The Hip-Hop Herald 09.17.09: Kanye, Kanye, Kanye

Posted by Patrick Robinson on 09.17.2009

This week: We're looking at the aftermath of the Kanye West incident and who really loses, T-Pain and 50 Cent address issues with Jay-Z, new material from Snoop Dogg during his time on Death Row, Ghostface Killah's tracklisting and M.O.P. accused of stealing beats!

The countdown continues! In just EIGHT DAYS I will be on a plane to Singapore for a few days, then commencing my takeover of Japan for the next two weeks!

The worst thing is that I keep realizing how much stuff I still have to do before I leave. I've got to organize money, check if my Visa will be ok in Japan, complete an assignment due on Monday (really haven't made any progress on that front…), half finish an assignment due on the Tuesday AFTER I get back from the holiday, get some extra 37th Chamber's going and ensure I have enough clothing for the trip. I really don't want my name on the international news for being arrested for public indecency due to my lack of clothing that WILL happen if I don't at least buy another pair of jeans.

In the meantime though, check out my review for Kid Cudi's album and M.O.P.'s latest album if you haven't already!

The News

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Kanye West Wrap-Up



I'm sure by now everyone knows what Kanye did however you may not have noticed that Kanye issued an apology on his blog…then took it down.

After interrupting Taylor Swift at the MTV VMA's for best female video for "You Belong With Me," besting Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", Kanye wrote this:

"I'M SOOOOO SORRY TO TAYLOR SWIFT AND HER FANS AND HER MOM. I SPOKE TO HER MOTHER RIGHT AFTER AND SHE SAID THE SAME THING MY MOTHER WOULD'VE SAID. SHE IS VERY TALENTED! I LIKE THE LYRICS ABOUT BEING A CHEERLEADER AND SHE'S IN THE BLEACHERS! …………………… I'M IN THE WRONG FOR GOING ON STAGE AND TAKING AWAY FROM HER MOMENT!…………….. BEYONCE'S VIDEO WAS THE BEST OF THIS DECADE!!!! I'M SORRY TO MY FANS IF I LET YOU GUYS DOWN!!!! I'M SORRY TO MY FRIENDS AT MTV. I WILL APOLOGIZE TO TAYLOR 2MRW."

You know, I was just thinking the other day, we haven't had a WALL OF TEXT post from Prodigy or Kanye lately, guess I should have seen this one coming. Anyway, at this point, apart from the excessive O's in the first line, Kanye's apology DOES seem sincere. However…

"WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD!!!! EVERYBODY WANNA BOOOOO ME BUT I'M A FAN OF REAL POP CULTURE!!! NO DISRESPECT BUT WE WATCHIN' THE SHOW AT THE CRIB RIGHT NOW CAUSE … WELL YOU KNOW!!!! I'M STILL HAPPY FOR TAYLOR!!!! BOOOYAAAWWWW!!!! YOU ARE VERY VERY TALENTED!!! I GAVE MY AWARDS TO OUTKAST WHEN THEY DESERVED IT OVER ME… THAT'S WHAT IT IS!!!!!!! I'M NOT CRAZY YALL, I'M JUST REAL. SORRY FOR THAT!!! I REALLY FEEL BAD FOR TAYLOR AND I'M SINCERELY SORRY!!! MUCH RESPECT!!!!!"

Saying "welcome to the real world" is like saying, "This is what you should get used to in the music business" which isn't true as before Kanye's shenanigans, only the late Ol Dirty Bastard had done something of this nature and grabbed headlines like this.

Later in the show, Beyonce allowed Swift to finish her speech, after Beyonce took home Video of the Year.

"Wow. This is amazing. I remember being 17-years -old being up for my first award with Destiny's Child. And it was one of the most exciting moments of my life," said Beyonce, who came up to accept the award for Video of the Year. So I would like to invite Taylor to come out and have her moment."

While the two hugged, the crowd gave a standing ovation as Swift finished her acceptance speech as she thanked her fans as well her little brother's high school for letting her shoot the video for "You Belong to Me."

