Monday, May 11, 2009
The Real Top 50 Rap Blogs by Ms. Info
First off, no shots. A few of my peoples work at Vibe Magazine, so it’s all love.
That being said, I had a convo with one particular editor and he knows I’m in disagreement with a large portion of the Top 50 Hottest Rap Blogs List, me and pretty much everybody on the internets. In fact, the only people who seem to be cool with the list are A) Bloggers who were ranked fairly and don’t care about anybody else’s seeding B) Bloggers who had no business being ranked so high (close to no.1) C) Bloggers whose unrecognizable URLs may just get a boost from making the list.
Secondly, there’s no such thing as 50 hot rap blogs. That’s why most of us never heard of over half of the sites listed. In Vibe’s defense, it’s pretty much impossible to produce a list without backlash. This one will most definitely have people outraged. What’s a rap blog anyway? Eskay aggregates while Bol provides commentary. They’re both rap blogs nonetheless, but drive in totally separate lanes. Web heads cried foul at obvious snubs when the list first surfaced. IllRoots, ItsTheReal and RealTalkNY come to mind. Meanwhile, Vlad TV is red-hot, but it’s not a rap blog. WorldStarHipHop, as trashy as it is, is buzzing heavy, but it’s not a rap blog. My boys at MTV know I love Mixtape Monday (now Mixtape Daily), but it’s not a blog. Meanwhile, Kanye’s blog, while one of my personal favorites, has one too many interior design posts to be considered rap. As for RapRadar, arguably the most criticized site on the list, there’s no denying that it’s already one of the best out. They’re clearly separating themselves from the pack by adding original content to their repertoire. The thing is, web heads know magazines plan packages ahead, so RR most likely wasn’t up when the list was made. That’s been the complaint for the most part. For argument’s sake, if timing shouldn’t be a factor, then RR got robbed, cause they’re definitely hotter than most of the Top 10.
I initially wasn’t going to do anything, but a good number of folks reached out and demanded that I do my own list. As previously mentioned, there aren’t 50 rap blogs worthy of being called hot, good maybe, but “hot” as in buzzing and got people talking? No! So without further ado, here’s the list. Let the Bloog Bath begin. -Jackpot
20.Allhiphop.com Rumors
19.Fakeshoredrive.com
18.RealtalkNY.net
17.Rosenbergradio.com
16.Byroncrawford.com
15.Dontgetgassed.com
14.Negro Please By Ron Mexico
13.Illroots.com
12.The Rap Up
11.TheSmokingSection
10.Complex Blogs
9. Itsthereal.com
8. Illdoctrine.com
7. Dallaspenn.com
6. Cocaineblunts.com
5. Bol’s Saturday Night Workout
4. Onsmash.com
3. Missinfo.tv
2. 2Dopeboyz.com
1. Nahright.com
That being said, I had a convo with one particular editor and he knows I’m in disagreement with a large portion of the Top 50 Hottest Rap Blogs List, me and pretty much everybody on the internets. In fact, the only people who seem to be cool with the list are A) Bloggers who were ranked fairly and don’t care about anybody else’s seeding B) Bloggers who had no business being ranked so high (close to no.1) C) Bloggers whose unrecognizable URLs may just get a boost from making the list.
Secondly, there’s no such thing as 50 hot rap blogs. That’s why most of us never heard of over half of the sites listed. In Vibe’s defense, it’s pretty much impossible to produce a list without backlash. This one will most definitely have people outraged. What’s a rap blog anyway? Eskay aggregates while Bol provides commentary. They’re both rap blogs nonetheless, but drive in totally separate lanes. Web heads cried foul at obvious snubs when the list first surfaced. IllRoots, ItsTheReal and RealTalkNY come to mind. Meanwhile, Vlad TV is red-hot, but it’s not a rap blog. WorldStarHipHop, as trashy as it is, is buzzing heavy, but it’s not a rap blog. My boys at MTV know I love Mixtape Monday (now Mixtape Daily), but it’s not a blog. Meanwhile, Kanye’s blog, while one of my personal favorites, has one too many interior design posts to be considered rap. As for RapRadar, arguably the most criticized site on the list, there’s no denying that it’s already one of the best out. They’re clearly separating themselves from the pack by adding original content to their repertoire. The thing is, web heads know magazines plan packages ahead, so RR most likely wasn’t up when the list was made. That’s been the complaint for the most part. For argument’s sake, if timing shouldn’t be a factor, then RR got robbed, cause they’re definitely hotter than most of the Top 10.
I initially wasn’t going to do anything, but a good number of folks reached out and demanded that I do my own list. As previously mentioned, there aren’t 50 rap blogs worthy of being called hot, good maybe, but “hot” as in buzzing and got people talking? No! So without further ado, here’s the list. Let the Bloog Bath begin. -Jackpot
20.Allhiphop.com Rumors
19.Fakeshoredrive.com
18.RealtalkNY.net
17.Rosenbergradio.com
16.Byroncrawford.com
15.Dontgetgassed.com
14.Negro Please By Ron Mexico
13.Illroots.com
12.The Rap Up
11.TheSmokingSection
10.Complex Blogs
9. Itsthereal.com
8. Illdoctrine.com
7. Dallaspenn.com
6. Cocaineblunts.com
5. Bol’s Saturday Night Workout
4. Onsmash.com
3. Missinfo.tv
2. 2Dopeboyz.com
1. Nahright.com
The XXL Editors Received This Letter From Louis Vuitton Concerning The May 2009 Cover Of Rick Ross
NEW Monday May 11 2:25 PM CDT posted by XXL admin
The XXL Editors received this letter from Louis Vuitton concerning the May 2009 cover of Rick Ross.
Dear Editor:
We were dismayed to see the cover of the May 2009 issue of XXL Magazine, which features a photo of Rick Ross wearing a pair of sunglasses prominently featuring counterfeit Louis Vuitton trademarks. Because the photo has generated considerable confusion among your readers and Louis Vuitton customers among others, we feel it is important to clarify several points.
The first is that the sunglasses Mr. Ross is wearing were not made by Louis Vuitton, and in fact, are counterfeit. Louis Vuitton did not grant permission to Mr. Ross or to whoever did make the sunglasses to use our trademarks. The second is that no affiliation, sponsorship or association exists between Rick Ross or XXL and Louis Vuitton. The third is that counterfeiting is illegal.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to correct the confusion.
Sincerely,
Michael D. Pantalony, Esq.
Louis Vuitton Malletier
DjQuik & Kurupt team up for 'Blaqkout'...allhiphop.com interview
Philadelphia native and California adopted son Ricardo Brown a.k.a. Kurupt first came to the attention of the rap world as part of Snoop Dogg’s crew The Dogg Pound back during the rise of the West Coast based Death Row Records. Kurupt stood out from most West Coast artists with his unique delivery and emphasis on sharp lyrics as heard on such classic albums as The Chronic and Doggystyle before embarking on his own classic album Dogg Food with Daz Dillinger as part of The Dogg Pound.
Kurupt took a solo route and released the much heralded Kuruption in 1998 and the classic Streetz Iz A Mutha in 1999. 2001’s Space Boogie: Smoke Odyssey was met with mixed reviews and was the last time we would see the Dogg Pound together for a few years as Kurupt took a Vice President position with Death Row Records not too long after that album’s release. Since the reformation of The Dogg Pound after the 2005 West Coast Conference put together by Snoop Dogg, the group has released several albums which were met with disappointment by many of their longtime fans.
The Dogg Pound’s upcoming album 100 Wayz has been described by the group as their actual real return although there hasn’t been a release date given to the new album. Kurupt however seems ready to show fans that he can once again be a force on the mic as gears up for a brand new release with West Coast legend Dj Quik called Blaqkout and another upcoming album called Streetlight with rising producer Terrace Martin. AllHipHop caught up with Kurupt at a taping of Snoop Dogg’s MTV show Dogg After Dark to give us a very brief interview about his upcoming moves.
AllHipHop.com: You have the Blaqkout album coming out with DJ Quik. Tell us how you two hooked up for that?
Kurupt: We had talked while working on Snoop Dogg’s Ego Trippin’ album. I told Quik that it was about time for him to get down on that mic. We decided to go ahead and make a historical album together and that’s what we did.
AllHipHop.com: What can we look forward to from the album?
Kurupt: You can look forward to some classic music – some of the best new music coming out of the West Coast. You already know that with Quik doing his thing musically. Lyrically we are both back on our steez. It’s a great album – more of a party than anything else. It’s not about being super hard or anything. It’s just about having a good time – and it’s also some grown folk music – music that our generation can love and have a ball with as well as the younger generation. Get your step on to this!
AllHipHop.com: What was it like working with DJ Quik on a complete album together?
Kurupt: There are certain people that you work with where it’s a real experience and Quik is one of those people. Both of us have great experience in making music so it flowed like water. After I finish my Streetlight album with Terrace Martin, me and Quik will be back in the studio to work on the next DJ Quik & Kurupt album. That is something that we plan on putting out once every year.
AllHipHop.com: A second DJ Quik & Kurupt album is planned?
Kurupt: Oh yeah. The second one might be a little more hard-edged because we’ve got so many different ideas that we want to do together. Right now for Blaqkout we just wanted to make an album for people to have fun, get their step on, and just enjoy themselves. When your day has you down, this will bring you up.
AllHipHop.com: You mentioned the Streetlight album with Terrace Martin. Give us some insight on that.
