bigted

Basically every commercial rapper has ultimatums though, especially these days but even some ol' school rappers did it too back in the days where you have to, I'm sure that even Flava Flav sporting his clock and dancing around helped Public Enemy sell more albums. If the Black Eyed Peas were doing "Big Pimpin'" with Jay-Z or "It's All About The Benjamins" with Diddy they'd have more street credibility too then they have now but what'd be the difference? Those type of songs don't have no substance either so I find it retarded that those people could diss Black Eyed Peas and call them sellouts for that, black radio would play "Switch" if Jay-Z did it too. This point is brought up quite a few times on hip-hop forums, either you keep it real and be underground forever or you commercialise your style to be more known, everybody with a hit record in hip-hop has done it, name me somebody that gone platinum that hasn't? We complain about Will not selling that much on "Lost and Found" but do you want another commercial sounding album like "Big Willie Style" so it can? Trackmasters are a bigger brand name than Freshman, if some underground producer produced LL's recent albums instead of Timbaland or Neptunes, he wouldn't sell much anymore either. That's what it takes unfortunately, I mean Common would never be getting recognition from the media like he has now if Kanye West didn't produce his entire album for him either. If Rev. Run had Diddy produce his album for him he'd go platinum too but he doesn't so nobody buys it. Some of those so-called conscious rappers contradict themselves too so they end up looking like bigger sellouts than those who do who dumb down their lyrics or style. Will.I.Am is right if you only roll with a few people in the game then you'll have street credability from the media. That's why people hate on JJFP too 'cause they don't work with everybody that's hot in the game at the moment, you gotta give respect to them trying to do their own thing even if you hate them, they don't need to ride Jay-Z' d*** to sell records like most rappers have to do. Has 50 Cent or Nelly released a song like "Where's The Love" anyway? Have they worked with James Brown? I don't think so, I might not listen to them but how can I hate on somebody that James Brown respects. It's good to know too that the millions of kids who buy Black Eyed Pea albums would get to know who James Brown is, you can't say that about those who buy a 50 Cent record. If the Black Eyed Peas had Beyonce instead of Fergie, nobody would say they were just pop even if the songs sounds the same. There are wack mcs on the underground too just like on the commercial scene, not everybody is dope on the underground and not everyone on the mainstream is wack either. MC Hammer is a legend just like Rakim too btw like Will.I.Am says, they both have their own styles, not many are great as a lyricist like Rakim and not many could rock a house the way Hammer does. I honestly would buy a Black Eyed Pea album over any of these fake gangstas anyday 'cause at least they ain't doing songs about killing people or drugs, hopefully once James Brown hears "Tell Me Why" he'll wanna cut a record with JJFP too.

Will knocked out 50 Cent! :pony: The champ is here, the champ is here, the champ is here, Will Smith is the people's champ!

This is great, I didn't see this coming! :mygod: :yeah:

