Midweek Newsletter: The Roots make a statement, Russell Simmons returns to Occupy Wall Street and more

Solve all your problems by giving me money!

Russell Simmons is a hip hop legend. This does not and should not make him immune to criticism. Mr Simmons is also worth an estimated $340 million, so it’s pretty safe to say that he is not part of the 99%! It’s his money and he can do what he likes with it. However, Mr Simmons has stated that he would support paying more taxes. The problem with increased taxation in my opinion, is that it would have a crippling effect on the middle classes and small businesses, simply because after taxes their would not be enough money going around to spend frequently. The consumer would be forced to save money and spend wisely.

Anyway, yesterday Russell said that he is planning an

Hip Hop & The Alcohol Industry

Alcoholic beverage corporations are some of the biggest sponsors within hip hop.

We’re all familiar with brands such as Cristal because of Biggie and Raekwon, just as Courvoiser saw sales of their product spike after the hit record Pass The Courvoisier Pt 2.

Like it or not, rappers are very influential – even President Obama can attest to that.

Are Universal Music Group breaking competition laws with Lady Gaga: Born This Way?

“Your single was 99 cents, mines was 4 bucks” – Jay-Z: Imaginary Player

Amazon & Interscope had reached an agreement to sell Lady Gaga’s latest album- Born This Way, for 99 cents.

The album has moved around 1. million units in it’s first week of release. The average price of a digital album on Amazon is around $10.

The pricing tactic was a strategic form of marketing called

Death of the Mixtape

The mixtape was originally a compilation of songs from different artists. Mixtapes wern’t exclusive to just the hip hop community. They were also popular with the House music and indie rock subcultures since the 1970’s.

They were substantially cheaper than albums, but often contained more tracks then the