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Nas just dropped an outburst over NY radio and has made himself another legion of enemies. Nas's descent into irrelevance is getting tired, but the article does raise a good point about payola in the radio industry.


Point blank: commercial radio operates on a greased-palm system that's not only worse than the payola scams of the 60s, it's legal too. Every song you hear on top 40 radio was bought and paid for by the big labels. Every wonder why hardly anyone bangs hotness like Beatless and Ja Rule rules the airwaves? Read this eye-opening piece from Salon. Salon also features a dope run-down on Clear Channel, the emerging Microsoft of the corporate radio industry and an increasing force in concert promotion and ticket sales.

Vonteego Cummings got his name because his mother was a fan of the Volkswagen and Mercury Montego automobiles (scroll to last paragraph of this). That is originality. Like Jane F-onda, seen.

All Things Deep is a good place for music and politics: CTI, Lebron James, the 'Natti, Tweet, a deep groove encyclopedia (day-um), Lebron James, Zimbabwe, disco, etceteron. You know I'm interested in the opinions of anyone who's into Fela, Soul Drummers, and Okayplayer. What do you call that political affiliation?

Looks like the Blue Man Group (Intel ad cats, but much more) will be working with Dan the Automator. I hope Mayumana hook up with I.G. Culture ;-)

Check for Jaguar Wright. Haven't copped the album yet, but the single is tight (The What Ifs). She's mentioned here because the video is simple, raw, and comes with the most banginest surprise ending. Watch it here.

Looks like Comm's new joint will be a Neptunes/Mary J. affair. We already know what bpm it'll run, but I too am looking forward.

Saw the movie Pi yesterday. Wasn't real impressed. . . a lot of the themes were kinda hokey and didn't connect with me. Lots of the same visual tricks as Requiem For A Dream (same director), which hit me a lot harder. One thing's for sure: the new Batman movie will have lots of quick shots of dudes taking pills.


Pi did connect with me on one angle though. There's a lot of talk about the mathematical patterns found in nature, and the question whether the natural world is just one big mathematical equation. On the same tip, Wired did an article a while back about Stephen Wolfram. He's a super genius who made a mil, then become a recluse for a hot decade or two while he spent nights reading up every branch of science. The product of this work is the book A New Kind of Science. Word is, he thinks that the universe can be explained with a few simple algorithms. I doubt he's discovered the secret to the universe, but I'm always curious about this kind of thing because of the strong link between math and music.


Lovin my NetMD Walkman though. It lets you use each Minidisc like a rewriteable MP3 player, so you can throw different stuff onto each Minidisc and rotate them through. Tight. And if you're always rocking the ear goggles, reasonably priced.

Nice OKP discussion of Greatest NBA fights. Okayplayer is the spot where ill people congregate - I've never heard of half of these fights!

Foley (bio, article) is a multi-instrumentalist who has played alongside Miles Davis, Prince, and George Clinton. Today, he has somewhat of a cult fanbase and is DIYin' it. I've hardly heard any of his music because it's available nowhere, but I would describe what I've heard as funk/rock/jazz.


Brethren also has the greatest web site of all time, Smartalecmusic.com. Specifically, check:

- Foley's high school pics (the last one features the coolest guy of all time, standing in the centre with glasses)
- A message to his fans
- The "Fire" Station

I cannot find his music available for sale anywhere on the web. So you have to recognize. Foley can play and he makes whatever music he feels. We need more Foleys.


WARNING: You prolly want a hi-speed connect if you want to view Foley's site, because every page is like, hand-drawn with embedded music and huge in K.

I'm not a big technology guy, but I like to see things like the emergence of voices in Iran. Wish I could read Persian.

Irani President Mohammed Khatami is worth following. He's a reformer, and from what I've read he strikes me as one of those calm, smart guys who genuinely wants to do good.

Iran is an interesting place because it's been ruled by an Islamic government for over 20 years, and now there's change coming from the inside. Reforms are giving people some of what we think of as traditionally "Western" freedoms, but it's happening in a very Islamic way. I'm not the best-read Middle Eastern politician cat, but I do think this is the real solution the clash of civilizations that we are seeing right now. When the West installs puppet governments or bombs and then runs, it doesn't solve anything. When people have a chance to develop their own kind of democracy that builds on their own culture and history, their country is stable and prosperous. And if countries like Iran develop their own progressive legal and economic systems that are markedly different from ours, all the more power to them. Maybe we can learn something from them.

Here's a little sum'in sum'in on Iran. Explore a few pages of Google results to learn more bout Khatami.

Remember Dig Planets' Blowout Comb (now reissued on vinyl)? That was the shit! The first Digables was eh, but this joint is right up there with Gang Starr in my jazzy books. The beats are all sick jazz samples and rough breaks, the lyrics were a lot more political than album uno. I'll never forget how fresh this was when it came out. . . I'm sittin here thinking about it, and I don't think there's ever been ANY video as straight cool as 9th Wonder. Ol' Curly knows what I'm talkin bout! When Ish is walking up the stairs to the platform at the beginning. Too cold. Over. When that shit comes out on DVD, I'm there. Update: ?uestlove (via OKP post) informs that he has tracked down Mecca to bring her back from obscurity.

