Gwen Stefani, Wyclef Jean, Cut Chemist, UGK, Madlib & Quasimoto, Turf Talk, Gorillaz

Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl is maintaining it's no. 1 status in the singles charts.

Wyclef Jean is currently at work on his next album tentatively titled The Underrated Musician as well as a variety of other musical and political projects, plus boxing?

Jurassic 5's Cut Chemist is working on a debut solo album The Audiences' Listening.

MTV's Shaheem Reid profiles Houston's Underground Kingz UGK.

New albums from Madlib/Quasimoto and Turf Talk get attention in the NY Times.

Damon Albarn discusses Gorillaz with the NY Times. Coolfer provides links for streaming the upcoming album.

ProHipHop and Hip Hop Press Via RSS2HTML

I'm trying out a free service called RSS2HTML as an alternative format for accessing headlines and initial summaries from ProHipHop and Hip Hop Press.

50 Cent/G-Unit: Album Charts, Videogames, Awards, G-Unit Street Team, Reebok Ad Ban, Plea Bargain

50 Cent's The Massacre is still charting with a no. 4 spot on the Billboard 200. Though various rock and pop acts have been dominant of late, Mike Jones' Who Is Mike Jones moved up from no. 10 to no. 9, plus Gwen Stefani's Love, Angel, Music, Baby, including the Eve/Dr. Dre track Rich Girl, is strong at no. 4 for a second week.

50's Vivendi Universal videogame 50 Cent: Bulletproof debuts today at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles. The game will be available in the fall and features music by "50 Cent and G Unit's Tony Yayo, Lloyd Banks and Young Buck, as well as Eminem and Dr. Dre, who will be making their interactive debuts as the characters "McVicar" and "Grizz.""

In related gaming news, earlier this month it was announced that G-Unit: Free Yayo would be the first of a series of mobile games from Zingy mobile media featuring G-Unit artists.

50 received two ASCAP songwriting awards earlier this week for In Da Club and P.I.M.P. He also has two BET Awards nominations for Best Male Hip Hop and for Best Collaboration with The Game for Hate It or Love It.

Last week, Jessica Koslow interviewed PR and Ree of the G-Unit Street Team for HipHopDX.com.

50's Reebok ad for the I Am What I Am campaign has apparently been banned in England by the Advertising Standards Authority. The ad had already been pulled by Reebok in response to viewer complaints.

Everyone noted 50 Cent's plea bargain for assaulting 3 women who may have thrown water on him at a concert. The charges will be dropped if he meets certain conditions including staying testably drug free, taking an anger management course and not carrying a gun in Massachusetts. Given that he's not noted for drug use (and may be a health nut), tends to control his anger in public and has lots of bodyguards, this may not be as restrictive as it would be for so many other rappers.

Mostly TV: Rev. Run's Reality Show, Diddy Day, Hush on The Contender, Samurai Champloo, Nelly PSA

The "announcement" that Rev. Run is doing a reality show is pretty much what was announced almost two months ago while Diddy Day is the event that was canceled a month ago.

I haven't been hearing anything about the boxing reality show The Contender, which seems weird since it's almost over, but Hush will be appearing on the season finale, May 24th. I actually like the idea of The Contender cause it's the only reality show where people aren't doing make believe bullsh*t for some pretentious asshole.

Samurai Champloo, the anime with hip hop music, recently premiered on Adult Swim.

Anheuser-Busch recruited Nelly for a "celebrity responsibility ad" discouraging underage drinking.

ASCAP Awards, Mos Def on Assata, 25 to Life, GZA, Ja Rule, Freeway's Rims, Jay-Z vs. R. Kelly, Simmons' Yoga

Hip hop artists received numerous honors at the ASCAP 2005 Pop Music Awards including Best Song for Hey Ya! and the Golden Note Award for Jermaine Dupri.

Mos Def shares his admiration for Assata Shakur.

The ingame soundtrack for video game 25 to Life will include tracks from KRS-One, Public Enemy, Ghostface, Xzibit and Tech N9ne.

Both GZA and Ja Rule are hitting the road, though not together (that's obvious, right?).

Freeway has opened a rim shop in Philly and has an album due in July.

Jay-Z's countersuit against R. Kelly has been dismissed by a Manhattan Supreme Court judge.

Newsday recently did a feature full of hype regarding Russell Simmons' yoga dvds.

Rock and Rap, Country and Hip Hop

Rock continues its embrace of hip hop as the Stones invite Black Eyed Peas to be an opening act on their upcoming (out the mausoleum) tour and Neal Young mentions he digs hip hop as he receives a Founders Award from ASCAP. Plus, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (I hate that name) recently recorded a track with Kool Keith.

Brian Jarvis discusses why he thinks country and hip hop aren't that far apart, especially with the emergence of Cowboy Troy.

How are Rappers Like Terrorist Warlords?

