Click:
http://www.facebook.com/eddywinchester
http://www.thebluntraps.com
http://www.eddywinchester.com
Big things coming...
Monday, July 25, 2011
New Music from EMATiON!
If you haven't already checked out Eddy Winchester, aka EMATiON, hit it up:
Click:
http://www.facebook.com/eddywinchester
http://www.thebluntraps.com
http://www.eddywinchester.com
Big things coming...
Click:
http://www.facebook.com/eddywinchester
http://www.thebluntraps.com
http://www.eddywinchester.com
Big things coming...
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Chiddy Bang: World Record Holders?
MTV's inaugural O Music Awards bound for Las Vegas
April 19, 2011
NEW YORK (AP) — MTV is taking its inaugural O Music Awards to Las Vegas.
The network announced Tuesday that its planned show honoring digital music and fandom will take place at a "mystery location" in Las Vegas on April 28. The hourlong live show will stream online and on mobile.
The show includes categories like "must-follow artist on Twitter" and "best fan cover." Fan voting will decide the awards. MTV says 1.9 million votes have been cast.
At the Vegas event, rapper Chidera "Chiddy" Anamege of the hip-hop group Chiddy Bang will try to enter the Guinness World Records for longest freestyle rap.
Other scheduled performers will include Lupe Fiasco, Lil B, Matt & Kim and Mumford & Sons.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Chris Webby: Single Dropping 4/20
In celebration of 4/20 Chris Webby will drop a new single at midnight tonight.
Seems like the overnight hours are the only hours safe for a Webby track to drop; his last mixtape, Best in the Burbs, crashed DatPiff's servers. Time will tell if tonight's drop will do the same.
You'll find Sunny Afternoon exclusively at DJSemi.com.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Machine Gun Kelly: Black Apple
Check out this video on YouTube, it's the hot shit... Black Apple (who?!) and their spring/summer '11 line featuring MGK...
Chiddy Bang: Tour Cancelled
AllHipHop.com is reporting that the entire Bamboozled Roadshow 2011 has been cancelled over what organizers are calling "logistics issues". Ticketmaster.com does indeed show all dates except one as being cancelled. Sucks for all the Chiddy Bang/Dev/Ninjasonik fans who were looking forward to the show - but, hey, you can still cop a flight out to East Rutherford, NJ and catch all of the above, plus (according to the website) Sam Adams, Machine Gun Kelly, Dean's List, and about a fuckzillion other acts at the festival itself.
Bamboozle Festival:
Bamboozle Roadshow:
Ticketmaster:
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Mac Miller: No. 37 on the Charts; Wiz Learns "You Can't Beat Britney"
Excerpt from an article from hometown newspaper the Pittsburg Post-Gazette:
"Rising up from the underground was Point Breeze rapper and Rostrum artist Mac Miller hitting No. 37 on the album charts with his EP "On and On and Beyond" (over 13k). Miller's "On and On" was the free single of the week on iTunes. Khalifa and Miller are currently traveling together on the Campus Consciousness Tour."
Read the entire article:
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Machine Gun Kelly: Lace Up!
Check out the new MGK website, www.MGKLaceUp.com. It features videos, tracks, his tour... could you ask for anything more? Click this shit...
Hater Alert: Spin Magazine/Grayson Currin
As fans of indie hip hop it's always annoying to read the biases of the mainstream music media, as they fawn over talentless lyrics from commercially-driven, major-label-selected rappers but ignore all of the true talent that's out there. So imagine our delight when we read an article from Spin Magazine, with their writer jumping on Wiz Khalifa's dick instead of the usual NY/LA/Atlanta crowd.
That is, until we got to the end of the piece and read the hate he saved for one Mac Miller. Grayson Currin describes the crowd as "surprisingly interested", and goes on to hate on his beats, rhymes, and just about everything else about him - even the fact that he hasn't finished college. WTF?
