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« December 9, 2007 - December 15, 2007 | Main | December 23, 2007 - December 29, 2007 »
And that's a wrap for my 12 Hour Workday f/Transformational Possibilities.
Really just another long day at work not unlike what many of you with crazy or multiple jobs experience.
Still, it's given me some things to think about.
I'm going to be a monster in 2008!
Have a great holiday season. I'll be around and posting a bit but won't be picking up the pace till after the New Year.
Till then.
I want to make sure I mentioned Ghostface's guest appearance at Guest Star: SOHH Blogs as well as the Big Doe Takeover of Brooklyn Bodega even though it just ended.
I greatly appreciate the fact that the press release included the following clarification:
"The exclusive blog is a collaborative effort between Brooklyn Bodega, Def Jam, and SOHH.com. The staff at Brooklyn Bodega worked with Ghostface to piece together his commentary as he traveled across the country on the Hip-Hop Live Tour with Rakim."
So Ghostface didn't blog solo but it seems like a fair team project focused on blog-based marketing.
The Pew Internet & American Life Project released a report on Teens and Social Media this week available for free download.
Some of the findings include:
Content creation by teenagers continues to grow, with 64% of online teenagers ages 12 to 17 engaging in at least one type of content creation, up from 57% of online teens in 2004.
Girls continue to dominate most elements of content creation. Some 35% of all teen girls blog, compared with 20% of online boys, and 54% of wired girls post photos online compared with 40% of online boys. Boys, however, do dominate one area - posting of video content online. Online teen boys are nearly twice as likely as online girls (19% vs. 10%) to have posted a video online somewhere where someone else could see it...
There is a subset of teens who are super-communicators -- teens who have a host of technology options for dealing with family and friends, including traditional landline phones, cell phones, texting, social network sites, instant messaging, and email. They represent about 28% of the entire teen population and they are more likely to be older girls.
Super-communicators!
That's a big chunk of kids moving into the always-on, always-connected world and it sounds like young women are in the forefront.
Crooked I discusses his Web marketing strategy and maintains that he is "running toward the Internet".
A-Trak's Photo Widget
RCRD LBL launched in November and it's a pretty interesting experiment however I just wanted to post a couple of widgets from A-Trak for my ever growing, slowly loading widget collection.
Actually I just pulled one because it's pretty dodgy. And I haven't posted any of them before because they weren't working right when I tried. This one won't even center but there may be a simple reason I'm missing.
Anyway, I'd say they have widget problems.
Nikon Press Release:
NIKON PARTNERS WITH RCRD LBL,
HELPS MUSICIANS AND THEIR FANS CONNECT THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHY
Official Site:
RCRD LBL
Prince Whipper Whip moved to Monroe, Michigan leaving the fast lane of LA for a more settled life.
Via GRANDGOOD.
Robert Cummins aka Don Pooh, a producer who's worked with Foxy Brown and Mary J. Blige, opened an International House of Pancakes in Brooklyn on Tuesday.
Clinton Sparks shares some good business advice along with some of his own unique experiences.
The short version:
1. Brand Yourself: Treat Your Name As If It's a Company
2. Originality: Strive to Be the "Best First You" Rather than the "Second Someone Else"
3. Create and Maintain Relationships: There is a Fine Line Between Being Persistent and Being Aggravating
4. No Need to Run Around Sayin You're the Sh*t, Let The Quality of Your Work Speak For Itself And People Will Say It For You
5. Set Realistic Goals for Yourself, Every Time you Achieve Them Set A New One
Michael Arrington looks at ways that Amazon is helping change the music industry including partnering with SellABand and investing in Amie Street.
Nah Right provides Termanology's take on The Music Industry.
MTV has a three-part series looking at the music industry in a time of volatile change:
Madonna Ditches Label, Radiohead Go Renegade: The Year The Music Industry Broke
In The Age Of Viral Video, Downloads And Plummeting CD Sales, What Makes A Star?
If The Old Music Business Is Dead, What's Next?
Status Ain't Hood has a great interview with Luther Campbell, aka Uncle Luke, about his history in the industry and how he views going public with the Luke Entertainment Group on the Pink Sheets as part of a process of building a major Southern label.
I want to focus on the topic of going public but the interview is worth checking for some hip hop history as well as Luke's take on emphasizing visual elements in marketing.
Luke wanted to go public but the long road to a Nasdaq IPO was not for him:
"I started doing a little bit of research on companies like Nestle and Volkswagen...Knowing that the traditional way is a long process, having more conversations with different people who are familiar with the stock business, I wanted to know if there's an easy pink-sheet way to go about it and build from there and hopefully end up on the senior boards."