Kurupt: Terrace and I are putting that together. We are about eight records in right now – bangin’ em’ out. Come May it will be complete and the mastering process will begin. We’ve got classics on that one too. Bobby Valentino gave me on that was straight stupid.
AllHipHop.com: Any new word on The Dogg Pound’s 100 Wayz album?
Kurupt: I just landed from Atlanta about four hours ago. I’ve been working on that with Daz for the past four days. We are just getting it right so that we can take it to Snoop so he can hear it and add his touches to the ballgame, you know, to the records that he wants to jump on. Daz put his imprint on that music too. We are trying to him them with this good a** West Coast motherf***in’ music. This is classic music that we are going to hit them with, from me and DJ Quik to me, Snoopy and Daz. Snoop did an album on me called Niggarachi Presents Kurupt the Kingpin. We are going to hit them off with that one too.
AllHipHop.com: What’s going to drop first out of all of those?
Kurupt: Me and DJ Quik’s Blaqkout. That’s coming out June 10th. After that album, I don’t know. Me, Daz and Snoopy are still working on 100 Wayz and Terrace and I are still working on Streetlight. Plus I have a movie that I wrote and that I will be co-directing called Emerald City. That’s a movie that me, Daz and Snoopy will be putting together.
AllHipHop.com: So you are still acting? What other roles are you doing these days?
Kurupt: I’m still waiting for the Days of Wrath movie that I did to hit the public so they can enjoy it.
AllHipHop.com: That’s the movie that you did with Wilmer Valderamma, right?
Kurupt: That’s right. Wilmer did his thing in that movie too. I have this other movie that Sticky Fingaz is going to drop, it’s a Hip-Hop opera. It’s a musical that Sticky Fingaz put together. I’m in it with Miki Phifer, Omar Epps, Fredo Starr and Lil Zane.
AllHipHop.com: How have you managed to stay around in this rap game for so long since 1993?
Kurupt: I have good partners and I keep my head to the grind. When you have your grind on, you stay relevant. Lately, all I’ve been doing is just keeping my business together and raising these kids but now I’m ready to go full force again. I also have great teachers who have taught me well from my dad to Snoop Dogg. I’ve got my deal with Fontana/Universal and I’m ready to push out these projects.
AllHipHop.com: You mentioned raising kids. Does being a family man have any impact on the kind of music that you make?
Kurupt: I’m going to continue being me. I make music that my kids and my mama can listen to and I also make music that is not for them. But I’m going to continue making the music that the public wants to hear from me.
Killah Priest - The Exorcist
http://rapidshare.com/files/230361022/Killah_Priest-The_Exorcist-2009-H3X.rar
Homosexual King responsible for the Bible...hmmm???
The printing of the King James Bible was sponsored by King James I of England. Until the printing of this version the scriptures were ". . . practically unknown either to clergy or to people." (1) In 1522 William Tindale, an Oxford scholar, considered translating the Bible into English. He met resistance and was exiled to Germany.
In 1525 the New Testament, partially translated by Tindale, was printed in Cologne. During the same year 6,000 copies of the Testament were smuggled into England. By the authority of the church they were publicly burned. The Bible was the first book ever to be banned in England. (2) Driven from town to town William Tindale was eventually strangled in 1536 and his body burned.
Queen Mary, the mother of James I and a devout Catholic, had commanded "that no manners of persons presume to bring into this real any messages., books, paper, etc. in the name of Martin Luther, John Calvin, Miles Coverdale, Erasmus, Tyndale etc. or any like books containing false doctrines against the Catholic faith".
The Puritans complained to King James that the Bible available to them, the Douay version, was corrupt and begged for a new translation. King James complied and in 1611 the first printing was completed.
King James I, at the age of 8, was able to translate aloud chapters of the Bible from Latin to French and then to English. James believed strongly that the Bible should be available to ordinary people, not just the clergy.
At the age of thirteen James fell madly in love with his cousin Esmé Stuart whom he made Duke of Lennox. James deferred to Esmé to the consternation of his ministers. In 1582 James was kidnapped and forced to issue a proclamation against his lover and send him back to France.
Despite his homosexual activities James later fell in love with and married Anne of Denmark with whom he had seven children. He was nicknamed Solomon for his ability to negotiate between the heads of the Catholic and Protestant churches.
FaFi x Adidas...fresh with a pair of dickey/khaki's
Parisian artist Fafi will be releasing her third collection this October. The lineup to feature five models, with a preview of the first seen here. Utilizing adidas Honey Mid’s, the sneakers take inspiration from Fafi’s world travels and upcoming comic book,
Common to possibly play B.A. Barackus in 'A-Team' remake
Rapper-turned-actor Common recently spoke on the possiblity of having a role in the upcoming A-Team film and described his anticipation of giving Mr. T's character a fresh look.
Keeping details to a minimum, the Chi-town emcee weighed in on the project's current status.
"I can't speak on it yet until we know what's going on but that would be an incredible character to play," Common explained. "I can't do the Mohawk but we got to do something, we got to find something to make it work... I would love to [do it], just to work with Joe [Carnahan] is so exciting...You know you need to keep your pace and patience and let things develop... I want it to be as diverse as possible, [but] first of all I don't want to act like I've been given the role of B.A. So let me be honest about that...[But] it's great to be in those talks...You definetly have to give it something different [than what Mr. T did]... It's a new day, you just got to give it something new. The kids don't know that B.A. so you wanna bring something new to it and you want to pay respect to B.A. and the way B.A was created, too. I believe there is a way to find a combination, I have certain similarities to Mr. T already. We are both from Chicago, we are both rebels in our own way. I could really get that, I could really get that." (IESB)
Ice Cube previously said he was being considered to star in the film.
"They want me to do it if all the business works out right," he said in an interview. "I was a fan as a kid and that would be, not a dream come true, but it's definitely a good thing to do and I would put it on my resume for sure...I wouldn't try to duplicate what Mr. T did, but I will have the same impact on you as when you were little watching the TV show. I'm going to bring my own flavor to it and I am going to do the Mohawk." (Black Film)
The film's producers and director were confirmed earlier this year.
The studio has set Joe Carnahan to direct and Ridley Scott to produce, with Tony Scott executive producing through their Scott Free banner. Also producing are Jules Daly and Stephen J. Cannell, the latter of whom created the original TV series. Carnahan will team with Brian Bloom to polish a script by Skip Woods. The intention is to start production by June for a June 11, 2010, release. (Coming Soon)
Certain aspects from the original series will be changed.
Carnahan and the Scott brothers say they will use the original premise of the series as the template for an action film. In the original, four Vietnam vets convicted of armed robbery escape from military prison and became do-gooder mercenaries. The Middle East will replace Vietnam as the place the four did their tour of duty, but Carnahan said the origin story is the jumping-off point.
DJ Qbert starts online DJ school
Critically acclaimed turntablist DJ Qbert has launched the first ever video-based online DJ school.
Now known as QSU (Qbert Scratch University), the San Francisco native brings over 20-years of experience to the online curriculum.
The courses range from basic cutting techniques, to advance classes detailing “battle” strategies to be used in competition with rival DJs.
Partnered in the project with Qbert is ArtistWorks, Inc, a company that develops Internet-based businesses for musicians by incorporating cutting edge distance learning and video technology.
The group utilizes a proprietary VMS (Video/Media Management System) for students to send their practice sessions over to Qbert.
From there, the QSU founder posts a detailed video response.
Students will have personal pages for regular peer to peer interaction for study groups and networking.
In addition, Qbert will use his network of industry contacts to have guest DJs and other professionals offer their insight into the music business, and the role of the 21st century DJ.
With scratching/cutting being a worldwide staple of Hip-Hop culture, Qbert explained to AllHipHop.com that he’s proud to have a platform to bring all aspiring DJs together.
"It's cool that scratching has so many fans around the world and we can all be in one place now and learn from each other no matter where we live,” he stated.
Talib Kweli & DJ Eque tie the knot....Congratz!
Rap star Talib Kweli cemented his relationship with DJ Eque yesterday (May 9) when the pair were married in Bel Air, California at a private residence. Kweli and DJ Eque tied the not during an intimate ceremony which included family and friends, including Queen Latifah, ?uestlove, Adam Rodriguez of CSI, DJ Rashida and others. The pair have been dating and engaged since at least 2007 and DJ Eque has produced several Blacksmith Music mixtapes. Talib Kweli is currently working with producer Hi-Tek on a new album as Reflection Eternal. Kweli can also been seen on Paris’ Hard Truth Soldiers Tour 2009.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Light Writing.....
From the site of Jens Heinen:
this is the first test of the new “lightprinter”. I made for Lichtfaktor.
With the “lightprinter” we are able to paint logos, words and patterns, just like they are printed in the air, this is the next step in “lightwriting”.
I created it using the Arduino Board. There are 40 LEDs which can be controlled with a software I made in Processing.
Speed and brightness of the LEDs can be controlled.
John Forte interview from OkayPlayer.com
John Forte: Outside the Lines
As he embarks upon his new career as a teacher at the City College of New York which started just weeks ago, John Forté is open. An Exeter Academy graduate and Grammy winning songwriter/producer, the Brooklyn native grew up with artistic values and limitless possibilities. Consequently, he has also dealt with his fair share of rules, regulations and rigid thought.
After a drug-related conviction in 2000 landed him in prison, John aspired to keep his train of thought as pure as possible during his incarceration. He wrote and recorded songs, but was not even allowed to hear what he recorded. He read books, but was questioned as to why he had so many. He wrote down his thoughts, but it was only with the help of friends that he could share brief quotes on blogs with fans.
