by SCOTT C

I sometimes get a hard time because I can’t help but experience music on an emotional level, and that desire to feel something, as opposed to recognizing the worth of a song or artist just from listening, has got me into trouble more than once. Last week, I was checking out www.chrislighty.com, a blog run by American urban-music power player Chris Lighty, label head of Violator Records, a guy who regularly rolls with Jay-Z and Lyor Cohen. Chris has more than paid his dues in the world of hip hop, housing such artists as Mobb Deep, NORE, Busta and Foxy Brown at one time, so he’s got a pretty interesting point of view. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised to find him talking about the “business of hip hop” in a way that made me slightly uncomfortable.

In a post he made after returning from a monumental hip hop show in Moscow, he wrote, “We have an opportunity, just like McDonalds, to invade every part of the world with a piece of our culture through hip hop music.” It’s interesting that the whole blogosphere phenomenon allows consumers to engage in healthy debate about the state of hip hop with guys like Lighty, but I found it amazing, as I read on, how his talk of “hits” and “branding” and the “new global reality” really enraged a lot of people who probably respected his contributions otherwise. Reading his blog ultimately begs the question, is it more important to make something people can feel, or more important to make something you can sell? And more importantly, it very simply shows the huge gap between a major-label mentality and the consumer. Very interesting reading.

When I’m not having nightmares about the Illuminati, I can be found picking out an outfit for the Maybe Watson, Monk.E and Filigrann show at Main Hall this Sunday, July 2. You may have seen Watson on the street, outside the club or at a hip hop show, banging the boombox and rhyming crazily in English and French while the crowd looked on, mystified. Basement genius or hip hop insanity of the wildest order? You be the judge on Sunday night. Doors are at 8 p.m., with special guests Paul Newman, Loe Pesci, DJ Naes, DJ Manifest, 7D, Janek Bishop and Son 2pt.

Before you check out The Refugee All Stars of Sierra Leone live at the Jazz Fest this year, you might want to check out the documentary playing tonight, Thursday, June 29 at Cinema du Parc. If you think Angelina Jolie was blowing the lid off recent tragedies in Sierra Leone, remember that there have been millions of displaced, mistreated and rarely-heard refugees escaping to the neighboring Republic of Guinea for quite some time. The Refugee All Stars tells the story of the six members of the band and how they managed to form this musical escape from peril. The screening is at 9:30 p.m.

ARE THERE FREEMASONS IN ETHIOPIA? fathead@videotron.ca

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