Yet he still looks at the process as one of long-term building:
"Knowing that we're trading on the pink sheets right now, as we're growing this thing, it's beautiful. People tell me horror stories about pink sheets, and I say there are some horror stories because certain individuals went into pink sheet companies to use the system, to be unscrupulous. That's not me."
"I look at all these successful pink-sheet companies, and I say that's me right there. Grow from there to the next point. I'm excited about it. I'm happy. It's like starting all over again. I got to prove to everybody all over again that I'm creative enough in the things that I feel the public wants. We're going to fight to make the company successful."
I think he's got a great attitude and all power to him. While it's true that one of the downside of penny stocks is the lack of transparency allowing crooked operators to build on smoke-and-mirrors, any penny stock is vulnerable to market manipulation in the form of pump and dump schemes Asking Luke what they're planning to do when something like that breaks out would be a good thing.
What seems clear is that the entry of celebs like Luther Campbell is changing the hip hop penny stock scene:
"I always like to teach people and educate people. So even right now, by me going public and it getting the press that it's getting, it's brought more awareness of the stock market, that whole game, to the hip-hop audience. I get email, kids and adults saying "I'ma buy stock! Where do I buy it?" Or "This is historic, this is great, this is history." And you know they're not familiar with the business."
"We have a firm handpicked to deal with a whole different audience. You got to school them on how to purchase stock and where to purchase it from...If I have to stop or close up today, I feel like it's already did what it needed to do because I brought a whole different set of people, educated those different sets of people to the stock market."
From my own experiences of trading on the stock market, I know just how easy it is to convince yourself you know enough about the company and the state of the market to make smart choices when you're really making emotional choices.
If Luther Campbell's serious about building a great public company, one of the first signs will be transparency in their financial reports that exceed the standards of whatever level of disclosure is necessary to be on the Pink Sheets because the lack of publiclly available audited data is one of the biggest dangers with such stocks.
Previous ProHipHop Coverage:
Luther Campbell's Luke Entertainment Group Goes Public on Pink Sheets, Not Nasdaq
Over at Hip Hop Press:
Luke Entertainment Group Launches UncleLuke.tv
Luther Campbell Makes Appearances on Fox Business Network
Swizz Beats & T-Pain at Remy Martin Women of King Calendar Party
Way back in time, November 6th to be exact, cognac artists Remy Martin threw a Remy Martin Flight 1738 party at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York featuring T-Pain, Swizz Beatz and DJ D-Nice to launch what they termed the "hottest luxury lifestyle calendar ever".
King Mag has some calendar pics.
RMD Entertaiment Group is a penny stock listed on the Pink Sheets as RMDM and referred to as RMDM.PK when discussed elsewhere. Currently it trades at less than a penny a share.
They've released a shareholder update in which they describe themselves as a "Music and Entertainment Company focused on the development and marketing of "Urban Media Content" worldwide" and give an overview of their activities which include:
Raising their classification on the Pink Sheets which doesn't look too good at the moment;
Releasing comedy ringtones beginning with Tony's Street Tones;
Leverage their "vast world-wide distribution center" to "attract significant music and video titles for download and ringtone sales" and increase their "current catalogue by 25 to 50 times";
Marketing their Roc Monee ringtones.
Once you peel away the typical self-promotion of any press release and take into account the additional fact that such press releases for penny stocks are as much about marketing the stock as the company, then RMD Entertainment Group isn't looking so hot.
They're in trouble on the Pink Sheets, which is on the easier end of the listing continuum, they don't have celeb talent and their "vast world-wide distribution center" is available to everyone since they're going digital-only and it's called the Internet.
Unless they've used their work with Roc Monee to establish streamlined access to a wide range of digital distributors, they don't sound like they've got much to their distinct advantage and may now be weighed down by their public status since that focuses so much energy on a stock price that seems to be in a total state of collapse [click on Charts tab].
For RMDM's sake, I hope Tony's Street Tones are pretty darned funny.
I'm about halfway through my 12 hour workday and starting to feel a bit giddy. And that's when things get scary if you've got a clean, loaded blog in front of you.
I will now pray for restraint over a nice cappuccino cause you know I got a Fully Loaded Clip.
Update:
I'm back to making coffee. This small town that pretends to be similar to a city rolls up the carpet when the kids go back home for vacation from the local colleges. I should have just gone to Starbucks.
