The C.I.A. Raises Eyebrows After Unexpected 2Pac Declaration

Written by Cyrus Langhorne

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) may have sparked a debate today (July 7) after having some fun with the unsolved murder of late hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur. #WheresPac

The renowned government agency jumped onto its Twitter page to playfully joke about Pac's alleged whereabouts.

"No, we don't know where Tupac is. #twitterversary," the CIA account tweeted July 7. (CIA's Twitter)

According to reports, the remark stemmed from a Twitter campaign the CIA started in June.

The Central Intelligence Agency garnered attention on Twitter last month with its humorous first dispatch: "We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet." To celebrate its one month "#twitterversary," the agency was at it again with answers to "5 of the top questions you've asked." (USA Today)

 Mathew Knowles hit with paternity suit...

Aside from the unsolved murder, the Pac-inspired "Holler If Ya Hear Me" musical is taking place on Broadway in New York.

Directed by current Tony nominee Kenny Leon (A Raisin in the Sun) and starring veteran spoken-word artist and rapper Saul Williams, Holler If Ya Hear Me is not a biographical tale about the late Shakur. Instead, his songs build an entirely new narrative based on the themes of family, opportunity, community, poverty, and love that ran through Tupac's lyrics. Some of his most beloved songs are represented, including "Dear Mama," "I Get Around," "Keep Ya Head Up," and "I Ain't Mad at Cha." (Entertainment Weekly)

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Recent reports suggested music veteran Saul Williams would take his talent to the big production.

Let's just clear up some confusion that we've already seen floating around the internet: Williams is not, we repeat, not portraying Shakur in the musical. The plot of the play takes in the Midwest, where two friends (one of whom, presumably, is Williams) struggle to escape from the grips of poverty. It's a plot line not unlike Shakur's own, and will feature the late rapper's hits, including "California Love," "Keep Ya Head Up," and "Me Against The World." (Music Times)

Taylor Swift Shares Optimistic View of the Music Industry In Wall Street Journal Op-Ed

Taylor Swift believes there’s still hope for the music industry.

In fact, she’s “one of the few living souls in the music industry who still believes that the music industry is not dying…it's just coming alive,” the superstar wrote in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal.

In the approximately 1,100-word piece, published on July 7, Swift notes that piracy and file-sharing have indeed contributed to a decrease in physical music sales. She believes, however, that music is still valuable and should be paid for. 

“Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for. It's my opinion that music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album's price point is. I hope they don't underestimate themselves or undervalue their art,” she wrote.

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Swift acknowledges that music fans aren’t purchasing as many albums as they did in past years. But this shouldn’t discourage artists, she says. “It isn't as easy today as it was 20 years ago to have a multiplatinum-selling album, and as artists, that should challenge and motivate us,” the singer wrote.

She believes that fans view music the same way they do their personal relationships. “Some music is just for fun, a passing fling (the ones they dance to at clubs and parties for a month while the song is a huge radio hit, that they will soon forget they ever danced to),” Swift wrote. “However, some artists will be like finding ‘the one.’ We will cherish every album they put out until they retire and we will play their music for our children and grandchildren."

The singer also feels that artists need to form a strong bond with their fans by regularly offering an “element of surprise.” This is especially important because of the “YouTube generation we live in,” which was “raised being able to flip channels if we got bored, and we read the last page of the book when we got impatient,” she wrote, later noting that fans now ask for selfies instead of autographs.

• Shyne Disses Slowbucks...

Swift offered an example of how to keep fans guessing. “I walked out onstage every night of my stadium tour last year knowing almost every fan had already seen the show online. To continue to show them something they had never seen before, I brought out dozens of special guest performers to sing their hits with me,” she wrote. “We want to be caught off guard, delighted, left in awe,” the singer wrote.

She also made some predictions about the future of the music industry.

 Mathew Knowles hit with paternity suit...

“A friend of mine, who is an actress, told me that when the casting for her recent movie came down to two actresses, the casting director chose the actress with more Twitter followers. I see this becoming a trend in the music industry,” Swift wrote, referencing a 2005 label meeting where she told executives she had been communicating with fans on a "new site" called Myspace. “In the future, artists will get record deals because they have fans—not the other way around.”

