Christian Pulfer is the of to the tune of $25 thousand.
For more contest winning videos, see .
Posted by Clyde on April 15, 2007 in R U a better rapper than Vanilla Ice?
Win $25,000 cash!
I'm surprised nobody got all excited and emailed me about , the Vanilla Ice hosted video rap contest boosting TurboTax. I guess that's how you reach the young'uns at tax times these days!
Actually, I have no idea what demographic Vanilla Ice is expected to reach.
But you've got to admire Vanilla Ice's love of the entertainment game. The guy's never going to go away and we wouldn't have it any other way!
On Thursday the Securities and Exchange Commission halted trading in 35 Pink Sheet or penny stocks as part of mentioning Goldmark Industries, among others:
On Dec. 19, 2006, trading in Goldmark Industries, Inc. (GDKI), closed at $.
17 on trading volume of 126,286 shares. On Dec. 20, 2006, the spam campaign started, with e-mail proclaiming GDKI IS MAKING EVERYONE BANK!
, and setting a 5-day price target of $2. By Dec. 28, 2006, spam emails boasted of the price spike that had already been achieved -- $.
28 (Up 152% in 2 days!!!
) -- and promised a 5-day price target of $1. That same day, GDKI closed at $.35 on a volume of more than 5 million shares.
By January 9, 2007, the closing share price was back down to $.15.
, a hip hop entertainment company, released an intial response in a .
The company has previously of sp@m email charges, an issue that briefly touched ProHipHop's .
Posted by Clyde on March 12, 2007 in You may have heard the story of Gabriele T. Smith who using her position at Morgan Stanley and her own independent financial services company.
She was exposed due to her handling of an account for Kenneth McGriff of Murder Inc. after which a variety of legal actions ensued.
after having previously settled two private claims for a combined $2.
2 million.
Posted by Clyde on October 18, 2006 in With $15,000 in 1980, Mr. Johnson founded Black Entertainment Television, which in its early days thrived on programming music videos.
The channel became a hip-hop force attracting both white and black audiences who liked the urban nature of its programming. The company was sold to Viacom two decades later for $3 billion.
Mr.
Johnson’s other investments have included the Charlotte Bobcats basketball team and a music label. In 2005 he announced the formation of RLJ Companies, which he said he hoped would become a dominant black-owned financial services firm. One of his first acts was to secure the backing of the Carlyle Group to create a private equity fund.
That fund is being started with Deutsche Asset Management and Urban Trust Bank, which Mr. Johnson owns.
Johnson's story to date is one of great success, especially to be able to receive the support of the highly controversial Carlyle Group.
I haven't been keeping up with their activities but I recognized the name from my interest in the Bush family. Here's a from a few year's back:
The Carlyle Group, as in a secretive Washington, D.C.
, investment firm managing some $14 billion in assets, including stakes in a number of defense- related companies.
Carlyle counts among its chieftains former Defense Secretary (and deputy CIA Director) Frank Carlucci, former Secretary of State James Baker and, most notably, former President George Bush.
Until October [2001], the Carlyle Group also maintained financial ties with none other than the family of Osama bin Laden, but those links were severed when it was agreed that the relationship was becoming a tad embarrassing for all concerned.
Hey, I'm not accusing anybody of anything [cause I'm the new willing to respect our differences Clyde]. I just think it's interesting, even if it isn't a marketing topic. Don't you?
Update: in the NY Times.
Posted by Clyde on July 14, 2006 in The discusses unique investor funds which are often unregulated and serve to raise money for both ongoing projects and special events. What caught my eye was the Mongol Fund offered by Music Securities Inc.
, a "5-year-old company that now has 19 funds, investing mainly in domestic musicians."
The Mongol Fund is rolling out this month and will raise money for producing cds and publicing the music of "Mongolian hip-hop group Tatar and as many as five other groups from the landlocked country." They are also planning investments in musicians in China, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, though they don't have a hip hop focus per se.
The funds that have matured returned between "30 percent and 50 percent of the profits logged by artists' CD sales at their peak", though it's unclear what kind of ROI that produced. Music Securities hopes to raise 10 million yen, or a little over $91k in U.S.
currency according to , for the Mongol Fund.
Masami Komatsu, President and CEO of Music Securities says:
"'We pick up musicians who have talent and potential but have yet to come into the limelight' . .
. adding that CDs released by the musicians targeted by the fund have been hits in Mongolia, but the country's music market has yet to be cultivated by Japanese or other foreign capital."
Sounds like a ProHipHop Fund is in order.
