The chairman of the ‘s Boston Chapter is a rapper named Jamarhl Crawford (a.k.a. UNO the Prophet). Besides being the leader of a chapter of a controversial black supremacist organization, Crawford also seems to take aim at conscious rappers.
“I’m respected because I’m not one of these conscious rappers who you can’t find a revolutionary part of,” Crawford said. “If the only thing you’ve contributed to the revolution is a poem or a rhyme, then you’re not a revolutionary, you’re just a poet or an MC.”
He actually seems to think that being revolutionary is somehow more important than being an artist. That’s not to say he hasn’t done some really good work. He’s currently organizing a peace march in Boston, which I applaud him for. He also says this:
“Every single song I’ve ever released has, in whole or in part, been about beheading this beast,” he said of his battle against what he considers an oppressive economic and political system.
about how consumers are to blame for the way record companies and RIAA are treating us. Apparently, since iTunes is such a roaring success and is making the record companies so much money, they don’t really have the incentive to completely rethink their distribution models.
We’ve seen that some steps were taken, and companies have been trying out some new stuff. But on the whole, the record companies haven’t exactly been insanely successful at updating their styles. They still rely heavily on CD sales (which are declining faster than the resale value on your car) and we all know that’s not working out so well.
He does make a couple of good points about DRM music, so check it out.
Pardon this if it ends up being just another rant, but I’m mad at criminals who get arrested and the news just loves mentioning that they’re a “rapper” or a “hip hop artist”. I understand that they want to provide some context of the case in that headline, but it really just makes all hip hop look like a gangster rap situation.
Mikey G, an awful rapper not even worth knowing, ended up stabbing his girlfriend’s ex-husband after some serious altercation. The worst part is that from the sounds of the story, it wasn’t entirely unwarranted. The ex-husband was brandishing a baseball bat and I guess things went downhill. Still, Mikey G will now serve 5 years in jail.
Now it’s impossible to defend a murderer, but the one thing I’ll give him credit for is that he went and apologized to his victims family. I’m not sure if that’s always the best thing, but it shows some sort of responsibility for his actions. Still, a messed up story and you can read it by clicking on the link below.
Our boy J Dilla has some major posthumous issues. He was never a very rich man (he actually ended up crazily in debt since he had huge health care bills) and the small amount of royalties flowing in are decreasing all the time thanks to rampant piracy and biting of dope Dilla beats. His estate is still trying to pay off all his debt.
Apparently Dilla didn’t even get credit for a lot of his dope beats for fairly major artists. On his biggest it (Janet Jackson’s “Got til its gone”) was “mistakenly” credited to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. That’s just absurd.
Even worse, people are just using his name for whatever they want. People invented a “Dilla Foundation” that was trying to hold events and claimed they were authorized. Dilla’s estate is trying to launch some lawsuits, but are so strapped that his lawyers are now working for free.
Okay, so it’s not quite as cool as it sounds. They’re not actually in outer space or anything, but they are suspended in the air.
Photographer Denis Darzacq is a talented young Frenchman who has quite a number of successful exhibitions under his belt. Now it’s debatable whether these cats are actually breakers are not, but there’s no denying that these are some extraordinary photos.
The Associated Press, a once respected newswire organization has gone on the offensive against the demons that are bloggers.
Basically, AP took a hard line with a blog called the Drudge Retort (not to be confused with the Drudge Report) and issued a takedown notice for 7 stories they had posted. Apparently, the Drudge Retort had accepted user submissions (much like news aggregator sites like Fark, Digg etc.) and posted a very short excerpt of the story. The AP readily admits that the number of words were between 39 to 79 in the excerpt, not even close to a substantial part of the article.
And then the blogs got mad. Several major blogs ran this story and heavily criticized the AP for their tactics. Their argument is that short excerpts constitute fair use of the material, and oddly enough legal scholars tend to agree. The (a big fan of the AP, and a part owner) says:
““The principal question is whether the excerpt is a substitute for the story, or some established adaptation of the story,” said Timothy Wu, a professor at the Columbia Law School. Mr. Wu said that the case is not clear-cut, but he believes that The A.P. is likely to lose a court case to assert a claim on that issue.”
