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August 13, 2002

Can't see it coming down my eyes, so I gotta make the song cry

The negro we love to hate, Toure, had a big piece in Sunday's NY times.

So many people bash him I almost feel bad to join in. I think Toure is a really bright guy, and might be a great writer on other topics. But I can't deny his career as a "hip-hop journalist" has yielded some of the worst, most pretentious writing I've ever seen. He really deserves a lot of the hate.

This new piece is actually not too bad...by Toure standards. But since someone on okayplayer asked for my opinion...

Here is Toure's article...

And here is my angry rebuttal:

1. First of all I always have questions about a writer who takes a couple of artists that nobody really cares about yet except some critics and industry people (and web nerds like us), lumps them together and tries this hard to hype them up as a "movement", then starts appointing leaders and spokesmen for this "movement" he discovered.

2. Toure is pushing this notion that there is a "movement" to shift from Hip-Hop to Rock, this is obviously the "angle" he used to convince the times the piece was worthwhile. But he does a lousy job of backing up and exploring that premise because none of the people he interviews were ever a part of hip-hop to begin with, and never would have been (except a brief quote from kamaal which did nothing to backup the premise).

He starts out by referencing Mos Def, Goodie Mob and Outkast, why are none of them quoted? If you want to illustrate how and why artists have become alienated from hip-hop, but you only interview artists who never were hip-hop in the first place, this is self-serving and specious.

3. I'm gonna give these artists the benefit of the doubt on the quotes in here, cuz it's quite likely Toure was asking leading questions to elicit quotes that would bolster his premise. BUT, When Toure claims that Rock has more emotional range than Hip-Hop the reasoning he offers to back up is weak as hell.

First he tells us Cody "even mentions that he sometimes cries". Wow, no rapper has ever talked about crying, Right? I can go to OHHLA right now and grab a dozen lyrics to prove this wrong, but I'm sure that's not necessary.

Then he tells us via Martin Luther that "Vulnerability doesn't work at all in hip-hop, You don't want to expose a weakness in that arena." Nobody shows vulnerability in hip-hop? Negro, PLEASE.

Have you ever listened to Will Smith tenderly doting on his child, or Tupac fondly reminiscing about his mother? Heard Puffy or CL or Ice Cube mourning their dead homiez? Heard Ghostface weeping aloud or watched DMX cry onstage in mid-song? Heard Ja Rule asking his girl "what would I be without you"? Heard Eminem admitting all types of emotional problems, just like Bushwick Bill admitted to his suicidal depression ten years before?

I could keep this going all night, without even reaching for any "underground" or "conscious" emcees.

(and I'm not even gonna MENTION anticon.)

Please.

The more I think about this piece, the less I like it. He offers a half-baked premise, pads it with quotes that don't really apply, then pulls it all together by peddling antiquated stereotypes. I really dig all the new artists he interviewed here, and it would do them a terrible disservice if the media keeps steering them towards using hip-hop as the reference point for defining themselves and validating their expression.


September 24, 2002

Hip-Hop's reaction to 9/11

Here is an email I wrote that has been forwarded around quite a bit, in response to this nonsense from the ever-annoying Minister Paul Scott.

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I'm all for constructive criticism, and Hip-Hop music is as deserving of it as any other art form. But criticism can only be constructive if it is fair, balanced, and well-informed. The essay below does not meet those standards, as it is driven by a mix of stereotypes and straight-up misinformation. For example, the song he quotes in the first paragraph,. "Because I Got High", is in fact not a Hip-Hop record at all, and has no "brotha rapping" on it whatsoever.

Hip-Hop has grown into a global phenomenon of incredible diversity, with countless different sounds and subcultures, and to cite the 5 songs played on MTV as representative of the culture as a whole is simply dishonest, and renders subsequent analysis bankrupt. Furthermore, even the mainstream artists dismissed as only rapping about "bling-bling" often have a good deal more substance and complexity to their lyrics, if you take the time to truly listen. Jay-Z kicks rhymes about Mumia, but these self-serving critics won't tell you that because it doesn't fit into their agenda.

This Paul Scott piece has been deconstructed at length in other venues, so rather than a point-by-point breakdown I will offer some excerpts of how Hip-Hop artists did in fact respond to 9/11. You may find these responses rather different than Minister Scott would have you believe:

"What Would You Do" by Paris:

"Now ask yourself who's the people with the most to gain (Bush)

before 911 motherf***as couldn't stand his name (Bush)

Now even brothas waivin' flags like they lost they mind

Everybody got opinions but don't know the time

'Cause Amerikkka's been took - it's plain to see

The oldest trick in the book is MAKE an enemy

Of phony evil now the government can do its dirt

And take away ya freedom lock and load, beat and search"

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"What Goes Around" by Nas

"Never to worry, all the wrong doers got it coming back to 'em a thousand times over

Every dog has its day, and everything flips around

Even the most greatest nation in the world has it comin back to 'em

Everybody reaps what they sews, that's how it goes"

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"Makeshift Patriots" by Sage Francis

"Who's going to make that call to increase an unknown death toll?

It's the one we rally behind. He's got a megaphone...and he's promising to make heads roll,

So we cheer him on, but asbestos is affecting our breath control.

The less we know...the more they fabricate...the easier it is to sell souls

An addictive 24 hour candle light vigil in TVs.

Freedom WILL be defended...at the cost of civil liberties.

We'll show you which culture to pump your fist at and what foot is right tokiss.

We don't know who the culprit is yet...but he looks like this. "

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"Satisfied" by J Live

"By the time Bush is done, you won't know what time it is

If it's war time or jail time, time for promises

And time to figure out where the enemy is

The same devils that you used to love to hate

They got you so gassed and shook now, you scared to debate

The same ones that traded books for guns

Smuggled drugs for funds

And had fun lettin' off forty-one

But now it's all about NYPD caps

And Pentagon bumper stickers

But yo, you still a nigga

It ain't right them cops and them firemen died

The shit is real tragic, but it damn sure ain't magic

It won't make the brutality disappear

It won't pull equality from behind your ear

It won't make a difference in a two-party country

If the president cheats, to win another four years"

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"Home of the Brave" by Mr. Lif

"Headline: Bush steals the presidency

He needs the backing of the media what could the remedy be?

The country's headed for recession reminiscent of the Great Depression

Are lives worth a world of power? Easy question

Planes hit the towers and the Pentagon

Killing those the government wasn't dependant on

It's easy to control the scared so they keep us in fear

With their favorite Middle Eastern demon named Bin Laden this year

Bush disguises blood lust as patriotism

Convincing the living to love "Operation Let's Get 'Em"

But when he realized we don't support their attacks

They needed something to distract, hmm, anthrax

This further demonizes Afghanis

So Americans cheer while we kill their innocent families

And what better place to start a war

To build a pipeline to get the oil that they had wanted before

America supported the Taliban

To get Russia out of Afghanistan

That's how they got the arms in

They're in a war against the Northern Alliance

And we can't build a pipeline in hostile environments

Here's what your history books won't show:

You're a dead man for f**king with American dough

They killed several birds with one stone

While you're at home with anti-terrorism up in your dome

But my eyes are wide open and my TV is off

Great, 'cause I save on my electricity cost

And you can wave that piece of s**t flag if you dare

But they killed us because we've been killing them for years

October 31, 2002

The First Time I Heard Run-DMC

Sucker MCs. 1983.

I was ten years old, sitting on the top bunk of my bunk bed, listening to the radio. what station would i have been listening to then, BLS? 92 KTU?

I used to put the sheets over my head like a tent every night, and pull the radio under there, to create a universe where there was nothing but me and the music. A song came on that I had never heard before, and it was entirely different from any other rap I'd hever heard. As if it had been dropped down from another planet.

So bare and minimalist, so gritty, so propulsive...so HARD. It just sounded so much more....serious...than any rap I'd heard before. So serious it made everything else sound like a joke. I sat there huddled in my little tent, mesmerized.

I wasn't able to really comprehend the feeling coming over me, at that time. But looking back now I know it was my first time feeling something that only comes a few times in your life, the music lover's sweetest epiphany. That moment when you hear a song and know instantly that a new horizon has been opened, a new world has been created, and music will never be the same.

I, also, would never be the same, of course. You might say that was the night I discovered who I am.

March 12, 2003

The Federal Bureau of Wack Emcees

I just discovered that the Federal Emergency Mangement Agency, one of the creepiest branches of our government, has their own official rap song! I'm not kidding. Check out the audio here, and read along here. Our tax dollars paid for this.

This is part of their FEMA for kids website, teaching kids about FEMA's programs that help America deal with various types of "disaster". Here is one such plan they developed in the 80s:

On July 5, 1987, the Miami Herald published reports on FEMA's new goals...to suspend the Constitution in the event of a national crisis, such as nuclear war, violent and widespread internal dissent, or national opposition to a U.S. military invasion abroad. Lt. Col. North was the architect. National Security Directive Number 52 issued in August 1982, pertains to the "Use of National Guard Troops to Quell Disturbances."

The crux of the problem is that FEMA has the power to turn the United States into a police state in time of a real crisis or a manufactured crisis. Lt. Col. North virtually established the apparatus for dictatorship. Only the criticism of the Attorney General prevented the plans from being adopted. But intelligence reports indicate that FEMA has a folder with 22 Executive Orders for the President to sign in case of an emergency. It is believed those Executive Orders contain the framework of North's concepts, delayed by criticism but never truly abandoned.

Someone needs to make a parody of this site where the little cartoon characters teach kids about martial law. "Hey boys and girls, have you ever heard mommy and daddy saying naughty things about the president? Call this number and let us know, so we can give them a free trip to our Happy Funtime Internment Camp!"

March 15, 2003

Join us on the radio tonight

You can tune in live to the webcast of our radio show, The Underground Railroad, and talk to us live on the message board while you check out the sounds. The Underground railroad airs every saturday night from midnight to 2 AM on WBAI 99.5 FM in NY.

March 19, 2003

New Battle Scenes from 8 Mile DVD

The new 8 Mile DVD has a nice little segment where some of the extras got a chance to come on stage and get filmed battling Eminem.

Since Em was losing his voice, the director asked him not to rap out loud, so he was just silently miming his response after the other guy went, which was pretty funny looking. But once they got going I guess Em's pride wouldn't let him pretend like that, so he turned his mic on and started battling for real. A nice little bonus, getting a chance to see him really spit off the top agianst a couple of people.

here is an excerpt (this file will only be up temporarily)

Also entertaining is the chance to watch the movie with french or spanish dubbing, although sadly they didn't try to translate the battle scenes. That would have really been a treat.

March 25, 2003

Damn.

Fabolous arrested, on gun charge.

Before we jump into another rant about how ignorant all these dumbass gangsta rappers are, let's take a good look at what really happened here. Police found a gun in their car, the bodyguard explained it was his and showed a permit, but the permit was only good in another state, not NY. And for this they arrested not only the self-professed owner of the gun but everyone else in the car as well.

In other words, Fabolous didn't actually do anything. But spicy headlines about rap-related crime sell papers, so why let the something silly like the facts hold you back? Right?

New De La Soul Album on Indie Label

The Miami Herald dropped a nice interview with Maseo today. He discusses making Florida his new home, and De La's plans to release the "AOI 3" album on his own independent label, Bear Mountain Entertainment.

Originally the word was Prince Paul would rejoin and contribute to this third album in the AOI trilogy, but now it doesn't look like that is happening. Still, I'm looking forward to hearing what they do with their independence.

March 26, 2003

Jam Master Jay's Scratch Academy

"And in a few years, you will see
a Dr. Jekyll Mr Hyde University
With mixing as a minor and rapping as a major
be on your best behavior (owwww!)"
-Dr. Jekyll (aka Andre Harrell) and Mr Hyde, "AM/PM"

When that song came out in 1984, none of us would have imagined those lyrics could come true. But it has already become a reality, and Jam Master Jay was leading the way into this new frontier with his Scratch Academy, profiled on today's AP wire: DJ School Teaches the Art of Scratching. And I'd bet it won't be long before programs like this aren't even newsworthy, as it becomes commonplace for established schools to include hip-hop in their curriculum. We've come a long way.

"Stephen Webber, a professor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, believes deejaying is moving toward widespread musical acceptance, much like jazz overcame its rejection as unstructured folk music, and rock its dismissal as amplified noise.

"We have crossed a threshold," Webber said. "It's just starting to make the transition, much like jazz once did, into a legitimate part of the conservatory curriculum."

March 27, 2003

Snoop Dogg Sued Over Voice Mail

If you heard the voice mail message at the end of Snoop's latest album, congratulating him for standing up to Suge Knight, you probably wondered like I did whether it was a real message or just a skit. It turns out that message was real, and now the guy who left it is real scared. Or at least he's claiming to be scared so he can get paid.

I've got to give utmost props to Snoop for openly standing up to Suge, and calling him the punk that he is. Suge Knight is a disgrace to the culture, and the Hip-Hop community should not let itself be scared into silence by his thug bulls***.

March 28, 2003

Big Brother is Watching Your Mother

Our friend Amy Goodman talked to Michael Franti yesterday about the current climate of censorship and intimidation, as the government and media seek to suppress anti-war voices. He told a bizarre story of government agents visiting his bandmate's mother:

Well, what’s happened most recently is that we performed at a rally on March 15th in San Francisco and the next day on the 16th—that, that rally was out here—and on the 16th on the East Coast, a band member of mine who prefers to go unnamed, his mother received a visit from two plain clothes men from the military and this band member of mine has a sibling who is in the Gulf. And they came in and talked to her and said you have a child who’s in the gulf and you have a child who’s in this band Spearhead who’s part of the “resistance” in their words, and they had pictures of us performing the day before at the rally, they had pictures of us performing at some of our annual concerts that we put on that are in support of peace and human rights. They had his flight records for the past several months, they had the names of everybody who works in my office, our management office “Guerilla Management”. They had his checking account records. They asked his mother a lot of questions about where he was, what he was doing in this place, why he was going here. They confiscated his sibling’s CD collection that they had brought over to listen to while they were in the Gulf, and basically were intimidating—told her which members of the press she could talk to and which members of the press she should not speak to.

You can hear the interview in its entirety here

April 2, 2003

New Ras Kass

Ras Kass, who is currently on the run from both the law and his label, just leaked a new track from an undisclosed location.. you can check it out at trickology.com. Interesting that he seems much more concerned with his label difficulties than the actual imprisonment that is most likely in his future.

Ras is the only "conscious" emcee who can start a song by comparing himself to a porn star (Mr. Marcus) and nobody bats an eye. This song is also noteworthy because finally somebody quoted that Amistad "give-s us free" line in a rhyme!

In a G Building...

ODB placed in Mental Institution

I'm not going to make any jokes. I hope the man can get it together. They were supposed to start filming him for a reality show as soon as he was released, a la Anna Nicole/Osbournes, which I found kinda tacky and exploitative. Putting him in this situation where everyone's hoping for him to be as outrageous as possible is not gonna help him get his life back together. Ok, it's probably a longshot either way. But still.

A note about my post title: Most people think that line from Brooklyn Zoo goes "energy building, taking all types of medicine", but it is actually "in a g building", slang for a mental hospital. I believe it is derived from the psychiatric ward of King's County hospital.

April 3, 2003

Teaching Hip-Hop in High School

From Australia comes more coverage of Hip-Hop's increasing acceptance into academia:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/03/1048962877005.html

So, like, yo dudes, listen up: hip-hop is da bomb, fool, da real dope. Forget all that wack stuff laid down by tragic MCs like T.S. Eliot, the Bronte sisters and that Shakespeare snowflake. Check it: if a US education trend spreads to Australia - and it probably will - the nation's school kids could soon be getting down to the likes of Tupac Shakur, Ice-T, Eminem and Cypress Hill.

I'm not sure what to say about this one. Kind of a scattered and oddly reasoned piece, and yeah his attempt at slanguage is unfortunate. But at the very least it's an interesting peek at how the American Hip-Hop scene is interpreted from afar.

Reviews: Roscoe P ColdChain, Non-Phixion

Let's review two of the new tracks posted on trickology.com:

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Roscoe P ColdChain - "Delinquent"

Beat: Nasty. This is a first-rate average Neptunes banger, built around the "South Bronx" horn stab. You know that scrunched-up "got damn this is funky" grimace you make, when you're nodding your head to something serious? Those ugly faces abound in the studio, when 3D plays this on the radio show.

Rhymes/Flow: Not bad, voice reminiscent of Ras Kass, or Vakill with more bass in his voice. Sprays quick blasts of verbiage that land all over the beat, but he makes it work, never crosses that thin line between syncopated and sloppy.

Content: Well, here's the chorus:

"When a nigga is delinquent with cash in hand even if it's just a couple of grams do what the f*** I do nigga pop that motherf***er drop that mother f***er"

Yawn.. what is it they say about the banality of evil?

I guess Roscoe is down with the Clipse, and judging by this track he certainly shares their unwavering (and unwaveringly dull) fixation on guns, drugs and cash. There are some mildly clever lines, like "I done squeezed more guns than Charlton Heston". But after reading his rather thoughtful interview here I was surprised to hear a thug-life infomercial as his debut. And I wonder how Pharrell reconciles this with his own words on "Run to the Sun": "I'm so embarrassed for mankind, they have the nerve to let their weapon shine.. they're so stupid.."

Verdict: Decent, if you can let the trite thuggery float by, and just enjoy the funk.

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Non-Phixion - "Caught Between Worlds"

Beat: Cinematic Isaac Hayes-y loop with a sped-up vocal sample, what you might call RZA's signature sound. Nothing mind-blowing but it fits well with the mood of the lyrics.

Flow: Ill Bill starts out sounding a lot like Ghostface, perhaps inspired by the RZA-style beat. Then they revert to the standard Non-Phixion sound, with lots of punchy multisyllables.

Content: Standard "it's tough growing up in the hood" fare, but delivered in a mournful tone far from glamorizing street life.

Verdict: Not bad, worthy of a spot on the playlist.

April 4, 2003

MLK Against War (but first a commercial break)

The latest issue of my favorite magazine Wax Poetics is now on sale, check the website for where you can cop it. This installment has interviews with breakbeat legends like Clyde Stubblefield, Manzel, and Galt Mcdermot, plus graffiti pioneer Tracy 168 and a whole bunch more for the hardcore heads.

And you might say I make my debut as a published photographer, cuz they have a two page spread of my pics from the Jam Master Jay memorial that I posted here a few months ago.

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Also, just so this post won't be completely self-serving, here's a bit about Martin Luther Kings's importance as a voice against war, on the 35th anniversary of his death. And here's an excerpt from his landmark speech, "Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam", courtesy of my peoples at Democracy Now.

Somebody Alert the Nobel Committee

I had heard about Jay-Z bhangra collabo with Panjabi MC, but didn't know till Lynne mentioned it that he drops some anti-war couplets in there:

Jay-Z Drops War Rhymes On Remix Of International Hit

Jay-Z has broken his silence about the U.S.-led coalition's war with Iraq. In the remix of European artist Panjabi MC's overseas hit "Beware of the Boys," Jay mixes his Brooklyn braggadocio with anti-war sentiments.

"We rebellious, we back home/ Screamin' 'Leave Iraq alone,' " Young Hova rhymes over a sample of the theme from the "Knight Rider" TV show. "For all my soldiers in the field/ I will wish you safe return/ But only love kills war/ When will they learn?"

I'm only posting this because I love the portentous tone of that opening sentence:

"Finally Jay-Z has broken his silence about the U.S.-led coalition's war with Iraq. Ever since he shook up world politics with his bold stance in favor of Che Guevara t-shirts, Jay has become perhaps the most influential statesman on the global stage, and the world has anxiously awaited his judgement on the war in Iraq. Said one U.N. leader: 'We've heard from France, we've heard from Germany, but one question continues to haunt us: where does The R.O.C. stand on this?'

The Bush administration is rumored to be deeply shaken by Jay-Z's searing condemnation of their policies. No word yet on how the stock market has been affected."

April 5, 2003

Reports of our Death...

I guess every 3 months we have to see another one of these:

Is Rap Dead?

Is hip-hop dead? It sure sounds like it if you turn on the radio. What used to be exciting, groundbreaking music seems to have been reduced to a one-note din. The only topics discussed are bling-bling materialism, how many guns you have, and "ho's." Hip-hop poster boy 50 Cent appears on the cover of Rolling Stone with the caption "Mastering The Art of Violence." There's the raunchy Lil' Kim, and of course, top dog and now Oscar-winner Eminem, who has threatened to kill his wife numerous times on his records.

I don't have time for a detailed response, but in short, the answer is of course not! These "is hip-hop dead" pieces always rely on highly selective evidence to back up their generalizations. Sometimes they are selective to the point of being disingenuous, as in the description of Eminem above.. to suggest that quote sums up the range of Em's expression is absurd. About as accurate as designating Jimi Hendrix "the man who sang about killing his wife and fleeing to Mexico..."

Perhaps I will come back to this later. Obviously Hip-Hop is nowhere near what it once was, in its glory days. Surely there is ample room for improvement. But we are a long way from dead, there's lots of creative stuff out there right now.. more than enough for us to fill 2 hours every Saturday.

This is not too bad though, as these pieces go, and a lot of the quotes are sharp..especially Bill Stephney's.

Join Us On the Radio Tonight

Tune in here and catch us live on the air, tonight from 12 to 2 AM EST. I heard a rumor that Jean Grae might be on the show tonite. This has not been confirmed. I repeat, this has not been confirmed.

EDIT: Jean Grae has entered the building.

I just set up a new chat room, to make it easier for y'all to kick it with us during the show. Try it out and let me know how you like it.

Somebody just came to this site by searching in google for hip-hop negro "non-phixion". I like that one.

April 6, 2003

Photos: Jean Grae on the Railroad

A pleasure to have Jean Grae on board last night, one of the smartest, most creative emcees around. She kept us cracking up with her ongoing crusade against big hats, and let us world premiere 2 new songs, including a remake of Jay-Z's "Excuse Me Miss" that was pure hilarity.

I'll post some audio tomorrow, but for now here is photographic evidence. The third pick is Jean and her betrothed (with Democracy Now's office in the background):

April 7, 2003

MTV: "Stop Being So Commercial!"

MTV Cry to Artists: Stop the Shilling

Network tries to cut product placement in its music videos

In her recent music video, rapper Ms. Jade is swerving on a dark city street to the beat of her song "Ching Ching." She's behind the wheel of a sparkling, tank-sized Hummer H2, as is a rival racing alongside.

The Hummers seem to get as much screen time as Ms. Jade.

That bit of product placement cost the Hummer's manufacturer, General Motors Corp., some $300,000 - more than half the expense of the video produced by Interscope Records. It also represented another win for record labels in the catch-me-if-you-can game they're playing with Manhattan-based MTV, which has prohibited advertising in videos.

Major record companies, strapped for cash amid flagging CD sales, have been defying MTV, teaming up with advertisers willing to help finance costly videos in exchange for product visibility.

In the past, MTV screeners - worried the cable channel's savvy teen and young-adult audience would rebel against that kind of selling - have forced labels to blur images of products or logos that found their way into videos. But "Ching Ching" and other clips financed in part by corporate sponsors have sneaked in under the radar.

Faced with the record industry's miserable economics, MTV's gatekeepers now suggest gingerly that they may allow some marketing messages in videos - but only if they decide that a product placement is discreet and fits with a clip's theme or story line. So far, they haven't.

"We're trying to be as sensitive as we can to the labels' financial issues without risking the trust of our audience," said Tom Calderone, MTV's executive vice president of music and talent.

I am amused by MTV's high minded stance, claiming they are simply worried about "maintaining trust with the audience".. I'm sure the fact that they are missing out on money here, and these companies are basically getting to advertise on MTV without paying MTV, does not factor into their concern at all.

Also, this goes to show that the music industry will use their financial woes much like the Bush administration is using the threat of terrorism, to justify all types of shady dealings, and expand their powers as far as they can push them.

April 8, 2003

Kevin Bray, please STFU

PLATINUM TAKES THE WHITE ANGLE: Drama to feature white rapper.

The upcoming UPN series "Platinum" knew they just had to get themselves a white rapper character after what's going down with Eminem an' what not.

Kevin Bray, who produces the show about two brothers who run a hip hop record label in NYC, says the show wants to reflect reality.

"Thanks to Eminem, hip-hop is an art form that's been made accessible to middle America, to every race and class of people, and we want the show to reflect that. We decided to have a white rapper as the biggest act at the label because that's being truthful to what's going on in hip-hop today."

Thanks to Eminem, hip-hop is an art form that's been made accessible to middle America, to every race and class of people?

Excuse me? So Hip-Hop was not accessible to middle America until Eminem came out? People of every race and class didn't listen to Run DMC, or NWA, or Will Smith? Lauryn Hill didn't have universal appeal that cut across all boundaries? White kids in the suburbs never listened to Pac or Biggie?

I'm sure Eminem himself would be the first to tell you how insulting your comments are, how disrespectful to the art form that happens to be making you rich.

Seriously, Kevin Bray. Just STFU. Never talk about Hip-Hop again.

Funkmaster Flex settles Steph Lova case

Hip-Hop Disc Jockey Pleads Guilty To Harassing Rival DJ

A disc jockey for a popular hip-hop radio station was ordered to serve 35 hours of community service after pleading guilty to harassing a rival DJ.

Funkmaster Flex, 35, whose real name is Aston Taylor Jr., was arrested on assault charges last September after he allegedly choked and punched a female DJ from a rival radio station.

Taylor pleaded guilty in Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday to lesser charges of harassment. He was also issued an order of protection to stay away from Stephanie Saunders, 29, who is known as Big Steph Lova and works for WWPR-FM (105.1).

Taylor, a DJ for WQHT-FM (97.1), was accused of confronting Saunders outside his Greenwich Village radio station on Sept. 20. He was reportedly upset over allegations, made during an on-air interview that Saunders conducted, that he accepted bribes to play certain songs.

Murray Richman, Taylor's lawyer, acknowledged Monday that the two disc jockeys had a "shouting match," but said his client "never touched" Saunders.

To be fair, we should note that he was not found guilty of assaulting her.

But, now, about that payola...

Photos: Gangstarr. Kweli, Floetry and Common

I'm working getting the audio up for our Jean Grae interview, but in the meantime, here are my photos from the concert at Roseland on Sunday:


click on each thumbnail to see the full size picture



April 10, 2003

NEW AUDIO: Exclusive Jean Grae

Here are the new tracks Jean Grae played for us last Saturday. That is me and my co-host Damali talking to Jean before and after the music:

Excuse Me (remake)

Very Bad Things

Let me know what you think. She said one of these songs will be on her new album, "The Official Jean Grae Bootleg Album", and one will be on a mixtape.. or something like that? I'm getting old, the memory is going.

Raleigh man charged with impersonating Slick Rick

How about we just let Rick out of jail, send this other guy back to England, and call it even?

Tried to Disrespect Who? The Grand Wizard?

A 28-year-old man is accused of diverting mail intended for old school rapper Ricky "Slick Rick" Walters and trying to cash his royalty checks.

Walters, whose hits include "La-Di-Da-Di," and "Children's Story," is being held in Bradenton, Fla., by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The INS is attempting to deport Walters, who is British, over an attempted murder conviction in a 1990 shooting, for which he served six years.

Steven Burke Glenn was arrested April 3 and charged with three counts of forgery, two of obtaining property under false pretenses and one of identity theft, Raleigh police Sgt. Chuck Hurst said Thursday. Additional charges were being considered.

Glenn was still in custody Thursday on $30,000 bond. Hurst did not know what sentences Glenn might face if convicted on any of the charges.

Hurst said Glenn apparently submitted a change of address form to the U.S. Postal Service asking to have mail forwarded from Walters' production company in New York to a Raleigh address.

Within a week or so, staff at the company became suspicious about the lack of mail and contacted postal authorities in New York, who involved Raleigh police in the investigation, Hurst said.

Bill Adler, a spokesman for Walters and his wife, Mandy Aragones, said Glenn forged Walters' name on royalty checks, deposited them into Walters' bank account and then tried to withdraw the money.

"Likewise, he registered a car, received hospital care, sent out express mail packages and answered his own phone under Rick's name," Adler said.

Glenn ultimately got Walters' home telephone number and reached Aragones, identifying himself as Slick Rick and saying he was not in jail but in North Carolina. He apparently didn't realize he was talking to Walters' wife, Adler said.

April 11, 2003

Snoop Dogg Narrowly Avoids Getting Shot

Yuck. No more of this please.

Gunman Opens Fire On Snoop Dogg And His Security Team

An unknown assailant opened fire on Snoop Dogg and his entourage on Thursday night in Los Angeles, injuring one of the rapper's bodyguards.

Police said that at about 9 p.m. on Thursday night, Snoop was in a car traveling south on Fairfax Avenue and was accompanied by five other cars, which an LAPD spokesperson referred to as "security vehicles." A sedan carrying an unspecified number of black males that was traveling in the opposite direction then shot at Snoop's crew. Two of the cars were hit and one of the security guards was grazed by a bullet in his back.

The injury was not life-threatening and no one else was struck, police said. Snoop and the individuals with whom he was traveling were questioned as witnesses. No arrests were made, and there are no suspects and no motive.

The spokesperson for the LAPD did not release the identity of Snoop's injured bodyguard. However, the Los Angeles Times reported that he and several other members of the security team were off-duty police officers who work in the Inglewood school district.

By the way, look at how misleading this other blurb is with its title and intro, covering the same story:

Snoop Dogg questioned in shooting, one injured

Rapper Snoop Dogg was being questioned Thursday night following a car-to-car shooting that left an off-duty police officer wounded...

Snoop is the victim of a crime in which one of his security guards gets injured, and these guys still manage to make it sound like Snoop is the criminal here.

April 12, 2003

The Hip-Hop Scene in Japan

Here's a pretty good one from the Japan Times, picking the brains of hip-hop kids in Shibuya. Maybe our resident Japanese ambassador Kyo can let us know how accurate this is.

Who Copped My Hip-Hop?

On a visit to Tokyo's trendy Shibuya Ward several years ago, I came across a Japanese teenager dressed from head to toe in baggy hip-hop wear, one of the first "B-Boys" I'd ever seen here. Still relatively new to Japan, I was curious about whether this young man represented some growing awareness of black America among Japanese youth, and as an African-American myself, it was an issue close to home.

I couldn't help asking him: "Say, have you ever heard of Malcolm X?" I was referring, of course, to the black political activist memorialized in the Spike Lee movie and easily the most influential figure in modern black America after Martin Luther King, Jr.....

The Scoop on Star: He was benched for bashing AT&T?

I haven't bothered to post about this story yet, because I didn't feel like give Star any more publicity. But yeah, the controversial (read: loathsome) host of Hot 97's morning show here in N.Y. is in trouble once again, and off the air for who knows how long.

In the past Star has been attacked for his alleged anti-semitism and had infamous on-air clashes with Tigger, Prodigy, and Conrad Muhammad (who gave him a hearty thrashing). He was also suspended once before after mocking Aaliyah's death, which endangered Hot's cash flow since it outraged her fiancee Damon Dash. This also inspired Q-Tip to read a letter on the air criticizing Star, which inexplicably led to Q-Tip being banned from Hot 97 by their widely reviled VP Tracy Cloherty (as revealed in our interview here).

Now Star (along with his longtime companion Bucwild) has been off the air again for about a week, and as you can see here Hot's management has been tight-lipped about exactly what he stepped in this time. But I've done some snooping around, and heard from good sources that Star was suspended for comments relating to AT&T, who unfortunately for him is one of Hot's sponsors. It seems the station lost a $50,000 deal due to his corny jokes.

"The reason is not for general consumption - not even something the audience would understand," said Tracy Cloherty, Emmis' programming VP. "The rule he broke was not supposed to be broken," Cloherty told The Post.

So I guess you have some rules that are supposed to be broken? Evidently this translates to: "Disrespect jews, women, our own people? Whatever. But disrespect our advertisers and you've got trouble."

April 14, 2003

NEW AUDIO: Guest DJ Chairman Mao

A new mix posted in our radio show archive

Jeff "Chairman" Mao is well known as a founding member of the Ego Trip crew, and all-around top hip-hop journalist. But you might not know he is also a top-notch DJ and vinyl collector, and spins regularly at one of NY's trendiest spots, APT (where our own DJs Monkone and Emskee hold fort every wednesday night).

The Chairman showed us just how deep his crates are when he stopped by the radio show last month, and dropped a set of insanely rare 12-inches from the mid 80's. I just uploaded his entire set to the mixshow archive, take a listen and see how many songs you can name. I'll be impressed if anyone can identify even 5 of them.

Oh and here are a couple of pics:

one - Chairman Mao on the wheels, as Tomkat and Monkone look on.
two - Jeff and the rest of the Ego Trip clique, Elliot Wilson, Gabe Alvarez, and Sacha Jenkins.

April 15, 2003

PHOTOS: Graffiti in Montreal

I probably won't be posting much this week, as I am getting ready for my trip to Montreal in a few days. This is my second time heading up there, when I went for the first time a few months ago one of the things that impressed me most was thwe quantity and quality of graffiti over there. It seemed like every block I passed by had an alleyway with a breathtaking mural spanning across it. Here are some photos I took while exploring the city:

click on each thumbnail for the full-sized image
graffiti1.jpg graffiti3.jpg graffiti4.jpg graffiti5.jpg
graffitib1.jpg graffitib2.jpg graffitib3.jpg graffitib4.jpg

April 16, 2003

Suge Dropped from Cannibal Rapper Lawsuit

As much as I despise Suge Knight, this time I've got to agree that blaming this murder on his or any record label is just ridiculous. The lawsuit alleges that Big Lurch killed his roommate and ate her lungs because he was encouraged to do this by his label, as a marketing tactic. I find that outlandish, to say the least.

When a man kills his roommate and eats her internal organs, that's not about hip-hop, that's not about the music business, that's about this one man's psychosis, plain and simple.

Tha Row Removed From Wrongful-Death Suit

Tha Row Records has been removed as a defendant in a wrongful-death civil lawsuit filed last week in Los Angeles, Billboard Bulletin reports.

The complaint was filed by Carolyn Stinson, whose daughter Tynisha Ysais was allegedly killed and partially eaten by aspiring Texas rapper Antron Singleton (aka Big Lurch). Tha Row's removal from the suit follows CEO Marion "Suge" Knight's public claims that his label was never associated with Singleton.

...A spokesperson for Tha Row says, "Every time there are problems on the West Coast, people always try to involve Suge. What's unfortunate about this is that it's difficult to un-ring a bell."

Well, I'm not quite ready to play a violin for poor beleaguered Suge, especially when he puts nonsense like this up on his website. But in this particular case I'd agree he shouldn't be held responsible, even if his label was associated with this guy.

April 17, 2003

Or did he mean Russell Crowe?

Last week I criticized the producer of Platinum, Kevin Bray, for his assertion that "Thanks to Eminem, hip-hop is an art form that's been made accessible to middle America, to every race and class of people". It would appear Mr. Bray came across my comments and posted a reply, as you can see here.

Evidently he didn't mean that to come out the way it sounded, and meant to convey how in the minds of TV execs it was Eminem's success that made this show possible. He also informed us that "as for me and hip hop i go waaay back...look it up or ask russell."

Assuming of course that he meant Russell Wong from that old kung fu show "Vanishing Son", I gave Russell a call. He said he's never heard of this Bray guy. But some googling did turn up this page, with a lengthy list of the videos Kevin has directed.

My search also revealed that when you search for "Kevin Bray" in google now, the third and fourth links that appear are me telling him to STFU. Gotta love the power of the internet!

(my reply to his reply is also there, in the previous post.)

April 18, 2003

Jack White Disses Hip-Hop

As quoted on okayplayer, here are the words of Jack White of the White Stripes, in the latest Rolling Stone:

RS: You're not a hip-hop fan.

JW: Not particularly. I find OutKast and Wu-Tang Clan interesting. But I consider music to be storytelling, melody and rhythm. A lot of hip-hop has broken music down. There are no instruments and no songwriting. So you're left with just storytelling and rhythm. And the storytelling can be so braggadocious, you're just left with rhythm. I don't find much emotion in that.

No wonder I find his music so dull..

Coincidentally, I just discovered that Simon Reynolds has a blog, and his recent post about the Stripes sums up my feelings perfectly. He also thinks to another cool blog that deconstructs their latest album in much greater detail.

EDIT, 8/7/03: I hate to do this, but I'm closing the comments on this post because all you soccer hooligans don't know how to act (on both sides of the argument). Perhaps my flippant approach to the subject (as opposed to my "serious" commentary here) combined with a high ranking in google was a deadly combination..

Mr. Lif Shoots the Gift

Okay, that title is corny. But this is a solid profile of Boston's MVP, from the Chicago Sun Times. Always refreshing when the mainstream press notices a rapper for some reason other than his arrest record:

Beantown rapper gives hip-hop an intellectual lift

Mr. Lif, a huge New England Patriots fan, jokes he recently moved from Boston to California to operate the team's West Coast offices.

He adds he had nothing to do with the signing of former Chicago Bear Roosevelt Colvin. "I understand there may hostilities about that in Chicago, so I'll let Coach Belichick handle those," he says with a chuckle.

Joking aside, Lif has meant more to New England's hip-hop than he ever could to its professional football franchise. He may be the region's most important export since UConn women's basketball and Trader Joe's grocery. He's an MC whose delivery places more emphasis on lyrics than barking; returning the music to a time when rappers relentlessly deconstructed popular culture.

This, he says, comes "from being alive and being a fan of hip-hop during the era of conscious rap, when the predominant image was an intelligent black man whose power was his intellect. It also comes from seeing the struggles of my parents..."

Why Jack White is Wrong

In the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine, Jack White of the White Stripes explains his opinion of Hip-hop thusly:

"I find OutKast and Wu-Tang Clan interesting. But I consider music to be storytelling, melody and rhythm. A lot of hip-hop has broken music down. There are no instruments and no songwriting. So you're left with just storytelling and rhythm. And the storytelling can be so braggadocious, you're just left with rhythm. I don't find much emotion in that."

He's certainly entitled to his opinion, and there is no such thing as right or wrong (in any objective sense) when it comes to personal taste, so I'm not mad at him. But I will point out that Jack White is missing at least one basic element of music, one that is particularly important to Hip-Hop. Let me tell you a little story:

For 6 years I was a teacher/counselor for "emotionally disturbed" teens at a group home upstate. One day we went on a field trip and walked by a construction site, and the sound of the drilling rattled our bones. As we went by one of my favorite students, Kelly Miles, turned to me and said "That sound is dope! Somebody needs to sample that and make a beat with it."

I knew exactly what she meant, and what made that drilling sound so dope had nothing to do with rhythm, melody, or storytelling. It was the noise itself that had an irresistibly visceral quality to it. As Public Enemy so wisely observed, that's one of the most important qualities found in any good hip-hop - you have to bring the noise.

If I played you a Premier snare drum and the snare from a Celine Dion song, isolated and removed from its original drum pattern, you could easily tell me which was which, and would probably have a strong preference as to which one sounded hotter. Most anyone who listens to Hip-Hop could easily make that distinction, and its not because of rhythm, melody or storytelling. It's because noise matters.

This is not only true for hip-hop either. The tonal quality and timbre of the sounds is a crucial element in our experience of any music. For example D'Angelo's Voodoo album, and the other Soulquarian releases of that "neo-soul" boom, were such a stark contrast to the other R&B of that time period, but not primarily because of the melody or rhythm or storytelling. What made them stand out, more than anything, was that they just sounded so raw. The vintage analog instrumentation they worked with, and that gritty sound they achieved while recording it and mixing it down. It was quite simply a different type of noise than the polished, plastic synthesizer music that was dominating R&B up until then.

This is one of the biggest reasons Hip-Hop has had such a tremendous influence: we changed the face of popular music with our focus on refining the art of noise. We took that element of music that is so often forgotten, and brought it to the forefront.. reminded everyone that noise matters, and showed the world how to bring it.

Any attempt to judge Hip-Hop will always be off the mark, if it fails to recognize this fundamental aspect of the music. That's why I must beg to differ with Jack White. And he really ought to know better, since he clearly pays close attention to the power of noise in his own music, striving to bring a full, rich sound out of a band with only two instruments.

April 22, 2003

While You're busy Being Al Capone...

I'm back in town. Hope you guys are still out there, I'm really digging all your comments and feedback.

Turns out Montreal is even more beautiful when the weather becomes suitable for humans. Many pictures later.

So anyway. Nina. Wow.

I saw her name go by on the Times Square news ticker as I came back into NY this morning. That's the second time I walked by there and found out a childhood hero had died, the first was Curtis Mayfield.

For me, Nina was one of those very first artists your parents expose you to as a child, who teaches you what music is supposed to be, lays down the foundation for all of your tastes. When you have that kind of connection, it really feels like you lost part of your family, when they die.

I hate to see some obituaries that only highlight her harmless pop songs like I Loves You Porgy and My Baby Just Cares For Me. What really makes her important to me are the ones like Mississippi Goddam, Backlash Blues, Four
Women, To Be Young Gifted and Black, etc.. where she was saying something.


I''ll post my favorite Nina song here, its a big file but worth the download. Nikka Costa did a sweet cover of this on her last tour:

Nina Simone - Funkier Than A Mosquito's Tweeter

..

April 23, 2003

Dallas Teen Suspended for "Terroristic" Rapping

Very interesting story in the Dallas Morning News today. Needless to say, the kid should have known those rhymes were not appropriate for a classroom setting. But taking them as a "terroristic threat" worthy of removing him from the school? Unless there is some history between them that we don't know about, that seems kinda wacky.

This goes to show how the same words can have very different meanings to different people, depending on their cultural perspective. I'm sure the boy thought to himself "how could anyone think they were supposed to take that rhyme literally?", and the administrators were equally certain of themselves in thinking "how could anyone think you're not supposed to take that rhyme literally?"

Teen put back in school after 'terroristic' rap

Judge orders return after poem called threat got him suspended
-------------


Terry Carter might make Dunbar High's senior prom after all.

The 17-year-old student, banished from the school in February after reciting a rap poem deemed a "terroristic threat," was reinstated Tuesday by a federal judge who said the Fort Worth school district had violated his constitutional right to due process.

"I order that Terry Carter be returned to Dunbar High School tomorrow morning and be allowed to participate in all activities," Judge John McBryde ruled from the bench after a daylong hearing.

Attorneys for the school district said they are considering an appeal.

...When the decision was announced, Lee Robinson stormed out of the fourth-floor courtroom. It was his daughter, Allison, to whom Terry had referred in his poem.

"It was already decided before we came here today," Mr. Robinson said afterward. "This was already predetermined."

Allison, 18, appeared shaken but she vowed: "I'll still be valedictorian. If he tries to say anything to me, then we'll be right back where we are today."

The episode began in January when a teacher in Terry and Allison's theater-arts class allowed students a variety of ways to get extra credit. Terry, who was ranked sixth in the 186-member class, chose to do a rap poem.

In one stanza of the 16-verse poem, he said, "Allison #1, but I got myself a gun, ready to pull the trigger, for any gold digger."

Allison, who ranks first in the senior class, told the teacher that she felt threatened. Dunbar officials immediately suspended Terry. Later, at a school district hearing, he was assigned to an alternative school for 90 days, in effect for the remainder of the school term.

After an administrative appeal, Superintendent Thomas Tocco reduced the alternative school sentence to 10 days. But later, after meeting with Allison, her parents, Dunbar school officials and a community leader, Dr. Tocco decided that Terry should be transferred for Allison's "safety." He was eventually reassigned to Trimble Tech High School for the rest of the year.

...The suit said Dr. Tocco acted unfairly because he considered adverse information against Terry without informing the youngster, his family or Ms. Edmonds of the allegations or giving them a chance to respond.

...Dr. Tocco testified that after reducing the suspension to 10 days, Allison's parents asked him to consider harsher punishment. The superintendent said that after listening to them, however, he wasn't convinced.

They asked him to go to Dunbar the next day to talk to teachers and other school officials, and he agreed. While there, Dr. Tocco said, he initially didn't hear anything to make him change his mind until he spoke to two teachers who said they thought Terry might pose a threat to Allison if he was allowed to return to Dunbar.

The judge asked Dr. Tocco whether he informed Terry or Ms. Edmonds that he was considering information that was adverse to the youngster's case. Dr. Tocco said he did not.

Then Judge McBryde asked whether Terry or Ms. Edmonds had been given a chance to rebut the information the superintendent had been given.

"No," Dr. Tocco said, "because all of the information I needed from him I received when ... [Terry] denied that he threatened Ms. Robinson."

At one point, Dr. Tocco said he would have reversed Terry's punishment again and moved it back to 30 days at an alternative school, but he thought that doing so would have been tantamount to "double jeopardy"...

This Dr. Tocco is evidently not the brightest light on the christmas tree.

The judge should have just ordered the girl to do an answer record, and let them battle it out on the next Kay Slay mixtape.

Australia predicts White Rapper Epidemic

A little more of the rather quirky coverage Hip-Hop gets from down under:

Rap's white invasion

On last year's Eminem Show album, the world's most popular rapper rhymed a snide prediction: "A concept that works/20 million other white rappers emerge."

He may be off a bit in his maths, but Eminem's forecast of a white rap invasion seems to be coming true.

Thirteen years after the thawing of Vanilla Ice, and three years after Eminem himself became the most famous rapper in hip-hop history, a new wave of Caucasian emcees is swelling.

True, there have long been isolated pockets of palefaced rappers - from the Beastie Boys and Third Base to Bubba Sparxxx and Haystak. But the next few months will see the largest wave to date, including Stagga Lee, Poverty, K-Mo, DF Dub and the first white female rapper, Sarai (promoted by her label as Feminem)...

The first white female rapper? Don't you guys remember Tairrie B.?

April 24, 2003

Rising Stars of Korean Hip-Hop

A profile in The Korea Herald of their nation's top emcees, Drunken Tiger. I've heard these guys and they are actually decent, maybe I will put up an MP3 later. I'd say this article overplays the discrimination angle somewhat.

Tigers roar, who's listening?

Asian rappers have more than "8 Miles" to go to be successful in the United States and in Korea.
Drunken Tiger, Korea's best selling and most respected Korean-American rap group, would be an automatic candidate for a lifestyle of "bling-blings" (diamonds), Lexus SUVs and a crib in the Hamptons, much like such successful African-American rappers as P. Diddy and Nelly. But the members of Drunken Tiger - DJ Shine, Tiger JK and DJ Jhig - will have to wait, realistically several years, for hip-hop fans to accept a serious Korean rapper.

Hip-hop's ugly side, consisting of racism, stereotypes and prejudice, stands in their way of being played on radio stations across the United States. No other excuse explains it, given the band's credibility with East Coast legend Wu-Tang-Clan, who asked Drunken Tiger perform with them this summer...

Rumors of our Death...

I wrote this a few months ago, in response to a widely forwarded article proclaiming that hip-hop is dead or at least dying. I am reposting it here since j brotherlove, and many others, have wondered aloud whether this may truer that we care to admit.

I meant this to be a part 1, hopefully I will get around to a part 2 sometime.

--------------

Regarding the Bennu piece, "A Eulogy to Hip-Hop": there is some truth in what he says, and the issues he raises have caused me much frustration over the years. But to extrapolate from these trends that hip-hop is dead, I see as a gross overreaction.

Hip-Hop will never be what it once was, there's no getting around that. It began as a form of expression that was of us, for us, and by us in many ways that it will never be again. We watched it grow and bloom within our community, then saw it shift into the American mainstream, who now leases it to us with no option to buy (as a friend once put it). For those of us who saw this evolution and experienced both sides of it, Hip-Hop will never again mean to us what it once did.

From its birth in the 70's through much of the 80's, Hip-Hop was basically a self-contained entity within the community that created it. If you were an emcee stepping into the studio to make a record, your target audience was basically your own community.. you were one of us talking to us, and the value of your music came from how it resonated with our own shared experiences. There was no possibility of your song getting regular rotation on any radio station, or your video getting played anywhere but Ralph Mcdaniels' Video Music Box and local public access shows. No chance of your work being acknowledged by any such mainstream outlet, so you had no concern for making music to please those outside ears. All the criteria, all the parameters set for the expression came from within the community that created it. It was a means for us to communicate with ourselves.

But nowadays the playing field is completely different, and we have a completely different relationship with the music, both as producers and consumers. When someone steps into the studio now their success hinges on pleasing MTV, Clear Channel Radio, and the mainstream american consumers that these outlets have made hip-hop's primary audience. This audience is kids from outside of the community the music came from, who do not share the experiences that drive the music. As Mos Def says:



"The difference between '88 and '98 is that most of the people who were fans were also active in the culture in some way. In '88 you'd have kids watching Video Music Box in their living room, working out dance routines. That might seem real trivial, but that is a fan watching these videos to learn these dances created by people in their community, more likely than not, somebody that probably lived on their block. It was interactive. Now the average hip-hop fan is into hip-hop because they like watching somebody else live."

It's become much more of a spectator sport than a participant sport?

"Definitely. I mean, let's be real -- these white kids in the suburbs that buy their first Wu Tang record and lose their damn mind -- they could play an active part in the culture if they wanted to, but that's not why they bought that Wu Tang record. They bought that Wu Tang record to live out their fantasy of themselves as Raekwon or Ghost or Method or whoever. A lot of hip-hop nowadays seems like the primitive prototype for what virtual reality is going to be in the next few years -- live somebody else's life, feel somebody else's pain and frustration."

I don't feel the need to be as judgmental about those suburban white kids as Mos seems here, but the dynamic he describes is undeniably at play. In today's world the ideal hip-hop product is not one that rings true for those who shares the artists' experiences, but one that provides a vivid, cinematic fantasy for those who will never share the experiences conveyed. This has radically changed the creative process, or should I say the manufacturing process of hip-hop, much more than I think even most artists realize. We also touched on these issues in my interview with Q-Tip (click part 6).

So no, hip-hop is not what it once was, and that golden age will never return. And in the last decade that has been damn hard to accept, if you were around when it was still pure. But that being said, I thought the conclusions drawn in the Bennu piece were overblown.

------------

Hopefully i'll get back to this sometime..

April 26, 2003

Jam Master Jay Case Remains Unsolved

This is disappointing but not surprising:

Hunt For Rap Legend's Killer Comes Up Empty

Nearly six months after the execution-style slaying of rap legend Jam Master Jay, the identity of the killer and the motive remain a mystery.

Detectives in Queens _ where the pre-eminent DJ and founding member of Run-DMC was killed on Oct. 30 _ call the case a top priority. The city and music industry notables have offered more than $60,000 in rewards for tips leading to an arrest.

"We're not at a standstill," said Lt. Alfred Murphy, a detective squad commander. "We're still hopeful."

But NYPD sources close to the case concede the investigation has been hampered by dead-end leads and uncooperative witnesses. "No one in that industry wants to be a rat," said one of the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity...

They go on to discuss the widespread rumors that the NYPD has a "hip-hop desk", permanently assigned to monitoring the hip-hop world. This program sounds eerily similar fo the FBI's Cointelpro operations, that focused on monitoring/infiltrating/destroying the Black activist movements of the 60's and 70's.

Bling Etymology

Someone should forward this article to the NY Times critic Ann Powers, who hilariously asserted that "bling-bling" was the slang term for shooting a gun:

It's all about the bling-bling

Elizabeth Taylor dripped it, and Liberace flaunted it. Carmela Soprano's a walking advertisement, and P. Diddy's real-life poster boy.

This year's Oscars consciously toned it down, while the "Ab Fab" girls giddily talked it up.

Now the Oxford English Dictionary is about to officially induct it into the lexicon.

"Bling-bling" -- America's latest verbal fling.

Unless you've been vacationing in Tibet, you've probably heard it a lot lately. The hip-hop expression bling-bling, or sometimes just bling, has been popping up everywhere -- television, radio, and newspapers -- spoken and written by folks who are several steps removed from pop culture's cutting edge.

Coined in 1999 in a same-named song by a New Orleans rapper named B.G., bling-bling applies to big showy jewelry -- the kind typified by razzle-dazzle designer Chris Aire that gets Lil' Kim's heart racing, sets off alarms at airports, and goes bling when it collides with other bling (hence the name).

"Bling-bling really became popular with me when Shaq and the Lakers were using the term for their championship rings" in 2001, says Californian Jeffrey "Halfshaq" Marino, who sells lots of bling online at www.pimphats.com -- one of several Web sites that revel in metallic excess. (Another, MrBling.com, for example, sells custom-made teeth in yellow gold, white gold, and platinum.)

If the sports world was quick to embrace the word, all of television is on a bling bender. CNN Headline News has been using "bling-bling" and other hip-hop terms in its headlines and graphics as part of what the network's general manager has called an aggressive attempt to stay "relevant, smarter and cooler" to a younger audience.

The cooler-than-thou term has clearly exploded into the unhip mainstream -- which is why it's headed for the dictionary.

"We're going to draft an entry, which we'll probably publish soon," says Jesse Sheidlower, principal editor of the OED's North American Editorial Unit, who says it will be added online (as all new entries are) and will probably include several senses of bling-bling as a verb, noun, and adjective. "We decide based on currency. In a case like bling-bling, it's very widespread..."

Although it is usually credited to BG, and he certainly popularized it and established its current meaning, I will point out that the phrase "bling bling" was heard long before his record came out. The first time I remember was Jesse West a.k.a. 3rd Eye, on Supercat's "Dolly My Baby" remix in 1993: "Bling, bling! yo who's that with Supercat..."

Tom Raftery and Michele Mcphee, please STFU

I'm sure you've all heard about the shooting of an obscure rapper known as Freaky Zeeky. Although I hope he recovers and my condolences go out to the family of his friend who died, I didn't really see this story as worth posting about.. it's getting more attention than it needs, to be frank.

However, I must comment on one line in the Daily News' coverage, yet another example of how all journalistic standards seem to evaporate when Hip-Hop is the subject:

Investigators do not believe yesterday's incident stemmed from an ongoing feud among rappers that heated up after last year's murder of rap pioneer Jason Mizell, better known as Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC.

WHAT..THE..HELL..ARE..YOU..TALKING ABOUT????

There has not been any "feud among rappers" that was related in any way to the murder of Jam Master Jay, that is completely fictional. Where the hell did you people get that from?

Is this based on some vague fragment of a memory that JMJ was affiliated with 50 Cent, and 50 Cent also has some sort of beef? None of 50's beef has even the most remote connection to the JMJ shooting, and even the NYPD seems to realize that.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that such a major publication would state as a fact something that has no connection with reality whatsoever. This happens all the time, and not only in hip-hop coverage. But it's still jaw-droppingly ignorant.

Especially considering that four writers are credited for this story: Tom Raftery, Michele Mcphee, Maki Becker, and Edward Barrera. It took four people to come up with this crap? Four people, and you still couldn't manage the most basic fact checking?

So to whichever member of this elite think tank provided that sentence: you really, really need to STFU. And I'm keeping my eye on the rest of y'all.

EDIT: If any of you read this, please don't try to cop out by telling us that technically you did not assert a cause-and-effect relationship between JMJ's death and the current wave of beef, when you said this beef "heated up after" his death. You did not explicitly state it but the implication is unmistakable, and if you did not mean to indicate such a connection your writing skills are severely lacking.

ADDENDUM, 10-1-03: In the interest of fairness I should mention I just got interviewed by Michele Mcphee in reference to the Matthew Hall tragedy, and at the very least she seemed sincere in her desire to report the story fairly and accurately.. Afterwards I remembered posting her name here, and looking at it now I may have been a bit harsh. But just a bit.

April 28, 2003

The Butcher Says This Beef is Not Kosher

My twin brother Jon at hiphop anonymous, posted this story about Kay Slay speaking out against beef, which is rather like Colonel Sanders speaking out against chicken. :

DJ Tells 50 Cent, Ja Rule: One More Dis Record, Then Quit It

When a war of words is becoming too dramatic for the Drama King himself, maybe the situation is getting out of hand.

"If you have some other drama, I ain't gonna front, I'mma hit it," DJ Kay Slay said during his "Double Drama Hour" show on New York's Hot 97. "But this beef in particular with Ja Rule and 50, this is it for me."

The rivalry between Ja Rule and 50 Cent recently elevated on Slay's show, and if the mixtape don has his way, it will end on his show.

Three weeks ago, Slay premiered Ja's freestyle, which the streets have dubbed "Loose Change." In it, Rule comes at the Shady/Aftermath camp, Busta Rhymes, Lil' Mo and manager Chris Lighty. A retaliation came the next week via the Em and 50 freestyle "Hail Mary." Last week the saga continued when Kay played a new Benzino dis record aimed at Shady/Aftermath along with Ja's latest abrasive retort, "Guess Who Shot Ya."

Now Slay is saying enough is enough.

"I'm putting it out there for them, have one [more record apiece] made and take it out that way," Slay suggested. "There's no other way. People are harboring feelings and they need to put everything they got to say and feel on one last record. Get everything out and then just keep it moving. How many more ways can Ja Rule dis 50? How many more things can 50 Cent say about Ja Rule? Most of them records kind of channel through me, and I feel like they need to cut it out now."

This reminds of how Richard Pryor said he knew he hit rock bottom when even his own dealer said he was doing too much coke, and refused to sell him any more.

(BTW, the co-writer of that article is one of my oldest friends in the "hip-hop industry", Minya Oh. We both wrote for The Source wayyyyy back in the day, when it was still respectable.)

NEW AUDIO: Mix from DJ 3D

I just posted a new mix from the mighty 3D in the Radio Show Archive. hope you enjoy!

By the way, that's 3D's picture on the right of our front page.

April 29, 2003

Steve Jobs Releases New Software, Discovers Eminem

Fortune Magazine has a very lengthy article on Steve Jobs' new attempt at an online music service, the "iTunes Music Store". My preliminary verdict: a noble effort, but any attempt to make people to pay for downloads will always end in disappointment.

Interesting stuff though, and there was one segment I especially enjoyed:

His adventures in the music business have led to other changes in Jobs' thinking. During the photo shoot with Sheryl Crow for this article, he acknowledged to the singer that he had never really understood what rap music was all about. But while playing with a prototype of the iTunes Music Store on his Mac at home in recent weeks, he had started downloading some of Eminem's tracks.

"You know, he really is a great poet," Crow said.

To which Steve replied, "Yeah, he's starting to kind of grow on me."

I don't really have anything to say about that quote, but it amuses me.

NY's Hip-Hop Radio War: Are there Winners or Losers?

I'm sure both of the corporate media conglomerates involved in this "battle" are doing just fine, but is the audience getting any benefit from this competition? Honestly I almost never listen to either station, so maybe those of you from NY can tell me, has their been any change in the quality and diversity of their playlists?

Hip-hop turf makes room for a new player

It's been a year since WWPR (105.1 FM) sauntered into town to start a hip-hop turf war with WQHT (97.1 FM) - and both sides say they're winners.
Moreover, they can both be right.

"There isn't just one size pie," explains program director Vinny Brown of WBLS (107.5 FM), which is also a player in hip-hop radio. "When another station comes in, the pie can get bigger."

In the January-March quarter of 2002, WQHT and WBLS between them averaged 10.3% of the city audience. In January-March this year, WQHT, WWPR and WBLS combined to average 12.6%.

Between WQHT and WWPR, which compete directly for the younger hip-hop core while WBLS mixes in more R&B, WQHT (Hot-97) has a clear lead.

Hot-97 is second overall in the city, averaging 5.1% of all listeners. WWPR (Power-105) is seventh, averaging 3.8%. Among 18- to 34-year-olds, Hot-97 is first with 10.2% and Power-105 third at 6.9%.

Last summer, the stations were almost tied. Since then Hot-97 has pulled ahead and while it is down from 6.1% a year ago to its 5.1% today, it has been moving up lately.

"What happened is exactly what I predicted," says Tracy Cloherty, WQHT program director. "They got some early sampling, then they fell back and we stayed right where we were - number one."

Even more gratifying, WQHT is now one of the top 10 stations in the country for ad revenue, suggesting Madison Avenue now sees hip-hop fans as a broad audience, not a bunch of wise-guy kids.

Advertising revenue is a big reason that Michael Saunders, program director of WWPR, says he, too, is a happy man.

"Our ratings are about what we projected," says Saunders. "We have a solid core and we're pleased. But our ad revenue has already exceeded our expectations."

From parent Clear Channel's perspective, Power-105 is an even bigger hit, because its ratings exceed those of WTJM (Jammin'), which it replaced last year.

But just in terms of hip-hop, Saunders says the last year was good for everyone. "It has invigorated the stations," he says. "And when that happens, the listeners win. I also think it shows the whole hip-hop world you can have a strong competition without bloodshed..."

Is Something Wrong With This Picture?

A visitor just brought to my attention that there is a website named hiphopcaucasia.com, which describes itself as representing "rap's silent majority".

Upon first glance, I'm not sure how i feel about this site. My initial reaction is to find it a little weird and creepy. But is there any concrete reason to be disturbed or offended? What do you guys think? It's evidently not very well-maintained, more than half of the links seem to be broken..but besides that, what's your verdict?

April 30, 2003

Hip-Hop's First References to Poetry

A while ago the esteemed okayplayer drapetomaniac asked me to identify Hip-Hop's earliest allusions to poetry.

Nautrally the BDP classic "Poetry" came to mind immediately, from possibly the greatest hip-hop album ever "Criminal Minded". But surely someone before KRS must have made the obvious connection between emceeing and poetry? I'm almost certain an earlier reference must exist, but so far I haven't been able to remember it or google it.

Around the same time as "Poetry" we heard Rakim declare himself a "melody arranger, poet, etc." on "Check Out My Melody", and soon after that he coined his oft-quoted definition of rap as "rhythm and poetry" on "Follow the Leader". Also in 1987, LL told us he was a "poetry technician" on the less than memorable (yes, I googled this one) "Clap Ya Hands", from his third album "Walking With a Panther". Then there's always Guru's "a poet like Langston Hughes and can't lose" on DWYCK.

And who could forget the late 80's appearance of a rapper named MC Poet, a Juice Crew affiliate who joined in their ongoing feud with Boogie Down Productions by dropping two anti-KRS anthems, "Beat You Down" and "Takin You Out". KRS then effectively derailed MC Poet's career with his brutal response on the Numero Uno remix of "I'm Still Number 1" (which was also notable as one of the first hip-hop records to incorporate a salsa sample, in the form of the Symphony Sid Theme). Poet made a brief comeback in the 90's as part of a group named PHD, then resurfaced once again as a member of Screwball. But much like Frederic Weis will forever be inextricably linked to Vince Carter, Poet will always be best known as guy who got dunked on by KRS.

But all this just leaves us back where we started, at BDP's "Poetry". Is this possible? There were so many rhymes spit by so many old school crews: Cold Crush, the Crash Crew, The Treacherous 3, the various Fours (Funky and Fearless), the numerous Fives (Furious and Fantastic-Romantic)... surely somewhere in these early days there must be a reference to poetry? But I can't think of it. Maybe somebody can help me out.

May 1, 2003

We're Here, We Peer-to-Peer, Get Used To It (AKA: RIAA, STFU)

Yes, Jon is right.

Once a new idea has been discovered and implemented in the digital world, and the public has seen that it is useful, you cannot use brute force to make the public unlearn what it has learned. The meme cannot be un-memed, so to speak.

Any attempt to do so, in defense of that which has been rendered obsolete by this advancement, will accomplish nothing but further alienating the public from whatever product you represent in your quixotic misadventure.

File-sharing is here to stay. We're here, we peer-to-peer, get used to it.

For every finger RIAA lawyers stick into the P2P dike today (I mean dike as in dam, Beavis), ten new holes will open up tomorrow. If the music industry keeps flushing resources into this desperate attempt to flee from the 21st century, this is the surest path to their extinction.

The industry can only survive by learning to adapt to this new technology and live in harmony with it. Apple's latest attempt at adaptation, the iTunes Music Store, is a baby step in the right direction. But if they think the public is going to abandon Kazaa (or the other ones I won't mention, so as not to give the RIAA any ideas) for a system that charges a dollar per download, Q-Tip must be right about them smoking crack. The only hope I see lies in charging a flat monthly rate for unlimited downloads, and you'd better be offering a selection of files on par with Napster or Audiogalaxy in their prime.

I'm not even sure that would work. But I sincerely hope there is a solution, and wish the industry would take their heads out of the sand and start looking for it. Because in the long term, noone will benefit from anarchy. We need a system that ensures artists will be justly compensated for their work, I would never deny that this is a legitimate concern. The problem is that such a system has never existed, within this industry.

The RIAA's attempt to portray their war on file sharing as a noble defense of the downtrodden artist is the epitome of hypocrisy. They are fighting to defend a system that is obscenely exploitative of artists, designed to keep them rich by keeping the artist in shackles. The RIAA is basically an association of pimps, concerned about getting maximum profit from their hoes.

So although it is usually portrayed as endangering every artist's very existence, the file-sharing revolution may well bring about the liberation of the musician. Whatever system takes music through the 21st century will have to be radically different than the one that preceded it. It's quite possible artists will find themselves in a much more equitable position than they'd ever achieve under the current regime, if musicians (and the audience who values them) seek an active role in shaping the new system.

Because one way or another, a new system soon will be. The meme cannot be un-memed. And for the music industry, this is your final warning: it is time for you to STFU, and WTFUBYGE.

Your judgement day is at hand in the Court of Natural Selection. Your current strategy, pretending you didn't get the subpoena, is not going to save your ass. You must evolve or perish.

-----------

*WTFUBYGE=Wake the F*** Up Before You Go Extinct

Speaking of Poetry

The latest issue of Newsweek has opinion piece declaring that poetry is dead:

Poetry Is Dead. Does Anybody Really Care?

It is difficult to imagine a world without movies, plays, novels and music, but a world without poems doesn’t have to be imagined. I find it disturbing that no one I know has cracked open a book of poetry in decades and that I, who once spent countless hours reading contemporary poets like Lowell and Berryman, can no longer even name a living poet.

All this started to bother me when heiress Ruth Lilly made an unprecedented donation of $100 million to Poetry Magazine in November. An article published on the Poetry International Web site said critics and poets agreed that the gift "could change the face of American poetry."

Don’t these critics and poets realize that their art form is dead? Perhaps not. They probably also don’t realize that people like me helped kill it...

Well, I'm glad us hip-hoppers are not the only ones being told that we have gone extinct at least once a month. But this piece is pretty weak to me, for numerous reasons. For one thing I find it strange he devotes an entire piece to measuring poetry's place in the zeitgeist without any mention whatsoever of the spoken word/slam poetry scene, now slickly repackaged as "Def Poetry". Nor does he mention Hip-Hop at all. In fact, it does not appear that anything involving people of color has ever showed up on his radar.

Now, I myself have issues with categorizing hip-hop as a form of poetry (I'd define it as music that often has a poetic element, but not necessarily poetry..I'd probably better make a separate post about that later), and much of the spoken word scene is really more like performance art or stand-up comedy than actual poetry. So if he wanted to argue that Hip-Hop and slam poetry do not meet his poetic standards, that would be one thing. But for him to go through this entire piece without mentioning those movements at all...

May 2, 2003

Improve Your Memory Through Hip-Hop

There are quite a few historical events whose date I always remember by reciting a classic rap lyric:


  • The L.A. Riots: "April 29th was power to the people, and there might just be a sequel.." - Ice Cube (Wicked)

  • The Death of Biggie Smalls: "That s*** was the worst rhyme I ever heard in my life, cuz the greatest rapper of all time died on March 9th" - Canibus (2nd Round Knockout)

  • The Million Man March: "Slangin bean pies and St Ides in the same sentence, shoulda repented on the 16th of October.." - Common (The Bitch in Yoo)

Am I the only person who does this?

Update on the Murder Inc. Investigation

These charges have been around for a while now, as was reported comprehensively by my homey Minya back in January. Other than the accusation about 50 cent, this seems to reiterate what we already knew they were investigating, but with a little more detail:

Affidavit: Drug Money Backed Murder Inc.

Rap industry insiders have told investigators that the successful Murder Inc. music label was bankrolled by a notorious drug dealer who also was involved in a shooting of hip-hop superstar 50 Cent. The allegations were detailed in a newly unsealed affidavit obtained yesterday (May 1). The document was filed under seal in January in a federal money-laundering investigation of Murder Inc. and other rap industry enterprises.

The affidavit, signed by an Internal Revenue Service agent, accuses Kenneth McGriff -- the convicted leader of a murderous drug gang in Queens -- of forming an illicit partnership with Murder Inc. owner and longtime friend Irv Gotti. It alleges McGriff provided drug proceeds as "start-up money" for the label in the late 1990s. Murder Inc. is now home to top-selling recording artists such as Ja Rule and Ashanti.

Neither McGriff nor Gotti have been charged in the money laundering case, which prosecutors have refused to discuss. McGriff's attorney, Robert Simels, called the allegations groundless. "As far as I know, he and 50 Cent had a good relationship," he said...

As noted in Minya's original piece, Ja Rule has bragged openly about Murder Inc's connection with Preme, including one rhyme that boasts: "funds unlimited, backed by my 'preme team crime representatives.."

Ooh, the Dew-Dew Man..

Canada's music mag Exclaim has a decent Prince Paul interview up today:

Prince Paul Battles the Hip-Hop Robots

"Either you’re gonna get it, or you’re not," says Prince Paul of his latest opus, Politics of the Business. "I don’t think the average hip-hop head will understand what I’m doing." Throughout his 19-year career, the visionary producer has consistently stretched the boundaries of hip-hop, from ushering in the Daisy Age with De La Soul’s seminal 1989 debut, 3 Feet High and Rising, to introducing the world to oddball Jewish rapper MC Paul Barman on 2000’s It’s Very Stimulating EP. Left-field projects like the latter, however, have increasingly polarised fans and critics alike, and Politics of the Business is bound to be no exception.

At first listen, Politics of the Business appears to be the very antithesis of a Prince Paul production: no-nonsense beats, standard samples, and occasional hints of hit single material. The only similarity is the sheer number of guest artists involved. "I think God purposely made me not able to rhyme because if He did, it would be a mad house. It’d be really insane," Paul chuckles. The vocal spectrum encompasses everyone from hip-hop stalwarts Chuck D and Guru to underground MCs MF Doom, Planet Asia, and Jean Grae, aka What What. The album also marks Prince Paul’s first collaboration with Canadian artists; Kardinal Offishall lends his slang on "What I Need," while Saukrates will appear on a forthcoming version of the same track.

Still, further listens to Politics of the Business reveal a closer semblance to Prince Paul’s previous solo efforts than the "fast food music" of mainstream rap records. Much like its critically acclaimed but commercially rejected predecessor, 1999’s brilliant hip-hopera, A Prince Among Thieves, Prince Paul’s new LP is a veiled criticism of the hip-hop industry. "It's a well-done spoof, and I wanted to do it without smiling," he explains. "People expect every record that I put out to [somehow] change the world. I’m gonna do what people wouldn’t expect me to do, even though they expect me to do the unexpected."

The Official Documents from the Murder Inc. Case

Smoking Gun has the complete affidavit released by the government in connection to their investigation of Murder Inc.

Normally I wouldn't be giving this much attention to a "Hip-Hop Crime" story, but this one looks like it is going to be pretty serious. These documents are no joke.

May 3, 2003

Ja Rule's Bad Spelling is a Defense Strategy?

In Minya Oh's latest report on the Murder Inc investigation she drops a nice little scoop about Ja Rule's much-ridiculed misspelling of his own crew's name:

Meanwhile, the incredible scrutiny of federal agents seems to have had an effect on Murder Inc.'s music. According to Murder Inc. artist Blackchild, an apparent slip up on Ja Rule's recent anti-50 Cent track "Loose Change" was more calculated than clumsy. Blackchild insisted to MTV News that when Ja raps, "50, you gon' get shot again by the M-U-R-E-D-R Inc.," he misspells the name of his label in order to avoid making a self-incriminating statement.

Incredible. They've come up with an explanation for the stupidest rhyme of the year, and it actually makes the rhyme sound even stupider than it did before. I wouldn't have thought that was possible.

May 4, 2003

Photos: The Anomolies on the Railroad

This week we were blessed with an appearance by four of the Anomolies: Helixx, Big Tara, Pri the Honey Dark, and DJ Kuttin Kandi. They gave a solid live performance that I'll try to post this week.. for now here are a few pictures:

click on a thumbnail for the full-size image:


one - Helixx, Tara, Pri, Kandi
two - Tara, Pri
three - Kandi

May 5, 2003

Pro Gay=Mo' Pay?

It's always hard to tell whether there is really a cause/effect relationship in studies like this, but interesting nonetheless. Maybe we'll finally get a few hip-hoppers to let go of their homophobia, if we can prove there's money in it.

Gay-tolerant societies prosper economically

If you object to homosexuality on moral grounds, as Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., recently did in an interview, you may not be swayed by economic arguments. But if you are a fan of entrepreneurship and business growth, you should know the economic price of intolerance.

The key to understanding America's technological and economic vibrancy lies in our openness to new people and ideas. Tolerance of immigrants, gays and other minorities is much more important to sustained economic growth and the high-paying jobs than the tax cut President Bush has in mind.

Research I conducted with Gary Gates, an Urban Institute demographer, shows that the big new-ideas and cutting-edge industries that lead to sustained prosperity are more likely to exist where gay people feel welcome. Most centers of tech-based business growth also have the highest concentrations of gay couples. Conversely, major areas with relatively few gay couples tend to be slow- or no-growth places. Pittsburgh and Buffalo, which have low percentages of gay couples, were two of only three major regions to lose population from 1990 to 2000.

Studies controlling for a wide range of factors also show innovation and economic vitality closely associated with the presence of gays and other indicators of tolerance and diversity, such as the percentage of immigrants and the level of racial and ethnic integration...

Quality Returns to New York Hip-Hop Radio

Anyone who was around to witness it will remember the classic Marley Marl In Control show that aired on WBLS, possibly the hottest ever heard on NY radio, successor to the legendary Mr. Magic's Rapp Attack.

In more recent years, Pete and Marley kept that tradition alive with the Future Flavaz show on Hot 97, but that station's allergy to quality music started acting up and the show got canned. Since then they have kept it going at Future Flavas Online, sending out live streams every weekend along with such other luminaries as Premier and Evil Dee.

And now I'm happy to discover their show has been picked up by NY's other major hip-hop outlet, Power 105. It will air every Friday from Midnight to 2, with a rotating line-up of DJs that consists of: Marley Marl, Pete Rock, Evil Dee, Lord Sear, Premier, and Jazzy Jeff. How's that for an all-star lineup? Maybe this will help me stay up for Cypher Queenz at 4.

Harvard Takes on Tupac

While perusing Mike Barthel's blog I found a report in the Harvard Gazette about an academic symposium devoted to Tupac Shakur. Mike got the link from this blogger, who seems awfully offended that such an event would occur.

As I said to Mr. Barthel, I'm not sure I understand why some people find this so outlandish. I mean, of course whenever academics tackle a pop culture topic some silliness and pretension will ensue, as witnessed in the article below. But that doesn't mean the subject isn't worthwhile.

Why wouldn't Tupac be worthy of scholarly analysis, as a cultural phenomenon? It's not like this symposium was based on the premise that Tupac composed literature worthy of replacing James Joyce in Harvard's English curriculum, or anything like that. As far as I can tell, it focused on his impact as a cultural icon, which has certainly been profound. So why do folks find it so absurd that Harvard might devote a few hours to him? Is it an assumption that all pop culture is irredeemably frivolous? Or is there a more specific bias at play?

Symposium analyzes, celebrates 'thug': Tupac looked at as cultural artifact, force

Few spaces at Harvard are more burdened by symbols of the University's glorious past than the Barker Center's Thompson Room.

While the room itself is not particularly large, everything in it is on a grand scale, from the towering grandfather clock to the walk-in stone fireplace topped by a bust of John Harvard, both prominently inscribed with Veritas shields. Standing portraits of Theodore Roosevelt, Percival Lowell, and other Harvard notables hang from the floor-to-ceiling oak paneling, in which names such as Emerson, Longfellow, Bulfinch, and Agassiz have been carved in bas-relief.

But for one day last week (April 17), these dignified totems of authority and rectitude were all but effaced by portraits of a young black man, his head shaved, his muscular arms and torso heavily tattooed, and his heavy-lidded eyes conveying an expression both menacing and soulful. In several photos he brandished a handgun, and in one he wore a large automatic tucked into the waistband of his boxer shorts.

The occasion was an academic symposium titled "All Eyez on Me: Tupac Shakur and the Search for the Modern Folk Hero." It was co-sponsored by the Hiphop Archive, the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research, the Program of Folklore and Mythology, and IKS University of Oslo, Norway...

...Mark Anthony Neal, an English professor from the State University of New York, Albany, gave a talk titled "Thug Nigga Intellectual: Tupac as Celebrity Gramscian," in which he argued that Shakur could be seen as an example of the "organic intellectual" who expresses the concerns of his group, a concept articulated by Antonio Gramsci, the Marxist political theorist...

...But the guy who blew everyone away was the keynote speaker Michael Eric Dyson, Avalon Professor in the Humanities and African American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and author of "Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur"(BasicCivitas Books, 2001). Speaking in an intense, cadenced, crescendoing style that clearly derived from black preaching, Dyson combined the vocabulary of post-structuralist theory with the language of the streets while quoting liberally from Tupac, Notorious B.I.G., Snoop Dog, Nas, and Mos Def.

Dyson, who has written books on Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, as well as issues in contemporary culture and race relations, said that when colleagues heard he was writing a book on Tupac Shakur, they asked "Why would you waste time and energy writing about this thug?"

Dyson's answer was that "Tupac spoke to me with brilliance and insight as someone who bears witness to the pain of those who would never have his platform. He told the truth, even as he struggled with the fragments of his identity..."

May 6, 2003

Flash is Fast, Flash is Cool

Props were given to Grandmaster Flash in this weekend's Daily News. I'm glad to see that unlike Paul Cashmere, David Hinckley knows the difference between a DJ and a rapper.

Hip hop's frontier scout: Grandmaster Flash is still out there on the trail

Since most hip-hop careers don't last much longer than the pair of sneakers you wear when you sign the contract, perhaps the best tribute to Grandmaster Flash is that 30 years after he helped start the hip-hop game, he's still out there playing it.
Flash is working the clubs, touring Europe, spinning on Sirius satellite radio - doing the things deejays like Grandmaster Flowers and Pete Jones started doing in the parks and basements of the Bronx in the early '70s, when this new dance-and-party sound barely reached beyond the five boroughs.

Flash, born Joseph Saddler on New Year's Day 1958 in Barbados, was a teenage electronics wizard who soaked it all up and pushed it forward, exploring new possibilities for the turntables and the music.

It would be nice to say he lived happily ever after, too, but sometimes it's not all good. Flash battled with record companies and drugs. There were career dips.

"I've had some rough times," he says. "But I'm not bitter. I'm not angry. About 10 years ago, when things weren't working out, I went back to the basics, back to my turntables. I reinvented myself by using the same formula I did when I was first deejaying. I refused to be a myth, to be folklore. If I played someplace, I didn't want to tear up a room on sympathy. I wanted to tear it up with music.

"Remember, when I started, 'Apache' was a new record. There was no door open then. I had to kick it down."

Flash and the Furious Five graduated from block parties to records in the late '70s with tracks like "Freedom" and "Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel." They exploded in 1982 with "The Message," a stark warning in the style of Marvin Gaye, the Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron, with a hip-hop beat.

"Don't push me," it went, "'Cause I'm close to the edge."

By then, national magazines were picking up on Flash and his rappers, including Melle Mel. "Flash is fast," sang Deborah Harry. "Flash is cool."

But hit songs weren't a ticket to the American Dream...

Federal Court Weighs in on "Back That Azz Up"

It's funny to see the criteria used when our legal system wants to determine whether one rapper is biting another.

Jubilee's expert witness asserted that both songs have the same hook, similar tempo and arrangement, while Juvenile's counter-expert pointed out that among other things "Jubilee's is in the key of A-flat, a major key, while Juvenile's is in D minor".

Although I haven't heard Jubilee's song, going by Hip-Hop aesthetics I'd think if you took the hook then you are probably biting, regardless of what key you are in. But the court's standards are obviously based on very different musical sensibilities.

Rapper Juvenile bests Jubilee in court

The question facing a federal jury was: Exactly which rapper was the first to "Back That Azz Up"?

Was it Jerome Temple, the West Jefferson High School special education teacher who, as his alter ego DJ Jubilee, is a favorite at local block parties and dances? Or was it Terius "Juvenile" Gray, whose version of the song made him a star and introduced the New Orleans "bounce" sound to a nationwide audience?

At stake were millions of dollars. The success of Juvenile's version helped sell millions of copies of his 1998 album "400 Degreez," establishing the local Cash Money Records as a major player on the national rap scene.

Jubilee and his local record label, Positive Black Talk Inc., doing business as Take Fo' Records, claimed in a federal lawsuit that Juvenile, Cash Money Records and Cash Money's national corporate partner, Universal Records, violated federal copyright laws by using the Jubilee song "Back That Ass Up" without permission.

But a federal court jury ruled Monday in Juvenile's favor, deciding that the song was his creation and was not cribbed from Jubilee's song. The verdict capped a five-day trial at which both rappers testified. Ultimately, the jury of five men and one woman came down heavily for Juvenile.

Attorney David Patron, representing Juvenile and Cash Money, said the lawsuit had cast his clients as "thieves," but that the jury's verdict vindicated them as "independent, creative artists."

No word yet on how Rick Santorum feels about Backing That Azz Up.

Race Theory According to Anticon

Although their music does not suit my personal taste, I've always respected Anticon's efforts to innovate and pursue their own musical vision. I sometimes have less respect for how they represent themselves outside of the studio, where they (and some of their fans) have been prone to gut-wrenching spasms of arrogance and elitism. Sometimes they seem to show a profound lack of respect for the musical form they are largely drawing from, and the people who created it.

I could write at great length about this, and perhaps I should, since the topic strikes a nerve for both fans and detractors. But for now here's a recent Anticon article I just came by, in what seems to be a student newspaper from Scotland. It's an interview with the member known as "Why?", and there are several passages I found rather troublesome. I'm especially disturbed by his attempt to discount the relevance of race in 21st century America, in the second excerpt.

Anticonservative Sounds

Revolutionising the outmoded concept of hip-hop, Anticon are taking on the world with their unique brand of 'independent-as-f**k' beats and rhymes.

"I THINK as much about hip hop these days as I do about Shania Twain, Clint Black and Limp Dickstick..." From the outset, Yoni Wolf, a.k.a. Why? of Anticon, the West Coast-based music label, makes no bones about his feelings towards a homogenised, corporate-led music culture. "I think it has become an irrelevant teeny-bopper/ wanna-have-all-the-decadent-shit-rich-people-have-even-though-I-can't-afford-to-eat phenomenon... The phrase 'hip-hop' doesn't mean anything worth meaning anymore – if it ever even did..."

...Anticon releases music which could loosely be tagged as underground white West Coast American hip-hop but, as Yoni suggests, the act of description is often one which delimits musical potential. Anticon have received a bad rap, if you'll pardon the pun, from much of the hip-hop community for producing music not perceived as being true hip-hop. "I think as time goes on we grow increasingly more accepted by the music/art community and increasingly distinct from other movements at the same time," he says. "The more confident we become in our own individual artistic skins, the less pretentious we seem, and the more people are willing to accept what we do. As far as being white and male goes, I don't think it's a negative or a positive. Although we have all had very different upbringings in all different parts of the country, we do all have the white male rap kid thing in common. As time goes on though, I tend to think less and less in terms of race and more in terms of culture and class. So let's not say 'white' and 'black', 'cause I think those words are too abstract and the lines are too blurred – I think more of the separation and fear between people in this country can be attributed to class and culture than to the colour of people's skin. It just so happens that because of a shitload of blemishes in this country's development and current state, a whole lot of people of African, Asian, Latin American, and Native American descent are quite poor; and in turn a number of people of European descent have a great deal of wealth and power. There are also a great deal of poor people of European descent in this nation. I think there is just as much disconnection between poor whites and privileged whites as there is between privileged whites and poor blacks, or wealthy blacks and poor blacks, and so on. Those who have the power and wealth want to keep the power and wealth and only share it with others who are powerful and wealthy. So eight lower middle class kids of European and Middle Eastern descent happened upon each other's music and felt related? Is that a bad thing? I don't think so..."

May 7, 2003

More Hip-Hop Litigation

A court has decided that Def Jam owes $132,000,000.00 to TVT, the label where Ja Rule made his debut on a Mic Geronimo single, and later got signed along with his group the Cash Money Click. $108 million seems like a lot of damn money for punitive damages, I wouldn't be surprised if that changes on appeal:

$132M awarded in Ja Rule dispute

A small independent record company won a $132 million US verdict against industry heavyweight Island Def Jam Music Group and its top executive on Tuesday in a dispute over an unreleased record by rapper Ja Rule.

The verdict in the penalty phase of the trial provides roughly $24 million in compensatory damages and $108 million in punitive damages to New York-based TVT Records. Ja Rule, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, started his career with TVT in 1993 and moved to Island Def Jam with president Steve Gottlieb's blessing five years later, TVT lawyer Peter Haviland said.

In spring 2001, Ja Rule and two friends tried to make an album for TVT that included early Ja Rule recordings, but Def Jam's parent record company Universal Music Group blocked its completion, the lawyer said.

Haviland said Gottlieb was "left in ruins" when he could not release the album he was counting on...

And Dr. Dre also took a loss in this case involving the sample used for "Let's Get High". My question here is how much of that $1.5 million will ever make its way to the actual members of Fatback? I hope the answer is not zero, but I have a funny feeling..

U.K. Label May Get $1.5M From Dr. Dre

A federal jury has recommended a $1.5 million award to a British record company that sued rapper-producer Dr. Dre for song plagiarism, attorneys for both sides said.

U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall has yet to sign the judgment, Dre's attorney Howard King said Tuesday. A recorded telephone message left after business hours for King to elaborate on the award wasn't returned.

London-based Minder Music Ltd., sued Dre in 2000, claiming his 1999 song, "Let's Get High," used the bass line of Minder Music group Fatback's 1980 song, "Backstrokin," said Minder Music attorney Alan Dowling.

That second link also has info on the lawsuit filed against 50 Cent by the surgeon who treated him after his shooting. As many times as 50 refers to the shooting in his rhymes and press appearances, that surgeon should be getting a percentage of his sales.

May 9, 2003

50 Cent: Next Face on Mount Rushmore?

This op-ed piece from a local paper in Oregon places 50 Cent alongside America's Founding Fathers:

A real American hero

It's a good bet that moralizing cultural arbiter William J. Bennett wouldn't agree, but you could argue that rapper 50 Cent is a classic American hero.

Perhaps this seems an odd description for the hip-hop newcomer, whose instantly mythic celebrity persona is based not so much on his rhyming skills as on his tough-guy physique and a rough past of drug dealing and violence. Despite being the most powerful nation in the history of the world, America retains an enduring fascination with triumphant underdogs; after all, even the most lovingly institutionalized heroes, the bedrock figures of our social and political establishment, were rebels: the Founding Fathers broke King George's laws in order to make their own rules. Those boys kicked it really old school, straight outta the Continental Congress. Talk about your Original Gangstas.

But because the vast posse that T. Jefferson and his crew eventually attracted included so many underdogs -- too many poor, huddled masses to all triumph by socially proper means -- we also came to love those who go down scratching and clawing and causing trouble along the way. We love winners, but we love bad guys, too...

Suge Knight's Selective Thuggery

Here is a letter I sent in response to this piece in today's Orange County Register:

From: Jay Smooth To: 'bwener@ocregister.com' Subject: Snoop and Suge Knight

I enjoyed your piece today about the Biggie and Tupac documentary. But how could you say that Snoop is "terrified" of Suge Knight? He has been by far the most courageous member of the hip-hop community in publicly standing up to Suge and calling him out for the disgrace that he is. Take these lyrics from "Pimp Slapp'd", the track devoted to Suge on his latest album:

>Your only gain is to try to get me to fall down to your level
>Man you worser than them devils
>A lotta niggas should've said it, f**k em
>But I'ma say it for em, stop it, pop it, rewind and play it for em
>This nigga's a bitch like his wife
>Suge Knight's a bitch, and that's on my life
>And I'ma let the whole world see
>Cos you f**ked up the industry, and that's on me

These hardly strike me as the words of a terrified man. I liked your piece otherwise, but I think Snoop deserves more credit than you gave him.

Especially since he's far more likely to face retribution than Nick Broomfield. Suge has usually shown an awareness that he's more likely to get away with his thuggery if he keeps it within the Hip-Hop community. As documented in Ronin Ro's book "Have Gun Will Travel", when conflict started in Death Row's offices, the intended victim would often try to escape by fleeing to "the white section" of Interscope's office, where Suge's crew was reluctant to get their thug on.

One of the few times they did cross that line was their assault on Steven Cantrock, of the accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand. Cantrock and his associates then showed Death Row the difference between chess and checkers, when they went to federal agents with details of Suge's financial dealings, and helped bring about his downfall.

-Jay Smooth, WBAI

Stagger Lee, the O.G.'s O.G.

Here's a lengthy feature in the Guardian breaking down the history of Black folk (anti)hero Stagger lee. It's written by Cecil Brown, who wrote the cult classic novel "The Life and Loves of Mr. Jiveass Nigger", and just released a non-fiction work named "Stagolee Shot Billy", from which this essay is drawn.

Brown was immortalized on Richard Pryor's concert album "Bicentennial Nigger", when Richard pointed Cecil out in the audience and talked about how much he liked "Jiveass Nigger", plus how jealous he was that Brown came to the show with Rosalind Cash.

I think he may be reaching a bit with some of the connections drawn between Stagolee and Hip-Hop, such as when he points out that they both make use of cliche.. similarities don't always indicate influences. But this is still a nice offering, highly informative. I recommend reading the whole thing but I will paste some of the section that deals with Hip-Hop:

Godfather of Gangsta

In the red-light district of St Louis in 1895, a pimp shot a man dead in an argument over a hat. The ballad telling the story has been recorded by hundreds of bluesmen and jazzers - and even the Clash. It also helped create modern-day rap. Cecil Brown tells the remarkable tale of Stagolee...

...In the development of rap music and hip-hop culture, Stagolee's influence is very clear. It persists in rap in the use of the first-person narrator, the performers' adoption of nicknames, the social drama, the humour, and participation in the commodity culture. From the 1930s to the 1950s, most reciters of Stagolee told the story in the third person. After the rise of the toast tradition in the 1960s, most reciters told the story in the first person. The audience sees through the eyes of the character the rapper creates. The "I" is the bridge between the "I" of the rapper and the "I" of the character.

A reciter of Stagolee associates himself with the hero, but he also makes clear that he is not Stagolee. He can effectively change himself in the eyes of his spectators and listeners. In gangsta rap, the performers are acting out the lives of the criminals in an effort to dispel the criminal from their midst, as a way to get rid of the negative energy.

Stagolee is also present in rap music in the use of cliche: Stagolee is composed of cliche lines that are easy to remember. In rap music, performers found it necessary to use such cliches to keep the rap going.

The final influence that Stagolee has on rap was participation in commodity culture. In the 1890s, the Stetson became a symbol of black male status; in the late 1990s, baggy pants became a signifier of status. As in ear lier generations, ghetto blacks fight against a white appropriation through weird dress. To be able to purchase these commodities, young people in the ghettos resort to hustling, as their parents and grandparents did. They can't afford to believe that a nine-to-five job would solve their problems, because they could never get those jobs.

So gangsta rappers use the lifestyle commodities - cars, clothes, girls - as signifiers of success and wealth. They scrap the old cliche of the ghetto hustler with a slick suit and a truckload of hot goods for the new archetype of the rapper. The term and the concept of the modern-day "mack" are a retrieval of the old cliche of the St Louis mack that Lee Shelton once embodied. And it is not just the mack who is revived, but the women who will do anything for him, including sell their bodies. The girls rappers talk about are whores, or "ho's", just as they were back in the pre-industrial ballads of Stagolee...

More on Russell Simmons vs. Rockefeller

Our friends at Democracy Now have the audio of Russell Simmons' speech calling for a repeal of the Rockefeller drug laws, you can listen to it right here.

The Rockefeller Drug Laws Turn 30, Activists Vow to Overturn Them

This week is the 30th anniversary of the Rockefeller drug laws. In 1973, New York governor Nelson Rockefeller pushed through State legislature the first laws in the nation that require minimum sentences for first-time drug users.

The Rockefeller drug laws mandate a minimum of 15 years for first-time, nonviolent drug users who are caught with small amounts of drugs.

Dozens of other states and the federal government rushed to adopt their own versions of the Rockefeller drug laws when New York State set the precedent.

But people like Barbara and Jenna Bush don't need to be too afraid. Most the people imprisoned by these laws are poor, and most of them are people of color.

Yesterday in New York, a coalition of politicians, celebrities, and mothers of prisoners rallied outside Governor George Pataki's office to demand the repeal of the drug laws. Hip-hop promoter and producer Russell Simmons, former New York Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo, Actors Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, and New York Reverend Al Sharpton were among those who spoke.

Also, check out this site that Becca pointed out to us with more good info.

May 10, 2003

Fabolous and Freeway Do Their Little Turn on the Catwalk

When I started on Christian Hoard's review of Fabolous and Freeway, I was afraid I might get a headache from struggling to parse his hipster gibberish, as often occurs when I read the Village Voice. But this one turned out to be kinda funny, and perceptive at times:

New Thugs on the Block

Next-Big-Thing Rappers Arrive With Wheeze, Breeze, and Cheese

Even though 8 Mile turned it into a heroic, Rocky-style archetype of urban odds-beating, battle rhyming (and the raw talent it assumes) is an oft overvalued part of rap-game success, especially among heads. Despite the attractiveness of summing up skillz so succinctly, it's easy to forget that most next-big-thing rappers arrive in your stereo with equal measures good luck and assistance from well-established backers, and also that first-rate rhymes often make for third-rate records. And whatever the case, most new thugs on the block will at least get a second shot, if only to ensure their label gets a return on its investment.

All of which is fairly obvious, I suppose, but which is thrown into sharp relief by Freeway and Fabolous, two comparably blessed rhymers whose newish records (Free's first, Fab's second) nonetheless end up miles apart. Freeway, an Amish-bearded Sunni Muslim with the obligatory dope-slinging background, signed with Roc-a-Fella after his old Philly buddy Beanie Sigel introduced him to a soon besmitten Jay-Z. (Hova was so confident in the upstart MC's flow that he wagered cold cash on Hot 97 that no one could match Freeway in battle. To date, no one's taken up the challenge.) Fabolous, who debuted two years ago with a terrific, loose-tongued single (the Nate Dogg-assisted "I Can't Deny It"), is a 23-year-old Brooklynite with fashion model good looks and a honeyed, Mase-slow flow. On both of their cameo-stuffed records, their distinct voices are subsumed in production as bouncy and r&b as it is pricey. But where Free's album works its way up to a lively, beat-wise sleekness, Fab's jiggles like week-old Jell-O while the platinum kid gets drunk on his own hype. (Speaking of production, really the deciding factor with both albums, I find the recent r&b-electro-synthy turn among big-name—especially East Coast—beatmakers a little disturbing. Realized most vividly on current albums by Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes, and Snoop Dog, this boombapless music is sleekness for its own sake: a bling-bling equivalent of '80s studio slickness and unfeeling art-rock. Never mind that undie producers like El-P treat fun[k] like a big pile of anthrax; that's a trend that has yet to bubble up aboveground. But from the big boys, I do ask for a little meat and potatoes to go with all the caviar and Cristal. Maybe even some new James Brown samples...)

Wait a minute. Did he just say Fabolous has "fashion model good looks"?? I retract my earlier statement about the headache.

MF Grimm Released from Prison

All the Hip-Hop message boards were buzzing today with rumors about it, and it is now confirmed that MF Grimm is once again a free man, after nearly 3 years in prison.

I used to spend a lot of time at Stretch and Bobbito's show in the early 90's, and remember him well from back then, when he was still known as Grim Reaper (and before a horrific shooting incident left him paralyzed). He always had new rhymes ready whenever he came around, and would eagerly gather people around to hear his latest compositions, and check out the new angles he was exploring. He delivered each rhyme with such intensity, and always struck me as fiercely devoted to his art.

That strength and commitment has shown itself in his incredible ability to overcome the hardships life has placed in his path since then, finding himself confined to a wheelchair and then confined to a jail cell, but never losing the drive to make his voice heard. It is truly wonderful news to hear he is free, and I hope this is only the beginning of of many good things to come for MF Grimm.

Grimm has a new album slated to come out sometime this summer, under the auspices of Day By Day Entertainment.

May 12, 2003

NEW AUDIO: Anomolies Live Performance

I just posted two excerpts from The Anomolies' appearance on our show last week, in the Freestyle Archive.

We may soon be running out of space for our soundfiles, so if any one has webspace they could donate for the cause, or can recommend a reliable host that gives a lot of space for a low price, please let me know. i'm hoping I won't have to take down any of the older files to make room for new ones.

May 13, 2003

Outkast vs. Rosa Parks, Round 2

A new development in Rosa Parks' old lawsuit against Outkast. This seems to be another case where our legal system is assessing a work of art it is poorly equipped to judge.

I'd think it would be clear to most who read this that Outkast was not hoping to trick anyone into thinking this was a product affiliated with Rosa Parks, to capitalize on her "brand" or anything like that. Just as it should have been obvious in 1989 that Luther Campbell was not trying to pretend his booty records were affiliated with the Star Wars franchise, when he named himself Luke Skywalker. But the courts, made up of folks with different cultural sensibilities (and beholden to legal technicalities that can override common sense), had a different interpretation.

Rosa Parks Trumps "Rosa Parks"

A federal appeals court on Monday cast out a ruling in favor of OutKast and reinstated the civil-rights pioneer's lawsuit accusing the Grammy-winning hip-hop duo of profiting off her moniker by appropriating it for the title of their tune "Rosa Parks" and falsely suggesting the song was about her or endorsed by her.

In its ruling, a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Detroit sided with the 90-year-old Parks and declared that while OutKast is protected by the First Amendment, the Atlanta-based rap outfit still must demonstrate to the court why they decided to name their song after the Detroit resident when the lyrics barely mention her.

"The fact that Defendants cry 'artist' and 'symbol' as reasons for appropriating Rosa Parks' name for a song title does not absolve them from potential liability for, in the words of Shakespeare, filching Rosa Parks' good name," the judges said in their ruling.

The heart of Parks' case is that OutKast used her iconic name for commercial gain without her permission...

..."Rosa Parks" was one of the more popular tracks off OutKast's multiplatinum-selling 1998 Arista release Aquemini, but contains no references to Parks in the song aside from the title and the line, "everybody move to the back of the bus."

OutKast's lawyer, Joe Beck, argued that the rap duo's use of her name and the back-of-the-bus lyric did not constitute false advertising nor infringe on Parks' right to publicity as Parks' attorneys previously claimed. Rather, Beck said that while Parks' act of defiance inspired the line, it was really a symbolic slam to rival rappers looking to surpass OutKast's success...

I must say that choice of title always was a little mysterious to me, as was Bombs Over Baghdad. I often wished, during the recent war, that the latter's lyrics actually related to the title in some way, it could have been put to such great use.

But you might say there's a tradition in Hip-Hop of seemingly topical song titles that have no relation to the actual subject matter: A Tribe Called Quest's "Steve Biko"; LL Cool J's "Def Jam in the Motherland"; and "Free Mumia by KRS with Channel Live, which did a nice bait and switch by mentioning Mumia in the chorus but then devoting the song to a well deserved assault on C. Delores Tucker and her self-serving ilk. Are there any other examples you guys can think of?

NEW PHOTOS: Black Moon at Joe's Pub, 5/12/03

I stopped by Joe's Pub last night, where Evil Dee and Buckshot rocked along with Starang, Ruste Juxx, and Ruck AKA Sean Price.

The show started with a projection of the new Style Wars dvd running on stage as the crew set up for the show. Then Mums (Poet from Oz) introduced a pretty good short film named "What's for Breakfast" starring Andre Royo, who was also in attendance. He plays Bubbles the crackhead on The Wire, and also stars in one of those really annoying beer commercials where some guy expounds on his philosophy of life.

Then Evil Dee came out with Sean Price, who got off to a slow start, and seemed to be throwing off the Joe's Pub audience (which contained more females that the average hip-hop show) a bit with his ho/bitch/ho-centric verses.

But after a while he picked up some momentum, and once Buckshot came out things really got rolling.. Buck still has great stage presence, and he and Evil Dee adapted well when both the 1200's and CDJ1000's started skipping. With help from Ruck, Starang Wondah and a few other BCCers they rolled through most of their classics and a few songs from a possible new album, that sounded pretty solid.

The set ended with everyone on their feet for "How Many MCs" and "Who Got the Props", and getting folks out of their seats is no mean feat in such a pomo-afro-boho-bougie establishment. Pretty cool show. Here are a few pictures I took:

click on each image to see the full size photo

bcc.jpg buck1.jpg buck2.jpg evil_ruck_backstage.jpg
evilruck3.jpg ruck1.jpg ruckbuck1.jpg starang_buck.jpg

May 14, 2003

Fear and Loathing in the Mosh Pit

As mentioned on Okayplayer, indie-rap icon Sage Francis recently signed with the Punk label Epitaph records, and this news has started a fierce debate on Epitaph's website. Some fans are lamenting Epitaph's attempt to "sellout" or "go commercial" by signing the "OG Rapper" Sage, which has to get a chuckle from anyone familiar his work:

"oh my god..this is the demise of this label. Whats next Brett? you gonna sign 4 cute boys to dance and sing like the backstreet boys?"

"there should be some type of cleanliness left on our labels, and not the infiltration of bad music such as rap."

Yes, because as everybody knows, Punk is all about cleanliness.

Who woulda thunk the Punk world could be populated by such narrow-minded sheep, who embody everything Punk (as i understand it) was meant to rebel against? But to be fair, the majority of replies are more sensible:

"I am thoroughly glad about this. Punk doesnt have a sound, but a feeling. Sage has seen the problems of our society and expresses them. That IS Punk. The most Punk song ever is 1920's The Jazz song "Strange Fruit" By Billie Holiday. It speaks of taboos and she fought to perform it wherever she went. The racism spoken of in that song still exists. Bravo Epitaph."

May 19, 2003

Malcolm X transcript Discovered by Columbia

A friend who graduated from Columbia's Journalism School alerted me to this recent discovery there:

1963: When Malcolm X Visited the Journalism School

On November 20, 1963 -- two days before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy -- Malcolm X visited the Journalism School to speak to Professor Mel Mencher's class. Their remarkable dialogue can now be read on-line for the first time.

Download the complete transcript here.

Platinum Goes Aluminum

UPN's much hyped "Hip-Hop Drama" Platinum, which sparked a lively discussion here last month, seems to have met its demise.

Platinum Gets Cancelled

The hip-hop drama "Platinum" has not been renewed for the fall season, representatives for UPN confirmed with AllHipHop.com. After starting with near record-breaking ratings, the show’s Nielson status plummeted.

“Its not coming back next year,” a rep for UPN said, "The ratings were the same as 'Haunted' was when we cancelled it last year."

"Platinum" was a hip-hop family saga based on two brothers, Jackson and Grady Ellis (Jason George and rapper Sticky Fingaz of Onyx), who ran an independent record company.

The Sophia Coppola-produced show was a huge success initially, garnering it extremely high reviews and generated significant controversy for its content. Even mogul Russell Simmons spoke out in support of the realism of the plot.

The show delved primarily into the seedy underbelly of the music industry, something that Naji [sic] Ali of Project Islamic H.O.P.E. said was the curse of the show.

"If they were true to making a real hip-hop show, they wouldn’t have focused on the negative," Ali told AllHipHop.com. “We are vindicated.” When the show debuted Ali and his organization proposed a boycott of the show if the creators didn’t attempt to change the content...

This show didn't spark enough interest for me to keep watching after the first two episodes, but I'm not happy to see it disappear so quickly, and I'm skeptical about Najee Ali's claim that his protests are vindicated by this result. As far as I can remember, commercial television has never gotten comfortable with any Black oriented show that wasn't a straight-up sitcom, from Frank's Place on down to City of Angels.

May 20, 2003

Is There Room for Right-Wing Rappers?

Our DJ 3D (who is going out on tour this week with Prince Paul) played a nice little instrumental on the last show, by a group named Ugly Duckling. I hadn't heard of them before, so I did some googling to see what they are all about. The answers I found were not very pretty:

Ugly Duckling's Politics Are Even Uglier

Where I'm from—that'd be the German port town of Hamburg—Long Beach's Ugly Duckling are one of America's more noteworthy exports. Their videos are all over TV. Music magazines compare them to the likes of De La Soul, Black Eyed Peas, Jurassic 5 and Black Star...

...Ugly Duckling has toured most of the U.S. and hit 20 other countries. Here, Andy Cooper, one of the band's two MCs, joined Young Einstein and me in the abandoned garage beside the house. Taking note of the derelict surroundings, I asked if they've ever thought about leaving.

"Never!" Einstein said. California is home, and that seems a natural enough reason to stay, along with family, friends and the sun.

But why not move to Europe, where the band's fame might bring them big euros?

This is where my conversation with Ugly Duckling, a band I've admired from another continent, went suddenly south—or rather rightward. It turns out Ugly Duckling are standard-bearers for conservatism.

"I don't want to pay 50 percent of my income to the government. I don't want to be controlled by the state!" Cooper said.

I was taken aback. I paused. I looked around. My English isn't perfect, and I wanted to diplomatically point out that the band doesn't have much to show for its reliance on the American marketplace.

Wouldn't it make sense, I asked, to pay more taxes for a better social welfare net and an innovative health-care system?

"No, it wouldn't!" Cooper said. Innovative health care? When Americans are sick, they go to "the doctor and pay him cash!" Social welfare? "Why should the government give unemployed people an apartment and some money to stay alive?" Cooper asked. "It just makes the people unproductive! They should get out and find a job."

Well, I offered in halting English, maybe it's harder for people to find a job once they're homeless. Ugly Duckling didn't want to hear it. "You can just write down the address of your homeless shelter on the job application," they offered...

Are any of you guys familiar with this group? Hopefully somebody can tell me this is some sort of Onion-style joke.

But if this is really what they are about, do these guys have any chance of being accepted with these politics? Should they be accepted? Would it be wrong for them to get reverse dixie-chicked by hip-hoppers because of their politics, if the music itself is on point? Or do they deserve to get dissed?

May 21, 2003

PHOTOS: Bobbito's farewell show, 10/17/02

A few months ago I was honored to be in the house for Bobbito's last night on WKCR. It was like a great big family reunion, a trip back in time for one night, to a time when there was a real sense of community in the NY Hip-Hop scene. Here are a few of the photos I took:

Bobbito
Annabella, Pete Rock
Annabella, Pete Rock, Damali, Wordsworth
Percee P, Kool DJ Red Alert
Lord Sear, Pete Rock
J Love, Bobbito, Lord Sear, Pete Rock
DJ Mighty Mi, Wordsworth
Pumpkinhead, Wordsworth
Mr. Len
The crew back together one more time: Bob, Stretch and Lord Sear

May 31, 2003

NEW AUDIO: Rare Funk and Breaks from DJ Oneman

Don't call it a comeback! I'm back in NY and ready to get this train rolling again, starting with a 50 minute addition to the radio show archive, from our good friend Oneman.

June 1, 2003

Check Your Principles at the Door

I've done a little bit of freelance music writing over the years (in Vibe, The Source and XXL), and this column gives some idea why I never did more than a little bit. I think JR Taylor's tone is a little unfair to the subject, who is just being real about the world she works in, but the picture painted here isn't far from the truth. If anything, the reality is even worse than this, in the world of "Hip-Hop journalism" at least.

It doesn’t take much for a professional music journalist to tell the truth. About $65, in fact.


I’ve seen the future of rock ‘n roll, and it is Brooklyn’s Mink Lungs...

Caitlin Cary’s second album makes a perfect soundtrack for the sorts of days evoked on the languid, unhurried "Sleepin’ In on Sunday"...

Mix a half-cup of Jeremy Enigk’s Return of the Frog Queen, two tablespoons Ron Sexsmith and one quart Neutral Milk Hotel. Stir counterclockwise, and you have a serviceable description of Castaways and Cutouts...

Such is the state of modern music journalism. Such is the lack of inspiration and opinion. Even in the service of minor bands, writers desperately churn out meaningless hype, sad cliches and vapid non-opinion toward two goals: pleasing the publicists and allowing the writer to blather on about more useless acts in the future.

Though I offer this statement as fact, you needn’t accept my humble, free opinion. For $65, a successful music journalist named Shirley Halperin was willing to help aspiring hacks at her May 15 MediaBistro seminar, "Almost Famous: Breaking Into Freelance Music Journalism."

What's more, Halperin takes pride in knowing the truth about her profession...

..."Seventy to 80 percent of the time, you’ll be writing about artists you don’t like."

This could actually be construed as good news. Somebody, after all, has to note that N.E.R.D. is getting critical acclaim for ripping off bands like Styx and Slipknot. And why is Aimee Mann only now discovering that moths can get burned by a flame?

Sadly, Halperin doesn’t seem to understand that writers—even those with a "passion for music"—can express negative thoughts. We will find ourselves writing positive things about artists we don’t like, she informs us. For all intents and purposes, Halperin is warning that 70 to 80 percent of the time, we will be expected to tell lies...


..."How many of you," she then asks, "if you hated the band ethically and morally, wouldn’t write about the band?"

Two people raise their hands.

"You have to learn how to temper your reaction," she explains. "They don’t want to hear [deep sigh]. They want to hear ‘Cool!’ ‘Great!’ ‘Awesome!’"

Besides, Halperin adds, you can always express your disdain for the band "after the article’s been edited and published."

Halperin also warns us about all the trouble that comes with having an opinion. She cites Spin’s hard lesson after they put Creed on their cover, accompanied by an article that mainly goofed on the popular band. She wants us to consider the long months spent trying to placate the publicists afterwards: "Half of your year has been spent thinking and analyzing about how to get out of this mess with this band… It just becomes a mess that takes up half your life. So, that’s that."

As noted, Halperin’s seminar does some good. There’s some occasional useful advice, like her suggestion not to ask predictable questions. Halperin even suggests that it’s okay to sometimes print controversial news about a popular band—that is, once you’re sure that the band’s publicist represents so many bands that he or she "has to work with you."

Most importantly, Halperin does an excellent job of representing the banality of modern music journalism. She is the true face of pandering, and is completely honest about how well this serves her. It would take a lot less than three hours for her to convince anyone with integrity to walk away from the business, and I would’ve paid a lot more than $65 to be talked out of this business back when I was younger.

June 2, 2003

Regarding Hip-Hop Blasphemy

A post in this fresh young blog speaks of "Hip-Hop Blasphemy". He throws a bunch of different ideas out there, and I'm not going to touch most of them right now. But I will say that Hip-Hop's fundamentalist sect has been a concern of mine for quite a while. Some of us have been taught to enforce such a rigid orthodoxy that we risk stifling growth in the name of upholding traditions.

