By Josh Chamberlain – Village Voice

In 2001, longtime hardcore reggae fan Hidetsugo Haji faced a dilemma. He wanted to be a part of the “real thing,” but he lived in Japan, which lacked some basic pieces: a ghetto, for example, and the everyday struggles that come with such blatant economic disparity, not to mention the extraordinary opportunity to look such inequality in the face and overcome it. But thanks to dancehall reggae’s vibrant cassette-tape circuit, buoyed by live dancehall sessions and soundclashes between famous sound systems like Stone Love, Bass Odyssey, and Killamanjaro, he knew where to go. [Read More]

By Leo Standora – Daily News

ABoston Universitygrad student was ordered to pay four record labels $675,000 Friday for illegally downloading and sharing songs on the Internet – but he’s not singing the blues.

“I’m disappointed, but I’m thankful it wasn’t millions,” saidJoel Tenenbaum, a 25-year-old doctoral student in physics. “To me it sends a message of ‘We considered your side with some legitimacy.'”

If the verdict stands after a planned appeal, Tenenbaum said he’ll file for bankruptcy to cut his losses.
[Read More]

By EV Grieve-NY Press

According to some photos posted on EV Grieve, the former Mondo Kim’s spot in the East Village will become a new karaoke joint. What with the expansion of UCB into the EV, frat boys are going to have more and more places to spend their time. Oh, East Village,will you ever be able to survive this?

By Melena Ryzik-NY Times

LAST Sunday, under a slowly revolving disco ball, a dance floor in Brooklyn was jumping. The German D.J. Losoul spun techno and house, and the crowd — many in it wearing sunglasses — moved, two-stepping and twirling with arms raised. Toward the end of the party, when he let a single beat crescendo for several minutes before abruptly cutting it off, the crowd cheered — and then booed. The fun was nearly over, and it was barely 9 p.m. [Read More]

By Ben Sisario-NY Times  

LAST summer a sad but hopeful question made its way through Brooklyn: Where will the Pool Parties go?

It was the third year of concerts in McCarren Park Pool, the disused 1930s public swimming hole on the Williamsburg-Greenpoint border, and they had begun to feel like an institution. Each Sunday afternoon the shows drew thousands of the young and fashionably dressed, yet the buzz-kill of mortality hung over them: McCarren was destined to become a real pool again, so the parties needed to find a new home. But where? [Read More]

By Debra Alban-CNN

Michael Jackson was an international superstar, and many in the black community herald him for breaking down racial barriers in the music industry.
Michael Jackson was one of the first black global superstars.

“Michael Jackson made culture accept a person of color way before Tiger Woods, way before Oprah Winfrey, way before Barack Obama,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton. “Michael did with music what they later did in sports and in politics and in television. And no controversy will erase the historic impact.” [Read More]

By Richard Perez-Pena-NewYork Times

Vibe, one of the nation’s leading popular music magazines, is closing immediately, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Word was broken early this afternoon by the Web site dailyfinance.com and spread to other music and media news sites. The spokeswoman, Tracy Nguyen, said the Vibe staff would be formally notified in a meeting at 2 p.m. She said she did not know how many people would be laid off as a result of the closure. [Read More]

By Sarah Stern –NewYork Press

Brooklyn Vegan is reporting that Studio B is set to close by the end of July. The Greenpoint club, located at 259 Banker St., has already switched management once this year, opening a rowdy rooftop area that has angered sleepy neighbors. News of the closing of the popular venue has sparked a venomous exchange online, as commenters search for someone to blame for the demise. [Read More]