These aren't that new, but here they are. Muja Messiah with the long-awaited Get Fresh vid, and the very expensive-looking Show Ya Swag from Mike Page.

Mike Page Show Ya Swag



Muja Messiah ft. Real Spit Rick Get Fresh

Trama doing big things again. Samsung recently commissioned a song and video for their Olympic advertising campaign. Here's Tram with "Answer the Call":



You like?

The second series of TCBL happened right before the championship battle last Friday. A deserving rapper finally earned his title...

MC Rentz recently released 1981. Here he talks about the Loonatix crew and the new album. He's at Gastoff's tonight (July 30th), if you want to see the always-live MC on stage.

Introducing the winner from round five:



The final battle is this Friday, 9pm at The Blue Nile. An unnamed guest battler has been enlisted to compete with Shelltoe, Illab, Wolf (MC Flow), Elijah and Ezra. DJ Drea and DJ All Purpose, performances by OSP and Chantz. As always, peacefully moderated by Truthmaze and brought to you by Rose Up Productions. Don't miss this shit.

Note: IBE was one of the last people to battle Ezra in round five. I was rewinding tape and only caught part of his second verse and none of Ezra's from that round, so I left it out since I usually show both full freestyles from each battle.

Vibin Open Mic is getting really big. They moved from the monthly format at Barfly to a weekly show at Axis, and its 18+, with drink specials. I hear it's a really large crowd, and it's still DJ Enferno, too.

Traditionally, it's been a lot of mainstreem and street raps, R&B and a little spoken word. So if you're looking for an open mic that's less of the backpacker type and more of the crunk type, check it out.

Two podcasts to check out. FranzDiego.com and Noam the Drummer started a weekly show, currently unnamed, that you can download right here.

Additionally, Joey G, the producer of Don't Believe the Hype, has recorded a podcast introducing Vision from Hot Box, breaks down his mixtape, and includes unreleased material from the Hot Box's upcoming debut EP. That is here.

Weirdly, they're linked. FranzDiego's podcast interviews Tramon and Alicia, the hosts of Don't Believe the Hype. Take a chance.

Franzdiego.com
Vision

PS - if you've got a podcast, let me know. I'll add to this post.

I'm working on the battle video but I thought I'd give ya a little something to tie you over...

I love, love this song. Finally a video.

Once again, CultureBully is giving away tickets. This time it's to hometown MVP Muja Messiah for his CD release party on July 27th at - where else - First Ave. Get to www.culturebully.com to win your tickets. In any case, don't miss the show. Muja's shows are always live. This lineup is killer, too.

Last chance to compete for a finalist spot! Twin Cities Battle League this Friday at The Blue Nile. The July show is going to be all of the finalists, which are: Shelltoe, Illab, Wolf, Elijah, and ___________.

Book Money, Guaranteed Entertainment. At the video shoot for "Sippin On Da Goose" in June.

Young Son


Book Money - Sippin On Da Goose

The friends at CultureBully are having a contest to win a pair of tickets to go see RZA at First Ave. Click the pic to go to their page and enter to win.

So, I subscribe to all of the artist Myspace updates or whatever, and from time to time a blog post title catches my eye. So was the case when N.I.G. posted "I don't pay for beats."

Now I feel you all on the artist struggle. I know our scene isn't that big and nobody's really that rich. But I thought at least we'd all get a little somethin for our time, right?

For those of you who don't know who N.I.G. is, he's the white dude that fucks with Trama. Ok he's partly Puerto Rican, but anyway, he grew up in Minneapolis and started rapping in grade school. In 2001, while working at TwinsTown, he was introduced to Trama. They started rapping together and soon after, N.I. joined the newly formed Tram-Unit.

I took a little offense to the post, cause I'm a similarly crowded boat: equipment costs and people around here don't want to pay for shit. I wanted him to explain his points, so we had a lil chat about it.

Minnerapolis: So you never pay for beats?

N.I.G.: I haven't yet.

Minnerapolis: And you disagree with it on some level, right?

N.I.G.: For any local cats I do disagree with it. If you're a worldwide producer and you're selling...a half million records then I'll pay for some beats.

Minnerapolis: Ok so what is your reason for not paying for beats from a small time/local producer?

N.I.G.: Well, we all trying to get in the game, and I see it if someone asks me to get on a track with them I'm not going to ask for money for me to get on the track. If I get on the track it's because I respect your hustle or you got a good fan base or I just like your music. No one is going to make a million in the MPLS rap scene. I'm looking at the big picture...Producers should want cats with skills and a fan base to rap over their tracks so cats can hear the song with the lyrics and say 'Damn, that beat is tight, who's beat is that'. Then the producer will have more people looking at his beats and when someone gets signed people gonna look at who was on the album and who made the beats.

