Initially included as a scaled down version on the official movie soundtrack for Southpaw, PRhyme (Royce Da 5’9” & DJ Premier) unleash the full beast version of “Mode,” which also serves as the first preview from the forthcoming deluxe edition release of their debut self-titled collaborative project. “Mode” finds Royce and Logic going bar for bar for a 7-minute plus exercise of verbal pugilism. The PRhyme deluxe edition will feature appearances from Logic, Joey Bada$$, MF Doom, Phonte and Black Thought.
In what was a pure act of comedy and fun for the local London kids involved, Pharrell hosted a press conference for his new book, Happy! that will be released via Penguin Random House Children’s. The song was a hit selling over 12 million copies and generated roughly 630 million views on YouTube. In the clip, the kids ask him questions about his favorite book, what he gets in a Happy Meal from McDonald’s and host of other funny questions.
The book itself is a picture book featuring photographs of children across the world celebrating what it means to be happy. The book will be released under the Puffin imprint simultaneously with the US publisher, Putnam, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers on today (October 6th)
Purchase Happy! by Pharrell Williams via Amazon here: http://po.st/happybook
Since releasing their Pharrell produced single “Last Kiss” we haven’t heard much from Overdoz. Today the group makes their return with new single “Why We Never Leave The Ghetto” produced by Terrace Martin & Fredwreck. Debut album “2008” coming soon!
Dame Dash and Curren$y have ended their legal war. According to TheJasmine Brand, the two have settled their $3 million lawsuit out of court for an undisclosed amount.
Curren$y slapped Dash with a lawsuit after the mogul released two of his projects, Pilot Talk and Pilot Talk II, after their business deal didn’t work out and he signed with Warner Bros. The New Orleans rapper claimed that Dash didn’t have the rights to the music nor did he have his permission to release his music. The former Roc-A-Fella boss said he did have permission to release the projects.
With Dash releasing the music, Curren$y claimed that his deal with Warner Bros. was negatively impacted and wanted $1.5 million in damages. After Dash refused to cooperate with the lawsuit for months, Curren$y returned to court in November of 2014 to ask for a default judgment of $2.9 million in damages and $95,000 in lawyer’s fees.
On Oct. 2nd, court documents were filed stating that the two had settled the matter out of court and wanted the lawsuit dismissed.
Mac Milller bring his sluggish flow to the pool on his new track “Clubhouse.” The song is featured on Mac’s GO:OD AM album and in the vidio Mac is pictured rapping while synchronized swimmers are fully coordinated to the beat. It’s a trippy lil video as the swimmers essentially do ballet in the water while Mac jumps in with his gold chains on. The Ricci Riera produced track is cool and fastened to a smooth Mac Miller verse, its the perfect lazy day, relaxing type music. Press play and cool out.
After the release of his “Black Dollar” mixtape, Rick Ross hasn’t slowed down on releasing new material and now he drops the official first single “Sorry” featuring Chris Brown. New album “Black Market” drops some time in December. Listen to “Sorry” below.
With his Major Without A Deal: Reloaded mixtape being released today, Troy Ave leaks “Prime Time” following up his last leak “Pac Man”. I can definitely hear 50 Cent on this one. Hit the c-section and let us know your thoughts!
Last week we posted Harlem native Dave East’s Gangsta Grillz project dubbed, Hate Me Know. Signed to Nas’ Mass Appeal imprint along with West Coaster Fashawn, Dave East is carrying the torch for the East Coast so to speak. With the Queens Bridge legend’s blessing a feature on the project (“Forbes”) we are starting to notice that Dave may have a chance at longevity if he can keep this up. Take a look at some visuals from his most recent effort below. The emotional video brings East to a cemetery, where he reflects on his past and remembers his lost loved ones throughout his life. Hate Me Now features Nas, Rico Love, Pusha T, Styles P, Jadakiss, Mack Wilds and more. You can now download the project on Datpiff and iTunes!
Killa Kyleon and video director David Stunts keep it gritty as they take on “Breathe Easy” from Jay-Z’s The Blueprint album. “Breathe Easy” appears on Killa Kyleon’s summer freestyle compilation, #30Days30Deaths
After releasing “Work” featuring Kevin Gates, Pittsburgh native Lua Proc recruits the G Unit South general Young Buck for his code of the streets anthem “Retarded.” Produced by Stevie B, this is the latest song from the upcoming release “Fish Tailin” dropping Nov 6th via LiveMixtapes.
Be on the look out for his first single Work ft. Kevin Gates which is steadily gaining traction through play on a number of radio stations, and Music Choice. Catch Lua Proc in Atlanta at A3C this Saturday.
Mack 10’s son, District 21, returns today with a new single entitled “Pictures”. The song will be featured on the Cali newcomer’s upcoming project “Drugtowns” coming soon. If you don’t know Mack 10, go do your research young ones. He’s a West Coast legend who is 1/3 of the West Side Connection and is known for selling nearly 11 million records. Mack 10 made his first appearance on Ice Cube’s 1994 release Bootlegs & B-Sides. A little known fact about Mack 10 is that he was married to T-Boz of TLC for about 4 years in the early 2000’s. Regardless of the family stuff, District 21 is the focus here, enjoy this new track below!
