{ Def Jam Recordings (LL Cool J., Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, Run–D.M.C…) reaches its 25th anniversary. | 1. Krush Groove, the cult 1985 film that tells the story of the birth of Def Jam Recordings. 2. The third member of Run-D.M.C., Jam Master Jay, was tragically killed inside a Queens recording studio 2002. The perpetrator has never been identified. | Photos: NY Daily News | more | Related: The song refers to 911, the emergency phone number. }

{ This is the graph the record industry doesn’t want you to see. It shows the fate of the three main pillars of music industry revenue - recorded music, live music, and PRS revenues (royalties collected on behalf of artists when their music is played in public) over the last 5 years. | Times | Continue reading }

{ Press release entitled “? Bowie,” dating from 1966, in which the 19 year-old David Jones explains why he has adopted the stage name David Bowie, “There are too many David Jones’s.” | Christie’s }

If I had to pick a year for hip-hop’s demise, though, I would choose 2009. (…) Jay-Z’s new album, “The Blueprint 3,” and some self-released mixtapes by Freddie Gibbs are demonstrating, in almost opposite ways, that hip-hop is no longer the avant-garde, or even the timekeeper, for pop music.

{ New Yorker | Continue reading }