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Lawyers Pursue Rich Boy For $300k Judgment From Shooting

By: Grouchy Greg Watkins (@GrouchyGreg)Category: News

A 2005 road rage incident may cost Alabama rapper Rich Boy several high-priced liens on any of his available property.

 

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, a tax accountant from Mobile, Alabama is seeking liens against the rapper to collect of a $337,500 winning lawsuit.

 

The accountant, Chaz Mosley, successfully sued Rich Boy, real name Marece Richards, and his brother Irvin O. Richards for shooting at him with an assault rifle in 2005.

 

The lawsuit alleges that Rich Boy’s brother fired at least 10 bullets into the victim’s vehicle.

 

Despite the barrage, Mosley escaped unscathed. Irvin O. Richards plead guilty to assault, and is now serving a 10 year prison sentence.

 

Rich Boy received probation for his role in the crime. Since Rich Boy spends much of his time in Atlanta, lawyers for Mosley have filed suit in Fulton County Superior Court.

 

If Rich Boy does have assets or attempts to buy property in the county, his holdings will be subject to liens.

 

At press time, Rich Boy is alleged to still owe $312,500 on the debt.

 

Greg Miller, the rapper’s publicist, could not confirm if his client will make arrangements to satisfy the remaining debt.

 

Rich Boy is currently working on 5 Million, his sophomore follow up his 2007 self-titled debut. That album spanned the platinum, breakout single “Throw Some D’s.”

AHH Stray News – Jeezy To Debut New Track At DC’s Love

By: Grouchy Greg Watkins (@GrouchyGreg)Category: News

Young Jeezy will debut a new track during an upcoming performance at popular Washington D.C. night club Love, during a party to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama. Sources told AllHipHop.com that the track was created exclusively for Belvedere Vodka – which is also a sponsor of the event – as part of a new relationship between Jeezy and the liquor brand. The evening will also feature a separate performance by chart-topping rapper T.I. The event takes place on January 18 from 9-3am and will be hosted by Akon.

New Book ‘The History Of Mixtapes’ Coming To Stores

By: Grouchy Greg Watkins (@GrouchyGreg)Category: News

One of the pioneers of Atlanta’s DJ scene has tapped a group of writers to help him recount what he calls one of Hip-Hop’s untold stories.

 

DJ Mars and his team are putting the finishing touches on The History of Mixtapes, a coffee table book due out later this year.

 

The collection of photos and essays examines how mixtapes have impacted not only DJ culture, but how the format helped spread Hip-Hop music as well.

 

With interviews spotlighting the likes of DJ Hollywood, Brucie B, Kid Capri, SnS, Ron G, Dexterity and J Period, The History of Mixtapes explores this phenomenon inherently created by the Hip-Hop generation and the stars who have emerged from the movement over the years.

 

“When you hear a publication write about mixtapes, they usually only write about certain DJs or who’s hot today,” Mars told AllHipHop.com. “But the mixtape game didn’t start as a popularity contest. It just turned into that.

 

“When mixtape culture gets written about, it doesn’t get covered in its entirety. I just saw a void that needed to be filled,” DJ Mars said.

 

To promote the his latest project, Mars has launched a new website celebrating all things old school and Hip-Hop.

 

HistoryofMixtapes.com offers visitors a chance to revisit classic interviews and performances, old school commercials, classic West Coast releases and even wrestling performances.

 

The site also showcases those DJs who have maximized their popularity, branding themselves far beyond the world of mixtapes.

 

Additionally, each Monday, DJ Mars makes one classic mixtape from his personal collection available for download.

 

“I want people to get used to coming to the site to learn,” Mars says. “I wanted the site to be a credible source of information, real esoteric. So I put classic stuff on there. Stuff you haven’t seen, stuff you miss.”

 

The History of Mixtapes will be published independently in late fall 2009.

Antonique Smith: Gotta Have Faith

By: Grouchy Greg Watkins (@GrouchyGreg)Category: Alternatives

Playing Faith Evans in Notorious was a role destined for Antonique Smith. While the budding star played the drug-addicted Mimi in the Broadway show Rent, Smith has a knack for combining her gift of singing with acting in dramatic roles. Preparing for the Notorious release, Antonique discusses her personal investments in the role – including working with Faith Evans herself – and how Faith affected Biggie’s life.

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AllHipHop.com Alternatives: So let’s talk about Faith Evans. The impression we have of Faith and the way Notorious portrays her – there’s always a regal heir about her, but at the same time she’s gangster. How did you manage to combine those two worlds and still come off like a lady?

