A$AP Rocky Talks Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp A Butterfly” & A$AP Yams’ Unfinished Album

(AllHipHop News) A$AP Rocky landed the new cover of Billboard magazine, and the Harlem rapper shares his thoughts on several topics in the publication. One of those subjects was his opinion of Kendrick Lamar’s latest LP To Pimp A Butterfly.

[ALSO READ: A$AP Rocky Talks Police Killings, Iggy Azalea Criticism & Not Wanting To Be Called A Rapper]

“I got about two songs I liked,” said Rocky about K. Dot’s second major label album, admitting he only skimmed through the 16-track TPAB.

While the “M’s” rhymer was not too high on a large part of his “F*ckin’ Problems” collaborator’s most recent work, Rocky did express his current interest in rock acts like Portishead, Massive Attack, Thom Yorke, the Kinks, and Tame Impala.

Rocky’s own second studio album At.Long.Last.A$AP is set to hit stores on May 12The A$AP Mob frontman also revealed he is finishing a project by the recently deceased A$AP Yams.

“He left his notebooks, he left his blueprint. His album’s f*cking incredible. I want to finish what he started,” said Rocky.

A$AP Yams died in January. His death was reportedly caused by an accidental drug overdose.

asap-rocky-bb13-2015-cover-billboard-510

[ALSO READ: A$AP Yams Cause Of Death Revealed]

Chris Gotti Launches Add Ventures Music

(AllHipHop News) Chris “Gotti” Lorenzo, former Vice President of Murder Inc Records, is launching his own digital distribution company. Gotti’s Add Ventures Music goal is to educate and empower their artist about the music business while directly placing them in the limelight of digital audio/video music streaming communities.

“It’s been a long time coming and I’m just really excited to start with my new venture in music and show the world what Add Ventures Music will be bringing to the table,” says Gotti.

The Add Ventures Music staff will consist of CFO Tina Lorenzo, Executive VP Todd Simms, Head of Creative Direction Joe Cap, Brand Strategist and Business Development Sonya Jagesar, Businness Development Manager Sakara Barnes, and head of Business Affairs Brian Robinson.

Throughout his career, Gotti worked closely with platinum-selling Murder Inc stars Ja Rule and Ashanti. He has also collaborated with artists such as Jay Z, DMX, Fat Joe, and Big Pun.

The first major release from Add Ventures Music will be pop artist Maddi Jane’s debut EP. Jane already released the single “Only Gets Better” off her self-titled project. The Maddie Jane EP is scheduled for release in July.

Mayweather vs. Pacquiao: The Predictions Are HERE!

Our partners-in-boxing KnockoutNation.com went around and got predictions for Mayweather vs. Pacquiao from all the peeps who count in boxing, sports, movies, television, music – you name it! May 2nd is almost here. Here’s the mix:

Ice T, Rapper, Rock Singer and Actor:” I learned a long time ago never bet against the champ. Mayweather, go in there and knock that muthafucker out!”

Raekwon, rapper and member of the Wu-Tang Clan: “You know I gotta go with my man Floyd.”

Teddy Atlas, boxing trainer and fight commentator: “If Mayweather’s knocking him out because if Pacquiao goes in there looking for the big left hand looking o just land that power punch he’s going to leave himself exposed to the great one of the best counter punchers of our time.”

Bernard Hopkins, retired former World Middleweight Champion with 20 successful defenses and fight commentator: “Pacquiao is going to get anxious and he is going to run into that straight right hand. Lights out.”

Mike Tyson, retired former Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World: “(Pacquiao) comes from every angle. He’s all energy. Always throwing punches. Never stops. Floyd tucks in and picks his shots and he is more accurate but he doesn’t throw anything like Manny’s hundred punches a round. It’s unlikely he can knock Manny out, so if he wants to win he’s got to change. Unless he throws more punches he can’t win the rounds.”

