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Spotify taps DJ Semtex for hip-hop culture podcast
Following in the footsteps of Zane Lowe and Ryan Newman, hip-hop aficionado DJ Semtex is the latest BBC Radio veteran to jump ship to a music streaming service. He'll be handling co-presenting duties alongside RCA's Parris O'Loughlin-Hoste on season two of Spotify's original podcast Who We Be TALKS_; a weekly show that explores the "music and lifestyle that surrounds [hip-hop and grime] culture".
Spotify adds ‘The Joe Budden Podcast’ to its hip-hop lineup
Spotify announced today it's teaming up with the popular Joe Budden Podcast. Beginning September 12th, the hip-hop focused podcast will stream exclusively on Spotify, dropping new episodes every Wednesday and Saturday. Budden said that the partnership was humbling and that he was excited by this new chapter. "The podcast has been a great amplifier for my voice but fast growing into a platform for more and more artists to share their own personal feelings, stories and experiences," he said in a statement. "I'm anxious to get started and optimistic about what's to come."
Pusha T’s ‘heir’ app lets users vote on hip-hop tracks
Pusha T is making moves in the tech world, announcing a new app he's working on called "heir." With heir, users will be able to vote on hip-hop tracks, upvoting them with a fire emoji or downvoting them with a skull and crossbones. Voters can also earn a digital currency called Crown -- upvoting a track that turns out to be popular can you earn you Crown, for example, while upvoting one that's a flop with other users could cause you to lose it.
Post Malone sets Apple Music streaming record with song ‘Rockstar’
Post Malone's song "Rockstar" has just surpassed DJ Khaled's "I'm the One" as the record with the most Apple Music streams in one week. The Verge reports that the song snagged 25 million streams in a single week on the music service, which accounted for 56 percent of all first week streams of the song in the US. That's pretty impressive for a service that hosts around a sixth of the users that Spotify does.
Jump between a dream and reality in Major Lazer's new music video
Major Lazer's latest EP, Know No Better, came out last month, surprising fans two years after the electronic hip-hop group's previous LP, Peace is the Mission. The original music video for the track — which features Travis Scott, Camila Cabello and Quavo on vocals — has a video game-style first person perspective that shows the unseen protagonist handing out flyers with the title printed on it to various strangers on the street. Now, though, the group has a totally new video for the track. While watching, you can click an icon to switch between two perspectives of a boy's life. It's fun to change viewpoints between his ordinary life and his aspirational dreams, and the story the video tells is both emotional and adorable.
Spotify's latest show is basically 'Carpool Karaoke'
Apple already locked down a season's worth of James Corden's Carpool Karaoke, but Spotify isn't letting that stop it from developing a similar show of its own. The streaming service announced this week and it teamed up with Russell Simmons on Traffic Jams, a show that pairs a hip-hop artist and a producer who haven't worked together to create something new before they arrive at their destination. Oh yeah, they have to do so while sitting in rush-hour traffic in Los Angeles.
Sammus is somewhere between nerdcore and afrofuturism
Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo used to get the same question every time she set down the mic and stepped off the stage. She came to expect it after performing in crowded bars, big music festivals or comic book stores, and the question usually came from a well-meaning stranger or new fan of her music. "Who makes your beats for you?" This would happen right after she'd screamed into the mic that she was Sammus, a producer and rapper, and that everything she just did on stage was her work. The question would come in different forms -- "Where's your boyfriend?" was another staple -- but the sentiment was the same. People assumed Sammus didn't produce her own music.
Watch as Murs livestreams a world record 24-hour rap session
In what could be one of this week's most entertaining livestreamed events: LA-based rapper Murs is currently in the middle of a marathon, possibly record-setting YouTube-broadcasted rap session. As part of a promotional stunt with Boost Mobile, Murs is attempting to rap for a solid 24 hours straight (with a merciful five-minute break every hour) to set the record for world's longest recorded rap session.