The most common example is the Gospel of the Four Elements. Personally I do not subscribe to this, partly because graffiti was a distinct culture of its own before Hip-Hop was born, so I wonder whether it is fair or accurate to classify it as a subset of Hip-Hop. On the other hand, I'm all in favor of celebrating the great contributions that writers and b-boys/girls have made to the culture, and ensuring they are not forgotten just because they couldn't be commodified as effectively as the music. So I suppose this bit of dogma is fairly benign. But it gets a little silly when folks come at you like "thou shalt love and cherish each of these four pillars with equal fervor, or be subject to stoning". If you have a passion for the music you should feel welcome to express that without fear of being chastised cuz you don't know Taki 183's birthday.

Other strains of Hip-Hop's fundamentalism may be more troublesome. My least favorite trend of recent years is how the term "freestyle" has been redefined as referring only to rhyming off-the-top, which has led to a vehement (and IMO irrational) disdain for performing written rhymes in any cypher or live venue. I believe this mindset is entirely misguided, and can be terribly unhealthy for the art form. I'm sure I'll get deeper into that in a future post.

I think this strict constructionism is often a product of insecurity, especially among younger heads who weren't around for Hip-Hop's early days or the Golden Age of '85 to '91 (or thereabouts). Without these credentials they need a concrete list of rules to which they can conform, and thus reassure themselves that they are "real" or "true". Which isn't necessarily a bad thing I suppose. There's nothing wrong with putting together a system that helps you maintain a sense of tradition.

But you've got to keep it in perspective. A system of law should serve to protect your freedom, rather than take it away.

June 3, 2003

Dead Prez Dropped by Columbia

In a solid new interview on allhiphop.com, Dead Prez reveal that they've been kicked to the curb by Columbia Records, who will not be releasing their completed sophomore album:

dead prez: Plantation Life

Fans have anxiously awaited an album release from internationally acclaimed rap duo, dead prez, for several, painful months. While it has already garnered stellar reviews sources at Columbia Records have revealed (off the record) that dead prez was no longer on its payroll. The group was allegedly dropped according to unofficial reports as a result of what was deemed “as poor projection of sales.”

The politically charged group's debut Let's Get Free, moved approximately 300,000 copies in the United States. Execs were apparently concerned about the upcoming project, despite already being completed.

In an interview prior to the disappointing, but not surprising news, M-1 likens industry life to plantation life and explains why they "stic" with it.

AllHipHop.com: when you and stic first started looking for a deal who did you reach out to and what was your experience?

M-1: We had a few friends that gave us some names and numbers because in the beginning we didn't know all the names and titles of those people at the labels. Then we started calling people and going up in the offices like you need to see us. We approached Russell a few times up in the elevator and his words to us were. ' Y'all need to stop cursing so much.' Cause he knew…he knew we was cursing at the government. He could get with DMX but he couldn't get with us cause he knew our intentions were different. We tried to get with this lady at Columbia but at the time she took a little too long so we went to Steve Rifkin's office at Loud Records. They had a good rep in the streets.

AllHipHop: What was your experience with Loud?

M-1: We were on Loud for 6 years. Four of those years were spent without releasing our first album, Let's Get Free even though it was ready to go. We saw Big Pun come, we saw Wu-Tang come with albums, we saw a lot happen while we was just sittin. Then, Loud started going through a lot of changes with its distributors we were caught in the middle. Every time they switched distributors, our release date was pushed back. Because once the distribution changed, the partners changed and the company began a new relationship in dealing with the money exchange. Those distributors were the beneficiaries who bankrolled what would happen to Loud Records, the backers. How the checks got cut, new deadlines were set, everything would change each time. That's why it took four years until we finally saw Sony.

AllHipHop: What happened when Loud finally folded?

M-1: Once Loud became unable to keep up with Sony's high standard to put out the kind of records that it sells for the 40 million dollar per year entity that it is. I mean you really have to do a lot of platinum to keep up with that and Loud Records was not a powerhouse platinum label like a Def Jam. For the most part their artists had a cult following but they needed that attention paid but they wanted Mariah Careys. Eventually, that worked to the detriment of Loud because eventually their departments became swallowed up as they couldn't produce. Loud itself fell into Sony companies, dissolved it and sold it to different parts. That's how we ended up on Columbia.

AllHipHop: Was that your choice? Did you have any say so?

M-1: Oh hell no. Hell no. I would have been free. We tried to run from the plantation. We saw the plantation was burning down we was trying to escape in the middle of the night. Ol' dude was standing in the corner and snatched us up when we were trying to sneak into the woods and took us to the next plantation.

AllHipHop: same shit different day, huh?

M-1: That's my total analogy. For anybody that can't understand that I don't know how to get it through any clearer than that. We were sold like slaves in the middle of the night...

June 4, 2003

Roc-A-Fella vs. Rockefeller

Russell Simmons organized another rally against New York's atrocious Rockefeller drug laws today, and brought out a bunch of his a-list friends. I've got to give Russell credit where it's due, his forays into the political arena have sometimes struck me as self-serving but this one is certainly for a good cause.

With the powers that be claiming to be sympathetic but mysteriously failing to act upon this sentiment, maybe Russell's media savvy can help tip the scales and make something happen here...especially if we the people make our voices heard and show them this is not just the latest celebrity be-in. On that note, I should give a shoutout to The Kunstler Fund, who were on the front lines of this battle long before Russell brought it into the limelight.

Diddy, Jay-Z, Susan Sarandon Rally Against New York Drug Laws

Russell Simmons and friends such as Susan Sarandon, P. Diddy, Jay-Z, Mariah Carey, Fat Joe, Tim Robbins, Dead Prez and Dame Dash made their voices heard Wednesday (June 4) at City Hall, where they rallied against New York state's strict drug sentencing laws.

"When I was younger, I would see kids get caught with an ounce [of narcotics] and do 10, 15 years," Dash said. "I never understood that. I don't think they deserve 10, 15 years. There's a lot of other things that need to be addressed at that time to make the person a better individual and make them evolve as a better human being, rather than come out [of jail] bitter."

"The laws aren't fair," said Jay-Z as he made his way to the stage. "I personally know a lot of people that's locked up unjustly and unfairly. [The MCs] have got the streets, so we gotta come out here and show our support, our strong voice."

Diddy said rappers should pay especially close attention to the state's Rockefeller drug laws — enacted in 1973 when Nelson Rockefeller was governor — because of the enormous impact they've had on the hip-hop community.

"This law has affected hip-hop, our families, our friends, our future," Diddy said backstage. "Ninety-six percent of the people incarcerated by this law are minorities. It's one of the most unjust laws in history...

June 5, 2003

Maybe they had just rented the Belly DVD

This review of Tuesday's Summer Jam concert has a tasty tidbit at the end:

Some low points during the evening were Nelly and the St. Lunatics being booed during their performance of "Dilemma" and a chorus of boos when Nas performed a verse from his Jay-Z diss record "Ether."

The first part is certainly understandable, but why was Nas booed for doing Ether? Has public opinion swayed back towards Jay Z's corner? Or maybe people are just generally tired of beef?

June 6, 2003

Upcoming Hip-Hop Events in NY

Here are a couple of noteworthy events coming up this weekend..

On monday:

Cuban Hip Hop Groups Join The Roots In A Historic Concert At The Apollo Theater

The Fourth Annual Hip Hop Theater Festival, The International Hip Hop
Exchange, The Apollo Theater Foundation and OkayPlayer.com present:
THE HIP HOP UNITY CONCERT
Monday, June 9th, 2003 @ 8 pm

In its continuing effort to promote cultural exchange, The Hip Hop Theater Festival and The International Hip Hop Exchange will unite Cuba's leading Hip Hop groups, Doble Filo and Obsesion with America's leading politically and socially conscious Hip Hop artists: The Roots, Common, Tony Touch, Soul Live w/J-Live, Kanye West, El Meswy and Tomorrowz Weaponz with other special guests.

and coming up tomorrow:

A TOWNHALL MEETING ON THE STATE OF HIPHOP MUSIC AND CULTURE on Saturday, June 7, 2003

12 Noon-8PM (DOORS OPEN AT 11:30AM)

at THE RIVERSIDE CHURCH
490 Riverside Drive
between 120th and 122nd Streets
New York City


Moderated by DAVEY D

Panelists:

ELIZABETH MENDEZ BERRY, Assistant Music Editor, VIBE

TONI BLACKMAN, Emcee, U.S. hiphop ambassador

SWAY CALLOWAY, MTV News reporter/veejay, radio personality

REBECCA FABIANO, Director of After-School in Lincoln Square at
Martin Luther King, Jr. High School Campus

BABA ISRAEL, Beatboxer, emcee, and educator at The Door and with Urban Word

DJ KAYSLAY, Legendary graffiti writer formerly known as "Dez," popuar mixtape deejay, Hot 97 radio personality, SONY recording artist

DJ KUTTIN KANDI, Turntablist, member of DJ team champions the 5th Platoon and all female hiphop group Anomolies, and the first female DJ to make it to the DMC USA Finals (1998)

JORGE "FABEL" PABON, Hiphop pioneer, Senior Vice-President, Rock Steady Crew, and hiphop historian

KEVIN POWELL, Community activist, writer, public speaker, and cofounder of Hiphop Speaks

FATIMA ROBINSON, Award-winning hiphop choreographer

ROKAFELLA, Bgirl, choreographer, cofounder of Full Circle Productions

Plus, a Conversation With The Elders....

AFRIKA BAMBAATAA, A founding father of hiphop, creator of the Universal Zulu Nation, and mastermind behind Hiphop History Month (November)

ERNIE PANICCIOLI, legendary hiphop photographer, historian, author of Who Shot Ya? Three Decades of Hiphop Photography (Amistad/HarperCollins)

CAMILLE YARBROUGH, Poetess, soul singer, actress/dancer, award-winning author of four children's books

Moderated by THEMBISA MSHAKA, SONY advertising executive, former Gavin Rap Editor, and author of the forthcoming book Handle Your (Music) Business (a resource guide for women in the music industry)

On the 1s and 2s: DJ DRAMA...www.djdrama.net

Admission is FREE and seating will be on a first-come first-serve basis.

If You Can't Shizzle, You Must Acquizzle

I've discussed in earlier posts how our court system may not understand the inner workings and the particular moral/ethical boundaries of Hip-Hop culture well enough to make a fair judgement in the many lawsuits filed within the industry.

Looks like this British judge had similar concerns, more or less:

Judge fails to unravel rap lyrics

A high court judge did his best to get to grips with the lyrics of a rap song - and came to the conclusion that he really couldn't understand a word of it.
Mr Justice Lewison was faced with the task of deciding whether the composer Andrew Alcee had suffered damage to his honour or reputation through the "derogatory" use of his UK garage No 1 hit Burnin.

Mr Alcee complained under the Copyright Act that Burnin, released as a single by the concept group Ant'ill Mob, had been distorted or mutilated by its use as backing for a rap by Heartless Crew, which contained references to drugs and violence.

The judge said the claim "led to the faintly surreal experience of three gentlemen in horsehair wigs [himself and the two barristers in the case] examining the meaning of such phrases as 'mish mish man' and 'shizzle my nizzle'."

In any event, the words, although in a form of English, were "for practical purposes a foreign language" and he had no expert evidence as to what they meant...

thanks to Hadiya for the link.

June 7, 2003

Stagolee (Re)Revisited

About a month ago I posted an excerpt from Cecil Brown's new book "Stagolee Shot Billy". Todd Boyd reviews the book in today's NY Times, and he's not too impressed.

I'm pasting in the entire article since the NY Times decided to start making links unavailable for free after 1 week. (Although given recent circumstances it's easier to understand why they want their older material hard to access).

Is Stagolee's Stetson Like a Rapper's Baggy Pants?

By TODD BOYD

Stagolee has been immortalized in song for years by Ma Rainey, Duke Ellington, Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead and the Clash. As the legend goes, Stag Lee Shelton shot a man in 1895 named Billy Lyons in a barroom brawl in St. Louis because Lyons touched Stagolee's immaculate Stetson hat.

To Cecil Brown, a novelist who heard the story while growing up on a tobacco farm in North Carolina in the late 1950's, "Stagolee is a metaphor that structures the life of black males from childhood through maturity." The very name, he writes, "is an in-group catchword conveying knowledge of what it means to be a black man."

In "Stagolee Shot Billy," Mr. Brown sets out to trace the Stagolee legend and explain how it still resonates today. In his eyes, Stagolee is the forefather for what in hip-hop is often referred to as an "O.G." or "original gangsta," a direct link for gangsta rappers with their gun-toting, womanizing and utterly nihilistic ways.

Yet if Stagolee is this important, why is it that no one born after the assassination of Malcolm X, much less someone born into the hip-hop generation, has much knowledge of this supposedly transcendent archetype?

Mr. Brown's personal passion for the legend comes through in the pages of his book, and his skills as a novelist shine most brightly when he relates the details of Stagolee's life. But that passion seems to have also clouded his judgment of the Stagolee character's importance, especially its significance to contemporary culture.

Sure, it is easy to say that all of black masculinity owes a debt to Stagolee in the same way that one could argue that contemporary Hollywood movies are really updated Greek tragedies. But Stagolee, a legend of oral culture, is about as relevant in today's mass-media-dominated digital age as a horse-and-carriage on a crowded Los Angeles freeway during rush hour.

It is interesting how both haters and defenders often try to link hip-hop — the prevailing popular-music form of the late 20th and early 21st century — to older black music. The haters make the link to minimize its cultural impact by portraying it as a copy, not an original, the defenders to argue for its acceptability as an updated African-American folklore with beats and rhymes.

Yet if anything, hip-hop is indebted to more recent cultural products. Tony Montana, the Cuban drug lord in the 1983 film "Scarface," in all his excesses, has much more impact on the mind-set of hip-hop gangstas than does a figure like Stagolee. So does Christopher Walken's living embodiment of Norman Mailer's "white Negro" in his portrayal of the character Frank White in the 1990 cult classic "The King of New York." Neither of these characters are African-American, but many hip-hop gangsta figures have been able to appropriate their imagery and make it specific to their own circumstances.

Alas, Mr. Brown's attempts to analyze contemporary culture often come across like Bill Cosby trying to do Chris Rock. This shortcoming is most apparent when Mr. Brown tries to equate Stagolee's life as a pimp with the use of the pimp metaphor in present day hip-hop culture. Relying on the work of the historian Robin D. G. Kelley, Mr. Brown writes, "It is difficult to understand the reason for recent glamorizations of the pimp's image without also looking at the origin of the pimp in the 1890's in cities like St. Louis."

What is missing here, though, is a discussion of the way the culture of pimping offered a certain power to those engaged in the practice. The pimp or mack functions like the Mafia don in Italian-American culture. This character is a cipher that helps critique mainstream capitalism while also affirming it in a most extreme fashion. One need only check out Iceberg Slim's novel "Pimp," the 1973 film "The Mack" or the Hughes brothers masterly documentary "American Pimp" (1999) to find a sustained counterargument to both Mr. Brown's and Mr. Kelley's weak analysis.

Mr. Brown also misunderstands the style of hip-hop, writing, "In the 1890's, the Stetson became a symbol of black male status; in the late 1990's, baggy pants became a signifier of status."

First of all, the baggy pants, or saggin, as it is called, originated with prisoners, who were not given belts, so their pants sagged. In addition, many hip-hop-inspired fashion labels, starting with Cross Colors and Karl Kani and now with Sean John and Rocawear, began making strides in the marketplace and culture by designing jeans cut specifically for blacks. (Other labels designed for whites were often too tight, so people bought them several sizes too big to fit better.) This style was never about status in the way a Stetson hat was or a Gucci hat is now. Instead, it could be read as hip-hop's ability to redefine the culture around it.

Blacks were not being manipulated by the culture, as Mr. Brown suggests, but rather transforming it.

Stagolee and the more mainstream character of Uncle Remus are often part of nostalgia for the kind of Southern existence that can be found in guided tours of former slave plantations, and they have become quite popular. It is this nostalgia that seems to drive Cecil Brown and his attempt to resurrect a long dead icon from a forgotten era. But while the history of Stagolee, both real and imagined, is useful, the application of his aura falls short when trying to ascertain the meaning of someone like 50 Cent and his restoration of the gangsta aesthetic in the present.

June 9, 2003

Cuban Hip-Hop Comes to Harlem

This week we were greatly honored to have two of Cuba's foremost hip-hop groups represented on the radio show, Doble Filo and Obsesion. It was sweet meeting these young guys with such a great energy, representing a hip-Hop subculture that thrives despite the many obstacles in its path, lack of resources, and little chance of fame or fortune. In other words, a place where people live hip-hop for the love of it, like it used to be over here.

I'm on my way to see those guys perform at the Apollo tonite, with the Roots backing them up. I'll make a more complete post with pictures and audio later, but for now you can check out Jon's comments at hiphopanonymous.net, since he was also in the house on Saturday.

June 10, 2003

What is Hip-Hop Activism?

Politicians and media folks love to play with our heads by making up new slang. The government will concoct a certain word or phrase and then repeat it again and again, every time they get in front of a microphone. They never really explain where it came from, or what exactly it means, but by sheer power of repetition they get the media to pick it up and join in the chorus, beating it into our heads every time we watch tv or read (surf) the paper. Pretty soon we are all swallowing their slang and regurgitating without a second thought.

Like when America decided Manuel Noriega was no longer a useful partner in crime, we started calling him a "strongman" every night on the news. Pretty soon whenever reporters talked about him he was Panamanian Strongman Manuel Noriega, and it seemed like none of us ever thought to ask "wait, what the hell is a 'strongman' anyway? And how come nobody called him that until 4 months ago?"

They do this because they know that by controlling the language used to discuss an issue they can shape the way that issue is delivered to the public, shape the direction and the boundaries of debate on that issue.

So I always try to pay close attention to language, and I'm always concerned when people start repeating a phrase over and over without establishing a definition for it, and confirming that what it describes is something that actually exists.

Lately I've been seeing the phrase "Hip-Hop Activism" thrown around a quite a bit, but I'm never clear on what exactly it's supposed to mean, and if there really is such a thing. It certainly sounds nice, but I don't want to slack on my critical thinking just cuz the propaganda is coming from our side and I'm sympathetic to the cause.

So when I see pieces like this one below, I always wind up yelling at the screen "But what the hell is Hip-Hop Activism?" ..does this describe any action carried out by the "Hip-Hop Generation"? Does it mean activities led by actual Hip-Hop artists or industry figures? Are there certain Hip-Hop tactics that must be employed for an activity to qualify as Hip-Hop Activism, just as Hip-Hop fashion requires wearing certain clothes, and Hip-Hop music requires certain musical elements? Just what are we talking about exactly?

Hip Hop Activism Buds Beautifully

Harry Belafonte stated to me in an interview that entertainers have the responsibility to speak out on issues concerning the community. He also said that entertainers are so often used to take people's minds off real issues and that entertainers who do not act are part of the problem. In a recent Wall Street Journal article entitled, "Mean Street Theater," written by John McWhorter, he called social and political contributions to the community made by rapper's "sideline donations." About the recently slain rap artist Camoflauge, McWhorter writes, "Despite his searingly profane, violent lyrics, [he] was regularly invited to speak at Savannah high schools." This article could have been more appropriately titled, "Mean Muggin' Hip Hop."

There's more. The article went on to run off other artists, i.e. Tupac, Biggie, and Jam Master Jay as products of the genre. Never mind the failings of law enforcement who have yet to find the killers of any of these men. But, they could find any small-time hustlers in the hood and lock them up for years and years for a nonviolent offense, i.e. drug possession.

This brings me to the most appealing part of the piece. While the author gave credit to Russell Simmons' Hip Hop Action Network for setting a goal to register millions of hip hop voters for the 2004 elections, he asked a poignant question. "What does the organization want the hip-hop generation to vote for?" If for nothing else, his article should have been printed for this query.

It is true that Hip Hop has to have a political issue or issues to mobilize around. And we got issues; no doubt about that. Well, Russell Simmons, P Diddy, Jay Z and many other hip hoppers are right on point in their effort to address what should be the number one issue to focus hip hop activism – fighting against the failed war on drugs. These celebrities are doing exactly what Mr. Belafonte says is expected of them.

This is a perfect issue for hip hop activism because the lives affected the greatest are in the same communities that Hip Hop most represents. In addition, the unchecked drug war is now devastating lives in white communities as well. But what makes this an even greater issue for the hip hop generation is the fact that it is The Issue of our time...

...Hip Hop is coming into political maturity and can work to change some of the realities that are reported so vividly in rap lyrics. It is so fascinating how music has always been a part of social action in the black community. During slavery, coded songs were used to take persons to freedom. In the civil rights movement, marchers sang songs like, "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round." Now, there is an entire genre that is budding into full political awareness. How beautiful. And, it does not look like a mere "sideline donation" to me.

I'm sympathetic to where this guy's coming from, and all in favor of organizing against America's bonehead drug policies. But I'm not sold on this assumption that there exists a particular entity or tradition we can accurately label Hip-hop Activism. And I'm damn sure not sold on the assumptions drawn about it here, based mostly on the Russell Simmons Celebrity Be-In: "Hip Hop is coming into political maturity" ..is it really? "Now, there is an entire genre that is budding into full political awareness" ..is there? What does that even mean?

Clyde's Hip-Hop Theater Festival

Today's Newsday profiles Clyde Valentin, a cool brother who accompanied the Cuban emcees up to my show on Saturday, and also runs the Hip-Hop Theater Festival, taking place here in New York for the rest of the week. I'm gonna do my best to catch some of it and I encourage y'all to do the same.

Of Hip-Hop, Doo-Rags and Free Expression

"...What we're doing here is reclaiming what is the truest, most ancient form of cultural expression. And that is the inherent magical combination of the audience and the storyteller," said Clyde Valentin, co-founder of the 3-year-old Hip-Hop Theater Festival, whose Manhattan run extends through Saturday at P.S. 122 Theater (First Avenue at Ninth Street) and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe (236 E. Third St.). The collection of 30 performances includes instrumentation, rap, song and dance, performance poetry, plays, public dialogue on topical issues, some street theater moved indoors, B-boy choreography from a guy whose movement is based on primal instinct and bits of his more formal training.

Valentin has produced, marketed and, with the others who round out the festival's staff, provided context for the days' events. He is 31 and, on the second day of the festival, had a bandana draped around his head. He was weaned on hip-hop, he said, disavowed drugs when he was real young because his mother and father delivered the finest, up-close examples of why one should never touch the murderous stuff.

He left his native Brooklyn to study literature/rhetoric and sociology at Binghamton University, returning home to spend a few years publishing a magazine devoted to hip-hop thought. Somewhere along the line, his father died from AIDS. "My uncle and half of his friends, too," Valentin said.

That pain informs his work. And the broadest work of hip-hop cannot be constrained by those unfamiliar with what is at hip-hop's core, Valentin intimated. It is more than the gangland, sex-obsessed, name-calling stylings that keep a handful in the record business, raking in more money than they've rightly earned, and brings suburban kids, at the sight of idolized 50 Cent, to tears. He has been shot, stabbed, done some dirty-dealing, too, and bankrolls his rapper's account of that life.

"Rise up!" "Resist!" "Build." Those words are pasted across the poster advertising the current festival. Valentin hesitates to call it an underground endeavor. The lineup of its Unity Concert last night uptown at the Apollo was, after all, to feature The Roots, a politicized crew with enough notoriety to be recognized by one completely unqualified to claim hip-hop membership. One for whom the mere sight of a doo-rag elicits an adverse and visceral reaction, something akin to fear and loathing.

Valentin does not seize the chance to enumerate some in the wealth of wrongs inherent in the strain of hip-hop that so dominates the commercial markets. He will agree that it is, in part, angry and uninspiring, a bottomless rehashing of ghetto tales that never call upon people behaving badly to simply cut it out.

"This is an alternative but it's not a reaction to what exists. It's being proactive," Valentin said. "This space exists. That space exists. It's about creating more spaces like this."

I wouldn't agree that popular emcees with negative messages are getting "more money than they've rightly earned".. if people want to spend money on the art you created, you deserve to get that money. But anyway, I'm glad Clyde and his festival are getting some love.

June 11, 2003

Activists Warn Russell Not to Rush

In my previous posts that gave props to Russell Simmons for his recent protests against the Rockefeller drug laws, I've made a point to acknowledge the other folks who were fighting this fight long before Russell joined in, such as Drop the Rock and the Kunstler Fund. Well it turns out there is some tension between those groups and Russell's people, disagreement over who should speak for this movement and what path it should take, according to the Village Voice:

Movement Hijacked by Hiphop?

...There is a sense that the momentum gained by ties to the hiphop community has eclipsed the activists who were the movement's catalysts. More importantly, activists are worried that lawmakers will just offer the new negotiators the same compromise deals that have been rejected in the past. The assembly has already presented the same legislation offered last year; Gangi called it old wine in a new bottle.

"I think that there is a concern," said Gangi, "that out of this momentum could come a 'deal' or 'compromise' that is very limited and that would be worse than no deal at all; that the governor and the legislative leaders will use the cover of Simmons's intervention to come up with a half-baked compromise that doesn't really advance the cause."

Simmons says that he is not alone in the negotiations, and progress is being made: "Deborah Small is doing negotiation. She's been working on this for many years. She's committed to closing. I'm committed to closing. We have a draft of something that we are going to circulate from the governor," said Simmons. "A lot of people are calling it a jailbreak or saying what they want to say about it, and there are other people who are saying that it's too much of a compromise, but I'm a deal maker and I want to make a deal."

But it is just this rush on Simmons's part to make a deal that has activists fearful. "There's a mixed message out there," said Credico. "Someone says that he'll take any deal. He's a deal maker. Well, you got to talk to the people you are making that deal for."

Simmons reacted strongly to the tensions that have arisen since the rally. "I've heard a lot about that. I don't give a f**k about them. All I care is that I appreciate their hard work and they are the true heroes," said Simmons. "I love Randy Credico's work. He's been excellent. But to criticize somebody for coming and adding to your effort, creating awareness of your effort— I'm not saying he's done that, but anybody who does that is missing the point. I don't give a f**k. I want to get people out of jail. That's my only objective. Get people out of jail and make the laws more fair..."

June 23, 2003

The Beatnuts Hit Toronto

This profile from Toronto has a rather annoying headline but gets a little better from there, fleshing out the sordid details of J-Lo's hijack of "Hi-Jack".

People probably think they are joking about that "polish jazz" thing, but DJ Spinna has told me several times about his pursuits of polish jazz, it seems to be a goldmine of undiscovered beatmaking material.

HIPHOP'S ULTIMATE PARTY ANIMALS DELIVER THE FUNKY BEATS THAT KEEP HEADS NODDIN' AND RIDES ROCKIN'

..."The stuff we do ain't for everybody. If you want to hear some socially conscious joints, pick up a record by Dead Prez, Common or the Roots. But if you wanna wild out with some funky beats, then you need to come to us."

The Track Masters writing/production team appears to be making a career of doing just that. Back in 97, when Will Smith's Men In Black theme needed to be funked up, they sampled the same Patrice Rushen jazzy disco tune, Forget Me Nots, that the Beatnuts flipped for their righteously raunchy Give Me Tha Ass, released just a few months before.

A coincidence? Perhaps.

But then came Jenny From The Block. The chart-topper the Track Masters produced for Jennifer Lopez was built around a catchy flute loop and beat structure strangely similar to that used by the Beatnuts for Watch Out Now. Yet the Beatnuts aren't credited as writers or arrangers on Lopez's This Is Me... Then album...

...The sample at the centre of the controversy is taken from the song Hi-Jack, originally recorded by the 70s jazz-rock group Barrabas and popularized by Herbie Mann. So some have argued that since anyone could've grabbed a copy of Herbie Mann's HiJack and chopped it, the Beatnuts have no beef.

Only the Beatnuts didn't use the Herbie Mann version or even the Barrabas take. Psycho Les and JuJu take far too much pride in uncovering obscure breaks to use something as obvious as a Herbie Mann disco joint...

"...People like Q-Tip and some others have been saying we flipped the Herbie Mann track, but that shit we used wasn't Herbie Mann's Hi-Jack; it was some other jazzy Project 3 shit. If you listen to Herbie Mann's version you can barely even hear the flute part. It ain't even close.

"We'll have our lawyers sort this out, believe me..."

guest blogger Kari Orr: On Russell Simmons and Hip-Hop Activism

Note from the founder: Since it is hard for me to keep the site updated as often as I'd like, I've been scouring the earth for worthy guest bloggers who can help keep things flowing. Today I'm honored to introduce our first recruit, okayplayer.com's notorious iconoclast Kari Orr.

-jay smooth

---------------

Much has been said about Russell Simmons involvement in the repeal of the Rockefeller laws.

Some have suggested that his involvement borders on negligent leadership. If he doesn't do it right it could wreck the whole movement. He's using money, starpower, and hip hop to take over important activism. (what's really behind his reparations now?)

Others are glad to see that, despite not having a PE/Dead prez/Coup under his label, he's using the profits of drug war stories to combat mandatory sentencing. (I just through that in there, cause it's a claim folks used to use against the Hughes Bros, and Cormega used against Nas in Thun and Kicko)

Me?

I'm vex because people are hi-jacking hip hop in order to push their political causes.

To be accurate, Russ ain't really using hip hop, he's just using hip hop's name in vain.

There is this thing called, "hip hop activism". Yet you ask anyone to describe it, let alone describe it, and you find yourself listening to bootleg version of "Stupid White Men".

The politics of hip hop activism
- anti-capitalist
- pro-choice
- pro-education
- anti-war
- pro-labor
- anti prison-industrial complex
- meat is murder
- pro-affirmative action
- pro multi-culturalism
- pro-conspiracy/pseudoscience

et cetera. In essence, if you go to your local university's history and english departments, and look at what issues they are concerned with, you can pretty much be sure that's what "hip hop" activists are concerned with.

I see you getting heated...but lemme ask you dis

What do any of those things have to do with hip hop?

Do any of those platforms reflect the lyrics pumped out for the past 25+ years in hip hop? When you talk about hip hop that people really listen to, most of the time the issues are not addressed, or when addressed they go opposite of what hip hop activists want.

Do many of these ideas run with, or run against the values and beliefs held in the "community"?

What portion of that community? If you think C.Delores Tucker, Dionne Warwick, and Rev. Calvin Butts were right, maybe hip hop activism reflects their views.

I cram to understand where these people get off labeling hip hop this way.

Still, what bothers me more, is do our "activists" really listen to us? Or are they just deciding that they know best what we want, what we need, and what we have asked for?

It's very clear to me, on most issues, hip hop activists are neither N'sync with the art nor the audience.

But let's be clear on these particular facts?

How does hip hop feel about mandatory sentencing?

More specifically, how do NYC rappers, who for some reason which I don't understand represent the community at large, feel about mandatory sentencing in drug cases?

You having a hard time coming up with something?

Me too.

I can think of one cat, but seeing that I don't think he counts cause only NagChampions bang his record, I dare not mention his name.

Plenty of mc's talk about
- catching a case
- dodging a case
- people that snitch and get lighter sentences
- how much time they're facing if they get caught/convicted
- crooked judges and prosecutors
- crooked lawyers

At the end of the day, you can describe the "hustle" raps as either endorsements for that lifestyle or cautionary tales.

But you can't make the argument that NYC Hip Hop wants to end mandatory sentencing.

So I'm just troubled by this whole turn of events.

-k. orr

June 24, 2003

If Wackness Was a Crime..

As this goes to show, the only thing worse than rocking a tired cliche in your rhymes is rocking it and then acting it out too. He must be damn embarrassed that he left such a corny rhyme around to be discovered.. like getting in an accident and while you're in the ambulance you realize you're not wearing clean drawers.

THUG FACES COP-SHOOT 'RAP'

A man accused of shooting a rookie cop at point-blank range after writing a rap lyric about wanting "to shoot a cop" went on trial for attempted murder in Brooklyn yesterday.

Trevor Johnson, 26, fled when police raided his East Flatbush chop shop in April 2002, but returned with a gun and fired seven shots at Officer Michael Kreiman, Assistant DA Edward Boyar told jurors.

One bullet pierced Kreiman's abdomen, but he survived.

After Johnson was nabbed, a search of stolen cars he allegedly was cutting up yielded a notebook containing a rap verse about "popping shots and shooting cops," Boyar said.

Defense lawyer Gregory Watts told jurors that Johnson's prints were not found in the notebook.

If the next line of that rhyme contained "glock", "on the block", and/or "selling rocks", he should get life without parole.

June 26, 2003

KRS-One is Brimming With Anger (and Acronyms)

KRS is always such an entertaining read, there's really nothing for me to add here:

Angry At 'Devious' Record Label, KRS-One Halts Sales Of New LP

"...This is insane, this is insane, this is so egregious, this is so devious," KRS-One fumed on Monday, angry at Koch Records' plan to release an album by him called Kristyles. The Bronx battle king, alleging that the record Koch was putting out not only did a disservice to him as an artist and a businessman, but that it was an affront to hip-hop culture as a whole, won a court injunction on Monday to stop its release.

"They don't have the full album," KRS explained. "They have stuff that I wasn't even putting on the album. I have no idea what's on the album [Koch put together]. I don't know what the artwork looks like, I don't know what the album credits look like, I don't know nothing. What they did was go behind my back and release the album. I got word just in the nick of time last week. I got my legal team together and we slapped them with a court order to cease the distribution and the pressing and manufacturing of this album..."

...KRS-One said he's still working on his album, which he plans on calling The Kristyle, and trying to secure appearances from Dirt McGirt and Wesley Snipes. But ODB and Snipes aren't the only things missing from the version Koch has assembled; the disc also lacks KRS' tribute to Jam Master Jay.

"Do they care about the death of Jam Master Jay?" he continued. "Oh, you mean to tell me that the fake album you're putting out right now, you omitted KRS-One's tribute to Jam Master Jay? Oh no, no, no. That's ridiculous. That's wack. This is a problem. This ain't about no money, this ain't about me not selling a record, this is about principle. We cannot allow these record companies to dictate to us how we are going to present hip-hop to the world."

KRS-One also said he's upset about Koch's naming the disc Kristyles rather than The Kristyle, which he explained is an acronym for "To have everything, keep radiating in spirit through your love everyday..."

July 2, 2003

Herbie Mann, RIP

Herbie Mann, Jazz Musician, Is Dead at 73

erbie Mann, who helped to popularize the flute as a jazz instrument and to introduce the music of other cultures into the mainstream of American jazz, died late Monday at his cabin in Pecos, N.M., near Santa Fe, where he lived. He was 73. .

The cause was prostate cancer, his family announced.

Mr. Mann's first instrument was clarinet, and when he began his career he was primarily a tenor saxophonist. But by the late 1950's he was concentrating on flute, a choice almost unheard of for a jazz musician at the time.

Within a decade, the flute had become far more common in jazz, although then as now it was usually a second or third instrument for saxophonists. Much of the credit for its higher profile belonged to Mr. Mann, who by then had achieved a degree of popularity extending well beyond the confines of the jazz world, largely because of his willingness to look beyond that world for inspiration.

In 1962, he became one of the first American jazz artists to embrace Brazilian music and work with Brazilian musicians, recording an album in Brazil with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sergio Mendes and others. He later incorporated elements of African, Japanese and Middle Eastern music into his repertory.

American blues and soul were also part of the mix. His live recording of "Comin' Home Baby," an up-tempo blues with an infectious dance beat, was a hit in 1962. Later in the decade he expanded his audience with albums like "Memphis Underground," on which his working group was supplemented by Southern session musicians and the repertory had a contemporary rhythm-and-blues flavor.

The critics, for the most part, were not impressed. "To most jazz critics I was basically Kenny G," he said in an interview with United Press International last year. "I was too successful. I made too much money. Alternate fringe audiences liked me too much, so obviously that can't be important."

In the 1970's Mr. Mann put even more distance between himself and the jazz purists with albums whose titles — "Reggae," "Discothčque," "London Underground" — were often self-explanatory. He had two singles in Billboard magazine's Top 40, "Hijack" in 1975 and "Superman" in 1979.

Mr. Mann had recently been devoting more time to playing the Brazilian jazz and bebop that formed the core of his repertory early in his career. But while he acknowledged that he had sometimes been guilty of "accommodating the market," he never entirely disavowed his more commercial work. "I made disco records," he said. "Some of them I liked, some of them I hated."

Born Herbert Jay Solomon on April 16, 1930, in Brooklyn, Mr. Mann had his first clarinet lesson at 9, soon mastered saxophone and flute, and began performing while stationed in Italy with the United States Army in the early 50's. After being discharged in 1953, he worked with the Dutch jazz accordionist Matt Mathews and the arranger Pete Rugolo before going out on his own, first as a freelance soloist and then, in 1959, as the leader of his own group, the Afro-Jazz Sextet.

Mr. Mann toured extensively in the 60's, traveling to Africa under the auspices of the State Department as well as to Japan, Europe and Latin America.

After recording for Savoy, Verve and other labels, he began a long association with Atlantic Records in 1960, and a decade later he undertook a second career as a record producer and executive for the short-lived Atlantic subsidiary Embryo. In the early 1980's, after leaving Atlantic, he started his own label, Herbie Mann Music. He later briefly ran another label, Kokopelli.

Mr. Mann was an astute talent scout. Over the years he hired a number of young musicians who later became stars, among them the pianist Chick Corea and the vibraphonist Roy Ayers.

He is survived by his wife, Susan Janeal Arison; a son, Geoffrey, who played drums in his band, Sona Terra; another son, Paul; two daughters, Claudia Mann-Basler and Laura Mann; his mother, Ruth Solomon; and his sister, Judy Bernstein.

After four decades of multicultural exploration, Mr. Mann finally got around to the music of his own people in 2000 when he recorded "Eastern European Roots," an album of traditional songs and new compositions evoking his Jewish heritage.

"I wanted this to be my musical statement above all the rest," he said last year. "I love `Memphis Underground.' I loved the Brazilian music I played. But this is finally me. For the first time I think it's really me."

July 4, 2003

Barry White R.I.P.

I hope I won't have to post too many of these in a row.

R&B Legend Barry White Dies

Barry White, the legendary R&B singer whose smooth, deep baritone set the standard for romantic crooners for years to come, died Friday after a lengthy battle with numerous health problems. He was 58.

White passed away at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Friday morning, according to a spokesperson for the late singer. White suffered kidney failure last fall and had a stroke in May. He had been waiting for his health to improve in hopes of undergoing a kidney transplant.

"His generous nature, courtly manners and timeless music made him the most giving and sought-after human being I’ve ever known," White's longtime manager, Ned Shankman, said.

White's voice — at once booming and tender — seemed an extension of his imposing presence. The singer's large frame seemed matched only by his charisma and his talent. His career spanned more than three decades, but he is perhaps best known as the velvet voice behind such classics as "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe" and "You're the First, the Last, My Everything."

White's first foray into music came at age 16 when he recorded the song "Little Girl" with the group the Upfronts. He later worked as an A&R rep (with the 5th Dimension and the Bobby Fuller Four) and as a producer (putting together Love Unlimited). Soon White began working on demos of his own, which eventually yielded his first album, 1973's I've Got So Much to Give.

White then joined forces with Love Unlimited, rechristened it the Love Unlimited Orchestra, and began to churn out a string of hits that made him one of the most successful R&B artists of the '70s. Songs like "It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me," "You See the Trouble With Me," "I'll Do for You Anything You Want Me To" and "Love Serenade" established White and Love Unlimited as the music of choice for many a romantic evening through the disco era.

The '80s brought a handful of less successful albums and eventually a hiatus for White. However, he re-emerged in the '90s with the albums The Man Is Back, The Right Night & Barry White and Put Me in Your Mix. Despite his early success, White would not win his first Grammy Award until 2000, for his album Staying Power.

White was preparing a "duets" album for release on Def Soul later this year.

White is survived by eight children: La nece, Deniece, Nina, Shehera, Barriana , Barry Jr., Darrell, and his stepson, McKevin. He is also survived by his companion (and the mother of Barriana), Catherine Denton.


July 7, 2003

Getting Schooled on Pop Music Scholarship

One of the reasons it's hard for me to keep this blog updated everyday is that there's very little published music criticism I find worth reading. Nine times out of ten, when someone gets paid to intellectualize about music, it's very hard for me to make it past the first paragraph without my eyes glazing over.

Like this Rolling Stone piece about Eminem by Kelefa Sanneh, I'm sure it's interesting enough but I just can't bring myself to trudge through it, there doesn't seem to be any point.

So I'm always delighted to find a piece like this one from the New Yorker, which was truly a pleasure to read, and never lost me as it jumped through a wide variety of topics. Coincidentally this guy's main focus is pop music scholarship itself, and he captures pretty well why I find most of it irrelevant, while proving by example that all of it need not be so:

ROCK 101: Academia tunes in

Duke Ellington once had to field a barrage of questions from an Icelandic music student who was determined to penetrate to the heart of the genius of jazz. At one point, Ellington was asked whether he ever felt an affinity for the music of Bach, and, before answering, he made a show of unwrapping a pork chop that he had stowed in his pocket. “Bach and myself,” he said, taking a bite from the chop, “both write with individual performers in mind.” Richard O. Boyer captured the moment in a Profile entitled “The Hot Bach,” which appeared in this magazine in 1944. You can sense in that exquisitely timed pork-chop maneuver Ellington’s bemused response to the European notions of genius that were constantly being foisted on him. He said on another occasion, “To attempt to elevate the status of the jazz musician by forcing the level of his best work into comparisons with classical music is to deny him his rightful share of originality.” Jazz was a new language, and the critic would have to respond to it with a new poetry of praise.

Now Ellington is himself a classic, the subject of painstaking analytical studies. He occupies a Bachian position in an emergent popular pantheon, which is certain to look different from the marble-faced, bewigged classical pantheons that preceded it. The very idea of a canon of geniuses may be falling by the wayside; it makes more sense to talk about the flickering brilliance of a group, a place, or a people. In the future, it seems, everyone will be a genius for fifteen minutes. The past decade has seen the rise of pop-music studies, which is dedicated to the idea that Ellington, Hank Williams, and the Velvet Underground were created equal and deserve the same sort of scholarly scrutiny that used to be bestowed only on Bach and sons. Pop-music courses draw crowds of students on college campuses, and academic presses are putting out such portentous titles as “Instruments of Desire: The Electric Guitar and the Shaping of Musical Experience,” “Rock Over the Edge: Transformations in Popular Music Culture,” and “Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music.”

Pop-music professors, especially those who specialize in rock, are caught in an obvious paradox, which their students probably point out to them on the first day of class. Namely, it’s not very rock and roll to intellectualize rock and roll. When Pink Floyd sang, “We don’t need no education,” they could not have foreseen the advent of research projects with titles like “Another Book in the Wall?: A Cultural History of Pink Floyd’s Stage Performance and the Rise of Audiovisual Gesamtkunstwerk, 1965-1994.” (That comes from Finland.) Ever since Ellington, Armstrong, and Jelly Roll Morton struck up the soundtrack to the bawdy, boozy twenties, popular music has been the high-speed vehicle for youth rebellion, sexual liberation, and chemical experimentation, none of which yield willingly to the academic mind. The pop scholar is forever doomed to sounding like the square kid at the cool kids’ party, killing their buzz with sentences like this: “From the start, hip-hop’s samples ran the gamut of genres, defying anyone who would delimit hip-hop’s palette.”

Then again, maybe it’s not a problem that so much pop-music scholarship sounds conspicuously uncool. For decades, jazz rhapsodists and rock poets were so intent on projecting attitude that they never got around to saying much about the music itself. The pioneering rock critics of the sixties, such as Lester Bangs and Greil Marcus, wanted to mimic the music in their prose, and they had enough style to pull it off. Bangs, whose writings have been collected in a new anthology from Anchor Books, lived the life of a rock star, or at least died the death of one. But his writings are a better guide to the mentality of smart people who went to rock shows in the sixties and seventies than they are a reliable record of music and musicians. Discussing the Rolling Stones in 1974, Bangs wrote, “If you think I’m going to review the new ‘It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll’ album right now, you are crazy. But I am going to swim in it.” Between prose poetry and academic cant there has to be a middle ground, and pop-music studies is searching it out...

July 9, 2003

And What the F*&^ is the 'Internet'??

At some point in the next week, this man will turn to his family and ask "So you mean it's 2003? And people are still listening to that 'rap music??'"

Man wakes after 19 years in coma


Accident victim stuck in 1984; believes Reagan still president

The words began tumbling out — at first just a few nouns and eventually a torrent of phrases. Terry Wallis, who had been in a coma since a 1984 car accident, regained consciousness last month to the surprise of doctors and the delight of his family, including his mother, who heard his first word in 19 years...

July 10, 2003

OED: "Bling" is not official, just yet

In another sign that American journalistic standards are plummeting, the LA Times yesterday cited our site, hiphopmusic.com, as a credible source of hip-hop opinion:

'Bling-bling' in the Oxford dictionary? That's phat

Imagine the lofty air of expectation for the next edition of the venerable Oxford English Dictionary — an unprecedented revision is underway that, finally, authoritatively, is expected to nail down those vexing questions of lexicology. To wit: What is the etymology of "bling-bling"?

The editors are drafting a possible entry for the hip-hop slang, which usually refers to diamonds or other flashy jewelry that clinks together, said Jesse Sheidlower, principal North American editor of the dictionary.

Sheidlower is exasperated these days by news reports that have jumped the gun, such as MTV.com's headline saying that "bling-bling" had already made it into the Oxford dictionary, the definitive chronicler of the English language. "I expect that 'bling-bling' will be entered at some point," Sheidlower said...

...In hip-hop circles, such a mainstream nod can be a turnoff. On hiphopmusic.com's online forum, one fan complained that the Oxford English Dictionary would be co-opting "bling-bling" as "... yet another black colloquialism is blanched and neutered to make the white establishment seem 'more relevant, smarter and cooler.' "

Proper credit should go to Nakachi, whose reply to my post was the source of their quote.

Finding Primo

You've gotta love anyone who can find common threads in Gangstarr, Harry Potter and Finding Nemo, and then bundle them all together as ammunition against Bush.

Rapper's tip: World's scary, so teach your children hell

For 14 years, Guru has been one of hip-hop's most respected ''conscious'' rappers, and in the spoken introduction to The Ownerz, the new CD by his group Gang Starr, he expresses the anxieties of many parents -- particularly those caught up in the oh-so-ironic post-9/11 baby boom. He speaks for those of us who had the brilliant idea, ''The world's going to hell in a hand-basket; hey, let's bring some more innocent lives into it!'' and now smack our heads and wonder, ``My God, what have we done?''

How do you raise kids in a world where death and destruction continually preempt their favorite pastime? Where schools value testing over teaching? Where neighbors are not to be trusted and, in fact, should be reported to the nearest FBI hotline? Where in family after family, attention deficit disorder trumps unconditional love?

Easy: Teach your children hell...

July 14, 2003

Suge Knight: from Feared to Forgotten

Oh, this is excellent. I'll never pass up an opportunity to revel in Suge Knight's defeat. Few in this industry are more deserving of failure than Suge. And he's been slouching toward irrelevance for a few years now, I'm surprised it took people this long to notice.

Suge's rebuilding hampered by arrests - Mogul having trouble returning Death Row to glory


California (AP) -- When rap pioneer Marion "Suge" Knight was released from prison two years ago, he vowed to return Death Row Records to the top of the charts.

At the time, he told The Associated Press that it was "time for great records."

It hasn't happened. Aside from two albums of old Tupac Shakur material, Death Row has produced next to nothing. And for the second time this year Knight was behind bars, awaiting a hearing on a suspected parole violation.

Some wonder if Knight -- who helped muscle rap into the mainstream a decade ago with superstars such as Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and later Shakur -- is still a force in the music industry.

"He has to prove himself all over again," said Erik Parker, music editor of Vibe magazine. "As time slips by, people care less. There's no production, no real hits..."

July 15, 2003

Street Incredulity

An interesting take on sports writers' attempts to judge the "street credibility" of NBA stars:

Learning the nuances of street cred takes time

Whenever a tide of hip-hop terminology begins to flow from the mouths of people who have no connection with the culture, it can either be a blessing or a curse - a blessing in that a certain level of acceptance has been reached and a curse in that the term is now subject to be used out of context.

All of which brings me to the case of the term, "street cred" (credibility).

Personally, I can count the number of times I've ever used this term on one hand, yet for the past two weeks it's been all over the sports media.

I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's beginning to get its fair share of overuse...

July 16, 2003

Rakim Finally Gives Up on Aftermath

And thus Rakim joins the club of high profile Dr. Dre signings (Eve, Last Emperor, King T, who else?) who wound up languishing on the shelf for years, and finally dropped with nothing whatsoever to show for their time.

Disappointing but not surprising, after seeing the project drag on for so long. At least he and Dre actually spent time in the studio and made an attempt, which is more than can be said for some previous casualties. When I went to Gangstarr's listening party at the now defunct D&D studios, Premier mentioned that Rakim was asking him to come over to Cali and help with the album, because Aftermath didn't know how provide the proper sound for him.

Rakim Leaves Aftermath Entertainment

Legendary rapper Rakim has split with Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment record label, due to what Rakim's management deemed "creative differences."

"Rakim and Aftermath have mutually decided to part ways," Rakim's manager Zach Katz told AllHipHop.com. "Rakim is presently in talks with three powerhouse record companies."

Recently at the BET Awards, Rakim presented with Baby from Cash Money Records and boasted that his album would be in stores by the end of the summer on Aftermath.

MTV reported last week that Dre and Rakim had finished 16 songs and were working to finish seven more, before picking a single to release.

"He can bring the best out of me, and I want to make sure that I bring the best out of him," Rakim told MTV of Dre. "He goes in the studio from 3 [p.m. and] goes home 6, 7, 8 in the morning, so to me, that's all right. My man wants to work, so let's get it poppin'."

The legendary rapper had been signed to Aftermath for almost three years and fans have been anticipating the release of Oh My God, despite the constant delays.

Ok, now somebody hurry up and get these outtakes on MP3.

July 27, 2003

"B-Boy" is a Verb



pictures from the rock steady crew anniversary


July 29, 2003

It's Like Ten Thousand Spoons

I'm sure most of you saw this already, but it is just too delicious not to savor.. cops offering a formal apology to the author of "f**k Tha Police":

Police sorry after rapper alert

Chicago's police department has apologised to rapper Ice Cube after it said a man suspected of a number of sexual assaults bore a resemblance to the hip-hop star.

Police issued a warning to the public on Sunday as they searched for a man who allegedly attacked three women in the Wicker Park area of the city.

Local television station WBBM-TV then broadcast one of the rapper's videos alongside a report of the story during an evening news programme.

The police alert said the man they were searching for "resembles the popular rap artist Ice Cube".

Cast members working alongside the performer on the film Barbershop 2 saw the news story and video on the channel.

"This is an unfortunate and hurtful situation for Ice Cube," said his spokesman, Matt Labov.

"That his good name ever came up in association with the events currently taking place in Chicago's Wicker Park area is damaging to Ice Cube as a father, husband and artist," he added.

Mr Labov said the TV station had also apologised to the rapper.

A spokeswoman for the channel admitted they had used the video, based on the police alert.

"Our information was taken directly from the Chicago Police Department community alert," said Elizabeth Shapiro.

The warning was later reissued by police with no reference to Ice Cube.

"We took immediate corrective action," said police spokesman David Bayless.

"We apologise to Ice Cube for what was an honest mistake and came with no ill-intent," he said.

NEW AUDIO: C Rayz Walz on the Railroad, 7-26-03

Last week we had a star studded affair on the radio show, with dozens of luminaries passing through, in town for the Rocksteady Crew anniversary festivities.

The All Natural/Family Tree crew dropped some verses and schooled us on the hip-hop scenes in Chicago and Gary Indiana. Then towards the end of the show, a man walked in looking very intense, marched into the studio, ripped his shirt off and started dong pushups in front of the microphones.

I was almost afraid to see what would happen when we turned the mics on, but this mysterious strnager, who turned out to be C Rayz Walz, then delivered one of the sharpest interviews and tightest freestyles we've had on the show this year. Here are some excerpts (the other voice on there is G Man):

C Rayz Interview
C Rayz Freestyle
Photo of C Rayz on the mic

Those of you in NY can catch C Rayz at the Union Square Virgin Megastore tonight at 6PM, and everybody else should seek out his new album, released on Def Jux this week.

Note: when I saw "seek" I don't mean soulseek!

August 5, 2003

Tairrie B's Record Was Better

1. Why isn't Invincible of the Anomolies ever mentioned in these articles?

2. "she actually sounds a bit like one-time Jay-Z protege Amil" ..was that meant to make her sound more credible?

3. Does Princess Superstar mean to suggest, with her comments, that she herself should be considered a serious emcee and not a novelty act?

4. I downloaded Sarai's song this afternoon. It was poor. She might be marginally acceptable given better producers, who didn't burden her with this bubblegum pop sound. But her name ought never be uttered in the same sentence with Mr. Mathers.

Can Sarai become ‘Feminem’?

20-year-old hopes to become 1st white female rap star

Eminem has disproved the notion that white boys can’t rap. White girls, on the other hand, have had almost zero impact on the genre in its 30-year history.

Remember Tairrie B? Probably not. Wait, there’s ... hmmmm. Actually, the most influential white woman in rap history may be punk princess Deborah Harry, whose rhymes in the 1980 hit “Rapture” helped take rap mainstream.

But now a new face, Sarai, is raising hopes that there might be someone new - a Feminem - to go where none have gone before.

"Eminem has definitely opened people’s minds, that there could be a white artist actually mastering the skill," says Sarai (rhymes with "goodbye"), a 20-year-old, blue-eyed blonde from Kingston, N.Y., about two hours north of the city where rap was born...

August 8, 2003

Black August

This Sunday August 10th the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement will hold its 6th annual Black August concert here in NY:

Black August: A celebration of Hip Hop and our Freedom Fighters is a project of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, which strives to support the global development of Hip Hop culture by facilitating exchanges between international communities where Hip Hop is a vital part of youth culture, and by promoting awareness about the social and political issues that affect these youth communities. Our goal is to bring culture and politics together and to allow them to naturally evolve into a unique Hip Hop consciousness that informs our collective struggle for a more just, equitable and human world.

Since August of 1998, Black August has had benefit concerts in (1998) New York City at Tramp's, (1999) the Bowery Ballroom, (2000) the New Age Cabaret, (2001 and 2002) Synod Hall, and three shows at Cuba's National Rap Festival and five shows in South Africa, including a show at the United Nations World Conference on Racism in Durban. All Black August concerts in New York, South Africa and Cuba have been sold out. In New York, Black August has featured artists such as, Common, dead prez, Black Star, Fat Joe, the Roots, Les Nubians and Gil Scott-Heron. In Cuba, Black August artists included Black Star, Common, dead prez and Tony Touch and in South Africa, Black August shows included dead prez, Talib Kweli, Black Thought, Jeru and the Coup. The international shows were electric and, the responses, euphoric. In addition to the shows, MXGM has had political education workshops with the participating artists. The benefit concerts coupled with the political education workshops have made Black August an unforgettable experience for participants, which has increased the political commitment and dedication of Black August artists and activists to radical change.

The 6th Annual Black August Benefit Concert (2003) will be taking on more human rights issues, while continuing to organize cultural activists and artist to bring about global change and solidarity. Black August will highlight political prisoners in the Americas, discussing how activists have been jailed because of their political activities to end racial and economic oppression.

If you tune into WBAI right now, you can hear more info on Black August from Rise Up Radio, our stations weekly program for and by youth activists.

There also may be an artist or two from the concert appearing on our show this week, but one never knows what will happen on a Saturday night.

August 9, 2003

Can We Trust Russell Simmons?

For a while now we've been expressing misgivings about Russell Simmons' efforts to position himself as a leader and political power broker for the black community and the Hip-Hop nation. His assumption of prominent role in the movement to repeal/reform the Rockefeller drug laws has aroused similar concerns for many in the activist community, and Amadi Ajamu's piece at allhiphop.com does the best job yet of summing up why:

Russell Simmons: Def Sham?

The emergence of Hip Hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons as an establishment-endorsed political leader of the new generation of Blacks gives me pause. Being a member of this new generation, I think this should be put on the table for discussion.


Why have mainstream media's political pundits given Russell Simmons an open mic? He's a guest on Charlie Rose; he's become a constant feature in the New York Times, Newsweek Magazine and many other newspapers and magazine across the country. Hailed as among the one hundred most influential African Americans by Crain Magazine, can helicopter to Albany for private meetings with New York Governor George Pataki on the Rockefeller drug laws. He has organized fundraisers for senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer, works closely with former HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo, teams up with democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton to register new voters, and dines with Shimon Peres, Israel's former Prime Minister discussing a possible Middle East youth summit.

Either the king makers have peeped Simmons' ability to use his influence over urban youth as leverage in his business and political ventures and they want to control him, or the severity of the US economic recession deems it time to send in the clowns...

I thought this bit was particularly interesting:

...Simmons also launched a special "reparations" sneaker brand in his clothing line. Advertisements for it have proclaimed that a percentage of the proceeds from the sneakers would be donated to the reparations efforts. When a youth organization working on reparations issues contacted sales executives at Phat Farm about donations, they were told that a larger percentage of the proceeds were applied to advertising the sneakers so that the idea of reparations is being exposed. This maneuver is the extent of company's contribution to the struggle for slavery reparations...

August 11, 2003

Not Quite Short Enough?

This year's nominees for the Shortlist Music Prize have been announced, and you can see the complete list here, along with which hipster luminary selected each nominee.

Most of these picks are mighty hip indeed, but there are a few headscratchers in there too. Like, what's up with Source Editor-in-Chief Kim Osorio choosing the Dip Set's emphatically nondescript "Diplomatic Immunity" album? I respect her efforts to buck the more-indie-than-thou vibe of these awards, but surely she could have picked a more interesting record from Hot 97's playlist to foment this rebellion. Although I suppose we should just be glad she didn't throw Benzino in there.

But the real shocker here is ?uestlove's selection of the already much hyped and widely reviled Northern State record. ?uestlove had invited the regulars at his website, okayplayer.com, to help him pick his selections for this year, and got over 500 responses (only one of which suggested Northern State, and did so sarcastically).
Not surprisingly, those regulars are now unanimously aghast at this choice.

Personally I don't hate these Beastie Girls as much as most heads seem to. If it wasn't for the noxious hoopla that surrounds them I might enjoy this gang as harmless lighthearted fun, which is all they probably aspire to. They don't seem to take themselves too seriously as far as I've seen, don't pretend to be anything they're not.

Unfortunately their hype machine is asking us to take them much more seriously than they take themselves, and is presenting them as many things they're not. So although I don't hate the Northern State girls themselves, I am quickly growing to hate the Northern State Phenomenon. And that's why I'm puzzled that ?uestlove would take this award, meant to shed light on groundbreaking artists who haven't yet received the attention and acclaim they deserve, and use it to trumpet such a lightweight act that's already getting far more hype than they need (for their own sake).

I recommend keeping an eye on okayplayer, things should get interesting when ?uestlove surfaces to confront this angry mob.

August 12, 2003

They Also Tried to Copyright "Ignorance is Strength"

Fox News has decided to sue Al Franken, claiming they have exclusive rights to the phrase "Fair and Balanced". I am unable to muster a sufficiently sarcastic remark to accompany that first sentence. It may not be possible in the English language.

But I will join in with Atrios and the many others who are changing their blog's title in honor of this dumbassery.

August 25, 2003

Don't Call it a Comeback

Greetings Earth people. I have recently returned from an splendid vacation in Vancouver, hence the lack of bloggery here. I suppose I should have posted some notice about that beforehand, huh? My bad. But we will get things rolling again shortly.

And speaking of comebacks, you'll never guess who i ran into on the street this weekend: A Butta of NY's legendary underground crew Natural Elements (who got their start on our radio show, back when founding member Mr. Voodoo was our intern). He told me Voodoo (who now goes by his real name Agu), L Swift and himself are each working on solo material these days, as well as working on new tracks together. Hopefully we'll be getting our hands on this stuff soon.. you'll be the first to know.

And speaking of speaking of comebacks, Kim Jong Il just started posting in his blog again!

August 28, 2003

Mississauga's Most Wanted

Speaking of Vancouver, here's a profile of an up-and-coming emcee who originates from there, now based in Toronto. Can any of you Canadian folk give us the scoop on this young lady? I guess if she's down with Eternia she can't be too bad.

Not your usual rapper chick

Masia-One gives western 'burbs a voice

"You know, you're the first reporter who didn't ask `what's it like to be Asian and female' as the first question," says Toronto-based Masia-One. "Because really, I've already got that answer down pat." She should, considering she's been both for the past 24 years, but when you're likely the only small, female Asian rapper freestyling with the boys on one of the many mic nights around town, it's pretty easy to draw attention.

But the independent artist is strictly business and she's ready for her close-up. Her independent debut album, Mississauga, has started to make the rounds of local record shops and she's ferociously gigging, last weekend in Ottawa, at T.O.'s Dundas Square as part of Style In Progress last Thursday and on Saturday night at a female showcase at Clinton's. This Thursday she's the headliner at Reillys, where's she's holding her CD release party.

Although she's really a British Columbia native (née Masia Lim), she decided to name her album after the west 905 suburb because that's where the majority of her collaborators — producers and musicians — were located.

"I think it needs a better transit system, because that's how I was getting around up there," she laughs. But she wants to help shed a light on the several sick beat makers that live in the 'burbs. "With hip-hop kids always wanting to represent their area — so with Scarborough, 'cause it's more hardcore and gangster — but there's so many amazing musicians and producers coming out of Mississauga that have their own home studios and get no recognition because everyone associates some suburbs with nerdy, white picket fences. But a lot of brilliant music is coming out of there."

She has moved from Vancouver to study architecture at University of Toronto, and has been listening to the music since she was 9. She started writing in her teens but kept it to herself. Two and half years ago, she performed at a showcase called I Used To Love H.E.R. (after the Common track) that was put on by her then-roommate (and now co-manager) when someone dropped out. She took the spot to conquer her stage fright. From that single performance she snagged a commercial for MuchVibe and from there she's been rolling...

Northern State and the Schwarzenegger Syndrome

?uestlove has finally resurfaced to explain his baffling nomination of Northern State for the Shortlist Awards.

It seems this was a mixup between Questo and the awards people, and he hadn't intended for the terminally overhyped lite-rap trio to be his final pick, but he never got to send in his real choices because his computer got hit by the virus that was going around a few weeks ago. Fair enough. my faith in the order of the universe is restored.

And I'm still trying really hard not to hate Northen State. I swear if I had never read any of their interviews or seen any of their press coverage I would enjoy their stuff for the harmless fun that it is. It's only how seriously they are being taken that makes me want to throw dead animals at them.

It's like Arnold Schwarzenegger, he was marginally tolerable as a grade b movie actor, but being asked to take him seriously as a candidate for governor renders him insufferable.

September 8, 2003

So, How's the Family?

Our friend Peter Scholtes at complicatedfun.com just published an excellent oral history of Minneapolis' legendary First Avenue club, with quotes from Jimmy Jam, ?uestlove, Slug, and many others. A must-read for all us Prince fans, and good reading for non-believers as well:

The legendary bands. The terrifying toilets.

An oral history that goes so far behind the music it will leave you at a gun range beneath the stage.

If there's a spiritual equivalent to lust--and Prince knows there must be--I've felt it for First Avenue ever since I first set foot there. That was 1990, so my feelings don't have much to do with Purple Rain, the Minneapolis nightclub's only real claim on the national imagination. But look at the crowd shots in that 1984 movie and you'll see a social mixture that really did exist at First Avenue. The movie mythologized something true about the Minneapolis that Prince helped create. But it didn't tell an even better story: how a bunch of ambitious black teenagers and crazed punk rockers saved live music here, and helped reinvent rock 'n' roll worldwide.

Prince and the new wave were no further from each other than First Avenue and its adjoining room, the 7th St. Entry. The dance nights and live music in both venues reflected the uniquely cosmopolitan vision of the club's longtime manager, Steve McClellan.

Now, as First Avenue struggles amid club competition and real estate development, it seems like a good time to tell this story again--and let those who were there put things in their own words. The history of First Avenue is the story of segregation in downtown Minneapolis, of sex, cocaine, mud wrestlers, businessmen, gangsters, and idealists. It's your story, too, if you are among the millions of people who have passed through the venue's doors since it opened in 1970 as a hippie rock and soul club called the Depot, in the old Greyhound bus station...

September 11, 2003

Surfing This Site Will Boost your Career

David Rees (creator of Get Your War On) has a new book coming out, and in this essay he explains how it was largely inspired by his fascination with Hip-hop:

Behind the Scenes of "My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable."

...Temp jobs are the ideal creative environment for me: I usually have few serious responsibilities, but enough busy work so that any time spent making comics on the sly feels like a great feat of creative rebellion. All the means of artistic production -- computer, internet clip art, laser printer, photocopier -- are within reach. I have to work quickly, printing comics as soon as I make them, in case someone else has to use the laser printer. The more limited the tools and resources, the more I have to strain my imagination to create amusing situations, and usually, the funnier the final product is.

At the temp job where I made "My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable," I spent a lot of time perusing rap music websites. The limitless amount of new singles by new rappers is exhilarating. One of my favorite things about rap music is that many performers take on new identities while they're on the mic. Rappers rarely perform under their given name. Seeing a long list of new songs by new rappers is like seeing a long cast of characters for an exciting new play, without actually having to sit through the play. I spent more time reading rap reviews than listening to the songs.

Kool Keith is a great rapper. He has released albums under many different personalities. In cataloging esoterica about his multiple personalities, Kool Keith reminds me of the days in elementary school when my friend and I would fill sheets of paper with data about scores of imaginary characters: names, pictures of their faces, and major characteristics. We never went beyond these massive lists of characters. We never made up stories about them.

This is the data for one of Kool Keith's personalities:

"Mr. Gerbick; Age: 208; Birthplace: Jupiter; Likes: fishing, swimming; Dislikes: wolfmen, flossing; Quote: 'Skin like an alligator, carrying a dead walrus.'"

Another element of rap music that comes across in my book is the obsession with fighting, and the importance of technique. Most freestyle battle rhymes are explicitly about language. Growing up I loved hearing so many people rapping about rapping -- making songs about, while exhibiting, cleverness with language. Why is this genre so fascinating to me? It's almost like I don't want language to get beyond itself and actually talk about anything in the world -- I like keeping it wrapped up in itself. I think this is why I studied philosophy in college and got really into Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Staten Island's Wu-Tang Clan is a musical collective that appropriates the language and sound effects of martial arts movies into their lyrics and their beats. They exploit the analogy between fighting technique and lyrical technique very effectively. Some astute readers have picked up the Wu-Tang's influence on my book.

The greatest single influence on "My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable," however, is Davey D's 1998 "KRS-One Will End Your Career", an analysis of then up-and-coming rapper Canibus's chances against the fabled Chris Parker, aka KRS-One. Canibus had made a name for himself as an excellent battle rhymer, one who took on popular favorite LL Cool J in one of the truly high-profile MC feuds to play big on commercial radio. Davey D's essay is filled with words of caution for the upstart Canibus, and confirms KRS-One's reputation as one of the greatest battle rhymers of all time:

"(KRS-One) pointed out that he was like a martial arts master and that he is always prepared. He noted that when he released "The Return of the Boom Bap' album in '94 that he put all rappers on notice. He said that anyone who came out after '94 were subject to having their careers end at any given moment. KRS claimed that when he hears a new artist come on the scene that he immediately writes a rhyme that will totally dismantle him and his career. He keeps those rhymes in the back of his head just in case he has to take some kid out..."

I think the character of Karate Snoopy in "My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable" is based in part on KRS-One. Karate Snoopy seems capable of ending careers of other fighters "at any given moment." He seems very sure of himself, as do most good rappers.

Well it certainly bodes well for me if surfing hip-hop websites all day at your job is the path to stardom.

September 12, 2003

In Other News, 2+2 is Reported to Equal 4

I'm glad to see somebody has some sense around here:

Artists Blast Record Companies Over Lawsuits Against Downloaders

Recording artists across the board think the music industry should find a way to work with the Internet instead of suing people who have downloaded music.

"They're protecting an archaic industry," said the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir. "They should turn their attention to new models."

"This is not rocket science," said David Draiman of Disturbed, a hard-rock band with a platinum debut album on the charts. "Instead of spending all this money litigating against kids who are the people they're trying to sell things to in the first place, they have to learn how to effectively use the Internet."

After three consecutive years of double-digit sales losses, and having lost a court battle against file-sharing Web sites such as Kazaa and Morpheus, the Recording Industry Association of America -- the industry's lobbying arm -- trained its sights on ordinary fans who have downloaded music. On Monday, the RIAA filed suits against 261 civilians with more than 1,000 music files each on their computers, accusing them of copyright violations. The industry hopes the suits, which seek as much as $150,000 per violation, will deter computer users from engaging in what the record industry considers illegal file-swapping.

This unprecedented move brings home the industry's battle against Web downloads, which the record business blames for billion-dollar losses since the 1999 emergence of Napster, the South Bay startup the RIAA sued out of existence. The suits are expected to settle for as little as $3,000 each, but the news was greeted with derision by the very people the RIAA said they moved to protect, the musicians themselves.

"Lawsuits on 12-year-old kids for downloading music, duping a mother into paying a $2,000 settlement for her kid?" said rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy. "Those scare tactics are pure Gestapo."

"File sharing is a reality, and it would seem that the labels would do well to learn how to incorporate it into their business models somehow," said genre-busting DJ Moby in a post on his Web site . "Record companies suing 12-year-old girls for file sharing is kind of like horse-and-buggy operators suing Henry Ford..."

Umm, Okay..

What a splendid coincidence that this was published in USC's paper, the Daily Trojan:

Condom innovator incorporates hip-hop culture into designs

...Jimmie Hatz is the world's first line of condoms designed specifically to attract black and other minority youths by launching a product with a hip-hop theme.

The name Jimmie Hatz is a play on urban culture's slang for condoms. Rapper and hip-hop pioneer KRS-One popularized the term "jimmy hat," after releasing a song called "Jimmy" in 1988...

...Blacks accounted for 12 percent of the U.S. population in 2001 but represented more than half of all reported HIV cases that year, stated the 2001 national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report...

...By integrating hip-hop with safe sex, Common Ground USA said its mission is to mold condom use into part of urban culture and ultimately bring the statistics down.

Jimmie Hatz, the self-proclaimed "official condom of the hip-hop kulture," strives to make condom use cool again, Terrell said.

The condoms come in three basic styles: Rotweiller (the standard size), Mix Breed (with ridges and contours) and the Great Dane (an extra-large condom).

Wrappers are adorned with graffiti-style labeling and a fearless bulldog dressed in a beanie and hoop earring. His "ice" is a dangling gold condom...

You can check out this company's official website here, where we are informed that their flavored condoms are "tasty like a now and later."

Bad News for Tragedy

When I read about this case elsewhere it was reported that these arrests were for marijuana possession, that detail seems to have been omitted here. But I am posting this mainly to point out that these folks accompanied their article with a picture of Tragedy taken by yours truly, which they took from here on my site without permission and used without credit. It's not polite to bite, people!

(This not to make light of the incident described, which was indeed unjust if the story is accurate)

Tragedy Khadafi Detained Following Arrest With Noreaga

Throughout his career, and for his upcoming fourth solo album titled Still Reportin..to be released 10-21-03 on 25 to Life Records/Solid Records/Caroline, rapper Tragedy Khadafi's message has always been about the plight of the underclass and its struggle against indifference. From "Arrest the President" in 1990 to his discovery and development of Capone N Norega for their debut gold selling album, The War Report, Tragedy Khadafi's underlying theme of struggle informs his work. Yet, last Wednesday evening on September 3, in a horrific and terrifying display of police abuse, Tragedy Khadafi's public message of struggle has become, once again, very personal.

On September 3, Tragedy Khadafi, along with Noreaga,and several other persons, were forcibly stopped, searched, and arrested by approximately 30 to 35 New York City Police Officers at gunpoint in downtown New York City, for simply driving a vehicle lawfully.

Tragedy Khadafi, along with others, were forced to stop the vehicle, threatened at gunpoint by numerous officers while still in the vehicle, forced to exit and shoved to the ground while approximately 30 to 35 guns were pointed at their heads amidst a barrage of threats by the officers.

The "pretext" for this horrific display of police power, was their alleged belief that the vehicle, or one of its passengers, had a gun, which of course, was not true. According to his attorney, Renata Lowenbraun, Tragedy Khadafi is evaluating whether a civil rights action will be filed on his behalf.

September 16, 2003

Osama Warns U.S.: "We Shall Have You Singing Thoia Thoing"

I thought nothing could ever top the time OJ Simpson compared himself to Moses and Jesus, but R Kelly has blessed us with an even loopier quote:

ME AND OSAMA

...In a recent interview with a US magazine, Kelly took the opportunity to claim he's been the subject of the sort of vilification normally reserved for the Globe's most hated individual.

He told Blender magazine: "People can say whatever they want about you without knowing the facts. They can criticize you without even knowing you and hate you when they don't even know you.

"All of a sudden, you're like the bin Laden of America. Osama bin Laden is the only one who knows exactly what I'm going through..."

Yeah man, that poor Osama, why are people always judging him?

September 19, 2003

NEW AUDIO: 40 minute mix from DJ 3D

I just (finally) posted some new audio in the radio archive, 3D's latest set from last week's show. New music of the highest quality.

September 26, 2003

R.I.P. Matthew Hall, a.k.a. Optimus Rhyme

NY's hip-hop and youth activist communities are mourning today for the loss of Matthew Hall, shot in the back as he left a Zulu Nation meeting in Harlem. Though only 18 Matthew had already made a mark with his activism at Hunter College, and also emceeing under the name Optimus Rhyme, at local venues including End of the Weak. Here are further details from some who knew him:


For those who have not heard or seen today's Daily News, Matthew Hall, a student at Hunter College, brother, activist, member of the Universal Zulu Nation, was shot in the back Wednesday at 9pm, and passed away yesterday at 4:30pm at Harlem Hospital. Many may not know him by his legal name, but when you see the front cover of the daily news you will know that face, Matthew was involved in so many things, he was at every major rally, protest, always at meetings, and last year had put together an event at Hunter College, to expose students to the political nature of hip hop culture, Immortal Technique, the Welfare Poets and I were part of that event, it was such a success that he was going to continue to do more events at Hunter and was evolving into an amazing young revolutionary and activist. Matthew was also part of the Nu-Sense Collective a youth collective that has its roots at WBAI. I had the pleasure of seeing and chilling with Matthew last thursday night at Hunter College for one of the ACLU College Freedom tour stops. He was excited that we had chosen Hunter, and I said to him, it was his doing, in choosing colleges for the tour, Hunter was the natural choose as so many great activists come from their, and as usual he was there supporting, and seeing what more he could do.

In the last two years we have lost two great brothers in our generation, Rohan Wedderburn and now Matthew Hall, both shot violently. Let us not forget them or their contributions to our people.

***Hunter College Students are holding a vigil sometime next week.

-Rosa Clemente

----------------

yo... some sad shitty news...

word is that our homeboy Optimus Rhyme aka Matt was shot and has just passed away...

the man is our brother in struggle for justice and equality such as fighting against the war, right to palestnian state and against police brutality just to name a few...

Matt also kept it real for hiphop... hes down with the Guerrilla Words cause, EOW and Cajo.. Matt organized the Immortal Technique, Oktobre, LIFE Long and Welfare Poet show a couple of months ago in his school Hunter College..

i still can't believe homeboy is gone.. i was just asking him bout a j-live song yesterday and now word that hes gone... i was even bugging him to get a friendster account...

just shows us how we gotta cherish every moment..

we gotta continue the struggle for matt and all of our peoples that held the truth...

- Jose of Guerilla Words

And here is some press coverage of the tragedy, most of which thankfully avoids the typical "rap-related violence!" sensationalism:

NY Daily News

NY Times

New York Post - even the post is somewhat respectful, other than their vaguely paranoid assessment of the Zulu Nation.

We will pay tribute to Matthew tomorrow on our radio show, which will feature the EOW crew.

NEW AUDIO: Immortal Technique Live with EOW

This week we are once again welcoming the EOW crew to the Underground Railroad, with a radio version of their already legendary open mic night. I'm putting up this MP3 as a taste of what you can expect from EOW tomorrow night, it's an exceypt from their last appearance when they brought along one of this year's most talked-about emcees, Immortal Technique.
Immortal Technique on the Underground Railroad, August 2003

September 29, 2003

Dead Prez Arrested

According to an e-mail we received from activist and fellow WBAI producer Rosa Clemente, "Members of the hip hop group dead prez were assaulted and arrested by NYPD in Brooklyn today, Saturday September 27th, at approximately 3:30pm, while conducting a photo shoot in Crown heights." They were scheduled to be arraigned yesterday, we will post any further information we can find.

More on Matthew Hall

Here is a letter forwarded to us from a friend of Matthew Hall, the young emcee and activist who died tragically here in NY last week. The letter addresses the media's increasingly negative take on his ties with hip-hop and the Zulu Nation in particular.

The death of Matthew Hall has been widely publicized lately by the media circuits here in New York and there have been numerous despicable assertions, which are trying tarnish his legacy. He was a good friend to me so please read this first if you will write a news article about him. If you are not planning to write one, I encourage you to because the media has been portraying Hiphop, the followers of Hiphop, and progressive elements (particularly the Zulu Nation) as negative influences to society in this incident.

Matthew Hall is known as Optimus Rhyme in the underground Hiphop scene here in New York. As you may probably have heard, he was a member of the Zulu Nation founded by Afrika Bambaata. He was also a member of the amazing break dancing crew Motion Sickness. Although he performed poetry numerous times, he was more known in the New York open mic scene for his freestyles. As a matter of fact, he was 2nd runner-up on the freestyle competition at the first ever Hiphop Summit of Russell Simmons when it was held at Riverside Church, Manhattan.

Recently, the NYPD has been implicating his Zulu brethrens as his shooter. The Zulu Nation is a movement that promotes peace, equality, spirituality and justice and in no way did advocate violence or racism which the media has been implying. I have talked with his Zulu brothers and they have informed me about the disgusting strategies the NYPD has been imposing on them such as coercing them to give false testimonies. His Zulu brothers are greatly devastated and are mentally and emotionally tortured because aside from Matt’s departure, they have now become suspects (because they would not oblige to the demands of NYPD like lying). Although I am not a Zulu, I can personally attest that it was not a Zulu who was behind Matt’s death—Matt was even wearing an “I LOVE ZULU” shirt when he was shot. The NY Post particularly has been spreading atrocious lies suggesting that Matt provoked a physical altercation that led to the shooting. But anybody and I mean ANYBODY THAT KNEW MATT knows that he would not instigate such incident. In my years of knowing him, I have never even seen him close to getting mad even during the time when he was harassed by security personnel at Hunter College when he organized a free show.

Matt was also politically active. He was involved with the political organizations Refuse and Resist (www.refuseandresist.org) and Not in Our Name (www.notinourname.net). He was a strong advocate for the liberation of Palestine and the elimination of the oppressive social system. Matt played critical roles on the October 6, 2002 rally in Central Park (which was attended by 30,000 people), November 20, 2002 student walk out converging at Union Square and the February 15, 2003 rally in New York City where conservative estimates was at 500,000 but perhaps had 2 million people. He lived what he preached. In my recent visit to his building after he passed away, a worker in his building showed me a book by Gore Vidal Matt gave him to clarify the worker’s disillusioned thoughts on American politics.

Events have been organized to commemorate his legacy. On Tuesday, September 30, students of Hunter College are having a memorial (6pm @ Room 105 Thomas Hunter Bldg.). October 7, Guerilla Words (a monthly open mic which Optimus used to help promote, 213 2nd Ave corner 13th St.-8pm) will dedicate the October open mic to Optimus Rhyme. Cajo Communications is organizing a October 29th show with numerous artists (Immortal Technique, C-Rayz Walz, L.I.F.E. Long, Oktober and dead prez to name a few) at Lion’s Den (214 Sullivan St.) for him. Act Your Rage, a defunct monthly open mic Optimus hosted twice (he hosted the last one), will be revived to be held outdoors but specific information are not yet available. 99.5 Pacifica Radio and End of the Weak’s radio show gave tribute to Optimus.

Once again, the NYPD has shown incompetence and impatience to the point that they are ruining the lives of Matthew’s friends. Once again, corporate media’s thirst for profit (by writing burlesque articles to draw readers and viewers) is damaging an innocent man’s name.

To describe Matt is beyond adjectives so I guess when people ask me to describe him; I always have a hard time to. To name a few descriptions fitting to him, he was definitely smart (reflected by his GPA) he was definitely caring (proven by his works) and he was definitely responsible (balancing his studies and school activities, work, healthy social life and political involvement). I am not just saying this because he passed away; I am saying this because it is the truth.

On behalf of the mourners of Matt who wish the truth to be known, thank you for reading this letter.

- jose

October 1, 2003

Chuck vs. LL, on Capitol Hill

Another conservative stance from LL, who made a public endorsement of republican George Pataki for governor over democrat Carl McCall (who if elected would have been NY's first Black governor).

If the RIAA ever wants to get public support for their agenda they might want to consider putting smaller, struggling artists out there as their representatives, instead of the big names they've brought forth so far. This endless parade of millionaires claiming to be economically oppressed by college students just looks absurd.


Dueling Rappers Debate Downloading Music

Rapper LL Cool J Tells Congress He Backs Moves Against Music Downloaders; Chuck D Disagrees

Rapper LL Cool J joined entertainment executives Tuesday in defending the music industry's lawsuits against hundreds of Internet users who illegally distribute music online.

"My question is, if a contractor builds a building, should people be allowed to move into the building for free?" the rapper, dressed in a black suit with an earring glistening in his right lobe, asked senators. "That's how I feel if I record a song or make a movie, and it zooms around the world for free."

Another rapper, Chuck D, founder of Public Enemy, testified at the Senate Governmental Affairs subcommittee hearing that people ought to be able to distribute the songs they want to hear on peer-to-peer Internet services, known as P2P.

"P2P to me means power to the people," said Chuck D. "I trust the consumer more than I trust the people at the helm of these (record) companies."

"LL's a staunch American," Chuck D added in a brief interview. "He's my man and all, man, but when you solely have an American state of mind, you're increasingly becoming a smaller part of the world."

The music industry's trade group, the Recording Industry Association of America, has filed 261 lawsuits against people it accuses of illegally distributing music online. The RIAA blames lagging CD sales on the downloading of music.

The subcommittee chairman, Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman, called the hearing to look into whether the recording industry's tactics were too heavy-handed.

"As a former prosecutor, I am troubled by a strategy that uses the law to threaten people into submission," said Coleman, a former roadie for the '60s rock group Ten Years After. Coleman referred to the rappers as "Mr. Cool J" and "Mr. D..."

October 7, 2003

Another Angry Rant from Grandpa Simpson

I started writing this as a reply in an earlier post, but it's gotten long enough to require a space of its own. In response to a rather, uhh, colorful denouncement of the anticon scene, 1200th Hobo wrote:

The simple fact that you said "art-fag shit" shows simple-mindedness and the sad state of this bullshit hip hop culture. As long as Nelly is selling albums to third grade girls, hip hop is dead. EL-P is only underground because he saw the direction the movement was taking. He could easily be signed with Rawkus and making a video on an mtv special.

How can any of you deny the talent of anticon? Sage francis anybody? Buck65, Sixtoo? Anyone of average intelligence can see the rhyming skill of these artists, and beatsmiths like Nosdam, Jel, and controller7 know how to complement the styles. So all of you shut your loudass internet mouths.

Although I don't support "art-fag" epithets, I must say the noxious elitism emanating from above is exactly what has alienated so many people from anticon and the subculture they have come to represent.

"As long as Nelly is selling albums to third grade girls, hip hop is dead..."

"Anyone of average intelligence can see the rhyming skill of these artists..."

The only thing that should be obvious to "anyone of average intelligence" is that musical taste is entirely subjective, and by definition nobody's taste can be more or less intelligent than anyone else's. A preference for Anticon doesn't make you any smarter than a preference for Nelly.

Personally I am not a big fan of either, and I'd say each has their own strengths and weaknesses. Anticon places much more emphasis on lyrical exploration, to be sure, but to my ears Nelly is more rhythmically and musically compelling (though compared to lots of other hip-hop he may be sub-par on these levels as well). I find most anticon material lacking in musicality and richness of rhythm, missing the vibrant sonic texture that is usually hip-hop's greatest strength. It generally appeals to me more if I think of it as "spoken word" rather than Hip-Hop.

But that is just my opinion. No more or less valid than anyone else's. I don't believe I am right about this music and other people are wrong. The only time anyone can be wrong about their musical taste is in the belief that they are right, in any objective sense.

Just to be clear, I'm certainly not saying that everyone associated with anticon exhibits these traits, nor do all or even most of their fans. That scene has no monopoly on this brand of delusional arrogance, you can find it in every corner of the Hip-Hop nation. And this vibe always saddens me, because I can remember when the lite comedy rap of the Fat Boys, the smooth R&B rap of Whodini, and the straight-up hardcore sound of Run-DMC could all share the same stage and rock the same crowd without anybody worrying about which style was "true" or "real". We were proud of this incredible music we had created, in all its forms, and celebrated its diversity instead of being frightened by it.

Since then Hip-Hop has grown so much, and expanded to embrace so many different styles and sounds, and this is a beautiful thing. But instead of taking pride in this growth we react with fear and segregate ourselves, retreating into separate camps and proclaiming that only those in our little tent represent "real hip-hop", and anyone else is a traitor helping to kill the culture. Perhaps this is an inevitable consequence of Hip-Hop's (d)evolution into a billion dollar industry, and its incorporation into the American mainstream. But it really depresses me.

October 9, 2003

Insert Phoenix-related Wordplay Here

Our friend(ster) Jean Grae has risen again, bearing a brand new CD. Thou shalt purchase it. It hath been decreed. Here is a review:

The Bootleg of the Bootleg EP

Jean Grae will smack the average rapper with a lyrical two-piece and a biscuit (that’s slang for a smack down for all you squares reading this). The femme fatale has the rhyme chops to hang with the big boys like Jay and Nas. Word. Her debut full length, Attack of the Attacking Things was heralded by pencil pushing, keyboard tapping music critics and underground rap fans. Her new effort, The Bootleg of the Bootleg EP, (what is it with these double word titles?) is more of the same thought provoking and technically precise lyricism with even stronger beats. Thank you Jean.

Before Jean was out of her teens she was a member of the heralded but now defunct underground group Natural Resource. No disrespect to the other members, Meat Pie and Ocean, but Jean, then known as What? What?, was the star of the trifecta. The same way Lauryn Hill initially stood out from her Fugees partners, Jean was the lyricist heads were checking for. On top of her skills with words, her production credits (as producer alias Run Run Shaw) were top shelf beat spirits as well.

The album is kicked off by its lead single, the incendiary “Haters Anthem” where she spits one liners like, “I’m more necessary than violence on the Amistad,” over an intense four-note key loop that has it’s tension released by the chorus’ refrain, “You f**k, you f**k, you f**k!” On “Chapter One: Destiny” she molds her lyrical clay is into a vivid Bonnie minus the Clyde tale that would make Ghostface. Meanwhile, relationships and friendships are expounded on over airy vocal snippets and sharp snares on “My Crew.” Nice collaborative assists are accepted from Cannibal Ox on “Swing Blade” and from Block McCloud and Pumpkinhead on “Code Red.”

The problem with this disc is that being an EP, and only six songs deep at that, you can’t help but asking, “That’s it, that’s all?” Grae tries to make amends by tagging a “megamix” of freestyles and older material at the end of the album. Beginning the bonus cuts with a blistering freestyle over Jay-Z’s own hidden gem “Breathe Easy” is a nice touch. She hold her own over a few Jigga instrumentals including the “You Don’t Know Remix” where she sums up the reason for her relative obscurity: “Not a thug, not a drug seller, not a gun shooter, not a stripper sex symbol…or anything your used ta/Marketing nightmare, I don’t fit into categories/I just rap, make beats and shit and sleep a;; these stories/All I want is the voice, all the people need is a choice, if there’s no competition, then what is the f**king point?!” Two tracks from her neophyte emcee days with Natural Resource, “Negro League Baseball” and “Bum Deal,” will make rap historians grin.

Maybe it’s the general public’s snail pace in checking for her that has frustrated Grae; and perhaps that frustration is why her lyrics are so venomous. It’s just a theory but if it makes her keep making superior hip-hop music (no need to addendum her being a chick, please refer to KRS, “A dope emcee is a emcee.”), then let’s hope she can keep finding shit to piss her off. Though, more overdue recognition will be welcomed and is sure to come.

October 11, 2003

NEW AUDIO: Highlights of EOW on the Underground Railroad

For those who don't know End of the Weak is a collective of emcees who also run New York's hottest and longest running open mic. We've been working with them to bring their breeding ground for local talent to the radio, and tonight we will have them on again with another hour of live emceeing at it's finest. Here are some highlights fom their last appearance:


  • Clip One - The EOW crew rocks the mic.

  • Clip Two - The radio debut of Chocolate Thai, winner of EOW's emcee challenge, and star of Showtime's upcoming hip-hop series "The Next Episode".

  • Clip Three - Underground vet and Stronghold representative Poison Pen returns to the Railroad. Check out his last appearance back in 1998 at the Freestyle Archive.

October 16, 2003

NY Faces a British DJ Invasion

DJ Qool Marv (Underground Railroad Alumnus) has put together a really cool event here in NY, here is the info he passed along about it. Marv will also be on our radio show this Saturday at midnight, with a few of these Manchester luminaries.

Qool DJ Marv with DJ Misbehaviour & Madison present: Bring It V.1 - The Manchester Invasion

October 20th - 11pm
@ Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette Street
No Cover


Featuring artists from Mark Rae's Grand Central Records:

Fingathing LIVE (Turntablist Peter Parker, Double Bass Player Sneaky, with interactive visuals by Chris Drury)

and DJ sets from Grand Central artists Funky Fresh Few, Only Child, & Jon Kennedy

Plus DJ sets from Fat City Records Darren Laws & Matt Triggs

And DJ sets from Twisted Nerve (Badly Drawn Boy) label head Andy Votel, Martin Brew (1/2 of East/West recording artists
J-Walk), and Subtub Players Records label head Tim Gilles (whose label featured one of the UK's biggest feel good tunes of
the summer "Wesley Music" which was featured on Giles Peterson's latest Worldwide compilation.

Even more details and information can be found at these websites
http://www.grandcentralrecords.com
http://www.transatlanticexpress.co.uk/diary/20th.php

October 18, 2003

FUNDRAISING SPECIAL: Exclusive Hip-Hop Rarities On Sale This Saturday

Much to our surprise, we have discovered that we will be doing our fundraising special this Saturday night from 12-to-2 AM on WBAI 99.5 FM in NY, and also heard around the world right here. That's right, for those who like to hear a grown man beg, this is the show for you!

Regular listeners will know I always have some special giveaways for those who pledge $75 or more, and this one is no exception. I've been digging into my vaults and found a tape with some incredible highlights from 1995, including Jay-Z's appearance on our show back then, in which he rhymed with Natural Elements(!!), and extended freestyles from AZ, the Cella Dwellaz, and Madd Skillz with Lonnie B. Ive put this all together on a CD for anyone who makes a $75 pledge, and also thrown in an exclusive Emskee mix as a bonus CD.

Of course it's not about the giveaways, it's about keeping this alternative media outlet alive, which is more precious now than ever as the Clear Channel types gobble up more and more of the airwaves. But yeah, you will be getting something nice, in addition to doing something nice.

So please tune in, and give if you can! $50 will get you regular one-year membership and $25 gets a low-income membership, for students or other broke people.

We will also be having DJ Qool Marv and some special guests from overseas, as mentioned below.

October 20, 2003

Dead Prez Take the Cops to Court

Here is a press release that just came to the inbox:

HIP HOP ARTISTS TO SUE THE N.Y.P.D.

dead prez files civil suit in response to unlawful physical assault and arrest by police officers.

Hip Hop artist Stic of the acclaimed group dead prez and members of A-Alikes are filing suit against the City of New York as a result of the New York Police Department’s unlawful assault, arrest and detainment of the artists on September 27th, 2003.

While asserting their right to congregate in a public place, dead prez and members of the A-Alikes were taking pictures when approached by two police officers and asked for identification. Refusing to provide a coherent reason when asked by the artists why id was necessary, witnesses say the officers requested back-up and upon it’s arrival, physically attacked the men in broad daylight.

“I was harassed and attacked by the police in my neighborhood,” says Stic of Dead Prez. “There were no complaints and I wasn’t violating any laws,” he explained.

To date, there are no state or federal laws that deem it unlawful for one to question or deny the demand for identification by a law enforcement officer. Attorney Kamau Karl Franklin who will represent the artists in the suit states that “Even if we walk away with monetary compensation…which we’re almost guaranteed given the illegal detention, it’s important to be an example to other victims of police brutality, be they recording artists or everyday people.”

dead prez, along with A-Alikes, the People’s Army and other fellow Hip Hop artists is organizing a call for action amongst New York attorneys, community leaders, political activists, musicians and supporters to help them fight back. “We can’t allow the daily occupation and brutality by the police against our community to go unchecked,” says dead prez artist M1.

On October 29, 2003 at 9:00 am, dead prez will hold a press conference before entering court that day to address the case.

October 29, 2003

Benzino Still Yapping, Some People Inexplicably Still Listening

Coming from a paragon of journalistic integrity like Benzino, i'm sure this "evidence" will be totally unimpeachable.. Eminem must be shaking in his Air Force Ones.

Benzino's Evidence Says Eminem's A Racist

Source Magazine's president and Rapper, Ray Benzino stunned the media by releasing this statement last night.

Benzino said that he has damning evidence against his nemesis Eminem that will seal his fate in hiphop, he acquired an original cassette recording of a Detroit basement tape which features a series of raps by the Slim Shady himself that contain blatant racist and derogatory statements about black women and black people in general.

The songs from that tape are dated back from 1995, the alleged tape will be revealed in the January issue of The Source magazine, which hits the newstand in December.

(note: original article had many spelling errors I could not bear to reproduce here)

October 30, 2003

P Diddy Is A Stalker*

Labor activist Charles Kernaghan, who proudly lists "making Kathie Lee cry" on his resume, has uncovered evidence that noted marathon runner Sean Combs' clothing line is yet another product of sweatshoppery:

P Diddy in sweatshop row

The US rap performer, P Diddy, has promised to investigate claims his clothing company uses a sweatshop factory in Honduras.

P Diddy, otherwise known as Sean Combs, said he was "shocked" at the allegation by an American organisation campaigning for workers' rights, which said conditions at the factory were wholly unacceptable.

The National Labor Committee (NLC) claimed workers were paid less than a dollar an hour, forced to work overtime, subjected to body searches and dismissed if they got pregnant.

But Combs said at a news conference there would be a "zero tolerance" investigation by his company, Sean John.

He said he grew up among working people and empathised with their struggle.

Combs told journalists: "I'm as pro-worker as they get.

"We are shocked at this information. We are launching an investigation into this matter, and if there is any proof of wrongdoing, we will terminate our relationship with this factory immediately."

Combs said his company, Sean John, had employed a compliance officer to make five inspections of the plant this year...


November 3, 2003

You Ain't Hittin in Brunei, Hammer!

Are any of you out there in blogville familiar with these guys? I want to hear their stuff.

Brunei's ‘best rappers' to release debut album

Local hip-hop group, MNC (Magnific Crew) consists of Hasrin Hj.Mahmud (Maxxx), Muhd Nazmi Mahali (Nazmo), Muhammad Fadhil Hj.Abdul Kadir (Skye), Ak.Md Amiridden Pg.Hj Md Daud, Hj. Abd Rahman Hj.Mohd (Nukky), Ak.Ros Iskandar Pg. Sufri (Is), Ak.Azrol Pg.Hj Ahmad (Ajoe) and the female vocalist, Fatin Nadzirah Ahmad Al-Shokry (Fatin). Crowned as 'Best Rappers' in Brunei, MNC has appeared on numerous public performances. The group is currently recording their debut album with a local music company, Phuture Phase.

November 4, 2003

Slick Rick Is Free

It's about damn time. You may remember this judge as one of Clinton's failed nominees for Attorney General back in 1993, part of that whole "illegal nanny" scandal.

Slick Rick Released From Jail

One and a half years after "Slick Rick" Walters was jailed for immigrations violations, the rapper's release was ordered by a U.S. District Court Judge and his deportation was halted.

Judge Kimba Wood reinstated a 1995 waiver that allowed Walters to remain in the country despite having been convicted of a felony (an attempted murder charge from 1991, for which he served more than three years in prison). U.S. law specifies that foreign nationals who commit crimes must be deported, but due to Walters' family, business and career -- all rooted in the U.S. rather than England (where he was born) -- the ruling permitted him to stay. The Bureau of Immigration Affairs tried to overrule that ruling in 1997, a decision which Judge Wood said denied Walters due process.

Walters had been on a Caribbean cruise in the summer of 2002. Upon his return on June 1st of that year, he was arrested for illegally re-entering the country. He made four requests for bail, but INS declared him a flight risk and he spent the next eighteen months in a Bradenton, Florida, jail. Last December, he was to be deported, but Wood intervened.

"I am grateful that the judge stopped my deportation," Walters said just last week. "I totally understand that homeland security is going through changes. But this back and forth with INS is unfair..."

ALBUM REVIEW: Jay-Z's Black Album

As you all surely know Jay-Z's long-awaited Black Album was leaked on MP3 yesterday, sparking the biggest downloading frenzy since the Great "Hail to the Thief" Epidemic of March 30th 2003. Jay (according to okayplayer) is pissed and mystified by the leakage, and planning to move the release date two weeks earlier, to nov. 14th.

My preliminary review? Hard to make a call on this one, because I've really never been able to swallow a Jay-Z album whole. It's like when I was a kid, I once bought 50 caramels from the store and tried to eat all of them at once. At first it seemed like a dream come true, but when I got halfway through they started to taste like peanut butter and I didn't want to see another caramel for a week.

For some reason that's what Jay has always been like for me, tasty in small doses but a whole album tastes like peanut butter. I would never deny he is a brilliant emcee, and I always enjoy hearing him on the radio or in a club, but I never feel the urge to put on one of his albums or go out of my way to hear him.

That being said, I did quite enjoy my first run-through of The Black Album. Much of it is driven by the lush classic-soul loops that Kanye and Just Blaze have made the new standard, plus a few doses of the obligatory Neptunery. Rick Rubin serves up raw guitar and drums (think Raising Hell outtake) for "99 Problems", in line with Jay's original plan for a strictly back-to-basics raw hip-hop album. Timbaland's offering is also spare and kinda retro, perhaps trying to fit that original mold. Most downloaders seem lukewarm on this one so far but I dig it, maybe I'm biased when it comes to Timbo. Okayplayer hero 9th Wonder (of Little Brother) delivers a highlight with "Threat", and giving props to 9th may help Jay quell the underground heads who are angered by the absence of Primo.

DJ Quik has quite a following as a beatmaker but his contribution here, "Justify My Thug", will not bring me into the flock. Yes the chorus is what you are thinking it must be, and it sounds just as corny as you are thinking it must be. On "Moment of Clarity" Eminem drops another of his bland Korg Triton noodlings, which everyone but me seems to like, so who am I to judge? On this track Jay spits a line sure to be quoted in many reviews:

if skills sold, truth be told

i'd probably be, lyrically, talib kweli

truthfully, i want to rhyme like common sense

but i did 5 mil, I ain't been rhyming like common since

Which at first sounds like a mighty cool thing to say, until you listen a few more times and ask yourself "but really why couldn't he be rhyming like Kweli right now?" He's surely sold enough already that he can go the Prince route and do whatever he feels from now on, without fretting over charts and plaques. He doesn't need to keep making pop hits, he is choosing to stay on that path, so although I like hearing him say it this line also rings hollow in my ears. Not to mention how the last line implies that early in his career he did rhyme like Common Sense, which is a phase I must have missed. (Whether Common rhymes like Common Sense anymore is a debate for another day).

But this is nothing new, Jay-Z has always tried to play both sides of the "conscious" fence. He tells us his rhymes about the drug game are only cautionary tales that he spits so his young fans "won't have to go through that", yet he constantly leans on that drug game experience as basis for his credibility, as proof he is more "real" than Nas and other foes, and so on. You can't have it both ways, Jigga, either you're proud of selling rocks or you're not.

Regardless, Hova's revelation of his inner boho is only one of countless quotables on the album, as Jay proves yet again he is among the nicest to ever touch a mic. Actually the line that has lingered most in my mind (for its sheer oddity) is on "What More Can I Say", where he proclaims himself "the martha stewart who's far from jewish". I'm sure the Prime Minister of Malaysia just breathed a sigh of relief..

This has been endlessly hyped as Jay's final album (although I can't imagine anyone actually believes that) and he spends much of it wistfully recounting his life story and pointing out all his virtues that you will truly understand once he's gone. It's like he knows he will never get the adulation Pac and Biggie earned by passing away, so he's getting the next best thing by telling us he too must disappear now, and then writing a eulogy for himself.

Dunno if he succeeds at that, but as faux-farewell albums go you could do far worse. I'm betting he's smart enough to wait at least 2 years before his return, so he can make the "comeback" album seem like a major event.

----------

EDIT: For those who read this far, as a reward I'll let you know there is an exclusive Jay-Z MP3 up on our main page right now, a live performance on our radio show back in 1995.

November 7, 2003

Hip-Hop in the Middle East

USA Today has taken notice of hip-hop's rising influence among youth in Israel. Just like in Cuba, South Africa, Brazil and elsewhere, seems like young people who have something to say are finding hip-hop the perfect medium to make their voice heard. Interestingly this case it is the chosen medium for both the left and the right, it would appear..

Israeli hip-hop takes on Mideast politics

Thousands of teenagers shrieking at the sight of Israel's hottest pop idol packed a soccer field in this Tel Aviv suburb late this summer, two days after twin suicide bombings killed 15 and wounded dozens.

Wearing baggy sweat pants, a baseball cap pushed off-center and a glittering, rhinestone-studded Star of David necklace, Kobi Shimoni (known by the stage name Subliminal) swaggered on stage as if he were the Israeli incarnation of Eminem. With a booming rhythm track and an Israeli flag draped from the DJ stand, the show turned out to be as much a patriotic pep rally as a rapper's delight.

"Who has an Israeli army dog tag, put your hands in the air!" Subliminal called out in a mix of Hebrew and English. Hundreds of hands shot up. "Who is proud to be a Zionist in the state of Israel, put your hands in the air! Hell yeah!"

The patriotic appeal at the concert won chants of support from the rocking crowd, mostly adolescents grappling with weekly terrorist attacks and a crippling economic recession.

With sidekick Yoav Eliasi (aka The Shadow), Subliminal has parlayed nationalist themes into a chart-topping album, transformed the Star of David into a fashion statement and helped integrate the music of urban America into the fold of Israeli pop...

The Scoop on Jay-Z's NEXT Album?

Here, maybe, is the scoop on what Jay-Z will be doing next, posted by a certain Kareem Burkett in response to my Black Album review.

(Also, stay tuned because I will be posting an exclusive Jay-Z MP3 this weekend)

okay..i see you guys are discussing this "fade to black" that jay-z supposedly has dropped to be his final album. i work for the promotions department here at universal records. im not an a&r, or anything special. i am a runner(basically a "gopher"). but in my everyday work, i sometimes get into casual conversations with record label honchos, a&r's, etc...i will not profess to be the biggest jay-z fan..but i thought the following would be interesting to know.."The Black Album" is technically not jay-z's last album...sometime next summer (the word around here is mid-july)..jigga will drop another album that will consist of some his tighter collabos, unreleased material, and 4 to 5 new songs..in the vein of NAS "lost tapes" album. the album is tenatively titled "THE ENCORE: roc-a-fella records presents FEATURE PRESENTATION"..the marketing ploy will be, dame dash releases this without jigga's approval, because he felt the public demanded it. so on and yadda yadda..i was given a tentative tracklist from one of the a&r's in the office. this could be total bullshit for all i know..but it sounds very legit and has actually came from more than 3 reliable sources at the def jam offices in new york and an a&r at the los angeles office.

1."renegade" featuring eminem prod. by eminem

2."4 alarm blaze" feat. m.o.p prod. by dj premier

3."one minute man" feat missy elliott, ludacris produced by timbaland, co produced by big tank

4.*"lobster and scrimp"(rmx) feat. skillz, timbaland
prod. by timbaland

5.*"sneakers and jeans" feat. 50 cent prod. by red spyda

6.*"stop"(rmx) feat. bubba sparxxx prod. by
timbaland

7."big pimpin" feat. ugk produced by timbaland

8.*"casualties of the hustle" feat. notorious b.i.g
prod. by younglord

9.*"as good as it gets" feat. big l, camron
prod. by dj premier

10.*"stand up" (rmx) feat. ludacris produced by kanye west

11."is that yo bitch" (original version) feat. twista prod. by timbaland

12.*"platform" feat. phonte of little brother
produced by 9th wonder

13."aint no nigga"(rmx) feat. lil kim
produced by ski

14."this cant be life" feat scarface, beanie sigel
prod. by kanye west

15.*"still(auto)matic" feat.daz dillinger produced by scott storch(dr.dre)

16."money aint a thang" feat jd produced by jermaine dupri

17. "change the game" feat. beanie sigel, memphis bleek prod. by rick rock

18.*"hovi baby" (rmx) feat. twista, xzibit prod. by just blaze

19.*"early morning" feat. d'angelo prod. by dj premier

disc 2
20.*"get by"(rmx) feat. talib kweli
prod. by kanye west

21.*"brooklyn's finest"(rmx) feat, notorious b.i.g remix produced by just blaze

22."5 minute freestyle" feat. funkmaster flex
prod. by dj clue & ken "duro" ifill

23.*"fade to black" feat. dr. dre
prod. by dr. dre & focus

24."money, cash, hoes" feat. dmx produced by swizz beats

25.*"that aint it" feat. bonecrusher
produced by 9th wonder

i guess we will see

November 9, 2003

Arrest Report

If anyone cares:

Rapper Tray Deee Arrested in California

Rapper Tray Deee, a member of the hip-hop group Tha Eastsidaz, was in custody Saturday after being arrested for allegedly shooting at people outside of a business, police said.

No one was injured and the 37-year-old rapper, whose given name is Tray Muhammad, was arrested at his Fontana home Friday several hours after the alleged shooting, said Officer Jana Blair of the Long Beach Police Department.

He was booked for felony assault with a deadly weapon and was being held in the city jail with bail set at $50,000.

There was little information on the shooting's circumstances, Blair said.

"Someone fired a handgun in the direction of individuals in front of an establishment. Someone identified him as a possible suspect," she said...

November 10, 2003

NEW MP3 AUDIO: Exclusive Jay-Z Freestyle with Natural Elements

EDIT: PLEASE DO NOT LINK DIRECTLY TO THE MP3.

Since Jay-Z and his Black Album are the hot topics for this month, I went digging in my crates and found an old episode of my radio show from the summer of 1995, when Shawn Carter himself dropped in for a quick interview, and then sat in on a cypher with Mister Voodoo and L-Swift of Natural Elements (with DJ Qool Marv on the turntables):

That's me talking to Jay at the beginning. I'm only gonna keep this mp3 up for a little while, so grab it while you can. And don't forget you can hear many more classic live performances at our Freestyle Archive.

(note regarding usage of the word "freestyle": I am a member of hip-hop's older generation who does not subscribe to this new-fangled notion that "freestyle" can only mean rhyming off-the-top.. so please don't get your knickers in a twist if sometimes I use the word in reference to a live performance of written rhymes.)

November 11, 2003

Let Jin Go, Son, It's Chinatown

Damn I just walked by this bar yesterday, it's right next to my favorite beef jerky spot, Jung's Dried Beef. I could make some kind of pun here involving the word "beef" but I'll skip it:

ASIAN RAP SHOOTING IN CHINATOWN


A clash between two Asian rappers - up-and-coming star Jin and another rapper linked to a vicious gang - sparked a shooting in Chinatown early yesterday that sent a third man to the hospital, cops said. The incident began at about 2 a.m. in the trendy new Yellow bar at 32 Mulberry St., when the rappers started arguing.

Another man, Christopher Louie, 23, stepped in to defend his pal, the newly popular Asian rap star Jin, who appeared last summer in the drag-racing sequel "2 Fast 2 Furious" with hip-hop star Ludacris.

During the argument, the rapper linked to the gang - whose name was not released - pulled a .40-caliber gun and shot Louie once in the lower back. Jin, whose full name is Jin Au-yeung, was unharmed. The gunman - who fled the scene - is a reputed member of the Ghost Shadows street gang, police said.

Sources said the argument between the rival rappers may have been sparked by the shooter's jealousy of Au-yeung, who spent part of his summer on MTV's "You Hear It First" tour.

Au-yeung, who was born in Elmhurst, Queens, raps about race and being Chinese-American. His debut album was released two weeks ago on Ruff Ryders/Virgin Records. The 21-year-old star has already won rapping competitions where, like white Eminem before him, he has turned taunts about his ethnicity into his own rap disses.

Louie was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where cops there said he is expected to survive.

Wait, Jin's album did not come out, did it? Good old NY Post, always on the ball.

BTW, I notice some other sites have posted this story without crediting the Post as their source. Come on guys, just cuz your source has no journalistic ethics doesn't mean you should have none either!

Jin just posted a video shoutout on his website, that makes a brief reference to the shooting.

November 12, 2003

Paris is Dissing

Rappers are getting political in Paris, and damn near the only rapper getting political in America is named Paris. What does this mean?

French rappers in war of words with government

A rap song which calls on fans to "screw France" and "exterminate" government ministers has so enraged the interior minister that he has threatened to take legal action against the band responsible.
But the group, Sniper, has responded in kind, threatening to sue Nicolas Sarkozy for defamation for calling them racist and anti-semitic.

Critics have denounced their music as anti-women, anti-French, anti-European, anti-semitic and anti-police. The lyrics of La France, a tirade against the inequalities of French society, triggered Mr Sarkozy's anger. The song describes France as a "bitch", and suggests that the only way for disaffected young people with "hatred running in their arteries" to get their voices heard is to go out and start "burning cars".

Another song on the band's latest album Stone Throwers attacks the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians and suggests that "carnage" is a logical response to destruction of homes.

Mr Sarkozy said last week that he would launch legal proceedings if the band again performed in public material which he described as "perfectly scandalous... racist and anti-semitic". He added: "Democracy dictates that one respects the rules. Those people who don't will have to answer to the nation's justice system."

This year Mr Sarkozy pushed through a bill which made "offending the dignity of the republic" an imprisonable offence.

