The Smooth DJ

A personal hero of mine.

Just a small sub-set of the music I own.

I just put up Orb's new Web 2.0 media casting widget (check it out on the right sidebar under the "In Rotation" section). It's Free! So far, so good. I'm only streaming audio for now, but it works with video and photos too. The widget is called "MyCast" and you can download here. What it does is stream files from your PC to anywhere you can access the internet. You can have an embedded flash widget like I do on the right, or an email or RSS feed. They are promoting this for MySpace, where it should spread like wildfire. It seems to work nicely here on my humble blog. Is this legal? Probably not. But I'm enjoying it for now.

On a side note - this is a great way for blogs to keep people navigating over. With the popularity of RSS feeds, websites are loosing out on ad revenue because fewer people are visiting. So this is some value added / reward for surfing over that adds stickiness. Great stuff. Even though I don't put ads on my site - but you get the point.

The only downsides I can think of - you have to leave your media storing PC on all the time for this to be effective. Your PC essentially becomes a webserver. That entails having a robust, reliable, broadband connection. Orb says everything is secure, but you might take extra procaution and dedicate a junky PC with no sensitive information to doing this.

Sign this guy.

Scientific evidence that you really can judge a person by the music she listens to. What do my tastes say about me?

"In short, people who listen to jazz are smart, liberal, adventurous, and poor; [...] and people who listen to hip hop are extroverted, agreeable, liberal, athletic, and hot"

Hat tip Andrew Sullivan.

Pete Rock, one of the best hip-hop producers of all time, gives us a peak into his creative process: drawing from a wide breadth of musical knowledge, chopping up samples, and creating drum lines.

Sample-based hip-hop, the kind that permeated the golden era of hip-hop in the late 80's and early 90's, is unfortunately becoming more rare. And that's why a lot of contemporary hip-hop doesn't sound good to me - the beats and melodies are all synthed (think dirty south and the rise of producer duo The Neptunes). Not that synthed beats are inherently wrong, but it's not the sound that I associate with hip-hop. I need that scratch chorus of a DJ Premier; the snap, crackle, and pop of an old jazz sample.

Why did the industry move toward synthetic beats? In the early days of hip-hop, sampling was done without permission. For the most part, this wasn't an issue until rap music became big. Copyright owners became more interested in collecting royalties. As a result, record labels became weary of the legal effort and costs of clearing samples. Rap albums with original beats became more attractive; they were much cheaper (read: more profitable) to produce because of the low legal overhead.

Thankfully, the art of sample-based hip-hop is not dead. A new generation of producers like 9th Wonder, Kanye West, and Kev Brown are fueling a mini-resurgence. Licenses must still be obtained if the original track of a sample can be recognized. Using single notes (chopping) or altering samples, however, seems to mitigate any copyright infringement and fall under fair use.

The LA Times features a cover story [behind free subscription wall] on female DJs today. I think my competition got a little harder:

"If a promoter can have someone that looks good and can do damage on the decks, he'll book that person every time. If you're comfortable with it, I see nothing wrong with embracing your looks. Go for it! Use everything you have in your weaponry."

Will.I.Am, producer and rapper of the Black Eyed Peas, dropped his first solo album on Tuesday. If you're a DJ, you NEED to proceed directly to your nearest record store and pick this up. Now. This is one of the best club albums of the year and almost every song on it is danceable.

I'm sitting here in awe of my new DJ watch. The Equalizer BPM Watch from TokyoFlash Japan lets you count the tempo of any rhythm you're listening to. It also comes with a high power "torch" light that helps you read record labels in a dark club setting. I love it!

"I Like It",Grand Puba, 1995 - The only Pu song I liked. Can't miss with diction like this:

I'm energetic, poetic, athletic, with good credit / So just move like I'm Simon and I said it!

Just testing this out - a Rhapsody playlist I made featuring 9th Wonder on production.

Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth - They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.) 1992.

Oscar Peterson: jazz legend and Canadian hero, RIP 1925 - 2007. I've been listening to Oscar since I was born. This is a sad day for Jazz; a sad day for Canada.

From the CBC:

"He broke out of Canada. He's one of the first people. We talk of Céline Dion, and Shania Twain, and Alanis Morissette and Bryan Adams. Oscar Peterson did what they did years ago as a black person. So what he's done is incredible." —Tracy Biddle, daughter of Montreal jazz pillar Charlie Biddle

In concert with Joe Pass below:

The best hip-hop album of 2007 is Median's Relief, the debut album by Median. The true gem here isn't just the A-game production by 9th Wonder, Krysis, and Nicolay, but the rap skills of Median, who makes a serious challenge to Phonte as best Justus League Lyricist.

Median can flow like a natural on the mic. His clever diction and introspective lyrics will satisfy any hip-hop head longing for the days of "real" MCs. The underlying mood of the album is a positive one. Light on braggadocio, heavy on metaphors, Median raps to inspire.

I'd be remiss not to mention Kanye West's Graduation album as a close runner up for best of 2007. Graduation is by far Kanye's best to date. He continues to take his sample-based production mainstream, and hip-hop is better for it.

idiomag, a UK based startup, offers music-centric digital magazines customized to your tastes. Brilliantly executed and easy to use, idiomag is monetized and uses video and music content legally. Partnerships with third-party blogs and industry publications such as Billboard keep the content fresh. Check it.

I haven't blogged about music in a while, but today as I previewed the new album Shine by UK artist Estelle [available for download April 29th], I was compelled to write this post. Remember Lauryn Hill? Estelle is all that. Highly recommended.

From Modernbeats, an e-book to get you started making hip-hop beats [link]. It's a bit studio focused for the average DIYer, but seems to cover all the bases.

Nag Champa (Afrodisiac for the World) by Common.

Recommended.

Casual, Bay Area rap legend and Heiro crew member. His first album "Fear Itself" [1994, Jive Records] was widely panned by critics at the time. I thought it was good then and it's even better now. Why? Because they don't make hip-hop like this anymore.

With Shaq's infamous return to the mic this week, some don't remember just how prolific an MC he is:

According to Nielsen SoundScan, which monitors U.S. record sales, Shaq-Fu's six albums have sold a total of 20 copies this year. . . .

The goal of human-computer interaction is more intuitive experiences. The iPhone's multi-touch interface was definitely a disruptor in this area. The Yamaha Tenori-on, seen below, is even more mind-blowing.

Available on the iPhone. Unfortunately, you'll have to pay for the service eventually. My advice to Apple: buy this ap from Shazzam and make it free. The tie-ins to iTunes and added brand-value/utility are no-brainers.

Deconstructing Biggie: UPS is Hiring from jeff on Vimeo.

Amazing.

I'm a HUGE slum village fan. A big part of that was due to a young J Dilla on production.

And that's why I like The Preface, the first solo release by slum v alumnus Elzhi. I feel like it's 2000 all over again. The production, all handled by Black Milk, could easily be mistaken for Dilla himself. And Elzhi holds his own on the mic. Highly recommended.