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B.I.G. news in the hip-hop world: 50 Cent has a beef with someone. So, he took to Twitter to protest the latest, gravest event hurting the hip-hop community with a petition. Diddy’s exploitation of the Notorious B.I.G. [via Rap Radar/The Daily Swarm]:

Enough is enough, Biggie’s name should never have become Diddy’s Black Card. Just check out his latest video “The Ghost of Christopher Wallace” http://www.bit.ly/jay-diddy Let Diddy know to let B.I.G. rest in peace. When was the last time Diddy really was “biggin up his brother,” not biggin up his bank?

In the words of one Rap Radar commenter, “50 must have a new album coming out…”

Yes, 50′s “twitition” is either a desperate ploy for attention, or a sign that he’s been hiding under a rock for quite some time… which would again imply why he’s trying his best to get people to listen to him.

There’s no question Diddy’s nabbed a fair share of his fame using Biggie’s name. But that’s been happening since Diddy dropped his first record under the name “Puff Daddy” back in ’97. Names have changed, but his love, infatuation and constant use of B.I.G. for his own benefit has largely stayed the same.

Society has, by and large, continued on with this fact in tact. But now we can rest safe because 50 Cent is on the case. I hope 50 will continue to create important, world-changing petitions that point out the obvious and most likely will result in nothing. A little more than 24 hours later, 1,129 people have signed the petition. If you’ve got a few seconds to whittle away, check out the petition here.

Image by Getty Images North America via @daylife

Free the Music is a guide to new albums, EPs and songs that are available for free online. Today’s drop is: Childish Gambino – Culdesac.

Donald Glover lives a charmed life. At 26, he’s been a YouTube sensation with Derrick Comedy, wrote for the critically-acclaimed comedy “30 Rock,” and stars in another hit NBC comedy, “Community.”

Then there’s his hip-hop side-project, Childish Gambino. Glover showed promise on his first mixtape, I’m Just A Rapper, juggling odd, multi-syllabic rhymes while matching his flow to popular indie tunes. I’m Just A Rapper 2 felt like a re-run you’ve seen too many times: The rhymes sounded slathered together on short notice, the choice of instrumentals less-focused.

Now, Glover’s released his “official” release, Culdesac. Though the high quality piano introduction on “Difference” should inform a defiant and all together vibrant album, it doesn’t. In fact, the overwhelmingly overproduced nature of the album’s first two tracks sound gaudy and out of place, and highlight Glover’s oft-off beat rhyme schemes.

With I’m Just A Rapper, Glover leaned on a handful of stereotypical rap crutches (money, women, power), but created a unique lyrical narrative different than the over-the-top gangsterisms that pervades many overplayed hip-hop tropes. Yet, with Culdesac, Glover sounds stuck on repeat even when the beats below his vocals have a fresh-out-of-the-studio sheen.

On Culdesac, Glover leans harder on hip-hop thematic crutches, and uses them as a gateway to inform listeners of his charmed life. Yes, it’s important to talk about what you know. But with Culdesac, listeners could play a drinking game called “Tina Fey,” wherein you drink every time Fey’s name is mentioned. Chances are you’ll be drunk halfway through the album. Glover spends a lot of the album talking about how great he is, but it comes off as more insecure than truthful.

It’s not all bad. “Do Ya Like” has a fantastic electro-rap flow with one brilliant sample-based hook. And Glover even gets to deliver his best line of the record: “NBC is not the only thing I’m coming on tonight.” Yes, it’s juvenile, and Glover is up front about it in the song, but it’s a rare spot of lyrical brilliance in an underwhelming album. When things align, Glover seems to have all the talent in the world. But, for better or worse, Culdesac is merely a document that shows just how fallible an ambitious, creative person can be.

You can download Culdesac for free here.

Nope.

It was Drake, hip-hop and pop’s newest “it” musician. The gig was held the same day that Drake’s new album, Thank Me Later, hit every music store imaginable. A number of outlets have detailed the poor-planning and execution that took place at the show, and The Village Voice‘s Zach Baron was able to detail why the crowd got so rowdy in the first place:

Sources later told the Voice that the riot apparently started when a couple started simulating sex in the middle of the crowd. Though the crowd was into it, a plainclothes cop moved to intervene. A civilian then attempted to stop the plainclothes cop from getting involved, at which point a uniformed cop spotted the civilian accosting the plainclothes cop, and grabbed him. At which point the crowd went nuts. Ultimately, the riot became so severe that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was called to the scene.

