Call it what you want—hiphop, rap, urban—when it comes to branding opportunities, no area of music is as rife with potential and peril. Stephen Stoute knows firsthand. The former president of the top music companies in urban entertainment, Sony Records and Interscope, Stoute, 36, worked with JayZ, Nas, Mariah Carey, and Will Smith before finally setting off on his own to start Translation, a branding company that brings urban acts to clients like McDonalds, Verizon, GM, and Procter & Gamble. “The Web gave permission for different cultures to see what each other cultures are doing and all without intermediaries. Now, everyone has a clean penthouse view through the Web, you now have easy access to do that. But it can rapidly turn subcultures into pop cultures where it’s hard for them to exist. Hiphop is one of the few that’s still pretty uninterrupted by corporations.

1. NBA 2K7 for Xbox. When you’re at it, it’s totally adrenal.

2. JayZ’s Kingdom Come. Out of retirement to bring back rap’s golden era.

3. Entourage DVD Great storytelling, great use of pop culture.

4. Google Earth. I still can’t believe you can zero in on any address

5. Allhiphop.com News and streaming songs, where you get the latest music and freshest news first.

6. Customized kids bags as a gift from LL Bean Great kids’ gifts.
They make it soooo easy.

7. ESPN.com Real time sports info.
My central place for Dallas Cowboys info. I don’t know why I’m a Dallas fan.

8. Gnarls Barkley “Gone Crazy”
The tune that Danger Mouse produced—he is great.

9. Samsung global phone One of the few Verizon phones that works outside the US, and it works great.

10. YouTube. Believe it or not, I can look at it for hours. It’s really funny.

50 inch plasma TV PS-50Q7