Jadakiss, Styles P and Sheek Louch drop off brand new visuals for their fans. The Lox trio release an official music video for their collaboration with Tyler Woods entitled "Horror." This is off of their new EP, The Trinity: 2nd Sermon.
Lil Kim a.k.a. The Queen Bee is on a roll as she releases her third song this week. The Brooklyn, New emcee follows up her "Flawless" remix and "Identity Theft" with a remix of Bobby Shmurda's"Hot Nigga." Download it here http://linkmixes.com/hg41a3n07nqg
Lil Kim is not done going in on her archenemy Nicki Minaj. A couple of days after throwing shots at her rival on Beyonce's"Flawless" remix, the Queen Bee is back, accusing Nicki of "Identity Theft." Listen up top.
Inspired by his wife, Sean Price dusts off the instrumental to Super Lover Cee and Casanova Rud's 1987 song "Do the James" and flips it into a new joint entitled "El Raheim" featuring Rim from Da Villins. Download it here https://soundcloud.com/sean-p/el-raheim-feat-rim-from.
G-Unit emcee Young Buck is on "Fye" in his latest release. The track is off of the Buck-hosted mixtape, Traps-N-Trunks 82. Download the song here http://linkmixes.com/z6ziyj1szfmp.
DJ Whoo Kid, Coach PR and DJ Ceasar will release their Wake & Bake Volume 1 mixtape on April 20. One of the tracks featured on the project is "Hydroponic" with Kurupt, B-Real, Wiz Khalifa, Malley Mall and Knotch. Download here http://www.audiomack.com/song/paperchaserdotcom/hydroponic.
Follow Kurupt, B-Real, Wiz Khalifa, Malley Mall, Coach PR, DJ Ceasar and DJ Whoo Kid on Twitter.
Let's begin with a disclaimer: Nas doesn't endorse the following sentence.
But he's the greatest lyricist of all time.
Those words were carefully chosen: "lyricist" over "rapper" or "hip-hop artist;" "greatest" instead of "most successful;" "all time" rather than "today."
Those distinctions are important. Still, Nas isn't buying it.
"It's wayyyyyy, way, way too early in our lives," he said when asked where he fits among history's best MCs. "It's great to put a list together, but don't take it too seriously because your list won't matter 10 years from now or 15 years from now. It'll be a different list."
OK, no lists then; just a strong case for Nas being the best rhymesmith ever, the GOAT, numero uno, and a humble concession that this is but one man's opinion and yours are enthusiastically welcomed below.
With "Life is Good," Nas dropped his ninth No. 1 hip-hop album since 1994. Seven of those have gone platinum, which places him second among rappers only to Jay-Z with 11. (We're not counting compilations or collaborations here, only original solo efforts, and yes, Tupac Shakur had nine, but five were posthumous releases.)
It also ties Nas with Snoop Dogg or Snoop Lion or whatever his name is, and it puts the Queens native one plaque ahead of Eminem, Too Short, OutKast and LL Cool J, all of whom belong in the greatest-ever discussion, as well.
Hold on, you say? OutKast is not a solo act? And if they're included, why not the Beastie Boys, who also have six platinum records?
Agreed, but dissect OutKast into the individual components of Big Boi and André 3000, and you have two of the most technically deft rhymers to bless the mic. (Another disclaimer: This article's author is an ATLien.)
From 1994's "Southernplayalisticcadillacmuzik" to 2003's "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below," OutKast owned most hip-hop rivals, but since then -- barring the "Idlewild" soundtrack -- they've fallen off considerably: Big Boi has put out a pair of tepidly received solo efforts, André a few razor commercials.
While commercial success is important to the equation -- and the sole reason the brilliant Talib Kweli and Pharoahe Monch aren't included in the debate -- it's only one variable.
This debate, if you will, isn't so much about who can move the most rump in a club, but rather, if we were delivered back to 1800, who could hold their own with Coleridge and Wordsworth. It's why we're arguing lyricists and not artists.
The big 4-0
In a genre not known for the longevity of its luminaries, making it 10, 15, 20 years means you're a survivor -- and you survive only if people keep buying your music.
