Mark Merren

Beats Rhymes & Life 9-29-11 Thursday marked the final episode in what has been a tremendous first year for the Unregular Radio Show Beats Rhymes and Life. Leaving the Year with a bang and gearing up for a month of anniversary celebrtions the show featured bostons own Mark Merren, Fran P. and Catch Wreck. In wake of the Pheonix’s Boston Rap Class of 2011, conversation and controversy have been swirling across the web and was one of the things covered on the show. On blast is what some alledge is political favoritism, a general lack of research, and poor representation of Boston’s talent, in the selection of 12 local artitst to spotlight. In defense of her article, Erin Baldesarri, noted photagrapher / videographer on the boston scene called in and explained how she made her selections and why certain folks did not make the list. Also calling in to criticize the criticism was promoter Edu Leedz – crying hate and demanding a list of 12 better nominees. The show hosts and guests promptly responded with enough names to make 4 or 5 lists – acknowledging the difficulty of Erin and the Phoenix’s undertaking. Still, some assert that this article was a good measure of some of the problems with the Boston Scene, namely politics and ecenomics taking precenent over the craft and the culture. This is something we see happening across the industry; even the so-called underground scene, which used to serve as the vangaurd for “real hip-hop,” has been monetized and monopolized several times over. It’s artists like Mark, Fran & Catch, shows like Beats Rhyemes & Life and conversations like the one sparked by the Phoenix article that prove the scene is what we make it or let it become – for better or worse. Definilty a great show for any who missed it and of course stay tuned for the next year.