Odd Future member Frank Ocean and Roc Nation newbie Rita Ora are scheduled to join Alternative Rock group Coldplay on the Europe leg of their stadium tour.
From May to September, the two will be playing with the band across the continent.
Frank Ocean will join Marina and the Diamonds on Coldplay’s Copenhagen dates, starting on August 28 and finishing up in Hanover on September 22. Ora will play with the band from May 29 to June 10.
Ora recently visited Z100 with her boss Jay-Z to premiere “How We Do (Party)”, the debut and lead single from her upcoming studio album.
Fashion designer and one-third of Sa-Ra Creative Partners, Taz Arnold, has just released his debut solo project titled Rad America for free.
The 21-track mixtape features samples from Meek Mill, Drake, Chris Brown, and many more and acts as an introduction to Tesla, a new alias that Taz has created.
Download Taz’s album Rad America, which is also the first release from Taz’s TI$A Records imprint, for free here.
AllHipHop.com caught up with Taz at his Community 54 in-store appearance in NYC last month and got to ask him about his music and what he’s got coming down the pipeline on the fashion tip. Check it out below:
After taking to Twitter last night to announce that the New Orleans MC has officially completed his album Act II and will be turning it in tomorrow to the RocNation heads, he followed up with a tweet thanking Lil B for his “letters of encouragement”. The next part of his tweet is puzzling to say the least, “Let’s get busy on this EP we spoke of.”
Then the self proclaimed “Based God” tweeted back: “JAY ELECTRONICA I UNDERSTAND I WILL TELL BASEDWORLD RECORDS!! LIL B LOVES YOU AND SUPPORTS, THE WORLD IS NOT READY”
Riiiiiiiight…How in the hell these two can create a coherent sounding project together puzzles us but we’ve heard worse things in the past… V-Nasty and Gucci Mane *cough cough*.
The more important news out of all of this though is that ACT II is coming soon!
(AllHipHop News) Three top Hip-Hop/R&B artists were certified five times platinum last month by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Rapper Flo Rida Electronica/Hip-Hop/Electronic group LMFAO and Bruno Mars all received plaques for selling over 5 million downloads of their most popular singles.
Flo Rida’s 2009 song “Right Round,” LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” and Bruno Mars’ “Just The Way You Are” all received plaques for moving over 5 million copies each.
Hip-Hop continues to power the new digital revolution, with B.o.B checking in with a certification for 4 million singles sold for the hit song “Airplanes,” “Moves Like Jagger,” and “If I Die Young.”
B.o.B’s single” Strange Clouds” also took home a platinum certification for 1 million single sold.
Eminem and Royce Da 5’9 earned a double platinum certification for downloads as Bad Meets Evil.
Their single “Lighters” has sold over 2 million copies, while Eminem’s songs “Space Bound” and “Cinderella Man” have been certified gold.
Adele, whose album 21, was produced in part by Hip-Hop pioneer Rick Rubin, has been certified 8 times platinum.
Really? A modern day Marvin Gaye? With pop-infused R&B dominating the radio waves, Aloe Blacc’s bringing back a sound many have missed. A sound that makes people feel empowered and ready to get up and do something.
“I Need A Dollar”, the theme song for HBO’s big hit (now canceled) “How to Make it in America”, was written and performed by soul crooner Aloe Blacc. Now, he’s got a new video for his Marvin Gaye-inspired track, “You Make Me Smile”.
“My purpose for music is positive social change,” says Orange County, California native. Overseas in France, Germany and the United Kingdom, Blacc’s already a hit, scoring gold status in all three countries.
“You Make Me Smile” appears on Blacc’s 2010 album Good Things.
Rihanna’s father, Ronald Fenty, just can’t seem to keep him mouth shut to the press about his daughter. He recently did an interview with Heat Magazine where he revealed that Chris Brown is a “nice guy”, and that he told Rihanna “she was a little fat” the last time her saw her. Check out what he said below:
”Chris is a nice guy and everybody’s entitled to make mistakes in their life. God knows how many I’ve made,” Fenty tells the new issue of Heat magazine, when asked about the singer collaborating with her ex on two songs. “She’s her own woman now.”
