Hip-hop is finally in the house.
Grandmaster Flash The Furious Five(Kid Creole, Cowboy, Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Mr. Ness, Raheim), best known for the groundbreaking rap "The Message," will become the first hip-hop act inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, organizers announced this morning.
Also set for induction at the Waldorf-Astoria in March: alt-rock pioneers R.E.M.
(Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe) in its first year of eligibility; girl group The Ronettes (Estelle Bennett, Ronnie Spector, Nedra Talley); punk poet Patti Smith; and rockers Van Halen (Michael Anthony, Alex Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen, David Lee Roth and Roth's replacement Sammy Hagar).
So much of being a music critic is solitary. You listen to the music alone.
You write about the music alone. And, once your opinions are released, you defend them all by yourself.
That's what made the Village Voice's annual Pazz Jop poll so important to me.
It was about consensus, about hundreds of critics getting together and, through their votes, deciding on what was best about the previous year's music. It was about being part of something larger.
Despite the Voice's last year of , the dean of music critics and longtime caretaker of the poll, Pazz Jop is scheduled to come out in a month or so.
But the poll has been damaged, , as a protest of the treatment of Christgau.
That's where comes in, a new, protest-free option to create a consensus. This year, nearly 500 critics voted to crown TV on the Radio's "Return to Cookie Mountain" the top album and Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" the top single of 2006.
On getting dropped by Interscope...
Most acts who get dropped by a major label before their debut album is released don't want to talk about the experience. Luckily, rapper Akira the Don is not like most musicians.
The earlier, uberpop songs they heard, like Oh!(What A Glorious Thing), were met by the label with great joy. But when they heard my Live8, legalised genocide and loony Christian right-dissing "Thanks For All The Aids," things went a bit Simon Bates.
After years of flash and hype selling as much in musical product as, you know, musical talent, 2006 was the year when the consumer demanded "show me what you got.
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In music, as in politics, spin was no longer enough this year. Hype-dodging consumers wanted results, going for tried-and-true veterans such as Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan (who each had their first No. 1 album in decades this year) as opposed to buzzed-about newcomers Arctic Monkeys or gossipmongers Paris Hilton and Kevin Federline.
The album charts looked like they came from the '70s (Neil Young, Barry Manilow, Rod Stewart) or the '80s (Bruce Springsteen, Prince, Red Hot Chili Peppers), not 2006.
1.
Nas, “Hip Hop Is Dead” (Def Jam). Not only does Nas call out the hip-hoppers who rap about nothing and brag for the sake of bragging, he provides an album full of examples of what they're doing wrong. It's a history lesson and a manifesto, but it's also a thrill to listen to him work, rhyming and preaching over old-school soul (“Hold Down the Block”), hot new beats ( ) or even Nat King Cole's “Unforgettable” ( ) 
2.
Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins, “Rabbit Fur Coat” (Team Love). Stepping away from her band Rilo Kiley, Jenny Lewis mixes Laura Nyro soul, Lucinda Williams alt-country and Emmylou Harris sweetness for an impressive collection that provides dreamy idealism ( ) one moment and studied protest ( ) the next. 
3.
Dixie Chicks, “Taking the Long Way” (Open Wide/Sony). Once you get past the stunning statement of the sweeter, peaceful-easy-feelings come into focus - the Bonnie Raitt bluesiness of “I Like It,” the wistful “Favorite Year” and the gorgeous simplicity of Sure, the kiss-off “Bitter End” is fun (and deserved), but the Everywoman charms show The Chicks are uniters, not dividers. 
4.
Taking Back Sunday, “Louder Now” (Warner Bros.). Bigger, broader and deeper than ever, Taking Back Sunday makes the leap to arena rock without losing its personal touch, offering more clever rock (“Miami,” ) that fans can sing - or scream - along with.
And once radio gets a load of TBS's softer side next year ( “My Blue Heaven”), the band will find itself with a whole new legion of supporters. 
5. Bob Dylan, “Modern Times” (Columbia).
Macroeconomic theory ( ), post-Katrina empathy ( ) and an Alicia Keys shout-out (“Thunder on the Mountain”) come together for another classic from the master. 
6. Joseph Arthur, “Nuclear Daydream” (Lonely Astronaut).
A gorgeous, inviting that swirls Joseph Arthur's avant garde songwriting with Rolling Stones-y blues and Neil Young folk to create irresistibly soulful rockers “Slide Away” and “Automatic Situation.” His palette of sounds is so warm and friendly that even condemnations of American excess (“Enough to Get Away”) sound upbeat. 
7.
Tom Waits, “Orphans” (Anti-). Unexpected, craggy beauty leaps out of the shadows and creaky nobility stands tall in the daylight as Tom Waits tours country, blues, gospel and early rock on the three-disc set, subtitled “Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards.” The “Brawlers” will show you a good time ( ) and the storytelling on “Bastards” will keep your mind whirring (“Nirvana”), but the “Bawlers” will break your heart ( ) over and over again.
Fusing emo and glam rock to build an uplifting Broadway-styled musical about terminal illness never looked so easy. My Chemical Romance opens with a powerful anthem, the sprawling, ambitious ,” and only gets better from there with the T. Rex-ish and the dizzying “Dead!
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Most of 2006 was dominated by dance singles, especially from Timbaland and collaborators Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake, and Mary J. Blige's R B ballad "Be Without You" (Geffen), but there were still plenty of surprises in all sorts of genres.
Here are some of the year's best:
1. Gnarls Barkley, "Crazy" (Downtown/Atlantic). With Cee-Lo's sweet soul vocals sliding smoothly over Danger Mouse's sleek, innovative beats, "Crazy" was simply bobbing head and brawny shoulders above the rest of the year's songs.
A diverse group - from Furtado to Ray Lamontagne to Twilight Singers' Greg Dulli - was so captivated by the song that they all added it to their sets while the original still was climbing the charts, just because they wanted to sing it. Millions of music fans know exactly how they feel.
2.
Twilight Singers, "Forty Dollars" (One Little Indian). No one sings about the dark end of the street better than Dulli, especially when he's got his con-man groove on, as he does here, boasting, "I've got love for sale. Come on, get some before it gets stale.
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3. Dixie Chicks, "Not Ready to Make Nice" (Open Wide/Sony). It's a rallying cry for standing up for your beliefs, as well as a shot at their detractors, that is so well-crafted, it is nearly impossible to attack and almost just as impossible to resist.
4. Beyoncé, "Irreplaceable" (Columbia). We knew Beyoncé could be clever, but she's downright scheming on this song, a blunt kiss-off dolled up in acoustic guitars and sweet-sounding choruses designed to fake out casual listeners and boyfriends dumb enough to cheat on B.
5. Ghostface featuring Ne-Yo, "Back Like Dat" (Def Jam). It's "Irreplaceable" from the male perspective, with Ghostface rapping about how far is too far in a breakup over old-school R B beats and Ne- Yo's wounded croon.
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