heavyweight champion of bass, and the globe’s leading progenitor of trunk rattle, rear-view shake, and total body thump. The genre is a direct descendent of Pretty Tony’s freestyle productions, and Henry Stone’s earlier indie R&B Pop. It’s the single hardest electronic boom in the universe,…
Doin’ it for the Vine is goin from the cell phone to the strip club. That’s thanks to a new club track by Uncle Luke and Pretty Tony, whose work out of a Liberty City studio called Music Specialists Incorporated in the 1980s and ’90s took the sounds of Miami…
Your dog could be immortalized as Tony Montana in oil on canvas by a mysterious Edgewater artist called Mxytsplyk. His new “Puppy Mugs,” a commissioned work series of ironic pet portraits, are coming soon to a son of a bitch near you. We caught up with the talented paintrepreneur to…
In 1804, Haitian drums booming through the mountains helped the country overthrow slavery and gain its independence. In 2014, that same throbbing beat has established Haiti-born, Miami-based Michael Brun as an emerging international EDM powerhouse. And with his own freshly minted independent record label, Kid Coconut, he’s determined to further…
Without Africa, there’d be no Miami bass. There’d be no rock ‘n’ roll or hip-hop or jazz or salsa. No Hendrix, Nas, Byrd, or Machito. In fact, almost every modern music genre can be traced back to that great continent across the Atlantic. And that’s why, 16 years ago, Jose…
If you want to travel the world and do street art, chase your dream and live it. That’s the message from artist Jessica Becker, who is down here from Jacksonville on a commission after winning a mural contest held by Shots in Wynwood. Now, she has three weeks and 85’…
When Raheem Devaughn sings, panties get wet. That’s probably why he’s been featured on songs by everyone from Ghostface Killah to The Roots. The Grammy-nominated artist has also cracked the pop charts with his own albums and singles, including “Guess Who Loves You More,” “Woman,” and “Customer.” He’s an R&B…
You’ve seen the shirt, now here’s the truth: Yo Amo 305 are a Miami art collective doing great things for the culture of Miami. They offer a yearlong artists residency program bringing Latin American street artists to Miami to create fine art for their gallery across the street from Panther…
Among the great American capitals of black culture, the Magic City has always been a beacon of music, art, and hope. But you wouldn’t necessarily know it by consulting most of the supposed scholars on the subject. They’ll talk for hours about Chicago blues, New Orleans jazz, the Harlem Renaissance,…
You’ve got to strive to survive on Kendall Drive just to stay alive. More people live in the massive area known as Kendall than anywhere else in Miami-Dade County. And since the founding of Crazy Hood Productions over 20 years ago, it has been a home for real hip-hop. Now…
Las Vegas, Nevada, where you can show up to the bar at 5 a.m. with ten bucks in your pocket and leave with $50,000. It’s a hustler’s paradise, and the name Sin City doesn’t come cheap. But if you appreciate good weed, fine women, 24-hour parties, and infinite bass, it…
Want to go to a free world class museum in Wynwood? The Gary Nader Fine Art offers 55,000 square feet of blue chip Latin American masters like Wilfredo Lam, Fernando Botero, Cundo Bermudez, and many, many more assorted other greats. Recently we found Uruguayan sculptor Daniel Escardó, from Montevideo, upstairs…
For over 40 years, Tavares has been one of the best Northern Soul acts in America, smoothest R&B groups in Europe, and most celebrated disco bands in the world. The live show has always impressed, and the five brothers who make up this band continue to harmonize for packed concerts…
Sure, two high-school girls can make a “Chonga Song” with an old PC and a USB mic, and go viral. But there’s still nothing like a professionally recorded song produced with quality gear and a dedicated engineer in an acoustically sound environment. Miami’s great musical history is proof. Outside of…
Cassius Clay lived in Overtown, and became Muhammad Ali in Brownsville. He owned a duplex in the City of Miami, was loved by the local black community, and could often be found entertaining neighborhood youths with his storytelling and athletic prowess. Walk up to any stranger of a certain age…
Rob Base is a hip-hop pioneer whose hits with the late DJ E-Z Rock have sold so far out of this world that even aliens in outer space know that “it Takes 2 to make a thing go right.” He went from winning rap battles at nightclubs in the Bronx…
