Naledge of Kidz In The Hall "FOCUS"



THE LATEST!

VIBE Magazine Folds

Wow. I knew that things got bad for magazines but I didnt think it got this bad.

Now, Vibe Magazine is folding, ie, ending publication.

It seems like it was just yesterday I picked up the very first issue with Naughty By Natures Treach. I wasnt sure how long it would last, but I didnt think it would last this long!

They made many mistakes like hyping up the East/West thing, but when they did good, it was really good.

Wonder which magazine is next?

BET AWARDS AND WHATNOT....

Yesterday I watched the BET Awards and they were alright. One thing that tripped me out on the show was the performance by that non rappin' Soulja Boy.

Soulja Boy is the typical punching bag for bloggers who like real hip hop, so Im not going to diss him, but I want to briefly analyze his performance.

First, the thing about hip hop, and I mean real hip hop, is that you rhyme. I didnt hear Soulja Boy rhyme. What he did was I think yell the same line over and over. I swear, I couldnt tell whether he was trying to rap a couple lines, or if he was doing the hook!

It also tripped me out that everybody in the audience was all acting like it was good! Then, he be thinking, "Oh they like me, Im HOT!"

That performance was just the utter opposite of what hip hop is. It strips away everything that makes hip hop complex. Its like, give a kid a hot beat and a couple of words to yell over and over, and hey, you got hip hop!

However, I don't think what Soulja Boy did was hip hop. It was something else. It couldn't be hip hop, could it?

RIP MJ THE REVOLUTIONARY


A couple of weeks ago, I wanted to post this MJ video because it was one of my favorites. I really think that "They Dont Care About Us" captures the true essence of hip hop more than any of these Dirty South one hit wonders being churned out by the industry desperate to make $ on the next big thing.

Truly, there will never be another artist like MJ. He got to such a level where he could use music to just transcend industry limits. He wanted to see people come together, to see beyond the foolish boundaries of that we impose on one another here in America. He made music that made you feel, that made you think, and that made you dance. MJ took all that energy and produced classic, timeless music.

I like the MJ knockoffs the industry has produced, but lets face it, Ne-Yo, Ginuwine, Tyrese, Usher and Chris Brown will never get to that level. The industry will never have that experience that MJ gave it.

So, originally, why didnt I post the video. Because I had that feeling that everybody had before MJ died. He's just kinda, well, you know. Attach any negative sentiment that you can to that. Its a trip why people are so into him now, but didnt give him a chance beforehand. Its messed up how people are like that.

MJ RIP........

Clarence Thomas Casts Lone Vote Against Voting Rights Act


When I think of Clarence Thomas, I think of that teacher guy from "Fast Times At Ridgemont High"

“The extensive pattern of discrimination that led the court to previously uphold Section 5 as enforcing the 15th Amendment [right to vote] no longer exists. Covered jurisdictions are not now engaged in a systematic campaign to deny Black citizens access to the ballot through intimidation and violence.” So says Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. If you translate or breakdown Justice Thomas’ quote, he is saying that Black voters no longer need voting protections.
Quote from blog "Black Men In America"

In the movie, Mr Hand, the teacher guy, had this one memorable line to his class: "What are you people?" "On dope"? Or something like that.

Kidz In The Hall "I GOT IT MADE 09" (REEBOK CLASSIC)



HOT!

Chen Lo performing "Warrior's Anthem" featuring Jasiri X and I Medina at Rhyme Calisthenics 6



FROM REALTALKEXPRESS.COM

Da Mornin' Aftaby The Primeridian












I was looking for some songs by Naledge, and I found this. Heres the song list:
01.Mornin' Afta Intro
02. Change the Meridian (feat. No Mercy)
Artist: No Mercy
03. High Noon Stank
04. Bucktown (feat. Naledge)
Artist: Naledge (Kidz In The Hall)
05. Hang On (Nicolay Remix)
06. Takuthere (feat. Yaw, Iomos Marad, Imani)
Artists: Imani Iomos Marad Yaw
07. Count Tac Acts a Fool (feat. Countacula)
Artist: Countacula
08. Melodic Healing (feat. Yaw)
Artist: Yaw
09. Whistle While You Work
10. Let's Go
11. Mario Speaks (feat. Howmanysyllablesmario)
Artist: Howmanysyllablesmario
12. Trust (feat. Ka-Di)
Artist: Ka Di
13. Shoutro (feat. Uneqka, Mreid, Mal Caffeine)
Artists: Mreid Mal Caffeine Uneq'ka

It's mad old, but i just found out about it. Check out the review on Thrill Jockey.

Woman fined to tune of $1.9 million for illegal downloads

A federal jury Thursday found a 32-year-old Minnesota woman guilty of illegally downloading music from the Internet and fined her $80,000 each -- a total of $1.9 million -- for 24 songs.

WOW, with the RIAA it just gets worse and worse. When will they get a clue?

Read more of this on CNN.COM.

Chuck D and DMC on hip-hop and America Pt.5‏

June 15 - "A lot of MCs are making money off of talking about violence," Daniel "D.M.C." McDaniels tells Chuck D of Public Enemy in the latest On the Real, Off the Record video. D.M.C. explains

"Ice T told me this, 'You want to make a lot of money quickly? [Rap about] sex and violence. It sells,'" D.M.C. says. He says that rap artists now are not thinking about why they include violence in their music other than for financial reasons, even if they are no longer involved any violence. "[Current rappers] are only talking about the violence because they are making money off it."

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE!

Micheal Eric Dyson got beef????

Last I heard, people got upset because of what Michael Eric Dyson said about Michelle Obama's butt.

