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So Young Jeezy's Snowman tee is back and so is Ski Mask Way: Rap Crimes & Hip Hop Culture.
I'm going to be mostly posting links and occasional videos and/or graphics similar to what I'm doing with Ill Moves: Hip Hop Dance.
I'm also going to go back to the Snowman template design that Jarrett Carter talked me out of using when we originally launched the site. I do believe it adds the perfect touch!
I miss the nice people who used to visit. I hope you guys will come back from time to time.
Hip Hop Logic isn't publishing at the moment so it will be missing the Hip Hop Albums update which you can also find here. It's been weird for a couple of days so I'm not sure what's up.
Still taking care of some things that are clearly impacting ProHipHop though they mostly have to do with non-ProHipHop issues. Will try to drop a bunch of links as soon as possible during the interim.
Update:
Did more today than expected, nevertheless, this post holds true for the near term.
Apologies for my distracted nature of late. I'll be back soon with some resolution [let's hope].
Light posting will continue in the interim.
I've been taking some of what I did with the ProHipHop News Center back over to World Cypher. Lots of loose ends but I'm going to keep playing with this stuff.
I'm also officially launching Ill Moves: Hip Hop Dance in a partially complete state with a focus on dropping dance links and content that comes my way.
Just so you know.
A heads up for folks who've been around for awhile. Expect more intrusive ads in the near future.
I'm just hitting one of those points where I have to step this up or reconsider the existence of this project.
I've also been accepted to a number of ad networks and will be experimenting with the possibilities so nothing wild and crazy should happen but shifts will occur cause somebody's got to cover the cost of free.
Update:
How ridiculous is being apologetic for trying to do ok financially, I'm not talking about caking here, when I'm writing about hip hop business?
Now where did I put that f*cking backpack?
Update 2:
But I promise I won't knowingly run Ann Coulter ads or ads featuring bugs crawling around cause they both creep me out totally.
I've pulled the MTV/Viacom posts after establishing some solid lines of communication.
Again this is an example of the fact that calling people out remains simultaneously my best and worst tool.
But the folks that do respond are the ones with whom I establish real working relationships and so my bizarre methodology does sometimes lead to positive outcomes.
Big ups to Brett Henne at VH1 and Jennifer DeGuzman at MTV. It's good to talk to humans in a human voice.
And positive vibes to Noelle Llewellyn plus special thanks to all the hard working folks at MTV, VH1 and BET who long ago recognized the ProHipHop Network as a legitimate media outlet.
Now back to work everybody!
The Ann Coulter ads should be gone soon. I'm having trouble identifying who they're from but hopefully the ad network's customer service can sort it out.
I hate her so much. Just seeing her ugly face turns my stomach.
I'm really happy to finally be getting VidRap back in action.
If you've got embeddable rap videos to promote, please drop a link to me at:
hiphoppress(at)netweed(dot)com
Or hit me up at YouTube:
http://youtube.com/prohiphop
I generally post only songs, not interviews, so keep that in mind.
I'm going to drop five a day till I get caught up starting with stuff people send me then a combination of big names plus interesting videos found on other blogs. Gotta drop the big names cause it helps build traffic but that's not where my heart is.
YouTube's backend is down so I'll check email there starting tomorrow since I posted five videos today including the first video from India that I've gotten up:
D'Noax f/Graffiti - They See (Desi) Revolution
Seeing the Graffiti dance crew makes me wish I had time to get Ill Moves going but I'm focusing on what not to do for awhile before I start adding to my to do list.
I like all five of the videos I posted for one reason or another but I'm wishing the best for Joell Ortiz and, with this being ProHipHop's make or break year, I'm feeling L.E.P./Bogus Boyz- If Rap Don't Work for a number of reasons.
But I'll have to save that backstory for my memoirs.
Let's keep building y'all.
First the good news. Big thanks to RB at Thug Life Army for helping me get the ProHipHop News Center press release out. RB and I have an informal exchange going around such things and it's good to know you have somebody in your corner when you're planning to launch a new project.
