The common implication of these covers is that highly produced pop has no real emotion or thought behind it. By slowing them down and focusing on the lyrics, you're pointing out that the lyrics make no sense. That's totally valid for My Humps, but Umbrella and Four Minutes to Save The World are fine pop songs. I'm annoyed with the sentiment that the musician is somehow doing or saying something by stripping down production value. Take a look at this Ben Gibbard cover of Thriller.

It's the self-satisfied smirk and the laughter of the audience that bother me. They're so proud of themselves for being better than pop music.

And also, in de-pop-ifying these pop numbers, what are they removing? The R&B influence, the Rap influence, and pointing out the fact that a lot of pop lyrics fail to comport with standard spoken English but instead reflect African American vernacular. I'm just sayin'.

Also, I totally think the acoustic Four Minutes and Umbrella are pretty, but they still annoy me.

Hamilton,

Saw your piece on Gawker. Thanks for the coverage. I wanted to reach out to you to clarify some things that may have not been clear in the WSJ piece. First, I think the term corporate control is a misnomer, given that in no case have any of these marketing partners had any influence whatsoever on the songs Greg is creating and releasing. These marketing partners, in whatever sense they're involved, are promoting existing songs, not tracks in anyway created with them in mind. Also, it is worth noting that neither Greg nor the label were paid to participate in any of these promotions, excepting the obvious case of Whole Foods purchasing CDs to sell in their locations.

As for Greg's indie cred, I've never been entirely sure what that means exactly, but for what its worth he made the entire new record in a garage, in 3 weeks, on a shoestring budget, and with a collection of pawnshop guitars, banjos, and noisemakers that would probably set you back $500 combined. What's more, Greg has been a huge supporter of independent record stores, and indie retail of Greg. He's performed instore events at indie stores across the country (Easy Street in Seattle, Fingerprints in Long Beach, Plan 9 in Richmond, CD World in Eugene to name a few), and we pressed a free bonus EP exclusively available at indie stores for the last record.

And finally, PJ Harvey was featured on the same AMC in-theatre program. Sonic Youth made a complilation for Starbucks. CSS and Feist were in Apple ads. She and Him were featured in an ad on the Urban Outfitters website. Wilco and Spoon are ubiquitous in commercial spots The Mars Volta played a "Nissan Live Set." Of course I'm not speaking for any of those artists or labels, but I will say that in today's climate, the folks at our label are simply trying to make music accessible to people, to get it heard. In short, what good is it if you don't know its there?

Best,

Stephen T. Brower

[Pic via Graffiti.org]

• "Two of Mr. Laswell's songs will be played overhead in Courtyard by Marriott lobbies and on the hotels' Web site."
• "The singer-songwriter has been a spokesman for Apple Inc.'s GarageBand software, showing off how to use the technology to record songs on a laptop."
• "His songs are being played before the previews at large movie theater chains like AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. and at Landmark Theaters' art houses."
• "This summer, an online Pepsi and Amazon ad will feature an MP3 player with images of Mr. Laswell."
• "Indeed, Mr. Laswell's songs have been featured in two movies and 11 TV shows, including 'Grey's Anatomy'"
• "Mr. Laswell's EP, released in March to promote the July record, became part of the Artist Discovery Series of Whole Foods Markets Inc., where customers in grocery checkout lines saw him compared with EMI Group's Coldplay."

As long as he stays indie.

[WSJ]

The NY Press apparently procured and read Seymour's actual book—the only excerpt we can find online talks exclusively about him walking around with his dick out in a strip club. But the Press has the Drudge-y highlights:

According to Seymour: "Matthew and I were primarily obsessed with two things: music and The The Young and the Restless. That's all we talked about as we walked around D.C. late at night or drove out to the Maryland suburbs where his mother worked behind the counter at 7-Eleven."...

After Seymour gets thrown out of his NYC apartment, he loses touch with Matthew until he receives a letter in the mail. It deserves to be excerpted in full from Seymour's chapter:

"'If this letter gets to you somewhere in this burning world,' he opened, 'I have a feeling you can still relate.' For five densely marked pages, Matthew revisited all of our favorite topics of conversation, telling me how he was awaiting a new Frankie Knuckles remix of Chaka Khan's 'Ain't Nobody,' going through a love/hate relationship with Whitney Houston's 'One Moment in Time,' and incensed over the direction of The Young and the Restless.

('That show suffered so much during the writers' strike—will it ever rebound?') Later, he stated: 'Writing this letter to you makes me happy. Whatever happened to us? I miss talking to you, but somehow I know what you're thinking or want to convince myself that I know.'

