Willie The Kid “Mainstream (Freestyle)”
Naledge #BGA “Arthur Agee (Freestyle)”
Ariez Onasis Ft. Peedi Crakk & Mase “700 AMG”
Tree Ft. Danny Brown “No Faces”
Ice Berg “Be Great”
2Eleven Ft. Young Sam “Do Ya Job”
Ballout Ft. Fredo Santana “Instagram”
Balance #BGA Ft. Turf Talk & Pretty Boy “Money Over Everything”
Lauryn Hill Writes Sincere Letter Of Thanks To Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys And Others
(AllHipHop News) Lauryn Hill may be down, but she’s not down enough that she couldn’t take the time to thank those that supported her in her legal fight. The rapper singer wrote a heartfelt letter to thank everybody that wrote the judge on her behalf, including singers Alicia Keys and Stevie Wonder. Hill was sentenced to three months in jail for tax evasion. She recently signed a million dollar deal with Sony, which most felt would defer jail time. She then satisfied her financial obligation to the IRS.
RELATED: Lauryn Hill Sentenced To Three Months In Prison Over Taxes
The letter is below:
I want to extend a sincere thank you to the following people, who wrote letters to the judge on my behalf:
Linda Banks, Edison, NJ
Davonne Breedlove
Binna Choi, Beijing, China
Hafiz Farid, East Orange, NJ
Miriam Anne Banks Farrakhan, Union, NJ
Vincent Gardner, New York, NY
Michael Green, Fair Bluff, NC
Elitta Harden, Ft Worth, TX
Mrs. Valarie Hill, South Orange, NJ
Maureen Hogan, Jersey City, NJ
Walter Jones, New York, NY
Alicia Keys
Elena Lau, Toronto, Canada
Jerald Miller, New York, NY
Tracy Morris, Jacksonville Beach, FL
Elise Munoz, France
Bunmi Olukoya, Laurel, MD
Jimmie Pierre, Trenton, NJ
Cherisse Pittman
Gabrielle Fulton Ponder, Atlanta, GA
Dominique Reese, Oakland, CA
Chris Schwartz, Philadelphia, PA
Ashley Scott, Brooklyn, NY
Derek Singletary, Astoria, NY
Dr. Sara Tai, Manchester, UK
Suzette Williams, Teaneck, NJ
Lisa Willis, Philadelphia, PA
Stevie Wonder
Jonathan Wunderlich, Cabarete, DR
And thank you Jerald Miller, for taking the initiative to put this together.
I also want to thank all of my family, friends, business associates, and fans who have called, emailed, sent texts, and posted messages of concern, encouragement, and support. I appreciate the well wishes, and I thank you for your prayers. Also, to anyone who may have written letters that we did not know about, thank you also, all of you. I will have more to say soon, but did not want to further delay expressing my appreciation.
Thank you again,
MLH
Exclusive: Scott Storch Talks Detox and Creating the Sound of the West with Dr.Dre
(AllHipHop News) In the second part of our exclusive interview with super producer Scott Storch he speaks on his work with Dr.Dre on the legendary album 2001 and creating a signature sound for the West Coast.
“We spent some time together (Dr.Dre) making some records he’s got a collection, he probably has like 3 million records for that album, he has such a high standard for what he wants out of Detox.”
[ALSO WATCH: Scott Storch Speaks On Health, Producing and New Career As A DJ]
He also touched on the popular sound the two created.
“Dre and I in 1999 created a cool sound, those ingredients [are] part of me, its something that we did collectively…its not something we have in common, we actually engineered that, created that sound, created the sound of the west.”
Storch also spoke of potentially working with 50 cent.
“50 he’s dope. For some reason we can’t make a bad record.”
Check Out the 2nd Part of the Exclusive Interview with Scott Storch:
Follow Scott Storch on Twitter @ScottStorch
Follow Mikey T The Movie Star on Twitter @MTMovieStar
John Legend “Blames” Kanye West for His Album Delay, Plus Talks Nudity in Latest Video
It’s been four years since 9-time Grammy Award-winning singer John Legend has released a solo project, but this summer Legend plans to release his fourth and “best” complete works.
