With already money unaccounted for their sale of their 1st Ep “In the Q”, due to taking things for granted and over-relaying on Beats Society’s management, they made a similar mistake with their 2nd record label/management, for their album, “ClassiQ” when Syariff told me that the consignment for their 1st initial 100 copies went “missing” after leaving this label. The only batch of CDs which they can be accounted for is from Muzika. I thoroughly did not enjoy my working relationship with the reps and the supposed made-believe “Management” of Labels of Love, due to their unreasonable requests as well as being arrogant. But I validate my worth and outdid them as a whole with the Street launch for “ClassiQ” for SleeQ which they couldn’t even pull off by themselves but instead relayed on me to handle.

Sadly, SleeQ are rather ignorant and responsible for their own undoing & downfall. I am very amazed by them in repeating the same mistake for a third time by letting a 19yr old polytechnic law student, who is a friend, to handle their matters once again. Just because a law student from a polytechnic, is your friend, doesn’t mean that he is a qualified paralegal or a lawyer to handle matters professionally because at the end of the day, he is still a student who is relaying on allowance from his parents. It is like asking your friends who is a medic intern to conduct an open-heart surgery on you because he is your friend. To claim that he is some A&R executive in their label when realistic there is no market for it in Singapore. These sort of empty-talking is rather silly.

Lastly, judging from this friend of theirs’ cocky reply for a simple sponsorship deal which I clinched to build SleeQ’s brand and support, I have seen how shallow and conceited some hypocrites are despite being just mere teenagers. These deals doesn’t come by often and to blow off the deal like this is such a waste. I try to ask them to reconsider this during their Esplanade show and eventually things got blown out of proportion with their actions. Instead of SleeQ reconsidering it, they and their friends try to intimidate & threaten me and calling me derogatory terms such as “Chink was such a disgraceful behavior although this would happen in a dogpack mentality and scenario. Typical teenage bravado I suppose. If they were alone, most likely they just give this “tough” look and walk by. It is kinda ironic SleeQ, who were supposed role models for the Malay youths in society, would advocate such disgraceful behavior amongst themselves and their friends, who are in poor taste of character.

All I got to say is somethings will never change with the way SleeQ does certain things, despite being talented. Despite whatever conflict we have, I am always open to working with SleeQ with the deals placed on the table as well as resolving this unfortunate racist taunting incident but I would not deal with this supposed student rep of theirs.

That is the main reason why I separate friendship and work. I would like to talk about the business aspects of matter irregardless whether we are good friends or not. Because once we settle the business and how the rewards of our work should be divided, then we resume our frienship. I sincerely believe if we can maintain an honest business working relationship, it would eventually improve the personal relationship of individuals.

Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves and supporting from B-boys dancers, Turntablists as well as Rappers on stage but behind it there were so many racist undertones by the organisers and how they treat staff of a different race or in plain simple English racial biasness.

I even had one organizer bossing me around like I owe it to:”You are a chink and you do not have a reason to be in Hip-Hop. Stick to your Andy Laus & Aaron Kwoks.”. To be honest really, the problem was that I can’t sing to save my life if not I would be singing in front of live concerts and driving a Ferrari like Aaron Kwok in Hong Kong.

Anyway, I wasn’t allow to participate and partake in a culture, which I feel is exciting, by egoistic racist organizations except to be their volunteer as well as their “blame buddy” to ridicule and mock. These racist bigots or as they call themselves “SGHIPHOP PIONEERS” love claim to be authoritive figures and voices that supposedly created the scene with their self-righteous “know-it-all” bigotry but where are they now? If they were that passionate and influential in the culture as they claim to be on their own viral video, you would be doing proper Hip-Hops shows still. But instead after R&P 2009, there was no major shows at all. Instead these organizations cease to exist because the manner which they conducted themselves in limiting talented people of other races to perform as well as being very dishonest paymasters. Some of these organization close down while others change their name to try and hide this blackmark which they created upon themselves. While some continues to brag about what they did in year 1978 or so and forgot that we are living in 2009.

I agree that they are “SGHIPHOP Pioneers” but for being a bunch of racist bigots who pioneered racist practise and racial biasness into local Hip-hop music.

Eventually, this left a bitter feeling in performers as well as general audiences, who noticed these sort of bias practise, and decided not to support the local Hip-Hop scene at all. Thus creates a lack of introduction of new audience as well as not maintaing the core audience.

This racist rejection only made me more determine to maintain a simple civil approach in engaging talent of any race, language or religion as long they can fulfill simple rules likes being on time, performing and behaving professionally. That is my goal. We might have a strong disagreement on opinions and views but if we can work together I am all out for it. Because my goal is to achieve a positive result and promote talent.

I have dropped a chinese rapper who was a “no-show” as well as coming late for a few bookings which I had. As I need to uphold some professional standings of my principles, I had to make that decision base on this. This chinese rapper pleaded to me that we are of the same race that we should “look out” for each other but truth to the matter if corporations were to base on the bias race factor between employee & employer, I doubt many would not last this long until today. Organizations which presents equal opportunities to every race and religion is usually the one that lasts longer

Just yesterday I just attended the R&P 2009 with hopes to see changes in the people and culture in the local hip-hop music scene. I applaud the efforts of FreakZ & 65hope in doing an event and trying to make the scene more unified regardless of this racist stagnant but unfortunately the mentality of the attendees and some participants have never move beyond the racist mindset they have from R&P 1999. R&P is nothing more but a racist convention meant to mock other people’s race and stroke ones’ ego to fill good about their race being involve in Hip-Hop music & culture.

Support DJ Hideo a DOPE ass Fuk DJ, who is fighting stage 4 colon and liver cancer

Kind donation is appreciated from everyone from anywhere & everywhere of blogsphere.
Pls log on to:
www.djhideo.com

to the right you will see a PayPal donate button — donate anything you can – even a dollar goes a long way.

If you are in LA, pls go to his concert which is held for him.

Skratch

Is it about skills or P.R skills that Skratch DJs are being judge these days? Or is it how many friends you have on the judging panel?

Judging from the bored patrons and boo-ing from the recent skratch session in Singapore as well as the self-proclaim Platform for DJ Battle & Turntablism, officialy the interest in not there and it is no longer the platform with viral marketing being so easily available & hustle more important.

It is official, DJ BATTLES are DEAD for this year.

DJ OF THE YEAR:

Is there any I should take note of? Doubt it.

Yawn

This is the exclusive freestyle in Singapore, requested by Beyoncé Knowles, which is included by Kanye West in his new album “808s & Heartbreak”.

A very suprise inclusive but nontheless captured by SKRATCHTV & DJ Quiz/VJ-Skratch.

I decided to upload this the same day I purchase 808 & Heartbreak. I hope Kanye links this to his blog. hahah and pardon all the crazy Kanye West fans screaming their asses out.

THIS IS THE ONLY AVAILABLE HIGH QUALITY VIDEO OF THIS CLASSIC PERFORMANCE by KANYE WEST.

Recorded in High Definition Quality on a Spazz Cam by VJ-Skratch aka SkratchTV (Singapore).

NEW BEYONCE out in STORES NOW

Steve Aoki Radio 1 Essential Mix

Being trying hard 2 download this mp3 from Essential. But at last, I paid beatport to download this. Pls enjoy.

Tracklist :

Larry Tee ‘Carmina Burana’ Vs. I Love U (Bart B More Remix)’ (White Label)
Les Petit Pilous ‘Wake Up’ (Boys Noize Records)
MSTRKRFT ‘Bounce (Bloody Beetroots 90’s Remix)’ (Dim Mak Records)
MSTRKRFT ‘Bounce (A-Trak Remix)’ (Dim Mak Records)
Herve ‘Cheap Thrills (Armand Van Helden Remix)’ (Cheap Thrills Records)
Fake Blood ‘Mars’ (Cheap Thrills Records)
Weird Science ‘Haus of Cards’ (Dim Mak Records)
Machines Don’t Care ‘Afro Jacker’ (Cheap Thrills Records/Dim Mak Records)
Busy P ‘To Protect and Entertain (Crookers Dub ‘N’ Vocalz Remix)’ (Ed Banger Records)
Basement Jaxx ‘Hey U (Switch and Sinden Remix)’ (XL Records)
Proxy ‘Raven’ (Turbo Records)
Junkie Xl & Steve Aoki ‘1967 Poem (Club Mix)’ (Nettwerk)
Steve Aoki ‘Dead Meat’ (Dim Mak Records)
The Fashion ‘Solo Impala’ (Weird Science Remix)’ (Epic Records)
Duran Duran ‘Skin Dive featuring Timbaland (Steve Aoki Keyboard Club Dub Remix)’ (Epic Records)
Metro Station ‘Control (Weird Science Remix)’ (Columbia Records)
Shitdisco ‘Ok (Yuksek Remix)’ (Fierce Panda/Dim Mak Records)
The Bloody Beetroots ‘Dimmakmmunication’ (Dim Mak Records)
MSTRKRFT ‘VU VU VU’ (Dim Mak Records)
Lazaro Casanova ‘Venganza Felix Cartal Remix)’ (Classanova Records)
Don Rimini ‘Let Me Back Up (Crookers Remix)’ (Mental Groove Records)
Bugo ‘La Mano Mia (Cecile and The Bloody Beetroots Remix)’ (Universal Records)
Eric Prydz ‘Pjanoo’ (Data)
The Presets ‘My People (D.I.M. Remix)’ (Modular Records)
Felix Cartal ‘Montreal Dreams (Aoki Edit)’ (Felix Cartal)
S.P.A. ‘Pets Dance (Aoki Edit)’ (Dim Mak Records)
Debonaire Samir ‘Samir’s Theme (Instrumental)’ (Milk Crate Records)
Daft Punk ‘One More Time (Aoki Edit)’ (Virgin Records)
Daft Punk ‘One More Time (House Moguls JFK Edit)’ (White Label)
Jean Elan – Where’s Your Head At (Klaas Remix)’ (Big and Dirty Records)
The Who ‘Baba O’Reily (SebastiAn Remix)’ (White Label)
MGMT ‘Kids (Aoki Intro Edit)’ (Columbia Records)

Coming Soon Aug 31

Sales don’t lie but truly what makes this album such as stand out? It boils down to a few things. Catchy rhymes, which is a split between sure-fire lyrical and plain nonsensically nursery, and some clever choice of beats which excites the club while at the same time stays in the head of consumers once they listened to it. What is funny is that Lil Wayne’s rhyme, not too deep into metaphors and wordplay and not content driven which comes out of anywhere instantly, makes sense to an average listener..

Examples such as “A Millie”, which have a repetitive hook from Rick Ross, as well as “Lollipop”, with its sing-song style from the recently departed Static Major (Timbaland’s song writer and production crew mate), are catchy songs which now have tons and tons of rappers from Jay-Z, Kanye, Fabolous, The Game and T-Pain freestyling to it as make it their own. The above mentioned singles are currently the most downloaded ring tones and singles as Billboard recently released it Top Ten Ring tones Sales chart.

But this album after a thorough listen is at best average despite the radio singles. Lots songs which are meant for this album were sadly leaked out by the mixtape DJs a month or two prior to its release or simply bootlegged. One of this mixtapes which Lil Wayne is heated and
disputing as we speak is the “The Drought” which carries 80% of the songs which was meant for “The Carter 3″.

While at the same time, some of the beats seemed to be Hot Boys recycled from the 90s for the present. It is interesting to watch Lil Wayne grown from a bit member of Hot Boys to be one of the current taste-makers in Hip-Hop music and Urban entertainment. Concept wise for a Down-South Rapper, Lil Wayne actually exceed some of my expectation when he did “Mr Carter” and “Dr Carter” but went rather corny, even lame, when he tries to do heart-felt love tracks like “Comfortable”, which features Babyface. The icing off the cake for this album is when Fabolous & Juelz Santana came on battle-hungry with “You Ain’t Got Nuthin’” which to me smashes every other track with the exception of “Lollipop” & “A Milli”. Overall an average CD with some stand-out tracks

One thing can be said about Usher Raymond, he is still a leading R&B heartthrob and consistent singer delivering his 6th studio album, “Here I stand”.

