bigted

I think it was mentioned by Frenetic that the album's shipped platinum in the US, I think it was once it reached 680K, that's why "Born To Reign" and "Code Red" shipped gold even though they only sold around 210K-240K in the US, and I'm sure that other countries have their own certifications for how much albums sell

It sold around 685K here in America but America's not the only place where people listen to Will, if you add all the countries total up it goes over 1 million people purchasing "Lost and Found", and yes I agree with you quality is the main thing, I wouldn't care if Will's next album flops commercially as long as it's a classic album, I don't give a damn if kids check for it as long as the hip-hop community receives it well and Will gets the credability as an mc that he deserve

:rofl: A few mistakes in both of those Ted!! Well I was in a rush when I typed it, but you get my point right? :smart:

Well "Lost and Found" went platinum worldwide just with one hit single in "Switch", I think in order for him to do better/have his next album debut at #1 he's gonna have to be more involved with guest appearances/do touring/myspace, something like that between the next album,I think just doing movies for 3 years in a row without doing any music really hurts him keeping all of his music fans, and btw yes record sales are way down now, gold is becoming like the new platinum it seems, even pop singers on TRL struggle to go gold...

Papoose Inks Million Dollar Deal With Jive Records Thursday - August 24, 2006 by Jolene "foxxylady" Petipas New York mixtape stand-out Papoose has reportedly signed with Jive Records. According to his management's official website, violator.com, The Brooklyn, NY-bred MC has signed a $1.5 million deal with the label. However, the site offered no other information. At press time, representatives for Jive could not be contacted for comment. Papoose, who has been co-signed by Busta Rhymes, Nas and Kool G Rap, among others, first came to prominence in 2004 via his song "Alphabetical Slaughter" which was featured on Kay Slay's DJ Kay Slay's Streetsweeper, Vol. 2: The Pain From The Game. In 2005, he won the Justo Award for the 'Best Underground Rapper' and garnered national attention this year, by appearing on the remix of Busta's single "Touch it" With the signing, The 28-year-old rapper joins roster that includes The Clipse, Outkast, UGK, Too-Short, R. Kelly and Youngbloodz, among others. Papoose has been working on his debut album, Nacirema Dream, which is slated to be released this winter or early 2007.

-"I always envied how y'all run with Dre and The Chronic And say how Pac, 50, and Jigga got it Along with LL, Chuck D, Slick, and Dougie I know y'all love me, but place other rappers above me" -"When y'all talk about rap you better start saying my name For real yo, I ain't playin'" I think that's Will crying out that people need to stop doubting his rap abilities, yeah maybe an album every 2 years would do it but with him signing up to do all these films where would he have time to release and tour for another album?

K-Fed's the white version of 50 :kekeke:

DMX to Entertain Troops in the Persian Gulf Posted In: Headlines Yonkers, NY rapper DMX will be traveling to the Persian Gulf in the near future with the USO to entertain and meet with U.S. soldiers currently deployed in the area. The trip will be the rapper’s first to the region. The USO (United Service Organizations), established in 1941 during World War II, has for 65 years provided recreation and moral support to U.S. troops stationed abroad. Other notable performers who have traveled abroad or otherwise pitched in to entertain and meet with troops include 50, Master P, and Luda. DMX recently debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Top 200 charts with his latest LP, Year of the Dog…Again.

Will said that gangsta rap was wack but then he shows love to gangsta rappers like Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre who were the kings of gangsta rap thenand were the ones that helped make gangsta rap as popular as it is now, they've inspired all these rap artists like G-Unit, Boyz In The Hood, Rick Ross,and Murder Inc. to curse a lot, rap about drugs, guns, money, and hoes, they all grew up on "The Chronic" and "Doggystyle" since gangsta rap was at the peak when a lot of them were young... And of course like I said he had Lil' Kim featured on a couple tracks earlier on "Willenium" before that point he made in "Who Am I" about how "I had the strength to say that gangsta rap was wack", it just doesn't make sense, he has Snoop Dogg featured right after all the things he said on many tracks earlier on "Lost and Found" about how rappers make 90% of their songs about cars, drugs, ice, and hoes, where that seems to be 90% of what Snoop's been rapping about for the last 10+ years it seems... Will flip flops like a politician it seems, maybe he is gonna run for president after all :jusmindyabizness: I honestly think that Will just criticises gangsta rap once in a while just to protect his clean cut image since he knows a lot of his fans are older and ain't into that gangsta rap, let's be real, he's just sayin' how he knows most if his fans feel but he don't personally feel that way 'cause the way I see it he actually does like it if he's gonna shout some of them out and collab with them, if he really hated gangsta rap that much he wouldn't work with them at all or give any of them props either, Will does care about sales 'cause if he knows if he goes all out and disses every gangsta rapper in the industry he'll be blackballed out of a record deal on a major label, he just does it in moderation enough to hold onto his older audience, and of course record label people like Jimmy Iovine(Interscope president) are to blame for the way the rap industry is with all these gangsta rappers, they're the ones who sign them, but what can you expect since rap is so popular, it's more than just a lifestyle now, it's also a buisiness, in order for it to go back to the artform the music genre needs to be underground but like that article on allhiphop.com said we'd complain if nobody gave rap music recogntion, what do we really want?

