Yes it’s true. Josh Davis has signed with Universal. That track floating around the web is from his new album. Link

XXL hooks us up with an interesting interview. Part One, Part Two

Is signing with a major label something you’ve considered?
They keep trying to sign me as an artist and throw money at me without realizing that this isn’t about just paper for me. It’s about principle and about my success rate as the president of my own label….I don’t need to pretend to be paid for anyone. Even though I’m from Harlem, I’m not really flashy. I got a Third World country work ethic, like the Haitians, Jamaicans, Cubans, Colombians. I’m mostly Peruvian, so I put my money into investments. I own three apartments and a house I bought for my grandmother in South America. I own over 50 acres of farmland in Peru. I’m putting my sister through school and now medical school…I’m not starving and broke and willing to sell my soul to them along with the rights to my masters and publishing.

Why does New York have that standard?
Being an average or above average lyricist in New York? That’s just disrespectful to the very culture of hip-hop. Maybe there’s another factor too, though. The audience in hip-hop has another generation gap. There are kids out there who see Biggie and Tupac as old school. People who were five or six years old when they died. If you make things more simplistic with lyrics, then it will appeal to a younger audience. Not to disrespect the intelligence of the youth at all—I know lots of smart teenagers—that’s just truth. But the realest thing I’m gonna tell you about hip-hop’s Southern power surge: niggas ain’t making money like that. I don’t care what you wore in your video, what you showed up to the Howard homecoming in, what you floss in the streets, or how many independent units niggas sold out they trunk in Alabama or Atlanta. Let’s not sit here and pretend that the big companies aren’t the ones making all the real money. The Southern push doesn’t reflect the growing living standard of Southern people as much as it represents a desperate effort from record labels to salvage their sales, which are in the toilet. They found a loyal market and they will now exploit it to the fullest. Your imprint means nothing, nigga. You own no masters, you split publishing. The dollar amount that the majors get from the distributor is the bottom line. You don’t even see that as an artist. We’re all still slaves, we’re just on different boats.

NYTimes article discusses a resurgence of graf on the subway trains. Some people might argue the amount of graf that exists nowadays has been fairly consistent for many years. The recent difference appears to be the use of etching acid, mixed with shoe polish, which is more destructive than the washable polish on its own. Link

Interesting article from the weekend edition of the NYTimes discussing the omission of New Orleans HipHop from a string of musical events that were supposed to celebrate and be representative of music from that region. HipHop not being embraced? No way. Link (thanks for sending this in Sahil!)

According to this NYTimes article, music publishers are doing very well for themselves these days. As a lesson learned from these big wigs, when you’re negotiating your publishing deals, do what you can to hold on to as much as you can. Or sign with a fake performance name that you don’t care about losing. But don’t just give it all away. Music’s Hottest Star: The Publisher, For your reference: Wikipedia’s History of Music Publishing

MetroWest Daily reports Reebok is going to shift it’s marketing focus from HipHop back to athletics. Adidas, Reebok’s new parent, apparently isn’t to fond of the I AM WHAT I AM lifestyle marketing campaign. Link previously 50cent, HipPop & Marketing: Trying to make sense of it all, Living Legend’s Reebok Classics, Basquiats On My Feet

F*ck a write-up. Here are some pictures I took. Slick Rick knows what time it is! Link

Interesting interview with the original Master Gee and Wonder Mike, settings things straight about Hank and the Sugar Hill label. Turns out they prefer to perform with Caz and would never mess with Sugar Hill again. Link

AllHipHop.com: Do you have any regrets about the Sugar Hill experience?

Wonder Mike: One time, we came out and surprised Busta Rhymes while he was on the Vibe show. We came out while he was doing an interview and he gave us a hug with tears coming out of his eyes. The next thing I knew, Sugar Hill was suing him for using Hank’s lyrics for “Whoo-Hah! Got You All In Check.” Come on, man, that’s just dumb. The same thing happened backstage at the second VH1 Hip-Hop Honors Awards with the Beastie Boys. They were jumping around like little kids, excited and happy to see us. Then, here came Sugar Hill again, suing them a few weeks later for something else that they used. All that happy, teenage, horses**t I used to say in the past about Sugar Hill [Records] is out the window. I will never go back to them. It will be all good once people know that we’re not with those clowns anymore.

