Zingy Mobile Content from Timbaland, Kanye, Aaliyah

Zingy, a mobile content distributor, is making lots of deals with hip hop artists and the announcement of a partnership with MTV to produce what is described as a Timbaland "ringtone album" is a particularly big coup.  However, the list of types of mobile content that Timbaland will create does not really explain how this is an album.  Zingy's COO Andy Volanakis says that, "you're going to hear it on mobile [phones] before you hear it on the radio".

So will these basically be promo pieces for Timbaland's next album?  If so, calling a collection of "original beats for polyphonic and master ringtones, voice ringtones, voice ringback tones, voicemail greetings, screensavers and wallpapers" a ringtone album is kind of bizarre.  Along with BlingTones' claim to be a "wireless label", the use of such terms because they're familiar is annoying at best and misleading at worst.  On the other hand, if Timbaland rose to the occasion and delivered a conceptually and/or thematically connected group of products one could begin the argument for a distributed album, of sorts.  But with Timbaland mobile content retailing  between $1.49 to $2.99 per download, this is starting to strike me as the shortest and, possibly, the most expensive album per second to ever be released.

In any case, Zingy is busy with recent agreements made with Kanye West as well as mobile content created from an unreleased version of Ave Maria by Aaliyah.  Some of the proceeds from the Aaliyah material will benefit the Aaliyah Memorial Fund, a non-profit that supports Alzheimer's, AIDS and breast cancer research.

Vibe Drops the Ball

I finally got a look at the January issue of Vibe magazine and I'll have to say I was extremely disappointed by their weak response to the Vibe Awards incident involving an assault on Dr. Dre followed by a stabbing. At the time, Vibe President Kenard Gibbs stated that the January issue would address not only the incident but underlying issues within the hip hop community as well. Although the links from that post have expired and none of the articles readily available online include the quotes to which I refer, SOHH did discuss some of what Gibbs promised* in the wake of the incident.

But the January issue, whose cover announces "The Truth Behind The Fight," actually gives only a two page account which could have easily been taken from wire sources, although two people assisted the author with "additional reporting." In the editor's corner, Editor-In-Chief Mimi Valdés does state that she was "heartbroken" and that "we need to say clearly and firmly that violence is unacceptable." So my question is, why don't you?

The brief account of the incident is subtitled, "The news outlets can say what they want about the VIBE Awards fracas, but this is what it was like to be there." Actually the account doesn't give you that either. A far better description of the scene* was given by Lee Baily who raises important details like the fact that the video feed of the auditorium to the press room was cut off during the incident and that publicists did their best to keep reporters from finding out anything of substance.

And what about the underlying issues that are to be addressed? Did you outsource that to Essence, whose Take Back the Music* campaign is addressing issues of women's representation in hip hop art and media? Or were those issues displaced by the much needed five page spread "Tempted To Touch" in which five scantily clad video vixens "show us their goodies"?

Now that's addressing the issues and keeping it real, y'all.

[*dead link removed]

BlingTones and Poor Marketing Strategies

Right before Christmas, BlingTones announced what they are calling the "world's first wireless label", a phrase which garnered much attention.  Of course, they're not really a label if they're not putting out albums.  However, they are producing original, exclusive mobile content for all sorts of hip hop artists.

I'd give you their website but I've already wasted too much time trying to find it.  Typically, when a big corporation gets something going, their own website quickly rises to the top of the search engine rankings.  But somebody else has owned blingtones.com for quite a while and other results are all variations on the press release.  If I really needed to find it, I would, cause that's what I do, but sending out a press release without links and then neglecting search engine optimization is a seriously bad practice, at least for this century.

Essence Mag on the Move

Essence Magazine has been in the news lately, not only for the total acquisition by Time, Inc., but for the Take Back the Music campaign addressing the treatment of women in hip hop. In fact, Stanley Crouch's recent attack on hip hop thuggery closes with a discussion of this campaign and the many heartfelt online responses, that include posts from men as well as women.

TrakStarz Team With Blackground Records

The St. Louis production duo TrakStarz, who've worked with all sorts of artists including Chingy, have signed an agreement with Blackground Records that will result in multiple releases from TrakStarz Records, including an album by the duo.

Quick Paths to Stardom?

Producer Rodney Jerkins is releasing a solo instrumental album called Versatility and inviting songwriters to write songs for the tracks which range from RnB to hip hop to smooth jazz. The album release date has yet to be announced. This is a smart and timely idea that does a nice job of integrating marketing into an album release in the aftermath of Jay Z's a cappella release of The Black Album (which led to mashup fever) and with reality talent contests at a high point of public awareness.

I was at a Creative Commons event last night in San Francisco, which I will discuss later today. But it alerted me to the Fine Art of Sampling contest at ccmixter.org. There are a couple of possibilities for competing but the big idea is that you can remix tracks from the Wired/Creative Commons cd that features a variety of artists including the Beastie Boys and Chuck D with the Fine Arts Militia. Winners will be on a later cd that will get some serious attention. Check it out, superstar!

Andre 3000 in the Movies

Andre 3000 has been cast in a new movie starring Mark Wahlberg in which the two are brothers. Should be an interesting family flick. This is a nice development for Andre who will probably have to give up on his plans for a Jimi Hendrix biopic.

The Return of Bushwick Bill

Actually, Bushwick Bill was probably always around, I just haven't heard anything in a while till he did the First Annual Makaveli Branded Fashion Show. Although I'm generally supportive of posthumous record releases, I am kind of shaking my head at the idea of a posthumous fashion label.

Predictions from Hip Hop Game

I've generally avoided the year end wrapups, I guess all the awards shows just took it out of me, but Michael Smith directed me to Hip Hop Game's Top 25 2005 that not only predicts who they think will do well next year, including artists that Hip Hop Game "cannot stand", but offers predictions for a lot of other artists. The best thing about this list is that it includes a lot of people that aren't particularly well known but could be any day now.