http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8yMZ6kDw7Y

Paul Wall’s video for “I Need Mo”,  featuring Kobe and Travis Barker, was shot completely on an iPhone.  This video premiered on MTV.  Not even 10 years ago, you needed 100 stacks from your label to get an MTV worthy video filmed. Then you owed half of that shit back to your record label.  There are very little excuses for artists these days in regards to what is and isn’t possible. With a little creativity you can do some incredible things with very little money.

spotted at: hypebot

I love when something like this happens. I was pleased to hear that two artists that I profiled on this blog, hooked up and collaborated to create some good hip hop music. Chicago’s Pennjamin Bannekar of Project Fr3sh and Producer D.C. from California,  hit me up to tell me that they had some hot music in the works. Naturally I was excited. They didn’t disappoint. Check out their joint, “The Come Up”

Right before the release of their album, Blackout 2, Method and Red briefly shared some thoughts about what sustained them in the hip hop game.

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Alkaloid Art comes from the from the creative mind of Molly Lilly Corell. Molly grew up in Brooklyn, Soho, Greenwich Village, and then DC. She started out making flyers for raves, and landed her first gig as a graphic designer when she was 19. She gets her music inspiration from hip hop, Jimi Hendrix, “of course” Frank Zappa.

I met her on Twitter, and was taken in by her visual pieces. Molly uses airbrushing, acrylics, ink and photoshop to create her them. She also likes doing album covers so get at her if you want a want your promos, merch or cd inserts to have that unique pop!

Contact Molly:
myspace: www.myspace.com/myanisoptera
twitter: AlkaloidArt

We’ve all experienced it right? Those annoying moments when it seems like your brain is on deep freeze. Can’t find a concept…can’t start a beat..can’t find that next hot line. Sometime ago I decided that I’d find a some ways to work though the drought. Here are five.

1. Write hooks and come back to them later. Don’t try to complete an entire song. Sometimes the hooks are the only thing you can get off at the moment. Why stay stuck on one tune when you can shoot of a dozen hot choruses that you can fill in later?

2. Listen to other shit. Sometimes just hearing a line from another artist can create an entirely different thread of thought. Use it for inspiration.

3. Write about someone else’s experiences. Most emcees feel that they have to live what they write about. I think this has contributed to the lack of imagination in hip hop and why after 3 albums, these dude don’t have anything else to talk about, and talk retirement. You’re a storyteller. It’s okay to write about the lives of others.

4. Take a break!! Sometimes you just need to let your mind reboot. Listen to your body. It may just be telling you to chill the fuck out. You’ll ending up forcing something out that you won’t like later on anyway.

5. WEED!!…………(just kidding!!

I’d like to hear some of the ways you get through writers block.