Rafi's shared items in Google Reader

Producer Recounts The Emotional Meeting Between The Notorious B.I.G. And Michael Jackson

2009-07-10T16:31:03Z

How to Get People to Pay

2009-07-09T21:05:09Z

Originally posted in ct2

Figuring how to make money in freeconomics is the challenge of our times. While the free is always an option (that is the point of Technology Wants to Be Free and Chris Anderson's new book "Free: The Future of a Radical Price"), free is NOT the only option. Sometimes the best way make money is to actually charge fans for what you produce. Dan Cook who is flash game developer has written an amazingly comprehensive and level-headed outline of the options available for creators. I think his guidelines work not just for gamers but for photographers, musicians, software programmers, authors and anyone else producing in the digital economy. It is brilliant, honest, wise.

I think this tutorial the best thing on the digital economics since Better Than Free.

Dan says:

When you design your game, pick three or four revenue streams and build them into your game. Here are some categories of users that you may want keep covered.

People who don't want to pay: Advertising is a good option to keep around. A few hundred bucks is still money in the bank.
People who are interested in more of the same: Once you've established the value of your game, some players want more. Give them more levels, more puzzles, more enemies in exchange for cash.
People who are interested in status or identity improvements: Some people see games as means of expression and identity. Give them items that let them express themselves or customize their experience.
People who have limited time: Some people live busy lives and want to consume your game when they desire and how they desire. Cheat codes, experience multipliers and other systems that bypass the typical progression all help satisfying this customer need.

Rap Radar Embeds MC Hammer YouTube Clip

2009-07-09T12:34:07Z

It looks like our sister site, our sisters-are-doing-it-for-themselves site, has put up some definite linkbait. And by link I mean sausage. And by sausage I mean the aptly named HAMMER in the Pumps and a Bump video.

Yesterday RapRadar lived up to their current tagline (”Deeper than Blog”) when they embedded a video of cutie-pie radio personality Angela Yee overcoming her embarrassment to ask Stanley (no Flat Stanley!) about the bulge in his thong in the infamous Pumps and a Bump clip.

This post isn’t even about Gaydar. After all, if a fine and fit man, barely covering his impressive privates, gyrating for bunch of ladies was gay then wouldn’t most male strippers be gay? Think about it.

Bonus Video:
(the somewhat less aptly named) Breeders – Divine Hammer

The Secret 'Profits' Of YouTube

2009-07-08T15:15:00Z

It's become quite common for folks who dislike "web 2.0" or the concept of "free" business models to mock YouTube as an absolute disaster. For example, music industry lawyer (and hater of all things "free") Chris Castle has already declared the site dead (which is news to, well, just about everyone). Over in the UK, the Independent is running an odd little article that goes back and forth on whether or not YouTube is a real business proposition and then tries to extrapolate from there whether or not "free" works as a business model. The whole discussion is a bit off -- since YouTube really doesn't represent a good example of a business model that uses free, since the bandwidth costs of hosting video is so high. To use that as a proxy for the concept of free would be a mistake, since most other business models don't have that same issue.

That said, really the only truly worthwhile parts of the article are the ones where analyst Keith McMahon speaks up. He seems to be one of the few folks out there who actually has bothered to look at YouTube within the larger context of Google itself, and makes a few important points about (a) why YouTube helps Google in many other ways and (b) Google benefits from the widespread belief that YouTube is losing tons of money:

"There are many urban myths surrounding the way that companies extract value from the internet," he says. "Google's spin-off benefits from owning YouTube include the accumulation of our data and strengthening of their network design -- and the more time people spend watching online video, the more advertisers will pour into marketing on the internet as a whole. There's no doubt that Google can afford YouTube."

McMahon also believes that by keeping quiet about YouTube's hidden benefits and by allowing the misconception of it as a deeply unprofitable business to circulate, things work very nicely in Google's favour when it comes to negotiating with copyright holders in the world of TV, movies and music. Copyright holders can't demand money that isn't there, and it would certainly take no more than a hint of profitability at YouTube for lawyers to descend, threatening court cases and demanding higher royalties. In the new, topsy-turvy world of online economics, it seems astonishing that losses on paper have actually made YouTube a more powerful online force.

This leaves out another point as well: the more that people believe YouTube is unprofitable, the less likely they are to build serious competitors. I have no idea whether or not YouTube is actually profitable directly yet (I'd doubt it), but I think those who are insisting that the acquisition by Google was a bad idea, or that YouTube is somehow on its deathbed, haven't taken much time to understand some basic trendlines or the larger picture of how Google views YouTube, and the opportunities it has to make money via YouTube down the road.

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Why Hasn't The Recording Industry Sued Girl Talk?

2009-07-08T16:32:00Z

Peter Friedman has another wonderful post, discussing why music is the "main battleground" in the copyright wars, raising a few good points -- including the idea that music master tapes are dying in vaults, causing locked up music to disappear, and highlighting a troubling series of case law decisions that seem to entirely ignore the concept of fair use when it comes to music (some of which we've discussed in the past here).

But the most interesting point may come at the end, when he brings up something that's been confusing here as well: how come Greg Gillis -- better known as Girl Talk, the popular mashup musician -- hasn't been sued yet. Especially since his Feed the Animals CD came out, generating a ton of publicity and popular press coverage (and sampled from hundreds of songs), pretty much everyone has been waiting for him to get sued. Friedman tosses out a suggestion that makes a lot of sense: the recording industry is scared to death that a court will rule in Girl Talk's favor and return "fair use" to music:

Well, I think I am a lawyer just like the lawyers representing Metallica, the Guess Who, and anyone else whose work has been sampled and repurposed by Gillis. And if were advising one of these clients (or I were representing the RIAA and could influence the lawyers for Metallica and the Guess Who), I would advise that client not to sue Girl Talk; Gillis's argument that he has transformed the copyrighted materials sufficiently that his work constitutes non-inringing fair use is just too good. I'd go after someone I am more likely to beat. Othewise, I'd lose all the leverage I have with the existence, as yet undisputed in case law, of the decisions in Grand Upright Music and Bridgeport Music.

When asked, Gillis has repeatedly stated that if he's sued he believes he has a strong fair use defense. Perhaps the lawyers at the record labels (and representing certain musicians) have all recognized the same thing. Gillis will almost certainly win in court, and all those terribly decided cases that ignore fair use in music will get pushed aside.

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Google Chrome: Redefining The Operating System

2009-07-08T08:24:42Z

It’s hard to type a blog post when one hand is being used to pat myself on the back.

Last year I wrote a post about the just launched Chrome browser titled Meet Chrome, Google’s Windows Killer. From that article:

Chrome is nothing less than a full on desktop operating system that will compete head on with Windows…Expect to see millions of web devices, even desktop web devices, in the coming years that completely strip out the Windows layer and use the browser as the only operating system the user needs.

One representative response to my quote above, from The Register: “In no way can this statement be construed to make sense, and I’m not just being a pedantic asshole here. Fortunately, El Reg readers are with it enough to know that you need a proper OS before you can have a browser.”

Purists complained that a browser isn’t actually an operating system, and brought up mundane issues about hardware drivers, memory and processor management, and other red herrings. Sure, they were right - the Chrome browser isn’t an operating system. It is, you could say, sans the bag of drivers needed to meet the definition. Still, the writing was on the wall - Google quite clearly saw Chrome as an operating system that competes with Windows.

Fast forward to today. The Chrome browser now has 30 million active users, says Google, and tracking services say it has 6% or so market share. Not bad for a browser that’s less than a year old.

And now, WOW. Google just bolted a big ol’ bag of drivers (also known as the Linux kernel) to Chrome and are calling it the Google Chrome Operating System. It’s going to be hard for people to continue to deny its operating systemness now.

The new OS will focus entirely on the web: “The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform.” What that means is this. The browser is the platform. The browser is the UI.

Now, finally, even the tech purists can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Windows is hardware management plus an application platform, and we call that an OS. Chrome OS is hardware management plus an application platform (the browser), and we call that an OS, too.

Don’t worry about those desktop apps you think you need. Office? Meh. You’ve got Zoho and Google Apps. You won’t miss office. Chrome plus Gears plus Google Wave plus HTML 5 and web platforms like Flash and Silverlight all combine into a single wonderful computing device. The Internet Is Everything. All the OS has to do is boot the damn computer, get me to a browser as fast as possible and then stay the hell out of the way.

