A photographer in Miami has filed a claim with the Miami Beach Police accusing Lil’ Wayne of ordering his crew to allegedly hand him a beat down, as well as damage his bicycle and camera.
According to the report, a photographer spotted Lil’ Wayne and his entourage skateboarding outside a church right beside a “no skateboarding sign” and decided to take a few photos and record video. Wayne spotted the photog and was not pleased with him taking the photos and ordered him to stop. When the photographer continued, Wayne allegedly ordered his boys to hand him a smackdown.
The photographer says that he was surrounded by eight men who threw him to the ground, spat on his face, destroyed his bicycle, and forced him to delete a few of the photos out of his camera.
The photographer did manage to escape with some photos and his footage in tact. Check out a clip of his footage, as well as the photos here
Take that, take that, Diddy! Former Danity Kane and ex-Diddy Dirty Money member, Dawn Richard (pronounced Ruh-shard), recently released her first EP, Armor On, and it’s gaining quite the buzz! With its booming visual recently premiered on BET’s 106th & Park, Dawn seems primed for the next step!
It’s safe to say there’s something about Dawn. We won’t go too far, because She has yet to release her debut solo album Golden Heart, but we’ll say she’s on the right path. She’s garnered a fanbase – as noted with her Billboard Heatseekers charting. She can actually sing – if you’ve listened to the Armor On mixtape. Lastly, she can actually dance, as she’s been dancing since three years old – and even had a stint cheerleading in her hometown for the New Orleans Hornets.
AllHipHop.com caught up with Dawn while she was touring in New Orleans, and she speaks on being fearless, leaving Bad Boy Records, and the single and video for “Bombs” that has the nation paying attention!
AllHipHop.com:: You’ve got the #1 joint on iTunes, you’ve got a video on TV, social networks are going crazy. How are you feeling right now?
Dawn Richard: I feel good, I’m excited. They said we couldn’t do it, and I think as a small, independent team, with literally like four of us, to be able to reach number one! People fail to realize this is just an EP. We found out yesterday (April 5), we charted on Billboard at Number 4 for New Heatseekers Album. We’re at #25 overall for R&B. It’s just numbers that we didn’t even expect because we only sold it on iTunes. We haven’t even used any other media outlets like Rhapsody or Amazon.com, so it’s just a big thing right now, we’re excited.
AllHipHop.com: Right, are you guys looking to expand it to Amazon?
Dawn Richard: Yeah, we’re going to do it in the next three weeks, but because of how the numbers have done with not a lot, we’re trying to just milk it now. Now the ball is in our court, because we can actually leave it on iTunes. Right now it’s been like a week and we moved to number 3, now we’re back at number 2 on iTunes again. We haven’t even put that outlet out yet, so I think we will wait a couple of weeks and then do that and see how that does. That means that now we have leverage, you know?
AllHipHop.com: Yep! What makes you call it R&B, and not Pop?
Dawn Richard: I think people want to say Pop, because it’s moving, it’s progressive, like you never stop feeling like you want to dance. I think that’s something that makes people feel that it’s pop. R&B can be that, too. I think it’s just progressive. I call it R&B because the melodies are soulful. The background. In POP music, you don’t have three to four different background harmonies. Usually in Pop songs, there’s a two part harmony, most of it’s one track, it’s never the use of four to five different kind of melodies. When you start talking about musically doing that – that’s R&B. That’s soul music. I think it’s just done on a different vibe. People want to call it Pop because that 808 and that snare is driving you. Every time you listening to it, you want to move. So it makes you feel like it’s a dance record, or it’s techno or electronic music. But really – it isn’t. It’s all soul based. It’s just pushing the limit on what you consider soul to be. At the end of the day, my voice is still a R&B sound, regardless of what kind of track it’s on.
AllHipHop.com: You sound like you’re very technical, you’re talking about the snares. Are you a technical kind of musician?
