When Jay-Z dropped by the Kentucky locker room on Sunday after the Wildcats clinched a Final Four berth with a victory over North Carolina, the rap mogul shook hands with the players, signed autographs and posed for pictures.
It was an innocent moment in everyone's eyes except perhaps the NBA's.
According to CBSSports.com, the NBA is investigating whether Jay-Z's presence in the Kentucky locker room is a violation of league rules prohibiting team personnel from having contact with college players before they declare for the draft. In addition to his rap career, Jay-Z is also the part owner of the New Jersey Nets.
The advantage Jay-Z could gain by mingling with Kentucky would be the chance to spend time around potential draft picks in order to make a better informed decision on whether to invest in them or not. The Wildcats have several potential lottery picks, including guard Brandon Knight and forward Terrence Jones.
The situation is reminiscent of one that occurred four years ago involving Boston Celtics general manager Danny Ainge and then-Texas prospect Kevin Durant. Ainge was fined $30,000 for sitting with Durant's mother during a Big 12 tournament game before the freshman forward had declared his intent to enter the NBA draft.
In that case, Ainge's intent was fairly obvious considering the Celtics were certain to have one of the top picks in the draft and Durant was a potential target.
It's harder to envision Jay-Z gaining much inside information from a few minutes inside the victorious Kentucky locker room, but it's also understandable that the NBA doesn't want to set a precedent by letting this slide.
-Courtesy of Yahoo Sports
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
'Ready to Die' Baby All Grown Up
But now, the New York Daily News has uncovered the 18-year-old who claims to be the mini-B.I.G.: Bronx native Keithroy Yearwood.
"I just want people to know that's me. The truth is finally coming out," Yearwood told the Daily News, who corroborated his claim with Yearwood's baby photos. The story of how the teen landed on the cover also seems to match Bad Boy's assertion that the baby came from a modeling agency: Yearwood's mother Delcenia Burns says her son was recruited by the now-defunct modeling agency Chicky's Kids, and that she has the paperwork to prove it.
That Yearwood was a paid model would come as a surprise to two people involved in the shoot: Designer Cey Adams and the cover's photographer Butch Belair, both thought that the Ready to Die baby was the child of someone who worked at Bad Boy.
"When I first found out about it, it wasn't a big deal to me. Now, of course, it's a big deal to me," Yearwood, who plans to study sports management in college, said of his claim to fame. "It's an honor to be on this album."
Yearwood says he only received $150 for being on the cover of Ready to Die, but his place in music history is priceless.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Another Legend leaves us RIP Nate Dogg
Born Nathaniel Hale, Nate Dogg suffered from ill health for years. His death was first reported in the Long Beach Press-Telegram.
The cause of death is not immediately known, though the Press-Telegram reports that he suffered two strokes, one in 2007 and another in 2008. TMZ reports it's confirmed Nate Dogg's death.
The hook singer first came to national attention on Dr. Dre's 1992 masterpiece "The Chronic." Nate earned the first of four Grammy nominations in 1995 for "Regulate," a collaboration with Warren G. His fourth and most recent nomination came for Eminem's "Shake That" in 2007.
Since the news broke of Nate Dogg's death, his friends and collaborators have sent messages out about him. "We lost a true legend n hip hop n rnb. One of my best friends n a brother to me since 1986 when I was a sophomore at poly high where we met," tweeted Snoop Dogg, who continued on for several tweets before concluding, "RIP NATE DOGG."
On Twitter, "Nate Dogg" quickly became a trend.
Nate Dogg released several solo albums, including a self-titled effort in 2008.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Killing Music with the Kardashians
As much as I hate to even type about this, it is absolutely relevant, and it’s pissed me off enough to share with you, so here goes…
We all know that Kim Kardashian has amassed a significant, albeit completely undeserved, level of fame, we may not all know how she’s done it, so let me break it down for you. Actually before I list her “accomplishments,” and trust me I use that term as loosely as grammatically possible, let me say this: The real reason that Kim K. is famous is because America is full of brainless zombies controlled by television. Moving on… Miss Kardashian’s claims to fame include:
Now with all of the notoriety that she’s gotten for basically doing nothing, you would think that would be enough, but not for our little busy bee. Now this self absorbed bitch has decided to spread her brand of idocity into the music business.BITCH!
