NO TRIVIA

August 28, 2012 – Chris Keating of Yeasayer's pooh-pooh-ing of popular R&B and electronic dance in a recent Rolling Stone interview, along with a misses-the-point mix of Nicki Minaj verses minus key sugar-rush hooks from AGF and Vladislav Delay (described as "chorus-free & mainstream-free" on their Soundcloud), are reminders that, despite all the jumping between genres that's happening right now, way too many musicians speak condescendingly of the very m

August 24, 2012 – ?uestlove of the Roots tweeted out this video of the late, great, J. Dilla last night. "Rare footage of #Dilla in Tdot," is all it said, with a link. The video is originally from 2003 and features footage of Dilla dropping his beats live in a club, and the kind of hagiography that's all but overwhelmed his reputation since his death in 2006.

August 23, 2012 – Last night, the music video for "Bitch Bad," Lupe Fiasco's muddled, mealy-mouthed missive about rap and misogyny was released. Directed by Gil Green — who is best known for ambitious mini-movie-like videos for DJ Khaled and friends and as such, is no stranger to the kind of objectification and thug-celebrating that Lupe's video attacks — the video stays close to Lupe's loaded, three-act storytelling rap.

August 22, 2012 – So, just like that, music writers have gone back to ignoring the Insane Clown Posse? There was window of time there — which seemed to hit its peak with "Miracles" — where it was cool to condescend to the duo, play armchair Jim Goad, and project some thoughts about the white underclass onto their music. But, no more.

August 21, 2012 – This morning, when Google Play's music section offered a free download of Busta Rhymes' new album, Year of the Dragon, Google awkwardly wandered into a lane previously occupied by sketchy mixtape-hosting websites like DatPiff and LiveMixtapes. Year of the Dragon is a free download, though you still need to provide your credit card information to download it.

August 20, 2012 – Last month, Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar began tweeting at one another. On July 4th, Gaga directed a tweet at Lamar that said, "What a sweetie calling me this morning to see how I'm doin. See you soon. Love from across the pond. #Rigamortis." A follower then asked Gaga, "Are all of your fans gonna jump on him now?," to which Gaga answered, "I hope so. He and his lyrics are the shit." And so, Gaga became a hip-hop tastemaker.