[2] It covered topics such as the emergence of punk rock, hip hop, and fashion as well as the burgeoning art and nightlife scenes that were centered in the East Village neighborhood during the 1980s.

In the interview by the writer Michael Holman with Afrika Bambaataa the term was summarized as “the all-inclusive tag for the rapping, breaking, graffiti-writing, crew-fashion-wearing street subculture.”[1] Abrams shut the paper down after being stressed by the extensive work of running it, the lack of money that the paper generated, and the changing dynamics of the area caused by gentrification which forced out artists.

[1] In 1987, he oversaw Hotel Amazon, a regular Lower East Side hip-hop party which featured acts such as Public Enemy, De La Soul, Queen Latifah, and A Tribe Called Quest.

[1] In 2008, he wrote and directed the documentary Quilombo Country which tells the story of villages in Brazil founded by fugitive slaves.

[6] On April 1, 2023, Abrams died of a heart attack while at a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike while returning to Queens from a business trip.