Chrome will do just that. And it will be free, unlike Windows. Forget the netbooks, which Google is targeting initally. We’ll see PCs of all types being sold by the major manufacturers as soon as Google gets this out of beta next year. Microsoft has a very serious competitive threat to the core of their revenues. Every Chrome computer bought won’t have Windows and won’t have Office. That must send chills down the spine of the guys up in Redmond. But hey, at least they can now point to Google when the antitrust guys come knocking. Someone other than them are bundling the operating system and browser into one neat package.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Method Man Ain’t Nothing ta Eff With

2009-07-08T11:45:20Z

First off.. Let off a couple shots for the captain of this ship, Combat Jack on his birthday! Happy born, day, bro!

And it’s funny, exactly 13 years ago today, CJ was hosting one of his infamous parties in Brooklyn. Since this party was a birthday party and it was a major milestone, I knew the shit would bananas, but I had to decline his invitation. Being a thousand miles away and being a broke undergrad, I couldn’t swing it. But more than not being able to party in New York for a weekend, I had big plans.

That summer, if you were talking about the titans of hip hop and Bad Boy or the Wu-Tang Clan weren’t in the conversation, chances were you weren’t saying much. Saturday July 8^th, Method Man, the dude who had the audacity to write a track about himself on his crew’s debut album was performing and I had an artist on the bill.

I’d been managing and making beats for a rapper named Midas. Dude is one of the nicest emcees you’ll probably never hear. He could rhyme off-the-top better than most signed cats who could so-called freestyle and his written lyrics and hooks were 24 karat. Midas was mad talented, a little on the chubby side and lived the art. He could drop a rhyme anywhere, anytime, on demand. He’d hock a hot lungy at a funeral if you asked him. I was the skinny multi-talented college educated cat who was looking to build a media empire from the bottom up. We were paving our own way, but comparisons to Big and Puff didn’t bother us either. After all, we were trying to get to where they were. This Method Man show, like every other show we did meant more experience, more exposure and possibly a big break.

The Meth concert was being promoted by my boy Sam who I’d worked with at our Student Government Productions. Yeah, it was college, but being that our operating budget was head and shoulders larger than other university’s, we were only limited by our imagination and artist availability. During my tenure at SGP, we brought acts like Naughty by Nature, Queen Latifah, The Roots, Run DMC (who got snowed out in LGA), Zhane, Boyz II Men, Ziggy Marley, Born Jamericans (whoa) and the late GOAT The Notorious B.I.G. For the general public, we brought a shitload more acts including Hootie and the Blowfish, Black Crowes and in a monstrous concert, The Rolling Stones in our 80,000 seat stadium. Needless to say, SGP fast-tracked a few of my peoples to exec positions at record label and artist management houses. Sam had paper and was looking to use his SGP chairman cred to become a concert production powerhouse. This concert was to be his first independent step towards big things to come.

The concert started off normally enough. Malt liquor was drank. Trees was burned. And kniccas got busy. There were a few other opening acts before us and they all rocked it. Midas got up and ripped the stage to shreds with my man DB and me as hype men. Writing this now, I remember bugging the fuck out at hearing my beats blast through the most ridiculous sound system they’d tasted to date. The undercards were done after my man’s group from Miami killed it and everyone was ready for the main event.

Method Man was supposed to perform at 11pm but since the opening acts went a little long, it didn’t matter that it was close to midnight. Not yet anyway. Being backstage, and staying up in smoke, we didn’t realize how much time had passed but after a while the crowd started to chant for “Method”. Realizing he had a problem brewing, Sam came backstage looking hella nervous and asked for a little assistance. I talked to some of the cats from the other groups and they all agreed to get back on stage to freestyle and improvise. It went off well enough but I could tell that the crowd was only mildly entertained. I couldn’t blame them, either. After all, the novelty of watching dudes who bag your groceries and/or dime bags rock the mic wears off pretty quickly.

When the crews got off stage, someone brought news that Meth was in the building and was meeting with Sam. As the news spread around, you could sense the energy change from hype to nervous anticipation. Dudes wanted to be cool but these were hungry rappers and one of rap’s biggest names was ready to make his entrance. And then he did. Method Man came through the door and greeted us with a warm “Oh my people! It’s good to finally see some real niggas in this piece” and invited us all into his dressing room. [||] Before he settled in, he kept pacing the room and kept singing “Scuse me while I kiss the sky” half like a mad man, half like what happens when some nigroes can’t get a hook out of their head. The collabo with Red Man hadn’t dropped yet (it would drop the next month) so I just assumed he was on some serious Jimi Hendrix shit. After cracking jokes about his trip, more blunts get burnt and passed. Meth was cool peoples and pretty damn fucking funny. And then goddamn it if a a freestyle battle didn’t break out. Heads were recycling the same shit they’d kicked on stage but were trying to impress Meth all the same until Midas came through and shut the other dudes down. That is until Meth got out of his seat, directed his verbal barbs at Midas and dapped him up at the same time. Even though he was beaming at the show of respect, he was ready for a counter attack, but already on his feet, Meth said it was show time.
I found myself posted up on stage right, just outside of the crowd’s view. Meth, Inspectah Deck and U-God started the set with ‘Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthin ta Fuck With’ but just about a minute into the song, Meth stops the DJ and screams at the sound man for making his shit sound fucked up. I forget what the next song was but he stopped that joint less than a minute in and goes in on the sound man again. He stops halfway through the third song and stage dives and surfs to the sound man’s booth to call him all kinds of bitches and to fucks around with the controls on the board. He hadn’t completed a full song, but the crowd was still loving the theatrics. Back on stage, Meth starts up the fourth song and the house loses it. “M-E-T-H-O-D! Man!” I could see Method Man soak up the love as the crowd spelled out his name in unison and and spit the verse with him… “Hey you! Get off my cloud!” But almost as quickly as it started, it was as if the 2,000 plus collective was simultaneously befuddled as to how cloud rhymed with style, or maybe it was that they didn’t know the lyrics past the first couple bars. In any case, the lyrical karaoke fizzled, then flat-lined to a dead stop.

“Yo stop this shit!” Meth goes at the sound man again (13 years after the fact, you know I’m paraphrasing) “Sound man. I warned you! You fucking the show up for people who paid good money to be here. So you know what? All you motherfuckers get y’all motherfucking money back!” He threw the mic down and broke out. With the swelling squeal of feedback, a flying beer bottle missed my nose by inches.

I looked into the audience and it was pure pandemonium. Security guards and bartenders were getting stomped out. Kniccas were jumping up on the bar and the bar was being relieved of its contents. The crowd was making its way outside with all kind’sa shit that didn’t belong outside. We were looking at a full-blown riot. But how the fuck did it get to this point?
<Lemme rewind a little.>
One detail Sam didn’t share with anyone was that he stretched the truth until it snapped. He was working with his own money, but fronted like it was SGP producing the show to pull it off. But because he was working with his own paper, he did it all on the cheap. Not only did he book seats in coach for members of the Wu on a bargain airline, they also got split up and Meth ended up being folded up next to an old lady who was coughing on him like she had the porky pox. Plus their transportation showed up late and they were sitting at the airport like a bunch of lonely assholes. Also, the venue held 2000 people but rarely attracted crowds of more than 1200, so Sam told the booking agent that he wasn’t expecting more than that. But when the crew pulled up to the spot and saw hundreds of people still trying to get in, then caught a glimpse of the crowd inside bursting beyond capacity, Meth decided to take advantage of the situation. Even though he was already being paid $12,000 for the show, he bent Sam over the table and told him that he wouldn’t get on stage unless Sam ponied up more cash on the spot. Sammy thought of the prospect of having to face an already angry crowd and losing money so he gave up $800. Already two hours hours late, Method Man thanked him by inciting a riot.

