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Sup everybody. So after all the hustling, grinding, and dealing with everything that Murphy’s Law could throw at us, Untitled Track Magazine has finally been

launched! We have a lot in store for you, dear reader. As we begin with the great city of Tampa, we discuss The Mentor’s SUMMERZ, D.I.T.C.M.G.’s Instrumentool, and the late great WTMP. We also talk about ways to step your mu-sic game up, Trinidad James, Hot Mixtape Reviews, news from the world of Hip-Hop, and much more! But before we go any further, big shoutouts to the family and friends who believed in this vision of a publication dedicated to Un-derground & Independent Hip-Hop. I greatly appreciated. Special thanks to Cedric “SUMMERZ” Hall, Reishard “In-strumentool” Montgomery, the whole of D.I.T.C.M.G, & Left Lane for the interviews, pictures, and the experience in all. And special thanks to Bashment Sessions Magazine Chief Editor Yolanda Turner for the editorial and layout insights for this publication...even the tip to shrink this editorial to something more short and sweet. The original “long” edi-torial is now the article “The Birth of Untitled Track”. Once you see it’s length, you’ll see what I mean. So after you’re done reading this issue of Untitled Track Magazine, make sure you Google search Bashment Sessions Magazine and cop a copy. To avoid making this editorial any longer, I’ll make this a good stopping point. Read and enjoy. Stay Grindin’!

H.D. CampbellEditor-In-Chief, Untitled Track Magazine

Question: How many times did Trinidad James say “Nig-ga” in his song “All Gold Everything”? But before we

get to that...here’s a couple of words on the subject the The Golden Boy. Love or hate him, you must respect Trinidad James’s rise from mixtape to contract. It would be easy for haters to say that his music will be “just a one hit wonder” and that he’ll go the way of J’Kwon, Lumidee, or Afroman...even so, you must respect the fact that HE GOT SIGNED!!! I know this will be hard for many to swallow but it is what it is. On top of that, who really knows how hard he and his team REALLY worked to get noticed above the masses of artists both signed and unsigned? (Except for Trinidad and his team, of course) Yes...he may not be the next Tupac or Biggie...but in all honesty, does he have to be? We have all known of lesser artists getting deals with lesser skills.

So my dear reader keep this in mind...”All Gold Ev-erything” is bumping on the radio right now as well as in the clubs as I personally witnessed not too long ago...and just a couple of months ago, you could only listen to it via mixtape or internet. Now Trinidad James is doing remixes with T.I. and Jeezy as well as many others. And can we even count how many people have jumped on the “All Gold Everything” beat and given us their rendition? This alone should be a testament to his position.

The moral of the story is this: Not to take anything away from Trinidad James or his team but if he can do it, you can too. Utilize his rise and find a way to incorporate it into your own strategy. Emulate, don’t imitate. And...

DON’T HATE! Now with all of this being said, who exactly am I addressing?

Myself.

And to answer the question asked earlier...he said “Nigga” 20 times in the track “All Gold Everything”. That’s about one “Nigga” every 9 seconds. When you hear it next time, count for yourself.

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Mondon & B-Jynx Star Bars

What happened with two hungry emcees team up to create a mixtape? A good example of such a situation is when 2 members of Dy-Nasty launches an onslaught of lyrical ability called Star Bars. The problem is not if the lyrical skills are top notch...to us it is. The problem is also not if the production is on point...from iRite's excellent use of such samples from of all places "Star Wars" combined with some production from the MCs themselves, the production perfectly fits with both Mondon & B-Jynx's flow to prove at best it's also on point.

No.

The problem, in our opinion, we don't know if Star Bars in whole was a lyrical sparring match similar to "Brook-lyn's Finest" or dynamic duo effort similar to "Aquemini" (they even sampled the "Aquemini" beat in the track "Double Dragon"). The combined effort in "Trouble In Paradise" proves they make a great team and yet after listening to "Billiards with Billionaires" also prove that each man can stand on their own two feet. We will make that judgment after we listen to Mondon's recently released Pay Attention and B-Jynx's The Qurazy. Until then, we would more than encourage you give Star Bars a good listen. Without being big name acts (yet) or the power of a big record label behind them, it has garnered 13310 views, 689 streams, and 2,678 downloads since the writ-ing of this review. After listening to Star Bars, you will understand our other confusion of why not many more.