I guess that what happens when you invoke 50 Cent in your 13th post.
Music industry news from Hypebot:
Hypebot announced the winners of its 2007 Best Music Blogs contest.
Concert giant Live Nation shared details of its plan to move its ticketing from Ticketmaster.
Warner Music Group settled its lawsuit with XM over the Pioneer Inno radio.
WMG's year-end deal followed a similar settlement between Universal Music and XM as that major label group continued to pursue its "toll booth' strategy of charging device manufacturers for music use.
A look back at how well Hypebot and other music industry pundits did with our predictions for 2007. What are your predictions for the music industry in 2008?
Paul McCartney commented on his split with EMI.
OurDigitalMusic shared "10 Musicians I Want To Invite To My Office Christmas Party".
See ProHipHop's Hypebot Industry News category for past roundups.
Though I try to stop myself from adding new categories at ProHipHop, really, I do, I've decided to add a Hip Hop Penny Stocks category because the over-the-counter, bulletin board, Pink Sheets stocks are getting ready to heat up as the celebrity factor enters the equation.
I've been covering such companies for a while, primarily in the Financial category and the Clubs/Restaurants category, but I think it's worth having them available in a separate section. I'll be moving old posts over or creating link lists to such posts soon and will be continually adding new ones about such companies and related businesses as the Luke Entertainment Group and the Hip Hop Soda Shop.
If you're really interested in this kind of thing you can keep a closer eye on developments as they're announced by following Hip Hop Press.
Belvedere Vodka Dinner With Terry Richardson
The above photo from Belvedere Vodka's Luxury Reborn campaign is by Terry Richardson who also directed the campaign from print to television.
The tv spots feature Vincent Gallo with music by RZA.
The press release has the campaign overview:
Totaling upwards of $20 million, the new ad campaign cost is nearly triple Belvedere's previous advertising campaign, which last appeared in December 2006...
Berlin Cameron United, the advertising agency behind the campaign, also enlisted world-renowned stylists Christopher Niquet for the print shoot and Arianne Phillips for the TV spot. Models were dressed in fashions from Fendi, Christian Dior, Celine, and Donna Karan, among others...
Belvedere is also re-launching its website as a virtual palace, which will give consumers an inside look at the Belvedere ad campaign. The website will also feature outtakes from the print and broadcast shoot by Terry Richardson, and interviews with Vincent Gallo and RZA.
The Belvedere print ads can be seen in national and local publications including GQ, Vogue, Surface, Travel & Leisure, Robb Report, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, LA Confidential, Chicago Social, Atlantan, Ocean Drive, Wine Spectator, MarketWatch, Cigar Aficionado, Nightclub and Bar. Broadcast ads can be seen on networks including Bravo, Comedy Central, Discovery, E!, FX, Spike, TBS, TNT, National Geographic, Travel, Mojo, RSN, VH1 Classic and VH1 Soul.
Check the Belvedere Vodka website for the redesign and more from the campaign. Usually I hate these kinds of sites, they take too long to load and the graphics get old quickly but this is a beautiful and well-done site which loads easily and even has a stylish educational component!
Big ups to everybody on the team for what I've seen to date, especially the masterminds behind this website who brought together content and functionality so successfully.
At GRANDGOOD:
Behind The Scenes Interviews With Rza And Vincent Gallo From Belvedere Vodka Campaign
4 hours and 14 minutes into my 12-hour day at the ProHipHop office [when I started working on this post] and I'm ready for a big nap!
Doing quality posts takes a while but I have some legitimately easy ones ahead, just as I would on any normal day.
I've discussed the idea of 24 hour blogging as endurance art but my own experiences with time-formatted art has been in dance improvisation contexts.
When I was studying dance at UNC-Greensboro from 1977 to 1982, with a year at SUNY-Purchase from '80 to '81, I was especially focused on modern/postmodern dance and started doing a lot with dance improvisation.
One form of improvisation I explored quite a bit was simply improvising for an hour with a group of like-minded folks and no audience or additional agenda other than productive use of the time and space. We rarely used music in such settings but did explore sound making quite a bit. No drum circles, no huggy hippy fun, just hardcore postmodern dance.
Such a situation puts the dancer back on his or her own resources in a way rarely encountered in technique classes and choreographed performances or even in club settings. One has to decide why one is there, what one is going to do and how to relate that activity to the other folks in the room without external motivators such as music or a choreographer.
