From the comments section of a post over at Dutty Artz about knowing something about the lyrics and culture of the music DJs and producers are playing or sampling. A thoughtful discussion over there.

In her post, she backs up her manager’s claim that DP gave Lynn permission to bite "Technologic." And although there was no reference to DP on her website, like he claimed, DP’s manager did show some love for her in a blog post that I overlooked. Actually, I saw the post back then, but didn’t realize that the author was Daft Punk’s manager. As far as all that goes: my fault.

And although she resorts to name calling, and ragging me as an "eeediot," I still say that I like the cut, and would even prefer to listen to it over the DP original. But it still needs a more prominent reference to Daft Punk. Just because someone gives you permission to bite doesn’t make it all better. If somebody in a graffiti crew flips a style like someone else that’s down, they still lose a measure of respect. The fact that Lynn hasn’t put out much of anything else doesn’t help her either.

But in the sake of good faith communication, I’ve included the original review I wrote with a couple small edits. Read it after the jump.

The Gutter of Gutters

Damn, ma’s not lettin’ anyone forget just how gutter the city she comes from is. Best to put the kids to bed before this one.

In "Kingston Logic," Terry Lynn’s first single, released on Phree, she tells a story about her hometown, the capital of Jamaica, that covers violence, murder, drugs, and everything in between. On first listen, you might mistake the lyrics for a pop song. But the hard ass, grimy electro beats will give you your first clue to the object of this dark tale. The video might help you visualize thing too. (Just a bit…)

On her website, she says the violent imagery she produces is not meant to glorify, but is just an attempt to paint an accurate portrait, and I find this legitimate. Besides, who wants a collection of nothing but Prozac music. She even says her full album, scheduled to be released this spring, will make an attempt at a broader range of subject matter. Lynn says the search for peace is what inspires her to make music. and some of her blog posts concerning the violence raging in her hood make me more likely to believe her. (At the same time, the posts could just serve to strengthen her rep in an industry where street credibility is more important than talent.)

But I still take issue with the first person story telling; all of the images of her holding weapons and what not. Why’s every artist gotta put themselves in the role of the gangsta? Why not tell a story about someone else doin’ the dirtiness?

She’s also going to be eventually posting free downloads on her web site. "I know what it’s like to want something and can’t afford it. I’ve been there, am there. Support me if you can." That sounds like a good thing to me. I can dig that.

Its owner may be the first black man to own a store on the area’s major thoroughfare, 125th.

Dude opened his store "before R & B music got its name".

Sounds like the type of thing the Landmarks Preservation Commission should be paying attention to.

<via the NYTimes>

The study did note, however, that music heads and the "Internet cognoscenti", as the report called the web savvy, search for music in a different manner.

And a couple of new studies might help to shed a little light on this part of the population.

A recent non-scientific survey of users of the blog aggregator Hype Machine found that, like the first report, friends still played a large role in discovering music for Hype Machine users. But friends were only the runner up as a source of music, not the prime source. Online editorials were the go-to place for Hype Machine users.

But one of the readers was a little peturbed that the study didn’t include radio as one of the multiple choice options for sources of new music. A total of 7.6 users wrote this alternative into the "other" category.

Entertainment Media Research also just recently published(pdf) a study of digital music consumption in the UK. (Net, Blogs and Rock’n'Roll caught this one.)

In this online study of 1,700 people, MySpace ranks as the most important web site for music, with YouTube coming in second. More importantly, perhaps, is that 10 percent of respondents said the social networking sites have led to purchases. This is surely to increase now that musicians are able to sell MP3’s directly through their MySpace profiles. And it’s just in time: nearly half said it needs to be easier to buy music from the sites.

Regardless of their popularity, two-fifths agree with the statement that the networking sites "are full of idiots nowadays". Yes, they really asked that question. So scientific.

It just so happens that the mashup artist Girl Talk lives in the district of a congressman who sits on the Committee that deals with the issues surrounding music copyright. The politico has been using Girl Talk’s music as an example of why using other people’s music to create your own should be considered a valid form of art in the eyes of the law.

Newsweek recently had the Congressman, Mike Doyle, sit down over lunch with the man who is Girl Talk, Gregg Gillis, and talk about what kind of laws could be passed that would allow artists like him to thrive. (Girl Talk’s music has been pulled from eMusic and iTunes over legal concerns.)

A Mash-Up Relief bill… classic.

(In order to compare iTunes to the more traditional outlets, NPD counted each 12 tracks sold on iTunes as the equivalent of an album sold elsewhere.)

With iTunes commanding so many sales, it may put more pressure on Apple to allow those songs to be played with competing technologies. European regulators are already trying to force the company to do so. The vast majority of iTunes music can only be played on the iPod or on iTunes. But Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, recently blamed this on the technical difficulties of adding copyright protections to those songs, which most of the music labels demand.

Mum’s 2000 self titled album was heavily funk influenced and more rhythmic than its more recent spacey, chill out stuff. The shining achievement on this album is the first song; “Zero Gravity,” the song remixed here. Coming with a tuff hip hop structure, it was perfect for the sample play of mashing up an Obama speech with music.

He chose Obama because of the ease of access to MP3s of his speeches (and because the bar he worked at was throwing a fund raiser for him.)

So, enjoy. It’s not bang you over the head with his political views or anything. It’s still unfinished, he only finished one "verse,"so the second half of it is just the original "Zero Gravity" song.

Design Observer - Via Core 77

Oh, and on the subject of intellectual property: possible changes in patent law around the corner. According to the Wall Street Journal, the federal government’s aim is to make patents harder to get and easier to challenge in an attempt to help spread ideas throughout society.

The changes come in the wake of recent lawsuits like that of Microsoft vs. Alcatel-Lucent. In that case, a judge ordered Microsoft to pay $1.52 billion dollars for its use of the MP3. Yeah, the MP3. Apparently, Microsoft licensed the technology from a different organization, but Alcatel claimed they had a part in developing it, and thus deserved a cut. Now other companies that use MP3s are at risk of similar suits.

Waiting intently in the silence of a dark abandoned operating room, lightning finally strikes and brings alive “Peroxide” with a burst of electric decadence.

Flykkiller, made up of Stephen Hilton and Pati Lang, manage to invoke the recent nostalgia of a benchmark song, and then take into into a new, more wounded realm and claim it as their own. I can’t understand most of what Lang’s saying, but her delivery and voice are on point.

Peroxide just dropped yesterday, and is available for purchase on the group’s MySpace profile.

In Lang’s own words: “I grew up on the ashes of communism, as the iron curtain was falling down, we, the kids all just stood there trying to make sense out of it. Every day in the past two decades was absolutely incredible. Nothing was certain. Everything had to be redefined - from law, censorship, access to information, music and films, to the basic human relations - it takes people time to learn not be sickly suspicious of one another, get rid of the paranoia.”

Don’t read? Watch this video from Consumers Union. The “big media tower” is creepy as hell with its lord of the rings floating eye.