Rihanna is admired for her IDGAF attitude and never being one to muffle her opinion. After skipping out on an interview with THE FADER for their 100th issue, Vanity Fair was able to catch up with Rih and get an earful of one particular opinion that may cause some backlash.
During the interview, the Bajan songstress offered her perspective on the controversy around Rachel Dolezal, the white woman who passed as a black woman while serving as the president of the NAACP chapter in Spokane, WA.
“I think she was a bit of a hero, because she kind of flipped on society a little bit,” Rihanna told Vanity Fair. “Is it such a horrible thing that she pretended to be black? Black is a great thing, and I think she legit changed people’s perspective a bit and woke people up.”
Read the full cover story here where Rihanna also talks about her present-day relationship with Chris Brown and more.
Nicki Minaj wants you to buy her Myx moscato drink in bulk this month, but not so she can pocket the profits. For October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Young Money rapstress is looking to donate monies to breast cancer research through the sales of Myx.
Myx is being sold in a limited edition bottle and for every bottle sold, $1 dollar will be donated to the American Breast Cancer Foundation, according to her recent Instagram post.
Minaj also partnered CompUSA, max and TigerDirect to raise money and awareness for breast cancer research with the Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure back in 2010.
After serving as the news director for a decade, Miss Info is parting ways with Hot 97. Through a statement with Billboard, she said she is leaving to focus relaunching her own website, MissInfo.tv and penning a parenting book.
“2015 has been such an incredible year so far,” she said in a statement. “With a new baby, upcoming site relaunch, and a book on the way, it feels like everything is on the changing table. This wasn’t an easy decision, as I’ve shared so many unforgettable moments with my Hot 97 family. I want to thank everyone from the jocks and creatives to sales and promotions, for their immeasurable support both on and off air.”
Miss Info is now added to the list of elder statesmen who have left the station. Angie Martinez took her talents to their rival station Power 105.1 last year while former music director Karlie Hustle and DJ Cipha Sounds also resigned from their positions.
Even though Rick Ross just dropped his mixtape Black Dollar last month, he is looking to put off another project before the year’s end. During a visit to Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club, he revealed that his next album, Black Market, will be released on Dec. 4th.
Despite him preparing himself to release his eighth album, Rozay is still on home confinement. The Miami native was recently sued by an unidentified woman who accused one of his acquaintances of raping her. Ross says it’s an “unfortunate situation” but feels like the woman filed a lawsuit against him “just to get a check.” The MMG general is also facing charges after a groundskeeper accused him of kidnapping and assaulting him. The groundskeeper, Jonathan Zamudio, was recently seen on Instagram with Ross’ arch nemesis 50 Cent, who he referred to as “two losers.”
“It really isn’t personal at all with me,” Ross said about his beef with 50. “I just feel homie [is] a shallow, weak dude. And you gotta be shallow at this point. I would probably be in my emotions too if my first album was titled Get Rich or Die Tryin’ and I filed bankruptcy.”
Watch the interview below to see him speak about Meek Mill’s beef with Drake, leaving Def Jam and more.
Anderson .Paak’s breakthrough year is not over. The California vocalist was one of the standout newcomers on Dr. Dre’s comeback album Compton, and Paak also crisscrossed the country as one half of the duo NxWorries with Knxwledge.
Somehow the singer-songwriter found time to band together with the Chicago-bred, Los Angeles based production team Blended Babies for a joint project. The 4-track The Anderson .Paak EP combines JP and Rich Gains’ multi-genre musical stylings with Paak’s smooth, spellbinding voice. Asher Roth, Donnie Trumpet (aka Nico Segal), and King Chip contributed their talents to the effort as well.
AllHipHop.com connected with Anderson .Paak and Blended Babies to have the three musicians provide insight into their collaborative EP.
JP: Our publisher Evan Bogart gave us the scoop on Anderson and said that we would make some great music together. He connected us, and it was a great match for sure.
RG: The homey Evan played us “Suede” like a year ago or something. The second I heard the airplane line about “flying through,” I told him to link us up.
AP: They’re just super cool dudes with dope music and good weed. I would show up and shoot the sh*t, and before I knew it we would have like two or three records done in a day. It was just a natural connection with them dudes – pause.
How much of the process was done in person?
AP: All of it, except the mixing.
JP: All of the music was done in person with everyone involved except I think Chip re-recorded his verse at home. Anderson, Ash, Nico, and Chip did come through the Blender LA to record their parts.
The EP has elements of Hip Hop, Blues, and Funk. Did you have a direction you wanted to go sonically before you started recording?
AP: No direction, I just wanted to make honest records and meet their production halfway with my vocals and writing.
JP: I think we just heard Anderson’s voice, and I had a million ideas dancing in my head about where to go from there. His talent inspired us. He is a very down-to-earth, soulful person, so the music just came out naturally.
RG: Nah, just natural vibes. We live in the Blues, Rock, Hip Hop, Funk world anyways [laughs].
Anderson, you’ve been working with a lot of different producers over the last year. How was the experience working with Blended Babies?