Dawn Richard: I grew up on it, and my producer, Dru-Ski, is extremely talented. He plays the keys and that was one of the things I wanted to be. I wanted to be an artist that musicians love, as well as the people. That’s what separates you from just being a gimmick or being a true artist. I don’t have a design of what anyone else is, but for me, those things matter. The snare matters. I come from New Orleans and the drum and the snare drives everything. The second line of music we have, I want it to mimic the same feel that I get when I hear a live band. In the streets in New Orleans, I wanted people to feel the same way. They don’t call that Pop music, they call that soul. I think it’s just a different vibe.
From where I come from, we push things. The genres are kind of mashed together, that Afro-centric tribal type of sound is something that’s innate, it’s not something that’s Pop. I think Pop has copied that rhythm from Soul, if you think about it, that movement is African. That movement is tribal. That comes from the drum. Either genre of music is taking something from that soul. For me it’s important not to be technical but just being around musicians and wanting to have the same respect. The people love you, and you want the musicians and your peers to love you, too.
AllHipHop.com: Is that what inspired the “Bombs” video?
Dawn Richard When I first came out, I wanted to introduce people to me as an artist that had everything. At first, I wanted to introduce the ballads and the soul music, so that they know as a vocalist, if they needed for me to stand still and sing, they could see that I could do it. That, to me, is the hardest. An artist can dance around and jump and do all those things, but if you just want to get the record to be delivered, they want that too. I wanted to show the versatility, so I gave that kind of record first.
With “Bombs”, that was the “we have arrived” record, that was the record where I wanted people to see me as a dancer for the first time. Because I think people don’t even really know I dance, and that’s something that a lot of R&B artists – there’s few women doing that right now. There are few R&B artists that are singing soul music, then can give you four to five 8-counts on a record. That’s something that I was excited about because I felt like that’s where my base was. I started dancing, so, for “Bombs”, we wanted that to be the “we have arrived”, “we are coming”, and this is the introduction. It’s really another step for me as an artist.
AllHipHop.com: I heard through the grapevine that your mom owned a dance school?
Dawn Richard Right, that’s where I started! I started dancing before I was singing. I was two when my mom put the tights on me and said “Go!” and from that on I’ve been dancing. Even before “Making The Band”, I was dancing in the NBA for the Hornets. Dancing was always something that came naturally for me, so, that’s the part that I’ve been wanting to do for the longest. It’s the most exciting part and that’s where my roots are.
AllHipHop.com: You’ve got to have a crazy workout regime.
Dawn Richard: I don’t. The workout regime is the art of dance. I like to push myself, so I’ll take different classes from modern, to ballet, to tap. I’ll just keep myself motivated in that. In L.A, I’m always at Debbie Reynolds. My best friend dances. I taught her when I was growing up and now she dances for me and she’s in the “Bombs” video, too. When she goes to class, I go too, just like a student. I think that’s what you have to be. You have to know that you have to be a student to this game. Learn, and take vocal classes, and make sure I’m good on that. I go to take dance classes to make sure that I’m as great of an artist that I can be.
AllHipHop.com: We know you’re not with Danity Kane. No more Diddy-Dirty Money. Now you’re totally solo. Some folks might look at that as, “She’s out there? What is she up to?,” but I think it’s great to come from that background and to have people rooting for you.
Dawn Richard: I think it’s fantastic!
AllHipHop.com: Because now they’re rooting for the underdog.
Dawn Richard: Right! And I think that’s great. But what I think what we’re doing, it’s just different. Even coming from two different groups, people know I’m really coming from two different genres. Danity Kane was Pop. Dirty Money was more Hip-Hop soul, and here we are R&B with the EP. I thought my tone wouldn’t be accepted, so I tried my best to try to figure it out because I didn’t know if they understood my tone and where I needed to be.
We’ve transcended different genres. I’ve literally been in every different genre and we’ve been successful in each way. Whether it was with the Pop, with the two platinum albums and #1 albums with Danity Kane. Whether it was with Dirty Money making a revolutionary album, where people like Grace Jones and all of those people on that album. And then EP doing the numbers that it’s doing, I think people are saying they want something new and refreshing. I just want to make sure that when it does come, I deliver.
