Abbie Kearse: Sweat The Technique

As a writer, reporter and producer for “The Week in Rock” and a wide range of documentaries including “Gangsta Rap: An MTV News Special Report,” Abbie Kearse sat down with some of rock and hip-hop’s biggest legends and tackled some of the most important social issues of the day.

In addition to covering monster rock acts like The Rolling Stones and Aerosmith, Abbie landed some of the network’s first in-depth interviews with Rakim, Dr. Dre, Snoop and Tupac, and covered some of the genre’s earliest legal cases.

“There were other outlets, other entertainment reporting,” she remembers, “But [MTV News] was, it was more than that.”

“We’re music fans, but we need to have an understanding of what really happened.”

“You can be a fan and you have your memories of listening. And then it just got a little bit deeper. There is a lifestyle that could be problematic to explain,” she said.

“You kind of walk away after you present all of the facts and then you can form your own opinion of what you think of the music and the genre when you’re advocating for objective storytelling around the real world facts of people’s choices.”

“It was a very intense time,” Abbie remembers.

For more on Abbie’s hip-hop coverage, plus stories about interviewing a sleepy Joe Perry and hanging with Kurt Loder and Mick Jagger, listen to “You Hear It First” on Apple (bit.ly/3PSAcGo), Spotify (spoti.fi/3Zx7xd5) or wherever you get your podcasts.