From his enunciation sounding like that of Wu-Tang member Ghostface Killah, to his credentials as a street gourmet chef, to his Jewish-Albanian heritage that he frequently mentions, Action Bronson is everything but a typical rapper. Although his discography seems shorter than most, his latest collaboration project with Statik Selektah proves that there’s more to him that initially meets the eye. Well Done shows both Bronson and Statik at their best, and the chemistry shown throughout makes me hope for more joint ventures in the future.
It can’t be understated how comfortable Action Bronson sounds alongside Statik Selektah for the entire duration of Well Done. It’s also impressive how dynamic the production sounds; the soundscape stays true to the “pure” sounds of Hip-Hop music without ever becoming bland or uninteresting. And, for each beat that’s put on, Bronson accurately matches it with his flow. At times, he sounds like Big Pun. At other times, he sounds a lot like Ghostface. But regardless of whom he may sound like, his lyrics are unfaltering as he assaults every instrumental he touches with stand-up lyrics and solid bars (and yes, some of them are food-related).
The features here are kept light, but they fit well and don’t seem to be forced. Bronson sounds perfect alongside Lil’ Fame of M.O.P. on “Time For Some,” Nina Sky’s vocals help to smooth out “Cocoa Butter” and its samples, and the obligatory posse cut (“Terror Death Camp”) is also executed rather nicely. Well Done is a great entry into Statik and Bronson’s catalog, and it would be a shame if people slept on this one. If you have the opportunity, definitely give this a listen.
K1ng Eljay is the founder of his site, K1ngEljay.com, as well as a contributor to GoWhereHipHop and editor for RapGenius.com. You can contact him via his Twitter (@K1ngEljay) for more.
Happy Monday, my Unique beings!
Welcome to the best day of your life.... EVERYDAY!!! Today's Daily Word is dedicated to being different! I'm going to keep this one short and sweet..... If you keep doing what you've always done you will keep getting what you've always
gotten!!! This is a fact that you need to understand as you journey towards your goals these last few weeks of 2011 and into 2012 and beyond!
To put it another way... In order to get something you've never had, you must do something you've never done!! Stop being so stubborn and start to look at different ways you can adjust what
you're doing to achieve your goals! Those who are not afraid to think outside the box are those who have the most success in life!
Conventional wisdom is great but it has never discovered anything!! Be different! Think different, Do it Different!! The World is Yours!!!!!
-Ash'Cash
“The greatest discoveries have come from people who have looked at a standard situation and seen it differently.” -Ira Erwin
“Everyone has to learn to think differently, bigger, to open to possibilities.” -Oprah Winfrey
“Winners don't do different things. They do things differently.” -Unknown
"If you keep doing things like you've always done them, what you'll get is what you've already got." -Unknown
“We can't become what we need to be by remaining what we are.” -Oprah Winfrey
"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Only dead fish swim with the stream." -Malcolm Muggeridge
"The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself." -Rita Mae Brown, Venus Envy
TO HEAR THE AUDIO VERSION OF THE DAILY WORD – CLICK HERE.
Ash’Cash is a Business Consultant, Motivational Speaker, Financial Expert and the author of Mind Right, Money Right: 10 Laws of Financial Freedom. For more information, please visit his website, www.IamAshCash.com.
Some cats just have nine lives. Just when you count them as down and out, they keep coming back…over and over and over again. In the rap world, for instance, count how many MCs there are who can say they’ve rocked crowds filled with nearly three generations of rap lovers, sold more than 10 million albums in this country alone, and can keep finding relevance, no matter how groups break up, time passes, technology advances, and sales models change. Hmmm. Let’s just say you can probably count them on one hand.
If this is all true, then rapper Busta Rhymes is on, at least, the seventh or eighth great ride of his life. Last week, the music industry took a collective gasp at the news that the Leaders of the New School, Native Tongue, 15+ year-solo careered veteran had landed a revolutionary, new rap deal. To those of us who knew him way back when, it scarcely seems like two decades since we all became mesmerized by the massive, zany, costumed character of a brand that is Busta Rhymes.
AllHipHop.com reported the latest Busta Rhymes news early on, even taking time to list our “5 Reasons Why Busta Rhymes Signing to Cash Money Is Good,” which garnered a bunch of differing opinions on his/their business decision. Still, we had to to hear it from the man himself, so we caught up with him right before Thanksgiving to “pass the Courvoisier” and celebrate:
AllHipHop.com: Bussa Buss! Of course, everyone in the industry is talking about your deal with Cash Money . So first off, congratulations!
Busta Rhymes: Thank you!
