Most industry insiders are saying that Madonna or Mariah Carey would be the top-selling album of the year. However, some think that it’s not the case. Some people are saying that both divas will get beat for biggest sales of the year by rapper Lil Wayne. It turns out that his album was helped out by all the internet leaks of his songs. Industry experts are saying that it’s the most effective free publicity. Lil Wayne’s ‘Tha Carter III’ came out on Tuesday so exact numbers are yet to come in but his label estimates that the album will sell around 850,000 to 950,000 on its first week. If that is the case, he’s a shoe-in.
Jay Z has praised the rhyming skills of Kanye West.
Last month MTV bosses voted Chicago rapper Kanye top of a list of “Hottest MCs In The Game” and now New York man Jay has shown his love.
Jay, real-name Shawn Carter, told MTV: “He’s a complete package now, he’s working on his craft as an MC.” He explained: “In the beginning, his flow wasn’t as tight His flow was lacking in my opinion.”
Aside from his razor-sharp rhyming skills, Jay is keen to highlight West’s lyrical talent.
He said: “The hooks were incredible and the lyrics - he really takes a lot of pride in what he writes. That happiness is seeing his evolution from the first album to now.”
Snoop Dogg recently had a sit down interview for the new issue of Esquire magazine. Here’s something that stuck out for me: “A lot of people like to fool you and say that you’re not smart if you never went to college, but common sense rules over everything. That’s what I learned from selling crack.” There’s such a thing as book smart and street smart. I guess Snoop falls into the street smart category. And when I say street, I mean street. If you get the idea, you know there are a lot of really hard lessons there – like several charges and guns pointed at you.
Another musician is hanging up his coat on music in hopes of starting a serious career in acting. According to the Hollywood Reporter, rapper Bow Wow will be joining the cast of Entourage in season 5. He says that he’s going to focus on acting full time because he wants to be like Will Smith saying “After 16 years in the music industry and six successful albums, I’ve decided to shift my energy to something else I’m passionate about, acting. I’m going to try to be the next Will Smith.” Here’s to hoping that he’s not going to emulate Will to the highest level and turn into a Scientologist too.
Lil Wayne recently made smartass comments on doing drugs and now he’s back with his wit by talking about the end of the world in the new issue of Blender magazine. He says “The world is about to end in 2012… ’cause the Mayans made calendars, and they stop at 2012. I got encyclopedias on the bus. The world is about to end as we know it. You can see it already. A planet doesn’t exist - there’s no more Pluto. Planes are flying into buildings - and not just the Twin Towers. Mosquitoes bite you and you die. And a black man and a woman are running for president.”
When you’re the star of the show, in the middle of performing a concert to a sold-out crowd, would you ever think that you’d almost get mugged? A bold thief tried to steal 50 Cent’s chain in Africa recently but the rapper jumped into the crowd to get back what was rightfully his. A video has popped up on the net where you can see a concertgoer jump onto the stage during the rapper’s set and yank the chain off his neck. An insider says that what folks couldn’t see on the video was that 50 jumped off the stage, followed the thief and punched the guy who tried to mug him.
Kanye West is definitely a raging diva over the weekend. It started with his rant on Entertainment Weekly for their shitty review of his concert and then there’s that bit of technical malfunction at his concert in Houston on Friday night. The rapper actually ended up walking off the stage in a tantrum. The side screens that the venue had to show Kanye weren’t working and they weren’t the screens that were part of his show. Kanye told the venue to “Turn the fucking screens off” but when no one did anything, he stopped the show and said “If the shits not working just turn it off” before storming off. After around a minute, he came back on stage to finish the show.
It’s a fallacy that only poor people get their stuff repossessed – just ask Lil Kim. New York’s CW11 news visited the rapper’s house along with a repo crew for a report focusing on the rising number of car repossessions. Apparently, Lil Kim hasn’t paid for her silver Bentley in months. When she was confronted by one of the repo men, she told them that her accountant would take care of it but her car still had to be taken away. The repo guy said that “She didn’t wanna cooperate. Basically, she told us to get off the property. We were hoping that she’d give us the keys, being that it’d be the right thing to do. It’s not her vehicle.” Too bad they weren’t there to negotiate. Cooperate or not, they’re going to take your car away.
