Brilliant interview in 4 parts :
Part-1
Part-2
Part-3
Part-4
Part-5
Filed under Addicted to the audio …
Crazy on You – Eminem
Well, this stupid shit started when one of my friends posted her top some X most romantic songs. I don’t know how many because I was violently sick by the time I went through the top 5 itself. Me? Per se, it’s never been an entire song that I thought was romantic but specifically, certain lines or verses. Also, I hate soft, wafty songs. If I do like romantic songs, they are those that are extremely dark – lined in venom and concrete and hit the gut like an 1000-ton freight train. Easily Recently, I’ve been digging these lines from Em’s Crazy on You:
You’re the ink to my paper
Where my pen is to my pad
The moral, the very fiber
The whole substance to my rap.
You are my reason for being
The meaning of my existence
If it wasn’t for you
I would never be able to spit this
As intence I do and the irony
Is you rely on me as much
as I rely on you to inspire me like you do.
You provide me the lighter fluid to fuel my fire
You’re my entire supply
Gas, the match, the igniter.
The only way that I am able to stay so stable
Is you’re the legs to my table
If you were to break I’d fall on my face.
But I’m always going to make you feel
I don’t need you as much as I really need you
So you don’t use it to your advantage.
But you’re essential to me
You’re the air I breathe
I believe if you ever leave me
I’d probably have no reason to be.
You are the Kim to my Marshall
You’re the Slim to my Shady
The Dre to my Eminem
The Elaina to my Hailey.
You are the word I am looking for when
I’m trying to describe how I feel inside
And the right one just won’t come to my mind.
You’re like the pillar that props me up
The beam that supports me
The bitch who never took half,
The wife who never divorced me.
You’re like the root to my evil
You let my devil come out me
You let me beat the shit out you
Before you beat the shit out me.
It’s an old classic – and when you have Eminem going double-beat on this kind of score, it makes for an extremely intense music experience !
8 bar – Baar baar !!
Heylo Internet. Just downloaded Ejay SE at Z‘s house (this is probably the fifth time I’m downloading this ! Where the hell do I put those install files is beyond me !). Anyways, came up with this 3:20 starter. A lot more coming up cos’ this software i addictive.
Anyways, this is for your listen. An original ! (Thankfully!)
Mentoring in the music industry
I have always followed music both from an auditory sense as well as the impact of its stars on the rest of the genre. With this context, one of the reasons I have been a fan of hip-hop is its ability to get music of non-commercially produced stuff (yet!) out on the streets. Also, the level of mentoring that happens in the genre is unprecedented. Whether it was Dre discovering Snoop in a mixtape or Eminem at an interview or even Jay-Z giving Rihanna and Kanye West the chance to shine (I think Kanye West really sucks but he IS successful). Or even when Eminem got 50 Cent on board and has been pushing his old pals D-12 on to the limelight (dragging them along is more like it. While guys like Bizarre and the late Proof are talented, they really never got their real shine in the spotlight).
Now in my other favorite genre, Trance, (it’s one of the few genres that I really like the commercial producers or rather, the top-rated DJs rather than just the underdogs) never really came up with that kinda support for its up-and-coming artists. Except now. In a recent note on his website, Tiesto talks about the DJ Top 100 list where he says:
It’s a big thing for most of the promoters and most of them will book DJ’s that are high on this list. That made me think, because if that’s the case the voting is important. Especially to breed new talent.
There are so many new great young DJ’s out there that I feel it’s time to give them a chance. I appreciate all the love and support I get from all over the world but I won this award three times so if I would win it a fourth time, it wouldn’t make a difference for my career.
For the new talented DJ’s around the world it could make a difference, so I would like to ask all the people who support me to vote for new talent.
A lot of people think that Tiesto has gone old, repetitive and basically not killing it like he used to do with “Traffic”, “Flight 643″, or “Just Be”. But this statement does generate a lot of hope for the new guys on the trance and house block
Panasonic not going to discontinue the Technics !
Phew ! I always wanted to buy one of the 1200′s . Thank God! I was going mad trying to figure out how to “con”vince my friends into buying one for me despite another 4 months for my birthday (not mentioning that these babies are frickin expensive). I don’t claim to be a professional DJ or anything but man, it’s an amazing feeling to control the pace of the music with your hands, I mean, just the feeling of the vinyl acts like a conduit for the music to pass through you. One hour on these Technics and I understood what it meant to “have the music flowing through you”. Really !
As a major global business, Panasonic keeps all of its operations under constant review. However, there are no current plans to discontinue the Technics brand and the production of Technics turntables
Would you like fries with that? Vinyl Records and Turntables Make a Comeback
Renegade – Jay-Z and Eminem
[Jay-Z]
Motherfuckers -
say that I’m foolish I only talk about jewels (bling bling)
Do you fools listen to music or do you just skim through it?
