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Video After The Jump

Via CBS News

(CBS News) Beyonce is front and center in a new video posted online by President Barack Obama's re-election campaign, reading a letter she wrote to first lady Michelle Obama.

In the letter, which was first posted as a handwritten note on Beyonce's official blog back in April, the Grammy-winner praises Mrs. Obama as "the ultimate example of a truly strong African-American woman."

"She is a caring mother, she's a loving wife, while at the same time, she is the first lady. No matter the pressure, and the stress of being under the microscope, she's humble, loving and sensitive," the letter continues.

Beyonce, who welcomed daughter Blue Ivy Carter in January with husband Jay-Z, adds, "Michelle, thank you so much for every single thing that you do for us. I am proud to have my daughter grow up in a world where she has people like you, to look up to."

In the video, the singer explains, "I wrote a letter to the first lady because I wanted her to know that I'm very grateful for everything she's doing for our country, and also for women around the world."

Mrs. Obama responded to the letter via Twitter back in April:

In May, the first lady took daughters Sacha and Malia to Beyonce's concert in Atlantic City, N.J. The singer also performed during the inauguration celebrations for the Obamas in January 2009, singing "At Last" as the president and first lady danced.

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Video After The Jump

Frank Ocean's decision to reveal that he is bisexual caught many people off guard. While there has been a lot of public support for the singer, some have decided they would no longer listen to his music. 50 Cent talked to MTV recently about Frank's decision and the G-Unit boss doesn't think too highly of people who turned their backs on Frank because of his sexual orientation.

"Anyone that has an issue with Frank Ocean is an idiot," 50 Cent told MTV. "I think Frank Ocean is a talented artist, I think he's created material that made me know his name, that impressed me, with things he said on a song like 'Novacane.'"

50 went on to compare Frank to Luther Vandross. Vandross was universally loved for his soulful music even though he was rumored to be gay.

"To say you don't like Frank Ocean is to say maybe you don't like Luther Vandross. Or maybe you don't like Kenny Greene," 50 continued. "Because there are artists before who have made these choices just not having made the choice to expose it to the general public before an actual release of music."

50 said that when someone like President Obama stands up for same-sex marriages it makes you take notice.

"Obama is for same-sex marriage," he said. "If the president is saying that, then who am I to go the other way?"

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Video After The Jump

French Montana was in London recently and stopped by the BBC Radio 1 studios of Tim Westwood. He talked about being on the road touring with Drake on the Club Paradise tour, how to remember lyrics, his upcoming album Excuse My French and more.

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Troy Ave stopped by the Shade 45 studios to visit Sway In the Morning recently and went in on the "Five Fingers of Death" freestyle. Troy also speaks on his hustle game before he got into music.

Pick up Troy's new mixtape Bricks In My Backpack 3: The Harry Powder Triology for free on Datpiff.

Troy Ave "Five Fingers of Death" freestyle

Troy Ave speaks on his hustle before the rap game

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Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar have struck up a friendship which might lead to a future musical collaboration. Gaga first revealed that she was a fan of the Compton rapper a couple of weeks ago on Twitter. She told one of her followers that she liked his lyrics and thanked Kendrick for calling her while she was overseas.

The interesting dialogue continued on Sunday, July 15th.

“@kendricklamar #womenweedandweather listening to The Recipe. Can your new album come out now so i can go out to clubs and dance again," Gaga tweeted to Kendrick yesterday. "@kendricklamar sitdown DRANK stand up DRANK. are you teaching a lyric writing program in compton? ‘Swimming Pool’ is so cool,” she continued in support of his new single.

She even retweeted one of Kendrick's tweets about his hair.

Also on Sunday at the 2012 Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, where Kendrick was performing the two were spotted together. Gaga stood by the side of the stage and watched Kendrick's set.

The Source caught up with the Southern California MC to ask about his relationship with the singer.

"That's a real good friend... a real good friend," Kendrick explained.

When asked about a possible collaboration between the two Kendrick said he was hopeful.

"God willing .... for now I just like the friendship thing," he said.