All this happened before openers Ninjasonik were able to get into the groove of their set, and before second-tier headliners Hanson and main-man Drake made an appearance. Though the guys in Ninjasonik have skills and the brothers who wrote “MMMBop” could get their fair share of screams back in the day, I’m pretty sure Drake was what brought the crowd, and that Drake’s lack of an appearance caused some concert-goers to toss steel chairs onto a portion of the crowd from a balcony. (Sorry Hanson.)

Don’t believe it? Check out this video:

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It’s hard to believe a hip-hopper known for bearing his soul a little too much could inspire such a response. Then again, this came not long after fans in Australia went nuts during a free show featuring the squeaky-clean Justin Bieber.

It used to be parents would fear kids going to shows with bands preaching “anti-social” behavior: That was where the riot was. Remember the deaths at Altamont? Remember when Black Flag shows were so violent the band was banned from L.A.? Remember when Hell on Earth used the promise of an onstage suicide as an advertisement for one of their concerts?

Where’s the concert violence occurring now? At pop shows featuring tepid pop stars.

So what’s happened? Have the values of musicians changed? Hardly.

Read a little bit about the Drake and Bieber concerts and find a similar thread: A show where people weren’t expecting the outpouring of fandom. The only “values” that have changed are those that occur within the crowd at the specific concerts: Even then, the values aren’t terribly different from what anyone who has taken a psychology class can figure out.

It’s the mob mentality. If something a massive crowd of people expects to happen falls through, people will react in unkind ways. Individual thought can take a backseat when a rush of communal emotion takes place. In some cases, it must certainly be thrilling. In others, steel chairs take flight.

Sure, the lesson is obvious: Don’t follow the crowd. But then again, doesn’t that very notion negate the ascendancy of pop artists? Aren’t pop musicians simply supported by masses of people, and often metaphorically dismembered by the masses when their popularity ebbs?

Perhaps this presents a new case in favor of the splintering and Balkanization occurring in pop music. With so many micro-scenes, nobody has to get hurt. And isn’t Drake’s heartbreak-inspired music all about getting past the hurt? Who knows, maybe the riots could inspire a great new Drake tune… well, maybe not “great.”

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So what is the real truth behind Lynn Hirschberg’s article? Well, it’s not all that different than what Hirschberg wrote – just tossed up on a tacky, borderline-annoying site and made to look profound. Which is exactly what M.I.A. appeared as in Hirschberg’s profile.

Anyway, there are two truths:

Truth 1: Hirschberg ordered the fries! Shocker? To quote Josiah Hughes’ Exclaim coverage:

Way to lift the veil on some pretty heavy shit there, Maya.

No truer words written. Because, here’s how the fries factored into the story:

Maya said as she studied the menu, deciding on a glass of wine and French fries.

In case you hadn’t picked up on that in the article, no worries. It’s a minute detail in the piece, and, really, what journalist would take that snippet of a conversation M.I.A. posted on her blog and re-print such a pointless detail in an article that’s not about french fries. From what I understand, someone had to eat those fries, and unless M.I.A. can prove otherwise – who cares!

Truth 2: Hirschberg somehow left out part of a quote?!

Here’s how it appears on M.I.A.’s site:

“IT WASNT JUST ABOUT ME, and me getting to the oscars or me going to the grammy’s that doesn’t mean anything the whole point of that journey was so you can go hey 50,000 people are going to die next month here’s your opportunity to help and no one did, and they still died! it wasn’t about accolades or fame.”

lynne: “oh yeah i understand”

And within the article:

“The whole point of going to the Grammys was to say, ‘Hey, 50,000 people are gonna die next month, and here’s your opportunity to help.’ And no one did.”

What’s the issue? That Hirschberg said she “understands?” What, does she understand that M.I.A. feels that way? Totally possible. That also doesn’t mean that what M.I.A. said – that appearing at the Grammys made people think about genocide in Sri Lanka – is actually true. I doubt that anyone who saw her perform her sampled piece of “Swagga Like Us” stood up and said, “that’s an excellent point about modern genocide!”

And considering M.I.A. misspelled Hirschberg’s first name in a blog post about “the truth” certainly makes the whole thing fishy.

The whole escapade boils down to M.I.A.’s “big” response: A new song called “I’m A Singer.” It’s a response to Hirschberg’s work, one in which M.I.A. declares the old saying about sticks and stones breaking bones, yada yada. Which only further proves how much M.I.A. was hurt by Hirschberg’s piece. If M.I.A. wants people to believe that music as a response to criticism wasn’t created by hurt feelings/ego, well, that just further cements a seal-of-truth on the Times profile. In fact, it sums up the profile with a singular statement: M.I.A. is human, one with great ideas, and plenty of weaknesses. Such as “I’m A Singer.”

