The Message or The Music? 3

by Langston • academic, Industry • Tags: , , ,

Whenever I read about the state of Black music on the internet, one of the main complaints I hear is that it no longer has meaning or that it’s not “saying something.” These “critics” recall a yesterday where all black music consisted of impactful lyrics that fell deeply on the ears of listeners, stimulating their brain muscles while penetrating into the deepest regions of their soul. I’m not certain that this magical period ever existed, but I won’t quarrel with that here. I will say that music consumers of today are no different those of any other period in terms of the motivations behind their listening choices. Most people seek aesthetically pleasing music that provides various functions. While I recognize that robotic-like radio stations and the ever-consolidating recording industry must be taken into account, I feel that part of the reason for the lack of mainstream politically-oriented music is that a lot of it isn’t good and the content no longer resonates with audiences.

I go to music primarily for entertainment, not for intellectual stimulation. This is not to say that I don’t like or even sometimes desire a more scholastic mode, but it comes secondary to the need to bob my head, or in the most rare occasions, execute a two-step. For me, my music choice is mostly motivated by emotion. If I’m feeling moody or angry, I’ll listen to Z-Ro or Atmosphere. When in a more amorous state, maybe its Anita Baker or Beyoncé. If I want to break something, its Flockaveli. These musics, like all, all vehicles for emotional release. For me, music is the process of internalizing others creativity in order to expel my own emotions, whatever they may be.

I am by no means suggesting that I do not enjoy more politically-oriented music. I definitely have and do. It’s just that such musics\ must be aesthetically rich or I won’t pay attention to the messages. Public Enemy is one of the greatest hip hop groups of all time not because of their nationalist messages, but because the Bomb Squad were incredible beatsmiths and Chuck D was a great lyricist with a dope voice. The reason why Curtis Mayfield’s message-music was so impactful is because he was an immensely talented singer/songwriter/producer. Over the last few years I’ve witnessed some mediocre artists get props solely because of their political content and I couldn’t help but wonder why? Why would I listen to this artist’s underwhelming music just because of his/her content? I could go read an article about the same topic and get more insight. I’m all for “intellectually enriching” content, but if they musical package is not tight, you gets no play in my ride (iPod).

In short, all music has meaning. Out most popular artists make aesthetically relevant music that provides particular functions for a large amount of people. Before you get up in arms about why MC Politics isn’t on WorldStar, really think about whether his/her music is actually quality. This may shock some, but most people want to be entertained by music, not lectured to.

On: “iFUrReadyToLearn” by Brian McKnight 1

by Fredara Mareva • news, Uncategorized • Tags: , , , ,

I wanted to blog about this as soon as it mysteriously appeared last Tuesday, but I waited because I wanted to see where all this was going.

In case you’re one of the three people on the internets who have no idea what I’m talk about just press play:

 

(Quick aside: when i first listened to this song it made me think of Betty Wright’s “Tonight is the Night.” You know the part when she says, “I like the music, the melody is really nice, but I know you not gonna sing THAT song!”)

Anyway, Brian McKnight randomly posted the song last Tuesday night and as he said in the intro to the video, he polled his Twitter followers for subject matter suggestions. That’s enough right there to know this isn’t going to end particularly well. Now the thing about the song itself is that the melody and track are quintessential Brian McKnight, but the lyrics are all Plies and 2 Live Crew. So the content isn’t the problem – today’s music listeners have a very robust appetite for sexually graphic lyrical content – the shock and awe was because this was the beloved balladeer, Brian McKnight. The guy who gave us “Back at One,” “Never Felt this Way,” and “One Last Cry.” Although he’s also appeared on songs with rappers like Nelly and Juvenille, his strong reputation with the linen pants summer jazz festival set is built around his large catalog of love songs.  Perhaps it is unfair that we don’t “allow” certain singers to sing about particular topics. Younger generations of R&B singers such as Chris Brown, Trey Songz and others have the more broad lyrical latitude to sing about making beds wet and inventing sex. However, Brian McKnight, through no fault of his own, is old enough to be their father and most fans just don’t seem to want that kind of crass sexual expression from him.

So this begs the question, what was the point of posting “iFUrReadyToLearn?” I see it as a successful short term play for popularity, notoriety, and relevant, and now that it’s been released on iTunes, perhaps sales. The social media blow back over the song was instant, massive, and severe. Perhaps there was no point to posting it and he had no real idea what would come of it. That seems plausible given that within 24 hours of posting “iFUrReadyToLearn,” he deleted it. To me that implies that either he is really naive and genuinely had no idea why people were caught off guard or he just didn’t think through what the possible reactions might be.