Unlike his aforementioned brethren in the Multiplatinum Club, Nas has done that without a platinum single. Not "Street Dreams." Not "Nas is Like." Not "Made You Look." Not one.
It means his fans want the entire package, the album as a complete work of art -- an endangered concept in the days of iTunes and Spotify.
Given the occasional knocks on Nas' production, it's got to be the lyrical wizardry that keep folks coming back, right? As he turns 40 this year -- sorry if that makes "Illmatic" fans feel old -- he's adapted to every sea change in rap and weathered every label, right or wrong, affixed to him.
"I've been called everything. Gangsta rap. I've been called conscious rap. You know, everything. Whoever feels like calling it whatever they want to call it, that's on them," he said.
Asked how he could be called socially responsible in one breath and a glorifier of violence in the next, Nas said he's not responsible for such tags.
"Don't blame me; blame our wonderful country, America. And you can't even blame America. It's life. Blame life. I talk about life, and I make universal music with an American style -- and that's what I do," he said. "I know one thing: People put too many labels on music."
Strange thing is, Nas didn't know he wanted to be a rapper when he was young, he said.
"There wasn't a lot of things that I wanted to do where African-Americans were achieving what we achieve today because it just wasn't allowed, funny enough to say," said the son of jazz cornet player Olu Dara. "I was trying to figure out, should I become a screenplay writer? Should I be a movie director? Should I make music for theater? I was thinking in the arts, anything that had to do with the arts. Of course, I never had a job in my life, and so I was just this dude that was hanging out -- a vagabond, if you will, in New York."
That's when Large Professor noticed his lyrical skills. A member of Main Source, Xtra P put him on the track "Live at the Barbeque."The song, funky in its own right, is considered a classic today because it introduced the nation to a phenom from Queensbridge Houses named Nasir Jones.
'A street dude with morals'
QB's Finest remembers well when he first heard himself spit, "Street's disciple, my raps are trifle/I shoot slugs from my brain just like a rifle."
He was in his old neighborhood late at night, and he heard the radio playing from a car on the corner. Some older guys were standing around, "doing their thing, talking and kicking it," Nas recalled.
"As I'm walking by, 'Live at the Barbeque' comes on, and I'm like 'Ohhh!' And I stopped, and I was like, 'Wow, this can't be real. This can't be real. This is me,'" he said. "I'm trying to let them know that's me. And they're kind of like, 'Cool,' and go back to their conversation. But it didn't matter. I was so caught up to hear myself on the radio for the first time; I was in heaven."
That was the summer of 1991. Nas was 17. By contrast, Kendrick Lamar, one of hip-hop's hottest new artists, had just turned 4.
There may be 21 years between his first 26 bars on wax and his latest LP, but that doesn't mean "Life is Good" is geriatric rap, even if Spin magazine prescribed it "for the 40-and-over crowd." Nas said he was "humbled" by the review, though his shows seem to be packed with 20-somethings.
"It's important for me to give an honest opinion on the way the world has changed. I feel like it's just who I am today," he said. "To answer your earlier question, why I'm still around, it's because honesty is the best policy. 'The truth shall set you free,' in the words of the great Aunt Esther from 'Sanford and Son.' ... And I think that's where Spin is wrong. It's not for 40-year-olds. It's just for people who know what's up" (One more disclaimer: The author didn't ask, "Why are you still around?" in a snarky way.)
Which brings us back to the debate. Nas' 40th birthday in September will put him in the company of elite survivors, though only a few of hip-hop's quadragenarians can legitimately challenge him for title of best lyricist.
You've got DJ Quik, Sean Price, Tech N9ne and Doom -- all talented rhymers, but no Nases. There's also Common, E-40, Ice Cube, Busta Rhymes, Scarface, Slick Rick and Q-Tip -- again, a poetic bunch who've been in the game for more than a minute -- but none is Nas.
Big Daddy Kane, Rakim and Kool G Rap, all 44, were game changers, trailblazers even, but their catalogs get thinner the deeper you move into the '90s.