The grandfather kings of nerdcore
In terms of popularity, nerdcore occupies a space somewhere between underground hip-hop and the end of the universe, according to rapper and educator Mega Ran. Nerdcore is a brand of hip-hop characterized by a focus on geeky things, which means its subject matter is as vast and varied as Tolkien's Encircling Sea. It's niche but limitless; visible but not known. It's big enough to support the musical careers of artists like MC Lars, MC Frontalot, Beefy and MC Chris, yet it's small enough that even the most fervent Star Wars fan may have never heard of it. Even in an age where geek chic is hot and "nerd" is no longer a vicious insult, nerdcore remains underground -- but its influence on popular culture is showing. More mainstream rappers like Childish Gambino, Danny Brown, Deltron 3030, RZA and Dr. Octagon regularly reference science fiction, astrophysics, video games and other traditionally geeky topics, at times while sampling the likes of Final Fantasy 7 and Pac-Man. Beyond the Billboard charts, Hamilton is a national phenomenon about American colonial history, and even Game of Thrones has its own mixtape.
Netflix's pricey Baz Luhrmann hip-hop drama arrives today
Of all the Netflix productions, including the critically panned, $90 million Marco Polo, none have had as difficult a gestation (and high a price tag) as The Get Down. You can now download the hip-hop drama, set in the Bronx of the 1970s and created by notorious perfectionist Baz Luhrmann. It reportedly cost $120 million and strained relations between its director, producer Sony Pictures and Netflix, but the end result is "both messy and wonderful," according to Variety.
RZA teams up with Atari on a new video game-inspired album
RZA already made one big announcement this summer, and the member of the Wu-Tang Clan doesn't appear to be done yet. The rapper/producer announced this week that he's teaming up with Atari on a new album that takes inspiration from the audio in the company's video games. "I'm so excited to work on these iconic games to deliver what I believe will be one of my best albums," RZA told Billboard.
Recommended Reading: Twitter's identity crisis
What Everyone's Got Wrong About Twitter (Including Twitter) Ian Schafer, Recode Twitter's earnings dropped this week, followed by a number of theories on the future of the company. Deep Focus founder and chairman Ian Schafer posted an op-ed on the matter to discuss the social network's identity crisis. Is it a media company? Is it a data company? Schafer makes the case that Twitter needs to decide soon, for it's own good.
Nicki Minaj and Jason Statham are getting their own mobile games
Hip-hop fans have had a lot to deal with lately: Dr. Dre shelved Detox, there's that whole Meek Mill and Drake feud that's spilling out all over Twitter and Run the Jewels might not be hitting your town on this fall's tour. There's a bright spot, though: Nicki Minaj is getting her own game courtesy of the folks behind Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. Glu Mobile announced that Minaj has lent her likeness, voice and creative directorship exclusively to the company for a game expected to launch next summer. Also joining the lady who kissed a girl and liked it is The Transporter himself, Jason Statham.
Recommended Reading: Science fiction's influence on hip-hop music
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you'll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read. The Subversive Science Fiction of Hip-Hop by Rose Eveleth Motherboard I'd never really thought about all of the science fiction references in hip-hop until I read Rose Eveleth's piece for Motherboard that pointed out all of the ties. I listen to a lot of hip-hop, but for some reason, all of the mentions of sci-fi stuff -- from superheroes to dystopia and our human limits -- only got a passing glance from me. This offers a solid look at all of the crossover and serves as further proof that nerdery is universal.
The owner of music's most influential sample is finally getting paid
The "Amen break" is arguably the most important 6 seconds of music ever recorded. With the popularization of sampling, the 4-bar drum solo (originally from The Winstons' 1969 track "Amen, Brother") become a mainstay of early hip hop, before being sped up and chopped to become the breakbeat that defined jungle, drum 'n' bass and techno music. Despite it featuring in many, many successful tracks, The Winstons never received any royalties for use of the sample, something that a new crowdfunding campaign is hoping to fix. A GoFundMe page tilted "The Winstons Amen Breakbeat Gesture" is looking to raise as much money as possible for Richard L. Spencer, The Winstons' lead vocalist and "Amen, Brother" copyright holder.
