But that’s just the start. It turns out that Rap Genius has a much bigger idea and a much broader mission than that. Which is: Generalize out to many other categories of text… annotate the world… be the knowledge about the knowledge… create the Internet Talmud.

Marc Andreessen – Why Andreessen Horowitz Is Investing in Rap Genius | Rap Genius

This is great I remember when this site was “Rap Exegesis”. Congrats and good luck to all parties involved.

Source: rapgenius.com

Being More Accessible | TechCrunch

More than ever, entertainment is about self-promotion — using the power of your fans through social media to market live shows and new business ventures and move a few records. The direct connection to the fans is not just freeing artists from the old corporate structure; it’s redefining the relationship between creator and audience. -NAS

Solid Steel in association with Serato (31st August) 3 years ago Solid Steel DJs Cheeba, Moneyshot and Food had the idea of collaborating on a version of the Beastie Boys‘ ‘Paul’s Boutique’ album made entirely from the original sample sources, shortly after Moneyshot aired his mix of their ‘Check Your Head’ album in the same way.

Finally the result is here, titled ‘Caught In The Middle Of A 3-Way Mix’ - each of them have taken a third of the album to work on and combined their efforts into a mix that will make you hear it in a new way. Aside from the original sample sources they’ve included commentary from the Beasties, vintage interviews, demo versions and much more.

The mix was over half way completed when they heard the tragic news of MCA‘s death in May so the impetus to finish it was instantly doubled and new meaning given to the project. It goes without saying that this is also a tribute to Adam Yauch and the legacy he left behind and we hope it will be embraced by Beastie fans around the globe.


Caught In The Middle of A 3-Way Mix - a tribute to The Beastie Boys’ ‘Paul’s Boutique’ album

Artwork - http://www.djfood.org/djfood/pauls-boutique-remade-by-cheeba-moneyshot-food

The presented version on Strongroom Alive can be found here;
http://www.mixcloud.com/StrongroomAlive/300812-solid-steel-caught-in-the-middle-of-a-3-way-mix/

Source: SoundCloud / Ninja Tune

upnorthtrips: Investigative Reports: Breaking Down GZA’s “Labels” Last month I saw a tweet that I found to be very interesting, and shocking. My respected colleague, and a fellow hip-hop purist, Combat Jack, [attorney, author, king of marketing strategies] claimed that 85% of the record labels mentioned in GZA’s classic 1995 cut “Labels,” are no longer around. Compelled by this nugget of rap nerdery, I retweeted, highly impressed that someone had dissected his lyrics and analyzed the current status of each label mentioned. Taking into consideration the obvious shift from the physical state of the record business to the digital era in which we now live, 85 percent seems like a pretty logical number, right? I mean, think about how different the rap game has become in the seventeen years since the release of GZA’s Liquid Swords. Ipods have replaced the Walkman, iTunes is your new neighborhood record store. It’s a new – and sometimes cold – world. So, it’s feasible that almost two decades later, due to mergers, absorption, and the crumbling market of physical distribution, that only a few of those labels still exist. But only 15% of them still around? That’s a tough number to digest. With today being GZA’s birthday, and with my fondness for doing tributes celebrating oft-ignored hip-hop moments (here and here), I figured it was a good time to not only honor Gary Grice’s 46th trip around the sun, but to quench my own rap nerd curiosity. Now, in no way, shape or form am I doubting my boy Combat’s knowledge. But being the “Hip Hop Stat Boy” that I am, I figured it was only right to investigate these claims and do the knowledge on my own abacus. So after quite a bit of research, here’s what we came up with. Read the labels and say it Loud!  [Read More] Gotta read the labels.
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upnorthtrips:

Investigative Reports: Breaking Down GZA’s “Labels”

Last month I saw a tweet that I found to be very interesting, and shocking. My respected colleague, and a fellow hip-hop purist, Combat Jack, [attorney, author, king of marketing strategies] claimed that 85% of the record labels mentioned in GZA’s classic 1995 cut “Labels,” are no longer around.

