HipHope.com

Kool G Rap is now teaching rapping, he released a book entitled, How To Rap: The Art And Science Of The Hip Hop MC.  Sounds like a great idea and no better person to teach than him.  Back from the early 80’s through the 90’s

Kool G Rap blazed the mic and was listened from West Coast, Down South and East Coast back when the coast wars were going on. Check the video for his song On The Run was considered a classic in the art of story telling.  HipHopDx.com has an extensive interview with him on their website.  It’s informative and long, you may have to come back to read the whole thing.  So this could set a trend and get Hip Hop taught in school since it’s part of our culture more than anything.  Listen to the lyrics in this track, it’s wonderful MCing (wow, I just made a new Hip Hop phrase, Wonderful MCing!)  I love it in this video when he says, “Wake up stupid we gotta go!”  Check it, let me know what you think….

Gucci Mane is doing a lot from Jail these days.  He recorded an album (well at least one song from jail) and n0w he fires his manager Debora Antey and left Mizay Entertainment.  He also cut loose his promoter Johnnie Campbell and Hitt Afta Hitt Enterprises.  He is also leaving So Icey Entertainment label and launching his own label, 1017 Brick Squad Records Inc.  He told AllHipHop.com, “The rest of 2010 is going to be real major. I’m taking control of all of my business properties and keeping the focus on my career, my music and my artists. All the pieces to the puzzle are finally in place and once I get home it’s Gucci time.”  He is now being managed by First Avenue Management, with David Bolno, Managing Director at Nigro, Karlin, Segal & Feldstein as the manager of his business affairs. CAA will now handle his show bookings.  Seems like Gucci is cleaning up his act all together as I have the same confidence he’ll clean up his act as he is released from jail.  Well this is the second time in a month that Debora Antey has been fired, she was also fired by Nicki Minaj for not getting her paperwork in order to go on tour with Rihanna.

Chicago is basically bringing in martial law by bringing in the National Guard to help curb the violence.  If you read an earlier post regarding Chicago violence that I wrote, you will get an understanding of what the Chicago community is going through (41-people-shot-in-50-hours-in-chicago).  Chicago must stop the violence, they’re not calling it martial law, but it sure sounds like it to me.  Maybe martial law without the curfew.  Sad world we’re living in.

The long and ongoing wrongful death lawsuit has been dismissed against the City of Los Angeles.  A lawyer for the Biggie estate, Bradley C. Gage claims the dismissal of this case can prompt arrests in the ‘97 shooting of Biggie Smalls.  The case was dismissed on April 5th, 2010 after the Biggie’s estate and the city said the case can be opened at a later date.  The wrongful death lawsuit included allegations that the LAPD had something to do with the murder of Mr Smalls.  Biggie, who’s birth name was Christopher Wallace, was 24 when he died and at the pinnacle of his career when he was gunned down in March 1997 after returning from a party.  The lawsuit first filed in 2002, was declared a mistrial in 2005 after the city was found to withhold evidence of LAPD documents.  Family members say that this case isn’t about money it’s about finding out the truth behind his murder.  I don’t know but it seems like if it was someone else the killer would’ve been tracked down, found, arrested and tried already.  Like KRS 1 said, if you wanna get away with murder, kill a rapper.

David Ortiz from the Boston Red Sox has a club in the Dominican Republic called the 40/40 club.  Everyone knows Jay Z has clubs in NY, Atlantic City and Las Vegas named the 40/40 Club.   The lawsuit claims that Ortiz cannot claim ignorance to the name because he’s been a guest at the 40/40 Club before,  Jay Z is suing for $5 million.  This lawsuit shouldn’t hold water because first of all 40/40 club is originally used for baseball players who hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in one season.  So should Major League Baseball sue Jay Z for using the 40/40 Club as a name too.  It just doesn’t make sense, Jay Z has been known for his business sense but this is taking it a bit too far.  What the heck is Ortiz using the name 40/40 Club for his business any way, he never stole 40 bases in his life?!?

Erykah Badu

Erykah Badu has been Hip Hop’s sweetheart for a very long time.  Her weirdness, beauty and soulful voice is somethingwe couldn’t resist.  But Feb 2008 was a terrible year for Ms Badu.  After not coming out with any new music since Sept 2003, she comes out with the album New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War.  Until then Badu has been known for many things, making a wack album was not one of them.  But after listening to New Amerykah Pt 1 it was terrible.  Only two good songs on the whole album, not really an album more like an EP.  I was disgusted because I’m the biggest Erykah Badu fan in the world.  I even tried to listen to the album over and over to see if it would grow on me.  Nope!  But now here comes her new album New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh out March 30th, 2010.  Ahhhh a refreshing Badu is back again with her soulful Hip Hop inspired music.  She’s sounding a little Billie Holiday-ish on the album.  Very very nice!  The first track 20 Feet Tall is like a 3 minute intro to the album.  Window Seat the second track on the album is very soulful almost jazzy.  Agitation I guess is like another intro with some hot instrumentals.  But the banger on this EP is the song Turn Me Away (Get Munny) is crazy!  With Jr Mafia’s Get Money sample with a soulful music and Erykah’s Billie Holiday-sounding self is off the chain.  The next track Gone Baby, Don’t Be Long is another hot Hip Hop inspired soulful Erykah song.   Umm Hmm is another nice Badu track, sounds very Mama’s Gun like.  Love is like a funk track, nothing special, it’s just OK.  You Loving Me (Session) is Eryka’s attempt at comedy I guess, I didn’t find it very funny, I’ll let you hear it for yourself.  Fall In Love (Your Funeral) is another great song by Badu being very honest about falling in love with her.  Another Biggie sample in here, singing “There’s gonna be some slow singing, flower bringing if her burglar alarm starts ringing.”  Yeah no doubt look at Andre and Common!  Incense Feat. Kirsten Agnesta is some soulful bugged out

