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The Hip Hop Congress will host its 4th Annual Midwest Summit : ’Politics, Globalization and the Hip Hop Generation- in collaboration with the Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor (www.mesa.umich.edu) from Friday, February 1st to Sunday February 3rd, 2008.

The Hip Hop Congress will host its 4th Annual Midwest Summit : ’Politics, Globalization and the Hip Hop Generation- in collaboration with the Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor (www.mesa.umich.edu) from Friday, February 1st to Sunday February 3rd, 2008.

Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that Hip Hop Congress means drugs, guns, and scantily
clad women. We highlight the entire Hip Hop spectrum and advocate a broader vision of Hip Hop culture than the stereotypes often seen on TV and Radio. Hip Hop Congress (HHC) is an International Grassroots Network that educates, empowers, and unites individuals. We preserve and evolve Hip Hop by inspiring social action and cultural creativity within the community. Drawn from evolving Black cultural expression, the Summit will connect this modern cultural phenomenon to University of Michigan’s programming in celebration of Black History Month. To highlight this, the Summit will feature Black History 101 Mobile Museum.

The Summit will bring together a diverse group of people encouraging participants to educate themselves on world and domestic issues, organize action, and recognize how hip hop culture can be used to create positive change. The goal of this year’s summit is to connect those interested in Hip Hop with education, social consciousness and community action.

Activities will feature a concert featuring renowned Hip Hop artists and will include workshops, panels and discussion on prominent domestic and world issues related to Hip Hop addressing Race, Gender, Politics, and Globalization. Scheduled guests include Professor Griff of Public Enemy, Prince Whipper Whip of the Legendary Cold Crush Brothers, OneBeLo, DLabrie and the Motor City Hip Hop Revue featuring Baatin of Slum Village, Invincible, Supa Emcee, 5 ELA, Versiz and more. There will also be workshops teaching Graffiti Art, Breakdancing, DJ’ing, and MC’ing.

The Summit will be attended by interested parties from throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, California, New York and more.

Hip Hop Congress is an organization run by active young people who understand the societal pressures of today’s youth. We use Hip Hop to inspire social and civic action and stimulate individual creativity. The Congress was created in 1993 to organize Hip Hop culture and pool resources and ideas into viable programs based on uplifting the greater Hip Hop community. Since its inception, HHC has expanded around the world, making good music, good citizens and good connections across our globe.

In yet another setback for Remy Ma, the rapper’s friend Makeda Barnes-Joseph has filed a $10 million civil lawsuit against her, according to Reuters. Remy Ma (real name: Reminisce Smith) is accused of shooting Barnes-Joseph in July after a dispute that took place on a street in New York.

In the suit, reportedly filed in a New York court on Friday, Barnes-Joseph accuses Remy Ma of “willfully, wantonly and maliciously” shooting her. The suit also names the rapper’s record companies, including Universal Music Group and Sure Shot Recordings, as defendants, alleging they encouraged Remy Ma to engage in violent behavior as part of her image.

Ivan Fisher, her lawyer, said Barnes-Joseph’s lawsuit was “looking for the deepest pocket it could find” and called it “irresponsible,” according to Reuters.

Barnes-Joseph reportedly claims in the suit that she suffered severe physical harm and mental anguish after the July shooting, which took place on a New York street after a dispute over money missing from the rapper’s belongings. Remy Ma fled the scene but later turned herself in and was charged on counts of attempted murder, assault and weapon possession.

Remy Ma is due to stand trail next year on charges of gang assault and witness tampering stemming from an August incident in which prosecutors say the rapper ordered a group of men to attack Barnes-Joseph’s boyfriend. The man suffered a shattered jaw in the attack, according to The Associated Press. Remy Ma has pleaded not guilty to the charges, vehemently denying that she shot Barnes-Joseph. She faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

With holiday tunes on the airwaves since the Thanksgiving turkey was carved, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers recently announced its Top 25 most performed holiday songs for the past five years, based on performance data tracked by radio airplay monitoring service Mediaguide.