The band's four members, El Tunisiano, Aketo, Black Renega and DJ Boudj, all from the northern Parisian suburb of Val d'Oise, said: "We are not anti-semitic, but we are on the side of all Israelis who want peace... You are wrong to think that we are racist.

"We are French like you, but we are beginning to wonder whether you accept us as such."

Raising the possibility that the minister had not listened to their songs, they added: "We would like to believe that you were ill informed and carried away by temporary demagogic hysteria, and we are ready to accept your excuses."

This triggered a fresh salvo from Mr Sarkozy, who said: "To say that 'France is a bitch' and a 'nation of fascists' which one 'should screw' is insulting, to say that one should exterminate the 'ministers' and that police officers are 'arseholes' is insulting."

November 13, 2003

When Fake Rappers Attack, Volume 23

Benzino AKA the Paris Hilton of hip-hop (famous for no reason) is making another desperate bid for attention.. I suppose I shouldn't be enabling him by posting about it, but he's just so much fun to ridicule. Plus we actually have a bit of a personal connection, through David Mays with whom I had a colorful confrontation once. I'll tell that story another time.

Benzino Disses Westside Connection

Ray Benzino was recently on radio station 100.3 the beat in LA promoting his new found ally Ja Rule's album and he had alot on his mind. The rapper/magazine owner went on to attack the usual people he attacks, Eminem, 50 Cent, and Dr Dre. However, he has added a few names to that list which included Westside Connection, D-Block and Fabolous......

He was furious that the Westside Connection was taking shots and making fun of his 'close friend' Ja Rule. He went on to call them a 'bad influence' in hip hop and 'fake gangstas' and also went as far as saying that he regrets allowing them to be on the cover of 'The Source'. Then he moved on to attack Fabolous and D-block for 'being down with 50'!

He went on ranting and raving for about 25 minutes until the DJ, A-One, interrupted him to take phone calls. Unfortunately the calls were not pleasant, which made Benzino even more irritated. He ended up storming out in the middle of the interview.

Evil Dee Comes on, Kicks It

Thaformula.com, a site you can always count on for the best hip-hop interviews around, just posted a new one with our good friend Evil Dee. Here's an excerpt on the evolution of the mixtape:

...ThaFormula.com - Now I got to talk to you about the mixtape problem happening now. You being in New York where all the dopest producers came from, what happened, and why the hell did every DJ start screaming on CD's?

Evil Dee - First I'ma tell you my history with the mixtape thing. I was making mixtapes since '88 or '89. Now my thing uh I'ma tell you why I started talking on my mixtapes. What happened was I used to do parties and I would you know make my tapes at the parties. What happened was I would sell my tapes and I went to the park once and this guy was playing my tape. So you know how you hear your joint and you go "yo who made that?" he was like "I made that," and I sat there and heard like three mixes I did and I'm like "no I made that!" He was like "prove it." I couldn't prove it so I decided that on my tapes I would just be like "Evil Dee is on the mix, come on kick it," and that's how that whole thing started. Now ok with like myself, I did my i.d. on my tape I do it once, I don't shout out nobody who you don't know. Now what happened was, you had S&S, Ron G, Doo Wop, and other cats come out and what they would do is like, S&S took it to another level where instead of being on some "It's S&S in full effect," he was just "YAYAYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYYAYAYA" So S&S was the first cat I heard yelling on his tapes. S&S was also one of the first cats that I seen take it from skills to exclusives. I used to make my mixtape to show that I was nice as a DJ. f**k an exclusive. Any idiot can make an exclusive mixtape. My mother can make an excusive mixtape. I'm not saying she's an idiot, but you know. The whole thing with the mixtape is it was to show the DJ's skills. What happened was it went from that to exclusives and then DJ Clue was the first person that I seen put it on a CD. So Clue took it to the digital revolution...

November 14, 2003

R.I.P. Tony Thompson

Not only the drummer for Chic and The Power Station, but also on David Bowie's "Let's Dance", Madonna's "Like A Virgin".. he filled a whole lot of dancefloors (and digital samplers) in his lifetime.

Chic's Tony Thompson Dies

Tony Thompson, one of the premier session drummers of the past twenty-five years, died on Wednesday in Los Angeles of renal cell cancer at age forty-eight. The former member of Seventies disco funk band Chic, Thompson had worked with everyone from David Bowie to Madonna to Diana Ross.
Born in New York on November 15, 1954, Thompson came to prominence on the late-Seventies disco scene, thanks to his funky, rock influenced big-beat style. After sitting in with LaBelle, Thompson met Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, with whom he formed Chic in 1976. The band's 1977 debut featured the hit "Dance Dance Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)," but they became disco legends with 1978's C'est Chic, which contained the number one classic "Le Freak," as well as the rollerboogie anthem "Good Times."

"The thing that was most apparent about Tony as a drummer was his sense of inventiveness and cleverness," says Rodgers. "All three of us had roots in jazz, fusion and rock, which is why he would never think of the typical R&B drum fill . . . He just cherished those brilliant moments to sparkle."

Chic disbanded in 1983, and Thompson became an in-demand session musician, working with Debbie Harry, Mick Jagger, Diana Ross, David Bowie and Madonna.

In 1985, he joined Duran Duran members Andy and John Taylor and the late Robert Palmer in the supergroup Power Station, whose hit singles "Some Like It Hot" and the T. Rex cover "Get It On (Bang a Gong)" were driven by Thompson's propulsive drumming.

A longtime rock fan, Thompson got the gig of a lifetime in 1985 when he was asked to sit in with the remaining members of Led Zeppelin when they played at the Live Aid benefit concert at Philadelphia's JFK Stadium. Thompson then joined the Zeppelin trio for some secret recording sessions in 1986. Rumors of a reunion were quashed, however, when Thompson was involved in a serious car accident later that year.

He remained a prolific session drummer throughout the late Eighties, working with Robert Palmer, Duran Duran, Rod Stewart and Jody Watley, though he was less active in the Nineties...

November 16, 2003

Boots Wants the Truth

Some righteous audio courtesy of our friends at Democracy Now:

Tell Us The Truth: Billy Bragg and Hip-Hop Artist Boots Riley On Music, War and the Media

Democracy Now! interviews British singer-songwriter and political activist Billy Bragg and Boots Riley, rapper with the Oakland hip-hop group the Coup. They joined other musicians to kick off the Tell Us The Truth Tour at the opening session of the National Conference on Media Reform last Friday.

November 18, 2003

"Racist" Eminem Tapes Proven Authentic, Still Sound Better Than Benzino's Album

Back when word of this tape first arose, I told my friend Irina that Eminem will ultimately go with the disgraced congressman's defense, writing it off as a youthful indiscretion.

Em will surely take a hit in the short term, and he'll have to put in a lot of work cleaning this one up. But in the long run I'm sure he can work past this. Though I would never trivialize his usage of the N word or disparaging Black women, this really does sound like a frustrated, ignorant little kid who is in a very different place mentally than Em is today. Although he often seems immature nowadays, I'm inclined to doubt that these lyrics reflect the mindset of Eminem in 2003.

The Source Digs Up Tape Of Eminem Using Racial Slurs

Eminem found himself on the defensive Tuesday (November 18) after The Source magazine owners Ray Benzino and Dave Mays held a press conference to play a recording of the MC delivering racial slurs.

On the first of two tracks purportedly recorded in 1993, an audibly young Slim Shady raps, "All the girls I like to bone have big butts/ No they don't, 'cause I don't like that n----- sh--/ I'm just here to make a bigger hit."

The second track featured Eminem rapping about a black girlfriend he broke up with. "Blacks and whites, they sometimes mix/ But black girls only want your money, 'cause they're dumb chicks," he rhymes. Later in the freestyle Em raps, "Never date a black girl, because blacks only want your money/ And that sh-- ain't funny."

The first track was only a few lines long, but the second track went on for several minutes with Em — seemingly rhyming off the top of his head — repeatedly saying he did not like black girls and that they were only out to get money. Both tracks sounded amateurish.

"Don't make this right now a double standard," Benzino said at the press conference. "We gotta treat this the same way you treat Mike Tyson, like you treat Kobe Bryant, like you treat R. Kelly, like you treat O.J. Simpson."

Eminem responded by insisting he isn't racist and explaining that the recording was made when he was young, foolish and angry.

"Ray Benzino, Dave Mays and The Source have had a vendetta against me, Shady Records and our artists for a long time," Eminem said in a statement. "The tape they played today was something I made out of anger, stupidity and frustration when I was a teenager. I'd just broken up with my girlfriend, who was African-American, and I reacted like the angry, stupid kid I was. I hope people will take it for the foolishness that it was, not for what somebody is trying to make it into today..."

Benzino's rant about about Tyson, Kobe, R Kelly and OJ is silly for numerous reasons. All those guys were accused of criminal acts against women, in incidents that occured at the height of their fame, very different from uncovering some offensive remarks made long before one's career began. A better comparison, though not dug up from his past, might be Jesse Jackson's Hymietown interview.

Not to mention that except for Mike Tyson, so far all those guys have more or less come out on top (we'll have to wait and see about Kobe). And just like those guys (and Jesse), I think Eminem will outlast this scandal. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out though.

November 19, 2003

Shamrocks and Glocks: Benzino's Dirty Little Secret?

As you all know by now, Benzino (who is NOT a co-founder of the Source, as is often reported) has released tapes of a much younger Eminem using the N word and bad-mouthing Black women in a rambling, amateurish freestyle.

But what Benzino's not telling you is that he himself was once affiliated with a white emcee, and that white emcee used the N word on the track they made together. In fact, it appears that Benzino told his white emcee to use the N word.

The emcee in question is named Bawston Strangla, and his connection to Benzino is detailed on his web page here, where you can also download the song he and Benzino worked on together in 2000, "Shamrocks and Glocks". About 35 seconds into the song you will hear Strangla drop the proverbial "N" bomb, in a passage that sounds very random and out of place alongside his other lyrics.

Through some rudimentary googling I got in contact with a representative of the Bawston Strangla today. He indicated that Strangla is no longer associated with Benzino, and explained that while recording Shamrocks and Glocks, "during the session benzino told him to use the N word in the song".

Benzino told him to use the N word.

This does nothing to minimize the offensiveness of Eminem's newly unearthed lyrics, but it certainly places Benzino's righteous indignation in a different light. Just in case anyone was starting to take him seriously.

Edit: Dru Garrity of Commonwealth Rcords hit me off with a little more info on what Bawston Strangla is up to now: "Bawston Strangla is finishing up his next LP "BEDLHAM IN BOSTON 1998-2004" which will feature the Benzino track as well as tracks produced by D-Tension, Dickie Skinz, RayBoy, Irish Devil.. We also just shot a video for the lead single "Got To Do"..

Update on Rumors of New Jay-Z Material

Super-producer and frequent Jay-Z collaborator Just Blaze got in touch with me last week (I'm about 95% sure it was really him), and wanted to clarify that all the rumors swirling around about Jay-Z's future projects are fictional, especially the supposed new tracks mentioned by "DJ Dubb" in the replies to my earlier post. If you look around in there you will notice Just Blaze himself also commented in the thread a couple of times..

November 20, 2003

All Praise Is Due

While we're all so busy digging up 15 year old tapes, might as well take a fresh look at "Paid In Full":

. . . AND BLESS THE MIC FOR THE GODS: RAKIM ALLAH

In this journey, you're the journal, I'm the journalist / Am I eternal, or an eternalist?
— Rakim Allah, "Follow the Leader"

That's from Rakim's "Follow the Leader", though it could be Roland Barthes convincing us that authors are the creations of texts and that texts are the recreation of closed cultures and close readers . . . the crisis thrown up in Rakim's rhyme-the poet pondering whether he's a modernist or a postmodernist, a creative God or a revised body of texts-is rendered moot in the next line: "I'm about to flow, long as I can possibly go / Keep ya movin' 'cause the crowd said so. Dance!" Here Rakim locates his immortality in African culture's call-and-response continuum.
— Greg Tate, "Diary of a Bug", The Village Voice (1988)

When Greg Tate published his groundbreaking essay "Diary of a Bug" in 1988 it was an event -- 17 fragments, a literary mix-tape from the seminal Afro-Pomo-Boho of his generation -- the birth of Black Popular Post-Structuralism. And when he finished name-dropping the sources of his inspiration -- F. Scott Fitzgerald and Cuban novelist Guillermo Cabrera Infante -- and finally got down to critical business at hand, the first "text" he took up was none other than Rakim Allah, the Poet Laureate of the Hip-Hop Nation. Indeed there's never been a hip-hop artist (with apologies to my man Mike Dyson and his muse Tupac Shakur) who deserved top-shelf scholarly love from the camp of the Blackademe Niggeratti more than Rakim.

Four lines from the b-side of that first 12-inch single -- "I take seven MCs put 'em in a line / And add seven more brothers who think they can rhyme / Well It'll take seven more before I go for mine / And that's 21 MCs ate up at the same time" -- and the lyrical gauntlet was forever thrown down, forever reified, as every up-and-coming ghetto wordsmith (Big Daddy Kane, Nas, Rass Kass, Treach, Canibus) is introduced as "the next . . ." and 17 years later we can only say "still . . ." The recently released Paid in Full: Deluxe Edition captures those initial lyrical moments, in the career of hip-hop's greatest MC...

My Only Thought on Michael Jackson

This is the best thing that could have possibly happened to Eminem, cuz the front page only has room for one scandal at a time. Somewhere in Boston, Benzino is weeping.. "This was supposed to be my shining moment! Damn you, MJ!! Damn you and your freaky ways!!"

November 21, 2003

Is anybody watching the Vibe Awards?

Why was Margaret Cho talking like that?? Has she been watching a whole bunch of old Amos and Andy tapes?

November 22, 2003

Kelefa Got This One Right

Since we frowned upon Kelefa Sanneh in an earlier post, I should acknowledge that his coverage of the eminem tapes is pretty sharp. He puts the allegations in their proper context, and knows enough not to take Benzino's fictional "co-founder" title seriously:

...In all of this, the main complicating factor is that The Source is far from a neutral observer. The dominating presence at the news conference was that of Benzino Scott, a less-than-successful rapper who is listed on the magazine's masthead as "Co-Founder and Chief Brand Executive." Mr. Scott has been embroiled in a feud with Eminem, and the dispute has spilled into the pages of the magazine.

The February 2003 issue included an illustration of Mr. Scott holding Eminem's severed head. The March issue kept up the attack, calling Eminem an "infiltrator" who has continued the sad legacy of the much-derided white rapper Vanilla Ice. In a roundtable in the same issue, Mr. Scott blamed MTV: "I believe MTV was like a male basically takin' hip-hop, havin' sex with her, pushin' her off, pimpin' her and after that havin' the baby by her. We all know who the baby is: Eminem."

Eminem himself would probably agree with this last criticism. He has admitted in songs and interviews that his race has a lot to do with his huge success. "Do the math, if I was black, I would have sold half," he once rhymed. But while he acknowledges the power of racism, he doesn't make apologies for having figured out a way to work the system.

In his own verses, Mr. Scott tends to express his views of Eminem (born Marshall Mathers) less delicately. In "Die Another Day," he rhymes, "You dyed your hair blond, I'm a make it red/ How you gon' sell records, Marshall, when you're dead?" Later, after casting aspersions about Eminem's sexuality, he adds, "I'm a king, you a little punk/ You the rap David Duke, the rap Hitler/ The culture-stealer." In the context of lyrics like these, the revelation of Eminem's race-baiting recordings seems less like high-minded journalism and more like the continuation of yet another hip-hop feud.

Still, the tapes exist, and Eminem has acknowledged recording at least one of the tracks; if people with more credibility than Mr. Scott start speaking up against him, he may be forced to issue a more substantive apology. In the meantime, though, the magazine vows to press on: Mr. Scott said he planned to distribute the newly unearthed recordings with the February issue.

This other section of the piece is fertile ground for debate:

Although much has been made of Eminem's hip-hop credibility, the truth is that for the past few years a number of hip-hop fans — especially black hip-hop fans — seem to have been losing interest in the rapper, who never seemed comfortable in any community, not even the hip-hop community. His music still hews closely to hip-hop's beats-and-rhymes blueprint, but his persona comes straight out of rock 'n' roll: the sullen loner, the paranoid rebel.

Any thoughts on that, citizens of blogville?

November 23, 2003

Eff A Pop Critic?

I wonder what Jeff Chang thinks of this piece, especially the props given to Da Capo's Best Music Writing (AKA Best Music White-ing).

Almost famous


Rock critics with big book deals and TV face time are becoming stars on their own. But are they saying anything?


In the 1980s, a college student in Atlanta had a weekly jones for The Village Voice. In the pages of New York's alternative tabloid, Touré found writing like he had never seen before. Greg Tate, Nelson George, Harry Allen and others were talking about hip-hop in a way that was almost as inspiring as the music itself.

''There was this murderers row of writers who had voice, opinion, gravity, intelligence and style,'' says Touré, who goes by his first name only. ``The Voice not encouraged but demanded a voice from writers. To think of joining that group was like joining a successful sports team. If you really wanted to show your chops to the community, then you wrote something in the Voice.''

Touré moved to New York, where he wrote for the Voice, The New York Times and The New Yorker. He's now a Rolling Stone contributing editor and author of the short story collection The Portable Promised Land. But these days, you're as likely to see his talking head on TV, where he may be commenting on Michael Jackson for CNN or on Whitney Houston for Nightline, as you are to catch his byline. That's because, as he and many other writers say, pop criticism isn't what it used to be.

''I have no sense now that it matters in the same way, that people are paying attention,'' says Touré...

Speaking of not paying attention, I have a new policy of never acknowledging the existence of Touré, as it is bad for my blood pressure. So, no comment on this section.

When rock, punk and hip-hop were new, there was a push-and-pull relationship between creators and chroniclers, who compelled, repelled and propelled each other. Bangs and Lou Reed locked horns. Chuck D. and Tate had it out. Nowadays, J.Lo worries about paparazzi, not pundits...

Yeah but J Lo is hardly the same type of artist as Lou or Chuck, not really a fair comparison.. in Bangs or Tate's heyday there were plenty of bubble-gum acts who could care less what they wrote. And one could argue that for every J Lo today there are still plenty of artists like Liz Phair, who cares about critics to a degree that borders on frightening.

Interesting piece tho, nitpicking aside.

November 27, 2003

Just Blaze or not Just Blaze: The Final Chapter

Em vs. Benzino? Michael Jackson vs. his little friend? These petty squabbles pale in comparison to the epic battle that was waged here on this website between Just Blaze (world famous hip-hop producer) and DJ Dubb (who claims the Just Blaze posting here is an impostor). The drama started here, then it escalated here, and I decided I better put a stop to this or one day Oliver Stone would be making a movie about it, with Kevin Costner playing DJ Dubb on the trail of the great Just Blaze conspiracy.

So after some investigation, tonight I found myself on the way to Battery Sound Studios in Chelsea, thinking to myself "either I'm on my way to meet Just Blaze, or Benzino saw how I've been clowning him and set me up to get Suge-Knighted." Here are the results of my expedition:

The interview (part 1)
The photographic evidence

Basically, either this was the real Just Blaze, or somebody spent an shitload of money on that John Woo Face-Off surgery.

After clearing that up we kept the tape rolling for another half hour and touched on a wide variety of topics, including Jay-Z's real plans for his next release, and the recent controversy over his "PSA" beat that uses the same sample as Black Moon's "Stay Real". I'll be posting the rest of the interview real soon.

So thanks again to DJ Dubb for making this interview possible, and like I told Just there are mad other people I want to meet, so maybe next week you can post about how you met Salma Hayek at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles or something, and we can get her up in here.

November 30, 2003

Cherchez La Ghost

The Daily News has some background on the club where Jin got into some beef, and its connections with Chinatown's legendary Ghost Shadows gang:

Cops skeptical of ex-gangster & his club

When bullets rang out this month in his Chinatown nightclub, Richie Ceng immediately hit the floor - a razor-sharp reflex from a lifetime of violence.
The crack of a .40-caliber gun and the flash of a muzzle were familiar to Ceng, as familiar as murder and robbery and his own nickname - Airplane - from a youth spent running a crew for a notorious Chinatown gang, the Ghost Shadows.

"That is in the past for me now," insisted Ceng, 29, who runs Yello, a Mulberry St. hot spot for Asian celebrities and jet-setters.

"Those are the old days. It feels good to be straight now."

But NYPD Asian gang experts - including detectives who have watched Ceng's rap sheet grow to more than a dozen arrests since he was 14 - are still keeping a close eye on him.

"The idea that Airplane is now running a club as a silent partner is frightening," said one NYPD gang expert. "This is a guy who did time for murder, an organized crime leader."

Cops have been flooding Yello looking for the shooter who opened fire in the club Nov. 9. A confrontation between hip hop star Jin and aspiring rapper Raymond Yu ended with a bullet in Jin's friend Christopher Louie, 23, who survived the attack...

...Yello opened after Ceng was released from federal prison in 2001, having served five years for setting up the 1996 robbery of a Chinatown man who was trafficking in illegal food stamps. The job went horribly wrong when the target's 17-year-old son put up a fight and was shot dead...

December 1, 2003

More of the Just Blaze Interview

Here is the rest of my conversation with Just Blaze. Gotta thank him again for inviting me down, definitely an honor. And of course thanks once again to the man of a thousand faces, (Dr. Jekyll and) DJ Dubb for making this possible. For those who missed it, Part 1 of the interview is here.

Part 2 - The real scoop on Jay-Z's future projects and unreleased material

Part 3 - The making of Jay-Z's "Public Service Announcement"

Part 4 - Just Blaze addresses the Black Moon controversy sparked by PSA, and how different producers wind up using the same beat.

Part 5 - Reminiscing about Boot Camp Clik and early 90's hip-hop.

Part 6 - Here is the question I asked, since it is hard to make out on the tape: "On our show we have a lot of discussions about how hip-hop is supposedly dead, hip-hop isn't what it used to be.. I think you have a unique perspective on that, coming up on the same stuff as me but now working within the mainstream, so what do you think about how hip-hop has evolved and where it's at today?"

Part 7 - Last words to the internet thug: "You can call me pussy, I call myself smart.."

December 2, 2003

Hip-Hop Tragedy in Kenya

You can get some background on this artist here. Condolences to his friends, family and fans..

Rapper Shot Dead By Highway Robbers

Rapper Carl William Bongo Juma was shot dead by carjackers on the Nyahururu-Nakuru road last Saturday night. Juma, popularly known as Krupt, was shot at point blank range by the highway robbers on his way to Nakuru for a music show.

The 24-year-old musician was killed in a taxi that was carjacked at Karuga trading centre, some 200 metres from Egerton University's Laikipia campus. Laikipia police boss Daniel Musau said two gangsters boarded the taxi at Nyahururu bus terminus at around 6.30 pm posing as passengers.

At Karuga, one gangster whipped out a Colt revolver and commandeered the vehicle towards Jumatatu village. Panic-stricken passengers were ordered to lie face-down and surrender all their valuables. It was then that Juma was shot on the chest as he reportedly tried to raise his head as the robbers frisked passengers. The gangsters then fled on foot.

The musician was pronounced dead on arrival at the Nyahururu District Hospital, where he had been taken for treatment. Juma, the third popular musician to die this year after E-sir and Wicky Mosh, was to perform at Club Dimples in Nakuru town on the night he was gunned down...

December 3, 2003

Also, P Diddy's label will now be known as "Upstanding Gentleman"

This is old news, I suppose. Irv Gotti sounds awfully put-upon here, almost like one of those neo-cons railing against the "PC Police".

Rap label drops 'Murder' from its name

The company behind the multi-platinum rapper and singer Ashanti announced Wednesday it had changed its name to The Inc., moving away from its previous incarnation as Murder Inc.

"Over the course of the years, it seems as though no one is really looking at the talent ... more so than that damn word 'murder,'" label founder Irv Gotti told a midtown Manhattan news conference.

"All of these big records, and people would still come back and focus on the negative word 'murder.'"

Gotti, flanked by Ja Rule and Ashanti, announced the label's name change at a crowded event attended by hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons and Hip-Hop Summit Action Network head Benjamin Chavis.

Simmons offered a blunter explanation for the label's new banner: "Just to get you all off his ass, he's changed its name..."

For Those in the NY Area

My DJs are doing Pete Rock's listening party/record release party tonight at APT. Here are the details from Emskee:

Bundle up once again because tonight, it's on again at APT (419 w.13th street between 9th ave and washington street) for the usual wednesday night get together in the upstairs lounge.

Tonight we start a little earlier, as "The Together Brothers" in association with BBE/RAPSTER records present a listening party for Pete Rock's new double album release "Hip Hop Underground Soul Classics" featuring I.N.I.'s "Center of Attention" and Deda's "The Original Baby Pa" selections. It goes from 10pm to 11:00pm and there will be posters and stickers given away as well as a very limited amout of cd's and vinyl. GET THERE EARLY (if you're man or woman enough to brave the cold)!! There is no cover to get in upstairs. After 11 of course, Monk One and myself get busy bringing you all types of hip hop, soulfunk, UK beat stuff for your listening pleasure. Hope you can attend.

You can also expect a rare public appearance by Jay Smooth.

Elroy! Elroy Cohen.. Gets the Gasface!

Here's AP with a lengthy profile of Lyor Cohen, and his legal troubles with (the former) Murder Inc.

Lawsuit is glimpse into world of rap mogul

After two decades of survival and success in the cutthroat music business, the world's pre-eminent white rap mogul found himself trapped in a place most horrific:

A witness stand. In a federal courthouse. Under oath.

"It's the nastiest, most negative place I've been in a very long time," said Lyor Cohen, head of the Island Def Jam Music Group, testifying in an ugly legal tussle over the platinum-selling rapper Ja Rule.

It only turned nastier for the 43-year-old music executive. He lost the lawsuit. The judge implied he was "morally reprehensible." And the jury found him personally liable for millions in punitive damages.

Trial evidence also revealed that Island Def Jam owned 50 percent of Ja Rule's record label, Murder Inc. Federal prosecutors are investigating Murder Inc. for alleged money laundering, raising questions about whether IDJ and its publicly owned parent companies, the Universal Music Group and Vivendi, are indirectly in business with one of New York's most infamous drug dealers.

The suit and federal probe are a rare dose of adversity in a mercurial 20-year rise for Cohen...

December 4, 2003

Happy B-Day Hova

Since this site's traffic has doubled in the last month, largely due to Jay-Z related traffic, the least I can do is wish the man a happy birthday. Congrats on the grammy nominations.

But Who Gives a F*** About a Goddamn Grammy?

For whatever it's worth, Hip-Hop dominates this year's grammy nominations more than ever before:

Record Of The Year (Award to the Artist and to the Producer(s), Recording Engineer(s) and/or Mixer(s), if other than the artist.)

Crazy In Love
Beyoncé Featuring Jay-Z
Rich Harrison & Beyoncé Knowles, producers; Jim Caruana & Tony Maserati, engineers/mixers

Where Is The Love
The Black Eyed Peas & Justin Timberlake
Ron Fair & will.i.am, producers; Dylan Dresdow & Tony Maserati, engineers/mixers

Clocks
Coldplay
Coldplay & Ken Nelson, producers; Coldplay, Ken Nelson & Mark Phythian, engineers/mixers

Lose Yourself
Eminem
Eminem, producer; Eminem, Steve King & Micheal Strange, Jr., engineers/mixers

Hey Ya!
Outkast
André 3000, producer; Kevin "KD" Davis, John Frye, Robert Hannon, Pete Novak & Neal Pogue, engineers/mixers

4 out of 5 for record of the year! Let's see who they selected in the actual hip-hop categories:

Best Female Rap Solo Performance (For a solo Rap performance. Singles or Tracks only.)

Got It Poppin'
Da Brat

Work It
Missy Elliott

Came Back For You
Lil' Kim

Ride Wit Me
MC Lyte

Go Head
Queen Latifah

Nice to see Lyte and Latifah get some props (if props from NARAS are worth anything). Missy will win this one though.

Best Male Rap Solo Performance (For a solo Rap performance. Singles or Tracks only.)

Pump It Up
Joe Budden

Lose Yourself
Eminem

In Da Club
50 Cent

Stand Up
Ludacris

Get Busy
Sean Paul

Congrats to Just Blaze on the Joe Budden nod. I'd guess Em will edge out his labelmate for this one. Tough call though.

Best Rap Album (For albums containing 51% or more playing time of VOCAL tracks.)

Under Construction
Missy Elliott

Get Rich Or Die Tryin'
50 Cent

The Blueprint˛ - The Gift & The Curse
Jay-Z

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
Outkast

Phrenology
The Roots

That's a nice crop of albums right there, a long way from when they were giving statues to the likes of Young MC (in the middle of hip-hop's golden age no less). gotta figure Outkast takes this.

I'm at my day job right now (only for today), i'll come back with the rest later. Any thoughts on these picks so far?

He's Misstra Know It All

I've been watching the feedback on our Just Blaze interview at various other sites.. a lot of positive vibes, but also a few people still trying to amp up the Just Blaze/Beatminerz "beef". I just went through this thread at SOHH.com and then posted what lies below, but it could apply just as well to some folks at all the other message boards:

"90% of this thread is pure comedy.

All these armchair know-it-alls handing down their judgements, having no firsthand experience with the situation at hand, but puffing their chest out like they are experts based on what they read secondhand at some other websites. Not even showing respect to heads like Jack Tripper (AKA Charlemagne?) who are actually in a position to know something about this game.

And that's not even about me taking sides on this, Just Blaze is cool with me and Evil Dee is one of my oldest friends in the business. And all of y'all have a right to your opinions too...

But a lot of you need to get your ego in check and recognize you are not in a position to know everything about how this business works. Before you get so comfortable in your assumptions, remember there's more to the game than what you can see from the sidelines."

BTW, no disrespect whatsoever to SOHH, one of the true pioneers of hip-hop representation on the web. In fact I should really give thanks to their founder Steven Samuels, for giving me polite encouragement when I showed him my first wack-ass attempt at a website on geocities, back around '96.

December 5, 2003

Suing for the Perfect Beat

I found this item on the entertainment law digest website, but they want me to pay $99 for access to the full story. Does anybody know a more reasonable way to access this type of info? Anyway, best of luck to the Renegades of Funk on this one.

Soul Sonic Force v Warner

US SD New York 03 CV 8127
Ellis Williams, John B. Miller and Robert Durrell Allen, pka Soul Sonic Force, Plaintiffs
v.
Warner Special Products Inc., and Warner Chappell Music, Inc., Defendants

The members of the band Soul Sonic Force have sued Warner Special Products, alleging they have not received their royalty statements or payments for six years and seeking rescission of their recording and songwriting contracts.

December 7, 2003

Eminem "Threatens" the President

One thing you gotta admire about right-wingers is their skill at picking one idea or talking point and getting everyone on their team to drive that one angle home, thus dictating the parameters of debate.

Recently their think tanks decided the newest angle should be something called "Bush Hate". This means that in order to avoid actually engaging Democrats on the issues, they all focus on this notion that the Dems are wild-eyed lunatics, driven purely by an irrational hatred of Bush as a human being.

Needless to say, this is asinine. Of course Democrats and liberals all hate Bush. If one side's guy gets in, the other side hates him, that's how it works. Does the right think anyone has forgotten how fervently they despised both Bill and Hillary?

But right-wingers have become so fond of this angle that now they're even using obscure Eminem lyrics to bolster their case, namely this line from "We As Americans", one of the Straight From the Lab bootlegs currently floating around:

I don't rap for dead presidents/ I'd rather see the president dead..

Golly, how frightening. Not only has the Secret Service been called upon to investigate this horrifying threat, but righty bloggers are trumpeting this as evidence that liberal Bush Hate now threatens the very life of the President.

Makes sense to me. We all know Eminem represents the Hollywood liberal establishment, always hanging at James Carville's house with Al Franken and Aaron Sorkin. Seriously, I'd be surprised if he was even registered to vote, or could name 3 of the Democratic candidates. This line about "the president" probably indicates nothing about Eminem's opinion of this particular Chief Executive, he would have spit it just the same whether Bush, Gore, or Bronson Pinchot was in office.

When I used to teach, one day a couple of boys were trading mother jokes in the hall, and a teacher walking by was aghast. After berating one boy for talking about his friend's mother that way, the boy looked up and explained, in the tone of someone helping a toddler with arithmetic: "I'm not saying anything about his mother. I don't even know his mother. I'm just talking about 'your mother'!"

This Eminem line should not be taken literally as a threat to the President any more than mother jokes should be taken as criticism of the specific woman who is actually your mother. He's not saying anything about this President, he's just kicking a line about "the president".

(right-wing blog link via Oliver Willis)

December 8, 2003

More Pressing Concerns About Eminem's "We As Americans"

Can we stage some kind of intervention and convince Eminem to stop rhyming over these lifeless, tinny keyboard beats? C'mon dawg, is this the best work you can get out of Dre's ghost producers?

I must say though, if this was a ploy by Eminem to get airplay on conversative talk radio (the only corner of the airwaves he hadn't yet conquered) it is a smashing success. "We As Americans" got played at least 25 times yesterday on WABC alone.

December 10, 2003

Brian Batten, Please STFU

There have been so many clueless op-ed pieces about hip-hop in my lifetime, it's damn hard for them to really get my dander up anymore. But this one (sent to me by Jeff Chang) really is brutal. If you have any feedback for this guy, or just want to illustrate for him that hip-hop fans don't necessarily speak like the jive-talking grandma from "Airplane", please e-mail him at bebatten@naplesnews.com.

Brent Batten: Why the Hip-Hop Winterfest in Collier went bust

An explanation of Saturday's abortive Hip-Hop Winterfest 2003 at the Collier County Fairgrounds, written for fans of the genre. (As a public service, the English translation is provided.)

Yo, dis here be the fo'-one-one on the show y'all, from the home boy dat was pimpin' it.

(Attention, here is the latest information on the show, as provided by the concert organizer.)

See, da brotha had some phat new school playaz lined up. Cris was in da house but 5-0 came down hard, wit Macs an' dogs sniffin fo' bud so da peeps all bailed.

(The promoter had assembled an impressive lineup of popular hip-hop artists, featuring headline act Ludacris, but a heavy police presence, complete with guns and drug-sniffing dogs, deterred many would-be attendees.)

Home slice was gettin' Cris at his crib when he gets a dime sayin' there's a sitch at the show. 'Fo he gets back to the areous, all the boyz and shorties rolled. So he's like, "This is wack."

(A representative of concert promoter Mojo Entertainment, who declined to give his name, said he went to the hotel where Ludacris was staying to bring him to the fairgrounds. While there, he received a phone call indicating there was a problem. He declined to go into specifics, but said by the time he got back, the concert had been shut down and everyone had left. "We've done shows in many cities and never encountered a situation like this," the nameless spokesman said.)

And it goes on and on from there.. ugh.

About Last Samurai

A little addendum, since someone suggested it is foolish to be offended by The Last Samurai because the story it tells is "historically accurate":

I haven't seen the film and thus have no opinion on its offensiveness or lack thereof.. but whether it is historically accurate is not necessarily the issue. There can be many factors at play, some more subtle than others.

For example, one could be telling a true story and still exhibit bias in which stories they choose to tell, and which are left untold. Particularly if there is an ongoing pattern of telling one particular type of story, to the exclusion of others.

The Internet is Occasionally Useful

This site is harrowing, and very necessary:

The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record

The hundreds of images in this collection have been selected from a wide range of sources, most of them dating from the period of slavery. This collection is envisioned as a tool and a resource that can be used by teachers, researchers, students, and the general public -- in brief, anyone interested in the experiences of Africans who were enslaved and transported to the Americas and the lives of their descendants in the slave societies of the New World...

(via metafilter)

December 11, 2003

Vainglorious

Another classic from thaformula.com, this time it's Brother J in the spotlight:

Tha Grand Verbalizer Has Returned

...THAFORMULA.COM - Now let's talk about Sugar Shaft. What was his contribution to X-Clan and what exactly happened to Shaft?

Brother J – Well if it hadn’t been for him none of this would have happened because he was basically the bridge. He was basically the one that would come and take me out and see the clubs and take me to see Cash Money to DJ and DJ Scratch when they were first coming in the game. He’d take me to Union Square and all these other clubs and stuff like that just to open my eyes to the other side. See I’m from Brooklyn man, I’m a block party MC. I wasn’t worried about clubs in Manhattan and the Bronx and so on. That wasn’t my cup of tea. Shaft introduced me to that side and Architect did too, so Shaft was basically the reason why the group got to the next level. Us battling in different little community centers and basements and stuff like that on the mic, you know how block parties are, everybody gathers around the turntables and you get down and you hold your own and you get your name out. He helped me step from that level to a place where I can go to present myself in front of a manager and take myself to get a demo. I did my demo at Ultramagnetic’s house up in the Bronx when they were first coming out with their music and shit. I look at how history is now, it’s so deep. Everybody is now like a pioneer in the game and everybody was just at a regular stage grinding and trying to make it at the time. Shaft was my best of people and I miss him to this day and especially when I’m recording like now. His sense of production and spirit added on so much. But uh, he had complications with the AIDS virus so he passed from that and that was like 1996 and it’s been a while. It’s a heavy thing man. It touches all of us in one way or another. I mean this is genocide man. None of us are safe...

...THAFORMULA.COM - You know I look at a group like Dead Prez and think “man they must get a lot of activist groups or whatever hitting them up for shows even though they don’t have the money?” Did you guys face a lot of that?

Brother J - All the time bro, and it’s a thing where we had to offer people solutions, at least to say “we’ll take care of our hotel rooms and take care of our air fare, and we’ll take a small amount of money, we will make sure we pack your gymnasium, we will make sure we will go to the park and speak at your demonstration rally and stuff, but give us something.” I tell that to community centers all the time. Don’t always play people because you know you got this cause and everybody is supposed to care and all these other things man. But still, my art is something that cost me time and money. I have to feed my family from my artwork. If I meet 20 people like you in a month, I’m not gonna be around to continue my music. So when I die out who wins? The gangster music wins, the thuggery wins. Everybody else wins but the conscious artists because we are caring about certain problems that they don’t. You walk up to Snoop Dogg and talk about “give me a free show,” man please! These cats are getting paid ridiculous amounts of money. I mean they will come out every once in a while because they have enough chips now, but when they first achieved that number one status man, you talk about calling them talkin’ about "uh Snoop, could you come by and say what's up to the kids? Just do it for free?" Man you wouldn’t do that with them.

THAFORMULA.COM - No doubt ‘cause they will laugh in your face.

Brother J - But as soon as you hear somebody that says, “you know we care about the community, we care about the kids.” They say “rush them,” you know, “check them on that and if they don’t give us no love then were gonna blast them.” Don’t blast us, blast the people that got your kids wearing Mini-skirts and shaking their ass all funky like they are strippers. Don’t blast us...

Glad He Didn't Reach For His Wallet

"Odd News" from the LA Times:

I guess some people just don't appreciate fine music. The police log of the Los Alamitos News-Enterprise said that "several people reported a man was walking around, talking to himself and making funny hand gestures." Police investigated and determined that "the young man was just practicing rap."

Report on Just Blaze's Label Deal

Look who's in the news.. apparently Nassa Cammato had no comment at this time:

Memphis Bleek And Just Blaze Plan Label Deal

Memphis Bleek and producer Just Blaze are planning to join forces and release a compilation album that features each’s respective artists that they been grooming on the side.

The duo is each looking to build their own empire similar to that of the Roc, however they do not want to be under the auspices of the powerhouse label...

December 14, 2003

Lauryn Hill Gets Her Sinead On

Whoa:

Lauryn Hill stuns Vatican Xmas concert

U.S. Hip Hop singer Lauryn Hill, from a stage used by the Pope, has shocked Catholic officials at a concert by telling them to "repent" and alluding to sexual abuse of children by U.S. priests.

The broadside came during the recording on Saturday night of a Christmas concert attended by top Vatican cardinals, bishops and many elite of Italian society, witnesses said. Hill made her comments when taking the microphone to sing at the concert, held in the same huge hall and stage Pope John Paul uses for his weekly general audiences and other events. The Pope was not present.

"I did not come here to celebrate the birth of Christ with you but to ask you why you are not in mourning for his death inside this place," she said according to a transcript of her statement run by the Rome newspaper La Repubblica. A spokesman for Prime Time Productions, the concert's organisers, said the newspaper's quotes were accurate.

"God has been a witness to the corruption of his leadership, of the exploitation and abuses ... by the clergy," she said. This was an apparent reference to the scandal in the United States last year over the sexual abuse of children by priests.

Hill told the crowd to seek blessings "from God not men" and said she did "not believe in representatives of God on earth." A few feet away in the front row sat five cardinals, including Edmund Szoka, American governor of Vatican City.

Hill, 28, did not sing the song listed on the programme but instead sang a song about social injustice. Organisers said Hill's outburst and performance would most probably be cut from the show when it is aired on Christmas Eve...

Brent Batten Still Doesn't Get It

Follow-up courtesy of Dick Prince.

Naples Columnist Defends His Hip-Hop Column

Naples Daily News columnist Brent Batten rejects criticism of the column he attempted in "hip-hop" language, saying, among other things, that the piece was not racist because "the hip-hop audience is black, white and Hispanic. If I am insulting the hip-hop fans, I'm insulting a multiracial, diverse group."

In his Dec. 2 column in the Florida paper, Batten wrote about a failed concert that, his paper reported, drew only about 700 people when 7,000 to 10,000 were expected.

In a statement Tuesday night, the National of Black Journalists called the column "patently offensive, intellectually condescending and journalistically unfocused."

Returning a telephone call from Journal-isms, Batten, 44, called the language he used "an obvious exaggeration," and he said he had researched hip-hop speak before writing the piece. He said he was familiar with "Eminem, Tupac [Shakur], Snoop [Dogg] -- the ones that are kind of mainstreamed a little bit."

Batten, who has been at the paper 18 years, seven as a columnist, said he had not seen the NABJ statement but was elaborating on a letter he had written in response to other criticism on the Jim Romenesko Web site at the Poynter Institute. He said he'd received "tons" of e-mails, mostly critical.

The Scripps Howard paper, located in an affluent area with a concentration of retirees, reported having 1.2 percent people of color on its news staff for the annual census of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Batten said he had been told this was due to a lack of competitive pay at the paper and because "minority journalists were really in demand" elsewhere.

The paper did have an African American features editor who sat on the editorial board, but that journalist, Jenise Morgan, left in November 1999, he recalled.

Morgan, who is now senior editor of a book distribution company outside of Atlanta, told Journal-isms today she had been chairman of the paper's Diversity Task Force. She said she thought the column an isolated example, but that had she still been on the editorial board, "I probably would have expressed my concern had I seen something like that coming up."

The paper made outreach efforts during her time at the paper, Morgan said, but "Naples isn't one of those cities" with nightlife and other big-city attractions. A Naples native, she said she left because "I just wanted something different."

The newspaper today ran the NABJ statement, by Bryan Monroe, NABJ vice president/print, as a "guest commentary."

December 15, 2003

Today's Quote

Responsible, mature musical commentators have often expressed the view that the role of an artist is to keep in the front of man's mind the clear vision of the ideal world, of the world as it should and could be. But when mankind is dangerously close to passing the point of no return as he has been for at least the last several decades, then the duty of the responsible artist is to hold a mirror up to humanity in which the naked truth is so sharply reflected that there is no mistaking the dire consequences that are certain to follow if he does not change his ways. When the realities of life are harsh and forbidding, sweetly sonorous and placid art (for example, the jazz style associated with the years preceding the outbreak of the Second World War) is an anachronism. It lacks meaning and relevance for the times...

-from here

December 16, 2003

Brent Batten Finally Gets It.. Sort Of..

That columnist down in Florida, who caused an uproar last week with his muddled attempt to poke fun at hip-hop slang, now realizes he made a bonehead move. He still doesn't quite grasp the situation, I'll give him props anyway for a sincere apology:

Brent Batten: An apology for attempt at humor that failed

I never thought I'd miss the days when most of my e-mail was spam.

Over the past week, I've received well over 100 electronic critiques of my Dec. 2 column on the unsuccessful hip hop concert in Collier County. Most of them have been negative, some scathingly so.

The concept of the article was to relate the story of the concert and its aftermath in the colorful slang of the hip hop culture. It is obvious that in some circles, my attempt at humor failed worse than the concert.

The harshest of the critics accuse me of being a racist, of reaching back to the days of blackface minstrel shows and Amos and Andy routines to find language belittling the black community.

This was not the case.

The language used in the column was demonstrably drawn from the lyrics of Ludacris, the scheduled main act of Hip Hop Winterfest and from glossaries of hip hop slang readily available online.

So while I reject the notion that racism formed the basis of the column, I can't deny that the piece brought offense to a large number of people.

That was not the intent.

It is my job to have my finger on the pulse of the community.

In this case, my finger was asleep.

Issues of race remain a sore subject in this country. I should have looked beyond the obvious and seen that while hip hop artists and their diverse fan base have a singular means of communicating, it too closely parallels the racist vernacular of previous times to lend itself to harmless parody.

My insensitivity to this fact has brought distress to good people and for that I am sorry.

It has also brought negative notoriety to the Naples Daily News and Scripps newspapers, two organizations of which I am proud to be a member. Bringing them into disrepute is the last thing I would want to do.

I will endeavor to do better.

Cuban Link vs. Fat Joe: Fact or Fiction?

Has Cuban Link's camp been taking lessons from DJ Dubb? This story sounds kinda sketchy:

Fat Joe Denies Fight With Cuban Link

Contrary to published reports, Fat Joe denies being involved in a scuffle with Cuban Link in a Miami nightclub on Saturday night.

In fact, the Bronx rapper said he is currently out of the country with his family for the holidays.

"This incident the websites are reporting on never occurred," Fat Joe said in a statement released to AllHipHop.com. "This is a publicity stunt from Cuban Link. If Cuban would spend more time marketing his current product he'd have less time to make up false accusations...oh I forgot he's never had an album out to market."

Though Joe called the report a promotional ploy, Cuban Link's manager stated the report is true. He also clarified it did not occur at a nightclub.

Dren Starr of CLK Management said the two rappers went toe-to-toe in front of the hotel where he, Cuban Link, and their entourage were staying.

"It was around 5:30 in the morning, the strip was crazy empty and Joe rolled up in his range," Starr told AllHipHop.com.

Starr said Fat Joe stepped out of the car and started yelling at Cuban Link, refuting the claims that he set up his former protégé.

Before Joe could reach Cuban, however, Starr said the Cuban rushed the Terror Squad leader.

Police quickly subdued the situation within a matter of minutes, according to Starr. He said police, club owners, and everyone in general area knew that the feuding rappers were both in town at the same time.

Fat Joe reportedly attended at party Ja Rule threw at Bermuda Bar, while Cuban Link was at Club Zno after a show with a local Miami rapper, Starr stated. Joe declined further comment....

But where were Marques Houston and Meghan Goode??

December 17, 2003

Today's Random Press Release

Khadafi speaks out on Saddam's capture. No, the other one.

Queensbridge Rap Legend Tragedy Khadafi Has Questions On News of Saddam Hussein Capture

New York, NY- December 16, 2003 - Queensbridge rap legend Tragedy Khadafi,
considered the "father" of the Queensbridge legacy of platinum and gold
selling rappers from Nas and Mobb Deep to Capone N Noreaga, whom he
discovered and launched through his company, 25 To Life, for their debut
gold selling album "The War Report", is no stranger to controversy and
dialogue about injustice and political issues.

"I have mixed feelings. I can't remember exactly when the agenda from
trying to capture Osama bin Laden shifted to Saddam Hussein. What
happened to our anguish about 911 and Osama bin Laden? I don't have the
answers but I sure do have a lot of questions, and its important that we
always ask questions", says Tragedy Khadafi.

Tragedy's new album release, "Still Reportin", released October 21, 2003
through 25 To Life Records (www.25toliferecords.com) /Solid Records and
Caroline Distribution, touches on these themes of struggle, confusion and
today's issues, particularly the pensive thought provoking song "Walk Wit
Me (911)" on the album, which has received excellent reviews from The
Source Magazine, XXL, and others...

December 18, 2003

Latest News From TimexSocialClub.com

A very fishy (albeit very humorous) story up on Rapnewsdirect today, about The Source releasing an interview with Eminem's gay lover. They credit the story to worldwideconnected.com, who in turn credits it to Detroitnews.com.. but I don't see the story anywhere on that site.

I hope hip-hop news sites we are not just making things up out of thin air now? Just cuz we are online doesn't mean we are in an ethics-free zone.. and Benzino produces enough fiction on his own, he really doesn't need our help.

Rare Radio Special This Saturday

This Saturday night is the latest installment of Rare Radio, which means 5 hours of classic dance, disco and house music from our radio show's all-star DJ squad: 3D, Monkone, Emskee, Spinna, Qool Marv, Randy and Tomkat.

This is always a special event, and gets a little crazier every time, so if you dig this kinda music you should make sure to tune in. And if you're not hip to it these guys just might turn you around.. I was never into this sound growing up (too geeky to hit the clubs) but the passion this crew brings to the music is so contagious, I've gained a lot of respect for the genre from watching them work it.

Check it out on Saturday night from 12 to 5AM EST, on 99.5 FM or online here.

Peace to Kool DJ Red Alert who was slated to join the team this time around, but got sidelined by an injury. Hope to see you next time..

Raekwon Brings New Chefs Into the Kitchen

Tight Raekwon interview at hiphopdx.com, where among other things he explains RZA's absence from the new album:

...How did you pick your beats?

I had a lot of beats from friends that I had that I met throughout the game. Like EZ-Elpee, a good friend of mine, Megahertz, Emil, which is a new producer. All these dudes been around me and studied my stuff. And I happen to like what they gave me. I have a couple of new dudes also. You got to keep your ear to the streets. If you don't you gonna miss out. We have to keep allowing hip-hop to play out the way it's supposed to. Everything doesn't consist of the so-called mega-producers that everybody knows. It's always somebody we don't know that could be iller than all of them.

Should we expect Ghostface collabos and production from RZA?

People are always going to expect them type of things. I got Ghost on the album. I got a couple of Clan members on the album. RZA didn't make the album production-wise because he had given me three beats and two of them was sample clearances that I had problems with that they was really ready to sue me and shelf me if I put them out. The other track he couldn't find the reel. So RZA's slot fell right out the window. But it ain't nothing. It's nothing derogatory toward RZA because he's still one of my favorite producers and at the same time, I had to keep carrying on and get an album done...

December 20, 2003

Rare Radio Reminder

Here's a reminder about our 5 hour classic dance marathon tonight, courtesy of DJ Emskee. Those of you outside the NY area can tune in here, and I'll probably be checking in to the chatroom while we rock.

"All right y'all. You've been informed and you've been informed again. Tonight on WBAI 99.5fm here in new york city, the RARE RADIO SHOW #15 will be taking control of recievers for 5 hours of commercial free feel good music from midnight to 5am that you won't be able to turn off once you have it on. Myself, Dj Monk One, Dj 3D, Dj Spinna, and Dj's Randy and Tomcat are your selectors. Peace, love and the ultimate respect to KOOL DJ RED ALERT who was supposed to spin but is recovering from and unfortunate injury and WILL BE ON THE NEXT RARE RADIO in february.

Please make sure you record the show if you can because ALOT of the music that we play is not easy to find and YOU WILL find yourself asking around for it. Enjoy the show everybody!! :)"

Return of the King, and Respect for the Drum

I met up with Madison of Diesel Nation and went to see Return of the King. Quite simply a wonderful film, and as I said to the Japanese news crew outside the theater, this entire trilogy has turned out to be a phenomenal achievement. What a miracle that the studio trusted Peter "Dead Alive" Jackson of all people with such a gargantuan project, and gambled so much of their money and resources on giving the freedom to pursue his vision. What an even greater miracle that Jackson pulled it off in such grand fashion. I really do believe this will be remembered as a landmark event in the history of cinema.. and not only because Sam and Frodo set a new standard for latent homoeroticism.

That being said, I do have a bone to pick. Am I the only person who has noticed that whenever humans in middle earth are making music it's always something purely melodic, like singing or blowing a horn, but the monsters are always banging on a drum? What's up with that!!?

Ok, I'm mostly joking. The implication that drums are favored only by lesser, more primitive species does conjure unsavory connotations, especially when traces of cultural bias are already hard to deny in these films as a whole. But that may have been unavoidable given the source material, and I wasn't nearly as troubled by it as some other folk.

Still, as a lifelong representative of hip-hop, I really am bothered whenever the drum gets treated like melody's stepchild. My major beef is that when this anti-drum bigotry rears its ugly head (though this doesn't seem to be the case with ROTK) it usually stems from an assumption that melody is the prime determinant of musicality, the core element of music to which rhythm is always secondary. And it's largely due to this perception of rhythm as subordinate to melody that hip-hop has so often faced an uphill battle to earn respect as a legitimate musical form.

I'm sure you can all recite the hater's anthem by heart: "How is that music? It's all just drum beats and talking, they don't even sing!" And this bias infects heads inside the culture too, as reflected by the often overblown praise for emcees like Cee-lo or Dre who shift towards singing, as if it were inherently more "artistic" or "musical" than emceeing. The musical=melodic equation is just never healthy for hip-hop.

You'd think the errant nature of such assumptions would be obvious to anyone familiar with the dominant role drums play in so much of African music*, and the African roots that feed so much of American music. But somehow it persists..

And that's why I always get touchy when people don't show proper respect for the drum. Never should the drum be treated as a second class citizen, whether in America or Middle Earth!

Great movie though.

*I should note that African drums could often be used to convey melody as well as rhythm, not to mention the communicative role of the talking drum, etc.

December 21, 2003

Hey Now

How come nobody told me we were in the newspaper yesterday?

'Rare' sound: Real deejays

A guest on WQHT (97.1 FM) was talking this week about how real mixers and deejays are getting scarce these days.
That won't be the case tonight on WBAI (99.5 FM), when DJ Emskee from the "Underground Railroad" show welcomes a parade of fine deejays for the 15th edition of his other program, "The Rare Radio Show."

"Rare" is dedicated to "obscure and vintage dance and house music from the '70s to the present, with original disco breakbeats."

Spinning from midnight to 5 a.m. will be Emskee, DJ Monk One, DJ 3D, DJ Spinna, Kool DJ Red Alert, Qool DJ Marev and DJ Tomcat.

Aspiring Rappers Find Themselves Homeless

The other side of the game:

Duo chronicling homelessness in rap

As they walked along 13th Street toward Broadway, the two smelly, scruffy young men needed showers, a change of clothing, food and jobs.

In early December, Imani Christian, 21, and Cori Mullins, 32, aspiring rappers and songwriters, were drifters and homeless. But not hopeless.

For weeks, they had slept in a car -- or a homeless shelter if there was a bed. During the days -- after using a bathroom at the Greyhound Bus Station on San Pablo Avenue and getting some breakfast cereal at the nearby St. Vincent De Paul's -- they aimlessly walked downtown and neighborhood streets looking for odd jobs.

However, as they witnessed or experienced the abuses, pain and humiliation of homelessness, they took notes, which they plan to use to craft lyrics for a CD...

...Both are from Los Angeles and happened to meet in Denver last year. They decided Oakland was the place to jump-start their music careers. Mullins had a single called "How Love Goes." Christian had a white 1991 Camero.

They headed to the Bay Area but fell on hard times in the past year, losing jobs and housing. Christian broke up with a girlfriend and had to leave their apartment in Mountain View. Mullins was looking for a record deal, but he too was homeless.

Although destitute, they have stuck together and used street smarts to survive. Both have cell phones, but little else. Their clothes are in the Camero.

"You see a lot of pain and suffering out here (on the streets)," said Christian...

December 22, 2003

Hip-Hop as Torture

I have no comment on this, all the jokes are too easy. But what's with the jazz hateration?

US troops 'tortured' man with rap music

Lebanese Mohammed Jaber said he went to Iraq on a pilgrimage to Muslim holy sites, he ended up being "tortured" with loud rap music by US troops suspicious he might be a foreign fighter against Americans.

Jaber said an Iraqi taxi driver handed him and three friends over to US troops for $100 each in April apiece as fighters for ousted president Saddam Hussain.

"They asked us why we were there and if we came to fight them. But we said we came only to visit the holy sites in Karbala," he said. "They didn't torture us physically but they did psychologically by raising the volume of rap music all day until it became unbearable and by withholding food," he said.

But Jaber said he kept one secret from his captors, fearing the treatment could get worse. "I mean I like rap, just imagine them playing jazz."

US-led forces in Iraq freed Jaber and sent him and seven other Arab detainees home on Saturday.

The International Co-mmittee of the Red Cross said three of them were seriously injured while in US custody. Jaber said they had stepped on land mines while clearing up rubbish in a field for US soldiers.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International has said it has heard complaints of torture and degrading treatment including prolonged sle-ep deprivation from detainees held by the American troops.

Jaber said he and his friends were first held for six days handcuffed and hooded. They were not given food or allowed to sleep.

Early Christmas Present

Praise Jeebus! The Knicks have finally been liberated from the brutally incompetent rule of their General Manager Scott "Bin" Layden. After months of hiding out from season-ticket holders he was found inside a hole he had dug under Madison Square Garden, and will now be brought to trial for his many crimes against the sport of basketball.

I'm not at all convinced that Isiah can turn this franchise around, especially with James "Dopey" Dolan as his boss and all those bloated salaries tying him down. If anything picking Isiah seems like a ploy to mollify angry fans by bringing in a big name celebrity. And as Spike Lee just reminded us on WFAN, Layden was only the latest in a long stretch of GM disasters, and it may just be impossible to make this ship float until it is under new ownership (Jay-Z and Puffy take note).

But I'll worry about that later. There may be much work to do tomorrow, but today is a day to celebrate! Anyone who listens to the radio show knows G-Man and I have been campaigning for years to get both Layden and Dolan out.

December 24, 2003

Happy Birthday to Grandmaster Flash

And happy holidays to all of y'all.

December 26, 2003

The Rapping Chairman Mao is Blowing Up

The marriage of rapping and advertising has been a steady source of hilarity and/or nausea ever since Barney Rubble's pioneering Fruity Pebbles freestyle.. and funniest/scariest of all is when rap is the chosen medium for government propaganda.

A few months ago we showed you these government-funded rhymes on behalf of FEMA, and now it appears China is following America's lead:

Chairman Mao still adored in rhyme

At least one record company is hoping that China's youth will soon be rapping to the Chairman Mao beat after the release of a new album of songs to mark the 110th anniversary of the birth of the founder of the People's Republic of China today.

More than 30,000 recorded tapes and CDs of "Mao Zedong and Us" have been sold since its launch by the China Record Company early this month.

"Orders for the new album are increasing," said Zeng Jianxiong, a company supervisor and director.

The new album includes 27 songs containing content from Mao's theories on the status and building of the Chinese Communist Party, anti-corruption speeches and poems. The 26th song, "The Two Musts," is sung to a rap beat to satisfy the youth market. There is no word yet on plans to make a video for MTV...

There's also a NY Times piece today that provides more context. Somebody please get the mp3.

December 28, 2003

Hip-Hop and Kung Fu Movies

While checking up on which new DVDs to look for in chinatown I came by an excellent breakdown of the relationship between Hip-Hop and martial arts movies:

Challenge of the B-Boy Master: The Impact of Kung Fu Movies on Breakdancing

Back in the mid-to-late 1970s, the earliest power moves of Breaking were created by B-Boy masters living in New York City. One of the biggest influences on the creation of moves like the "headspin" and the "windmill" was the Hong Kong kung fu movie. B-boys watched the amazing physical abilities of their favorite kung fu actors in films by Shaw Brothers, Seasonal Films, and Golden Harvest Studios. They imitated and expanded upon the ritualized combat they saw in these films, adding new moves to their dance.

These films were seen in the US, but only in a limited number of theaters in major cities. In the book Kung Fu: Cinema of Vengeance (1974), Verina Glaser said, “The basis for the success of the kung fu films in the States was the same ghetto audience that carried the wave of ‘black’ Hollywood action films a year or so previously.” In New York City, the two places to see kung fu movies were 42nd Street and Chinatown. Kung fu movies placed the majority of importance on the action, and less time on character development and production values seen in Hollywood films.

There was a big parallel between Hong Kong and NYC. Hong Kong and New York were both densely populated, with a large divide between the rich and the poor. Both cities had high crime rates and tough ghettos. These films were made as escapist fantasies for the people of Hong Kong, and they ended up serving the same purpose for the inner city youth in the United States. Ken Swift said “Every kung fu movie was like styles, people got they ass whipped, and they went back and got revenge, and it was cool, and that was like something maybe we saw this as kids in the hood, as something we dealt with every day in our lives, you know what I’m saying, dealing with the way we had to live, in school and at home.”

The year was 1971 and America got its first taste of the exciting and dance-like choreography of Hong Kong martial arts films with the Shaw Brothers production King Boxer (AKA Five Fingers of Death) starring Lo Lieh. At this time, Hip-Hop as we know it did not exist. Street gangs like the Black Spades and the Savage Skulls fought each other in the streets of the Bronx for control of turf. Eventually, the pre-rumble dance of these gangs would be incorporated into the Hip-Hop dance known as Up-Rocking. Trac 2 of Starchild la Rock, a legendary b-boy crew from the seventies, related a story about the gang origins of Up-Rocking. He said that the night before a rumble, the gang leaders had a dance off with each other, one on one. This let everyone in the area know who was going to be involved in the real deal the next day, and anyone else should stay out of the way...

December 29, 2003

PHOTOS: Behind the Scenes at Rare Radio

Here are some pics from our Rare Radio dance music special last week, hope some of you got a chance to tune in. I'll be posting DJ Spinna's set soon.

click each thumbnail for the full size photo





One - DJ Emskee rocked the mic
Two and Three - DJ Spinna rocked the crowd
Four - G Man rocked the Adebisi hat
Five - Monk One held it down while Qool Marv, Spinna and 3D inspected his technique
Six - Many friends came from far and wide

Come to My Birthday Party!

Me and my fellow WBAI all-star Jeannie Hopper of the Liquid Sound Lounge both share the same birthday, which happens to be tomorrow, Tuesday December 30th.

So tomorrow night we'll be taking over the downstairs lounge at the Coffee Shop (16th street and union square west) from 9PM to 2AM, with our very own DJ Emskee on the wheels and all our friends and fam on hand to celebrate.

There's no cover charge, you just have to push your way past all the wannabe models to get downstairs. So I want to see all of you there!

Audio from the Rapping Chairman Mao

Check it out.

(courtesy of my friend who built the proudly patriotic site right here.)

December 30, 2003

Hip-Hop and Jazz

A lively discussion on okayplayer today about the relationship between Hip-Hop and Jazz. I will quickly consolidate a few of my thoughts below. In short, I'd say their similarities are often overstimated.. there are some connections to be sure, but also many fundamental differences.

Much is made of the usage of improvisation in both forms, but the role that improvisation plays in jazz is very different and far more prominent/integral than that played by "freestyling" in hip-hop. Rhyming off the top has become common in live performances and battles, but as I've said before its importanceto hip-hop as a whole has come to be absurdly overestimated by younger heads, and it is very rarely used in the studio when it's time to make a record. 99% of the hip-hop albums that came out this year were made up of written rhymes, programmed beats, and little if any improvised material of any kind.* The vast majority of modern jazz (by which I mean from Bird and Dizzy on, for the sake of focus, but we could go back further too) albums, on the other hand, contain improvisation as a core element.

And hip-hop is much less collaborative by nature than modern jazz. The vast majority of modern jazz records feature a truly collaborative effort from an ensemble of musicians, in which each of them is spontaneously reacting to what each other is doing in that moment.

Hip-hop music is very rarely recorded this way. Most of hip-hop's recorded collaboration between emcees consists of each one taking their turn to recite a verse that they composed on their own beforehand. Some tracks like Biggie and Meth's "The What" will feature scripted interplay, but even this is uncommon, and not nearly the same degree of collaboration found in jazz.

*Please do not reply with the tired old myth that Jay-Z records his albums off the top. As I understand it, he composes the rhymes in his head and spits them from memory without writing down, which is totally different from rhyming off the top (though equally impressive if not more). JB please correct me if I am wrong on this.

January 1, 2004

News Roundup

Davey D on Sean T - Somehow I didn't know Davey D had a SJ Mercury News column.

Profile of Australian Hip-Hopper Bias B - Has anybody heard this guy?

Legal Troubles for Utah Rap Label - ...Utah? ...rap?

Local Columnist Hands out "Da" Rap Awards - Eminem as producer of the year? Nyet, comrade, nyet.

January 2, 2004

Blogs Jump Up To Get Beat Down

Some kid just referred to me while offering a rather outlandish defense of that now-infamous Brent Batten column. I'm about to give him way more attention than he deserves:

------

First let me say thanks for posting that. How nice to to see I helped inspire such an extensive and excellent essay (for me to poop on).

There is no topic or idea that should be off-limits for humor. Whether that humor turns out to be offensive depends on how you approach the subject, on your timing (see Bill Maher, whose only mistake was telling the truth too much too soon), and on the differing connotations that may arise depending on who tells the joke to whom (which is why your interaction with your friends is not a parallel).

The device employed by Brent Batten has indeed been used countless times, and lots of them were very funny, I cited one of these in my original post. The problem with Batten was not just that he chose to use this device, but that he used it so poorly and clumsily in this particular instance.

Regarding your little swipe at us, those who accuse others of having no sense of humor are usually just in denial about the real problem, which is that they themselves are not funny. But that must not apply to you, because your insistence that Brent offered an accurate rendition of hip-hop slang is downright hilarious. If you can't see how funny that looks then I fear trying to explain any of this to you is probably an exercise in futility. But I shall soldier on..

You can translate a paragraph of French into English using Google or Babelfish and you'll get actual English words in the result. But they'll be arranged into sentences that are painfully unnatural, because there's a lot more to language than just knowing what the words mean. That, in a nutshell, is the trap Batten fell into as he copy-pasted phrases from lyric sheets and hip-hop glossaries.

As you, like Batten, cling to the notion that he correctly represented the way hip-hoppers speak, you also expose the fallacy of your other argument, that his column was actually mocking a stereotype "to underscore how ridiculous it is that one blanket statement could be correctly applied to such a large group of people." You directly contradict yourself placing this defense alongside your claim that he was effectively satirizing hip-hoppers by accurately "plagiarizing" their speech. It's either accurate or it's a ridiculous stereotype, but it can't be both. Let us know when you make up your mind.

As for that garbled "N-word" tangent, apparently your grasp of irony is even worse than Alanis Morissette's. And what's funny is you were evidently trying to make some sort of point about ignorance by explaining that the N-word derives directly from "ignorant", but that is not the correct etymology, so your statement itself was a product of ignorance. Now that's ironic. Like ten thousand spoons!

NEW AUDIO: Classic Dance Music Set from DJ Spinna

The good news: DJ Spinna's set from last week's Rare Radio special is now avaliable for your listening pleasure at our radio show's archive page.

The bad news: I am running out of space for these big sound files, and I'll probably have to start removing older mixes soon to make room for new ones. Any ideas on where I could store those older files? (For free?)

January 3, 2004

Wordsworth Represents the Real

No not that Wordsworth, I mean the other one. Did you know he penned a poetic tribute to Toussaint L'Ouverture? A friend just showed it to me:

TO TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE

TOUSSAINT, the most unhappy man of men!
Whether the whistling Rustic tend his plough
Within thy hearing, or thy head be now
Pillowed in some deep dungeon's earless den;--
O miserable Chieftain! where and when
Wilt thou find patience? Yet die not; do thou
Wear rather in thy bonds a cheerful brow:
Though fallen thyself, never to rise again,
Live, and take comfort. Thou hast left behind
Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and skies;
There's not a breathing of the common wind
That will forget thee; thou hast great allies;
Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
And love, and man's unconquerable mind.

Louis Farrakhan on the State of Hip-Hop

Louis Farrakhan was interviewed last night on WBAI (where our show airs), during a program that focused on the state of hip-hop music. I wasn't involved in this show and am not particularly a fan of Minister Farrakhan, but he and the interviewer Bob Law had some interesting things to say, and you probably won't get to hear it anywhere else. So I'm posting it here, just missing the first 5 or 10 seconds:

Bob Law talks to Louis Farrakhan about Hip-Hop, 1/2/04

I may post a few comments later.

January 4, 2004

New Emcee Battle Documentaries

We knew a truckload of these were inevitable after 8 Mile.. Hopefully there will be some degree of authenticity here, since they had enough sense to let Wordsworth choose the NY emcees. Plus enough sense to recognize NY emcees are better than Cali emcees! (just kidding. maybe.)

Rapping Each Other to Shreds

A pair of films gets down and dirty with hip hop's battling emcees

...Many fans got their first peek at such battles by watching Eminem verbally pummel his rivals in "8 Mile," a fictional movie based on the star's own experiences as a rookie rapper in Detroit. Now "The Battle for L.A." - a new documentary available only on DVD - lets viewers see the real thing. ("The Battle for New York" has also been shot and will be released theatrically later this year.)

The L.A. "Battle," filmed guerilla-style on a tiny budget, follows a number of talented emcees as they assault each other with rhymes in L.A.-area venues. "The battles have the excitement of live theater - if the rapper blows a line, there's no retake," says director Darren Doane. "A good battler is a poet, fighter, philosopher, actor and preacher all in one."

A veteran music video director for such bands as the Deftones and Blink 182, Doane became interested in rap battles after seeing "8 Mile." He wondered if he could find an L.A. equivalent. The man who became the movie's co-producer, Dax Reynosa, introduced Doane to what turned out to be a loosely knit, marginalized subculture...

...Doane's camera captured some amazing talent. emcees named Propaganda, IN-Q and Raphi stand out, inspiring the loudest "whoos" and "whoas" from the crowd - two measures of a win. The director says indie labels have been trying to sign some of these talents after seeing his movie. Doane features a diverse range of rappers. Propaganda, IN-Q and Raphi are black, white and Latino, respectively. Among the impressive female emcees Zane and Jamie, an Asian woman...

"...The Battle for New York" has better production values than "The Battle for L.A." Doane shot the West Coast edition fast to make sure nobody beat him to the punch. The New York flick features west coast verbalists battling local rappers, chosen by an emcee called Wordsworth, at the Nuyorican Cafe on E. Third St. Doane believes New York rappers have "a little more personality. They're funnier and they have that confidence that comes from being in the hip-hop mecca..."

January 5, 2004

Time Magazine Slams the Source

Good stuff. Although I thought Benzino's father was Italian? And it's foul how Jon Shecter is being edited out of the Source's history.. more on that later.

A Source of Discomfort

How did it come to pass that the nation's biggest rap magazine is gunning for hip-hop's biggest star?

...On Jan. 12, The Source plans to ship out 800,000 copies of a CD on which a young Eminem clumsily raps, "Black girls are dumb, and white girls are good chicks." This should be a major coup for the magazine — a world-famous white rapper uttering a racist phrase — yet somehow it isn't. Eminem has already issued an apology, explaining that the tape is 10 years old and he made it just after breaking up with an African-American girlfriend. "I reacted like the angry, stupid kid I was," he said. Almost all the hip-hop community has accepted Eminem's contrition as sincere, and outrage has boomeranged on the questionable journalistic judgment of Mays and The Source.

Ever since Mays, as an undergraduate at Harvard, founded the self-proclaimed "magazine of hip-hop music, culture and politics," ethics have been a sore spot. While much of the magazine's early journalism was daring, some of it was also tainted by Mays' friendships with the rappers he covered. One of them was Ray (Benzino) Scott. "I met Ray when I had just got to Harvard and started my rap radio show," says Mays. "He had the hottest group in Boston, and yes, I became their manager, just as he helped me with my dream to start The Source."

Benzino, who is black and Puerto Rican, may have helped The Source, but it wasn't long before his friendship with Mays was also hurting it. In 1994 Benzino and his fledgling rap group, the Almighty RSO, went to editors at The Source, threatening to "put n_____s in body bags" if their album wasn't positively reviewed. (Benzino maintains he was kidding.) The editors knew that their boss was managing the group, and on those grounds, they refused to cover the band at all. But as The Source went to press, Mays inserted a three-page profile of the band into the magazine. When the editors discovered that Mays had not only overruled them but had personally written the profile, many quit in protest.

The Source's credibility took a hit, but Mays persevered, hiring new writers, and at least financially, the magazine recovered and even thrived. Meanwhile, Benzino re-formed the Almighty RSO into Made Men and continued getting favorable coverage from The Source — despite being dropped by several record labels. In 2001 Benzino was added to The Source's masthead as a co-owner, though he admits he has never invested in the magazine...

...A Source staffer says, "It's insane for a rap magazine to antagonize the No. 1 rapper the way we have. I can't believe Dave would be doing this if Benzino wasn't in his ear all the time." Mays says, "We're in a no-win situation with conflict of interest, but what do you want me to do about it? Benzino is like a brother, and I'm not going to stop being with him." The war with Eminem has had real costs. Interscope Records — home of Eminem, 50 Cent and Dr. Dre — has pulled its ads from the magazine, and Mays concedes that the past year has been "very tough financially." But The Source's long-term problem is not money but credibility. Unearthing the Eminem "black girls" tape required journalistic initiative, and Eminem's rise has had real consequences for hip-hop. "This is a huge story," says Mays. But David Mays is probably the wrong man to tell it.

January 6, 2004

Russell Simmons, Politics and Yoga

Tight piece, and perfect timing since I'm in the middle of writing another post about hip-hop and politics:

Compa$$ionate Capitali$m

Russell $immons wants to fatten the hip-hop vote—and maybe his wallet, too

...Simmons has spent his life enumerating the ways that hip-hop's energy can be converted into dollars. Now he's trying to convert that energy into a social movement capable of reinvigorating the slumbering black left. A kingmaker in the making, Simmons has given money to all the presidential candidates except John Edwards and Joe Lieberman. While he is a nominal supporter of Al Sharpton, he confesses an affinity for Howard Dean. It's hard to think of a better ally for the governor of ivory-white Vermont than young black America's most formidable potentate. At 45, Simmons is the patriarch of a generation that couldn't pick Julian Bond out of a police lineup.

But for Simmons, the road from Wall Street to K Street has proven to be a slow one-laner fraught with potholes—hard going for a guy who has always lived like a Jaguar speeding down the autobahn. The goals of HSAN are far-reaching and wide-eyed with ambition. The only in-house organizing experience belongs to Chavis, who's as respected for organizing the Million Man March as he is derided for driving the NAACP into debt.

Simmons's value as an activist hasn't yet been proved. After all, hip-hop's idea of social justice seems to begin with the unabridged right to bling. But his approach isn't without merit: If the people care only about Bennifer, then let's bring Bennifer—not Lil Flip's big brother—and hope the people will follow...

January 7, 2004

Politics, Dentistry and Why Hip-Hop Matters

A few comments on the conversation I posted between Bob Law and Louis Farrakhan:

No doubt I am tired of all these emcees reheating the same thug-life leftovers, and I'd love to see more new dishes on the menu. No matter how dire your circumstances you can always strive for more than simply "keeping it real" by taking what you see around you and presenting it at face value. Bob Law illustrated this nicely with his prison art analogy: "If you ever see the paintings that prison inmates do, they never paint jail cells. They paint landscapes, they paint freedom. They paint what can be, what they would like to create."

But my problem with much of this discussion, especially Farrakhan's initial comments, is the assumption that hip-hop's importance derives primarily, or even solely, from its potential to instill political consciousness and initiate social activism. Many of us might see nothing wrong with that, and feel flattered that our elders have found some value in our work. But it is false flattery, based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what hip-hop is, and why hip-hop matters.

Forgive me for stating the obvious, but hip-hop music is just that, a form of music, that is made by musicians. Hip-hop matters because at its best it is an incredibly innovative and vibrant form of music. Hip-hop artists are important because of their contributions to the world of music.

These words should not appear strange to anyone. But they probably will, because our sense of hip-hop's worth has been so distorted by this overemphasis on its activist potential. If I said that Duke Ellington, James Brown, or the Beatles were important because of their contributions to the world of music, nobody would bat an eye. But when I say the same about hip-hop artists, someone is bound to reply: "No they are much more than just musicians, they are this generation's leaders/teachers/soldiers! Hip-hop is not just music it's a culture/movement/revolution!"

These protests (especially from older speakers like Law and Farrakhan) tend to carry an underlying assumption that hip-hop's musical contributions alone are not enough to make it worthy of respect. And perhaps more importantly, they promote a faulty conception of how effective activism can be realized.

The confusion is understandable. If you don't have an ear for what is going on musically, hip-hop probably just sounds like a bunch of people talking, so it's only natural to conclude that they can only become relevant by choosing relevant things to talk about. Plus, hip-hop became the dominant cultural force in Black America at a time when we had developed a gaping void in Black leadership/activism. The last generation of militant Black activist had faded away, whether due to cointelpro or whatever other factors you want to blame.. at the same time the church's influence continued to wane.. and it was in this setting that hip-hop rose to prominence.

So it may seem proper to assume that hip-hop was sent here to fill the void. It's certainly a convenient interpretation for our elders who were never able or willing to comprehend hip-hop's artistic merit, but still yearn for some way to connect with us and embrace us (or at least for a chance to shift the blame for this leadership void onto someone other than themselves). After all, rappers are the only ones around these days who can capture the attention of our young people, so it must be a rapper's responsibility to educate and politicize them, right?

Wrong. If your family dentist retires and a plumber moves into his office space, would you tell the plumber it's his job to fix your teeth, since he has a bunch of tools and there's no dentist around anymore? That's basically what you're doing when you implore rappers to provide our activist leadership just because they're the ones our kids watch on TV.

As Melanie Campbell said in the Voice piece, "The challenge is that artists are artists and activists are activists." Musicians make music. Activists extensively research the policy and history surrounding today's issues, develop and articulate goals and strategy, then inform, organize and mobilize their community in substantive political engagement. Each one of these is a full-time job, and each one calls for very different skill sets. Expecting anyone to do both simultaneously is a spectacularly bad idea.

Musicians and artists can play a crucial role in assisting and supporting bonafide activists in any social movement. But calling on those artists to "lead the revolution" themselves is not just unrealistic, it's downright ridiculous, and nothing constructive will ever come out of it.

Nobody will ever say that Muddy Waters or Sarah Vaughan or Eric Dolphy or Minnie Riperton failed us because they did not propagate a comprehensive political platform. Judging hip-hop by such criteria is equally foolish, unfair to the artist, and counterproductive for whatever cause you hope to aid by coronating these rappers as leaders.

(this is expanded from an old comment in Lynne's blog)

January 8, 2004

DJ Monk One's Best of 2003

I'm not doing any best-of lists, but our illustrious DJ Monk One (also a featured player in Wax Poetics) has been kind enough to pass his favorites along for your perusal. As you can see he's been bringing back many tasty treats from his gigs in the UK. Just don't start rocking one of those Madonna-style faux accents, ok homey?

songs:

follow me - d'angelo / red astaire (GAMM)
heard it all before - sunshine anderson + quantic soul orchestra (tru thoughts)
wesley music - RSL (players)
sunny - city people (rainy city)
this journey in - rebirth (kashmere)
the road remix - markus enochson + bugz in the attic (maw)
relax... unwind - mark de clive-lowe (maw)
hey ya! - outkast/andre3000 (arista)
sweetsmoke / it's dancing time - mr. scruff + quantic (ninjatune)
trouble in mind - natalie gardiner (ramjac)
all the way - strange fruit project (kashmere)
song for sharma - soul central (kenlou)
theme for fergus - madlib (kilmarnock/stonesthrow)
just a little lovin - irfane (new born)
cold outside - rob symeonn (redbud)
you bring me vibes - only child/amp fiddler DSL remix (grand central)
tudo bem - sasso (sing sing)
mr. brown - styles of beyond (spytech/ill boogie)
abracadabra - apani (upmedia)

songs + songs:

staunch liason EP (chopped herring)
blind man EP - LA carnival (stonesthrow)
absence of color EP (sound in color)
beat tape personalities EP - ammoncontact (soul jazz)
slim's return EP - madlib (blue note)
we, ourselves and us EP - sol uprizing (swv) - I cannot find any evidence online that this record even exists. I guess Monk has really been digging!
after midnight EP - dj satone (soulspazm)
blood's haul EP - keystones (now again)

songs + songs + songs + songs:

mungos hi-fi meets brother culture LP
spirit in stone LP - lifesavas (quannum)
stampede LP - quantic soul orchestra (tru thoughts)
get over it LP - nextmen (scenario)
upwards LP - ty (big dada)
yoseph LP - luke vibert (warp)
extinguished outtakes LP - prefuse 73 (warp)
mickey & the soul generation LP (caltech)
elements of life LP - louie vega (vega)
vaudeville villian LP - viktor vaughn (soundink)

January 9, 2004

The RIAA is Building a Clone Army

***If you haven't seen "House of Sand and Fog", you may want to skip the minor spoiler below***

This is weird and creepy. And sounds eerily like the scene in House of Sand and Fog where Ron Eldard uses his cop uniform to intimidate Ben Kingsley, hoping he can get over since Ben is an immigrant and might not know what his rights are. Also check out the wacky "hispanic nature" quote, and the EFF's puzzling stance:

Music Industry Puts Troops in the Streets

Quasi-legal squads raid street vendors

Though no guns were brandished, the bust from a distance looked like classic LAPD, DEA or FBI work, right down to the black "raid" vests the unit members wore. The fact that their yellow stenciled lettering read "RIAA" instead of something from an official law-enforcement agency was lost on 55-year-old parking-lot attendant Ceasar Borrayo.

The Recording Industry Association of America is taking it to the streets.

Even as it suffers setbacks in the courtroom, the RIAA has over the last 18 months built up a national staff of ex-cops to crack down on people making and selling illegal CDs in the hood. The result has been a growing number of scenes like the one played out in Silver Lake just before Christmas, during an industry blitz to combat music piracy.

Borrayo attends to a parking lot next to the landmark El 7 Mares fish-taco stand on Sunset Boulevard. To supplement his buck-a-car income, he began, in 2003, selling records and videos from a makeshift stand in front of the lot. In a good week, Borrayo said, he might unload five or 10 albums and a couple DVDs at $5 apiece. Paying a distributor about half that up-front, he thought he’d lucked into a nice side business.

The RIAA saw it differently. Figuring the discs were bootlegs, a four-man RIAA squad descended on his stand a few days before Christmas and persuaded the 4-foot-11 Borrayo to hand over voluntarily a total of 78 discs. It wasn’t a tough sell. "They said they were police from the recording industry or something, and next time they’d take me away in handcuffs," he said through an interpreter. Borrayo says he has no way of knowing if the records, with titles like Como Te Extrańo Vol. IV — Musica de los 70’s y 80’s, are illegal, but he thought better of arguing the point.

The RIAA acknowledges it all — except the notion that its staff presents itself as police. Yes, they may all be ex-P.D. Yes, they wear cop-style clothes and carry official-looking IDs. But if they leave people like Borrayo with the impression that they’re actual law enforcement, that’s a mistake.

"We want to be very clear who we are and what we’re doing," says John Langley, Western regional coordinator for the RIAA Anti-Piracy Unit. "First and foremost, we’re professionals..."

...With all the trappings of a police team, including pink incident reports that, among other things, record a vendor’s height, weight, hair and eye color, the RIAA squad can give those busted the distinct impression they’re tangling with minions of Johnny Law instead of David Geffen. And that raises some potential legal questions. Contacted for this article, the Southern California branch of the American Civil Liberties Union said it needed more information on the practices to know if specific civil liberties were at risk...

...Langley says the anti-piracy teams have about an 80 percent success rate in persuading vendors to hand over their merchandise voluntarily for destruction.

"We notify them that continued sale would be a violation of civil and criminal codes. If they’d like to voluntarily turn the product over to us, we’ll destroy it, and we agree we won’t sue," he explained. The pink incident sheets and photos that Langley’s teams take of vendors are meant to establish a paper trail, particularly for repeat offenders.

"A large percentage [of the vendors] are of a Hispanic nature," Langley said. "Today he’s Jose Rodriguez, tomorrow he’s Raul something or other, and tomorrow after that he’s something else. These people change their identity all the time.M A picture’s worth a thousand words..."

...On its face, the move looks like a shift toward even more in-your-face enforcement. But don’t expect all RIAA critics to rally to the side of Borrayo and other sellers.

"The process of confiscating bootleg CDs from street vendors is exactly what the RIAA should be doing," said Jason Schultz, a staff attorney for the San Francisco–based Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

The EFF has frequently crossed swords with the record industry over its strategy of suing ISPs and individual listeners accused of downloading tunes from the Internet. A champion of copyright "fair use," the EFF says Buckles could bring a more balanced approach to the RIAA’s anti-piracy efforts. The more time the association spends rousting vendors, the thinking goes, the less it will spend subpoenaing KaZaa and BearShare aficionados...

(currently being discussed at ILM, but I saw it first from R0chey at okayplayer)

January 12, 2004

The Future of Rap (Foretold by National Review)

National Review offers this baffling paragraph in their review of the year in music:

As the social wheel spins, so goes music. Trends come and go. Today, emotional intensity appears to be the most important thing, but even so, some waves are receding as audiences show a preference for more positive emotions. Rap, once all but ubiquitous, seems to be waning, slowly but surely; the broader category of hip-hop, though, with its rather more positive social aura, is still going strong.

Questions abound. What led them to the conclusion that what they call rap is falling and what they call hip-hop is rising? The biggest selling album this year was 50 Cent, and it's hard for me to imagine them IDing that as hip-hop rather than rap.. certainly if "positive social aura" is their litmus test.

And how in the world do they differentiate between "rap" and "hip-hop" in the first place? Are they applying the same bizarro-world logic used by MTV when they make separate awards for Best Rap and Best Hip-Hop, and then give the latter to people like Sisqo? I am intrigued.

January 13, 2004

PHOTOS: Hip-Hop at the GQ Awards

A while ago I was on my way to the radio station and discovered they were taping the Spike TV/GQ Awards down the block, so I decided to hang out for a while and get my papparazzi on:





click each thumbnail for the full size photo

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And a few extras:

Charlize Theron
Jon Stewart -recruiting young girls into Satan's army
Anna Kournikova - I've always hated on her but I must admit she was one of the nicest about coming over to meet the fans.

January 14, 2004

Dean vs. Gephardt on Eminem

Although his love for Wyclef is well documented, it turns out current presidential candidate Howard Dean is not a fan of future presidential candidate Marshall Mathers. Funny you'd think Em would be right up Dean's alley since he, as has been widely reported, is The Angry Candidate.

Dean not enraptured by Eminem; Gephardt digs him

Dick Gephardt and Howard Dean disagree on a lot of things, and here's another: rapper Eminem.

The Missouri congressman, close to Dean in Iowa polls, has played Eminem's song "Lose Yourself" on the campaign trail and said he liked the rapper's semi-autobiographical movie "8 Mile."

"I didn't know much about him," Gephardt said Tuesday on ABC's "Good Morning America." "I saw the movie and I like the movie, you know, the story of them growing up poor and so on."

Dean, the former Vermont governor, however, is less of a fan. "My kids like him, but I don't," Dean said in a recent Rolling Stone interview.

Run Jigga Run!

Actually, nevermind what I just said about Eminem running for president.

I'm not sure if the esteemed Jessica Hopper is clowning me or what with this "correct-a-con300 bot" business (you got blog beef, bring it!!), and I'm not sure what it means to be metaphorically honkey.. but she is dead-on as usual in pegging Jay-Z as totally Clintonian with his "aw shucks" humble demeanor, and perfect for a presidential run.

I heard Jay on Howard Stern last year, and Clinton is exactly who I thought of as he employed advanced rhetorical Tai-Chi maneuvers to deflect every question. And who could possibly say no to the Beyonce healthcare plan?

Speaking of President Carter, the NY Post claims he's trying to form his own company, and ascribes this move to the age-old rumors of a falling out with Damon Dash. The chances of a Post article being accurate are mighty low.. but we'll see. (maybe JB can give us the real deal)

Photos: The Last Days of D&D

In a few weeks we will hit the one-year anniversary of a sad day in hip-hop, the closing of the legendary D&D studios. I was lucky enough to visit D&D just before it closed, and got a few pictures for the scrapbook.

I'd gotten an invite to a listening session for Gangstarr's new album, and expected the usual routine with label execs playing a CD for a bunch of industry heads, with the artist possibly stopping by and sitting on the side. Instead I walked in to find nothing but Guru and a couple of his friends sitting on a couch, watching TV. Guru looked up and said "Watsup, glad you could make it! There's some food in back if you want." Way more intimate vibe than I expected! It was like I got invited to Gangstarr's house for a sleepover.

Walking towards the kitchen, it felt like every inch of this place was suffused with hip-hop history. The room with the couches and TV was lined with platinum plaques from Illmatic and just about every other classic album of the last 15 years. Each wall in the next room was plastered with classic album covers, surrounding a worn-out pool table that you just knew all your heroes had played on. Across from the soda machine was a photo gallery with candid shots from inside the studio (like the one of KRS and Primo below), dating back to the early 80s when they catered mostly to reggae artists like Dennis Brown.

We came back to the couches (I was with fellow WBAI host Andrea Clarke) and watched videos with Guru, while a few heads from Power 105 filtered in. I'd heard horror stories about Guru but he was totally chill and friendly with us (the horror stories involved him being drunk off his proverbial ass, which word is he doesn't do anymore), and told lots of cute stories about his kid, who loves to rap along to Nas' "I Can", then pauses and says "Hey daddy... WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT BOY!?" (#1 Stunna style)

Eventually Premier came in and gave everybody a pound, and we all crowded into a tiny studio where Primo started pulling DATs out of a Duane Reade shopping bag, each of which contained a song from the new album. He made a little speech before each song, describing how each track was made and then veering off into musings on hip-hop philosophy. Some of the tracks were so new that Guru hasn't heard the finished product yet, and he nodded excitedly "I like how that one came out!"

Just to recap, at this moment I AM SITTING INSIDE D&D, AND DJ PREMIER IS SITTING RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME, PLAYING HIS NEW SHIT FOR ME!!!! This was one of those times when it is incredibly cool to have a radio show.

Primo's friends were wandering in and out as it went on, and at one point we were sharing the space with Primo, Guru, Tony Touch, Craig G, Marley Marl, and Edwin "Rapper Dapper Snapper" Birdsong. The amount of hip-hop history cramped into this little room at that point was just insane.

I hate to sound like a Wonder Years voiceover, but sitting there with all these legends, listening to Primo speak of the traditions and "hip-hop codes" he strives to uphold, all the while knowing these hallowed halls were about to be closed down forever, it was hard not to feel like we were getting one final glimpse at hip-hop's golden age, before it faded into the sunset.

Anyway here are few pics:





click each thumbnail for the full size photo

January 15, 2004

Russell Simmons vs. Antisemitism

Okay so they thought Russell was a rapper, they are in Tel Aviv so we can cut them some slack. And actually he did rap once (5 points to anybody who can name the record).

Rapper calls on blacks to combat anti-Semitism

Music producer Russell Simmons, considered a founding father of rap and hip-hop culture, is now entreating the African-American community "to join forces with the Jews in a common struggle against expressions of anti-Semitism in Europe and America."

Simmons wrote these words together with his friend Orthodox Rabbi Marc Schneier, in an article that is to appear this weekend, in commemoration of Martin Luther King Day, which is observed next Monday. The article will be published in newspapers that reach Jewish and black readers across the U.S...

Vinyl Imaginings

This right here is fascinating.

My Wax Poetics brethren, please work your magic and track down this Mingering Mike fellow.

6 Years for Mystikal

I'm not gonna make any jokes about this one:

Rapper sentenced to six years for sexual battery

Michael Tyler, better known as the Grammy-nominated rapper Mystikal, was sentenced Thursday to six years in prison for sexual battery for forcing his hair stylist to perform what the judge called "continuous sex acts."

The 33-year-old rapper originally faced up to 10 years, but received six in a plea agreement. He was taken from court in handcuffs to begin serving his time...

Down With The King

In honor of Martin Luther King's birthday today, see what you can make out of this essay linking Hip-Hop with MLK's legacy:

Dr. King: The Remix

While much of the world will pay homage to Martin Luther King's 75th birthday on January 15, the eyes in many hip-hop heads will again glaze over the revival of grainy black-and-white footage from 1963. Is it any wonder that the most commercialized, mass-marketed and misunderstood figure of the Civil Rights Movement offers little more than surface appeal to the hip-hop nation? The paradox of overexposure of a particular image of Dr. King is his resultant inaccessibility to young people.

While we love to hear the story, again and again, well-intentioned teachers and less-benevolent revisionists have hidden from us much of the good stuff about the good Reverend Doctor. His legacy has been reduced by many interpreters to a still portrait of a pacific dreamer in a contextual vacuum. We have been conditioned to think that everything we need to know about King we learned in kindergarten. While we remember that he was born in Atlanta and became a timeless orator, nonviolent dreamer and national martyr, many in the hip-hop nation have yet to be introduced to the radical Martin Luther King, Jr.

Call in P. Diddy, or whoever invented the remix. The revolutionary King has been lost on the B-side for much of the last four decades, while the facts of this year in our nation's history accentuate the significance of understanding the true King legacy. Dr. King's "triple evils" of racism, poverty and war have emerged in all-too-familiar form: the Bush II government abandons American children to kill in Iraq and to perish in prison here at home, cuts off unemployment benefits and closes welfare centers, locks up innocent immigrants, and rewards the rich for their patronage of these policies.

Reinterpretation is often a struggle, and like most spaces in hip-hop, the memory of King has long been a battleground. The national celebration of his birthday is itself a product of a committed fight, not only in the dirty South but in places like New Hampshire and "by the time I get to" Arizona. There is a role for the hip-hop generation – ever primed for battle since creating one of the few post-Civil Rights forums for honest communication about race and class in American society – in reclaiming the legacy of King...

In Yet Another Sign of the Apocalypse

Somebody just ended their shift on Hot 97 by quoting Hunter S. Thompson:

"The music business is a cruel & shallow trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves & pimps run free, & good men lie like dogs. There is also a negative side."

If I'm not mistaken it was DJ Cipha Sounds, who I must admit was surprisingly un-irritating on the mic, filling in for Flex. His voice is kinda similar to Flex's, and I kept thinking "wow Flex is less annoying than usual tonight!"

January 16, 2004

I-20 of Disturbing Tha Peace on Hot 97

He seems like a nice guy, but his voice is so deep it just doesn't sound right. He's like the Rick Astley of hip-hop.

Hip-Hop and Politics, Volume 2,861

Jeff Chang links to a meaty discussion between Davey D and Cedric Muhammad of blackelectorate.com. It's a good read, and some of Cedric's thoughts are a nice complement to my earlier ramblings on the subject.

Cedric Muhammad and Davey D on "How Hip-Hop's Political Movement Gets Compromised"

Cedric: ...the problem with the Hip Hop political movement is that many of the activists don’t have good relationships with the artists. I know that there are a few that do, but on a whole I think we become what we condemned. A lot of us have become very preachy and we don’t network. A lot of us don’t like the music and we spend a lot of time condemning it as opposed to building relationships and doing business so we can get close to the artists so we can eventually influence them. Many of the ‘great thinkers’ within Hip Hop could not get a hearing with some of these artists...

...I think there’s a major disconnect behind the scenes between many of us who have all these great ideas and are from a political grassroots network and the artists. Lets be honest, the young people like the artists. They don’t care too much about too much news or what intellectuals within Hip Hop are saying. They wanna know what’s going on with Jay-Z or what’s up 50 Cent or what’s happening with the G-Unit. They wanna know about Westside Connection and the whole nine. I think some of us on the intellectual side resent that. We resent that influence that these artists have on the basis of superficiality. Rather then embracing this and synthesizing this with some of the ideas that we have. Once this happens things will change...

...Whenever you are looking for some of your out front people to be political leaders, present the ideas and do the thinking, you are going to always be in trouble. I think you need that coach, that GM and that strategist who are behind the scenes who can help that person who has the limelight and popularity...

January 17, 2004

Join Us On the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight, EST. You can tune in here, or at WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you are checking out the sounds you can join us live in the chat room.

Also don't forget WBAI's membership drive starts on Monday, and one week from tonight (the 24th) is our fundraising special! As usual we've put some classic Railroad rarities on CD, to deposit your mailbox if you pledge during our show.. come back next week for details.

January 19, 2004

Citing Vast Surplus, U.S. Begins Exporting Tupac Rhymes to Korea

Is there any way we can use Tupac's voice to power an automobile? Cuz at this point it's obvious the earth's fossil fuels will run out long before his unused vocals do. Let's just make sure nobody puts Pac's voice on a Bubble Sisters record.

Korean Pop Group To Collaborate With J-Lo, Tupac

The new album by local female pop group Baby Vox will have vocals by singer Jennifer Lopez and the late rapper Tupac Shakur.

Lopez will be rapping and singing the chorus for "Play", one of the songs on the album, due out in early March, Daily Sports reported. Lopez will be recording her part in a studio in the United States. The song will then be completed by Baby Vox (short for Baby Voice of Expression) in South Korea.

The album will also have the five-member group perform a duet with Shakur, Yonhap News Agency reported. The song will have Baby Vox sing over a rap recorded by Shakur, who was one of rap's biggest names before his murder in 1996...

January 20, 2004

Limited Time Special Offer (Offer Now Expired)

Since I'm still lagging on the postification, here's a little present for my blog peoples courtesy of Kon the Louis Vuitton Don:

Grab this now, cuz it will disappear when I wake up in the morning.. ok, I probably won't wake up in the morning per se, but you knowhutimsayin.

Sorry, too late!

Kelis' Milkshake Remix

I like Kelis, and still rock "Young Fresh and New" on the regular, but asking her to rap on the remix of Milkshake was a bad idea. When her verse came on I thought "why are The Clipse ghostwriting for JJ Fad now?"

Indian Emcee Sameer Daadaa: Original Goonda

If nothing else, this guy has clearly mastered the standard the gangsta-rap defense tactics, as seen in the last paragraph:

Now, be ready for a 'goonda rap'

If you expect the son of country's leading beautician to be a chocolate-faced boy, your expectations will go awry. The stockily-built, bearded man, who sports his own SD brand of hairstyle, is a toughie. He is all set to release "country's first gangster rap" music album " Salaam " soon. "In Indian context, you can say it is a goonda rap album," he says.

Meet Sameer Husain alias Sameer Daadaa (SD), son of world famous beautician Shahnaz Husain. SD says his music album has some "vulgar, offending" lyrics. Incidentally, the lyrics have been penned by SD himself. His album carries the message "Parental Advisory Body. Explicit content".

"In US, this message is carried in music albums which should not be listened by those who oppose freedom of speech," he says and adds, "When a car owner hits a rickshaw-puller, he abuses the poor man with expletives related to Maa and Bahan. But the same car owner would not like to listen songs laced with expletives. Isn't it double standards?" he asks.

He opposes the remix albums and claims that his album is original, innovative one. "The album uses expletives, but it carries some message for the society," he claims. Does the rapper favour freedom of speech for the gangsters? SD says: "Everybody should have freedom of speech."

But he clarifies: "If certain film is based on gangsters' lives, nobody raises eyebrows. Then why you do think that I am glorifying gangsters in my album. I have presented what I have experienced in my life..."

The Real History of The Source - Part One

In the latest issue of The Source they finally deliver their (surprisingly dull) wall-to-wall assault on Eminem, complete with bonus CD. In her editor's note Kim Osorio proclaims that "Eminem and his people wanted to stop the truth from reaching the public," and assures the reader that "our intentions have always been to present you, the reader, with the truth, and to give you the information you need to draw your own conclusion."

But all this righteous talk rings hollow, for numerous reasons. For one thing, The Source is lying to readers about its own history in every single issue, by listing Raymond "Benzino" Scott as a co-founder of the magazine alongside David Mays.

Regular readers will know that this crap drives me up the wall. What bothers me most is the injustice of seeing all the real co-founders besides David Mays being written out of history. So I've taken some time to try and compile the real story of how The Source magazine got started as best I can, and post it here so people will have a reference. Much of this post is drawn from material gathered by Irina Slutsky for a research project at the Columbia School of Journalism. Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations are from Irina's previously unpublished interviews.

If anyone has additions or corrections let me know. I'd love to get a little more detail on Ed Young.. he seems to be the enigmatic, Jarobi-esque member of the founding four, nobody says much about what he was doing. But this should provide a more complete and accurate accounting of The Source's origins than was available online up until now.

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The Real History of The Source (Part One)

The story of The Source begins in 1988, when Harvard's radio station added a hip-hop show to its lineup for the first time. The show was entitled "Street Beat", and was put together by two sophomores: Jon Shecter, a Philadelphia native, and David Mays, whose nickname "Go-Go Dave" paid tribute to his D.C. roots. Both had been hip-hop fans from the first time they heard "Rapper's Delight", and they jumped at the chance to show their love on Harvard's WHBR 95.3 FM, a 3000-watt station that reached most of Boston.

The show quickly struck a chord, and as their growing audience lit up the phones with questions about the new music they heard, the ever-enterprising Mays had an idea to further capitalize on this interest. He started taking down the addresses of everyone who called in, and soon found himself with over 1,000 people on his mailing list. In the summer of 1988 he hit those 1,000 mailboxes with the premiere issue of "The Source: Boston's First and Only Rap Music Newsletter".

Mays sent it out for free, paying for printing and postage by selling ad space to local record stores. Named after a line from BDP's classic "Ya Slippin" ("you wanna hear a fresh rhyme you come to the source!"), this original Source was not in magazine form, simply a one-page newsletter listing new releases and upcoming concerts in the area. But when Jon Shecter came back from summer vacation in the fall of '88, Jon and David decided to become partners and make a business out of this, and The Source as we know it today was born.

Throughout their junior year at Harvard, Mays and Shecter produced The Source out of their dorm room, now selling each issue for a dollar. Shecter was in charge of editorial duties, while Mays handled the business end. They started out doing everything themselves, writing all the articles, typing everything up and xeroxing it themselves, then mailing everything out. Not surprisingly it became hard for them to stay focused on their classes, and at that point Shecter says "we majored in The Source and minored in academics".

But their hard work was paying off, and by the end of their junior year The Source was being read as far away as San Francisco, where a Harvard law student named James Bernard picked up a copy during his summer vacation in 1989. As soon as he walked into Leopold's records and saw LL Cool J's smiling face on the cover (The Source's first color cover) Bernard was fascinated, and he spent his entire 4th of July weekend reading The Source over and over. "I just couldn't believe there was an intelligent hip-hop magazine," remembers Bernard.

Bernard noted that the magazine came out of Boston, and upon his return to Harvard he sought out the founders and invited them to dinner at the newly opened Boston Chicken (which later evolved into the Boston Market chain). Soon after this meeting Bernard officially entered the fold as The Source's third staff member.

"I kind of fell in with Jon, he and I got along better" recalls Bernard, and he joined Shecter in writing and editing the magazine while Mays continued running the business end. Bernard's presence intensified the political consciousness that the Source would become known for, and one of their first issues after he arrived featured Malcolm X on the cover. Both and Mays and Shecter were committed to making this more than just another gossip rag like Black Beat or Right on. At the helm of hip-hop's first authentic magazine of its own, Bernard and Shecter aspired to set a standard for representing the culture with intelligent discussion and serious analysis.

They were always acutely aware of this responsibility, even in the finer details of punctuation. "We had a long argument about the punctuation in N.W.A," remembers Bernard. On the album there was no period after the 'A', which is technically incorrect, but after much deliberatation Bernard and Shecter decided not to add another period in their articles. "Now I see that in the New York Times," says Bernard with pride, "and we helped to set that. We were all about that kind of stuff. We cared about that."

While Bernard and Shecter were establishing traditions on the editorial side, another Harvard undergrad named Ed Young joined David Mays in overseeing business matters, and became the Source's fourth staff member. This was the team that oversaw The Source until Mays and Shecter graduated in 1990, and kept it rolling from then on. A year later The Source had grown so rapidly that even the Wall Street Journal had to take heed, in a story on September 25th, 1991 that noted:

Source Magazine, started in a Harvard University dormitory three years ago by David Mays and Jon Shecter, reflects the personal passion of its two white founders for black-oriented rap music; the magazine is sold mostly in record stores; it has a circulation of less than 40,000, but advertising pages rose 25% in the past year. Revenue this year will reach $900,000, up from last years $340,000."

With David Mays and Ed Young working tirelessly to expand its readership and draw new advertisers, alongside Jon Shecter and James Bernard shaping its content and editorial voice, The Source had firmly established itself as hip-hop culture's paper of record. Though it may be hard to believe now, by the time they moved their offices to New York in 1991 fans across the globe were calling The Source their "bible of hip-hop", and doing so without a trace of sarcasm.

These are the four founders of The Source: David Mays, Jon Shecter, James Bernard and Ed Young. Anyone who says otherwise is either ignorant or lying to you. When they falsely cite David Mays and Raymond "Benzino" Scott as their co-founders in the front of every issue, those who currently run The Source are guilty of the latter. They champion themselves as crusaders for truth, even as they refuse to tell you the truth about their own history.

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You will notice that Raymond Scott AKA Ray Dogg AKA Benzino's name did not appear anywhere in this post. That's because he played no part whatsoever in starting the magazine. His role in this drama will be the focus of Part 2, which I hope to post up soon. It will probably be juicy.

January 22, 2004

Eminem's Latest Salvo

Umm, is it just me or are Eminem's dis records getting boring? You can download his newest anti-source rant here and judge for yourself:

Eminem Freestyle - from the new "Green Lantern Invasion Part 3"

There was a time when I would have been excited to hear this, but he has done so many of these tracks now (with similar beats/flows/jokes) that this one doesn't make much of an impression on me.

January 23, 2004

Speaking of Ingenious Mixtures

Am I late on the "Hey Ya Charlie Brown" meme?

Hip-Hop Culture Shock

It's amazing to see the permutations of hip-hop that arise outside of the US. Here, from Kenya, comes a white emcee who goes by the name "Pigmy" and raps in Swahili:

The Mzungu with a Mean Swahili Rap

Wherever he goes, upcoming rapper Pigmy (Miles Macdonald), who is of Caucasian origin, mesmerises all and sundry with his ability to rap in Swahili.
The 17-year-old, who is Kenyan birth, has been wowing audiences with his classy rendition of a rap song, Zaliwa Kenya, his introduction to the local hiphop scene. The song, with Kiswahili and English lyrics, delves into various facets of life in Kenya.

Despite his having being born and bred in Kenya, many people find it hard to believe that a Mzungu (white person) can rap in flawless Swahili. So wherever he performs, he leaves many open-mouthed.

"Whenever I step on the stage for the first time, people normally freeze in silence, not knowing what to expect. But when I start rapping, my mastery of Swahili always sends them wild," he says with an air of confidence.

At times people follow him back-stage to ask him whether he is being real or just faking it. But Pigmy always has a ready answer. "I am Kenyan and all Kenyans should know Swahili. And I can sing about life in Kenya just like anybody else," he says.

Indeed, Pigmy’s debut single, Zaliwa Kenya, plumbs the daily lives of youthful Kenyans in a way that rings true with many young music fans. His other song, Shake Till Your Legs Break is a party anthem for young party-goers, who will also relate easily to his latest release, Tusker In My Fridge...

January 24, 2004

A (Sad) New Chapter in Blog History

Last week I jokingly acted like I wanted beef with another blog across town, namely Tiny Lucky Genius AKA the Unicorn's Tear hosted by Chicago's own Jessica Hopper. I was totally totally kidding, she seems mad cool and probably able to have me killed.

But I've always thought it would be fun if us bloggers had "blog beef", and made blog dis records about each other like all the cool rap stars do. The problem, of course, is where would we find a loser with enough free time on his hands to actually write and record a song about somebody else's blog?

As you have probably guessed by now, I am that loser. And since last week's tomfoolery gave me inspiration, I now present to you the world's first blog dis record, "I Know Why The Unicorn Cries."


Download the MP3 here, then read along below!

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I Know Why the Unicorn Cries
(beat courtesy of Vast Aire's "Look Mom No Hands", additional samples added by Jay Smooth in Cool Edit Pro)

PRIMO-STYLE COLLAGE INTRO

FIRST VERSE, STARTING WITH OBLIGATORY BIGGIE REFERENCE:

first things first, Ms. Hopper: ha ha, you're funny
amusing - but your emo ego is due for bruising tonight
cuz we're never losing a fight
we keep it tight, featured site up at movable type
I fill suckaz all over the blogosphere with dread
walk mean streets these geeks fear to tread
but every now and then I hear footsteps behind me
another small timer like yourself getting grimy
tiny.abstract about to catch a clapback
next time you post about me, watch your trackback
cuz I'm about to ping you with the real
when a unicorn cries tell me how does it feel?

CHORUS:

punk unicorn!
from your eye drops a tear!
sucka unicorn!
from your eye drops a tear!

REPEAT

SECOND VERSE:

you think your tiny sucky blog makin me feel fear?
I get more hits in a week than you get all year
you cry a tear cuz you're jealous about my fame
talk a good one but never call me out by name
it's just a shame, I dunno why you think that you could reckon with me
I represent New York, you're in the second city
small time dropping small thoughts for small minds
up against THE GREATEST HIP-HOP BLOG OF ALL TIME!? (portentous echo)
you better call time like chris webber
cuz it only gets better when this veteran gets clever and spits
i'm severin arteries mercy has never been part of me
so if you ask me to i'll enjoy thrashing you heartily in every post I make
roasting fakes you and your team are artificial
like the cream in the middle of hostess cakes
and that makes a tasty meal
so when i eat a unicorn tell me how does it feel?

CHORUS

FADE OUT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Just to reiterate, in case the inherent absurdity is not obvious, I did this strictly for the sake of being silly and I have no quarrel whatsoever with tinyluckygenius (please don't hurt me). But, if any of you want beef, y'all know where to find me! There's plenty more where this came from.

January 25, 2004

Thanks for Your Support (Gift Enclosed)

Big thanks to everyone who called in and pledged their support during our fundraising special on the radio show last night, and brought us to the respectable tally of $2,510. Now you just gotta make sure you send in those pledges!

Among those checking in were Madison of Diesel Nation, Pexdiggy, Wiseguy and Gaston of the "Words" event at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and a legend of NY radio, DJ Silva Sirfa.

As a token of my gratitude (FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY), here is a mind-blowing Stevie Wonder concert MP3.

January 26, 2004

Elroy! Elroy Cohen!

Another sign that Redman is right about Def Jam "losing their soul"?*

Warner Music Is Said to Pick Head of Unit

Lyor Cohen, the music impresario who has fostered the careers of artists like Public Enemy and Bon Jovi, is expected to join Warner Music as the head of its North American operations, two people briefed on the negotiations said on Friday.

Executives are still working out the details of Mr. Cohen's contract, but an announcement could come as early as Sunday, these people said. Mr. Cohen was offered as much as $50 million for five years to stay at the Island Def Jam Music Group, a division of the Universal Music Group, where he is chief executive and has spent much of his career, according to one of these people. His deal at Warner is expected to be even richer, this person said, and could include a stake in Warner Music.

