Judah – Bandwidth http://bandwidth.wamu.org WAMU 88.5's New Music Site Tue, 02 Oct 2018 15:23:36 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.5.2 Thievery Corporation, KTW http://bandwidth.wamu.org/thievery-corporation-ktw/ http://bandwidth.wamu.org/thievery-corporation-ktw/#respond Mon, 14 Nov 2016 21:00:06 +0000 http://bandwidth.wamu.org/?p=69789 Songs featured Nov. 14, 2016, as part of Capital Soundtrack from WAMU 88.5. Read more about the project and submit your own local song.

Nick Garcia – Sun Jam
Master David – Today And Tomorrow
Kevin Yost – Overture 1
The_Acorns – Comcast with Prego 35
Shortstack – G.B.D.
Imad Royal – Devil Pt. II
Fugazi – Cashout
KTW – By Any Right
Synthador – Some Nights Away 20150412
The Grit Pushers – Song 5
Calm The Waters – Peace On Earth
The Harry Bells – Matilda
Judah – Lesser of 2 Evils Prod by. Judah
Thievery Corporation – Transcendence
Michael Preston – Arcanum
NUNS – Blood Red Snow
Young Master Sunshine Photogenic 1982 – West Georgia
Memphis Gold – Back Po’che, Tennessee
Matt Chaconas – Mech FM
Andrew Grossman – Awakening to the Warm Glow of a Computer Screen

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Aaron Tinjum and the Tangents, Judah http://bandwidth.wamu.org/aaron-tinjum-and-the-tangents-judah/ http://bandwidth.wamu.org/aaron-tinjum-and-the-tangents-judah/#respond Tue, 25 Oct 2016 19:00:05 +0000 http://bandwidth.wamu.org/?p=69599 Songs featured Oct. 25, 2016, as part of Capital Soundtrack from WAMU 88.5. Read more about the project and submit your own local song.

Craig Gildner and The Blue Sky 5 – Capitol South
Western Affairs – Part 2
Aaron Tinjum and the Tangents – The Wild and Beyond
Nerftoss – Zucker
Constant Alarm – Privy to Your Pain
John Haller – HOS Composition
Judah – Let’s Lay Down?
Hurlebaus – Liminal
Flash Frequency – Vibration
Joey and the Waitress – What You Mean To Me
Matt Chaconas – Mech FM
Timothy Soller – Water and Light
Handsome Hound – Our Problems
Dirdy Redzz – Beat ya Feet
Luke Brindley – The Lark
No Tell Motel – Don’t Be Shy
Higher Hands – My Day (parts 1 & 2)
Roger Aldridge – A Ballad For T
The Internal Frontier – The Spell
Beau Finley – The Sky Is Falling

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Urban Verbs, Dr. Nittler’s Elastic Soultastic Planet http://bandwidth.wamu.org/urban-verbs-dr-nittlers-elastic-soultastic-planet/ http://bandwidth.wamu.org/urban-verbs-dr-nittlers-elastic-soultastic-planet/#respond Mon, 24 Oct 2016 08:20:00 +0000 http://bandwidth.wamu.org/?p=69454 Songs featured Oct. 24, 2016, as part of Capital Soundtrack from WAMU 88.5. Read more about the project and submit your own local song.

Dr. Nittler’s Elastic Soultastic Planet – Faux Patina
Outputmessage – Try Again
DC Improvisers Collective – Unified Conspiracy Theory
Mbandi – Fairy Tale
The Grit Pushers – Song 5
True Womanhood – The Monk
David Marc Alterman (performed by Astrid Walschott Stapp) – Octagon
Luke Denton – Montana Sky
Nancy Joie Wilkie – Which Way To Go
Judah – Drums Don’t Lie
Brian Wilbur Grundstrom – For Whom the Bell Tolls Opera – Act 1 Scene 3
Strange Times People Band – Aye Tu
Urban Verbs – Subways
WonderChurch – A Head In a Lion’s Mouth
Western Affairs – Iowa
Gordon Withers – 2.9
Tomás Pagán Motta – I Need a Woman
Blacksage – Make Out Interlude
Sansyou – Let It Expand
Miyazaki – Apparition

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PHZ-Sicks, Daniel Bachman http://bandwidth.wamu.org/phz-sicks-daniel-bachman/ http://bandwidth.wamu.org/phz-sicks-daniel-bachman/#respond Tue, 11 Oct 2016 21:11:09 +0000 http://bandwidth.wamu.org/?p=69118 Songs featured Oct. 11, 2016, as part of Capital Soundtrack from WAMU 88.5. Read more about the project and submit your own local song.

