The Lawrence Kansas Monthly Blog

  Yo, hold up! Time to go back, way back into time! Pronto! No, I’m just kidding. But I can tell you that it’s time to check out. Yet another tribute to a friend of mine who went to C-Tran and is also the Lawrence’s finest rap star. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, the one the only… Speed Mack! Speech! 🎤. Here’s my story dedicated to him. We both met at the beginning of the second year of C-Tran and he was really nice to meet me for the very first time. Before Speed Mack and I hung out, we came up with our own rap group for school. It was called ‘Straight Up! Crew’. It was something that we came up together once we came up with some underground hip hop music. The first thing we did in music was a demo tape featuring a couple of freestyles, and did a remix of Jenny Rovel Jones’ cover of Dido’s song ‘Life For Rent’. He started free-styling with his own lyrics to the beat. Word up! I remember that time I was coming up with some artwork for the C-Tran hip hop group. As a picked the a...

  You are now tuned in to your favorite KU radio station on your FM dial. This is… I know what you’re thinking. How did you get to listen to KJHK for the first time on the radio? Well to explain, I’ll tell you. It all started the first time Stephanie and I were just hanging out together inside the car listening to the radio ready to go places. When we turned on the music when the car started, and suddenly out came KJHK. Ever since we started listening to the radio, we listened to that station all the time before I listened to my favorite radio stations too. It was so authentic and totally independent. In case you wanna know more, hear this. KJHK is a campus radio station, located in Lawrence, Kansas at the University of Kansas.  On December 3, 1994, the station became one of the first radio stations in the world to broadcast a live and continuous stream over  internet radio.  It currently broadcasts at 2600 watts, with a broadcast area covering most of northeast Kans...

  Back in 2010, Jill and I were talking about putting together a special event for the heart of Lawrence Kansas. You see, I wanted to come up with my own event for "Battle of the Bands". Fortunately, the event needed a lot more work. So when I come back to live in Lawrence Kansas, I'm gonna get together with some friends of mine and help me come up with this special event in music. Now before I start talking about it, I wanna give you the 411 on what "Battle Of The Bands" really is here in Lawrence. A Battle of the Bands is a contest in which many bands, usually rock or metal bands, but often musical acts from a range of different styles, compete for the title of "best band".  Its history though goes back to earlier times, at least the 1930s swing era, when big band battles between famous band leaders like Chick Webb, Casa Loma Orchestra, Benny Goodman and Count Basie were regularly organised in big dancehalls, like the Savoy Ballroom. The winner is de...