Last November, Time Warner sold its music division for $2.6 billion to an investor group led by Edgar Bronfman Jr., the Seagram heir, and the investor Thomas H. Lee. Mr. Bronfman has known Mr. Cohen since he and his partners sold their stake in Def Jam Records for about $130 million to Seagram in 1999, which then owned Universal and was later acquired by Vivendi.

But Mr. Cohen will be facing a task at Warner very different from the one he had at Island Def Jam. Doug Morris, chief executive of Universal Music Group, often protected his top lieutenants from the pressure -- financial or otherwise -- of corporate bosses, which at one point included Mr. Bronfman. Warner Music is now in the hands of private equity investors, including Bain Capital and Providence Equity Partners, which will be looking for steep returns and unlikely to tolerate any profligate spending...

extra note from more recent report:

While Mr. Cohen's career has always seemed to follow an upward trajectory, the last year has proved to be more difficult than most. TVT Records was awarded $132 million in a contract dispute with Mr. Cohen and the Island Def Jam Music Group over the release of an album featuring Ja Rule, who is a Def Jam artist. A federal judge later lowered the amount to $53 million; a representative for Mr. Cohen said he was appealing the decision. And his recent effort to reinvigorate Mariah Carey's career was a limited success at best.

*Audio of Redman's comment on Def Jam courtesy of Dif Kitch.

One Person I Might Not Want to Beef With

Damn, this guy in the NY Press is really sticking it to George Will:

What the Hector? George F Will is in the house.

Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I wake up in a panic. My t-shirt is drenched in sweat, my hands trembling. And somewhere I hear a voice whispering:

George Will is using the word "hectoring" again!

...I generally stay away from Will. Unfortunately, I frequently come upon him by accident. And almost every time that happens, I find the same thing: the word "hectoring" staring me in the face.

That’s what happened this week. I was running a Lexis-Nexis search to see how many different journalists just this week had used the words "George McGovern" and "Howard Dean" in the same article. Your basic survey of the horse racing trend. The answer, as of this writing, was 119.

Number three on the list was by George Will. Entitled "Dukakis Plus 4.4. Percent?" it was a classic of the Will genre. Reading Will makes one admire the run-of-the-mill horse racer campaign journalist for the unpretentious, just-following-orders way he goes about robbing the meaning from our political process.

Because it’s one thing to reduce a meaningful election into an idiotic horse race, but another thing entirely to do so on the backs of Proust, Chaucer, Goethe, Grantland Rice, Casey Stengel, Erica Jong and thousands of other disparate and defenseless persons whose speechifying styles you have herded into the death camp of your career, to be ground into bone meal and lampshades. I apologize for this metaphor, but the ambition of Hitler is really the only way to address the scale of Will’s pomposity...

Spigg Nice Goes Out Like Steady B

I guess he really took Ras Kass' career advice to heart:

Lost Boyz Member "Spigg Nice" Sentenced To 37 Years In Prison

Ronald "Spigg Nice" Blackwell, a member of popular Queens, New York rap group The Lost Boys, was sentenced to 37 years for a bank robbery spree.

The sentencing took place last Friday (January 16), with Blackwell being the last of four defendants to be sentenced.

U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie labeled the string of robberies one of the most violent in recent New Jersey history.

A jury found that between December 2000 and April 16, 2002, the four defendants committed 10 bank robberies throughout Burlington, Mercer, Middlesex, and Monmouth Counties...

Worth Reading

?uestlove's feedback on my Source piece, here (my original post is here ).

He describes being in The Source's office when staff first discovered the infamous RSO article of November 1994 (the story I will cover in part 2), and drops a perfect analogy for all the Source staff who are marching along as Benzino leads them off a cliff:

"this feels like that episode of "twilight zone" where the family kisses the kid's ass for the fear that he will turn them into stone or worse..."

Big thanks for all the Source History feedback, btw. Since it was received so well I'm going to take a little more time on part 2, try to make it as comprehensive as possible.. hopefully get it up in a few weeks.

January 27, 2004

I Know I'm Late On This..

..but I can't let it pass by without acknowledgement:

Papal blessing for break-dancers.

In an unusual spectacle at the Vatican, Pope John Paul II presided over a performance of break-dancers who leaped, flipped and spun their bodies to beats from a tinny boom box.

The 83-year-old pontiff seemed to approve, waving his hand after each dancer completed a move, then applauding for the entire group. He watched the performance from a raised throne.

"For this creative hard work I bless you from my heart," he said.

During Sunday's show, one dancer -- part of a Polish group that helps poor and marginalized youths -- planted his head on the inlaid marble floor of the Vatican hall and spun to loud applause from his group and from Vatican officials.

Another performer flung his body around in a series of spins and handstands.

"Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it," John Paul said...

Anil found the best picture of it so far, here.

The Source Dissed By Their Source?

A scoop delivered by Joseph Patel, who was recently assimilated into the blogosphere.

Eminem A Racist? Source's Source Chaos Kid Says No Way

The friend of Eminem who helped The Source corroborate its claim that Eminem is a racist has purportedly written a letter to the magazine saying he was taken out of context and that he believes Marshall Mathers is not a racist.

The letter was written by Chaos Kid to Kim Osorio, the editor-in-chief of The Source, and was found posted on various online newsgroups...

...In his letter, Chaos Kid says his words were manipulated and facts contorted to fit The Source's motives. He writes to Osorio, "I am forced at this point to recognize that there are obviously some ulterior motives/personal hang-ups/political/racial agendas going on behind the scenes at The Source and this is making it impossible for you to present the issue of these tapes in a true light that would give a full spectrum of perspective."

Chaos explains that the freestyles were called "Suckerin' Rhymes," and that they were intentionally misguided. He says their purpose was to be as "goofy/stupid/ignorant/wack as possible." He accuses The Source of making some factual errors in its reporting and failing to give his quotes proper context...

January 28, 2004

HHI, RIP

Wow, looks like hiphopinfinity.com, known as the mecca of the anti-con/emo-rap demographic (though to be fair many of their regulars didn't fit that description) is shutting their doors for good. Sorry to see you go, guys..

Wonder where all the denizens of their message boards will relocate to?

?uestlove's Thoughts on The Source, Recovered

Thanks to the miraculous efforts of okayplayer Kosyne, I have been able to retrieve most of my conversation with ?uestlove about The Source, inspired by my earlier post here. It's only missing the last of his three comments, which I had taken notes on and can reproduce pretty close to verbatim.. I will paste below:

?uestlove: i was there the day it died

did i already share the story about how i lost sleep over how many mics DYWM?!?! was gonna get?
so they let me come up to the office to see a fresh copy of the mag---and i was all happy and shit 4 mics!!!!! whoo hoooo.

this was the redman 94 cover. the "official" last source cover after the staff walked out.

what happened next was something out of a horror book. unbeknownst to the staff---while looking for my record review i forget who i think---it was jon--who saw the RSO story in that issue (jon and the staff accused mays of adding a 4 page story of the then unknown RSO group without their knowledge (cover story redman got a 3 page story and other artists got shorter stories)---

my publicist and i were outta there like a bat outta hell.

well.....i guess y'all know what happend next.

staff left (half of them started XXL---then.....)

weirdness is, jon and dave were on my plane today (i am in france at a music conference) and neither knew the other was on the flight.

first the fat boys break up now this...

Jay Smooth: HAHA! You were there? That's crazy!

?uestlove: oh god

next day my publicist who was so damn protective of me (back then in 94 they cared about "conflict of interest" stuff) swore me to 100 bibles that i would not tell a soul what i saw. kinda like "you saw/know too much ahmir, how many of the staff saw you ahmir?!?!?!?" i thought it would blow over.....but blamo! she told me the james benard would go into hysterics and blamo---quit!
i wonder what woulda happened if the original staff was here.


i think the original staff woulda gave tfa @@@@1/2.

i think original staff woulda gave fantastic vol 1and2 @@@@ or a @@@@1/2.

i think lootpack woulda AT LEAST made @@@1/2.

im just saddened cause i use to always use their standards for what i thought a dope record was. cause james and reggie and jon and selwyn and chris and even YN (elliot) had great love for detail. i would read the "amerikkka's most wanted" reviews and the "de la soul is dead" reviews and apply that to my work. they lived for great segues awesome interludes, crisp clean engineering and dirty ones too (wu got a @@@@1/2) first album)

thing is---

i am cool with some of the staff there (kim is one of em)---but.....

surely they see the conflict and fear this is causing.....

i mean---this feels like that episode of "twilight zone" where the family kisses the kid's ass for the fear that he will turn them into stone or worse.

this is what it feels like.

Jay Smooth: twilight zone analogy: PERFECT, and..

I know just what you mean, I have mutual friends with Kim and I've always had the impression she was cool, so I can't figure how they are getting her and everyone else there to drink the kool aid?

I mean Mays I can understand, he's been kneeling for so long it must seem like standing by now, but how do the others rationalize it?

[note: I am reproducing this last comment from notes I had taken]

?uestlove: i really think

there is some black sopranos shit going on.

you know what and who happened to paul pierce.

and let's not forget the ruff ryders situation backstage hard knock life in boston.

i've just got a hunch that in his heart of hearts, dave mays never wanted things to end up this way.

NEW AUDIO: DJ Monk One's MLK Day Mix, and UK Tour Dates

Just added Monk One's most recent set from the radio show, streamable or downloadable here.

You should also make sure to check out Mr. Monk's interview with Pete Rock in the latest Wax Poetics.. and for those of you in the UK, Monk's latest visit is coming up right here:

Quantic, Madlib, J Rocc and Monk One at Friends and Family!

Friends and Family returns to action in Manchester this weekend with the
fantastic Quantic paying us a visit. Details below, as they are for the
visit of Madlib, J Rocc and Monk One next weekend. Check the club section
of the fat city website for details of the coming month's line up's
including the F&F Special - Fat City 'Hip Hop love Soul' LP launch with
Slum Village's Wahjeed and Massive Attack's Daddy G!

Quantic (DJ Set)
City: Manchester
Venue: The Roadhouse
Date: 31/01/2004
Times: 10-3am
Ticket price 6 (online)
: 5 (online members)

After taking January off we return to The Roadhouse by inviting Quantic up
from Brighton. Will "Quantic" Holland has made a name for himself as one of the UK's hottest young producers, whether it be his studio based 'Quantic' project
or his live funk outfit 'Quantic soul Orchestra'. Check out one of his
great DJ sets!

Monk One
City: London
Venue: The Embassy
Date: 06/02/2004
Times: 8-1am
Ticket price 4 (after 9pm)

Monk One is easily one of the best visiting dj's we've had at F&F, so much
so that we've asked him to take on a bi-monthly residency at The Roadhouse.
Monk will be winging in from New York for the weekend just to play at F&F.
Expect a musical lesson and some great dancefloor entertainment - this guy
is genius! check the Monk One - Breaking Rocks mix cd - out soon, only in fat city. The Embassy is on Essex Rd in Islington which makes the nearest tube Angel.

Sorry, you can't buy tickets for this event online. This does not mean that
the event is sold out. You should be able to get tickets from the venue or
authorised ticket agents.

Madlib & J Rocc (DJ sets), Monk One (Wax poetics)
City: Manchester
Venue: The Roadhouse
Date: 07/02/2004
Times: 9-3am
Ticket price 9 (online)

Madlib and J Rocc are in the UK just for the weekend. We've persuaded them
to come and do a last minute, exclusive, low key DJ Set at The Roadhouse!
They'll be doing a couple of hours followed by our new bi-monthly resident,
the incredible Monk One, writer for Wax Poetics magazine.
A night not to miss!
Please note Madlib and J Rocc will be DJ'ing for a couple of hours between
10.30ish and 12.30ish, followed by Monk One.
The only other place to buy tickets (Ł10 each) is from the fat city shop.

http://www.fatcity.co.uk/fatcity/shop/event_detail.asp?itemid=2548 : to buy
online.

January 29, 2004

Jean Grae is Not Happy

As is the case with every other problem in hip-hop today, I will assume this is Oliver Wang's fault:

Jean Grae: Airs It Out

I’m most probably going to get a phone call both from my label and publicist about writing this, but honestly, I’m just tired of mincing my words and being nice about shit. I haven’t really written a lot on allhiphop in a second, mostly because I’m too damn frustrated with everything to write as a hobby. I’m angry, I’m tired and close to spazing out about a lot of shit.

I hate this industry. I hate the music business because it has shit to do with music. I grew up in a family of independent struggling musicians and I’m sick of being a part of that cycle. I’m tired of fighting harder than everyone else to even just get a little bit. I don’t even know why I f**king put my heart into doing this when it’s obvious that so many people who don’t, get what they want out of it. The financial unstability of this is driving me crazy. Why do I have to keep turning out entire albums or releases full of music when some cat can spit on a mixtape once, or give someone a pound and then get on immediately? Why try to do something that’s apparently so f**king different and impossible, that I have to defend it to myself everyday?

I hate myself for dumping my all into this. If I was smarter I wouldn’t have pursued this career. I’m older than most people already established in this business and I’m not thinking of the money coming out of it for balling out purposes. I want to be a mom soon, I want to have some sort of steadiness in my life, but with this job that is close to a damn impossibility right now...

In all seriousness, I've always been a big fan of Jean and it sucks to see her facing such frustration.

Hip-Hop Movie Casting

I was told Beyonce will be playing Lois Lane in the upcoming Superman movie (!!), and Mos Def will play Ford Prefect in a film adaptation of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (!!!????). Can anyone confirm or deny?

Mos Def as Ford Prefect

I guess it's true:

Cast Set For Hitchhiker

Martin Freeman (The Office), Zooey Deschanel and Mos Def top the cast of Spyglass Entertainment/Walt Disney Pictures' feature version of Douglas Adams' beloved SF satire The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Variety reported. Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith (aka Hammer & Tongs) will direct the movie, which starts shooting April 19 in London, the trade paper reported.

Adams, who adapted his own book prior to his death in 2001, will have a posthumous producing credit, the trade paper reported.

The story centers on Arthur Dent (Freeman), who is whisked off the planet by Ford Prefect (Def), an undercover alien researching The Hitchhiker's Guide just before Earth is destroyed to create a new hyperspace freeway. Deschanel will play Trillian, girlfriend of Zaphod Beeblebrox, a two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and current president of the galaxy. That role has still to be cast, the trade paper reported.

But What of 2 Bigg MC?

Uh oh. This could be a dilemma for Eminem, who already used up his "you're too old to rap" jokes on you-know-who.

Hammer Comes Back "Full Blast"

MC Hammer is back and he’s hitting the airwaves once again with his own style of rap music. His new CD, Full Blast is scheduled for release in 2004. Leading the way to the new CD is the video for the title single, “Full Blast.” The video will be released prior to the CD according to Hammer. In his song “Full Blast” Hammer effectively blasts other rappers, notably Busta Rhymes and Eminem. He raps about his return to the scene saying he never really left but was standing on the sidelines watching other artists call themselves rappers. His lyrics say he is the ultimate rapper because he has accomplished much more and he’s about rapping and dancing...

January 30, 2004

Foreshadowings of Future Asswhoopery

Apple just put up a trailer for my most anticipated flick of 2004, Takeshi Kitano's remake of "Zatoichi The Blind Swordsman". Admittedly the cheesy honkey voiceover detracts from the coolness here.. the trailer for the original Japanese release was better.

I hope Miramax doesn't let this one on languish on the shelf for an eternity, as they've done with "Shaolin Soccer" and "Hero". It's slated for June 4th right now but I don't have much faith in that.

Capsule Review: Chops "Comin From the Lower Level"

"Comin From The Lower Level'
Chops feat. Phil The Agony, Ras Kass, Talib Kweli

Chops of the Mountain Bros. assembles a tight, bouncy beat, with a Scott Storchy mix of faux-classical synth runs and tympani. Nice cuts in the chorus, and especially at the end when he scratches up each emcee's name. Provides a perfect springboard for the bicoastal all-star lineup, who each comport themselves well, except maybe Phil Da Agony who gets off some good lines but sounds like he can barely keep up with the beat.

There are ways to rhyme "off-beat" that enrich your relationship with the track and make your flow feel even more propulsive (see Kurupt), and ways that just make you sound like ass (see Master P). Phil is veering towards the wrong side of that line here, though he never quite crosses over. Ras Kass, as always, brings a flow beyond reproach, and punchlines that make me chuckle even when (or maybe because) they sound foolish: "I f*** with hoes from videos, not india arie.."

Kweli used to swerve into that Master P lane on occasion himself, but he has tightened up his game substantially over the years, and rounds things out nicely here. He does lose 0.5 super-rap-geek points for the "stack papers like Isis" line, which was used ten years ago by KA of Natural Elements. Probably a bit more timely when KA dropped it (for all you youngbucks, it's a reference to "The Isis Papers" by Frances Cress Welsing).

Morning Radio Shakeup

They canned Dre but kept Ed? That's rough. But quite possibly temporary, it would appear. I wouldn't usually trust the Post, but I had already heard about this earlier so I know it's legit:

Hip-Hop Heave Ho

Popular hip-hop DJ Doctor Dre was abruptly fired yesterday by his radio station, Power 105.

Dre, who was told after his morning-drive show that his contract wasn't being renewed, won't be given a chance to say goodbye to his listeners. Yesterday was his final show, he was told.

"We greatly appreciate Doctor Dre's efforts over the past two years helping us launch Power 105 [WWPR]," said Clear Channel executive Andrew Rosen, who declined to explain why Dre is history.

"We wish him well."

The heavyset hip-hop DJ honcho and his longtime partner, Ed Lover, were major players on rival Hot 97 (WQHT) during most of the 1990s.

Lover will continue on Power 105 doing its wake-up show with sidekick Monie Love.

Dre, whose real name is Andre Brown, and Lover broke up once before, reunited in L.A., and then returned to New York when Power 105 debuted two years ago.

Dre, a former DJ at Adelphi University's radio station, recently vowed that he and Lover would never fly solo again. "That's my dog and that's how it's going to be until the end of the earth," Dre told Chronic magazine. "We can do anything we want to do, but it's going to always come back to Ed Lover and Doctor Dre," said Dre, who couldn't be reached yesterday.

Hot 97 execs wouldn't comment on speculation that Dre, with or without Lover, might return there and replace Sway — whose morning ratings haven't matched those of Star, his recently deposed predecessor.

It's also possible that Star, currently working in Hartford with partner Buc Wild, could return to New York and join — or replace — Lover at Power...

...Doctor Dre, the DJ, is not Dr. Dre, the powerhouse rapper who has mentored hip-hop heavyweights like Eminem and Snoop Dogg.

Y'all forgot to mention Dre's tenure with Original Concept.. they made some classic records.

February 2, 2004

We're Famous!

I was just grumbling to myself, "how come Gothamist gets to be in one of those free newspapers and we don't?" Then lo and behold, we turned up in this week's NY Press:

Music On the Web

...New York City, though, is not dead in the water just yet. Two shows on the listener-driven WBAI still provide an outlet for creative and more adventurous musicians’ records to be played. The first, Liquid Sound Lounge, hosted by Jeannie Hopper, explores dance music in all its forms (wbai.org or liquidsoundlounge.com). The second, The Underground Railroad, hosted by Jay Smooth, focuses on the underground hiphop ignored by Hot 97 and Power 105.1. Many notable DJs have gotten their start there, including, in my stupid opinion, one of the most talented: DJ Spinna...

Odd that in a piece entitled "music on the web" they didn't mention that we have a website. But hey, I'm not complaining! They even spelled my name the way I like to spell it.

Mingering Mike Finally Hits the Big Time

A few weeks ago we mentioned the saga of Mingering Mike, whose legend began with a post on soulstrut.com, and soon spread like wildfire thanks to links from metafilter (and o-dub).

Well the story has now been picked up by the NY Times in an excellent story by Neil Strauss, that recounts how these two beatdiggers discovered Mike's peculiar treasures, and set out to find the man behind them:

A Well-Imagined Star

The term diggers applies to those obsessed souls who dig through cardboard boxes and milk crates at flea markets and thrift stores in search of rare record albums. And according to the unwritten bylaws of diggers, the location at which any vinyl treasure is discovered is strictly confidential. This is a way of protecting one's turf, even if that turf is just a dust-covered wasteland of hand-me-downs.

So it shall be that the location of one of the greatest digger discoveries of our time must remain a secret.

The diggers were Dori Hadar, 29, and Frank Beylotte, 32, friends from Washington who met a year ago at a Salvation Army store while mining for funk and soul gold.

"I went to a flea market, and there was a huge record collection there, at least 20 boxes," Mr. Hadar said, recalling the morning of the discovery. "I was going through that very happily when I came across this box full of strange hand-painted album covers. I realized they were fake and was about to put them back, but then I looked at them more closely."

Pulling the records out of the sleeves, he was surprised to find that they were made not of vinyl but of cardboard. Each had been cut in the shape of a record, with grooves and a hand-lettered label painted on. Nearly all the albums were credited to an unknown black musician named Mingering Mike, and dated from 1968 to 1976.

The front covers were intricately painted to look like classic funk albums; on the spines were titles and fake catalog numbers; the backs had everything from liner notes to copyright information to original logos; the inner sleeve was often a shopping bag meticulously taped together to hold a record; and some actually opened to reveal beautiful gatefold sleeves. A few albums had even been covered in shrink-wrap and bore price stickers and labels with apocryphal promotional quotes.

What Mr. Hadar found was a cache of seemingly nonexistent music: soundtracks to imaginary films, instrumental albums, a benefit album for sickle cell anemia, a tribute to Bruce Lee, a triple-record work titled "Life in Paris," songs protesting the Vietnam War and promoting racial unity, and records of Christmas, Easter and American bicentennial music. He had discovered, perhaps, an outsider artist.

"There are quite a few folk art collectors that are salivating to get their hands on this collection," said Brian DiGenti, the editor of Wax Poetics, a leading journal for record collectors. "I think without a doubt that when all this settles down, this collection will be in a permanent gallery, and it will probably be one of the more important folk art collections there..."

50 Cent Wanted, or Not?

Good old NY Post. Yesterday they reported that 50 Cent was wanted for questioning, evidently for trying to start a game of Cowboys and Indians. According to the post, 50 mimicked a gun with his hand and made a shooting gesture at some local Queens rappers who were shooting a video. No word on whether he made the customary "powwww! powwww!" noise.

I abstained from posting this cuz it was just a little too nebulous for my tastes, especially coming from the Post. And now allhiphop says the story was bogus, as least as far as the arrest warrant goes:

Update: No Arrest Warrant Issued For 50 Cent

Police said they were not seeking multi-platinum rapper Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, after an alleged incident in Queens, New York.

It was reported that 50 threatened gun play at a video shoot Saturday (January 31).

GF Records was shooting a video on Guy Brewer Boulevard in St. Albans, Queens, when Jackson allegedly drove up, got out of his vehicle and allegedly said "What up? You ready for this?"

Jackson then extended his arm as if he were firing a gun, before driving off. Representatives for Jackson were not unavailable as of press time.

Police said they were not even seeking the rapper for questioning.

I dunno about you, but I'll take allhiphop's word over the Post's anyday..

EDIT: MTV confirms MTV confirms that there was no arrest warrant:

Reports that 50 Cent had an arrest warrant issued for him on Saturday in New York are false, according to a spokesperson for the New York City Police Department. 50 was involved in an incident in the St. Albans section of Queens in which the rapper drove up to the set of a local hip-hop video shoot, got out of his car and feigned the firing of a gun. Police say the matter was investigated but quickly closed.

February 4, 2004

Phoenix Ready to Rise

Our friend(ster) Jean Grae reacts to the feedback generated by her last allhiphop column:

Jean Grae: Responds & Freshens Up

I go through the feeling of being at the end of my rope with this career path much more than I would have publicly admitted before. My usual way out, being the music, just wasn’t cutting it that day. So I vented. Not for sympathy, not for the sake of bitching, just for me to get it out.

It was like suppressing a scream for years and finally allowing myself to be loud. A couple of times since it’s been up and reading responses, I started questioning whether or not this was a reeeeaaally bad choice. Really bad. I couldn’t go to bed tonight without it on my head, so I’m doing what I usually do, write about it. It still has two sides to it for me, but ultimately I’m glad I got it out. If it wasn’t in a column, it would have been in a song. So either way I would have made it a public vulnerability I couldn’t avoid.

Funny that, the responses were what made me realize how lucky I am to have this job. To have the luxury of being able to say what I’m feeling to a public audience and have it open for criticism is an incredible opportunity. Yeah, sometimes it’s crazy to just have an opinion of your day, or your experiences and have strangers either relate or be adverse to your words. In either case it is still an extremely powerful media that is unparallel in freedom.

The importance of language and technology being used as a means to spark thought is especially becoming more apparent to me with every day I spend pursuing this game. I was thinking no one was listening, or no one really cared to even try and step out of his or her train of thought to hear something else for a second. But y’all proved me wrong. There wasn’t music behind it, there was no packaging on it, but it made a little ripple. That really shook me. No, no, not “shook ones” shook me...”I will still stab your brain with your nose bone...” Naw, not that.

It made me snap out of the anger and keep sh*t moving. If words can have that kind of effect, then it’s worth talking. It’s worth fighting for, it’s worth getting bruised up and falling down and getting back on again...

February 6, 2004

Questions for Dizzee Rascal? (CANCELLED)

Suppose, theoretically, I was gonna talk to Dizzee Rascal. What would you guys want me to ask him? Theoretically.

EDIT: NEVERMIND! They cancelled on me (no reason given). This is why I kept saying "theoretically", cuz no matter how definite industry people say something is, it's always tentative. Harrumph.

Rescheduling in March was mentioned, we'll see.

DJ Monk One's UK Gigs

Even though the UK has now reneged on their half of the cultural exchange, our DJ Monk One (whose Pete Rock interview in the new Wax Poetics is already the stuff of legend) will still be spinning overseas this week, and sends along details:

here's the scoop:

friday 6 feb:
London at The Embassy on Essex Rd in Islington (Angel tube) from 8-1

saturday 7 feb
at The Roadhouse in Manchester with J-Rocc & Madlib!! from 9-3

sunday 8 feb
London at The Lock Tavern in Camden with Mark Rae and DJ Kestral Special
Afternoon Show from 3-10

i am greatly looking forward to spreading some hot buttery sounds of soul so
i hope your appetites are up!

a few of the fatter platters i'll scatter:
curls - mad villian, oglenon - lafayette afro rock band, do you like my
music - horace andy, into the jungle - cajmere, organ/swing - dj duke,
dancing on the floor - third world, small time hustler - the dismasters, the
all new ummph! - likwid biscuit, pet legs - inverse cinematics, cloud nine -
marvin gaye, the world is a ghetto - george shearing and amigos, new morning
- kitty winter, miss e loves jass - igloo, spanish grease - willie bobo,
ain't it time - queen yahna, bug in the bassbin - innerzone orchestra, in
the mood to party - grooove and the gang, genuine - sharon jones, sunny -
city people, vera cruz - a bossa electrica, black moses - asheru, ing -
brother culture, big blow - manu dibango, i was born this way - carl bean,
spread the word - capoeira twins, i gotta have it - ed o.g., lowdown popcorn
- the jb's, 100 pound of collie weed - carlton livingston, the girl is mine
- redfox & naturalee, slide - jeff thompson + jill scott, freedom - julius
brockington, mr. telephone man - new edition, tito's bossa - tito puente,
screaming target - big youth, what's up now muthaf**ka? - artifacts,
lambsbread - glen brown, dr. j dub - VU, groovy lady - meters, valentine's
day - outkast, having your fun - focus, mt. airy groove - pieces of a dream,
goggle - tanya stephens, mi ritmo te llama - ray baretto, levy jive - the
collectables, make way for the originals - IZIT, far out - crown heights
affair, percussion jam - konk, i know you got soul - bobby byrd, para buenos
bailarenas - walfredo reyes, sunday kind of love - bobby rodriguez y su
compańa, spread love - take 6, love will bring us back together - roy
ayers...

Cold Mountain Controversy

The mighty Greg Tate weighs in on Cold Mountain. The biggest bombshell here may be Tate's admission that he "treasures" both The English Patient and Talented Mr. Ripley!

Blacked Out

Speaking of slavery, Cold Mountain doesn't. Its pale version of history is a whitewash.

We African Americans lead strange and conflicted lives at the movies. For this reason, the Internet was recently abuzz with calls by actor and self-described semiotician Erik Todd Dellums to boycott Cold Mountain, a Civil War film noticeably lacking in melanin content. Charles Frazier's novel hardly avoids African Americans as concertedly as the Anthony Minghella film starring Jude Law and Nicole Kidman. The versions share some key erasures, though—the opening scene, a re-creation of the legendary Battle of the Crater in Petersburg, Virginia, is perhaps the most egregious. On that July 1864 morning, Union soldiers exploded the ground underneath a drowsy Confederate regiment. Novel and film fail to mention how specially trained African American troops had been poised to attack the Crater (now a historical tour site) and the Southerners it swallowed. Historians claim that the African Americans were withdrawn due to fears of Northern political fallout if they were used as cannon fodder. Whatever, dude. Methinks the sight of armed African Americans freely picking off shocked and awed white Southern troops was too avant-garde for 1864. In any event, the upshot of the switch was that untrained white Unionists didn't flank the Crater as the brothers were trained to, but rushed in and got shot up like fish in a barrel. At which point all the bloods got thrown in as cannon fodder anyhow. The Confederates, already peeved at being sneak-attacked, lost it when they saw armed and uniformed men of African descent. One need only imagine the language they used. A military adviser on the film recalls Minghella shooting a scene in which a crazed Confederate soldier slaughters a wounded African American. The adviser believes the scene got cut because it was "too over-the-top" and "too painful." Minghella has similarly explained away the film's eschewing the immorality of slavery. Since that would entail having Nicole Kidman's snow-pure love object reflect on being a slave owner, one can see why. Once again liberal guilt goes belly-up in the guts sweepstakes...

Also of note: M. Matos on Kylie Minogue

February 8, 2004

Join Us On the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show The Underground Railroad. You can tune in here, or at WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you are checking out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

How to Become a Grammy Voter

People tend to think of the voters for big awards shows as an elite society of industry bigwigs, but it's actually surprisingly easy to become a Grammy voter. There are probably quite a few people frequenting this site who would qualify. Here, as listed on their website, are the requirements to become a voting member of NARAS:

Voting Members are professionals with creative or technical credits on six commercially released tracks (or their equivalent). These may include vocalists, conductors, songwriters, composers, engineers, producers, instrumentalists, arrangers, art directors, album notes writers, narrators and music video artists and technicians.

Note it doesn't say anything about your releases being on any sort of major label. This means there are probably tons of independent artists and producers who could qualify in the hip-hop community alone, enough to possibly have an impact on some votes.

You can bet the major labels are fully aware of how easy it is to get a vote, and they make sure as many of their employees as possible are signed up so they can vote for that label's artists. We need to get on the ball and start using our power to provide a balance, we might be able to sneak some new voices past the gatekeepers.

Hate on the grammys all you want, but they can bring a major boost in exposure for independent or lesser-known artists who don't have the means for a big promotional push.

I believe there is a fee to join, but uhh, look at all the cool stuff you get! (scroll to the "Academy All Access" part)

NOTE: For those who decide not to boycott, I will be keeping an open post as I watch the Grammys tonight, and probably adding my snarky comments after each commercial break. Come back and join me if you're around.

Ongoing Grammy Post

I'm gonna keep this post open in my browser while I watch the Grammys tonight, and most likely add snarky remarks after each commercial break.

The delay they're supposedly putting on the telecast is a bit of a buzzkill, I must say. Half the excitement of these shows is hoping for another Soy-Bomb or ODB Moment, but if it happens this year we may not get to see it at all.

I'm thinking somebody will probably strike a blow for Miss Jackson by ripping off their top to reveal a bra that says "We Support Janet" or something along those lines. Of course if the protest is carried out by Aretha, the message will read "We, the undersigned, fully and wholeheartedly support Janet Jackson in her current troubles, for each of the following reasons..." (sorry, cheap joke).

Two things I'm praying WON'T happen tonight: Prince's instrumental record losing to a freaking Kenny G Christmas Album, and Rod Stewart winning for that abominable collection of "standards". Please, jebus.

7:15 PM - One comment on the pre-show so far: In all seriousness, Joan Rivers' face is horrifying. That our culture has come to find this path more attractive than a natural aging process scares me more than a thousand armored nipples. And with that image in mind I'm off to eat dinner, be back at 8.

7:45 PM More pre-show questions: Who was Bill Maher's date?? An older Black woman decked out all regal and what not, very impressive. And why is the light skinneded Black Eyed Pea dressed up like a Prince impersonator? Is he hoping Beyonce might talk to him by accident?

8:15 I'm such a hardcore lifelong Prince fan, it's hard for me to judge this objectively. Started off well, harmonizing with Yonce on Purple Rain was sweet (yeah i was crying at that point, though this song is usually the cue for bathroom break at concerts, for me and my prince fanatic friends).. baby i'm a star was a bit Vegas-y for my tastes. A little rushed overall? i'd rather they just did 2 songs and really got into the groove. guess it was cool tho.

Quentin is so goofy.

Whoa, Yonce almost forgot to mention God!

Holy Sh** Pharrell on drums instead of singing! master stroke. I'm watching with my mom and stepdad who is a top jazz drummer, and he gave it a thumbs up. Can't match the power of last year's "london calling" though.

8:35 - C. Aguilera always oversings, live. she really has a voice, would be so much more powerful if she stayed in the pocket.

Matthew Perry is crazy wack.

?uestlove is right, the Stripes should have a bassist when they do 7 Naton Army, it doesnt quite work without it. Also, Pharrell truns out to be a far better drummer than Meg White. But that's ok, like most emcees rhyming over a timbaland beat, her job is just don't distract us from the real talent, and she's pretty good at that. I can't front, they kidna ripped that second song, best performance so far.

Was Andre 3000 in the bathroom or what? note he kept his hand in his pocket while greeting aerosmith, but took it out to hug BB King. Shortest speech ever.. that's what's cooler than cool.

8:50 - Somebody tell MArg Helgenberger "uncomparable" is not a word.

Our household was bored by Martina McBride, sorry.. if we don't like it we don't like it that don't mean that we hatin. Mom said "uhh with blond hair this is pretty much faith hill huh?" Stepdad says "i would not advise her to go on amateur night at the apollo"

Carole King shoulda got a tribute.

Even though I'm mad at Justin for punking out and not saying anything for Janet, I was really happy to see him get this award.. for real I've been championing him to everybody i know for yeeears, since before the N'Sync Celebrity album, and i've gone receiving an endless barrage of incredulous laughs to gradually getting a "man you were right" from every single one. So in a weird way I was feeling like a proud papa, and almost getting choked up with him while he made his speech. i'm sorry man, i still can't hate him.

9:05 - whoo.. a tear drops my eye. like probably most anyone who grew up in a black family, and many who didn't i'm sure, luther's music was a big part of my life growing up, brings back alot of memories..i'm kinda verklempt right now, seeing him hit those few notes for us kinda put it over the edge. Alicia wasa little shaky in the lower register sometimes but solid, she should coach Chrisitna on that staying in the pocket stuff i was talking about. hate all you want but celine is a top notch vocalist and consummate professional (heads are gonna roll for that intro!). excellent performance.

9:15 - Never thought 15 years ago I'd be saying Madonna epitomizes poise, but there you have it. Serviceable rendition of Roxanne, I guess.. Sean Paul didn't add much. I'm happy for Christina, well deserved. My picks are pretty solid so far.

9:32 Don't front, Justin ripped it. DON'T FRONT! THe "i don't have to dance, i will sit behind the piano cuz im a serious musician" angle came off well. not sure the "it's your thing" part really meshed.

Damn Yoko made me get a little wet around the eye at the end, what is that 3 times I cried tonite? What can i say, i'm a sentimental guy. yoko's another one everybody hates but i think is mad cool. She was once our record librarian at the radio station.

9:46 - BEP, decent, I suppose. The female member is looking very Beyonce, guess she was hoping Prince would talk to her by accident? Methinks the ruse will not work, for she lacketh The Jelly. They got away with calling the CIA terrorists on the grammys, I guess that is laudable.

10:01 - Lifetime achievement for artie shaw.. my stepdad notes he did a lot to integrate the music, was one of the first big white bandleaders to hire billie holiday.

Evanescence for best new artist, first one i got wrong so far. Lame choice. I'm really not mad at them, minus the Durst-sounding dude, but still 50 was the clear choice here. His mini-ODB move was totally justified. Props to what's-her-name for handling it with aplomb. Is that how you spell that? I actually find her kinda appealing, considering she represents christian goth or whatever it is they do.

10:20 - I forgot to mention Beyonce, performance of the night so far, easily. She's gonna be on top for a looong time, kids. No falling off in her future.

Sam Jackson perfect choice for the funk segment.. EWF are legends, no doubt, but let's face it "Shining Star" is funk lite. Nice to see Maurice White up there with the rest of the gang though. Outkast was aiite. Robert Randolph was cool but far from matching Sly as was hyped to me (this was the first i'd seen of him).

Then George and his army came on with their P-Funk train wreck, sloppy as hell which I suppose is how it ought to be. They got me amped at first thinking they would really do "Alice In My Fantasies", but it was just a tease. If you've ever been to a p-funk concert you know they need a good hour before they really get into the groove. I guess George shares my dismay at the omission of "Get Low" from the nominees.

10:36 - Foo fighters and Chick Corea.. ehh. That's just a boring song to me. My stepdad said of Chick struggling to be heard over the guitars "Shit, Cecil Taylor couldn't come over all that shit!"

Coldplay for record of the year, boo. I was afraid of that. Fear of a Rap Planet strikes again, Hey Ya and Crazy In Love were obviously the records of 2003. But as one critic said, when there are 4 oranges in a category, bet on the apple, and they were the only non-hip-hop choice in the line-up. Still a corny choice NARAS letting their age and (pale) true colors show once again. Thanks for the Kerry plug though, Chris.

10:59 - Nice tribute to Zevon, glad he got one of the major awards. I was afraid he was too much of a "thinking man's artist", not enough of a po phenomenon for the voters to recognize.

This show has had some solid performances, and none that really stood out as duds, but it's been too stale and sterile, lacking personality without a host and nothing very interesting from the presenters. Most of the collaborations have added up to less than the sum of their parts. Only suspense left, does Outkast get jerked on album of the year? I will be FURIOUS.

11:15 Luther for Song of the Year, glad i got that one right, he really deserved it. Glad the GOAT Carole King was on hand to deliver it. (Yes, this made four times for me)

Time for the obligatory fund schools and don't download speech.. at least he used positive reinforcement instead of demonizing the consumers, they are starting to get a little more savvy. The PSA was lame of course. "Oh no, her i-mac just siphoned all the power from our early-90's Taylor Dayne video shoot!" or whatever that was supposed to be.

Ok, they ar edoing Hey-Ya right before the award is given out, good sign for them winning. I hope! I will raze the earth with my anger!!!!

11:31 Outkast album of the year, praise Jeebus. I guess I can put this molotov cocktail back in the fridge, I'll save it in case Return of the King doesn't get any oscars. Great show as always from Andre 3000, he's just one of those magnetic and magically freaky personalities, like uhh say Bjork or Michael Jackson, that will always captivate, and it almost doesn't matter what is going on with the music as long as they're in the spotlight.

Whew. Gotta say I enjoyed that show, tame though it may have been.

Stank you for reading, and you are very smellcome.

February 10, 2004

Step 1: Secure Rights to the "Hammerman" Cartoon

Chuck, who famously designated hip-hop as "the Black CNN", now backs a more literal interpretation of that metaphor, along with a CNN co-founder.

Chuck D Backs New Hip-Hop Network

A new cable channel devoted to hip-hop culture has secured sponsorship from rap legend Chuck D, as well as CNN co-founder Reese Schonfeld and former Viacom executive David Houle. Aimed at the 18-34 demographic that advertisers covet, the Real Hip-Hop Network is expected to launch this year with a major cable operator through a deal signed with OlympuSat, which packages independent networks for distribution.

RHN is the brainchild of hip-hop concert promoter Atonn Muhammad, president and CEO of SSM Media Group. He believes that MTV and BET are overlooking much of what constitutes the hip-hop world. "America only gets to see a fraction of what true hip-hop represents," he said. "We want to offer a grittier, more real representation..."

This could be good, and it could be really really bad.

February 11, 2004

New N.E.R.D. Song

What do we think about it?

This and That From Sneakers to Hats

A glaring omission from my Grammy play-by-play: Andre's dubious choice to rock a Native American theme for his performance, which is now coming under scrutiny.

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Whoa, Suicide Girls added a pretty snazzy news section, and has our site atop their list of "news links" (lower right). I better get on the job around here.

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The Village Voice's Annual Pazz and Jop poll hit the web tonite, but you can probably skip right to O-Dub's breakdown of it and get everything you need. The most painful quote he singled out:

The most interesting figures in hip-hop for me over the past two years have been the Streets, Northern State, Dizzee Rascal, Bubba Sparxxx, and Slug. Not an African-American among them. Can it be that each artist's otherness relative to hip-hop proper is bringing new styles, new impulses, and new concerns to a genre that's 25 years old?-CHRIS HERRINGTON

Um, actually that probably tells us a lot more about you than it does about hip-hop, Chris.. and I'll just leave it at that.

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I hope I have time to finish S/FJ's magnum opus on the Neptunes and Timbaland before the NY Times makes it pay-only content.

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They are making an Oceans Twelve?

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Looks like his fellow Republicans are abandoning Bush in droves.. first National Review trashes his performance on "Meet the Press" (via Calpundit, also doing the best coverage anywhere on the Bush AWOL story), and now Bill O'Reilly apologizes for telling viewers to believe Bush's WMD stories (via americanblack). Seriously, people, we can beat this guy.

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Why is the (deservedly) revered Crooked Timber blog ripping off posts that I made six weeks ago? Oh well, the more props Toussaint L'Ouverture gets, the better.

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L.A. Reid takes over at Def Jam. Was Outkast's oath of fealty to him at the Grammys a hint that they may ultimately follow him there? More importantly, could this mean a comeback for the Highland Place Mobsters?

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Bay Area Brethren: Prince is playing The Fillmore in San Francisco on
Saturday, February 14th, according to his website.

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And finally, the mighty mighty Ego Trip Crew with the scoop on their upcoming VH1 show, TV Race Riot.

(My thoughts are with the people of Haiti)

February 13, 2004

So That's Why My Ears Were Buzzing

O-Dub points me to a post from Clyde at Hip-Hop Logic (who sends me a lot of hits from netweed, you will note in the referrer list below), wishing me and O had given more coverage to the Andre/Native American flap.. I'll reply here:

I was out of the room (finishing latest addition to the blog play-by-play) for the beginning of Dre's performance, which was evidently the most flagrant part.. once I got back to the tv I cringed at the indian outfits and tepee but forgot to include that in my notes on the performance, which is the nature of live blogging, some things will slip by when I'm running over to add my thoughts during the commercial break.

After a discussion on okayplayer reminded me, I linked to a story about it in a later post, calling it a "glaring omission" cuz I had meant to mention it that night.. I didn't offer a rant of my own cuz if the community in question has spoken on its own behalf I don't always feel it necessary to editorialize, and especially since I didn't see the performance in its entirety I thought it better to let the link speak for itself.

I certainly appreciate the high expectations. I wish I could be 100% comprehensive but I don't think it will ever be possible for one man with a blog. There are always a bunch of issues I want to touch on but don't get around to, like I still haven't acknowledged the rooftop shooting here in NY.. also neglected the anniversary of Big Pun's passing and Bob Marley's birthday.. the passing of jazz legend Malachi Favors..

Plus I'm unemployed right now.. for folks like O-Dub who actually have a life it must be really daunting.

And I think that's the beauty of our blog community, none of us individually will be able to cover everything, but collectively we cover an incredible amount of ground by each adding our two cents and building on each other's thoughts. So I'd say if you think a particular story is not getting the light it needs, that's your cue to jump on it!

February 14, 2004

The Lonely Road of the Taiwanese G

Damn, a gangsta rapper in Taiwan just can't get no respect:

Hanging tough?

Gangsta rap has come to Taiwan, but fear not-- they're firing blanks

We've been here before. Some shifty looking young males loitering on a street corner in East LA amid all the tried-and-true symbols of the ghetto -- the stray 50-gallon drum, the freeway overpasses, the graffiti, the cracked sidewalks and even a bucket of a ghetto ride that lurches to the curb with a boarded-up building in the background. It's a scene that's been played out a zillion times since N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton.

And that's the whole point. We're supposed to immediately recognize the symbolism in the opening shots of Iron Bamboo's (ĹKŚË°ó) video and draw the conclusion that this rap group is only one hair's width away from spraying the entire city. That's how gangsta these guys are. They're just like Tupac or 50 Cent.

But come on; Taiwanese gangsta rappers playing it tough on the mean streets of LA? The credibility meter registers in the negative zone on that one.

Intrigued though, I tracked the band down through their label Alfa Music to arrange an interview and like rock stars, they stalled and delayed several times before a meeting could finally be arranged. Some apprehension set in that the interview might take place in a sketchy crack den or gangster lair, until their manager called to inform me to meet them at a downtown Rose English Tea House -- the type with the frilly curtains and genteel clientele. That didn't sound very gangster at all...

Join Us On The Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show The Underground Railroad. You can tune in here, or at WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you are checking out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

February 16, 2004

Put It On

I don't really give a crap about these presidents, so I will set aside this day to remember Big L. New Yorkers will want to catch his DITC family at SOB's on thursday.

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The Department of Homeland Security evidently enjoys shopping for anti-Bush t-shirts. (via counterspin)

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I hadn't bothered cheking out that pro al-qaeda rapper, didn't think it would be worth the effort, but I gotta say if you put aside the content this record is actually kinda hot! Homeland Security agents, please note i said "if you put aside the content".

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Quentin Tarantino will be jury president at this years Cannes film festival, I'm sure we can count on him for some interesting picks.

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In Knick news, it now becomes clear that Isiah Thomas' formula for success can be summed up in one simple phrase: get rid of all the white guys.

February 19, 2004

Oops, I Did It Again?

New Yorkers: The Ego Trip crew will be on Hot 97's morning show today, plugging their VH1 show, which airs this Sunday. Apparently VH1 punked out and made them scrap the original title, TV Race Riot.

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The NY Times noticed that Dave Chappelle is the sh*t.

CNN noticed that Friends is not.

(via Gothamist and Fimoculous)

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Fimoculous also hipped me to these posters of celebrities with books, but I have a question: why are Alec Baldwin and Britney Spears both placing the book strategically over their no-no spot? Did something go on at this photo shoot they don't want us to know about?

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Here's yet another Dangermouse collectible, from his sessions with Prince Po.

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And in the wishful thinking department: Somebody came to our site yesterday by searching for "Beyonce AND all-star game AND (breast OR boob)" Sorry dawg, lightning didn't strike twice this time.

February 20, 2004

Sign Your Name Across My Van

Cool idea, but do we really need Chingy?

Members of the hip-hop community, get out your Sharpies.

Jam Master Jay's family is collecting autographs on a van they're calling the J-Whip to raise money for the recently launched Jam Master Jay Foundation for Youth. Once the ride is covered in hip-hop artists' signatures, the J-Whip will be auctioned on eBay.

"We were buying the van, and I started thinking about what to do with the van," Jay's brother, Marvin Thompson, said Tuesday. "I'm like, 'Yo, why don't we get all the hip-hoppers from Afrika Bambaataa to Chingy to sign the van, wrap it with [pictures of] Jay, move it around the country for a little while, let it be seen, then put it on eBay and see what it's gonna do.' "

The Jam Master Jay Foundation for Youth wants to raise $2 million to be divided into scholarships for 1,000 high school students who aspire to attend college...

...Mos Def and KRS-One were the first two MCs to sign the van's interior, and since then Slick Rick, Dana Dane, Whodini, Chubb Rock, Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock, Russell Simmons and Kurtis Blow have also lent their John Hancocks and heartfelt messages...

6 Hour "Rare Radio" Special Tomorrow

This Saturday night from midnight to 6 AM our squad of all-star DJs will be throwing down a marathon of dance classics, along with some very special guests. Here's the lineup:


DJ Emskee
DJ Monkone
DJ 3D
DJ Spinna
DJ Tomkat AKA Tommy John the Bionic Arm
Randy the Bondy's Musicologist

and last but not least,
Kool DJ Red Alert!

This is one you don't want to miss, my friends. Also, the week after that on Feb. 28th, our guest DJ will be none other that the legendary Easy Moe Bee.

February 21, 2004

Join Us on the Radio Tonight: 6 Hour Rare Radio Special

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show The Underground Railroad, and this week we are dropping another Rare Radio special, rare dance and house classics from midnight to 6 AM. In case you haven't heard, here's the DJ lineup:



Emskee
Monkone
3D
Spinna
Tomkat AKA Tommy John the Bionic Arm
Randy the Bondy's Musicologist
Kool DJ Red Alert

You can tune in here, or at WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you are checking out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

February 24, 2004

I'll Try to Carry Off a Little Darkness On My Back

In case you don't know, here's why we are showing a touch of grey today.

Dangermouse's label sent a press release tonight, with thoughts from the man himself:

"It’s flattering," says Danger Mouse. "I did this project because I love the Beatles and Jay-Z. I knew when I produced the Grey Album that there might be questions and issues that this project would bring up, but I really don't know the answers to many of them. It was not meant to be anything but an artistic expression, and I still hope that that is the way it's perceived".

According to Downhillbattle.org, the protest aims to draw attention to "how the major record labels stifle creativity and try to manipulate the public’s access to music, and it’s the perfect way to explain to non-experts why the copyright system needs to be reformed."

"For better or for worse, ‘Grey Tuesday’ is a watershed moment," says Waxploitation CEO Jeff Antebi, the manager for Danger Mouse. “We are seeing the rapid speed of peer-to-peer come head-to-head with a rabid, worldwide consumer demand for forbidden fruit. The internet makes it almost impossible to hold things back from the marketplace."

Also, check out the nifty cease-and-desist letter EMI has sent out to participating sites who are offering the album for download today. Here are some of the more humorous passages:

...We accordingly demand you:

1. cease and desist from the actual or intended distribution, reproduction, public performance or other exploitation of The Grey Album and any other unauthorized uses of the Capitol Recordings or any other sound recordings owned and/or controlled by Capitol;

2. identify the names and addresses of any third parties who have supplied you with physical or digital copies of The Grey Album or who are otherwise involved in The Grey Album's unauthorized distribution, reproduction, public performance, or other exploitation;

3. provide Capitol with an accounting of all units of The Grey Album that have been distributed via your website, either physically or digitally, and of all instances of public performance of The Grey Album rendered via your website; and

4. preserve any and all documents and records relating to this matter, including but not limited to electronic data and other information which may be relevant/discoverable in the event of litigation.

In addition, to the extent that you have already commenced distribution of The Grey Album, you must make payment to Capitol in an amount to be discussed. We demand that you contact us immediately...

Well if you really must know, I got my copy from John Ashcroft. Hurry, go kick down his door and throw the cuffs on him!

Downhillbattle.org empatically rebuts the letter here.

----------------------------------------------------- dj 3d spins on the rare radio special

February 27, 2004

Detox: Deactivated

In case you didn't see, our man on in the inside JB just brought some bad news about Dr. Dre's long-awaited next album:

Detox album.... cancelled indefinitely =(

Damn.

February 28, 2004

Join Us On The Radio Tonight, With Easy Mo Bee

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show The Underground Railroad. You can tune in here, or at WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you are checking out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

Tonight we are honored to have guest dj Easy Mo Bee manning the turntables, and of course we'll be talking to the man about his experiences working with Biggie, Miles Davis, etc. Let me know if you've got any questions for him..

March 2, 2004

Arthur Russell and Disco Segregation

S/FJ has infiltrated the hallowed halls of the New Yorker with a profile of Arthur Russell, cult hero of the NY dance music scene and mastermind of the best record with the worst vocals ever, "Is It All Over My Face" by Loose Joints (another of the classics from Mel Cheren's West End label that blessed us with Taana Gardner's "Heartbeat"). Russell is starting to be rediscovered kinda like Shuggie Otis was a while back, thanks to a recent compilation of his work "World of Arthur Russell", and another collection of unreleased material "Calling out of Context".

Russell was also the co-founder of Sleeping Bag Records which later became home to many hip-hoppers including Mantronix, Nice and Smooth, Just Ice, EPMD, and their dancer Stezo whose Sleeping Bag album is now among the era's most treasured rarities.

My DJs and I (I mostly stood back and listened) spent a long time hanging out with Easy Mo Bee after the show on Saturday, mostly talking about that NY dance scene, Larry Levan and the Paradise Garage and so on, and lamenting how hip-hop and disco/dance music have become so segregated now. So many younger heads wouldn't be caught dead listening to house, and would never credit disco with anything besides inspiring hip-hop as a backlash to its supposed lameness. But that wasn't always the way, and that dance music and the djs who pioneered it are an essential part of hip-hop's family tree. Almost all of hip-hop's great minds that I've known, from Red Alert to Easy Mo Bee to Spinna to Just Blaze, have been devoted students of the dance/disco/club/house tradition.

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P.S. - Is it just me or did fellow dance legend David Mancuso look a lot like Eric from Stinkzone, back in the day?

P.P.S. I've gotten to meet Cheren, Nicky Siano, and many other legends of this scene by hanging out at Jeannie Hopper's show, the Liquid Sound Lounge. Anyone who digs this kinda stuff should dig into her show.

P.P.P.S. Thanks to Sasha for correction on my mix-up of Cheren and Mancuso.

March 3, 2004

NEW AUDIO: Easy Mo Bee on the Wheels


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A week after welcoming Kool DJ Red Alert to our studios we were once again in the presence of a legend last Saturday, when Easy Mo Bee came through to grace the turntables. We did a nice little interview that I'll get up soon, but for now here are 50 minutes of Mo Bee's favorite breaks:

And don't forget there are dozens of other mixes on our Radio Show page. They are lonely and want your company.

March 4, 2004

You Can't Stop Nothing Over Here, Akk!

No time to post today cuz I'm doing some freelance work for my old job (how do regularly employed people blog??). So I will share with you my favorite mp3 out of the 2,794 on this PC. It's a tape of Beanie Sigel calling Power 99 in Philly a few years ago, for a demented shouting match with another local emcee named Gilly the Kid.

I have no idea what they're arguing about but I never get tired of hearing it. Does anybody know what this was all about?

March 5, 2004

A Conversation with Easy Mo Bee

As promised here is the interview we did with Easy Mo Bee, after he finished dropping a history lesson on the 1200s. I think he's more comfortable on the turntables than on the mic but he was kind enough to indulge us for a good 15 minutes, with quite a few choice tidbits dropped here and there. Joining in on the discussion were Emskee, Monkone, and our extended family Uncle Steve, noted collector and nephew of Jabo Starks.

March 7, 2004

Join Us On The Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show The Underground Railroad. You can tune in here, or at WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you are checking out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

March 8, 2004

The REAL History of Hip-Hop and Porn

Man the NY Times really dropped the ball on this one. In their report on the blooming relationship between hip-hop and porn, the so-called paper of record erroneously reports that no rapper has yet "performed" as the star of an adult film. How dare you disrespect the true pioneers of hip-hop porn?

Admittedly Snoop's Doggystyle tape doesn't count since he adopts a Rod Serling role, introducing the escapades without joining in. But do you mean to tell me nobody at the Times ever saw Treach's Naturally Naughty Porno Movie?? Or the groundbreaking work of Cypress Hill affiliate Son Doobie in Son Doobie, Porn King way back in 1995, later cited by Eminem in "Guilty Conscience"? Talk about cultural illiteracy!

BET.com did a far better job reporting on this trend last year (you know you're slipping when you get out-reported by BET!), and they reminded me that the true godfather of hip-hop porn is NWA's DJ Yella, who has been working in the porn industry since 1994 as Tha Kidd. Interestingly their piece also quotes Shecky Green, the producer Game's Hip-Hop Honeys, without mentioning that "Shecky" is actually Source co-founder Jon Shecter.

(NYT link via coolfer)

Khia and Necro Banned in Australia

Quite an unlikely pairing, Khia and Necro (Warning: Necro's site is extremely NSFW).

From reading the headline I expected Em and 50, or perhaps Lil Jon, but I guess the Aussies are looking for a bit more indie cred with their censorship.

Explicit Rappers Banned

THE music of two American rappers has been banned from sale to Australian children under new censorship rules.
The Australian Record Industry Association has banned MC Khia's single My Neck, My Back and album Thug Misses and Necro's album Brutality Part One.

MC Khia's single explicitly describes oral sex, and the album includes the track F--- Dem Other Hoes.

Necro's album has lyrics describing how to get rid of a body.

The ARIA introduced three-level censorship guidelines in 2001.

The first two levels warn of explicit content.

This is the first time the "level three" warning - preventing sale to persons under 18 because of "gratuitous violence and sex" - has been enforced.

The "Exceeding Level Three" category - a total ban - is yet to be enforced in Australia.

March 9, 2004

Why I'm Up at 6:15

Big thanks to Mr. Matos, for the headache he gave me by linking to this torture chamber of hackneyed music writing at Slate.

"'Windowlicker' is a few years old, but it's still far more innovative than just about anything being produced today. Where most electronic music, hip-hop included, is comprised of thoughtlessly simple beat patterns and painfully formulaic song structure, Aphex Twin employs true, detailed, musical composition..."

"Latyrx is the definition of what hip-hop should be. There's no shtick, no braggadocio attitude, and none of the millionaire posturing that's so popular these days..."

Yes, cuz goodness knows braggadocio has never had a place in hip-hop.

I don't want to be too hard on this guy since according to the bottom of the page he's not even supposed to be writing: "Josh Payton is Slate's interactive designer." Well then for pete's sake, Slate, stop cutting corners and hire a writer for that column, so this poor guy can get back to photoshop where he belongs!

My Brush With Biggie Smalls

March 9th, as you all should know, is Biggie Smalls Memorial Day, this year marking the 7th anniversary of Christopher Wallace's passing. I will now commemorate the day with a somewhat random and namedroppy story.

In the mid-nineties I used to spend every Saturday night at WNWK 105.9 FM, which was home to hip-hop's very first radio shows in its earlier incarnation as WHBI, and housed classic rap shows on Saturday nights throughout the 90s including The Dirty Dozen, the infamous DNA/Hank love show, Red Bandit's Nighthawks show, and the legendary Awesome Two (who will be our guests this week on WBAI).

I would do my show earlier that night, then come down to WNWK's studio on Canal Street to hang with my radio brethren and play chess with Stan the engineer. After the Dirty Dozen finished their show we'd usually go out for a late-night meal, and whichever artist was in the house that week often came along.

One of the artists who came along regularly was Shinehead, who was well past his commercial prime at that point but still keeping himself in the game, and always big fun to be around, gregarious and full of jokes. That night while we walked up to Round the Clock on 8th street, Shinehead was in the middle of telling a story had everyone's rapt attention when a voice came booming from inside a car with tinted windows parked outside the restaurant: "YO! IS THAT SHINEHEAD!?? YO C'MERE MAN!!"

We all turned to around to see a big black hand beckoning us over to the car, and followed behind as Shinehead walked over to greet the fan, and as I stepped up for a closer look I thought "damn is that Biggie Smalls??" And that's just who it was, excitedly giving Shinehead a pound and going on about how he loved his record back in the day. That'll always be how I remember Biggie, as a fan who was totally geeked to be meeting Shinehead, and gave him utmost respect even though he himself was already a much bigger star by that time.

I told that story to Mister Cee soon afterwards, and he said that sounded just like Biggie, that he was always a devoted hip-hop fan and music lover at heart, and no matter how much he talked about being in the rap game for the money it was always his love for the music that really drove him.

March 10, 2004

NYPD: Teaching the World How to Spy on Rappers

The Crunkster helps MTV follow up on the Herald's breakdown of how Miami police are secretly spying on hip-hop artists. The Herald also confirms that New York's cops, who pioneered this field, are training other cities in this hip-hop spy game, and letting them study the NYPD's extensive hip-hop surveillance files.. you know, the ones they told us do not exist.

Newspaper: NYPD Training Other Cities How To Spy On Rappers

Despite denials from New York Police Department officials that a "hip-hop division" exists to maintain tabs on rap stars, a report in The Miami Herald on Tuesday suggests that the department does indeed run such an operation — and is sharing its data with other police departments around the country.

The Herald exposes the Miami Police Department's tactics of spying on hip-hop celebrities and their entourages when they descend onto South Beach to live, vacation or party. Officers admitted in the report that they regularly photograph rappers as they arrive at Miami International Airport, tap hotel and club workers for information on the celebs' comings and goings, and stake out hotspots and video shoots.

"A lot [of], if not most, rappers belong to some sort of gang. We keep track of their arrests and associates," Miami police Sergeant Rafael Tapanes is quoted as saying.

Information obtained on the rappers is apparently kept in a binder developed by the NYPD. It was shared at a specially arranged "hip-hop training session" last May that included officers from Los Angeles and Atlanta. The training session allegedly outlined the information kept in the binder and trained officers on what radio stations to monitor for information on new rivalries and what to look for in rap lyrics.

Artists profiled in the binder include 50 Cent, Eminem, P. Diddy, Jay-Z and Ja Rule. When called by MTV News, neither the NYPD nor the Miami Beach Police Department wanted to comment...

MTV's earlier report on the NYPD's "Hip-Hop division" is here.

Talib Kweli vs. ImRickJamesB***h

Recently someone who goes by the name of "ImRickJamesBitch" posted links to a demo version of Talib Kweli's unfinished album. After a warning from ?uestlove that Kweli had heard about this and was fuming, Kweli himself appeared with a message for all those he immortalized on Kanye's album as "Okayplayer Haters":

You know what, I’m a fan of hip-hop too. If I had a chance to get a hold of one of my favorite artists CD’s early, I would jump at it. So if some asshole from a recording studio leaks my unfinished, unmixed and uneven album, consider it a personal triumph. Play it for your friends, and if you like it, buy the version I want you to have. If you are a fan of my music, allow me to live off it so I can continue to bring it to you. But once you put it on a website and encourage people to download it, you become the bigger asshole. You are not respecting my artistic process and worse, you are taking food out of my children’s mouth. The shit is depressing really because I work so hard and I deserve the right to determine how I want my music presented. If you are truly a fan of my music, please do not support people who do this, no matter what the temptation might be. This music is what I have to live on. You also disrespect the other artists by spreading rough vocals and rough mixes. You really don’t give a f**k about nobody but yourself. It’s sad.

ImRickJamesBitch, are you that much of a loser that you gotta live off another man’s work? Put your own f**kin’ album on your website. Get you some pro tools, pay producers and studio time, get guest artists to come be on your shit. Then maybe you won’t be tempted to just disrespect somebody’s craft. Kanye shipped 800,000 records. How many records do you think I will ship? But yet you couldn’t resist to expose MY album? That shit is not fly. I will find out who you are and you will be dealt with accordingly. This is no threat. To everyone else, I am blessed that there is so much anticipation for what I hope will be a great album. I have never gone gold or platinum. If you think I should be by now please don’t support or do shit like ImRickJamesBitch; that shit does not help. I have a mixtape coming next week. Download that. Please help my cause, don’t hurt it, and I will always be the best artist I can be.

Talib Kweli

ImRickJamesBitch quickly reappeared with this reply:

I appreciate your announcement and definitely see some of your points. But I think your anger should be directed toward the nigga who stole your shit out the studio.

And everything was cool up until the "I will find out who you are and you will be dealt with accordingly" shit. Be a man about yours and don't speak in ambiguous phrases. Will YOU deal with me accordingly? If that is the case, you don't have to find out who I am. I can send you my info and you can come see me "accordingly". I'm not trying to be a tough guy, but you don't really pose a physical threat to me. So you might just want to abandon that option.

I'll be staying tuned to okayplayer to catch the next chapter of this drama... Hopefully Charlie Murphy will be involved somehow. Kweli got into something similar a couple of years ago on the site, going ballistic on a kid named DJ 3rd Rail, for reasons that escape me now.

March 11, 2004

Shady Hip-Hop News Sites

Joseph Patel tells how one of his MTV.com stories got straight jacked by eurweb.com:


I did an exclusive interview with P. Diddy, where he revealed this point, among many (but clearly the one to peg the story on). Well, the clever blokes at EUR Web, the english-based celebrity gossip wire (more prolific than cam'ron at the powder factory), picked up my story, made it their own and then sent it out on their wire to a worldwide media syndicate.

Nevermind that they don't credit the source (the mothership), but they straight up invented their own quote: "Not that it will affect the rap community in the way that Jay-Z's retirement did. But I'll be shedding a tear the last time I walk off that stage."

the f**k?!

I went to eurweb hoping to find the article in question, but their obnoxious flash ads and spyware pop-ups crashed my browser.

March 12, 2004

Grab Bag

Our original guests for tomorrow's radio show (The Awesome Two) have gotten pushed back a week. But we have another friend in town who will be stopping by to do a set if he has time, namely the UK's finest, Will Quantic.. should be another classic if he makes it through. Yes, I know I use the word classic too much.

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Charlize Theron finally got to meet Nelson Mandela, and was appropriately verklempt. (courtesy of Gwen)

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Jin has a new collabo with Kanye West, which he is promoting on his Xanga homepage. Gotta love a rapper with a Xanga page! that's almost as cool as Anomolies emcee Pri the Honey Dark's Blackplanet page. (peace to Girlsareweird)

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ha-HA! This time I will be first on the block to link up S/FJ's latest gem.

March 13, 2004

The "N Word" in Hong Kong Pop Music

Last night at one of my DVD shopping spots in Chinatown they were playing some surprisingly funky cantonese pop.. not really funky by American standards but you could tell they were trying their best to work it, and had landed in a mysterious realm halfway between Timbaland and Air Supply.

I appreciated the effort, and was nodding my head approvingly the singer started making a little speech in english.. I didn't catch everything he said, but I was damn sure bewildered when he ended his rap with a triumphant "..and you better recognize! Niggaaaaas!!"

Then they launched into the chorus: "This is the outroooo... For all you chickens and hoes..... This is the outroooo.. for all you chickens and hoooes.."

I inquired at the counter and found out this was a young man named Edison Chen, who I'm familiar with from two of Hong Kong's biggest recent movies, "The Twins Effect" and "Infernal Affairs." Like most HK stars he's famous both as an actor and a pop singer, and this track was from his latest release entitled "Please Steal This Album."

I hope his album title will be a lesson to all you American rappers: just because you're a bad boy and a rebel doesn't mean you have to be impolite about it!

EDIT: Further research seems to indicate the rap was not done by Edison himself, but by a guest rapper named MC Yan, from a now defunct HK rap group named LMF, short for Lazy Mothaf**kaz.

Do any of you know much about Edison Chen and LMF, or the general hip-hop scene in Hong Kong? Is it common for artists there to slang the "N" rock?

March 14, 2004

Prince All Over the News

Prince is getting a lot of love in today's newspapers, as he prepares to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tomorrow, with a new album and tour following close behind.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer serves a tasty entree with some cool anecdotes from Mavis Staples, Sheila E. and others.

Glenn Gamboa gives a solid overview of his career in Newsday.

But these pale in comparison to the special section (a 10-page spread in the print version) devoted to Mr. Nelson in his hometown Minneapolis Star: Prince: An Oral History. Registration required but well worth the effort.

And by the way, tickets are still on sale at ticketbastard for his concert here in NY tomorrow night, jumping off at a new club named Black on 56th street, after he finishes the Hall of Fame ceremony. Any time you can see the man in a nightclub setting like this that's an opportunity you don't want to squander.. and this one should be extra special, as he celebrates such a big day in his life, and has so many potential guest performers in town for the Hall of Fame thing..

Maybe this will be the night I've been waiting for, when Prince finally gets Sly Stone to rise again (a man can dream!)

March 15, 2004

Horror Abounds

Okay, somebody just came to this site by searching in Google for "Bobbito Porn." I'm not going to ask what they had in mind, and if you know, please don't tell me.

Other searches that brought people here tonight:


"pimp cup designers in CT"
"nipplegate"
"hip-hop postmodernity"
"piano negro hip hop"

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In other news, Ms. Magazine has a blog now, and their latest entry looks deeper into an issue we wondered about earlier, the scapegoating of Martha Stewart.

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I foresee horrific tragedy for the creatures of Middle Earth. Horrific indeed.

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And speaking of horrific, somebody please tell me this clip of Rakim doing an promo for goldteethusa.com is some kind of hoax. Please? (via many places but I'll credit it to this blog)

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EDIT: Continuing with the horror theme, looks like Donald Rumsfeld skipped class when they covered "How Not to Look Like a Soulless Demon on Television" in Public Relations 101":

Asked on CNN's "Late Edition" if the war was worth the lives of the 564 U.S. soldiers killed, Rumsfeld said, "Oh, my goodness, yes. There's just no question..."

I'd think when you're about to justify the deaths of 564 young americans, you might want to consider prefacing the justification with some expression of remorse, and delivering it in a tone that wouldn't be best described as "giddily enthusiastic." (via submeat)

March 17, 2004

James Lipton Presents: Inside the Blogger's Studio

Pardon the dead air around here, I'm still recovering from the Prince concert. I'll post a review shortly, but in the meantime here's the first half of an interview I did tonite for themediadrop.com. My first time doing an interview via IM, more challenging than I expected.

Also check out our friend's surprisingly controversial chat with Gothamist.

Insert Joke Containing "Gimme The Light" and "Menorah" Here

Here, unearthed by a top israeli blog, is a cool name for Adam Sandler to drop when he inevitably does yet another version of that Chanukah Song:

It's A Happy Chanukah for...

Sean Paul, 30, who just got two Grammy nominations — best new artist and best reggae album. Talk about an exotic background! His full name is Sean Paul Henriques. His father’s family is Sephardim of Portuguese origin who came to Jamaica in the mid-1600s. The Henriques have always been one of the most prominent Jewish families on the island.

Sean attended, among other schools, Jamaica’s Hillel Academy, a non-denominational school sponsored by the Jewish community. His mother is of Chinese Jamaican background. That’s about all that has come out about his Jewish background — except one of his big hits, ”Get Busy,” has been the subject of buzz on Jewish music sites because the rhythm of the tune (but not the words!) is very much like a Haftarah chant.

Sean rose to prominence as a dance-hall DJ in Jamaica. He broke huge this last year, when “Get Busy” rose to No. 1 on the U.S. charts and his CD “Dutty Rock” hit the Top 10. Jamaica’s Jews, by the way, have always been well integrated into the life of the island, and the community has produced many important business, cultural and government figures.

Hip-Hop Blogs: Blind to Gender Issues?

Lizelle of Paper Thin Philosophies writes:

"When all women and men engaged in feminist struggle understand the interlocking nature of systems of domination, of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, feminist movement will regain its revolutionary progressive momentum." - bell hooks

It's damn hard, so damn hard when men do not even take the initiative to engage in the dialog. For example, on all these hip hop blogs I go to and read, where is the discourse on gender, patriarchy, sexism, etc? Step up dammit!

So, what of it, people? Before I slant things by putting my two cents in I'd like to get your thoughts on this, since a lot of the best hip-hop bloggers come through here, and the most astute blog readers as well. Certainly these issues deserve more attention, and this is as good a place as any to start.

March 18, 2004

Gay Hip-Hop: Can the Subaltern Spit?

Terry Sawyer with a must-read on hip-hop and homosexuality:

Queering the Mic

"The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House"
– Audre Lorde

"My words are like a dagger with a jagged edge
That'll stab you in the head
Whether you're a fag or lez"
– Eminem

The Lorde quote has always haunted me for both the way it sears open an entire realm of truth to power and the ways in which it's clearly too pat; particularly when the master's tools are the only things lying around. In hip-hop, this quote seems to run on a loop in my head as I watch video after video of consumer gluttony gone bling with women just one more thing to accumulate.


Don't get me wrong, I love hip-hop. For someone enamored with language the way I am, there's nothing like the pleasure of listening to a genre where words are minted by the minute and meaning gets telegraphed to your booty through lexical stunts of brilliant rhythm. But I got issues. Even the margins of hip-hop are plagued with Promise Keeper views of women and tedious dependence on the crutch of homophobia. (e.g., Not two minutes into the latest MC Jean Grae, we're treated to diss all of the "faggots" who don't tremble in her path.) It's worse listening to the mangling explanations which come forth, that usually end by illuminating the fact that they're not just really calling someone a homosexual, but doing so with a back handed gesture of sexism. I guess this means that the categories of gay and lesbian has become a toxic waste dump for leftover bigotries that can no longer be expressed in polite company.


The energies of prejudice can be impacted into gays because there are still several socially acceptable rationalizations for the hatred. Still debating our existential validity, just recently given legal permission (at least partially) to be who we are, queer folk still operate as frighteners in public debates where religious psychotics still reign over a major political party and forge their selves and sense of mission from the number of freedom pyres under their belts.


Talking to gay artists about their sexuality and art can be a tricky task. Every time I do it, I'm confronted with the low-grade hostility that emanates from a human who feels caged and constrained by a label. Nobody wants to drag around such an oppression nametag as a point of entry for recognition. It's the same burden African-American artists struggled with and, in many cases, have largely overcome through ubiquity. Saying "gay" rapper, comes with an undercurrent of stooping as if to say "Oh, look dear" or "My, my, what a surprise."


Having wound my way through the house of a thousand caveats, I still set out to find out whether or not Lorde's axiom holds true for queers, and whether or not GLBT people could make countercurrent inroads in a genre deeply invested in keeping them as a place holder on the bottom of the totem – just below "yo mamma" slams...

Ozomatli Show Gets Maced

Strange happenings at SXSW. What the heck was this all about?

Maced!

...For their final song, Ozomatli started a procession out of the doors and into the street, each member playing their instrument acoustically, playing drums and guitar and whatever and singing as they made their way through the crowd, which consisted primarily of happy, laughing, dancing people.

Which is when the cops started beating some guy up and (literally) randomly Macing the rest of us, for no apparent goddamn reason at all.

I don't know what happened. One minute I'm watching a really happy, positive musical vibe, the next minute I'm smelling Mace and people are stampeding away from me. Abe had his bike and almost got knocked over. One cop pointed his Mace at me and I screamed "What the f**k do you think you're gonna do with that? What the f**k is wrong with you?"

They ended up in a circle -- some of them with batons, beating up some hippie looking guy, the rest standing in a circle looking like they were ready to start shooting at the rest of us, who started to get outraged (especially the middle-aged yuppie types who were just there for the show).

So Abe and I whipped out our cell phone camera and started snapping shots -- or in my case, pretending to, since my battery was too low to take pictures. We started yelling at them. "Go ahead, motherf**ker, spray down the f**king tourists, motherf**ker. Let's go national with this s**t..."

(via the ab)

March 21, 2004

Join Us On The Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show The Underground Railroad. You can tune in here, or at WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you are checking out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

More Google Fun

Google searches that brought people to this site yesterday:

"modern rock sucks"
"negro black porn"
"rare muslim kung fu styles" - well worth researching, now that I take a look.

and the most disquieting:

"hear Sasha kill the b*tch" (?!??)

After consulting with the most prominent Sasha available, I figured out they were just looking for an old dancehall record. Whew.

March 22, 2004

Is Hip-Hop Poetry? Am I Supposed to Care?

I wasn't going to post about this Salon thing on hip-hop and spoken word vs. traditional poetry, because it's the type of article that annoys me without seeming worth the energy to rebut (which makes it annoy me that much more). But since I got roped into discussing it briefly at a friend's journal I will paste what I wrote there.

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I saw that article and thought it was very poor for various reasons.. I found Saul's emcee vs. spoken word take shaky also, cuz there is a great deal of introspective hip-hop, just check out DMX's records, for one example people might find unlikely.

Whether hip-hop is poetry has never struck me as a question worth asking. I see no value in seeking validation from that establishment.. Plus, hip-hop is music first and foremost, and too many people miss the point by focusing entirely on the lyrical content.. so many reviews of hip-hop albums give no indication that it is a work of music they are judging, as they only critique the topics discussed, ideas expressed etc., which are all secondary to the musicality, for the hip-hop ear. So attempting to judge hip-hop by the literary world's traditional poetic standards is not likely to bring anyone a better understanding of the form..

FBI Picks Up 6-Year-Old Lead in Biggie Case

The LA Times Chuck Philips, who was highly respected before dropping his dubious theory that Biggie had Tupac killed (we'll be polite and pretend that never happened), reports the FBI is finally following up on the long-rumored involvement of the LAPD in Biggie's death:

Former officer investigated in rapper's death

FBI case probes claims he helped plan '97 ambush

Seven years after the killing of rap star Notorious B.I.G., the FBI is investigating allegations that a rogue Los Angeles police officer orchestrated the slaying with rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight, according to court documents and law enforcement sources.

The FBI is pursuing a 6-year-old theory that then-officer David A. Mack, acting at Knight's request, arranged for Amir Muhammad, Mack's friend and college roommate, to ambush the rapper outside the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

Over the years, the Los Angeles Police Department has offered conflicting assessments of the theory, which police at one point took seriously. Documents show that LAPD detectives are now focusing on an alternative theory that centers on a Houston rap entrepreneur.

Mack, Knight and Muhammad, a Southern California mortgage broker, have long denied any involvement in the 1997 killing. "I have stated from the outset that I have nothing whatsoever to do with any of this," Muhammad, who also uses the name Harry Billups, said Thursday from his attorney's office. "I've done nothing wrong. I don't have anything to hide."

Knight, founder of Death Row Records, also rejected the allegations. "I don't know David Mack or Amir Muhammad. I've never met them," he said from Mule Creek State Prison, where he is serving time for a probation violation...

March 23, 2004

Okay Party People, When I Say Product, You Say Placement!

Funny little story from SxSW, courtesy of the Creative Commons blog.

Call and Response

My most vivid memory from South by Southwest:

Thursday night in Austin, TX, USA, MSN threw a party across the street from the convention center. It was in a spare warehouse space, like a rave or fly-by-night underground party, but the fancy lighting, free drinks, and imported-looking crowd (L.A.) all said Big Bucks. The women checking the guest list looked as if they might moonlight on The Price is Right. The event was planned, from what I could gather, as a buzz-builder for MSN's big move into the iTunes-style content business.

When I came in, the crowd -- around two hundred, I'd guess -- had gathered around the stage where legendary DJ Grandmaster Flash was in the middle of a set...

...after a compelling tweak of the bassline in Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust," Grandmaster Flash cut the music and prepared the crowd for some call-and-response. It was old-school audience participation time. He'd play a hook, then cut the music, and the crowd would shout an answer in time with the song.

The call?

The chorus of "Good Times," a 1979 disco classic whose bassline Grandmaster's labelmates, the Sugarhill Gang, lifted for their single "Rapper's Delight" -- probably one of the top few most famous hip-hop songs ever, and one of the very first.

The response?

When I do this, said Grandmaster Flash, playing the vocal "Good Times," then dropping the volume, everyone yell "MSN."

People in the audience looked at each other.

Got it? he said into the microphone, Good times -- MSN! Good times -- MSN! Got it? Here we go.

A few people booed. The DJ played a few rounds of the vocal, then cut the volume.

Grandmaster Flash, and about a dozen audience members, shouted "MSN!"

A few scattered boos followed. Flash tried to rally the crowd. He played the call again: Good Times . . . Good Times . . . And the music cut out again -- the audience's turn.

This time they responded. But they didn't say "MSN."

What did they say? I asked the couple in front of me.

They said, 'Bulls--t,' the couple said, laughing. I asked my friends. They heard the same thing.

After a couple more such calls and responses, Grandmaster Flash went back to the regular show, and right away the crowd threw its hands in the air and danced again as if none of it had ever happened.

I don't really blame Grandmaster Flash. Or MSN for that matter. It's all just business.

Whether it's smart business is another story. And whether the stunt's layer upon layer of irony was intended or accidental is simply a mystery.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Also notable while we're on their page, CC's new music sharing license.

Raqiyah Mays Fired from Power 105, for Discussing Interracial Relationships

For anyone wondering if the neo-puritan climate would affect political speech as well as the sexual, Clear Channel's hip-hop station in NY has removed all doubt. I may disagree with her take on the issue, but firing her for discussing it is crazy.

DJ Fired for Race Remark

Weekend jock Raqiyah Mays was fired yesterday by WWPR (105.1 FM) after criticizing interracial dating during her weekend show. Power-105 officials said in a statement that the station "decided to release her based upon inappropriate remarks she made to listeners during her broadcast on Saturday.

"The station received many E-mails, phone calls and messages from listeners who were displeased and felt alienated as a result of her actions."

Mays' comments on interracial dating came while she was running a station contest in which listeners could win tickets to an Usher concert by making a confession. "Confession" is the title of Usher's latest record, which has sparked heavy buzz in radio.

"I made a confession of my own," Mays said yesterday. "I said I was concerned about interracial relationships when the African-American community has our own inner work and healing to do. If I see a white woman dating an African-American man, I feel, as do many African-American women, that there is one less black man available to us."

The host of a 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift on Saturdays, Mays said she was shocked by getting the boot from the Clear Channel station.

She claimed she was the victim of a "climate of pins and needles" stemming from the firestorm over indecency following the Janet Jackson and Howard Stern controversies.

"I wasn't speaking against anybody," Mays said. "I was just being honest. Unfortunately, the industry is under FCC scrutiny and the climate is ripe for reactionary measures."

EDIT, 3/26/04: Since I made this post, a transcript has come out of her original comments on the radio show, and they turn out to go much further than she would have us believe in her explanation I'd posted above:

"I'm a racist. I really am. I have a problem with white people. Not all white people, but a lot of white people. ... I can't tell if they are being real with me or not. And then I hate when the black guy is walking down the street with the white girl. I hate both of them. C'mon, there's a man shortage, why you got to go ... "

As I said in the replies below, seeing these actual quotes makes her explanation that she was merely "expressing concerns" about a need for "healing" seem a little disingenuous, and make it a tougher call whether she should have gotten fired. I'd want to hear the program in its entirety before I judged that, hear the tone of the overall conversation, what came before and after, whether it was part of a discussion where her views could be balanced out by others..

Going by this transcript, I'm still inclined to say firing her was excessive, but it's not as clear-cut as it originally appeared.. hard for me to say that some type of disciplinary action wasn't appropriate.

And for the record, personally I don't see how asking two people who are in love to reject that love because one of them is the wrong color will ever do any good for anybody, or bring about healing of any sort.

NY's Black Talk Radio Bumped for New "Liberal" Network

For radio people like me this is big news. WLIB 1190 AM has been Black radio icon since before I was born, one of the two biggest Black-owned stations in the city, along with their FM sister station WBLS (originally WLIB FM, I believe).

WLIB has been best known for its politically oriented talk shows, and their owners Inner City Broadcasting have always promoted the station as a voice for the local Black community, much like my station WBAI provides an outlet for those shut out of the mainstream media.

Their most famous host was Gary Byrd, who collaborated with Stevie Wonder on "Black Man" and "Village Ghetto Land", plus his own Wonder-produced mid-80s rap record "The Crown." Byrd was seen hosting his WLIB show in Spike Lee's Bamboozled (since then he has moved over to WBAI).

As you can see on their (cheesily Flash-heavy) website most of their airtime goes to Carribean music nowadays. But switching it to a mostly white talk network is still a major shake-up.

Also note: In the NY Times insanely long profile of Al Franken, who headlines the new network, they mentioned that Chuck D would be co-hosting one of their shows alongside Daily Show creator Lizz Winstead, but now it appears he is backing out.

Air America Will Displace Black Talk On WLIB

New York's radio station WLIB-1190 AM has been loyally "serving New York's Black community" - as its logo states - for decades now. In the early '90s WLIB was lauded as a resource for "Afrocentric" programming and became known for featuring Imhotep Gary Byrd's "Global Black Experience" show.

The station was in many ways a Black activist outlet.

But by the end of this month, WLIB will be taking on a different hue, as it joins the launch of Progress Media's "Air America Radio," the new, predominately White, liberal talk-radio network. Air America has reportedly partnered with Inner City Broadcasting Corporation (ICBC), which owns WLIB.

"We are excited about the diverse and important voices Air America Radio is bringing to the airwaves, both on our own WLIB signal and others," said ICBC Chairman Pierre Sutton. "This strategic partnership allows both companies to combine our resources and deliver relevant messages to a broad and diverse audience..."

..."I don't get it. I mean, I do not get it," local activist Elombe Brath said about Air America Radio's takeover at WLIB. Reports are that WLIB's 40th floor station has been remodeled for Air America, and that the 30th and 39th floors are also being re-built to suit the needs of the new network.

Brath, who hosts and produces the show "Afrikaleidoscope" on WBAI-FM, and who played a part in the Afrocentric reorganization of WLIB's programming back in the early 1980s, complained that if listenership was down at WLIB, the station should have restructured from within as it did in the 1980s.

"All of the talk should be organic, from within the Black community," Brath insisted. "How can they think about coming into New York with a package program like this? We have people here already who know radio, who can do shows. And they want to come in with a program from other people trying to talk to Black people in New York City? [WLIB] is just a station that has been stripped of what it's supposed to be!"

March 26, 2004

Google Advisory Label

Mr favorite Google referral tonight:


"asian gang the ghost shadows nigga"

Okay, they want info on the Ghost Shadows gang, I get that. But how does the "nigga" fit into it? My guess is they were addressing Google as if it were a person: "Ayo google, go get me the scoop on the ghost shadows, nigga!"

And speaking of thinking there are people inside Google, they really need to put this warning under the search button:

If you put a celebrity's name into our search engine, and go to the first web page that comes up, this generally does not mean you are talking directly to that celebrity. Posting your phone number so the celebrity can call you back is particularly not advisable.

EDIT: Numerous visitors also think they are talking to Russell Simmons here.

Oh My God, Andre 3000's Got a Gun!

This is, bar none, the single most outlandish attempt to make a rapper sound scandalous that I've ever seen. It is a work of genius:

Outkast member brandishing gunGun-toting Outkast rapper featured at Democrat event

Member of soul duo pictured brandishing firearm part of fund-raiser with ex-presidents, candidates

Though the Democratic Party is known for its aversion to weapons and has pushed legislation limiting firearm rights, ex-Presidents Carter and Clinton joined a star-studded fund-raiser last night featuring the rap duo Outkast, which promotes itself with an image of one member of the group brandishing a handgun...

...On Outkast's website, outkast.com, one member of the group, Dre (aka Andre Benjamin), is seen prominently brandishing a smoking gun in his right hand. (After going to site, click on the right-hand image labeled "The Love Below.")

I can't come up with a comment snide enough to do this justice. I tip my hat to you, gentlemen. You have bested me.

Ghostface Killah vs. Random Spam Text

Have you ever noticed the random text that comes in spam nowadays looks just like the lyric sheet for a Ghostface Killah record? Seriously, look at these lines and try to guess which ones are Ghostface rhymes, and which are taken from spam I got tonite (with commas added):

A) "coconut civilian, 87 lexicon"

B) "alfalfa archer, intense caramel breadwinner"

C) "photographic magic, funeral love"

D) "tyco nightglow, velvet pose"

E) "nice DNA, scroll genetics"

F) "desert athletic, champagne distributor"

4-2-04 EDIT: This quiz has now become and actual contest, like with prizes and stuff. Go here for details.

March 27, 2004

Join Us on the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

March 29, 2004

John McWhorter and the Hip-Hop/Gender Meme

It's been amazing to see how far the discussion has spread since I posted Lizelle's question about hip-hop and gender (I'll be posting my thoughts on the subject soon, since I haven't joined in the discussion since I threw it out there). One corner of blogville touched by the meme was this blog that deals with education and learning disabilities, topics close to my heart since I worked for 6 years as a teacher/counselor for "emotionally disturbed" teens.

Liz Ditz drew on a variety of web sources for perspectives on hip-hop, including John McWhorter's essay from last year that will bring a grimace to many faces around here. I got into a groove writing a reply there, so I will paste my ramble here as well:

-----------------
I found some of McWhorter's analysis rather dubious, grounded in lots of shaky assumptions and broad generalizations.. that piece was amply dissected at the time it came out, wish I had saved some of those discussions now.

His assessment of Grandmaster Flash's "The Message," for example, is wildly off the mark. That song, with its refrain "don't push me cuz I'm close to the edge, I'm trying not to lose my head" simply expresses frustration at the hard times we live in, and does so quite eloquently, much like Marvin Gaye "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)." McWhorter's attempt to paint it as some sinister threat of violence is downright bizarre.

Suggesting that Sean "Puffy/P-Diddy" Combs portrays himself as a "gangsta" is also laughable to anyone remotely familiar with the public image Combs has cultivated for himself.

McWhorter's notion that hip-hop encourages its listeners to be anti-social and reject authority strikes me as outdated, if anything I can only wish that were still the case. Far from encouraging rebellion, much of the most popular hip-hop nowadays (see P-Diddy) encourages its listeners to do little more than obediently assume their assigned role in this society as passive, uncritical and voracious brand-name consumers.

Also, it should go without saying that mainstream commercial hip-hop is far more diverse in its content than critics like McWhorter would have you believe, and of course the few artists allowed into the mainstream only represent one small corner of hip-hop's vast landscape.

Turning "gangsta tribalism to healthy ends" is in large part how hip-hop culture was born, as founding father Afrika Bambaataa used it to steer NY's gang members towards a peaceful and positive path, using hip-hop to bring them together and provide outlets for their creativity in his organization known as the Zulu Nation (he had been leader of the Black Spades gang).

The National Hip-Hop Political Convention

The Newark Star-Ledger previews this Summer's event out in Jersey:

At this hip-hop convention, politicians will get an earful

Leaning against a light pole on Broad Street in Newark, a few feet from piles of hip-hop mixtapes and speakers blasting the latest hit from his mobile sales cart, Fuquan Brown, 28, nodded his head to the music.

"They said hip-hop was just a fad, but it's not a fad. It's a culture and it's not going away," he said. When two Rutgers University students approached Brown about registering to vote and becoming part of the National Hip-Hop Political Convention, he signed on the dotted line.


Music has power, he said.

Thousands of hip-hop music lovers from across the nation are expected to converge in Newark from June 16-19 to create a hip-hop political agenda that they want candidates to address.

Hip-hop music, which is used to sell everything from cell phones to couture, is a common bond for a multi-ethnic generation between the ages 18 and 35. Organizers are betting the hip-hop generation is ready to begin organizing, raising money and making candidates address their concerns.

"Rather than let someone else create what we should care about, let us decide what our priorities are and what's relevant," said Charles Hill, 29, the New Jersey coordinator for the convention, a project of the National Black United Fund...

Chuck D vs. Kanye, Satchmo vs. Dizzy

MTV says Chuck D took a few jabs at Kanye West recently, wondering why "somebody gets top-notch producer credits for speeding up old records" and assessing Kanye's mic skills thusly: "I think his lyrics are decent but 85 [percent] of cats rhymin' have the same voice with little difference in cadence. That's like the NBA having 200 six-foot point guards."

Whatevs and probably many others have taken delight in these remarks, and that's understandable.. Kanye's album has gotten so much hype his own mother must be sick of it, and his ego could certainly stand to get taken down a few notches. Plus, that whole sped-up vocal sample thing is due to jump the shark any day now (and I'd guess Kanye is well aware of that).

But for me, the first thing Chuck's comments brought to mind was Louis Armstrong's almost identical rant about the younger generation of be-bop pioneers like Bird and Dizzy. Louis wondered why they were getting so much acclaim for just taking a few of his old riffs, as he saw it, and throwing them together to make a bunch of "slop" with "no melody."

Obviously, although Armstrong's influence is all over Be-Bop, there was also much more to it than what Louis was letting himself hear. Likewise, there's more to Kanye's body of work than just "speeding up old records," even if you ignore his tracks like Dead Prez "(Bigger Than) Hip-Hop" that don't fit the stereotype at all.

Chuck of all people should know better than to make such snap judgements, since so many Public Enemy tracks could be just as easily dismissed as straight James Brown loops. Heck, they even had the nerve to loop the same JB record twice for two different singles, "Rebel Without a Pause" and "Night of the Living Baseheads," and then use it again on the same album, looped backwards for "Terminator X to the Edge of Panic." How is that any different from what Kanye's doing, except that Chuck's crew didn't even bother to speed anything up?

Does this mean those PE records were not creative, that they didn't bring anything new to the table? Of course not.. that (at least in part) is the genius of those Bomb Squad tracks, that they took these bits of sound without altering them very much at all, but by isolating them in a different context made you hear them in a totally different way, and created a sound that hit our ears as nothing less than revolutionary.

I'd never claim that Kanye's work is on that level, but what he does is not so different, taking these old soul samples and making them sound fresh in a new context. Doing this effectively is much harder than Chuck makes it sound, and the way Kanye makes it seem so easy is a testament to his skill on the boards.

Is this just a pattern we can never break, each generation turning a deaf ear to the next one's artistry, dismissing it offhand like a bunch of crotchety old Abe Simpsons? Dizzy Gillespie looked at Armstrong's attitude like this:

Entrenched artists, or the entrenched society, always attack anything that's new coming in, in religion, in social upheavals, in any field. It has something to do with living and dying and the fear among the old of being replaced by the new. Louis Armstrong never played our music, but that shouldn’t have kept him from feeling or understanding it. Pops thought that it was his duty to attack! The leader always attacks first: so as the leader of the old school, Pops felt that it was his duty to attack us. At least he could gain some publicity, even if he were overwhelmed musically.

I doubt that Chuck feels "overwhelmed musically" by Kanye, but I do wonder if it's just inevitable for each generation to get caught up in this cycle..

----------

P.S. - needless to say, I'm not equating Kanye with Bird and Dizzy, or Chuck with Louis Armstrong for that matter

P.P.S. - All of this is assuming Chuck was not misquoted, always a very real possibility. MTV credits it to a post on his website, but I didn't see it around anywhere.

P.P.S. - latchkeykid showed me where Chuck's original quote was, at publicenemy.com, a brief passage in a long post where he seems to be thinking out loud on whatever comes to mind. Since then he put up an equally lengthy (but worth reading) response to MTV's coverage of the quote, here.

Chuck now says he considers Kanye a "superb lyricist," and says "the knock wasnt exactly on Kanye outside of the fact of the perceived slap at education."

Well I'm glad you cleared that up, Chuck, and I agree with most of what you're saying here. But you didn't say any of that in your original quote, so you can't be mad at MTV for quoting what you actually said instead of reading your mind. Your charge that "I bring up a point of critical analysis, and they cant even cover that sht right." is unfair, cuz you can't accuse someone of taking your words out of context if you never provided any context for them in the first place.

Why am I pretending to talk directly to Chuck? I need to get away from the computer for a while.

March 31, 2004

Chuck D's UC Football Team Joke?(or Kobe Bryant Joke?)

I almost hate to even mention this, but Mosaic at okayplayer pointed out a line on Chuck D's website that concerns me a hell of a lot more than the Kanye thing. Check out this last line:

Ok , im getting ready to speak this night at UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT DENVER ,,..and im gonna avoid big blond chicks at all costs.

Is there some other way I should be interpreting that, besides as a tasteless Kobe Bryant joke? If so, please let me know. Please.

Without even speculating on whether Kobe is innocent or guilty, this case revolves around the possibility that a female human being may have been raped, and reducing that to "har de har har Kobe got in trouble for messing with those white women," as so many have done since the story broke, strikes me as all types of wack.

EDIT: Jeremy points out he could be talking about the rape cases involving University of Colorado's football team, rather than Kobe. Unfortunately I don't think that would make it any better.

John Kerry Hip-Hop Ho Hum

Blah blah, John Kerry says he is fascinated by hip-hop.. maybe I'm just too jaded and curmudgeonly, but why are these proclamations from candidates even considered newsworthy anymore? He's just saying what he's supposed to say, how else would you expect him to answer that?

I'm not saying that Kerry's words were insincere, necessarily.. but Kerry is like the average guy who's on a first date, and his date says she wants to show him some of her poetry. Of course he's gonna say yes, and tell her afterwards that he was "fascinated" by it, what else is he gonna do? Maybe he really did like it, maybe not, but either way his agenda at that point in the relationship is saying whatever he can to score points.. and that's just where Kerry is at in his relationship with us.

I guess it is noteworthy that the hip-hop generation, however that is defined, has come to be recognized as a constituency powerful enough to be worth scoring points with. We'll see if events like the upcoming Hip-Hop Political Convention can work towards capitalizing on that.

The real question is why do I let myself get caught up in pointless conversations like this one?

April 1, 2004

Ghostface Spam Quiz, Now With Prizes!

Thanks to Justin at Cornerstone Promotions, our "Ghostface Killah vs. Random Spam Text" quiz is now a bonafide contest, with prizes and whatnot!

For the next two weeks you can send in your answers to contest@hiphopmusic.com, and on April 15th one of the correct respondents will be selected to receive a Ghostface t-shirt and the 12-inch singles for "Run" and "Tush," from Ghost's upcoming album Pretty Tony which I await with bated breath (does anyone actually know what "bated breath" is?)

Here is the quiz once again, your job is to figure out which lines are actual Ghostface Killah lyrics, and which ones are random text from spam I got in the mail last week:

A) "coconut civilian, 87 lexicon"

B) "alfalfa archer, intense caramel breadwinner"

C) "photographic magic, funeral love"

D) "tyco nightglow, velvet pose"

E) "nice DNA, scroll genetics"

F) "desert athletic, champagne distributor"

(Not an april fool's joke. Send in your entry now, you may already be a winner!!)

April 2, 2004

Oh Boy: The Pink Menace of Hip-Hop

I guess the school board read all those reports of gangsta rappers brandishing hot pink firearms:

School Tells Kids: Don't Think Pink

As a fashion statement, pink is a hot color this spring, but at Merrillville High School in Indiana, it also has become a hot-button issue. District Supt. Tony Lux distributed a letter to students Wednesday in which he "discouraged" them from wearing pink because of concerns that it has gang and rap music overtones.

Although Lux said dressing in pink could be "suspicious behavior," he emphasized the color wasn't banned. The situation erupted Friday when Principal Mark Sperling announced over the loudspeaker that students should think twice before wearing pink clothing.

"It was meant as a gentle reminder that this color has other meanings," said Sperling, who was left somewhat pink-faced as students continued to laugh about it Wednesday at the school south of Gary. His request was misinterpreted as a ban, prompting angry calls from parents asking whether pink prom dresses should be returned.

"We all thought it was stupid, so on Monday, a lot of people wore pink," said sophomore Ashley Washburn, who dressed in a pink golf shirt. Ten boys who showed up decked out in matching pink shirts and pink shoelaces were asked to change, Sperling said.

After discussing with other principals the seemingly odd increase in boys wearing pink, he decided to make the announcement. If a boy wears a pink shirt, "we will ask him to change," Sperling said. "We will not suspend him. We will ask him not to wear it." There was some confusion Wednesday over whether the announcement applied to girls.

Haley Stoica, a sophomore, said her history teacher asked that she put a sweatshirt over her pink long-sleeve shirt earlier this week. "I'm wearing pink tomorrow," she vowed. Merrillville students said pink became fashionable at the school after rapper Cam'ron wore pink in a music video and drove a pink SUV. They said it has nothing to do with gangs.

"It is not like guys in pink are flashing gang signs," Stoica said. "They are making a big deal out of nothing..."

(via the mighty Pandagon)

April 4, 2004

Join us on the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

April 6, 2004

A Chatbot Just Tried to Rob Me!

Collision detection posted about Catty, a cool chatbot that tries to have a conversation with you by searching through google for responses to whatever you say.

Naturally upon discovering this page I thought "here's a perfect opportunity for some good old hip-hop call and response!"

jay> now, what you hear is not a test
catty> but from what we hear psycho bunny is not in the arena :>

jay> gone, skeet skeet skeet skeet skeet skeet
catty> the last thing i need is for my parents to read about all of my lovely nightly rendevus with creatures of the night.

jay> Elvis was a hero to most
catty> if you see someone in your mirror and they are getting closer to you dont ride faster?!

jay> Somebody say hoooooooo
catty> you know ive wanted and needed to share this with somebody as long as i can remember but ill understand if you dont want to go any farther :-(

Apparently my attempts to rock the party were hurting her feelings, so I tried to start a normal conversation.

jay> are you a bot?
catty> whats the last thing a redneck says before he dies.

jay> Umm, I'll just take that as a yes. Anyway, do you listen to WBAI?
catty> sometimes when i listen to the villain music i want to touch myself in dirty places

jay> Okay, well let's not tell the FCC about that.
catty> you cannot assume that because you feel something is not worth being suicidal about that the person you are with feels the same way :>

jay> Yikes, can you chill with the gloom and doom and run-on sentences with no punctuation? You're creeping me out now..
catty> we are familiar with the fact that spinning tops keep spinning and can be made to balance on a point whereas non-spinning tops tend rather to fall over :-(

jay> So you're saying sometimes you have to keep moving in order to keep still? You are truly a zen master, I will have to meditate on that one.
catty> you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of god in order to keep your tradition?

jay>Huh, what tradition is that?
catty> in one of your papers on perennial wisdom it says that the native tradition is nature-focused

jay>Uhh maybe, I don't remember that. Most of my school papers were plagiarized, I was kinda lazy.
catty> most of your sites suck pretty bad cause they got no flayva baby thats why ya got no traffic and nobody wants to do good link trades with yaz

jay> Whoa now, watch who you beef with.. I put holes in beef like White Castle burgers. Don't be the next contestant on the Summer Jam screen.
catty> whitehat arsenal is designed to be the next generation of professional web application security audit software :-(

jay> Aw man that's it, now you're spamming me?? I'm getting outta here before you start telling me how your husband was President of Nigeria. Goodnight!
catty> less than a decade later he was president of the newly democratic czechoslovakia

jay> I'm calling the police.

So there you have it, let this be a warning. Catty's enigmatic allure is undeniable, but she cannot be trusted. Do not under any circumstances tell her how to access your bank account!

April 7, 2004

Does Morris O'Kelly Own a TV or Radio?

EURweb's Morris O'Kelly has blessed us with a remarkably silly bit of anti-rap trolling entitled "Rappers Are Not Musicians." I know I shouldn't feed the trolls, but I can't resist highlighting these two gems:

...Just don’t call them musicians. We haven’t had real music as a whole on radio for quite some time. Bring back real music…with real musicians. I’ll take any album of James Brown over an album full of James Brown samples, any day of the week...

Album full of James Brown samples? Did you write this in 1989, and just couldn't find anyone to publish it until now?

Lyrical genius is praiseworthy, but lyrical genius and just a drum beat hasn’t had a hit arguably since Dougie Fresh and Slick Rick’s “The Show” back in the mid 80’s.

Uhh, how about "Grindin"? or Grindin 2.0 aka "Tipsy"? Not to mention "The Show" was totally keyboard-driven, so what the crap are you even yapping about??

Ok I'm done.

A Complimentary Chuck D Post

Chuck D (today on Air America) discusses Kool Moe Dee's book There's a God on the Mic: "Everyone always puts me in the top 10 greatest emcees, I find it embarrassing because I don't think I should be in the top 25. But I guess I'll take it." A nice little moment of humility from one of our elder statesmen.

That's one thing I've always appreciated about Chuck, he's maintained a firm grasp of what his strengths are on the mic as well as his limitations, and figured out how to work with what he's got. He'll never be the most nimble tongue-twisting emcee with the most intricate rhyme structures, or kick any of the illest punchlines, but he uses that booming voice to make important ideas sound important, and has a knack for finding simple ways to switch up the structure or cadence of his rhymes and make the flow sound fresh (like ending his lines on the 4 instead of the 3 on tracks like Don't Believe the Hype, or that triplet note "radio stations I question your blackness" flow from "Bring the Noise", two simple innovations than half the emcees out there were copying 6 months later).

From what I've heard he's showing those same good instincts so far on Air America, stepping up front to interview folks like Spike Lee and Adisa Banjoko, playing the back when Lizz Winstead and Rachel Maddow are getting all wonky with folks like Josh Marshall.

I was planning to give more feedback on Air America but I'll have to come back to this later.

April 8, 2004

Media Drop Interviews Me, Part 2

themediadrop.com just posted the second half of their interview with yours truly, in which you can learn far more about me than you ever wanted to know. Jokes aside I enjoyed the conversation quite a lot, especially towards the end.

I will quote one passage here, because the theory I put forth has since been illustrated perfectly by one Morris O'Kelly:

TMD: On the note of JB - your site has had some pretty well noted visitors - anyone else reading the site regularly that people would find novel?

JS: There are a couple of hip-hop names people would know that come by often and post under slightly disguised names, but I don't want to blow them up.. there is Richard Pryor's wife of course, who just sent me some lovely emails lol.. What I'm finding is that celebrities, especially minor ones like Mrs. Pryor, are quite fond of Googling themselves, so if I put their name in the header of a post there's a pretty good chance they'll react to it eventually.. sort of my blogging "Field of Dreams" theory, lol.. "if I blog them they will come"...

April 10, 2004

The New Dead Prez Video

I've always respected Dead Prez and thought it was good for hip-hop to have them around, even if I found some of their analysis short-sighted (such as their "f*** they schools" stance later adopted by Kanye). We've had them on the radio show and they impressed me as deeply, sincerely committed to making a difference for their community. Plus their music is funky.

But their new song and video "Hell Yeah?" Umm, I don't think I like it.

I'm all in favor of encouraging kids who think they are gangstas to show and prove by "banging on the system" instead of each other. But you need to know the difference between riding against the system and riding off a cliff with all the other lemmings.

Violent robberies of pizza delivery people, carjacking a family simply because they are white and drove into a black neighborhood, these are not revolutionary acts. They do not make you a freedom fighter. Far from pimping the system, this is doing exactly what the system wants you to do. This is obediently following the path laid out for you, straight into the bowels of the system until you are too deep to ever escape.

I'd like to think their intent is to draw in kids who are caught up in that cycle, so they can expose those kids to a broader vision and help them to elevate. But where is that broader vision expressed in the song?

I'd like to think the last ten seconds of the video are meant to indicate we shouldn't take the rest of it literally, that they're not actually condoning all the actions they describe and it's really meant as a cautionary tale, or something. But if that was their intention then they're basically saying their own song is BS, because on the record itself nobody gets arrested and nobody wakes up from a dream.

Can somebody dissuade me on this? Cuz right now "Hell Yeah" strikes me as Bill O'Reilly's wet dream.

Join Us on the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

This week we welcome the EOW crew once again, for a special live performance with members of Dujeous and Real Live Show from midnight to 1. Then our cleanup hitter DJ 3D takes over till 2.

April 12, 2004

Ghostface is for the Children

Two reasons I'm not posting as much right now: 1) Need to focus on getting a full-time job. 2) Got a copy of Ghostface Killah's Pretty Tony album.

So while I'm otherwise occupied, here's an excerpt from Ghostface's interview in the latest Vibe, to keep you on the righteous path:

What would it take to start a movement to change hip hop?

Ghostface: If we all vouched to do it for the babies. If you’re not willing to put down the burner for your babies, that means you don’t give a f**k about your seeds or my seeds. Then f**k you! It’s niggas like you I still gotta keep holding my toast for. If niggas all agreed to leave the gangsta s**t alone for a couple years, that might be the sprout of a revolution.

I don’t think too many people would want to change what makes them successful.

Ghostface: No, they won’t. Because niggas ain’t creative enough to just rhyme to rhyme. Tell stories man! What happened to “Can I Kick It?” Let’s have fun again. Everything is too serious. F**k talking about guns. The nigga that’s amped off your s**t is the one that’ll blast you in the street. And you wonder why he blasted you! That’s the seed you planted muthaf**ka! We got a gift, man. We got a tool, and that tool is the f**kin’ radio. We ain’t here just to be here.

So what is your purpose?

Ghost: To serve the Father. I’m here to do what makes Him happy. I did a lot of bad shit in my life-punchin’ niggas in they mouths, robbin’ ‘em, shootin’ niggas for bulls**t. But, I did a lot of good, too-my scale is balanced out. Pardon me for whatever I did on this planet, but I was a product of my environment. And I just bent with the times here and there, but no disrespect, I still gave what I had to give to You.

You almost sound like a minister.

Ghostface: I am a minister in my own way. I know this world right here is hectic. It’s a battle going on between God and the Devil. And I’m just standing for righteousness. God made right before He made left, so that’s my path.

While we're on the topic, you've still got a couple of days to enter our Ghostface vs. Spam Text contest.

April 13, 2004

South African Hip-Hop: Skwatta Camp in Slate

A few months ago our radio show had a visitor all the way from South Africa, a top dog from one of their biggest record labels, Gallo Music Group. He told us about one of their recent signings, a rap group he said is one of the hottest acts out down there, and he played one of their tracks for us.

Although he seemed quite trustworthy, I had no way of knowing at the time whether he was just blowing smoke about how big his group was.. but judging by the profile that group, Skwatta Camp, just got in Slate, I guess he spoke the truth.

Soweto Hip-Hop

Shugasmakx and Sliquor strutted into the cafe, baggy jeans hanging low on their hips, their pants bunched up above new pairs of Adidas sneakers. With their hat brims pulled low over their eyes, they looked like kids I might run into on a college campus in New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago.

"Hey, what's up, sistah?" Shugasmakx greeted me with a complicated handshake and coolly plopped down at the table.

Shugasmakx and Sliquor, two of the seven members of the hip-hop group Skwatta Camp, are among South Africa's brightest stars. Their latest CD, Mkhukhu Funkshen, released last year by Gallo Music Group, was the first rap album to go gold in South Africa...

...My two guests have faint memories of apartheid; they were still children when Nelson Mandela came to power in 1994, and they represent the first black South African generation to grow up in a post-apartheid nation.

"We've aligned our music strongly with the economic struggle, with what people are going through," 21-year-old Shugsmakx told me as he sipped on a fruit shake, which he pushed out of frame before I took his photograph, so that he'd look tough. "We are the youth. We have a voice and need to speak. … We talk about things that happen around us, we just reflect the world..."

...Although Skwatta Camp may look and sound American, they are distinctly South African. Their lyrics express disillusionment with the revered ANC of the liberation struggle and caustically criticize the government for leaving "the people" behind in its scramble to the top...

(Note to the author: The proper abbreviation of microphone is "mic," not "mike." No matter what K Solo tells you.)

While we're on this topic I should shout out another cool brother who once visited us from Cape Town, Shaheen of the legendary Bushradio crew, who's been representing conscious hip-hop radio down there for over ten years now.

I'd love to hear their perspective on Skwatta Camp's anti-ANC stance, which I am not equipped to judge. Hopefully someone who lives there will swing by this post and offer their thoughts.

(via quarterwit)

Nottz

Has someone already pointed out that Dominick "Nottz" Lamb is the up-and-coming producer to watch for 2004-2005, or can I be the first?

Inside sources (hmm who could i mean by that?) report that Nottz' contributions to Dre's aborted Detox project were the nastiest beats anyone has done in years, and will hopefully be used on Stat Quo's debut now that Detox is shelved.