After serving seven years, Forté’s sentence was commuted by President Bush, and he was home free just in time to see the new year of 2009 come to life. He immediately hit the stage and studio with longtime friend Talib Kweli, and began acclimating himself to a world that had changed immeasurably in less than a decade.
From communicating with fans online years before it was popular to mashing up Euro-pop and folk music with hip-hop, John Forté always excelled at being ahead of the curve. Now, as he plays catch-up with the world, he is preparing his third full-length album - undoubtedly with a unique spectrum of sound. Okayplayer spoke with John about his new career path, thoughts on education and music today, and why it’s most certainly bigger than hip-hop.
OKP: You’re one of the first artists that I knew of that had a website where you interacted regularly with your fans [in 1997], and Okayplayer became the next big juncture for that. As a person who has always been very progressive in technology, how do you think these new technologies play in to the music business now, as you understand it?
John Forté: I’m still garnering an understanding of it, but I think that, much to the chagrin of some and to the benefit of others, that technology has empowered the fans as well as the artist. Now artists have unprecedented access to their fan base if they want it, and fans can legitimate or delegitimize the artist because there’s so much information floating around out there. So I think that some artists are going to love the proliferation of information out there, whereas other artists are gonna be found out. And rightfully so - you reap what you sow.
I think all-in-all its good news. Like I wrote this blog when I came home, and technology was basically thrust into my lap quite literally. [I bought] a Blackberry, an iPod, a laptop… I had to catch up. A big fear of being away is that you’ll be left behind. We used to have a joke that you’ll come home and it’s like The Jetsons. Some young brothers go in and they get so much time that they think “Cars will fly by the time I touch down,” and to an extent cars are flying right now, at least metaphorically when it comes to the advancements that have been made in technology within the last 10 years alone.
When I left there was no Facebook, Myspace, or these social networking sites. It’s incredible and it can be humbling, but you can’t turn your back on it and act like it’s not somehow going to impact you or your family. Even ignoring it, you’ll somehow be affected by it. I was watching The State Of The Black Union about a year ago, and one of the guest panelists on it was saying we have a mentality where the older people in the communities of color will say, “Oh, my child knows how to use the computer more than I do,” or “They’re more internet savvy than I am” and the panelist said, “That’s not cute.”
We need to raise the babies and teach them. We can’t just relinquish all of this information and technology to them, we need to guide them. It’s no wonder you have predators abound out there actually getting through to the kids, because we’ll turn our back on our responsibilities, and there are technological responsibilities that we have. So we’ve got to suck it up. Just like we went to school and learned our ABCs and 123s, we have to learn how to utilize what’s before us.
OKP: You recently got a teaching job. I think it would be overwhelming to have so many thoughts in your head, and to speak to young people in these politically charged times. What are some priorities for you at the moment, in terms of what you would like to convey through your teaching and music?
John Forté: Teaching is really interesting. I read a really great book by Paulo FreireM called Pedagogy Of The Oppressed, and we in the Western developed world have a tendency to look at the teaching role not only with reverence, but as a one-sided vehicle. A teacher normally imparts that information with a certain amount of condescension, not negatively speaking, but normally the teacher’s role is, “I know this, listen to me, I’ll look down at you and feed you, and you’ll drink from the wellspring of my information.” Paulo Freire’s book is predicated on the notion that teaching is not like that, and that a teacher has to be as much of a student as a student has to be a teacher, so there has to be a willingness to exchange information rather than just forcing it from one and to the other.
So when I think of teaching I don’t think of it as me being the old, wise sage schooling the youth. I think I’m going into this with a willingness to learn as much as I have the willingness to impart information, rather than to just speak to someone. I’d rather just have a dialogue with young people and learn from them, and perhaps they can learn from me in turn. I feel the same way about music, it’s not just this one-way mirror, it’s all reflective. Like Kweli’s Reflection Eternal… it goes on ad infinitum, so as much joy as I might give to someone being on stage and saying something that resonates within them, it’s the same joy that I get in return.
What I do is a labor of love, so I’m extremely grateful. There’s not a day that I’ve been home that I’ve been to the studio and felt, “I’m too tired, I don’t wanna be here.” I love what I do and it’s a blessing to have this opportunity, it’s such a gift and I’m just wholly humbled by the opportunity. Whether the fans are buying albums or singles, or they’re downloading and sharing them, that’s almost irrelevant to me because that’s not what I’m doing it for. Yes, it’s a business, and I think like all things that the truth will come to the light, and I think that if people appreciate what you do enough that you’ll be compensated for it, so I’m not necessarily worried about that. I’m not from the mindset of trying to take all I can, hoard and run. I do this because I love doing it, and that’s my attitude whether I’m on stage with a guitar or in front of a classroom, there is a love for this.
OKP: You’ve been a person who has had pop culture references in your music in the past, and they say that everything reinvents itself and comes back in “new” trends. Are you seeing any particular hip-hop trends that are coming back, or hearing anything that you like about the music that’s out right now?
John Forté: I think we’re at the precipice of an awakening of sorts. When I was at the Highline Ballroom the other night, ?uest and Tariq (from The Roots) brought me up on stage and I said a couple of verses. Afterwards, a couple of young people came up to me and they had no idea who I was. They were like, “What’s your name? Is it Sean?” and it was eye opening to me, but it was also pretty cool because its almost like I kind of have a clean slate. So with any sort of misrepresentations that I may have made or others may have made of me in the past, it’s almost like I’m getting a second shot at this.
The one thing that I’m particularly inspired by is this amalgam of genres, the kids’ unwillingness to identify themselves as one thing over another. They’re listening to punk rock and dressing like hip-hop kids, but they can just as easily play speed metal guitar. The walls are coming down, and with that is a mindset that we are entitled to every square inch of this earth. We might not feel that, “This is my corner or block and I had better stay here.” I think that young people and young musicians are embracing each other, so you’re seeing these collaborations that might not have taken place 10 years ago. I think it’s cool, not to mention I think that we’re about to really start saying things again, which has always been good.
OKP: I think the fans appreciate that some people are putting a little bit of thought back into their lyrics. There always has been the fun element as well, but I think that we did lose balance for a while.
John Forté: It’s still a business after all, and some people will come in and they might not be around 10 years from now, but they’ll make a killing and do what’s known as good business. I can’t fault anybody for doing good business as long as it’s not at the expense of others, as long as other people aren’t getting hurt. If you wanna make dance records I don’t care, who am I to judge you? Who am I to say that what I’m doing is more important or somehow more valid? Some people just want to dance, let them dance. I’m not hard pressed to watch anybody’s bankroll, that’s not my job. My job is to make sure that I’m okay and that my family’s okay.
OKP: Since you are a classically trained musician, you must have an in-depth understanding of everything that goes into creating original music. How do you think the knowledge you have of the music trends right now will affect how you put your album together?
John Forté: It can go either way. I can get too over the top with my theory and end up making something heady that most people might not be interested in, or I can not give myself enough musical credit at all and rely on old paradigms, which I hope doesn’t happen. I’m approaching the new record with openness. I don’t know where it’s gonna go, but I know that it’s not going to be sample heavy.
I know that I would like to have more instrumentation than not, the problem that I have with instrumentation in so-called urban music is that sometimes it sounds too clean, and urban music for me has never been clean. I’m not even saying that I’m doing urban music, because I’m actually writing folk songs and the whole nine yards. The one artist that I’m extremely excited about trying to work with is Lisa Hannigan, and she’s an Irish folk singer, so no way on God’s green earth will they ever call that song remotely urban if it comes to pass. But the music that I gravitate towards has always been a little darker and grittier, it’s always had that undercurrent of pain, resistance and melancholy.
Not to say that the message is, but it’s almost like going back to the W.E.B. Dubois notion of striving is how we as a people of color are defined. That’s been my life, even in the good times, I’ve found myself always striving. Right now is a good time for me, but I’m striving to get back and acclimate myself to society and technology all over again, and to the industry which has changed dramatically. I’m still striving, and I think that that striving will be reflected in the music.
Again, I think you can have instrumentation, but just to have one bar of instrumentation, meaning that I can do a song with just one or two chords. I can play it live and there won’t be any changes, bridges or any particular choruses, it’ll just be a two-bar song. But I’m playing it live and still connecting it to my instrumentation and that old notion upon which hip-hop was built, where the DJ found the break in the record and the MC just went in on it. I’m still that dude to an extent.
OKP: I’m glad that you brought up going outside of the boundaries and refusing to be defined by the music you listen to and make. Hip-hop is growing up, and a lot of people who are now in their 50’s were around for the beginning of hip-hop; they were the originators and they’re becoming senior citizens. How do you think that this next generation of hip-hoppers will define themselves?
John Forté: I think it’s going to stay in line with what hip-hop has always been to an extent, and that’s the willingness and the ability to speak truth to power. Whether you’re talking about the gangsta rap days or the Native Tongue days or the commercial days, there was always a subversive element lingering just beneath the hook or verse that challenged the status quo. Even if you’re talking about wanting to get rich, if you’re saying, “I’m tired of this condition and I’m gonna do anything that I can to get out of this condition,” it’s always just a check to the status quo. I think that is going to be the constant in hip-hop. I can’t say whether it’s gonna be more conscious, more gutter or more inclusive, but I think it will always have an underlying element of checking the status quo.
