Hype Machine Officially Sells Out

Ladies & gentlemen, today is a very very sad day. One of my favorite new music sites has gone down the dark path of the sell out. Hypem.com has made one very small yet pivotal change to their website that has turned them from democracy to dictatorship. From cool to tool. From fame to lame. Hard to soft. Apple to Microsoft. 

In its previous form, the hype machine front page featured new posts from all blogs, big and small, everyone had equal exposure and the sites visitors decided what they liked by clicking on a "Heart" next to the song. Today, Hype Machine has destroyed that concept by changing the default view to a rather silly category called the "Top 100" blogs. You may say to yourself, well what's the big deal. The big deal my friends is that now instead of the people selecting from an unbiased and open ended group of blogs, they are limited to a selection of blogs they may or may not care for. A selection of blogs with what could be fabricated Technorati and De.li.cious scores. Now don't get me wrong, some of these blogs are deserving but looking at the music on the front page of Hype today vs the past, I really don't think thats the majority. 

You know why a lot of people hate the radio so much? Because people don't have a choice. Now, what use to be the beacon of hope against the radio heads down that very path. 

My friends, this is a very very sad day. Many of us feel disheartened to see the death of what was once a fantastic concept. The death of choice. Sure you can click to see the losers/all blogs section but everyone knows the most visited and viewed pages for a website is the home page so Anthony don't insult our intelligence. Hype Machine has officially sold out my friends. The sense of community has been destroyed. The soul of the site has been sold to the devil and all that's left is a lame list of "Top 100" blogs to show for it. So for the people at Hype, I hope this money driven change makes you a lot of money and I hope that maybe one day another site picks up where you left off. You've done a great thing by introducing that concept to the world but a worst thing by destroying it. 

Hype Machine R.I.P

Why Tru Life's Album/Career Will Be A Guaranteed Flop!

You didn't even have a spark when you started, and now your just garbage.

For those of you thinking this is a hate piece, sign off right now and take your hate elsewhere losers! This is an unbiased analysis of the inevitable failure and downfall of Roc La Familia artist, Tru Life.
Before I begin I'll say this: Tru Life's failure is completely his fault, he is an untalented stereotypical Latin rapper, he has horrible industry perspective and instinct, his management is a joke and his even worse decision making skills have led him astray so I guess you have to feel sorry for the poor guy, or not.
Let's begin with Tru's most pressing problem, Roc La Familia. For those of you who don't know, Tru Life was signed to Roc La Familia a few years ago when his mediocre "New York, New York" song made some buzz, great. There's just one little problem now, ROC LA FAMILIA DOESN'T EXIST! The poorly managed label was dropped from the Universal catalogue because well, they sucked. They failed to deliver a successful album in over three years and showed absolutely no promise with the poor excuse for an album Tru Life was putting together.
To begin with this label was a joke. The president, Juan Perez, is an ex-drug dealer/partner of the 40/40 with Jay-Z. Young Hov created the label with Mr. Perez for whatever reason; basically it was like me giving my unqualified boy a job because well, he's my boy. The only problem is that the people who made up La Familia's staff were also unqualified and knew nothing about running a label, including Mr. Perez, way to do your research Tru!
So basically, like an innocent, extremely naive child being lured by candy that would only end up giving him cavities, Tru Life signed with the worst label possible, doink! Lesson to all you rappers, pick the situation that works for you, don't make your decisions based on a big names like Jay-Z. The truth is unless you mean money, cash, hoes; Jay-Z could care less about you, like he could care less about Tru Life right now.
Further more, for all you idiots like Tru Life stuck on street code honor and expecting people to be true to their word and all that bullshit, welcome to the real world and get over it. This is the music business, you either make money with people or you get the fuck out of the building. I got kids to feed motherfucker!
So now, with his label gone, Tru Life has NOOOO, I repeat noooo support or backing. Supposedly, Def Jam picked up his contract but if you take a close look at Def Jam since L.A. Reid took charge, i.e. Rihanna and Ne-Yo (pop music), they could care less about Tru Life's boring, extremely played out "I'm a crazy Puerto Rican from the lower east side" movement. So with no label to push his already unmarketable songs, Tru Life is well, how can I put this... fucked.
Now for the music: Word on beat street is that Swiss Beats protege Ne-Yo Da Matrix produced most of the album. I'll put it like this, the kid has a bounce but his beats sound like any other hobby producer, they contain no real nuance, the sequencing is generic and he overuses reverb. Rocafella is truly falling off if their going from the nearly flawless/banging/hood knocking/kick and snare thumpin/Premier 2.0 production of Just Blaze to some random kid off the corner making sub par beats.
So far I've heard "Knives Like," a song featuring the overweight washed up N.O.R.E. that’s about stabbing people and sounds like something from 1998. Really guys? Stabbing people? Hey, how about we make a song about cooking crack?! I mean your subject matter couldn't be older. Then there's the intro also on the lackluster mix tape "Tru York," which uses a Curtis Mayfield sample that's been used a million times before, most notably by the well respected Cormega. Jay-Z talks through the whole thing, which is cool since we don't have to hear Tru Life rap. Then there's the so-called single also produced by Neo Da Gaykid. This song is the most generic club song I've heard since my German cousin told me he was rapping and made a song called "Poppin Bottles."
If this is any indication of the rest of the album I can't wait to NOT buy it. I mean I won't even hit up Limewire for this crap.
The last guarantee to Tru Life's failure is well, Tru Life himself. Who is Tru Life? So far we know he's a Puerto Rican rapper from the Lower East Side and he's crazy, fantastic. I've seen the interviews and I will say this, beyond a few chicken heads in the Bronx, Tru Life has absolutely no mass appeal what so ever. The guy looks like any other Miguel Fernandez selling me cigarettes in the grocery store, and he acts like it.
Puerto Rican rapper huh? So it looks like he stands in a category with hip hop's Puerto Rican golden-boys Big Pun and the man carrying that torch, Fat Joe. Now let's face it, he's nothing, I mean absolutely nothing close to Big Pun and we'll leave that right there. We definitely know he's nowhere as talented and charismatic as the Bronx boss himself, Joey Crack The Dawn, CRACK! Actually, where’s that Fat Joe/Tru Life collaboration? Does this mean Tru Life doesn’t relate to his own people? Could it be that Tru Life doesn't even have support from the very large and influential Puerto Rican community? Does he even speak spanish for that matter? Hmmm.
In conclusion, Tru Life, your going to fail and no one is going to care. Your label doesn't exist anymore and Def Jam already doesn't care about you. Your making gangster music and its 2007 playboy, N.W.A was 17 YEARS AGO! You pick very bad music. The best thing to come your way was Polow The Dawn and you fucked that up too. Who knows your album might have been as banging as that Rich Boy joint but naw your corny personality wouldn't have had that Rich Boy swagger anyway.
Finally, just quit man; stop wasting the labels money, I'm tired of hearing about you. You’re from the lower east side, last time I check that demographic was filled with rich and trendy white girls and successful gay men. That’s not a diss to that community but that’s how irrelevant your movement is to hip hop. You’re a tuff guy in the wrong time; the world is against you in every possible way.
Your the child hip hop should have aborted, instead you managed to be born into Roc La Familia and your just fucking shit up now or younger, fresher more talented hip hoppers that are waiting their turn. You've been an embarrassment to New York and you've let everyone including yourself down. Flopping on a major label could be the biggest blow to your career so I suggest you just quit now and go back to the underground from which you came.

You didn't even have a spark when you started, and now your just garbage.