AP: One of the best. Them dudes is chill as f*ck and super humble. They’ve worked with lots of dope artists, and you can tell they know how to work with an artist.
Can we expect more Anderson Paak and Blended Babies collaborative efforts?
(AllHipHop News) Fresh of what many observers considered a clear victory over Keith Murray in his battle this weekend, Fredro Starr spoke with AllHipHop.com. The native New Yorker discussed his MC WAR sponsored lyrical contest against Murray in Brooklyn.
“It was historic, because it brought everybody out. The older Hip Hop artists from the 90’s – my era – and the new battle rappers all came together in one building. It was incredible,” said Starr.
With the match against his friend Murray behind him, Starr is set to make more moves. He and fellow Onyx member Sticky Fingaz are looking to take the story from their 1993-1995 years to the big screen. Even Sonsee is likely to be involved in the Queens crew’s biographical motion picture.
“We just performed with Sonsee at the Legends of Hip Hop. It’s like an off-and-on relationship. We got love for Sonsee,” stated Starr. “We got the Onyx biopic were working on called Slam Boys. Once we get that off the ground, Sonsee is going to be a producer on that too. Just like the N.W.A movie when Dr. Dre reached out to MC Ren and all his old people.”
Growing up, I was like most inner-city kids – having witnessed the cycle of failure in our local schools, it was hard to dream big. It’s not that we thought it was impossible to become successful – we were well aware dreams could come true for some. But it was understood among my friends that no matter how sharp you were or how hard you worked in school, options would always be limited when the time came to get out and earn a living.
It may be hard to imagine, but my life as a DJ can actually be traced back to violin lessons in school in West Philadelphia. Before DJ Jazzy Jeff existed, Jeffrey Townes stood in the back of music class mesmerized by the instruments. My music teacher saw a spark in my eyes and relentlessly encouraged me to pursue music, going as far as playing the Speed Racer theme song on the violin to lure me in.
Despite mediocre schools with few resources, I had a tenacious teacher who convinced me that I could be successful doing something I love. That kind of motivation allowed me to go from spinning records in my mom’s basement to a Grammy Award winning producer and DJ.
The only way to create school equality is to expand the number of excellent schools our children of color can attend. Be it New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles or my hometown of Philadelphia, children of all backgrounds should have the chance to be inspired in school like I was. Whether it is music, science, history or math, all students deserve to have access to the same top-notch education. The success of our country and society as a whole depends on it.
Thousands of parents, educators, and students have had enough of this inequality in the status quo. I will be joining to lend my voice to the cause. In order to fully cultivate the next generation of doctors, researchers, innovators, and even DJs, we must work towards a society where every child has the opportunities and tools they need to succeed.
DJ Jazzy Jeff will join Jennifer Hudson, Aloe Blacc and 15,000 parents, educators, and students at Families for Excellent Schools’ “Stand for School Equality” rally at Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn on Wednesday, October 7th. For more information about the event visit familiesforexcellentschools.org.
DJ Jazzy Jeff was born in West Philadelphia and developed a love of music at an early age. Since 1985, Jeff has wowed the public with his innovative production and musical versatility, from the success of DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince with partner Will Smith to the critical acclaim of his production company A Touch Of Jazz. Over the course of his career, Jeff has received numerous accolades including a DMC Championship and multiple Grammy and American Music Awards and nominations.
(AllHipHop News) Kanye West did a live interview with Show Studio. The “In Camera” Q&A included the rapper/fashion designer discussing if he felt he would be criticized less if he was a white artist.
If I was a white man that became a really successful musician, that box would have put me in a chamber that would have said I shouldn’t work. There are white people that are super good at something they also get discriminated against in another field.
You could be a photographer and someone could say you can’t be an artist. You could be a designer and someone could say you can’t be a musician, or someone could say you can’t be a film director.
As far as the advantages in life, yes if you are born white you have that in your gene pool currently, because the world is controlled by whites. You have that at 100 as an advantage. If you add a couple of other things to it, then you have a really high chance of success.
If you’re born black and you make it to something like the Met Ball or the Grammys, most likely you’ve done ten times the amount of everyone else there to get there.
When the “Black Skinhead” rhymer was asked if his recent fashion collection having a “political undertone about racism” was connected to his father being a Black Panther, Kanye responded, “I think it’s racist when white people assume that when a black person uses color that it’s a political statement… No, [I was not making a political statement]. It was a painting. It was beautiful colors.”
West also spoke about some critics of his fashion aesthetic discriminating against him for being black as well as being a celebrity. He added that he appreciates the pundits, but the creator of Yeezy Season 2 is convinced that he knows what he likes.
Kanye also called fashion the highest art form in modern times. He said, “It feels like Hip Hop felt to me in the 90’s.”
The G.O.O.D. Music leader later made it clear his issues dealing with fame and criticism are not on the same level to what a lot of people around the world are facing. According to Ye, his “champagne problems” cannot compare to families struggling to feed their children or trying to escape war.
It looks like new music from Trina is on the way! Rico Love posted a video with audio of new music from the baddest b*tch! Trina sticks to her classic sound and style on the track. Hey, this could mean her 6th studio album is on the way. Are you ready for some new Trina?