For the remainder of the show nearly every mention of Kanye incited a roar of boos from the audience. There are also pictures floating around the web of Kanye drinking from a bottle of alcohol on the red carpet, which may have played a part in the rapper's outburst. West was also removed from Radio City Music Hall after interrupting Swift.

Kanye West more recently though released this statement regarding the situation at the VMAs:

"I feel like Ben Stiller in "Meet the Parents" when he messed up everything and Robert De Niro asked him to leave... That was Taylor's moment and I had no right in any way to take it from her. I am truly sorry."

The issue also seemed to come to the attention of Barack Obama who was quoted off the record as calling Kanye West a ‘jackass'.

According to ABC's Terry Moran's Twitter page, "President Obama just called Kanye West a 'jackass' for his outburst at VMAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT'S presidential."

However, a spokesperson issued a statement on behalf of ABC to politico.com regarding the situation:

"In the process of reporting on remarks by President Obama that were made during a CNBC interview, ABC News employees prematurely tweeted a portion of those remarks that turned out to be from an off-the-record portion of the interview. This was done before our editorial process had been completed. That was wrong. We apologize to the White House and CNBC and are taking steps to ensure that it will not happen again."

So basically, since it's not on the record we can't acknowledge it. See, Twitter IS evil! It's interesting to note though that the statement doesn't name names and instead uses an umbrella term for an individual, protecting freedom of speech or something I guess.

Kanye West has since vowed to remove himself from the limelight of fame in an exclusive interview with Jay Leno last night. This however will probably be difficult in the sense that he's going on tour with Lady GaGa starting in November.

Kanye offered what appeared to be a sincere, nearly tearful explanation of the events that resulted in him interrupting an acceptance speech by singer Taylor Swift. In the unplanned interview, Leno asked him about how his mother, the late Dr. Donda West, would feel at his actions. Kanye then revealed that he had never taken time to grieve and would eventually take time to reflect and collect himself.

He said: "You know, obviously, you know, I deal with hurt. And, you know, so many celebrities, they never take the time off. I've never taken the time off to really — you know, just music after music and tour after tour," he said. "I'm just ashamed that my hurt caused someone else's hurt. My dream of what awards shows are supposed to be, 'cause — and I don't try to justify it because I was just in the wrong. That's period. But I need to, after this, take some time off and just analyze how I'm going to make it through the rest of this life, how I'm going to improve. Because I am a celebrity, and that's something I have to deal with. And if there's anything I could do to help Taylor in the future or help anyone, I'd like — you know, I want to live this thing. It's hard sometimes…"

I appreciate Kanye's sincerity here because it's what he really needed to do with his first apology blog post. Although I'm not exactly disappointed that we got return of the Hip-Hop WALL OF TEXT.

The moment was captured on Jay Leno's prime-time debut Monday, a debut that also saw a performance by Jay-Z, West and Rihanna. Kanye said that he didn't realize exactly how rude he had behaved until he gave the mic back to Swift and she didn't continue her speech. He was showered with boos from the crowd even after he left the venue. Earlier in the day, Taylor Swift appeared on The View and revealed that Kanye had yet to reach out to her.

"He has not personally reached out or anything but if he wanted to say hi (I would),".

According to a representative from The View, following her appearance, she received a phone call from Kanye.

"After the show he spoke personally to the country music superstar via telephone and has apologized to the 19-year-old singer. She has accepted Mr. West's apology. The contents of the phone call are to remain private," explained a statement from The View.

Ok so that's everything so far. Now my thoughts.

You honestly shouldn't be surprised that this:

- Happened at the VMAs
- Involves Kanye West

Why? Because very simply, nobody loses here. Before you start waving pitchforks, let me explain. Who is involved exactly? Kanye West, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, MTV and Jay Leno considering Kanye's appearance was following the VMAs.

MTV does not lose in this instance because, well, it's MTV and they really have no shame. If you're going to call yourself a Music Television station and play little to no music videos and yet hold a Music Video award show, then I doubt MTV really care that this happened. In fact, they are probably laughing because between this and the Bruno/Eminem incident (that was staged) at the Movie Awards, their two award shows have had significant media coverage that they otherwise wouldn't have received.

