NESTO (WODU/VA)

PLANET ASIA F/ CELETIA MARTIN

COMIN' HOME

GOLD CHAIN/RBC/KOCH

Suspens Recordings

www.805HIPHOP.com It's RAP ATTACK's DJ D-Tragic reppin' 805HipHop.com!

DYNAMITE USA! Mixed Martial Arts was in full effect last Saturday night with Brock Lesnar, Royce Gracie, Hong Man Choi & Johnnie Morton.

A NASTY URBAN NETWORK FLASHBACK (l-r): Nasty-Nes, J-Tyme, Lee Cadena, Christina Alonzo & Adam B.

[[ June 4, 2007 ]]

What's upper? HBO's "Sopranos" continues to get my face glued to the big screen every Sunday night at 6pm! Last Sunday's episode we watched Tony's psychiatrist, Dr. Melfi say goodbye forever to Tony, & Tony's boys' Bobby & Sil gets gunned down mafioso style. Next weekend is the finale'. Don't miss it...

In a highly anticipated grudge rematch, Royce Gracie (see photo above) faced Japan’s Kazushi Sakuraba in the semi-main event of the spectacular “SoftBank presents Dynamite!! USA’’ MMA event last Saturday, June 2, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Rap Attack was in the house ringside & had a blast! Former Lions, Chiefs and 49'ers receiver, Johnnie Morton experienced his debut in the MMA by being carried out on a stretcher after a 1st round KO from opponent, Bernard Ackah. Royce Gracie defeated Kazushi Sakuraba with a 29-28, 29-28, 30-27 decision. The co-main event saw MMA newcomer Brock Lesnar take down South Korean Min Soo Kim with a submission in the first round. The winning match was Lesnar's MMA debut after a successful amateur and pro wrestling career. With a large Korean fanbase behind him, Dong Sik Yoon of South Korea won a hard-fought second round victory against Melvin Manhoef of the Netherlands which in my opinion was the best bout of the night!...

Gotta give props to Brother Ali & Planet Asia for blessing our Rap Attack Conference Call last Thursday...

Attn MySpace heads! If you haven't joined our exclusive RAP ATTACK page on MySpace, log on NOW & join at: http://www.myspace.com/rapattacklives...

Hip Hop May Not Be Dead, But Internet Radio May Soon Be
by Davey D
A few years a ago I ran into former FCC Chairman Michael Powell as he was leaving Jesse Jackson's Wall Street Project conference in New York. He was the man of the hour due to the fact that over 3 million people had hit up the FCC demanding that he abandon his plans to allow big media conglomerates like Clear Channel to further consolidate.

I confronted Powell about many of the complaints I was hearing from media reform activists around the country including the Bay Area's People Station Campaign, Detroit's Black Out Friday campaign and the 'Turn off the Radio Campaign' which drew 1500 people including Chuck D, Afrika Bambattaa, Doug E Fresh and numerous other rap stars and launched in a Harlem church the night before.
It was there that members of NY's City Council held a tribunal and listened to over six hours of testimony where person after person complained about lack of musical diversity resulting in listeners having to endure the same ten songs in row, the lack of local airplay for independent local artists and an abundance of harmful stereotypes being broadcasted everyday resulting in Black and Brown communities being marginalized. The most troubling was the management of NY's then number one station Hot 97 allowing their on disc jockeys to constantly use the N and B words on the air.
Powell listened and then dismissively told me the solution was not to regulate radio and prevent further consolidation but for concerned listeners to turn to the Internet radio. It was there he stated that people could find all the diversity and niche programming their heart desired. I tried to explain that a lot of people especially in poor communities where broadband was scarce, couldn't listen to Internet radio. Sadly Powell wasn't trying to hear it and he bounced.
Fast forward 4 years later and people faced with little changes in radio found their way onto the Internet and an industry that once boasted a scant few million listeners a month now has mushroomed to a medium that attracts over 70 million people. Apparently people got Powell's memo.

In a cruel sense of irony, what has become a viable alternative and a place of solace for many is threatened. In recent weeks while the country was focused on Don Imus, the major record labels along with their organization Sound Exchange successfully petitioned the US Copyright Board and convinced them to increase royalty fees a whooping 300-1200% to be applied retroactively. The rates which were supposed to kick in May 15th threatened to bankrupt the Internet Radio industry.