This is starting to be a bad trend of mine. I had planned to write a long review of the show but time and laziness got the best of me once again. Throw in the fact that this event took place almost two months ago so my memory is failing me more and more, day by day. The bottom line is no words can describe seeing, arguably, the best MC to ever live.

There were many opening acts but the Grandmaster Caz and Raheim set outshined them all. I have to take some credit for that since it seemed Caz didn’t even know a Rakim show was going on until I text messaged him {patting myself on the back}.

Overall, there were many notable people in BB Kings that night. I tried to list as many as possible below. I also took some pictures.

The real highlight of this post and the main reason why it’s going up after all this time is that I recently happened upon great show and interview footage via Current TV. The one with the crowd reciting almost all of Paid In Full gave me the shivers. Enjoy…

Current TV Videos
Pictures

In the building
Rakim
Grandmaster Caz & Raheim
Kool Herc
Nice And Smooth
Ralph McDaniels
Kid Capri
DJ Scratch
Steele (BCC)
Immortal Technique
Killah Priest
Timbo King
Pumpkinhead
Ultramagnetic MC’s (without Kool Keith and Ced Gee)

Over at wikipedia someone spent a lot of time trying to define Alternative HipHop. As you would expect there is disagreement. In my opinion, attempts to define genres of music tend to lead to misconceptions and fake boundaries. Call it what you want, as long as you are trying to gain understanding of the drive and the meaning behind the music, not so you can call people out or profess your judgements. Link

With a sense for the growing expectation for this Thursday’s Freestyle Extravaganza at Madison Square Garden, the Village Voice has published a timely piece on the genre. And if you’re thinking about MCs like C-Rayz or Juice right about now you are on the wrong path. You should be thinking about Lisa Lisa and TKA. Although not in depth the article discusses Freestyle’s HipHop roots, aptly described by Afrika Bambaataa as electro-funk and hip-hop. Link

For your listening pleasure, we re-upped a mix that Lapu did for us back in June of 2005 that includes Spring Love (sandwiched between some other dope sh*t).

It arose from the streets of the Bronx and Spanish Harlem, Miami taking it up with gusto soon after. “Life was more funky in New York for this new sound coming out,” remembers hip-hop progenitor and adamant freestyle supporter DJ Afrika Bambaataa, whose own Soul Sonic Force–era sound laid the genre’s sonic foundation. “Its roots are electro-funk and hip-hop,” he says, crediting Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with setting it off. Latinos, though, had made their mark in hip-hop from the beginning: Cold Crush Brothers DJ Charlie Chase, Fantastic Five’s Ruby Dee and Whipper Whip, and Fearless Four’s Devastating Tito and DJ Master O.C., for starters.

Interestingly, despite a decidedly hip-hop foundation, freestyle emerged at a time when—some say because—New York Puerto Ricans and other Latinos, following breakdance overkill in the media, suddenly found themselves ostracized from the culture they helped create. “It was ours,” says Bronx-bred George Lamond, a former B-boy and graffiti writer who became one of freestyle’s most popular, enduring artists, “and yet, at one point, suddenly it wasn’t ours anymore.” The scene began to segregate, with even Latin Quarter (where shared freestyle and rap bills, say Leather and Lace and Cutmaster DC, were once the norm) ironically recast as a black club. Suburban rap groups like Public Enemy stormed the once integrated scene, proclaiming it “a black thing” (read: African American)—and no, Latinos didn’t understand.

Performer K7, who co-founded freestyle’s first male supergroup, TKA, says, “Our way to do hip-hop became, ‘Let’s take those same breaks and beats, the hardness of, say, a Rakim track,’ and since we weren’t being embraced as rappers, we sang.” In 1986, their Tommy Boy Records breakout hit “One Way Love” became a top request on black radio powerhouse 98.7 Kiss FM, and the guys hoped their acceptance would reinforce Latinos’ hip-hop profile. They were sadly mistaken.

