Posts Tagged ‘NY Times’

I would not consider myself to be a quote unquote real New York rapper. I don’t even like New York rappers. New York gave me hell for that ‘Purple Swag,’ man. They didn’t respect me until ‘Peso.’ It bring a tear to my eye to see native New York people give me my props because New York is stubborn and arrogant.

Rocky to the NY Times

So, essentially the Kanye West Foundation has officially closed up shop – but the NY Times makes it sound like a mysterious puzzle filled with unanswered questions and interesting money figures.  Says the NY Times:

Reached by phone, Joseph Collins (Executive Director) declined to comment. “You’d have to get in touch with Mr. West,” he said. Efforts to reach Mr. West failed, however. Mr. West’s agency, WME Entertainment, referred calls about the closing of the charity to the performer’s publicist, Gabriel Tesoriero, but Mr. Tesoriero did not respond to e-mail sent to the address the agency provided. Nor did a representative for Universal Music, where Mr. Tesoriero works, return a call. Michelynn Woodard, listed as the organization’s chairwoman, did not respond to e-mails or phone messages.

The charity filed tax forms as if it were a private foundation, but it does not appear to have been financed by Mr. West, instead raising the bulk of its money from companies and individuals with whom Mr. West does business.

In 2009, for instance, Madison Square Garden gave it $151,754, and the retailer Karmaloop donated $20,000. The previous year, the charity received contributions from the concert promoters Live Nation Music Group and Goldenvoice. The charity raised an average of $492,000 and made total grants averaging $18,080 in each of 2007, 2008 and 2009, the last year for which tax forms are available. Grant-making slowed drastically — in 2009, the charity made just $563 in grants – with the death of Mr. West’s mother, Donda West, in 2007 from complications of plastic surgery.

So now the obvious question is where did the rest of that annual grant money disappear to? Only discrepency I have with the article is the last bit where it says the grants in 2007, 2008 and 2009  were $18,080 (each year) – and then right below it, it says in 2009 it made $563 in grants.

The Roots’ daily gig as the house band for Late Night With Jimmy Fallon doesn’t keep them from playing huge shows in Prospect Park or DJ-ing in Williamsburg. Melena Ryzik reports. Pretty good profile piece on a day in the life of The Roots.

Via NY Times

Now Magnum is undertaking its first advertising campaign, a print, online and radio effort called the Magnum Live Large Project, which features Ludacris. Print ads will have their premieres in the May issues of Vibe and XXL, and in the June issue of The Source.

At the center of the campaign is a contest, where participants go to MagnumLiveLarge.com to download base tracks, then record their own Magnum-themed lyrics and upload their entries. Visitors to the site will vote for their favorites, with the winner receiving $5,000 and a trip to Birthday Bash, a hip-hop festival on June 19 in Atlanta. At the show, the winner will be brought onstage by Ludacris and congratulated.

“We’re not looking for jingles, or for people to make a commercial for Magnum,” said Julian Long, a consultant for Colangelo Synergy Marketing in Darien, Conn., which created the ads and contest. “We want to give core consumers the opportunity to be involved.”

While rappers usually evoke the large condoms to imply a physical attribute, Mr. Long said that was not the point of the contest. “We’re looking for songs that encompass the Magnum lifestyle and what it means to live large — not just the size of the condom or what it’s put on but what it means to live large across the board,” Mr. Long said. “We’re saying, ‘You know how to handle your business and we want to give you an opportunity to celebrate that level of understanding.’ ”

Full Article Here

At least it’s better than Wayne’s ‘Strapped’ campaign.