Hip Hop Blogs

Digital Magazine Half Steppin'

When magazines like The Fader began podcasting free PDF versions of their magazine, I thought it was either a terrible idea or a really terrible idea. Now I see Vibe has entered into the digitized magazine game, a week before a Poynter story on how the format is not appealing to readers, online or off.

I don't consume, share, or save paper mags in the same way I do with online ones. There's no easy way to translate the glossy experience online, unless someone makes a laptop I can hold in one hand while standing on the 2 train.

Video Killed the Radio (and Blog) Star

While the infamous blogger Byron Crawford gets clowned for a video appearance which revealed him as smiley and soft spoken (kinda like me, actually), it turns out that a whole industry of anonymous trash talkers - America's radio show hosts - are struggling with the shift to online video.

Fat Man Scoop, a radio personality in NY, who also does an online video show, spits:

"People are either going to have to get with the program or get lost. People don’t sit in front of a radio for three hours like they used to. If they don’t hear a song they like, they go to the Internet. That’s where it’s going. It’s getting to the point where you’re going to have to be good at both."

I guess it's time to get out my video camera, eh?

Finally - No More Prisons

While in college, much of the local hip-hop activism I was familiar with centered around battling the prison industrial complex. This week the news that the newly elected g'vnor of New York, Eliot Spitzer is using his weighty political capital to take on the state's prison problem must be encouraging to those still in the struggle.

Spitzer is moving to close down some of the state's prisons, which would free up millions for more important matters, such as health care and education. To do this, he must come to political blows with the corporations, elected officials, unions, and townspeople who benefit from the jobs created by having a human warehouse in their backyards.

DJ Drama, the Mixtape Matyr

Earlier this week Jay Smooth made a great video about DJ Drama’s bogus arrest for selling counterfeit CD’s:

Click To Play

I love how Jay cuts through the silly reporting done by the local news station who first broke the story. Why did they inject the possibility of finding drugs in a bust that was about bootlegging?

Unfortunately, I think Jay sidetracked his argument when he went into the comparison of this arrest to America’s crazy history with setting up, then destroying dictatorships around the world. It reminds me of when I watch certain Black leaders on a cable news programs imparting incredible insight on a current issue, but then veer off into the unrelated Grand Conspiracy. Now’days you have to know when to take a man’s mic away, or he’ll connect the significance of James Brown’s death to America’s involvement in Israel, Cuba, and Venezuela in a heartbeat.

I call this the “Ras Kass Faux Pas”.

 I also think that some bloggers, in their defense of DJ Drama, are overstating the influence of mixtapes. T.I.’s mil-plus selling disc and blockbuster first week sales had more to do with the hit movie he was starring in at the time, not any Gangsta Grillz series.

Ever since 50 Cent used mixtapes to get rich without dying trying, we’ve been hearing the myth that dropping some teaser songs with DJ’s yelling over it will pump up your demand. Well, if that were true, the Clipse’s latest would be platinum, Dipset would be diamond, and Papoose, Grafh, and Siagon would be working on their third albums by now.

Stat Quo vs the Conflicted Feminist

 
Stat Quo was aired out this week by Lauren Carter, a Boston Globe writer who he pressured for phone sex during an interview. Writes Carter:

Almost from jump, Stat started querying me about the possibility of having phone sex, repeatedly asking whether or not I use a vibrator and telling me, when I asked him where he was, that he was “in Bangladesh, bangin’ the flesh.”

After Stat got me up to speed on the sordid details of his life - including how many groupies he’d had relations with while on tour in Boston last year - I did get some answers out of him. Most were counterproductive to promoting the CD or himself. When I asked why and how he got involved with the project, his answer was “Money. Money, Lauren. Do you like money, Lauren? Do you?”

When I directed questions to Obie and Alchemist - who stayed mostly quiet during Stat’s outbursts, occasionally laughing - Stat would chime in with vulgarities, such as informing me that Alchemist was defecating while on the phone with me.

Carter shoots her story in the foot by beginning with the admittance that she supports hip-hop from rappers who degrade woman, even though it goes against her own moral standards. Like many of the female journalists I know, Carter plays the role of Conflicted Feminist, a woman who wants to stand up against misogyny in music, but is defeated by her booty, which shakes uncontrollably whenever the DJ drops a Nelly song.

