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How Do I Become a Studio Musician?

xodus phoenix — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 15:45:47 GMT

FEATURE:
Who Hires Session Musicians?
Since music today is recorded professionally everywhere — from bedrooms onto laptop programs like GarageBand to 2,500-square-foot near-perfect acoustical environments attached to control rooms loaded with recording gear worth millions of dollars — it’s safe to say that almost anyone making music will be able to hire you for a professional recording session. If you’re in demand, you’ll probably get all sorts of playing opportunities from sources you wouldn’t suspect. That being said, the top three sources for session work are contractors, producers, and highly respected session musicians.

Contractors
The contractor usually acts as a go-between for musicians and producers, and is required to be present at all times during the session when his contracted musicians are recording. Contractors come in two varieties: union and independent. Both types are usually musicians themselves who supervise and provide additional services for a session. READ MORE

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FROM THE VAULT:
How Do I Become a Studio Musician?
Originally posted January 2010

Excerpt adapted from The Studio Musician’s Handbook by Bobby Owsinski and Paul Ill, published by Hal Leonard Books.

On the journey to becoming a successful studio musician, a lot of roads lead to the same place. But the way it usually works is that someone hears and likes your playing and either hires you or refers you as a result. Here are some of the many ways it could happen. READ MORE

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Kidz In The Hall 'Occasion' Album Out Today + New Snap Back Hat & Hoodies

xodus phoenix — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:20:36 GMT

Duck Down Music Newsletter

November 2011

KIDZ IN THE HALL OCCASION IN STORES NOW

New album from Kidz In The Hall, Occasion is in stores now.

Album has guest features from David Banner, Marsha Ambrosius, Bun B,

Freddie Gibbs, Esthero, & more.

Click Here To Purchase The Album at iTunes

Fans in the NYC Tri-State area are invited to celebrate the release of the album TONIGHT at Tammany Hall (152 Orchard Street between Rivington & Stanton).

Space is limited, please send your RSVP to events@duckdown.com.

NEW DUCK DOWN SNAP BACK HAT & HOODIES

Click Here To Purchase

Click Here To Pre-Order

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What if Michael Vick were white and Eminem were black?

P.R.O. — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 05:20:19 GMT

Could these two ideas ever be valid arguments for their levels of success or scrutiny?

Editor's note: Touré is a contributor to MSNBC and the author of the forthcoming book "Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness? A Look At What It Means To Be Black Now" (Free Press).

(CNN) -- When ESPN asked me to write about Michael Vick I knew they didn't want me to write about football. I love football but there are many people far more insightful and experienced than me in their database. Plus I wanted to write about the Vick meme -- the ideas around Vick, especially the social and/or racial ideas around him. And just that week on Twitter there'd been a brief argument about Eminem.

Someone asked if Eminem would be where he is if he were black. Undoubtedly Eminem's whiteness has propelled him, because it separates him from the vast majority of MCs while also likening him to the overwhelming majority of the music-buying public and the music media. That said, it's unknowable what a "black Eminem" would rhyme like and what he would rhyme about, because every moment of his life would be different, so who would that man be? Is it possible that this hypothetical black Eminem could be a better and more popular MC than the white one? Sure.

Unlikely to be more popular, Eminem's the best-selling rapper of all time, but maybe if he rhymes better, then who knows? But the real point is that this test, this thought experiment so many people like to do these days, where we switch someone's race to test whether a given situation is racist without changing any other aspect of that person's life, is too naïve and simplistic to be taken seriously. The character, the mind and the rhyming ability of a black Eminem is simply unknowable and the test itself fails to take into account that race impacts every moment and every aspect of your life, thus making the racial switch test silly and moot and unable to truly tell us anything.

Take a look at the ESPN layout of the Vick story (PDF)

Tonight somewhere in America two men will be arrested for DUI. Many people get arrested for this every day. Surely some will be black and some will be white. Does the fact that people of both races will be arrested for this prove that it's not a racial situation? No. Does the ratio of those arrests as compared to the population perhaps prove that it is in fact a racial situation? Sure, but almost every situation is racialized.
'White Michael Vick' photo controversy

One black driver may be arrested because the police who notice him are hypersensitive to black drivers in BMWs, so he's the victim of Driving While Black even though it turns out that he also had a little too much to drink. Meanwhile maybe another black driver is swerving and it's obvious he's a problem before the officers can clearly see his face. The point is race is too nuanced to be looked at in a simplistic way. And this "switch test" should be discredited and thrown out.

That was the initial guiding force for me behind my Michael Vick piece. I recall people wondering if he would have gotten the penalty he did if he were a white star athlete. Many say he would not, he would have gotten a slap on the wrist. I respect their position and disagree. I think dog killing is considered heinous, frightening and disgusting by most Americans. Many put dog killing on a moral level with harming a human toddler.

So I think Tom Brady or some other white star athlete would have ended up with a similar fate. Some have pointed to Ben Roethlisberger not being charged for rape after an incident in Georgia in 2010, but then conveniently forget that Kobe Bryant was also charged with rape in a case that went away. Both these situations are impossible to judge from a bird's-eye view. We must dig into the details to understand why they both got away from alleged crimes and not simply say they got off because of their race, end of story.

Am I saying that we're in a post-racial society and race no longer matters? Absolutely not. "Post-racial" is a meaningless term that people who have a sophisticated understanding of race do not use without an ironic smirk. I hate that dumb term and am dismayed at the number of people who think it's indicative of modern America. It is not. Race still matters. But I think nowadays it often matters, or comes into play, in ways that are more subtle or nuanced than we care to admit.

These are some of the ideas I brought to writing my Vick story. How did race interact with him getting to the point in his life where he was able to kill dogs? Surely race was part of the story before he was arrested and sentenced. It didn't just show up then. I thought for certain the massive moral failing that was displayed in Vick's ability to kill dogs was wrapped up in his not having a positive paternal influence from his father, something that too many black men of our generation have had to deal with, which leads us to construct manhood on our own. Some manage to do that well, some do not.

I also thought that even though dog fighting is a multiracial endeavor, Vick's multiclass life, which is seen in many black athletes, is a big part of what conspired to bring him down. The man grows up working class in a community where dog fighting is so common it becomes normalized to him. Then he quickly leaps to the upper class while naturally maintaining close working-class ties. So he's got the money and will to build a dog-fighting mill that's larger than the vast majority of them because this is what he was taught to do for fun, but now he's got the money to really do it big. Meanwhile his cousin, who's a friend, is still selling weed in the 'hood. That's a problem just waiting to happen. The cousin got arrested and Vick inevitably went down, too. Perhaps a smaller dog-fighting mill would have gone unnoticed by a police search for marijuana, but the monstrosity that rich Vick was able to construct was impossible to not notice.

This is what I set out to discuss in my Vick article. I also wanted to discuss some of my football observations, but ESPN was less interested in that, perhaps rightly so. As is typical in the magazine business, a writer hands in his copy and then it goes through an editing process. We knew it was a complex piece and worked on it very carefully, wanting to get it right, not wanting to offend. But the writer does not have a say in the title or the artwork that goes with a piece. I've been writing for magazines and newspapers for almost 20 years and I can't recall ever being asked about or even knowing about the title and the art surrounding my stories. That is not considered the magazine writer's purview. So I had no knowledge of or say in the title of the story and the horrific, misguided picture of Vick in whiteface, which dismayed and disgusted me when I saw it.

I think careful readers will note that the story and the image don't really interact. They're like two people who kinda know about each other but don't really know each other. But this has happened to me before.

In the book world you title your books, but you have no say in the book cover. In my first book, a collection of short stories called "The Portable Promised Land," I wrote a short story about a basketball player with Air Jordans that let him fly short distances. He was named Falcon Malone.

When I got my finished book cover there was a painted image of a man with what looked like a chicken on his shoulder. I asked my editor why there was a chicken on his shoulder. He said that was supposed to be a falcon. I said, "But there are no flying birds of any sort in any of these stories. I wrote about a man nicknamed Falcon." He shrugged.

CNN asked ESPN the Magazine to respond to the controversy about the photo. Here's what editor-in-chief Chad Millman wrote:

This past January we decided to dedicate our entire NFL preview issue to Michael Vick. His story, from All-Pro to inmate and back, had transcended the boundaries of the field and become a flashpoint of conversation. It incorporated sports, society, morality, forgiveness and, yes, race. Among the many questions asked when discussing his crime and punishment -- How could he do such a thing? Should he be allowed to play again? Could he ever play again? -- was, would he have been punished as severely if he were white?

It's hard to ignore the topic in a fully realized examination of Vick and his impact. As the senior editor of the piece, Raina Kelley, pointed out on CNN, rather than use vague arguments that skirt the issue, we chose to address it head on. First in a thoughtful essay by Toure. And, just as important for a magazine, with art that lent power to the concept. In the past, designers have challenged readers to consider their views on race by portraying a black Queen Elizabeth II and Pope John Paul II. We had several conversations about how to support the essay with imagery that made people think as much as the words did. Ultimately the resulting treatment felt like the strongest way to answer the question so many have been asking.

The opinions expressed in these commentaries are solely those of the authors.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/08/27/toure.white.michael.vick/index.html?hpt=hp_bn9

Radio Compared To YouTube and MySpace, part 3: Imagine If The Counter Went Away

xodus phoenix — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:11:03 GMT

AIRPLAY 101

-----------------

By Bryan Farrish

www.radio-media.com

Radio Compared To YouTube and MySpace, part 3: Imagine If The Counter Went Away

The hypnotic effect of YouTube, MySpace, and any other similar site where you upload your music, is one thing: The Counter. Without the counter, these sites would have no more use to you than your phone number listing in the phone book. Why does the counter matter so much?

Psychologically, it has to do with the "media effect", which is explained in mass media studies (especially Marshall McLuhan's book called "Understanding Media"). But you don't have to understand psychology to understand how the "counter" is misleading you and other artists. Imagine for a second, that all counters were removed forever. No more counters, ever again. Never will you be able to tell how many people "heard" your song. Wow.

What then would you focus on? How would you judge your success? What would you brag about? How would your goals change? How would you compare one song against another? This was what life was like before the "counter". Back then, you actually had to make things happen, instead of looking at a counter that said things happened. And the way you made things happen was mostly by phone, in-person, and maybe fax. Today, email has replaced fax, but two things have stood the test of time: Phone and in-person contacts.

We talk to a lot of artists who want promotion, and most all of them have music on a site somewhere that has a "counter". When asked, the average number of "views" or "plays" they say they have received (for their best song) is about 200. That's right, 200. And this is from day one (cumulative), and from around the world. That's about one "view" or "play" per country. And they've typically had that song up for over 2 years.

On the other hand, the highest number that artists typically tell us they've received is 20,000 "views" or "plays" for their best song. Again this is from day one (cumulative), and from around the world, and also for about 2 years. This is about 100 plays per country, over a 2 year period. That's less than one play a week, per country.

Obviously, both of the above are miserable failures, since the GOAL OF THE ARTIST was to get LOTS of plays. This, unfortunately, is the problem. The goal should NOT be to get lots of "views" or "plays" at all. The goal should instead be to get MONEY; this is so different from "getting views" that you may even have a hard time understanding the difference.

The first way to explain this is to look at media facts that pertain to music. Typically, about .1 to 1 percent of a radio audience will buy the music. This means that if a radio audience of a song is 50 million, then that song will sell 50,000 to 500,000 copies. The higher end of these sales is the major-market high-rotation area, which generates huge numbers of "listens" within that group of 50 million people. The lower end of these sales is the medium and smaller market stations, along with major stations that are not spinning as much; these generate far less "listens" (per-listener) in the same group of 50 million people. Stated another way: The same group of 50 million people can be exposed to two songs; one they hear 10 times per-person, and the other they hear 100 times per-person. The song that is heard 100 times per-person will sell ten times what the lesser-heard song will, even though the total number of listeners are the same (50 million).

Note that the total number of "listens" of the lesser song is 50,000,000 X 10 = 500,000,000 (from day one); whereas the total number of "listens" of the greater song is 50,000,000 X 100 = 5,000,000,000 (five billion) from day one also. These are typical numbers of "hit" songs. See www.TopListens.com for more, and compare it to the sales number of iTunes or Soundscan. You'll see that ALL of the top sellers are getting high "listens" from commercial radio regular rotation. All of them.

Now comes the "counter". The typical artist has never had any numerical feedback before the counter came along. No sales tracking, no airplay tracking, no ticket sales tracking, nothing. So the counter looks to be pretty exciting, because for the first time the artist is getting "feedback" on his or her music. So far so good. But the problem arises when the artist makes it their GOAL of maximizing the "views" or "plays" on the counter. And the reason this is a problem is because the typical artist reading this article does not have the resources to get enough "views" or "plays" to make any sales occur.

Looking at the example above, it takes 50,000,000 "listens" (total, from day one) for the lesser song to sell 50,000 copies. That's because in lower-rotation markets or stations, the typical listener will only hear it about 10 total times. So sales are about .1 percent of the total audience. Using this .1 percent number, the typical artist needs:

50,000,000 "listens" to get 50,000 sales 5,000,000 "listens" to get 5,000 sales

500,000 "listens" to get 500 sales

50,000 "listens" to get 50 sales

5,000 "listens" to get 5 sales

Compare this to what I said earlier about how many YouTube views the typical artist tells us they have, and you see the problem. The typical artist with 200 views or plays does not have enough for even one sale. And the artists who tell us they have 20,000 views or plays will only be getting 20 sales. THIS IS THE REASON that you don't want to focus any energy on increasing your number on the views-counter or the plays-counter. It won't sell anything, and it will just make you think that your music is not good enough.

Now, if the goal is to get "listens" from the radio, you can do it. This is how the majors get their high sales and views: they get high "listens" from the radio first, and then some of these listeners go "view" or "play" the song. Even our unrated-market commercial regular rotation campaigns (the smallest) usually end up with near 10,000 total listens in 8 weeks. 50,000 listens, and 500,000 listens, are not that much more difficult, since all you need to do is get a few small-market stations on board with 300 listens each spin, and get them spinning 20 spins a week each, and you are at a high number of listens after a few weeks.

But the goal of this article is not about using radio, it about avoiding the counter. You should be spending your time and energy REACHING PEOPLE that can help you sell your art. This requires phone calls, and personal visits, to people who can book you, play you, review you, recommend you, place you, and so on. "Views" or "plays" will NOT serve this promotional purpose. Nor will emails; emails are just for SETTING UP phone calls or visits, or for following up on phone calls or visits. No high-level activity will ever come your way if all you do is email. And certainly, nothing will ever come your way if all you do is watch the counter.

Watch David Dallas "Take A Picture" Music Video

xodus phoenix — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:42:12 GMT

Duck Down Music Newsletter

September 2011

WATCH DAVID DALLAS "TAKE A PICTURE"
MUSIC VIDEO

David Dallas is back in NYC after a successful trip home to Auckland, NZ, where he did a series of sold out shows in New Zealand and Australia.

