Music: Beatles Go Hip-Hop This Fall

"Just don't butcher our stuff mate.."

The Beatles, notoriously loath to clear samples (other than on Paul's Boutique by The Beastie Boys), are set to be one of the biggest stars in hip-hop this autumn. Wu-Tang Clan's comeback single "The Heart Gently Weeps" features interpolations of the classic White Album track "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" aided and abetted by John Frusciante, Dhani Harrison, and Erykah Badu. In November comes Ja Rule's "Judas" on his The Mirror album, which will sample directly from "Eleanor Rigby."

Music News: Rock and Roll Hall of Lame

The Shangri-Las: Still waiting for their induction...

The Rock Hall is set to vote on the next round of inductions and it's a very mixed bag, (the notes in parenthesis are my personal preferences):

Madonna (yes, she is that influential even if she is not "rock' per se)
The Beastie Boys (yes but not before Run-D.M.C. )
John Mellencamp (no, a handful of good songs should not make for a Hall of Famer)
Leonard Cohen (yes, one of the great American songwriters)
Afrika Bambaataa (yes, a rap and electro pioneer)
Chic (yes, one of the greatest and most influential disco acts)
the Ventures (no, too tied to the surf genre)
Donna Summer (no, not without Giorgio Moroder)
Dave Clark Five (no, second string British invasioneers)


Five of these lucky acts will be inducted March 10, 2008, at New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Who could be here in their stead? The Replacements, Black Flag, Television, Cheap Trick, The Shangri-Las, The Chi-Lites, Joy Division, Jontahan Richman and countless deserving others...

Music: Beastie Boys Stay Silent -- Let Others do the Rhymin' and Stealin'

Beastie Boys: "London Bridge is falling down...lemme hear it!"

Billboard.com reports today that The Beastie Boys are working on a mix-up of The Mix-Up the all-instrumental album released earlier this year to mixed response. On the shortlist of hotshots to do the vox: M.I.A., Lily Allen and Jarvis Cocker. The boys themselves will stay silent, though a new album is in the works as well, presumably with their trademarked old-school rapping.