May 28, 2006
Artist Of The Week - Bekay
If you had to pick the one name that was generating the most buzz coming out of Brooklyn it would have to be Bekay. Yes, his moniker is the also the nickname for the borough, BK, but in addition to that his new 12 inch, “Where Brooklyn At?” features the late great ODB, he has a mixtape out hosted by the drama king DJ Kay Slay, and he’s currently working with a veritable who’s who of Hip-Hop including The Alchemist, Saigon, Masta Ace, RA The Rugged Man, Pumpkinhead, Inspectah Deck, Mr. Met and Wordsworth. Bekay’s LP, Hunger Pains, is due out soon and despite his horrible experience with MTV’s Making The Band, “I refused to sign the contract so they threw me off the show,” he’s filmed a pilot for his own reality series. Bekay has his hand in everything and it’s paying big dividends which is why he’s this week’s Artist Of The Week. Read it...
May 26, 2006
What ever happened to...?
Hiphop videos like Love, Peace and Nappiness by The Lost Boyz. Check it out on TagWorld.
Radio Ga Ga by Adam Bernard
There are some lines that shouldn’t be crossed, ever, and Star of The Star and Bucwild show crossed one of those lines in a major way last week which resulted in his firing and arrest. Apparently Star felt there should be some beef between him and Hot97’s DJ Envy, so he created one himself, making comments about friends having sex with Envy’s wife and offering $500 for the whereabouts of his four year old daughter so he could “do an R. Kelly” on her. Not only is this kind of talk inappropriate, it’s not funny, so Star gets the double whammy of being fired for content that simply shouldn’t have been aired (and being in radio myself I have to say no amount of pushing of the dump button would have caught all of his rant, it would have been minutes of dead air), but also for being un-funny. Read more...
How US Dollars are Created
Most everyone would agree that money makes the world go round. But how many of us understand what makes the money go round? The text below is an excerpt from G Edward Griffin's The Creature From Jekyll Island. It describes a process that he calls "The Mandrake Mechanism," named after the cartoon character "Mandrake the Magician." Mandrake the Magician could make things appear out of thin air, and then cause them to vanish again on a whim. This is very similar to the way that the American money system works. Read more...
May 21, 2006
Artist Of The Week - Creature
Hailing from Corona Crown City Queens, Creature has become well known as one of New York City’s fiercest MC’s. Though he was signed to a major label, Island Records, a decade ago as a part of the group Triflicts, Creature has gone the independent route since the group parted ways. He’s worked with an incredible array of artists including The Beatnuts, The X-Ecutioners, MF Doom and Atmosphere. He currently has his Never Say Die album available for sale and will be releasing a number of projects in the fall including another solo effort, Hustle To Be Free, and a collaboration with Preacherman called Creature N Preacher C.P.T. After seeing Creature perform at the most recent Style Factory show it was clear that even if the calendar didn’t read October it was most definitely time for a Creature Feature, which is why he’s this week’s Artist Of The Week. Read more...
Writers
FHHN is constantly searching for new writers to expose to the world, further then their blogs may take them. So when we find someone we like we contact them and try and arrange something so that we can say hey, they're apart of the team. We just hope in the process of scanning for new invisible faces that we do not get Kaavya Viswanathan'd. Anyway, early today we stumbled on another writer with and interesting style and decided we'd share. We've already added a link to one of his blogs and contacted him to let him know we are interested in what he's writing. Let's hope mister Robert Lashley is interested in us.