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It’s not easy being a rapper from Wisconsin. Just ask 23-year-old hip-hop lifer Juiceboxxx. Music journalists and bloggers have spent years trying to pin down the Milwaukee wordsmith’s ecstatic dance rap with one pigeonholing term after another. Nerdcore. Hipster rap. Back in 2007, the Phoenix’s own blog dubbed Juiceboxxx (who will drop by Good Life for a free show Sunday) a “retard disco-style geek-rap phenomenon.”

via Kid vicious – Music Features – Boston Phoenix.

A piece I did on Milwaukee rapper Juiceboxxx.

Rapper Guru has died aged 43 after a long battle with cancer, according to statements published online.

The New York MC – whose real name was Keith Elam – suffered cardiac arrest on March 2 and had been in a coma.

Guru’s passing is a major blow to the constantly-evolving hip-hop community. Alongside DJ Premier, Guru helped mold the landscape of hip-hop with Gang Starr, providing something of a template for future underground and golden-aged flavored hip-hop acts to come.

More information on Guru’s death is available at the DJ Premier blog.

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Balkanization.

Be it another teeny-indie scene given the tag “glo-fi,” or another subset of Brooklyn bands revisiting the aural atmosphere of ’60s garage pop, the message remains loud and clear: As micro-scenes develop within pockets of our society, our common culture becomes more fractured, our tastes more disparate, and the chances of a collective pop music icon coming to fruition becomes less and less likely.

This has been apparent for some time, long before music critic Christopher R. Weingarten spoke about how many of his “indie” friends were so involved in their scene that they were unaware of Lady Gaga.

Yet, I was never so struck by the veracity of this concept as I was reading some of the comments on Michele Catalano’s recent post, “Who will be this generation’s Led Zeppelin?” The fundamental indifference some readers expressed of music today left me more bemused than anything. There’s such an abundance of new, great music being produced today, it’s simply shocking to read something like this:

But modern rock is so awful, I think since it’s gone “beyond corporate” than in the 60’s & 70’s. It’s all down to marketing & hype. Could an “ugly” band (say Yes or the Rolling Stones) even “make it” in today’s hyper-aerobicized dance-contest pop/rock music culture?

Or, even worse, this:

Much of the ethos of Rap is “Get rich become a massive conspicuous consumer”. In short, Become The Man (and shoot anybody who then tries to stick it to you).

One could chalk all this up to “old folks set in their ways,” but that generalization doesn’t capture those folks as individuals, nor does it provide any insight into why people feel that way. For one to dismiss ALL modern rock as “awful” or have a misinformed, ignorant and near-racist concept of hip-hop, there’s got to be a viable explanation.

So how did we get here? Well, first off, ask where yourself this: Where do I get information about music? Through media in all of its forms.

I’ll be taking some time observing how and what kinds of music is dispersed to the public through various types of media. First up is radio.

Radio is usually last on the list of important media people are willing to discuss. These days the Internet takes precedence, but even in conversation’s involving the supposed death of print, nobody thinks to mention radio. Remember that medium that was so integral to Americans in the early half of the 20th Century and then took a nosedive in popularity once the TV rolled around? Doesn’t that sound oddly familiar to the relationship between newspapers (and, for that matter, any other news-based medium) and the Internet?

Yet, despite the competition, radio is still around. And thriving.

A 2009 Nielsen study showed that 90 percent of Americans 18-years-old and older are exposed to “audio content” every day, with 50 percent of that number listening to the radio.

Part of this can be drawn to how readily equipped we as a society are to listen to the radio. It’s in the car, it’s (usually) a function on your alarm clock, it’s readily available in a cheap portable version. So, when you’re stuck in rush hour traffic, chances are you’re flipping around your radio dial, trying to find something to listen to. Unlike most other mediums, radio truly does have a “captive” audience when it comes to people driving. You can always turn off your TV or computer and walk away if nothing is on: If you’re stuck in a car and want a distraction from the slow pace of traffic, the radio is right there.

And there’s information to back it up: 84 percent of drivers listen to the radio, and 86.5 percent of working stiffs commute to work in a car (or another type of vehicle.) Sure, there are cassette adapters for your iPod, as well as CD and cassette players available in cars, but there’s a certain immediacy that comes with radio.

Now, where is all this information on the great success of radio available? On the various Clear Channel-affiliated websites.

Clear Channel is the biggest name in radio. They’ve got more than 1,000 radio stations linked to their brand across the country, and they are, far and away, the most successful radio conglomerate in the nation.