Well seeing the direction of this thread it's obvious that we care more about record sales than Will does

Yeah I was watching 106 & Park tonight with Outkast on there and they mentioned about how there's a BET exclusive with DVD at Walmart and I was dissapointed about that 'cause I didn't buy it at Walmart? 70 minutes with interviews, performances, and videos?!! Damn... :shrug:

I thought I remember hearing that Jazzy was gonna be more involved on FP's "Lost and Found", I wonder if there's unreleased JJFP tracks that're lying in the vault :davidblaine:

Chuck D has said quite a few times that this is really considered the singles' era where people focus more what the radio plays rather than looking for content on the albums and that's what the problem of the rap game is, he's right on point with that, people pay too much attention to what's played on the radio than they do paying attention to the quality of albums, it's like they get hypnotised into buying albums just 'cause of the songs they hear on the radio but they might not even listen to the albums that much after they get them or I guess they want to look cool and play that song in their car systems like everybody else, I notice too when kids bump something by 50 or those commercial rappers a lot of them only bump the singles you hear on the radio, they won't bump any of the album cuts, they just get albums for singles it seems and when the singles die down in popularity they'll never play it again and move on to other singles that're "hot", fans who appreciate rap music and music in general will play their albums with pride but they don't do that 'cause they don't appreciate the music... A lot of these fans are sheep, they just go by what's hot and don't search for good music, they just think that whatever the radio plays has to be good, rap has become more like fast food, these ignorant people are the reason why things are the way it is, if they were more aware then maybe record labels would change their way, it just tells you that most of the people who buy albums are kids that don't have the understanding or appreciation to what good music is, and then again those complaining about what the radio plays and don't search for good albums ain't helping the cause either, if you could find enough good music you won't even have enough time to worry about what the radio plays 'cause you could put that quality on your own rotation playlist without radio dictating you,but then again that's not only a problem with rap, I mean we all know why Paris Hilton has a record deal 'cause she's the "it" girl right now, the music industry has no heart, it's all about pimping these young kids but it was always about sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll if you think about the pop music culture over many decades but it's just marketed more than ever by these shark suit executives and the real artists don't have that much of a chance to make it, but personally like I said earlier if Will's gonna make songs like "Who Am I" and "Lost and Found" talk about how much he ain't feelin' gangsta rap, why can't he just come out and say who exactly he ain't feelin' specifically? FP needs to use his power to stand up for what's right and if it takes beating negative cats then so be it, it needs to be done...

I'm listening to it right, halfway through so far and so far I like what I'm hearing, I'm feelin' it better than the last album already, great stuff, be back in a lil' while :kool:

Well Will's considered "Mr. Nice Guy", basically he wouldn't go out of his way to criticise nobody, that's how he is, usually if he ain't feeling somebody he won't come out and say it either though, the thing is if he says he likes somebody we like we hold it up highly and go along with the fact that he respects them, since most of us like 2Pac it's like we're cool with Will sayin' that but if Will says that he's feelin' somebody most of us don't like like 50 we'll deny it like he didn't mean to say it that way but the reality is if he's gonna come out and say that he's feeling somebody he does feel them, he has the right to his own opinion whether we like those artists he does or not, he could listen to Britney Spears all day for all I care as long as his music doesn't start sounding weak I'm cool with that, btw you gotta log in guest, you did make some good points there...