Today, mtvU premiered his latest video for "Take A Picture." The video was conceived by Special Problems (production company behind Alicia Key's HP commercial) and sees 7 different directors/animators interpreting 7 parts of the song. Each person was given a segment of the song and access to David Dallas. A few rules were put in place. Each scene was to be shot on a different format: 16mm film, VHS, Stop Motion, 3d Animation, and during the creation of the video, the directors were not allowed to know what each other were doing. The result is a series of beautiful, very different images pieced together to make the video.

David Dallas is currently working on his Rose Tint Deluxe album that will be available on November 8th through Dawn Raid Ent / Dirty Management / Duck Down Music. The project, both digital & CD formats, will feature 4 bonus tracks from the original Rose Tint album. The CD packaging will also include a bonus disc with the album instrumentals.

Fans can purchase "Take A Picture" from iTunes today for only 99 cents:

Main | Clean

Click Here To Watch The "Take A Picture" Music Video

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current music-related legislation and how it will affect the music industry as well as some advice he has for DIY artists that want to get involved in managing their own rights.

xodus phoenix — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 15:15:37 GMT

Musician Coaching - Artist Rights Management

Artist Rights Management

Posted: 31 Aug 2011 06:30 AM PDT

Chris Castle is an attorney with Christian L. Castle Attorneys specializing in issues surrounding the traditional music industry, content-based technology and public policy. With offices in L.A. and San Francisco, he represents artists, producers, songwriters, record labels, music publishers, film studios and technology companies. He got his start in the music industry as a professional musician, working and playing with artists including Long John Baldry, Yvonne Elliman and Jesse Winchester and many others. Chris is an MBA/JD of the Anderson Graduate School of Management and the UCLA School of Law and is a magna cum laude graduate of UCLA with a B.A. in Political Science. Prior to founding his own firm in 2004, he was of counsel to Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp in L.A. and to Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto. He has also held several senior business affairs positions in the music industry.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Chris and talk about some important, current music-related legislation and how it will affect the music industry as well as some advice he has for DIY artists that want to get involved in managing their own rights.

Musician Coaching:

Thanks so much for taking some time to talk to me, Chris. From the perspective of someone that knows digital distribution, music supervision and record deals as they relate to legal policy, which items are currently pending that you think will have the greatest impact on musicians going forward?

CC:

In the last year or so, the penny has kind of dropped in the U.S., the UK and France, though what is happening in U.S. Congress is most relevant for this conversation. There are certain things they need to do about regulating some of the bad actions that are going on online. And I don’t mean going after individual users, because all the laws you need to go after individual users are already in place. I’m talking about going after the people who make the big money from piracy online and have very involved structures by which to do that, also known as “rogue sites.” That includes search engines that don’t filter obvious piracy sources and sell advertising that supports pirate sites.

In the last Congress, Senators Leahy and Hatch introduced the first rogue sites bill (the Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act) that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on a unanimous vote with all members present late in the session. Chairman Leahy introduced a successor to that bill called the Protect IP Act, which has been passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee and is about to be introduced in the House.

The legislation is bitterly opposed by Google and Google is bringing its full lobbying weight to bear on stopping it, no doubt due to the financial losses staring them in the face. Because it’s hard to come right out and say they want to support theft and that they don’t care about musicians, film makers, songwriters, actors, grips and directors, Google attacks the solution that Congress is endorsing—of course, there is no effective solution that Google does like.

You can argue about unintended consequences when it comes to these rogue sites bills. But what these bills do is recognize that there are some real structural problems with the Internet that encourages piracy and inhibits a true market from developing. You have a lot of incentives for people to do really bad things. I think that realization on the part of the Congress has been a big step forward toward establishing market rules online that will help artists be successful.

The other realization that goes along with the recognizing the structural problems online is that we’re not seeing pirates in the historical sense of what we’re used to.

I’ve been in the business for a long time, and so have you. Online piracy is not some guy with a duplication plant in Santa Ana who deals a little coke on the side. Now it’s companies like Google. Google is very much involved with selling advertising on these rogue sites and splitting the profits with the pirates (made evident in the April House IP subcommittee hearing). And it’s like that great line in The Untouchables: “Everybody knows where the booze is, Mr. Ness.” It’s not a question of whether people at Google know what they’re doing, because they clearly do know. There are at least five cyberlockers with Google advertising that consistently are in the top 100 websites in the world. It’s just that they’re making so much money at it that they don’t want to give it up.

On a more positive note, I think we are finally seeing a real upswing in companies like Topspin, etc. There’s a site called Patronism.com, which is a cross between Facebook and Kickstarter for artists. And of course then there’s Kickstarter, where artists are able to go out and raise money – crowd funding that actually does work. You’re starting to see resources appear online where artists can get a pretty long way down the path without having to get into 360 deals, etc. early on in their careers. I think that’s encouraging.

And then the next problem after that, which nobody has really cracked yet is the lock on radio that major labels have. I don’t if anybody is ever going to solve that. But there are a lot of ways to get to the fan now that don’t involve telecommunications-related mass media.

Musician Coaching:

What is your assessment of the class action lawsuit that has been brought against the major labels for digital payment issues?

CC:

The class action is a follow on to what’s referred to as the “Eminem Case” even though Eminem isn’t really a part of it himself. It’s the case where people are saying that the royalties for digital have been miscalculated under specific contracts and industry practice, and that it should’ve been a 50-50 split vs. a royalty rate.

First of all, I don’t think the class actions are necessarily going to be the best vehicle for addressing this issue because mostly because of what class action lawsuits require in order to go forward; you have to have common facts, common interests and a bona fide class representative, etc.

It’s also important for artists to understand that if a class is certified in one of these cases (like the one against Universal) then unless artists expressly opt out of the class, they are bound by the decision. Which is nice if the class wins, but not so nice if the class loses and you never not your day in court.

I think it is going to be very hard to certify a meaningful class because, not because of anything nefarious, but because the artist deals are not the same. For example, with Eminem, it was really a production deal, not an direct artist deal. So, if they had tried to bring that as a class action – and I wouldn’t be surprised if they had thought about that – I don’t know how it would’ve worked out, because there are relatively few production deals compared to direct artist deals.

I would also point out that there’s a bit of tree-ring aging that goes along with analyzing the relevant contracts for the class. I used to work at A&M, and I can tell you from having gone through many years of looking through old contracts in the file room that there were distinct points in time when the way things were addressed changed on many of the forms. And I think that’s not just true at A&M; it applies to all labels that have been around for a while.

If you’re talking about contracts that were entered into after about 2000 or so – when the labels started clearing large quantities of their catalogues for digital – most of the time business affairs people went through an amendment process that was very similar to what they went through with CDs. In fact, some people may have used the CD amendments as something of a model for digital.

If you were an artist they wanted to put on iTunes or through Pressplay or MusicNet/MediaNet and your contract was messy on the digital exploitation rights, they would go to you as an artist and offer you a more or less favored nations deal. Artists would have to sign those amendments or they didn’t get on iTunes. Most of those deals were fairly generous from a label point of view, usually something like paying the album rate for digital single tracks with no packaging and no new media deductions as the standard. Over time, the demand for back catalog on digital services was so intense that people may have gotten sloppy with getting these amendments, and that’s who the class action lawyers will be looking for.

The artists who are going to have the most play in this kind of litigation are probably going to be the people who signed before about 1990. That’s a pretty deep catalog. Those guys might be able to piece together a class that can get certified. But I really think it’s going to be tough.

This is not to say that a significant catalog artist shouldn’t pick up the phone and call their old label to see about renegotiating their old deals for digital. This is the kind of thing that works well when combined with an audit claim or a 35-year termination.

Musician Coaching:

While I’m going over current topics, what do you think will be the ultimate impact of the publishers settling with YouTube?

CC:

That’s a very interesting piece. I will tell you that there are a lot of stakeholders in that situation that read about it for the first time in the newspaper. They were somewhat surprised and are unclear as to what the basis of that decision is.

If you read the press release from the Harry Fox Agency (HFA) – and that’s the only thing written I’ve seen so far – it looks as if the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) and a handful of publishers were party to the class action lawsuit brought by the Premier League and others against Google that is a companion case to the Viacom litigation. It appears that these publishers released their claims. Viacom is still litigating their case and the class action is going forward, apparently without the NMPA and these publishers.

The short answer is, I can’t really tell what was dismissed and the settlement agreement has not been posted. But it looks to me is that the NMPA, which doesn’t own any copyrights, dismissed their claim against Google, whatever it was, as did the specific publishers mentioned in the HFA press release. But that’s only four or five publishers. So, I’m not really sure what it all means. And then the HFA is also offering a license on undisclosed terms that looks like a standard HFA opt-in structure. So, it says, “If you want to grant a license to YouTube prospectively, let us know.” HFA haven’t posted the terms but would have to tell any HFA publisher principal who wanted to participate.

I have heard that YouTube has what I would call a close to pathological level of secrecy about the terms of their deals. Like anyone in the music business can keep a secret. That’s kind of funny.

I guess it just doesn’t surprise me that the specifics of the deal have not been made public. But in this country, I don’t see how that’s going to stay quiet for very long, because that will have to go out with all the opt-ins. They will likely not say, “Opt into this deal, but we’re not going to tell you what the terms are” however much Google would like that.

Plus, HFA acts as an agent for their publisher principals, so they’ll have to disclose the terms.

What appears to have happened is that the publishers just walked away from the lawsuit, let the past go uncompensated and agreed to a deal prospectively for the future. I don’t really think that’s so great, personally. I don’t think it’s a good idea to sue somebody and then drop your case for no compensation. If you’re going to go to the trouble of suing someone, you should stay in.

Google seems to like its class actions as anyone who has followed Google Books or Google Buzz will know. Google likes to get rid of liability through what appears to be a “prepackaged class action” that limits the amount Google has to pay and gives Google a prospective license. That angle failed miserably in the Google Books case because they tried to make a prospective license part of the class action settlement. (Class actions are designed to deal with retrospective harm, not prospective licenses.) But what they failed to do by settlement they maybe can accomplish by prospective contract.

Musician Coaching:

Does this mean that a large number of publishers have walked away from potential performance royalties? I don’t know whether or not ASCAP or BMI had deals in place, but it seems there would be performance royalties out there somewhere that haven’t yet been claimed.

CC:

This situation is really about sync licenses, not performances.

Musician Coaching:

It’s interesting, because I interviewed an artist named David Choi, who has 95 million upload views on YouTube. And he said he never got a single check as a result from his PRO.

CC:

And that doesn’t surprise me. The YouTube people are interesting, because they are sending checks. When I talk to label people, I hear that the YouTube checks have gotten a lot bigger if you’re a major. But paying off people who can sue them is the way Google has approached many aspects of their business, including the recent payment to the U.S. Government over Google’s sale of advertising for illegal drugs.

Frankly, until iTunes had been around for a couple years, iTunes approached it similarly; if you were an independent, you got a reduced rate on your wholesale price. That didn’t last very long and iTunes has been great with independents ever since. But YouTube and Google have approached their business model the same way.

I was at a NARM panel a few months ago in L.A. where Sami Valkonen, who is now the international music licensing person for Google Music (whatever that is, because no one knows what that program is yet) confirmed that Google approaches it that way in front of a room full of indies. He said, “All I have to do is go out there and get a few of the big guys. If I get two or three of those, the rest will fall in line.” The indies in the room had a good laugh about that later.

But that’s the way Google thinks of it. So, as far as Google is concerned, if you’re an independent artist that doesn’t have a big label supporting you or someone to whom they’ve paid a lot of money for a license, they’re not that interested in negotiating with you and want you to take what is often called the “hillbilly deal.”

There is also a kind of unholy alliance that goes on in this kind of situation that could explain why an artist wouldn’t get a check: When YouTube makes a deal with a major, there’s an assumption that they will account. So, they’ll pay the major label. And I think the early checks were relatively pretty large – in the $30-$50 million range. Part of that was a settlement, and part was an advance on the catalog. If you are a major, it won’t take you that long – even at the absurdly low rate that YouTube seems to be paying – to recoup that advance at the label level.

So when the advance is recouped Google have to actually start paying checks again. Also, along the way, they have to render statements to the label that show the activity, because the label then is supposed to credit that portion of the advance attributable to the artist’s share of those performances to the artist.

Musician Coaching:

And I’m sure that hazy accounting gets very interesting there, because you wonder if they are really cutting checks for seven cents.

CC:

And that’s the thing. YouTube has an incentive to send just enough not to get in trouble. And the labels don’t really want to deal with accounting that is too good, because the worse the accounting, the less money they actually have to pay out to third parties, like artists. And those third parties include producers too. I guess there might be some video directors that would get a percentage too, though not many.

Musician Coaching:

Hazy accounting is nothing new in the record business. Because this YouTube lawsuit is not about performance royalties, rather about synchronization fees, does this mean that people walked away from all the synchronization fees they were owed prior to this settlement and then struck a deal going forward?

CC:

It looks that way. But if you read that HFA press release, it’s not clear whether or not there is any money being paid. And if I’m Google, I don’t think I’d want to pay those guys a penny, because as far as I’m concerned, I won the case and this appeal business is just periphery. Google even tells governments throughout the world, “Oh no, we won the YouTube case.” Even though it’s on appeal.

So, for them to pay money to anyone who is still in on the appeal to knock them out is probably not something they want to do, because they don’t want to set the precedent. So, I would doubt whether any money actually changed hands at all. And the license is prospective.

Musician Coaching:

That’s amazing. As much as all this policy interesting, it doesn’t trickle down to the DIY artists, because they’re not necessarily getting paid now, and it doesn’t look like they’ll be paid then either.

CC:

That’s right (unless you get your little share of advertising that Google sells on your You Tube “partner” page). And here’s the dynamic that’s also at work out there that’s the counter balance to the good news: they try to turn artists against their record companies, music publishers, and unions. The reason? Google would much prefer dealing with artists who were not able to strike back and as much as artists may have a bone to pick with labels, publishers and unions, that’s a bone better picked in private. Does anyone really believe that Google has their best interests at heart, or is it more likely that Google would prefer their artists served up alone, powerless and broke?

What do all these artist organizations have in common? They are places where artists come together to bargain collectively, because it gives them greater leverage. And of course, these companies don’t like that. Lawrence Lessig, the academic who has had a huge influence on Google and its executive team, has a real problem with the societies.

When largely non-union companies like Google who have no experience with collective bargaining at all try to undermine the artists and go around their representatives and natural allies, they undermine the one last bastion artists and creators have to stand up to people.

So, Google would like to avoid anything that doesn’t scale, and they would love to avoid the labels, the publishers and the societies. And it should not be overlooked that Google no doubt sees itself as occupying the space of these “intermediaries” because Google wants to organize the world’s information whether the world likes it or not.

Musician Coaching:

Which organizations does that include, specifically?