Having a set hour gave one enough time to fully explore whatever one needed yet gave a solid boundary to the event. Most often these would be weekly meetings and though such experiences affected our choreography, including the use of improvisation in performance, it wasn't really about anything beyond the art and craft of improvisation in the wake of postmodern dance.
My year at SUNY-Purchase in '80 and '81 changed a lot of things for me as a dancer though I did not take the obvious path of finishing there and heading to New York. Sometimes I wish I did because there was a lot of creative energy at SUNY-P at the time as well as in Manhattan but that's the road I didn't take.
But I did have the experience of my first 12-hour improvisation, a class project schemed by me, Laurie Roth and a woman whose name escapes me at the moment. It came out of our work in Mel Wong's Experimental Forms class and our shared interest in the 60s and 70s avant garde across art forms.
It was an amazing experience because the work wasn't just about doing something every hour but about going into a space with no audience, just improvisors, and paying attention and working for 12 hours. We also included various forms of art making that resulted in a documentation show of sorts though it didn't really document the event.
For me it was an important lesson in encountering blocks and working through or around them because stopping wasn't an option. I came out of it with a sense of transformation, a state that I continued to seek in various forms, including additional 12 hour projects at UNC-G (1982) for my senior thesis and in Durham, NC a few years later.
I think having such low-key but meaningful experiences as one aspect of my life as a working artist is what led me to this 12-hour blogging experience as a long day at the office with the intention of achieving at least a slight transformation in my understanding of what I'm doing at ProHipHop.
And now it's 1:46, almost an hour blown in self-reflection.
Time now for microblogging action!
Or a power nap. Whichever comes first.
Brian Walsby - Manchild 3
One of the aging pseudonymous hipsters at rduwtf.com links to a series of posts by Brian Walsby about the North Carolina punk rock scene in the 1980s.
This is a bit off-topic except that I know most of those folks and spent quite a bit of time in that scene in the 80s in Raleigh though I was never a punk.
More relevant to my readers, Walsby's first post gives one a sense of how the punk rock scene communicated and built national networks before we had the Internet:
I became sort of infatuated with the North Carolina scene of the early eighties when I started reading scene reports in the then brand new (& 'crucial") Maximum Rock N Roll magazine, & it more or less started when I heard the "Why Are We Here?" seven inch that came out on No Core Records in 1983. A friend of mine, Ron Cerros, had it. It had the following bands on it: No Labels, Corrosion Of Conformity, Stillborn Christians & Bloodmobile on it. We listened to it all of the time.
Then I got a copy of the Paul Mahern (of the Zero Boys, a criminally under looked Midwest hardcore band)'s massive double LP compilation record he assembled on his own label, called "The Master Tape Volume II". No Labels had two songs on it. I thought they were both great. Then shortly afterwards, I got a dubbed copy in the mail from an Australian pen pal, of the No Labels "Jane Doe" demo. I thought it was one of the best hardcore tapes I had ever heard, & to this day I still think so. From then I started writing to all of those guys out there. It was what you did when you were involved in that scene.
Zines, mailorder and actual mail helped build an informal national and even international network of like-minded artists and fans who would then put bands up when they were coming through town and, often, the shows were at house parties or other alternative sites.
Since there was such a critique of society embedded in punk rock, in the early days the idea of getting signed to a major label sounded like a bad thing but every other kid you'd meet had started a record label to put out the bands they liked. So networks weren't developed to build careers but to build the scene, i.e., to create counter-culture.
Pop's gone punk and it's a different world even without the Web but punk and indie rock bands have continued the DIY tradition and shown that it's a great way to build alternatives to mainstream society, to establish one's independence while working within mainstream society and/or to build as an artist while creating the foundation for a successful signing to a major label.
If you're interested in that NC punk rock history, Brian Walsby also has interviews with a lot of the folks that were there before he arrived on the scene.
If you're familiar with Ryan Adams, you may know that Ryan started out in Patty Duke Syndrome with Brian Walsby before he went on to form Whiskeytown. Unfortunately, Adams will not allow the material to be released:
"Despite the baggage, Patty Duke Syndrome was definitely my favorite of all the bands I've played in," Walsby says. "I'd like to release the recordings we made, but the last time I tried, a lot of lawyers got involved. Ryan made a point of not getting back in touch, until I finally called him out in an e-mail. He responded with a lot of obscenities and swearing. So not much has changed. I still think he's the most talented musician I've ever played with and also the most incredible mimic I've ever heard.
What's particularly sad about that is that when I first heard this story from Walsby a year or two back, he expressed how much he still respected Ryan as a musician and seriously regretted the fact that some of his own best work will probably never be released.