Amir Khan, former two time world champion and youngest British Olympic Boxing Medalist: “Manny has hand speed and fast feet that will cause Floyd some problems early on, but as it progresses I expect Floyd to make the adjustments he tends to make to counter that before pulling away on the scorecards.”

Chris Algieri, professional boxer: “If Manny comes in shape the way that he did against me and if Floyd has missed a step at all, then I see Pacquiao giving him all kinds of trouble. Ultimately though I see Mayweather winning a decision.”

Paulie Malignaggi, former IBF Light Welterweight Champion and former WBA Welterweight Champion: “I am taking Mayweather by wide decision or a late round stoppage. He has too much variation to his arsenal. Pacquiao is fun to watch, but his one-dimensional approach won’t be enough on Saturday Night.”

Sadam Ali, undefeated welterweight and 2008 U.S. Olympian: “I’m excited we get to see that fight, for all boxing fans. It’s going to amazing. If I had to choose somebody, I’d go with Mayweather. But in boxing, you never know, anything can happen.”

Sugar Ray Leonard, retired former World Champion: “I would say I lean toward Mayweather because he hasn’t tasted defeat and he doesn’t want to taste defeat. And I look at Pacquiao and I see a guy, a champion, who is equipped with such speed and power and unfortunately he was KO’d big-time by [Juan Manuel] Marquez.”

Bill Maher, political satirist, comedian and star of HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher: “ Mayweather’s going to win!”

Tom Brady, NFL quarterback for the New England Patriots: “ It’s always about The Money.”

Mark Wahlberg, actor, Producer and former rapper: “ I’m going with Team Pacman.”

Liv Schrieber, actor, producer and director: “ Never discount Manny’s ability.”

Jamie Foxx, Actor: “ It’s Money Man.”

Shaquille O’Neal, retired American basketball player, NBA analyst: “ Mayweather 7th round knockout.”

Dana White, UFC President: “Six years ago, I liked Pacquiao…Now, I like Mayweather. I actually think Pacquiao knocks him out six years ago. It’s going to be interesting. You’re never going to tune into a boring fight with Manny. Manny goes. Manny tries to finish fights.”

Will Ferrell, actor and comedian: “You know why Manny Pacquiao is going to win? Because his dad ate his dog. That’s why. Yeah. With that atmosphere as a child, guess what? You fear nothing.”

Floyd Mayweather Sr., trainer and father of Floyd Mayweather Jr.: “This fight has already been won. We can beat Manny any day, any time, any year, any moment.”

Royce da 5’9, Rapper: “Floyd by way of ring intelligence.”

Freddie Roach, trainer Manny Pacquiao: “Nine (ninth round KO for Pacquiao)…I have a much better chin than that guy (Mayweather Jr.).”

 For more  #MayPac coverage, head over to KnockOutNation.com!

Floyd Mayweather Isn’t Bailing Suge Knight Out

Members of Floyd Mayweather’s most trusted crew have come forward to deny the assertion that the fighter bail out the former chief of Death Row out of imprisonment.

Floyd and Suge were good friends once upon a time, but now there are distant friends that haven’t talked in a while.

TMZ says:

TMZ Sports just got off the phone with one of Floyd’s most trusted members of his TMT crew — who tells us Suge’s lawyer was just plain wrong when he told media outlets there was a plan in place for Floyd to fork over the money. We’re told Floyd and Suge were close in the past — but they haven’t been in contact in several years. Suge is currently locked up in L.A. on murder charges — and his attorney Matthew Fletcher reportedly said Knight was counting on Floyd to cover his bail.

Yung Joc Arrested

It went down again for Yung Joc and the ATL rapper was locked up by police by the time they were finished.

Here is the report from TMZ:

Law enforcement sources tell us the rapper was pulled over by Atlanta PD Thursday for speeding. Cops ran his license and discovered it was suspended. But that wasn’t all. YJ has a warrant out for his arrest. We don’t know the nature of the warrant, but it doesn’t matter much. The rapper was cuffed and taken to the cop shop for a not-so-pretty mug. He’s still in custody.

