Internet distribution and topical hip-hop

Lil Flip, who put together a tribute song for the deceased Pimp C, put on his Myspace page, is quoted in the Houston Times as saying he released the song on the internet because "Record labels like to stick with the way things were in the old days," Flip says. "Taking eight months to set up an album, things like that. But sometimes fans just want something then and there. You've got a song or video being played on TV and radio, but the album's not out. Now you can give it to them without any wait."

I know, right - duh, but it makes me wonder about artists like Flip, who have one foot in the old mix tape/net economy and one in the majors. How are the two integrated? How not?

Secondly, it just goes to show how digital distribution technology is such an important tool in the cultural production of the descendents of Africans. The good old topical song, from the diss or tribute rap to the Puerto Rican plena to the griot epic of Sundiata, is only helped along by the net. So you don't have to do the robot to be a part of black futurism.