Crib Notes

Jax of Atlanta’s legendary indie hip-hop crew Binkis Recs suffered a heart attack while onstage at Lenny’s last night and was pronounced dead after being rushed to the hospital.

According to close friend and Binkis crew member Flux da Wondabat, Jax was performing the title track from his 2007 solo album, Sharper Images.

“He was performing onstage and he just passed out in the middle of his verse,” said Flux. “We went to the emergency room and then they came out and gave us the word.”

Formed in 1997, the Binkis Recs trio (Jax, Flux, Killa Kalm) quickly established itself as a true alternative to the commercial, crunk sound that defined Atlanta near the end of the millennium.

“Atlanta is weird because it’s two scenes,” N.Y. native Jax told CL in 2005. “It’s the natives and the transplants. And the scene that most people know — the OutKast and Ludacris — are all from here. A lot of us on the underground level are from somewhere else.”

The group’s name still speaks volumes — the acronym BINKIS stands for “Before Ignorant Niggas Killed Intelligent Songs.” They released several CDs, including 2003’s The Reign Begins. Though most failed to register commercially, their impact among Atlanta’s independent hip-hop scene is still felt.

“Binkis Recs paved the way for what a lot of younger Atlanta hip-hop musicians are able to do right now,” says former ATF Records label mate and friend, J-Mil of Collective Efforts. “A lot of people don’t even know that DJ Drama got his start with these brothers.”

While he was reminiscent of rap’s golden era, Jax believed in pushing music forward, as evidenced by these lyrics from the song “Shift,” featured on his ’07 release: “‘88 is not coming back/Nobody can replace Rakim or G. Rap/Slick Rick or Kane/’94’s gone/You can’t imitate Nas, Biggie or the Wu-Tang/It’s just not the same/What you should do is take lessons from the eras passed/The eras made/And apply it to your own era/Leave a legacy using your own lyrical weaponry.”

Jax had recently purchased a home with his fiancé, whom he planned to marry before year’s end.

“A lot of people forget what kind of sacrifices independent artists make in an attempt to give people options in music. Jax gave his life to the culture, and that’s a hard thing to do,” says J-Mil. “While I want to celebrate his life, I can’t help but miss the brother. I know I’m not alone.”

As for Flux and the Binkis Recs crew, “personally, he meant everything. He embodies what Binkis is; he was Binkis,” says Flux. “As far as hip-hop is concerned, that’s what Binkis is and what hip-hop is. We just continued on with the creativity and enjoyed doing it and having fun.”

Click here to see more photos of Jax.
Click here to visit Jax’s MySpace page.
Click here to listen to music from Jax.

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First DJ Drama’s Atlanta-based Gangsta Grillz mixtape dynasty feels the RIAA pinch. Now Muxtape — 2008’s coolest online music-sharing tool — gets squeezed out by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Would somebody please tell this dinosaur of a music industry that every move it makes in the name of self-preservation only brings it one step closer to extinction?

Click here to read how Justin Ouellette created Muxtape and what he has in store for its future now that the powers that be have snuffed it out.

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DJ Drama’s Gangsta Grillz: The Album (released on Atlantic) may help legitimize the mixtape king in the industry’s eyes, but it means nothing if the streets ain’t buying it.

After debuting at No. 26 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, Drama’s CD dropped all the way to No. 91 in week two. In a recent New York Times article, he blames the drop in over-the-counter CD sales on the industry’s mixtape crackdown that started with his January ‘07 raid and arrest:

“Look at the last four or five years of hip-hop, and those who’ve really built names for themselves in the game, the majority of it comes from mixtapes, period. Without that, you don’t have any movements.”

To read the full story, click here.

In Drama’s case, he may also be suffering from lack of buzz, since he failed to capitalize on all the unintended publicity his arrest garnered with a quicker release date.

You can read what DJ Drama had to say about that and plenty more in Mosi Reeves’ interview with him by clicking here.

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It’s hard to believe the Aphilliates’ offices are still located at 147 Walker St. — the same place where Atlanta police arrested Tyree “DJ Drama” Simmons and Don Cannon last January on bootlegging charges.

“A lot of people were like, ‘You’re going to stay there? Don’t you feel like it’s negative energy?’” says DJ Drama, who takes a moment to talk before going on the air to host “Gangsta Grillz Radio,” the 8 p.m. Friday show he co-hosts with Cannon for Sirius satellite radio. The duo broadcasts the program from a studio room in the offices. “But it would only be negative energy if I felt as if everything turned out in a negative way. I’m the type of person where my glass is always half-full. This is our home.”

It’s the type of attitude that has sustained Drama throughout the year: When it rains lemons, make lemonade. After DJ Drama, widely known as the uncrowned king of mix CDs, was arrested, he pressed up T-shirts that read, “Free DJ Drama.” Hot 107.9 (WHTA-FM), the station that once hosted the Aphilliates’ “Gangsta Grillz Radio” program Saturdays at 8 p.m., temporarily took Drama off the air. Now Hot 107.9 features the program five nights a week: Monday through Thursday at 10 and the original Saturday time slot.

When police raided the offices, they seized the master copies for DJ Drama’s Atlantic Records debut, Gangsta Grillz: The Album. After DJ Drama re-recorded some tracks and commissioned new material, the album will finally drop Dec. 4. He talked about the album, his friend Tip “T.I.” Harris’ ongoing legal troubles (Drama is T.I.’s DJ), and why he calls mix CDs “the veins of hip-hop.”

CL: This is the same space that you had last time, right?

Drama: Same space. This is where they came. We’re still here.

CL: It actually looks like it’s cleaner, and there’s more stuff here than there was before.

Drama: They took everything, so we just had to rebuild. Basically, we went out, got new stuff, and went back to work. You know, we do our Sirius show from in here, so they had taken all our ISDN lines and everything. So we just had to put everything back together and get back to work. But I’m happy to say that we’re doing the show live here. We finished up the album and everything.

A lot of people were, like, “You’re going to stay there? Don’t you feel like it’s negative energy?” But it would only be negative energy if I felt as if everything turned out in a negative way. I’m the type of person where my glass is always half-full. This is our home. This is where we built a lot of things. So for me to feel like the energy wasn’t good in here, I mean, it is what we make it. It’s back to business.

(more…)

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