Comments on: LA Times: Paid Dues Indie Hip-Hop Festival

By: Passion of the Weiss

Passion of the Weiss — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 04:42:34 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwM8ylfQeWY

I think this means Boosie is The Great Compromiser.

By: noz

noz — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 02:59:46 +0000

“Few things irk me more than the glut of critics self-righteously spitting at all things indie rap, while championing OJ Da Juice Man as the savior–as though there weren’t reams of photo negatives of them rocking backwards fitteds and Jansports.”

I think your enemy went extinct about eighteen months ago.

By: Passion of the Weiss

Passion of the Weiss — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:25:42 +0000

Yeah, it was a fair exchange. I’m hoping we can further the dialogue as well. Hopefully, will have something to relate on that front in the near future.

By: vZa

vZa — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:40:26 +0000

i wouldn’t consider Murs’ Twitter posts to be any more of a diss than your review of Paid Dues. you wrote a review expressing distate for the event and he tweeted about his distate for your review. seems like a fair exchange to me.

sounds like you need to sit down with Murs and hug it out.

By: Passion of the Weiss

Passion of the Weiss — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:50:15 +0000

No, I was referring to the general tenor of the event itself: offhand rapper comments, title, general vibe. I mean Murs is signed to Warner Bros after all. Like I said, not all the artists reflected that stance individually. It’s as much aesthetic as anything.

By: quan

quan — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 05:21:48 +0000

I think the “indie/real” grouping isn’t exactly right/accurate (kinda like my word choice here). I mean, you hear both Murs and Slug in interviews these days and they seem much more middling than the indie/real vs. corporate/mainstream/fake binary from the backpack doctrine. You don’t think the music reflects that new open-mindedness too?

By: Passion of the Weiss

Passion of the Weiss — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:32:18 +0000

@ Quan: I was there that year, at the Shrine, right? I honestly don’t think finding a venue is a problem. They’re having the Break Fest in May @ LA State Historic Park. I’m sure Paid Dues could do a similar thing if they wanted. You could have it at Barnsdall Park in Los Feliz, where they had the Arthur Fest. You could do it at Elysian Park. There’s tons of places. I mean this is 2009, people don’t riot at rap shows anymore.

Also, it was called “The Paid Dues Independent Hip-Hop Festival,” so the keeping it indie/real theme was in full force. Ali was the most vociferous in those sentiments, but it certainly was the most prominent thread uniting the acts.

@ Curt–Thank you very much.

By: Curt

Curt — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:46:45 +0000

excellent observations as always Weiss

By: quan

quan — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:35:49 +0000

I think the first year I went to Paid Dues (which mightve been its first year going on?), it was scheduled to be one place but then it got moved like a week before and caused mass confusion. The point being, I can imagine it being harder each year to get a venue with so many owners seemingly trying to disassociate themselves from hip-hop all the time and the police steady making up violations to shut shows down.

Onto another point, since when have those PD acts been spitting the same vague, anti-corporate backpack agenda as ’99? Most those acts you mention (Atmos, Ali, BluEx, Cage) seem more emo rap than keep-it-real rap. Wouldn’t emo rap being the progression you’re looking for?

By: Scott T. Sterling

Scott T. Sterling — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 22:59:29 +0000

Oh, dear…