That's why I hate Ryan Adams and his boring music.
For more on Brian Walsby, who is a very nice, cool, smart and talented guy, please see his official website.
del.icio.us is a core tool for me but I've been considering exploring alternatives.
I'm wondering what kind of social or private online bookmarking services people are finding of use so fill me in if you have a moment.
Battle of the Bulge: Featuring Bone Crusher
I rarely conduct interviews, due to time rather than interest, but I interviewed Bone Crusher a while back to get a response to the question of why one would do a show like Celebrity Fit Club that's associated in the minds of many with celebrity has-beens.
I came away from the interview convinced that Bone Crusher had a smart take on the situation and was honestly using his appearance as an opportunity for personal growth.
I'm happy to see that he didn't stop with his Season 4 win but has taken his involvement to the next level with the upcoming February 12th release of Battle of the Bulge including a guest appearance by Celebrity Fit Club's Dr. Ian Smith.
Product Description from Amazon:
In Battle of the Bulge, Bone Crusher (VH1's Celebrity Fit Club Winner) leads plus-size viewers through a complete workout that they can do while in a seated or standing position. It includes a 20-minute workout, a 40 minute workout, a modified couch workout, and a modified bed workout, which is designed for people who have limited range of movement. No equipment is needed.
So Bone Crusher is focusing on what I believe is an underserved market in the weight loss/exercise scene, those people in such bad shape that most exercise videos leave them behind.
Though folks are a bit quick to say,"that's hip hop", when someone works hard [hustling] or speaks honestly [keeping it real], even though those things are not at all unique to hip hop, I think Bone Crusher is a great example of a hip hop figure who's taken his personal challenges and turned them into a money-making opportunity that can inspire others and that's certainly part of the spirit of hip hop.
And he didn't have to release a "Ghetto Exercise" dvd to do it.
Here's AT&T's top selling ringtones of 2007:
1. Shop Boyz - "Party Like a Rockstar"
2. Mims - "This Is Why I'm Hot"
3. Soulja Boy - "Crank That (Soulja Boy)"
4. Nickelback - "Rockstar"
5. Akon - "Don't Matter"
6. T-Pain - "Buy You A Drank (Shawty Snappin)"
7. Hurricane Chris - "A Bay Bay"
8. Sean Kingston - "Beautiful Girls"
9. Huey - "Pop, Lock & Drop It"
10. Fergie - "Big Girls Don't Cry"
In sharp contrast to SeeqPod's top search terms, this list has the typical rap/RnB focus of most ringtone charts.
I'm not even reading most Best of 2007 lists and/or posts but SeeqPod, one of these new-fangled "playable search" engines, released a list of the top 100 search terms for 2007 that caught my attention.
Here are the Top 20:
1. The Beatles
2. Linkin Park
3. Metallica
4. Pink Floyd
5. Eminem
6. Queen
7. Radiohead
8. Madonna
9. Rihanna
10. Kanye West
11. Daft Punk
12. Justin Timberlake
13. U2
14. Led Zeppelin
15. Akon
16. Bob Dylan
17. Michael Jackson
18. Pearl Jam
19. Coldplay
20. Rolling Stones
I get the feeling SeeqPod has some heavy baby boomer usage.
Here's the full Top 100.
Brian Jonestown Massacre - Tepid Peppermint Wonderland: A Retrospective
So my top album for 2007 is Brian Jonestown Massacre's Tepid Peppermint Wonderland: A Retrospective from that evil genius Anton Newcombe.
Look, it came out in 2004 but I hadn't heard it till recently and it makes me happier than any rap releases I've heard this year. Plus, though I used to listen to complete hip hop albums, that's starting to go by the wayside.
Giving up doing reviews, one of the best choices of my blogging career, has meant that I also turn down album review copies. I guess when something indicates that an album is worth buying, I will do so, but I'm just not feeling a lot of the art beyond specific singles, though I'm finding lots of singles I like well enough.
Good thing I'm a business writer. I'll leave the aesthetics to people that think critics of the arts actually contribute something positive to society!
For more on the Anton Newcombe experience see DIG!.
I have to admit, though, I'm already skipping over about a quarter of the tracks on Tepid Peppermint Wonderland. Pretty similar to my experience of The Black Album which was the last Jay-Z album I listened to in its entirety.
The wait may be almost over for Joe Budden as he signs with Amalgam Digital and waits for the release of Mood Muzik 3: The Album, an albumized mixtape, on February 26th and Padded Room, technically Budden's sophomore release until this mixtape thing complicated matters, in the second quarter of 2008.