Yeah there's a lot of stuff FP does that we don't know about probably, he shouldn't be so private though with his true fans, I may sound a lil' like a Loretta but it's the truth, we're there for him through thick and thin and he should hook us with stuff that the bandwagon fans won't pay attention to check for, that's why he gotta set up a myspace :wiggle:

Exactly man, I only give a damn personally about if the album I buy is gonna have songs to listen on, I don't worry about how many others are gonna be listening to it but like I said earlier the great artists like Busta Rhymes, DMX, LL, Ice Cube, Rhymefest, Outkast, Kanye, and Pharrell are all currently selling all about the same amount/more as most of those people that Julie mentioned that're wack right now, G-Unit hasn't had a hit record in over a year it seems, Bow Wow as well, he lost most of his fans when he dissed FP, lol, if you told me in the beginning of the year that'd be possible to see the mainstream level turn around like this I'd thought you were crazy Hip-hop on all levels is going back in the right direction and with albums from Nas, Lupe Fiasco, The Roots, Common, Papoose, CL Smooth, Rakim(????), Kel Spencer(if he gets a deal right?!!) Talib Kweli, etc., 2006 looks a lot like a great year for hip-hop, it's turning around from the last couple years that's for damn sure... Btw there was as many rappers rapping about cars, jewlery, sex, and violence 15 years ago as there is now, keep it real AJ, it's not like every rapper was doing gospel music then but you make it sound that way, "oh my god they're rapping about guns, explicit sex, jewlery, it wasn't like that before now" is the way you're putting it, even the G.O.A.T. LL Cool J was instrumental in inspiring the bling bling era with his "Walking With A Panther" album cover, Nelly's wearing grillz 'cause of LL,KRS-ONE inspired 50 to put a gun on the cover of his movie, Dr. Dre named an album called "Chronic" then a lot of rappers started rapping about smoking weed after that, a lot of these ol' school heroes inspired the music that's out today, now the difference between back then and now is that the artists were more talented then I agree, plus record companies promote one style of rap more than another now but really there's not that big of a difference, why is it ok for Ice Cube to hold a gun but then you want to put 50 on the cross for holding a gun? Come on now, in reality neither are strong role models for kids if you think about it, of course I'll listen to Ice Cube over 50 anyday 'cause he's more talented but I don't really look at him as a role model all the way either, some things he does I don't agree with,and yes turntable brought up a great point about how even with all that positive rap from Run-DMC and JJFP 20 years ago it was still the crack era, btw you really need to read this article done on allhiphop.com: "Hip Hop: Still All The Way Alive. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Everyone needs to calm down. Everything is going to be okay. Hip-Hop is alive and well, and here to stay. I know I'm not the only one who is tired of people complaining about the "State of Hip-Hop." Hip-Hop is doing just fine. Actually, it's doing better than just fine. Why is it that every interview with an artist, in every Hip-Hop publication and every blog, consist of someone crying about the state of this culture? When asked "How do you feel about the current state of Hip-Hop?" you hear answers like, "White corporate America is destroying Hip-Hop," or "Hot 97 is destroying Hip-Hop," or Jimmy Iovine and the powers that be are destroying Hip-Hop," or "wack rapper #1 is destroying Hip-Hop." Enough already! No one is destroying Hip-Hop! There is nothing wrong with Hip-Hop's current status. If you look back at any musical genre or culture you'll find that the people who were there in the beginning and who have watched it grow will favor the beginning. They'll say it was more creative and real, and artists just had more passion and love of the art than the artists of today. You know what? They might have a point, but things change. Times change, people change, power changes, taste changes, money changes, and the world changes. Now that Hip-Hop is a multi-billion dollar business and dominating everything in pop culture, everyone wants to be a critic. What's funny is I bet the same people who have such a problem with the current state of Hip-Hop would be the first ones crying if rap wasn't being played on the radio, or on MTV, or BET. You know that would be the case. I could hear it now, "Corporate America and the rich white people in the high rise offices are racist and prejudiced against Hip-Hop not allowing it to grow and succeed in the mainstream." Come on, this is an art form and a way of life, but above all this is a business. For a business to be successful there has to be people with money and people who are in a position to make big moves. It just so happens that some of the behind-the-scenes guys are white businessmen. I bet if you ask Jay-Z if he would have rather continued to sell crack for the rest of his life or have a white dude that may not be very interested in the music pay him millions to be a rap star, he would choose the latter. People need to understand that if it wasn't for the higher ups right now Hip-hop would not be where it is today. If Jimmy Iovine wasn't in the position he's in, then Dr. Dre wouldn't be who he is today. And If Dr. Dre wasn't as talented he is, Jimmy Iovine wouldn't be getting paid. They need each other. I don't think Jimmy Iovine is going to start rapping if he can't find talented artists. And maybe guys like Jimmy Iovine do like Hip-Hop, and maybe they do truly want it to grow for the love of the culture, but even if they didn't, would it really matter? People say that it's guys like Iovine who determine what's going to be hot. Well like I said, he's not making the music. I would like to think we as individuals have a mind of our own and won't just agree with whatever a guy like Iovine likes. Interscope and companies like them put out what the people want. We buy these albums by the millions. Hip-Hop is fine. No, it's better than fine, it's great! We have such a variety to choose from today. It's like there are different genres within a genre. If you like hardcore street rap there's some of that. If you like pop-friendly radio songs there's some of that. If you like conscious, in-depth cultural and political-awareness rap there's some of that, too. There is something for everyone and it's all there generating interest and revenue for the culture to grow and expand. And you know what that does? It provides more jobs for the inner-city youth, as well as provide more money and funding for schools in the hood and low poverty areas. Every damn rapper out has some sort of charity that gives to people in need. So why not let it grow and expand? It doesn't take a genius to figure that artists making a particular type of music won't go on to sell multi-million. So when Talib Kweli speaks on socially conscious issues he's not appealing to the twelve-year-old girl listening to "Country Grammar" in the car pool line. And it's not that Mos Def, Little Brother, or dead prez, aren't all amazingly talented artists in their own right, but they can't complain when they put out an album that doesn't go platinum because the message doesn't reach to the masses. And if they want to reach them, then they have to make a club anthem and a song for the ladies. It's not that the machine necessarily is monopolizing the music industry to be that way, but I don't think little Susie from Ohio cares to hear about the man holding you down. Some artists don't want to sacrifice their artistic expression or sell-out, which is highly admirable but don't complain when your record doesn't reach platinum status. It's not 50's fault, it's just that he makes music to reach a broader audience. My whole point is that Hip-Hop is doing very well for itself right now and that shouldn't be overlooked. There's so much whining and complaining that I'm afraid that we're going to overlook a lot of good things. We have to remember that Hip-Hop is now a business. There are going to be things that are shady and unethical, but it doesn't mean that we're in any kind of danger. Lets just enjoy what we have and not sweat the small things."

