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Tag: hip-hop

  • Suge Knight In Armed Standoff With LAPD

    Former rap mogul, Marion ‘Suge’ Knight,  was pulled over by police with guns drawn on Friday afternoon. Apparently, the LAPD thought he was an assault suspect, but it later emerged that he was wrongfully mistaken.

    The former boss and friend to rapper, Tupac Shakur, was in the middle of an armed standoff with law enforcement agents in Los Angeles following an assault report.

    Law enforcement sources told TMZ that the LAPD had received a report of an assault that took place Friday afternoon and the suspect was reported to have matched Knight’s description. As a result, Knight was pulled over by the police who jumped out of their patrol cars with their guns drawn.

    Suge Knight is no stranger to legal battles. The ‘Death Row Records‘ boss has been arrested several times for drug and assault charges and has served prison time. When pulled over, he agreed to go to the police station where he explained that he wasn’t the man being sought.

    Sources told TMZ that the police now believe that the initial report of an assault involving Mr. Knight was false. Although he was released, sources close to the hip hop executive say that he is very rattled by the incident. Knight is now considering filing a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department as a result of the misunderstanding. He is currently serving 3 years of unsupervised probation for driving with an invalid license. Earlier in 2012, he had been arrested after police found marijuana in his car.

    (photo via Twitter)

  • Jay Z Releases New Men’s Fragrance: Gold Jay Z

    Just when you thought Jay Z could not possibly do anything more as a business mogul, he comes out with a new fragrance for men. He debuted his new fragrance, which he calls “Gold Jay Z” on Friday November 1st. It will be sold starting November 20th at Barneys in New York.

    The new fragrance will launch at the store, as a part of his holiday collaboration with the store. After its release at Barneys, “Gold Jay Z” will hit all of the other department stores in time for the holiday shoppers on Black Friday.

    The fragrance will also be accompanied by a multi-platform ad campaign.

    When purchasing Jay Z’s new fragrance, customers can look for the fancy packaging as a it comes in a sleek white bottle and a black leather gift box, and has words including “power, success, courage” etched in the gold top. In case future customers are wondering, the fragrance contains hints of yellow ginger, cypress, vetiver and bourbon vanilla (among many others).

    Jay Z is already well established as a business mogul, and in addition to his career as a hip hop artist, he has started a clothing line, a sports agency, and several other business ventures.

    In order to create his new scent, Jay Z collaborated with Firmenich perfumer extraordinaire Ilias Ermenidis. In relation to their partnership Ermenidis said “He has a natural cool that people want a piece of. In developing Gold Jay Z, I wanted to capture both the vibrant ambitious part of Jay Z’s charismatic persona and his effortless style that he naturally embodies through a fusion of notes chosen by Jay Z.”

    Eariler this year, he released his latest album titled “Holy Grail,” which also featured a documentary film that went along with it. The hit song from the album, “Holy Grail” had a music video which also debuted exclusively on Facebook, the first time that a song has ever done that.

    As if he does not do enough on his own, he was also listed, along with his wife Beyonce, as Forbes’ highest paid celebrity couple.

    Jay Z is arguably the most successful celebrity who has used his money and power to make moves in the world of business, and does not show any signs of quitting that yet.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky3RYmyT3mY

    Image via Youtube

  • Diddy Wants To Become An NFL Team Owner

    Diddy Wants To Become An NFL Team Owner

    Sean “Diddy” Combs or whatever he claims to want to be called now has declared that he wants to own an NFL team. The man who has changed his name probably more than anyone also said that he wanted to own a team years ago, and has now reaffirmed that plan.

    Diddy has so much money that he does not know what to do with it, and has decided that becoming the owner of an NFL team would be a good business decision.

    In a bold business move, it would also make him the first African American majority owner in the NFL. He is one of the richest hip hop artists already, after being listed with a worth of $580 million by Forbes Magazine earlier this year.

    He is certainly not the first musician to turn to the business of sports in order to accumulate even more money. He wants to be the first majority owner, while others like Nelly, Usher, and Jennifer Lopez have all just had minor stakes in different professional franchises in the NFL and NBA.

    In addition to being a popular hip hop musician throughout his career, he has had several other business ventures. His most well-known is certainly his clothing line, Sean John named after himself, while he has also had multiple restaurants, a men’s perfume, vodka, and more.