Ghostface Killah and Raekwon made their marks on hip-hop and still do today, but they enjoyed more successes as members of the Wu-Tang Clan.
In fact, despite the well-warranted accolades heaped upon these five, there's only one platinum plaque among them: Ghost's "Ironman." (The forever-dope "Paid in Full" doesn't count. Sorry, solo efforts only.)
Dr. Dre, 47, and Snoop Dogg, 41, have long enjoyed broad appeal, from college campuses to Compton corners, but neither is known for the complexity of his content or rhyme schemes. Their production is always extraordinary, and they know how to make heads nod, but lyrically? It's more fun than prophetic.
'Exercise till the microphone dies'
Which brings us to the top five, the professors emeritus. Out of respect for Nas' aversion to lists, let's handle them in no particular order.
Eminem is a beast. As Nas points out, the list will be different in 10 years, and Slim Shady may be atop it, but in 2013 you can't challenge Nas if you dropped your first LP in 1999.
Then there's Pac and Biggie -- and the point where the debate might venture into hurting someone's feelings.
Makaveli dropped six albums, four of them platinum, between 1991 and 1996 before he was gunned down in Las Vegas. The Notorious B.I.G. put out his first record in 1994 and was slain in Los Angeles weeks before his second release, "Life After Death," in 1997.
Both have successful releases after their killings, but their life spans, tragically, were too brief, and for that reason -- and that reason only -- it's unfair to put them up against a man with two decades in the game.
Nas still believes Pac and Biggie are "two of the greatest who've ever done it," and it's not because they died. Big L died. Guru died. Big Pun, Eazy-E and Ol' Dirty Bastard died, but they didn't leave the same legacy.
"I just think Biggie was something else. He was the Hitchcock of this thing, man. He told you a story. There was a seriousness that came with it that can't compare with nothing," Nas said.
He wishes the pair hadn't been taken in their mid-20s, he said, because they "would be at the top of the game" today, and they would've pushed him.
"I'd probably be better if they were still around," he said. "I think I'd be a lot better."
"To leave us with that kind of music at that young age is exceptional. There's no other word to say," he said. "They were bigger than all of us, even today -- their music, their sound, their topics. The way the world listened to them was a lot bigger than I would even say myself and the rest of us ... I don't think today we've made an official impact that those guys were just starting to make."
Watch the throne
... And then there was one: Jay-Z, a man who spent the late 1990s and early 2000s also pushing Nas, and his buttons, during their quest to rock Biggie Smalls' "King of New York" crown.
Let's not bother with the details of their long-snuffed beef or who said what about whom on what album (though, let's face it, Nas' Ginsu verses on "Ether" made Jay's "Takeover" and "Super Ugly" sound a little nanny-nanny-boo-boo. Jigga himself called "Ether" an inescapable "figure-four leg lock").
But it's interesting to note what happened once their ugly rivalry was quashed.
Jay-Z had been named president of Def Jam Records, one of the most powerful posts in hip-hop. Jay-Z could have gone Mortal Kombat and finished Nas. He could've at least used his clout to make life unpleasant for the man who once called him gay, arguably the worst accusation you can levy in the macho world of hip-hop.
What did he do instead? He signed Nas and made a guest appearance on his first Def Jam album.
Or as Hova put it in a 2006 interview with MTV, "I didn't sign Nas; I partnered with Nas. You can't sign an artist of Nas' stature. You can only partner with him. ... Like I said, it's always been a level of respect there. I, for not one second, ever said I don't believe that he's one of the best lyricists ever."
Here is where that "lyricist" v. "hip-hop artist" distinction becomes important.
Jay-Z said it best himself: He's not a businessman; he's a business, man. When you consider 11 of his albums have sold at least a million copies -- seven of those 2 million or more -- as have his four collaborations, two with R. Kelly and one each with Linkin Park and Kanye West, it's as if Hova is King Midas, but with platinum.