Kindlewood – An Interlude
Cullen Ruff – Longing
#KNO-1 – Love Won’t Let Me Wait
Dirdy Redzz – Drinks at Adams Morgan
Hurlebaus – 1998
The Rail Runners – The Word
Furniteur – Redundant Buzz
Daniel Bachman – Farnham
Peals – Become Younger
PHZ-Sicks – Stream of Consciousness
Yoko K. – attic
Ras Nebyu – Slizzed Up ft. The Arckitech
Elijah Jamal Balbed – What Matters Most – In Life
nick tha 1da – bluburies
Wye Oak – Archaic Smile
Empresarios – Rootsy Jam
Aaron Leitko – 0505#4
Griefloss – Void
Judah – Liv’s Theme Music
Gordon Withers – Revolving Doors

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Eva Cassidy, Ménage À Garage http://bandwidth.wamu.org/eva-cassidy-menage-a-garage/ http://bandwidth.wamu.org/eva-cassidy-menage-a-garage/#respond Mon, 12 Sep 2016 08:20:51 +0000 http://bandwidth.wamu.org/?p=68486 Songs featured Sept. 12, 2016, as part of Capital Soundtrack from WAMU 88.5.Read more about the project and submit your own local song.

Night Streets – Oceans Red
Decahedron – Movement A
K-Loe Black – Black Triumph
Language of Sleep – Act II
Anchor 3 – Hunter
Western Affairs -1999
M.H. & His Orchestra – Where Are You Going? (The Easy Song)
Empresarios – Rootsy Jam
Judah – Let’s Lay Down?
Ben Williams – Half Steppin
Lands & Peoples – 3 Shots
Higher Hands – My Day (parts 1 & 2)
Eva Cassidy – Ain’t No Sunshine
Jake Starr and the Delicious Fullness – By The Grace Of Mod
Elijah Jamal Balbed – Checking In
MUDGE – The Baritone Jam
The Shifters – You Say
Dupont Brass – Common Tones
Ménage À Garage – Good Morning
BOOMscat – MORETHANANYTHING

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The Sound Of ‘Straight Outta Compton’ — Courtesy Of A Maryland Producer http://bandwidth.wamu.org/the-sound-of-straight-outta-compton-courtesy-of-a-maryland-producer/ http://bandwidth.wamu.org/the-sound-of-straight-outta-compton-courtesy-of-a-maryland-producer/#respond Thu, 20 Aug 2015 09:00:29 +0000 http://bandwidth.wamu.org/?p=55668 The bottom-heavy, trunk-rattling rap music that came out of California in the ’90s blew speakers — and the mind of hip-hop producer Judah.

welcome-to-cali-judah“The sounds they used in their beats inspired me,” the Southern Maryland producer writes in an email. “The swing, the synths, the funk-influenced grooves and bounce was amazing to me.”

He’s talking about G-funk, the dominant sound of West Coast hip-hop in the ’90s, popularized by artists like Dr. Dre and DJ Quik. But Judah says it was another producer — Battlecat — who turned him on to the California vibe of that time.

“[Battlecat] made me really appreciate the Cali sound,” writes Judah, 36. “[He] was a beast and produced for all the Cali greats.”

So while working with a few artists on the West Coast between 2000 and 2005, Judah made a string of California instrumentals that sound like the work of Battlecat. He released them this week on a collection called Trips to California (Instrumentals), right in time for Straight Outta Compton — the new box office-busting film about the rise of Los Angeles hip-hop group N.W.A. — and Dr. Dre’s new record.

“I had a 100 gigs worth of stuff on this hard drive labeled ‘Cali,'” Judah writes. “The light bulb went off: Hey, Straight Outta Compton coming out and Dre got an album out… Might as well let these beats fly.”

The track “L.A. Riots” (listen below), which Judah laced with news reports from the 1992 Rodney King uprising, captures a bleakness that felt central to L.A. gangster rap.

