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Beanie Sigel Cover Story for XXL (August 2001)

November 7th, 2010 | Feature Style, Things I Wrote | ncb | 4 Comments

My Mind Spray

He’s a true thug armed with 1,000 bars and two itchy trigger fingers. Buckin’ down wack MCs is Beanie Sigel’s daily operation. Don’t get too close or else you might get shot. By Noah Callahan-Bever.

“Alright, everybody! Let’s go around the room and introduce ourselves,” instructs Lanky Al, who wears his polo shirt tucked neatly into his Levi’s, which are just a hair too tight to be fashionable. The room fills with groans at his request, but Al’s in charge, and as soon as the order is given a portly, dark-skinned man at the front raises his hand. Clad in a fresh white T, shiny black jeans and white-one-white Air Force Ones, the big man turns to the lanky one without expression and announces, “Sigel, here.”

Large Professor Feature for XXL (March 2002)

August 30th, 2010 | Feature Style, Things I Wrote | ncb | 8 Comments

Always On Time

Every rapper talks that stay-true-to-the-hood, I’ll-never-sell-out crap. But only one has truly stuck to this guns. He’s LARGE PROFESSOR. Back with Nas and finally, that’s right, finally ready to drop his solo album. By Noah Callahan-Bever

Ask a dumb question and you’ll usually get a dumb answer. Ask “What’s the deal with large Professor?” and you’ll always get the same answer: “Large…um, he’s an artist.” Ask peers like DJ Premier, or protégés like Nas or industry A&Rs who’ve dealt with the rapper-slash-producer, and you always get the same elusive answer: Artist.

Scott LaRock Feature for XXL (August 2002)

August 27th, 2010 | Feature Style, Things I Wrote | ncb | 5 Comments

Black Clouds

The story of SCOTT LA ROCK is a painful reminder of what can happen when personal conflict is resolved violently. Fifteen years after his passing, we remember an under-acknowledged hip-hop pioneer whose impact is still felt today. Words NOAH CALLAHAN-BEVER

“By age 25 Scott “La Rock” Sterling had achieved what many people only dream of. Aa part of a duo called Boogie Down Production, he was on the verge of singing a major recording contract…and he kept a promise that he had made to himself. He, a young man from the South Bronx who had become a high school basketball star and had earned a bachelor’s degree in business, would settle for nothing less than stardom.

Kanye West Profile From VIBE (April 2004)

July 27th, 2010 | Feature Style, Things I Wrote | ncb | 10 Comments

Balloon Mind State

He might blow up, but KANYE WEST is more concerned with popping the bubble of humility. NOAH CALLAHAN-BEVER takes notes as the self-professed college dropout ego trips his way to the head of the class.

“The press don’t make me,” says Kanye West, speaking into a cell phone while standing at baggage claim in Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport. “I feel like VIBE hasn’t tried to be a part of me, so I don’t want to be a part of it.” He’s arguing with Erik Parker, VIBE’s music editor, who has sent this reporter to write a feature story on West. But West wants the cover or nothing at all.

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