Gucci Mane Trap God 2

Let me make this review short. Trap God 2 is just more of the same. The same subject material, the same type of production, the same Gucci. Yes, it does its job to feed the fan-base but it did nothing to convert me into a fan. Even if he incorporates that 2 Chainz-style flow into his delivery (in which I’ll allow you, dear reader, to consider that as either a good thing or a bad thing), the mixtape isn’t memorable. Just as one of my partners said, it’s just the same “Nan-nana-boo-boo rap”. And I agree.

Let each person have their opinion and here is mine...

As I believe that action speak louder than words, let me conclude my commentary with this: after I downloaded the mixtape and added it to my iPod, I erased it after two listens of the complete mixtape (one listen for the initial reaction & the second to confirm it). Why waste the space? In short, listen at your own risk of boredom.

J. Cole Truly Yours

As a fan of J. Cole, I been waiting to hear something new since Cole World: The Sideline Story and “Miss Amer-ica” (I know, I know...this is an underground / independent Hip-Hop magazine but I still like some mainstream stuff). As the world & I continue to wait for Born Sinner, J. Cole provides us with his mixtape Truly Yours to tide us over.

The result?

Sounds like a continuation of Cole World (in a good way). With the use of soulful samples combined with his metaphoric flow, J. Cole continues to tell experience stories that many listeners can either relate or help see their point of view. With his apt use of Lauryn Hill’s “Zion” for “Can I Holla At You” to the truth spit of “Tears for ODB”, the 5 tracks from Truly Yours is showing that J. Cole may have the drive and hunger to conquer the Soph-omore Slump. Let’s hope for this to be true.

SUMMERZ The Mentor

It’s very rare these days that you hear a MC speak from the heart without it coming off either too sappy, heartbroken, or downright banal. Yes, I understand that sex, braggadocio, money, Jordans, fancy cars, and hand-to-hand is part of the rap game both underground and mainstream but it would be nice to hear such topics take the backseat to lyri-cal ability and quality production. My only surprise that such a combination of both would come in the form of a mixtape.

Enter The Mentor.

From the head nodder “Official” to the lyrical exercise of “Mic Check” back to the amazingly “Prototype”-sampled “Dark Chocolate”, you will experience the rare talent of both SUMMERZ’s lyrical dexterity and the imaginative produc-tion by Instrumentool that blends seamlessly to create this body of work known as The Mentor. And seriously, kudos to Instrumentool and his the use of B-Side soul samples that would be overlooked by the majority of producers (both underground & mainstream) to create beats that are tailor-made for SUMMERZ‘s potent flow. In short, I was impressed.

Once I let many others hear the The Mentor, it greatly excited us to know that we aren’t boxed in to listen to the same canned music that heavily rotated on the radio if we are willing to dig a little deeper. It created such an impression on us here at UNTK that we had to feature both SUMMERZ and Instrumentool in this issue. (And the entire The Mentor mixtape is added to Beryllium News-Stand for your listening pleasure. Thank us later.) Once you hear their work, many of you will being saying the same thing as we do here...Godspeed to the pair and let us hope that such talent be heard worldwide.

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OR EdiTORial ExTEndEd...Let us continue...

So how did UNTK come to be? The simple answer is by “calling a spade a spade”. Now addressing the over-eager activist, please put down

your torches and pitchforks because I used the term “spade”. No, it’s not used in the sense of the racial slur (although if you thought about the gra-tuitous use of “Nigga” in both mainstream, independent, and underground Hip-Hop and you come at me with such, your actions would be considered a bit overzealous if not oxymoronic). Rather the use of “calling a spade a spade” would be for the more cliche’ use of the saying for speaking the truth. So with all of that being said, what exactly am I calling a spade? Let’s start this story...