Love in the Future, John Legend’s upcoming album is led by the single “Who Do We Think We Are” featuring Rick Ross, and is accompanied by a racy and controversial music video.
While promoting his latest video for the single, Legend chopped it up with AHH on the racy visual, his current relationship with longtime producer Kanye West and why you shouldn’t blame his fiance for his absence from releasing a solo album.
The video just came out for “Who Do We Think We Are”, how do you feel?
Things are good. I’m feeling good.
A lot of watchers are saying the video is distasteful and criticizing for naked women. What’s your concept behind it?
We wanted to create something that was beautiful, tasteful, artistic, cinematic. Dacadent, sexy. People don’t want to watch the nude version, then watch the edited version.
VIDEO: “Who Do We Think We Are”
It matches up that you haven’t released an album since you got into a relationship with your now fiance. What type of love are you experiencing that you completely stopped putting out solo albums? She must really be putting it down!
[laughs] You can’t blame her for my delay!
I’ve normally done two years between each album. I did an album with the Roots in 2010. It’s not that big of a delay. I blame myself and Kanye more than anybody. We spent a little more time on it this time.
We actually put a little more time into getting it exactly how we want it, making sure production is exactly right. Our standards are high and for us to meet them we had to put in a little more effort.
Interesting. What’s your relationship like with Kanye these days?
It’s great. On Evolver, he was the least involved and on Wake Up! with The Roots, he wasn’t involved. But when it comes to my solo albums, the album he’s most involved with is this new album. Even though we always worked together, we worked closer on this one.
Do you have a favorite song from your new album?
We did great work on “Made to Love”. I had written a song and Kanye wanted to work on the beat some more. He made it into this beautiful awesome track. That was showing the value of him as a colloborater.
There was news when I said Kanye doesn’t make a lot of beats anymore. I didn’t mean it in a bad way. Maybe somebody will come in with a beat or an idea, but his job is to take something good and turn into great, as a producer. He helped shape the sound of the album.
One of our readers wonder where you go for writing inspiration.
I write in the studio. I’m pretty prolific in the studio. I don’t write at home, because I feelt like I’ll get more done when I go to work. If I’m home, I feel like it will be too loose.
You just did the Yahoo! On The Road show with Ryan Leslie in New York City. Are you a fan?
I’ve known Ryan for a long time. He’s a great creator, producer and artist. Ive known him when we were both not famous. There was a co-worker of mine that went to Harvard with him. He wouldn’t stop talking about him. It was when I worked in the community at a non profit.
So you’ve always worked in the community. You’ve definitely become very outspoken on controversial topics like education reform. Do you ever see yourself running for political office?
Hell no. In college, I studied English and African American studies. I’ve always been involved in giving minorities more opportunities before my career took off. Now, I’m in a position to have more impact. With more influence and resouces, I’m able to do more.
I have no desire for a political office. I have impact in the way I want to. I respect people that do it, but it’s not for me.
What else should we know about your upcoming album?
The album is my best one yet, I feel really good about it. It’s a powerful piece of work.
This or That: Curren$y Talks Live In Concert, Next Joint Project, & Preferred Brand Of Kush
(AllHipHop News) Curren$y’s work ethic is undeniable. He has released numerous projects over the last several years including Weekend at Burnie’s, The Stoned Immaculate, and New Jet City. The New Orleans emcee is also fresh off dropping his most recent collaboration, the Live In Concert EP, with Wiz Khalifa on 4/20.
AllHipHop spoke with Spitta to find out more about his latest music projects and to get his picks on some his topics of interest in an exclusive “This or That” Q&A. The Jet Life leader shares who he’s taking in a head-to-head match-up of the NBA’s top two scorers, his favored smoke-out buddy movie between Meth & Red vs Cheech & Chong, his preferred New Awlins Hip-Hop classic, and more.
AllHipHop: Live In Concert has six tracks on it. Are there more songs from those sessions that weren’t released?