Just to give you an idea of how that looks, locally based Soma FM in a recent Eastbay Express article explained that they had an annual webcasting bill for 10 thousand dollars. Under the new rates they would immediately owe 600 thousand dollars. I spoke with owner Rusty Hodge who noted that the high rates are the result of him having lots of people who listen for long periods of time. He also noted that if he manages to stay afloat in 2007 he will owe the labels over one million dollars.

The largest Internet Radio company Live 365-also locally based explained to the Washington Post that their annual 1.5 million dollar bill would increase to 6 or 7 million and bankrupt the company.
What makes this new ruling even more insidious is that all webcasters no matter how big or small would be required to pay 500 bucks annually on top of the increased rates, meanwhile commercial broadcasters who have in recent months been aggressively pushing their own online stations and HD broadcasts along with satellite radio would NOT be paying these increased rates.

If you listen to commercial stations all around the country you will hear many of them pushing for listeners to check out their new on line spin off stations. The ultimate plan of action for many stations is to launch specialty stations that focus on a specific genre. For example in New York City, Hot 97 now has a online station called the 'Original Hot 97' where listeners can hear the station in its original dance music oriented format. Here in the Bay Area Kiss FM which plays classic R&B and soul has launched an online station where they play classic commercial Hip Hop.

Now this in itself is not a bad thing except the playing field is not even. For starters the commercial outlets at the very least will be able to barter with major labels to overlook online fees in exchange for terrestrial airplay. What also is not being stated is that for the commercial giants this will be the place where they can legally exercise pay for play (payola) especially if they wind up being the only game in town.

A likely scenario that will soon emerge if it hasn't already is that labels seeking airplay will hit off these commercial giants with a set amount of money and then after the stations 'determine' that the songs are doing well online will then bounce them up to regular rotation on the terrestrial stations. The pay for play scheme online will be a welcome cash cow for commercial stations while labels will be able to exercise control over projects that they are promoting.
For those who don't know, the way things work now, is that a major label comes up with a marketing campaign for a particular artist. They set up a marketing campaign with the album's first single followed by a video. They depend upon broadcasters to go along with their game plan. They expect stations and video outlets to play the second and third singles at the prescribed time and will actually discourage programmers from playing album cuts or upcoming planned singles 'too soon'. In some instances labels will use their muscle and threaten to stop servicing stations with music or will prohibit their artists from doing interviews or summer jam concerts if the broadcasters don't cooperate with the marketing plan. This focused marketing is what many of these label executives feel will lead to increased album sales and hence that's the main reason you hear the same ten songs being played on air from coast to coast.
Internet Radio helped break that strangle-hold. With the average webcaster it's usually been people first not labels first. The industry seems bent on changing this dynamic The first step is to eliminate all these independent Internet Radio stations by making it too costly.
For those who think what I'm saying is far fetched, talk to any online broadcaster and ask him/her about the 1998 DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) which governs Internet Radio and was pushed through Congress by the RIAA and the major labels, it is technically against the law for Internet radio to play songs from the same artist 2 or 3 times in a 3 hour period. Hence unlike commercial giants who can break format and do a Prince special or have a Jay-Z or Public Enemy hour, webcasters are forbidden to this by law.

When James Brown passed late last year and Rick James passed the year before, radio stations all over the country broke format and played hours of music from these legends. Thanks to the DMCA, Internet radio was forbidden to do this unless they got special permission from the labels which was damn near impossible for most people who actually go out and purchase their own music as opposed to commercial stations which get it sent to them for free and have relationships with record label promoters.

The Sound Exchange people said they need to raise rates and make all these rules for the benefit of the artist. They said that because album sales are down and that the industry needs another income source. Webcasting fees will help offset the economic downturn. They also stated that they were doing this for the artists who they feel need to be paid.Well according to Wendy Day of the well respected artist advocacy group Rapcoalition that's not exactly true. Day who is responsible for brokering deals for artists like Master P and Cash Money stated;
"From the negotiation standpoint in the music industry, the major labels are fighting hard to retain as large a percentage as possible for digital rights. Much like record deals of the past (old formats such as records, cassettes, and CDs), the labels retain the lion's share of the profits giving the average artist a lowly 12% of the selling price AFTER they've paid back every recoupable expense from their share of the royalties. That business model still stands in digital formats. The labels still keep the lion's share of the money, using the artists measly percentage to pay down the debt. I have, personally, seen labels budge on allowing artists to be non-exclusive to their label, but not give an inch in negotiating digital rights. Artists still get pennies in comparison to the labels' dollars".

