bigted

Nas doesn't really rap about money or cars in his music but it ain't like he's broke, I don't see nothin' wrong with enjoyin' success, he doesn't worship money but he worked hard to get where he's at over the last 15 years so it ain't like he'd be lying about having paper, arguably the most successful and consistant rap artist to come along since LL Cool J and JJFP, sure none of his albums ever sold 5 million but how many rappers that sold that much 10 years ago are still making quality albums and going gold? Nas' place in the hip-hop game definately puts him at the top with all the all-time greats, including the ones who never really sold much as Nas but have been consistant of course. That's kinda wack that 50 Cent would diss Nas after they used to roll back in the days when Nas was showin' him the ropes, Nas does need better talent on his side, I'd love to join him too if he started a label. btw he denied that he's workin' with the Neptunes that was a false rumor, although he did do "Nas' Angels" with the Neptunes before. The Neptunes did do some great work on LL's "10" album though so I wouldn't mind either, better yet a Neptune produced track with Nas and LL on it would be dope!

Well basketball is entertainment, that'd be like forcing all rappers/singers to wear suits at their concerts, it's not like they're in a board meeting then I'd see that's when they'd have to wear suits, dressin' normal actually shows that you could relate to the people, as long as they ain't sloppy though I agree with that point, the commissioner should just make sure the players iron their shirts, lol. You have to go after the character more than after what the person wears 'cause like Allen Iverson said on ESPN today even murderers could wear suits but they're still murderers, the only way the NBA's image could improve is if the players don't fight with each other. Surburban people are into the 'hood lifestyle though 'cause hip-hop's the most popular music genre and that's music of 'hood lifestyle, when Run-Dmc dressed normal wearing Adidas everybody related to them 'cause that's how people dress in real life. Less people have been watching the NBA recently 'cause it hasn't been that competitive as it was when we had Jordan, Barkley, Ewing, etc in their primes but we do seem to be going in a new era with Lebron, Carmelo, Wade, etc. coming of age so I think this year could be the best in years.

The fans that go to the game are allowed to wear doo-rags and chains if they want to so why can't the players do the same if they choose to? I don't think it was really distracting anybody, the focus is more on the players on the court than the ones sitting out on the sidelines anyway, the players should be able to wear what they choose to if they're not playing in the game, if they wanna wear a sportcourt that should be their option, they shouldn't be forced to. I don't think player behavior has to do with how they dress unless they start pulling each others chains off! :stickpoke: :rofl:

http://www.mtv.com/bands/n/nas/news_featur...?headlines=true When Nas says "we major!," he's not just rapping the chorus to a Kanye West song: He's telling the world his new credo. After all, Nas is entering turf where virtually no other MC has tread: staying on top midway through the second decade of his career. Sure, there are plenty of rappers who've been around longer — and even had hits — but what other MC do you know who could still (arguably) be considered the best lyricist after 15 years in the game? While you're trying to figure that one out, Nas has his own calculations to ponder. On "We Major," he rhymes about being a free agent and wanting to start his own Motown, and that's exactly what he's been focusing on: his new label (the name of which he declined to reveal), deciding whether or not he's going to stay with Columbia Records, and building up a team of MCs to ride with him regardless of which label puts out his music. There's other business as well. Nas has some lyrical get-back for 50 Cent in store, and he's looking at a possible reunion with Illmatic producer DJ Premier and maybe a collaboration with Jay-Z — maybe. MTV News' Shaheem Reid caught up with the king of Queensbridge for the lowdown. MTV News: We've been hearing for a while that you're working on a new album. What's the status? Nas: The album is ... I started working on it. I had to pause to go back and look at it, because what I'm doing has hardly ever been done: taking a career to the next level. Usually artists don't make it this far. It's never been seen that a street artist go as far as I've gone — keep consistent without wanting to do a bunch of ventures outside of music to keep my face out there. I had to look back and pat myself on the back and really prepare to do what's not been done: to go for another few years in this thing and make it historic, the way it's supposed to be. MTV: "Looking back" has meant contemplating leaving the only record company you've known, Columbia. There've been rumors about you going over to Def Jam — and we've had conversations in the past about how much you admire the company's chairman, L.A. Reid. Nas: On an executive level, L.A. Reid is somebody who stands out and somebody who I truly admire and have been wanting to work with for a while, just based on what he's done and where he comes from. He interests me a lot right now. MTV: So you two have talked? Nas: There have been conversations. I've been exploring other possibilities for a long time. I loved my situation where it's at, but you have to look around and see what other shows are in town so you can expand your horizons. It's not just one place where you have to stay forever. MTV: Sort of like, you can't go to see Stephanie Mills perform every night. You have to see what Patti LaBelle and the Whispers are like. Nas: Yeah. You gotta make your rounds. It's important to make your rounds. Another good friend of mine in the music business is Craig Kallman. He's been trying to get at me to go over there for a long time. I’m really impressed with how he's moving. I'm just out here looking to see, "Where do I want to go create the biggest legacy for the next five to seven to 10 years?" MTV: Hey, 50 is signing a bunch of folks to G-Unit! Nas: They don't got enough paper for me. MTV: Your last album, Street's Disciple, received a lot of criticism, but I think it was one of your best joints. Nas: Absolutely. That album was a milestone period for me. It was my triumph in this business. The focus for that last record was definitely not about what was going on at radio at the time. It was about me doing different stuff. With the next stuff I'm getting at, it's gonna be right up that alley, but a huge project. I want to get to back to doing real big sh-- for the streets. MTV: I heard you was doing it real, real big on the new album: There's a rumor that you outbid a few MCs for some multimillion-dollar Neptunes beat? Nas: Nah. That's very untrue. I don't know where that came from. MTV: If you go to Def Jam, obviously, you'll be working with Jay-Z. A few years ago that was unfathomable, but I just saw a show in San Francisco where you told the DJ to not play Hov's name at the beginning of "Ether" where everyone goes "F--- Jay-Z!" You actually told the crowd you "love" Jay. Nas: Yeah. I was saying that in the middle of the battle, back in '01. I mean, it was a heated situation at the time, but I'm definitely not the type of person ... I don't have to live off of like other artists. I didn't have to make a career off of that. My career is based off a solid foundation. It's not based off of calling out names like a 50 or whatever. MTV: So are you and Jay going to ever do a song together? Nas: Who's to tell? Who knows? MTV: You got a record on the streets right now called "Don't Body Yourself." We all know the last verse is for 50 and everyone knows it's only a matter of time before you drop an "Ether"-like record for him. Nas: Yeah. You know what's the crazy thing about it? I've had times of missing 50. I brought him with me on tour before. He used to open up for me. I showed him his first Bentley. I showed him his first big diamonds in person — he ain't know nobody who had real diamonds the size I had. I showed him all that. So I kind of miss the cat from time to time. I would like to know what it is to sit down and talk to him, see what's on his mind. Because all he's showing is that when you get rich, you get angry at the world. And that's not what's it's supposed to be about. I would love to really sit down with him. But on the rap side, we got things to finish. We got business — we got unfinished business. MTV: He's made a cartoon character of you and dissed you on the DVD for The Massacre. On his latest record, "Window Shopper," he calls you a window shopper. Nas: How am I window shopping? I showed him his first Bentley, his first real diamond ring — because you know he couldn't afford no real stuff back then. I was showing him the way to go. The G-Unit spinning chain is a replica of the QB chain. I was showing him that. If anybody is window shopping, it ain't me. All these dudes just started buying Bentleys. MTV: I just was out on the road with Kanye West and I've been telling the brother for months that we really need a video for "We Major." Nas: That'll be a good look. I love the track and what it's all about. It separates the men from the mice. "We Major," that's my slogan all year, right now. MTV: On the verse, you rap about taking a little time to figure out what to write. That's how it really went down? Nas: Yeah, I was sitting there writing the joint. I was writing the rhyme and some of boys was there. We was just sitting there and talking and they was all over me. We was all over each other about rapping. They started yelling at me and hyping me. Basically they helped me write it. They was sitting there talking to me about me, and I wrote what was happening right there on the spot. MTV: You and Kanye have great chemistry. Who are you working with on your new album? Nas: Me and Premier is in the works. That's all I can say right now. MTV: What about outside the album? What are you working on? Nas: I been building my team up. I think people are gonna be surprised to see me roll out my label the way it's supposed to be done. I never had a chance to pull off Ill Will — I was never given the things I need to make the label a label. It kind of pushed me away from even wanting to do a label. But now I'm opening up my horizons to change that and do something different, and with that being fresh and new, I can now let my man Will's name rest for a while. I'm starting off something new. You might be surprised of who you see rolling with me. MTV: So I repeat: When are we going to get that album? Nas: It's going down — sooner than you think!

