Stay Free! has an awesome interview with Public Enemy's Chuck D and Hank Shocklee on how changes in attitudes toward intellectual property have affected hip-hop. I've often wondered why the aural assault of PE's early records - or even the atmospherics of the Wu-Tang Clan - have largely disappeared from mainstream hip-hop. I've often thought that lame drum-machine driven tracks like "Rubberband Man" were instantly catchy on the radio, while denser cuts just sounded muddy. But the gentlemen from Public Enemy contend that music with layers of samples is difficult and expensive to clear with copyright holders, leading them to strip down their sound.
Its great to see an old-school 'zine like Stay Free! still around; when I ran across the article it was a pleasant surprise to see that old familiar title on the page. They even have a print edition!
i've been an anonymous reader of your blog for a while and thoroughly enjoy it, as i'm interested in many of the same things you are. i discovered it when i was looking into the RTF grad programs at ut austin, which i still consider attending if i ever decide i want to go into debt. for now, i am living the glamourous life of a part-time graphic designer/video store clerk and devoting my creative energy to my website, medicinefilms.com, which is an online community space for d.i.y. movies...with social-networking undertones.
i think you'll find my website interesting. if you blog it and get all the RTF kids (and maybe even some profs) to hop on the medicinefilms bandwagon i will be forever indebted to you. i bet the austin kids could tear it up on my website. the site is relatively new and we're just about to start getting some press here in san francisco, but we can use all of the word of mouth and web-forum advertising we can get.
cheers, regina
Posted by: regina at June 5, 2004 06:13 PMrecent entries
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