AllHipHop.com: Were you scared at first?
Dawn Richard: I’m not scared. Never scared. I’m fearless in the fight. I’m the Devil’s advocate. It’s more like I always play both sides of the fence. I never look at it like “I’m going to be the greatest, you’re going to receive me, that’s it!” I always look at it like “I’ll be great, but then what if they don’t receive me, what’s our next plan?” I’m always looking at both sides of it. There was always the “What if they don’t? We have figure this out!” That’s learning from Puff. Puff, as a businessman, always looks at both sides of it. How will we lose here, how will we win. As a marketing person, you have to see it that way. I never look at it like it’s all just one-sided. I wasn’t scared, I just was business savvy about the way I had to go about it. It had to be strategic.
AllHipHop.com: And you spoke about Puff, so are you working with the same producers?
Dawn Richard: No. The EP was just one. For my album, it’s similar. It’s nobody that anyone knows. That’s the thing. That’s what makes it so brilliant. The EP had no features and no producers that anyone knew. I think that makes it even better, so people know now, there was no favors. No one helped me. It was all done by myself. There was no, “Oh, because this person is great they’re going to help me out.” Puff and Bad Boy were great for letting me go, but they let me go, and that was that. I’m appreciative of them because I asked for that release. I asked for him to see if I could fly, and he believed in me enough to let me go, and I’ll forever love him for that. But once they let you go, you have to figure it out on your own. We’ve proved that we can, by doing this.
AllHipHop.com: Are you looking at other major labels?
Dawn Richard: Yeah, we’re definitely are. Like I said the ball is in our court now. We can make the decision whether or not, it’s a good choice for us or not. Right now, we’re proving that as an independent team of four people, we can push forward. You’ve just got to work a little bit harder but if you love the craft and you put hard work into it, I think anything’s possible. Yeah, we’re definitely looking at labels but we’re also looking at the idea of us standing alone. The numbers (for the EP) were delivering with no one. It’s amazing for something that isn’t even an album.
AllHipHop.com: What about Dawn Richard on Roc Nation?
Dawn Richard: I love them. I think what they do is amazing. They’re a powerhouse. If the offer is right, that’s fantastic. I love what they’re doing with the females in the game. For us, the aesthetic is different because they have a plan of action that they’re doing. It’d be great to see if they did want to rock with us, what they would do with that.
AllHipHop.com: SWV just got back together after 15 years, with a new album coming out. Do you think we might be waiting that long for a Danity Kane joint?
Dawn Richard: I don’t think that would be too long to wait for that! I think that’d be kind of cool. I just think timing has to be right, and I always believe in delivering a product that is better than what you’ve already done. If you’re not exceeding what you’ve already given out, you shouldn’t do it because you shouldn’t damage something that was so great. For me, I want us to be great, but it has to be at the respect and level that the fans deserve.
AllHipHop.com: And you went to college in New Orleans, right? Did you join a sorority?
Dawn Richards: No, I didn’t, but everyone in my family is, but me. I was really into school. I was taking 21 and 18 hours each semester because I was in Marine Biology, so I didn’t have time for anything else.
AllHipHop.com: That was the passion before music?
Dawn Richard: Yeah, I was concentrating in Manatees and Dolphins. When I left, I had to make a choice – to stay in the city, or go far away. I moved into UNO to go to school, and I had to change my major because they didn’t have marine science, so I went into music marketing with a minor in marine science. That was a cool experience, that was just a choice that I made. I choose to go into music marketing at the end because I knew that I had choose music.
AllHipHop.com: And for someone who’s in that battle between Marine Biology versus what they really want to do, what do you say to somebody who really wants to pursue their dream?
Dawn Richard: You do what you love. I don’t have any advice, because at the end of the day, I had to fall to be here. Do what you love. Don’t do something for someone else, do it for you. When you get to the point when you realize your life is your life, because you don’t realize your life is all you have until you get a certain place, and you’re like “Okay, this is my life!” You want to make sure that it’s what you love because you’ll have that realization and then you’ll be trying to fight to go back to the place where you wanted to start. If you love something, go for that.