April 14, 2004

Can We Googlebomb "Rapper?"

Recently somebody noticed that when you searched for "jew" in google, the first result that came up was a site devoted to antisemitic propaganda. So a campaign spread throughout blogville to googlebomb the word jew, by constantly posting jew as a link to the word's definition on wikipedia.org, which can eventually "trick" google into making wikipedia's entry the #1 result.

As noted by mediadrop, the good "jew" and the evil "jew" are now running neck-and-neck for the top spot, and depending on how you access google, wikipedia may already be come in first.

Quite impressive, the success of this geek activism (geektivism?). And it reminded me that when I put the word "rapper" in google a while ago, the first page was full of results either didn't relate to hip-hop at all, or made a mockery of it. So I checked again tonight, and here's what i got:

Result #1 champions a traditional English dance known as the "rapper sword dance." Result #2 belongs to a dentist named Rapper Dentist Daddy, whose site explains: "Gold crowns can be made as part of your permanent smile, or in some cases a removable appliance can be made to cover your natural teeth when you want that "Hip Hop" look."

The next few entries are satirical offerings from Ali G and MC Steven Hawking, who are both pretty damn funny, I will admit (f**k the creationists!). But still, I'm saying..

If you search for "hip-hop," all ten first-page results are genuine representations of hip-hop culture. So why can't we have just one top result for "rapper" that belongs to an actual rapper?

Needless to say, I don't mean to belittle the issue of anti-semitism by suggesting this cause is of equal importance. But for real. I want to see if we can get this done. Somebody just needs to pick out a page for us to use.. Any ideas?

(An alternative solution: We could have the greatest rapper of all time right up top, if we convinced Rakim to stop doing promos for goldteethusa.com and become Rapper Dentist Daddy's spokesperson instead.)

April 15, 2004

Smoking Gun Source Scoop

Thanks to funkdigital for this one:

Creditors Rap Deadbeat Source Mag

The Source magazine might want to consider calling off its feud with Eminem and asking the rap star if he could float them a loan. Because the supposed "hip hop Bible" has recently been hit with four lawsuits claiming that the monthly has not paid its bills. The complaints, filed over the last six weeks in New York State Supreme Court, seek a total of $1.35 million, with the majority of that tab--$1.1 million--owed to a New York paper merchant. A Manhattan lithographer has sued for $30,000. A Fifth Avenue jeweler wants $36,000, claiming that a pricey pair of earrings went missing after a 2003 photo shoot. And The Source's travel agent wants $142,000. In its complaint, an excerpt of which you'll find below, Tzell Travel claims The Source's owners, David Mays and Raymond "Benzino" Scott, never paid for hundreds of airline tickets purchased since last August. Included in the lawsuit is a detailed printout of those tickets, showing that The Source paid travel costs for rap producers Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo as well as executives with Murder Inc., the controversial rap label. And then there's the first-class fares for Mays's parents and tickets for Scott's relatives.

Click the link to see the court documents..

Peter Merholz Told Me To

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

(I'm gonna cheat a little by adding his found sentence before mine. I like how they go together, although the tenses don't match.)

Significant Others by Craig B. Stanford

We descend the Bodingo peninsula, an elevated ridge of land south of the park's border that runs down into Likouala aux Herbes swamps. But as field data accumulated it became clear that the brutal side of chimpanzees is quite real.

Hip-Hop Box Giveaway

I'll be announcing the winner of our "Ghostface vs. Spam Text" today or tomorrow, but in the meantime I've got another present for you. Well, for one of you.

Next week Hip-O Records releases "The Hip Hop Box," a 4-CD box covering twenty years of hip-hop history from "Rappers Delight" to Common's "The Light." Thanks to Cornerstone once again, I've got one complete set to giveaway to one of my beloved readers/posters. So here's what I need you to do:

1. Post here with your favorite line from one of the songs featured in the box set (track list below), and tell us what song is missing from the set that most deserved to be on there.

2. After you do that, email me at contest@hiphopmusic.com to put your name in the hat.

Here's more info from Hip-O, and the track listing:

Continue reading "Hip-Hop Box Giveaway" »

April 18, 2004

Join Us On the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

April 19, 2004

"Nah, F**k That! 'Prairie Home Companion!' Just Started!"

Pimping the system, Naomi Campbell style:

Stic.man Of Dead Prez Arrested For Flight Disturbance

Stic.man of Dead Prez was arrested Sunday for simple assault after allegedly causing a disturbance on a United Airlines flight.

The group was leaving O'Hare Airport in route to New York City on the 1:50 PM flight.

A flight attendant said they refused to turn off their radios. Harris DeJesus aka "D-Don" and the group's DJ, Umi Bem Niilampti were also arrested and charged with the same offense...

April 20, 2004

NEW AUDIO: Quick Live Performance from Dujeous

Last week we had an interesting mix of guests on the radio show, with Infamous Mobb and Dujeous representing their respective corners of the NY underground. Here's a little live representation from Dujeous' portion, with Emskee on beat box:


Dujeous on the Underground Railroad - 4/17/04

Dujeous has been one of NY's best live hip-hop acts for 10 years now, glad to see they finally have an album out, and one that does them justice.

April 21, 2004

Hip-Hop and Native Americans

Cristina Verán (how come she doesn't have a blog?) on hip-hop and American Indians:

Rap, Rage, REDvolution

Conjuring up the charge of cavalries and natives on some futuristic-western warpath, OutKast stormed the 2004 Grammys in February with the brazenness of the former, while bedecked as the latter. Resplendent in neon green Halloween-Hiawatha approximations of Native American regalia—fringe, headbands, and feathers—Andre and Big Boi rose before smoking teepees, prancing proudly through their chart-slaying "Hey Ya!," the chorus of which is itself evocative of powwow singing. Was it some kind of tribute, or did the winners of the Album of the Year Grammy unwittingly channel Al Jolson's "Mammy"?

It's a question many Native Americans have considered, responding promptly to launch boycotts and Web petitions voicing their collective displeasure. CBS's brief, lukewarm apology—"if anyone was offended"—brought zero resolution, particularly since OutKast themselves refused even to comment. Two months later, people are still waiting; during an April 1 protest outside the network's Minneapolis affiliate, one person was arrested.

"Janet Jackson's right breast was exposed for three-quarters of a second and both the House and Senate convened hearings immediately, [yet] vulgarisms about Native Americans are prime-time fare . . . and no one does anything," notes Suzan Shown Harjo (Hodulgee Muscogee/ Cheyenne), executive director of the Morningstar Institute, in her "Open Letter to Michael Powell, Andre 3000 and Big Boi," first published in Indian Country Today.

Hip-hop, meanwhile, is speaking to the issue as well. "[It's] currently the most popular music on the reservations," explains Don Kelly, executive director of the Native American Music Awards. Litefoot (Cherokee), NAMA's Male Artist of the Year for 2003, takes up the fight with his new single "What's It Gonna Take": "We only good with feathers on/Don't exist when they're off/I punch the remote/feeling like my whole race is a joke..."

I'm surprised that in her list of hip-hop's iffy Indian references she left out Slick Rick's "Indian Girl." But maybe it is a wise choice to pretend that one never happened.

Regarding Outkast's silence on the issue, I did get Sleepy Brown to talk briefly about the Grammy thing, in an interview you'll hopefully be able to read soon.

April 22, 2004

1979: When the Culture Became a Commodity

Renee Graham in the Boston Globe notes the 25th anniversary of Rapper's Delight. The piece is unusually kind to Sylvia Robinson, who is often portrayed as a shady character. I remember she sued Blaze magazine after they noted her reputation for jerking Sugar Hill artists out of their money (immortalized by Naughty by Nature, who were signed to Sugar Hill briefly, in their line "I'm more feared than a Sugar Hill contract").

Hip + hop = one big bang

..."When 'Rapper's Delight' came out, people were caught off guard," says Ahearn, coauthor of "Yes, Yes Y'all." "People like Grandmaster Flash and Grandmaster Caz, who were creative elements of the hip-hop scene in the Bronx, didn't see this coming at all, either because they didn't believe you could make money from it or they didn't have the vision to do something like that."

Music business veteran Sylvia Robinson had the vision. She had her own hits, "Love Is Strange" as half of the 1950s duo Mickey & Sylvia and, in the 1970s, the breathy "Pillow Talk" as a solo artist. With her husband, Joe, she also co-owned All-Platinum Records, a small label in New Jersey. After hearing rappers in New York's late, great club Harlem World, Robinson put together a trio and recorded and released "Rapper's Delight" on her renamed Sugar Hill Records, rap's first important label.

"I think Sylvia Robinson should be given credit for having the will and the insight in making a commercial recording of hip-hop," Ahearn says. "She wasn't someone from the Bronx, she wasn't someone who really knew the players, but I don't think anyone should discredit her for what she did. She was the one who went into a studio and made something that obviously hit the nerve of everybody who listened to it..."

"...It's not like they slickened it up and made something pat and commercial," Ahearn says. "It's ridiculous that anyone would do that in a studio and think anyone would play it - but they did. DJs didn't know what it was or where it came from, but they were definitely swinging with it."

Still, the success of "Rapper's Delight" was not without controversy. Some of its verses were "borrowed," as Fricke put it, from New York rappers Raheim and Grandmaster Caz, who have been largely consigned to hip-hop's shadows. Others were upset that some patched-together crew from New Jersey - not the Bronx or Harlem - was getting the credit for creating hip-hop. As the Sugarhill Gang began touring and appearing on TV, some rap pioneers were left behind.

"They were perceived to be carpetbaggers," Fricke said about the Sugarhill Gang. "One of the things that's striking and depressing about the popular music world is that in just about every genre you go into, the pioneers don't get paid, and there are entrepreneurs who develop the independent record labels that break the music, and those people end up making more money than the artists. It's often the newcomers to the scene who make the money. That's just the way it is - it doesn't make it right, but it's a fact of life..."

There's no doubt Sylvia Robinson changed the course of hip-hop, and its funny to think the path that brought us to sit here having this conversation was paved by an outsider who wormed her way into the culture trying to figure out where the money was.

I wonder how hip-hop would have evolved if she hadn't introduced the formula for packaging it as a mass-produced commercial product, in bite-sized, individually wrapped portions? Would it have remained limited mostly to NY all this time, as a local tradition like Go-Go in DC, or would the world have discovered it sooner or later? Would we have seen the tremendous artistic innovation of the last 20 years if Sylvia hadn't pushed it towards shifting from a strictly live tradition to what is now primarily a studio art, driven by recorded works?

April 25, 2004

Join Us On the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

April 27, 2004

Cows That Are Milked Inappropriately: Slick Rick on File Sharing

From a new interview in MIT's school paper:

TT: What is your position on Internet file sharing, and do you think this is something that helps or hurts the music industry?

SR: Music is one of the last beauties left in the world, that is pretty much being spoiled now. ... The music industry, for a long period of time, has been cruelly manipulated and robbed. Like, a person could be born with a talent. He’s happy, he’s energetic, he goes and gives his talent to the world, and then when it comes time for him to get his paycheck, he’s totally robbed.

TT: By the industry?

SR: By the industry, exactly. They’re spitting their heart out to the world. The fans don’t know this. They want to see him a star. They’re admiring, they relate to you. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, these no-talent bums is robbing you and taking all your money, and making you put up a front like you’re wealthier than you really are, because you don’t want to let your people down. ... These stars, these god-given stars have been manipulated and robbed since the system became started. So when Internet sharing came, it was almost like God came and said, “Listen to me,” and he says “Look, you stole, you tried to gain and steal and profit off of everything you’ve given the world. This is a payback. You can’t control it. You can’t control Internet sharing.”

TT: So you think it’s affecting the industry more than it’s affecting the artists?

SR: We as artists, we was never getting a dime, regardless. We’re happy if we get, like Prince says. ... if Prince was to go and sell his own little records, even if he can sell a hundred-thousand records, he’s rich. If he sells it himself. In these industries, they tell you four million, five million, you’re not seeing the same money you would make if you sold your own records. Like if you sold 50,000 records, you’d be rich ... well, somewhat well-off. But if you let the industry, which is supposed to take their cut and give you your cut, do it, and they sell millions, they’re not giving you your fair share. They just keep on manipulating you. It’s like having a bunch of cows that are milked inappropriately. They lose their spirit to create. And the next thing, they’re just a dried-up cow, which means that you as a manager, industry, you have just manipulated, and brought despair upon your cows. Now they can’t create milk. ... I think Internet sharing is a blessing to humans. I think Internet sharing is a blessing to the average man. ... I think [Internet sharing] is a blessing in disguise.

April 28, 2004

Prince's Olympic Quintuplecast

Tonight at 9PM the fearsome Viacom empire will air a 30 minute Prince concert on 5 of its channels: MTV, VH1, BET, MTV2 and VH1 Classic. Each channel will show the same concert footage buth apparently each will have their own different interview clips. The concert was taped last week at NY's Webster Hall nightclub, in front of a small studio audience that included myself.

He started out with Musicology, the same as he's been doing it, followed by Mr. Man. Then he did a great solo acoustic set, all different songs than he did on the LA simulcast. Started with Cream, never my favorite but he had a lot of fun with it here. The crowd was doing a call and response with all the backup vocal parts, and he really seemed to enjoy performing for fans who know his stuff like that. Then he did "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man," and afterwards asked "remember that from high school? ..well here's what I remember from high school" and started playing "Sweet Thing." He let us handle most of the vocals which was cool with me cuz it let us enjoy his guitar work, especially the way he played the chords for the chorus.

Then the full band came out again, and mashup of "Hot Pants" and "Life of the Party," and then Kiss. I'm thinking this segment will be cut from the telecast? Something has to go, cuz he played for more than a half hour.

Afterwards we all stayed around for the star-studded celebrity party, where Mike Piazza and Stevie Wonder could be found bumping elbows with Dead Prez and DJ Kuttin Kandi. Actually it was a funny scene because all the "regular folks" were having a great time dancing and partying on the main floor, while the industry people were huddled in one corner having no fun at all, stressing out and arguing with the ornery bouncers who wouldnt let them go upstairs to the VIP area. In other words, everyone was so caught up in the industry status game they had to spend half the night fighting to get upstairs, just so they could do the same thing they could already be doing downstairs, except upstairs they get the validation of doing it with other Important People.

April 30, 2004

C. Delores Tucker Gets the Gasface

C. Delores Tucker, master of moral outrage as promotional tool and supporter of Rev. Sun Myung Moon (click atrios' "host committee" link), just took a loss in yet another absurd lawsuit, in which she sued local newspapers for failing to properly capture the absurdity of her previous lawsuits:

Court Dismisses Libel Suit by Rap Critic

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a libel lawsuit by a critic of violent rap lyrics who said two newspapers had mischaracterized her dispute with the estate of slain rapper Tupac Shakur and others.

C. DeLores Tucker, who led a national campaign against rap music with violent lyrics in the 1990s, had sued over lyrics in which Shakur rhymed her name with an obscenity. Her 1997 lawsuit alleged, among other things, that her husband, William Tucker, had suffered loss of "consortium."

The Philadelphia Daily News and The Legal Intelligencer, a daily newspaper covering legal affairs in Philadelphia, were among the news organizations that reported on the lawsuit and interpreted loss of consortium to mean harm to the Tuckers' sex life. Tucker said the claim had nothing to do with sex, but with "advice, society, companionship, i.e., defendants' effect upon the `family union.'"

Thursday's ruling said the Tuckers can plead their case again only if they assert that the newspapers had been told unequivocally that the loss of consortium claim was not about sex...

How does she manage to go through these proceedings with a straight face?

Esthero: Ten Percent Dis

Whoa (or should I say whoa, Nelly?), Esthero has returned with deadly venom for the biters.

"you're just waiting for me to drown so noone knows that you stole my whole sound and yet you're grinning when I come around you fake ass b**ch"

Glad to hear she's back, but I hope this won't some kind of cross-canadian beef (the beef tastes kinda funny up there).


(via Madwriter on Okayplayer (special shoutout to kinetic94761180))

5/4/04 UPDATE: Esthero herself has (apparently?) popped up on Okayplayer, logged in as "dukesup" to deny that the song is about Nelly Furtado..

A Proper Ghostface Review

At loosie.com, with quite a disheartening intro:

For the Def Jam marketing minds, Ghostface Killah presents a mystery wrapped inside an enigma nestled inside a Gucci bathrobe. This isn’t conjecture – about six months ago I spoke to a high-ranking individual from the label that asked in bewilderment, “what do people like about him, anyway?” After admitting an affinity for the “song about the roaches in the cereal”, the Universal soldier complained that Tony Starks’ gargantuan medallion and bronzed arm-eagle were “so new money.” “Why can’t he be Sean Carter?” the label representative sighed...

May 1, 2004

Join Us On the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

May 2, 2004

"I Have Existed for Years, But Very Little Has Changed..."

When my mother and I went to Vancouver last year we walked by a block that had seemingly been reduced to rubble by an extremely localized tornado. It turned out the tornado was an NBC crew, who had temporarily destroyed the block for an upcoming earthquake movie named "10.5." It was impressive seeing the set up close, all the foam rubber debris and such was totally convincing in person, if wasn't for the cameras and crew we never would have known it was fake.

The movie is airing tonite and probably won't be very good, but if you happen to tune in see if you can spot the scenes we walked by, like these mannequins who caught a bad one.

I've been without TV for a year and a half now, and it's amazing how little my life has been affected by the lifestyle change. More than anything I've learned that the tube is so deeply embedded in our culture that removing the actual television appliance from my own life makes me no less a citizen of the TV nation.

I still spend every day hearing jokes and references to the latest hit shows, and even though I've never actually seen most of them, never watched Omarosa or William Hung or Nick and Jessica with my own eyes, I still feel like I get all the jokes, just about as well I did when I was watching along with everyone else.

Don't get me wrong, I'll never be one of those too-cool-for-TV snobs (I have the entire "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" series on my hard drive). But it's been a trip to take a step back for the last year, and get a different perspective by watching from the sidelines.

May 4, 2004

And the Chris Rock "Low-Expectations-Having" Award Goes To..

What does it tell us when a rapper says he plans to vote and it is considered a news event?

Andre 3000 of OutKast Plans to Vote

Andre 3000 of the rap duo OutKast says that when it comes to voting, he's been negligent, but things will be different this November. "Stuff came up," the 28-year-old, whose real name is Andre Benjamin, told The Atlanta Journal Constitution (registupidstration required). "I was out of town, I couldn't see how my vote would matter. It just wasn't that important to me," he said.

But Benjamin, one of dozens of entertainers taking part in a voting promotion, said he has "realized just how important it is. I'm really excited about voting for the first time," the Atlanta native said for an article published Tuesday. Benjamin recently hosted an event for "Declare Yourself," a national nonprofit group that has raised $27 million to try to reverse the trend of a declining youth vote...

To be fair, Andre sounds perfectly sensible here, but that headline still cracks me up. More on Outkast's civic-mindedness here , and more importantly you can register to vote here.

May 10, 2004

This Week on Queer Eye for the Strapped Guy

I don't usually post non-stories like this, but there's one sentence in here I can't resist:

Scuffle erupts during surprise 50 Cent appearance

[Blah blah blah, shoving match at a concert, probably wouldn't be "news" if there was no rapper involved]

Security guards had frisked the rapper and his entourage behind the stage; the rapper was wearing a Gucci holster, but the weapon it held fired only rubber pellets, Barrasso said.

[Blah blah someone got shot in the same neighborhood as the concert, and even though there's no evidence it's related to the show we will toss it in because as every journalist knows, any crime that occurs within a 5 mile radius of a rapper is "rap-related"]

Okay nevermind the bollocks, where can I buy one of these holsters?? Nothing says "keeping it real" like a Gucci Rubber Pellet Gun Holster.

Or An Animation, A Cartoon of Me

Noted rapper and voter Andre 3000 is considering a foray into the cartoon world:

Andre 3000 Mulling Cartoon Project

Cartoon Network is developing a potential series project with OutKast's Andre 3000. The rapper is hashing out ideas with the cable network for a half-hour special pegged for Cartoon's "Adult Swim" block. If Andre 3000 and Cartoon -- both based in Atlanta -- are happy with the results, the channel will greenlight the special for series treatment.

Mike Lazzo, senior vp of Cartoon's "Adult Swim" program block, quickly got over his reservations about collaborating with celebrities upon meeting with Andre 3000, who has worked as an illustrator. "I'm extremely wary of it, but in Andre's case, I think he is a creative genius," he said. "He has definite opinions of what he likes visually."

This would not, of course, be the first time a rapper got their own animated show. I believe that honor goes to Kid-N-Play, who joined NBC's Saturday morning lineup in 1990 with their self-titled cartoon featuring voices by Martin Lawrence, Tommy Davidson, Dorian Harewood, Rain Pryor and Cree Summer.

And one year after Kid-n-Play broke down those barriers, ABC was able to introduce the greatest cartoon in television history, MC Hammer's Hammerman:

"Hammer stars as Stanley Kirk Burrell, a worker at the community centre helping local children. Whenever the hammering beat of his rapping rhymes activates his magic dancing shoes, streetwise Stanley is transformed into Hammerman - the first musical superhero."

One can only hope Andre will match the standard set by these pioneers.

May 11, 2004

Another View on the Demise of Rawkus

There's been much discussion lately on the rise and fall of Rawkus Records, thanks to recent pieces in XXL and the Village Voice (which some found less than satisfying). So I dug up my 2001 interview with Mr. Walt and Evil Dee of the Beatminerz, where they gave an insider's take on what went wrong within the Rawkus empire. Suffice it to say they didn't mince words:

And here's a little bonus from the same interview, where I got Evil Dee to tell the story of his secret meeting with Vanilla Ice (during a discussion of The Source's list of alltime greatest beats):

  • Evil Dee on how the Boot Camp Clik wound up at Vanilla Ice's house.

(Sidenote: it's trippy for me to listen to this since it was recorded 4 days before 9/11.. crazy to think we were sitting there in the studio which is/was about 5 blocks from the World Trade Center, having no idea what was coming. I wish I had taken a minute to walk by just one more time..)

May 14, 2004

Stephin Merritt Making Jack White Sound Like Greg Tate

Since I have no time to blog right now, I will now resort to stealing other people's entries in their entirety. Today's victim: Michael Angelo Matos.

Stephin Merritt in old, out of it, and talking out his ass shockah. "OutKast is boring music for suburban teenagers"--yes, and the Magnetic Fields is boring music for their older siblings who fancy themselves intellectual because they read half a magazine piece by David Foster Wallace.

Other choice Merritt quote: "Beyoncé is not famous for her songs, she’s famous for that outfit." Dude. It's okay to be out of the loop. As long as you don't try to talk like you're in the loop. Then it gets embarrassing.

Sidenote: Does Sasha actually own this? If so he should probably not invite me to his house, cuz things might happen.

May 22, 2004

Join Us On the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

May 25, 2004

NEW AUDIO: DJ Tomkat Gets In the Wayback Machine


Here's a classic soul/funk set from a few months ago, when Tomkat filled in for us at the last minute:

May 26, 2004

Antibalas live on WBAI Tonight

Sorry for the last minute warning, but if you see this in time you might be able to catch the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra performing live in our WBAI studios, tonight from 7 to 9 PM. It's part of Rise Up Radio's fundraising special, which is more than worthy of your support. You can tune in at 99.5FM or catch thew web stream here. OTher luminaries expected to attend inlcude William "Upski" Wimsatt and Free Speech Radio News/Morning Show anchor Deepa Fernandes.

May 28, 2004

A Quick Request

Can somebody who knows flash make a version of the game at the end of this cartoon, using Bush's various attempts to pronounce "Abu Ghraib"?

May 30, 2004

Holiday Events from Our DJs

If you're in the NY/NJ area here are two events to add some funk into your holiday. First, tonight from Monkone and Emskee:

Wax Poetics Issue 8 Release Party, Sunday May 30th

With DJs Monk-1 & Emskee (WBAI Underground Railroad, Wax Poetics) Spinning classics for folks who grew up with hip hop

Table Fifty
643 Broadway at Bleecker
tel 212 253 2560
$5 cover

RSVP (including your name!) to: tbrosRSVP@hotmail.com for FREE admission.

Then tomorrow out in Jersey from DJ 3D:

P.P.C.A..N.J. PROMOTING POSITIVE CULTURAL ARTS OF NEW JERSEY PRESENTS:

The DJ Showcase at The 38th Annual African American Heritage Day Parade and Festival

A diverse free form showcase in celebration of African American Heritage. This event will take place on Memorial Day Monday, May 31, 2004, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Weequahic Park located at Elizabeth and Meeker Avenue in Newark, NJ 07105. Admission is FREE and open to all ages.

Featuring DJ 3D from Brooklyn, NY mixing of up a funky and groovy set of Deep house, underground hip hop and classics. DJ 3D has been in the music industry for over 10 years. He is a radio DJ for New York's longest running underground hip hop radio show The Underground Railroad on WBAI 99.5 FM. 3D has performed with artists such as Buck Shot of Black Moon, Paul Barman, DJ Jazzy Jeff and Prince Paul. He has also produced and done remixes for such artists as Asheru and El Da Sensei (formally of the Artifacts).

Also featuring rare public appearances by the reclusive Jay Smooth!

June 1, 2004

Dangermouse + 3 Unreleased Never Before Read Bonus Blogs!!!

Dangermouse gets crunky with the Railroad crew

DJ Dangermouse stopped by the show this weekend and chatted for a bit.

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I try to keep myself from picking out random strangers and haranguing them, I really do. But sometimes I just can't hold it back. (it's the may 5th entry)

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This is the best blog that gets the least comments ever. I'm thinking everybody's intimidated? (I wrote this before I got pinged, BTW)

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Speaking of getting pinged: when I posted Jay-Z's decade-old appearance on my show here a while ago, I pasted in a clip of my voice saying "hiphopmusic dot com!" right after I introduce him, just to make sure nobody could reproduce it without crediting me. That turned out to be a wise choice, as you'll hear on one of this year's biggest mixtapes, Sickamore's Marcy to Madison Square (it's track 25, if you have it).

(props to Lynne for pointing that track out)

June 4, 2004

Hello Darkness My Old Friend

My home computer is currently non-functional, which is severely hampering my bloggery.

Until I'm back amongst the living, let's all go join in O-Dub's Epic PC/No-Homo Debate.

As my contribution to the discourse I will point readers to these two vintage posts about Vice Magazine, from the Blogger Later Known As Wonkette, which give Vice's "ironic detachment makes bigotry cool" pose the skewering it so richly deserves: one two.

June 8, 2004

Including Activists in Your Activism

The inexplicably still blogless Ta-Nehisi Coates (didn't you get the memo? all music writers must blog!) on the upcoming National Hip-Hop Political Convention. Damn is this next week already? The thoughts below mesh nicely with what I was saying here a while ago.

A Nation of Millions
Hip-Hop Convention seeks answer to what's holding young America back

James Bernard is determined that his latest foray into political activism not end like his first. In 1984, a young Bernard volunteered for Jesse Jackson's first presidential run. Though Jackson had little chance of winning, he created a tremendous buzz among the progressive youth. But after volunteering for Jackson again in '88, Bernard was disappointed by the unfulfilled potential. "The problem with both campaigns was a lack of follow-up," says Bernard. "In '84, we had a computer record of all the donors of the Jackson campaign on tape." After that election, "the only copy was sitting on a friend of mine's desk collecting dust."

In the interest of kicking up dust instead of collecting it, Bernard and dozens of activists from around the country are coming to Newark this month for the first National Hip-Hop Political Convention. Representatives of a variety of progressive groups, including the ACLU, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, and the Center for Constitutional Rights, will participate in the four-day conference. The events, which begin June 16, include a concert, a film festival, and workshops like "Taking My Life to the Next Level..."

...The convention organizers appreciate any effort that strengthens the hand of young voters. But they are not sold on the idea of artists as the vanguard of a political movement. Bakari Kitwana, co-founder of the convention, says he was inspired to hold the gathering, in part, after Simmons invited him and several other activists to participate in an HSAN rally at Reverend Al Sharpton's headquarters. "I told him it doesn't make any sense to do anything if you aren't going to get activists involved," says Kitwana. "So he did, and we got together a good group of people who showed up at Sharpton's headquarters. What ended up happening is what HSAN does now. It ended up being a rally where the hip-hop artists were allowed to speak, and we were in the audience. A lot of people left angry."

What came out of that anger was the convention's own philosophy of the hip-hop generation—that its agenda should be shaped and driven not so much by big names but by ordinary people of the same age group with similar concerns. Kitwana says the two approaches should ultimately complement each other...

June 16, 2004

Morris Day Meets Mr. Mcfeeley

Hellooooo.. is anybody out therrrre???

New computer parts are being fed-exed as we speak, and I should be back online shortly. Did a nice little interview with Ty today, which will be one of the first things up when we return. If you're in the NY area you should make your way to the 5 Spot in Brooklyn this Saturday night, and catch the man live and in person..

And here's another event earlier that day, for folks in my neck of the woods who aren't attending the convention. I'm hyped to see the Time for free, whenever I've caught them in recent years their live show was as hot as ever, Minneapolis funk at its finest. But uhh, am I the only one who looks at this line-up and worries that Morris and the boys are one step away from playing Six Flags Great Adventure?

The Downtown NYC River to River Festival 2004 is exploding with activity this summer. On June 19, River to River presents Target Children's Day and Fireworks at the South Street Seaport. Gordon from "Sesame Street" will host this star-studded, nonstop event beginning at Noon. The fun-filled day will include performances from the cast of Cyberchase, ZOOM, characters from Between the Lions, Mr. McFeeley from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood and The Russian American Kids Circus on Stage. Kids can meet and greet their favorite walk-around characters like Elmo, Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie, the Berenstain Bears and more. Enjoy arts & crafts, face-painters, jugglers, clowns, puppets -- even a petting zoo!

Later in the day, don't miss special performances from Ralph's World, the Big Nazo Band and the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players. Morris Day and the Time will give a very special performance at 9 p.m. that will lead us into the Target Big Oooh Aaah Fireworks spectacular at 10 p.m.!

The third annual Downtown NYC River to River Festival, presented by American Express, produces and promotes roughly 500 cultural events, including world-class, music and dance performances in Lower Manhattan.

For a complete list of events, please visit www.RivertoRiverNYC.com.

June 17, 2004

Hip-Hop Convention Coverage

By the way all you hip-hop luminaries in town, you should come see us on Saturday night!

June 19, 2004

Join Us the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

July 2, 2004

Female Emcees (and My Blueprint for Hip-Hop Blogging)

So seriously, I've been out of the game for so long, can someone remind me how this hip-hop blogging business works?

Oh yeah, I think I remember the formula now. I unearth some obscure web page that says something clueless about hip-hop, and then fulminate with rage against their cluelessness, milk it for a few snappy wisecracks, and use it as a springboard to pontificate ad nauseum. And, whenever possible, mention some famous person with whom I've discussed the issue.

Here's a breakdown of the recipe:

Step One: Quotation
Step Two: Fulmination
Step Three: Sarcastication
Step Four: Refutation
Step Five: Corroboration (i.e. gratuitous-name-drop-ization)
Step Six: Oh So Witty Summation

And now I will demonstrate, annotating each step, with an atrocity I recently found at CNN.com:

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The first female rapper? The answer is...1

No, the first woman to release a rap single was not Lauryn Hill or Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, Queen Latifah or even Roxanne Shante.

Punk songstress Deborah Harry of Blondie served up the first female voice of rap. In the middle of "Rapture," a song that dominated the airwaves in the early 1980s, Harry launched into a rapid patter of words atop an irresistible beat. The formula, merging street with sexy, proved so powerful that Lil' Kim, Foxy Brown and other female hip-hop stars use it today.

Who the hell wrote this, and what the crap are they yapping about?!?!??2 Golly, after watching CNN's coverage of the war in Iraq I would never imagined they could get a story so totally, totally wrong.3

As I'm sure most of this blog's readers will know, the first female emcees who put out a record were in a group known Sequence4, made up of Gwendolyn Chisholm aka Blondie (so if you said "Blondie did the first female rap record" you'd be sorta half right), Cheryl Cook aka Cheryl the Pearl (as cited by Kool Moe Dee on "Let's Go," where he mockingly compared LL's voice to hers), and Angie B (now known as R&B diva Angie Stone). Their single "Funk You Up" came out on Sugar Hill about a year before "Rapture."

And just as the Sugarhill Gang were far from the first rappers, Sequence were not the first female emcees by any means. Long before anyone was rapping on wax there were already female voices in the mix, includingPebblee Poo of the Masterdon Committee, Sha Rock of the Funky Four Plus One More (who later performed alongside Debbie Harry as the first rappers ever on Saturday Night Live), and the first all female crew the Mercedes Ladies.

Last Sunday the grand exalted Kool DJ Red Alert5 teamed up with my crew of DJs at Table 50 on Bleeker Street, and while he was waiting for his turn to burn G-Man and I asked Red to name the first female emcee he could remember, as a head who was around from the very beginning. He agreed with G that Sha Rock was the best female of the era, but said the first two he remembered seeing were Smiley (presumably the same one from the Mercedes Ladies) and before her a young woman known as "Little Lee" or "Lil Lee," who he said was also Melle Mel's girlfriend in the very early days.

I've never heard of Little Lee before, and neither has Google, but I would damn sure never doubt the Propmaster. Do any of our older readers remember her?

And for real though, does anyone know who I can talk to at CNN about this embarrassment? If CNN is this far off I shudder to think how Fox News would do: "and in 1988 the rap world welcomed a female voice for the first time, with the avant-garde innovations of Paula Abdul on 'Cold Hearted Snake.' Paula's pioneering work paved the way for today's reigning Queens of Rap, Northern State."6

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There you go, see how easy that was? It's just like shooting fish in a barrel riding a bicycle!

July 3, 2004

Join Us On the Radio Tonight: Fahrenheit 9/11 Giveaway

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

Thanks to our partner Joyce, we will celebrate Independence Day on the radio show tonight by giving away two pairs of tickets to Fahrenheit 9/11.

The tickets are for the Tuesday 7PM showing at Clearview First & 62nd Cinemas, and the winners will meet Joyce at the theater at 6PM to pick up their tickets. Joyce wants us to make sure some real hip-hop heads use these tickets, so we will be cooking up some trivia questions for you..

Tonight's show will also feature cameo appearances by Mr Len and several of his associates.

July 9, 2004

Skillz Vs. Shaq

A month or two ago Shaquille O-Neal aimed a dis record at Virginia's underground stalwart Skillz (formerly Madd Skillz), sparking possibly the most peculiar beef in hip-hop history.

Skillz, after denying that he himself wrote Shaq's verse about him as part of a staged publicity stunt, came back at Shaq with a lukewarm response named "The Champ is Here," that began with a painfully stilted "guest appearance" by Ben Wallace, sounding an awful lot like Skillz took some Sportscenter clips and of Ben and pretended he was talking to him.

And now, according to hiphopsite, Skillz is about to put the Dis back into Obsessive Compulsive Disorder by aiming seven new tracks at Shaq on an upcoming mixtape.

To be honest, based on those first two tracks I think Shaq is actually winning this battle so far. But either way, something is seriously wrong if you need 7 tracks to beat anyone in a battle, much less Kazaam.

I still think this is all staged anyway, and will culminate in a three-way cage match between Shaq, Skillz and John Cena.

(via okayplayer)

July 12, 2004

Help Me Escape Realaudio

Since I got my new computer i've spent about a week struggling to make the latest version of the realaudio encoder perform what should be the most basic, easiest functions, to no avail. At this point I'm ready to do what I should have done a long time ago, and stop supporting this evil empire at all.

So I need some help, can you guys recommend the best way to make files that are of similar size and quality to realaudio files, without subjecting myself and my visitors to the horror of realaudio products?

July 15, 2004

A Conversation With Ty

Barry King, Ty, DJ Bizznizz

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A couple of weeks ago we had the honor of welcoming Ty to the radio station, along with DJ Barry King and DJ Bizznizz, who's been on the UK hip-hop scene for 20+ years. Here some excerpts from our conversation:


  • Part 1
  • - "It try to paint pictures of myself as a victim as well as a victor.."
  • Part 2 - Are Hip-Hop's traditions more respected abroad than in the US?

  • Part 3 - Race in the UK

I'm also posting this to test the viability of using mp3 instead of realaudio around here. The sound is not as good on the 2nd file, although I encoded them all the same way. Maybe the levels were too high on that one?

Ty also did a quick freestyle for us, that I will add later.

July 16, 2004

Label Trouble for Nikka Costa?

Earlier this week Nikka Costa updated her website with audio from her single "I Don't Think We've Met" and an "Electronic Press Kit" video with clips of her working on the new album. I'm not sure how I feel about the single yet, but some of those tracks in the EPK are sounding tasty.. especially the last one where they are playing in 5/4.

The album is slated to come out October 24th, but release dates from major labels are about as reliable as intelligence reports from Colin Powell. And judging by this message Nikka posted on her site yesterday, she might be running into another case of industry rule #4080:

FROM NIKKA:

HELLO ALL MUSIC LOVERS.....THE PEOPLE AT THE TOP SEEM TO NEED A LITTLE BIT OF HELP WITH THE BIG PICTURE....

AS MOST OF YOU KNOW I WAS NOT PUT HERE TO CONFORM TO WHAT IS BEING PUSHED ON MOST AIRWAVES....AND IT SEEMS THESE DAYS THERE IS LITTLE FAITH IN SOMETHING THAT IS DIFFERENT OR SOMETHING THAT MIGHT PUSH A FEW BUTTONS....IT IS SO EASY TO PLAY SAFE BUT WHAT WOULD OUR WORLD BE IF THAT'S ALL WE EVER DID?

IF YOU CARE ABOUT GOOD MUSIC, SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING WITH SOME BALLS AND NOT AFRAID TO CARVE A NEW LANE THEN PLEASE EMAIL THE CEO OF VIRGIN RECORDS AND LET HIM KNOW HOW YOU FEEL. PLEASE PASS THIS EMAIL ON TO ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS WHO CARE ABOUT GOOD MUSIC....THIS IS NOT ABOUT ME IN PARTICULAR BUT MY PASSION FOR SOMETHING BESIDES WHAT WE ARE FORCEFED EVERYDAY IN POP CULTURE AND ON THE RADIO.

THANKS AND I'LL SEE YOU ON THE ROAD!!!

If you want to help Nikka fight the power, you can hit the CEO of Virgin at: matt.serletic@virgin-records.com

I, Robot: Once Again the Brother Gets No Love

A couple of months ago my friends and I watched the trailer for "I Robot," and as soon as they introduced Bridget Moynihan as the co-star I said "oh, this is gonna be another movie where they don't let the Black leading man have any romance with the white leading lady, even though the formula would always call for romance otherwise."

My friends kinda scoffed and said "nahhh, are things still really that bad?" But sure enough, check out the reviews:

Smith carries the movie on his broad and often bare shoulders, which is a heavy load since nearly everyone including the human cast acts like automatons.. Moynahan brings a stiff beauty to the role of the techno-scientist, but her timid filmmakers won't allow romantic sparks to fly between their black male and white female leads. That's not futuristic; that's retro."

I told you so! Hollywood's (and America's) fear of Black male sexuality is alive and well.

July 17, 2004

Jadakiss Spins His Bush Quote

Okay check out Jada's first explanation of his "Why did Bush knock down the towers?" lyric:

As for the controversial line, the Yonkers, N.Y., rapper's view is unwavering. "I just felt [Bush] had something to do with that," Jadakiss says, referring to the events of Sept. 11. "That's why I put it in there like that. A lot of my people felt that he had something to do with it."

And compare that to the latest one:

Rapper Jadakiss blames Bush for Sept. 11 in new song

...seven words in his new song Why?— "Why did Bush knock down the towers?" — has gotten Jadakiss the most mainstream attention, and criticism, of his career.

"It caught the ear of white America," he said proudly during a phone interview with The Associated Press. "It's a good thing. No matter what you do, somebody's not going to like it, but for the most part, most people love the song."

...Jadakiss doesn't really believe Bush ordered the towers destroyed — he says the line is a metaphor, and that Bush should take the blame for the terrorist attack because his administration didn't do enough to stop it.

"They didn't follow up on a lot of things properly," says Jadakiss. "It's the president of the United States. The buck stops with him."

...Hearing Jadakiss converse about political issues is a new concept — the rapper, who began his career as part of the group The Lox, is more known for his gritty rhymes about street life. But Jadakiss says his outlook has changed.

"I'm growing up, I'm getting a little older. I've got two kids. I'm almost 30 years old," says the Yonkers, N.Y. native.

He talks up Fahrenheit 9/11 as an important, must-see movie — he's watched it twice — and he's even registering to vote in the upcoming presidential election, a first for him. (He backs John Kerry.) He wants the minimum wage raised and more jobs created.

"As a rapper, as an artist, we've got power," he said. "If we can get people to vote from the ages 18 to 44, we can make a change."

Well, if he must backtrack, at least he's backtracking towards awareness. I just want to know why he was wearing that Ronald Reagan shirt on the Jimmy Kimmel show.

Join Us On The Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

July 20, 2004

Prince at MSG, 7/13/04: My Mom's Review

One day in 1987, I came home from high school to find my mother bursting with excitement about a new double album she just bought. "John, you've got to hear this new Prince record! It's too funky." Then she put the needle down on "Housequake," and needless to say my life has never been the same. That was how my mom introduced me to the love of my life, an album named "Sign of the Times."

About a year later my mom's friend had an extra ticket to see Prince's Lovesexy tour at Madison Square Garden, but since she knew what a devoted Prince fan I'd become, she stepped aside and let me take the spot, and I saw my funk hero for the first time thanks to my mom's sacrifice.

So I've always hoped for a chance to pay her back by taking her to see the man, and last week I finally got the opportunity as we caught Mr. Nelson's 2nd of 3 shows at MSG. I asked my mom if she would write a review for the site, and here's what she put down:

It’s true that Prince’s concert was an entertainment masterpiece, balancing world-class musicianship with an exciting visual and entertainment spectacle carried off by both performers and crew with flair and flow.

It’s also true that the band was tighter than OJ’s glove.

But besides the superb writing, arranging, dancing, singing and playing, other things also stood out: the unbelievable diversity of the crowd! It seemed like every age, class, sensibility, lifestyle and appearance was there to see Prince. Also, Prince is a black artist who has crossed over and brought his own people with him. It’s a beautiful thing to see such a big diverse crowd of people supporting an artist of Prince’s stature.

He is as talented as Miles Davis, and could treat the audience with the same contempt and get away with it. Instead Prince charmed the audience with his warmth and playful sense of humor. Having seen Sammy Davis Jr. live, the same genius emanates from Prince as he sings, dances, talks and trades vibes with the audience as if a crowded Madison Square Garden was his living room. What can it feel like to hold the entire mass folks of folks in the Garden in the palm of your hand?

Maceo Parker sang “Georgia” as a tribute to Ray Charles—an unexpected and special treat!

Prince and his entire entourage, performers and crew, performed at 120%, and when the concert ended after 3 hours Prince was going strong.

Beside Sammy Davis Jr., the show echoed great artists and entertainers like Cab Calloway; Jimi Hendrix (Prince’s virtuoso guitar playing); of course James Brown (Prince is so funky I bet there’s some kind of undiscovered medical benefit from listening to his music); Stevie Wonder (the genius of Prince’s compositions and of his vocal performance); and Caetano Veloso (the sophisticated diversity of Prince’s compositions.) Prince belongs in the Pantheon!

What a mellow and happy crowd! The euphoria created by Prince’s concert could be a tool for world peace, because as they filed out of the Garden into New York’s concrete jungle, people looked way too mellow to fight, argue or have harsh words!

I've seen Prince about a dozen times now, and at least ten of them could vie for Best Show I've Ever Seen, but this one will always have a special place in my heart, since I got to share it with her. I'll just add a few notes about this show compared to the others I caught this year:

Prince is a master of making the rehearsed seem spontaneous, so who knows if he was just pulling the paisley over my eyes, but it seemed like he was really feeling it that night, extending and exploring the jams a little further than usual. He kept beatboxing patterns for John Blackwell to copy on the drums, then sometimes announcing a key for the band to groove on. When he went into "A Love Bizarre" it seemed like a surprise to the band, cuz they just stood there and let him accompany himself on guitar while the Blackwell stayed in the pocket. And in the part of his acoustic set where he usually does that "something's funky, is that your breath or mine" he seemed to be actually freestyling a new verse this time, starting each line with "I ain't got no more words, I'm making it up as I go along.."

But the biggest surprise for me was seeing him do a complete version of Bambi.. once he got about halfway through I was on the edge of my seat thinking "I know he's not gonna do the 'baby you need to bleed' part, right??" but sure enough he did it!

As much as I disagree with the message of that song, it was still kinda nice to see him loosen up that much, in this hyper-sanctified post-profanity era of his career. Maybe his current beliefs still allow little vulgarity, if it's in the name of promoting puritanism?

Then he followed Bambi up with his version of Led Zeppelin "Whole Lotta Love," which was cool to see in person.. he stayed on it a while and did a lot of soloing.

Anyway I could on forever, but you should know by now that when it comes to live performance, nobody is touching Mr. Nelson. Seriously, if you love music and haven't seen him yet, make it a priority. It's easy to tell yourself you can catch him next time around, but you never know what the future will bring.. I saw Curtis Mayfield a few weeks before his accident in 1990, never would have thought at the time I was catching one of the last concerts he'd ever do. And I'll always regret never having caught Ray Charles.. treasures like these you need to cherish, every chance you get.

July 24, 2004

Join Us On the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

I am writing this from Ottawa, which means I most likely not be in the studio tonight, but the rest of the crew will be here holding it down as usual. and there is a chance I might pop into the chatroom...

July 27, 2004

Mean Magazine

I wrote a few pieces for a magazine that I am informed will be hitting stores this week. Writing for someone else was a painful transition after getting so used to blogging in here, especially because I'd never seen the mag before and wasn't entirely sure what tone or style they'd want. I think it turned out pretty well though.

And the magazine is quite good, I must say, I found almost everything in there worth reading.. a great interview with Darrell Hammond and Chris Matthews, Rick Rubin interviewing Rev. Run, Paul Barman interviewing Kweli and Pharrell. I did the Sleepy Brown and Jin interviews and the intro to the Eazy E tribute (that was most of the work). If I can find them I'll put up some outtakes from the interviews later..

July 28, 2004

Stevie Wonder in Bryant Park Tomorrow Morning?

It is my understanding that Stevie will be performing in Bryant Park tomorrow morning for good Morning America, making up for the show that got cancelled last month. Does anyone have evidence to the contrary?

EDIT: I guess he wasn't there? Anybody? Bueller?

July 29, 2004

Alchemist is Banned From This Website

Apparently noted producer The Alchemist is using "Beverly Hills Pimps n Hos," a loathsome company owned by that loser from the Paris Hilton sex tapes, to promote his new album. And with their help, Alchemist has become perhaps the first Hip-Hop artist to promote his album using comment spam, as witnessed here. Therefore he is now banned from this website until further notice. Sure, sure, he probably has no idea the company is doing this. I don't care. He's banned.

In related news, I'm going to try installing this MT plugin, has anyone else tried it out?

Montreal Graffiti Vol. 2

montrealgraffiti1.jpg montrealgraffiti2.jpg montrealgraffiti3.jpg montrealgraffiti4.jpg
montrealgraffiti5.jpg montrealgraffiti6.jpg montrealgraffiti7.jpg montrealgraffiti8.jpg


click on each thumbnail for the full-sized image

More of the same can be found here. Peace to Anne and Amy and the other good people I met up in MTL, and especially to the esteemed proprietor of Said the Gramophone for hosting our side trip to Ottawa.

July 30, 2004

Vintage Thirstin Howl Interview

I'm at the home of my friend and frequent collaborator Irina, and I found an interview she did in 1999 with (NY underground stalwart) Thirstin Howl here on her laptop, which she has given me permission to post:

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Irina Slutsky: Today is Monday, August 23, 1999 and this is Irina interviewing Thirstin Howl III

Thirstin Howl III: Skillionaire

IS: Skillionaire…. So we’ve got 25 minutes before he’s gotta roll cuz he’s a busy man. Tell me about your background and your life history….

TH: I’m originally from NY, I was born in Far Rockaway, Queens in Peninsula Hospital right across the street from Edgemere Projects and we moved to Brownsville when I was about 9 but we lived all around east NY and my family traveled around with my mother. Plus you know I lived from house to house with relatives as well cuz my mother spent a lot of time in and out of prison but I’m from Brownsville. Anyone ever asks you, I’m from Brownsville, that’s where I learned everything that’s where I became who I am.

IS: And Brownsville is a neighborhood in Brooklyn…

TH: Brownsville is one of the roughest in Brooklyn, if not THE roughest. Nothing but projects in Brownsville. Every project is surrounded by a project on every end. I lived there with my mother and my two younger sisters.

IS: Do you feel like you were a good influence on your sisters?

TH: I was their father. They’ll tell you that themselves. They hated me a lot because I was strict. Somebody had to be strict. My mother wasn’t strict. We were allowed to do whatever we wanted. I didn’t have too much discipline myself so I made sure my sisters were disciplined in some kind of sense.

IS: The first time you heard hip hop was…..

Continue reading "Vintage Thirstin Howl Interview" »

August 6, 2004

Prince and Rick James

EDIT: Just after I posted this, and discussed Rick James in the previous post, the news broke that Rick died this morning. Wow. I kinda feel bad for having posted something so trivial in that context, but it was purely coincidental, and I think I will leave this up, if only to document that he was on our minds at the moment his loss was revealed.

Wow.

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[original post from before the news broke]

A member of our extended DJ family, who shall remain nameless, was recruited recently to DJ for a few of Prince's afterparties on his current concert tour.

At one of the parties someone came over from the VIP area to ask if our friend had any Rick James.. he promptly fished out "Give It to Me Baby," but before Rick made could make it through the first verse one of Prince's assistants rushed over with a look of concern. "Prince doesn't like this song," she instructed him, "please mix out of it immediately."

When our friend pointed out the guest who had requested it she rolled her eyes and explained "Oh, that's Morris Day, don't pay him any mind." Evidently Morris knew what would happen, and was playing a little joke.

August 7, 2004

Black August

Is it this time of year again already?

Black August 2004

David Banner and Talib Kweli have been tapped to headline the 7th Annual Black August Hip Hop Benefit Concert taking place in New York City on Sunday. The concert is produced by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. It’s held in August and according to organizers, that particular month should be honored as a time of reflection.

“The first Afrikans were brought to Jamestown as slaves in August of 1619, so August is a month during which Blacks/New Afrikans can reflect on our current situation and our self-determining rights,” the official website for the concert reads.

dead prez, Jean Grae, Saigon and Flo Brown will round out the evening’s performers. Fat Joe, The Roots, Mos Def, Keith Murray and others are previous performers. Surprise guests are known to drop in and participate in the festivities.

In addition to the traditional U.S. show, an international show will take place August 14th in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Previous international shows took place in Cuba and South Africa. The concept of Black August originated in the California penal system and the history and ideology was conceived by Khatari Gaulden, leader of the prison movement group Black Guerilla Family.

Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased through Ticketmaster or by calling 212.307.7171

I notice David Banner is not on the flyer, dunno if that means he dropped out.. should be worth seeing either way though.

TV Gods, Please Make This Show Happen

anneformerlyinbrazil: i feel like jay-z and beyonce's relationship is like some arranged marriage
anneformerlyinbrazil: like very formal
anneformerlyinbrazil: i dunno why
jsmooth: HAha
anneformerlyinbrazil: her parents are so involved in everything
jsmooth: yeah
jsmooth: i really want that reality show
anneformerlyinbrazil: i can just see jigga coming to the knowles house with gifts
anneformerlyinbrazil: and like everyone sitting around the living room
anneformerlyinbrazil: i don't know where i came up with that but it's stuck in my head

This Also Must Be Televised

I mean, like, seriously. Dude.

Can we take up a collection for one of us to put in the winning bid, and blog about the evening? That would be pulitzer material.

(via SFJ)

August 8, 2004

L.A. Reid: Joe Budden is "Too Wordy"

I hate that, when rappers get all wordy.

Def Jam's New Tune

It's near midnight on a recent Wednesday, but for Antonio (L.A.) Reid, the new CEO of Island Def Jam music—he took over in February—the workday isn't done. He's spent hours with young staffers critiquing music to be released soon on Def Jam, the hip-hop label. He's dancing in his seat and issuing sharp opinions on everything he hears. "I like this record, but sometimes he gets too wordy,'' Reid says of a cut by rapper Joe Buddens. Despite his take-charge approach, others are openly skeptical about Reid. For one, Russell Simmons, the hip-hop icon who cofounded Def Jam but sold it years ago, worries the stylish Reid may be ill-suited for the scrappy world of hard-core hip-hop. "L.A. Reid is one of the best record men in the business, but he doesn't hang out with [Def Jam artist] DMX. I'm with rappers every day. Managing them is a cultural process,'' says Simmons. "These are the things that made Def Jam...''

...Simmons, who is hugely influential in the hip-hop community, is uncertain whether he will have a role at the company he cofounded. His position as Def Jam chairman was cut short late last year when, he says, Universal Music ended his contract without notice. "I don't know what's going to happen," Simmons says. Reid says he wants to work with Simmons, though they have not talked at length. "I'd love to keep that relationship," says Reid.

Their apparent differences may be difficult to bridge. "What new thing are we trying to build?" Simmons asks. He worries that the Def Jam brand may be diluted with smooth and styled R&B stars...

August 9, 2004

Preemptive Backlash

Is it too early for me to say I'm sick of Shyne already?

Rise & Shyne

He's locked up in a maximum-security prison on a 10-year sentence. But rapper Jamal (Shyne) Barrow doesn't see why that has to dampen his career. "It's like Ray Charles or Stevie Wonder, they had their handicaps," the hip-hop star tells the Daily News over the phone from the Clinton State Correctional Facility in upstate New York. "It didn't stop them from making their mark."

Umm, ok, i guess...?

August 10, 2004

Masta Ace and Wordsworth, Writtens and "Freestyles"

Masta Ace and Wordsworth came by the show last week, and we got into a three way rant about the proper relationship between writtens and freestyles, and how the definition of "freestyle" has been altered over the years. Then they gave a demonstration of how the two can work together. Wordsworth was under the weather and sitting way back in his seat, but still held his own quite nicely.

Cocaine Blunts recently posted the Casual vs. Saafir battle, a textbook case of what I was talking about with Ace and Wordsworth, how ridiculous folks have gotten with this "freestyles are always better than writtens" orthodoxy they've caged themselves into.

Saafir comes with writtens aimed directly at Cas and their history together, and even stumbling through half the verses clearly blows Cas' "when you rap you're a sap and you know that" freestyles out of the water. But some will still proclaim Heiro the winners, often even admitting that Saafir came harder, but declaring him disqualified because kicking writtens in a battle is "not allowed." This is pure insanity.

The extremism on this issue has become profoundly unhealthy for the culture, one of the worst things that ever happened to the art of emceeing. As I've said on okayplayer about fortyleven times, folks who uphold these laws usually think they are "keeping it true" or something, but they are actually shitting all over hip-hop's traditions.

----

[sidenote: at the end of Ace's 2nd verse he dropped a "faggot", to which I yelled "HEEEEY!" and shook my head, but listening now I wish I'd made it a little clearer on the mic that I was expressing disapproval.. I'm not sure that came across effectively. You'll hear Ace correct himself afterwards, to his credit..]

August 12, 2004

Montreal Graffiti Vol. 3 - Supersize Edition

I'm trying out imageshack.us to host my photos, instead of filling up space on my own servers.. All these pieces are in a magical graffiti wonderland I found after walking through this little alley on St. Catherine and Rue de Bullion.



click on each thumbnail for the full-sized image

George W. Bush and Wordsworth, Writtens and "Freestyles"

Why didn't Wordsworth tell us about this when he came to visit? Superb.

The funny thing is, according to the orthodoxy some of y'all uphold, George Bush is the winner of that battle because Words kicked a written.

August 14, 2004

Join Us On the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

It is my understanding that Open Thought will be in the house this evening.

August 17, 2004

Nas in Central Park: The Concert (and The Bumrush)

Nas is a very big star, and Central Park Summerstage is a very small space.

Even for most of their standard indie/boho acts you have to get there mad early if you want any chance of getting in and seeing the stage. So with God's Son taking the stage at 3pm, and me doing my radio show the night before, I knew there was no way I'd be making the cut. And since most of the other fans who came wouldn't make it in either, I decided to see how the concert would turn out for all the outsiders looking in.

I got there about 3:45, and the scene was pretty much what I expected. Lots of cops inside an elaborate fortress of iron gates, and hundreds (thousands?) of mildy disgruntled young folks on the outside, hoping and pleading for a last minute shot at the promised land. Some were muttering about getting bamboozled by all the radio promotion, that gave no indication the venue would be so limited. Kids up front were engaged in a spirited discourse with Summerstage staff (see 3rd picture below), but the scene was relatively calm all things considered.

(pardon the namedroppy stuff here, I can't make the story work without it)

A little after 4PM I ran into Easy Mo Bee, who'd brought his daughter along for the show, and as we listened to Kid Capri hype up the crowd Mo Bee was scanning the area for someone who could get him in.. but then the instrumental for "NY State of Mind" started cutting through the park, and the world came to a halt. Mo Bee and I just looked at each other and shook our heads in awe, watching the entire park lose themselves in what might be the nastiest beat ever made.

That beat is just nasty as hell. Like, Make That Mean Face Like It's Hurting You nasty. Punch A Hole In The Wall And Then Throw Your Couch Out The Window nasty. Or in this case, Jump Over The Gates And Rush Past The Cops Like Bulls In Pamplona nasty.

Almost instantly we saw a mob rush the gates over on the left side, sending the cops in a mad dash to head them off. Then everyone around us realized our side was unguarded now, and the onslaught began in full. Parents were even pulling their little kids along with them into the breach (note young girl in the 3rd pic below).

I was worried things would get mighty ugly at this point, but I gotta say the cops showed a lot of restraint, from what I saw. They almost seemed to be letting it happen, and waiting for the rush to die down before they started pushing the latecomers back out (apparently there was only one arrest). So most of the bumrushers made it in successfully, and the those who got repelled seemed ready to accept their fate, as we heard Nas get on the mic to settle things down and start the show. "Yo, wherever the fire exits are, please let the devils clear that shit out!" he implored. "Let's show them it's all peace up in here."

This led into a jumbled political rant where Nas explained that "the white man is a genius-motherf**ker, and we shouldn't be mad at him for that!" Then he encouraged everyone not to vote, because "look at who's running? Bush and Kerry, two devils. Neither one of them niggas want to do nothing for us. We should only vote when one of us is running, from our community."

A few days before I'd heard Nas on the radio professing a certain respect for Bush because "at least he is gangsta," and he echoed that sentiment here: "Bush is gonna win though, cuz he's gangsta. Unless he decided he's made enough money already, so he wants to let Kerry start taking care of all this work."

Thankfully he got the speechifying out of his system pretty quickly, and the show got underway. Nas has never been known as the best live performer, but he brought a lot more energy than usual this time, and the guest appearances kept the crowd hyped throughout. From the outside listening in, it seemed like a solid show. Here's the setlist, possibly missing a song or two:


  • Represent

  • It Ain't Hard To Tell

  • One Love - with the show's first guest appearance, from Q-tip. Tip told Nas how much he values his work because "you rap about all 360 degrees of life, and it takes so much courage to do that."

  • Life's A Bitch and Phone Tap - with AZ

  • Eye For An Eye - with Mobb Deep, for whom Nas stepped aside so they could rock that new Thomas Dolby Joint.

  • If I Ruled the World - This was the biggest shock of the day, as Lauryn Hill appeared on stage in a hooded monk's robe, accompanying herself on a sitar while she held down the chorus. Then she made alittle speech about how when her new album comes out she won't be accepting any manmade money for it, and it will only be on sale for "spirit dollars." Okay, none of that actually happened.

  • Hate Me Now - with Busta for some reason

  • Oochie Wally - come on man, we were trying to forget you did that to us

  • Got Urself A Gun

  • Get Down - after this Nas said "there's a song that I don't do no more, but I think that NY deserves this" and to the crowd's delight he went into:

  • Ether - after which he acknowledged "I got love for that brother [Jay Z]."

  • Thief's Theme - Then the first minute or so of "Apache," which of course segued into

  • Made You Look - which has gotta be his best song post-illmatic. He probably should have ended here, cuz the energy seemed to drop off as he closed with

  • I Can - and then

  • One Mic

And then we all started on our way back through the park, about as happy as you can be with a show you didn't actually see.

(Peace to Hashim of hiphop.blogs.com, whom I also ran into.)

Robin Bechtel, Who Are You Kidding?

I admire your commitment to being a loyal corporate flack, every posse needs an Ari Fleischer. But there comes a point when you need to cut your losses and just admit that you're busted.

Warner's Tryst With Bloggers Hits Sour Note

...Two weeks ago, at least eight MP3 bloggers received an e-mail message from Ian Cripps, a Warner employee. In the messages, which were identical and came with an MP3 file attached, Mr. Cripps told the bloggers that he loved their sites.

"We are very interested in blogs and I was wondering if you could post this mp3," he wrote. "It's by one of our new bands - The Secret Machines. They are an indie rock band and we would love for people to hear the band's music from your site. Here it is, listen to it and let me know if you will post it. Thanks!!"

The pitch to MP3 blogs was part of an ambitious online campaign that was the work of Robin Bechtel, vice president for new media at Warner Brothers and Reprise Records. The campaign's first unusual component was a decision to start selling the Secret Machines album through Apple's iTunes store and other online outlets last February, nearly four months before it was available on CD. The move drew attention to the album, which received strong reviews.

Ms. Bechtel said that the company had contacted many sites for the Web part of the publicity effort, and that the messages to MP3 blogs were an experiment. "We're really progressive in trying things," she said...

...In the week after the song was posted on Music for Robots, a message board on the site attracted some thoughtful commentary on Warner's move. But a few comments, posted under several different names, stood out because they looked like something one might read on a teen-pop fan site.

"I never heard these guys before, but theyre awesome," read a posting last Thursday under the name Ron. "I went to their website and you can listen to a lot of ther other stuff, very cool and very good!" Another post, sprinkled with casual profanity, asserted that big corporations could still release good music, and cited the Beatles as an example.

A check of site records by Mr. Willett revealed that all four of the suspect comments had been posted from the same Internet Protocol address, indicating that they came from the same computer or from a computer within the same company. That address was also the source of two e-mail messages that Ms. Bechtel sent to a reporter, as well as the original messages sent to the bloggers.

The entertainment industry has for some years been going into chat rooms and message boards to promote its products. But Ms. Bechtel said this kind of activity was not part of the Secret Machines campaign. She said the comments could have been posted independently by fans of the band who worked at the company.

"We're not sitting here typing in message boards that the band is great," she said. "But if somebody in the building loves the band, I can see them doing it. People at record companies are also huge fans..."

Robin.
Robin, please.
Just stop.

Blame it on some junior employees who were acting without your approval or something. Anything but this. I can't bear to watch.

Seriously, from what I've read Robin Bechtel deserves a lot of props as a pioneer in pushing the industry to seek a healthy relationship with the online world. And even this seems like a good idea that had just wasn't very well executed. But she does herself a disservice with this line of defense.

(via anil and the ab. props to cocaine blunts for the soundbyte.)

August 26, 2004

New Audio: DJ Monkone 8/14/04

I set up a Soundclick page to enable more frequent audio offerings from our radio show. I will inaugurate the page with a new set from DJ Monk One, with some cool UK sounds in the mix. mp3 here, partial playlist below:


  • Richard Pryor Interlude

  • Beyond There feat. Yungun & Jhest - Slumber

  • K-OS - Love Song

  • Saukrates - Action (rmx)

  • Filthy Immigrants - Find Us

  • Blend Crafterz - Pow

  • Ten Twelve white label (??)

  • MF Doom - Dead Bent

  • Horror City - Oohs and Ahhs

  • Libretto - ???

  • Maspyke - instrumental

  • Mystro - ???

  • Kardinal Offishall -We Good

  • Numark - instrumental

  • Bob Azzam - Rain Rain Go Away

  • Lunar Funk - Slip the Drummer One

  • Main ingredient - You Can Call Me Rover

  • Ray Conniff ???

  • Dewolfe - ???

  • The Invaders - ???

(you will have to do the free sign-up for soundclick if you haven't been there before.. my apologies!)

August 27, 2004

The Password is What

Prince on file sharing: "File-sharing seems 2 occur most when people want more QUALITY over quantity. One good tune on a 20-song CD is a rip. The corporations that created this situation will get the fate they deserve. 4 better or 4 worse, 4 every action there is a reaction. An MP3 is merely a tool. There is nothing 2 fear." (via Anil)


(BTW, I just picked up the 20th Anniversary Purple Rain DVDs, review forthcoming)
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Did you know today was Women's Equality Day?

(I mean yesterday, took too long to get this post up)

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Wow, CL Smooth sure did let loose on Pete Rock. You know a man has lost his temper when he starts referring to himself in third person over and over, a la Irv Gotti. This makes me sad. Witness the wigout at allhiphop.
(via O-Dub)
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This morning at 11AM EST our friends at Rise up Radio will the give the lowdown on various anti-convention events around the city. You can listen in at WBAI.org.

Mason Betha Infidelity Scandal!!!!!!!

This is from Howard University's paper. Scandalous!!!!

Students Question Mase's Credibility as a Minister

Students welcomed back rapper-turned-minister Mason "Mase" Betha from his five-year retirement at a meet-and-greet in Cramton Auditorium last Friday. Hosted by Entertainment Power Players (EPP), the Bad Boy Records artist signed autographs, with messages such as "Jesus cares about you" to promote his new album "Welcome Back," for two hours. Along with a similar message, Mase gave a cell phone number where he could be reached to Erica Pinkett, a freshman psychology major, with "don't talk" written below. As a result, some students question Mase's credibility as a minister...

...When escorted by security out of the auditorium and into an escalade around 5 p.m. Friday, fans crowded the side of the vehicle pleading for autographs and pictures. Mase rolled his window down halfway and signed a few handbills until the path in front of the vehicle was cleared of pedestrians. It was at this time that the married minister wrote the contact information on a handbill and gave it to Pinkett. "I came out just because Mase is a cool guy," the freshman said. "I just wanted to meet him."

After interviewing Pinkett and viewing her handbill, a Hilltop reporter called several times. When a young man answered, the reporter explained how she had gotten the number and requested a brief interview with Mase. Sounding confused, the young man hung up the phone and called back within 10 minutes to say that Mase was playing around by giving out the number and that the number did not belong to him. The young man, who identified himself as a Bad Boy Records intern, said the interview request would be passed to Mase. Within 30 minutes, Mase called the reporter's cell phone and questioned how the number on the handbill had been retrieved. He then claimed to have given the freshman the contact information "to get her off my back" because she supposedly pestered him for it. Pinkett later said that she called the number but that she and Mase never met...

Paging Wendy Williams...

Hip-Hop Shortlist Nominees

The nominees for 2004's Shortlist Music Prize were announced this week, here are the hip-hoppish entries:

  • Cee-Lo "Cee-Lo Green Is The Soul Machine" (Arista)
  • Dead Prez "Revolutionary But Gangsta" (Columbia)
  • Dizzee Rascal "Boy In Da Corner" (Matador/XL)
  • Ghostface Killah "The Pretty Toney Album" (Def Jam)
  • Jaylib "Champion Sound" (Stones Throw)
  • Non Prophets "Hope" (Lex)
  • Ty "Upwards" (Big Dada)

Who gets your vote? Who's on the list that shouldn't be? Who's not on that should be? How thankful are you that Northern State's not in there?

August 28, 2004

And speaking of Sports and Integrity

Some of you, such as Theresa, will know that one of my pet issues is the soul-shattering evil of the institution known as collegiate athletics, where "the purity of amateurism" has damn near become a euphemism for "the legality of slave labor."

This is a system where every year the NCAA and its colleges make millions upon millions off the labor of teenage boys, selling their image, their name and even their very bodies, by signing contracts that require the kids to wear a certain brand of sneaker, etc.. Millions upon millions of dollars every year, that go to everyone but the boys whose work made it all possible.

And if one of those boys accepts so much as $100 dollars, or a throwback jersey, from the mountain of riches his work has produced for everyone else? In the through-the-looking-glass logic of collegiate athletics it is that boy who is the criminal. It boggles the mind.

Jeremy Bloom, a student-athlete who witnessed the insanity firsthand, has written an essay that hits the NCAA right in its exploitative, hypocritical heart, especially the last few paragraphs. I'm gonna post it here in its entirety cuz it deserves to be preserved. Like I said in bignick's OKP post, the NCAA is a sad old horse that needs to go to the glue factory.

Educating Jeremy - by Jeremy Bloom

Last week, the NCAA rejected Colorado's request to restore wide receiver Jeremy Bloom's eligibility. Bloom, who also is a standout freestyle skier, has battled the NCAA for the past two years to allow him to play for the Buffaloes while also accepting endorsements to fund his ski training. Bloom left Colorado's camp earlier this month and currently is training with the U.S. Ski Team near Santiago, Chile, in hopes of making the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin, Italy. Colorado, which hoped to have Bloom aboard to add speed and needed experience at receiver, has appealed the decision.

I think I've been wrong about the caring folks at the NCAA all along. They have received way too much negative attention about their unwillingness to have an open mind concerning my unique athletic situation. As it turns out, their reasoning behind this decision has taught me some of the greatest lessons in my life.

I owe them an apology, and I hope that after reading this, you, too, will understand this was just a case of an immature and over-ambitious 20-year-old asking an organization to allow unacceptable and selfish circumstances.

Two years ago, I became a proud member of the 2002 Winter Olympics team and then won the World Cup overall title as a freestyle skier. Then, a few weeks later, the NCAA informed me that if it were to allow me to continue my financial means of paying for my trainer, nutritionist, physical therapist and agent for skiing, I would be endangering the core principle of amateurism as a college football player. Although at the time it seemed silly, looking back I believe they made the right call. It is true my relationship with those people would have been more damaging to the spirit of amateurism than, say, the University of Miami's relationship with star football recruit Willie Williams, who has been arrested 11 times since 1999.

So I took their advice and dropped all my legitimate ski-related sponsors and enrolled at the University of Colorado, where I became a proud member of the football program and the social science department...

Continue reading "And speaking of Sports and Integrity" »

August 31, 2004

Buck 65 Hates Hip-Hop?

Transcribed from Kerrang magazine, courtesy of Gumdrops at Okayplayer. I will post without comment.



"I now hate hip hop, the more I've educated myself about music, the more I've grown to hate it. I don’t use that word lightly, either."

"The change on the new record is me taking steps to try to be regarded as a proper songwriter and not just someone who writes lyrics. Those efforts could lend the idea that ive commercialised what I do, but when I think of the greatest records I've heard, everything from nirvana to my bloody valentine to miles davis and elvis, there's a lot you can do within the traditional framework of traditional songwriting."

"The people behind hip hop don’t know anything about music theory or have any appreciation for other kinds of music outside hip hop. I challenge anyone to show me a case where theres actual musicality."

kerrang: Explain why you – a rapper –hate hip hop?

"Every genre of music you can think of has more shit in it than it does gold; what I'm thinking about is the fact that I would be surprised if anyone could show me someone who's made a hip hop record who could actually read music."

kerrang: Why should musicians have to be able to read music?

"Because I'm a snob and that’s what I'm looking for and what I appreciate. I'm as elitist a bastard as you could possibly find."

Update: Read Sage Francis' comments here, and Buck 65's apology here.

September 1, 2004

Odds and Ends

He always lets me know about his kickass posts and I always forget to link them, but this time I won't be left out from praising Peter Scholtes' rundown of Twin Cities hiphop history.

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For there record, it turns out there was a reason for Chaka Khan's terrible VMA performance. Okay, now what was Alicia Keys' excuse?

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As usual Democracy Now is on the case, with the inside story of the shutupathon, and the protestor who infiltrated the convention last night.

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I can't find the right photos to illustrate this, but has anyone noticed that 2004's Pedro Martinez, with those jheri curls flowing out from under his cap, is the spitting image of MC Eiht circa 1992?

September 2, 2004

Slam Bush Event in NY Tonight

Those Slam Bush folks are anti-Bush slam/battle tonight at the Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery, btwn Houston & Bleeker. The show starts at 8:30, but if you want to get on the mic come down at 6:30 to sign up. More info here.

Sage Francis on Buck 65's Comments

Someone posted my Buck 65 post on the Non Prophets message board, and some were expecting Sage Francis would come to Buck's defense in the thread. But (to his credit) Sage's comments turn out to be, umm, less than supportive:

...Buck has had his head up his arse for many years now.

I'm surprised he's going public with it.

---------------

...Buck knows his hiphop. Yes, even Jeru. heh.

He has been into it since the early 80's, which is why I kinda cringe when I hear new jacks criticize him. He KNOWS his shit.

he just...is.....f**king up, man.

It's very difficult for me to comment on this shit knowing all the I know, so I should have just kept to myself....but those comments rubbed me so wrong. Just like him canceling the show in NYC without notifying me. And other shit too....

Hey Buckaroo....I know your manager or current hand-holder will read this to you:

get your head out of your pretentious asshole.

----------------------------

...I understand what he is getting at, but he is taking the wrong steps.

It's insulting to think that he doesn't understand some people have and ARE doing what he says doesn't exist in hiphop.

before he learns and instrument he should relearn rhythm.

rappers are doing shit that can't even be transcribed in musical notation.

hiphop producers are breaking traditions and creating sub-cultures with innovation and ingenious technology.

He needs friends who aren't revolving door girlfriends. that's all.

My post has also sparked lively discussions on soulstrut.com, ILM, and the Restiform bodies message board, where the author of the Kerrang! article even popped in with his 2 cents.

September 4, 2004

Join Us On the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

Also make sure to keep listening after we're done, when Soul Central Station is doing a special from 2 to 5 AM on one of the unsung heroes of Black music, the great Charles Stepney.

September 6, 2004

Message to New Yorkers from DJ Monkone

Can't post right now, gotta finish working on this thing im working on that is mad late. But here's a memo from Monk One:

hey folks

a quick reminder to come by Pianos tonite for a dose of derelict descargas and beats bonito

i'll be upstairs Mondays playing the good good from 10 til 2, no cover, no purchase necessary, bonus round for anyone from iceland or if your name is ismael.

Pianos is at 158 Ludlow just below Stanton on the LES.

in the bag: por que no me dices - linda leida, afro burger - akwaaba, atlantic avenue - average white band, niger mambo - randy weston, rumberia - roberto roena, can you move - modern romance, don't stop - analog roots, word - dj dez, unnamed new joe bataan, e=mc2 - colon & toro, we are known as emcees - crash crew, two timin lady - brass construction, j.j.d. - fela anikulapo kuti, now you know - lateens, quicksand - quantic

September 7, 2004

Condolences and Swift Recovery to Twista

Chicago Rapper Twista Hurt Van Crash

Chicago rapper Twista, known for hits such as "Slow Jamz" and "So Sexy," was hurt in a van crash that killed a member of his security staff, state police said.

Twista, whose real name is Carl Mitchell, was treated and released from a hospital in Erie after the van in which he was riding veered off Interstate 90 just after 4 a.m. Monday and rolled over in the median, police said.

Another man in the van, Arthur Dixon of Chicago, died after he was taken to a hospital, authorities said. Five other men in the van were hurt, none seriously, police and hospital officials said...

September 8, 2004

Iranian Bowtie Rapper

From Al Jazeera:

Dapper rapper stirs Iran


Shahkar Binesh-Pajouh, Iran's bow-tie wearing dapper rapper would look somewhat out of place in the Bronx borough of New York.

Targeting unemployment, poverty and Westernised Iranian girls in his new album, Binesh-Pajouh is a lecturer with a doctorate in urban planning whose poetry translations will hit the shelves soon.

"I chose rap because I can say many things with it, not because I live like a rapper," said Binesh-Pajouh in his affluent north Tehran apartment.

He said it took four years for the Culture Ministry to approve a rap album and it did so only after he deleted six songs from his original 10.

"Iran's officials were reluctant to give permission to rap music because of its critical language," he said...

New Court Ruling on Sampling

This seems like something that should get turned over in a higher court? I probably have too much faith in the system.

Note that the copyright owners are taking this action against the will of of the artist who made the music.. it's like ten thousand spoons.

Ruling On Sampling Could Have An Effect On Hip-Hop

A federal appeals court in Cincinnati, Ohio ruled yesterday (Sept. 7) that artists should pay for every sample included in their work, a ruling that could have an effect on Hip-Hop music, which often utilizes pieces of other copyrighted works. A three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals said that federal laws passed to curb piracy of digital recordings applies to digital sampling.

“If you cannot pirate the whole sound recording, can you ‘lift’ or ‘sample’ something less than the whole? Our answer to that question is in the negative,” the court said in a statement. It has been legal to use short musical snippets as long as the work sampled was not identifiable.

“Get a license or do not sample,” the court continued. “We do not see this as stifling creativity in any significant way.”

The case is one of 800 lawsuits filed by Bridgeport Music and Westbound Records in 2001. Bridgeport and Westbound own the rights to many recordings, including those of George Clinton and the influential groups Funkadelic and Parliament. A two second sample of a Funkadelic record in NWA's "100 Miles and Runnin" is at the heart of the ruling made by the judges Tuesday.

Clinton himself was not opposed to sampling. He produced two albums, Sample Some of Dis and Sample Some of Dat, which allowed artists to use Clinton’s music without legal scrutiny.

Well, first of all, I suspect that the industry again is trying to do to rap what they tried to do to funk, and that's kill it because it's got to much information, and spreading of information,” Clinton told the Houston Press in 1992. “So what we've done to keep them from all this stupidity, like trying to sue, or saying that I'm suing people, is to put out a record called "Sample Some of Disc and Sample Some of Dat" - just samples from alot of the old songs, because I have some of the demos of those songs, which is not what the record company owns, so I can license those to be sampled. We have a pay schedule that's really easy to deal with - if they sell records, they pay, if they don't they can try again. We got to make sure that rap survives, because it's our only means of communication that gets past the gatekeepers.”

Keyes to Obama: Jesus Hates You

Actually if Jesus came back he probably wouldn't be allowed to vote, being a convicted criminal and all.

Keyes: Jesus Wouldn't Vote For Obama

In the latest in a series of controversial remarks, Illinois GOP Senate candidate Alan Keyes said Jesus Christ would not vote for his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, because of Obama's position on abortion.

"Christ would not vote for Barack Obama because Barack Obama has voted to behave in a way that it is inconceivable for Christ to have behaved," Keyes said. He referred to Obama's votes against anti-abortion legislation...

What I love about Alan Keyes is he understands that the key to comedy is delivering your punchline as if you're dead serious about it.

Can we get Jim Jones to be Alan's sidekick for the rest of the campaign. "Yo Jesus don't even love you dog! Barack, you maaad, doggie!"

September 9, 2004

Pro Tools is for Gangstas

I've been trying to break the habit of posting an article just so I can say "This guy doesn't understand hip-hop at all!"

But seriously.. THIS GUY DOESN'T UNDERSTAND HIP-HOP AT ALL!!! Look at this opening paragraph:

There’s gangsta rap — music cobbled together with ProTools and rhymes about poppin’ caps, slingin’ sacks, and pimpin’ ho’s. Then there’s underground rap. A whole ‘nother ball of wiggity-wiggity wax, this style forces itself in the opposite direction by employing real musicians and instruments and revolving around rhymes with a little more substance than what you’d find in last night’s police log.

mmmmrrfrrr..grrgrrrrgr....what does pro tools or live instruments have to do witheroijgergAAARRGHH!!!!!!!!!!

I've got to stop making posts like this. Where did I put my heart pills?

Interview with Fired Friendster Blogger

Here's an interview in Red Herring with Joyce Park, whose plight caused a stir in blogville when Friendster abruptly fired her for blogging about the company.

Sure, sure, people get fired for ridiculous reasons all the time, and she'll have no trouble finding a new gig. But I always follow up on a chance to stick it to that Jon Abrams dude, he just rubs me the wrong way.

New Audio: DJ Monkone 9/4/04

Another set from the Monkologist is up on our Soundclick page. Partial playlist below. Monk would want me to assure you he was playing strictly originals, no breakbeat compilations allowed.

  • Lennie Hibbert
  • Quincy Jones and Bill Cosby (remixed by Mario Caldato Jr.
  • KRS One
  • Lord Finesse and Mike Smooth
  • Marley Marl and MC Shan
  • Schooly D
  • Heavy D
  • James Brown
  • James Brown
  • Mysterme
  • James Brown
  • The Dap Kings
  • The Politicans
  • Bad Bascomb
  • ll cool j
  • Brass Construction
  • grandmaster caz
  • jackie robinson
  • marvin gaye
  • bob james
  • jazzy jeff and the fresh prince
  • edwin birdsong
  • steady b
  • blackbyrds
  • blackbyrds
  • Lennie Hibbert
  • Little Royal and the Swingmasters (featuring Andrew Simms)

As you should know there is much more where this came from, here and here.

September 10, 2004

Farewell, Aaron Hawkins

This is stunning news.

Uppity-negro.com was one of the first blogs I ever read, and probably the very first "Black blog" I discovered, back when I was still wondering if there were any. Aaron was a pioneer in this corner of blogville that we inhabit, arguably paved the way for this site and at least half the others that on my blogroll. He represented his views and principles with a passion and a wry humor that we could all strive to emulate, and I'd say to some extent that's what I've always done here.

I hope he knew how respected and valued he was by this community that he helped to build, and how many lives he touched with his words. I wish I was lucky enough to say that I truly knew him, and my heart goes out to all of you who did.

September 16, 2004

Party in Brooklyn Tonight

Tonight my DJs Monkone and Emskee are celebrating the 3rd Anniversary of their Thursday night gig at Black Betty in Brooklyn, with some pretty cool guests lined up including Neil Sugarman from the Dap Kings.. here are the details from Monk:

THURSDAY 9/16 The Greenhouse @ Black Betty 3 YEAR ANNIVERSARY PARTY

366 Metropolitan Ave (corner of Havemeyer) W’burg, bklyn
party artists: monk, emskee + the Greenhouse Orchestra Live! w/special guest Neal Sugarman.
no cover. 10-4, $1 beer before midnight

Thursday September 16th – it’s our Anniversary!!! Live: Orchestra Casaverde feat. Bruce “El Guapo” Martin on Percussion and Cotton on bass, with special Sugary sax vibrations from a downlow Dap-King on tenor. $1 Miller… CD Giveaways… Sexy Dancers… Flashing Lights… Disco Balls… Kazoos… and you!

Some Greenhouse Classics to get you in the mood: mi ritmo te llama – ray barretto, can you move – modern romance, modern girl – courtney melody, every way but loose – oneness of juju, 100% - chemise, MPLA dub – tappa zukie, granpa – kerri chandler, no nos pararan – charanga 76, everybody loves a good thing – phreek, brujeria – el gran combo, love it dub it – iz&diz, serious – da lata, chop & quench – fela, blacker – eccentric afros, o mi shango – mongo santamaria, bonafide love – wayne wonder & buju, one to grow on – umc’s, toro mata – celia cruz, can’t you see me – roy ayers, cold got to be – 45 king, rapperz r n danger – krs-one, burning hot – pepe braddock, mr. cee freestyle – biggie, spank – jimmy bo horne, gunshot - kenny dope, space funk unreleased dub – manzel, better must come – delroy wilson

September 18, 2004

Join Us On The Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

September 29, 2004

Ruh Roh

Damn, when only one entry is showing on the main page I guess it's time for me to come out of my hobbit-hole. Gimme a minute.

September 30, 2004

So Anyway Yeah

What's been going on in the world while I've been busy with my undisclosed project? (Actually there are two undisclosed projects, one of which involves an addiction to online poker) Let's take a look around:

For the first time since I can't even remember the last time, Prince has actually made a good video, for "Cinnamon Girl." The first time his video has made me like the song instead of vice versa. In recent years P developed a rep for religious intolerance, so it's especially pleasing to see this show of solidarity with victims of anti-muslim/anti-arab prejudice. And though it may be a little syrupy, this is also the strongest anti-war statement pop music has produced yet. (Looks like it's only up on his member site, so I can't link to it.)

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Also surprisingly good, this reworking of 99 problems as a commentary on Iraq, sent in by a reader.

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Looks like I missed some drama on Air America yesterday, when Randi Rhodes got to interview her childhood idol Patti Smith, but it devolved into a knockdown-dragout fight over Ralph Nader's candidacy. Randi's listeners are castigating her for "pulling a Bill O'Reilly" on Patti, and Randi was so affected by it a day later she just broke down and started crying on the air, a few minutes ago.

The show is archived on her site but I haven't had a chance to listen yet. I will say that although I think Randi understands how to do good radio better than most Air America hosts, sometimes her bulldog schtick leaves no room for any honest, meaningful dialogue.. sounds like this might have been one of those times.

-----------

I meant to post more than this but the Sackville-Bagginses keep knocking on my door, gotta go hide out again.

October 1, 2004

The NY Press Rides the Railroad

If you're gonna get mentioned in the NY Press' annual "Best of Manhattan" issue, it's much cooler to be victimized by one of their snarky hatchet jobs (like the Gawker crew this year). But here's a little item Debra Dickerson might enjoy next time she's googling me:

BEST RADIO SHOW

WBAI'S UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

Don't ever stop. Thirteen years and still going strong, WBAI's (99.5 F.M.) Underground Railroad on Saturday nights at midnight is the little radio show that could. Monk1 and Emskee are diggers of the highest order, dropping their needle on obscure grooves, soul, funk, hiphop, pop, reggae and house. (Monk is also one of the editors at the record geek bible, Wax Poetic.) Jay Smooth, who started the two-hour slot as a teenager, is still the host. The alumni of the show speaks for itself: 3D, Qool Marv, Spinna and a host of other dusty finger dudes. If you want to learn what DJing is all about, tape these shows. Or when your date ditches you on a Saturday night to go out with some guy who's got deeper pockets, tune in and zone out. Sigh.

One correction: DJ 3D is still a starting member of our team, although I'm sure it won't be long until he is indeed too large for us, if all these rappers keep snatching up his beats.

Of course we all pale in comparison to Wonkette, who just graced the cover of the NY Times magazine.. I've had a blog-crush on her for quite some time (skewering vice magazine is the surest way to my heart), but I'd never seen what she looks like.. would it be unenlightened for me to note that she's, like, totally hot?

October 2, 2004

Join Us On the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

EDIT: Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Chip Fu(!!!) are here.

October 3, 2004

Ali Shaheed: "George Bush is Not The Only Tyrant"

Ali Shaheed Muhammad stopped by our show this week to give us the scoop on his new album "Shaheedullah & Stereotypes," and he brought along his old friend Chip Fu of the Fu-Schnickens, who makes his return to the mic on Ali's album.

The interview is up now on our soundclick page, featuring their takes on the election and Ali Shaheed's experiences at the American border post 9/11. And yes, I did ask if Tribe is putting out a new album.

October 6, 2004

Edwards-Cheney, Please Tell Me What To Think

Relying on a shaky webstream for the debate last night, it was impossible for me to properly assess the outcome.. so I looked to blogville for answers, but they only brought more confusion.

The (moderate) lefties at Pandagon thought Cheney dominated, at least in the first half.. but the (moderate) righty Andrew Sullivan diagnosed the VP as "roadkill." Come on people, make up your minds! I need someone to tell me what my opinion is supposed to be!

From what I heard and halfway saw I thought Edwards was ok, but could have been much stronger (about what I thought of Kerry), while Cheney exceeded expectations by failing to have a heart attack, and not reminding anybody too much of Darth Vader.

I did enjoy Cheney's humbled silence after Edwards ran off Dick's despicable voting record in Congress (He voted against the MLK holiday! He voted against getting Mandela out of jail!! He voted to outlaw puppies and rainbows!!!)

The only thing I can say without a shred of doubt is the moderator sucked ass. AJ and Free could have run things better than that. Or better yet, next time we should get Wendy Williams.

So, my esteemed readers, can you please tell me who won?

EDIT: Slate is running down how Edwards fell short, while a commenter on Pandagon points out a sweet Cheney gaffe: Instead of inviting viewers to factcheck.org for the truth about his record, Cheney gave the wrong URL and sent everybody to factcheck.com, which redirects to George Soros' vehemently anti-bush homepage. D'oh!

EDIT 2: Let me see if I've got this straight.. Cheney's explanation of the American casualties in Iraq is: "Sure, over 1,000 Americans have died, but hey, a thousand of our Iraqi allies have died too!" Oh, yeah that makes me feel much better.

Eminem's New Video, "Just Lose It"

This is something else I need help with.. the new Eminem song and video.. Is he, like, making fun of himself, satirizing the cookie cutter banality of his previous leadoff singles? Or is he actually serious about this warmed over gruel?

And One More Thing

Did Mos Def just say "quasi-homosexuals is running this rap shit" ? Umm, where are we going with this, Mos?

(I'm assuming "tall Israeli" is an Elroy Cohen swipe..)

Also while I'm here, rest in peace to Rappin Rodney.

NEW AUDIO: DJ 3D 10/2/04

New set from 3D up at our Soundclick page, partial playlist below:


  • The UN - Golden Grail

  • Murs - Hustle

  • Wordsworth - Trust

  • ???

  • Dilated Peoples - Reach Us

  • Vordul Mega - Neva Again

  • The Odd Couple- Between Your Legs
  • (err, cool track but I'm filing it in the "TMI" section, didn't really need to hear all that about your predilections.)
  • ???

  • Handsome Boy Modeling School w/ De La Soul - If It Wasn't For You

  • Insight - Visual Audio

  • The UN - Game of Death

  • The Marxmen (MOP) - Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

  • Ed OG - Takin Over

October 11, 2004

Newsday's Unsightly Tribute to Hip-Hop

Each day this week New York Newsday is paying tribute to Hip-Hop's (more or less) 30th birthday with a series of feature articles. They've also got a special section for it on their site, where you'll find all the articles along with lots of bonus audio and video, including a nice little Jean Grae interview.

It's just too bad all this cool content is presented on the ugliest freaking page I've ever seen in my life. What the hell were you thinking with that faux-graffiti title graphic? Guys, you're in the big leagues now, time to upgrade from MS Paint.

Also note the horrific flash intro, that features repeated mispellings of the word "rap." Yeesh!

The Big Lie of Political Hip-Hop

(This is basically a sequel to what I wrote here)

The worst thing about all these 30th Birthday Hip-Hop retrospectives is how many of them are perpetuating the "real hip-hop=political hip-hop" mythology. Like this one from Kristi Turnquist of the Oregonian:

Hip-hop Has Transformed Pop Culture -- and Vice Versa

When it first boomed out of New York's South Bronx more than 25 years ago, hip-hop was bare-bones but expressive, made by young men too broke to buy instruments. With turntables, microphones and words, they made music that, at its best, spoke out against poverty and injustice. Early milestones such as Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five's "The Message" and Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" established rap as a new form of protest art...

...But now, with a few exceptions, mainstream hip-hop is more party than politics, defined by videos featuring artists rapping about their cars, their jewelry and their booty-shaking women -- the all-American materialism of Madison Avenue.

Ugh. What kills me this time is how Todd Boyd tries to help this writer see the error of her ways, and she even includes his quote, but still clings to her fantasy in the rest of the piece.

"People seem to routinely agree that hip-hop was political at one point, then it became gangsta, then it spiraled downward in terms of its significance and importance," says Todd Boyd, professor of critical studies at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television. "That is not true."

As Boyd points out, the 1979 single that started it all -- Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" -- wasn't what you'd call deep (not with such lyrics as, "I said a hip hop the hippie the hippie to the hip hip hop, and you don't stop").

"What is sillier than that?" asks Boyd. "You can't make hip-hop into something it's not. It's not politics. Hip-hop, at the end of the day, is about beats and rhymes."

It's about beats and rhymes. Why is that so hard to understand?

Why has everyone become so attached to this fairy tale that hip-hop was all about "socially conscious" lyrics in its early days? That it was only when rap went commercial that everyone started bragging and boasting and kicking party rhymes? And that those party rhymes are inherently less valuable?

Anyone who is at all familiar with hip-hop's history knows that is a bunch of baloney. It is a lie that not only distorts our history, it demeans the art form and all of its pioneers by assuming that hip-hop is not important or valuable as a musical form.. that its value derives only from the content of its lyrics, the subject matter it chooses to address.

I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll have to say it 1000 times again: this is the biggest lie that's ever been told about hip-hop.

Hip-hop is important because it is great music. Period. All the "conscious" anthems these writers exalt would never have mattered one iota, if they were not delivered within a musical form so compelling that it forced the world to listen.

Hip-hop's influence has extended far beyond the music, but it's always been the music that made everything else possible. And that music can be equally valuable no matter what topic the emcee chooses to discuss. "Ante Up" and "Who Shot Ya" are every bit as important to me as "The Message" and "Dear Mama." Because they speak to me musically in ways that no concrete verbal expression ever could.

That is the essential power of music, and hip-hop's pioneers knew this. They understood there is no greater purpose, no goal more noble for any man, than a commitment to rocking the party. It's a shame that after 30 years, so many people still haven't figured that out. They all must lead such drab and grooveless lives..

Dred Scott Ain't Got Nuttin Ta Lose

It's astounding how many layers of stupidity can be peeled back from Bush's debate answers. Props to Joho the Blog for plumbing the depths of Dubya's mind-boggling Dred Scott reference, including the moment when Bush realizes that he cannot finish his sentence, because finishing would require some knowledge of what is actually in the constitution:

...Clearly, Bush considers the Dred Scott case to be a bad decision by an activist judge who is not a strict constructivist. Actually, the case wasn't about whether slavery was legal; that was not only taken for granted, it was written in the Constitution. The case was actually about whether slaves had enough standing to sue in a federal court. Chief Justice Taney said not only didn't they have the standing, but the Missouri Compromise unconstitutionally violated the right of property owners to transport their property — whether it's a chair or a slave — anywhere they wanted. Scott's legal owner could not be denied his rights as a property owner, Taney wrote, basing his opinion on the Fifth Amendment's promise of due process. This is from Taney's decision:
...Thus the rights of property are united with the rights of person and placed on the same ground by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, which provides that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, and property without due process of law. And an act of Congress which deprives a citizen of the United States of his liberty or property, without due process of law, merely because he came himself or brought his property into a particular territory of the United States, and who had committed no offense against the laws, could hardly be dignified with the name of due process of law...

Note that in this passage, the person being deprived of property is not Scott but Scott's owner. That Taney didn't need to explain that shows just how embedded was the Blacks-as-property "frame."

Then we get this mind-twister of a sentence from Bush:

That's a personal opinion. That's not what the Constitution says. The Constitution of the United States says we're all — you know, it doesn't say that. It doesn't speak to the equality of America

Here's what I think happened in Bush's brain:

Dred Scott= slavery ok. Dred Scott decision bad.

US Constitution says "All men created equal."

ALARM! ALARM! ALARM! Is that in the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence? ABORT THE SENTENCE! ABORT!

Go for safety: "It [the Constitution] doesn't say that."

Ditch the entire thing. Go back to "Dred Scott bad": "It [Dred Scott decision] doesn't speak to the equality of America."

Taney was an activist in that he could have ruled narrowly on whether Scott had standing to bring suit. Instead, he ruled on the issue that Scott was raising, in effect saying, "No, you can't sue, but we're ruling against you anyway." That's not a very good example of what it means to be an activist judge. Worse for Bush, Taney's decision was based on a narrow, literal and strict construction of the Constitution's meaning...

October 13, 2004

Beanie Sigel, Philosopher

Stuff Magazine: So, you're keeping it real?
Beanie Sigel: I don't even like that term. Everything is already real.

Possibly my favorite quote of the year..

Nelly: Republicans Buy Pimp Juice Too

I will admit there are some crimes even worse than telling the world that the only good hip-hop is "conscious" hip-hop. For example, telling the world that hip-hop should never be political, because it might affect profit margins:

“If you want to do the politics thing, be more involved personally, but you could talk about that and then tomorrow wake up and you’re not selling records. So now you protested the war…and your broke!”

Poor Nelly, does he really think that wake-up call will never come for him, if he studiously avoids offending the plantation owners? All he'll be doing is assuring that when the bell tolls for him, he won't even have his integrity to keep him warm.

(courtesy of Different Kitchen, who also has everything you need to know about tonight's debate)

How to Get Sonned by Russell Simmons

From allhiphop, courtesy of Catchdubs:

Russell Simmons Pulls Out Of Source Event, Mag Owners Comment

The Source and Russell Simmons continue to feud. The Hip-Hop Summit Action Network recently pulled out of an event scheduled to take place over the weekend before The Source Awards.

Simmons and The Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) pulled out of speaking duties at Saturday’s (October 9th) "Join the SIPHA: Hip-Hop Voter Education Rally."

"Russell Simmons has been exploiting Hip-Hop for years,” The Source’s Dave Mays and Ray Benzino said in a statement. “We invited, and expected him to participate in the largest annual Hip-Hop weekend of the year, and he bailed from the event because he is afraid of the authenticity and influence of The Source Magazine..." [cue laugh track]

...Simmons reply to The Source’s comments and allegations were simple: "God bless them," the mogul told AllHipHop.com.

October 14, 2004

The Lloyd Banks Gay Porn Rumor

HIPHOPMUSIC.COM EXCLUSIVE!!!
I'M NOT JOKING THIS TIME!!!

You've probably seen this week's big internet rumor, that G-Unit rapper Lloyd Banks has a secret past as a perforner in gay porn flicks. The rumor was accompanied by a flash video of two guys, uhh, doing the things one does in a gay porn flick, and one of the guys does indeed look a lot like Lloyd Banks.

If this rumor and accompanying video were part of a conspiracy to take thousands of insecure, homophobic hip-hoppers and get them to spend all day watching gay men have sex, it has been a smashing success. But is the guy in the video really Lloyd Banks? Apparently not.

Allhiphop and others have noted that Lloyd Banks bears a strong resemblance to a gay adult performer named Ty Lattimore, and suggested it is actually Lattimore on the tape. Well, Mr. Lattimore himself contacted us this morning via email, and here's what he had to say:

There is a huge rumor going around the net that this is Lloyd Banks in this clip. It is not....This clip is of me and a model named Mocha from Bam 2. Folks got it all wrong. I have no idea how this rumor was started. Ty Lattimore

Thanks to Ty for clearing this up once and for all. Here is a link to Bam 2: Thug, evidently the source of the clip. Which one of you will volunteer to watch it and verify this? Anybody? Bueller?

October 18, 2004

Very Good Things

Very good MP3 blog: Benn loxo du tàccu. Very good.

Very good MP3 blog battle: Cocaine Blunts vs. Soulsides (vs. Tofu Hut)

Very good photograph

Very good De La Soul interview/review: one and two

Very good drumming

Very good (NYT!) Cam'ron profile: plus outtake

Very good cartoon

Very sad spectacle: How much you guys were celebrating after winning one game in the series. I kinda wish they'd shown some mercy instead of prolonging the torture.. does anyone doubt that they will now take it to game 7 and then blow a lead in the 9th?

NEW AUDIO from Ty, and Scienz of Life

The soundclick page is updated with two live performances from our radio show.. one from Scienz of life this past weekend (with yours truly on the beatbox after the instrumental runs out), and an older one from Ty that I never got around to posting.

Our interview with Ty is here, in case you missed it.

October 19, 2004

The Exploitation of Rosa Parks

In case you missed it, the Times has the ugly backstory of the Rosa Park's lawsuit against Outkast, which it turns out was probably not her idea at all, but carried out by her caretakers who are viewed by many as exploiting Rosa's name (and ill health).

This has apparently been an issue for quite some time, check out this excerpt from a 2001 Parks bio:

Fellow civil rights leaders, friends, and family of Parks, expressed concern about her demanding schedule and finances in September 1997. They were unable to get answers from Parks' attorney, Gregory Reed, and personal assistant, Elaine Steele, who together had formed The Parks Legacy, a corporation that controlled the public property rights to Parks' image. According to court records, the "selling" of Parks included fees for autographs and pictures of the civil rights legend, her appearance in a rock video, and her image on a phone-calling card. An article in the Detroit News noted, "Civil rights leaders and marketing experts fear the products cheapen Parks' image and legacy as the mother of the civil rights movement."

This makes me wonder about other things, like when Rosa Parks supposedly boycotted the NAACP awards to protest the jokes about her in "Barbershop" ..a move that was explained only by a statement from Elaine Steele.

It also, unfortunately, reminds me of our run-ins here on this site with the clumsily dishonest wife of Richard Pryor, about whom I have similar concerns.

October 21, 2004

Immortal Technique Wants You To Vote

Immortal Tech at latinrapper.com (via J.S.):

"Certain rap artists have stated that they wouldn't vote in the presidential election because they feel neither political party has the interests of minorities in mind. What's your take?

The greediest most money grubbing people I ever met in my life were corporate conservative leeches. And these are the people that are digging into their pockets to give the Bush Cheney campaign non tax refundable money. They are giving them money because they know that your vote counts, they care more about their money than they care about life, and they are willing to invest in us, in getting our vote by buying adds, propaganda and such. If they believe in our vote then why shouldn't we. Let us become our own voting block, and build the type of respect and power that the lobbyists for the bible belt of white America have. People will not listen to Black and Latino people until we make them listen, our votes will make them listen, and I know we tried that last year but Revolution isn't fought on one battle field, I think every hardcore anarchist can take 15 minutes out of their schedule in early Nov. and try to get rid of emperor Bush."

October 26, 2004

Eminem "Mosh" Video

When I first heard Eminem's anti-Bush manifesto "Mosh" I was too turned off by the leaden synth dirge he rapped over to get much satisfaction from his political awakening. But this video helps it go down easier:

High Speed Windows Media
Multi Speed Windows Media
High Speed Realaudio
Multi Speed Realaudio

The cynic in me is tempted to write this off as a bunch of platitudes calculated to reposition his branding. But if the message is reaching people maybe that doesn't even matter? Could this go down in history as the election decided by Eminem and Howard Stern?

October 28, 2004

Jay Z to be Def Jam President?

Hopefully Nas will become president of Sony, then we can take this battling stuff to a whole 'nother level.

Jay-Z may become new Def Jam president

...As Island Def Jam president, the 33-year-old New York native would report to chairman Antonio “L.A.” Reid, who joined the label in February. The label’s last president, Kevin Liles, was ousted in July.

It’s expected the label will seek to sign Jay-Z to a three-year deal, the source said.

Separately, Universal Music Group has also been in talks with Jay-Z and longtime business partners Damon Dash and Kareem “Biggs” Burke to buy their Roc-A-Fella Records label. But Universal’s bid to hire Jay-Z is not contingent on acquiring Roc-A-Fella, the source said...

Chuck D on Voting

I recently had the chance to chat with Chuck D, who was kind enough to stay on his cell phone with me for a good hour as he drove through Ohio. Most of our talk will appear in a future project that you'll have to wait for, but I'm gonna sneak in his comments about the election while I can. I could almost swear Chuck's words here are aimed at Nas' anti-voting rants.

Chuck: ...Organizations are encouraging young people to vote, which to me I think is like, yes, it’s so necessary. It’s like washing up in the morning. But I'd say there’s a bigger picture to even that. That, okay, in December 2004, how are the issues gonna be met? And who’s keeping score? My thing if you’re voting and you aint keepin’ score, what the f**k are you voting for?

That's why when people are like "yeah you know, Kerry, you
know straight up, that nigga the devil, you know? So, Bush, Kerry, they
the same niggas" …it’s like, you're not keepin’ score though! And if you’re not keeping score, don’t even pass a comment.

Cuz the one thing with Bush, you gotta understand what’s on the table to knocked off immediately. Child Care. Health. You know, these are things that are like one and two in our area. Don’t even get in the discussion of jobs cuz we ain't got Black businesses or encouragement for Black businesses, and then you ain't even have encouragement for education that tells you it’s possible to have a Black business that ties into the diaspora. All that shit is out the first day that Bush continues to stay in office. So when a cat tells me that the cats are one and the same.. dude, alright. But are you keeping score?

October 30, 2004

Join Us On the Radio Tonight, 3 Hour Daylight Savings Special

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

We'll be rocking an extra hour thanks to Benjamin Franklin and his daylight savings scheme, so you'll be getting full sets from Emskee, 3D and Tomkat tonight. Recording devices are recommended.

November 2, 2004

Wise Intelligent on Voting: A Dissenting View

Wise Intelligent from Poor Righteous Teachers gave me a more cynical outlook on voting, and this year's attempts to bring out the "hip-hop vote."

G Unit's The Game on Voting: Bush is a F**king Coward

Dr. Dre's latest protege courts yet another beef by placing himself squarely in the "anybody but Bush" camp. Watch out homey, Yukmouth ain't got nothing on Karl Rove.

November 3, 2004

This Ain't America Is It? Where Can I Be...

So yeah. I just started crying in the middle of the supermarket. Which is embarrassing.

This is difficult to cope with because I want so badly to believe that people are good, to have faith in humanity. But it is impossible for me to understand or respect the choices this country has made. I've never felt more alienated from this country and its people.

I guess that is both the blessing and the curse of living in NYC, we are so sheltered from the reality of America. It's almost like my thoughts of moving to Canada are moot, because for all intents and purposes I'm already an embittered expatriate. Looking at this country from the outside wondering what the hell is going on. And I hate feeling that way, feeling so alienated and so judgmental towards masses of people. But how can I not? How could this really be what America is?

A lot of us are simply refusing to accept the result. Telling ourselves "they stole another one," "it was fixed" and so on. We need to stop that. This is real.

Sure, they would have stolen this one if they had to. But they didn't have to, because this vote truly did reflect how Americans think and feel in most of this country. If we are going to change that reality, or even survive it, we need to start being real with ourselves about it.

Just like the essence of white privilege is the luxury of being able to pretend racism doesn't exist, living in our liberal NY oasis puts us in a privileged position. It's so easy to just put our heads in the sand, and keep telling ourselves this can't be real, that we don't have to believe what we see. But there are millions of Americans who do not have that luxury. Eleven states in this country just passed laws confirming that homosexuals are second-class citizens. The gay Americans who live in those states do not have the luxury of telling themselves this isn't real.

We owe it to to everyone like them, and to ourselves, to let this be a wake-up call. To start getting real about the country we live in, and figure out how to change it.

I just wish I had some idea how we do this.

November 15, 2004

ODB Memorial John McLaughlin Mashup

Had to put something special together for the man:

(please don't link directly to file)

November 18, 2004

Enough of this Bulls**t Already

It's hard to start blogging again when all the news is stuff you don't want to talk about.

I am sick to death of this cancerous thug ethos that has plagued the culture for so long. And as I asked in someone else's blog, why are Suge Knight or his people ever invited to anything nowadays, besides a retirement home? They've always been a disgrace to hip-hop, and at this point they haven't put out a relevant record in years, so why is anyone still tolerating their presence?

November 25, 2004

Ah'll Be Bahk

Going away for the holiday, after which regular blogging will resume. Enjoy your Native American Memorial Tryptophan Coma!

In the meantime, has anyone in blogville already tied together how race plays into both the Piston fan riot and the Terrell Owens/Nicolette Sheridan puritan freakout? And into coverage of Artest and Owens in general? And how pundits keep blaming the riot on something they call the "hip-hop mindset?"

December 1, 2004

Under Construction Part II, featuring Magoo (updated)

Aiite, previous problems fixed (thanks anil and donald).. now it seems to be taking comments, but they are waiting for my approval befire showing up.. I have "Automatically Approve Registered Commenters" checked so I thought those would through automatically.. oh and after I approve them, they come up as anonymous.. i'm sure I can figure it out if I dig back into the code after dinner, but just in case anyone recognizes this..

-----------
Okay, I'm gonna use anzidesign's tips to fix the css, I'm sure that won't bee too hard.. but here's my other problem:

When I try post a comment here, it gets through the typekey sign-in process okay, but then it rejects my post because "Name and email address are required." Has anyone else been down this road already? email me.

December 3, 2004

Barry Bonds' Baby Step

There's an old joke where Bob is taking care of Jack's house while Jack is out of town, and Jack's cat dies.

Bob wants to break it to him gently, so the first time Jack calls to check in, Bob just tells him "Oh, your cat is on the roof and I can't get him down.." Then the next time he says "oh boy, you know your cat is still on the roof, and I'm not hearing any noises so I'm getting worried." Then at the end of the week he finally tells Jack the bad news.

Jack is distraught, but tries to keep himself together and asks "how is grandma doing, is she taking it okay?" Bob pauses, and says "Oh, uh, Grandma is on the roof and I can't get her down." [rimshot]

Seems to me this here is Barry Bonds' way of saying "my drugs are on the roof and I can't get them down." At this point he knows he'll have to fess up soon, but he's trying to ease his way into it.

December 7, 2004

Rap / Hip-Hop Grammy Nominations

Is there anyone who didn't know ten months ago that Kanye would be sweeping these? As long as he keeps quiet and doesn't scare voters away with the ego. Odd that he's not in Record of the Year, but maybe they're saving a space to salute Brother Ray, or to make sure Urrsher doesn't get Color Purpled.

Never thought I'd complain about rappers getting too many nominations, but I'm saying, Latifah for "Best Jazz Vocal Album?" At least they didn't balance it out with a nod for Nellie Mckay's rapping. In fact she is nowhere to be seen, which is interesting..

Oh and congrats to Prince for the big 5, hope you take one home..


--------

Press Release of the Day

To the staff of 60 Minutes: When sending out PR about your interview with a hip-hop artist, you might want to find someone under 30 who can proofread it for you:

RAPPER KANYE WEST SAYS USING THE WORD “JESUS” IN SONGS ON MAINSTREAM RADIO IS JUST AS OFFENSIVE AS USING THE “N-WORD” – ON “60 MINUTES WEDNESDAY” ON CBS

Evangelical Christianity is flowing into the mainstream now more than ever. Rappers and rockers are making hits and making money while spreading the gospel to national audiences. Christian groups can be heard on secular radio, seen on the “Tonight Show” and, earlier this year, the group Third Day played at the Republican National Convention. But their success doesn’t come without criticisms, and rapper Kanye West, who became a part of this seismic shift in American culture, tells correspondent Bob Simon, why he feels that using the word Jesus in songs offends some people as much as using the n-word would offend others. Simon’s report will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES WEDNESDAY on Dec. 8 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

West has always been in the secular mainstream, producing hits for stars like Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. He’s considered a genius at creating what he calls a "dope-a-- beat," but he tells Simon that most of his record industry friends warned him about making the single, “Jesus Walks.” West recalls, "People would be like, 'Yo, it's the best song I ever heard, but it'll never make it on radio,' and it frustrated me, so the second verse I wrote about how they say you can't say Jesus on radio... The word Jesus was like saying [the n-word]… It’s gonna offend people for you to say Jesus..."

I guess that's why he works for roc-a-fella?

I'm not convinced his use of the "J Word" was all that courageous, but he is a master of self-promotional spin, I'll give him that.

