bigted

Speaking of Ebay, I was able to find a "Rock The House" cassette for only $6.99 after shipping, now my JJFP collection is complete!! :gettinjiggywitit: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1 Btw when I look up JJFP, I type Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince

Well we could always dream :wiggle:

Will recorded 3 tracks with Jazzy Jeff recently?

That'd be a sweet collab but basically there's a slim chance of that happening which I probably wouldn't mind either, there's a lot other rappers that I'd rather see FP work with first before Lupe, the main concern is whether FP's gonna do any music at all within the next few years with all the movies he's working on, he don't have time to work with other rappers when he can't even do anything with music on his own

http://rap.about.com/od/intervie2/a/RakimInterview.htm Rakim Interview Besides Jay-Z, Rakim is probably the most revered rapper alive, and undoubtedly one of the greatest. Yet, he's more approachable than you would expect. Following an explosive concert at Houston's Warehouse Live, Ra relinquished his "cool-off" and spent a couple of hours autographing posters, hats, t-shirts, 20-dollar bills, cassette tapes, CDs; and listening to white teenagers who thought that The Master--Ra's least successful LP--was the best thing next to electricity. When we finally got a chance to pick his brain, Ra had a lot to say about the benefit of delaying The Seventh Seal, his relationship with Nas, and the dangerous curves hip-hop's drawing-up for the youth. The crowd was 'live' tonight. Did you anticipate that? What was on your mind coming to Houston? Rakim:To be truthful, being that the game has changed so much, you come hoping for the best and expecting the worst. To my surprise, there's a lot of love out here for me. It confirms everything that I thought that I started. It makes me feel a little better knowing that I still got an audience to return to, man. It's been along time since you came to Houston. You really felt at home here. Rakim: I didn't expect it like that. I thought I'd come through and get a little love, but I didn't expect that. Like I said it's a blessing to be in the game this long and go so far from home and get love like this. I was talking to a friend of mine awhile ago and I said, "Rakim's about to drop an album." He said, "I hope he's not coming on an independent label, because people are gonna sleep on it." Apparently, we're at that point where people are interested in knowing what label you're on. How do you approach that? Rakim: Presentation is a big thing now. They want to see you come out big. They want to see neon lights. That's like half of the battle. That's why it's taking me a while to do this deal I'm doing. Not kicking something major, but I didn't want to go that route, you know, and I didn't want to go indie. So, I had to sit down and see how I could come up with a plan where I can do an independent deal and make it major, you know what I mean. You know major distribution is the key and then put some money into the project so we can promote it and make it look major. We were able to set that up and do some things that not a lot of people have done in the game. Hopefully, it'll make some changes and make a blueprint. You just need somebody to back you, like in any situation. But, it's not as hard as we think, man. For a lot of the rappers that are making money, they don't have to go down the road that they're going. Step back, evaluate, ask some questions, get the prices, and if they invest in themselves they'd be surprised what they could make. Majors give us pennies, you know what I mean. And you're the one creating the art. That's the messed up part about it. Rakim: Exactly. It's like they're pimping us for our product. It's like a door-to-door salesman and I come up with an item for $10 and I go knock on the door and sell that item and get $10. If I step back and let somebody else sell it, why if he go to the door and my product is $10, then why do I only get $1? And that's what we're going through with the major labels, man. It's not even to the point to where they're saying, "Alright, it's 3 1/2, it's 4 1/2, it's almost half of it." That's the last thing that would come out of their mouths. So, the way I'm trying to do this it's taking me awhile but at the end of the day it's going the way I want it to go. Now, I get the general idea but what are the specifics? Did you start a label and then get major distribution to go with it? Rakim: Yeah, basically that's all I did. All you got to do is if you got extra