There’s not a lot we know about Revolt, but here are 5 quotes from Diddy’s video announcement that yield a little insight:

1. “The Revolution Will be Televised”

My cynical side is still aligned with Gil Scot-Heron. Cable television is a brutal business. Networks are competing with the internet, games, and everything else to attract viewers. And even if the [music] revolution were to be televised, I’m not sure that Diddy is the one to do it…anybody remember “Making the Band” and “I Want to Work for Diddy?”

2. “It’s the artists channel…a channel that will give new artists the change to be seen and heard.”

I’m just not really sure what this statement means to Diddy. Although if we take the long view of his professional career Diddy, or rather Puffy, has brought some incredibly influential artists to our attention (Mary J. Blige & Biggie Smalls among them). But again, if we narrow our scope to Diddy’s previous forays into television we have Da Band, Day 26, and Danity Kane. womp womp.

3. “Revolt will be the number name in homes for music on television”

Maybe. But probably not. Forget the other cable networks that used to program music. How will Revolt compete against the bevy of singing competitions that don’t have to be 24 hours and clock major viewership numbers every week. “The Voice” and its kindred may not be Revolt’s direct competition, but for some reason people *really* love these shows. And even with those shows aside, I’m predicting Revolt will *not* be bigger than Glee.

4. “Revolt will represent the soul of music that’s been missing for a long time.”

Soul as in heart? Soul as in emotion? Soul as in soul? Diddy is arguably one of the people who helped steer popular music into its current vapid and formulaic state. I’m not thoroughly convinced that he’s the best one to restore balance.

5. “FYI #Revolt is NOT a “BLACK NETWORK!” I just happen to be Black-Lol. This network is for all colors-all races…TechniColor RT!”

Okay I cheated #5  wasn’t in the video it is a tweet he sent yesterday after he posted the video announcement. I don’t really know where to start with this statement. I want to know why he felt compelled to make that clarification. Were people already comparing him to BET and TV One? Or were people asking him to bring back Rap City and Big Lez? No idea. But I’m guess we’re glad he made it known that Revolt is TechniColor.

I probably sound critical, but I’m no Sean Combs hater and nor am I rooting for Revolt’s failure. He hasn’t revealed enough about the network for me to feel any way about it really. If he wanted to, he could probably find a way to make Revolt successful. I guess above all, I question if he really wants to….

In a recent NY Times interview Horowitz explained that in the workplace he eschews managerial jargon and cliches by using rap lyrics instead.

Now I know hip hop industry executive/advertising guru Steve Stoute’s  “tanning” idea was focused on hip hop’s cultural impact on advertising and marketing, but Horowitz is an interesting example of how hip hop has insinuated itself into the holiest (and least Black) of corporate managerial ranks…Silicon Valley.

Just what does managerial tanning look like? Here’s an example:

Recently, for instance, one of the entrepreneurs that Andreessen Horowitz financed clashed with a disparaging board member. Mr. Horowitz advised the executive that he was being too deferential and needed to show his strength.

He said he sent the executive “Scream on Em,” a rap song by The Game, because its “superaggressive” lyrics — so aggressive that none can be printed in a family newspaper.

Fascinating. Horowitz uses hip hop lyrics as his default corporate communication. I wish there were audio of these communiques because I just can’t imagine how it sounds in the moment without sounding incredibly corny. But I like his logic. He says that all the books on business management are verbose and repetitive. According to Horowitz hip hop’s direct and graphic language allows him to convey his point succinctly. He not only uses it in verbal conversations, but often incorporates rap lyrics at the beginning of his blog entries.

Now while i find his incorporation of rap lyrics into his daily business conversations amusing, the real issue is the lack of African Americans tech innovators and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. According to the same NY Times article African Americans are less than 6% of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

It’s nice to see that hip hop has insinuated itself into the upper echelon of Silicon Valley management, here’s hoping that African American presence in Silicon Valley pushes beyond superficial tanning and that African American techies and entrepreneurs will soon join hip hop in the higher ranks of Silicon Valley management.

(Spotted in the homie’s D.L. Chandler’s piece over at Hip Hop Wired.)

**Special Note** If you’re in Houston today, go see Soul 4 Sale’s own, Langston Wilkins, give a talk entitled “Hip Hop: A Discourse on the Past and Present of the Cultural Influence”  TODAY at 6pm at the Houston Museum of African American Culture. Click here for more info.

Although we all know people who illegally download or stream content, I thought this webpagefx infographic was interesting because it is a side-by-side comparison of the digital sales (mostly iTunes data) versus illegal downloads. I was still pretty surprised by the enormity of the disparity.

Unfortunately we were on hiatus when the legendary Don Cornelius passed away. But we wanted to take a moment to pay tribute to the man who brought Black artists and music into the homes of millions and helped expand the market for Black music.

