DMX has been called a lot of things, but his ex wife may want to call him hero. The Yonkers-bred rapper has saved her Mt. Kisko, NY crib in 2000 for home from foreclosure. Tashera Simmons, the wife, shares the home with their four children.
The mortgage went unpaid for nearly four years, according to published reports. However, DMX stepped up and paid the amount in full, a total of $258,927.87.
Legal documents filed in Westchester County, NY were posted by The Jasmine Brand and indicated that DMX paid the entire mortgage in full.
The home’s original price was $649,000 when DMX bought it in 2000.
Are you seraching hard this summer to look for a new dope rapper? Well, look no further. Memphis rapper Layne Harper released the sequel to his 2011 project Beyond Catergory. Beyond Category 2 provides euphoric beats with a twist of dope rhymes from Harper. The six-track project is a small project packed with a lot of features, including AG Lyonz, The Music Luvas, and a guitar creadit from Christopher Dean. Check out the tape below, and download it from here.
Welcome back to the Odd Side, a new column on AllHipHop getting you hip to innovative alternative artists. This week is dedicated to the singers; those that brings out the soul in their music, whether it’s through psychedelic sounds, dope beats, or featuring a rapper.
Kandace Springs
The first artist is Kandace Springs. She made an early performance at this year’s AfroPunk Fest, and at the very least she made a standout performance of her live performance of “Meet Me In The Sky” with nothing but her soothing voice and her serious piano skills. Recently, Springs has been opening for acts like Chance The Rapper and Ne-Yo, and has also performed on The Late Show With David Letterman. Springs released her self-titled EP, and it sounds amazing. Hopefully, we can find out more about this dope artist, and when’s she’s coming out with an album. But for now, check her out in our Three Questions series.
Jordan Bratton
Ever since the first time we’ve heard Midnight Rage, Jordan Bratton has been stirring up a lot of interest for his music. The young, New York native released his debut project The Grey Area earlier this year, and has even released “Must Be” to show his growth as both an artist and a human being. Bratton’s voice might seem a bit to young at first glance, but his unique lyrics and smooth production makes the delivery a step up from the competition. A few days ago, Jordan Bratton released the remix of his song “Danger” featuring Fabolous. Jordan Bratton is definitely an artist worth looking out for.
Minus The Sky
When you first hear this Baltimore band, you feel as if you have traveled to a new perspective of psychedelic rock. But when you hear lead singer Gidae Cambell soul’d out verses on the song, it will change everything you think about this young band. Minus the Sky released their debut EP Elysian Fields in the spring, but this album still seems to end up in rotation even now. The solid combination of rock, funk, and soul creates something completely out of the ordinary. It sounds awesome, and it only makes you want to listen to more than this six-track EP. Keep an eye on this group, because it seems like their local appeal will change after a few future projects.
Check out The Odd Side next week for more dope alternative artists to check out. If you want to find out about the artists before even checking out the column follow @VBrinkley513 on Twitter or Instagram
Brazilian television may not have a clue how sensitive the “N-Word” is for Black people if a new TV show is an indication.
A new program called “Sex And The N#####” is a take on “Sex And The City,” but it follows four Black women.
The prime time show is written by a white man, Miguel Falabella, has people in an uproar, highlighting bigotry and bias. A national boycott has ensued and critics are all over this one.
“In the series “Sex and the N#####”, the narrator is a white person. She is a voyeur; someone who is looking through a keyhole at the sexuality and the bodies of black women who can be raped and manipulated by structural whiteness, not only literally but also through cultural representation. Our existence is fetishised. We are on display for the white gaze. Moreover, even when the characters in “Sex and the N#####” are placed in situations of explicit racism and sexism, they do not react. The women remain silent or dissolve into strange giggles. These women do not represent us.”
Nick Cannon and Amber Rose are not an item, right? But these rumors don’t stop ’til they get enough. Anyway, so yeah…Nick and Amber. They have a strictly professional relationship but it seems there are eye witnesses that are countering the notion. In Touch mag is staying just that – otherwise! They are saying that Nick and Amber were looking rather “cozy” the other day.
