July 2005 Archives

SONY/BMG Music has agreed to pay a $10 million fine for bribing radio stations to play their music. The bribing is called "payola", and it's illegal, and probably widespread in the music industry.

Eliot Spitzer, the attorney general who brought the fine on SONY, promises to persue other payola offenders. I wonder how long before we see a money trail lead up to the door of Funkmaster Flex?

Flex's scam to accept money for airplay is an open secret in hip-hop. He owns Franchise Marketing, which artists pay money to get their records promoted to powerful DJ's such as the ones in the Big Dawg Record Pool, which Flex also owns.

Hustle and Flow, the latest flick produced by MTV is a good movie. Let's get that out of the way first.

As a follow up, I would like to see MTV Productions make another movie about pimps and hustlers- this time starring themselves.

For all those mad at The Source for prominently featuring Benzino ads, and giving props to his music in their awards and compilations, please turn your eyes to MTV's self promoting schemes. Last year MTV produced "Napolean Dynamite", then shamelessly awarded their own studio with best movie of the year, over critically acclaimed films like Ray and The Aviator.

Now, to promote the Memphis based Hustle and Flow, MTV news did a special on that city's hip-hop scene, calling it the next spot to blow. Much respect to Three 6 Mafia and 8ball & MJG, but yeeeeeah right.

What's up with all these emcees retiring? Jay-Z, Scarface, Dr. Dre., Shock G, and now (maybe) Eminem have called it quits.

It's a new trend in rap- turn 30, then retire. I'm glad to see these guys leave the game on a high note, before the media hits them with the "He's fallen off!" punch, however this is a bad look for hip-hop as a whole.

Can't our artists turn old too? Can't we have our own Rolling Stones?

Blogger Cherryl Aldave believes that Allhiphop.com may have plagarized her work. I looked over the details and it sure does look like they stole from her.

This is not a good look for hip-hop journalism. And it's not rare either. Don't forget that

• Vibe stole a cover idea RWD
• Rap.About.com stole from blogger Clyde Smith
• The Fader lifted stories from Government Names
• Rap News Direct took photos from blogger Jay Smooth

This is hip-hop. No biting allowed, people.

Record label RCA, which is owned by SONY/BMG is releasing a new single by Kelly Clarkson in the Weed format.

No, not that type of weed. The Weed I'm talking about is a format for sharing music where a fan can get a peice of the gwap for passing on tracks that someone else might buy.

Sounds complicated? I thought so too. However, it's cool that labels are embracing new ways to distribute their music, instead of running away from the future.

Some of ya'll remember the Images of Women in Hip-hop panel that I attended ealier this year. The event had potential, but the passion of the audience overwhelmed the moderator and the discussion broke down into a shout fest.

Afterwards I rounded up some friends who were there to share their reactions. My boy Jay Smooth said:

"What this event clearly showed is that there is a great deal of passion in the community about these issues, and we need a lot more outlets where that passion can be aired, and where we can work toward that dialogue. Because at this event, frankly there was so much passion that this medium couldn't handle it and it descended into chaos."

I agree. Unfortunately hip-hop doesn't have it's own OP-ED page to work out our social-political ying yang.

Until now. SOHH's own "Connect Politc" blog will play host to hip-hop's best thinkers. We're inviting writers, activists, artists, and industry insiders to pair up, tackle a specific topic, and work it out.

Just about every article I read about Mike Jones mentions his promotional tactic of giving out his phone number. Some articles repeat Mike's claim that the number he wears on t-shirts and yells out in rhymes is his actually number.

Is that true or false? I don't know. None of the writers seemed to bother with calling it.

And I won't either. But if ya'll want to, call it and tell us all what happens.

Mike Jones- (281) 330-8004.

I get dozens of emails every week from companies trying to promote their products on my blog. Many other hip-hop bloggers get avalanched with the same pitches.

I love getting free stuff and pointing my readers to the latest "hot thing" out there, but wading through all the crap to get to the cherries sucks (no karamo!). I'm sure my blogging brethren feel the same way.

So here's some helpful advice to all the PR people who want to market their music and services to blogs.

Rule #1: Make sure what you're pushing to a blogger is good, or they just may make fun of you.

Case in point- recently Nike signed up 20 bloggers to design their own sneaker using their iD service, and have readers vote for the best design. One of those invited, Jay Smooth of Hiphopmusic.com turned Nike down. Instead he wrote about Nike's sweatshops on his blog!

In the August issue of The Source, Rob “Biko” Barker throws darts at hip-hop news websites in general, and HiphopDX in particular for doing a “poor job” of covering hip-hop. Could this be revenge for the battering The Source has taken online recently, and the dirty laundry airing that HiphopDX did with a 3 part interview with former Source editor Reginald Dennis?

Nah, The Source isn’t that vindictive.

Biko's article isn't available online, but peep this quote:

“In this cutthroat industry, many online publishers’ keep their eyes on the prize: rushing to be the first to post a breaking news story. During this press to publish process, fact checking, analysis and follow-up interviews become a secondary part of the journalistic process. This situation also contributes to an exaggerated assessment of these sites impact.”

(I won't mention his unnecessary use of a colon. That would be nitpicking.)

Biko claims a little later in his article, “None of these cyberzines can prove their user traffic…” Who told Biko that lie? Any website running professional banner ads can chart their traffic down to the regions where their readers live, including what they read and how long. In another twist of irony, it is actually The Source who can’t prove their readership numbers!

In a letter to advertisers in April, The Source founder Dave Mays states:

"The bottom line is that we will be unable to provide an audited statement of our paid circulation for the last 6 months of 2004."