Compelled by this nugget of rap nerdery, I retweeted, highly impressed that someone had dissected his lyrics and analyzed the current status of each label mentioned. Taking into consideration the obvious shift from the physical state of the record business to the digital era in which we now live, 85 percent seems like a pretty logical number, right? I mean, think about how different the rap game has become in the seventeen years since the release of GZA’s Liquid Swords. Ipods have replaced the Walkman, iTunes is your new neighborhood record store. It’s a new – and sometimes cold – world.

So, it’s feasible that almost two decades later, due to mergers, absorption, and the crumbling market of physical distribution, that only a few of those labels still exist. But only 15% of them still around? That’s a tough number to digest.

With today being GZA’s birthday, and with my fondness for doing tributes celebrating oft-ignored hip-hop moments (here and here), I figured it was a good time to not only honor Gary Grice’s 46th trip around the sun, but to quench my own rap nerd curiosity.

Now, in no way, shape or form am I doubting my boy Combat’s knowledge. But being the “Hip Hop Stat Boy” that I am, I figured it was only right to investigate these claims and do the knowledge on my own abacus.

So after quite a bit of research, here’s what we came up with. Read the labels and say it Loud!  [Read More]

Gotta read the labels.

What I Do For My Lunch Hour.

often in the TV world i’ll be asked to make full blown demos that will never see the light of day. their sole purpose is to be a guide for those behind the scenes
(director, producer, cameramen, management and handlers) of course because we are “The Roots” its a casual 3 second quip “we’ll just make me a demo of it….” but often I’m like
“COTDAMNIT!!!!!!!!!!! ANOTHER WASTED LUNCH HOUR!!!!!!!” (this pretty much happens like 50% of the time to artists that we back up on the show that have “well MY band” itis.
its like we have to pre audition in order to prove what we knew all along “we do your song better than you ever will” lol.

and then sometimes a dream gig comes in the form of this year’s rock and roll hall of fame.

not like i was vying for the position, but now that 1987 honorees are coming into bloom we ALL know that for all of the hip hop acts about to be inducted, there’s pretty much gonna be a WWTLD (the legendary factor that will be in place for 1988 1989 and so on inductees.

not to mention i want absolutely NO resistance come 2019 when the Roots are eligible for being inducted.

what you are listening to was a quickie lunch break demo i had to put together for the rock & roll hall of fame staff (basically the heads of Rolling Stone) and the Beastie Boys and the gazillion prospects of guests who were approached to be part of the performance.

which means i had to lay out a very thorough map: i took the characteristics of the 3 Beasts and arranged the songs that i felt best fit them (keeping their demand that “Fight For Your Right” have NOTHING to do with their moment in the sun.
>

i begged all 20 parties involved to lemme create something THEN start nitpicking if its not satisfactory.

in my head i wanted to include ALL fan highlights:


“The New Style” for the urban 80s black hip hop demographic that jumped aboard after “Hold It Now Hit It” became a hip hop classic
> “No Sleep Til Brooklyn” to keep the “why the hell aren’t you doing “Fight For Your Right!”??!?!” heads in check. basically the same feel of a song with more bboy back beat. plus i nailed Ad Rock’s “Live!”
“So Whatcha Want” for all of the Stan Smith/Boho Check Your Head cats out there who stuck with the boys while they were growing up and finding themselves
“Sabotage” for the post grunge audience of MTV that embraced them and brought them back to the commercial glory we all thought was gonna elude them after Licensed To Ill faded away.
and the drum roll from “Shake Your Rump” to acknowledge their best album Paul’s Boutique

of course i didn’t HAVE to make a full scale Doc Brown Back To The Future Clock Tower model…..but it was fun and i wanted no leaf unturned.

I got 0 resistance from the parties involved and this is the demo the director used to map out the staging and Travie, Kid Rock & Black Thought used to study the manual.


it was lost in the mix of a gazillion magical mp3s i had so i figured it was apropos to whip this baby out in honor of the late great Yauch’s bday passing this week

i think its kinda funny.

dig.

-?uestlove

This is just awesome.

Source: SoundCloud / okayplayer