ProHipHop

March 15, 2005

Quick Takes and Recent Misses: Extended Mix

The Industry Cosign is a year old this week. Happy Birthday, y’all!

Essence magazine’s 2005 Essence Music Festival, scheduled for May 1-3 in New Orleans, will include hip hop acts Kanye West, The Roots, Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh, Floetry and Talib Kweli. The event will begin a year of 35th anniversary celebrations for Essence.

Jadakiss has challenged 50 Cent to a million dollar pay-per-view battle.

AHH Stray News reports that Mixmaster Spade died Sunday night in the hospital as a result of injuries from a motorcycle crash and that a documentary about DJ Screw called Soldiers United for Cash has been released by REL entertainment.

In related news, Mass Appeal editor Patrick Elasik died recently after crossing subway tracks in Brooklyn and being electrocuted.

This weekend’s Soul Train Music Awards honored Ice Cube with a Quincy Jones Lifetime Achievement Award while Jay-Z received the increasingly dubious Michael Jackson Award for Best R&B/Soul Or Rap Music Video for 99 Problems.

Mike Jones discusses self promotion at Vibe. For more on his grandma and on screwed mixes see RapSearch.

Hashim Warren briefly reviews a new exercise book by Mark Jenkins, The Jump Off: 60 Days To A Hip-Hop Hard Body.

USA Today profiles Sudanese rapper Emmanuel Jal who is currently charting in Kenya.

More reggaeton coverage focused on Daddy Yankee in the Chicago Sun Times and over at Vibe.

Universal Music Group had record earnings in 2004 and is looking strong in 2005.

Brendan I. Koerner discusses the success of Dr. Dre’s protégés which Hashim Warren attributes to their compelling back stories.

Forbes has a nice bit about Red Bull, a trailblazing yet disgusting “energy drink” that inspired a new beverage category.

The Gorillaz will release Demon Days on May 24th. The album was coproduced by Danger Mouse.

Reverend Run held a fundraiser Friday night at Donald Trump’s Palm Beach mansion for Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation.

I’m not particularly fascinated by Lil’ Kim’s current trial, even with a Hot 97 connection, but I bet that revelations regarding her approach to financial management will land her in additional hot water with the IRS.

Video director Dave Meyers is interviewed at BallerStatus.net.

The Last Poets are back in the charts as featured artists on Common’s The Corner.

Record label Disturbing Tha Peace is backing the Blata-WCM MotoGP team as they debut the 990cc Blata V6 motorcycle.

Eve is set to play an “HIV-positive lesbian talk-show producer” in Showtimes’ Getting Unstuck.

Kanye West clears up recent press reports regarding his comments about magazine covers and Playgirl.

A new trial is not in the works for C-Murder, who now “faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole”. Taking into account recent controversies over his creative activities behind bars, this outcome may make his upcoming album, The Truest sh*t I Ever Said, his last.

Posted by Clyde Smith on March 15, 2005 in Hip Hop Business News | Permalink

March 15, 2005

P. Diddy Name Checks McLuhan?

MocoNews.net has a rough transcript of P. Diddy’s address at the CTIA Wireless gathering in New Orleans as well as a link to the audio. One of the weird things about the transcript is that it totally changes tone when Diddy name checks Marshall McLuhan. If I was a gambling man, I’d be willing to bet that he switches to a ghost written section there. That’s not a bad thing, just an interesting choice. Somehow it’s hard for me to actually imagine P. Diddy reading a book. Maybe he just read the executive summary or listened to it on audiotape. Expect the remix delivered via a P. Diddy branded cellphone next Christmas.

Rafat Ali briefly describes the presentation as including some “brave swaggering” which is about all P. Diddy can do since he hasn’t been involved with any major wireless initiatives and his content is currently extremely weak. But I guess it’s better than hearing Russell Simmons say f*ck as if it was rad for the millionth time or having Damon Dash hawk his Roc Box as if it was a viable consumer item.

However, there’s apparently a Fashion in Motion show at CTIA that includes Sean John wear though it isn’t geared to mobile products, as far as I know, except for having pockets. But I’ve already condemned such hip hop fashions. I guess they just needed a celelbrity and I bet P. Diddy’s relatively cheap since nothing except guest appearances are going his way at the present time.

Posted by Clyde Smith on March 15, 2005 in Events, Mobile, P Diddy | Permalink