CC:

ASCAP, BMI, AFM, AFTRA, etc. To further illustrate my previous point, something came up the other day. Sirius is going around trying to make deals with indie labels to pay them their artists’ share and union share of money that would otherwise go to SoundExchange, which is another organization that is viewed as a middle man. Well, that completely screws the artist and completely screws the unions. And these unions have a side deal with the majors that even if the majors did do a direct license for works that would otherwise be licensed through SoundExchange, the majors will not take that money and apply it against un-recouped balances.

The reason these companies are going to the indies is because they can’t get any traction with the major labels, because the major labels already have agreements in place not to enter into these types of deals. So, how is SiriusXM your friend at that point above your union or your label? They aren’t. That’s not to say you don’t ever have problems with your unions or your label, but that’s your business. What Sirius, etc. is trying to do is turn the labels against the artists and the artists against the labels. And it’s a constant push and pull that really just ends up with huge companies like Sirius and Google making more money by reducing what the creators get.

My problem with YouTube is that when the day comes when they only have content that they’re authorized to have and when they’ve paid for everything that’s already on there, then we can talk about how great it is for artists. There’s a reason why there are no music deals for the Google Music service: No one trusts them. That’s the bottom line, and they’re really trying to come back from that.

Once this Protect IP Act starts in the House, I think it’s going to be a real eye opener in terms of just how deep this goes.

Musician Coaching:

And what’s at the crux of the Protect IP Act?

CC:

Are you familiar with cyber locker sites like RapidShare?

Musician Coaching:

Yes. You can basically Google anything.rar and you get it. Megaupload is another one.

CC:

Correct. The way those guys make money is they charge for faster access but also publish advertising served by third parties like Google. So, if you have an account with Megaupload and set up a mirror site as an individual, Megaupload will reward you for the number of uploads and downloads with points that actually become money at some point that come through your account: Web 2.0 for pirates.

Musician Coaching:

I never understood why people were so willing to upload on there when there wasn’t any take. I didn’t realize there was an incentive.

CC:

Megaupload actually writes a check. And this is all on the Megaupload site. If you look at the memberships, it’s all laid out there. It’s pretty sanitized, so they never tell you what you’re being paid to do, except download from your account or upload to them. They have a direct commercial relationship with their user.

But then, in addition to that – and this is where the real money is – if you have a mirror site, they give you a link back to the locker that has the content in it. What you’re hosting on the mirror site is just the link; you don’t host the file itself. The file is on Megaupload. When a user goes to the mirror site and clicks on that link that takes you to the Megaupload site, a popup will come up. It usually comes up twice, and a user can dismiss it to get directly to the site. If you look at that popup, it has ads on it. And those ads are very often served by Google AdSense. If you want to learn more about this, go to popuppirates.com, which is a site that’s written by a friend of mine named Ellen Seidler, who is an independent filmmaker. Ellen has researched this system into the ground, and she even has videos about it. I didn’t fully understand the concept myself until I saw Ellen’s site.

But, Google then splits the money with the pirate. And Google will tell you, “Oh no. We verify all these accounts.” They do, but they allow you to change the URL once it’s approved. This same kind of functionality is what got the attention of the U.S. Attorney in the ongoing Google drugs case and resulted in a $500 million fine and now a shareholder derivative lawsuit for a very narrow category of their Adsense business.

So when the cyberlocker asks for an account, Google Adsense has a human check out the URL where Google is told the advertising will be served (which is not the ultimate URL that the cyberlocker intends to use), make sure that the fake site complies with their supposed rules, all a bit nod nod wink wink if you read the Google drugs plea agreement. They give the cyberlocker a code, so Google knows who to pay the ad revenue on this site, they know who he is and know who to pay based on what happens, whether it’s a click-through or an impression. Up to this point, they are just like all the other ad serving companies.

The difference is that once the cyberlocker gets the account set up, with most of the other companies, the cyberlocker change the URL without going through the same process over again. That would catch any shenanigans.

With AdSense, you can change the URL after you have been approved, and they typically don’t check the new URL. So, if I’m Megaupload and set up a website “Dimitri’s Kittens and Sunshine,” I get my AdSense account and then the next day, I can change it to Megaupload. And nobody at Google will say, “My goodness. There sure are a lot of kittens and sunshine on Dimitri’s account.” They just serve the ads and make the money.

And it’s a lot of money. They’re in pretty deep trouble right now for selling ads. They were selling ads for illegal drugs that were being sold online – like Canadian drugs, etc. – and the DOJ just announced that Google paid the biggest forfeiture in US history–$500 million. So, if just that little narrow slice of the advertising pie is $500 million, imagine what they make from copyright infringement. It’s really a lot of money. And everyone gets paid except the creator. And that’s what Protect IP is really about.

Musician Coaching:

Is there anything the little guy can do?

CC:

The thing the little guy can do with all this legislation going on, that’s really more important than anyone might think, is call their congressman, particularly if their congressman has a leadership opposition (like Ohio, which is where Boehner is from) or you live someplace that people don’t associate with the music business, i.e., outside the centers.

Congressmen need to hear about it from everybody because it’s a jobs issue. The fundamental question is why should we treat bad behavior differently online than offline? No one would question an artist’s right to call 911 if their car was being stolen, but some people would like to keep the artist from being able to call 911 if their life’s work is being stolen. That distinction will not stand.

There’s an impression in the Congress, which is validly obtained but not actually valid. People think that if they don’t have a big entertainment center in their district, they don’t have to listen. But that’s not true. Members like Lamar Smith (Austin congressman who is chair of House Judiciary) understands this very well and has been a great champion of artist rights even though he’s not from New York.

We had some artists from Austin who did a video about what has happened to them, and the voices could literally have been from any part of our country. Members need to hear from their constituents about why this legislation is important to them. That’s not going to make you any money in the short run, but it definitely does help the cause.

On a certain level, we’re all in the same boat, from the big studios, to the little filmmakers, to the major record company, to the independent label, artist or songwriter. There is one copyright law for everyone and it is not being respected.

It’s not like the big guys are suddenly going to get rich if this bill passes. It’s going to start the process of establishing market rules online. The Brits have done it, the French have done it; more and more countries are doing this kind of thing.

The other thing people can do is do things like what Ellen Seidler did and keep track of their experiences with the DMCA. Eventually there will come a time when people are going to say that the DMCA just doesn’t work. There are two pieces to Ellen’s site. One is her analysis of how this advertising thing works. The other is a discussion about her experiences with sending out DMCA notices, particularly to Google, and the singular non-responsiveness of these people.

Also, go to SoundExchange and make sure you’re registered. If you’re a songwriter, make sure you’re with ASCAP and BMI and keeping track yourself of where your music is used. And be respectful of other people’s rights, so when the time comes for you to step up, you can say you tried to do it the right way.

Finally, only let people post your music on licensed sites. The individual artist has to take some responsibility for this too. If the purpose of DIY is to start controlling more and more of your world, what goes along with that is enforcing your rights. And when people start enforcing rights on their own, lawmakers need to understand that going up against the power of the Internet mob is really, really hard to do alone.

People of good will can never let the mob win.

To learn more about Chris Castle and the services he provides to the music community, check out the Christian L. Castle Attorneys website.

The company specializes in making high end headphones, which are customized for a variety of pop stars

xodus phoenix — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:34:41 GMT

Super producer Dr. Dre and his company Beats Electronics will sell a 51% stake of the company to Taiwanese telephone maker HTC for $300 million dollars. Beats Electronics is a venture between Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine and Interscope Records. The company specializes in making high end headphones, which are customized for a variety of pop stars, who sell them to their fan base. In addition to the Beats by Dre line, Beats Electronics has made headphones for artists such as Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and others. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company was acquired to improve the sound quality on phones, music, video games and movies for HTC.

For the full story or to comment log on: http://www.allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2011/08/11/22862402.aspx

Pete Rock & Smif N Wessun Official Statement Regarding June 28th Tammany Hall

xodus phoenix — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:18:16 GMT

Official Statement

On Tuesday, June 28th, Pete Rock, Tek & Steele (of Smif N Wessun) were celebrating the release of their collaborative album, 'Monumental.' It was a peaceful gathering inside of a sold-out Tammany Hall (lower-east side Manhattan, NY) to see the group perform new music from the project. Earlier in the evening some guests wanted to enter the event but were turned away by the management and bouncers employed by the club. A minor argument ensued, but eventually was diffused by the bouncers. Thirty minutes after that minor skirmish 15-20 uniformed Police Officers from the 7th precinct arrived at the venue. Shortly after even more uniformed officers arrived. The officers then hurried into the club and began macing and assaulting individuals inside the club, dragging one of them out and pummeling him directly in front of the club. Present at the event were artists, industry tastemakers, fans, photographers, and cameramen. Several people began filming and recording the unprovoked brutality, much to the dismay of the police. The officers then began to mace and assault anyone within arms length, including several women. Kenneth Montgomery, the group's attorney, who was in attendance at the event, stated that the Police "behavior was unjustified, unprovoked, and simply barbaric considering there was no provocation." Pete Rock, Tek and Steele fortunately were not harmed, however some of their friends & family were assaulted by the Police. The group's attorney, Kenneth Montgomery, is addressing the situation now with local community leaders & is available for comment with more detailed information.

Today at 12PM EST, Pete Rock & Tek & Steele of Smif N Wessun will be holding a press conference to address all questions at New York Criminal Court on 100 Centre Street, New York, NY.

Understanding the Mobile Market and How It Impacts Your Business

xodus phoenix — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 11:42:02 GMT

Musicians / Labels / Bands / DJs: Understanding the Mobile Market and How It Impacts Your Business

GREETINGS!

Join us for an exclusive open Webinar for Musicians, Labels, Bands, and DJs on mobile technology and your business.

Musicans / Labels / Bands / DJs: Understanding the Mobile Market and How it Impacts Your Business:
In this session we will examine mobile innovation as it impacts musicians, performers, artists, and others in the entertainment businesses. We will provide insight into how artists and companies in the industry are leveraging mobile technology to grow their business and brand.

Sat, Jun 25, 2011 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EDT
Wed, Jun 29, 2011 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM EDT

ADDITIONAL / UPCOMING OPEN WEBINARS

Marketing & Monetizing Your App:
In this session we will look at strategies for marketing mobile apps and generating revenue via the apps. Session includes a presentation and Q&A session.

Wed, Jun 22, 2011 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM EDT
Thu, Jun 30, 2011 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM EDT

Content Partnerships:
Do you have content that can be packaged into and sold via a mobile app? If so, join us for this session on releasing and selling your content via our mobile publishing program.

The Nov8rix Content Partner program is where we partner with content providers, provide the technology and mobile apps, and release the apps for sale on various marketplaces (iTunes, Android, etc.). We work with the content provider to market and sell their app(s) and share the revenues.

This is a great opportunity for individuals and organizations to publish their content leveraging our expertise in creating, marketing, and promoting apps.

Thu, Jun 23, 2011 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM EDT
Wed, Jun 29, 2011 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM EDT

Photographers: Understanding the Mobile Market and How it Impacts Your Business:

In this session we examine mobile technology, trends, and implications for photographers and photography businesses.

Learn about mobile trends, the mobile web vs. mobile apps, and how you can harness the power of mobile to grow your business.

The webinar includes examples of how some photographers are currently leveraging mobile technology to build their business and brand. We will also have an open session for Q&A.

Thu, Jun 23, 2011 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM EDT
Tue, Jun 28, 2011 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM EDT

CALENDAR OF WEBINARS

Visit www.nov8rix.com/Learn.aspx for a complete list of upcoming free events. Registration is required, seats are limited.

ABOUT NOV8RIX

Nov8rix is a NYC-based mobile technology company
Website: www.nov8rix.com
Email: info@nov8rix.com
Press: "Click and Drag iPhone App Creation for Business"
Phone: 646-625-9890

Random Axe & Black Moon have been added to the Rock The Bells Line-up.

xodus phoenix — Fri, 27 May 2011 09:02:05 GMT

Duck Down Music Newsletter

May 2011

RANDOM AXE & BLACK MOON ADDED TO ROCK THE BELLS TOUR

Random Axe & Black Moon have been added to the Rock The Bells Line-up.

August 20 - Los Angeles, CA @ San Manuel Amphitheater (Random Axe not playing this date)
August 27 - San Francisco, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheater
September 3 - NYC, NY @ Governor's Island
September 10 - Boston, MA @ TBA

Other Performances by:

Nas (with special guests Pete Rock, AZ & DJ Premier), Black Star (Mos Def & Talib Kweli), Mobb Deep, Cypress Hill, Raekwon, Ghostface, the GZA,

Immortal Technique, Slaughterhouse, Lauryn Hill and many more!!!

Hosted By:

The RZA, MURS 3:16, & Supernatural

For Tickets & More Info Visit www.rockthebells.net !

NEW MUSIC: RANDOM AXE - "RANDOM CALL"

Random Axe's album is out June 14th on Duck Down Music.

(Click To Listen To "Random Call")

New music from Random Axe's upcoming album Random Axe

in stores June 14th on Duck Down Music.

The latest record from Random Axe, comprised of Black Milk, Sean Price & Guilty Simpson. Fans can look forward to a video for this in early June

Directed by Todd Angkasuwan.

(Click To Purchase "Random Call" At iTunes)

PHAROAHE MONCH EMBARKS ON THE W.A.R. TOUR (MAY 24TH - JUNE 22ND)

Pharoahe Monch will be touching down in 20 cities, predominantly across the West Coast, in less than a month. Pharoahe Monch's stage show is like a shot of pure adrenaline! DJ Boogie Blind will be on the turntables, along with back-up singing support from Showtyme & Mela Machinko + special guests in select markets.

Pharoahe Monch will take fans through his critically acclaimed catalog, including performances of songs from his latest album 'W.A.R. (We Are Renegades)' which you can purchase at iTunes.

Tickets Available Now!

To see details on specific tour dates and to purchase tickets click here or go to Pharoahe Monch's BandPage.