OKP: With your album, are there people you’re already committed to work with or that you want to work with who you feel will add to the sound you have in your head?
John Forté: Right now, for the past few weeks when I’ve been recording hard, I’ve just been downloading songs that I’ve written over the last seven and a half years from my mind to the computer’s hard drive in really simple skeletal forms, just so I can have time to really listen back to it. For all of these years I haven’t been able to hear my songs, I’ve been able to write and perform them, but I’ve never been able to sit back and listen and get a little objective.
In terms of who I’d work with, I think the sky’s the limit. I could have 100 people come in and work with them for the sake of working, but I’m not committed to say I will or won’t work with anyone. It is what it is. This is a cathartic time for me. This is a grand opportunity for me to use my voice again, and who knows what’ll happen. I have a title, Water Light Sound [which represents birth], but I don’t know what the album’s going to sound like.
- Dove ~Sheepish Lordess of Chaos~
Watch John Forte's "Homecoming," feat. Talib Kweli, below.
Ma Dukes...Jay Dilla's Mother, Mrs.Yancey chops it up with OkayPlayer.com
Ma Dukes, A Love Supreme
Posted on 04/17/2009
In anticipation of the new J Dilla record, Jay Stay Paid, out June 2nd on Nature Sounds, Okayplayer got the chance to chop it up with none other than Mrs. Yancey, aka “Ma Dukes.” Despite her recent diagnosis with Lupus, a disease that contributed to her son’s untimely departure, and ongoing estate woes (which OKP was legally advised not to broach), Ma Dukes maintains a light so very bright and sprawling as the Aurora Borealis. She’s a rare paragon of positivity, an example of motherhood done right and proof that it isn’t necessarily who or what you lose, but what you do after. The average human could have easily buckled under her circumstances, but not Ma Dukes. To her, it’s all about the love; it’s all about the music and the message. In essence, Maureen Yancey is the Dalai Lama of rap moms. And this is what makes her proud.
OKP: When Dilla first got into hip-hop, how did it strike you as a parent? Did you ever wonder, “why is that bass so damn loud?”
MD: laughs No no, never. Before Dilla was even one year old, he would stand up in his crib when he heard James Brown. That bass would get him up off the floor of the playpen and he would prop himself up with one hand and dance. He would dance until the very last beat but we would laugh because when the song ended, he would realize he couldn’t stand and walk and he would get this panicked look on his face like, “Now what?!” But even with that he couldn’t resist it. We knew the bass was a special thing to him. We just got used to it over the years. You know, when guys like ?uestlove and Common would come into town, we all shared the same home. They would work and we knew we wouldn’t be sleeping! Our heads would be bobbing along under the pillows! Hip-Hop is just another type of music and aside from my husband not liking the Opera; we love all kinds of music.
OKP: You and your husband are both classically trained musicians, right?
MD: My husband’s a jazz musician; he played upright bass and sang around the country for 25 years or so. They did shows like halftime for The Globetrotters and put out some records on Brunswick but he never parted with his job at the Ford Motor Company; that was always a mainstay! I had an aunt who taught music in schools, so my upbringing was more opera and classical.
OKP: How old was Dilla when he started experimenting with music?
MD: At two and a half we knew that was it, he was a record collector and a little DJ. His father and I took it for granted then, but his love of music made it easier on us.
OKP: Well, from a Dilla fan, thank you for being so supportive.
MD: You’re welcome! Music just meant everything to us; it’s what we love. In fact it’s how I met my husband. I auditioned for him.
OKP: To be a vocalist in his band?
MD: No, more as a solo artist. My parents had an idea that I could record as a solo artist so I auditioned with Mr. Yancey one time when he was on a break from his band. But I was content with my day job! I wasn’t looking for any singing job! After my audition, he took me to a club downtown called “The Hideaway.” He played the piano and I sang a bunch of standards. The owner wanted me to come back the next Monday and Mr. Yancey was a fast talker back then, he was in the business, so before I knew it, they had me coming back in a week to start performing! I still wasn’t looking for a job, but I was interested in him! I had to let him down easy with the singing though; I wasn’t ready for that lifestyle.
OKP: So you made away with a husband, not a record contract?
MD: Oh yes… I had my eye on him! But music is literally the cornerstone of our family.
OKP: So I’m guessing your sons’ “Yancey Boys” collaboration was a source of great pride for you?
MD: Yes, I’m very proud and I’m glad that Illa J (Dilla’s little brother) is bringing forth his own talent. All the Yanceys are gifted but they all have their own special talents. Illa was worried because we are a very critical family, of each other and of every thing! My daughter is super bad when it comes to being critical of things. She doesn’t listen to hip-hop, she doesn’t really like it; she’s an Alanis Morissette type. She’s the one that introduced John to a lot of different music. Now his favorite group is The White Stripes. But we just embrace music from everywhere; there is no certain format. There are no lines to be drawn. John will bring forth what he has to offer and his new things will be great.
OKP: When your sons were younger, was James a mentor to John?
MD: Well John was the kid brother, so everybody slammed doors in John’s face! Dilla would let him come down for a little while if he was working, but at a certain point no one was allowed to go down with Dilla, that’s how we knew he was working on something special. But John always had a penchant for writing. He was the only kid at the time; his siblings were teenagers and young adults. He adored them, but it didn’t stop the doors from slamming in his face! So he wrote a lot and he would sing. He would take his stuffed animals on the front porch and just sing to them as the traffic on Nevada passed by. He was in the church choir by age 5 and definitely held his own even though he was the smallest one.
OKP: In keeping with the family vibe, I understand you’re executive producing the new Dilla album?
MD: Yes and I intend to do that with everything that comes forth from this point on.
OKP: Can you tell us about the record?
MD: I can’t let any secrets out but what I can tell you is that it’s so spiritually fulfilling for me because I know what Pete (Rock) meant to Dilla. And Pete is very present in everything that goes on. Our house looks like a museum to Pete with all the posters! I talk with him daily and I know how honored and special Dilla’s spirit must feel knowing Pete is doing this. He adored Pete to no end; there was no one greater than Pete. He wanted to grow up to be Pete.
OKP: What was Pete’s main contribution to the project?
MD: Pete finished the parts that Dilla left undone, which only Pete could do. And I don’t think you could get it any closer to if Dilla had done it with his own hands.
OKP: With guys like Dilla and Pete Rock representing modern music; how do you feel the culture now compares to when you were coming up?
MD: The fusion of music is what I’m interested in now. The artists that fuse things like old soul and pop and rap, and the artists that are really bringing something new to the table; this is what intrigues me. It opens new ears to music and more people can find things in the music now. If you can find things in the music that appeal to you, you’re more in tune to what’s going on. If you don’t sit down long enough, you might miss the whole message. And we don’t do enough listening, even the older adults, we don’t. There’s so much good hip-hop and there are so many good messages, you just need to take the time to listen. And you can’t expect everything to remain the same. It’s the same story all through time. I mean, whose parents didn’t think it was a bunch of hogwash when they heard what kids were listening to! It happens every generation and I’ve watched it through a couple now. You have to not resist the love of the music. Sometimes I think we’re afraid to like things. But today, with all different music being fused, people shouldn’t be so afraid to like new things. Like me, myself, I love hip-hop.
OKP: Since Dilla’s passing, have you felt an outreach from the hip-hop community?
MD: Yes I have. It’s been a rough three years and there have been times I’ve had to call on the guys. I’ve always been able to call Common; it only takes one phone call. I know it would bother him if I needed something and didn’t reach out so with him it’s usually about a half hour and he calls me back. There’s never any question from him besides, “What can I do to help?” Even when we had the event at Cal. State on 2/22 (A live performance of the Suite for Ma Dukes EP), Common hadn’t gotten the message about the show. Illa J and I went to his concert the night before. I just wanted to lay low and leave him alone but we went back stage and saw him. He asked what was going on the next day and I could tell by the look on his face that he hadn’t gotten the message from his people. I lived with him a couple years so I know. He asked me to text him the info but I knew how busy he was with The Oscars and other obligations and I didn’t want to bother him. I knew he would be there with me in spirit. So the next day I went to the performance and I hadn’t been there a half hour when someone ran up to me and said, “Rash is here.” So that’s what I’m talking about. I’ve reached out to ?uestlove and Black Thought too. With Black Thought it’s a response within 60 seconds. Everyone has been wonderful. It’s like I’ve been given a host of sons. I feel loved and on Mother’s Day I get calls from midnight all throughout the day.
OKP: I think we’re all glad you’re getting that kind of support.
MD: It makes me feel so good to feel all the love for Dilla. My family is still very much in mourning. It takes different amounts of time for different people. My husband is a quiet soft-spoken person so he deals with it in his own way. My daughter was extremely close to Dilla and she may never be ready…
OKP: How close were you to James?
MD: Extremely close. Dilla and I talked through everything together, whether it was relationships or baby-mamas or whatever. We knew there was hardly anything we couldn’t get through together. It doesn’t get any stronger than a mother and her child. You never have to worry because you know you have somebody there 100%, always.
OKP: We fans have all heard the stories of Dilla performing onstage from a wheelchair and making beats in his hospital bed until his last days. How surreal of an experience was all this for you as a parent?
MD: You know what, it enriched my life. Now that I’m suffering from some of the same things, it gives special meaning to my suffering. It’s bittersweet because it’s bringing me closer to what he dealt with and it’s bringing me closer to what we shared. Because of that I’m able to deal with my own illness better.
