News: DJ Shadow's Latest Journal Entry...

The man who cemented his spot in Hip-Hop history with the creation of his debut release "Endtroducing", which is widely considered a classic and the "grand daddy" of instrumental Hip-Hop LP's, has released a statement speaking to his fans and music people alike...

In this latest rant from the record diggin' mad man Shadow breaks down his views on what's next to come for musicians in the future in great detail...

Sorry, I gave Kanye a moment to issue his remarks for the new year, now it's time to listen to a man who albeit is less known nowadays, but whom I respect much more...It's interesting to hear his views on exactly why this whole thing is falling apart; the internet, the lack of compensation for artist's, record stores and studios evaporating...everything he states makes sense and it's kinda frightening to think how much further we might fall.

-BIG D O




Shadow:

Well, here we are again, another year, another decade. Optimism about the future is tempered with a nagging sense that underlying factors causing most of the misery in the world still exist. Lucky, then, that I’m a musician and not a politician.

Specifically, when it comes to the wallet, everyone’s suffering…of that there can be no doubt. And what of the financial prospects for musicians and recording artists in the years to come? Shaky, at best. Unless you’re one of the grotesque ‘Idol’-type pop disasters in the top 5, you’re looking at getting a day job or finding other sources of income. Conventional wisdom amongst my peers has been remarkably short-sided over the last decade: “Yeah, CD sales are down, but all the money is in licensing.” Not anymore. “Yeah, licensing money is down, but the video game industry is killing it.” Less so these days, according to recent data. “Well, the real money is in touring.” Really? When was the last time you saw a ‘new,’ post-record company artist headline a major music festival? At this rate, we’ll be stuck with Coldplay for decades (no offense intended).

Time for a little straight talk, from one reasonably intelligent human being to YOU, the reasonably intelligent reader. As distasteful as it may sound, the fact is that so many of our heroes: Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, The Beatles, whoever you care to name; generated much of their best art in return for financial compensation. If you take away the compensation, guess what…the art stops. For example, how many young rap artists are grinding away these days in New York, trying to get a deal? Not too many, certainly compared to the ‘80s and ‘90s. There’s no allure, no pot at the end of the rainbow. People have been asking for years now, “Where’s the next Nas, the next Jay-Z?” Be prepared to keep waiting…and for music, overall, to keep sucking. Why? Because only bottom-of-the-barrel, embarrassing pop tripe generates enough income to feed the machine. Anything unproven or risky? Nobody’s going to bankroll that kind of ‘experiment.’

Read the rest here