I'm not really a Black Eyed Pea fan but I could respect what Will.I.Am is saying here, knowledge! :word: http://www.allhiphop.com/features/?ID=1245 Will.I.Am of BEP: The Big Payback By Adisa "The Bishop of Hip-Hop" Banjoko The Black Eyed Peas are large. Love them or hate 'em, BEP is on top. This crew went from being underground b-boyin' MC's to moving multi-platinum units and achieving multi-cultural success on several continents. In between all the hits these guys have been doing music for cartoons like Samurai Jack and Dexter's Laboratory, as well as major endorsement deals. Ironically, as underground champion, MF Doom is being praised for his successes, the Black Eyed Peas have been ostracized for theirs. Will.I.Am feels your scorn. He knows about it, and he speaks on it with AllHipHop.com. Between chilling with the Music Department at M.I.T. in Boston, Will keeps it funky - like his hero, James Brown. AllHipHop.com: Black Eyed Peas have a made party rocking a consistent theme in their music. A lot of MC's have forgotten that angle. What made you focus on it? Will: Because the era of Hip Hop that we are influenced by, from 1987 to 1994- that's what that era was about. From Shinehead, to Redhead Kingpin, to N.W.A., to Mix Master Spade, Big Daddy Kane, - that's the era that we come from. To me, that's when Hip-Hop was pure. AllHipHop.com: Did you expect Monkey Business to get the high acclaim that it has received? Will: Monkey Business, yeah. But Elephunk, no. The first two records I was just being creative - like, "Whatever." I was just happy to have a record deal. I was just felt blessed and was happy to tour. Honestly, we thought Elephunk was going to be our last record. So, we went into the studio like -Whatever we ever wanted to do on a record, let's do it now. Let's say everything we ever wanted to say. Because the world is f**ked up right now." So, we made a record called, "Where is the Love" around the time America was at its lowest point. America was at a tender, most sensitive time and we talked about the CIA and the KKK on the same record. It got played all over the place. We had a message-hit on Top 50 radio. We did not even plan to do that. If someone said, "Hey lets make a jam to get played all over the radio" I would never have said that. But it happened. It just totally opened my mind up to Monkey Business. was made on my laptop on airplanes. At the time, we were traveling the world on Elephunk. "Where is the Love", "Let's Get Retarded" and "Hey Mama" was huge all over the planet. We were doing shows in Vietnam, Lithuania, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Philippines - all over the planet. I was thinkin' like "When are we gonna make a record? 'Cause if we keep touring, we'll never make a record." So I was doing it on the airplane, trying to feed the whole market at the same time. I wanna make an album that's gonna have songs that are relevant to every single country we are hitting at once. AllHipHop.com:: You have a unique way of bridging the old and the new school vibes. Like with the "Pump It Louder" chants and the "I wonder if I take you home baby," the Egyptian Lover basslines and stuff. Will: The "Pump It Louder" came actually from one of Hammer?s old groups 3-5-7. Remember that song "Juicy Got ?em Crazy"? AllHipHop.com: I live in the Bay, man. So I heard that all day. Folks was playin' that all the time in the Bay. Will: Hammer was killin' it back in the day. N***as can hate all they want. It was different. You were not supposed to compare him to Rakim. It was a totally different thing. It's like tyring to compare a Hummer to a Lamborghini. You can take a Lamborghini into the mountains and expect it to perform. This is a vehicle designed by Black people- Hip-Hop. N***as was trying to compare that to a Hummer. It ain't a Hummer dog, it's a Lamborghini- applaud it. Look how fast it goes! That's was wong with Hip-Hop right now. People don't understand its legacy and all the cars that it has. They keep trying to compare it to the same vehicle. It's like "No n***a, Hip-Hop ain't just a muthaf**kin' Ford Taurus. We got Jaguars, Cadillacs- it ain't just one f**king car!" AllHipHop.com: Tell me your greatest international Hip-Hop experience, and how all the traveling affects how you see Hip-Hop? Will: The biggest one is when we landed in the Philippines. When we get down, every news crew possible is there documenting the landing. We get off the airplane. and the news crews come and rush us. We get the hotel and turn on the TV. There is a four-hour special on Apple's life, and it ends with the crew's documenting of our landing. They were shooting till the moment we landed, and then went in and edited that footage in. The next day, we did a show in front of 30,000 people, and they have the army in front holding the people back with the President in the