Russell Simmons, Future Republican Candidate?

Russell Simmons recently said that the actions of Maryland's Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich have made "every Republican [candidate] open for discussion" by black voters. Read the article to find out why but recognize that this move has been a long time coming. The Republican Party, though really brutal towards poor people of all races and ethnicities, has put more black people in higher office than have the Democrats. George W.'s regime alone has made the moves that Democrats should have made long ago. And black activists have long pointed out that, as long as the black vote is guaranteed, Democrats can ignore their more serious demands. Whether or not this is Russell's attempt to wake up the Democratic Party, it should put them on notice that they can no longer depend on business as usual.

Rappers Do Good Things Too

I won't write apologias for criminals but I also don't want to follow each criminal report with happy news.  However, since people sometimes have difficult sorting things out, here are some reminders of the positive things that rappers & hip hop business people have done lately.

Boost Mobile raised over $65k for charitable purposes through the sales of a ringtone based on Anthem, a track by Kanye West, Ludacris and The Game.

Hip hop artists are gathering in late Februrary in New York for a tsunami aid benefit.

Russell Simmons will crosspromote himself by lending lend his presence to an ASPCA anti-cruelty campaign

Last week, Russell and Kimora joined Tracy Maitland in offering a $15k reward for "information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual or individuals responsible for the five black lab puppies found in a Queens dumpster earlier this week."

Snoop Dogg Sued After Payoffs Don't Work?

Really, I don't know whether or not Snoop Dogg & pals raped Kylie Bell or not but, if the other claims of the lawsuit are true, they sure did everything they could to make it go away until the insurance company refused to support their efforts.

The Smoking Gun shares relevant legal documents.

Recording Academy Gets Smart About Filesharing

In a really interesting approach to directing young people away from illegal file swapping to legal music download services, the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences aka The Recording Academy has created a consumer advisory board for it's What's The Download website.  The website is a consumer friendly space focused on bringing young people around to the The Recording Academy's viewpoint through online education and dialogue.  Applicants had to be between 18 and 24 and initially submitted a written application.  Semi-finalists had to go through a video application stage and then finalists did phone interviews.  They will serve on an advisory board with an odd assortment of musicians:  Kanye West, Mark McGrath, Earth, Wind & Fire, and JD Natasha.

For once, I can believe a press release when it states that, "this board will prove to be extremely important to the future of music."  At least, I believe that they believe it's important to the current music industry.  This is an incredibly smart move, in my opinion.  The applicants are clearly being groomed as spokespeople who look good on tv and can interview well.  The first meeting of the group will take place during the Grammy Awards weekend, for which The Recording Academy is most known.  Which means these young folks are getting flown in, wined and dined, get to hang with stars, etc.  It will be interesting to see what role they will actually play once this gets off the ground and whether or not they will be perceived as representatives by their target market or as industry shills.

I can't wait to see what they look like and hope that a reality tv show will follow asap.  Episode 6:  Andy is discovered installing Bit Torrent in the Advisory Board's crash pad/loft in Santa Monica by Brittany who breaks down into tears while choking out, "You're stealing food from Mark McGrath's baby's momma, waaaah!"

NVA Entertainment Group

London's NVA Entertainment Group has a lot going on, from managing hip hop acts to developing film properties to providing security. NVA Entertainment has found that partnering is the best way to build and they want you to know that,
"You can come from the gutter and make real papers without crime, you just need to be focused, have talent and have a good team around you, but we all need to network more and different companies need to come together. "

However, though their list of accomplishments is long, they don't have a website. I was informed via email that they will have a "holding page up with brief info" by the end of this month. I guess they're so busy that they can't spare anybody for the hour or two it would take to accomplish that task. Whatever the case, that partly explains why it's almost impossible to find anything about them online.

Hip Hop Restaurant Franchise

Halls of HipHop, a "restaurant/club concept" will open its first locations later this year. However, they are also buying multiple franchises and will give each franchise the choice to convert stores to a fast food opportunity called TheHipHopSodaShop. Brian Peters is the entrepreneur behind Halls of HipHop which announced future openings back in December. Apparently, part of the long term goal is to become a publicly traded company.

The Russell Simmons Higher Self DVD Series

Later this month the Simmons Lathan Media Group will release the Russell Simmons Higher Self DVD Series, an inspirational series documenting the achievements of outstanding African Americans. The series was written, directed, and co-produced by Nancy Oey and developed with The History/Makers. It will be distributed by Image Entertainment.

Krumping Featured in Documentary: Rize

Although I'd been following the development of Hustle & Flow since late November when it was announced as an entry in the Sundance Film Festival, I had not seen anything about Rize, a documentary focused on hip hop-related clown dancing or "krumping." However, this documentary by director David LaChapelle is another Sundance success story with Lions Gate Films having acquired worldwide distribution rights. LaChappelle chose Lions Gate because they understood his position that Rize is a crossover film rather than a niche product.

MTV did a nice feature on krumping last spring.

In related news, Newsday recently provided more background on Hustle & Flow. By the way, though Ludacris does appear in the film, it was produced by John Singleton, written and directed by Craig Brewer and stars Terrence Howard, so it's not Luda's f*cking movie!

This weekend at Sundance, Hustle & Flow won the dramatic audience award, voted on by Sundance audience members. In addition, Amelia Vincent won best cinematography award for dramatic films for her work on the project.

Rock Culture Undermines ABA

Rock musician Sally Anthony displayed the irrational behavor that the insidious culture of rock music has foisted upon the American public in a recent incident in which, as co-owner of the American Basketball Association team the Rhythm, Anthony verbally abused her team's coach during a game.  This pathetic behavior is not surprising from a rock musician whose most recent album is titled Vent and clearly labeled as containing EXPLICIT LYRICS.  ProHipHop believes that it's high time to stop the descent of professional sports into the abyss of "Sex, Drugs and Rock'n'Roll."

[On a more serious note, any good investigative reporter would note that the fact that Sally Anthony allowed the team assistant to escort her off the floor after her outburst and then later fell and hurt her head, suggests that she should be tested for alcohol and/or drug abuse.  Oh, wait, they just test the players, right?  Talk about a weak ass union.]

Although ProHipHop's stance is that such artists should be reigned in by the appropriate social forces, nevertheless, we want you to know that her most recent album is:
Available from Amazon:
Sally Anthony - Vent [EXPLICIT LYRICS].

Bavu Blakes and DJ Elite on Myspace.com

I recently did a post regarding Myspace after hearing from Texas rapper Bavu Blakes.  I decided to follow up and find out how useful the site has been for him.  Bavu responded that, not only was it a good addition to his current site, but that it would be useful for artists as a first website because of the numerous options.  Over the last two months, he's found it extremely useful in spreading the word worldwide and has been very impressed with its reach.  He suggested that this free service would also be useful as an "interactive business card and portfolio."

I also heard from DJ Elite of Hawaii who's gotten back into the music game and, though he's never been a big participant in online communities, has been even more impressed than Bavu at what he's been able to accomplish.  As with Bavu, Elite has been able to reach people worldwide, including folks he would never have interacted with otherwise.  He also pointed out that one can configure the html directly, which certainly opens up the possibilities even further.

Again, although I haven't directly investigated what's behind the scenes, these two working artists have given it a big recommendation.  And it sounds like Myspace isn't simply competitive with Friendster but also, through its Myspace Music subdomain, with free services that offer musicians the ability to post their work, such as SoundClick.  Furthermore, since blogging options are included, Myspace is potentially competitive there, as well.