The scene outside the theatre wasn’t much better than it was inside. Shit looked like the “Rebenga!” scene from Scarface. There was mad shit on fire. There was the sound of glass breaking everywhere, literally everywhere and nigroes were jumping up and down and screaming for no fucking reason. I have a low threshold for fuckery and an even lower desire for death but this was the closest thing to a train wreck I’d ever seen and couldn’t help but walk around to check shit out… you know what they say about train wrecks. I saw a chick trapped in her car while dudes were throwing bricks and bottles at her windshield. I saw dudes running off with a cash register from the venue. Then my man DB decided to test his mack game, hollering at chicks running for their lives. Why the fuck not? Good times. Then the riot police show up in their helmets and with their military formations and their tear gas, a crystal clear indicator that it was time to go.

All told… I don’t remember how many people were injured but fortunately no one was killed. The venue had sustained tens of thousands of dollars in damages and Sam was public enemy #2. Public enemy #1 was Meth who had an arrest warrant issued on him the following day for inciting the riot. Sam lobbied unsuccessfully to add extortion to the charges. The police were so heated or stupid that they didn’t bother to find out his real name and issued the warrant for a Mr. Method Man. They issued a press release with the picture from the ‘All I Need’ single to the local press. Yup. The same image at the top of this post. MTV News put the riot on blast the following day.

Sam retired from producing concerts that weekend. After graduation, I got a job in commercial radio and eventually promoted and produced my own concerts making sure I didn’t make the same mistakes he did. A couple years in, though, I left that fickle, hard-to-get playing bitch called the music industry to make paper in the IPO happy technology industry. So I never managed to get a deal with Midas. But the dreams of the media empire are still live…

off

On The ‘Everyone Was Doing It’ Excuse

2009-07-08T03:26:07Z

“The [Rolling Stone] article makes a very compelling case against Goldman Sachs, but I think the problems it identifies are pervasive in financial firms and corporate America in general,” says Nell Minow, who is the co-founder of the Corporate Library, a research firm that tracks corporate-governance issues. “We need to launch substantive financial reform rather than weighing the faults of one firm versus another.” Minow’s point is this: spend too much time on Goldman and you miss the fact of how broadly the financial system and the regulations that are supposed to keep profiteers in check failed us. And she’s right.

via Goldman Sachs vs. Rolling Stone: A Wall Street Smackdown - TIME.

It’s been interesting, to say the least, watching the public reaction to my Rolling Stone piece last week. I of course expected that some kind of highly unpleasant response would come my way from Goldman and its allies in the press, but I admit to being surprised a little by the form this response took. Obviously I don’t want to dwell on this business, because it’s beyond boring when someone in my position complains about his critics, but I feel like I have to say something about at least a few of the talking points of the inevitable Goldman counteroffensive, which in various forms (letters sent to me personally, public comments) have reached my desk in the last few days.

The most ludicrous of these, and the one that surprised me the most, is the accusation that my article was anti-Semitic propaganda. The first letter I got on this score I actually mistook for a joke sent to me by one of my friends. Then I got another one which I quickly realized was not a joke at all. “Isn’t it convenient,” it read, “that an Arab-American writer for Rolling Stone looks at Wall Street and picks the most prototypically Jewish firm around to demonize.”

The last time I heard something similar was a few years ago, when Debbie Schlussel, a severely dimwitted Detroit-based right-wing pundit, railed against my supposed Arabness after I wrote an article about the Lebanese population in Dearborn, Michigan. I wrote to her to let her know that I’m actually Irish and Filipino, and not at all an Arab, but never got a response. This time the charge is a little different, as several writers complained that my article was “a rehash of every classic anti-Jewish conspiracy theory” and “a pale copy of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”

The evidence for these charges seems to be as follows. One, I used the word “tribe” somewhere near the end of the piece. Two, the term “blood-funnel” was used (one person also hinted that the use of a squid image was somehow anti-Semitic, but I was not entirely clear what was being referred to there). Three, I “singled out” Goldman and failed to level similar charges at “less Jewish firms” (yes, one letter-writer actually used that phrase) like Morgan-Stanley.

A few points in response to this preposterous argument. Firstly I’m going to make a blanket denial and just say that the question of religion was so far outside my thinking while writing this piece that I never even considered it. If this issue had even entered my head so much as once, I probably would have been more careful, and it is remotely possible that I might not then have used a distantly suggestive word like “tribe,” if only to avoid having to answer charges like this. But I didn’t consider it, for the simple reason that it’s completely ridiculous and not at all relevant.

For one thing, while Goldman’s founders a gazillion years ago were apparently Jewish, I seriously doubt that religion plays any role at all in the makeup of the modern Goldman. I don’t have any way of knowing this, but I would be shocked if it weren’t true that a majority of Goldman’s current employees were not Jewish. And whatever the reality is, I don’t care; it’s not a concern of mine and we didn’t make it a concern in the article.

If anything it seems to me that what defines these Wall Street characters is not religion but the absence of it: even a hardened atheist like myself comes away from the experience of reading about the last two decades of Wall Street history shocked by that community’s complete and utter Godlessness and moral insanity. What I’m saying in other words is that if any of these clowns actually had a real religious sensibility, we wouldn’t be in this mess — and that’s coming from someone who believes all religions to be inherently ridiculous. For Goldman now to hide behind the cloak of Jewish victimhood is both more obnoxious and less convincing than Marion Barry wearing a dashiki after the indictment.

Then there is this other argument, the one being bandied about by Time magazine, among others. According to Steven Gandel of Time, the problem with my piece is that it is — get this — too specific. According to the above passage, focusing on Goldman in particular when attempting to explain (in general) the crimes of Wall Street to ordinary readers is somehow a distraction from the “real problem.” To repeat:

…spend too much time on Goldman and you miss the fact of how broadly the financial system and the regulations that are supposed to keep profiteers in check failed us.

I had to read that passage several times to even begin to grasp its ostensible meaning. Apparently this is the best argument that Time could come up with to discredit this article, that the rhetorical technique of using a specific example of a specific bank like Goldman to tell a broader story about Wall Street in general distracts readers from the “more important” issue of how government regulators… failed to stop banks like Goldman! I mean, really, how’s that for circular thinking? This is silly stuff even by Time magazine’s standards.

I’ve been shocked by how many grown adult people seem to have swallowed this argument, that the argument against Goldman’s behavior during the bubbles of recent decades is invalid because “everyone was doing it” — and other banks, like for instance Morgan Stanley, were “just as bad” as Goldman was.

Two things about that. One, it isn’t true, not really. By any reasonable measure Goldman is and has been the baddest guy on the block for a long time. When it comes to government influence, no other Wall Street company even comes close. And while maybe one might have made an argument that other players were more damaging to society before the crisis of last year, there’s simply no question now, after the bailouts and especially after the AIG fiasco, that Goldman now reigns supreme in the area of insider advantage. To pick any other bank to tell the story of the rapidly growing influence of Wall Street on politics and the blurring of public and private roles would be a glaring journalistic oversight, and surely even Goldman’s biggest supporters would admit this.

Two, even if it is true that “everyone else was doing it”: so what? Who cares? To me this response is highly telling. We published a piece accusing Goldman Sachs of systematically ripping off pensioners and other retail investors by sticking them with rafts of toxic mortgages it knew were losers, of looting taxpayer reserves to cover its bad bets made with AIG, of manipulating gas prices to massive detrimental effect, of helping to explode an internet bubble that caused over $5 trillion in wealth to disappear, and numerous other crimes — and the response isn’t “You’re wrong,” or “We didn’t do that shit, not us,” but “Well, Morgan did the same stuff,” and “Why aren’t you writing about Morgan?”

Why didn’t we write about Morgan? Because we didn’t. Because it’s your turn, you assholes. Maybe later someone will tell the story of the other banks, but for now, while most ordinary people are only just learning about the workings of the financial innovation era that blew up in their faces last year, the top dog in that universe is going to be first in line to get the special treatment. That might be inconvenient for Goldman, but it doesn’t make the things I or anyone else say about them untrue.

Normally I don’t care so much when people criticize my work. It goes with the territory. But in this case, the response of a bank like Goldman and Goldman’s supporters is characteristic of the subject matter in a way that is important to point out, even after the fact of publication. These are powerful people who know how to play the public relations game, have all the appropriate contacts, and have a playbook that they follow to discredit their critics. Whether it’s me now or the next guy who takes them on, they’re going to come back with some kind of charge, be it “Everyone was doing it,” or “We’re just smarter than the other guys, you can’t blame us for that,” or “The real culprits are the ineffective regulators,” something.

