By: Lolly On his way to turn himself in for his three-and-a-half-year stretch, Prodigy talked about his upcoming album, H.N.I.C. 2. "I'll be right back," Prodigy says on the self recorded clip. "Trust me, I'm leaving y'all with a dope album, so look forward for all of that. Video crazy. Everything's crazy. I love it when a job comes together. The music speaks for itself." During his shout outs, Prodigy even thanks the judge for allowing him additional time during which he was able to finish the album. As the clip comes to a close, Prodigy assures his fans that when he's out he won't waste any time. "Wait 'til we come back— drop this new Mobb Deep. Hit the road, overseas. We gonna be overseas like a motherfucker. Everything's gonna be right back to business." Keep a heads up for H.N.I.C. 2, set to drop April 22.
By: Mark DiSalvo One of the most well-received remix albums of last year has a sequel. J.J. Brown and Dan "The Deacon" Maier, the guys that brought you Re-Release Therapy, a Jackson-5 inspired remix album of Ludacris' "Release Therapy", are bringing some new heat with Gym Class Heroes. The remix project, titled As Cruel as School Children, The Match-Up, is out now, for FREE. The remixed instrumentals are taken entirely from samples of the famous Daryl Hall and John Oates. Head over to http://www.5gproductions.com/GymClassHeroes/ to grab the album. You can't beat that price!
By: Mark DiSalvo In what's become an unfortunate mainstay in hip-hop news headlines, Beanie Sigel is in trouble again. The Philly native was sentenced to three months in prison this weekend for submitting a false urine sample to probation officials on Feb. 29, the Philadelphia Daily News is reporting. He also allegedly tested positive multiple times earlier this month for Xanax and Percocet, violating a controlled substance ban in his probation. This is the third violation of his probation. Sigel was not able to leave Philadelphia because of his probation, leaving him unable to promote The Solution, his new album released last December. Sigel told the Philly Daily News he relapsed on drugs after he hit hard financial times.
By: Lolly The Grouch of Living Legends recently released a video for the first single off his new solo album. "Artsy" was directed by Secret History and is reminiscient of HP's commercials as well as Talib Kweli's video for "Hot Thing". The Grouch's album, Show You the World, is set to drop April 8th.
By: Lolly Wyclef Jean, who was made the roving ambassador for Haiti by President Rene Preval in 2007, is trying to reduce crime in the country. He recently made an ad sponsored by the UN with hopes of using his celebrity for good. According to Reuters, an ad run by local stations in Haiti featured Wyclef proclaiming: "If you love Wyclef that means you love Haiti. So you should not be raping women, kidnapping people and children. There can be no excuse for doing so." Fred Blaise, a spokesman for the UN police, believes that Wyclef's messages can in fact make a difference. "All kinds of Haitians, the good guys as well as the bad guys, have a lot of appreciation for Wyclef for what he represents as a Haitian. So they would be more likely to be receptive to Wyclef's message because they are all proud of him."
By: Mark DiSalvo Mos Def is showing us again that he's not just a rapper, but a jack of all trades. In one of his biggest movie roles yet, the Brooklyn MC has been tapped to play Chuck Berry in the upcoming film "Cadillac Records", Billboard is reporting. The film will chronicle the legendary Chess Records, with co-stars Beyonce, Adrien Brody, and Gabrielle Union. Mos Def is really moving up with these movie roles, now let's try and get him in the studio again.
By: Mark DiSalvo Royce Da 5'9" teased us early this year, as we thought we had a release date on new album from Detroit's king. There's still no official word on that, but we did stumble across a new Royce track, "Success", featuring Obie Trice. If you're reading this Royce, let us know what's good with the new album. Check "Success" out here.
By: Mark DiSalvo Diddy's showing why he's the only one making money in the music industry these days. Instead of putting together the next flavor of the month pop group, he signed an artist who looks like she'll have more staying power than O-Town. Janelle Monáe, an Atlanta based artist who has worked with OutKast on Idlewild and other projects, is now part of Bad Boy Records after working out a deal with her Atlanta-based label Wondaland Arts Society. The move comes courtesy of Big Boi and Diddy's collaborative effort to bring Monáe into the Bad Boy family. Her debut album titled Metropolis Suite will be co-executive produced by Big Boi.
By: Mark DiSalvo A few months back we received word that a new Styles of Beyond album was in the works. That album is now completed and awaiting a release date, according to the group's MySpace. "We're now in this weird period where Warner Brothers and Machine Shop have to coordinate the release and we don't have to do anything but wait for it to come out," the group said.
By: Trees Add Nas to the long list of talent that's cosigning up and coming New Orleans MC Jay Electronica. In a recent interview with URB, Nas confirmed that Jay will be featured as both a producer and as an MC on Nigger. When asked about Jay's musical ability, Nas launched into a borderline nonsensical rant, praising the MC/Producer for his talent; “He got that shit where, you know, shit just sound like music. And you can hear what he's saying and when he gets into it he goes all the way into it. He knows there's an audience out there that can hear what he's saying and that's what he's been with me in the studio, like fuck that, they going to know what you mean, they going to know what you saying.” Look for Nas' new album to hopefully drop in 2008.
Steinski to Release What Does It all Mean?: 1983-2006
3/28/08
Steinski
By: Lolly Steinski & Illegal Art are to release the first Steinski collection entitled What Does It All Mean?: 1983-2006. The 2 CD release features 14 retrospective tracks on Disc One and the 28 track "Nothing To Fear" will grace Disc Two. The collection will also include a 20 page booklet with liner notes by Hua Hsu and Steinski himself. You can get a taste of what might end up on the collection here.
