bigted

Happy B-Day Cozmo!! :gettinjiggywitit:

:3-laugh3: :damnyou: :rofl:

Wednesday, August 9th, 2006 Common and RZA Sign on for American Gangster Movie Posted In: Headlines Chicago MC Common and Wu-Tang patriarch RZA have signed on to appear in the Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe film American Gangster, according to a report from MTV. Their addition to the cast now brings the number of rappers appearing in the film to three, after T.I. announced last week that he would be taking on the role of Denzel’s nephew in the Ridley Scott–helmed crime drama. Common will appear as the brother of Washington’s character, a drug lord who smuggles heroin into Harlem hidden in the coffins of soldiers returning from Vietnam. The film, which is set in 1970s New York City, was written by Steven Zailan (Gangs of New York).

Jay-Z Helps U.N. Focus on Water Crisis By NICK WADHAMS Associated Press Writer UNITED NATIONS - Jay-Z boycotted premium champagne Cristal at his clubs after the brand's owner made some remarks he didn't like. Now the rap superstar has a new favorite drink: water. Jay-Z, president of Def Jam Records, teamed up with the United Nations and MTV on Wednesday to get children involved in the fight against the worldwide water crisis. He cited statistics that 1.1 billion people live without clean drinking water and 2.6 billion lack proper sanitation. "I figure that once I stumbled upon that, if the information was out and young people knew that these problems exist while we're having Poland Springs at Cipriani and things like that, that we'll get involved," said the 36-year-old rapper, referring to the high-class restaurant chain. Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, said he had been looking for a way to help people, and when he visited Africa on tour he was struck at how many of the world's poor lacked such a basic necessity. "As I started looking around and looking at ways that I could become helpful, it started at the first thing - water, something as simple as water," he said at a news conference at U.N. headquarters. "It took very little, very little to see these numbers." MTV film crews will follow the rapper on his worldwide tour, which begins Sept. 9. "The Diary of Jay-Z: Water for Life" will feature first-person accounts of meetings with people around the world who lack water, MTV President Christina Norman said. Jay-Z said he wants to build 1,000 "play pumps" in Africa by the time the tour is over. The device features a rudimentary merry-go-round that pumps water from a well into a storage tank as it spins. He also hopes that children who learn about the crisis will tell their parents, who might be able to do something about it. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan recalled how President Kennedy once remarked that anyone who could solve the world's water problems would get two Nobel Prizes - one for peace and one for science. "Together, we may yet inspire a young viewer to take up President Kennedy's challenge, and claim both those Nobel Prizes," Annan said.

I noticed in a thread on allhiphop.com it mentions that this album is debuting #1, it makes it all 6 of his albums have done it now, nice to see a true mc like this get this kinda accolade, I'm sure Jay probably wished he kept him on Def Jam now, lol: DMX Continues to make History! Debuts at #1 for the SIXTH TIME in a row http://community.allhiphop.com/showthread.php?t=288751 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 DMX SONY URBAN/COLUMBIA/CRG 129,881 -- YEAR OF THE DOG...AGAIN

Nice to know that almost 2 years after "Lost and Found" came out hip-hop fans are still talking about it, that's the sign of a classic! :2thumbs:

Well I might as well just add this Method Man Interview I found on here rather than starting a new thread: http://xxlmag.com/online/?p=3614 After being signed to Def Jam for twelve years, Method Man is wondering if things have changed. He’s eager to make a big return to rap and prove the critics wrong with his new album, 421: The Day After, featuring production from RZA, Eric Sermon and Scott Storch. But he may not be the label’s top priority anymore. His first single, “Say,” has been getting mixed responses from radio, and Def Jam blames him for the confusion. According to Johnny Blaze, ain’t a damn thing changed, he’s just looking out for number one. If Def Jam ever stops questioning his sanity, Meth believes that the Kwame-produced club track “Fall Out” will be the single to get his album the push it deserves. When XXLMAG.COM caught up with Mr. Meth, he was heated and ready to speak his mind about his label and the politics of radio. You’ve been on Def Jam your entire career. Things must have changed a lot since you first signed. I been on Def Jam a long ass ****in’ time. Right now, I’m not feeling the album’s push. A lot of came up when I was comin’ up, and there’s some smart mutha****as in that building. So my question is, Is it me? Is it that they lack the confidence in me? ’Cause I got mad confidence in myself. My album comes out on the 29th and I haven’t seen advertising or **** for it. I go out on the road, do my ****in’ radio and all that ****. I don’t really see the snipes, none of that ****, not like it used to be. ****, I know how **** work. I been in the game a long time. Somebody tell me something. Make me a mutha****in’ believer again because I’m not seeing it. Are they giving a better push to other artists? Yeah, I think so. I want to push my **** back because of that, but they’re like, “No, we can’t push it back.” They don’t go out on the street with us and see how people respond to us when we walkin’ up and down the block. All they see is BDSs. Not even SoundScan, because for real, Ghostface, that album should be off the charts with them ****in’ BDSs he got on that ****in’ Ne-Yo record. That record did more for Ne-Yo than it did for Ghost. It gave Ne-Yo street credibility. He just rollin’ now. He just rockin’. He that dude. I’m not hatin’ on the kid, I don’t even know the kid, but I ain’t really feelin’ him right now based on that. You feel like Ne-Yo benefited from song more than Ghost did? Yeah, but it wasn’t his fault. You can’t hold back a hit record and a star, but I feel like the way the label did that ****, it was a maneuver that was not in Ghost’s benefit at all. I think they should’ve gave him another look after the Ne-Yo record. Why do you think they didn’t give him a second single? He fast food right now. A lot of these labels are treatin’ niggas like fast food. They just throwin’ the records out there and not giving them the push. They like, We gonna push it two weeks before and two weeks after and then that’s it. If it got legs, it got legs. If not, **** it. And that **** ain’t no way to do it. What happened to an artist’s relevance? But me? I’m mutha****in’ happy to be on Def Jam, I’ll tell you that much, because it’s synonymous with hip-hop, period. All I’m asking is that Def Jam keep it hip-hop. Has it been weird or different having an artist as your boss… He ain’t my boss. Jay’s the President of your record company. That doesn’t make him your boss? Nah. I mean, Kevin Liles, when he was there, he wasn’t my boss. I mean, he’s the staff’s boss. He’s gotta make heads roll when the staff don’t step up and do they job, but what he gonna tell me? “Meth, get in the ****in’ studio”? Do you have much interaction with Jay? Not really, but I love the **** outta Jay. He know it. That’s my dude. Y’all need to stop that bull****, because he’s nobody’s boss except that staff. He’s the president of Def Jam, not the artists. We sorta like loners. You don’t have a boss? Hell no! I ain’t got no boss! I’m self-made, nigga! They don’t sign my mutha****in’ check, they give me a loan for my services, which I have to pay back. Does that sound like I’m workin’ for somebody? Jay ain’t my boss, L.A. ain’t my boss, ain’t none of those mutha****as my boss. I was there before Jay, L.A., and all them niggas any ****in’ way. I got seniority. How come you didn’t have this type of fire on the last album? The last album I was just swimmin’, not to drown. Def Jam was going through they transition. Everybody was leaving. Kevin Liles, my brother, left me and Redman. But I would never block somebody from a check. If niggas wasn’t gonna treat you right, by all means, leave, nigga. I’d do the same ****. I wish Kevin and his family the best, man. I wish Lyor the