I'm reading Bruce Sterling's Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years and came across some rather bizarre parallels between gangsta and related rappers and the profiles of three terrorist warlords from Chechnya, Serbia and Kurdish Turkey, respectively Shamil Basaev, Arkan and Abdullah Catli. After discussing their violent careers, Sterling lists the "ABC's for future Arkans, Basaevs, and Catlis" [pp. 151-2]:

1. Male 25-40, likes handguns and has visceral, hands-on experience with face-to-face violence.

2. Extensive prison history somehow enhances his public reputation.

3. Quite good-looking, enjoys making a show in posh casinos and hotels with a line in feminine arm candy.

4. Speaks several languages, has spent much time in other countries.

5. Fluent, fast on his feet, media-savvy, good on TV.

6. Has a personal posse of devoted tough guys who are known by their nicknames - or, better yet, by the fake IDs that they got from cops.

7. Gets richer and more influential as life gets harder for his neighbors.

8. Emits chauvinist rhetoric but kills many people of his own nationality. Killing rivals in gangland a particular specialty.

9. Lousy at straight jobs. Can't take orders. Esssentially unemployable.

10. Prominent in politics, eminently electable, but has no political philosophy, no sensible platform for governance, and no legislative or executive experience.

Not an exact fit, but disturbing similarities come to mind.

Industry: Universal, Warner, Yahoo, Music Videos, Rolling Stone, Billboard Mobile

A Rap Manifesto has been issued by Take Our Music Forward and a boycott of Universal Music Group products has been called until UMG meets demands to "diversify the representations of Black men and women in rap music." Apparently other racial and ethnic groups are expected to fend for themselves.

Though Warner Music Group's losses are decreasing as revenues increase, their post-IPO share price continues to decline.

Inside Digital Media hosted a panel discussion on recent developments at Yahoo Music and Universal Music Group.

Blog Maverick Mark Cuban engages in wishful thinking in his piece on Yahoo's Music Unlimited, Yahoo forces RIAA staff cutbacks….

I meant to post on this development earlier, but a variety of music companies are beginning to charge for online use of their music videos.

Jann Wenner has finally appointed a new editor at Rolling Stone, Will Dana, one of three deputy managing editors.

Billboard recently announced a partnership with MForma to make its charts and other content available on a mobile platform.

H3 Enterprises, BET Awards, Akon, Indie Ripoffs, Youth Movement, Hip-Pop, The Inc., Financial Summit, Twista

H3 Enterprises, Inc., the company behind Halls of HipHop, HipHopSodaShops, H3Raps, H3WhiteTea, H3CyberSports, H3'sWorldSeries of CyberSports, and H30, recently announced the formation of its Executive "Dream Team" and began trading as HTRE.PK on Monday.

Yesterday, BET announced nominees and related programming for the 2005 BET Awards scheduled for June 28th. Top nominees include Ciara, John Legend and Kanye West and performers will include Destiny's Child, Mariah Carey, Ludacris, Missy Elliott and The Game.

Though Akon's Lonely is still at the top of the UK singles charts and near the top of the US charts, his album Trouble has been displaced by Steve Brookstein's self-titled album from its no. 1 position on the UK album charts.

Pyramids 2 Projects blogger Miranda Jane reveals her role in the creation of MF Doom and Madlib's Madvillainy and the sad outcome when she got ripped off by both MF Doom and Stonesthrow Record. While she's pretty nice about it, it's sad to be reminded that hustlers permeate the so-called underground as deeply as they permeate the majors.

Ebony Sinnamon-Johnson profiles Oakland's Youth Movement Records a record label focused on youth development that has both a performing group and organizes industry oriented workshops.

Radio industry news magazine FMQB looks at Hip-Pop and includes an online feature with quick takes from a number of programmers on hip hop and Top 40 radio.

The NY Post is reporting that Def Jam is looking to cut The Inc. loose in the face of Irv Gotti's legal problems and declining record sales.

Billboard provides more details regarding Saturday's Hip-Hop Summit on Financial Empowerment in Detroit with an emphasis on the rappers and the attendees.

5W Public Relations recently announced that they've been hired by Twista as agency of record.

Business Week on Hip Hop Marketing

Business Week's David Kiley discusses hip hop artists' marketing desires as revealed by their presentations at a recent gathering:
"When hip hop majors Ludacris, Big Boi, and Jermaine Dupri took the stage on Apr. 7 at Manhattan's Dodger Stages, it was for a select audience of about 50. This wasn't a VIP concert, however. The artists, assembled by TAG, the youth marketing unit of ad agency McCann Erickson, were there to tell marketing execs from the likes of Coca-Cola (KO ), Wendy's International (WEN ), L'Oréal, and Verizon Communications (VZ ) what kind of sponsorships and marketing deals they would be interested in."

The all too brief coverage of the event also focused on the shift from artists not wanting to appear to be sellouts to artists feeling like they aren't successfull without lucrative, high-profile sponsorships:
"'Without three or four business deals with major brands, you aren't seen as cashing in, and cashing in is part of the hip hop culture,' says Josh Taekman, former executive at Sean "P. Diddy" Combs's Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment Group and now president of marketing firm Buzztone."

