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Fat Joe To Be Inducted To Bronx Walk Of Fame

By: Grouchy Greg Watkins (@GrouchyGreg) Updated Category: News
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(AllHipHop News) Hip-Hop star Fat Joe will be inducted to the Bronx Walk of Fame as one of the 2012 inductees.

The Bronx Tourism Council announced that Fat Joe will join a number of other Bronx legends, who have been honored for their representation of the borough around the world.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz will preside over the induction ceremonies during the “Bronx Ball,” which will celebrate each of the 2012 inductees.

“I am extremely thrilled and grateful to be inducted in this year’s Bronx Walk of Fame,” Fat Joe told AllHipHop.com in a statement. “The Bronx is vibrant, colorful, and filled with rich history and through the years it has been the inspiration that has helped me grow as an artist. Thank you to Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., for allowing me to be among such an illustrious group of fellow Bronxites that are being honored.”

According to Diaz, Fat Joe, who launched his career in 1993 as a member of the legendary Diggin’ In the Crates collective, has been a model citizen.

“He has been an outstanding citizen and a role model to countless Bronxties,” Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. added. “He has positively represented the Bronx and throughout his music career has helped keep the Bronx on the ‘musical map,’ becoming one of our very own home-grown success stories.”

“The Bronx Ball” will take place on May 19 on Orchard Beach in the Bronx.

Daily Word: See It Differently!!

By: seandrasims Updated Category: Lifestyle
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Happy Thursday, my Warriors of Light!

Today’s Daily Word is dedicated to your perspective! Effective immediately, I need you to realize that you are rich with opportunity! Starting right now, I need you to acknowledge that you are exactly where you are suppose to be! At this very moment, I need you to understand that the power to change your circumstance lies in your hands alone!

Too often, we are missing out on big opportunities because they are disguised as obstacles! Too many times, we are cursing our blessings and not allowing our desired lives to shine through! See It Differently! You can look at things and think the worst, or you can recognize the beuaty in every situation!

Those who ALWAYS look on the bright-side are those who can turn lemons in to fruit punch! The cards you were dealt are the cards you were dealt! Play your hand and win the game!! Losing is not an option!! Change your thoughts you change your circumstances!!!
-Ash’Cash

“Opportunity is often difficult to recognize; we usually expect it to beckon us with beepers and billboards.” -William Arthur Ward

“To recognize opportunity is the difference between success and failure.” -Unknown

“Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.” -Henry Miller

“There will always be rocks in the road ahead of us. They will be stumbling blocks or stepping stones; it all depends on how we use them.” -Unknown

“He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had failed.” -William James

“To begin to think with purpose is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment.” -James Allen

“If we want to realize our dreams, we have to stay awake.” -H. H. Swami Tejomayananda

“Life is a challenge, meet it! Life is a dream, realize it! Life is a game, play it! Life is Love, enjoy it!” -Sri Sathya Sai Baba

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.

Kanye Wants Big Sean to “Be Better Than Me”

By: seandrasims Updated Category: Features
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From our friends at Vibe

G.O.O.D. Music rapper Big Sean has high hopes. The Detroit rapper hit big with his debut album, “Finally Famous,” and is now completing the G.O.O.D Music compilation while working on his sophomore album.

Big Sean got some advice from his mentor Kanye West, who is encouraging him to be the best of what his generation has to offer. “Kanye said ‘I want you to be better than me and better than [Jay-Z],'” Big Sean shared. “‘I want you to be the best, because you’re the younger generation. We’re passing our secrets on to you.”

The G.O.O.D. Music compilation is due sometime this spring. Photos revealed a session in Los Angeles with Common, Big Sean, and CyHI the Prince. Teyana Taylor and Omarion were also pictured in the studio. The album is also rumored to feature Mannie Fresh, Jay Electronica, and Frank Ocean.

Read more about Big Sean and his big dreams here.

Boldy James [BGA] Considers His Detroit Upbringing and Working with The Alchemist

By: Jake Crates Updated Category: Breeding Ground
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(AllHipHop News) Detroit rapper Boldy James’ recent rise to notoriety across the Internet and in the streets of Detroit was reason enough for AllHipHop.com to find out more.

The newly-crowned Breeding Ground Artist, who is the cousin of Chuck Inglish of the Cool Kids, spoke about growing up in the rough neighborhoods of Detroit, and how he managed to survive. According to Boldy, his raps are based on real life, documented experiences from his struggle to survive on the streets.

“I’m from Detroit, and a lot of sh*t goes on around here. Sh*t, just growing up around this maf*cka, just off bill, you see things and you wonder about things, and before you know it, you dibblin’ and dabblin’ in a whole bunch of bullsh*t that you don’t know why you in. You know what I’m saying? You look up, and this sh*t just became your life, and you get consumed and caught up and look up, and now you going with the trials and tribs that come with the bullsh*t,” Boldy James explained to AllHipHop.com in an exclusive interview.