At the end of the letter, he wrote: '213 area code soon. Call me.'"

Seymour never heard anything further from Matthew, until, years later, when he was flipping through Vanity Fair and happened upon a photo of his long-forgotten friend. He'd transformed himself into Internet pundit Matt Drudge.

Nilla.

[NY Press]

Surprisingly, the Beatles are the most often deleted artist (after "unknown," for obvious reasons). Maybe there's an error, but maybe they're so often played but so little identified with modern cool. Couldn't imagine why, really, other than "Birthday" inexplicably popping up in everyone's Party Playlist. Second place goes to Radiohead, then more predictably Britney Spears and Avril Lavigne.

Spears also tops the single tracks list, with her song "Piece of Me" winning the spot of Most Regrettable Song. She shares the rest of the list with Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" and Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend," definitely guilty pleasures for the sort of hipster who would try to clean up their own listening history.

Life On Mars

This song was so easy. Being young was easy. A really beautiful day in the park, sitting on the steps of the bandstand. 'Sailors bap-bap-bap-bap-baaa-bap.' An anomic (not a 'gnomic') heroine. Middle-class ecstasy.

Workspace was a big empty room with a chaise longue; a bargain-price art nouveau screen ('William Morris,' so I told anyone who asked); a huge overflowing freestanding ashtray and a grand piano. Little else.

I started working it out on the piano and had the whole lyric and melody finished by late afternoon. Nice.

Rick Wakeman came over a couple of weeks later and embellished the piano part and guitarist Mick Ronson created one of his first and best string parts for this song which now has become something of a fixture in my live shows.

Sweet Thing/ Candidate/ Sweet Thing

I'd failed to obtain the theatrical rights from George Orwell's widow for the book 1984 and having written three or more songs for it already, I did a fast about-face and recobbled the idea into Diamond Dogs: teen punks on rusty skates living on the roofs of the dystopian Hunger City; a post-apocalyptic landscape.

A centrepiece for this would-be stage production was to be Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing, which I wrote using William Burroughs's cut-up method.

You write down a paragraph or two describing several different subjects creating a kind of story ingredients-list, I suppose, and then cut the sentences into four or five-word sections; mix 'em up and reconnect them [...]

The Bewlay Brothers

[...] The circumstances of the recording barely exist in my memory. It was late, I know that. I was on my own with my producer Ken Scott; the other musicians having gone for the night.

Unlike the rest of the Hunky Dory album, which I had written before the studio had been booked, this song was an unwritten piece that I felt had to be recorded instantaneously.

I had a whole wad of words that I had been writing all day. I had felt distanced and unsteady all evening, something settling in my mind. It's possible that I may have smoked something in my Bewlay pipe. I distinctly remember a sense of emotional invasion.

I do believe that we finished the whole thing on that one night. It's likely that I ended up drinking at the Sombrero in Kensington High Street or possibly Wardour Street's crumbling La Chasse. Cool.

Lady Grinning Soul

Mike Garson's piano opens with the most ridiculous and spot-on re-creation of a 19th Century music hall 'exotic' number. I can see now the 'poses plastiques' as if through a smoke-filled bar. Fans, castanets and lots of Spanish black lace and little else. Sexy, mmm? And for you, Madam?

This was written for a wonderful young girl whom I've not seen for more than 30 years. When I hear this song she's still in her 20s, of course.

A song will put you tantalisingly close to the past, so close that you can almost reach out and touch it. The sound of ghosts again.

Teenage Wildlife

So it's late morning and I'm thinking: 'New song and a fresh approach. I know, I'm going to do a Ronnie Spector. Oh yes I am. Ersatz, just for one day.'

And I did and here it is. Bless. I'm still enamoured of this song and would give you two Modern Loves for it any time. It's also one that I find fulfilling to sing onstage. It has some nice interesting sections to it that can trip you up, always a good kind of obstacle to contend with live.

Ironically, the lyric is something about taking a short view of life, not looking too far ahead and not predicting the oncoming hard knocks. The lyric might have been a note to a younger brother or my own adolescent self.

The guitars on this track form a splintery little duel between the great Robert Fripp and my long-time friend Carlos Alomar.

The other songs on the CD are "Fantastic Voyage," "Win," "Some Are," "Repetition," "Loving the Alien," "Time Will Crawl," and "Hang Onto Yourself (Live)." Read about them, and more about the others, here.