Now the bad news, or the ugly, I can't distinguish at the moment. The News Center has clearly not captivated the hearts and/or minds of my audience. Worse, I'm not even using it regularly and that's a very, very bad sign.
However, it has connected me to a lot of new sources and actually deepened my love for World Cypher, which is one of my core tools for keeping up with things.
That said, I'm going to keep playing with some of this stuff, tune up World Cypher and possibly add some pages to the World Cypher site in the spirit of sharing what works for me which will lead to my removing a number of the themes I introduced in the News Center.
I have mixed feelings about the changes ahead because part of my own positivity about the News Center came from bringing some sources on site that due to historical circumstances had been mostly ignored at ProHipHop.
But I hope the message that I'm open to making peace with all who find that of interest got out. If you want peace and can handle some open, honest dialogue, hit me up at clyde(at)prohiphop(dot)com.
As much as I'd like to say the doors will always be open, I know myself too well to not realize that such an offer has a limited timespan.
Maybe that's the ugly part. Whatever. I ain't no Saint Barack.
See you when I see you!
Some really smart folks think I should keep the comments open but I care a little too much and I control my anger a little too poorly. Cause when I get hurt, that's when I start taking heads.
And I'm running out of room for storage in the ProHipHop Hall of Trophies!
Really, it's not you. It's me.
And Imma do me cause that's how I can best serve you.
Less like Rocko, more like James Walker Michaels:
"He refused to play the access journalism game. (Better to have your nose pressed firmly against the glass than to be a guest of the people you report about.) He believed in congratulating true business achievers and slamming crooks and flops. What better way to celebrate capitalism, he argued, and keep it safe from the me-firsters who could wreck it?"
Comments/Dialogue/Biz Dev:
clyde(at)prohiphop(dot)com
Press Releases/Pitches/Video Links/Newsletters:
hiphoppress(at)netweed(dot)com
ProHipHop Recommends:
For occasional brief conversations about hip hop web biz, check out the Hip Hop and Advertising discussion group.
Related ProHipHop Coverage:
ProHipHop May Go Comment Free
I'd hoped to post more today but I've been busy responding to comments.
I should have a number of things clarified and be back at full force by Sunday or Monday.
I'd normally post tomorrow but I'm checking out real estate in a small Southern town called Wilson, North Carolina.
Want to talk?
Write me at: clyde(at)prohiphop(dot)com
Got things to announce, press releases, links to embeddable videos and so forth?
Hit me up at: hiphoppress(at)netweed(dot)com
Peace.
Update:
I had a very interesting trip to Wilson. I love thinking through situations with a lot of unrealized potential and Wilson certainly has that though it's hard to know what can be realized in a reasonable time frame.
But the high point was actually lunch with Brian Bowman of The Fiber Optic Files and with Eric Blues, whose resume I'm not totally clear on but it includes professional video production as well as a lot of musical activity as an artist and organizer.
Brian's a great advocate for Wilson and I look forward to speaking with him further about the possibilities down there and to possibly knowing him as a fellow resident.
But Eric stepped it up a notch by being the kind of guy that makes you think, "I could build with this dude."
Not that I wouldn't still be spending all my time at my computer and would be limited in what I could do offline. But it's really important when you're as "unique" as am I, to know that there are at least a few like-minded folks in what would strike most urban outsiders as a quaint little country town.
So Brian and Eric are actually selling points to me cause a city is only as good as its people.
So, like I said, see you soon.
I'm considering pulling a Seth Godin and removing the comments option for ProHipHop posts.
Though there are a handful of thoughtful and/or friendly commenters that stop by on occasion, whose presence I cherish more deeply than I ever reveal publicly, dealing with issues related to comments have taken away too much energy from the rest of my work.
Though making judgment calls about comment sp@m and reading personal messages to celebrities is part of the picture, the biggest issue is that I'm tired of fending off personal attacks and of my own responses to such attacks. In fact, my own comments on other sites are often way too negative and I really need to pull back from all that.