However, fans and listeners would be stun as Usher, who is typically known to serenade the ladies as well as describing his personal sexual conquests, have change in the subject for the tone of this album especially.

After going from one lady after another in the tabloids since his break-up with Chilli from TLC, Usher married Tameka Foster, who together with the birth of his son, have left an significant impression in his life’s perception as man. With the sudden passing of his father in early 2008, Usher have since shifted his direction in portraying a rather positive image of himself as a husband and father.

Gone are the sexual adventures and seduction, Here I stand is a celebration of commitment, growth as a man and education against temptation.
Usher is telling the men to appreciate the joys and happiness of the woman they chose as their spouse and about being faithful. Songs such as Appetite tell how he prefers the joys of a home cooked meal alongside his family as compared to a liaison with a lady in a club while the Best thing featuring the recently hitched Jay-Z, have him proudly declaring to his wife or perhaps his son they are the best thing that have happened to him..

But as always, an Usher album would not be completed without a club banger for the ladies and gents to grind to or nod their head in the club. “Love is in the club” featuring Young Jeezy, produced by Polow da Don, was released in February have being heating up the club and radio airwaves. Despite being a rather controversial song, as an observer in youtube showed how the song was lazily constructed by Polow through preset sound modules in Garage band, this didn’t hinder the ringtone downloads as well as gold status the song have achieved from iTunes.

The 2nd video single “Moving Mountains” is about Usher trying to do the impossible to fix past relationships or issues as portrayed in the video and the lyrics of the song. This can coupled up as a subliminal message to his mother whom he had a huge falling out due to his relationship with Tameka with the irony of also him installing Tameka as his personal manager instead of his mother.

This album as a whole is good as it follows up 2004′s “Confessions” in its theme but this album didn’t quite reached the complete R&B album in terms of subject matter, club bangers and all-around listenable status which is set by Justin Timberlake’s “Future Sex Love Song”. Although listenable, corny songs such as This isn’t Sex and Trading Places are filler tracks just to satisfy the album’s quota.

With a slew of platinum recording artiste such as will.i.am, Beyonce, Jay-Z and Lil Wayne appearing to support his latest effort, this album is a solid & consistent effort by Usher in spite of a diluted R&B market where songs generally targeted for radio & club airplay. A worthy buy as well as a worthy legal download.

Real Talk

1

With high anticipation for The Game’s third album vs G-unit’s Terminate on Sight, which is both rumoured to drop on the same day to spark an all-out sales war, The Game aka Chuck Taylor has been hard at work by releasing an all-star remix for Pain featuring a cast of interesting artiste such as Queen Latifah, Bun B and former G-unit member Young Buck. Thus following a trend which he and Nas started, on “The Doctor’s Advocate” and “Hip-Hop is Dead”, by inviting an assorted of artiste to be featured on the 1st lead up single’s remix.

Nonetheless, it is the Piff.

www.skratch.tv

1

One of American’s great stand-up comedian, George Carlin who is known for his political and black comedy, has went home to GOD on June 22, 2008. His wicked sense of humour would be greatly missed by all.

SINGfest 2008 is now BIGGER and BETTER than before!

Singapore’s biggest music festival will see highly acclaimed British folk rock band, Travis and eleven times Grammy award winner Alicia Keys headlining the show, over Saturday and Sunday respectively. The huge music extravaganza is expected to feature 20 acts over a two day affair.

Music fans will be delighted to know that the 2008 lineup includes alternative rockers Lostprophets, New Found Glory, One Republic, dance rock group Panic At The Disco and punk band Simple Plan to name a few. The latest act to be added is the top girl group, Pussy Cat Dolls.

They will be performing their top selling hits at this music party that will run over 10 hours each day, filling the festival with sheer entertainment throughout, and representing incredible value for money!

If there’s one music event of the year that you cannot afford to miss, it’s this one! So get your tickets now at all sistic outlets.

Another world class event brought to you by Midas Promotions.

Go to www.singfest.sg for more information & updates!

About SINGfest 2008:

SINGfest, a highly anticipated outdoor music festival which started in 2007 where audience saw a brilliant line up last year consisting of Sugar Ray, Cyndi Lauper and the Pet Shop Boys, is back!

Tickets bought before the August 2nd will cost $150 for the first day pass, $200 for the second day pass, and $300 for the weekender pass. Tickets at door will cost $200 for the first day pass, $250 for the second day, and $350 for weekender pass on the first day.

Buy your tickets at any SISTIC outlet or online at www.sistic.com now!

SINGfest is brought to you by Midas Promotions.

Tix Sales:

SINGfest 08 tickets bought before the Aug 2 will cost $150 for the 1st day pass, $200 for the 2nd day pass, and $300 for the weekender pass.
Tickets at door will cost $200 for the 1st day pass, $250 for the 2nd day, and $350 for weekender pass purchased on the first day.
Get your tickets from SISTIC now! Prices stated don’t include SISTIC charges.

Pictures courtesy of SINGfest 08.

DIPLO KILLED a soccer field filled with Dancers.

Video interview, video segment for his set coming up on after the revamped.

From crowd diving, head-banging to being an all around entertainer, he KILLED it. Exclusive videos and interview coming soon for his set coming up on after the revamped.

Former Death Row rap mogul, Suge Knight, got K.O outside of a night club despite having a reputation as a notorious Blood Don gang member. Here are some pictures, being paid for by tmz which is worth $US20,000, for the OWNED picture of the year. Not only that, there are additional pictures of him receiving the SMACKDOWN after being K.O.

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Our prayers and thoughts are upon the Chinese as we speak.

Life is far more important than anything else.

Without life, there would be no movements of any sorts be it Hip-Hop or Culture.

1

After months of political unrest, Myanmar have experienced the wrath of a devastating cyclone which have since inflicted the tragic loss of life (60,000 and counting) at the same time crippling the country’s economics and food supply.

A life lost is a terrible thing in our eyes regardless how imperfect we are as human beings in reality. Put aside your daily activities and remember those that have dead in this terrible incident. Light a candle and say a prayers for them. GOD Bless us all.

1

Real Talk

Prefix:

Aid Myanmar

On 2 May 2008, Cyclone Nargis battered southern Myanmar, causing massive destruction. To date, 22,000 people have perished, over 41,000 are missing and as many as 1 million people have been left homeless. The Irrawaddy region took the brunt of the storm, with some villages almost totally eradicated and vast rice-growing areas wiped out. The storm uprooted trees, toppled electricity and telephone poles, and burst water pipes, leaving the several million without basic utilities. International aid is starting to trickle in, led by the U.N.’s World Food Program.

While the government is trying to show that it can handle the crisis on its own, ahead of a referendum on the constitution, the international community is clamouring for more access to the military-ruled country, in order to help the victims and carry out relief operations.

The following are some of the organizations and aid agencies involved in the Myanmar relief effort. If you would like to help, please view their websites to find out how you can participate.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Donate via Credit Card

Go to donate.ifrc.org
Indicate you would like your contributions to go to “Myanmar Cyclone Nargis”

www.ifrc.org

World Vision

Donate by Cheque
Make your cheque payable to “World Vision International” and mail to

10 Anson Road
#13-08 International Plaza
Singapore 079903

Donate by Cash
Please visit World Vision Singapore office at

10 Anson Road
#13-08 International Plaza
Singapore 079903

Donate via Internet Banking
DBS Internet Banking
Standard Chartered Internet Banking
Please select World Vision under list of payee

For more information, click here

Donate by ATM Fund Transfer
Donate by doing a ATM fund transfer to
DBS Autosave Account Number: 001-030600-6
Standard Chartered Bank Fusion Account Number: 130-830-6900

For more information, click here

www.worldvision.org.sg

Skratch is organising some of the sports activities & clinics for Safra Ladies day on 31 May, 2008, in support of Advantage Life.

Come join us in the free clinics in tennis & soccer.

1

Grand Master Roc Raida
in association with Stanton presents

The 2008 GONG DJ Battle NYC Heat

The most twisted national DJ battle ever concocted is now in it’s third year!
In 2006, weary of the corporate competitions the DJ battle scene had to offer, 1995 DMC World Champ, Roc Raida didn’t complain like some namby-pamby.
He’s a man! He made up his own battle!

Roc Raida’s Gong DJ Battle is so maniacal, so exacting, that only the most bravehearted of DJs will enter. It’s raw head to head battle action combined with pure hilarity.

Not only does Raida invite the most battle scarred DJ alumni to man the gong as judges, competitors are subjected to the ranting and inside jokes of Lord Sear; instigation from Lord Finesse; rumpus making by hype man DJ Fat Fingaz plus DJ Boogie Blind chiming in with timely samples to further add to the ruckus.

You never know who will show up and what will go down at a Gong DJ Battle! Don’t miss it!

Grand Master Roc Raida’s Gong DJ Battle will kick off the 2008 DJ Battle season at 9:30 pm on May 14th at the Knitting Factory 74 Leonard St. New York City with hosts: Lord Finesse and Lord Sear. Judges include DJ Steve Dee and DJ Esquire. Music by DJ Boogie Blind. Special guest performance by Joell Ortiz. The winner/s from this battle will advance to The 2008 Gong DJ Finals on October 22, 2008 at The Knitting Factory NYC.

2008 Gong DJ Battle West Coast Heat to be announced.

From Roc Raida to YOU!:

“Once again the realest DJ battle ever is back: The 2008 Gong DJ Battle NYC heat! NOW’s the time to show everybody what you been working on: what new juggles you have, what new scratches you can do. Don’t worry about the gong. It doesn’t hit itself, just don’t be wack and you’ll be fine. Just get up there and give it all you got. This year on the judging panel we have Steve Dee, DJ Esquire and a few others. All you have to do to enter is show up the day off the battle at 9:30 to sign up. Have your records, needles and slipmats ready and bring your A game to the tables. That’s it! I hope to see you all there. Not just in the crowd but in the actual battle.”

Peace
Grand Master Roc Raida

Welcome home Foxy. Ain’t No N!@@a 2008

Ed’s note: ROFL on Lil Wayne’s baby pic

Ever since Daft Punk rocked the stage with that furturistic set-up for the Grammy’s with Kanye, alot of people were wondering what is that Star Trekkish system which they have used.

Well look no further, these guys were actually using Jazz Mutant Lemur and as stated in the Jazz Mutant website:

” Lemur is a top of the range control surface for audio and media applications, that breaks from the prior art on several grounds. Its major innovation consists in its brilliant modular graphic interface concept and its exclusive multitouch sensor technology. The continiously growing palette of configurable graphic objects enables you to design made-to-measure interfaces by using the free available JazzEditor. This endows the Lemur with the unique and protocol independant capacity to adapt its behavior according to the application you are controlling: sequencers, modular synthesizers, virtual instruments, VJ software, 3D animation tools and light control. “

In layman terms, a really out-of-this world MPC2000 which is used 2 control and manipulate sound and visual & virtual aesthetics for eye candy.

All I got to say is COOL.

Check out the pics featured below:

More “WOW” pics:

Media:

New drummer Matt Flynn impressed with his impassioned and focused playing, and together with bassist Mickey Madden held down a tight groove. It is just too bad that the Indoor Stadium could not provide the sound quality the band and audience deserved.

Levine’s voice has improved over the years in terms of control, but he was still a little pitchy. Forgiven with one glance of this sexy creature. Levine could move mountains of ladies with the twitch of his pinky. Yet throughout the gig he was dancing, strutting, writhing all over the stage.

As if that’s not enough, he took the time to engage and charm his audience. He flattered us and gently coaxed us to clap for his bandmates, as if he knew we were screaming only for him.

Extending the silent pause of closing song She Will Be Loved, Levine held the audience in arrest as he stood still for a good minute soaking in the attention, appreciating the crowd’s pleasure, and breathing in the glory.