Executive Orders: Here’s Somethin’ For That Rioting Azz!

Miami, Saturday. May 17, 1980—a 19-year old college student was about to get his first taste of social justice through the act of rioting. That was me. Young, naïve, black and didn’t give a f###. This was the Arthur McDuffie Riot where Mr. McDuffie was left dead after a high-speed chase and an all-white jury acquittal of the cops involved. Three days of rioting ensued, where 18 people were killed, 3,000 jobs lost and $100 million in damage. I was part of that madness.

Fast-forward to April 2015. Baltimore. And before that, Ferguson, etc., etc., etc.

I fully understand the hurt, pain, outrage, loss of life and the sense of hopelessness exhibited by those participating in civil disturbances/riots. While it is true that some are just in the mix for a come-up—it is the true militants who set it off—those young (and old) people who have seen the police dishonor & disgrace their badges year-in and year-out. At some point, the tea kettle is gonna whistle!

It seems to me that there is an advancing of rogue cop killings, but I think it’s just that we’ve all turned into George Orwell’s book, “1984”—where not only is “Big Brother” (our government) watching us, but with the advent of the hand-held computer that triples as a camera, video recorder and telephone—we are catching these police in the act of seemingly corrupt & abusive tactics towards its citizenry. This heavy-handedness on the part of some police is nothing new. Technology has allowed us to show what goes on in black neighborhoods all over America—in real time via Social Media. Indeed, we are living in an “Orwellian” world where camera-phones have us spying on the government as well as the government spying on its citizens.

But ah! I think this is a gift and a curse!

Are you familiar with Rex 84, F.E.M.A., Concentration Camps and Executive Orders? These are the tools your government has for your ass, should things get beyond the National Guard’s control. The president has the power to shut this b#### down! What am I talking about? Keep reading!

F.E.M.A. or “Federal Emergency Management Act” is really our secret government hiding in plain sight. They are the most powerful organization in the United States. F.E.M.A. was created with a series of Executive Orders that the President can implement without the congressional vote when s### gets out of hand in America, like, in the case of riots. And when these Executive Orders are given, ain’t s### your rocks & bottles or your pea-shooter weaponry can do about it, save run for cover.

Now let me kick da ballistics! Executive Order 10990 allows the government to take over all modes of transportation and control highways & seaports! In other words, you ain’t traveling in your hooptie or your Bentley. Executive Order 10995 allows the government to take control of communication media. There goes Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, emailing) and TV. They can shut down CBS, NBC, ABC, BET, FOX (oh gawd! Not FOX! How-ever will we get the unbiased truth in news? Side-eye)! Executive Order 10997 allows the government to take over all electric power & gas. You’ll be sitting in your home at night reading the Bible by candlelight! Executive Order 10998 allows the government to take over all food resources & farms. Talk about miss-meal cramps? Once the food supply is drained what are you gonna do then, accept comply and bow down. Executive Order 11000 allows the government to mobilize civilians (you & me!) into work brigades under government supervision. In other words, they can round us up and put us in encampments (i.e. Concentration Camps) and make us work as slaves! Executive Order 11001 allows the government to take over health & welfare functions. No more EBT cards and no more Obamacare! Executive Order 11003 allows the government to take over all airports, aircraft, commercial & private. Where you going? Nowhere!

Those are just some of the Executive Orders that’ll have our a#### feeling like we are living in 1830. These Executive Orders can be instituted tomorrow—in Baltimore or the whole country.

Rioting is an old paradigm (model) I tell ya. The gov’ment has somethin’ fo’ our recalcitrant azzes!

And then there is the fictional King Alfred Plan, which was a C.I.A.-led scheme to eliminate black people in the event of mass rioting in the United States, which was later reinvented as Rex 84. The F.B.I.’s J. Edgar Hoover had plans to round up black leaders and black people during a riot. He wrote a memo called “Be Aware” where he outlined his plan to round up Negroes. This is the s### these young rioters in Baltimore and other places are completely unaware of.