Taking comments off the table will not only help keep my worst instincts in check, it will also reduce the negativity that always seem to outweigh the positive comments, at least for me personally. No matter how I front, that stuff hurts and has been a huge factor in my misreading of comments that weren't intended as attacks. For example, I recently responded quite negatively to both Eskay and Adam Bernard, among others, for comments that profiled like earlier attacks but were not meant as such.
In particular, I've really been worn down over the years by attacks from people associated with or supportive of Byron Crawford pre-XXL, people possibly associated with Russell Simmons who crawl out of the woodwork when I critique such projects as Global Grind and, most disappointingly, people associated with Oh Word, even when I've attempted to build bridges and have given certain individuals advice via email.
That's not to say that these guys, and it's almost always a guy, don't have valid reasons for attacking me but they so rarely directly address whatever ticked them off that it's all a really big waste of my time.
I'd rather spend my time responding to those who see that my platform could be useful to them and who treat me with the basic respect any human wants to get in response to their hard work. Most of those folks email me and I'm inconsistent in my response. I want to change that.
For now, the comments are open but I think I'll be cutting them off fairly soon. It's a big decision that goes against much Web 2.0 dogma but some of that is starting to feel way too knee jerk and even cult-like at times.
So we'll see. Feel free to comment, if you wish. As in the past, the opinions of a few have often lead to major changes at ProHipHop so I'm interested in what you might say.
I want to send a big shoutout to all the folks who've participated in a positive manner and served as examples of why comments are a good thing. I'm just sorry I wasn't able to handle the negativity more productively but there you have it.
Related ProHipHop Coverage:
Cranky Clyde Sez: Comments Closed, Peace Restored
I've just added a site map with a list of all the sources on the ProHipHop News Center home page. I think this will not only be a cool resource of its own but will also strengthen the marketing aspects of the News Center, i.e., it will give all sources more attention and a little more link love.
You'll notice that the sources for a few sections haven't yet been added because they involve feeds with a large number of sources such as World Cypher: Blogs [featuring 35+ blogs]. I'll list those once I get done creating any additional subsections and removing blogs that don't add to the conversation.
Seeing that source list made me realize that the main reason it took so long to launch this project is that literally hundreds of blogs plus a handful of news sources are included with more to come. So the home page is now also a mini-directory of great blogs.
But I need more!
Please suggest more great sources on the Comments & Site Suggestions page keeping in mind that an RSS feed is required for participation.
Particularly needed are suggestions for:
Artists & Labels
Audio & Podcasts
Hip Hop Politics
Hip Hop Videos
Plus any blogs focused on hip hop outside the U.S. such as Flight 808 or deejaying and production blogs like Crate Kings.
The ProHipHop News Center is basically complete but I will be adding some features like a customized search engine that includes all the sites in the News Center. I'll also be putting a lot of time and energy into publicizing this project and hope that will be beneficial to all involved.
Linking back to the News Center or the section in which your blog appears is strongly encouraged though not required for participation.
If you want to opt out of the ProHipHop News Center, please hit me back and I'll remove you ASAP, no questions asked:
clyde(at)prohiphop(dot)com
The ProHipHop News Center Offers Top Hip Hop, Art, Lifestyle, Business and Web 2.0 Blog & News Mixes with Portable Feeds and Customized, Grabbable Search Widgets
Raleigh, NC (Jan. 29, 2008) - ProHipHop, the web's core resource for hip hop marketing and business news, now offers a rich selection of blog and news sources for entertainment seekers and news junkies operating on the breaking edge of digital society. The newly launched ProHipHop News Center also provides a central location for those wanting to keep an eye on such characters!
The ProHipHop News Center presents news mixes from the top hip hop magazines, websites and blogs as well as related blends on themes ranging from sneakers & streetwear to entertainment marketing to the business of blogging.
Each news mix has a customized grabbable search widget of the originating sites and is available as an RSS feed or through multiple subscription options ranging from email to Skype.
Possible Uses for the ProHipHop News Center:
Scanning daily blog posts and news items for entertainment or information gathering.
Discovering world class blogs and news sources.
