HipHopWired Reports
Super producer turned movie director QD3 is gearing to unleash a barrage of DVD projects in the next few months. Taking a break from the highly successful Beef DVD series, QD3 told Hip-Hop Wired exclusively:
“We got a Lil' Wayne film that we just finished that we took to Sundance that'll be coming out real soon and then we have two other films. One that's about urban skateboarding called Concrete Jungle with guys like T.K. (Terry Kennedy) blowing up. We did a documentary on that because we felt like the whole skate movement is a real nice alternative to see another opportunity for inner city kids. Just like basketball and Hip-Hop, it's another lane for us to take now. We want to help accelerate that movement in a big way and urban skateboarding is huge in California for sure.”
QD3 also connected with Hip-Hop stars including Young Buck, Mobb Deep's Prodigy, Fat Joe and Mos Def for another shocking documentary. He stated to Hip-Hop Wired:
"We did another one called Number One With A Bullet which is about gun violence in the Hip-Hop community. It's done from a different perspective. In this movie… a lot of time rappers will act like it didn't hurt when they got shot and its a lot of bravado involved especially when they show it in music videos so in this film we're trying to show the other side. We have artist tell the real story and talk about the recovery. We have doctors and psychologists and artists themselves telling the story of what really happened in an effort to sort of deglamorize gun violence. By the time you get finish watching this movie, you're not gonna want to see guns at all.
After talking with the artists you'll definitely get the message that there's another side to gun violence than what you hear in the songs a lot of times. It humanizes it and CNN came to one of the screenings and said, "They've never seen Hip-Hop artist speak in this way before.” It was a completely different look. We spoke with a lot of the guys from G-Unit. We got B-Real in the movie, Ice Cube, Obie Trice and a whole bunch of other people.”
QD3 also made headlines several months back after legal battles over his authorized feature documentary The Carter, which focuses on the life of Lil' Wayne. After the film was completed, Wayne filed a lawsuit over “scandalous portrayal” and stated that he was supposed to receive final approval over the film before its showing and that some footage could be detrimental to his reputation and career…in particular him sipping syrup throughout the film. The case eventually was rejected. Not focusing on the negative, QD3 maintained, “I can't really speak on that but I think a lot of that was just miscommunication.” He further added to Hip-Hop Wired:
“The main thing that the documentary shows… I think a lot of people would imagine that Wayne is hanging out in clubs with a bunch of women and drinking champagne and that sort of thing. But I would say the main thing you learn when you watch the film is that Wayne is a workaholic. Straight up. After seeing this I think a lot of people will respect his process a lot more. We were with him like 7 or 8 months before he went platinum and then maybe two months after. That's the period we were shooting him for and I remember one day when he got a text from Sylvia Rhone that he went platinum, he was like, “O.K.” He didn't even flinch. He was “O.K., cool” and “get off my bus, I gotta record.”
His whole thing is he's like tireless worker and a lot of people will be very surprised how he's 100% dedicated to his craft and he's also daring like when he's on stage and in the studio, like there's no boundaries for him creatively. I think when people see it they're gonna have a whole different type of respect for him seeing him so young and successful yet staying truly focused on being good and becoming better. That's the main thing and it's not a whole lot of ego or fanfare about who he is as a star in the film at all. Wayne stays on his bus and he's got a recording studio up there and that's his life. So even if he pulls up at a hotel, sometimes he'll be on the bus just to record.
I really gained a lot of respect for him in that regard in terms of how he approaches his records and then how hard he works. I would have to say…I worked with Tupac a lot and I feel like he may end up with a bigger catalogue than Tupac if he hasn't already. That kid works, he's a hard worker, super focused and doesn't get caught up in the industry like that. He just stays in the studio all the time.”
Check out the trailers below for The Carter and Number One With A Bullet.
Read more…
HipHopWired Reports
Lawyers for Amaru Entertainment scored a major victory against Morgan Creek Productions in the Superior Court for the State of California on Tuesday, September 1, when Judge Richard E. Rico ruled in their favor and upheld Amaru Entertainment's cross-complaint for tortious intentional interference. A trial date has now been set for Tuesday, April 13, 2010.
Skip Miller of Miller Barondess, LLP in Los Angeles, attorney for Amaru Entertainment, said:
"We are pleased with the court's ruling yesterday morning. It supports our claim that Morgan Creek tortiously interfered with the making of the Tupac Shakur movie. I look forward to trying this case and have the jury decide the matter. Morgan Creek has a history of bullying people into giving them rights they did not acquire. This time, they picked on the wrong people."
The litigation started when Morgan Creek filed suit against Amaru Entertainment in February this year, alleging that the company had "backed out of negotiations" and was currently "refusing to honor and perform a contract of a production for a film based on the life of Tupac Shakur." According to a press statement, “There was never any agreement as key deal terms had never been agreed upon between the parties. This was a scheme by Morgan Creek to bully Amaru Entertainment into doing a movie with them and interfere with Amaru Entertainment's negotiations for the film with other studios.”
In the ruling yesterday, the court held that Amaru adequately stated a claim against Morgan Creek for interference by making "intentional misrepresentations of fact to third-party studios claiming to own the film rights and threatening them to back off on further negotiations with Amaru Entertainment."
