(AllHipHop News) The recent backlash surrounding Grammy Award-winning rapper Lupe Fiasco’s new single, “Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free)”, may have been unexpected when his first offering from Food & Liquor 2 was released last night (May 21).
Pete Rock, who produced “T.R.O.Y.” in 1992 as a dedication to Troy “Trouble” Dixon of Heavy D and the Boyz, has taken to Twitter to lash out at the label and producers who were behind the sampling done on “Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free).”
Pete Rock took to Twitter last night (May 21) to air out all those involved: “No disrespect to lupe fiasco and i like him alot but TROY should be left alone. Feel so violated,the beat is next to my heart and was made. Outta anguish and pain. When it’s like that it should not be touched by no one! It’s so hard for folks to make original music, I possess that, but these dudes are scared of that and this is supposed to be HIP HOP?
He continued, “Man I’m a lupe fan and everything but TROY was my homie man. I think about him and Hev every f*cking day!!!! Smh. Who ever Re-created that didn’t do a good job @ all. #nohate.This business can be so lame, sometimes I make beats blindfolded with one hand tied behind my back and still these cats can’t be original to. So untalented and unoriginal. Makes me feel like I’m truly the best that ever did it. Yo hev and t-Roy I love and miss da s### outta y’all. U guys have been violated with no Vaseline. So f*cked up this business smmfh!!! And I don’t care who got something to say about it, kiss my entire black *ss. #violationtodafullest.
“Lame Ducks with absolutely no talent if u can’t make ur own hit. FOH. I’m not flattered @ all. Dat sh*t is wack, and the producer should be ashamed of his f*ckin self. Smh. That record is dear to me yo f*ck deez n*ggas!!!! I’m still Dat n*gga out here believe it or don’t. Ur ignorance not mine, lame duck bullsh*t. I think lupe is a great artist, I’m that angry with him but it’s a major label idea. I can feel it. And y’all need to stop the childish games, I’m a fan of lupe and he is a great artist and a great person.
“And let me be clear cuz a lot of y’all don’t know this. But Tom Scott himself gave me an approval for TROY, told me I did a great job!! As did Luther vandross as well spoke to me about how I covered “don’t u know that” and approved!! #official.”
The sentiments Pete Rock has shared on Twitter have mostly been aimed at producers and Lupe’s home of Atlantic Records, who he believes is behind the “violation.”
Lupe Fiasco may have a chance to clear things up during his appearance on this week’s edition of MTV’s “RapFix Live” which will air this Wednesday, May 23 at 4 pm EST.
Listen to Lupe Fiasco’s new single, “Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free),” below:
(AllHipHop News) Rapper Young Buck will be serving 18 months in prison after pleading guilty on gun possession charges, according to published reports.
The rapper agreed to serve jail time after a raid on his home by the IRS in 2010, TMZ reports.
The embattled rapper agreed to plead guilty to possessing firearms and ammunition as a convicted felon after federal agents located a .40 caliber Glock 22 and rounds in his mansion. This is the same mansion that the rapper has been evicted from. The rapper is a convicted felon, and he’s not permitted to own a firearm.
(ALlHipHop News) Ubisoft has announced that Kendrick Lamar will be the final member of Team Ghost in “Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier” video game.
Joining a select group of celebrity gamers as a Ghost, Kendrick Lamar joins the ranks with the most elite soldiers and represents a complete range of skills on the battlefield.
In the game, Lamar and his team members are a team of highly trained, spec ops soldiers. Armed with combat technology and cutting-edge military hardware, Ghost Recon takes gamers through deadly warzones to hunt down the highest value targets.
Kendrick joins NBA All-Star Kevin Love, NFL rookie Justin Blackmon, and reality star Coco as the fourth and final member of the team.
“I’m obviously a vocal guy, so I’m going to pave the way to victory for Team Ghost, and make sure you hear about it the entire time,” said Kendrick Lamar. “Playing Ghost Recon is no different from being a rapper, really going full force against the competition and breaking through the enemy lines, just like I do with my bars.”
In addition to his role in the video game, Kendrick Lamar is giving fans a new song inspired by Ghost Recon: Future Soldier entitled “War Is My Love,” which was released yesterday (May 21).
“Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier” will be available Today (May 22) for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system. It will be also be made available to fans on PC on June 12, 2012.
