Music Report

Ghostface Killah, fresh off of his Adult Swim-sponsored college campus tour, will be performing with Hip Hop legend Rakim on Friday 11/16 at the Nokia Theater in Times Square. Also opening is the baddest Albino MC to come out of Madison, Wisconsin by way of the Twin Cities, Bother Ali. Like many individuals with albinism, he is legally blind, but remains quite insightful in his lyrics. A nice bill overall.
http://www.defjam.com/site/artist_home.php?artist_id=485
http://www.myspace.com/rakim
http://www.myspace.com/brotherali

Another underappreciated Hip Hop group I’ve enjoyed for some time that hasn’t gotten much respect is 7L & Esoteric, who fashion themselves a throwback to the golden age of Hip Hop. Esoteric, the group’s MC, name drops everyone from Nickelback to Ken Jennings as part of his fairly complex verses. 7L has won the distinction of best DJ in Boston for two years running, for what that’s worth.
http://www.7l-esoteric.com/

In one of the best performances I have ever witnessed on a late night talk show, the French electro house duo Justice commissioned six impersonators of music greats to mock-perform their song D.A.N.C.E. on Jimmy Kimmel’s show. The real musicians, with the Frenchest names I’ve ever seen, Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay only appear at the end as the credits roll.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCjheCusIso

Lala.com is a newish online music service that formerly specialized in CD trading but is, this month, beginning to phase in some unique services. The first is the ability to upload your music to their service then listen to it over the web wherever you are. Then Lala will begin to offer the ability to stream any song in their collection a la the unlimited Rhapsody or Napster subscription services, but without a monthly fee. They are currently ironing out the details of this arrangement with the remaining two of the four major labels. Also, when you purchase many of the featured selections you’ll get the iPod download and physical CD of the music.
http://www.Lala.com

The list of songs that will be released with Rock Band has been posted by decade at IGN. They got mostly original masters as they hoped but not all.
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/830/830709p1.html

Paste magazine, an indie music publication that comes each month with a 20 song CD sampler, has jumped on the pick-your-price bandwagon allowing subscribers to sign up for a minimum of $1/yr. Without the element of devoted fans compensating artists for their craft, it’s hard to see how many would opt for more than the minimum. Then again the magazine industry’s reliance on ads revenue rather than subscriptions may make this a clever ploy.
https://sfsdata.com/PASTE/PAGNYOP.aspx?key=9ISO114

Finally, handsome, baritoned Emerald Nuts pitchman Robert Goulet passed away at age 73 while awaiting a lung transplant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.