| UGHH News: June, 2007 |  |  | Found: 12
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| Saigon / Just Blaze / Atlantic Drama Won't Die Down | 6/15/07 |
|  | By: Trees
Is this really where hip hop is headed? I guess since no one really reads the Source or XXL anymore heads have turned to the internet for their war of words. It's 2007 and you have one of the illest producers in the game beefing with one of the illest MCs via keyboards. I'm of course talking about Saigon and Just Blaze arguing back and forth through blogs? BLOGS People! We're living in the future. I'll try to summarize this as best as I possibly can:
Earlier This Week: Saigon hops on MySpace and posts a blog expressing his frustrations with current label Atlantic Records. Threatening to release the album himself the rapper states, "They're gonna put me on the shelf until I'm no longer relevant. Out of sight - out of mind. Hip-Hop fans are not loyal. As soon as the new dude comes along, they're going. I had the most anticipated album in '05 and now it's about to be '08 and it's the same thing. The frustration has been so much, I can't even front.". Now we all know, when you are employed somewhere the #1 rule is- never insult the boss or make the company look bad. Mysteriously a few days later. The blog disappears. Saigon's reason for taking the blog down, "It upset Just Blaze".
And Sho Nuff Thursday, Just Blaze Responded to Saigon via HIS OWN Blog. He basically was saying Saigon overstepped his bounds, he's been looking out for him, he dunn fucked up etc. Here's an excerpt "As far as Saigon's infamous MySpace blog entry, and its subsequent removal, he stated that he took it down because It offended me and I didn't understand why he would say what he said. That…. isn't exactly the case.. it's actually not at all. Don't take that as me calling him a liar by any means. To me that means he was either too frustrated to really read it thoroughly (understandable) or.. well I can't think of another reason. I have no vested interest in his feelings towards the label, I wasn't even mentioned in his blog, so there was nothing for me to be offended about. To sum up what I said in my email to him, I explained that I didn't understand why he would post that NOW. Now that the album is pretty much done, and the only issue holding up the release of the first record is a sample clearance issue, which Craig Kallman (President of Atlantic) is personally handling directly with the sample's publishers, as well as the management of the group that was sampled. Please believe that does NOT happen very often, especially not with a new artist who has not sold one record. It's usually "Well replay the sample or make a new record" If this man is going out of his way to personally get this cleared, and we (myself and Saigon) just had a short meeting about this the night before and you know exactly what is happening and who is working on what, why would you go out and slander the company he runs in the middle of him trying to negotiate something on YOUR behalf?".
It's Friday Now. Maybe the shit is dead? Nope! Saigon back at the blogging responding to the Megatron Don. His response, well it's all over the place. Clearly frustrated, it incorporates some Just Blaze ass kissing, some explanation about THE SAMPLE that's at the heart of the beef and album delay, and an overall last straw type of feel. Here's an excerpt: "Now I consider Just Blaze a friend and a mentor and respect him as an artist and a man, but I didnt understand why he would post a blog to the world only telling 1/3 of a story before even attempting to contact me at all and I dont know how it went from Saigon Vs. Atlantic to Saigon vs. Just Blaze when Ive never even mentioned him at all...The power of the dollar man..."
Alright. So who's the bigger man. Where will it end? Not with Saigon because just minutes ago Just Blaze posted up a response over on his blog. " [Saigon said] "we could have handled this with a phone call" or something like that.. Yeah… you're 100% right. I didn't even want to post anything here to begin with. I was put in a position where I had to… because it wasn't handled with a phone call. Once things cross a certain line into the public spotlight, things like this are going to happen unfortunately. If my name isn't mentioned, then I have nothing to say."
Is this the end? Will the Greatest Story Never Told never be told? Or maybe this is all hype for the new Saigon Mix CD dropping July 13th? Shit, Just Blaze's blog isn't even a month old, coincidence? Who knows. "Hip Hop is about talent, not marketing and promotions". KRS never went platinum.