amount of money, then you can do your own thing. Depending on how much money you've got, that determines whether it's going to be major or independent. The average money to put out for an album, a top shelf album, you need a million dollars. So if you can put a million dollars in promotion you've got a major distribution. A million dollars at the most to have your music everywhere: BET, MTV, and the magazines, everything. If you can do that then you'll have major distribution. There's nothing to separate the majors from you. If you have a setup like that...that's what we had to do and that's the key for whoever wants to do it like that. If you have enough money, you can get a major distribution deal. Speaking of the album, have you picked a single yet? Rakim: Nah, right now we're just trying to do as many joints as we can. At the same time, we're trying to finish up with the deal and then once we finish up with the deal, we get ready for some big time collabos. We're just trying to load up and be ready for the end of the day when you can just sit down and listen to 20 to 25 records and pick the best 15. I know you've probably been asked this a couple of times, but who are you working with on this album? Rakim: We goin' to keep that quiet 'cause I don't usually do it [collaborations], you know what I mean. I still believe in the element of surprise, you know what I mean. So, we want to keep that quiet. It's some smart collabos I'll put it like that. All the callabos are going to make sense. People are goin' to appreciate who I'm doing the callabos with. And at this point in my career, I'm trying to show some love to a lot of people that's been showing me love in the game and people that I have respect for. I know Nas has already said that he's probably gonna be on you're album. It's that something that looks like it's going to happen. Rakim: Yeah, no doubt. It's just a matter of me and him linking up and sitting down, man. Me and Nas, a lot of people don't know we go back to powerplay when I was working on some of my early albums, he'll come to the studio with Large Professor. He was always like my little dude, you know what I mean. Hopefully we'll get a chance to get it in and do something special in the studio man. If it ain't special I'm not gonna try to do it. If it's just a beat and he spits 16 and I spit 16 then I ain't gonna do it. But, if it's something that makes sense and it's special, then we'll do it. Out of the new crop of emcees who would you say is the next Ra, or maybe close to that? Rakim: Umm, that's kinda hard to say. There's a lot of cats out there that I respect. I like Saigon. Papoose is doing his thing right now. A lot of different breeds coming out of the game right now. But, I'm so different and knowing how different I am...[shakes his head with a smirk, thereby, shaking off any hint at Rakim's dispensability]. But, there's a lot of cats out there that I love. What would you say has changed the most between back when you guys pioneered this whole lyricism movement and now? Rakim: I think what has changed is the conscious level. I think now it's lower. The conscious level in the hood and the conscious level in the game is at the point where the rappers aren't dealing with the consciousness and the hood ain't dealing with it. You know what I mean. So, it's a little slow right now. The hood is in a situation where they see it like they are in between a rock and a hard place. You can't blame it on the rappers, you can't blame it on the industry, but, we do play a part and there is something you can do about it. That's addressing the situation, addressing our hood, addressing our youngsters, and schooling them. A lot of times, "keep it real" is a little slogan. But, the kids look at it as if they are really keeping it real when that's not what these dudes are doing. At the end of the day, the little kids wind up busting their guns and going to jail, while the rapper's sitting in his crib watching TV on his big screen doing him. So, we're setting the wrong example because the little kids look up to us and they take it to the heart. They hear their favorite rapper talking about "Yo, I'm gonna a killer. I keep the gun on me," and "Don't disrespect me or I'll stretch you out." The little kid takes that to heart like, "My man said that, so that's what it is." They set that up and kids run with it, kids get caught up in it, and the rappers sitting at the crib watching the news. We need to be a little bit more responsible. We can't say that we're not role models when we're making records. Rap was a little different than R

