Hip Hop Blogs

Underground Rappers Should Use Ringtones for Promotion

After a week of reading the rigorously updated Prohiphop, I'm seeing how big the ringtone market is. It's gi-normous. And hip-hop music is dominating it.

This got me thinking. Wouldn't it be great promotion for indie artists to release their best beats as ringtones? I've already said before that I would love to have El-P's Deep Space 9mm banging out my cell everytime I get a call. So why doesn't he give it to me for free and keep me as a loyal fan?

It would be easy. Mr. Producto could use Xingtone to magically turn his music into ringtone compatible files. Then he could upload the files to a special part of his website that's WAP, WNL, or something wireless web friendly.

The files are small enough so that bandwidth shouldn't be much of a problem. And what's a little extra server costs compared to having your songs play every time the cool kids get a cell phone call?

If you have a favorite underground artist, don't hesitate to forward them this post (just use the "email this" link at the bottom, doggy- that's what it's there for). If they decide to go for it, I'll promote their effort on this site.

Illmatic- the Best Hip-hop Album Ever

If you were in charge of the world's archive of music and had only one space to include a rap album, which one would you choose? The smart choice would be Nas' classic amongst classic albums, Illmatic.

Listening to Illmatic will change your expectations of hip-hop. Illmatic proves that nothing but sampled beats and rhymes can be brilliant and sound gorgeous. Illmatic proves that hip-hop doesn't need to be improved with more "melody" or singing. Nas chose fierce sincerity over a political message, which made his first album socially conscious in the most powerful way.

Illmatic teaches you not to be fooled by the music awards received by alternative groups like Arrested Development or more recently Outkast with their last album. When mainstream critics shower praise on these artists they're also backhanded scorning hip-hop as a whole with the line of thought, "Why can't hip-hop be more musical and progressive like these other rappers making real songs?" It's a subtle suggestion, but it's there.

Illmatic smashes the idea that our music is somehow intrinsically flawed as an art. As is, the elements of rap music are perfect, and Illmatic perfectly represents them.

Happy 10th anniversary, by the way.

Search Engine for Music- Go Fish

Go Fish is a search engine for music. It also finds video, mobile content like ringtones, and games. This is cool because right now it's difficult to find music downloads on Google or Yahoo. The problem is spammers use keywords to trick search engne users into visiting their page when all they offer is pop-up ads, not the music.

Go Fish does a better job, I am sure hope. Also try Music Plasma and All The Web if you can't find it on Go Fsih.

Welcome Fresh to Death!

Friends, family, and aging hip-hop journalists who operate with sensationalism and a lack of ethics, welcome the newest extension of the Hip Hop Blogs army- FRESH TO DEATH!

My Big Phat Hip Hop Family!

Can't wait to see it!

Get Paid for File Sharing

I heard about the Weed filesharing system a while ago but didn't move to post about it. Now that everyone is talking about it, I'll amplify what I think is a great idea on the web.

Basically, the guys who created Weed understand that filesharing fans are valuable to artists and deserve to be rewarded for their promotion, not punished. So with their system, any fan who shares a Weed file (which is playable in any Windows media device) gets a 20% cut  of the money from anyone paying for the file. The artist gets 50%, and the rest is split between Weed and whoever else shared the file along the way. To protect the artist and encourage sales, the file can only be played 3 times by one user before it prompts you to buy.

It sounds good, but feels complicated. I expect only indie artists to really hop on this. Chuck D has his music on there, but he seems to love giving away music nowadays just to prove a point.

(Wouldn't it be great if all those mp3 blogs out there adopted this system? Hmmm....)

Anyway, I hope the format succeeds. Weed could be the new MP3.com.

Music Reviewing is Dead

Today I was planning to write something about how the relevence of music reviews is decreasing as the ability to listen to any song you want for free increases. While I was doing research searching Google for articles to back up my point I found that I already wrote about this almost a year ago. I don't agree with (or even understand) everything I wrote in that post, but I think one line sums up what I think now:

"Television is like what music will become- too available to need a review."

I can't remeber the last time I read a review for music. Listening to mixtapes is how I discover new songs and artists now.

I think hip-hop concert reviews are the future. Why? Because:

1. There's a lot more touring going on in rap, yet not enough people covering it.
2. Reviewing live shows are more fun. It's the last free meal in hip-hop.
3. Going to a show can cost anywhere from $15 for a local act to 30 beans minimum for a major. I'm sure fans would like to know if they're going to get their money's worth beforehand.
4. Um, that's it.

So, concerts are what music used to be- not easily available, so it needs a review.

Snoop Dogg and Sexism in Hip-hop

The misogyny and sexism in hip-hop meme is not dead. Julianne Shephard of the Cowboyz and Poodles blog takes Snoop Dogg to task for shamelessly promoting domestic violence wife beating on his new album (UPDATE: Julianne's post has been referenced in the NY Times' review of the album! Props to Kelefa Sanneh). However, even while tearing apart Snoop, she admits:

"I am desensitized. I am a feminist who picks nits and splits hairs. But I also give passes. I throw my hands in air in the club to the crunk. I shake my ass like tomorrow's not gonna come, to songs written by men who wouldn't respect me. I rap along to murder-threat verse. I say to myself: sexual expression is complex and that's how I like it. I am an adult. I justify: I live in America, contradiction is my burden to bear."