“I always just took time in between the door knocks and the bull sh*t and the trap when I was trying to get a couple of dollars. I would take time to write in my journal on some ‘Dear Diary’ sh*t.   I just try to capture the feel and the emotion of everything that’s going down at the moment or that went down,” Boldy said.

Boldy James has told the stories of his life on tracks not only produced by his cousin Chuck Inglish, but most recently with famed producer, The Alchemist, in Los Angeles.

“I was with Alchemist for like a month, man, f*ckin’ around in the studio and just trying to make something work and doing what’s natural,” he said. “And Al got my particular style of beats anyway, and anything that he played, the sh*t that he made me was limited, and everything that you will hear, that’s all we did. We didn’t do no extra sh*t and have to pick from it or none of that. We just gonna give it to you the same way we cooked it up.”

Boldy James’ first mixtape, Trappers Alley, is available for listening on www.BoldyJames.com, and his newest project Consignment: Favor for a Favor, The Redi-Rock Mixtape is also available on the site for download as well.

His verses can also be found on Alchemist’s newest project called Russian Roulette, releasing  on June 26. The project features songs created from Russian samples, and features a host of Hip-Hop artists, including, but not limited to: Evidence, Action Bronson, Roc Marciano, Guilty Simpson, Fashawn, Danny Brown, and Schoolboy Q.

Boldy James’ full interview with AllHipHop.com will run tomorrow, as we welcome him to the Breeding Ground.

Mixtape Review: Beanie Sigel’s “Broad Street Empire, Vol. 1: Lost Files”

By: K1ng Eljay Updated Category: Features
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Rating: 8 / 10

One of the most memorable moments in Hip-Hop came with the introduction of the now classic animated series “The Boondocks.” The show was usually talked about and dissected by fans and critics to the tenth degree (and at times, it still is due to it’s multiple references to Hip-Hop and culture in general). By far, one of the standout moments of the three-season series takes place when a couple of the characters are discussing a plan to woo candy sellers to their side due to a business rivalry in its infant stages (Season 3, “The Fund-Raiser”). One of the characters mentions that they should try to offer better prizes or incentives, only to be shot down by a different character who states:

“That’s not what Beans would do. Beans would go to war.”

The same could be said about Beanie Sigel now, musically. After mostly holding his tongue throughout the majority of his tribulations, he’s finally opened up completely about his thoughts and feelings towards things in the rap game, via mixtape. Broad Street Empire Vol. 1 is a call back to simpler times when Beans was known for his witty punchlines and gritty delivery; in essence it’s the same Mack we vibed with when we thought the Roc-A-Fella Dynasty would last forever.

BSE starts off tough, and it paces itself well throughout to remain interesting for almost all of the 17 tracks. The first few songs have Sigel unloading the lyrical Mac (pun intended) as he showcases his hunger. The notable tracks at the beginning are special for a couple of reasons: “Show Must Go On” addresses the “glitches in the system” that led to the demise of the golden era of Roc-A-Fella/State Property run, but in a sudden switch Beans goes from introspective to all-out assault as he drops strong bars concerning two of Hip-Hop’s heavyweights during the second and third verses of “The Pay Back”:

“I got caught with a gat, they tried to roof a n*gga /
Offered me 30 flat for shootin a n*gga /
Shorty got caught with some hardware /
And he home already, somethin’ wrong there /
If I don’t see it I don’t say it, that’s how I play it /
I’m just sayin’ what they sayin’, but they scared to say it /
And I ain’t sayin’ holmes told, but tell me somethin’ /
Sh**, a silencer alone get you 20-somethin’ /
Am I right or am I wrong? I stand corrected /
The guidelines [are] the guidelines, no exceptions /
Whoever ridin’ with that s**t? Man, y’all tippin’ /
You can take it how you want n*gga, I’m rippin’…”

“…You were hyping me, inviting me, enticing me to rhyme /
Didn’t know at the time you were taking my lines /
Take off my coat, you were stealing my quotes /
Every line I was writing, you were biting ‘til the last note /
You take an idea, go in the booth and spill /
And make the world think the thought took years to build /
Still steal a rhyme after the next one /
Yeah, I think it’s ‘bout time that I check son…”

It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out who he’s addressing in the excerpts above. Although the rest of the project is relatively light on disses after that, it doesn’t reduce the song quality by any means. “B Boy Stance” has Beans dropping several references to prove his point, and “Mack B***h” features Sean Anthony and is somewhat reminiscent of the old school sounding tracks such as Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusherman”, but there’s nothing quite like hearing State Property and company rap together again. Thankfully for five of the last six songs we’re treated to that, and it’s as if none of them had lost a step lyrically.

The project isn’t perfect by any means (some of this is due to the hit-and-miss production on a few songs), and most of the tracklisting doesn’t exactly feel like “songs” in the traditional sense. This is a mixtape through and through, but if anything has been learned from Broad Street Empire Vol. 1, we know that this project serves its purpose for two things: it fulfills that itch some may have had for the type of rap that was being served in the days of the Roc, and it shows that Beans is back and never lost his step lyrically. With this project serving as the precursor to his upcoming album “The Classic”, Beans has set the bar high out of the gate. Long story short, the Mack is back, and it’s not farfetched to hope he continues to impress with his next LP due to the quality street rap he’s providing here, but only time will tell.

