Entertainment Industry

This is a brilliant piece by Bob Lefsetz:

Forget the money. You’ll never make as much as a banker.

What artists want today is power.

Forget the circle jerk of appearing at SXSW. That’s just preaching to the converted. People who are at the tail end of the dog, yes, the government and the rich are wagging the artists and most don’t even realize it.

Scratch an artist and he’ll complain. About the hoi polloi ripping him off. There’s very little rhetoric about the government, bankers or the rich, there’s just constant rabble-rousing against their brethren. It’s loser upon loser crime. With an occasional stab against the record labels, as if they owed musicians a life. With a twisted turn towards Live Nation, as if Ticketmaster is responsible for all the world’s problems.

I’ll clue you in on something. The executives at the record labels and Live Nation are smarter than the artists. They realize we live in a country of winners and losers and they don’t want to end up with the short end of the stick. Ergo 360 deals and platinum packages and all kinds of ways to make the executives rich.

But none of them are as rich as the bankers. Continue Reading…

Many of today’s singers and rapper think they are true artists (going as far as to claim they are the greatest), yet time and time again they perform with prerecorded track vocals. Don’t believe me.. Ask Jay Z or 50 Cent.

That’s exactly why Jeremih was recently pelted with drinks, during the pop singer’s spring break performance in Texas. It’s evident the crowd wasn’t in the mood for a lip sync act — but, what did they really expect?

Here’s what Jeremih had to say about the incident: Continue Reading…

I love these guys music, they are legends in black music! I am sad to hear their story of being screwed over, but it illustrates exactly what I try to reflect about the industry here on HSK.

So do you still want to be an entertainer?

The Chambers Brothers is a soul-music group, best known for its 1968 hit record, the 11-minute long song “Time Has Come Today”. The group was part of the wave of new music that integrated American blues and gospel traditions with modern psychedelic and rock elements. Based on their Southern roots, the brothers brought a raw authenticity to their recordings and live performances that was missing from many other acts of that era. Their music has been kept alive through heavy use in film soundtracks. Continue Reading…

Hey Jacky,

I don’t know if you’re aware of, or have done a story on Sophia Stewart, but she is the Black woman who is dubbed the Mother of the Matrix. She is the one who actually wrote both movies The Matrix, and The Terminator.

When I first heard about her, I heard how she was shopping her screenplay around Hollywood, and the Wachowski brothers got their hands on it, and penned it as their own.

She eventually many years later, got them in court and won, but not full compensation, or accolades. Hollywood still refuse to give her due recognition.

On her website (Truth About Matrix) she has all of the legal and trademark documents to share with the world to validate what she is saying.

Let it be known Jacky. Thanks, she needs all of the support she can get.

Jacky’s Answer Here

MSNBC talk show host Melissa Harris-Perry, viewed the movie “The Help” and guess what — After viewing the film, professor Perry said she needed worker’s compensation. Don’t believe me.. Ask Lawrence O’Donnell.

Here’s what Professor Melissa Harris-Perry had to say:

“This is not a movie about the lives of black women. The movie is a stereotypical, white-washed depiction of the Old South’s Jim Crow era. It’s deeply troubling… it was rape, it was lynching, it was the burning of communities. Continue Reading…

During Clive Davis’ speech at the Whitney Houston funeral services, the music mogul promoted his soon-to-be released products. Don’t believe me.. Ask Marvin Winans.

Here’s the line in Clive Davis’ speech where he marketed a deceased Whitney Houston:

” Whitney said she’d be ready to return to the stage by August.
Whitney, I’m going to hold you to it.” Continue Reading…

The film studios pulled all of Whitney Houston’s movies, from Netflix immediately after she died on Saturday February 11, allegedly to goose DVD sales.

Gawker is reporting that:

Google Plus Week host Dan McDermott noticed that The Bodyguard had been pulled from Netflix right after Houston’s death.

So I called Netflx and the rep confirmed what I suspected: Continue Reading…