May 20, 2006
Apathy, Prevail & Embedded Crew W/ DJ HALO
Apathy Interview w/ DJ HALO
Taken backstage before his album release party @ Toad's place in New Haven. Speaks on how he came up in hip-hop and how the internet has changed the game to trying to build a fan base at home after touring all over the world. Also touches on local CT artists and what his feeling is on them, as well as advice he's
gotten from major labels. Aired on "Subways and Sidewalks" 88.5fm WVOF and "Six Feet Deep" 89.5/88.7fm WPKN/WPKM. Download 19mb
Prevail interview w/ DJ HALO
Gotten on the tour bus before a show @ Harper's Ferry in Boston, MA. Prevail touches on topics of what type of chemistry Swollen Members has when recording and preforming, how Swollen Members was formed and how has the death of J-Dilla changed the game in so far as work ethic of artists. Aired on "Subways and Sidewalks" 88.5fm WVOF and "Six Feet Deep" 89.5/88.7fm WPKN/WPKM. Download 42 mb
Embedded Crew freestyle session W/ DJ HALO
Taken from the "Six Feet Deep" show that was put together for WPKN/WPKM's Spring 2006 fundrive (you can post pledges year round at WPKN.ORG). Emcees include, Bisc 1, Baje One, Loer Velocity and Cool Calm Pete. Biggup to all people invloved in that as well Dj ESE, Joe Creed, Doc Strange and yours truely Dj Halo aka Jeep Ward Behind the Board. Download 42 mb
May 19, 2006
"Thug Ride" by White Dawg
Anyone remember this image? The album had so many fullpage ads posted for it in The Source and XXL that you'd think it were a major label masterpiece. Yet, if you flip to the August/September issue of XXL you'll see this horrible piece of shit gets the rare "S" rating, and the almost exclusive printing of the words "disturbingly wack." Writing this as even a fan of dirty south hiphop, this is in so many ways the worst rap record I have ever EVER come across. For those perhaps fortunate enough to never hear this, let's get the obvious stupidity out of the way.
Having perhaps the worst caucasion MC name since Lil' Wyte, not only does this asshole's name exploit his race upfront but remains almost terminally non-descript. Despite this calling attention to being a caucazoid, he says the N-word more on this record than Trent Lott's entire family tree's history. Couple this with the fact that his delivery sounds not ironic or as if using the word was accepted by blacks he grew up with (ie: early Ill Bill, Cage, Necro) but his drawl paints the picture of an apathetic asshole fratboy whose father is paying his way through a top Southern University while he skips class and quotes Chappelle Show all day.
The intro to the record (only positive aspect is that it's mercifully short) is him burping (and a wack burp at that) and saying "Trademark." Another interlude later on the record is a long-ass "Actual recording of live sex" which is not only debatable in its authenticity, but more boring than a room full of Def Jux opening acts.
Productions sounds like someone took a second edition 1983 Casio keyboard, dropped it in an uncleaned aquarium, removed it, and then went in a time machine to 1987 to ensure that even for a cheap ass garage beat it sounds glossy and overproduced. But on the songs where there shows some hint of a good beat ("I Could Fuck You," for instance) is marred by lyrics that are cold embarassing to bump in any system. (the chorus: "I could fuck you, but I'd rather get some head instead" repeated nine times and occationally so offbeat you'd think he was signed to AntiCon South.) Another "It's All Gravy" has the worst sounding white-boy-attempting-to-have-soul "crooning" since Pat Boone sucked off Al Jolson.
The album closes with the touching (as in your drunk uncle touching your no-no zone when you were three) ballad "I Just Want to Get High." It's like the culturally relevant and politically important music of Public Enemy, if P.E., instead of providing a call to arms for social change, wanted to cure the world's social ills with getting high instead.
In closing, the record is entertaining in a "so-bad-it's-funny-but-I-would-never-bump-this-in-fear-of-looking-like-an-urban-Bruce-Vilanch" sort of way. MST3K for your ears. It's out of print, but pops up on Amazon and eBay once in a while.
Kaz "Psedonym" Changas
So Much More
With the emergence of artist like the Living Legends and their most prominent member Murs, LA Symphony, 4th Avenue Jones (remember Ahmad Jones?), Rasco, Planet Asia, Rass Kass, The Pharcyde and the currently solo Fat Lip it's pretty safe to say that LA hip hop is about more than drive- bys and gang ties. But when was the last time we heard a female MC arise from the west? ("Who is Yo-Yo?" Ooh, I'm sorry the correct answer is Lady of Rage.) Read more...
Some reviews...
Yeah yeah yeah, you all can pipe down now because we finally have some new reviews for you to check out. As a matter of fact, you should consider sending us your own reviews (submissions@freehiphopnow.com). New for you eyes today we have, “Special Herbs Volumes 0-9” MF Doom and “View Of A Loser From On Top Of The World” - GIF. Both were written by Hunter Walker.
