Read In Your Language

Happy 50th Birthday, Graffiti!

In 1967, some dude in Philly wrote his name on a wall to get a girl's attention. My how this culture has grown up since then.

Taggin Ass City

A historical look at the origins of the 1st element of hip hop in this new documentary. Culture kicks the facts.

BBoy Salute:DISCO DUCK

A LEGEND amongst legends has passed away in Philadelphia. You should probably know this name if you SAY you love hip hop culture...

The Art Scene: The Fun Gallery

Street Art? New???? Our Big Brother Samo, aka Basquiate and the crew was doin that back in the day in NY, sun. Take peep into the start of a movement.

Da Buze Bruvaz: Hard Liquor

Our favorite rap group is back making that unmistakable hip hop music. Nothin but fire. see if I'm wrong...

Monday, November 29, 2010

NSYOSTFU

Are you a true Hip Hop head? Have you REALLY been a part of the music? Tired of cats commenting with no type of music knowledge whatsoever? Here's a soluble solution to reply to these comments with:

NSYOSTFU

Name Songs Yo Or Shut The F^ck Up

Is Gucci THAT man? Flo-Rida is the bomb? Weezy is THE greatest alive? Nicki Minaj is the best female rapper ever?

Name some songs that people can research to relate to in your comment or fall back.

Enough of the media driven assessments. Parade goers booing 'Ye ain't gonna stop me from copping the project, that incident has NOTHING to do with the music.

So & so fell off? Name songs where this is proof. So & so is THAT great? Name songs. No need for links, if one doesn't know how to copy & paste and search on the 'net they should "1 ya'self".

I have seen some comments out there this weekend where I can tell some of these people have no Hip Hop knowledge at all. Like one said the Kim beat on 'Black Friday' was a BIG diss cut on the stash. Or where one said they're a Nas STAN but never heard Mobb Deep. Especially when Mobb Deep was on Nas' 2nd album. This should NOT be acceptable to the Hip Hop head who knows the deal and should be put on blast.

NSYOSTFU, because them comments come off as emotional banter and media driven assessments, and not statements backed with facts for debate from one who truly has listened to the music. And don't name big radio hits as evidence either. My dad always told me a true fan will name b-side songs and album filler as their faves, and THAT's when you can tell a true fan of an artist.

This acronym will be spread out there in 2K11 (y'all can start now if you wish).

Friday, November 26, 2010

$ykotic Quickstrike: The Streets Are Watching

Have you cats heard about this?

For all that send stuff to Cult and myself, PLEASE make sure all is well.

I HAVE KNOWN THAT THE 'NET IS CLAMPING DOWN...Bing the '12 internet and you will see.

We don't need that over here (e-fluent you good fam...but your collabs may NOT be).

Shouts to all of the other sites that got shut down beyond OnSmash that we don't know about. Hopefully the B.I. is tight so you escape the ramifications.

But now is the time for the system to penalize US for them jumping on the MP3 bandwagon and cutting their own throats. Don't be that guy who gets put on blast.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

IT'S TUFF OUT HERE...


Culture: SERENE! get off of that!
Serene: NO!
Culture: *click*



what up fam! i know its been a while. and the first thing i got to say is that my dude $yk is that baw! he been single handedly holdin this site down since i been gettin other shit situated. along with the site, we have Serene Sound Mixing and Mastering, and the label, TasteMakers Music Group, of which $yk is an executive at. the organizational process has been arduous, especially given the small numbers of the staff. while i'm the principle and chief engineer, im also responsible to other duties as well. since i am NOT rich, its tuff to get it together. but we seein some light. thank ggod for my intern Will.

soon, yall are gonna get introduced to my assistant Nayirah, who will take on a new duty here at the site. she will b posting EVERY submission we get from now on. as $yk can tell you, the inbox stay flooded. and i was thinkin, in our duty to uphold the culture (no pun intended), we get VERY selective about shit. so, i figure we think about it like it's an open mic spot, and aybody get a burn. the difference is is that i want honest opinion and feedback from the family and the lurkers are invited to comment as well (there are a lot of yall). or comment under anonymous names if u dont wanna b spotted like Spuds McKenzie. the thing is, let's open it up a little bit. lets let others walk on this planet of ours.



in the meantime, the studio has progressed lovely. this is a view of the back wall and door. as u can see, from the last update, we changed a few dimensions to make the room accommodate mixing and mastering duties. it's generally not a practice to mix the 2 into a single space, but i've seen the rooms at Bernie Grundman's, and they look like mixing rooms to me (he mastered "The Chronic" in a room like that), and not the common look of mastering rooms these days. my early experiences with mastering were at Masterworks with Peter Humphreys and Albert Oon. their room looked very comfortable and didnt have the obligatory 20 ft. long walls to defeat standing bass waves, and they did most of the Gamble and Huff stuff. shit, they used to be the legendary Franklford/Wayne, the mastering studio that a LOT of early hip hop was mastered at. their room was, to my recollection a very ordinary room. but we moved the back wall back and set the side walls for modern masterin room specs.



