A school near Chicago is making students sign a pledge promising that they won't engage in illegal or inappropriate actions on MySpace. ABC News has a video on the story.
Though it sounds like an invasion of privacy, schools have the legal right to to punish students who are creating an "unsafe environment" even if it's outside of the school. However, just because the school has the right, doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.
I don't have anything personal against Rime Magazine, but I feel comfortable putting them on blast, because they don't pay my bills. Y'see, according to a few of their hip-hop writers, Rime doesn't pay anyone's bills.
Read the thread on MySpace where they reveal which magazines have yet to pay them. Rime gets name checked about 4 times as a perpetual no-pay line stepper.
Somehow Lebron James' Cavs have the Detroit Pistons on the brink of elimination from the NBA Playoffs. Yet even though their series ain't over yet, there is a clear winner in this game - Nike Basketball.
With all their "We are all witnesses" spots during every game break, I feel like this playoff broadcast is really a long Nike commercial, featuring a basketball game every once in a while. In typical Nike fashion the commercial is way over the top and dramatic. They show the city of Cleveland preparing for the Cavs in the playoffs by painting their children's faces with Lebron's jersey number and proudly showing off their "witness" t-shirts. Walk into the living room at the wrong moment and you'd think this was a religious cult prepping for the arrival of their saviour.
But that's probably what Nike's trying to get across.
One of the worst dirty tricks in media is when a company purposely tries to create a volatile situation that will offend people and boost ratings, only to publicly apologize for it later and fire the person who they hired to stir up the controversy. Some call this disgusting game an "apologevent", and it's practiced by a range of "ratings over reason" media outlets, including television networks, and the online versions of some hiphop magazines. Now, New York's new #1 hiphop station, Power 105 is the latest to be guilty of it.
Last year Power 105 hired shock jocks Star and Buc Wild to use their toilet humor bring up the ratings for their morning show. Star delivered, and his show carried the rest of Power to the top spot for urban radio in New York. Now, SOHH reports Star has been fired for making racist and threatening comments about DJ Envy, a rival morning show DJ at Hot 97, who has an Asian American wife and child.
The blame can't rest on Star alone. The execs at Power knew what they were getting into when they hired homey. Star used to sling his grime at Hot 97 a few years ago, and was suspended from the air multiple times for antics like running skits that made fun of Aaliyah's tragic death. Power wasn't just aware of Star's low brow humor. Instead, his coarse joking was the very reason they hired him. And now that he's done their dirt, they want to sacrifice him and expect the public to be satisfied with that.
Sometimes I forget just how rich and just how young Diddy is. So says Time Magazine:
"Combs, known these days as Diddy, has been on the forefront of pushing hip-hop culture into the mainstream. He is a record producer, entertainment mogul, writer, arranger, designer, actor, singer and three-time Grammy Awardâ€"winning rapper. And at age 36, Combs is worth an estimated $315 million."
No wonder why they just named him as one of this year's "100 Most Influential People". The profile is written by fashion designer Vivienne Tam, a good look since most of Diddy's fortune and credibility comes from his clothing company and cologne.
