Author: JD
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“To dream anything that you want to dream… That’s the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do… That is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself to test your limits… That is the courage to succeed.” -Bernard Edmonds
Kanye Calls YouTube Ugly; Says He’s Fighting Against Dumbing Down Of Culture
I ACTUALLY LOVE WHAT KANYE IS DOING, Kanye held an impromptu listening session for fans and media persons at Art Basel in Switzerland yesterday where he played a few tracks fromYeezus, performed a ‘New Slaves’ a capella and gave one of his lively speeches. One of the highlights of the speech was ‘Ye calling out the most used video (and audio) player on the internet by terming it “ugly” and “presented in a terrible manner”. [I hate YouTube because] the player is so ugly, and it’s presented in such a terrible manner. I want everything I do to be presented in an art context, as this is a form of sonic art. I was an artist originally, I have been in art school since I was 5 years old. I got scholarships to three art schools, Art Institute of Chicago, Saint Xavier, and the American Academy of Art, where I ended up going—and I dropped out because I had an assignment where I was supposed to do an ink painting or something, and I would take two weeks to do it, and when I looked at my work, I just felt that I would never be one of the great visual artists of the world. I just felt like I would end up like—and this is no knock to anybody that does this—but I felt like I would end up working at an ad agency or something like that. I wanted to make something of impact. I found that when I would drop samples, my friends would react to it more. I felt that I had a real talent in chopping and appropriating music.” Kanye also passionately spoke about his constant fight against dumbing down of culture. “Right now it’s a fight against the separation and constant dumbing-down of culture, and I’m standing in the middle of it. So if you know what people say are my lowest moments, those moments where I sat and saw them try to dumb down culture, and I would not allow it to happen on my clock. [Applause] “So when I used to go to fashion shows with my boys and we’d be eight deep, it was almost like a civil rights, like a sit-in. They wouldn’t even let us in. They had no idea what rap would mean to this world, what rap would mean to the art world. Before the Kendrick Lamars and the A$AP Rockys, it was Kanye West in a hotel room at the Le Maurice getting a ‘No, no, no, no’ to every single fashion show.”
New Myspace Officially Launches, Moves Out of Beta, Adds Mobile App
ITS SO FUNNY SEEING THESE COMPANIES,NOW SAY THINGS LIKE ,WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD,LANGUAGE WE’VE BEEN USING HERE AT GLOBAL14 SINCE DAY 1 The new Myspace officially launched today as its rebuilt platform moves out of beta and adds a new mobile app. Starting today, the new Myspace is officially available at www.myspace.com.Profiles from the classic Myspace have been upgraded to the new platform so members can log in using their Classic Myspace, Facebook, or Twitter accounts to access their content. Justin Timberlake, Myspace Owners Discuss New Relaunch According to Myspace, the new platform is “designed to showcase creativity, foster collaboration, and promote discovery” and boasts access to some 53 million songs, which the company claims is the “world’s largest digital music library.” Myspace’s mobile platform for iOS Myspace is also launching a new app for Apple’s iOS (available here) to enhance its desktop experience, as well as a mobile browser version for other mobile operating systems. The mobile app features a GIF Creator tool that can produce and share animated GIFs. The app also allows members to access Myspace’s Discover feature and the MyRadio feature which allows people to create and program their own radio stations, which can be streamed for free on an unlimited basis and have a social component. Why Tim Vanderhook Paid $35 Mil for MySpace (Q&A) The new platform also features Insights, an analytics tool that offers artists visualized data reports with metrics on their audience, influential fans and trending analysis.
Yahoo Vacs Up Yet Another Startup — Rondee, a Conference Calling Service — And Shuts It Down
Yahoo bought its second company in one day, purchasing enterprise conference call service Rondee after it announced the acquisition of GhostBird Software, an Apple iOS photo app creator, for its Flickr team earlier today. Rondee’s staff will join Yahoo’s Small Business unit, which the company had once considered shutting down. (Every Yahoo division, please line up for your gift of a tiny startup from CEO Marissa Mayer!) According to a post on Rondee’s website, it will start the shutdown of the service and the transfer of its clients to InstantConference by the end of July. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Rondee was founded in 2006.
IOS7 X GLOBAL14
SO WE JUST DOWNLOADED THE NEW IOS 7 OVER HERE AT G14 AND ITS PRETTY FUCKING DOPE!!! BUT IT LOOKS ALOT LIKE A SAMSUNG AND ITS GOT A FEW BLACK BERRY FEATURES,BOUT TO CHECK OUT THIS IRADIO
Profile: Mishon
For four seasons America tuned in to Lincoln Heights to see the ups and downs of a middle class black family. Within that family was a young man with undeniable talent named Taylor Sutton, portrayed by Mishon Ratliff. A budding R&B singer, Mishon has since traded in his childhood acting days to take on the music industry. Armed with a new deal with Columbia Records and Jermaine Dupri as his executive producer, Mishon recently sat down with us at a press junket at So So Def studios to let the world know how he is bringing real music back to a young generation. The room is filled with press, with writers from from AllHipHop.com, Sister 2 Sister Magazine, The Associated Press and more in the building. Legendary producer/executive Jermaine Dupri sits at the mixing console, while Grammy Award-winning producer Bryan Michael Cox paces around the studio on what seems to be a very important phone call. Then there’s Mishon. He is much taller than Lincoln Heights fans remember Tae Sutton; Mishon stands off to the side with a look of confidence and anxiousness. He has just spent a week working with Dupri and Cox on his Columbia Records debut. Together they played five records that not only showed the vocal prowess of Mishon, but also showed that he could successfully pull off mature content far beyond his 20 years on earth. Speaking on being paired with Mishon, Jermaine Dupri realized how bad he truly wanted to work with the singer after completing their second song. According to Bryan Michael Cox, “[Mishon is] somebody special. After we did the first song, [Jermaine] pulled me to the side and was like ‘Yo! The lil n**** can sing…yo we could do his whole album.’” It was quite obvious that Columbia Records felt the same way, as they’ve tapped Dupri to be the executive producer of the project. As for Jermaine Dupri, he truly believes that Mishon will bridge the gap between the older and younger generations of R&B fans. His content and voice bring nostalgic feelings of R&B’s glory days, but they don’t sound dated. Mishon himself beams at the idea of working with Jermaine Dupri and Bryan Michael Cox. During the junket he could barely contain himself. He was dancing around the studio during the playing of the songs, and singing as loudly as he could. When you speak to Mishon, you’re not speaking to the typical artist of today. You’re speaking to a musician, who truly appreciates the crafts of singing, songwriting and producing. Mishon has a mission to have R&B taken seriously in the mainstream once again without compromising the art. Armed with weapons like Jermaine Dupri and Bryan Michael Cox, I’d say the mission is definitely possible. – Nick Eden
MEXTURES
DOPE !!!IM BOUT TO GET THIS NOW While most of these are just a refactoring of the same tired ideas, Mextures ($1) does things differently. Like a lot of camera apps, it includes a library of original textures, including gradients, grunge, light filters, and film scans (70 in total). Unlike other camera apps, it allows you to combine different textures on separate layers, using blending and opacity to create an original style. Once you’re happy with your combination, you can save it as a formula to reuse as much as you like.