They’re going to say that and more, but whether it’s this time or the next time, the important thing is to pay attention to what they don’t say. And what they didn’t say about this piece is that it was wrong. They didn’t deny any of it. They said others were just as bad, they said I was a bad guy, they said it was a conspiracy theory. But they didn’t say it was mistaken, and that’s the only thing that matters.

Video: Poison Pen - I’m Hood (One Shot)

2009-07-07T21:30:25Z

Poison Pen kicks off the new One Shot music video series from Director Court Dunn, Restless Films and Nahright.com. The concept is simple: your favorite rappers, impeccable bars, one-take videos. Enjoy.

Big thanks to One Take Court, producer Adam Riccio and Jonathan Master.

The 189-Day Check In: Music of the Half Year

2009-07-08T08:48:00Z

Now that we're 51.78% of the way through calendar year 2009, it seemed appropriate to hit you with a post commemorating our arrival at and passage of the halfway point.

Rap's been fragmented for a long time. That's nothing new. Niche audiences have abounded for years, and this large set of disparate audiences has only amplified the success of universal stars like Kanye West. In an era when the hip-hop constituency is no longer monolithic and easier to reach but harder to control, the few transcendent personalities who seem to matter among a majority of rap communities deserve credit for this mass appeal. Which is not to say that their music is beyond criticism, or that they're even especially good. Acknowledging their ubiquity is just that: simple recognition.

I've returned to the fractured hip-hop populace again and again this year because 2009 has yet to see a cohesive musical element emerge. Whatever consensus there is in rap music appears weak at best. The artists who usually sway large groups have momentarily receded. We don't even really have a song of the summer, and it's already the second week of July. At the moment, the prevailing hip-hop sense seems to be whatever you'll make it. Not a bad thing, necessarily, but worth noting, anyway.

As always, a few caveats:
- Things may change between now and December 31st.
- My taste, like yours, is not static.
- Songs may be dapped up for all kinds of reasons.
- All lists are in alphabetical order, by artist.

Let's do it...

45 Best Songs of the First 189
- 50 Cent, "Tia Told Me" - 50 is a complete douche, and his routine gets tedious. The phony beefs, the media spectacles--all of it. But he is a savvy practitioner, and this joint was pretty funny. Now, it even seems timely, given Michael Jackson's passing.
- Al Be Back ft. Naledge and 88-Keys, "Walk on By" - Not really sold on Al Be, but Naledge and 88-Keys work this beat nicely.
- Big Scen ft. Sean Price, "Broke as Fuck" - Sean P, as gutter as it gets, rapping about being from the gutter? Yessir.
- The Black Lips ft. GZA, "Drop I Hold" - I think the Black Lips are some kind of indie-rock sensation (I don't listen to that music), and I am not sure what bloggers are supposed to say about them. But whatever: I love the washed out sound and the melodramatic moaning
- Busta Rhymes ft. Uncle Murda, "Director's Cut" - Some Coming-era Busta, at least in overall feel and aesthetic.
- Cam'ron, "Cookin' Up" - Crime Pays was a letdown. Everything sounded like Cam-lite. "Cookin'" was among the few that approached the sound and quality for which one might have hoped. And it has my favorite diss: "Killa/You Andre Miller/Got a basic game." In the same verse about being the Black Gallagher.
- Cappadonna ft. Lounge Lo and Ghetto Philharmonic, "Somebody's Got to Go" - You didn't even know Cap put out new music this year, did you? The lazy, soulful horn piece is just ill.
- The Cool Kids, "Cinnamon" - Captures what the Cool Kids do, for better and for worse. Laid back, inward focused, almost spacey in its playful rhyming.
- DJ JS-1 ft. Craig G, AG, and Ed O.G., "Original G'z" - This is what it sounds like in my mind when I remember being 12 years old.
- Drake ft. Elzhi and Phonte, "Think Good Thoughts" - Not "Hoe Cakes," but that may be an unfair standard. Phonte and Elzhi remain two of the better rappers. I love hearing not just their rhymes, but how they pick out the images they'll use in similes. Dudes are perspicacious and engaged.
- The Dream, "I'm Not OK" - Wish it were on his album. Smooth joint easy to have on in the background, and yet emotionally engaging in the cheesiest way possible. A guilty-pleasure pick.
- Finale, "Heat" - So many elements go into this record--Finale's focused, intense flow; the cutting in between verses; Sean Price-like grunts; a tinny sound. Feels gritty, and very much of the D.
- Focus ft. Slum Village, Frank Nitty, and Illa J, "Homage to Dilla" - Speaking of Detroit...Focus just nails these homages, recreating signature sounds so well. This is cheating, in a way, but it's nice hearing S Villa over something Dilla-ish.
- Focus ft. Royce da 5'9", Phonte, and Stat Quo, "Homage to DJ Premier" - Not that you would forget, but it's staggering to consider what Premier has done for hip-hop.
- Focus ft. Big Pooh, Sha Stimuli, and Kurupt, "Homage to Pete Rock" - Those echoing horns....
- Freeway, "For the Money" - Whatever part of me still loves chipmunk soul can't get enough of the sample that drives the song's melody.
- The Game ft. Snoop Dogg, "On the Block" - Game does Game, sounding at home over production that is pleasantly generic. And Snoop's sing-song shit works over that Cheers-theme interlude.
- Ghostface Killah, "Forever" - Even when he's not being especially kind, Ghost manages to sound earnest and endearing.
- Jadakiss, "Magic City" - I admire the hardworking style of this track. Lyrical content aside, it's sort of bluecollar--stays at it, masters nothing but does many things well, and ultimately gets the job done.
- Jadakiss ft. Swizz Beatz, Eve, DMX, Styles P, Sheek Louch, and Drag-On, "Who's Real" - Double-R nostalgia!
- Jay Dee, "Coming Back" - Beautiful soundscape. Calls out for Elzhi.
- Jay Dee ft. Blu, "Smoke" - Kind of a dumb song, but immensely listenable, as Blu sounds great.
- Lee Bannon ft. Sha Stimuli, Skyzoo, and Donny Goines, "Volume" (O.G. Version) - I'm on record about why this song works so well. Such a great joint.
- Method Man & Redman ft. Bun B, "City Lights" - As he does for most of the album, Meth sounds a lot like he did back when he was most prominent. He's mellowed some, but he retains this air of cool control.
- MF Doom, "Gazzillion Ear" - Very Doom-ish, no?
- Mos Def ft. Slick Rick, "Auditorium" - Among the more engaging songs. Requires that you pay attention. And Rick's verse is particularly dope.
- Mr. Hudson ft. Kanye West, "Supernova" - The musical equivalent of orange juice out of a can--it is weird, and it can almost be bad, yet something about it (Hudson's melodic whining; the metallic aftertaste) oddly calls you back.
- Nas, "Fear of Mandingo" - One of those quasi-intellectual Nas raps. This one is memorable for its blunt treatment of a topic usually skirted around.
- Ne-Yo, "To Be Continued" - He might be a closet case, what with the endless scarves and rarely actually appearing in the same frame as the women in his videos, but whatever. Ne-Yo consistently makes great pop songs. This one is a little more mature and muted, which gives it some heft.
- Raekwon, "Resolution" - The rhyming is a little rote, but the words are bathed in a gorgeous soul sound that suits the strained, raspy, aged Rae Rae voice.
- Raekwon ft. The Game, "Flashback Memories" - Game and Rae sound great over this woozy track. It's casually impressive.
- Raekwon ft. Method Man and Ghostface Killah, "Wu Ooh" - Best song of the year? Probably. So far. Meth marshals the troops and gets them ready to go in; Rae spits a dense coke-crime fantasy; Ghost gets energetic and cinematic; and Meth goes the extra mile by slaying his verse, controlling his cadence so well. Among the most fun songs.
- The Red Giants ft. Ilyas and Donwil, "Nati Niggaz" - Another track I've discussed. G-Funk isn't a bad look.
- Rick Rowss ft. The Game, Fat Joe, and Ja Rule, "Mafia Music" (Remix) - Yeah, they're all kind of idiotic and a little silly, but they do arm up pretty well using a sinister beat that is only missing Shyne.
- Ron Artest, "Michael, Michael" - Is there a more curious record? No.
- Royce da 5'9", "Count for Nothing" - The most furious rapper alive. He murders damn near everything.
- Serius Jones, "Help (I Been Robbed)" - Dude really rides this beat, and he infuses the tough talk with a knowing amusement that makes me think he was smiling while he rapped.
- Sha Stimuli ft. Ne-Yo, "I Miss You" - A nice, sincere, accessible song. Just wildly pleasant. Plus, Stimuli calls himself "corny," so that's not really much of a criticism to level against it.
- Slaughterhouse ft. M.O.P., "Woodstock" - Hardest rap track alive.
- Steve Porter, "Press Hop" - Hilarious. Can never get enough Dennis Green.
- Tanya Morgan ft. Blu, "Morgan Blu" - My own, personal summer joint. Put this on in the car and instantly feel good.
- U-God ft. Ghostface Killah and Scotty Wotty, "Train Trussle" - "Praise be to Allah!" I like any track that samples Mr. Tyson. And I like the Wu-ish sound that is revived on the track. You rockin' a shit bag!
- Usher, "What's a Guy Gotta Do" - Pharrell commands a certain production aesthetic that instantly evokes the sense that everyone should be wearing white. It's airy and breezy. It's fans blowing. It's natural light. It's twirls in the video. Basically, it's this song.
- Wale, "Penthouse Anthem" - Not sure why, but this kind of tugs at me.
- Wu-Tang Clan ft. Inspectah Deck, Sadat X, and U-God, "Sound the Horns" - Ever since Tribe's "Steve Biko," I've been a sucker for well-deployed horn riffs.

