Hip Hop Law . Com

Wiz Khalifa Sued for Alleged Copyright Infringement

noreply@blogger.com (dré cummings) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 05:56:00 +0000

Wiz Khalifa charted a huge hit when he released “Black and Yellow” in 2011. That record is now under siege. In January 2012, songwriter Max Gregory Warren, who goes by the stage name Maxamillion, alleged in a lawsuit that Khalifa’s top song is, in reality, stolen from Maxamillion’s own lyrics. Maxamillion is suing Khalifa for $2.3 million in damages, including fraud and deceit, copyright infringement, civil conspiracy and unjust enrichment.

Maxamillion claims that in 2007 he wrote a song called “Pink N Yellow,” and that before he was able to officially copyright it in 2008, Khalifa took that song and morphed it into his hit single releasing it as “Black and Yellow,” rather than “Pink N Yellow.” Maxamillion claims that Khalifa and his producers heard “Pink N Yellow and then “engaged in a scheme to defraud plaintiff out of the fruits of his copyright of the Subject song.” Also named in the lawsuit are Khalifa’s publishing company PGH Sound, EMI Music Publishing, Rostrum Records, Warner Music Group and Atlantic Recording Corporation.

Hip Hop and the American Constitution

noreply@blogger.com (dré cummings) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:55:00 +0000

Dr. Donald Tibbs in collaboration with Professor andré douglas pond cummings are offering a first-of-its-kind law school course entitled "Hip Hop and the American Constitution," this spring semester 2012. Through an innovative link-up between Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law and the West Virginia University College of Law, Tibbs and cummings are presenting to law students at both schools an intellectual and academic experience connecting the intersections of hip hop with the law. The course is being presented primarily as a lecture series, where academics and activists from across the nation are traveling to Philadelphia and presenting their published work which examines various aspects of the the law through the lens of hip hop, its artists, culture and messaging. Students will be required to read the lecturing scholars work, be it law review articles or books, and will then intellectually engage with the visiting scholars following a lecture presented by each visiting professor. In addition, students will keep a journal of their insights through the semester, and will present a final paper tackling a current issue in the law and how hip hop music or culture critiques this law.

The lecture series will occur on Thursday evenings at Drexel Law throughout the spring 2012 semester and is being broadcast live to students at WVU Law. The lecture series line-up will proceed throughout the semester as follows:

January 19, 2012: Professor Bret Asbury, Drexel Law, "Anti-Snitching and the Hip Hop Community"

January 26, 2012: Professor andré douglas pond cummings, WVU Law, "All Eyez on Me: Hip Hop, Mass Incarceration and the Prison Industrial Complex

February 3, 2012: Professor Paul Butler, George Washington Law, "Let's Get Free: A Hip Hop Theory of Justice

February 9, 2012: Dr. Imani Perry, Princeton University, "Prophets of the 'Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop"

February 16, 2012: Professor Akilah Folami, Hofstra Law, "Law, Hip Hop and the Black Public Sphere"

February 23, 2012: Dr. Tryon Woods, UMass - Dartmouth, "Law, Black Sexual Politics, and Punishment"

March 1, 2012: Professor Kim Chanbonpin, John Marshall Law, "Legal Writing, The Remix: Plagiarism and Hip Hop Ethics

March 8, 2012: Professor Anthony Farley, Albany Law, "Sarah Palin: The Last Black President or Straight Up Gangsta"

March 22, 2012: Professor Pamela Bridgewater, American Law, "Is Feminism Dead? Is Hip Hop Dead? And Other 21st Century Questions of Marginal Utility"

March 29, 2012: Professor Andre Smith, Widener Law, "OPP - Other People's Property: Hip Hop's Inherent Clashes With Property Laws and its Ascendance as Global Counter Culture"

April 5, 2012: Dr. Donald Tibbs, Drexel Law, "From Black Power to Hip Hop"

April 12, 2012: Guest Finale/Keynote Speaker (TBA)

Contributing scholars who will teach portions of the WVU Law section include Professor Atiba Ellis, WVU Law and Nick Sciullo, Ph.d candidate, Georgia State University.

Each of the above lecture series participants will publish their articles or book excerpts in an anthology that Tibbs and cummings will edit, slated for publication in 2013.

Founding Fathers Try Their Hand at Rapping

noreply@blogger.com (dré cummings) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and Hip Hop? Hip Hop on Broadway? Although at first these concepts might seem completely unrelated, “The Hamilton Mixtape”—merging hip hop and theater—has recently opened as part of New York City’s Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series. Inspired by Ron Chernow’s book, Alexander Hamilton, the act comes alive with its hip-hop rock fusion.

Between Alexander Hamilton rapping that death is just a beat without a melody or arguing (and rapping) with Aaron Burr, American history and hip hop liven up—and merge—in this dynamic show. But considering that Hamilton feuded with Burr in a territorial clash, it is easy to extrapolate the beef to hip hop—say, Tupac and Biggie Smalls.

So while it may have taken a leap to merge hip hop and our founding fathers, and while the flow may be dubious, this fusion may be what is needed to get the music theater movement rolling again.

Angela M. Nelson on Rap, Percussion, and Theology

noreply@blogger.com (HipHopLaw.com) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 03:50:00 +0000

From LawRhetoricandDebate.org:

Angela M. Nelson (Bowling Green State University – Department of Popular Culture) has published “Put Your Hands Together”: The Theological Meaning of Percussion and Percussiveness in Rap Music (Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture (1900 to the present), Vol. 10, No. 1, Spring 2011). Here is a sample:

A framework for studying rap music is related to the social and artistic textures of African-American popular culture. These textures are best understood through the concept of repertoire (Hall 289) and relate to the aesthetic beliefs and values of Africana people. Rap music is a product of popular culture that is drawn from an African-American cultural repertoire, which consists of the specific devices, techniques, ideologies, expressive art forms, or products of people of Africana descent that influence part of their culture (whether as context, texture, or text). Often derived from the folk tradition (see Soitos 37) and dominant culture, these components form a foundation of a black aesthetic and are used to create black popular cultural products. Religion, theology, and spirituality as they relate to beliefs and values lie within the social textures of rap music. Rhythm, percussiveness, and call-response lie within the artistic textures, or cultural repertoire, of rap music as well.

Call for Submissions - Iowa Law's Journal of Gender, Race & Justice

noreply@blogger.com (dré cummings) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 19:38:00 +0000

The Journal of Gender, Race & Justice is seeking innovative scholarship for Volume 16. The Journal is dedicated to the living discussion of feminist inquiry and critical race analysis in legal scholarship. We explore how people are classified, stratified, ignored and singled out under the law because of race, sex, gender, economic class, ability, sexual identity and the multitude of labels applied to us. The Journal would like to invite legal authors of all perspectives to submit proposals for articles to fill Volume 16 of our publication.