Once upon a time, I walked into the bookstore one Thursday afternoon and was scanning through the magazine section. Always being fascinated with books with pictures, a magazine would become one of my favorite loves. Another of my loves is anime...but at this moment of time, it was my love for music that captured my attention. So with all of those combined, I headed to the magazine section. You see the usual suspects...Vibe, Source, XXL, Otaku USA, Rolling Stone...but the one that captured my eye was the one pictured above. SPIN Magazine is a magazine from all music so it’s rare that you would see a rapper on the cover. They usually have some rock artist, band, or some obscure talent that should be heard but never gets play on the radio. So who would make the cover? Not Nas, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg (or Lion), Dre, Eminem, Outkast, KRS-1, or even Immortal Technique (one of my favorite independent artist). Nope.

That honor was reserved for Waka Flocka Flame.

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!! As the “O Let’s Do It” rap-per graces the cover of this music (not just rap) magazine, I contemplate my thoughts on his “music”. Keeping in mind the advice my grandmother Mrs. Tessie Campbell (rest in peace) would say, “if you ain’t have nothing good to say, don’t say nothing at all”, I will now express my thoughts about Waka Flocka Flame’s “music”:

And that completes my comments about Waka Flocka Flame’s “music” (or my moment of silence, take your pick). My personal opinion about Waka after reading some articles & watching his interview with the Breakfast Club, he comes off like a cool dude and someone who is about business. I can respect his drive and his hustle. But the “music”? Well, let me break the silence just this once: it’s not my cup of tea. So as I think of the people who weren’t familiar with Rap whom read that issue of SPIN and made their opinion that this is be considered the “new sound of Hip-Hop”, thoughts

began circling my mind that I know there has to be underground artists, unsigned artists, and independent artists that are, at least, on a better lyri-cal tip than Waka. Suddenly, I recalled this memory from my hometown of Ocilla, Georgia.

It was some years ago that I traveled back to Ocilla so I could attend the biggest yearly event of my two-stop lights hometown, The Sweet Potato Festival. During this time, one of the local artist who rapped under the alias “Dolla D”, dropped his album Neva-$ay-Neva on that brisk Saturday and decided to sell his album during the parade. With a handful of aspiring artists featured on the album, it was the artists whom were selling the CDs for $5 to people hand-to-hand. In-cluded in this crew was my youngest brother whom was rapping under the name “Jiffy Kid”. Featured on Track #15, “What Da Deal”, he lays down his flow on the second verse with a style that even surprised me.

TaP HERE TO CHECK iT OUT!

I can truly say that I was thrown off after hearing it. MCs found in this part of Georgia? Granted, there was Field Mob in Albany and Pastor Troy who at first repping Augusta before going back to the ATL. But the thought of a MC coming out of Ocilla? After hearing the effort put in Neva-$ay-Neva, it may be possible...but is it likely? I mean, they did sell every CD during the Sweet Potato Festival to my recollection. So, why not go statewide like Pas-tor Troy with We Ready: I Declare War in 1999? Every aspiring MC, pro-ducer, and everyone else in the Hip-Hop community knows that two major factors can answer that question...money and connections. With the both of these, the weakest MC in the game can make a name for themselves...without them, the cream of the crop will more than likely be the “best rapper that you never heard”. Can anything be done about this?

Before we answer that question, let’s answer this one: what happened to the team at the Sweet Potato Festival? After the Festival, many of the guys who were featured on Neva-$ay-Neva went back to their regularly scheduled life...except one. Dolla D took the bold step to leave Ocilla, go to Miami

and eventually link up with Slip-N-Slide Re-cords. His future was looking bright in the worldly Rap game but it seems that God had other plans for this artist. The Lord called him to use his talents for the church so he left the Miami, moved to Orlando, and is now doing Christian Rap. You can’t hate a man for doing the Lord’s work. So let us wish the best for him and his family, dear reader.

And we now return back to the present.

