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« September 23, 2007 - September 29, 2007 | Main | October 7, 2007 - October 13, 2007 »
Irv Gotti on the Comeback Trail w/Gotti's Way
This may actually be worth watching.
I can't believe I'm saying that about a reality tv show but there it is.
Via Nah "Current Champion" Right.
Related ProHipHop Coverage:
Trailer for Irv Gotti Reality Show
In one of the calmest yet scariest blog posts I've ever read, Ethan Brown breaks down elements of policing and crime in New Orleans that convincingly lead to the possibility that New Orleans is facing a much bigger catastrophe than Katrina.
In particular Ethan reveals just how fluid the situation remains by adding his own insights to what he's gathered to date on NO policing and criminality:
My sense is that criminals of all kinds–from rapists to car thieves to drug dealers–know that the momentum here is running strongly in their direction. They're well aware that thousands of suspects simply hit the streets soon after being arrested because charges aren't filed in their cases.
Another theory: based on my experience (and from talking to some cops and criminologists down here), the NOPD has retreated from community policing initiatives. In some cases, the cops are just hunkering down in their patrol cars and not even venturing onto the streets
Finally, there's the issue of population density. The population in New Orleans post-Katrina is down significantly (from around 500,000 pre-K to about 250,000-300,000). The result of all this–abandoned houses, lots, even entire blocks–provides big opportunities for criminals, from creating stash houses to unlit areas from which armed robbers can attack.
The criminally minded would have recognized the opportunities in New Orleans immediately. Law enforcement should have as well.
Ethan closes with his devastating prediction:
It is profoundly ironic that under the leadership of a Mayor who proudly proclaimed that New Orleans should be re-built as a "Chocolate City," hundreds of black men will be murdered, a blood-letting worse than what's happening in even apocalyptic urban centers like Compton.
I've only been picking up bits and pieces of what's happening down there but, so far, even the best news doesn't give me any reason to think that Mr. Brown is the least bit wrong.
Related ProHipHop Coverage:
Ethan Brown Moves to New Orleans
Busta Rhymes Breaks Down the 21st Century Music Game
Busta Rhymes breaks down how the Internet has undermined his game. He's actually quite concise and very funny both when he's describing how they can't get as much money out of the labels for album budgets (can't scam 'em like they used to) or talking about how kids on the computer now think they're the stars!
Don't know when this happened but it's a rare moment of clarity for a hip hop talk video.
Billboard reports that the RIAA won their first legal challenge to the ongoing filesharing suits that are driving everyone nuts:
The jury...awarded the labels $9,250 per recording, finding that Thomas willfully infringed the labels' recordings.
Related ProHipHop Coverage:
Sony BMG Lawyer Reveals Heinous Industry Perspective
Miss Info is reporting that Jim Jones has a joint venture with Sony. She spoke to him on the phone and he said:
I just left the lawyer’s office. I signed a multimillion dollar joint venture with Sony. My boss is Rick Rubin and Hip Hop (Kyambo Joshua) is doing my albums with me. What you think Jay-Z is gonna think about that?
Supposedly he's working on an album for early '08 and has already worked on a track with Rick Rubin!
Jones also stated:
What’s crazy is that they gave me the same deal that Un and them f*cked up back in the day when they got the Sony/Untertainment deal...I got that joint venture, that 50/50 split, they don’t give those out anymore. That’s a Dame Dash, Ruff Ryders deal. And I’m bout to go crazy with it. I’m gonna be a problem.
Whoa.
Related ProHipHop Coverage:
Koch Records In On Jim Jones' Columbia Deal
Frank White is opening in Brooklyn on October 5th near where Biggie Smalls used to roam. The cafe/gallery/social spot will feature Biggie's photograph to "honor...his memory."
Frank White was one of Notorious B.I.G.'s pseudonyms taken from the lead character in Abel Ferrara's King of New York. And that's the connection to Biggie but the movie and the drug trade are also references.
My first reaction was somewhat negative but it's a hot name and they don't seem to be overreaching their connections to that history so it sounds like a winner in that regard.
Brownstoner has a pic of the front of the shop and a few notes about the neighborhood. There are some interior shots through the window at ClintonHillBlog.
Official Site:
Frank White NYC
Modeling the Ludacris Fingerprint Timepiece by Piaget
Piaget has created the Ludacris Fingerprint Timepiece, valued at $28k, featuring Luda's fingerprint in the design. The watch is on auction at the National Runaway Switchboard and all proceeds will benefit the Switchboard, the "federally-designated national communication system for homeless and runaway youth".