For more information about the Journal please see: http://blogs.law.uiowa.edu/jgrj.

Please send article or proposal submissions, along with your curriculum vitae to Whitney Smith at whitney-e-smith@uiowa.edu

The deadline for submission of proposals is January 30, 2012.

The University of Iowa College of Law's Journal of Gender, Race and Justice's mission statement reads in part as follows:

"The Journal of Gender, Race & Justice is not for the weak of heart or the timid in spirit. Feminist inquiry and critical race analysis are the touchstones of our endeavor. Our building blocks are new forms of analysis that reach beyond traditional conceptions of legal thought. We challenge our writers, our readers, and ourselves to question who we are and how the law defines us. We strive to be a transformative experience. In a spirit of openness, we explore how we are classified, stratified, ignored and singled out under the law because of our race, sex, gender economic class, ability, sexual identity and the multitude of labels applied to us. Identity is a matrix of experiences; when the law fails to recognize any one facet of our identity, both the law and the person lose invaluable dimension. Our challenge is to examine how we negotiate our identities, how the legal system negotiates them for us and how these negotiations affect our ability to attain justice."

R.I.P. Heavy D

noreply@blogger.com (dré cummings) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 03:47:00 +0000

Heavy D collapsed in his Beverly Hills home today, passing away at the age of 44. According to CNN, Heavy D (né Dwight Arrington Myers) "was pronounced dead in the emergency room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Tuesday afternoon, according to Los Angeles County coroner's operations chief Craig Harvey. The cause of death has not been determined, Harvey said.

While his hip-hop recording career began in 1987 with his group Heavy D & the Boyz, his breakthrough hit came in 1991 with a remake of the O'Jays' 'Now That We Found Love.'"

Most recently seen as an actor with a small part in Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller's heist comedy "Tower Heist," Heavy D was a prominent figure in the hip hop world in the late 1980s and early 1990s, recording his classic "Now That We Found Love" and also the theme track for "In Living Color" during that time period. The influential and pioneering Heavy D. will be missed. RIP

A Shout Out from The Faculty Lounge

noreply@blogger.com (Atiba Ellis) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:25:00 +0000

Yesterday, on The Faculty Lounge blog, Bridget Crawford wrote that “Hip Hop and the Law” would be a great course. She was inspired by a Washington Post story concerning Dr. Michael Eric Dyson’s Georgetown University undergraduate course on “Sociology of Hip Hop – Urban Theodicy of Jay-Z.” As another source of inspiration, she pointed to our blog, HipHopLaw.com. We want to thank Bridget for the shout out and return the favor. I, for one, am a fan of The Faculty Lounge. It is a useful source of intellectual conversation and thoughtful information, especially about the legal academy.

Let me also offer another example of teaching at the intersection of hip hop and the law: Professor Donald Tibbs of The Earl Mack School of Law of Drexel University received a grant this past spring to start a course on Hip Hop and the American Constitution. His distinguished group of guest lecturers includes Paul Butler, Imani Perry and HipHopLaw.com bloggers Pamela D. Bridgewater, andré douglas pond cummings, and Akilah Folami. The lectures will culminate in a book to be edited by Tibbs and cummings.

We look forward to hearing more about this project as it progresses.

--Atiba Ellis

Chanbonpin on Legal Writing, Plagiarism and Hip-Hop Ethics

noreply@blogger.com (HipHopLaw.com) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 20:13:00 +0000

Kim D. Chanbonpin (John Marshall School of Law - Chicago) has posted Legal Writing, the Remix: Plagiarism and Hip-Hop Ethics (forthcoming in the Mercer Law Review) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

In this Article, I focus on hip hop music and culture as an access point to teach first-year law students about the academic and professional pitfalls of plagiarism. Hip hop provides a good model for comparison because most of our entering students are immersed in a popular culture that is saturated with allusions to hip hop. As a point of reference for incoming law students, hip hop possesses a valuable currency as it represents something real, experienced, and relatable.

Significant parallels exist between the cultures of U.S. legal writing and hip hop, although attempting direct analogies would be absurd. Chief among these similarities is the reliance of both cultures on an archive of knowledge, borrowing from which authors or artists build credibility and authority. Whether it is from case law or musical recordings, the necessary dependence on a finite store of information means that the past work of others will be frequently incorporated into new work. The ethical and professional danger inherent in this type of production is that one who borrows too freely from the past may be merely copying instead of interpreting or innovating. In the academic world, this is plagiarism. Members of the hip hop community call this “biting.” In neither culture is this mode of production celebrated.

My goals for this project are two-fold. First, as a professor of legal writing, I want to ameliorate the problem of plagiarism that I have seen growing worse each year. Second, as a scholar, I would like to contribute to the growing body of literature on hip hop and the law. This Article marks the beginning of my attempt to theorize a hip hop ethics and develop its application to the teaching, the academic study, and perhaps eventually, the reform of the law.

A most enthusiastic hat tip to Margaret Kwoka, who I met at LatCrit XVI, for passing this information on to me.

-- Nick J. Sciullo

The President's Hip Hop BBQ?

noreply@blogger.com (dré cummings) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 17:38:00 +0000

What most would refer to as a private 50th birthday party for President Obama last month, Fox Nation (an online extension of Fox News) decided instead to call it a "Hip Hop BBQ." But not just any hip hop barbeque, one that FAILED to create any jobs. As captured in the image on the left, Fox Nation chose not to highlight other notable non-hip hop birthday guests like Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson and Rahm Emmanuel, but instead chose to draw a link between Obama and hip hop in what can only be interpreted as a negative connotation.

The image and headline attempt to tie the President to what many deem to be a dangerous subculture (hip hop). Further, the story and headline attempts to perpetuate the tired stereotype of "lazy" black men, who were partying, not working, as evidenced by the President's failure to create new jobs at his 50th birthday party.

According to the New York Times, the hip hop barbeque article generated more than 2,000 comments, some of which were virulent and racist. "A small number of the user comments on the article page were overtly racist, while others condemned the article; one such comment stated, 'Racism is still alive, and Fox Nation is exploiting it.' [Fox spokesperson] Mr. Shine said, 'We found many of the comments to be offensive and inappropriate and they have been removed. We also shut down further comments on this piece.'"

