BBC Documentary | Once Upon A Time In New York: The Birth Of Hip Hop, Disco & Punk.

Chicago HipHop SoundBites

On a July night in 2012, outside of Darkroom on Chicago Ave, I asked a bunch of artists and hip-hop supporters what they feel about Chicago hip-hop.... Here are some of their insightful SoundBites...

Yes, Already: SXSW 2014 Dates Confirmed; Planning Underway...

by  Priscilla Kim

South by Southwest (SXSW) is one of the biggest — if not the biggest — music industry event in the world (with tech not far behind).  And just months after the last one finished, SXSW organizers have now confirmed dates for next year.

From March 7-16 of 2014, droves of creative and business professionals will gather in Austin, TX (although rumors have been flying around about a possible relocation to Las Vegas) to interact and foster each other's growth in the film and music industry.

If you have an idea that you would like to bring to the table, the SXSW PanelPicker, a community conference-building platform, opens Monday, July 1st.  Applications for performers for the 2014 SXSW Music Festival will be accepted starting July 9th by Sonicbids.

Lastly, registration and housing applications start August 1st.

And if you're an Austin local, be happy: you've now been given advanced warning on when exactly you should leave town!

How to pirate a vinyl record

Submitted by SynthGear 

Here’s a great DIY method to copy a vinyl record, making a copy that you can actually play on a turntable. The German website Zeit.de had this article up in German, however it’s now unavailable, and only available via archive.org.

Here it is in it’s full form, translated into English:

Step 1

Nail together four 36.5cm-pieces of wood to create a frame and put it on a glass plate. Seal off the edges using caulking, and make sure everything is completely airtight.

Step 2

Take the record that you want to copy and put it into the box, making sure that the side that you want to copy is facing upwards. Squeeze in some caulking or insert a dowel to mark where the hole in the record is.

Step 3

Mix silicone rubber (Smooth On OOMOO 30 or OOMOO 25) for about 3 minutes..

Step 4

Pour the silicone rubber mixture into the mold. start from one corner, and fill the mold until it is about 5mm deep. Make sure the that surface is even, and let it dry overnight.

Step 5

Peel off the silicone from the cast and cut off the excess.

Step 6

Pour on some casting resin (eg Smooth On Task #4) on top of the silicone cast.

Step 7

Make sure that you don’t have anything spill over the round form. You can also brush off any air bubbles that might occur.

Step 8

Carefully loosen the plate from the silicone form. Using a drill press, bore a hole through the center of the plate (this doesn’t need to be done if you used the appropriate sized dowel).

Finished.

You can keep using the silicone form and make multiple copies. Definitely a darn fun DIY project.

via just about everywhere.

Kanye West cd cover?

So What do you think about the Kanye West cd cover??

Old School Sunday

Here's one from back in the dayz Classic Sesame Street ...lol yall can't tell me these puppet aren't Black.
I give you Roosevelt Franklin....

Plastik Crack is here !!!

Looking for that hard to find or you just need the Hottest Mixtapes out? Well Awsick has team up with Plastik Crack for all your Mixtapes needs...

Instagram turns on ‘Photos of You’ section for everyone, here’s how to control the pictures you’re tagged in..

you like Instagram ...yeah, well do you want everyone to see all the picture your tag in? No... well you better look at this post here Click Me

Did you get your C2E2 on this past weekend?

What up good people Chicago... I'm just wondering how many of you all got a chance to go kick it at C2E2 this past weeking??

You did, Well I got down there on Saturday to see all the goodness and I'm going to post a few picture up but first I need to thank my good friend Fred at Newboy Radio for the hook up...word!!







You did, Well I got down there on Saturday to see all the goodness and I'm going to post a few picture up but first I need to thank my good friend Fred at Newboy Radio for the hook up...word!!

Ok now to the link this link you can see last years and this years pic.... click me

you can follow me on twitter @dje1

Mercedes Is Now Retiring the Maybach Luxury Line...

by paul


Here's one problem with revolving your entire musical identity around one luxury brand. Despite endless adulation from certain corners of the rap community, Mercedes is now retiring its ultra-premium, supremely expensive Maybach line, effective 2013. The Maybach, panned as a pompously marked-up S Class with prices in the $300,000-range, performed quite poorly against incumbents like Rolls-Royce and Bentley.

