TheLoop21.com

Protect yourself from credit card companies this holiday season Credit card companies are looking for any justification to charge consumers more, so you'll need to be especially careful with credit this year. ...

Hip-hop's mixtape regains control from record execs After 30 years of growth hip hop music was declared dead by rapper Nas after rap sales slid 21 percent from 2005 to 2006 and for the first time in 12 years no rap album was among the top 10 sellers of the year. To adapt the hip hop community adapted a laissez faire economics policy that may successfully put the record industry giants out of business if they don't step up to the learning curve. ...

Hip-hop artists adapt to changing industry As music becomes more and more readily available on the internet, record companies are being rendered obsolete because artists no longer need them to serve as an intermediary between their music and the masses. However, there is a debate as to whether or not giving away music for free is a smart idea and how this free market philosophy will affect the overall quality of music. Will consumers weed out the good from the bad, or will be the good be drowned in a sea of wannabes rushing to the Web to ...

Internet Buzz: Are Ebony, JET being stubborn? There are multiple e-mails going around the internet about an impending "financial collapse" of Johnson Publishing Company that ask readers to subscribe to these magazines in order to save them. But can a subscription drive even help the dying publications? Will its demise be blamed on the digital divide and black America's unwillingness to jump over to the internet? ...

Can Obama fix health care? President Obama announced a $2 trillion dollar industry pledge to slow the rising costs of health care in America but is the idea of a public option and universal health care a realistic goal? Or will public option stop Obama from achieving the necessary health care reform? ...