Aside from merely monopolizing the radio-waves, Clear Channel’s dominance in the marketplace has created an unsettling effect on the way people perceive music today. As in, it stinks.

Somehow, someway, trashy, not terribly well-concieved music has found a place in the playlists of Clear Channel. How that happened is a discussion for another time. What’s more unsettling is just how pervasive this era of radio-play exists across the country.

To test my hypothesis, I decided to look at the playlists for 10 random rock stations operating under the Clear Channel banner. For this task, I searched for “rock” on Clear Channel’s station search, and randomly selected stations on the list that were either “modern,” “alternative” or plain old rock. I did not want “classic rock” stations, as I specifically wanted to ascertain a reason as to why some folks think all music today pales in comparison to the music of a bygone era. With so many people listening to radio (a large number of those individuals being middle aged to boot), clearly some interpretation of “music today” is derived from what is played on the radio. (I’ve included the playlists at the bottom of this post.)

Well, the results are pitiful to say the least. Beyond the boundaries of taste, there is hardly anything in terms of variety – both among the different stations and within many playlists – to make one think that music today is in a good place.

There’s a pretty clear monopolization by some bands within the top 20 songs listed on the playlists for the 10 Clear Channel rock stations. Alice in Chains and Three Days Grace both held 11 spots in the cumulative total, or roughly 5.5 percent of the total cumulative playlists each. Chevelle, Shinedown, Stone Temple Pilots, Godsmack, Rise Against, Breaking Benjamin, Mudvayne, Slipknot and Sick Puppies also take a massive chunk out of the total playlist, which can be viewed on the chart below:

Many of the songs by these oft-repeated bands were the same. Even those acts that were featured on twice on all the playlists usually happened to feature the same song. For example, Phoenix’s “1901″ was featured on the playlist for DC101 in the D.C. Metro area and WEND 1065 in Charlotte, North Carolina. While that song came from an album released a year ago, curiously Nine Inch Nail’s “The Hand That Feeds,” a 2005-era tune that’s something of a lesser song in the NIN discography, was listed on the playlist for both DC101 and San Diego, California’s KIOZ 105.3.

Aside from those troubling numbers, there’s also an issue of bands doubling up on these 20-song playlists. There were 13 bands that were featured twice on a variety of radio station playlists. Again, Three Days Grace and Alice in Chains made the top cut, each getting doubled on three different playlists. Individually, DC101 and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s WDVE 102.5 draw the biggest red flags for doubling-up on bands: WDVE featured two songs by The Clarks, Jimi Hendrix and ZzTop, while DC101 featured two songs by Cage The Elephant, Three Days Grace and Muse.

It’s shameful to think about. Such repetition fosters a sense that music today is stale. The fact that many of these playlists are interchangeable from one state to the next is absolutely confounding. With the exception of two of the 10 stations, the rest of the radio stations playlists featured near-replicas of the other stations’ playlists, right down to their songs of choice. These are stations from across the country, and instead of, say, featuring local artists or digging into one of the millions of millions of bands creating new music out there right now, rock radio listeners are subject to the same songs.

Beyond that, the content of the songs, the very thing that’s got people saying “music today stinks,” is, well, something unto itself. Many of the Breaking Benjamins and Sick Puppies that dominate these playlists sound like cheap, 5th generation Nirvana wannabes, right down to the same powerful guitar licks and loud-quiet-loud dynamics. For the average listener who may be just flipping through stations not entirely paying attention, it may literally sound like the same song being played over and over again. Sure, there’s your average Phoenix tossed in there, but when a majority of the airtime is dedicated to mindless filler, even the gems can be drowned out.

These kinds of playlists hardly reflect the kind of music that is being produced today. That’s not just confined to the “artists playing loft shows” scenario: Think of all the bands on major labels constantly producing music and trying to get heard. Think of all the little bands that would be happy signing a record deal – any record deal – just to be able to make music their calling. They’re getting drowned out, they’re not being heard, and throughout it all they’re being told the music of today is terrible. It’s these kinds of scenarios that can kill of perfectly good bands, force perfectly open music listeners to turn off their radio and bring our culture to a grinding halt.

Fortunately, it’s just one of the many ways music is broadcast to the public. Thank goodness Clear Channel doesn’t have so much control outside of the AM and FM dials.

