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J. Cole can't seem to get a picture with his Roc Nation boss Jay-Z, but it's cool because he now has his own holiday.

His hometown of Fayetteville, N.C. will honor the MC with his own three-day event called Dreamville Weekend. It will include guest speaking engagements and a concert from Cole dubbed the "Dollar And A Dream Show." All the proceeds from the show will be donated to the Cumberland Community Foundation.

The event starts this Thursday March 1st and runs through Saturday March 3rd according to Complex.

It really is a Cole World!

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Jhené Aiko is a star on the rise. The 23-year old California native is signed to producer No I.D.'s Def Jam distributed Artium label. This past weekend the songbird took time out during a performance to pay tribute to 2Pac by performing one of his classics, "Keep Your Head Up."

Of course the show would not have been complete without Jhené singing her hit song "Stranger."

Check it out below.

"Keep Your Heads Up"

"Stranger"

Spotted at 2DB

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The Gorillaz, Andre 3000 and James Murphy link up for Converse's newest 3 Artists, 1 Song joint.

Directed by Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett.

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Young Jeezy hit the stage on Conon with singer Ne-Yo Tuesday [February 28] to perform his latest single "Leave You Alone."

The song is off of The Snowman's album, Thug Motivation 103: Hustlerz Ambition.

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Former Dipset member Max B's appeal has been denied according to the CEO of his record label.

DJ Next of Amalgam Digital tweeted the news on Tuesday [February 28]

Max, born Charly Wingate, was convicted in 2009 and sentenced to 75 years in prison for masterminding a robbery of two Florida men, David Taylor and Allan Plowden, that left Taylor shot dead. His stepbrother, Kelvin Leerdam, and ex-girlfriend, Gina Conway, were also convicted for their part in the botched robbery.

It was Conway who told Max that Plowden and Taylor were known to carry large sums of money with them. She would eventually testify against Leerdam and Max, who wasn't at the scene of the crime when it occurred in exchange for a lesser sentence.

Gina Conway

Leerdam received a life sentence, plus 35 years for his role in the murder, while Conway was sentenced to 15 years.

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Most artists are lucky to get one album out, Too $hort incredibly just dropped his 19th on February 28. One song that has been well received is "I'm A Stop" which features Devin The Dude, Twista and G-Unit boss 50 Cent. 

In a new interview with DUBCNN, $hort Dawg revealed that he and Fif have several more songs recorded.

"I went and did and couple of songs with him for some projects he's got. Maybe the next 50 album, mixtape or something and he came and did a song for me. We've been mixing it up a little bit," $hort said. "If you notice 50's been working with a lot of artists lately. I figure that's his way of staying in the mix. Bridging the gap between his last album and his next album."

Spotted at The Sermon's Domain

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Kid Cudi is having one of those bittersweet days. He's happy his band WZRD released their debut album today, but upset at what he perceives as a lack of promotional support from his record label Universal Republic.

The rapper/singer has been on Twitter for the last several hours talking to fans and blasting his label.  He started the day off by tweeting a picture of his new slit wrists tattoo.

"New Tat The old Scott is dead…slit wrists," was the message he attached to the pic.

He then proceeded to thank fans for their support of his new project and shovel dirt on his label.

"I just wanna say Thank You from the bottom of my heart to everyone who is supporting WZRD. Words cant express how i feel right now," he wrote, before some fans started letting him know they couldn't find the album in stores.

Cudi responded by threatening to hold back his next solo album, Man on the Moon III.

"Ok so just a heads up, my weak ass label only shipped 55k physicals cuz they treated this like some indie side project tax right off," Cudi wrote to his over 421,000 followers. "So i apologize on behalf of my weak ass major label. And I apologize for the lack of promo, again, my weak ass major label. They tried to rush me thru this so i can just give em another MOTM, but guess what? F*ck that, next album is WZRD. MOTM3 on hold til 2014."

I'm sure that got some label reps attention.

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Maya The B and Hynaken recently sat down with Ramona Rizzo of VH1's Mob Wives. Ramona explained that her grandfather was Benjamin "Lefty Guns" Ruggiero, the Bonanno crime family member the movie Donnie Brasco was based on. She also talked about how some of the language Italians use is similar to rappers and vice versa.

One question that seems to be on everyone's mind is whether or not fellow cast member Big Ang is actually a woman. Romana confirmed that she is.

Dirty minded Hynaken almost got through the show without letting something hilariously filthy slip out of his mouth. Watch to see what he says to Ramona that makes her give him the "evil eye."

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Azealia Banks has come out firing heavy artillery at Iggy Azalea for being named to the 2012 XXL Freshman list. 

The 20 year-old Harlem rapper, who herself is making lots of industry noise with her single "212" and newly signed deal with Universal Records criticized the Australian import who became the first female to make the list.

"Iggy Azalea on the XXL freshman list is all wrong," Azealia wrote on Twitter upon hearing the news. "How can you endorse a white woman who called herself a "runaway slave master"? Sorry guys. But I'm pro black girl. I'm not anti white girl, but I'm also not here for any1 outside of my culture trying to trivialize very serious aspects of it. In any capacity. *kanye shrug*."

Iggy obviously got wind of what was being said about her and went on Twitter to brush off any shade being thrown her way.