Among the 25 songs picked this year, more than half were composed, co-written or performed by Jewish artists.

Number one on the list is “The Christmas Song,” a classic Christmas song, written in 1944 by vocalist Mel Torm/ and Bob Wells, both of whom are Jewish.

According to Torm/, the song was written during a blistering hot summer. In an effort to “stay cool by thinking cool,” the most-performed (according to BMI) Christmas song was born.

The Nat King Cole Trio first recorded the song early in 1946. A second recording by Cole was made the same year utilizing a small string section, this version becoming a massive hit on both the pop and R&B charts. Cole’s original 1946 recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1974.

The song is typically subtitled with its opening line, “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire”.”

The Nat King Cole Trio first recorded the song early in 1946. A second recording by Cole was made the same year utilizing a small string section, this version becoming a massive hit on both the pop and R&B charts. Cole’s original 1946 recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1974.

The song is typically subtitled with its opening line, “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire”.”

Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” is another favorite and at No. 5 on this year’s list.

“White Christmas” is the historical “top star” of popular Christmas songs. Its incredible success inspired scores of other songwriters to try to write a Christmas song.

Berlin, one of the most famous songwriters in American history, was born Israel Baline in what is now Russia, or possibly Belarus.

He came to the States in 1891. His father is alternately reported to have been a cantor or rabbi, but didn’t work in either capacity when the family moved to America. His father’s death, when Irving was 13, forced the young composer to find work, even singing in the streets, just so he and his family could eat.

Berlin certainly never hid the fact that he was Jewish, even though he changed his name. He adopted “Berlin” because that was how his last name, Baline, was misspelled on the sheet music cover of his first published song.

Berlin was absolutely very much an American patriot and “God Bless America” was a sincere statement of his beliefs. The royalties to that song go to the Boys and Girls Scouts.

“Let It Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!”

This song was written (1945) by the Jewish song writing team of lyricist Sammy Cahn (1913-1993) and music composer Jule Styne (1905-1994).

In the 1950s, probably half of all Americans would recognize the names of this song-writing duo.

Previews of coming movies would actually sometimes say that the film featured a Sammy Cahn/Jule Styne tune, and that tune would usually end up high on the “hit parade.”

Cahn won the Oscar for best song four times: once with Styne, and three times with composer Jimmy Van Heusen, who wasn’t Jewish.

Cahn was born Sammy Cohen on the Lower East Side of New York, the son of Polish Jewish immigrants. He changed his name from Cohen to Kahn to Cahn, to avoid being confused with a popular entertainer of the day with a similar name and, then, a songwriter with a similar name.

Styne was born in London, England to Jewish parents from the Ukraine. His family moved to Chicago when he was 8.

Read full story: http://blog.mp3adrenalin.com/2007/12/23/wonderful-songs-of-the-holiday-season/

… and we continue. This is TOP 20 songs of 2007 y.

20. Hot Club de Paris - Clockwork Toy
Kept coming back to this song over the others. I liked the perpetuallness of the sound as a whole. Not as fun as some of their other stuff, but better.

19. Good Charlotte - I Don’t Wanna be in Love
There’s a lot to hate about this song. The (Dance Floor Anthem) qualifier. The “but most suckas hate it” lyric. But man is there a lot of things working here too. Safe to say this is the best thing Good Charlotte has ever done. I absolutely hated with a passion their early stuff like “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” Maybe more than maybe any band ever. But this is, overall, some really good stuff.

18. Maccabees - X-Ray
Quietly turned out to be one of my top 5 albums of the year. Still one of my go-to albums 10 months after first hearing it. This is the best track on the album, tho I could probably make a case for 6 or 7 of them.

17. The Shins - Australia
Another overlooked album based on principal. These guys had no chance after Garden State, but you know what? They held their own and put out a pretty cool record. This is one of the better Smiths ripoff songs I’ve heard in recent years.

