"Get off my plane!!"

Right now I'm living in a plane so high in the sky right now, just flying with no responsibilities or a care in the world!!!...


...however too much of this and you get lazy lol.

So como estas, bitches? I've been on one of those hiatus things I always seem to go through...ahh yes it was that time of the month! All except that if I were to name it after a punctuation mark it'd probably be a "?".

Well something extremely annoying happened to me. I just found out today that I lost my effin credit card!!!! And I actually do not know the day and time I lost it as the last time I opened my wallet was on maybe frickin MONDAY.


I checked my online Visa thing and it says that my last purchase was a week and a bit ago (I don't use my credit card too often) so it definitely did not fall into the wrong hands. I'm thinking it's somewhere around the house....but I cannot find it at all. I'm thinking of just calling Visa up and request for a replacement...

Damn lol...


PS. Props to anyone knowing where the title quote came from and BONUS points if they can provide a YouTube clip lol

Kanye West - "Love Lockdown" [EXCLUSIVE]

If you watched the MTV Music Video Awards a few nights ago (or a rerun on Music Music), Kanye debuted a new song titled "Love Lockdown". I happen to have a studio version of the song --- however it isn't the finalized version as it is evidently not mixed well. Anyways, take a listen:

Kanye West - "Love Lockdown"

(to download click "divShare"...password is talk2em)

This apparently is the lead single for his upcoming album due out in December 2008 (alongside Kanye's "big brother" Jay-Z's album) titled "808's & Heartbreak". It's rumoured that...it will be "auto-tune heavy" meaning a very large bulk (if not all of it) will be Kanye's voice being auto-tuned. What's auto-tune you ask? It's the voice alternater that T-Pain made ever so famous.

Now whether that is good or bad news I dunno --- IMO Kanye's voice can somewhat pull it off. If you liked his songs "I Wonder", "Drunk and Hot Girls", and "Flashing Lights" you'll love his upcoming CD. Which means, don't expect some lyrical rap verses. Expect something completely different...hell it might not even be hip hop! Instead expect Kanye to experiment more with the singing/auto-tune combo.

Think of it as him stepping out of his element and growing as an artist...

[Fan Made Video] "Swagger Like Us"

Featuring Kanye West, Jay-Z, Lil' Wayne & T.I.



I know I'm late again but I had to blog this sooner or later. This song is bananazzz...the line up is insane itself. They shoulda put a couple Westcoast rappers on it too (like The Game and Snoop or something) to make it seem like each coast was represented lol.

Apparently this track will be featured on Jay-Z's next album "The BluePrint 3" due out in December this year and T.I.'s upcoming album "Paper Trail" which will be released this September 30th, 2008 . Weezy coulda gone without the autotuner though, Kanye however can pull it off in his verse.

"Overdose On Life"

Featuring Drake, Travis McCoy & Mickey Factz
(Produced by Omen)



"...Taking over the world, no Pinkie just alotta Brainnnnnnnn..."



(Just for reference: Drake is on 1st verse, Travis on 2nd and Mickey Factz on 3rd)

I know I'm late --- I had this for a while but let's bring it back out for the sake of Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes whose album "The Quilt" was released yesterday.

But hot damn, let me introduce you all to Drake, a Canadian rapper out of Toronto. However you may know him more famously as the actor under the name Aubrey Graham who plays the character Jimmy Brooks on the show Degrassi: The Next Generation. (which BTW, I fucks with that show and I'm not ashamed of it hahaha)

On this "Overdose on Life" track --- me picking that one line up there doesn't even do his verse any justification. He easily had the hottest verse of the three (no disrespect to Travie or Mickey). And trust me, it's not just one good song he shined on...you guys gotta checkout his mixtapes especially "Comeback Season". It's seriously a mixtape of lyrical slaughter.

My goodness.


I'm straight up saying it, DRAKE IS CANADA'S BEST KEPT SECRET!
Quote me on that bitches!...

Check out DRAKE'S MYSPACE.

Oh the "HILAR(IT)Y"!!

Obama is so G...
Okay I'm out for posts today lol...

My main goal today was to get the Michael Phelps post off the main page lol...
(Damn laggy hilarious GIFs!!)


Oh this post wreeks of irony!
Mmmm, iron!

Peace!

Samples War: The death of the Mixtape?

So to bring you up to speed a mixtape is a compilation of songs used for self promotion (usually for an upcoming major release), or just fresh material to keep the artist(s) still relevant in the circle. But usually, it's a bunch of songs put together because the artist wasn't able to get clearance for the samples used in the production.

The thing about mixtapes is it is usually provided for free! (usually downloadable nowadays) Meaning no profit, zero percent, nothin, zilch, is given to the artist when distributing the work --- bootleggers don't count...thats their own money lol.

So how could something that isn't being made money off of, therefore not legally responsible on a technicality, be able to be sued from a freakin lawsuit???

"...The rule book on sampling and the boundaries of intellectual property are in the process of being redefined, this time thanks to a lawsuit filed in the United States District Court in Louisiana by Los Angeles–based Urband & Lazar Music Publishing. The suit names one of hip-hop's biggest stars — and the undisputed king of the mixtape — Lil Wayne, as its defendant. At issue is an uncleared sample from a song called "Once," written by a singer named Karma-Ann Swanepoel. Wayne's version is called "I Feel Like Dying," never "officially" released and never offered for sale to the public, but rather given away as a free download. The case not only questions the tenuous legality of mixtapes but also threatens to stymie their recent evolution from back-alley promotional tool to legitimate art form..."

- LA Weekly

You could read the rest of the article HERE if you'd like.