New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh

mostly instrumental high Badu song.  Out of My Mind Just In Time is a weird outro that you would expect from Badu.  All in all I give this album like an 85% out of 100.  I would’ve gotten a 95 or 100 if it was a full album.  Almost a classic like Mamas Gun but not enough, get it for only $10.  If you’re in NYC you can probably get it for like $6 or $8 in the village.  Check out her video for Window Seat, the path she walks is the path JFK got shot, the X is where he was shot at. The video was shot Guerrilla style, in one take with no extras.  So the people in the video were just chillin’, LOL!  Damn look at the fat ass on Badu, damn she’s fine than a muh fhuqua!

OK Badu said she was making a statement against “groupthink.”  Groupthink is a way of thinking, those who use the groupthinking ideology try to limit or eliminate conflict from a discussion without properly analyzing the opinions and ideas that were presented over the course of the conversation.  Boy oh boy, there’s going to be some highly mad people behind this video.

Wow, California is trying to legalize marijuana!  In November California’s ballot will have the legalization of Marijuana. Wow, that’s crazy, but Stephen Gutwillig California director of the Drug Policy Alliance is pushing for this.  People are getting tired of wasting police resources, wasting money on the underground that could go directly to the economy.  Stephen needed 434,000 valid signatures to get the ballot, he got over 694,000.  There’s a lot of pros and cons for the legalization of Marijuana like impaired driving going up would be a con, more money into the economy would be a pro.  Less money wasted criminalizing marijuana etc.  But here’s the bad part about Cali legalizing Marijuana as a state.  The FBI, DEA, US Marshals and other federal law enforcement offices can still arrest you because it’s still illegal federally.  Wow, be careful even if it is legalized.

2009 Grammy Awards brings now Kanye West Drama, but other controversies steamed from Kanye West.  Before I say this let me remind you Beyonce won 6 awards for the evening.  When Taylor Swift’s Fearless beat Beyonce’s I Am…Sasha Fierce for album of the year, Twitter and Facebook were blowing up regarding this.  Everyone was online chatting about how Kanye West made Swift famous and she would’ve never won that award if not for him.  I’m sorry to burst people’s bubble, but Swift was famous way before Kanye made an ass of himself at the Video awards.  She just wasn’t famous to us, I don’t know what it is about Country music, I hardly know anyone (white friends included) who say that they like Country music, but that music has been burning the charts up for years.  Granted it’s taken a back seat to Hip Hop in the last several years, but I remember back in the 90’s Garth Brooks had three albums in the Billboard top 200 albums at one time.  So this is nothing new, plus Beyonce won 6 damn Grammys, just because she didn’t win album of the year people weren’t satisfied it’s a shame.  What’s even more of a shame is that Kanye West’s ignorance at the video awards is still taking shine away from artists.  But all in all the Grammy Awards were boring and they played the same music we heard all year over and over, just like all the award shows.  They should think about getting creative on these shows because they’re putting me to sleep.  One great thing about the Grammys this year, Mos Def was nominated for best rap album for his album The Estatic.

Beyonce and Swift both did good at the Grammys, so what's the problem?!?

Wow, I’ve had thoughts of saying f**k Hip Hop since the Cash Money, Clear Channel days.  When you hear rappers that sound like s**t selling millions of records and you’re like what the f*** (ie Vanilla Ice, Young MC).  I know me personally growing up as a small youth when Hip Hop was brand new and being from the Bronx had that thought many times since the 90’s.  But instead of giving up on Hip Hop, I created a website so I can talk about the foulness, wackness, politics etc going on.  At the same time give underground artists and models (who are also artists but deserve to be mentioned separately) the chance to shine right along with the so called artists.  So basically the degradation of Hip Hop as an art form was a slow process starting in the 90’s with Vanilla Ice and Young MC.  Rappers who cannot rap or rap about bs and sell millions and get awards and all that.  Present day, the hottest rapper is Lil Wayne.  He’s on every radio, every magazine and all the award shows.  Regardless how bland his rhymes are, how wack his flow is and how stupid his personal life gets.  Wow, there’s really something wrong with the masses.  Hip Hop has gotten so bad that veteran keep it real rappers are calling it quits in liu of this.  Scarface is so sick of the wackness that in his interview with Allhiphop.com he explains why he’s not recording or listening to Hip Hop any more.  He states back in the day it was cool to own albums by Tribe, Cube, NWA, Ice T or Kool G Rap.  Now he’s like why buy music when you can download it for free.  Especially in this day and age when stores are selling CD’s for like $10.  Rappers making records with one good song and the rest garbage.  All rappers need to sound like Lil Wayne or Soulja Boy to come out and sell.  Basically he’s saying sound bland, have a gimmick and rap about absolutely nothing.  Sorry to hear about Scarface as he’s sick of the business side of Hip Hop and the wackness.  Me too, lucky I’m not a rapper, I’m a writer and producer and I can still make quality music.  Check the full interview on allhiphop.com