He's a hit maker extraordinaire, maybe the world's best, but that doesn't translate to best lyricist. Jay-Z acknowledged as much on"Moment of Clarity" when he rhymed, "If skills sold, truth be told/I'd probably be, lyrically, Talib Kweli."
Even in dissing Nas on "Takeover," he explained why he had sampled Nas' lyrics on "Dead Presidents": "So yeah, I sampled your voice; you was using it wrong/you made it a hot line; I made it a hot song."
And that, friends, is the crux of the debate: hot lines vs. hot songs. No one would deny Hova his dap, but it seems he has said, in both word and action, that it's tough to top Nas.
'Nasty, Nas the Esco to Escobar'
So, who's up next? A&Rs have sought the next great MC since Afrika Bambaataa dropped "Planet Rock."
Nas was once dubbed the next Rakim. Rick Ross has been called the next Biggie (Last disclaimer: not by this author). Kendrick Lamar has been called the next Pac. Everyone from 50 Cent to Lupe Fiasco to J. Cole has been labeled the next Nas.
Who does Nastradamus foresee filling his shoes? He doesn't like that question any more than he likes lists.
"There was never a next Rakim. There's only one Rakim, and you can compare people to me, which is a great honor to me, but those guys are really on their path to becoming great Kendricks and greater Lupes," he said. "I think it took years after 'Illmatic,' after my first record, before people started to get used to me and started to get into what I was all about and what the Nas story was."
Nas' brilliance may lie in his ability to keep adapting that story through the years, whether it's from the days when he "dropped out of Cooley High/gassed up by a cokehead cutie pie" or lessons learned as father to his teen daughter, Destiny: "She heard stories of her daddy thuggin'/so if her husband is a gangster, can't be mad, I love him."
He's been the hustling street kid known as Nasty Nas and the jeweled-up don named Escobar after the world's most famous drug lord.
He's been the thug, the black righteous militant, the philosopher, so it's not really weird that he has such broad appeal when he's just as likely to allude to Tony Montana as he is Huey P. Newton or Ivan Van Sertima in his rhymes.
Nas declined to say whether he'd still be rapping in 20 years, though he did offer an assessment on what hip-hop might look like two decades from now.
"It's always going to be youthful expression. It's always going to be a good time. It's always going to be poetry, in the vein of Langston Hughes. At the same time, it's entertaining and party and fun likeLuther Campbell," he said, "but it's always going to just be the youth expressing themselves over the sounds that move people in the best way."
Kind of fitting he referenced a Harlem Renaissance poet and 2 Live Crew in that answer.
Who is the greatest lyricist ever in your opinion?
As was the case with Tupac Shakur, a sex tape has emerged involving late West Coast singer Nate Dogg according to TMZ.
The 5-minute tape is being shopped to various porn outlets without any offers being made so far. Hopefully a buyer won't surface and Nate can rest in peace.
DJ Kay Slay brings the Outlawz and Lil Cease together to remember the legacies of two of the best that ever did it, Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur. "Bury The Hatchet" is the latest video from Kay Slay's upcoming album Rhyme or Die which will be released in 2012.
Los Angeles (CNN) -- A task force made up of local and federal law enforcement agencies is actively pursuing leads into the 1997 slaying of hip hop artist Christopher Wallace, better known as Biggie Smalls or Notorious B.I.G., according to two sources familiar with the investigation.
According to one law enforcement source, the investigation into the 13-year-old unsolved case was "reinvigorated" months ago as a result of new information, but the source would not elaborate further because of the ongoing investigation that includes the Los Angeles Police Department, L.A. County District Attorney's Office and the FBI.
On March 9, 1997, Wallace, 24, was shot and killed while riding in a Suburban that was driving away from a music industry party at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles police said a lone gunman in a Chevy Impala pulled alongside the Suburban and opened fire on Wallace, who was in the passenger seat. Witnesses described the suspect as being an African-American man wearing a suit and bow tie.
The main theory behind shooting was payback in a so-called rap war between East and West Coast hip hop artists and their record companies -- Bad Boy Entertainment in New York, which represented Wallace, and Death Row Records, headed by Marion "Suge" Knight, in Los Angeles.
