Lyor Cohen gets paid. Lyor, who is responsible for developing artists ranging from the Beastie Boys to Ryan Adams just re-signed his deal with Warner Music Group for a 5 year deal and doubled his base salary to $3 million per year. Nice work. Plus, he gets bonuses if people actually buy music too that range from $1.5 million all the way up to $5 million. Cohen also will receive 1,500,000 stock options. I’m sure his expense account will also be somewhat huge - nice play, especially considering the sorry current state of the music industry as well as WMG stock being at it’s all time low.

Things are getting hectic in Tibet (not that they haven’t been for a long time). I just received this email from the Beastie Boys about the escalating situation:

17 March 2008

hey all,

hope you don’t mind me hitting you on the b-boys blast line, but things are really getting intense in tibet now. it’s coming to a head. i just hope that all of the suffering that the tibetan protesters are enduring leads to some positive change, hence this letter. we can push our governments to lean on the chinese government to stop the cultural genocide.

attached below is a news bulletin that i got this morning. if you are a US citizen please take the time to write to your local congress representative and ask them to get to work. if you are a citizen of another country, you can ask your government reps…

it would be sad if what is happening in tibet now had no constructive result.

thanks,
adam

Urgent Action: Tell your Congressional Representative to Support Tibet

In horrific late breaking news, Radio Free Asia is now reporting that up to 80 or more Tibetans have been killed in today’s violent clashes with Chinese military. Chinese authorities responded with brute force today to ongoing protests in Lhasa and across Tibet. Supported by tanks, thousands of armed troops have sealed off the three major monasteries where nonviolent protests were initiated on Monday. Chinese police have fired live ammunition into crowds of unarmed Tibetans and unconfirmed reports from eye-witnesses in Lhasa say that 26 Tibetans were gunned down outside Drapchi prison. While the international public and media have been appropriately horrified by China’s clampdown, the U.S. has made only very weak statements. White House Spokesman Tony Fratto said, “We believe Beijing needs to respect Tibetan culture. They need to respect multi-ethnicity in their society. We regret the tensions between ethnic groups and Beijing.”

Please contact your Congressional Representatives now and urge them to support Tibet by calling on the U.S Government to strongly condemn China’s actions.

FIND OUT WHO YOUR LOCAL MEMBER OF CONGRESS IS

TAKE ACTION
NY Times piece

I’m not big on competition in music, or enshrining artists’ feet in concrete, or bidding on eBay for locks of so and so’s hair - it just seems to defeat the purposes of free-reign creativity. And while I don’t think that rock ‘n’ roll ever needed a Hall of Fame, its nomination process and subsequent ballyhooing ceremony nevertheless persists every year with new inductees. I almost always marvel at the rad collaborations they acquire though, and almost cried when Elvis Costello was inducted a few years ago, so never mind me. For those interested, this year’s inductees include (get ready to feel old…):

Afrika Bambaataa, Beastie Boys, Chic, Leonard Cohen, The Dave Clark Five, Madonna, John Mellencamp, Donna Summer and The Ventures.

The official press release hits the wire on December 13th. We’d like to thank the Foundation for reminding us that we are no longer eligible to fight for our individual rights to party, and that living in a material world is indeed a thing of the past.

J Dilla-Make Em NV (Madlib Remix)

Rhymfest and Lil Jon? “He said to me, “I make music that makes people wanna fight.’ And I responded, “That’s great. I make music that makes people wanna fight for something.”

And lastly, Beastie Boys-Hey Ladies (CountBassD remix)