While most artists struggle to put together one solid effort a year, 50 Cent continues to give fans tons of free quality music. His latest project '5 (Murder By Numbers)' was released via his website Thisis50.com. The street album serves as a warm up to his next official Interscope release 'Street King Immortal.'
"What I'm releasing right now is a part of me wanting music out during the middle of the summer," Fif told MTV News. "I had a plan for myself: I wanted to have the new record come out during my birthday. The artwork didn't matter that much, that's why it was so simple to me to use the number 5. Technically it wouldn't be album number 5, but everyone is waiting for my fifth studio album through Interscope, so I titled it that because it'll build interest in the actual project."
'Street King Immortal' will fulfill 50's contractual obligation to Interscope, but he is not worried about his label situation because he feels fans just want good music regardless of the label.
"I don't really need label support for this project," he said. "It's about the actual music, and I don't think people buy what record label you're on; I think they buy music or buy into the actual artist themselves."
50 added the he and Interscope are 100% on the same page now and he expects no problems with the release of his new album.
"They're in full support of me now. We cleared up audit issues. That's always an issue, when you get to the final album or the final requirement you end up going through the books with everything that you've done," he said. "Once those things are resolved, everyone is ready to get back to work, and that's where we're at."
There's no question that "The Dark Knight Rises" is Christopher Nolan's final voyage to Gotham City. Less certain, however, is the final fate of the Caped Crusader himself. Rumors abound that Bruce Waynewon't leave "Rises" alive — at least not standing on his own two feet. We'll find out for sure where things stand when Nolan's "Dark Knight" trilogy ends on July 20.
Ahead of that, an extensive new 13-minute "Dark Knight Rises" featurette has been released to show you just how much time and effort went into crafting the perfect Batman finale. (The short answer: a lot of time and effort!) Keep reading for the highlights from the featurette.
Wayne Feels The Pain Eight years have passed since the end of "The Dark Knight," and Bruce Wayne has since retired the Batman persona. But that doesn't mean he's without his own sense of turmoil. Christian Bale identified Bruce's main conundrum: "How much longer can he allow this pain to control his life?"
Wayne finds himself forced out of retirement when a terrible threat comes to Gotham City. But eight years have passed since he last donned the cape and cowl; is he really prepared to take on the likes of Bane and his army? One thing is for sure: for Bale, donning that suit will never get old.
"It never stops giving me goose bumps," he admitted, "walking down the stairs [in costume], and everybody just stops."
Batman Meets His Match To make sure that things aren't too easy on our fearless hero, Nolan decided that the film's nemesis would have to be someone physically stronger than Batman. Enter Bane, the masked mad man played by Tom Hardy. "Bane is not to be reasoned with," the actor teased. "Some people want to watch the world burn. Well, Bane has come to pull the pin on the grenade."
"Tom Hardy is an extraordinary actor," Nolan said of his villain. "What Tom is able to do just with his expression and his eyes... it's terrifying. Through the course of 'The Dark Knight Rises,' we learn more about what drives Bane, where he comes from, what he wants ... and none of it is good news."
Along Came A Cat Burglar Further fueling the film's chaos is Selina Kyle, better known as Catwoman. The sultry icon has gone through numerous iterations in comics, television, movies and more. But for "Dark Knight Rises," actress Anne Hathawayhad only one mission in mind: living up to the Nolan legacy.
"The most important thing is to fit into Chris' Gotham City. My Catwoman has to be Chris Nolan's Catwoman," said the Oscar nominee, who also weighed in on Catwoman's morality. "Selina Kyle has her own code of ethics which sometimes involves doing things that others might find questionable."
"We had to have a way of grounding this character. We realized that Catwoman could just be this con-woman, this grifter, this classic movie femme fatale," said the director. "I think Anne understood right from the first that she'd have to do almost everything for herself. She had to be this character. And she took it on in a most extraordinary way."