Read more…
AllHipHop Reports
Thirteen years after his death, Tupac Shakur’s first Hip-Hop recordings will now become available through a forthcoming album entitled Shakurspeare.
The project is the brainchild of Darrin Keith Bastfield, CEO of Born Busy Records. Bastfield was one of Shakur’s early collaborators, and the two formed a group together called Born Busy when a 16-year old Tupac first began to rap.
For long-time fans, the album will offer the first glimpses of Tupac’s Hip-Hop journey, back when he was known by his first rap name of MC New York.
"I was there when Tupac heard himself for the first time rapping on a recording. As he sat in the cafeteria of the Baltimore School for the Arts it was as if he couldn’t believe that he was listening to himself,” Bastfield told AllHipHop.com. “Just as Tupac was quietly amazed by hearing himself, I want people to hear Tupac as a young artist in his very first recordings ever having fun, rapping about issues that concerned us, and most importantly giving a cautionary and timely ‘Message of Peace’ in his own voice as if he was already a big rap star with a reputation to uphold.”
The title Shakurspeare is an allusion to a conversation between Bastfield and a 17 year-old Shakur, where the aspiring emcee revealed that he dreamed of becoming as renowned Shakespearean actor.
The LP cover will illuminate this motif by having a Bastfield oil painting depicting Shakur as Shakespeare.
"This project was a very spiritual undertaking for me, but most importantly it is about creating art and being educational. The vocals to the songs we wrote were all recorded accapella in 1988 on a cassette tape,” Bastfield explained. “Through technology the vocals were able be extracted, digitally mastered, and put to contemporary music that was produced in 2008. I wanted to keep the recordings as close to the vein of our ideas from back in the day. As far as new material to assist with the concept of the album as being like an audio documentary, I chose to work with producers and artists in my own backyard which are native of Baltimore, Maryland which includes International Jazz recording artist Maysa. My life and times with Tupac Shakur all happened in Baltimore, so I wanted the spirit of the Shakurspeare album, just as the book, to stay consistent.”
The new album will mark Bastifield’s second Tupac Shakur project. In 2002, he released the book Back in the Day: My Life and Times with Tupac Shakur through One World/Ballantine.
At press time, Shakurspeare will be released digitally on September 13 through Born Busy Records.
Read more…
An album of unreleased music from Tupac Shakur will be among a series of new releases coming from WIDEawake Entertainment Group, the owner of Death Row Records.
The Canada-based development company will allow music publisher EverGreen to serve as the worldwide administration company of Death Row via a recently signed deal.
Under the long-term agreement, EverGreen will administer and handle licensing for all Death Row music catalog compositions and master recordings.
In addition, the company will process all mechanical and performance royalties in the catalog. EverGreen’s rights to market, promote and collect royalties on all copyrights and master recordings in the Death Row catalog will be extended from the joint venture.
Among the material affected will be more than 10,000 released and unreleased songs by Shakur, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Tha Dogg Pound, Kurupt, Daz Dillinger and Nate Dogg as well as never-before released albums by Crooked I, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, RBX, The Lady of Rage, Warren G, K-Solo, Danny Boy and DJ Quik, among others.
The WIDEawake/Evergreen alliance comes after WIDEawake's $18 million purchase of Death Row in January.
In the coming months, the resuscitated label will release new music, including Shakur’s unreleased work.
The release of the late rap icon’s material will commemorate Shakur’s birthday in 2010.
Unreleased material from Shakur will not be the only music to surface from Death Row’s return.
The label is gearing up to re-release Dr. Dre’s classic album The Chronic.
The Chronic re-release, titled The Chronic Re-Lit, will include four unreleased bonus tracks as well as a DVD of never before seen video footage of Dr. Dre and other artists.
The Chronic Re-Lit is slated to hit stores on September 1, while the Death Row box sets will arrive in time for the holidays.
Source :ALLHIPHOPRead more…
Afeni Shakur has confirmed the participation of more celebrities for today’s (June 16) Atlanta celebration of her son’s birthday. The idea for the event originated with co-host Mike Epps, who worked hard to fit in the festivities with his national comedy tour commitment, and two new movies in “Next Day Air” and “Janky Promoters.”
The benefit concert will take place in the Tupac Amaru Center for the Arts, and feature appearances from Big Boi, Dungeon Family, Playas Circle, Bun B, Lil Scrappy, Young LA, B.o.B., and Eightball and MJG.
Along with Mike Epps, hosting duties will be handled by Dead Prez member M-1.
While attending the concert, first-time visitors to the Stone Mountain facility can experience the rotating exhibits, gift shop, 6-acre Peace Garden, and purchase Tupac memorabilia.
Tickets for the event are $25, and can be purchased at www.tasf.org, or the Tupaac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts box office, located on 5616 Memorial Drive in Stone Mountain, GA.
All proceeds from the fundraising concert will go to the Tupac Amaru Center for the Arts.
In the thirteen years since his death, Tupac has become an iconic figure whose influence has been studied on musical, educational, and social levels.
Today, Tupac Amaru Shakur would have celebrated his 38th birthday.
Read more…
}