December 8, 2004

Jay Z and Damon Finally Splitting?

According to the NY Post (is there a more dangerous way to start a sentence?), the oldest rumor in the industry is finally coming to fruition:

JAY-Z, DASH SPLIT IN $10M UNIVERSAL DEAL

Jay-Z and Dash, who have been partners in Roc-A-Fella Records with Universal Music, inked a deal this week with Universal that will allow the two partners to go their separate ways, according to a source close to the negotiations.

Universal agreed to buy the 50 percent of Roc-A-Fella it doesn't already own for less than $10 million, according to the source. In 1997, Roc-A-Fella sold a 50 percent stake to Universal's Island Def Jam for $1.5 million.

Universal had an option to buy the stake, which would have come due in the summer. Roc-A-Fella will be folded into Island Def Jam, and become a small-imprint label, sources said.

...The rapper, who has said he is retired as a recording artist, would still be obliged to make new albums with Universal should he decide to come out of retirement...

...The source of tension between the business partners has been Jay-Z's belief that Dash, who has been CEO of Roc-A-Fella, has been trying to become too much of a star himself, and was beginning to overshadow some of the label's artists, according to sources.

Dash also persisted in pushing Roc-A-Fella into the film industry, something Jay-Z resisted, sources have said.

Those are not exactly the reasons I'd been hearing, but who knows.

EDIT: I've confirmed that the basic premise is true at least, and Roc-A-Fella basically ended last Friday.

December 15, 2004

Hip-Hop (Fashion) is Dead!

I don't know anything about fashion, but this reads to me like yet another premature obituary, just like we always see about the music. Particular styles and brands will always ebb and flow, doesn't mean the river is running dry.

Hip-Hop Flops

A shakeout is afoot in the world of urban apparel, as sales of once red-hot labels begin to cool, analysts and industry executives said.
The across-the-board slowdown is alarming some of the major department-store retailers that had allocated a growing amount of space to these brands on the belief that the double-digit sales growth of recent years would continue, sources said.

Federated Department Stores, which operates the Macy's and Bloomingdale's chains, for instance, is seeing recent sales of urban brands decline in the double digits, compared with year-ago levels, said one person, who added: "It has everyone worried..."

With its edgier looks tied to the inner-city streets and often to a rap star's personal image, urban apparel exploded over the last decade, as sales of more traditional men's wear made by Polo Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger and Nautica went into a prolonged decline.

Women's urban labels soon followed, and before long "anyone who'd ever released an album thought they needed their own line," said Bernt Ullmann, president of Phat Fashions, the clothing company founded in 1992 by hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons.

The Thing About Dirty Laundry, It Needs to Get Clean

In the last few weeks/months as I've been sidetracked, our collective dialogue in blogville has been ably driven by J-Shep and Exo (though Exo should leave the blog dis raps to the professionals.)

Their words are such a breath of fresh air to me, because I am sick to death of hearing all these grown folks acting like children, and seeing their childishness codified as our measure of manhood.

But it's a tough walk on the tightrope, trying to speak on this. I yearn for honest discussion of our own flaws, but I am equally passionate about defending us against attacks from those with no understanding of the musical form, nor respect for the people who create it. And they will jump at every chance to take our introspection and throw it back in our faces, as an admittance that hip-hop is the sole cause of everything bad that involves young Black people.

But the discussion needs to happen, and I'm glad somebody is finding a way to open those doors.

More on this later.

December 16, 2004

Speaking of Nas and Misogyny

I need some clarification on his jabs at Kobe in "Coon Picnic (These Are Our Heroes)":

Yo, you can't do better than that?
The hotel clerk who adjusts the bathroom mat?

So uhh, your problem with Kobe is that he aims too low with his sexual assaults? He should have picked a victim of higher social stature?

December 17, 2004

No Roger, No Rerun, No Rent

Byron Crawford's farcical (and I mean that in the most flattering way possible) petition to ban Kanye West from the Grammys is already picking up steam.

Expect to see it on allhiphop by monday, 20 other random sites in news.google on Wednesday, and the NY Post next Friday.

For the record, Rhymefest is credited as a co-writer and nominated along with Kanye, and he speaks here on whether he wrote the entire song:

...you know what, at the end of the day, if I co-wrote it, hell yeah, I’m gonna say I wrote it. It’s like, if you’re a co-owner of Ford, and the average person asks you if you own Ford, you’re gonna say ‘yes’ to ‘em, nahmsayin? I still get my share and my credit, and at the end of the day, even if I say I wrote it, it’s still Kanye’s song, you know what I’m sayin? But I’m grateful because wherever Kanye goes, whenever he talks about the song and the creation of it, he’s give me credit for helpin’ write it.

But why let the facts get in the way of a good scandal? If this blows up enough for Kanye to make a statement on it, Bol should get a special pulitzer for media satire.

December 18, 2004

Transcription Emergency

Anybody out there want to transcribe a 30 minute interview for me by tomorrow night? I'll try and get you a credit in the book it's going into, or else find some other way to pay you back.. let me know at jsmooth@hiphopmusic.com

January 11, 2005

Facing Hip-hop Love Addiction

Surveying the wildly divergent reactions to Greg Tate's latest, Jeff Chang asked if there is a generation gap between older heads like us and those born after the mid 70's or so.

I think he's on to something there. I think it's a lot easier for younger heads to maintain a healthy relationship with hip-hop, because they are in a better position to see and accept hip-hop for what it is. While us old folks are still caught up in a fantasy version of hip-hop that either no longer exists or never existed in the first place. It's the difference between being in love and being love addicted.

That’s right, my fellow fogeys, we have a disease. And it’s time for us to start owning our reality and find a path to recovery. So let’s start breaking down the addictive cycle step-by-step.


1. In her book Facing Love Addiction, Pia Mellody builds on the premise that “people fall into love addiction because of the unhealed pain from child abandonment.”

How does this apply to us as 30+ hip-hoppers? Well as I said here we all grew up with a profound sense of abandonment, coming of age right when our parents’ activist/political movements were fading away, leaving us with little leadership and less momentum. And nowhere was this void more pronounced than in black community. And this inevitably led to the next step:

2. As Mellody explains “one way such children may escape the pain of severe abandonment by the parents is to fantasize about being rescued by a hero of some kind.” And as adults, this leads us to seek out “unhealthy relationships based on intensity, delusion, and unrealistic expectations, and not mature healthy love.”

Sound familiar? As soon as the late 80s “conscious era” came around, this was the relationship we all sought out with hip-hop, to one degree or another. We convinced ourselves that these young rappers were just the heroes we were looking for, to swoop in and fill that activist void. And just like in every addicted relationship, at first it all seemed so perfect…

3. When the love addict first enters a relationship, according to Mellody they experience a tremendous initial high as their fantasy is triggered, and they revel in their “fantasy image which they place like a beautiful mask over the head” of their partner.

What sweeter high could there be than what we felt in that golden age, when we truly believed in Greg Tate’s “Afrocentric dream of hiphop's becoming an agent of social change.” And for a while it was all too easy to believe the dream could come true.. so easy that some of us started to lose sight of all the artistry that really made the golden age golden. We became blinded to the whole of hip-hop’s inherent worth, focused only on that activist mask we had put over it. But fantasies never last too long..

4. Then Mellody describes the next stage, when the love addict continues showing more neediness than the partner can possibly fulfill, and the partner starts to put up walls and pull away from the addict. But the addict remains in denial and cannot see.

As I lamented here two years ago, the golden age was truly golden in many ways, and much of that magic was lost as the music got assimilated into America’s mainstream hive-mind. Just as this co-optation was going into high gear NWA’s gangsta eclipsed PE’s righteousness to establish a new paradigm of profitability for the industry, and a new standard of “realness” and manhood for the artist and audience. The game would never be the same.

Hip-hop has still remained beautiful in many ways, though, since it started down that path. Added many new layers of meaning atop the compelling musicality that is always its foundation. But for us, the golden age love addicts, our delusions have been all we could see. Even as hip-hop pulled further and further down its natural path and away from our irrational needs, we could see nothing but our fantasy mask, and kept hoping all these young artists would soon reveal their true identities as raptivist superheroes. Until one day we each reached our breaking point.

5. But at some point, the book warns, every addict reaches a point when they can no longer maintain their delusion in the face of mounting evidence, so their fantasy and denial start to crumble and they enter a state of withdrawal. As the addict truly sees their partner for the first time, and realizes they are not that fantasy hero at all, the addict often develops an exaggerated sense of resentment towards the partner. They may then become consumed with a desire to lash out the partner, or seek revenge.

How many times have we seen this? How many indignant, brokenhearted “hip-hop is dead!” manifestos have come from those among us who finally hit that wall and watched our fantasies die? Even the mighty Greg Tate, the godfather of us all, slips a bit into this trap with that Voice piece. As much as he is correct in assessing what hip-hop is in 2005, the tone of his analysis and the conclusions he draws are overstated and misguided in classic love-addict form.

I hadn’t read O-Dub’s excellent take on Tate’s piece until I was almost done writing this, and I wish I could start from scratch with his thoughts in mind. But I have to agree with David that Oliver may be crediting the piece with more nuance and balance than it actually has. The Dub is surely right that hip-hop has far reaching influences and importance beyond making booties shake, and these dimensions deserve analysis. But not much good can come of that analysis if it’s built on the assumption that hip-hop is a failure, or in Greg Tate's words that "hip-hop sucks," because it never fulfilled the unrealistic needs of our love-addicted fantasy.

So unless we can all get on the road to recovery, it may be the analysis we need will only come from these younger heads, who came of age when hip-hop was already within the mainstream machinery, and are thus burdened with none of our illusions. It doesn’t appear to me that heads like Hashim (who was maybe a little too harsh with Greg, yes) want to dismiss entirely the issues that Greg raises, and define the music as merely entertainment and nothing more. They just seem to have a more clear-headed, and non-judgmental/non-resentful, sense of how much hip-hop is merely commercial entertainment now, and how much it is not. So they are able to love hip-hop for what it is, and cultivate a healthy relationship with it, with ample room for constructive criticism and collective introspection. And that's the place us fogeys need to get to. But it’s 4AM, and I may just be rambling now.

---------------

BTW I also believe that the role music plays in our lives, with its musicality, goes far deeper than making booties shake or providing “entertainment,” and we are selling it short in that regard. But again it’s 4AM and I’ll have to get to that another time.

More on Greg Tate

I gotta say, as I re-read Tate's piece and all the reaction it's produced (how can you not love blogville at times like this?), I am less convinced the piece is as balanced as O-Dub gives it credit for. O says "I think people are making certain presumptions of Tate based on what he wrote and didn't write," but it appears to me the naysayers are going strictly by what's in the text, while O is giving Greg the benefit of the doubt and presuming we should fill in the blanks a certain way. And while I suspect O is correct in much of his presumption, you can't blame others for going by what's actually on the page.

O says Tate "provides a balanced approach to both celebrating hip-hop's achivements while also being candid about its shortcomings," but where does Tate's text ever celebrate any achievements, at least without turning the compliment backhanded in the second half of the sentence? And O doubts this is a "Hip-Hop Is Dead" piece, but it damn sure reads like a eulogy to me:

"Twenty years from now we'll be able to tell our grandchildren and great-grandchildren how we witnessed cultural genocide: the systematic destruction of a people's folkways."

You can't have a genocide without something dying. If that something is not hip-hop in its totality, certainly the only part of hip-hop that Tate values is dead or dying in his eyes.

And that's the problem with the piece.. even when correct in his observations Tate cannot place them in their proper context, because he doesn't see there's so much more to hip-hop beyond the aspects he addresses.

I can only wish Tate's actual text was as sharp as everything O-Dub extrapolates from it:

The question this comes back to is this: what is the relationship between hip-hop, as a Black cultural form, and the Black community that it emerges from? Does hip-hop speak to the realities of that community? And if it does not, what are the implications of that disconnection?

Great questions, but as I read Tate's text he's not really asking them, so much as giving pat and myopic answers to them. As Oliver himself says, there's a lot more to go by than lack of politics when judging whether hip-hop sucks in 2005. So many other pieces of the puzzle Tate is missing when he answers his own question "what are we celebrating?"

And that's what I think the younger heads are reacting to, it's not that the issues Greg raises are irrelevant to their generation, but that Tate fails to put those issues in their proper context. It's not that he shouldn't be asking these questions, it's his omission of all the other questions you need to ask before you can render the type of verdict he hands down.

So as with much published work these days, Tate is lucky blogville is around to fill in all those missing pieces. But then again maybe we're also lucky Tate is around, to push us towards filling them.

EDIT: Pretty sneaky, O-Dub, not telling us you also had this one in the chamber.

January 12, 2005

Eminem vs. David Mays, Live and In Person

As you are surely aware by now, I am obliged to gloat about any scandal that befalls DAvid Mays or Benzino. There's a little more to this story than what has come out so far, but I am sworn to secrecy.. look around for more details tomorrow.

Below is a mix of MTV's current report and their earlier edit that rapnewsdirect cribbed wholesale:

Eminem and David Mays Face Off at Radio Station

On Tuesday evening in Detroit, Em and Source co-owner David Mays got into an off-air verbal confrontation at radio station WDTJ-FM.

Reports are still coming in, but according to sources close to the altercation, Mays was being interviewed at the station for an evening radio program. Some of Mays' words were directed toward the Motor City SoundScan king.

Shortly thereafter, Eminem arrived at the station with approximately 10 men. While sources say that no violence took place, there was plenty of shouting and four-letter words being flung...

..."[Eminem] starts yelling at the program director, 'You're a punk for letting this guy come up to the station.' The show basically ended, and I left and came to New York," he said.

Coincidentally, last time I talked to David Mays he was calling me a punk for letting some guys come up to the radio station and talk about him (namely James Bernard and Reginald Dennis). Many four letter words were flung on that occasion as well.

January 19, 2005

I said the TR 808 Is Blogging...

Bright and early in the mo-orning!

January 20, 2005

Today Our Inertia Will Be TOTALLY IN YOUR FACE!

I was going to post about my disdain for today's "Not A Damn Dime Day," but in the spirit of their militant sloth I will take the laziest route possible and just link to my comments at quarterwit.

January 21, 2005

Join Us On the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room, at it's new temporary address.

Racist Hot 97 Skit Mocking Tsunami Victims


For the last week Hot 97 has been running a hideously unfunny and offensive skit named "Tsunami Song," that ridicules the victims of the Tsunami as "chinks" whose children will now be sold into child slavery. It's being played on the station's morning show, hosted by Miss Jones.

It's also featured on their website, on the right side of the page. (This is a direct link to the mp3).

EDIT: the mp3 link is not working from their site anymore, but they're not gonna cover this up that easily. The fine citizens at okayplayer.com saved a copy here for evidence. Also check their discussion of the song here and here

Here are some choice lyrics:

..All at once you could hear the screaming ch*nks and no one was safe from the wave there were africans drowning, little chinamen swept away you could hear god laughing, "swim you b*tches swim"

So now you're screwed, it's the Tsunami
you better run or kiss your ass away, go find your mommy
I just saw her float by, a tree went through her head
and now the children will be sold to child slavery...

Uhh, yeah. Har de har har.

You may know that one of that show's other hosts, Miss Info, is Asian. She voiced her displeasure with the skit and got into a heated on-air argument with Miss Jones about it. But so far Hot 97 hasn't acknowledged that there's anything wrong with it, and they continue to air it everyday.

As a New Yorker, as a radio person, and as a hip-hop fan I am ashamed and disgusted that Hot 97 is allowing this to broadcast on their airwaves. If you feel the same way you can let them know here:

NOTE: If you use the word "tsunami" in your email it will probably get filtered now, and not read. So try to leave that word out..

HOT 97
395 Hudson St. 7th Fl.
New York, NY 10014

(212) 229-9797

hot97@hot97.com

Or even better, Hot 97's parent company Emmis broadcasting:

ir@emmis.com
jsmulyan@emmis.com
rcummings@emmis.com
jsteele@emmis.com
khealey@emmis.com

And if you really want to send a message, and make Hot 97 hear it, you can contact their advertisers about this. I may try to put together a list of sponsors, or if anybody else has one please pass it along.

EDIT: The list of sponsors is here

And there are now two online petitions you can sign:
http://www.petitiononline.com/tsunmai7/petition.html
http://www.petitiononline.com/endhate/petition.html

January 22, 2005

New EVEN WORSE Hot 97 Audio, and List of Sponsors (UPDATED)

I got my hands on a longer clip from this week's Hot 97 morning show, and it is ugly stuff indeed: longer_hot97_tsunami.mp3

On this tape you hear them introducing the "Tsunami Song," then Miss Jones and co-host Todd Lynn launching into an abusive tirade against Miss Info when she voices her objection to it. Miss Jones finally tells Info she's only complaining because "you feel superior, probably because you're Asian."

Then, after Miss Info has said the song is offensive to Asians, co-host Todd Lynn informs her: "I'm gonna start shooting Asians." Yes, he really says that. It's at 3:37 on the mp3.

In the meantime the NY Post has picked up on the story. And Hot 97 has posted an apology on their website, an extremely weak apology in my opinion. They aren't even willing to match that flimsy one day suspension Star and Buc got for the "rat eater" incident? Pathetic. And they still refuse to acknowledge the bigotry at all.

Over at okayplayer they started compiling a list of Hot 97's sponsors and how to contact them. I'll paste their findings here. Note that on the audio posted above, they basically tell us the Tsunami Song was "brought to us by" Sprint. I'm sure Sprint would love to know just what they've been bringing us [EDIT: Sprint has now suspended their ads, along with Mcdonald's] :

Sprint/Sprint PCS
Media Contact:
James Fisher, 202-585-1947
james.w.fisher@mail.sprint.com

Popeyes
http://popeyes.com/corp_comm.asp

Reebok
Lisa Bartlett
lisa.bartlett@reebok.com

Jennifer Hawkins
jennifer@stenderhawkins.com


Reebok International Ltd.
PO Box 1060
Ronks, PA 17573

OR

Corporate Headquarters
Reebok International Ltd.
1895 J. W. Foster Boulevard
Canton, MA 02021
781-401-5000
ask for David Pace (atty) or Paul Fireman (CEO)

McDonald's
http://mcdonalds.com/contact/contact_us.html

1/23/05 New Sponsor contacts:

Jackson Hewitt - (they have pulled their ads)
Sheila Cort
Director, Communications
Jackson Hewitt Inc.
973-496-2702
Sheila.cort@jtax.com

Popeye's parent company:
mconlon@afce.com

Coca Cola:
The Coca-Cola Company
P.O. Box 1734
Atlanta, GA USA 30301
http://www.coke.net/webapps/pubinquiry/PublicInquiry
1-800-438-2653

Toyota
800-331-4331
800-443-4999 for TDD
6:00 AM - 6:00 PM Pacific Time, Monday - Friday

For calls originating outside the United States: 310-468-4000
7:00 AM - 5:30 PM Pacific Time, Monday - Friday

http://toyota.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/toyota.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php?

And here are some addresses for Hot 97's parent company, Emmis Broadcasting. The first is their head honcho Jeff Smulyan:

NOTE: If you use the word "tsunami" in your email it will probably get filtered now, and not read. So try to leave that word out..

jsmulyan@emmis.com
ir@emmis.com
rcummings@emmis.com
jsteele@emmis.com
khealey@emmis.com

And there are now two online petitions you can sign:
http://www.petitiononline.com/tsunmai7/petition.html
http://www.petitiononline.com/endhate/petition.html


and P.S. - While you're here, the best way to show that these people don't represent us is by going to Red Cross and make a donation of our own to help the Tsunami victims.

January 25, 2005

Jin Records Track Dissing Hot 97, Sponsors Pulling Their Ads

1/31/05 UPDATE: The truth about the "informed insider" email

UPDATE: Hot 97 Announces Suspension, Details Unclear So Far

The highly respected Chinese-American emcee Jin just recorded a blistering freestyle track in response to Hot 97's racism, you can download the mp3 here.

And in today's other big news, one of Hot 97's sponsors, the Jackson Hewitt tax service, reports they are pulling their advertising and support from hot 97's morning show, im response to the outcry over their Tsunami song:

Dear Sir/Madam:

We respect and share in your concerns regarding the truly insensitive
and inappropriate behavior of the show's hosts and the airing of the
offensive song. Please be aware that Jackson Hewitt Tax Service does
not endorse or approve of such behavior and had no input or prior knowledge as to the content of the broadcast that aired last week
during the "Miss Jones in the Morning" program.

In fact, we have already contacted station owners and management to express our concerns and to inform them that we have withdrawn our advertising and support from the "Miss Jones in the Morning" program.

We acknowledge that the station has posted an apology, but certainly do not believe that that is enough, considering the serious nature of this matter. Thus we have called upon the station's owners and management to further review this program and its allowance of such behavior.

We thank you for taking the time to reach out to us on this serious matter.

Respectfully,
Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. Management

Bravo to Jackson Hewitt for doing the right thing. If you want to convince other sponsors to do the same, get their contact info here.

Thanks to all of your work spreading the word the story was picked up by hundreds of media outlets yesterday, including the Daily News, Newsday, and the NY Times. Also new coverage from WCBS (with video link), the Village Voice, Reuters, and Billboard, among many others.

Props especially to asianmediawatch.net and asianmediawatchdog.com for their efforts, and the okayplayers Jose3030 and afrikankween52.

January 26, 2005

Hot 97 Announces Suspension, Sprint and McDonalds Pulling Ads

1/31/05 UPDATE: Todd Lynn Fired


The truth about the "informed insider" email

1/28/05 UPDATE: Todd Lynn speaks to Hiphopmusic.com

EDIT: Journalist Oliver Wang says this suspension "seems like smoke and mirrors," and hip-hop radio legend Davey D tells us "Right now Miss Jones and her morning team are suspended, but trust me folks that’s only for show. They are hoping this incident will go away and people will forget"

I have to agree, and I STRONGLY encourage everyone to keep the pressure on sponsors and shareholders, and keep watching this situation closely. It is quite possible the morning show is only getting a little paid vacation, and they're hoping we won't notice when they come back in two weeks.

At 6 AM this morning, Hot 97 announced the Miss Jones morning show is "suspended indefinitely". I posted the announcement here as an mp3.

This morning from 6 to 10 was hosted by someone named "E-Bro" who took calls on-air about the controversy. Most of the calls they took were in favor of bringing Miss Jones back. Many people have reported to me that when they called to speak against bringing the show back they were screened out.

They also played Jin's dis track repeatedly. EDIT: They also nterviewed Jin, the audio is here courtesy of holla-front.com. Also posted by alljin.com here. Jin stood firmly his belief that the Miss Jones morning show should not be brought back on the air.

They're not saying whether the suspension is permanent or temporary, or whether it is a paid suspension. Or whether the suspension includes Miss Info.

An ad for Miss Jones' special "smackfest finals" on Friday morning at Caroline's comedy club aired minutes before the announcement, but now they have said that event is "postponed."

Meanwhile, both Sprint and Mcdonalds have announced they will suspend their advertising:

New STATEMENT FROM SPRINT

* Because the tsunami parody content on the Hot 97 program was in violation of our company standards, Sprint intends to suspend its advertising on the station.

The following information was issued previously:

* Sprint does NOT have any connection to the Tsunami Song aired on Hot 97 FM.

* Sprint strongly objects to any communication or other effort making light of the devastation of the tsunami disaster. The content of the "Tsunami song" clearly runs contrary to Sprint's commitment to diversity and inclusion, and is not in any way supported or condoned by Sprint. Needless to say, our hearts go out to the tsunami victims and their families -- for this and other reasons, the Sprint Foundation and our associates have worked together since the tsunami tragedy to raise funds for disaster relief efforts and will continue to do so.

*Sprint has purchased advertising time on Hot 97 but was incorrectly identified as a sponsor of the segment of the show in which the song was referenced. In any case, Sprint was unaware and had no connection to the content of the "Tsunami Song."

*Sprint has expressed our strong concern about this content to the radio station. The station has issued a public apology and appears to have disciplined the responsible parties. Sprint continually evaluates acceptable content against our own guidelines and we will continue to monitor the process with all outlets in which we advertise.

and from Mcdonalds:

Thank you for taking the time contact McDonald's. We appreciate the opportunity to respond to you regarding the recent events involving hosts from the Hot 97 morning radio program in New York.

First, McDonald's does not support programs that discriminate or are
insensitive to the plight of people suffering from devastating events.
Starting immediately, McDonald's will indefinitely suspend advertising
on the Hot 97 morning show.

It's also important to know that Ronald McDonald House Charities,
McDonald's Corporation and the McDonald's family around the world have
donated more than two million dollars to the Tsunami relief efforts.

We take these matters very seriously and will continue to work together to help victims of this devastating disaster.

Again, thank you for giving us the opportunity to respond to your
concerns.

Nancy
McDonald's Customer Response Center

January 27, 2005

Memo to Emmis Communications: The Whole World is Watching (UPDATED)

1/31/05 UPDATE: Todd Lynn Fired

Todd Lynn speaks to Jay Smooth

The "Toyota Scion" ads have disappeared from Hot97.com. If anyone has received word from Toyota about their ads being pulled, please pass it along.

EDIT: Toyota has sent out a new reply, but it does not acknowledge pulling any ads, and says the ads had been bought by some sort of local branch:

Thank you for contacting Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.

We are sensitive to the opinions of our customers and apologize if a Toyota sponsorship has offended you in any way.

Toyota’s decision to advertise on particular programs is based on the level of interest generated by the American public, not the subject matter contained in the program. We make every effort to screen broadcasts considered to contain controversial issues, however we had no prior knowledge of the radio station's intent to air “The Tsunami Song”. Additionally, Toyota advertising stems from three distinct levels; local, regional, and national. This particular advertising was from a TDA (Toyota Dealers Association), which represents the greater New York Region.

Upon learning of this issue the TDA immediately contacted management at Hot 97 to express their dissatisfaction. As a result, Hot 97 responded with a written apology to the TDA. Our research of the Hot 97 controversy indicates the radio station has ceased the broadcast, issued a public apology, and offered a notable contribution to tsunami relief.

Toyota in no way condones nor supports the messages prevalent in the parody known as “The Tsunami Song”. To the contrary, we take many opportunities to promote cultural and racial diversity, and regarding the tragedy created by the natural disaster, Toyota estimates a nearly four million dollar contribution for Tsunami relief efforts from its North American affiliates.

If we can be of further assistance, please feel free to contact us.

EDIT: All links to the Hot 97 morning show's webpage, and banners featuring Miss Jones, are now removed from Hot97.com. The morning show page was still accessible through the direct URL, but soon after I noted this it disappeared. know the url. Props to mediadrop for the scoop.)

Several people have sent me this e-mail from Coca-Cola, apparently they are pulling their ads from the Hot 97 morning show:

Date: 27 Jan 2005 12:29:11 -0500
From: Coca-Cola Support
Subject: RE: Coca-Cola Web Form
To: ******@yahoo.com

Thank you for contacting The Coca-Cola Company. We are grateful for the opportunity to respond, and we share your concerns regarding this matter.

Together with our bottling partners, The Coca-Cola Company is working in the regions impacted by this natural disaster to provide clean drinking water and to support local relief efforts and other on-the-ground needs. To date, the Coca-Cola System and our employees have combined to contribute almost $20 million in cash and material donations.

We have made Hot 97 management aware that The Coca-Cola Company does not condone the inappropriate and insensitive parody of the tsunami disaster that aired on their station. We do not support programs that are discriminatory or that make light of the tsunami crisis and its devastating impact on people in the region. Accordingly, we have withdrawn our advertising from the Hot 97 morning show.

However, we do not want this decision to impinge upon other ongoing community support programs. Currently we are conducting a Black History Month promotion in conjunction with Hot 97 that awards scholarships to deserving students in the New York area. While this worthwhile promotion will continue, it will no longer be advertised on the station's morning programming.

Your feedback is truly appreciated. If you ever have any additional questions or concerns on any other matter, please feel free to contact us again.

Sincerely,
Lesley
Industry and Consumer Affairs
The Coca-Coca Company

Also, The Emmis website currently has a job listing for "morning show host". Looks like they are keeping all their bases covered (EDIT: I'm told this listing was up before the controversy started). And here's a new but tentative response from another of Hot 97's sponsors, Reebok:

Reebok’s Response to Decision by New York Radio Station
Hot 97.7 to Create and Broadcast Tsunami Parody Song


“Reebok is an occasional advertiser on New York radio station Hot 97. Like many of its listeners, we were deeply disturbed by the insensitive and offensive tsunami parody song that was created and aired during the Miss Jones in the Morning Show. Ridiculing the victims of this horrible disaster was offensive, deeply racist and went far beyond ‘creative license.’ We are pleased that Hot 97 has issued an apology, both on the air and on its web-site. However, we have urged the station to institute a more rigorous policy to prevent such insensitive and racist material from being produced and aired in the future. Furthermore, we have communicated to the station’s general manager that we expect the station to take any and all appropriate disciplinary action. We will continue to monitor this situation and, if necessary, will adjust our response accordingly.”


Denise Kaigler
Reebok Spokesperson
January 26, 2005

As you can imagine, I'm getting hundreds thousands of emails and messages about this Hot 97 controversy. What I'm getting from the public and from activist communities now: this vaguely defined suspension ain't cutting it. And organized protest is about to rise up stronger than ever.

Although I helped to start it I am far from the leader of this protest, and it's not my place to dictate the goals or the demands. But I do know that if you agree justice is not yet served, the best thing to do is keep going over Hot 97's head. Keep hitting sponsors, keep hitting Emmis, find out who Emmis' shareholders are. And keep on sharing any new information you get.

Each of us, as individuals doing our little part, have come together to create something far bigger than us all. And now our collective voice is being heard around the world:

in Australia
in France
in China
on ebay??
in the Netherlands
in Germany
in South Africa
in India
in Harlem
in Korea
in the Netherlands

And on and on and on. So keep watching and keep working, and don't ever doubt that your voice can be heard. (and I don't just mean this for the particular battle we are fighting today)

January 28, 2005

Todd Lynn Speaks to Hiphopmusic.com

1/31/05 UPDATE: Todd Lynn Fired


I spoke to Todd Lynn tonight via AOL Instant Messenger for over an hour. I will post the conversation verbatim in its entirety, and let you judge it for yourself. I have only edited his phone number and the identity of a journalist that was mentioned:


--------------------
Jay Smooth Is this Todd Lynn? this is Jay Smooth from hiphopmusic.com
Todd Lynn yes
Jay Smooth So you want to give your side of the story?
Todd Lynn call me dude your rasing some bullshit
Todd Lynn I am not a racsist
Jay Smooth what is bullshit about it? you are on the song aren't you? and you're on the tape saying "i'm gona shoot some asians" aren't you?
Todd Lynn Song
Todd Lynn not really a side just the truth of what happened
Todd Lynn not reciving anything from you
Jay Smooth i'm here.. so what is not true about the information I have presented, are you not on the song?
Todd Lynn you can call me at [***-***-****]
Todd Lynn Dude I as all of us are very sorry about the song but we are not racsist we made a very bad mistake
Todd Lynn I understand were you are coming from but trust me no one onthe show is a racsist
Jay Smooth but it wasn't a mistake when you sang it and recorded it, it wasn't a mistake when you played it on the air, it wasn't a mistake when you played the next day, and then the next day, and the next..
Todd Lynn That was the Mistake , how many time in your life have you fucked up
Todd Lynn Dude lets have a hate typing open diolouge on the phone
Jay Smooth if you are willing to have me tape it and put it on the website
Todd Lynn How can i trust A guy thats been killing me and I do mean killing me all over the world ,the reason most of this shit got to the point it is is because everbody is not informed on what happened that day
Jay Smooth so what is the information they dont have..
Todd Lynn we all are very sorry for the song! very poor tastse and bad judgement but none of us are bigots
Jay Smooth what was your part in making the song? whose idea was it?
Todd Lynn What I will tell you is Miss Jones had Nothing to do with the writing are producing of the song are the voicing. she works from home and has been doing that for several months
Jay Smooth who wrote and produced it?
Todd Lynn Not Miss Jones
Jay Smooth does she not speak english? did she not hear the lyrics when she played it, for four days in a row?
Todd Lynn your way off base with the race shit, Mistake Dude Bad mistake And we are all very sorry. dont make poor judgement into race thing just by seeing what you have organnized i know you are smarter than that
Jay Smooth So you don't believe that it is racist to call people chinks? And to say I'm gonna shoot some asians"?
Todd Lynn This was not even a company thing, It was a badd fuckup that we apologized for.
Jay Smooth Actually you have not apologized
Todd Lynn my comments were taken out of context
Jay Smooth How can they be taken out of context when we have it all on tape?
Todd Lynn do you mean Me myself
Jay Smooth I mean whatever you think is taken out of context
Todd Lynn let me try and explain again ,dude i am a big black guy who catches hell out here every day trust me I am not racist
Jay Smooth i am waiting for you to explain but you are not answering anyting
Jay Smooth if somebvody calls you nigger, it doesnt matter how many times he says he's not racist
Jay Smooth what he did is still racist
Todd Lynn well let s say this you have shut my shit down.
Jay Smooth YOU did this to yourself.
Jay Smooth all i did was tell people what you did
Todd Lynn if you say so but all you did was jump on a guy that tried to be funny during a argument and like i said came out fucked up and out of context
Jay Smooth so what is the context that is missing?
Todd Lynn have you ever said nigga before?
Jay Smooth no, i don't use that word
Todd Lynn if you have are you racist
Todd Lynn well good not many cansay that
Jay Smooth why have you never apologized?
Todd Lynn Got suspended!
Jay Smooth you had plenty of time to apologize, on the day miss jones read her apology
Jay Smooth and you had a week to realize on your own that what you were doing was wrong
Jay Smooth but NOBODY was sorry until after their backs were against the wall..
Todd Lynn because the beging of my stament got cut off by the mike s clipping in and out during the argument I did not even know the whole tatement did not go out over the air waves
Todd Lynn shit I found out throw all the press and the emails
Jay Smooth what whole statement?
Todd Lynn the part you did not hear because the mikes went in and out
Jay Smooth Listen, seriously, you need to come up with a better lie than that. I've been doing radio for 15 years, I know what it sounds like when mics are clipping in and out..
Jay Smooth You sound ridiculous right now
Todd Lynn Hot 97 shit is goofy
Todd Lynn you dont have to believe me but thats truth listen, I am really taking a beating and regardless of what you think I am very remorsefull and sorry about all this Stuff but Dude I asian family members
Todd Lynn yo call me dude what you got to lose
Jay Smooth i will tape a conversation with you and post it, otherwise it is a waste of time
Jay Smooth you are not answering any questions anyway
Todd Lynn You are not acomplishing anything by making racist out of people that made a dumb mistake
Todd Lynn I told you the truth
Jay Smooth when was it that you realized that the song was racist?
Jay Smooth and what action did you take?
Todd Lynn Dude i dont know you and you have already started a smear action against me and never did any secondary work put my name on the web my personal info and just ran with tape shit you know it had to more to the story than that
Jay Smooth I didn't put your personal info out, somebody else did that and i deleted it.. and I have not smeared you, I simply showed people what you did.. what do YOU think is the appropriate punishment for waht you did?
Todd Lynn I am a comedian Check my record i never have once during my act or on the air made any type of racial refferances or derogatory remarks about any race of people
Jay Smooth What about calling Russell Simmons a coon?
Todd Lynn Bro I am finished , personally and proffesionally behind all of this so what I think does not Matter
Todd Lynn That was a caller
Jay Smooth So you never called Russell Simmons a coon?
Jay Smooth You know that you are on a radio show, that people tape, right?
Todd Lynn and once again another subject you are not fully versed on , But you know what we make fun of other people on the radio everyday
Jay Smooth So you don't think what you did was all that serious, to get this much attention?
Todd Lynn Dude once again I am a Comedian You know how many people call me a Dumbass nigga everyday calling in when they call in
Jay Smooth A minute ago you said you never use any racial slurs or derogatory remarks
Todd Lynn No I think it was very serious! And once again I am Sorry , No I said I was Not A racist
Jay Smooth So how should you be punished?
Jay Smooth How will you make it right?
Todd Lynn I have never made any vicious are millchious racist remarks about any onre
Jay Smooth Calling the tsunami victims screamng chinks is not malicious?
Todd Lynn Like I said I am Paying right now Lost My job my Integrity, and made one of the biggest mistakes of my life but really have no ill will to any race of people
Jay Smooth Aren't you just suspended with pay? you haven't lost your job
Todd Lynn Look no matter what I tell You , the Ball is already working , like I said a little while ago your just killing aguy that fucked up not a racist
Jay Smooth If you're not a racist why didn't you see anything wrong with those lyrics, when you sang them?
Todd Lynn Cmon!! dude where do you get your facts
I not trying to plead my case here
whether you admit it are not you indited a fuckup who made a mistake
Todd Lynn not a person who hates other races of people
Jay Smooth you are not anserwing any of my questions.. are you on an unpaid suspension?
Jay Smooth you say i dont have all the facts, but you dont have any facts to give me
Todd Lynn I am very sorry For the song and nothing I write or say will be enough for anyone , but for my own sake because I am dealing with what I did and My involvement I am apologizing and am deeply sorry for all of this but that racist bullshit I aint claiming that
Jay Smooth Can I post this apology on the website?
Todd Lynn DUDE YOU ARE A SMART GUY READ THREW THE LINES
Jay Smooth What good is it to apologize to me? There are millions of people who are offended by what you did.. and you are still saying it was not racist
Todd Lynn HOW ABOUT THIS I WRITE YOU ONE SO I CAN EXPRESS MYSELF COMPLETLY, BECAUSE I HAVE SEEN WHAT YOU HAD TO SAY ABOUT ME AND NO OFFENCE YOU DONT LIKE ME VERY MUCH
Jay Smooth I will post verbatim the conversation and apology here.. anything else you want to say you can put it here
Todd Lynn WELL AS I SAID IT DOES NOT MATTER!
i AM VERY SORY ABOUT THE SONG AS EVERYBODY INVOLED IN THIS IS!! bUT NO WE ARE NOT RACIST WE DID NOT DO THIS TO OPRESS AN PEOPLE OR PUT THEM DOWN
WE FUCKED UP AND WENT TO FAR !
Jay Smooth Is that all you have to say?
Todd Lynn your posting this? Why
Jay Smooth To let your words speak for yourselves.. I have to end the conversation now, but if you change your mind about putting an interview on tape let me know. There is also a reporter from [***] who asked if I knew how to contact you or miss jones, I will put him in contact with you if you are willing to do that. Thank you for speaking with me.
Todd Lynn no Thanks
Jay Smooth Alright, is there anything else you want to say to the people who will read this?
Todd Lynn nah afraid you might twist my words up and it will be the start of a new onslaught of problems more calls to my house more threats .
Todd Lynn Some how this will come out fucked up also
Jay Smooth You will be able to see in a minute when i post it that nothing is changed. And you can add whatever you want in the comments section as well. Again, if you are willing to put something on tape please let me know
Todd Lynn man this typing shit is killing me
Todd Lynn and I said what I needed to say
Jay Smooth Alright, thank you again for speaking with me, goodnight.
-----------------

He also spoke tonight with trickology.com, here.

Rally At Hot 97 Studios

1/31/05 UPDATE: Todd Lynn Fired

8PM EDIT: NY1's report on the rally is here, they estimated the crowd at 100. But NY Newsday calls it at 200 (I told you so!), and they pass on a new statement from Hot 97 that claims "the salaries of Miss Jones and the morning show crew will be donated to tsunami relief efforts 'for the duration of this suspension.'" Newsday also has photos of the rally here.

6PM EDIT: Latest news coverage - Daily News, Newsday. Please pass on details of TV/radio coverage from today's rally if you catch it!

3PM EDIT: Jimmy Meng's office passed on this update: "based on multiple phone calls from Assemblyman Jimmy Meng (the first Asian-American in the NY State Assembly) and NYC Councilman Bill Perkins, the following companies have withdrawn their ads: Coca-Cola, Toyota, Reebok, H&R Block, Babies R Us."

I just got back from Hot 97's studios, where at least 150-200 people came out in the FREEZING COLD. I'm sure Hot 97 and Emmis thought the cold would keep everyone home, and this controversy might start dying down. But today it was clear that the community is more organized and energized than ever.

Everyone from students to grandmothers, from Hip-Hoppers (Kuttin Kandi, Rosa Clemente) to City Councilmen (John Liu, Bill Perkins, Charles Barron and more), came out to speak against Hot 97's hate radio. I'll be featuring activists from today's rally on my radio show, Saturday at Midnight on WBAI 99.5 FM in NY. You can tune in online here. (and we're in our fundraising drive for WBAI right now, so any support you can call in and give tomorrow will be greatly appreciated! You'll help keep anti-racist radio alive)

Here are some pictures sent in by Cheryl, a protestor from Cardozo School of Law (I will post my own pics here soon:

http://i.xanga.com/cherryxq/P1180182.JPG
http://i.xanga.com/cherryxq/P1180190.JPG
http://i.xanga.com/cherryxq/P1180202.JPG
http://i.xanga.com/cherryxq/P1180208.JPG
http://i.xanga.com/cherryxq/P1180178.JPG
http://i.xanga.com/cherryxq/P1180177.JPG
http://i.xanga.com/cherryxq/P1180206.JPG

January 31, 2005

Who Should Be Held Responsible?

1/31/05 UPDATE: Todd Lynn Fired

An e-mail was sent around this weekend from a supposed "informed insider" at Hot 97. This email appears to have come from someone in Miss Jones and Todd Lynn's camp, twisting the facts around hoping to deflect responsibility from them.

It seems to be true, as claimed in the email, that producer Rick Delgado wrote the song and that Miss Jones did not sing on it. But the email falsely implies that Todd Lynn did not sing on the "tsunami song," which he did. Even Todd himself did not deny his presence on the song, when he spoke publicly to this site and trickology.com.

It also states that Miss Jones has no control over the programming of the morning show, which is false. It is clear from what was heard on air that Miss Jones eagerly approved the airing of the song, and specifically ordered it to be played again one morning that week, after a caller complained.

The e-mail claims that the staff was somehow forced "under duress" to record the song, which is laughable. What sort of "duress" was it exactly, did management put a gun to their heads? CLearly they were not threatened with losing their jobs, because Miss Info refused to participate and faced no such consequences.

The e-mail also seems to hope we will forget the abusive statements made by both Jones and Lynn in defense of the song, when they were berating Miss Info for raising an objection to it.

Assuming it is true, as was already reported elsewhere, that Producer Rick Delgado wrote and produced the song, clearly he should be held fully responsible for that. But does this absolve Todd Lynn of his responsibility for singing on the song, or Miss Jones' responsibility for ordering it to be aired repeatedly? Or for the further abuse and bigotry they aimed at Miss Info, after she objected to the song?

Clearly the blame for this cannot fall only on these on-air personalities. But is it possible to address this properly without holding them fully accountable for their roles? And what about the management and higher-ups at Hot 97 and Emmis who allowed this to happen, where is their accountability? If you, the people, have an opinion on this you better make it known, because wheels are turning right now...

February 1, 2005

UPDATED: Rick Delgado and Todd Lynn Fired, Others Suspended Two Weeks

2/2/05 UPDATE: More details on yesterday's firings in NY Newsday, the Daily News, Billboard

Today at 1:30 Councilman John Liu will hold a press conference, where he is expected to demand that Emmis give $10 million to Tsunami aid rather than $1 million.


It is now confirmed by John Liu's office and other sources that Emmis has fired Todd Lynn and Rick Delgado, and announced they will donate one million dollars to Tsunami relief. Miss Jones and the other staff will serve out a two-week suspension and then return, except for Miss Info who is not suspended. More details here.

----------

The rumors that Todd Lynn was fired tonight have apparently been confirmed by the activist group Asian Media Watchdog, who report:

At about 9 PM on Monday, Lynn called Asian Media Watchdog from his home in Brooklyn saying, "You got your wish man. I'm fired. I'm gone."

More details on whether anyone else was fired are expected soon. Based on how the wind is blowing, I'm betting they fired Todd Lynn and Rick Delgado, and let Miss Jones off the hook.

Which I would find outrageous, personally. I'll post further details as they come in.

February 5, 2005

Join Us On the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

February 7, 2005

African Hip-Hop Radio

Africanhiphop.com is one of the oldest hip-hop websites around, documenting hip-hop's presence in the motherland since 1997 (the same year we started). Last week they stepped up their game by launching a new internet radio show:

Pan-African Hip Hop: 26 tracks from 14 countries

AfricanHipHopRadio is the first truly pan African hip hop radio show in the world. The first show (January 2005) features no less than 26 tracks from Gabon, Angola, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Algeria, Congo, Eritrea, Tanzania, France, Senegal, Usa, Nigeria and Ivory coast - all over the motherland in a pan African spirit.

African hip-hop also got some light recently in this NPR report.

February 9, 2005

Vibe on Domestic Violence in Hip-hop

Sasha has PDF-ed up the Elizabeth Mendez Berry article that everyone's talking about, and it's well worth the hype. Rarely has hip-hop journalism been so real, or so chilling:

Love Hurts

Before going to sleep, many little girls pray for a new Barbie, an X-Box game or a trip to Disney World. At age 7, Vanessa Rios asked only that "Papi would stop hitting Mami."

It was May 1999, and Vanessa was staying with her aunt, Penelope Rios Santiago, in Miami. After Santiago overheard her niece's bedtime prayer, she confronted her brother, Christopher Rios. His reaction? It wasn't true, he said.

Thoguh he had much in common with other abusers, Christopher Rios was also different: He was Big Pun, a famous rap star. He first met his wife, Liza, when she was 16, and over the course of their 10 year relationship, she claims he sent her to the hospital three times and prevented her from seeking needed medical attention on many other occasions. "One time he told me to change the batteries in his beeper," says Liza Rios, now 31. "I totally forgot about it, and he took this lead pipe and started swinging on me. I had my daughter in my arms, and I told Cuban [Link, who was there] to take the baby. After he finished beating me, my elbow was twisted out of place. I was limping for two months..."

Oh and speaking of Vibe and realness: welcome to blogville, Danyel. I'm sure you don't remember but we met at WNYU about 10 years ago.

February 10, 2005

(Audio Posted) Miss Jones Returns to Hot 97 This Morning, Protest Set for Monday

UPDATE 2/11/05: Today's Newsday announces that their ads are being pulled from Hot's morning show, but their ads were heard throughout this morning's show. Apparently all ads will be pulled beginning on Monday.

Miss Jones returned to Hot 97 this morning, beginning the show with an apology you can listen to here. She followed up her apology with the maudlin gospel track "We Fall Down, But We Get Up" by Donnie McClurkin.

Note that her apology is carefully worded to avoid acknowledging that she herself specifically approved the airing of the song, suddenly referring to "all of us" instead of herself on that point.

DJ Envy was not heard on the show, and neither was Miss Info of course. Someone else was in the studio doing Miss Info's "celebrity drama" segment.

But everyone will be welcome this Monday Feb. 14th, when another protest is planned, in front of Hot 97's studios at 395
Hudson Street, from 12PM - 1 PM

Valentine's Day Protest Against the Tsunami Song!

Date: Monday, February 14, rain or shine
Time: 12:00 SHARP - 1:00 pm
Location: Hot 97 395 Hudson Street (at W. Houston St.) NY, NY

Join the Coalition against Hate Media's protest against Hot 97's Tsunami Song! On Valentine's Day, celebrate love by speaking out against hate, at the Hot 97 studios.

Travel directions: Take #1 train and get off Houston Street. Walk one block west to Hudson Street.

In unity, the coalition demands that Emmis Communications take corporate responsibility by doing ALL of the following:

- terminate Miss Jones and management executives involved in the production and broadcast of the Tsunami song

-Donate one week's worth of corporate revenue to a dvierse group of tsunami relief organizations and local community organizations

-implement independent sensitivity training conducted by a third party and approved by CAHM and establish clear written corporate policies against discrimination, prejudice and hate

--begin and maintain a dialogue with NYC Councilmember Liu's office and CAHM members and other community organizations to implement the above and oher long-term solutions to prevent the recurrence of hate-based programming.

Bring signs against hate, against racism, and against the tsunami song! Signs with wooden sticks are not allowed, but cardboard tubes and hand-held signs are allowed.

The Coalition Against Hate Media (CAHM) is a broad coalition of
community groups that opposes programs and broadcasters who deliver
messages of hate against people of any race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or religious background.

February 11, 2005

Scamto: South Africa's New Rap Language

By the time we're reading about it here I doubt it's all that new anymore, but still fascinating:

Word on the street is ... Scamto

A hip new language drawn from 11 others is uniting South Africa's urban young

Hey Bro, wanna ride in my g-string? Nah, gonna score ma regte some jewish.

Welcome to Scamto, the street slang of South Africa’s urban youth — a mix of the country’s 11 official languages, including English and Afrikaans.

Raw, confident and energetic, Scamto reflects the reality of modern life in the sprawling townships outside Johannesburg. Much of it focuses on sex, beer, music and weapons. There are several words for girl friends or sexual partners and at least two for Aids.

Lebo Motshegoa, 24, an advertising executive who is to publish the first Scamto dictionary next month, says it is now the language of choice for hip youth. “Language says a lot about who we are and how we live . . . this language is the essential us,” he said. “It is about the new South Africa. It tells of diversity. It is not just political — it is bigger than that.”

Mr Motshegoa, dressed all in black, is the epitome of cool. After primary school in Soweto he went to a mixed-race school in Johannesburg, where he first ran into a language barrier. He said: “One of my brothers was put in detention ’cause he just said ‘No, No’ to the teacher. In Scamto that simply means ‘OK’...”

February 14, 2005

Does Kanye Rap Too Much for the Grammys?

EDIT: Kanye did indeed get india.arie-d on all the big awards, only going 3 for 10 overall. But thanks to that one speech he still comes out the evening's big winner. He's just so damn good at that pompous vulnerability schtick, you can't get the best of him!

Also, much props to J-Lo for paying tribute to Harry Partch, with a vocal performance that completely abandoned Western musical scales.

-------------------
(posted pre-telecast)

I usually like to post Grammy predictions, but this year I'm stumped.

Lately NARAS has come around to nominating hip-hop artists in their major categories, as they strain to shed the old-fogey image. In their breakout years Lauryn Hill, Eminem, and Outkast all got shots at the a-list awards.

But while Lauryn and Outkast came away big winners, Em was shut out of the "big three" (song/record/album of the year), by Steely Dan no less. What was Em lacking compared to the others? Certainly he lacks their aura of positivity, and the lyrics surely scared some votes off. But the other difference is that unlike Lauryn and Kast, Em was actually rapping on most of his album.

I've been saying for years that NARAS only likes to reward hip-hop when they can do so without listening to any actual rapping, and this will be the year that really gets put to the test. Kanye West's album has that positive vibe Em lacks, and the music seems innovative but is never challenging, usually the formula for a grammy jackpot. But he's also a rapper who actually raps, on almost every song.

So I have no idea what to expect tonight, though I might try to throw some guesses up later. What do you y'all think?

Fossilized Kris Kross Website Unearthed by Archeologists

Behold the anthropological marvel of this ancient Kris Kross website, miraculously preserved by Sony Music in its original state since 1996. Gaze in wonderment at the monstrously pixelated graphics! The downloadable AIFF files!! The seizure-inducing backgrounds!

Let's see how long it takes Sony to wake up now and delete these pages.

(from here, sent to me by him)

PHOTOS: Zulu Nation Joins the Voices Against Hot Hate

Afrika Bambaataa and the Zulu Nation joined a diverse group of high school students, community groups and elected officials in a protest outside Hot 97 today:

Bam and others expressed hope that the hip-hop community will come together to address Hot 97's misrepresentation of the culture, as the response to the tsunami song builds into a long-term effort to hold corporate media accountable for how they (dis)serve the community.

After the rally wrapped up, The Zulus brought lead organizer Kuttin Kandi and the other hip-hop representatives upstairs to Hot 97's office, hoping to get management to come out and meet with us. We waited for nearly a half hour in this dry, dentist's office of a waiting room that Hot shares with Kiss and CD 101.9, waiting for one of them to find some backbone and come talk to us. Finally one of Hot 97's interns came back out and explained that Barry Mayo and John Dimick weren't available to meet today, but they are eager to arrange something soon. We shall see.

The contrast between the boistrous energy of the Zulus and the sterile corporate vibe of this office space (where hip-hop supposedly lives) was striking to say the least.

Props to the Coalition Against Hate Media and all the other groups working to build on this, and especially to DJ Kuttin Kandi for taking the lead in getting hip-hop voices involved.

February 15, 2005

Three the Blog Way

jeff enjoys my feeble approximation of a screwface

This morning Hashim of hiphop.blogs joined me in a roundtable with the great Jeff Chang, discussing his monster of a book Can't Stop Won't Stop. A historic meeting of the minds, to be sure (we talked for a solid hour and it felt like we'd barely gotten started).

You can hear about 15 minutes of it tomorrow on the WBAI morning show, if you get up early enough. I'll also post some of it here and play even more on my show this week. And you can hear him on Rise Up Radio this Friday at 11AM. The man is making big moves.

February 16, 2005

Kelefa Sanneh on Sage Francis

Damn, son:

What's Left After Bling, Boasts and Odd Beats

Why is it so hard to be an underground hip-hop hero? Perhaps because the mainstream hip-hop heroes have already claimed so much of the best turf for themselves.

"I like 99 rappers, but Jay-Z ain't one," Sage Francis declared at the Bowery Ballroom on Wednesday night. And to prove it, he steered clear of all things Jay-Z-ish. That meant no slick outfits (the rapper and his band all wore black jumpsuits), no jewelry, no high-life boasts or low-life threats. But it also meant no impossibly smooth stanzas filled with hidden jokes and counterrhythms; no mesmerizing stories or irresistible refrains; no state-of-the-art beats or propulsive club tracks...

And it doesn't get any kinder from there.. hooboy.

Will Smith Dissing Eminem on New Album?

Most Frightening Headline Ever:

WILL SMITH WANTS NEW ALBUM TO SHOW TOUGH SIDE

WILL SMITH is determined to demolish his nice guy image with his new album - which includes a swipe at fellow rapper EMINEM.

The entertainer wants his fourth solo album, LOST AND FOUND, to present his tough side - and apparently contains "sumthin' for EMINEM" in the song MR NICE GUY about how people mistake him for being soft.

Smith describes lead track SWITCH as "a snapshot of my life", reports MTV.COM. He adds, "It's the most in-depth, revealing writing that I've done in my career."

NNOOOOOOO!!!

I'll always have love in my heart for TAFKAFP (and I am curious to hear if he has any clever jabs for Em), but when he tries to act hard and put the bass in his voice I can only feel shame and pity.

(original mtv story here)

February 17, 2005

Crooked I Suing Suge Knight

Crooked I was the only halfway decent artist still associated with Suge, so this is not a good look:



SUGE SUED BY FORMER PROTEGE

Rap mogul MARION 'SUGE' KNIGHT is in the middle of another legal dispute just days after being released from jail.

The THA ROW boss, who spent a week in jail earlier this month (FEB05) on a parole violation, has been served with a temporary restraining order by one of his breakout artists, CROOKED I.

In the suit, the rapper - real name DOMINIC WICKLIFFE - claims Tha Row lawyers scared off rival record companies when his contract with Knight's label ended last year (04).

According to American news show CELEBRITY JUSTICE, Wickliffe is keen to settle the suit out of court and has offered to hand over the rights to all the material he recorded as a Tha Row artist to Knight in return for his freedom.

Miss Info Speaks, Reports Hot 97 is Trying to Fire Her

Miss Info spoke out tonight for the first time since leaving Hot 97's airwaves, in an interview with UPN 9 News. Here is the complete audio of UPN's report. Incredibly, she reports that Emmis/Hot 97 is theatening to fire her, as soon as tomorrow.

A longer news piece on Monday's protest is up here.

Transcript (thanks Prema, and Dex):

BRENDA: She calls herself Miss Info and she's a big name on Hot 97 but she tells us that her bosses are threatening to fire her in the morning. Megan Vega with the story for you. Good evening Megan.

MEGAN: Well Good evening Brenda. Ms Info is hearing some info tonight
about her absence from HOT 97's Morning Show and in an exclusive
interview she says that she's kind of in her own celebrity drama.

MISS INFO: "I'm really confused and kinda hurt because yknow the
station, um, has made a policy, um and stated that they feel that the
tsunami song was wrong but yeah I'm the one person who kinda
represented those ideals from the start but I feel like I'm being
punished."

MEGAN: "For the first time Ms. Info from Hot 97 is speaking publicly
about the now infamous tsunami song.

MISS INFO: I objected to the tsunami song, um not just because I'm
Asian American but because I'm a human being.

MEGAN: After the song was played, the station caught some serious
flak, DJs were fired and others including Ms Jones were suspended and
a 1 million dollar donation was made to a relief effort. Now the
Morning Show is back but Miss Info is missing and her attorney,
Kenneth Thompson, says the station is threatening to fire her.

MISS INFO'S ATTORNEY: "Ms Info has been more than willing to go back
to work immediately if her requests are met."

MEGAN: Miss Info wants the workplace hostility to be addressed and she
doesn't want to work with Ms Jones. She wants to talk to her audience
and explain her absence and she would like to see a diversity program
started in the community.
Hot 97's reply, quote: "We have previously stated that Miss Info was
not suspended and we would absolutely like her back on the air at Hot
97. We have not been able to get an answer from her or her attorney on
whether or not she is coming back but we are hopeful she'll return."

MEGAN: Miss Info's attorney says that the station is lying, he insists
that he and his client have been in contact with the station and if
Miss Info loses her job tomorrow - well, he and his client are
prepared to sue. We're live outside the Hot 97 studio, Megan Vega UPN News.

February 18, 2005

Roc-A-Fella Fan Fiction

Though the "fanfic" scene offers thousands of untold stories from the worlds of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Card Captor Sakura, the equally colorful characters of hip-hop have largely been ignored.

But rocascenes.com is out to change that, with a collection of stories exploring the secret lives of Jay-Z, Dame and crew. Purists probably won't consider these true fanfic, for one thing they don't focus enough on exploring the subjects' latent homoeroticism. But they are very stange and comical, for sure. Here's an excerpt from the latest entry, imagining a tet-a-tet between Jay-Z and the Game:

[ Somewhat unnerved by the beef brewing between him and Jigga, Game shows up at Def Jam's offices to straighten things out. Jay-Z, currently Def Jam's President, is welcome to hear what the Compton rapper has on his mind. ]

Jay's Secretary: Sir, your 1:15 is here to see you.

Jay: Aight Bleek, send 'em in.

Game: Allow me to reintroduce myself, my name is Game! *chuckles*

Jay: ....

Game: Remember that s**t?

Jay: .... come on in. *Jay invites Game into his office*

*Game steps in and his entourage tries to follow*

Jay: I'm gonna have to ask y'all to wait downstairs. No disrespect.

Game: Oh, no doubt, like Gwen Stefani.

Jay: .....

*Jay lets Game into his office and shuts the door*

Jay: Have a seat...

Game: *while walking towards Jay's desk, notices a 5 foot tall, 30 gallon container of water sitting in the middle of Jay's office* What's that there for?

Jay: That's not important right now... so, you have urgent business to discuss with me?

Game: Yeah man, I wanted to get at you dawg, like DMX.... you know...

Jay: Uh huh

Game: I just wanna clear up this so-called beefin s**t... like Ice Cube and Common.

Jay: I'm listenin.

Game: Please don't let me be misunderstood, like Nina Simone.

Jay: Why are you makin that face?

Game: What face?

Jay: That face you always make.

Game: Whatchu mean homie, that's just how I loo- *catches on and starts laughing* oh, I get it. You got jokes like Martin Lawrence. Tha's funny man. *points at Jay*

Jay: *points back*

Game: Aight, so about this lil beef or whatever. I was in the club, like 50 Cent, then I heard through the grapevine like Marvin Gaye, that you wanted some problems like Lil Scrappy.

Jay: Okay, well first off--

Game: NWA.

Jay: Huh?

Game: Express yourself.

Jay: .......okay, well first off I don't appreciate some of the comments you been throwin at my lil homie, Bleek.

Game: You got this nigga answerin yo' phone. He's Mr. Telephone Man, like New Edition.

Jay: But my homie is like my brother, and that's family. So it's like you disrespectin my family. You dig what I'm sayin?

Game: YEAH! like Usher and Lil Jon, baby.

Jay: *puts his hand on his forehead*

(found at OKP)

(EDIT: upon closer look I'm not feeling everything on this site, the misogyny and homophobia is a bit much at times)

A Conversation With Lizz Mendez Berry

Last week we got a chance to speak to Lizz Mendez Berry about her piece in Vibe magazine on Domestic violence in Hip-Hop. The interview is up now on our soundclick page.

February 19, 2005

Join Us on the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

Tonight I'll play excerpts from my interview with Jeff Chang, author of (I'm sure you know this by now) "Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation." (props to Leanne from Rise Up Radio for hooking us up, and Hashim from hiphop.blogs for sitting in)

February 21, 2005

AUDIO: New (Serato Scratch) Mix from DJ 3D

DJ 3D - Underground Railroad Serato Scratch Mix, WBAI 2/19/05
Okay, I'm trying out a new system for posting clips from the radio show, let me know how this Rapidshare site works for you. If y'all can roll with this I might start posting audio more often, and working on higher sound quality.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Partial playlist:
Wordsworth - "Be A Man"
De La w/ MF Doom - "Rock Co Kane Flow"
InI - "Think Twice"
Sir Menelik w/ A.L. Skillz and A Butta - "At You"
Chef Words - "Jumped Out the Matrix"
Emanon - "Count Your Blessings"
Nas - "Bridging the Gap (remix)"
That Usher/J Lo Beat
Chic - "Good Times"
Booker T and the MGs - "Sing a Simple Song" (mixed w/ Jay Smooth interviewing Jeff Chang)

Download Instructions: Scroll down to the bottom of the first page and click the "free" button, then scroll down on the second page.

February 22, 2005

AUDIO: 8 Minute End of the Weak Freestyle

The End of the Weak Crew, with Dj 3D on the wheels. These guys should teach classes on how emcees can work together in a live performance, check how seamlessly their flows interact here:

Download Instructions: Scroll down to the bottom of the first page and click the "free" button, then scroll down on the second page.

February 23, 2005

AUDIO: Jimmy Smith/Hunter Thompson Memorial Mega Mashup

Anybody can mix two songs together. But how many people can take an entire 30 minute DJ set, and combine it with a 200 page book?? Prepare to behold the most audacious mashup of all time!!

I was about to post DJ Monkone's tribute to Jimmy Smith and Tyrone Davis when the news came in about Hunter S. Thompson. So I decided to see if I could re-edit 30 minutes of rare funk and hip-hop into a musical adaptation of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Here are the magical results:

Download Instructions: Scroll down to the bottom of the first page and click the "free" button, then scroll down on the second page.

EDIT: How are these rapidshare links working for you guys? Please let me know if I should try out other sites instead..

February 26, 2005

NYU's Public Enemy Conference: Night One Roundup

2/28/05 EDIT: I'll try to get up my notes from the second day soon. In the meantime be aware of this.

Tonight's event brought up a lot of emotion for me, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one getting choked up here and there.. Gonna try to run down as much as I can, before I rest up for tomorrow's marathon. This is mainly for my benefit, to remember as much as I can, so it may ramble on and on:

With the auditorium fully packed and many more left outside, the evening began with some rare footage from 1988: a series of gritty b&w PSA clips directed by Brett Ratner, with a young Flav and Chuck advising the kids to vote, honor black history month, and use condoms.

Then a (still in production) documentary mixing PE's 2003 trip to the UK with footage of their historic 1st visit in 1988. It was slow and flat at times, to be honest, but all the 1988 footage was great, and gave a rare glimpse of PE with their guard down and just being regular folks, instead of the mythological heroes they still seemed to be back then; Chuck straight cracking up as Flavor keeps clowning and ribbing him like "Yo Chuck be farting out his mouth! I don't know how be be doing that! There's a party in Chuck's mouth, everyone's comin!"

Continue reading "NYU's Public Enemy Conference: Night One Roundup" »

February 28, 2005

50 Cent Hot 97 Interview, Dissing Game (AUDIO)

If I may quote okayplayer.com:

It's official. Black History month is over, but Negroes obviously paid absolutely no attention. Y'all heard of Tupac, right? Biggie? If we learn nothing else from their lives and deaths, we should at least clearly understand that this game ain't worth dying over.

Just as I see the debut of The Game and 50's new video... I hear about some "he can't hang out with us no more" high school ish. It is what it is... egos, politics, whatever. Even if it's legit tension, you've gotta be responsible for how you handle it. Can you shut it down once the guns are drawn, or do you have to prove your rep until we all lose?

Peep your history. No one is safe until cats' mentalities grow up. This is the same bulls**t that kills kids in front of schools. The same s**t that's got fathers/brothers/uncles looking at 25 to life. We don't need radio stations putting everybody's side on blast, either. This ain't news, cuz we've seen it before. Let grown men work out their own differences behind closed doors, like they're supposed to. I'm pretty sure there's enough money for everybody. Just make your music and live your lives. Nobody needs the side drama.

Here is the audio of 50 Cent's interview on Hot 97 tonight with Funkmaster Flex. A shooting soon followed, outside hot 97's studio. All this occurs just as hip-hop activists are planning a protest against Hot 97's misrepresentation of hip-hop, in NY's Union Square this Friday.

People have said that this is nothing more than pro wrestling, and I can understand the cynicism. But as Owen Hart's family will tell you, even pro wrestling can turn real at a moment's notice, and become serious as cancer. Once necks get broken or bullets start flying, it doesn't much matter whether you started out with a script.

It is truly sad to see such bright and talented young men, with limitless opportunity in front of them, putting their lives in jeopardy over such trivial nonsense. I hope the hip-hop community will take every opportunity to speak out against our self destruction, and those who seek to profit from it:

Shooting Outside Hot 97 Tonight, After 50 Cent Interview Attacking Game

NY's Fox 5 News is reporting a shooting outside Hot 97 tonight. No details yet, but many of you will be aware that 50 Cent and G Unit were there tonight, stirring up lots of drama on Flex's show. I'll post details as I get them.

(Most of 50's comments tonight were aimed at Game, and they were not of a friendly sort. I'm sure the audio will be all over by tomorrow. EDIT: in fact, MTV is already on it. Shaheem is on point.)

EDIT: Fox had another report from Lisa Evers, who hosts "Street Soldiers" at Hot.. she was in the building when it happened, and was told to evacuate along with everyone else who was running out of the building, saying there was a shooting. 50 and his entourage were not hit, they were shuffled out of a back entrance. A 20 year old male was shot in the leg and thigh, and is expected to recover... that's about all she had.

11:30 PM EDIT: Game's brother Big Fase is posting on Game's Black Wall Street website, saying:

"them hoe ass niggaz security shot my lil homie. its all bad @the radio station."

[second post]
he got shot 3times.he is ok.
it wasnt 50cent security,it was 1 of his niggaz though.
im holdin 50cent responsible.

Also on blackwallstreet, someone posted a report that Sway gave on KMEL:

"Game came to the building with BWS and in the end one of BWS was shot 2 times but will be ok. Also said that 50 is going to diss eminem and dre and he wants nothing to do with interscope. MTV will have and interview but not all questions will be shown"

SOHH is reporting the victim was one of 50's security.

1:30 EDIT: Here is the audio of the interview, and here is the moment when 50 was told of the shooting and ushered out of the studio.

Whatever the details turn out to be, after the blissful nostalgia of our Public Enemy weekend this sure is a sobering return to reality. As Mr. Fishburne said: Welcome to the desert of the real.

I just hope this doesn't escalate any further. It almost seems tragically poetic that all this takes place as hip-hop activists plan a protest against Hot 97's misrepresentation of hip-hop, this friday at Union Square.

March 3, 2005

AUDIO: A Conversation With Jeff Chang

Here, finally, are some excerpts from my interview with Jeff Chang, also featuring Hashim of hiphop.blogs.com. In the first few minutes of part one you'll also hear an excerpt of Jeff's "Can't Stop Won't Stop" mix cd:

  • Part One - 6mb: The politics of abandonment, containment and assimilation; Letting artists be artists and leaders be leaders.
  • Part Two - 4mb: Hashim and Jeff on the importance of the 1971 gang peace treaty.
  • Part Three - 5mb: How hip-hop died and was reborn in 1979.

Props to Leanne of Rise Up Radio for hooking it up.

March 4, 2005

AUDIO: Hip-Hop Rallies Against Hate in Union Square, 3/4/05

I've posted some audio here of today's rally in Union Square. And here are the photos.. see if you can spot the mighty King Sun in the crowd:

March 5, 2005

Mel Man Speaks on Game and 50 Cent

Dr. Dre's partner Mel Man posted on the dubcc.com forums with his perspective on Game and 50:

I can only imagine the amount of rumours and posts this topic has produced - I'm sorry for doin another one, but I thought you might want some perspective on the situation. Just as we were moving away from 50's album and really focusing on Busta's new joint this happens. I don't really know 50 or Game outside the studio and working environment so I'm not gonna pretend like I know what's really going on between them. I am not surprised that Game and 50 split from each other. I think we all knew the situation was coming to a head and I know Dre, Em and Jimmy were hoping for a peaceful solution and for Game to move off G-Unit as quietly as possible. However, 50 obviously didn't want a peaceful and quiet solution. It is real unfortunate that it happenned this way, but it did and it has to be handled INTERNALLY from here on out, not over the radio station. I don't really know what 50 was thinking. 50 talks about loyalty but to me one of the most unloyal things one can do is to air out FAMILY BUSINESS in public. 50 put Dre and Em in an unfair and difficult situation. This could have been handled in a positive way. Obviously 50 and Game's relationship had deteriorated to a point beyond repair. But it should have been settled as a family. Game could have been moved off G-Unit through internal discussions and monetary settlements could have been handled fairly. I will not take sides either way. I don't think anyone should take sides and please don't believe all the rumours and media reports. The media is jumping all over this and relying on false information to generate headlines and interest. Please refrain from making judgements too soon, cause you don't really know anything besides what you heard 50 say on the radio and that game is off g-unit. Besides that eveything else is rumours and innuendo.

What has been Dre's reaction to all of this? I won't speak for him but...

Continue reading "Mel Man Speaks on Game and 50 Cent" »

"Federal Probe" of Hip-Hop Violence

Great. I'm sure this will be helpful.

Hip-Hop Probe

The U.S. attorney has launched a quiet probe into the hip-hop music business

As gunplay between two chart-topping gangsta rappers and the trial of a rap diva vie for top headlines this week, federal authorities are pressing a wide-ranging investigation into the $1.5-billion hip-hop music industry, NEWSWEEK has learned.

According to top industry insiders, federal investigators are digging into a playlist of crimes, ranging from extortion and robbery to the industry’s persistent violence and mounting casualties—including the unsolved murders of Tupac Shakur and Notorious BIG. Investigators are “asking about anyone in hip hop from what I understand,” says a top music lawyer. Another top lawyer and a prominent entertainment business manager also said they were aware of an investigation. In a NEWSWEEK interview, one influential executive who was questioned recently by investigators adds: “It’s a federal investigation of hip hop and the music business and the crimes that have come out of it...”

March 7, 2005

Al Sharpton Calls for Ban on Hip-Hop Violence

It troubles me that instead of joining with the grassroots movement already organized around these issues, Rev. Sharpton is ignoring/bypassing them and potentially drowning them out with a totally different agenda and focus. It also troubles me that his agenda involves asking the government to step in and regulate hip-hop artists?

Rev. Al Sharpton Seeks Gangsta Rap Ban

The Rev. Al Sharpton is calling for a 90-day ban on radio and TV airplay for any performer who uses violence to settle scores or hype albums.
"There has to be a way to step in and regulate what's going on with the airwaves and with violence," Sharpton told the Daily News yesterday. "The airwaves are being used to romanticize urban violence."

The activist minister plans to ask the Federal Communications Commission and the country's major radio broadcasters to back his proposal...

Hip-Hop Activists' Response to Al Sharpton

Davey D has released a letter in response to Al Sharpton, on behalf of all the hip-hop activists already addressing these issues:

Now Sharpton Wants to Jump In - What's the Hustle?
Hip Hop Activists Respond...

by Davey D


Today the NY Daily News ran an article about the Reverend Al Sharpton wanting to write letters to the FCC and call for a 90 day ban on 'gangsta rap' and anything that reeks of violence and has the potential to spill out in the streets.

This sounds good on the surface and considering what took place last week at Hot 97 in New York it sounds damn near practical... But there's always a catch and a behind the scenes story to the one being sold to us...

Continue reading "Hip-Hop Activists' Response to Al Sharpton" »

March 9, 2005

50 and Game Make Peace, Holding Press Conference in Harlem

Not a bad way to commemorate the anniversary of Biggie's passing:

50 Cent And The Game Make Up In Harlem, Hold Press Conference Today

Today, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and Jayceon "The Game" Taylor are scheduled to make peace and charitable donations during a press conference at Schomburg Center For Research in Black Culture in Harlem, New York.

After feuding for the past week, 50 and Game announced that they're making amends. Just when the feud seemed to be escalating, 50 told Angie Martinez, during another Hot 97 interview on Monday, that he would extend an olive branch to his former protégé, Game...

Junior Mafia Address Lil Kim's Trial, Remember Biggie, 8 Years Later

I did a little interview with Junior Mafia last night, that you can check out on sohh.com. They took some time to remember Biggie on today's anniversary of his passing, and responded in depth to those who are calling them "snitches" for testifying in Lil Kim's perjury trial. Here's a snippet:

Banger: ...Everything we said is already known and proven. They have videotapes, phone conversations, pictures, how am I gonna go against that and go with her story, when I don't even know her story? She don't f#@$ with me, I don't f#@$ with her, so I don't even know what she said. I can only go in there and say the truth of what I saw.

Lil Cease: She did that to herself. They subpoenaed her just like they subpoenaed all of us, and they decided she was lying. If 35 people went in there and said one thing, but she said something else, that's on her. You know in federal trial situations only 1% of people ever beat the case? The only one I know who ever beat it was Gotti, and even he died in jail. So I don't know why her people decided to put her in this situation, but I hope they have something up their sleeve for her, cause we don't wish that on her. We don't want to see nobody dead or in jail...

March 11, 2005

AUDIO: German/English Bilingual Freestyle

double j, dynas, doujah raze, shuko, soulstice


Last week the German Producer/Emcee Shuko came through for a visit, and a few of the Americamn artists he's working with joined hi in a cypher. The results have been recorded for the public record:

Download Instructions: Scroll down to the bottom of the first page and click the "free" button, then scroll down on the second page and wait for the timer to count down.

Greg Tate on 50 Cent

I think Greg actually likes this album more than most heads, who find the hooks lacking compared to GRODT from what I see and hear. Beyond that I won't editorialize right now:

Married to the Hook

In The Paranoid Style in Hiphop's SuperSlave Economy: A Study in Beef (Routledge, 2009), Siadya Rose-Hampton Sharise writes, "So this is where we at Black people? Shooting each other down in the streets like mad dogs? Over battle rhymes? Are you flucking kidding me?" Earlier Rose-Hampton Sharise writes, "Hiphop been dead as a folk culture but that's OK. Because while that death by hypercapitalism signifies a loss of masscultural access to the best poetic and political imaginations of the current twentysomething generation, that death also points us to exactly where we want to go: right on top of 50 Cent's ass. I swear Boo, in some of those videos 50 looks like a homo-thug and that's OK too."

Now I'd go a step further and say 50 more resembles a homo-thug dyke. Because generally speaking the girls flip the homo-thug look in public with more flair than their male counterparts. The wifebeater, the Tyrolean hat, the brown Popeye biceps, and the white silk pants? Yall all know yall more likely to see that girl strolling around Bed-Stuy dragging her supermodel than that guy so don't you even try and test me. Now this might all seem rather provocative until you check out The Massacre and 50 has homoerotic musings of his own, as in, "I read somewhere I'm homophobic/S**t, go to the hood/There's mad n*gg*s on my d**k." The Massacre is unlikely to decrease 50's bounty of swarming Y chromosome carriers. It is hands-down the most diabolically sensous collection of baby-making gangsta music since Pac's All Eyez. Like Pac, 50 is a ruffian who knows the value of a good pop hook; he embraces the hook, caresses the hook, is married to the hook. He also respects the ancient pop rule that if you get the women the men will come. Every lyric on The Massacre that's not about violating a nigga is about sexing pimping or mindf**king a babe—or, in the most notable instance, about 50's pique at being sexed pimped and mindf**ked by Viveca.

Be all that as it may, if you need real MC'ing the way 50 needs real love then you got to love 50 no matter what dumb sheet he's going on about now. Mostly for the dry wit of his richly melodious country con-man flow alone. On The Massacre 50 remains the definition of laconic, sardonic, harmonic, and moronic...

March 12, 2005

Squashing Emcee Beef... in Jerusalem

Here's some beef that's a bit harder to dismiss as "pro wrestling":

Jewish, Arab rappers clash in Mideast

For young people in Israel and the territories, one of the clearest measures of just how divided Jews and Arabs are can be seen in the hip-hop scene.

Before the intifada, two of Israel's leading rappers were Kobi Shimoni, a Jew, and Tamer Nafar, an Arab who often performed with Shimoni, the Guardian said Friday.

But as the intifada progressed, their friendship degenerated into a feud, with violent clashes between each man's entourage that resembles the East Coast/West Coast battles in the United States.

Shimoni has evolved into a right-wing supporter of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.Meanwhile, Nafar penned lyrics like, "Who's the terrorist? You're the terrorist! You've taken everything I own while I'm living in my homeland."

A documentary about the two recently won an artistic award and the producer of "Channels of Rage" is postponing the DVD release of the film in hopes Shimoni and Nafar will agree to record a song together for the soundtrack.

After a year of trying, she is cautiously hopeful: "Listen, they are men, they are artists and they are rappers.What do you expect? Hopefully, some good will come out of it one day."

The 2005 Mixtape Awards

In case you missed it, S|FJ has the rundown:

By the relaxed standards of hip-hop events, the cheerfully miasmic Awards went smoothly. Mishaps were few and impermanent, none of them life-threatening. Nominees carrying actual tickets for the event were sequestered behind a barricade in the cold for an hour, while an amoebic crush of "guests" claiming to be "on the list" tried to squeeze into the club. DJ Kay Slay arrived wearing a leather cap and matching jacket both emblazoned with variously colored Louis Vuitton logos. As he walked into the club, unimpeded, someone cried out, “Kay Slay don’t need no ticket!” which was apparently true.

A curious theatergoer headed for “The Lion King” asked what everyone was waiting for.

“The mixtape awards, son!” someone replied, though he was addressing a woman.

“What’s a mixtape?” she asked.

“It’s the truth, mommy, street truth,” his friend added, helpfully...

Join Us On the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

March 13, 2005

Bahamadia Came to Get Total Wreck

Freemotionhiphop mp3-blogs BB Queen, with a couple of her lesser-known gems. Philly people: Does she still do her radio show out there?

Elsewhere in blogville, Grandgood has the new Busdriver video, and the scoop on Prince Paul's long awaited project with The Dix.

March 14, 2005

Breaking Down Dr. Dre's Formula

slate.com takes a stab at breaking down Dre's hitmaking formula, though they miss a few basic questions: Why he has such a looong list of projects that dried up like a raisin in the sun (Eve, Last Emp, King Tee, Rakim, Detox, his beats for the Black Album..), and how much of the music that has his name on it was actually made by Dre himself..

Why Dr. Dre's protégés always top the charts.

At the ancient age of 40, the former Andre Young finally has his hitmaking formula down to a science—just plug in a new rapper and clear some wall space for the platinum records. The Documentary is Dre's fourth major triumph since founding Aftermath Entertainment in 1996: Before The Game, it was 50 Cent, and before 50 Cent it was Eminem and Dre's own comeback album, 1999's 2001. How did Dre become hip-hop's most reliable kingmaker?

For starters, credit Dre's exceptional knack for creating catchy pop hooks. The Documentary features one of the most addictive singles of the past year, "How We Do." The lyrics are about as thick-headed as they come—"When beef is on I'll pop that drum/ Come get some"—but the 10-note synthesizer refrain that loops throughout is what listeners really remember when the song ends.

Dre has been perfecting this stripped-down sound since he joined Death Row Records in the early 1990s. Dre's formative work with N.W.A was heavy on sample-driven anthems punctuated by aggressive bass kicks. But on 1992's The Chronic, Dre shifted gears and started pushing the melody to the front. Instead of merely sampling funk hits, he hired session musicians to cover their best parts on synthesizers—usually just the catchiest six to 12 notes, slowed down to stoner speed. It was as if Dre took a magnifying glass to every P-Funk classic and zeroed in on the most addictive three-second segments. The whining 10-note synth line in the chorus of "F--k Wit Dre Day," The Chronic's first single, is unforgettable. And unforgettable singles move albums; how many consumers bought The Chronic simply because they couldn't shake "F--k Wit Dre Day" from their minds?

But this aesthetic genius alone doesn't account for the speed with which Dre productions ascend the charts; plenty of hip-hop producers know how to put together a catchy song. Dre became a mogul, rather than a mere superstar producer, because of his innate grasp of two core business principles: quality control and the law of supply and demand...

Hewlett-Packard's DJammer: The Future of Hip-Hop?

The electric guitar of hip-hop? Or maybe after all this hype it'll be the Segway scooter of hip-hop:

Scra-Scra-Scratching Thin Air

Researchers at Hewlett-Packard are developing a DJ track-mixing and scratching device they believe to be as significant to music as was the first electric guitar.

HP's DJammer is a prototype handheld gadget DJs can use to mimic the sound of scratching vinyl simply by moving the device around. So, if the operator makes a scratching motion in the air, arrays of internal motion sensors translate movement into music, and the DJammer "scratches" the music as though the DJ were manipulating a record.

Linked to a digital music library, the device can also mix tracks. It finds the entry and end points for tracks, and can cycle through a song collection. And it is wireless, so a DJ can control the music from anywhere in a room...

...The DJammer was created by HP research and development scientist Mat Hans, who began the project in 2002 with New York's Scratch DJ Academy, a school for DJs...

via competitive intelligence

David Mays Joins With Sharpton on Banning Rappers

How laughable is this? Yes Dave, rappers should never be rewarded for their acts of violence and intimidation. That is, except for when you make them co-owners of your magazine.

Sharpton Talks To Radio Cos. About Hip Hop

Rev. Al Sharpton has spoken with Radio One, Clear Channel. and Emmis Communications in response to his call for Rhythm & Blues and hip hop stations to ban artists promoting violence for 90 days...

...Last week, hip hop magazine The Source, announced that it would support the efforts of Sharpton and the institution of the 90-day ban.

“It is inspiring to see that Rev. Al Sharpton is speaking out against the crisis of corporate manipulation of violence in the hip-hop industry, which is benefiting the bottom line of a few major conglomerates,” said David Mays, co-founder and CEO of The Source.

Mays also added that The Source doesn’t support the censorship of artists, but is opposed to artists and their backers using incitements of violence over the airwaves to promote record sales.

Sharpton and The Source hope the 90-day ban will incite accountability for violence in the hip hop community.

March 15, 2005

Malt Liquor: Apparently Not the Breakfast of Champions

Obviously, Cristal and other high end drinks long ago replaced malt liquor as the rapper's preferred product placement. But I wonder how much that has affected the drinking habits of their audience, since most of us can't afford $1000 bottles?

Malt Liquor Favored By Homeless, Unemployed Drinkers

Malt-liquor drinkers are more likely to be homeless, unemployed, or receiving public assistance than those who drink other alcoholic beverages, according to researchers who studied drinkers in Los Angeles.

Reuters reported March 14 that researchers from Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in California interviewed 329 drinkers and concluded that malt-liquor drinkers also consumed more alcohol than other drinkers, in part because malt liquor has a higher alcohol content than beer and is sold in larger containers.

"We found that the combination of these differences resulted in the average malt liquor drinker in our study consuming 80 percent more alcohol per drink than the average regular beer drinker," said study leader Ricky Blumenthal.

The study authors said that malt liquor is heavily marketed to black and Hispanic youth. University of Minnesota researcher Rhonda Jones-Webb, who reviewed the study, noted, "Rap artists have been popular images in malt-liquor advertising, and 'gangsta' rap performers portray malt liquor as a sign of masculinity. Advertising influences brand choice, and what young people drink in early years influences what they drink as adults."

Jones-Webb added that rappers suggest chugging the 40-ounce bottle of malt liquor. "The combined effects of higher alcohol content, larger serving size, and faster consumption can result in higher blood-alcohol levels, an increased risk of aggressive behavior, and other alcohol-related problems," she said.

March 16, 2005

NY Times Feature on Hot 97 Protests

"We have run into a string of rotten luck here," says Emmis.

An Arbiter of Hip-Hop Finds Itself as the Target

...Hot 97, which is owned by the Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications Corporation, is the No. 2 station among listeners in New York City and has been No. 1 in the city's 18-34 demographic for nearly a decade. It earns an estimated $40 million annually in revenue, putting it in the top five of Emmis's 25 radio stations. But in recent months the station has been buried in bad publicity. Critics contend that Hot 97 (WQHT-FM) has tilted from credible arbiter of rap trends to ratings-hungry promoter of violence and racism.

Two weeks ago, gunfire erupted in front of Hot 97's Greenwich Village offices, shortly after 50 Cent announced on the air that he was booting his protégé, the Game, from his G-Unit clique. The incident, coincidentally, occurred on the first day of the rapper Lil' Kim's perjury trial, stemming from her account of a 2001 shoot-out in front of Hot 97. All of this follows the monthlong battering Hot 97 has endured for airing a song mocking victims of the tsunami tragedy.

The effect has pointed up, at the very least, how commerce on the cutting edge of hip-hop culture can go awry. And the recent events may impose another real-world price on the station: the landlord of the building that houses Hot 97 has threatened to oust the station, citing a track record of shootings, fights and "severe verbal abuse of security and building management personnel...."

...Meanwhile, local activists are calling for an overhaul of the station. Rosa Clemente, a leading organizer of an anti-Hot 97 rally held earlier this month, accused the station of promoting music filled with misogynistic and violent content. "They call themselves the place where hip-hop lives," she said, "but hip-hop does not live there. A culture of greed and disrespect lives at Hot 97." The Rev. Al Sharpton and several state and local lawmakers recently asked Federal Communications Commission to turn its attention to the station. And along with every other major radio broadcaster in the area, Emmis has received a subpoena from Eliot Spitzer, New York's attorney general, for information on its promotional practices.

"We have run into a string of rotten luck here," Mr. Cummings said in an interview, "but if you look at us over the last 17 years, I think the record is pretty stellar..."

Is the Death of Hip-Hop Dead?

Sinsurr David eulogizes the eulogy. Gotta love any piece that quotes Tuff City's Aaron Fuchs.

The "Death" of Hip-Hop

Everyone loves a story. The problem is that every person’s story is its own truth, omitting and observing the facts as they see fit. Oftentimes hip-hop is forced into this literary structure, a dramatic arc from rise to fall to eventual death—and a shot at redemption. This classicist story is linear, a dialectic approach of dominant ideologies reacting to outdated modes of thought. Old school begot hip-pop begot gangsta begot native tongues begot bling-bling. It is a story of the rise, fall, and eventual death of rap music. (The story often concludes with redemption (i.e. the “underground,” where the old spirit is kept alive.) In actuality, hip-hop is a large and contradictory animal these days, and it defies such generalizations...

March 18, 2005

A Conversation With C Murder

C Murder spoke to me last week from inside Jefferson Parish prison, for an interview that's up now at SOHH.com. I wanted to dig a lot deeper than I did but we only had 15 minutes before they cut us off.. It's always a trip to hear the different definitions people have for "hip-hop," depending on their point of view.

(despite his confidence here, a few days after we spoke his hopes for a second trial got shot down)

((Further exploration at Government Names))


Phonecheck: C-Murder Calls SOHH, Talks Dirty Judicial System, New Album, and Life In The Inside

SOHH: How has the game changed since the last time you came out?

C-Murder: Well, we don't really get videos here, but when I travel to another parish I get to see the videos, and I occasionally hear the radio over the phone. And I'm seeing a lot of beefing and warring, or it's all about what you got, your diamonds and your Rolexes. So you try to come hardcore but it keeps coming back to that flossing and that beef, and I ain't really with that. We need to get back to what's happening, start spitting that knowledge to the people and stay away from these conflicts.

SOHH: The beef is really heating up now with Game and 50.

C-Murder: Yeah I saw something like that on the news but I really didn't know what was going on. I just try to put my head down from that, really. All this foolishness there, we need to sit down in a room like men. We're either gonna work together or we ain't gonna be together. There's enough money out there for everybody.

SOHH: On the new single you say "I spit that gangsta rap, forget that hip-hop" What's the difference between gangsta rap and hip-hop?

C-Murder: Well hip-hop is more of a party and dance type of thing with a fun attitude, and there ain't nothing wrong with that, I love it. But with what I'm going through right now I don't want to talk about no parties, cuz I ain't having no parties in here. I want to spit straight gangsta sh!t that's real. Let people know what happens on the dark side of life.

The Solesides/Quannum Story

You love to here the story, again and again, of how it all got started, way back when...

March 19, 2005

Join Us on the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

March 21, 2005

Shots Fired at Nas Concert in London

Yikes, glad nobody was hurt..

Shots fired during Nas concert

Shots have been fired inside London's Brixton Academy during a performance by the American rapper Nas. The husband of pop star Kelis was performing at the south London venue when shots rang out at about 2200 GMT.

It is believed a man jumped up on stage and fired a weapon towards the crowd during the show, which was the finale of a UK promotional tour. The venue was evacuated by police, but Scotland Yard said officers had not yet found anyone who had been injured...

No confirmation yet of the reports that as everyone fled from the shooting, Nas was heard boasting that he had made everyone look, which he apparently believed would make the audience "slaves" to the pages in his rhyme book.

March 22, 2005

Dark Days at the Source

This week SOHH.com takes us behind the scenes at The Source, and it's not a pretty picture:

Behind Closed Doors At The Source Magazine

...Nearly a year-and-a-half after submitting an article to The Source, one former writer is still attempting to be compensated for his work. He says the editors he reported to screen their calls and avoid freelancers. After receiving the run-around one to many times, he recently took the publication to small claims court.

Another unpaid writer: "[I'm owed] over $3000 for invoices that are 3 months to a year old. I got a check from them in December 2003 that bounced and it took them months to repay me for the bounced check. I've contacted nearly a dozen people about payment, and most of them have since quit or been laid off. I heard they're down to about 15 employees," the writer told SOHH.com exclusively. "I know of an editor that quit because he didn't get paid," the writer revealed. "It's only a matter of time until they file bankruptcy."

...The mag has seen several of its key personnel depart over the last 6 months. Among them are Chris White (Publisher), Jeremy Miller (COO), Michelle Joyce (VP of Marketing), Tracii McGregor (VP of Content & Communications), Kim Osorio (Editor-in-Chief), Adila Francis (Managing Editor), Jonathan "Gotti" Bonanno (Music Editor/ Unsigned Hype), Boo Rosario (Music Writer), and Tory Fredericks (Asst. Music Editor) to name a few ex-staffers...

The piece also describes an absurd work environment that includes a ban on listening to Eminem in the office, and break down their impending bankrupcy and Sacha Jenkins' new defamation lawsuit against them.

March 24, 2005

AIDS and Hip-Hop, Ten Years After Eazy

I have a little Eazy E/AIDS piece up at SOHH.com. Somewhat rewritten after I handed it in, but not in a bad way.

...James Earl Hardy believes health organizations also need to step up and "target us with prevention messages that speak directly to us, instead of slapping colored faces on campaigns that worked for white gay men." Hardy explains there are many factors that keep African Americans in the dark like "our distrust of the healthcare system, [it makes] it harder to get folks tested and if they are HIV positive, get them the treatment they need. [And] our having to deal with so many other issues such as poverty, underemployment, a public miseducation system, racial profiling, police brutality; and the Black church's refusal to deal with the crisis, too often because of homophobia."

Hardy also speaks frankly on the taboo topic "down low brothers" -men who spread HIV/AIDS by secretly sleeping with other men while in a heterosexual relationship. Hardy says, "The 'down low' is not a culture; it's a media-hyped phenomenon created by some very lazy, irresponsible journalists, who are also racist and/or homophobic." He says this behavior does exist but it's been blown way out of proportion, and has become a boogeyman that distracts us from the real issues. "Someone's got to be the villain, so it is much easier to place the blame on a group that is invisible and unable to defend itself. As with Eazy-E's death, another opportunity is being missed to arm folks with the knowledge and tools they need to protect themselves. Giving sistas a list of items they can check off to see if their man is on the down-low is not the answer..."

Come to Our Birthday Party!

Your presence is requested at the Underground Railroad's 14th Anniversary party.

This is the first time we've ever had a party for the show, so I hope all my friends can make it down (and that means you!).

Thursday April 7th at the Knitting Factory (in the Tap Bar)
74 Leonard St. Bet. Broadway and Church, at 9PM
DJs Monkone, Emskee and 3D on the wheels (plus special guests?)

March 25, 2005

ESPN Mag on Hip-Hop in the NBA

Some cool people emailed me this very extensive ESPN piece, which is not accessible on the web as far as I can tell.

Walk This Way
By CHRIS BROUSSARDI

The men -- hairy, fat, mostly white, knocking on the door of middle age -- dance without shame (or rhythm) to Snoop's "Drop It Like It's Hot." More than 18,000 Bulls fans roar as "The Matadors" back their thangs up before closing with a B-boy stance. This is what timeouts often look like in the NBA of 2005 -- adults, kids or mascots throwing the latest hip-hop moves to the latest hip-hop tracks.

Shorts, which once covered nothing but jockstraps, cover everything but calves. Samples, not organs, blare -- and not just during game breaks but game action. Headlines of the league publication, Inside Stuff, shout "illest," "chillin'" and "playa." Nelly and Jay-Z own teams. Yes, hip-hop is as much a part of the NBA landscape as early entry. And to some folks, this is not good. They shake their heads at brash teenage rookies who make arrogant stares an essential follow-up to dunks and crossovers. After Ron Artest, who happens to hail from hip-hop's hallowed Queensbridge projects in New York, went buck-wild in Detroit, league honchos winced as the nation connected the brawl to hip-hop. Concerned about their "image problem" -- as if image problems aren't as American as red, white and blue -- they longed for the days of Michael Jordan.

Thing is, while MJ is held up as the NBA's anti-hip-hop icon, the league's ties to the culture are rooted in him...

Continue reading "ESPN Mag on Hip-Hop in the NBA" »

March 29, 2005

Indigestion

Pardon the silence in here, but sometimes the news is so sad I don't know what to say about it. I'll be back in a minute.

Essence's Women in Hip-hop Panel

I've been remiss in not reporting back on that panel from last week, but the thing is: it got so heated and hectic I didn't know how to sum it up effectively, except maybe by quoting the opening lines of Yeats' "Second Coming."

Luckily Julianne pretty much had it covered, and her rundown is supplemented by funkdigi, lynne and clyde. Hashim also posted a chat between himself, Funkdigi and me, though I'm not sure I said anything useful there.

Props once again to the organizers, especially Akiba Solomon.. This event wasn't exactly the smoothest, but you can't clean out a closet without getting your room a little messy. Hopefully we'll keep that door open and continue the dialogue, cuz we obviously need it.

March 30, 2005

GOP Reveals Marketing Alliance with Cam'ron

I think we all knew this was inevitable:

Republican Party Reveals 'No Homo' Alliance With Cam'ron

Days after McDonald's announced they would pay rappers for mentioning Big Macs, the GOP revealed their own efforts to promote the conservative agenda through rap lyrics.

RNC Chair Ken Mehlman said their most successful partnership thus far is with the rapper Cam'ron, who agreed to promote traditional family values by popularizing the GOP-conceived slogan "no homo."

According to Mehlman, "Cam'ron receives $5 whenever the phrase is heard on TV or radio, and in what has proved the most lucrative part of the deal, he gets $1 every time "no homo" appears in an internet weblog."

Without revealing details, the RNC chair confirmed that further alliances are in the works. "When we tried similar deals with certain reporters and columnists, that pesky 'journalistic integrity' thing kept getting in the way. But integrity is clearly not an issue with these rappers, and we plan to take full advantage of that."

In related news, disgraced columnist Armstrong Williams now hopes to pursue a rap career, and has signed with Koch Entertainment to release his debut album entitled "Licensed to Shill."

Dead Prez Wins Lawsuit Against NYPD

This news certainly warms the cockles of my heart:

Dead Prez Member Paid For False Arrest

Dead Prez star Stic.man has received more than $50,000 in settlement fees from the city of New York for false arrest and excessive force, according to his attorney.

The rapper and three associates were arrested during a photo shoot and subsequently sued the New York Police Department for false arrest and excessive force.

A portion of the settlement will be donated to the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement to prevent further police misconduct, reports MTV.com.

March 31, 2005

NYC Beatbox Event

I've heard that this Taylor McFerrin (Bobby's son) is quite binoculars. Can anyone confirm? I'm otherwise engaged this evening so hopefully some of y'all can go investigate:

Beatboxer Entertainment Presents:Bands of the 5th Element
Thursday March 31st

Bands of the 5th Element showcases bands made up of human beatboxers
and other musicians. Produced by Beatboxer Entertainment,
human beatbox masters Kid Lucky, Baba Israel, Yako, and
Taylor Mcferrin, will be highlighted with their groups
Renegades of Punk (Kid Lucky), BaYa (Baba Israel and Yako),
and The Cell Theory (Taylor Mcferrin). Afterwards will be an all star NYC jam session with various musicians and beatboxers from the NYC area.

When? Thursday March 31st, 2005
Doors open at 10pm Showtime: 10:30pm sharp
Where? The Bowery Poetry Club 308 Bowery (On the foot of First Street.)
How much? $10.00 + a one drink minimum
Groups of five and more get $3 off admission
For more info contact Terry Lewis at 718-484-7856
Or email kidlucky@beatboxing.com

10:30 Renegades of Punk
Renegades of Punk is an amazing all vocal, political, hardcore band.
Not4Prophet spits conscious, political, messages that make you think.
He is accompanied by volectric bass player Kid Lucky who provides
driving volectric bass lines and hard vocal percussion. I bet you
didn't think you would ever mosh to an all vocal band!

11:00 Taylor Mcferrin and The Cell Theory
Taylor Mcferrin brings this new band to the forefront of live trance
like hip hop grooves. Taylor's beatboxing is smooth and in the pocket
while the band makes the transitions so slick your head will still be
nodding after the fact!

11: 30 Baba and Yako
Baba is a human beatboxer and didgeridoo player and Yako is an
electric bass player and human beatboxer. Together they make music
that is beyond your normal urban, hip hop, dance tracks. This is that
next level!

And

The After Hours 5th Element Jam Session
After hours, all star jam sessions, with some of today's hottest human
beatboxers joined with some of NYC's hottest musicians. This is for
the late night hang. Come see what happens when the lights go down and
the die hard crowd stays behind. You'll tell your children and your
grandchildren the magic of that night. We guarantee it!

Regular readers/listeners should be familiar with our friends Baba and Yako of Open Thought, who are also active in this activity.

We have free healthcare! Our schools are legitimate!

Kardinal Offishal's defiant hometown pride on this freestyle is so infectious, when I play it I have to pretend I'm from Toronto too, so I can join in and pump my fist like WHAT!

That right there is perfect hip-hop to me, that yearning to feel part of a community, to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.. and to have that bigger thing be recognized and respected, to be able to take pride in it.. that's the need that hip-hop literally was born to fulfill (birthed by those who'd been stripped of everything that could provide such a foundation, as Jeff and many others have broken down.) I love this track cuz Kardi's passion in repping T-Dot captures that spirit perfectly.

April 1, 2005

More on the GOP/Hip-Hop Alliance

Davey D has the scoop on just how deep this thing goes:

Gangsta GOP: Conservatives Set to Pay Rappers Like McDonalds

Coming at the heels of the recent announcement by marketing firm Maven Strategies to pay popular rap artist to spit lyrics about the virtues of McDonalds, in particular the Big Mac sandwich, other marketing firms have taken note. It has become glaringly obvious to Fortune 500 companies and Madison Avenue advertising agencies that the best way to sell a product is to employ the rhyming services of Hip Hop artists.

The successful marketing campaign behind Seagrams Gin via North Carolina artist Petey Pablo who drove sales through the roof after he rapped about it in his song ‘Freek-A-Leak’ has helped open the flood gates. That particular song was played a whooping 350 thousand times last year on commercial radio outlets and reached closed to 1.5 billion people (yes you read that correctly- 1.5 billion) world wide with its enticing message. That’s far better marketing penetration then anyone could hope for with traditional advertising.

Enter the Tokeback Institute out of Resslin, Virginia. This is an ultra conservative marketing firm that specializes in mainstreaming right wing values that are being championed by the current Bush administration. They pride themselves on being the marketing gurus behind getting Americans to buy into the policies supporting the War in Iraq as well as the new love and desire for ‘High Morals’.

The secretive conservative institute now has set its sights on Hip Hop. They not only want to, but fully intend to follow in the footsteps of McDonalds and Seagrams Gin and will began paying popular rap artists as much as a million dollars plus bonuses to rap about conservative policies. It’s called political product placement...

April 4, 2005

Questioning RIAA Math

Mark Cuban wonders if the music industry's math is fuzzy:

Let's Test the RIAA Logic

At a CEA event I attended a couple weeks ago, I listened to a panel where Mitch Bainwol, the head of the RIAA, basically put out the argument that it was obvious that illegal downloads were hurting music sales. It was obvious because the advent of file sharing coincided with a decrease in music sales. Therefore A lead to B.

...Since Mitch thought it was important to use RIAA Logic to show how obvious the link was, I decided to test Mitch’s logic by applying it to other digital content. So I’m putting together a list of digital media content types that are sold, and looking and asking if they have seen an increase or otherwise in sales since the introduction of Napster. I was hoping blog readers could contribute their thoughts to the list as well. Here is my list:

DVDs - Huge Increase in Sale
Digital Photographs - Huge Increase in Sales (see Corbis and other outlets)
Video Games - Huge Increase in sales
Software - Not huge increase percentage wise, but increases in actual dollars… I couldn’t find a specific reference. Anyone have one?
Ringtones - Huge increases in Sales

So, using Mitch Bainwol/RIAA logic. If 5 digital based products sold since filesharing came on the scene are showing flat at worst, up huge at best sales, doesn’t it hold true that filesharing can’t hurt and must BENEFIT digital product sales?

...The RIAA claims that sales of the top 100 CDs sold 195mm units in 1999, materially above the 154mm units sold in 2004. Which leads to a question. Are sales down due to filesharing, or have RIAA members just lost marketshare?

I contend RIAA sales are down because they lost marketshare. There are more CDs being self published or released by non RIAA members than ever before. Sales from websites, concerts and car trunks are taking away sales from traditional labels. Access and awareness of that music has exploded through webradio, websites, p2p, satellite radio and tours ...What I don’t know is how much these alternate music sources are selling.

When the RIAA refers to the “record industry”, they are always misrepresenting themselves. In this era of massive self-publishing, they have no idea what sales are for the entire record industry. Only what soundscan or their members report to them. Both of which under report the incalcuable number of self publishing artists.

Which leads me to finally agree with Mitch Bainwol. RIAA logic says that if every other digital content products has seen increases in sales since the filesharing era began, than music should see an increase too. I think the RIAA logic holds. I think total music sales are up significantly since 1999. I’m just looking for the proof. Anyone able to help?

Industry types, what sayest thou? Is it wishful thinking to imagine that self-publshing etc. can account for such a steep drop in the total numbers?

April 5, 2005

AnotherM.I.A.postholenyohead

I just listened to Arular for the first time, and I will now make the most unnecessary post ever, just to make sure my blogville citizenship is not revoked.

Straight up love:
Hombre. Oh hell yes.

Like, but not enough to take Hombre off repeat:
Pretty much every other track. Except for the baile funk stuff which doesn't do much for me at all. But then again I was never into miami bass either. In fact (blasphemy alert) I wasn't even crazy about Planet Rock back when it came out, and thought then as I do now that 8th Wonder was 100 times better. Which may tell you all you need to know about my relationship with "authenticity." (or maybe not)

Cory Daye, Ghost and Dougie made much better usage of that:
Sunshowers.. I'd probably like it better without the chorus there evoking those comparisons.

As for the war to end all wars, wading through the wreckage to determine my position seems far less interesting than queueing up Hombre again. But feel free to change my mind in the comments section.

EDIT: This piece is pretty dope though. And it reminds the me that the person who first got me into blogging was Tamil, or Thamizh as she preferred. I wish she was around now to weigh in on this business.

URGENT!

Different Kitchen has urgent breaking news!

Also, lots of good reading about the Pope here.

The latest on gospel rap in Botswana here.

The Great Cash-In on southern hip-hop continues here.

And these guys are finally getting to meet with Hot 97 today, as Davey D details here.

There's a Bat in the House!

Batty, batty, batty!

Game on for "Ultimate Hustler"

What happens when The Apprentice goes hip-hop? It becomes The Ultimate Hustler.

BET has announced the launch of a new series that The Hollywood Reporter calls a "hip-hop version of The Apprentice." ..a cut-throat competition between would-be business people that will hosted by Roc-A-Fella Records C.E.O. Damon Dash.

In the now-infamous Donald Trump role, Dash will create his own version of the famed "You're fired" line by yanking Roc-A Fella gold chains off the necks of the losers.

(Am I showing my age with the Hollywood Shuffle references, or do people still remember the classics?)

April 6, 2005

Hip-Hop and Pro Wrestling: The Other Side of the Story

Everybody's going on about how hip-hop has turned into pro wrestling, but have y'all noticed how pro wrestling has turned into hip-hop? For years now WWE all-star John Cena has been kicking freestyles in the ring every week, mostly ghostwritten by his Boston brethren Esoteric, as I understand it.

Check this in-depth interview with John Cena, on his daily struggle to keep it real as a hip-hop wrestler:

John Cena: From the Ring to the Microphone, He's All Real!

...So what do you say to people who are overly critical about hip-hop’s advancement into markets and outlets where it wasn’t originally accepted or available?

Cena – That’s where this comes from … [Points to his baseball cap.] It says ‘F**k Rules.’ There are two sides to that coin. There are mainstream people who are not ready to accept hip-hop, and then there are the hip-hop people claiming sell-out! Either way, their thought process is wrong. The hip-hop people claiming sell-out … I can understand when it’s just someone trying to make a buck off the music. I’ve got an album that’s gonna drop on May 10th that’s been in the works for three years. I put forth my own money; I signed all my rights over to WWE. I’m not making a penny off of this. I’m doing this because I love hip-hop. For someone to scream sell-out is the wrong way to go. They need to be proud that, f**k man, hip-hop has finally got to wrestling. So if I’m a hip-hop head and I’m watching wrestling … but I can’t tell my boys about it because it’s a rock’n roll sport, now you can get out of the closet. You can f**king say, yo, we’re repping hiphop on WWE. My boy Cena is kicking ass for all of us. Hopefully, it’ll open the door for more people. My boy [Rey] Mysterio is rocking the Gucci baggy pants … it’s getting there...

...for certain people to say hip-hop is growing too fast or selling out, those people should be happy that their monster has grown into this u n s t o p p a b l e Frankenstein. That is the utmost form of flattery to those true, true hiphop heads that bleed underground hip-hop and hate on c o m m e r c i a l . They need to embrace the fact that hiphop, their art form, the art form that they love so much that they’ve gotta hate it on the other side, has gone everywhere. True fans of the music will be able to tell – ‘okay, that mutha f**ka is trying to make a quick buck, he’s real, he’s not, he’s just going off somebody else.’ So there is a little decision making process to determine who is repping hip-hop and who is ripping off the culture...

How does all that make you feel?

Cena – I love the fact that it’s spreading, man. The fact that a kid from West Newberry, like me, can go out and breathe hip-hop life into a culture that doesn’t have any is fantastic. And I can still go in the hood and get rep! I walk in Jamaica Queens where I buy my jewelry and cats is like, yo that’s Cena, man! That’s the kid! That’s hip-hop, man. It’s not about your color; it’s about the culture. And that’s a wonderful thing...

April 8, 2005

Thank You

Tonight I celebrated the 14th anniversary of my love affair with hip-hop. Or at least the anniversary of the day we made it official, because lord knows we were in love long before that.

I know that in this post-sincerity age it is no longer cool to believe in anything, much less publicly admit to an unabashed, passionate love. But the reason I created this radio show, and this website, is because I love hip-hop.

My love for hip-hop is the essence of who I am. It defines how I see the world and how I see myself. My love for hip-hop gives my life meaning, when the world so often seems to have nothing for me. So I have committed every day of my life to loving it, to representing it, to defending it, to supporting it, to cultivating it, to nurturing it, to living it.

I have devoted my life to loving hip hop. And not a day, not one single day goes by in my life, when I am not awed and amazed by how much hip-hop has loved me back.

So thank you to all my family and partners who have kept the Underground Railroad alive all these years. And thank you to everyone who shared this evening with me, wrote and called to send their good wishes, and everyone who has ever tuned in or logged on to share this music with us.

But most of all, thank you. You are the love of my life, and I'll always be here, as long as you are.

April 9, 2005

End of an Error?

Spent a lovely Friday in New Haven, where my hosts were quite gracious about my inexperience with public speaking. The only downside was I missed out on the chance to scoop Benzino's resignation from the Source:

Benzino Quits Source

Blaming irreconcilable differences with both The Source magazine and its investor, Black Enterprise, co-founder Raymond "Benzino" Scott stepped down as chief brand manager on Friday (April 8). "I want to step down from the magazine and sell my stock effective immediately," he said in a statement...

"...I don't want to take away from what The Source has built up, but I got issues with The Source and magazines like that. Everyone is too politically correct. They're not thinking about the little guy who can't afford to pay for high-priced ads. It's like a monopoly."

Now come on, that's a little unfair, I mean the Source gave full pages of ad space away every month to such obscure artists as Ray Benzino!

...The feelings were apparently mutual as, according to a spokesperson for The Source, Black Enterprise disliked Scott's practices. "Our other partner, Black Enterprise, is another reason why I've decided to leave," Benzino said. "I don't like how they perceive me. There are too many things that I don't agree with, so I am moving on."

I was expecting Earl Graves and the BE crew to dump Benzino when they first bought in years ago. I guess they finally woke up and realized they better step in to protect their investment.

Though his tenure at The Source has been rocky, Scott said he's looking forward to new publishing opportunities. "I plan on creating another magazine that has my voice, which represents the little guy. It's because of the manipulation of SoundScan and radio that hip-hop is losing its edge. I want to come out with a magazine that will reflect that. I want to start from the ground up and speak for the artists," he said.

I'm hoping he'll go the Oprah route and call it "B" magazine, with himself on the cover of every single issue offering self-help advice for his fellow "little guys."