Ludacris' previous support of runaways includes the single Runaway Love featuring Mary J. Blige which would be even more effective if Universal allowed embedding of this video.
Two upcoming groups of concerts have a focus on social and/or ecological change.
The Roots and a wide variety of acts will be appearing at the Monterey Music Summit, October 20th and 21st:
Performers are invited to participate not for their talent and popularity alone, but also for their willingness to speak openly on current political matters, and for their commitment to positive social change.
Global Fusion 6 is a series of concerts in Hollywood presented by Immigrant Magazine, ExitSigns.com and Global Artists Network:
a fusion of performers from around the world celebrating the diversity of cultural artistic expressions while promoting the mutual ecological duties of consuming less and preserving more.
The October 18th Global Fusion 6.1 show will include Cypress Hill, The Shapeshifters, Tigarah and 2Mex.
Official Sites
Monterey Music Summit
Globl Fusion Tickets at ExitSigns
Soulja Boy's Crank That (Soulja Boy) enters its fourth non-consecutive week at the top of the Hot 100 singles chart while Timbaland gets his third top 10 single off Shock Value as Apologize featuring OneRepublic rises to no. 6.
Top 10 Singles on the Hot 100:
1. Soulja Boy - Crank That (Soulja Boy)
2. Kanye West - Stronger
3. Britney Spears - Gimme More
4. Timbaland - The Way I Are feat. Keri Hilson
5. Fergie - Big Girls Don't Cry
6. Timbaland - Apologize feat. OneRepublic
7. J. Holiday - Bed
8. Feist - 1, 2, 3, 4
9. Keyshia Cole - Let It Go feat. Missy Elliott & Lil Kim
10. Colbie Caillat - Bubbly
The Johnnie Walker Blue Label 35 Under 35 Award is:
designed to celebrate the brightest young minds across a broad cross-section of disciplines including artists, writers, music executives, comedians and designers. As part of being chosen for this honor, the elite list of 35 will be featured in a distinguished coffee table book highlighting their accomplishments. Their achievements will also be celebrated at a private event in New York City on October 4th.
Lots of interesting folks on the list. Here are some obvious hip hop related recipients though many others look relevant:
Eric Wong / Chief Marketing Officer, Bad Boy Entertainment
Gabe Tesoriero / VP of Publicity, Def Jam Recordings
Gee Roberson / Senior VP of Urban Music at Atlantic Records
Nick Barat / DJ and Producer
Among those relevant to hip hop we might include:
Matt Kahn / Marketing, Glaceau
Congratulations and enjoy that Blue Label!
On the first day of proceedings Tuesday in the first file-sharing case to go to trial, Jennifer Pariser, "head of litigation for Sony BMG", says that making personal copies of cds for personal use is theft:
When questioned by Richard Gabriel, lead counsel for the record labels, Pariser suggested that what millions of music fans do is actually theft. The dirty deed? Ripping your own CDs or downloading songs you already own.
Gabriel asked if it was wrong for consumers to make copies of music which they have purchased, even just one copy. Pariser replied, "When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." Making "a copy" of a purchased song is just "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy'," she said.
33Jones takes these comments pretty seriously, given that they do come from Sony BMG's head of litigation, and looks back at Sony's prior history of taking the opposite stance when it was "more focused on being a technology company than a content provider/record label".
That would be back when they were making money. Die, Sony, Die!!!
Related ProHipHop Coverage:
RIAA Beats Jammie Thomas in 1st Consumer P2P Trial
Trailer for Mr. Untouchable
I don't want to get into glamorizing Nicky Barnes but he does occupy a unique place in business history and there's some biz talk in this trailer and all sorts of rappers worship him so here we go.
Plus Damon Dash is one of the producers and Hi-Tek is providing the music. Mr. Untouchable is due October 26th.
Official Sites:
Mr. Untouchable
Mr. Untouchable @ MySpace
I'm not sure where this is really going and it needs a little more work but Flux Research has officially relaunched as a blog [yay!] focused on stuff like the following:
Business:
web publishing, Media 2.0, disruptive technologies, Blue Ocean strategies, information entrepreneurship, the bottom of the pyramid.
Information:
Library 2.0, the distributed academic library, business reference, Blue Ocean information services, chaos and complexity.
Web 2.0
blogging, social networking, mobile communication, the semantic web, open access publishing, social media.
Stay tuned.