    Diddy, unlike Jay-Z, who started his own sports agency, wants to be an owner, allowing him to have more power over decisions that happen with a whole team. As a musical artist, he has released 6 albums, and has also appeared in 5 films.

    It only makes sense with the large number of African American players in the league that there should finally be an owner that is an African American. Diddy wants to be the one to finally achieve this and he said in an interview with Bloomberg TV, “Not having a small stake but actually owning an NFL team. I think it’s time for that. A majority of the players in the NFL are African-American but there are no African-American owners. So that’s one of my dreams.”

    Diddy already has plenty of experience in the world of business, and his new venture would certainly help add to his resume and reputation. The question is, which team would he become the owner of?

    Image via Youtube

  • Kanye West; Judge Says “No Felony Charges”

    A rapper gets into an altercation with a paparazzi at an airport. He initially gets into trouble with the law for it. Turns out, a judge says he is not guilty at all — at least, not of felony charges anyway.

    Last month, music artist, Kayne West, got into an altercation with a paparazzi at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). According to a report, West was exiting LAX when he was confronted by a photographer, one of many reportedly on the scene. The photographer began to antagonize West who then started grabbing at the camera while other photographers looked on. A struggle ensued and the photographer later claimed, not only that he was injured, but that West tried to steal the expensive item. Officials say West isn’t guilty of a felony crime and they will not move forward with burglary charges.

    “Prosecutors say the photographer in this latest case did not have a significant injury; his camera wasn’t stolen, and it’s not clear it was even damaged. They also say no weapon was used and West doesn’t have a felony record.”

    http://youtu.be/wodOrMShndc

    Kanye first came to fame back in the 1990s when he first gained attention after working with fellow rapper Jay-Z. He subsequently became a record producer, song writer, film maker, and even fashion designer. His relationship with Kim Kardashian, a television reality star, resulted in the birth of a child and brought him even further notoriety. West isn’t a stranger to controversy either.

    “One thing about me, I’m the worst kinda celebrity because all I do is make real music,” West said. “So I don’t want nobody trying to run up on me with no cameras, trying to sell pictures and sh** to magazines, asking me no dumbass questions.”

    West was scheduled to appear on the cover of the August edition of Rolling Stone magazine, when he was reportedly “bumped” for the “Boston Bomber,” Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. According to a report, West was supposed to make his third appearance on the magazine’s cover when he decided not to show.

    A hearing regarding the misdemeanor charges has yet to be scheduled.

  • Crazy Eyes From ‘Orange Is The New Black’ Gets Weird Tribute From ‘Breaking Bad’ Rapper

    A guy going by the name MC Coolwhip has apparently printed out a whole bunch of copies of a picture of Crazy Eyes from Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, and hung them all over his sister’s room.

    We know this because he tweeted as much:

    Then Piper Kerman, who wrote the book on which Orange is the New Black is based shared it with actress Uzo Aduba, who plays Crazy Eyes.

    Aduba responded:

    If you’re not intrigued by MC Coolwhip yet, you might be interested in knowing that he has three songs up on his site, and they’re all based on characters from Breaking Bad (Skyler, Jesse and Heisenberg). These are part of an EP called Breaking Doom, which is described as “Breaking bad lyrics over MF DOOM beats”.

    Here you go:

    Aduba and Kerman appeared with some of Orange is the New Black’s other cast member on MSNBC this weekend to talk about the show, stereotypes and real-life prisons. You can see some clips from that here.

  • Ice Ice Baby Gets ‘Sung By The Movies’ Treatment

    It’s Monday, and you need to experience Vanilla Ice’s classic Ice Ice Baby as pieced together from bits of nearly three hundred well-known movies. DonDraperSaysWhat has you covered. What more needs to be said?

    [via Laughing Squid]

  • Yeezus Revealed To Be New Kanye West Album

    Yeezus, the new album from Kanye West, has finally been revealed. The artist took to his Web site to show off what appears to be the final cover art (or lack thereof) for the new album.

    (image)

    The album will be released with no fanfare in a simple clear jewel case. Even so, Def Jam expects to sell 500,000 copies of the new album in its first week. It’s most definitely possible thanks to the strange marketing surrounding the album alongside the fact that early copies have not been leaked yet. Fans will want to buy it to hear the new tracks.