Six months earlier in Las Vegas, a gunman opened fire on a car driven by Knight, killing one of his top artists Tupac Shakur. That murder remains unsolved also.
"East Coast was Biggie, West Coast was Tupac," Wallace's mother Voletta Wallace told a filmmaker in the 2002 documentary "Biggie and Tupac."
"Come on now, you're messing with lives here and that's exactly what happened. Two lives were lost as a result of what? Stupidity?" Voletta Wallace told the filmmaker.
Retired Los Angeles Police Detective Russell Poole, who worked on the Wallace case, told CNN that he believes Knight was behind the murder, even though the Death Row Records' boss was serving time on a probation violation at the time.
Russell Poole
"Suge Knight ordered the hit," Poole said, adding that he believes it was arranged by Reggie Wright Jr., who headed security for Death Row Records.
Reggie Wright Jr. told CNN he had nothing to do with the murder, and Knight has repeatedly said he had nothing to do with the crime. Poole said he retired early from the LAPD, in part, because he was thwarted in following leads in the Wallace case involving police officers, some of whom worked off-duty for Death Row Records.
"I think I was getting too close to the truth," Poole said. "I think they feared that the truth would be a scandal."
One of the officers Poole said was involved is David Mack, a rogue policeman tied to the LAPD Rampart Scandal, who was sent to prison for robbing a bank in 1997, the same year Wallace was killed.
David Mack
Poole said Mack owned the same type of car driven by the gunman who shot Wallace, and Poole said a friend of Mack's resembles a police sketch of the shooter.
CNN was unable to reach Mack for comment, but when allegations of his involvement in Wallace' slaying originally surfaced more than a decade ago, his criminal defense attorney Donald Re called the claims ridiculous.
Poole also assisted Wallace's family in their wrongful death lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department alleging a cover-up in the investigation.
Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks was the chief of police when Poole was investigating, and he told CNN the accusations about a police cover-up are "absurd."
"We would have never ignored a lead that could have helped us solve that murder," Parks said.
Perry Sanders, Voletta Wallace's attorney, told CNN the family's lawsuit, which was originally filed in 2002, was put on hold in April after Los Angeles police said turning over evidence from the case would interfere with a beefed up investigation.
01. Fear Factor Intro (feat. DJ Smallz)
02. From The Bottom (Prod. by Cy Fyre)
03. Dream Big (Prod. by A-One)
04. Kush Dreams (feat. Freeway) (Prod. by BandGeeks)
05. It Ain’t Over (Prod. by DrumGang)
06. Most Of My Life (Prod. by Cy Fyre)
07. I Can’t Complain (feat. Stormey) (Prod. by Lexx Lucazi)
08. Killuminati 2K10 (feat. Mainavent) (Prod. by Cozmo)
09. Cooley High (feat. Tey Martel & Tony Atlanta) (Prod. by Cy Fyre)
10. Never See Tommoro (feat. Ali Bang & Bigg Mizz) (Prod. by 2Face)
11. They Wanna Know (Prod. by BandGeeks)
12. Edi – Reach For The Sky (Prod. by BeatFanatik)
13. Fatal – Do It Right (Prod. by Hussein Fatal)
14. Young Noble – Great Grandaddy Kush (Prod. by J Remy)
15. Seen It All (feat. Young Buck) (Prod. by BandGeeks)
16. She Fresh (Prod. by Cozmo)
17. Fillmoe Slim (Prod. by Cy Fyre)
18. Facedown (feat. DJ XRated) (Prod. by BandGeeks)
19. Feel Good For Ya (Prod. by Mista Marcus)
20. Count My Blessings (feat. The Jacka) (Prod. by Automatik)
21. Gotta Get It (feat. Yung LA) (Prod. by Cozmo & Maxwell Smart)
22. Immortals (feat. GLC) (Prod. by Tha Formula)Outlawz still out here grindingDownload HereRead more…
Posted by ChasinDatPaper on September 14, 2010 at 7:55am
Audio After The JumpShade 45's Angela Yee caught up with 50 Cent last night before his performance at the Eminem/Jay-Z Yankee Stadium show.