You can download Broad Street Empire Vol. 1: Lost Files here.

Video: !llmind On The Beat Society Effect, Schooling NYU, and Bringing Korean Music to the U.S.

By: JP DelaCuesta (@JPdelacuesta) Updated Category: Features
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If “sleep is the cousin of death,” then consider Ramon “!llmind” Ibanga, Jr. to be immortal. With over 400 produced tracks to his name, calling !llmind a “force to be reckoned with” is an understatement, and since he officially started producing in the early ’00s, he has never showed a sign of slowing down.

Having worked with the likes of Heltah Skeltah, Skyzoo, Little Brother, 50 Cent, Emilio Rojas, Redman, Chaundon, Tek, Jared Evan, KRS-One, Buckshot, Scarface, Sean Price, Akrobatik, Saigon, and countless others in such a short amount of time, almost sounds too good to be true, but to !llmind, it’s just another day at the “office.”

!llmind checked in with AllHipHop.com on a plethora of topics, including his background in production, his early aspirations to be a rapper, and having the opportunity to meet his all-time favorite producer, J. Dilla, before he passed. Check out the first part of our interview with !llmind below:

In part 2, !llmind spoke on the Beat Society and the integral role it played in his life and career, his experiences teaching at New York University, and making people aware of his new venture, B.L.A.P. (Beats, Love, Alcohol and Party):

In the final part of our interview, !llmind talked about the work he’s currently doing in the studio with Jared Evan and Skyzoo, as well as his goal to bring Korean music to the U.S. in a major way:

Check back next week for a continuation of our time with !llmind, where he speaks on the Five Beats he is most proud of and his “Top 5 Producers Dead Or Alive.”

Follow !llmind on Twitter: (@IllmindProducer).

FLICKS: Future’s Celeb-Packed “Pluto” Album Release Party in Atlanta

By: JP DelaCuesta (@JPdelacuesta) Updated Category: Features
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It was an out-of-this world kind of night. Everybody who is anybody in Atlanta was in attendance for the Pluto listening party last night (April 17) at Masquerade. The venue, which in late October often serves as a haunted house, is large and ancient and was the perfect setting for an out-of-body experience.

Big Boi, DJ Drama, Rocko, Gucci Mane, T.I., Young Jeezy, and even L.A. Reid were all in the house for the celebration of the release of Pluto. And Future put on a real show. Pulling out all stops, he performed the entire album as well as most of his mixtape catalog. The almost two-hour stage show was epic and the audience roared as Atlanta artist after Atlanta artist kept appearing on the stage.

Check out some pics that our incredible cameraman, DJ Blak Magic, took of Future and friends at the release party for Pluto, in stores now:

EXCLUSIVE: Rap Legends Kurtis Blow, DMC Talk the Passing of “American Bandstand” Host and Icon Dick Clark

By: JP DelaCuesta (@JPdelacuesta) Updated Category: News
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(AllHipHop News) Dick Clark, entertainment icon and long-time host of “American Bandstand” and “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin Eve”, died earlier today (April 18) at the age of 82 from a massive heart attack.

Clark, who began hosting “American Bandstand” in 1952, was an early supporter of showcasing the fledgling Rap genre and Hip-Hop culture on mainstream television. On August 24, 1985, Rap legends Run-DMC performed on his popular “American Bandstand” and were also the first Hip-Hop group to make an appearance on the show.

Over the years, Hip-Hop legends such as Kurtis Blow, LL Cool J, Sugar Hill Gang, and The Beastie Boys performed and made appearances on “American Bandstand” alongside Clark.

Following the news of Clark’s death, DMC of Run DMC said exclusively to AllHipHop.com, “Dick Clark is the gatekeeper of Rock ‘n Roll! He is also a B-Boy! He didn’t diss Hip-Hop as a fad like a lot of people did in the early years! He saw a little Rock ‘n Roll in us, and having us on his show one of my greatest accomplishments!”

Kurtis Blow also reached out to AllHipHop.com with the following message: “Dick Clark is an American institution and much more than a legend. I truly want to thank him for giving me a shot on ‘American Bandstand’. When we met, he was really nice to me and treated me with the utmost respect. God Bless Dick Clark, and may he rest in peace!!!!”

After suffering a stroke in 2004 that left him partially paralyzed, Clark, who also suffered from Type 2 diabetes, dealt with a speech impediment, neither of which stopped him from returning to television for his annual New Year’s Eve celebration a year later in 2006. Dick Clark also appeared in cameo roles on two episode of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” alongside Will Smith.

Clark was the host of seven shows throughout his career that included “American Bandstand,” “Pyramid,” and “Scattegories.” He was recognized by the Emmy’s four times, and was given a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award and a Peabody Award in 1999. Clark has also been an inductee of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Broadcasting Magazine Hall of Fame.