“Their beats also had a sinister sound to it and [I] think that was inspired by their environment and gang scene,” Judah writes.

The producer built his California tracks with an Akai MPC 2000CL, an MPC60 and a Yamaha Motif — gear he says is “obsolete these days.” It resulted in a work that feels like a time capsule.

Besides Trips to California, Judah says he has other music in the works, like “some concept albums I been sitting on.” He recently wrapped projects with Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child, Rita Ora and D.C.-area hip-hop artist RAtheMC. But he’s still independent, he says.

“[I’m] keeping it indie and creating my own economy and projects that eventually generate money,” Judah writes.

Not that Trips to California promises to be a cash cow. Judah put the tunes on Bandcamp, where they can be purchased or streamed for free.

Photo by Flickr user Doc Searls used under a Creative Commons license.

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Eager For Listeners, Some Hip-Hop Artists Turn To Pay-To-Play Websites http://bandwidth.wamu.org/some-hip-hop-artists-turn-to-pay-to-play-websites/ http://bandwidth.wamu.org/some-hip-hop-artists-turn-to-pay-to-play-websites/#comments Thu, 29 May 2014 11:00:29 +0000 http://bandwidth.wamu.org/?p=32833 You’re an unknown hip-hop artist trying to get your name out there. You don’t have any connections at traditional media. You don’t have a large fanbase yet. You lack a primo number of Twitter followers. But you want to get your music in ears, right now. What do you do?

For some artists, the answer is: Pay someone to blog about you.

In a music-media environment where blogs are now leading tastemakers, getting on the right ones can seem like the most direct path to Internet fame—and it’s a path that some D.C.-area hip-hop artists are choosing to take.

Cody Bennett is an artist manager who works with a lesser-known local rapper named Joe Kush. He says he deals with multiple blogs that accept money in exchange for favorable coverage.

“Normally the way it works is you set up a promotion agreement with a mainstream music blogger,” Bennett writes in an email. “The agreement would include blog coverage, all social-media promotion, show promoter contacts, and outlets to shows hosted by that blogger or promotion company.” He says he currently has an agreement—he declines to say on the record how much it costs—for a year of promotion, which pays an outlet to post “basic promo” at least twice a week, among other things.

Both Bennett and Marc Anthony Robinson, who manages Richmond rapper J. Slim, say the practice is standard now. “Who’s not charging? You’ve got to pay to play,” says Robinson. “That’s just the way it is.”

But pay-to-play is not the way it is in many corners of the music blogosphere. Accepting money for coverage or masking paid content as editorial is considered unethical in journalism. Indie-music bloggers have traditionally shunned it, too, even though they are under no obligation to follow the same code of ethics as professional journalists.

Last year, WPGC’s DJ Heat wrote a blog post about the trend toward paid blogging. She called it phony, accusing fee-based bloggers of offering “fake support” to D.C.-area artists.

What part of the game is this? Are artists really paying this amount of money from local music blogs that brag about how they “support” local artists? I even had to ask myself if I am doing something wrong. Here I am posting music for FREE. … All the while, these new age cats are pocketing money in return for “SUPPORT.” They got the game all messed up. Genuine support does not come with a price.

But for some artists eager to make a name for themselves, paid support might seem like a perfectly legitimate option.

The Cost of Exposure

How much does paid support from a blogger cost? I was able to obtain a rate sheet distributed by patisdope.com, a local website that offers blog posts and other promotion for a fee. Around the spring of 2013, patisdope.com was asking artists for $100 per blog post along with 10 tweets from his Twitter account. He charged double for twice the blog posts and tweets. For an interview and promo package with a camera crew, the cost was $600.

Pat Is Dope’s business manager, Shanika Hopson, says the blogger—real name Patrick Blanchard—started out just blogging for fun, but as he became more “in demand,” he decided to turn the site into a business. (He’s also updated his rates since 2013, she says.) These days, Pat Is Dope has a sizable online following: He has 211,000 Twitter followers and multiple Instagram accounts, the three most popular of which boast more than 138,000 followers combined (not accounting for those people who may follow multiple Pat Is Dope accounts). His YouTube stats vary dramatically, but some of his high-profile interviews have netted tens of thousands of views. Fledgling artists might see those numbers and salivate.