9 Worst Songs of the First 189 (Or, at Least, 9 Songs that Stuck with Me for Being Bad)
- Beyonce, "Diva" - The most annoying song I can remember, so grating, and repetitive, and noisy, and ugly. It would also be nice if Beyonce's voice didn't combine with the music to sound like shrieking.
- Busta Rhymes ft. Demarco and Jelly Roll, "We Miss You" - I felt like someone was raping my ear.
- Cam'ron ft. Vado, "Horror Story" - *shakes his head* What were they thinking? Honestly, what? Who thought this sounded good? To anyone? The only thing they got right was the title. Zing!
- Diddy ft. Ying Joc, "Diddy Bop" - What would happen if a reTARD read a keyword cloud on some hackneyed hip-hop site and then found his dad's synethsizer.
- Jeremih, "Birthday Sex" - If only we could rename this song "Boring as Fuck."
- Lil' Wayne's rock music
- Naledge, "Lovin' Ya Life" - This hurts, because I am a big Naledge fan, but the track was just off. It was shrill and the rhythm was stilted. Really not a good look.
- Peter Bjorn and John, "I'm Losing My Mind" - Sounds like a sad experiment in INXS imitation. Or something.
- Slim Thug ft. UGK, "Leaning" - Incredibly generic, sort of antiquated, and forever cursed by Pimp C's whiny, awful voice.

3 Most Disappointing Songs of the First 189
- The Clipse ft. Kanye West, "Kinda Like a Big Deal" - Once you get past that these dudes are kind of like a big deal, you're left with a lazy, bland song that is amazingly forgettable. And the Clipse, whom their fans consider to be masterful, sound pretty tame and unimaginative. Boring, really. The only unqualified positive is that Kanye doesn't sing into the computer.
- Jay-Z, "DOA" - More ground I've tread. A totally discursive, frivolous song that did little more than mask activity as accomplishment.
- Jay Dee ft. Havoc and Raekwon, "24K Rap" - It could have been cool. But the Dilla minimalism isn't carried by standout verses, or a proper relationship between beat and MCs. Instead, this is lifeless and stale, sounding too stitched together. Havoc kind of sucks these days, which is sad.

4 Artists Who've Won the First 189
- Drake - Dunny is everywhere. No? Dunny just signed with one of America's most beloved tatted-up midgets. No? Dunny's getting lots of radio play from a song he made last year. No? Dunny is linked to a grip of good-looking women. No? Life is good for the Drake.

- Raekwon - Rae is rapping well this year. His ever expanding catalogue of unofficial music has enjoyed a renaissance as he's recaptured an element of MC'ing that makes his verses lively. Set to a range of soulful, calm music, the reinvigorated Chef now seems like a sort of worn veteran who is comfortable in the role and eager to make meaningful music. OB4CL2 is probably the most important remaining rap thing of the year, and it wouldn't be were he in an artistic stupor.

- Rick Rowss - Despite running out of ammo against the relentless Mr. Curtis, an ignominious past that people, not least of all bloggers, won't allow him to forget, and his ever hulking bosom, Rowss has managed to scratch out a place at the big-boy (no pun intended) table. Thanks to a well-made record that compensated for medium-level raps with fantastic music, Ricky, inexplicable, seems credible for the time being. And his beef made him current, sadly.

- Royce da 5'9" - Most exciting rapper in the game. He bodies almost every track he gets on, and he combines that energy and intensity with impressive, intricate verse construction. Royce will never receive the credit he deserves, but he's charting a nice course right now, with Slaughterhouse, his relationship with Black Milk, and his excellent mixtapes.

7 Songs I've Kept on the iPod for Most of the First 189
- 50 Cent, "Play This on the Radio"
- Al Tariq, "Nikki"
- Jack Wilkins, "Red Clay"
- The Kinks, "Living on a Thin Line"
- The Lonely Island, "Who Said We're Wack"
- Love Unlimited Orchestra, "Theme from Together Brothers"
- Q-Tip, "Let's Ride"

4 Most Annoying Things about Rap in the First 189
- Drake - Hate the Drake. Well, not really, but I think he's overrated. His mixtapes are technically impressive but loaded with boring music. That sing-song shit he does is a little played, not only because it grows tedious but because it sounds too much like fad music. And, to be completely unfair, I can't get past his cookie-cutter professional background; it's hard to ride for a Degrassi rapper. Plus, his look is always off, be it his hair or his clothes.

- Internet MCs and the Website That Love Them - No shots are being fired. Let me be clear. I have great respect and admiration for the rap websites that serve as RSS feeds for the community. They are incredibly useful. I read them every day. But the downside of being so diligent in the coverage and so accepting of submissions is that rap music is becoming impossible to manage. Seemingly anyone with an mp3, an email address, and a headshot can wind up being promoted as a next big thing. Or as someone doing something worthwhile. The hype, and really just the unwarranted attention, is almost cumbersome. Sure, a reader can choose against certain posts and need not listen to every song put out by someone with a funny name who thinks it's cool to wear women's pants. However, the culture has changed, and the gates appear to have been flung wide open. It's democratic and incredibly cool in some respects. But it also encourages lax standards and empty product, and it's self-perpetuating.

Don't even get me started on the quasi-credible artists who can't release one effing album but can tweet all day and flood inboxes with new joints.

- Lil' Wayne as a non-rap expert - Not sure when this happened, but I blame Jennifer Lopez. In America, the people who run media companies seem to think that talent is fungible, so that if someone excels in one area, he can rely on this talent to morph into a new form that can be applied in another capacity. J-Lo's career is one of mediocre music, dancing, and acting, all of these disciplines self-reinforcing. Oh my, she sings, too! Feel me? Well, Wayne appears to be benefitting from similarly stupid thinking, what with his burgeoning rock career and his residency at ESPN as a supposed sports expert. It's embarrassing, to be honest.

- Living in St. Louis - Look, people, I don't really know what informs your taste, but it's regrettable, if not pathetic, that you seem happiest when every song on the radio is indistinguishable, with all of them sounding like "Stanky Legg"/"Bust It Wide Open" inbreeding.

5 Worst Albums of the First 189
- Alchemist, Chemical Warfare - The rapping is OK, and there are a few joints, but the production is almost antagonistic in its jagged, hard, dystopian sound. Really expected a cleaner iteration of the style, but this is grimy and noisy, albeit not always loud.
- Asher Roth, Asleep in the Bread Aisle - Whatever. He might be dead at this point, and I doubt it would even register anymore. Thank Jesus.
- DJ Drama, Gangsta Grillz, The Album, Vol. 2 - I listened to this several times and have almost no recollection of it. That can't be good.
- Eminem, Relapse - Sort of a sad album.

