Hookers & Blow

The fight between CDBaby and Avalon continues...

If you're a regular participant in Hookers and Blow then you know about the argument between CDBaby, Moses Avalon and iTunes. I'm going going the rehash it here (look in the archives), but I am going to link to a lengthy analysis of the contract, done by Suzette Becker , an entertainment lawyer from New Orleans. An Analysis Of A The Contract

On a side note, this argument is a tremendous waste of time. iTunes and CDBaby are not going to run the new music business. It's going to be Microsoft. And their contracts are going to be old school. Meaning, be happy they decided to offer your shit...

MTV is dead and the future of the music business

As a public service to those of you who still have actual jobs in the music industry, I thought I would take a second, between my sips of Chartreuse, to fill you in on what you need to know the prosper in the new music future.

1- The album is dead - No matter what Metallica and Anthony Kiedis think, it's over. People just want the songs they know. If you're good they maywant your album, but don't get your hopes up. Now some of the foolish folks at the RIAA will tell you this is because of downloading. Now that just shows you how out of touch they are. Consumers these days know what's wrong with them and what medicine they want before they visit a doctor. Do you really think they would accept record companies telling them what what format they have to get a song?

Which brings me to number 2.

2. Consumers now run shit. The days of shoving songs down consumers throats are almost done. They will now not buy it. They have too many other choices by industries who actually give them what they want. They will not pay high prices. They will make you lose money and look foolish. Listen to them.

3.MTV is dead Everybody knows this except the folks in the music industry. Even MTV realizes it. Young people are spending more time online than they do watching tv. read about it Do you really think that trend is going to stop? Somebody somewhere is,as you read this, putting together the online version of MTV. How much you want to bet they are not a part of the RIAA? And everybody is going to want to work for them for very little money and feel they are doing something special

4.If you're not moving you're standing still-your customers are on the road. They are buying MP3players, cellphones and shit like that. If you are part of a label and are not getting your music to those avenues you are dead before the game begins. Upoc and the like are not the future. They are actually making unknown bands known. You really think all that text messaging on American Idol was a joke. C'mon, when was the last time the phone company put money in a loser?

Oh, and some quick tips for band members...

5.Be Tom Sizemore Just like Tom Sizemore (though he beat up many a girlfriend) was able to parlay his voice into backend points in the best selling video game of all time, smart artist are diversifying like a motherfucker.. Fame does not pay the bills. Hawking mops to middle age women as if mops were cool pays bills. Work together. Some of the rock and roll types seem to think that if someone has a bunch of gold teeth they don't know what the fuck they are doing. Actually Rappers parlayed the future right in front of your face and it's time to recognize. Get on every record of every band you know. Ashanti built a career by singing on other peoples songs. It saved Rob Thomas' career. Swallow the pride and network.

In six months someone's going to take out the cuss words, put together some complete sentences and get on the lecture circuit with what I told you here. Save your change.

A "Fair and Balanced" look at Janet Jackson

We are part of the Rhythm Nation. It worked for us. We dug the psuedo military look. Janet's 'Miss You Much' inspired some things we can't even mention...

Janet's back in the studio.

And she's working on a dance record.

We hear she's working with James Murphy of DFA and LCd soundsytem. Virgin still has the new album on the slate for 2003 before christmas but look for it in late 2004/ spring 2005 if Janet has her way. Janet is notoriously slow. The office folks want it at least before the end of their fiscal year. We'll see who wins.

Plus she needs time to lose some weight...especially for a dance record...

Janet was supposed to be a part of the remix of "Pussycats" which is Missy Elliott's next single. It would have been a little gift to wait until the Janet's album...but this won't happen, the record company has cancelled this project because of its politics. I still what they did with Son Of A Gun though. Carly Simon rapping was one of the strangest sounds of 2001...

Now there's also a rumor that she married J. Dupri. Hmmm, could that explain the weight gain...

Was Elvis a "Wigger"?

Interesting article about the phenom of wiggers.