OKP: How is your health now?
MD: I’m here so I’m grateful. I’m on steroids so I’m feeling good all the time! I’m Ma Dukes on steroids! laughs
But there was a beauty in Dilla’s passing because I realized he didn’t have to suffer anymore. I knew all the suffering because I was like his 24-hour nurse. Most people would have been in ICU just to get the care he needed on a daily basis on his tour but I was able to make it bearable enough for him to make it through. We stayed in the room all day and we just tried to keep him strong enough for the performance. But I was so blessed to have been there, nothing in this world could ever be as important to me.
OKP: Did you have any medical training?
MD: You never know what your lot in life will be. I worked for the IRS! But luckily I had some nursing training as a young adult. I also learned from the staff at Cedars-Sinai. Dilla had about 15 doctors and they had to teach me to care for him because he wouldn’t let anyone else touch him. He was very peculiar! laughs He was a funny guy but also very serious. In fact, he was serious most of the time.
OKP: Funny, his reputation around music and his music itself are both so upbeat and soulful, I wouldn’t assume he was such a serious dude.
MD: He was! I mean to a fault. My husband and I never forced our opinions on our children; they were to think as they wanted to think. We would raise them but if they thought differently we certainly wanted them to express that. Dilla was adamant about everything. Even if I started fussing, he wouldn’t back down. He wasn’t rash but if he made a decision he stuck to it and he wasn’t afraid of making wrong decisions.
OKP: Probably one of the reasons he made such great music.
MD: Oh yes.
OKP: It’s easy to speculate on Dilla’s legacy within music but in what other ways do you hope his legend will impact people?
MD: The J-Dilla foundation is to help fund Lupus research but that’s just one area. We want to promote arts for the children seeing that music and other programs have been taken out of a lot of the schools. We don’t have rec centers and we don’t have enough people because we can’t pay them. We want to start something like Amp Fiddler did here in Detroit. He never made a dime but he got it done by being so unselfish. He’s an unsung hero and he hasn’t stopped. This is something I’m looking forward to doing.
OKP: Any final words of wisdom for our readers?
MD: I just want them to know that Jay Stay Paid is a piece of Dilla’s heart. It would be so divine and so special for Dilla to know that Pete worked on it. When I met Pete I told him how Dilla worshipped the ground he walked on and I think it threw him for a loop because in this business you hear a lot of people just rubbing their gums together! But he told me how big a fan he was of Dilla’s and how special this was. So I just want everyone to know that they’re not just getting a piece of Dilla’s music, they’re getting a piece of his heart… You know, I’m just excited about music in general right now and what we all have stored up in our soul, the things we’re afraid to release and share with other people. We’ve all got gifts to share with the world, and not just music, we just need to learn to share and to not be afraid.
OKP: In the future, please let us know what we can do to help.
MD: Well ok, you’ll be hearing from me, it’s about to get real busy! The sun is out, everything’s turning around; I’m feeling great about everything! Like I said, Ma Dukes on steroids is gonna be wild!
- Jeff Artist
**Top illustration by Donald Ely. To see more of his work, visit Donald Ely's website.
In addition to copping Dilla's Jay Stay Paid, (proceeds go to Ma Dukes and the Estate of James Yancey) which is set to drop June 2nd on Nature Sounds, you can also help out Ma Dukes by checking out Suite For Ma Dukes on Stones Throw. Stones Throw also has a t-shirt with all of the proceeds going to Ma Dukes.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Rev Run's son JoJo arrested for weed...
By Houston Williams
The son of legendary rapper Joseph "Run" Simmons of Run-DMC was arrested for possession of marijuana on Friday night, according to published reports.
Joseph "JoJo" Simmons Jr. allegedly bought weed and was seen rolling the illegal substance in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, according to gossip news site tmz.com.
Sources within the police department told the site that the 19-year-old was inside a car when he was apprehended.
The sources also charge that he tried to escape by reversing and almost struck a police vehicle.
Simmons Jr. was charged with resisting arrest, attempted reckless endangerment, and criminal use of drug paraphernalia in addition to the possession charge.
No statement has been issued by the Simmons family or a representative.
"You can learn many things from your Children.. (Patience for instance! :-)," Rev Run wrote on his Twitter page.
Simmons, Jr. stars on the show "Run's House" with his father and the rest of the family.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Cam'ron Crime Pays (DIRTY version)
Tracklist
------------
01. Crime Pays (Intro) (Produced By Skitzo) 2:32
02. Cookin Up (Produced By I.N.F.O And Nova) 4:03
03. Where I Know You From (Produced By Skitzo) 4:03
04. Fuck Cam 1 (Skit) 1:24
05. Never Ever (Produced By Skitzo) 3:30
06. Curve (Produced By Araabmuzik Co-Produced By Skitzo) 3:44
07. Silky (No Homo) (Produced By Skitzo) 3:20
08. Get It In Ohio (Produced By Araabmuzik) 4:23
09. Who (Produced By Skitzo) 3:43
10. Grease (Skit) 2:10
11. You Know Whats Up Ft. C.O. And Sky-Lyn (Produced By Skitzo) 3:16
12. Spend The Night (Produced By Araabmuzik) 4:03
13. Fuck Cam 2 (Skit) 1:13
14. Woo Hoo Ft. Byrd Lady And 40 Cal (Produced By Skitzo) 3:50
15. Chalupa (Produced By Araabmuzik) 4:01
16. Cookies-N-Apple Juice Ft. Skitzo And Byrd Lady (Produced By Skitzo) 3:55
17. My Job (Produced By Skitzo) 3:47
18. Homicide (Produced By Skitzo) 3:43
19. Fuck Cam 3 (Skit) 0:50
20. Got It For Cheap Ft. Skitzo (Produced By YH) 4:11
21. Get It Get It (Produced By Skitzo) 3:14
22. Bottom Of The Pussy (Produced By Skitzo) 3:16
23. Fuck Cam 4 (Skit)
http://www.zshare.net/download/597072338bbdd59d/
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=E4DF9HTK
50 ways to make money online
The unattributed list below has been circulating in forums and reprinted on many “make money online” blogs since 2008. We’re reprinting it here to comment on each method individually. This particular reprinted list is from the reprint at iBanter — we’re reprinting the list here for “Fair Use” purposes of commentary and analysis.
1. Write and submit articles to the article directories.
How it works: The directories have Page Rank and they pass some of it to the links in the “About the Author” sections of the articles they publish.
Pro: Most article sites are free. Fairly straightforward and simple to do. Good for backlinks and direct traffic. For best results, pick only high value/high PR/highly categorized sites and submit manually.
Con: You run the risk of duplicate content penalties if you submit the same article to too many sites. Also, it helps tremendously if the article is categorized correctly and the article site’s permalink structure is search engine friendly. Using automated submitters produce less results than manual and ‘cherry picked’ submissions. If you’re not a writer, writing the articles might be a challenge. Fortunately, leased website copywriters are available for as low as $175 per month.
2. Leave comments on other people’s blogs with a backlink to your site.
How it works: The blog has Page Rank and it passes it through links in the body of commenters’ posts or in the hyperlinked names of the commenters.
Pro: Very effective way of getting backlinks from High Page rank sites.
Con: Wordpress comments are by default NO FOLLOW so link juice is not passed. Even if NO FOLLOW is deactivated (such as on this blog), the link builder cannot just use his/her keyword as a name. Many blogs require a real name only. Others require a name and allow for the keyword to follow. Example: “Jim - Funny Video Site”. For best results, the blog must be in the same category as the site you’re building links for. For Blogger/blogspot.com, comments are NO FOLLOW by default as well.
3. Answer people’s questions on www.answers.yahoo.com .
How it works: Yahoo Answers lists commonly asked questions regarding a particular topic. You answer a question in your site’s niche/category and stuff the useful and informative answer with keywords. You put your link as a ‘Source’. Yahoo’s own user database has tons of people that would click your source link so you get direct traffic.
Pro: Free. Great way to tap into Yahoo’s user base. Good for targeted direct traffic. Keyword-driven search results yield targeted traffic.
Con: The links don’t use text titles so SEO value is limited to begin with. Yahoo has since made the links NO FOLLOW which destroyed these links Google SEO value. Works best for frequent users not drive by “contributors”.
4. Post in forums and have a link to your site in your signature.
How it works: Whatever Page Rank the forum has is sometimes (depending on a few factors) shared with the links users place in the body of their posts or, to a lesser extent, their signature text links.
Pro: Free. Very easy way to get backlinks. You set your signature and you forget it. The more you post, the greater your links proliferate. Good addition to a daily linkbuilding routine if you visit and post on forums habitually. Some direct traffic.
Con: Link value is diluted by the tons of other links posted by other users. Signature-based links carry less weight than ‘in content’ (in post) links. The value of your backlink is greatly affected by how closely the forum you’re posting on meets the content category of the site you’re linkbuilding for. Also, many forums are now using NO FOLLOW tags for links, in post links, or both.
5. Write a press release and submit it to www.PRWeb.com .
How it works: PRWeb has a Pagerank of 7 and it passes on some of its page rank to links embedded in the categorized press releases published on its site.
Pro: Fast and relatively easy way to get a backlink from a trusted site. Not only do you get a backlink, your press release might be picked up sites that monitor PRWeb for category-specific releases.
Con: PRWeb is NOT free. The cheapest available package is $80. $80 for a backlink located on a site that has tons of other backlinks to other sites. To get full media distribution, you have to pay $360. You can get many more backlinks at cheaper rates from SEO linkbuilding services. However, periodic backlink building using PRWeb is probably a good idea to give new sites a good backlink start.
