The Inter(connected) Net(work) of information became my best friend about 2 years ago. I was doing too much real world bullshit before that to be concerned with looking at screens & pressing buttons. I needed flesh & blood & stankin’ ass breath & facial expressions, all the things that summarize the human experience. & suddenly, I was hospitalized (more on that on April 1st), & my world, as I’d come to know it, has crippled & forever changed. So, those screens & buttons became my proverbial window to the world. Literally, I spent more time in 2008 in cyberspace than in the real world. It’s so easy to get caught up & addicted to the virtual world that there should be some sort of disclaimer for those with self esteem problems & addictive behavioral disorders. It’s like cigarettes with wires. But I digress.

Once I disconnected from the alternative universe of the ‘net, I remembered that life is an experience. People, smells, flavors. Even with porn, which is very hands-on (pun intended), there’s only so much interaction that can go on digitally. & this is where the music industry has follied. They’ve forgotten that real people still live on Planet Earth.

Back in the days, magazines had advertisements for new records. Grass roots campaign existed to get the word out. The financially dominant would even buy airtime & radio slots to promote their product(s). All these were attempts to get the living & breathing public to spend their money on something. People generally only tend to invest in something they can touch. Tangible reinforcement, if you will. Or at the least, something they can be made to feel a part of. Music today is not that item.

Wu-Tang Clan has a new project out, on Def Jam Records, & if it wasn’t for the ‘Net, I wouldn’t have even known. This is the same label that pushed Rick Ross into our faces for months. The same label that introduced us to a young James Todd Smith. Surely Ghost, Rae & Method Man are a valuable enough commodity to garner some real world advertising, especially on the heels of the Old Man Rap movement. Plus, Raekwon owned 2009. That has to count for something, right?

Memo to the industry: everybody didn’t swallow the red pill.

Twitter, Facebook & the ilk are good for those who live in the Matrix, but not everyone is tethered to some device that can stream local news & pornography simulataneously. Once record companies get their heads out of their asses, they won’t be scrambling to find a way out of an imaginary sales recession. I realize technology is the way to go, but until it’s the only way, put some signs on a Goddamned bus bench again. If you smell my cologne, that is.