Douglas Century
Author : Journalist
Articles
DOUGLAS CENTURY has written for numerous publications including The New York Times, Details, Rolling Stone, Men's Journal, Radar, Blender, Vibe, ARTNews and The Guardian. He is a contributing editor at Tablet Magazine: a New Read on Jewish Culture.
Holy Land GanglandOur five-part investigative series into the world of the Israeli mafiaDouglas Century1.
“See how it is now?” Ilan Benshoshan said. “Since all the assassinations started, every young mob guy goes everywhere with two bodyguards.”
We were just off Rehov Etzel, the main avenue of Tel Aviv’s notorious slum, Shchunat Hatikvah, inching our rented Mazda down a narrow lane to the entrance of a secret loansharking office run by Yossi, one of Ilan’s childhood friends. A late-model SUV was parked out front, and from the front seat, two granite-jawed recent IDF vets in sports jackets—Yossi’s security detail—locked eyes with us.
Shchunat Hatikvah CREDIT: Antonin Kratochvil
—continue reading the five-part Tablet series: Holy Land Gangland -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JUST after midnight on a rain-slicked stretch of Manhattan's West Side Highway, Funkmaster Flex is taking a joy ride in his new toy, a gleaming 1966 Chevrolet Impala rolling on customized chrome wheels. ''This is my favorite old-school ride,'' Flex tells me with a broad smile. ''I'm so proud of this car because it took three years to get it together.'' The Impala's paint is a candy-apple red; its dashboard is festooned with sharp angles of spotless chrome; the seats are made from brand-new, buttery black leather that makes the interior smell like a Roche-Bobois showroom. Idling at a red light, the 454-horsepower engine strains under us like some caged ogre.
—continue reading New York Times Magazine feature
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| Who Killed Jam Master Jay? By DOUGLAS CENTURY In the days following the murder of Jam Master Jay, police, the local community and the music world all seemed to agree that whoever committed the brutal crime was going to be caught. The killing of the beloved DJ/producer, in the neighborhood that success had never pried him from, seemed to cross every line that might prevent witnesses from cooperating with police. It was an intolerable offense, and everyone was confident that there would quickly be an answer to the question: Who killed Jam Master Jay? Six months later, that answer still has not come. Since Jam Master Jay was shot and killed in his Jamaica, Queens, recording studio on October 30, the case has offered more questions than answers. Has the killer's trail gone completely cold? Or are detectives carefully lining up their chess pieces before making an arrest? Jam Master Jay (born Jason Mizell), the hugely influential DJ and producer, was by most accounts one of the most well-liked men in hip-hop. There's a reward of more than $300,000 — funds raised by the Hip-Hop Summit Youth Council, the New York Police Department and a coalition spearheaded by rap mogul Russell Simmons — for information leading to an arrest and conviction. Given that the murders of two other rap legends, Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G., have been unsolved since 1996 and 1997, the Mizell family and the entire hip-hop community are asking if Jay's death is fated to be yet another case of a slain hip-hop icon whose killer goes unpunished.   —continue reading MTV News investigative feature Who Killed Jam Master Jay? 
How to Succeed in Videos Without Really Dancing 
By DOUGLAS CENTURY
Ms. Ford, 24, whose wasp-thin waist and voluptuous curves have earned her prominent supporting roles in more than two dozen hip-hop and R&B videos (and subsequently the nickname Jessica Rabbit), was on her way to an interview with the self-described radio gossip queen Wendy Williams. ''I'm a little star-struck,'' Ms. Ford said in the elevator, closing her eyes and letting her makeup artist do a last-minute touch-up. ''I mean, Wendy Williams -- this is not a joke.''
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 Is the NYPD At War With Hip-Hop? by DOUGLAS CENTURY
One of the most hotly debated topics in the
hip-hop world is the New York Police Department's reported clampdown on
the rap industry.
In the wake of high-profile investigations into the slaying of Jam Master Jay, the joint FBI-NYPD raids on the offices of Murder Inc., and the recent arrests of 50 Cent and Fabolous on weapons charges, the hip-hop community is abuzz with talk of an elite "hip-hop squad" or "rap task force" whose duties include tailing rappers' vehicles and even monitoring their lyrics. During a recent stint as a guest DJ on New York's Hot 97, 50 Cent tauntingly shouted out the "hip-hop cops" that he claims follow him everywhere. But does such a task force targeting rappers really exist? 
—continue reading the MTV News feature
Is the NYPD at War with Hip-Hop?
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NIGHT OUT WITH: Tito Puente Living 'La Vida Loca' With the Mambo King By DOUGLAS CENTURY THE Bronx belonged to Tito Puente last Tuesday night. As dusk fell, stars were heading uptown on the Major Deegan, and local Bronx heavyweights like the rapper Fat Joe were suiting up in their flashy best. All were coming out to pay homage to Mr. Puente, the godfather of Latin music, who was celebrating his 76th birthday in grand style at Jimmy's Bronx Cafe.
But first, Mr. Puente had to make a stop. Clad in a light cream double-breasted suit and collarless gun-metal shirt, he stepped onto the infield of Yankee Stadium to throw out the opening pitch. Introduced as ''The King of Latin Swing,'' Mr. Puente swiveled his hips in a deft mambo step, went into his windup and then delivered an anemic, one-hopping pitch over home plate. The stadium erupted in cheers, as if he had just burned a hole in catcher Jorge Posada's mitt.