Nick Cannon stepped out to support model Amber Rose at the XXIV Karat Sparkling Wine Launch party in LA on Thursday night, further fueling speculations that the two may be an item. “They were sitting very cozy in her booth. He wouldn’t take pictures with her. He said it was her night, but clearly he didn’t want to because he didn’t want people to speculate on their relationship.” (In Touch Weekly)
I’m thinking these guys are just victims of an evil media that won’t allow them to be working professionally. They need the “goss” to keep a story moving. Nick is saying that his very public divorce won’t allow him to be in a relationship right now. Understandable.
Recenctly Red Cafe and his Pretty Girl Gang stopped by Cool Js on 183rd St in Miami. Red Took time out to play new music, sign autographs and take pics with fans. Cool’s is Miami premier go to spot for sneakers and apparel. Take a look at the pics below as Red Cafe snaps a few photos with fans and media.
All Money In artist BH brings you his latest release called “New Money.” After chillin with Nipsey and camp for some time now, this young emcee BH has clear West-Coast influences as he channels his inner G for this track overflowing with West-Coast braggadocio.
As her buzz keeps getting louder after the release of her mixtape Valifornia and accompanying single “Bad Lil Bish” ft. Problem, rising 19 year old Raven Felix returns with a banger, “Like That” that been picking up across the internet.
The cast of “The Wire” reunited recently and fans celebrated the iconic show that chronicled the relationship between the drug game, the streets, the government and politicians in Baltimore.
The panel included David Simon, Nina Noble, Wendell Pierce, Sonja Sohn, Michael K. Williams, Seth Gilliam, Jim True-Frost, John Doman, the actors from the hit show.
Howard University took over the nation’s capital this week when its annual Homecoming celebration kicked off on the HBCU campus. One of the featured events was a fashion show entitled EMPRESS: A Global Excursion.
The theme for EMPRESS revolved around four iconic fashion locales – Paris, France; Tokyo, Japan; Freetown, Sierra Leone; and New York City. Over a dozen designers showcased their collections which included street wear, swimwear, formal wear, and avant-garde designs.
The audience at Cramton Auditorium was also entertained with music presented by DJ Vashtie and a performance by TDE songstress SZA. Nate Parker from the upcoming film Beyond the Lights (formerly titled Blackbird) was in attendance as well.
Check out photos from Howard University’s fashion show EMPRESS: A Global Excursion (photo credit: Julius Sheppard, II) and the video promo for the event (via Richard Turrentine) below.
The Def Jam 30 concert was all the rage on Twitter yesterday. Be there or Be square! Needless to say….I wasn’t there. But I heard that the pretty, young thing Jhene Aiko’s was supposed to be there and never happened! Now, one might think it was because of some drama related to her being a diva, but nothing could be father from the facts. She allegedly stopped herself from performing, because a female member of her crew was physically assaulted at the venue!
She explained on Insta:
Jhene responded: Unfortunately me and my camp were told to “get the f*** out” by “workers” while I was waiting to go on stage, ….after this “worker” (male) physically assaulted a member of my management (female) ….we had to leave due to the disrespect and hostile environment. If there’s one thing I can’t rock with, it’s disrespect…. if me and my band members were any of the rappers that were performing there, we would have never been talked to or treated in such a way. I’m sorry that I was unable to perform for you tonight…. hope to see you soon!”
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of AllHipHop.com.
Scarface is in an elite class of emcees. He is, as the saying goes, “your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper.” What he lacks in mainstream recognition is more than made up for by the affect he has had on countless others that followed him. And Face’s influence only looms larger with time. Case in point: his third solo album, The Diary. It’s a 43-minute collection of thinking man’s hardcore Hip-Hop with themes as heavy as of some of its bass lines. Today, October 18, 2014, marks its 20th anniversary. So in honor of such a milestone, I want to pay homage to The Diary by recognizing it as the greatest southern solo offering in rap history.
