A$AP Ferg hosted the first annual Ferg Health Fair in Harlem over the weekend in efforts to provide health and wellness resources but also fun activities for youth from his hometown, according to reports.
Besides getting health care vouchers and full physical exams, children were able to participate in DJ-ing lessons from the Jay Master Jay and Scratch Academy.
The “Trap Lord” rapper said he was and continues to be inspired to give back to his community mainly due to his late father’s legacy.
“Growing up, my Dad always emphasized the vitality of giving back to the community and making sure we never gave up on our dreams,” Ferg said in a statement. “His encouragement motivated me to never settle and he’s the reason I am where I am today, but I’m not the only one. My dad spent his life helping kids in the community stay off the streets and make something of themselves. He may be gone but his legacy lives on through the people of our neighborhood and all the lives he touched.”
Tyler, the Creator has been forced to cancel his Australian tour thanks to a beef with a feminist group. The group, Collective Shout, was trying to get the former Odd Future rep’s visa banned last month because they feel that his music “propagates discriminatory ideas about women and other groups, and represent a danger to a segment of the Australian community on the potential basis of incitement to the acts of hatred.”
After the Cherry Bomb rapper tweeted about what was happening and mentioned the Collective Shout director Coralie Alison, his fans sent some vicious tweets her way.
The company behind the tour, Frontier Touring, confirmed that the tour has been cancelled.
“We would much rather come to Australia when it isn’t surrounded in controversy. I love my fans there and hopefully I’ll be back soon. Don’t do drugs,” Tyler said in the statement.
Though the Australian leg of his Cherry Bomb World Tour is a no go, the “IFHY” rapper will be heading out on tour with A$AP Rocky for the Rocky and Tyler Tour, which kicks off in September.
Lee Daniels is looking to bring another hit series to FOX. According to EW, Daniels is working on a pilot for a series, titled Star, that follows three Atlanta girls that have formed a girl group and are trying to thrive in the music business.
“Like Empire, it’s set against the backdrop of the music business but from a very different perspective,” FOX chairman and CEO Gary Newman said in a statement. “Set Atlanta, it’s about three girls who come together to form a band and it’s about their rise to the top in a very challenging business. It’s the perspective of the artist and, without getting too much into the storyline, one of our characters is rising out of poverty and there is a a lot from Lee’s own life that’s baked into the DNA of this project.”
Star was not only partially inspired by Daniel’s own life, but also by a major Broadway play turned all-star movie.
“Lee talks a lot about everything from Dreamgirls to modern-day girl groups that are manufactured, that are put together, that don’t have an organic reason to be together but are tied to each other and that set-up lends itself to a great soap operatic storytelling machine,” FOX Chairman and CEO Dana Walden added. “Lee loved the mixture of drama and soap and music, and thinks it’s a very potent combo.”
As he gears up for the debut of Star, the second season of Empire debuts Sept. 23rd at 9:00 p.m.
Michael Jordan believes that if he was in his prime he could beat Lebron James one on one! YG seems to agree! What are your thoughts? Who would you put your money on?
Allegedly Chris Brown has a new girlfriend. If Ammika Harris (@ammikaaa) is his new boo, he definitely has a type. Is it just us, or does she remind you a little bit of Karrueche. Judging by Karrueche’s uncertainty in interviews, she may even get back with Breezy.
Uncle Luke just may be bringing the 2 Live Crew’s story to the big screen! It seems like the success surrounding NWA’s ‘Straight Outta Compton’ biopic has sparked some interest in him doing so. Uncle Luke just released his book, ‘The Book of Luke’ about his controversial experiences in Hip Hop. Now he’s looking to possibly turn the book into a film.
Luke said at a convention with the National Association of Black Journalists,
“With the (buzz) of ‘Straight Outta Compton,’ people wanna hear the story of 2 Live Crew. They didn’t go to jail. They didn’t go to the Supreme Court.”
2 Live Crew was known for their raunchy lyrics and accompanying visuals. When we think of Uncle Luke we think of wild fun and Freaknik! Are you ready to see the 2 Live Crew’s story come to the big screen?!
(AllHipHop News) J. Cole has established himself as one of the premier Hip Hop artist of his generation. Three #1 albums, a platinum LP without any guest features, sold out headlining tours, and songs with music icons such as Janet Jackson has placed the Dreamville Records founder in rare musical company.
