Contents Unda Pressure

Tuesday I found myself at a bar in Ocean Beach. I had just dropped off my cds at Cow's used records and CDs for them to look over and buy if they wanted. I had heard they were looking for hip hop cds so I figured they would be interested in my collection. The bar was empty- it was just the bartender and me. We started discussing about how easy technology had made it to obtain music and how nowadays most musicians had to stay on the road longer to make up for the lack of sales. We also lamented on the loss of the days when you would have to go out in search of the music instead of just turning on your computer. The loss of cover art photography, the loss of liner notes. Yeah I'm sure if you wanted to you can still buy the whole album including pictures and notes, but we were talking about the tangibleness of actually holding a cd in your hands. Sure the perks of not having to worry about an MP3 scratching, getting stolen out of your car, misplacing the cd are great, but I enjoyed displaying the collection, having to go to multiple cd stores to find the album I wanted (and with my taste that was always an adventure) and the small slight sense of victory that occurred once I found it. Then going home popping it in, listening to it while reading the liner notes- always a plus if they explained how the song came about or more bonus if it came with the lyrics. I like the majority however have become placated with the ease of obtaining music online. Even during these times having my cousins finding albums I want for free. I always try though to make it up to these artist by either buying the album later on, hitting up their tours, or buying their merchandise (hence the steady stream of hip hop only shirts I wear). Again to make up for the lack of cd sales, most of the people I listen to have to got on tour constantly and some just stop producing the music and go on to make a career in other means. Truly sad- its not that the music wasnt good and it wasn't selling that line of thinking is way wrong. Its just apparently not as promotable as other acts, not radio friendly or whatever. This doesn't affect musicians, it affects everyone in the music industry- Tower records, the wherehouse, music trader, etc... are all gone. I had a hard time just finding a couple of spots in San Diego that still took Cds. What does that mean? loss of jobs. Technology just hasn't hit the music- its hit the movie rental business as well. Hollywood video is long gone, so are most small mom and pop dvd rental stores. Blockbuster is bankrupt. Again its cool not having late fees, being able to see the movie when you want on demand and having it delivered straight to your house instead of having to drive out. Again I'm not saying I'm taking a stand and refusing to do these things- I have netflix, and until recently was a big fan of the on demand features. I also don't think most musicians are out there bitching about the state of things. I figure most of them that will continue to make music regardless of the income it will generate for them will adapt to the challenges of the onslaught of technology. I'm also not just referring to the genre of music I listen to but all genres. But anyways back to the loss of jobs in the music record business. Tuesday I found a few places in San Diego online that still bought cd's. One actually specifically stated they were interested in hip hop collections. So I decide to head there first. I had gone through my cds and they were kept in excellent condition- 90% didnt even have surface scratches. So I call ahead just to make sure they would have time to go through my 300 or so cds I had left. (another 200 had previously been stolen from my car :/) They said no problem just bring them down. So I bring them in. The guy starts checking them and after about 5 minutes says to me,
"are these ALL gonna be hiphop?"
"Um yeah- you website said you were looking for hiphop?"
" oh its cool I guess"
Now I figure they surely wouldnt take all of them- I know even some that claim they are legit hip hop fans wouldn't have known some of the acts I have listened to. So I notice he's doing two piles- cool totally expected. One is getting way bigger than the other so I figure those have to be the ones they are taking especially since he has placed such cds like LB's the listening, Common's resurrection, The original WU release, 9th wonder's Stepson, Atmosphere's latest etc... after deciding I maybe will finish up the black keys collection by trying to find blakroc and thickfreakness used, he lets me know he's done. he now has 3 piles. Turns out the biggest pile he can't take because they wouldn't sell- haha ok no one is looking for common's first one or any atmosphere they havent heard before. fine the next biggest pile they'll give me 1 dollar each for them- 40 of them in all. the last pile he said he wanted to buy off me personally and that he'd give more than the store would. So the guy did have some hip hop in him as he picked up O.C. jewelz and the D.I.T.C. collaboration album. He gives me the spiel that some of them were too scratched, some they had too many of, and some just wouldn't sell. He told me of a couple of other places besides the ones I found that may take the rest of them. I collect the unwanted and head off. Basically same thing happened at all the other places, including get laughed at when asking about used black keys albums. I'm also beginning to theorize that even though they say they'll buy any amount. they max themselves at around 40 per purchase. The 2 other places that bought cds from me all bought 40 each exactly. The last place in OB I finally gave up on finding blakroc or thickfreakness used and just traded them straight up for new ones. All told me that all the other titles wouldn't sell. But they had junk in their hip hop section like Chunky A, milkbone, jermaine dupree- not even just the popular radio hip hop of today, but like junk from other eras. I was like wow. Really you don't think anyone will come in and buy up de la soul's first lp, Nas classic debut album, even his It was written? I didn't say it because I didn't wanna come out like my music taste was better than theirs. I understand that maybe they really just don't know. They have their own tastes and that's totally cool. which brings it back to technology. Obviously the stores can't have experts in all music genres anymore. Back in my Wherehouse days in Monterey the manager asked me before hiring me what music I listened to and when I said hip hop, he said good because he needed someone with knowledge in that section. we had the rock, death metal, house, classical/jazz, movie members. I don't know if all managers took that in consideration but it was definitely a sensible issue to take in. Everyone had to learn and know the top 40 radio stuff. The stores that are left don't have that option to have so many employees knowledgeable in different genres of music. I decided to go back and respect my collection and go back to using secondspin.com. An online website where you can sell your cds to. They partially reimburse you on shipping costs and since I remembered the current USPS commercials about the packages they have "where it fits and it ships for one price" I decided that getting what these cds deserved to be sold for was worth the small hassle of initially shelling out some cash to get checks in the mail later on. instead of a buck or 50 cents, the majority of my cds sold for 3 or 4 bucks. some for less, far less but still. a Los Lobos cd I owned actually fetched 8.50. basically you enter the original UPC code and it figures out what cd it is and the price they will sell it to you for. I was sadden to discover I had forgotten to take out my last copy of Pharaoh Monche's internal affairs and Ras Kass' Soul on Ice. Both are out of print for different reasons and a couple of years ago they were going on Ebay for like 50 bucks. They are also hip hop classics. More Soul on Ice than Internal Affairs. I accidentally sold them for 4 bucks. Terrible. I at least still have one copy of the Ras Kass album.

Shit, maybe Ted Kaczynski (The Unabomber) and his anti technology stance was right. Gonna give me a buck for the Roots "things fall apart"-fucking ridiculous.

The Alkaholiks- Contents unda pressure, maybe the Liks best ever song- beats, flow, one liners with a west coast edge.