Editor’s Note: It’s May 22, and David Banner’s new album, “Sex, Drugs, and Video Games”, drops today. The album is available nearly for free on www.DavidBanner.com with a donation of at least $1, and features Chris Brown, Nipsey Hussle, The Game, Snoop Dogg, Tank, Bun B, A$AP Rocky, Big KRIT, and more.
In this two-part interview, AllHipHop.com was happy to talk to David Banner about his new album, the 2M1 Movement, and why he’s excited to be launching a whole new model for the music industry.
Banner also did AllHipHop.com a colossal favor by making a surprise visit to a group of Atlanta’s most determined young people to share his special brand of street wisdom. Read the interview and watch the video below:
One of rap music’s most noted rapper/actor/producers, David Banner is quickly become well-known as the culture’s most influential public speaker. Fresh off his appearance as a special guest lecturer at The L.A. Riots: Twenty Years Later, a symposium at Harvard University, Banner continues to tour the country doing press and public speaking in support of his 2M1 Movement.
Banner stopped by the Atlanta site of Year Up, a youth workforce development program that helps 18-to-24 year-olds learn the technical and professional skills that will prepare them for entry-level jobs in corporate America. The 10-year-old program, founded in Boston, boasts an 85 percent success rate in getting its graduates employed in jobs that pay a livable wage. The Atlanta students were surprised by the celebrity appearance and quickly learned that there is more to a rap star than just their music. Banner spoke bluntly on the trials that the urban young adults will face when entering the corporate landscape. Banner, a graduate of Southern University, also spoke about the importance of reading and self-education. The emerging activist also talked about the death of Trayvon Martin, a subject that he has been far from silent on.
AllHipHop.com: Recently, you were at Harvard University lecturing on the 20th Anniversary of the L.A. riots. So having come from Mississippi, did it occur to you while you were up there, “I’m at Harvard University?”
David Banner: Well, it really did, but what I will say is what God revealed to me afterwards is that if we prepare, there is no reason for you to fear anything. So I prepared myself. It’s crazy because that’s one thing they try to do to our people in general. When I say our people I mean people from urban situations. They try to keep us encased in fear. Honestly, if you truly have your spirit together and you truly have prepared and taking those man hours to do whatever it is in life, it don’t matter what question they ask you. It don’t matter what they do, what they say. Whether it’s Harvard or a street corner, if you are truly prepared it doesn’t matter.
AllHipHop.com: So Year Up, the organization that is hosting us here is about “Closing the Opportunity Divide,” a term coined to really represent the systematic things that keep urban young adults from being successful, with jobs and further college education. So what advice would you give our students in the hip-hop generation about systems change? What is Hip-Hop’s responsibility when it comes to systems change?
David Banner: Ok. When you say systems change tell me exactly what you mean.
AllHipHop.com: Changing the institutions like the educational systems and the prison industrial system.
David Banner: I got it. Alright, first of all, (faces students) I wanna tell y’all something, I’m proud of y’all. I’m proud of everybody that’s sitting in these chairs right now. ‘Cause each and every one of you guys could’ve been somewhere else. One of the problems with our people is that we don’t congratulate each other enough.
But about systems change. I created a movement called 2M1. What 2M1 is…I started looking at not just urban music but movies, television, all of that. We have been degraded to nothing. No movies that depict us, you know, all of our music is so negative. The name of my album is called Sex, Drugs & Videogames. And everybody was like “Sex, Drugs, Videogames? What does he mean by that?” What I meant is if all you ever give our children is sex, drugs and videogames what do you think they’re gonna regurgitate? And that’s all we ever see on television.
System changes also come in the way that we think about ourselves. The American system only teaches us in most cases, they don’t teach us before slavery. They never tell us that we kings and queens. They never tell us that the Pythagorean Theorem comes off the walls of Egypt. And imagine me figuring out all this n the middle of “ay yo, see the Chevy with the butterfly doors,” and I was like wow. That’s why I took off, if y’all were wondering why I disappeared for a while.
