Sputnikmusic

Sputnik's main page, captured on 22 January 2009.
URL	www.sputnikmusic.com
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	Music website
Registration	Yes
Available language(s)	English
Owner	Jeremy Ferwerda
Created by	Jeremy Ferwerda
Launched	January 2005
Current status	Active

Sputnikmusic, or simply Sputnik, is a music website offering music criticism and music news alongside features commonly associated with wiki-style websites. The format of the website is unusual in that it allows both professional and amateur content to co-exist, distinguishing it from similar music websites such as Pitchfork Media and Tiny Mix Tapes, as well as collecting and presenting a wiki-style metadata database in a manner comparable to Rate Your Music and IMDB.

Over time, the site has come to be established as a credible source, earning mentions in mainstream print,^[1] becoming a featured reviewer on Metacritic,^[2] and being used as a news source by other websites.^[3] As a general rule, the staff writers tend to focus on new releases; however, any user is welcome to submit a review of any album that has been officially released. All genres of music are covered by the site, with dedicated subsections for metal, punk, indie, rock, hip-hop, and pop; an 'Other' section also caters to electronica, jazz, reggae, trip-hop, classical music, and soundtracks.

The musical focus of the site's staff has often been on non-mainstream artists, with the likes of Burial, Kidcrash, Cynic, Kayo Dot, Off Minor, and The Tallest Man on Earth performing strongly in the staff-voted Best of 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2010 features.

History[link]

Sputnikmusic was originally launched by Jeremy Ferwerda as an offshoot from the Mxtabs network, which also included MusicianForums; the reviews that existed on the website on launch day had been imported from the latter's CD Reviews subforum. At this point, the site was simply a source of amateur content; it is also worth noting that due to its association with MXTabs, the site's focus was noticeably skewed toward guitar-based music, notably metal and rock, at this time.

In June 2006, following claims made by the MPA about the supposed illegality of music tabs,^[4] MXTabs was closed, later to be acquired by MusicNotes. At this time, Sputnikmusic became its own separate entity, with MusicianForums renamed as the SputnikMusic Forums.^[5] It was at this point that the focus of Sputnik began to shift toward providing professional content, with a news page added, and a stratification system implemented for reviewers. As part of this shift, several features have also sporadically been provided by the site's staff writers, including live reviews, interviews, exclusive MP3 streams, and year-end features.

Reviewer stratification[link]

Currently on Sputnikmusic, four classes of reviewer exist that demarcate whether content should be considered professional or not.

• Staff Writers are the writers who contribute the professional-standard content, which includes featured articles in addition to reviews. There are currently 28 staff reviewers,^[6] three of whom also act as moderators and administrators for the site.

• Contributing Reviewers can not contribute features, and are not eligible for inclusion by either Metacritic or Wikipedia, yet are acknowledged as being good writers who generate content of a high quality.

• Emeritus is a status given to former staff writers who no longer contribute to the site. Reviews by these users are acknowledged as professional.

• Users includes everybody who has not yet been promoted to any of the higher levels. Despite this, they can still contribute new reviews, artists, and albums to the database, edit data already present, and submit journals and lists.

Rating system[link]

Sputnikmusic operates a simple 5-point rating system, starting at 1, that allows .5 intervals. As a guide to new reviewers, each of these values is assigned a word, ranging from 'Awful' (1.0) to 'Classic' (5.0).

As well as showing the score a reviewer has given to the album, a review page will also show the scores given by other individual reviewers, and the average rating given by all users. Should enough users have rated the album, a bar chart will also be shown indicating how many votes each rating has.

Community Forum[link]

Sputnik Music is home to a very well known often notorious message board, with the same name, which is divided in subsections that host very different kinds of users within themselves, the community in this forum is composed of highly regarded sputnik reviewers, as well as some other music "aficionados" that discuss modern society philosophy and other high arts. The story of the forum started with MxTabs. MXTabs was a very popular tablature internet site but in 2006 due to copyright issues it was shut down, the forum however remained and was later named as SputnikMusic, in fact some members still call the current forum MX as a homage to the old days. As early as 2005, the forum gained a reputation in music circles for loosely moderated behavior bordering on the nonsensical where non aficionados often dominated boards for months at a time, finally leading to greater inactivity (2008-present).

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sputnikmusic
• Sputnikmusic Forums

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2010)

MC Lyte
Background information
Birth name	Lana Michele Moorer
Born	(1971-10-11) October 11, 1971 (age 40) Brooklyn, New York
Genres	Hip hop, R&B
Occupations	Emcee-songwriter, narrator, mentor, actress
Years active	1986–present
Labels	DuBose Music Group[1] First Priority Music Elektra Records
Website	MC Lyte.com

MC Lyte (born Lana Michele Moorer; October 11, 1971) is an American rapper who first gained fame in the late-1980s becoming the first solo female rapper to release a full album with 1988's critically acclaimed Lyte as a Rock.

