One word, phenomenal. That’s just about the only word I can think of that would best describe my first time being at a real live concert this past Tuesday, the best hip-hop concert in Oakland. Read more...

How has hip hop in the bay area evolved? Back when I was in middle school the only artist getting played in the bay were Keak da sneak, too short and E-40. A song that I remember the most that played at that time was “Tell me when to go” by E-40. Read more...

The Remix Your Life Project: Changing the way we see ourselves, our community and each other.

From humble beginnings as a once a week Gender Specific Support Group, the Remix Your Life Project (RYL) has blossomed into a three day a week project engaging the young people of Youth Radio in the “remixing” of societal issues with regard to race, gender and class through critical analysis/discussion, cathartic poetry and song writing, and the recording, mixing and mastering of their own media content.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court began discussing Mortal Kombat. That’s right. The court is hearing arguments to determine the constitutionality of California’s ban on the sale of violent video games to minors, in a case called Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vs. Entertainment Merchants Association.

A violent video game is defined in the ban as one that protrays, "killing, maiming, dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being," in a way that is "patently offensive," appeals to a, "deviant or morbid interest" and lacks "serious, literary, artistic, political, or scientific value."  Anyone caught selling a violent game to a minor would be charged a fine of $1,000.

The video game industry argued that new media is often the target of restrictive laws, including comic books in the 1800s and movies in the 1900s. 

Proponents of the ban, including California State Senator Leland Yee who helped pass the legislation, contend that video games are different than other forms of media, and used the game Postal 2 as a central example of a game where players maim and kill digital figures. According to NPR, the state argued that since the Supreme Court made an exception to the First Amendment 50 years ago to ban the sale of sexually exlicit material, then it should also ban the sale of violent video games today.

California Deputy Attorney General Zackery Morazzini brought in studies that showed kids who played certain games were desensitized to violence. Senator Yee stated that the techniques used in violent video games to kill bad guys are the same used to train military and police officials to hunt down and kill criminals.

The Supreme Court Justices were skeptical, asking questions about whether a ban like this would eventually lead to banning books and movies as well. Justice Sonia Sotomayor is quoted in TSSZ News saying, “How is this any different than what we said we don’t do in the First Amendment field [....], where we said we don’t look at a category of speech and decide that some of it has low value?... We decide whether a category of speech has a historical tradition of being regulated.”

Morazzini said that violent Bible stories or gruesome fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel would not fall under the ban because "That material is not patently offensive... It doesn't appeal to a deviant interest, and it has serious literary, artistic and educational value."

I really enjoy watching movies. My favorite genres to watch are horror, action, and comedies. I like getting engaged into various stories and watching them change my mood. Movies have the tendency of affecting the way I feel at the moment depending on the story. Read more...

In the new media economy everyone has a different path to success and the very idea of what success is... is changing.

Hosts Noah Nelson (Youth Radio) and Brandon McFarland (alldayplay.fm) present a BRAND NEW limited series-- Maker's New Math-- about artists and media makers finding new paths to success. Featuring two interviews (Tuesdays and Thursdays) and one short episode (Wedensday) every week, Maker's New Math explores the world of the new creative class: musicians, podcasters, vloggers and more. Each interview focuses on the ways these media makers are funding their work and reaching new audiences.

Week One features:

Brandon and Noah break down what the series is all about in Episode Zero: Math Lesson.

Jesse Thorn of public radio's The Sound of Young America, on producing a radio show out of his L.A. apartment.

A short chat at this year's WonderCon with Satine Phoenix, comic book illustrator and former adult entertainment actress.

Donwill of hip-hop collective Tanya Morgan on creating unique merchandise to fund making music.

In future episodes we'll talk with geek troubador Jonathan Coulton, hip-hop blog darling Oddisee, vlogger and storyteller Molly McAleer, Fred Beneson of Kickstarter and more.

Hear how others are redefining success and finding happiness.

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From the outside looking in, the world of Korean Pop seems like the road not taken by Western pop culture. It’s like looking into an alternate reality, where N’SYNC and the Spice Girls became the template for every musical act and pop star. Multiplied times 1000.

Where do they find all these kids?

In the U.S. most aspiring singers get signed to a record label through connections and demos. But what if you don’t have money to record a demo or aren’t related to anyone in the music industry? Some aspiring stars post videos on YouTube of their singing, hoping someone will come across it and hand them a contract. Others take the longest of shots and set their sights on the guaranteed contracts offered up by American Idol.

American Idol- as most of us know- is the reality show where aspiring singers audition for a chance to gain a record deal. Each season there are thousands upon thousands of people waiting in line to audition. Just for a chance to get in front of the Idol judges and have them say “Hollywood” to go to the next round.

So these are the options for wannabees: A) have a connection, B) create your own fanbase, or C) try and impress Simon Cowell. In Korea there is an option D) All of the Above. Sort of. The path of an aspiring K-Pop star almost inevitably leads to one of the record companies known as the “Holy Trinity” (SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment and YG Entertainment).

What challenges does an aspiring K-Pop star face?

Chris Brown's first interview since he beat up Rihanna, will air this Wednesday night on Larry King Live. America is eager to hear from the R&B stars mouth exactly three things: "W! T! F!" Judging from a preview of the interview with the 20-year old Brown sandwiched between his mother Joyce Hawkins and lawyer Mark Geragos, it looks like he's not going to offer up any real explanation. We will get to hear exactly what type of emotional trauma from his childhood (which his mother should expound upon) led up to what his loved ones call "strange behavior".

But, honestly, who cares about that? The real question at hand is: can he come back from this devastating blow to his "good boy" image and maintain a career as an entertainer? Pop culture history gives us some examples to look at here.

Live from Berkeley Skate Park. Small children are brutally colliding with 18ft, 6 12” grown adults traveling at full speed and getting knocked out of their “tidy whities.” Skaters are complaining about parents letting there children stand in the middle of the skate park and pulling the wedgies from out theirs butt cracks. Just recently 17-year-old Sean Saggot ran into little 6-year-old Mosiah Stone. Stone was just standing at the bottom the quarter-pipe, minding his own business, playing with his tech deck. When Saggot came out of nowhere and started killing the skate park. He was traveling at about 25 mph, just flowing around the park. Read more...

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Even though the new Terminator: Salvation movie has a new director, McG, it fits in perfectly with its predecessors, offering a buffet of bullets and explosions. The movie takes place in the post "judgment day" (the day a super computer, Skynet, became self aware and started bombing humans, prophesized in the previous films) the year 2018. It opens with a scene of a prisoner, Marcus Wright, (Sam Worthington) deciding to donate his soon-to-be lethally injected body to science some time before "judgement day" and the full-blown war between humans and machines.