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themostamazingwebsiteontheinternet

I'm going to suggest that this is the BEST of web 1.09.

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Born and raised in L.A.’s Nickerson Gardens Projects, Jay Rock [born Johnnie McKenzie] proudly proclaims, “I represent the ghetto.” Expressing his disdain for rappers who seem to care more about image and swagger and less about lyrical talent, Jay Rock is on the fast track to bringing back that rawness that seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle after Rap became Pop music.

In the media he’s been labeled "the real deal" and even "the last of a dying breed," but Jay is just happy to have finally gotten his big break from the concrete streets to a contract with Warner Brothers. Ready to live up to the tremendous buzz surrounding him through countless cosigns, Jay Rock (whose debut album Follow Me Home is slated to drop this fall) has already collaborated with some of the most recognizable names in the industry including The Game, and Lil Wayne.

Only time will tell in regards to longevity within the Rap game, but for right now, this kid’s got next.

Influences: “I love [2Pac], N.W.A. [click to read], Ice Cube [click to read], the whole Death Row [Records] --Snoop [Dogg] [click to read] and everybody, Biggie, Scarface [click to read], I love everybody. A lot of oldies too, like The Temptations [laughs]. Even my homies influence me. My big homie Dude Dawg signed me, he made it out the hood and came back and grabbed me outta there too…and of course my mom.”

On How His Teenage Poetry Writing Helped Get His Bars Up: “[Writing poetry had] a big influence on my rhymes… at the time I was writing poetry; I wasn’t really trying to ‘rap’. It was just expressing myself on paper. As I started feeling Rap, poetry made it easier for me to move over. Poetry got a whole lot of thought to it. More emotion goes into it too—so I think it helped me a lot.”

On Working With Lil Wayne: “There was an L.A. concert- I grabbed a few of my dudes and rolled backstage. We weren’t concerned about the show, wanted to see the artists and make some connections, you know? We ended up out by the tour buses after and I saw [Lil] Wayne [click to read]. I told him straight up ‘I’m the new nigga in the city. I need you on a track’. He was like ‘Whatever you need, I got you’. Wayne…he’s a real nigga. He could've given me a fake number, but he didn’t. He looked out for me, like ‘Call me when you ready.’ I gave him a call and we made it happen.

Wayne inspires me. Seeing how he go in—he works like he hasn’t made it big yet. That tells me a lot. That tells me I got to go in harder too. If Wayne can still write a rhyme a day, I need to be writing two or three a day. [Laughs] I need to be hustlin’ and doing it.”

On What It Means To “Represent The Ghetto”: “It means telling the ghetto stories that public doesn’t know about. We getting’ beat down in the hood, that’s why we hustling and killing. I tell the real about what’s going on. The 10 o’clock news talks about kittens stuck in trees, and how the firefighters had to come and rescue it….but meanwhile two of my homies got shot and its nowhere on the news. Niggas is dying and it never makes the news.

When you rep your hood, you gotta rep it right. It’s about telling the stories so people know what’s really going on.”

On Having A Black President: “[Barack Obama is] making a change…a little bit…but we still struggling. The change is gonna be when people aren’t struggling, ‘cause that will take away from some of the violence. People won’t be as violent when they aren’t struggling to survive. It’s still a struggle now, but [having the first black President] is big for us and I'm happy…I hope it does end up making a big change.”

Read more on this Watts, California emcee here............
http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/dxnext/id.119Born and raised in L.A.’s Nickerson Gardens Projects, Jay Rock [born Johnnie McKenzie] proudly proclaims, “I represent... more

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4 hours ago

Howard Dean Is Viral Again

Howard Dean is in a "viral video" again, but this time it's not because he made a speech and yelled... more

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4 hours ago

16 Important Movie Scenes on Buses

Did you know that July 4th is not only our nation's birthday but the day the first bus was built? Some say 1662, others the... more

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6 hours ago

Peer to peer, Sarkozy ci riprova

Processo in Francia per gli utenti che scambiano file protetti da diritto d'autore, film, telefilm e musica, con il peer to... more

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8 hours ago

YouTube wins key ruling in class action case

Google and its YouTube video-sharing site won dismissal of some claims for money damages in a proposed class-action copyright infringement lawsuit by England's Football Association Premier League.

