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Rap collective Odd Future will soon be invading your television a lot more often.

The group has landed a deal with Adult Swim for a new show titled Loiter Squad.

According to the L.A. Times, the 15-minute live action series is being produced by D*ckhoue Entertainment, the guys that brought you Jackass.

Viewers can expect so see pranks, music and man on the street segments from the group.

The show is expected to premiere early 2012.

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Birdman recruits his top two cash cows. Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj, for the first single off of his upcoming album.

"Bigga Than Life' in stores November 21.

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Pusha T hit up the Bowery Hotel in NYC on Wednesday for a 'Fear Of God 2: Let Us Pray' concert that turned into a mini hip-hop convention.

Miss Info served as the master of ceremonies on a night that saw Pusha share the stage with Lloyd Banks, Tyler, The Creator, Kevin Cossom, AB-Liva and more.

Peep the footage of Pusha and Tyler performing a hyped version of "Trouble On My Mind" below.

Lloyd Banks and Pusha T perform "Start it Up" (Sorry no video)

Pusha T & Tyler The Creator "Trouble On My Mind"

The news keeps getting better and better for Lil Wayne. Not only does he grab the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart, eight songs from 'Tha Carter IV' debut on the Hot 100 chart.

Those eight songs combined with three previous titles already on the chart give Weezy a record tying eleven songs on Billboard's Hot 100 at the same time.

Wayne tied David Cook and Taylor Swift for "the most simultaneously-charting songs by a soloist in the list's 53-year history" according to Billboard.

The Beatles hold the overall record with 14 songs charting at the same time.

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Superstar rapper Lil Dynamic’s fanbase continues to grow, as well as his
talent. New singles include “It’s Official” A song done with R&B
Hotshot Young Myst, featuring superstar Chris Brown.  Chris Brown is hot off his
performance at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, any records with him can always
add to an artist. Check out the official video below:

New solo singles include “Talking Flow” as seen below:

Wiz Kalifah caught in big break when marijuana related charges were dropped against him in North Carolina.

The rapper and his crew were arrested last November after a concert at East Carolina University, when their tour bus was raided.

Kalifah, real name Cameron Thomaz, was charged with with trafficking marijuana, maintaining a place for sale of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

The District Attorney later determined that a clerical error had been made, and the amount of weed seized on the bus did not exceed the 10-pound threshold for a trafficking charge.

“The magistrate or someone at that office must have misread the statute. We discovered the error maybe two hours after Thomaz paid the bondsman's premium and left. Because of that, it was a high price he paid for bringing the drug onto the campus. Had he remained to discover the error, he would not have been bonded so high, probably $1,000," D.A. Clark Everett told Reflector.com.

Mark Owens III, the attorney representing Kalifah said the university never should have booked his client knowing his love for weed in advance.

"Kahlifa's preferences and musical expression existed before his appearance in Greenville. Marijuana is a large part of his persona," Owens said. "I find it ironic that East Carolina knowingly asked him to come and then chose to take their actions, justified or not under the law,” Owens said. “If you have a problem with cholesterol and high blood pressure, you don't ask (a barbecue restaurant) to cater your lunch. That's just a country boy's observation."

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While there may be a debate over who is the original "rager" of Cleveland, Kid Cudi definitely wins for most creative video to date over Machine Gun Kelly.

The rapper/singer takes us to a dark place in his mind that we're glad to escape from at the video's end, in this creatively directed Jeremie Rozan clip.

This song appears on Cudi's album 'Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager.'

The real reason for T.I.'s quick incarceration after he had just been released from prison has been revealed.

It was initially thought that the rapper was locked up again for using a luxury tour bus to transport him from an Arkansas federal prison to a halfway house in Georgia. It turns out that was not the case.

Prison documents show the rapper violated rules by having his manager and one or more VH1 producers on the bus discussing his new reality show and book, when he was only allowed to have his wife on board. He was also not supposed to talk about business related matters.

"Such people were not authorized to travel with him in the conditions of his furlough," a Bureau of Prisons report obtained by CNN said. "He further indicated he was discussing a new reality series and a book with those individuals."

T.I. is now set for release September 29.

Check out the pics below of Tip on his way to the bus after being released.

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Slaughterhouse is getting to know Eminem and vice versa. Royce Da 5'9's relationship with Slim goes way back, but there's always an adjustment period when you start a new job. Which is essentially what Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, Crooked I and Royce did when they signed a recording contract with Shady Records earlier this year.

SH sat down with MTV recently and explained why Eminem has turned to be the ideal boss.

"He's kinda walking eggshells around us creatively. He's telling us basically, 'Do exactly what y'all did last time. We're just gonna do it on a bigger level. Y'all don't need me to make records; y'all can do that,'" Royce said "It's more of a bonding thing. They all play basketball at the studio, and it's just them getting to know him better and making his comfort level high with them, because he met them when we signed the deal."