best, man. Nigga signed me! There must have been a time when you considered following them over to Atlantic. I thought about it, but I’m a Def Jam dude. I’m one of those niggas. I want to end my career at Def Jam. But at the same time, I don’t want them to end my ****in’ career. Are you gonna do a video for the Lauryn Hill record? Def Jam was more interested in the song being a first single than I was. I wanted it to be the second single to knock me out the water. But somebody leaked the record Def Jam . They went for the record. The problem they ran into was they didn’t know that radio would have a problem with me saying, “Radio lying, that ain’t where the hip-hop lives.” Anybody that took offense to that record, it was meant for them. There was a lot of backlash for that record. Some people don’t wanna play it. I ain’t even been invited Hot 97. I live in New York and I still I ain’t did New York radio. I did Power and that was it. They wouldn’t let you on Hot 97 because of that line? I have no idea what’s going on over there. You gotta talk to the label. I came up with Hot 97 and Hot 97 came up with Wu-Tang. I still ain’t done the station and they don’t play the record. And that **** started with Funkmaster Flex. Flex played the record and he was like—this is second hand now, I’m getting it from somebody else—he was like, “Hmm, interesting. I thought Meth was cool with Hot 97?” I am cool with Hot 97. The ****? Why would you even put that out there like that? Just play the mutha****in’ record, my dude. He put a extra little “umph” on it and opened a few eyes up. Since then, I ain’t heard the record. So it sounds like you’re still undecided about whether it will work as a single. It’s already out there but they not playing it, B. I think we up to like a thousand spins. Then it kinda reflects back at the label. They’re saying I went to the radio stations discrediting the single. How could I discredit one of my own ****in’ songs that I spit on? The only thing I said when I went up in radio was, “This is the first single. Def Jam picked it.” And then I would back it up with, “If it were up to me, I would’ve came with something more heavy-hitting.” Meth likes to shake his ass at the club. I would’ve came with that single after, but I would’ve never came with that single first. Didn’t you not want to release “All I Need” as a single on the first album? I did everything in my power to discredit that ****in’ song and the **** still went platinum as a single. I didn’t have anybody at Def Jam blaming me or saying any sideways **** about me discrediting the song as being a single. All of the sudden, now there’s a problem with Meth being on the radio saying, “Nah, I don’t think this is a good first single for me.” Now it’s a problem. “Oh, Meth, we would’ve gotten the spins up if you woulda never ****in’ discredited your own single on the radio.” I ain’t discredit no ****in’ body. And when the stupid-ass ****in’ DJs call the ****in’ label, “Hey am I playing the right mutha****in’ song here? According to Meth, I’m not.” And I never even ****in’ said that ****, the stupid son of a bitch. A lot of times I hear out the building, “Oh Meth is a rotten person again.” At Def Jam, it got to the point where I was the bad guy up there, man. All I was doing was defending myself and looking out for myself. I ain’t done **** to none of these mutha****as, man. Why do you think they view you as the bad guy? I ain’t afraid to speak my mind and talk up about my **** when it’s ****ed up. See the little things don’t matter to them because it don’t affect them. But I walk up in Def Jam and I see a poster and it says “Def Jam All-Stars ’06,” and they got everybody’s picture on there but mine, even Redman’s picture on there. It’s like, how you gonna put Redman and forget about me? I wasn’t forgotten. I was excluded! I’m not supposed to flip about that? If you don’t let them know, this **** continues. So now it’s like, “This nigga Meth, he a loose cannon. Yadda yadda yadda.” When all Meth was doing was checking his best interests, defending himself. I think that **** is so wrong and unfair, man, to be labeled as the crazy one. They think I’m crazy. It’s not the good crazy like, “Oh, he crazy.” It’s like, “That nigga crazy.” Do you think you’ll be able to work all this out? All I ask is that these mutha****as give me a fair shake, ’cause you got some individuals up there right now, they don’t ride as hard for certain artists as they would for others. I feel like you should do your job to the fullest ability regardless to who the artist is. But there are people up there like that. It’s like high school, where these people clique up over here, they supposed to be the cool people. Everybody got they cliques

