(AllHipHop News) Lil Wayne’s Twitter announcement that he was ready to move on from his longtime label home Cash Money is still garnering reactions from the Hip Hop world. Former CMB artist and Hot Boys member Turk spoke with VladTV about Wayne wanting to cut business ties with Baby and Slim at Cash Money.
“Sometimes people come to a conclusion in their life where enough is enough, I guess,” said Turk. “I support Wayne 1000%. I support anybody that wants to do their own thing – being independent. There should be no problem if a person wants to branch out.”
While Turk backed Wayne’s desire to leave the label, he also acknowledged Baby and Slim’s contribution to the success of YMCMB. Turk refers to the company’s founders as “geniuses” that know how to hustle. But the New Orleans native added that Cash Money could do better with their business practices as it relates to paying individuals that work with the imprint.
“That’s been overdue. Me personally, I feel like if I do business with anybody I’m gonna be fair,” said Turk. “If we’re all getting money it’s only right to be fair… I just believe in karma. That stuff comes back to you.”
(AllHipHop News) As the protest against the killings of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and others at the hands of police officers continue throughout the country, more celebrities are offering their opinions on the current state of affairs.
LeBron James and other NBA players made headlines when they wore “I Can’t Breathe” t-shirts before recent games, and entertainers like Stevie Wonder, Azealia Banks, and Killer Mike have weighed in on the subject as well.
The latest famous name to join the public conversation concerning the police’s relationship with the community is rapper 50 Cent. The G-Unit boss spoke with the New York Daily News about the respective grand juries’ decision not to indict the officers that killed Brown and Garner.
“I think it’s interesting the timing of everything that’s happening,” said 50. “I’ve stayed pretty quiet about how I felt about it personally, because I don’t have all the information in those situations. I’ve had people make decisions about me without knowing how I felt about things. It’s not really fair to say it if you don’t know.”
50 was raised in Queens, New York where he eventually participated in selling drugs. He has had several run-ins with the law throughout his life, and those experiences have apparently shaped the 39-year-old mogul’s view on situations involving cops.
“I grew up in an environment where a lot of people, I know for a fact, have criminal intentions, so it would raise a defense on one end and raises the aggression level on the other at the same time, so you see there’s a balance,” added 50. “There’s right and wrong, a lot of times you look at things and you kind of see things in a gray area.”
Chaos’ new mixtape will be hitting the streets in less than two weeks, so today he finally unloads the lead single from the project. Featuring vocalist Kace, Chaos goes in over winding production as he details the way it feels when everyone counts on you for a way out and amount of pressure it puts on his shoulders. Never Change 2 coming soon.
(AllHipHop News) TDE emcee Kendrick Lamar connected with Reebok to produce a new video featuring the California representative rapping a verse titled “I Am.” The visuals were directed by Anthony Mandler and filmed in K. Dot’s hometown of Compton.
“I identify with originality and with a brand that identifies with culture in the community, and with my memories of wearing them in middle school, it proves just that,” said Kendrick about his appreciation for the Reebok brand.
Nikko Lafre lets go of his debut single from his forthcoming “Guilty Of Dedication” LP. The single is titled “Pro” & features Johnny Rain, who also took care of things on the production side of the record. Nikko Lafre’s Guilty Of Dedication is slated for a early January release through 300 entertainment.
(AllHipHop News) What abilities would you pull from different artists to create the perfect emcee? Hip Hop veteran Common was asked that question during a sit down with HardKnocksTV. Com pulled together parts of some of the most respected names in the culture’s history to form the ultimate “Emcee Voltran.”
The creator of the Grammy nominated album Nobody’s Smiling explained why he would choose pieces from one of Brooklyn’s finest, a poet from Queens, a passionate West Coast artist, a Chitown rapper/producer, an ATLien flow master, and a South Bronx legend.