middle! Every time Apple goes back to the Philippines, there's a news crew. He's bigger than any government official in the Philippines. That's nutty. AllHipHop.com: It's real crazy to me how accelerated your careers moved. What has been the easiest and the hardest adjustments to make for you? Will: That hardest thing to adjust to, is the disrespect. We accomplishing a bunch of things. But, because nobody gave birth to us - Like, "Yo, we came from this camp, or that camp." Jay-Z, Puffy, Suge Knight did not put us on. We did not come from nobody. So, because a mega-figure did not put us on, it seems like nobody can really relate. That's been the hardest part for me as a Black person. BET and The Source only cover one style of Hip-Hop. The hardest part is Black people not being able to relate to another Black person who has done a lot globally. The easiest thing is all that bodyguard s**t! I don't need that stuff. AllHipHop.com: One of the things I liked about this album was that you had James Brown on there. I wish more rap artists would do more songs with him since his music plays a large part of Hip-Hop's foundation. It's like you and Afrika Bambaataa are the only ones! Will: Actually, a lot of rappers wanna work with James Brown. The thing is, he does not wanna work with them. We were in London at awards . I walked up to James Brown. I said, "Thank you for all that you did for Hip-Hop. You may not know it or realize it, but Hip-Hop would not be what it is, without it." So, I asked him the most daring question "You think we could do a song with you?" He said, "Send me a reference for what you want me to do, and I'll do it." So I go to the studio. James comes the next day with his whole crew. He pulls me aside and he says, "Ya know, Mr. Will, I don't got to work with nobody. But something tells me to work with the Black Eyed Peas. But I like how y'all do what y'all do. Y'all got the band. In Hip-Hop music you don't see enough of that." So, we started talking. I started talking to him about Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Elijah Muhammad. He knew all of them personally. I mean there are not that many people that have seen as many things as he has seen back in the day that's still alive. I asked him what's the difference between Black America today and Black America back in the day. He said, "Black America today is fighting a fight that we fought. Y'all ain't got nothin' to fight about, and it shows in y'all music." That blew my mind. He said "I appreciate the fact that you took the time to write songs like, "Where is the Love". That's brave. But I don't work with nobody because I don't got to." We had to do a benefit in Los Angeles, I called him a week before to come perform and he showed up. His manager was like, "He does not do this for anybody. " AllHipHop.com: I also notice you got a track with Sting. I'm a serious Sting fan and I love "Englishman in New York." Talk to me about how that song came together. Will: I did two remixes for one of Sting's records. Apple was tellin' me, "Yo, I want to sample "Englishman in New York". I was like, "Really?" I asked , and he was like, "I'd love to." So, he flies out to Berlin and we record the song in Hitler's old studio for recording propaganda records. It's all the original equipment from when it was originally put in. So we recorded a song called "Union". It's weird because we're talking about the opposite of what Hitler was talking about- in the same studio. AllHipHop.com: What was it like to record in that room? Will: It was mad eerie. You don't understand how big this facility is. They gotta room as big as a basketball court- that's just filled with organ pipes and one organ. It's bigger than any basket ball gym. It's just got organ pipes and microphones in it. This facility is huge. A couple months ago and Fergie was singin' on the mic and I said, "What kind of mic is that?" The guy's like "This mic was made specifically for Hitler." AllHipHop.com: Wow. One thing is that y'all did a posse cut with Q-Tip, Talib Kweli, and some other raw dudes. I think your critics aren't hearing these songs. Tell me how that track was made. Will: Whoooo!! We just shot the video for that. We did that track on the internet. Talib was in Cincinnati, Cee-Lo was in Atlanta, John Legend was in D.C., I was in Los Angeles and Q-tip was in New York. It was all done with computers. AllHipHop.com: How did you feel when the song was done? Will: It reminded me of something from Low End Theory or Midnight Marauders. AllHipHop.com: If you could clarify one major misconception about the Black Eyed Peas right now- what would it be? Will: That the BEP is not Hip-Hop. BET don?t wanna own it. VIBE don?t wanna own it. Some try to make it seem like we are not Hip-Hop. But we are. 'Cause I'll battle any n***a in a freestyle. I'll take a lotta n***as out too!

