Video Of Camron and Dash On The O'reilly Factor

This is for our good friend and big fan of Dip Set crew. Camron and Dash defend their work on the O'reilly Factor. Link (wmv), via No Frontin

Ringtone Business?

In a world of convergence and rapid assimilation, it is impressive to observe so much cash-cow hype surrounding a concept and service as simple and unimpressive as ringtones. To me, the idea that ringtones are being charted and built into business models is more a sign of the bewilderedness of management than of the value-added for consumers. Ringtones provided lucky early-adopters over $3billion in sales last year, and it will go on for some time, but I find it hard to imagine long term viability in a business concentrating solely or primarily on the production and distribution of these clips. Especially when cellphones are quickly being produced with increased memory capacity and audio compatibility, like this Nokia that can store 4GBs worth or music. This will inevitably lead to mass adoption of mp3 ringtone options that will be legally produced by individuals at home with free audio editing software. Anyway, here's a step by step look at a quick and fairly inexpensive way to make ringtones at your home/independent label headquarters. Xingtone's software (which I found via Hashim's site) is decent because it allows people with older cellphone models (they still need web/email access) to get their ringtones into their cellphones. Eventually the program will not be very useful, as most new phones are more like pda's and will have usb ports or memory sticks to transfer data. If you're interested in this subject I suggest reading Sasha Frere-Jones' piece from the New Yorker. By the way, please note I'm not knocking small businesses that have made a killing selling ringtones at $2-$4 bucks a pop. I'm just pointing out that it is very interesting (and disappointing) to know that executive management teams of organizations as large and potentially resourceful as Sony Music are willing to direct so much money and time to developing models for something that will be incredibly easy for people to produce at home on a bare-bones computer with free software. Before I end my rant, another interesting thing to note is the copyright issue. The ringtone retailers have been paying for the rights to sell these loops. This cost probably dribbles down to the end consumer which is probably why ringtones tend to be more than 99c singles from iTunes. As Sasha points out, "Polyphonic ringtones are essentially cover versions of songs: aggregators must pay royalties to the publisher, who then pays the songwriter...master tones are compressed versions of original recordings, which means that record labels—the entities that typically own recordings—are entitled to collect a fee, too." But, as duly noted later in his article and to the detriment of big labels trying to cash in on a song's worth once via cd and again via ringtones "...transferring music that you own to your phone is legal under copyright law." I know I'm not going to pay twice to have Meaty Ogre beats blasting out of my cellphone. step-by-step, article

Classic mixtapes from the 80's!!

This is the most amazing archive/time capsule of downloadable mixtapes from the 80's. Download the MP3's here Electro, old school rap,scratches, remixes, mastermixes, bootlegs, and private broadcasts.

The Freesound Project

Sprouting from seeds planted during the International Computer Music Conference, The Free Sound Project provides producers with an abundance of samples available via a Creative Commons Sampling License (that means its practically free). Link , via Corante

License You are free: To sample, mash-up, or otherwise creatively transform this work for commercial or noncommercial purposes. To perform, display, and distribute copies of this whole work for noncommercial purposes (e.g., file-sharing or noncommercial webcasting). Under the following conditions: You must give the original author credit. You may not use this work to advertise for or promote anything but the work you create from it. For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. About "Free Sound" People are organs of a living earth - and the cells of its body. The symphony of the cosmic concert is the music of nature - the natural "free music". If you pay attention to this art and laws of its development, everybody knows that the noises of the sea, wind, thunderstorm, makes a symphony as well as the music of birds - but right now, people exploit the music of nature according to the old laws - if they were paying more attention, they would be enlightened more - It would turn out that water, air and birds, don't sing according to our notes, but using all the notes that they find pleasure in - and with that, the laws of the natural music are observed exactly. The creator of free music similarly to a nightingale is not limited to tones and half-tones. He also utilizes quarter-tones, eighth-tones as well as music with a free choice of tones.- Nikolai Kulbin, "Free Music" manifesto published in Der Blaue Reiter Almanach (1910). Translated from the Russian by Ruslana Zitserman and Lonce Wyse

