Peer into the Def Jux crystal ball

DESPITE the download-ability of thousands upon thousands of tracks by

indie-affiliated recording artists, nobody ever mistook the “i” in iTunes to mean independent.

Earlier this month, New York-based alt-hip-hop imprint Definitive Jux decided to give Apple’s online megastore

some small “i” competition, launching its own download site,

store.definitivejux.net. Unlike Web-based music services such as eMusic or Rhapsody, Def’s is one of just three label-owned URLs in the world selling music, videos and exclusive content directly to fans. Songs go for a competitive 98 cents a pop.

“Music, and the way fans are interacting with it, is changing,” says rapper, producer and Def Jux co-founder Jaime “El-P” Meline. “But labels aren’t. We felt like we needed to get a jump on this [technology], to keep up with the way people are exchanging ideas. It’s an amazing way to communicate stuff and give back to your fans quicker.”

To get the site running, Def Jux has suspended the release of all physical products until 2007 and is shouldering steep overhead and development costs. “It’s a big leap of faith -- not a lot of labels are in a position where they can close up shop for a year,” says label co-founder Amaechi Uzoigwe. “But it’s an educated leap. And we think we have the content to turn this into something profitable. We’re not doing this to spite iTunes. We’re doing this to coexist.”

To wit: Apple certainly doesn’t offer turntable slipmats, rare 7-inch singles or hooded sweatshirts for sale like Def Jux, home to such “backpacker” rap favorites as Cannibal Ox, Murs and Aesop Rock.

Further, the label has established a new venture, DJRX Inc., to set up service for other indies similarly wishing to cut out the Internet middleman.

“When every record label has one of these [online stores] -- and it will happen,” Meline says, “I see it changing the culture of music.”

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A masterpiece takes time

THERE are at least three plausible reasons Interscope Records postponed the rollout of the Game’s album “The Doctor’s Advocate” from its original June 6 release date. But none, seemingly, has anything to do with the Compton rapper’s arrest on May 20 on suspicion of possession of a dangerous weapon that Burbank police say they found in his Bentley during a routine traffic stop (he is out on $20,000 bail).

“My second album is the highest-anticipated record coming out this year, and I’ve been spending long hours in the studio to make sure it’s a classic,” the Game said in a statement that also makes passing reference to “a flurry of new ventures,” including his role in the June cinematic thriller “Waist Deep.”

But others say the delay has more to do with super producer Dr. Dre, the Game’s mentor, whose precision beats and industry maneuvering played no small part in the smash success of the rapper’s debut, “The Documentary,” which has sold more than 4 million copies since its release last year.

Dre has been swamped with work lately, producing tracks for labelmate Busta Rhymes’ June album, “The Big Bang”; hard-core rapper Eve’s late ‘06/early ’07 album; and recent Interscope signees Bone Thugs-n-Harmony -- in addition to his long-awaited solo project, “Detox.”

The blogosphere, meanwhile, has been alight with rumors that the Game is experiencing creative cold feet -- that he’s nowhere without help from 50 Cent. The fellow Interscope rapper and Dre protege has been embroiled in a war of words with the Game since 2004.

And 50 has frequently claimed authorship of several hits on “The Documentary.” “You buy his records, you make me rich,” he said at the taping of an MTV special last year.

For his part, the Game isn’t talking. Much. “Look out for my masterpiece late summer,” he said.

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Dirty Dozen do ‘What’s Going On’

AUGUST will mark the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s Gulf Coast rampage. And 2006 marks the 35th anniversary of Marvin Gaye’s epochal paean to hard times, “What’s Going On.”

That confluence of commemorative dates wasn’t lost on New Orleans’ Dirty Dozen Brass Band, which has recorded its own version of the socially conscious album classic, due Aug. 22 from Shout! Factory Records.

Among those helping the group reinterpret Gaye’s songs in the key of strife: Ivan Neville, G. Love, Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Bettye Lavette.