With estimated CD sales of two to one (two Kayne to every one Fitty) at Amoeba Music Hollywood and most other music outlets across the country, yesterday it seems that Fitty literally is 50 Cent to every Kayne "dollar bill" West, in terms of sales of the long-feuding artists' highly anticipated and publicized new full-length releases. As San Francisco Amoebite and AMOEBLOGGER Brad Schelden outlined in his "Coming Out Today 9/11" AMOEBLOG yesterday, the latest round in the ongoing battle between Kayne West and 50 Cent (aka Fitty) would manifest itself at cash registers this week upon the release of each high-profile rapper's new album: Kayne West's Graduation and 50 Cent's Curtis.

And according to Tuesday's retail sales figures from each of the three Amoeba Music outlets plus online sales figures released by iTunes and Amazon.com, it is clear that West's new release greatly outsold Fitty's. "In terms of sales here yesterday, it was pretty much two to one in Kayne's favor," said Amoeba Music Hollywood hip-hop department's John Liu, adding that, "There was definitely a buzz about the two new releases, no doubt generated by all the recent media attention." Meanwhile at Amoeba Music San Francisco, according to the Haight Street store's hip-hop buyer Luis, the ratio of sales yesterday was even greater in Kayne's favor. It was four to one, indicating that maybe Fitty should perhaps consider changing his name to 25 Cent or Quarta' for short.

If by chance you are not familiar with the practice of watermarking advance/promo CDs, it's something that record labels undertake in an effort to discourage digital bootlegging/file-sharing of their releases in advance of street dates. Check out this really interesting and well-written story about the controversy caused over a leaked watermarked CD -- namely, the new Beirut album The Flying Club Cup on New Jersey based label Ba Da Bing! Records (whose roster includes Dead C). Eloquently penned by music writer Erik Davis, who contributes to Blender and Arthur, among other publications, it perfectly explains the whole practice and the issues it raises. It also describes the hot water that the writer recently found himself in with Ben Goldberg of Ba Da Bing Records. Titled "My Data Crime: The Ticking Time Bomb of the Watermarked Advance CD" and posted a few days ago, Erick Davis' article can be read on the Techgnosis website.

      

These photos, all recently shot in Yokohama, Japan, were taken by Amoeba Music fan ACCO, who is a major fan of all four elements of hip-hop, especially graf and turntablism. In Japan the native word for graffiti is "rakugaki," although this term tends to symbolize the more traditional (pre hip-hop) meaning for graffiti. Many consider the early nineties as the real beginning of Japanese graffiti in the hip-hop related form and, interestingly, graffiti was the last element of hip-hop to catch on in Japan. Hence, compared to the US, graf in Japan is still a relatively young art form. But nonetheless, it is a recognized one by both the underground and established art worlds, something confirmed two years ago when a major contemporary Japanese art museum took the unprecedented step of dedicating an entire exhibit to showcasing graffiti writers, titled the "X-COLOR Graffiti in Japan." The exhibit was held at the Art Tower Mito, under curator Kenji Kubota, who invited Japanese graf artists from all over the country to do something unheard of before in Japanese musuem galleries: to freely tag up the museum's walls and create pieces throughout the city as way to help the average Japanese citizen to appreciate the street art form more. These pictures, the first in a three part series, were all taken in Yokohama recently.

You've gotta love New York City in the summer months (it's still summer, even if kids are back at school) when there is just so much great live music always happening outdoors in the city's many parks and open public spaces. And the best part is that it's usually free and always fun-- like last weekend when Battles put on an incredible show at South Street Seaport in lower Manhattan, or this weekend on Sunday (Sept. 9th) when legendary New York club DJ Danny Krivit spun dance music for skaters and regular dancers alike in Central Park near 72nd in front of the bandshell, just as he did last year.

Also on Sunday afternoon, at the exact same time, across the river in Brookyn's Prospect Park at the expansive park's Music Pagoda was the ever popular and hella fun 14th Annual Clubhouse Jamboree -- the big, free house music (and food) party thrown by generous New York house music lover and all around cool guy Lil Ray. Lil Ray not only goes to the trouble and expense of getting permits, hauling in a large sound system, and lining up all the DJs for the long afternoon, but he also feeds near all of the thousand or so revelers that converge in the middle of the Brooklyn Park to dance their asses off to throbbing club house music every year on the second weekend of each September for the past fourteen years.

At about 6:45PM, right after DJ Spinna (pictured top left) -- the last DJ of the day -- had just finished his energetic set, and immediately after Lil Ray (pictured left) had thanked the vocally grateful gathering for supporting house music and for showing up to his annual party, I talked with the man for a moment. First I asked him why he has been throwing this big free party, at his expense, since 1994. "To show love for house music," he answered with a wide smile. "When I started the Clubhouse Jamboree it was a different time. There was no Internet to hear the music. [Back] then there really was little or no house music to be heard outside the clubs. And I wanted to take the music outside...into the park, and here in Brooklyn," he said. He added that his goal from that first party was to represent a variety of sounds within house music. "I always wanted to give different DJs from different clubs a chance to do their thing." So just how many people did he think he fed (the event was fully catered with full dinner plates of fish, rice, and vegetables, etc) of the approximate thousand strong that showed up on Sunday? "Well I brought 700 forks," he laughed. "And all the food is gone." So were the drinks, which included water and Cokes (which were care of Coca Cola, but everything else was at the expense of this generous New Yorker). Besides Spinna, the DJs for the afternoon included Ian Rock, DJ Wil Milton (Gravity), Brian Coxx (Soulgasm), and the young DJ sibling duo The Martinez Brothers.

Continue reading...