Jermaine sat down with Sway Calloway for a rare interview. The videotaped discussion included Cole talking about his Forest Hills Drive Tour with Big Sean, YG, and Jeremih. He also touched on being one of the first mainstream level emcees to break away from the established rules of the music industry.
“I was the example for all these guys, and nobody should have to do it again. I was the one that had to go through it to show everybody this is not the way no more,” stated Cole. “You don’t have to have the features. You don’t have to drop the single. You don’t have to have the radio record before they put your album out. You don’t have to follow those rules. You can put out what you love and still sell records if you’re connecting with people.”
Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive came outin December 2014. The North Carolina born emcee only announced the album a month before it hit stores. He did not officially service any singles to radio until after the LP was released in full. The project was certified platinum earlier this year.
Season 2 of Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood has not even started airing yet, and there’s already drama surrounding the VH1 show. According to TMZ, new cast member Milan Christopher is being treated like an outcast by other people on the show because he’s gay.
The site reports:
Milan Christopher has been filming for 3 weeks, but we’re told the majority of rappers on the show are shunning him. Rappers on the show include Ray J, Soulja Boy, Omarion and Mally Mall.
We’re told a number of the rappers are upset with producers for hiring Milan … not because he’s gay but because he has no cred in the rap game. They believe producers hired Milan as a “sideshow” and a “circus” to goose ratings.
So at least three “rappers” on the show are supposedly refusing to film with Milan, and the self-described rapper/model says it’s simply because of his sexuality. Mona Scott-Young’s ratchet reality show is set to return on September 8.
(AllHipHop News) Kendrick Lamar was the last musical guest on Stephen Colbert’s Comedy Central series The Colbert Report. The TDE emcee will also be the first musical guest when Stephen Colbert becomes the new host of CBS’s The Late Show.
The Wrap reports Colbert made the announcement at the Television Critics Association summer press tour on Monday. The initial Late Show with Stephen Colbert will also feature Oscar-winning actor George Clooney.
The 51-year-old comedian took over the late night program’s hosting duties after creator David Letterman stepped away from the desk in May. The Stephen Colbert led Late Show is scheduled to premiere on September 8 at 11:35/10:35 central.
(AllHipHop News) N.W.A is back. The seminal Hip Hop group is experiencing a cultural revival thanks to the F. Gary Gray directed feature film Straight Outta Compton. The movie’s title was taken from the group’s debut studio album.
When N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton LP was released in 1988, fans did not have access to a lyric breakdown website like Genius.com, so Vanity Fair caught up with founding member Ice Cube to get his take on bars from the album’s title track.
The segment features Cube reading and replying to Rap Genius users annotations for his verse on “Straight Outta Compton.” According to the rapper/actor/producer, some of the Geniuses got it right while others missed the mark.
(AllHipHop News) Drake’s impressive summer 2015 is not slowing down. Most observers crowned the OVO Sound leader the winner in his battle with Meek Mill, and Drizzy picked up another honor this week. According to Billboard, the Toronto entertainer’s latest project If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late became the first album released this year to sell over 1 million copies.
If You’re Reading This sold another 8,000 copies last week which pushes its total to 1.007 million. The project crossed the one million mark in album equivalent units (sales plus streaming) in March.
A photo posted by champagnepapi (@champagnepapi) on
Drake’s fourth full length retail release became the second album overall to sell over a million copies in 2015. Taylor Swift’s 2014 LP 1989 has sold 1.463 million copies this year with a total around 5.1 million.
With five months to go, 2015 is on pace to have even fewer million-plus album sellers than 2014. Last year, the only LPs that topped one million copies sold were Taylor Swift’s 1989 (3.66 million), the Frozen soundtrack (3.53 million), Sam Smith’s In The Lonely Hour (1.21 million), and Pentatonix’s That’s Christmas To Me (1.14 million).
(AllHipHop News) In 2007, the Hip Hop community lost influential performer Chad “Pimp C” Butler. Former Ozone magazine founder/editor-in-chief Julia Beverly has now released a new biography about the late UGK rapper.
Beverly did an interview with the Sway In The Morning radio show to promote Sweet Jones: Pimp C’s Trill Life Story, and the author discussed how Pimp C was not initially supportive of participating in one of his group’s biggest hit records. Even though UGK reached mainstream success by appearing on Jay Z’s 1999 song “Big Pimpin’,” Beverly contends the Port Arthur, Texas bred rhymer had no intention on crossing over.