- Maino, If Tomorrow Comes - I almost thought this was a joke when I first heard it, as though someone had to settle a bet about how unremarkable and forgettable a record could be.

3 Best Mixtapes of the First 189
- Rhymefest, The Manual
- Skyzoo, The Power of Words
- Wyclef Jean, Coming to America

5 Albums I Wanted to Like More Than I Actually Do
- Busta Rhymes, Back on My Bullshit - It's got some bangers for sure--"Conglomerate," "Shoot for the Moon," the second part of the intro. But overall, the production is too inconsistent in style, too messy in execution, and generally unpalatable. It's not really an enjoyable record to listen to. And Busta's whole thug routine has always been a little insincere and now has worn thin.
- Jadakiss, The Last Kiss - Jesus, Jada, why can't you make a cohesive album? Your ear for beats is awful.
- De La Soul, Are You In? - It's a running mix. With that caveat, it's still really bland.
- Jay Dee, Jay Stay Paid - The posthumous Yancey releases should probably stop now. We appear to have reached the end of the quality beats. For that matter, I am tired of namebrand rappers doing inadequate work with his music. This album was just up and down, and probably should have been an 8-track EP. As that shortened product, it would be excellent.

- Peter Bjorn and John, Living Thing - Following up a rich, melodic, poppy album like Writer's Block with an album far more minimal and sharp made Things hard to digest. Once past that stylistic diversion, though, we're still left with a lot of songs that are too threadbare.

13 Best Albums of the First 189
- Amadou & Mariam, Welcome to Mali - The rhythms and melodies are infectious. Great music to throw on for almost any occasion.
- DJ JS-1, Ground Original 2: No Sell Out - Overall, best-produced album of the year. And unlike some formal mixes, nearly every one of the tracks feels right, like a nicely developed snapshot of a certain rap landscape.
- Finale, A Pipe Dream and a Promise - Detroit music, unapologetically so.
- Grand Puba, RetroActive - Puba's still got that soft voice, that funny preference for singing off key, and that newjack persona. You'd think he's sound terrible, but yet, he makes it work. Sort of fun for an old(er) head.
- Kenzo Digital, City of God's Son - Best piece of art that will be made this year, I'd imagine.
- Method Man & Redman, Blackout 2 - Low expectations may have enhanced this album's impact because almost anyone can look spry when the bar is set low. However, Meth and Red find a rhythm, use smart music that complements them, and rap like it were 1996, or at least 2000.
- Mos Def, The Ecstatic - I'm just glad he chose to make an actual hip-hop album again. The Middle East-infused scoundscape is a little tricky, and perhaps not as inviting as lesser music made more traditionally, but this is a smart, provocative record. A rap record.
- Rick Ross, Deeper Than Rap - Great beats. Unintentionally funny man rapping over them.
- Ryan Leslie, Ryan Leslie - Easy-listening R&B. Not as good, but the vibe reminds me of John Legend's debut. Perhaps an obvious, not wholly correct comparison, but I couple them in my mind.
- Tanya Morgan, Brooklynati - Album of the year so far? Really solid rhyming, cohesive sonic and narrative arcs. The tone might be a little soft for some, and it could easily be denigrated as some bastard child of the okayplayer realm, but that carries with it an agenda. Artistically, it's a very good product.
- Torae, Double Barrel - New York boom bap.
- U-God, Dopium - Sleeper album of the year. Who knew U-God could pull off a project that is more than half good, and very much of the Wu-Tang Clan?
- Wu-Tang Clan, Chamber Music - Speaking of--this is not a real Wu record. It doesn't have all the MC's, and Chamber Music was explicitly an experimental project with a live band and guests. But this does recreate some vintage RZA sounds, and the MC'ing is professional, though not exemplary.

Music Musings

2009-07-06T22:22:48Z

Just getting around to some bits of music housekeeping I’ve been meaning to mention:

1. Mos Def Sells New Album on T-shirt

About a year and a half ago I wrote a post called Sell Music On ANYTHING! where I suggested that since digital technology had recently liberated music from its previously contrived confinement on things like tape and plastic and vinyl, the really exciting thing wasn’t that it was no longer necessary to sell music on something, but that it was now possible to sell music on ANYTHING!

It turns out Mos Def had the same exact notion. Case in point:

Mos Def’s New Album Available as T-Shirt

Here’s a new one: Mos Def’s BNM’ed new album The Ecstatic is available as a T-shirt. As in: You can buy a shirt that has The Ecstatic’s Killer of Sheep-interpolating cover art on the front, its tracklist on the back, and a download code for the album on a hang tag.

Selling albums these days is hard! So the music/fashion company Invisible DJ, working with the fashion designer LnA, has come up with this idea called the Music Tee.

The Ecstatic is the first album available in the Music Tee format. Mos Def’s Downtown Music labelmates Santigold and Miike Snow also have Music Tees on the way.

One prophecy down.

As companies such as Invisible DJ and Dropcards spring up to corner the various new mediums that music can be sold on, it’s time for brands to start paying attention to what’s going on here. After all, why start a new shoe company to sell music on, when you could just sell new music on the shoes you’re already producing if you’re, say, Nike? I’ve written before about how brands are behaving more and more like record labels by teaming with music acts in various ways in order to create relevance and cultural salience — and in the process bands are benefiting from the partnership by taking advantage of the brand’s marketing reach to access an even greater audience for their music. Perhaps the new incarnation for “record labels” is in the guise of marketing agencies. In the aftermath of Vibe Magazine’s recent demise, Jeff Chang, music journalist and author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation spurred a discussion on Twitter (which he re-posted on his blog) musing on the future of magazines, especially those focusing on urban culture. Chang writes:

For what it’s worth, most of the mags I know in the high 10,000 – low 100,000 circulation realm have become quasi- or real marketing agencies. I think of magazines like URB, The Fader, and Juxtapoz, and Swindle as businesses that are working. But there are a number of ancillary units working there aside from the content work. All of them have massive marketing arms. Juxtapoz is part of the Upper Playground clothing/street art business. Swindle is part of Shepard Fairey’s empire.

But yeah, media qua media? Not so much…

Alan Light, a music journalist and editor who’s worked with Vibe, Spin, and Rolling Stone, among others added that the magazine parts of the marketing companies are “A good investment in terms of visibility. As a kind of calling card for the rest of the operation where the profits are.” Since the music industry is in pretty much the same shape as magazines perhaps it might be time for labels to start exploring this sort of culture creation / marketing agency model as well? One prophecy to go.

2. The Glitch Mob’s Summer Tour: “More Voltage”

I helped out with refining the tour concept and now I’m all bummed none of the dates are gonna be on the East Coast. Boo.

3. New music I’ve been listening to on repeat: Beats Antique

Their new album, “Contraption” is some seriously awesome shit. Have a listen:

And Bandcamp, the service they’re using to release the music, is definitely looking like something to keep an eye on.

Flaming Garbage Cans In Hip Hop Videos

2009-07-06T20:16:02Z

Link

What The Right Means When They Say "America"

2009-07-06T16:35:00Z

UPDATE: Several posters have pointed out the distinction between the meritocratic and democratic ideal. I have conflated the two, and thus portions of this are wrong. Having thought on that fact though, I still can't bring myself to see Palin is one or Obama as the other. Perhaps this is my color barrier, but the promise of more "democratic" America never meant, to me, black people, their actual knowledge of the world be damned. It meant a fair shot.

That said, Ross is owed an apology--conflating the two changes the meaning. There is more here. But I want to think on it some more.

I need to quote at length from Ross's column today:

Palin's popularity has as much to do with class as it does with ideology. In this sense, she really is the perfect foil for Barack Obama. Our president represents the meritocratic ideal -- that anyone, from any background, can grow up to attend Columbia and Harvard Law School and become a great American success story. But Sarah Palin represents the democratic ideal -- that anyone can grow up to be a great success story without graduating from Columbia and Harvard.