This could have been a some really interesting career move for him, but as it were, it’s going to be just an interestingly weird tangent in his otherwise solid R&B career. If he had put it out there, really embraced the buzz it created, accepted the invitation to perform it at the AVN Awards, and allow the porn sites to play it in the background, we might have had an interesting trajectory to follow. But as it were, his skittish reaction proves that Brian McKnight isn’t *really* the “show me how your p*ssy works” guy, he’s the “do I ever cross your mind anytime…I miss you” guy. He doesn’t really want to be known 20 years from now for this song (or any of the others that might show up on this “adult mixtape”). At the least the song really is an unanticipated side effect of stir crazy, at most it is an act of rebellion of an aging R&B singer scraping to be provocative and cool again…if only for a while.

By the way, Brian McKnight not the first singer to try to break out the of the emo love song box, anybody remember Marsha Ambrosius X-rated mixtape, Neo-Soul is Dead? …yeah, didn’t think so.

A Nail in the Coffin of NYC Radio: RIP KISS FM 2

by Fredara Mareva • Uncategorized • Tags: , , , ,

 

As of 10am this morning New York City’s famed WRKS (98.7 FM, Kiss-FM) merged withWBLS (107.5 FM). This means that in the country’s #1 media market there is only enough room for one urban adult contemporary radio station. As of 10am this morning KISS is now an ESPN radio station and KISS programming and DJs are a part of the WBLS fold.

In other words, it’s one less outlet for Black music to be played and heard.

Read on…

The Tupac Hologram and How We Treat Dead Stars 4

by Langston • Events, Industry, Technology

The internet has been buzzing over a video a hologram Tupac performing a couple of his greatest hits at the 2012 Coachella Music Festival. The hologram was created by Digital Domain Media, a company co-founded by James Cameron and responsible for the effects in films such as Titanic, Transformers, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. In case you havent’ seen it:

 

Reaction has been “mixed.” Some are genuinly happy to see one of the most popular rappers on the 1990s, hell of all time, rocking a stage again. Others are intrigued from a technological standpoint. A third group wavers between confused and disgusted by the entire endeavor. I’m not sure how I feel. While I marvel at the technology, the actual hologram makes me uncomfortable. It has a air of corniness and cheesiness that has never been associated with Tupac. Even though it shouted out Dre and danced with Snoop, it’s an avatar. Because it lacks a human essence, it seems like a cartoon- a high-tech, life-sized cartoon – but a cartoon nonetheless. I have no idea what to do with it.

The emergence of this hologram isn’t too surprising. It’s the most recent in long line of posthumous Tupac releases. In the immediate wake of his death, the Death Row released The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, the album Tupac planned to releases before his 1996 death. The first Makaveli album been followed by 6 official “studio” albums, the most recent being released in 2006, ten years after his death. Aside from these, there have been 16 Makaveli bootleggs, plus several remix, greatest hits, and tribute albums.  There have been books of poetry, biographies, and documentaries including Tupac Ressurrection (2003), which was narrated by ‘Pac himself.

After Tupac Resurrection, I stopped collecting Tupac material. Why? Because I was tired of consuming Tupac material that was shaped and mediated by others. One thing that made Tupac endearing was his ability to seem honest and genuine. Even if the image projected in the music didn’t accord with who he was as a man, it was an image he controlled. It was how he wanted to represent himself. In these releases, Tupac the artists gets lost. Sure, he wrote and recorded the verses, but the end product is the work of other individuals who have a variety of motives. For me, Tupac becomes source material, rather than author, of these posthumous releases. Hologram Tupac is merely character informed by Tupac the artist and man, but created by others.

I really wish the legacies of our deceased artists were treated with more care and caution. While I understand the importance of keeping dead artists relevant, it should never be at the expense of artistic integrity. I’m sure that I wasn’t the only disgusted by Michael Jackson’s Michael (2010) which was full of tracks MJ did not intend on releasing. Michael Jackson was a craftsman, a perfectionist and would have never released such unfinished and underwhelming material. Executives shouldn’t be so quick to release any and all material they have of a deceased artists even if the public is clamoring for it. A true fan should want a deceased artists’ legacy to grow stronger with time and not become diluted by lazy, gimmicky, or cheesy releases.  In short, we should have greater respect for the contributions made by our fallen stars. Let’s cease the exploitation, and works towards presenting their art in a manner in tune with who they were as living artists and human beings.