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|  | By: Trees
This past Sunday underground hip hop lost another talent. Our thoughts go out to the friends and family of DJ PRZM who passed away this past Sunday from complications from a pre-existing medical condition. Several friends have offered their memories of PRZM via MySpace blogs including Blueprint who had this to say, "I remember when I first started touring back in 2002 my squad was me, illogic, and przm. We had a lot of good times just rolling out across the country. I did a lot of shows with that dude, traveled all across the country with him, and had a lot of laughs. I seriously have a headache right now thinking about his passing. I just finished crying and i figured i would type this while i have a moment. Przm was an amazing beatmaker, beatboxer, dj, and emcee. One of the dying breed of dude who did everything well. I have so much respect for him as a person and his work. I think i'm going to stop typing right now and maybe go have a drink." And DJ Rhettmatic who offered the following thoughts "My favorite production he did was "Hold The Floor" by Camu Tao. I remember talking to Evidence about the beat a long time ago. We both agreed that it was ill and bugged out. It reminded me of a Dilla beat on steroids. My condolence to his family, friends, and musical associates." For those unfamiliar with some of PRZM's work check the following songs: Camu Tao - "Hold the Floor", Illogic - "Off the Clock", Copywrite - "(O.H.) Ten Times" (12" Mix), & SA Smash f/ Cage - "Smash TV". To discuss the life of PRZM head on over to our forums and check out the post (where I snagged the links to these songs). PRZM's friend goes into these tracks a little further. A pretty good read, and definite worthy tribute to an underground staple. R.I.P. PRZM! | | | | Subscribe RSS |
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| Brycon Hits The Road | 6/15/07 |
| By: Trees
NC to Bay Area transplant Brycon heads back east this June for the Keep It Kraken Summer Tour. The 12 date tour includes 4 dates and 16 sets at Manchester, TN's prestigious Bonnaroo festival. The tour will feature Brycon emcee and DJ sets as well as special guests iCON the
Mic King, Simple Mathematics and many more. More dates are being added so stay tuned to bryconmusic.com and myspace.com/hyphessobrycon for updates.
Tuesday June 12 Asheville, NC @ The Emerald Lounge w/ DJ Chalice
Wednesday June 13 Johnson City, TN @ The Hideaway w/ Simple
Mathematics & The Blades
Thursday June 14 Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo w/ Hunab Kru
Chattanooga, TN @ The Local w/ Simple Mathematics
Friday June 15 Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo w/ Hunab Kru
Saturday June 16 Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo w/ Hunab Kru
Sunday June 17 Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo w/ Hunab Kru
Tuesday June 19 Savannah, GA @ The Jinx w/ Simple Mathematics
Thursday June 21 Asheville, TN @ The Mellow Mushroom w/ Simple
Mathematics & The Blades
Friday June 22 Brattleboro, VT @ Common Ground w/ iCON the Mic King,
Mouth of Madness & Joey Mousepad, Jevy Jav
Thursday June 28 Concord, NH @ Penuche's Ale House w/ iCON the Mic
King, Mouth of Madness & Joey Mousepad
Saturday June 30 Boston, MA @ tba
Friday July 27 Jamestown, CA @ The Rawhide w/ Alias (Anticon)
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| New Hierocast Delves Into The Hiero Origins | 6/15/07 |
| By: Trees
In the latest edition of the Hierocast (Hiero Imperium's official podcast), Bay Area hip-hop authority ID sits down with rap legend A-Plus to discuss his "long and illustrious career." Going all the way back to his first rhyme in 1982 at the age of 8, A-Plus gives you the inside scoop on his elementary schools days with Del the Funky Homosapien, Tajai, and Casual; Souls of Mischief's successful but frustrating time as a major-label artist; the evolution of Hieroglyphics; and the ups and downs of running your own label.
In addition to his new album My Last Good Deed, A-Plus lets you in on the large number of upcoming projects he's involved in. These include a new line of Hiero Jeans, recording and producing a full length LP with Del, working on a Hiero album in the studio, and finishing a Souls of Mischief album (with a yet-be-announced super-producer). With all of this in the works and more, A-Plus jokes that right now he has "enough to keep me busy."
For those truly interested in the Golden Age of Hip-Hop and the struggle that A-Plus and Souls of Mischief underwent during their time at Jive Records, this Hierocast provides never-before-heard stories straight from the man who lived it.