And big business wants in on the action, cause they lust after that hip hop demographic:
"There are an estimated 50 million hip hop fans in the U.S. and 100 million worldwide, mostly under 34 -- a coveted demographic group, and one that's increasingly tuning out traditional ads. Bob Levite, vice-president of marketing for Wendy's, a TAG client who attended the business conference at Dodger Stages, says the fast-food company 'has to get into hip hop, because that's where the kids all are.'"

David Kiley is not only "Marketing editor for BusinessWeek in New York," he also authors BW's marketing blog, Brand New Day.

Justo Faison: Memories and More Details

Pyramids 2 Projects' Miranda Jane gathers responses to the death of DJ Justo.

MTV.com shares a few additional details.

Advice: Financial, Career (for 20-Somethings), Women's Safety

While Suze Orman's financial advice seems pretty reasonable, if obvious (but folks need the obvious), GoodDebt.com's Jon Hansen feels that some of what she says will keep you in debt.

Film industry professional Karen Woodward shares 10 Tips for Young Professionals About the 'Real' World including my favorite:
"1. Lose the attitude. I can't tell you how annoying 20-somethings (men and women) are who, because they are young and cute and went to a good college, think that they are smarter than anyone else."

But the most telling advice I've seen of late comes from MusicBizAdvice.com in the form of Safety Tips for Female Concert Fans and Women in the Music Industry. It contains good advice for female fans and professionals. Men should read it too, in order to be reminded of the bullsh*t and abuse women have to guard against who just want to see a show or work in the biz.

Suze Orman at Simmons' Hustlers Summit

If I hadn't just written about the NY Times' revelations on Russell Simmons' lies, I'd be writing quite a different post on the recent "Get Your Money Right" themed Detroit Hip-Hop Summit on Financial Empowerment that was inspired by Russell Simmons' move into financial services, sponsored by Chrysler Financial and that featured Suze Orman, author of the recently released The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke. Or maybe not, since this Summit seems incredibly opportunistic and centered on crossmarketing financial products to impress a youth market that needs to stay on top of their money so they can buy more boring Phat Farm fashions that are just so late 20th century.

f*ck it. Just check out the coverage that Suze "I Love Hip Hop" Orman is getting for the fact that she "is hip-hop". I guess, in a hustler's paradise, hip hop gets the hustlers it deserves.

But I hear her book's really excellent and you can buy it right now at Amazon and, for your friends who don't read ProHipHop cause there ain't no pretty pictures, buy it for them on cd! Do it now!

Russell Simmons: Lying = Good Brand Building

I thought it was pretty weird when Russell Simmons revealed that he thought that paid shoutouts for the Big Mac would only work if the deals with rappers were secret.  Obviously, such placements work better if people think the rappers are sincere but that's a dangerous deception given the current attention to such shoutouts.  But now it turns out that Russell Simmons has been lying about sales of Phat Farm to boost the image of his brand.

Today, the NY Times states that in a civil deposition last July regarding some deal with TVT on which Def Jam reneged, Simmons was quoted regarding, "the amount of hype that goes on when I discuss the value of Phat Farm . . . It is how you develop an image for companies. So in other words, you give out false statements to mislead the public so they will then increase in their mind the value of your company."

For example, "Simmons appeared on CNBC saying that Phat Fashions was 'doing $350 million' in sales. In fact, Phat Fashions' revenue for 2002 totaled $14.3 million, according to court papers and the company."

Even more telling, the NY Times states:
"Throughout his testimony, Mr. Simmons appears unreserved, offering occasionally lengthy answers and cursing. Yet at another point . . . he asked, suddenly: 'It is not going to come out, right, about me lying to everybody? Right?'"

Gee, Russell, now everybody's going to know you're a liar.  Then again, liars do really well in America, so you'll probably be just fine.

Dave Chappelle is Reportedly OK!

TIME.com has an exclusive interview with Dave Chappelle and reveals that Chappelle is ok and is processing his success on retreat in South Africa. He doesn't seem to have issues with Comedy Central but reveals that there were problems due to the effects of his success on his inner circle. Oddly, I'm reminded of the following:
how P. Diddy's crew tried to f*ck up his relationship with Ashton Kutcher;
stories I used to read about how weird Mother Theresa's inner circle got; and,
the fact that even the worst drag queen has an ardent group of admirers.
It must be tough to watch close friends become yes-men (and women).

It's interesting to see how personal the Chappelle situation seems to be for many black writers, especially hip hop bloggers, as Lynne d Johnson and Hashim Warren reveal.

By the way, I'm also reminded of a pet journalistic peeve. TIME.com got an exclusive with Dave Chappelle. That means they were the only ones who got to talk to him, though that may not last. However, you'll often see hip hop sites claim to have an exclusive when they really mean they were the only ones talking to someone at that moment. That's not an exclusive, y'all. But dig this, Dave Chappelle's personal problems covered by TIME.com? He is so huge, no wonder he needs some time off.