In a July 3 ruling by U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton in Manhattan, the group's claim for punitive damages under U.S. copyright law was dismissed, and a claim for statutory damages was mostly dismissed, with an exception for live broadcasts.

"There is no circumstance in which punitive damages are available under the Copyright Act of 1976," Stanton said in the ruling. Statutory damages were dismissed with respect to most "foreign" works that weren't registered in the U.S.

YouTube, bought by Mountain View-based Google for $1.65 billion, was sued in May 2007 for allegedly permitting rampant postings of copyrighted material without permission. A separate lawsuit by Viacom, owner of MTV Networks and Comedy Central, also is pending in the same court.

"The punitive and statutory damages claims dismissed by the court were baseless from the start," Adam Barea, an in-house lawyer for Google, said in an e-mail. "We are very pleased with the court's decision and will continue to vigorously defend against the remaining baseless claims in the case."

YouTube and Google have said their actions are permitted under U.S. copyright law, which allows "fair use" of protected material. They also have argued that the Premier League hasn't done enough on its own to limit illegal postings.

"I don't think this is going to limit our case," said plaintiffs' lawyer Louis Solomon of Proskauer Rose in New York. "It's going to shape how we go about proving damages. We still have all of the other statutory remedies, such as compensatory damages and disgorgement of profit."

Proposed class members can still seek actual damages, and statutory damages will remain available to plaintiffs whose copyrights for live broadcasts were allegedly violated, such as the Premier League, the Scottish Football League and a French tennis association, Solomon said.

"There's a group of our class members for whom statutory damages are very important, because they have live broadcasts, and it's particularly hard for them to capture damages for those," Solomon said. "They still have the right to get statutory damages."Google and its YouTube video-sharing site won dismissal of some claims for money damages in a proposed class-action copyright... more

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8 hours ago

Murdoch on Twitter: "Be careful of investing here"

Seems like self-serving advice, Murdoch saying "no on Twitter, yes on MySpace." Not surprisingly, he even takes a jab... more

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9 hours ago

Nas and Damian Marley Give Update On Distant Relatives

When Nas and Damian Marley hit the studio to work on a record inspired by Africa, they only planned on putting out an EP. But as the artists continued to invest themselves in the creative collaboration, the album that was supposed to contain only a few tracks, grew into something bigger, and eventually evolved into a full length LP titled Distant Relatives.

Marley told Billboard.com, "Once we started working on the music, it was Nas who said to me, 'Yo, we should just make this a full album.' He really liked the energy, I guess."

Nas added, "I just think it was me and Damian finding our way. When you have two different artists working on a record when they're used to doing their own thing their own way, it's not as easy as people may think. We just flowed, and the next thing we looked up and there were so many songs done or so many songs started and worked on...we just decided to keep it going. It's not reggae. It's not rap. It's different shit for each of us."

The two recently previewed the album [click to watch] shared some of their music with Rock The Bells crowds [click to watch], and treated fans to records like "As We Enter," [click to listen], "Strong Will Continue," and "Africa Must Wake Up," all of which have garnered positive fan reactions.

"I like to come out and tell the people live in person, 'Yo, the album is coming' and give them a little bit of music to start to get excited about it," said Marley. "I think it also will help with the finishing of the album because we're seeing how things work."

Nas said that the Rock The Bells Tour has allowed fans to get acclimated to the idea of him doing a full album with a prominent Reggae artist.

"I know people are kind of like, 'What's happening? What's Nas doing? What's Damian doing? Is this really happening? So just being out here on the road we get a good feel from people about this whole thing."

According to Nas, the album is 90% complete. He expressed plans to continue touring with Marley once the album is released. Originally set for a June release, Distant Relatives is scheduled to hit shelves in August.

Read more on Nas and Damian here...............
http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.9444When Nas and Damian Marley hit the studio to work on a record inspired by Africa, they only planned on putting out an EP. But as... more

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9 hours ago

Parkbench Studies: The Myth Of The Executive Producer

Executive producer. In the music industry, it’s difficult to balance the difference between those two terms in this day and age. Just as devout sports fans memorize the coaches, the playbooks and the management styles, 2009’s Hip Hop consumer is likely to know the names of at least a few high profile A&R names, countless executives and a manager or two. To me, the single act that opened up that space were those big bold letters underneath the tracklisting on the back cover of CD – the executive producer.