CFP: Rap and Hip Hop Culture SW/TPC & ACA

noreply@blogger.com (HipHopLaw.com) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 01:20:00 +0000

Call for Papers: RAP AND HIP HOP CULTURE

Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association
February 8-11, 2012
Albuquerque, NM
Hyatt Regency Hotel and Conference Center
Downtown Albuquerque
http://www.swtxpca.org
Proposal submission deadline: December1, 2011
Submit Paper Proposals Here: http://conference2012.swtxpca.org
Proposals for both Panels and Individual Papers are nowbeing accepted for the Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture Area. We had excellent representation in this Arealast year and we are looking to expand in both quantity and complexity for thisyear’s conference. We are particularly interested in proposals that address the following but accept any proposal thatdeals with rap music and hip hop culture:

- Intersections of Hip Hop and Pedagogy

- Rap Music, Hip Hop Culture, and Space/Place

- Theoretical approaches to Hip Hop (i.e., LanguageTheory/Postmodernism/Social Theory)

- Rap, Hip Hop, and Academic Disciplinarity

- Rhetorical Approaches to Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture

- Rap, Hip Hop, and Film/Documentary

- Hip Hop Subjectivities/Agency

- Anthropological/Sociological approaches to Hip Hop Culture

- Economics and Hip Hop Culture

- Discussions of international Hip Hop

- Intersections of Hip Hop and Religion/Theology

- Hip Hop and Technology

- Latino Hip Hop

- Women and Hip Hop

- Hip Hop in the age of Obama

As always, papers and panels that consider the myriad waysthat Rap Music and Hip Hop culture impact and feed upon Popular and Americanculture are encouraged. This Area shouldbe construed broadly, and we seek papers that aren’t afraid to take risks. Proposals from Graduate Students areparticularly welcome, with award opportunities for the best graduate papers.

Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words withrelevant audio/visual requests by December 1, 2011, to http://conference2012.swtxpca.org. Panel proposals should include one abstractof 200 words describing the panel, accompanied by the underlying abstracts of250 words of the individual papers that comprise the panel.

The Business of Dead Rappers

noreply@blogger.com (dré cummings) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:14:00 +0000

While it is understood that death typically stalls a career, some artists have been able to not only live beyond their untimely deaths, but also extend their popularity. Two icons, Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, are such examples. Having been murdered when they were at the top of the hip-hop game, both continue to live on as icons. Both artists have released posthumous albums. One of Biggie’s albums, “Ready to Die,” released fifteen days after his 1997 death, sold more than 10 million copies by 2000. Tupac's management has released nine records since his death, almost double the five he released when he was alive.

Just as fans have allowed the Beatles or Elvis Presley to live on, it is no different in the hip-hop world. Both Tupac and "Big" captivated their followers. From Tupac's flow about the struggles of being a young black man in America to Biggie revitalizing New York hip-hop and bringing rap back to life on the East Coast, both artists continue to be culturally significant to many people. They spoke to the masses; their music impacted the world.

The legal and business implications that accompany posthumous success are numerous and complex. Managing the legacies of Elvis Presley and John Lennon have proven difficult, but lucrative. The same will likely be true of hip hop giants Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac.

Wiz Khalifa at the Forefront of Rap's Internet Democracy

noreply@blogger.com (dré cummings) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 20:02:00 +0000

Social media has dramatically changed the hip hop game. The record label model has been on life support for several years now, and the technological advances of ProTools and social media have not only made the hip hop genre more accessible but is changing the music industry in radical ways. Take Wiz Khalifa as an example. Born in North Dakota; Lived in Europe as a child; Wears skinny jeans; Became best friends with a goofy white guy; Is generally positive in outlook; and is now a hip hop superstar. How did this happen? Wiz Khalifa is a master of social media sites on the Web. Rappers, like the oddball Khalifa, are using Twitter, YouTube, and MySpace in order to generate an enormous following, and then are taking their music and following to the record labels with a leveraged position heretofore unknown.

When these rappers (and other musicians) finally sign with a record label, their fans are already locked in. Curren$y has a virtual community that follows him. Lil B drops dozens of songs and videos on MySpace. Khalifa’s hit song, Black and Yellow, is used as a rallying cry for the Pittsburgh Steelers (and any sports team with similar colors). In particular, Khalifa’s scheduled performances are a testament to the power of the viral world. When rappers combine their talents with the internet, it is easy to understanding how the internet is democratizing rap.

Mia Moody on hip-hop and the "Independent Woman"

noreply@blogger.com (HipHopLaw.com) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:24:00 +0000

Mia Moody has published, "A rhetorical analysis of the meaning of the "independent woman" in the lyrics and videos of male and female rappers" in the 13.1 American Communication Journal 43-58 (Spring 2011). It's worth a read for those interested in hip-hop and feminism.

The abstract is here:

Using the concept of intersectionality, this rhetorical analysis combines feminist and critical cultural theories to explore the meanings of the ―independent woman‖ in the lyrics and respective videos of male and female rappers. Findings indicate both groups use misogynistic language to describe women and juxtapose images of independence with material wealth. However, male rappers are more likely to include messages of beautiful, overachieving women paired with average men while female rappers focus on their own sexual prowess. Also worth noting is while male rappers highlight domestic skills such as cooking and cleaning, female rappers do not mention them at all. Based on viewer feedback, it appears very few viewers explore the true meaning of independence and relationships. This study is of significance because rap music is a large part of popular culture that scholars must continuously analyze for new messages and meanings.

Giving away music: A Copyright Conundrum

noreply@blogger.com (HipHopLaw.com) — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 18:12:00 +0000

An interesting article recently appeared in Toronto's Globe and Mail, asking an important question: Who really "owns" them [popular music]? The article makes note of several artists claiming to give away the rights to their music, but this seems to be quite the copyright conundrum.

There are no doubt legal issues at play as music artists are under all sorts of contractual language with respect to the rights to their songs. The ownership of music usually involves a number of players from artists to record companies to the song writers that pen our favorites. I'm not an expert on copyright law, so I'll leave the discussion up to those that are.

This article also includes significant coverage of Somali-Canadian hip-hop star K'naan who has made quite a name for himself for his thought-provoking repertoire.

(Photo courtesy of the Globe and Mail)

-- Nick J. Sciullo

Dayvon Love, Baltimore City Council candidate for the 8th District, Talks Hip-Hop, Social Justice, and His Candidacy with Nick J. Sciullo

noreply@blogger.com (HipHopLaw.com) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 14:49:00 +0000

Council District 8 in Baltimore City just may have a new look. Dayvon Love, a soon to be Towson University graduate and championship debater, is running for the seat. He is the youngest candidate on the slate and HipHopLaw.com decided to sit down with him and ask him about what it means to be young, Black and taking his first dip in the electoral pool. Nick J. Sciullo sat down with him and posed a few questions to Mr. Love. The questions and his responses follow:

NJS: Many folks will be talking about how young you are. The average candidate for public office isn’t in their 20’s, but you’re taking this monumental step in a city you call home. What do you think the advantages of being a young candidate are?