http://www.rollingout.com/cover/index.php?...7&more=1&page=2 The day before Chuck D is scheduled to take his place behind a lectern and drop knowledge on eager listeners, he finds himself at his mother’s home tripping down memory lane. As he sifts through 20-year-old photographs from his college graduation, Carlton D. Ridenhour reminisces on the time in his life when he was a mere student of the game, rather than the teacher he has since become. “If I’ve got something to be stuck up about, I ain’t gonna brag to people about my rappin’,” he will say the next day, in retrospect. “I brag to people about my degree, ‘cause it took every day of those 6 years. Six years, boy — [and] 2 years to understand what the hell I was doing.” It’s a strange admittance from a man often credited with lyrically educating a generation. But Chuck doesn’t necessarily see it that way, preferring to call himself the spark plug. “That’s how people learn, they gotta get sparked,” he says. “People always say, ‘Chuck, I remember back in the day you taught me something real.’ Uh-uh, I didn’t teach you. It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back is only an hour. All it did is name references. You were smart because you found out about Coltrane and Chesimard and you processed that.” In many ways, Chuck D still looks and sounds the same — a relic from a bygone era when incendiary rap was the rule, when young black men compared themselves to African kings, and female counterparts, like one named Latifah, prefaced her name with the title, Queen. But the times and rhymes have certainly changed. Now the only color leftover from hip-hop’s red, black and green era is the color of money. And loud, lyrical, rebellious African Americans like Chuck D have long since gone out of style — even amongst their own constituents. Rap fans today prefer their politically conscious rappers with heaping helpings of the kind of self-conscious lyricism that made overhyped rapper #1 a household name. We are so caught up with looking at ourselves in the mirror that checking the rear-view rarely occurs to us. As a result, history remains just that — a thing of the past destined to repeat itself. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that the platinum-selling artist is busier now than he was at the peak of his recording career. Yes, the leader of Public Enemy is still fighting the power. But he finds himself preaching far less often to the choir than he does reminding those wayward soldiers that the battle is not over. That’s what brings him here today, to the Georgia World Congress Center, where the 2006 National Urban League Conference is taking place. The ballroom luncheon he is scheduled to address is filled with the incoming generation of buppies, or young urban professionals, as they prefer to call themselves. Most of them are full-time entrepreneurs or already-successful careerists. Though they remain actively involved in the community-at-large through their NUL affiliation, most populate suburbs far removed from the concerns and conflict of inner cities. And most of them have long since shelved those classic, platinum-selling Public Enemy albums like It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back, Fear of a Black Planet and Apocalypse Now — The Enemy Strikes Black, which likely sparked more cultural pride during their adolescence than any text studied before or since. As the hundred or so attendees began to lunch on their entrée of grilled salmon, Chuck approaches the podium preparing to take them back to school. “On my birth certificate, it says Carlton Douglas Ridenhour. Race: Negro,” says the 46-year-old. “By 1968, we were black. And black was beautiful. James Brown said, ‘I’m Black and I’m Proud.’ Black Panther Party, you know. Kwame Ture, formerly known as Stokely Carmichael [introduced] Black Power — BLACK — anytime before that, black was a bad word.” The lesson he teaches consists of equal parts history and our story, as Chuck touches everything from globalization to the “dumbassification” — as he so eloquently puts it — of America in general and, specifically, urban culture. “Fast-forward to 2007, black is a curse word,” he continues. “Ni**a is the word to use. And it’s being [paid] rent, like water, endorsed, financed to a point that niggativity is big business in America.” But don’t get it twisted. This isn’t the tale of another one of those throwback rappers who hates all things contemporary simply because he’s no longer in the mix. To the contrary, Chuck is more sought after now than ever. He pens his own column for Elemental Magazine and publicenemy.com once a month, hosts his syndicated “On The Real” radio show once a week (AirAmericaRadio.com) and continues to grant requests via the 100 or more e-mails he receives per day to give lectures, grant interviews and make appearances 365 days a year. Plus, while presiding over his own SlamJamz record label, which features 30 artists internationally, Chuck and Public Enemy continue to record and release new material, like their recent full-length album, Rebirth Of a Nation. By no means has Chuck toned down his pro-black, anti-establishment rhetoric. But what he has learned to do is disseminate the message in ways that not only incite listeners but provide insight as well. “[There] was a particular time in my life where I said, ‘You know what man, I can hype people up too [easily] and I can make them angry too [easily].’ So I had to scale that back because you want to lead people [so] that if they’re going to fight something, at least they’re going to know what they’re fighting about,” he says. “You wanna have people define themselves and discover themselves and then also be a benefit to mankind, man. But bottom line, we have to get to the point where we understand that knowledge, wisdom and understanding are the keys to life and you can’t get them in a microwave. Knowledge, wisdom and understanding come like the sands of time, itself.” Back in the day, before gangsta rap overtook rap’s golden era, Chuck D was like an elder statesman of sorts, presiding over hip-hop’s then-new school of philosophical emcee’s and politically charged groups like living legend KRS-One, the African medallion clad members of X-Clan, and Five Percenter spitters Poor Righteous Teachers and Brand Nubian. “Chuck D is like an idol and I don’t even have idols,” says Allhiphop.com founder, Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur. “[That’s] where we got our political state [of] mind and consciousness [from].” As head of the pioneering Public Enemy — featuring colorful hype man Flavor Flav, DJ Terminator X and head of the S1W’s (Security of the First World) Professor Griff, Chuck helped package black power and resistance for black teenagers as well as a multitude of white, radicalized youth. Whereas the average rapper today is billed as a high school dropout and ex-dope dealer, Chuck was just 2 years shy of receiving his design and communications degree from Long Island’s Adelphi University when Def Jam signed Public Enemy after producer and part-owner Rick Rubin heard a tape of Chuck freestyling. It would take yet another 5 years before the release of their first album, Yo! Bumrush the Show in 1987. “We all got our degrees around ’84 and went right into the music business,” says Chuck, referring to himself and other PE affiliates, Bill Stephney and Harry Allen the Media Assassin, as well as Hank Shocklee, a member of the production team, The Bomb Squad, that gave the group its alarming, revolutionary sound. “And our mission was to destroy it and use it as a transmitter to endorse or reinforce intellectualism — not anti-lectualism, not dumbass-ification.” America wasn’t quite prepared to swallow this image of smart, strong, enraged and engaged black men. Public Enemy could not escape the onslaught of media criticism and eventually the group was forced to kick Professor Griff out of PE after claims he’d made anti-Semitic comments during an interview. By the time PE released their hugely successful sophomore album, Chuck was nearly 30. Add that maturity and education together and you begin to understand why Chuck’s subject matter as PE’s lead rapper was so far removed from the party and braggadocio raps of that era, or the puerile drugs, guns and decadence-laced lyrics that pervade today’s airwaves. Rather than blame the fruit for being spoiled, Chuck points to the fruit-pickers who harvest such a crop and make millions mass marketing it. “In the music business, do you think wack rapper #1 and G-Unit, or Jimmy Iovine is the person that’s propagating thug and criminal mentality to the masses?! And he lives in Malibu, and is just stacking and collecting it all. He’s been the guy behind Death Row. Death Row just went bankrupt, but Jimmy Iovine has cashed his way all the way to the bank,” Chuck declares. “I’m telling you right now, he’s in direct juxtaposition to what I’m about. If I run into him, straight up and down, I’ma gaffle his ass, for real. It’s going to be straight up and down; I’ma just knock you out when I see you.” What pisses Chuck off more than anything is when black folk wield their money-making sword with that same sense of unaccountability and irresponsibility. In other words, black people who are willing to do damn near anything to make a dollar only do so at the expense of their own people — which is exactly how African Americans became enslaved in the first place. “There’s got to be a soul to our business,” he tells the crowd of young, professional hustlers more than once, putting emphasis on quality versus quantity. “Why are you giving a million Lil Wayne records more credence than 400,000 quality records that the Roots have made? Don’t get caught up with the quantitative method. More doesn’t always mean better.” While Chuck is obviously well-versed when it comes to telling people what-it-is, he doesn’t claim to know all the answers. “To err is human. Nobody’s got life down. Life can only be managed. It can’t be mastered. So we’re all students.” But like any good student, Chuck D knows that asking the right question at the appointed time can trigger a revolution