Although names like Tom Silverman, Tyrone “Fly Ty” Williams and Juggy Gayles may have meant something to the avid liner note reader in the ‘80s, it’s presumable that two – if not three of these gentlemen (Tommy Boy, Cold Chillin' and Sleeping Bag Records founders) had no interest in getting exposure. Many times, their names came lines below God, Allah, mothers, girlfriends, weed carriers and block-boys found in rapper “thank you’s.” They were extra, behind the scenes and silent partners and catalysts in making the sales and impact that made the stars.

Russell Simmons, the premier executive for the first 15 years (and arguably last 15) of commercial Hip Hop was a little bit different. Just look at casting Blair Underwood in Krush Groove to play himself as an essential part of the Def Jam story, Russell seemed to largely fall back, even when the super-evasive Rick Rubin opted to act. Though he almost never goes quiet, Simmons, to this day, dodges a lot of credit he’s due, and while he’ll talk till the cows come home, seems as though he could care less about being seen – minus those new Phat Farm campaigns, which actually sold me on the brand more than ever before. How many classic Def Jam – and a few Profile back inserts could have – but didn’t sport Simmons’ name (alright, maybe RUSH Management logos did appear)? Think now to how even a pizza-cutter mixtape seems to have no less than three executive producers, many of which couldn’t decipher mechanical royalties from mechanical pencils. Russell Simmons was the first executive that became a Rap household name, and before the Def Comedy stuff, Life & Def and all his grand-standing ventures, he seems to have never wanted the fame, only the fortune.

With the new generation of boutique labels in the early ‘90s, whereby majors supplied strong musical ears and urban-savvy businessmen with imprints, that all changed. The industry was too cutthroat and image was too important. Whether they were subversive or overt, everybody seemed to lust Simmons' fortune, and many craved fame more.

Read more on this incredible story here..........................
http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/columns-editorials/id.1372Executive producer. In the music industry, it’s difficult to balance the difference between those two terms in this day and... more

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10 hours ago

Brüno Review

After a lesser-known feature film debut with Ali G Indahouse, Sascha Baron Cohen took another of his Ali G Show characters and created Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. The part-scripted, part improved mockumentary is a legitimate new comedy classic, and while the effect is a bit diluted with third of his characters in Brüno, Cohen’s flair for inappropriate humor is still going strong.

Brüno is definitely entertaining—there’s so much craziness going on from one minute to the next that you’re bound to laugh at it the whole way through. Without ruining the individual gags, nudity, violence and profanity are always worth mining for a laugh and Cohen handles them like a pro. The story is virtually identical to that of Borat (odd foreigner and his loyal assistant come to America with a camera, hijinks ensue) but it’s really only there as an ad-hoc way to link together the various stunts anyway.

What keeps this film from reaching a Borat level is really Borat itself. There are somehow still people left who fall for Cohen’s act, but it does seem like he had to try harder to find them than before. A much larger percentage of the movie is staged, and even when it’s not, people rarely react as explosively as you (or he) would imagine. The best moments in Borat came from people letting their guard down because the character mostly came off as a well-intentioned simpleton. In Brüno, Cohen often has to instigate his targets until anger is the only possible response—funny, but less unique.

While the Cohen’s purpose might be to expose people as homophobes, Brüno’s behavior is so over the top that the message is a bit muddled in the execution. Many of them are reacting to a legitimate annoyance more than his presumed homosexuality, and even those that are clearly less gay-friendly seem content to let him off the hook with a few eye rolls until he takes things too far. The Brüno character is more offensive than the reactions of some of the people he encounters, so while Brüno does features plenty of legitimate a-holes, Cohen himself is often one of them.

The best stuff here is still Cohen turning on a camera and slyly leading the subject down an embarrassing path; there’s just a lot less of that going on. Brüno relies mostly on shock value, and while most people like to say that they’re not easily shocked, they may find out that it isn’t as hard as they thought. As was the case with the show, Brüno is more interesting as a companion to Cohen’s other films than as its own entity, but issues aside, it’s a worthy addition to the family.

Read the rest here on the review...................
http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/movies/id.342After a lesser-known feature film debut with Ali G Indahouse, Sascha Baron Cohen took another of his Ali G Show characters and... more