Check it out here:
Podcast Links
Part 1
Part 2 |
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| Get Well Soon Marley Marl | 6/8/07 |
|  | By: Trees
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Marley Marl (real name Marlon Williams), who is recovering from a heart attack in a New York area hospital. Details surrounding his condition are sketchy at best, but the hip hop pioneer was admitted on June 5th after suffering a severe heart attack. He is 44 years old. Get well soon Marley! | | | | Subscribe RSS |
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| Rock The Bells San Bernardino - VENUE CHANGE! | 6/8/07 |
|  | By: Trees
Those planning to attend this year's Rock the Bells festival in San Bernardino will have to disregard the concert venue printed on their ticket. The event has changed locations and will be held on August 11 at the Hyundai Pavilion in Devore instead of the National Orange Show (NOS) Events Center in San Bernardino. Despite the change in venue, Shazila Mohammed, a publicist with the Mitch Schneider Organization, told The San Bernadino Sun paper that concert will still be held on August 11. All scheduled acts, including Wu-Tang Clan, Public Enemy and Rage Against the Machine, will perform and tickets will be honored at the pavilion, Mohammed added. Although the NOS has held Rock the Bells since 2003, Mohammed revealed that the show's promoter Guerilla Union decided to change the location after meeting with officials the Orange Show Events Center. According to NOS director of operations Steve Henthorn, the decision was reached once Guerilla Union decided the NOS wasn't the best venue for the 50,000 to 60,000 people expected to attend the show. "That's more than what we feel we can accommodate comfortably," Henthorn said in a phone message, adding that the overflow in parking in previous years for Rock the Bells presented an issue despite recent upgrades of parking sites. "We would hate to have cars really parked all over this end of the city and have the possibility of negatively impacting the businesses in our city." | | | | Subscribe RSS |
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| VanStylez & UGHH Take You Behind The Rhyme In New DVD | 6/8/07 |
|  | By: Trees
Many of you know VanStylez as the silver suit wearing, curly blue women's wig donning, getting thrown off stage by Slaine, host of many of Boston's local hip hop shows. Other's know VanStylez as hip hop coordinator & host of a hip-hop show at the # 1 rated college radio station in the country: 88.9FM WERS. Ask his high school friends and they would describe him as an ambitious freckle-faced blonde bombshell with a toothy grin that would melt your heart faster than butter in the hot summer sun. Well prepare to get to know VanStylez as something completely different; Host of UGHH.com's first ever officially endorsed DVD, Behind The Rhyme!.
According to VanStylez, "this is the first DVD to really capture hip-hop's range… whether it be independents like Cunninlynguists, Immortal Technique, Jedi Mind Tricks, R.A. The Rugged Man, commercial success stories like JR Writer and Rhymefest, up & comers like Joell Ortiz and Oktober, classic golden era staples like Ghostface, GZA, AZ, Dres of Black Sheep, or old school legends like Just-Ice, A.G., Rakim & D.M.C." Behind the Rhyme also pays homage to the local Boston scene featuring Beantown legends like Mr. Lif, Akrobatik, Edo G, Esoteric and Boston up & comers like Slaine, Termanology, Jake The Snake, Bomshot, Evil Dead.
*Note: This DVD is only completely free for Bostonites stopping by the Undergroundhiphop.com retail store (just ask for it!). Online it is available with a minimum purchase of $50 or more. This DVD is limited to 2500 copies worldwide and will not be available long. Make sure you cop yours while you can!
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|  | By: Trees
Blogging is the rage amongst all my interweb heads, but at times it's hard to cut through the bullsh*t. I figured I might as well put you up on some of my favorites, which in all honesty, most of you probably already know about. I think I'll make this a regular feature here in the UGHH News section, so check back here occasionally for more links. Anyway, to start here are five of my favorite in no order:
1. Kev Brown just started a new one, steady updated with his new projects and things of that nature.
2. Just Blaze and Blazettes landed over on a page dedicated to cell phone technology, robots, hip hop, and fashion. His blog is quickly rising to the top of my most checked.
3. Stretch Armstrong has of course been holding down for a few months with his .mp3 blog loaded with rare, hard to find tracks, old radio shows and stories from the heart of hip hop's golden age.
4. Press Rewind If I Haven't Blown Your Mind is dope blog of mysterious origins. I'm not too sure who runs this, but they have a serious collection of hip hop publications from the golden era. They regularly update this joint with new (old) articles. Remember when Masta Killa beat up that journalist in the early 90s because the article had some homo-erotic drawings of the Wu-Tang members accompanying his piece? See the original article, and read the story around it. Very interesting stuff.
5. Soul Sides is definitely one of my favorite blogs of them all. Oliver Wang is a wild man when it comes to music knowledge. This blog focuses mainly on hard to find Soul, Funk, and R&B gems, as well as Oliver's personal favorites, and even delves a little into hip hop. A very high quality blog that should be a daily stop over for every musical blog enthusiast.
