Last week the hip-hop world celebrated the life of Jay Dee aka J-Dilla. Both his birthday and date of death fell in the same week. I first heard his music in 1996 when he began working with A Tribe Called Quest on their fourth album Beats, Rhymes and Life. He had already been working with his group Slum Village in his hometown of Detroit, and apparently stepped to Q-Tip with a tape while Tribe was in town with Lollapalooza. From that point on, Jay Dee became the “producers producer”. Highly acclaimed he worked with the likes of Pharcyde, Busta Rhymes, De …read more

Today Lil Wayne starts his 12 month prison stint after pleading guilty to second degree felony of criminal weapons possession and criminal possession of a loaded weapon, following his 2007 arrest in New York after police confiscated a firearm on his tour bus. According to NYPD detective, Wayne will be separated from the general population to keep him from harm.

Wayne is also due to stand trial in March for drug possession charges following an unrelated arrest in Yuma, Arizona in January 2008.
Photo credit: Eddie Morales/Fame Pictures

Here’s today leak: Kanye has a new blog in the works. This should good cause the original blog is already pretty solid.
The official quote: “I’ve been working really hard on this new blog and I’m really excited about it. It should be up this week!”

image: kayneuniversecity.com/blog

Fat Joe is about to drop his 10th album… 10th!!! Can you believe it? Feels like only yesterday I heard him lay his first verse on Showbiz & AG’s classic Represent in 1992. Fat Joe has gone through a lot of phases, he always keeps up with the latest trends so it didn’t surprise me that Jeezy was on his new single Slow Down. Also to make sure the beat was as bangin’ as possible, he got Scoop De Ville to lace him with something fierce. Scoop if you didn’t know, was the man who produced Snoop Dogg’s I Wanna …read more

The title got you, didn’t it? So, you’ve probably caught wind of the current criticism circled around Jay-Z and camp by now. Headlines are calling Beyonce, Rihanna and Jay-Z everything from Freemason/ Illuminati to Devil Worshipping demons. I’ve watched a handful of youtube flicks upwards of 45 minutes long dissecting music videos for satanic imagery and Freemason symbols. Some even go as far as playing records backwards to hear evil word repetition in the beats. I’ve got a little conspiracy theory of my own and it has nothing to do with the devil and everything to do with free publicity. …read more

Beef is a pretty common thing in hip-hop, amongst the biggest are Biggie and 2Pac, MC Shan and KRS, Roxanne Shante and the Real Roxanne. Tonight I was reminded of a pretty down low beef that included Naughty By Nature and a lesser known Jersey cat named Tony D. When Naughty’s debut single OPP dropped in 1991, they blew up pretty fast, that jam was playing everywhere. It Probably took one day for Tony D to hear and and start laughing. See the thing is, Tony made the exact same beat two years prior called Adam’s Nightmare on Sure Shot …read more

I was listening to more Juan Epstein podcasts yesterday, a second one with Pete Rock. I really like nerding out to these because it makes me go back and listen to tunes I haven’t pulled out in a while. I forgot that Heavy D was Pete Rock’s cousin, and how Pete produced a lot of the songs on the Blue Funk album. Pete also talks about songs he produced, but never got credit for. He talks about how back in 1993 he was chilling with Biggie when he put on the beat for Juicy. Biggie tripped and was like “yo …read more

Well then, a day has passed since I heard the Busta Rhymes version of Snoop Dogg’s single I Wanna Rock (which I am still bumping). The thing is, I came across another one featuring Jay-Z which is the official remix that will be on Snoop’s re-release album entitled More Malice.  Then, after that, I came across A TON of others. It appears many rappers have decided upon themselves to record unofficial tracks with the Doggfather (not that there’s anything wrong with that).  A quick internet search will find versions with Young Jeezy, Fat Joe, Raekwon, Lloyd Banks, Kardinal Offishall, Bow …read more

We’ve mentioned it before, Snoop Dogg’s new album Malice In Wonderland is the shiz.  Saturday night I was in a car on my way to my monthly dj gig, when I tuned into CIUT and the Masterplan show layed a gem on me.  The beat dropped I recognized it as Snoop’s debut single I Wanna Rock Right Now, but then Busta came in… Holy crap. It’s been a while since I’ve heard Busta Rhymes, his voice seems to have gotten a bit deeper but his flow still kills it. I have not stopped playing this song all day. Here it …read more

Podcasts? You guys repping any these days? I’m still fresh to it but I’ve been subscribing to a few lately. And by subscribing to a few I mean I fast forward through a lot of what I’ve downloaded and then there’s Rosenberg Radio. You guys have to check this one out. The radio show is brought to you by Peter Rosenberg, a serious head in the NewYork hip hop scene that’s paid his dues. The website is worth checking out for interviews, news, tunes and of course the podcast. One of my favorites is the last episode, titled: The Christmas …read more