Now I guess he been saying "stuff" about Obama's agenda, and Star and Buc dont like it!

Check it out here.

Sean Carter likes Soulja Boy?

Figures that according to this, Sean Carter likes Soulja Boy. He sees the green. Maybe they will do a song together, who knows. Me, Im too old for Soulja Boy. The "Donk" video I saw on Youtube did it for me. Cant watch that!

He sells a million plus records, but Im just wondering, who buys them? Oh yeah, teenage girls. Nuff said.

Hip-Hop’s Open Letter to the Class of ‘09

Nothing but realness in this speech! A sample:

Congratulations, not just saying it just to say it, but meaning it with all of my heart and soul because very few in this world expected you to make it this far! While you, your family and friends have been waiting patiently for this day for 13 plus years, there have been certain others; people in positions of power that have been anticipating your fall, just like how many of your fellow classmates didn’t make it to see this day for a variety of reasons.

When tragedy befalls the innocent and/or the powerless it brings to us much pain. This contains a deeper and harder meaning when we realize and consider that our communities disproportionately suffer from great ailments in comparison to the White majority. These ailments include poverty, police brutality, incarceration, street violence, domestic violence and overall, in the immortal coinage of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, “Mis-education,” which is yet another form of violence and truly most determines our condition today as Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders and generally peoples of color.

Everybody got to read this here!

"Smile"


The Alchemist "Smile" ft. Twista & Maxwell Directed by Jason Goldwatch

The Foreign Exchange - Daykeeper



NEW VIDEO! CHECK IT OUT.

DJ Jazzy Jeff vs. Power and Light Fight Takes Strange New Twist


CHECK OUT THE STORY HERE!

HIP HOP MOGUL RUSSEL SIMMONS : SPEAKS OUT ON OBAMA


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attended a youth conference co-sponsored by entrepreneur and entertainer Russell Simmons in Washington. The one-day event, called Keeping the Promise to Our Children, brought legislators together with entertainment A-listers, including Oscar-nominee Terrence Howard, who used their celebrity to advocate a variety of causes: foster care, health care and education among them.

Read the rest on CNN.COM

Naledge 'Star Struck' Music Video‏


Naledge "Star Struck" video featuring RUS-SOUL produced by SA-RA and directed by Matthew Metoyer.

Naledge's "Chicago Picasso" Mix CD in stores June 30th!!

EMUSIC SCREWED ME OVER!

CHECK OUT:EMusic-Sony Deal: One Step Forward, One Big Step Back

OK, so I casually go to my favorite music site, EMUSIC, to see what I am in the mood to download. When I get to the front screen, there is a message. In a nutshell, there will be a change to my account because they just made a deal with a "major".
Instead of the 100 songs a month I used to get for $24.99, now I get 50 songs a month for $5 less. Im like, huh?

Now, to most people on EMUSIC, the "major" label (being Sony) is the enemy. They are the reason we cherished a site like EMUSIC, because we like to hear new, exciting, different and weird stuff. EMUSIC was kinda like that record store you used to go to back in the day that had this huge selection of records. You know how you would spend like a Sunday afternoon going through the records, one by one, and then you would pull one out and become curious because you liked the name of the song or the guy on the cover of the record had some weird outfit on. You know what Im talking about? That was EMUSIC!

Now, with the bringing in SONY, they bring a bunch of albums in the mix that you either liked maybe 10 years ago but got sick of because it was on MTV or the radio every time you turned them on, so they got played out a long time ago. But with a major label comes a certain mentality. It brings with it an idea of music as product that is a "sure thing". It brings with it a sure hit like Michael Jackson's "Thriller".

Now, I dont hate MJ's greatest record ever, but I dont want it. Im not a DJ, but I grew up aspiring to be one, so I have a DJ mentality. Music wise, I move quick. I might be feeling some obscure song that nobody likes, and I might play it and play it until I've found something else.

Another thing about my DJ mentality is how I might certain genres of rap that nobody else really likes. Like, Im a huge fan of the whole Chicano rap movement. Thing is, EMUSIC introduced me to that whole scene because I started out downloading a track here and there, just to experiment, and started creating mixes. Without that flexibility, cutting the number of songs I can download, I dont have the ability to experiment like that.

I guess in the end EMUSIC is a business and the people who run the site are trying to make big $$$. But, with the music industry being as unsure of the future as they are, and trying to exploit every venue, including this one, it was bound to happen sooner or later. The music industry is unwilling to break out of that old business model that has made fat cats out of people who have went out of their way to ruin music at the expense of the artists. By the same token, the people at EMUSIC want to drive nice cars and send their kids to Harvard too, so they saw this opportunity and jumped on it.

But, it trips me out how they went about doing it. OK, check it out, you are going to be paying the same price for 1/2 of what you got before. But hang in there, the major labels have finally arrived on our site, so we know that this balances everything out. You all dont want that crap we were putting out on here anyways, right?

Why didnt they bother asking how we EMUSIC fans felt about this? Oh well.

Six stabbed after fights at concert

It's unfortunate that you cant even go to an "oldies" concert anymore, chill, and watch the classic group WAR without some fools trippen:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA (KGO) -- Violence broke out at a Mountain View concert Saturday night bringing CHP and police officers out in force. Six people are recovering from stab wounds following the event. (ABC NEWS)

If you aren't safe at an "oldies" show, where are you safe? Though it is bad what happened, imagine if this was a rap concert. Everybody from the police to right wing political blowhards would blame this on rap music. However, there was a mostly Latino audience, so you can imagine the right wing talking points there.