I have a myriad of problems with this foolishness! First off, the song is even more boring than her and Ray J rolling around in bed! Second, this bitch can’t sing! I mean the song may have all of 8 notes, #CmonSon The fact that she convinced The Dream to produce this garbage is a detriment to his reputation in my opinion, although after he decided to step away from the board and behind the mic, his reputation ain’t been worth shit anyway. She says she will donate half of the proceeds to cancer research. Now you may be asking, “What’s wrong with that?” The answer: nothing. Well, nothing except for the fact that the real reason she’s doing this is because her publicist needed her to do something that said “Look at me, look at me!” so she could make more money. Because let’s be real, let’s say she sells 100,000 downloads, that’s $50,000 to cancer, and $25,000 in her pocket. Makes her look like a saint right? That’s the point! Where she’ll make the real money is all of the publicity this will give her; all of the talk shows, radio shows, etc. The only thing that money is going to is the cancer that she (and those in her ilk) is contributing to the degradation of music.
But worse than ALL OF THAT is the fact that she will probably sell more than real musicians will this week. It’s no coincidence that this song, for lack of a better term, is hitting the net on a Wednesday. She’ll probably outsell Tiësto vs. Diplo’s “C’mon (Catch ‘Em by Surprise)” and they had a 3 day head start. If that happens, it will truly show that Americans don’t actually listen to music at all.
A t this point, I’m just praying that they don’t decide to shoot a video *sigh*
Here’s the song if you feel the need to torture your eardrums: Kim Kardashian's "Jam"
-Se7en Owt
We all know that Kim Kardashian has amassed a significant, albeit completely undeserved, level of fame, we may not all know how she’s done it, so let me break it down for you. Actually before I list her “accomplishments,” and trust me I use that term as loosely as grammatically possible, let me say this: The real reason that Kim K. is famous is because America is full of brainless zombies controlled by television. Moving on… Miss Kardashian’s claims to fame include:
Filming an absolutely, ridiculously boring sex tape
Having a slightly larger than average butt (for a white girl)
A pointless “reality” show
Being a jock chasing slut
And a Super bowl commercial that was somehow more of a pointless bore than her sex tape and her stupid show combined.
Now with all of the notoriety that she’s gotten for basically doing nothing, you would think that would be enough, but not for our little busy bee. Now this self absorbed bitch has decided to spread her brand of idocity into the music business.
I have a myriad of problems with this foolishness! First off, the song is even more boring than her and Ray J rolling around in bed! Second, this bitch can’t sing! I mean the song may have all of 8 notes, #CmonSon The fact that she convinced The Dream to produce this garbage is a detriment to his reputation in my opinion, although after he decided to step away from the board and behind the mic, his reputation ain’t been worth shit anyway. She says she will donate half of the proceeds to cancer research. Now you may be asking, “What’s wrong with that?” The answer: nothing. Well, nothing except for the fact that the real reason she’s doing this is because her publicist needed her to do something that said “Look at me, look at me!” so she could make more money. Because let’s be real, let’s say she sells 100,000 downloads, that’s $50,000 to cancer, and $25,000 in her pocket. Makes her look like a saint right? That’s the point! Where she’ll make the real money is all of the publicity this will give her; all of the talk shows, radio shows, etc. The only thing that money is going to is the cancer that she (and those in her ilk) is contributing to the degradation of music.
But worse than ALL OF THAT is the fact that she will probably sell more than real musicians will this week. It’s no coincidence that this song, for lack of a better term, is hitting the net on a Wednesday. She’ll probably outsell Tiësto vs. Diplo’s “C’mon (Catch ‘Em by Surprise)” and they had a 3 day head start. If that happens, it will truly show that Americans don’t actually listen to music at all.
A t this point, I’m just praying that they don’t decide to shoot a video *sigh*
Here’s the song if you feel the need to torture your eardrums: Kim Kardashian's "Jam"
-Se7en Owt
Top 5 Music Business Mistakes
The following article was originally posted on Music Consultant Rick Goetz’s website – MusicianCoaching.com.
I’ve never been one for top 5 or top 10 lists, but I have seen these mistakes so many times in the past year, I figured they needed to be documented.