May 16, 2006
May 15, 2006
Artist Of The Week - Tosha Makia
Tosha Makia is an artist on the move. After gaining notoriety in Connecticut for her song “Be Yourself” she became a part of the Hot 93.7 radio team, but it didn’t take long for the Puerto Rican beauty to graduate to a much bigger market. After her appearance in The Source’s Dime Piece section Philadelphia’s 100.3 The Beat quickly gave Tosha a call and brought her to the city of brotherly love. Her show, Tosha Makia and Da Stripper, is the #2 show in the market and when Ms. Makia isn’t making things happen on the air she’s busy recording for her next album and hosting clubs that are nearly 1,500 people strong. She knows the ins and outs of the music industry both from the radio side and the recording artist side which makes her quite the unique individual and a very interesting person to speak with as this week’s Artist Of The Week. Read interview...
Spitkickin it with Rene John Sandy II
FHHN caught up with the official Spit Kicker himself, Rene-John Sandy and asked a few simple questions to see what's been up with him, Spitkicker.com and his many endeavors. Read it...
Style Factory 3 @ The Knitting Factory
In only their third installment the Style Factory series of shows have already become one of New York City’s hottest Hip-Hop hotspots. The events pack the Old Office at The Knitting Factory and never fail to bring a ton of talent to the stage. This past Saturday was Style Factory 3, and although it started out late the crowd stayed for every act. Read more...
May 8, 2006
Remy Martin Interview
by Adam Bernard
By her own admission she's "so conceited," but she's also so busy, too. With her full length solo debut, There's Something About Remy, in stores, the "Conceited" single getting heavy rotation on urban radio stations all over the country, and packed houses to perform for every night, Remy Martin is burning the candle at every conceivable end. Somehow she found time to sit down with us at RapReviews.com to talk about the tour, her goals for herself, and why she sometimes has an intense desire to smack Fat Joe upside the head.
To read the full interview click the following link: http://www.rapreviews.com/interview/remyma.htm
In The Press
RADIx-“THE STAPLE” in stores now Read more...
Little Brother & DJ Drama Present: Separate But Equal Read more...
The Diplomats’ JR Writer Prepping For Release of his much-anticipated debut album, History In The Making. Album In Stores 27TH, 2006 Read more...
Guru & Solar Prep Jazzmatazz Vol. 4 Read more...
Announcing The West Coast Takeover! Snoop Dog And Tha Dogg Pound Shake Tha World ! Read more...
Koch Records & Terror Squad Partner up to release DJ Khaled's Explosive Debut Album, Listenn…The Album on June 6TH, 2006 Read more...
Barak Records Readies Third Installment in Dirty District Series Read more...
Basic Vocab preps debut album, “The General Dynamic,” for May 23rd, 2006 release Read more...
DEFINITIVE JUX LAUNCHES"THE PHARMACY"
Def Jux pioneers the imminent trend of independent labels creating their own digital download stores!Read more...
Artist of the week - Bisc 1
Those who have a keen eye, and equally keen memory, may recall seeing Bisc203 tags on various bridges, fences and overpasses back in the day. Those graffiti tags were the work of a man who now goes by the name Bisc1. Bisc1 grew up in Massachusetts and Connecticut and was a graffer until, as he puts it, "I got snagged." Now living in New York, Bisc1 is a member of the Embedded Music team and late in 2005 he released his debut EP, The Basics. On May 4th Bisc1 leaves for China, where he will be performing at various hot spots for three weeks. With his star obviously on the rise it’s time to get to know Bisc 1. read interview...
May 3, 2006
Bob Marley and the Politics of Image
Dr. Michelle A. Stephens joined? FreeMix Radio to discuss her article Babylon's 'Natural Mystic': The North American Music Industry, And the Incorporation of Transnationalism.? Click to hear the interview? or visit voxunion.com for this interview and much more.
May 2, 2006
Adam's Artist Of The Week - Disco -D
He’s produced some of the hottest tracks you’ve heard over the past few years. From 50 Cent’s “Ski Mask Way” to Nina Sky’s “Turnin Me On” Disco D’s work has been blasting from stereo speakers for quite a while now. Disco’s story is one of pure determination and work ethic, a year after falling in love with Detroit’s rave scene he was headlining parties in the city and had a weekly residency at a club there. Now an NYC native, Brooklyn is where his studio, The Booty Barn, is located. Disco’s current projects include the Brazilian super group Braza and even working with Kevin Federline. With this talented producer approaching the heights of greatness it’s time to get to know Disco D. read interview...