Slick and sexy, we barely noticed their set spanned only one hour. All the more we anticipate their return.

Audrey Fenghuang

Media:

Maroon 5 – Bright Lights Everywhere

One word – “AMAZING“

Amir Thompson aka ?uestlove of The Roots came out to Hacienda to party rock the crowd with Old School breaks and chart-topping Hip-Hop hits.  Looking weary after his show at the Esplanade, alongside his band The Roots, ?uestlove started his set at 10.30pm and ended well over the stated time only leaving at 3am.

Chop-mixes, blends, exclusive remixes from pop, rock, soul r&b and hip-hop, you named it ?uestlove showcased it as well as covered it.

The crowd was amazing at Hacienda being both vocal in their support as well as getting down and dancing to the groove. Hacienda was packed until ?uestlove’s last tune for the night.  A rare insight indeed because Hacienda is considered a chill-out place filled with expats as well as professionals who wine & dine to relax after a stressful work week.

Enough said, ?uestlove ROCKS. Vids coming out at youtube soon. Another ROCKING event by Kinemat Play Mgmt.

Pics:

SkratchTV have just receive an advance couple of Gnarls Barkley album, “The Odd Couple”, courtesy of Warner Music. If you have noticed, there have been a serial of promotional campaign where Dangermouse & Cee-Lo have been playing dress-up as Pedro and Napolean Dynamite, Wayne’s World and even Austin Powers.

What I can say is this. BUY THIS & DOWNLOAD THIS LEGALLY. The whole album makes u want to dance at any given point of time. Hot off the leakage of “Run” with a retro-driven theme MTV to accompany it, Gnarls Barkley is carrying on the Brit sound of their 1st album, “St Elsewhere”. Interestingly, the video features dizzying special effects such as hypnotic spirals, and as a result was been banned from airplay in the United States after failing an epilepsy test. This supposed ban already gurantees this album is a sure winner. Upon listening, the whole Austin Power’s party scene suddenly appearing at his crib, would be how I would describe it upon mentally absorbing the album.

I won’t go song-by-song describing the album however I would called it an LSD trip with the general feel and mood of this album. Why so? Because just like licking acid, you would feel at times trippy, moody and suddenly happy. MUST HAVE in your music collection or I-Pod.

Track Listing:

1) “Charity Case” – 3:13
2) “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” – 3:16
3) “Going On” – 2:55
4) “Run (I’m a Natural Disaster)” – 2:44
5) “Would Be Killer” – 2:24
6) “Open Book” – 3:22
7) “Whatever” – 2:21
8 ) “Surprise” – 3:41
9) “No Time Soon” – 2:56
10) “She Knows” – 2:47
11) “Blind Mary” – 3:26
12) “Neighbors” – 3:06
13) “A Little Better” – 3:07
14) “Lying On Lies” (UK Bonus) – 4:43

Official Release date:

31 March 2008.

Who says dreams can never happen?

While trolling the web service known as Craiglist, an unsuspecting 20 year DJ came across an ad looking for opening acts for an local show. Unbeknowst to him, he ended up opening for his favorite group dead prez on the Sunset Strip. All to delight of answering a Craiglist ad! Talk about lucky. Not only that, he rocked the show with his Hip-Hop mashed-ups as well as video-DJing. CLICK HERE to read the rest of this “only in Hip Hop” story.

Prefix of Site:
We’ve been noticing a trend of people displaying their support for Barack Obama’s Democratic presidential campaign by using his logo as their avatar, or visual representation on the web. We thought, “what can we do to show our support?”

So we created Logobama, a place for you to create your own custom Obama logo and use it wherever you want. As Obama says, “we are the change we have been waiting for.” That’s what Obama is representing… someone who wants all of us to participate in changing the world. And together, we can make this change, one logo at a time.

Skratch’s Obama Logo:

Support Obama .

Tracklist:
1. Refused – New Noise
2. Justice – Waters of Nazareth (Erol Alkan Remix) [ft. Pase Rock]
3. Does It Offend You, Yeah? – We Are Rockstars [ft. MC Spank Rock]
4. Services – Element of Danger (MSTRKRFT Remix)” [ft. Har Mar Superstar]
5. Goose – Bring It On [ft. Todd from the Faint]
6. Larry Tee & Princess Superstar – Licky (Herve Goes Low Remix) [ft. Santogold]
7. Green Velvet – Shake and Pop [ft. Kid Sister]
8. Klaxons – Gravity’s Rainbow (Soulwax Remix)
9. The Mystery Jets – The Boy Who Ran Away (Riton Re-Dub)
10. Peaches – Boys Wanna Be Her (Weird Science Remix) [ft. Thunderheist]
11. Datarock – Fa-Fa-Fa [ft. Steve from Hot Hot Heat]
12. Yelle – Je Veux Te Voir
13. Franz Ferdinand – Do You Want To (Erol Alkan Remix) [ft. Amanda Blank]
14. Kim (from the Presets) – Wet N Wild [ft. Mickey Avalon]
15. Bloc Party – Helicopter (Weird Science Remix)
16. Justice – D.A.N.C.E. (MSTRKRFT Remix)
17. Scanners – Low Life (Teenagers Remix) [ft. Uffie]

Stream

Anthony Tyrone Terrell Jr., 17, was charged Friday with murder in the deaths at the family home near Lawrenceville, where the bodies were found the night before, said police spokeswoman Illana Spellman. She identified the victims as Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Deputy Joy Deleston, 39, and her two daughters, Micaiah, 11, and Jelani, 4. The motive was still unclear. Deleston brought a paternity suit in 2004, claiming that 32-year-old rap star Juvenile, whose real name is Terius Gray, was Jelani’s father, Gwinnett County court records show. Attorney Randy Kessler, who represented Juvenile in the proceedings, said the case was resolved peacefully by consent order in 2006. Both parties agreed Juvenile was the father.

The family in happier times

Ed notes: GOD bless the dead. Keep your head up Juvenile. GOD is with your daughter

im hungry and dese streets aint feeding me//
cause yall niggas with that food starting 2 be greedy//
but its cool nigga cause im a fucking king//
and imma hav u niggas addicted 2 my style like dope and kurt cobain//
see just call my flow suicidal cause that shit blows ya brain//
yall should be called 360 they way yall niggas live with dese games//
see all my life my backs been against tha wall//
so is nothin new 2 me if yall pick me 2 be da underdog//
but imma throw jabs and hooks like my name sug

With rhymes like these how can you count the Queen Bee out?

In support of their new album release, legendary battle group Ill Insanity would be touring Guitar Center stores state-wide showcasing new music and battle routine sets. Catch them at your nearest Guitar Center store.

Ground Xero:

New album by 50 Cent coming soon in May 2008 as well as a Remix album.

Stop the violence and ignorance to realise that Hip-Hop isn’t about oversized Ts, vain pursuit of worth through material attainment, aversion to sobriety and advocating of defeatist attitude.

It is about developing self-respect and educating to the masses that Hip-Hop is a way of life and celebration through singing (Rhyming), dancing (Break-dancing), painting (Graffiti) and musical instruments (Turntablism).

Speak with your mind not with your ego.

1

“The system really is designed for failure. And me understanding contracts, there is always a loophole in the system. You just gotta know how to get it. You need the right person to get you to or through that loophole. If not, you got to depend on your ownself and get yourself through. I’m one of them loopholes in the system right about now.”

- Stevie Williams, Founder/Owner/President/Professional Skateboarder for Dirty Getto Kids (DGK) and Founder/Co-Owner of Kayo Corporation.

Kanye West – LIVE @ the Grammy’s 2008 from SKRATCHTV on Vimeo.

Courtesy of the illdoctrine

courtesy from the illdoctrine

We, here at SkratchTV, brought forth the unfortunate news of Big L’s mom passing on to a new life. GOD Bless her soul as she finally returns home to GOD and Big L. Below is a note from DJ Premier himself.

DJ Premier words:

For those who loved and respected the legacy of BIG L, I wanted to announce the passing of his mother Gilda”PINKY” Terry.

All I can say is may all of your souls fly above us and keep us funky, and we will see you when we get there.

One Love,
DJ Premier

The Queen of Nu-Soul has a new album coming. Peep it out as the streets are waiting for it.

Download Mix

Rocky Balboa: “Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t ’bout how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done. Now, if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain’t you. You’re better than that!”

1. Tell us about yourself, age , place of orgination

- Well i’m 24 years old and i was born and raised in Germany as a son of turkish emmigrants.

2.How did you came about with DJing and Hip-hop?

I think it started when i started to go out into clubs, thats when i saw Dj’s for the first time and from that moment i was just amazed of what they do . I remember that i was the only person in the club that didn’t dance mostly , i was just staring at the Dj’s and the Turntables. After staring and staring i decided to do it myself , mainly because i wanted to listen to music i would like to hear as a party guest as my ,,hardcore” taste was not satisfied very often when i went out in clubs. So i got myself one technics and a f+++++ up Gemini Mixer , the only thing that was workin on this mixer was the phono/ line stick , but i was really happy with this. After two years i could afford my second technics and a vestax mixer. To that time i already heard of turntablism , but didn’t really knew what it’s all about. A friend of mine came over with the the ’99 Usa Eastern hemisphere Video and i remember i couldn’t stop watching it. I was really fascinated i didn’t ever think turntables could do this. So i didn’t care about mixing records any longer , i wanted to scratch and the rest was just training , keeping myself motivated and focused.

3. DJ Battles ~ are you retired from Solo Competition since you have won like every major Skratch DJ tournament like WSTC, ITF, DMC & Vestax?

Well, battling will be something i will always love , because i really put a lot into it , but you just have to think about what you wanna achieve and where you wanna take it with your music. Battling is always a very good way to spread your name ,but battling all the time only doesn’t make too much sense.I don’t wanna say that you guys will never see me at a Battle again, but for now there’s nothing left but a DMc title . My Crew’s trying to motivate me for the Team Dmc’s this year again, but right now i’m not interested that much but maybe i’ll change my opinion when it’s about to go down , who knows…

4. Tell us about Exodus and how did you came about with it.

Exodus was basically founded for the Team DMC Worlds , as we all know each other for years now and we just thought ok , we are hanging out , we scratch , we talk bullshit , why don’t we just try our luck and represent Germany again , as there was not really much left since Lordz of Fitness and Noisy Stlyus retired from battling. I think i know AKd for 6 years now and i met Rob & PRO at the German Finals in 2004. We are all cool with each other and that was the main reason we did it. To that time we were practicing, Rafik was working on his 6 Minutes for Dmc with Le jad, jad told him that he really would love to produce for a team as he never made this experience before. Rafik just told him that we are working as a team for the Dmc’s and it was just an e-mail and a phone call. We had Jad with us , and we were really happy about this , we went to Jad’s place and did 60 % of the routine, the rest was done via Internet and a LOT of Uploading sessions . Right now there’s a really dope video of our Team routine to be made by Arnie 500 , the dopest graphic and Video dude i know! Should be finished by the end of this month. Right now we are organizing the team thing a lil bit more which will include, Team stuff, Solo Showcases, and Party Djing.

5. DJ battles have shifted in a direction and is less exciting as it should , even though it could be a platform for being known

Hard to say…. Well, first of it depends on what you describe as less exciting. Is it because people miss Body Moves, Hip Hop sounding Routines , or whatever ? I think there was a time between 98-2002 when there was such a big hype about battling , i think everybody loved that era. It was based a lot on hip hop as the audience was too, so i think people maybe could just understand it better, because it was the same music they were listening to. Nowadays there are a lot more genres and you don’t only hear hip hop routines, but to me that doesn’t makes it less exciting, it makes it even better.It’s not the battle scene, but I just saw a concert of Birdy Nam Nam in Paris in the net, it was crazy!!! People were yelling the melodys and lyrics as if it was a Rap or Rock Concert, they were totally into their music and were waiting for certain patterns and parts in the trakks. This is something so dope for the art and the movement , even though it’s no hip Hop music. I have to admit that there are a lot of routines that sound the same , but this is nothing that bothers me or something. Everybody should just express hisself as good as possible and have fun.