“He was adamantly opposed to doing that song. His bodyguard said it was like an act of Congress to get him to rap on the song,” said Beverly. “I think he kind of liked being underground. He didn’t want to become a pop star, and alienate their fan base.”
The Timbaland-produced “Big Pimpin'” reached the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot Rap Singles chart. The song’s video was a major hit on MTV and BET as well.
(AllHipHop News) West Coast Hip Hop legend Warren G has had a big couple of weeks. The Long Beach native released his 6-track Regulate… G Funk Era, Pt. II EP, and he is being portrayed by Sheldon A. Smith in the N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton which hits theaters on Friday.
In an interview with Billboard, Warren G shared his thoughts on an important scene in F. Gary Gray’s film. He also discussed the much talked about battle between Meek Mill and Drake as well as possibly one day working with Aftermath emcee Kendrick Lamar.
On the Straight Outta Compton scene where he introduces Snoop Dogg to Dr. Dre:
We was hungry. Me, Snoop and Nate. We was hungry and wanted to do music. And Dre gave us that opportunity and opened the door for us. We just been doing it ever since. [Like] what he did for us, we changed the game for him at the same time when we did The Chronic. That opened up a whole other lane to now, where he’s got Eminem, 50 Cent and all the other artists under him and [allowed] him to get as far as he’s gotten with everything that’s going on. That’s a good thing.
On still making music twenty years after his debut:
It feels good to still be in rotation 20 years later. A lot of dudes is in one week and gone the next. That’s just like with the Meek Mill and Drake situation. A lot of fans switched away from him [Meek] fast. But I’m not saying he’s done. Once he do a banger outside of the bullsh*t that’s going on, they’ll be right back. That’s just an example of what can happen. One second you are on top, the next second… boom! You’re gone.
On potentially working with Kendrick Lamar:
I want to work with him. I mean, we talked. I’ve seen him. We were rehearsing right before the BET Experience and he was like, “I need one of them bangers.” I was like, “Alright. Just get at me.” I gave him my number. He said he was gonna get at me, so whenever he gets at me, I’m here.
Check out the latest music release from MicrophoneBully’s own Big Brother Biz “Doing Me” Produced By On Da Ave Productions. This record will be featured on the Big Brother Biz’ “Pure” EP coming this fall.
(AllHipHop News) Record producer/mixer Mike Dean has worked with some of the most accomplished Hip Hop artists in history. His resumé includes stints with 2Pac, Scarface, Jay Z, Kanye West, UGK, and more. Dean sat down with Montreality to talk about a host of subjects. One topic covered his choice for the greatest rapper of all time.
“Probably Pac in my eyes, but only because he’s passed away though,” said Dean. “If he wasn’t passed away, I’d probably say Scarface, Pac, Kanye, Jay Z. They’re all on another level. I really like Rick Ross a lot too.”
The Texas bred board master also collaborated with a lot of West Coast rap representatives such as Tha Dogg Pound and Nate Dogg.
“I was living in an apartment in West L.A., and Daz and Kurupt stayed with me a lot of the time. Nate would just come by and lay songs,” Dean revealed. “I’ve got like 8 unreleased Nate Dogg songs in my house. Actually, I just recovered them off old tapes.”
It seems like Lil Durk is not too happy with his rap peers. Like Meek Mill, he called out ASAP Rock and Big Sean for not supporting him, even though he had supported them.
After the tweets went out, he made sure to clean it up. he tweeted, “Them tweets not a diss it’s showing I support”
As immigration and incarceration issues become central to the 2016 presidential campaign, lobbyists for two major prison companies are serving as top fundraisers for Hillary Clinton.
Corrections Corporation of America and the Geo Group could both see their fortunes turning if there are fewer people to lock up in the future.
Last week, Clinton and other candidates revealed a number of lobbyists who are serving as “bundlers” for their campaigns. Bundlers collect contributions on behalf of a campaign, and are often rewarded with special favors, such as access to the candidate.
Richard Sullivan, of the lobbying firm Capitol Counsel, is a bundler for the Clinton campaign, bringing in $44,859 in contributions in a few short months. Sullivan is also a registered lobbyist for the Geo Group, a company that operates a number of jails, including immigrant detention centers, for profit.
As we reported yesterday, fully five Clinton bundlers work for the lobbying and law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private prison company in America, paid Akin Gump $240,000 in lobbying fees last year. The firm also serves as a law firm for the prison giant, representing the company in court.