Kendrick's new album good kid, m.A.A.d city will be released on October 2nd. Would you like to hear a collaboration between K Dot and Gaga on it?

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Atlanta's Ca$h Out found a lot of success nationally with his hit record "Cashin Out." The rapper is back again with something new. Check out his video for "Turn Up" featuring Yung Swift off of his mixtape It's My Time.

You can grab It's My Time for free from LiveMixtapes.

Video After The Jump

R. Kelly has decided to release a new video for "Feelin' Single" off of his eleventh studio album Write Me Back. In the clip Kelly's girl dumps him and goes out partying with her friends so he decides to play the same game.

Pick up Write Me Back from iTunes now.

Beanie Sigel will be releasing his new album, This Time on August 28th. Here is the official tracklist for the project. State Property and Akon are the only features on it.

Peep the full tracklist below.

1. Intro
2. This Time
3. That’s All I Know featuring Akon
4. Expensive Taste
5. Kush Dreamimg
6. Bang Bang Youth
7. Bad Boy Mack
8. No Hook
9. The Reunion featuring State Property
10. Sigel Is What The Call Me
11. Dangerous

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A$AP Rocky and Big K.R.I.T. took part in the first day of the three-day 2012 Pitchfork Festival at Union Park in Chicago on Friday, July 13th. Pretty Flacko brought his A$AB Mob with him and K.R.I.T. turned it up with songs from his debut album Live from the Underground.

Check out their full sets below courtesy of Pitchfork. The audio and picture quality are excellent.

Spotted at HHNM

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Via New York Post

LAS VEGAS — Linsanity got his money, but it looks like it won’t be from the Knicks.

In a stunning turn of events in the past 24 hours, the Knicks agreed to a sign-and-trade with the Trail Blazers to obtain former Knicks point guard Raymond Felton that all but ends the Jeremy Lin era prematurely and bitterly, according to league sources.

Linsanity was fun while it lasted.

One NBA source insisted the Knicks, with Felton’s addition, will not match Lin’s new, ramped-up $25 millionoffer sheet from the Rockets. The Knicks will have three days to reconsider amid a potential backlash.

In the trade, the Knicks got even older, adding another former Knick, Kurt Thomas, 39. Knicks free agent Jared Jeffries was signed in the deal and shipped to Portland in the package, along with Dan Gadzuric’s non-guaranteed $1.4 million contract.

The Post reported on its back page Saturday the Knicks were furious the Rockets changed the offer sheet for Lin and upgraded it to a $25 million guarantee over three years, according to a source. The Knicks were bitter because they told Lin immediately the club would match the original offer and Lin apparently shared the information with the Rockets. Lin and Houston then plotted to redo it.

Lin secretly flew into Las Vegas without informing the Knicks to renegotiate the contract and sign it.

The Knicks had been set to match Lin’s original offer sheet of four years, $28.9 million that had a $19 million guarantee before the Rockets threw a financial curveball that called for a $15 million third year that would have doomed owner James Dolan’s luxury-tax predicament.

So this likely ended the Knicks’ endless blabber across the past two months, swearing they would bring Lin back and that he was a “big part” of “what we’re trying to do,’’ as coach Mike Woodson put it three days ago.

The Knicks also would lose out on continuing to promote a global marketing sensation.

Lin also may be a young point guard with an All-Star future, but apparently Knicks officials didn’t think so. There was concern Lin’s success was a function of former coach Mike D’Antoni’s up-tempo offense and would not be as effective in Woodson’s isolation sets. Plus, Woodson does not like playing young players and Lin was coming off knee surgery that cut short his historic 26-game surge.

The Knicks had brought in Jason Kidd to be Lin’s mentor and Spanish League veteran Pablo Prigioni as another backup at the point. The 24-year-old undrafted Harvard point guard apparently had not earned the Knicks’ full confidence he was ready for a full-time starting role next season.

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Jay-Z and his former Roc-A-Fella record label partners are facing a new lawsuit by a clothing designer who claims he created the famous Roc-A-Fella logo.