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Antonique Smith: Oh thank you! Well that gangster part is the part that we, all ladies, would like to be able to bring out. I feel like most of us, the majority of us, have been through issues – a little infidelity possibly with a guy – and I personally have never gotten to beat the girl up and it was wonderful! It was like payback for all the girls that missed the beat-up…that was for everybody. The lady beat-down…girl power! So the regal part…I think…I’d like to think that I have a good portion of that in myself, that I was able to bring that to the character.

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It wasn’t something I’ve played before. In fact I’m so used to playing drug addicts…I’ve played a lot of drug addicts. Mimi [from the Broadway show Rent] was a drug addict with AIDS, an exotic dancer, so the sexiness was easy but this was a different sexiness. It was a regal sexiness, so I actually enjoyed that. So it was nice to be able to bring that. I’m not sure how I did that. You know it’s crazy because I watched it and I really don’t know how I did it. I don’t know how I do it. It’s a gift and it’s such a blessing that God gave me – the gift to act and sing. I don’t know how I do it. I really don’t.

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AHHA: When portraying someone that’s still alive, how do you differentiate between impersonating and interpreting?

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Antonique Smith: Well impersonating would have been me trying to figure out every tiny nuance about [Faith]. I tried to just get her essence. I wanted to channel her. I wanted you to get her soul, more so than the way she holds her head or the way she uses her hands. People say I did pick up the laugh, but I had studied the laugh for the audition so I got a little bit of the laugh. But then I didn’t try to go far with it because there was another little element of the laugh that I thought about.

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I was like, “Should I do that?” I said no I didn’t want to go too far with it because honestly it was really more about Biggie being Biggie. I felt like as long as I was channeling her spirit and her soul and really getting the truth of the emotion of what she was going through in those moments, then I felt like I was doing, you know, not an impersonation but bringing her life to life.

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AHHA: Did you focus on the dynamics of the relationship more than you did on her in general? In other words the feeding off of, did you focus on that more?

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Antonique Smith: When I talked to her I focused more on how she felt. I focused more on trying to figure out where I could come from as an actor. Because you know, you have to find the emotions somewhere. So I wanted to know how she was feeling, more than the little nuances of how she might have stood in the room. You know I didn’t care about all that other stuff because that would have been more of an impersonation. I really just wanted to go, how did you feel? What was going on in your mind?

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AHHA: You said at the junket that Faith gave you a copy of her book, Keep the Faith: A Memoir. It appears that what was in the book contrasted with what was in Notorious in some instances. Was it hard for you after reading the book to kind of get into that story? Because you knew what really happened, but you had to portray what the Biggie circle said happened.

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Antonique Smith: Yes exactly. That’s who hired me, and I did not want to get fired. And that actually was a struggle. It was a struggle because it was so important to me for Faith to be happy. So I got in trouble the first week of shooting trying to make Faith happy. Faith didn’t like something…because the truth of how they met was one way, but then in the movie, there’s you know how a scene is written, how a scene has an arc. It starts and then it has to be different at the end. So when we first meet [Biggie], if I’m like, “Oh my God Biggie! Hi!” Then there’s no obstacle. So I had to be like, “Oh ok you know I can’t do this right now,” and focus. You know because [Faith] has a daughter and she’s focused and she’s trying to get her career going. Like, “Ok nice to meet you, Biggie, but I got stuff to do. I got a photoshoot…you know.”

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Faith was nervous [when she first met Biggie at a photoshoot]. She really was. She had never done [a photoshoot] before. So she was nervous at the photo shoot. And here comes this guy [Biggie]. So in real life she was like, “Oh, hi.” You know they cool and he’s funny, looking through her pictures. This is in real life, he’s going through her pictures and that’s how he got her number, off the sheet when you turn the pictures into Kodak or whatever. And she took him home that night, dropped him off. And everyday after that they were together. He would pick her up…well she would pick him up.

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She had the car; he didn’t have a car. He lived with his mama, which is the whole misconception…I’ll get into that later. I really wanted to make sure everybody knew what wasn’t true.

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AHHA: They were focusing on the artist “Faith Evans” less than Faith.

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Antonique Smith: Right and they wanted the scene to have a beginning and an end. So if she gives into him in the beginning of the scene, then it has nowhere to go. They’re giving me to play it off a little bit and then at the end it’s like he’s making me laugh. So [Faith] didn’t like that in the scene. She’s like, “That sounds a little mean. It’s making me sound mean.” And I said, “Well I think I can make you not sound mean, I think I can help that.” So the first like five takes I’m like really nice to him through all those lines and they’re looking at me like, “What are you doing? Cut!” I’m like, “I don’t want to come off mean.” And I must have said that like five takes after. But I really don’t want to come off mean because Faith doesn’t want to come off mean.