DL: There are two major advantages I have as a young person running for office. The first is that I have not been pigeonholed into a particular clique or group. I am the new kid on the block in many ways and I get to create the image I want to portray without having to wrestle with a lot of excess baggage. The second advantage I have is that I have a strong appeal to those who are young and who are tired of the status quo. My youth brings a substantive youth presence to Baltimore politics that is severely lacking now.

NJS: You’re a founding member of Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS), a Baltimore-based activist group that has been active engaging the political system and asking hard questions of leaders and community members. Until your candidacy, LBS has functioned outside of the political establishment. Why do you feel it’s necessary to fight the system from within?

DL: LBS understands that we need to use every tactic at our disposal in order to effectively address the oppression and suffering of the people of Baltimore. We are focused on developing a fusion of grassroots activism and electoral politics in a way that is not being deployed in this city. Running for office is a natural extension of our focus on public policy and social justice.

NJS: HipHopLaw.com is about engaging the many intersections between the law and all that is hip-hop. As someone who came into hip-hop at the tale end of the hip-hop generation, a generation roughly characterized as those born between the mid-1960’s and the mid-1980’s, what does hip-hop mean to you and how will hip-hop’s influence benefit you and your candidacy?

DL: Hip Hop is an organic expression of the social, political, psychological and existential aspects of subaltern voices. Born out of the womb of Black life during a time of extreme misery brought on by Reaganomics, Hip Hop provides an ear to the lives and the collective consciousness of those who are traditionally excluded by the power structure in Baltimore. Being a person of the Hip Hop generation many of the issues I will address are an outgrowth of the many concerns expressed in Hip Hop.

NJS: Most urban environments are characterized by tense relationships between law enforcement and minority communities. Hip-hop has made much of this tension. Baltimore, like most cities, is not immune from such difficulties. What can you do to help resolve these tensions?

DL: We need a new paradigm of law enforcement that makes substantive community engagement a necessity for those interested in a career in law enforcement. This means that people in uniforms are not merely patrolling their communities, but are involved in other aspects of community life. A policy that demands substantive community engagement of officers with the community would be a policy I would advocate for as a city councilman.

NJS: Debate is a tremendous activity that demands excellent public speaking skills, research skills, and teamwork. Your alma mater, Towson University, is the only intercollegiate policy debate team in Baltimore and one of only two colleges in Maryland, the other being the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. What has debate taught you that will help you work with your potential councilmembers?

DL: Debate has given me skills to rigorously test issues of public policy in a way that no other activity can. It has given me a critical perspective that has a deep intellectual backing. This allows me to be an independent-thinking city councilmember who can exercise leadership on important issues. Debate has also taught me how to effectively refute arguments in a way that is persuasive. Those currently in power provide arguments with a lack of soundness, and debate gives me a unique opportunity to use the skills I’ve learned to challenge councilmembers who are defenders of the status quo.

NJS: What are your policy priorities? Education, crime, access to social services, and (re)development are all issues in Baltimore. What do you plan to do about these issues?

DL: The major issues I want to address are education, criminal and juvenile justice, economic development, housing, and youth development.

On education, I want to focus on 4 major areas:

a) Increased access to Vocation/Industrial education and IT training-

This will allow young people in Baltimore who are not interested in going to college to have real alternatives. Vocational/Industrial education has been mostly abandoned by public schools. Re-integrating this into the education system will allow for young people to have skills that can help them make a living. Also with the rise of Information Technology, there is a huge market for people with skills in this area, and these skills do not require comprehensive academic training. This can provide employment opportunities for many young people in Baltimore who are finding it hard to find employment.

b) Mentorship-

Mentoring needs to be institutionalized into the school system. This is a very basic concept, but also very important.

c) Social Justice-

It should be required that students engage issues of social justice. With so many injustices that confront them everyday, it is a crime not to teach students about the injustices that they see in their own lives.

d) Entrepreneurship-

There is an entrepreneurial spirit amongst the young people in this city, but they are not given the formal skills to start businesses. Schools should provide the opportunity for youth to development businesses so they can be participants in the economic activity of Baltimore.

NJS: And now for a few questions that might be of more direct interest to our readers… Favorite hip-hop artist and album?

DL: Hard question. My answer to this question changes all the time. Right now, it would be Common and his album Like Water for Chocolate.

NJS: What blogs do read regularly?

DL: I don’t read blogs regularly (NJS: Except for HipHopLaw.com of course!).

NJS: Is hip-hop political? If so, how can communities harness this energy?

DL: Hip Hop is political because of it’s ability to capture the attention of the masses. We need the Hip Hop community to take the power that they have and use it to support political candidates that will represent the people in the Hip Hop community.

NJS: Thanks for the time, Dayvon. It's great to see young people taking the opportunity to positively affect their communities and who are willing to advocate for change. Best of luck.

Roots and Reality Check, Part 2: Is “Conscious” Hip-Hop On the Next?

noreply@blogger.com (HipHopLaw.com) — Tue, 31 May 2011 14:30:00 +0000

I might've failed to mention that the chick was creative

But once the man got to her, he altered the native
Told her if she got an image and a gimmick
That she could make money, and she did it like a dummy
Now I see her in commercials, she's universal
She used to only swing it with the inner-city circle
Now she be in the burbs lookin' rock and dressin' hip
And on some dumb shit, when she comes to the city
Talkin about poppin glocks, servin rocks, and hittin switches
Now she's a gangsta rollin with gangsta bitches
Always smokin blunts and gettin drunk
Tellin me sad stories, now she only fucks with the funk
Stressin how hardcore and real she is
She was really the realest, before she got into show-biz

-- Common, “I Used to L.O.V.E. Her”

This entry is a follow-up to Roots and Reality Check Part 1: Nuthin’ is Free, which was a reaction to a hot back-and-forth on the topic of free speech and hip hop at American University Washington College of Law’s Roots and Reality II: Hip Hop, Law, and Social Justice Organizing conference held in April.

Another provocative topic that emerged during the final roundtable, entitled “On the Next: Hip Hop in the Grassroots,” was the question of whether “conscious” or politically-engaged hip hop could be commercially viable? And if so, should it be?