Join Us on the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you check out the sounds you also can talk to us live in the chat room.

April 11, 2005

Kim Osorio Hits The Source With Gender Discrimination Lawsuit

Looks like serious trouble for dumb and dumber. Respect to Kim Osorio and Michelle Joyce for stepping up.

The Source Magazine Hit With Employment Discrimination Claims By Former Top Women

Former Editor-in-Chief and Vice President Accuse Owners of The Source of Subjecting Women to Gender Discrimination, Sexual Harassment, and Retaliation

EEOC Charges Filed on Behalf of All Current and Former Female Employees

NEW YORK – April 11, 2005 – Earlier today, two of the highest-ranking former female executives of The Source magazine, the self-proclaimed “Bible of Hip Hop,” filed charges of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accusing co-owners David Mays, the Chief Executive Officer, and Raymond “Benzino” Scott, the Chief Brand Executive, of committing gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and unlawful retaliation against women at the Company.

The charges were filed by Kimberly Osorio, who was the first female Editor-in-Chief of The Source, and Michelle Joyce, who was the Vice President of Marketing. According to the charges, female employees were consistently discriminated against on the basis of their gender in favor of male employees, particularly with respect to hiring, promotions, compensation and benefits, working hours and discipline.

The charges also allege that:

Continue reading "Kim Osorio Hits The Source With Gender Discrimination Lawsuit" »

David Mays Responds to Kim Osorio Suit, Benzino Can't Stay Away

Responding in allhiphop.com, David Mays is the epitome of class crass:

...Dave Mays denied the allegations and took aim at his accusers credibility.

"Neither of those women ever filed any complaints during many years of working at The Source it raises a lot of questions when these types of charges are made subsequent to valid and legitimate terminations of their employment," Mays said in a statement. "Also it is a fact that Ms. Osorio had sexual relations with a number of high profile rap artists during her employment as Editor-In-Chief."

Even if we assume this is true, what in the hell does it have to do with anything? If this is how you plan to prove that you really do respect women in your workplace, you're in a lot of trouble.

Meanwhile as I expected, reports of Benzino's departure were too good to be true. Here's yet another bizarre press release I got in the mail, also posted by Jeff Chang. Anyone who doesn't understand why this press release is dripping with hypocrisy/absurdity should read the chapter in Jeff's book about Benzino's role in the rise and (mostly) fall of The Source.

Partners and Black leaders Appeal To Benzino To Continue His Fight For Artist's Rights and Empowerment in Hip-hop Industry.

Def Jam Records Shocker Cause of Benzino's Resignation Decision on Friday, April 8, 2005. Chairman LA Reid Pulls Def Jam Advertising From The Source After His Job Is Threatened By Interscope's Jimmy Iovine.

Benzino To Stay At The Source, Vows Not To Make Anymore Diss Songs… In Partnership With Reverend Al Sharpton's Movement For Non-Violence In Hip-hop.

April 11, 2005- New York, NY- On Friday, April 8, Ray Benzino announced that he was stepping down from his position at The Source Magazine, as Co-Founder and Chief Brand Executive. At press time, however, many community leaders called an emergency meeting and told him he must not leave The Source...

Continue reading "David Mays Responds to Kim Osorio Suit, Benzino Can't Stay Away" »

April 13, 2005

Sage Francis on Common's Album

In case you missed the fun, here's Sage Francis' take on Common's Be album:

It is definitely head wrappy.

Not to discredit the I Used to Love H.E.R. guy...I know he is infallible due to his ability to break dance on stage while smoking faggots like incense, but I just don't buy into the image he projects.

I like to imagine him and Kanye hanging out at a high school party playing dominoes while Common schools Kanya on how to seem more spiritual.

they exchange guilty glances in between cheerleaders and coke lines.


Speaking of Coke, that commercial he did is proof that not only will the revolution be televised, but it will also come with diabetes and union busting action! order now, before the neo-soul movement becomes even less interesting

For a rather less obnoxious take, check the excellent blog belonging to Wes Jackson. Andthanks to Wes, Alma, Kim, Ian and crew once again for putting last week's party together. Been too busy to post pics but believe me it was a stone gas honey.

BTW I spoke very briefly to Common about the Sprite thing, may post later.

Common on Slow Simmering Sprite Coke Backlash

For those who don't remember, which is probably most non-fanatical folk: Common did a Sprite Coke commercial a few years back with Mya, centered around a remake of Eugene Mcdaniels'/Roberta Flack's/Les McCann's "Compared to What." Quite a few fans were put off by this at the time, and I've seen it come up in a couple of places recently. So I asked him about it real quick while doing an interview you'll see soon elsewhere (couldn't fit it in the assigned piece cuz it had a very specific focus). Here's what he said:

One thing that I still see mentioned a lot is the Sprite Coke commercial you did with "Compared to What," people saying you shouldn't have done that. What's your your response to that?

Honestly I don't look back at nothing I did and say "man I shouldn't have done it." Cuz all of it is part of the process. I mean I can laugh at certain things and be like "damn why did i do that?" at that time, but you know.. if I hadn't done Electric Circus people wouldnt as excited about "Be" being what it is right now you know what I'm saying?

Do you understand what I mean? I mean, the point being it's all part of the journey. You go through those struggles, people see you go up and down, rollercoaster, and they can relate to it more. They're more connected to it cuz thy seen you. And they understood that I was being true to me, they know that "man, even if we didn't like that, that dude was being himself. He was being true to who he was at that time, and that's waht he wanted to create. He ain't just no ass-kissing ass artist, where he's gonna try to make anything, amd whoever's popular he's gonna do it with just to be a part of what's popping off. I ain't never been that type of artist.

So to you it's like somebody saying Malcolm shouldn't have done this or that in '62 or '63, when you're judging him by where is was at in '65, you gotta see that was a part of the path that took him to that?

Exactly bro, that's a great analogy.

April 22, 2005

Letter to Source Advertisers, Other Essential Reading

Obvious must-read of the week: that monster Reginald Dennis interview at hiphopdx.com: Part one, two and three. Good friend that he is, Reggie realized I'd never get around to the sequel for my Real History of the Source, and stepped up with everything I was gonna cover and then some. Save it, print it out and study it, present a paper on it next year. I do have one more historical document that I'll post next week, a tasty little supplement to Reggie's thorough rundown..

Meanwhile Jeff has the latest on the Source's financial woes, backed up by the NY Post. Which reminds me, I never got a chance to post this peculiar e-mail someone passed on to me.. it was sent out by David Mays to the Source's business partners, attempting to explain the Source's withdrawal from official auditing of their circulation. I'll post it below, for those who enjoy corporate damage control at its most desperate:

Continue reading "Letter to Source Advertisers, Other Essential Reading" »

April 23, 2005

Join Us on the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. Our old chat room finally bit the dust, but we can talk in the comments section here, unless anyone can recommend a temporary chat space? Let me know underneath here...

April 25, 2005

The Infamous Source Resignation Fax

Here's the bonus Source material I alluded to last week.

In Reginald Dennis' interview he describes the pivotal moment when everyone decided to walk away from the Source once and for all:

We’ve still got James’ resignation letter and we plan to fax it out to The Power Network: The Source’s list of 5000 key industry insiders, radio DJs and retailers. We are joined by another one of our interns and we send it out. We wonder what the reaction will be. These days you can send a million emails with the push of a button but back then we had to do it the hard way – a preprogrammed fax list. All over the country people read James’ letter and pagers and office phones begin blowing up. At RCA Dave is trying to manage the situation and calm Ray down. The fax arrives. Dave reads it and he and The RSO drop everything and dash back to The Source, hoping to catch us in the act. Dave also calls the phone company to stop the transmission, but because he doesn’t have the correct password the faxes continue to roll out. By the time they get up to The Source we are long gone and James’ letter is the talk of the industry.

I happened to be one of those 5,000, and it turns out I still have my copy of the fax. So here it is, the Fax Heard Round the World in jpg form (If anyone can pdf it up for me please do):

Page One (cover sheet)
Page Two
Page Three
Page Four
Page Five
Page Six

April 27, 2005

Ahh, the Mirthless Laugh of the Damned

Latest Source mag business: I interviewed the lawyer for Kim Osorio and Michelle Joyce, Kenneth Thompson, you can check that out here. And in case you haven't seen it the illustrious team of Jeff Chang, Lizz Mendez Berry and Joan Morgan (Fieldston represent) started a petition to help keep the pressure on these fools..

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Meanwhile back in Gotham City...

The R.E.A.C.Hip-Hop coalition, formed in the aftermath of the Tsunami song fiasco, finally got to meet with Hot 97 a few weeks ago and present their concerns about the station. Up until now they haven't been able to speak publicly about what went down in the meeting, but that is about to change.. look out for news on that front.

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Overdue Seattle linkage: Cool photos here, every other link imaginable here. Most important is O-Dub's remix of Matos' Apache paper.

Ludacris Brings Pimping to Africa

I hate when stories look all cool and positive, then the details ruin all the magic. finding this article was like biting into a chocolate bar and finding out it's really carob. I hate carob.

Ludacris first U.S. Rapper to Shoot Video In Africa

Lucaris recently became the first American rapper to shoot a video in Africa with in his new “Pimping All Over The World” video.

Atlanta native Ludacris picked a Zulu prince and also a local police officer by the name of Desiree Phillips to join African models in the video.

"I never thought that something like this actually happen to me," Desiree Phillips commented. Ludacris said, "I wanted the video to be a true African experience."

April 28, 2005

And Yayo is the Hamburglar

Interesting quote from Game, this afternoon on Hot 97: "It's McDonald's. Dre owns the Mcdonald's, Em is the manager, I work the fries, 50 Cent does the burgers, we sell a happy meal and the kid goes home happy." (wonder if Mcdonald's is sending him a check now)

It's painful hearing Hot's jocks struggle to feign excitement about these b-list Summer Jam performers they're announcing.. "YOOOO, CIARAAA!!?!??? SAY WORD, SON SHE IS GONNA RIP THAT STAGE!! I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!"

Which is not to knock Hot per se, at any commercial outlet you're gonna have to sacrifice your dignity sooner later, pretending to be geeked about some product that nobody with half a brain could possibly be so excited for. Thank Jebus I work at WBAI..

----------------------

And in case you thought Hot 97 (or hip-hop radio in general) had a monopoly on stupidity, check these bozos out. Meanwhile the backlash against Hot still isn't done, with NY State Comptroller Alan Hevesi speaking up now. Also, Dan Charnas posted the next installment of his take on things.

May 2, 2005

Yah Wah, Eee Chop Yah Wah

Again someone switches my chocolate for carob: Why did I just rent Empire Strikes Back and then come home to find Return of the Jedi in the case? Not cool. (And all these changes on the "special" edition are making it even worse. I want that Ewok song back!)

---------------

Who's further detached from reality right now, David Mays or Bizzy Bone*? It's a tough call.

*scroll down and grab the mp3

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As far as I'm concerned everybody on both sides of this little drama is looking silly.. obviously commercial hip-hop doesn't have the copyright (NPI) on macho childishness.

The End of Hiphopmusic.com

I am sad to announce that I have to shut down this website. For I now know the truth, that I have been promoting the work of Satan all along.

May 3, 2005

Taking the "Versus" Out of "Rap vs. Hip-Hop"

Gangstarr broken up, can anyone confirm or deny?

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More evidence that Jay Leno is secretly a lefty: letting Conor Oberst rock that song last night.

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My friend Hashim and I disagree often, but I have to side with him and Omar on the Rap vs. Hip-Hop issue.. I can understand the sentiment behind it, but any construct based on "the hip-hop I don't like isn't really hip-hop" just doesn't add up, any more than saying "Condi Rice isn't really Black" or "Republicans aren't really human beings."

The reality is that what you and I might consider vapid commercial rap is a big part of hip-hop culture in 2005, just as Republicans are a big part of American culture.. and we need to be real about that, that they are a part of us, if we hope to address their influence constructively.

(to whatever extent hip-hop can be considered a culture, which is always open for debate)

May 7, 2005

Join Us on the Radio Tonight

Once again we hit the airwaves tonight at Midnight EST, with our radio show the Underground Railroad. You can hear us online here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area. And while you're listening you can talk to us live in our chat room (we're testing out a new chat, let us know how it works for you)

May 9, 2005

Craig Carton and Ray Rossi , The Racist Jersey Guys

Asian Media watch found a recording of the already infamous anti-asian tirade from NJ 101.5's "Jersey Guys" Craig Carton and Ray Rossi. It sounds just as bad as it reads. If you want to send a complaint, or perhaps try to to explain to these guys what the word "American" means, AMW's page has all the contact info.

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BTW in case you missed them, I had little chats at SOHH.com with Mike Jones, Saul William and Common, and a panel of hip-hop industry women including Kim Osorio.

May 13, 2005

Help!

This week is our fundraising episode on the radio show, so if you appreciate what we do on the Railroador here on the site, and want to hlep keep non-commercial outlets like WBAI alive, please tune in Sat. night at midnight and give whatever you can! I'll be your friend forever.

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My chat with Bun B is up at SOHH.com..

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Alas, another hip-hop dream is deferred in Winnipeg. Should have stayed away from the Pimp Juice.

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Did you see that avalanche on the highway in Washington Heights? That's exactly how The Huffington Post hit blogville this week, an onslaught of textual debris that is a nightmare to sift through. I spent 5 minutes trying to find the Quincy Jones post I'd heard about, then finally gave up and searched in Technorati for someone else's link back to the correct page.

No way to browse by author or topic, no search function, no comment or trackback, and as poplicks said practically no people of color = no buzz. Maybe they'll get it together though, or perhaps someone else will start a "Huff Post Digest" blog to sift out what's actually worth reading in there.

May 16, 2005

Justo R.I.P.

Shocking. Got many a record from him back in the day.

Justo Faison, Founder Of Annual Mixtape Awards, Killed In Car Crash

The hip-hop world was dealt a crushing blow over the weekend by the news that Justo Faison — who founded the annual Mixtape Awards back in 1995 — had been killed in a car accident on Friday night. Faison's sport utility vehicle ran off of a highway in Richmond, Virginia, striking a guardrail before flipping over and slamming into a tree...

...Faison founded the annual Mixtape Awards, which acknowledged the efforts of innovative underground hip-hop, R&B and reggae DJs nationwide... Faison was also a renowned rap record promoter, who held positions at Nervous, Atlantic and Epic Records over the course of his career.

May 26, 2005

Selling You the Cat, Rat and Dog on a Bun


Went to the Yankee game tonight with the illustrious Mr. Charnas (check his reports back from Israel). When I was a young buck coming across the bridge to see Graig Nettles and Mickey Rivers, I'd have never imagined that one day there would be so much hip-hop at Yankee Stadium. Or sushi, for that matter.

Seeing baseball in person makes me appreciate the amount of athleticism in this game, all the mundane plays look damn impressive up close. Also, I know there are a bunch of Sox fans here, but even y'all gotta admit that Derek Jeter is the muthaf*&king man. I know y'all know what I'm talking about. Just stop. I see you. Stop fronting.

I shall be in Montreal until Monday, after which regular blogging shall commence.

June 3, 2005

Informant Backs Off Biggie/Suge Knight/LAPD Theory

As we've learned from certain other cases, just because your accusers are liars doesn't necessarily mean you are innocent. Still, yet another frustrating development..

Notorious B.I.G. Murder Informant Changes His Story

A paid informant who alleged to police and the FBI that the murder of rapper Notorious B.I.G. was a conspiracy hatched by Death Row boss Marion "Suge" Knight and a rogue Los Angeles Police Department officer has changed his tune.

The man, who now identifies himself as a lifelong paranoid schizophrenic, has admitted under oath that his elaborate story was "all hearsay," according to the Los Angeles Times...

I always forget Biggie was only 24, and it sounds younger every time I'm reminded.

June 6, 2005

Game, Jay-Z at Summer Jam

A couple of questions about this Summer Jam report:

1. Did Game really throw his gold chain into the crowd? As many people as I've seen trampled for a towel or a tamborine, tossing one of those diamond-infested monstrosities sounds kinda dangerous. Maybe it was just another counterfeit piece from Jacob..

2. What exactly is a "doormat audience"? Is the writer suggesting that anyone who pays to see this show must have self-esteem issues, and needs help from Dr. Phil to hold out for a show that will treat them right?

June 7, 2005

More Summer Jam Questions

Davey D touches on some of the other Questions that flashed through my mind about Hot 97's Summer Jam concert..

...However, it was Game who overshadowed the proceedings with his first New York appearance since his infamous altercation with 50 Cent resulting in a shooting outside the radio station. This as we all know, was followed up with a public burying of the hatchet with 50 and Game donating a ton of money to the Harlem Boy's Choir.

The public peace making suggested to everyone that the pair saw themselves as key figures in the public and wanted to set a positive example for all to follow. It seemed like a good end to what was a tumultuous situation. A lot of people were hopeful that the Game vs. 50 cent beef would not go the way that the Biggie vs. Pac beef went.

...as of late [Game] seemed intent on trying to overcome all these past dramas and move to higher and hopefully more positive ground. For example, he recently donated a lot of money to local Compton community organizations. He participated in the recently held West Coast peace Summit which was organized by Snoop Dogg and resulted in the Dogg Pound reuniting and Snoop squashing his troubles with Suge Knight. Game also came together with Snoop to do a West Coast Unity Tour which was significant because Game is affiliated with the Bloods in Compton and Snoop with the Crips in Long Beach which are rival gangs and rival cities in Southern Cali.

Now let's get back to the Hot 97 Summer Jam in New York. According to reports from sources like Allhiphop, Game took to the stage and threatened to knock out G-Unit members Lloyd banks and Tony Yayo. He called 50 Cent a rat and then proceeded to beat down a rat mascot that appeared on stage. This was followed up with Game throwing his G-Unit medallion into the crowd, him yelling G-G-G-Unot throughout his set and him telling folks that 50 cent is not the King of New York because dude had relocated to Connecticut.

Upon hearing about this all one can do is ask, "Why Game why?" and "When is enough, enough?" With all these things going on, why was it necessary for Game to get on stage and start up the beef again with 50 Cent and the G-Unit posse?

I'm hoping that this is all just a staged situation and that all this was done to generate controversy and press. But even if that was the case, these beefs, staged or not, are getting old. Even if 50 and Game never come to blows you best believe there is likely to be drama amongst the fans that have love and passion for these artists. Have we not forgotten the huge brawl that took place in Long Beach shortly after the initial altercation between 50 and Game?. Furthermore since all eyes are on them, all this talk about peace goes out the window and sends a strong message to folks who look up to artists like Game-that all this talk about shaking hands and moving past the drama is pure bulls**t.

Adding to all this, are the lack of steps that corporate radio giants like Hot 97 have taken. One would think this embattled media outlet would be the first to pull the plug and call it a day. One would think that Hot 97 would be the first to say to Game; you can have beef, but not on our stage and turn off his sound. We should also note that the station did cut the sound on Snoop and the D-Block camp when their sets went too long, so it wasn't out of the realm of possibilities and was within their jurisdiction.

Lastly it will be interesting to see how [this is handled by] Reverend Al Sharpton, who as I mentioned earlier publicly called for a 90 day ban by radio stations on any artists promoting beef. So here we have Game in New York City kicking up dust and promoting beef-now what? Will there be ban? I doubt it...is hot 97 really gonna pull an artists who is blowing up the charts?

June 9, 2005

R.E.A.C.Hip-HopTown Hall Meeting

The coalition formed in the aftermath of the Tsunami Song continues to make noise:

R.E.A.C.Hip-Hop Reports to the Community on the "Stop Hot 97" Campaign

Join R.E.A.C.Hip-Hop (Representing Education, Activism and Community Through Hip Hop) this Saturday, June 11th for a Community Town Hall Meeting that will address the latest developments of the "Stop Hot 97" campaign that began earlier this year. The free event will be held at Unity Hall, located at 235 W. 23rd Street (between 7th & 8th Avenues) in New York City from 1 pm to 4 pm.

Confirmed speakers include activist and author, Kevin Powell; Newark Deputy Mayor for Youth and Social Services, Ras Baraka; media reform activist, Rosa Clemente; and R.E.A.C.Hip-Hop co-founder, DJ Kuttin' Kandi. The program will also feature poetry and Hip Hop performances by local high school youth, DJ Boo, and the UN Ambassador of Hip Hop, Toni Blackman. The program will be MC'd by activist and cultural arts entrepreneur April Silver.

The community-at-large is encouraged to find out the facts about this campaign, learn about the most effective ways to effect change in media, as well as join in on a celebration of the positive aspects of Hip Hop culture. As a courtesy, R.E.A.C.Hip-Hop will offer free on-site childcare for parents who want to bring their children.

June 20, 2005

The Most Music Ever Contained in One Post

After being away for so long I figured I better come back with something big, so I finally sat down and restored most of the audio in our mixshow and freestyle archives. Here's a complete list of the latest reissues:

DJ SETS:

2/28/04 DJ Easy Mo Bee - stream / download

2/14/04 DJ Monk One Valentine's Day set - stream / download

1/17/04 DJ Monk One MLK Day set - stream / download

12/20/03 DJ Spinna Dance Classics set - stream / download

09/13/03 DJ 3D - stream / download

01/03 DJ Oneman Classic Breaks set - stream / download

3/15/03 DJ 3D - stream / download

2/08/03 Guest DJ: Chairman Mao - stream / download

11/02/02 DJ Monkone - stream / download

11/02/02 DJ 3D Jam Master Jay tribute - stream / download

11/02/02 DJ Emskee Jam Master Jay tribute - stream / download

8/24/02 DJ Emskee Native Tongue set - stream / download

6/15/02 DJ 3D - stream / download

5/25/02 DJ Avee - stream / download

2001 DJ Spinna and Monkone trading breaks - stream / download

05/04/2002 DJ 3D - stream / download

01/27/2001 DJ Emskee - stream / download

04/13/2002 DJ Babu - stream / download

02/23/2002 DJ Monk One - stream / download

01/12/2002 DJ 3D - stream / download

11/24/2001 DJ 3D - stream / download

10/27/2001 DJ 3D - stream / download

10/27/2001 DJ Emskee - stream / download

10/13/2001 DJ 3D - stream / download

8/25/2001 DJ 3D - stream / download

4/15/2000 DJ 3D - stream / download

4/08/2000 DJ 3D - stream / download

9/18/99 DJ 3D - stream / download

Freestyles:

The Anomolies Part 1, and Part 2 - May 2003

Shuman - April 2000

Talib Kweli with Medina Green (Jah Born, Cash Rule and DCQ) - October 98

Allstar Freestyle extended version - December 97: 25 Minute segment from Mr. Live, Tony Bones, IG Off and Hazadus, Kwest the Mad Lad, Poison Pen, A.L. Skills, Skam and Shadowman, and the Doxxmen.

A Tribe Called Quest - June 96

June 21, 2005

PHOTOS: Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival, 6/18/05

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they used to do it out in the park

Thanks to Geology, Medina Green, Rhymefest, Leela James, Little Brother and Brand Nubian, plus everyone at Room Service for a day of hip-hop like it's supposed to be.

You can hear a little bit of my talk with Lord Jamar and Phonte of Little Brother (along with Alma and Wes from Room Service) at the WBAI Morning Show's new site.

June 22, 2005

Maximum Busy Muscle

Wishing Biggie's mom the best on this, but I have a feeling we won't see any justice on this case until some time around the year 2040, when a decrepit old Suge Knight is wheeled into the courtroom to get Edgar Ray Killensed.

----------------

this is clearly a setup for several corny jokes, but I'm too out of practice to find them.

----------------

Luckily some bloggers are still on top of their game. Mr. Charnas is still dropping bombs, and All-Star B-Boy Scholar Joe Schloss has finally entered the fray and is already sparking meaty dialogue with Mark Anthony Neal, who has also now been assimilated. Neal has been steady hitting home runs, even working in references to both of my favorite poets.

-----------------

Many of you might not know that second poet, who was murdered by the NYPD right on the block where I grew up (145th and Lenox). But you probably heard his work without realizing it on the San Francisco season of MTV's Real World, when Puck recited that poet's "Fir" pretending he made it up himself on the spot (the main reason I always hated that peanut-butter-defiling motherf****r):

The fir stands.
The man watches.
Its height pierces the low cloud.
Its arms srtetch out to the winds.
Its roots walk deep into the earth.
The man watches.
The fir stands.
the man walks away.
"Perhaps you are right," he says.

This Noel Gallagher Thing

I'm impressed that people can find this much to say about it.

His rant is, of course, boneheaded. Like many such rants it consists mostly of reasonable criticism, rendered foolish only by the bonehead blanket condemnation that prefaced it. Remove the burden of justifying that inital outburst (and his cultural outsider status) and the rest of it is barely objectionable.

But the first sentence is there, and you can't expect folks to pretend it isn't.

June 23, 2005

Game - 300 Bars Freestyle

Good lord. Somebody needs to tell this kid that brevity is the soul of dis.

The original "100 Bars" was aiite, "200 Bars" was already taking the gimmick too far. Now he's become the rap version of "The new gillette Mach 10, with TEN blades!! That means the shave is TEN TIMES CLOSER!!!"

June 28, 2005

Hip-Hop Radio Under Attack

From my brethren at KPFA in Cali:

---------------
OPEN LETTER FROM HARD KNOCK RADIO STAFF 6/26/05

Family, Friends, Allies, Supporters, All Concerned and Involved:

It is with profound urgency that we write this letter to the people
with whom we have built this great community institution we call Hard
Knock Radio (HKR). Without your genuine love and support, we never
would have made it this far.

HKR was birthed from the struggle to save KPFA in 1999. We represent
part of the promise KPFA made to listeners then to transform and
diversify its airwaves. Since those early days, we have become one of
the most cutting-edge, unique and innovative hour-long programs in
all
of Public Radio. HKR is setting the standard by which HipHop on
Public
Radio will be measured. HKR represents a savvy generational shift in
progressive programming -- mixing culture and politics in a new way
that makes the social justice movement attractive to the HipHop
Generation.

As many of you know, funding for Public Radio is constantly
threatened
by government forces who do not value free speech and
community-minded
media. The people who stand to lose the most are the next generation
of listeners: people of color and youth, poor folks, and immigrants.
These audiences -- grossly under-served by Public Radio, but readily
courted by Commercial Radio -- are being reached and politicized by
HKR, because we understand how to speak to their concerns, engage in
sincere outreach to their communities, and provide them with
programming that is neither patronizing nor alienating. Without HKR
as
a lightning rod, these audiences may abandon Pacifica and KPFA
entirely.

Contrary to almost all of Pacifica/KPFA’s public affairs programming,
HKR is not designed to be an alternative to NPR; HKR is the
alternative to Commercial Radio, and we are rooted in the principles
of Media Justice. Part of our mission is to remedy the failure of
progressive radio and the progressive movement to bring the most
marginalized communities to the table.

Unfortunately, even at a community radio station such as KPFA, our
efforts to press for inclusion and Media Justice are being thwarted
by
the new General Manager, Roy Campanella II. Campanella has expressed
a
desire to take ownership of the name ‘Hard Knock Radio’ from us; he
has revoked promised staffing resources; he has helped foster a
hostile workplace for women and HKR Staff in particular; and he has
made attempts to divide HKR Staff. There is increasing evidence
indicating Campanella has spread harmful lies about HKR Staff,
apparently in an effort to build a case to take certain HKR Staff off
the air. On May 5, Campanella assaulted HKR Executive Producer
Weyland
Southon with a threat of physical violence.

Campanella has made it clear -- through bullying and gossiping --
that
his intention is to crush HKR. We refuse to abandon all that we have
done in the last five years to build a NEW audience for KPFA,
Pacifica, and Public Radio. We will not allow such progressives to
continue to marginalize and ghettoize programming for young people
and
communities of color. We regret that it has come to this. But HKR
must
continue it’s mission and it’s message.

For many of our listeners who appreciate our work and
accomplishments,
the fact that HKR has become a target of abuse at KPFA, probably
comes
as a complete shock. For us, there is little mystery. Our very
existence has challenged mediocrity. Since graduating from KPFA’s
Apprenticeship Program in 1995, HKR Executive Producer Weyland
Southon
has been a very outspoken critic of KPFA’s status quo. HKR has been
targeted because we have emerged as a direct threat to KPFA’s
entrenched powers that be.

As employees of a progressive institution, we are alarmed by the lack
of due process afforded us in this crisis. We have received no
indication from Pacifica or KPFA leadership that our concerns about
workplace safety are being given any validity. The unapologetic
conspiracy of silence and overall inaction of Pacifica management and
the Local Station Board is suspect.

This crisis has seriously disrupted our production, and is imposing
incredible hardships on the HKR Staff who still work at KPFA daily.
The unwillingness of Pacifica and KPFA’s Local Station Board to
resolve these issues effectively is literally jeopardizing the future
existence of Hard Knock Radio on the Pacifica Network. We have
exhausted all internal processes regarding this matter. Our last
resort is to fully inform our listener-supporters and ask that you
have our backs.


Our demands and needs are simple and fair:


1) Roy Campanella II should resign for creating and fostering a
hostile workplace for KPFA workers – especially women and HKR Staff.
His monumental mismanagement of KPFA puts our FCC license renewal at
risk. We need and deserve professional, responsible, and visionary
leadership that is willing to build a team that will KPFA into the
future. We demand a safe and equitable workplace.


2) HKR has been victimized by neglect and gross mismanagement at
Pacifica and KPFA since our inception. We demand honest, efficient,
and transparent management practices. We demand fair and supportive
supervision. We demand an end to management favoritism and cronyism.


3) We want an equitable distribution of resources, and demand that
HKR be given the highest possible budget priority. We want Pacifica and KPFA to support and implement our innovative off-air fundraising
strategies so we can be more self-sufficient. We demand the necessary
institutional support to reach our goals so that HKR can realize its
fullest potential as a tool for social change. We demand the right of
self-determination.


4) All persons responsible for this attack on HKR should be held
accountable for their words and actions. Write letters in support of
HKR directly to KPFA’s Local Station Board. Letters typed on
letterhead carry more weight than emails, so we are encouraging
people
to fax letters to 510.532.8461 and/or send mail C/O Tumi’s, 3028
International Blvd, Oakland, CA, 94601. For emails, go to
www.kpfa.org/lsb and fill out the prompt. Email the Pacifica
Foundation National Board direct at board@pacifica.org. Be sure to cc
all emails to HKR at hardknock@kpfa.org so that we can make your
support public.


Yours in Struggle,

HKR Staff
Weyland Southon, Executive Producer
Anita Johnson, Senior Producer
David ‘Davey D’ Cook, Host
Favianna Rodriguez, Correspondent
Thenmozhi Soundarajan, Correspondent
Nishat Kurwa, Correspondent
Michael ‘Mike Biggz’ McKenna, Board Operator

Confession Reported in Biggie Murder

Prison informants are always iffy, but here's hoping sometihng comes out of this:

Rampart officer linked to Notorious B.I.G. case

Corrupt former police officer Rafael Perez acknowledged working security for Death Row Records on the night Notorious B.I.G. was killed, according to a prison informant quoted in documents revealed Monday in federal court.
If true, the purported admission would link the central figure in the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart scandal with the record label whose founder has long figured in theories about the 1997 slaying of the New York rap star also known as Biggie Smalls.

Perez's one-time cellmate Kenny Boagni said Perez and fellow rogue officer David Mack "were involved in Death Row Records. ... They went to all their parties and stuff," Assistant City Attorney Don Vincent told the judge presiding over a wrongful death lawsuit against the city.

Boagni also said in the November 2000 declaration to a police detective that "Perez told him he was at the award show when Biggie Smalls was killed" and called Mack on a cell phone before the slaying to say the rapper was in his SUV, Vincent said.

Monday's revelation came after an attorney for B.I.G.'s family received an anonymous tip last week that Perez and the B.I.G. killing were mentioned during an LAPD disciplinary hearing held in a jail basement in December 2000. Boagni was a witness at the hearing for a now-deceased officer.

Attorneys for the city confirmed the account Monday, and outside the presence of the nine-member jury read from the declaration and hearing transcripts. U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper ordered a halt to the trial to give both sides time to review the documents. Testimony was scheduled to resume Thursday....

Jeff Chang and Nelson George, Wednesday Night

Y'all should come hang with us, good talk for a good cause:

June 29, 2005, 7:00PM
Jeff Chang and Nelson George on Hip-Hop, Repression, and the '80s

Elebash Recital Hall, CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue @ 34th Street ($15)

Jeff Chang, author of the highly acclaimed Can't Stop Won't Stop and
pioneering hip-hop writer and filmmaker Nelson George (author of the
Post-Soul Nation and the classic The Death of Rhythm & Blues) will
explore how urban art flourishes in times of repression. George will
show clips from his DVD documentary "Smart Black People Talk About the
'80s and Their Lives". Using the clips as a launching point, both
authors will explore how Reagan Era politics catalyzed the genre of
hip hop. Limited seating. Advanced ticket purchase advised. Major
credit cards accepted. (212)817-8215. Proceeds will go to fund summer
internships for high school-aged mediamakers at WBAI (99.5 FM) in New
York City.

June 30, 2005

And Don't Forget Big Hank

Thanks to everyone who came out for the excellent panel last night with Nelson George and Jeff Chang, which I sort of stood next to and pretended to host. Hopefully audio/video will be available by and by. And thanks especially to the Radio Rootz crew for putting the evening together, people with money please go here and support their charity work with the younglings.

And a belated congratulations to our DJ Emskee and Karen, now on their honeymoon in Hawaii (should ahve hooked them up with Jeff for local beatdigging tips!) My photos of the wedding festivities are here at flickr, featuring the entire Underground Railroad Crew in tuxedos.

I'm in Arlington/DC this weekend for my cooler-than-cool stepdad's family reunion. Any recommendations for how to spend my few spare moments?

July 2, 2005

So Amazing.

Wow, this one really hits me in the heart. I can't imagine there are many folks around my age, especially black folks, without a bunch of very particular memories and sentimental attachments to this man's music.

I just paid for wifi access at this hotel, so I can download at least a few of his classics and get my cry on.. looking at these search results, man I forgot just how many bangers he had.. Stop to Love, If This World Were Mine, If Only For One Night, Glow of Love... damn I totally forgot this joint with Gregory Hines.. can't believe they are both gone now.

Few of us will ever speak of love as eloquently as Luther, and few will spread as much love as he did. His music was a celebration of life in the truest sense, because he made so many songs that caused sooooo many babies to made.

And it might sound funny to those with a dimwitted concept of masculinity, but in my eyes Luther Vandross was R&B's epitome of a real man, and one of the last ones we had left. A man as in a grown-up, who spoke to us of love in the way a grown man knows how.

So peace be with you, Luther, you will truly be missed. I suspect that every time I turn on BET I will miss you a little more.

July 4, 2005

K'naan

I've been hearing a lot about this gentleman, anyone familiar with his stuff?

K'naan Looks Back At Africa During Career High

Rapper K'naan was very humbled as he took the podium to talk to media only moments after playing his set at Live 8. He was possibly the least-known artist to perform in front of the 35,000 fans who arrived in Barrie, Ontario and one of the only native African artists asked to perform at the Canadian installment of the show. That cultural split doesn't bother him and he actually congratulates North America for doing this again.

"I don't think of it as an African event," he said. "I don't think of it as an African political rally. I think of it as a job for the West and this is a political change that needs to come from the West. The West has its own stars. Africa has stars. I think it's a great thing that we are rallying here."

Of all of the people you saw on stage during the day, K'naan was one of the few who hasn't just visited Africa to see the devastation, but he lived in that world for a number of years. Although he now calls Toronto home, the rapper was born in Somalia, which his family had to escape in fear of their lives...

Maybe I Just Don't Get British Humor

Speaking of Live 8, what's up with this this review in the Guardian:

For all the fuss about the lack of black faces on Live 8's bill, rapper Snoop Dogg somehow contrives to seem incredibly inappropriate. He never mentions the concert's aims, preferring instead to raise the watching world's awareness of Snoop Dogg. "Wave your motherfucking hands in the air," he yells. "Wave the motherfuckers like you just don't care." Given that caring is rather the point of Live 8, this suggestion seems unsuitable at best...

One Cop Shot, 180 Black Men Arrested

WTF?

NYPD Arrest 181 Black Men in Queens After Cop Shot in the Leg

We begin today with a case of a police dragnet in New York City. On June 14th, Officer Christopher Wiesneski of Queens was shot in the leg with his own gun while trying to arrest a man smoking marijuana. During the next three days, police mounted a massive dragnet in the community. A total of 181 black men in the Queens neighborhoods of Cambria Heights and Laurelton were arrested on misdemeanor charges and quality of life violations. Some who were were arrested report that they were grabbed by the cops, handcuffed and not given any explanations at the time of their arrests.

The police department and Mayor Bloomberg have remained silent on the matter despite calls from City Councilman Leroy Comrie, Queens Representative Gregory Meeks and Democratic Mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer to give an explanation for the cops behavior...

July 5, 2005

Hip-Hop in Vietnam

A report on the spread of hip-hop from Vietnam's official government-sponsored news service:

Is hip-hop mere fashion or a dangerous trend?

Hip-hop is a new wave which has overflowed from the West and infiltrated many areas of Vietnamese modern society. The phenomenon is attracting a lot of young people, especially youth who were born in the 1980s and 1990s. Hip-hop has penetrated into Viet Nam’s music market, both professional and amateur, and it is now considered the youth’s fashion music.

Currently, most music shows are accompanied by dancers who perform break-dance. In an effort to soar to fame, many young singers have "renewed" themselves, using the hip-hop style. They include singers such as Hong Ngoc, Doan Trang, Ly Hai, Thanh Thao and Quang Vinh...

...Hip-hop has also made an appearance in amateur performance establishments. Most of the universities now have hip-hop groups, even, the Ha Noi Art College has hip-hop as a training programme, in addition to its academic music lessons.

Dang Anh Tuan, a student of the Viet Duc senior high school says a "movement" to learn break-dance – a part of hip-hop – is now popular among students. "We learn hip-hop to have a healthy and quick body," Tuan says.

His friend, Thai Bao, says Vietnamese youths are quickly adapting to hip-hop. "Hip-hop is like a kind of language, which helps us express our personalities," he says.

Some students’ parents also says they agree with the movement. "There’s no reason to protest hip-hop. I’d rather see my children practice hip-hop dance skills than seeing them lured to use heroin or drugs," says Hoang Thanh who lives in District 1 of HCM City.

To meet the rising demand of young people, many training centres for hip-hop dances have emerged and most cultural clubs in Ha Noi and HCM City now have break-dance classes...

Here's where it starts getting funky:

Hip-hop followers often wear their distinctive clothes, including loose trousers, colourful T-shirts, headbands, necklaces and metal chains with monstrous images. It is this side of the cultural phenomenon that can cause discomfort to many people.

Hip-hop spreads out so that we can see hip-hop clothes or breakdance performers everywhere, especially in schools. Many schoolboys perform their skills of hip-hop, such as handstands or head-spins during their breaks in school hours.

This is not so good, I think, because a school is not a club and hip-hop clothes are not suitable to cities with hot weather, such as HCM City.

Hip-hop also penetrates youth language. Many young Vietnamese now prefer to add into their conversation a few words that they learn from the rappers, such as "oh yeah", "come on", or "check it". Unfortunately, these words are not enough to express all their feelings.

By choosing hip-hop style, many young people try to prove that they are sanh Dieu, or stylish, but in the wrong way. They speak in a devil-may-care manner, and they swear as if they are the real street children.

Hip-hop followers in their typical clothes walking around solemn places such as lecture halls or pagodas can cause bad feeling to many others.

Hip-hop was born in America in the early 1980s. Unemployed black youth used hip-hop as a way out of dead-end lives and hard situations.

Hip-hop penetrated into Viet Nam in the early 1990s. Before that, hip-hop came to Japan and China, but in these countries, it is still not considered a part of the culture.

In fact, hip-hop only exists among a part of American youth, who have a couldn’t-care-less lifestyle.

Therefore, as many young local people now rush to follow hip-hop, they may lose their way in orienting their personality, because hip-hop means freedom, and it means a couldn’t-give-a-damn attitude.

I think we should consider hip-hop a new type of entertainment only, and youths should absorb it in moderation.

If the hip-hop movement goes too far, it may cause many young people to forget traditional culture and their origins, and they can become unmindful of others.

July 6, 2005

Black Rage, White Crowds

I'll probably be sitting on WBAI's morning show tomorrow as they discuss Bakari Kitwana's Voice piece. What was yall's take on that story? What should I ask/talk about?

6/7/05 EDIT: This segment won't be happening now, obviously.. hopefully rescheduled in days to come.

July 8, 2005

LAPD Must Pay Biggie's Mom

Still a long way from justice:

Judge orders L.A. to pay B.I.G. family

A federal judge has ordered the city and police department to pay slain rap star Notorious B.I.G.'s family "fees and costs incurred as a result of defendants' misconduct" in the family's wrongful death lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper declared a mistrial in the case, rejecting the city's argument that LAPD Detective Steven Katz had forgotten about documents in his desk drawer until his office was searched last month.

The documents detail Katz's investigation of a prison informant's claim that corrupt former LAPD officers Rafael Perez and David Mack were involved in the 1997 killing of the chart-topping New York rapper, whose real name was Christopher Wallace. Cooper said the LAPD still has not turned over other files to the plaintiffs, including about 15 personnel complaint investigations into Mack.

"The detective, acting alone or in concert with others, made a decision to conceal from the plaintiffs in this case information which could have supported their contention that David Mack was responsible for the Wallace murder," Cooper wrote in an order released Thursday affirming the family's request for a mistrial and sanctions.

Attorney Perry Sanders Jr. said the family would refile the suit, but he didn't know when. It is expected to accuse the LAPD of racketeering and to name Perez as a defendant.

Wallace's mother Voletta also spoke publicly about her son's death for the first time in years.

"Eight years, three months and 29 days (ago) today, my son was murdered in this town, in this city. For all that time I've labored with pain and sweat just to find out the truth of what happened," she said, adding that her suit "was not about money."

"It was about honesty. It was about integrity. It was about cover-up," she said, jabbing a finger in the air to emphasize each point. "It had nothing to do with dollars and cents...."

July 11, 2005

Gay Hip-Hop Festival

hopefully I'll have time to head down and check this out, we need a lot more of this.

Homo Hop Flow: Gay Rappers Bring Pride to Hip Hop’s Birthplace

Homo Hop Flow:
Gay Rappers Bring Pride to Hip Hop’s Birthplace

After attracting over 600 fans and artists at its inauguration in July 2004, the Peace Out East LGBT Hip Hop Festival enters its sophomore year with concerts and screenings that showcase the pioneering work of Homo Hop artists in hip-hop's birthplace, New York City. The Festival represents the growing work of a thriving Homo Hop community, whose very presence challenges the notion of hip hop as an anti-gay art form.

LGBT rappers, hip hop artists and fans from localities throughout the East Coast and the country, converge in NYC from Friday, July 15th, through Sunday, July 17th. Peace Out East empowers local artists and fans through increasing viable artistic, professional and networking opportunities for both established and emerging Homo Hop artists.

“Hip-hop itself is not homophobic,” notes Paradigm, B.Q.E. member and co-producer of Peace OUT East. “Music is a tool; it can be used to build or destroy,” she continues, “Some people use hip-hop to be homophobic. We use it to build up our people, affirm our heritage as queers, as people of color, and as artists.”

Peace Out East opens on Friday, July 15th, at the Bowery Poetry Club at 10:00pm.


Schedule

WORD/LIFE: Emcees and Poets in the Life
Friday, July 15, 2005; 10:00 pm
Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery @ Bleecker
Live music and spoken word featuring Baron, Dewayne Dickerson, Buttaflysoul, Tim’m, Claudia Alick, Yvie E., DJ Daryl Raymond & DJ Rollz Royce; hosted by Exodus

Homo Hop Showcase
Saturday, July 16, 2005; 10:00 pm
Galapagos Art Space
70 N. 6th Street @ Wythe Avenue
Live performances by Soce the Elemental Wizard, El-Don, Da Lyrical, Aggracyst, Shayvonna, Hip-hop dancer Pino; DJ Dutchboy & DJ Fucci.

Screening: "The Straight Black Folks' Guide to Gay Black Folks" and "Incursions in Chunk"
Saturday, July 16, 2005; 1:00 pm
International Action Center, 39 West 14th St. #206

Peace Out East Final Concert
Sunday, July 17, 2005; 9:00 pm
Nuyorican Poets Café
236 E. 3rd Street @ Ave B
Featuring BQE, Shorty Roc, KIN, JB RAP, Brick Citizenz, Ricoshade & God-Des featuring Tina G.

Interviews and photos available upon request.

###

See also:
http://www.peaceouteast.com

July 12, 2005

Mos Def and Black Moon in Tanzania

Right after they hit Black August here in NYC:

Mos Def and Black Moon in Tanzania

Rappers Mos Def and Black Moon are taking their Hiv/aids awareness message global with back-to-back shows in New York and Tanzania.

The acts will perform at the eighth annual Black August Hip-Hop benefit concert on 7 August at New York's BB King's club before jetting off to Tanzania to perform on 18 and 20 August.

Shock G is Out

Shock G's retirement announcement, posted at Thug Life Army:

i'm retiring from all forms of studio work and song writing.

My reasons for retiring are:

1. I get no satisfaction or fullfillment from it anymore. It doesn't make me happy. On the contrary, it depresses me.

Normally I'm not depressed, it's only surrounding the studio. I'm happy when I'm away from the studio.

2. Can't make a living at it. 90% of the studio work I've done in the last 6 years has all been either for free or for peanuts, and hasn't generated any income since.

3. It drives me to do drugs, cause I HATE BEING IN THE STUDIO. To much pressure & expectation for me to make/save/spark someone elses career or project.

4. I quit the studio. Fuck the studio.

5. I can't win in the studio, It's pointless, it's a "catch 22" for me, watch:

If what I do sucks, it tarnishes the legacy, hurts the family, and even lowers the price, and also leaves the artists & involved-companies unhappy;

But if what I do shines, it generates more studio work for the future, and furthur traps me in the music business, a business I have no intention of slaving to the rest of my life. I gave it 20 years. I'm done.

6. Every man has the right to the pursuit of happiness and should first try a job that he might gain happiness & fullfillment from. This doesn't make me happy anymore, it makes me miserable and a drug addict.

7. I'm done widdit. Whew!

YES, it already feels great already just to say it!!!

I most likely will try my hand at some of these:

> writing (Afeni assures me this is my true calling everytime she see's me. Maybe she's right?)

> acting

> stage performing, meaning accepting tours or positions in other bands doing keys & background vocals. (IF it's real and if the moneys good. No amatuer or free stuff anymore.)

> regular jobs in service (like clubs, hotels, TV show bands or staff, resturants, who knows?)

> ..and of course still do digital tours cause it PAYS and people don't expect me & Mon (grown men) to work for free, like all the studio requests. I'm 42 and have wants/needs/bills/responsibilities.

So there it is, spread the word, I quit.

I don't make beats, I don't do vocals, I don't write vocals, NONE OF IT.

Those of you who are friends, will be happy for me. Happy that I shook something that was making me miserable.

Those of you who had plans to "use" or manipulate me at the expense of my own health & happiness, will be upset about this. All I can say to those would be, you're free to do whatever you wish, and so am I.

I choose to QUIT.

there it is.

Thanx everybody, spread the word

shock

Game Means Always Having to Say You're Sorry

Yet another bout of contrition from The Game:

The Game grovels again

In March the rival rappers held a press conference to say their beef with each other was over. But then The Game piped up again while on tour last month.

Now he says he's embarrassed for going back on his word to set a positive example to fans:

"I am very upset with myself, and ashamed, to have participated in the things that have been going on. I'm definitely not the person who started it."

"I had my back against the wall and was forced to defend myself - I'm ashamed and am really apologetic. When I say it I say it with the sincerity of my heart and also with my grandmother who passed right after I graduated from high school."

"She was the only person in my life at that time who ever believed I'd be anything. I'm looking forward to a more positive and productive future."

July 13, 2005

Clear Channel's Kim Bryant Defends Racism

Rick Delgado, the producer who was fired from Hot 97 for his role in their infamous anti-Asian/anti-African/anti-human Tsunami Song, is now producer of KYLD's morning show in San Francisco.

In response to complaints, Clear Channel's Regional Vice President Kim Bryant (kimbryant@clearchannel.com) sent out the mind-boggling statement pasted below. It basically translates to "We know Rick Delgado is racist, but that's okay with us because he has 'great contacts.'"

Here is Kim Bryant's defense:

Thank you very much for contacting us with your concerns. I want to personally assure you that the Wild 94.9 Morning Show will in no way be representative of the broadcasting approach Mr. Delgado - who is now an off-air contributor - was previously involved in.
[NOTE: Delgado was an "off-air contributor" at Hot 97 as well, so this means nothing]
Please understand the following:

Official statement from KYLD Program Director Dennis Martinez:
The new Wild 94.9 Morning Show is "Strawberry In The Morning" featuring Strawberry, a long-time personality of Wild 94.9 and Fay Carmona from Miami. These are the only two key personalities of the show. Other members of the morning show off-air team include Rick Delgado, who has is an experienced radio producer, and who has the contacts to book major market guests and talent.

There have been some questions regarding the hiring of Rick Delgado as part of this off-air team, and we'd like to emphasize that Rick brings to the table great connections, and that is the sole function he was hired to fulfill. While Rick Delgado was previously part of a
controversial morning team, and involved in some inappropriate on-air
bits, neither of those two facts are true today, nor are they useful in the San Francisco Bay Area radio market.


[NOTE: Apparently in the world of Kim Bryant a fact is only true on certain days. Perhaps she can send along a calendar.]

Strawberry: "I'm very excited about my new morning show on Wild 94.9. I have worked over a decade on building this station in various jobs, and I personally take a great deal of pride in the light-hearted, community friendly, entertaining and music oriented programming we provide. Fay and I are committed to making mornings fun and interesting. We have an off-air team that will help provide us with great guests to create the market's best morning show. And as long as its my name on the show, it will be respectful and representative of the Wild's tradition of rallying the community together, and never divisive, unkind or unfair."

[NOTE: and he upholds this tradition by working alongside one of the industry's most notorious racists.]

I sincerely appreciate your email, and please know we take your
concerns very seriously.

Sincerely,
Kim Bryant,
kimbryant@clearchannel.com

Thanks to Davey D for passing this along.

July 14, 2005

Obscure Comic Threatens Me on XM Radio

This morning a little-known comedian named Todd Lynn was interviewed on Opie and Anthony's XM radio show, talking for almost an hour about about his involvement with the Hot 97 "Tsunami Song" incident. The entire interview is available for download here.

Not surprisingly the conversation was peppered with numerous racist jokes and anti-asian comments. Also about 20 minutes into the interview he starts discussing this website, beginning with a threat to physically assault me:

"There was a website called hiphopmusic.com, and this a**hole, if I ever see him I will whoop his ass and I will suffer whatever ramification." download mp3

Later he mistakenly identifies me as white, falsely claims that I posted his personal information online, and credits this site with "singlehandly taking Emmis Communications down." I've posted a complete clip of this section here.

July 15, 2005

Bassam Khalaf, the Arabic Assassin

I guess we file this under "when keeping it real goes wrong"?

Houston rapper fired as baggage screener

When Bassam Khalaf raps, he's the Arabic Assassin. His unreleased CD, "Terror Alert," includes rhymes about flying a plane into a building and descriptions of himself as a "crazy, suicidal Arabic ... equipped with bombs."

Until last week, Khalaf also worked as a baggage screener at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

"I've been screening your bags for the past six months, and you don't even know it," said Khalaf, who also said Thursday that he is not really a terrorist and that his rhymes are exaggerations meant to gain publicity.

Andrea McCauley, a spokeswoman for the regional Transportation Security Administration office in Dallas, said the agency checks criminal records before hiring screeners, but it does not investigate what people do in their spare time. "We have eyes and ears in the workplace," McCauley said. "Once we discovered these Web sites, we fired him."

An Internet search of Khalaf's name brings up Web sites that feature his obscene, violent and misogynistic raps that threaten to fly a plane into a building on Sept. 11, 2005.

Khalaf, 21, was hired on Jan. 16 and fired July 7, according to a TSA termination letter that cited his "authorship of songs which applaud the efforts of the terrorists on September 11th, encourage and warn of future acts of terrorism by you, discuss at length and in grave and alarming detail various criminal acts you intend to commit, state your belief that the U.S. government should be overthrown, and finally warn that others will die on September 11, 2005."

Khalaf, who was born in Houston and is of Palestinian descent, said working as a baggage screener was the best paying job he's ever had. He said he hoped to use any extra money he earned to produce his CD.

"I kept my music and my job separate. I told a couple of people who I thought was cool with me at work that I rapped, but I never sat there and told them lyrics or anything," said Khalaf. "I guess somebody probably told them that I had a Web site."

Khalaf said his terrorist-themed rhymes are more about marketing. He called his songs art and pointed to other rappers who have rhymed about terrorism. He specifically cites Eminem's song, "My Dad's Gone Crazy," which discusses blowing everything on the map up except Afghanistan and says: "There's no tower too high, no plane that I can't learn how to fly."

"Controversy sells," Khalaf said. "It brings a lot of attention. Everybody wants to label all Arabics terrorists just because a couple of people messed up. Well, I'm going to play along with that character. I'm going to let you think I'm one."

You can learn all about Bassam Khalaf at his soundclick page, featuring what seems to be a dis record aimed at Matt Sonzala from houstonsoreal (check the second verse). Better raise your alert level, Matt!

July 17, 2005

I'm 20 Pages Into Harry Potter, and I'm Pissed.

When the last Potter book came out I was pleased to find JK Rowling finally adding a Black wizard into the mix, with the introduction of Kingsley Shacklebolt. It was a shining moment for our people.. Halle Berry wept.

While reading along I always imagined Shacklebolt as portrayed by Sam Jackson, hoping he'd evolve into a badass hero a la Mace Windu.

But as I start the latest book what do I find? Shacklebolt has been reassigned as a secretary.

A SECRETARY.

What the hell kind of Spook Who Sat by the Door sh!t is this???

July 18, 2005

Chuck D Interviews Karrine Steffans

Last night on his Air America show Chuck D interviewed Karrine Stephens, author of "Confessions of a Video Vixen." Chuck worked hard to get something positive from the exchange, even refusing throughout the segment to use her infamous nickname "Superhead." The results are worth a listen, rather different from the other interviews you'll hear with her (it's about 40 minutes into the mp3).

Continue reading "Chuck D Interviews Karrine Steffans" »

The Boondocks TV Show, Coming in October

Regina King, John Witherspoon, Mos Def and Charlie Murphy, can't ask for better casting.

'The Boondocks' Adult Swim Debut Scheduled

Cartoon Network has recently announced their plans to air the original animated television series The Boondocks as based on the hit comics strip by Aaron McGruder, on October 2nd, 2005, on the incredibly popular late-night programming block Adult Swim. Certainly the best place on television for animation geared towards a more difficult to reach demographic, Adult Swim welcomes McGruder's work in moving-picture form with open arms.

Wonderfully cynical and outstandingly comedic, The Boondocks will debut along with a unique celebrity cast as well. Aaron McGruder is serving as executive producer of the animated television series, offering fans of the original comic and fans of the animated medium a smooth transition of concept. The television series, produced by Rebel Base and Hudlin Entertainment in association with Sony Pictures Television, at present has fifteen episodes in production. Cartoon Network has released the following press article:

Based on Aaron McGruder's award winning and politically charged comic strip of the same name, The Boondocks will premiere on October 2nd, 2005 at 11 p.m. (ET, PT) on Adult Swim, Cartoon Network's late-night sister network showcasing animation for adults. Regina King (Miss Congeniality 2, Ray) and John Witherspoon (Friday After Next) are among the actors who have signed on to voice characters on the highly anticipated animated television comedy. King will do double-duty, as the voices of brothers "Huey Freeman" and "Riley Freeman"--the two characters central to the strip and series--while Witherspoon will be voicing "Granddad," the boys' cantankerous grandfather.

In The Boondocks, when Robert "Granddad" Freeman becomes legal guardian of his rambunctious grandkids, he moves from the south side of Chicago to the quiet and safety of "The Boondocks" (in this case, suburban Woodcrest), hoping that he can ignore them altogether and enjoy the fourth quarter of his life in peace.

But Huey, a 10-year-old left wing revolutionary, is determined not to enjoy the affluence of suburbia. This attitude is seconded by his 8-year-old brother, Riley, a proud product of contemporary rap culture. Although they torture each other and provoke the neighborhood, the two aren't any match for Granddad, who is eccentric even by "crazy-ass-old-black-man" standards.

King, who starred in Miss Congeniality 2 opposite Sandra Bullock, has also appeared in the Oscar-winning film Ray, opposite Jamie Foxx; Cinderella Story, opposite Hilary Duff; Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde, opposite Reese Witherspoon; and the Oscar-winning movie Jerry Maguire. Witherspoon has earned the reputation of playing one of America's funniest fathers in films such as Friday, Friday After Next and Boomerang. His television credits include The Tracy Morgan Show and The Wayans Brothers. Cedric Yarbrough (Reno 911), Gary Anthony Williams (Malcolm in the Middle), Gabby Soleil (Johnson Family Vacation) and Jill Talley (The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie) are also among the show's principal cast.

Meanwhile, hip-hop artist turned actor Mos Def (The Italian Job), Ed Asner (Elf) and Charlie Murphy (Chappelle's Show) are among the eclectic mix of actors who have been enlisted to voice guest characters on the show.

July 19, 2005

Lil' Kim Suing Lil' Cease

Don't you have more important things to do right now, Kim? Such as finding better lawyers?


Rapper Lil' Kim sues trial witness

Rapper Lil' Kim struck back Monday at a trial witness who helped to secure her false-statements conviction and yearlong prison sentence, filing a lawsuit accusing the witness of unlawfully using her name and image to promote a DVD.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, she accuses James "Lil' Cease" Lloyd of preparing to release a DVD entitled, "The Chronicles of Junior M.A.F.I.A. Part II: Reloaded."

She says the DVD, like a predecessor, was unauthorized and improperly uses her name, image and likeness, amounting to false advertising and false endorsement. She's seeking $6 million in damages.

She also says Lloyd has announced publicly that the DVD will include interviews with him and other members of the Junior M.A.F.I.A. group explaining their involvement with her trial...

July 21, 2005

Returning to the Scene of the Crash

The newly award-winning Jeff Chang has a great read up on Alternet, discussion with Sylvia Chan about "Crash," the much hyped cinematic exploration of race in America.

Can White Hollywood Get Race Right?

Jeff: ...For Haggis, the “crash" is the metaphor that holds everything together. He seems to believe race is only discussed when we collide with each other, and friction starts. It’s a very interesting concept that resonates post-riots, post 9/11. But there's very little character development in the movie, and even less insight into race...

Sylvia: ...The whole idea that you don’t have to think about race until you “crash” into it is not what most people have the luxury of doing. And that is what white privilege is. White privilege is not having to think about race. Which is why I think many people have the reaction they do of coming out of the movie and bawling, thinking they’ve learned something...

JC: ...During the 60s, Tom Wolfe portrayed black and Samoan activists in San Francisco and New York City as race hustlers and poverty pimps in "[Radical Chic and] Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers." Anthony is just an update of a kind of 60s white liberal take on radicals of color.

He is redeemed at the end of the movie, after taking a lesson from the Terence Howard's bourgeoisie, white-identifying black director Cameron, who sheds his Oreo aspirations by confronting the police harder than Anthony ever would. Anthony then goes on to free the Thai slave workers.

Haggis seems to be saying that the kind of nationalism and separatism Anthony is spouting is not the way forward. What's new in "Crash," if anything, is a recognition that assimilation into whiteness may not be the way to go either. But either way, non-whites need to get over their anger about racism, because they need whites.

SC: At the same time, I thought the white characters were the most realistic characters in the movie, and I probably wouldn't have had as many problems with this movie if it had been structured more like 1993's "Falling Down," where it was about whiteness under siege. If it was about white people being afraid, suspicious, angry, resentful, and confused by non-white people, then it would be very accurate. White people are afraid of non-white people, even if they can’t vocalize or verbalize it...

July 22, 2005

R Kelly, Creativity and (Supposed) Illiteracy

Joe Schloss on R Kelly:

Having finally seen/heard R. Kelly’s opus "Trapped in the Closet", I was struck by a weird sensation of familiarity in the way the story is told. There was just something about the way the work is constructed that reminded of something, but I just couldn’t place it. Then it finally struck me: it reminds of one of those stories that kids make up, before they have a sense of beginning, middle and end. One thing happens, then another thing happens, then another thing happens, then another thing, until eventually it just ends. It’s like he was making it up as he went along.

Then I remembered that R. Kelly cannot read or write. I am not making fun of him: he has publicly admitted this.

So my question is this: Does the fact that I am apparently the only person who thinks this is a big deal say more about me or the American public?

You're definitely not the only one, I was just talking about this with Phonte of Little Brother, who does a dead-on parody of Kells on his new album. It's easy to dismiss since he so often uses it in pursuit of the absurd, but be real: there's no denying R is one hell of an inventive and imaginative dude. I've always wondered how his illiteracy has influenced the path his imagination travels, and if/how it would be different if he had different tools to feed that creative mind..

(BTW Phonte said he and his boys started randomly adding "oh my god a rubber" into every conversation... like "This pizza is almost ready.. OH MY GOD A RUUUBBER!" or "Man, I think Karl Rove is gonna get indicted.. OH MY GOD A RUUUBBER!")

EDIT: When I read the article Joe linked, I noticed that despite the suggestive headline, R didn't actually say he can't read in the article, only that he's "not the best at reading and writing. I don't have no shame in saying that... Sometimes I don't feel my spelling is correct like everybody else's. I'm a little slower when it comes to things like that."

So I started to wonder if the idea that R is straight-up illiterate might be an urban myth of sorts, spawned by careless writers and then repeated so often it became "fact" in careless minds like my own.

And sure enough my friend Mightypen reports below: "Oh please. This is rubbish. I went to grade school and high school with him. He's no genius, that's for sure. But he is not "illiterate." Contrary to popular belief, the Chicago Public School system really WASN'T that bad. *rolls eyes*"

For Real For Real, We Need Help

Some of you may have heard that our radio station WBAI is in a severe financial crisis right now, and might have to law some people off.. so tomorrow at midnight we'll be doing a last-minute fundraising edition of The Underground Railroad.. I beseech thee, any amount you call up and donate will go a long way to help us out of this jam..


Anyone who pledges $100 or more will get the new deluxe DVD reissue of the greatest movie ever made, Rockers.

We'll also probably need a couple of people to help answer phones, if you'd like to come visit.

July 25, 2005

Dressed to Die

Let me get this straight. In London a Brazilian man is tackled and shot 5 times in the head because ran from undercover cops while wearing the wrong sort of clothes. In NYC a sightseeing tour bus got bumrushed by a SWAT team 100 strong, because a bus dispatcher reported that "five male passengers of Middle Eastern descent were wearing 'backpacks and their pockets [were] stuffed.'" Does anyone notice a pattern here? As I read these headlines my mind jumps to another incident, four decades earlier.

In 1968 Eldridge Cleaver and a group of his fellow Panthers were about to surrender after a long standoff with police. According to legend, Cleaver knew the cops would be eager for any excuse to shoot the Panthers as they emerged, and he decided there was only one way they could get out of this alive.

As reported at the time by Ramparts, Cleaver told his crew that "If the eight went out naked, the cops couldn't claim that they thought the Panthers had guns or that they shot in self-defense. The other Panthers agreed that nakedness might be their only chance, and in the besieged basement, their eyes streaming from the tear gas, seven of them took off their clothes."

But one member, 17 year old Bobby Hutton, was too shy to go through with it.. according to Ramparts: "He was too embarrassed. And as it happened he emerged first, into the floodlights, his hands high over his head, and walked toward the waiting policemen. When he was well out in the open, one of them yelled, 'Run, Boy!' Hutton froze, terrified, obviously knowing what the call meant, then took a few frightened, hesitant steps. They shot him dead. 'We thought he was trying to run,' they said later. And sure enough, the first statement said, "We thought he had a gun."

37 years later, have we found ourselves in a climate where all people of color need to consider Cleaver's advice, each time they leave the house?

Spitzer Scores Sony Payola Settlement

When I started the radio show in 1991, I met many label reps who started our conversation with "so, how much do you charge?" A look of puzzlement then came over their face as I assured them I wasn't charing money for interviewing artists.

The game may have gotten more subtle since then (I rarely have reason to deal with the majors anymore so can't say firsthand), but you can be sure it hasn't gone anywhere, and won't be going anytime soon. Impressive that Spitzer was even able to make a dent in it, though. If making Sony give up 3 minutes worth of profit counts as a dent.

Sony Agrees to $10M 'Payola' Settlement

Recording industry titan Sony BMG Music Entertainment agreed Monday to pay $10 million and stop bribing radio stations to feature its artists in what a state official called a more sophisticated generation of the payola scandals of decades ago.

The agreement springs from an investigation by New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who called the practice "pervasive" in the industry and suggested other music industry giants could face similar penalties.

Pay-for-play "is driving the industry, and it is wrong," Spitzer told reporters.

Sony BMG, whose various labels include hundreds of artists from Aretha Franklin and Tony Bennett to Beyonce Knowles and the Dixie Chicks, said in a statement some of its employees had engaged in "wrong and improper" practices.

The company said it looked forward to "defining a new, higher standard in radio promotion," but did not say whether it had fired or disciplined any of those employees. A spokeswoman did not return a call for further comment...

...Spitzer said Sony BMG's efforts to win more airplay took many forms, including outright bribes of cash and electronics to radio stations and paying for contest giveaways for listeners. In other cases, he said, Sony BMG used middlemen known as independent promoters to funnel cash to radio stations.

The attorney general called the system more sophisticated than the 1950s and '60s payola scandals, most of which involved direct payments of cash to DJs in exchange for airplay.

"This is a more formalized, more corporatized structure to get the same result," he said. He added, "I feel a little like Bill Murray in the movie 'Groundhog Day,'" a story about a cynical weatherman who is forced to continuously relive the worst day of his life...

Spitzer said Sony BMG's efforts to win more airplay took many forms, including outright bribes of cash and electronics to radio stations and paying for contest giveaways for listeners. In other cases, he said, Sony BMG used middlemen known as independent promoters to funnel cash to radio stations.

The attorney general called the system more sophisticated than the 1950s and '60s payola scandals, most of which involved direct payments of cash to DJs in exchange for airplay.

"This is a more formalized, more corporatized structure to get the same result," he said. He added, "I feel a little like Bill Murray in the movie 'Groundhog Day,'" a story about a cynical weatherman who is forced to continuously relive the worst day of his life.

...In the Sony BMG case, Spitzer released to reporters e-mails, most of them dated 2003, 2004 and 2005, that he said showed company executives were well aware of the payola practices.

In one case, an employee of Sony BMG's Epic label was trying to promote the group Audioslave to a station and asked: "WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO GET AUDIOSLAVE ON WKSS THIS WEEK?!!? Whatever you can dream up, I can make it happen."

In another case in 2004, the promotion department of Sony BMG label Epic Records paid for an extravagant trip to Miami for a Buffalo DJ and three friends in exchange for adding the Franz Ferdinand song "Take Me Out" to the DJ's station's playlist.

And in another, a program director for Clear Channel radio station WKKF-FM, or KISS-FM, sent an e-mail to a Sony executive saying: "Looking for a laptop for promotion on Bow Wow," a reference to a rapper.

Spitzer said Sony BMG employees sought to conceal some payments by using fictitious contest winners to document the transactions...

July 27, 2005

New Nas "MC Burial" MP3 (50 Cent Diss)

Here is Nas' new track dissing 50 Cent, "MC Burial" on MP3 and mercifully free of yapping DJs. The pertinent lines are in the third verse:

  • Nas "MC Burial"

    Initial thoughts: I'm sure in a few days the Google hordes will be killing me for this, but I am underwhelmed by the track. Not feeling the weird John Legend pitch-shift. Last verse is cool in a general sense but not hitting hard as a dis. Even if meant metaphorically, dis tracks that rely on threats to shoot somebody are boring me, in 2005.

  • Lay Down Your Wages

    D-Nice remembers his run-in with Larry Davis (more recently known to WBAI listeners as Adam Abdul Hakim, from his correspondence with our legendary host Bob Fass.)
    One day there ought to be a movie about the man, perhaps starring Freddie Foxxx.

    O-Dub breaks down the Anger Management Tour.

    The payola settlement gets Dantrificated. Or is it Dantrified?

    Franklin Bruno and Sasha talk some deep talk.

    And Rev. Run auditions for an upcoming remake of "Scream Blacula Scream," apparently.

    August 2, 2005

    Hip-Hop in Senegal

    Can anyone confirm that these guys are really this influential over there?

    Rap artists spearhead Senegal's quest for change

    Faada Freddy has a message for Senegal's leaders: If they don't keep their promises they can expect a tightly rhymed tongue-lashing from his fellow rappers. The threat is more intimidating than it sounds.

    Shunning their American counterparts' obsessions with gangsters, guns and girls, Senegalese rappers are among the country's loudest campaigners for social justice.

    Already the vanguard of West Africa's explosive hip-hop scene, their voices are only going to get louder in the run-up to elections in 2007 when President Abdoulaye Wade is widely expected to seek re-election. He may need their help.

    "It's not over," Faada Freddy told Reuters at his studio in the capital Dakar, a city perched on the Atlantic shoreline.

    "When the rappers see that Abdoulaye Wade's party isn't doing its political job in the way we want, the rappers gonna whip him again, give him a slap in the face and say, 'We're here with our tongues to correct you when you're not acting right, and don't forget that we're still here,"' he said.

    Expounding on the power of hip-hop, Faada Freddy, singer with Senegal's most successful rap group Daara J, remembers how rappers went on their own campaign trail encouraging young people to vote in the 2000 elections.

    In their own eyes at least, the artists take at least some of the credit for ending four decades of rule by former president Abdou Diouf's Socialist Party and installing Wade's Senegalese Democratic Party in its place...

    Hussain Osman

    If they start referring to him as an "aspiring rapper," I'm done.

    Osman liked beer and rap, says ex-girlfriend

    As a teenager, Hussain Osman was an ardent admirer of American culture, a big fan of hip-hop and liked dressing like a rapper and drinking beer on dates with his middle-class Italian girlfriend, she recalled yesterday...

    "...He worshipped American rappers, Tupac, the Afro-American ghetto culture of the Bronx. He and his friends added the letter "g'' to the end of their names, "g" for gangster, or rather "gangsta" as in "Gangsta Paradise," a successful song at the time but Hamdi was not a violent person...

    "...Basically he wanted to have fun, which is why it still seems strange that he should end up on the Tube with a fake bomb."

    August 4, 2005

    ACLU Defends High School Battle Rap

    Seems to me the only thing this kid is guilty of is not knowing how to play chess.. "You're a rook, I'm the king"? Not quite the threat that you think it is, dunny.

    ACLU sues over student's freedom to rap

    The American Civil Liberties Union has sued a school district on behalf of a 14-year-old rap music fan who was expelled after he posted lyrics on the Internet in which, according to police, he threatened to shoot up his school and named a potential victim.

    The ACLU said the songs by Anthony Latour, of Ellwood City, are protected speech, among other reasons, because they were composed at home and not brought to school. The suit says Latour's expulsion in May from the Riverside Beaver County School District violated his parents' right to control his upbringing.

    "The school may not like Anthony's songs, but it is beyond their ability to dictate what he reads, writes or even raps at home," said Witold "Vic" Walczak, the ACLU of Pennsylvania's legal director. Latour was expelled for the remainder of the last school year and this coming year. The lawsuit seeks to have Latour admitted to school when classes resume Aug. 31...

    ...Latour was removed from class in April by North Sewickley Township police and charged with making terroristic threats and harassment because of lyrics he posted on the Internet...

    But Walczak said school officials erred because Latour's lyrics - though violent and profane - weren't meant to be threats and didn't cause any disruption at school.

    The alleged victim told school officials the lyrics Latour e-mailed to him were part of a "battle rap" challenge - one in which rival rappers try to out-rhyme one another.

    One line of that song says: "You're a rook, I'm the king, and I'm cookin ya quick / I'm lookin to stab, don't even look for the strap..."

    ...Walczak contends such violent language is known to be metaphoric in rap circles, and that the school had played another rap song that Latour wrote and recorded in his home at a school dance in December...

    August 8, 2005

    Pro-Lifers Loving Nick Cannon

    After reading this I came by another pro-life site, analyzing "Abortion and Rap Music." Who knew they were such fans? I wonder if they'll start picketing the Temple of Hip-Hop after stumbling upon KRS One's 'Build and Destroy' ("I give birth to emcees, and I also give abortions..")

    Abortion theme boosts rap video

    While many MCs are rhyming about taking girls to the, uh, "candy shop," or about situations so explicit they have to whisper the lyrics, Nick Cannon is hip-hop's equivalent of Mr. Clean.

    The rapper and actor ("Drumline") says he wasn't trying to kick up a fuss last month when he dropped his new single and accompanying video, "Can I Live," the tale of a young, pregnant woman's decision about whether to have an abortion. He was, he said, trying to share his mother's story.

    Either way, the video is a hit: It debuted at No. 1 on BET's countdown show, "106 & Park," and spent almost a month in the top 10. But as of last week, the song was only at No. 85 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop tracks. "Can I Live," a book of fan testimonials, is due next month.

    The video has become, for abortion opponents, a kind of PowerPoint presentation - a visual persuasion tool.

    Web sites such as lifesite.net and prolifeblogs.com have praised the video, calling it an eloquent statement "for the culture of life" and encouraging viewers to continue to request it on "106 & Park" and "Total Request Live," MTV's countdown show.

    "The video is having a positive impact. A lot of kids are talking about it," says Robert Stewart, 25, a chastity educator for Generation Life, an organization that aims to bring an abstinence-before-marriage message to young people. "It's awesome because (Cannon put) it in a way that everybody can relate to and embrace, whether they believe abortion is wrong or not."

    Representatives of Planned Parenthood said they were unfamiliar with "Can I Live." The NARAL Pro-Choice America organization did not return a call requesting comment...

    Also peep the Mark Anthony Neal cameo a little further down in there.

    August 15, 2005

    Fun With the Reverse Dictionary

    Someone linked me to this "Reverse Dictionary," where you type in a phrase or description and it tries to figure out what/who you are thinking of. So I figured I'd use it to answer hip-hop's oldest and stupidest question. And damn! This thing is worse than Wendy Williams.

    My First Movable Type Hack

    For the longest I've been wishing that the "Insert Link" button on Movable Type's "new entry" page could create links that open in a new window, and save me the trouble of adding TARGET="_blank" to everything. Today I finally sat down and figured out how to make this happen. For anyone who might be interested, I just grabbed mt.js from my mt-static folder and changed line 163 from

    setSelection(e, '<a href="' + my_link + '">' + str + '</a>');

    to

    setSelection(e, '<a target="_blank" href="' + my_link + '">' + str + '</a>');

    I feel so smart and accomplished now! My mind is aglow with whirling transient nodes of thought, careening through a cosmic vapor of invention. (© Hedley Lamarr)

    Rabble Rousing Rap in Paris?

    This report sure is skimpy on the details, but I guess we can't expect much from the moonies at UPI. Anybody know what the deal is here?

    Rapper's anti-white lyrics spark ire

    French Justice officials will be examining whether anti-white remarks by a French rapper can be treated as discrimination.

    Center-right lawmaker Francois Grosdidier called last week for charges to be filed against rapper Monsier R, who denounced the country as a "whore," among other insults in one of his songs, "FranSSe." Internet discussions suggest the song supports anti-white racism.

    The previously little-known Monsier R. has denied being racist.

    "When I speak of France, I don't talk about the French people but of its leaders," he has told French media.

    Several rappers have been pursued for their incendiary lyrics. One group, Sniper, was acquitted but NTM was handed a 6-month prison sentence for a song that made an unpleasant reference to French police.

    Rocky Start for Fresh Fest?

    I didn't even know this was going on until the night before, and my peoples who were there described the turnout as "depressing." Naturally the veterans still rocked the house, however. Hope they smooth things out for the rest of the tour, nobody deserves a packed house more than this lineup.

    Hip-Hop's Old School Rules Again At Fresh Fest — Nick Cannon, Redman In Da House

    Whodini, Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh, Nice & Smooth, others take the stage — but Big Daddy Kane doesn't.

    returned with a lineup of hip-hop legends ready to resuscitate the tour, armed with a catalog of timeless music from the '80s and early '90s.

    ...Whodini, Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh, Dana Dane, Biz Markie, Nice & Smooth, Chubb Rock and former members of the Sugar Hill Gang all took the stage for the kick off of what promoters say will be a 20-city tour.

    ...Kane was one of the show's main headliners, but he left a little before his showtime because of a dispute with the show's promoter over payment. A spokesperson for the promoter, Blackberry Entertainment, said the company did not have the full cash payment that had been agreed upon with Kane on hand, and the rapper refused to accept a check. Kane could not be reached for comment at press time...

    Despite a lackluster turnout (the house was approximately one-third full), show-openers Nice & Smooth brought the energy like they were playing in a sold-out stadium... The prize for surprise guest of the night went to the Bronx duo: They didn't have Guru on hand when they performed "Dwyck," their collab with Gang Starr, but they did have Joeski Love come out to perform his 1986 hit, "Pee Wee's Dance."

    After Chubb Rock delivered a brief set, Dana Dane entered the stage for hits like "Nightmare" and "Delancey Street." He too had a couple of tricks up his sleeve, bringing out Kwame for "The Rhythm" and D-Nice for "Call Me D-Nice..."

    August 16, 2005

    Translating Young Jeezy

    MTV: A lot of rappers talk about how authentic a dude you are. You have one of the strongest street creds in the game right now.

    Jeezy: You can't just wake up in the morning and talk about the sh-- I talk about. Like that situation with the cops, you can't give a play-by-play description unless you really lived that. ... I don't glorify [my hustling days]. I just take it and know in my heart it's nothing no other rapper can say to me because everything they came in the game to get, I already had before I got in the game. All the Jacobs, the women, the cars, everything they wanted to rap for, I was already there.

    So basically, "I'm not glorifying it, I'm just saying it brought me all the success, wealth and popularity any man could hope for." Well thanks for clearing that up, snowman!

    Nothing against the man, he's a charismatic dude who makes catchy records, more power to him. But good lord am I ever tired of rappers running this tired-ass angle.

    The Underground Railroad, Now Archived Weekly

    I'm delighted (and freaking amazed) to announce that WBAI has started archiving all their programs online at archive.wbai.org. The system is automated and will be posting each of our shows as soon as we finish up each Sunday morning.

    Here are links to the last few shows:

  • 8/13/05
  • 8/06/05 - featuring the End of the Weak crew
  • 7/30/05

    Most of these files will start with a couple of minutes from the Grateful Dead show that precedes us, since the station is usually running late, or as they say back home we are on CBT (community broadcasting time). Sorry we can't offer downloads or podcasts, some fine print about music shows and royalties.. but web-savvy folk might notice that you can copy-paste the-- nevermind, I never said that.

    Infinite thanks to Pete Korakis for finally bringing this monster to life. For real, there are lots of great shows to check out on there, besides ours.. dig in!

  • August 17, 2005

    Fahiym Ratcliffe Resigns from Source Over Little Brother Rating

    Yet another Source Editor-in-Chief bites the dust. Maybe now they will finally give the job to Professor Snape?

    The Source's Editor-In-Chief Resigns

    Joshua "Fahiym" Ratcliffe resigned his position as Editor-in-Chief of "Hip-Hop Bible" The Source Magazine today (Aug. 16). According to Ratcliffe, the reason for his abrupt departure is a difference of opinion between himself, Chief Brand Executive Raymond "Benzino" Scott and CEO Dave Mays.

    Ratcliffe said Little Brother’s album,The Minstrel Show, was to receive a rating of 4 and 1/2 mics in the magazine's October 2005 issue, but Mays and Scott disagreed.

    "It's a situation were I believed in Little Brother and the rating we attempted to give them," Ratcliffe told AllHipHop.com via phone. "After speaking to Ray and making sure that was okay, I moved forward with that. Then it was decided that they wanted to change . I told that this is what they're getting and for me to go back on that is a challenge to my own personal integrity. Whether they deserve 4 and half mics or not is debatable; though I believe in it, though most of the staff believes it deserves 4 and half mics, as well as the writer. For me to tell someone this is what you're getting and to go back on it after I got confirmation, I just could not stomach that at all."

    According to Ratcliffe, despite the magazine closing the issue last week, today Mays and Scott expressed their intention on reducing the The Minstrel Show's rating down to 4 mics (the same rating their debut, The Listening, received in The Source's May 2003 issue)...

    Wannabe Hip-Hop Sportcasters

    Only the most attentive readers have noticed this, but I've actually had a poplicks-style co-blogger for about 6 months now, in the form of my tech-wiz friend Jason Solis keeping things popping in my side-blog the Inane Asylum.

    I'm highlighting today's featured inanity because the subject needs to be publicly shamed for his misdeeds. In the post Stuart Scott/Sportcenter era every sportcaster insists on proving that he's down with the Hip and the Hop. But some of them are just straight-up shook ones.

    Ty and Toni Blackman Tomorrow Morning on WBAI

    If all goes well with my alarm clock I will be sitting in tomorrow on WBAI's morning show, to chat with Toni Blackman and Ty about this thing there, and probably other things.

    August 21, 2005

    Kanye West "Late Registration" Review

    Continue reading "Kanye West "Late Registration" Review" »

    August 22, 2005

    Robert Moog R.I.P.

    How many people ever contributed more to music, especially funky music, than Robert Moog? (pronounced like "vogue", for the record)

    Hats off to the inventor.

    August 23, 2005

    Sanity: 1, Bloomberg/Vallone: 0

    Miraculous. Common sense has prevailed over lunacy thanks to Judge Jed Rakoff, whose ruling captures perfectly the absurdity of Bloomberg and Vallone's, err, "reasoning":

    He even poked fun at Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's argument that the party would incite the defacement of real subway cars. "By the same token, presumably, a street performance of 'Hamlet' would be tantamount to encouraging revenge murder," the judge wrote. "As for a street performance of 'Oedipus Rex,' " he added, "don't even think about it."

    "The First Amendment would be a weak reed indeed if the utterance of such expressions could be banned from the city's streets because, in the mayor's view, 'It's trying to encourage people to do something that's not in anybody's interest,' " the judge wrote, citing Mr. Bloomberg's public musings last week... "Such heavy-handed censorship would, moreover, fall particularly hard on artists, who frequently revel in breaking conventions or tweaking the powers that be"

    Thank you. How did it come to pass that our city, supposedly the most sophisticated city in America, is being run by people who lack a basic understanding of the Bill of Rights? These people make me want to vandalize something.

    See y'all tomorrow at 22nd st. and 10th Ave, where our very own DJs 3d and Avee will be pitching in on the turntables (along with others such as RJD2, I'm told?).

    (thanks to gothamist for staying on top of it)

    August 24, 2005

    PHOTOS: Marc Ecko 'Getting Up" Graffiti Block Party

    I'll be I was on WBAI's Wake Up Call this morning at 8AM, giving my impressions of today's event along with Joe Schloss. You can hear our conversation here: (play/download), we come on about 30 minutes in.

    And in the meantime here are some pics from a wonderful day for hip-hop. I was worried it might be overly corporate and commercial, but Marc Ecko did a great job of making his presence low-key and keeping the focus on the culture. A gorgeous day, I only wish Bloomberg had been around to feel all the positive energy created. Though I'm sure he wouldn't have gotten it anyway.

    I don't often get starstruck but how can you not get geeked watching Lady Pink do a full car right in front of you? The piece she collaborated on was a brilliant "police state" mural in response to Bloomberg's attempt to shut this event down.

    My complete set of pics from the event is up on my flickr page.

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    click on it and it gets bigger

    August 28, 2005

    Tha Pumpsta Speaks

    Last night it seems Jeremy Parker aka Tha Pumpsta visited our post about his "Kill Whitie" party, and posted a reply, of sorts. I'll let his words speak for themselves:

    The Washington Post: “The Whitie We are Trying to Kill.”

    On August 26, 2005, The Washington Post published Deejay's Appeal: 'Kill The Whiteness Inside': an article describing the party Kill Whitie as an all white scene that’s attempting to appropriate blackness. MSNBC, as well as other national publications also ran the story. The founders of Kill Whitie, including co-promoter, Lil Rae Rae, co-deejay Sha na na na, and choreographer, da Wondaho, all women of color, sat down to appropriate a little culture of their own over dumplings and noodles. The topic of the conversation was their absence from the Post’s article. The distraught, but not discouraged, Pumpsta listened as Sha na na na stated:

    “This is bull-shit, we both dined with Michelle Garcia from The Washington Post, drank wine, she was bumming cigarettes off me. How can you talk to someone for hours and then pretend that [Sha na na na] merits no mention.”

    Lil Rae Rae jumps in. “What did you expect? It’s The Washington Post.”

    “I was the only one in the article, how could I be doing this by myself, we all started this together.” Pumpsta adds.

    Wondaho shakes her head in disgust. “Man it’s just another black voice lost”

    Lil Rae Rae concludes. “They want to know what Kill Whitie is, they’ll never know because they’re the whitie we’re trying to kill.”

    In an infantile act to create racial boundaries The Washington Post omitted truths, attempting to achieve the obscure angel they desire. It is questionable that the Post would choose to run such a fraudulent article in the Nation section, when there are so many more prominent acts of racial bias that should be addressed. There is no reason to travel all the way to Brooklyn to witness the whitewashing of this country. Perhaps the Washington post should focus their attention on the Whities closer to home.

    -Kill Whitie

    He's also pasting the same message into other blogs such as James Lamb's and this random republican blog.. evidently he's googling "kill whitie" and posting in every blog that comes up.

    Ned Sublette on Race, Class, and the Hurricane

    In the blog for Laura Flanders' radio show, genius musicologist Ned Sublette is very worried about Hurricane Katrina and how it's being handled in New Orleans:

    Ned Sublette's message from New Orleans

    camp casey is an important story, but not when new orleans -- among other things, still one of america's most important port cities -- is about to be very possibly destroyed. i think it's so far beyond people's imagination what's about to happen that we can't process it. the storm is well above the category 5 threshold.

    and here's the scandal:

    the poorest one-fifth or so of the city is still there in harm's way!

    guess what color the poorest one-fifth of new orleans is. it's as if you had advance notice that mohammed atta's crew was coming to the world trade center and evacuated all but the poor from it...

    Our thoughts are with all of you down there..

    August 29, 2005

    Jeremy Parker's "Kill Whitie" Parties in Williamsburg

    8/26/05 - I don't even know where to begin on this one. Somebody call Tim Wise on the bat-phone.

    I've been saying for years that irony is now the last refuge of a coward. A singularly dishonest and deluded sort of coward who imagines his behavior a mark of courage, as he fearlessly refuses to take anything seriously.

    But the true mark of courage is a willingness to engage the world, and your place in it, with honesty and sincerity. Those who lack that sort of courage will spend their lives looking for something to hide behind. This cowardice is the root of all hipster irony.

    And this is never more obvious, or more ugly, than when issues of race are involved. There's a lot more I could say about this but right now I just don't have the patience.

    8/29/05 EDIT: Note the reply from Mr. Kill Whitie himself below in the comments, and the equally impassioned visit from his collaborator Debbie D (veteran of Vice magazine, predictably) in my other post. I may post rebuttals if time permits, but I'm not sure it's even necessary.

    Also worth reading (especially for the Kill Whitie apologists now visiting us), the discussions on okayplayer and ILM, which led me to this fantastic Lester Bangs essay, The White Noise Supremacists (pdf).

    Continue reading "Jeremy Parker's "Kill Whitie" Parties in Williamsburg" »

    Suge Knight Shot Himself?

    Did Suge Knight a.k.a. Cheddar Bob actually shoot himself this weekend? Please let this be true.

    In the meantime, you'd think the rest of us would have enough sense to put the nonsense on hold for a little while. You would think. And Petey Pablo?

    "That bullet is a tribal mark, orientation, something we all gotta get sometimes -- just as long as we don't die, it's fine,"

    Petey Pablo, please just stop talking. Please.

    Please spare me the "cross we all must bear in the hood" tripe. Suge Knight is not a starving ghetto child with no options and no way out, he is a millionaire with all the choices in the world. This is not something he's "gotta get," this is a position he continually chooses to put himself, and others, into.

    "Tribal mark"?

    Just stop. Please.

    September 2, 2005

    VIDEO: Kanye West on NBC - "George Bush Does Not Care About Black People"

    Kanye was nervous, but boy did he ever represent. I hereby retract anything negative I have ever said about him.

    EDIT: A few thoughts.

    1. Kanye couldn't have chosen a better time to say what he said. The right time to speak is whenever people are listening. If anyone was truly callous enough to use his comments as an excuse not to help dying people, I'm hard-pressed to see how you call Kanye the bad guy in that scenario.

    And do you really think it matters, from a charity standpoint, what the celebrities actually say on these shows? That they're expected to win you over with the eloquence of their pleas? The celebrity's job is to put a celebrity face on the screen so people will watch the show and see the phone number.. Kanye's 15 seconds off the screen did nothing to impede that process, and he gave voice to the outrage many Americans are feeling right now, helped to spark much needed discussion on it. Plus brought the event far more publicity than it would have had otherwise. He did his job and then some.

    2. Many are taking Kanye's last comment to mean that he thinks Bush deliberately conspired to leave Black people behind, that he saw Black people waiting for help and held it back because they were Black. But that is missing the point.

    He didn't say George Bush hates Black people, he said Bush doesn't care about Black people. And it is ABUNDANTLY clear that those in charge of planning for this disaster, from the Federal government on down, DID NOT CARE about an entire segment of the New Orleans population. The poorest twenty percent of New Orleans were INVISIBLE to the powers that be, as they planned for this disaster, and they enacted a plan that FORGOT THEM COMPLETELY, abandoned them and left them for dead.

    The government showed without a shred of doubt, through their actions and inaction, that they DID NOT CARE about these people. And yes, the vast majority of these people were Black.

    Should we dismiss that as a coincidence? Could Kanye have been more precise by stating that America doesn't care about poor people? Maybe. Class and race are always intertwined in these issues, so deeply we could spend a lifetime sorting them out. But the basic truth behind Kanye's rage is clear as ray of sunshine.

    This is not about George Bush, the individual, seeing that Black people were stranded and holding back help because they were Black. It runs much deeper than that. George Bush didn't hate these people, he and his government forgot them, and that happened long before the levees broke.

    George Bush is at the head of a government that has abandoned and forgotten this segment of our society on every level, throughout the planning for this disaster, and for decades before that. This is the culmination of decades of America not caring. The only shocking thing about Kanye's words is that anyone is surprised by them.

  • Kanye West on the NBC hurricane benefit
  • more complete version

    and here's a transcript:

  • Continue reading "VIDEO: Kanye West on NBC - "George Bush Does Not Care About Black People"" »

    September 4, 2005

    VIDEO - Charmaine Neville: A Hero From from New Orleans

    This is testimony everyone needs to see. Everyone.

  • Charmaine Neville's story

    (yes, by the way, she is one of those Nevilles)

  • September 6, 2005

    Revisiting Kanye

    I just jotted down some quick thoughts to my Kanye West post, and I'll repost them here below the cut, in case that now-humongous thread is too hard to load.

    Continue reading "Revisiting Kanye" »

    September 9, 2005

    FEMA's Michael Brown Out

    Looks like Mike is getting a forced evacuation from employmentville (EDIT: actually he's just getting shifted elsewhere, reports 1115.org). Too bad nobody underneath him is qualified for the job either. We need someone sharp to carry out the government's critical mission in New Orleans.. which is, of course, keeping the press from covering the story.

    New Orleans Style Funeral for the Bush Presidency

    This Sunday at 3PM, in NYC:

    Continue reading "New Orleans Style Funeral for the Bush Presidency" »

    September 16, 2005

    Grim Reports From the Astrodome

    Jeff Chang passes on word from the inside:

    Frustration and Survival In the Astrodome

    ...At press briefings organized by local officials, the story was upbeat; a shining example of government, business and charity coming together to do good. Thousands of evacuees were being processed, more than 500 children were been reunited with their families, and life went on. But behind the doors of the Astrodome, survival and frustration were the order of the day. Jamel Bell, who fled his flooded Ninth Ward in New Orleans, found no salvation here. "Inside it feels like prison," he said. At curfew, he says, the evacuees were locked in.

    News teams from independent sources, such as our own, were continuously harassed by local officials and police. Reporters from KPFT, the Pacifica station in Houston, tossed their press badges for Red Cross volunteer badges in order to do their work. In Baton Rouge, hip-hop journalist and WBAI reporter Rosa Clemente was arrested and briefly detained after National Guardsmen attempted to confiscate her recording equipment.

    Despite news reports that evacuees were being moved through the system and out of the center efficiently and quickly, there were up to 35,000 evacuees daily in the building. Cots filled with weary people stretched across the floor. Celebrities, followed by television cameras, filed in and out. The food was terrible, the meat in the sandwiches sometimes served still frozen. Surveillance was heavy, and tensions on the floor remained thick...

    September 19, 2005

    NY Times on Hip-Hop and Katrina

    David Banner made a great impression on me when I interviewed him last year a few months ago (damn it's been a long year) for this very rushed piece on rappers with college degrees (note: I did not write the headline). I'm glad the world is getting to know this side of him (I am quite fond of parentheses):

    Rapping for a Hometown in Hurricane Crisis

    "I lost my house," said one victim of Hurricane Katrina, although this particular victim was equipped with some wildly refractive ornamentation and, more importantly, a very loud microphone. The crowd fell silent. "I lost my cars," he continued. "But it ain't about me." Then, without pausing to acknowledge the absurdity, he delivered an exuberant, bare-chested ode to the shiny rims on the wheels of vehicles he no longer had.

    This was, in a twisted way, one of the most moving moments of Saturday night's concert. The victim was the New Orleans rapper (and reality-TV veteran) known variously as Young City or Chopper, an aspiring star who joined loads of established ones inside the Philips Arena for a concert called Heal the Hood, a hip-hop fund-raiser for - and, in a few cases, by - victims of Hurricane Katrina. (A New York hurricane relief benefit is to be held Monday night at 10:30 at the B. B. King Blues Club and Grill in Manhattan.) On Saturday, Atlanta's famously competitive hip-hop stations had joined forces to promote an event that would be, as the jocks constantly reminded their listeners, historic.

    And they were right. The night was organized by the tireless Mississippi rapper David Banner. He had corralled an impressive lineup of rappers, especially Southern rappers: Young Jeezy, T. I., Big Boi from OutKast and many others. The cause had everyone excited, but the "because" had everyone even more excited: the night was made possible by the extraordinary continuing success of Southern hip-hop.

    No other event has ever mobilized so many rappers so quickly. Just about everyone heard Kanye West's impassioned claim that "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Fewer know that some stars (like T. I. and Fat Joe) hit the radio airwaves for impromptu telethons. Others, like Paul Wall, led clothing drives. And yet others, like Eminem, wrote sizable checks. Rappers from the fertile New Orleans hip-hop scene responded particularly gracefully: Juvenile was one who lost his home, but he plays down his own story, focusing instead on those who lost much more...

    September 26, 2005

    Kanye West Dropped by Pepsi... Or Is He?

    You may have gotten some form of this email, reporting that Pepsi has dropped Kanye West as a spokesman:

    SUBJECT: Kanye West Dropped by Pepsi!!!

    It's Their Loss; Besides, Pepsi is no good for you anyway!!

    Kanye West, former spokesperson for Pepsi, has since lost his endorsement deal with the soft drink giant due to his publicized remarks regarding the mishandling of the Katrina evacuees/victims. I mean if you're like me...just SICK and TIRED of being black in America and being mishandled, then do something. Our parents and their parent's SHUT DOWN an entire bus system during the Civil Rights era by CHOOSING to do something. Here is your opportunity. We're calling a boycott on ALL Pepsi products. If they want to drop Kanye,how about we DROP them!

    Umm, not to nitpick but I think the civil rights movement involved more pressing issues than the loss of a celebrity sponsorship? Either way, when I looked for confirmation of the story all I found was this reply from Pepsi, claiming it's just a rumor:

    Pepsi Says They Didn't Can Kanye

    Nicole Bradley, Manager, Public Relations, Pepsi-Cola North America:

    "Hello EUR: This note is to inform you that you've received an erroneous email regarding Kanye West and Pepsi. The letter said that Kanye has lost his endorsement deal with Pepsi, which is not true.

    Our relationship with Kanye has not changed and our marketing campaign is continuing as planned. In fact, his Pepsi commercial is scheduled to air several times this week. Thanks for giving us the chance to clarify the situation and please feel free to share this note with anyone else who may have received the message."

    Probably a good idea to stop drinking soda anyway. (not that i'm capable of doing it)

    September 27, 2005

    Stop Lying About the Mashups

    Any history of "mashups" that cites everyone from Frank Zappa to Andrew Lloyd Webber as antecedents, but does not mention Ron G or any of his blend brethren even once, deserves to be deleted. I mean seriously. Can anyone volunteer to edit that?

    EDIT: Even worse, I can only find two other places, in all my googling, where that connection has ever been made.. this baffles me.

    September 29, 2005

    AUDIO: Interview with B+ of Keepintime/Brasilintime

    This morning on WBAI's morning show we interviewed the esteemed author/photographer/filmmaker Brian Cross AKA B+ about his new film Brasilintime.. you can check out the audio here, about 40 minutes into the hour.

    And if you're in or near NYC you can catch a live Brasilintime event on Sunday night, with J Rocc, Cut Chemist and Madlib performing alongside the drum gods Paul Humphrey, Kerf Redlaw and Joao Parahyba (of Trio Mocoto). The details are here.

    September 30, 2005

    DJ Monkone in the UK

    For our friends overseas, here is where you can catch our DJ Monk One on his latest Award Tour:

    Saturday 1st Oct – Choice Cuts @ Hogans + RiRa, Dublin With The New Mastersounds

    Sunday 2nd Oct – Aficionado @ Arch Bar, Stretford Road, Hulme, Manchester
    Deep Disco Special!

    Friday 7th Oct – Plastic Soul @ The Reading Rooms, Blackscroft, Easport, Dundee
    http://www.thereadingrooms.co.uk/

    Saturday 8th Oct– Trainer Trouble @ The Love Apple, Great Horton Road, Bradford (Adjacent to Alhambra Theatre)

    Saturday 15th Oct – Friends & Family @ Cargo, Kingsland Viaduct, Rivington Street, London
    With DJ Vadim and Beatphreak

    October 3, 2005

    Brasilintime Live in NY

    Derf Reklaw Cut Chemist, J Rocc and Madlib

    Caught a nice little show last night put together by Brian Cross aka B+, maker of Keepintime and Brasilintime. More photos here.

    Along with a preview of the Brasilintime film we got an extended jam session pairing J-Rocc, Cut Chemist, Madlib and Brazilian all-star DJ Nuts on the wheels and Paul Humphrey, Derf Reklaw on drums, along with someone who's name I didn't catch but he totally stole the show, playing everything from a gong to an old fire extinguisher.. can anyone ID this guy for me?

    EDIT: His name is Cyro Baptista. Thanks to Incognegro for putting me on the right track..

    October 4, 2005

    AUDIO: A Conversation With the Skullsnaps

    Two weeks ago on the Underground Railroad DJ Monkone Monkone and I had the mindblowing honor of speaking to the Skullsnaps themselves, live in the studio. You can stream the entire two hour show right here:

  • The Underground Railroad - 9/24/05

    Monkone also prefaced the interview with a mix of damn near every record that ever sampled "It's a New Day."

  • October 6, 2005

    Allhiphop Just Ruined My Life

    Gotdamit.

    Why did dumbass Allhiphop.com tell me that tonight's 5PM Central Park show was at 9PM!?!?

    Gotdam hip-hop journalism.

    Somebody please report back. And please report back that the show was a gut-wrenching disappointment.

    Bad enough I didn't catch up with Mr. Charnas at last night's DAM show.

    EDIT: Okay, luckily they were running on CPT*, and I made it in time for the good stuff.

    *Central Park Time

    Lauryn Hill, Central Park, 10/6/05

    Lauryn Hill in Central Park 10-6-05 lauryn-023 Lauryn in Central Park 10/6/05

    Simply beautiful.

    Only in New York can you saunter 3 hours late into a free concert in the park, go right to the front of the stage, and see Slum village followed by Scarlett Johansson and Al Gore warming up the crowd for Fishbone (who killed it), followed by De La Soul, followed by an impromptu set from Lauryn Hill ("I wasn't planning to anything musical tonight, but just now I changed my mind"), all in the span of an hour or so.

    And Lauryn. I've probably cracked more than my share of jokes about her descent into weirdness. But even carrying all that baggage (plus another questionably tuned guitar), when she walks out onto an empty stage, sits down in front of you and starts to sing, it is nothing less than heart-stopping.

    In fact I think it's all that baggage that helps make it so intense now.. because no matter how much any of us makes fun of her misadventures, how could we not be rooting for Lauryn? Watching an artist so beautiful in every sense go through all these trials and tribulations until I wonder whether she'll ever regain her stride, if I'll ever even see her perform again at all.. at this point anytime I see her walk out there I'm on th edge of my seat rooting with all my heart for her to do well..

    for her to show us that she's happy and healthy again, that she's at peace with herself and ready to shine.. and then she here she comes with that voice, and it's so powerful and plaintive and yearning, yearning for all those same things we're rooting so hard for her to find.. all the same things, in the end, that we're each yearning to find in ourselves.. It adds up to quite a powerful moment.

    And then she puts down the guitar, cues the DJ and spits motherf**king LOST ONES!! WHAT!?!???

    Only two songs, but probably the most memorable performance I've seen this year.

    October 7, 2005

    VIDEO: Lauryn Hill in Central Park

    Here are the two songs she did, as posted on fugees-online.de:

  • My Love(?)
  • Lost Ones

  • October 11, 2005

    Toubab Krewe on WBAI

    toubab-krewe-003small

    Had a great time sitting in with Toubab Krewe tonight in the studio, a crew from Asheville N.C. devoted to exploring the sounds of West Africa, and doing so quite funkily.. I posted a bunch of pictures here, and hopefully I'll be able to post the audio soon.

    You can also check them out tonight at SOB's, which I highly recommend.

    Police Beating in New Orleans

    When I worked at the group home upstate I watched our security staff handle situations like this pretty much on a daily basis, except they were dealing with (physically) full grown 18-year-old men.

    So I know there is NO WAY all of that was necessary to restrain this senior citizen. No way.

    (just to be clear, I'm saying our staff never had to resort to anything remotely like this while restraining our students)

    October 12, 2005

    Power 105's PD Ousted After Payola Revelations?

    Word has it Power 105's Program Director Michael Saunders got the boot, can anyone confirm?

    2 Are Fired at Clear Channel After a Misconduct Inquiry


    The nation's biggest radio company, Clear Channel Communications, said yesterday that it had fired two programming executives and had disciplined several others for misconduct after an internal review of "pay for play" allegations...

    Extra Pro

    At the Toubab Krewe show last night I had my vintage Jive Records promo EXTRA PROLIFIC shirt with the Heiro logo on the back, and a woman next to me kept glancing over with a furrowed brow.. then after a few more looks she cracked up and came over to explain "You really had us scared for a minute! We were thinking your shirt said EXTRA PRO-LIFE"

    The show was great fun, that is except for whoever was DJing before the show started.. nothing warms up a crowd for some West African Funk Rock better than a set of club bangers like Cher's "I Got You Babe" and Rod Stewart "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You," I always say. I'm thinking this was the same DJ behind the World's Sh*ttiest Mixtape Boombox Blast.

    (Not to be confused with DJ Equal, whose midshow set was impeccable.)

    -----------

    I never paid much attention to Fiona apple until recently, but I'm discovering I like her, a lot. I prefer the Elizondo versions, for the record.

    -----------

    Yacht Rock is also superb (via Matos)

    October 14, 2005

    Beatboxing at the Blue Note

    I've been hearing about these guys for a while, Taylor McFerrin in particular:

    Check the Latenight Groove Series next Friday October 14th at the Blue Note for Beatbox Jazz

    The Art of Beatbox combined with a Nu Jazz swing makes for the hottest and hippest ticket in town. Led by human beat boxers Baba Israel and Kid Lucky take the lead in this exciting and fresh sound of "jazz fusion" at the legendary Blue Note!

    Human beatboxer s in this amazing show consist of Kid Lucky Baba Israel, Yako, Taylor Mcferrin, D-Cross and Chesney Snow. Previous Beatboxer Ent. Events have been called "The real beat generation!" by the Daily News and Timeout NY called the beatboxers in the series "masters in the art of noise."

    The raw genius of beatbox on this night will hook up with New York’s own Jason Lindner- "Jason Lindner is a musical universe!" - Chick Corea. "Lindner ranks among the finest all-around pianist-composers of his generation." - Time Out New York. The band will be backed by Tony Escapa on drums and Avishai Cohen on horn whose last record was recently chosen by Ben Ratliff of the New York Times as one of the records of the Sunday Times Playlist..

    Expect a blend of live Jazz, funk, Hip Hop with vocal beats and scratches! Beatbox solos and duets, Beatbox and drum duets, a trio made of two beatboxers and trumpet, and all out sessions between four beatboxers and the whole band! If you can imagine it, it will happen on this night!

    Friday October 14th at 12:30AM
    Blue Note
    131 W. 3rd St
    New York, NY 10012
    212-475-8592

    October 17, 2005

    Mack 10: Keeping it Stagnant

    This interview makes my head hurt.

    Mack 10: Still Hoo Bangin?

    ..."If you want to hear about hustlin’ and the streets, then this is the record to buy. It’s a handbook of stuff that people love to hear from me. A Mack 10 fan is not interested in anything other than what he’s been hearing for a decade from me..." Mack says about the new album.

    ...Indeed Mack is destined to keep giving his fans that real gangster s**t but does he in any way feel obligated to the youth who listen to his gritty stories? Does he offer them a way out? “Well if you want chocolate cake and you go to the store to buy some cake you don’t buy pound cake, that’s why I keep giving the streets what they ask for. I’m gonna always give the streets what they ask for but I’m gonna also give the streets what they need.” Mack laments… "As far as giving back through an organization, I haven’t had the time to set up a foundation but I’m always gonna give back to the hood." 10 years is a long time not to set up an organization for the hood but I guess Mack knows his roots and feels he’s doing the best he can...

    October 19, 2005

    Nas on Jay and 50

    Nas keeps repeating the Bentleys and diamonds thing, like Karl Rove just gave him his talking points..

    MTV Nas Interview

    MTV: You got a record on the streets right now called "Don't Body Yourself." We all know the last verse is for 50 and everyone knows it's only a matter of time before you drop an "Ether"-like record for him.

    Nas: Yeah. You know what's the crazy thing about it? I've had times of missing 50. I brought him with me on tour before. He used to open up for me. I showed him his first Bentley. I showed him his first big diamonds in person — he ain't know nobody who had real diamonds the size I had. I showed him all that. So I kind of miss the cat from time to time. I would like to know what it is to sit down and talk to him, see what's on his mind. Because all he's showing is that when you get rich, you get angry at the world. And that's not what's it's supposed to be about. I would love to really sit down with him. But on the rap side, we got things to finish. We got business — we got unfinished business.

    MTV: He's made a cartoon character of you and dissed you on the DVD for The Massacre. On his latest record, "Window Shopper," he calls you a window shopper.

    Nas: How am I window shopping? I showed him his first Bentley, his first real diamond ring — because you know he couldn't afford no real stuff back then. I was showing him the way to go. The G-Unit spinning chain is a replica of the QB chain. I was showing him that. If anybody is window shopping, it ain't me. All these dudes just started buying Bentleys...

    Funkmaster Flex Clowning The Source

    I need to hear this. Does anyone have audio? I'm told it was Grade A comedy.

    Funk Master Flex Versus The Source

    Fans that have tuned into Hot 97, heard a lotta banter towards The Source from Funk Master Flex. Now, in addition to a piece on G-Unit, there is a not-so-flattering story on Hot 97 in the new issue of the magazine. Frankly, I don’t know what the story is about. I just heard Flex on the air last night clowning Zino and Dave Mays. He said he could buy The Source magazine and put his dog on each page (I don’t know if that was dog as in “homey” or dog as in canine)! Then he repeatedly dropped “bombs” on Zino’s new Scott Storch-produced record as a sign of fairness. Now, normally dropping bombs is a positive thing in the World of Funk Flex, but this was just clownery! Apparently, Zino or his associate feel that Flex hasn’t been playing the rapper’s records and just went berserk with the jokes. They even said that Dave Mays rocks a toupee! Now, I don’t think he really does, but what’s so bad about a toupee? I haven’t heard of a response from Dave or Zino, but you know its coming soon!

    EDIT: That "african tribes warring" comment further down is a little weird.

    October 25, 2005

    Source Editor in Chief Vandalizes Jehovah's Witness Church?

    I guess this blows any shot they had at a Prince interview...

    Source Editor Dasun Allah Vandalizes Church

    The editor of The Source magazine admitted to vandalizing a Jehovah's Witness assembly hall in New York's Harlem neighborhood.

    Dasun Allah, editor of the hip-hop magazine, told the New York Post he "tagged" the building to expose the religion's "hypocrisy."

    Police were called to the scene where Allah had painted a number of cryptic symbols, but the graffiti had been painted over by then, the Post said Friday.

    Allah, 32, said he was kicked out of his Jehovah's Witnesses church more than 13 years ago and now belongs to the Islam-based Nation of Gods and Earths.

    "They said I didn't fit the criteria, because, to put it lightly, I wasn't a choirboy," Allah said.

    via Hashim

    Not sure what to make of this, especially with such little detail provided.. I'd like to know more about the nature of his beef with the church, and exactly what "cryptic symbols" he put up. Also how this event came to light since he was apparently not arrested..

    The Source Mag and the Colin Powell Principle

    While the church thing makes for good blog fodder, what I find more damaging to Dasun Allah's credibility is his defense of the Source's (flimsy excuse for a) smear job on the G Unit crew:

    The Source’s newly crowned editor-in-chief, Dasun Allah refuted claims that personal matters had anything to do with the publication of the article. He said in an interview with one outlet, "We are functioning as what a journalistic structure and organization is supposed to do... We are supposed to be the watchdogs of the industries in our culture that exploit and live from our culture—as has been the traditional role of the press."

    It's always a shame when reputable figures align themselves with such a disreputable crew. Because if you hang with that crew too long, you eventually find yourself parroting cheap lies and mouthing words the world knows you're too smart for, in a vain attempt to prove your loyalty to a team that never deserved it. Call it the Colin Powell Principle.

    Especially frustrating in this case because The Source still has lots of good people working for it, and even in this issue had solid reportage on Katrina and other topics. But as long as Benzino and Mays are carrying on their shenanigans, and staff continue to co-sign it all, the whole enterprise is tainted. I hope that circle is broken one day, and not by the mag going out of business.