Retirement discussions first emerged last year, and car enthusiasts know this is a dying bird. All of which makes this a funny twist in marketing: despite all the free publicity and material worship, it turns out the Maybach was only selling a few hundred units a year. This was a automobile saturated into endless rap songs, rap names, imprints, and videos, but a product that was ultimately an unreachable pin-up, not an aspirational possibility. Especially 'in this economy...

And maybe all that attention was working against the brand. It's a hushed topic, especially given very delicate racial waters in the US. But rap is often shunned by older, more 'refined' buyers, and hip-hop wasn't exactly reared in the refined halls of the elite. Quite the opposite, rap's embrace of street roots is enduring, all of which makes movements like Maybach Music the perfect appropriation of upper-crust refinement. And, perhaps a turnoff to the pampered, image-conscious .001%, an elite crowd that ultimately stuck with the Rolls.

Outside of its garrish opulence, perhaps there's more reason to celebrate the death of this brand. Like many oldline German companies, Maybach was an important manufacturer for the Nazi regime in World War II, particularly for tank engines. The main manufacturing facility was ultimately bombed by Allied forces, part of a broader offensive against the Nazi manufacturing base.

62 Ways to Discover Music...

1. Talking to friends.

2. Going to the supermarket. (it's great for 80s classics.)

3. Just reading stuff.

4. Watching my Facebook feed.

5. Turntable.fm

6. Going to a show, and
(a) catching the opening band (or bands).
(b) talking to other people at the show.
(c) looking at the bill of other upcoming artists.

7. Driving by a venue, and looking at the sign of upcoming shows.

8. Going to a festival.

9. Watching a festival on YouTube.

10. Checking out the flyer for a festival, and trying out a few artists I don't know.

11. Going to a bar. A band starts playing.

12. Seeing a movie. Checking out the soundtrack or composer when I get home.

13. Watching a DVD. Checking out the soundtrack or composer later.

14. Going to a party or get together, noticing what's playing.

15. Eavesdropping on a music conversation.

16. Singing karaoke.

17. Walking down a street in congested urban area with music blaring out of cars.

18. Going out to eat.

19. Hearing a sample in a rap song. Researching the sample, and discovering an old band.

20. Listening to a song that references another artist
(shout out, whatever, ie, Drake referencing Mac Dre, etc.)

21. Turning on a Pandora station.

22. Turning on a Songza station.

23. Opening Spotify, and checking out any number of embedded apps.

24. Opening the Rdio iPad app, checking out new releases and top charting albums.

25. Checking out any number of charts:
(a) BigChampagne's Ultimate Chart
(b) Billboard's Hot 100, top 200 albums, etc.
(c) Spotify's most-listened...
(d) etc. 26. Noticing someone's t-shirt.

27. Turning on FM radio.

28. Turning off FM radio, and turning on Sirius XM Radio.

29. Attending a sporting event.

30. Opening the iTunes Store, and looking at featured releases.

31. Opening my own iTunes collection, and playing something I don't even recognize
(that I downloaded long ago).

32. Beatport.

33. Checking out any 'various artists' albums.

34. Checking out remixes of tracks I like, then checking out the remixing DJs.

35. Wondering who sings that song, then finding out.

36. Shazam.

37. Soundhound.

38. Watching TV. Seeing a commercial that features an artist and a great track.

39. Watching the Super Bowl.

40. Going out, seeing an amazingly good street performer.

41. Travelling, especially to foreign countries.

42. SXSW.

43. Trying YouTube recommended clips.

44. Music blogs.

45. Hype Machine.

46. Thinking something sucks, then changing my mind and listening to it.

47. Finding out the influences of an artist I like.

48. Checking out a new app, like thefuture.fm.

49. An artist dies.

50. Going to a club.

51. Slacker.

52. Listening to KCRW.

53. Reddit.

54. Guest rappers.

55. Beefing rappers.

56. Realizing I've heard a song over, and over, and over again, without even realizing it.

57. Checking out my father's CD collection.

58. Watching an artist documentary, which invariably references stuff I didn't know, and features interviews with artists I'd forgotten about or didn't know in the first place.