6. Advertise your website in the appropriate category on www.CraigsList.com .
How it works: Craigslist has a nice Page Rank. Posting your ad (with anchor text) in the right category lets Craigslist passes some of Craigslist’s link juice to your site.
Pro: Free. Backlinks from a nicely categorized high value site. Good for backlinks and direct traffic.
Con: Due to excessive spamming of Craigslist, posting has become more difficult since posters need a Phone Verified Account in order to post. This is quite a hassle specially if you’re not based in the US. Beware of scammers selling fake PVAs. Also, Craigslist employs some anti-spam measures.
7 . Give an unbiased testimonial on a product/service that you have used in exchange for a backlink to your site.
How it works: Highly popular or established product pages will have Page Rank. By posting your domain on their site they pass some of this PR to you.
Pro: Free.
Con: To get full SEO benefits, the product/service must be somewhat related to the niche/category of the site you are building links for. Finding relevant high page rank product/service sites can be time consuming. You are filtering for a) category b) Page Rank and c) do follow. Thankfully, there’s some tools that can make this task easier.
8. Start a blog and submit it to the 100’s of free blog directories.
How it works: Submission to any directory can result in some of those directory sites passing their PR on to your site.
Pro: Free. Third Party publishers that “leech” content off RSS feeds sometimes post your entries with your links intact.
Con: This opens you up to RSS hijackers which scrape your content and strip your links. You can protect yourself from this by setting up your blog to publish only summaries. This setting is in the “READING” section of WP setup. RSS feed hijacking can get so bad that the thieves sometimes rank higher than you for the keywords of your entry!
9. Manually submit your website to the major search engines.
How it works: Submitting your site to search engines reduces their effort in finding you. Once you’re in their database, they can index your pages, and rank them.
Pro: Saves the search engines time. Not like they care
Con: Based on personal experience and other webmasters experiences posted on forums, you get indexed faster if you submit to some key sites other than search engines. There’s even reports of submitted sites sitting for WEEKS without even one visit from Googlebot. Instead of submitting to the search engine, submit your site map using Google’s webmaster tools and submit to some major DO FOLLOW sites.
10. Optimize each page of your website for a particular keyword or search phrase.
How it works: Search engine spiders tend to be literal and, until recent developments, linear in their approach. You have to spoonfeed them as to where to go on your site and suggest what keywords to pick up. This makes for a more ‘directed’ system.
Pro: Free. Relatively straightforward.
Con: You need to expend some time and effort to find the right keywords for each section. Competitor analysis helps a lot but in order to beat your competition you have to find the right combination of keywords and subkeywords that have less competition from which you can build a backlink critical mass. This can lift your rankings for more competitive keywords.
Photo Credits: Nelson D.
Here are the remaining items on the list which will be analyzed in PARTS 2 through 5 of this 5 part series.
11. Add a link in your email signature to your website. It’s a free and easy way to get a little more traffic.
12. Make a custom 404 error page for your website redirecting people to your home page.
13. Use PPC search engine advertising.
14. Add a “bookmark this site” link to your webpages.
15. Have a tell-a-friend form on your site.
16. Send articles to ezine publishers that includes a link to your website.
17. Hold a crazy content and make it go viral.
18. Give away a freebie (ebook, report, e-course) to keep people coming back to your site.
19. Add an RSS feed to your blog.
20. Submit your site to any related niche directories on the net.
21. Participate in a banner or link exchange program.
22. Create a software program and give it away for free.
23. Purchase the misspellings or variations of your domain name, or those of your competitors.
24. Buy a domain name related to your niche that is already receiving traffic and forward it to your site.
25. Pass out business cards with your domain on them everywhere you go.
26. Start and affiliate program and let your affiliates send you visitors.
27. Start a page on social bookmarking sites such as www.wowzza.com .
28. Submit a viral video to www.YouTube.com
29. Conduct and publish surveys to your website.
30. Find joint venture partners that will send you traffic.
31. Start your own newsletter or ezine.
32. Use a autoresponder or email campaign to keep people coming back to your site.
33. Purchase ads on other sites.
34. Send a free copy of your product to other site owners in exchange for a product review.
35. Sell or place classified ads on www.eBay.com with a link to your site.
36. Post free classified ads on any of the sites that allow them with a link to your site.
37. Exchange reciprocal links with other related websites.
38. Network with other people at seminars or other live events.
39. Purchase advertising in popular newsletters or ezines.
40. Advertise on other product’s “thank you” pages.
41. Create a free ebook and list in on the “free ebook” sites.
42. Buy and use a memorable domain name.
43. Do something controversial.
44. Create an Amazon profile and submit reviews for books and other products that you have read.
45. Start a lens on www.Squidoo.com .
46. Use a traffic exchange (low quality traffic, but can sometimes be worthwhile).
47. Get referrals form similar but non-competing sites.
48. Create and sell a product with resell or giveaway rights and include a link to your site in it o others pass it around for you.
49. Email your list. If you don’t have one, get one.
50. Buy a pair of sandals; get your website engraved on the bottom and walk on the beach, stomp in the mud or play in the snow.
1. Write and submit articles to the article directories.
How it works: The directories have Page Rank and they pass some of it to the links in the “About the Author” sections of the articles they publish.
Pro: Most article sites are free. Fairly straightforward and simple to do. Good for backlinks and direct traffic. For best results, pick only high value/high PR/highly categorized sites and submit manually.
Con: You run the risk of duplicate content penalties if you submit the same article to too many sites. Also, it helps tremendously if the article is categorized correctly and the article site’s permalink structure is search engine friendly. Using automated submitters produce less results than manual and ‘cherry picked’ submissions. If you’re not a writer, writing the articles might be a challenge. Fortunately, leased website copywriters are available for as low as $175 per month.
2. Leave comments on other people’s blogs with a backlink to your site.
How it works: The blog has Page Rank and it passes it through links in the body of commenters’ posts or in the hyperlinked names of the commenters.
Pro: Very effective way of getting backlinks from High Page rank sites.
Con: Wordpress comments are by default NO FOLLOW so link juice is not passed. Even if NO FOLLOW is deactivated (such as on this blog), the link builder cannot just use his/her keyword as a name. Many blogs require a real name only. Others require a name and allow for the keyword to follow. Example: “Jim - Funny Video Site”. For best results, the blog must be in the same category as the site you’re building links for. For Blogger/blogspot.com, comments are NO FOLLOW by default as well.
3. Answer people’s questions on www.answers.yahoo.com .
How it works: Yahoo Answers lists commonly asked questions regarding a particular topic. You answer a question in your site’s niche/category and stuff the useful and informative answer with keywords. You put your link as a ‘Source’. Yahoo’s own user database has tons of people that would click your source link so you get direct traffic.
Pro: Free. Great way to tap into Yahoo’s user base. Good for targeted direct traffic. Keyword-driven search results yield targeted traffic.
Con: The links don’t use text titles so SEO value is limited to begin with. Yahoo has since made the links NO FOLLOW which destroyed these links Google SEO value. Works best for frequent users not drive by “contributors”.
4. Post in forums and have a link to your site in your signature.
How it works: Whatever Page Rank the forum has is sometimes (depending on a few factors) shared with the links users place in the body of their posts or, to a lesser extent, their signature text links.
Pro: Free. Very easy way to get backlinks. You set your signature and you forget it. The more you post, the greater your links proliferate. Good addition to a daily linkbuilding routine if you visit and post on forums habitually. Some direct traffic.
Con: Link value is diluted by the tons of other links posted by other users. Signature-based links carry less weight than ‘in content’ (in post) links. The value of your backlink is greatly affected by how closely the forum you’re posting on meets the content category of the site you’re linkbuilding for. Also, many forums are now using NO FOLLOW tags for links, in post links, or both.
5. Write a press release and submit it to www.PRWeb.com .
How it works: PRWeb has a Pagerank of 7 and it passes on some of its page rank to links embedded in the categorized press releases published on its site.
Pro: Fast and relatively easy way to get a backlink from a trusted site. Not only do you get a backlink, your press release might be picked up sites that monitor PRWeb for category-specific releases.
Con: PRWeb is NOT free. The cheapest available package is $80. $80 for a backlink located on a site that has tons of other backlinks to other sites. To get full media distribution, you have to pay $360. You can get many more backlinks at cheaper rates from SEO linkbuilding services. However, periodic backlink building using PRWeb is probably a good idea to give new sites a good backlink start.
6. Advertise your website in the appropriate category on www.CraigsList.com .
How it works: Craigslist has a nice Page Rank. Posting your ad (with anchor text) in the right category lets Craigslist passes some of Craigslist’s link juice to your site.
Pro: Free. Backlinks from a nicely categorized high value site. Good for backlinks and direct traffic.
Con: Due to excessive spamming of Craigslist, posting has become more difficult since posters need a Phone Verified Account in order to post. This is quite a hassle specially if you’re not based in the US. Beware of scammers selling fake PVAs. Also, Craigslist employs some anti-spam measures.
7 . Give an unbiased testimonial on a product/service that you have used in exchange for a backlink to your site.
How it works: Highly popular or established product pages will have Page Rank. By posting your domain on their site they pass some of this PR to you.
Pro: Free.