DJ Signify, Steinski and El-P Perform At Benefit Show

Our good friend Dj Signify, Steinski and Defjux's very own El-P will be performing tonight at Northsix. The event's primary goal is to raise money and awareness for Dax Pierson. Please visit the site to learn more about the tragic accident that occured and try make it to the show if you can! Link

Info: Benefit show to raise funds for Dax Pierson - earlier this year Dax was in a serious van wreck on the way to a show with the rest of his group (Subtle). they hit a patch of black ice and Dax is now paralyzed from the neck down. His friends have been organizing a series of benefit shows in order to raise money for his astronomical medical bills.El-P says he's headlining the event in the hopes that they can bring some good help to this cat. El will be doing a half hour of mostly new shit from his next album which will most likely be the last time he does a show before next year when his new album drops. Live performances by: El-P, DJ Signify and Steinski, Healamonster & Tarsier, Erik Horversten (A Minor Forest, Threnody Ensemble).

Happy Belated Bday To Grandmaster Caz!

A very heart felt shout out to the GMC for his Birthday! As a tribute someone did a decent job at remixing his speech from the Hot97 rally. Go drop a line and make sure to listen to the end of the track for a glimpse of his harmonizing past. Link, mp3

Prince Paul's "Inside Your Mind" 12inch mp3s

Female Fun presents mp3s from Prince Paul's Itstrumental album. The three tracks will be featured on the clear vinyl 12inch "Inside Your Mind." If you're lucky enough to be on Foundation Media's Dj list, you'll be getting copies soon. Link (1, 2, 3)

Thavius Beck Is A HipHopHunk

When it first appeared, I thought this site was a temporary joke, guess not! Thavius Beck is the latest feature on HipHopHunks. Link

45s Ebay Auction

Dj OM from Heardrums records is auctioning off a lot of "....45s of the Modern Soul, Northern, Funk variety." Link, (Thanks Ming!)

Whats The Scenario?

The latest issue of earplug points to two interesting, musically-inclined, broadband sites being developed by Microsoft and MTV. Both offer video streams as a core attraction. Crossfader is Gates & Co.'s disappointing attempt to bring together aficionados of what they describe as electronic music. The site currently has features on Dj Spooky and Tony Touch, which include video segments that appear like straight-up commercials for their next projects (The rest of the Spooky video is somewhat interesting if you've never seen someone sample and layer tracks before). In what appears as an attempt to harness the interactivity of blogs and forums, the site's design offers hints of both worlds by allowing visitors to leave comments and make posts. You can even register and create your own profile/blog. The other musician-friendly company is developing Overdrive, which is still somewhat of a mystery since it doesn't appear to be active for the public just yet. But it looks promising because it will supposedly provide free access to high quality video. This Or That But in my opinion, the most interesting site/project that recently launched, that will incorporate video as the major offering, is Google's brand spankin' new video upload program. The site will allow anyone...that's right, anyone, not just distributors or established companies, to upload their work and it will provide a practically free distribution platform (free hosting & bandwith with a pay scheme similar to google ads!). So unlike Microsoft, Google is providing a valuable, quality service to under-represented artists and consumers. I guess while MSFT was trying to figure out how to make money from the music/media industry by organizing ceremonies and inventing fancy awards to give to Grandmaster Flash (he was awarded the Dj Vanguard something or other by Gates himself), Google was actually thinking about how to provide a useful service to artists (and make a profit from it). Do the very-well-paid strategists at MSFT really think that this is the best way to tap into the market? By launching half-*ss commercials dressed up as community sites and offering "branded entertainment experiences" with racially powered characters like Miles Thirst. Will this create that extra stream of revenue they've been looking for? Maybe they should reconsider and try coming up with something more like Singingfish or Ourmedia. Instead of being constrictive these projects are open and transparent and end up being useful instead of tacky. But then again, when you're sitting on billions of dollars in readily available cash maybe you can do whatever you want. Think it's a coincedence that MTV's overdrive will only offer video in Windows Media Player format? Think again, MSFT wants a piece of the music/video industry and they're slowly getting their way. By the way, make sure not to miss MTV Presents: The Next Generation Xbox Revealed on May 12th! Extra reading: Microsoft and MTV Hang Out, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Singingfish, MSN Teams With Sprite to Create First-of-Its-Kind Online Music Marketing Platform for Teens Quotes: "The Scenario is a unique place on the Web where teens can experience 10 of the hottest hip-hop DJs in the country, connect with each other through new MSN® Messenger functionality and connect with the Sprite brand in groundbreaking ways." "The Scenario includes three distinct experiences through which teens can discover new music, connect with each other, and interact with Miles Thirst and the Sprite brand"

