I took a quick trip over to Chris Lighty's Blog to see what he's been up to, and saw this:
CHRIS LIGHTY: Last night as I was running around the city to check on Q tip making a record with will i am. I stopped by a radio city theatre performance were we saw Nas do an interesting set with the hip hop band called The Roots. I was rolling with Dnice and meet Mark Pitts up there to see Nas do a quick 20 minute set. It was astonishing to see this particular venue filled with hip hop heads but as Nas went off and I went on my Qtip mission I realized that as a true grown man I had just seen an amazing feat. A hip hop band just filled a venue reserved for xmas shows, kid specials, and anything far removed from hip hop. The roots of hip hop started in jam sessions in the street where kids from the neighborhood would come out in peace to hear Flash,Theodore, Bambataa do a free jam session to express themselves. I didn't stay for the Roots full performance but I left feeling like that was the jam of the week.
Fast foward to my office today where I meet with Qtip and we discussed his rollout and release for this year and we talked about how hard it will be not to rely on the pedigree that Qtip and Tribe have built from their past as this is a sport where your roots count only when your finished or you have a great band(The roots) playing beside you. This is a hit driven sport and even if your roots are stellar they are only to be shown in your live stage performance. You always have to have the new and next hit to play in this gladiator arena. As someone that has been active in hip hop since 86 in some form or fashion I am well aware that it is just as important about identifying the next star as it being associated with the current stars. Rap is still too young to really have an old school as it claims. What is old school? Sugarhill,Kane,DasEfx,Public Enemy,Foxy Brown? All of these artists have records that came out 10 plus years ago. Some older than others but is that really old? Is a twenty something year old person really old? Our roots are still growing lets check back in another 20 years when our roots will be a little stronger and maybe hip hop will be out of this strange growing spurt it is in right now. Love it or hate it this is hip hop.
Posted by chrislighty at May 19, 2006 09:51 PM
WENDY DAY SAYS: I've been spending some time in the Bay Area lately and have been seeing folks take it back to the streets. It is the closest thing I have seen to going back in time (I'm talking about the Hyphy Movement and the power of the REACTION to the music). Back to the 80s when it was fun and about the response to the music, not about business, first week sales, branding, and imaging (not to dis any of that because I love the business side of the industry as well as the creative musical side). I get just as much of a hard-on from seeing 50 hawk Vitamin water as I do hearing the uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh of "Stay Fly," or the hot new 16 bars that Ras Kass drops on my cell phone voicemail to let me know he's still got it (and does he!).
The Hyphy Movement reminds me of what it's all about and why we are all here. To celebrate the musical art form called rap (one of hip hop's elements). The current Bay Area artists haven't been jaded by the industry yet and have their own issues and drama with the police in Oakland and Fairfield who show up to stop the block parties that pop up just anywhere there is a group of people, and a loud stereo. Sound familiar to anyone over 35?
Posted by: Wendy Day at May 20, 2006 01:46 AM
CHRIS LIGHTY: Last night as I was running around the city to check on Q tip making a record with will i am. I stopped by a radio city theatre performance were we saw Nas do an interesting set with the hip hop band called The Roots. I was rolling with Dnice and meet Mark Pitts up there to see Nas do a quick 20 minute set. It was astonishing to see this particular venue filled with hip hop heads but as Nas went off and I went on my Qtip mission I realized that as a true grown man I had just seen an amazing feat. A hip hop band just filled a venue reserved for xmas shows, kid specials, and anything far removed from hip hop. The roots of hip hop started in jam sessions in the street where kids from the neighborhood would come out in peace to hear Flash,Theodore, Bambataa do a free jam session to express themselves. I didn't stay for the Roots full performance but I left feeling like that was the jam of the week.
Fast foward to my office today where I meet with Qtip and we discussed his rollout and release for this year and we talked about how hard it will be not to rely on the pedigree that Qtip and Tribe have built from their past as this is a sport where your roots count only when your finished or you have a great band(The roots) playing beside you. This is a hit driven sport and even if your roots are stellar they are only to be shown in your live stage performance. You always have to have the new and next hit to play in this gladiator arena. As someone that has been active in hip hop since 86 in some form or fashion I am well aware that it is just as important about identifying the next star as it being associated with the current stars. Rap is still too young to really have an old school as it claims. What is old school? Sugarhill,Kane,DasEfx,Public Enemy,Foxy Brown? All of these artists have records that came out 10 plus years ago. Some older than others but is that really old? Is a twenty something year old person really old? Our roots are still growing lets check back in another 20 years when our roots will be a little stronger and maybe hip hop will be out of this strange growing spurt it is in right now. Love it or hate it this is hip hop.
Posted by chrislighty at May 19, 2006 09:51 PM
WENDY DAY SAYS: I've been spending some time in the Bay Area lately and have been seeing folks take it back to the streets. It is the closest thing I have seen to going back in time (I'm talking about the Hyphy Movement and the power of the REACTION to the music). Back to the 80s when it was fun and about the response to the music, not about business, first week sales, branding, and imaging (not to dis any of that because I love the business side of the industry as well as the creative musical side). I get just as much of a hard-on from seeing 50 hawk Vitamin water as I do hearing the uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh of "Stay Fly," or the hot new 16 bars that Ras Kass drops on my cell phone voicemail to let me know he's still got it (and does he!).
The Hyphy Movement reminds me of what it's all about and why we are all here. To celebrate the musical art form called rap (one of hip hop's elements). The current Bay Area artists haven't been jaded by the industry yet and have their own issues and drama with the police in Oakland and Fairfield who show up to stop the block parties that pop up just anywhere there is a group of people, and a loud stereo. Sound familiar to anyone over 35?
Posted by: Wendy Day at May 20, 2006 01:46 AM
posted by Ricky Ross at 10:57 PM
3 Comments:
Rasta Boi'-unsigned Artist-cdbaby.com
Trifecta of the Month at HiphopUnradio.net.
Taking it back to the lunchroom table era.
Peace
HaveNCredible
Hi Kedesh! While I can't shop you a "label deal" (label deals are given to labels with a legitimate sales track record), if you build a ridiculous buzz in your region (not city, not state, but region) and there is a way to negotiate a deal for you, I'd love to do so. In my experience, the majors are looking for 30,000+ sales regionally and some radio play. I don't know what indies are looking for since I don't do deals for artists with indies--the risk is too high, and since I run a Coalition to help artists, I'm not trying to create more work for myself in pulling artists off of labels.
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