Vlade Divac retires now: Divac ends 16-year NBA career, gets new job with Lakers By BETH HARRIS, AP Sports Writer October 18, 2005 AP - Oct 18, 4:49 pm EDT More Photos EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) -- Vlade Divac ended his 16-year NBA playing career Tuesday, easing into a new job with the Los Angeles Lakers as a liaison and scout in Europe. The Lakers bought out Divac's contract for $2 million. The 37-year-old center had back surgery in January, and played in 15 games last season, averaging 2.3 points and 2.1 rebounds. ``I didn't have fun anymore with the injury I had,'' he said. ``If I didn't have fun, I wouldn't play my best.'' The Lakers could have picked up a one-year, $5.4 million option on the 7-foot-1, 260-pounder or put him on waivers. Divac said he had seriously considered playing this season, ``but I couldn't find the ride that would take me there.'' He had career averages of 11.9 points and 8.3 rebounds in 15 previous seasons -- seven with the Lakers, two with Charlotte and six with Sacramento. ``I'm happy today,'' said Divac, who sat next to his wife, Ana. ``When I look back, it was a wonderful career. It was a great ride for me.'' He joined centers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Hakeem Olajuwon as the only players in NBA history to get 13,000 points, 9,000 rebounds, 3,000 assists and 1,500 blocked shots. Divac was one of the first Europeans to have a major impact in the NBA. He was drafted by the Lakers in 1989, after playing in the former Yugoslavia's top league for five years. Asked the difference between his life then and now, Divac joked, ``I don't drive Yugo anymore, I drive Porsche.'' He helped Yugoslavia to silver medals at the 1988 and 1996 Olympics, and led the country now known as Serbia-Montenegro to a gold medal at the 2002 world championships. ``We tried to open the door for other guys,'' he said. ``When I came in the NBA, it was more a U.S. game. Now you can watch the NBA anywhere in the world.'' In his new job, Divac will report directly to general manager Mitch Kupchak, who plans to use him to evaluate European talent, scout on the West Coast and participate in pre-draft meetings. ``He brings a lot to the organization that benefits him and us,'' Kupchak said. ``It's not a far-fetched concept that Vlade could be a front office person or even a coach someday.'' Divac and his wife have two sons, ages 14 and 11, and a 7-year-old daughter. ``I never thought this day was going to come so quickly,'' he said. ``I'm sure my life after basketball is, hopefully, going to be even better.''

You could say this is Rev. Run's 2nd solo album 'cause "Crown Royal" was 99% Rev. Run since DMC wasn't really on any of the tracks on there. Does this album have any guest appearances? He was on TRL last week with his kids and one of his sons is a producer so I was wondering maybe if he had his son produce anything on there?

They're only selling it at Best Buy right now which sucks 'cause I went to one in my area over the weekend and they said that they didn't have it, I think I'm gonna wait until it releases everywhere on November 1st with a bonus DVD. You heard the album Hymn Strings?

Hey bart5 what do think about my proposal of Billups for Gordon? I just sent an offer of Damon Jones for Gerald Wallace from Tim's team too. 7 of my 12 guys are guards, I need more big men on my team, I'm working on that before the season starts.

Yeah it's like what Big Boi said on one of his songs: "Your whole shows consists of everybody's s*** but yours" which refers to pop rappers biting what those did before them did.

Eminem doesn't do what he says that's why I think he's in it for the money, it's just like when 50 Cent raps about how he looks up to Rakim and then puts out songs with no substance in them, if he really looked up to Rakim he'd put more thoughts into his rhymes, it's just like when Eminem says he looks up to LL Cool J and 2Pac and then makes heartless songs, 50 and Em don't live the words they say that's why they're wack to me! That'd be like Will sayin' rappers need to make an example for kids and then starts rapping about killing people, that'd be hypocritical. :sick: Outkast's releasing their album on the same day as Em's greatest hits album so I think it'll probably flop anyway, lol. btw, KRS-ONE's working on his 14th album "My Life" that'll come out February 2006, I think he'll be still rapping when he's 60 years old along with LL Cool J, Chuck D, and Will Smith while Eminem, 50 Cent, and most of today's rappers'll be long retired.

I doubt that Will's contract would be for only one album unless he decides to leave Interscope, which I hope he does, he deserves better, but Will always has enough money to promote himself if nobody signs him, unlike a lot of other ol' school rappers that're going broke and need to sign to a label, Will doesn't have to sign to a label if he don't want to. Worst case scenerio is if he stays, basically Interscope can't drop Will 'cause he's the highest selling on the label after 50 and Em. I don't see Eminem rapping that much anymore honestly, people're gonna be bored from him after awhile, once one of his albums don't go platinum he'll retire, maybe if this greatest hits album flops he'll quit 'cause he's one of those rappers that only does it for the money, Will is about the artistry, the only way he'll retire is if he runs out of ideas but great artists always have something to say, there's better odds that we'll see Will rapping 10 years from now than we'll see Eminem still rapping.

Well it might sound like an easy idea to us but maybe it's not really that easy for Will, it'd probably take him more time to establish a label and that'd be hard considering how busy he is, it's probably easier for him to sign with labels and let them handle that buisiness for him, as long as he keeps making albums I could care less. Maybe this greatest hits album is the end of Eminem's contract and he's callin' it quits or this is a gimmick to get people to buy his albums again, either way I could care less about it 'cause I ain't his fan or Stan you could say, lol.

He could've made that decision 3 months ago and saved the Knicks cap room if he announced he was retiring around the time they release him, maybe they were hoping he'd have a comeback year like Grant Hill though and make the all-star team.

