bigted

speaking of the bet awards: http://www.islanddefjam.com/artist/news_single.aspx?nid=10269&artistID=7309 Check out LL Cool J accepting his "I Am Hip Hop" award at BET's Hip Hop Awards last night. Read his speech below. My acceptance speech/what I won’t do is try preach/I won’t assume that I am smarter than you and try to teach/What I will do is set an example for you and inspire you to reach for the stars that’s beyond mars that space bars can’t delete/Because without a dream fulfilled your life’s incomplete/A hearst, a limousine without a backseat/the worst, this Usain Bolt without feet/Real life aint Hollywood, it’s Halloween/Every day is trick or treat/It aint a red carpet it’s a bloody sidewalk from the wolves eating red meat/and these spotlights don’t come with money they come with police/Millionaires cry about raising taxes on the elite/they won’t feed us, as they’d rather defeat us/like an aborted fetus/but your greatest feat is to get back up on your feet/Did I mention, life aint a sprint it’s a marathon/Really stressful on your tendons/and with the shape the economy is in today, you better run to the polls like skinny Kenyans/26 miles miles and two hours and three minutes/It wasn’t weeks or months/It took us 400 years to raise the debt limit/So don’t lose faith, there’s a sweet life out there and one day you will taste/And just like any marathon, you must monitor your pace/and watch out for the haters pushing drinks up in your face/maintain your focus through the ups and downs and debates/and when you win your award, make sure you put in a safe place/and be prepared for whatever…just in case.

"year of the dog...again" was a great cd in 2006, one of my favorites from that year which showed that he still has that hunger, it's just been the negativity that's overcame him over the last few years but he does seem focused and with god on his side he'll be back on top

New York rapper DMX is clearing the air on his management team after reportedly receiving backlash over multiple missed shows set up by former employees. According to him, X's management changed following his release from prison last summer. "I fired my old management team the day I got out of prison," X said in a statement. "My money and career have been sabotaged for long enough. Makin' music and performing for my fans, that's what I'm doin' now. The Dog is back and I've cut these thieves out of my life." (Statement) X's manager, Jason Fowler, claims his client has been slated to appear at multiple incorrect concerts. "We're hearing reports of people making deposits for shows, only to find out that it was a fraud." says Jason, "All bookings must be through his new management team, because DMX is not responsible for any transactions that are not through J-Mike Management & Entertainment." (Statement) Not only having given up on his ex-management team, X is finally drug-free. DMX tells TMZ, he has finally kicked the drug addictions that kept him behind bars for years -- and he has his children to thank. X tells us, coke was his greatest demon after his latest prison release in July -- "Everyone was taking advantage of me with my finances, trying to put me in thedirection to fail. I have 10 kids. I have to drive them in the right direction, so I let the cocaine go." The rapper -- real name Earl Simmons -- says God also helped him through ... telling us, "I am on a spiritual road to do right in my life. I am leaving out all negativity and going to stay on the right road to positive." (TMZ) Over the summer, he promised to make a strong return to the music industry following nearly a year-long stint behind bars. "I kind of took it back to how I felt on my first album -- the hunger, the energy, the hardness of it," says the 40-year-old rapper (real name: Earl Simmons), who was released from prison on July 19. "I've had a lot of late nights in the studio, getting it in, getting it back to where it's supposed to be," says DMX, whose last album, 2006's "Year of the Dog... Again," has sold 344,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The rapper also notes that the lyrical focus of the album will be "bringing hip-hop back to where it's supposed to be. It's not at a good place right now... [There's] a lot of whack rappers out there. It's too corny." (Billboard)

will owning the sixers should be exciting!

i'm gonna check it out!

maybe so, they might of saw our cause on facebook too

blackstreet feat. queen pen "on the floor"

there's too many albums out these days with the same guest appearances(i don't wanna hear another album with lil' wayne on it), i wouldn't mind other producers like the legends on "code red" though, the keith b real skits were dope from big willie style i wouldn't mind something like that again either, maybe have martin on the album doing a bad boys skit wouldn't be a bad idea

jeff + prince = hit records

thank god, my prayers have been answered!!!