I think it's starting to turn around on a mainstream level a lil' bit too, just think over the last couple months we've had albums from Busta, Ice Cube, Rhymefest, DMX, and now Outkast coming out this week, hip-hop is still alive, I really think the balance is starting to turn around quite a bit, even in the golden era we had Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer selling millions when a lot of the most credible mcs like Rakim and Big Daddy Kane barely went platinum, and of course "Code Red" didn't sell much while gangsta rappers were selling millions, sales never measure quality, good music does and there's still plenty of good music out there today, hip-hop is far from dead

Did anybody get this album yet? I honestly forgot that this was coming out today since I've been doing a lot of work lately, I think I'll pick it up tomorrow and drop the feedback...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/22/arts/mus...JicZIac/uDaVHvw Producer Ready to Try Again With Old Partner Irving Lorenzo, a k a Irv Gotti, is expected to sign a deal with Universal. By JEFF LEEDS Published: August 22, 2006 LOS ANGELES, Aug. 21 — In December, Irving Lorenzo had reason to think that the tumult that had sidetracked his wildly successful career as a rap entrepreneur had finally passed. Robert Stolarik for The New York Times “It’s like a rebirth,” said Irving Lorenzo, right, about his expected deal with Universal. Mr. Lorenzo’s cigar buddy is the rapper Ja Rule. After a three-year federal inquiry, a jury acquitted Mr. Lorenzo of charges that he used his rap label, Murder Inc., to launder money for a convicted drug kingpin. Now Mr. Lorenzo, known professionally as Irv Gotti, was free to produce hits for any company in the business. Almost nine months later, however, Mr. Lorenzo, 36, has found the road back full of twists, none more unexpected than his choice of partners: the same record conglomerate that severed its ties with him during the investigation and, as Mr. Lorenzo said at the time, “made a decision to destroy me.” He was expected to sign a deal early this week that would put him back in business with Universal Music Group, the world’s biggest record corporation, which had financed Murder Inc. and distributed its recordings. The deal would make him the chief of a new profit-sharing venture with the company’s Universal/Motown label. “It feels exhilarating,” Mr. Lorenzo said in an interview. “It’s like a rebirth. It feels like God put me through hell, showed me a lot of things, showed me who the good people and bad people are around me, and lined me up to do what I’m put here to do.” Under the three-year deal Universal will commit roughly $10 million to Mr. Lorenzo in an advance against future profits and payments to cover overhead, said people briefed on the arrangement, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The deal also includes a provision that could allow Mr. Lorenzo to buy ownership of Murder Inc.’s master recordings, these people said. Mr. Lorenzo returns with a roster that includes Murder Inc.’s signature acts: the rapper Ja Rule and the R&B singer Ashanti. He has also been working to resolve a contract dispute with another R&B vocalist, Lloyd. Mr. Lorenzo has been eyeing artists in other genres, and has been in talks to sign the pop-oriented singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton, who had a hit in 2002 on another Universal label. Even with the new pact, it may prove difficult for Mr. Lorenzo to return to the platinum-selling pinnacles he reached a few years ago. Ja Rule and Ashanti have had lackluster sales with their last few albums, although Mr. Lorenzo said that was largely because of an overall decline in the music market. While unaccustomed to the role of underdog, he said he was not concerned about competition. “I embrace competition, because I get busy,” he said. “Certain of my peers in the business, I know that they don’t want me to succeed. They prayed for me to go to jail.” In the early days of 2003 that seemed a distinct possibility. Federal agents raided Murder Inc.’s offices and seized bank accounts connected to the label. Investigators alleged that Mr. Lorenzo had used the label to launder drug money for a convicted dealer, Kenneth McGriff, whose gang dominated the crack trade in Jamaica, Queens, in the 1980’s. Mr. Lorenzo denied that he had laundered money for Mr. McGriff. Instead, he said, he had legally negotiated a deal for Def Jam to put up $500,000 to co-produce a soundtrack for “Crime Partners,” a McGriff-produced film. But even as Mr. Lorenzo proclaimed his innocence, Universal began turning a cold shoulder, he said. Universal pressed Murder Inc. to vacate its Manhattan offices, citing complaints from other tenants in the building, and certain high-ranking executives would no longer take his calls, Mr. Lorenzo said. After Mr. Lorenzo and his brother, Christopher, were indicted in early 2005, the relationship with Universal foundered. Universal tightened its purse strings, and within months it moved to end its partnership with Mr. Lorenzo. But then, he had his day in court — and won. Within days of his acquittal, he was meeting with prospective partners that could help finance his label’s revival. Many expected him to sign with Warner Music Group, whose executive ranks are filled with Mr. Lorenzo’s former associates from Def Jam, the Universal label that marketed and promoted Murder Inc. releases.

