Through a Newark Housing Authority program, producer/DJ Eric B (Eric B & Rakim) helps New Jersey youth learn about music, recording, business, and life in general. While the program is based in a community center recording studio, it places an emphasis on the importance of students being college bound and attaining solid credentials rather than … Read more
Part retrospective/part anti-piracy plea, L.A. Weekly drops an article covering the production history and legacy of J Dilla while giving a glimpse into the legal and monetary difficulties caused by unauthorized internet releases. It touches on the some of the compilations that have popped up and even the unreleased Pay Jay album. Probably the most … Read more
Superstar artists still haven’t learned the importance of paying their bills. Scott Storch is currently in trouble with the law for owing a total of $511,839.16 in back property taxes. To make matters worse, because of his failure to pay child support, a Miami-Dade Circuit Judge has issued a pick-up order for authorities to arrest … Read more
Round 3 in Jermaine Dupri’s "The DJ Is Dead" backlash leaves us with Trapp (The Mic DVD) attacking DJ Greg Street for bashing JD. Trapp says that both of them are putting out garbage records, that the public can’t be fooled and, "You are not as big as you think you are."
Apparently Lil Flip and crew are now offering custom beats on the cheap. Not really sure how this pricing can be sustained for a significant income, but it’s great news for independent MC’s.
Apparently Jermaine Dupri’s statements about the DJ being dead touched on a nerve with a few people. DJ Greg Street comes at JD stating that the "The DJ is not dead. You gotta stop making all this wack music. You gotta stop putting your name on all these wack records." Greg Street even goes so … Read more
A little off topic… Rocka Iriscience of Dilated Peoples gives us the first glimpse of RZA’s WuChess.com, which is now open for business. Looks pretty interesting although truthfully I could do without the pieces in the shape of Wu symbols. However, it might be time to dust off my copy of CT-ART 3.0 and get … Read more
Not directly related to Hip-Hop, but nonetheless a concern to all producers concerned with sound quality. We all know that hypercompression is the current trend in mastering and that lossy codecs such as mp3 are inferior, but has it gotten out of control? Neil Young, Trent Reznor, John Mellencamp, and T Bone Burnett are uniting … Read more
MC turned producer T.I. has now stepped away from the mic towards the boards to do production work for Rick Ross’ upcoming album Deeper Than Rap. Rick Ross said "I was in the Grand Hustle studio. We sat down. [Tip] told me he wanted to produce five records for me," and went on to say, … Read more
The word is out… Pharrell does not play around with whiney artists. Madonna admitted that he made her cry an unusually tough studio session when she couldn’t understand a rhythm. "Pharrell made me cry. You know when you get angry with someone and you’re spitting snot. I was in a sensitive mood in the studio … Read more