The Sound Exchange people have also stated that webcasters can easily pay the increased fees by selling advertising. That's a huge fallacy. To start, what wasn't stated by SE was the fact that these small webcasters are now in direct competition with traditional broadcast giants who are going after those same ad dollars for their own online webcasts.

In short the chips are stacked against the average online broadcaster who was chased on line by Powell and the lack of response by broadcast mediums to their initial concerns. The little guy who does this as a passionate hobby where he was willing to pay reasonable rates is suddenly up against a huge company with a sales staff that at the end of the day can barter for ad dollars with a variety of on and offline platforms. As I said before Internet and digital broadcasting is new terrain that the industry wants cleared out with them being the only game in town. If that happens all the same complaints consumers had and continue to have with traditional radio will resurface with these commercial online outlets.

So disconcerting is this latest assault that there has been a groundswell of support and broad coalition of groups opposing the rate hikes ranging from Christen broadcasters to Yahoo radio. The end result are two bi-partisan bills being pushed through Congress and the Senate. In the House its HR 2060 and in the senate S1353 the Internet Radio Equality Act. Which would repeal the rates. People are asked to call their representative and get behind the bills or risk seeing the Internet radio landscape permanently change and be a thing that only the rich and powerful can afford to do. You can go to SaveNetRadio for more info on this: SaveNetRadio.com...

Radio Raheim is working over at Def Jam now. So please help your boy out and make him look good. Raheim's office line is: 212 333 1329. Raheim says, "I haven't set up my voice mail yet so please bare with me for a minute. Still got my ties over at The Mixshow Power Summit that is family for life. Just came back from Rene & Lylette's wedding so we are all good. They flew me out and I apprciate that." You can reach our boy online at: Radiorah29@gmail.com. You can also hit up, Tommy Gunz who is the latest College Rep for Def Jam. You can hit him up online at: kingpin2000@gmail.com....

Elijah Hamilton has recently joined the team at ABB Records (Little Brother, Dilated Peoples, Planet Asia, Defari) in their Radio Promotions dept.. He will be working with Malachi Padron to provide you with new music for Hip-Hop / Soul programming, and looks forward to working with you. Please hit Elijah up if you have any questions or requests to:
(510) 419-0943 x 106 - Office
(510) 575-4767 - Cell
elijah@abbrecords.com
www.abbrecords.com
www.abbsoul.com
www.myspace.com/abbrecords

Finally, the previously-unreleased, formerly-shelved, certainly never-heard, super dope full length masterpiece from The Wascal's will finally be released this week! Produced by J-Swift their "Greatest Hits Disc 1 &2" (Traffic/Delicious Vinyl) includes the original ten song album, eleven instrumentals, four bonus tracks and two extremely rare videos for "Class Clown" and "The Dips." All of which was done back in 1994 when rap actually meant something. For more info, log onto: www.trafficent.com, call (617) 845-0088 or hit up Ty-C online at: tycamp2004@aol.com...

Congrats to the Wonder TwinZ (SIRIUS) who hits the road overseas in Poland with Naughty By Nature to DJ for them during their entire European Tour!!!!...

Noreaga is gearing up to release his first independent album, "Global Warming." With the help of Rap Attacks' own, Miami mixtape DJ EFN, NORE has recruited Swizz Beatz, the Neptunes, T-Pain Bun B, Jadakiss and plenty more for the project...

Be the first to peep out Skull's new 3-D/animated video for "Boom Di Boom di" here: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=

vids.individual&videoid=2025458205...

Public Enemy has been added to the all-star line up of artist performing at this years' "Rock the Bells" Hip-Hop festival scheduled for August 11th in San Bernardino, CA.. The festival, at the National Orange Show Events Center will also feature Cypress Hill, the Roots, Mos Def, EPMD, the Coup, MF DOOM, Jedi Mind Trick, Murs and Sage Francis. The festival will also hit Randall's Island in New York City on July 28th and McCovey's Parking Lot in San Francisco on August 18th. The San Francisco show will have Nas headlining and he will join Wu Tang on 15 more "Rock the Bells" dates in other cities to be announced soon. In response to the 20-minute sell-out of the previously announced Saturday, July 28 Randall’s Island/New York City date, Guerilla Union in conjunction with Live Nation have revealed they will add a second ROCK THE BELLS festival show at the venue for Sunday, July 29. Confirmed artists for both NYC-area shows are headliners Rage Against The Machine, The Wu-Tang Clan, Cypress Hill and many more. This second Randall’s Island/New York City show now marks one of five opportunities where fans can experience the highly anticipated return of Rage Against The Machine which includes Coachella and other Rock The Bells shows: Saturday, August 11 at the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino, CA and Saturday, August 18 at McCovey Cove Parking Lot in San Francisco, CA. Tickets for ROCK THE BELLS Sunday, July 29 at Randall’s Island go on sale Friday, May 4 at 10:00 am via Ticketmaster...