INTERVIEW: Ron Harrison of Blazetrak 8

by Fredara Mareva • Entrepreneurship, Interviews, Technology • Tags: , , , , ,

Panel at South by Southwest Interactive with (L-R) Mazy Kazerooni of Tracks.by; Korey Coleman of Spill.com; and Ron A. Harrison of Blazetrak

I went to SXSW Interactive with an eye on what people were saying about music apps and technology. I had already heard of Blazetrak, but while there I had the opportunity catch Blazetrak co-founder, Ron Harrison (@ron_a_harrison) on a panel. I was intrigued with their idea of making Blazetrak a portal for aspiring musicians, singers, and performers to directly connect with established producers and industry professionals.

Founded in November 2009, Blazetrak used the last two years as a beta period in which they shored up their proprietary technology and relationships with industry talent. To date they’ve received over 10,000 submissions from aspiring artists who pay to receive direct video responses from Blazetrak clients such as T.I., Andre Harrell, Bryan Michael Cox, and Matthew Knowles.

Blazetrak just launched its new site last week and is now open for all. In the midst of the relaunch, Ron Harrison took some time to talk with me about where Blazetrak is and where it is headed.

What is the story of Blazetrak?

My co-founder was working with a small label in Atlanta where they were receiving lots of demos. He would complain about the amount of stuff they were getting in. As a deterrent they would charge a fee in order to submit a demo to them [the label] in exchange for having someone from the label give that person a call to talk about whatever the person had submitted. What happened was that they started getting more submissions and demos than they did when it was free. So a light bulb went off that showed that us that people are willing to pay because they know that they’re going to get some type of feedback. So we can up with an idea, “What if we set it up where we had really highly successful people in the industry offer that feedback.” So my brother, Rich Harrison, has had a pretty successful career producing for artists like Beyonce, Usher and others, and I saw how difficult it was for him to reach that level of success. But once he made it, I saw the huge amount of aspiring artists trying to reach out to him. So we combined those two experiences and thought, “If we can build these connections between new artists and successful producers like Rich, Rodney Jerkins, Bryan Michael Cox, and other highly successful people in the industry, will this work?” That’s basically how Blazetrak was born.

How do you see Blazetrak fitting in with current changes in the industry?

I think that Blazetrak has the ability to become the new portal for access. Everyone is talking about the industry and that it is all about who you know. People say that, “You have to know the right people and be in the right circles in order to get stuff done.” Blazetrak is completely trying to change that and make it so that it has nothing to do with who you know and where you live, it is all about your talent. If you have talent and have access to people who can help you cultivate that talent, then why shouldn’t you be given a chance. That’s where Blazetrak comes into play – because we allow you to have that access with all these highly successful people in music. And it also works for the producers because now they have access to talent from around the world. You can log into your Blazetrak account and you’ll have submissions from all over the world. Some of the first submissions that we got are international.

There are other platforms that aspiring artists use to try to get attention of industry executives – most notably youtube – how does Blazetrak differentiate itself from other platforms like those?

Right. There are plenty of platforms like that. youtube is great. You upload your stuff and the world has access to it. That doesn’t mean that the person that you need to see your youtube video is actually going to see it. There are probably several hundred million videos on youtube and you put your stuff out there just hoping that the right person is going to see it. On Blazetrak, you decide who you want to see your videos. So right now we have about 400 professionals, but you decide who you want to see it. We take all kinds of submissions, videos, audio, and pictures.

You’re a tech company –without technology it’s impossible for a site like Blazetrak to exist. I’m sure there’s a whole lot of complicated back end technology that is going on to facilitate this connection between aspiring artists and professionals. So it’s like hardcore tech stuff, but at the same time its music stuff. There aren’t a lot of African American companies in that space.

You hit nail right on the head. That’s why it was so important for Blazetrak to be at SXSW for both the tech side and the music side is important to make sure that we’re up to speed on all the new technologies and be more efficient and see what things we can do differently that will help our customer base. In the future we’re looking to get into offline activities like maybe concerts and events. But right now we’re focused on making our digital presence as successful as possible.        

Learn more about Blazetrak at: http://www.blazetrak.com/

Trayvon Martin and the Hip Hop Community(ies) 8

by Langston • Events, Uncategorized • Tags: , ,

I came to this article preparing to write about the lack of hip hop response to the Trayvon Martin injustice. For the last 25 years, hip hop has been a site of resistance and protest. In the late 1980s, Public Enemy and N.W.A. voiced the emotions of communities plagued by poverty, drug abuse, and violence. In 1991, hip hoppers, such as Ice-T expressed the rage of those participating in the rebellion in Los Angeles. Rappers like Mos Def participated in Hip Hop For Respect, an album protesting police brutality in the wake of the Amadou Diallo case. Although the Trayvon Martin case has become a symbol for our complicated racial climate, our most popular hip hip voices have been silent. A case that has prompted response from the President of the United States has recieved silence from our top hip hop stars.