As I stood there stupefied glancing through the “Loud Issue” of Spin Magazine, the first question I asked was, “Seriously?!?” The second question was, “Why haven’t anyone

utilize today’s technology to create a magazine that can really showcase the raw and untapped talent of underground Hip-Hop yet?” Then next question after that was, “Why haven’t you utilized today’s technology to create a magazine that can really showcase the raw and untapped talent of underground Hip-Hop yet?” I mean, I have been working on an interactive magazine for the iOS called We, The Otaku! (and yep, it’s a quick plug...so for you anime fans out there, check it out on the Apple App Store or on Be-ryllium NewsStand and look for We, The Otaku: The Magazine!)...so why not emulate that technology for the sake of Underground Hip-Hop? But there was at least one problem...I’m in Tampa now and I didn’t know much about the Underground Hip-Hop scene in Tampa, let alone in general. All I know is that I like the rawness of Underground Hip-Hop. It is reminiscent to the Hip-Hop scene in the late 80s to the mid 90s (and for the record, I am 31 years old at the time of this writing so I watched how Tupacs, Big-gies, and Nases of yesteryear has become the Drakes, Gucci Manes, and Wakas of today.) With those thoughts roaming through my head, I left the bookstore contemplating on what I should do.

I would finally make up my mind only two days later. That Saturday af-ternoon, I decided to go to the library to check out some audio books on Marketing & Brand Building, then work on some projects & concepts for The H.D. Darkheart Company. As I took my seat at one of those wooden college dorm style desks, I noticed to the left of me a young man silently beating on the desk with his hand and pencil. It reminded me of a scene in high school when someone was getting ready to freestyle. So, I continued to pay attention to this young man as I wrote some notes for the company. He would bang out some beats, then write something on a paper. Every time I saw him do this, my thoughts would go back to Dollar D, Jiffy Kid, that day at the Sweet Potato Festival, that SPIN Magazine cover, and finally the idea for the Underground Hip-Hop magazine. This kept going on for some time until his phone buzzed and he received a text message. He pro-ceeded texting back and forth therefore, in my opinion, losing his train of thought on the musical experiment he was concocting. It was then, I made my decision...I was going to create that Underground Hip-Hop magazine (which I haven’t named yet). Not again would I sit there idly by knowing that I could do my part to at least help showcase the skills of underground Hip-Hop artists...and who knows...perhaps the magazine can even help get the artist on the radio to replace the garbage that’s on heavy rotation that many consider “Hip-Hop” today...skinny jeans and all. So back to the artist beside me...

I wrote a little note on a sheet of paper, tapped him on the shoulder, and handed it to him. The note read:

“YOU aREn’T GOnna MaKE YOUR dREaMS COME TRUE TExTinG On THaT PHOnE.

GET TO wORK!” After the act was done, it dawned on me that this guy didn’t know me from Adam and here I am writing him a letter telling him to get back to work. But what was the truth? At that moment, I saw my little brother writing his

verse for “What The Deal”...I saw Dolla D driving down to Miami pursuing his dream...I saw perhaps “the best rapper that you never heard” (even though I didn’t know if he could rap, flow, spit, or snap)...and now I see a man I may have just offended. Maybe this wasn’t the best way to make an introduction...so I guess his reaction would prove if this move was bold or careless.

Luckily he just laughed and we started talking about everything from music, my past projects, and the concept of an magazine for the Underground Hip-Hop. I’m glad was a bold move. And my instincts were correct. He’s an up-and-coming MC whom just put the finishing touches on his recent mixtape. I really wanted to hear his skills since, from the looks of things, he shown himself to be dedicated to his craft (well, minus the whole text mes-sage fiasco). So we exchanged phone numbers and he could give me a call once he got some copies of the mixtape. It would be an hour after we depart that I would receive the call from this artist and grab a copy of his mixtape from him personally from, of all places, the studio he recorded the entire body of work. At this moment, I would also be introduced to the man who produced every track on his tape. These two men gave me a tour of the studio as they handed me the mixtape. Feeling the warmth of the CD, I can tell that they just burnt the mixtape onto this CD from the computer the mixtape was created! As I stood there in “The Stu” amazed at the technol-ogy that can be used to make music, they began to play the first track of the mixtape. One of the best sample uses of Bobby Caldwell’s “What You Won’t Do For Love” (if I’m not mistaken) echoes outside some really high end speakers. “Nice”, I thought. Suddenly, I hear him drop his verse and I felt a smile form on my face. Then I started bobbing my head. His flow was something much more different than the “party sound” I hear coming from many Tampa Bay artists (or at least the ones I was exposed to at the time). It was more “lyrical” and less “club banger”. The track was something you want to sit down and listen to rather more than just turn up in your car as speaker testers. Halfway through the track, I had to tell them to stop the track. My thing is that I get absorbed into the music to the point I almost forgot that I was standing in a studio amongst two men. I promised them that I would give it a good listen. They agreed to the proposal. This was my formal introduction to the Tampa Underground Hip-Hop scene.