AllHipHop.com: And the Golden Heart Trilogy. It’s coming?
Dawn Richard: It’s coming! It’s actually done. It was done before the EP, but like I said, everything is strategic. It has to make sense. The sound was so innovative, we had to bring people to that space. You can’t just say, “Okay. Like me. I’m here.” You have to sell a product, you have to sell a brand. Just like you have commercials. You have to give people enough, so that they love you and then you go forward. I think that’s what we did with the EP, so it’s definitely ready to come!
AllHipHop.com: It seems like you’ve really been learning!
Dawn Richard: If I didn’t, shame on me!
AllHipHop.com: Right. And that might be the difference between some people who may have been in a group, and didn’t become as successful, or been with Bad Boy who may not have been as successful?
Dawn Richard: Yeah, well, I don’t blame Bad Boy. That’s the thing. They gave you an opportunity. A person can only give you a crack of a window. It’s up to you to open it all the way up, just break it. I’d just rather break it than try to pry it open and I think for me that’s why I never used an excuse. They gave me the tools, it’s up to me to figure it out.
AllHipHop.com: That’s it for me! Do you have anything that the folks need to know?
Dawn Richard: Yes, go get the EP. It’s on iTunes! It’s been really great because the hearts are making it so. Make sure you go on 106th & Park and vote for “Bombs”. That video is really dope. I’m really grateful for the choreography. Come see me on tour! I am on tour right now. Check out dawnrichard.tumblr.com to see the dates.
Follow Dawn Richard on Twitter (@DawnRichard) and visit her personal fan blog, www.dawnrichardblog.com.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are coming back to the big screen! Transformers director Michael Bay will be at the helm this time around, and has said in a statement that the turtles will actually come from space in the upcoming film, and not from the sewer like in the previous movies and cartoons.
Well, it looks like Kid Cudi will be taking his acting chops to the big screen and has been tapped to participate in the new reboot. Actually, we don’t know if Kid Cudi will be acting in the film or helping out musically. Check out what he said on his Tumblr recently:
“An original one of a kind sketch of a unknown Ninja Turtle by one half of the creators, Kevin Eastman. A gift given to me by my homies Andrew Form and Brad Fuller over at Platinum Dunes. Hint hint mane.”
He also tweeted:
“To everyone with doubts & concerns about the new TMNT reboot, trust me, there is NOTHING to worry about. Trust. Everyone will be pleased! I was skeptical as well, but by no means is this movie gonna suck. Huge fans will be happy.”
Being a part of the new TMNT reboot has got to be exciting. Congratulations to Kid Cudi on the new gig, whatever it is.
A few days after announcing a new 4/20 sneaker collaboration between Curren$y and Diamond Supply Co., the Doggfather himself, Snoop Dogg, has announced an “eco-friendly” product for purchase later this year when his new book, Rolling Words: A Smokable Songbook, hits store-shelves.
The miniature-sized book that will be available for purchase this summer contains a number of pages filled with lyrics to some of Snoop’s most memorable songs like “Gin and Juice,” “Beautiful,” “From Tha Chuuuch To Tha Palace,” “Snoop Dogg”, and many more.
The pages themselves are smokeable and made from the same paper that is used in Snoop’s very own king-sized slim rolling papers (which are available now), while the book and its cover are made from hemp and twine.
That’s not all, though, folks. The spine of Rolling Words: A Smoklable Songbook contains a surface that can be used to strike a match for those unfortunate nights when you don’t have a lighter by your side.
“I made this book so people can always remember: you can roll with an expert, you can roll with Snoop.”
Check out Snoop Dogg talking about Rolling Words below:
The Paid Dues Music Festival, presented by Murs & Guerilla Union, went down this past weekend in Southern California, and AllHipHop.com was on hand to cover it. Over 40 acts hit three different stages in a period of 10 hours to give the crowd some good ol’ head-nodding and body-moving Hip-Hop.