6. Tell us about the Wizard of Ahh contest you are organizing with Zeiko and the rest of your group. How does it differ from IDA/ ITF , Vestax, Dmc ‘n such

Ok , i mainly organize it together with Akd, Pro And Rob will be there for judging and showcasing of course.
Basically it’s a pure skratch battle, no routines , no scratch lines , nothing prepared. It’s all about improvisation , the competetors will skratch on random beats we have chosen and they have to prove that they can skratch on any tempo , style etc. So it’s nothing to compare with a regular battle like ITF or DMC . We did it for the first time last year and it was a great success as it was meant to be a national battle, but there were so many requests from Europe that it turned out be a european Clash. We also don’t organize this battle for money reasons, as we didn’t make much money last year, it just developed because we wanted to give Skratch Dj’s in germany a platform like they do in France too for example. There are a lot of good scratchers , but no competitions for these guys. This year we hope to have the same variety of competetors.
Further we will perform a Exodus Showcase with Visual Effects to it on a screen right behind us , B-ju , soular & teddi will perform as ,, Interplay” and we will have a local electro live Band called ,,Comping” . we hope to have a great event at least like last year or even better. We would love if you guys from singapoure who read this right now would come over to compete, i know it’s far away tho

7. Given that Serato is a main Staple in Turntablism, mixing in Dj battles. Do you foresee a Serato battle coming soon?

Well these battles are going down already , when you take a look at the Experimental Class at the IDA Worlds last year in cracow. I think competetors could use a Mpc, Cd Players, Laptops with various Software running like Ableton, Serato… etc. So it’s going down already and to me it looks like a really cool development as long you don’t let the computer do it all for you. I think this is one of the most discussed topics in the Dj game since 2 years and i can only say, using serato or custom records, whatever, doesn’t make you a better dj , you still have to flip vynil , a crossfader and Turntables. And if someone is faking with the help of software or laptops, these guys won’t make it far you know, as we all have a clue what is possible to do and what a computer only could do for you. So it’s always pretty obvious if the Dj is really working with his hands or not.

8.What is your current playlist, do you party rock? If so what genre?

Hmmmm, i listen to tons of music, so it’s really hard to mention only a few ones but okay i’ll have a try. Right now i really like that Equinox Sampler , with artist like Bju. Vangel, Aqua Luminus and many more! Really dope music!! I like that new Styles P Album, SebastiAN , Edit from Usa, Sinuhe a local rapper from my hometown, ohhhh man , and a lot more, this would be too much right now… When i play i prefer playing raw hip hop, Electro and funk.

9. What are your upcoming projects and stuff you are working on?

i’m workin on my eP right now , which mostly will include Trakkz But in general it is supposed to be a Turntable Album or Skratch Music however you wanna call it. Should be finished in a few months. After that i’ll work on my Battle break. so these are my main projects i will take care of , and beside that i’ll still work for vestax, do Showcases solo & with Exodus, play at clubs , work with band musicians and skratch my ass off

10. What is your current tools for djing and production

For Djing and Production i use 2 PDx 3000 Turntables, Vestax 08, KORG ZERO 4 as soundcard and Interface, Korg Midi Keyboard, Laptop running with Serato, and as sequencer Software i use Cubase Sx, FRuity 6, Ableton 6.0. But there are still a few things i need …. hmmmm!!

11. Is it worth it to practise 6min in a year jus to enter dmc to win it? Becus djs such as paul oakenfold, steve aoki, tiesto and such have made without entering dj battles?

Of course it’s worth it , but it’s not a must or neccesary to make it or make a good living out of djing. You can also be succesfull without battles of course. It’s a lot of of stress and pressure as we all know, if you take it it’s worth it if not… well , it always depends how you deal with it.

But mostly, it’s not that dj’s working for one year for a certain battle , they just work on routines, they can use for showcases , gigs and battles. Then they have material and decide what they use from this material for the battle. And honestly i’ve never worked one year for a battle , the longest time i ‘ve been practicing for a battle was the Team stuff with Exodus at the Dmc’s. It was 2 months. for my solo stuff i mostly need 1 1/2 month to come up with 2 or 3 good routines. I also do think that you just have to have a lot of dedication, ambition, talent and discipline to be succesfull in this aspect of djing, as it takes much more preperation than goin to a club and spin music of course. So it’s hard to say if it’s worth it , i can speak for myself only , and it was worth it to do it, although it’s still ridicolous when it comes to the financial aspect for Battle Dj’s. It’s really cool already you get10.000 Bucks at the DMC’s but this is still not enough compared to how muchwork Dj’s put into their sets for only one evening basically.

12. And if you did enter dmc but lose due to politics. What would do or say after that?

Beat up the judges!!! HAHA!!.

Actually when stuff like this happens , the competition is always a little discrediting itself and the reputation they get among dj’s and the audience wouldn’t be too good i think. But this is no security for wrong decisions as this stuff happens every year and dj’s don’t have that much oppertunitys rather than competing at those more or less bad reputated Battles. So there’s nothing you can do about it, you just have to be that good , that there’s no doubt about it you should win. You have to see politics as another invisible opponent you have to beat beside the DJ you’re battling against ;-9

13. Shouts , disses ?

I’d like to give a shout to my crew Exodus, my boys from wu-Tal, my girl ‘n my mum, Le JAD (no.1 pervert producer in the Gayme ),Kid Fresh, Rafik , Eprom , Tigerstyle, Vestax Japan & Germany, Zoo York Germany, and Skratch TV for the interview. I hope you guys enjoyed reading my interview and watch out for my Ep.

Ps: Come over for the Wizard of ahhh!!!!!!!!!!!! Peace & much luv from
Wu-Tal!!

Doors open at around 10.10pm or so, after paying for my entrance fee I went in Velvet which led me to wait for another 1hr plus going 2hr for De La’s performance while vibing to soul hits and watching video montage of Ray Charles, Jackson 5 and Diana Ross.

One incident which left me rather annoyed was that they had reserved seats which were left unseated even during the performance and it wasn’t even properly indicated who these seats were reserved for.

I found a nice spot which was behind the barricades where I took random pictures. I notice a lot of expat Caucasians, as I would term them “80′s babies”, raving about De La Soul about when or how they first heard them they were in high school etc etc.

Finally after a lengthy wait, De La’s sound man came out and did a microphone check. Sheikh Haikel did a brief introduction before handing the microphone to DJ Mase to warm the crowd up. Playing classic off A Tribe called Quest and acting the hype-man role, he had the crowd filled with expats and local hip-hop fiends head-bopping and throwing their hands in the air.

After the warm-up, Dave & Pos entered the stage being greeted by the hordes of Hip-Hop fiends craving for that crack music. They were comical too, they teased the crowd, made jokes and passed the microphone to anyone that can sing their verse alongside them.

Kicking classic after classic, I can see why and how they maintain to perform for almost 20years ever since they left high school. Pure energy, stage charisma and flavor which unfortunately eludes most if not all of the supposed local (established) rappers.

In between their performance, they play interludes to pay homage to people which inspired them. One of these people was the late great James Brown. They played an almost 5min set to emphasize on this point while the crowd waved the hands in the air and bopped their heads to the melody.

When they unleashed their New York banger “Rock Co Kane Flow”, minus MF Doom, the crowd went insane with hysteria. Their pause-rap act during this song made everyone go nuts.

After an hour worth of performance, De La Soul exited to pounds, hugs and autographs while Mase continued to play the club-bangers until closing.

All I can say, the “REAL is BACK”. Bleedin Gums is a serious Hip-Hop Performance night. It will be an event with a good reputation as long it is left undiluted by the rubbish and cheesy kid rappers which have long overstayed their stage time. Suprisingly non of them were attendance on this night. No boring mundane songs about nonsense, no “Hip-Hop” Dance groups dancing like clowns and court jesters and all those wrong misconception that goes along with the supposed “local hip-hop” scene. If this event stays untouched by the “Premier Hip-Hop organization of Singapore”, it will go far and establish a loyal group of supporters & fan base which I would gladly fork out my hard-earned $ to watch good performances like the one given by De la Soul.

Joke of the night: As I was sipping my drink by the side, I heard a rather funny conversation between a Caucasian girl and a Malay dude about something that the Malay dude had some Mexican blood in him. I almost ROFL but instead I had a good chuckled before I exited Velvet for home.

So for the organizer of the night if you do read this entry please heed my advice, no “Premier Hip-Hop organization of Singapore” intervention and the bringing of quality acts like De la Soul, Bleedin’ Gums will be a night to be remembered always.

Written by: DJ QUiz

There were 2 incidents howveer which made this night a more eventful one for me personally. The 1st one was during Q-bert’s set that this really drunk chinese girl who keep asking me to ask Q-bert to play Soulja Boy & R&B so that she can crank it up. When I told her I can’t do anything about it, she broke down and cry below the DJ console to the embrassment of her friends who were profusely apologizing to me. The 2nd was this chinese SPG who thought that I was DJ Q-bert’s younger brother and was bugging me to “hook her up” with Q-bert. When I told her that I was just a friend and his videographer, she still insisted on “hooking up” until I had to brush her off when I went to the toilet. Alot of people was just eye-balling me and I had quite a number of “daps” & “pounds” from club-goers who said:”Damn, Your brother killed” which lead me to more explaining that I am just his friend.

These few incidents capped off a overall dope night hahah. Thanks for reading

Written By: DJ Quiz

The living LEGEND as you have already KNOW, the main man for Skratching & Turntablism, is holding court @ Zouk, Main Room. Check out our exclusive interview with him on life, Turntablism, the state of Battling, DMC, who he earnestly wanna battle and win, customised breaks and such. check it out here @ SKRATCHTV

Jeff Koons (born January 21, 1955), is an American contemporary artist and sculptor. He is noted for his use of kitsch imagery, sometimes in sculptural form and extremely large in size. His work is amongst the most expensive in the world for a contemporary artist.

Koons’ work is classified as Neo-Pop or Post-Pop, as part of an 80s movement in reaction to the pared-down art of Minimalism and Conceptualism in the previous decade. Although the use of commercial imagery is a starting point, some also see the incorporation of some of the Conceptual approach which implies an irony. Koons denies this: “A viewer might at first see irony in my work… but I see none at all. Irony causes too much critical contemplation,” (which in turn might well be perceived as an ironic double bluff).

He caused controversy by the elevation of unashamed kitsch into the high art arena, exploiting more throwaway subjects than even, for example, Warhol’s soup cans. His work Balloon Dog (1994-2000) is based on balloons twisted into shape to make a toy dog. Koons’ sculpture differs in two major respects to the original: 1) it is made of metal (painted bright red to give the appearance of balloons), 2) it is more than ten feet (three metres) tall.

Koons has received extreme reactions to his work. Supporters claim (for Balloon Dog) “an awesome presence… a massive durable monument” (Amy Dempsey, ed. Styles, Schools and Movements, 2002, Thames & Hudson), and for other work that they are “wowed by the technical virtuosity and eye-popping visual blast” (Jerry Saltz, art critic for the Village Voice).

However, Mark Stevens of The New Republic dismissed him as a “decadent artist [who] lacks the imaginative will to do more than trivialize and italicise his themes and the tradition in which he works… He is another of those who serve the tacky rich.” Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times saw “one last, pathetic gasp of the sort of self-promoting hype and sensationalism that characterized the worst of the 1980s” and threw in for good measure “artificial,” “cheap” and “unabashedly cynical”.

Whether Koons will be seen in time as a critical commentator in the tradition of the Dadaists and a genuine leader in the controversial tradition of the avant-garde, or merely as a fashionable purveyor of meaninglessness and banality, remains to be seen. However, this judgement cannot be made in isolation from the evaluation of the wider contemporary art scene. He has had an undoubted influence on noted younger artists: his extreme enlargement of mundane objects has been copied by Damien Hirst (e.g. in Hirst’s Hymn, an eighteen-foot version of a fourteen-inch anatomical toy) and Mona Hatoum amongst others.

