Hip Hop is Dying and There's Only One Man Who Can Save It   FRED HELD (R.I.P.)

[[  March 13, 2007  ]]

What's upper? 

Props to Evidence, Emilio Rojas & Lovely Hoffman our guests on last weeks RAP ATTACK CONFERENCE CALL. Dilated Peoples will be dropping their new album in 2008 but for now the members are pursuing their solo careers. Evidence will be dropping his album "The Weatherman" on March 20th! You can also peep out Lovely Hoffman's material at: http://www.myspace.com/lovelyhoffman...

RIAA Moves to Squash Internet Radio By Charging High Rates

RIAA Moves to Squash Internet Radio By Charging High Rates by: Davey-D

Music fans who have sought out the Internet for solace over the mundane offerings of commercial radio may be in for some bad news. After a year of intense lobbying the RIAA has gotten just about everything they wanted from the Congress and the Office of Copyright in terms of royalty rates for Internet radio and other digital media services. Things are at such a high rate that it will effectively shut down most Internet radio broadcasters.

I saw this first hand a few years back while working at one of the biggest Internet radio companies. One of the services they offered was for free and because of the the then current rate structure that the RIAA lobbied for, as the more and more people began to tune in and the service got hot, the company was hit with this crazy bill that was in the millions. The company big wigs attempted to try and work things out with the RIAA based labels but to no avail. The end result was putting time limits on the service and then eventually closing it out altogether. It was just too expensive.

If such things can happen to the big giants that have millions in their coffers, then you can see that the little guy will be toast. Keep in mind at the time, the large number of listeners we had may have been around a million, which ain't all that large when you consider that you can reach the entire world.

As far as I'm concerned this was a move to eliminate competition and centralize the places that people go on line to get their music. In this case it's from the commercial radio stations who are now experimenting and expanding formats with their HD radio systems. As I noted during last year's LA FCC hearings, what i likely to happen is that commercial radio will do some behind the scenes bartering and not pay such high rates in exchange for air play on their regular outlets.

This is a very foul move and sadly it happened on the watch of the Democrats. Where's Hillary, Barack and others on this issue? or did that all that David Geffen (Geffen Records) money along with contributions from other Hollywood entertainment big wigs buy their silence?

What's even sadder is this happens just as activists and concerned community groups have been setting up their own stations to bring attention to key social issues overlooked by mainstream outlets. to top all this off, the new rates are going to be applied retroactively.

Now we can thank Congressional Black Caucus member Bobby Rush for selling out to big time commercial interests like AT&T and trying to get rid of Net Neutrality protections. We can now thank his fellow Democrats for allowing this bullshit rate hike to pass through without a whimper. Didn't they say they were gonna bring about a new day? Hasn't Barack been calling for a new type of politic? How can you have new type of politic that involves the people when you have folks in the same political camp making it real expensive to have a voice in the digital age?

What's crazy is as the Presidential election heats up and these "Demo-craps" find themselves getting clobbered to death by right wing talk shows, maybe then they'll think back and realize that they helped in killing a medium that could've been flipped to be key asset for them by grassroots independent organizers.
I will find out what can be done to turn this around, in the meantime, I suggest people start calling their congressional representives and demanding some answers. Oh yeah, don't let them tell you some nonsense about digital downloading being the cause of their economic slump. Hardcore Democrat and talk show host, Rosie O'Donell was on The View last friday spewing that lie.

Some of these bigtime artists have seen their album sales drop in half by mllions. I.e 50 cent saw album sales slip from 8 million albums to 4 million albums. There's no way 4 million people downloaded the Massacre album. Platinum selling artists like P-Diddy and Busta Rhymes who barely went gold with their last releases were NOT victim to MILLIONS of people downloading their albums.

Again folks the name of the game for those in power is to CONTROL THE FLOW OF INFORMATION AND WHO ACCESS TO MEDIA OUTLETS.. The RIAA is enacting what I call the New Net neutrality.

