DJ EARTHQUAKE (LIVE365.COM)

COOL NUTS & LUNI COLEONE

THAT DOE

JUS FAMILY

Suspens Recordings

BUM SQUAD FAMILY REUNION COMING TO L.A. JULY 26-28

R.A.W. It's NC's DJ Bro-Rabb (WXDU) gettin' RAW with Big Daddy Kane (center) & Mike Nice (right).

CUNG LE Frank Shamrock is NEXT!!!

[[ June 25, 2007 ]]

What's upper?

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...

Rap Attack wants to welcome to their Conference Call DJ panel, DJ Tragic from www.805HipHop.com!...

Tim Glover is the new Youth Lifestyle/College Radio Coordinator for Island Def Jam Group. You can hit him up at:

WORK: 212. 445-3652

CELL: 267. 228-1846

EMAIL: timothy.glover@umgtemp.com

Fans of the Old School era 1983 will love peepin' out this link featuring Boogaloo Shrimp, Ice-T, The Egyptian Lover & The Glove both on the wheels: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl7tiH2Zis4

Last Friday night Cung Le (see photo above) knocked out Tony Fryklind in a masterful display of martial arts skill. San Jose's HP Pavillion blazed with excitement as Cung Le who entered the cage to Skull's "Boom Di Boom di" track, systematically dismantled his opponent with a dazzling exhibition of picture perfect spin kicks, boxing acumen and defensive skill many have likened to watching in "Enter The Dragon." The Strikeforce event, which was broadcast on Showtime PPV ,will begin airing on Showtime this week and will certainly garner the Vietnamese American Superstar millions of new fans...

Already making a huge underground buzz in Detroit is Marquise Porter. Lookout for his new joint, "In Da City" (Mobb North Records) droppin' soon to our Rap Attack DJ's featuring a familiar hit sample by Genesis. For more info, hit up Frankie Glass to get laced at: frankieglass@gmail.com...

Reppin Toledo, OH & now residing in the great ATL, emcee Rosco is starting to get his props via his debut sin gle "You Feel Me" featuring Akon & Jadakiss (Wideworld Ent.). The feedback's been nuttin' but positive for this up & comer. To get laced hit him up online at: wideworldent@gmail.com...

Blue Scholars have an awesome new video for the single "Back Home" and you can peep it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En8DwCeKa6M. This video is deep & hits a homerun dealing with our men & women fighting in Iraq. I got so caught up in this video that it brought a tear or more to my eyes. Great to see my boys outta the "206" puttin' it down with a hot single & video that'll get lots of love & respect for years to come...

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...

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:

DJ Stage One (KMOJ-MN): DJ Stage One is dropping a mix-cd on his 35th birthday July 13th & he would like your help in gettin' him drops? The name of his cd series is called: "STREET CINEMA!" Here's his info:

DJ STAGE ONE

3755 Logan Ave. North.

Minneapolis,MN 55412

EMAIL: mrdjstageone@aol.com

DJ Imperial (KSMU-MO): Please update youyr files with my new mailing address:

Rich "DJ Imperial" Lawson (KSMU-MO):

1100 Lees Ln
Florissant, MO 63031

Garbs Infinite (WRUW-Cleveland): "The 2007 Ohio Hip Hop Awards are around the corner & will be held September 22, 2007 @ The Galleria (Downtown Cleveland). The website has officially launched, www.ohiohiphopawards.com. The nomination page is up and we want to hear who you think should be on the official ballot this year! We also will be doing a Talent Search Series in numerous cities around the state (including Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, Youngstown & Dayton). At these showcases, artists will have the opportunity to compete for a chance to perform on the night of the big event! We also have made the Sponsorship Package available for download on our webpage. For more info, reach out to us:

Email: info@ohiohiphopawards.com

Phone: 216.659.4780

Edgie Kokoski (WUNH-NH): "Reports of my disappearance and death have been greatly exaggerated. I know what you were thinking: Edgie's assfaced remarks finally caught up with him and someone caved in his bald melon head with his mic stand. Negative. My email did get its wig splashed though as some hacker jacked it up worse than Lindsay Lohan's Benz. I anguished for 3 weeks as countless mp3s and priorities were lost forever, and suckled minimal industry nourishment from the teat that is “QuickPix”. But now I'm back, and ready to unleash more of my cranky commentary on the industry.

So what has your man been up to? For starters, I once again took on Sin City as I attended the wedding of one of my college boozing buddies. I spent several days basking in the beauty of the Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Vegas were I gambled, guzzled, and gazed at many a young dime piece. One day I was ambitious enough to make the long pilgrimage from the bright lights and glitz of the Strip to Hip Hop Site, which had more wax than a candelabra. After digging for 2 hours, I emerged in to the bright desert sunshine with an ear-to-ear Kool Aid smile. Until I realized that Hip Hop Site was not really in the best neighborhood, and cabs were scarcer than College Radio servicing. As I trudged up Tropicana Avenue with an arm load of vinyl, I became increasingly aware of the homeless crazies and mutants who were giving me the stink eye. I could tell that they wanted to leap upon me, knock me to the ground, split my head open, and feast on the warm goo inside. And worst of all steal my vinyl! Luckily as I approached UNLV, a cabbie swept me up and delivered me to the safety.