Even a cursory study of history shows that contemporary institutional acceptance (his work has been exhibited in London’s Royal Academy) is no reliable guide to the judgement of posterity. What can be said is that at the moment Koons attracts extremes of enthusiasm and vitriol, and that his work is amongst the most expensive in the world.

Competing DJs:

1) Poland – DJ Falcon & DJ Eprom
2) Spain – DJ Soak
3) Czech & Slovakia – DJ Lowa
4) Portugal – DJ Ride
5) Italy – DJ Craim
6) Austria – DJ Aka
7) Ireland – DJ Savwar
8 ) Germany – DJ Rob Bankz
9) France – Dj R-Ash
10) Israel – DJ Mesh

Judges & Showcasing:

1) ZIP SKLAD (POL)
2) DJ TIGERSTYLE & Band (UK)
3) MARC HYPE & JIM DUNLOOP (GER)
4) DJ KRIME & Band (POL)
5) DJ TROUBL (FR)

RESULTS:
Show Category:

1. EPROM
2. DJ 2 P
3. The Fader Conspiracy (Ride + Kwan)

Technical Category:

1. EPROM
2. Or D’Oeuvre
3. ROB BANKZ

2) After winning the battle for world supremacy, what are your future plans for Turntablism? Are you like going to live full-time off it or just part-time? Or are you going to tour mix-sets, release mix tapes or battle breaks, get into production like Infamous & Develop or what not?

Right now, I’m planning on defending my title. I’ve been practicing pretty hardcore since I’ve won – so hardcore that I recently sprained my pinky.

Outside of that, I haven’t really decided anything yet. All those options you listed sound great – whatever it takes to make a living off of music. In particular, I’d like to perform a bunch and delve much deeper into composition and production. I do need to graduate though.

3) In this year a lot of peeps gave you props because you won without the assistance of customized battle breaks. How you feel about that and what do you feel about customized battle breaks.

I appreciate the props. I’ve always stuck to original records, so it’s great to see people showing love for what I do.

I should say though that there are plenty of DJs who rock custom records that I think are extremely dope. I’m not trying to put myself above anyone or anything like that. Just as a fan, I’d like to see more original vinyl and more original skill!

4) Toughest round you faced so far in the battle?

I think my toughest round at the DMC was the quarterfinals against DJ Pimp from Spain. I was still nervous at this point and for whatever reason I just wasn’t feeling right on stage. My cuts were nowhere near where they usually are, I had skips, and I was pretty sloppy overall. Pimp came really, really clean (as pimps do), so I thought I was lucky to get by.

Or D’Oeuvre was also a very tough competitor, but by this time I was feeling very calm.

5) Overall what you think of the standard of DMC this year?

It was dope, especially in the showcase finals. A lot of the DJs were quite good and had an original swag. I thought the custom record use was a little out of control, particularly for the team battle. A ton of the teams had one record playing untouched the entire set! That’s one of the reasons I thought Kireek stood out. They used some customs (at least I thought so), but they flipped every record they put on in a funky, fresh way. They were sick!

6) You caught a lot of flak because you voted for Precision as compared to Rafik, explain this and your voting.

Did I? I wrote a lengthy justification of my placings here.

Okay, so I guess that wasn’t really short.

7) Toughest DJ you face besides in all battle arenas

I had some really tough battles against Merge back in the day.

8 ) Given that Lejad collaborate for customized records, would collaborating wit Emerge (who started the whole customized trend) to come out wit a killer routine for DMC next year?)

Haha, probably not. I’m planning to stick with original vinyl for battle routines.

9) Are you retired?

No, I’m only 21! I was in a retirement of sorts after 2004, but I’m back now.

10) Any favourite DJs?

Yessir: The X-ecutioners, Skratch Piklz, Beat Junkies, The Allies, 5th Platoon, Lo-Livez, I-Dee, Rafik (believe it or not), Troubl, Netik, Tigerstyle, Toadstyle, Excess, Mike Boo, Ricci Rucker, Kid Koala, Perseus, Kentaro, Supa Dave, P-Trix, Teeko, Vajra, the list goes on . . .

11) Tell as something we don’t know about Shiftee? hobbies etc etc or whatever you feel no one knows about you.

Um, let’s see. I make a mean sandwich. I’m a firm believer in the power of good socks. My favorite day of the week is Thursday. I have a friend who has manned a ship.

12) Shoutouts?

Shouts go out to the Lo-Livez (Precision, Cutfucious, Booge Blind, and the director man himself Tragik), Awkward Landing, the DMC fam, my Wah-nee fam, my fam fam, you yourself SkratchTv for supporting and giving a voice for Turntablism and supporting it a big way in Asia especially, the homie I-Dee, and The Mayor of Movieland Mr. Marcus Pinn. Peace!

I must tell you that it’s really CRAZY DOPE. I don’t know who was this guy. OHHHHHHHH SHIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!! My mother must know about it!

2) How old are you?

27 soon.

3) Were you a Battle DJ before?

No.

4) So how did you got into Turntablism and Production?

I met Ordoeuvre years ago. I was just an “electro” DJ. But I was fascinated by scratch and beat juggling. We started to make shows together, I was happy to mix some old hip hop and jazz trip hop instrumentals with him. I miss this past period. For production I don’t remember. It came slowly…

5) Who are your production idols or influences?

So many. I like really some drum’n bass producers at the moment: Noisia, Spor, Phesta, Ewun… And I like Pendulum live. From the past (not very far) there’s so much people, like Dr octagon, Robert Hood, Chris carrier, Dj Krush… I also love big RNB commercial hits. I love classical music and jazz (old and new).

6) Are you a Hip-Hop fan? Because you don’t seem to have Hip-Hop incline sound and you sound direction is more leading to House-Tech?

My sound direction leading to House-Tech??? HUH! That’s only 20% of my production and it’s not really the vocabulary I would use. I’m more into drum’n bass, electro and break core. Hip Hop influenced me a lot. I don’t know this culture really. But I’ve listened so many instrumentals and mixed so much… I listen to all the music I can. What influence me also is metal/black metal.

7) Nu-Rave, do you seen your battlebreaks heading into that direction of sound since it is the in thing?

No. I started making battle sentences 6 years ago. It was already influenced by hard core, electro etc. Now people like to use it in battles.

8 ) Customise records or customise production – Good or Bad? Any comments and feedback?

That’s in a way an important question. Turntablism is coming a lot from hip hop. Now, we can see what happened this year… We still hear some hip hop routines, in the traditionnal way of making a routine. But so many DJs come with customed records.

I really love turntablism. This is most of my life for 3 years now. And I still watch old school routines, I love to watch old DMC videos. We’ll see with the time and learn with a few years the good way to use customed routines. I’m the first to make not the best things that could be done, but time and work will help.

9) Beef – Alot of people criticise you in regards to producing alot of the DJs’ set in DMC this year? Any comments to that

I’ve Produced for 3 DJs this year only.

Just a word: Rafik’s show this year wasn’t sounding good at the DMC, and he skipped in the middle. He also didn’t make the show as its best on the stage. Maybe it brings much more hate so… But I LOVE the show and I hope we can make a nice video of it.

10) Hate – Alot attribute you to making Turntablism Euro-Tech House, what do you think about that?

It’s funny. Tech-House is a real particular electro style, and I don’t use it at all in routines. I’ve maybe produced one sort of Tech-House routine only. Maybe I don’t know my hip hop classics, but people who say euro hard style or house gay routines don’t know anything about electro. They bring hate where I just do what I like. And I respect so much their own culture. (and hard style is a particular kind of club-techno, really not far from makina)).

To really answer: I think maybe they can’t like this type of sounds, maybe they hate it. I’m sorry if I don’t make the production for a hip hop funk jazz turntablist winning the DMC… If someone comes I would be pleased to try. Everybody would like to see his culture represented at the top of the competition… But in my opinion, we can try to understand other styles. Nothing is closed.

11) Another questions alot of people wants to know because of you suggestive homoerotic pictures. Are you a homosexual?

I just swear I have a big penis! Hahahah, to be frank, all my pics in homo suggestive positions are merely for promo reasons and for people to take notice of my work despite having a rather unconventional image. I Love bitches and punani to the core.

12) Future projects after Nervous Shock & Sound Trauma in the pipeline?

A lot. I have many scratch/battle/practice tools to be released soon. One with another producer especially for pratice. AND, I will maybe work on a very “old school” battle break.

I aslo work on the production of an album with a band. I have many tracks to be released next year in many styles!

13) How does it feel to live off your music and turntablism?

Quite good. My breaks are currently the top seller around the world for 2 year straight and the leading top seller in France and Europe since the start of 2007. I don’t have to really worry much. All I have to do is worry about the quality of my music and sound. I rarely go out unless it is for leisure and for food or shopping. All my work is done at home. But the money is coming in like crazy. Hhhaha it is quite a blessing to me as they said you reap what you sow, so I am just enjoying the fruits of my hard labour.

14) Last but not least any shoutouts?

I must say big up to Rafik for this year crazy experience. I would like to shout Lorn, Precision, Final, Asian Hawk and all the people who just do or produce for turntablism as they like it with respect. Last but not least, BIGS UP to SkratchTV for leading the Turntablism Movement in Asia and around the World.

What is commandable was that Roc Raida’s Gong DJ Battle invoke and substain the DJ Battle spirit which has faded over the years as new rules and technology created have dilute the culture as a whole.

Locally in Singapore, there is 3 DJ Battles at Zouk Phuture before leading up to the Singapore DMC Finals but after which interest totally died down with no events following up after that. Instead of relaying on DMC and paying ridiculous amounts of money for rights and royalty, can we instead start a local dj battle which is credible and appealing. Why relay on something global when we can start something local which can gain respect from our overseas peers?

Why is DMC getting mudane and boring? Although there are many reasons involve, here are some of the main ones involve although not ranked in any order:

1) Customise records. It seems that customise records took over most of the finalists in the World DMC Finalist with only the exception of Shiftee (World Battle DMC Champion) & Precision (4th Place DMC Showcase). Although routines comes off smoother and cleaner because of the arrangement of routine, I see most DJs’creativity being compromised and having them sounding all the same. Maybe it is for easy access & convenience sake so that the DJs won’t have to bring a flight case worth of records to battles or basically they want to complie their best 10 routines into less than 6 vinyls.

2) Ortofon rule. Self-explainatory.

3) Music Direction. With the exception of the USA DJs who have maintain the Hip-Hop sound & swagger in the routines, the rest of the DJs are moving to a Rave/Techno sound in direction. But what DJ Battles is about, is a fusion of musical genres together so this is a forgivable part and an exception.

4) Politics. Crewmates judging crewmates. Why don’t we have neutral DJs who are famous beyond the Turntablism relm to judge. For e.g: Mike Relm, I-Emerge, Kentaro, Scratch Peverts, DJ Craze, DJ Scratch, Evil Dee, Premier, Jazzy Jeff or even Q-bert. There seems to be alot of make-shift in the Judging panel even though it is understandable due to time contraints and logistics as well as $$ issue that the Judging panel seems rushed and not carefully selected.

But all is not lost, the Europeans alongside the Japanese are still maintaining their undying love and support for the culture which seems to have a stronghold to their life and pop culture.

Before I end, here are the highlights which made the headlines in Turntablism/DJ Battle:

Highlights which made the headline for Turntablism in 2007:

1) Skratch DJ of the Year: DJ Shiftee ~ Conquering the world battle stage without customise records and maintaing the unspoken rule of Turntablism by “flipping two seperate records into a new composition”.