Whites have always loved black music and culture, including jazz, blues and rock 'n' roll. But the question of today's youth's fascination with black culture is whether it's a culture clash or an exchange.

The fact that it's from a black perspective makes it interesting, imho. But if it comes across as too high brow for you there's always wiggaz.com

I find it funny that nowhere can I see a list of famous wiggers, even though they are everywhere...So I made a short list of famous wiggers...

Eminem

Mariah Carey

Christina

Elvis

The truth about Tom Sizemore

The luckiest man alive is Tom Sizemore. Actually his story is kinda tragic.

Tom is a brilliant actor. Always has been. I personally would list him in my personal top 7 actors I would pay to see. His work and choices are always interesting. ( I really loved his voice work in the Vice City video game) He was in one of the best movies ever made. The man is friends with Michael Mann. He has 2 movies in post production. But he has a problem.

He beats up women.

This is not anything new. He has had this problem his entire life.

He's accused of abusing his former fiancee Heidi Fleiss. Now right now he faces up to 13 years in prison if convicted of all 16 counts, including vandalism, threatening to inflict injury to a person or property, corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition, and making harassing phone calls.

The thing is, he's probably guilty. He's lucky his fiance is a former madam. A famous former madam. A famous former madam who writes books he financed.The real question is will the jury send a famous man to jail for beating up on a hooker?

Their are reasons Tom was (and is) so attracted to Heidi in the first place. But that's not for a blog with Hooker in the title.

The charmed life of Steven Van Zandt

Some folks manage to live charmed lives. Steven Van Zandt has managed to end up in one of history's greatest bands and television shows. But he's not resting on his laurels...Steven, to his credit, tells the truth about what he does, but until now, he has done it in a way that only the cognoscenti can understand. That is until I took the time to read his essays...

."..I don't know about the origins of life, evolution, or the afterlife, Heaven, Hell, or reincarnation. And I don't care. I don't believe any of it or disbelieve any of it. It's like UFO's to me. Maybe they're real, maybe not. I don't give a shit. I believe in right now. Either you are trying to learn the truth about yourself or you're not. Either you are making this planet a little bit better for your neighbor and the next generation or you're not..."

Did I forget about his radio show which broadcasts around the country...

He's the guy we'll tell our kids rock & roll was all about.

Swiffer's Good

A little bit of me died yesterday...

"Whip It," the 1980 song that was the anthem of the band Devo's rage against a society dehumanized by industry and commercialism,is now the theme of a Procter & Gamble Co. TV campaign for the Swiffer line of home-cleaning products.

In a new version of the tune, Devo lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh substitutes the lyrics "Swiffer's good" for the "Whip it good" of the original.

-thanks ToT

Blackout Media Coverage and Tupac Shakur

Media coverage of the blackout deserves a C+ at best...

Major problems include completely ignoring other major cities except New York for hours. (In actuality it's cities such as Cleveland and Detroit who will face the most problems, not New Yorkers.)

Only ABC had a resonable explanation for what caused the blackout. It was delivered at around 5:45pm cst by Richard Clarke. Every other network (at the time of me writing this) has completely ignored his software theory and continue to claim unbelievable causes such as "lightning" and "a fire at a transformer". Let's be real. (Does anyone (beside journalists)really think that knocking out 1 transformer will knock out power in the entire NE cooridor?)

The lack of early investigative reporting was disheartening but expected. We did get stories about cash registers not working and folks buying ice cream, though. Plus Jon Stossell said the event was 'inspiring'. WTF?

winners:

The Ohio Lt. Governor--Lot's of voicetime and some facetime as folks began to realize the real story wasn't in New York. Expect to see her more tommorow.

Richard Clarke- People will think the Bush Administration was stupid to let him go.

Ted Koppel- Instead of using the irritating trait of answering questions for guests (Connie Chung had that down to a science) he would actually let them talk. He handled the crisis well.

