Might not fit anywhere else, but still worth reading.
Here’s further evidence of vinyl’s slow resurgence as a viable audio format (a theme we’ve discussed often here at 4080): recently announced it will release latest audio book, Live For Your Listening Pleasure, on vinyl (in addition to other formats).
But is it really because vinyl is once again in the ascendancy? (In its report on the story, the New York Times “[vinyl] albums are enjoying something of a renaissance, posting $57 million in sales in 2008, more than double the previous year and the best for the format since 1990.”)
Apparently not. According to a Hachette representative, the company was “drawn to the idea precisely because it was quirky. Mr. Sedaris’s “audience is very attuned to irony and is going to find this funny,”” the rep said. Hilarious.
This is pretty amazing. Jimmy Fallon, pretending to be Neil Young, covers the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
It’s glorious for so many reasons.
This may be looking up for the state of hip hop, even if it happened almost a year ago. Back in Dec of 2008, Chingy, the awful excuse for a rapper that brought you such classics as Right Thurr (below), was dropped from his label. Why? Well he had a little tiff with his partner, Ludacris.
It may sound ridiculous, but I have to say I’m kind of happy about this developed. If you ignore the obvious schadenfreude in a post like this, I think the overall sentiment is that removing rappers like this from view is a step in the right direction. It cleans up the landscape a little, and I have to say I’m happy not to hear how Chingy thinks you look in ‘dem jeans.
Chingy is alleging that Luda and the label cheated him out of cash. I don’t know for sure what happened, but I’d say someone who’s been in the game as long as Ludacris probably isn’t too worried about jacking some meagre album sales.
Check out his video below, and you’ll know what I’m talking about.
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It’s not often that we publish posts on humour-related topics (unless you count Twice’s recent musings on Vanilla Ice and Shaq), but from Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish reminded me of my favourite Youtube video of all time, “Gabe and Max’s Internet Thing.” Check it out:
Fax us your email address now! Priceless. Anyways, turns out Gabe and Max are launching their own online talkshow. Check out episode 1, which features them in similar, but also slightly altered roles:
This isn’t the first or the last time we’ve posted about (a.k.a. Lin-Manuel Miranda). This guy is both a disgustingly talented freestyler and a . Hell, this guy was even on .
He was invited to perform at the first-ever and absolutely killed the spot. You can see President Obama loving every minute of the performance. And what was this performance? A rap about Alexander Hamilton.
Informed, talented, and dope. Lin-Manuel in a nutshell.
Sometimes, hip hop can be a powerful educational tool. And I’m not just talking about teaching some kids or with some kids hip hop. I mean actually directly incorporating hip hop into the educational curriculum.
That’s what Nikki Giovanni did. This isn’t the first time we’ve covered Giovaani’s work, either. We did one of our earliest posts about her, in fact, and we’re still proud of everything she’s accomplished.
Now, Giovanni’s using hip hop to teach kids about poetry. This is from the about her:
Giovanni’s new book, Hip Hop Speaks to Children, is a celebration of poetry that includes several examples of rhythm and rhyme by artists ranging from Langston Hughes to Queen Latifah.
"Hip-hop is a cultural expression — it’s embracing," Giovanni tells NPR’s Michele Norris. "And we wanted to cast as big a net as possible, so people can see in the house of hip-hip there are many rooms."
The book touches on love poems, blues tunes and jazz — even gospel, including a live session where actress Val Gray Ward reads from The Creation by James Weldon Johnson.
Personally, I like the incongruity of seeing Langston Hughes juxtaposed with Queen Latifah. Not exactly an everyday comparison. But I do see the value. It’s not uncommon in many cultures to use rhythm and cadence to pass down wisdom. Almost every culture’s folk music does this in some way. And if nothing else, it sounds like Giovanni’s using some decent artists (including A Tribe Called Quest) in her teachings so at least kids will grow up with some new artists to listen to.
This is actually an entertaining rant from comedian . As someone who probably verges on music snobbery from time to time (I have been known to hate from time to time), I can definitely appreciate how annoying it can be to other people.
Check it out.
I’m not sure if you’ve heard about Kanye’s latest little annoyance, but I’ll quickly fill you in. He and Spike Jonze (yes, the Spike Jonze of Where the Wild Things Are fame) were making a short film together. Kanye, apparently thinking the video was finished, leaked it on his blog.
It wasn’t up for too long or anything, but long enough that Jonze felt the need to issue a statement. More importantly, Jonze got to do something many people have been dreaming about for a long time.
from on .
Since we here at 4080Records seem to love documentaries oh so very much, I thought I’d keep going with the trend.
Get ready to spend 49 minutes with Mos Def in Japan.
For all you Canadian readers (and hopefully even those of you outside of Canada) CBC Radio 2 is running a contest called the “Great Canadian Song Quest.”
You for the contest. It lets you select each province and look at a few select artists (including checking out a short sample by each one). If you can’t see that, or you get annoyed by the Flash stuff, you can check out the .
For you hip hop heads out there, both Shad and Dragon Fli Empire are featured in this contest. Shad is obviously under Ontario, and Dragon Fli is out in Alberta. If you go province by province, you’ll see some pretty awesome acts no matter what you’re musical taste is.