Dave McClure guest posts at TechCrunch in an impressive offering titled Seven Steps to Graphing Your Facebook Strategy:
Here are seven major aspects of Facebook you can use to increase the visibility of your startup, business, product or service:
1. Set Up Your Graph: Profiles & Privacy
2. Make Connections: Networks, Groups & Events
3. The Need for Feed: Your [Shared] Social Activity Stream
4. Share Your Content: Share & People-Tag Your Stories & Media
5. App to the Future: The Facebook Platform, APIs, & Applications
6. Pay to Play: Ad Networks, Sponsored Stories, & Paid Distribution
7. Show Me The Bunny: Gifts, Points, & Virtual Currency
Among other accomplishments, Dave McClure is the organizer of the upcoming Graphing Social Patterns: The Business & Technology of Facebook conference and the Master of 500 Hats.
Boss Lady at Baby Phat/KLS Spring 2008 Show
I didn't run into much on-topic coverage of this year's New York [Mercedes-Benz] Fashion Week in early September but this video from DrJays.com is a great little featurette on the show of Spring '08 lines from Baby Phat and Kimora Lee Simmon's new KLS line.
According to Billboard, Wu-Tang doesn't have a Beatles sample. They have a Beatles "interpolation". I'm not even sure what an interpolation is exactly but it's something to be proud of when it's an interpolation of While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
Wu-Tang has claimed in a statement that George Harrison helped them secure a reuse license for the following:
The Clan's "The Heart Gently Weeps" actually features an "interpolation" of the track, with new recordings by George Harrison's son Dhani, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' John Frusciante and soul vocalist Erykah Badu.
The Heart Gently Weeps is allegedly dropping tonight on Loud.com. Looks like you'll have to sign up to check it out.
Billboard also states that Ja Rule claims to have gotten a clearance sample for Eleanor Rigby which I find rather disturbing:
Rapper Ja Rule obtained permission to sample "Elanor Rigby" for the song "Judas," which will appear on his Nov. 13 album "The Mirror."
I find that truly hard to believe even though it's apparently old news. If it's so difficult to even get an interpolation, much less an actual sample, how the heck could Ja Rule get one?
Update:
The Wu-Tang track, The Heart Gently Weeps, is out at Loud.com and bloggers are having their way with it.
Related ProHipHop Coverage:
Wu-Tang Clan's 8 Diagrams Pushed Back, Beatles Sample Cleared, Still Not on SRC Site
Queen Latifah - Trav'lin' Light
It's not a rap album but Queen Latifah's Trav'lin' Light debuted at no. 11 on the Billboard 200 album chart. So here's one for old times sake with positive thoughts for her return to the rap game.
Kanye's still beating 50 and Kenny as they all continue to slip.
Gorilla Zoe - Welcome to the Zoo
Gorilla Zoe's Welcome to the Zoo debuts at no. 18.
Top 10 Albums on the Billboard 200:
1. Rascal Flatts - Still Feels Good
2. Keyshia Cole - Just Like You
3. Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
4. Jill Scott - The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3
5. Kanye West - Graduation
6. Reba McEntire - Reba Duets
7. Soundtrack - High School Musical 2
8. Jagged Edge - Baby Makin' Project
9. 50 Cent - Curtis
10. Kenny Chesney - Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates
Gap is celebrating the one year anniversary of the launch of (PRODUCT) RED, a "for-benefit brand designed to help eliminate AIDS in Africa", with a print campaign "built around a theme of change". Wyclef Jean is on board and is said to appear in a photograph "embracing his daughter Angelina".
From the release:
Developed by Laird + Partners, Gap's creative agency, the print campaign is running in November issues of magazines including Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Glamour, Lucky, Marie Claire, GQ and Details. The campaign will also appear in The New York Times and weekly magazines including US Weekly, Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly. In addition, the campaign will be featured in Gap stores, online, and outdoor in select markets.
I've been checking out the start page space in preparation for a piece on Global Grind (globalgrind.com) and ran into Business Start Page at bspage.com, i.e., BS Page.
If you find such things mildly amusing, here's a top 10 worst domains list for you.
If you're kind of serious about this start page thing, check out this great interview with Dan Cohen, CEO of Pageflakes. He led iGoogle and My Yahoo as well as a couple of startups before joining Pageflakes.
Pharrell on 42nd Street
I'm assuming Pharrell's on his way to the recent Blue Magic video shoot for Jay-Z's single when he gets mobbed on 42nd St. It's like a weird natural phenomenon or something.