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So they said this is not about Faith. We hired you, this is the script you’re working with, this is what we want you to do [laughs]. But I still in my heart wanted to make her happy, so I did as much as I could, but there were some battles that I lost. The battles that I won though, yes from the memoirs, is that she really loved him.

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Some of that wasn’t quite in the script. The wedding scene wasn’t [originally] in the script, it was a lot of cute fun stuff and I said, “But they loved each other! We have to put some love in there somewhere.” So me and George [Tillman] were talking and he really felt what I was saying because I read in the memoirs she said, “I thought we had more time.” She said even before he died they thought they were going to get back together. He mentions you know “spending time with my wife”…at the beginning [of the film] in one of his last interviews, and he was talking about how ten years from now he sees himself with Faith.

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AHHA: Did you find it crazy though, because you’re going through the emotions as Biggie’s wife, but at the same time, you’re playing the role of someone who was cheated on with a number of different people, while at the same time honoring this man’s legacy. Was it hard for you getting into this role thinking to yourself like, “Wow he was a player”?

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Antonique Smith: He had a lot of pain. I mean he didn’t have a father, he grew up in the inner city, his mother had breast cancer. So he had a lot of stuff stored up inside of him. Sometimes a lot of that pain – I mean, we can see that just in society right now – a lot of the pain comes out kind of in maybe sometimes the wrong way. So you end up expressing yourself and you don’t really know how to properly like…he really loved her, but he didn’t really know how to really show it. You know, that’s all he knew. He knew enough that she was the girl he wanted to marry. He did know that much.

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[Biggie] knew the difference between [Faith Evans] and Lil’ Kim. He knew that Faith was the girl that you feel like you can’t get. She’s the one that you aspire to be with. He had confidence, but I’m sure he looked at her like, “Man that’s the girl that you really fight to get.” And she fell for him, they fell in love. But I think a lot of his struggles and his pain growing up may have come out in the wrong way.

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AHHA: When you cry, what do you connect to?

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Antonique Smith: Well you know, sometimes you can literally – like I did have a relationship that I was hurt in and so when I was breaking up [with Biggie]…the break-up scene…I connected to that. I never had a break-up scene that was that dramatic, but you can just remember that feeling of how it is to know that this is like goodbye. It’s interesting…sometimes I think happy thoughts, and I get so happy that it makes me cry. Like the funeral, I wasn’t – well, first I was sad. But my dad was there.

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And I love my family, my mom and dad, my sister we’re very close. My sister Antonia she’s my special little sister. I’ll tell you all about her. She has a disability. But anyway, I sometimes think of them and you know maybe you can think of losing them, but then you don’t always have to think of losing them. You can think of how much you love them. So in that little shot of me in the funeral was I was just like balling, I might have been thinking of my daddy who was standing behind the camera. It varies.

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AHHA: So what’s next for you?

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Antonique Smith: Well I’m working on my album. I’ve turned down a couple movies because I really want to…this role first of all, Broadway – I played Mimi – meaty roles. Meaty you know run the gamut of emotions. This role, meaty role, run the gamut of emotions. So I didn’t want to take something else that was just something to do. I didn’t want to just take it just to have a project. Because you know sometimes they say you just got to keep working, you take anything that comes. 

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You don’t want to just take any project. You want to be selective. So you’ll see me in some movies when the right thing comes along. But you know the right thing’s gonna come along after [Notorious] comes out. And my album – I’m thinking spring, summer of next year.

Additional reporting by Odeisel.

C-Murder Faces Jail Before Retrial

By: Grouchy Greg Watkins (@GrouchyGreg)Category: News

New Orleans prosecutors are pushing for rapper C-Murder to be jailed until his April retrial for the 2002 killing of a 16-year old.

 

Initially, new presiding Judge Hans Lijeberg ruled that C-Murder, real name Corey Miller, be jailed for violating the rules of his house arrest twice.

 

Allegedly, C-Murder on two occasions left his home, for a total of 30 minutes each.

 

According to the Times-Picayune, the judge rescinded the ruling just 10 minutes later, but also issued a warning to the rapper to “conduct himself accordingly” before the retrial.

 

C-Murder was convicted in 2003 of killing 16-year old Steve Thomas in a Harvey nightclub following a dispute. The teenager was allegedly a big fan of the local rapper.

