THE EJAY CURSE You might say I am sort of sick and tired of the conventional techno music released on full scale in Norway, and Europe for that matter. The popish love themes with a cheap beat, and even cheaper loop structure is something we all can find a bit disturbing. The truth is that this type of music isn't really innovative in any way, but instead the beat and melody is so catchy and repetive that it sticks to our heads for weeks and months. The truth is that those who don't have MTV don't have much choice. (But MTV has changed a lot, and is today not worth much attention anyway..) The radio stations are pretty much in control. They decide what's hot and what's not, and it isn't really anything us other artists can do about it. In 1999 I was in the army, and actually got a lot of sparetime. I had some synthesizers, a playstation, and a capable PC. So I decided to make my own music, based on what's missing in my hometown Trondheim. I decided to go fairly underground, and make a formula that was unique from anything else. Since many tunes are based on "love" which we all can relate to, I decided to make something quite the opposite. I called my project "Xanitra", and made some tunes which I decided would best suit the internet. (mp3.com) Why? Well, to get (really) discovered one should avoid record deals at all costs. Only then will you not sell yourself out to easy loops, bad lyrics, and even worse music. I ain't actually making a living out of my musical interest, but I think I've made something that breaths on it's own. I've made something fairly unique and I am quite proud of what I have accomplished as an independent artist on mp3.com Why should we be suffering from people who pick music for us ("Absolute Music, Mc. Music, and Mr. Music") when we can explore music ourselves? "Music should be free to free your soul" is something I've always said. More and more people have to give in to radiostations power over the people. Such an example is Freetrax.com. They were probably us artists best bet on reaching out to people of the same wavelength as ourselves. But in 2001 Freetrax closed it's doors due to poor demand. Not because Freetrax wasn't good, but because radiostations had already picked the cheesy music, and let little space for music that had some heart. If you are tired of the music you hear, you should really come to mp3.com. mp3.com has a wide scale of great music, that has some soul rather than some of the music that you hear today on the radio. The radio as a forum is trying to survive like everybody else, but it shouldn't go as far as to pollute the country your in with rubbish music that really is something that you've been fed, and not something that you can enjoy. Visit http://www.mp3.com and start exploring music for yourself, or if you are curious about my underground techno experiment inspired by my hometown Trondheim, you can visit http://www.xanitra.com POP TINGELING TECHNO What we today know as techno, was illegal back in the day. Techno of yesterday was associated with highly illegal underground clubs that went on. But hmm, lets see. Is that really all of the reason for it being illegal? No. Techno before was 1000% more experimental than it is today. Artists had to make something original, something new, and most importantly exciting. The parties were youth could hang out, unseen by parents, cops, people. Clubs of yesterday was a place for people who wanted to escape, call it a sort of modern hippie trend. But things got out of hand, as the rave grew, so did the word. And suddenly, all these underground clubs became centers for drug abuse. Nobody cared, except the police, and so by early 90's the illegal club phenomenon was worldwide known. But the DJ's played on, since they fell in love with what they were doing, and have a fritt about the law. Groups like Prodigy, Apollo 440, and Chemical Brothers started to emerge, which was the symbol of club acts made famous by a few know-it-alls. And here comes the X-files bit, the thing we don't know: The government needed a solution, and quick. The techno music was too strange, and had become the symbol and welcome-sign to drugs. So they went to the record labels, hissing with diplomatic word that if they didn't do this and that, they would do this and this. When they left, all record labels became friends. They had to find a solution, find a new way for techno to live on, tune down the Prodigy, and damn near quick. Solving the problem was long lasting, and a few more techno bands would come in and become kings, before the evil priests of labels rattled their swords. By mid 90's U96, The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers had full claim of MTV, with many other more minor bands behind them. They were strong, and they were experienced, but soon, they would start to fade away. Something happened with the last album of The Prodigy, it was more, rock based. "Why?" Many asked. But it was all a matter of tuning the volume on the old genre of techno slowly enough, for the new more popish techno themes to emerge. Behind closed doors, things started to happen. Labels went bankrupt, bands vanished, or changed their style. U96 suddenly started a new popish techno style, and by the year 2000 The Prodigy were no more. The techno, as fans knew it had died. Something new was approaching, something horrific. A kind of new techno, that was more conventional than other techno. Less original. It actually mixed pop elements. Kylie Minogue liked this, and this new genre found Kylie reborn. Madonna also found this new genre interesting, "wow, techno, never heard of that before!" Suddenly the culture, that was the escape for many, had become the goldmine for others. The year is 2002, Prodigy are back with a new single. Nobody is listening. Kylie is singing too loud. written, and research by: Christian Lowensprung EMINEM vs. MOBY Darrell Wade Burgan, a fellow reviewer here at godsofmusic.com had to edit this out of a review, for various reasons. But he suggested I put it up as an article for those interested. So I'm going to do just that. I've done some varying degree of edit work on it so it appears as an article, and not something that was edited out of a review. Also, after the discussion about cussing on the messageboards here, I thought I might spice this article up a bit. So, this article contains explicit lyrics. Parental discression is advised: Eminem vs. Moby: The thing with HipHop, is that you either like it, or you don't. If you're a party animal, you sort of get fed the culture. So you really don't have a choice but to join your friends and try to dance along. It's like smoking this HipHop thing. The more you smoke, the more friends you get. So once you've been forced to open your mouth to all the HipHop some DJ's tend to pop in their CD players (or is it computers they use now?) you really are a slave to the music. So I ask you, HipHop... What