Temperatures in the metro Atlanta area are starting to sink below 95 and folks across the country are making plans for long weekend Labor Day celebrations. As summer begins to give way to fall, kids everywhere are once again faced with the inevitable – it’s time to go back to school. Days filled with both excitement and anxiety mark the commencement of a new school year, and in this edition of The Affix A-List we pay tribute to playground pranks, first loves, lessons learned, and the teachers who make it all happen.

1. P.O.N. - Nappy Roots
Dedicated to “the class of two-thousand and forever,” P.O.N. oozes positivity with lines like, “you don’t have to sell drugs, you can do it through school,” and “you live and you learn.”

2. Like Clockwork - B. Stylez
Whether it’s counting down the minutes remaining in an exam or slowly edging toward the end of class, students will surely be able to identify with the ticking clock theme throughout this instrumental track.

3. Blackberry Pie - Richelle Brown (Explicit)
This raucous playground stomper is a girl power anthem.

4. Played Out - Purple Crown (Explicit)
With references to Michael Jackson, New Edition, and Kris Kross, Purple Crown recalls an “age of innocence” while challenging individuals to embrace their own styles and create what’s next.

5. Close - Fresh GeeX
Here’s one for the homecoming dance.

6. Chuck Jones - Jaspects (Explicit)
School days aren’t always easy, and this jazz-rock fusion track highlights some of the teen angst that comes along with being a kid. Although it seems like every generation comments on how kids these days grow up quicker than they used to, the line “baby’s ain’t watchin cartoons no more” certainly drives the point home.

7. Hop Inside - The Beat Geeks
Cars are currency in high school parking lots and this tune from The Beat Geeks recalls memories of guys trying to impress.

8. Back To School - Brown
Brown gets nostalgic here, reminiscing about high school glory days.

9. The Teacher - Yoel ben Yehuda
A beautiful piano piece and a fitting tribute to all those who dedicate themselves to educating our youths.

For licensing opportunities for these tracks and over 1,000 others, please visit affixmusic.com. Interested in licensing one of these tracks specifically? Click here for a license-ready playlist.

Photo by Zack Arias

Historically, the term “urban” is a geographic one, referring to the inner city. Over the years, products of the city began to carry “urban” as a prefix: urban legend, urban decay, Urban Outfitters. Thus, music created by the citizens of city streets became known as urban music. But in today’s internet driven world, where location doesn’t matter and boarders don’t exist, we are faced with a new concept of urban.

New Urbanism is defined by attitude and perspective rather than geography or socioeconomic status. And it is broader than ever. Last week, street artists from around the world (including friend of Affix, Greg Mike) converged on Atlanta for The Living Walls Project, a grassroots colloquium on street art and urbanism. Owners of buildings donated their walls as canvases and over three days the artists transformed them into living works of art. The term living is appropriate because that’s part of what this New Urbanism is. These works aren’t hung behind velvet ropes in a museum or auctioned to the highest bidder. Like us, they inhabit our world. We are engaged not as patrons, but as citizens; as humans. Traditionally, we approach art reflectively – we take ourselves to the piece and view it through the lens of our individual perspectives. The art of New Urbanism brings the world to us in its most raw form.

Urban music is often mislabeled as Hip-Hop, Rap or R&B, but in reality, such labels have nothing to do with it. It is the message and the delivery of that message that matter- whether conveyed lyrically or musically. Richelle Brown’s “Swagger Black Country Queen” is a vivid snapshot of an everyday southern socialite lifestyle, where candy colored Chevys parade down Atlanta’s famed Peachtree Street and hipsters congregate at hotspots sporting their requisite Chuck Taylors. The track offers the listener an unadulterated glimpse at the world in which Brown lives, for better or worse. There’s no need to play the song backwards to listen for “Paul is dead” messages. The artist tells us what she wants us to know in clear and direct terms. Instrumental tracks like The Agency’s “Straight Pop” make use of rhythm, tempo and melody to create mood and achieve similar clarity. A rolling piano lead layered over a synth bed gives the track an ethereal vibe while a drum part that evolves from a spacious cross-stick part into a double timed chorus lends a sense of movement. It’s a tune that conveys progress and forward motion without saying a word.

New Urbanism doesn’t ask us to guess or interpret. It doesn’t wait for us to approach it cautiously with our thinking caps on. It is an extra strength dose of truth and reality…mainlined.

For licensing opportunities for these tracks and over 1,000 others, please visit affixmusic.com. Interested in licensing one of these tracks specifically? Click here for a license-ready playlist.