During the interview, Common also discussed the topic of Hip Hop being inclusive of different races. White artists’ participation in the culture has been a major point of interest throughout the year. J. Cole recently sparked another debate about the perception of Hip Hop being “whitewashed” on his song “Fire Squad.”
Cole’s track includes the lines, “Same thing that my n***a Elvis did with Rock-n-Roll / Justin Timberlake, Eminem, and then Macklemore / While silly n***as argue over who gonna snatch the crown / Look around my n***a White people have snatched the sound.”
In his view, Common does not believe the involvement of other races and nationalities in the genre will take away from the original spirit of Hip Hop. He points to how 1980’s acts like Slick Rick and the Beastie Boys represented the culture, but they were not from the streets.
“Hip Hop can definitely be inclusive of all races and still keep its essence. Hip Hop, truly at its core, is about expression,” said Com. “It started in inner-cities, in the hoods – and it is rooted in the hoods – but it still has been able to spread out and grow. You can think about some of the earlier groups. Everybody wasn’t just a hood guy.”
Common added that he sees Hip Hop as the bridge that brings different cultures together. His experiences performing for audiences of mixed races is a personal highlight for the 42-year-old rapper.
“One of the biggest joys I’ve had is looking out in the crowd and seeing White people rocking, Latino people, Asian people. When you go to certain areas it’s Native Americans rocking – Black people,” stated Common. “It’s been the culture that has allowed a lot of people to come from different walks of life and celebrate it.”
(AllHipHop News) It has been a down year for rap albums commercially. No project has managed to break the 200,000 mark in first week units sold so far, but Roc Nation’s J. Cole is looking to pull in the biggest one week sales for a Hip Hop album in 2014.
According to HitsDailyDouble, even without heavy promotion, the North Carolina native’s third studio LP 2014 Forest Hills Drive is predicted to sell between 240,000 – 270,000 copies in its opening week. That total would surpass the 179,000 copies for Rick Ross’ Mastermind and the 148,000 for Shady Records’ Shady XV.
Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive hitting the 240,000 – 270,000 mark would be the second highest initial week sales of his career. Cole World: The Sideline Story sold 218,000 copies in 2011, and Born Sinner came in at 297,000 copies in 2013. Both LPs eventually hit number one.
It should be noted that HDD’s numbers are not final, and that Billboard/Soundscan’s official calculations for album sales now include streaming totals and individual song downloads. Every 1,500 streams on services like Spotify, Beats Music, Rdio, Rhapsody, and Google Play now equal one album sale. The new Billboard 200 tally including streams began this month.
(AllHipHop News) Hip Hop artist and marijuana aficionado Wiz Khalifa is teaming with leading vaporizer company Grenco Science for the Taylor Gang collection. The partnership has spawned two new releases – Taylor Gang microG and Taylor Gang G Slim.
The Taylor Gang microG‘s theme is based on a top-secret mission to space. The product actually became the first vaporizer to leave Earth’s atmosphere when it reached a height of 114,343 feet.
Wiz along with fellow Taylors Ty Dolla $ign, Berner, Sledgren, Chevy Woods, Tuki Carter, J.R. Donato, and Courtney Noelle approved the collection.
“It’s an honor for Taylor Gang to join the Grenco family,” says Wiz Khalifa. “After using G Pens for years, it only made sense to collaborate.”
To purchase the Taylor Gang-Grenco Science vaporizers visit grenoscience.com.
Rae Sremmurd connects with Nicki Minaj & Young Thug with their new single “Throw Some Mo” produced by Soundz. Rae Srummurd’s debut album “Sremm Life” will be available January 6th. For now pre-order on iTunes.
This visual was completed back in January of 2014. Unfortunately, Nikki Farr passed b4 initial release of the video. With the blessings of her mother & family, the video is finally being released. R.I.P. Nikki Farr.