Another trend she sees fading is musical genre distinction. “Pop sounds like hip hop; country sounds like rock; rock sounds like soul; and folk sounds like country—and to me, that's incredible progress,” Swift wrote. “I want to make music that reflects all of my influences, and I think that in the coming decades the idea of genres will become less of a career-defining path and more of an organizational tool.”

As previously reported, Swift ranked No. 1 on Billboard's annual Money Makers list, capturing revenue from every angle, earning a whopping $39,699,575.60. Fueled by 2012's "Red," the singer's album sales were eighth among all of Billboard's Money Makers, while on the digital front she sold nearly 10 million downloads, ranking sixth, and fifth in streaming royalties -- tops in country music.

Mathew Knowles Hit With Yet Another Paternity Suit

Getty Images

Beyonce's dad is not having the best year ever. Mathew Knowles is being hit with his second paternity case of the year, but this time it's coming from 30-year-old Taqoya Branscomb. 

According to BuzzFeed, Branscomb gave birth to his alleged lovechild in 2010, but came forward this May demanding Knowles take a DNA text, pay child support and cover the attorney's fees. This means she's confident her baby daughter Koi is his. 

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This makes paternity case number two. Earlier this year, Alexsandra Wright came forward to say that he fathered her four-year-old son Nixon and owes her child support. However, the judge in that case gave Knowles a three year grace period to pay his back child support as well as reduced the original amount he had to pay. She has since had to move out of her home in California and into a homeless shelter. 
Photo Credit: Getty Images

Does Don Cheadle Make A Convincing Miles Davis?

Photo Credit: Entertainment Weekly

'Tis clearly the season for biopics. Don Cheadle takes center stage in the next celebrity biopic to officially enter into production stage, Miles Ahead, about the late Miles Davis. Cheadle is not only assuming the lead role, but is also spearheading the indie movie as the director. 

The crowdsource funded film—which co-stars Ewan McGregor, Michael Stuhlbarg and Emayatzy Corinealdi—will start shooting this week in Cincinnati.Today, we got a first look of Miles' doppleganger, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly.

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Between this year's forthcoming Jimi Hendrix and James Brown biopics starring Andre 3000 and Chadwick Boseman, respectively, and the N.W.A. movie coming next year, black music is finally getting a proper platform to shine. 

Shyne Disses Slowbucks: "N++ Got His Chain Snatched At Summer Jam?"

Written by Cyrus Langhorne

Weeks after Slowbucks turned into a household name for having his chain stolen at Hot 97's annual Summer Jam concert, New York rapper Shyne has taken a shot at him. #ShotsFired

 

Shyne Po posted up a photo of himself alongside rap veteran Nas and singled out Slow's now-infamous incident.

"How U been so hot for 20 years my G ? @nasnyc #backstage," Shyne captioned July 6.

"& how that bum a** n++ got his chain snatched at summer jam? He can't be from queens bridge.... #QB# #lake @nasnyc the g*d #illmatic 20 years"

Russell Simmons ADD52...

"hen they kicked him down the stairs in front of his girl esco, U was performing tho..... Esco, my g, U can't let him come back to queens tho.... #illmatic #20 years all time greats" (Shyne's Instagram)

Despite being unhappy with how his press conference went, Slow recently slammed snitching accusations shot his way from ex-affiliate 50 Cent.

"If you get into a car accident and you sue, is that considered snitching? It's the same thing. I see a lot of tough guys do that so I'm just asking. Snitching? If that person can provide some paperwork or is going to jail I'll sign my company over. You get picked up for questioning. How you not gon' get picked up for questioning. I got picked up for questioning. There's no snitching on my record." ("The Breakfast Club")

 Mathew Knowles hit with paternity suit...

Slow also used the media opportunity to jab 50 Cent's perceived diminished image.