Fif addresses reports of Jimmy Henchman being a federal informant. Says Young Buck is still signed to G-Unit despite Buck filing for bankruptcy and trying to get out of his deal.
Fif also addresses rumors that women have to sign a confidentiality agreement before he sleeps with them.
Read more…
Posted by ChasinDatPaper on September 13, 2010 at 6:55pm
In the rap world, "stop snitching" is a powerful mantra - and the star known as The Game is one of its most popular proponents.
But the New York man who manages Game and other hip-hop heavyweights - Jimmy (Henchman) Rosemond - is named as an informer in court records, the Daily News has learned.
Rosemond has given information at least three times to state and federal law enforcement officials since the mid-1990s, documents reveal.
One of Rosemond's former lawyers even cited his repeated cooperation with the authorities in asking for leniency in a Los Angeles gun case.
He noted that Rosemond's dime-dropping helped Brooklyn prosecutors send a man to jail - exactly what the "stop snitching" campaign rails against.
Investigators say it's hypocrisy: Rosemond dishes when it suits him, yet makes a fortune off artists like Game (real name Jayceon Terrell Taylor), who titled a 2005 album "Stop Snitchin/Stop Lyin."
Another artist on the Czar Entertainment roster, Blood Raw, writes in his bio that he didn't cooperate after a drug bust because "I could never live and face my son knowing that I had snitched."
Rosemond's new lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, says his client is no snitch, no matter what's in court papers.
"The fact is that prosecutors later claimed he flat-out lied to them, and they weren't happy about it," said Lichtman, a top defense lawyer. He noted his client never signed a cooperation agreement.
"He met with [federal prosectors] for a single session, but there are plenty of reasons people meet with prosecutors. His lawyer at the time inflated what happened in an attempt to get a better sentence, and it didn't work."
This is what the court records show:
While Rosemond was held on a drug and gun case in North Carolina in 1996, four inmates plotted a jailbreak and asked him to join. He alerted authorities and spent several days in solitary to avoid retribution, his lawyer at the time wrote in court papers obtained by The News from federal archives.
In 1997, facing bail-jumping charges in New York, Rosemond gave information about crooked jail officials who altered paperwork to let him post bail.
He made "several monitored phone calls to one of the correction officers,", but the target was suspicious and "reluctant to speak with Mr. Rosemond," court papers said.
A year later, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn contacted Rosemond, seeking his cooperation in what documents describe only as a "historical criminal investigation."
Rosemond was "debriefed at length by federal agents and prosecutors." The defendant was convicted at trial, "confirming the accuracy of his information provided by Mr. Rosemond to the government," his then-lawyer noted.
Before he was sentenced in the L.A. gun case in 2000, Rosemond's then-lawyer argued for leniency because of his "assistance." The judge gave him 19 months, citing only the prosecutors' delay in bringing the case.
Rosemond, a Brooklyn native who got his start as a party promoter, has a rap sheet that dates back to a bike theft when he was 16. In 2006, he got three years' probation for a fight with a disk jockey.
He may not be an angel, but Lichtman wants to make clear he's also not a rat. "Law enforcement has been targeting Rosemond for years, desperate to take him down. Ray Charles could see Rosemond has not been a cooperator and was never considered one by the government," Lichtman said.
Source: NY Daily NewsRead more…
Texas rapper Bun-B has been keeping it trill for almost two decades. As 1/2 of the legendary rap duo UGK along with the late Pimp C, Bun started dropping gems when a lot of these younger rapper were still in diapers.
On his third solo album, Trill O.G. Bun has received the highest honor The Source magazine can hand out by earning the coveted 5 mics for the perfect album.
The Source writes:
"Trill O.G. scored high enough to receive 5 mics, the holy grail of Hip-Hop ratings, granting it admission into an elite club of timeless musical compositions that span over 20 years. The album rating system has been a staple for the magazine in announcing which artists have put together the best album from start to finish. Bun B is the first artist to receive this honor in over 5 years."