thanks for the link, heavy d still dropping the heat in 2011!

well i was born in '85 so i was in kindergarden in '90 and starting high school at the end of the decade in '99, well i guess the '80s babies like myself are like our parents who said that today sucks compared to their generation when they grew up in the '70s, and the way things are going i don't know much good things our kids will be reminiscing over, lol

word to AJ, the '90s was a great time, music and life just felt better than it does now

Lockout’s real pain felt beyond owners and players By BRIAN MAHONEY, AP Basketball Writer 3 hours, 10 minutes ago * * tweet1134 * Email * Print NEW YORK (AP)—NBA owners will lose $1 million on average for every game canceled because of the lockout, and players will lose an estimated $350 million a month. The pain, though, may be more acute for thousands of people with no seat at the bargaining table. Bars, restaurants and hotels will go quiet. Parking spots will go unfilled. And the workers who help make basketball a big event in 30 cities will wonder how long they can get by without it. “I’m worried that my money situation is going to change—a lot,” said waitress Zuly Molina, who works at a Hooters at the Bayside complex next to the Miami Heat’s home arena. “It was a lot better last year. We had business before every game, during every game with people who couldn’t get tickets watching in here, then after every game. Now it’s gone, except for when they have a concert or something like that.” Derek Fisher fears the NBA season won't start on time after the latest setback in labor negotiations. (AP) Molina said she never believed the NBA would cancel games until Monday, when the league announced it was scrapping the first two weeks of the season—100 games—because owners and players couldn’t agree on a new contract. She said, “I thought it would be like football,” where the NFL lost preseason games but no regular-season games while it hammered out a deal with players. “They were locked out. They got it situated. I thought the NBA would get it situated.” There’s no telling when that will happen. Commissioner David Stern indicated that the entire November calendar could be wiped away without a deal by the end of this month, but players and owners had no immediate plans to sit down with each other again. The cancellations mean that Mark Cuban and his Dallas Mavericks won’t be able to collect their NBA championship rings in the Nov. 1 season opener, and that James Dolan won’t be able to show off his renovated Madison Square Garden to a sold-out crowd when New York hosts the Heat’s Big Three the next night. But owners might be the lucky ones. They can still recoup some of their losses, and that’s what Stern said they could attempt by toughening their future proposals for a new collective bargaining agreement. “Well, what we have to do is we have to account for the losses that we’re suffering, so those losses will be factored in as we move forward,” he said Monday night. Players and owners have each made some concessions but remain far apart on several issues. Each side has sought a 53 percent cut of revenue for itself, though a 50-50 split has been floated informally. Owners also want a higher luxury tax, making it more expensive for teams to spend over the salary cap, but players say that would do too much to discourage teams from offering big contracts. Players and fans quickly took to Twitter and talk shows, disgusted that the sides couldn’t work out an agreement and were willing to cause so much damage following such a successful season. “All I can think about, and I’m not trying to sound like I’m on my soapbox here, but all I can think about are the thousands and thousands of arena, team and hospitality employees that are now going to be out of work,” said Andrew Feinstein, a bar owner and season ticket holder in Denver. “I thought the owners and players had an obligation to work this thing out while continuing to play the game, given the dire economic circumstances that are taking place in our country right now.” A lengthy lockout will be felt strongest in the NBA’s small-market cities. In Salt Lake City, a Marriott hotel was taking cancellations Tuesday for about 40 rooms previously booked by the Memphis Grizzlies the night of Nov. 2. Tyson Lybbert, director of sales and marketing for the Salt Lake Marriott City Center, said each game brings between $5,000 and $10,000 to the chain. Without a lockout, basketball already would have been back by now. The exhibition schedule was to have opened Sunday, and even preseason games can bring big crowds to restaurants and bars near NBA arenas. Jim Couch, city manager of Oklahoma City, was concerned for restaurants, hotels and volunteer groups in his city. The Thunder are coming off their most successful season since relocating from Seattle, reaching the Western Conference finals last year behind NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant(notes), and have developed one of the league’s most passionate fan bases. “What I’m more concerned about than anything else is the momentum that the city has gotten, disrupting the momentum with the Thunder. It was a special year last year with the Thunder, and I think everybody was looking forward to continue that,” Couch said. “I think it’s almost a love affair between the community and the team, and you hate to disrupt that.” Business went on for the league’s partners. ESPN was scheduled to show seven games during the opening two weeks and plans to replace them mostly with college football and basketball games. TNT will rely on its regular prime-time lineup to fill the six games it would have televised. Adidas, the league’s official outfitter, and fellow sneaker giant Nike said they remained committed to basketball and could seek additional exposure at the collegiate or international levels. Stern and union president Derek Fisher(notes) of the Lakers expressed disappointment for fans. Players and owners had the luxury of knowing just how complex the issues were and had two years to prepare themselves financially for a moment that Fisher said was “what we anticipated would probably happen.” “This is a big blow obviously to our fans, most importantly,” he said. “They don’t have a voice in this fight so far, but we hear them loud and clearly. They want basketball, we want to play basketball, and we’re going to do the responsible thing and try our best to bring them basketball as soon as we possibly can.” AP Sports Writers Chris Duncan in Houston, Pat Graham in Denver, Lynn DeBruin in Salt Lake City, Dave Campbell in Minneapolis, Jeff Latzke in Oklahoma City, Tim Reynolds in Miami, Anne Peterson in Portland, Ore., Rachel Cohen in New York and AP business writer Sarah Skidmore in Portland, Ore. contributed to this report. Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Briancmahoney