59. Listening to an ad on Spotify, either for music or a nearby, upcoming show.

60. Hanging out with my niece.

61. Coffeehouses, including Starbucks.

62. Getting shockingly bored of my stale music collection or playlists.

"The underground Tunnel DVD Vol 1" (COMING SOON)

"The underground Tunnel DVD Vol 1" (COMING SOON) will be a on going DVD series with interviews and videos from some of the Chicago hottest artist making moves out here!! We are already getting ready For vOL. 2 so if your or someone you know would like to have their video featured, inbox me the link to the video along with contact info for consideration. Let's go Chi-town!!!

American Wolf : Playing this Friday @Schubas

American Wolf is an independent rock band from Chicago that's quickly making a name for themselves on the the Chicago Music Scene. You can see them live this Friday, May 11,2012 at showtime 10:00pm Schubas

What's good My friends DJE here just wanted to give you the heads up on American Wolf a very impressive band with a relax sound. Now don't get me wrong American Wolf sound is not soft this band rocks without going overboard. just peep the song below and let the sounds take you away.

 American Wolf - brave new machine

WATCH: David Banner on Trayvon Martin Shooting Death

The passionate performer expresses his views on the senseless death of another young Black man

by Anslem Samuel

Over the course of the past few weeks, the nation has been fixated on the death of Trayvon Martin. The 17-year-old who was shot and killed in Florida by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman, who claims the unarmed boy looked “suspicious” and was up to no good. No weapons were found on Martin, who only had a bag of Skittles and a bottle of iced tea on him. No charges have been filed against Zimmerman, who says he was attacked by Martin and only acted in self-defense, despite the fact that 911 operators instructed him to not follow Martin. The resulting death of another young Black man and the fact that Zimmerman has yet to be charged has evoked a firestorm of controversy and backlash. Hip-hop artist/producer and BlackEnterprise.com contributing blogger David Banner recently stopped by the BE offices to express his frustrations with the Martin incident and the system that allows his shooter to walk free. Listen below to hear Banner’s passionate perspective on the life and death of Trayvon Martin and what changes need to be made.

An appeal to Youth Street Culture!

BY: DJ MACKBOOGALOO (aka DJ Cooley Mack)

Rebellious youth culture, aka Pop Culture, at times, has been a highly positive energetic vibratory influence on the planet which has dramatically affected the course of modern human interaction & historic events. The 60’s Civil Rights & Anti-War movements in the United States, for example, are inextricably linked with the music & culture of the 60’s radicalized youth who opposed racial discrimination & selective service. American Black Music has especially been a mostly positive influence on popular culture through the years as it has evolved into different subgenres, such as Gospel, Blues, Jazz, R&B, Soul, Funk, Disco, Rap & House/Techno Music.


Youth culture is a global phenomenon that has been greatly manipulated by the corporate media giants: Viacom, News Corp, Bertelsmann, Vivendi Universal, Sony, AOL Time Warner & Walt Disney. This sinister manipulation has been going on strong for the last 20 years, since the early 1990’s, and it has promoted the gangster/criminal element within Hip-Hop Culture. Despite the distorted corporate media hype, Hip-Hop Culture (break dancing, graffiti writing, rapping & DJing) has had an overall positive international influence on the streets that has fueled the broader “Youth Street Culture”. Its wide embrace reaches into other genres of urban music (House, Techno, Drum N’ Bass, Dubstep, Kuduro, Champeta, Moombahton, etc.) and creative activities, like skateboarding, raving & Parkour. Even though a dark ruling minority aka “Powers That Be” controls the corporate media & messages of major Pop Culture music icons, there does exist a majority of Youth Street Culture participants that have the potential to be become the vanguard of Consciousness on this planet.


“Consciousness” is the self-awareness that we are eternal spiritual beings, with unlimited potential, having a very limited human experience. Consciousness gives us the magical ability to manifest our inner thoughts into tangible external events & circumstances. By being Conscious, humans can tap into Higher levels of inspiration & supernatural abilities which are normally out of reach to them in their daily reality.



Our present limited daily reality on this planet is a “consensus reality” which favors the Powers That Be. We, in mass, have bought into an understanding of reality that was sold to us via the programming of our schools, churches, TV & radios, family, etc. This packaged consensus reality is not real. It is a controlled collective experience that we unconsciously agree to be real.