Yeah Trackmasters are definately underrated as producers, they really put in quite a bit of work in the music industry over the last decade, "Just Crusin'" was probably one of FP's strongest singles in the last 12 years, the music video was hot too I must say :kool:

Yeah that's an unfortunate situation, we see other celebrities do way worse things and get a slap on the wrist

Mos Def's fighting the power! :hail:

Look I make way more posts about the rappers I like- (KRS, PE, LL, DMX, Nas, 2Pac, Hammer, etc.) than I do about complaining who's wack, I think the point is that there's some here who just say this rapper's wack in all their posts, they know who they are, they gotta check themselves, but this forum doesn't really have it that bad compared to other hip-hop forums, people make a million posts saying 50's wack and only one topic about how they like Ice Cube, I personally wouldn't give a damn to post at all about 50 anymore if one of my favorite rappers like LL didn't want to do an album with him, I hope it don't happen so that way I could forget about 50 completely...

I think Tim made a great point in saying if you think 50's so wack why talk about him so much? Aren't there enough more worthy rappers worth talking about instead? I agree with Joe that the reason why hip-hop is in the state it's in is 'cause of fans diss other fans for taste of music just as much as artists diss each other, it seems like the fans love controversey, they only talk about artists that diss other artists and that's why beef is so popular and a lot of artists who don't beef don't sell, a lot of this beef stuff is probably fabricated just to boost sales, let's be real both Puffy and 50 got albums coming out at the end of the year? 50 has given props to Puffy in his book and many of his interviews, Puffy has shown love to 50 and put him on Biggie's duets and all of a sudden they hate each other? Bull****! :nhawong: If we buy into this and buy their records then they'll be going to dinner on us... And like Joe said we could hate on these artists as much as we want but they've put in work to get to the level they're at, they didn't just sit there and somebody gave them a record deal

Ronald Isley Gets 3 Years in Tax Evasion LOS ANGELES - Isley Brothers lead singer Ronald Isley has been sentenced to three years and one month in prison for tax evasion. Isley was also ordered to pay $3.1 million in back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Conte. He was convicted last year of five counts of tax evasion and one count of willful failure to file a tax return. During a hearing Friday, defense attorney Anthony Alexander argued that the 65-year-old singer should receive probation instead of prison time because of complications from a stroke and a recent bout with kidney cancer. Isley is expected to be sent to a prison hospital facility. Alexander also pleaded for leniency because Isley had been attempting to pay down his IRS debt. But U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson declined to sentence the R&B singer to less time than called for under federal guidelines. "The term serial tax avoider has been used. I think that's appropriate," Pregerson said. Alexander argued during trial that "unfortunate circumstances," such as the deaths of two of Isley's accountants, made him unable to get records together and pay taxes during the years that led to the criminal charges. Isley's recent albums include a collaboration with Burt Bacharach titled "Here I Am" and the Grammy-nominated Isley Brothers CD "Body Kiss."

I ain't gonna turn my back on LL unless he totally changes his image and becomes annoying like 50 and those other wack rappers that're bringing down hip-hop's rep Yeah, i'm sad that i have a new album from one of my favorite artists on the way and that i don't really expect it 2 be that good. I see this move as just a phase. Even tho' i think it's foolish, i don't think LL will allow the album 2 be that bad. LL has always stood up 4 what he believes in since he came out with 10, he's been very open about his status as a legit artist compared 2 the watered down, money hungry, commerical phonies out there. He's also been very open his faith and how he doesn't wanna cuss in his music even tho' he knows it'll be held against him when it comes 2 sales. This seems like a safe move against that mindstate. I guess we'll just have 2 find out.

I don't really see working with 50 as rebelling against the way commercial rap is, 50's the epitome of pop rap sellouts, 50's only in the game to make money and that's it, he don't have much heart to rebel against the industry 'cause he don't wanna risk losing money, he rather kiss up to the record execs and make millions, LL's only gonna look the same way if he rolls with 50, you can't call out Jay-Z for selling out and then big up 50 like he's real, that's hypocritical, that's like when KRS dissed Nelly as pop sellout but gives love to Em the next minute, and when FP says on "Lost and Found" how mcs are slaves to the biz and then says he ain't talking about 50, wtf are you talking about then FP, 50's the biggest slave to the biz that there is now, he'll do anything on record to make another mill but by FP coming out and saying he got love for 50 shows that he ain't trying to rebel against the rap industry either... I'm starting to look at this all as WWE, Jigga and LL might beef to increase their sales this fall when they drop albums the same time and then hang out and be friends on the low while fans diss each other, LL's probably gonna resign to Def Jam when it's all said and done 'cause I just can't take him serious for rebelling against Def Jam by working with 50, Nas did the same thing a couple years ago by dissing Def Jam for promoting watered down rap but then he goes on to sign to Def Jam?! Come on now...

