The Blog of an African NERD

Naija Boyz are at it again

LaDainian Tomlinson and Troy Polamalu Nike ad

Am really loving this ad. However it is what happened after watching the ad that bugged me out a bit. I knew I had heard the music from somewhere, which immediately brought be back to the song “Blueprint 2” by Jay-Z. I was quite curious who the original composer was as it was apparent this was a sampled beat, which lead me to Wikipedia, which then led me to Amazon.com mp3 store to purchase the original composition among others. All this within 5 mins after the commercial was played, synced to the iPhone and ready for listening while cruising down the highway. It is really amazing how everything thing is coming together in the digital age.

Maybach Music ringtone

While I was leaving NYC from the iPhone Madness last week, around the Holland tunnel area, I think I may have spotted Jay-Z’s Maybach. Of course you can’t see him cause the curtains are drawn and yeah they are perfectly like a Picasso painting. For real, press the play button on the Image above. Rumor has it that he has a house in this area and I had seen him in some paparazzi picture on theYBF entering what seemed to be a Brown Maybach. So off course the next thing down I-95 was listening to Maybach Music over and over and dreaming how I will move up from my 350 slk to a Maybach when am ready to be chauffeured around. By the time I got back to Maryland, it had to become a ringtone for my iPhone. Now here is the real sweet part about iPhoneRingToneMaker. I can actually make multiple versions of the same ringtone for my iPhone. So now I can choose if I want the chorus or that ridiculous verse he had on the song.

Trilla Album - No Cool and Dre, WTF?

How in the world did Criminal Mind not make it on the album. WTF are they smoking up in Def Jam? Listening to leaked snippet with Khaled Khaled is just painful. Listen by playing above. The instrumentals is just straight out of this world.

Cool and Dre on heavy rotation

Am really feeling the sounds of Cool and Dre these days. You don’t get to really appreciate the quality of their production with DJ Khaled screaming all that nonsense on every song.  If you download the actual instrumentals of the songs produced by the Miami duo, you really hear just how amazing their production is, which these days is becoming borderline Orchestral compositions.

Jay-Z: American Gangster

Unlike the uninspiring Kingdome Come, am actually kind of hyped about the new Album from Jay Z. Jay-Z got a chance personally screen the American Gangster Movie starring Denzel Washington. Word is that he got so inspired he went in the studio and knocked out 9 songs. This could be a classic in the making.

Bye Bye iTunes, Hello Amazon Music Store

For those of you like me, who are sick of Apple/iTunes drm hell, Amazon just announced a beta version of their DRM-Free Music Store. For the first time since the days of Napster, am actually excited about downloading music again. Learn more about it here.

A titanic shift in the music industry?

Some of you might have heard the rumor that Jay-z  is starting a new music Label with Apple and Steve Jobs. For the fun of discussing, lets just say it is true.

Just as online flight purchasing rendered the travel agent obsolete, sooner or later, online music purchase will render music stores obsolete and with iTunes already the 3rd music retailer, they are well poised to become the leader in this new realm.

From Apple’s perspective, this could be perfect timing because within 3-5 years, except about 100 million people to have iPods/iPhones which can wirelessly purchase music over the air. So, not only can the user purchase music from iTunes, but they can purchase on the go. With Apple owning a label it gives them the ultimate flexibility in how they expose you to artists and how they get you to buy. This is something they are extremely good at. However, the only problem is getting artists to go completely digital. Enter President Carter.

With Jay-Z running the label, you have someone with unmatched credibility and clout to not only convince new artists to go all digital but also bring in already established artists. If fact, I think this benefits the artists more for a few reasons. Apple does not care much about music sales. Their money is from selling these devices. For example, on the iPhone, Apple makes over $250 from every purchase. You get 10 million buyers every year and you are making a quarter of a billion per year. So with this, am assuming they will be willing to give artists better deals than current labels do which will even convince more artists to go digital.

So as strange as this may sound, this rumor actually makes sense. And if you think Jay-Z is not used to hanging out with people like Steve Jobs, take a look at this pic.

Partying with Jay-Z, Diddy, Nelly, Usher, Young Jeezy and Jermaine Dupri at TAO

A boring Friday afternoon was interrupted by a call from a client and close friend who told me to hop on the next flight to Vegas. Since am not into boxing, I had no clue just what the heck was about to happen. Well it was one hell of trip, with the highlight of going to the Jay-Z party at TAO which ended up being a mini-concert featuring Jay-Z, Diddy, Nelly, Usher, Young Jeezy and Jermaine Dupri with 50 cent making a guest appearance.  At one point it dawned on me that I was standing in front of 6 rappers whose total worth is well over half a billion dollars who were straight wild'n out and performing their own hit records. P Diddy was quick to remind us all that we were “seeing something historic”. Putting the whole experience to words is not even possible. However, I have some pics I took you can see here.

You can also see high quality pics here.

Damn, Why She Wanna Stick Me For My Paper?

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What do Michael Jordan, Niel Diamond and Steven Spielberg all have in common? They all made it on Forbes list of the top 10 most costly divorces; that is, their ex-wives are getting some major dough. Some Notorious BIG can be therapy for these guys( listen above), and like Kanye said, "when she leaves your ass, she goin to live with half", See the list here http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070413/people_nm/divorce_dc