Akin Gump lobbyist and Clinton bundler Brian Popper disclosed that he previously helped CCA defeat efforts to compel private prisons to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests.
Hillary Clinton has a complicated history with incarceration. As first lady, she championed efforts to get tough on crime. “We need more police, we need more and tougher prison sentences for repeat offenders,” Clinton said in 1994. “The ‘three strikes and you’re out’ for violent offenders has to be part of the plan. We need more prisons to keep violent offenders for as long as it takes to keep them off the streets,” she added.
In recent months, Clinton has tacked left in some ways, and now calls for alternatives to incarceration and for greater police accountability. And while Clinton has backed a path to citizenship for undocumented people in America, she recently signaled a willingness to crack down on so-called “sanctuary cities,” a move that could lead to more immigrant detentions.
The future of both criminal justice reform and immigration are critical for private prison firms. The Geo Group, in a disclosure statement for its investors, notes that its business could be “adversely affected by changes in existing criminal or immigration laws, crime rates in jurisdictions in which we operate, the relaxation of criminal or immigration enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction, sentencing or deportation practices, and the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by criminal laws or the loosening of immigration laws.”
You know, the gossip and scandal in “Hip-Hop” is at an all time high. AGAIN, poor Safaree is at the center of it all. Whoever leaked this data from somebody’s phone is charging that ol’ boy has an unfaithful lady. You know the banger that replaced Nicki? Yeah her. Now, I peeped it and I think I have an explanation. This could just be old pics from an old serial killer, I mean, local rapper. Anyway, not a lot to see here…just another spin around the merry-go-round.
And then this happened. She confirmed my suspicion about the old text.
How’d Ace Hood get in this mix…and a train? What is this 1975?
The Rémy Martin Presents “The Producers Series” hosted its third semi-final event Saturday, August 8 at Taj Lounge in New York City; headlined by Just Blaze and hosted by Rémy Martin Brand Ambassador Charlamagne Tha God. Guests were treated to Just Blaze hits spun by Power 105.1’s DJ Reymo, specialty Rémy Martin drinks, and a Just Blaze interview conducted by Charlamagne Tha God. Just Blaze dropped knowledge to the producers on the rise, gave them advice, and critiqued their tracks.
The third set of five Rémy Martin Presents “The Producers Series” semi-finalists presented their music and the panel of industry vets voted Saint Believe the third The Rémy Martin Presents “The Producers Series” Finalist! Also in attendance were rappers Consequence and Barbie, and members of the Money & Violence crew.
AllHipHop was in the building to capture Just Blaze discussing working with Jay Z, coming up with Pharrell, making classic/timeless material and more. Check out the video below.
Rémy Martin Presents “The Producers Series” – 3rd Semi-Final Judges included
Just Blaze
Steve Raze – AllHipHop.com
Jay Claxton
Rémy Martin Presents “The Producers Series” – Contestants/Amateur Producers
3rd Semi-Final – Taj Lounge
Derek Swiney / Godfatherbeatz
Juan Moore / Gadget
Jamal Toomer / 2oom
Calvin Charles / @saintbeliev3 – 3rd Semi-Finalist to Advance to 9/12 Finals
Wayne Wilson / DIRTRICH BEATS
3rdSemi-Final – The Attic
Bobby Brusier / Bobby Davis
Stroud / Kai Acevedo
Buda & Grandz / @BudaDaFuture – 3rdSemi-Finalist to Advance to 9/12 Finals
2oom / Jamal Toomer
Tay Svpreme / Octavia Johnson
1st Semi-Final – Empire Hotel Rooftop
Rozart / @rowezay
Rell Lxc / @countrylxc
Swing America / @swingamerica – 1st Semi-Finalist to Advance to 9/12 Finals
Mystere Jones & Noe Doe Network / @mysterejones
Steezbeatz / @steezbeatz
The Rémy Martin Presents “The Producers Series” will host its fourth semi-final event Saturday, August 22, 2015; up-and-coming producers have until Friday, August 14, 2015 to submit their entries/music for consideration via www.remyproducers.com. The Rémy Martin Presents “The Producers Series” culminates on September 12th with a finalist event at Stage 48; the winner will walk away with a prize package that includes studio time at Converse Rubber Track’s Studio.
Follow Rémy Martin’s “The Producers Series” on social media @RemyProducers (IG, Twitter, Periscope) or via the website remyproducers.com.