LL was talking quite a few times about starting his own label and signing other artists, songwriters, and producers on it, making it like a Motown for the new millenium, he probably wants to wait until his rap career winds down a lil' bit that way he could put the energy into the other artists rather than just throwing the spotlight on himself, 'cause we see that with rap artists who are also head of their labels, it seems like they put themselves out in the front while the other artists play background(ie Bad Boy with Puffy, Jay-Z with Roc-A-Fella, Master P with No Limit), this is something he should do right now when the Def Jam deal expires, he needs to take it to another level, rather than just being signed to another record company 'cause no company respects the art of music, it's time for a real artist with the power of LL to step up and help bring integrity back to the music industry

Yeah these censors are getting damn annoying now it was funny at first but not anymore, I think it's the best thing that 50 dissed Puffy here 'cause we know that Puffy's the biggest buisiness man in the rap game, that's like somebody trying to get rid of Bill Gates, Puffy's not really respected as a rapper but his hustle game is undenibly legendary, he has the power to convince LL and other rappers not to work with 50 anymore, and it's kinda disrespectful that 50's dissing Puffy for Biggie's death after Puffy let 50 be on Biggie's duet albums, 50 should be greatful that he had that opportunity...

I have a feeling that this LL album is gonna flop badly both musically(do we really think that 50's gonna help create a classic album with LL if he can't do that himself, I see myself downloading this album myself, I'll probably buy another copy of the "G.O.A.T." album) and commercially 'cause there's a lot of people that're sick of 50's gimmicks, basically I've heard nothing but negative comments about LL wanting to do an album with 50, if LL just put his ear out in the streets he'd know this, he must be surrounding by yes men or something... G-Unit is like the Titanic(ask Mobb Deep who thought they'd sell more by working with 50 when they go wood instead and lost their core fans who yelled out sell out) since basically everything 50's been involved with since the flop of his movie has flopped, I don't see no difference here especially since LL's core fanbase look at LL's music as an alternative for 50's crap and now him coming out saying how much he's feeling 50 and getting involved with this album is gonna have LL lose more fans then gain, there's gonna be people coming out to call LL a hypocrite and say "You're criticising Jigga for ruining hip-hop but why're you working 50 when he's doing the same thing, what're you trying to prove?", maybe even another rapper might come out to say this, and of course will Jay-Z really promote LL at all now that LL came out and said this? Of course like AJ said LL said it more classy, I doubt he's gonna make any Jigga diss songs either, and btw look at Method Man's comments on Def Jam and you'll see the difference, that's probably why he won't have a video out either, lol.... btw, come on Vipa, DMX spent quite a bit of the 3 years away from recording music, his "retirement" was more legit, but he never really called it retirement either, he was more just quitting the music industry 'cause of all the bull**** going on, if it wasn't for Mase convincing him to make music he wouldn't anymore, but Jay-Z' constantly making music and repeated over and over that he's "retired", really?!! I actually look at this LL and 50 collab album like DMX's "Grand Champ" release, just material being put out to get out of contract...

First of all I ain't buying into this Jay-Z gimmick "oh i'm coming out of retirement" now when we heard his ass rap on a million remixes over the last couple years, if he signed up to be the president of Def Jam he needs to get the **** off the mic and do his job or get somebody else to do it if he wants to rap still, he's ruining great mcs' careers by pushing them to the side to promote himself, that's some selfish **** right there and of course like I said LL needs to team with a real mc like DMX or KRS-ONE if he wants to maintain that strong cred he's had over the last 20 years, working with 50 really is gonna hurt him, his original fans will all go away and only kiddies will care about him, I pray that he comes to his senses and doesn't do that for hip-hop's sake, he needs to stop worrying about trying to sell the most records and just make the real **** that the real fans love him for, yeah there's a major difference between when LL started his career and 50 did, 50 started his career by dissing other rappers while LL started his career by displaying skills that nobody ever heard before through hard work, 50's a dime a dozen and shows that anybody could get a record deal, he's a joke like K-Fed...