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

Bri-G (RPM Promotions/Mixtape-New York): "Much like South Park recognized that it was impossible to do something without ripping off the Simpsons, I realize that I'm going to constantly be ripping off Bill Simmons from ESPN.com. Before I left for the Dominican Republic last week, I knew that I was going to have to do a Simmons-like running diary. To protect the innocent (and not so innocent) several events will not be discussed in full detail. This is going to be long, so feel free to read this in multiple segments.

Saturday 7:30 am: Me and Eric Parler (from here on out referred to as EP) meet at JFK. Several of you are discussed, some good, some bad...some very bad. We don't need to get into details here.

Saturday 12 noon: Me and EP arrive in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. As we wait outside for E-One and DJ Love to pick us up for our 3 hour drive to Punta Cana, we're wondering A) are we actually going to make it alive and B) what exactly did E-One and Love do in their night alone in DR last night. Before long, here comes E-One, Love, and our driver/tour guide Jose'. Apparently they met Jose the night before and he took them to all the hot spots in SD. I'm greeted by E-One telling me that, after last night, he is now referred to as the "Dominican Face Painter" and I'm sure this has nothing to do with going to a football game.

Saturday 1 pm: This is literally like nothing I've ever seen before. The backwoods drive through DR is everything I hoped it would be and more. My hopes of finding a shortstop to talk into signing a contract with me are constantly lifted. It's a little depressing to see how these people live. The sugar cane fields they work must yield millions of dollars, yet these people live is abject poverty. Our spirits are lifted by the randomly hot Dominican women walking down the street. Hey, you might have to work in a field 18 hours a day, but you get to live here with all this hot chicks, right?

Saturday 3 pm: We're 2 hours into your journey and all I've had to eat was a bagel at 7am. Jose' takes us to what he calls "the mall". It's a store call Jumbo that's basically a super Wal-Mart. The check-out girls are ridiculous. E-One's discussed moving here and working at the Presidente Brewery, he's now thinking that he might just become a bag boy at Jumbo.

Saturday 4:40 pm: After dropping off the other three at their hotel, I have to go to my crappy hotel. My whole theory on staying at the crappy hotel was that I could pay half the money and just sneak on the good one and get all the benefits of staying there. This theory proves to be dead right. There is literally no one at my hotel. I drop my stuff and take a quick walk on the beach to check it out. Still no one. When I say this place is crappy, I mean, it's still really nice, it's just not 5 stars or anything. I'm not staying at some shack. Another quick look around, a shower, and off to the nice hotel to meet up with everybody else.

Saturday 7pm: There's a pretty big mall with access to the resort everyone's staying at. I figure the easiest way to sneak on is through there. I'm correct. Let the games begin.

Saturday 8 pm: Buffet's great, beer's cold, and it's all free. "Presidente por favor....gracias."

Saturday 9 pm: The lobby bar is where my night starts to get blurry. I'm at least 5 beers deep just from dinner when the shots start flowing at the lobby bar. Mind you, I've had a bagel, some chips I bought at Jumbo, and a only one plate at this buffet to eat so far today. This might be tough. E-One's best friends with the whole bar staff. He stayed here in December and is apparently the King of the Malia Caribe Tropical Resort. Brugal is Dominican Rum. Take my advice, don't shoot it like its Patron. Since we're here for my boss Rene's wedding, we're looking for him. We wanna go out for a guy's night out. Finally we all meet up, but we've lost Love (last seen with two hot older Canadian women), and EP/E-One.