Gathering or subscribing to feeds and widgets for access elsewhere.
The creation of the ProHipHop News Center brings together lessons learned in such projects as the netweed Web Directory (netweed.com/directory) and World Cypher (worldcypher.com). It is intended to expand ProHipHop's news services beyond the daily blog posts at ProHipHop and related press releases at Hip Hop Press (hiphoppress.com) to offer a more complete news gathering and information service in one central location.
ProHipHop News Center:
http://www.prohiphop.com/news.html
To suggest sites for inclusion in the ProHipHop News Center:
http://www.prohiphop.com/comments.html
About ProHipHop:
ProHipHop (prohiphop.com) is a hip hop marketing and business news blog written by Clyde Smith. Launched in 2004 in San Francisco, ProHipHop is currently headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Press Contact:
Clyde Smith
clyde(at)prohiphop(dot)com
919-809-6401
What was I thinking baring my soul to you all these years?
I guess I forgot the second half of Dr. Thompson's observation:
"When the going gets weird,
the weird turn pro."
And speaking of Hunter S. Thompson quotes, accurate or not:
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."
By the way, Ronald Reagan was an evil man and anybody that didn't get that is not to be trusted. Just ask the Vietnam vets he dumped out of the mental institutions and into the streets.
If you can find any who survived.
See you soon, kids!
It's a soft launch tonight for the ProHipHop News Center.
Everything is ready except for the custom search engines and they should be done by daybreak EST.
Then it's the hard launch coming at you!
Hmmm, that doesn't sound quite right but there will be a press release and I'll have things to say in a ProHipHop post and so forth and so on.
Till then.
Update:
5:30 am and I was a half hour from being done when Typepad goes down for an hour.
So much for web services, SAAS, computing in the cloud and so forth. For the consumer, mission critical web apps are still a long ways away.
Let's hope it's up long enough so I can finish the stupid search engines for this stupid news center.
Update 2:
I think I'm done with this first round but I can't tell. Let me know what you think, folks, when you have a moment.
Update 3:
Now that I've had some sleep I wanted to drop a quick note about what's up with the News Center.
I will be reaching out to folks that are included so they know they're in there but if you don't want to see your feed included, write me and I'll remove it ASAP, no questions asked. That's your right even if you've made a feed freely available to the world:
clyde(at)prohiphop(dot)com
I am running only partial feeds and the only live links are back to the original posts. Even though a lot of these people put out full feeds with graphics, that's not something I would ever use without permission.
I'm going to officially launch next week just because of how the pr and general attention cycle works. Plus, that part's a lot of work as well and deserves some focused attention.
Beyond that I'll be tweaking what's up, adding more to some of the thinner sections and introducing new sections as well. That will mean both more hip hop resources as well as more categories in general. I'm definitely open to suggestions but I'm also building in relationship to what you could the ProHipHop Universe of Awareness, i.e. this is what I keep up with or would like to keep up with to follow both hip hop and the ever changing social and business climate in which hip hop operates as so many of our activities move online.
I know not everybody will dig the format cause we all like to get info in our own ways but it's already affected my news gathering and given me a deep resource to browse to see what other bloggers are up to. So I'm quite happy with it and hope it can give folks another news option for regular use or for simply discovering sources and feeds for use elsewhere.
Related ProHipHop Coverage:
ProHipHop Launches the ProHipHop News Center Featuring Top Entertainment, Lifestyle and Business News Blogs
I'm hoping to launch the ProHipHop News Center any day now but even simple ideas sometimes take a lot of work. Nevertheless, a lot of bloggers, magazines and news sites will soon be getting more of the attention they deserve from ProHipHop.
I'm also way behind on all sorts of posts. I haven't been doing many posts where I round up links on particular topics and that's left a lot of great news off of my site so I'm going to be dropping a deluge of links right after I launch the News Center.
Sorry about not getting back to folks who've reached out. I hope to be more accessible soon.
How's that for a peacemaking headline?
There was in fact some confusion about which feeds were available for use at Goldmic and other news sites interested in running ProHipHop feeds.
