Dj Shadow Signed By Universal? Stop Joshin'

Yes it's true. Josh Davis has signed with Universal. That track floating around the web is from his new album. Link

Indelible Graf

NYTimes article discusses a resurgence of graf on the subway trains. Some people might argue the amount of graf that exists nowadays has been fairly consistent for many years. The recent difference appears to be the use of etching acid, mixed with shoe polish, which is more destructive than the washable polish on its own. Link

New Orleans HipHop Ignored?

Interesting article from the weekend edition of the NYTimes discussing the omission of New Orleans HipHop from a string of musical events that were supposed to celebrate and be representative of music from that region. HipHop not being embraced? No way. Link (thanks for sending this in Sahil!)

Don't Give Up Your Publishing!

According to this NYTimes article, music publishers are doing very well for themselves these days. As a lesson learned from these big wigs, when you're negotiating your publishing deals, do what you can to hold on to as much as you can. Or sign with a fake performance name that you don't care about losing. But don't just give it all away. Music's Hottest Star: The Publisher, For your reference: Wikipedia's History of Music Publishing

Reebok Giving Up On HipHop?

MetroWest Daily reports Reebok is going to shift it's marketing focus from HipHop back to athletics. Adidas, Reebok's new parent, apparently isn't to fond of the I AM WHAT I AM lifestyle marketing campaign. Link previously 50cent, HipPop & Marketing: Trying to make sense of it all, Living Legend's Reebok Classics, Basquiats On My Feet

The Original Master Gee and Wonder Mike Set Things Straight

Interesting interview with the original Master Gee and Wonder Mike, settings things straight about Hank and the Sugar Hill label. Turns out they prefer to perform with Caz and would never mess with Sugar Hill again. Link

AllHipHop.com: Do you have any regrets about the Sugar Hill experience? Wonder Mike: One time, we came out and surprised Busta Rhymes while he was on the Vibe show. We came out while he was doing an interview and he gave us a hug with tears coming out of his eyes. The next thing I knew, Sugar Hill was suing him for using Hank’s lyrics for “Whoo-Hah! Got You All In Check.” Come on, man, that’s just dumb. The same thing happened backstage at the second VH1 Hip-Hop Honors Awards with the Beastie Boys. They were jumping around like little kids, excited and happy to see us. Then, here came Sugar Hill again, suing them a few weeks later for something else that they used. All that happy, teenage, horses**t I used to say in the past about Sugar Hill [Records] is out the window. I will never go back to them. It will be all good once people know that we’re not with those clowns anymore.

Alternative HipHop Can Not Be Defined

Over at wikipedia someone spent a lot of time trying to define Alternative HipHop. As you would expect there is disagreement. In my opinion, attempts to define genres of music tend to lead to misconceptions and fake boundaries. Call it what you want, as long as you are trying to gain understanding of the drive and the meaning behind the music, not so you can call people out or profess your judgements. Link

Spring Love, Come Back To Me: Freestyle's HipHop Roots

With a sense for the growing expectation for this Thursday's Freestyle Extravaganza at Madison Square Garden, the Village Voice has published a timely piece on the genre. And if you're thinking about MCs like C-Rayz or Juice right about now you are on the wrong path. You should be thinking about Lisa Lisa and TKA. Although not in depth the article discusses Freestyle's HipHop roots, aptly described by Afrika Bambaataa as electro-funk and hip-hop. Link For your listening pleasure, we re-upped a mix that Lapu did for us back in June of 2005 that includes Spring Love (sandwiched between some other dope sh*t).

It arose from the streets of the Bronx and Spanish Harlem, Miami taking it up with gusto soon after. "Life was more funky in New York for this new sound coming out," remembers hip-hop progenitor and adamant freestyle supporter DJ Afrika Bambaataa, whose own Soul Sonic Force–era sound laid the genre's sonic foundation. "Its roots are electro-funk and hip-hop," he says, crediting Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with setting it off. Latinos, though, had made their mark in hip-hop from the beginning: Cold Crush Brothers DJ Charlie Chase, Fantastic Five's Ruby Dee and Whipper Whip, and Fearless Four's Devastating Tito and DJ Master O.C., for starters. Interestingly, despite a decidedly hip-hop foundation, freestyle emerged at a time when—some say because—New York Puerto Ricans and other Latinos, following breakdance overkill in the media, suddenly found themselves ostracized from the culture they helped create. "It was ours," says Bronx-bred George Lamond, a former B-boy and graffiti writer who became one of freestyle's most popular, enduring artists, "and yet, at one point, suddenly it wasn't ours anymore." The scene began to segregate, with even Latin Quarter (where shared freestyle and rap bills, say Leather and Lace and Cutmaster DC, were once the norm) ironically recast as a black club. Suburban rap groups like Public Enemy stormed the once integrated scene, proclaiming it "a black thing" (read: African American)—and no, Latinos didn't understand. Performer K7, who co-founded freestyle's first male supergroup, TKA, says, "Our way to do hip-hop became, 'Let's take those same breaks and beats, the hardness of, say, a Rakim track,' and since we weren't being embraced as rappers, we sang." In 1986, their Tommy Boy Records breakout hit "One Way Love" became a top request on black radio powerhouse 98.7 Kiss FM, and the guys hoped their acceptance would reinforce Latinos' hip-hop profile. They were sadly mistaken.