Con: To get full SEO benefits, the product/service must be somewhat related to the niche/category of the site you are building links for. Finding relevant high page rank product/service sites can be time consuming. You are filtering for a) category b) Page Rank and c) do follow. Thankfully, there’s some tools that can make this task easier.
8. Start a blog and submit it to the 100’s of free blog directories.
How it works: Submission to any directory can result in some of those directory sites passing their PR on to your site.
Pro: Free. Third Party publishers that “leech” content off RSS feeds sometimes post your entries with your links intact.
Con: This opens you up to RSS hijackers which scrape your content and strip your links. You can protect yourself from this by setting up your blog to publish only summaries. This setting is in the “READING” section of WP setup. RSS feed hijacking can get so bad that the thieves sometimes rank higher than you for the keywords of your entry!
9. Manually submit your website to the major search engines.
How it works: Submitting your site to search engines reduces their effort in finding you. Once you’re in their database, they can index your pages, and rank them.
Pro: Saves the search engines time. Not like they care
Con: Based on personal experience and other webmasters experiences posted on forums, you get indexed faster if you submit to some key sites other than search engines. There’s even reports of submitted sites sitting for WEEKS without even one visit from Googlebot. Instead of submitting to the search engine, submit your site map using Google’s webmaster tools and submit to some major DO FOLLOW sites.
10. Optimize each page of your website for a particular keyword or search phrase.
How it works: Search engine spiders tend to be literal and, until recent developments, linear in their approach. You have to spoonfeed them as to where to go on your site and suggest what keywords to pick up. This makes for a more ‘directed’ system.
Pro: Free. Relatively straightforward.
Con: You need to expend some time and effort to find the right keywords for each section. Competitor analysis helps a lot but in order to beat your competition you have to find the right combination of keywords and subkeywords that have less competition from which you can build a backlink critical mass. This can lift your rankings for more competitive keywords.
Photo Credits: Nelson D.
Here are the remaining items on the list which will be analyzed in PARTS 2 through 5 of this 5 part series.
11. Add a link in your email signature to your website. It’s a free and easy way to get a little more traffic.
12. Make a custom 404 error page for your website redirecting people to your home page.
13. Use PPC search engine advertising.
14. Add a “bookmark this site” link to your webpages.
15. Have a tell-a-friend form on your site.
16. Send articles to ezine publishers that includes a link to your website.
17. Hold a crazy content and make it go viral.
18. Give away a freebie (ebook, report, e-course) to keep people coming back to your site.
19. Add an RSS feed to your blog.
20. Submit your site to any related niche directories on the net.
21. Participate in a banner or link exchange program.
22. Create a software program and give it away for free.
23. Purchase the misspellings or variations of your domain name, or those of your competitors.
24. Buy a domain name related to your niche that is already receiving traffic and forward it to your site.
25. Pass out business cards with your domain on them everywhere you go.
26. Start and affiliate program and let your affiliates send you visitors.
27. Start a page on social bookmarking sites such as www.wowzza.com .
28. Submit a viral video to www.YouTube.com
29. Conduct and publish surveys to your website.
30. Find joint venture partners that will send you traffic.
31. Start your own newsletter or ezine.
32. Use a autoresponder or email campaign to keep people coming back to your site.
33. Purchase ads on other sites.
34. Send a free copy of your product to other site owners in exchange for a product review.
35. Sell or place classified ads on www.eBay.com with a link to your site.
36. Post free classified ads on any of the sites that allow them with a link to your site.
37. Exchange reciprocal links with other related websites.
38. Network with other people at seminars or other live events.
39. Purchase advertising in popular newsletters or ezines.
40. Advertise on other product’s “thank you” pages.
41. Create a free ebook and list in on the “free ebook” sites.
42. Buy and use a memorable domain name.
43. Do something controversial.
44. Create an Amazon profile and submit reviews for books and other products that you have read.
45. Start a lens on www.Squidoo.com .
46. Use a traffic exchange (low quality traffic, but can sometimes be worthwhile).
47. Get referrals form similar but non-competing sites.
48. Create and sell a product with resell or giveaway rights and include a link to your site in it o others pass it around for you.
49. Email your list. If you don’t have one, get one.
50. Buy a pair of sandals; get your website engraved on the bottom and walk on the beach, stomp in the mud or play in the snow.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Toure interviews Black Thought of the Roots....full interview
Black Thought Interview With Toure
In a rare interview, Touré talks with Black Thought—front man for The Roots and the new house MC of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon—about what Chuck D. taught him about race, why rapping is like jumping rope, and the reasons behind his rhymes.
Black Thought is not just one of the best-named MCs in hip-hop history, he’s one of the best. As the front man of The Roots—Jimmy Fallon’s new house band for his late-night talk show—Black Thought is both a rapper’s rapper and an intellectual’s rapper, who doesn’t brag about the ghetto and never has to say how tough he is. He has a deliciously deep and steely voice, a tremendous rhythmic sensibility, and a pen that delivers furious flurries of rhymes about everything—politics, women, language, whatever. He’s got a personal style that’s as serious as a heart attack—he evinces that there’s-no-smiling-in-hip-hop thing, as if he’s not here to be loved by you, but instead here to slay you with his skill, take your respect, and leave.
Over the years, Black Thought, born Tariq Trotter, has done very few interviews—preferring, he says, to let his rhyming speak for him. But as The Roots will appear every night on Jimmy Fallon, he’s growing a little more amenable. I pulled him aside during a band rehearsal in a rehearsal space in Manhattan one day, found a tiny room, and talked to him about some of the science behind being an MC.
T: Who are the MCs you most closely studied and learned something from?
BT: Kool G Rap. Big Daddy Kane. Rakim. KRS-One.
T: What have you learned from them?
From G Rap, I learned not to be pigeon held as regards to my vocabulary. The young Kool G Rap, when he was the cool genius of rap, it was really about the genius part and the fact that his lexicon was crazy.
It doesn’t matter than he might be using words that we, the audience, don’t know.
Shit, I use words that I don’t know but, you know, they just sound dope. G Rap was not just using hip-hop slang and words that everyone knew and not just using big words just for the sake of using them—he would use them in their proper context. G Rap, if he was an instrument, he’d be like a drum, whereas Rakim was like brass, he was more melodic. I’d compare Rakim to a saxophone. But from Rakim I got the melodic influence and just repetition in my patterns. I got more of the subtleties, I saw someone perfectly marrying consciousness with musicality with street credibility and still gangster. And his tone was crazy. He had a very distinct delivery. Sometimes nasal meets guttural.
“I’ve become a functioning cog in the machine called The Roots, but in my youth I was comin’ from a more braggadocious, egotistical perspective.”
T: Who else did you study?
BT: Chuck D. From Chuck I got the black nationalism, the militancy. Chuck was a more avant-garde MC to me. And LL was a major influence. What I got from him was swagger. He was relatively young when he came in the game and he garnered the respect and admiration of these older MCs. He’s another guy from Queens who was saying, "I’m gonna use every word in the English lexicon and slap you in the face with it real hard." There’s something about MCs that came from that part of New York in the ‘80s.
T: Where do you rhyme from? Your nose, throat, chest, where?
BT: Diaphragm. I try to. Sometimes you forget. If you have to sing you may just slip back into rhyming from my mouth or my throat or rhyming where we naturally speak. You can always hear me breathing during my verses, but that breathing becomes part of the music. If you’re rappin’ in perfect rhythm with the track then you’re gonna be breathin’ in perfect rhythm, too. And that’s part of the percussion.
But sometimes those breaths miss the mark.
I mean, if I swallow incorrectly or if I breathe and some dust goes down the wrong pipe, words will be missed or a line might be left out. The audience may be none the wiser, but more importantly it’s a bump in the stride of us onstage. And there’s gonna be a bloop, a sonic taxing for it, and everyone’s gonna be brought out of their zone for just a split second to acknowledge the fact that this one person just fucked up or left out this line. So you want everything to be as effortless as possible. It happens all the time but that’s one of the things you micromanage.
Every rapper, when they first hear a beat and start relating to it they go uh, uh, yeah, uh, uh—what’s the about?
It’s like a map. You have to be synced.
T: So you’re getting into the rhythm?
BT: Yeah. When you hear a beat it usually takes a measure or one or two lines of the music before you become accustomed to the rhythm. It’s like jumping into a jump rope. You just start turning and then I jump in.
T: The double-dutch analogy is interesting, because you’re very much a part of The Roots in that you’re an instrument in this mix. Most rappers do it as an ego gesture—I’m the man, check me out. All eyes on me. That’s not where you’re coming from. It’s more of a musical gesture.
BT: I’ve become an instrument in this. I’ve become a functioning cog in the machine called The Roots, but in my youth I was comin’ from a more braggadocious, egotistical perspective. I started changing as an artist the day that Ahmir and I met. I feel like I became more musical and he became more street. That’s what we brought to one another. I was definitely knowledgeable in the world of hip-hop and Ahmir was knowledgeable about jazz and soul and all other music and we turned each other on.
T: You guys met in high school at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts. Did you take music classes together?
BT: I’ve never studied music. Music for me was a hobby, something to do other than the art I’ve always done. I’ve been in art school from the age of three. I was a visual-arts major so what I learned at the school was just about colors and warm colors and cool colors and the effect that different colors have on people when you see a certain colors or two colors together. Which is where I got my name from: black being all the colors of the palette. The thing that’s carried over from my visual-art education into what I do musically is my openness. I can deal with sonic colors, the sound palette, from the experience I have dealing with the actual palette.