I understand if people don't like me because I like me or if people think tight clothes look gay or people say I run my mouth to much, But this Bonnaroo thing is the worst insult I've ever had in my life. This is the most offended I've ever been... this is the maddest I ever will be. I'm typing so fucking hard I might break my fucking Mac book Air!!!!!!!!

This is worse than Hurricane Katrina! So what happened out there, Kanye?

THEY TRIED 2 GIVE ME A TIME SLOT WERE IT WAS STILL LIGHT OUTSIDE ... I HAVE A FUCKING LIGHT SHOW DUMB ASS, IT'S NOT CALLED GLOW IN THE DARK FOR NO REASON SQUID BRAINS!...

PEARL JAM ENDED ONE HOUR
LATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AT THAT POINT WE'RE RACING AGAINST THE SUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Those. Motherfuckers.

REMEMBER LAST SUMMER WHEN I CANCELED SOME TV APPEARANCES. IT WAS BECAUSE I DIDN'T WANT TO PERFORM STRONGER IN THE DAYTIME. ANYONE WHO CAME TO THE GLOW TOUR CAN UNDERSTAND WHY I WANTED PEOPLE TO SEE IT PROPERLY. IT BROKE MY HEART THAT I COULDN'T GIVE THESE FANS STRONGER IN IT'S GREATEST FORM... BY THE TIME I GOT TO STRONGER IT WAS DAYTIME AND IT BROKE MY HEART. I'M SORRY TO EVERYONE THAT I DIDN'T HAVE THE ABILITY 2 GIVE THE PERFORMANCE I WANTED TO. I'M SORRY... SOMETIMES I GO 2, 3 DAYS W/O SLEEP WORKING ON MY PERFORMANCE... I HAVE TO ICE MY KNEES AFTER EVERY SHOW AND THEY HURT WHEN I WALK THROUGH THE AIRPORT... HAVING AN EXPENSIVE STAGE CUTS MY PAYDAY IN HALF... CALL ME WHAT YOU WANT BUT NEVER SAY I DIDN'T GIVE MY ALL!!!

Never forget.

[Kanye's Blog via Idolator]

Sam Sifton, the Times's culture editor, says that while such decisions are handled on a case-by-case basis, rap artists often get special treatment. "There's a big difference between [Houston rapper] Bun B and Tony Bennett," Sifton says, referring to Bernard Freeman and Anthony Dominick Benedetto, respectively. "Tony Bennett took a stage name, which I think is a little different from taking an alias. Someone like Jay-Z can be Mr. Carter, certainly, or he can just be Jay-Z, but he's never going to be Mr. Z."

There is absolutely no difference between Bun B and Tony Bennett that should affect how their names are treated in the paper. Not only does this highlight the faux-formal idiocy of the Times style guide, it provides a good opportunity to repeat Method Man's greatest truth ever: "Dig it/ F a rap critic/ They talk about it while I live it."

No equality of birth-naming, no peace!

[CJR via Romenesko]

Katy has a steady boyfriend, but she doesn't believe in sex before marriage. "I know what it does to people," she says. "One night my boyfriend and I went a little too far and I felt like I'd fallen so far away from God. I doubted myself and my strength. I was so weak at the time in my relationship with Christ."

If someone is going to have sex, however, Katy absolutely believes that person should use a condom: "Some Christians think that if you use a condom, it's premeditated. So nobody uses a condom at all and they have sex and get pregnant the first time."

That's a far cry from lyrics like, "I got so brave, drink in hand / Lost my discretion... I kissed a girl and I liked it... I kissed a girl just to try it."

Devout Christian music fans are now trying to figure out how Perry fell off the path of earnest righteousness, or if she was ever on it. But the preacher's daughter who once said "if people buy the record, that’s all the credibility I need" has probably just been looking for a winning angle of any sort and, after keeping her faith in the power of sex, has finally found it.

Below, the video for "I Kissed A Girl," in which Perry slinks around in lingerie with other women.

[Radosh]

[via Fametastic]

• The Web is dead. Churchill once described a pudding as having no theme. The same is broadly true of today’s Internet; Web 2.0 has descended into bathos, which really ought to have its own 'sphere named after it. Facebook’s great advertising revenue model went bust a year ago and everyone’s already stalked everyone else on MySpace. Most user-generated content reads like a stale algorithm of pettiness, paranoia and semi-literacy. Time formerly proclaimed “us” the “Person of the Year,” and it proved too burdensome a responsibility. We renounce the title.