Amalgam Digital has Mood Muzik 3.5, the mixtape version of the mixtape album, for sale as individual tracks but I imagine it's readily available elsewhere for less.
Just a long work day. And also a time for reflection as I crank out one insightful post after another.
I have a lot to say but it's early. I'll get chatty later.
Previous ProHipHop Coverage:
ProHipHop Office Hours: Saturday, Dec. 22, 9am to 9pm
Sit Down Stand Up deciphers the tracklist from Just Blaze's brief post regarding Saigon's debut album, The Greatest Story Never Told.
Related ProHipHop Interpretive Coverage:
Studio Meltdown: Just Blaze Hallucinates, Saigon Dies
MF DOOM Mask Hoodies & T-Shirts
Rhymesayers Entertainment presents MF DOOM-wear via Fifth Element.
Wait! That's not MF DOOM in those t-shirts!
Hip hop film and tv industry news from WoooHah.com:
Diddy casting rumors in the upcoming Notorious B.I.G. film.
"I Am Legend" proves Will Smith is the biggest star in the world.
Ice Cube to play Mr. T in new "The A-Team" movie?
David Banner joins the cast of "The Vapors" movie as Biz Markie.
Lil Jon with online cartoon series on Funnyordie.com called "Lil Jon's A'Town".
Ciroc Vodka - "The Official Vodka of New Year's Eve"
I'm posting this because it's supposed to be the or one of the new Diddy Ciroc vodka commercials but I almost didn't because of this grey space now looming in my post.
I didn't think they could come up with something as relatively annoying as preroll ads to get to me cut back on their use. Seriously, if this is the new deal at YouTube, I will be reducing use of their videos dramatically.
Via Corporate Takeover.
Update:
YouTube's back to whatever normal means these days. Thank goodness for good enough.
Yesterday Bodog Music announced the signing of DMX.
They're also releasing the Wu-Tang Clan's 8 Diagrams in Europe as announced in May.
Official Site:
Bodog Music
More top 10 reshuffling on the Hot 100 singles chart with Flo Rida's Low featuring T-Pain the "Hot 100's fastest-growing track at radio".
Top 10 Singles on the Hot 100:
1. Alicia Keys - No One
2. Flo Rida - Low feat. T-Pain
3. Timbaland - Apologize feat. OneRepublic
4. Chris Brown - Kiss Kiss feat. T-Pain
5. Fergie - Clumsy
6. Colbie Caillat - Bubbly
7. Finger Eleven - Paralyzer
8. Jordin Sparks - Tattoo
9. Rihanna - Hate That I Love You feat. Ne-Yo
10. Kanye West - Good Life feat. T-Pain
This may all become clear when I spend some time later today browsing tech blogs but, for the last day or so, all the embedded YouTube videos I've seen outside of YouTube are displaying a blank gray screen.
I'm hoping this is temporary because the still image from the video previously displayed meant that I had a useful graphic element whether or not people actually played the videos.
Now I have ugly dead space at a time when I was already planning to cut back on embedded videos that aren't really strong. And anything one would want to post without additional text, like the Common for Barack video at the top of the right hand corner, is now totally unusable because who knows what the heck it is.
Not a good look for YouTube.
Update:
Yay, it wasn't permanent. But I'm still going to be proactive about diversifying my video sources.
8 Diagrams Tour Competition
The Wu-Tang Clan is using Eventful to add tour sites to their 8 Diagrams tour which is already in progress. You have till February 1st to get 1500 people to demand Wu-Tang in your town and they say they'll come.
When Eventful first came out with its Demand program I thought it was a cool idea but didn't think much about it. However, if Eventful wasn't exploring a lot of other ideas, they could probably build a nice company around this feature alone.
By refocusing the fan/artist relationship on something fans can have, a performance in their town if there's sufficient demand, rather than something most of them cannot have, real personal interaction with the artist, Eventful provides a meaningful basis for expressions of mass love.
With that in place, they then have the potential to become, at the very least, a crucial point of contact between fans and artists as a focal point or an always needed element of whatever larger campaign occurs. MySpace has done that in a different way and now they have the joy of being indispensable to most musicians' short-term and long-term marketing.
Press Release:
Wu-Tang Clan Returns and Uses Eventful Demand to Give Fans the Power to Route Their Tour
From the press release for the European Youth Culture Study research report:
A "New Media Generation Gap" now exists between 15-20-year-olds and 21-25-year-olds when comparing patterns in mobile phone usage, Internet, Personal Profiles, Social Online Networks, + Communication, marking a shift in the marketplace, particularly in the UK, followed by France, then Germany.