RIAA Moves to Squash Internet Radio courtesy of Radio Paradise and www.Kurthanson.com

The US Copyright Office has released their new set of rates for the payment of royalties by Internet Radio, and they ignored all of the facts presented by webcasters (including RP) and gave the record industry exactly what they asked for: royalty rates so high that they will put RP and every other independent webcaster out of business. See Kurt Hanson's newsletter for 3/2/07 for the details on how the rates work and what they will mean to stations like RP. You can participate in the discussion about this issue in our Listener Forum.

For some time, we've suffered with a system where we pay a large chunk (10%-12%) of our income to the Big 5 record companies - while FM stations and radio conglomerates like Clear Channel pay nothing. Now they want even more. In our case, an amount equal to 125% of our income. Our only hope is to create as much public awareness and outrage about this staggeringly unfair situation as possible. Neither the record industry nor Congress are ready to listen to us at this point. But members of the media may well be, and we need to get their attention.

If you have a blog, write about it. Feel free to quote anything I've written in the Listener Forum. If you find a good blog post about the subject, Digg it or Slashdot it. If you work for a media outlet, look over the facts of the situation and see if you don't feel the same sense of outrage that we do. Write a letter to the editor of your favorite magazine or newspaper. Let everyone you can know what a loss it would be to you personally if your favorite Internet radio stations, including RP, were no longer available.

The RIAA can, at any time, agree to strike a deal with independent webcasters to allow us to pay a more realistic royalty, one based on a percentage of our income. We're hoping that if all of you make enough noise they'll be more inclined to do so. We'd also like to hope that at least one member of Congress will take a look at this situation and become willing to propose ammendments to the deeply flawed 1990s pieces of legislation that are responsible for the unfair treatment of Internet radio.

Here's a more detailed breakdown of this. BY DANIEL MCSWAIN
http://www.kurthanson.com/archive/news/030207/index.shtml

The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has announced its decision on Internet radio royalty rates, rejecting all of the arguments made by Webcasters and instead adopting the "per play" rate proposal put forth by SoundExchange(a digital music fee collection body created by the RIAA).

RAIN has learned the rates that the Board has decided on, effective retroactively through the beginning of 2006. They are as follows:

2006 $.0008 per performance
2007 $.0011 per performance
2008 $.0014 per performance
2009 $.0018 per performance
2010 $.0019 per performance

A "performance" is defined as the streaming of one song to one listener; thus a station that has an average audience of 500 listeners racks up 500 "performances" for each song it plays.

The minimum fee is $500 per channel per year. There is no clear definition of what a 'channel' is for services that make up individualized playlists for listeners.
For noncommercial webcasters, the fee will be $500 per channel, for up to 159,140 ATH (aggregate tuning hours) per month. They would pay the commercial rate for all transmissions above that number.

Participants are granted a 15 day period wherein they have the opportunity to ask the CRB for a re-hearing.

Within 60 days of the final determination, the decision is supposed to be published in the Federal Register, along with any technical corrections that the Board may wish to make.

Within 30 days of publication in the Federal Register, it can be appealed (but only by the participants) to the U.S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia.
...
Because a typical Internet radio station plays about 16 songs an hour, that's a royalty obligation in 2006 of about 1.28 cents per listener-hour.

In 2006, a well-run Internet radio station might have been able to sell two radio spots an hour at a $3 net CPM (cost-per-thousand), which would add up to .6 cents per listener-hour.

Even adding in ancillary revenues from occasional video gateway ads, banner ads on the website, and so forth, total revenues per listener-hour would only be in the 1.0 to 1.2 cents per listener-hour range.

That math suggests that the royalty rate decision — for the performance alone, not even including composers' royalties! — is in the in the ballpark of 100% or more of total revenues. —KH

PETITION LINK TO SAVE INTERNET RADIO: http://www.petitiononline.com/SIR2007r/petition.html

UPDATE ON SEATTLE'S DV ONE TRIAL
Mark your calendars. March 19, 2007 is quickly approaching as this is one of the most important days in the history of Seattle Hip Hop when one of our Northwest pioneers DV One (see photo above) will stand trial vs The Seattle Police Department. This will likely be a week long trial. If need be, please let your employers know ASAP as to which days you would like to take off to attend the trial. DV One will need as many supporters and participants there as possible.