''I was a little nervous,'' Mr. Puente explained moments later, exiting through the stadium's underground passageways. As a child on the streets of Spanish Harlem he had always dreamed of being a professional ballplayer. Instead, he became the most famous of the Latin band leaders, and a seemingly ageless pop icon. His fans range from grandmothers who grew up dancing to his mambo rhythms, to teen-agers who know Mr. Puente from crossover pop records like ''Oye Como Va'' and TV appearances on ''The Simpsons.''
—continue reading A Night Out With: Tito Puente
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 The Boys Of Summer Get Younger All the Time Sunday Styles By Douglas Century SPRING is just around the corner, and baseball fans everywhere are focused on Florida's Grapefruit League, where Derek Jeter, the Yankees' newly minted $189 million man, is nursing a tender shoulder, and the Mets' Mike Piazza is still fielding questions about the vicious beaning he suffered last season at the hand of Roger Clemens, the Rocket.
Meanwhile, in subfreezing Wyckoff, N.J., at the Bergen Thunder's indoor spring-training camp, Chris Hogan is perfecting a Rocketlike fastball, and Kyle Lustenberger is blasting moonshots that might sail 300 feet if they were not snagged by the heavy green netting of the batting cage. Some players sport Cuban link necklaces with glittering pendants bearing their uniform numbers. But the Bergen Thunder has one thing the Mets and Yankees don't have: algebra homework.
That is because the Thunder, one of the best youth baseball teams in the country, is made up of junior high school boys 13 and under. They play in the pressure-cooker world of travel baseball, all-star squads that tour the country, often by airplane, and cram as many as 100 games into a summer.
Forget the headline-making heroics of the world-class Little League team from Toms River, N.J. In contrast to Little League, travel baseball has no league at all. Instead, coaches accept invitations to dozens of tournaments across the country in a throwback to the days of barnstorming, a form of baseball that vanished with the passing of the Negro leagues. —continue reading The Boys of Summer Get Younger All the Time |
Jay-Z Puts a Cap on Cristal Sunday Styles By DOUGLAS CENTURY HIP-HOP made Cristal a household name. Can it also unmake it?
The first evidence of any effect the boycott might have come Tuesday night in Los Angeles at the BET Awards, which drew an A-list of African-American entertainers like Kanye West, Sean Combs, Mary J. Blige, Prince and Jamie Foxx. But something was missing.  |
   
Saying Yes to NO!ARTnews April 2010By DOUGLAS CENTURYIn January 2008, the painter Boris Lurie lay dying of kidney failure in a New York hospital, with a large poster of Joseph Stalin positioned at the foot of his bed. Few outside Lurie's intimate circle could have suspected that the Russian-born Holocaust survivor—one of the founders of the NO!art movement—had been leading a double life. For decades, while outwardly living as a penniless artist and espousing leftist politics, Lurie spent his spare time buying penny stocks and real estate, amassing a substantial fortune. When he died, on January 7, 2008, at the age of 83, Lurie’s investments were worth an estimated $80 million. He left no heirs, and his handwritten will specified that his entire estate go toward creating the Boris Lurie Art Foundation. |
 Arts & Leisure Alpine, N.J., Home of Hip-Hop Royalty By DOUGLAS CENTURY DRIVING
north on the Palisades Interstate Parkway, it’s easy to blow past this
town and end up halfway to Rockland County. But make the turn onto Old
Closter Dock Road, and you’ll find yourself touring one of the richest
towns in America, a hamlet of small leafy streets and stately homes, a
longtime preserve of the wealthy white elite.
By Alpine’s standards Eddie Farrell’s house is hardly jaw-dropping. A five-bedroom split-level ranch with a lawn and swimming pool, it is to all outward appearances a slice of cookie-cutter, upper-middle-class domesticity. But
buzz the intercom, and a visitor soon descends into a hip-hop version
of Bruce Wayne’s Batcave: a gleaming wonderland of computers, keyboards
and recording gadgetry hidden behind the soundproofed suburban facade.
On a recent winter morning Mr. Farrell, a producer and D.J. known
professionally as Eddie F., was holding court in his Mini Mansion
Recording studio. Loading a pair of MP3 files — recent releases by
Young Jeezy and Jay-Z
— he used the Serato Scratch Live program and a pair of time-coded
control records on his Technics 1200 turntables to execute a series of
precise cuts and scratches. “It’s all digital, but the sound, the
touch, everything’s the same as we used to get with vinyl back in the
day,” he said.
 —continue reading Alpine, N.J., Home of Hip-Hop Royalty |
 Sunday Styles January 6, 2002 Two of Rap's Hottest Return to the Dis Rap's fighting words: rival stars Jay-Z and Nas revive the art of the hip-hop dis in an old-school feud that just may be about fun and profit. By Douglas Century "We're gonna keep it in the truest essence of hip-hop: the battle," said Jay-Z, the lanky rapper, during a recent MTV Unplugged concert. Then he launched into "Takeover," his scathing lyrical assault on fellow rapper Nas. "That's why your l-a-a-a-m-e!--career's come to a end/There's only so long fake thugs can pretend," Jay-Z rapped, as the audience laughed and sang along.  —continue reading Two of Rap's Hottest Return to the Dis |