So what did the man that they call Edgie Soprano think of the big finale?

Well, I think Bekay got it wrong. Seriously though, I was quite satisfied with the ending. I think that there are two kinds of "Sopranos" fans: the ones that just want to see blood and guts, and the ones that like the show for its humor, realism, and innovative writing. I fall into the latter category. I was surprised that people were surprised by the ending. One of the things that I have loved about the show is the dead ends. Remember how they never found Valery in Pine Barrens? How Furio never came back? How Dr. Melfi's rapist never got his comeuppance? These dead ends are what made the show suspenseful, interesting, and truer to life than any other show on TV.

As a connoisseur of gangster cinema, I know that there are only two endings for a gangster: death or incarceration. David Chase's black screen let's you decide where Tony and the gang go from here. I’m just thankful for the 86 hours of top notch entertainment that they gave us. I didn't even slap my cable box"...

Nesto (WODU-VA): "What's good people? A little late sending this out today, but got caught up at the jobby job. Did everyone see the news that HipHopSite is going to go completely digital???? No more online records sales, no more "hardcopy" sales of CDs, Wax, Videos, etc.. strictly digital downloads for music, and they are closing their shop in Vegas. WOW.. that's big, but it was coming sooner or later. The digital world is and has completely changed the way the entertainment industry as a whole is getting down now. In the process, businesses are taking a direct hit. Those taking the worst hit are the mom and pop shops. Some DJs here better cop that Serato if you plan on keeping your DJing gigs. I love my vinyl just as much as the next man, but you can't fight technology. It's going to happen with or without you"...

DJ Static (CKUT-Canada): "Big up to my college radio fam 4 blastin me all the hot traxx thru the years... My radio show WEFUNK (www.wefunkradio.com) recently won College Radio Show of the Year at the Stylus DJ Awards in Toronto!! We also just celebrated 10 years on the air too. Let's keep it moving!!"...

D-Tragic (805HipHop.com): "Just another quick note to let ya all know where you boy is at now!
I HAVE A NEW SHIPPING ADDRESS - PLEASE UPDATE YOUR RECORDS
SEND ALL PROMO ITEMS AND SERVICING TO:
805HIPHOP.COM
att: D-TRAGIC
1560 Santa Ynez St.
Ventura, CA. 93001

THAT IS MY NEW ADDRESS!!! PLEASE UPDATE YOUR CONTACT BOOKS! I'd HATE TO MISS YOUR PRIORITIES!!!
Also, if you have artists seeking exposure thru Street Team, Live Performances, Record Play, Working Radio in our market, PLEASE HIT US UP! We cover the Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties of the 805 Area. We service records to 2 BDS Detected FM Radio Stations KCAQ/Q104.7FM and KVYB/103.3 THE VIBE. We are also working College Radio @ UCSB on 91.9FM.

I would like to Offer our connection at our nightclub called "THE CONNECT". This is the new spot in our market for all the Hip-Hop Heads! If you know groups looking to book acts, or do promo tours, add us to your contact list! We got your spot between the Bay and LA all day! Looking to blow this summer up with some real great acts! So far since late April weve featured: TASH - N2DEEP - YOUNG BERG - MR. CAPONE-E - CHINO XL - ROC-C , OHNO & DJ ROMES - WILDCHILD - KANKICK - ORIGINAL SIN - FAMEUS - DUJEOUS - DECAL - POKDOG - RAS REBEL - 12 GRAND and MANY MORE!!!! Lets blow it up this summer! Contact Me @ 805.302.4855 and let me know If there is a way We can help you out with your summer promos!!"...

PrizMatik (Sprint Radio): "Ch-ch-cheaahhh... Keepin it movin as usual. Below is my updated drop scripts. Got that heat? Get your artists to bang out some dope drops, the more creative the better. Bold type is the important info to include. Drops are a great incentive for DJs to hype up your project and give it the attention it deserves. Don't sleep...

DROP INFO
1) Yo its ____. Right now you are checkin out Showtime Radio w/ DJ PrizMatiK (Pronounced Pr-is-matic) & Wildman Steve on 101.7 The Beach.

2) This is ______ chillin wit my main man DJ PrizMatiK (Pronounced Pr-is-matic).

3) This is _____ reppin that real hip hop, along side my favorite DJ of all, DJ PrizMatiK (Pronounced Pr-is-matic). Keep it locked, right here on Skeet Skum yall. Peace.
Drops should be sent via email in high quality mp3 or wav format to: DJ@Prizmatik.com...