If anyone knows anything about hip hop music, you'd know sampling is a huge part of the genre. However sampling clearance is such a headache. It involves a long and complicated process that people don't realize. No, its not as simple as contacting the person who created the song, in this case Karma-Ann Swanepoel, being used for a sample because guess what, usually the artists don't even own their own shit! That's what music publishers are for and that's how artists get screwed! BUt thats a whole other topic but anyways...

It ventures to artist publishing, whoever owns the rights to the publishing, and then negotiations begin deciding how much is wanted for the sample and if the artist wanting to sample is using the sample tastefully to the owner of the publishings liking.


Here's what Urband & Lazar Music Publishing (the company suing Lil' Wayne) had to say about their justification of the lawsuit:

"...It starts with that typical music-business horror story of an artist working with the producer who promises them the moon and stars, who sells it to someone else and cuts the original artist out of the sale," says Lazar. "It was an incredibly depressing song that Karma wrote in her bedroom while pouring her heart out. Hearing Wayne's lyrics about codeine and Vicodin was the last way she expected to hear it..."

Now check out the rebuttal that Lil' Wayne's attorney, Ron Sweeney, had to say:

"Thanks to all the MySpace and YouTube views the song got, [Swanepoel] got a ton of exposure that she wouldn't have otherwise had," argues Sweeney. "Of course, her publishers would deserve something if Wayne was making money off the song, but he most certainly isn't. And the people in the record business wonder why their industry's in the toilet?" Sweeney says that Wayne received the track from the producer, Jonsin, who had signed an agreement confirming that he owned the rights. Says Sweeney, "It sounds like even the publishers have acknowledged the producer is the culprit."

So it is agreed the blame to be relayed towards the producer, Jim Jonsin, creating the production. YET Urband and Lazar want to sue the platinum selling rapper?? Okay, now it's obvious that this is all a textbook example of greedy music publishers attempting to milk money out of a multiplatinum artist. And after all this, the trouble was started from a damn leak on the internet that all parties, including Lil Wayne and Jim Jonsin, didn't even intend on sharing publicly.

However, Urband & Lazar Music Publishing bring up an interesting topic. I too would be pissed if, for example, someone took a picture of me without permission, made some kind of painting out of it and made disgusting alterations to it, which somehow became really famous. Even if it is intended as non-profit work, I probably would not appreciate that kind of exposure in that kind of light. But is it their fault it became so famous? Could they be legally responsible for whatever amount of exposure it got if they contractually didn't even have anything written down?

However the music industry is placed in such a different world. Where there is no such thing as bad publicity, but business is so cutthroat that the first plan of action usually starts in a lawsuit.

But if it were a perfect world, all parties would just forgive and forget. Everyone got exposure, everyone benefitted. And it took zero resources or amount of money to get that all. This situation is almost exactly the same as Eminem's "Stan" which sampled the Dido song "Thank You". And Dido, who at the time was no where near as popular as Eminem, benefitted greatly from that one sample...


SO who is right among this "samples war"?

HTC Touch Pro = sex

Shiiiiet me want now! Since my phone started to break down and I'm at the end of my contract soon with Telus, I plan to make this my next mobile device. But before I get ahead of myself, I should really hope that the HTC Touch Pro even arrives in Canada! (The HTC Diamond won't do my needs any justice!)

The big difference between the Touch Pro and it's smart phone counterparts in the Apple iPhone and the Samsung Instinct is the fact that it has a slide out QWERTY keyboard (as the image above shows). Personally, I wouldn't be able to stand typing on a touch screen keyboard --- I prefer something more in the physical element of actually pressing down on buttons.

I love the fact that I can experience the touch screen that everyone is raving about (which seems like where every mobile device is heading towards) all while still having actual textile buttons still present. The fact that it presents itself in a slide-out keyboard fashion adds to its coolness. And reading the specs and such, it has me even more excited. (Take a look at the detailed specs yourself HERE)

Although when it comes to PDA's, Blackberry's seem to be among the most superior. However a decked out Blackberry is just too hardcore for me --- and I don't really like the Blackberry Pearl personally. Plus I love my current phone so much, the HTC Touch Pro seem to be a direct upgrade.

And yes, it seems like I'm becoming a HTC fan as you'd probably know since I currently own a HTC mobile device. It's nearly an upgrade over my HTC S720 in every direction including having Wi-Fi capabilities to even having a complete camera phone upgrade. The HTC Touch Pro however functions on a GSM network, which means I would have to jump ship from being a long time Telus customer to either Fido or Rogers. Ashame but oh well...


Now excuse me as I continue to drool a freaking ocean over my keyboard lol...

Travis Barker + DJ AM = one dope mixtape

The LA tandem of DJ AM (on the one two's) and Travis Barker (on the drum kits) make for one crazy ass mixtape! 15 tracks deep --- but really its one long ass track of DJing goodness --- it features a really diverse lineup all remixed and mashed up.

It features Chemical Brothers, Jay-Z, Johnny Cash, Eazy-E, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Biggie, Michael Jackson, Kanye, Daft Punk, Timbaland, Lil Wayne, Billy Joel, DJ Assault (ass n' titties! oooh yeah!), Damian Marley, Outkast, Rick Springfield, MIA, theme to Rocky, Phil Collins, Joan Jett, Beastie Boys and more.

It’s okay if you did a double take to that list of artists.
I did it... like...thrice.

Yes thats right...thrice times.


Anyways DOWNLOAD HERE!

Peace!

"HOW CAN SHE SLAP?!"

Probably the most unnecessary part of this video was the cast, camera crew and such all curb stomping that one dude lol.

So was that "reactionary" slap from the guy justified, or unjustified?