Inventos - Cuban Hip Hop Film Screening

Screening tonight at Hunter College! Presented by Centro de Estudios Puertorriquenos. Link, via ShreddedMelody

Cuban Hip Hop provides a unique insight into the realities and politics of contemporary Cuba. Experience this as Inventos follows the pioneers of this musical movement to their homes, the stage and as they travel abroad for the first time. Inventos features, Anonimo Consejo; Grandes Ligas; Obsesion; Havana Hip Hop producers Pablo Herrera and Ariel Fernandez; U.S. Dead Prez,Tony Touch and many others.

Cartoon Short Filmed On Looseleaf Paper

Interesting cartoon short done by filming each frame for a second or two, set to beautiful music by Meredith Monk (according to Controller7). Link (quicktime), via Controller7 forum

Rjd2 1976 Music Video by Leftchannel

DIRECTORS/PRODUCERS/EDITORS/EFFECTS: Leftchannel PHOTOGRAPHY: Rainer Ziehm & Lisa Fjeld MUSIC: RJD2 I'm sweating this video. Great and innovative use of still photos. You can check other work by Leftchannel through their site, including their demo reel. Thanks LadyGlock! Link (quicktime)

Graffiti Archaeology

1 2 3 Interesting graf site that uses various photographs to create time-lapse collages of walls, tunnels and other popular canvas' that were hit up by writers over time. Link (requires flash), via webbyawards

"Graffiti Archaeology is the study of graffiti-covered walls as they change over time. The grafarc.org project is a timelapse collage, made of photos of San Francisco graffiti taken by many different photographers from 1998 to the present....Using the grafarc explorer, you can visit some of San Francisco's classic spots, see what they looked like in the past, and explore how they have changed over the years."

All Tomorrow's Parties Curated by Vincent Gallo

Vincent Gallo is going to be curator for the next "All Tomorrow's Parties" in the United Kingdom. This year will feature a lot of popular and up & coming artists like Buck65, Sean Lennon, John Frusciante and P.J Harvey. If you're not familiar with the show check the description from the site. Link

"ATP was started in 1999 by London concert Promoters Barry Hogan and Helen Cottage of Foundation. Bored with the corporate festivals that were forced down their throats they decided to design a unique event that would be something they personally would want to go along to. The idea behind All Tomorrow's Parties is to invite a curator be that a musician, artist, or writer to choose a selection of bands/performers that reflect their record collection or people that they feel influenced by or connected to. Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth perfectly described the ATP Festival as 'the ultimate mix tape'."

Rap Dictionary Goes Wiki

So the rap dictionary, which claims to be "the oldest and ultimate resource for looking up hip-hop slang," has gone wiki. For those that don't know, wiki is "a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser." So basically, almost any knucklehead with an internet connection can contribute and edit the definitions. As seen by the original great experiment, wikipedia, this form of archiving information can be very fruitful. Now any teeny-bopper, who would otherwise never figure out what Badunkadunk means on first listen can easily figure it out (is my sarcasm evident?). But as any politician will tell you, a true democracy has it's downsides. For example, I don't think buckwild originally refers to the act of sex, although I can imagine it being used in that context. If no one steps up to edit this or the other definitions the database can become, and remain, full of errors or generalizations. Taking that into consideration, this is still a great experiment. Well worth the effort. My humble suggestion would be to slightly alter the primary goal of the site from concentrating on slang to something broader which could include lyrics, bio's and other worthy profiles. It appears as though this is already taking place. Link, contribute

Project Blowed Gets Reuters Coverage

We caught this article on Reuters. Nice to know Aceyalone is getting his props. Respect to Decon Media and Project Blowed. Link

Project Blowed Celebrates 10 Years of L.A. Hip-Hop By Todd Martens LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - While gangsta rap has made millions aware of the street names of South Central Los Angeles, some of the city's most vibrant hip-hop thrives under the radar. At 4343 Leimert Blvd., rapper Aceyalone has led a weekly open-mic night for a decade. From his fellow Freestyle Fellowship members to Jurassic 5, nearly everyone who defines underground hip-hop in Los Angeles has passed through Project Blowed..... ......Busdriver, whose recent Mush Records release "Fear of a Black Tangent" is getting national attention, served as co-musical supervisor for the project. "I wanted to preserve the integrity that Project Blowed already has established and introduce the new members so it seems seamless," he says. "I wanted the lineage to seem cohesive."

