Rage Against the Machine’s singer Zach De La Rocha, with the help of other artists, started an organization entitled “The Sound Strike”. Zach’s movement believes that the Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070, supports and legalizes racial profiling and promotes racial discrimination. As a reaction to the controversial law, many artist will not be performing in the state of Arizona until the new legislation is revoked.  More than 300 acts have joined Sound Strike since it’s foundation, including influential and well known musicians like Rage Against The Machine, Kanye West, Against Me, Juanes, Rise Against, Nine Inch Nails, Ben Harper, Maroon 5, Billy Brag and many others. You can find more information about Sound Strike and Arizona’s SB 1070 here.

Earlier today the Long Island, indie-rock outfit Envy on the Coast announced to fans via their Facebook that they are calling it quits. After five years of extensive touring throughout the country, two full length releases and an EP release the band is saying goodbye to fans with three final shows:

8/25- Boston, MA, The Middle East
8/27-Philadelphia, PA, First Unitarian Church
8/28- New York, NY, Irving Plaza.

Some say the end of this band is coming out of left field, but fans have known there was trouble in paradise when the band started touring less and less and then vanished completely. When all is said and done this band is one of the most talented bands I have ever had the privilege of seeing and knowing and they will be greatly missed by fans from ages 18-80 all over the world.

REST IN PEACE, ENVY ON THE COAST 2005-2010

If you’re looking for your summer sound, search no further because Big Science has delivered. On Tuesday, June 29, 2010, Big Science released their EP Skyscraper Sound on AEMMP Records.

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Chicago’s Biggest Punk Festival already has its official line up for 2010. Riot Fest, it is  going to take place at 7 different venues in the Windy City, and will be showing classic punk acts like Bad Religion, Mighty Mighty Bosstones,  Smoking Popes, The Lawrence Arms, Agnostic Front, and many others. The Festival will be going on through October 6-10, if punk is one of your favorite genres, you should not miss this!

Chicago summers are jam packed with festivals it’s hard to figure out which ones to invest the time and money in. But it’s without a doubt that Wicker Park Fest should be on your list of fun in the sun activities. The two day festival from noon-10 pm on Saturday, July 31 and noon-10 pm on Sunday August 1 (on Milwaukee Ave between Wood St. & North Ave) is only a $5 donation. The festival boasts three stages with acts you’re lucky to see for such a small entrance fee. In addition to live entertainment the festivals hosts an array of vendors of the area’s best eats and arts & crafts.

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In a recent interview, Eminem speaks on how his drug addiction and absence from hip hop almost brought him to the point of dissing Kanye West and Lil Wayne and anyone else making noise at the time. He says that he almost became a hater and was in fact not happy with himself and the music he was creating. As it turns out, not too many fans would say “Relapse” was one of his better works. Eminem then goes on to say that it would have been career suicide for him to do such a thing. When asked if he felt that he couldn’t make music without being high, Eminem responds by saying he couldn’t do anything without being high. I am happy for Eminem for being sober for almost two years now but part of me never really likes the music former drug addicts make after they kick their habits. Like when Stone Temple Pilots’ front man Scott Weiland kicked his habit, the band released that irritating track that goes “monday back from the dead blah blah blah” and it didn’t live up to the bands older releases, at least for me. My fear with Eminem is that his 4 year absence from an ever changing hip hop world has made him irrelevant to kids who were fourteen when his last album dropped and even younger to remember the controversy he started ten years ago. Also, in those four years, these kids who once would’ve been Eminem fans have grown up with Lil Wayne, Kanye, Drake, and even 50 Cent and Fat Joe. My point is that in hip hop you HAVE to stay relevant you must continue to put out mixtape after mixtape, album after album, and perform show after show. We don’t have Jadakiss, Jay-Z, Nas, DMX, Big Pun, Wu Tang and Big and Pac caliber MC’s anymore. That means we can’t grow with an artist like you could with those artists I just mentioned. Lil Wayne is the only artist who has been able to accomplish that who is under the age of 30. With that being said, Eminem’s absence has forced him to do songs with artists we may have not expected him to collaborate with including B.O.B., Lil Wayne, and Rihanna. Bottom line, keep your ass relevant!…that is all….
this is the link to the video of Eminem’s interview: Eminem speaks on almost dissing Kanye and Lil Wayne

Bassist From the Pop Punk band Blink 182, Mark Hoppus, just announced that he is going to be the host for a new TV show to be  aired on Fuse. Apparently, the new show will feature Mark interviewing bands and also new artists that seem to fit his own personal taste (expect even more pop punk).  The main focus of the show will be Mark’s personality and his vision on the rock scene as well as some typical Blink-182 humor. The show does not have a debut date yet but more info should be provided in the following week at Fuse’s website. The show will be called “A Different Spin with Mark Hoppus”.

Don’t worry about buying actual birthday presents for people anymore, instead American Greetings is giving you the opportunity to give an iTunes download in your card.  All you have to buy is the card! What a fantastic one stop shop for all you cheapskates and aunts who pretend to care about their nieces and nephews.

This is good news for iTunes and every artist on there, but this could be a blow to Hanna Montana and other artists who have been favored in those obnoxious singing greeting cards that already exist.  Fair chances are good though, right?

A review of rapper Emilio Rojas’ mixtape in XXL Magazine begins ”Yup, another mixtape from a Latino rapper (technically he’s half Latino like Term). You’d think they would’ve done this in-between September 15th – October 15th or Dia De Los Muertos or something.” 

This gives me the impression that this writer does not take Latino rappers seriously.   Maybe the writer should be reminded that Latinos have been in active in hip hop since day one!  However, record executives found it easy and profitable to sell the image of an angry black man to suburban America.  Throw in a little crack cocaine, a few felonies, a glock 45 and you got yourself a rap star.  The industry has brain washed us into believing that hip hop is rap music performed by black criminals.  This is wrong on so many levels because it perpetuates so many negative stereotypes, reinforces racism, and devalues the importance of the other elements that make up hip hop (graffiti art, DJing, and break dancing).  Hip hoppers come from all walks of life and in different colors and that’s what makes hip hop powerful.

With that being said…………

In celebration of Chicago’s annual Puerto Rican Parade and festivities I’d like to take this time and ask, have latinos in been forgotten by the hip hop community?  It is almost undisputed that Hip Hop’s origins are in the Bronx, NY which has a large population of Puerto Ricans living in the borough. When Hip Hop began to become more commercially viable, we saw more and more latinos contributing to the advancement of the culture.  In the mid-1970s, DJ Disco Wiz, who is of Puerto Rican and Cuban decent, formed the Mighty Force Dj Crew.  Mighty Force crew has been credited by many for introducing the first Latin rapper to the world, Prince Whipper Whip who is of Puerto Rican decent.

Famed Puerto Rican break dancer Crazy Legs and his hip hop crew, Rock Steady, lit up stages all over with their dance moves and DJs.   In the 1980s, and early 1990s, the careers of Melloe Man Ace of Cuban decent, B-Real of Mexican and Cuban decent, and Kid Frost of Mexican decent took off.  Finally, in 1998, Puerto Rican rapper, Big Punisher became the first Latin rapper to go platinum.  Carrying on the tradition of Latin MCs, we still have Joel Ortiz, Emilio Rojas, Immortal Technique, Chino XL, Cuban Link, Fat Joe and a list of other Latin rappers.

Latinos have been contributing to hip hop just as much as everyone else since its birth in the streets of the Broxn, NY.