I'm realizing that as each generation of youth gets shorter in length and shelf-life, current folks termed "young" will be getting a much quicker taste of what it means to be considered "old" before they've fully enjoyed their youth or managed to figure out what's next.
That's so sad [insert sobbing emoticon].
Bow Wow & Omarion - Face Off
Sleepy week in the top 10 on the Billboard 200 album chart for everybody but Josh Groban fans however Bow Wow & Omarion's Face Off debuts at no. 11 followed by Birdman's 5 * Stunna at no. 18.
Birdman - 5 * Stunna
Other debuts include the Wu-Tang Clan's 8 Diagrams at no. 25 and Beanie Sigel's The Solution at no. 37.
Top 10 Albums on the Billboard 200:
1. Josh Groban - Noel
2. Alicia Keys - As I Am
3. The Eagles - Long Road Out of Eden
4. Now That's What I Call Music 26
5. Mannheim Steamroller - Christmas Song
6. Soundtrack - High School Musical 2
7. Hannah Montana 2 (Soundtrack)/Meet Miley Cyrus
8. Taylor Swift - Taylor Swift
9. Carrie Underwood - Carnival Ride
10. Garth Brooks - The Ultimate Hits
Related ProHipHop Coverage:
Commercials for Face Off From Bow Wow & Omarion
Something about considering 24 hour blogging as drama and then as art has brought me back to focusing on work and the challenges facing me in 2008.
As part of my process of considering the past and preparing for the future, I will be keeping office hours this Saturday, December 23rd, from 9 am to 9 pm.
I will be posting all day including at least one major announcement and some smaller ones, some coverage that I've slept on since August, a bunch of items that have been building up of late and some other goodies that will be worth your while. I've got quite a list already and getting it done in 12 hours will itself by challenge enough for me.
If you have something on your mind, drop me an email Saturday and we can discuss the possibilities:
clyde(at)prohiphop(dot)com
On that note, I recently created a 24 Hour Blogging category for what I anticipated to be a Blog Battle Royale but I'm dissolving that and dispersing the posts into the relevant categories.
If you can't drop by, you'll still be able to check back and see what happened because I'll do a summary post with all the day's headlines from ProHipHop which I expect to be a substantial number.
See you Saturday.
Looks like the HipHopSodaShop is having a celebrity packed opening in Tampa, Florida today.
Hip hop celebs include Busta Rhymes, Cassidy, Jim Jones, Juelz Santana, Aqueelah McCummings, JT Money and Pretty Ricky. The event will include a performance by Doug E. Fresh with Andre Harrell playing host.
The press release includes this ambiguous line:
"Microsoft Joins Launch As Official HipHopSodaShop Supporter"
Event sponsor with onsite advertising perhaps? Microsoft is doing something but it's unclear what.
In any case, best of luck with the opening!
If your comments are getting blocked I can't be sure of why at this point.
Typepad has created a new sp@m folder for comments that includes both messages from people I've blocked and messages from people the system thinks is sp@m.
There are some details I'm checking on but basically I'm trying to get it turned off. There's no way to tell why anything was put in the sp@m folder and I blocked people so I didn't have to deal with their inappropriate comments anymore, not to have to filter them again. I already did that.
Now I have to look at everything and pick out the legitimate comments and a lot of them look legit without any additional information. Basically they've added a tool that seems to only increase one's workload. However I will say that Typepad did actually announce this change ahead of time unlike some other new features that crippled ProHipHop at the time but were not announced.
So you may have commented and I just didn't realize your comment was in a sp@m folder. If it's in there now it's staying for the moment, sorry, even though I really appreciate folks' comments.
Not sure what the solution is. More work for me is not acceptable on this one since the previous system was working quite fine.
Actually, if I have to edit by hand I will because I do value comments. It's just a little frustrating at the moment.
I cracked up when I heard that Eddie Murphy signed Karrine "Superhead" Steffans to his new label.
Reminds me that Kid Rock and Rev Run are going on tour.
It's like the entertainment biz is becoming one big reality tv show.
Update:
Karrine Steffans says the rumors of her signing are not true.
The Mixtape Monday crew present their Best of 2007 and look at this year's changes in the mixtape game:
On January 16, the underground industry's biggest star, DJ Drama, was arrested along with his partner, Don Cannon, after the Feds raided their Atlanta office in conjunction with the Recording Industry Association of America...It's hard to believe that almost a year later, Drama hasn't even been indicted on the charges...