Read a selection of the bullshit:
"But opener Mac Miller, a 19-year-old Khalifa protg also from Pittsburgh, possessed none of the headliner's effortless energy. Instead, Miller huffed and puffed after he finished a short a cappella verse, attempting to play it cool by assuring the surprisingly interested crowd he needed to take a second to set the mood.
Pulling from his four mixtapes, including the recent Best Day Ever, Miller sounded like an amateur who'd won a talent competition more than someone who'd earned a direct support slot on one of the year's biggest hip-hop tours. Miller's beats are flimsy, his rhymes elementary, the sort of clich windmill you'd expect from a scrawny white kid who seems to subsist only on weed, cereal, and cartoons.
About halfway through his set, Miller asked if anyone in the audience was currently in college. With a smirk bigger than his talent, he told the crowd that he'd tried school, but he just wasn't cut out for that business.
Unless, two years from now, Miller wants to be everyone's favorite forgotten rapper, he might consider taking a more academic approach to music. It's always better to graduate than drop out."
Never mind that Grayson Currin sounds like an amateur who got free media passes to a concert and was annoyed that he had to sit through some white kid rapping as he waited for the headline act, someone he only found about recently... he must have been so irritated to listen to Mac pleasing the crowd as he sat, deep in thought, wondering how he'd not known about Wiz - after all, he devoutly scours every media mailer from ALL the major labels...
Fuck Grayson Currin and his Johnny-come-lately hatin' ass.
Read the entire puff piece here:
Monday, April 4, 2011
Asher Roth is Back - Dot Com?
Have you checked out Asher Roth's new website yet?
Go to www.AsherRothIsBack.com and check it out. There's a video (an original Scooter Braun film? It wouldn't load for us) and some other stuff.
Waiting to see what's coming next...
Click the pic...
Go to www.AsherRothIsBack.com and check it out. There's a video (an original Scooter Braun film? It wouldn't load for us) and some other stuff.
Waiting to see what's coming next...
Click the pic...
Get Your Webbywear...
Chris Webby's got some new shirts on sale.
A few sick new designs... available in black, grey, and white... and size medium (WTF??)... so if you're a medium hit it up. If you're not, bulk up, or diet. Or just hang it in your closet... tight shit, so go support Mr. Webster.
See all of the designs, including some shirts with L and XL sizes, here...
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Sam Adams: Apparel Site Online Now
Wanna cop some Sammy gear?
Sam Adams has put out the link for his new apparel website: SamAdamsApparel.com. Shirts for $20, XXL sizes, and all kinds of other shit, too. I may pick up a pair of Drive Me Crazy booty shorts... maybe model them for the blog?
Sam Adams has put out the link for his new apparel website: SamAdamsApparel.com. Shirts for $20, XXL sizes, and all kinds of other shit, too. I may pick up a pair of Drive Me Crazy booty shorts... maybe model them for the blog?
OK, maybe not. But you can. Click the T...
You can also check out Eighties Babies USA, a line Sam's been reppin' since the very beginning: http://eightiesbabiesusa.bigcartel.com/.
Machine Gun Kelly: MTV Sucker Free
Someone's making the 'big time'.
Check out our boy, Machine Gun Kelly, on today's MTV Sucker Free.
From MTV2:
Sucker Free is the premiere destination for all things hip-hop on MTV2. From the lyrics to the lifestyle, if it happens in hip-hop, it happens here.
Sucker Free Countdown is two and a half hours of the best that hip-hop has to offer. From J. Cole to Jay Z, from Drake to Diddy, basically everybody who is anybody on the scene will want to hang out on the Sucker Free Countdown. But this is NOT your average press stop. Host DJ Envy will engage artists outside of the studio, capturing memorable moments that are high quality and anything but generic.
Sucker Free Countdown is two and a half hours of the best that hip-hop has to offer. From J. Cole to Jay Z, from Drake to Diddy, basically everybody who is anybody on the scene will want to hang out on the Sucker Free Countdown. But this is NOT your average press stop. Host DJ Envy will engage artists outside of the studio, capturing memorable moments that are high quality and anything but generic.