I think that the conventional wisdom is a flat “no.” Typically two reasons are given for this, which were expressed by one panelist, Jemar Daniels (J.D., original co-organizer of Roots II). The first reason is the belief that politics won’t sell. After all, who wants to hear about revolution when they can bounce to a repetitive dance track? The other reason often espoused by local conscious artists, like artist and panelist, Head Roc, is that hip hop produced for mass consumption inherently compromises a political message. Interestingly, these are the same reasons that industry folks put out to justify the current sad state of most popular hip-hop, and maintain the status quo of video-vixened, auto-tuned up music.

But, are these reasons true? Another panelist, Mazi Mutafa, founder of Words Beats and Life, Inc., flipped these ideas on their head, by droppin’ science of his own: because some conscious hip hop does sell (take a look at some of Jay-Z’s, Kayne’s, and Common’s music) why do we give life to a myth that no conscious hip hop can’t be commercial? (Head-nodding.)

Mazi’s got a point. Some hip-hop with conscious elements can and do blow-up. Regardless of what you think about Kayne, his body of work from College Dropout’s “Jesus Walks” to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’s “All of the Lights,” contains politicalized themes about perseverance, violence, and power. These tracks are not Dead Prez’s “Hip Hop,” or even Jay-Z’s “99 Problems,” but they are critical and complicated in ways much of popular radio hip-hop is not. But they are more like Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie,” which is analytically rich, among other things.

There’s a lot more to say on this subject, but I think it breaks down to this: explicitly political hip hop may not sell platinum because the politics may scare some listeners or may rhyme in a language unfamiliar to others, but this gap can be bridged, ‘cause we know that politicized hip hop music can sell if industry execs, artist power-houses, or savvy producers give life to it.

And maybe if hip-hop lovers are willing to expand their ideas of what’s political and “conscious,” we may be surprised by the reception to the message. I want us to find a way to defy the conventional wisdom because hip hop politics have got to become popular—as a way to resist the crushing political forces, like mass incarceration, which threaten the communities where hip-hop calls home. I can’t be down with sellin’ out, but I can be down with transforming what’s “out” there.

-- Richael Faithful

Law Reviews and Hip-Hop; Thoughts on Placing Your Article

noreply@blogger.com (HipHopLaw.com) — Tue, 10 May 2011 15:28:00 +0000

A 05/10/11 LexisNexis search with no date restrictions on journals with the most articles containing the word “hip-hop” produced some interesting results. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (24) is by far in the lead, but the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law (18), Cardozo Arts and Entertainment Law Journal (15), UC-Davis Law Review (15), Howard Law Journal (12), and UCLA Entertainment Law Review (12) round out a strong top 6.

Here we see 3 of the Top 10 Arts, Entertainment and Sports Law journals according to the W&L law review rankings. Not bad it would seem for an area that is relatively new to the legal academy.

The next 5 are also a strong group of journals: Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts (11), DePaul Journal of Art, Technology & Intellectual Property Law (10), Fordham Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal (10), Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal (10), and New York University Law Review (10).

Here again are another 4 articles in the Top 16 Arts, Entertainment and Sports Law journals. 7 of the Top 16 of these specialty journals have published 10 or more articles that at least mention “hip-hop.”

Several journals had 9 articles (Cardozo Law Review & de novo and Michigan Journal of Race & Law). Several came in with 8 (Berkeley Technology law Journal, California Law Review & The Circuit, DePaul Law Review, and Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology). Strong showings at 7 as well (American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law, Michigan Law Review, and Stanford Law Review).

For the sake of space I only included those journals with 6 (Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Review, New York University Review of Law & Social Change, Southern California Law Review, Tulane Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property, University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, and Virginia Sports and Entertainment Law Journal) and 5 articles (Asian Law Journal, Boston University Law Review, Indiana Law Journal & Supplement, Iowa Law Review, Kentucky Law Journal, Law & Society Review, Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, Texas Review of Entertainment & Sports Law, Tulane Law Review, University of Colorado Law Review, University of Pittsburgh Law Review, University of Richmond Law Review, Villanova Sports & Entertainment Law Journal, Washington & Lee Law Review, and The Yale Law Journal). There are many more journals with fewer articles, but they’d be too cumbersome to mention.

The above list also includes 3 of the Top 8 journals in Minority, Race and Ethnic Issues according to W&L rankings.

Those journals that feature “hip-hop” in the title are much fewer in number. The Michigan Journal of Race & Law and UCLA Entertainment Law Review lead the way with 2 articles each. The 13 other journals that feature an article with “hip-hop” in the title are Michigan Law Review, National Black Law Journal, North Carolina Law Review, Oklahoma City University Law Review, Rutgers Race and the Law Review, Santa Clara Law Review, Stanford Law Review, Texas Review of Entertainment & Sports Law, University of Louisville Law Review, Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law, and Virginia Sports and Entertainment Law Journal.

A reasonable question for scholars hoping to place their hip-hop article is, “Will I be able to place my article at a reputable journal?” A good question! The evidence looks rewarding. Not only do hip-hop articles place frequently in the highest specialty journals, they also place in perhaps some unexpectedly strong General Law reviews. Looking at those reviews that have published more than 5 articles and again using the W&L General U.S. Law Review list… Articles that contain “hip-hop” appear in the journals ranked 3, 4, 5, 9, 22, 23, 24, and 29. I obviously didn’t go through the whole list, but these are not bad numbers.

Articles that featured “hip-hop” in the title faired well too. They placed in General Law reviews at 4, 9, 24, 75, 101, and 187. Again, not too bad. They also placed in the Arts, Entertainment and Sports Law journals at positions 6, 9, and 12 for those specialty journals.

-- Nick J. Sciullo

Placing your hip-hop scholarship

noreply@blogger.com (HipHopLaw.com) — Tue, 10 May 2011 14:02:00 +0000

It occurred to me that there really isn't a list of journals that publish on hip-hop. While, law reviews are increasingly embracing hip-hop as part of the larger critical race theory dialogue, there are also other journals that are actively soliciting hip-hop contributions. I've listed them below, in no particular order. I will follow up this post with some thoughts on law reviews and hip-hop scholarship.

Words. Beats. Life.

http://www.wblinc.org/the-global-journal-of-hip-hop-culture/

Publisher: Words Beats & Life Inc.