Snoop Dogg may soon be allowed to head into the UK. The British government’s decision to ban the legally troubled rapper has just been overturned by an immigration appeals judge. How much trouble does a guy doing soap operas these days pose anyway? The overturning of the decision was due to the fact that it may not be Snoop who’s to blame for the trouble that led to his ban from the country. After reviewing tapes of the brawl that Snoop allegedly sparked at Heathrow airport, the judge ruled that the brawl was “precipitated by decisions made by British Airways staff and police.” The footage even shows that Snoop was pushed twice by an officer but never retaliated. The government agency trying to keep Snoop out of the country has until Wednesday to decide whether to appeal.
50 Cent is on the warpath yet again, but this time, he’s not after the likes of Ja Rule or Kanye West. The rapper is blasting Alicia Keys for her comments in Blender magazine that “Gangsta rap was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other.” 50 responds to that comment by saying “I don’t like people who don’t like me… that statement changes my perception of Alicia Keys totally. It’s just not really a bright comment.” For her part, Alicia has said that her comments to the magazine were taken out of context. I think she just got scared of all the rappers that may come after her.
Well those are two names that you never thought you’d hear together in the same sentence. But it seems that it’s not at all impossible. Retired rapper Eminem has reportedly been approached to play Nelson Mandela’s upcoming 90th birthday party. I never knew Nelson was a hip hop fan. Reports are also saying that it’s a done deal but the rapper’s camp is saying they haven’t accepted the invite just yet. Let’s hope that there won’t be any talk about street cred. Em’s been arrested. Nelson spent 27 years in jail. Em clearly loses. But then again, he can issue a rap battle challenge and then all hell will break loose!
Times are getting tough for some of the music industry’s once hottest rappers. DMX has hit the college campus tour. The rapper performed at Indiana University last Wednesday night. Tickets were purchased for $25 through Lambda Chi Alpha. The concert was supposed to begin at 8:30PM but didn’t start until an hour later because DMX arrived late. Unfortunately for concertgoers, the concert shut down after just 3 songs because the organization told the University that the noise would be over by 9:30PM. When music was heard past that, police arrived to shut down the scene. That’s when things got bad. Profanities were yelled, students got maced – it just got really rowdy.
If you happen to be a bar owner and you want to get taken for a ride before getting someone to perform at your bar then look no further than rapper Tone Loc. 2 small Michigan bars were scammed out of a total $1,400 last summer after a man posing as the rapper’s manager promised that Tone Loc would play their establishments. One year later, the real manager of Tone Loc hears about the misfortune, agreed that the rapper would play at both bars – for Tone’s regular fee. And here I thought it was out of the goodness of his heart. I’m still left wondering why that con man chose Tone Loc instead of some more famous rapper.
Rapper T.I. has decided to change his plea in his guns trial. The rapper was arrested last October for attempting to buy machine guns, paying for them with cash and without registering for them as mandated by the law. He was charged with possession of unregistered machine guns and silencers as well as possession of firearms by a convicted felon. He initially plead not guilty and has since been under house arrest after being released on a $3 million bond on October 26th. Now that he’s plead guilty, he is expected to be sentenced to 1500 hours of community service followed by about 12 months of prison.
It looks like the explosive report written last week by a Pulitzer Prize-winning LA Times reporter that linked Diddy to the 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur was a big hoax. According to The Smoking Gun, it was perpetrated by a con artist in Federal prison who fabricated many of the so-called FBI reports on which the story was based. The supposed FBI reports and lawsuits Sabatino says he filed were apparently created in the Allenwood Federal Penitentiary in White Deer, Pennsylvania and can’t be found in the bureau’s database. The writer, Chuck Phillips, couldn’t be reached for any comment but the paper has announced that it would be investigating the supporting documents.
Jay-Z wants $100 million to launch his own record label.
The hip-hop mogul, who recently quit his role as president and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Def Jam Recordings, is reportedly asking music labels for the mammoth investment for new project Carter Music Group, but has so far seen his demands dismissed.