T: Has another rapper ever told you something that made a difference, or made you better?
BT: Well, in KRS-One’s book The Science of Rap, he said come out with your jacket on. Begin your performance and your rapport with your audience by warmin’ yourself up, and that means start rappin’ with your coat on and at some point during the first three songs you take it off. This gives the impression that you’re getting even more personal, getting down to business. And that way you get an extra rush, an extra roar from the crowd and your performance elevates from that point.
T: How do you write a rhyme?
BT: Rhymes will come to me line by line. Maybe I heard these two people over here having a conversation and they reminded me of a phrase that was coined years ago that people don’t use anymore that I wanna bring back. When I’ve accumulated half a book of these I’ll sit down and flip through and start writing a rhyme. I don’t usually write a rhyme before it’s due. I usually write a song when people are waiting for me to turn it in. I don’t just have a pre-manufactured thing. I don’t have songs I haven’t used yet. When I write a song, it’s tailor-written to whatever sonic bed was pre-existing.
T: How did you improve when you were developing?
BT: I would always be rappin’. Always be rappin’. I’d just sit in this room and rap about everything in it. And you’d be sick. You’d be mad. Just stop rapping!
T: So young rappers trying should practice all the time.
BT: The same way Norah Jones and Alicia Keys had to practice at the piano and Wyclef with his guitar, and ?uestlove—I’d call him after school and be like "Lemme speak to Ahmir," and his Dad would be like, he’s practicing, and hang up. That’s what makes a great musician, and if you’re gonna be a vocalist, if your voice is gonna be your axe, then you need to refine your knowledge. You also gotta be abreast of what’s goin’ on in current affairs, news, the latest reality-TV shit, what’s goin’ on in the Internet—you boil all of that down into one line that was witty because you compared this thing with that thing. You have to be knowledgeable of all the pre-existing information in order to edit it into something that’s fly to say.
**Touré is the host of BET’s The Black Carpet and the host of Treasure HD’s I’ll Try Anything Once. He is the author of Never Drank the Kool-Aid, Soul City, and The Portable Promised Land. He was a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, was CNN’s first pop-culture correspondent, and was the host of MTV2's Spoke N Heard.
In a rare interview, Touré talks with Black Thought—front man for The Roots and the new house MC of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon—about what Chuck D. taught him about race, why rapping is like jumping rope, and the reasons behind his rhymes.
Black Thought is not just one of the best-named MCs in hip-hop history, he’s one of the best. As the front man of The Roots—Jimmy Fallon’s new house band for his late-night talk show—Black Thought is both a rapper’s rapper and an intellectual’s rapper, who doesn’t brag about the ghetto and never has to say how tough he is. He has a deliciously deep and steely voice, a tremendous rhythmic sensibility, and a pen that delivers furious flurries of rhymes about everything—politics, women, language, whatever. He’s got a personal style that’s as serious as a heart attack—he evinces that there’s-no-smiling-in-hip-hop thing, as if he’s not here to be loved by you, but instead here to slay you with his skill, take your respect, and leave.
Over the years, Black Thought, born Tariq Trotter, has done very few interviews—preferring, he says, to let his rhyming speak for him. But as The Roots will appear every night on Jimmy Fallon, he’s growing a little more amenable. I pulled him aside during a band rehearsal in a rehearsal space in Manhattan one day, found a tiny room, and talked to him about some of the science behind being an MC.
T: Who are the MCs you most closely studied and learned something from?
BT: Kool G Rap. Big Daddy Kane. Rakim. KRS-One.
T: What have you learned from them?
From G Rap, I learned not to be pigeon held as regards to my vocabulary. The young Kool G Rap, when he was the cool genius of rap, it was really about the genius part and the fact that his lexicon was crazy.
It doesn’t matter than he might be using words that we, the audience, don’t know.
Shit, I use words that I don’t know but, you know, they just sound dope. G Rap was not just using hip-hop slang and words that everyone knew and not just using big words just for the sake of using them—he would use them in their proper context. G Rap, if he was an instrument, he’d be like a drum, whereas Rakim was like brass, he was more melodic. I’d compare Rakim to a saxophone. But from Rakim I got the melodic influence and just repetition in my patterns. I got more of the subtleties, I saw someone perfectly marrying consciousness with musicality with street credibility and still gangster. And his tone was crazy. He had a very distinct delivery. Sometimes nasal meets guttural.
“I’ve become a functioning cog in the machine called The Roots, but in my youth I was comin’ from a more braggadocious, egotistical perspective.”
T: Who else did you study?
BT: Chuck D. From Chuck I got the black nationalism, the militancy. Chuck was a more avant-garde MC to me. And LL was a major influence. What I got from him was swagger. He was relatively young when he came in the game and he garnered the respect and admiration of these older MCs. He’s another guy from Queens who was saying, "I’m gonna use every word in the English lexicon and slap you in the face with it real hard." There’s something about MCs that came from that part of New York in the ‘80s.
T: Where do you rhyme from? Your nose, throat, chest, where?
BT: Diaphragm. I try to. Sometimes you forget. If you have to sing you may just slip back into rhyming from my mouth or my throat or rhyming where we naturally speak. You can always hear me breathing during my verses, but that breathing becomes part of the music. If you’re rappin’ in perfect rhythm with the track then you’re gonna be breathin’ in perfect rhythm, too. And that’s part of the percussion.
But sometimes those breaths miss the mark.
I mean, if I swallow incorrectly or if I breathe and some dust goes down the wrong pipe, words will be missed or a line might be left out. The audience may be none the wiser, but more importantly it’s a bump in the stride of us onstage. And there’s gonna be a bloop, a sonic taxing for it, and everyone’s gonna be brought out of their zone for just a split second to acknowledge the fact that this one person just fucked up or left out this line. So you want everything to be as effortless as possible. It happens all the time but that’s one of the things you micromanage.
Every rapper, when they first hear a beat and start relating to it they go uh, uh, yeah, uh, uh—what’s the about?
It’s like a map. You have to be synced.
T: So you’re getting into the rhythm?
BT: Yeah. When you hear a beat it usually takes a measure or one or two lines of the music before you become accustomed to the rhythm. It’s like jumping into a jump rope. You just start turning and then I jump in.
T: The double-dutch analogy is interesting, because you’re very much a part of The Roots in that you’re an instrument in this mix. Most rappers do it as an ego gesture—I’m the man, check me out. All eyes on me. That’s not where you’re coming from. It’s more of a musical gesture.
BT: I’ve become an instrument in this. I’ve become a functioning cog in the machine called The Roots, but in my youth I was comin’ from a more braggadocious, egotistical perspective. I started changing as an artist the day that Ahmir and I met. I feel like I became more musical and he became more street. That’s what we brought to one another. I was definitely knowledgeable in the world of hip-hop and Ahmir was knowledgeable about jazz and soul and all other music and we turned each other on.
T: You guys met in high school at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts. Did you take music classes together?
BT: I’ve never studied music. Music for me was a hobby, something to do other than the art I’ve always done. I’ve been in art school from the age of three. I was a visual-arts major so what I learned at the school was just about colors and warm colors and cool colors and the effect that different colors have on people when you see a certain colors or two colors together. Which is where I got my name from: black being all the colors of the palette. The thing that’s carried over from my visual-art education into what I do musically is my openness. I can deal with sonic colors, the sound palette, from the experience I have dealing with the actual palette.
T: Has another rapper ever told you something that made a difference, or made you better?
BT: Well, in KRS-One’s book The Science of Rap, he said come out with your jacket on. Begin your performance and your rapport with your audience by warmin’ yourself up, and that means start rappin’ with your coat on and at some point during the first three songs you take it off. This gives the impression that you’re getting even more personal, getting down to business. And that way you get an extra rush, an extra roar from the crowd and your performance elevates from that point.
T: How do you write a rhyme?
BT: Rhymes will come to me line by line. Maybe I heard these two people over here having a conversation and they reminded me of a phrase that was coined years ago that people don’t use anymore that I wanna bring back. When I’ve accumulated half a book of these I’ll sit down and flip through and start writing a rhyme. I don’t usually write a rhyme before it’s due. I usually write a song when people are waiting for me to turn it in. I don’t just have a pre-manufactured thing. I don’t have songs I haven’t used yet. When I write a song, it’s tailor-written to whatever sonic bed was pre-existing.
T: How did you improve when you were developing?
BT: I would always be rappin’. Always be rappin’. I’d just sit in this room and rap about everything in it. And you’d be sick. You’d be mad. Just stop rapping!
T: So young rappers trying should practice all the time.
BT: The same way Norah Jones and Alicia Keys had to practice at the piano and Wyclef with his guitar, and ?uestlove—I’d call him after school and be like "Lemme speak to Ahmir," and his Dad would be like, he’s practicing, and hang up. That’s what makes a great musician, and if you’re gonna be a vocalist, if your voice is gonna be your axe, then you need to refine your knowledge. You also gotta be abreast of what’s goin’ on in current affairs, news, the latest reality-TV shit, what’s goin’ on in the Internet—you boil all of that down into one line that was witty because you compared this thing with that thing. You have to be knowledgeable of all the pre-existing information in order to edit it into something that’s fly to say.
**Touré is the host of BET’s The Black Carpet and the host of Treasure HD’s I’ll Try Anything Once. He is the author of Never Drank the Kool-Aid, Soul City, and The Portable Promised Land. He was a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, was CNN’s first pop-culture correspondent, and was the host of MTV2's Spoke N Heard.
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