Raven Sorvino presents the bass pounding “Planet Of The BAPE”. Raven links with up-and-coming Treacherous C.O.B in house producer Aktive and longtime collaborator WoodysProduce for the Bathing Ape anthem. Slated to drop January, The “LifeStyle” EP is the first of four producer/artist collabrative EP’s, produced entirely by Aktive.
Brooklyn rapper Plizoe Tha Don recruits Chinx Drugz for his new street single “Paraphernalia”. This guy def has a cold flow for the New York winter. We 100% will be checking for more from Plizoe.
Antonique Smith – her debut single is nominated for a Grammy award and getting people’s power back.
Positioning herself as a representation of female confidence and unconditional love, actress and vocalist Antonique Smith has quietly plotted her plan to surface onto the music scene, and now finds herself on the recently released Grammy Awards nomination ballot for Best Traditional R&B performance with her debut single, “Hold Up Wait A Minute (Woo Woo)” from her forthcoming debut album Love Is Everything via independent label 9:23 Music Group.
Just to re-iterate: the debut single for her debut album, which doesn’t drop until the top of 2015 under an independent label, is nominated for a Grammy award.
A great achievement indeed.
Antonique Smith is perhaps best known for her role as Faith Evans in the 2009 Biggie-tribute “Notorious” movie, where she earned high recognition and favorable reviews. She starred in the 2011 indie drama “Yelling To The Sky” and earned a role in “Abduction” in the same year. The 31-year-old was more recently acknowledged for her lead role on Broadway as Mimi Marquez in “RENT”. But her connection with 9:23 Music Group led to a relationship with a gentleman by the name of Darryl Farmer, Antonique’s manager/producer, who imagined the initial sound for her debut single to the world. She explained.
“I was on the airplane with Darryl. He heard the track in his head and he was trying to describe it to me as James Brown meets today’s 808’s. I was like okay that sounds dope! And then when he actually played me the track a few weeks later, I was like oh my God, crazy.”
Completely unaware at the time, this was the birth of a Grammy-nominated record. She described how the concept of the record came about, which is always fascinating to hear not just how the concept originated, but how it evolved.
“Then he started asking me about ‘hold up, wait a minute’ moments. And we all have those. But the one that was my big one, which is not really easy for a woman to talk about, but the guy that I was with, was using my money to see another girl. So hold up wait a minute, that became the line, ‘See you’re wining her after dining me/But what’s crazy is my names on both receipts.’ So from there we just wrote out all of the different ‘hold up wait a minute’ moments and then the song just developed. We almost had like a party when we recorded in the studio, we had a live band, and we invited our friends I was just in the booth kind of performing for everybody. It was one of the best processes of a song I’ve ever experienced.”
The theme, message, and vision for this record derived from those personal experiences as Antonique shared with me, but also from the standpoints of social, cultural, and gender issues.
“We just wanted to get a different message out there… A liberation, to put your foot down record; because the world is having hold up wait a minute moments, Black people are having hold up wait a minute moments, all of this stuff with Eric Garner, Mike Brown, Trayvon Martin, all of that stuff is hold up wait a minute… The Nigerian girls getting kidnapped is hold up wait a minute, the climate change movement that people don’t even really know about, that’s hold up wait a minute. ISIS is hold up wait a minute. And just even little stuff we go through every day, you can have tiny hold up wait a minute moments. I wanted to have an anthem where people could put their foot down, get their power back, whatever your moment is… Hold up wait a minute.”
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The production of the record brings an up-tempo, soul-funk element to some ferocious vocal range from Antonique, who cites Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin as her singing influences. The sheer girth and fire of her voice is felt throughout the record amidst a rhythmic bass, drum line, and organ riffs.
Antonique’s debut album, Love is Everything, will drop early next year under Farmer’s independent 9:23 Music Group label. Production features include Toby Gad (Beyoncé, Fergie), Danja (Justin Timberlake, Usher), Jukebox (Willow Smith, Eve) and Dr. Dre.