"You can't block my blessings! Today I'm celebrating! Get with it or kick rocks!" Iggy wrote. "Don't bother including my @ name in any of ur salty thoughts either cause... I'm #blockinthatass today!!!! First female freshman. Ever. Period. Thanks world! I used to stick XXL on my bedroom door, now I'm on the cover. Life is great."

I guess these two won't be collaborating any time soon.

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Brick Squad Monopoly's Frenchie 1017 teams up with Joffy for a new banger.

Check it out below

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It's Puff Puff Pass Tuesdays so that means a new episode of Snoop Dogg's GGN News. Today Snoop welcomed a special guest in the Oakland legend Too $hort.

$hort Dawg breaks down how he came up with the idea for the song "Freaky Tales" from his 1987 album Born to Mack. From being influenced by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message," to his decision to curse on the record which wasn't being done at the time.

$hort and Snoop later perform a special version of the song.

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Maybe the most recognized member of D12 outside of Eminem has left the group.

Bizarre announced on Monday [February 27] that he was leaving the crew because of creative differences and would be starting his own group.

"Yeah, I’m not in D12 no more. We just had creative differences and decided to go our separate ways – well I decided to go my separate way. It’s a personal decision on my part. I think I’ve just grown as an artist and it’s time for me to branch off on my brand," the animated rapper told HipHopDX.

Bizarre also put rumors to rest that he was joining Odd Future

"And nah, I’m not in Odd Future. I got my own crew called The Weirdo Movement. But shout out to Odd Future though," he said.

With Bizarre's departure D12 now consists of five members - Eminem, Kon Artist/Mr. Porter, Kuniva, Swifty McVeigh and Fuzz Scoota.

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XXL has rolled out it's annual Freshman Class list. As always there are a few surprises.

In the past five years that XXL has been picking Freshman classes, never once has making the list been easy. This year included. Similar to 2011, the hype around the Freshmen Class has continued to grow by leaps and bounds, surprising even us with its popularity. For this class the buzz began earlier than ever, four months before the cover was even shot. And it seemed like everyone had a list. From subdued music fans to diehard rap junkies, from Twitter stalkers to industry heavies and featherweights, folks wanted their list to be the XXL list. We listened, asked opinions, took notes.

ROLL CALL

• MACHINE GUN KELLY
• DANNY BROWN
• KID INK
• FUTURE
• ROSCOE DASH
• HOPSIN
• MACKLEMORE
• DON TRIP
• IGGY AZALEA
• FRENCH MONTANA

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A lot of hip-hop heads were surprised to hear Spitta Andretti and SP The Ghost were collaborating on a mixtape. Here we get a behind the scenes look at the recording process that also included Daz Dillinger.

#The1st28 mixtape drops today [February 28].

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1/2 of the West Coast group Black Hippy hit up Sway in the Morning recently for a chat. Of course you can't leave Sway's show without dropping a freestyle so Ab-Soul and Schoolboy Q did their thing over several unorthodox beats.

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Birdman obviously isn't worried about over-saturating the market because he wants to drop 16 albums under the YMCMB umbrella in 2012.

The ambitious goal was revealed to XXL during a recent interview. Stunna also said that after signing Limp Bizkit he's looking for more acts from different genres to sign.

“I think bringing Fred and Limp Bizkit to the team gives us a different look,” Birdman told XXL.com. “We dominate rap, but we’re also trying to grow in different areas; Pop, rock, gospel, country. We’re a brand and we don’t want to be categorized as one type of brand. I think we’re a machine and we activate and were active as a machine. I thought this Limp Bizkit move would be big for us as a brand and a machine.”

Limp Bizkit's first single drops next week and features Lil Wayne.

Should Cash Money slow down on signing new artists or go full steam ahead? Sound off in the comment section below.

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As promised Miguel delivers his new EP, Art Dealer Chic Vol.1, as a free gift to his fans.

Tracklist:

1. Adorn
2. That I Do (FTRMX)
3. Gravity

Download Here

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Melanie Fiona was the musical guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live Monday [February 28]. The singer performed her hit song "4 AM" off of her upcoming album The MF Life.

Watch Melanie do her thing below.

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Jim Jones is disgusted with the NYPD and for good reason.

As we previously reported the Dipset Capo was arrested yesterday for the second time in four days for allegedly driving with a suspended license, but according to Jim it's b.s.

Jim told TMZ that he was in the passenger seat of a car when his driver stopped at a store to pick up some things. Cops approached the car and asked him to move it, so he did. Not long after getting in the driver's seat cops pulled him over and told him he had a suspended license and arrested him.

Jim's rep told TMZ that he doesn't have a suspended license and his lawyers are on the case. In the end "It'll all be thrown out," said the rep.

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Whitney Houston's life story will be coming to a movie screen near you in the very near future if record executive Clive Davis has his way.

Davis was instrumental in guiding Houston's career to superstardom and he wants her to be remembered in the proper manner.

Rihanna is reportedly the front runner for the role according to the Daily Mail. Other stars being considered are Jennifer Hudson, Vivica Fox and Jordin Sparks.

11-year old Willow Smith is being considered to play the legendary singer as a child.

Who would be your choice for the role?

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