In the aftermath of Drama's bust, DJs and artists embraced technology more than ever by transmitting their music directly to their fans via MySpace and their personal Web sites. As a result, record labels, bootleggers and distributors were left out of the equation, and the relationship between artists and fans was never purer...No MC benefited more from this new, streamlined process than Lil Wayne...Weezy delivered to the Net a flood even Moses would have had a hard time navigating. Every week (at times, it seemed, every day) the Cash Money star had a new, buzzworthy mixtape being pumped out of computer speakers.
That Wayne was from New Orleans only cemented (once again) the South's takeover of hip-hop. The usual New York mainstays have been missing from our Mixtape Monday list...But with independent albums selling as many units as major-label projects, while Internet-only videos are making it into MTV rotation, the mixtape world is as fluid as ever. Who could have predicted at this time last year that Soulja Boy would be nominated for a Grammy Award?
Did Soulja Boy even exist this time last year?
I thought he was vat bred by YouTube.
Metafore - Nah Mean
Doritos has announced the 10 Crash the Super Bowl semi-finalists and you can vote for the winner including three hip hop acts: Metafore, Blind Fury and NIVLA featuring P. Oberoi.
I'd suggest skipping snackstrongproductions.com and cutting to the chase at myspace.com/doritoscrashthesuperbowl unless you prefer waiting for boring flash animations to lead you to the ENTER button first.
This one's especially worth voting for because the winner gets a 60-second video montage during a Super Bowl commercial break.
Update:
I'm seriously slipping. Not only does the winner get the Super Bowl montage but "will also receive a record deal with Interscope Geffen A&M Records". In addition, "three finalists will each be awarded $10,000 and a trip to Phoenix to attend the Doritos Super Bowl party." Nice. That's a serious contest.
Music industry news from Hypebot:
Music industry layoffs continued this week at Columbia and RealNetworks. Here is a roundup of other recent job cuts.
The European Union could still deny the merger of Sony BMG.
A Nokia sponsored study looks at the future of entertainment and music.
New site Songza.com turns any computer into a free net based jukebox.
A list of recent Gold and Platinum album certifications.
Hypebot grabbed another exclusive 4QFor (4 Questions For) interview, this time with New Music Strategy's Andrew Dubber.
Voting ends Wednesday for Hypebot's Music Blog Awards. Vote for your favorite blog today.
See ProHipHop's Hypebot Industry News category for past roundups.
Talib Kweli - Becoming a Better Businessman
This video featuring Talib Kweli talking about using his cellphone to become a better businessman is another in the casual series of Samsung-related YouTube videos that includes such rappers as Mike Jones, Flo Rida and Webbie. If I hadn't tossed that previous post up in such haste I probably would have shown just the Mike Jones video cause he's the only one that really makes a connection between his ongoing marketing and use of the phone though I guess the other two are relatively entertaining.
In Talib Kweli's case, he discusses how his phone's becoming a core tool for conducting business:
This year I got more into the technology than I ever did and with my phone this year what I was able to do...was just consolidate all my business, man. Just have everything on my phone...and I was able to be a better businessman because I was more technological...As I become better at being a CEO I start to harness and utilize the technology to just make myself a better businessman all around.
It's funny but he also makes a reference to sounding like a dinosaur as if he's already behind everybody else though maybe that really means he just hasn't been an Internet nut. I really wish somebody who's around these guys or has access would take a look at how they're conducting business using mobile devices especially if some folks are using them as command centers.
I'm interested, in part, because it's such folks who push the limits of technology and open up new possibilities by the needs that are revealed through intensive use.
I'm also interested historically in how black people in the States have been trend setters in the use of mobile devices. Even when I was in high school in the mid to late 70s it was the black kids who were onto pagers before any of the white kids. At the time, the media was presenting the use of pagers in black communities as a device for drug dealers, though none of the kids I knew seemed to be about that.
So there's lots of interesting history there that remains relevant to understanding what's happening now.
The swift chancellor report offers an interesting take on the widespread assumption that rappers can and maybe should be full-time businessmen as well as artists.
After invoking the relationship of Busta Rhymes and Chris Lighty:
Often times the spirit of entreneurship breeds self reliance which often mutates into arrogance. That arrogane often leads the artist to take on responbility they are simply not trained to handle...like booking, marketing, contracts, merchandising...
An artist who does all the aformentioned duties loves to fancy hims
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