Two pillars of cult-followed independent Hip Hop are crossing paths. It was announced this morning that Sacramento Hip Hop veteran Brotha Lynch Hung is signing to Kansas City seven-figure sales titan, Tech N9ne's Strange Music.
The signing reportedly happened through Strange Music VP Dave Weiner, the same man who united Master P with Priority Records in the early '90s. "There’s an incredible synergy,” stated Weiner. “Every Tech fan knows that verse [“My World”] and is wondering what’s going on with Lynch.”
Brotha Lynch Hung found success in the early '90s with the controversial Black Market imprint. Distributed through Priority Records, the rapper has often been described as "horror-core," due to his frequent references to murder, cannibalism, and violence. Rappers including Snoop Dogg and Tech N9ne have all cited Lynch as major influences.
He is at work on Dinner And A Movie, his next album. Recently, Strange Music released Tech N9ne's Sickology 101: The Study Of Being Sick, which debuted in the Top 20 of Soundscan.
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The man shot at the Beverly Center mall this afternoon was identified as Atlanta-based Dolla, whose real name is Roderick Anthony Burton II, according to his publicist, Sue Vannasing. She said Dolla was shot in the head around 3:10 p.m. while he and another rapper, D.J. Shabbazz, waited in the area after shopping at the popular Westside mall. A friend who was with the rapper at Beverly Center also confirmed his identity to The Times.
About two hours later, Los Angeles police detained a “person of interest” as he attempted to board a plane out of Los Angeles International Airport. The man allegedly drove his silver Mercedes SUV from Beverly Center to the airport. Vannasing said Dolla had gotten into an altercation with other passengers on a flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles, but it's unclear if that was related to the violence.]
[Updated at 5:15 p.m.: Police have arrested one "person of interest" in connection with the shooting but were looking for a second suspect.]
[Updated at 5:40 p.m.: The arrested suspect, who fled from the mall in a silver Mercedes, was detained at Los Angeles International Airport while trying to board a flight. Police said the shooting took place in the valet waiting area of the mall].
The shooting occurred just after 3 p.m. at the La Cienega Boulevard entrance to the popular Westside shopping center. All entrances and exits to the popular Westside shopping mall were sealed off as police swarmed the scene.
LAPD officials said that officers were sent to the mall on a report of a group fight, possibly involving a knife. LAPD Sgt. Ronnie Crump said two suspects ran in the direction of Beverly Hills.
At a Chipotle restaurant in the mall, several people were eating when the shots rang out.
“The customers were yelling 'close the store, close the store, because somebody is shooting,' ” said Elsa Hernandez, general manager of the restaurant.
An employee who was behind the restaurant, near the mall’s valet parking service, saw the tail end of the dispute, Hernandez said. “He saw a lady ... shooting a handgun,” Hernandez said.
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Are Eminem and 50 Cent touring together this summer? For now, fans can only hope — MTV News' requests to label reps for comment had not been answered at press time — but according to G-Unit member Lloyd Banks, there's been preliminary talk about possibly ramping up the Anger Management Tour again.
"I'm in and out the office, and there's conversations," Banks told MTV News recently. "I'm just as excited as the fans are. The first Anger Management Tour, I wasn't a part of."
Banks said that if Em and 50 do go out, he'll definitely be on the show with the rest of G-Unit.
Eminem was recently a guest on BBC's "Friday Night With Jonathan Ross," and he told the host that he hasn't solidified his touring plans yet.
"As far as touring, I haven't got that far to really figure it out yet. I haven't got that part," he said. "I'm kinda in album cycle right now and promoting. But we'll see how it goes."
Em has been back onstage in promotion of his new LP, Relapse, which officially drops Tuesday. He performed on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on Friday, will rock the Kimmel stage again this week, and he announced a special free MySpace concert in Detroit on Tuesday night.
Em's new DJ, acclaimed producer the Alchemist, told Mixtape Daily that he really gets a charge out of seeing Em do the Relapse record "Underground."
"When I first heard [Relapse], that was the song I said, 'This is gonna shut mutha----ers up.' Straight up. It would not be an issue," Al said. "Nobody would be like, 'I didn't like this, I didn't like the flow.' ... When we perform that song, Em takes a spot on the stage, and that's it. He picks a spot and dumbs out. There's not a lot of moving.
"When we're rehearing the song, you know, 'This is gonna be something crazy.' He says, 'Turn the lights down,' they put the spotlight on Em, and it's just snap rap. In the current day and age, you don't hear songs like that. It doesn't seem like any of that other sh-- going on in the world or in the music industry was going on in his mind when he [made the song]. He was strictly into the craft. I don't think anybody is f---ing with that."
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