16. Bright Eyes - Cleanse Song
Haven’t listened to this album in a few months, but this song makes me wanna go back and get back into it again, cause I really loved it the first time through. This was the album-stopping track for me. Great imagery.

15. Nakatomi Plaza - A Manifest Destiny Grows In Brooklyn
I loved this record. Top 5 of the year, maybe. This opening track is a killer…vintage Rainer Maria. Wish more people listened to them cause I think there’s a pretty big audience out there that’d be into what they’ve got to offer.

14. Black Kids - I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You
You know, drop all the hype and nonsense and these guys have exactly 2 excellent songs. There’s no way around that. This one is the better of them. Someday, they will be a footnote on the Wikipedia entry for “2000’s Indie Rock” as the band that finally killed the blogrock trend, but for now we can just enjoy this jam and worry about the consequences later.

13. Of Montreal - Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse
This album was greater than the sum of its parts. There are some songs that stood out, but the whole thing was what made it so great. This was the first song I remember hearing off the record where I was like “whoh, we’ve got something special here.”

12. Plain White T’s - Hey There Delilah
I hated this band so much when I saw them perform that “I don’t hate you, but I really really really don’t like you” song (actual lyrics) on TV once. But their placement on the emusic top 10 taunted me for long enough that I finally had some extra credits and gave it a shot. Turns out this song is quite a burner. A bit corny, for sure, but catchy and endearing enough to work on me.

11. Maximo Park - Books from Boxes
I loved the last Maximo Park album, but didn’t listen to this one much. BfB was a major standout track, but the rest was quickly forgotten.

10. GladOS (Portal) - Still Alive
(Portal Spoilers ahead, for anyone who is planning on playing it wait on reading this.) Every geeky gamer owes it to themselves to have this in their top 10. Imagine the roller coaster of emotions, playing a 2 hour long puzzle game, until suddenly (SPOILERS) you’re thrust from the game world, trying to escape the lab the game had previously been contained in. After another adventure that lasts almost half as long as the entire 18 levels previously, you defeat the boss that had been directing/taunting you the entire game, and the last moment is you, dead on your side, but aboveground in the real world. You destroyed the system, at the expense of your life. Bittersweet, but satisfying.

9. Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma
I hated these guys on principal until I actually saw them live and heard their songs. Turns out, they’re goofy college rock! And awesome! If the Black Kids killed blog rock, Vampire Weekend handed them the rifle. If a band that sounds like this can get pretentious music fans on board, then there’s really nothing left to argue about.

8. Band of Horses - No One’s Gonna Love You
Such a great song. Loved hearing it on Chuck a few weeks ago. Band of Horses is good for 1 amazing song off each album, which pushes the album of otherwise above average tracks to an overall great listen. Kinda like that one kid who throws off the class curve. The Funeral was that track last year, and this is the one for 2007.

7. Black Lips - Hippy Hippy Hurrah
This is barely even a song. One epic guitar sequence and a lot of incomprehensible mumbling. But it’s so great, isn’t it? simple, effective. Good beyond explanation.

6. Kings of Leon - McFearless
Kings of Leon are good for at least one amazing song of the year contender per album. Their last two albums have been really solid overall too, but this is just a different level. Surprised they don’t have more mainstream traction. What about this would a Nickelback fan not like?

5. Feist - My Moon My Man
This was the Feist song in an ad you saw every 5 seconds before that was cool. Aside from being an impossibly catchy jam that could have been a late 90’s Jennifer Lopez supersmash in a different life, it provides a perfect speedwalking pace. I’ve never been late to work while listening to this song.

4. T-Pain/Cloud Cult - Collide You a Drank
Better than both originals by far. How they’re able to make those CC hooks work 100x better than they already were is incredible. Taking the rest of the world’s song of the year and mashing it up with one of my favorite bands of the decade is a special thing. Hood Internet is genius.