Somewhere inside of me, something tells me that all of this police brutality and civil disobedience is just what they want. They want Martial Law, which is when they suspend the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government to maintain order & security—and impose curfews and suspend civil law. Martial Law is a dangerous threat to freedom-loving Americans.

I know black America is mad and we have every right to be mad at police brutality, but I’m warning you—the government has somethin’ for that rioting azz! Beware!

Khalil Amani, reporting from Denver–where the Denver International Airport fences lean “IN.”

This Is What It Sounds Like, When “Thugs” Cry!

Do you know what it feels like to live in a place that looks war torn, ran down and disemboweled?  A place where lives are devalued by the very ones sworn to protect and serve you?  Do you live next door to a worn down abandoned property where fires are prone to be set forcing neighbors to flee from the only comfort they know?  Vacant unattended properties are eyesores, but norms, and backyards are used as dumping sites for passerby’s.  Is the term “food desert” part of your vernacular?  If you answered “yes” to all of these assertions, than you know Baltimore City.  Even before the death of Freddie Gray.

“Why are yall destroying your own community?”  You ask, as if you really care.

The riot that took place on Monday afternoon was spearheaded by high school kids who tweeted “do yall want to purge Mondawmin?”  Mondawmin is a mall located in West Baltimore and it is also a bus hub frequented by hundreds of students on a daily basis.  There’s always a crowd of children congregating at the mall after school is dismissed.  It’s where they meet.  And they’re always up to acts of mischievousness.  Now granted, what took place on Monday was unprecedented and a little more than juvenile mischief.  But I’m almost certain that it would be safe to conclude that they themselves honestly had no idea what they had initiated and the serious ramifications of their actions.

I teach at a school right down the street from Mondawmin Mall.  Many of my students access public transportation at Mondawmin Mall to travel to and from school.  As a matter of fact, on Wednesday (the first day students returned back to school since the riot on Monday), myself, along with the majority of our staff escorted our students to the bus hub at Mondawmin for their own safety and to assure the National Guard and Police Officers in riot gear canvassing the mall that our students weren’t a threat to them.  As we walked, I avoided the rocks strewn on the ground that I reckoned were used days prior to be hurled at the police.  I frowned my face in astonishment when I noticed the armored Humvees decked with snipers in front of the high school that’s been deemed Ground Zero.  I heard the officers give instructions to each other which prompted them to respond in unison when people walked towards them.  Shield in hand, gun on hip, they said, “to your left,” and “behind you.”  I felt uneasy in the presence of such militarized force, so I can only imagine how our children were made to feel, internally.  Nevertheless, we walked on.  Baltimore is a different place.  And the people of Baltimore are different folks, especially our youth, apparently.

Not surprisingly, based on the many different media outlets and their contrived depiction of us we’ve been vilified through the press.  “Look at them destroying their own community.”  Unfortunately, though it may be news to many (doubt it very seriously), but the destruction of my community did not just persist with the most recent riots.  But I think yall knew that.

Drugs have destroyed my community.  Mass incarceration has destroyed my community.  Unemployment has destroyed my community.  Poor education has destroyed my community.  Systemic racism has destroyed my community.  Shid, rioting is just a byproduct of all the things that have destroyed my community.  It’s a form of expression of suppressed feelings and emotions.  Don’t overlook the reasons why I’m mad and then try to declare my response anything but a reciprocity.
For the record, I’m not mad at the energy expressed by our young people.  I applaud their spirit to fight and to push on without fear.  And I personally understand their anger.  However, I will say that their emotional efforts are misguided.  Their fight must be done with intent of securing and sustaining a better future than their present.  And that will not be accomplished doing what transpired on Monday.  Lord knows, I don’t want to see anyone get killed for looting a DTLR for a pair of Jordan’s.  And even though that is so frivolous to me, for many of our young people who were in the streets on Monday, to them, that’s a “come up.”  Prompting me to inquire “do you just want to come up or are you interested in staying up?”