2) Battle Record of the Year: Nervous Shock by Le Jad ~ Everyone buys and uses this break for the year for its furturistic sound and hard tech feel to it. Former notable mentions: Super Duck Break & Hee Haw (1998), Bully Breaks (2000), Gangsta Breaks (2001), Skratchy Seal & Y-breaks (2002), Bully Breaks (2003/2004), Audiocide (2005/2006)

3) Skratch DJ’s Producer of the Year: Le Jad, Runner-Up: Troubl & Netik. ~ Since Netik’s collaboration with Le Jad, every Skratch DJ wants to collaborate with him for the Euro-Tech House feel into their routines. He didn’t request for collaboration but every DJ wants him to customise and create a unique sounding routine and to be different. So he shouldn’t be primarily faulted for the sudden raise of customised records. Think about it, Super Duck Breaks & Hee Haw or any battle breaks in a matter of a fact are customised for the easy access and convenient use for DJs & Turntablist alike. I would hope that I-Emerge comes back and produce a dope battle break with a Hip-Hop feel just like he did with Audiocide. Inaugural Year Winner 2005/2006~ I-Emerge

4) Suggested Quality Skratch Mixers:

Ecler Hak380 & Ecler Hak360:

Rane TTM56 & Rane TTM57:

Pioneer DJM 909:

5) Digital DJ Tool: Rane Serato ~ Everyone wants to buy one to be a party-rocking DJ.

“Hip-Hop is the DJ and an MC. No hypeman. No dance groups. Just beats & rhymes“

~ DJ A-trak – 5x World Skratch DJ Champion & DJ for Kanye West

Judges for the night:

Dynamics, Step-1, Sleeper, Vajra, and P-Trix

Competitors:

Tek-Threat, Ohm, Moppy, Brett B, Shmeeze, Image, Kut-Kaos

1st Round 90 sec. prelim:

Top3: Image, Tek-Threat, Shmeeze

Last 4 DJs battle for the last spot. One round 90sec:

Brett B vs Moppy

Kut-Kaos Vs. Ohm

Last Round:

Kut-Kaos Vs. Brett B

Top 4 DJs:

Image, Shmeeze, Tek-Threat, Kut-Kaos

Semis: 2 Rounds 90sec

Image vs Shmeeze ~ dope battle and good rematch from the L.A. Gong.

Tek-Threat Vs. Kut-Kaos

Final 3 rounds 90secs:

Image Vs. Kut-Kaos ~ A lot of dissing going on. It was a Dope battle. But in the end. Its was Image taking home the gold. 4 votes to 1.

Source: Turntablist Network

Did Wu-Tang fell off? Leave your views and comments

“Hip-hop is the only business that allows the urban youth to have a voice, have fun, and make a living. Rejoice in the fact that there’s an option. We all can’t flow like Jay-Z, write hooks like 50, or sing like Mary, but I’ll be damned if you can’t carry a DJ’s record case, sweep up around the office, or intern until you are blue in the face. Hip-hop is the only business where you can, as my friend Kevin Liles put it, go from “intern to president”. You don’t always have to have a college education to go from rags to riches. Hip-hop is our generations dream and we should live it to the max! That is hip-hop, and hip-hop is you!”

Christ Lighty ~ President of Violator Management, Personal Manager of 50 Cent & Busta Rhymes

Infotainment: Separate from the official motion picture soundtrack, this collection of all-new original material is a musical journey and lyrical interpretation of snapshots from the upcoming motion picture American Gangster. The conceptual, full body of genius work from the new album balances the line between pure entertainment and real life. JAY-Z draws upon past experiences, speaking to the harsh reality of the drug trade still taking place in our nation’s cities. While not glorifying the Frank Lucas story, JAY-Z articulates the lure of a gangster’s life and stands as an example of one who chose to leave those streets behind to go on and become one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time.

P.S: WARNING!!! The above MP3 file is posted for evaluation & promotional purpose only courtesy of Sirus radio. The above Music download is intended to acquaint you with the artiste and their music, not as a substitute for sales. Please support the artist by purchasing their ORIGINAL CD & Vinyl.

During the Zulu Nation’s Annual celebration of it’s existence they kicked off a weekend full of events with DJ Battle in NYC. Judges included Steve Dee of the X-men, Mark Luv and others. Here is a little info on how the battle went down this past Thursday night. It was posted the Turntablist Network forum by DJ Solo who was the runner up.

A quick rundown of the battle. 6 djs who entered so the prelims were 6 djs head to head and they picked the top 4. 2mins sets each 1 round. then the top 4 battled 2 rounds 2min sets.

Prelims

Flawless vs. Solo
Both djs advance

Supreme vs. Axis
Winner: Supreme

Teddy King vs. G.I. Joe
Winner: G.I. Joe

SEMI-FINALS

Flawless vs. G.I. Joe
Winner: Flawless

Solo vs Supreme
Winner: Solo

FINALS

Solo vs Flawless
Winner: Flawless

Flawless wins a Rane TTM57, a pair of Gold Ortofons and a DJ package

Sound system checked

Judges ready to grill contestants

Anxious Faces

Contestants waiting

Contestants’ supporters

“what is that on your shoe?”

Smiling while Grlling contestants

“Tell us why?

“College is a major thing it puts you in a whole different realm if you do it right. Then again you could have four different degrees and be working in a f*ckin McDonalds or something cuz you didnt go about it right. School is not good for everybody, but I do encourage people to get their diploma. At least get that. Sometime college just f*cks people over, its just a waste of time it leaves you in debt and f*cked over. I advise everybody to at least try it if youve got the opportunity, try it. Thats one of your ways out. Even if its four years youll experience so much sh*t and meet so many people from different walks of life It might not be for you, but just the opportunity alone, to travel somewhere else you never know what could happen. Dont be scared to take a chance.”

Jim Jones, Dipset

Chill out with sheesah and some warm teh cino while listening to the Roots band

Review of Snoop’s 1st album in The Source 1994, which was treated with a so-so rating compared to the 4.5 mic rating Enter the Wu-Tang in the same issue. Thus giving us another living proof of their legendary east coast bias. Feb 1994

By Reginald C. Dennis

Image: DJ cherm

A rather quirky Act Up advertisement design which advocates safe sex in the fight for the prevention of AIDS in France.

About Act Up:

ACT UP is a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals united in anger
and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis.

We advise and inform. We demonstrate. WE ARE NOT SILENT

http://www.actupny.org/

CHECK IT OUT

ROUND 1

SPS vs Supreme (extra tie breaker round)

Esquire vs Solo

As-One vs Mike Delite

Shmeeze vs Flawless

ROUND 2 (Semis)

SPS vs Esquire

Shmeeze vs As-One

Final Round

Shmeeze vs Esquire

More Pics from http://www.joeconzo.com:

Rob Swift

Ill Insanity

Mr Sinista

GW Theodore & Supreme

Mister Sinista

~ PHARRELL WILLIAMS of N.E.R.D/BBC/Neptunes/Ice Cream

Kyokos / Kyoko Sawanobori , Tokyo, Japan – the artist of the youngest generation, deals mainly with sound. This time the musical aspect – analog record with world hits of pop music was demoted, changed through simple intervention. Over a turntable, there was a special bottle with honey that slowly dripped on a rotating record. The artist licked up the honey from the record that way stopping the record’s turning and disturbing music. She was also disturbing our reception, rhythm and memories. It was ironic, that the artist did not intervene in aggressive manner; on the contrary, her relation to this of kind of music appeared to be extraordinarily friendly, maybe even erotic

Random Pics:

Jin the Mc?

Flip Flops on socks – Getto Aesthetics

The Next Generation of DJ being carried by the mother

The audition video for the Top10 Battle MC can be found at:

http://www.podcast.sg/987_all.asp

Pics Courtesy of: http://melnolissa.blogspot.com

The DJ battle that never gets boring! When it does – someone gets gonged!!

Exclusive interview with, 2X World Skratch Champion, 3X French National Champion and 1X European Champion, DJ Kodh who is happy to give us his precious time for 8 questions:

1) How did you came across Djing and Turntablism?

One of my cats came with a mix-tape one day..i was just woahaw! how the man can mix all that…then i listened to radio show in Paris…and i discovered the all “dj” movement…

2) Who were your inspirations and idols

The Allies and the Scratch perverts+ the isp.. i wanted to battle them and win…my dj crew was my inspiration too..Dj Shone Mogz or Feadz…besides i love music man..so at that time i was listening to a lot of different kind of music…from electro to rock or r’n'b…

3) Who is the toughest dj u battle or the toughest dj u faced?
Troubl’…on the 2nd place Gimiman from Switzerland.lol

4) What do u think about Dj battles now? Because Atrak mentioned DMC & DJ battles as a whole is not the same as last time when he won it and as it was use to be?

Umm interessting question..i think A-Trak is right when he says it changed..to me the all movement changed so did the competion, which is a reflect of the movement.Still
It’s good to have it. It’s a good experience..now if you want to eat, try to find something more with it.

5) Customised Battle breaks, good or bad for the scene?
Well i don’t know..if the scene created it..it means that it have a place…
Every tool can be usefull for the creation.

6) Any project, besides mixtape and battlebreaks, in the pipe line with any acts hiphop or experimental?
I’m the dj for “TRES CORONAS” i produced the last single, wich is played on mtv south america, La calle radio in the us…
Then i’m doing parties in France and outside.

I’m thinking of going back on the scene with some new shit and concepte soon…to be continued

7) Nu rave/electro ed banger stuff, are you a fan of it?

Yeah it’s a good movement, party and bullshit, that’s fun!
My cat Feadz is sign to this label.

8 ) any shout outs or any stuff turntablism need 2 look out for?

Watch my space during this autumn…

firstly watch the exclusive timbaland routine at SkratchTV above ^^ …if you like it just share it

then there’s the re-issu of “Vertigo”, wich will be available at www.beatsqueeze.com
indeed since we sold it out..i received a bunch of mails to get the break-beat.

And i’m working on a brand new break beat..i’ll give you more details exclsuively soon! Bigs up to SkratchTv and everyone that have supported me past, present and future. 1

Look and study.

1) Reinstall iTunes. Launch the app and sign in to your itunes music Store account. Don’t plug in your iPod yet.

2) Install and launch a free trial of PodUtil from KennettNet software (www.kennettnet.co.uk). The app will sit there idling, displaying a Waiting-for-iPods message.

3) Plug in your iPod. PodUtil will detect it and display a window that shows the files and playlists on your ipod. Click the “Choose” button at the bottom of Pod-Util and select your iTunes music folder. Next, click the “Copy Settings” button. In the dialog box that appears, select both “Add Tracks to iTunes” and “Rebuild Playlists.” Click “OK.”

4) Read the Don’t-Steal-Music warning in the lower right corner of PodUtil. Think carefully. Click the “Copy” button below it.

5) Watch as PodUtil copies your songs, videos, playlists, and podcasts back to your computer and then loads them into iTunes. Reauthorize your iTunes music store tracks. Done!

6) Happy? Hit the “Register now” button and send the site £10 (about 18 bucks).

From:

http://www.wired.com

Sole Obsession: 3rd Chapter – The Customisers Collective

Saturday, 1 September 2007

1930 – 2230

know it nothing
51 Haji Lane
Singapore 189244

Unprecendented showcase of local sneaker customisers. Check out the guys that have put our tiny island on the sneaker map!

Talented customisers from the region have been invited to showcase their works as well!!

Preview upcoming samples from Adidas, Puma, Vans, Reebok, New Balance.

Free Beer (while it lasts!)

New Sole Obsession t-shirt for sale!

Tons of prizes to be given away, buy a Sole Obsession tee and stand a chance to win a glut of cool giveaways!

Sole Obsession…by sneakerheads for sneakerheads!!!

Gallery:

Pharrell’s 2006 album In My Mind featured many songs that were close to being good, but hadn’t fully realized their potential. Fast forward to 2007, ?uestlove decides to put together a band for the sole purpose of remixing the album. Here we have Pharrell & the Yessirs, the project that should’ve been released last year. Sources are still unsure if this will ever actually see a commercial release or would it be a white label

Source: 15min 2 Live

September 11 2007 World Wide. The fight is on between 50 Cent and Kanye West.