More videos including a car crash at Billionaire Boys Club.
Plus some photos from the shoot.
The Voice follows an extensive piece by Sean Gardiner on The Game and the Hip Hop Cops with coverage of their activities at AllHipHop Week events.
The Rap Up wonders if rappers should emulate Radiohead with a set-your-own pricing model.
Related ProHipHop Coverage:
In Rainbows: Radiohead's New Album Pricing Induces Blogger Visions of a Beautiful New World
Peanut Butter Wolf Presents [2K8] B-Ball Zombie War
This is a great little animated video promo for the release of Peanut Butter Wolf Presents B-Ball Zombie War, a companion album to the NBA 2K8 game.
Related ProHipHop Coverage:
NBA 2K8 Game & B-Ball Zombie War Album f/J Dilla Collabs
Here's a fascinating blog post from a while back on the business of Ghana's Hiplife, a combination of their Highlife genre and hip hop, with some interesting similarities to business here:
These days, the biggest names in hiplife are making more money from product endorsement deals than record sales.
For more on Hiplife see The Hiplife Complex by thursdayborn who described his project:
While living in Ghana, West Africa last year, I spent most of my time chasing around rappers, producers, engineers, fans, DJs, and anyone else involved in the local hip-hop movement. Clutching a DV camcorder and microphone, I pounded the pavement of Accra, Ghana's sprawling capital, from top to bottom reaching out to a huge variety of participants in this vital, evolving complex. The culmination of a unique combination of factors (eg socio-economic, politico-historic, and technological advances), hiplife represents the next step in both the development of African popular expression and a more than 400-year diasporic dialogue.
Ethan Brown, author of Queens Reigns Supreme and the upcoming Snitch, has moved to New Orleans and you can tell already that he's going to get a great book out of it if he makes it through:
My fears about New Orleans played out for the rest of the summer: muggings spiked dramatically in the French Quarter and surrounding neighborhoods and, worst of all, homicides spiked wildly around the city (26 people were murdered in New Orleans in August alone, a jaw-dropping statistic given that we’re a city of less than 300,000 people).
Best of luck and watch your back.
Related ProHipHop Coverage:
Ethan Brown Predicts "Blood-letting" in New Orleans
Ethan Brown on Investigative Hip Hop Journalism
Wu-Tang Clan's 8 Diagrams - A Future Event in Progress
The Wu-Tang Clan are set to go on tour October 20th but their upcoming album, 8 Diagrams, has been pushed back to December 4th.
They've also done the theoretically impossible, cleared a Beatles sample, which they announced on their MySpace blog.
We'll see about that Beatles sample but it's nice to see folks still excited about Wu-Tang.
I checked out a wide range of sources for this post to confirm two trends. Lots of sites mention Wu-Tang's MySpace page but many don't actually link through. Maybe they didn't bother to go there after cutting and pasting the news?
Many bloggers are anticipating this album but we knew that. Sadly, some were already braced for the push back since at least January:
Here's hoping the album won't get pushed back, mid 2007's already a long enough wait for me.
It's tough being a fan. Especially since this isn't the first delay.
On the other hand, given that the album is not listed on Amazon and The Wu-Tang Clan don't even get a mention on the SRC website, not even on the Artists page, perhaps the back office just needs more time. Besides, getting the Wu together must be really tough.
I've created a Domains for Sale page and am currently offering the following domains:
BarrioRap.com
RapBarrio.com
CriminalArts.com
HipHopCrimes.com
HipHopRhythm.com
HipHopRhythms.com
RapDigg.com
StreetLife.mobi
You can contact me at clyde(at)prohiphop(dot)com if you're interested. I'm also setting up a more formal purchasing process soon cause that site looks dodgy!
Gucci Mane - Trap-A-Thon [on Big Cat Records]
When I saw that Gucci Mane's upcoming Atlantic release, Back To The Traphouse, was preceded by a Big Cat Records release, Trap-A-Thon, I assumed Big Cat was doing the usual, dragging out old tracks from a star that's gone on to bigger things and trying to squeeze out some more bucks in the process.
When Gucci Mane released a statement condemning Big Cat Records for the "unauthorized" release of Trap-A-Thon, it seemed to confirm that reading. However Jeff Leeds of the NY Times digs in to the story behind current court proceedings to reveal Big Cat Records may have been the ones wronged.
The short version:
Gucci Mane leaves Big Cat Records for Atlantic Records, can't get a hit single but his earlier Big Cat release, Hard To Kill, has one with Freaky Gurl.