In these features, artists and celebrities will have the chance to show a different side of who they are, as we bring the show to them, in a space and time that suits their personalities best. Whether it's experiencing a red carpet premiere of a rapper-turned-actor's first film, a trip to a trusted sneaker shop to cop the latest in exclusive kicks, or exposing an artist's secret passion for art in their personal studio, theSucker Free Countdown will give you the access to the stars on a more intimate level.
On a weekly basis, we will also feature the biggest hip hop story of the week in the Sucker Free News reports, and feature segments from our media partner at XXL magazine (which include Show & Prove, Eye Candy, Behind the Cover and Main Attraction).
Picking up where the legendary Yo! MTV Rapsleft off, Sucker Free defines hip-hop and it's only on MTV2.
Sucker Free Daily, Tuesday - Thursday at 7:30a.Sucker Free Countdown, Sundays at 11:00p.
Looking For Help - Superfans Hit Us Up!
FUCK A LABEL??
FuckALabel.com is brand new.
Our aim is to post relevant feeds for some of the rap and hip hop artists coming up without the support of the major labels.
From Chris Webby to Mac Miller, Sammy Adams to Machine Gun Kelly - FuckALabel.com aims to post the latest news, music, and videos for each of these artists and a number of others.
We also plan to keep an updated show calendar here for all of the artists named above.
And artist bios? We've got bios...
LOOKING FOR BLOG CONTRIBUTORS
We are looking for someone to head up the feed for each of the music artists above. If you are a die-hard fan and the go-to person for news on Sam Adams, Machine Gun Kelly, Mac Miller, Chris Webby, Asher Roth, or Wiz Khalifa, email mail@sharxmedia.com.
There's no pay, but you'll get your name, photo, and contact info on the info bar to the right. And, the undying appreciation of music artists everywhere.
And, most importantly, you'll get a chance to say: fuck a label!
ARTIST REPS - HIT US UP!
If you are a rep for one of the artists above, or one of the artists themselves, email any relevant news to mail@sharxmedia.com for inclusion in this blog. Contact us at mail@sharxmedia.com for more information.
OTHER TALENTED ARTISTS...
We'll be posting info on a number of other, lesser-known artists too - including some brand new artists just coming up. You can click on the Everyone Else link, above, to see some names, or comment on this post to suggest someone we've not yet considered.
We're looking for music artists who self-promote, as well; a significant fan base certainly helps, but if you think your music should be featured here email mail@sharxmedia.com and we'll consider you.
WILL YOU HELP FUCK A LABEL?
If you like what you see here, click one of the little squares below and spread FuckALabel.com around the web. Post the link to your Facebook page, re-tweet our link on Twitter, or email it to friends.
And, whatever you do... come back often for the latest news on music artists who are collectively saying...
...you know.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Chris Webby: Lawsuit - April Fools
Chris Webby got a bit of exposure as part of an elaborate April Fool's Day prank pulled off by the Webby Awards.
If you're not familiar with the Webby Awards, they are the awards for all things Internet. They've been around for years, since before Webby's first mixtape - a fact apparently lost on many of those fooled on 4/1.
The prank? A law firm supposedly on retainer for the Chris Webby camp sent a "cease-and-desist" letter to the Webby Awards, claiming ownership of the Twitter hashtag #Webby - and threatening to sue for more than $100,000 in damages if the Webbys don't stop using it. Immediately.
The letter was reported in a news release by the Webby Awards folks and, as you can imagine, had the awards show's many followers all a-twitter. It was reported as news on at least one law blog, where the idea of hashtag ownership was debated all day.
The next day, the Webby Awards revealed the letter for what it was: an April Fool's Day joke.
