Latest HipHop News
AWARD-WINNING DJ HERO SOUNDTRACK TO EXPAND WITH NEW EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOADABLE MIXES
SANTA MONICA, CA – March 10, 2010 – Joining the critically-acclaimed, 93 original mix soundtrack on DJ Hero™ – the #1 new videogame intellectual property of 2009 – are chart topping hits from hip-hop legends and DJ Hero Renegade Edition headliners, JAY-Z and Eminem. Starting March 18, 2010, living room DJ's can mix, scratch and battle with the...
The 2010 Female Hip Hop Honors: Honoring Queen Pen and Kimberly Rivers Roberts Announces Award Nominees
The 2010 Female Hip Hop Honors' is being held at The Radisson Hotel in Los Angeles, California, Saturday May 22nd from 6-12AM Los Angeles , CA --March 10, 2010. Undergroundgirlsofhiphop.com, one of the Internet's leading female hip-hop sites, announced the 2010 Female Hip-Hop Honors nominees. Voting is available at Undergroundgirlsofhiphop.com...
Jerkin' Crews to Compete at 'Showdown LA'
Presented by Vlado Footwear, The Los Angeles Clippers & The Chani Girl Foundation LOS ANGELES, March 11 -- As Jerkin' mainstreams, new dance crews and artists are competing and performing at events throughout the Nation. Now, in a one of a kind dance competition in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Clippers and Vlado Footwear are joining forces to...
Jay-Z To Attend Nets Groundbreaking Ceremony; Protests Expected
(AllHipHop News) Jay-Z is expected to attend a ground breaking ceremony for the Nets’ new arena in Brooklyn today (March 11) at Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, New York.
The rapper, who owns a percentage of the team, will be joined by developer Bruce Ratner, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. David Paterson to break ground on the construction for the construction of the Barclays Center, an 18,000-seat arena.
While some may welcome The Nets to Brooklyn, other property owners are planning to boycott...(read more)
Nas & Damian Marley Snag Lil Wayne for Collabo LP, New Tracklisting Revealed
Last night (March 10), XXLMag.com previewed the collaborative project from Nas and Damian Marley, Distant Relatives, and it seems as if is the long awaited album is almost ready to see the light of day.
The disc, set to come out through Universal Republic in either May or June, features cameos from Lil Wayne, Joss Stone, K’NAAN and Jamaican music legend Dennis Brown, as well as a bonus track with Junior Reid. All 14-songs, which were dedicated to the hoods in America and Africa, were produced by Marley, who seamlessly merges the worlds of hip-hop and reggae.
Distant Relatives singles, “Strong Will Continue” and “As We Enter,” have already made their way online.
Nas and Damian previously worked together on “Road to Zion” for Marley’s 2005 solo effort, Welcome to Jamrock —Brooklyne Gipson
Peep the official track listing below:
1. As We Enter
2. Tribal War (feat. K’NAAN)
3. Strong Will Continue
4. Leaders
5. Wisdom (Sabali)
6. Count Your Blessings
7. Disappear
8. The Promised Land (feat. Dennis Brown)
9. Nah Mean
10. Angola (Friends)
11. My Generation (feat. Lil Wayne and Joss Stone)
12. Africa Must Wake Up (Feat. K’NAAN)
13. BONUS TRACK Ancient People (feat. Junior Reid)
[Editor's note: XXL has learned that one more song, "In His Own Word," will also be included on the album]
Share:East Coast Bias Lives, But Not Always
Every now and then, it pays to peer into the nearest mirror. Practice a bit of the old self-evaluation. You know, size yourself up from time to time. The most effective way to better one’s self is to chin-check one’s self, I think, and this applies just as much to a person’s fandom as it does his or her career, or relationships.
I do so quite often on all fronts of my life, and this week I’ve been experiencing a real stop-and-think stretch, rooted in the blog I wrote here two days back. The topic was my favorite soundtrack cuts, and, looking back on the randomly selected list, the post was another sad example of my unconscious East Coast bias. The impulses were there to include The Dove Shack’s “Summertime in the LBC” (The Show) and MC Eiht’s “Straight Up Menace” (Menace II Society), but, instead, I opted for the NY-heavy posse joint “Uni-4-Orm.”
Complacent is as complacent does.
Don’t act like coastal bias is an urban legend—it’s as real as taxes and aliens (they do exist, I tell you!). I know because I’ve come to grips with my own fit of the disease, and I’ve been on a one-guy crusade to rectify the dilemma as soon and as painlessly as possible.