You know, that's so crazy it just might work! If any ProHipHop readers have serious Japanese skills, hit me up and we'll see what these guys say. We'll get some good stories out of it if nothing else:
Update: According to TheUBPost, "Mongolia's Independent English Weekly News", the may have been signed as early as May.
This piece also claims that Music Securities has a distribution deal with Sony.
London based marketing agency worked with Music Securities on a "compilation CD of British and Japanese music . .
. to be released in Japan and the Pacific Rim . .
. [in order to] promote and reflect the London scene to the Japanese market."
"In the current world of investment, the security of various things produces cash flow.
Music Securities Ltd. offers the epoch-making system, which secures the copyrights of music contents and handles the beneficiary certificate.
Given the present circumstances, an artist and her office bear the production costs when they produce an album.
Therefore, an artist cannot start recording without a certain amount of funds. This system appeals to investors to provide production costs over the Internet.
In Broadway, U.
S., there is a system called 'angel' that raise funds for a musical from investors. This securitization has an interesting point that anyone can participate in investments for a small sum.
Of course, fans can and do. The first listed was Ms. Sodeyama Saki's single and its security was already sold out.
When this continues and scores a hit, this must develop more."
Last month Kia Gregory did a piece on Maj Toure for the Philadelphia Weekly called that follows him as he sells cds on the subway, runs a multiproduct stand at Temple University and shares his thoughts at Dowling Palace. One concept he discusses is what he calls "cooperative economics":
"The first trick, they try to make you think you're not unified.
That's not the case. We just gotta spin our unity on the other tip. The second trick is, you in America.
You gotta support black businesses because the black dollar is really, really powerful. We spend $60 billion a year. That's a lot of cheese.
You got to unify that way primarily."
"When you're doing business with the people, and you interact with them on a consistent basis, it creates what's called camaraderie. Then what you want for that person, you want for yourself because y'all all gettin' money together.
It's no different from hustlers selling weed, selling crack, selling CDs-all of that's the same. You want the people who live like you, look like you, be where you be at, to all eat, because if they eat, you eat. It's called cooperative economics.
"
As writer Kia Gregory explains, for Toure:
"'they' is anyone-white, black, yellow or brown-who deals in negativity. 'They' are people who keep others or themselves down, and 'we' are those trying to positively overcome, the solutionaries caught between white supremacy and black nihilism."
In many ways cooperative economics reminds me of Tahir's concept of as discussed in the only edition of I've yet to put out.
We seem to be in the midst of numerous hip hop related scandals at the moment, including and the less closely related but still relevant news of related to .
However, I'm just learning about the unfolding tale of the who, initially at major investment houses and then through her own company, Premier Business Management L.L.
C. in New York . .
. built a client list that included the president of the Def Jam Recordings label, rap stars like Fabolous and DJ Clue, and an assortment of wealthy young music executives, some of whom she allegedly ripped off.
Apparently Ms.
Smith began her career in the music industry in various entry level jobs before becoing a so so A R for Tommy Boy. However, after a year of that, she went on to become a stockbroker at Morgan Stanley before reconnecting with folks in music in 1997, just in time to ride the tech boom to financial wizardry. One of her clients at Morgan Stanley was Kevin Lyles.
Smith moved on to Prudential Securities in 2001 for a few months, secretly forming her own independent company while employed by Prudential. At the time, she was dating the vice president for promotion at Def Jam, Michael Kyser, which gave her substantial credibility in music circles. Though Kyser says he was not involved with her business and they later broke up, Smith's access allowed her to accumulate a number of clients, including DJ Clue, and provide services ranging from paying bills to investing.
The initial decay of her empire came in late 2002 when clients began discovering that important bills had not been paid and that money was missing. Full scale collapse came in early 2003 when federal authorities raided her offices as part of their investigation of Mr. [Kenneth] McGriff - whose drug-dealing organization dominated the Baisley Park housing project in Jamaica, Queens, in the 1980's - and Murder Inc.
, the music label headed by Irving Lorenzo.
Unfortunately for Ms. Smith, Premier had been handling an account for McGriff that had allegedly been used to help launder drug money and may also have been handling money for Ronald Robinson, an artist manager also known as Gutta, whom the authorities have indicted on money-laundering charges.
Currently there are multiple lawsuits involving Smith and the companies with which she was associated, as well as federal charges that have been sealed, leading to speculation that she may be providing information on another case, possibly that of Kenneth McGriff and Murder Inc.
Former clients are claiming that Gabriele T. Smith stole more than $3 million, using some of their money to pay other investors and pocketing the rest.
Kevin Lyles, now an executive vice president at the Warner Music Group, has sued Ms. Smith, saying he lost about $450,000 that he had invested with Ms. Smith when she was at Morgan Stanley and Prudential.
