Universal Music Group has dropped a huge amount of videos on their YouTube page, many of which have "embedding disabled by request", i.e., you can’t post them anywhere, which seems like an odd use of YouTube.

But what I’m more confused by is my feeling that they’re intentionally posting many videos processed in a way that makes them look like they were ripped from tv.  I could use some help from people who’ve transferred footage to YouTube, but from the bit I’ve seen that was posted by people with good initial copies, they look a lot better than what Universal’s posted.

I could be totally off base here but I get the feeling that this is a conscious maneuver designed to exploit the crummy look of so many ripped from tv videos.  Why they’d do this I have no idea because their site doesn’t seem set up to lead you to better quality versions and the acceptance of crummy ripped versions is not one of those things that mean people wouldn’t like to see better quality video.

Maybe it’s a weird variant on Mark Cuban’s social network sp@m designed to flood YouTube channels with noise or maybe somebody just screwed up.

Def Jam [it appears] is also up to something.  Hashim Warren recently announced that he was posting at Global Grind’s Myspace page which is apparently a precursor and adjunct to Global Grind (globalgrind.com).

Currently both Global Grind (globalgrind.com) and a related site have Def Jam Enterprises at the top [also at defjamenterprises.com] and "New Site Coming Soon".  And there’s some kind of connection to Plot design.

Guess we’ll see what this is all about soon enough.  And we’ll also get to see how well this combination of corporate hip hop and Web 2.0 hired guns works out.

Almost forgot, the Global Grind Myspace page has some notes on the project.  Here are some high points:

"GlobalGrind.com is a custom web 2.0 home page solution for the hip hop generation."

"GlobalGrind is a start up company created in 2006 based in New York and specialized in Web 2.0 applications for niche audiences."

Here’s a cute response to "Who I’d like to meet:"
"The Global Hip Hop Generation and those interested in Empowerment, Social Justice, Cultural Resonance, Aspiration and Self Expression."

Let me just say that we at ProHipHop are all about "cultural resonance."

The actual description of what the home page will provide sounds like a whole lot of personal home page services that have already launched.  Given the hip hop connection, it will be interesting to see how GlobalGrind.com differentiates itself and if that differentiation is basically one of hip hop content.

Not to be overly mean but I do have to point out the obvious.  Why does a Web 2.0 company that formed in 2006 not have a website?

ProHipHop’s Take on GlobalGrind.com:
I started off sceptical and I would remain so if this were simply another home page service but, if the hip hop content is enticing and the home page itself is reliable and easy to use (big, big if), it’s quite possible that the project could bring in large numbers of young people that might not otherwise be bumrushing Pageflakes and the like.  Given the Def Jam brand, there certainly won’t be any lack of publicity, so this could potentially be an interesting step in bringing Web 2.0 to the masses.

On a different note:
Peep the MySpace friends of Global Grind.  Seeing Hashim Warren between Theda Sandiford and Russell Simmons really puts it all in place, don’t it?