the mixtape show

On the 15th, I got a bunch of messages (thanks Mirateck, Iain and the slew of others) telling me to check youtube's front page. As soon as I got back to my computer, I was greeted with an officially HP-sponsored ad: (Fake) Camron - HP Hands commercial What you must understand, though, is that this was up on the front page of youtube, with an HP banner. HP was officially endorsing this. It's confusing, because the Killa Cam (killa!) is essentially lamenting his (killa!) being forced to shill for ...

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This is not a simple interview, and it's definitely not just another episode. This is an hourlong (!) special on the state of hip-hop in the media today. This special covers everything from the Imus-inspired backlash on Hip-hop to sexism/racism in the media to the Stop Snitching 'movement" to the number of people that actually dictate what videos get played on BET and subsequently MTV (hint: it's less than four). The Background: During the last few weeks, Hip-Hop has been under serious fire from the mainstream media – not only because of the backlash following Don Imus’ termination, but the more recent 60 minutes interview featuring Cam’ron and Anderson Cooper’s interpretation of the Stop Snitching mantra. So in order to bring some clarity to the situation, I spoke to several different community leaders, all of different backgrounds. The Guests: Aishah Simmons – An African-American feminist and activist documentary filmmaker, producer of the award-winning No!: The Rape Documentary, and perhaps best known to longtime listeners of the Mixtape Show as the older sister of Atlantic Recording artist DJ Drama (previously interviewed here). John Robinson – also known as Lil Sci – a producer, MC, and President of Shaman Work Recordings, which has put out releases from artists such as Emanon, CL Smooth, and MF Doom. Willie D – a solo artist and core member of one of the most influential rap groups to ever come out of the South, the Geto Boys. Davey D – Hip-hop historian, journalist, deejay, and community activist, whose website, Davey-D’s Hip-Hop Corner, is one of the oldest and most respected Hip-Hop sites on the net. and David K Far-El – aka D-Brad, the former producer for BET’s Rap City and the creator of Spring Bling. He was fired some time after Viacom’s buyout of BET and is currently working on a book and DVD exposing the commodification of the nation’s biggest outlet and representation of Black and Hip-Hop culture. The Next Step(s): I encourage everyone to listen to this feature, pass it on (messageboards, myspace, wherever), and continue the discussion both here in the comments and elsewhere. Or hell, request this on your local community station (see below). Community Radio: If you are a radio programmer and are interested in airing this on your local college/community station, click here to download the radio friendly version. It is standard radio format (56 minutes) and is completely clean by US FCC standards. If you have any questions, email me and we'll talk. So, yeah. What do you think? Hit the comments section.

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Been busy. I'll spare you the details, but it involved a lot of alcohol and me losing some things necessary to make the show. I'm back on board now, though, kids, so protect ya ...

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This show concept for this week's rap podcast basically came up when Ike Eyes sent me a copy of the Propane Piff mixtape. Trust me, when you hear Ag shouting over the top of some old crack era S.O.S. band shit, you know you're in for an experience. If you're interested in scoring your own free copy, read the full post for details. Not only that, though, but there's a freestyle from my man Respect up in here, as well as an old Smoke and Numbers joint that y'all prolly ain't heard, either. Start the track and follow along...

Agallah - Whoop Ya Head f/ 50 Cent. Yes, the almighty Fiddy shows up on this joint, which makes sense if you know your history. Don't hate. If anyone somehow forgot that despite the Top 40 shit, 50 actually has bars, you're about to get reminded.