Although it might be tempting to say that this situation is simply another example of the twisted nature of the rap game, such stories involving financial fraud by trusted advisors of wealthy individuals, including entertainers, periodically recur. If the allegations are correct, this tale is more about the fact that once a con artist has become a trusted figure in a social network, members of that network accept that status until the truth is painfully revealed.
Last month Forbes.
com started a where they will "track the weekly stock movements of more than 50 companies at the forefront of the digital entertainment revolution." They have a useful that they're tracking that allows you to click through for more information about each company as well as what seems to be a stock ticker that keeps crashing my browser.
What's weird is that there's no home page for thie Digital Entertainment Index.
As far as I can tell you have to go to the at Forbes.com and then click on the stock chart that will take you to the current week's report. But you can't bookmark a page that will allow you to go straight to the Index.
For some people that might be a minor thing but it means that I can't just link directly so I won't add it to my list of links and I also have to explain the process of finding the information. The index is interesting enough for me to still tell you about it but such impediments to linking always make me think twice about even mentioning an item. Plus, I'm just offended by bad information architecture.
If you find such lists of use for sketching out the contours of a rapidly changing sector or pondering possible investments, check out the list of and sister sites that fall under the umbrella of the "digital media sector":
"The sale of this medallion goes to Big Pun's wife and three children. Since Pun's untimely passing in 2000, Pun's wife has struggled to raise their three children as well as make mortgage payments on their home and other expenses. Contrary to what some believe, the family are far from millionaires, Pun's wife and children do not receive royalty checks for Pun's first two albums, and only one small royalty check was paid for Pun's final album.
The family's attempts to get the money due to his children have been unsuccessful to date. By bidding on this piece of Hip Hop history, you are helping the family of a Rap legend, part of the funds will also go towards legal efforts to retrieve any unpaid album sale money the children could receive."
Responses from members of the online hip hop community, such as and indicate a concern that other artists who benefitted from Big Pun's success should be helping out the family.
A initiated by Lettaz raises multiple points, including the possibility that Big Pun should have been planning for the future, but folks also look at people like Fat Joe as not stepping up.
But, as Lettaz also says, I don't have the whole story and can't verify the Ebay statement. Certainly it raises questions about royalties and the shafting that artists typically get from major labels as well as what kinds of legal agreements were made by Big Pun or on his behalf.
It will be interesting to see if Fat Joe and other folks respond.
I've written about the following topics with great interest in the past so I thought I'd group them together.
In the wake of about his past lies regarding Phat Farm, I wasn't too enthused about the .
However, for some reason, that didn't shut 'em down and the next stop for the is Washington, DC.
Yesterday I wrote a bit about my interests in and today I read about headlining at Slane Castle in Ireland. Apparently this is an annual event that usually features pop and rock stars and, for the first time, will feature rappers as Eminem closes his European tour at the venue.
Other performers will include D-12, Obie Trice, Lloyd Banks, Young Buck, Olivia, Flipsyde and Stat Quo.
While Suze Orman's seems pretty reasonable, if obvious (but folks need the obvious), GoodDebt.com's Jon Hansen feels that some of what she says will .
"1. Lose the attitude. I can't tell you how annoying 20-somethings (men and women) are who, because they are young and cute and went to a good college, think that they are smarter than anyone else.
"
But the most telling advice I've seen of late comes from MusicBizAdvice.com in the form of . It contains good advice for female fans and professionals.
Men should read it too, in order to be reminded of the bullshit and abuse women have to guard against who just want to see a show or work in the biz.
If I hadn't just written about the , I'd be writing quite a different post on the recent "Get Your Money Right" themed that was inspired by Russell Simmons' move into financial services, sponsored by Chrysler Financial and that featured Suze Orman, author of the recently released . Or maybe not, since this Summit seems incredibly opportunistic and centered on crossmarketing financial products to impress a youth market that needs to stay on top of their money so they can buy more boring Phat Farm fashions that are just so late 20th century.
Fuck it. Just check out the coverage that is getting for the fact that she . I guess, in a hustler's paradise, hip hop gets the hustlers it deserves.
But I hear her book's really excellent and you can and, for your friends who don't read ProHipHop cause there ain't no pretty pictures, ! Do it now!
Enlisting more star power, began its debut on the New York Stock Exchange with Robert Plant performing the Led Zeppelin classic Whole Lotta Love.
However, neither P. Diddy's earlier appearances nor Plant's efforts could keep the stock from slipping 60 cents to close at $16.40, a .
Kelefa Sanneh takes recent battles with WMG as a jumping off point for a discussion of Limp Bizkit vs. System of a Down. He points to Linkin Park's concerns over adequate marketing from Warner Music to segue into a discussion of Limp Bizkit's recent album release that Sanneh characterizes as "secret.