Wyclef's one of the best artists in hip-hop, I enjoy a lot of his work, btw the Fugees' album is still being worked on, they wanna take their time and make sure it turns out great, probably since "Be Easy" didn't create that much of a buzz either: http://www.aolmusicnewsblog.com/2006/08/04...g-no-seriously/ Fugees Reunion Still Moving... No, Seriously Posted Aug 4th 2006 6:54PM by Steve Baltin Filed under: Hip-Hop, Pop "It's moving like a turtle, but it's definitely moving," Wyclef Jean told AOL Music of the Fugees reunion album. Getting the three members -- himself, Lauryn Hill and Pras -- on the same page is definitely proving to be a challenge, he says. "As a producer, I work very fast. I don't second-guess. 'Let's do it, put it out there.' They like to take their time and I'm like, 'Yo, let's go!'" Fortunately, the musician-producer has many other outlets to keep him busy. In addition to his present smash with Shakira, Jean says there are plenty of other collaborations on the way. "I'm producing some Ying Yang Twins music, I got a group called Three on Three, I got a crazy record with Bounty Killer," he says. Ten or 20 more where those came from and he'll stay busy until we see the next Fugees record.

Wyclef Jean Gets "Second Wind," Working On New LP Tuesday - August 8, 2006 by Jolene "foxxylady" Petipas Wyclef Jean, one third of the Grammy award winning group The Fugees, has begun working on his sixth solo album. Titled The Second Wind, Jean has already crafted songs with Mary J Blige and Shakira and plans to collaborate with other big names in the music industry. "I plan to go get Carlos Santana, Shakira, Destiny's Child, Whitney, everybody I've worked with and write these real crazy songs with these wild arrangements and bring them to the world," Jean told AOL Music. "I wrote six tracks so far. I've already got the Mary J. Blige track cut -- it's called 'What About the Baby.' Right now my first single is a song called 'L-O-V-E' that we recorded with Shakira, so look out for that." According to Jean, The Second Wind will hit stores on the summer of 2007. As SOHH previously reported, Jean recently signed a deal with HBO to produce and star in a comedy series loosely based on his life. There is no word when the film will begin production but it will feature a soundtrack or scoring by Jean

Thanks for this, when I get a chance I'm gonna give these tracks a listen, btw that's awesome that you got Masta Ace on this, he's known as one of the realest mcs ever, I never got any of his albums but I heard some of his songs, great lyricist...

Happy Birthday Homie!! :kool:

I don't think hip-hop really brings that much influence to kids, think about how there was all these positive hip-hop artists in the '80s and yet it was the crack era in the inner cities, doesn't that seem kinda ironic, wouldn't the positive music have a positive effect on the kids to do good and leave the crack alone? Even if there was more positive artists getting fame in hip-hop again that doesn't mean everything's gonna be better, maybe if parents learned to raise their kids then I think there'll be less problems, that's the most important thing...

Yeah that track might be one of the top 5 tracks on the album if it actually made it, really deep song...

Don't have paypal :damnyou:

Ice Cube Added to VH1 Hip Hop Honors Show By: Mark Lelinwalla July 18, 2006 Ice Cube has been added to the list of artists that will be honored at this year’s VH1 Hip Hop Honors show. Cube now joins a powerful list of honorees which includes Rakim, the Wu-Tang Clan, the Beastie Boys, Eazy-E, Russell Simmons, MC Lyte and Afrika Bambaataa. Print Email Comment As earlier reported by Vibe.com, the third annual VH1 Hip Hop Honors show will be hosted by Ice-T and will be held at the Hammerstein Ballroom on Oct. 1 in New York City. At last year’s Hip Hop Honors show, St. Louis rap superstar Nelly did his best renditions of “I’m Bad” and “Doin It” to honor LL Cool J. Ice-T, Big Daddy Kane and the late Notorious B.I.G. were also honored. Cube continues to promote his album, Laugh Now, Cry Later.