@PharoaheMonch

http://www.pharoahe.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pharoahemonch

Tour Dates + Confirmed In-Stores:

May 24 San Diego, CA. @ UCSD
May 25 Pomona, CA. @ The Noise Academy
May 27 Santa Barbara, CA @ Velvet Jones

May 29 Los Angeles, CA @ UCLA Jazz and Reggae Festival
May 31 Fullerton, CA. @ Commonwealth Lounge
Jun 1 Fresno, CA. @ Fulton 55
June 2 San Francisco, CA - In-store & performance at Apple Store, San Francisco (One Stockton Street) at 7PM

June 2 San Francisco, CA. @ 330 Ritch
June 4 San Jose, CA. @ Pagoda Lounge
June 5 Reno, NV. @ The Underground
June 8 Eugene, OR. @ WOW Hall
June 9 Portland, OR. @ Peter's Room

June 10: Seattle, WA - In-store at Silver Platters at 6PM
June 10 Seattle, WA. @ The Crocodile

June 11 Boseman, MT @ Zebra Coktail Lounge
June 12 Boise, ID. @ Reef
June 15: Salt Lake City, UT - In-store at Graywhale at 6PM

June 15 Salt Lake City, UT. @ The Hotel
June 16 Colorado Springs, CO @ The Black Sheep
June 17 Fort Collins, CO @ Aggie
June 18 Denver, CO @ Marquis Theater
June 21 Tempe, AZ - In-store at Zia Records at 6PM

June 21 Tempe, AZ. @ Club Red
June 22 LA @ The Roxy

SMIF N WESSUN EUROPEAN DATES

June 1: Munster, Germany @ Skaters Palace

with DJ Premier, Rakim, Fashawn & The Beatnuts

June 2: Budapest, Hungary @ Durer Kert

June 3: Munich, Germany @ Muffathalle

with DJ Premier, Inspektah Deck, Rah Digga & Torae

June 4: Warsaw, Poland @ 1500m2

NEW MUSIC: PETE ROCK & SMIF N WESSUN "THAT'S HARD" FEAT. STYLES P & SEAN PRICE

Pete Rock + Smif N Wessun + Styles P + Sean Price = That's Hard!

(Click To Listen To "That's Hard")

New music from Pete Rock & Smif N Wessun's upcoming album Monumental

in stores June 28th on Duck Down Music.

The historic album, entirely produced by Pete Rock, features Raekwon, Bun B, Freeway, Buckshot, Sean Price, Styles P, Memphis Bleek, Jahdan,

Rock of Heltah Skeltah, Hurricane G, Black Rob & more.

(Click Here To Purchase "That's Hard" From iTunes!)

Em, Royce Announce 'Bad Meets Evil' EP Coming In June

xodus phoenix — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 08:04:43 GMT

Fans of Eminem and Royce da 5'9 will rejoice this June, when the pair will drop a brand new untitled, "Bad Meets Evil" collaboration EP on Em's Shady Records imprint. Bad Meets Evil was a originally a song featuring Royce on Em's hit 1999 album The Slim Shady EP. Eminem and Royce da 5'9 started working on collaboration EP after the success of The Slim Shady EP. The conceptual release starred Royce and "Bad" and Eminem as "Evil." Unfortunately, the project was never officially released. Around 2003, a falling out between Eminem, Royce and D12 put the project on hold. But the 2006 shooting death of D12 member Proof helped the pair mend their strained relationship and settle their old beef in 2008. Royce is now an artist in the group Slaughterhouse, which is also signed to the Shady label. Almost 10 years after they recorded the project together, the pair have reunited and resurrected the project, which will hit stores on June 14th. "Royce and I started hanging out again and inevitably that led us back into the studio," Eminem told AllHipHop.com in a statement. "At first we were just seeing where it went without any real goal in mind, but the songs started to come together crazy, so here we are."

For the full story or to comment log on: http://ahh.fm/fZfMwG

WARRIOR INSIGHTSR for March 2011

xodus phoenix — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:04:35 GMT

When you give up trying to control everything, it can free your mind and take a great weight off of your shoulders, giving you immeasurable gains.

The feeling of being out of control can lead to a litany of negativity:

Fear

Stress

Anger

Despair

Hopelessness

True warriors understand the need to take the steps they have to, however painful they may be, in order to let go of the feeling of wanting to orchestrate all aspects of all things, all of the time.

They are in control of their actions and understand that although they cannot control their surroundings, they can adapt to them.

Coming to grips with and stopping trying to control the behavior of another person allows you to stop setting yourself up to be frustrated.  Remember that you cannot control their behavior, but you can control your reaction TO their behavior.  Aim to be the bigger person; stay in command of yourself.  If not, you’ll likely suffer a great deal of conflict immediately and a great deal of regret later.

As it relates to Bo Fung Do, being a Master of the art means being a Master of oneself: a person who has achieved a “natural state” of not reacting emotionally, but rather being the levelheaded calm in the center of the chaos.

To control those things you can control, you must first recognize those things you can’t.

Although you can’t alter the course of a river while you’re standing knee deep in it, you can dig a channel downhill from it and build your own.  It’s a matter of thinking far enough ahead, looking past the tip of your nose and knowing when you need to be in the river – or out of it.

Phil Messina

Doesn't look good for myspace

xodus phoenix — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 05:07:46 GMT

News Corp puts MySpace on life support
Last curtain call

04 November, 2010 News

Rupert Murdoch has spelled it out for MySpace due to the site's less-than-stellar performance. If results don't improve, it's all over. Well, not Murdoch per se, but News Corp's COO, Carey Chase, has left a rather resounding message for MySpace management.

According to AFP, the COO slammed the Digital Media Group for poor financials as it turned out a $156 million operating loss this quarter. The official line is that MySpace is to blame for what happened, losing much-needed ad revenues and membership to the likes of Facebook.

MySpace has been unable to keep up with the growing popularity of Facebook and has even recently reinvented itself as a hub and soapbox for young musicians. This will keep MySpace alive for a while, albeit with the kill-switch firmly in the grasp of the executive hand.

"The current losses are not acceptable or sustainable" said Chase, "Our traffic numbers are not going in the right direction", which we can only understand as the 'opposite of up', which itself is in no way different from 'down'.

Current numbers have MySpace pegged for 100 million users, while Facebook has exceeded the 500 million mark and rising. So if things don't look up for MySpace, Murdoch's $580 million investment seems poised to be flushed down the drain together with the aspirations of millions of budding musicians... something almost worthy of a Live Aid itself.

MySpace's current predicament joins The Times of London's paywall in the big bag of not-so-good-moves from News Corp's Digital Media Group. Although they'll argue otherwise.

Read more: http://www.thinq.co.uk/2010/11/4/news-corp-puts-myspace-life-support/#ixzz1Exp0i4xD
Original Link:

http://www.thinq.co.uk/2010/11/4/news-corp-puts-myspace-life-support/

Reks Assembles A Dream Team Cast Of Platinum Producers for R.E.K.S. On 3-8-2011

xodus phoenix — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 23:07:22 GMT

REKS ASSEMBLES A DREAM TEAM CAST OF PLATINUM PRODUCERS INCLUDING DJ PREMIER, PETE ROCK, HI-TEK, SEAN C & LV, THE ALCHEMIST, NOTTZ, SHA MONEY XL, STATIK SELEKTAH & FIZZY WOMACK FOR FORTHCOMING LP

R.E.K.S. (RHYTHMATIC ETERNAL KING SUPREME) WILL BE RELEASED ON MARCH 8th, 2011 ON SHOWOFF/BRICK RECORDS

Before the Grey Hairs, REKS was just a teenager who fell in love with the Hip-Hop movement. Little did he know, one day he would experience working with and alongside some of those legendary hip-hop icons. Born Corey Isiah Christie in Lawrence, Massachusetts, August 24th, 1977, REKS practically grew up with Hip-Hop. He first embraced the culture by becoming a break-dancer with Funk Town Connection (FTC), competing all over the city of Lawrence, Massachusetts. The legendary Rap styles of KRS-One, Slick Rick, and Ice Cube inspired him to pick up the mic and he started writing rhymes at a very young age. Soon thereafter, REKS began gaining notoriety in his hometown through cipher battles and memorable stage performances. After high school, REKS enrolled at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. With a “Kanye West” drive and mentality, REKS decided to drop out of college after one year to pursue his dream and music career full-time.

REKS took the underground scene by storm with his debut LP, Along Came The Chosen (2001). The album featured production from his ex-classmates Soul Searchers, Fakts One, and a then 18-year old Statik Selektah. The album also featured collaborations with underground stalwarts including Pace-Won & Young Zee of the Outsidaz, 7L & Esoteric, J-Live EDO. G and MSC group members Lucky Dice and Chi Knox. The critically acclaimed LP was nominated for Best Hip-Hop Album & Artist of the Year at The Boston Music Awards and was featured in the Source, XXL, Vibe, and URB Magazine’s “Next 100”. The album’s single “Skills 101” reached #45 on the Billboard Singles chart, putting him on shows and tours with The Clipse, Ghostface Killah, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Redman, De La Soul, Method Man, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Boot Camp Click, JR Writer and one of his idols KRS-One.

After releasing several mixtapes in the interim, REKS finally released his highly anticipated sophomore LP, Grey Hairs, in 2008 and it saw him once again team up with his former DJ, longtime friend, Statik Selektah who served as the projects Executive Producer and the momentous album featured production from DJ Premier, Large Professor, DC The Midi Alien and ten-tracks from Statik and featured collaborations with Lil Fame of MOP, Consequence, Skyzoo, Termanology, Jon Hope and Big Shug. Grey Hairs firmly established REKS as one of the top rising Indy artists as it is considered an underground classic and it lead to REKS being profiled by XXL Magazine in their “Show & Prove” section. In early 2009, REKS released the companion piece More Grey Hairs, appeared on Statik Selektah’s Spell My Name Right: The Album and released two more mixtapes (In Between The Lines Series Vol’s 1 & 2 which were hosted by Statik Selektah/DJ Green Lantern and DJ Ill Will respectively) and both mixtapes garnered thousands of downloads and widespread praise.

REKS now sets out to take the next step in his progression with what promises to be an instant classic, with his third LP, R.E.K.S (Rhythmatic Eternal King Supreme), which is scheduled to be released on March 8^th, 2011 on Showoff/Brick Records.

The LP lists such notable legends as DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Hi Tek, Alchemist, Nottz, Sha Money XL, Sean C & LV, Fizzy Womack and the ever present Statik Selektah contributing production; and newcomers Blaze P and Mike Frey join in for this classic as well. Throw in highlight tracks with Styles P, Freeway, Termanology, Lil Fame, Atticabarz and DJ Corbet and you have the recipe for another instant classic!

REKS has already set things in motion for R.E.K.S. with the recent leak of a radio-rip of the LP’s buzz-single, “25^th Hour,” (produced by DJ Premier) which has found its way to every corner of the Internet.

The Year of the Showoff continues…..

Tracklisting and credits for REKS “Rhythmatic Eternal King Supreme”:

“25th Hour” (produced by DJ Premier)
“Thin Line” (produced by Pete Rock)
“Limelight” (produced by Nottz)
“Kill Em” (produced by Sean C & LV)
“This Or That” (produced by Statik Selektah)
“Why Cry” f/ Styles P (produced by The Alchemist)
“Face Off” f/ Termanology (produced by Sha Money XL)
“The Wonder Years” (produced by Hi Tek)
“This Is Me” f/ DJ Corbet (produced by Mike Frey)
“Mr. Nobody” (produced by Statik Selektah)
“The Underdog” (produced by Blaze P)
“U Know” f/ Freeway (produced by Hi Tek)
“Cigarettes” f/ Lil Fame of M.O.P. & Atticabarz (produced by Fizzy Womack)
“Mascara” (The Ugly Truth) (produced by Statik Selektah)
“Like A Star” (produced by Statik Selektah)
“Self Titled (produced by Statik Selektah) –bonus track

Talib Kweli "Gutter Rainbows" Album In Stores Today!

xodus phoenix — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 23:06:11 GMT

Talib Kweli "Gutter Rainbows" In Stores Today!

Click Here to purchase Talib Kweli's "Gutter Rainbows" at iTunes!

"Gutter Rainbows" is digital-only in North America & available in all formats in the rest of the world. Fans in North America who support their local, independent, 'Mom & Pop,' record stores can find the CD there as well.

New Era New York x Talib Kweli In-Store Tonight (7PM - 9PM)

Meet Talib Kweli in person at the New Era Flagship store in NYC tonight from 7PM to 9PM & receive an autographed copy of an 11" x 17" "Gutter Rainbows" Album Poster. Physical copies of the album will be available for purchase during the event

Click Here for more info

Talib Kweli "Cold Rain" Music Video Premiere on MTV2, MTV Jams, & MTV U

Click Here to watch Talib Kweli's 'Cold Rain' Music Video at MTV.com

Buckshot's "The Common Knowledgy Of The Entertainment Industry" Book/Audio CD In Stores Today!

xodus phoenix — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 23:05:09 GMT

Duck Down Music Newsletter

January 2011

Buckshot's The Common Knowledgy Of The Entertainment Industry Book/Audio CD
In Stores Today!

A Beautiful 80 Page, Hardcover Book That Is The Same Size As A Standard CD Digipak. The Inside, Back Cover Includes A CD Insert With Original Audio From Buckshot

The book is now available in the audio section (Under 'B') at Best Buy, FYE, Borders & other independent record stores. In addition to the hard-cover book, The e-book version (with full color photos) is now available at iTunes & Amazon Kindle , As well as

Sony Reader, & Nook (Barnes & Noble).

About The Book:

2010 marked the 15-year anniversary of Duck Down Music. Buckshot has taken his 15-year experience and has crafted a hard-cover book entitled The Common Knowledgy Of The Entertainment Industry. The book is comprised of three stages. Buckshot first educates readers on the 'Basics' of the entertainment industry providing his definitions for terms associated within the business. Buckshot then transitions to the 'Framework,' or inner-workings of a music label and answers commonly posed questions that he receives from fans & interviewers. In the final stage, Buckshot unveils 'How It All Works,' and illustrates the process of putting the knowledge to use & executing proposed goals.

Accompanying the book is a 16-track CD album. The album features original Buckshot music based on the concepts from within the chapters.

1) What Is Entertainment?

2) What is Street Team?

3) What is a Producer?

4) What is an Executive?

5) What is Radio?

6) What is a Retail Rep?

7) How Do I Make A Record?

8) What is a Road Manager?

9) How Do Record Label's Function?

10) How Do I Become An Artist?

11) How Do I Get My Record To A DJ?

12) What is a CEO?

13) How Do I Get My Beats To MCs?

14) How Do I Sell At Digital Retail?

15) What Is A Marketing Campaign?

16) Outro

About The Author:

Buckshot is the co-owner of Duck Down Music & lead MC for Black Moon & Boot Camp Clik. He, along with his business partner, Dru Ha, started Duck Down Music in 1995 and has executive-producer credit on the over 3 million records that the label has sold. Buckshot has worked with high-profile names in the industry such as: Mary J Blige, the late, great, Tupac Shakur & Aaliyah, Busta Rhymes, Q-Tip,Spike Lee, KRS-ONE, Talib Kweli & more.

Buckshot has created original music for ESPN, HBO, The History Channel, Sony Pictures, Belvedere, Smirnoff, 2K Sports, Activision & Pizza Hut. He has remained active as a recording artists throughout the years with his work alongside grammy-award winning producer, 9th Wonder, and his recent group project with KRS-ONE entitled, 'Survival Skills.'

Buckshot is an entrepreneur across multiple platforms & is sharing his 15 year knowledge with his A-Z guidebook of the entertainment industry.

Buckshot has recorded a series of educational interviews with people who play the role's of various positions that he highlights within the book.