We've worked things out with Goldmic using the http://feeds.feedburner.com/prohiphop feed going forward and earlier posts with links back to ProHipHop remaining on the site.
I apologized for jumping on this so harshly and Sandro was quite gracious about that aspect.
That's pretty much it. No lawyers, no money, just folks working it out and moving forward in a positive manner. Believe it or not, some of my best working relationships started this way.
Hey, maybe Barack's on to something after all!
I've added a bunch more artists to ProHipHop's Jango Jukebox and given it its own page. Currently the link is in the upper right hand column.
It's a weird mix but that's because it reflects my range of interests though a lot of artists weren't available. I also left out some folks I'm tired of hearing all the time.
I've taken the ads out of the ProHipHop feed and upped the ads in the Hip Hop Press feed.
Hopefully that's a positive for my ProHipHop core readers and an understandable addition to Hip Hop Press which is a free marketing vehicle for a lot of folks.
I'll be posting more tomorrow and over the weekend but I'll also be prioritizing my new project that will launch early next week, probably on Tuesday. I actually wanted to launch it during my 12 Hour Blogging Project but it's been a lot more work than expected.
Till soon.
Sometime in the next few weeks I'll be going through and removing posts including stuff that no longer represents what I'm trying to do here and material featuring dead links or videos. If there's something you want to hold me to later, copy it now.
On a related note, I'm disappointed to note that some folks are pulling promos and commercials, as opposed to full length music videos, off their sites after their initial pr push is done and that's unfortunate because they're going to lose their posts entirely if that's what was featured. That's doubly unfortunate because it includes up and comers that I like and wanted to give a little shine.
Whether or not you want to have a presence at ProHipHop, taking down a commercial or related video that you as an artist or label guy actually have the right to post is kind of ridiculous.
Have you heard about back catalogs? They're all the rage among those who actually get paid.
Unless, of course, everyone has already seen the commercial, copped the cd and is waiting for your next "highly anticipated" release.
But you know that even the great Jay-Z can't claim that honor so how could you?
On a different note, I'm getting ready to launch a news-related project at ProHipHop so I may have to pull back for a day or two. I'm looking forward to launching it because it represents where ProHipHop is headed and will give some attention to a lot of great sites that don't make my usual coverage including some folks that straight up hate me [and vice versa in some cases, but not all].
If I do disappear temporarily, please don't think it's because I don't care. I actually care a lot more than is healthy.
I'll be back in the New Year with more news that deserves a good look, a new project or two, participation in the 2nd Annual Rap List (open to all until Jan. 5th) and answers to such questions as: Where's DanceJam?
Peace!
I had a positive and productive 12-hour blogging session from 9 am to 9 pm Saturday, December 22nd.
I'm amazed at how much of my list of topics I never covered. They're still waiting for me but they'll have to wait a bit longer. Despite that it was a very good day.
Here are the 25 posts generated in the process:
1) Here We Go: 12 Hours of Blogging at ProHipHop
2) Amalgam Digital Signs Joe Budden, To Release Mood Muzik 3: The Album & Padded Room in 2008
3) ProHipHop's Top Album for 2007 Released in 2004
4) Has SeeqPod Captured the Baby Boomers?
5) Top Selling AT&T Ringtones of 2007: Rap and RnB
6) Bone Crusher Monetizes His Assets w/Battle of the Bulge
7) Alternatives to del.icio.us for Online Bookmarking?
8) Brian Walsby: NC Punk Rock in the 80s, Manchild, Patty Duke Syndrome
9) Time Arts, Dance Improvisation & the 12-Hour Workday
10) Belvedere Vodka: Luxury Reborn, Music by RZA
11) ProHipHop Adds Hip Hop Penny Stocks Category
13) When Blogging Fades Into Hip Hop Fantasy Land
14) Penny Stock Report: RMD Entertainment Group
15) Remy Martin, Swizz Beats & T-Pain for the Women of King Calendar
16) Luther Campbell Talks Luke Entertainment Group
17) Music Industry: Amazon's Impact, Termanology's Take, MTV's Series
18) Biz Advice From DJ Clinton Sparks
19) Robert Cummins aka Don Pooh Opens Brooklyn IHOP
20) Prince Whipper Whip Chills in Michigan
21) RCRD LBL Photo Widget for A-Trak
22) Crooked I On His Online Marketing Activities
23) Pew/Internet Reports: Teens and Social Media
24) Ghostface Killah at SOHH Blogs & Brooklyn Bodega
25) Closing Comments: I'm Going To Be a Monster in '08!