Taylor Swift doesn't lose as such because face it, she has garnered ENORMOUS sympathy here. How many of you logged on to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace whatever, to see dozens of people with anti-Kanye, pro-Taylor messages? How many people probably hate Kanye enough to check out Taylor's music and then find they enjoy it? Yes she had her moment interrupted and she was embarrassed but this fiasco has also given her significant media attention she otherwise wouldn't have obtained by simply winning the award.

Beyonce sure as hell doesn't lose as, given her actions during the award show, she came off as a true class act with people praising her for giving up the spotlight in lieu of a younger artist.

Jay Leno definitely didn't lose as the first episode in his new time slot drew 17.7 million viewers and I'm willing to bet more than a few of them were interested to see what Kanye would have to say.

Now Kanye. Kanye doesn't lose because he gets his name out there in the media. Yes it's extremely negative, but when exactly has Kanye EVER cared about negative media attention? From his WALL OF TEXT blog posts regarding his dissatisfaction during the Glow In The Dark tour, from his anti-MTV outbursts after not winning an award to the "George Bush doesn't care about black people" comment , Kanye has done heaps of things that portray him in a negative light. And with his self-imposed exile, he can now grieve his mother's passing, relax, and escape the limelight for a while.

I'm certainly not saying what he did was in any way justifiable or right, but I DO think that a lot of people are overreacting to it completely. Step back, look at who was involved and you'll realize that everyone comes out of this incident with much more publicity than they would have had Kanye kept his mouth shut. And in the music world, publicity is pretty much everything if you want your album to sell.

T-Pain Resolves Jay-Z Issue



Just a day after it was reported that T-Pain dissed Jay-Z while DJing in Las Vegas, he's changed his tune and said there's no beef between him and Jay. T-Pain's about-face stems not only from a recent conversation he said he and Jay had, but also from a radio interview that Jay did recently, where he responded to T-Pain's taunts and said that his song "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)" wasn't about him. T-Pain said it was the first time he heard Jay explicitly say that.

"Every time I saw his interviews, he just said 'T-Pain is a talented dude,'" T-Pain told New York radio station Power 105's Ed Lover on Wednesday morning September 9. "But I will say the interview he did yesterday" — in which Jay said, "I made it very clear I wasn't talking about him" — "that made me feel better."

T-Pain said his issue with Jay-Z stemmed from the two's appearance onstage at Hot 97's Summer Jam concert in New Jersey in June. T-Pain joined Jay-Z during his performance of "D.O.A." just days after the rapper premiered the track. In the song, Jay-Z jabs at artists who have been relying on Auto-Tune too much for their vocals; he absolved Lil Wayne and Kanye West from his complaint, but wasn't quite as vocal in defending T-Pain, who played a major role in bringing the vocal-enhancing device into the pop consciousness.

Ok why the hell would ANYONE want T-Pain performing "D.O.A."? It would be like asking Paris Hilton to perform a song promoting abstinence.

T-Pain said he was a fan of the song from the onset, and said he even reached out Jay-Z to join him onstage during Summer Jam. But Jay-Z told him he was overseas in Switzerland, he said, and wouldn't be able to make it. When Jay-Z did make a surprise appearance at Summer Jam, T-Pain said he was shocked. Jay went onstage with Young Jeezy; T-Pain said he joined the pair onstage at the recommendation of one of Jay-Z's associates. Afterward, though, according to T-Pain, Jay-Z snubbed him.

"I'm ready to go on stage after Jeezy's set and [the concert organizers] said, 'Hold on, Jay-Z is about to come out with Jeezy,' and I said, 'Well, Jay-Z is in Switzerland.' They say, 'No he's not, he's right there,' and I look and there's Jay-Z. So he gets on the stage and when he gets to the part [on 'D.O.A.'] where he says, 'I don't need anyone smiling at this,' he pointed at me. And then at the end of the song, when I tried to shake his hand, he turned around and said 'Good riddance.'"

"Good riddance" is actually part of the song you know…silly T-Pain.

For the past two months, T-Pain said he was trying to contact Jay-Z about whether he was being attacked on the song. He said during his own shows, audience members would shout, "You're finished!" at him and throw up Jay-Z's Roc diamond hand signal. When he couldn't get hold of the rapper to clarify the situation, he decided to lash out.

