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May 30, 2006

Are you kidding me?

I love the internet it lets you express yourself to the world and allows alot of you internet thugs to get at me when you know your just mad because we differ in opinion! First I would like to tell Wendy "wake up this is the music business not the playground or park jams". We have to grow as a business and as a culture and even though you may not like "The Black Eyed Peas' the fact of the matter is Will i am is making hot joints for artists we all know and love like "Busta" and "Nas". The fact that the music his band makes isn't your cup of tea is your problem.

Hip hop is a rainbow of colors and styles. The artist that fall into the "I don't want to make commercial viable music because I don't want to sell out" need to be put to pasture. We all want to be rich from our efforts in this business. The king of backpacks right now Kanye West wanted to be rich and be able to create without the worry of the electric bill. He isn't giving the money back people because we are here to make money. Some of us will make more than others and still be creative but of course you will hate when success comes because misery loves company. Billy are you listening? I also want to acknowledge the person who said I don't like putting my friend Lyor on the top of this blog. I guess we were suppose to squirm because he isn't african american. This is America people!!!!

We are here to make money and to try and do it as respectfully as possible. I want to say "Thank you" to the kind words and supporters. This is the music business not the music charity and there are no hand outs. The Rolling Stones of hip hop will be someone or some group that has a long career full of hits hopefully it will be "The Roots" but right now it has to be "LL COOL J". I am sure I will spark more of a debate now that I have went on the offensive but I want to give you the mantra of my company that I live by. Crawl,Walk,Run.Persistence overcomes resistance. I hope the debate will continue as I love this hip hop music!!!!!

Posted by chrislighty at 10:39 PM | Comments (22)

May 19, 2006

The Roots of hip hop

Last night as I was running around the city to check on Q tip making a record with will i am. I stopped by a radio city theatre performance were we saw Nas do an interesting set with the hip hop band called The Roots. I was rolling with Dnice and met Mark Pitts up there to see Nas do a quick 20 minute set. It was astonishing to see this particular venue filled with hip hop heads but as Nas went off and I went on my Qtip mission I realized that as a true grown man I had just seen an amazing feat. A hip hop band just filled a venue reserved for xmas shows, kid specials, and anything far removed from hip hop. The roots of hip hop started in jam sessions in the street where kids from the neighborhood would come out in peace to hear Flash,Theodore, Bambataa do a free jam session to express themselves. I didn't stay for the Roots full performance but I left feeling like that was the jam of the week.
Fast foward to my office today where I meet with Qtip and we discussed his rollout and release for this year and we talked about how hard it will be not to rely on the pedigree that Qtip and Tribe have built from their past as this is a sport where your roots count only when your finished or you have a great band(The roots) playing beside you. This is a hit driven sport and even if your roots are stellar they are only to be shown in your live stage performance. You always have to have the new and next hit to play in this gladiator arena. As someone that has been active in hip hop since 86 in some form or fashion I am well aware that it is just as important about identifying the next star as it being associated with the current stars. Rap is still too young to really have an old school as it claims. What is old school? Sugarhill,Kane,DasEfx,Public Enemy,Foxy Brown? All of these artists have records that came out 10 plus years ago. Some older than others but is that really old? Is a twenty something year old person really old? Our roots are still growing lets check back in another 20 years when our roots will be a little stronger and maybe hip hop will be out of this strange growing spurt it is in right now. Love it or hate it this is hip hop.

Posted by chrislighty at 09:51 PM | Comments (19)

May 13, 2006

People are still taking rap for a joke.....

Well I am back from the left coast and I had several interesting meetings and realize that as big as our music is and as influential as our culture is on the world I always look around the room and see few power brokers of color. The presidents of record companies are primarily white and are trying to figure out how to decipher the code. We are pigeon-holed by the power structure that tries to act like they have any clue what is going on in our neighborhoods. It is amazing when I am told by someone who doesn't interact with artists or consumers that a record sounds -----------. How do you know what the sound is? I sit stumped at how we decide what the public should hear when most of us hide up in the crystal tower behind the curtain but alas that is the music industry. I can only try to keep the edge by associating myself with great talent like Missy,Busta,50,LIL JON,etc. I cannot stress how hard it is to crack the corporate steel curtain to either move up in rank with power or have an artist that speaks directly to the consumer just get green light for the deal but because he or she raps its always we need to clear this with the board. I have been able to break thru several times to the benefit of both the brand and artist but it is like Janet say's "what have you done for me lately?" I am going to keep pushing our brand and culture until I can't anymore so please continue to expect the unbelievable associations. Who would ever think we would sell water? Vitamin water and 50 is one of my happiest moments as Vitamin water was smart enough to want to speak to our community and look past the surface of the records and on 50's part just being able to be healthy and not afraid to say" hey its cool to to be healthy" and maintain the flow of his career. The brands on both sides of the fence need to wake up so we can speak a common language and try to do the best job speaking to our community and not down to it.
I said I would make an announcement on the last blog so hear it is. I am going to browse comments from time to time and try to engage conversations from your ideas. Let's not turn this into a free for all and an internet thug page. It will be at my discretion whose idea for a conversation we take and how long we let it last. So let's be respectful. Let's have fun and in the word's of Donald Trump "If your going to think THINK BIG"
Holler Back.