Here is the track list for the soundtrack to "Idlewild": 1-"Intro" 2-"Mighty "O" 3-"Peaches" featuring Sleepy Brown & Scar 4-"Idlewild Blue (Don'tchu Worry 'Bout Me)" 5-"Infatuation (Interlude)" 6-"N2U" featuring Khujo Goodie 7-"Morris Brown" featuring Scar & Sleepy Brown 8-"Chronomentrophobia" 9-"The Train" featuring Scar & Sleepy Brown 10-"Life Is Like A Musical" 11-"No Bootleg DVDs (Interlude)" 12-"Hollywood Divorce" featuring Lil' Wayne & Snoop Dogg 13-"Zora (Interlude)" 14-"Call The Law" featuring Janelle Monae 15-"Bamboo & Cross (Interlude)" 16-"BuggFace" 17-"Makes No Sense At All" 18-"In Your Dreams" featuring Killer Mike & Janelle Monae 19-& Rooster" 20-tron Angel" featuring Whild Peach 21-eatest Show On Earth" featuring Macy Gray 22-u're Beautiful (Interlude)" 23-"When I Look In Your Eyes" 24-"Dyin' To Live" 25-"A Bad Note" OutKast Finally Settles On 'Idlewild' Track List August 04, 2006, 4:30 PM ET Clover Hope, N.Y. With just a few weeks left to spare, OutKast has finalized the track list for the long-awaited soundtrack to its film, "Idlewild." The album arrives Aug. 22 via LaFace/Zomba, while the film hits theaters three days later. The set features guest appearances from Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Sleepy Brown and Macy Gray, among others. The first single is "Mighty O," which was produced by Organized Noize and features Andre 3000 and Big Boi on the same track for the first time since 2000. The latter takes top billing on second single "Morris Brown" featuring Scar and Sleepy Brown. In "Idlewild," which has been postponed numerous times, Andre 3000 plays Percival, a club piano player, while Big Boi plays the club's lead performer and manager, Rooster. The film is set in the 1930s. "This is probably the first musical that didn't have the music done before it was shot," Andre 3000 recently told Billboard. "That has been the biggest lesson I've learned in this whole thing. Next time, we'll do the music first."

Yeah quite a bit of collab albums never seem to happen, KRS said a few years ago that he wanted to do an album with Slick Rick as soon as he got out of prison and bringin' Doug E. Fresh to beatbox but there's never been any news on that since Slick Rick got out of prison, btw I should've known that this thread would turn into a X vs. Ja thread as soon as AJ mentioned that Ja raps like X's 15 year old sister, I only care about knowin' any more info bout that track on the bonus DVD, if anybody got info on that it'd be appreciated...

There's not an artist out there that's had a perfect career, but overall you gotta give it up to Nas to still have relevance a decade plus into his career even if he had a few missteps he was able to make up for them unlike some artists who fall off after their mistakes, btw is there a release date for this album? That's another way to tell if this is legit, usually they don't do tracklisting without mentioning release date, hopefully this don't get pushed back like Redman's album that was supposed to be out by last Xmas and it don't look it'll be out this Xmas, lol...

Yeah I don't know if this is true either, mixing "Illmatic" type styleswith "Nastradamous" type styles is a recipe for disaster and it's too good to be true that MJ's gonna be on there, there's been a lot of talk about Rakim being on there though

Well DMX is definately more consistant than Ja Rule but Ja Rule does definately have some dope moments in between, he's not as wack as you think he is, btw there was supposed to be a collab album between DMX, Ja, and Jigga in the late '90s produced by Irv Gotti but they never got a chance to do it, that'd be interesting though 'cause they were all on top of their games then...

I agree with AJ that this album's gonna suck if he goes back to doing pop songs like he did in the late '90s, hopfully it's more like "Illmatic/Stillmatic/God's Son", I'm looking forward to the collabswith Michael Jackson and Rakim...