And how tight is the Korea-Italy result? I will never tire of seeing upsets from the countries that get no shine. Now the developed world is seeing Korea and Senegal in a different light. "Gawrsh, maybe those ethnic people can bring it too?"

Creative Commons is an American non-profit founded a few weeks ago on the principle that: "some people would prefer to share their creative works (and the power to copy, modify, and distribute their works) instead of exercising all of the restrictions of copyright law." Their main project is putting together a digital library of public domain audio, images, and video that artists of all kinds can access for raw material. The site simply and eloquently explains the project and their reasons for doing it, so go there for more info.

One of the key people behind this project is Lawrence Lessig, a guy who's heavy on limiting the power of corporations to expand their powers of their copyright.

Also worth checking: Okayplayer discussion on best album of 2002 thus far.

The new Slum video is out. I love these cats. . . Baatin has a lot of character going on. . . if they get the right bounce, Slum might start eating. I truly hope Tainted blows up this summer so I'm not stuck listening to Lil Bow Wow's baskeball song.

The INI album has finally come out in non-bootleg format. For those who don't know, INI was a Pete Rock-produced group that came out in the mid-90s with one great single (Fakin' Jax plus rmx) then got shelved. These songs have been around for a while on various bootlegs, but it's nice to see the album come out with the real tracklisting, etc. Must-have lost soul beats. Oh, and INI also contained Grap Luva, Pete's brother and now a future-minded producer/MC. He went on to do J-Live's modulating-tempo classic Them That's Not.

"Ralph Nader wants the NBA to review Game 6 of the Western Conference finals, saying the nation's confidence has been shaken enough lately by business headlines." Here's the full article. My take on this? I dunno, I just think it's mad weird that Nader is taking the time to attach his name to this. Isn't there more important stuff to worry about? If it means that future teams have a fair shake at the Lake Show (last time I got elbowed in the face, it was a foul on the other guy), then go at it Nade.

Evil Monito is a net magazine that reminds me of Giant Robot a little. Similar themes: hip hop, road trips, toys, skating, design. Check the Mos Def interview, the Giant Robot piece and a take on the evils of buzz marketing.

To finish up my thought on stories from Africa: I think pop culture can gain a lot from exploring the perspectives and ideas of other cultures. This thought hit me years back when I read Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and just found the rhythm of the story to be different from Western things I'd read. That story is the product of a whole different set of experiences from my family and friends here. Imagine how much richer Western culture would be if we were presented the culture and wisdom of Africa in a blockbuster format. Can you imagine how dope a Lord of the Rings-type fantasy could be if it was based on ancient African civilizations rather than medieval England? I can.

This piece on Hype Williams is worth a read. I remember 6 years ago (Mase "Feel so good" era) I was so sick of all the same old same old in his videos: fish-eye lens, Fatima dancers, a colour-theme that played throughout, copy x10. Now that he's no longer overexposed, we can look back at the highlights of his work and see how much he brought to the table.

Eyeball the man's body of work and they'll both pop out. Blackstreet "No Diggity": the kneepad dancers and the future blues club were both from some parallel universe. Ja Rule "Holla Holla": the bouncing car. Busta "Gimme Some Mo": so many shots, and what the fuck was going on? It was like hip hop psychedelia. Jay Z "Big Pimpin": the Carnival scenes are just raw, pure distilled money and sex.

On a complete tangent: I've always thought that there's mad potential for the directors of the years to come to adapt stories from Africa. Today's biggest movies, with the biggest cultural impact, all borrow from the past, whether it's from comics (Spiderman) or 50s sci-fi serials (Episode II). The best stories have always been adapted from the stories of the past. Africa is the home of the most stories in the world, and most of them haven't been heard outside of a small area. More on this tomorrow. . .

Trivia: Hype's first video was for Freestyle Fellowship (!)

Here's the definitive Hype (and disciples Paul Hunter and Little X) site.

There's a nice little interview-laced piece on hip hop in NY circa 1982 in the new issue of Urb with El-P on the cover. I like stuff like this that brings you back to the dynamic of what it was like to be in a certain musical place place at a certain time. Last quotation is Zephyr:


"Hip hop has transcended anything having to do with any of these specific cultural mediums or entertainment mediums. It's like a state of mind now. It's just like, "yo, are you hip hop or not?" If you're hip hop, you understand that we're in a multicultural world, and if you're not hip hop, you're just like some fucking conservative Republican motherfucker."


Dude is generalizing but I see what he's talking about.


Early runner for summer jam 2002 is the Truth Hurts and Rakim. Here's the video and the remix. I hope more producers raid Bollywood, these are hotness. . . plus who knew DJ Quik was into anything next? I like this new Outkast joint too. They had a sped-up jungle-type track like this last summer as well, but I forget what it was called. One of those pieces that you don't bump on the regular, but it's pushing things.