Citation: APA

Length: 5,000 for research articles, shorter for other forms

Publication frequency: 2 editions per year

Submission email: submissions@wblic.org

The Journal of African American History

http://www.jaah.org/

Publisher: Association for the Study of African American Life and History

Citation: Chicago Manual of Style

Length: 35 page maximum

Publication frequency: 4 editions per year

Submission email: Hard copy only, in triplicate

Popular Music and Society

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/rpms

Publisher: Routledge

Citation: Will review APA, Chicago/Turabian, and MLA; MLA for publication

Length: 4,000-10,000 words

Publication frequency: 5 editions per year

Submission email: TMOGCB1@wpo.cso.niu.edu

American Music

http://www.press.uillinois.edu/journals/am.html

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Citation: Chicago Manual of Style

Length: 25-50 pages

Publication frequency: 4 editions per year

Submission email: nlearner@davidson.edu

Journal of Popular Music Studies

http://www.wiley.com/bw/journal.asp?ref=1524-2226

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell/International Association for the Study of Popular Music

Citation: Chicago Manual of Style

Length: 5,000-7,500 words

Publication frequency: 4 editions per year

Submission email: submissions@thejpms.net

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Citation: Specified in author guidelines

Length: 10,000 word maximum

Publication frequency: 1 per year

Submission email: cos01kn@gold.ac.uk

Ethnomusicology

http://www.jaah.org/

Publisher: University of Illinois Press/Society for Ethnomusicology

Citation: Chicago Manual of Style

Length: 10,000 word maximum

Publication frequency: 3 editions per year

Submission email: ethnomusicology@umd.edu

Callaloo

http://callaloo.tamu.edu/

Publisher: Texas A&M University

Citation: MLA

Length: 10,000 word maximum

Publication frequency: 4 times per year

Submission email: http://callaloo.expressacademic.org/login.php

Journal of Black Studies

http://jbs.sagepub.com/

Publisher: Sage

Citation: APA

Length: 25 page maximum

Publication frequency: 6 times per year

Submission email: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jbs

-- Nick J. Sciullo

The Bar Exam

noreply@blogger.com (HipHopLaw.com) — Fri, 06 May 2011 00:56:00 +0000

Artist: Common

Track: Gladiator

Album: Universal Mind Control

Verse 1:

I was told by a wise old to come from the heart
Though I might've did The Light, I don't run from the dark
The dark knight to spark mics, and start fights
The warrior archetype like Kimbo Slice
It's strength in the beard, am I loved or feared
A beast amongst boys like Paul I'm Revere'd
Vroof, vroof vroof vroof vroof vroof vroof well
Like Jacob Jewel, I keep clientele
You frail on the mic like you might break a nail
I might smoke a joint but I won't take the L
I knew a fat girl who broke the scale
Still touched down cause I was off Artell
Had dreams of breaking Mike Vick out of jail
Took the underground rail to the NFL
I rebel, NYSL
Here to leave a trail like Nelson Mandela

They say he's a radical, he don't fit the game
A heart full of glory and a fist of pain
A couple of battle scars but shit's the same
Are you not entertained
So all the onlookers and the bystanders
Wait til intermission, run buy your camera
Record the moment, cause it'll be platinum
And you could say you seen Common rock the stadium

My words is the sword, my skill is the shield
My life is the style I stay dressed to kill
A legend like Will Smith with the steel
I could save the world when shit get for real
Skinny George Foreman, all in your grill
My rhyme style is blind, it's all in the feel
Touch it and watch the blood fall when it's real
The weak raps you wrote you could call that your will
My drive VROOM is how I stay the livest
Your guys got you gassed, my flow is a hybrid
Crashed I survived it, gashes over eyelids
You easy to take out cause you hot garbage
I'm amped like wattage, the truth nigga honest
Any moment opponents drop out like college
Kneel and pay homage to the rap Ziggy Stardust
Stadium hands in the air, fists balled up

Roots & Reality Check, Part 1: Nuthin’ is Free

noreply@blogger.com (HipHopLaw.com) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 16:18:00 +0000

All I need is one mic... yeah, yeah yeah yeah

All I need is one mic... that's all I ever needed in this world, fuck cash 

All I need is one mic... fuck the cars, the jewelry 

All I need is one mic... to spread my voice to the whole world

-- Nas, One Mic

On April 13, American University Washington College of Law (WCL) sponsored Roots and Reality II: Hip Hop, Law, and Social Justice Organizing. RRII is the second installment of the Roots and Reality Social Justice Project—a collective of activists, lawyers, artists, and others committed to public interest law, and the “public” they serve—envisioned and co-organized by hiphoplaw.com contributor, Professor Pamela Bridgewater. I was humbled to serve as a student co-organizer for the event this year.

RRII turned out to be a dope event, featuring hiphoplaw.com co-founders, andré douglas pond cummings and Nick J. Sciullo, among other leading legal minds, activists, artists, and young people, who shared the space in community and conversation for two days. This post is first of two RRII afterthoughts prompted from the event.

Our first roundtable, Law(lessness), (In)Justice and Legacy of Hip Hop Music and Culture, centered on a “hot” question, “which degrees of free speech does the law guarantee for artists and activists resisting the powers that be?” You can watch the impassioned exchange between Rosa Clemente (activist, former Green Party VP candidate) and Mora Namdar (activist, WCL third-year student) where Mora explains her view that dissident speech is better protected in the US (than in Iran), and where Rosa fiercely challenges her. It was sort of like a freestyle battle, but rather with a spit-beat, it pulsed on a heart-beat.

I felt an unfolding of reactions as I watched it live, but in hindsight, I settled on some perspective: Mora is a law student, artist, and activist; she was threatened with arrest for her paintings in the US while in college; and who is engaged with artists/activists in Iran (the homeland of her parents who left after the Iranian Revolution). These Iranian activists’ messages are violently silenced by the state (from sudden disappearances to street murders) forcing them to use technology and the underground. Rosa is a PhD student, hip hop artist, and activist; a native New Yorker who is well-known for her radical organizing and writing; and who like many people faced military intimidation while bearing witness to Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath. The resistance of radical activists’ with whom she engages has been targeted by the state through overt and covert police action (from warrantless wiretaps to the FBI’s COINTELPRO programs).

Both activists described self-proclaimed democracies which have a history of violent suppression of dissident speech, often squash meaningful legal interventions, and especially don’t want to hear criticism from strugglin’ folk through hip hop. So although Rosa and Mora disagreed on the degree of speech guarantees, as the audience member who commented at the end, neither approximates free speech—both regimes circumvent their own laws for “national” interests. All in all—whether it is the savage terrorist violence oppressing Iran’s Green Wave or brutal police assassination of young vocal leaders, such Fred Hampton in Chicago—it’s insidious, inhumane stuff.

