bigted

Mutombo gives $15 million for hospital in Congo Associated Press NEW YORK -- Dikembe Mutombo will fulfill a lifelong dream soon, opening a hospital in the Congo named for his late mother. Jennifer Pottheiser/NBAE/Getty Images Mutombo, seen earlier this year, gave $15 million for a hospital to be named after his mother. The Houston Rockets center, who donated $15 million to the project, will open the doors to the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital and Research Center on Sept. 2. The 300-bed hospital will provide health care to people in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Mutombo was born. "We were very close," Mutombo said Monday in a telephone interview. "To do something of this caliber in the name of your beloved mom, it will mean a lot not just to me but to the people of Congo." He created the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation in 1997, the year his 64-year-old mother died. She was unable to get to the hospital because streets were closed due to civil unrest. His father, Samuel, was turned back from the hospital, just 10 minutes away. "My mom played a big role, giving us all the tools to make us great human beings," Mutombo said of his nine siblings. "She did what moms are supposed to do -- raise a child with a good understanding of life." The $29 million hospital and research center will include a pediatric wing, surgery suites and a women's center. The health care crisis continues in the Congo, where one of five children dies before age 5. Malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, measles and cholera have reached epidemic proportions and continue to infect millions of adults and children. The average life expectancy is 42 years for men and 47 for women. "Malaria is taking more lives than any other disease, especially children under age 5," he said. Mutombo had a life-threatening bout of malaria after returning from the Congo in 1999. He had a "huge headache" and passed out after an early season game. His temperature rose to 104 degrees while at a suburban Boston hospital, but after 12 hours the doctors couldn't determine what was wrong until a Kenyan intern entered his room. "Brother, are you from Africa?" she asked. "Which spot?" When she heard Congo, she asked if he'd been home lately. He'd been back the previous month. "She saved my life," Mutombo said. "We got the malaria results 40 minutes later. We waited two hours for the malaria medicine from the CDC [in Atlanta]. I wish I knew her name to thank her." Mutombo came to the U.S. in 1987 on an academic scholarship to attend Georgetown. As a premed major, he expected to return to the Congo as a doctor. In his second year, Georgetown basketball coach John Thompson invited the 7-foot-2 Mutombo to try out for the team. He grew up loving soccer, but eventually came around to basketball under Thompson's guidance. "He took me by his wing," Mutombo said. "He made me who I became today, he's like a father figure to me. I don't call him 'Coach,' I call him 'Pop.' He gave me all the tools to succeed -- maturity and education." Georgetown was ranked No. 1 and reached the final eight twice in his three years of play. He was Big East defensive player of the year, averaging 15.2 points, 12.2 rebounds and 4.71 blocks his senior year. College basketball altered his plans to become a doctor, and he graduated instead with degrees in linguistics and diplomacy. He speaks English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and five African dialects. Mutombo has averaged 10.6 points and 10.8 rebounds in his 15-year career. Now he's satisfied to assist on the medical front. His goal is to get 100,000 people to contribute $10 a month on his Web site to support the hospital and research. "I'm still a doctor, serving the people," Mutombo said.

Yeah the singles before "Boom! Shake The Room" were better but I'd say most singles released from the FP solo albums are worse than that though...

Yeah even I own one copy :kekeke: "Big Willie Style" ain't a JJFP CD either so why'd you post about that in this section? :wiggle:

I agree with AJ that "Boom! Shake The Room" is probably the weakest song on "Code Red" but that tells you how strong that album is, I could still play that track when I play the album without skipping off to the next track, I could skip the whole "Born To Reign" albumcompared to this, lol, that's kinda ironic that FP dissed that song around the time he started working on his worst album, and it seems that a lot of people who doubt FP's rapping skills actually seem to like this track too along with basically anything on "Code Red", if this album sold 10 million like 'Big Willie Style' did then I think FP's rep as a commercial rapper would be ranked much higher then it's been...

I love "Boom! Shake The Room" too, FP's flow was sick, the lyrics were amazing, and the production was on point, it's better than most of his singles released in the last 12 years except "Party Starter" and a couple others...

I don't think Common really been involved with acting, this is probably one of his first major film appearances, it'll be interesting to see how he does...

Hey I just realised that I can't get megaupload to work for me so I'm unable to hear anything right now :damnyou:

No X ain't cool with Jay, there's no friendship anymore, he said that on the bonus DVD you'd see if you got the album, his frustration with Def Jam was the reason why he was consider quitting the rap game, it wasn't fun for him anymore, Jay went on vacation in Miami when he was supposed to arrange X's video to come out last year... Now we see what he's doing to Method Man and The Roots, where are their videos, I mean don't they have albums out this month? With that kinda poor promo nobody's gonna be aware that real artists are about to drop albums and they're gonna flop, I hope this don't happen to Nas either... Jay spends too much time promoting wack mcs like Young Jeezy(Young Cheezy as DMX calls him, lol) and Rick Ross while real mcs like Redman and Method Man are tossed to the side like I said earlier in this thread and since he really wants 50 to do more albums, he's probably the one that's forcing LL to do an album with him but what can you say he's a hustler, he only cares about what's gonna make the most money, he knows that garbage sells and real stuff don't right now so he's just going where the money is, that's why not much quality is released on Def Jam anymore...

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...