 

The courts later granted C-Murder a new trail after evidence revealed prosecutors illegally withheld the criminal history of three eyewitnesses.

 

Last year, Judge Ellen Kovach defeated the incumbent Judge Martha Sassone using the latter’s conduct in the controversial trial as an attack point. C-Murder’s house arrest bond is currently set at $500,000.

 

Since the slaying, C-Murder has released 3 studio albums: The Truest Sh*t I Ever Said (2005), The Tru Story: Continued (2006), and Screamin’ 4 Vengeance (2007).

 

The new murder trial will take place on April 20.

UK TUESDAY: GIGS

By: Grouchy Greg Watkins (@GrouchyGreg)Category: Features

To be an MC in the UK, is almost as a rule, to be a Grime artist. Traditional Hip-Hop is generally viewed as something ‘the Yanks do’ with UK rhymers preferring to recite 140 bpm Grime bars. So it’s a refreshing surprise to see South Londoner Giggs, catch the ear of the mainstream on both sides of the pond with his slow drawling delivery more associated with the likes of Scarface and Young Jeezy, than Kano or Wiley.

 

Years of grinding on the mixtape circuit both as a solo artist and with his group SN1 came to fruition when Giggs’ freestyle “Talking The Hardest” became a street anthem and could be heard all over the UK. His debut album Walk In Da Park sold out in record stores, and he won the award for the Best UK Hip Hop Act at the BET Awards.

 

Giggs’ success has however been marred by talk of his criminal past, with charges that his music glorifies crime. The rumors eventually lead to a public falling out with both the BBC and MTV UK. Quick to admit to his failings Giggs aims to set the record straight through his music and his actions.

 

AllHipHop.com: Nearly all of the big rhymers coming out of the UK at the moment are Grime artists whereas your style is a more traditional form of Hip Hop. Why have you made that particular choice?

 

Giggs: A lot of people don’t understand that I make Hip Hop and that I don’t make Grime and that they are two different things. I don’t understand how they can mix it up. Some people have listened to my music and said that they don’t like my style or that this bit is too slow, but that’s just how I rap. What do you want me to do? If they don’t wanna understand then they can just f**k off really, cos they don’t wanna give it a chance so I don’t really need their support.

 

AllHipHop.com: What sorts of artists have influenced your style then?

 

Giggs: Young Jeezy, Rick Ross, State Property – those kind of people.

 

 

AllHipHop.com: The artists you mentioned are pretty recent. Who influenced yourself to begin rapping?

 

Giggs: I’m gonna show my age now; I was listening to NWA when they were blowing up, KRS-1, then move forward a few years and I was into No Limit and then SP and then Jeezy. Do you know what’s funny even though I’ve had my recent disagreements with them, it was actually MTV that got me into hip hop cause I used to watch Yo! MTV Raps every single day after school. I’d record it and watch it back on repeat as well. Then one time I went to my uncle’s and he was playing NWA but it had all swearing in it and I was like ‘what the f**k? How come the song’s like this?’ It was the same song I knew except with cursing and it was the first time I’d heard music with swearing and I was thinking this sounds heavy. So my uncle lent it to me and my mum said I can listen to it when my little brother wasn’t around.

 

AllHipHop.com: How did you feel when your debut album Walk In Da Park sold out in all stores up and down the UK?

 

Giggs: I was p##### about that man cause I didn’t wanna sell out. Selling out is a publicity stunt. A lot of people went out to get my album and they couldn’t get it. I was like ‘what the f**k’s going on?’ But it all got sorted out after that and the feedback was good. Like everyone likes different tracks which I’m pleased about.

 

AllHipHop.com: How did that feel after grafting on the mixtape scene for so many years and not getting any sort of mass recognition?

 

 

Giggs: It was such a relief. I felt like about f**king time’ cause the music’s always been the same. Like I didn’t just get good now. You can hear on the old mixtapes that I was always hard, but I didn’t think it would get as big as it has now.

 

 

AllHipHop.com: At the same time you began receiving interest from the press as well. How have you been handling that?

 

Giggs: It’s alright but it’s a bit weird still. I’m not really used to it. It’s mad cause it’s new to me. You see in the hood, people don’t really ask people questions, we just live our lives and when someone’s asking too many questions you become a bit wary and think ‘rah why is my man asking them questions for?’ The only time we get asked loads of questions is when we get nicked [arrested], and when we’re ‘in there’ we’re not answering questions anyway, so the interview thing is proper mad and it’s kind of sad that I’m programmed to think like that. I’m still in the streets at the same time as well so I don’t wanna start slipping cause that could cost you your freedom or even your life. Same with a song cause sometimes I wanna go way deeper with my content but I have to hold back. People think that what I’m saying is proper hard but they don’t even know half of it.