For all of its’ contemporary clout (9 out of the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, 8 out of the iTunes Top 10 Singles this week), Urban Music has surprisingly long, deep roots. Indeed, many of todayʼs urban hits draw their influences from Jazz, Blues, Gospel, Rock, and Pop music.  Long gone are the days when “Urban” meant ghettos and guns, drugs and danger.  Even one of the godfathers of gangsta, Snoop Dogg, has gone mainstream – he appears on the latest Katy Perry smash, “California Gurls.”  We live in a new age where demographics are classified by age and attitude rather than race and region, and no genre crosses more lines than Urban Music.  In this edition of The Affix A-List, we take a look at some of the music that is helping to rebrand Urban Music as the global force that it is.

1. Leave Me Be - Dave Herrero
Herrero may be based in Austin, but “Leave Me Be” comes express mailed from a Mississippi juke joint. It doesnʼt get bluer.

2. Ride - Nappy Roots
The beat is authentically Hip Hop, but both the melody and the hook are based on acoustic guitar licks.

3. Tristate - Mayhem
This electronic instrumental track points techno, trance, and drum and bass influences while incorporating various synth sounds. The sub bass and syncopated rhythm are decidedly dubstep.

4. Neighborhood - Rhansum
This one rocks. Heavy electric guitars and a bridge with background vocals straight off an AC/DC arena rocker mesh amazingly well with the rap lead vocals.

5. Whatʼs Going On 2010 - Brown
The Marvin Gaye nod goes beyond the title as Brown asks a new generation to examine themselves and their motives in this Hip-Rock tune.

6.  Swagger Black Country Queen (Explicit) - Richelle Brown
If Urban is about attitude, then itʼs hard to be more Urban than Richelle Brown. This elecro-funk track hits hard and when Brown sings, you believe her.

7.  Straight Pop - The Agency
A rolling piano riff drives this instrumental tune that would be as at home on a Coldplay album as it would on an Alicia Keys release.

8. My Friend The Martian - SMKA
The prevailing synth leads on this record seem to be a tip of the hat to the big band horn sections of yesteryear, while the percussion blends a Latin influence with a more modern, drumline feel.

9.  Two Sides To A Story - PVD
Upright bass, flute leads, and roomy snare fills…this one is a cigar and a martini away from a classic Jazz club.

10. Harmonious - Mr. Fish
This instrumental track blends Rock guitar, bluesy harmonica and Latin drum feels – certainly an appropriate conclusion to the “Urban Redefined” edition of The Affix A-List.

For licensing opportunities for these tracks and over 1,000 others, please visit affixmusic.com.  Interested in licensing one of these tracks specifically?  Click here for a license-ready playlist.

We are proud to announce that Affix Music has added Clear Channel Creative Services Group (CSG) to our diverse client roster.

“Affix music leverages the talent behind many of today’s popular and up-and-coming urban acts, and their sounds give a competitive edge to the ads we create,” says Bob Case, Vice President and General Manager of Clear Channel Creative Services Group.

“With over 800 stations under the Clear Channel umbrella, any music solution we utilize must cover major ground in terms of both formats and demographics. In an aural medium such as radio, a premium is placed on the quality and authenticity of music. Sandwiched between programming incorporating the most popular commercial music, radio advertisements have to incorporate the best contemporary sounds available to ensure the listener stays engaged. Our creative staff now use Affix’s catalog daily,” he adds.

Please click here to read the complete press release.

Affix Music client Zack Arias shares a live worldwide studio lighting class in the creativeLIVE classroom.  White seamless and beyond. Models, bands and Music provided from the Affix catalog!

Zack will lead the class the weekend of June 11, 12 and 13!  With room for lots of live Q&A and critique.

Twitter drawing to give away lots (and lots) of cool lighting gear to people who helped spread the word about this course on Twitter.

Click here for more info and sign up!

Please join me 12:30 PM Saturday June 5th at the Georgia Tech Research Institute Conference Center for:

The Art & Business of Game Audio.

Featuring, Paul Lipson of Pyramind Studios, Chris Rickwood of Rickwood Music & me, Simon Horrocks of Affix Music for an insight into working with music and audio in the world of gaming moderated by Joe Shiver.

RSVP & advance tickets only:
Atlanta@grammy.com or 404.816.1380

Free to AES and Recording Academy Members
Non-members $25.00

Become a Recording Academy member at:
www.grammy365.com

Last month French multinational advertising and communications company Publicis Groupe hosted an event for its Atlanta interactive agencies at the W Hotel Midtown and asked Affix to provide entertainment for the get together.