Early life[link]

Lyte was born Lana Michelle Moorer in 1971. Raised in Brooklyn, Lyte began rapping at the age of 12. Two of her brothers later formed the hip-hop duo, Audio Two, which later helped to collaborate on Lyte's records. Lyte recorded her first song, "I Cram to Understand U (Sam)", in 1986. Lyte had originally written the song in 1984. The song, about a relationship that fell apart due to the protagonist's lover's crack addiction, got her notice from First Priority, who signed Lyte in late 1987. Soon after she was signed with Atlantic Records by its VP Sylvia Rhone.

Musical career[link]

Her first album, Lyte as a Rock, was released in September 1988 and was noted for the hit "Paper Thin" and the battle rap, "10% Dis", which was a response from then-Hurby Azor associate Antoinette. Both rappers released battle records against each other. Lyte followed her debut with 1989's Eyes on This, which spawned the hits "Cha Cha Cha" and "Cappucino". Both albums were notable for Lyte's uncensored lyrical matter. Lyte sweetened up a little on 1991's Act Like You Know, noted for its new jack swing sound and the hit single, "Poor Georgie". Lyte's fourth album, 1993's Ain't No Other, became her first to reach gold status and was notable for her first top 40 pop hit, "Ruffneck". Lyte became a featured artist on hits by Janet Jackson and Brandy in 1994.

Two years afterwards, Lyte's fifth album, Bad As I Wanna B, featured production from Jermaine Dupri and Sean Combs and featured the hits "Keep On, Keepin' On" and "Cold Rock a Party", which featured then up-and-coming rapper, songwriter and producer Missy Elliott. This album was her first with East West Records and became successful after the aforementioned singles became big hits with "Keep On Keepin' On" peaking at the top ten and "Cold Rock a Party" peaking at number-eleven. It was her second gold album. Her 1998 follow-up, Seven & Seven, however, wasn't as successful and she left East West by the end of the decade. Lyte released the independently produced record The Undaground Heat featuring Jamie Foxx, in 2003, notable for the song, "Ride Wit Me". The single was nominated for both a Grammy and a BET award.

Acting career[link]

Lyte has been featured on television as herself on such shows as MTV Unplugged, In Living Color, Moesha, New York Undercover, My Wife and Kids, and Sisters in the Name of Rap. She has also acted on TV as a character (not as "MC Lyte") in such shows as In the House, Get Real, Half & Half, and The District.

Her first acting role was in 1991, an off Broadway theater play entitled Club Twelve, a Hip-hop twist on The Twelfth Night alongside Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill and Lisa Nicole Carson. After she acted in a film was in the 1993 movie titled Fly by Night, starring alongside Jeffrey Sams, Ron Brice, and Steve Gomer. Since then she has also starred other films, such as A Luv Tale (1999), Train Ride (2000), Civil Brand (2002) and Playa's Ball (2003). She guest starred with Tyler the Creator and Childish Gambino on Regular Show.

Other activities[link]

In 1996 Lyte began what is now a very successful voice over career. She has voiced campaigns with several corporate brands. Lyte also voiced a short-lived BET show called "The Boot"^[2] and has just signed on to become a voice for the branding of the STARZ network.

In 2007 Lyte joined the cast of MTV's Celebrity Rap Superstar^[3] and coached Shar Jackson to a hip hop mc victory in a mere 8 weeks. During that same time Lyte hit the road in between shooting and joined The Roots for a nationwide VH1 House of Blues Tour.

She has also recently opened Shaitel, a Los Angeles boutique that specializes in accessories from belts to sunglasses. "We sell a mixture of new and vintage [items]," explains Lyte. "We also have a few signature pieces that are done just for the store. We boast to bring a little New York flavor out here to California." ^[4]

In February 2006, her diary, as well as a turntable, records, and other assorted ephemera from the early days of hip hop, were donated to the Smithsonian Institution.^[5] This collection, entitled "Hip-Hop Won’t Stop: The Beat, The Rhymes, The Life" is a program to assemble objects of historical relevance to the hip hop genre from its inception.^[6]

In October 2006, MC Lyte was one of the honored hip hop artists on VH1's annual award show Hip Hop Honors.^[7] She was joined by fellow female MC's Da Brat, Remy Ma, and Lil' Kim as they performed some of her tracks, "Cha Cha Cha," "Lyte as a Rock," "Paper-Thin," and "Ruffneck." She previously took part in the MTV reality series Celebrity Rap Superstar as the mentor of Moesha actress Shar Jackson. She is also an honorary member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.

In 2005, she released two songs produced by Richard "Wolfie" Wolf called "Can I Get It Now" & "Don't Walk Away" (with Meechie), both available at the iTunes store. In 2007, she released a song called "Mad at Me" available at the iTunes store. In 2008, she released two songs called "Juke Joint" (on both UK & US) & "Get Lyte" (exclusive to US) available at the iTunes store. In 2009, she released a song at the iTunes store called "Brooklyn."

MC Lyte's song "My main aim" is the title song for the console and computer game 'NBA Live 2005' by 'EA sports'.

Discography[link]

See also[link]

• Kalamazoo, Michigan

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• blog
• blog
• MC Lyte Interview, 9/15/09