Tag Archive for 'jay z'

Social Networking & Blogging In Today’s Music Business

Welcome to MakingTheMogul.com. It looks like you're new here. Please make sure to subscribe to my RSS feed and join me on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!

I usually stray away from interviews because I’m most often asked to divulge information about artists and labels I’m working with or they ask for specific details about projects I’m involved with.

I obviously can’t discuss that type of information, but when Cyber PR Urban reached out to me about discussing social media and how artists today can use social networks to their benefit, I happily agreed.

Here’s an excerpt from our discussion:

Continue reading ‘Social Networking & Blogging In Today’s Music Business’

What’s Your Favourite Microphone Marriage?

One thing I’ve always enjoyed as a music fan is the concept of microphone marriages.

What’s a mic marriage?

A mic marriage is a song with one male artist and one female artist. Not only does it offer 2 different voices, but it also offers 2 different perspectives of the same story. It doesn’t have to be a love song (although it almost always is), it could be any type of record, as long as it’s one male and one female on the song.

From a business perspective, this can prove to be a great method of combining 2 separate fanbases with similar tastes and traits, that can easily crossover to each other, as well as create a new market for the collaboration of the 2 artists together (in other words; 1 massive pool of fans & 3 different streams of products to sell them).

On a personal, music fan tip though, I love the combination of 2 great artists offering 2 separate voices to the same story.

One example of a mic marriage is Kenny Lattimore & Chante Moore. They recorded an entire album together called, “Things That Lovers Do”. (This album is a must for your collection of mood music). These two are actually married which made the album even more relevant, but a mic marriage doesn’t have to be two people tied to each other in any other way other than on the song itself.

But as a music fan, if you could pick one mic marriage pair-up to record an entire album together, which one would it be?

I asked this question on Twitter a few days ago and I was overwhelmed with how many people replied with the same answer - Method Man & Mary J. Blige.

That’s probably one of the best examples there is.

Others answers included Ginuwine & Aaliyah, Nas & Lauryn Hill, Jay-Z & Beyonce and Avant & Keke Wyatt.

I like all of those pair ups, but truth be told, if I could pick only one, there’s another pair-up that I could only hope for to make an album together. They’re both well known artists, but their collaboration together is not as known.

But before I tell you who it is and you click on the play button, in order to really enjoy this song, you need to be in your personal zone

If you’re at home, just shut off the TV for a few minutes, close your eyes and listen. If you’re at work or school, just put in your earphones, zone out and just listen.

Ladies and gentleman… This. Is. Music:

Lauryn Hill ft. D’Angelo - Nothing Even Matters

That’s my favourite mic marriage. What’s yours?

I Stay Buying CDs

Don’t get me wrong, I support and purchase digital downloads from iTunes, etc, but as a personal preference, I still buy CDs.

Even though I mostly listen to music on my computer, iPod and Blackberry, I still prefer having a physical disc to sync the music from and to keep on my shelves. Maybe I’m a collector, maybe I’m nostalgic, but it’s what I prefer.

I purchase music all the time, but today 2 albums dropped that I’ve actually been looking forward to for a while:

T.I - “Paper Trail”
Dru - “The One”

New Music CDs: T.I - Paper Trail, Dru - The One

By the way, if you’re an R&B cat like me and you’re not familiar with Dru, you need to be. He was formerly with the group, In Essence, which broke into the scene with their song, “You Will Never Find Another” back in 1998 with Funkmaster Flex.

Check out some of his videos below and make sure to go cop his new record.

<a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=VLimE9RFF8Q">http://youtube.com/watch?v=VLimE9RFF8Q</a>

<a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=TkU1mXhVoHc">http://youtube.com/watch?v=TkU1mXhVoHc</a>

<a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=EXTf8nURgWk">http://youtube.com/watch?v=EXTf8nURgWk</a>

I SEE YOU DRU!

So now, let me ask you guys; what’s the last music (single or album/digital or physical) that you purchased?

XXL Talks To Asher Roth

XXLmag.com features Asher Roth

XXLmag.com caught up with Asher Roth to discuss his background, signing with Steve Rifkind and where he fits in today’s musical landscape.