The Edge 100.3 (Little Rock):

1.     Alice In Chains – “Your Decision”

2.     Godsmack – Cryin’ Like A Bitch!!”

3.     Five Finger Death Punch – “Walk Away”

4.     Rise Against – “Savior”

5.     Breaking Benjamin – “Give Me A Sign”

6.     Drowning Pool – “Feel Like I Do”

7.     Mudvayne – “Scream With Me”

8.     Three Days Grace – “The Good Life”

9.     Slipknot – “Snuff”

10.  Chevelle – “Letter From A Thief”

11.  Sevendust – “Unraveling”

12.  Shaman’s Harvest – “Dragonfly”

13.  Three Days Grace – “Break”

14.  Shinedown – “Sound Of Madness”

15.  Sick Puppies – “You’re Going Down”

16.  Breaking Benjamin – “I Will Not Bow”

17.  Sick Puppies – “Odd One”

18.  Skillet – “Monster”

19.  Stone Temple Pilots – “Between The Lines”

20.  Chevelle – “Jars”

WXTB 98 (Tampa, FL):

1.     Sick Puppies – “You’re Going Down”

2.     Breaking Benjamin – “I Will Not Bow”

3.     Three Days Grace – “Break”

4.     Alice In Chains – “Check My Brain”

5.     Rise Against – “Savior”

6.     Slipknot – “Snuff”

7.     Theory Of A Deadman – Bad Girlfriend”

8.     Chevelle – “Jars”

9.     Alice In Chains – “Your Decision”

10.  Shinedown – “Sound of Madness”

11.  Mudvayne – “Scream With Me”

12.  Mudvayne – “Do What You Do”

13.  Shinedown – “If You Only Knew”

14.  Disturbed – “Indestructible”

15.  Seether – “Breakdown”

16.  Rise Against – “Re-education”

17.  Hollywood Undead – “Undead”

18.  Apocalyptica/Adam Gontier – “I Don’t Care”

19.  Disturbed – “The Night”

20.  Godsmack – “Cryin’ Like A Bitch”

WEND 1065 (Charlotte, NC):

1.     Breaking Benjamin – “Give Me A Sign”

2.     Three Days Grace – “Break”

3.     Rise Against – “Savior”

4.     Flyleaf – “Again”

5.     Alice In Chains – “Your Decision”

6.     Weezer – “I Want You To”

7.     Phoenix – “1901”

8.     Three Days Grace – “The Good Life”

9.     Chevelle – “Letter From A Thief”

10.  Crash Kings – “Mountain Man”

11.  Muse – “Uprising”

12.  Slipknot – “Snuff”

13.  Cavo – “Crash”

14.  30 Seconds To Mars – “Kings and Queens”

15.  Muse – “Resistance”

16.  Stone Temple Pilots – “Between The Lines”

17.  Cage The Elephant – “Back Against The Wall”

18.  Cage The Elephant – “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked”

19.  Sick Puppies – “You’re Going Down”

20.  Dirty Heads/Rome – “Lay Me Down”

KZRR 94 (Albuquerque, NM):

1.     Godsmack – “Cryin’ Like A Bitch!!”

2.     Slash/Andrew Stockdale – “By The Sword”

3.     Chickenfoot – “Sexy Little Thing”

4.     Creed – “Overcome”

5.     Shinedown – “Sound of Madness”

6.     Scorpions – “Raised On Rock”

7.     Them Crooked Vultures – “New Fang”

8.     Halestorm – “I Get Off”

9.     Iron Maiden – “Run To The Hills”

10.  Buckcherry – “Talk To Me”

11.  Guns N’ Roses – “Paradise City”

12.  Stevie Ray Vaughn – “Crossfire”

13.  Dio – “Rainbow In The Dark”

14.  Avenged Sevenfold – “Scream”

15.  All That Remains – “Forever In Your Hands”

16.  The Cult – “Fire Woman”

17.  Pink Floyd – “Comfortably Numb”

18.  Aerosmith – “Sweet Emotion”

19.  Led Zeppelin – “Whole Lotta Love”

20.  Jimi Hendrix Experience – “All Along The Watchtower”

WDVE 102.5 (Pittsburgh, PA):

1.     Shinedown – “If You Only Knew”

2.     Stone Temple Pilots – “Between The Lines”

3.     Slash/Andrew Stockdale – “By The Sword”

4.     Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Skynyrd Nation”