Saturday 11 pm: On the ride over I argue with Pecas about Fab's album. When I get drunk I turn into somewhat of a Hip Hop philosopher. I tell em he's not gonna sell 100k in his first week, he laughs, bets me 10k that he will, and I shut up. He's probably right anyway. We're outside Club Mangu where apparently there's a Kid Capri/Biz Markie party going on. After we get in, I turn into the crazy double fister. "Dos Presidentes por favor....gracias."

Sunday 2 am: We're at La Punta basically a Dominican strip club where I end up with the worst case of hiccups in history and I literally remember nothing except else for the fact that I was there and couldn't get rid of my hiccups.

Sunday 4 am: I worm my way back to my hotel room.

Sunay 1 pm: Wake up time. Radio's on his way up to my room (he's staying with me). Shower, shave, Tums, Excedrin Migrane...fuck lunch, let's rock.

Sunday 3 pm: After sneaking into the nice resort yet again, it's pool time. E-One's a mess. I ask him where he was last night. He can pretty much only say "Road House". EP has no idea where they went or how we lost them. But he seems fine today. E-One's still on the Brugal. He's my hero. For me..."Presidente por favor...gracias"

Sunday 5 pm: We're told there's a rehearsal dinner. Meet in the lobby in an hour. This is always great to hear when your in a pool with no clothes to change into. Oh well rehersal dinner here we come, board shorts and all.

Sunday 8 pm: The bus to the rehearsal dinner's hilarious. E-One's a mess. He's easily a 4/5 right now and showing no signs of slowing down.

Sunday 8:30 pm: Rehearsal dinner is incredible. Great food, cold Presidentes, nice beach. Pecas is DJing, and doing a pretty good job of it. I like walking on the beach alone at night. When I was right out of college in Jacksonville, I used it live on the beach. Once a week or so, I'd go out late at night just to clear my head and figure out what the fuck I was gonna do with my life. It was nice to do that again. You don't really get to do that in Brooklyn.

Monday 1am: I'm heading home. Wedding's tomorrow, no reason to feel like shit all day tomorrow too.

Monday 11am: Gotta leave for the wedding at 4 so I'm hanging at the pool. Actually eat at my hotel for the first time, and read Rickles Book, which is a memoir of comedian Don Rickles life. I recommend it to everybody.

Monday 4:30 pm: Me and Radio arrive at the wedding. I got on a linen khaki suit and a button up with the scarface collar. Wish I had pictures. E-One's sober, thank god. No presidentes here. I start with vodka/tonic. Uh oh.

Monday 5:30 pm: Ceremony's on the beach. It's beautiful. This is how I want my wedding to look.

Monday 6pm: The pre-receptions poppin, great food. I start to dip into the red wine. Uh oh.

Monday 7pm: We enter the reception banquet. Again, great food. Steak and some kind of fish, maybe salmon. Love, EP, and E-One are headed home, back to Santo Domingo. With me staying till Wednesday, I'm left to fend for my own ride back. More red wine. Uh oh.

Monday 8:30pm: Everyone heads outside, Mad Linx is Djing, doing a great job. More and more red wine. Uh oh.

Monday 10pm: Red wine, red wine. Now I'm bothering Linx. I'm THAT guy at the party. I'm never the guy bothering the DJ, I hate THAT guy. How am I THAT guy? BLACKOUT TIME!!! More red wine. Uh oh.

Monday 11pm: Co workers are up and talking on the mic. Please don't give me the mic. Somebody gives me the mic. Uh Oh.

Monday 11:15pm: I'm told I spoke for 15 minutes here. Like I said, I've blacked out at this point. So I can only go on with people like DJ Enuff told me. I guess I didn't say anything truly stupid though.

Tuesday 12 noon: I wake up in an unfamiliar bed. Luckily, it's just in Rene's villa. With only my suit pants to wear, I throw on some random shorts from the floor. Head down to the beach. My body feels like absolute shit.

Tuesday 4pm: I've made it to my hotel. Excedrin, Tums, water, sleep time.

Wednesday 5am: The 3 hour trip back to Santo Domingo to catch my flight is upon me.

Wednesday 12 noon: Flight by to NY, I made it!...

Damian Rodriguez (KGNU-CO):

Ghetto highlight #1: After the bars let out, brought a few ppl back to the house, & they got hungry. So I borrowed ol girl’s car, a Chrysler 300 on 22’s. At the mcdonalds drive thru and nothins more embarrassing than looking for exact change w/ tons of nickels & pennies in a car on 22’s. It wasn’t my car, but we were hungry.

