June 2005 Archives

Last week I wrote a post wondering why Jay-Z still gets so much media attention. Well, my readers answered that question by leaving 75 comments and counting, making it the most popular thing I've written at Media Chin-Check.

OK, so I get it now. Jigga Man is still a major draw. He could probably sneeze and make it go platinum.

I'm still a little confused by this because he doesn't have the same compelling backstory as an Eminem or 50 Cent. Though I love his music, I would hate to be assigned to interview him. Jay doesn't reveal much about his private life (he still won't talk about Beyonce), and he rarely beefs with other emcees.

What is there to write about??

And that's where the platinum flow comes in. And that's what I'll leave ya'll today.

Most reviews for "Rize" follow the same pattern as Robert Ebert's, who is too fascinated with the electric dancing to tell us if the flick is any good or not. At least Christy Lemire of MSNBC let's us know Rize can get "a bit repetitive." Probably true.

How do you make a good feature length film about dancing, anyway? Even "You Got Served," which had incredible choreography, felt like it should have been chopped to an hour long After School Special.

Some of the fascination reviewers have with Rize is the claim that these LA kids have traded gang banging for krump dancing. Mmkay. I find that hard to believe. It's probably more accurate to say that the gang truce in LA has created the relatively peaceful atmosphere that allows them to do their crunk battling.

There's a gap between the taste of music critics and normal people like you and me.

Music critics like stuff that's artistsic, or at least presents itself that way. That's makes it fun for them to write about. Normals like songs that sound good. That makes it more fun for us to dance too.

I hardly ever read music reviews, and when I do I don't take them seriously. My friends don't either. If anything, I use the ratings a mag delivers to judge the magazine, not the artist.

David Drake of So Sinsurr fame used the difference in press coverage of Mike Jones and Common to drive this point home. Of source, Common got the journalist love, with some outlets calling his album classic, while Mike Jones was a mystery to many writers, yet went platinum anyway. David says:

Atlanta hip-hop has a bright future, has dominated rap for the past few years, and has a long and important history. Don't believe? Peep SOHH's special feature, "HotLanta: The Music & The Message"

So why are we still sleeping on the ATL? Blame it on the media!

It's still easier for an up-and-comer from New York to break into The Source than an Atlanta emcee with the same amount of hype and potential behind him. With NY being the media capital of the universe, of course hip-hop coverage centers around the oversaturated local NY scene.

Kanye says he wants to make a video for each song on his new album, "Late Registration". How does he plan to pay for all those mini-flicks? Kanye told Free and AJ on 106th and Park that some rappers like to buy cars, but he'd rather spend his money on music videos. Homeboy made 7 for his last album, so I don't doubt his wish to top that this time.

Is this an ego driven video fetish or savvy marketing move? As usual for the walking contridiction Kanye, it's a bit of both.

Jay-Z must be taking lessons from the Dame Dash School of Self-Promotion. While Bleek's "534" flip-flops into a trivia question (quick- what album did Jigga's "Dear Summer" appear on?), his boss is content with having his own name plastered on the wires daily.

I'm sure ya'll heard in the news that Jay-Z is richer than P. Diddy, and he's offering an internship at Def Jam, and he's all over Foxy's album, and so on. Not to mention his appearance at Summer Jam, or his remix of Kanye's "Diamonds" song, or the rumors that he has the sniffles and it may develop into a cold.

You already heard. MJ isn't guilty. I turned on BET to see if they were going to play booty shaking videos or cover the case (ya'll remember Mr. Irreverent's complaint about that).

To my surprise they were having a roundtable discussion about the verdict, with "Micheal Jackson, Not Guilty" parties (as host AJ put it) during the commercials. Co-host Big Tigger kept yelling "NOT GUILTYYYYY!" as if he were a DJ doing call-and-response in a club.

Panel member Dougie Fresh and BET News host Jacque Reid shared something that hit home for me. Both of them were unusually tense when they heard the verdict was ready. I had the same feeling, and if you're Black you already understand why.

The Pistons are the first team in NBA history where the starting line-up looks like they're just as comfortable in a corner cipher as the basketball court. This is a hip-hop team if I ever saw one (and I haven't before, because they're the first).