5.     Alice In Chains – “Your Decision”

6.     Scorpions – “Rock You Like A Hurricane”

7.     The Clarks – “Inside”

8.     Divide The Day – “Let It Roll”

9.     The Clarks – “True Believer”

10.  Rainbow – “Man On The Silver Mountain”

11.  Jimi Hendrix – “Bleeding Heart”

12.  Jimi Hendrix – “Valleys of Neptune”

13.  Zz Top – “Sharp Dressed Man”

14.  Megadeth – “The Right To Go Insane”

15.  Zz Top – “Got Me Under Pressure”

16.  Stevie Ray Vaughn – “Cold Shot”

17.  Alice In Chains – “Check My Brain”

18.  Chickenfoot – “Sexy Little Thing”

19.  Billy Squier – “Lonely Is The Night”

20.  Jet – “Cold Hard Bitch”

KEGL 91.7 (Dallas/Fort Worth, TX):

1. Godsmack – “Whiskey Hangover”

2. Three Days Grace – “Break”

3. Shinedown – “Sound Of Madness”

4. Alice In Chains – “Check My Brain”

5. Chevelle – “Jars”

6. Puddle Of Mudd – “Psycho”

7. Stone Temple Pilots – “Between The Lines”

8. Breaking Benjamin – “I Will Not Bow”

9. Shinedown – “Second Chance”

10. Drowning Pool – “Feel Like I Do”

11. Saving Abel – “Addicted”

12. Theory Of A Deadman – “Bad Girlfriend”

13. Alice In Chains – “Your Decision”

14. Slipknot – “Snuff”

15. Mudvayne – “Do What You Do”

16. Disturbed – “Indestructible”

17. Avenged Sevenfold – “Afterlife”

18. Metallica – “Cyanide”

19. Cult – “Fire Woman”

20. Whitesnake – “Still Of The Night”

KFNK 104.9 (Seattle/Tacoma, WA):

1. Chevelle – “Letter From A Thief”

2. Three Days Grace – “The Good Life”

3. Alice In Chains – “Your Decision”

4. Godsmack – “Cryin’ Like A Bitch!!”

5. Drowning Pool – “Feel Like I Do”

6. Breaking Benjamin – “Give Me A Sign”

7. Puddle Of Mudd – “Stoned”

8. Stone Temple Pilots – “Between The Lines”

9. Hole – “Skinny Little Bitch”

10. 2 Cents – “Get What”

11. Five Finger Death Punch – “Walk Away”

12. Sick Puppies – “Odd One”

13. Deftones – “Diamond Eyes”

14. Soil – “The Lesser Man”

15. Slipknot – “Snuff”

16. H.i.M. – “Heartkilller”

17. Mudvayne – “Scream With Me”

18. Flyleaf – “Chasm”

19. Coheed & Cambria – “Here We Are Juggernaut”

20. Richy Nix – “In My Head”

WWDC DC101 (DC):

1.     Muse – “Uprising”

2.     Rise Against – “Savior”

3.     Breaking Benjamin – “I Will Not Bow”

4.     Cage The Elephant – “Back Against The Wall”

5.     Three Days Grace – “Break”

6.     Anberlin – “Feel Good Drag”

7.     Weezer – “I Want You To”

8.     Stone Temple Pilots – “Between The Lines”

9.     Crash Kings – “Mountain Man”

10.  Offspring – “You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid”

11.  Silversun Pickups – “Panic Switch”

12.  Phoenix – “1901”

13.  Kings of Leon – “Sex On Fire”

14.  Muse – “Reistance”

15.  Chevelle – “Jars”

16.  Cage The Elephant – “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked”

17.  Three Days Grace – “The Good Life”

18.  Seether – “Fake It”

19.  Nine Inch Nails – “The Hand That Feeds”

20.  Foo Fighters – “The Pretender”

KBPI 106.7 (Denver, CO):

1.     Seasons After – “Cry Little Sister”

2.     Godsmack – “Cryin’ Like A Bitch!!”

3.     Alice In Chains – “Your Decision”

4.     Megadeth – “The Right To Go Insane”

5.     Five Finger Death Punch – “No On Gets Left Behind”

6.     Three Days Grace – “The Good Life”

7.     Drowning Pool – “Feel Like I Do”

8.     Rise Against – “Savior”

9.     Mudvayne – “Happy?”

10.  Shinedown – “Sound Of Madness”

11.  Sevendust – “Unravelling”

12.  Thousand Foot Krutch – “Fire It Up”

13.  Slipknot – “Snuff”

14.  Puddle Of Mudd – Stoned”

15.  Stone Temple Pilots – “Between The Lines”

16.  Chevelle – “Letter From A Thief”

17.  Skillet – “Monster”

18.  Slipknot – “Dead Memories”

19.  Sick Puppies – “You’re Going Down”

20.  Disturbed – “The Night”

KIOZ 105.3 (San Diego, CA):