“I actually thought she was a little fat the last time I saw her,” he said. “When I saw her at this year’s Grammys, I thought she was back to her normal size. I used to joke with her, ‘Robyn, you’re getting too fat.’ But I think she’s fine. I think she looked excellent, as everyone saw, at the Grammys. She’s dieting, she’s working out.”
Mr. Fenty, who Rihanna brought with her to the 2012 Grammy Awards, seems to have forgotten that his daughter stopped talking to him just two years ago for this very reason, among others, I’m sure.
“Maybe we’re not as close as we were when she was growing up here … But we are blood, we do not stay angry.”
Yeah, you two are blood, Mr. Fenty, but you can’t keep making the same mistake and thinking that you can get away with it every time. Learn the lesson, sir, and close your trap about your daughter to the media!
We are hearing rumors that the “2012 Hip Hop Honors” will be cancelled this year. Late last year, an inside source told us that the Honors would return – but it looks like those rumors have been squashed.
Our source revealed that they were trying to put the show together for 2012, which would be the final one, but all of their plans are falling through and it looks like they won’t be able to pull it off.
One can only hope they can get it together and work it out. There are still so many other people that need to be honored. People like Kool G Rap, EPMD, and of course, Jay-Z…who we hear actually refused to be honored. Who do you think deserves to be honored if the Honors do indeed come back?
The annual Vibe House is being presented by Cashmere Agency, Vibe Magazine and MMXLII and adidas Originals.
A number of top West Coast rappers are confirmed for the event, which will take place on Saturday, March 17 from 8pm – 2am at Kiss & Fly nightclub in Austin, TX.
Artists like Strong Arm Steady, Self Scientific, Terrace Martin ft. 9th Wonder, Pac D##, Dom Kennedy, Jay Rock, Ab Soul, Kendrick Lamar, Nispey Hussle and others are confirmed to perform.
For more details visit vibe.com/sxsw and to support on twitter use #VIBEHouseSXSW!!
If you won’t be at SXSW this year, The VIBE House will also stream live via Livestream, so fans around the world can tune-in to watch the entire show, exclusive at new.livestream.com/vibehouse and AlliHpHop.com.
(AllHipHop News) It’s been officially announced that this year at SXSW, Shady Records will be putting on a very unique showcase that will feature G-Unit founder 50 Cent performing his debut album Get Rich Or Die Tryin in it’s entirety.
In addition to 50’s performance, Shady Records artists Slaughterhouse and Yelawolf will also both have sets of their own at the showcase which is being presented by Beats By Dre, Fuse, Lipton Brisk and The Village Voice.
Shade45 and Rap Radar will also be involved with the Shady 2.0 showcase as they present “The Next Phase” which will be hosted by Sway and feature performances from Big K.R.I.T, Action Bronson, Don Trip, Schoolboy Q, S.T.S. and The Foodchain.
The Shady 2.o Showcase will take place on Friday March 16th at the Austin Music Hall. Doors open at 7 p.m.
The annual Vibe House is being presented by Cashmere Agency, Vibe Magazine and MMXLII and adidas Originals.
Confirmed artists to perform during this year’s Breeding Ground showcase include Juvenile, Mystikal, Trae the Truth, Don Trip, Big K.R.I.T, as well as Breeding Ground Artists [BGA] Future, Travis Porter, Chevy Woods, Smoke DZA, Six Reasons, Erreon Lee, Dee 1, Tito Lopez, Rockie Fresh and the new additions of The Airplane Boys and Chase N Cash and others.
The first event to take place is AllHipHop.com’s Breeding Ground showcase, which takes place on Friday, March 16 from from 8pm – 2am at Kiss & Fly nightclub in Austin, TX
For more details visit vibe.com/sxsw and to support on twitter use #VIBEHouseSXSW!!
If you won’t be at SXSW this year, The VIBE House will also stream live via Livestream, so fans around the world can tune-in to watch the entire show, exclusive at new.livestream.com/vibehouse.
To say Biggie was phenomenal to me feels like a gross understatement. The man did things for the culture that haven’t been replicated or duplicated since. How many rappers can easily go from storytelling, to battle rapping, to romantic anthems that made the ladies swoon, to owning every collaboration he’s featured on? Not many, and very few who can do it all with the precision that Big Poppa had. He was clearly in a class by himself, ahead of his time, and left us as fans with a chasm-sized void that can never be totally filled…
That doesn’t mean that people haven’t tried…. a LOT!!!!
