Go behind the scenes of modern reality shows with Kennyboy’s Reality Movie, that’s now been officially released through the platform Vimeo On Demand.  

Reality Movie stars well-known actor Clifton Powell as “The Man.”  Powell’s television and movie career spans decades and includes award-winning titles, such as Murder, She Wrote, Army Wives, and Ray. Powell has been nominated for multiple awards and won Best Performance by an Actor from the American Black Film Festival for his work on the movie Civil Brand. Also starring with Powell are Monica Danger of VH1’s For the Love of Ray J and Tiffany Pollard, whose role on I Love New York earned her a nomination for a Teen Choice Award.

Kennyboy’s mockumentary tells the story of Metro, played by comedian Billy Sorrels, recently released from prison and anxious to get back to the real world. Metro ends up on a reality dating show on a network controlled by The Man and discovers the devious world behind the scenes of reality TV where big business hides behind small budgets. Rivalry between feuding networks sparks all-out war for top ratings as finalists are eliminated, some by questionable means.

Brought to you by the producers of Reality Roast and Ultimate Player, Kennyboy’s Reality Movie features a lineup of current female reality stars playing finalists who will do anything as they compete to be Metro’s ultimate choice. This parody follows Metro’s journey to find himself and true love in the midst of the seedy world of reality TV.

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A few weeks back in Atlanta, Georgia a team conducted a social experiment to gauge the treatment of homeless people in the area. Dressed as a vagrant, Dane hit the streets and witnessed first hand what it was like to be homeless. Check out the extremely humbling experience documented in the new music video “If I Make A Dollar” and be sure to download or stream his new EP “The Gift.”

The post New Video: Dane Lawrence – “If I Make A Dollar” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

It’s been a minute since we’ve last heard from Mrs. Jackson (if you’re nasty), who hasn’t dropped any new material since, 2008’s Discipline. But, fans will be glad to know that Janet Jackson just announced a 2015 world tour, as well as a new album. According to the video, which dropped earlier exclusively on Vimeo, Janet has been listening to fan requests for new music and stage performances. No word on when exactly this will all come about though, so stay tuned and check out the announcement below.

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“You Hear Chocolate”. If you can not comprehend that statement then you need to take a look into the world of Audible Chocolate. The dynamic-threesome-acoustic band , representing Brooklyn, consists of CheekiPowPow (vocalist) Lo Anderson (vocalist and guitarist) and Iymaani Abdul-Hamid (violinist). They have taken the NYC Mass Transit System by storm with their impromptu listening sessions for the thousands of people who commute everyday and they want you to understand that the cocoa, milky treat is not only meant for eating, you also can hear it too:

Directed by: Kearah-Armonie Filmed by: Tarik Smith

HERE’S ANOTHER AUDIBLE CHOCOLATE LISTENING TREAT. WATCH AS THE LADIES MESMERIZE THE CROWD WITH THEIR RENDITION OF BEYONCE’S “FLAWLESS” (WITH NYLA NINJA ROSE):

The post NEW DOCUMENTARY: SUBWAY CHRONICLES WITH THE SOULFUL LADIES OF “AUDIBLE CHOCOLATE” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

The Recording Industry Association of America is a powerful organization. As the primary outlet through which music sales are certified and tracked, it has the power to make or break careers. Yesterday, the RIAA announced that after a year of internally tuning its methodology for tracking music, its gold and platinum rankings will now include streaming services. This update had an immediate impact: over 30 singles were instantly propelled into the upper echelon of music sales, giving the songs some prestige and granting the artists some [more] visibility.

On one hand, this is a positive development that rewards the artists who circumnavigate the traditional outlets for selling and distributing their music by selling it on the internet. For these artists, the internet allows the gap between fan and artist to be dramatically shortened. Rather than forcing purchases to be mediated through a label, then then through a distributor, then through a wholesaler, then through a store and so on, the internet shortens the chain of mediation and strengthens the artist-fan link via hyperlink. How could that be a bad thing?

The issue with this “positive development” is that the internet is now one of the traditional outlets that it was formerly an alternative to. There certainly was a time where fans and artists were more closely interlinked (For some artists and fans, this is still the case), but at the collective level, the industry-wide level, this was a brief moment. As the vibrancy and potency of the internet was gradually realized, all of the mediating chains that existed outside of it were slowly absorbed into it. Labels, stores, wholesalers, distributors and all the other groups and individuals comprising the music industry weren’t out of the loop for very long. And now, after years of being back in the loop, the chain of mediation is just as long as it used to be.

Despite the professed power of the internet, it is clear that the-already-powerful reap the greatest benefit. For instance, even though Spotify is free, alongside all this free music are ads endorsing certain artists. Put more critically, these ads endorse the artists who can afford ads.

What does this all have to do with hip-hop?

Everything. For the artists who can’t afford ads and labels and publicists, i.e., most hip-hop artists, with the exception of Youtube (which has its own limitations), the streams that they use will simply flow into the vast ocean of the internet, probably to be forgotten forever. In other words, none of the artists who use Soundcloud, Datpiff, Bandcamp, Livemixtapes,Vimeo or their own blogs to release their music are counted in the new streaming update unless they also utilize the limited list of streams that the RIAA tracks (Note that many of these streaming services require artists to pay a fee to be hosted).

One could argue that perhaps hip-hop should just branch out and use more diverse sites, but that would just be a response to the RIAA rewarding artists with gold and platinum certifications, not a cause. Plus, other genres with large swaths of broke artists will feel similar effects.

In the end, though the RIAA is not the only organization tracking and publicizing the success of songs, its methods for tracking don’t affect all genres and artists equally, which can have big effects, like last year when Billboard’s change in method put Psy at the top of the rap charts for “Gangnam Style.” For the big hip-hop artists, this update to its methods is awesome, but for the smaller artists who are more vulnerable to the tides of the music industry, the RIAA is doing a grand disservice. As fans of hip-hop, a genre with an abundance of such vulnerable artists, we should celebrate cautiously, if at all.

The post Op-Ed: The Update to Gold and Platinum Standards is a Hollow Victory for Hip-Hop appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.