Just look at their gully-fied swagger, their cornrowed/nappy fro hairstyles, and their ghetto-fied names (like Rasheed and Tayshun). I don't know whether to cheer for these guys, or bang on the lunchtable to give them a beat.

And peep this- in contradiction to all that talk that hip-hop is ruining the NBA, these guys are the hardest working, most unselfish team around. I predict that after Detroit wins the championship, the Spurs will trade Tim Duncan for someone with tats of Biggie on his arms.

At Summer Jam, during a break between sets, DJ Envy (or some other light skinned guy) played Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" and asked the crowd, "Do you want to hear this on Hot 97?" The crowd answered by singing along with the song's refrain- "This sh-t is BANANAS! B-A-N-A-N-A-S!!"

Because I'm an eagle eyed media critic, I remembered that just last week Free asked the audience on 106th & Park to tell BET to add "Hollaback Girl" to the hip-hop and R&B video rotation.

Personally I don't like the song, but I'm surprised the hip-hop media has shut out Gwen, despite the cross over love she has received from Black folks for years. The song is driven by a huge breakbeat, which honestly is the only "element of hip-hop" that counts.

Looks like the policy at the hip-hop video and radio shows reads: NO (MORE) WHITE PEOPLE ALLOWED. Word to Justin Timberlake.

Summer Jam is the biggest media event in hip-hop. Yeah, the biggest. If you want to do something in rap music and have it be remembered for years, then do it on that Summer Jam stage (word to Jay-Z and his "Takeover" performance in 2003).

Not only is the event hosted by New York's most popular urban radio station and will be on nationwide cable, but the press comes out in full force, ready to write about any excitement that pops off. I wasn't even in the press section, yet to the left of me was a middle age White reporter from a Long Island paper, and on the right was Jon Caramanica (wait, maybe that was the press section). In the underground, Summer Jam gets spread on mixtapes, bootleg videos, and through thousands of fan photos that get snapped. Not to mention all the stories that get shared with friends and co-workers afterwards.

The latest issue of XXL profiles rappers in prison. This unique idea for a feature should not be confused with The Source’s jail issue last year, or the Hip-hop Stars and Bars article that appeared in several newspapers months ago, or the convict interviews that Don Diva, FEDS, and FELON do in every issue. Eliottt Wilson and crew tackled it from a much different angle- THEY HAVE 50 CENT ON THE COVER!! (And oh yeah, Tony Yayo).

Also, in a twist of irony I’m sure was intentional, they devote almost a whole page to rappers in college. (Should I mention that Chris Rock joke about getting more props for being in jail than being in college? Wait, I just did.)

Eliotttt, the head of marketing for Interscope the Editor in Chief of XXL does get his mojo back for the editorial this month (careful readers of Media Chin-Check remember that I questioned if Eliottttt was going soft last issue).

In an underdog to top dog switch, Eliottttttt doesn’t bother spitting venom at The Source like I hoped, but turns on his latest rival…hip-hop bloggers! He writes:

Seriously, when it came time to decide on our cover, instead of slapping on another picture of Shyne and running our historic interview for the third time, we hit up Tony Yayo. That’s right, Tony Yayo from G-Unit Records. Tony Yayo who’s also signed to Jimmy Iovine’s label. And who’s that by his side, 50 Cent? Curtis “Interscope” Jackson! Oh, you bloggers are gonna dislocate your fingers typin’ so hard when you peep this issueâ€"front and back. We got the Internet goin’ nuts like Paul Wall. Pray for my downfall. I feel sorry for all y’all mothers. YN is here to move units, kids. Hate it or love it, my certified ABC numbers don’t lie.

Too bad only 12 people understand just what the hell dude is talking about. He spits some subliminals directly at me later on that even I barely caught. I won’t guess at why the bullseye has been taken off The Source, but if the rumors are true, then it may have something to do with how Paul got Pierced.

Eliotttttttt probably doesn’t realize it, but SOHH was also co-founded by a dangerous rapper, just like that rival magazine he won’t mention anymore. I’ve been to the SOHH office, and even though I didn’t see guns in anyone’s face or female editors being harrassed, I’m sure they could create a script that will crash the XXLmag.com web server. So watch your mouth.