"He's not the 50 that once was," he said. "Nobody care about that music that just went brick. That's the excuse when people do bad right? They independent. I get it. Slowbucks is what 50 wanted G-Unit to be. Bosses don't move like that. You don't go about stuff the way you did. This is Mr. Forbes worried about Mr. Winslow." ("The Breakfast Club")

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Slowbucks said he was not intimidated by 50 last month.

As for Slowbucks ... he claimed he was jumped on June 1 by 50's goons who jacked his gold chain while 50 was onstage at the Summer Jam Festival in Jersey. Slowbucks tells TMZ ... he's not scared of 50 or his posse, telling us, "People know how I roll in the streets." He says 50 can keep the chain, saying he doesn't want this to escalate into a Tupac/Biggie situation. (TMZ)

YouTube Re-Negotiating with Indies Following Outcry

By Andrew Flanagan

YouTube has softened its posture in negotiations on a new streaming music service with indie label trade bodies following an uproar in the past weeks over several provisions in the proposed contract, according to a report from the Financial Times.

A week-and-a-half ago, indie trade group IMPALA filed a formal complaint with the European Commission against YouTube over the disagreement, saying it was engaging in anticompetitive behavior. Now, according to a source contacted by the Financial Times, YouTube is "back-flipping and backtracking."

 Mathew Knowles hit with paternity suit...

Indies were rankled most by what appeared to be an ultimatum by YouTube, with the company telling labels that they would remove advertisements on their music videos, the service's principal revenue generator, if they refused the contract's terms, cutting them off from a stream that generates hundreds of millions of dollars for labels each year.

In an interview with Billboard earlier in June, president of the American Association of Independent Music Rich Bengloff told us that “We are treated equitably and fairly by Rdio, Spotify, Rhapsody and about 20 other services, but obviously not YouTube."

• Shyne Disses Slowbucks...

Independent labels and trade bodies were also upset by terms that appear to favor major labels, especially a "most-favored nation" clause that would enable YouTube to lower its rate of pay to indies if major labels agreed to a lower rate as well. Additionally, the service has a lower overall rate of payment, 65.5%, a drop from the 70% typical to streaming services like Spotify and Rdio.

Microsoft Opens Xbox Music to App Makers

By Harley Brown, 

Xbox Music has become the latest music streaming services platform to open up its API to third-party app developers, according to a post on Microsoft's MSDN blog detailing API features like access to and management of metadata, affiliation between the platform, users, and developers, and integration between clients like Xbox One, Android, and iOS.

Courtesy Microsoft

"We’re inviting developers to dream up ways to make your apps and experiences cool and exciting... We made it dead simple for anyone to innovate, demo and build great integration around Xbox Music," reads the entry. "Didn't see that one coming, did you?!"

Well, yes and no. It's not expected that streaming services will open their APIs, but as more and more have made their internal mechanisms available for creative plundering, it could be considered unwise not to. 

Spotify was one of the first music streaming services to open up its API to external developers in 2011, partnering with music editorial platforms like Billboard, Rolling Stone, and Pitchfork to create company-specific  apps; 2012 saw 12 new apps from record labels, including Universal and Warner Music Group.
It was a move that distinguished Spotify from competitors like Rdio, MOG, Rhapsody, and Google Music -- that is, until the next year, when Deezer made its own API available. Not to be outdone, in 2013 Spotify integrated with the Echo Nest's API, giving developers access to the music intelligence platform's enormously influential algorithms (recently, the company updated its web API, allowing access to user profiles and metadata for more specifically customized playlists and more extensive album, track, and artist details). 

Mathew Knowles hit with paternity suit...

So yes, it makes sense that Xbox Music, which launched in 2012 following the crash and burn of Microsoft's Zune mobile streaming service, would follow in those steps. In an increasingly crowded streaming market, one way platforms differentiate themselves from each other is through user-created apps, many of which increase accessibility and usabilty of the platform itself. Alexandre Passant's Long Tail, for example, lets users deep-dive lesser-known tracks from artists they already know and like.

Russell Simmons ADD52...

As Billboard's Glenn Peoples pointed out, "No single music service has the resources to create all the apps that will enhance the underlying music service and keep a wide range of music fans engaged and interested."
And so: Enter the hive mind.