The Daily Hook

This is a Daily Hook EXCLUSIVE! Almost. First of all, this is no bullshit.

News is coming across the wire that Timbaland stole the sample for Nelly Furtado’s “Do It.” According to a poster who goes by the tag Okkie on the Something Awful forum Timbaland stole the complete musical line from a Finnish demoscener named Janne Suni, who goes by the tag Tempest. For those of you that are not familiar with the demoscene, its basically an underground group of artists who produce video and music to be placed along with cracktros before pirated and shareware software. According to Okkie,

…in 2000 at Assembly, one of the biggest demoparties in Finland, Tempest competed in the so-called ‘Oldskool Music Compo’, a competition meant for music on old platforms like Amiga, c64, ZX-Spectrum and the likes. His entry ‘Acid Jazzed Evening’, a 4 channel Amiga .MOD won the competition.

Okkie continues,

A c64 musician called grg remade the song on the c64 (using the infamous SID soundchip) which is what Timbaland used for Furtado’s song.

Okkie claims that Suni has no intention on suing Timbaland or Geffen records, but I have a feeling that something might come into fruition in the near future. Okkie has uploaded sample clips of original Tempest track of ‘Acid Jazzed Evening’, the grg remake, and a clip of the Timbaland produced Nelly Furtado track ‘Do It’.

Finally here is a torrent download of a demonstration showing the production process.

This could turn out to be major. Timbaland is a hell of a producer and has major skill, but it is unfortunate if this turns out to be true.

Edit: Several people posted comments regarding my somewhat vague definition of the demo scene. I did not mean to suggest that the demo scene and piracy/cracking go hand in hand. They do not. The demo scene does have roots in cracking, but now a days there is a huge demo scene that no longer has any association to piracy. I also have no problem saying that I USE TO be an active scener (and not the demo scene) so trust me in that it was just bad journalism. Please refer to the comments for further clarification.

Awhile back I wrote about how PBR Disgraced its own brand by coming out with Pabst Blue Ribbon LIGHT! That post is one of the most visited posts on The Daily Hook! I guess that makes tons of sense, especially since its probably the most important thing I’ve ever blogged about on this blog. But thats not what is important. What is important is that this post has apparently lit a fire under a few asses. It is also the most commented post with a whopping 2 comments. Just yesterday I received a comment and wanted to share it,

I had PBR light the other day and I thought that it was awesome. WTF makes it a discrace. Is miller or budweiser a discrace for having light beers? I dont, and Im sure that a lot of ppl would agree w/ me on that. Sure the classic PBR is a beautiful thing, so why cant a watered down version be? I can see you point about not fixing something that’s not broken, but discrace is a very harsh word to be using in this situation. I like pbr and pbr light. Later

This guy seems like a pretty angry PBR drinker. Most PBR drinkers I come in contact with are the cool, laid back type. Maybe I was a little harsh against PBR Light, but I still believe that it was a bad decision to come out with PBRL. He makes the argument that Miller and Budweiser both have light beers and asks if they are a disgrace? Yes, in fact, I think they are a disgrace. Budweiser was thinking about coming out with an energy beer as another reader points out,

It’s got that same hops & club soda taste like PBR normally does, only weaker. I don’t get it, but it’ll be better than B(e)2 Or beer to the E power energy beer … Budwieser didn’t ever need to do that :/

If this isn’t disgraceful, I don’t know what is. I’m not going to sit here and deny the fact that I have had a Bud Light or two or three or ten on ocassion, but thats mainly because most bars do not carry Country Club Malt Liquor, which I might add is brewed by Pearl Brewery. Pearl Brewery just happens to be owned by Pabst. If you’ve taken the time to listen to our 5th podcast you know how myself and SBKevin feel about Country Club. So, do I really think PBRL is a disgrace? Is disgrace really that harsh of a word? The definition of disgrace is as follows,

dis·grace
1. the loss of respect, honor, or esteem; ignominy; shame

The PBR brand has lost both respect and honor in my eyes for coming out with PBRL. So yes, to conclude this post, PBRL is disgraceful. But, that doesn’t mean I won’t drink it because overall I have a favorable opinion on anything associated with the Pabst congolomerate.