A source told the New York Post newspaper: ‘Jay-Z is asking for way too much. He wants a label to give him $100 million for the Carter Music Group and provide for overhead, development and digital investment. It’s crazy. He wants the label to basically be his venture capital fund – but unlike a venture capital, they won’t get 50 per cent.’
A venture capital fund involves the investment of money into smaller companies, which are often thought to carry more risk.
A representative for the ’99 Problems’ rapper branded the reports nothing more than ‘rumours’. Jay-Z, real name Shawn Carter, left Def Jam late last year amid claims he wasn’t making enough money.
Last year, Jay-Z was named the second highest earning musician in the world by business bible Forbes magazine, with annual earnings of $83 million. His other business interests include owning a series of 40/40 sports bars across the US, and a stake in the New Jersey Nets basketball team.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and James ‘Jimmy Henchman’ Rosemond are fuming at LA Times for an article they wrote on Monday which implicated them in the 1994 shooting of rapper 2Pac. The shooting which occurred at Quad Recording Studios in New York 2 years prior his death has never been solved and no charges have been filed. But an LA Times report came out just this week that claims that the FBI has received new info that ties the shooting to two associates of Diddy, namely Rosemond and promoter James Sabatino. Both Diddy and Rosemond have made statements about the article saying it was baseless. Rosemond even adds that he’s consulting with lawyers about making any legal moves. 2Pac has long claimed that Diddy had something to do with his shooting.
After serving just 8 days out of a possible 60, rapper The Game is out of jail. The rapper, whose real name is Jayceon Taylor, walked out of Twin Towers Correctional Facility after serving less than a fifth of his sentence for pleading no contest to a felony charge of possession of a firearm in a school zone. LA Country Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Steve Whitmore said that the rapper was released early due to overcrowding. What? That’s not an excuse! Couldn’t have he been transferred? Justice has not been served yet! Unbelievable. I bet he was just let out because he’s some star.
Why is it that when you’re pretty much a has-been, that’s when all the crappy stuff happens? Eminem’s record labels are being sued by the producers that first discovered him, claiming that they are owed back royalties. The lawsuit, filed last week in federal court, claims that Aftermath, Interscope and others owe FBT Productions and Em2M LLC in excess of $1 million because Em’s current record label miscalculated the royalties due for them. According to the suit, the defendants even admitted to such last year but have yet to pay. FBT and Em2M are suing for back royalties, damages and attorney fees.
Some musicians choose to come out with their own brand of tequila, some come out with their own brand of vodka, but nothing screams gangsta any more than coming out with your own brand of… wine? Rapper Lil Jon is releasing his own brand of alcohol – wine. Little Jonathan Winery (oh how professional, he spelled out the ‘little’) has begun producing its own vintages of merlot, cabernet, sauvignon and chardonnay. I wonder if when you buy a bottle from his winery, you get a free pimp cup. That could be a good selling point for him, eh? Say it with me, yeeeeeeeeah!
Cops in Georgia arrested a 17-year old boy on Friday and charged him with killing his mother, a local sheriff’s deputy, and his 2 sisters. One of those little girls was the daughter of rapper Juvenile. Anthony Tyrone Terrell Jr. has been charged with 3 counts of murder and 3 counts of aggravated assault.
Terrell allegedly gunned down his mother, 39-year old Joy Deleston and her two daughters, 11-year old Micaiah and 4-year old Jelani. Jelani was proven to be Juvenile’s daughter in 2003 when he was arrested for abandonment of a dependent child after a DNA test determined he was the father. A statement has been released saying “Juvenile was extremely saddened to hear the reports. As a private matter he has no further comment.”
Ja Rule was in court in Manhattan on Wednesday for a hearing for concealed weapons charges. But get this, the rapper got slammed by the judge for paying his co-defendants’ bail! Jeffrey Atkins aka Ja Rule got reprimanded by Judge Micki Scherer saying that he “put himself in the position of perhaps controlling the outcome of the case” by posting around $150,000 for Dennis Cherry and Mohamed Gamal. The judge ordered the two to either pay their own bail or pay Ja back. The rapper’s lawyer said that the co-defendants’ will come up with their own packages. The trio will be back in court on March 20.