Wu-Tang Clan was one of the special headlining acts this year, and they rocked classic after classic for a sea of eager fans who sang along to each lyric. Three-Six Mafia had the Monster Energy Stage in a party frenzy with their heavy, bass-boomin’ jams. The crowd energy got the group members going as they jumped from the stage, over the photographer pit, and into the audience (almost hitting me, by the way).
DJ Quik’s show was another super live performance. The Compton native had the West Coast crowd grooving and really set them off when he brought out Bizzy Bone from Bone Thugs N Harmony to perform “Notorious Thugs”, along with his longtime collaborator Suga Free for a few of their classics. The big star of the night was Kendrick Lamar. His venue was so overcrowded that the police were brought in to prevent more people from getting inside. You could hear the inside crowd loudly chant “Kendrick” from outside of the building. The Top Dawg Entertainment artist has truly arrived in the rap game and the home crowd let him know it.
Other acts like Heiroglyphics, Boot Camp Clik, Trek Life, Dipset, Dilated Peoples, Lecrae, and Ras Kass all gave worthy performances. It was hard to catch all of the acts because their set times overlapped each other. Festivals of this caliber are nearly impossible to witness in their entirety. We tried, though, although I know we missed some other good performances, but we were able to grab some pictures for you all.
Check out AllHipHop.com’s Paid Dues Festival photo gallery below. Click on the thumbnails to see each full-sized picture:
(AllHipHop News$ fans of Mobb Deep were awakened to several tweets suggesting the group has broken up.
A series of insulting tweets appeared on Havoc’s Twitter page this morning, directed at group member Prodigy.
The tweets appear to be the work of a hacker according to reps for Mobb Deep, although it has not been confirmed if Havoc lost control of his account or not.
The angry insults on the page included claim that Prodigy had homosexual relationships while he was in jail, as well as delusions of marrying Rihanna.
Fans of the group reacted to the tweets, immediately, with most believing they are the work of an imposter.
The poster insisted it was actually Havoc, but it seems unlikely, since the group just hosted a performance at SXSW in March.
Mobb Deep is also working on a reunion album, following the release of their critically acclaimed EP Black Cocaine.
Mobb Deep’s manager did not comment on the tweets and as of press time, neither has their publicist.
Editor’s Note: This is Part 2 of AllHipHop.com’s month-long series , “Rap, Race and Riots: Hip-Hop 20 Years after the L.A. Rebellion.”
“White America/ assassinate my character” – “Gotta Have It” – Kanye West and Jay-Z
After being caught on You Tube with a white sheet, a box of matches, and a gasoline can braggin’ about burning down the home of African American activist, Emmett Evers, Byron De la Bryant was finally being charged with a hate crime. The prosecution used hundreds of historical documents of cross burnings, brutal beatings, and lynchings to prove that Bryant’s actions were part of a long legacy of racist crimes against African Americans. However, after the defense showed the jury a video of the 1992 beating of Reginald Denny, they found Bryant not guilty….
April 29, 1992, millions of Africans Americans sat by their televisions outraged that the acquittal of the four white officers accused of beating Rodney King was evidence of white America’s racism. Later that same day, millions of White Americans sat by their televisions convinced that the beating of white truck driver Reginald Denny by Black men was proof of Black racism.
These two events have sparked hundreds of conversations about race over the 20 years since the L.A. Rebellions, with most of them ending in the compromise that there are Black racists as well as White racists.
This conclusion is patently false. There ain’t no such thing as a “Black racist.”
African Americans can be many things: thugs, gangstas, Republicans, etc. But the one thing that we cannot be is racist. Although most people define racism as hatred for people of a different race, a more functional definition would be having the power to enforce that hatred socially, politically, and economically. And last time I checked, Black people did not posses that kind of juice.
In his work, “The United Independent Compensatory Code,” Neely Fuller argued that “the only form of functional racism that exists among the people of the known universe is white supremacy.” But that minor detail has not stopped folks from engaging in the never ending hunt for the nonexistent Black supremacist.