1.     Skillet – “Monster”

2.     Three Days Grace – “Break”

3.     Alice In Chains – “Your Decision”

4.     Muse – “Uprising”

5.     Rise Against – “Savior”

6.     Slipknot – “Snuff”

7.     Mudvayne – “Scream With Me”

8.     Puddle Of Mudd – “Stoned”

9.     Sick Puppies – “Odd One”

10.  Kings Of Leon – “Sex On Fire”

11.  Saving Abel – “Drowning”

12.  Breaking Benjamin – “Give Me A Sign”

13.  Godsmack – “Cryin’ Like A Bitch!!”

14.  Queens Of The Stone Age – “Little Sister”

15.  Chevelle – “Letter From A Thief”

16.  Stone Temple Pilots – “Between The Lines”

17.  Cavo – “Crash”

18.  Nine Inch Nails – “The Hand That Feeds”

19.  Faith No More – “Epic”

20.  Linkin Park – “Given Up”

Apparently, this guy [via New York Magazine]:

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Yep. The Tea Party has hit its tipping point for parody, and this time their critics really didn’t have to do anything.

Political rap is all well and good, but this just isn’t good. Just hearing the guy drop rhymes that plead against being pigeonholed as “birthers and national turfers” while blaming the “liberal media” for doing just that is, needless to say, cringe worthy. Nothing like complaining about sweeping generalizations while making some yourself to remind you what “hypocrisy” is. Or, should I say, hip-hop-crisy? (Scratch that. Pretend I didn’t just write that.)

Best lyrics:

T-E-A/We’re not racist

T-E-A/We’re not tea baggers

T-E-A/Peace

Oh yes. That happened.

Now here’s a real tea party rap:

[youtubevid id="PTU2He2BIc0"]

In today’s everyones-a-blogger, link economy online community, many an Internet scribe would be content with where Brooklyn’s Das Racist was at the end of 2009. A “year as a meme” via a brilliant tongue-in-cheek banger by the name of “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.” It’s the kind of so-smart-why-didn’t-I-think-of-that ditty that one could hear a thousand tumblrs smacking their head in defeat, thinking: There goes another book deal… Back to posting pictures of stains that look like hipsters.

And then Das Racist had to go and drop Shut Up, Dude. They brought it like they’ve got something to prove. And yes, there’s a wave of expectations stacked up against them, with people who were probably waiting for a Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell: The Mixtape, filled with plenty of tunes of other late night fast food adventures. Yet, that would’ve ruined the mystique of the original tune and it really would have made Das Racist a gimmick.

So, Das Racist did the smart thing and produced a mixtape as deft and effective as any other that’s hit the ‘net this year. Take “Who’s That? Brooown!,” the mixtape’s intro track. One part funky electro beat, one part intelligent critique of race in modern America, “Who’s That? Brooown!” does what any good mixtape track should do: it provides a forum for the MCs – Himanshu Suri and Victor Vazquez – to display their talent. And Suri and Vazquez drop witty bits of wordplay with a brilliant flow throughout the track, referencing pop culture bits and mixing in critiques of, say, consumerism along the way.

The song hits a peak at the chorus, a smartly-phrased re-working of the UPS slogan as an existential racial observation:

What can brown do for you?/What can brown do for me?

It’s one of countless pop cultural callbacks and rebrandings that fill the mixtape, intelligent lyrical twists that pack every song it’s easy to miss if you’re not paying attention. Fortunately, Suri and Vazquez remain at the foreground to a majority of the mixtape, allowing their words to be the focus of a majority of the album. It’s a great strength and weakness of the album. Suri and Vazquez are talents, no doubt. But when the mixtape opens with instrumentals as strong as “Who’s That? Brooown!” and “You Oughta Know,” an immensely catchy tune based on a sample of Billy Joel’s “Movin’ Out” that’s been used for a couple other hip-hop tunes that aren’t nearly as effective, it’s easy to get worn out by the end of the 17-track mixtape when not all the songs offer the same in beat-matching immediacy.

Still, Shut Up, Dude is sure to please and surprise any and all who expected nothing, or something great, from Das Racist. Be it the pointed hip-hop in-joke humor of “Fake Patios” or the old school flavor of “Deep Ass Shit,” Shut Up, Dude has the kind of exuberance that ought to fill every album on your best-of-the-year list.

You can grab a copy of Shut Up, Dude here.

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Yet the sheer amount of text devoted to the video, with responses ranging from anger to flat-out bemusement, would make it seem as though “Miracles” is the only thing people are watching right now.