But why not just sell ads? That’s what “real bloggers” do, DJ Heat says, and it’s how she makes money on her site, DC Mumbo Sauce. If blog owners pull in the kind of traffic they think could attract paid blog posts, Heat says, they could collect ad revenue instead and keep their editorial free of pay-to-play. “Be smart about it and get a real check, and sign up for Google ads,” Heat says. “That’s what all the major blogs do.”

Hip-hop writer Sidney Thomas says the debate over pay blogging comes down to the new school versus the old school. Newer bloggers like Pat Is Dope “have grown up in the social media era and they have capitalized on the access it has provided,” Thomas writes in an email. He says he understands why DJ Heat disagrees with business models like Blanchard’s, but he points to Pat Is Dope’s Twitter following. “If a blogger is making money, and they are also providing exposure…for the artists, I don’t think it’s a problem.”

It’s tough to independently verify how much exposure patisdope.com offers. Hopson and Blanchard did not respond to my request for traffic statistics, and web-analytics services like Alexa, Compete, and Quantcast don’t offer helpful data for the site.

Beyond patisdope.com, there’s the fee-based DMVlife.com. That site is not a blog—it’s more of a local scene directory that also offers various marketing services, including an option to buy social-media followers. According to rates listed on the website, DMVlife.com charges $100 for artist interviews and a range of prices for track features, and it has an online radio station that accepts money for plays. DMVlife.com was founded by Rich “Calmplex” Martinez, a rapper himself, who prefers the title “CEO.” (Martinez did not return requests for comment.)

DJ Heat suspects that DC Mumbo Sauce is one of a shrinking number of local hip-hop websites that do not charge artists for coverage. “Integrity is important to me,” she says. “There’s no way I could do that.”

“A Stepchild of Payola”

Radio payola hasn’t been in the news much lately, and some younger artists might not even know what it is. When I bring it up to J. Slim manager Robinson, he asks, “Is that like Paypal?”

But payola—which describes a few different pay-to-play tactics, but usually refers to the practice of record labels slipping cash to radio DJs in exchange for spins—is still on the mind of producer (and blog owner) Judah, who calls paid blogging a “stepchild of payola.” He brings up World Star Hip-Hop, a controversial but hugely popular source of smut, violent videos, and some music that is openly pay-to-play. (The site’s founder, Lee “Q” O’Denat, once bragged about charging a woman $500 to remove a naked video of her that cropped up on the website.) Businesses like World Star may encourage other hip-hop bloggers to start their own pay sites.

Pay blogging could also be compared to pay-to-play opening slots, which ask artists to cough up money for minutes of stage time on a bigger act’s concert. It’s a practice that longtime D.C. rapper Head-Roc criticized in a Washington City Paper essay I edited in 2013, calling it a form of sharecropping.

Judah says that some unknown musicians may simply believe that paying for showcases, tweets and blog posts is their best, or only, option. “It’s standard, and they’re OK with it,” he says. “When you’re trying to find an easy way in and you don’t really have any type of business skill, or understanding of how it should be, and you don’t have any type of business acumen… You’re gonna pay for people to fake-support you.” 

DJ Heat says local hip-hop artists may be especially vulnerable to pay-to-play deals because they tend to think their options are limited in D.C., which isn’t known for producing many hip-hop stars. The recent successes of locals like Fat Trel and Wale still seem like exceptions rather than the rule.

Thomas says he understands why Judah and DJ Heat side against pay blogging, and he says his own thoughts on pay-to-play have evolved. “I remember I was surprised when an independent radio host I respected told me she charged artists for interviews,” he writes. “But with ad revenue not always an viable option (like it is for mainstream radio), that was the only way she could stay on the air.”

If both struggling artists and gatekeepers see pay-to-play as their best option, what does that mean for hip-hop coverage and the people who consume it? The potential seems grim.

“People turn to blogs to discover something that may be new, and they see the blogger as a co-sign—like ‘Oh, such-and-such posted this on their site? … This artist must be worth checking out,'” she says. “But if you’re just taking money from everybody, you just turn yourself into a landfill. There’s no quality control at all, it’s just all about the dollar.”

Photo by Flickr user Bryce Spivey cropped and used under a Creative Commons license.

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