Sean Falyon-"Inside Her" video

Check out this fly new video from the homie Sean Falyon. This track "Inside Her" is the second video/single from his collaborative project Mr. Falyon meets SMKA that I put ya'll onto earlier this year (go peep that if you haven't yet).

I really dig the new age pschyadelic angle they took with the vid and the homie Sophe Nix looking kinda nice in there too. The vid was shot and edited by Diwang Valdez (1/3 of Motion Family) and a cat named Kombo Ch.

Be on the look out for Sean as he's going to be performing in NYC at the Leaders of the New Cool showcase on September 30th as well as at the A3C Festival in October in Atlanta.

NEWS FLASH (i guess): BET Is Out To Destroy Black People

Today journalist and former Executive Editor of Music at BET.com, Andreas Hale sent out an email to a bunch of us fellow writers/bloggers/journalists announcing that he was leaving BET.com. Emails like this aren't rare, I get them all of the time. Most times people just send them out as a courtesy to let people know how to contact them and who to contact at that particular organization from now on. But, this one was different...

Now we've all heard about what goes on behind closed doors at BET. Hell, I've heard about it first hand from folks that I knew that used to work there. But, the email that Andreas sent out today is pretty much the mirror image of what the infamous "banned BET" episode of The Boondocks called out a couple of years ago. I had to share it with ya'll:

As of today (September 8, 2009) I am no longer the Executive Editor of Music at BET.com.

Upon entering the position at BET I said that I needed one year to see what really went on inside the belly of the beast. I needed 365 days to sleep with the enemy and infiltrate the system. One year to see if they REALLY wanted change at BET.

As someone who has been critical of BET for many years, it surprised many that I would leave my post at HipHopDX last year to take a position at BET. But it was an opportunity I absolutely had to take. I could no longer be critical of this company without accepting the opportunity to change it when given. Although I was hired to bring about change, I was systematically shut down. I wasn’t hired to make noise, I was hired to be silenced.

The truth of the matter is that everything that you thought was wrong with BET is true.

Over the past year I’ve seen a lot to reinforce my position that BET is too far gone in the negative to turn into a positive. We have all always thought the worst, but to actually see it in action is another thing in its entirety. The unprofessionalism, the tom foolery, the favors, the misappropriation of resources, the bad ideas that reinforce negative stereotypes, the emasculation of men, the meetings that break down in full fledged cursing battles, the unpaid overtime, the tears from employees scared for their underpaid and overworked positions and ultimately the unwillingness to change are all harsh realities that I’ve witnessed firsthand.

That is not to say that there aren’t some good people who have sat in the offices of BET. Unfortunately, the good people are not in positions of power to instill any change. Instead, they work their fingers to the bone just to keep their jobs in this harsh economic climate. The other good people ran out of the door as soon as an another employment opportunity presented itself. To say BET was a revolving door would be an understatement.

I came in with a plan to provide balance and to deliver good music to the masses and help make BET relevant again - at least in the dot com world. Those attempts were shut down by out of touch executives who run a dot com but could barely turn on a computer. By those who judge their metrics by page views over absolute unique visitors (that‘s ad sales talk). By those who simply don’t understand the internet.

They brought me in because of my track record but never once took a look at my body of work. If they did, they would have known that I was the pen behind editorials such as “BET’s Coon Picnic” or were aware of the many times I have been critical of their award shows and programming. All they knew is that I played a major role in making a once unknown website into a online media outlet that surpassed theirs and they wanted a piece of the action. Too bad they never researched who I really was.

During my tenure I worked long hours and sometimes succeeded at bringing in decent content to try to reflect the change I wanted to achieve. But it wasn’t without opposition. While some interviews and content initiatives were able to make it through, many others were either shut down or met with ridicule. I offered ideas to incorporate the blog world and to spotlight new talent before MTV did. Those ideas were met with comments such as “This isn’t HipHopDX” or “You don’t know what you are talking about.”

BET is not about the quality of your work. Rather, BET is about the relationships you have with powerful people within the company. BET is not about challenging. Instead, BET is about accepting and saying “yes.” If you have known or followed me over the years, you would know that these are things that simply are not in my character and ultimately resulted in my removal.

For the artists and labels that I have worked with for years, I tried. I did whatever I could to achieve that balance many of us wanted to see happen. To the writers who wanted to writer for BET, I made an attempt but was never given a budget to work with.

Upon my arrival, I was told I would be given a staff. Not true. I had a staff of one to carry out daily operations on a website. I fought tooth and nail to accomplish the minimum (an embeddable player and a site people could navigate) and was constantly brushed off. It was a position that was set up for failure. But I endured as long as I could.

Alas, I have been removed from my position after infiltrating the system and the timing was perfect. I wasn’t let go because the site’s numbers were down. Not because I didn’t work hard. Simply because of a personality clash with an individual whose proverbial ass I didn’t kiss enough. Again, not about the work you do but about the relationships you keep and the sides you take.