I disappeared for a while because I got an opportunity to go overseas. And I got an opportunity to see how they looked at our people, and I was embarrassed. I was really, really, really embarrassed and it messed with me mentally because not only am I a rapper, I’m a producer too. I’m an actor, too. So I was like, man, I had a lot to do with that, but then God revealed to me that it’s nothing wrong with what I do. I just have to bring some balance. We can do what we do in the club. That’s all a part of us, but we need some balance. So to answer your question about the systems changes, the only way the systems are gonna change is when you guys get into power and we start opening up our own situations.
AllHipHop.com: So what are some of the ways that we start changing our situations?
David Banner: That is what 2M1 is for me. I wanna get two million people to donate at least one dollar, and everybody thinks it’s about the dollar. It’s not about the dollar. That’s why I did 2M1. I’mma implement this system, and I’mma teach people how to make money. Instead of begging record companies to come and help us we start our own situations and provide and feed our own people.
AllHipHop.com: In a room full of young people who in about two/three months will earn the opportunity to go on internship in Corporate America. Now being that they come from Atlanta urban environments and are going into corporate America, and we know some of the challenges that they will experience, it’s somewhere that they need to go. They need that opportunity to be able to get into entry level jobs, to be able to work their way up through corporate America. How do we prepare them knowing some of the systems that they’re going into?
David Banner: There’s this double consciousness theory that says that Black people to be three or four people. Like you are one person in the ‘hood, you’re one person when you come to school, another person at the job. What I’ll tell you guys going into the corporate system, just be prepared to have to adjust for a little while. Because again I truly believe that you guys are the future and I feel like I’m not just saying this. That you have the power to create.
So, you go into these corporate structures to learn. To be a sponge. Not to be an employee all your life. But what I will ask you guys is that in whatever you do be the best. Literally be the best. You’re gonna have to be the best anyway. But be the best. Articulate yourself as well as you possibly can and as much as you can and I know it’s hard. Keep as much of you as you can in the inside and talk to somebody, but be the best.
Check out Part 2 of our exclusive interview with David Banner tomorrow, where he talks about Trayvon Martin, the biggest risk he ever took, and how he has diversified his music industry career and set himself up for longevity.
Wingo, member of famed ’90s R&B quartet, Jagged Edge, has stepped out on his own and released his first solo mixtape, appropriately titled, Life of the Party. The mixtape features appearances from Slim (of 112) and Atlanta’s own, Gucci Mane.
AllHipHop.com had a chance to chop it up with Wingo about his solo debut, and he gave us first dibs on Jagged Edge’s upcoming eighth studio album. On the release of his first mixtape, an excited Wingo reveals:
“I’m just giving them a ‘lil piece of Wingo! Still doing the whole Jagged Edge thing. I’m gonna be Jagged Edge forever. That has paved the way for a lot of stuff. I’ve been doing a lot of music of that for the past couple of years. I’ve signed a couple of artists to my record label, younger cats who are very talented. At the end of the day, it’s time to put it out. It’s not gone do no good in that Mac! [laughs].”
Life of the Party chronicles the life of Wingo, who admits he hasn’t picked a single yet, because he values the opinions of his fans:
“Every time someone goes out with me and hangs out with me, they really enjoy themselves. That’s why I named it Life of the Party. I haven’t even picked a single yet, I want the DJs and the fans to let me know what’s hot and what’s not. Those are the opinions I really trust. I think everything I do is awesome [laughs], but everybody’s not going to like everything that you do.”
Platinum-selling R&B group Jagged Edge saw their biggest selling album in 2000 with J.E. Heartbreak, and they’re in talks to release a sequel. Wingo exclusively revealed to us what they’re working on:
“We’re getting ready to work on the eighth album for Jagged Edge. The twins want to do J.E. Heartbreak 2; that’s our biggest selling record to this day. Only way that would make sense is if we go back to the roots. Go back to who did the first J.E. Heartbreak. Bryan Cox, Jermaine Dupri.”
So, there is hope in a huge Jagged Edge reunion! Until then, enjoy the sounds of Wingo, one who has always held us down on many of our favorite Jagged Edge tracks. Who can forget the runs at end of “Let’s Get Married”? Just saying.