Consensus reality on Earth has been under the control of the dark Powers that Be for thousands of years, passed on from older generations to younger generations, parents to children. The spiritual teachings of David Icke have made reference to this fact by stating that “we have been programmed like a computer from the moment of conception.” He is right. We are taught not to question consensus reality. Thankfully, youth culture loves to question & challenge authority. Youth culture is the rebel in our society.


A turn today, by Youth Street Culture, towards Consciousness is a turn towards enlightenment that will effectively strengthen the brotherly bond between people in their local communities. This movement will empower the people to stand up for truth & righteousness in the face of fear & corruption, which are the tools of the dark Powers That Be. Youth Street Culture must urgently oppose the dark forces on this planet that are soon planning our human demise via a reduction of the world population by 80-90% using war, famine & disease, as documented by the eugenics documentary “Endgame” (produced by info warrior, Alex Jones).


Youth Street Culture has to shatter the illusion of our controlled consensus reality which has been destroying this planet, aka Mother Earth, via its perverted preference towards costly artificial synthetic technology that pollutes & harms, like fossil fueled cars. In contrast, natural organic free technology, such as the forbidden Free-Energy technology that Nikolai Tesla attempted to give us during the last century, could easily provide humanity with an abundance of clean & healthy resources to live harmoniously with Mother Nature. As of late, we have been warned by our Indigenous Elders (Dogon of Africa, Mayans of Guatemala and the Kogi Mamos of Colombia), via “live” Internet broadcasts, that Mother Earth may have to soon wipe her slate clean, primarily through natural disasters, to protect herself from man’s self-destructive ways. We don’t have much time to act before she strikes in self-defense.



These Indigenous Elders and others around the globe unanimously agree that we are in End Times, as we approach & pass the year 2012. In other words, our planet, as it rotates through space, coming closer into direct alignment with the center of our galaxy and with various star constellations, is completing a cycle of time which implicates that major Earth changes and/or changes to our human consciousness & DNA are coming due. Cutting edge world renowned researchers like David Wilcock, Mike Bara & Richard Hoagland (featured guests on George Noory’s nationally syndicated “Coast to Coast” radio show) have brought to our attention the confirming data that attributes High levels of oncoming Hyper-Dimensional energy to being the source triggering galactic changes. This is an issue that the academic community is afraid to recognize. The dark Powers that Be want to keep it on the hush-hush.


Cosmic change is even trickling down to a new crop of babies being born during the last 2 decades, who are growing up under the sway of Youth Street Culture. Many psychics, clairvoyants & spiritual teachers, like Drunvalo Melchizedek, have noted that today’s teenagers & children, born since the 1990’s, are “Indigo Children”. These are young individuals who are deemed to have special supernatural traits & abilities which may be of great aid to our human evolution during the challenging times ahead. The DNA of Youth Street Culture is encoded to wake up the more mature masses of people who are not aware to the changing world around them.


Youth Street Culture has a close & personal connection to a mighty cosmic force that is the intangible source behind all creation. That force is sound! Its vibration can create or destroy. If Youth Street Culture can turn toward Consciousness, break the illusion of consensus reality and learn the hidden metaphysical secrets behind the power of sound aka music, then humanity has a great chance of not only survival, but ascendancy to a much Higher level of living as spiritual beings. This is Roots, Culture N’ Consciousness!

To read more on this critically important topic matter, click the following link to receive a free copy of DJ Mackboogaloo’s new E-Book “ROOTS, CULTURE N’ CONSCIOUSNESS” (also available on Amazon Kindle):

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/58532974/ROOTS%2C_CULTURE_N%27_CONSCIOUSNESS__%28E-BOOK%29.pdf

-DJ MACKBOOGALOO (aka DJ Cooley Mack)

Beautiful Optical Turntables Generate Spinning Rhythms

by Peter Kirn

Soundmachines from The Product on Vimeo.

Music is deeply tied up with motion; seeing that in a machine is somehow satisfying. Soundmachines, from the enigmatically-titled Berlin studio TheProduct*, is an interactive physical installation made from optical turntables. By moving the “tone arm” – really in this case an optical sensor attached to an extended mount – you can change rhythms and sound sweeps.