3. Pinback - Good to Sea
Silly puns aside, I love this song. The last Pinback album had remarkable lasting power, and while this one didn’t quite stick with me like I hoped it would, this song sure did. One of my most listened individual tracks of the year.

2. Tegan and Sara - Nineteen
For the rest of my life, if I ever hear the phrase “I felt you in my legs, before I ever met you” shout out at me from a jukebox, I’ll think of 2007. Fondly. Brilliant song. The best by far from one of the only albums this year that actually mattered to me.

1. Paramore - Misery Business
I was pretty high on this song already, but it jumped to all time fav territory once I read Hayley’s livejournal explaining the history behind it. This is the best song of the year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Hope you will stay with us in the 2008!!

Britney Spears’s 16-year-old sister Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant.

Nickelodeon, which carries her TV show Zoey 101, said in a statement: “We respect Jamie Lynn’s decision to take responsibility in this sensitive and personal situation. We know this is a very difficult time for her and her family, and our primary concern right now is for Jamie Lynn’s well being.”

Spears and her mother confirmed the pregnancy to OK! magazine, saying she was 12 weeks along and the father is Jamie Lynn’s longtime boyfriend Casey Aldridge. Aldridge’s mother confirmed it to TMZ.com.

“It was a shock for both of us, so unexpected,” Jamie Lynn told OK!, according to the Associated Press. “I was in complete and total shock and so was he.”

Spears told the magazine that after confirming the pregnancy with a home test and a subsequent doctor’s visit, she told only one friend – then waited two weeks before telling anybody else, including her parents.

“I needed to work out what I would do for myself before I let anyone’s opinion affect my decision,” she told the magazine. “Then I told my parents and my friends. I was scared, but I had to do what was right for me.”

Breaking the News to Her Parents
She told her parents just before Thanksgiving.

“I didn’t believe it because Jamie Lynn’s always been so conscientious,” her mother, Lynne Spears, told OK!. “She’s never late for her curfew. I was in shock. I mean, this is my 16-year-old baby.”

Aldridge’s mother, Joyce Aldridge, told TMZ she was “aware of the recent interview regarding her and being pregnant” and that “we are in agreement with everything that was said by Jamie Lynn.”

“Everything is fine,” Joyce Aldridge added.

Spears, a high school junior who is 10 years younger than Britney, had until now escaped much of the attention about her personal life that has surrounded her sister.

Jamie Lynn stars as a schoolgirl at the fictitious Pacific Coast Academy in Zoey 101, finishing its third season next month as one of Nickelodeon’s highest-rated shows.

A rep for Spears was not immediately available for comment.

I’m not gonna do an albums of the year list because there were hardly any full albums that I really got into. Of Montreal, Tegan and Sara, The Maccabees, Paramore and…thats about it. There were lots of albums I listened to, but hardly anything that I went back to over and over throughout the year. So that’s that. There were, however, a lot of songs that I was really excited about this year. Separate from the album they appear on. I’d go back to these before the rest of the album. They defined 2007 more than any individual album, save the four mentioned above. So here is my top 40 of 2007.

40-21, Alphabetically…

Ryan Adams - Halloweenhead
Aside from just being a nice song, it was the ring-tone for my alarm clock phone for the latter part of the year. So I wake up to “I’ve got a baaad ideeea…” every morning. Somehow, it still made the list.

The Black Lips - O Katrina
This song…this band in general, just doesn’t sound 2007. Despite the, um, topical lyrics. Like a completely different era. All said, probably the most enjoyable live band of the year. This is their best song off the latest album.

Digitalism - Pogo
I didn’t want to put this on as a “representative” of this great album, because it’s such a departure from the rest of the band’s stuff. Regardless, it’s still a great tune. If there’s one song to take off of that album tho…one song that I’ll listen to on its own a year or two on the line, this is it.

El-P - The Overly Dramatic Truth
I can never get into El-P’s flow, but his beats are the best. This one wins on that alone.