AllHipHop.com: I know you were talking about it at the Google Music Launch this week, and you called the deal “groundbreaking.” So tell people a little bit about what this connection with Google Music means…
Busta Rhymes: My connection with Google Music is now that I’m part of the Google Music family. I’m in business with Google, and I’m proud to be the one that they thought of to launch the higher Music Division and Music Store, and to be a part of something that is definitely defining a turning point and a shift in climate in the way we share our music – from a creative standpoint and from a business standpoint. I’m just glad that the freeness and the willingness that they had to be part of the Busta Rhymes business is primarily what contributed to the uniqueness of, not only the deal, but the relationship.
What’s even moreso amazing is that, you know, the newness of everything that they have going on; the newness of the way Cash Money does business is obviously why they’re set apart from every other conventional record company. It’s the most ideal and the most perfect opportunity for me, because I was blessed with the opportunity to not only be in business with the most powerful record company and the most powerful search engine in the world, but I was blessed with the opportunity to be able to partner everyone together. The uniqueness of that entire situation is what’s “groundbreaking” itself, because its kind has never been done before.
AllHipHop.com: Right. Well, you mentioned two of the biggest names of any industry – Google and Cash Money. I don’t think you can lose with that, Busta! So again, congrats on that. Now, Baby and Slim, with their long history of working in this industry…had you known them well before? What was that relationship like before and how did this really evolve?
Busta Rhymes: Yeah, me, Baby, Slim, Wayne, the original Cash Money Hot Boys, and you know, all the way down to what the new Young Money Cash Money family is now, we’ve always had a relationship. We’ve always had a respect level, we’ve always had a genuine love, and it’s been displayed through the way we rock with each other when it comes to being creative and doing business, you know what I’m saying?
As you can see, I’m on Tha Carter III, I’m on Tha Carter IV. Wayne delivered for me on “Respect My Conglomerate,” back on my Back On My B.S. album. Currently, I got a record out with Lil Twist, which is his first single on the Don’t Get It Twisted album that’s getting ready to come. I got records with Tyga. The relationship dynamic has always been an incredible one, you know what I’m saying? So, just through the organic and genuine respect that’s been reciprocated and given back and forth to each other, just the support that we’ve had for each other’s movements, you know…it just made the most sense. And it just felt the most right to do.
At this stage in my career, I’m only doing business with people that respect my brand, and I respect their brand. They respect me as a person, and I respect them as [people], so both personally and professionally, we got respect for each other, and we got love, and it’s felt. It’s being displayed through the acts moreso than the word, you know what I’m saying? That situation in itself is the nature of how it all evolved over the years. That’s pretty much why it’s such a beautiful opportunity to be able to rock out with dudes that you already rock with from years before we even entertained the idea of being in business together in this capacity.
With that being said, and then Google, them being willing to understand what stage I’m at in my career and what I’m trying to do…you know, them figuring out and being willing to facilitate what I’m trying to do, and what they’re trying to do. Google, on their end, they have made it very clear to me that they were pro prioritizing what Busta Rhymes is trying to do at this stage of his career, as a businessman and as an artist. They made it very clear by showing me, when we sat at the roundtable to decide on how to sculpture this deal and tailor it, how to make it exactly what is pro and what it is in the best interest of the Busta Rhymes business, and how they can fit into the new direction that the Busta Rhymes business is trying to go into and is structured. [That’s] what made me extremely proud of going in business with them as well.
AllHipHop.com: From Google, that’s impressive…
Busta Rhymes: It’s even more impressive to me when everything that we’re doing is new, and it’s very risky for everybody, but you’re willing to not be closed-minded to the things that I felt like I need to be able to do. As a new direction for my business, it has probably been the most fulfilling thing in the whole entertaining of the idea of being in business together. They are so accommodating, you know what I’m saying? And they’re so pro-the empowerment of the artist. They’re providing such an unbelievable platform and an unbelievable medium and such a massive landscape for me to be able to expose the music – new ways of sharing the music, new ways of selling the music.
[Read up on the AllHipHop News story announcing Busta’s deal HERE]
Like, as artists, that’s what we’ve been missing for a long time. Doing business the conventional record company way, you kinda get tired of hearing the execs talking about retailers suffering all of the time. I don’t wanna hear that sh*t no more. Retail ain’t suffering for the people who treat the music the right way. As you can see with Cash Money, their retail ain’t suffering at all. There’s no ceiling on the level of success that we’re always trying to garnish. But at the end of the day, what they are displaying on a very consistent basis is that if you prioritize the genius in the artist as primary, and you prioritize the music from the artist as primary, and you nurture that sh*t and you treat it with the support and the nourishment that it needs, you’re going to get the stellar results that they continue to get. And by the way, Take Care is in stores now. Congratulations to Drake.
