Smokey Robinson SXSW 2010 Keynote Speech

via Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN – Smokey Robinson, relaxed while sitting on an easy chair, summed up his life as a songwriter in these few words: "My goal is to always write a song," he said. "Every time I sit down, I want to write a song."

That was the gist of the Motown music legend's keynote address Thursday morning (March 18) at the South by Southwest Music Festival. Except that Robinson didn't stand behind a lectern to deliver a pre-written speech.

Instead, in a much looser setting, he fielded questions from music journalist Dave Marsh. Although all Marsh really did was introduce a general topic and let the talkative artist gab.

Robinson isn't shy. He's more than happy to tell stories about the golden days and today. Robinson hasn't slowed down, releasing Time Flies When You're Having Fun on his Robso Records label last year. Plenty of conversation also focused on 2006's collection of pop standards, Timeless Love.

"It was the first music I heard in my life at home," he said of the classics on Timeless. "I consider these songs to be timeless. They are older than me."

Of course, much discourse centered on Berry Gordy, the visionary Motown Records founder that took 16-year-old Smokey Robinson and helped mold him into a superstar singer and songwriter.

When Robinson met Gordy, he had a loose-leaf notebook full of songs that rhymed but made no sense, he said. It was Gordy who, while impressed with the persistent budding artist, made sure that Robinson learned the craft well. So Gordy had Robinson listen to the radio and study the structure of hit after hit.

"I want you to see that songs have a beginning, a middle and an end tied together," Robinson said Gordy once told him. "That's really how I learned to write songs."

A few fun factoids: Robinson wrote "Shop Around" in 25 minutes. "It just flowed out of me," he said. By contrast, "Cruisin' " took five years to pen.

Nothing Robinson said Thursday was particularly revelatory, but it was highly entertaining listening to him reminisce. We did learn just how ambitious Robinson can be and how passionate he is about his art.

"I want to be Beethoven," he said. "I want to be Mozart."

It's not that he wants to be a classical composer, it's that he wants to endure. He wants to be timeless. "I was influenced so much by George Gershwin, by Ira Gershwin," he says, "people like that who wrote songs that we're still singing."

(video courtesy of SXSW)

DaVinci 'The Day The Turf Stood Still' Album Download Available Now + Hometown Paper Feature

via S.F. Weekly

The song "What You Finna Do?," released earlier this month by Fillmore District rapper DaVinci, opens with a vocal sample from the 2001 PBS documentary The Fillmore. It condenses the gentrification process the area underwent from the 1960s into one slogan, lamenting, "Basically, after the urban renewal, it was basically Negro removal." As the gloomy beat kicks in, DaVinci starts to rap, eventually coining his update on the situation: "Down the corner of the street used to be the spot/Till they replaced all the liquor stores with coffee shops." The rest of his debut album, The Day the Turf Stood Still, released in both free download (alternate link - here) and retail versions this week, repeats the motif. It's no surprise, considering the changes he witnessed on his block.

"My grandmother came to San Francisco from Texas in the 1950s," he says. "She bought her home, a three-apartment unit, for $15,000 and paid it off before she passed away in 1996." Around this time, he started to see the reshaping of his 'hood. The usual signifiers of impending gentrification were all in play. Drugs and crime were up. Property values were down. The Fillmore's proximity to downtown made for potentially high rents. Then came the wrecking balls, turning housing projects to rubble and providing a very physical cue for an exodus of black residents. As he recalls, "The newer people offered those who were living there the opportunity to sell their houses, move out, and make a profit. It didn't sound like such a bad idea — by that point, half the neighborhood had already moved." But his family stayed, retaining the title to their home and bolstering their roots in the area.

Today, the 27-year-old DaVinci makes music shot through with local pride. He's been releasing mixtapes since 2002, plus 2007's "street" album, Butter and Gunz, executive-produced by San Quinn. He sees his debut album as a fitting contribution to the Fillmore's rich musical heritage. In the 1960s, jazz greats Count Basie, Etta James, and Duke Ellington used the area's clubs as their musical playground. During the rapper's own coming of age, it saw the formation of a hip-hop scene boosted by its insularity. The sound of the block was king. As DaVinci recalls: "You couldn't tell me anything about who the best rapper in the mainstream was — we'd listen to cats like San Quinn, JT the Bigga Figga, and D-Moe the Youngsta. Together, they were like the Roc-A-Fella [musical empire] of the Fillmore at the time. Looking at them, I saw that hip-hop could come out of Fillmore and be respected."

