Entertainment
Will.I.Am's New Video/BlackBerry Ad Shows the Price of Stealing Music
Posted by Benny Goldman at 7:40 AM on August 8, 2008
Sure, Will.I.Am's "One More Chance" video looks like it was directed by RIM, what with it's huge BlackBerry billboard and a prominently featured Curve. But you know what? Everyone's gotta eat, and when we insist on BitTorrenting albums instead of buying them, we should expect this from musicians. Along with Jay-Z shilling beer and Bob Dylan peddling panties, Will found a way to continue making music in a climate of slumping record sales, and it only cost a little piece of his soul. Pirating music is the only choice for many of us today, whether it's out of convenience, cost, DRM or anything else, but we better be prepared to live with the consequence. BlackBerry ad down below. [CrackBerry]


Screw the
At the Rock the Bells festival on Sunday I asked some of the most important hip-hop artists in the game—and my heroes since childhood—what they hated most about the iPhone. Whether they owned it or not, most of the stars had a good reason to dis the overhyped phone, and their answers ranged from the mundane (Trugoy from De La Soul says it's "too cute") to the slightly crazy (dead prez's M-1 brought up the Matrix and Big Brother). Only Wu-Tang's Method Man couldn't find a way to bring the pain—we expect a new single, "F-A-N-B-O-Y Man", any day now.
I'm loving this trend of prominent and/or English rockers with ambient/prog tendencies laying down soundtracks for gadgets and software. Most famously we have Brian Eno composing the "
Tascam—last heard of here on Giz with a portable
There are a number of products out there that allow aspiring DJs to engage in mobile scratch sessions (like the recently released