• The television season is over. What is there to watch now except the Real World set where it always belonged – on a Hollywood soundstage – and with revolving cast members that don’t hang around long enough to come out of the closet, smack each other in the face, or forget to load the dishwasher? Bring back House with its acerbic Bertie Wooster.

• The economy is in limbo. It’s bad, sure, but it’s not quite so bad as to precipitate a new artistic or literary movement. No one's ready to move into lean-tos on the B.Q.E., become a Trotsykist, and found Partisan Review. Speaking of which –

• There are no new magazines. What’s to overhype and then hound to an early grave? Radar’s doing fine in that unremarkable way of its. And n+1 will either lurch into neoconservatism or get bought out by Dave Eggers and turned into Zimbabwean refugee’s emo fanzine.

• There are no parties, except the one being thrown tonight by Keith Gessen, the Julia Allison of public intellectuals, who wants to take back the Internet the way Irving Howe wanted to make socialism relevant.

• We live in atomized and fragmented times. Like academia, the culture is over-specialized and only caters to microscopic – mostly web-based – niches. My Buddhist Scandinavian black metal band can beat up your vomit porn-themed ballet troupe. It’s impossible to congregate under a mass banner of anything anymore. Is this why Barack Obama is deified? Is he the closest thing we have to a popular icon? (Michael Chabon thinks so, and he’s the dean of Superman studies.) But there are no other imagos to make our hearts beat as one and give us a shared cultural experience. What’s the last stadium-venue concert you attended? (I'm seeing Mos Def with a Big Band this month and I can't even get worked up about it.) Who’s the Seinfeld of the humorless aughts, the Geldof of this age of waste?

• Politics has sucked the oxygen out of media. Fortunately, like the TV drought, this may just be seasonal and subject to change once November comes and goes and Obama Girl is cast in the next Tom Stoppard play as Béla Kun's wry housekeeper.

• It’s been an uneventful summer thus far. Might we look forward to a rolling blackout in August that will allow us all to mate in darkened stairwells and wash with tonic water for a glorious twelve hours again?

Kanye West was scheduled to play at the hippie-infested Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee last weekend at 8:15 p.m. Then he pushed it back to 2:45 a.m. to better take advantage of his fresh-ass neon stage set. Then he didn't show up until 4:30 a.m. This angered the assembled hippies, who took to booing, scrawling anti-Kanye graffiti, and waving signs protesting his insensitivity for hippie time management. One, he's a jerk. Two, why would anyone stay up all night waiting to see a Kanye West show? Three, every hip hop show starts two hours late. Get used to it, hippies. [via Animal NY]

[via Fimoculous]

Simms testified that his job was to unload BMF's cocaine from limos outfitted with secret compartments. He said he piled as many as 100 "bricks" of cocaine at a time inside the basement of one of BMF's stash houses, an ultra-modern Buckhead mansion nicknamed "Space Mountain." And he said that on one occasion, in the fall of 2004, he was ordered by high-ranking BMF members Chad "J-Bo" Brown and Martez "Tito" Byrth to set aside multi-kilo cocaine "shipments" for two customers. Simms said the customers picked up the coke from him at Space Mountain.

When asked by assistant U.S. Attorney Robert McBurney who the customers were, Simms gave two names: William "Doc" Marshall, a high-level BMF co-conspirator who testified earlier in the trial, and "Jeezy."

"Young Jeezy the rapper?" McBurney asked.

"Yes," Simms answered.

Less than surprising. But this could really put a cramp in Jeezy's brand new social networking site. On the site right now:

Quote of the Day

A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.

David Brinkley

APPROPRIATE. Now enjoy this Jeezy coke rap song. He wasn't kidding, yall.

[Creative Loafing]

In closing arguments, Kelly's attorney banged on the jury box with his fist, yelled and whispered, laughed and pleaded for more than in hour in his emotion-filled closing.

At one point, Sam Adam Jr. referred to a defense argument made repeatedly during the trial that a mole on the singer's back proved he simply can't be the man in the video.

After displaying a freeze frame of the man's back in the video — with no apparent mole — Adam walked over to the defense table and placed his hand on Kelly's shoulder.

"The truth be told, there is no mole ... that means one thing," Adam told jurors, then paused and lowered his voice. "It ain't him. And if it ain't him, you can't convict."

Prosecutors wrapped up their arguments the same way they began them a month ago: by playing the entire graphic sex tape in open court.

