HULU's scripted WU-TANG CLAN origin series drops today and you should definitely, maybe watch (wait, "bursts of animation that are part FRITZ THE CAT, part Saturday morning cartoons" in one episode and "weathered, grindhouse cinematography" in another? Yeah, you should probably watch). But I'm here this morning to tell you to skip breakfast and everything else and watch the pilot episode of AMC's HIP-HOP: THE SONGS THAT SHOOK AMERICA, which the network has quietly dropped on YOUTUBE. It's about KANYE WEST's "JESUS WALKS" and it's as good a documentary about a single pop song as I've seen. Thrilling, soulful, emotional, deeply researched and beautifully woven into a story that arcs from the DIXIE CHICKS to drug rehab to the eternal question of whether a producer should be allowed to rap. I'm not sure I noticed till it was almost over that it was produced without a new Kanye interview (but with lots of vintage footage). The series, which premieres Oct. 13, is executive produced by a team that includes the ROOTS' QUESTLOVE and BLACK THOUGHT and documentarian ALEX GIBNEY and is partly based on SHEA SERRANO's THE RAP YEARBOOK. I'd already be renewing it for a second season if I had the power. Good quote about Kanye from DAME DASH: "He doesn't fail, he learns"... JUSTIN BIEBER's INSTAGRAM confession is genuinely moving and self-reflective and suggests he, too, is seeking the right side of the learn/fail matrix. It also raises some questions about what it means when pop stars open up in public about their mental health struggles. As a culture, we've encouraged it. POPDUST's EDEN ARIELLE GORDON wonders if we've encouraged it a bit too hard, and asks what happens when we get too much of this presumably good thing... Staff reductions at NATIVE INSTRUMENTS... Functionality reductions at ITUNES... Is anyone skeptical about pop music anymore? I'm not sure I agree with the premise of this tweet by SPEEDY ORTIZ's SADIE DUPUIS, but I'm here for the discussion... New York songs and stories, from "TAKE THE 'A' TRAIN" to "CONEY ISLAND BABY" to—it's a big city—"TRUCKIN'"... My boss has coined a new word. After seeing CLEVELAND.COM's list of the "200 Most Important Songs in Rock and Roll History," which is culled from the 660 songs that the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME credits with shaping rock, and noticing that HOWLIN' WOLF's "SMOKESTACK LIGHTNIN'" is slotted at #198, he's calling for a REDEFerendum. I'm not so sure about ELVIS PRESLEY's "HOUND DOG" at #1 myself. REDEFerendum granted. What say you?... RIP HALEY SMITH.