On another note, these are some other releases that one should look out for:

Street Dates:

Here are the scheduled Hip-Hop releases for September:

September 4, 2007
Wu-Tang Clan – 8 Diagrams
Master P & Romeo – Hip-Hop History

September 11, 2007
Kanye West – Graduation
50 Cent – Curtis

September 18, 2007
Eve – Here I Am
Chamillionaire – Ultimate Victory
Small World – World Premiere
Disturbing Tha Peace – Strength in Numbers
Havoc – The Kush

September 25, 2007
Trae – Life Goes On
Beanie Sigel – The Solution
Ja Rule – The Mirror

Pollock, Jackson (1912-56). American painter, the commanding figure of the Abstract Expressionist movement.

He began to study painting in 1929 at the Art Students’ League, New York, under the Regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton. During the 1930s he worked in the manner of the Regionalists, being influenced also by the Mexican muralist painters (Orozco, Rivera, Siqueiros) and by certain aspects of Surrealism. From 1938 to 1942 he worked for the Federal Art Project. By the mid 1940s he was painting in a completely abstract manner, and the `drip and splash’ style for which he is best known emerged with some abruptness in 1947. Instead of using the traditional easel he affixed his canvas to the floor or the wall and poured and dripped his paint from a can; instead of using brushes he manipulated it with `sticks, trowels or knives’ (to use his own words), sometimes obtaining a heavy impasto by an admixture of `sand, broken glass or other foreign matter’. This manner of Action painting had in common with Surrealist theories of automatism that it was supposed by artists and critics alike to result in a direct expression or revelation of the unconscious moods of the artist.

Pollock’s name is also associated with the introduction of the All-over style of painting which avoids any points of emphasis or identifiable parts within the whole canvas and therefore abandons the traditional idea of composition in terms of relations among parts. The design of his painting had no relation to the shape or size of the canvas — indeed in the finished work the canvas was sometimes docked or trimmed to suit the image. All these characteristics were important for the new American painting which matured in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Want to try Pollock’s drip and drop method of painting? Click on www.jacksonpollock.org

Jackson Pollock’s work:

With Hip-Hop packaged up in a bodybag, many wonder what would be the next thing which grabs the atttention of music listeners.

Look no further, hold and behold from the suburbs (You don’t have to be from the hood to be tough) of Chicago, Illinois, we have the new pop-hop sensation in the form of Kid Sister.

Kid Sister is a 26yr old female club rapper who makes disco raps to rock clubs and crowds of all kind. She first came to my attention with the Atrak (who is also her boyfriend) produced track “Pro Nails” which she uploaded in myspace. Both catchy and witty with her rhymes and Atrak’s 80′s Disco beat, it generated such a buzz on the cyberspace that people and folks from the industry are checking her out despite not having an album released.

And more recently, she was invited to showcase her talents at the SXSW 2007 with support from Atrak as well as her brother J2k’s group Flosstradamus (another act that we all have to look out for).

While we await impatiently for new music from her, viewers, fans and supporters alike can check out her myspace website at http://www.myspace.com/kidsister and her brother’s group at http://www.myspace.com/flosstradamus

Ed’s Notes:
I love both Kid Sister and Flosstradamus’s music and style. Happy, Fun-Loving and Cool. 1

Both inspiration and impressive.

I’m talking about bands; the poor naive bands who somehow still think that signing a record contract is synonymous with crossing a finish line in first place and being handed your dreams on a silver platter. The poor naive bands who don’t read the fine print, and don’t keep up on the business end of the industry they so sorely wish to be a part of. The bands who sell 2 million albums and end up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to the company who they thought were fulfilling all their wildest dreams.

These are the folks who should know the new first law of the music industry. Do not sign to a large record label. I would go as far as to say not to sign with any record label at all. I don’t think I need one, but I certainly can see where many bands could benefit from being with a smaller independent label. Not every musician can be a business man and vice versa, but i think we are entering an era of music where the power will be placed solely in the hands of the musicians who can think differently about what their music is and how to make money doing what they love.

Here are a few concepts every musician today should understand.

1. People will share your music with one another – Don’t think of file sharing as stealing. Most people who download music for free don’t think of themselves as thieves, they don’t think of themselves as pirates, they just want to listen to your music. The whole goal in the music industry is to get as many people as possible to listen to your music. When people share music with one another, they are doing that musician a favor by increasing that bands listener base. It is hard to think of file sharing as a benefit to musicians since most musicians see their music as a product to be sold in album form. If people are sharing your music with one another for free, how can a musician make money?

2. Music is not a product anymore, it is Content – When music was tied to the media it was played on, it was a product in the same way a dishwasher or vacuum cleaner is a product. You buy a vacuum because it is a product that cleans your floor. You used to buy a CD because it was a product that makes pleasing sounds.

Now we have separated the content from the product. You no longer need the CD to hear the pleasing sounds. With the music removed from the product, music only exists as content. The dilemma of how to make money off of making music becomes a lot easier to solve when you think of music as content and not as a product. Many different kinds of media have used content to make money. The best example is the television industry, which has used free, quality content to make money for years.

3. Be the provider of your own content – There are hundreds of torrent download sites making a fortune from providing free content. They advertise to the thousands of people who visit their sites. They get thousands of people to visit by providing free content. Content created by other people.

This is money that should be going directly into a musicians pocketbook. Musicians should be less angry that there are people hearing their songs for free and more angry that the web traffic is going to a torrent site instead of their own web site.

The best way to capture those advertising dollars is to directly compete by providing your own content for free. If someone has two options, sift through a sea of unscrupulous torrent sites for your new single, or download it directly from the artist for free, the customer will download the content from your web site every time.

4. Content is no longer limited by the product itself – A CD holds 70 minutes of music. Most CD’s released by musicians go to about 45 minutes and have between 10 and 15 tracks. Every CD has packaged art, track lists, band photos, and lyrics printed on them. This is the format almost every band has followed for as long as I could reach the play button on my Dads stereo.

Since the content of the CD is no longer tied to that 70 minute shiny disk, the way in which music is marketed and sold is now free of that tired old format. I believe that itunes has begun to pave the way for the return of the single. Bands can now release content at a more fevered and consistent pace, churning out a song every couple of months from the privacy of their own homes.

No longer will the artist need to write “filler” in order to artificially elongate their album. No longer will fans be forced to purchase 9 songs they don’t like in order to have 3 songs they love. No longer will fans have to wait years between albums. Fans will get a new dose of the band they love every time they write a new song.

Early adopters of this idea will benefit greatly by keeping their band in the media more often. Bands will have more chances to promote themselves with a new release coming out every month. The single format would also benefit musicians who generate their income from ad revenue. More releases yearly means more consistent web traffic to your site.

Many musicians and record labels will cringe at the thought of giving away music for free, but it cannot be avoided. The Internet has made sharing the music you love easier than going to the store and purchasing it. The next step for bands is to make downloading their music even easier for the fans so they can control the content they create and make a dollar in the process.

Written by: Cobra-Punchers

We had a short round table session with Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Puru Nacka Lu Lu Lu Badara Akon Thiam or popularly known as Akon at Marina Mandarin where other established magazine publications, radio stations were conducting their interview and such. But some of the questions which were asked were rather “yawn…..”. Not knocking them though because they are meant to cater to the general public and crowd.

What really brighten up the interview despite being jet-lagged (Akon arrived in Singapore at 7am and was scheduled to fly off at 10am the next morning to Malaysia) was when Akon was asked by yours truelly in regards to his acts, the rumoured “Africa” medallion, his love for sneakers, an up-coming movie project called “Cocaine Cowboys” and as well as future collaborations with artiste from Asian. Some points mentioned is that he is receiving collaboration offers from acts from South East Asia and he is currently going through demos for some of the acts.

Video Interview:

Last but not least he gave a SHOUT OUT to the Skratch team towards the end even though it was rather rushing.

Concert Review:

As mention, AKON killed it. He even stage dived to deliver his message. Accompanying him is his band which reminds me of Bad Brains on a milder note. The crowd was PACKED like a MOFO. We were fortunate to have media backstage passes where we get to watch the concert with the comfort of not being CRASHED nor Sqeezed but still the down point was the camera went flat as well as we have to elbow our way through the other media folks to a have clearer view of the show.

Nonetheless it was a good SMACK DOWNPARTY and we hope other acts would follow suite to bring quality entertainment to the masses.

Don’t take my word for it though. Here is some footage of a concert-goer who recorded his stage-diving antics:

We are invited for an exclusive press conference with Gym Class Heroes/The Academy is/Avenged Sevenfold/Cobra Starship at Ink bar on 9Aug on 1pm. There was a buffet of finger foods and associated stuff beverages including a free flow of Moet for journalist and all to get their liquid buffet on.

While most artiste appeared jet-lagged, as most of them arrived only in Singapore at 7am, nonetheless all if not most of them were warm and forth-coming.

We were grouped according to timing and we sat at round tables for interviews and such. Some of the most corny questions were being asked by some of the more reputables journalists and even Radio DJs which draw laughters as well as jokes around the table.

I was scheduled to interview Gym Class Heroes and Travis and Matt came because the other members were still resting and sleeping in their hotel rooms.

From personal observation, Travis is the louder bloke who attracts all sorts of attention because of his hair, tattoos and jokes. Matt is more introvet and is rather painful shy about his new found stardom. By the way the running joke around is that Travis looks very much like Slash from GnR/Audioslave. Some interesting notes includes Travis being a High School Basketball star who was given a basketball scholarship as well as his love for Darryl Hall & John Oates. Matt was very active in the school band as well as being a bright student who was offered a few Scholarship at George Tech as well as Virginia Tech. Is it me or is it just that these dudes are talented from birth?

Anyways, journalist scrambled all over for personal pics and autographs including Ronin’s former singer who is a journalist with Lime Magazine after some small chit chat with him.

Without any delay here are some pics:

Liquid Buffet

Gathering

Rush Hour

Matt fron Gym Class Heroes ~ Docile One

Avenged Se7enfold looking really jet-lagged but still ROCKED Singfest

Smile @ Wrong Camera

Travis aka Slash

Peep it:

“There are two phrases that kill Hip-Hop and its culture. One phrase is “Gotta get that money, man,” because that means we don’t care how we do it, who we hurt, who we kill, who we destroy. If what we doing as far as music is good or bad, as long as we make a profit.

Another phrase that kills Hip-Hop culture, is “You hatin’ G, stop hatin’ all that hate.” “Hatin’” is a phrase that’s used like communism was used in the ’50s. Like if you say “hatin’,” then that kills everything. Like, “Oh my God, you a hata’, look at Rhyme, he’s a hata’.” Whatever happened to not liking something because it’s not good? You know, if you told Big Daddy Kane and Rakim like, “Yo, I don’t know dawg … I think ‘Check Out My Melody’ could be better than that,” somebody would be like, “No, you hatin’, you hatin’;” and we wouldn’t have the inspiration that we have today. This is for all the readers. Don’t let anybody crush your descent. Descent is what makes people grow. Pressure is what makes people grow. I’m under pressure and you should be under pressure. All these muthafuckas should be under pressure.”

Rhymefeast

~ Will Smith as Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness

Making one off custom records also known as dubplates is a common thing in soundclash dancehall. But when it comes to DJ Battles such as DMC and such, there seems to be alot of debate about it.

Judging from two points of view:

1) Purist Turntablist would feel these are “cheat” records which allows to much convience and making the art of remixing/reworking/beat-juggling lose out flavour thus rendering the death of in existing battle records or music vinyls available at shops and stores.

2) New-Head Turntablist who have been constantly producing their own selected sounds and music feel like they would like to incoporate their own production and create another form of routine to their liking. Pehaps even releasing their own form of battle breaks.

For the past years after witnessing I-Emerge as well as Netik winning DJ Battles using their own customs, there have been a custom debate about custom records giving Turntablists an upperhand in winning DJ Battles.

