Neil Kulkarni (26 July 1972 – 22 January 2024) was a British music journalist, author and musician from

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

, England. Upon his death, ''Clash'' magazine called him "one of the sharpest pens of his generation". He primarily focused on hip-hop and metal.

Early life

Kulkarni was born in Coventry to parents who had immigrated from India.

Career

Kulkarni was initially a writer for ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

'' from 1993 to 2000, where he called out the publication's overlooking of Black artists. Following the discontinuation of the imprint Kulkarni wrote freelance for magazines and media including ''Uncut'', ''Vox'', ''Loaded'', ''Spin'', ''

Metal Hammer ''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions published by different companies available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' featu ...

'', ''Plan B'', ''

The Source The Source may refer to: Film and television * ''The Source'' (1918 film), 1918 American drama directed by George Melford * ''The Source'' (1999 film), a 1999 documentary film about the Beat generation * ''The Source'' (2002 film), a 2002 scienc ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', ''Bizarre'', ''

The Quietus ''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics. Content ''The Quietu ...

'',

DJ Magazine ''DJ Magazine'' (also known as ''DJ Mag'') is a British monthly magazine dedicated to electronic dance music and DJs. Founded in 1991, the magazine is adapted for distribution in the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Lati ...

, and '' Drowned in Sound''. Kulkarni was the author of books including ''The Periodic Table of HIP HOP'' (

Penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

2, 2015), a module leader on the Music Journalism course at BIMM Birmingham, and a musician with the band The Moonbears.

Death

Kulkarni died on 22 January 2024, at the age of 51. At the time of his death, Kulkarni had a partner, four children (two of them are step-children) and four grandchildren.

Bibliography

* ''Hip Hop - Bring the Noise: The Stories Behind the Biggest Songs'' (

Thunder's Mouth Press Perseus Books Group was an American publishing company founded in year 1996 by investor Frank Pearl. Perseus acquired the trade publishing division of Addison-Wesley (including the Merloyd Lawrence imprint) in 1997. In 2005, Perseus acquired ...

, 2004) * ''Eastern Spring: A 2nd Gen Memoir'' ( Zero Books, 2012) * ''The Periodic Table of HIP HOP'' (

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

, 2015)

References

External links