The Other Guys Batman, Bane and Catwoman are "the big three" when it comes to "The Dark Knight Rises," but there are several other characters in play as well. Alfred Pennyworth, for one, returns to guide Bruce through his latest trials — and for Michael Caine, Alfred represents "us in this incredible world. He's not tough like all of the others."
Likewise, Wayne Enterprises CEO Lucius Fox favors brains over brawn. "Lucius and Alfred, between the two of them, we try to keep [Bruce's] moral compass pointed in the right direction," said Morgan Freeman.
Jim Gordon, who Gary Oldman described as "the conscience of Batman," returns for "Rises" as well. He's joined by another police officer, John Blake, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Rumors abound about Blake's real identity, though Gordon-Levitt would only speak to the surface-level details of the character.
"He's a proud police officer," he said. "In the midst of a lot of cynicism, he remains idealistic and really believes in what he does."
Larger Than Life The final half of the featurette focuses primarily on the practical and visual effects used in "The Dark Knight Rises," and the emphasis is very much on the former over the latter. The featurette delves into numerous high-octane sequences including a massive battle on Wall Street in New York City featuring hundreds of extras, the shooting of the airplane-hijacking scene that served as the film's IMAX prologue some months ago, and a seriously in-depth look at the creation of The Bat, clocking in at "nearly 30 feet long and 17 feet wide."
"'The Dark Knight Rises' is certainly the biggest film that I've undertaken, by far," Nolan said of the scope of his final Bat-movie. "We really looked back to the silent era of motion pictures, when the image was paramount, when all you had was the scope and scale of a location with thousands of extras. That was the kind of storytelling I was interested in."
Jake One is one of the most talented producers in the business. He has a great track record for making hits for artists like 50 Cent, G-Unit, Freeway, Scarface, Snoop Dogg, Ghostface Killah, Cypress Hill, Wiz Khalifaand many more.
HipHop-N-More recently caught up with him to talk about some of his current projects. Check out an excerpt from the interview below regarding his work with 50 Cent and some of the backlash the G-Unit boss has gotten from fickle fans despite the fact that he continues to put out great music.
HHNM: You continue to work with 50 Cent and each time, the result is great. Both ‘Body On It’ and ‘Lay Down’ are dope. He has a new album coming out on Interscope called ‘Street King Immortal’. Can we expect to hear another one on there?
Jake One: He’s definitely recorded something but I’m really not sure if it will make the album because they haven’t told me anything. There’s a record that I did for him and they paid me for it so they’re definitely serious about it. That one is really dope. I think it’s called ‘Hustler’ or something like that. He’s putting out free music right now and watching the response which a lot of artists are doing right now.
HHNM: The problem with 50 is that he’s put out pretty consistent material in the past few years but somehow listeners are finding it cool to hate on him for whatever reason. They will say negative things about his music on social media even if they necessarily don’t feel that way. What do you think?
Jake One: It’s just the inevitable backlash. He was just so popular that people were just waiting for a reason to not like him, you know what I mean. They just made a villain out of him. If you’ve been rocking with him from the start, his music really hasn’t changed that much. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad thing. He’s great at doing what he does but the climate has changed so much. It’s just natural, it happens with almost everybody. He’s still 50, he’s still entertaining and that’s the bottom line. Gangsta Rap was running sh*t for decades but the times have changed now. I can never have any complaints about him. He really put me in a good place from the beginning. I was just doing my thing locally until I caught that wave. It was really dope.
HHNM: You have created your own lane as far as sound is concerned. You really seem to focus a lot on drums which makes your beats stand out. Where does the inspiration come from?
Jake One: You know, it’s just the era of Rap I come from. I grew up listening to DJ Premier, Pete Rock and Dr. Dre. Hip-Hop used to be pretty much about drums purely. I’m just always trying to find out new ways to program and use them in different ways. I try to put a different twist to them. Like that ‘Body On It’ beat. It wasn’t what 50 normally raps to but I wanted to make something that fits. Even that other song I did for Wiz, ‘The Grinder’. I’m really happy with the response to that one. That’s the challenge I love. How do I make something that’s me but is different at the same time and doesn’t sound like 1990.