Rather than simply post a hodgepodge of nostalgic jams for the sheer audible pleasure of it, I’m taking a trip down memory lane today, my laptop acting as the steering wheel. So much for “business never personal;” sorry Erick and Parrish. This is an I-am-Sigmund-Freud-for-the-time-being exercise. Better yet, it’s an effort to prove to myself and the comments board regulars, who are quick to crucify any and all biased bloggers that, I’m deeper than Big Apple rap.
That’s right, always entertaining peanut gallery—don’t think I forgot about the minor firestorm that blazed after I assembled a “horror movie theme samples” rundown and overlooked a bulk of Three 6 Mafia beats. I’m still indebted to you all for that one.
The interesting thing, to me, about my unwavering slant toward all things Wu-Tang, DJ Premier, Boot Camp Clik and the such is that the first hip-hop music I was exposed to was gully-to-the-core West Coast gangsta rap. Back when your New Jersey-born narrator was no more than nine years old, my older brother—who’s six calendars my senior—and our cousin (same age as my elder sibling) were diehard N.W.A. fan; yes, they were the suburban teens wearing Raiders coats made by Starter and lip-synching MC Ren lyrics into their bedroom mirrors. We’ve all had our shamelessly-out-of-our-element moments, so don’t judge them.
If you think two 15-year-old White kids locked in a room bumping Straight Outta Compton is a trip, just imagine my single-digit-aged ass sitting right there with them. I was the wide-eyed rugrat, mesmerized by everything my older bro did, so of course I followed he and our cousin into the latter’s private den; the guy owned over 50 rap CDs, a tower of foreign sounds that both excited and intimidated me. Perhaps that’s why I was so quick to love hip-hop—opposites attract, after all.
We visited my aunt and uncle every Sunday for dinner, so I was guaranteed at least one uncensored exposure to hardcore rap a week. The menu opened up beyond Eazy-E’s crew, though; King-Tee, DJ Quik, The D.O.C. and Boo Ya Tribe all gradually seeped through the speakers. In hindsight, I can say in confidence that those pseudo listening sessions in my cousin’s bedroom are what turned me into a hip-hop junkie, and, in turn, a member of the XXL staff. Which is why I find my preferential treatment of New York tunes so odd; my affinity for this culture certainly didn’t start in the sleepless city.
In fact, the first rap song to earn the distinguished keep-on-repeat handling in my world was Above the Law’s devastating “Murder Rap,” off the Pomona, California group’s 1990 opus Livin’ Like Hustlers. It’s got to be the piercing sirens. Ominous and nihilistic, “Murder Rap” makes perfect sense as one of my all-time cherished records; I’m the same guy who saw Grindhouse four times in theaters just so I could repeatedly watch the four-point-of-view car crash sequence in Quentin Tarantino’s half, Death Proof. Darkness reigning supreme within a piece of art is my Hefty bag, always has been, will be until my inner clock stops.
And on that note, I’ll leave you with that Above the Law masterwork. Think of it every time you see my byline attached to a somewhat-NY-centric blog post here on XXLmag.com, and try not to condemn. I’m a work in progress. —Matt Barone
Above the Law “Murder Rap”
Ludacris to Debut Atop The Billboard 200
Ludacris should change the name of his tune from “How Low” to “How High” after hitsdailydouble.com released their latest sales projections.
According industry insider’s estimates, based off of the one-day sales figures, Luda is believed to sell around 120,000 copies of his new disc Battle of the Sexes in his first week on shelves. The numbers should be enough to take him to the top of The Billboard 200 album charts this coming Wednesday, March 17.
If the estimates prove to be true, it will be the fourth time that Luda has held down the No. 1 spot. 2003’s Chicken-N-Beer, 2004’s The Red Light District, and 2006’s Grammy-award-winning LP Release Therapy all held the coveted spot in the past. At the same time, Luda’s last album, Theater of the Mind, earned the No. 5 position in 2008, after selling 214,000 units in its debut week—a significantly higher amount than the BOTS approximations.
Battle of the Sexes is the Atlanta-based rapper’s seventh studio effort for Def Jam, and features appearances by Nicki Minaj, Eve, Lil Kim, Trina, Trey Songz, Ne-Yo and Gucci Mane among others. —Elan Mancini
Share:T.I. Recruits DJ Toomp For Post-Prison LP, "Right Now He's Just Putting A Feeler Out In The Streets"
DJ Khaled Hits #1; Celebrates 'Victory'
(AllHipHop News) Miami’s DJ Khaled latest fourth studio album Victory has landed at #1 on this week’s Billboard Independent Chart.
The album, which is Khaled’s fourth chart topping indie effort, moved almost 28,000 copies since its release on March 2nd.
Additionally, the album has already generated over 300,000 transactions.
“I'm so happy to have my fourth #1 independent album,” DJ Khaled told AllHipHop.com. “I'm so happy that my new single is on its way to be platinum and #1! Putting...(read more)