And with this, a pretty cool journey began.

After that meeting, the idea of just showcasing Underground Hip-Hop ex-panded to include many other aspects. From designing CD covers to cre-ating logos to converting the magazine’s website into a social network for Underground Hip-Hop, I have delved into the Tampa Hip-Hop scene with one goal in mind...to help good music be heard. That is the goal of Unti-tled Track Magazine. Perhaps this can be the answer to the question asked before...can anything be done about the money and connection problem? My hope it that we can utilize UNTKMag.com to help create connections and collaborations within the Underground Hip-Hop scene starting with Tampa Bay first. If all goes well, we can make Tampa a hub for Hip-Hop instead of having many artists, producers, and many others in the game migrate to Miami or Atlanta as a necessity to evolve their contribution in the Hip-Hop scene. We will make the best of today’s technology to make and build connections in the community (once you check out UNTKMag.com, you’ll see what I mean). And what about the money? We can utilize the combined efforts of technology (including Untitled Track Magazine, UNTK-Mag.com, and future projects) to help reduce the need to use so much time & money to promote their music, find a photographer or videographer, and the other tasks needed beyond laying tracks to be heard. Is such a vision even possible.? I think so. Is it likely? With our combined efforts, it can be.

So let me complete this LONG editorial with answers of two questions.

First: who were the two guys I met on that fateful Saturday evening? Well, one of the guys is the artist whom graces the cover of this publication whom goes by the name of SUMMERZ and you’ll read his interview later in the magazine. The other grinder is the upcoming producer/label owner featured in our “In Your Opinion” section, Instrumentool. As you continue reading this magazine, you’ll understand why both of these talented young men have potentially bright futures in the Hip-Hop scene. I’m just glad UNTK were able to interview them first! And their mixtape, The Mentor, will be mentioned throughout this issue since we pretty much owe much of the existence of this publication to it.

And for the second answer: what exactly are we calling a spade at the mo-ment? The “spade” is crap that is considered “Hip-Hop” these days...you know, a good amount of the stuff that is getting all the radio spins at the

moment. I cannot nor will not say all of the music coming out of the radio speakers is crap but there is enough to stink up the place, that’s for sure. Let’s see what we can do to clean it up. Don’t worry...if you don’t know what we are talking about, you will get an idea soon enough. But one thing’s for sure...after listening to SUMMERZ and the many other MCs here in Tampa throughout these past couple of months, my hypothesis is more than cor-rect. I now know there are underground, independent, and unsigned artist that can put a good number of these guys on the radio to shame...but who would have known that many of them would be in Tampa? Only if these talented grinders could be heard. Let’s see if Untitled Track Magazine can help make that happen. Stay grindin’.

http://youtu.be/_XdGFP7mwS4

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Get To Know SUMMERZ! Contact him TODAY!

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Why Even Bother?

As I write this article, I just finished listening to 95.7 and after being tuned in for 2 hours, I heard the same song played once again. I won’t say who the artist is but he

teamed up with two superstars and rhymed about his...clique. Either way, I thought, does it even matter? If it wasn’t this song then it would just be another song that would be more like a gimmick that will be in heavy rotation for about a month or two rather than a piece of musical work that will be on the radio in the next 6 months or so. This is the main reason I bought an iPod. As of the moment, I work at a car auction where one of the major perks is the collection of CDs you find in cars. As I pull my earbuds out sighing in boredom and frustration, I think back to a couple of years ago when I tried to listen to WTMP 1150 AM here in Tampa. I say tried because anyone hoped to listen to the station knew the difficulty of trying to get clear signal on the radio. I just chalked it up to the radio station be-ing located off in the cut somewhere in the Tampa Bay Area. Perhaps in Largo, Sun City Center, Brooksville, or Spring Hill. That would help explain the low reception, right?