To check out more of Jake's interview head over to HipHop-N-More.
The-Dream and G.O.O.D Music rapper Pusha-T shoot visuals for their song "Dope B*tch." The track will most likely appear on Dream's upcoming album Love IV, which is due out later this year.
Childish Gambino paid a visit to the BBC Radio 1 studio of Tim Westwood while out in London recently. Of course he couldn't leave before blessing the mic with a nice freestyle.
Make sure you pick up Gambino's latest mixtape, Royalty from Datpiff.
Busta Rhymes is getting ready to drop his first album in three years. "Year of the Dragon" will be Bussa Buss' ninth solo effort and will be released via Cash Money Records. Today he revealed the discs cover art. Check it out up top.
Eve brought some Philadelphia flavor to New Orleans Sunday, July 8 as she hit the stage at the 2012 Essence Music Festival. The former Ruff Ryder performed "Tambourine," "What Yall Want" and more.
Eve is expected to release her new album, Lip Lock later this year
The internet has been buzzing since Saturday after rapper 40 Glocc was jumped by The Game and his crew after leaving a part in Los Angeles. The two sides have continued to put out their versions of what went down via Twitter, and yesterday video footage emerged of the fight.
40 had the chance to talk to Vlad TV to clear the air. The Zoolife boss said he was jumped several times and guns were drawn.
"It's just regular street sh*t. It's entertaining at the same time," 40 said. "I'm dealing with weenies. I'm solo, if you want a problem with me let's get it in. Don't pull burners on me and chase me down with pistols."
40 added that he didn't swing back because he wanted to avoid getting shot and that the video footage was edited to make it look like he wasn't getting jumped.
"You gotta take a L in certain situations. I take a licking and keep on ticking," he continued. "My motto is if you aint got a gun and they got some you better run. I walk out from getting jumped by all these n*ggas I never got no busted lip, no missing teeth, no black eyes, no nothing."
The Cali rapper revealed that he and Game actually saw each other inside the party but the BWS leader didn't say anything to him, so he assumed there wouldn't be any beef.
"We seen each other at the party, but he acted like he wasn't looking at me, so I was looking at him. Then, I'm like 'Ok, he ain't trippin; then I ain't trippin',' " 40 explained. "I posted up for a while. Then I was ready to go, I left, boom. When I [got down the hill], all I saw was a gang of n*ggas, like 'Turn it up, turn it up,' screaming. I turn around, these n*ggas got guns and running at a n*gga. What was I supposed to do? Run towards them? I couldn't run towards all them n*ggas with guns. So I had to high tail it. I couldn't get to a pistol if I wanted to."
There's a lot more to the interview so check it out below.
Mississippi native Big K.R.I.T. teams up with Houston veterans Lil Keke and Slim Thug for the video to "Me & My Old School" remix. You can find the original version on K.R.I.T.'s mixtape 4eva N A Day available for free on Datpiff.
K.R.I.T.'s debut album Live from the Underground is also available now via iTunes.
DMX finally drops the official visuals for "I Don't Dance" featuring Bad Boy's Machine Gun Kelly. The song is the first single off of Dark Man's upcoming album, Undisputed.
Cassidy drops the latest installment of his Apply Pressuremixtape.