Drive safely.

I don’t normally discuss technology on The Daily Hook but today is a special occasion so I thought I’d join all the other technology bloggers and drop some pictures of the new Apple iPod + iPhone. This thing is gorgeous and really makes me wish I owned some Apple stock right now. I’m glad to see that some of the pictures say Cingular on them, as thats my carrier. However, I heard that it would support all carriers after the 6 month Cingular exclusive is up. Without further ado here are the pictures:

**EDIT** – Only on Cingular baby! This is a good move by Cingular, unless you find out how to unlock this thing!

NYC has the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the nation. This sucks. But no worries, our boy Mikey Mike Bloomberg is on top of shit. He plans to start distributing NY brand condoms featuring the different city subway lines. This gives a whole new meaning to running a train! I think it might be more cool if it said I <3 NY upon full erection. But what do I know about cool? None the less, these will make great collectors items if people don't decide to strap up.

Source: Gothamist

I didn’t smell it, but thats probably because I have a stuffy nose, but today NYC stunk bad! Apparently the city was struck by a stank odor, but luckily it wasn’t harmful. A few trains and buildings were evacuated but the city came to the conclusion that the gas was not hazardous. Hopefully people don’t start dropping like flies tomorrow.

If I remember right, didn’t the city smell like maple syrup one day last year? Considering I live here I am really out of the loop when it comes to odors striking the city.

If you’re interested you can read the rest of the AP story on the Mysterious Odor. Don’t ask why I’m linking to a Chinese newspaper.

Recent reports indicate that the owner of Jay-Z’s apartment has elected to sell the property that the Brooklyn-born rapper currently occupies for a reported $27 million, nearly twice as much as the 1994 purchase price of $14.7 million. Jay-Z has been living in the building since 2005 and has been paying $40,000 a month in rent. He is reportedly moving to his newly renovated $6.85 million TriBeca penthouse. Doesn’t sound like that bad of a move to me!

Source: EURWeb

Well kind of! A newborn baby was born on the L train platform at Broadway Junction on Wednesday night. Three NYPD officers assisted in the delivery of the baby. Apparently it was a quick delivery since the baby was delivered before the ambulance arrived! With such a quick birth in an unexpected location it makes one wonder if the mother even knew she was pregnant. Yeh Yeh I know its not possible! Or is it?

Source: NY 1

DJ Superstar Jay is on a mission, a mission that is well worth fighting. Screw Iraq, screw the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we got real wars to fight. DJ Superstar Jay is on a mission to return the mixtape crown to NYC. Superstar Jay was recently named 2006 Justo Mixtape Awards “Rookie of the Year” as well as MTV Mixtape Monday’s “2006 Breakthrough DJ of the Year.”

DJ Superstar Jay says,

“I personally, don’t respect DJ’s that can’t really deejay. I mean every dude who has internet service and can download music is not a DJ!” says Jay, “I’m about to get back to some of the basics, like more blends, R&B mixes, Best of’ mixtapes…I’m trying to broaden my horizons.” He continues, “Cats should be on the lookout for Superstar Jay in 2007, I don’t want to sound cocky, but I’m on the verge of making some major moves… I feel like more DJ’s should support New York artists. There are too many hot artists in NYC not to be! NYC is on a steady come up and I’m going to do my best to bring it back.”

Source: NewsWire Today

I just wanted to wish all of our readers a Happy New Year. I wish you all nothing but the best in 2007. It feels great to have a clean slate doesn’t it?

As the Blackeyed Peas famously said, “Where is the Love?”

After a string of Christmas day robberies, taking thousands of dollars of money off the hands of several churches, the Christmas day crooks were caught today with $6,000 in cash. The Associated Press reports,

NEW YORK – Two men were arrested in the callous Christmas Day theft of tens of thousands of dollars in donations from a church, and about $6,000 in cash was recovered, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Damn right! You can’t rob a church on Christmas.

Read the rest on the NYC Christmas day church robbery.