Eminem was once a rapper, tried to be an actor and is now wanting to be an author. The Detroit native is working on a tell-all memoir which will include details on his life story, photos, journal notes, hand-drawn sketches and lyrics. This would have been hot news if only it happened 5 years ago!
‘Eminem: The Way I Am’ is to be published by Orgion Books. The book is scheduled for release in the UK on October 16 of this year. Eminem’s team is said to be none too happy with the leak of this info as they claim it’s still a work in progress.
Rapper and 50 Cent protégé Tony Yayo has finally gotten his name cleared of assault charges after the guy he was arrested with came clean and said that Yayo had nothing to do with the alleged crime. Marvin ‘Yayo’ Bernard was in court in New York on Thursday where the assault case against him was dismissed. The rapper actually pleaded guilty to a violation but it won’t go on his record as Lowell Fletcher, his co-defendant, told cops that he was the one responsible for the beating of the young victim and that Yayo was actually trying to restrain him.
Going to a concert is always a fun thing to do. It’s especially fun if artists have a little something planned too. Fans at the House of Blues in LA on Wednesday night got fun, more fun and even more fun.
Common was the one scheduled to take the stage but after a couple of songs, Kanye West came out to perform ‘Can’t Tell Me Nothing’ and ‘Good Life’. If that wasn’t enough for you, Busta Rhymes also busted out on the stage and performed too. Essentially, that’s 3 shows for the price of one – how lucky can you get?
It looks like celebrities like to keep the police busy and on alert. Rapper Juvenile is the most recent felon to be caught as he was arrested in Meridian, Mississippi on Tuesday for possession of under an ounce of marijuana. The Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Department said that he was in a car pulled over for expired tags though it’s still unclear whether Juvenile was driving or was just a passenger. He was booked and released later that day. There is still no word on when his next appearance in court will be. Calls to the rapper’s reps have not been returned.
60 days in jail, 150 hours of community service and 3 years of probation – that’s the sentence that rapper The Game received when he pleaded no contest to possession of a firearm in a school zone. Jayceon ‘The Game’ Taylor faced 3 felony counts for making criminal threats and exhibiting a firearm in the presence of a peace officer. The other two counts were dismissed are part of a plea agreement. Taylor allegedly got into an altercation in February 2007 which resulted in him punching a guy and pulling a gun from his Escalade to threaten to shoot the victim. He has until March 3 to turn himself in.
Rapper Too Short was mobbed by fans just as he was leaving Tokio in Hollywood on Friday but one fan got a little too close for comfort and actually kept getting in the rapper’s face. The frenzied fan kept telling Too Short that he was from South Central. I’m not sure why but I’m guessing that he got confused about his facts because Too Short actually hails from Oakland.
Too Short looked annoyed and a little disgusted by the guy but he played nice. He’s too cool for drama. He just decided that the crazy guy wasn’t worth all the effort and trouble of being caught up in some issue.
Since iPods are pretty much everywhere, millions of white ear buds hanging from them are everywhere too. Don’t you think it’s about time to upgrade to a pair of headphones created by someone who knows a little bit about music?
NWA co-founder, producer and rapper Dr. Dre has teamed up with Monster Cable to create ‘Beats by Dr. Dre’ headphones which are supposed to produce what most are lacking. And that’s a rich and deep bass. You get a great sound and you get to stand out from a crowd. What more can you ask for? Aside from me sounding more like an advertisement that is.
Rapper Pimp C’s cause of death has just been revealed. It seems that the rapper died as a result of a pre-existing condition of sleep apnea, combined with an elevated amount of prescription codeine in his blood. According to spokesperson Ed Winter of the LA County Coroner’s office, his Pimp C’s death has been ruled accidental.
33-year old Chad ‘Pimp C’ Butler was one half of the rap duo UGK, best known for appearing on the Jay-Z track ‘Big Pimpin’ in 200 and more recently with Outkast on the song ‘International Player’s Anthem (I Choose You)’. Pimp C was found dead in his bed at the Mondrian Hotel in Hollywood last month.