AllHipHop.com: Well, as soon as we and others posted the story the day the announcement was made, there were all types of reactions. You know, all over the Internet people sound off on how they feel about everything nowadays. And it was kinda split – some people was like, ‘this is a great thing, this is a great day,’ and those were probably the oldheads like me who have seen you from the very beginning. Then you had people who were like, ‘oh God, Cash Money? Why would he sign with them?’ How do you respond to that…to the naysayers?
Busta Rhymes: I don’t respond to it! That’s the best way to respond, ‘cause it’s pointless for me to respond. You can see what my response is through my action. I’m in business with the best record company. Period. I’m in business with the most powerful record company. Period. I’m in business with the most powerful search engine in the world. Period. My action is gonna speak louder than anything I can say. I think the one thing that I find the most entertaining about the people who have resistance is that maybe the fact that they have resistance is that it’s not them.
AllHipHop.com: Hmmm. Yeah, well, the haters are speaking, so I definitely agree with that.
Busta Rhymes: I don’t necessarily think that they’re haters. I just think that there’s a lot of people who work hard, you know what I’m saying? It’s very difficult for people to get the shot that I have gotten sooo many times throughout a 20-year career landscape. I don’t even think you can count it on…I don’t even…I don’t even think there’s more than two or three of us that can say that they’re able to still do it at this level or with this dynamic 20 years later, and actually do it in a way that’s probably bigger right now than ever.
Because, there’s nobody with a deal like this, there’s nobody that has a more powerful partnership than between the most powerful record label in the world, the most powerful management company in Urban Music, and the most powerful search engine in existence, and combine all of it to be in business with the conglomerate, Busta Rhymes. All of these conglomerates, all of these establishments, all of these corporations are moving in the same direction – to be pro my career as a businessman and my creative contribution as an artist.
Nobody can say that they have this. So I do embrace the love as much as I embrace the hatred, because that is only a testament to me that I’m documenting a moment in time that will be forever sacred. That’s something that I bask in and I relish in as another blessing being bestowed in a way that a lot of people wished and are still wishing could be bestowed on them. You know, I wanna see people do things like this. That’s why we do it – so we can inspire other people to find new ways to go about doing things, and creating new avenues, new outlets for us to figure out how to do business, and how to be creative, and how to maximize all of our opportunities.
AllHipHop.com: Yeah, it’s a monster deal. Congrats again, for real. So, Busta, let me ask you about a few key moments this year that I think helped cement some of this and said to people that Busta is back and about to do major things. The first was, of course, the single with Chris Brown. We were debating in the AllHipHop offices whether that single springboarded your comeback, or whether that single wouldn’t have been anything without you on it. I saw a whole new generation find you relevant. Do you think that’s gonna change your style at all? You’re with a bunch of younger people on that label…so will the signature Busta style stay the same?
Busta Rhymes: I don’t think there’s ever any reason for me to change who I am. I never had to change who I am, and the fact that I haven’t changed who I am is probably the reason why all this amazing sh*t is happening. I think what people are realizing is that there’s a change in ME – my growth. And in the process of growing, a lot of times, people lose who they originally are in the process of growing. Me, I was always taught that when you lay a foundation down, and you build a skyscraper on it, if that foundation was always strong from the beginning, all you gotta do is add floors to the skyscraper to make it taller, bigger, and more beautiful. There’s no reason to demolition the skyscraper and tear down the foundation for that skyscraper to look amazing.
(AllHipHop News) Kanye West’s former manager and close associate John Monopoly and business partner Larro Wilson have launched a new Chicago-based record label, Lawless Inc.
John Monopoly and his company Hustle Period helped launch the careers of several major recording artists including Kanye West, Carl Thomas and Shawnna.
Coupled with his experience as VP of Producer Management at Violator, A&R at Jive Records, COO at G.O.O.D. Music Label, Monopoly looks to repeat his previous successes as he seeks to become the premier Chicago based record label.
Their debut artist will be King Louie, whose new single “Too Cool” has picked up across the net and is currently in rotation at radio stations in Chicago.
The remix is expected to be released soon, as well and will feature 2Chainz & Red Café.
Kanye West referenced Monopoly’s talent in The Source Magazine in November of 2006.
“He was meant to make power moves in this game, I owe a lot of my success to him,” Monopoly said.
(AllHipHop News) Rapper Wyclef Jean has issued a statement following a new article in The New York Post that scrutinized his Yele Haiti charitable organization.
According to The Post, out of the $16 million dollars Yele Haiti raised in 2010, only $5.1 went to the country, which was devastated by a 7.0 earthquake that killed almost 300,000 people.
