Douglas Century
author: journalist
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 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
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| Big Trouble in Little China The smart money is on tomorrow’s rap icons coming from New York’s Chinatown — if they can live long enough. Blender investigates the extraordinary story of Asian hip-hop’s first star — and the rapper who took a bullet for him By Douglas Century “Yo, I’m just glad Chris was there for me,” says Jin Au-Yeung, lowering his voice to a respectful whisper in the greenroom of BET’s 106 & Park in midtown Manhattan. The 21-year-old MC, known professionally as Jin, glances in the direction of his friend and fellow Chinese-American rapper Christopher Louie, a.k.a. L.S., a lanky 23-year-old who did what many gangstas talk about but few actually do: He took a bullet to save his friend’s life. The two rappers haven’t seen each other since November 9, the night of the shooting, which occurred in a small Manhattan Chinatown bar called Yello. Jin, the latest member of DMX’s Ruff Ryders recording crew, has returned to BET this afternoon to make an appearance on Freestyle Friday, the weekly battle that launched the Miami-born MC’s career in 2002, when he won it an unprecedented seven straight weeks. His highly touted debut CD, The Rest Is History, due on March 23, will be the first major hip-hop release by a Chinese-American. L.S., leaning on a wooden cane and grimacing from the pain of the .40-caliber slug that tore through his back, has limped his way out of Bellevue Hospital and into the CBS Broadcast Center, where BET tapes, to show his support. New York’s tabloids played up the shooting as a case of Asian gang violence invading hip-hop: an aspiring rapper, linked to the notoriously violent Ghost Shadows gang, shooting at a fledging hip-hop star who had gone Hollywood (Jin starred alongside Ludacris in 2 Fast 2 Furious). Online fan forums buzzed with rumors about Jin’s supposed criminal affiliation (“What! Jin’s a gangsta?”), L.S.’s uncommon display of courage and the biggest mystery of all: Who shot L.S.?The official response from the New York Police Department offers little information beyond the bare-bones facts. “Male Asian shot in the lower back at 2 o’clock in the morning after arguing with five other male Asians,” an NYPD spokesperson read to Blender after checking the logbook of Manhattan’s Fifth Precinct.
—continue reading Blender feature, Big Trouble in Little China
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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? |
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| 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. |
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 A NIGHT OUT WITH: Tito Puente Living 'La Vida Loca' With the Mambo King April 25, 1999 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 March 11, 2001 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 July 2, 2006, Sunday By DOUGLAS CENTURY; LOLA OGUNNAIKE AND PAULA SCHWARTZ CONTRIBUTED REPORTING FOR THIS ARTICLE. (NYT); Style Desk Late Edition - Final, Section 9, Page 1, Column 2, 1326 words Jay-Z, rapper whose lyrics helped make Cristal champagne popular brand among African-Americans, calls for boycott of Cristal after Frederic Rouzard, president of Champagne Louis Roederer, producer of Cristal, makes comment in which he entertains possibility that association with rap may hurt brand. |
Arts & Leisure February 11, 2007 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 |