we also changed from the all tooo cliche control room glass to these beautiful country doors. they are sealed on all sides, and serve a dual purpose as a way to see the artist as well as a way for them to get into the room. this was all my brother's idea. it was an excellent one.



the ceiling was a challenge. it had a slight bow in it from the weight of the plaster. it was also covered with wallpaper left on it from the 40s. it was EXTREMELY hard to remove. i know cause i did it. my brother made me do it. im not skilled labor like him and our buddy, Billy, who helped with the build. all union labor. so of course, i got stuck with all the menial tasks like this one. he also treated it with satin paint, so as to help buffer reflections from the ceiling. sound and light are similar in that regard, that they respond to surfaces based on the reflective quality of that surface. so u see the big beam across the ceiling (that we took up THREE FLIGHTS). it also has a dual purpose for cutting the area sound can travel above us. if u've ever seen the ceiling of a concert hall or arena, the ceilin alaways have a lot things hangin from it to supress sound from bouncing around at all cost. this is called diffusion.


the studio is actually more progressed than this and is actually in workin order. in fact, the room sounds so good, that it revealed a number of errors in the project that im workin on to correct. not detrimental errors, but those that come from my particular way of reinforcing digital audio. its a new process, the way i do it i mean. i mean there may be similar approaches to it out there, but i only know of me doin it like this. its ALMOST finished. trust me, im tryin to get it finished. my brother wont let me rest! when it drops, bboycult regulars ( i see ALL yall), well, the ones that comment, will get the hook up.

also, the label is proud to announce the coming of a few artist after this first album. its a compilation, but not, sorta like how the Chronic was, where the producer has other people on the album, and they appear on some songs by themselves. it's called "Reputations Move At The Speed Of Sound"". thats some slick shit i used to say on the street, then i'd say, "if mine gotta go that fast, then it got to go first class!" this pimpin is solid, jack.

i have a dude named Goody, aka LooseLeaf, that got that shit for u dudes that love the punch lines. he's like Big L mixed with Mad Skills with a dash of Guru (no homo, or i should say, before homo). with a twist of lemon.

then there's Nile Hardin, a rapper and producer and super Geek. like me. he's Kanye minus the ego. with a bunch of kids. seriously, sun got mad seeds.

then there's Risa, a beautiful songstress that has a mean pen game. imagine if Sade came from the projects. thats Risa.

so, as yall can see, i have a real good excuse for not being around like i should b. i checked in constantly to check stats and to see who was ridin wit us. and to see the absolutely fabulous and outstanding job my partner $yk was doin. this new year should be pretty interesting.

so those thats here wit us, bear wit us. we got somethin we want u to share wit us.

now air it out...

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

A Missed Opportunity



I've been listening to 'Maybach Music 3'. Ross missed one with this. He just caught a good crossover buzz with that Erykah remix he did. And I do remember her saying she wanted to film a video for Ross. Check out what I saw him (actually, all of them but it's his brainchild) pass up.

T.I. was home from his bid. By now we all know he actually has a 'Bach, so it's an easy shoot. NYC is a quick trip, he said in his verse to meet him at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Good footage of him CHILLING, enjoying his riches, being chauffeured, kicking his verse. The visual he needed the world to see.

Erykah, who was catching a little flack for that Dallas video, could have directed the whole video, so footage of her lounging in her 'Bach would be easy. Shoot an elegant side of herself that would fan the flames.

Jadakiss plays an integral role. He actually has Style's P riding with him in his 'Bach (I'm not going there). They get 2 different shots for the video. Styles has to get dropped off for 'BMF'. Then Jada meets Puff at 'Fountainbleu'. Ross is there waiting.

They all hit the jet, fly back to meet Tip & Erykah at Avery Fisher Hall, the spot for the NY Philharmonic at Lincoln Center in Manhattan, because the JUSTICE League are performing that night. Ross NEVER touches the stage, it's not about rapping, it's about living.

A nice good 7 minutes of a visual commercial, displaying rich and privileged jet setting (I could see Birdman in it too, showing off). A lot of things could have been done with this one video. It could've repaired some broken media images, promoted products (Ciroc & Tip's cognac, Erykah's filming skills), created full anticipation for those other 2 Ross songs, and created a marketing strategy for 'Bugatti Boys'. It even could've gave Tip the hint that he should have a driver. Just saying. Look at the picture, the joy is sitting in the backseat and the video would have embedded that in one's brain.

But, it's a missed opportunity.

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