The album has features from Drake, Young Jeezy, Pimp-C, 2Pac, Slim Thug, Gucci Mane and Yo Gotti.
Bun issued a statement regarding the 5 mic rating:
When I started rapping, the highest honor a real MC could aspire to was the coveted 5 mics from Source Magazine. It was only given to the best of the best in hip hop, the cream of the crop so to speak. Those that received the honor were sometimes but not always contested, but what WAS always contested were those that DIDN’t receive the honor. If you’ve ever argued about your favorite MC on a corner, in a barbershop or on the comment section of a blog, then you know what I’m talking about.
For every album labeled a classic, there are dozens of others that people feel deserve the honor. So I realize that people now feel they have to place my album next to others that they feel were more impactful, and argue their case. With social networking being as prevalent as it is in our society, these arguments now take place in a very public arena, which in order to be heard, you often have to be very opinionated and abrasive to stand out. So people, while having no personal hate or malice towards me, will make very loud arguments about The Source’s decision, and the loudest ones will probably get the most attention.
Having been in the music industry almost 20 years, I have learned to receive my accolades with honor and respect, and hold my head high when the hate rains down. I love hip hop just as much or even more than the next person, so I understand the passion behind the argument. At the end of the day, we all want this thing we love to be as real and pure as the day we fell in love with it.
Having said all this, it is with great honor and admiration that I humbly accept this esteemed declaration from the Source Magazine and it’s staff for my album Trill OG, and for those that feel they need to shit on me to argue for another artist or album, don’t worry. The Trill OG can take it! UGK for life!
Bun B
Congrats to Bun on making a classic. 'Trill O.G. is in stores now.
NEW YORK (Billboard) – Rappers have a propensity for christening themselves with royal titles to promote their standing in hip-hop (e.g., King of the South, Prince of Rap). But for Bun B, the less-regal handle Trill OG was the most fitting.
"My plan is just to ignite the fire that speaks to the issues that go on in the streets," Bun B (born Bernard Freeman) says about the moniker, which stands for "true and real original gangster."
To do so, the 37-year-old rapper joined forces with Young Jeezy, the late Pimp C (partner to Bun B in the duo UGK), Yo Gotti and Gucci Mane, among others, for "Trill OG" the album, out Tuesday (August 3) on Rap-a-Lot/Fontana. J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, Drumma Boy and Boi-1da are among the set's producers.
Billboard: You have a song with 2Pac (deceased rapper Tupac Shakur), Pimp C and Trey Songz on "Trill OG" called "Right Now." How did that come together?
Bun B: We had these verses that Pimp and I had already recorded for a 2Pac tribute album. We had submitted the music but it wasn't accepted, for some reason. But it recently came out of the archives and I was able to put a new verse on there and some new sounds and voices to really bring new life out of it. The ... subject matter is something that Pimp C and 2Pac were known for: the ladies. So it made sense to bring in Trey Songz to tie it all together.
Billboard: There are a lot of Texas-bred artists on the album, including Slim Thug, LeToya and Play-N-Skillz. How important is it still to rep your hometown?
Bun B: Texas has had incredible moments in the history of hip-hop. But there is a misconception that because we aren't at the forefront that we aren't here at all. But we're still making music, going on tour and getting in front of and connecting with the people.
Billboard: How was recording this album different from your last one, especially considering this is your first solo release since Pimp C's death?
Bun B:There was no anxiety behind this one, actually. There was no dealing with Pimp C being locked up, or Pimp C passing away. There wasn't that kind of pressure. We took up to a year to record this album and allowed everyone working on it to put their best foot forward. No one had to rush. If we didn't like something, we scrapped it and tried it again. Because of that, this is a really strong album.
Billboard: What is the goal you want to achieve with "Trill OG?"
Bun B: It's time for Texas to move back to the top, and in order for that to happen, someone has to take charge. Since I call myself the Trill OG, the first thing I have to do is round up the troops.
That's what this album is -- to show that Texas is back. I'm just taking the lead and bringing everyone else with me.