[CNN.com]

• George Michael, 75-minute concert on New Year's eve, 2007, for nickel billionaire Vladimir Potanin. Price: $3.5 million
• Rihanna, 40-minute show for billionaire Oleg Deripaska on New Year's eve, 2008. Price: $500,000.
• Jennifer Lopez, 40-minute birthday party show for billionaire Andrei Melnichenko in April, 2007. Price: $1.2 million.
• Christina Aguilera, three songs at Andrei Melnichenko's wedding in September, 2005. Price: $3.6 million.
• And to put it all over the top, Madonna is reportedly considering an offer from "an unnamed Dubai-based tycoon" for a one-night private performance. Price: $10 million.

Fortunately, you can still hire Pat DiNizio of The Smithereens to play in your living room for $2,000.

The WSJ reports that there's an internal battle at Live Nation right now over whether to press ahead with more of these monster deals, or slow down. If they did 15 more at $100 million per (a lowball estimate), that's $1.5 billion. If the company lays out that much scratch, you better believe they plan to see their profits. Ultimately it could mean that the 99.9% of less-than-mega artists that get shut out of deals like this have even worse financial career prospects than they have now, if such a thing is possible.

Homogenization forever! The entire music industry is now riding on: Madonna and Jay-Z, along with the Jonas Brothers, U2, the Rolling Stones, and maybe Shakira—Live Nation's roster. Not everyone is a fan of the company's strategy, though. Their stock is down 44% since they started signing these deals. Also, "profit margins in concert promotion are perilously thin, and a bad tour could undercut the overall value of a package deal."

So if you don't want the Jonas Brothers to be considered cutting edge music by the next generation, please boycott the next Madonna tour. This has been a public service message.

[WSJ]

Burr said his departure from the Express-News was over editorial differences.

"For 18 years my syndicated music column has run in several newspapers and I have always claimed the rights to ownership of the column, all editorial decisions and the subsequent column revenues from those newspapers. The Express-News has never disputed those rights.

"I may have been a little overzealous, or overreached in trying to be the best reporter columnist I could be. For the past 20 years I have worked with university interns and always supported the philosophy of bringing others up behind me. I have no regrets for helping others, especially Latinos, with training and guidance to become journalists.

Journalists don't have ghost writers.

[MySA, Ramiro Burr via Romenesko]

Conscious rappers touch on this now and then, but are much more interested in telling us that black criminals are victims of the system. A recent example: "Black Thought" on The Roots' new album tells us, "It is what it is, because of what it was, I did what I did, 'cause it does what it does."

OUTRAGEOUS.

So: indeed, it's "not all like that." But if the folks known as the hiphop generation are learning their politics from "conscious" rap, there is little hope for our future.

Oh, John McWhorter, that's where you're wrong. The hip hop generation has a message for you: "I know I can/ Be what I wanna be/ If I work hard at it/ I'll be where I wanna be." Dig it, old man!

[NYS]

This is not a tribute show. This is not a Garland lookalike. This is Judy herself returning to the stage for the first time in 40 years—singing the great American songbook with America's greatest orchestra, The Boston Pops. Cutting-edge technology unavailable just a few years ago has enabled NY-based production company Running Subway to present Judy's larger-than-life passion and personal story to 21st century audiences in what can only be described as the greatest Judy Garland concert ever.

"He wonders, in the songs on The Slip, whether he is irrelevant. The music revives Nine Inch Nails’ past, from stomping hard rock to dance-club beats to piano ballad to inexorably building instrumentals. Yet amid walloping drums and distorted guitars — the sounds of angry youth — Mr. Reznor ponders his place in the present. 'Start it up again like it matters anymore/I don’t know if it does,' he sings in '1,000,000.' Nine Inch Nails, Mr. Reznor said, is 'an aggressive, honest, naked, angry, ugly thing. I don’t hear anybody doing anything like that right now that I’m aware of. Maybe there are, but it doesn’t seem like it’s the flavor of today.' [...]

“The Slip was knocked out in three weeks of studio time after a month of songwriting. During the sessions he sent one song, 'Discipline,' to rock radio stations, which have given it Top 10 airplay. The new music, Mr. Reznor acknowledged, relies more often on reflexes than does an album like The Fragile (1999), on which every sound is painstakingly shaped; he said he expects his next project to take more 'editorial time.' With The Slip, however, he finished recording the songs on a Wednesday and completed mixing, mastering and graphics to release the album five days later. 'That was fun,' Mr. Reznor said. 'You never could have done that before.' [...]