We have much work to do.  It shouldn’t take a tragedy such as the death of Freddy Gray to cause an implosion, but since it has ignited an emotional response from our community within and the world as a whole, let us plan better moving forward to do, not what makes us feel better momentarily, but what’s best for us persistently.  Because, GOD forbid…
I been to many places, but I’m Bmore’s Own!  Cornell Dews.

Stephen A. Smith Speaks On Time Spent With Floyd Mayweather!

Floyd Money Mayweather is offended that his legacy is attached to this one fight! Stephen A. Smith spoke in-depth about the time he spent with undefeated pound-for-pound Floyd Mayweather!

 

Rebel Diaz x dead prez join forces “Which Side Are You On” [Remix]

We are living historic moments of oppression, to which the people have the right to respond with historic moments of resistance. The Which Side Are You On REMIX came out on our Radical Dilemma album, but the time is NOW for the song and the message it represents. It was an honor to link with Dead Prez and the comrade Rakaa Iriscience of Dilated Peoples, artists whose shoulders we stand on, who have paved the way for a Rebel Diaz. From #Baltimore to #Ferguson to #Chicago to #TheSouthBronx to #Ayotzinapa to #Athens to #LosAngeles and beyond.. #WhichSideAreYouOn?!

-Written by Rod Starz of Rebel Diaz

NEW MUSIC: Erick Sermon Ft. Sheek Louch & Joell Ortiz – “Make Room”

Legendary artist and producer Erick Sermon, from the iconic Hip Hop group EPMD, has released the first single from his upcoming solo album, E.S.P. (Erick Sermon Perception). The new single, “Make Room”, features New York spitters, Sheek Louch and Joell Ortiz over a hard-hitting beat produced by Sermon. “Make Room” is available now on iTunes.

“I felt that Hip Hop was making a come back. Hip Hop was in a bad place for a while, and even though NY was making records, the records were not New York, at least to me it wasn’t”, said Erick Sermon. “I made this record when I was in Berlin and I had it for a minute and then I thought we need a rally like this now; I made the phone call to Sheek Louch and Joell Ortiz.”

Ro Spit – “Free Bars Pt. 1”

Fresh off of his acclaimed new track release with MMG’s Rockie Fresh, Detroit emcee Ro Spit is back, only this time it’s just himself and a verse on Free Bars Pt. 1. Premiering on JENESIS Magazine, Ro delivers a confident, clever, and cutting verse over a hazy yet groovy instrumental. As the quick intro on the track suggests, get ready for IV Life, his new LP which is coming soon…

Smoove Gotti – “Faded”

Cleveland, Ohio native, Smoove Gotti, has made the fact that his grind is relentless very well-known in the recent months. With over 10 videos that have gone viral over the internet & a Vevo account that has raked in over 100,000+ views, it’s safe to say that his work ethic is that of what makes Ohio artists so unqiuely special.

His new video, “Faded,” further reiterates Smoove Gotti’s restoration of definitive feeling into the art of Hip-Hop. Peep as he takes you through a series of organic clips & as he lets you into a bit of his lifestyle & tells you what it’s like to truly be “Faded”.

Snootie Wild – “Rich Or Not” (VIDEO)

Snootie Wild debuts the official video for “Rich Or Not” from his Ain’t No Stoppin Me mixtape, coming in May. Hosted by DJ Drama, #ANSM features appearances from Yo Gotti, Lil Boosie, Chinx, Blac Youngsta and Gunplay. Watch “Rich Or Not” below!

Mackalevin – “Nightmares”

As he continues to put the finishing touches on his forthcoming project, Brooklyn MC Mackalevin serves up the first offering with the visual for “Nightmares.” On the track, he delves in his deepest darkest fears, showcasing a strong sense of vulnerability. Working on his craft for some time, Mackalevin has opened up for the likes of Troy Ave, Audio Push, Mack Wilds and more at venues such as NYC’s BB Kings, SOB’s, as well as SXSW. Keep a look out for his as yet to be titled project due for release later this year.