Just as the title suggests, the album is very personal. Even the way it starts with the instrumental intro ending in gunfire, it sets the tone for how Scarface’s aggressive perspective is there for survival and not a violent or misogynistic agenda, like many detractors claim. The first three songs do play like a drive-by shooting, but the despair that’s incorporated into those rhymes let listeners know that his psyche is just as destroyed as the streets where the stop signs have bullet holes in them. For example, on “Jesse James,” Face says, “You ain’t no motherf***in’ gangsta, g / And when I get up out your a**, you gon’ realize it just ain’tsta be / It ain’t no studio up in me, and all that bulls**t I’m hearing you talk only offends me.” Every other rapper would stop there, but he took it further. “… Cause life has no meaning, no meaning / We were all born to die, so no screaming.”
At this point, it seems as if Scarface is ready to self-destruct – not unlike the film character from which Brad Jordan took his rap moniker from. But he doesn’t. Instead, he becomes introspective and is able to rap as Death itself in the last verse of “I Seen a Man Die.” “You start your journey into outer space / You see yourself in the light, but you’re still feeling outta place / So you standing in the tunnel of eternal life, and you see the ones you never learn to love in life / Make the choice, let it go but you can back it up / If you ain’t at peace with God, you need to patch it up.” This verse is one of the reasons I didn’t agree with Kanye West when he tweeted that the second verse of “New Slaves” is the best rap verse of all-time.
The following two songs on The Diary are about lust, which is also a topic that often fills the pages of a diary. And while there are references to sexual encounters, that’s nothing new. The thing that stands out most to me are the lyrics Scarface spits leading up to them. In the first of these two records, “One,” he talks about pulling his shirt down to cover an e#######. Then, on “Goin’ Down,” he explains how he picks up a woman by telling her that sex hasn’t crossed his mind in order to get her into bed. While one example is embarrassing and the other one is disgusting, they’re both honest. And that is what a diary, wether on wax or in writing, is all about.
Track 10, “Hand of the Dead Body,” finds Scarface and Ice Cube (the album’s only guest verse) in top form. Flipping the bird to the establishment is one thing, but the way that those two point out the hypocrisy of the media that criticize them is something different and even better. By giving specific examples and naming names, the ridiculousness of using rap as a scapegoat is vocalized loud and clear. “Mind Playin’ Tricks On Me ’94” is an obvious reprise of the Geto Boys’ masterpiece. Scarface’s sequel surpasses Willie D’s (“Is It Real [My Mind Still Playin’ Tricks on Me]” from Play Witcha Mama), but falls short of the original. However, Face’s follow-up continues to prove that him getting two verses the first go-round was no fluke and that the depth he put forth on that record (among others) is who he really is as an artist, as opposed to just sounding that way for a single song. The album’s title track is simply Scarface getting it in over a frantic N.O. Joe-crafted beat. Yes, he can write. But he can also kick rhymes purely for that sake of rapping and be just as distinguished.
There’s that cliché idea about how music is a mirror of society; I think, with The Diary, Brad Jordan instead put the mirror on his own mind and documented the results. 13 tracks of true paranoia and poignancy. So while Hip-Hop often changes the way people can see the world, Scarface’s third album is different because it changed the way people could see themselves. Rap hadn’t heard anything like it before … and probably never will again.
Respect due.
What do you think of The Diary? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Last weekend, thousands of people from all over the country came together in the St. Louis/Ferguson area to participate in a weekend of resistance that organizers called #FergusonOctober. For those that have been living under a rock for the last couple of months, the small town of Ferguson, Missouri exploded in resistance after the cold blooded murder of unarmed 18 yr old Mike Brown this past August by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson. Brown was a young black teenager and Wilson a white man, so you get the picture. Brown’s body was left on the floor uncovered for 4 ½ hours, as the police worked on their cover up. The young people in the community rose up and the rest is history.
The uprising was met with the military occupation of this town populated by 20,000. Armed tanks and trucks with snipers on top pelted the people with rubber bullets, tear gas and smoke bombs. The show of military force and the resilient protestor’s bravery lasted about 14 days, and the usually absent corporate media could no longer avoid covering it. When they did cover it, they worked as the voice of the police by attempting to assassinate Mike Browns character and push a misinformation campaign against the protestors. After the tear gas smoke cleared and the media cameras left, those young people kept resisting and the police stayed on the offensive. It was just no longer the story that required Don Lemon on the ground, as the media was more focused on ISIS and Ebola. However, the resistance in Ferguson isn’t going anywhere and last weekend the world witnessed why. It has been 66 days since Mike Brown was killed, and the killer cop Darren Wilson is still free. And so, the brave young spirits are still out on the streets. They made a call for the rest of the country to join them in a number of direct actions, Hip-Hop concerts and protests.