Budden paid Eminem maybe the biggest compliment when he said that Em still loves the hip-hop culture as much as ever.

"Being with him, you just totally forget that he's one of the dopest rappers and he's so successful. He's a great person, and he's still a humungous fan of the culture and very much in tune with what's happening," Budden said.

As far as their Shady Records debut album Royce said earlier in the week that the album was about 70% complete. It's possible we may see a single by December.

One thing is for certain, Eminem has made a very positive impression on the group.

"He really is a fan too, though. He's a fan of Slaughterhouse. When he comes in and listens to songs, it's not to critique them; it's to listen," Joell said.

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Floyd Mayweather Jr. decided to have some fun at the expense of sports reporter Elie Seckbach, during a recent workout.

Floyd called Elie a "hater" for his style of reporting and had the whole gym cracking up with non-stop jokes.

"If you were any good you would be on HBO, but you're not that's why you're local," Mayweather said at one point.

Peep the footage below.

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(CNN) -- Jay-Z's sixth album, "The Blueprint," hit record stores on the fateful morning of September 11, 2001.

Despite the horrible coincidence, the New York rapper's album -- featuring the hit track "Izzo (H.O.V.A)" - sold more than 420,000 copies in the first week.

That's an impressive feat for any musician in a time of declining sales -- let alone while Americans were still reeling from the worst terror attack on U.S. soil in modern history. The album went on to sell more than 2 million copies, earning a multi-platinum certification, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, which tracks music sales.

So why did "The Blueprint" do so well amid the chaos of 9/11?

 
Music experts say that music sales that day and week were at least partially driven by a group of youthful consumers, who were somehow and incredulously untroubled -- or at least not paralyzed -- by the events of 9/11.

"Young people not directly affected are always more removed from the onset of national tragedy," said Tricia Rose, a professor at Brown University and author of "The Hip Hop Wars."

To be fair, Jay-Z's "The Blueprint" -- considered to be a masterpiece by many music reviewers -- was not a particularly socially conscious work.

Jay -Z performed at The Concert for New York City at Madison Square Garden to benefit the victims of 9/11 in October 2001

A hodge-podge of musings on street life, the album's most endearing quality may be its soulful production (crafted in part by a then-young Kanye West), featuring music samples from the likes of David Bowie and the Doors.

A handful of other significant albums were also released on 9/11, including Bob Dylan's "Love and Theft" and Mariah Carey's "Glitter." But no one had record sales that approached what Jay-Z did that week.

Rose said a confluence of factors, not unlike the catalyst for 9/11 itself, help explain Jay-Z's sales that week.

"While the much older fans of Mariah Carey or Bob Dylan would likely be too busy and worried about terrorist attacks to rush out and purchase a CD the week of 9/11, Jay-Z's teen and early 20s fans, already hyped up about this release long beforehand, remained focused on their idol," Rose said. "And many probably never left the comfort of their bedrooms to download the release."

 
"The Blueprint" was one of the first major hip-hop albums available by the new iTunes that year. Indeed, digital downloads took off in 2001 with the advent of the new music subscription service.

Yet on September 11, 2001, people were still shopping in music stores in New York City -- even a short distance from the attacks. "There was a lot of confusion and definitely an unsettled feeling, but New York, at least this area, was still functioning," said Daniel Givens, a buyer for Other Music, a Brooklyn record store located about a mile from where the World Trade Center stood.

Givens was at work on September 11, 2001.

"There was a foreboding atmosphere about the day overall, but people were still trying to get to work, get to where they were going, they were still functioning," Givens said.

That ability to function, to keep going, is what no doubt kept the city and nation together during one of the darkest times in the nation's history. Food had to be purchased. Things had to be done. Even something as seemingly inconsequential as hot music, had to be listened to.

According to media professor Aaron Sachs another factor in the sales of "The Blueprint" is the type of audience that Jay-Z appeals to.

"Hip-hop heads (fans) have a different kind of relationship to music than fans of other genre," said Sachs, an assistant professor of media technologies and culture at St. Mary's College of California. "Hip-hop is not just music, it's a culture, and that mentality permeates many aspects of the lives of hip-hop heads."

 
Regardless of the circumstances or situation, Sachs says the hip-hop fan uses the music as a soundtrack to life in a way that goes beyond the relationship of a casual listener.

"Being a hip-hop head means purchasing albums no matter what else is going on in your life or the world, especially an album as hot and highly anticipated as 'The Blueprint' was," he said

Source: CNN

Slim The Mobster is ready to step out of the shadows and into the spotlight on his upcoming Aftermath street album 'War Music.'