I was prepared to write a requiem for hip hop’s protest potential until I went to the Trayvon Martin Community rally in Houston, TX. Honestly, I went in part to lend my support and in part to be nosy. I wanted to see if people outside of Internet pundits and intellectuals were engaged with this issue. Well, they were. A sea of people, from all walks of life, gathered in Houston’s emancipation park to protest this gross injustice. Also in attendance were major players from Houston’s local hip hop scene. Scarface (@BrotherMob) and Willie D (@WillieDLive) of the Geto Boys, along with Trae the Truth (@TRAEABN), Bun B (@BunBTrillOG), Lil O (@SUCLILO) of the Screwed Up Click, MC Wickett Crickett (@WickettCrickett) and Slim Thug (@SlimThugga). Each artists offered seemingly genuine remarks about the tragedy and spirited calls for action. The crowd hung to ever word. It illuminate the important role rappers continue to play in inner-city communities. The crowd was inspired by that fact that on stage were a collective of artists with the desire and ability to  effectively communicate their concerns to a often-times disinterested mainstream. Even if Trae or Scarface never make a song about Trayvon Martin, their sheer presence at this rally seemed to symbolize power and hope for the local Black community.

Hip hop, obviously, is much different than it was even ten years ago. Our most popular rappers are certified pop stars, operating in the world of Katie Perry, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake and the like. The ties between this faction of rappers and their communities of origin are not nearly as strong as they once were. Therefore, it is not surprising that they aren’t as engaged or vocal about the issues. I don’t look to Bruno Mars for social criticism, so I won’t look to Jay-Z either.

We need to remember that hip hop exists outside of the mainstream. On the regional and local level, hip hop artists continue to have solid bonds with their audiences. Hip hop’s protest potential remains high in these spaces. This is in part because they continue to live among, or at least in close proximity to, their core audiences and therefore have personal engagement issues effecting them. Furthermore, in order to be successful, these artists must remain artistically and personally connected to the concerns of their audiences.  Hip Hop’s political potential is not gone. It’s just that many of the cultures biggest voices have become detached. If we look examine the local level, we will see that hip hop continues to be a site of significant socio-political activity.

Facebook Timeline for Artists 1

by Langston • Uncategorized • Tags:

Facebook timeline, to the ire of many, will soon be mandatory for all, including artists pages. Personally, I find Timeline too cluttered and much less user-friendly than Facebook’s original format. Thankfully, our friends at DIY Musician have created a primer for artists/bands using Timeline.

Check it out here.

Awready! The Houston Hip Hop Conference 3

by Langston • academic, Events • Tags: , , ,

Hello All,

Wednesday, March 28, I will be participating in Awready: The Houston Hip Hop Conference. Awready is a collaboration between The University of Houston Libraries and Rice University’s H.E.R.E. Project. The purpose of the conference is to highlight the rich cultural contributions of Houston hip hop artists, especially DJ Screw. It’s an outgrowth of the Houston Hip Hop Collection, a collection organized by UH archivist Julie Grob that features a massive amount of Houston hip hop related materials. I’m moderating a panel on SLABs (Houston car culture) that includes Lil Randy and E.S.G., two members of the legendary Screwed Up Click. Other official conference participants include Trae the Truth, Z-Ro, Paul Wall and Willie D of the Geto Boys, but I imagine the whole Houston hip hop community will come out. Anyone who knows me, knows how hard I rep Houston and its hip hop culture. I owe part of my career to the Geto Boys, the Screwed Up Click, and UGK, so I’m truly honored to be part of this. Furthermore, its another example of universities and archives taking steps to collect, preserve, and present hip hop culture. Come check it out!

Awesome Moments from the 2012 EMP Pop Conference 2

by Fredara Mareva • Uncategorized • Tags: , , , , , , ,

Last week I told you about the 11th Annual Experience Music/IASPM/Clive Davis Institute Conference being held last weekend in New York City. It was a great weekend of listening and talking with artists, cultural critics, and academics about something most of us consume every day…popular culture. NYC was a perfect setting for EMP because it drew a caliber of artists that may not travel all the way to the actual EMP Museum in Seattle. This weekend I was able to have one-on-one conversations with people like Greg Tate, Danyel Smith, Nelson George, Chuck D, and Spike Lee!

In addition to cultural luminaries, EMP brought together factions that rarely share the same room…academics and popular critics. The result was a weekend of varied perspective between the artists who create the music, the writers who explain the music (and artists), and the academics who analyze it all.

I’m still processing everything I learned this weekend, but I wanted to tell you 3 quick things about EMP 2012. Be sure to check out my Twitter timeline (@FredaraMareva) and  #PopCon for lots more “in the moment” thoughts about EMP.