Drake has a song called “Every Girl In the World” featuring Lil Wayne, this song is about fu… I mean having sexual relations with every girl in the world. Now I’m never the one to hate on someone with a foul mouth, I slip up in front of the kids every once in a while myself. But the performance on the BET awards was way worse than me having to apologize to my daughter for saying the s-word. I was just saying how there’s too much going on with Lil Wayne, and I been posting about him way too much. Just when I thought I was done with him, here he goes again in some more stupidness (made up word but so what). So in the middle of the song, here come Weezy’s young daughter and her friend. First off they bum rushed the stage because this wasn’t planned. Stupid stage people with no brain or no clue what Drake and Weezy were rapping about. The girls apparently demanded to get on stage (stupid stage people). So here are two little girls dancing to a song that says the wanna fu…. I mean have sex with every girl in the world. Oh my, isn’t that disturbing, they’re singing that song and there’s two little girls dancing in the background. So what the hell is Drake apologizing for? Those weren’t his kids bum rushing the stage. Damn this is one of the reason’s people are saying Drake is going to take Weezy’s throne. Here’s a few more, his drugged out, two children having, two baby moms at the same time, homo controversy, gun charges and yes there’s more but we’ll stop here because this is a Drake post not a Lil Wayne bashing post. But let’s see what’s good this year as Drake gets signed and more exposure (like he hasn’t had enough). Everyone saying he’s the next great rapper to take over the game. But hey is it possible he can be another Canibus? Yeah probably not in the age of Laffy Taffy-like hooks and mindless songs that sell like hot cakes.  Hey wanna see the video, it’s a bit disturbing, but check it out.

Look at who got a new promotion deal with Microsoft to promote their new HTC Touch Pro 2 celly, uh I mean mobile device. Microsoft went throwback on us using Naughty By Nature as the face of their new mobile device. So on MS’s Windows Mobile Facebook page they’re having a contest where if you become a fan, they select users to win the device, a concert featuring Naughty in LA at the Nokia Theater and Naughty’s new single, Get To Know Me Better, preloaded on the phone. Wow, I’m signing up right now, make sure you sign up for the contest soon because it ends on August 15th, 2009.  This isn’t the first time MS teamed up with a Hip Hop artist.  In December ‘08 the partnered with Common to promote his new clothing line called Softwear.

Windows Mobile Facebook page

I’m a bit hazy regarding what happened here.  Like exactly who stopped the show and why would Jazzy Jeff play a show that says no rap music.  LOL, were they trying to make a House Music Dj out of him or something.  But whatever the case is, this is crazy, what kind of party is it going to be with no rap music played there.  I mean I really don’t get it, I would imagine the gang violence is so hard core in KC that they don’t want rap played there.  I played a party where they said no crunk music, I played the crunk music while the owner went for food and was very sorry.  I guess the owner knew when I played a song by the “Tear the Club up Thugs” they would really tear the club up.  But let the Virgina MC Skills explain it to you better in this video.

Omarian catches hell for dating light-skinned women

Omarian recently recieved flack from fellow Twitter users on his Twitter site.  A fan asked him why is it he only talks to light-skinned women.  His reply was quoted as this (according to mediatakeout.com), “i talk 2 err1…but truthfully my moms is lightskin so im naturally attracted to women that look that way but ive had blackGF.”  OK so he’s a momma’s boy, but that sounds like an honest answer of the type of women he likes.  May be a bit biased, towards light women but it sounds like an honest answer to a question asked by a fan.  Now check out the reply from another fan, “I’m so upset with this loop alien head lame a*s Omarion on his twitter a fan asked why he only spoke to models and light skin women and he says “oh because my mom is light skin.” Are you f*cking kiddin me.  So I have to bleach my skin for you to notice me on twitter but I bet you notice me when I buy your damn next album which is a negative.  I loved omarion sinse 2001, I was behind every step of the way of his solo career and now he’s picking favorite fans cause they’re light skin.  When will these damn n*ggas see more then skin f*cking deep. Nigg*s get money and forget about the beautiful chocolate smooth skin mamas.”  Wow, she really let him have it.  But I’m really wondering, why would she get so mad, I think the question was why he only dates light-skinned women and not do you only talk to light-skinned women on Twitter.  What I’m saying is, he has a right to date, talk to, sleep with or whatever the hell he wants to do.  I’m light-skinned myself, I prefer dating dark-skinned women, does that make me a bad person for that.  No I don’t think so, that just makes me a person who likes dark women.  I’m saying whoever blasted O for that needs to get a grip.  The next day after that, Omarian’s Twitter site was deleted.