Well Jay's going off to do a world tour this month for his upcoming album supposedly instead of helping promote The Roots and Method Man albums(Could you tell me if you seen their videos on MTV or BET yet? We'll probably see Jay's video come out before theirs at this rate), there's been more news in the media about Kanye producing Jay's album than there has been about Ghostface's album being out it seemed a few months ago, come on now is he an artist or a president of a record label? "I think Def Jam needs to be a better promoter of hip-hop," the rapper reportedly griped. "I think Jay-Z does a very good job ... of promoting Jay-Z", couldn't say it better myself if you ask me...

What LL's saying about Def Jam is basically what I've been saying for the past few months, it seems that Jay-Z' more concerned with promoting his so-called "coming out of retirement" album rather than promoting the hip-hop artists on Def Jam(sure he promotes the r&b acts like Ne-Yo and Rihanna but this is the greatest hip-hop label in the world we're talking here), I mean look what he did to DMX, where's Redman's album? How could you lose respect for somebody that comes out and speaks the truth like that? If I didn't go on the internet I swear I wouldn't know that Method Man and The Roots had albums out this week 'cause they got no videos on TV right now, he signed Nas to make sure that Nas won't outsell him, I really think Jay just became president of Def Jam just to promote his own image, people call LL soft for doing love songs but why is it cool for Jay to do love songs with Beyonce? "Broke ass critics always got something to say/What the **** you know about hip-hop I'm LL Cool J", this man's been in the rap industry before a lot of these so called rap fans today were born, he has the right to defend the state of the game, the reality is that Jay-Z took LL's formula of putting platinum albums together by having hardcore tracks and love songs on it but yet these kiddies act like Jay's the originator and LL's just some bitter old man but nah it ain't that way, LL's paid his dues, he has the right to say this, I just don't get it, of course I'd rather see LL blast 50 for all the things he's done to ruin hip-hop too, hopefully 50 disses LL in the studio like Canibus did and we'll see that happen, lol, like I was saying before I think LL should do an album with DMX instead of a fake puppet like 50, that'd really be some aggressive stuff right there...

I only saw a lil' bit of it last night, have to check for the re-run, a lot of people've been saying that it was boring and Jack Black skits sucked

Yeah this sounds great, definately looking forward to that documentary!!

Yeah I heard about 50 dissin' Diddy 'cause he don't want Diddy to work with Mase anymore when Mase gets signed to G-Unit, it's very childish, 50 acts like he could tell people what to do, the fame has gotten to his head, I thought that LL wanted to get away from beefs, working with the one who starts beef all the time is not a smart idea 'cause it could lead to beefs that're unnecessary for him, I seriously hope he knows what he's doing from the standpoint...

Yeah with all the things LL's planned to do I guess the only way they're gonna get this album out is if it gets rushed like it says there, recording 6 songs in 4 days, it's just something to get out of his contract at Def Jam the way it looks, I'd be a lil' bit more worried if this was LL's last album 'cause this wouldn't be going out on top by doing this with 50...

Well I found a new article on Billboard.com about the LL album, I guess it's more than a rumor after all: LL Working With wack rapper #1 On New Album September 01, 2006, 11:15 AM ET Jonathan Cohen, N.Y. Although his last album came out only five months ago, LL Cool J is already working on another new project that will be produced by wack rapper #1. "We did six records in three or four days," 50 said last night (Aug. 31) during the MTV Video Music Awards preshow. LL then said the as-yet-untitled album would be his last for longtime label home Def Jam. "For me, I needed to go and work with somebody who really had my best interests at heart," he said. The artist has released 12 albums for Def Jam; the most recent of which, "Todd Smith," debuted at No. 6 on The Billboard 200. LL previously acknowledged allegiance with wack rapper #1's G-Unit crew by featuring Lloyd Banks on a recent single, "Bump This." The track was reportedly intended for a re-release of "Todd Smith" but failed to appear on any Billboard charts. During the VMA telecast, LL and 50 appeared onstage together to present the best female video award. Later in the evening, they hosted a VMA after-party at the hotspot Tao, which featured a performance by Gnarls Barkley.

I see they're selling the limited edition CD on undergroundhiphop.com, you could pre-order it there, yeah some of these tracks are only from a couple years ago, that doesn't make sense to call it an old school album: http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/det...sp?UPC=RR0665CD