Justice - Stress
This song is off the charts intense. Maybe not as listenable as some of the other songs on this album, but I like music that creates subliminal reactions. This song makes me twitch.

Menomena - Wet and Rustling
I couldn’t ever get past the first three songs on this record, but man are they good. This is the best of the three, I suppose. My opinion on them changed almost daily when I used to listen to this more often.

Modest Mouse - Dashboard
I really really liked this Modest Mouse album when it came on. It was a perfect progression past the mainstream ‘Float On’ era into a new comfort zone. This was probably the best song on the album, tho there were other contenders. I haven’t listened to it much lately, but I should. It was good.

The National - Mistaken for Strangers
The “Silvery Citibank lights” line, the “Showered and blue blazered” line. The National creates great images. Stuff I can kind of relate to. This song just feels like walking down Lafayette street at 3AM in the rain. I like that.

Of Montreal - She’s a Rejector
Jeez, it’s been so long since I’ve spent a lot of time with this album, it’s hard to pick songs off it. The entire album could have probably made this list had the record been released 6 weeks ago. It was my favorite this year by far, but looking back now, its hard to pick favorites. This was the last song that I decided was my favorite before I stopped listening to this album every day. So points for that.

Okkervil River - Our Live is Not a Movie or Maybe
I never got into this OR album, despite loving them more than ever leading up to the release and it getting a ton of great press. Every time I try to listen to the album, I really get into this jam (first track on the record) then kinda lose focus.

Paramore - Hallelujah
Another alarm clock song. The pre-chorus hook is so huge I love it. Also, I like the way her voice starts at a higher pitch than expected. Thats fun.

Pela - Waiting on the Stairs
This was the song that made me say whoh…these guys are great. Must have seen them live 5 times at the beginning of the year, still love hearing this song. Great moment towards the end of the song where they slow it down and are all “Come sit next to me…” Terrific song.

The Photo Atlas - Light and Noise
In the end, this was a far better song than the rest of the album, which was probably why I never really noticed them take off. This song kind of takes everything I like about music over the last 6 years and mushes it into four minutes.

R. Kelly/Usher - Same Girl
This shit was just genius. Sure, the video was what really put it over the top, but the back and forth dialog, the lyrics about TBS, Waffle House, and that magical “She gonna be looking so stupid when she see us together!!!” line was what won me over. Kudos, Kel.

Rihanna - Please Don’t Stop the Music
Best song off an album that had several other fairly decent tracks. I get excited when I hear this instead of Umbrella at a Knicks game or a Christmas party.

Bruce Springsteen - Radio Nowhere
I thought this was a killer single. Exactly the kind of song that makes people remember that you’re Bruce Springsteen and this is what you do. Not the greatest thing he’s ever done, but it was fun for a couple months towards the end of the summer.

Sum 41 - With Me
One scene on Gossip Girl with Chuck and Blair going at it in the back of a limo and I was sold. I know nothing of what this band is up to since the Fat Lip days, but whatever. I found this song after that episode and listened to it over and over.

Tegan and Sara - Knife Going In
My second favorite song off my second favorite album of the year.

Wilco - You are My Face
I guess this pick came from those VW ads. I heard this song first on there, followed up with the full record and settled back on this song after listening through a couple times. The “I have no idea how this happened!” part, and the guitar part leading into it is one of the top 10 stuck-in-you-head musical moments of the year.

Artists’ Project Earth, a UK-registered charity, launched its ‘Fragile Planet’ music video featuring Sting and Rhythms del Mundo to raise global awareness on climate change issues.

The world premiere of ‘Fragile Planet’ took place on December 10, 2007 on the Indonesian island of Bali, just hours before former US Vice President Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize 2007 in Oslo, Norway. The music video premiered to an international audience of media and delegates attending the UN Conference on Climate Change.

‘Fragile Planet’ fuses musician Sting’s original ‘Fragile’ vocal soundtrack with the Latin sounds of Rhythms del Mundo. These haunting strains are set against poignant images of melting glaciers and forest fires and other visual reminders of the effects of climate change as well as messages that serve as calls-to-action for viewers around the world.