Bill O'Reilly- Because he had the sense to say that the Mayor of New York should tell people to stay home on Friday. I'm sure other mayors took his advice.

The other story that mattered... Rap mogul Suge Knight, currently serving 10 months in an L.A. jail for a parole violation, isn't just making license plates. Knight's label will reportedly release another compilation from hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur, Death Row Presents 2Pac Nu-Mixx Klazzics, Oct. 7 on Death Row/Koch Records, with 10 tracks remixed by the label’s production team, Tha Row Hitters.

The first single, "Life Goes On," ships to radio on Sept. 9. Resurrection, a documentary on the late rap star, who was shot down by unknown assailants in 1996 in Las Vegas while Knight drove him in his car, hits theaters this November.

Why did I decide to link these two seemingly unrelated stories? Because that's what Keith Olbermann would do when he isn't telling us the number one story of the night involves strippers.

"Good Luck and Good Night."

How Beyonce destroyed Rap Music

Rap music left Public Enemy behind years ago. They are multi million dollar enterprises which worry about films getting leaked more than sneakers.

One day I'm going to sit down and write some of the rap stories I have...

Today, though, let's look at a split that's developing in one of it's most profitable enterprises...

"Damon wants to be a baby Puffy. He's spending aimlessly on the company. He signed ODB against Jay-Z's consent. Jay has had enough. This has been brewing for years. Jay is reserved and cool. Damon is flashy. He's had liposuction twice."

Damon Dash is company president of Roc-A-Fella. Roc-A-Fella is the company of Jay-Z. Maybe you saw him on 60 Minutes II...
Dash's spokeswoman denies the Daily News report that Jay-Z's relationship with Beyonce Knowles is also contributing to the men's growing estrangement. "That's just not true," she says.

There are also reports that The two Roc-A-Fellas are said to be in the early stages of dividing up their mini-empire of music, fashion and movie production. Last year, Roc-A-Fella signed a four-year extension of its agreement with Island Def Jam, which distributes the label's artists, including Beanie Sigel, Cam'ron and Victoria (Posh) Beckham.

One website, RapDirect.com, reports that Def Jam's Lyor Cohen has sanctioned a plan that would allow Dash and Jay-Z to each have his own label and artists under the Roc-A-Fella umbrella.

We've learned that Jigga may want to develop artists with Steve Stoute, the former Universal Music executive who helped launch his "S. Carter Collection" sneaker line for Reebok, and is planning a black sneaker tied to "The Black Album," Jay's much talked about last CD, due in November.

This is not the first time a woman may bring down a musical empire. We would just prefer if a rap empire was bought down by a female rapper like Eve. (Sex scandal be damned!)

For more info visit-EUR

The Fine Line Between Kissing Ass and Real Praise...

There's a fine line between kissing ass and giving real praise. Where this comment falls we don't really know.

While movie critics continue to bash J.Lo's latest movie, "Gigli," rapper Joe Budden who has teamed Lopez on the remix single to "The One," had nothing bad to say about the sexy singer/actress.

"She's the coolest chick you could ever meet," Budden told AllHipHop.com. "She's very down to Earth, very humble, very focused. She was just ill - everything about her."

The original version of the single, which impacts at radio August 11, is the fifth single from her album, This Is Me...Then, while the remix is the sixth single to be released.

The reason we give a fuck about about what Joe Budden has to say is because he's been making some noise on the mixtape circuit by allegedly dissing 50 Cent on the latest DJ Clue tape.

Is this guy making all the right moves to get to the bigtime or is he just a hip hop politician playing all of us? Why is he the only person to spend more than 15 minutes with Ms. Lopez and have only good things to say? Can you be too contrarian in hip hop?

Budden has actually been signed to Def Jam for three years but they are just getting around to putting the machine behind him. Some insiders are actually shocked MTV has jumped all over Budden, most had money on Chingy being the summer phenom.

In salute to Budden, my favorite hip hop contrarian, I'm going to be contrary and post a picture of Chingy. I'm sure Joe get's the joke...