    Speaking of tracks, it’s been revealed that Yeezus will feature 10 tracks. Here’s the track list for the curious:

    1. On Site
    2. Black Skinhead
    3. I Am God feat. God
    4. New Slaves feat. Frank Ocean
    5. Hold My Liqour feat. Chief Keef & Justin Vernon
    6. I’m In It
    7. Blood On The Leaves
    8. Guilt Trip feat. Kid Cudi
    9. Send It Up feat. King L
    10. Bound 2 feat. Charlie Wilson

    It appears that the French release of the album will contain 4 additional untitled tracks. It’s unknown if those tracks will appear anywhere in the U.S. or if they will be offered as a special edition on iTunes.

    For those not keeping track, Yeezus will be the eighth studio album from West since his debut in 2004 with The College Dropout. He has also released a new album every year since 2010’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Yeezus continues that fine tradition.

    The album may be a secret to everyone so far, but that doesn’t mean the songs aren’t. West has performed a number of songs from Yeezus at various venues, including SNL. Here’s his two performances from SNL where he performed Black Skinhead and New Slaves.

    [h/t: Hip-Hop DX]

  • Hip-hop Producer Shot, Hospitalized

    The Associated Press is reporting that hip-hop producer Abraham Orellana, who performs as AraabMUZIK, has been shot. He has not died and is currently hospitalized.

    A spokesperson for Orellana told the AP that the artist was “in the wrong place at the wrong time” and was shot Wednesday night while “hanging out with friends. The spokesperson further stated that Orellana is “alive and well” while recovering.

    Orellana’s manager, George Moore, known as rapper and producer DukeDaGod, tweeted out a request for well-wishes over his Twitter account:

    DukeDaGod also posted a dour photo of friends and family crowding around the Orellana’s hospital bed. Orellana appears to have been sleeping at the time the photo was taken.

    (image)

  • Kanye West: Twitter Post Mysterious, Popular

    Kanye West sure knows how to stand out in a sea of tweets.

    The hip-hop mogul recently deleted every post on his page save for one, which has gotten almost 27,000 re-tweets: “June Eighteen”. No one knows for sure what will happen on that date, but there’s been a lot of speculation. Is it the day his new album drops? The day his kid drops? Either one would be equally exciting for his fans, and for fans of Kim K.

  • Will.i.am Admits To Using Someone Else’s Music

    Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas has admitted to taking someone else’s beat and making it his own after the original artist accused him of copyright infringement.

    The song, “Rebound”, is an instrumental number originally done by Arty and Matt Zo. The music is featured on Will.i.am’s track, “Let’s Go, a collaboration with Chris Brown, and Will.i.am claims he got in touch with Arty about using it. However, Arty has said that he never discussed such a collab with the musician.

    “Arty is a dope producer so I wrote this song to ‘Rebound’ last year,” he said. “I got in touch with Arty and showed it to him, did a different version to it because I asked him [to] make it newer, because I don’t just want to take your song and rap over it,” he said. “But in a year’s time, time’s gone by [and] we preferred writing over and using the [original] ‘Rebound.’ Something happened and the clearance … hopefully we resolved the issue.”

    Interestingly enough, the musician’s solo album isn’t getting the best reviews. While his first solo effort, Songs About Girls, was well received, this time around critics are saying it feels like he’s trying too hard, with guest vocalists meant to ensure radio play (Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber).

    Will.i.am says he’s a huge fan of Arty and just wants to share his music with his own fans.

    “I’m a fan of Arty. I think he’s great and the world needs to know about how talented those guys are. It’s sad that it’s turned into a fiasco but hopefully it’s resolved because I’m a fan of those guys to the point where I wrote to their instrumental,” he said.

  • Frank Ocean: Twitter Wants to Know Who He’s Singing About

    Frank Ocean (aka Christopher Breaux), the 24 year-old R&B singer/songwriter who is quickly making a name for himself in the industry, recently revealed on his blog that he’s gay. As a result, a number of high-profile music types have leapt to the young man’s defense, including Def Jam founder Russell Simmons. Also showing their support were Solange Knowles, RuPaul, Rita Ora, and Flea, the bass player from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Although his revelation may slightly alter the perspective of his tunes, the song ultimately remains the same: love is love is love, regardless of who you give your heart to.