Check out the tracklist for Life of The Party and see the download link below:
1. Keep It Cool (Intro)
2. Bust It Down (Feat. Gucci Mane) [P###. By Midnite Black]
3. Film A Movie [P###. By King David]
4. Girls In My Pocket (Feat. K.C)
5. Take A Load Off [P###. By King David]
6. Turn Up The Radio (Feat. Treyon)
7. Irrestiable (Feat. Lil Will) [P###. By King David]
8. Mohawk Shawdy (RIP) (Vontae Of WMB)
9. Too Many Girls [P###. By King David]
10. Video Girl (Feat. Trap Boiz & Roc De Carlo) [P###. By King David]
11. Gangsta Boo (Feat. C-Bone & K.C) [P###. By K.C]
12. X’s (Feat. WildMoney Boiz)
13. Out Of Love [P###. By Midnite Black]
14. Ain’t No Lovin’ Tonight
15. My Own 12 Play [P###. By King David]
16. Computer Love Song (Feat. Bossman) [P###. By Burcast]
17. Model For Me [P###. By King David]
18. Movie Star [P###. By Burcast]
19. Ain’t Givin’ Up (Feat. B.I.G)
20. Like Us (Feat. Charlay & K.C) [P###. By Dj Wiz]
Editor’s Note: “Feel Rich” is our partnership with QD3, the talented son of music legend Quincy Jones. “Feel Rich” is all about creating a healthy lifestyle for Hip-Hop culture – both the artists and the fans. Enjoy!
Even with the ripped 50 Cent by his side, Tony Yayo still struggles with making the right choices for his health. He talks to Feel Rich about quitting smoking, what life is like on the road, how 50 Cent drives G-Unit to get healthy, and getting himself back on the health tip.
To set some goals for yourself, read this:
If you’re serious about getting healthy, it’s time to set some goals. Nothing feels as good as reaching a goal you’ve set for yourself. Whether you want to lose weight, gain muscle, eat healthier, or just remember to take your vitamins, setting achievable goals is the first step on the journey to a healthier you.
There are many ways to set your goals. One way to do it is to ask yourself a basic line of questions: “Who, what, when, where, and why?” The answers to these questions will help you create a framework for your goal, and make it less likely for you to make impulsive decisions.
Who? When it comes to changing your habits, you want a partner in crime. Find someone who wants to make similar goals, whether it’s a boyfriend/girlfriend, cousin, friend, co-worker, etc. Their support and companionship will help you stay on track. Starting or finding a support group is a great way to have people who can not only relate to you, but also help you pull through a rough patch.
What? Set specific, achievable goals. Be realistic. An achievable goal is one you can measure. “I want to have a banging’ body” is not a good goal, because you can’t measure that. How do you know when you’ve achieved it? “I want to be able to run 5 miles without getting winded” is better, because it’s measurable.
When? Ask yourself how much time you can realistically spend working toward your goal. For example, if you work a 9-to-5 job, making a goal to do cardio four times a week for 30 minutes makes sense, where spending three hours strength training every day might not. If your goals are diet related, plan your meals ahead if possible, and try to make mealtime consistent every day.
Where? Figure out where you are going to work towards your goals. Do you have the extra money to spend on a gym membership? Are you more of an outdoorsy type? Do you need a lot of variety in your workout environment so you don’t get bored? Is there an organic supermarket that sells produce at affordable prices? Map out where you will go on your hunt for health.
Why? This is possibly the most important question of all. Why are you setting goals to improve your health? There could many reasons: overall well being, improving self-confidence, creating good habits, reducing a health issue, or training for a marathon. Guess what? They’re all totally valid! Having a clear picture of why you’re doing what you’re doing will help you to accomplish it.
Staying on Board
Sticking to your goals should be a goal in itself. Falling off the wagon is easy, especially if you are creating new habits. So reward your milestones as you go. Get a massage or treat yourself to a nice dinner. When you find yourself slacking, remember your reward, and you’ll find inspiration pronto.
Tying your reward to your milestone helps you focus better, too. For instance, if you’re trying to lose weight, reward yourself with new (smaller!) clothes that fit. Having a reward that specifically relates to your goals will help make achieving them even more fantastic.
Also, track your progress. Buy a journal or make an excel spreadsheet. Doesn’t matter; just record your advancement. Recording your progress will help prevent you from being too lenient with yourself. You will also have a record of what you did on any given day.
Preparing for the Future
As you work toward your goal, think about how you will maintain your goals. Knowing what you need to do to stay on top of your game will save yourself a lot of trouble. In general, plan ahead and your chances for success will be great! Good luck!