Hip-hop producer J Dilla's beat-making gear headed to Smithsonian
Last week, the Smithsonian announced two of J Dilla's production tools would be displayed at the upcoming National Museum of African American History and Culture. Thanks to a donation from his mother (pictured above), the influential artist/producer's custom Minimoog Voyager and Akai Music Production Center (MPC) 3000 Limited Edition will be part of a collection that aims "to explore how popular music helped shape the nation's history and culture politically and socially." Before passing away in 2006, J Dilla worked with A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, The Roots, The Pharcyde and many more, creating unique sounds for each in addition to his own solo work. "Everyone who pays attention to hip-hop has heard J Dilla's work whether they realize it or not," said Timothy Ann Burnside, the museum's popular music historian. "In the very demanding world of hip-hop producers, he was one of the busiest and most sought-after." When the museum opens in 2016, Dilla's instruments will be included in the "Musical Crossroads" exhibit -- one of the venue's 11 inaugural collections. If you're unfamiliar with his work, there's a brief introductory Spotify playlist from our Engadget channel just after the break.
Internet.org targets efficiency and cost reduction to connect the next 5 billion
If Internet.org ever hopes to be successful with its goal of bringing affordable internet to the next 5 billion people, the cost of delivery will need to be much cheaper than it is today. Today, members of the coalition -- which includes Facebook, Qualcomm, Ericsson and others -- released a substantial 70-page white paper that outlines some of the initial steps that are on the drawing board. According to the group's estimates, data delivery is currently 100 times too expensive to execute the vision of Internet.org, but all of that could change within the next decade. To accomplish this, Internet.org is seeking ways to bring a tenfold improvement to the cost of delivering data, along with apps that are 10 times more efficient. For Facebook's part, it highlights technologies such as HipHop for PHP and the HipHop virtual machine, which allows its existing servers to accommodate 500 percent more traffic than before, and its Air Traffic Control system, which allows it to simulate different mobile networks and congestion systems around the world. Similarly, Facebook is looking to compression technologies such as WebP -- currently in use on its Android app -- to replace image formats such as PNG and JPEG, which alone could reduce network traffic by 20%. Another challenge is looming, however, as Qualcomm estimates that the demand for data will double each year over the next 10 years, ultimately increasing 1000 fold over where it is today. To meet that demand, it's lobbying for a substantial spectrum reallocation, along with technologies such as carrier aggregation, LTE-Broadcast and LTE Direct. Combine this with more unconventional approaches that it'll reveal at a later date, and you begin to appreciate the massive undertaking that lies ahead for the partners of Internet.org.
Federal domain seizure raises new concerns over online censorship
It's been a little more than a year since the US government began seizing domains of music blogs, torrent meta-trackers and sports streaming sites. The copyright infringement investigation, led by US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities, quickly raised eyebrows among many free speech and civil rights advocates, fueling a handful of legal challenges. Few are more compelling, or frightening than a case involving Dajaz1.com. As TechDirt reports, the popular hip-hop blog has been at the epicenter of a sinuous and seemingly dystopian dispute with the feds -- one that underscores the heightening controversy surrounding federal web regulation, and blurs the constitutional divide between free speech and intellectual property protection. Dajaz1 was initially seized under the 2008 Pro IP Act, on the strength of an affidavit that cited several published songs as evidence of copyright infringement. As it turns out, ,any of these songs were actually provided by their copyright holders themselves, but that didn't stop the government from seizing the URL anyway, and plastering a warning all over its homepage. Typically, this kind of action would be the first phase of a two-step process. Once a property is seized, US law dictates that the government has 60 days to notify its owner, who can then choose to file a request for its return. If the suspect chooses to file this request within a 35-day window, the feds must then undertake a so-called forfeiture process within 90 days. Failure to do so would require the government to return the property to its rightful owner. But that's not exactly how things played out in the case of Dajaz1. For more details on the saga, head past the break.
T-Pain tells Toshiba 'it ain't hardcore unless its hexacore' (video)
Judging by its most recent sales numbers, Toshiba's doing pretty well for itself in the US market, but you and we both know there are always more demographics waiting to be tapped up. Such as the hardcore hexacore lovers or those whose megagigabytes are terrorizing their... sorry, T-Pain, prosation isn't even a word. Anyway, it's a video, it's funny, and it's after the break.
'Dippin' In My Tesla' is the best rap song ever about a Tesla
Don't bother reading this text, just listen to the intensely awful hip-hop ode to an electric car. Elon Musk, where you at!?