    “The courage he displayed in his beautiful and eloquent letter was touching on many levels. Frank broke down a wall that should never have been built,” Def Jam president Joie Manda said. “The overwhelming show of support from his peers was awesome and inspiring. Island Def Jam is so proud to stand beside Frank Ocean — the artist and man — now and always.”

    In addition to dropping videos for both “Novacane” and “Thinkin Bout You”, Ocean self-released his debut mixtape, “nostalgia, ULTRA”, last year. His first proper album is currently scheduled for release on July 17th. If you think his talent ends there, think again: Ocean also penned songs for such best-selling artists as Beyonce, Justin Bieber, John Legend, and Brandy. In other words, the guy has talent to spare, and he’s not afraid to pass it around.

    Although most people have been kind to Ocean following the announcement — you’re always going to run into those who aren’t nice about anything — most people on Twitter seem to have one question on their minds: Who in the hell is Frank Ocean singing to in his songs? Is it a man? Is it a woman? Their curiosity has sparked some interesting posts as of late. You can find a selection of to thoughts and comments about Ocean below.

  • SXSW Day One Recap By Way Of Dope Rap

    SXSW Day One Recap By Way Of Dope Rap

    You don’t hear raps about Guy Kawasaki and Google+ very often, but this one, which has a pretty hot beat, I might add, fills that void. It gives a nice, brief recap of day one of SXSWi in a way that’s entertaining and easy to digest.

    There’s plenty going on that the recap didn’t touch on. The event is just too big, that I don’t believe any one report or even publication could capture all of it, but everybody has their highlights. No pun intended.

    Perhaps we’ll see some social discovery-based freestyling before the event is over. That’s clearly one of the big trends in Austin this year.

  • Rap/Hip-Hop Gets No Love From Amazon’s Best Music Of 2011

    Amazon released its Best of 2011 selections for music today which, undoubtedly, will ignite a fury of Internet commenters to opine and whine about why certain albums are so high and why certain singles don’t even appear on the list. From Amazon’s press release:

    Each year the Amazon Music team digs deep into a handful of musical genres–editors listen to as much new music as possible and vote on the very best albums and songs. The goal of creating a thoughtful “best of the year” list is to help customers discover amazing new music and to make it easy for customers to explore new artists or bands. The Best of the Year Music Store is now live on Amazon.com and offers customers a large variety of music to browse, along with unique lists such as “50 Outstanding 2011 Albums You Might Have Missed.”

    “Our customers enjoy discovering new music and we hope there’s something for everyone’s taste in our Best of the Year for 2011,” said Craig Pape, Director of Amazon Music Content Acquisition. “Our editors love to listen to new music and highlight the best of the best such as Adele’s rich sophomore effort ‘21.’ ‘Rolling In The Deep’ has become an anthem for 2011 and is the top song in our Customer Picks.”

    The anthem of 2011? Really? Having never heard of it, I consulted with an insider at the Internet (i.e., the search engine called Google) and have confirmed that ‘Rolling In The Deep’ is in fact that song that has been playing in every car, mall, commercial, bar, bathroom, coffee shop, radio, and occasional earworm all year. An anthem it is, then. At any rate, Amazon’s editors have compiled multiple Best Of lists to accomodate for multiple tastes, such as Best Pop, Best Country Music, and Outstanding 2011 Albums You Might Have Missed.

    A noticeable genre missing from Amazon’s compilation of Best Of lists was a Best Rap/Hip-Hop category. In a year that saw album releases from top names like Drake, Jay-Z & Kanye West, Lil’ Wayne, Wale, Rihanna, Talib Kweli, Lupe Fiasco, The Beastie Boys, and Raekwon as well as more recent breakouts like Tyler, The Creator, Yelawolf, and Wiz Khalifa (to name a few), no link or mention is found on Amazon’s Best of 2011 music site. Granted, lots of genres were not given their own list on Amazon, and that’s a fair argument, but with so many of Rap/Hip-Hop performers presently active in the mainstream it’s peculiar that Amazon would give Classical music more attention than Rap/Hip-Hop.

    What do you think of the lists Amazon compiled? Hate them? Agree with them? Comment below.

  • Heavy D Dead at 44: Musicians, Other Celebs React

    Heavy D, the former leader of popular hip-hop group Heavy D and the Boyz, has passed away at the age of 44. It was reported that he had been suffering from pneumonia and was rushed to the hospital this afternoon. He was later pronounced dead at 1 PM PT. An investigation is currently underway, but no foul play is suspected at this time.