I think this is where I'm supposed to say, "you better get used to me".
Please do enjoy whatever holidays you celebrate and I'll see you soon.
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'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.
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.
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
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.
It's not the most beautiful widget in the world but I'm happy to report that Netvibes has added a ProHipHop Network widget to its offerings.
Though I typically don't announce all the minor firsts with which ProHipHop is associated, I think it's kind of cool that when one searches Netvibes' Ecosystem for "hip hop" and then filters it by premium content, ProHipHop's widget is currently the only result.
This opportunity came about due to ProHipHop's visibility, luck and my willingness to pursue the opportunity. But Netvibes will be opening up its platform with the upcoming ginger edition so that you can take advantage of the possibilities that ProHipHop has been exploring for yourself.
Related ProHipHop Coverage:
ProHipHop Network Widget Available for All Websites
Introducing the ProHipHop Network @ Netvibes
I'm sick. So much for getting caught up.
I'm happy to announce that Netvibes invited me to create one of their Universes and the initial result is the cut and paste ProHipHop Network @ Netvibes that combines my main content feeds with visual material from other sources.
There are some other possibilities including gaining additional control of the design and creating a widget with all my content feeds. I'm focusing on getting the widget next and hope to continue with whatever else they have to offer.
The Universe startpage is basically a Netvibes startpage made public and they will be opening this option up to the general public at some point. Definitely one of those things to do, like so many other Web 2.0 sites with an open web aspect, whether or not you plan any further involvement with Netvibes.
Update:
Actually it looks like you can now apply for Netvibes' various programs via the right sidebar on their Ecosystem homepage.
Netvibes is also my biggest single source of ProHipHop newsfeed subscribers with 216 subscribers prior to the debut of the ProHipHop Network.
Related ProHipHop Coverage:
ProHipHop Network Widget Available for All Websites
Netvibes Releases ProHipHop News Widget
Awful title but that's how it goes sometimes. I was just reminded that when I unsubscribe and ask to be removed from a mailing list, folks have all sorts of assumptions about what that means and may be misinterpreting subscriber choices more generally.
I personally keep up with information in multiple ways including going to sites [I have a group of sites I check multiple times a day], subscribing to RSS feeds, subscribing to email newsletters [at addresses that may not clearly identify who's receiving them], following links from blogs, following occasional email suggestions, keeping up with press releases and mixing feeds and then following the results [like at World Cypher where I currently track 75 sources with more to come].
That means that I could be following you very closely and you'll never know unless I write about you or contact you.
But I've found more than once that folks have thought when I unsubscribed to their unrequested email that I wasn't interested when I've often been getting news of their updates before their email gets out.
That means that there's probably a larger number with that view who haven't told me that's what they think.
I could go on but the point should be obvious, people don't really know what's up with their subscribers, in the broadest sense of the word, and may never really know. If you base your evaluation on too little info, in this case an email subscriber list, when you don't have the names of your RSS subscribers and web surfers, then you're deluding yourself that you have a clue about what's going on when someone unsubscribes from one source.
On a related note, I've started creating filters for newsletters that I don't want that don't have an unsubscribe option. I can glance at it once a week, in multiple accounts, to confirm that there's little there for me while keeping those size-queen list maintainers happy and collecting their profits. It's a rapidly growing list and a reminder of why most email blasts are a waste of your money.
I was over at Kanye West's blog where supporters have been expressing their condolences in the wake of his mother's passing.
I suddenly remembered that he had just topped Lycos' most searched celebrity blogger list and immediately thought:
"Wow, this will really raise traffic to his blog!"