For more information on the book visit: http://www.duckdown.com/commonknowledgy/

Buckshot Talks Online Promo with Hof from OnSmash.com

(Click To Watch)

Buckshot talks online promo with Hof, the Owner / Creator of OnSmash.com

Buckshot Talks With Rob Stone About Being A C.E.O.

(Click To Watch)

Buckshot discusses the basics of being a CEO with Rob Stone, the co-founder & CEO of Cornerstone Promotions & Fader Magazine.

FEATURED PRESS:

Kidz in the Hall's "Take Over The World"
will be featured in VH1's "What Chilli Wants"
on Sunday, Jan. 30th @ 9:30PM EST

DUCK DOWN LINKS:

Breaking News: DMX Sentenced To One Year In Prison

xodus phoenix — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 16:03:57 GMT

Hip-Hop star DMX will end 2010 with a year-long prison term, as the rapper's probation was officially revoked in Arizona today (December 16th). The Maricopa County Superior Court revoked the rap star's probation from 2009, stemming from a conviction on fraud charges, identity theft, assault and a variety of other misdemeanor charges. DMX, born Earl Simmons, will be sent back to prison for a full year, after he was arrested on November 18th by officers who arrested the rapper for failing to check in with probation officers and abusing prescription drugs without a prescription. The rapper DMX tested positive for cocaine and oxycontin and admitted to using drinking alcohol, another violating of the terms of his probation. DMX will spend his time in Sheriff Joe Arpaio's infamous Tent City jail, where inmates are forced to wear pink, stripped jail suits. His dislike for the jail is well documented. In February of 2009, the rapper lost his cool in the prison and threw a tray of food at a prison guard, resulting in an added assault charge against the officer. "They talk to you any kind of way," DMX said of his At the end of the day, I am still a man," DMX said.

For the full story or to comment log on: http://www.allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2010/12/16/22529085.aspx

To All Obama Nay-Sayers

xodus phoenix — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 04:30:23 GMT

Frank Schaeffer is a New York Times best selling author.

Obama Will Triumph -- So Will America
By Frank Schaeffer

Before he'd served even one year President Obama lost the support
of the easily distracted left and engendered the white hot rage of
the hate-filled right. But some of us, from all walks of life and
ideological backgrounds -- including this white, straight, 57-year-
old, former religious right wing agitator, now progressive writer
and (given my background as the son of a famous evangelical leader)
this unlikely Obama supporter -- are sticking with our President.
Why?-- because he is succeeding.

We faithful Obama supporters still trust our initial impression of
him as a great, good and uniquely qualified man to lead us.

Obama's steady supporters will be proved right. Obama's critics
will be remembered as easily panicked and prematurely discouraged
at best and shriveled hate mongers at worst.

The Context of the Obama Presidency

Not since the days of the rise of fascism in Europe , the Second
World War and the Depression has any president faced more
adversity. Not since the Civil War has any president led a more
bitterly divided country. Not since the introduction of racial
integration has any president faced a more consistently short-
sighted and willfully ignorant opposition - from both the right
and left.

As the President's poll numbers have fallen so has his support from
some on the left that were hailing him as a Messiah not long ago;
all those lefty websites and commentators that were falling all
over themselves on behalf of our first black president during the
2008 election.

The left's lack of faith has become a self-fulfilling "prophecy"--
snipe at the President and then watch the poll numbers fall and
then pretend you didn't have anything to do with it!

Here is what Obama faced when he took office-- none of which was
his fault:

# An ideologically divided country to the point that America was
really two countries

# Two wars; one that was mishandled from the start, the other that
was unnecessary and immoral

# The worst economic crisis since the depression

# America 's standing in the world at the lowest point in history

# A country that had been misled into accepting the use of torture
of prisoners of war

# A health care system in free fall

# An educational system in free fall

# A global environmental crisis of history-altering proportions
(about which the Bush administration and the Republicans had done
nothing)

# An impasse between culture warriors from the right and left

# A huge financial deficit inherited from the terminally
irresponsible Bush administration.

And those were only some of the problems sitting on the
President's desk!

"Help" from the Right?

What did the Republicans and the religious right, libertarians and
half-baked conspiracy theorists -- that is what the Republicans
were reduced to by the time Obama took office -- do to "help" our
new president (and our country) succeed? They claimed that he
wasn't a real American, didn't have an American birth certificate,
wasn't born here, was secretly a Muslim, was white-hating "racist",
was secretly a communist, was actually the Anti-Christ, (!) and was
a reincarnation of Hitler and wanted "death panels" to kill the
elderly!

They not-so-subtly called for his assassination through the not-so-
subtle use of vile signs held at their rallies and even a bumper
sticker quoting Psalm 109:8. They organized "tea parties" to sound
off against imagined insults and all government in general and
gathered to howl at the moon. They were led by insurance industry
lobbyists and deranged (but well financed) "commentators" from
Glenn Beck to Rush Limbaugh.

The utterly discredited Roman Catholic bishops teamed up with the
utterly discredited evangelical leaders to denounce a president who
was trying to actually do something about the poor, the
environment, to diminish the number of abortions through
compassionate programs to help women and to care for the sick! And
in Congress the Republican leadership only knew one word: "No!"

In other words the reactionary white, rube, uneducated, crazy
American far right,combined with the educated but obtuse
neoconservative war mongers, religious right shills for big
business, libertarian Fed Reserve-hating gold bug, gun-loving
crazies, child-molesting acquiescent "bishops", frontier loons and
evangelical gay-hating flakes found one thing to briefly unite
them: their desire to stop an uppity black man from succeeding at
all costs!

"Help" from the Left?

What did the left do to help their newly elected president? Some of
them excoriated the President because they disagreed with the bad
choices he was being forced to make regarding a war in Afghanistan
that he'd inherited from the worst president in modern history!

Others stood up and bravely proclaimed that the President's
economic policies had "failed" before the President even instituted
them! Others said that since all gay rights battles had not been
fully won within virtually minutes of the President taking office,
they'd been "betrayed"! (Never mind that Obama's vocal support to
the gay community is stronger than any other president's has been.
Never mind that he signed a new hate crimes law!)

Those that had stood in transfixed legions weeping with beatific
emotion on election night turned into an angry mob saying how
"disappointed" they were that they'd not all immediately been
translated to heaven the moment Obama stepped into the White House!
Where was the "change"? Contrary to their expectations they were
still mere mortals!

And the legion of young new supporters was too busy texting to pay
attention for longer than a nanosecond. "Governing"?! What the hell
does that word, uh, like mean?"

The President's critics left and right all had one thing in common:
impatience laced with little-to-no sense of history (let alone
reality) thrown in for good measure. Then of course there were the
white, snide know-it-all commentators/talking heads who just
couldn't imagine that maybe, just maybe they weren't as smart as
they thought they were and certainly not as smart as their
president. He hadn't consulted them, had he? So he must be wrong!

The Obama critics' ideological ideas defined their idea of reality
rather than reality defining their ideas-say, about what is
possible in one year in office after the hand that the President
had been dealt by fate, or to be exact by the American idiot nation
that voted Bush into office. twice!

Meanwhile back in the reality-based community - in just 12 short
months -- President Obama:

#Continued to draw down the misbegotten war in Iraq
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Thoughtfully and decisively picked the best of several bad choices
regarding the war in Afghanistan
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Gave a major precedent-setting speech supporting gay rights
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Restored America 's image around the globe
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Banned torture of American prisoners
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Stopped the free fall of the American economy
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Put the USA squarely back in the bilateral international community
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Put the USA squarely into the middle of the international effort
to halt global warming
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Stood up for educational reform
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Won a Nobel peace prize
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Moved the trial of terrorists back into the American judicial
system of checks and balances
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Did what had to be done to start the slow, torturous and almost
impossible process of health care reform that 7 presidents had
failed to even begin
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Responded to hatred from the right and left with measured good
humor and patience
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Stopped the free fall of job losses
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Showed immense personal courage in the face of an armed and
dangerous far right opposition that included the sort of disgusting
people that show up at public meetings carrying loaded weapons and
carrying Timothy McVeigh-inspired signs about the "blood of
tyrants" needing to "water the tree of liberty".
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Showed that he could not only make the tough military choices but
explain and defend them brilliantly
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

Other than those "disappointing" accomplishments -- IN ONE YEAR --
President Obama "failed"! Other than that he didn't "live up to
expectations"!

Who actually has failed...

...are the Americans that can't see the beginning of a miracle of
national rebirth right under their jaded noses. Who failed are the
smart *** ideologues of the left and right who began rooting for
this President to fail so that they could be proved right in their
dire and morbid predictions. Who failed are the movers and shakers
behind our obscenely dumb news cycles that have turned "news" into
just more stupid entertainment for an entertainment-besotted
infantile country.

Here's the good news: President Obama is succeeding without the
help of his lefty "supporters" or hate-filled Republican detractors!

The Future Looks Good

After Obama has served two full terms, (and he will), after his
wisdom in moving deliberately and cautiously with great subtlety on
all fronts -- with a canny and calculating eye to the possible
succeeds, (it will), after the economy is booming and new industries
are burgeoning, (they will be), after the doomsayers are all proved
not just wrong but silly: let the record show that not all
Americans were panicked into thinking the sky was falling.

Just because we didn't get everything we wanted in the first short
and fraught year Obama was in office not all of us gave up. Some of
us stayed the course. And we will be proved right.

Breaking News: Wyclef Jean To Run For President Of Haiti

xodus phoenix — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 13:38:16 GMT

Hip-Hop star Wyclef Jean will announce his bid for the President of Haiti, a source has confirmed with AllHipHop.com exclusively. Sources close to Wyclef confirmed with AllHipHop.com that the rapper will announce his bid for the country’s highest office next Thursday, on August 5th. The 37-year-old was born in Haiti, but immigrated to the United States at the age of 9-years-old, when he landed in Brooklyn, before settling in South Orange, New Jersey. As a member of The Fugees and as a solo artist, Wyclef has sold millions of records, in addition to collaborating with artists like Paul Simon, Gloria Estefen, Destiny’s Child, Carlos Santana and others. According to sources, the rapper will make his official announcement just two days prior to the country’s August 7th deadline to submit his plan for running for President. Analysts are predicting that Wyclef Jean will easily win the race with his financial connections, influence among the Haitian youth and his political connections around the world.

For the full story or to comment log on: http://www.allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2010/07/30/22315089.aspx

KRS-One’s New EP to Go After ‘Disrespectful Emcees’

xodus phoenix — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:52:54 GMT

Bronx Hip-Hop legend KRS-One has finished a new EP focused on calling out rappers that have questioned or challenged him over the last several years. Named Back to the L.A.B. (Lyrical *** Beating), the EP features 6 tracks and as of press time no confirmed guest appearances. KRS launched his career in 1987 on the strength of the now legendary Bridge Wars, a lyrical battle his BDP (Boogie Down Productions) camp initiated against Queensbridge pioneers Marley Marl and MC Shan, and their affiliates in the Juice Crew. In addition to the new EP, KRS-One plans to re-release his albums such as Criminal Minded, Spiritual Minded, and Hip-Hop Lives. Back to the L.A.B. has production from DJ JS-1 and the Beatminerz. A release date has not been announced, nor has KRS or his representatives confirmed which emcees may be addressed on the EP. For additional information, visit www.krsoneinc.com.

For the full story and to hear KRS-One‘s new track “Who Da Best” log on: http://www.allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2010/05/06/22204329.aspx

Plies Launches Goon Affiliated Giveaway; Gears Up for New Album Release

xodus phoenix — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 07:09:07 GMT

New music won’t be the only thing in store for fans of Plies. The rapper will launch a new contest to coincide with the release of his forthcoming album Goon Affiliated. The Goon Affiliated 25 Giveaway will kick off Saturday May 1 and run through May 25. Various prizes will be awarded to winners each day, including a brand new car, four-year scholarship, mortgage payments, healthcare insurance, shopping sprees and Apple iPads. The name of each winner and their state of residence will be posted on various websites on the Internet as well as an audio/video link that will be available at 3 p.m. (EST) each day on the Goon Affiliated 25 Day giveaway calendar. According to the rapper, the giveaway is a way to expand efforts to give back to fans and the community at large. “My music is very much reflective of the plight and ills of our community and real talk, there are people out there struggling to make ends meet in this economy,” said Plies, who co-founded the Big Gates & Plies Power of Visions foundation with his brother, Big Gates.

For the full story or to comment log on: http://www.allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2010/04/28/22190797.aspx

Hip-Hop Is Dying

P.R.O. — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:19:55 GMT

The life you save may be your own!

Part I: “Hip-Hop Is Dying”

Dear Hip-Hop Generation:

This is a call to my fellow hip-hop artists, community, and generation at large: WAKE UP!!! HIP-HOP IS DYING!!!! IT IS A STATE OF EMERGENCY AND WE ARE IN AN URGENT HEALTH CRISIS! HIP-HOP ARTISTS ARE DYING, OUR FAMILIES ARE DYING, AND THE HIP-HOP GENERATION IS THE FIRST GENERATION THAT MAY NOT OUT LIVE THEIR PARENTS!!!

As we mourn the passing of hip-hop icon Guru, I challenge all of his peers and fans to not let his death be in vain. There is no reason that Guru and so many others under 45 should be passing away at the rates they are. Every MC, B-Boy, DJ, Graf Artist, sista in the club, college student, brutha on the corner, G, and hustler is personally suffering from or knows someone battling cancer, arthritis, diabetes, asthma, hypertension, obesity, or one of many other illnesses, most of which are caused or worsened by the foods eat.

Don’t think for one minute your aunties, big mamas, and parents are the only ones battling these sicknesses. The entire African-American and Latino communities lead in all the statistics for all of these crippling diseases and people under 40 are being hit at younger and younger ages. According to the Office of Minority health, about one in four African-American women are overweight or obese and nearly 20% of African-American children ages 6-17 are termed obese. This is means that 20% of our children are at high risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, and a slew of other obesity associated diseases.

It is the fast food and over-processed pre-packaged US food culture that has driven us to this place and if we do not act soon we may not be able to turn back. You still think this does not apply to you or perhaps you just need some extra reinforcement. Read the list below of mainstream celebrities who have battled major life threatening health conditions:

MC Breed- Dead at 37- Kidney Failure

J. Dilla- Dead at 32- Cardiac Arrest

Big Pun- Dead at 28- Heart Attack

Nate Dogg- 40- 2 Strokes at 38- Partially Paralyzed

Alonzo Mourning- 40- Kidney Disease: Kidney Transplant at age 33

Missy Elliot-38 High Blood Pressure- Takes Pills Daily

Ghostface killa- 39 Diagnosed at 26 with Type 1 Diabetes

Lil Boosie - diagnosed at age 20 with Diabetes- Takes insulin 3 times a day

Phife Dawg- 39- Type 1 Diabetes and Has Had a Kidney Transplant

Angie Stone- 48-Type 2 Diabetes and High Blood Pressure

Halle Berry- 43- Type 1 Diabetes

This is only a short list of famous people who have disclosed their health status to the public and it clearly shows you don’t have to be old, poor, overweight, or living in the hood to be sick. Beyond being a hip-hop artist, I am a second-generation holistic health advocate. I have traveled on the road with Erykah Badu as her wellness consultant and over the years I have encountered countless celebrities dealing with minor and major ailments. On the personal front I am sick and tired of losing young people and reading outlandish statistics. At this point NOBODY IS EXEMPT. Everyone is vulnerable to these diseases and unless we make some immediate major changes to incorporate healthier eating habits and lifestyle practices we may not live to see 50.

