Awards and Charts: Chris Rock, Nelly, Ray Charles

Although I didn't watch the Academy Awards, the reports I've seen on Chris Rock's comments sound pretty darn funny and about as appropriate as Chris Rock will get. However, if Chris is making jokes about earlier shows that means, based on his previous claims that no straight black men watch the show, he is either gay or his work is ghostwritten. Which is it Chris? Gay or ghostwritten?

Nelly has received two nominations for 2005 CMT Music Awards for the Over and Over music video featuring Tim McGraw. That's country music awards, y'all, and the nominations were in Collaborative Video of the Year and Hottest Video of the Year. Final nominees will be announced Mar. 16th and awards will be given April 11th. You can support Nelly's takeover of country music by registering at CMT and voting for his video.

The country/rap combo of Nelly and McGraw are now no. 1 on British singles charts.

Ray Charles is currently topping U.S. album charts.

Ringtones: The New Yorker, Deceptive Marketing

I hadn't read the New Yorker in over 15 years until Sasha Frere-Jones' articles about hip hop became available online. His most recent contribution is an extremely insightful article on ringtones that includes the results of what can best be described as informal field research with an autobiographical element. One of Frere-Jones' interests is the polyphonic ringtone which offers the "imperfect charms" of "transitional stages of technology." His article closes with this prediction:
"Polyphonic-ringtone nostalgia is approximately six months away."

I wouldn't hold him to the timing but it's an interesting point and, in my own currently private artmaking, I often explore the charms of such technology. But he also brings up a variety of points that are worth considering on a business level, for example, the fact that copyright laws make it perfectly legal to take music that one owns and sample it for ringtones, a reality that will undermine the crazed projections of various research firms regarding future ringtone revenue.

However, he name checks Xingtone as a web-based service that allows one to create ringtones. Actually, Xingtone offers downloadable software for that function. On that note, I should point out that the current ads for Xingtone running on ProHipHop lead to a Xingtone affiliate offering from ProHipHop's parent company, netweed.

In related ringtone news, the UK is cracking down on deceptive mobile content marketing that is unclear about the actual pricing of services, resulting in users receiving extremely high bills for services that they may not realize they've signed up for, for example when attempting to access so-called free ringtones and later discovering that they've registered for a content subscription.

That reminds me of the current Blockbuster debacle regarding the supposed end to late fees that Adrants characterizes as a "big fat lie." I'd warmed back up to Blockbuster in recent years after much older scandals regarding their rental of edited versions of films that took out what they considered objectionable material without informing consumers. I'd gotten past the fact that they run indie video stores out of business due to the incredible rudeness I was encountering in Austin, TX from a number of insufferably hip video clerks. Although I was running into nicer clerks that knew their movies at Blockbuster for awhile, I was recently treated quite rudely by a local Blockbuster supervisor right before this late fee scandal broke. Now I'm planning on turning in my membership card, primarily due to the no late fees skullduggery, and sticking with Netflix whose rent-by-mail service offers a wider variety of titles, faster delivery and a better online interface for search and discovery.

Who's Lizzie Grubman?

I have to thank Jossip for leading me to this feature on publicist Lizzie Grubman. I'd never heard of Ms. Grubman, despite the fact that she claims responsibility for the white middle class listening to hip hop via such triumphs as making Jay-Z a crossover success in only four days! But I have to respect her gansta cred, first ramming her SUV into a crowd of people resulting in 16 injured club goers and then making sure she did some time, rather than getting off clean.

[Note: Some people are taking the above comments at face value. Both writers to which I've linked and myself are all making fun when we present Grubman's claims about her effects on hip hop because they're obviously bullsh*t. Please don't reduce me to putting LOL after every joke! I'm best at dry humor and sarcastic asides and this blog has a lot of that sort of thing. And don't even try to act like I'd take a statement like that at face value unless you intend it as an insult!]

In any case, Grubman's accidental assault with an SUV looked like her 15 minutes of fame until MTV decided to inflict her upon us with a new surreality show, PoweR Girls. Actually, I might almost be willing to break my personal ban on watching such product because she is a publicist and she will be publicising herself while her crew also attempts to capitalize upon their moment in the limelight.

I have to say I'm getting a much clearer picture of why so many of the publicists I deal with mostly try to make themselves transparent so that I focus on who they're promoting rather than on them. And the opening of the feature on Grubman, in which she characterizes the Paris Hilton Blackberry event as a publicity stunt rings true, whether her analysis or claims to be getting calls from people who were supposedly on there is true or not, cause that's how publicists see things. Ok, maybe not all publicists but certain ones I've talked to have totally schooled me in how to look at events involving celebrities and that approach has been extremely helpful, for example, in looking at Stevie Wonder's comments about Eminem.

If any of you publicists are reading this post and care to comment on any aspect, please write me at:
prohiphop(at)netweed(dot)com

I'm especially interested in hearing publicists' comments on the Mar. 10th premier of PoweR Girls and will try to do something with them, whether or not you wish to be identified. On that note, I can only offer confidential treatment of your identity. Anyone promising anonymity is fooling you, if not themselves, because no one can ever guarantee anonymity.

Editorial Moment: Career Development Behind Bars

With a variety of people upset over C-Murder's creative activities while incarcerated, I'm reminded of the obvious fact that our approach to incarceration is designed for punishment rather than rehabilitation, thus ensuring future increases in crime. While I understand why the families of victims don't want criminals making money from crime while incarcerated, I am also disturbed by the fact that the president of Victims and Citizens Against Crime does not believe that a suspect who is ostensibly innocent until proven guilty should be able to take on productive activity behind bars.

Although C-Murder's situation is unique, many inmates are more than willing to work at tedious and repetitive jobs at below minimum wage rates because it allows them to feel like they're accomplishing something while relieving the bizarre mixture of stress and boredom always present in such a setting. This incident comes at a time when a number of rappers are working on their careers behind bars, when clothing lines are being created that emphasize their prison construction and when some business people and legislators are attempting to shut down such operations because they take away jobs from American workers.

I'd say American prisoners should be supported in their desire to be American workers, especially since all signs indicate that working reduces recidivism by fostering self worth and developing skills in a population that needs our support in order to rejoin society in a positive manner. Of course, as an article entitled Waiting for Stewart: home detention, salary indicates, not all criminals face the same obstacles upon re-entry.

Russell and Run Take a Business School Daytrip

During the recent NBA All-Star weekend festivities in Denver, Russell Simmons and the Rev. Run made a joint appearance at a business class at UC Denver.  Arranged by mtvU, the event was ostensibly focused on marketing, however Simmons is described as "straying away from topics" with Run pushing him "back on track with some good-hearted ribbing at his brother's expense."  He was also said to have emphasized "basic values like integrity" and suggested that students should "market only for a product that had their total support so that they could approach their work with a clean conscience."

Simmons is then quoted as saying, "Do something that's truthful and good, or dig your own grave and f*ck you," earning ProHipHop's platinum plated What The f*ck?!? award for giving out sh*tty advice to people who are unlikely to have such a luxurious approach to accepting accounts.

Not to be outdone, students are said to have focused their questions on the "present and future of hip-hop" rather than on business topics.  In a rare moment of clarity, Simmons is described as explaining that his activities were motivated by "market pressures" rather than having his "finger on the pulse of future culture."

In fact, I'm running into more comments that Simmons is making in which he admits what has long been understood, that he's a close follower who depends on the insights of others to identify the next wave of talent.  Of course, that's the story of a lot of great businessmen, including Bill Gates, so it's hard to fault him for that.