A producer/mc in the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan. I read an issue of Vibe last year where they interviewed Method Man and he said that he wants to be like Will Smith and make it big in acting just like in rapping.

Yeah 50 Cent's time is running out soon for being famous, he's getting older now, either he changes soon or he'll be forever known as a black Vanilla Ice. :paperbag: btw, "Hustler's Ambition" is growing on me, it reminds me of Eminem's "Lose Yourself" in the way that he's showing flashes of his underground skills the way Eminem did on that song but they don't seem to do that much though that's why I can't really stand them anymore. 50 should stop frontin' like he hates Fat Joe and Nas so much 'cause if he got love for Will and KRS why wouldn't he have love for them too? He proabably grew up listening to Nas' "Illmatic" and Fat Joe's "Jealous Ones Envy" 10 years ago since they were dominating the underground hip-hop scene on the east coast, maybe 50's scared that KRS might destroy him 'cause KRS is a close friend of Nas and Fat Joe.

btw good thing this is bumped, I was listening to Common's "Like Water For Chocolate" CD the other day and on the song "Heat" he says: "Most sell out like a dread with a white girl" So that must be how he really feels then since he wrote about that in his song.

50 Cent reminds me of Fat Joe in a way, he was a dope underground rapper too but I don't really like his commercial stuff that much although I do think Fat Joe is better than 50 right now but Fat Joe's humble and I could respect that from him 'cause he knows that he ain't the greatest lyricist in the world so he won't diss other rappers unless they diss him first, he wasn't gonna make a song dissin' 50 if 50 didn't open his mouth about Fat Joe 'cause Fat Joe don't like to beef. 50 needs to do the same and stop trying to beef, if he learns to shut his mouth and just make songs maybe he won't have so much criticism. 50 probably also realises that he don't wanna be like Vanilla Ice so he's probably trying to show that he does care about the hip-hop culture while he still has fame, Vanilla Ice is being real now but it's too late for people to see that since nobody pays attention to him anymore, it's a short window of opportunity, but that's why I think Will's the greatest 'cause he always stays true to the game all the time.

:kekeke: :bat: :willvspaparazzi: Anyways speaking of 50 Cent I saw they had a special on him today called "Life & Rhymes of 50 Cent" and he performed KRS' "The Bridge Is Over" and gave KRS props, first he gives props to Will in one of his songs now he does this, maybe that's a sign that 50's gonna turn it around soon and be a dope mc since he respects the legends.

If Will released "Party Starter" as the 1st single and performed it as much as "Switch" I think "Lost and Found" would've gone platinum months ago and "Party Starter" would've hit #1.

Playahata Times: Sports Section NBA to Institute Language Code WEB EXCLUSIVE By Bruce Banter, PH Staff Writer NEW YORK — NBA Commissioner David Stern said Monday in a league wide memo that he was amending the memo on the player's new dress code to include "language restrictions". The commissioner announced that players would not be allowed to use the "N" word as a term of endearment or in casual conversations. The commissioner re-iterated that his talk about professionalism, representation, accessibility to fans and community service is not only what we see but also what players say, re-enforcing his earlier mandate and making it clear he feels his league has an image problem. Ignoring the language code is not an option. "Teams and players will be subject to fines" for violating the language code, said NBA spokesman Tim Frank. "Repeat offenders will be subject to suspensions." It doesn't matter if you are repeating the lyrics to a gangsta rap song or greeting a teammate in a friendly manner, the word nigga in any of its slang forms will not be tolerable. This is not the street, this is a business and players should be careful about what type of music they listen to while at work, if you cant surf for porn while working for Microsoft, you cant use pornographic language at work." Stern said we want to stop this before they start calling managers and coaches nigga" Some image consultants say it's a smart move. "How you speak creates first impressions," said Paul McGruder, who heads Powerful Presence, an image consultant firm in Pebble Beach, Calif. "For the league, it needs to be controlled. One bad apple can ruin things for the whole league. Player Reaction "At the rookie transition (meeting), they showed a graph of fans' perspectives on sports, and our image is the lowest in all sports — football, hockey, baseball. If this is going to change the image that people have, that's good." -Deron Williams, Utah Jazz "This sh!t is fu$%ed up, if I wanna call Chris Weber my NIG, dawg, homie or whatever, that ain't nobody business - even white players is saying what's up Nigga. Its all good now, it don't hurt no more cause we rich now, this ain't slavery days." - Allen Iverson, Philadelphia 76ers "For game days, it's cool. But just for a normal practice and traveling to the next city for a game, I don't think it's necessary. We're just traveling. You should be able to say whatever you want. If you're on IR and on the bench, you need to be able to just talk freely as long as you don't say that about fans **** should be cool cause we entertainers and they use the word in movies."- Ron Artest, Indiana Pacers http://www.playahata.com/pages/satires/satire_current.htm

