Wired.com: What about the sucker punch that the contracting economy has landed on the devolution of the industry and the evolution of the internet? El-P once told me that the first thing that goes out the window in recessions and depressions is the idea that people should pay for art of any kind.

DJ Shadow: It disincentivizes some people. I’ll give you a real-world example, not a hypothetical. There are rappers that I worked with in the past who no longer rap, because why would you? It doesn’t make any money. Some of them have gone back to ways of earning a living that are a lot less productive. To me, that is a damn shame. If the Beatles were not making a living, would they have made The White Album? What makes me laugh is people who say that artists are supposed to suffer and starve for their art, cut their ears off like Van Gogh or something. It’s such a ridiculous perspective. And it’s disingenuous as well, especially when those people are paying $400 for a cellphone every six months.

This is not new:

Time for a little straight talk, from one reasonably intelligent human being to YOU, the reasonably intelligent reader. As distasteful as it may sound, the fact is that so many of our heroes: Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, The Beatles, whoever you care to name; generated much of their best art in return for financial compensation. If you take away the compensation, guess what…the art stops. For example, how many young rap artists are grinding away these days in New York, trying to get a deal? Not too many, certainly compared to the ‘80s and ‘90s. There’s no allure, no pot at the end of the rainbow. People have been asking for years now, “Where’s the next Nas, the next Jay-Z?” Be prepared to keep waiting…and for music, overall, to keep sucking. Why? Because only bottom-of-the-barrel, embarrassing pop tripe generates enough income to feed the machine. Anything unproven or risky? Nobody’s going to bankroll that kind of ‘experiment.’

previously:
Bono and Dj Shadow Should Hang Out

I used to check for Dj Shadow regularly.

DJ Shadow feat. Afrikan Boy – I’m Excited

Bono’s NYTimes Op-Ed:

A decade’s worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the creators — in this case, the young, fledgling songwriters who can’t live off ticket and T-shirt sales like the least sympathetic among us — and the people this reverse Robin Hooding benefits are rich service providers, whose swollen profits perfectly mirror the lost receipts of the music business.
We’re the post office, they tell us; who knows what’s in the brown-paper packages? But we know from America’s noble effort to stop child pornography, not to mention China’s ignoble effort to suppress online dissent, that it’s perfectly possible to track content. Perhaps movie moguls will succeed where musicians and their moguls have failed so far, and rally America to defend the most creative economy in the world, where music, film, TV and video games help to account for nearly 4 percent of gross domestic product. Note to self: Don’t get over-rewarded rock stars on this bully pulpit, or famous actors; find the next Cole Porter, if he/she hasn’t already left to write jingles.

Dj Shadow’s letter expressing his fears:

Time for a little straight talk, from one reasonably intelligent human being to YOU, the reasonably intelligent reader. As distasteful as it may sound, the fact is that so many of our heroes: Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, The Beatles, whoever you care to name; generated much of their best art in return for financial compensation. If you take away the compensation, guess what…the art stops. For example, how many young rap artists are grinding away these days in New York, trying to get a deal? Not too many, certainly compared to the ‘80s and ‘90s. There’s no allure, no pot at the end of the rainbow. People have been asking for years now, “Where’s the next Nas, the next Jay-Z?” Be prepared to keep waiting…and for music, overall, to keep sucking. Why? Because only bottom-of-the-barrel, embarrassing pop tripe generates enough income to feed the machine. Anything unproven or risky? Nobody’s going to bankroll that kind of ‘experiment.’

And for fun, Cory Doctorow’s tweets:

via

Flobots – Handlebars (Dj Shadow Remix)

previously:
Flobots Are Indie Hip-Hop? Nah, Not Really

Anti-poverty and pro-justice charitable organization OxFam leverages the natural energy and tendency for activism amongst musicians and their fans by setting up OxJam gigs around the world. Link (via Rock The Dub)

I’ve always wondered what their sets were like. Comprehensive review of the Minneapolis show by Nate Patrin. Not sure if those extra setups are really worth that premium though. Link

Sure, the visuals might have had something to do with it: there were cameras set up at strategic points around Shadow and Chemist’s row of turntables, and Chemist went so far as to actually strap some sort of minicam to the underside of his wrist so we got to frequently see a bizarre fish-eye view of a gigantic palm and teeny tiny stubby fingers flipping through 45s. There were also copious visuals, including a funny takeoff of the James Bond film intros using the UNI label, weird cut-ups of the late ‘50s GM Motorama industry short “Design for Dreaming,” lots of shots of internal jukebox components doing their thing, and some deadly ninja throwing disc action. (There was also a kind of reoccurring, cloying vinyl-snob motif where a robot jukebox destroyed iPods using lasers – c’mon, like Timmy Thomas said, why can’t we live together?)

Update 04/28/05: Anonymous points out the pdf is actually another novel he wrote. The book on Endtroducing should be available this summer. Here’s an excerpt.