Describing her efforts with Farmer and 9:23 as “the little indies that could,” Antonique gave a sense of what she intends to represent as an artist going forward,
“I represent true female confidence, and I don’t believe true female confidence is the ‘I don’t need a man’, male bashing thing… true female confidence is knowing who you are, knowing your worth, knowing that you’re beautiful and you’re wonderful and that God loves you, and being able to elevate a man. I believe in relationships we should elevate each other, so in true female confidence there’s more of a synergy with men than there is pushing men away… I represent love… I believe love is everything, which is the name of my album! And I just feel like if there was more love in the world than a lot of the issues, I would say all of the issues that we face wouldn’t be issues and wouldn’t exist if we just had more love… True female confidence, and real, unconditional love.”
Antonique Smith’s “Hold Up Wait A Minute (Woo Woo) is nominated for the Traditional R&B Performance award at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards in February. She faces the likes of Marshia Ambrosius, Angie Fisher, Robert Glasper, and Kem.
When the smoke clears and most rappers can boast about completing an album or possibly two in 3 years, E-40, the hardest working, most consistent lyric slanger on the West has officially dropped his 10th or 11th studio album in that same amount of time. Finishing up on a 12 city tour E-40 releases his self entitled Sharp On All 4 Corners Triple DeluxeEdition Series.The new owner of Slurricane liquor – yes, 40 has liquor now – and proud CEO of Earl Stevens Selections Wine, E-40 teams up with artists Lil Boosie, T-Pain, Kid Ink, Turf Talk, Adrian Marcel, Too Short, Ty Dolla $ , Ludacris, Kirko Bangz and countless others.
As the tragic deaths of rapper Earl Hayes and his wife Stephanie Moseley are mourned, a new development has been revealed. Prior to the murder-suicide (Dec. 8), Hayes recorded a song called “Suicide” for his 2010 The First 48 mixtape that encouraged the idea of taking your own life and someone else’s.
On the five minute track, he said things like “I could just kill us both/go out with a smash and take the bitter sweetest of death/it’s freedom at last” and said that he’ll make an example out of himself and do what everybody is scared of. At the end of the song he stated “F### it living is boring.”
Today, DJ Premier and Royce da 5’9″ have officially unleashed their dual PRhyme LP. One of the best producers of all-time and one of the best lyricists of all-time coming together is a huge moment for hip-hop. DJBoothTV sat down with the duo to talk about everything from their classic song, “Boom,” to how Royce’s jail bid interrupted the making of their “Shake This” record to how they teamed up with producer Adrian Younge. Check it out below.
Watch out for 2Reps! This rap duo has just released a new video for their lead single “I Just Wanna Smoke.” You will see some fly cameos from Snoop Dogg and Mike Epps. 2Reps debut album “Pole City Redemption” is set to be in stores soon.
Love & Hip-hop Hollywood’s Hazel-E hits us with her new single titled “Everything” produced by Rob Holladay and featuring California singer/songwriter K-Young. Stream below.
Eric Bellinger released his new single “Focused On You” today. The Grammy winner’s follow-up to his breakout hit “I Don’t Want Her” features production by D Mile, and co-production by Eric Bellinger himself. There are also additional vocals by Mya. The new single featuring 2Chainz samples the Nas & The Braveheart’s classic hit “Oochie Wally.” “Focused On You” will be featured on Eric Bellinger’s upcoming debut album Cuffing Season to be released at the top of the year via YFS.
The single is available today on iTunes. The accompanying music video was filmed in Los Angeles and will be released in January.
With Chris Rock’s self-directorial debut Top Five hitting theaters this month, the discussion of who his top five emcees has been sparked. Revolt TV hosted a round table that included Rock, his co-star Rosario Dawson and a slew of hip-hop journalists and radio personalities including Miss Info, Angie Martinez, Jayson Rodriguez, Shaheem Reid, Ed Lover, and Datwon Thomas, where they listed their top five wordsmiths with accompanying justifications.
