The rap chart war between 50 and Kanye West is on again - the pair's new albums will be released a week apart in December.
Rapper Nas has broken his tradition of sidestepping brand partnerships and inked a one-year partnership with athletic apparel company Fila.Fila will offer reciprocal financial support for Nas' print and TV ad campaign as well as his upcoming tour in support of his untitled album, due July 15 via Def Jam. In return, the MC will wear Fila products and co-create an apparel line that draws from fashions of the late '80s.
"My best friend Will and I loved Fila," Nas tells Billboard.biz. "It represented prestige and everything that was cool to us. When Will passed, we buried him in a black Fila sweat suit, so doing a deal with them has a lot of significance for me."
According to Fila president John Epstein, it was a natural match. "One of my executives spotted Nas shopping in our Manhattan store and struck up a conversation with him," Epstein says. "Nas isn't interested in selling out. He's interested in being true, and that fits with our brand."
Nostalgia aside, some may view Epstein as brave to co-brand his company with an MC who's pledged to unpack America's racial struggles.
"I had some trepidation, and then I started talking to 16- to 20-year-old kids in focus groups," Epstein says. "They looked at me like I was crazy for not understanding his message of positive change. Nas is relevant to his followers and I don't have to understand it as long as they do."
T.I. is set to star in three upcoming high-profile movies, after signing a multi-picture deal with a Hollywood film company.The contract with Screen Gems has landed the hip-hop star a role opposite Matt Dillon and Idris Elba in forthcoming film Bone Deep, a thriller about bank robbers attempting their final heist.
The second T.I.-starring film is titled Boulevard and is in pre-production phases, while the third is still in development, reports AllHipHop.com.
T.I who acted alongside Denzel Washington in the 2007 drama American Gangster, is also set to star in his own reality series on MTV, about the 1,000 hours of community service he must perform before his year-long imprisonment for possessing unregistered guns.
New York Gov. David Paterson is granting a full and unconditional pardon to rapper Ricky "Slick Rick" Walters for the attempted murders of two men in 1991.The eyepatch-wearing star behind the '80s rap classic "La-Di-Da-Di" served more than five years in prison after the shooting of his cousin and another man. Both survived.
The governor says Walters is now a rap artist and landlord in the Bronx who hasn't had any criminal problems since his release from prison in 1997. He also says Walters has volunteered to counsel youths against violence.
A weeping Remy Ma was sentenced to eight years in prison Tuesday for shooting a woman outside a Manhattan nightclub. "I feel so bad for all the physical and mental pain you've gone through," the Grammy-nominated rapper told the victim. "This has taken a toll on us and both our families. I would never wish you harm and I pray the best for all of us."
Fresh New Sound: Self-proclaimed Prince of the ‘O’ (Oakland, California), Younge Sinatra brings a fresh new sound from the Bay Area music scene. Younge Sinatra explains his style is updated more universal. Breaking out with his own brand of bay music, he’s improved on the old frenzied Hyphy sound, retooling it into a more pristine and steady groove the Bay calls “Go music”.
In more "jail news".In the year that he is awaiting sentencing, T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris, must complete at least 1,000 hours of a total 1,500 hours of community service, talking to youth groups about the pitfalls of guns, gangs and drugs.
He will be sentenced to serve about 12 months in prison after completing the community service, officials said. His prison time could be increased or reduced, depending on his fulfillment of the terms of the deal and good behavior, they said.
He pleaded guilty to possession of unregistered machine guns and silencers, unlawful possession of machine guns and possession of firearms by a convicted felon.
U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said Harris will remain "under strict bond conditions" during the next year.
He said Harris' sentencing was deferred "to allow him to perform a unique and extensive program — at least 1,000 hours — of community service. That service will focus on using his high public visibility and his talents to tell at-risk young people about the mistakes he has made and to educate them about the dangers of violence, guns, gangs and drugs."
Nahmias said under the agreement, Harris will have to serve a year in prison and three years of supervised home detention, perform a total of 1,500 hours of community service and pay a $100,000 fine.
Failure to fulfill his obligations will net Harris a "much longer prison sentence," Nahmias said.
Remy Ma was convicted of assault, weapons possession and coercion today for shooting a woman in the abdomen in a dispute about money in New York. The New York State Supreme Court jury cleared her of charges of gang assault, witness tampering, witness intimidation and assault in a separate incident in which her associates are accused of beating up the boyfriend of a witness.
The artist, whose real name is Remy Smith, was taken into custody after the verdict was read. She faces five to 25 years in prison.
Prosecutors said Smith shot Makeda Barnes-Joseph after a night out in New York last year, thinking she had taken $3,000 from her purse.
Big yaaaaaaaay to all those that helped save the birthplace of Hip Hop.The AP is reporting that the project apartment building 1520 Segwick Avenue, in the Bronx where it is said DJ Kool Herc pioneered this thing we call Hip Hop is now eligible to be listed on national and state registers of historic sites.
The building’s owner had planned to sell the structure to developer, Mark Karasick’s who planned to then eradicate the affordable housing units and instead renovate and sell the units as condos. However due to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s decision these plans have been put on hold.
The new owner hoped to abandon the Mitchell-Lama program, under which the previous owner received incentives such as low-rate mortgages and tax breaks in exchange for charging tenants low to moderate rents. Sen. Charles Schumer said the city rejected the proposed sale to a developer because current rents could not be sustained if the sale was executed.
“This building, which housed hip-hop’s founding father … is a New York treasure that must be preserved as a bastion of affordable housing,” Schumer said.
Thanks for forwarding this over Lila.. Really have no comment, I love Bill too much..Bill Cosby - a staunch critic of some rap music - is set to release a Hip-Hop album called State of Emergency, which will be a sanitized, issue-oriented CD.
Sources told AllHipHop.com that the actor, comedian and philanthropist will address issues like proper parenting, teen pregnancy, drug abuse, Black-on-Black crime and the dropout rate in America’s high schools.
Cosby’s album will not contain any profane language, nor will it offer any denigrating comments towards women.
State of Emergency would be the 35th album for the legendary comedian, actor, who released his first album Bill Cosby is a Very Funny Fellow in 1963.Read full feature HERE
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With the fate of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue hanging in the balance, Hip-Hop co-founder DJ Kool Herc is issuing a call for supporters of the genre to help save the culture’s official birthplace.