Posted by chrislighty at 06:51 PM | Comments (23)

May 06, 2006

Thinking of a master plan.

As I approach my birthday I was thinking of my master plan and it is moving along rather nicely. I have been very busy so I haven't been able to keep my blog hot but have no fear my next blog will have a new and interesting announcement to keep us all together in conversation on music,life and whatever else we decide to conversate about. But back to my master plan.Remember those records that didn't have the "call out hook" but were hot as hell anyway.For those joining that have no idea what a call out hook is it is what we in the music industry have become slaves to! It is the part of the record that you instantly remember and hooks you in. It may be the whole hook of a record or just the most catchy part of it. But lets move on. Remember when hip hop had hot hit records that didn't have a catchy sing songy hook. It had that one linerand hot beat that drew you in. What happenned? We became slaves to the system that once resisted us! As we progress we move backwards. Remember "Paid in Full"..."thinking of a master plan...I need money I used to be a stick up kid"..."fish which is my favorite dish"..."hit the studio I'm paid in full"...."what happenned to peace..peace". Obviously I jumped around the verses pulling out my favorite lines the fact is I loved that record it was hot and had no chorus! What is going on in hip hop? I will say I am just as much the problem when my clients and friends play me their records and I say "where is the chorus?". I need to ask myself is the joint hot? This is important because damn I am sick of singing along every day. Sometimes I just need a hot idea and hot beat that transports me to the scene of the record so i can digress without worrying if the program director is going to understand that this joint is hot! How hot was "Children story" by Slick Rick."Uncle Ricky please read us a bedtime story"...."Knock em out the box rick". Tell me that joint isn't in rotation on your ipod.I have made it mandatory listening to in my house to these classics. My 16 year old to my 6year old have that song on their ipods along with some other undeniables. How about this one and if you think it had a chorus callout that would work with these program directors today it would be an uphill battle but it is obviously a smash. Drumroll please."Eric B for President"..."Go get a girl and get soft and warm don't get excited you been invited to a quiet storm but now its out of hand because you told me you hate me and then you asked what have I done lately first you said all you want is love and protection let me be your angel and I'll be your protection take you out and buy you all kinds of things caught an attitude you need food to eat up I'm scheming like I am dreaming on a couch with my feet up you scream I am lazy you must be crazy thought I was a doughnut you tried to glaze me....Hot Record!!Hip Hop what happenned? We had big chorus records from day one but we also had big joints that just made you feel good! It takes two by Rob Base...if your under 30 you need to go and do your homework on these records but hip hop has to start bringing these type of cuts back as their album cuts if we are going to sell albums in this digital world!! I can go on for days but I am going to give you my top 5 classic joints that have a chorus that doesnt make sense for radio research today but the song still feels good. Some don't even have a chorus.In no particuliar order of greatness:
1.Rock the bells LL cool j
2.Children Story Slick Rick
3.Paid in Full Eric b and Rakim
4.So wat cha saying EPMD
5.The choice is yours BlackSheep(yeah it kind of has a chorus but how silly is this or that?Engine engine number nine....pick it up pick it up pick it up!So hot!)

Ofcourse I am not saying it isn't happenning today but damn we are chasing the biggest choruses possible 99 percent of the time instead of just focusing on making hot music. I have to big up Busta with "Touch it". What the hell is the chorus saying? it's hot though! We need more of these and less album fillers! As I move closer to my birthday I am still happy to have hip hop and to have been able to prosper from it so I can't be mad that we go for the kill almost every time we drop a joint but let's try a littleharder!! I will do my part!!
5/8/06

Posted by chrislighty at 07:16 PM | Comments (18)