Moral:You’re ghetto when u got a car past dubs, and your scrounging for change.

Ghetto highlight #2: At a Bar & the most extreme case of that guy holding that girl all night got even more extreme. The girl was a total knockout, 10, and this guy had the balls to look in the womens restroom before she goes in, and then a 2nd time to get her out. LAME

Moral: Your ghetto when your worried about your girl running off with the man (or woman) of her dreams when she's 6 inches away, behind the womens restroom door doing her personal business...

PrizMatik (Sprint Radio): Well folks, it is finally starting to feel like summer here in good ol' Strong Island. Make no mistakes about it, the Hamptons are the jump off. Get at me if you going to be in the area. Glad to hear that all the efforts from those opposing the new internet broadcast laws paid off. The good fight is still not over. It is important that we continue to stick together and fight the injustice of the RIAA and other corporate conglomerates that endanger the future of music as we know it. There is power in numbers y'all, remember that.

Jason-D (RadioBoise.Org): "Feels good to be back in the mix this week. Took the 3 day weekend to build some record racks in the garage and finish unpacking. Make sure you got my new address (1917 E Trail Blazer Drive, Meridian, ID 83646). Need to get my hands on that Evidence cd. I'm feelin every track I get off that one. Really liking the new Common tracks that leaked this week. My favorites are one produced by Premo called "The Game" and the other heat rock is "The People"...

Kazzeo (KHDC-CA): "This weeks quick tip to label reps / record promoters goes like this. If you call a dj on a Friday afternoon and tell him that so & so artist is gonna be in their town that Sunday night and you want to make sure they all link up, actually make sure that happens. It’s not cool when you clear your schedule because some label rep tells you that an artist who you have had a good relationship with in the past is coming to town and wants you to all link up and then whoever’s in charge never calls with the details. Sure it sounds minor but there’s a simple courtesy that should be upheld. But unfortunately, some people apparently don't have that ability. Bottom line is don’t bother setting shit up if you can’t make it happen.

So Fat Joe apparently saw two guys get murdered in Miami and is being sought by local police since he’s a witness. Get ready for another “stop snitchin” bullshit campaign. It’s hilarious and sad that all you ever hear from these artists is that we have to find a way to stop the violence in the streets yet no one wants to let the pro’s handle it and would rather let the streets solve the problems which only leads to more problems. It makes no sense.

The bootlegging epidemic is reaching new heights, or lows, depeding on how you look at it. There is apparently someone or some people in Harlem that are selling counterfeit condoms. That’s right, fake rubbers. Holy crap, what’s next? Bootleg spring water?

The Soul Sonic Force is suing Mars Starbust candy for using the song “Planet Rock” in a commercial. I hope that they win. No won deserves to be compensated for his contributions to Hip Hop more than Bambaataa, with the exception of Kool Herc.

Young Jeezy got arrested for being disorderly at an Atlanta strip club. In a report I read about it on Yahoo, he was at the club with his sister. His sister! What sister goes to a strip club with her brother? That’s very suspect to me. But the best part of the story is that the strip club was called “Strokers”. Hey now!

I heard that there was something called the “Crunkfest” going on in Memphis. You can best believe I will be nowhere near where this craptacular is going on.

Mark this date down. Aug 12th . That night, at 10pm, Comedy Central will be airing the “Roast Of Flavor Flav”. That has the potential to be funny as hell. I hope they line a solid panel of comedians for that one"...

Jaws (KSJS-CA): What up ya'll! It's been a minute since I spoke on thangs here at KSJS. Usually I just drop our rotation charts on ya, and let that speak for how we get down over here. But, with the change of the seasons comes change in general, so I'ma put you up on game.

Summer time is here and school is out. Ya boy has graduated, and is now offically a graduate. I finished classes back in December, but just barely got the Degree in the mail and just walked in the ceremony this past weekend.

Anyway, I've been working hella hours (like 60 a week) at two major radio stations here in San Jose, California and still trying to hold down my duties at KSJS, but it's been hectic (please forgive me if it took a long time for me to holla back at some of you).

I've been delegating some of my work out to my two assistants over the last 6 months, but I've been handling the emails, and listening to product myself to formulate the charts. I've strived to accurately chart music that is actually getting played at KSJS, rather than doing what some do: paper charting wack tracks that don't even deserve play. That's why our charts look different than everyone else's, and we report to everyone to show that we're not slaves to the industry.