Artists’ Project Earth had produced and directed ‘Fragile Planet’, working closely with Sting and Rhythms del Mundo. This project followed an earlier musical collaboration with both parties to produce the ‘Rhythms del Mundo – Cuba’ CD which also featured other internationally renowned artistes such as Coldplay, U2 and Arctic Monkeys.

“We believe very strongly that the way to get through to people is through the mainstream, by appealing to as wide an audience as possible,” said Mr Kenny Young, director of Artists’ Project Earth.

He added: “Our aim at Artists’ Project Earth is to help create a better world through music and the arts and to support effective projects and awareness-raising initiatives to combat climate change – the most vital environmental issue of our times.”

The ‘Fragile Planet’ project was also sponsored by Global Environment Facility, United Nations Environment Programme, World Bank and Global Initiatives, who jointly hosted the world premiere event with Artists’ Project Earth.

According to Ms Monique Barbut, CEO and Chairperson at the Global Environment Facility, “This video elegantly demonstrates the growing clamour to halt climate change across the globe, where change-makers have been raising their voices in the quest for effective solutions. At the Global Environment Facility, we are pleased to join forces in this compelling reminder that we must all take action – through climate-friendly markets, policy change, meaningful spending to promote sustainable development, and personal responsibility – to tread lightly on this fragile earth.”

Read full story: http://blog.mp3adrenalin.com/2007/12/17/world-premiere-of-%e2%80%98fragile-planet%e2%80%99-music-video-featuring-sting/

H3 Enterprises, Inc. (Pink Sheets: HTRE), the world’s first publicly traded Hip-Hop company, announced today that it will be launching the nation’s first HipHopSodaShop in Tampa, Florida on Tuesday December 18, 2007. The HipHopSodaShop franchise is the backbone of the H3 related businesses and encapsulates not only the numerous revenue streams that the company has developed, but also embodies the “community conscious” approach that H3 applies to all of its endeavors.
Dr. Benjamin Chavis, CEO and President, stated, “Tomorrow we are making Hip-Hop history. At the same time, December the 18th will mark the beginning of a new business franchise that will blend the worlds of Hip-Hip and Wall Street. We are about community economic development and the HipHopSodaShop represents the best of the positive attributes of Hip-Hop culture that will provide an entrepreneurial strategy to help our communities overcome poverty. Most record companies and leading artists ‘drop’ albums on a Tuesday. This Tuesday, H3 Enterprises is ‘dropping’ the HipHopSodaShop concept for the whole wide world to enjoy.”
Keith Chutlian, Chairman of the Board, commenting on the historic grand opening tomorrow, stated, “H3 is the only business I have seen that blends culture, profit, and charity by bringing financial empowerment and giving back to H3 communities both on the ground and on the internet. We are creating a real and virtual way to focus the best of hip hop culture into an artistic, interactive, and rewarding experience. Our scalable model encompasses various sectors such as restaurants, entertainment, and technology in the U.S. and abroad to generate phenomenal growth.”
The HipHopSodaShop comes complete with a healthy quick service menu, merchandising, a state of the art recording studio, 30 giant LCD screens, the latest Xbox 360 live video games, and a large area dedicated to competitive on-line video gaming. The first HipHopSodaShop is over 11,000 sq ft and is a modern day cultural arts center where many forms of Hip-Hop can be expressed by patrons and embraced by the community.
It’s a recipe for success: combine popular music with healthful dining options and flavor with socially-responsible capitalism. The eclectic menu includes limited fried foods and no monounsaturated or polyunsaturated (trans) fats. The shop will feature “rap” sandwiches with few carbohydrates and a beverage line made with antioxidant-rich white tea and sweetened with chicory syrup instead of sugar. Clever monikers, sprinkled throughout the menu, are geared to strike a chord with diners while encouraging financial literacy.
The venue, which is less than a mile from the University of South Florida which has over 40,000 students, is located at 1241 East Fowler Avenue, Tampa, Florida. The 11,000-square-foot space has undergone renovations to become a full-service, conceptually-chic restaurant. It is equipped with a recording studio, multiple 4′x 5′ video screens, tableside video-gaming apparatuses and a DJ/MC booth with surround sound. Targeted to a youthful demographic, aged 13-35, the restaurant will hold special events like open mic nights, live HD sportscasts, live outdoor concerts and cyber gaming. The store will also carry clothing, MP3 players and recorded music.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 2008 inductees have been chosen. They include Madonna, John Mellencamp, the Dave Clark Five, the Ventures and Leonard Cohen. Also being inducted are Little Walter in the sideman category and producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff in the non-performer category. The 2008 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place in New York on March 10, 2008.