Thank you, thank you. Vote Early! Vote Often!
Like the headline says, ProHipHop has been nominated for quite a long list of blogs from which you, my dear, dear friends, can help pick the Hey! Nielsen & Billboard.com Best Music Blog.
On the one hand, it's a real honor because it's a great list of blogs. On the other hand, how can you compare this group of blogs for best when even the few hip hop blogs I recognize on the list all do such different things? Music bloggers can also nominate their own blogs so the list will get longer and probably even more diverse.
Voting starts November 12th but I'm going with "just being nominated was a victory" on this one.
I just don't do well in popularity contests so best of luck to everyone and ProHipHop wants to congratulate all you winners now!
But think on this, while you're enjoying your shallow popularity party, I'll still be busy in the shadows plotting world media domination!
So think, child, of the ocean's waves washing away your outline in the sand!!
Think on that!!!
I'm officially giving up outside writing except email interviews like the one I still owe Hypebot [sorry Bruce] cause I've missed keeping ProHipHop as up-to-date as I'd like over the last week or so.
But part of my lack of attention has been due to time spent developing some new relationships for ProHipHop. There's been a big shift this year in the kind of opportunities available to the more highly visible bloggers and that's a really good thing for ProHipHop for a number of reasons. Nothing to report yet but there are some pretty interesting possibilities on the table.
In addition, I'm currently helping develop a new hip hop mobile app for Mobile Lingo that will give me the chance to improve considerably on my efforts with the Hip Hoptionary.
Over at netweed I'm helping a new blogger get a project going that's been on our agenda for quite awhile. It will be my first WordPress experience so I'm looking forward to having a reason to learn more about that product.
I've got a lot to post, some other things to announce, lots of people to get back in touch with, generally speaking the list is long. But I'm encouraged by the possibilities that are now emerging at a time when I've only recently rededicated myself to this nutty project and I'm definitely feeling up to the task at hand.
Nevertheless, it may not be till sometime tomorrow that I return to full force at ProHipHop.
Posts at ProHipHop will mostly be delayed till sometime tomorrow because I'm finishing up a very short piece on hip hop in the Carolinas for a book from Novello Festival Press called Making Notes: Music of the Carolinas.
I was actually contacted at the last minute and am happy to be involved. However, if I had become involved earlier, I definitely would have made a strong argument for a longer section. Still it's good to see hip hop included.
Back in August I got a note from an Indie Bible editor informing me that I needed to update my info for the upcoming edition. I wrote back about two weeks later, didn't make contact, lost it in the flow.
It must be out because that's the only thing that would explain the rush of contacts I'm getting at the wrong email addresses.
As I write everybody when this occurs, please don't send press releases, newsletters and other generic material to my prohiphop.com email address. In addition, please don't send such pr to any netweed.com email address except for the following.
PLEASE SEND ALL HIP HOP PR AND HIP HOP PR ONLY TO:
hiphoppress@netweed.com
On a related note, despite what is now an inaccurate listing:
PROHIPHOP HAS NO ARTIST REVIEWS AND VERY RARELY DOES ANY INTERVIEWS OF ANY SORT.
IN FACT, NO ONE AT PROHIPHOP HAS ANY AESTHETIC FEEDBACK TO SHARE.
EVERYBODY AT PROHIPHOP [i.e., Clyde] LOVES MUSIC BUT IS CONTRIBUTING IN OTHER WAYS AND HAS OBSCURE MUSICAL TASTES SO IN ALL LIKELIHOOD, STASTICALLY SPEAKING, ODDS ARE WE'LL THINK YOUR MUSIC SUCKS. BUT WE WANT TO HELP YOU ANYWAY.
Seriously, how many bloggers are trying to help people despite the fact they probably hate their music?
I can't think of any other than me.
But enough about me. Let's talk about you.
Using Indie Bible data or any such data is a mistake without, at the very least, spot-checking the entries for accuracy. You thought that buying it meant it would be updated properly? You still have to evalute your purchase.