will feat. big pun, roc, and camron "gettin' jiggy wit it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNfBa6Rm3MQ remix

it may be hard to believe in 2011 but i'm sure there's people out there who don't have a computer or if they do they might not use it that much so most of what they listen to is from radio stations(i.e. Hot 97, Top 40 Pop)

the reality is that popular music in the last ten years ago has sucked, not too many good songs that came out in that time period were big hits, you gotta search the internet to find everything now, we'd have to rename the list the 100 greatest songs of the 2000s that weren't hits, Will's "Tell Me Why" is easily just as powerful as Eminem's "Lose Yourself" but for some reason it wasn't a hit since Interscope didn't push it the way they should've and that goes with a lot of other songs that got slept on... I used to enjoy listening to the radio in the '90s, I have a lot of great songs I recorded over those years on cassette tapes, I feel sorry for those who are growing up these days that listen to the radio...

i'd probably list mostly hip hop and r&b songs since that's what i listen to most but i do like songs from other genres too, it's just that a lot of stuff in general has been watered down that it's hard to find what's good

2Pac "So Many Tears", none of these new rappers rap with as much emotion anymore: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1vBpbr2JL4

i bet we could come up with a better list like we did with that mcs tournament since we got great taste in music

bottomline is the reason why hip hop is not doing as well as it was during the golden era of the late 80s to mid 90s is that these labels don't promote balance anymore so it's hard to feel sorry for them, they don't know how to do business, people are tired of them only promoting garbage

it seems like the internet's been the gift and the curse for music, it's great for more artists to get exposure but it's sad though that nobody buys music since the talented artists deserve to be supported for the hard work that they do, and like I've been saying maybe if these record labels promoted more quality music they wouldn't go out of business

the way that people download music these days there aren't too many boxed sets out there anymore, it's gonna take quite a record breaking selling album by Will for that to happen

if the proper music got the right type of exposure the music industry would be in great shape right now instead of pushing the same junk over and over

yeah with the internet there was actually a bigger selection of songs that came out in the 2000s compared to what came out in the 1980s and 1990s