The court dates prior to this one were important as well, but this will be the one that determines the fate of DV One as he is facing a potential Assault 3 felony along with a 5 year sentence and $50,000 fine. This is absolutely no joke.

The trial will take place at the King County Courthouse
 

King County Courthouse
516 - 3rd Avenue - Room E1202
Seattle, WA 98104
Phone: (206) 296-9100
Fax: (206) 296-0986
TTY: (206) 205-5048

Below I have provided some useful information regarding the King County Courthouse:
Press
The following link provides an order entered into THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON IN AND FOR KING COUNTY regarding the rules
regarding press coverage in the courtroom.
http://146.129.240.139/search?q=cache:Mj_Z9XX6iS4J:

www.metrokc.gov/kcsc/docs/schiMediaOrd.pdf+courtroom

%2C+media&access=p&output=xml_no_dtd&site=w&ie=UTF-8&client=w_frontend&proxystylesheet=w_frontend&oe=UTF-8

How to Get There
The King County Courthouse is located between 3rd and 4th Avenues and Jefferson and James streets in the Pioneer Square District of downtown
Seattle. Entrances to the courthouse are on 3rd and 4th Avenues. Courthouse area map
http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll?qscr=mcst&strt1=516+

Third+Avenue&city1=Seattle&stnm1=WA&zipc1=98104&&tpid=

1&&zz=1173154112438&

Taking the bus: Visitors to the courthouse are encouraged to use the metro bus system to avoid traffic congestion and parking difficulties. Many routes to downtown Seattle stop at or near the courthouse. Bus route information
http://tripplanner.metrokc.gov/cgibin/itin_page.pl?resptype=

U&origloc=&destloc=king%20county%20courthouse&daflag=

D&time=&maxwalk=.50&min=T

Driving directions
http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll?qscr=mcst&strt1= &city1=&stnm1=&zipc1=&strt2=516+Third+Avenue&city2=

Seattle&stnm2=WA&zipc2=98104&&tpid=1
Parking: Several parking lots are available on Fourth and Fifth Avenues, South of the courthouse. Discounts are given for all day parking and lots often fill early in the morning. There is no parking at or immediately adjacent to the courthouse.

Accommodations for people with disabilities
Superior Court follows state and federal standards for making reasonable accommodations at the King County Courthouse for people with disabilities. Assisted listening devices and American Sign Language interpretation are available from Interpreter Services, (206) 206-9358. For other assistance, call (206) 296-9100.

Childcare: Childcare is not available at the courthouse.

Food: A snack shop is located near the first floor entrance to the courthouse. Vending machines are available in jury assembly rooms on the 7th floor.
A variety of restaurants are located in the Columbia Center at 4th Avenue and Cherry St. (two blocks north of the courthouse) and in the Pioneer Square area, west of the courthouse.

Web Site
This is the Official Support DV One page: http://www.myspace.com/supportdvone. This will be the page by which you can get information leading up to the day of the trial. Please show your support by attending the trial of the Seattle Police Department vs DV One on March 19, 2007.
 

Peace,
Mike Clark
email: mikeclark206@hotmail.com
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/mikeclark206
phone: (206) 251-2797
fax: (206) 374-2530
 

Planet Asia's Gold Chain Music now has a JV deal with RBC/Navare. The new album is called, Planet Asia as Medallions - "Jewelry Box Sessions : The Album" dropping ((June 26))...

Don't sleep on the new Talib Kweli f/ Jean Grae "Say Something" (WB). Another HOT banger that'll make a lot of noise with our RAP ATTACK DJ's. To get laced, hit up Audrey Guenver at: audrey_guenver@yahoo.com or call: (818) 953-3320...