Even worse, Carter ends the piece on a powerless note, having decided that a call to the record label won't change a thing. I get the feeling that she doesn't believe her printed account of the call will move people either, a strange mindset for a person to have who earns their daily bread off of making words work.

With women running media outlets like BET, Vibe, and SOHH I'm surprised they collectively let the rappers get away with many of the things they say. Let a rapper try to harrass even a small town DJ, and a boycott against his record will spread across states, word to Young Buck. Woman have that same power, but don't even know it.

Suge Knight, the Second Worst Thing to Happen to Music

In Blender's list of the "50 Worst Things to Ever Happen to Music", Suge Knight comes in at #2. And since #1 is a joke ("Kids today" they write), Suge is actually the the top pick.

I agree. Suge is a selective thug, who promises the world to artists but destroys legitmate careers, and responds to his foes by starting gay rumors about them.

All those things your parents hate about hip-hop - Suge really does it. He's sad, angry, and a liar who is known to assualt writers if he doesn't like their line of questioning. 

Reginald Hudlin + Toure + Nelson George + Selwyn Hinds = BET 2.0?

Back in the Fall of 2005 Black entertainment superman Reginald Hudlin hired the super friends  -  Toure, Nelson George, and Selwyn Hinds to turn around BET. Between the four of them, there has been success in many forms of media, including television, film, magazines, and even comic books.

Now a year later, what improvement have they made to BET? They took away Uncut, broke BET News into hourly updates, and gave us some reality shows and another hip hop awards program.  But are they making more or less money? Is viewership up or down? Are the kids excited and the old folks satisfied? Who knows?

Personally, as a former BET viewer, I don't feel any connection with the channel anymore. It's not very relevent to me, even though I love music videos, comedy, and church more than the average man. The website is even smaller on my need-to-be-aware radar.

Power 105 Loses Top Spot to Hot 97

The numbers are in and it's official - New York's two hip-hop radio stations have traded places in the rankings again. Now it's Hot 97 in the top spot, with relative newcomer Power 105 trailing.

What happened to Power 105? The short answer is they fired their top draw, Star and his whole morning show crew, and replaced him lame duck Tigger. I barely liked watching Tigger on cable TV, so I was never perked to listen to him in the mornings. It seems thousands of people agreed with me.

During Star's peak, his ratings pull was so powerful for Power 105 that even a no-name host began beating Funkmaster Flex in a time slot 12 hours after the morning show. Now the tables have turned, and Flex is back in the lead, and the Miss Jones Morning Show on Hot 97 has gone up a full percentage point.

In my mind, this makes Star the most powerful personality in all of hip-hop media. I can't think of any other person who's presence (and absence) is so directly responsible for the fate of a media outlet. Whatever Star's next move is, it will prabably be an even bigger payday than his multi-million dollar contract with Power 105.

Diddy's Strongarm Tactics

I wrote yesterday about how important Diddy's new record is in the continued success of his Sean John clothing line, where he makes all of his real money.

Today, I 've been hearing on "the wires" that his PR people are so paranoid about getting him good press that they are making outlets promise to write a good review before they get invited to the listening session. And to avoid a nasty paper trail, music journalists are receiving the invitations by phone.

It's funny - I can't think of a better way to create bad press than to play with the integrity of a journalist and expect them to keep it a secret.

Predictions Update: Right Label, Wrong Artist

Earlier this year, I predicted that Jay-Z's overwhelming presence at Def Jam would anger Ludacris and Ja-Rule, who would leave the label for Warner. It already happened with platinum sized artists, DMX and Cam'ron, so I figured the label's other stars would be next.

Well, I was right and wrong on this one.

Turns out, it's not Luda, but LL Cool J and Juelz Santana who aren't happy at Def Jam. I wrote about LL's comments about Jay ealier this week. And last week I heard Juelz spit this on a just released mixtape song:

"And my last album, they don't like me to tell this
they undershippped my record - they ain't expect me to sell sh-t (shut up!)

That's what they tellin me, switch up your melody
You hot, but if you go pop, your record would be sellin three

F--k off! I ain't no damn puppet
I'm a do what I wanna do, just as long as my fans love it

And if that can't cut it, f--k it
Drop me. Watch me blow up on another label. I'm hot (Ay!)"

Young Gunz better step their game up. They're about to carry the weight of a star-less record label on their backs.