"Gunplay" the first video from the project debuted yesterday. It's an aggressive, street banger that serves as a precursor to what promises to be an equally hard hitting album.

“I been hustlin’ since I was 13-years-old, knee-deep in the streets and whatever came with it, came with it," Slim told AllHipHop. "I never want to portray somethin' that I'm not," Slim continued. "That's why, when you listen to my music, you'll hear me talkin' about Crippin' and gangbangin' 'cause that's part of my past.”

'War Music' is being executive produced by Sha Money XL and Vikaden. It will be hosted by DJ Skee and DJ Whoo Kid.

Slim also managed to snag a rare verse from his mentor Dr. Dre, as well as Snoop Dogg.

Look for the album to drop later this year.

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TUNOSHNA, Russia -- A private jet carrying a Russian professional hockey team to its first game of the season crashed shortly after takeoff Wednesday, killing 43 people - including European and former NHL players - in one of the worst aviation disasters in sports history. Two people survived the accident.

The crash also was the latest tragedy to befall the sport of hockey - following the sudden, offseason deaths of three of the NHL's tough-guy enforcers that has shocked fans.

The chartered Yak-42 jet was carrying the team - Lokomotiv Yaroslavl - to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where it was to play Thursday in its opening game of the Kontinental Hockey League season. Of the 45 people on board, 36 were players, coaches and team officials; eight were crew.

The plane apparently struggled to gain altitude and then hit a signal tower before breaking apart along the Volga River near Yaroslavl, 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Moscow. One of the blue-and-white plane's charred engines poked through the surface of the shallow water.

"This is the darkest day in the history of our sport," said Rene Fasel, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation. "This is not only a Russian tragedy - the Lokomotiv roster included players and coaches from 10 nations."

One player - identified as Russian Alexander Galimov - and one unidentified crew member were hospitalized in "very grave" condition, said Alexander Degyatryov, chief doctor at Yaroslavl's Solovyov Hospital.

Among the dead were Lokomotiv coach and NHL veteran Brad McCrimmon, a Canadian; assistant coach Alexander Karpovtsev, one of the first Russians to have his name etched on the Stanley Cup as a member of the New York Rangers; and Pavol Demitra, who played for the St. Louis Blues and the Vancouver Canucks and was the Slovakian national team captain.

Other standouts killed were Czech players Josef Vasicek, Karel Rachunek and Jan Marek, Swedish goalie Stefan Liv, Latvian defenseman Karlis Skrastins and defenseman Ruslan Salei of Belarus.

Russian NHL star Alex Ovechkin reflected the anguish that resonated through the sport of hockey when he tweeted: "I'm in shock!!!!!R.I.P."

"Though it occurred thousands of miles away from our home arenas, this tragedy represents a catastrophic loss to the hockey world - including the NHL family, which lost so many fathers, sons, teammates and friends," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement.

The NHL already has been mourning three unexpected deaths of players in recent months, including a suicide and an accidental drug overdose.

The cause of the crash was not immediately apparent, but Russian news agencies cited local officials as saying it may have been due to technical problems. The plane was built in 1993 and belonged to a small Moscow-based company, Yak Service.

In recent years, Russia and the other former Soviet republics have had some of the world's worst air traffic safety records. Experts blame the age of the aircraft, weak government controls, poor pilot training and a cost-cutting mentality.

Divers worked feverishly to recover bodies in a search operation that lasted well into the night. They struggled to heft the bodies of large, strong athletes in stretchers up the muddy, steep riverbank.

Swarms of police and rescue crews rushed to Tunoshna, a ramshackle village with small wooden houses and a blue-domed church on the banks of the Volga 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of Yaroslavl.

Resident Irina Prakhova was walking to the village pump for a bucket of water when she saw the plane going down and then heard a loud bang.

"It was wobbling in flight, it was clear that something was wrong," said Prakhova. "I saw them pulling bodies to the shore, some still in their seats with seatbelts on."

More than 2,000 mourning fans wearing jerseys and scarves and waving team flags gathered in the evening outside Lokomotiv's arena in Yaroslavl to mourn. Most carried flowers. Riot police stood guard as fans sang to honor the dead athletes.

Yaroslavl Gov. Sergei Vakhrukov promised the crowd that the Lokomotiv team would be rebuilt, prompting anger from some fans at a perceived lack of respect for the dead.

The Kontinental Hockey League has 24 professional teams across Russia, Belarus, Latvia, Kazakhstan and Slovakia that draws players from the NHL and European leagues. Lokomotiv is a leading force in Russian hockey and came third in the KHL last year. It was also a three-time Russian League champion in 1997, 2002 and 2003.

"We will do our best to ensure that hockey in Yaroslavl does not die, and that it continues to live for the people that were on that plane," said Russian Ice Hockey Federation President Vladislav Tretiak.

