the mixtape show

Yeah, yeah, I know. Been busy recently. I'll give a better update later, but yeah. In the meantime, a couple of things before I forget them: Iain Haywood interviews Dex Digital, podcast supremo* and founder of the internet music phenomenon The Mixtape Show...: I was interviewed, forever ago, on Durham21, which is apparently like an online college student mag on steroids. This is seriously the most ridiculously well-written and designed student site I've ever seen, so being on here is sort of an honor, I think. It's ...

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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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What's good. So by now many of you have heard of the 16th January arrest of DJ Drama and DJ Cannon on racketeering charges, for nothing more than putting out a popular series of artist-(and generally, label-) sanctioned mixtapes. And while this event may very well have chilling effects on the industry and the way we get music, I think it's important to not overlook some of the fundamental issues behind this event: the refusal of an industry to let its originators - artists and businesspeople of Color - to create and market our own art on our own terms. Fortunately one of the first people to speak out against this arrest and its justifications was DJ Drama's own sister, Aishah Shahidah Simmons, who penned an editorial that appeared, among other places, on allhiphop.com. We managed to connect a little while ago, and what resulted is the interview you are about to listen to here. And as Aishah mentioned in the interview, one of the first, best, and easiest ways to do something about this is to let your voice be heard. Here's the contact information for the RIAA in case you want to reach out and touch somebody: RIAA Contact Information* Mitch Bainwol: Chairman and CEO of the RIAA mbainwol@riaa.com Cary Sherman: President of the RIAA csherman@riaa.com Matthew Kilgo, the person who oversaw the raid (as seen on this newscast). mkilgo@riaa.com or the default address: webmaster@riaa.com RIAA Phone Lines These phone numbers are guaranteed to work: RIAA Headquarters - (202) 775-0101 RIAA Miami Offices - (305) 444-3114 extension 11 Again - your purchasing power pays these people's salaries, so you have a right to voice your opinion about how your music is made available. As always, feel free to link this site up, direct link to the mp3 of the inteview, share it, burn it, whatever - and your comments are welcome in the comments section. Also, this program is FCC clean, so program directors, feel free to re-air this on your local college/community station. You can learn more about Aishah Simmons, including her acclaimed documentary, NO!, at her personal site, myspace.com/afrolez. Aishah, again, thanks for your time and insight. Well, that's enough troublemaking from me for today. Let me know how you felt this episode. And of course, the MTSN phone lines are always open - (310) 928 MTSN. Peace.

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Shit y'all, I'm sorry. I know I'm late with this one, but I have a good reason - I'm in motherfucking Guangdong, China right now. Shit is serious ...