This ideal has had a tough 10 months. It's been tarnished by Palin herself, obviously. With her missteps, scandals, dreadful interviews and self-pitying monologues, she's botched an essential democratic role -- the ordinary citizen who takes on the elites, the up-by-your-bootstraps role embodied by politicians from Andrew Jackson down to Harry Truman.
But it's also been tarnished by the elites themselves, in the way that the media and political establishments have treated her.
Here are lessons of the Sarah Palin experience, for any aspiring politician who shares her background and her sex. Your children will go through the tabloid wringer. Your religion will be mocked and misrepresented. Your political record will be distorted, to better parody your family and your faith. (And no, gentle reader, Palin did not insist on abstinence-only sex education, slash funds for special-needs children or inject creationism into public schools.)
Male commentators will attack you for parading your children. Female commentators will attack you for not staying home with them. You'll be sneered at for how you talk and how many colleges you attended. You'll endure gibes about your "slutty" looks and your "white trash concupiscence," while a prominent female academic declares that your "greatest hypocrisy" is the "pretense" that you're a woman. And eight months after the election, the professionals who pressed you into the service of a gimmicky, dreary, idea-free campaign will still be blaming you for their defeat.
All of this had something to do with ordinary partisan politics. But it had everything to do with Palin's gender and her social class.
Sarah Palin is beloved by millions because her rise suggested, however temporarily, that the old American aphorism about how anyone can grow up to be president might actually be true.
But her unhappy sojourn on the national stage has had a different moral: Don't even think about it.

There is in this critique, a kind of Al Sharpton analysis--Sarah Palin as a stand-in for all of her social class. Ross contends that her failures are not her own, but somehow the failures that would afflict anyone else presumably from her "social class." But this only works if you think that most of working class America is as fucking inept as Sarah Palin.

There is more to be said about that, but I'd like to move to something more important--that being Ross's definition of "Anyone."

In the last ten months, we've seen the son of a single mother, son of an immigrant, roots in Kansas, roots in the quintessentially American South Side of Chicago, standing for the "traditional values" of family, and the lesson we take from this is is that American meritocracy is broken.

Conservative condescension toward working class America, works in tandem with racial blindness. I have tried, through a few re-readings, to avoid seeing that in Ross's column. But it's very difficult to process the notion that Sarah Palin is a better model of the all-American meritocratic ideal than Barack Obama, without believing that that judgment hinges on race.

My black readers are laughing at me. Again.

I would like to see Ross's point another way. But I can't escape the fact that, at this very moment, there are two young girls living in the White House. In their veins, they have the blood of men who fought in World War II. They have the blood of women who fled the Aparthied South, made something of themselves, and helped build one of the country's great neighborhoods.

Yet, in these times, having come this far, at this moment, we are told that the meritocratic ideal is broken. And, seemingly, it would be fixed by offering a candidate, who can't name a single newspaper she reads, access to the nuclear launch codes. In that context, one wonders at what precise point, meritocracy worked? And then I recoil at the answer...

I don't know what to say here. There's a direct line from this sort of thinking, to the idea that Sotomayor isn't qualified to the risible notion that whites (of a certain "social class") are being herded into Jim Crow. Race is all around us. I'm actually shocked when it crops up. And then I'm shocked that I'm shocked. And then I'm fearful that a day is coming when I won't be shocked at all, when I'll just expect it.

T.R.O.Y. Compilation: Native Tongues Affiliate 'Lucien Revolucien'

2009-07-06T16:25:01Z

"Escargot, Lucien, you eat snails
(Hey yo Tip, what's wrong with snails?)"

Lucien Revolucien is a French hip-hop artist who was influential in the hip-hop movement in France in the 1990s. A Tribe Called Quest included a song dedicated to Lucien ("Luck of Lucien") on their first LP, "People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm." Common also featured a similar song on his album Electric Circus, "Heaven Somewhere". He has been affiliated with the Native Tongues Posse; a group that includes A Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, Queen Latifah, Black Sheep) and to The Beatnuts. (He is the only outside producer who made a song for The Beatnuts: "Ya Don't Stop" on their first album, Street Level).

Thanks to digitalmullet and dirt_dog for compiling Lucien's discography. Lucien was also part of the Hip-Hop Against Apartheid movement who released Ndodemyama(Free South Africa) in 1990. Unfortunately, I don't have it and cannot find it online. I also included a posse cut featuring Lucien, Lord Finesse, Strictly Roots, & True Culture which was released on Africa Bambataa's 1991 album that wasn't included on digitalmullet's compilation. Enjoy,

His Beats
01 Dana Barros-Check It (Produced by Lucien) (1994)
02 The Beatnuts-Ya Don't Stop (Produced by Lucien) (1994)
03 Suprême NTM-Plus Jamais Ça (Produced by Lucien) (1995)
04 Al' Tariq-Spectacular feat. A-Massacre, God Connections Problemz, SK & Sean Black (Produced by Lucien) (1996)
05 Afro Jazz-Perle Noire (Produced by Lucien) (1996)
06 Afro Jazz-Paris <-> New York (Produced by Lucien) (1996)
07 Afro Jazz-Perle Noire (Instrumental) (Produced by Lucien) (1996)
08 Afro Jazz-Tout De Go feat. Fdy Phenomen, L. Loco & Papalu (Produced by Lucien) (1999)

His Raps
01 Jungle Brothers-Feelin' Alright (1989) (Background Vocals)
02 Jungle Brothers-Belly Dancin' Dina (1989) (Background Vocals)
03 Jungle Brothers-Black Woman (1989) (Background Vocals)
04 Jungle Brothers-I Get A Kick Out Of You (1990) (Background Vocals)
05 Lucien-(Intro) Funky Piano/From A Town Called Paris/Outro) Donkeys (1993)
06 Kurious-Top Notch feat. Kadi, Psycho Les & Lucien (1994)
07 Alliance Ethnik-Jamais À L'Heure feat. Lucien & Psycho Les (1995)
08 Guru-Lifesaver feat. Lucien & Baybe (1995)
09 Afro Jazz-Guerre Des Nerfs feat. Lucien & Supreme NTM (1997)
10 Afro Jazz-3 Spliffs Et 1 Freestyle feat. Lucien (1997)
11 Afro Jazz-Parias Vs Etat feat. Lucien (1997)
12 Arsenik, Lord Kossity & Papalu-Les Lascars (1999)
13 NTM feat Lucien -Check The Flow (1995)

His Tributes
01 A Tribe Called Quest-Luck Of Lucien (1992)
02 Common-Heaven Somewhere feat. Omar Lyefook, Bilal, Cee-Le & Jill Scott (2002)

Download

Bonus: Afrika Bambaataa & Family - The Decade Of Darkness 1990-2000

B2 Steppin' Hard Zulu Nation
Featuring [Rap] - Lord Finesse , Lucien , RMR , True Culture
Producer - DJ Fashion

-- Thomas V

The Rza Turned 40 Yesterday, Still No Sign Of 'The Cure'

2009-07-06T16:08:34Z

Six Great Anti-Fudge Rap Songs

2009-07-06T14:53:08Z

It was fun while it lasted, but it seems that Unkut’s title as the “home of homophobia in the hip-hop blogopshere” has been brought to a close by the arrival of Rap Gaydar, a new blog which lets readers submit their favorite suspect lyric or photo. As I pass the proverbial torch over to the new kings of this fudge rap thing, it’s only right that I do one final drop on the topic of ‘up the coat’ rap - or in this case, rap that throws teh ghey’s under a bus.

Lakey The Kid - ‘No Homo’

Still as brilliant as when I posted it back in 2006. Lake covers a variety of important issues here, from ‘down-low’ dudes giving broads the germ to dudes turning sweet after being locked-up and how Lake doesn’t want them dude’s hanging around his kids. Say word.

Audio Two - ‘Whatcha Lookin’ At?’

‘Word to Giz, I hate faggots! They livin’ in the Village like meat on some maggots!’ Thank goodness Milk didn’t live long enough to witness the rise of Skinny Jean rap. Oh, wait…

Big Daddy Kane feat. Nice & Smooth - ‘Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy’

‘The Big Daddy law is anti-faggot! That means no homosexuality, what’s in my pants will make you see reality!’ Truth be told, I’m kinda disappointed he didn’t follow-up with the old ‘bust a nut in your eye so you can see where I’m coming from’ line.

Brand Nubian - ‘Pass The Gat’

‘Shoot the faggot in the back for actin’ like that!’ It’s worth noting that he was talking about cops, but he upset a bunch of Vibe subscribers regardless.