Read about the prank on the Above The Law Blog:
And check out the Webby Awards reveal here:
#Webby #Ninjaswag #AprilFoolsBitches
Friday, April 1, 2011
Rostrum Records: Going Their Own Road
An article from the Pittsburg Post-Gazette about how Rostrum Records (Wiz Khalifa, Mac Miller) harnessed the power of the internet to create a buzz, and then a label, when mainstream labels thought Wiz couldn't make it as a rapper because, essentially, he wasn't from the right city.
Excerpt:
"Before Rostrum cut that first deal with Warner Bros. in 2007, Mr. Grinberg says, "labels that were sort of interested in Wiz would say things like, 'We really like him. Maybe we would put him under one of our other labels,' like Def Jam has DTP, which is Ludacris' label. Or 'Pittsburgh isn't really known for anything, so we need to give him some kind of co-sign, so people have some way to relate him to the rest of the hip-hip world.'
"We were always fully against that, because Wiz is a new artist from a new city, and we're not afraid of that and we'll take the longer road to make sure we fully represent that, instead of going under someone else's wing, like Atlanta. I felt like that whole era of needing gatekeepers and needing co-signs was coming to an end anyway. We didn't care about the gatekeepers. What was important to us was the fans. We never paid attention to 'Oh, this important DJ, you should give him money, so he'll do this.' We were like, 'We're not really interested.' We're going to go right to the fans through the Internet and have the fans tell the DJ this is what we wanna hear. It was not an easy road."
It's refreshing to hear that Rostrum Records - a newly-minted record label - basically said "fuck a label" in marketing Wiz and, later, Mac. The jmajor labels thought they knew what the fans wanted to hear - more Soulja Boy and Waka Flocka, no doubt. Rostrum went straight to the fans, and now Wiz is number one on iTunes and Mac's Knock, Knock is this week's iTunes Single of the Week.
Fuck a label.
Read the entire article:
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Machine Gun Kelly: Get Laced (Cleveland Wins)
Fuck Lebron... guess MGK is the real King of Cleveland?
Check the new video from King Colson's YouTube channel...
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Chris Webby: Ten Million YouTube Views - And Still Not Signed?
Seriously, what the fuck?
To celebrate his ten millionth YouTube video view (YouTube.com/ForTheBurbs) Chris Webby released a new video today: Contradictory to Grownups. Up against a beat from MGMT's Kids, previously sampled by Chiddy Bang (Opposite of Adults), this song is sick:
Webster's Laboratory, coming soon..
Drew32: Spazz Out
Check out li'l man Drew32 spazzin' out with fellow Detroit rapper Royce Da 5'9".
Be sure to watch thru the end of the vid to catch an appearance from Royce.
Download the track here: http://hulkshare.com/qocy13hhwfg9.
And be sure to check out the website: www.drew32.com.
Be sure to watch thru the end of the vid to catch an appearance from Royce.
Download the track here: http://hulkshare.com/qocy13hhwfg9.
And be sure to check out the website: www.drew32.com.
Mac Miller: iTunes Single of the Week
Our boy is blowin' up, and here's your chance to cop some Easy Mac official on iTunes and not spend a penny. Just log on to iTunes and look for the Free Single of the Week.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Mac Miller: On and On Release
Fresh new music from Mac Miller on iTunes!
Download On and On and Beyond, released today.
Downloading mine on the iPhone now...
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Fuck A Label... Introduction
Welcome to FuckALabel.com: Day One.
We started this blog to focus attention on today's - and tomorrow's - crop of non-mainstream rappers. 'Frat rappers', for some; 'most dope' music artists, for others. The kids you see on the title page of this blog, and the ones you'll see in blog posts in the future - the ones who dream of a career in the music business - and who are basically making it happen without an ounce of help from the music business.
They don't fit the standard criteria for today's commercially successful rapper. Fuck labels.
And most agree that the shit you hear on the radio today is laughable by real rap standards. So, in the absence of a record deal with a major label they're putting their shit out there on DatPiff.com, gaining thousands upon thousands of Facebook fans and Twitter followers, and finding success, dolo.
Again... fuck labels.