Curren$y: Yeah, it was supposed to be seven songs. We got one that we were having issues getting cleared. The person who had the publishing to the first six songs had no problem with what we were talking about, but the person who owned the last record didn’t want us talking about weed and chicks and didn’t want us rapping about cool s### own their beat. They kept asking if we could change the lyrics, and we didn’t want to do that. So we just didn’t do the record. If they would have cleared it we stood to make some money with him or her, but they didn’t want do that.
Why did you and Wiz decide to use Bobbi Humphrey’s Fancy Dancer for the samples?
We use to smoke to that album after shows or before shows. That was some s### we use to listen to, and the way the music is they have all those instrumental gaps in the songs. For anybody who raps it becomes second nature to f### around in those little spaces, so we decided to just take it full-scale.
If you could do a full joint project with anyone else, who would you choose?
Young Roddy. We were just discussing that. We’re talking about trying to set-up some time to do some s### like that, because I know how crazy that would be.
So that’s going to be in the works?
Yeah, that’s going to happen. It’s definitely going to happen.
Ski Beatz recently said that Pilot Talk III was being held up because of complications between you and Dame Dash. Have you been able to settle those issues and is that project still on?
Yeah, I’m still going to do it, but I’m just taking care of some other things first. Like I alluded to when I mentioned Roddy, we’re working on his album, and I’m trying to be involved in that process right now. Then I’ll be able to get to Pilot Talk III. That way when I feature him on jams off Pilot Talk III he’ll be so much further in the game. I got to get my man all the way on. That’s my goal right now, but Pilot Talk III is definitely on the way.
This or That: KD or Melo?
KD because for Wale’s birthday some years ago KD was there. I met homeboy and homeboy was cool, so that’s my man.
New Jack City or Juice?
Juice because at the end of the day Nino folded on the stand and started trying to bring down all his homies because he had to go down. That was weak.
Up In Smoke or How High?
How High. Me and my homie were just talking about that yesterday. I guessed I’m biased to that one, because I was just recently speaking about it. That’s the one I watch the most.
The Chronic or Doggystyle?
Doggystyle hands down – artwork. It had the story. It had the comic book in it. I really did like The Chronic, because it was like a movie, but the total package of the artwork and the music goes to Doggystyle.
Ghetto D or 400 Degreez?
400 Degreez. I still listen to both of those albums, but 400 Degreez has the most songs with playability. I have to skip through Ghetto D right now, but I can let 400 Degreez play all the way through. And me and Juvie are like crazy, tight homeboys right now, so I have to pick my homie.
If you could only have one for the rest of your life, Bentley or Ferrari?
Ferrari because I’m sitting right next to mine.
Po-Boy or Gumbo?
Gumbo because it’s a po-boy, stew, a rice dish, and seafood all in one. You got everything there.
Regular Show or Adventure Time?
Man, you’re splitting hairs with that one… Regular Show because that one very well could come on during Adult Swim. I’m glad it doesn’t, because if it did they would probably try and do too much and make it not so funny. But the fact that they try and do so much at the time that they are on makes it funnier. You kind of have to use your brain.
Internet dance meme: Movin’ Like Bernie or Harlem Shake?
[Smoke] DZA’s from Harlem and he’s my homie. Weekend at Burnie‘s was the name of one my projects though, so I guess I gotta go with the “Bernie Dance.”
Purple or OG?
OG all day long. People kind of rush purple because they’re just growing it to look a certain way. OG is what it is.
[ALSO READ: “This or That” Q&A With MMG’s Rockie Fresh]
Live In Concert is available for purchase on iTunes.
New Jet City is available for download at datpiff.
Watch Curren$y’s new video for “Kingpin” below.
Paul Wall and Slim Thug Join 2nd Annual Springboard South Music Festival in Houston
(AllHipHop News) As the summer time rolls around and concerts and festivals begin to churn out line-ups, the Lone-Star State’s Springboard South Music Festival (SSMF) has announced its 2nd Annual line up .
With official plans slated to kick off on Friday, June 21st through Sunday, June 23rd at the Warehouse Live in Houston, TX.
For the festival’s opening night, hometown Grammy-nominated Paul Wall and fan favorite Slim Thug will perform representing the urban music side of the festival.