That's why they re-released 50 Cent's "The Massacre" again, it's all just buisiness. I feel it'd be better if Will just establishes "Overbrook" and promotes himself, he'd probably make better profit that way to make his own videos too, tour, and release exactly what he wants to release.

Interscope is gonna spend more time promoting Eminem's greatest hits album than they did promoting "Lost and Found"! :therain:

I saw that commercial this morning on ESPN, I don't mind that song either though, that's like the only song from him that I liked, they're advertising his greatest hits album already.

Good thing Will doesn't have 15 kids or else he'd have to dedicate a whole album to them! :rofl: :rofl:

I think that'd be kinda boring if Will did songs for all the kids he has, it's actually better that he does different things for all his kids, they're all loved! :word:

I just joined as 'Big Ted 05-06', I was trying to figure out where the draft was and I noticed that it said auto, I thought I missed it for a minute there. :whew:

Allan Houston's retiring: Allan Houston to announce retirement Monday ESPN.com news services Two-time All-Star Allan Houston is to announce his retirement from the Knicks at an afternoon news conference Monday. Houston, who appeared in just 70 games over the past two seasons due to chronic knee pain, wanted to test his knee in training camp this year before deciding whether to retire. The shooting guard wasn't participating in the full workload of two-a-days his teammates were running, but had been encouraged by early results. Houston, considered the Knicks' best player a few years back, hasn't consistently displayed the smooth shooting stroke that earned him more than $150 million worth of contracts over a 12-year NBA career. Chronic knee soreness ended Houston's season Jan. 19, causing him to miss New York's final 44 games, and he averaged only 11.9 points while shooting 41 percent from the field -- his lowest numbers since his rookie season of 1993-94. Houston's last good year came in 2002-03 when he averaged a career-high 22.5 points. Houston, 34, played the last nine of his 12 seasons in the NBA with the Knicks. He posted a career average of 17.3 points per game, and a career-playoff average of 19.3 points in 63 postseason appearances. He was to earn $40 million over the final two years of his contract. Houston was the last player remaining from the Knicks' team that reached the NBA Finals in 1999. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

It was a below average Outkast album to me but it was refreshing to hear something good on the radio for a change at that time and a step above everything else then, every brother and mother owns that album it seems, over 10 million sold.

It might be best if there becomes less interest on the commercial rap scene then maybe when a lot of these disposable commercial rappers get dropped from the record labels maybe they'll sign some underground rappers that've been looking to get some exposure to take hip-hop back in the right direction and bring more of that universal feel to it again. The whole music scene needs repairing it seems though, it's gotten too corporal that artistry doesn't really get the recognition it deserves, there's more focus on tabloids than there is on the songs being recorded, it's more of a revolving door with artists coming and going all following the same style, maybe you'll get a rare handful of those that stand out from the pack.

You misinterpreted what I said, I said that I personally feel all hip-hop is hip-hop but not everybody feels that way, in reality there's too much of a gap between underground and commercial on the most part but who knows maybe that's just my opinion, I just wanna hear good music that's all. :stickpoke: I'm sure a lot of underground rappers would like to have exposure too for what they do but the problem also lies where music channels refuse to play the videos that they make so they don't get it, the problem is more towards the buisiness rather than the artists so this looks like a problem that's gonna be here as long as lots of people buy into the commercial style that's selling a lot, true artists won't get that full exposure that they deserve. Commercial artists come and go though with disposable and short careers if they stick to the same formula all they time, they should try to do different things and that's what I was implying to there, they should try to bridge that gap.

Commercial rappers are afraid to collab with underground rappers on the most part 'cause they're afraid that they're gonna lose their commercial appeal and underground rappers are afraid to collab with commercial rappers 'cause they're afraid that their hardcore fans'll say they're selling out, so how'll they'll ever be a change? :paperbag: Having different styles coming together would make music sound more creative to me, ol' school artists collabing with new school artists would interest fans of all ages for example if parents that're 50 years old and're Run-DMC fans heard Run-Dmc do a song with Jay-Z that person might actually gain interest in listening to Jay-Z and the 20 year old son that's Jay-Z fan might become a Run-Dmc fan too then suddenly the family's listening to both Run-Dmc and Jay-Z!

I think the problem with hip-hop is basically how it's divided up in "commercial" and "underground" before it was just hip-hop, it's like 2 different political parties now, lol, I actually dig a lil' bit of both styles but on the most part you either like commercial or underground but I like anything as long as it's hip-hop, if it goes platinum or sells a few thousand, it could still be hip-hop to me, some underground stuff sucks too just like commercial stuff does, there's no difference, it's all music. Commercial artists should collab more with underground artists, I could actually applaud Kanye for attempting to do that, more commercial rappers need to do that, that'd bring more flavor to the game.