Read the interview here.

Asher Roth - Roth Boys video

The video is here.

Ash Roth decided to do a video for the mixtape joint, Roth Boys, and you’ll never guess who showed up

Check it out below and make sure to grab the embed code to post it on your site/blog/myspace.

The Original “Mogul In The Making”

Making The Mogul / MTV & 50 Cent

A little while ago, I mentioned that I wrote a post on another site a while back, explaining my motivation for starting this blog and naming it MakingTheMogul.com.

Well, I found the post and am posting it here to share with you guys.

Dustin from Think2wice (Check it out. It’s one of my favourite spots to visit online.) asked “How Did You Come Up With The Name Of Your Blog?” to members of a Ning site called, The Urban Blogger.

This was my response:

I came up with the name of mine a few years back actually. When I started my first internship at a major label, Donald Trump and NBC had just launched the show, The Apprentice, and everybody used to joke around that I was “the real apprentice” due to my strong work ethic and never-lose attitude.

I always thought there should be a show that mixed The Apprentice with Making The Band. A show where people compete to make it in the business side of the music business.

We ended up getting one TV series that was almost amongst those lines, BET’s “Ultimate Hustler”. I say “almost” because the show didn’t seem to have a defined goal; if you win The Apprentice, you work for Donald Trump, if you win Making The Band, you get signed to Bad Boy, but if you won Ultimate Hustler, you won a car, a new wardrobe and I think some cash.

Didn’t make much sense to me.

We also had AOL’s web series, “Tha Biz”, which was more along the lines of what I wanted to see, but it was only aired online and didn’t receive much of an audience.

I figured if nobody else is giving me the content I want to see, then why not create it myself. I decided that a blog was the best format for me to deliver my story. I might incorporate video and other elements into the blog later on, but for now, the blog is my main platform.

So my blog is my version of the show/story that I always wanted to see - the journey of a young professional in the music business…..MakingTheMogul.com.

That’s what I posted on April 6, 2008.

Now, MTV & 50 Cent are launching the same concept with their new show, Mogul In The Making.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not hating. I’m actually looking forward to seeing the show. I’m sure there are hundreds, if not thousands, of us who have thought of the exact same concept.

It seemed really ironic that we’d have so many reality show concepts and yet it took this long to launch this one. I’m happy they’re finally doing it though, although I just hope it’s executed up to the standards I always envisioned a show like this being.

Personally, I think it would’ve made more sense to have someone else rather than 50 do the show. Again, don’t get me wrong; 50’s definitely been doing his thing and has been making millions upon millions doing it; but we all know him firstly as a rapper, and as someone who’s name only became relevant within the past few years. Get Rich or Die Tryin’ came out in 2003. That’s only 5 years ago.

Like a true mogul, 50 is certainly proving to be successful in multiple avenues, however I would have like to see MTV partner up with someone whose history and success spans a longer timeframe. Somebody like Russell Simmons, Chris Lighty, Steve Rifkind, Jimmy Iovine, Steve Stoute, Lyor Cohen, L.A Reid, Jermaine Dupri, Jay Z or even expand the Making The Band franchise and have Diddy do it.

These are all people who’ve been breaking all kinds of records and making historic movements since before the new millennium.

As a fan and viewer, those are the people I’d like to see the show air with, but as a decision-maker, I agree that 50 Cent will achieve higher ratings than most of the people on my list; especially since most of them are not entertainers themselves and don’t have the massive fanbase as does an entertainer like 50.

Anyhow, like I said, I just hope the show ends up living up the expectations. (I also hope they end up helping my web traffic rankings rather than killing it!)

Nicole Bell Will Not Lose

Nicole Paultre Bell (Sean Bell’s widow) in a webisode for Rocawear’s “I Will Not Lose” campaign.

R.I.P Sean Bell

<a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=bfGb0yoLJ8g">http://youtube.com/watch?v=bfGb0yoLJ8g</a>

Source: Illseed






Rockstar Branded

x