Independent artists on the bill include Elle Gie, Miss Myi and Soulfruit, while more artists will be announced soon filling out a lineup that is slated to include Pop, Rock, Country, Latin, Singer-Songwriter, Metal, Gospel and Jazz genres.
With more than 90 shows from 54 artists on three stages, SSMF looks to provide the general public with live music while mentoring and educating the next great generation of independent artists by launching them to the next level.
In addition, SSMF choose 26 official Springboard South artists chosen to participate.in one-on-one mentoring sessions geared to accelerate the talent.
The chosen artists will also be given the opportunity to present music to a panel of music supervisors in “emerging artists” and “young performer” slots to help build the Springboard South artists of the future.
The festival also plans to present the panels with one-on-one sessions on Thursday, June 20, as local music business mentors are scheduled to provide individualized advice to artists.
Legal experts Al Staehely and Ricky Anderson; social media pioneers Nancy Byron and Madalyn Sklar; music licensing professional Barry Coffing; producer Preston Middleton; and publicist, Ami Blackwell are all part of more than 20 music business experts that will be sharing advice on how to develop a career.
“We are very excited about the second installment of Springboard South where we will be showcasing an incredibly diverse group of artists in almost every genre,” stated Barry Coffing, founder and creator. “We are featuring great local talent as well as other independent artists from the south who will be sharing the stage with well-known artists to create an event that should be nothing short of amazing. I can’t thank all of the music business professionals and headlining artists enough for donating their time and wisdom to help this next generation of great artists.”
This year’s activities will also serve as the launch of the festival’s non-profit initiative Sustainable Artists. Created to help artists achieve a balance between artistic focus and economic reality, this organization will empower artists by increasing their education, networking and business skills in order for them, and the art they create, to be self-sufficient.
To achieve their goals, Sustainable Artists will assemble and utilize resources from government agencies, business professionals, other non-profit organizations and educational Institutions.
Additional organizations include, Fireseeds, Houston’s Voice, We Get Music, UTN – The Urban Television Network and Bose Corporation’s Live Music Team.
General Admission tickets for the Springboard South Music Festival are $24.95 and are available now online through Front Gate Tickets by visiting warehouselive.frontgatetickets.com.
Kanye West To Appear In ‘Anchorman 2’
(AllHipHop News) As the world awaits for information about Kanye West’s next album and the arrival of the rap superstar’s first child with girlfriend Kim Kardashian, there is news that moviegoers will get to see the G.O.O.D. Music boss on the big screen in Anchorman: The Legend Continues.
Hollywood.com is reporting that West has a cameo in the Will Ferrell led sequel. The details of the rapper/producer’s role in the film are scarce, but according to a Hollywood.com source Kanye was seen filming on a rooftop in downtown Atlanta with Christina Applegate and Paul Rudd. Applegate and Rudd were both main characters in the original Anchorman.
“[West] was quite afraid of heights and required an umbrella for shade most of the time he was on the roof,” said the source.
[ALSO READ: Kanye West to Perform on Saturday Night Live Season Finale]
Kanye is joining an extensive roster of A-list entertainers who have been connected to the project. Of course there is the original cast that includes Ferrell, Applegate, Rudd, Vince Vaughn, Steve Carrell, Luke Wilson, and Chris Parnell. There have also been reports that Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Kristen Wiig, Sacha Baron Cohen, Megan Good, and Nicole Kidman will make appearances.
West has shown an interest in filmmaking in the past. He presented the short film Runaway prior to the release of his 5th album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Last year he debuted another short film, Cruel Summer, during the Cannes Film Festival.
Kanye’s previous acting credits include voice-over performances on The Cleveland Show and cameos in The Love Guru and Entourage.
[ALSO READ: Nicki Minaj To Star In New Cameron Diaz Movie]
Anchorman: The Legend Continues, directed by Adam McKay, is currently set to hit theaters on December 20th.
French Montana and Uncle Luke Exchange Words via Hot 97 Interviews
(AllHipHop News) Over the past year and some change Bronx bred rapper French Montana has catapulted himself into the national spotlight with a string of hit songs and guest appearances on several Billboard charting hits.