Thirteen years ago Tuesday (March 9), hip-hop lost one of its most beloved, charismatic and talented MCs to ever put rhymes to a beat.
The Notorious B.I.G. was senselessly gunned down in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997, as he left a Soul Train Music Awards afterparty. To date, the assailants remain at large.
Investigations into the murder of the Brooklyn rapper are ongoing, and a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Biggie's mother, Voletta Wallace, and others against the city of Los Angeles and other defendants is also pending.
The ongoing quest to punish the people behind Biggie's death, however, continues to leave those involved frustrated.
Ms. Wallace declined to comment on the status of her lawsuit but issued a brief statement to MTV News: "I thank you for the opportunity to touch [my son's] fans and for the network's continued support of me and the family, but it's been 13 years, I miss my son, his children miss their father, and the murderer is still at large."
Theories abound about the murder of the iconic rapper, which occurred only a short distance from the Petersen Automotive Museum where Biggie, Diddy and their entourage were celebrating just moments before. According to author Randall Sullivan's book "LAbyrinth," associates of Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight, who was embroiled in a feud with Diddy's Bad Boy Records, conspired to kill Biggie. The book, based on extensive research conducted by Sullivan and interviews the writer held with former Los Angeles Police Department detective Russell Poole, an investigator into Biggie's murder, those involved in the hit on Biggie were dirty cops.
"They say some cops become gangbangers; well, these guys were essentially gangbangers who became cops," Poole told MTV News.
Rafael Perez and David Mack, Poole alleged, were just two of the many LAPD officers who were on the payroll of Death Row Records. According to Poole, the officers' primary sense of duty and allegiance to the police force was tainted by their involvement with Death Row. The two eventually went to prison but on charges unrelated to the investigation into the Notorious B.I.G. murder.
Poole maintains there were clues that pointed to each man that should have been looked into further. "I've put away guys for life with less evidence [than I had on Perez and Mack]," Poole said.
Through a complex web of deceit intended to shield the LAPD from a controversial scandal, Poole said, members of the force, including the chief at the time, suppressed efforts to look into policemen who were connected to Suge Knight and Death Row.
Poole eventually resigned in protest, amid his frustrations that the investigation was being sabotaged.
A representative for the LAPD declined to comment when contacted by MTV News about the status of the rapper's murder investigation. At one point, the FBI picked up the investigation but later announced it had stopped its pursuit. A representative for the FBI also declined to comment when contacted by MTV News.
Ms. Wallace's wrongful-death lawsuit remains open. The case was brought to trial at one point, but days later it was declared a mistrial after it was discovered the detective who took over as lead investigator in Biggie's murder hid evidence. The mistrial was announced July 7, 2005, however, no further advancements have been made since in pushing the case to trial again.
Poole alleged that police initially sought to slow down the investigation into Biggie's murder in order to keep the lid on possible LAPD involvement in the crime. Now, he said, the new administration and Los Angeles' power players are striving to keep the truth buried for fear that civil-lawsuit payouts could bankrupt the economically challenged city. In any event, the former detective said he's ready to be a witness in Ms. Wallace's case and will testify whenever he is called upon.
For now, Poole waits, haunted by a puzzling case in which he seems to have too many pieces gathered to not complete the full picture.
"I want this thing solved before I die," he said. "Every detective has a case that they think about each and every day, and this is the case right there. This is the case I think about every single day before I go to bed. It never goes away. It'll haunt me for the rest of my life. The day it's solved, I'll be able to relax."
Marion "Suge" Knight has seen the best of times, but right now he seems to be on the opposite end of that stick.
The man who once ruled the music industry with an iron fist has fallen on hard times.
In recent months Suge has been knocked out cold by a barber, been hospitalized after a scuffle at a night club. He's been filed on by two different women for failing to pay child support and now he can't pay his storage bills.
Conejo Valley Moving & Storage auctioned off Suge's personal belongings Saturday (February 20) to recoup a seven month old bill.
Items such as sppliances and gym equipment were sold as well as a large photo of Knight and the late Tupac Shakur that sold for only $100.
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."
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