" However, as here at ProHipHop, Billboard reported that Fred Durst did not want a traditional marketing campaign and used Limp Bizkit's blog to promote viral distribution of an MP3 single.
The introduction of , a digital music subscription service, not only affected the stocks of competitors but raised questions about Yahoo's willingness to lose money on the deal since the service is priced below a profitable level. Yahoo is expected to in "all countries with a Yahoo music site" but no dates have been announced.
, billing itself as the "world's No. 2 digital download service", recently announced the addition of tracks from labels in multiple genres. Newly added hip hop labels and artists include:
- Anticon Records - With Sage Francis, Themselves, Buck 65 and more.
Today an institutional investor apparently revealed to CNBC that will be reduced in both cost and number of shares. The anonymous source revealed that shares held by current owners would be eliminated from the offering resulting in a drop from 32.6 million to 27.
2 million shares to be offered tomorrow. The price range of the shares will be set at $19 to $20 a share rather than $22 to $24 a share.
This move reduces both the overall valuation of the company, which had been widely criticized as too high, and the already bloated payoff for the investors who had recouped most if not all of their investment and were using the IPO to pay off the debt incurred during that process while also cashing out.
Although some have dismissed current state of affairs as a ploy for contract negotiation, whatever the band's reasoning, Linkin Park's widely covered statements were an extremely negative pr blow well-timed to .
Even without the Linkin Park fracas, publications like were telling folks to stay away from the IPO for a variety of well-considered reasons. Interestingly enough, folks at a recent had no questions about Linkin Park's statements but were quite excited by the presence of P.
Diddy who, from the NY Daily News photo, appears to be wearing quite a severe suit, looking somewhat like Malcolm X. However, analysts at the event were negative about both the pricing of the IPO and the future prospects of Warner Music Group.
I'm just looking forward to all those SEC filings and getting some visibility into what folks like P.
Diddy are up to. Bring on the 10ks, baby!
The NY Post has a great piece on including the possibility that they have defaulted on a loan for $20 million and that Black Enterprise's investment of $17 million has not shown a return.
The Publisher's Information Bureau states that The Source's ad revenues continue to slip and a spokesperson for the Audit Bureau of Circulation said that they had suspended their service to The Source. Meanwhile, Benzino stated in a phone interview from Miami that he was "looking out over the bay and eating stone crabs" while repeatedly telling the NY Post's reporter that the Post is "irrelevant."
Yesterday in Baltimore, the held another in a series of summits focused on financial empowerment.
Russell Simmons, Rev. Run and Lt. Gov.
Michael Steele also appeared at Bowie High in a school assembly with the theme .
hired Chosen Dance Company to perform at their national manager's meeting in Indianapolis wearing their Back-to-School line.
The Sunday NY Times had an extended piece on as they prepare to .
Actually it's more about Bronfman, though a few harsh quotes near the beginning misled me into thinking it was going to really dig into his involvement with the . Honestly, after they pay off their debts, there won't be that much left. But Bronfman and pals will be sitting pretty having already recouped most, if not all, of their initial investments.
At the opposite end of the going public spectrum, is entering the over-the-counter arena through either a merger with or an acquisition of FransAction, Inc. to become H3Enterprises, Inc. FransAction was trading as but Yahoo!
Finance has the FCTN symbol outdated and lists them as . To be perfectly frank, the OTC scene is mostly unknown to me but I look forward to finding out more.
As previously posted, via its HipHopSodaShops franchise.
I'm posting over the weekend because I'll be going on a very light schedule for the next three weeks, although I hope to be back in full force for 2005 beginning Jan. 6th. However, I do want to make sure that holiday hip hop highlights make it into ProHipHop.
Although ProHipHop focuses on daily news, the archival aspects are important and people seem to be especially drawn to navigating the site via the , so I want to ensure that really big news is included.
In addition to taking a closer look at the Categories over the holidays, I may be retagging earlier entries to make them more accessible, which should also increase ProHipHop's archival value. Archival accessibility is also one of the reasons I focus on freely accessible news sources.
Although I will be adding coverage of paid and offline sources in the coming year, I really like quick access from a blog post to material that requires no registration, membership or subscription.
Of course, I'm all for publications finding a mix appropriate to their financial needs and am impressed when I see the Wall Street Journal Online succeed as a pay-to-play resource. In fact, will be one of a number of such resources and that I will be investigating and reviewing in 2005.
Other developments planned for 2005 include a more developed version of the and original features and related content that will add significant dimension to ProHipHop.
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