I think Prodigy's serious about this blogging thing:
"ANYBODY THAT GOT SOMETHING AGAINST KEEPING A BLOG, YOU SHOULD STAY FARRRRRR AWAY FROM THE FOOL AND NEVER TRUST EM’...AND WHOEVER TELLS YOU THEY DON’T DO THE BLOG THING, THEN THAT’S THEIR CHOICE...BUT IT’S THE CHOICE OF A DINOSAUR WHO HAS LITTLE TO NO PLACE WITH THE COMPUTER TECHNOLOGICAL FUTURE."
And I do look forward to his TEACHINGS:
"BE MORE OPEN WITH MY FANS AND THE WORLD ABOUT THE THINGS THAT I’VE BEEN RESEARCHING AND STUDYING FOR YEARS: THE ILLUMINATI, THE SECRET GOVERNMENT, BOHEMIAN GROVE SOCIETY, SECRET SOCIETIES, THE ORIGIN OF CULTURES AND RACES, THE ORIGIN OF RELIGION, AND ESPECIALLY THE ORIGIN OF THE ROYAL FAMILY, THE FEDERAL RESERVE AND WORLD BANKING SYSTEM."
Never one to miss out on the monetization of pop culture, especially when he's the originator[!], P. Diddy's Sean John is selling No BitchAssNess t-shirts.
Lil Wayne's Lollipop featuring Static Major jumps from no 85 to no. 9 on the Hot 100 singles chart, the biggest jump of the year, and Lil Mama's Shawty Get Loose featuring T-Pain and Chris Brown moves into the top 10 at no. 10 from no. 19.
Top 10 Singles on the Hot 100:
1. Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love 2. Usher - Love in This Club feat. Young Jeezy 3. Ray J & Yung Berg - Sexy Can I 4. Chris Brown - With You 5. Sara Bareilles - Love Song 6. Jordin Sparks - No Air feat. Chris Brown 7. Flo Rida - Low feat. T-Pain 8. Rihanna - Don't Stop the Music 9. Lil Wayne f/Static Major - Lollipop 10. Lil Mama f/T-Pain & Chris Brown - Shawty Get Loose
"featured in the Sansa advertising campaign for Sandisk's ShopSansa.com online etail store. The television campaign will feature the legendary hip hop artist's latest release H.N.I.C. Part 2 and cross promote the exciting new Sansa FUZE. The television commercials featuring Prodigy and promoting the ShopSansa.com store will be featured on MTV, BET, VH1 and many other Comcast cable networks."
1. Danity Kane - Welcome to the Dollhouse 2. Now That's What I Call Music 27 3. Rick Ross - Trilla 4. Flo Rida - Mail on Sunday 5. Jack Johnson - Sleep Through the Static 6. Hannah Montana 2 (Soundtrack)/Meet Miley Cyrus 7. Snoop Dogg - Ego Trippin 8. Taylor Swift - Taylor Swift 9. Sara Bareilles - Little Voice 10. Miley Cyrus - The Best of Both Worlds Concert
David W. Dunlap states in his NY Times blog that he was assaulted by a member of a street team that was putting up Rocko posters and objected to him photographing the illegal scene.
Lynnley Browning of the NY Times looks at the Scion Speak campaign that allows Scion fans to create their own crest or coat of arms:
"In making their personalized crests, Scion owners can choose from among hundreds of symbols, all designed by a professional graffiti artist [Tristan Eaton]. The symbols range from an eagle, a jester, a king’s crown and a worker’s fist to Japanese anime-style flowers, a three-person family and a yin-yang circle. Customers can download their designs and have them made into window decals or take them to an auto airbrushing shop to have them professionally painted onto their cars."
Scion Speak - Enthusiast Workshop
The campaign was created by StrawberryFrog:
"an advertising and marketing agency based in New York and Amsterdam that is known for its quirkiness and for representing new or hipster brands. The agency spent six months last year escorting a graffiti artist, Tristan Eaton [of Thunderdog Studios], around New York, Los Angeles and other cities to talk to Scion owners about their lifestyles. Based on those conversations, Mr. Eaton designed the symbols."
Though Scion Speak isn't really a "hip hop" campaign it is part of the larger terrain opened up, in part, by hip hop marketing.
Scion does a lot of interesting stuff on an ongoing basis and they're worth taking a close look at if you're interested in reaching and becoming a part of multiple networks of tastemakers.
Jay Smooth has highlights from an interview with Q Tip conducted in 2002 with some juicy industry nuggets like how he got banned from Hot 97 and thoughts related to Industry Rule #4080.
Q Tip's advice for everybody: "no matter what, you have to stick to your guns...you have to stay on your path."
Though I gave Matt Sonzala a hard time about his across the board attack on the "media", the narrow focusing of attention on celebrities that is evident even in the blogosphere should be a real note of concern for independent and up-and-coming musicians planning future trips to the SXSW music festival.
I'm working on some ideas about how to maximize one's impact from attendance at SXSW focused on extending one's presence via online media and on some things one might do while at the festival.
What are your thoughts on how small-time bands can best benefit from attending SXSW as the festival transitions due to the growing presence of big brands?
Comments are open for this one. You can also send comments or links to your own posts to me at: clyde(at)prohiphop(dot)com
I'll include as much as I can in an upcoming post focused on this topic.
Apple is rumored to be negotiating with the labels to give purchasers of a premium iPod unlimited access to iTunes. A Hypebot commentary calling the idea bad for the music industry drew lots of discussion. eMusic went a step farther saying they felt the idea deserved federal anti-trust action against Apple.
Warner Music Group renewed the multi-million $ contracts of executives Edgar Bronfman and Lyor Cohen thru 2013. Hypebot issued a challenge for major label execs to follow Steve Jobs' example and work for $1 a year plus bonuses based on performance.
MTV's Rock Band video game has sold more than 6 million songs.
Veteran rockers the Bodeans have gone D.I.Y. with strong initial results.
Some gems: "Sometimes kids are interested in stuff like video games that are seen as a pastime, but those pastimes generally have industry behind them. If you look under the hood, you can probably find skill sets to take to the bank..."
"The first five years were like a baptism by fire, to the tune of about $6.5 million in debt. Trying to get back out of that debt and turn the business around was something I couldn’t do today. I don’t have the pain threshold..."
"I have A.D.D., and rather than take drugs to curb it, I just build my world to adapt around it. That’s partly why we’ve branched out into so many different things: clothing, video games, a magazine and other projects..."
"I don’t do it alone. If we went up to the fifth floor of our offices and walked through that bullpen of 40 designers, those are the guys doing the heavy lifting. I look at myself as providing air coverage for the guys on the ground."
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