I’d like to thank BET for covering the cost of my relocation to bring me to the great city of New York/New Jersey. I’d also like to thank them for putting me in close quarters with people who think like me and will hopefully work with in the near future. I’d also like to thank them for providing me enough controversial content that I observed firsthand and will make for many tales to be told.

I said it and I meant in: One year to either make changes or move on. I left HipHopDX on September 16th 2008. Today is September 8, 2009. Eight days short of a year. Most thought I wouldn’t even last that long. But in that year I’ve had my greatest fears about Black Entertainment Television affirmed.

There is so much wrong with BET that I’d rather not break it down in a single email.

It is pretty good fodder for a book don’t you think?

Damn, the way Andreas used words like "infiltrate" made it sound like he was on some real Spook Who Sat By The Door shit. Its also fitting that when he was at HipHopDX, he was one of the people that leaked out the Boondocks clip when it was banned, hense the HipHopDX tag on it. If he does choose to make a book out of this, would you buy/read it? Or does this email pretty much just re-enforce what you already thought and knew?

Random Jam [The "Good Life" edition]: Too Short x Blu x Kanye West

Too Short-"Good Life" (1998)

"You betta get you're sh*t together you running out of time/Something on your mind, you need to stop lyin'"

Blu & Exile-"Show Me the Good Life" (2007)

"F*ck the jewels, I think my soul glows bright enough, and f*ck whips, I learn more when I ride the bus/F*ck gold, its bad enough that we fight for bucks, and f*ck hoes, I need a wife to love"

Kanye West feat. T-Pain (prod. by DJ Toomp)-"Good Life" (2007)

"Having money is not everything...not having it is."

You know how these random jams go. The thought of living the "good life" drifted into my head just now and these three songs came to mind. Where is Blu by the way?

Social Stimulant at 595 North [Free Drinks + No Cover]

I've been trying to tell ya'll about this spot for some weeks now, if you're still sleeping thats on you. But fall through 595 North (that's the address too) for the most recession friendly gathering you're going to find in the city. Free drinks, no cover, no dress code, no catch, no nothing. Just show up with your ID and few dollars to tip the bartenders and you're cool. Literally, you can go in there with $5-$10 and drink like a champ. The music they play is great too by the way. Fellas...ladies be in full effect in here as well. Crazy, everybody be asking me "how do they make money?" Man, who the hell cares, just come through and have good time.

The No Cover = Free Drinks deal goes down from 6-9pm. It don't be over crowded and they don't hold the line, so you're good. But I will say, go ahead and get there sooner than later, because I have noticed that they've shaved the time down each week they've had it. The first week it was 6 to 10...then it was 6 to 9:30...and now its 6 to 9. So ya'll need to go ahead and get up on this before it gets down to 6 to 7pm. See ya'll there.

Breaking News: Killer Mike added to Slaughterhouse show at The Loft on September 26th

Crazy. Just a few weeks ago a small debate broke out on Twitter about why Slaughterhouse (Joe Buddens, Joell Ortiz, Crooked I and Royce the 5'9) has an MC from every part of the country except the South, and how Killer Mike would have been the ordeal candidate for the Southern slot. Well...I guess you can say its happened.

Mike just got added to the Slaughterhouse show as well as the homies Senor Kaos, Small Eyez and Stanza. Keep your eyes open and keep coming around these parts as I will be giving away tickets to this show. Stay tuned.

Konsole Kingz presents: The Game, Wale, JD, Big Boi and Don Cannon get ready to take on all gamerz in NBA2K10

WOAH! Man, this look intense. Konsole Kingz just dropped off this footage of the NBA 2K10 Draft Combine where you get to create your own player, train him and put him through the combine to get draft, and it looks dead ass serious. Like Game said in the video, no more of that all 100% player ish, you have to keep it real and actually TRAIN your player to be good. Man, I can't wait. Oh yeah, if you want to play with one of the player that one of these gentleman created, you can do that too. The Draft Combine is now available on both PS3 and XBOX.

Gabriel Hart x Fat Joe x Boo Rossini

Just showing love on some two degrees of sepraration ish right quick. I interviewed video director Gabriel Hart for Ozone recently and within the last two weeks he's had two of his creations Fat Joe's "Hey Joe" and Boo The Boss Player's "I Stop I Quit" hit the web and mash...

So I figured I'd share Joe's video as well as Boo's seeing as how I just wrote Boo's new bio as well.



Crazy, since I've been following Boo since he was Boo the Boss Player back in '96-'97, it felt like I already knew buddy's story...I was kinda wrong, that dude has been through hell and hella inconveniences, so I'm not mad at him still doing his thing.

Also, here is the Gabriel Hart interview...