MIXTAPE 71 – FEATURE – IMUS, STOP SNITCHING, AND RAP


MIXTAPE 71 – FEATURE – IMUS, drugs STOP SNITCHING, AND RAP

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,
Listen to
. 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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MIXTAPE SHOW PODCAST EPISODE 32


MIXTAPE EPISODE 32

Hectic as fuck here, unhealthy as usual. Since we were on that education tip last week, pharm I figured we’d continue the domination of the hip-hop podcast world this week with some more of the same business. Focus this week: politricks and other “conscious”-type shit. I actually don’t really like the label “conscious”, sick since it seems like we’re patting MCs on the back for being sentient beings. I don’t really know how I feel about that. Does anyone have a better word we can run with? Feel free to leave a comment about that.On with the show. (click “continue” to see the playlist for this week’s show!)Saigon, dead prez, and Immortal Technique – Impeach the President. Not that this beat hasn’t been done before, in fact somebody did it like last year, but the joint is hot. Too many quotable lines in this one. Really, come on. Saigon, dead prez, Immortal…you know this joint is going to be fucking hot. Please download this, because if you don’t the terrorists will win. saigon on myspace, deadprez.com, immortal-technique.com.Oh yeah, by the way, XXLmag.com, I really hope you paid the dude that you jacked the flash player from. Also feel free to credit my site as your inspiration (see above, then check out xxlmag’s ‘bangers‘ section). Word. Continue reading

MIXTAPE SHOW EPISODE 13 – Bavu Blakes interview


MIXTAPE SHOW EPISODE 13 – Bavu Blakes interview

Yo, and yo, ascariasis what it is. Welcome to episode #13 of the best hip-hop podcast on the internets. Let’s go.

Now, if you’ve been in the whole glam-hop hip-hop event scene for more then ten minutes, then you’ll notice that Scion seems to be everywhere. It’s always “DJ No-name and MC NeverGonnaGettaDeal, sponsored by Scion OMFG.”

Which, of course, never bothered me too much. I always thought it was kinda funnystyle how Scion was backing all of these hip-hop events, but hey, if that lowered ticket prices for me, I was down.
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FEMA raps about shit, doesn’t follow through

Okay, discount so FEMA is basically a giant fuckup. I was on the internets today and I saw this shit. Don’t worry, more about there is some actual hip-hop in here today. Sort of.

For those of you too lazy to check the site, here’s the basic rundown:

As New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin pleaded on national television for firefighters – his own are exhausted after working around the clock for a week – a battalion of highly trained men and women sat idle Sunday in a muggy Sheraton Hotel conference room in Atlanta. Many of the firefighters, assembled from Utah and throughout the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, thought they were going to be deployed as emergency workers.

Instead, they have learned they are going to be community-relations officers for FEMA, shuffled throughout the Gulf Coast region to disseminate fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA.

So, yeah. We’ve got a bunch of firefighters that are ready for action, but instead we’re holding a fucking tea party and training them on how to hand out fliers. Shit is so fucked nowadays that it’s surreal.
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