So where was it located? We’ll get to that.

For the moment, let us get back to my experience. I finally was able to get a good reception of the radio station to find it playing...Latin Music! What the hell!?! I know that Big Money Ced would switch it up on you once in awhile but this is going a bit too far, in my opinion. But once I heard the commercial after the song spoken in Spanish, I knew something was up. After doing a quick Internet search, I found out that the radio

station was bought by Davidson Media Group and switched to a Spanish Tropical format. I figured that WBTP (95.7) and WLLD (94.1) would put up strong competition for the ears of the younger generation but once the Steve Harvey Morning Show began its broadcast on 95.7 replacing Olivia Fox there-fore providing a “better alternative” to the Tom Joyner Morning Show, I should’ve realized then that this move would be the final nail in WTMP coffin.

But I was still skeptical. I just knew that WTMP would have something up their sleeve. It was, in my opinion, one of the last of the old school radio stations. Unfortunately, my hopes were dashed when I heard the first “Hola” uddered from the radio’s speakers. So I went back to my iPod and drifted back into the realm of my own collection of Biggie, Tupac, Jay-Z, and Outkast albums. But why!?! Why should I have to be stuck listening to the same old music unless I decided to sway into another genre like Rock, Country, etc...and why did WTMP have to located so far away!?! I would have listened to the station more if the signal was clear.

Again...where was WTMP located? We’ll get to that.

So back to a question asked before...why are we stuck lis-tening to the same old music (even the same old school songs in the “Back In The Day” segments as well)? Two words: Clear Channel. According to Wikipedia, Clear Channel started with only handful of radio stations. Then, the U.S. Congress relaxed the laws allowing companies to own more than 2 radio sta-tions in a market in 1992. Suddenly, Clear Channel began opening up their wallets and buying more stations. Once the Telecommunication Act of 1996 passed, Clear Channel pulled

out their Black Card and bought around 70 more stations on top of the previously owned 43 radio stations & 16 television stations. After some business maneuver-ing that happened throughout the orga-nization including a buyout from...wait for it...BAIN CAPITAL (the company co-founded by Mitt Romney), Clear Channel still holds a lion’s share of the stations on your dial.

I can only imagine a reader think-ing “Ok, ok..we get that. So explain to us why they keep playing the same songs over & over & over again! They have enough money to play more songs, right?” Well...not exactly. I could try to explain it but i think this section from the Clear Channel Wikipedia entry could describe it better (and pay attention to the underlined text):

“Due to the recent credit market crunch of 2007, Clear Channel has ended up with rejected sales of its radio stations. Clear Channel’s at-tempt to sell off over 100 stations to GoodRadio.TV, LLC was rejected by the equity firm backing the deal. The deal has since shifted to Frequency License LLC, but has yet to resolve itself as the two parties are engaged

in lawsuits. On top of that, the sale of Clear Channel’s television portfolio to Newport Television had also turned uncertain, as parent company Provi-dence Equity Partners considered other options, although this transaction was ultimately completed.” [22]

On December 4, 2007, Clear Chan-nel announced that they had extended the termination date of the merger from December 12, 2007, to June 12, 2008.[23] The buyout finally closed in July 2008. The company, which has laid off thousands of employees in recent years, announced that it would move to more centralized programming and lay off 1,500 employees, or approximately 7% of its workforce, on January 20, 2009. The reasoning was bleak economic con-ditions and debt from its transition to a private company.[24] Later on January 20, the company said that the total count of employees to be terminated would be 1,850, or 9%.”

Well...that kinda explain what hap-pened to Olivia Fox & Company [tap here to see what she’s up to these days]. But rest assured, even after Clear Chan-nel fired 2,440 people they are “giving

back to the community”:

“On May 20, 2009, Clear Chan-nel announced an initiative to help its radio station listeners who are seeking employment to market their skills and unique features on the air to attract the attention of employers with avail-able positions.[26]”

Well that’s just peachy.