    October 27, 2005

    Aziz Ansari

    puffy is good, but aziz ansari is for the kids

    Aziz Ansari is a very funny comedian type guy. He has a blog on which he exhibits a fondness for the word "dominate." He is also the most patient interviewee of all time. He proved this yesterday when WBAI used him as a guinea pig for their eager new batch of interns, and he gently guided them through their first stab at an interview. (and then stayed around to let me put in a new tape and ask him all the same questions over again)

    I'll post some audio when I get a chance, but for now you should check Aziz at tonight's Standup for Peace benefit.

    AUDIO: Rosa Parks Memorial Mashup

    Sly's "Thank You.." mixed with Outkast's "Rosa Parks" mixed with The Neville Brothers "Sister Rosa" mixed with 1956 Rosa Parks interview from the Pacifica Radio Archives.

  • Thank You/Rosa Parks MP3

    (with additional cameos by Dick Gephardt, Kwame Kilpatrick, John Lewis and Amy Goodman)

  • Jay-Z's "I Declare War" Concert Tonight

    i don't know why your advisors ain't forewarn you..

    So what's the consensus for tonight? Is Jay bringing out Nas to double team G-Unit? Or is he hurriedly revising his rhymes to work in a reference to "blue lamborghinis" or "shots in the arm"? Or will he finally be taking care of Sage Francis once and for all?

    Personally I'm finding it hard to care about a beef that seems more like a bun with no meat in it. A prepackaged feud that comes with fine print reading "enemy sold separately", and a slot that can fit whichever interchangeable action figure you choose. Reminds me too much of our foreign policy for the last 4 years.. like they're gonna have the crowd on some "wave your hands if you've always been at war with Eurasia!"

    Speaking of which, all I'm really hyped about right now is seeing who gets put on the Summer Jam Screen at tomorrow's "I Declare Indictments" extravaganza.

    EDIT: Turns out Jay thought the beef thing was corny too. Amen, brother.

    October 28, 2005

    Jay-Z Unites With Nas On Stage, Declares "Beef is Wack"

    EEEEEXCELLENT, Smithers. Another master stroke from Sean Carter. Declare war? Nah son, we're here to declare Wargames: The only way to win is not to play. How about a nice game of chess, 50?

    Gotta echo the OKP sentiment:

    jayz won.
    nas won.
    we won.
    hiphop won.
    woo. it feels great to say that

    P.S. The best part: Now finally, maybe, we can get Nas over some Just Blaze tracks?

    October 31, 2005

    Behold the Doom-O-Lantern

    courtesy of this guy.

    Audio: A Conversation with Boots Riley

    boots1_small

    This weekend we got a bonus Daylight Savings hour and took full advantage with 2 supersize sets from Monkone and 3D. We also had the honor of welcoming Boots Riley of The Coup, who sat down for one of the best interviews we've had in a minute.

    Boots was joined by Miles Solay from Outernational, who joined Boots in rocking Southpaw last night (pictures coming soon), and is helping promote tomorrow's World Can't Wait protests.

    You can check out the whole show here, the interview starts about an hour in:

    (2 minutes of Sam Cooke before we start)

    November 1, 2005

    PHOTOS: The Coup, Tom Morello, Lifesavas w/ Vernon Reid and Outernational at Southpaw, 10/30/05

    tom morello aka the nightwatchman tom morello aka the nightwatchman

    lifesavas and vernon reid
    lifesavas and vernon reid

    more pics here

    David Axelrod on Phil Spector in Wax Poetics

    The new Wax Poetics is out, with the usual music nerd's treasure trove we've come to expect from Andre and the gang. I even contributed a little Dangerdoom interview, on page 28. We'll be having a release party tonight at APT (downstairs section), with our own Monk One joining KOOL DJ RED ALERT on the wheels.

    And here's a little snippet from the cover story on David Axelrod:


    So, your production and arranging style wasn't a response to that of, say, Phil Spector?

    I nevr paid a lot of attention to him anyway. I wasn't aware of him. What did I care what Phil spector was doing? I didn't listen to his records. And I never went for that "Wall of Sound" thing. Spector just booked the studio. It was Jack Nitzsche who did the arrangements. He was a weird dude, but I liked him a lot.

    So you're saying that the arranger should have gotten credit for developing the Wall of Sound?

    I always thought the engineer at Gold Star [Studios] should have gotten about half the credit for that. He had a studio that would hold fourteen people, and in walks Spector with twenty people. You have to give credit to the engineer to make it possible to hear anything. And still have room to record the singers. He probably called Spector a f**king idiot.

    We can't print that, can we?

    Why not? Is he paying your salary? F**k him...

    November 2, 2005

    Phil Jackson's Anti-Hip-Hop Rants

    Scoop Jackson is mad.

    Sacred Ignorance

    In October 1999, these words came out of his mouth:

    "I don't mean to say [that] as a snide remark toward a certain population in our society, but they have a limitation of their attention span, a lot of it probably due to too much rap music going in their ears and coming out their being."

    OK. Let that one slide. Chalk it up as generational hate. Cultural Alzheimer's.

    Then…

    In October 2005, these words came out of his mouth:

    "I think it's important that the players take their end of it, get out of the prison garb and the thuggery aspect of basketball that has come along with hip-hop music in the last seven or eight years."

    OK … the camel's thoracic and lumbar vertebrae just went into trauma. Forget a broken back, this is spondylitis. A disease...

    ...In the words of SNCC: I AM A MAN.

    In the words of KRS-One: I AM HIP-HOP.

    And just like any subculture inside of America -- rock 'n' roll, grunge, heavy metal, country, bluegrass, electronica, reggae, merengue, punk, funk, rave, classical -- that has been given birth through music, there are both good and bad sides. All open not only to judgment, but interpretation.

    But when a Hall of Fame-bound, messiah-like respected coach who is a child of a subculture of imperfection feels that he needs to go out of his way to defame and slander another culture and its music while making an irrelevant point about music and basketball, someone has to Kanye West: Stand up!

    The "attention span" thing is especially random and stupid. If anything hip-hoppers should be ahead of the game, since we have to memorize 3 times as many lyrics for each song, compared to any other pop music.

    November 5, 2005

    Rare Radio Special Tonight, Dance Classics from 12-6 AM

    DJ Spinna dj spinna is approved by a leading panel of experts


    Yep, it's that time once again, and our all-star DJ squad is gathering up their illest house and dance classics for tonight's Rare Radio special, from Midnight to 6AM on WBAI 99.5 FM in NY. And as always, you can catch us online right here, and party with us in the chatroom while you tune in.

    November 7, 2005

    50 Cent Positioning Himself for Supreme Court Nomination

    50 and Bush, united at last "we are both gangsters"

    I think it's pretty obvious what 50 is up to here. First he sells Kanye out, then this business here:


    The rapper, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, was at the premiere of his new semi-autobiographical film "Get Rich or Die Tryin" when he stuck up for the President:

    "There is a lot of pressure on Bush as president of our country. A lot of things going on, this doesn't happen so often all the things that have happened under his presidency."

    He also added that he thinks they have a lot in common: "We are both gangsters."

    Clarence Thomas better watch his back, someone's creeping up on his throne. Rumor has it 50 will continue to flesh out his right-wing agenda on his next album, tentatively titled "Choose Life or Die Tryin".

    (Also, note how 50 echoes the dubious analysis of his archrival)

    Cynthia Mckinney: Release the Tupac Shakur Files

    (The original story is here)

    Congresswoman wants Shakur files released

    U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., has introduced a bill urging the government to release any secret files on slain rapper, Tupac Shakur. McKinney suspects Shakur was under government investigation when he was shot to death after attending a Mike Tyson fight in Las Vegas Sept. 7, 1996, AllHipHop.com reported Monday...

    ...McKinney's proposal wants all government records on Shakur released as well as the creation of a Tupac Amaru Shakur Records Collection at the National Archives and a second repository at the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts in Stone Mountain, Ga...

    November 8, 2005

    German Kid Rapping

    He's no match for that lil homey who rocked German Star Search a while back, but for some reason this kid fascinates me. Ich bin ein hustla, homey.

    Boston Globe on Jay-Z Signing the Roots

    via Spine Mag

    Jay-Z pays tribute to his rap roots

    The Grammy-winning rap band's new affiliation with a Def Jam roster that already includes Kanye West, Juelz Santana, and Ludacris might heighten commercial expectations, yet that's not the aim of Def Jam Left. As Jay-Z told Billboard, the label is designed to be ''an artist-driven label with very low deals so people are not pressured by first-week SoundScan [sales], so we can build artists." (Jay-Z could not be reached for comment.)

    When's the last time anyone in mainstream hip-hop spoke of the merits of creativity over commerce, and actually meant it? We may have snickered when Jay-Z claimed ''The Black Album" would be his last, but his signing of the Roots is giving serious hip-hop heads a reason to believe.

    With Def Jam Left, and his inaugural signing of the Roots, Jay-Z has created a boutique label for rap artists with more on their minds than the run-of-the-mill topics stifling mainstream rap. For the most part, commercial hip-hop is where rock was in the early 1990s before Nirvana and its seminal 1991 album ''Nevermind" flushed away all that brain-dead hair-band nonsense. Jay-Z has been in the game long enough to know a change is long overdue...

    November 9, 2005

    Bad Day for the Bad Guys

    Kos says yesterday's election results are pretty ugly for Bush and crew. Glad there is some good news somewhere, because New York's Democrats are freaking depressing. Props to Virginia, and Cali for sonning the governator.

    Also: Why is NY's setup for write-in votes (all the way on the side of the booth) totally discriminatory against left-handed voters?

    November 11, 2005

    Shooting at 50 Cent Movie.. Local Critic Says "Worst Hip-Hop Movie Ever"

    Sent along by Big Poppa Davey D:

    Man Killed at Opening Night of "Get Rich or Die Trying"


    Gunfire in the Loews Waterfront movie theater killed a man Wednesday night, West Homestead police said...Police said nobody has come forward to identify a shooter, even though the building was busier than a usual weeknight, with the 50 Cent movie, "Get Rich Or Die Tryin'" debuting on two screens... The West Homestead police chief told Channel 4 Action News that the department put an officer on duty at the theater -- which is unusual for a weeknight -- due to the showing of the movie... The Waterfront theater pulled the movie until the investigation is complete, Channel 4 Action News reporter Sheldon Ingram said.

    Local Movie Critic Discusses 50 Cent Movie

    ...Brentin Mock left the Loew's Movie Theatre with his 2-year-old son right before Shelton Flowers, 30, of Wilkinsburg, was shot in the thigh and chest at the Waterfront. Mock writes movie reviews for the Pittsburgh City Paper.

    "As a person who's a defender of all things hip-hop, I think it's the worst hip-hop movie ever made," said Mock... "This movie comes out and completely reinforces all the stereotypes people had about hip-hop anyway," said Mock...

    Arrested Development is Cancelled

    Up until today there was only one show left on network tv that I cared about. Now there are zero.

    Fox, you've made a huge mistake.

    Fox puts abrupt stop to 'Arrested Development'

    There was no official announcement -- there rarely is when the networks wield the ax -- but after two and half wonderfully funny seasons, Fox's Emmy-winning ``Arrested Development'' is dead.

    Network TV's best comedy has been abruptly pulled from the Fox schedule for the rest of November sweeps and has had its `order'' for this season cut from 22 episodes to 13.

    The episodes that have already been filmed will be burned off in December and, as of January, ``Arrested'' will vanish, the victim of low (really low) viewership...

    So, the species known as "sitcom" is officially extinct now, right?

    November 14, 2005

    AUDIO: Another Set of Classic Breaks from 3D

    DJ 3D on WBAI

    Saturday's edition of the Underground Railroad is up in the WBAI archives, with a new set from Emskee, interview and freestyle from Doujah Raze, and another Serato Breakbeat Megablast from DJ 3D:

  • Underground Railroad 11/12/05 - streaming MP3

  • November 16, 2005

    Snoop Joining Protest for Tookie Williams

    [insert "no, that death row" joke here]

    I don't understand how anyone supports something like this. What purpose is served that justifies killing this man?

    Snoop Dogg to attend anti-execution rally

    The former Crips member Snoop Dogg who turned musician will be among thousands expected to protest the Dec. 13 execution of Stanley Tookie Williams, who was sentenced to death in 1981 for killing four people in two Los Angeles robberies.

    The rally will take place Saturday outside San Quentin State Prison to support a former gang leader scheduled to be executed next month, according to an advocacy group...

    During his years on death row, Williams has earned international acclaim for his children’s books urging kids to stay out of gangs, among other peace-preaching efforts...

    Sony Recalling Their Malware-Infested CDs

    Wow, Sony really took a L on this one. Praise Jebus.

    CD's Recalled for Posing Risk to PC's

    The global music giant Sony BMG yesterday announced plans to recall millions of CD's by at least 20 artists - from the crooners Celine Dion and Neil Diamond to the country-rock act Van Zant - because they contain copy restriction software that poses risks to the computers of consumers.

    The move, more commonly associated with collapsing baby strollers, exploding batteries, or cars with faulty brakes, is expected to cost the company tens of millions of dollars. Sony BMG said that all CD's containing the software would be removed from retail outlets and that exchanges would be offered to consumers who had bought any of them.

    A toll-free number and e-mail message inquiry system will also be set up on the Sony BMG Web site, sonybmg.com. "We deeply regret any inconvenience this may cause our customers," the company said in a letter that it said it would post on its Web site, "and are committed to making this situation right..."

    Market research from 2004 has shown that about 30 percent of consumers report obtaining music through the copying and sharing of tracks among friends from legitimately purchased CD's. But the fallout from the aggressive copy protection effort has raised serious questions about how far companies should be permitted to go in seeking to prevent digital piracy.

    The recall and exchange program, which was first reported by USA Today, comes two weeks after news began to spread on the Internet that certain Sony BMG CD's contained software designed to limit users to making only three copies. The software also, however, altered the deepest levels of a computer's systems and created vulnerabilities that Internet virus writers could exploit...

    Paris is ALIVE AND WELL

    Many of you probably heard the word going around that the rapper Paris had been killed yesterday, in a "home invasion." The original source was Sage Francis, who posted it on his message board.

    However word is now coming in from numerous sources that Paris doing just fine.. unfortunately another member of the bay area's hip-hop scene apparently died, who has a similar name and is affiliated with the Coup.. I'll post more details as they appear.

    EDIT: It appears the man who died was Coup member Tarus Jackson, whom we had just met a few weeks ago when he came to our radio show along with Boots and the band. Details are here.

    Member of The Coup Killed in Robbery

    It looks like the person who died yesterday was Tarus Jackson, who was down with Boots Riley and The Coup. From what I am reading here, it looks like Tarus was the young man I met a few weeks ago when the Coup came to my show. He was introduced on the air as "T", for those who were listening. He also came out and introduced them at the Southpaw show.

    My deepest condolences to Tarus' family, and to Boots and all the the Coup fam as well.

    Here is a local news article with details. This is just a horrible, horrible story.

    West Oakland man shot dead following robbery

    Slain man was 'hype man' for Oakland rap group The Coup

    Robbers pistol-whipped and then shot to death a West Oakland man Tuesday morning, moments after threatening one of his relatives to force him to reveal where his cash was, police said.

    "It looks like he didn't move fast enough so they killed him," homicide Sgt. Phil Green said. Slain was Tarus Jackson, 36, also known as Terrance Jackson, who police said was a "hype man" for The Coup, a well-known West Oakland rap group he had joined a year ago...

    November 19, 2005

    WBAI Hip-Hop Marathon

    WBAI is in the middle of an all-day hip-hop marathon, that you can catch live right here, and everything you missed is getting archived right here. Make sure to give a listen, it's going until midnight tonight, when of course the Underground Railroad will close things out from 12-2.

    November 21, 2005

    For God's Sake, Start Snitching

    As I've said a few times on the radio show now, I am vehemently pro "snitching". This "stop snitching" ethos can only be diagnosed as dementia:

    But the police say their investigation is stalled for one maddening reason. The victim -- platinum-selling New York rapper Cameron "Cam'ron" Giles, who was shot in both arms -- doesn't seem to be cooperating. Nearly four weeks have passed, and the police can't even get Cam'ron on the phone.

    "Cam isn't going to do it," said Juelz Santana, Cam'ron's rapping buddy and protege. "It's not in our nature. He isn't going to stand up and point out a guy in a witness line and say, 'That is the dude who shot me.' We all came from the street..."

    Are you kidding me? Seriously. Who are the people that think this makes sense?

    Maybe these kids don't remember, but the word "snitch" used to mean something specific. Usually someone who provided information about associates who committed crimes with him, or crimes they told him about, in exchange for money and/or a deal on his own legal troubles. And there are many legitimate questions about this sort of snitching and its role in our justice system.

    But nowadays kids think "snitch" means anyone who ever talks to cops about anything, including innocent bystanders who witness a crime and even victims who report crimes committed against them. This is really amazingly stupid.

    Believe me I have more than my share of issues with the NYPD. But if I get shot, and I have to choose between helping the police and helping the guy who just shot me? This will not be a difficult choice.

    November 22, 2005

    AUDIO: Amadou & Mariam Morning Show Remix

    A while ago WBAI's morning show ask me to do some remixing on their longtime theme song, "Sweet in the Mornin" by Bobby Mcferrin (don't be scared by the name, it's a hot song). I tried editing it in with the beginning of "Baara" by Amadou & Mariam and I think they went together pretty well, let me know what you think:

  • Sweet in the Mornin + Baara

  • November 23, 2005

    Cuba's Hip-Hop Festival hits 11th Year

    Peace to Doble Filo who came to visit us at the Railroad a while back, and of course Ariel Fernandez:

    Hip Hop Storms Havana’s Streets

    The 11th Hip Hop Festival kicks off in Havana tomorrow, will be on until Saturday

    Hip Hop Storms Havana’s Streets
    By MICHEL HERNANDEZ

    The 11th Hip Hop Festival kicks off in Havana tomorrow, will be on until Saturday. Hip hoppers from all over Cuba are gathered in Havana to participate in their eleventh festival. The event will take place in the East Havana suburb of Alamar and the Salon Rosado de la Tropical dance center – the traditional hubs of this event in Cuba. The festival will begin Wednesday and run until Saturday...

    ...The first visible roots of hip hop in Cuba were break-dance competitions in the streets in the early eighties; but it was not until the next decade that the music became really popular among Cubans.

    During those years, Cuban rappers injected a renovating energy into Cuban music that was taken from hip hop culture. The greatest boosts to this movement came from the Hermanos Saiz Association’s support, the Orishas phenomenon, the foundation of the Cuban Agency of Rap and an increase in public appreciation.

    The aesthetics and style of the Cuban rappers draw from Afro-Cuban rhythms and roots, the influences of jazz, reggae, funk, soul and rock and roll, and social consciousness. Among the premier bands participating in this festival are Obsesion, Doble Filo, Hermanazos and Anonimo Consejo.

    November 29, 2005

    Source "Founder" Benzino Hit With Tax Evasion Charges

    As you know, making the world see the truth about the Source has been a mission of mine for years, in the blog and on the radio. But if I posted every time they were publicly shamed there would be no room for all our other riveting content (i.e. 50 more "Join Us On The Radio Tonight" posts).

    So I try to stick with the biggest scoops, and from what I've heard this one just might be major:

    Benzino Hit With Tax Charges

    Raymond "Benzino" Scott, embattled co-owner of the Source Magazine, has been charged by the United States attorney's office in Massachusetts with failing to file tax returns in 1999 and 2000.

    Scott plead innocent in a U.S. District Court to willful failure to file tax returns on Oct. 28. Scott is accused of not reporting an estimated $1.5 million in combined income from 1999 and 2000.

    He was arraigned and freed on $10,000 unsecured bond.
    "There was an extensive investigation into this matter," FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz told The Boston Herald. "We took a sweeping look at this individual. We were aware of the allegations of murder and everything else. This is what we came up with"...

    Sidenote: not crazy about how they tried to spin this in the original Boston Herald story, as part of some epidemic of federal hip-hop charges.

    Darth Vader is a Backpacker

    If you're as nerdy as I am you already found the hidden features on the "Revenge of the Sith" DVD, and discovered that Yoda is an Okayplayer. But did you know that Darth Vader's favorite emcee is J-Live?

    So reports another NY emcee who will remain nameless, that also works in film production.. he's working on the set of Hayden Christensen's latest project right now, and reports that Hayden was totally geeked to meet him, and revealed himself to be quite the underground hip-hop connoisseur. So if you're reading this: arise and start a blog, dark lord!

    December 4, 2005

    50 Cent Beef With Robbie Williams

    50 Cent is now officially the Wilt Chamberlain of beef. How long until he reaches 20,000?

    50 Cent: 'Robbie Williams Is A Sucker'

    Hardman rapper 50 Cent has branded Robbie Williams a "sucker" after the British singer complained about his behaviour when they stayed at the same German hotel in October.

    50 Cent, real name Curtis Jackson, and former boy band member Williams both checked into the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Berlin, but trouble reportedly brewed when Robbie Williams' fans mistook 50 Cent's car for the former Take That singers' and greeted the rapper chanting, "Robbie, Robbie."

    The situation escalated when Williams later complained to hotel management, demanding they curb the hip-hop wildman's late night antics.

    But 50 Cent has another explanation for their falling out - Williams felt humiliated because the hip-hop star refused to meet him. "He's a sucker. He said I was keeping him awake. "I know he wanted to meet me but I didn't have time. Maybe that's why he was upset."

    December 7, 2005

    DJ Tomkat's Party Starts Tonight

    "Underground Railroad" listeners know that our DJ Tomkat is among the most erudite and deep-crated DJs in the world.. some may be aware he was DJ Spinna's mentor in the art of digging. But rarely has anyone been able to see him put those skills in action.. tonight that changes, as Tom starts a new weekly party called "Rarefied". Along with his partner DJ Steve-O (nephew of Jabo Starks!), Tomkat is backed up tonight by guest DJ Jeannie Hopper:

    RAREFIED
    Rare Grooves Redefined
    Sutra Lounge, 16 1st avenue (between 1st and 2nd streets.) in the East Village
    Wednesday, December 7, 2005 and weekly thereafter
    Time 8pm-1am
    NO COVER

    between this and the Skullsnaps show on Friday, it's gonna be a good week for the funk..

    December 8, 2005

    Korea + Brazil + Sierra Leone

    On Tuesday I helped some good people put together a special on international hip-hop, that airs on WBAI tomorrow night at 11PM. They also made a podcast out of it, on the bottom left of their page:


    NOMADIC SOUNDS ON THE RADIO

    Nomadic Sounds is a series of music specials bringing you the best of the world's undiscovered and underground sounds from around the Globe.

    At Nomadic Sounds, we will be celebrating the latest in music of the 'Global Diaspora'- from African Hip-Hop to South Asian Bhangra and everything in between. Nomadic Sounds is dedicated to presenting you with talent from all over the world with both live performances and discussions with the artists.

    For the first of this series we invited musician, hip-hop activist and US Hip-Hop Ambassador - Toni Blackman to co-host the show featuring MCs Chosan of Sierra Leone, LF & DJ Laylo from Brazil and Korean -American emcee El Gambina into the studio for some live performances and conversation.

    December 9, 2005

    De La Soul Are Up For Record of the Year at the Grammys

    Just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge that.

    Also, out of the 5 records up for record of the year, 4 of them are produced by Jermaine Dupri, Danger Mouse, The Neptunes and Kanye West respectively.

    My Chat With Blackface Jesus

    Recently Gawker has been posting about this kid who shows up at downtown parties wearing blackface and a Jesus costume. Some other bloggers have concluded that the kid is a preening jackass.

    But I decided to get his side of the story before making any assumptions, and spoke to Blackface Jesus through his myspace page. Our dialogue is pasted below:

    ----------------- Original Message -----------------
    From: Jay
    Date: Dec 9, 2005 10:26 AM

    I'd like to hear your side of the story before I jump to any conclusions.. can you explain the purpose of this blackface jesus thing?

    ----------------- Original Message -----------------
    From: Black Face Jesus
    Date: Dec 9, 2005 12:48 PM

    im representing that jesus was a black man and that people should start to be more aware of the truths in the world..we need to wake up and start treating this life we have been given more preciously


    ----------------- Original Message -----------------
    From: Jay
    Date: Dec 9, 2005 1:49 PM

    Forgive me, but this answer seems a little disingenuous.

    I suspect a more honest answer might be: "I am an attention-starved coward who looks for easy ways to provoke people, but lacks the courage or integrity to take responsibility for what I provoke."

    ----------------- Original Message -----------------
    From: Black Face Jesus
    Date: Dec 9, 2005 1:55 PM

    this is the anger im trying to find...hate and anger consume you...you cant stand the fact the i portray jesus as a man of dark skin..ive gone to harlem with this face paint on and spoken to people...find jesus and find peace..


    ----------------- Original Message -----------------
    From: Jay
    Date: Dec 9, 2005 2:08 PM

    In other words, I had you pegged. Okay, thanks for clearing that up.

    Enjoy the rest of your 15 minutes!

    December 12, 2005

    Schwarzenegger Denies Clemency for Tookie Williams

    This makes me feel ill.. that we as human beings ever presume we should have the power to do this, I'll never understand..

    Gov. Schwarzenegger Denies Clemency for Crips Co-Founder

    Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced today that he would not grant clemency to Stanley Tookie Williams, whose bid to avoid being put to death shortly after midnight tonight has gained wide attention.

    Governor Schwarzenegger's decision not to halt Mr. Williams' execution by injection at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday is his third rejection of a petition for a stay of execution or clemency since he took office in 2003. Clemency has not been granted to a death row inmate in California since 1967...

    EDIT: Bomani Jones reminds us there are still many battles remaining to fight on this front.

    December 15, 2005

    AUDIO: Interview and Freestyle from Eternia

    Last Saturday Eternia came down to the Railroad and shared some war stories about representing hip-hop on the Warped tour, broke down Canada's tradition of government funding for local musicians. And of course she traded verses with Emskee, and some other guy recycling his old rhymes from 3 years ago.. I'll post the audio below, trying out my new account on Odeo.com:

  • Eternia Interview
  • Eternia Freestyle w/ Emskee and Jay Smooth

    And you can subscribe to my Odeo feed here. (Does this mean I am podcasting now?)

  • December 16, 2005

    What Are Your Favorite cover Songs?

    I have a little piece here in this week's Seattle Weekly talking about some of my favorite cover songs (peace to Supah Editor Matos). I'm kicking myself now for not thinking of Bizmark's "Benny and the Jets."

    What other tracks would you guys pick if you were putting a CD together? And your picks for worst cover?

    December 19, 2005

    AUDIO: A Conversation With Rob Swift

    Turntable deity Rob Swift stopped by the radio show this week on the way to a gig, and talked about his new album "Wargames", and his stance on the hotly contested Serato issue:

  • Rob Swift Interview, 12/17/05

    (Yes, by the way, we will be having him back soon to get on the wheels..)

  • Prince Paul on Chris Rock's Hip-Hop Pedigree

    Since some folks have read Chris Rock's Top 25 Hip-Hop Albums list in Rolling Stone and wondered if he really wrote it himself, here's a convo I had with Prince Paul last year about Chris' status as a "head":

    You've worked with both Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock, which one would you say is a bigger hip-hop head out of the two?

    Prince Paul: Man, it's hard to say cuz both of them are crazy! But I think Chris is a fanatic. And Chris also DJ-ed, like, on the block when he was a kid. He has a little DJ set at his house, and he has pictures of him when he was DJ-ing, I guess he was like 15, 16.

    So he's definitely a head, and he'll call me up and hold conversations for like an hour and a half, on what's new: "Ehhh, such-and-such record is okay, but track number whatever he had whatever, and I talked to Rick Rubin last week and told him he should have Jay-Z do blah blah blah.." He'll call me up with an idea, like "Paul I've got an idea for you, you know what your next album cover should be?" So he's definitely into it.

    I don't have that type of relationship with Dave Chappelle. Like, I met him through Chris, but I haven't sat down with him and chit-chatted with him for any length of time, so it would be kinda unfair [to compare].

    The Chappelle Theory

    Damn you, Dark Crusaders!

    ChappelleTheory.com

    ...December 26, 2004: The day after Christmas, Chappelle and his family were home, trying to enjoy the holidays. Dave has taken to sleeping with a gun under his pillow and won't let his wife or children leave the house without him. Privately, his wife had consulted with her Doctor about institutionalizing Dave.

    On that day, Chappelle received a package that made him decide to halt the show's production for good.

    The package — which arrived via UPS — contained a picture of Chappelle's sleeping children, taken the night before in Chappelle's house. A person who appeared to be of Al Sharpton's build was standing next to their beds...

    Dave should buy the movie rights to this, and get Cosby, Farrakhan and Sharpton to portray themselves..

    December 20, 2005

    AUDIO: Vintage Mix from DJ 3D

    My Odeo Channel

    I'm gonna try and post new MP3s everyday (until Odeo tells me to stop). Here's a set from early this year, with some of my interview with Jeff Chang mixed in at the end:

  • 30 Minutes from DJ 3D, 2/19/05

  • December 21, 2005

    Afrikaans Flow

    Rushay from Africasgateway.com sent along this clip from Bay FM radio in South Africa, an emcee named Dirkie De Vos rockng the mic in Afrikaans:

  • Dirkie De Vos freestyle

  • AUDIO: The Benzino Voicemail Tapes

    Gotta thank the illustrious Miss Info for passing this on. It's a couple of voicemail messages Benzino left at Ozone magazine for Julia Beverly. Benzino may not be much of a rapper, but when it comes to misogynistic voicemail hissy fits? He's got it down. Because I'm a nice guy I bleeped out his phone number, but the rest is uncut:

  • Benzino's Ozone Voicemails - (MP3, very very R rated)

    Um... wow. So uhh.. you mad, doggie?

    Sure is hard to imagine that guy harassing women in the workplace, huh? if you want to see the Ozone piece that wounded Benzino's heart so, here it goes right here. It's a good one. (and by the way this is almost exactly what Dave Mays sounded like when he called me back in the day, except he wasn't as versatile with the namecalling.)

    EDIT (via nah right): Ozone just put the tape up on their site, complete with phone number intact.. not that I endorse calling him, unless perhaps you are a licensed therapist.

    2nd EDIT: Meanwhile Allhiphop.com continues to play apologist for Benzino, with this "TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY! Zino just might have just reason to be mad.." nonsense. Allhiphop is one of the best hip-hop news sites but their coverage of Benzino is often light in the backbone area, and this is the worst example yet.

  • December 22, 2005

    Some Good Hip-Hop Reading

    When I see a writer on a site like Slate, covering a topic like "hip-hop and jazz," I usually brace myself for a painful ride. But this take from David Adler was a happy surprise, showing no signs of wackness whatsoever:

    Two Turntables and a Saxophone
    How jazz plays off hip-hop.

    When I e-mailed a knowledgeable friend that I'd be writing on jazz and hip-hop, she replied, "Man, can people stop talking about this already?" She's right, in a way. The jazz/hip-hop nexus is simply a cultural and genealogical fact. Turntablists, MCs, and jazz musicians are collaborating every day. And yet the impact of hip-hop on some of the best new acoustic jazz still isn't widely understood.

    To borrow a term from DJ Shadow, jazz and hip-hop are omni-genres, held together more by musical and cultural philosophies than by any limiting parameters of "style." While hip-hop has devolved time and again into disposable pop, it has never lost its vitality as an underground, alternative art form. This is the aspect of hip-hop that jazz musicians are responding to; they're encountering hip-hop on creative rather than commercial terms. And they're refuting the popular view that today's jazzers are stuck in the '50s and '60s.

    Also weirdly intriguing, if you missed it: Rappers' rivalries create totally weird social-network science

    December 23, 2005

    AUDIO: Benzino, Funkmaster Flex and Julia Beverly Conference Call

    On Wednesday Tony Neal of the Core DJs crew organized a conference call with Julia Beverly, Benzino, Funk Flex and a number of other DJs. Thanks to DJ Pete Butta I've got the entire call on MP3:

    Benzino, Julia Beverly, Funkmaster Flex - Core DJs Conference Call
  • Part 1 45 min.
  • Part 2 42 min.
  • Once again, wow. I gotta give utmost props to Julia Beverly for standing up to Benzino this week, and helping expose him once again for the bully that he is.

    EDIT: I probably should have warned you that most of the call is, as trent said, a chaotic mess, and some of it is difficult to hear since most conference call technology is not designed for thugged-out shrieking.

    Yankees Making Johnny Damon Cut His Hair

    The Yankee Make Jesus Shed His Mane like samson, but i go further the length

    Mark my words, the Yankees will live to regret this. They have tampered with forces they cannot possibly understand, making the Son of Man shed his righteous locks. 85 years from now it is this moment our great-grandchildren will remember with dread, as the day a new curse began.

    Foxy Brown Sticks Tongue Out at Judge, Gets Handcuffed in Court

    Hopefully the judge will give her side of the story on the next Street Skreet Dawg DVD:

    Foxy Brown Forced to Apologize in Court

    Rapper Foxy Brown was handcuffed, threatened with jail and made to apologize Friday after she opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue in the direction of a judge who had asked her to stop chewing gum...

    Continue reading "Foxy Brown Sticks Tongue Out at Judge, Gets Handcuffed in Court" »

    December 25, 2005

    AUDIO: Christmas Mixes from DJ 3D, Tomkat

    Last night we ushered in the holiday on the Undergound Railroad with DJ 3D spinning just about every soul/hip-hop xmas track there is, plus a 45 set from DJ Tomkat (and an interview with Step-Poppa Smooth). Check out the whole two hours right here:

  • The Underground Railroad Xmas Special

    Happy Happy! Joy Joy!

  • December 26, 2005

    Awesome Alan Leeds Interview

    This is the best WarOnChristmas present any Prince fan will ever get.. also some tidbits about James Brown, D'angelo and others.. most of all just a great read for anyone who studies the music business.

    Sadat X Arrested...?!??

    Huh? This just doesn't sound right, there has to be more (or less) to this story then the dumbass NY Post gave us:

    Sadat X Arrested on Gun Charges

    A rapper who describes himself as a "Wild Cowboy" allegedly acted like an Old West gunslinger this week when he waved a large pistol at three teens in Harlem, police said yesterday.

    Hip hop star Sadat X, of the group Brand Nubian, allegedly boasted "I'm going to kill everybody" as he flashed a loaded .40-caliber black Beretta at a group of 18-year-olds at West 158th Street and Broadway Thursday, according to cops.

    Police sources said X also told the youths, "I'm looking for a guy with braids." After cops from the 33rd Precinct were called to the scene, the victims pointed out X, who was still standing across the street with the pistol.

    When police attempted to arrest the 37-year-old, whose real name is Derek Murphy, he ran. He was tackled quickly. He was arraigned yesterday in Manhattan Supreme Court on charges of criminal possession of a weapon, reckless endangerment and resisting arrest.

    Sadat X and Brand Nubian are most famous for the 1993 song "Punks Jump Up To Get Beat Down."

    December 27, 2005

    Jay Smooth's Birthday Party, This Friday in Brooklyn

    We're celebrating my b-day this friday night at Black Betty, 366 Metropolitan Ave. in Williamsburg.. Emskee and Monkone on the wheels.. I hope everyone reading this will come down, to see me drink my co-host G Man under the table.

    December 28, 2005

    King Kong

    I liked the movie. A lot. But for real, for real, somebody needs to hook Peter Jackson up with some Black friends.

    I mean damn, Peter, I know this was as much as anything else a tribute to your own romance with cinema, that began with seeing the O.G. Kong. But couldn't we have done just a teeny tiny bit of critical thinking about the racial archetypes that film was built upon?

    Gregory Solman pretty much called it in the Village Voice: "King Kong's only novel contribution: a depiction of native tribal dancing in a Broadway musical that's actually less racist than the "true" scenes it's supposed to be based upon."

    But again, I still liked it a lot.

    Hot 97's Miss Jones Hasn't Learned A Thing

    My esteemed colleague at WBAI Playthell Benjamin caught Miss Jones up to her old racist, ignorant tricks on hot 97 recently, and struck back with a comprehensive skewering on our morning show..

    "After denouncing Transport workers as a bunch of uneducated and overpaid losers who made the wrong choices in high school that resulted in their driving a bus, instead of becoming a white collar professional like her, she viciously attacked Mr. Toussaint personally. Spewing a stream of invective she resorted to the most ignorant and debased view of West Indians that lurks in the darkest regions of the American mind.

    She called Mr. Toussaint “A dumb coconut who probably don’t even have a green card,” then she demanded that he be deported. Later on in the show – after making several announcements that he would appear – Miss Jones enacted a skit where Mr. Toussaint was supposedly being carted away by immigration officers who discovered that he is an illegal immigrant. And as they dragged him kicking and screaming to the boat to ship him back to Trinidad he could be heard trying to call off the strike! It was a performance worthy of the Ku Klux Klan or the neo-Nazi White Aryan resistance.

    Here's the audio of Playthell's commentary, and the complete text below the cut.. (an abridged version of this also appeared in the Daily News)

    Continue reading "Hot 97's Miss Jones Hasn't Learned A Thing" »

    December 29, 2005

    City Councilmember Yvette Clarke Slams Hot 97/Miss Jones

    Playthell's commentary on Miss Jones is making people stand up and take notice.

    Caribbean Community Is Owed An Apology By Hot 97 Radio

    Contact: Rance E. Huff
    Office: (718) 287-8762
    Cell (718) 207-1158

    NEW YORK, NY- Councilmember Yvette D. Clarke
    (D-Brooklyn) issued the following statement today
    regarding the report vicious and racist statements
    reportedly made by Hot 97 deejay Miss Jones regarding
    the transit workers strike and union leader Roger
    Toussaint:

    Continue reading "City Councilmember Yvette Clarke Slams Hot 97/Miss Jones" »

    AUDIO: New MC Lyte w/ DJ Premier

    A world, world.. premiere, premiere, premiere.. thanks to the Wonder Twinz for passing this along:

  • MC Lyte - "The Wonder Years"

    I know I'm supposed to be tired of the Premier formula. But I'm not. It's a good formula.

  • Ethan Brown - Queens Reigns Supreme Interview

    Nice one, up at Nah Right:

    Interview: Ethan Brown - Queens Reigns Supreme

    Eskay: Russell Simmons has made it very clear that he will not be supporting 'Preme when he goes to trial next year. Do you feel he’s being disloyal, or are people in the industry waking up to the fact that they need to distance themselves from these types of guys?

    EB: I don't know. But I don’t think Russell was distancing himself from Preme–he and Preme never really had a relationship that went
    much beyond those Supreme Team parties in the 1980s.

    I should make the point here that I don't think that anyone in the hip-hop business needs to "distance" themselves from people with criminal records. Hip-hop has been an incredible outlet for ex-street guys who want to be involved in something legitimate. That said, rappers and record label execs need to re-consider the strategy of using guys like Preme as props to express street cred. It’s a legally perilous way of doing business and I have big problems with it ethically. The drug business has put hundreds of thousands of African-Americans in prison; it's not something that should be used as a marketing strategy for middle class rappers...

    January 2, 2006

    "Why Women Are Fed Up With Hip-Hop"

    North Carolina's DJ Chela passed along this interview in the News & Observer. I'll just note that "artistic" and "destructive" are not mutually exclusive, there have been many hip-hop records that embody both.. and I think sometimes wer'e being too easy on ourselves, by citing the underground/commercial dichotomy as the root of all problems.. Cuz the truth is there's quite a bit of misogyny and gaybashing on our underground/indie records too.


    Music perpetuates a tragic cycle

    THE N&O: Do you believe that hip-hop music denigrates black women?

    LAUREN HARKRADER: In a lot of ways, pop music in general tries to dumb down the masses because it makes people more into a consumer and more apt to go out and buy whatever clothes and food or alcohol or cigarettes or whatever people are selling. In terms of hip-hop, what you get is a very unique situation because hip-hop originated out of the struggle of black and Latino people coming out of the Bronx, and in New York City in general in the '70s. So in the '80s and '90s, it enjoyed more of a mainstream commercial success, and now in 2000, it's definitely Top 40 music.

    What I see as a tragedy is the misogyny and the violence and, in general, the self-destructive messages that are being applauded through the music. And that's just the commercial hip-hop music out there that is getting this exposure. There's also a lot of other artists that do have more artistic, more thought-provoking music ... but don't enjoy the same amount of sales as, say, 50 Cent.

    THE N&O: Why would an artist like 50 Cent make this kind of destructive music? Is it all about the money?

    HARKRADER: Yes, I definitely think money is a large factor, and when you look at the empire that 50 Cent has built, no one can come close to touching that right now. In whatever arena you look at, ignorance really sells, even in politics. When you also look at the other statistics in our society -- black women being most affected by AIDS or underpaid for jobs and so many black female single mothers and young pregnancies and whatnot -- you see how this situation has come into being.

    Society is misogynistic, American society is patriarchal and so on, so it already sets things up. But a lot of the commercial music takes that to a higher level and really endorses it, or normalizes it, makes it something acceptable. Young, impressionable people are going to buy into that. And the whole cycle perpetuates...

    January 3, 2006

    Holy Crap

    Unkut.com just dug up one of the reviews I wrote for the Source, back in '91. Yikes! This must be how Lil' Jon feels looking at his high school yearbook photo.

    January 4, 2006

    Toronto Hip-Hop Steps Up for Uganda

    Thanks to Del for this one:


    Toronto Hip-Hop Community to RISE UP! for GuluWalk on Saturday, January 14th

    On Saturday, January 14, 2006, Toronto’s hip-hop community will come together and RISE UP! at The Drake Hotel in support of GuluWalk, a campaign created to bring attention to and generate support for the children of northern Uganda, who are the innocent victims of a civil war that has been terrorizing the nation for over 19 years.

    Some of the biggest names in urban culture will be showcasing their talents at this unprecedented event. DJs, MCs and artists from all over the city, country and continent will be coming together for the sole purpose of continuing to bring international attention to this forgotten emergency.

    RISE UP! will include a ticketed showcase event in The Underground at the The Drake Hotel, with The Lounge featuring some of the city’s hottest DJs. Headlining the event will be three-time Juno nominees BrassMunk, local standouts Mathematik, Shylow, 9th Uno and Citizen Kane, as well as New York City natives Red Clay and Okai.

    The evening will be hosted by Big Jacks, DJ Linx & Taktiks and Seven:30, with The Lounge featuring FLOW 93.5 DJs Starting from Scratch and P-Plus, and CKLN’s Son of S.O.U.L.

    RISE UP! will take place on Saturday, January 14, 2006 at The Drake Hotel (1150 Queen St. W at Beaconsfield Ave.). The doors at The Underground will open 8:30 p.m. with the events in The Lounge set to start at 9:30 p.m. For complete event listings and ticket information visit the official RISE UP! website at www.guluwalk.com/riseup...

    January 11, 2006

    Swedish Hip-Hop Puppies.. Or Something

    This may be the greatest web page I've ever seen and not understood at all.

    I'm saying. Blizzmajazz Jazzmatazz.

    I'm just saying.

    (via minusbaby. also, incidentally, my last.fm page is here)

    January 12, 2006

    New Lauryn Hill Track Leaked: "Rebel" Studio version

    Well it may not be new, exactly, but it's a version we haven't heard before. And it has rapping on it:

  • Lauryn Hill - "Rebel" (studio version)

    What do you y'all think? I found myself trying to convince myself I liked it, which usually means I don't really like it.

  • January 13, 2006

    The Source, Finally, Dumping Mays and Benzino?

    I'll never understand why it took so long for the Graves fam to make this move. Hopefully it's not to late to salvage this once-proud institution.

    How sad and funny to watch them going out Comical Ali style, defiant and deluded to the bitter end.

    Source Duo Dodge Ouster By Board

    David Mays, founder of the embattled hip-hop magazine The Source, and his longtime president Ray "Benzino" Scott dodged a bullet from a new board of directors seeking to oust the duo.
    Yesterday, the Source board, now controlled by executives friendly to the Graves family that owns Black Enterprise magazine, had hoped to boot Mays and Scott. They both obtained a restraining order from a judge in New Jersey to temporarily derail the ouster.

    "The board has decided that this was the only feasible course of action as Mays and Scott could not continue their series of financial recklessness and negligence," the suit said.

    It had given the duo 48 hours to turn up at a special board meeting yesterday afternoon that was expected to ratify the ouster.

    "They can want to do that all they want, but it's not happening," said a still defiant Mays yesterday. The whereabouts of his partner Scott, he said, was "top secret."

    The board said it felt that continuation of Mays and Scott in their jobs "hurts not only the employees of The Source, but all of its investors, vendors, subscribers and readers."

    David Finkler, a lawyer for Mays and Scott, said that as far as his clients were concerned, "there is no new board."

    (via nah right)

    January 17, 2006

    Documentary on Hip-Hop Homophobia/Misogyny

    I know this film has been around for a while now, have any of y'all seen it yet?


    Hip-hop and sexuality

    LIer's look at misogyny and homophobia a key note among music-driven movies

    In the society of hip-hoppers, there are some places that you just don't go. Take the time when Smithtown-born filmmaker Byron Hurt asked rapper Busta Rhymes to explain the link between machismo and homoeroticism in hip-hop. Rhymes was so unwilling to go there he got up and walked out of the room.

    This agitated flight is captured in a new documentary that Hurt will unveil at this year's Sundance Film Festival - which kicks off tomorrow - entitled "Beyond Beats and Rhymes: A Hip-Hop Head Weighs in on Manhood in Hip-Hop Culture."

    ...Among the other notables who had their feathers ruffled by Hurt's crusading camera was hip-hop entrepreneur and social activist Russell Simmons, who, when asked to weigh in on the sexual objectification of women in hip-hop, replied, "I think we have to challenge sexism as it stands in the community, and not the poetry that is a reflection of it ... I can't address every issue because I don't have the equipment."

    The 36-year-old Hurt seemed unconvinced. "I thought it was a bit of a cop-out," he said from his home in Central Islip. "Here is someone ... the Rockefeller drug laws are important to, voting and registration is important to, reparation is important to. He's a spokesperson for PETA. But he's not willing to delve into issues of sexism and respect for women. It's reflective of the general belief system a lot of men have, that it's not a priority..."

    VIDEO: Parliament Funkadelic, Live in 1969

    Can anyone remember what we used to do on the internet before they invented youtube? Check this big old (cosmic)sloppy mess of music I found on there today:

  • George Clinton and the Parliaments, 1969

  • January 18, 2006

    AUDIO: Lord Finesse DJ Set, Interview on the Railroad

    lord finesse the tech's technique, cuz he's a technician

    Last week we had one of the greats, Lord Finesse, manning the turntables for a full hour and sitting down to reminisce with us about all the history he's made and witnessed. Sometimes it's really cool to have a radio show. You can hear the whole two hours below, also including a full set from Monk One:

  • Lord Finesse on the Underground Railroad, 1/14/06

    More pictures here.

  • January 19, 2006

    Cam'ron "You Got It" Jay-Z Diss Track

    o-dub: Dude. Is NY about to melt down or what? (Not that I'm trying to engage in too much hyperbole)
    jsmooth: camron?
    o-dub: yeah man
    jsmooth: ugh, i wish i could sit back and expect to have fun like in the old days, instead of having to worry
    jsmooth: i mean i doubt anything bad happens from it, but its too bad the tradition of battling is pretty much ruined now, basically now anything like this just puts everyone on terror alert
    o-dub: worry about what? You think this'll get too out of hand?
    o-dub: ah
    jsmooth: i dont think it will no
    jsmooth: but at this point it's always too much of a concern, as a default, to really have fun with it, even though this is two of the most clever emcees possibly going at it
    jsmooth: i mean really i'd love to be able to post this and say "awww shit here we go!", but now it's like what if something happens then i look back and see i helped amp it
    jsmooth: i wish i had a chance to talk to lord finesse about that
    o-dub: I hear you
    o-dub: but all things considered, this was kind of a tame diss.
    jsmooth: when i hear a song for the first time, if i dont like it musically i cant really concentrate on the lyrics, which was the case here
    jsmooth: i gotta go back in a minute
    o-dub: I mean, the Lox threatening to drop a fridge on Puffy was more explosive
    jsmooth: yeah hahaha
    jsmooth: definitely
    o-dub: Jay's not going to send Beans out to rough Cam up.
    o-dub: At least not while Beans is on parole.
    o-dub: Maybe Bleek can now earn his keep at the Roc.
    jsmooth: i'm getting flashbacks to fredo corleone

    Hot 97's Barry Mayo Steps Down, Cites Tsunami Song as "Biggest F**kup" of My Career"

    Apparently Barry was planning to step down for a while now, but this year of public disgrace at Hot 97 helped grease the wheels:

    Hot-97, Kiss exec is dialing back

    After three eventful years whose low points included Hot-97's "Tsunami Song" and whose high points included Kiss-FM returning to the top of the ratings, Barry Mayo is stepping down as senior vice president and market manager for Emmis Radio...

    ..He will continue at Emmis, overseeing WRKS (98.7 FM), WQHT (97.1 FM) and WQCD (101.9 FM), until a successor is named. He will also remain an in-house consultant for a year and may eventually consult for "one or two" other stations. "I know people in radio say, 'Consultant? Oh God, that means he got fired,'" said Mayo with a laugh. "But this is my choice. I had a contract option for another year that the company said it wanted to pick up. I said no..."

    ...Smooth-jazz WQCD has remained generally steady and calm, which isn't a word that would be applied to Hot-97 after a year that started with last January's ill-advised "Tsunami Song" parody. "There's no way in hell I could have foreseen what would happen with Hot last year," Mayo admitted. "And if there's anything I could take back, it's pretty obvious it would be 'The Tsunami Song.' I didn't hear it or approve it beforehand, but I take full responsibility for the fact it went on the air for four days. "It was clearly the biggest f-up of my career."

    The resulting firestorm led to two dismissals from the Miss Jones morning show, considerable losses from canceled advertising and Emmis paying $1 million to a tsunami relief fund. It also cast Hot-97 as a villain in discussions on whether radio goes too far.

    Mayo praised Emmis yesterday for holding the line where it did. "Almost any other company," he said, "would have fired [station management]."

    I'm not sure how praiseworthy that last item is.. and I'm curious to see whether his replacement has any different thoughts about remaining loyal to Hot's management.. I know if I was taking that job I'd have a lot of questions for my new employee, Hot's PD John Dimick.

    The Final Bell Tolls for David Mays and Benzino

    Benzino

    Once again the NY Post, of all people, has the scoop.. maybe these guys are the only topic sleazy enough for the Post to be in tune with? Allhiphop says Benzino and Eva Dave are holed up in a bunker in New Jersey, plotting one last desperate bid to reclaim the throne. Good luck with that, guys. (And good luck of the non-sarcastic variety to incoming boss Jeremy Miller)


    HIP-HOP HEAVE-HO

    In the latest tug of war for control of The Source Entertainment Inc., founder David Mays and the longtime president, rapper Ray "Benzino" Scott were ordered out of their jobs by the newly constituted board of directors after a temporary restraining order blocking the move was lifted. Four of the six board members voted to fire the duo last week and instead install Jeremy Miller, a one-time chief operating officer, as the new chief executive of The Source...

    ...Yesterday on the Web site allhiphop.com, Mays said he had fired Dasun Allah as editor-in-chief and instead installed himself in the top editorial spot... Mays said on the Web site, "Right now I am taking the role of editor-in-chief. There were just other issues that caused this to happen in this particular way."

    ...Charles Simpson, an attorney representing the board, said of Mays latest claim, "He's terminated, so he is not going to be doing anything."

    January 23, 2006

    Nas Signed to Def Jam: NY Times Says It's Official

    Like any President worth his salt, looks like Jay knows how to use a few well placed "leaks" to nudge unwanted stories off the front page. Ian, tell your friend I'm still up for that bet.

    Rapper Nas Is to Join Label Led by Former Rival Jay-Z

    The rap superstars Jay-Z and Nas, who hurled bitter insults at each other in rhyme for years in one of rap's most prominent feuds, have reached a deal that would formalize their much-publicized recent truce and transform the two onetime foes into business partners, according to music industry executives involved in the arrangement.

    The long-rumored deal sets the stage for Nas to join the artist roster of Def Jam Recordings, the rap label where Jay-Z became president last year in an unusual executive shuffle. But the two stars' personal cease-fire also evolved into an unconventional treaty of sorts between their competing record labels.

    As part of the deal, Nas's longtime record company, Sony Music, and Def Jam will split the profits - or any loss - from his next two albums, the sources said. Def Jam is expected to lay out the cost of producing and marketing the recordings, and to divide the profits after recovering its expenses. The two music companies will jointly plan and oversee the albums' marketing campaigns.

    The agreement pays Nas about $3 million, including a recording budget, for each of the first two albums, and provides for two additional albums with Def Jam, the sources said. Sony also retains the right to release a Nas greatest hits album, they added. Representatives from Def Jam and Sony declined to comment.

    As a result of the deal, Nas's next album instantly becomes one of hip-hop's most anticipated recordings of the year. It is expected to include the first significant collaboration between two wordsmiths who long battled each other for the title of New York's best rapper...

    January 24, 2006

    Kanye West Poses As Jesus on Rolling Stone Cover

    rolling stone kanye Jesus cover
    late crucifixion

    Kanye West Posing as Jesus on cover of Rolling Stone

    Kanye West, with a crown of thorns atop his head, poses as Jesus Christ on the cover of the upcoming issue of Rolling Stone. The outspoken rapper defends his brash attitude inside the magazine's pages, on newsstands Friday. He is also pictured posing as Muhammad Ali...

    ..."If I was more complacent and I let things slide, my life would be easier, but you all wouldn't be as entertained," he says. "My misery is your pleasure."

    The strangest tangent of the Rolling Stone story, however, is when West says he's addicted to pornography. He remembers first seeing his father's Playboy magazine when he was 5 years old. "Right then," West says, laughing, "it was like, `Houston, we have a problem.'"

    Cassidy Found Guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter

    Looks like he'll only spend a few more months locked up off this one, though:



    Cassidy guilty of involuntary manslaughter

    Baby-faced rapper Cassidy was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault Tuesday in what prosecutors called the planned ambush of a man who had argued with the musician. The 23-year-old Cassidy (real name: Barry Reese) was grossly negligent for supplying the guns that killed Desmond Hawkins and wounded two of his companions, Common Pleas Judge Jane Cutler Greenspan said at the end of a two-day non-jury trial.

    Greenspan sentenced Cassidy to 11 1/2 to 23 months in prison. He has been in custody since his arrest in June, meaning he could be out of jail within a few months...

    "...It's a tragic situation for me too," Cassidy told the judge. "I didn't set up for this to happen. Desmond Hawkins was my friend ... one of my closest friends..."

    January 25, 2006

    Jay-Z's First Response to the Cam Record

    The funny/sad thing is, when Jay handles this as if he's a grown man with some sense in his head, half of this ass-backwards "ignorance is strength" hip-hop nation we now live in will probably take it as a sign of weakness, that further jeopardizes his "street cred."

    From USA Today:

    Jay-Z says he's not bothered by former Def Jam star Cam'ron, who recently released Gotta Love It, in which he disses Jay-Z. "The artist in me tells me to respond to that immediately," Jay-Z says. "But I know what that's all about. He has an album coming (Killa Season), and how else is he going to get mentioned in USA TODAY or other publications?"

    Kanye West, Hip-Hop and Jesus

    Passed along (and written) by Rosa Clemente, of WBAI and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement:

    WHAT DOES JESUS LOOK LIKE?

    I was raised in the Catholic Church. From the moment I was placed under this religious institution, I was put in a situation where my savior would never look like me. For me Jesus Christ was a white men with blond hair and blue eyes. Much of my high-school years were spent going to church and confessing my teenage sins to a white man who would absolve me of those sins and tell me to pray to a white women(virgin mary) who in turn would save my soul. By the time I was 14 I thought all white men and women did was save people, the only man of color I saw in an position of authority was my dad, and papi did not look like Jesus and neither did mami...

    Continue reading "Kanye West, Hip-Hop and Jesus" »

    January 31, 2006

    MF Grimm "Book of Daniel" (MF Doom Diss Track)

    I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone post about this track since Spine linked it up. Have y'all listened to this?

    I thought they had patched things up after reuniting at the BB King show we posted here, but clearly the peace treaty didn't stick.

  • MF Grimm "Book of Daniel"

    When I read "New MF Grimm track, dissing MF Doom" I expected maybe 1 or 2 lines aimed at the mask, but boy was I wrong. This is straight tell-all memoir (or at least Frey-style "memoir") from beginning to end, especially the third verse.. breaking down so much history between them I start to feel guilty for hearing it. And unlike Cam's diss-fomercial, this one actually has a decent beat under it.

    My fascination with the thought of an MF Doom answer record may be overridden by a desire to see these two old friends work things out. But maybe we can hear that comeback and then see them patch it up.

  • February 13, 2006

    AUDIO: Two Hours of J-Dilla on MP3

    Our DJ Emskee put together two hourlong mixes of music from the great J Dilla.

  • Underground Railroad J Dilla Tribute - Hour 1 mp3, 24MB
  • Underground Railroad J Dilla Tribute - Hour 2 mp3, 24MB

    Also here's a message from Jay Dee's fam, passed on by ?uestlove:

  • Continue reading "AUDIO: Two Hours of J-Dilla on MP3" »

    February 14, 2006

    Important Public Service Announcement

    It has recently come to my attention that even 20+ years later many people (including but not limited to the blogger known as catchdubs) still think "Oh Sheila" is a Prince song.

    I guess this is understandable.. in fact when our DJ Emskee spun "Oh Sheila" last week at his Brooklyn Museum gig, I was wracking my brain wondering which Prince track it was, until the vocals came in and I slapped myself.

    But no, ladies and gentlemen, let us set the record straight once and for all: "Oh Sheila" was written and recorded by Ready For The World. The same band who, decades before R Kelly, pioneered the art of lyrical absurdity in R&B slow jams with "Girl Tonight" and "Let Me Love you Down."

    These brave men and their bold jheri curls must not be written out of history!

    February 22, 2006

    Suge Knight's Lawsuit Against Death Row Partner Michael 'Harry-O' Harris

    So uhh, explain to me why this isn't "snitching" by Suge Knight? Actually nevermind. Don't explain.

    Suge Knight Files Lawsuit Against Michael 'Harry-O' Harris

    Marion "Suge" Knight and Death Row Records have filed a $106 million dollar lawsuit against Michael "Harry-O" Harris and others in Los Angeles Federal Court.

    Harris and Wasserman Comden Cassleman and Pearson LLP are named in the lawsuit, which claims Harris, who is serving a 28-year-sentence in a California State prison for attempted murder and drug dealing, attempted to blackmail people and businesses in the music industry, by threatening to allege that proceeds from his drug enterprise were invested in legitimate businesses.

    In 1997, Harris told the Los Angeles Times that he struck a deal with Knight to fund Death Row Records. Harris said he helped create Death Row along with Suge Knight and his lawyer David Kenner, but was excluded from his due share of profits from the label's releases...

    February 23, 2006

    Not A Good Look

    Sleeping on The Daily Show.

    Blogging about tang.

    Rhyming about rape.

    This guy's chin.

    Prince's white rapper phase of 2000.

    Public Enemy Golf Commercial??

    We don't have TV here in the hiphopmusic hobbit hole, but sources tell me there's a commercial running now that uses Public Enemy's "By the Time I Get to Arizona" to promote the PGA Tour. Can anyone help eradicate what remains of my sanity by confirming this? I never thought anything would top the "Revolution Will not be Televised" Nike ad, but this just might do it.

    A warning: if I ever hear "Strange Fruit" in a Dannon yogurt commercial or something, I'm going to build a nuclear weapon.

    February 24, 2006

    Justin Warfield's "Goth" Band

    Seems like yesterday Justin Warfield was coming up to my show with his "Season of the Vic" 12 inch, and his handlers were telling me "please don't ask about the Q Tip thing." Which of course meant I could only think of the Q-Tip thing whenever I heard him from then on.. I should go back and give the album another shot though. Our other guest that night was Ghetto Communicator, anybody remember him? When he resurfaces with a new wave band i'll really be excited.

    EDIT: In other comeback news, MC Hammer's blog is a damn good blog.

    L.A. hip-hop dudes channel Joy Division

    The debut from Los Angeles' She Wants Revenge is a sleek, haunted slice of New Wave revivalism with lyrics like "Take your hand, and smack me in the mouth, my love" and enough electro-rock intensity to send goth kids onto the dance floor -- not exactly what you'd expect from two thirtysomethings with hip-hop credentials. During the Nineties, frontman Justin Warfield, now thirty-two, was a rapper who recorded with Prince Paul; Warfield's partner, Adam Bravin, 36, was a producer and club DJ who rocked parties for NBA stars and P. Diddy. The duo convened in L.A. in 2003 to make hip-hop but wound up rekindling their teenage love for Prince and the Cure on a series of demos that landed them a deal with Fred Durst's label. Now they're generating big buzz thanks to "Tear You Apart," a darkly catchy single that's a massive hit on L.A.'s KROQ and taking off on MTV...

    February 28, 2006

    "World Music" and "Global Hip-Hop"

    I always thought the label "World Music" (at least in some of its applications) was a funny sort of arrogance/myopia.. as if Philadelphia decided that cheesesteak is the only thing normal people eat, and everything on earth that is not cheesesteak belongs to one secondary category known as "exotic food". Susana has a similar reaction both to that phrase and "Global Hip-Hop", and has sparked a nice discussion in her blog about the relative merits of the terms. Susana says:

    In both cases it feels as though there's a grand division of sorts, where the Western world is placed in the centre of everything as an authentic norm, and the rest of the planet is lumped together as one uniform Other in juxtaposition. In the context of broader conversations on diversity, globalization, and multiculturalism in the West, this separation becomes more like a relationship of oppositions. The most vocal critics of multiculturalism cite how, too often, so many diverse and dynamic identities and expressions are reduced to either a single mass, or a series of static "tiles" (flowing from the metaphor of a cultural mosaic) held in place by a neutral mainstream. In either case, the normalized core culture (typically white, traditionally Western) is always the centrepiece and the measure by which all others are contextualized and discussed...

    One difference that springs to mind for me is that unlike "music", "hip-hop" does describe a particular form that has a specific place and culture of origin, so phrasing that positions this place of origin as normative is not quite so absurd, though it may be debatable.

    What do y'all think, about both or either? I think I have some questions, too, about David Dacks' response in the comments, but I need to go back and reread.

    March 1, 2006

    Shooting at Kanye West Concert in Birmingham England

    Ugh. Glad to hear everyone will recover..

    Stewards Shot During Rapper's Concert

    Two stewards have been shot during a UK concert by American rapper Kanye West, police said. The workers are thought to have been attacked as a group of people were being escorted from the NEC Arena, near Solihull, West Midlands, for not having tickets to the event. Police officers were called to the incident at the front entrance to the venue shortly after 10pm last night and the stewards were taken to hospital with gunshot wounds...

    Continue reading "Shooting at Kanye West Concert in Birmingham England" »

    March 28, 2006

    Why Are There Still No Female Producers?

    Nice interview with Joi up at Honeysoul.. Among lots of other things, they discuss (in a Soul/R&B context) the question I've been asking about Hip-Hop for years: why are there damn near never any successful female producers?

    Joi: The industry is horrifically chauvinist. And racist. But horrifically chauvinist. There are no female producers. Name me one. Besides Missy!

    [Laughs] I was about to say Missy..

    Joi: Besides Missy, name me one. You can't. There aren't any. [...] Erykah is a woman of her own design and creation, but James Poyser is there. india is a woman of her own design, but she certainly has men that are a part of her crew [...] All of the women who are truly, truly 100% producing all of their stuff, you've never heard of them. And they're brilliant. So just that fact alone tells you that the business is incredibly sexist. It is very difficult to forge your own path as a woman.

    April 5, 2006

    Straight Talk on New Orleans

    Another must-read from Minneapolis' finest, Peter Scholtes, who used to reside in N.O.:

    Juvenile's New Orleans, the ghost town America made

    ...This is what Barney Frank has called "a policy of ethnic cleansing by inaction," and the response from many liberals has been self-fulfilling pessimism—Tim Harford in Slate takes the failed tourist economy for granted, while Elizabeth Kolbert in the New Yorker conflates geological inevitability with manmade folly in sinking Louisiana. Many conservatives, meanwhile, shirk federal responsibility for the floods. Either way, the reality of the New Orleans that I knew when I lived here—that the overwhelming majority of residents worked, and worked hard, in exactly the kinds of jobs most needed to rebuild—seems lost on most American leaders.

    And what do New Orleans rappers have to say? Not much. Juvenile lost a house on Lake Pontchartrain, and astutely sets the video for "Get Ya Hustle On" in the home-owning, blue-collar Lower Ninth rather than his Magnolia projects stamping ground. Yet his lyrics bond with the only day laborers hip hop romanticizes. "To all my people on them corners I consider ya as dogs," Juve rasps, adding, "I wish I could break a package down and send it to y'all." In case you were wondering what kind of package he means, he adds: "Everybody need a check from FEMA/So he can go and score him some co-ca-ina."

    Dealers have families, too, of course. But pre-Katrina life in the N.O. was more complex than Juvenile's largely pre-storm Reality Check (Atlantic) would suggest, at least to judge by Nik Cohn's 2005 memoir Triksta: Life & Death & New Orleans Rap (Knopf). Though the late Soulja Slim is held up by many as a thug's folk hero (Juvenile dedicates his album to him, as well as to "the victims of Hurricane Katrina"), gangster rappers overwhelmingly work long hours at square jobs—in construction, roofing, teaching. Where are the bounce anthems for bricklayers?

    April 6, 2006

    AUDIO: Dave Mays and Benzino Discussing Busta Incident

    If for some reason anyone still cares what these guys have to say, here's the audio of David Mays and Benzino on the Star and Bucwild show. Ever the philanthropist, at the end Star is kind enough to offer them temporary employment as replacement hosts when he is out of town.

    (via Chinese Kid Who Loves Hip Hop)

    April 9, 2006

    People Who Understood Hip-Hop, Volume One

    "To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music that words make." -Truman Capote

    April 21, 2006

    The All-Rapper Barbershop Quartet

    Someone just asked me who I would select if I was putting together a barbershop quartet composed entirely of rappers. I decided the answer, clearly, was this perfect mix of voices: Nate Dogg, Cee-Lo, Pharrell and Bizmarkie.

    Can anyone recommend a better line-up? Let me know, because I am now making it my mission to bring this project into reality. Just Blaze, if you're reading this, please make some phone calls and get the ball rolling.

    April 27, 2006

    Man Named Gravy Shot Outside Hot 97

    I heard about this last night and thought the details must be exaggerated, but it looks like this guy Gravy really did go upstairs for his moment to shine after getting shot. He was on with Saigon and Wes Jackson's friend Joell Ortiz..

    Glad nobody was seriously hurt, but sad to know that in today's hip-hop game this'll become Gravy's gravy train, and we can now expect a major label debut with the recurring theme of "hit the studio with the bullet still in me!"

    This page has video of Gravy getting taken to the hospital, and here's the NY Post report.


    BUTT SERIOUSLY . . . RAPPER SHOT AT HOT 97

    the studios of Hot 97 last night, but was still able to sit for an interview at the station, police sources said.
    Jamal Wollard, 28, who goes by the rap name Gravy, was hit by one bullet as he arrived at the notorious station at about 9:30 p.m. Wollard came with an entourage of about 30 cheering people wearing T-shirts with his name on it.

    When the gunfire erupted, people began screaming and running for their lives. But Gravy calmly walked upstairs to do the interview despite his wound, the sources said.

    After receiving dozens of 911 calls, cops sealed off the station, looking for any victims. When they found Wollard limping around inside, they asked him what happened, and he said he had fallen, the sources said. But officers noticed blood and he was taken to St. Vincents Hospital in stable condition...

    May 10, 2006

    The Best Nigga Who Ever Spit

    Even when gets a bunch of stuff wrong, which is almost every time, I always love seeing Robert Christgau write about hip-hop. This foray into the world of mixtapes is no exception (on either count.. it's get familiar, Bob!)


    Explorations in Mixtape Nation

    "far more than indie-rock collectibles, mixtapes tap the world's endless musical reserves—and render hip-hop-is-dead rhetoric ridiculous."

    It gets me every time, and there's barely any music to it. Mainly it's a naked voice—mellow, soft-edged, playfully playground, flowing liquid over bass drum and down-low "Gold Digger" hook, which now signifies not "Ray Charles" but "classic Kanye you're always happy to hear again (so far)." It's a Q-Tip freestyle, and though it follows the Busta-meets-Pharrell expostulation "Followers"—"Shinin' brighter on niggas just like a f**kin' halogen/Spit clearer than water 'cause I'm lactose intolerant"—please believe that it stops the show.

    He "ain't really sayin' nothin' exactly." So try to imagine Q-Tip's simple words not just scanning but lilting: "Bite my style yo they bite my style/Turn up the music little bit more now/There's the knob turn it up more Joe/And then we gonna spit this next verse and then we gon' go/Because there's radio shows by the dozen/But none is fuckin' with this one cousin/It's the Clinton the Sparks . . ." It's lovely, infectious, virtuosic. When you obey Kardinal Offishall on the next track and Google "the best nigga who ever spit," you get nothing, which seems just...

    ...Someone should write a book about the mixtape world, which encapsulates hip-hop's complexity. It's dangerous, creative, materialistic, and uncontrollable, up from slavery and on both sides of the law. But as a music critic in for a quick look around, all I can say is that the eight or nine examples I've been sampling are mind-boggling...

    Star Suspended Fired at Power 105, After Attacking DJ Envy's Family

    I never listen to the show, but I've heard that Star has recently been making some amazingly (even by his standards) low-class attacks on Hot 97's DJ Envy. Star's focus has been aiming anti-asian slurs and personal attacks at Envy's wife, plus gruesome threats towards Envy's young kids.

    A bit of a weird situation given that Envy himself was one of the singers on Hot 97's own anti-asian and generally anti-human Tsunami Song. But that doesn't make Star's nonsense any less despicable, and it looks like his hate-mongering has finally caught up with him, as Power 105 reportedly just put him on suspension. EDIT: Power 105 has now confirmed that Star is fired.

    This comes just as NY City Councilman John Liu, who prominently joined in the protests against Hot 97 that began on this site, held a press conference today calling for Star's termination.. here's the press release from this morning:

    EDIT: I just added a transcript detailing some of Star's on-air comments, under the press release

    5/11/06 EDIT: I just posted Star's apology here, issued through his lawyer.

    Continue reading "Star Suspended Fired at Power 105, After Attacking DJ Envy's Family" »

    May 26, 2006

    AUDIO: Malcolm X Birthday Funk, 5/20/06

    Here's another funk/soul set from DJ 3D, with yours truly mixing in Malcolm's voice over the tracks in honor of his birthday last week. Once again, please step up and help the world by ID'ing all these old records if you can.


    powered by ODEO

    Muchas gracias to Odeo.com for making us a featured "staff pick" podcast of the moment..

    June 5, 2006

    There's No Such Thing as "Real Hip-Hop"

    People, in general, tend to overestimate the relevance of their own personal taste. It's a common mistake both on and off the internet. But we hip-hoppers may be the worst offenders of all.

    According to recent testing, 4 out of 5 hip-hoppers believe that "my personal taste in hip-hop should be used as a universal standard for what constitutes 'real hip-hop,' and that anyone who doesn't do (or like) the particular hip-hop I like should not be considered 'hip-hop' at all."

    If the flows are too simple, if the flows are too complex, if the beat is too dance-friendly, if the beat is not dance-friendly enough. if the subject matter is too positive, if the subject matter is too negative... I've heard each one of these offered as proof that some record is not "real hip-hop, " and anyone who likes it must not be "real hip-hop heads." This is not sound reasoning. It makes us look stupid and elitist.

    There's no such thing as "real hip-hop" or "fake hip-hop." There's only hip-hop you like, and hip-hop you don't like.*

    That doesn't mean there's no place for blunt, honest critique of our artists/industry/culture. If Thug Life Clone #228 spends his whole album glorifying stupidity and self-destruction, he (and whoever's running the clone factory) needs to get called out for that. But framing our critique in the language of "fake" and "real" hip-hop will always be self-defeating. It does nothing but alienate and insult the intelligence of everyone we hope to reach.

    If you have such little respect for your peers or your children that you believe millions of them buy a record due solely to media brainwashing, and there's no independent thought involved, your battle is already lost. We need to take a step back and recognize that if Thug Life Clone #228 has millions of people checking for his record, he must be doing something right.

    We need to approach his music with an open mind, figure out how he is capturing people's imagination better than we are, and learn from that. Then we can engage that artist and his fans with respect, acknowledging and understanding what they find valuable in the music and framing our critiques within that context. Until we get smart enough to do that, we're always gonna be the self-righteous underground backpackers that nobody listens to.

    -------------
    *Unless you count the "Lazy Sunday" sort of Fake Rap, but I think you know what I'm saying here.

    June 13, 2006

    Man Shoots Friend with 40 Cal While Listening to "40 Cal" by 40 Cal

    I don't want to read too much into this, cuz it's surely more about this one person's negligence and irresponsiblity, and the tragedy of his friend's death, than whatever meaning we might extrapolate from the music they had on. But for these guys to treat guns so casually while listening to somebody treat guns so casually sure is a cringe-inducing coincidence*

    New Orleans Man Shot By .40 Cal While Listening To Song With Same Name

    Longtime friends near New Orleans, Louisiana were spending their time like many do: listening to music. Unfortunately, a tragedy took place on Thursday, June 8th when Ronnie Webber, 27, and Jonathan Beasley, 23, were listening to the Diplomats song "40 Cal ". The two men were looking at each other's guns when Webber playfully aimed the .40 Caliber gun at Beasley and pulled the trigger.

    Webber told authorities that he did not check to see if the semi-automatic gun, which was recently purchased by Beasley, was loaded with ammunition. Immediately following the shot that struck Beasley in the chest, Webber called the police and attempted to perform CPR on his friend.

    Webber was arrested for negligent homicide and was jailed following the fatal accident. Gabriella Webber, the shooter's mother, told The Times-Picayune, "It was an accident, but he has to be responsible." She continued with heartfelt words, stating, "There's not enough words for me to apologize for the silly decisions they made." She finished by warning others, "They are not a toy. The music is all that it is. Do not live the music. Guns are not a toy."

    *assuming that detail is accurate..

    July 5, 2006

    Emcee Battle: TheSaurus vs. Iron Solomon

    A long awaited clash of two titans from the battle circuit, Oakland's TheSaurus and the current king of NY Iron Solomon (who also came by our radio show last week, audio forthcoming). Great battle, and since is this my pet issue I have to note: yet another example of the guy who mixes in premeditated lines beating a foe who demands respect for staying off the top. Are y'all ready to admit yet that the "all battling must be off the top" orthodoxy was never a good idea?

    July 7, 2006

    Congrats to Elliott Wilson and Danyel Smith, Proud Parents

    Following yesterday's news that Danyel Smith is returning to Vibe comes another big announcement for Smith and her hubb, XXL boss Elliott Wilson: they are welcoming a son into the family!

    After some legal wrangling, the paperwork has finally gone through for their somewhat unorthodox adoption process, which makes them the legal guardians of man in his late thirties named Jeremy Miller, Editor-in-Chief of the Source Magazine. This middle-aged bundle of joy completes the Smith-Wilson master plan to place all hip-hop publishing in one family's control.

    In related news, police also came by the Smith-Wilson household yesterday to remove former Source owner Raymond "Benzino" Scott, who was reportedly knocking on doors and shouting "come on, don't y'all remember your long-lost Uncle Ray-Ray?"

    July 10, 2006

    AUDIO: Keith Murray Live on the Railroad

    keith-murray-012 keith-murray-009

    "Cats say 'Murray you'd go good with G-Unit
    But since you smacked P, 50 might not do it...'"


    SUBSCRIBE TO THE FUNK AT ODEO

    A couple of weeks ago Keith Murray came by our radio show, and did some of that rapping stuff he likes to do, He also revealed a few possible titles he's mulling over for his upcoming album, including my favorite "A-rap-maphobia":

    July 13, 2006

    African Hip-Hop in Minneapolis

    Peter Scholtes always brings the depth and detail with his pieces, this time covering his town's African hip-hoppers, and whether hip-hop's ties to Africa are sometimes over-mythologized.

    Also check Keith Harris' "Africa's Ultimate Beats and Breaks" on the same page (shoutout to Ben Herson), and Peter's exhaustive collection of African hip-hop links here.

    PAYBACK IS A MOTHERLAND

    ... [Faada] Freddy, whose Senegalese rap trio Daara J performs for free in Loring Park on Monday, is a foremost advocate for the theory that, by finding embrace in Africa, hip hop has "come home." Collaborating freely (the crew recently recorded with Malian legend Salif Keita) and inflecting their tassou with dancehall toasts and R&B melodies, Daara J's sales pitch nevertheless relies on their association with the oldest of old schools.

    "The storytellers used songs to say, 'This is how we should act,'" says Freddy. "It was a way for them to remind us that socially, politically, we have to be involved. Back then there were no TVs, no Internet neither. The only way for people to communicate was through the griots. Pop music was a way to know what was going on in the countryside."

    These days, rap music has become a way for African immigrants, including thousands of Minnesotans, to connect with their home countries. No longer just black America's CNN, hip hop is a griot for a black planet.

    Which is why I'm surprised to learn that Freddy, who grew up speaking Wolof, has never heard of the theory that "hip" originated from xippi. At the mention of this, the expert rhetorician nearly leaps through the phone.

    "And xeupp [pronounced 'hop'] means 'to pour something,'" he says. "When you're just full of something, you pour it. Like when you're full of emotion, you give it to the people."

    Most African rappers hesitate to claim hip hop for Africa. "It's a good story," says Ghanaian-born M.anifest, smiling in a way that suggests he thinks Faada Freddy is full of something, all right (though he admires Daara J's live show). "Plus they named their CD Boomerang. Very smart marketing..."

    August 8, 2006

    Is This Thing On?

    I'm out of town for a few months on a secret mission, but I've got a minute now to dip back in here. Did I miss anything important in the last month? Is there anything meaningful left to talk about in the world, or is blogging now solely a tool for randomly antagonizing your peers and/or minor celebrities?

    August 25, 2006

    I Want A Chicken Noodle Soup T-Shirt

    I'm told kids in NY are currently rocking Chicken Noodle Soup shirts, complete with soda on the side. Can someone post a photo? I might need one of those as I walk the mean streets of Portland Maine this coming month.

    For the record though, the Chicken Noodle is just a souped up version of Morris Day's side-to-side dance from back in the day (watch for it 90 seconds in). And Chicago ain't doing nothing new either, but I guess it's cool that Riverdance finally made it to the hood.

    October 9, 2006

    We Are At War

    Am I the only one who keeps thinking of Sister Souljah when Beyonce does her "rap" on Ring the Alarm?

    October 15, 2006

    Jay-Z's New Album Comes Free With Nets Tickets

    Jay-Z perhaps taking a page out of Prince's playbook, and boosting his soundscans a bit by throwing in his "Kingdom Come" album with Nets ticket purchases (if these get counted):

    Jay-Z Offers Album Free of Charge to Ticket Purchasers
    soundslam

    Rapper Jay-Z has literally* taken the promotion of his return album, Kingdom Come, to the next level. As a way of rewarding those that purchase a premiere week package for the New Jersey Nets, Jay-Z, in turn, is offering each purchaser a free copy of the album, which is currently set to hit stores on November 21, 2006. In addition, Jay-Z will personally hand-sign 100 copies of the CDs, which will be randomly distributed.

    * When my debut album drops, I'm giving away a free copy with every overuse of the word "literally."

    October 17, 2006

    Jay-Z "Show Me What You Got" Video

    (10/17 - Updated with new link to video from bolt.com.. is it even worth linking up to youtube anymore? all their videos self-destruct in 5 seconds now.)

    Jay-Z and F Gary Gray team up for the "Show Me What You Got" video, which is fine I suppose, but basically yet another episode of "Hooray, I'm rich! Watch me do rich people things!" I've said this before and i'll say it again: Jay is smart enough to deliver more than that. I wish he'd challenge himself, and challenge the "if skills sold, truth be told" orthodoxy more than he does.

    (via the mighty eskay)

    October 18, 2006

    The Ill German(?) Masterdon Committee Footage

    Somebody please tell me where this comes from?? I need answers.

    October 26, 2006

    Philly's Underground Emcee Battle Scene

    Complex has an excellent piece from Ben Detrick on Philadelphia's hot mess of a street-DVD/battle-rap scene, made famous by that Joey Jihad youtube sucker punch:


    It's always sunny in Philadelphia
    complex

    “I’m gonna kill you,” hisses an anonymous voice through the phone. Calls like this, from restricted numbers, come almost hourly at the home of Philadelphia rapper Darren “Chic Raw” Martin. He usually ignores them, but sometimes, out of frustration, Chic can’t help but answer.

    Such threats are the price of fame in Philadelphia. Based on a few mixtapes, a little radio play, and a number of DVD appearances that feature his snarled raps, the 22-year-old MC has become a big name in the city’s underground hip-hop scene. So who’s making the threats? Chic’s best guess is that the callers are rap rivals of his Top Shottas crew, hoping to make him squirm. But he doesn’t doubt that the threats are real.

    On this sunny July afternoon, the curtains are drawn in the sparse North Philly apartment Chic shares with his girlfriend. They’ve lived here two months, and it shows; the walls are bare and there is no couch, only chairs. Chic still doesn’t feel safe in the downtrodden neighborhood. Between bites of instant noodles, he gestures toward the locations of numerous shootings that have occurred nearby. Tall and lanky, Chic has thin, brown scars on his forehead and oval eyes that widen into saucers when he becomes animated. His forearms are adorned with tattoos of his rap alias, his crew, a bar code, and a pair of theatrical masks around which “Laugh Now, Cry Later” is inked.

    But Chic isn’t laughing...


    November 24, 2006

    Access of Evil

    Hello, I'm Tamara Palmer -- my friends call me Teemoney. I'm a writer/editor/DJ from the San Francisco Yay Area. Mr. Smooth has kindly asked me to be a guest blogger here, which is an honor, and I can assure dear readers that he's given me a tough set of standards and practices to adopt in my posts. . .

    Thought I'd start off today with something that really makes my bile boil, especially after the recent KKKramer drama. Two 13-year-old twin girls who call themselves Prussian Blue are at number four in the Billboard charts this week for selling 91K copies of an album called End of a Black World.

    (thanks to stic.man of dead prez for pointing this out, as well as this background story that follows)

    Young Singers Spread Racist Hate
    Duo considered the Olsen Twins of the White Nationalist Movement
    (abcnews.com)

    They may remind you of another famous pair of singers, the Olsen Twins, and the girls say they like that. But unlike the Olsens, who built a media empire on their fun-loving, squeaky-clean image, Lamb and Lynx are cultivating a much darker personna. They are white nationalists and use their talents to preach a message of hate. . .

    [EDIT: Turns out this is a hoax, and I am so glad! I had a nagging voice in the back of my head that said to check the actual charts, but I didn't. But let me just say that I'd rather look silly for falling for this than to actually have it be true. My faith in humanity remains.]

    January 16, 2007

    VIDEO: The Men Behind the "White Rapper Show"

    Okay y'all, we're back. 2007 is our 10th anniversary here, and I'm gonna be trying some new things, mainly adding more video to the site.

    My first attempt at what the kids call "vlogging" is this clip of my interview with Sacha Jenkins, Jeff "Chairman" Mao" and Elliott Wilson, 3/5ths of a man of the Ego Trip crew.. creators of my favorite magazine ever (Ego Trip), two of my favoriite books ever (Ego Trip's Book of Rap Lists and Ego Trip's Big Book of Racism), and a TV show I never saw because I don't have cable (Ego Trip's Race-O-Rama on VH1).

    But this month I will be stealing somebody's cable so I can catch their latest VH1 misadventure, "Ego Trip's The White Rapper Show," on which ten aspiring caucasian emcees compete for a chance to become the next Miilkbone. The crew came to visit us a few days before the premiere, and explained their master plan.

    Apologies in advance for Elliott's face being blocked out, my cameraman was drunk. I hadn't seen the show yet when we did the interview, caught it since then but I'm still processing the many levels of absurdity. What do y'all think of it so far?

    April 4, 2007

    Mini-Video: A Snapshot of Atlanta



    Perhaps my favorite memory of ATL: The energy of this crowd at MJQ Concourse, all singing "Git Up Get Out" together as if it was their National Anthem. Which it probably should be.

    May 9, 2007

    Big Announcements Coming Soon


    Git It n Git

    Yes, Tru South and Black People (the commenter named "Black People") are correct, it has become a ghost town around here. But that's about to change! I just finished my 3 month stint on the road for StoryCorps, so I'll soon be back to having no life and spending all day online. And I'll be announcing some major new projects here soon, so stay tuned for that. As you may be able to guess, the new projects involve a lot more of me yapping into a camera.

    In the meantime, gotta acknowledge this Spasm of Lucidity* from Jim Jones, speaking out against the Rockefeller Drug Laws:

    *(c) Marv albert

    June 13, 2007

    The Truth About The Takeover (Updated)


    This secret camera footage reveals the truth behind the takeover of hiphopmusic.com. More complete footage and details forthcoming.

    UPDATE: We have now received the full director's cut of the hidden camera footage:

    June 19, 2007

    Don't Call It A Comeback

    As previously announced, I have a new home now at illdoctrine.com, where I will be making videos of some sort. This doesn't mean I'm retiring from this site, but I expect my already sporadic posting here to become even more sporadicated. So I have assembled some of my favorite writers and thinkers, and handed them the keys to the joint.

    The new starting lineup for hiphopmusic.com is as follows:

  • Janine McCargo - DC native, now based in NY. Studied Art History at Oberlin, focusing on Russian Symbolism and Decadence. There's a joke here about how that relates to hip-hop, somebody please fill it in for me. Been aware of her for a long time as one of the sharpest commenters here and elsewhere, and always thought she should be doing her own blog. Clearly this called for assimilation into the blog collective, and thankfully she recognized that resistance is futile.

  • Just Blaze - Noted collector of Rico Tizio gear. Also makes beats. One of the coolest and most genuine people I've met in this business, and I cosign everything Saigon said on the topic (except the stuff about bleeding, I'm not built for that). Don't expect he'll have much time to hang in here, but maybe I'll start some rumors to get things moving.

  • Joe Schloss - AKA Joe Twist, the author of Making Beats: The Art of Sample-Based Hip-Hop. He currently resides in Brooklyn where he enjoys uprocking, digging for breaks, and arguing with people. Sets the standard for properly representing hip-hop in "the academy." It is quite rare that I disagree with him, on any topic.

  • Brandon Soderberg - Our youngest crew member, and my favorite of the newer bloggers on the scene. Sharp, funny, too abrasive for my tastes sometimes but always in service of ideas that he actually believes in and is taking seriously. It is not rare that I disagree with him, on any topic.

  • Dan Charnas - One of the first writers for the Source back in the days, still one of the best writers and thinkers in this hip-hop thing of ours. Has done too many other cool things to list here. Got Chino XL his record deal, and oversaw the making of the "Baby Got Back" Video. I disagree with him on the relative cinematic merit of "Soul Plane" and "Undercover Brother.

    And last but not least, gotta give a shoutout to all our regular commenters, especially the infamous Black People. I think of y'all as contributors too, for sho. Please be kind to our new generation of Degrassi students!

    (P.S. Tamara if you're out there, you're welcome to join in too)

  • June 27, 2007

    Rap & Country: More Alike Than I'm Willing To Admit...

    Kelefa Sanneh’s article ‘It Takes a Tough Man to Tell a Bad Joke’ contrasts the serious attitudes of most rock stars with country singers who are more than willing to joke around: “While rock stars often try their best to make audiences forget they are professional entertainers, country singers have often been happy to celebrate the fact.” (23). Sanneh invokes Brad Paisley’s love-song ‘Ticks’ (“I’d like to check you for ticks”) and Toby Keith’s ‘High Maintenance Woman’ containing the chorus “A high-maintenance woman don’t want no high-maintenance man” (1). I know, I know… this isn’t www.war-mongeringcrackermusic.com, it’s www.hiphopmusic.com but bear with me…

    First, the article is relevant to rap in that continues Sanneh’s assault against rockism. Second, although Sanneh never “goes there”, the attitudes and description of country music’s “freedom to mix the sublime and the ridiculous, in the interests of putting on a good show” could easily be said of hip-hop (23). Although hardly the article’s intention, it moved me to arrive at an ugly truth I’m not totally sure I can confront: rap and country music have a lot in common.

    Continue reading "Rap & Country: More Alike Than I'm Willing To Admit..." »

    July 9, 2007

    When They Reminisce Over Mixtapes

    I miss mixtapes. I miss the bad cover art and the slim cases. I miss how cheap they are, I miss the shouting and gunshots peppered throughout otherwise listenable tracks, and I miss having to hunt them down, going in and out of stores that still advertise "Pagers", having no clue which ones they'll have or if they'll even have any. I even miss the anonymous rappers that often show up on an otherwise good track and ruin it by rhyming the end of each line with the same word. Who is to blame for the hole in my heart formerly occupied by mixtapes? We all know the answer to that one.

    It's been about six months since the RIAA's "raid" of DJ Drama's offices and unlike so many other, equally pointless, stupidly "symbolic" governmental actions, this one seems to have worked. As mixtape spots slowly dried-up, I felt shocked. I was reminded of a joke my (now deceased) friend made, after hours of trying to find a dependable weed-connect: "Did the government really win the war on drugs? What's going on here?" There really aren't mixtapes?! What's going on here?

    Although I bemoan the absence of mixtapes, it is ultimately, a situation where reason beats-out my fandom and sympathies: "Okay RIAA, fair enough, you did it in the wrong way and it was poorly executed and has weird, racist undertones but yeah, it isn't exactly legal for anyone to rap over the 'Daytona 500' beat without permission and then sell it…" Nevertheless, there are about a million problems with the mixtape "crackdown".

    First, it is hardly a "crackdown"; the absence of mixtapes comes out of a fear of government enforcement not actual government enforcement. Second, the "crackdown" has accomplished very little in the way of helping album sales and legal downloads, which is what mixtapes were supposedly affecting. Third, there is the phenomenon of mixtapes being fairly absent from small stores and street-corners but still, to some degree, available through many corporate stores and entities.

    Around the initial hype of Lil Wayne's weirdy-popular and strangely mediocre mixtape, 'Da Drought 3', a local chainstore in my native Baltimore was selling the mixtape. A search of Amazon.com's Marketplace still reveals many copies for sale. Although Amazon Marketplace only acts as a conduit for sellers and buyers, it is exactly the kind of complicity the RIAA symbolically attacked when they raided DJ Drama. In many F.Y.E and Best Buys, numerous 'Gangsta Grillz' discs among many others, can be found right next to major label albums at a significantly marked-up price.

    The mixtapes are generally sold for conventional CD retail prices, meaning somewhere, anywhere, between $11.99 and $17.99. My local mixtape guy never sold me a tape for more than $7.00, making the mark-up hovering somewhere around 100%! It looks like corporate collusion, as the mixtape "crackdown" removed the minor-level mixtape merchant while allowing, the F.Y.Es and Best Buys to continue profiting.

    To be fair, the F.Y.E and Best Buys of Baltimore (and I assume all areas) are well-known for selling the rap of hometown artists and in a way, mixtape sales could be seen as an extension of that local loyalty, but why that would matter to the mind-bogglingly out-of-touch RIAA? One would think, from any sort of legal standpoint, the selling of "bootlegs" (which is what the RIAA consider mixtapes) in a large chainstore would be significantly more problematic than the selling of those tapes in small cell-phone accessory stores, street corners, etc.

    There is also the issue of who is supplying chainstores with mixtapes. DJ Drama and I assume, most other mixtapers, maintain the story that they do not sell any of their CDs; "for promotional use only", just as the little sticker on the slim case says. While I find that hard to believe, I am more willing to believe that the copies found in chainstores are bootlegs (or technically, bootlegs of bootlegs?) because they aren't in slim cases and the inserts suspiciously look like copies of copies on photo-paper. Doesn't it seem more problematic, that a nationwide store not only sells mixtapes, but bootlegged mixtapes than it does if the guy on the corner, in the locally-owned record store, or at the weekend flea market, is selling the same? I don't see who this mixtape ban helps.

    This mixtape pontificating began when I went to New York a few weekends ago and was shocked by the absence of mixtapes there as well. I went to normal spots like Canal Street and a few others but found nothing. Not a poor selection, literally nothing. I doubt this is news to native New Yorkers and perhaps people way more city-savvy than I still know where to get them, but for me this was a total shock. Peeking over five-foot Chinese heads and bobbing and weaving between feet-dragging, mouth-agape tourists taking in the city, I searched for the rack of tapes and listened for rap through crappy speakers, as my general rule of thumb was to just follow that sound and eventually, you'd hit a mixtape merchant. Not this time.

    Despondently walking away, it occurred to me that it is now easier to find mixtapes at the mall, in Baltimore, MD, than it is to find them on Canal Street! Explain that one.

    This "crackdown" besides creating some even weirder in-between legalities than the ones that already existed, has lessened the overall hype and excitement about new rap music. The mixtape cover pops-up on Nahright or as the heading for bloggers' reviews but we see that cover only as a JPG in a WINRAR file not as the cover to a physical object we hunted-down and purchased.

    We click, download, unzip, and load "mixtapes" into Winamp or iTunes and if it's decent, maybe its burned or loaded onto the iPOD but that's about it. The excitement is gone in a music industry that needs any form of excitement it can get. The tapes were always available for download but for dorks like me and many others, downloading it was never enough if I knew, somewhere I could buy a little jewel case, with some goofy artwork, and a sticker that says "For promotional use only" for about $5.00.

    July 19, 2007

    One More Rap Book I Probably Won't Read

    Michael Eric Dyson's new book 'Know What I Mean: Reflections on Hip-Hop' arrives serendipitously. A few months after the Imus controversy that somehow created a never-ending quasi-debate about rap music, Dyson hopefully brings a more nuanced, "insider" approach to the music. However, if this excerpt and his appearance on the 'Today' show on Tuesday are any indication, I don't feel that readers of this site would get a lot out of the book and I'm not sure any rap "outsider" would either.

    Dyson should be praised for taking rap music seriously and I do not doubt he is committed to the genre, but his argument seems less an attempt to engage hip-hop haters and more a plan to run circles around them. A great deal of what he has to say is glaringly half-formed. Dyson's most prevalent points are stated in a way that falls apart with any knowledge of rap; his argument seems to depend on mainstream rap ignorance.

    Dyson works within the binary that there is rap that is "positive" and rap that is "negative" and that simplistic argument is his first flaw. His second flaw is listing a less overtly conscious or political artists like Scarface, Jay-Z, and Nas along more predictable rap-defense staples without acknowledging that he has done so. Dyson's list of rappers that he considers "incredible artists doing incredibly complex things" were: Scarface, Jay-Z, Nas, Lauryn Hill, Bahamadia, Common, Mos Def, Talib Kweli. This is a step in the right direction as Scarface, Jay-Z, and Nas can be every bit as radical as those other artists named, but there is a difference. Some of the artists he cites make rap that the hip-hop haters could inarguably cite as "negative".

    Invoking Scarface, Jay-Z, and Nas as examples of "positive" hip-hop to an audience whose problem with rap comes in its bad language and presentation of negative behavior simply does not make sense. The rappers he cited, "positive", "negative", or somewhere in between, are exceptions to the rule. He needs to find a way to address rap music as a genre without constructing binaries between good and bad, particularly binaries that fall-apart so easily.

    The primary concern of hip-hop insiders and outsiders when it comes to social responsibility is the degrading nature of rap's lyrics. Those concerned with the moral aspects of any kind of art have never taken the art aspect seriously, so any number of books about rap's "complexity" won't quiet those who want rap to stop being so "negative". This is the flaw of the intellectual, to think that art matters or is the bottom line. Complexity and intelligence will never outweigh people's outrage, especially when the outrage is fairly reasonable, as it is with hip-hop.

    Dyson's list of rappers is so scrupulous as to make his point moot. First, he gives a list of "gangsta" or post-"gangsta" rappers that don't really confound most critiques of rap. Then, in some calculated attempt at political correctness (and wishful address of misogyny?), he lists two female rappers when, let's face it, female emcees just don't matter. His point would be better supported to just admit that rap has a problem with women than to go back to the late 90s for relevant female rappers. Lauryn Hill hasn't rapped properly since 1998 and almost nobody watching 'Today' knows who the hell Bahamadia is…Mos Def and Talib Kweli are equally obscure to NBC's early-morning audience. Common is perhaps the only artist Dyson cited who is overwhelmingly "positive" and relatively well-known. Although flawed and problematic, the music of someone like Kanye West, who occupies near-super star status and some semblance of positivity, would be a wiser way to engage the audience. However, it would not surprise me if Dyson, like many others, do not see West as "hip-hop" enough and would rather muddle the argument than concede to someone else's standards.

    Dyson does the same as those hip-hop haters he opposes but in reverse. The more savvy critics of rap music now concede that there is some "positive rap" but focus overwhelmingly on the negative aspects. Dyson concedes that there is "negative" rap but chooses to focus on the positive aspects. Both are wrong but unfortunately, when the argument is set-out like that, I'd side with the hip-hop haters because the so-called negative rap is the rap most people are listening to and therefore, the one with the most moral or immoral "influence". Dyson might have more of a point if he would extend his argument to point out that indeed, if rap's criticizers were to take some, any, of the music seriously, that might shift the focus away from popularity of the negative rap but he does no such thing.

    In the best case scenario, Dyson's book will cause a sea change on the perspective of rap, but that change would be one that is equally false as the one being projected now. I would be no happier if a bunch of people began defending rap by saying "there's positive rap and negative rap" and then cited a list that included rappers that are clearly not "positive" by a conventional definition of the word. Replacing one incorrect, manipulative mantra with another, even if it helps rap's reputation is something I cannot get behind.

    It is briefly mentioned on the 'Today' show and dealt with in the excerpt, but Dyson's invocation of art's history of dealing with the unsavory is either disingenuous or naive. Although I would agree that Jay-Z or Nas approach (and even surpass!) the complexity of Shakespeare, those kind of comparisons appear absurd to the average person, particularly one not fond of hip-hop. Engaging rap as art is divisive because it will takes generations for rap to be put on the level of art (it is only in the past decade or so that rock music has been taken seriously); most of those who choose to criticize hip-hop will either never consider it art or are mind-bogglingly middlebrow and do not care about "art" in the first place.

    Art, complex or not, intellectual or not, has never been free of criticism or even, violent censorship. No matter how correct the argument may be, rap's complexity will not free it from the grips of censors and closed-minded cultural critics. Even if it does the genre a disservice, rap must be discussed and engaged as pop-culture product if it is to be understood by the hip-hop haters. Dyson's comparison between censoring rap and censoring mindless action movies moves in that direction.

    Dyson wisely connects the blind-eye people turn to contemporary action films to race and class. Indeed, the same people who might write screeds against 50 Cent calling-out his album 'Get Rich or Die Tryin' do not bat an eye to the similarly-titled 'Live Free or Die Hard' which grossed about 85 million dollars. Dyson bravely invokes race and class as giving the makers of action films free passes when it comes to violence: 'Live Free or Die Hard' supports our president's "war on terror" hustle, so don't expect protest anytime soon.

    He would have been wise to invoke the so-called torture-porn films of Hollywood like 'Saw' and 'Hostel' which are laughed-off by many as harmless fantasy. This would be the most engaging and relevant argument, for it bypasses nebulous words like "art" or "complexity", addresses pertinent race and class issues, while conceding to the idea that some entertainment is indeed "too far".

    I want to praise Dyson's appearance and I want to praise his book but I see him as politician-like in his scrupulosity and stretching of the truth. I do not doubt that his avoidance of facts and convenient end-runs are for the pragmatic motivation of praising hip-hop, but I think he overextends himself. Jay Smooth has discussed this in greater detail and greater eloquence and I have to concur; there is an unfortunate degree of performance when it comes to both sides on this rap shit. Neither side will concede, both sides ignore any reality that does not jibe, and invent new ones to cater to their point.

    August 22, 2007

    Things That Are Kinda Funny But Not As Funny As They Should Have Been

    These Where is Cam skits
    This Stop Snitching skit
    The last few You-Know-What skits (14-16 were oscar-worthy, though)

    August 28, 2007

    Who let the dogs out?

    Commentators were linking Michael Vick ‘s dog fighting enterprise to hip-hop even before police broke into DMX’s Arizona compound.

    It doesn’t matter that dog fighting has been around since the colonial era. It doesn’t matter that, under the current circumstances, one might just as easily link football playing to dog fighting. It doesn’t matter that, if one were to look with a level head, that dog fighting is probably more closely linked to poverty than any particular culture, or ethnicity, or race. Yet, blaming hip-hop has become as much of a convenient journalistic crutch to explain complex social problems as is, say, getting virtually anyone with a conflicting opinion to discredit a reputable source and make one’s reporting seem “fair and balanced.”

    Watch Adisa Banjoko’s sober response to the DMX affair here.

    What I want to know is this: If hip-hop is to blame for dog fighting, what music do we blame for cock fighting? Jazz?

    September 10, 2007

    The Torch Awards — VMA Edition

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    Who held the torch at the VMAs and who dropped it? View the results here.

    September 11, 2007

    America’s Two Destinies

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    On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was in Los Angeles, a continent away from my family — my biological kin on the East Coast and my metaphorical relatives, the people of New York. The worst part, for me, was not being here.

    Later that morning, I finally got my father on the phone. Dad doesn’t get mad, but sometimes you can hear him quietly seething. As he watched the smoke rise from Ground Zero, he said: “What good is all this power if we can’t use it?”

    I don’t think my father meant that the United States immediately march off to war, much less invade the wrong country. But I understand the frustration. We are rich. We are strong. We are smart. Why can’t we have more control?

    What my father said on the morning of September 11 brings to mind another quote that answers his question:

    “Those magnificent Americans. So much power and so little understanding of what to do with it.”

    Continue reading "America’s Two Destinies" »

    September 28, 2007

    American Cuisine

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    If the Sylviagate incident proves anything, it’s what happens when you let your opponents control the debate.

    As hip-hop grew ever more commercially successful, criticism of hip-hop enjoyed a similar boom, to the extent that the term “hip-hop” itself became synonymous with misogyny, violence, hypersexuality, and crime.

    Not that hip-hop’s critics hadn’t always laced the culture with those adjectives. And not that hip-hop didn’t do everything it could to encourage that criticism by its failure to support the artists who could make it a well-rounded genre. But hip-hop itself has begun to accept the fallacy that it is, by and large, a liability. What a shame.

    It pains me, in 2007, to have to defend hip-hop against the charges of people like Bill O’Reilly. It’s like being asked to defend Evolution from its Creationist opponents. Or putting Ahmadinejad (or Bush for that matter) onstage with academics looking for straight answers. In a proper debate, you and your opponent play by the same basic logic. In the above discussions, none of that happens. Science cannot debate Belief, because Belief doesn’t care about evidence. Humans cannot debate their humanity against people who believe them ultimately inhuman.

    Continue reading "American Cuisine" »

    October 18, 2007

    Chess and Smart Choices


    RZA's final move. PHOTO: Daaim Shabazz.

    LOS ANGELES

    Had dinner with a friend last night who is very close with T.I. He's pretty broken up about it. J Smooth pretty much echoed my friend's feelings in his latest vlog: Possible setup, yes; smart guy, definitely; stupid choices, absolutely.

    What a contrast to the smart choices I experienced two days earlier in San Francisco at the Hip-Hop Chess Federation's first annual chess invitational, which brought together kids, rappers, chess masters and martial arts champions, culminating in a climactic battle between The RZA and Monk that made this non-chess player a complete believer.

    Continue reading "Chess and Smart Choices" »

    January 12, 2008

    Evolution of an Outlook

    The first time I saw the Palestinian hip-hop group D.A.M. was in 2005, when they did their first gig in New York.

    A lot has changed since then for this Jewish-American hip-hop writer. Now that D.A.M. released their first album (which I reviewed in the Washington Post), apparently the change shows.

    I went to the West Bank in 2006, and saw some things that I needed to see — the Deheisha refugee camp near Bethlehem, Israeli settler terror in Hebron, the streets of Ramallah, and of course, the Wall, the Wall everywhere. It was a sobering counterpoint to my trip to Israel proper the year before, something that I wrote about in my-yet-to-be-published-Masters-Project-because-I’m-neglecting-everything-else-in-my-life-but-this-book

    In it, I described my outlook in the years prior to the West Bank trip...

    Continue reading "Evolution of an Outlook" »

    February 5, 2009

    Game on the 50 Cent Rick Ross Beef (AUDIO)

    Kudos to all our top artists for recognizing that beef is the backbone of our hip-hop economy, and going that extra mile to provide some stimulus in these hard times.

    Game on the 50 Cent Rick Ross Beef (AUDIO)

    Game weighs in on the highly entertaining (as long as it STAYS ON WAX) 50 Cent/Rick Ross beef, and sides with his age-old nemesis 50 on this one. So far Rawse is getting McCained.

    Game on the 50 Cent Rick Ross Beef (AUDIO)

    August 22, 2009

    We're On The Radio

    Tonight at Midnight EST is another edition of the Underground Railroad, bringing you the finest in hip-hop music and culture with Jay Smooth on the microphone and DJ 3D on the wheels. You can tune in here, or on WBAI 99.5 FM if you live in the tri-state area.

    There's no video feed tonight, but you can join us in the old-school regular chat right here.

    August 20, 2009

    Invincible "Emperor's Clothes" Video

    New music from my rhyming hero.

    August 21, 2009

    DJ Spinna and Krym "New York"

    New joint from my family! Beyond Real...

    March 18, 2011

    Luther Campbell, Next Mayor of Miami

    Wait...what?

    Luther Campbell running for Mayor of Miami courthousenews.com

    Luther Campbell, lead singer for 2 Live Crew, is running for mayor of Miami-Dade County, now that voters have recalled Mayor Carlos Alvarez. Campbell, aka Uncle Luke, told Courthouse News why he's the best man for the job: "I represent the people," he said. "I always had a passion for helping people, so public office has been one of my long term goals," Campbell added.

    Among his priorities are fighting crime, building more baseball fields, attracting new business and allocating county projects to local residents only. He also wants to tax strippers. "We do not want to leave any money on the table," Campbell said...

    Umm, okay. Anything that helps erase the memory of Kwame Kilpatrick being "the Hip-Hop Mayor" is okay in my book.

    March 21, 2011

    A Few Words For Nate Dogg

    March 22, 2011

    Imma Homo

    "Rainbow Noise Entertainment is a lesbian owned record label specializing in LGBTQ music artist with an independent name and mainstream appeal; But it doesn't stop there... We are also committed to representing LGBTQ dancers, models, comedians, and entertainers with something to be proud of."

    April 11, 2011

    Raw Footage from the Railroad 4/8/11




    For your listening pleasure, two full mix sets from last week's radio show,
    plus a little video excerpt with some ranting about the Mister Cee situation.

    DJ C Reality Mix 46 minutes
    DJ 3D Mix - 41 minutes



    There's much more that could be discussed on that story, apart from the panicked homophobia it engenders (the questions about treatment of sex workers in our society, as pointed out by dream hampton..how detached these all-or-nothing judgments are from the real world's broad spectrum of human sexuality*) but I just wanted to touch on the basic silliness of our reaction to this story in so much of the hip-hop world.

    Bottom Line: How to define our sexuality, and how to define manhood, are A) two questions far more complicated than we tend to take them for, and B) Two questions that have no relation to each other. Your sexuality never makes you more or less of a man.

    *not to mention thinking about a spectrum of gender beyond the simple male/female binary..or whether any concept of masculinity is even worth clinging/aspiring to..etc etc.

    April 16, 2011

    Locksmith & Ski Beatz "Lock"

    How did I miss this?

    July 1, 2011

    More Info on the NYPD Incident at the Pete Rock/Smif-n-Wessun Party


    Pete Rock and Smif & Wessun Speak On How The NYPD Scuffle Began, Vow "Enough Is Enough"
    hiphopdx

    "What happened was, she was trying to protect her mother from the police hitting her, hitting her mom. So they were hitting her on her leg, and she was like, 'Don't hit my mother.' My wife was saying, 'Don't hit my daughter.' That's what happened. No one assaulted cops. The cops were the ones that assaulted people, period. It's just enough is enough. I've had enough. I've had enough of seeing it on the news, I've had enough of seeing it in the street. Now, I'm in the middle of it and I've really had enough. We're just going to support and keep this thing going until we get justice."

    See more details, and official statements from Smif & Wessun and Pete Rock's wife here.

    July 2, 2011

    Wise Intelligent "Underground Spiritual Game" (VIDEO)

    A different flavor musically than we usually get from Wise Intelligent. Interesting back and forth between him and the female vocalist in between verses. Via Grandgood

    August 22, 2011

    Vast Aire Interview, with Double AB and Prop Anon (8/05/11)


    Here's a recent highlight from our radio show, when Vast Aire of the mighty Cannibal Ox came by our radio show, along with crew members Double AB, Kenyatta Black and Prop Anon. We talked about his experiences touring in South Africa, the Five Percenter influence on hip-hop, and how his parents influenced his rap career:

    You can catch NY's longest-running hip-hop show, The Underground Railroad, on your radio dial every Friday Night from 10-12PM> on WBAI 99.5 FM in NY, or streaming live at WBAI.org.

    August 31, 2011

    Obie Trice "New Day" Verse

    Obie Trice's mother Eleanor passed away last month, and this week he pays tribute and remembrance with a verse over Jay and Kanye's "New Day."

    March 2, 2012

    New Lauryn HIll "Fearless Vampire Killer" (VIDEO)

    Some live concert footage from Washington DC of the new song Lauryn Hill has been performing recently, "Fearless Vampire Killer." The song, of course, bears the same name as a classic Bad Brains track (as well as an old horror/comedy movie from back in the day by a Roman Polanski), but I can't hear any direct similarities to the Bad Brains classic in Lauryn's song. I'd imagine Ms. Hill is quite familiar with their work, so the song title is probably an homage at the very least though. It's hard for me to make out exactly how her flow is interacting with the beat here, so I'm hoping a better quality recording will come out.

    October 2, 2012

    Kendrick Lamar feat. Dr. Dre - "Compton" (Produced by Just Blaze))

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    Love seeing Kendrick Lamar and Just Blaze come together (And Dr. Dre with Just Blaze is pretty cool too). Kendrick Lamar's official debut major label album/CD, good kid, m.A.A.d city, is supposed to hit iTunes and stores on October 22nd.

    About Hip-Hop

    This page contains an archive of all entries posted to hip hop music in the Hip-Hop category. They are listed from oldest to newest.

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