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo - ‘Truly Yours’

‘Skin-tight Levis and even knee-highs’. It’s almost as if G Rap took a DeLorean into the future. ‘Gays today give V.D in 3-D’ *floor* This song actually got banned from New York radio after the flamers got their panties in a twist.

A Tribe Called Quest feat. Brand Nubian - ‘Georgie Porgie’

Woah! I mean settle down, dudes. It’s not that serious.

BET's School for Nappy Headed Ho's: BET, Drake & Lil Wayne

2009-07-05T16:35:00Z

The jump @ 3:55 sec

"I like a long haired thick red bone."
~Lil Wayne

No nappy headed ho's allowed.

I have been having a conversation with Moya and Nuala about
BET, Drake, and Lil Wayne.

The conversation has been interesting in that I have been
pushing hard against being reactionary. Its challenging, because when
you react you feel empowered.

But, we, the masses, always have the power, whether or not we use
it is another question. We outnumber the executives and the politicians.

Always.

Black Women
It is important to note that there are Black women who
are only angry because Drake's video features light skinned
Latina's and White women. From the Sandra Rose website,

"Sandra as a woman I am offended that this is all Kanye West, the director, could come up with for one of the hottest songs of the summer. He should be ashamed of this depiction of females. This video in a nutshell basically says a woman’s beauty is defined by how big her boobs are and light her skin is. And Kanye being a black man raised by black parents and Drake being bi-raicial (half black and half white) why are they only showcasing ALL Hispanic girls in this video? I don’t get it, they couldn’t get ONE pretty chocolate sister up in the video like Lanisha Cole, Jessica White, or Natasha Ellie to be in the video alongside the Hispanic girls?..."

I read this, thought about it, read it again then realized that,
getting more Black women to care about rap videos, simply takes
only featuring Latina's and White women. Hmmmp.

In fact, on Tuesday. I tweeted that in some ways the the only
way for Black women to be upset about rap videos is if they
are excluded. I was surprised that five people responded. We
have allies after all.

What does it mean, and what does it say about Black women,
and the recognition of Black beauty in mainstream media,
if we are only mad because a clearly sexist video doesn't have
any brown skinned women in it?

Apologies and Boycott's
BET and Drake have both apologized.

An apology without an action is worthless.

Especially when the apology does nothing to materially impact
harm that has been done.

Lets review the facts.

BET has received its ad dollars.

Advertisers commercials were exposed to 10M viewers.

Some Black people have written letter and a petition and get an apology.

The first two points have to do with an exchange of money,
the last one doesn't.

One question for BET? What is your apology worth?

In my conversation with Moya, we are talking about boycott's
and how they are reactionary. The idea is that if we spend
all of our time reacting to what some one is doing to us,
then we will have no energy left to advance our own agenda's.

The advertisers for the Bet awards were, Dodge, Procter & Gamble,
Target, CIROC Vodka, Ford, Coors, Pepsi, Verizon Wireless and Akademiks.
You know, in case you were wondering.

According to Target Market News, In a recent mulitmedia engagement of 5,000 African American adults, Simmons market Research Bureay found that BET viewers are 21% more ad receptive when they watch ads on BET, and 31% more ad rece[tive when they see ads on Bet.com, versus other networks.

[Sidebar. Why do corporations cause harm and governments
stay taking forced free labor and or ad dollars, and giving
us apologies? It's rhetorical]

While there are many people who are angry about
what BET has done, just because folks are angry,
does't mean that they care enough to take
non-reactionary action.

Take Imus, he was censored temporarily,
there was a big hullaboo, and he is back on the air.

Capitalism stay eatin', nothing stops it.

Imus nor Wayne, nor Drake, are the problem. They
are symptoms of a larger one.

Moya astutely pointed out we often say that "Them rappers
ain't talking about me", she then noted that, Wayne just said he
"wish he could fuck every girl in the world", that includes all of us,
you too Love.

BET?

What do you think of the women being angry because
no brown skinned women were featured?

You see the awards?

Have you thought of alternatives to reactionary
boycotts?

Thoughts?

100 Visionaries? Yes!

The Future Of Rap Music…

2009-07-05T19:51:54Z

Review: The Case for God by Karen Armstrong | Books | The Guardian

2009-07-05T13:35:37Z

Shared by wayneandwax
sexy jesus!

This is an eloquent and interesting book, although you do not quite get what it says on the tin. Karen Armstrong takes the reader through a history of religious practice in many different cultures, arguing that in the good old days and purest forms they all come to much the same thing. They use devices of ritual, mystery, drama, dance and meditation in order to enable us better to cope with the vale of tears in which we find ourselves. Religion is therefore properly a matter of a practice, and may be compared with art or music. These are similarly difficult to create, and even to appreciate. But nobody who has managed either would doubt that something valuable has happened in the process. We come out of the art gallery or concert hall enriched and braced, elevated and tranquil, and may even fancy ourselves better people, though the change may or may not be noticed by those around us.

The Case for God
: What Religion Really Means
by Karen Armstrong
384pp,
Bodley Head,
£20

Buy The Case for God at the Guardian bookshop

This is religion as it should be, and, according to Armstrong, as it once was in all the world's best traditions. However, there is a serpent in this paradise, as in others. Or rather, several serpents, but the worst is the folly of intellectualising the practice. This makes it into a matter of belief, argument, and ultimately dogma. It debases religion into a matter of belief in a certain number of propositions, so that if you can recite those sincerely you are an adept, and if you can't you fail. This is Armstrong's principal target. With the scientific triumphs of the 17th century, religion stopped being a practice and started to become a theory - in particular the theory of the divine architect. This is a perversion of anything valuable in religious practice, Armstrong writes, and it is only this perverted view that arouses the scorn of modern "militant" atheists. So Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens and Harris have chosen a straw man as a target. Real religion is serenely immune to their discovery that it is silly to talk of a divine architect.

So what should the religious adept actually say by way of expressing his or her faith? Nothing. This is the "apophatic" tradition, in which nothing about God can be put into words. Armstrong firmly recommends silence, having written at least 15 books on the topic. Words such as "God" have to be seen as symbols, not names, but any word falls short of describing what it symbolises, and will always be inadequate, contradictory, metaphorical or allegorical. The mystery at the heart of religious practice is ineffable, unapproachable by reason and by language. Silence is its truest expression. The right kind of silence, of course, not that of the pothead or inebriate. The religious state is exactly that of Alice after hearing the nonsense poem "Jabberwocky": "Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas - only I don't exactly know what they are." If Alice puts on a dog collar, she will be at one with the tradition.

Armstrong is not presenting a case for God in the sense most people in our idolatrous world would think of it. The ordinary man or woman in the pew or on the prayer mat probably thinks of God as a kind of large version of themselves with mysterious powers and a rather nasty temper. That is the vice of theory again, and as long as they think like that, ordinary folk are not truly religious, whatever they profess. By contrast, Armstrong promises that her kinds of practice will make us better, wiser, more forgiving, loving, courageous, selfless, hopeful and just. Who can be against that?

The odd thing is that the book presupposes that such desirable improvements are the same thing as an increase in understanding - only a kind of understanding that has no describable content. It is beyond words, yet is nevertheless to be described in terms of awareness and truth. But why should we accept that? Imagine that I come out of the art gallery or other trance with a beatific smile on my face. I have enjoyed myself, and feel better. Perhaps I give a coin to the beggar I ignored on the way in. Even if I do so, there is no reason to describe the improvement in terms of my having understood anything. If I feel more generous, well and good, but the proof of that pudding is not my beatific smile but how I behave. As Wittgenstein, whose views on religion Armstrong thoroughly endorses, also said, an inner process stands in need of outward criteria. You can feel good without being good, and be good without stretching your understanding beyond words. Her experience of "Jabberwocky" may have improved Alice.

Silence is just that. It is a kind of lowest common denominator of the human mind. The machine is idling. Which direction it then goes after a period of idling is a highly unpredictable matter. As David Hume put it, in human nature there is "some particle of the dove, mixed in with the wolf and the serpent". So we can expect that some directions will be better and others worse. And that is what, alas, we always find, with or without the song and dance.

"Never Forget"

2009-07-05T13:29:30Z

Shared by wayneandwax
ok, who wants a hot dog?!

[via Libros Revolución]