If you are living on the American diet YOU TOO ARE A WALKING TICKING TIME BOMB ready to explode at any moment for the build up of fast food, fried foods, candy, sodas, sugar drinks, chemical additives and I am talking to you in this letter. Most people know McDonalds, Popeyes, Wendy’s, Snickers, Twix, etc. are bad for them but they continue to eat them every single day so I ask everyone at what point are we going to wake up!!!

People’s number one excuse is eating healthy cost too much but yet most of these are the same people that spend hundreds of dollars on Jordans, Coach, Prada, car rims and other material indulgences. When we tell these same people who may buy two or three bottles in the club to go buy a juicer they say it is too expensive or laugh it off. Our priorities are horribly messed up when it comes to spending money and taking care of ourselves. People care more about what they look like from the outside then they do about how their bodies feel on the inside. They are more concerned with being able to participate in the Pass the Courvoisier Blame it on the Alcohol lifestyle than learning to do away with the same sicknesses that force them to take medication daily. They would rather invest in overly expensive shoes than work to prevent diabetes that could one day lead to amputations and no options to wear shoes.

I recently wrote a book called The Remedy: The Five-Week Power Plan to Detox Your System, Combat the Fat, and Rebuild Your Mind and Body. It is the first comprehensive wellness book written with the hip-hop generation in mind and features testimonies by Melyssa Ford, Hype Williams, Tyson Beckford, Erykah Badu, Chuck D., and Jim Jones sharing simple things they do to maintain healthy active lives. I provide the step-by-step plan to remedy your body and work to prevent future sickness thru diet, exercise, and positive thinking. In this Hip-Hop’s State of Emergency series I will share some of these easy to incorporate tips and tools that can change your entire life with small things like drinking water and eating green vegetables. For all of you who think it costs too much money I will provide inexpensive meal plans and easy to make home remedies.

Big Pun passed we didn’t take heed. Nate Dogg had two strokes and not much was said. When we lost J. Dilla finally people started to show some concern and when Phife Dawg exposed his battle with diabetes, people began to realize there is an issue but still no one has effectively challenged our generation on a widespread scale to reclaim our wellness at every level. Today I challenge every one of you to stand up and take charge of your own health.

We have just lost Guru and the entire hip-hop community is in mourning. Let’s take the opportunity to seize the time before we find ourselves back here again with the next artist or family member dying too early and too soon. In the midst of street beefs, egotism, misogyny, disunity, and materialism I call for unity amongst us all on the issue of survival and health. It’s about time we get sick and tired of being sick and tired and DO SOMETHING. In the memory of Guru let’s all get GANGSTARR for our health and wellness.

If you have any questions I invite you to email me at supanovaslominfo@gmail.com. I am here to help you along your journey to saving our lives and becoming wellness warriors. The time is now!

Salute!

Supa Nova Slom

The Hip-Hop Medicine Man

Guru, RIP: Our four favorite songs

xodus phoenix — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:42:41 GMT

http://music-mix.ew.com/2010/04/20/guru-favorite-songs/

Guru, RIP: Our four favorite songs

by Brad Wete

Categories: Hip-Hop/Rap, In Memoriam, Music Videos, R.I.P.

Like he said on his 1994 classic “Mass Appeal,” Guru was “wild with my monotone style.” The lyricist rapped as if it were just you and him in a room talking. There was no need to yell. And with wise, impactful words in each rhyme, he always made you listen.

Guru died yesterday. In honor of one of hip-hop’s true legends passing, here are four of our favorite Guru and Gang Starr jams. Open up your ears and take a listen.

“Mass Appeal” from Gang Starr’s 1994 album, Hard to Earn

“Moment Of Truth” from Gang Starr’s 1998 album, Moment of Truth

“Down The Backstreets” from Guru’s 1993 solo album, Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1

“Ex Girl To Next Girl” from Gang Starr’s 1992 album, Daily Operation

Gangstarr's Guru Undergoes Surgery Following Heart Attack, In Stable Condition

xodus phoenix — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:12:58 GMT

Gangstarr's Guru Undergoes Surgery Following Heart Attack, In Stable Condition

Published 03/02/2010, by Allen Starbury

As we reported Monday (March 1), legendary rapper Guru had suffered a heart attack over the weekend, leaving him in a coma.

Here's an update...

The Brooklyn rapper underwent surgery Monday afternoon, His Gangstarr partner-in-crime, DJ Premier, revealed that the surgery was a success, and Guru is currently in stable condition.

"Good news," Premier wrote on his Twitter page (@DJPremierBlog). "Guru surgery was successful, keep sending him love."

The DJ also added, hours later, that Guru remains in a coma.

"Guru still in a med induced coma, he's breathing with machine help," he wrote.

After the news broke Sunday evening. Guru's business partner and collaborator, Solar, issued a statement asking for fans' prayers.

"Guru is struggling with a serious health issue. We, the whole 7 Grand Records family, appreciate all your love and well wishes. We continue to hold out hope that Guru will make a full recovery from this," he said. "We ask that his privacy on this matter will be respected. Again, thank you for all your support through this trying time."

Stay tuned for further updates...

Excerpt: 'The Denzel Principle'

xodus phoenix — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:15:55 GMT

Excerpt: 'The Denzel Principle'

By Jimi Izrael

St. Martin's Press

Web Resources

'The Denzel Principle': The Mixtape

In post civil rights America, seems like everyone wanted black men to be Martin Luther King Jr. Not the womanizing, chain-smoking party boy he was in real life, but the non-violent, well-spoken vessel for change. The messianic Martin is a legacy far too luminous to contend with. He is worshipped by whites and blacks alike like the second coming of Jesus himself. Blacks and whites alike quote his speeches and cast him as a superhero, never acknowledging the inherent unfairness of casting a dead man as a viable role model, and his "dream" as an attainable goal, only to fortify the folk tale by commercializing it. Young black men for years (and still some do today) grew up with pictures of Jesus and Martin the living room on the mantel. The message being Dad is obviously too human to be a role model, son. So strive to live up to the impossible. Again, White America cosigns a wounded leader. Later, they would anoint two others with the mantel of leadership

The Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were once affective agents for change, but today are toothless, as they exist on the brink of self-parody. Media rain-makers, yes, sometimes they are on-message, but more often than not they subsist mainly by shaking loot from the white guilt tree at prescribed intervals. Jesse can't fight the power without some kind of bad rhetorical rap. And ever since Al's talk show antics with show host Wally George and fellow niggerati Roy Innis, cameras follows them both everywhere, eager catch their antics.

What the ideologues and the athletes have in common is the way they were created, nurtured and summarily undone by the white mainstream. They were media-created apparitions set in place to serve as examples or object lessons: stay in line, or we will destroy you too. The only viable leadership for black America — necessarily cosigned by white America — is dead leadership. Celebrity athletes can be made and unmade, and this is the kind of paradigmatic black man the mainstream prefers: one who can be built and destroyed in short order, his message and appeal easily controlled.

The paradoxically effeminate man rose up in the disco era as the new paradigm of manhood. The women's movement rejected the tough guy war hero/cowboy of the 50s and 60s in favor of men that embraced their feminine side ... aggressively. The Stonewall Riots and the gay rights movement it started also made androgyny commonplace, acceptable and in some circles, preferred. White men began to wear bouffant hairdos and in the black community the conk-the smoothed-bank straightening that became fashionable for men in the early days of the rhythm and blues era-came back with flamboyant suits, hip-huggers and platform shoes. John Shaft's black and proud Afro was rejected in favor of Young Blood Priest's flowing locks and manicured beard. So grown men sat in beauty shops everywhere with their hair in curlers getting their beards shaped up. Billy Dee Williams was the vanguard of the new black "it" man: super cool, not too dark, not too light, with a No-Lye Relaxer in his hair, he was just tough enough to open a can of Colt 45, but too soft to be taken seriously. And it wasn't: later, this image would become the sight-joke to many skits. He was probably a pretty down-*** dude, but Williams appeared on film to be the kind of guy who got sexed up in the discoteque but beat up in the street for switching like a girl. He was the chocolate John Travolta, minus the machismo. While the bald Telly Savalis, lollipop in hand (WTF?) asked a generation women "who loves ya, baby?" Billie Dee got over with an entire generation of black women who refused to date any man who could not be mistaken for a woman.

This continued on into the 80s, when men that looked like women got truckloads of pussy. Women wanted slight, effeminate men with long dripping curls and perms. Androgyny became a coveted quality in a man. I guess this explains how Jesse "Side Action" Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton, with their Jherri curls and permed-out hair could ever be taken seriously in the black community. Brothers like El Debarge, Michael Jackson, Prince and Rick James were everything everyman should be back in the day. All those men, coincidently, looked and acted like women in some way. Theyu were slightly build with a coy, feminine affect. Even Full Force, a talented group of weightlifting singer/producers who wore a lot of lip gloss, mascara eyeliner and baby-hair looked like a gang of jailhouse gorilla queers. Take a look back at rappers like Ice T, Dr. Dre and GrandMaster Flash and the Furious Five and it's clear these brothers weren't shopping in the men's department. But that's what ladies were looking for. No surprise, then, that Michael Jackson would be the megastar of this era: a racially ambiguous, sexually ambiguous singing and dancing black man sounds like an marketing executive's wet dream. I even fell into that bag in junior high-school.

When I got to school, I borrowed eye-liner and (brown) lipstick from my girlfriend, trying to be sexy, and it worked. I got a few hand-jobs between classes and even got invited to group-sex parties after school. Thank God Run DMC, came along. Before them, a lot of hip-hoppers — including myself — were sizing themselves up for lace gloves and elf boots. T'was the only way you could get any pussy. Small wonder that today's hip-hop is soaked in testosterone and prone, half-naked women. It's a natural attempt to balance to Black women's need to emasculate Black men. Because they don't really know what masculinity looks like, they've been writing their own playbook. Hip-hop culture came along, unapologetically macho, and alienated the mainstream until corporate America refined the narrative down to a message — sex, drugs and violence — that could be easily consumed and disposed of.

In the era of Eddie Murphy rose a black man who could be taken seriously. Undeniably, he owned the 80s, but with his leather pants, donkey-toothed smile and laugh to match, Murphy was that goofy black guy who loves to make you laugh and you love to call your friend, but not the one you'd invite to dinner. Denzel Washington stepped up and made his mark in the eighties. The Dizzle picked up where Sidney Poitier left off, adding sexuality to the mix in a passive-aggressive, non-threatening way. Murphy was funny, but too horny and pseudo-political to rise as a role model. Michael Jackson and Prince were too close being women. Denzel was hard on the outside, but soft in the middle: he chose roles with depth. With an easy smile and a slight over-bite, Denzel distinguished himself from the cast of TV's St. Elsewhere as the prototype of the American dream: an assimilated black man — a doctor! — devoid of anger or resentment, fully invested in the system and free of any radical politics or overt sexuality that might get him arrested.

Denzel chose roles early in his career that gave him wide appeal. In a career spent playing iconic characters (Malcolm X, Cry Freedom) flawed, talented men with the best of intentions (Mo' Better Blues, The Hurricane), streetwise detective (The Mighty Quinn, Devil in a Blue Dress) lovesick dreamers (Missisipi Masala) and ordinary men in extraordinary circumstances (Ricochet, Inside Man), he never passes up a chance to play a hero. Onscreen, he's always delivering someone from great peril (Man On Fire), or experiencing a spiritual transformation that uplifts his soul... just before he gets killed (Glory). An exceptional actor, the Best Actor Oscar alluded him for many years. After years of being nominated, Dizzle finally won for playing a character familiar and comfortable to the mainstream audience: Alonzo Harris. It's not hard to surmise why he didn't get an Academy Award until he played a villain. Up to this point, I think we assumed he was cast to type. In the mind of the movie-going public, Denzel is a hero. Sure, he says in interviews that he doesn't like being seen as a role model or the face of the race. But his humility and resistant ascent is part of what has lifted him there. Every rumor of infidelity is met with unequivocal denial as he underlines his undying love for his wife for life, Pauletta. He has managed to dodge scandal and become a success on his own terms.

He says in interviews that he doesn't choose bigger-than-life characters, that he is just attracted to good scripts. Maybe it's coincidence that he gets such damn good scripts. It bodes well for The Dizzle that in a world when black male stars have to don a dress to find movie block-buster success (Martin Lawrence, Eddie Murphy and Wesley Snipes come to mind), Denzel has never been punked by a role: he's never played a chump. Or a villain. So playing the corrupt cop in Training Day, seemed like his most dramatic stretch to date. Small wonder he won an Oscar. He's the only Black actor with two Oscars on his dresser (he won Supporting Actor honors for his turn as escaped slavebuck-turned-patriot in the civil war drama Glory) and there is a lot of Oscar talk about his turn as Frank Lucas, Harlem drug-dealer and anti-hero, in American Gangster. Honestly, if The Dizzle did a Nationwide Insurance commercial ("Are YOU in good hands... Baby?") there would be Oscar talk. But a nomination and win wouldn't surprise me.

What's most interesting about his movies is that all that prevents Denzel's films into steeping into the realm of blaxploitation is so often just his dignity coupled with the latent politics. Think about it: Carbon Copy not withstanding (we all make mistakes), without the Dizzle, Virtuosity, Ricochet and Training Day would have been impossibly campy. Mainstream audiences prefer to see the badass nigger narrative as opposed to a layered portrayal that requires them to question their presumptions about black men. But Denzel brings his smile, his forthrightness and that innate Dizzle quality that makes the ladies swoon and the men cheer him on. He's black, in the best possible way.

The other piece of Denzel's appeal — in the black community, for sure — is this tacit loyalty to black women. The film where he came closest to this line Missisipi Masala was a sleeper art-house film that flew underneath the radar of most of his fans. This film that traced the interracial cultural mash-up of a newly divorced black carpet cleaner and the daughter of an Indian hotel owner wasn't well received. Spike Lee's He Got Game, where Denzel is paired in a love scene with Milla Jovovich, also under-performed at the box office. Like that turd of a film The Mighty Quinn, most of his fans have not seen it. White women respect his racial solidarity, and black women have come to expect it. This is the brand of true blue blackness they want in their men.