Well Will has openly said before that he liked Nelly, Jay-Z, and Ja Rule when most of here don't like them, personally I don't care who Will likes as long as he makes great music still...

Every artist allways says that about his own records. Thats no legitimite source,lol Yeah Will even said that before "Born To Reign" came out :3-laugh3:

You must have Will confused with LL, I don't think Will plans to do an album with 50 or anything like that, he just didn't want to start beef with him like Julie said, which again shows that he ain't concerned with sales 'cause if he called 50 out on record his record sales would go up in an instant, beef sells, he never took that route but I personally feel though if he's gonna make all these songs criticising the rap game he should just call out those wack rappers by name and tear them up in a lyrical battle, if he did that there wouldn't be anymore doubters of his rapping skills for damn sure, lol, it's kinda funny how he said gangsta rap is wack on a song in "Willenium" but yet he had Lil' Kim on the album, I just don't know sometimes with him, it's like when he says he's cool with downloading then says go out and buy the record and don't download... Lost and Found" is actually an anti-mainstream type of album for Will's standards as well, you really got that mixed up sonic 'cause "Born To Reign" was an effort to try to sell and "Lost and Found" was an album that showed that Will wasn't caring about sales, lol...

People need to take into account that Will's not a new artist, he's a proven veteran, most from his era release albums every 5-10 years at this point, so every 3 years is not that bad if you look at it in that perspective, he's doing more music than most of peers even though he's the biggest name in Hollywood at the same time