So here we go (in no particular order).

The Opening Keynote was everything.

Panelists: Angelique Kidjo, Esperanza Spalding, Heems, and Santigold discussed how living in New York informs the music they make. Plus we got to see Esperanza’s lovely video for her next single, “Radio Song” and Santigold’s video for “Disparate Youth.” And on top of that we had Angelique Kidjo, bringing the unique blend of wisdom, wit, and energy as only she can. (Don’t believe me? Check this video of her cover of Curtis Mayfield’s “Move on Up” where she holds her own against the dancers from the Broadway hit Fela!)

 

L-R: Ann Powers, Angelique Kidjo, Esperanza Spalding, Heems, and Santigold
EMP got me hype about my own scholarship again! 
Writing a dissertation sucks…even when the subject matter is interesting. My dissertation is about DJs in the soul music scene in Atlanta and as interesting as that is, I’d worked on my dissertation so long that all I wanted to do was forget about it. BUT. Being on a panel with super smart people and having other super smart people ask me questions about my work revived my interest in my subject and reminded me of why I became an academic in the first place. Thanx EMP! (And special shout outs to my  panel mates, Regina Bradley (@redclayscholar), Matthew Morrison (@_MadMo_), and Liana Silva (@literarychica) and moderator, Dr. Guthrie Ramsey (@DrGuyMusiqology).
The Whitney Houston Roundtable the Best Conversation I’ve Heard About Her and Her Legacy.
I WISH I had video from that session. The whole panel was great, but particularly the reflections of Nelson George and Danyel Smith gave insight into evolution of Whitney Houston. Two key points from George were that: 1) in order to understand Whitney’s relationship with Bobby you have to understand her relationship with her father and 2) she was a willing participant (and possible co-creator) in the “Black Debutante” image that Clive Davis fashioned for her. Smith explained the huge impact that Whitney’s pop culture stardom had on Black girls in the 1980s, but had all of dropping jaws when she recounted her own colorful encounter with the pop diva.

L-R: Moderator Jason King of the NYU Clive Davis Institute; Nelson George; Danyel Smith, Jody Hughes of Slate (Ann Powers of NPR Music not pictured)

James Mtume Giving a Guest Lecture

I love James Mtume. Incredibly talented jazz percussionist and producers, but most famously known for his R&B hit, “Juicyfruit” (which was even more famously sampled for Notorious BIG’s “Juicy”). But Sunday he was in front row for a panel entitled, “These Are The Breaks: How a Few Dozen Obscure Records Transformed the World of Pop Music.” The panel was fantastic on its own, but Dan Charnas’ wise decision to give Mtume the floor took it to the next level. The homie, Marcus, grabbed some video of James Mtume’s remarks where he discusses “the glorification of mediocrity.”

 

 

EVENT: Experience Music Pop Conference 2012 1

by Fredara Mareva • Events • Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Opening panel "The Artist and the City" (from l-r) Moderator- Ann Powers of NPR Music, Panelists - Angelique Kidjo, Esperanza Spalding, Heems, Santigold

 

 

If you’re fortunate enough to be in New York City this weekend, be sure to check out the annual Experience Music Conference co-hosted by the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM-US) and The Clive Davis Institute for Recorded Music at NYU. In the pantheon of music conferences EMP/IASPM is unique because it fosters a unique blend of artists, journalists, and academics. The conference opened on Thursday night with a panel entitled, “The Artist and the City.”  NPR Music’s Ann Powers (@annkpowers) moderated a insightful discussion with  Angelique Kidjo, Esperanza Spalding, Heems, and Santigold on how urban influences informed their musical creativity and production.

The rest of the weekend should be equally lively including, a roundtable on the impact of Whitney Houston with Danyel Smith (@danamo) and Nelson George (@nelsongeorge), an Greg Tate-led panel called “The Church of What’s Happening Now,” a lunch session with Gza, and a closing keynote with Questlove. I’m even getting in on the action by joining a roundtable on Sunday at 2:15 called, I Pledge Allegiance to the Block: Cityscapes, Hegemonic Sound, and Blackness. (I know that was a shameless plug, but shout to our moderator, Dr. Guthrie Ramsey (@DrGuyMusiqology), and my panel mates Regina Bradley (@redclayscholar), Matthew Morrison (@_MadMo_), and Liana Silva (@literarychica).But who’s into all work and no play? Not music nerds, so there are parties every single night too.

So be sure to attend if you can or follow the hashtag #PopCon!

On-site registration is limited, but still available. Click here for the program schedule.

1 2 3 4 5 6