Even while rejecting it wholesale, he maintains the veneer of being the whole package, and black women claim him, and demand that their men rise to that standard, much to their dismay. This would all be bad enough, but as it turns out Denzel Washington is the perfect specimen of man. Seriously.

According to a Newsweek article, beauty is a biological trait attributable to the way your nose, eyes and mouth lays on your face. Something deep in our sub-conscious is inexplicably drawn in. That's why some people are found so profoundly attractive. As it happens, Denzel's face is faultless and symmetrical, and therefore almost universally beautiful. It's not bad enough that black women want black men to be perfect, but they want us to aspire to be like someone who is genetically predisposed to exude perfection. How can you compete with the Dizzle? Shit, what happened to the 80s, when it was easy just to get a Jheri curl to get some pussy? Now, you have to be The Dizzle to get any holla. I know, I know, man: you probably think you do ok, pussy-wise. You're wrong.

Black Writers: Where Is The Love, Communication?

xodus phoenix — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:15:24 GMT

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123645447

Enlarge iStockphoto.com

iStockphoto.com

text sizeA A A

February 12, 2010

Valentine's Day is one of the most anticipated and dreaded days of the year, depending on whom you ask.

For some, it's a day to look forward to — with a special card, a romantic dinner. For others, it's just another reminder of what is missing in their lives.

But the day might be especially poignant for African Americans, who have some of the lowest marriage rates in the U.S. According to a 2006-08 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, 30 percent of African Americans report being married, compared with 47 percent of Latinos and 53 percent of whites.

Additionally, a 2009 Yale study indicates that highly educated black women are twice as likely to have never been married by the age of 45 as white women with similar education, and that, while black men are more likely to marry outside of their race, black women are more likely to marry outside of their education.

NPR host Michel Martin recently spoke with three African-American writers, all of whom have written books about black love and loss — regular Tell Me More contributor and freelance writer Jimi Izrael, author of the The Denzel Principle: Why Black Women Can't Find Good Black Men; Hill Harper, actor on the CBS drama CSI: New York and author of the book The Conversation; and journalist Helena Andrews, author of the soon-to-be published Bitch Is The New Black.

Harper says his motivation for writing the book stemmed from something he noticed among his friends: a mere lack of communication between black men and black women.

"The sisters were saying, 'There are no good brothers out there,' " recalls Harper, who is single. "And the brothers were saying, 'I can't find that one sister that I want to commit to.' "

Izrael, who is twice divorced, agrees. He says the communication troubles in his first marriage are an example of the disconnect.

"As it turns out, not only were we not on the same page, we weren't in the same library," he says of his ex-wife. "We weren't reading the same book. We weren't in the same league."

Izrael: No such thing as 'Denzel'

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Actor Denzel Washington, 55, has been married to wife Pauletta for nearly 30 years. For decades, he has been celebrated as a heartthrob and sex symbol.

In his new book, Izrael plays off a decades-long pop culture-fueled belief, held especially by many black women, that heartthrob Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington (or perhaps his clone) would be the perfect better half to any marriage.

"The Denzel principle is the belief that the perfect man — in the form of Denzel Washington — actually exists and [that] some black women actually think they can snag them," Izrael explains.

He aims to debunk that theory and suggests that many black women have impossible standards.

"I haven't necessarily found that [to be true] in my life," Andrews says.

Denzel or no Denzel, the 29-year-old journalist and soon-to-be published author says everyone has flaws, and what black women — and anyone, for that matter — want is simple.

"Everyone wants someone who is perfect for them," says Andrews, who is also single. "And you want to work on some of those flaws yourself just so you can live with yourself."

Has The Black Woman Become The Black-Male Basher?

Izrael says communication with black women might be ideal but is seldom easy.

"Whenever I get in these conversations, I get shouted down by as many black women as are in the room," he says.

Andrews says Izrael's perceptions are unrealistic.

http://nildoctrine.com/nil/

xodus phoenix — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:27:04 GMT

http://nildoctrine.com/nil/

This is a blog/video channel the Drew put me on to so....

I check this on the reg and subscribe.

Y'all should give this a look.

Nil Doctrine is the new home of Jay Smooth, who used to run a Hip-Hop videoblog named Ill Doctrine, until he was forced to close that site after Hip-Hop was irreparably destroyed by the 25th Anniversary remake of “We Are The World.”

Nil Doctrine will be a space where Jay Smooth ponders the formless malaise of a post Hip-Hop existence, while secretly plotting Pet Sematary-esque schemes to bring it back from the dead.

Opinion: If Unilever Ran the Music Business

xodus phoenix — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 05:51:35 GMT

http://melnyk-revolutions.blogspot.com/2010/02/if-unilever-ran-music-business.html

If Unilever Ran the Music Business

So what would happen if the music industry had been run like other businesses? What if music was considered to be a FMCG product? If you consider heritage, recorded music was established on similar principles - a low priced consumable that was desired - and ultimately required - by the masses. Labels produced singles at an affordable price for kids to buy with their pocket money every week. Shelf life was limited to a few weeks before the item was out of fashion and replaced.

FMCGs have been popular for as long as our capitalist system has existed - many of the same brands exist today. So what do they know that the music industry has forgotten?

What if Unilever ran EMI - what advice would they give?

Invest in R&D

Unilever products are consistent - but also made progressively better (well, so we're led to believe!). Products are incubated and developed until they are ready for market. Today artists are expected to be shipped immediately from their bedroom studios to the top ten - failure to do so means you will be dropped, and with it goes the investment in your potential. There are rarely surprises in the launch of FMCG products. I'm not suggesting labels manufacture their artists - but a little less A&R and a bit more R&D to nurture talent (a la Kate Bush's career) can go a long way.

Innovate

Do we need several variations on a theme of James Blunt/James Morrison/Jack Johnson, released by various labels? Why do you think Unilever dosen't try to make ketchup? If Heinz does it the best, why bother? The duplication strategy worked in the 60s but popular music has moved on. Redefining is critical, especially as technology has forced the industry to completely reinvent itself. If you can't innovate, you won't be in the game much longer.

Find Your Market

Unilever knows that young men will wear Lynx - not because it is the most effective anti-perspirant, but because there is a social status attached to it. Young people need music in a similar fashion. And young people have disposable income. So why does the record industry insist on alienating them rather than seeing them as their greatest consumer - and instead make them brand loyal for life?

Believe in What You Do

People who work for Unilever firmly get behind the missions of their brand family. They believe that deodorant fulfils a social need for people to feel confident. And that soup stock holds a family together by making meal times an event. It might sound like a pile of marketing bullshit, but to employees at Unilever it works. Do people in the recorded music industry believe they helping to produce brilliant music - and in doing so, entertain and make the world a better place through what they release?

Establish a Trusted Family

Unilever has realised that it is actually a family of great household brands. They are creating a connection between their products and helping the consumer to identify them under the parent label of Unilever. They do this to capitalise on trust - if I trust that Lipton tea is the best, in time I will show favour towards Dove soap. Major labels have no glue to hold their catalogue together. Niche labels (and mid-weight labels such as Def Jam) have always used this to help connect their community of listeners. What could be said, if anything, of the EMI family?

Unilever don't know anything about making music. But then rarely is this talent exhibited by major labels these days either. In the end this issue isn't about the music - its about an ever changing industry that appears to be unable to adapt. Which is a shame as there is plenty of inspiration from great, thriving businesses all around us.

Haiti Quake:

xodus phoenix — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 06:45:09 GMT

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/haiti-quake-first-seismic-aftershocks-then-economic-ones/19323095/

The first aftershock since Haiti's deadly earthquake last week hit Wednesday morning at 6:03 local time, and seismologists expect aftershocks to continue for around a year. The 6.1 aftershock was less severe than last week's 7.0 quake, which officials estimate killed at least 72,000 in the capital of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Earthquakes are rare in Haiti, but natural disasters are not. Haiti was hit by four hurricanes in 2008, and deforestation has made mudslides a hazard. But Haitian officials had not acted on scientists' advice to install a network of earthquake monitoring stations, and a plan to train the nation's officials in earthquake science at the University of Puerto Rico fell through.

"There are more aftershocks than would be the norm if there was a similar earthquake in California," says Jim Devine, a senior advisor to the director of the U.S. Geological Survey. Aftershocks, he adds, are very destructive psychologically to both survivors and rescuers. Indeed, CNN reports that hospital patients near the Port-au-Prince airport began praying as the ground shook this Wednesday. At least one injury was reported, though there does not appear to be any serious damage.

Seismic and Economic Aftershocks

The aftershock also underscores the multitude of challenges facing Haiti. Once the search-and-rescue efforts end, the rebuilding efforts will need to begin. Early estimates of the International Monetary Fund show that the disaster could be much larger than the 2008 hurricanes, which were estimated to have cost about $900 million.

The U.S. wants to stabilize Haiti to rebuild, which is expected to cost billions of dollars, much of it supplied by U.S. taxpayers. Both the U.S. and Haiti are discouraging shellshocked earthquake victims from fleeing to America.

The international community is also assisting. The World Bank last week said it would provide a $100 million aid package, on top of $1.2 billion in debt relief that the World Bank and the IMF provided Haiti in June. The World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank have delivered almost $900 million in additional debt relief to Haiti over the past six months. And the IMF says that further debt relief for Haiti is under consideration.

A Marshall Plan for Haiti

It won't be easy to figure out how to spend the money. Few foreign companies were investing in Haiti before the earthquake. Some U.S. companies quit Haiti in the 1990s after activists complained about sweatshops there, but with an illiterate workforce, a devastated infrastructure, and a reputation for corruption, Haiti seems to hold few attractions for outside investors.

"We need to go into Haiti, we need to work with the government to see exactly how-from their point of view and from our point of view-things can be done," IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on CNN. Haiti, he says, needs something similar to the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe after World War II. "To do that, we need to take some time."

As our year comes to a close, a few final words for 2009....................

xodus phoenix — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 08:47:06 GMT

All my dear friends........................

I know that this has been a difficult year for us all; many of you have suffered hardship, loss, and sacrifice. I have been the shoulder that many of "ya'll" have leaned upon. Brothers, Sisters, and all in the middle, I felt your pain, and have consoled You in Your time of need. Some of You have lost your income, lost your loved ones in passing, and some of you have lost your way, just in time..........................

A new year is approaching..................only days away..........promising what? HOPE! PROSPERITY! And a better year than the one that has passed. Please be stronger than me, and take a deep breath, and let us together, make this a year, 2010, the year that we keep our dreams, goals, and aspirations close to heart! Write down your dreams and aspirations for 2010 down on paper, put them near your alarm clock, and date them in this fashion.........

today

1 week

2 weeks

4 weeks

one month

two months

six months

one year

and, five years

As we awake every morning, we will look at these goals in which you have set for yourself, and re-inforce them with repition! Regaurdless of what they may be, by reading them every morning, You will be reminded as to where YOU want YOU to be upon the dates You have written down. It will act as a reminder as to where You are NOT, and to impower You to go out, and get those goals! So get off yr asses, and write that shit down, and lets succeed in 2010 together!

Just Plain Notes V1.184:Stop asking yourself if you can do something better than those who are successful.

xodus phoenix — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 08:41:59 GMT

Just Plain Quotes:

"The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live." -Flora Whittemore

"She had wit, she had grace, she had beauty; But above all, she had truth." -Leo Tolstoy writing Anna Karenina

"It isn't kind to cultivate a friendship just so one will have an audience." -Lawana Blackwell

"Stop asking yourself if you can do something better than those who are successful. Instead ask yourself if you really have something to say." -Brian Austin Whitney

My Take:

I've been suffering from a wicked case of writers block ever since the JPF awards process and our subsequent UK/Ireland tour ended in October. I usually try to use this space to say something upbeat or at least motivational in the context of our music community and the music industry which surrounds it. I've gone around and around trying to do what I think I am supposed to do and it finally hit me. I needed to stop trying to compete with all my previously successful "My Takes" and just write about something real. When I thought about it, I knew exactly what to write about today.

The world is full of people who are happy to teach you how the music business works (or at least used to work). They lay out their theories and give you roadmaps that they claim will lead you to success. Then there are others who will show you how to make better recordings so you sound as good as what is on the radio. Still more folks will examine the craft of songwriting in great detail and teach you to write in a format and style and how to use techniques that are proven to work for hit writers which we'd all love to surpass. And while all these things can be 100% correct in context, they are missing the single most important factor that all artists of all types must face and successfully overcome.

Stop asking yourself if you can do something better than those who are successful. Instead ask yourself if you really have something to say. That's the thing that very few people ever coach you on. Sure, you may be able to write the heck out of a story, but do you have a story worth telling? You may be able to sing in perfect pitch but are you getting across an emotion that is real and meaningful? You may be able to record an album that equals the best engineering feats in the world, but is there something underneath that beautiful wrapping paper that actually says something worth hearing?

I realized I was so worried about writing something that would 'succeed' in terms of this column and which would stand up to all my previous quotes and quips, that I had forgotten to ask myself if I was saying something of value in the first place. So my sage advice for today is to stop and ask yourself if you really have something to say that is honest and meaningful and which will connect to some of us out here who will recognize those little truths that make up our own lives. Tell a story, big or small, that helps the listener realize that they aren't alone in this big old world and that when they listen to your music, they really feel like we're all in this together. Accomplish that and you're a success as an "artist" no matter how the rest of it works out.

Learn, Succeed and Thrive, We're All In This Together! Just Plain Folks.

Beanie Drops New Diss 'How I Could Kill Jigga Man'

xodus phoenix — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:50:22 GMT

Philadelphia DJ Cosmic Kev debuted two brand new tracks by rapper Beanie Sigel tonight (November 21st) during his radio show on Power 99 FM. While the first track only contains one line about Jay-Z, the second track is sure to raise eye brows. On the second track, Sigel issued another harsh freestyle aimed at Jay-Z, this time dropping a verse over Cypress Hill’s hit “How I Could Just Kill a Man” renaming the song “How I Could Kill Jigga Man.” Sigel’s opening lines make use of Jay-Z’s signature battle song “Takeover,” which was originally a diss record to Jay-Z’s old nemesis, Nas and Mobb Deep. “You aint gonna say nothing boy?” Sigel says at the end of the song taunting Jay-Z. “Damn, I thought you was the boy, boy. You aint nothing but a boy, boy boy. I aint gonna stop boy.”

For the full story or to comment log on: http://www.allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2009/11/21/22039125.aspx

Why real men DO buy women flowers

xodus phoenix — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:58:13 GMT

Men should buy women flowers. They are colorful. They smell nice. And without them, flora would never get laid. To many, purchasing flowers is cliché or corny or tacky. And to others, it's an outdated ritual in our modern era of gender equality.

I'd like to address the men reading this (all five of you): buy the broads flowers. Trust me. And now to all the women reading, who outnumber us dudes 100 to 1: allow the dorks in your life to buy you flowers. Trust me.