Congratulations to Blue Scholars reppin' my hometown of Seattle, WA as they just inked a deal with Rawkus Records! Blue Scholars second full-length release, "Bayani", is due out in June 12, 2007 on Rawkus Records in collaboration with MASSLINE. Check out more on Blue Scholars at www.bluescholars.com.
Read about the MASSLINE movement at: www.MASSLINEmedia.com  and Rawkus Records at: www.Rawkus.com...

Rapper Noreaga is currently fielding offers from a number of major record labels as the Queens based emcee wraps up his next solo album. Co-executive producer of NORE's upcoming release, Miami’s own DJ EFN says, "I took Noreaga back to the CNN days for this album. We have production from everyone from Scott Storch to Swizz Beatz on the album - it’s gonna be a classic record"...

Peep out the new OC single "The Inventor" (All City) taken from the OC's "HIDDEN GEMS (Rare, Unreleased and Remixed songs)" project and it will be in stores Tues March 27th.  Also peep the EG promo record featuring his first single, "Hands Up Now." For more info hit up:
Greg Tyler
All City Promotions
347-992-1259
www.myspace.com/allcitypromotions
greg@nextmillent.com...

Skull & Mighty Mystic are about to collaborate on their new joint "Here To Stay" (YG Entertainment). Both Skull & Mighty Mystic will be performing together at this years Urban Network Conf at the Hyatt Regency in Newport, CA on Friday, March 23rd at 6PM (poolside). See you there...
 

Rap Attack takes a "WHAT'S UPPER" look this week with:

Damian Rodriguez (KGNU-CO): "Does anyone have the new Redman w/out any shout outs? Email me please!

Ghetto highlight of the week:Driving a while back & this caught my eye. IF you can’t read it it says “YEAH I’M A SMOKER, WUT OFIT” I’m guessing 2 things either A he forgot to pay his drug dealer, or B his girl doesn’t like him paying the drug dealer. Either way, this was in the high end business section of Denver. Our version of manhatten I guess.

Moral:You’re ghetto when your car goes beyond the typical window smashing/tire slashing, but the spray paint advertising of your personal habits for the world to see"...

Jason-D (RadioBoise.Org): "Peace y'all. Back in the USA after 10 days in India. It feels good to be back but damn can somebody tell me what time it is? Traveling to a time zone that is exactly 12 hours opposite of where you are from is a real trip. Still ain't sleeping right. So this was my first trip outside of North America. I can't believe all the bullshit we export to other countries. My first stop was in Frankfurt, Germany. Started watching the tv during my 2 hour lay over. Guess who was all over that beeeotch? Anna (I'm the baby's daddy) Nicole Smith! I fly 9 hours and still can't get away. Once in India, I was amazed at the number of Domino's pizza, McDonalds, and KFC spots. I mean damn. Could we export a better restaurant? This was the clincher though. My cab driver in Bangalore, India asked me if I was from the US because he loved music from the US. I told him I was and asked him how he gets to hear it. Keep in mind it's like cows and dirt roads and all types of wild shit going on outside the car. He says they have a radio station that plays it. He turns on the radio and no bullshit, the first thing I hear is, "Yeeeaaahhhhhhh!!!!". 24 hours on the plane and the first song I hear is Lil Jon over the radio in India. The matrix is real"...

Solo (WECI-IN): "I got surprising news, we are expecting anotha lil one. Pray for me, if you know my lil girl's history with autism, its been hell and then some. but I would neva take Lily back, disabaled or not, kids are a blessing. b4 we knew the news we were house hunting. it was a 3 bedroom, now I need a 4 bedroom.
I always need a room for a music studio"...

DJ S.A. (KHQT-New Mexico): "I know its been a minute, but things got shady at the station, so I have moved back to KRUX 91.5 FM at New Mexico State University. Sorry its been so long, it took a while to get things situated, but Im Back!!! Thanks for your patience in bearing with me.Peace and God Bless"...

EARTHQUAKE (LIVE365.COM):"My man Blake Lewis aka B Shorty is killing it on American Idol. He is bringing a flava people have never seen on that show. Big shoutout to Blake for doing his thang"...