is HipHop? What the heck is happening man? What is it with all this party HipHop themes? Whatever happened to the larger than life HipHop that used to rule the "streets" (world man, world.) No, I'm not talking 2Pac, or any of that jahrule junk. I'm just going to mention one name. Coolio. I remember Coolio man. Nobody ever mentions the man anymore! Why the hell is that? "I see you, when you get there, if you ever get there." So what if he took the melody from a classical tune, 50, no, 60% of all HipHop tunes rip off somebody anyway. It was the lyrics in that tune that really meant something. Larger than life lyrics, that really melted into our hearts, and made us foreigners love hip hop. All hip hop is now is an annoyance! Eminem, God! We didn't have to come from any gang, shoot eachother up, join a gangbang, or go to some hump crackin' disco to know what HipHop was all about. Neither did we have to hear artists talking crap about other artists either (Eminem Vs. Moby.) We knew, that what we heard, on MTV, on the record stores, or in our own homes for crying out loud came from the heart. What is up with this new style hip,trip,skip,clickhop were everything has to be faster, more aggressive: "My hip hop is better than your skip hop! Nahnananananaaa!" The bigger the E, the better, it seems. What happened to the old keeping the love spirit: "- Hip Hop hurraaaaayy, hoooo, heey, hooo. I've got five on it, dah daah, di di di Summer, summer, summertime.. summertime.. WHOOMP there it is! wh... I can go on and on... Today's lyrics are so much more controvercial. Who gives a rat who humped who, who dissed who, who's girlfriend is who's, and who's boyfriend's been cheatin' on who. That's a Ricky Lake show, not music. Do you think I'm wrong about this?! Well, how's this: "The healing power of the Ricky Lake show!" Yeah, that's rich... What is it with this stuff man? Either it's trance going off at 100 100% annoy tha boot, or it's hip- hop slangin shihoo which makes the babes moove their "tooshi". Oh, isn't that a slang word? Darn.. I mean, trance: Enter the boyz.. Shit-hop: Enter the "ladies" eeeek. What the FUCK(!) happened to us grown ups? I can understand if you put on make up several times a week, go out every day, and want to wiggle to some shit-flop. But if you'r like me, who thinks that all this trip skip has gotten a little too out of hand, join the club. Oh, speakin' of clubs if you go to a club with a DJ who isn't retarded, pray for Coolio to come save us all. yours truly: Christian Lowensprun' opinions: Author: Jonathan Sanders Email: jonathansanders@justice.com Comment: Holy crow, Batman! Did I read Christian Lowensprung saying the word fuck? :) Just kidding :) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author: MarquMoz Email: Marqumoz@yahoo.com Comment: yo are you serious...coolio is a legend? C'mon b 4 real. Am i the only one hearing this? Eminem is probly one of the illest rappers out there today. He's a true lyricist that keeps it real, and raps about sh*t without bullsh*tting for the media. Hip Hop today is more violent - tru, but thats because rappers are rapping about their life...and keepin' it real. Coolio aint never talk about nothing. You probly don't like the music, cause you can't relate to it, but if you saw the "hood life" everyday, and experienced what rappers are talking about, you would be able to understand. Rap is a reflection of what people go through everyday. That's why thy rhyme about the streets. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author: DjliTTle Email: solarclipse@hotmail.com Comment: But you see the problem is that they dont rap about life no more, they just talk about mony acars and how many hows did the fuck and people did they kill while the never did shit,well may be they did but still exadurating, at least trance does not have the lies -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author: Ali Email: arez@swissinfo.org Comment: You're confused try to listen to a real HipHop or Trance tune before writing reviews. HipHop is not about Coolio or your HipHop Huray shit and certainly Trance is not only about 'entering boyz'. Let me take you on a trip, a simple journey that will lead you down to the underground, the underground -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author: eddie Email: hotboy11@aol Comment: man christan you just hating don't get mad becaus you have a crush on coolio and we dissing him the new slang is in so quit tripping annagga -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author: eddie Email: hotboy11@aol Comment: man christan you just hating don't get mad becaus you have a crush on coolio and we dissing him the new slang is in so quit tripping annagga here a rap yo i'm walking down the street it was B.A.b,jay,lil'mike and me some dudes pulled up in there new truck try to start some stuff so I bussed them in there face they thought it was mass by eddie aka. kidrockafeller -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author: LaShawn Email: MicRippaz@hotmail.com Comment: MicRippaz Holy Hip Hop Magazine Presents the 2004 Holy Hip Hop Summer Jam, June 26th. This event is a event where holy hip hop artist can come together for a evening of holy culture experiance. This experiance will allow holy hip hop artist to come together as one and praise God to the fulliest. Many know that there isn’t many holy hip hop events out in California, so for this, we MicRippaz decided to bring as many artist as we can to this glorious event, The 1st 2004 Holy Hip Hop Summer Blast. Registration Fee: $25 (Sent Pres Kit to: MicRippaz HHH Magazine P.O Box 32773 Sna Jose, Ca. 95152-2773 Find Out More. www.MicRippaz.com/summerblast.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author: Rocky Email: rcalay@ntlworld.com Comment: Coolio was from the street, but he never had to rap about it...hell, he stopped being a fireman cause the rap scene is safer...he speaks the truth, all this "gangsta" crap is a waste. I don't really want to listen about how these rappers came from the ghetto and are now big time gangsta superstars... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author: Laurie Wilgers Email: lwilgers@yahoo.com Comment: Christian, I need your credentials!!! Send me a few lines and tell me about yourself. Include what you think makes you qualified to write what you did. I need this for a class because I am going to review your article. ASAP would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Laurie Wilgers -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author: Grim Reaper Email: Supreme_01_being@hotmail.com Comment: MarquMoz id have to agree wit u my man. coolio is the man. some would say hes done but nah man he still rocks. as eminem man, hes got the balls to say shit about others which is good, it sets him apart from the rest of the rap world. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------