Bling47 and Waajeed of PPP take us along during a recent trip to Dubai as he talks about the importance of keeping Detroit in his music and the creation of the latest PPP single single "On A Cloud".  He also gives us a nice breakdown of the creation and musical structure of the track along with bonus cameos by DJ Spinna & Invincible.

Here’s your chance to have an official label release.  Ubiquity Records is holding a contest to see who can provide the best remix of PPP’s single "On A Cloud". 

Winner will receive:

• Remix officially released on an upcoming PPP single
• Ubiquity prize pack including: t-shirts, music, accessories and more.

The deadline is deadline for entires is August 20th, 2008 at 11:59p.m. PST., so head over to the Ubiquity records contest site to read the rules, download the accapella, and get to work crafting your master remix. 

Remember, Waajeed is the producer behind PPP, so you’d better come correct and bring the heat!

Karma Loop sat down with Pete Rock to discuss early projects, the difference with Hip-Hop in the ’90’s vs. current times, and preferred artists to work with.  Pete also talks about working with Biggie, touches on Kanye’s open references to his style, and tells a story about Tupac spitting spitballs in an Oakland Denny’s.

Since 2004 inventor Thierry Alari has been working to turn the DJ world upside down by creating a portable all-in-one scratch instrument capable of being played while walking, standing, or sitting.    At first glance, the Scratchophone looks like a cross between a hand drum and turntable, but upon further inspection it’s quickly revealed to be much, much more. 

Scratch musicians are able to comfortably perform on stage thanks to stable tracking provided by a hanging micro tonearm, adjustable crossfader wrist position (+/- 15°), and the inclusion of turntable start/stop mechanism w/ adjustable pitch.  While needing only a reliable power source, vinyl, and a skilled turntablist, the Scratchophone delivers a near complete portable scratch experience utilizing components from a Stanton TT500 direct drive turntable, Vestax VMC-002xLu mixer, and Eclectic Breaks Pro X Fade Crossfader. 

Still only a prototype, version 1.0 has an expected date of September ‘08 with plans to make available "empty" Scratchophone cases for those wishing to implement their own customized setup.

See the Scratchophone website for more info and check out the video of Grand Wizard Theodore and DJ Fade Wizard performing a live demonstration.

During an interview at WKCR’s Squeeze Radio, Damu and Insight of Y Society talk about their releases Travel At Your Own Pace and the free instrumental download Sparetime.  Insight goes on to speak about previous work, meeting Damu (who handed him 4 CD’s of beats!), completing both Y Society albums in a matter of weeks, and the importance of passion and being prolific as an artist.

Self learning producers & engineers attempting to train their ears from home now have additional options.  Auricula Software has developed a set of 5 plugins designed to help develop and train ears in concepts of EQ, time delay, gain change, and stereo field.

Unlike other traditional audio courses, rather than have users access a library of sounds, Auricula plugins work with audio files provided by the user and automatically manipulate sounds.  After a change has been applied to the audio, the user is then presented with a quiz about what specifically was done.

Unfortunately, at this moment, the plug-ins are only available for Mac OS 10.4 or higher.  However, with each plug-in costing a measly $1.99 or $8.99 for a complete bundle, the lack of cross system compatibility can easily be forgiven.

See the Auricula for more info.

Polow Da Don and Bangladesh discuss motivation and getting involved in production at a T-Pain party in Beverly Hills.  Also features a cameo appearance by David Banner.

Before being a master of the boards, he was a beast behind the turntables!  Here’s early 1990’s footage of T.I. producer DJ Toomp at an Earwax Records DJ battle where he ended up being one of the co-winners.  Notice the skills while juggling doubles of Jeru The Damaga’s "Come Clean" and Afrika Bambaataa’s "Planet Rock".

Atlanta producer DJ Toomp speaks on the benefits of working with one artist, working with Kanye West on Graduation, and being honored at Sha Money XL’s One Stop Shop Producers Conference.  He also addresses the rise of southern Hip-Hop and working with T.I.. More

Ski Beatz sounds off on the Ice-T vs. Soulja Boy situation, most lyrically creative mc’s, and the current state of Hip-Hop.

Respect to Nah Right.