BadSeed Blog

Looking for homegrown hip hop on a weeknight? The Red Devil Loung in San Francisco is hosting Scout, with band Variable Unit backing a Hip-hop/Jazz Open Mic for local vocalists, MCs, and poets. I'll be heading there later tonight. Also, be sure to catch a peep of some footage from last week's gig, also featuring Felonious.

This is pretty damn funny:

You know who you are. Standing behind that deck of turntables, holding one headphone to your ear, being pretentious and aloof as you play with knobs and shuffle through records. You can just settle down, because nobody cares that you're a DJ.

The Mercury News.com, of all publications, ran a piece recently on the re-emergence of the Bay Area hip hop scene.

Back in the day, Northern California had flashes of becoming a hip-hop power center. Tupac, with his charisma and controversy, had roots here with the very popular Digital Underground. Too Short, despite getting little radio play because of his explicit and sexist lyrics, was well-known nationally. And, of course, there was MC Hammer. That was during the late 1980s, when rap was beginning to take over the suburbs.

But then the local scene stagnated, and the power shifted. New York and Los Angeles were already solid, but Atlanta, Detroit and even St. Louis became hip-hop hotbeds.

``We've had a long drought and been disappointed,'' says E-A-Ski, an East Oakland producer who has worked with Dr. Dre and Ice Cube. ``For over 10 years, we have been doing all the right things musically and lyrically. We won't be denied anymore.''

There is too much talent in the Bay Area for us not to be a center of new music, especially a source of independent, nationally recognized hip hop. But one key thing that is required is support from fans of hip hop. So to those of you who like Tone and other local artists - don't forget to support them however you can, whether going to see their shows, buying (NOT burning) their CDs from the store, and even calling local radio stations to request their music. Or, if you don't mind hearing Ja Rule and Chingy for the next 3 years, do nothing, watch MTV, and forget I said anything.

Digital and downloadable music has changed my life. Where I once dug through dusty stacks of vinyl searching for the newest, latest, most flavorful hip hop and reggae, today I don't need to go anywhere near a record store to get good new music. Back in the day it was Napster, now it is iTunes, along with mix CDs and other sources of music. CD shopping is a very occasional thing nowadays.

On top of this, commercial radio has become increasingly irrelevant to me. Why? There are lots of reasons, but mostly it has to do with the fact that they play mediocre music by the same 25 artists over and over and over. Since all of the media outlets own all of the major labels, the incestuous nature of the relationship apparently distorts their choice of music to play. In a nutshell, their music sucks. And no matter how good an artist may be, if they are not part of the machine, they can't get their record played.

Of course, the upside to all this is that the Internet has become a powerful way to market and distribute music. There are more sources of information, more choices, and easier and quicker access to new music through the web than there ever could be otherwise. Yahoo will soon be launching their own music store and combining it with their online-community tools, to help people like you and me find new music.

Yahoo has a nearly unparalleled reach, with more than 300 million users worldwide, and has already developed a loyal base of listeners who use its Launch music video and Web radio service. Indeed, record label executives say Launch can already be as important as traditional radio when debuting a new album.

Not necessarily the answer to our prayers here at Bad Seed Music, but a good look at the future of the music business. Go digital or go home, baby!

I wonder if it was like this with Disco? I mean, on one hand, who can argue with huge chrome rims on ultra low-profile tires? But then again, at some point, things just become cartoons of themselves. And who wants to be a joke, personified? Not me. Thus, the ongoing contest to wear the largest possible rims continues unnabated. The latest example: A lime green H2 on 28-inch rims. Oddly, it comes from Europe:

This set of wheels with tires is offered for a retail price of 19,800 Euros. Of course geigercars.de also offers many other wheel/tire combinations in 20, 22, 24 and 26 inches diameter.

I remember when 18-inch rims were considered very large. My 91 CE rides on 15s (I need bigger rims, I know), barely half the size of the monsters on this Hummer. Will it ever stop, or is there a point when people will begin to backlash?

They just won't die, spinners. Now, it turns out you can - hang on here - get spinners in your mouth. For real, check it out. So, to recap, to really be pimp'd out these days, you can get:

• Spinners
• Spinner speaker grilles
• Spinner steering wheels
• Spinner belt buckles
• Spinner basketball shoes
• and now.. Spinner Teeth!

What the fuck is wrong with these people?

Hip Hop culture rules the streets and halls of high schools around the world, so the truth is that this was inevitable:

No longer just for rappers and street toughs, gold teeth have gone to the girls. For prom or a day in the park, girls from the Bay Area to the Bayou to the Bronx are accessorizing their smiles. Bay Area makers of the removable mouthwear say teenage girls are the fastest-growing segment of their customer base.

So, the inexorable march of hip hop bling bling culture continues to prove that it knows no bounds. 16 year-old girls imitating pimps and hustlers at their senior prom? Without a doubt. Do these youngsters actually know any hustlers? I seriously doubt it. But they've seen enough videos to know how they want to act.

But also, the fact that mainstream media is ready, even eager, to recognize and cover these trends is notable. Last week, the New York Times ran a feature on an infamous graffiti artist known as Revs. The article was in depth and had historical information about Graf culture, icons, and history. Hip hop has earned an undeniable status as focal point of modern American culture, enough so that trends like gold- and ice-grills on teen girls earn feature article status in major newspapers on a regular basis.

The power of hip hop is massive. Should that fact matter when it comes to the images and stories that rap music focuses on? Do popular artists have a responsibility to the hip hop nation - to youth particularly? Or is art just art, self-expression not to be burdened with the weight of potential influence it may have?

Beyond philosophical questions, one major issue is that popular rap artist are controlled for the most part by multinational corporations and have little say in the overall commercial version of hip hop. Media monoliths like Clear Channel and Viacom (MTV) - who control access to and content that reaches most of America - could care less how rap music influences children, so why should Li'l Jon?