On December 12, 76-year-old guitarist and rock pioneer Ike Turner died at his home in San Marcos, California. The controversial legend hired Tina Turner (real name Anna Mae Bullock) in the late 1950s to front his band the Kings of Rhythm. Ike and Tina’s hits include “Proud Mary,” “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine” and “Nutbush City Limits.” Tina divorced Ike in 1976 and wrote about the abusive relationship in her 1986 autobiography, “I, Tina.” They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. Ike was in prison at that time serving a sentence for cocaine possession charges. Following Ike’s death, the Recording Academy released a statement that said, “There is no doubt that Ike Turner was one of rock and roll’s great architects with his genre-defying sound as an instrumentalist and bandleader. His innovative musicality helped lay the foundation for rock n’ roll and R&B more than 50 years ago. As a bandleader, his well-rehearsed ensembles were some of the most exciting live groups the world had ever heard. As a two-time Grammy Award winner and recipient of The Recording Academy’s 2004 Heroes Award, Ike’s legacy as a groundbreaking pioneer in the music industry will never be forgotten.”

Toxicology reports show that 52-year-old Kevin DuBrow, singer for the hard rock group Quiet Riot, died of an accidental cocaine overdose. DuBrow was found dead on November 25 at his home in Las Vegas. Quiet Riot is best known for its 1983 Top 5 hit, “Cum On Feel The Noize.”

19-year-old Dancing With The Stars champion Julianne Hough will have a Country album released in early 2008. She was recently signed to Mercury Records in Nashville and will begin work on the album in January. Earlier this year, Julianne’s first single, “Will You Dance With Me,” was released on iTunes.

The Backstreet Boys’ Howie Dorough married his longtime girlfriend Leigh Boniello on December 8. The ceremony took place in Orlando, Florida. Dorough proposed to Boniello last New Year’s Eve. He says, “She wasn’t expecting it, and I was quite nervous - more nervous about proposing to her in front of 40 family and friends than about performing in front of 40,000 people onstage.” The Backstreet Boys’ latest album, Unbreakable, was released in October of this year. Beginning in February, the group will perform overseas shows in Japan, Australia and Europe.

Fergie came in at first and fifth place in single sales. Her hit “Big Girls Don’t Cry” was the top-selling single of the year for iTunes, while “Glamorous” finished in fifth. Gwen Stefani’s “The Sweet Escape” came in second place, followed by Plain White T’s “Hey There Delilah” and Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend.”

We have all seen the lady in the subway, selling DVDs of Ratatouille or Ocean’s Thirteen while the movie is still in theaters. Another guy sells anthologies of classic bossa nova and seventies soul music on the street, saying it is his freedom of speech to make and sell such CDs. Piracy is an everyday feature of the New York landscape.

I was at a bakery/venue/record shop in the Lower East Side called the Cakeshop, waiting for Norway’s Ungdomskulen to play as part of the CMJ Festival. An exec from their label was there, sporting a snappy white blazer and a rakish poof of salt-and-pepper hair. Someone mentioned that I was writing my dissertation about music piracy, and the inevitable discussion about how my research topic was destroying his line of work ensued.