My group Rebel Diaz was invited to rock at the Hip Hop for Justice show on Sunday, and we decided to take our whole squad -The RDACBX- there for the whole weekend. We organize and do this work and it was our 2nd time coming down, so we wanted to be there for all of it. Our crew included MCs; YC the Cynic and Vithym, DJ Charlie Hustle, and videographers Sense Hernandez and Karla Rodriguez, along with Bushwick organizer Jesus Gonzalez and members of the People Power Movement. After a 17hour drive from New York to Ferguson, the crew was amped and ready to join the streets. My schedule only allowed me to fly in, so I joined the crew in Ferguson. My brother G1, a producer and MC in our group, is a genius and is always inventing cool sound and technology. In 2011, he showed up at Occupy Wall Street with a Super Sound Backpack he made that consisted of a couple car speakers and a US Postal mailing tube. This time he upped the ante and mad a complete mobile sound system that he held up on a dolly, a wooden box with a loud speaker for a concert in it, and powered it with a boat motor and some jumper cables. I’m not bragging when I tell y’all that this s### Waaaangs! as we say in Chicago. DJ Charlie Hustle had been working on a playlist to rock off the iPhone and we even had a small mixer to have a cordless mic runnin’ off of, so we decided to roll up on the protest in front of the Ferguson Police Department. We rolled up playing Public Enemy’s “Fight The Power” and the crowd and energy got louder and stronger as the music got closer.
We gave St Louis’ MC and local leader, Tef Poe the mic and pretty soon the whole crowd was jumping up and down, as we did chants mixed in with classic Hip Hop songs like NWA’s “F**k Tha Police,” KRS One “ Sound of da Police,” and a list of songs by Tupac Shakur. But what is more important, we wanted to take the sound to amplify the voice of the young people who had been on those front lines for 64-65 days, and so, they took on the DJ’ing as we marched. It was their time to, as they say “TURN UP!” They have their own revolutionary songs, their own #Ferguson anthems, and they’re from artists you wouldn’t think of as being “conscious,” but it’s music that speaks to them and their struggle.
So as the DJ switched up the music, the energy reached its peak with songs like Lil Boosie’s “F**k The Police” and Soulja Slim’s song “Soulja Life Mentality.” It was amazing! The youth knew all the lyrics and were chanting them at the top of their lungs. Many out- of -towners who came, or as we call ‘em- “Movement Tourists” looked appalled and nervous, and some elders and white people looked downright scared.
Perhaps highlighting the class and generational divide amongst the so called movement in America, that would later show its face as the youth took over a mass meeting that featured author and activist Cornel West and various members of the clergy and the NAACP.
Ferguson organizer, Tory Russell, explained it best when he said, “This is how we mourn, how we show our pain and rage. Look at our ancestors, in Africa, they mourn with the drum. Look at Venezuela or South Africa they march with the music and chants and they sing. Music has always been part of our struggle. This is how we turn up.” The chants they had were all new and catchy, very much a representation of the chant and hook heavy songs coming out today on the radio. Chants like, “They Think it’s a game! They think it’s a joke!” would later become nationally trending hashtags. Chants like, “Turn Up Don’t Turn Down! We do this for Mike Brown!” would always give the protests an extra boost of power and energy. These were chants that were led mostly by young women, a force that has been in the front lines since day one. Tara, an activist from Ferguson, spoke about how women are nurturers and how they were out there to hold down their brothers and sons and neighbors.
For two straight nights, we were out with the RDACBX Mobile Sound Machine and the youth were the DJs as we protested the killer police. The South Bronx flava we brought with the sound system, was the idea of bringing Hip Hop back outside, back to the public space; a public space that has been criminalized in NYC by Stop and Frisk and the Broken Windows policy; a public space in which street dancers are arrested on the trains. It is no different in St Louis and Ferguson, where the youth can’t get in a car and play their music without the police pulling them over.