In his book, The Ice Man Inheritance, Michael Bradley traced the foundation of the myth of Black racism back centuries ago when the Bantu-speaking people “enslaved” the “Hottentots” (Khoikhoi) and the “Bushmen” (San). Because anthropologist CS Coon divided the Africans into two separate races, some have used this as evidence of “Black supremacy.”
Just as many people used the beating of Denny as the quintessential example of Black racism , even today, any time Black folks start marching and yellin’ “No Justice No Peace”, you can bet that Fox News and others won’t rest until they finally capture a Black supremacist.
This is how it has always been.
In 1915, during the height of outrage over the lynching of African Americans, the movie Birth of a Nation was used to justify the activities of the Ku Klux Klan by portraying Black men as rapists.
During the mid-’50s when Black people were being attacked by police dogs for fighting for their rights, journalist Mike Wallace produced an expose on the Nation of Islam called, “The Hate that Hate Produced.”
More recently, in November 2006 after Michael Richards a.k.a. “Kramer” from “Seinfield”, dropped multiple N-bombs, the argument quickly became, “Well, Black comedians use the word all the time.”
Who can forget when, in April 2007, after Don Imus called the Rutgers University Women’s B-Ball Team “nappy headed hoes,” Civil Rights leaders and right wing talking heads found a slick way to blame it all on Hip-Hop.
Recently, after the Trayvon Martin murder, Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera blamed the incident on kids wearing hoodies. And Bill O’Reilly sent his top notch producer to gang-infested Chicago to promote the idea that we should be focused on Black-on-Black violence instead of the Martin murder. Now, with the shooting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, of five African Americans, allegedly by two White men, look for Fox to do a series of stories on the history of drivebys in the ‘hood.
The purpose here is not to suggest that all White people are racists. However, without a doubt , the small group of ultra-rich people who control the resources of the planet don’t live in Compton. The ones behind the curtains pulling the strings are wealthy White men.
In Dr. W.E.B. DuBois’s classic work, Black Reconstruction, it is reported that, during slavery, only seven percent of the southern population owned slaves. According to DuBois, “The masses of poor whites were economic outcasts.” All they had going for them was a false sense of racial superiority. In reality, Blacks and poor Whites were being manipulated by greedy Northern industrialists and the Southern planter class.
Not much has changed. Perhaps there is some truth in the line from Goodie Mob’s Cell Therapy that warned that one day trained assassins would be coming for ” n*ggas like me/poor white trash like they…”
Ironically, conversations have taken place between those who advocated Black Pride and proponents of White Power.
According to Dr. Tony Martin in his book, Race First, in 1922, Marcus Garvey had an Atlanta meeting with “Edward Young Clarke, acting imperial wizard of the Klan.” In A Life of Reinvention Malcolm X, Manning Marable said that Malcolm X was involved in a 1961 meeting with the KKK also in the ATL. Also, the man credited with popularizing the term “Black Power” – Kwame Ture (then Stokely Carmichael) – once had a cordial debate with George Lincoln Rockwell, a major advocate of White Power.
Like EPMD would say, racism is “Business Never Personal.”
Hip-Hop has attempted to address racism over the years from relatively lighthearted songs like Kool G Rap’s “Erase Racism” to the more militant works of the West Coast’s Paris and early Ice Cube (before he became a movie star.) However, I think that The Lox summed it up best: it’s all about “Money, Power, Respect.”
The major crime of White supremacy is the hoarding of the planet’s wealth, leaving the masses to fight over crumbs.
The solution to this country’s “race problem” may have been best articulated by the late Black Panther, Fred Hampton, when he said “Power to the People.” That means Black Power to Black people, White Power to White People, Brown Power to Brown people, etc.
When this is achieved maybe we can finally answer the question that Rodney King asked the world 20 years ago:
“Can’t we all just get along?”
Not yet Rodney, not yet.
TRUTH Minista Paul Scott’s weekly column is “This Ain’t Hip Hop,” a column for intelligent Hip Hop headz. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com, on his website, NoWarningShotsfired.com, or on Twitter (@truthminista).