Nate Abney (WKDU-Philly): "Another week of back and forth weather in Philly. It will be cold for two days and warm for three. Phillies are gearing up. March Madness is upon us and I'm excited. I like the Robin Thicke album too. Keep sending the music promoters (I actually listen to them in alphabetical order). Me and my man Saint B will have something for everyone in the not too far future people, so be on the lookout. It's spring again. What's up with Justin Timberlake dissin Prince? Are you serious? Does anyone find the Scott Storch-Timbaland beef funny? Man some pretty good insults"...

 

Nesto (WODU-VA): "What's good family? This weather is crazy. Last week we have days of 70 degree weather, and now it's back down in the 30's and 40's.

Ok, so sales of RAP music is down 21% since last year and the media is claiming it's because the "people" want something different and are tired of all the drug and crime references in music. Now that is some funny stuff, and RAP music is a bad influence on everything from the culture, to kids, to sex, to drug use. Well, first off parents should be stepping in there somewhere to lay down the law, and if the mindless masses didn't buy up all that bullshit in the first place it wouldn't have been force fed by the labels, MTV, BET and whatever other outlets that blast that shit 24/7. How's that old saying go, "You Reap What You Sow".. these clowns that have basically shitted on the true essence of hip hop over the years without having any kind of balance to even out the bullshit, and they are now starting to feel the bite in their ass in sales, but if you really think about it the damage has already been done. "They" gave us the rope, and we slowly tightened it around our necks and if "we" don't wake the hell up we going to hang ourselves with it. Metaphorically speaking of course. And of course this is nothing new that I'm saying, many people are saying it, and have been saying it"...
 

Dan Shores (WHRW-NY): "Here's my new cell number to reach me at. Please update your files:
New cell: 607 372 3395...
 

L-Precise (Mixtapes/Canada): Checked out the Jazzy Jeff show the other week.. pretty dope.. Skills on the mic too.. one of my fav’s. Here’s a couple short clips if you want to see at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLohXtIXoOY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=996Ma2q5-Ok

DJ Lazy (WMNF-FL): "We got mad throwback parties this March in Tampa baby!!! 813 is old school for Spring I guess. De La Soul is comin in March 16th. Public Enemy (the original line-up!!!) is comin with X-Clan March 23rd!!! Souls Of Mischief end of April and Strange Fruit Project rollin through On April 10th. This weekend K-OS (one of my current favorite albums!!!) is comin with Gym Class Heroes to Orlando March 1st so I'm makin a road trip!! Only an hour so no problem. Spring is here and my shoe game is in full effect! I got those New balance 480's that were only released in Las Vegas for the NBA All Star weekend!! Plus a pair of the Nike SB Dunk Dinosaur Jr's. Who's comin ta Winter Music Conference?!?!"...
 

Here is our address for 2007 to send material for review, etc (vinyl & cd's)! Same address, just a new Ste. number:

RapAttackLives.com

4750 Kester Avenue, Ste. 11

Sherman Oaks, CA 91403

Attn: Nasty-Nes

SHOUT OUT TIZIME: Happy Birthday this week to EarthQuake (Live365.com) & to MySpace.com's Roslynn Cobarrubias both celebrating on Monday, March 12th and to my lil' brotha Suspens (Suspens Recording) celebrating this Thursday, on March 15th... R.I.P. to Notorious B.I.G. and I mourn the passing of Fred Held. A dance music industry pioneer who started in distribution and was one of the first people to promote dance music to night clubs, djs and radio in the Miami market. Instrumental in the careers of France Joli, DJ Magic Mike, Expose, Company B & Sir Mix-A-Lot, Fred also worked with seminal disco labels West End, Prelude and Sam. Fred Held received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2006 Winter Music Conference International Dance Music Awards ceremony. He will be missed by everyone in the dance music industry. R.I.P. my friend (see photo above)...

PEACE, LOVE & HIP-HOP UNITY (God Bless & Isa Mahal),

Nasty-Nes

http://www.myspace.com/nastynes

http://www.myspace.com/rapattacklives

(Pinoy Pride4Life / John 3:16)