Writing from a personal observation and prospective, I feel that the Art of Turntablism is evolving. I think a Turntablist with skills would combine both the Purist as well as the New-Head mindset to push this art of Turntablism into higher grounds as well as another level.

We can debate and argue all we want but ultimately I would say that we want the music and artform to grow as well as to evolve. Last but not least give the audiences a good show.

Enjoy the vids on how records are made.

Some details:

Number of participants : 15
MC of the day : DJ Nesh
Judges : DJ Fuzz, DJ Blink & DJ Ko-Flow

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A battle of the DJs – By JAYAGANDI JAYARAJ, Photos by RICKY LAI

I WAS ecstatic when I received the very first cheque for the Malaysian AIDS Foundation’s Paediatric AIDS Fund last Friday.

It’s always nice when someone responds to you in a positive way and that cheque surely made my day. It came from Zainiati Zainal Abidin of Cheras.

Soon after, I broke the news to some colleagues, replied a few e-mails and popped a blueberry bubble gum in my mouth before heading to the 1 Utama Shopping Centre for the DJ Battle Championship 2007.

I had no lesson for the week as my teacher DJ Low from the Bionic DJ Academy was busy handling the DJ Battle and the Battle of the Year Break Dance Championship.

Both competitions were part of 1 Utama’s Fitness and Youth-fest programme, which ran from July 4 to 8.

The event, endorsed by the Youth and Sports Ministry also featured The One Challenge Table Soccer Championship and Malaysian Fitness Championship Finals.

However, my visit for the day was to watch the DJ battle.
The champion: Syed Mohd Rizal @ DJ Ritz from Singapore.

The event was held at the Oval, the lower ground floor.

As I made my way there using the escalator I could hear the loud display of skills by the participants.

Shoppers, mostly youths, were taking in the sights and sounds with enthusiasm.

Curious, I peered down to look and saw Low and DJ Nesh from Laundry bar hosting the event.
DJ Nesh

Also on stage were turntable sets and on the floor, there were more young people seated to watch the show. It was a battleground with 16 deejays from Malaysia and Singapore trying to outdo each other by spinning, scratching and juggling for the RM13,500 prize money and deejay gear.
Judges & Crowd

The competition held for the second consecutive year was aimed at promoting the deejay culture in Malaysia. Low said deejaying was a good alternative for youngsters who liked music.

“It’s just like sending your children for piano and guitar lessons. Deejaying is a skill and it should not be associated with bad lifestyle,” he said.

The competition was divided into two categories – six-minutes and two-minutes.

Syed Mohd Rizal @ DJ Ritz from Singapore was the champion in both categories. In total, he won RM2,000 cash and RM5,000 worth of Pioneer products.

After the prize giving, I managed to catch contestants R. Jaiganesh and Chong Kok Keong for an interview since they were also Low’s students when they started out. It would be good to get some tips from them. Jaiganesh, known as DJ Ra, who won third place in the six-minute category, said he first learnt mixing music in 2000 while still in college. The 27-year-old graphic designer slowly developed an interest in the scratching techniques in 2005 and has since been at it as well.

“It is a hobby for me,” said Jaiganesh who spins at Nouvo on Saturdays. He was also the champion of the 2005 Fort Minor DJ Spin Off. For a beginner, Jaiganesh said practise was the best way to learn spinning.

“When you practise, you are able to master the different parts of a song better,” he said, adding that he practised four hours a day when he first started out. Four hours a day! And here I am trying my best to make it six hours per week – looks like I have a long way to go.

Chong, also known as DJ Layzr, is a 3D animator by profession but scratching is a hobby for him. Ever since he picked up the skill three years ago, he has taken part in a few competitions. He won second place in the 2005 Fort Minor DJ Spin Off and grabbed the third place in last year’s DJ Battle. This year, Chong became first runner up in the six-minute category.

“I became interested in the art when I watched a video of a famous deejay while surfing the net. I love the fact that we can create our own tempo and make it personal. It’s all about creation,” he said, adding that he took lessons at Low’s Academy.

Like Jaiganesh, Chong had the same advice for me – practice, practice and more practice.

As I congratulated them and left the lower ground, I wished I could be at least half as good as them in my mixing by the end of month.

My lessons with Low resumes this week.

Gallery:

Contestants:

Ko-Flow Showcase:

Source:

thestar.com

More pics at:

http://nkeat.multiply.com/photos/album/19

It features some new songs that she is working on as well some subliminal disses towards Fat Joe.

Cop it if you can in Singapore.

Local talent Ahli Fiqir is releasing their sophmore album soon. Check out all leading record stores in Late July/Early August.

Tracklist :

01. Rap Untuk Rakyat
02. Selamat Datang Ke Industri Muzik
03. Kawan
04. 2X5
05. Beruk
06. Indung
07. Ikut Rentak
08. Langkah Laksamana
09. Dia Datang
10. Kelentong
11. Tiada Yang Kekal

Milestones for PALMA Asia was when DJ Vadim came and showcase his cutting edge turntablism as well Singapore’s 1st Region PALA DJ Battle ran until it had become defunct. At this event, the Pioneer CDJ1000 as well as the Pioneer 909 Hybrid Mixer were being exhibited and have since gone on to be the standard in the DJ/Entertainment Industry. Vestax Vinyl Cutter made an entrance to this exhibition in 2001, paving the way for Turntablist to custom and cut out their own vinyls for DJ Battles.

Roving Report:

1st time going to PALME ASIA 2007 was both an eye-opener as well as abit of an awkward situation for me.

I do not understand alot of politicking and talk which was going. There was this habit which I find rather comical where everyone were like rushing to get this Shures paperbag as if it was a Prada bag give-away.

For the DJs wise, Pioneer Pro DJ line is represented well with Phil K doing DVD showcases as well as House Mixes.

And I was rather surprise, IShop together with Rane were holding a booth where Seratos/Skratch Live as well as Rane TTM56 & TTM 57 were being showcased as well as being displayed. 2 DJs, one local and one fillipino took turn to showcase on the deck as well as some mix-sets. The local DJ, who is chinese, but is someone who I have never seen in local DJ Battles was ripping it up with his cuts while the Fillipino DJ was rocking a mix-set. Unfortunately, I didn’t documenta any footage or vids this time around. I took one of their goodie bags filled with Rane T-shirts, stickers and Dvds so that I can pass to some of my friends in school.

Rane Interface

DJ Set-ups

The Denon Booth was neat and had a DJ explaining the benefits of their technology.

Notice alot of these metal poles known as truss stage set-up which were used for concerts with a company known as Showtec Group being labelled as official NDP 2007 supporters and stage set up.

There were also huge concert console as well as recording console with a price tag of up to $100,000US which was credited as being the official console for Princess Diana 2007 Park concert.

I broke down in laughter with my classmate when I thought i saw a cannon being on display. But as it turns out it is a snow-making machine.
Cannon?

I also notice some sexily-cladded model which look rather out of place in an AV exhibition. My classmate comment that their booth is a front where their main services were for illegal vices which brought on more laughter.

A front?

Nonetheless it was a educational trip which anticipates me for the next one. Although I do not understand why celebrated DJs like Atrak & Dstyles have been featured in PALA Thailand but not in Singapore. Odd

Anyway here are some random pics I think. Hope you readers enjoy:

Overhead Lights:

Stages:

Pic of the day:
“What are you looking @?”

Random Pics:

1

One of the most prolific producers of this generation, who have constantly invent and reinvent and soundscape of Music genres, is releasing his personal sophmore album after his debut album “Tim’s Bio: Life From da Basement” in 1998.

In his debut album, Timbo merely tries to present his team of artistes under his stable of Da Bassment Crew at that time, which includes Mad Skillz, Magoo, the late Aaliyah, Missy Elliott, Playa and Ginuwine, while at the same time introducing an up-and-coming radio DJ turned emcee by the name of Ludacris on “Fat Rabbit”.

Reworking of the Spiderman theme for “Here We Come”, just shows the sheer versatlity of the man who used to be Devante Swing of Jodeci’s producing team.

Much focus of the album is on the beats rather than the rhymes. However, there were memorable verses by guest rappers such as Jay-Z on the “Lobster & Scrimp”

Fast forward to 2007, after executive producing and reigniting Justin Timberlake’s and Nelly Furtado’s career off from his Mosely Music Group (MMG) label with a bang, Timbo is set to release his second album “Shock Value” which presents a whole new musical kaledoscope.

In his sophmore album, he continues to redefine popular music according to his own rules collaborating with a slew of artistes from Fallout Boy, The Hives, Elton John (the real Piano Man), 50 cent, Tony Yayo, Paul Wall, Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado while as always introducing his new stable of artistes which he is working on such as Sebastian (who is his younger brother) and Attitude.

In an allhiphop.com interview, he rightfully claims that only he, Dre Dre, Quincy Jones and Teddy Riley are considered the greats in music production while throwing jabs at Scott Storch (a producer who once collaborated with Timbo for Justin Timberlake’s “Cry me a River”).

The only regret as mention by Timbo in so many interviews was that a track which was recorded with Jay-Z didnt make it on time for the final release. This album’s direction is definately not hip-hop oriented but rather more to disco.

There is also a “secret” track which he collaborates with Sri Lanka reggae artist M.I.A which is currently floating along the cyberspace.

Although I have only been able to listen to some of the tracks which includes the braggy “Bounce”, new wave disco “The Way I Are” and the corny but amusing “Bombay”, I am pretty certain it is a mind boggling experience to please all listeners alike, given the diversity of Timbaland’s production skills.

Ring Master:
Ringmaster Sweet-Talker welcoming the crowd

“Look everyone, it’s Superman”

CDJs catching Wreck:

Crowd Chilling & Boozing:

Crowd Getting into it:

Spellbound by the DJs’ Musik

LSD Vision after too many Jim Bean

Crowd ready to Get Down on it

Michael Scofield’s younger sister being spotted

Jim Beans Gals Luv it too

My Humps

Junglist Ready to MASH it:

Ready, On your Mark, Get Set

Alls Hell Breaks Loose

Junglist Ripping it

Head Bang 2 it

“Encore, Encore”

Convocation:

“Who u think win, leh? All so good, dey”

Results:

“All of you go sign 4 Extra Duties”

“KBOX anyone?”

“Group hug anyone?”

“I WON HAHAHHAAHHA”

Some Vids, the rest can be found at http://youtube.com/user/skratchtv:

With Def Soul going out of business and Dru Hill on hiatus, Sisqo returns with his new single “Who’s Ur Daddy” from his new album “The Last Dragon” from his label Dragon Music Group.

Alan Arkin as Grandpa Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine

Brik A Breaks is Troubl’s 3rd Battle Break with LaFoundation Battle Tools being his 1st and 2nd.

Upon listening, you got alot of down tempo euro skratch beats to cut to and there is some thumping ass skratch sentence for skratching/beat-juggling.

However, this is quite a technical battle break where one has to really sit down and figure out how to utilize some of its Euro-style of sound into his/her routine unlike the more user-friendly battle break of I-Emerge’s “Audiocide”.

Nontheless, a very dope battle break which I encourage you to get if you style is centered alongside the European Skratch DJs.

~ ED

TRUST Central aims to be the common point for exchange of information, best practices and resources among the many other like-minded organisations that are working to promote racial harmony. TRUST Central aims to be a catalyst to add value to the efforts of like-minded organisations, as well as to provide inputs where appropriate.

Also an initiator of programmes towards a greater racial appreciation and understanding, TRUST Central organises a rich diversity of activities to encourage natural and meaningful interaction amongst our residents, regardless of ethnicity. These activities include celebrating and involving all in ethnic or religious festivals, as well as through arts and sports programmes.

On 17 June 2007, Skratch was proud to be part of the operations community in organising the physical event of the Trust Website Launch. Our Preisident of Singapore, Mr S.R. Nathan host a dialogue session with youths of different races and from different walks of life.

Source Link: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/070618/5/singapore282799.html

Check out Sho’down June in which we have a hand in supporting & organising.