Hip Hop x Theater x Longevity in Rap with Masta Ace

If you’re like me, you first heard Masta Ace as the lead off to what many, like me, will say is the best posse cut in Hip Hop history, "The SYmphony."

As one of his bars predicted, Masta Ace’s rapping did stay with us for a while. A long while. Now 32 years since the release of his debut full-length Take A Look Around, Masta Ace has a discography that surpasses most of his peers, he's welcomed in a second wave of a career after deciding to shed the confines of the music industry, and has now parlayed his prolific storytelling style to the stage, with the development of a musical, The Falling Season, in association with Hip Hop Theater production company, Rhymes Over Beats.

And there’s no way around it, these feats are made even more impressive by the fact that the Brooklyn-bred wordsmith has been battling Multiple Sclerosis for two decades.

The Capital A was gracious enough to discuss all of these topics with me, as we both took a look around at as good an example of longevity in rap as there is.

My name is Manny Faces. Here’s my talk with Masta Ace.

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Hip-Hop Can Save America! with Manny Faces is a Manny Faces Media production, in association with The Center for Hip-Hop Advocacy.

Links and resources:

SHOW WEBSITES:

https://www.hiphopcansaveamerica.com

MANNY FACES: https://www.mannyfaces.com

NEWSLETTER (free!): https://mannyfaces.substack.com

SUPPORT QUALITY INDIE HIP HOP JOURNALISM: https://www.patreon.com/mannyfaces

Manny Faces Media (podcast production company): https://www.mannyfacesmedia.com

The Center for Hip-Hop Advocacy: https://www.hiphopadvocacy.org

SPONSORS / FRIENDS:

The Mixtape Museum: https://www.mixtapemuseum.org

Hip-Hop Hacks: https://www.hiphophacks.com

Hip-Hop Can Save America! is produced, written, edited, smacked, flipped, rubbed down, and distributed by Manny Faces.

Eternal thanks to Consulting Producer, Sommer McCoy.