Hip Hop Don't Stop

[Local Music] So we've gotten a lot of heat recently over our apparent loose grasp on Salt Lake City hip hop. The response has mostly been of the "you like such and such band therefore you know nothing about hip hop" to the more thoughtful "Suck it City Weekly." Right. Not very helpful. Perhaps you could enlighten us: Who are you absolutely loving right now? Who deserves some attention in the paper? Oh, and Mugshots, I'm waiting for you to come down to CW headquarters. The invite is still open. (Jamie Gadette)

Hip-Hop: From SLC to TV

[Radio & TV] Another reality show? Oh yeah. Now, even Salt Lake City hip-hop station U92 has its own behind-the-scenes series--well, sort of.

A pilot that "follows the drama of the only hip-hop station in one of the most conservative states in the country. Viewers will finally see what happens when the microphones are turned off and how a radio station in Utah is breaking new music before major cities such as Los Angeles and New York City" has been produced; The Station is now being pitched to networks. If the writers' strike continues, could happen--and, even though the premise seems a bit thin to support a weekly series, the characters seen here could carry it. Easily.

The Station pilot:


So, why does the logo look like a middle-finger salute? (Bill Frost)

Numbs the Word

[Music] One of Utah's most enduring (read: they've been around a long damn time) hip-hop groups Numbs have landed tracks on videogames and TV shows in the past, but this week they've made what may be their biggest score yet: "Dedication," a great cut from their latest Nfinity, will show up somewhere in NBC's Friday Night Lights on, well, Friday night.

Says Numbs emcee Mark Dago, "Now if ONLY we could land a song on Lost ... feel me?"

Yeah, because while critics love Friday Night Lights, the high school/college football drama/soap hasn't yet caught on with TV viewers--believe it or not, more people actually watch CBS' boneheaded vampire drama Moonlight in the same timeslot! Numbs' "Art of the Strike" would be perfect for that show ... (Bill Frost)

Def, Deaf & Blind

[Music] Two interesting articles to contemplate today as you vote for one white male mayoral candidate or the other, both pertaining to hip-hop.

The first, an essay authored by a noted professor who published books on Tupac and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., argues in favor of the oft-maligned musical genre (or at least encourages critics to actually listen to a wide body of work before rejecting it as misogynistic, backwards nonsense). The other, an article exploring hip-hop's supposed influence on teenager's sex lives, suggests that the genre's significance stops when the listener comes of age. As if it's something we outgrow.

And while the NY Times does site Bakari Kitwana in its closing thoughts, I'm more inclined to side with the thoughtful scholar who recognizes hip-hop as art without boiling it down to youthful indiscretion. What do you think? (Jamie Gadette)