Being engulfed by this wave of self-sufficient rappers helped shape DaVinci's outlook. San Quinn, who lived two blocks away, could sometimes be found hustling with DaVinci's pops. JT released records on his own Get Low label at 18; his independent moves fostered DaVinci's expectations of the music industry. He's adamant that running after major labels "isn't even in the picture." And, true to his independence, DaVinci's album eschews the gangsta sheen of his elders in favor of relaying street parables over rugged, melancholy beats. It's a blend that suits his breathy timbre well and ensures the album rewards listeners who prefer carefully wrought lyrics over a quick hook.

It isn't a commercial sound, but DaVinci is confident he has wide appeal. Last month, he journeyed to New York City on a mission to boost his profile by meeting with online media outlets. Back home, he's looking at the positive side of the Fillmore's metamorphosis — caffeine-connoisseur neighbors included. "When we'd perform shows, it used to be all family who'd come, but now it's college students," he explains, before joking, "That's good, 'cause you can charge them more!"

Then he adds, "I think the new mix of ethnicities is the best thing that's happened to the Fillmore. Now it's not just a place where only black people know about the music that's coming out of here. That's a good change."

Download DaVinci's The Day The Turf Stood Still here:
DaVinci's The Day The Turf Stood Still
DaVinci's The Day The Turf Stood Still (alt.link)

Ted Lucas: CEO Of Slip N Slide Music Label Miami Business News Feature Story

via Miami Herald

That's the hip-hop gospel of Ted Lucas, the Miami-Gardens-boy-turned-music-entrepreneur, leader of the independent label that helped put Miami rappers on the map (Rick Ross, Plies, Trick Daddy, Trina, etc.).

The evidence of Slip N Slide Records' success is scattered across its South Beach offices. A framed magazine cover here, a platinum record there. There are so many platinum awards that Lucas crams the extras into the space between a couch and wall.

But what he really wants you to know is that a hit record can change your life.

The saying hangs from several walls scattered across the building, along with other pieces of advice, like ``a hook makes a hit record.''

``We're not sleeping at all,'' he says on a short break one Friday afternoon, after rattling off a list of releases he has scheduled for this year.

``We've got to make great music and work harder.''

Lucas has told the story of his success before. Sitting inside his recording studio, he tells the narrative with ease.

He grew up near what is now Sun Life Stadium and dreamed of playing professional football.

Read the full story here:
Miami Herald - Miami hip-hop producer reveals secrets of his success

50 Cent:'The 50th Law' Book Collaborator & Author Robert Greene Interview w/CBS

Watch CBS News Videos Online

via CBS News

Learn more about Robert Greene & 'The 50th Law':
Power Seduction and War

To order a copy:
Amazon - The 50th Law by 50 Cent and Robert Greene

Wiz Khalifa Hometown Newspaper Feature

via Pittsburgh Post Gazette

After an amicable split (with Warner Bros.) allowed Wiz to keep music created under the label, he kicked off a whirlwind of activity including online videos, national appearances and the release of three mixtapes that included "at least 50 songs."

"I really figured out that these days, with how fast the game is moving and how fast the fans are able to access music, I gotta be able to make a lot of music and really just flood the streets and the Internet the right way," said Wiz.

"We did a little mini-tour this summer, which really helped kick things off for when school came back around. And with the buzz building up with everybody getting on to my music on a wider scale and a wider range, everything just picked up and fell into line."

But anything that fell in line for Wiz over the past year came as a direct result of his push, particularly online. Since last year, he has posted regular blogs and videos on a YouTube channel, written hooks and recorded songs during live webcasts on the site Ustream and drawn more than 41,000 followers to his Twitter account.

Read the full article here:
Pittsburgh Post Gazette - Rapper Wiz Khalifa drops 'Deal or No Deal' after frustrating time with Warner Bros.