Tracklist:
1. Intro 2. Ain’t gonna happen- produced by Frankie Piff Beatz (D.B.K.)
3. Half to a Hole thing- produced by Butter Beats (D.B.K.)
4. Do it Big – produced by B.O.S.
5. Goon Music-Feat. Fred the Godson – produced by Stoopid on the Beat (D.B.K.)
6. Game don’t Change – Feat. 50 Cent. Vocals by Karlie Voice
7. Mind of a Grinda- produced by P.KillaTracks
8. We Working – Feat. Chubby Jag – produced by T Dot
9. Narcotic for sale – produced by Butter Beats (D.B.K.) Vocals by Emmaculate
10. Look at Him (Look at the Bul) – produced by Vinylz
11. Wake up – produced by Bubz Ramos
12. Mayhem Music – Feat. Chubby Jag and ArAb T.G.O.P. – produced by Cassidy/Butter Beats
13. I Don’t Like – Freestyle
14. Same Damn Time – Freestyle
15. Cash Out – Freestyle
16. Shaq and Penny – Feat. Chubby Jag- produced by T Dot
17. Rondo – Feat. DeCypha – produced by Spaid
18. I Get it in – Produced by AListFame (D.B.K.)
19. She Off the Hook Produced by Twain the Beat Maker
20. Belive in a Dollar – Feat Jadakiss- produced by Duane DaRock
21. What the Fuckk a Real Nigga Do – Feat. Chubby Jag – produced by Butter Beats (D.B.K.)
22. GOD is so good to me
Usher's 11-year old stepson is in critical condition in an Atlanta hospital two days after being involved in a jet ski accident.
11 Alive News is reporting that Kyle Glover, the son of Usher's estranged wife, Tameka Foster, was in an inner tube on Lake Lanierbeing pulled by a boat when a 38-year old man riding a jet ski struck him. Both Kyle and a 15-year old girl who was also in the inner tube were seriously injured.
TMZ reports that Kyle was hit in the head and unresponsive when pulled from the water.
Both victims were life-flighted to Children's Healthcare at Egelston Hospital.
Lake Lanier
Despite the fact that he is going through a divorce from Foster, Usher chartered a plane for Tameka, who was out of town, so she could be by her son's side.
Usher's friend, Russell Simmons, tweeted to his followers asking them to pray for Kyle.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources is investigating the accident. DNR Sgt. Mike Burgamysays it is too early to tell if any charges will be filed, and that alcohol was not a factor in the accident
*UPDATE*
TMZ is reporting that Kyle has been declared brain dead. Doctors say has not experienced any brain activity since he was admitted to the hospital.
At this point no decision has been made at whether or not take him off of life support.
Usher and former wife Tameka Raymond pose for photos with their children, including Kyle Glover, third from the left.
Ludacris took part in day two of the Open Air Frauenfeld Festival in Zurich, Switzerland on Saturday, July 7. The Atlanta rapper performed some of his biggest hits including "Move B*tch," "My Chick Bad," "How Low," "Areas Codes"and more.
Day two of the Open Air Frauenfeld Festival in Zurich, Switzerland saw some of America's biggest rap artists take the stage. Nas, Lauryn Hill and A$AP Rocky were three of the acts to perform and luckily we have footage of their shows.
A$AP Rocky "Bass"
A$AP Rocky "Peso"
A$AP Rocky "Goldie/ Kissin Pink"
A$AP Rocky "Trilla"
A$AP Rocky "Get Lit"
A$AP Rocky "Wassup"
A$AP Rocky "Purple Swag"
A$AP Rocky "Brand New Guy"
A$AP Rocky "Hands On the Wheel"
A$AP Rocky "Roll One Up"
Lauryn Hill "Ready or Not"
Lauryn Hill "Lost Ones"
Lauryn Hill "Everything is Everything"
Lauryn Hill "Fu-Gee-La"
Lauryn Hill "Killing Me Softly"
Lauryn Hill "That Thing (Doo Wop)"
Nas "Hip Hop Is Dead"
Nas "NY State Of Mind"
Nas "It Aint Hard To Tell/Represent"
Nas "The World Is Yours"
Nas "Street Dreams/If I Ruled The World" ft Lauryn Hill
Kanye West played the second of two special shows at the Revel Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey on Saturday, July 7. During the show he brought out G.O.O.D Music rapper Pusha T to perform their song "New God Flow."
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