Breaking it down, in my mind, the crucial point from the back-and-forth was the reality that our role as lawyers and activists, here or elsewhere, is as effective as our ability to work as creative resistors to hypocritical systems. Where a constitutional claim or protest might not reach, a hip hop track might move, even if the music is censored, or artist’s life destroyed. In that way, art forms like hip hop, is a freedom that no law can ever guarantee, but no law can ever fully contain.

-- Richael Faithful

Major League teams as Hip-Hop MC's from GossipSports.com

noreply@blogger.com (HipHopLaw.com) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 14:48:00 +0000

I saw this post over at GossipSports.com and thought it was pretty funny. I'm not so sure all the observations are correct, but some are on point. What do you think of this list?

MLB Teams as MC's...

This started as a joke between my friends and I a while back, trying to match baseball teams to bands. I got through about 14 teams before I said “screw it, I’m sick of pretending like the Washington Nationals and Flaming Lips have anything in common.” Clearly, they don’t. But, I did find this exercise was a ton more fun when I swapped out “bands” for hip-hop acts. Sometimes, the artist reps the city from which the team hails, sometimes they don’t. Ladies and gentlemen, The Source proudly presents: Baseball teams as rappers.

AL EAST

Baltimore Orioles (P-Diddy) – Man, if only it were 1997 again. Does this make the Jeffrey Maier catch the baseball equivalent of when Biggie got shot? I mean, the Orioles could have built an empire, but another legend in the same vein emerged to dominate the East Coast rap landscape in years to come.

Boston Red Sox (Eminem) – Disproportionate percentage of female and white fans. Extremely loud and overbearing, but often with skills and budget to match. Was, at one point, the most outsized and recognizable face in the industry, now settling uneasily back into past-its-prime adequacy.

New York Yankees (Jay-Z) - The Ruler. The HOVA. Bazillions of platinum albums. Media empire. Mogul. Riches. Beyonce. Single after hit single. Empire State of Mind. Emerged in the late 90s to dominate the game for the next decade.

Tampa Bay Rays (Drake) – In the vein of Lil Wayne (see: Twins, Minnesota), protege finds crossover niche with some Young Money. Small market, but big breakout success in 2008.

Toronto Blue Jays (K-Os) – Eclectic skills mixing throwback sensibilities with futuristic production. Canada’s lone recognizable entity, but could leave, relocate, re-distribute and would be infinitely moreso (and, more successful, one would think).

AL CENTRAL

Chicago White Sox (Lil Jon) - Loud, crunk, circus-like atmosphere creates a cacophonous mess of a cottage industry which, despite only ruling the city for a brief period, cranks out hits, though one always gets the feeling the gravy train will end soon. (Ahem, Ozzie.)

Cleveland Indians (Cypress Hill) - Stormed the scene in the early-to-mid-90s with manic, fast energy and quality skills. Since then has vanished in a cloud of smoke.

Detroit Tigers (LL Cool J) - Decent skill, big budget, but still impossible to be taken seriously.

Kansas City Royals (KRS-One) - Awesome in the 80s. Completely irrelevant since.

Minnesota Twins (Lil Wayne) – Critically acclaimed, Minnesota slowly built a staggering, slow-burning empire and became a model for other similarly-styled franchises (see: Rays, Tampa Bay).

AL WEST

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (Snoop Dogg) - Gradually overtook LA from Dre (see: Dodgers, Los Angeles), as the lil’ brother eventually became the ruling body. Relaxed pace, quiet excellence, chill as all hell, still delivering the goods year after year.

Oakland Athletics (Common) – So cerebral, sometimes the ambition out-thinks the talent. Small levels of success most of the time, but consistently retooling the sound.

Seattle Mariners (Jurassic 5) - 2001 was a hell of a year, and showed a lot of promise. Team’s been trying the same thing since, and that recipe’s helped them fade into oblivion.

Texas Rangers (Talib Kweli) - Hyped every year as a great force “on paper”, often undone by glaring inconsistencies, distraction or gaping holes in production. Then, last year, they dropped their most consistent and praised work to date, teaming once again with an old friend (DJ Hi-Tek / Nolan Ryan).

NL EAST

Atlanta Braves (Wu-Tang Clan) - At one point in the 90s, was the greatest collection of fire-spittin’ talent the world had yet seen, with three hall-of-famers and several others who’d go on to carve out solid careers. That said, only one incredible peak (Enter the 36 Chambers / 1995 World Series) leads one to label them “underachievers.”

Florida Marlins (Pitbull) – Predominantly Hispanic fan base. By the time most hear the tracks, though, nobody’s really sure who dropped ‘em or when they came out, because every 3-4 years or so, the sound overhauls itself.

New York Mets (Nas) – Jay-Z rules New York. Nas is a distant second, and hasn’t done jack worth writing home about in forever. Still riding cache off one crowning moment (1986 World Series, Illmatic).

Philadelphia Phillies (Kanye West) – Absolutely ruled the last half of the 2000′s, and this year riding a surge in notoriety, following an unthinkable mash-up of skills and craftsmanship that bent the rules of the game, and could wind up changing it forever.

Washington Nationals (Master P and the No Limit All-Stars) - Incredibly, there was once a time when it appeared this team would soar to great heights (1994 strike-shortened year), and then all the talent went elsewhere and the label folded and nobody even remembers them now.

NL CENTRAL

Chicago Cubs (Ludacris) – The de-facto face of the city, and a long-time staple of it. Showed promise at the turn of the millennium, Peaked in 2003 by nearly reaching the very top of the game, but then dissolved and in ill-fated attempts to patch together hasty re-creations of that magic, fans seem to romanticize the idea of each more than either giving the fans something worth savoring.

Cincinnati Reds (Public Enemy) - The OG franchise (baseball’s longest-running current act.) 1990 was an incredible year. Early on in the game, they brought the noise. Then the noise left. Experiencing a current resurgence in popularity (on a smaller scale) by a new generation nostalgic for good ol’ days.

Houston Astros (Mike Jones) - There was once a time a while back when you could say “Mike who?” And everyone knew you meant “The ‘Stros!” Now, there’s simply silence after “Who?”

Milwaukee Brewers (Xzibit) - Had to give it up to the MC who brought us more hot tracks about drinking than anyone, repping the team named after those specialize in making it.

Pittsburgh Pirates (Easy-E) - Both have been dead for the past 17 years.

St. Louis Cardinals (Nelly) - Like Ludacris and ATL, Nelly is the defacto face of STL. Both peaked around the same time, and sustained excellence in the first half of this decade. And, like the Cardinals, nobody really HATES Nelly. This is the team you’d even let your mama like. Even Luda fans, despite the stark contrast between the two MCs, give props in a polite fashion.

