His sinuous fingers worked the vinyl like none before him. His nerves were a straight shot from his head to his hands without stopping anywhere along the way. The turntables were nearly another pair of hands. It's hard to say if he was first to scratch or cut -- there's been arguments on all sides. I

Cool, Layered, Pioneering, Rhythmic, Urban

Anything made by hand or by machine or by lies is "fabricated." Fabrication is that dubious domain where invention can slide toward, and couple with, duplicity. Or not. Sugarhill Gang, one of the first groups to put hip hop on vinyl, knew this slippery slope just too well. With luck on their side, t

Bright, Joyful, Pioneering, Pop, Quirky

He saw the movie "Wild Style" in 1987 and bought a turntable the next day. Something about Grandmaster Flash's vinyl theatrics keyed into DJ Krush's body and brain. He knew he'd come across a new calling the moment he heard the edgy articulations of the scratched record and the breakbeat rhythm. With

Citational, Hypnotic, Layered, Moody, Trip-hop

If Lauryn Hill had allowed critics to choose her path, she would have left the Fugees after their 1993 debut, "Blunted on Reality" -- andthe best selling hip-hop album ever, "The Score," would never have been more than a dream. Hill stuck to her convictions and produced the Fugees' sophomore album, w

Lush, Pop, Religious, Sensual, Sincere