Let's look at the email I received today that inspired this extended rant.
This is an excerpt from an obvious form letter from Trevor Lyman, founder of MusicSUBMIT.com:
After checking out your site, I found you accept submissions from Hip-Hop artists. You would definitely make a valuable reviewer for our artists, and I'd love to start a relationship with you.
You mean, after not checking my site, you sent a form letter to a list you had purchased. And I think the "relationship" ends here.
Please don't set yourself up for ridicule. You're only baiting people like me to point out the obvious.
Update:
I got the same personalized mass mailing from MusicSUBMIT at Hip Hop Press where I only post press releases!
You can now stalk ProHipHop and Hip Hop Press blog posts via Twitter:
twitter.com/prohiphop
twitter.com/hiphoppress
Because the service will only display 5 posts at a time, some Hip Hop Press posts will not show up during busy periods when I post a larger batch.
If you happen to check this out right away, you'll note that Hip Hop Press has no press releases yet. They'll start showing next time I post one. ProHipHop currently has a mix of PHH and HHP posts but the Hip Hop Press posts will no longer be included. So you can have one or both.
I'm currently using twitterfeed.com to make this happen.
My understanding is that the Twitter subscription option available when registering for Feedblitz newsletters results in my posts getting posted to your Twitter page, though that may involve the "your timeline" option vs. the "Direct" option.
So this provides another option for Twitter users that may better fit current use patterns. Or something like that!
If you prefer a daily email version:
ProHipHop Newsletter
Hip Hop Press Newsletter
I'm happy to report that prohiphop.mobi now redirects to http://m.mofuse.com/phhmobi where you can access feeds for both ProHipHop and Hip Hop Press courtesy of MoFuse: Mobile Fusion.
I'm still playing around with the details but you'll get the idea. I do plan to offer larger excerpts but I'm running into feed issues that hopefully won't be a big deal. However since clicking through to an html site isn't the best mobile experience I do plan to improve the current offering.
Let me know if anybody actually checks it out on a mobile device and feel free to give me feedback here or via email:
clyde(at)prohiphop(dot)com
If you're interested in an invitation to the MoFuse beta hit me up. is now open to the public.
Found via Mashable.
I'm kind of on an extended birthday break [I'm an aging Libra!] so I think I'll see you tomorrow.
Till then!
Update:
Things got hectic and I returned to the fray but it's a good transition into the week.
Over at Flux Research:
From the Dewey Decimal System to Mahalo
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!
That's right. I started hip hop blogging five years ago today.
Yay me!
Currently I'm not knowingly running any expandable ads except for a few box ads beneath the individual posts that shouldn't interfere with actually seeing the site. However, an ad that was not marked correctly at one of my ad networks showed up today and I just removed it, though it may show up more over the next few hours.
In general I don't run ads that interfere with the site and I consider these expandable ads one of the worst things going right now. But I'm not always up on screening my ads and sometimes they aren't what they seem so stuff slips through.
After over a year of experiments with YouTube video blogs, mixed newsfeeds, microsites and guest blogging I'm now focusing my endeavors on ProHipHop and the related sites that have built the strongest audiences.
You can check the navigation bar at the top of the page to see where my energies are now being focused. It feels good to have some clarity, however temporary, about the limits of my current online activities.
Here's what's changed:
I'm no longer blogging at Fast Company but I do expect to return to related topics in a new project I hope to launch after I'm done settling in and start getting antsy, probably at Flux Research.
[think: business, information services, media 2.0, open access publishing and the distributed library, yadadadamean?]
Though I'm not relaunching Weekly Hip Hop Albums I have returned to updating netweed's Hip Hop Albums section at a lighter volume. I'm also adding graphics to both Hip Hop Albums and Hip Hop Movies and will be doing more with both those resources in the near future.
Hip Hop Logic is back in action on a light posting schedule with a continued focus on hip hop culture and politics. Hip Hop Logic is where I started blogging almost five years ago and it's nice to see the old spot back in action.
VidRap and World Cypher have been the best received of such experiments and will continue to be a core pa
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