New videos from gNotes performing at the Radix record release show.


gnotes - "Punchlines" (John Mayer Remix)


gnotes - "No Man's An Island"


gnotes - "Pete the Banker"

Broadcasting directly to you iPods
By Canyon Cody
Published in The Heights

When I was a freshman, I used to wander around campus on Friday afternoons handing out my underground hip-hop mix-tapes to friends and random passersby. When I was a sophomore, I started DJing at WZBC 90.3 FM so that I could reach more listeners, but you still had to live in Boston and be awake at 1 a.m. in order to hear my show.
Senior year, I made the jump to global distribution by starting my own podcast. There's a good reason why "podcast" beat out "reggaeton" and "sudoku" to be selected as 2005's Word of the Year. Everyone from Barack Obama to the Boston University hockey team has a podcast - why shouldn't you have one too?

What is a podcast?
Podcasts are like mp3 radio programs that broadcast directly to your iTunes, which you can then transfer to your iPod or burn to a CD. Once you subscribe to a podcast, new episodes will automatically arrive in your iTunes like stocking stuffers delivered while you sleep. Since podcasts are MP3 files that save directly to your computer, you can listen to them anytime, like TiVo for the radio.

Some of the most popular podcasts include the BBC's daily five-minute news synopsis and MTV's weekly new music mix. There are also plenty of amateur podcasters who produce shows from their bedrooms about the stock market, international hip-hop, Buddhism, and every other imaginable topic.

The best part is that all podcasts are free, free, free. You don't need to sign up for an account or enter your credit card information in order to subscribe, just one click of the mouse.

How do I subscribe to a podcast?
iTunes makes downloading podcasts as easy as buying songs from the iTunes Music Store, but a lot cheaper. Browse through thousands of free podcasts organized by genre in the iTunes podcast directory and then click "Subscribe" to immediately get the newest episode and eventually receive subsequent releases.
If you don't have iTunes you will need another RSS feed aggregator (or "podcatcher") such as Odeo or Juice, both free. Google Reader is another great free tool for subscribing to podcasts and other RSS feeds such as blogs.

You can find more podcasts at http://www.podcastdirectory.com. If you find a podcast that is not available in the iTunes podcast directory, you can still manually subscribe in iTunes by clicking "Advanced" in the iTunes menu and selecting "Subscribe to podcast." You then paste the podcast's unique RSS feed, such as http://www.gnawledge.com/podcast.xml, which will direct iTunes to your desired podcast.

Most podcasts are hosted on Web sites that offer a direct link that will open iTunes and automatically subscribe you. For example, you can subscribe to my international hip-hop podcast at http://www.gnawledge.com. On some computer configurations, you might have to subscribe manually as shown above.

How do I start my own podcast?
Anyone with a microphone and an Internet connection can start their very own podcast and spread their voice around the world. First you will need some music software such as GarageBand or Adobe Audition, which will allow you to record and edit your mp3 radio program.

In order to turn this mp3 into a podcast, you will need to create your unique RSS feed. This can be a bit complicated, but there are numerous programs available at www.podcastingnews.com that automate this process and require you only to fill in the blanks. If you don't have a Web site, you will need someone to host your podcasts for you. Odeo offers a simple, all-in-one podcasting package that includes Web hosting and RSS feed support.

What's the future of podcasting?
Most podcasters today are unpaid amateurs who do it for nothing more than the simple joy of connecting with listeners of similar interests, but with 10 million people currently listening to podcasts, big businesses are starting to take notice. Advertisers are projected to spend $80 million on podcast advertisements in 2006 and record companies are looking toward podcasting as an effective means of new media marketing. Radio Disney even plans to offer free, ad-supported podcasts that target 6- to 14-year-old children.

As video iPods become more popular, video podcasts are going to become a means for distributing music videos, Internet TV shows, and shorts films. And when that iPod cell phone eventually comes out �

Justin Bua: an artist for a new generation
By Canyon Cody
Published in The Heights

On Wednesday nights, Justin Bua teaches a basic drawing class (FA 207) at the Univerisity of Southern California in Harris Hall, room 210.

Outside the classroom, Bua is the best-selling living artist among college students and the pre-eminent visual artist of the hip-hop generation. In his spare time he's making music videos, starting his own shoe line, and trying to change the way America views art and treats our artists.

"It's unfortunate, but to a lot of people, art is associated with wealth. People think you need lots of money and education to go to an art museum, but my stuff is different. My art is rooted in street culture," explained Bua in an interview with The Heights.

Like a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel, Bua's artistic world of colorful magical realism, seen in paintings such as The DJ and The Piano Man, reflect the racially diverse reality in which he was raised, interpreted from the distorted memories of his childhood.

"Forever, artists have been painting kings and military leaders. I am also painting the heroes of my time, whether the DJ, the graffiti artist, the baller, or the piano player," said Bua. "Growing up in New York in the '80s, I looked up to these people."

Despite his unconventional themes, Bua's art is structured in remarkably traditional methods. His class at USC teaches the basics of drawing the human body, and since attending the prestigious High School of Music and Performing Arts his own education has focused on classical techniques.

At 16, he took a year off from school to perform with a professional breakdancing crew, The New York Express, in over a hundred shows all over the world. Later in life, his passions for art and hip-hop culture collided to produce his urban-themed paintings.

"What we were doing in New York at the time, I mean, we weren't defining it as hip-hop, it was just our life," explains Bua.

"There was no real need to name it. Yeah, I was b-boying and emceeing and all that stuff, but I wasn't going around thinking, 'Yeah, this is hip-hop,' because it was all I knew."

In addition to his unique and immediately recognizable artistic style, Bua is most notable for his keen entrepreneurial business sense. He has made a name for himself in music videos, most notably Slum Village's "Tainted," and television commercials such as his recent campaign for the video game NFL Street.

Bua has recently expanded beyond the canvas into designing his own shoe line called the PF Flyer, which will feature his artwork. Only 1,008 pairs of the three different designs will be available, but Bua plans on expanding in the future.

There are also plans for an upcoming line of hats and a book of his paintings. "I didn't always have a good business sense, but it's a hustle and you learn along the way," said Bua.

Though this sort of business ambition is commonplace among musicians such as Jay-Z, Bua laments the fact that artists so rarely make money from their work. "I think artists aren't taken seriously in our culture and it's because our values are all f- up. I'm trying to open up the possibility for artists to be respected and appreciated like musicians or actors are. Part of that includes being able to make money."

Once someone starts making money from selling hip-hop culture, some will inevitably label the artist a sellout, something Bua promises he could never be: "You have to worry whether kids think you're selling out, but really that's not a really concern for me, because there are some things I would never do. I'm a vegan, so I will never do anything for McDonald's.

"It is simply not an option, not for a million dollars," he continued. "I would like to move into hemp shoes, but even now I know I would never use leather."

To Bua, there is a clear distinction between selling art and selling out. He said, "I am respecting and exalting my heroes, not just using them to make some money. I plan to keep being entrepreneurial and I don't think there's anything wrong with that, because I plan on changing the industry.

"I want to be a pioneer that changes the way people buy and sell products. I don't want to just put more crap in the stores and make a dollar."