Maybe Atlantic tried to buy the use of Freaky Gurl and maybe Big Cat asked too much but suddenly Gucci Mane's got a new recording of Freaky Gurl featuring Ludacris out without having cleared up issues with Big Cat Records.
Big Cat retaliates with their own Freaky Gurl remix and the release of Trap-A-Thon to which Gucci Mane and Atlantic Records yell foul.
I'm not sure what to think of this but mostly I see gangsters over here and gangsters over there.
So why am I running the cover of Trap-A-Thon and not that of Back To The Traphouse? Because Big Cat Records posted the cover art at Amazon while Atlantic has not. While that doesn't prove that Big Cat is doing a better promotional job than Atlantic, let's use that as an excuse to give Big Cat Records' Marlon Rowe the last words:
Mr. Rowe, watching to see where his new Gucci Mane release enters the chart this week, sees the affair as a sign of the scrambles set off as rap sales continue a drastic decline.
"It's hard to get a real hit record," he said. "We spent a lot of money getting this guy hot." Atlantic, he added, is unfairly sponging off of his own promotional efforts. "They want you to do all the groundwork and then come and take all the credit, like they're the one who made this artist who he is. I really think it's a desperate move."
Nas will release his Greatest Hits album on November 6th, the same day as Jay-Z's American Gangster.
Will LL Cool J step back now or is tag team action to ensue?
Update:
I guess if LL was really going for it he'd make a surprise album release announcement but he seems to be working through a series of emotional states instead.
Though it was recently reported that the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival had lost its annual spot, Wes Jackson updates us with the news that the Festival is still on, just rescheduled for July.
Yay!
Official Press Release:
Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival Organizers Clear up Confusion on Venue
Gerd Leonhard, coauthor with David Kusek of The Future of Music, is releasing his new book, The End of Control, online, for free, one chapter at a time.
New Music Strategies shares some interesting misgivings about this project.
Free of label restrictions, rich and incredibly famous, Radiohead lets fans price early downloads of their new album and some music bloggers see heaven.
The basic concept is that you can name your own price for the digital download of the album available Oct. 10th. The name your own pricing may end at that point though that's unclear. You can get a bunch of stuff with the hardback book-sized box set including vinyl for $80 due out Dec. 3rd.
And there's no major label involvement.
The news seems to be slowing but not crashing radiohead.com which is currently redirecting to the In Rainbows store where there have been some sales glitches.
Such problems aside, this announcement has caught a lot of folks' attention and is even inducing moments of giddiness.
Boing Boing:
This is major, and it's such a slap in the record industry's face. An unsigned superband, treating loyal fans and customers like loyal fans and customers instead of thieves -- what a revolutionary concept.
The Lefsetz Letter:
This is big news. This says the major labels are f*cked. Untrustworthy with a worthless business model. Radiohead doesn’t seem to care if the music is free. Not that they believe it will be. Because believers will give you ALL THEIR MONEY!
Good Weather For Airstrikes:
RADIOHEAD SAVE MUSIC
The Couch Sessions:
The End of the Record Industry
IndieHQ 2.0:
Radiohead Has Changed The Game
hypebot:
By avoiding all label machinery and going direct to fans with this unique pricing model, Radiohead is maintaining renegade credibility while still monetizing their relationship with an increasingly savvy and fickle indie fanbase that has come to expect music for free. They've also turned their fans and the entire blogosphere into their free promotion machine.
As many bloggers have noted, Radiohead can experiment as radically as they wish because they're rich and well established. But many are in that situation and few choose to push forward into new territory of their own accord so this is certainly a great experiment even more radical than Prince's cd giveaway.
I think it's a cool thing and I look forward to seeing how it turns out but I'm not ready for a kool-aid party just yet. Bob Lefsetz's rant about believers has got me thinking about a new industry built on post-modern tribal cults of creative personality.
Heavenly.
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Karmaloop Widget Jacked from Be Unequaled
Back in July Be Unequaled interviewed Karmaloop CEO Greg Selkoe who discussed the early days of this Boston-based streetwear retailer:
When I started the company I had another job I used to pack the orders myself take them on the subway in the morning drop them at the post office and then go into work in a cubical.
Selkoe had some interesting comments on the Kazbah section of Karmaloop's website:
Kazbah is an underground marketplace for the most up and coming underground brands. People kept hitting me up wanting us to carry their brand on Karmaloop like 10 a week, a lot of them were amazing but were to small to carry on the main site so we set up Kazbah selected only the best of the best and let them sell through the site meaning they do all of their own customer service and fulfillment.