NL WEST

Arizona Diamondbacks (DMX) – In jail? Still making records? Still playing? Still traveling the country? Nobody can answer this. But, for one brief shining moment around the turn of the millennium, this was the gold standard. How far the mighty have fallen.

Colorado Rockies (Outkast) – Always a fun place to turn when you want entertainment value, it wasn’t until recently, when the more eccentric aspects of the group (Andre 3000 / BALLS FLYING OUT OF THE PARK ALL THE TIME) were tapered or eliminated, by departure or by humidor, that we realized we longed for them to return and took them for granted.

Los Angeles Dodgers (Dr. Dre) – At one point, the definitive king of the West Coast. Still waiting for that next follow-up to The Chronic, or that 1988 World Series title. Doesn’t look good.

San Diego Padres (Mos Def) – In 1998-99, there was little bigger than “Black on Both Sides” or the Padres wrestling the non-commercial crown away from Wu-Tang and standing nearly equal with Jay-Z. But, long periods of inactivity caused the fans to drift. And, although they’re still respected, there’s just more active, shiny new objects out there to devote attention. Like, you know, the coast.

San Francisco Giants (The Roots) - Hyped group, adored by white people, that did things its own way and was quite successful in their “experimental” phase (Phrenology / 2002 World Series when Bonds, ahem, “experimented” with Steroids), but has quietly settled into a night-in, night-out groove and in 2007 moved from Bonds to Fallon. Last year, with little expected of them, they achieved a new pinnacle of success.

Hip Hop's First Billionaire?

noreply@blogger.com (dré cummings) — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:00:00 +0000

Rap mogul and hip hop powerhouse Sean “Diddy” Combs made news earlier this month, when an article forecast that Combs is well on his way to becoming rap’s first billionaire. The financial magazine Forbes recently ranked Combs at the top of the hip hop mountain in terms of net worth at $475 million and growing. Due to Diddy’s broad marketing appeal, his Sean John clothing line, and his very lucrative partnership with Ciroc vodka, Combs is the king of the financial hip hop world. Of course, it all started with “Puff Daddy,” Bad Boy Records and hip hop music. Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter is not far behind, with Forbes calculating his net worth at $450 million.

In Combs’s own words, referencing his financial success, “I take pride in [building] something as a black man that’s worth that much . . . It shows the power of hip hop.” Indeed, Combs’s achievements are truly a testament to the staying power and broad global and corporate appeal of hip hop.

Diddy and Jay-Z are seeking to join Tiger Woods in the rarefied air of the billionaire. Woods was the first athlete in history to reach this milestone, based primarily on endorsements and prize winnings. Woods' accomplishment as the first billionaire athlete occurred prior to the scandals that have beset him of late.

New Book: Jamaican Popular Music by John Gray

noreply@blogger.com (HipHopLaw.com) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 19:48:00 +0000

NEW BIBLIOGRAPHY ON GLOBAL REGGAE STUDIES AVAILABLE FROM AFRICAN DIASPORA PRESS

Despite its popularity, reggae, and the myriad Jamaican popular music forms from which it springs, has long lacked a bibliographic resource that could aid its legion of fans, students and scholars. Until now.

Based on more than 15 years of research, Jamaican Popular Music, the second volume in ADP’s Black Music Reference Series, offers some 3700 entries on the the island’s commercial music scene from its inception in the 1950s to the present. Idioms covered range from the calypso-like mento of the late 1940s and ’50s to ska and rock steady of the 1960s, roots reggae and dub poetry of the 1970s and ’80s, dub and dancehall from the mid-1980s on, and international offshoots such as British 2-tone, Puerto Rican reggaeton and Brazilian samba-reggae. It also provides in-depth coverage of the music’s diffusion to more than 51 other countries along with a biographical section documenting the careers of some 800 individual artists, producers, and others. Sources range from fanzines and newspaper reportage to books, theses, journal articles, and audio-visual materials from Jamaica, Australia, Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Much of this material is cited here for the first time. Particularly notable is the attention given to local reggae and dub poetry scenes in Britain, the US and Canada, along with lesser known, but equally vital, scenes in France, Germany, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Japan.

The result is a ground-breaking effort offering insights into all facets of Jamaican popular music and its local, regional and transnational impact.

The compiler is veteran bibliographer John Gray whose previous works include Blacks in Classical Music, African Music, Fire Music: a bibliography of the New Jazz, 1959-1990, and, From Vodou to Zouk.

To order please visit the ADP website: www.african-diaspora-press.com. The book is also available through most library wholesalers.

Also available: From Vodou to Zouk: a bibliographic guide to music of the French-speaking Caribbean and its diaspora (Black Music Reference Series; vol. 1)

Forthcoming (Fall 2011): Afro-Cuban Music: a bibliographic guide (Black Music Reference Series; vol. 3)

Praise for the author’s previous works:

From Vodou to Zouk: “...will prove an indispensable, in-hand reference to current French Caribbean music scholarship” —Library Journal

African Music: “...a truly outstanding achievement...likely to become the standard reference tool on African music for the next decade or so. Supersedes all previously available bibliographies in scope, the clear organization of its data, and of course, in its up-to-dateness”
—Folk Music Journal

Round 3: Roots and Reality

noreply@blogger.com (HipHopLaw.com) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 19:53:00 +0000

Just finished talking. We had a great discussion, the three of us: Donald Tibbs, Camille Nelson, and me, Nick J. Sciullo. The audience was really active in their participation asking probing questions, making insightful comments, and actively listening. It was a true joy to participate in this great event. We covered important ground (I think), discussing how hip-hop and critical race theory intersect with critical theory, hip-hop and multiculturalism, and hip-hop as a pedagogical tool.

This work is important and the great audience members give me hope that more people will join the struggle. I believe I speak for the presenters when I extend a hearty, "Thank You!" to the audience and conference organizers.

Live from the Washington College of Law at American University

noreply@blogger.com (HipHopLaw.com) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 14:07:00 +0000

It's the start of the Roots and Reality II conference at the Washington College of Law at American University. Last night was stellar. There were so many powerful artists with such strong messages. I observed people come alive on the stage. It was quite remarkable to see so many great young leaders rising to the occasion.

Now as I sit in a 6th Floor classroom at WCL, I'm heartened to see so many outstanding law students, community members and scholars awaiting the panelists and performances. As I speak, Pam Bridgewater has begun her opening remarks and the conference is almost underway.