"Steve Jobs is personally responsible
for killing the music business."
When Jon Bon Jovi sputtered his gibberish to the Sunday Times magazine recently, the quote which made headlines the next day - the one you see above - was actually taken out of context. Jon, who's album Slippery When Wet actually debuted a whole lifetime ago, was talking about the act of listening to music - of driving to the record store, buying an album on vinyl, riding home caressing it in eager anticipation, listening to track after sucky track, and wondering why the fuck you spent $10 on an album when the only song you wound up liking was the one being overplayed on the radio anyway?
I think we all miss those days...
Bon Jovi's misunderstood rant seems to forget the fact that the MP3 player was not invented by Apple and the MP3 was becoming quite popular before mainstream music artists could even figure out how to make a penny off of them in the first place.
In 1986, when we were Living on a Prayer, Jon Bon Jovi - and anyone else lucky enough to "make it" in the music business - were living large. The profits were split between record companies, artists, and radio - and, later, video - with money made touring, selling merch... you get the idea.
But the number of artists were limited. They call it "Top 40" for a reason. And there is a reason that college bars still pack 'em in on "eighties night"... the music was laughable, comical.
A Little History...
Rap got its start "underground" - at first, record companies wanted nothing to do with it. If you heard it in its first decade you were probably in NYC or Philadelphia, and you were most likely listening to it being played on a stage. Record companies were timid, at first, testing out pop-style songs with a little hip hop inserted into the style. When that worked, early 1980s, hip hop began being recorded, marketed, and sold.
A few years later, 1986, 6 In The Mornin' by Ice-T was released. It's gone on to be considered the first 'gangsta rap' single. The buzz that N.W.A. created was musical magic shouts of "Fuck Tha Police" getting a letter from the F.B.I. director, and Tipper Gore beginning her campaign to require warning labels on albums.
(Machine Gun Kelly)
We all know where that went; gangsta rap became the hottest selling musical style - record companies couldn't keep albums on the shelf they were selling so quickly. West coast rap overtook east coast for a time, and Afrocentric themes (the words of music historians, not my own) were what was selling.
Straight Outta Compton...
Hip hop's 'golden age' is considered to be late 1980s and the 1990s. During the 90s hip hop was huge, and records were selling. You couldn't walk through a tenement in the 'hood without seeing wall-size posters of Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur on the walls of every girl, and most of the dudes...
A lot of other good music was being produced at that time, too - and a lot of one-hit wonders came out in the 1990s - anyone been to a Paperboy concert lately? - showing that the recording industry was willing to take a chance on artists for a time.
One artist who thought the industry wouldn't take a chance on him was none other than Eminem. He was well-known on the Detroit hip-hop scene when he cut his first record for a local label. It sold less than 1,000 copies. Em's talked in many interviews about the fear that he felt at the time, that his lack of sales meant he was a failure - and that he'd be a cook in a restaurant forever.
A year later Dr. Dre - gangsta rap pioneer and marketing genius Dr. Dre - found an Em demo on the garage floor of an Interscope Records honcho. He listened to it, then flew out to watch Em perform in the 'rap olympics' - and signed him on the spot. "Hi, my name is..." became a cultural phenomenon - and eight year-old boys listening to CDs on their Walkmans began to dream. The year was 1999.
Rolling Stone Magazine calls 1999 the year the 'golden age' ended for hip hop. It wasn't that a white MC had finally made it in the world of rap that killed it; it was Shawn Fucking Fanning and his invention, Napster. Young people, who have always made up the bulk of rap and hip hop record buyers, started giving Tower Records the finger that same year. Why buy music when you can get it for free, right? There was panic in the industry. Threats of lawsuits. And actual lawsuits.
Napster killed the music business.
But it started the trend toward what we're so appreciative for today: it put the control in the hands of the consumer. The recording industry, which had controlled every fucking note we'd heard since records were invented, would never be the same.
Eighties Babies?
The year was 1999, and a generation was listening to The Marshall Mathers LP for the first time.