We’ve naturally seen many visualizations, tangible and digital, that make loops into wheels. But it’s worth noting the particular connection to a kinetic experiment by The Books’ Nick Zammuto from the film earlier this week. In fact, my one criticism of this piece is that the rhythms are so regular. Some syncopation in a machine like this would be not only pleasing, but immediately visible to the eye and therefore understandable.

FBI, Feds Shut Down MegaUpload...

by paul

Just this afternoon, the FBI and other US-based law enforcement officials effectively shuttered MegaUpload, while detaining top executives at the company. MegaUpload founder Kim Schmidtz, aka Kim Dotcom, and other top executives at MegaUpload have been arrested for operating what has been billed a massive, infringing operation. At last count, 7 were indicted, with the New York Times reporting that 3 remain at large.

In classic SOPA fashion, the arrests and seizures were made outside of the US, but directed from inside the US. That is, the arrests were made in New Zealand, according to early information, and MegaUpload is a Hong Kong-based enterprise.

The timing couldn't be worse. Just yesterday, sites like Wikipedia and Reddit went dark to protest the over-reaching, heavy-handed aspects contained in SOPA. But now, it's as if that never happened: in this case, US-based enforcement authorities pointed to a long-running investigation and grand jury indictment, though MegaUpload appears unaware of any due process according to attorney Ira Rothken. MegaUpload owner Kim Dotcom has repeatedly pointed to compliance with takedown requests, though Hollywood, the RIAA, and other copyright owners obviously felt otherwise.

As of 1 o'clock PM PCT, the MegaUpload site is down.

Two companies were specifically named in the indictment, unsealed this afternoon in Northern Virginia: Megaupload Limited and Vestor Limited, both of whom were accused of damages exceeding $500 million in pirated films, music, games, and other assets. In its indictment paperwork, the all-powerful Department of Justice noted that MegaUpload was "generating more than $175 million in criminal proceeds and causing more than half a billion dollars in harm to copyright owners."

This is one of the largest federal indictments of its kind, according to the FBI.

Deaths Involving Headphone-Wearing Pedestrians Have Tripled Since 2004...

by paul

Forget about the damage that headphones have on hearing. Because according to a new study, there's another problem: sudden and irreversible death. In fact, the number of deaths and fatal accidents involving headphone-wearing pedestrians has tripled over the past few years, according to the just-published finding. These accidents, frequently sudden and fatal, typically involve young males (average age of 21) walking around urban areas.

We're not talking about bump-ins or near-misses, of which there are many. These are fatalities or extreme injuries, which multiplied from roughly 16 in 2004 in the US to 47 in 2011. In total, the research group found 116 documented cases of death and serious injury since 2004, with 70 percent of serious cases ending in death.

Cars are a typical problem, though strangely, more than half of the incidents involved people getting run down by trains - that is, despite blaring horns and other warnings in many cases. The music was simply blaring that loudly, often with over-the-ear enclosures.

This is where you don't really need a PhD, because drowning headphones tend to create a disconnection from the world. Researchers called it 'inattentional blindness,' while noting that hearing - not just sight - plays a critical role in assessing external stimuli and avoiding trouble.

Bassnectar Explains Dubstep (in under 3 minutes)

Bassnectar laying out the dubstep musical family tree in an interview with MoBoogie

Soundscan May Only Be Counting 15% of Vinyl Sales

Could vinyl sales actually be multiples larger? We've been quoting some heady gains from Nielsen Soundscan, but what if those figures are woefully undercounted? "Soundscan only gets about 15 percent," Vince Slusarz of Gotta Groove Records just told the New York Times. "The majority of the stuff we press, it doesn't even have a bar code."

Wow: a 15 percent rate would imply that vinyl sales are actually 7 times larger than we think. Sounds a bit extreme, and Slusarz could be wildly overcounting for obvious reasons. Then again, vinyl is oftentimes sold in non-traditional outlets like indie retailers, merch tables, and small websites. And, let's not even get started on used vinyl, which makes the whole thing even more authentic.

But what are the Soundscan numbers, anyway? Try 2.8 million LPs in the US last year, a figure growing about 40 percent this year. Whether or not that's closer to 18.7 million is an interesting question, though the bigger concern is whether this is all a fad.

But if vinyl (and other physical formats) are here to stay, we may be witnessing an interesting consumer preference for something tangible. One reader calls it 'the vinyl effect,' which may simply be a reaction to an avalanche of digital intangibility.