By: Lolly Scifen.com does a good job documenting the Paid Dues Festival, which went down this past Saturday, March 22nd, on their site. If you're bummed like me that you missed it, you can at least click here to see the pics.
By: Trees One day after Remy Ma's conviction on assault was levied some good news finally emerges from the Remy Camp. Brooklyn rapper Papoose has confirmed to MTV News that he and Remy are, in fact, a couple and had plans to marry next month. Pap said the two are moving forward with their nuptials despite Ma's predicament and are making arrangements to marry in prison. "We always wanted to keep our personal lives personal, so that's why we never went public with our relationship. Right now, I just feel like she gotta live through me. Yes, we were scheduled to be married on a yacht April 27th. But due to circumstances beyond our control, we are now making arrangements to be married in prison. All her supporters who feel Remy had an influence on their life should write a short letter to the judge asking for the shortest sentence possible," he wrote. "Send it to LettersForRemy@gmail.com."
By: Lolly Marley Marl and Craig G of the legendary Juice Crew have once again joined forces—this time to reclaim hip hop. The two are collaborating on a new album entitled Operation: Take Back Hip-Hop. On the album, Marley Marl will handle production and guests Talib Kweli, KRS-One, Rakaa Iriscience (of Dilated Peoples) and Sadat X will help rock the mic. “Operation: Take Back Hip-Hop is just what it is," Craig G told NobodySmiling.com. “Instead of me wasting years complaining along with…everyone else, Marley and I are trying to make change through music. This is my passion, this is what raised me, and I refuse to stand by and watch my culture get destroyed any further with poor quality music.” Look for the album to hit stores this spring.
Weezy Of The Week: Carter III Release Date - May 13th
3/26/08
Weezy
By: Mark DiSalvo The Weezy of the Week has been sparsely updated lately. UGHH was at both SXSW and A3C the past two weeks, so that made the constant flow of Lil Wayne updates you've come to expect from Mark DiSalvo and UGHH News nearly impossible. However, Weezy returned to hit us with huge news: Tha Carter III has a release date. May 13th is the day that Young Money/Cash Money/Universal Motown have chosen for the drop of the latest installment in the Weezy saga (3 different record imprints Wayne, is that really necessary?). He told Billboard, "I'm taking my time with it. And I'm giving artists I respect and people I want to do songs with -- not songs the label fixed -- an opportunity to collaborate." The only reason anyone has to believe that we'll see this album May 13th is that he's already dropped a video for the single "Lollipop." The pressure's on Weezy now.
By: Mark DiSalvo According to New York Times blogger David Dunlap, two or three alleged Def Jam street team members posting up Rocko posters around New York City assaulted him March 14. Dunlap said he was walking around the city when he saw the men stapling posters to light posts and dropping fliers promoting Rocko's new album. He began taking pictures of the posters when the men asked what he was doing. They attempted bullying him to stop, but to no avail. The men allegedly assaulted Dunlap, smashed his camera and tore his notebook up. Multiple eyewitnesses have come forward with what they saw. Dunlap is not pressing charges, saying that he felt the assault was only to destroy the camera. Def Jam has denied being affiliated with the men.
Does anyone benefit from this kind of marketing anymore? The last thing Def Jam needs as it's suffocating and headless (no president), is to get bad press like this. Dunlap's full blog and recount of the events can be seen here.
By: Mark DiSalvo If there was ever any doubt about hip-hop's lineage to soul music, it's officially gone now. Al Green announced today that he and ?uestlove have teamed up for Green's new album Lay It Down. The album is set to be released May 27 via Blue Note Records. ?uestlove and Roots/Lauryn Hill/Common collaborator James Poyser teamed up to produce the album along with Green. ?uestlove also was tapped to play drums on a few of the albums tracks. The album also features guest appearances by John Legend, Corrine Bailey Rae, Anthony Hamilton, and horn-group Dap-Kings.
By: Mark DiSalvo The Roots new LP, Rising Down is receiving a makeover, and it hasn't even been released yet. OkayPlayer announced that "Birthday Girl," a song that ?uestlove said may been omitted from the new album, will be the international single and an iTunes exclusive track. As such, it will not appear on the North American release of Rising Down. Various leaked versions of Rising Down brought the wrath of some listeners on The Roots for the song, but that outwardly had little effect on the decision to leave it off.
By: Lolly As previously reported, Timbaland has struck a deal with Verizon Wireless to produce the first ever mobile record. In the following video, Timbaland talks about his deal with Verizon and takes us behind the scenes of creating a track aboard the Verizon bus. When talking about being the first-ever "mobile producer," Timbaland states, "This is a new program, this is a new thing for me, so I'm gonna make it the best thing ever."
By: Lolly Big Boi of Outkast is teaming up with members of the Dungeon Family and a group of ballet dancers in order to put on Big, a hip hop/ballet/opera experience based on a reinterpretation of some of Big Boi's songs. The show will be choreographed by Lauri Stallings and will take place from April 10th to the 13th at Atlanta's Fabulous Fox Theatre. Big will be broken down into 10 chapters and will feature performances by Big Boi of "Morris Brown," "Church," and "Bombs Over Baghdad." It is rumored that Gnarls Barkley and Cee-Lo of Goodie Mob may also perform. Check out AtlantaBallet.com for more information.