See I’m influenced by the ghetto you ruined
That same dude you gave nothin, I made somethin doin
what I do through and through and
I give you the news – with a twist it’s just his ghetto point-of-view
The renegade; you been afraid
I penetrate pop culture, bring ‘em a lot closer to the block where they
pop toasters and they live with their moms got drop roasters from botched robberies niggas crouched over
mommies knocked up cause she wasn’t wached over knocked down by some clown when child support knocked
no he’s not around tnow how that sound to ya, jot it down
I bring it through the ghetto without ridin ’round
hidin down duckin strays from frustrated youths stuck in they ways
Just read a magazine that fucked up my day
How you rate music that thugs with nothin relate to it i help them see their way through it – not you cant step in my pants cant walk in my shoes bet everything you worth you lose your tie and your shirt
[Eminem]
Since I’m in a position to talk to these kids and they listen
I ain’t no politician but I’ll kick it with ‘em a minute
Cause see they call me a menace; and if the shoe fits I’ll wear it
But if it don’t, then y’all’ll swallow the truth grin and bear it
Now who’s these king of these rude ludicrous lucrative lyrics
Who could inherit the title, put the youth in hysterics
Usin his music to steer it, sharin his views and his merits
But there’s a huge interference – they’re sayin you shouldn’t hear it
Maybe it’s hatred I spew, maybe it’s food for the spirit
Maybe it’s beautiful music I made for you to just cherish
But I’m debated disputed hated and viewed in America
as a motherfuckin drug addict – like you didn’t experiment?
Now now, that’s when you start to stare at who’s in the mirror
and see yourself as a kid again, and you get embarrased
And I got nothin to do but make you look stupid as parents
You fuckin do-gooders – too bad you couldn’t do good at marriage!
(Ha ha!) And do you have any clue what I had to do to get here I don’t
think you do so stay tuned and keep your ears glued to the stereo
Cause here we go – he’s {*Jigga joint Jigga-chk-Jigga*}
And I’m the sinister, Mr. Kiss-My-Ass it’s just a
[Chorus: Eminem + Jay-Z]
[Em] RENEGADE! Never been afraid to say
what’s on my mind at, any given time of day
Cause I’m a RENEGADE! Never been afraid to talk
about anything (ANYTHING) anything (ANYTHING), RENEGADE!
[Jay] Never been afraid to say
what’s on my mind at, any given time of day
Cause I’m a {RENEGADE} Never been afraid to holler
about anything {anything?} Anything {ANYTHING!}
[Jay-Z]
I had to hustle, my back to the wall, ashy knuckles
Pockets filled with a lot of lint, not a cent
Gotta vent, lot of innocent of lives lost on the project bench
Whatchu hollerin? Gotta pay rent, bring dollars in
By the bodega, iron under my coat, feelin braver
Doo-rag wrappin my waves up, pockets full of hope
Do not step to me – I’m awkward, I box leftier often
My pops left me an orphan, my momma wasn’t home
Could not stress to me I wasn’t grown; ‘specially on nights
I brought somethin home to quiet the stomach rumblings
My demeanor – thirty years my senior
My childhood didn’t mean much, only raisin green up
Raisin my fingers to critics; raisin my head to the sky
Big I did it – multi before I die (nigga)
No lie, just know I chose my own fate
I drove by the fork in the road and went straight
[Eminem]
See I’m a poet to some, a regular modern day Shakespeare
Jesus Christ the King of these Latter Day Saints here
To shatter the picture in which of that as they paint me
as a monger of hate and Satan a scatter-brained atheist
But that ain’t the case, see it’s a matter of taste
We as a people decide if Shady’s as bad as they say he is
Or is he the latter – a gateway to escape?
Media scapegoat, who they can be mad at today
See it’s easy as cake, simple as whistlin Dixie
while I’m wavin the pistol at sixty Christians against me
Go to war with the Mormons, take a bath with the Catholics
in holy water – no wonder they try to hold me under longer
I’m a motherfuckin spiteful, DELIGHTFUL eyeful
The new Ice Cube – motherfuckers HATE to like you
What did I do? (huh?) I’m just a kid from the gutter
makin this butter off these bloodsuckers, cause I’m a muh’fuckin
[Chorus] – repeat 2X
I sometimes wonder if I can ever have an achievement in any field which will parallel penning such brilliance.
Derek’s speech at Berklee
Derek Sivers started CD Baby – one of the leading online stores for retailing and distribution of music of the shiny platter and then sold it. And now he’s started MuckWork. Been following his blog for quite a while now. This is an old post (before I started following him) and really loved it.
6 things I wish I knew the day I started Berklee:
#1 : Focus. Disconnect. Do not be distracted.
#2 : Do not accept their speed limit.
#3 : Nobody will teach you anything. You have to teach yourself.
#4 : Learn from your heroes, not only theirs.
#5 : Don’t get stuck in the past.
#6 : When done, be valuable.