But even so, that still do not explain why the radio stations play the same songs over and over again. Perhaps but remember the bold text. Think about it. If they were to “move to more centralized programming”, can that statement be interpreted that the programming (includ-ing the songs played) were already part of a “less” centralized programming? And if you were to see from a business aspect, would it make sense that the “less” centralized programming includes playing the same songs giving the pro-gramming some sort of uniformity and less hassle? (...and keep in mind that Clear Channel owns close to 850 radio stations, according to their website...) And I wouldn’t be surprised if the radio stations and the big label record compa-nies have certain music licensing deals

that determines which artists and bands get more airtime than others...and I’m not alone with that thought...check out this excerpt from the Payola entry in Wikipedia:

“On September 25, 2007, the U.S. Congress held a hearing on hip hop music entitled From Imus to Industry: The Business of Stereotypes and Degrading Images.[12] In her testimony, Lisa Fager Bediako argued that misogynistic and racist stereotypes permeate hip hop music because re-cord labels, radio stations, and music video channels profit from allowing such material to air while censoring other material. In that context, Fager stated:

Payola is no longer the local DJ receiving a couple dol-lars for airplay; it is now an organized corporate crime that supports the lack of balanced content and demeaning im-agery with no consequences.[13]

When someone like Lisa Fager Bediako, President and Co-founder of the advocacy think tank Industry Ears, whose concerns includes the impact media has on children and people of color, make a comment like that...it makes me think about many things like the conceived perception of those of other colors and cultures who don’t know that such imagery in Hip-Hop is, at best, one aspect of the black culture or, at worst, pure illusion concocted to give a more grandiose visual for the artist & song. Either way, it hides more of what most of us go through daily and provides this illusion to be inter-preted as the norm to those not familiar with our culture.

But I digress. Now back to the radio.

Being that Clear Channel may be making such moves, what about its competitors? CBS Radio (the “Pepsi” to Clear Channel’s “Coke”) may see the sense of such maneuvers...from a business aspect, at least. “Why mess with success?”, I can imagine the executives saying at CBS Radio, “ Look, it works for them. Let’s emulate some of their strategy, add a little something to help us stand out and take some of their market share.” So what happens? You get the alleged back-room deals with the big record labels and the radio stations, songs supported heavily on beats and marketing rather than lyrical substance getting more spins on the radio in double doses, some pro-

gramming added that doesn’t directly compete with the competi-tion but provide the “better alternative” (for the Tampa readers, think Orlando & the Freakshow vs. The Steve Harvey Morning Show) and on top of this, the same handful of songs being ro-tated in 2-3 hour intervals on the same radio stations over & over & over again to the disappointment to true music lovers.

Yep, sounds like a good recipe for mediocrity to me.

And what about the music outside this sphere of influence? What is the chance of getting unsigned artists or underground music on these stations? Are all things possible...yes...but is it likely? More than likely not. Probably would have more of a chance with the small radio stations.

So what about WTMP? And where was it located? We’ll get to the second part of that question later. The first part, however, was perhaps one of the saddest stories I heard about the death of a radio station. I could paraphrase it for you but Eric Deggans over at the Tampa Bay Times did such fine job of breaking it down that you could just tap this link to read it for yourself. Anyways, it was a messed up way of saying goodbye to Tom Joyner, Big Money Ced, and Napoleon. Sad part is that such a story was pretty common of small radio stations in the late 90s and 2000s in the battle of market share against the mam-moth Clear Channel, CBS Radio (then known as Infinity Radio) and their counterparts. Most of them were just bought out includ-ing my hometown radio station 96.3 WJIZ in Albany, Ga. (I was born and raised in Ocilla, Ga.) Clear Channel now owns it. Do these action prove that radio as we once knew it is dead? Per-haps not...