Mark Ecko tagged the words “Still Free” onto one of the President’s planes. Not only that, he video taped it and put it up online. Is this an authentic protest, a publicity stunt for his Get Up video game or a mixture of the two? Link

update 042006: It was a publicity stunt

In case you’re not in the know, the good people over at Traffic Entertainment have been dropping CD reissues like crazy. This is especially nice for hard to get, out of print, vinyl only releases. Peep the Rza produced “As Long As You Know“, from Scientifik’s slept on album. You can stream snippets of the entire album here. trafficent.com

Although it might seem like it, watching Edan do it, juggling and rhyming is not easy. Props to Edan. (via ughh videos)

GRANDGOOD Audiocast No. 041106 is dedicated to culture participants that stand up for what they believe in. Whether it’s young people in France that can bend the will of their government or American non-citizens that can prompt governmental discussion or if it’s simply a bold hip-hop fan that takes a proactive stance to defend his values, these people believe in their own ability to mold the future. Nuff respect to activists everywhere.

Please go out and support your favorite artists and they will support you. Don’t just be a spectator, participation is critical.

FEED: SUBSCRIBE
FILE: DOWNLOAD
PLAYTIME: 50min 50sec
SIZE: 69.8 megs

Aceyalone - Grand Imperial support
Soul Position (RJD2 + Blueprint) - Keep It Hot For Daddy support
Tame One - Zuh-Ah-Zuh support
Apathy - All About Crime support
Money Symbol Martyrs (2Mex + Life Rexall) - Here To Help feat. Die support
M-1 - Elements support
Sadat X - God Is Back (Spencer Doran Remix) support
Project Polaroid (Kool Keith + TOMC3)- Digital Engineering (The Specialist Remix) support
Chino XL - Poison Pen support
Ghostface - Beauty Jackson support
Serengeti - Geti King support
Subtitle And Prosperous - Regular Operations support
Pnam, Chin, Kairo, Sune - Last Dayz support
Roosevelt Franklin - Red Leaves, Dead Trees support

Generally speaking we feature newly released Contemporary Rap. Broadcasted on the eleventh of each month. Visit www.grandgood.com for more info. Try one of our channels. We love you.

According to their site, GRL is “dedicated to outfitting graffiti artists with open source technologies for urban communication.” They “bombed” the Cube by Astor place with LEDs. I wonder if they’re working on a way to “communicate” via subway trains. Interesting. Link

NYU’s Fest Forward: HipHop Unbound festival goes on until April 15th. Tickets are kind of steep but there might be discounts for students. Honestly, doesn’t look all that interesting, but what do I know? Anyone remember the old Project5/Zulu Nation Essence shows at NYU? Link

Mon, April 3 7:00P.M. The Making of ‘Planet Rock’ Retrospective
Tue, April 4 7:00P.M. Beyond Basic: Human Beatbox Workshop
Wed, April 5 7:00P.M. Decadancetheatre + Full Circle Performance
Thu, April 6 3:00P.M. Beyond Basic: Popping & Locking Workshop
Thu, April 6 7:00P.M. The Great Hip-Hop Swindle Performance
Fri, April 7 7:00P.M. Decadancetheatre + Full Circle Performance
Sat, April 8 2:00P.M. Beyond Basic: Turntablism Workshop
Sat, April 8 7:00P.M. The Future of Hip-Hop Retrospective
Mon, April 10 7:00P.M. Executive Decisions: 30 Years of Powerful Women in Hip-Hop Retrospective
Tue, April 11 7:00P.M. Ameriville Performance
Wed, April 12 3:00P.M. Beyond Basic: Art of Rhyme/Spoken Word Workshop
Thu, April 13 7:00P.M. Deep*NYC Performance
Sat, April 15 10:00P.M. The Coup Performance