Of those hit songs, “Pop That,” which samples Miami veteran rapper Uncle Luke’s voice on the hook, has become the center of a copyright infringement case on the verge of being initiated by Uncle Luke.
While the world has known about discrepancy for a while, recently French and Luke took shots at each other via their respective interviews with New York’s Hot 97 radio, telling their side of the story and how the song and its controversy came to be.
“Actually Luke went on air and was like, ‘French owe me some money.’ Well, that’s after I brought him out at BET Awards – me, him and Puff. Then I heard he went on the internet and was talking about, ‘French owe me some money.’ I can’t owe you some money if you don’t own your thing,” French Montana told Hot 97. “You gotta own your product, it’s [owned by] somebody named Lil J or something like that.”
Uncle Luke has a different version of the story, and while Luke was invited to the video shoot by French in an act of respect and to pay homage, Luke was reportedly unaware of the song’s existence and the usage of his voice before it’s release and just moments prior to the video shoot.
“Ok, let me tell you how it all went off. In the beginning Puffy told me to come to do a video shoot in Miami on Memorial Day last year. I asked, ‘What video shoot, to what song?’ – because I work with a lot of kids. They never told me the name of the song nor did they ever send me a copy of the song. So they were basically trying to set me up to be a part of a video shoot to a song that had me appearing on it,” Luke explained.
“Second of all these guys had press conferences – this stuff is all online – and this guy is sitting here saying, ‘Hey I just did a song with Uncle Luke and all these other guys on the song.’ So we’re seeing this information online and seeing all the press conferences, and I’m thinking like, ‘What song did I do with this guy? I really don’t even know the guy,'” Uncle Luke explained to New York’s Hot 97. “So they did the video and that’s why I didn’t appear in the video, because I wasn’t going to appear in anything I didn’t hear or know anything about.
“At the end of the day, we went back, checked our contracts and our agreements about the songs and what the person who owns it can do or cannot do. They cannot alter my music, so they went ahead and did, I had a conversation with Puffy and his people. I don’t have a problem with it, but it’s really the principle. Call me up and let me know whats the deal, don’t just try to pull a fast one like this and then have me appear in the video without even a courtesy call,” Uncle Luke explained.
While Luke hasn’t yet pursued the case due to his relationship with Diddy, after hearing the song on radio repeatedly, after getting asked about the song by people in his community, and after French Montana’s interview with Hot 97 Luke says, “that don’t work good with me.”
“Go make a hit record, stop trying to use a situation that’s a dead situation and try to make it out of something. Now if he want me to sue him, I got not problem, if he keep it up, then I’m gonna sue him. We can settle it in court,” said Uncle Luke.
Diddy has yet to comment on the situation yet. More news as details emerge.
Check out the full Hot 97 interviews below:
Wiz Gets Possession Charges Dropped; Shoots Video for Community Service
(AllHipHop News) There are very few artists in Hip-Hop that have been known to smoke as much herb as Pittsburgh, PA bred and Hollywood residing rapper, Wiz Khalifa.
That being said, it was no surprise when Winston-Salem police smelled a skunk-like odor coming from the Taylor Gang CEO’s tour bus in May of last year and charged the rapper with the possession of approximately 1/2 an ounce of buds.
Yesterday, Wiz learned his fate as a North Carolina judge told Wiz that he would merely need to a complete court assigned community service to make amends for his first offense in Forsyth County, North Carolina.
Generally prosecutors in Forsyth County will voluntarily dismiss charges for first-time offenders if they perform community service and refrain from getting in further trouble with the law.
In order to complete his service, the court asked Wiz to shoot a video encouraging students to stay in school and make positive choices.
Khalifa, born Cameron Jibril Thomaz, complied and will star in the video for students at Carter G. Woodson School in Winston-Salem, although the video is not yet available to the public.
“He provided a community service that a lot of people can’t provide because of his status,” Assistant District Attorney Mike Silver said. “He’s well known. He’s a very popular artist.”
Winston-Salem Police said that 18 to 19 other people were charged with drug possession although the charges were also dismissed for community service.
Instructors at Carter G. Woodson will be given the video along with a lesson plan to ensure that students get educational value out of watching Wiz in the commercial.