I love this particular quote:
He heard me playing Donna Lee a bit, and said, “Man – jazz was all about inventing something new. For a musician 50 years later to be stuck in the 1950s would be like a 1950s musician being stuck in the 1900s. There’s nothing cool about that.”
A couple weeks later I was at the piano quietly working on one of my own songs, and for the first time he said, “Hey – wow – what is that? That’s great, man. Can you show me?”
Innovation is needed more than imitation.
Don’t get stuck in the past.
Video here:
Read the details: 6 things I wish I knew the day I started Berklee. Everyone should follow this guy’s blog
Eminem by Copyblogger
I have never been able to really really explain why I really really enjoy Eminem‘s music and lyrics…but thank god, I know longer have to. Copyblogger’s Sean Platt just nails it in this post. While obviously, the intention of the post is about what you can learn from Eminem’s writing style there are some real gems describing what we Em fans really enjoy. And I’ve subscribed to this blog. Really enjoy reading that stuff
Can the cloud change the way we listen to music?
Interesting thoughts from the Crunchgear blog on whether online radio stations can actually change the way we listen to music. Well, it is definitely possible. But practical in the current Indian scenario? I am slightly cynical. For one, in general, there are different pockets of populace on this. Some of us (namely me!) download or buy music in CDs or MP3s, transfer them to our iPods and listen in. But I have seen lots and lots of people (translation: Not what you would call market research statistics) where people are tuned into the radio through cell phones or car systems. They are passive-passive customers (against some kind of active-passive subscribe who procure music, transfer it and create playlists) and active-active customers (who actually mix tunes, turntable-ize it, DJs, etc.) . I am not really creative on category names I know. Hence, if you expect them to:
1. Pay (monthly rental or whatever)
2. Actively select and categorize “their” music
trust me, they won’t!
Not with the cornucopia of music stations strung across the country belting out the latest Bollywood music. I know this, to some extent, contradicts my earlier post but the fact is that this a very select demographic that would be really flock to this service. So this post is specifically for them: The upper middle and the upper class and those with a real eclectic taste in music. Those who can probably buy a Sonos, Pandora connection and then move that across all their points of access to music….the car, the cell phone, the home stereo system. Also those who actively seek out new content e.g. I keep trawling trance.nu and Submerge or Poisonous Paragraphs and Bloggerhouse to get the latest in house, trance or hiphop. An online radio station would have to accomodate for shared interests as well as other goodies such as instrumentals, podcasts, tutorials, news, whatever. The online store would have to be a radio station and not just a music station.
I am also not entirely sure, the concept of “owning music” is going to go away emotionally as well as practically. It seems quite risky to painstakingly build up online music profiles on stores just to see the store close down. I’m thinking of an XML-type profile / playlist that can be exported between devices but not stored at the radio stations. The radio stations “read” the XML file and determines the type of music it should play. Recommendations can be made and good music can be “written” back onto the XML list and ported
While Crunchgear has made the assumption of continuous mobile connectivity and undisrupted service, I don’t think that assumption holds much water. Hell, if telecom service operators knew that people were getting unbelievably high quality of service, they would downgrade their networks and re-negotiate with Ericsson and Nokia on returnables 
Lots of thoughts rushing into my head now on this: What if a station does not have all the genres I like? Do I have to take multiple subscriptions? What if I open my profile and let the radio stations bid for my subscription? How would a mobile social network spring around this concept i.e. similar music listeners within a distance each other are notified of other fan members? What would happen to the RJs. How would original content develop ? (like song requests, dedications, news, etc.). What about podcasts? Would they be streaming live or treated like normal songs? When you connect songs with each other, how would conversations happen on the move? Discussion boards, voice chat ? Could you allow tools for live mixing? 
. What would be the rate structure? More popular songs at a premium?
How would you be able to integrate live radio (broadcast) with your playlist? I know for a fact that people listen to shows sometimes only because of brilliant RJs such as Tamanna. How could you integrate the two? Seperate playlists? Would micro-payments be allowed?
Updated: One by-product of this whole thing that the music think tank is spouting is that the illegal downloads of music are reducing as per the graph shown below. I would really love the geographic breakup though
Credit: Musicthinktank
Angry Blonde
Eminem - Angry blonde
My God ! Actually, my rap idol! I was at Landmark last week looking for some books to buy……it’s like an addict roaming the streets looking for crack….when I spotted this book. It’s un-fuckin’-believable. The original price was Rs. 1118/- and the discounted price was Rs. 199. That’s a 919-buck discount. I wonder how Landmarks would feel if they knew I would have paid the entire 1K. Angry Blonde is a dissection of Eminem‘s strongest songs. For each (actually most) of his songs, there is a brief description by Em of how each song came about, where did they pick the beat from and how he got the hook and so on. For an Eminem fan, it is a collection item! And once again, my respect for his abilities to just go out and rhyme has just risen tenfold !
Like I said un-fuckin-believable. Now I really want to get my hands on The way I am