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| New Album From Keith Murray On The Way | 6/8/07 |
|  | By: Trees
KOCH Records is set to release the highly-anticipated new album by acclaimed hip hop artist Keith Murray. Following his successful career as both a solo artist and a member of famed hip hop group Def Squad, Murray returns to put New York back on the map with Rap-Murr-Phobia (Fear of Real Hip Hop). The album will be released on July 31st, 2007. Rapp-Murr-Phobia (Fear of Real Hip Hop) features multi-platinum R&B recording artist Tyrese, Method Man and Murray's Def Squad bandmates, Redman and Erick Sermon. Sermon also executive produced the album. The first single off of the album, the summer anthem "Nobody Do It Better," featuring Tyrese and Junior, is already impacting major radio markets and will go for adds shortly. The video for the single will be shot in Los Angeles in early June. | | | | Subscribe RSS |
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| J. Mederios Readies Debut Solo LP | 6/8/07 |
|  | By: Trees
In 1997, Mr. J Medeiros co-founded hip hop's heroic underdog group, The Procussions, launching their 10-year journey to indie success; touring the globe three times over, travelling with A Tribe Called Quest, collaborating with Talib Kweli, and receiving critical acclaim from the likes of Billboard, Complex and URB. The Procussions have released two LP's; 2003's As Iron Sharpens Iron and sophomore LP, 5 Sparrows For 2 Cents, on Rawkus Records. Mr. J Medeiros has always been passionate and honest with his lyrics (i.e. The Procussions' "The Storm" and "Little People"), but with his solo-debut, Of Gods and Girls, (which will be released on 7-24-07) Mr. J displays veteran emcee versatility, substance and style, as he really opens up to discuss topics few artists have the depth to talk about. His single and video for "Constance" has spread like wildfire on Youtube, as it tackles the taboo topic of human trafficking in the Philippines. "Constance" was subsequently featured on CBS Evening News for its exposé on human trafficking and internet pornography. Rawkus Records' Co-founder Jarret Meyer waxes passionately about Mr. J Medeiros and what he brings to the label as an artist, stating, "In terms of content and artistry, Mr J. ranks among the top artists I have had the pleasure of working with. But, what separates Mr J. as an individual is an unrelenting DIY punk spirit. He is definitely a career artist who will continue to make a big impact on music and culture." | | | | Subscribe RSS |
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| Drug Fiasco For Lupe's Business Partner | 6/8/07 |
|  | By: The Dance
Lupe Fiasco's long-time business partner, Charles Patton, was recently sentenced to 44 years in prison for the crime of heroin distribution. Patton is credited with grooming Lupe for success and brokering many of the music deals that landed Lupe in the spotlight. As many of you know, Lupe Fiasco is a strict Muslim, or so he claims. In court proceedings Lupe took the stand to discuss a number of phone conversations that he had with Patton. In one such conversation Lupe and Patton discussed splitting up "whole yellow" and "whole red" ones. The prosecution claimed that this referred to the prepping and mixing of $10 heroin packets while the defense claimed that this referred to the mixing and prepping of songs. I don't know about you, but that "prepping songs" bit sounds like bullshit to me. If a jury believed that nonsense it would be like my mom believing me in preschool when I shit myself and told her that my underwear were "like that when I put them on this morning." Thankfully justice was served in both cases; Charles Patton was sentenced to 44 years in prison, and I received a few well-concealed bruises. If there's one thing that UGHH hates, it's sloppy heroin dealing and boring drug code like "whole red" and "whole yellow." I expect more out of Lupe, why did he even bother, like brother without the arrah?
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| Cilvaringz Preps Debut Album | 6/8/07 |
|  | By: Trees
Wu-Tang affiliate/constituent for the past 10+ years, Cilvaringz' has achieved a level of notoriety primarily reserved exclusively for the Clan's core members. Boasting appearances from the core of the Wu-Tang Clan (RZA, GZA, Method Man, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon & more) his debut album I will be in stores June 12th on Babygrande Records. Cilvaringz was discovered by Method Man and Ol' Dirty Bastard in 1997 when he was invited on stage to freestyle during their Wu-Tang Forever world tour in Amsterdam. Five years later he was signed to Wu-Tang Productions, performing worldwide (including a performance on the '97 Clan World Tour) and has recently achieved a record breaking position for the artist with most international performances in the history of Hiphop: 38 countries in 5 continents. "I" features production exclusively by The Wu-Elements (RZA, 4th Disciple, True Master, Mathematics & Bronze Nazareth)The album also includes a 60+ minute DVD chronicling the 1997 Wu-Tang Clan world tour(of which Ringz was a primary participant and performer), interviews with the Clan, RZA & Ringz' trip to Egypt, recording sessions and more. Available June 12th @ UGHH! | | | | Subscribe RSS |
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