Mark Ecko Tags The President's Plane

Mark Ecko tagged the words "Still Free" onto one of the President's planes. Not only that, he video taped it and put it up online. Is this an authentic protest, a publicity stunt for his Get Up video game or a mixture of the two? Link update 042006: It was a publicity stunt

If You Get Paid Like The Rent, Represent

In case you're not in the know, the good people over at Traffic Entertainment have been dropping CD reissues like crazy. This is especially nice for hard to get, out of print, vinyl only releases. Peep the Rza produced "As Long As You Know", from Scientifik's slept on album. You can stream snippets of the entire album here. trafficent.com

Graffiti Research Lab

According to their site, GRL is "dedicated to outfitting graffiti artists with open source technologies for urban communication." They "bombed" the Cube by Astor place with LEDs. I wonder if they're working on a way to "communicate" via subway trains. Interesting. Link

NYU's Fest Forward: HipHop Unbound festival

NYU's Fest Forward: HipHop Unbound festival goes on until April 15th. Tickets are kind of steep but there might be discounts for students. Honestly, doesn't look all that interesting, but what do I know? Anyone remember the old Project5/Zulu Nation Essence shows at NYU? Link

Mon, April 3 7:00P.M. The Making of 'Planet Rock' Retrospective Tue, April 4 7:00P.M. Beyond Basic: Human Beatbox Workshop Wed, April 5 7:00P.M. Decadancetheatre + Full Circle Performance Thu, April 6 3:00P.M. Beyond Basic: Popping & Locking Workshop Thu, April 6 7:00P.M. The Great Hip-Hop Swindle Performance Fri, April 7 7:00P.M. Decadancetheatre + Full Circle Performance Sat, April 8 2:00P.M. Beyond Basic: Turntablism Workshop Sat, April 8 7:00P.M. The Future of Hip-Hop Retrospective Mon, April 10 7:00P.M. Executive Decisions: 30 Years of Powerful Women in Hip-Hop Retrospective Tue, April 11 7:00P.M. Ameriville Performance Wed, April 12 3:00P.M. Beyond Basic: Art of Rhyme/Spoken Word Workshop Thu, April 13 7:00P.M. Deep*NYC Performance Sat, April 15 10:00P.M. The Coup Performance

ACLU Chimes In On Anti-HipHop Trends In Las Vegas

The ACLU is concerned that police in Las Vegas are encroaching on the people's freedom of expression by inappropriately applying pressure to local businesses to censor hip-hop shows. Link to Review-Journal article

Democracy and Hip-Hop Project (founded by Krisna Best)

I started this post to give light to an article I came across today. The piece, titled Jack the Rapper: Patriarchy and Hip-hop, was a great read with well thought out insights into "patriarchal" sexual expression within the context of Hip-hop and the varying reactionary viewpoints offered by consumers and critics. Intrigued by the authors language and opinions I found myself perusing a blog he setup for what he calls the Democracy and Hip-Hop Project.

The Democracy and Hip-Hop Project was established for the study and investigation of the practical, historical, economic, and political implications of hip-hop music and culture. It was founded in 2003.

I urge you to read some of his writings, not so much because I agree with all of his opinions but because, as is rarely the case, he discusses aspects of hip-hop culture which rarely get touched upon by the majority of popular media outlets. democracyandhiphop.blogspot.com

Excerpt from David Drake's The Death of Hip-Hop: ...he considers hip-hop as an ensemble of contrasting ideas and influences. While refusing to fashionably reduce hip-hop to bombastic, reactionary or puritan rhetoric, he situates hip-hop, not as something static or even linear, but as a democratic and participatory organism; as something alive which is authored by people and which perpetually undergoes change. Thus, he endeavors to break from hip-hop’s narrow definitions with a revolutionary view emancipating it from the claws of conventional understanding.

Excerpt from Jack The Rapper: Inconveniently enough, there is no one person we can isolate from society and hold up as the architect of patriarchy. Every individual, from birth onward, enter into relations which are patriarchal, whether we are on the dominating or the subordinate side of the coin. Oftentimes we say that people simply perpetuate sexism, whether they are the cause of it or not. This is partially true. Yet sexism is perpetuated daily, whether we actively participate or not. Who takes the blame for this social construct? Young, black, male, rappers, of course. It is true. Black men in general have been the scapegoats whom society pushes off its ugliest of ills: violence, poverty, crime, etc.; all have found black men at the center of these social phenomenon. And because hip-hop has always been the creative medium for many young, black men, it takes on a more acute guilt.

Dday One / Dextah Split 7inch

Dday One and Dextah are two very talented producers that decided to collaborate for a limited release. Samplist has samples of tracks, from their new Split 7inch, available for your listening pleasure (Dextah's Untitled track was also featured on our Audiocast - No. 021106 - which happens to still be available for download). 500 copies of the record are for sale via samplist.com/content.