The response has been crazy! And it feels really good to see some of these brands just coming up killing it, some of them had little or no distribution before Karmaloop now they are global growing like wildfire! People need to check brands like 9 Grand, Beandip, Jeepney, Methods, Gold Coin...these brands got next, these are some talented cats, hustling and building the next LRG's the next OBEY's.
The interview also mentions the upcoming debut of Karmaloop TV, the "first online channel for streetwear culture", that is coming "Fall 2007".
Yes, more online businesses becoming media companies!
Official Site:
Karmaloop.com
GRANDGOOD sez:
Lil Mama Deserves To Be A Popstar
Donny Goines shouts out to bloggers and other web supporters on DOTCOM Freestlye.
Playahata.com feels that the Saigon/Mobb Deep fight is bad for business.
the swift chancellor reports notes the discrepancies in programming between benefits and regular seasons at certain NY venues.
expensr is a "free online personal finance manager" with charts and tools to help you understand how you use money with social network features described by the Download Squad.
Mint offers a more complex form of online money management reviewed favorably by The Startup Game.
Both are presented as alternatives to Quicken and Microsoft Money.
Sean P. Gives Big Check to H.E.A.T.'s Staci Bush
Atlanta rapper Sean P., formerly Sean Paul of The YoungBloodz, recently contributed to the Heating Energy Assistance Team or H.E.A.T., an organization that helps impoverished Georgians with their energy needs. He is also encouraging other entertainers to support this organization.
Official Site:
Heating Energy Assistance Team
A Texas State University student chapter of the Hip Hop Congress convinced the University to put out a mixtape to represent the University and to recruit new students. Given the current environment that's a pretty bold move that shows some understanding of the different varieties of hip hop on the part of school administrators.
So Hip Hop Congress members created a mixtape called Texas STATEment that's not only been popular among the high school target audience but among Texas State students and locals as well.
One performer said that:
He knew the mix would be a popular giveaway to high school students. "It's more unique than a T-shirt or a coozie," he said. "What I didn't anticipate was the reaction here in San Marcos and the university. People are crazy for it."
Around 4,000 mixtapes were distributed in physical form and it has also been made available for free download at:
www.purevolume.com/hiphopcongress
Not only does the University have a popular recruitment tool that's spread far beyond the typical reach of such materials but the artists have been getting a positive response and interest abroad via the free download. Sounds like a serious win/win for everyone involved.
So now the Office of Student Affairs is a record label too?
FSAS Team Spreads the F in the NYC
Travis Barker has been getting lots of hip hop attention for his unique rap remixes, savage one-arm techniques and ongoing work with DJ AM so I thought his Famous Stars and Straps street team deserved a look as well.
The best part is at the end.
Flinging the Badge of Honor
Official Sites:
Famous Stars and Straps
FamousSASFamily @ YouTube
Music industry news from Hypebot:
The big news this week was the opening of the new Amazon.com DRM free mp3 download store. Coverage includes:
Yahoo Music is scaling back its operations. One source says half the staff was let go last week.
On Oct 2 Starbucks begins giving away 50 million free tracks to promote the launch of the new iTunes wireless store.
Here is some video of WMG's Edgar Bronfman sharing his vision of the Music Business 2.0. The company's stock got hammered as the week progressed.
Controversial P2P hub Pirate Bay turned the tables and filed charges in Sweden against several major labels using evidence discovered in the recent hack of MusicDefenders.
Hypebot offered its readers a poll asking which of the new ad supported music services would gain traction and on Friday morning it appeared that SpiralFrog or a huge SF fan may have tried to rig the results.
See ProHipHop's Hypebot Industry News category for past roundups.
Iced Out Cuff Bracelets from Grills by Paul Wall
Paul Wall debuts iced out handcuffs and they come with their own backstory:
Paul Wall and his partner Jamie Kennedy fashioned exclusive Iced Out Cuff Bracelets in support of recent celebrities incarcerated such as Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan, Nicole Richie, Snoop Dog and many others, "My boy Jamie Kennedy came up with the idea because a lot of celebrities kept going to jail." -Paul Wall
Snoop Dogg Pets Vinyl Handcuffs with Rope
What are these petcuffs for exactly?
Official Sites:
Grills by Paul Wall
Snoop Dogg Pet Products
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