In other news, yesterday Wiz and Berner dropped their video for the song called “Paradise” which samples the Phil Collins song, “Another Day in Paradise.”
Check below for the “Paradise” video:
Hip-Hop Rumors: Did Kanye Act A Fool And Defend Kim Kardashian At The Same Damb Time?
A couple days ago, the MET Ball went down. Honestly, I don’t know much about this lil’ shindig. They basically are a bunch of 1% people in entertainment that get together every years and show off their clothing. Well, this year Kanye proudly took Kim Kardashian. See how nice they look?
RELATED: Kanye West Debuts New Music At MET Ball!
Anyway, there are mixed reports. First, the positive. The people that loved what Kanye did said he sang to Kim saying “you’re so awesome.” He was using auto tune as well. Anyway. On the flip side, there are some reports that say Kanye was supposed to come to the MET Ball and perform some of his well-known hits for the people but some described the performance as “confusing” and said his singing was akin to “screeching.”
Despite these negative comments, people seemed to be generally pleased and Kanye supported his fair lady Kim, telling her not to worry.
They keep us talking, but if we stop talking about them then they should worry! -illseed.
Illseed, Out.
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Hip-Hop Rumors: French Montana’s Baby Momma Goes Berserk On Twitter!
Twitter is an evil we have come to accept in our day to day. But, what is more evil? Putting your business out in the street or the act of somebody that is doing you wrong? I’m not going to judge. But, French Montana may not have that luxury. His baby mama and ex wife Deen Kharbouch is going in on him on Twitter. And in a serious way, but if what she is saying is true, he won’t be getting any Father’s Day gifts. Still, dude is about to drop an album so I am sure he’s out here getting his situation right so that his kid can be set. Who knows if his ex even reach out on the phone. Like I said, I’m not judging. See the tweets below.
@frenchmontana has not seen his son in months.. He’s son is in the hospital and he could careless
— Deen Kharbouch (@DeenKharbouch) May 8, 2013
I don’t know. She seems bitter.
W#####, strippers, dealers tell @frenchmontanathat his son is sick — Deen Kharbouch (@DeenKharbouch) May 8, 2013
I think French would rather see 50 Cent in Queens that this chick in a small closet.
@frenchmontanais a HORRIBLE father — Deen Kharbouch (@DeenKharbouch) May 8, 2013
@frenchmontana where is your son ??
— Deen Kharbouch (@DeenKharbouch) May 8, 2013
@frenchmontana is a fake f### that uses people #vampire
— Deen Kharbouch (@DeenKharbouch) May 8, 2013
I don’t think Frenchie is fake though. I heard a story about him the other day. Somebody was telling me about him and his crew in New Jersey. It wasn’t nice. Maybe I’ll tell you about it one day. French just pushing his new album, Excuse My French.
Droping tonight !! #excusemyfrench may 21 instagram.com/p/ZEMNq5ScAq/
— French Montana (@FrencHMonTanA) May 8, 2013
They keep us talking, but if we stop talking about them then they should worry! -illseed.
Illseed, Out.
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Email illseed rumors: ki*********@***il.com
Oh My (Trap) Lord: Chief Keef Joins Gucci Mane’s 1017 Bricksquad Records
(AllHipHop News) A marriage made in trap heaven. Gucci Mane recently announced on Twitter that Chief Keef has joined his 1017 Bricksquad Records:
Chief Keef newest member of Bricksquad1017 bmg gbe mpa #turnuptwitter.com/gucci1017/stat…
— Gucci Mane (@gucci1017) May 8, 2013
The addition of the Chicago native arrives less than two months after Waka Flocka told MTV’s RapFix that he and frequent collaborator Gucci Mane will no longer do music together:
“I won’t do no music with him, I don’t want no business with him, nothing. I’ll party with you, but I’m not doing no kind of business with you,”
Chief Keef is currently signed to a major label deal with Interscope Records which also includes a label partnership with Glory Boyz Entertainment which Keef is the CEO of.
[ALSO CHECK OUT: Chief Keef Ft. Tadoe “Bankroll”]