John Armstrong
Listening to John Armstrong’s stories in his room with open cupboards full of vinyl records and books, I found to be very inspiring. Mahogany-colored shelves stretched from wall to wall. There were two other rooms crowded with vinyl in his New-Victorian house, most of them in boxes which he “still needs to unwrap.” I knew immediately that this interview would travel into deep and wide landscapes. John Armstrong started DJing in the 1970s while working as a lawyer at a Jewish law firm in
Carter Van Pelt
Carter Van Pelt had an inauspicious beginning for a reggae DJ, event producer, and historian. Born and raised in Nebraska, Van Pelt grew up surrounded by the sounds of John Denver, the Eagles, Simon & Garfunkel, and Bread—music beloved by his ever-encouraging, artistic mother. Although he had an ear for soft rock, Carter’s musical passion was grounded in something Nebraska knew little about–reggae. He found the genre as many would in the ‘70s and ‘80s, through Bob Marley and The W
Adam Mansbach
A transplant to the Bay Area in the mid-2000s, Adam Mansbach got his early musical education as a kid in the Boston area, obsessed with hip-hop. Like many of us caught up in hip-hop’s tidal surge across the U.S. in the 1980s, Adam was inspired to MC and DJ but he also found a calling to infuse his energies into writing as a journalist and novelist. While still a college student in the mid-90s, he started the hip-hop journal/magazine, Elementary, before launching himself as an author. Best know