The executive said that online piracy was undermining even acts as little-known as Ungdomskulen. You can see it plainly by how many more people come to the shows than buy the albums, he said. I asked him if iTunes and other ways of legally downloading music were making up for the shortfall. “The digital market is growing,” he said, “but it’s not growing as fast as the physical market is declining.”

Radiohead recently dismissed the physical market, and maybe the market altogether, by releasing their new album, In Rainbows, without the help of a label. (See review elsewhere in this issue.) People can download it from their website, choosing their own price. You could pay nothing for the ten songs, though I paid ten dollars—roughly the price of an album on iTunes. Of course, Radiohead does not have a label to pay, so pretty much all of those ten dollars will go to them. More important, Radiohead is a well-established band with name recognition, a fan base, and plenty of money from its previous hits. They can afford to experiment.

Radiohead is not the only one to experiment in the new world of digital distribution. Kanye West’s Graduate “mixtape” is available for free from his blog, weaving together tracks from his latest official album (in stores) with contributions from other rappers and DJs, including the ever-resurrected Biggie Smalls.

Through mixtapes, rappers like Lil Wayne have been doing what workaholics like Prince and Robert Pollard have always wanted to do: release every single sound they ever commit to tape, without permission from the suits. In the bad old days, Prince’s label scoffed at his desire to release an album every couple of months, which disrupted the standard business model of hyping and touring for a new album every two or three years. The Purple One took to writing “Slave” across his face, and eventually started a label that would release triple-albums of filler any time he wished. Recently, he joined the free-music movement by releasing his new album in the UK as a free insert to the Times, a move that record stores were quick to denounce.

The mixtape has been a vehicle for getting an artist’s name out and building street cred—usually without the help of a label. Papoose and Saigon, for instance, released a lot of music before they ever got around to putting out an “official” album. Mixtapes by the likes of DJ Drama have also been a crucial part of the street-hype machine, imbuing an up-and-comer with the status conferred by a well-known DJ. As in the freewheeling early days of hip-hop, these artists stitch together bits of music without seeking permission from copyright owners—a business that landed Drama in jail earlier this year.

Lil Wayne and Radiohead circumvent record labels to hand out music for free. But what is piracy, if not free music? We could easily praise piracy—it lowers the obscene prices put out by music industry bureaucrats, and it opens a profitable enterprise for the people hustling on Canal Street or 125th. They are benefiting indirectly from the record industry, even though the industry would probably not offer many opportunities to them. On the other hand, piracy forces us to ask whether people will actually pay for something if they don’t have to, and whether music-making can be sustained on such a model of payment as Radiohead have proposed for everyone else.

The pirates of the subway and sidewalk do not pose much of a threat to indie rock. No one is going to be hawking copies of an obscure album by a Norwegian punk band on the street. The real threat to indie rock would have to lie online, where tastes can be catered to far more specifically than they can on a store shelf or a blanket in a subway station.

In one sense, online access to free music could be a boon to the underground. No longer would bands have to curry favor with an indie label, which would in turn persuade some big label to use its distribution muscle to make sure its albums get into every K-Mart in the country.

The Internet seems to make possible the time-honored dream of taking the middleman out of the music industry, connecting bands directly to fans. When bootlegging first became a big deal, with the leaking of Bob Dylan’s “basement tapes” in 1969, an article in the lefty Chapel Hill zine Protean Radish mused on the possibility of a noncapitalist way of distributing music. The pirates, it said, were in it for the money, but they did show how people could use new technology to cut out the record label from the equation. “You have to sort of admire them for taking on Columbia and fucking them.” But they were still just “outlaw capitalists.” As long as music was released on discs and tapes, it was hard to prevent the manufacturer from profiting—if not the record label, then the pirate would be exploiting the artist.

Read full story: http://blog.mp3adrenalin.com/2007/12/14/can-piracy-kill-inderpendent-music/