On a side note, KSJS is also not fully equipt to deal with college radio's major push to go mostly digital. I know ya'll labels are trying to save money on manufacturing and shipping, but damn... it ain't all good. KSJS is still working with CD players and Turntables ya'll. The station doesn't even have a CD burner, and I can't do all that on my joint, so most of the MP3 priorities (if you noticed) get kicked to the curb... and actual product gets play here. Sounds wack, but not every station is rollin in fetti (actually this whole push toward mp3 priorities is what's wack).

Anyway, I've heard that KSJS is going to try and make that change soon though, so MP3's will be making it into our rotations once that move gets made. But, when will it? I can't say. The General manager has to clock that loot, and then break it off. So it's up in the air.

Lastly, Ya boy is out of the Urban Music Director position in a few weeks. It's been a cool, and long, year and a half. But the next director will be solid, so don't trip. There are several canidates, but they're all straight. I'll introduce ya'll to the Winner via email soon, and ya'll can build from there. But, I'll be working with them behind the scenes, showin them everything I know, until they got all the knowledge they'll need to keep their game tight.

I am still staying at KSJS, but rather doing the regular format of spinning the new cuts in rotation with a mix of classics for four hours like every other urban DJ here, I'll be doing a 1/2 hour specialty show where I'll be examining choice cuts off of classic rap albums every week and breakin'em down for the listening audience. I'll be expanding that formula to include new albums in future so expect me to holla"...

Darin "The CEO" Gloe (AOL Radio): "It’s that time again, for Late Night to go to you (the labels) and make sure we are doing all we can for a win-win situation.

With the ever changing industry I like to ask all of you from time to time what we can do as a pool to keep the situation positive for both of us. As we all know the industry is very much going digital and with that there are many DJs who refuse to give up vinyl (I am one of them). We will always play, collect, buy, trade, sell vinyl for the rest of our lives.

That being said, many labels are cutting back on vinyl service due to the cost, lack of space, and other wise waste of resources. I’m here to tell you have I have 20 DJs dedicated to vinyl and what it means to the DJ. I am not taking on anymore vinyl DJs due to label cutbacks and advances in technology. But, those 20 are the die hards.

This leads me to the purpose of this email. We have been taken care of as Late Night Record Pool for nearly 5 years now, we are serviced by every major label and some independents. So many people to thank, I’m not going to even get into that list. You know who you are. As always, I like to reevaluate our position and turn it around on the labels. What is most important to you from a Record/MP3 Pool?

Is it feedback, charts, airplay/club play, what do you ask of us? Please tell us what your bosses goals are for you concerning record pools and where each objective ranks on your list of importance.

I don’t ever want to see vinyl disappear, because I’m a purist. I like the touch and the smell of unwrapping that new piece of vinyl and putting on the turntable for the first time.

If you are not servicing Late Night Record Pool, why not? How can we help? Let us know. So, Help me Help You"...

Nesto (WODU-VA): "Is it me or are there a lot more crazy HEADLINES in the new lately. Women hangs herself and her children, Man with super TB Bug flies around the world, and I've heard enough about this Lohan chick. Throw her ass in jail like the rest of the "common folk" that get thrown in jail for a lot less violations! Big shout to Solo (WECI-IN), keep your head up homie"...

Solo (WECI-IN): "I am calling my reporting days to a close. Numerous reasons apply, but the main one is my family needs me right now. My wifes stress level is thru the roof and my daughters autism is wreckin havoc. I am moving into my new house at the end of this month and I have a feeling I will be without internet for a while. Verizon is some slow ass bitches. As far as radio goes, I still plan on rockin the airwaves like always, but you know as I do the music industry isn't the same anymore. Hit me up any time and take care"...

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

nastynes1@aol.com

SHOUT OUT TIZIME: Happy Birthday this week to Karam (CKRK-Canada) & to DJ 3D (WBAI-NY) celebrating this Thursday, June 7th, to Seattle's DJ Topspin celebrating this Sunday, June 7th & a belated one to NY's DJ Technic who celebrated last Sunday, June 3rd!... My Mixed Martial Arts potnahs: Morgan Carey, Frankie Liles & Cung Le... R.I.P.: Our prayers go out to the family of Hi-Five singer Tony Thompson who was found dead in his Waco, Texas hometown. The R&B singer was reportedly working on new material with a few notable rappers; the famed group disbanded in 1994...