 

AllHipHop.com: So are you still in that environment?

 

Giggs: Everything’s still exactly the same. It looks like everyone’s calling my name, interviews, photoshoots, radio, award nominations – but I’m still stuck in the same place. It’s harder cause there’s a lot of hate in the industry like they don’t want me in there cause of where I’m coming from. They don’t understand what I’ve been through up until this point, they don’t know my background.

 

AllHipHop.com: Can you see yourself ever getting out?

 

Giggs: Of course. I’d just like to f**king relax. Get away from it all. It’s been long and I’ve just had enough of it all now – the streets, the struggle, everything. So that’s why I get so p##### off when I’m doing so well, but everyone’s just holding me back so how am I meant to get off of the streets? The other day I went to MTV and they said they don’t play my music cause they heard that I’m killing people and selling drugs which isn’t true. They also said that I’m still around gangs and all that, but MTV are not helping me to get out of the streets so how am I meant to do it? Some people don’t even know I’ve got a video out already. MTV doesn’t play it. I sent them a clean version but they said the edits can’t be rewound and that they have to be removed and silly little things like that – just so that they can avoid playing it. They don’t like me, where I’m from and what I’m talking about.

 

 

AllHipHop.com: There have been accusations that not everything you say in your songs is the truth. Is that the case?

 

Giggs: It’s all true. I’m just portraying where I live. Obviously I change bits and pieces cause I don’t wanna get nicked, but it’s always truthful.

 

AllHipHop.com: Is there a thin line between portraying where you live and glorifying crime?

 

Giggs: Probably. People don’t really understand what’s going on in the lyrics so they might think it’s glorifying it, but you’re just talking about what you go through everyday and what you see around you. So the people who don’t understand ask why we do that – but that’s all we know init? That’s what is normal to us – it’s everyday life. It’s not easy at all but obviously if you grow up in it, you’ve got no choice but to get on with it and make do with what you’ve got.  So what would you rather someone do? Get a gun and blow someone’s head off or take a breather and write something down in a rap? It’s an outlet – a bit like therapy in a way.

 

AllHipHop.com: What about those people who criticise your subject matter and think that you take a more responsibility as a role-model?

 

Giggs: I don’t even wanna be a role model cause everyone knows that I used to be a criminal and I’ve done bad things, but then again kids might hear me and then want to go to the studio and record some music instead of being on the streets or whatever. I’d rather be a role model in what I’m trying to do, but of course no one looks at that side of things. I look back and wish I hadn’t done bad things, but in some cases I had to. So I don’t feel like I need to make up for anything. I went through certain things and I’m still here now.

 

AllHipHop.com: You won the BET Award for Best UK Hip Hop recently and spent a bit of time in the States. What’s their view of the UK?

 

Giggs: They think it’s a joke over here.

 

AllHipHop.com: How would you describe your environment for them?

 

Giggs: It’s not gonna be much different from their hood. Just different accents, but I think people are realizing that now as more artists are coming over and that. But I can’t really go into what happens in the hood, it’s all on the CD though – I break it right down.

 

AllHipHop.com: What do you hope to achieve through your music?

 

Giggs: What I’m doing now – I’ve done so much as an independent artist but obviously there’s a big fight going on cause really and truly I’m not in the industry – it’s more off of the fanbase. If everyone stopped listening to me tomorrow I would just disappear. The industry wouldn’t do anything to save me, cause I don’t really get a lot of promotion cause they all work together to keep me out of it. So I’m just trying to break down that hate and get us through the door and help to get youts off the street cause when the industry holds me back they don’t see the big picture of it all cause if I can do well off of it – like really well off of it, it would get a lot of kids off of the street.

Most people when they come out of jail they don’t really have anything to look forward to realistically cause it’s hard to get a job – no matter what anyone says. When I was young I used to look for jobs you know. I would go for any job but no one wanted to hire me, so I hit the road, f**k it what else do you want me to do init? So the kids haven’t got anything else to do apart from hit the road or rob, but if there was something for them to look forward to, where they can use their talent to make a future for themselves then they would get on that, so if I can make it through that door it would help a lot of people. It’s much bigger than just me.

 

 

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For more on Giggs go to myspace.com/trapstargiggs

The Hook Up:

www.myspace.com/thehookup