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 latest significant sample lawsuit to hit the streets is brought to us courtesy of Kanye West, Common, Method, Redman, and a bunch of folks over at the Universal Music Group. Seems like Kanye West just can’t escape the sample clearance lawsuits lately. This time the daughter of Jazz saxophonist Joe Farrell has sued for … Read more
Dr. Dre’s right hand man Bruce Williams drops some intimate details about working at Death Row, the mixing & mastering Snoop’s "Doggystyle" in 48 hours, and the truth about Suge Knight’s thuggish tendencies. Williams also reveals that during his entire time at Death Row he received a paltry $300 weekly salary and lays to rest … Read more
Congrats to producer Polow Da Don for being awarded Songwriter of the Year at the 56th Annual Pop Awards last night. The highly coveted award was presented to him in recognition of his work on the Pussycat Dolls "Buttons", Fergie’s "London Bridge" & "Glamorous", and Mary J Blige’s "Runaway Love". See the BMI update for … Read more
So So Def founder Jermaine Dupri flips out on Billboard Magazine for allowing Danja to share the cover with Usher. When asked if he recognized the person (Danja) on the cover, an office staffer replied "Danja… that’s that reggae artist?" With the consensus of the office being that the cover was bought by Danja’s label, … Read more
Hip-Hop Game presents an extensive, two-part interview with lord of the boards Just Blaze as he fully addresses the controversy and delays associated with Saigon’s upcoming release of "Greatest Story Never Told", the current state of the marketplace for Hip-Hop, relationship strains resulting from the Mobb Deep/Saigon incident, and future music business models. Make sure … Read more
Fruity Loops fans can rejoice over the latest release of Image Line Software’s FL Studio 8. The folks over at FL tend to throw out updates to the software DAW fairly frequently with this particular one being right on time. Check the promo video and FL website which covers all of the new features, fixes, … Read more
Eight years after the album was release of their album De Stijl, The White Stripes are now being sued by a Canadian talk show host for $70,000 over the use of a 10 second sample allegedly taken from her radio show. To add insult to injury, the plaintiff claims that by using the sampling voice … Read more
In honor the upcoming release of NYs Finest and my failed attempt to get Cubs opening day tickets, its officially Pete Rock day over here at Crate Kings! Just in case you missed it, here’s a quick promo video which was released a little while back featuring various established producers commenting on the significance of … Read more