Well it's like when people say LL has only been doing r&b songs over the past few years 'cause he hasn't released that many of his hardcore tracks as singles, even quite a bit of people probably thought the "G.O.A.T." album only had r&b songs on it 'cause he released "Imagine That" and "You and Me", basically LL created the formula for rappers to go platinum by mixing r&b tracks with hardcore tracks, most platinum albums in hip-hop history has had that formula, Ja still had hardcore tracks on his albums too when he was doing those r&b songs, people always tend to judge artists off of singles more than anything, and the only way that anybody could be completely original now is if they create their own genre of rapping...

Well anyway nobody knows anything about that "One More Night" track? I really'd like to find the audio for that... Now as far as Ja Rule, come on now his first couple albums were hot, but after that he started dumbing down with all that r&b stuff which is still better than hearing all that snap crap now, but after 50 started attacking him his last couple albums have been more aggressive again, it's actually good to hear that him and X are cool again 'cause I think that they could do something great together, at this point I think everybody bites something at one point or another, hip-hop's been around for over 30 years, there's bound to be somebody biting something 'cause so many different things have already happened, it's hard to completely original now, even JJFP came out doing SugarHillGang type songs and 2Pac came out doing NWA type songs...

Those are great lyrics lyrics right there, you really dug deep on this one! :2thumbs:

It'd be more interesting if X gave his thoughts on how he feels about Mase going to G-Unit, btw it's actually ironic that Ja Rule's main producer Irv Gotti actually produced quite a bit on DMX's best album "It's Dark And Hell Is Hot", maybe X should end his beef with the Inc. and have Gotti produce some of his material in the future, him and Ja could bury 50's career at the same time too, lol,Ja Rule was basically just inspired by DMX 'cause he respected him and they were cool for a while especially since Irv helped X get his deal on Def Jam but really though I don't think Ja was just trying to imitate him, it's just like some might say that DMX is a Pac wannabe but I think he was just inspired from Pac as well... Sure his beef with Ja might've had a role for helping him leave the rap game but overall he was just as frustrated about the way Def Jam wanted him to water down his style like the other rappers on the label over the last few years, he was explaining his frustration about that many times during the release of the "Grand Champ" album in interviews, you could tell that some tracks on that album were what Def Jam wanted rather than what he wanted and that's why he felt dissapointed and wanted to leave the rap game, he recently referred Def Jam as the new version of Bad Boy, he was originally gonna sign to Bad Boy before he got on Def Jam to start his career but he saw how watered down the label was and it wouldn't fit his style and he sees Def Jam as a pop rap label now too and that's why he wanted to leave there, I think that's why LL's planning to leave there too after his next album... I notice too how there's been all this promo for Rick Ross' album who just continues this hustlin' gimmick in the rap game right now and yet a real hip-hop group The Roots are droppin' this month and they ain't gettin' any promo, Method Man and Redman are in limbo right now, I think Jay's doing this on purpose to promote himself, he'll be coming out with an album acting like he's doing it to save hip-hop but not really, I think it's the opposite, it's obvious that Jay don't care about bringin' real hip-hop back, he even noted in an interview recently that Em and 50 need to release more albums to help raise hip-hop's status, he's lost credability to me since I heard that ... He got a label and he's playing the pieces perfectly so that the real mcs won't overtake him, he gave up promoting Ghostface and LL's albums, he won't let Nas sell more than him either, he actually probably signed Nas to control him from overtaking his status, I think he became president for his own personal gain, not to improve the game, if you ask me if he really wanted to save the game, he wouldn't give up on DMX, he'd promote LL, and then wouldn't sign Young Jeezy and Rick Ross and help fuel the south rap crap even further onto the airwaves.... I actually watched the DVD again and I read the credits and I see that there's a song listed called "One More Night" produced by Dame Grease, that's probably the track that he was performing on there that didn't make the album, I recognise the other titles that're on the album but maybe if anybody could find the audio for it let me know, for you overseas peeps here is it a bonus track on your album? They do that a lot too...