I don't think "Pursuit Of Happiness" is gonna be released until almost a year from now so I doubt that he's promoting that already, I wouldn't rule out a surprise performance though.

How much did Rob Thomas' album sell and did he have any top 10 pop hits this year? I'm not quite sure how many people with gold albums won awards in the popular music category, I think Will is the underdog pick but at least he got nominated.

:yeah: :word: I think this is one of the best intro tracks of all time!

50'll most likely win, he was the 1st artist since The Beatles to have 4 songs in the top 10 on the pop charts, 50 is the new king of pop unfortuately! :paperbag:

Yeah that's why they collab with J-Lo then right? :rofl: Well Will released "Party Starter" that was produced by Luda but it didn't help sales that much... :hmm: btw, Will's supposed to be producing a movie for TI and Big Boi so hopefully they'll collab on the soundtrack. I don't know if I'd want Will to collab with Snoop again, Snoop's verse on "Pump Ya Brakes" was kinda weak and basically every album he did since "Doggystyle" sucks, I like his guest appearances better than his albums now but even they're starting to get weak, he should think about hanging up the mic, I wouldn't mind Will being on Slick Rick's and Biz Markie's next albums but that'd help their sales more than his. I think the only way Will's sales could improve if he was on the 50 Cent and Black Eyed Peas albums that sell 5 million but Will'd lose all the hip-hop credability that he has.

I forgot to mention DJs: Grandmaster Flash Jam Master Jay DJ Premiere Cut Creator Spinderella Terminator X

Jagged Edge feat Rev. Run "Let's Get Married"(Remix)

I thought you could only have 4, well if I could add more than I'll also add: KRS-ONE Ice Cube Treach Wyclef Jean Kurtis Blow Aceyalone MC Lyte Rev. Run DMC

I have a feelin' he won't be back, he probably just wants somebody to send him the song and then bounce... :pony:

Best MC: LL Cool J 2Pac Slick Rick Queen Latifah

"Party Starter" was a perfect single and video to release to display his skills as a rapper, it's a shock that it wasn't a big hit considering that it was produced by Ludacris who's one of the most popular rappers out there. I don't think the people like Black Eyed Peas or 50 Cent that outsold Will are considered "real" rappers, those 2 songs "Window Shopper" and "My Humps" that're getting heavy airplay right now have no lyricism whatsoever in them, "Switch" has even more lyricism than those 2 combined and that was his worst lyrically on "Lost and Found". He needed to have more tracks like that if he wanted more people to buy it, this album does win back a lot of credability in hip-hop, the best lyricists don't have high sales but they get respect and I think Will's getting a lot of respect for this album and proves that he has many more albums left in him, I think the best is yet to come...

I think some hip-hop fans would be skeptical about Will recording with Kanye 'cause everybody in the industry's collabing with Kanye 'cause he's the hot "brand name" producer out there now, they'd just say Will's hopping on the Kanye West bandagon for a hit record but despite what critics might say it'd be an interesting collab to see happen, I'd prefer it happened on one of Kanye's future albums though so that way it'll appear that Kanye's asking Will to collab not the other way around, it wouldn't kill me if it never happened though...

You don't think what Puffy's doing to the Lox is shady though? The only difference between him and Suge Knight is that he tries sugarcoating that he cares about other people but he only cares about himself and his ego, he signed artists for his benefit, not theirs, he's destroyed his artists careers on Bad Boy the same way Suge Knight did with Death Row.