The days of sitting in front of the radio waiting to record

your favorite song onto your sister’s Just For Me instruction tape are gone but that has been replaced with the latest technology such as streaming music, internet radio, customized playlists, iP-ods, and smartphones to name a few. Even so, we may get a taste of old school radio soon. According to Prometheus Radio website, the FCC announced that they would begin accepting applications for new low power FM stations on October 15, 2013 from nonprofit organizations, schools, Indian Tribes and pub-lic safety agencies. [Tap here to read visit the website] It may not sound like a lot, especially considering that low power radio only reaches at the most a 10 mile radius...yet consider the pos-sibilities of more community & college radio stations (perhaps the most likely to play music from local and underground art-ists). Then, add in the concept that such radio stations can also become internet radio stations as well therefore giving a more global reach. And what if that radio station considers stream-ing their broadcast through other avenues such as mobile apps on your phones? Such a concept means that you could literally listen to such a radio station 24/7 with fresher content than Clear Channel or CBS Radio and provide more music that people want to hear. Sounds like “the better alternative” to me. High praises to the team that can pull off this feat. I just hope that the radio frequency is better than WTMP.

Which brings us back to the question...WHERE WAS WTMP LOCATED!?!

I don’t know much about radio frequency so I couldn’t tell you the reason for this exactly but after you see this, you’ll un-

derstand why I found the situation at WTMP personally sadden-ing. Let’s just hope for the best for the future small radio stations.

JUST TAP HERE TO SEE FOR YOURSELF!Just makes you sigh...doesn’t it?

http://youtu.be/vmCiwzeFb2w

http://youtu.be/E5LzrZ2Rrk4

http://youtu.be/IWAcDQ1ANaY

http://www.untkmag.com/issues/UNTK001/justsnappin/justsnappin.html

mailto:ditcmgroup%40gmail.com?subject=I%27m%20Interested%20In%20Recording%21

do You Have a Plan?

Sometimes, our people suffer because of the lack of knowledge. Many artist knows how to rhyme, sing, record, and/or produce. Once all the mixing & en-gineering is done and your album is complete, what now? Here’s an idea, how about we take a page out of the indies’ playbook and utilize some of their strate-gies? How will we do that? Let’s get started here:

indieGuide.com

Here, you can learn how to create & manage a street team, how to mail a CD to a College Radio Sta-tion so it doesn’t end up in the trash, how to sell your CD online, and so much more information that will help MCs and other musicians step their game up. It doesn’t take long to sign up (it’s free) and cop their free ebooks (and if you don’t sign up, you still can get some good info from the site itself.) Now, don’t let this good opportunity pass you by. Make your next move your best move and consider yourself informed.

Tap the left link to check outindieGuide.com to see what we mean! You may thank us later.

www.indiEGUidE.COM

Tap The Record To decide Between dJ Green lantern and Co. “iMPEaCH THE PRESidEnT” or nas “i Can”.

Jordan Fresh, Huh?Fact: Michael Jordan is one the best basketball to ever live. But is he the best? We’re not even gonna start that conversation. We’ll leave that discussion to the barber shops. Other than his skill, he did also contribute one other thing into the world: Air Jordan shoes. These sneakers have truly become as much of a staple in the Hip-Hop world as weed and cash. Even more so being that you can be said to at the upper echelon of clean if you are con-sidered “Jordan Fresh”. But does Michael Jordan get “Jordan Fresh”? Theoretically, the answer would be “yes” being that he IS Michael Jordan..but what about in practice? We turn your atten-tion to website called “What the F*** is Michael Jordan Wearing” (for real, that is the actual name of the site.) After seeing Mi-chael Jordan’s fashion sense, are you sure you wanna be “Jordan Fresh”?

Tap Here To See what we Mean!

Then again...if you game was anywhere close to Jordan, you can walk on the court with a pink tutu and nobody gonna criticize you too much. If you don’t know, check below and see for yourself.

Go ahead! Tap Here & See For Yourself!

Anyways, this is all we gonna say on the subject. You choose.

(P.S.- We can’t say that they won’t ever criticize you even if you are balling out in the pink tutu...remember, they have a whole website dedicated to Jordan’s fashion sense and HE’S ACTUALLY JORDAN!)

...YOU Can walK On THE COURT wiTH a PinK TUTU

and nOBOdY GOnna CRiT-

iCiZE YOU TOO MUCH...

http://youtu.be/wNkkIdbaEaQ

http://www.untkmag.com/contact-untk

http://demo.berylliummedia.com/