#1 Waiting
Sounds innocuous enough, right? We should be good at waiting given all of the waiting that goes on with the craft of music.
Waiting on our fellow notoriously late collaborators, waiting on getting things tracked right in the studio, waiting to load in, waiting on sound check. There are a million things that we have to hurry up and wait for before we even get to the business side of things. This, of course, is not the waiting I am talking about.
The biggest mistake I have seen in the past year (admittedly, it is NOT unique to 2010) is that people wait on outside help to starting their businesses. Anyone who has tried to raise money can tell you that it is much easier to raise when you have momentum with a project than when you only have a blueprint and some high hopes. This is in no way saying I think people should do everything themselves. DIY, in my opinion, is a condition of last resort – but a condition that almost all of us are stuck with at some point or another.
Keep this in mind – when you are someone looking for outside help from someone like a potential manager or an agent, you are asking someone for their time. Given that time equals money, you are, in fact, asking someone to invest in you and your company. When you are preparing to approach someone for help of this kind, ask yourself “What would make me invest in an artist’s career?”
When I ask myself this question, I almost always come up with “wanting to see that my time and money would be going into a business is already showing signs of life.” I would want to see that, in spite of or in addition to what my eyes and ears tell me, that real consumers are responding to this musician’s material. Generally speaking, those artists who have a spark and have a fledgling business are people who didn’t wait on outside help to get those businesses going.
I’ll let you in on a little insider secret – since the un-bundling of the album, EVERYONE is making things up as they go along. There is no hard science to the initial stages of breaking new artists – it is a series of best guesses. Since no one is ever going to care about your career more than you do (at least I hope not), you may as well give it a try for yourself. Even if you fail you will no more about the job and be better qualified to find the right person who complements your strengths and weaknesses.
There will be times when you are forced to wait for circumstances to change. It happens to all of us no matter what business we are in, but I urge you to find ways of making these periods productive. No matter what major event in your career is looming large – get out and play, meet people, and record as much as possible, and remember: there is never going to be a perfect time to start that next phase of your career. Something will always be in your way if you let it.
Ready for more? Check out Mistake #2 on Rick’s website – MusicianCoaching.com.
Rick Goetz is a music consultant and musician coach by way of a fifteen year career at major record labels and various online and television projects. For more articles like this you can visit his site, musiciancoaching.com.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
The Biebs and Selena Gomez: It’s official
Not that I personally give half a shit about this, but I like the writing. *shrug*
Anyway....
Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez appeared together Sunday at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party, where Gomez wore a floor-length red Dolce and Gabbana gown to complement Bieber’s black Dolce and Gabbana suit. It was the first “official” outing for the two lovebirds, cementing months of speculation between those aged 8 to 18 and bored gossip columnists and the commuters who read her.
Since they never went to a traditional school, we’re sure this was like prom for the two child stars. But instead of being held in some dingy gymnasium that smells of years of sweat and burgeoning hormones, it was at the most exclusive party in the entire world. Still, you have to feel for Justin Bieber — he might be a millionaire a hundred times over, but he’ll never know how exciting an illicit sip of Mad Dog 20/20 tastes in the parking lot of a school’s gym. Then again, we’ll never know what it’s like to have Jeff Bridges as a chaperone, so we’re calling a draw.
By DOROTHY ROBINSON
Anyway....
Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez appeared together Sunday at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party, where Gomez wore a floor-length red Dolce and Gabbana gown to complement Bieber’s black Dolce and Gabbana suit. It was the first “official” outing for the two lovebirds, cementing months of speculation between those aged 8 to 18 and bored gossip columnists and the commuters who read her.
Since they never went to a traditional school, we’re sure this was like prom for the two child stars. But instead of being held in some dingy gymnasium that smells of years of sweat and burgeoning hormones, it was at the most exclusive party in the entire world. Still, you have to feel for Justin Bieber — he might be a millionaire a hundred times over, but he’ll never know how exciting an illicit sip of Mad Dog 20/20 tastes in the parking lot of a school’s gym. Then again, we’ll never know what it’s like to have Jeff Bridges as a chaperone, so we’re calling a draw.
By DOROTHY ROBINSON
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