Saturday October 11, there were folks who said the music made the protest into a party and that they didn’t come to party, as they attempted to impose their morals on the youth. How does that work? These youth have never left those Ferguson streets and these tourists were upset that their romanticized weekend of protesting wasn’t going as planned, because Soulja Slim had misogynistic lyrics? Was this really the time and place to show up with the moral umbrella? There was a moment when the youth put on “Turn Down for What,” the EDM joint with DJ Snake ft. Lil Jon, and the kids did exactly that as the complaints were heavily ignored. The sound system we had was giving amplification to their voices, to their Lost Voices– as a group of them call themselves. Lost Voices is a group that camped out for a month down the street from where Mike Brown was killed, until the police took out their camp.
After hours of protesting, they would take the march to a nearby neighborhood named Shaw, where days earlier, 18 yr. old Vonderrick Myers was shot 17 times and killed by a police officer. And before him Kajiem Powell had been murdered at the hands of a police officer. Two black men killed by the St. Louis police, two months since Mike Brown’s death. Seventeen protestors exercised their right to civil disobedience. They did a sit in and shut down a Quick Trip, the local mini mart gas stations that are all over the area, and symbolically reppin as the QT in Ferguson was burned down during the initial uprising. These 17 protesters were brutalized and arrested.
The next day was the Hip-Hop for Justice show, which featured Talib Kweli, dead prez, The RDACBX (Rebel Diaz, YC the Cynic), Jasiri X, Tef Poe and Lost Voices who also have MCs in their crew. Everybody killed their sets and the show was super packed, in fact there was a line outside that couldn’t get in. We hit the stage with the whole crew as Rebel Diaz, YC the Cynic and Vithym all rocked with DJ Charlie Hustle on the 1s and 2s. We brought Lost Voices up onstage with us for the last song, as the crowd cheered when we told them that, “if we can’t dance, we don’t want no part of your revolution.” It was dope to see Dontey, from Lost Voices, be so open off of YC the Cynic, one young black man from Hunts Point, spittin’ bars that inspired one of the youth leaders from Ferguson. Afterwards Dontey was spiitin bars for YC, as they got to build and share experiences. This was the beauty of this event, scenes like this in which youth could build and share ideas and know that they aren’t alone. That YC has Ramarley Graham and Eric Garner to fight for, the same way Dontey fights for Mike Brown. Talib and dead prez showing up, brings validation to the youth, in their eyes they’re getting visited by them famous folks. They even said they “love that old school s### too though!”So while they shared Boosie with us, they also got to hear Talib and dead prez rock out and show them love. Mumia Abu Jamal called in, Dr. Cornel West showed up and spoke to the crowd. Their voices once again being given the importance it deserves.
Later that night, Cornel West was set to speak at the St Louis University basketball arena along with Rev Sekou, Tef Poe, Ashley from MAU, and Tory from Hands Up United. The event was mad boring until it took a turn for the better. There was an NAACP representative talking and said he wanted to take a selfie for social justice and some youth in the crowd shut him down.
Activist Rosa Clemente screamed to the crowd of more than 3,000 people “Let the youth speak!” the crowd agreed and starting chanting “Let them speak! Let them speak!!!” They were allowed to speak as the crowd chanted, “This is what Democracy looks like!”
A 10 yr. old girl gave perhaps the best speech of the night. She spoke about the difference in what makes us human and not animals- humans have the power to feel and have emotions.
She then said, “The police don’t show emotions.”
She ended her speech with, “Whose Streets?”
The crowd responded “Our Streets!”
To which she responded, “And don’t you forget that.”
Tef Poe, a rapper and activist, said, “This ain’t your daddy’s Civil Rights Movement” and he called out the so-called conscious rappers who haven’t set foot in Ferguson. This night seemed to follow the theme of the weekend in which the baton wasn’t exactly passed, but rather taken by the youth. The same way these youth have taken this moment and given the US movement a crash course in political education on how to protest and organize.