Dwayne Walker filed a copyright infringement suit on Thursday in Manhattan Federal Court according to the New York Daily News.

“The logo has become universally recognized as an iconic symbol of Jay-Z, one of the most successful recording artists in the history of popular music,” the suit says.

Walker claims he came up with the logo design in 1995 when Roc-A-Fella was just starting out. The lawsuit states that he saw what saw what label co-founder Damon Dash had in mind for the logo and said he could do better.

The label is now a subsidiary of Universal Music Group and Jay-Z’s publicist has made no comment on the suit.

Walker is seeking $7 million in unpaid royalties.

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Video After The Jump

Busta Rhymes and "friends" brought down the house at The 2012 Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival. Busta's set was epic as he brought out Lil Fame, Slick Rick, Buckshot, Smif-N-Wessun, Reek Da Villian, Phife Dawg, Q Tip and reunited with Leaders of the New School.

Check out highlights from the show below.

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Azealia Banks brought her much talked about Mermaid Ball to The Fonda Theatre in Hollywood on Saturday night, July 14th. The 21-year old Harlem rapper performed "212," "Jumanji," "Liquorice" and more during her set. 

Check out footage from the show below courtesy of Rap-Up and download Azealia's latest mixtape Fantasea

for free from Datpiff.

"Liquorice"

"Jumanji"

"212"

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Waka Flocka Flame drops off a new track from his upcoming mixtape which he plans on releasing when he reaches 1 million Twitter followers. He's currently at 948,000.

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Meek Mill teams up with Young Money artist Drake for the official "Amen" video. The song which initially appeared on Meek's Dream Chasers 2 mixtape will now serve as the lead single to his debut album Dreams & Nightmares, which will be released on August 28th.

Video directed by Dre Films

You can still cop Dream Chasers 2 for free from Datpiff.

Video After The Jump

Philadelphia rapper has been on his grind for a minute and it's starting to pay off. He recently signed a deal with Young Jeezy's CTE World, and now he drops a new in-studio video for the Mike Jerz produced "We Don't Give A F*ck."

Shot live at Shade 45 studios by Street Heat TV.

Video After The Jump

Grammy Award winning producer talks to SB.TV how his career got started. He explains how he went from being a barber to making beats for Ludacris. From there he went on to work with artists like Beyonce, Lil Wayne, Usher, Ke$ha and many more.

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After having a rough time over the last couple of weeks there is a new report online that Rihanna is ready to let her hair down and rekindle her romance with Drake.

Britain's Sun newspaper is reporting that the singer has plopped down $155,000 to book a yacht that will take her and Drake on a week long cruise on the French Riviera.

“Rihanna is determined to live life to the full following her grandma’s death and decided to give it another go with Drake," a source tells The Sun. “In the past he’d moan that she wouldn’t commit and was working all the time. But she’s up for trying again."

The pair dated briefly in 2009 and have even collaborated on music. Recording "What's My Name?" off of Rihanna's 2010 'Loud' album and most recently "Take Care," off Drake's album of the same name.

According to the report, Rihanna is going all out for this upcoming rendezvous.

“They’re meeting up on a plush yacht in Cannes next week and will then spend a week cruising around the Med," the source continued. “Rihanna wants to travel down through Italy and go to the most romantic places she’s seen online. It’s just what she needs after an incredibly tough few months — however, they also know how to party. They’ll be joined on the yacht by a few friends, who plan to sink a lot of champagne on the trip.”

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DMX is in the hospital recovering from a concussion sustained when he crashed while riding his four wheeler.

TMZ is reporting that X was riding down a hill outside of his South Carolina home when he flipped and landed on his butt. X says he doesn't remember much after that except for the ambulance lights when he was being picked up.

At this time it isn't known when he will be released.

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Fans have been waiting patiently for the release of Slaughterhouse's album welcome to: Our House. The project has been delayed a couple of times, but in a new interview with Fuse the group promises to finally deliver the project on August 28th.

The group also said they plan on releasing a record with Black Hippy.

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