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Written By: DJ Laz Vagez

With technology developing faster than an ant colony, who knew it would spread into our daily lives. In comes the Digital Era; as I would call it and with a wide variety of topics I can write about I chose how the digital era affected the djing community.

As many of you may or may not know, it started with 2 turntables, a mixer and a lot of skill. Technics 1200’s was the industry standard and was used by most established DJ’s in the mid 70’s all the way up until the mid 2000’s. Carrying record crates from one spot to another was a 3 to 4 man team, including equipment. Flash forward to the present and all you need is your laptop, Serato and turntable system be it vinyl or CD. What happened you say? Well the answer is quite simple, OUR WORLD HAS BEEN DIGITIZED. Some may feel this has ruined the culture and/or art form while others may beg to differ, so let’s look into this a bit further.

We started off with vinyl. Vinyl was the main musical format then. The artist would press his single and hand the DJ his record to spin. Most likely mixing it in with the record of the moment, something most DJ’s either do or should be doing. Years later came CD turntables (my personal favorite). CD turntables made the perfect sense being that the vinyl format was becoming obsolete and the recording industry had a major increase in CD sales. This was the first wave of the digital era and I personally believe CD sales success came from distributors like BMG or Columbia House who had offers like 10 CD’s for price of 1, remember that? Anyway, early mid 2000’s introduced a new form of music distribution. All you needed was a PC, an internet connection and a sharing program like Napster or Kazaa. Due to peer to peer sharing, the recording industry suddenly hit a dead point with engineers and producers leaking artists’ singles. This became a major problem with lawsuits being filed left, right and center and recording companies started to fold. Marketing geniuses had to find a way to adapt to these times. With mp3’s and mp4’s headlining the new digital era, there had to be a way to continue to generate revenue. CD turntable companies introduced turntables with USB and data reading capabilities but this era wanted something more, something HUGE. Introducing Serato, a program that finds all the audio on your laptop and with the Serato hardware you can connect it to your turntables and virtually have your laptop act as your record crate or CD book. Now, I must say that this makes a huge difference from digging in the crates to just selecting the file you want to play or carrying 2-3 crates to just one simple laptop and the Serato hardware. For me who prefers to spin live whether vinyl or CD, I guess it doesn’t hurt to make a DJ’s life a lot less complicated.

Keep in mind, the digital era has affected the DJ community and it took a huge jump from where it started to now. Even though the format has changed, the equipment is still the foundation, 2 Turntables, a mixer and hopefully a whole lot of skill, which a DJ never loses.

TONIGHT AT CIRCA “HELP HAITI NOW”  WE NEED TO ALL BE INVOLVED AND DO WHAT WE CAN. DON’T GIVE URSELF EXCUSES.. JUST BEING THERE IS ENOUGH.. OVER 230 000 PEOPLE LOST THEIR LIVES .. WE’RE LUCKY ENOUGH TO STILL BE HERE.

SEAN KINGSTON

MARIO

SOLANGE KNOWLES

JEREMIAH AND LUDACRIS

Def Jam’s Friday Night Lights party on Saturday at The Shore Club in Miami, sponsored by 1800 Tequila. Celebrity guests included Kings of Leon, Rick Ross, Trey Songs, Solange Knowles, Diddy, Tyson Beckford, Gabrielle Union, Andrew Keegan, Fonzworth Bently, Sean Kingston, Jeremiah, Kellan Lutz (“Twilight” ), DJ Clue with a performance by Ludacris.

TONIGHT AT CIRCA “HELP HAITI NOW”  WE NEED TO ALL BE INVOLVED AND DO WHAT WE CAN. DON’T GIVE YOURSELF EXCUSES.. JUST BEING THERE IS ENOUGH.. OVER 230 000 PEOPLE LOST THEIR LIVES .. WE’RE LUCKY ENOUGH TO STILL BE HERE.

Although Lil Wayne will spend a year in prison, fans will get to see plenty of the rapper, as he recorded four music videos this past weekend.

According to MTV News, Cash Money heads Ronald “Slim” Williams and Brian “Baby” Williams entlisted the servies of video director David Rousseau to shoot nine videos. Production reportedly began at 9:00 AM on Friday (Feb 5), and finished around 8:00 AM on Sunday (Feb 7). [Editor's Note: HipHopDX learned Thursday morning that Wayne in fact shot four weekend videos, to add to five already finished shoots.]

“We shot some shit from the [We Are Young Money compilation] album, we shot something from [Wayne's forthcoming] Tha Carter IV. Some stuff from [Wayne's recent LP] Rebirth,” said the director. “We knew what our deadline was. We’re trying to get maximum coverage for Wayne. Most of the time we only shot Wayne’s verses — we’ll finish the rest of the videos off in the next couple of weeks.”