I've read hundreds of poorly-written bios on MySpace, and I can't tell you how many aspiring rappers first began to dream about making it big while they were listening to that album.
February 23, 1999 was a day that changed the face of hip hop - although it would take the rise of social media, and the dreams of some of Em's youngest fans, to take the next step.
Asher Paul Roth was 13.
Christian Webster was 10 1/2.
Colson Baker was 9.
Malcolm McCormick had just turned 7. (WTF? We'll assume he heard it later).
Never mind that Eminem was closer to Compton than he was Connecticut - a white MC had made it - and, not only made it, really, but changed it.
The game.
Rap music's next crop of MCs would spend the next decade or so honing their freestyling skills in their jammies, jotting rhymes in their homework folders, and battling on the bus.
Not much would change in the music industry. At first...
Music Today...
Fast forward to 2005.
MySpace.com came out, and before annoying fucking bulletin spam ruined the site, it would become a place where amateur musicians and professional recording artists could post their music, write their blogs, and bring their music to the masses - without need for the media, or the record company execs.
The next year, bam! YouTube is blowing up. YouTube got its start as a place for people to post schoolyard fights and ghostride-the-whip vids, competing with other sites nobody remembers now, but its users would take to creating dope-ass content, leaving it leading the user-generated video niche by the end of 2006. Anyone remember any of the other video sites that year? Who cares...
A year or two later, MySpace is dying and Facebook is picking up steam. Facebook isn't "musician-friendly," people are complaining, but those who don't have execs to do most of the work for them - including the names above and, if you're an aspiring rapper, probably you - they were beginning to realize that, with a combination of MySpace/YouTube/Facebook a lot could be done.
A year or two ago, Twitter. Today Mac Miller - nine years old when Em came out with his first album - has more than 200,000 Twitter followers. That's nearly three times as many as XXL.
Fuck A Label...
We started this blog as a forum to feature some of the rappers who are "making it" in the music business today without any help from the music business.
Asher Roth. Sam Adams. Chris Webby. Mac Miller, Machine Gun Kelly. And so many others.
The goal for any musician, of course, is to "make it" in the industry. "Making it" means finding commercial success, and real success - the kind that changes your lifestyle - doesn't happen without a record label.
(Yet.)
But we're nearing the day when a combination of social networking, marketing, and online music sales will enable recording artists who choose not to sign to a major record label to still sell - and sell big.
Chris Webby crashed DatPiff when his fans, some 40,000 strong, all signed on to download Best in the Burbs at the appointed hour. And his fanbase has surged since then.
Webby has said that his next album will be on iTunes - with or without a label - and if the comments from his fans are any indication, they can't wait to throw some money at him.
So FUCK a LABEL.
Take it to mean that we abhor the labels that the recording industry has long expected its commercially successful rap artists to stick to themselves - or to mean fuck those same labels themselves.
We don't care.
Even if every one of the rap artists listed above gets signed by a major label and have their records crowding the shelves of Tower Records next week, you can't take away the fact that they built their buzz, and their fan base, from the ground up (thanks, Mac Miller); you'll simply have the first group of commercially successful hip hop artists who originated from the fans, instead of to them.
And if that happens, I've seen enough MySpace bios to know that there are a few hundred suburban kids currently battling themselves in the mirror, just ready to take their place.
FuckALabel.com is for the rappers above, and for those coming up, too.
Enjoy, and contact us at mail@sharxmedia.com with feedback, or if you want to help.
COPYRIGHT 2011 FUCKALABEL.COM
LINK TO THIS ENTRY:
Chris Webby
Interested in heading up the Chris Webby page of FuckALabel.com? Email mail@sharxmedia.com.
Mac Miller
Interested in heading up the Mac Miller page of FuckALabel.com? Email mail@sharxmedia.com.
Machine Gun Kelly
Interested in heading up the MGK page of FuckALabel.com? Email mail@sharxmedia.com.
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