Later that night, we found ourselves in meetings until 3 am, while thousands of others protested in Shaw and eventually occupied St Louis University campus and stayed there. In one of the meetings, Tara, an activist whose been in Ferguson since the start said, “Nothing is normal, we don’t do normal s**t anymore. I don’t go shopping at the mall or go to the club. We still get turnt up, but in the streets. This is the type of dedication these people on the front lines have shown. To them it’s not a game and it isn’t a joke.
The leaders in Ferguson are these youth an people from the local communities, the ones that America, including the movement has turned its back on. Some have gold teeth and tattoos and dreads like Chief Keef, they sag their pants and Turn Up. Yet now they are turnin’ up for freedom against a system that has harassed, brutalized, jailed and killed them, and continuously gotten away with it. These are youth who have no faith in the Jesse Jacksons and the Al Sharptons and the NAACPS. These are teens who were 8 and 9 yrs. old when Obama became President, and haven’t seen a post racial America. These are youth that in their short lifetimes have seen Oscar Grant, Ramarley Graham, Kimani Gray, Shantelle Davis, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin and hundreds more get killed, while their killers walk freely still. These youth see themselves in Mike Brown. The police mess with them on the daily. What they have learned thru this struggle is that Black Lives Matter, that they are important, that they have a voice, and that they have value. They are reclaiming the dignity that the system takes away from us everyday. We can clearly see that this is a historic moment of oppression, to which they have responded with a historic moment of resistance. A resistance that will only continue to grow as the youth themselves do.
Vera Maxwell has been making a lot out noise in CT, last week she opened up for Young Thug and got a lot of Love from T.I. after her show. Her latest single “Tip” has been spinning on the air waves and now she lets loose a visual for it.
Rashad Banks releases his EP Confessions of an O.G. C.O.A.O.G. which includes 8 records and features from Kevin Gates with production from Zaytoven. Download the EP, listen to the single “Forever” below ft Kevin Gates.
Our own DJ Hustle is back on the turn tables giving you The Foundation Of Hip Hop Volume #7. In this mix it’s all about How The West Was Won Concert and the artists had everyone at the concert jumping. DJ Hustle is blending and mixing on AllHipHop.com. Listen to DJ Hustle as he is slapping the hits from the streets. Weekly mixes will be posted for your weekly enjoyment. The choice is up to you what do you want in these mixes tell us @AllHipHopcom or @DJHustle.
E-40 has been in the game for over 20 years and shows no signs of slowing down. After tearing down the stage at How The West Was Won concert on Oct. 10th in Los Angeles, AllHipHop.com’s DJ Hustle got to catch up with the Bay Area’s finest to get the scoop on his new albums Sharp On All 4 Corners: Corner 1 and 2, set for a Dec. 9th release, and what’s up next for his wine company, Earl Stevens Selections.
Michael Dunn, who shot and killed 17-year-old Jordan Davis back in November of 2012 in Florida, has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole today (Oct. 17), according to NBC News. Dunn fired 10 shots into a car of four teenagers after he began arguing with them about playing loud music from their car. Dunn, 47, was convicted of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder in which he received a additional 90-year-sentence for.He was also sentenced to an extra 15-years for firing into an occupied vehicle.
“Our justice system works. This case demonstrates that our justice system does work,” Judge Russell Healey said at the sentencing.
It is true, some people will do ANYTHING to stay relevant, but if this is true this couple is just desperate.
A source close to Stevie J and Joseline Hernandez revealed to Sandra Rose that the reality stars are in fact NOT expecting their first child together and that it is all a hoax.
“The source said Joseline, Stevie J, and Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta producer Mona Scott-Young manufactured the pregnancy hoax to keep the reality stars relevant.
Joseline showed up to ATL Live On the Park event dressed in very unmaternal attire. In one photo, Stevie J and singer Johnny Gill covered Joseline’s abdomen with their hands in the universal sign for pregnancy. But her tummy is as flat as a pancake.”
That dress really isnt appropriate for a “mother to be” and not only that Joseline was seen popping bottles and smoking tree a few weeks back…#butthatsnoneofmybusiness.