Minnerapolis: I get all that, but free publicity doesn't pay the bills in the short term.

N.I.G.: We the rappers and we gotta pay for it all. It seems to me that everybody's trying to make money off the rapper. The little money you get from a beat ain't gonna pay the bills. I got more bills than most and I still ain't charge no one for my words.

Minnerapolis: It doesn't have to be a lot, but I always feel that people should never work for free.

N.I.G.: I don't consider it work. I love this game and if I never get signed I'll still be rappin. I wanna see cats with talent get on in this city so we can get the spotlight on us. We can join up like a group of cats that share favors. Someone got a beat and no rapper, I'll rap if I ain't got a beat. If I can make a beat and another cat does graphics than we barter. Share, share share.

Minnerapolis: That used to work until money was invented. But music is a business as much as it is art. There's always been a problem where the two meet.

N.I.G.: You right, but it ain't much of a cash cow here in MPLS. When I get a deal I'll pay local cats for beats and everybody eats and gets shine. I always try to give back and always will. A lot of my anger comes from when I was really trying to get out there and I couldn't get no studio time, no beats, no nothin. Cats was wanting a hundred bucks an hour for studio time and even more for a beat. I had to push myself in the game. I still remember how cats acted and still act, too. I only fuck with cats I respect. Some cats have lost my respect. On top of that I've seen cats pay $100 for a beat and the producer double sells it, sells the same beat to another rapper. Fuck that shit.

Minnerapolis: Ok I feel you on all those points. And we are in two different games, really (music and video). And yeah it's hard in this city. It's hard for me to charge much for videos because they aren't going on BET, MTV so so what, right? But I still won't do them for free because I can keep buying new equipment and make better videos. I think the producers are probably in a similar situation.

N.I.G.: I feel you, videos are different. It costs to shoot the video and go to locations, and you need to edit and all that. I see cats taking like 15 minutes to make a beat.

Minnerapolis: I feel you, I guess, but in my little theory I think that if we all started paying each other at least something, it's good to get money flowing. If you get it circulating, more will come. So who's your favorite producer then?

N.I.G.: Megaman, Sandman, Joey Hussle, there's a few.

Minnerapolis: Do you have any solo albums, mixtapes?

N.I.G.: I have an album in stores now called Show and Prove. I've been on all Trama's albums. Also, the new DJ Mel Man mixtape with Malcom of the Street Kings and J-Starr. It's also on B.C.'s album as a hidden track. I was also on D-Cyde's album as well as some out-of-town cats. I'm on Impirio's album No Days Off and I'm working on my mixtape, Rennaissance Man.

So I guess we agree to disagree. It's cool doing favors and exchanges, just don't ask someone to shoot a video for $50, please. He's right, you can make beats in under an hour. It takes days to make a 4-minute video. I'm done preaching! You can catch N.I. on the last Midwest Talent Explosion video, out this weekend. Also on the web at www.myspace.com/husslemuzac.

I'm pretty pissed I missed it. I was out of town but I won't do that again. I just wanted to know from the people who went - who rocked it the most? I know it was probably tough choosing between the two stages at times, but everyone I talked to had a really good time, despite the rain.

Out of all the acts from MN, who was your favorite?

*edit: I did miss Big Quarters - thanks Young Son.

(c) 2007 Don't Believe the Hype
If you haven't heard of this by now, you should definitely check it out. These are mostly artist interviews, discussions, performances and news segments about both local and national hip hop. It's produced by Joey G., a senior at the U, and hosted by Dez and Tramon. Tramon and Joey are also co-hosts of Beat Box Radio. It's definitely a fun show to watch - check it out! www.dontbelievethehype.tv

It's here now! Get to the page and check out the song of the day. Leave your comments and come back tomorrow for another new one!

I posted about this a while back, and I'm updating for those who dont' know. Most Official, a MN emcee, is in the final four of Loud.com's rap battle. This is for the 100K!

The winner is determined by voting, so if you haven't done it yet, or in a while, get to Loud.com and watch the latest episode and vote for Most Official.

I won't spread hate, but I like to let the truth shine. You may or may not be familiar with Jason Lewis. He's a radio personality on KTLK-FM. Conservative isn't really the word, but I'll use it for lack of a better one. He slammed the recent efforts of local Hmong hip hop artist Tou Saiko Lee - a poetry program with the sixth-graders at Lake Junior High.

“We are a Western nation,” Lewis says. “We are not a nation of other cultures, we are a nation of our culture… Culture, by definition, enforces. If we all have common agreement on a culture, on a language, on a history, then that…convinces people, moves them in the right direction.”

Culture Bully goes into detail, check out the article at www.culturebully.com.

Spread the word.