Rousseau elaborated, explaining the magnitude of the task at hand. “Cash Money said, ‘This is our deadline. This is a hard deadline.’ It was basically a Mission: Impossible [scenario]: This is your mission if you choose to accept it. Everybody is onboard because everybody knows what’s at stake. Unlike T.I. and some of these other guys that’s disappeared while they were in, the point is to keep Wayne [visible] on TV and everything for whatever time he’s in. There was a plan in action. Slim and Baby really could foresee that. He’s at the height of his career, you can’t let that momentum slip.”

Among the videos that were recorded were “Da Da Da,” “Knockout” and “Get a Life” from Rebirth, and an unnamed “complete secret” track from Carter IV.

Well, leave it to Grammy Award-winning rapper Lil Wayne to make sure his prized possession is perfectly aligned before heading to New York’s Rikers Island prison.

The bling-bling creator managed to extend his Tuesday jail sentencing until March 2 due to ongoing dental surgery for a cracked tooth. According to the rapper’s lawyer, Stacey Richman, Wayne’s medical condition needs to be “addressed” sooner rather than later.

“It is a medical situation that, like [it would for] any of us, has to be addressed,” she said outside a New York City courtroom, adding that Wayne had plans to have the surgery done before his Feb. 9 sentencing, however his dentist was out of the country participating in charitable work.

According to the Associated Press, Wayne is scheduled to undergo surgery Feb. 12 in Miami and will need 10 days to recover. Upon Judge Charles H. Solomon’s ruling, the New Orleans native must return home to Miami on Tuesday (Feb. 9) to prevent any delays with his surgery due to weather conditions leaving New York on Wednesday.

“I don’t want this to get pushed back anymore,” Solomon said. “This is the last adjournment.” Lil Wayne is set to serve a one-year prison term stemming from a Oct. 2007 arrest for attempted weapons possession.

By Huey Fontenot

Whats your stage name?

My stage name is LeS bLeSd

Where do you come from?

I come from Meridian, missisippi close to the coast line. We came out here with moms little over 10 years trying to get away from my pops, it helped me a lot.

What was the situation?

the situation was moms and pops didn’t have an understanding

How long have you been doing music

been doing music since I was 17 I graduated and went to MI

Who motivates you?

Nas Ice Cube and all the other old school artist motivated me to want to be apart of this movement to and put my footprint on the game. 2Pac really motivated me though

Lyrically who do compare yourself to?

There are certain flow patterns I hear like nas, lupe fiasco, krs1, so lyrical wise I take everybody in consideration

What was your first music project?

First serious music project was at MI institute, with DJ Password. He hit me up to jump on a project of his.

My first project was rough being that I never heard from him ever since. I went to school for post production and engineering.

How long have you been rappin

I have been rapping for 9 years

What short term and long term goals do you have?

My short term goal was this right here to be on swagg news

My long term goal is searching for the right record deal. I have been approached by 4 different labels, and half didn’t come with the right paperwork. I was told I need to switch my style up with that being said I am going independent, but I just got a publishing deal with UNL so I am good.

What’s the name of your album?

The album is called Overground

When will it drop?

The album will be dropped mid summer

What will be proclaimed as the single?

The single will be cut tha check

What’s your struggle?

I went through turmoil when I lost my brother, took a year off and now going full blown

How do you relate to the people?

I’ve lived in the hood and out the hood. i done seen the drugs snd i have seen the preppies, I done seen the coke heads, and the wall street cats, life is experience so I put my experience back in my music. My music is relative to my life its not all struggle, its not always bad or good either but you can’t tell one side without the other.

Do you write your own tracks?

I write and produce my own tracks. I have writtten for alot of the locals artist also.

What other projects are you working on?

We just shot the video with mtv 2’s production crew Verdano est. in Italy Thanx to my boy Khaled. We will be doing more projects including film.

Who are you tied in with?

Tied in with Tone from Doggystyle and skin tone management, Matt Oliver, Rob Roy, Nadarass Trevino from sony with Cut The Check Ent.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Ten Years from now is to stick with this music internationally, more production than rapping because I got a ear for what’s hot.

What is it behind the music that is keeping you going?

My brother telling me for a fact that I have destiny with this music 3 days before he passed away, and my moms and my younger sister. I will die a happy man to make sure they straight. shout out to Dtools who was Michael Jackson’s engineer

Where can the people find you?

www.myspace.com/LeSbLeSd

www.youtube.com/LeSbLeSd