This reminds me of what another female hip-hop fan said about this issue.

When I went to the Hip-hop Journalism Roundtable Discussion last month I asked the panel (just as I promised) about rap media's silence on the degradement of women in the music. The guys didn't answer, and the women, Dream Hampton and Raquel Cepeda, fed me non-answers that went in circles.

Since I couldn't get real talk out of them let me speak the harsh truth. Women in the hip-hop industry- the female publicists, stylists, managers, editor-in-chiefs, and label heads don't speak against the treatment of their sisters in our songs and videos because they're making good money off it. Boom, I said it.

UPDATE 1: Nick aka Catchdubs, the blurb master general drops a rare 300 words on the issue. It spreads...

UPDATE 2: Matt Cohen weighs in:

Jeru's homophobia, Mos Def's anti-semitism and Clipse's misogyny are offensive to me, but it isn't like their sole purpose is to push a hateful agenda... Where I draw that line may be just a rationalization, or my friend Dr. Kate may be right when she tells me that I am experiencing "cognitive dissonance," but it's not going to change my taste in music. If that makes me a hypocrite, then so be it.

It does, Matt

UPDATE 3: Justwill quotes an essay from Tracy A. Gardner about misogyny in the Black community:

Some Black men, full of the white man's perspective and values, see the white woman or Blond Goddess as part of the American winning image. Sometimes when he is with the Black woman, he is ashamed of how she has been treated and how he has been powerless, and that they have always had to work together and protect each other.

Interesting.

The Real 4 Elements of Hip-hop

Hip-hop is just like any other music culture, despite the efforts of Afrika Bambaataa and the early rap journalists who have added elements to it that don't really belong. Typically you'll hear people say that hip-hop culture consists of DJ'ing, MC'ing, Break Dancing, and Graphitti art. This classification never made sense to me. I won't go into why I think this is wrong or why it happened. Instead I'll correct this 25 year old mistake by describing the real 4 elements of hip-hop and leave it at that.

Let the blasphemy begin.

1. Hip-hop Music- it typically consists of MC'ing and DJ'ing but can also be R&B (or as some now accurately call it "hip-hop soul"). For example, Whitney Houston is R&B, Ashanti is hip-hop soul. The common thread of hip-hop music is not rapping, but the beat. Whatever someone does over a break beat can be considered hip-hop music. Ask Andre 3000.

2. Hip-hop Dancing- it's bigger than just breaking. What about the wop? What about the Harlem shake? And Crip walking?

3. Hip-hop Style- as with any music culture the fans of the music always adopt a similiar style of clothes, slang, etc. I think the biggest misconception about hip-hop style is that it's synonomous with Black style. A day's walk through my college campus would prove that there's a distinct fashion that Black folks have that is not influenced by hip-hop culture.

4. Hip-hop Mentality- fans who live hip-hop culture have a similiar outlook on life. For better or worse it seems to be mostly derived from gang culture. That's why we all have street names (mine's Madison), crew affiliations (what up Wordsmiths!), and we rep our neighborhood as if we we were gangster's protecting our turf. Another part of the hip-hop mentality is the entrepreneural spirit or more plainly, the "Get money" attitude. Every rapper has a side business and plenty of my friends have a side hustle.

So there you go. I grouped together the MC'ing and DJ'ing, expanded break dancing to include all of hip-hop dance, and dropped graphitti in favor of the culture's style and mentality. Graph seems to have  it's own laws, history, and culture outside of hip-hop. The only relationship is that both hip-hop and graphitti are done by kids in urban areas.

Nothing about the real 4 elements should seem ground breaking or controversial. For those who live hip-hop culture this is what they've been doing naturally. I'm sure though that the myth of the traditional elements will continue. So much of what's been written about hip-hop culture is structured around it. And honestly, the myth is more exotic then the truth- hip-hop is just like any other music culture.

The Loss of ODB- Winners and Losers

Even as hip-hop mourns the loss of ODB, there are others who already are angling to profit from his death. Peep the scorecard:

Winner ODB's baby mothers- there's reportedly 13 children from these women who all want a piece of his estate, I'm sure

Loser ODB's wife- she claims her 3 children are his only heirs

Winner Elektra- his old label has the rights to his catalogue, plus a greatest hits collection out now

Loser Rocafella- the little music he recorded for them sounded horrible

Winner Pras and Mariah Carey- expect to hear Ghetto Superstar and Fantasy a lot over the coming weeks

Loser Wu-Tang Clan- he wasn't on the last album, he won't be on the next, and he was barely on the second

Unfortunately, it seems that those who loved ODB the most will receive the least from his passing.

(See Clyde? I can break down the business side of hip-hop too.)