It would be genius to say I thought of the parallel between this scene and rhyme before I wrote it, but honestly I’d be lying. That’s in a perfect world.
But this world ain’t perfect. Sit down and watch television with your children for an hour and you’ll see what I mean. But anyway, back to Bishop and Q’s dramatization of ‘What You Worth.’ This scene almost perfectly embodies the duality in man that I attempted to express in this freestyle. They both wanted respect. They both wanted Juice. But at what cost? Cost never matters if you don’t understand your value. Did Blitz know his value? Or how about old-man-Quiles-wit-his-bullshit-gun? Love it or hate it but we all respect violence because the visible results are instantaneous. The Destruction is obvious. But the flip side of the coin is that it takes time to Build, and people simply don’t appreciate appreciation. Read that last sentence twice. Read that last sentence twice…
“I Shine, You Shine: Collection # 1″ is exactly what it sounds like. Not as much a mixtape as it is a playlist of some of official hip hop music from yours truly. Some of this music you may have heard before, some you may have not. Personally, these songs are a testament to different growth periods I’ve gone through as a young African-American man and an emcee. That’s what makes this collection of music a must have for any Hustle Emcee supporter. Thank you ALL…
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DOWNLOAD: Hustle Emcee – I Shine, You Shine: Collection #1
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-OR- read more…
Daddy-O, pictured crouching in center
This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
Professional inspiration can come from anywhere, even the unlikeliest of places. This month, I was inspired by a rapper imparting business advice to startups.
Hip-hop historian, music technologist and founder of hip-hop band Stetsasonic, Glenn K. Bolton — also known as Daddy-O — recently spoke about the parallels between budding hip-hop artists and startups during his presentation at Geekend 2011, a techie conference presented by BFG Communications.
Daddy-O’s advice for hopeful rappers and startups were astoundingly similar. As a successful rapper himself, Daddy-O’s own experiences brought truth to his words.
Inspired by his story and wisdom, we’d like to share some of Daddy-O’s thoughts on what early-stage startups — and businesses of all types, really — can learn from hip-hop artists.
After this primer, we also recommend studying up on the Notorious B.I.G’s 10 Crack Commandments, a rap introduction for beginner crack dealers that, oddly, also translates well to the startup world.
1. Put Your Creative People on the Front Lines
“If you do not keep your business people in the back room, patching people up, they’re going to muck it up,” says Daddy-O. “You let them talk, you’re done.” read more…
(From DMN, posted by Veronica Picciafuoco)
In the golden years of MySpace, if you didn’t have a MySpace page, you simply didn’t exist as an artist. Things have changed, but not the final goal: you still need to effectively position your music so that listeners can find you easily, listen further, and hopefully buy your stuff.
The difference is that now, there are tons of online windows for you to display your work. Yet most of them are not really optimized for music (YouTube, Facebook), difficult and costly to customize, or don’t give you enough control over the material (iTunes, streaming services, etc.) Maybe the real action should start with the audio embed, with companies designed specifically around music.
If the events of the last 48 hours make you feel some type of way then it’s a good enough start. That’s all it takes. Peace to Big Boi and Killer Mike. God bless us all. We have work to do…
And if you want to see how impassioned these students are, peep the view from the crowd…
Young Guru @ SAE NYC
Young Guru dropped a powerful jewel…“When you have less, you learn to master what you DO have.”
It’s almost back to the days of no rules, let alone an “even playing field.” A simple paradigm shift from “But I still need…” to “What I have is…” can yield some serious results in the process. I speak from experience.
I Shine, You Shine!
Video after the jump… read more…
Steve Stoute interviews Jay-Z, Pharrell, Jimmy Iovine and Lady Gaga
In promotion of his new book The Tanning of America, Steve Stoute sat down and engaged some of hip hop’s foremost moguls to speak on the culture’s affect on the “new” economy. Seeing as though I’m always up for spirited conversation I figured I’d share…
Video after the jump… read more…
(by Jeff Price, found @ TuneCore.com blog)
Lava lamps, Happy Days, mood rings, MASH, and Jimmy Carter’s Playboy interview weren’t the only things to come out of the ’70s. In addition, copyright law was revised by the U.S. government granting artists and songwriters “termination rights.” This law states that 35 years after 1978 the recordings and songs “owned” by record labels or publishers would revert back to the artist or songwriter regardless of if the artist or songwriter was recouped, un-recouped, etc. In other words, the government said to the labels and publishers,“ 35 years is long enough. Times up, give them back control over their work.”
For those of you counting, 35 years from 1978 is 2013. read more…
Mos Def
“Beware of artists, because they mix with all classes of people. Therefore they’re the most dangerous.”
- Queen Victoria, as quoted by Mos Def
We live in an instant society. But art is the antithesis of this. Art needs to marinate. It’s not sold like a Website and it’s not developed by the school system. Great artists are outsiders who go their own way. They challenge convention. And since they’re doing something different the public is not ready for them until they’re fully-realized. When you can’t be criticized for your playing, when you can sing on key, when you’ve got something to say, then you’ve got a chance of hooking up with the public.
- by Bob Lefsetz