Flowers are not a romantic punchline, nor are they a symbol of patriarchal dominance. Buying daisies or lilies or chrysanthemums for the woman you love is one of those things a man just regularly does. This is a lesson my old man taught me.

Maybe it hearkens back to a time when men were gorillas in gray suits and women were trophies soaking their hands in bowls of Palmolive liquid soap -- a time when flowers were employed to mend broken promises, to make up for forgotten dinner dates, or to apologize for lipstick-stained shirt collars.

Those days are in the past, of course. Flowers do not resolve conflicts, nor do they anesthetize. Now that I think about it, they never did. But my dad had a different reasoning for surprise roses. He was always buying my mom flowers, chocolates, and trinkets. Her absentminded whispers while leafing through a catalog would be heard and little surprise gifts would appear at the doorstep.

Most of what I know about women I learned from how my dad treated my mother. I'd be a better man if I followed his example more fastidiously, but I haven't, and that's partially why I've spent so many years driving relationships off of cliffs. But some lessons stick out.

Theirs was a love affair that lasted four decades. He would sing to her in public, and she'd blush and beg for him to stop. They never seemed to tire of each others' gentle words. And 45 minutes after he died, on my mother's birthday, FedEx walked into the ICU with her present -- a fancy brand-name bag that escapes me, but that I'm pretty sure is sold in piles on the streets of New York.

While my mother was in a street fight with doctors (and a dependably cruel universe) for every dwindling minute of my dad's life, he had been sitting up in his hospital bed, buying her something he knew she'd love. This was days before the awful plunge.

The Frisky: Why you should not cohabitate before marriage

My dad knew that buying a gift for that person who'll laugh at your terrible jokes, kiss you with lips and breath, and hold your hand as a needle searches for your vein is just a way of saying "I'm thinking about you when you're not here."

And that's what flowers are, just a simple, easy way of letting someone know they were in your thoughts. That's it. It's not complicated. Flowers announce: out of sight, still in my mind and heart. It is unerringly human to want to know that someone is thinking about you when you are not around.

I think women, especially, worry that all men have short attention spans and for the most part -- Oh hey! When did I buy this can of beans? -- it's not an unfounded anxiety. I know I've forgotten things like birthdays (spring?), anniversaries (Tuesday?) and eye color (mostly white?).

But if a man is in love, he carries that love under his skin like a nerve. Such is the magnificence of man, however, that we're solidly confidant that your every third thought is about us. Right? Right? Oh, sarcasm! Women are the more conscientious gender; men are the more eat-with-our-fingers gender. I think that is fair.

The Frisky: Where all the good guys are

I recently bought flowers for a lady I'm a' courting. We were set to meet at the soda jerk for a malt before skipping over for a double-feature monster movie at the picture palace. I had been thinking of her all day, anticipating the date. She's out of my league and that's how it should be. It's never too late to relearn passed-down life lessons. I was nervous, and couldn't shake her freaking beautiful face out from behind my eyelids.

So I did what my dad would have done. What a man does. I stormed into a florist's shop, picked out a bunch of suitably fragrant flowers, paid for them, and marched right back outside. A man with a bouquet of flowers is a real man.

I carried them the way you'd carry a rifle at a firing range with the barrel pointed down. I received multiple dude nods from men I walked past. They were acknowledging that I was on my way to woo a woman, which is our primary programming. I even received an approving nod from a pair of lesbians who also knew I was doing my duty.

I mean, it was just a date. And the vegetation cost me all of ten bucks. The plants would be dead within a week anyway. But at least she would know that for that day, her name barely escaped my lips.

Pardon for black boxer jailed for interracial dating waits on Obama

xodus phoenix — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:53:10 GMT

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House refused to indicate Monday whether President Obama will issue a posthumous pardon for Jack Johnson, the African-American boxing champion convicted in 1913 for dating a white woman.

Jack Johnson's 1910 defeat of Jim Jeffries, the "Great White Hope," sparked riots.

The House of Representatives on July 29 unanimously passed a resolution urging Obama to grant a pardon; the Senate passed a similar measure by a voice vote on June 24.

The push for a rare posthumous pardon has been spearheaded for years by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, and Rep. Peter King, R-New York, two of Congress' top boxing enthusiasts.

"It is our hope that you will be eager to agree to right this wrong and erase an act of racism that sent an American citizen to prison," they wrote Friday in a letter to Obama.

Johnson, the first African-American to win the heavyweight title, was convicted for violating the Mann Act, which outlawed the transportation of women across state lines for "immoral" purposes.

He served 10 months in prison on charges "brought forward clearly to keep him away from the boxing ring, where he continued to defeat his white opponents," McCain and King said.

Almost a century after Johnson's conviction, his compelling saga has continued to capture the interest of sports writers, civil rights activists and historians. It provides, they agree, a unique window into American politics and culture at a time when Jim Crow-style racism reigned supreme.

Johnson was first arrested for breaking the Mann Act in 1912, four years after winning the heavyweight crown. That case fell apart, but investigators soon after charged him with a similar offense involving a woman he had dated years earlier.

Justice Department lawyers argued it was a "crime against nature" for him to have a sexual relationship with a white woman.

Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, later to become the first commissioner of Major League Baseball, set Johnson's bail at $30,000, the equivalent of more than $660,000 today. When a bail bondsman showed up, Landis jailed him, too, according to an account that filmmaker Ken Burns relays in his documentary "Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson."

An all-white jury convicted Johnson in less than two hours.

"Mr. Johnson was perhaps persecuted as an individual, but ... it was his misfortune to be the foremost example of the evil in permitting the intermarriage of whites and blacks," one of the prosecutors later said.

Johnson's real crime, in the eyes of many, was committed on July 4, 1910, when he successfully defended his boxing title against Jim Jeffries, a white boxer who came to be called the "Great White Hope" because many white fans saw him as the best chance to wrest back a boxing title from the African-American champ.

Johnson beat Jeffries, who had come out of retirement for the fight, before a stunned, almost entirely white crowd in Reno, Nevada.

Race riots followed. More than 20 people were killed and hundreds were injured. Most victims were black.

So when they "couldn't beat him in the ring, the white power establishment decided to beat him in the courts," Burns said in his documentary.

Johnson fled to Europe in 1913 while free on appeal. But after years of fights overseas, including the eventual loss of his title in Havana, Cuba, in 1915, Johnson came home. He turned himself over to U.S. authorities at the Mexican border in 1920 and served 10 months in prison.

He died in a car wreck in 1946.

"Back then, if you were black and you were told that you did something wrong, you really had no recourse," Linda Haywood, Johnson's great-niece, recently told CNN.

"You just accepted what was done because black people were basically powerless and voiceless. Jack may have been a rich boxer, but he couldn't fight the system."

McCain and King introduced resolutions calling for a presidential pardon in 2005 and last year. McCain, who says he made a mistake by once voting against a federal holiday for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., sees the pardon as a way to right an old wrong.

"The Jack Johnson case is an ignominious stain on our nation's history," he said on the Senate floor in the spring.

"Rectifying this injustice is long overdue. [The resolution recognizes] the unjustness of what transpired, and sheds light on the achievements of an athlete who was forced into the shadows of bigotry and prejudice."

A nice chain letter about happiness

Griffin Avid — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:25:31 GMT

I hate chain letters but this one was nice.
No, don't call me about this XO.

A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man,
who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with his hair fashionably combed and
shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today.

His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in
the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready.

As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual
description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been
hung on his window. I love it,' he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having
just been presented with a new puppy..

Mr. Jones, you haven't seen the room; just wait.' 'That doesn't have
anything to do with it,' he replied. Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time.. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is
arranged ... it's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it.

'It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed
recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be
thankful for the ones that do.

Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories
I've stored away.. Just for this time in my life. Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you've put
in. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories!

Thank you for your part in filling my Memory Bank. I am still depositing.
'Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

VIBE magazine has shut down

Oscar Wilde — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:05:50 GMT

VIBE magazine has shut down. The magazine was launched in 1993 by music industry legend Quincy Jones and it served as as widely revered urban magazine. "On behalf the VIBE CONTENT staff (the best in this business), it is with great sadness, and with heads held high, that we leave the building today," said Danyel Smith, former Chief Content Officer of Vibe Media Group and Editor in Chief of Vibe. "We were assigning and editing a Michael Jackson tribute issue when we got the news," Smith said in a statement released to AllHipHop.com. "It’s a tragic week in overall, but as the doors of VIBE Media Group close, on the eve of the magazine’s sixteenth anniversary, it’s a sad day for music, for hip hop in particular, and for the millions of readers and users who have loved and who continue to love the VIBE brand. We thank you, we have served you with joy, pride and excellence, and we will miss you." In the 90's, VIBE experienced meteoric success as a business and an outlet for urban journalism. It has ailed under the ownership of private equity firm Wicks Group of Companies, AOL reported.

Goodbye to PC hard drives?

P.R.O. — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 22:12:59 GMT

Due to the relatively short life span of hard drives these days it would be cool to not have to worry about hardware issues. Hold up for a second though. I can't say that I'm really feeling complete access to all my personal info neither. What do ya'll think?

Google's 'online' GDrive will make the PC redundant

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:20 AM on 26th January 2009

The proposed new Google GDrive could kill off the personal computer, experts have warned.

The Google Drive service, which will reportedly launch later this year, allows users to store information online on Google's own servers rather than on the hard drive.

The process has been dubbed 'cloud computing' and is being seen as 'the most anticipated Google product so far'.

The GDrive would mean users would no longer have to worry about their hard drives crashing as their data could be accessed from any internet connection, a move that could effectively make PCs redundant.
Google GDrive

The Google Drive would mean users would no longer have to worry about their hard drives crashing as their data could be accessed from any machine

However, there are concerns over the security of storing such a high degree of personal data online rather than a PC with experts warning that Google will gain unprecedented control over users' information.

Peter Brown, of the Free Software Foundation, a charity which helps defend computer users liberties told the Times: 'It's a little bit like saying, "we're in a dictatorship, the trains are running on time".

'But does it matter to you that someone can see everything on your computer? Does it matter that Google can be subpoenaed at any time to hand over all your data to the American government?'

The GDrive would mark a departure from the Microsoft Windows operating system and will enable users to treat their computer as software rather than hardware.

Dave Armstrong of Google Enterprise, said: 'There's a clear direction...away from people thinking "This is my PC, this is my hard drive" to "This is how I interact with information, this is how I interact with the web"'.

A Google spokesman refused to confirm if the GDrive was to be introduced soon.

AllHipHop.com has announced the launch of a new 24 hour Internet radio station

xodus phoenix — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 07:24:52 GMT

AllHipHop.com has announced the launch of a new 24 hour Internet radio station, AllHipHop Radio: Explicit Content. The new digital radio station, which launched in partnership with Goom Radio today (July 23), will provide AllHipHop.com’s millions of viewers a true HD radio experience over the Internet, with live on-air personalities, in-studio interviews and performances, unedited, uncensored music, interviews, unique radio shows and much more. AllHipHop’s Explicit Content, which is currently in beta mode on AllHipHop.com, will also allow users to create and customize their own radio stations and control the rotation of songs.

To listen to AllHipHop Radio: Explicit Content log on: http://allhiphop.com/allhiphopradio/

Adobe audition3

El Pelon — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:18:06 GMT

Hi my name is andres, i just bought adobe audition 3 for my computer, but i have used the 30 day free trial before on my lap top. i am having technical trouble i cannot dub. i record on track one then stop record go to track two start dub and it still records sound from track one. i dont undertand why. i cannot get a clean dub. has anyone els had this issue? need help bad! if you live in calgary ill smoke a phaty for you help pleas contact me at andresmartinezz@hotmail.com.

p.s

my friend say it could be my sound card. i'd like a second opinion

Yamaha Joins Forces with The Today Show To 'Lend a Hand' To Worthy Arts School

xodus phoenix — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:37:34 GMT

Yamaha Joins Forces with The Today Show To 'Lend a Hand' To Worthy Arts School


	World's Largest Music Instrument Manufacturer Donates Nearly $21,000 in Musical Instruments and Gear to Charlotte's Community School of the Arts

2009 marked the eighth consecutive year for the popular goodwill road trip.

BUENA PARK, Calif.—Yamaha Corporation of America and Yamaha Cares recently donated musical instruments valued at nearly $21,000 as part of Al Roker's Annual Lend a Hand road trip on NBC's . The company donated eight YPG635 digital pianos with benches, an assortment of violas and violins and two POCKETRAK portable digital recorders to the Community School of the Arts in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Yamaha Keyboard Division District Manager Chris Gilbert and Band & Orchestral Division District Manager Travis Goodwin joined Al Roker in an exciting segment where the school was surprised by a Penske truck full of donated products from Yamaha and other donors. Gilbert and Goodwin joined other volunteers in distributing musical instruments and other goods to thrilled faculty and students.

CSA recieved 8 Yamaha YPG635 digital pianos.

Given the state of the economy, many Americans are in need of a little help this year. That's why Today's Al Roker once again packed up the Penske truck to hit the road for the annual trip. In its eighth consecutive year, Lend a Hand continues its mission of helping small charities across the country that work toward improving conditions in their communities. Roker's 2009 goodwill road trip also included stops in Los Angeles, CA, Portland, OR, Galveston, TX and Little Rock, AR.

Eight student violins and two student violas were donated to Charlotte's Community School for the Arts

"With so many communities in need of arts education support and funding, Yamaha was thrilled to take part in this wonderful project," said Carol Baker, Vice President of Human Resources, Yamaha Corporation of America. "Yamaha has a rich heritage of community outreach and this project underscores our commitment to supporting music education at all levels."

Baker also oversees Yamaha Cares, an employee-based initiative dedicated to charitable works to promote education, arts, health and human services and community development in the areas where its employees live and work, as well as to spread the gift of music to people throughout the U.S.

Two POCKETRAK portable digital recorders rounded out Yamaha's donation

The Community School of the Arts' (CSA) mission is to provide artistic experiences that enrich lives, cultivate imagination and foster the development of healthy communities. They offer private instruction in 20 different instruments, band, orchestra, visual arts (including pottery), ArtsReach (community outreach program), Early Arts (Pre-School Art Lab, Music Together and Music Around), Music Therapy, family workshops and summer camps. Henry Bridges founded CSA in 1969 with 20 students. Bridges' vision was to provide music instruction to students who couldn't afford lessons. Today, CSA serves over 1700 students, in over 30 locations with a diverse faculty of 35 who provide the highest quality instruction. The Community School of the Arts' outreach programs are taught free of charge to 600 monthly students and their families.

The Today Show is the top-rated morning show, averaging 5,419,000 daily viewers.

For more information about Yamaha products, write Yamaha Corporation of America, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622-6600; call (714) 522-9011; email infostation@yamaha.com; or visit www.yamaha.com.

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Adobe audition3

Yamaha Joins Forces with The Today Show To 'Lend a Hand' To Worthy Arts School