Mon, Feb 12, 2018
The night before, Jerry Lee Lewis' 5th wife died, she made a phone call to her Mom. She told her that she was thinking of leaving the rock and roll pioneer, but that he wouldn't let her. Then, she made a second call - this one to the sister of her high-school sweetheart, making plans for the sister to come take her away from Jerry Lee later that month. Then, in mid-sentence the phone went dead. The next day, Mrs. Jerry Lee Lewis was found dead. Neatly placed on top of a perfectly made bed in the newlywed couple's guest room. Despite the bruises on her body, the blood under her fingernails, the scratches on her husband's hands, and the mountain of other physical and anecdotal evidence, the death was ruled an accident. Did Jerry Lee Lewis kill his wife and get away with murder?
Mon, Mar 5, 2018
Sam Cooke was a lot of things: soul superstar, civil rights champion, whip smart entrepreneur. But he was also a serial womanizer with an unbridled libido. On December 11, 1964, Cooke was shot to death by Bertha Lee Franklin, manager of the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles. The killing was ruled a justifiable homicide due to Cooke's unruly, drunken behavior, which involved him holding another woman captive in his hotel room and allegedly raping her earlier in the evening. With full appreciation of the #MeToo moment we are currently all living through as a culture, Disgraceland, with fresh eyes, looks into this crime and the successful effort by Sam Cooke's family and powerful music industry colleagues to salvage his legacy and reputation by personally discrediting his victim.
Mon, Mar 19, 2018
Never has there been a more extreme form of musical rebellion than Norwegian Black Metal. The genre's founding band, Mayhem, its sister act, Burzum and supporting cast of musicians with names like, Necrobutcher, Hellhammer and Dead horrified Norway in the early nineties with supreme acts of terror, satanic ritualism, murder, arson and cannibalism. By the time the ashes settled and the corpse paint chipped away, numerous band members would be dead or in jail, convicted of arson and or murder - and a new generation of young metalheads would find their way to satanism through blast beats and dead notes.
Mon, Apr 2, 2018
In 1968, Van Morrison was hiding out from the New York City Mafia in Boston, Massachusetts. Recently the victim of a physical attack from a Genovese crime family member, Morrison was desperately trying to piece together a band to complete what would become his landmark creative statement, Astral Weeks. One of the musicians who would help him achieve this goal-a young, handsome guitar player from Emerson College named Rick Philp, would mysteriously go missing and eventually wind up dead. Disgraceland pieces together this story using, as one of many sources, the critically acclaimed book Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968 by Ryan Walsh.
Mon, Apr 16, 2018
TLC's Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes was known as "the crazy one." She did, after all, burn down the mansion of her NFL boyfriend, Andre Rison. But given the fact that it was done after one of many domestic assaults. Disgraceland digs into what really happened that night, who Lisa Lopes really was as a person, and the details surrounding her own premature death.
Mon, Apr 30, 2018
In the 1970s, the world regarded the Rolling Stones as an insular band of hedonistic and glamorous pansexual junkies. But all of the trouble they'd stirred up during the '60s and early '70s would be dwarfed by the mess they would cause in Canada in 1977. Up until that point, the band's money and collective luck had been enough to fend off destruction. But the scandal they embroiled themselves in touched the highest levels of government, and threatened to destroy the band and their as-yet indestructible guitar player, Keith Richards.
Mon, May 14, 2018
The Arlington, Texas rapper, born Taymor Travon McIntyre, was involved in two killings by the time he was 17. Arrested on murder charges and placed under house arrest until hearings were to take place, Tay-K sawed off his ankle bracelet and announced to the world via Twitter that he was going on the run. He made it from Texas all the way to New Jersey, where he recorded his most infamous song, "The Race," detailing his time on the lam. The song's lyrics and video blurred real life and art and quickly went viral, garnering more than 100 million downloads. It also worked as a set of clues for authorities to use to piece together the young fugitive's whereabouts. The viral nature of the song and video, the ensuing Twitter phenomenon, and infamy surrounding the young fugitive also caused tipsters to come out in droves and eventually led to Tay-K's arrest.
Mon, May 28, 2018
Bob Marley is known as the peace and love reggae superstar, but the truth of who he really was is a bit more complicated. After gunmen raided his home, putting bullets into him, his wife, his manager and his guitar player, Bob survived. But the lives of his assassins, all of them, were eventually brought to violent, horrific ends. And their killers were never found. Many think the perpetrator was an angry young man from the Trenchtown ghetto, who was called, by those who feared him, "Screwface." Was it Bob Marley, Rasta Vigilante?
Mon, Jun 11, 2018
Who killed Tupac? Who killed Biggie? The answer has been right there out in the open for years. Disgraceland looks at the lives and deaths of both rap superstars, the east coast/west coast beef and the media's culpability in driving a highly sensationalized narrative that ultimately led to the murder of both men.
Mon, Jun 18, 2018
In March 1996, "King of the Club Kids", promoter Michael Alig, after appearing on TV's Geraldo and on the cover of New York magazine, bashed his friend and DJ Angel Melendez in the head with a hammer. The body was then dismembered and stuffed into a duct-taped cardboard box. Alig proceeded to tell anyone who would listen, including his friends from the raging '90s NYC club scene, what he had done. The problem was, Alig's well-known, over the top, and depraved behavior was such that no one believed him. "Has anyone seen Angel?" "He's dead. I cut him up and put him in that box over in the corner."
Mon, Jun 25, 2018
What happens when the hardest working man in show business takes a break? Idle hands are indeed the devil's workshop. Disgraceland will detail James Brown's scorching career as well as the scorching high speed chase he led cops on that led to his arrest and jail sentencing for drugs and firearms.
Mon, Apr 29, 2019
XXXTentacion was one of Generation Z's most talented hip hop stars but his ascent was marked by violence and drama; beatdowns, beefs (what's up, Drake?) and abuse. XXXTentacion's music quickly rose from Soundcloud to the top of the charts due in part to the relative loneliness and alienation he repped in his lyrics, sentiments his audience quickly latched onto. XXXTentacion's connection to his audience was (and still is even in death) unique and powerful. Their connection via social media-fueled him, inspired him and ironically alienated him, just like his penchant for violence. What, if any of it, all led to his untimely demise?