Though the project likely has a limited audience, it is out at a time when underground hip-hop is receiving more mainstream attention. Aceyalone's last album, "Love & Hate," sold 22,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and his next is sure to improve upon that number, as its producer is in-demand Definitive Jux maestro RJD2.

"Aceyalone was bouncing from deal to deal and was never building toward anything," Bittenbender says. "With us, he has put out four records, and he's only going to get bigger and bigger."

J-Smooth points to an interesting short essay by Dan Charnas. Dan describes the beginnings of Hip Hop's emergence onto commercial radio and later on provides his view that Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back" was meant to be presented as more of a political record, providing a different kind of sexual appeal in popular media. Link

Concluding remarks:

"Still, my perspective doesn’t change the fact that things have taken a turn for the worse.What started as a celebration of Black and Latina beauty became, somehow, a race to see how much skin you could get into a video. (Even Mix went from “Baby Got Back” — a genuinely political song — to “Put ‘Em On The Glass” —a juvenile cars-n-chicks record.) What started as the jubilant, iconoclastic voices of the hip-hop generation, finally unleashed upon the airwaves and in the print media; over the years degenerated into a shadow call-and-response of ridicule and recrimination, resulting in the murders of at least two of hip-hop’s greatest artists; and mix show Djs — once a ray of hope for the unestablished artist — quickly became as corrupted by the indie promotion game.How did we get from there to here? How is it that Hot 97 could allow something as insipidly vile as the “Tsunami Song” or "Smackfest" to be broadcast without any real repercussions? And why has hip-hop media, year after year, made booty and beef its main course? How is it that many of the partnerships that fostered such great art — Iovine & Dre, after all, birthed “The Chronic”; Cummings and Flex gave hip-hop a home on the FM dial — now preside over a seemingly amoral environment where nothing really seems to matter: not quality, not intention, not consequence? Hip-hop used to be angry. Now it's just mean. Rap used to be passionate. Now it seems rapacious.The question is why. Is this race-to-the-bottom in hip-hop yet another manifestation of an insidious cultural power-play by white elites? Or is it part of something bigger?"

Wu Tang Financial Visits My Alma Mater

Wu Tang Financial visited NYU's Stern School of Business last week. Um, sort of anyway. I guess this is how it would have went down. Funny pseudo-site, probably created by an IT major with too much time on his/her hands. Link

"Last week, a small group of Stern students were given the rare opportunity to meet with and hear words of wisdom from Method Man, former member of hip hop group The Wu Tang Clan and current CEO of Wu Tang Financial. Wu Tang Financial is America's fastest growing Private Wealth Management firm and has revolutionized the industry with a new investment methodology now commonly referred to as "CREAM".Professor Aswath Damodaran moderated the discussion and began everything with a long speech about how big of a fan he is and how Wu Tang's music influenced his work as a professional. The first question to Method Man was to explain CREAM. Short for "Cash Rulez Everything Around Me", CREAM expands upon Harry Markowitz's modern portfolio theory by stretching the limits for what is considered an investment. Under the CREAM methodology, individuals not only invest in stocks, bonds, commodities, etc... but also put money into guns, drugs, and ho's. "

Sixtoo remixing glass project features production by Jel, Meaty Ogre, Dj Moves, Controller 7, ISO68 and Depanneur. Check out the audio for the first 4 tracks via Beatstreet. Link (requires flash)

www.labelscans.com

Useful database of record labels with search feature. I think it's still in the early stages of growth but I'm sure we can all imagine the possibilities. Maybe they should consider making it a wiki-type source where visitors can contribute? I know I have a digi camera and about 6 crates. Link

Take a quick tour through music video history with Quasimoto's Rappcats. site, quicktime