Now, AP is backtracking so fast I’m afraid they may fall over. They’ve decided they won’t sue bloggers (though they have not withdrawn the takedown notices from the Drudge Retort) and are instead “reviewing their policy”. They plan to come up with a set of guidelines about what is or is not acceptable for bloggers to do. They’re partnering with a group called the . They’re an organization with no official power. has led the offensive the MBA and pointedly ridiculing their self-defined legitimacy. It is true that there’s absolutely no way MBA has any power or even comes close to representing bloggers (4080 Records, for example, is by no means affiliated with them).
The amusing part of this scheme is the sheer arrogance of it. Bloggers are indeed subject to the law, but are not subject to whatever ‘guidelines’ a service like this comes up with. As long as it is covered under fair use, blogs can go ahead and do what they please with AP stories.
AP seems so keen to prevent blogs from “copying” their product, yet they haven’t quite understood just how important blogs are in driving traffic to their sites. This “paid content” wouldn’t really pay anything if it wasn’t for people linking and sharing the news with others. So, many blogs have to to to AP stories anymore, in response to this ridiculous move. There is a boycott aggregator at the that is keeping track of things, and is a pretty interesting look at the situation.
And while I can’t speak for the rest of the contributors here at 4080 Records, I can say that any posts I write from now on will not be sourced from the AP. I’ll find a competing story in Reuters, Agence France-Presse or anywhere else I can. Of course, it’s easier said than done. Since the AP is co-owned by 1500 newspapers, many places source from them without making it obvious.
I have no problem with trying to protect content within reason. If someone is going around and completely copying and pasting AP articles in its entirety, then sure, go ahead and sue away. But c’mon, a short excerpt and a direct link to the article? That’s just dumb logic.
What’s amusing is the parting shot the VP of the AP takes at RIAA. They’re desperately trying to spin this so it doesn’t seem as if the AP is being unreasonable:
““We are not trying to sue bloggers,” Mr. Kennedy said. “That would be the rough equivalent of suing grandma and the kids for stealing music. That is not what we are trying to do.””
Ice-T has finally said publicly what others have been thinking for a minute now: that should “eat a dick” for “killing hip-hop.” I’ve never been the biggest Ice-T fan, nor would I agree that the “Crank That” emcee has single-handedly destroyed hip-hop, but it’s always good seeing an older cat stick up for the genre they worked so hard at legitimizing. Check it out:
Unsurprisingly, Soulja Boy responded by releasing his own video. Although most of it is an unhumorous rant, at around the 5:45 mark he makes an interesting point, challenging Ice-T to “make a record” if he isn’t feeling “where the game is” and, instead of hating, to “save” hip-hop by teaching the younger generation.
Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire (yes, I know you’re skeptical). The truce is supposed to last about six months and allow time for both sides to discuss the future of the conflict.
I guess the main discussions are supposed to revolve around the re-opening of the Rafah crossing and also Hamas may release a captured Israeli soldier. It’s weird to think that Gilad Shalit has been a captive this whole time and it honestly seems like the media just forgot about it until just now.
More than a few other ceasefires have collapsed rather quickly, so few people are holding their breath for this one.
Don Cornelius has sold the rights to Soul Train. He sold it to a company called MadVision Entertainment, and they plan on bringing it back.
That’s right, the best show on television is coming back. At first they plan on releasing it on DVD, and maybe on Video on Demand. One day, they even plan on making new episodes.
I’m entirely unsure about how you could possibly top the original shows. It was a huge success and helped make particular kinds of black music popular.
MadVision’s founders, Kenard Gibbs, Anthony Maddox and Peter Griffith were all saying they don’t know exactly what the show will look like in the new episodes, but they seem to have a lot of faith.
It’s funny, the NYT thanks Soul Train for popularizing young people dancing on TV, saying it lay the groundwork for shows like So You Think You Can Dance?.
Here’s a clip of the gloriousness that was Soul Train.
…and loses.