World renowned DJ and Affix Music Provider Mayhem was on hand to spin his special blend of Dub Step, club hits and music from the Affix catalog while staffers from Moxie Interactive, Razorfish, Digitas and MS&L Worldwide mixed and mingled.

Anthony Rotella, aka Mayhem, is a 26 year old dj/producer from Atlanta, GA. Founder of 404Audio.com, an Atlanta based record store, promoter, distributor, label and website for his local d&b community; Shadow-Law Recordings, featuring cutting edge drum & bass focused heavily on the techy side of drum & bass which has incubated the likes of Sinthetix, Noisia, and Misanthrop; as well as Aesthetics, a brand new imprint with a focus on rising talent across the globe.

He’s toured across the world, playing extensively in Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Canada and Puerto Rico in addition to playing regularly across North America.

His club night Transit hosted the spectrum of the most respected and upcoming artists in the scene over 3 years in Atlanta. Well known for “Moonway Renegade [Ft Noisia]”, which graced Andy C’s Ram Records reaching 1 spots on both Radio 1 and 1xtra’s single of the week charts in addition to hitting 2 on the official UK dance charts; “Exodus [Ft Noisia]“,which saw the 1st collaboration with legendary Hip Hop MC KRS-1 in Drum + Bass Music in over 10 years since the seminal “Digital” was produced with Goldie; “Choke [Ft Noisia]” which saw the first vocal appearance of MC Verse; his rework of Meat Beat Manifesto’s “Helter Skelter” alongside Evol Intent commissioned especially for Diselboy’s most recent album “Substance D”’ and “Broken Sword [Ft Evol Intent and Thinktank]”, which is featured on EA Games Need For Speed: Most Wanted.

His recordings have spawned releases on Obsessions, Citrus, Vision Recordings, Ram Records, Subtitles Music, Human Imprint, Evol Intent Recordings, Redlight Records, Nerve Recordings, Full Force Recordings, Ministry Of Sound, Project 51 Records, Black Sun Empire Recordings, and the list is ever growing. In the fall of 2008, Mayhem is set to debut his 1st LP entitled “Into Oblivion” featuring a majority of solo efforts while enlisting Phace and Psidream for collaborative efforts on Shadow-Law Recordings. When not immersed in drum & bass, Mayhem has found success producing Electro, under the moniker Rrrump, as well as Dubstep still under the Mayhem guise.

Urban Redefined.

Congratulations to Bobby Ray, and our Music Providers SMKA who had a small part in the creation of the record. 7King with SMKA played guitar on a couple tracks (“Past My Shades” “Letters from Vietnam”) and has been touring with Bobby Ray for over a year now. Congrats to everyone in the camp!

We’ve been fans of what B.o.B has been doing for quite some time at Affix ever since our good friend Tommy with Greg Mike started playing the mixtape in our office last year.

As a matter of fact, checkout the video for “No Man’s Land” from the B.o.B mixtape here. It was shot close to our old office – so close that the Greg Mike “Popstar” has a cameo in the video at 1:11.

Michael has been going to see him live for quite some time and I had the chance to see what I considered a career making performance on the main stage at Coachella last month.

If you haven’t already, check out the record and go see this artist live.

Urban Redefined.

Simon

Two panels in two days! On Wednesday morning, March 17th, I’ll be joining Philip Walden, counsel Turner Entertainment, speaking on the Music Licensing panel as part of the Entertainment Law Basics Boot Camp for the Georgia State Bar. The annual Entertainment Law Basics Boot Camp is is geared towards new entertainment law practitioners and graduating law students.

The event will be held in Atlanta at Georgia State University College of Law, Room 675 at 11:45 AM.

I’m excited to be speaking on a the ASCAP / Sessions Remixed panel in Atlanta tonight (3/16) with 4 amazing producers- Focus, Terrence Battle, Maestro and Nitti.  Great event, come out and say hello. 

Details are as follows:
The Sessions Remixed
Tuesday, March 16
Panel begins 8pm to 8:45pm

Panelists:
Focus (The Game, Busta Rhymes)
Terrence Battle (Jennifer Hudson, Toni Braxton)
Simon Horrocks (Affix Music – Urban Music Licensing for Film/TV)
Maestro (Lil Wayne, David Banner)
Nitti (Yung Joc, 8Ball & MJG)

VIA – Food & Bar
262 Pharr Road NE
Atlanta, GA 30305
404.214.5404