    Breaking into the music industry in 1987, Heavy D and the Boyz had success with their first album Living Large. The group arguably had their biggest hit in 1991 with Now That We Found Love, you can see the video below:

    One of the last tweets that Heavy D tweeted out was him paying respects to “Smokin” Joe Frazier.

    @heavyd
    HEAVY D    SMOKIN JOE FRAZIER..RIP.. truly one of the best heavyweight champs that ever lived.. GODS SPEED,MR FRAZIER! 20 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    As I’m sure you can imagine, news of the death of Heavy D spread around Twitter very quickly, below are some selected tweets:

    @Nas
    Nasir Jones    RIP TO A REAL HIP HOP LEGEND HEAVY D! 3 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

    @MikeTyson
    Mike Tyson    I was just with Heavy D in LA last month @ Manny’s restaurant with our old crew. We said it was a reunion but we were really saying goodbye. 41 minutes ago via Echofon · powered by @socialditto

    @funkmasterflex
    Funk Flex !!!!!     In Flex We Trust » #IFWTRemembersHeavyD: Heavy D & The Boyz – The Overweight Lovers In The House http://t.co/2Jhic9gh 14 minutes ago via TweetMeme · powered by @socialditto

    @anthonyjeselnik
    Anthony Jeselnik    Finally, The Boyz get their chance to shine! 1 hour ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    @UncleRUSH
    Russell Simmons    Created the whole genre of soulful hip hop. Rip My man #Heavy D 48 minutes ago via UberSocial for BlackBerry · powered by @socialditto

    @MistahFAB
    Mistah F.A.B    R.I.P HEAVY D grind king just paying respects to a LEGEND 22 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

    @therealdjfresh
    DJ Fresh    R.I.P. to rap legend Heavy D he had several big hits in the 90’s he also wrote and performed the theme song 2 In Livin Color.. 24 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    @chrisrock
    Chris Rock    About 20 summers ago Heavy took me out on the road as his opening act. Best time of my life. Really gonna miss him. http://t.co/Ivg3AVrr 37 minutes ago via WhoSay · powered by @socialditto

    @MrEdLover
    Ed Lover    Heavy D was a great entertainer but a better person! He gave swagger to the big fellas to come after him! 42 minutes ago via Echofon · powered by @socialditto

    @MagicJohnson
    Earvin Magic Johnson    Lost 2 friends in the last day – Heavy D & Joe Frazier. 45 minutes ago via WhoSay · powered by @socialditto

    @naughtybynature
    Naughty by Nature    Heavy D was a great influence and mentor to Naughty by Nature. I learned how to be gentleman in this industry by… http://t.co/lHmdu2JF 53 minutes ago via Facebook · powered by @socialditto

    @RickiLake
    Ricki Lake    Wow, RIP rap legend Heavy D. Too too young. 🙁 56 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

    You can read more about the death of Heavy D at FamousDead.com

  • Is The Viral Video

    Is The Viral Video

    We’re sure you’ve either seen or heard about “General” Larry Platt’s American Idol audition, Pants On The Ground. Not sure how you could’ve missed it, as it’s been everywhere… it was even sung by the Minnesota Vikings after they defeated the Dallas Cowboys during the NFL playoffs.

    Pants On The Ground has been viewed well over 2 million times on YouTube and Platt has even performed his “hit song” on the morning talk show “The View”.

    But, is all the publicity Platt receiving justified? Let us know what you think.

    Michigan based hip-hop duo, the Green Brothers, have posted a video on YouTube entitled "Back Pockets On The Floor"  that has a striking resemblance to Platt’s viral hit. The Green Brothers song was copyrighted and recorded in 1996, 14 years before Platt graced the audition stage of American Idol. 

    The following description accompanies the video on YouTube…

    This is in regards to the General Larry Platt "Pants on The Ground". His song is a take off of the Green Brothers song " Back Pockets On The Floor’. Back Pockets On The Floor was written by G. Green and was copyrighted and recorded by the Green Brothers in 1996. The General’s song have the same intent, idea and in part the same message. YOU BE THE JUDGE AMERICA!!

    It should be noted Gerald Green, a member of the hip-hop duo, holds no grudge against Platt and even "wishes him well".

    So, what do you think: Did Larry Platt rip-off "Back Pockets On The Floor"? Tell us what you think.