Search Results for: Jay Som

Any effort to rewrite the latest federal rules for radio must include a broad investigation into such issues as “pay-for-play” and artist intimidation, according to music and artists’ groups. Michael Bracey, director of government relations for the Future of Music Coalition, says his group wants the Federal Communications Commission to examine “pay-for-play and vertical integration” in the radio industry. The group opposes FCC rule changes that were enacted June 7. And Jay Rosenthal, co-counsel of the Recording Artists’ Coalition (RAC), wants the commission to follow up on reports of artist intimidation. “The FCC can no longer ignore evidence of radio… Read more »

There were no big winners at the MTV Video Music Awards – Missy Elliott’s “Work It” won two awards, including video of the year, while Justin Timberlake, Coldplay and Beyonce had three apiece. The 71-year-old Johnny Cash, nominated seven times for “Hurt,” won once. As usual, the most memorable moments had nothing to do with the moonmen trophies. Twenty years after the first MTV Video Music Awards, not much has changed – Madonna still makes jaws drop and cheeks blush. Just like her first time, the superstar upstaged everyone at the 20th annual MTV Video Music Awards, only she had… Read more »

The debut of Apple’s iTunes online music store was widely hailed as a turning point in the mostly sorry relationship between the record industry and consumers who want to download songs. Now comes another noteworthy symbolic step: a digital download chart in Billboard. The official debut is in the July 19 issue, although the trade journal ran a “preview” chart in its July 12 edition. In both cases the No. 1 song was “Crazy in Love,” by Beyoncé with Jay-Z-which also happened to be the No. 1 song on the general Hot 100 chart both weeks. (Nielsen SoundScan compiles the… Read more »

Even though it’s due in stores today, KRS-One has done everything he can to make sure nobody buys his latest album – at least not yet. “This is insane, this is insane, this is so egregious, this is so devious,” KRS-One fumed on Monday, angry at Koch Records’ plan to release an album by him called Kristyles. The Bronx battle king, alleging that the record Koch was putting out not only did a disservice to him as an artist and a businessman, but that it was an affront to hip-hop culture as a whole, won a court injunction on Monday… Read more »

Ticket sales are down, and big tours are scaling back to smaller venues. It looks to be a long, hot summer for the touring industry. On the cusp of the industry’s peak period, a number of high-profile tours and festivals have already hit snags, among them highly touted outings from Mariah Carey, the Field Day Music Festival, Lollapalooza, and Beck and Dashboard Confessional. Faced with a crowded tour market combined with high ticket prices, permit hassles, a sluggish economy and poor buzz, these tours and a handful of others have either had to scale back the size of the venues… Read more »

The way things are shaking out, Eminem will go down in history as starting more feuds than Richard Dawson. Last week the rapper’s latest battle, pitting his Shady Records camp against Ja Rule and Murder Inc., took center stage at Giants Stadium during Summer Jam, the annual hip-hop fest thrown by Big Apple radio’s Hot 97. Em protégé 50 Cent started his set with several Ja digs accompanied by a video display. Then Eminem delivered da bomb, performing the blistering Ja Rule-dissing salvos “Doe Ray Me” with D12 and “Hail Mary” with 50 Cent and Busta Rhymes. But don’t start… Read more »

These days, try putting on a CD by your favorite rapper without hearing an endless series of plugs for Burberry, Air Force Ones, Alizé, Maybach, you name it. But are hip-hop’s ubiquitous product mentions just about artists chronicling their high-rollin’ lifestyles, or have the forces of marketing worked their way into your favorite rapper’s tunes? What’s next, a hit track written about Hummers paid for by the car’s manufacturer? Well, maybe. “Unless someone is paying me a billion dollars or offering equity, we don’t play that,” Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder Damon Dash said of writing products into a song on request.… Read more »

Russia is fast rising to the top of world music piracy charts with a counterfeit boom that could hit foreign investment and damage Moscow’s efforts to join the World Trade Organization, a leading watchdog said on Thursday. The issue of intellectual property rights, an increasingly important component of U.S. trade policy, is a major obstacle to WTO accession for both Russia and neighboring Ukraine, where bootleg computer programs, music CDs and movie DVDs are rife. In Russia alone the local pirated music market grew to $311 million last year, well above a legal music market of $257 million. “Russia is… Read more »

Eminem, the headliner of Summer Jam 10, took time on stage to show his anger toward the Source magazine. During a break in his performance on Tuesday (June 3) at Giants Stadium, Eminem hurled his 2000 Source Award for Lyricist Of The Year to the ground. The rapper has been involved in an ongoing feud with Source magazine co-owner Ray Benzino, who has accused Eminem of taking advantage of and destroying the hip-hop culture to further his personal gain. Eminem and his mentor, Dr. Dre, subsequently pulled all of their ads from the magazine. Eminem ended his set with a… Read more »

After spending last fall on the road with Jay-Z, N.E.R.D. and Nappy Roots, 311 are catering their next tour to the more rock side of their fanbase. The hip-hop- and reggae-influenced quintet has lined up blues jammers G. Love & Special Sauce, piano punks Something Corporate and frat rockers O.A.R. as openers for a summer trek. The outing kicks off July 15 in Bakersfield, California, and hits mostly amphitheaters, crisscrossing the country until wrapping up September 5 in Santa Barbara, California. “We always want to make sure our fans know how grateful we are and what a blessing it is… Read more »