the mixtape show

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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.

Man, what the fuck is this? I was hitting up prohiphop.com a minute ago and I ran across this article that declares Pharrell of the Neptunes the best-dressed man of 2005. Over Andre 3000, who was the best dressed of 2004. Come, on. Pharrell? What kind of bootleg bullshit is that? Pharell is absolutely not worthy of any sort of clothing award at all. I mean, come on. Let's look at exhibit A: Here we go. Pharrell is looking like he walked out of a fucking Euro-heritage-only store with his fucking trucker hat. And here we have Andre three motherfucking thousand throwing it down with a TURBAN. See, hip-hop is only good, in my opinion, if it is at least moderately threatening. And like it or not, more people are gonna be scared of you with a fucking towel on your head than some trendy-ass mesh joint. I think the choice is clear here - Andre 3000 wins. Let's move on, shall we?