I think people would have done that regardless of whether "D.O.A." came about eventually. We're pretty much sick of the auto-tune for the most part I think.

The Vegas gig was the first time most fans heard about the situation, since Fabolous tweeted about it. Fabolous then started an anti-T-Pain crusade on Twitter on Tuesday after an imposter T-Pain account called him out, but once Fab realized it was a fake, he backtracked.

T-Pain said he's spoken with Jay and the two have patched things up: "I feel a lot better. Neither me nor Jay-Z have time to go through this beef crap. I'm a fan of Jay-Z, I'mma always be a fan of Jay-Z. Me and Fab talked today. He apologized and said it was stupid on his part."

Twitter – It'll get ya.

Unreleased Snoop Material Coming Soon



The re-established Death Row Records will release a brand new album by Snoop Dogg featuring unreleased material. Snoop Dogg's album, The Lost Sessions Vol. 1 features unheard material recorded by Snoop Dogg while he was an artist on Death Row Records.

The album features a number of high profile artists, including Dr. Dre, The Lady of Rage, Bad Azz, K-CI & JoJo, Nate Dogg and others.

HOLY CRAP NATE DOGG AND LADY OF RAGE SIGHTINGS!

Haven't been able to do that for a long, long time.

Death Row's assets were bought for $18 million dollars in January 2009 after the label filed for bankruptcy. According to Death Row's new CEO Lara Lavi, the label is also planning to release a brand new album featuring unreleased material from Tupac Shakur in 2010.

"We're trying to put it out as part of our birthday celebration of Tupac," Lavi said. "It isn't just the music, what's happened in the course of this whole exercise is so many people have come out of the woodwork for video content that no-one's ever seen before and suggestions for playlists etc. The fans have been wonderful. The release will include a huge DVD of unreleased, never before seen video also."

I'm more interested in the videos these days. Sadly the Pac material that has been trickling through in recent releases hasn't exactly been inspiring, although if this is any indication, it appears that the material will largely be left in its original state which should help things. The videos however, are usually fairly interesting as it's fun to watch artists interact with each other most of the time.

The Lost Sessions Vol. 1 is due in stores October 13th.

The track listing is below:

1. Soldier Story (Intro)
2. Doggystyle Ft. Dr. Dre, George Clinton and Jewell
3. Fallin' Asleep on Death Row Ft. Dr. Dre

I wouldn't want to fall asleep on Death Row…Suge Knight might have stolen your sandwich while you were sleeping.

4. Eat A D**k Ft. Dr. Dre

Something about the name of this song just makes me laugh.

5. H**z Ft. Dogg Pound
6. O.G. (Original Version Ft. Nate Dogg)
7. Keep It Real Dogg
8. One Life To Live Ft. Techniec & The Lady of Rage
9. The Genie Ft. Bad Azz & Bo Rock
10. Funk With Ya Brain (Interlude)
11. Caught Up
12. Put It In Ya Mouth

Never thought I'd say this, but please be a song about guns. An old sex-rap from Snoop is probably Number 99 on the "100 Things I Want To Hear Snoop Dogg Say" list, right before "I'm retiring" at Number 100.

13. Gravy Train Ft. Bad Azz & Tray Deee
14. Life's Hard (Dedicated to 2Pac) Ft. K-Ci & JoJo & Big Pimpin'

Should be the highlight of the album I think.

15. The Root Of All Evil (Outro) Ft. Dr. Dre
16. Quite Obvious Ft. Rappin' 4 Tay
17. Once Again
18. Got to do Wrong

The album looks interesting and from the guest list, it's obvious they don't intend on bringing in ‘who's who' of hip-hop right now like T-Pain or Akon to try and boost the albums numbers on the charts. I was doubtful at first, and I've still had second thoughts about the rebirth of Death Row, but since this is the first track list we've seen from them, I'm actually VERY confident in their abilities to give us actual un-raped material.

Ghostface Killah Tracklisting Revealed



Ghostface Killah has been readying for the release of his new album and a nationwide tour, hitting up 24 cities from coast to coast. The tracklisting for the album has been revealed, disclosing some of the industry's most sought after artists.