So what’s all the hubbub about? In case you’ve missed it, check out the video below:

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Finished? If you haven’t keep watching. I know it’s hard, but it’ll be worth it.

Done? OK, great.

Well, not great. Really, really terrible.

What’s so bad?

Well, here’s a multi-platinum rap act preaching a lesser-known form of science than that of alchemy: a belief in miracles. And there’s one thing to be wide-eyed at all the wonders of the world, but there’s something downright ignorant about grown adults removing the basic explanation for, say, rainbows from the equation. So, yes, the mass amount of hate-blogging is easily explained.

What isn’t addressed, however, is how did this come to be? How did “Miracles” get produced? And I’m not talk about the mechanics and behind-the-boards studio wizardry. Moreso the culture behind “Miracles,” and the band that reared the culture: Insane Clown Posse.

Though ICP’s “Miracles” has a more “upbeat” foray than their other tunes (one could say it’s even “family friendly,” if you ignore the smattering of cursing), something about it still speaks to Juggalo culture. An oft-ignored subculture, the very nature of Juggalos seems indebted to the modern era of the iconic Republican image. There’s a certain working class sentiment, a focus on the communities ignored by metropolitan areas, and there’s a certain folksiness to it all.

Sure, all those “motherfuckins” that fill ICP lyrics ain’t quite what some may consider “folksy,” but with the purveyance and popularity of hip-hop in modern America, it’s very much a folksy twist on that familiar breakbeat. After all, ICP broke out in the late ’90s, when nu-metal was stealing the hearts and minds of young adolescent males across the country with its mix of rap and metal. Perhaps this down-home sentimentality is what’s kept ICP going strong while the Limp Bizkits of yesteryear broke up or faded away.

Even after the mainstream left ICP for dead and moved onto the newest musical fad, the fans stuck around. As The New York Times‘ Jon Caramanica wrote in a review of Juggalo act Twiztid, they’re not just fans:

These fans, known as Juggalos, refer to themselves collectively as “family.”

Family. A term that strikes the very heart of this nation. It’s something that politicians – particularly Republicans looking to capture middle America – stick to their guns on, every time, all the time. Family is important, and in the Juggalo-verse, it’s as much a part of it as the music.

Caramanica opened his piece by listing the locations of the biggest Juggalo festival of the year:

Every summer for the past 10 years, there’s been a Gathering of the Juggalos. Novi, Mich.; Pataskala, Ohio; Cave-In-Rock, Ill.

Not exactly New York City or Los Angeles. Just as many hard-right Republicans claim an allegiance towards middle American everytowns, it’s these very locations that provide the very grounds for Juggalo culture to thrive. Or at least party for a few days.

In the baffling listing of everyday miracles ICP’s Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope ramble off, this little gem drops right in:

Fucking magnets, how do they work?
And I don’t wanna talk to a scientist
Y’all motherfuckers lying, and getting me pissed

It’s been a sticking point for a lot of online jokes, including the creation of the hilarious textbook for Juggalos at Cracked.com. It’s also been the source of a lot of the bemusement and anger launched at the song, video and band. Yet, it may be explained by the very nature of the existence Juggalo culture lives in.

This is, after all, the same day and age where the Texas State Board of Education can selectively decide what may be included in their state’s history textbooks based on an allegiance towards a particular political party. Is it any wonder that an artist representing a culture often preyed upon by the Republican Party would feel spite towards the scientific community when Republican leaders continue to hold skepticism about the veracity of global warming?

Whether or not these connections are as strong as I assert is one thing. However, ICP and the number of Juggalo acts affiliated with that group have a significant following. The real question here shouldn’t be “how can an adult think of scientists that way?” It should be “what can we do to ensure that this type of thinking dissolves itself?”

Anger seems to be the most immediate response. Both for the members of ICP when it comes to the science community, and those who find ICP’s “Miracles” a complete mockery. Yet anger isn’t the way to approach the problem of self-inflicted ignorance on the part of ICP.

What is the “answer” to such a query? I’m not sure. But whatever conclusion can be drawn, I’m sure it will come with a healthy dose of “you betcha.”

**UPDATE/ADDENDUM: Please take this post with a grain of salt. It’s not meant to represent Republicans, Juggalos or anyone else as a whole. Merely, consider this post to be a reflection of how both Republicans and Juggalos are perceived in our greater mainstream culture: Often in a stereotypical form. I wrote this post using generalizations so as to not speak for each and every Republican, but as a way for one to reconsider the ways these different individuals are discussed in our culture, as well as discussing their similarities. It’s an extreme image, but, aren’t Juggalos (and some Republicans) viewed in an extreme vision?