Here’s a great business analysis of the impact of Soul Train.

Here is Questlove breaking down the cultural impact of Soul Train.

And here is Don Cornelius as we would like to remember him, dancing down the Soul Train line he invented.

peace. love. and soul.

I gotta admit. I never thought a runner’s heartbeat, an archer’s bow, and hurdler’s stride could sound that fresh. Dope music aside, this talk is shareworthy because it gets to the heart of what brands like Coca-Cola are thinking about in these kinds of partnerships. Wendy explains in this video that as a brand with over 37 million Facebook fans, Coca-Cola is now not just the provider of syrupy sweet caramel-colored beverages, but they are content providers as well. It’s CC’s responsibility to partner with “master storytellers” to create entertainment that Coke’s fans value.

For Mark’s part, he sees this partnership as as the biggest global exposure he’ll probably ever get. His track is at the center of Coca-Cola’s Olympic campaign campaign, which they plan to activate in over 100 countries.The campaign will include a release of the single, a long-form documentary ont he making of the song, and countless commercials.

The global scale of this partnership is hard to match, but there are two important takeaways: (1) brands now see themselves not only as product providers, but as content providers and (2) if the music is great most people don’t care that it is associated with a brand.

Here’s the MIDEM talk:

Here’s a short video about the track Mark Ronson created:

“What this means then is that in order for artists like me to survive, I must be creative with how I let people hear my music. A primary means of distribution in 2011 was my USB robot, a two-gigabyte hard drive keychain that housed all of my albums digitally. I also sell t-shirts with cartoon characters I draw myself and I try to print on shirts manufactured domestically when I can. 47% of my income comes from merchandise, 40% from ticket sales, and 13% comes from iTunes, Spotify or other paid music services through the internet. I used a crowdsourced funding site called Kickstarter to produce my last album, with added bonuses of drawings and personalized songs to the highest contributors.”

Read the full story here.

*Note* Check back soon for an article on creative distribution.

Whitney Houston was….

a cultural phenomenon unlike any the music industry or American popular culture had ever seen. Her undeniable talent and model good looks demanded that we all made her music a part of our life’s soundtrack. She was everywhere and we followed her wherever she went.

It is impossible to overstate what it meant to see this beautiful brown girl from New Jersey in places where beautiful brown girls from New Jersey did not go. She was on the cover of Seventeen, the top of the Billboard Charts, and on MTV.

Clive Davis saw and heard her and knew she was the perfect crossover artist. She was on Top 40 radio during a time when only three Black artists were: Michael Jackson, Prince, and Whitney. She perfected the art of the power pop ballad. She didn’t dance, she didn’t do tricks, she didn’t have to, Whitney from Newark could sang.

Whitney Houston is….

being rediscovered for her vocal genius. For the first time in a long while we are listening to her again instead of watching her struggle. In this incredibly sad moment she is reminding us of how she, and she alone, can take a humdrum national anthem and make it a platinum hit. By revisiting her incomparable catalog of hits we’re letting younger people hear why we loved her so much…even as she struggled and fought to have a normal life.

In this present moment it is hard to explain what a game changer she was because we are so used to seeing Beyonce, Rihanna, Jennifer Hudson, Jill Scott, and others everywhere. But every single one of them, in some way, is chasing Whitney.

Whitney Houston forevermore will be…

The Voice.

The death of African-American pop great Whitney Houston ¹ cast a large shadow over the 54th Grammy Awards, which was presented this past Sunday. Houston, a pop starlet, was also an artist firmly rooted in the African-American musical continuum, one that has been historically under-appreciated by mainstream institutions like the Grammys. In recent years, however, there has been a larger African-American presence at the Grammy Awards. With the emergence of hip hop as a major musical and cultural force, it appeared that the Grammys couldn’t afford not to embrace African-American music. The last few Grammy telecasts featured several African-American performers and presenters. This year, however, there seemed to be a lack of color and a promotion of White musical culture.

Now I’m not suggesting the numbers are totally meaningless, but there is a deeper side that we should be interested in. I liken eyeballs with exposure and engagement with experience. In this video from last week’s  MIDEM conference. Wes Sansome of  Contagious Communications gave a great (and brief) talk at MIDEM on brand campaigns that he feels get it right. I love the way he describes their success formula: “interactive, relevant, and personal.” What I agree with most is his belief that *people* are at the center of marketing efforts, not technology or demographic categories. When people are at the center of fan initiatives it forces to you to think about what *they* would want or what would be useful to them FIRST. In this approach what matters is creating an experience that the fan/consumer values. Get that right and you’ll be building a base of loyal evangelists who will do most of the marketing work for you.

I’ll stop before this makes a turn towards a rant, but check out his talk…it’s all of 10 minutes long.