McCrimmon, who took over as coach in May, was most recently an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings, and played for years in the NHL for Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Calgary, Hartford and Phoenix.

Detroit coach Mike Babcock said McCrimmon "wanted to be a head coach, so he went to Russia to do it."

A game Wednesday between Salavat Yulaev and Atlant in the central Russian city of Ufa was called off in mid-match after news of the crash was announced. Russian TV showed an empty arena in Ufa as grief-stricken fans abandoned the stadium.

Russia was hoping to showcase Yaroslavl as a modern and vibrant city this week at an international forum attended by heads of state, including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, so the crash came as a particularly bitter blow. The forum is being held in the hockey stadium.

Many in the Czech Republic also took the news hard.

"Jan Marek, Karel Rachunek, and Josef Vasicek contributed greatly to the best successes of our ice hockey in the recent years, first of all to the golden medals at the world championships in 2005 and 2010," said Tomas Kral, the president of the Czech ice hockey association. "The were excellent players, but also great friends and personalities. That's how we will remember them."

In the western Slovak city of Trencin, where Demitra started his career and where he played during the 2004-05 NHL lockout, hundreds of fans gathered outside an arena Wednesday night to light candles in his memory.

Medvedev has announced plans to take aging Soviet-built planes out of service starting next year. The short- and medium-range Yak-42 has been in service since 1980 and about 100 are still being used by Russian carriers.

In past plane crashes involving sports teams, 75 Marshall University football players, coaches, fans and airplane crew died in West Virginia on Nov. 14, 1970, while returning from a game. Thirty-six of the dead were players.

Thirty members of a Uruguayan rugby club were killed in a crash in the Andes in 1972.

The entire 18-member U.S. figure skating team died in a crash on their way to the 1961 world championships in Brussels, and 18 members of the Torino soccer team died near Turin, Italy, in a 1949 crash.

A plane crash in 1950 near the Russian city of Sverdlovsk, now called Yekaterinburg, killed 13 players and officials in the air force's ice hockey squad. A Munich air crash in 1958 cost eight Manchester United players their lives.

Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov and Peter Leonard in Moscow, Ira Podell in New York, Larry Lage in Detroit, Mattias Karen and Steve Wilson in London, and Karel Janicek in Prague contributed to this report.

Sources: Forbes, CNN, and Associated Press

CNN Coverage

RT America News Coverage

Trigga Trey Songz takes Lil Wayne's joint "Nightmares of the Bottom" and makes it his own.

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Despite the fact that Lil Wayne's album 'Tha Carter IV' sold 964,000 copies it's first week out, there are a lot of people that just don't believe it.

Some doubters have even questioned whether or not Birdman bought a huge chunk of those records.

Stunna defended himself today on Shade 45's "Sway In The Morning" show.

"Nah that don't make no sense. Why would we do that? I press and distribute [CDs], ain’t no need for me to buy em," Birdman said. “That’s hustling backwards, we ain’t in it for that. I ain’t ever been a part of that scheme to be buying records. We don’t do that homie. That don’t go with what we do. We true about what we do, we real about what we do, we work hard every day at it. We work for the people and appreciate the love they give us. But There’s no such thing as me buying those CDs. I wouldn’t even play it like that. I don’t think that’s gangsta, nor fair ball, I ain’t even in it for that."

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Slim The Mobster has been waiving the Aftermath flag for a while now. He's done some writing for Dr. Dre's upcoming 'Detox' album and today we finally get some new visuals from the man who is the heir apparent to the Aftermath throne.

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Esquire Magazine has just named Rihanna the Sexiest Woman Alive for 2011 and not many would argue.

The beauty from Barbados follows previous winners like Minka Kelly (2010), and Kate Beckinsale (2009).

In the clip below released by Esquire, Riri literally gets covered in dirt and leaves from head to toe, but manages to make it work.

What do you think of Rihanna's selection as Sexiest Woman Alive?

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Usher was a guest on the Chelsea Lately show yesterday.

The singer spent quite a bit of time flirting with the show's host Chelsea Handler. Including inviting her backstage to try out the hot tub he always travels with.

"It's a little after-party motivation. I normally do it alone, but if you decide you wanna come backstage, you can join me," Ush said.

When Chelsea tried to change the subject to being "too big" for Usher's protege' Justin Beiber, who also likes to flirt with her, the 32-year old singer stroked her leg and said "but you're not too big for me."

When Usher wasn't flirting he talked about being a Belvedere Red brand ambassador, what it's like dating with kids, and more.

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In episode 5 of GGN's second season Snoop Dogg introduces us to new GGN fitness correspondent Hello Sunshine, and talks "weed facts' with Andy Milonakis aka Android Miller and Bishop Don Juan.

Dom Kennedy also performs.

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