“'These days I work too much, I think, because it makes me feel good,' Mr. Reznor said. 'I don’t know how to do that in a relationship. I don’t have a family. I’d like to have one. I just haven’t somehow gotten around to it yet. But I know that if I work, it’s likely I’ll come up with something I’m proud of and that gives me a sense of worth. Not for money or fame — it’s, I feel good about it. So like any good addict, if I find something that feels good, if that feels good, maybe doing twice as much feels twice as, you know...'" [NYT] [Photo: Kevin Scalon]

Chicago Sun-Times music critic Jim DeRogatis, who first received the infamous R. Kelly kinky child sex tape in the mail, was ordered to testify at the trial. But he refused to show! He's claiming some sort of journalistic privilege to protect his sources, which may or may not actually exist in the eyes of the law. Now the judge is deciding whether to issue a warrant for the reporter's arrest. He could be the Judy Miller of the sex tape circuit!

The whole reason DeRogatis was called in the first place is that the defense team is "interested in what DeRogatis may have done with the tape between the time he received it in early 2002 and when he gave it to police."

As long as he didn't spend that time digitally inserting images of R. Kelly having sex with a minor into it, I don't see how it really matters.

[Tribune]

Before television viewers could get a closer look at what was real and what was not, the camera moved to a wide angle and stayed that way until Mr. Rogen and Mr. Franco left the stage, The Associated Press reported. It was an awkward moment that made some in the audience laugh. Backstage, Mr. Franco told The Associated Press that MTV had put them up to the joke — supplying the script as well as the fake pot and joint — and then had a last-second change of heart.

So it seems that there are three possibilities:

1. Franco is telling the truth here; MTV put them up to it, then had a change of heart, but Rogen did it anyhow.

2. MTV told Rogen and Franco to say that the network had a change of heart, as a way to make the stunt seem more edgy, but not too edgy.

3. It was truly an off-the-cuff display of weed smoking, and Franco was kidding when he told the AP it was the network's idea.

Watch the video here again and again, and decide for yourself. At least we know that they weren't smoking salvia

[NYT].

It's by Kirk Van Houten, on The Simpsons. Listen to it here.

Can I borrow a feelin'? Could you send me a jar of love? Hurtin' hearts need some healin', Take my hand with your glove of love!

The casualwear brand, called LL Cool J for Sears, will include girls and boys, juniors and young men's wear, according to (WWD).

Much catchier than "FUBU." LL's main challenge? Living up to the standards set by Latin TV star Lucy Pereda:

Sears previously launched 97 multicultural concept stores in its stores, and has offered African-American-themed items in its catalogs. It also has sold labels by Latin TV star Lucy Pereda, as well as well-known designers Liz Claiborne and BCBG's Max Azria.

Meanwhile, analysts expect another dismal quarter at Sears when the Hoffman Estates-based retailer reports earnings on Thursday.

[Chicago Sun-Times via Multicult Classics]

Carroll, who is spending about $2.5 million on the launch, says he is targeting a largely untapped demographic—one with "$500-$600 billion in spending power," he says. "From Disney to Wall Street to the Bronx, this [magazine] is going to be about the business of hip-hop."

"It's going to be [like] the Billboard of Hip-Hop," Carroll continues. "It's a void that needed to be filled."

Two things: Billboard isn't doing so hot itself right now. And it has all the music industry to sell to. And isn't this idea about, oh, ten years too late? If this magazine had launched in 1998, it would have been poised to ride the cultural and economic wave that swept hip hop music into a prime position in American pop culture. Now, it's just prepared to swallow $2.5 million of the publisher's money.

Also: I love creative methods of calculation that can produce results like the one that says Hip Hop Business Journal is sneaking into an untapped $500 billion market. Truly imaginative accounting.

I wish this magazine luck. But Queen Latifah on the premiere cover? If they make it through the year, it will be a testament only to the power of C.R.E.A.M.

[Folio]

Everyone in the audience got all happy and shouty when she said that. Yeah, I was there. I love Alanis Morrissette. Is that a problem? [Rolling Stone]

The whole thing is a joke. The Sub Pop cofounder also said in his "confirmation" comment that several other dead people would be playing alongside Love and Nirvana, but the dead people were sufficiently obscure that no one got the joke. Only after a follow up statement from Sub Pop asserted that Jimi Hendrix would join Nirvana on stage did everyone get that he was mocking the original rumor.

Lesson: Comments are evil and all comments sections should be closed forever, as the Times is learning. It's either that or read comments carefully, take them with a grain of salt and keep some perspective about them, especially when Courtney Love is involved.