The rapper is accused of squandering the money that came into the non-profit.
The article claims that almost $400,000 went to a company owned by Wyclef’s brother-in-law Warnel Pierre, while another million went to Amisphere Farm Labor Inc., a food company that doesn’t exist.
To complicate things, another man named Amsterly Pierre that headed up the non-existent food distribution company, allegedly purchased three upscale condos in Florida.
Yele also allegedly rented a residence for company workers, at an inflated price of $35,000 per-month.
Wyclef denied the allegations of financial wrongdoings in a letter to AllHipHop.com.
“I started Yele in 2005 because I wanted to help people that were helpless in my home country of Haiti,” Wyclef told AllHipHop.com. “People who didn’t have a voice, people who didn’t have resources, people who had mostly been forgotten.”
Check out Wyclef’s full letter of denial below:
I started Yele in 2005 because I wanted to help people that were helpless in my home country of Haiti. People who didn’t have a voice, people who didn’t have resources, people who had mostly been forgotten.
Since Yele launched six years ago we have helped close to half a million people. I will always love and serve the Haitian people until the day I die.
The NY Post piece entitled, “Questions Dog Wyclef’s Haiti Fund” is misleading, deceptive and incomplete. The Post conveniently fails to acknowledge that the decisions that Yele made were a response to one of the world’s most catastrophic natural disasters in modern history and required an immediate humanitarian response.
There were no roads, no clean water, no sanitation, no banks, no electricity, no infrastructure. Immediate decisions were made to save lives and alleviate suffering. We made decisions that enabled us to provide emergency assistance in the midst of chaos and we stand by those decisions. We did the best we could with the available resources.
I am proud of the way that Yele handled the crisis on the ground in 2010. We were able to feed, clothe, provide medical assistance and shelter for more than 250 thousand people in need.
What the article doesn’t say is that the construction projects funded by Yele Haiti were responsible for rebuilding an orphanage, building a temporary assistance facility, and had constructed a system of out door toilet and shower facilities in Cite Soliel one of the largest slums in Port-au-Prince.
The Post never highlights that Amisphere Farm Labor was responsible for preparing and delivering close to 100,000 meals.
The Samosa SA property referenced by The Post was located in the vicinity of the largest tent camps in Port-au-Prince. Yele chose that location because it was closest to the people it needed serve.
All of these facts as well as photos and testimonials were readily available to The Postfor their story. Unfortunately, they chose not to include these facts and instead chose to imply that Yele “squandered” donors money.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Finally, the percentage of funds used is consistent with NGOs and Not For Profits operating in Haiti at the time. I have acknowledged that Yele has made mistakes in the past, including being late in IRS filings, but that is old news. When I entered politics last summer, I transitioned from being a board member and chairman of Yele Haiti to a supporter.
The new and good news is that Yele under new leadership, despite efforts to undermine its credibility and effectiveness, continues its mission to serve people in need.
The always mysterious Abel Tesfaye, better known as R&B singer/songwriter, The Weeknd, has released the visuals for “The Knowing,” the last track off his debut mixtape House of Balloons. The Mikael Colombu-directed video is open to interpretation in regards to its meaning, and features an array of shots of The Weeknd himself, women, lions, destruction, and an Ethiopian influence, among other various elements.
The Weeknd’s highly anticipated follow-up to his first two mixtapes, entitled Echoes of Silence, is rumored to be dropping next month. For now, check out the video for “The Knowing” below and visit http://the-weeknd.com/ to download The Weeknd’s previously released mixtapes.
Mary J. Blige hit the stage on Friday at the Luckie Food Lounge in downtown Atlanta.
The veteran singer performed singles from her new album My Life II, which is her tenth full-length release.
Mary who came with her husband Kendu Isaacs, brought out some of Atlanta’s top artists and executives, like Young Jeezy, Divine Stevens, Monica and others.
After the performance, Mary and co. celebrated at a VIP after party sponsored by Hennessy.
Check out the pictures below:
Mary J. Blige at record release party for “My Life II”
Mary J. Blige performing at record release party for “My Life II”
Mary J. Blige performing at record release party for “My Life II”
Mary J. Blige performing at record release party for “My Life II”
Mary, Monica, Jeezy and Divine Stevens at Mary J. Blige release party for “My Life II”
Mary J. and Monica at release party for Mary J. Blige’s “My Life II”
Young Jeezy at record release party for Mary J. Blige’s “My Life II”
Kendu at Mary J. Blige release party for “My Life II”
Mary J. Blige and Divine Stevens at release party for Mary J. Blige’s “My Life II”
Young Jeezy and Divine Stevens at Mary J. Blige release party for “My Life II”