The first attempt that sticks out in my head came from BIG’s best friend, Sean-Puffy-Puff Daddy-P. Diddy-Diddy-Now-I’m-Just-Sean-Combs, with Shyne. Although Shyne didn’t look anything that resembled “Black and Ugly as Ever,” if you closed your eyes, he sounded a lot like him.
Unfortunately, we can’t ever know what heights Shyne could have reached because of an incident at Club New York that involved a gun, “American Idol” judge and Kohl’s spokesperson, Jennifer Lopez, and Ciroc Obama. The incident landed Shyne in the bing, and it did irreparable damage to his potential career.
The next “Wanna-BIG” that I remember was Guerilla Black. Not only did he have the girth, the look, and the sound, he was actually talented.
Sadly for him, Guerilla Black was so much like Biggie that people took to him with all of the enthusiasm that Snuggie owners had over the Slanket! Maybe it was too much too soon. Maybe we didn’t give him a fair chance to get out of what could arguably be described as the largest shadow in Hip-Hop. Any way you slice it, Guerilla Black was gone before you could say “UGHHH.”
It’s 2012, and on the 15th anniversary of the Notorious B.I.G.’s unfortunately premature demise, Hip-Hop is in need of something a little more solid. The radio is cluttered with a bunch of surface rap and sing-song styled, skinny jean (or worse yet, JEGGING) rap. Real Hip-Hop seems to have returned to the underground – a place where you won’t find reality show cameras or people with lackluster skills. It’s there that I ran across Philly Swain.
Before I get into who Swain is and what makes him special, I need to tell you that he’s not trying to be BIG. He’s trying to be HUGE.
Swain grew up in Philly, and although he lives in LA, he reps the East Coast… HARD! “If Biggie didn’t pass, I would have never taken rap seriously,” he says. “Biggie had an energy that changed the game. He died four blocks from my house (on Wilshire), and I just want to bring that energy back.”
Swain isn’t without credentials. He’s been a BET 106th & Park “Freestyle Friday” champion and a Red Bull EmSee Battle Champion. He’s the first rapper to have a battle on Pay-Per-View, in addition to having millions of hits on every site from YouTube to Facebook and everything in between. Paramount even shot a documentary on him called Hustle Diaries.
It’s rare that I endorse anyone, let alone put him in the same SENTENCE as BIG, but Philly Swain reminds me why I love Hip-Hop. He is REAL. His life story didn’t come from some other gangster, nor was it manufactured in some A&R’s office.
I miss gangster sh*t. I miss having fun when I turn on the radio or the TV. I miss lyrics that are actually SAYING something. Swain’s latest mixtape, Swain Storm, brings all of those things to the forefront.
No one will ever replace BIG.
He was a man so influential that he made Michael Jackson curse (see HERE), but Philly Swain will remind you of what Hip-Hop SHOULD be, and what it could be again. Check out more on Philly Swain HERE.
David Tazz Anderson is a Nationally Recognized Media Personality, Motivational Speaker and Author. His latest book, Common Sense Ain’t Common, is available at www.TazzDaddy.com or wherever books are sold. Follow him on Twitter (@TazzDaddy).
In 2011, Inglewood-native Sabi was featured on Britney Spears’ “(Drop Dead) Beautiful” record, and now she’s back, but this time she’s on her own and with a new video.
In this clip, Sabi takes you behind the scenes in Los Angeles for her first video as a solo artist for the new single “Wild Heart”. To add to the popularity of the song, it’s been used in E!’s#### reality show “Kim & Kourtney Take New York”!
To say Biggie was phenomenal to me feels like a gross understatement. The man did things for the culture that haven’t been replicated or duplicated since. How many rappers can easily go from storytelling, to battle rapping, to romantic anthems that made the ladies swoon, to owning every collaboration he’s featured on? Not many, and very few who can do it all with the precision that Big Poppa had. He was clearly in a class by himself, ahead of his time, and left us as fans with a chasm-sized void that can never be totally filled…