Ghostface Killah Presents Ghostdini: The Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City is set to feature appearances by artists such as Raheem DeVaughn, Kanye West, Ne-Yo, and Lloyd.

Ghost recently released an album of ‘remixes and rarities' called GhostDeini The Great, so it was interesting to notice the slight spelling change here. Although I'm pretty sure I was like the only person to notice because as my boss is constantly telling me, I notice the most useless and fairly bizarre things.

The R&B themed album, which includes twelve tracks and two bonus songs, are focused on his female listeners. In a previous interview Ghost said, "I focus a lot on women. I just threw my dart at women and other types of situations, too."

The Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City is slated to drop September 29, 2009 via Island Def Jam Records.

1. Not Your Average Girl Ft. Shareefa
2. Do Over Ft. Raheem DeVaughn
3. Baby Ft. Raheem DeVaughn
4. Lonely Ft. Jack Knight
5. Stapleton Sex
6. Stay
7. Paragraphs of Love Ft. Vaughn Anthony & Estelle
8. Guest House Ft. Fabolous & Shareefa

Have Ghost and Fab ever done a track together? iTunes says no, but I don't have any of Fab's earlier albums before Real Talk.

9. Let's Stop Playin' Ft. John Legend
10. Forever
11. I'll Be That Ft. Adrienne Bailon
12. Goner Ft. Lloyd
13. She's A Killah Ft. Ron Browz (Bonus Track)
14. Back Like That Ft. Ne-Yo & Kanye West (Bonus Track)

I'm surprised that this is being included as a bonus track considering it was on the aforementioned GhostDeini The Great album. Ah I won't complain, recycled Ghost material is still much better than OJ Da Juiceman's album will ever be.

50 Cent Clears The Air



Rumors started that 50 Cent was allegedly dissing Jay-Z on his new mixtape track "Flight 187", however 50 recently spoke to MTV and said there's no beef, just observation. "It was the glasses," 50 explained about why he compared Jay to sitcom character Steve Urkel. "They saw the glasses. I didn't Photoshop glasses on him. I think Jay is really conscious of his actual moves. He does those things to make a statement in different ways to create clarity that he doesn't have to be the way people want him to be. He can do what he wants. But [I wrote the song] out of the perspective of me mentioning things I thought were interesting."

You're an idiot. "Mentioning things I thought were interesting" is another way of saying, "my album is coming and has virtually no buzz so I'll send a subliminal Jay-Z's way and see if anything sticks".

50 also noted that he mentioned Britney Spears and even members of his own musical family on the song, but everyone gravitated toward the Jay line because Blueprint 3 has a huge buzz.

"I even wrote, 'Em made me a star and Dre is taking a long time to mix my records. I gotta talk to Jimmy [Iovine] about it.' I wrote about Britney Spears. I said a lot of interesting things on the record, but they focus on Jay because his album is releasing."

YOU focus on Jay because his album is being released and WE focus on that line because we know it's an attempt to create 50's now famous dish, processed beef. Seriously, 50 can't market himself unless there's a beef going on. Don't believe me? Get Rich - Ja Rule. The Massacre - Nas, Fat Joe, Jadakiss, Game, Cassidy list goes on. Curtis - Kanye West. It's ridiculous to even try and cover it up.

In other news, 50 Cent recently took to a Barnes & Noble in New York to promote his new self-help book The 50th Law, a book he wrote with Robert Greene, the author of The Art of Seduction and The 48 Laws of Power.

So what happened to the 49th law? Ha, lame I know.

"It's an opportunity to inspire hope," 50 told The New York Daily. "Obviously, I've been using his 'Art of Seduction' tactics more than he does," he said jokingly.

REALLY doesn't bear thinking about…50 and seduction gaahhhhh

Many lined up to meet the rapper and one aspiring emcee, Dutchis, actually got to speak with 50 about his career, hoping to get some feedback.

"I just spit it for him. It was wonderful. I gave him my CD and phone number," he told reporters.

There is a much quicker way to have your album delayed, pushed back and eventually shelved you know and that would be by joining Aftermath. Seriously, Aftermath/Shady/G-Unit Records are like elephant graveyards.

The 50th Law is in bookstores now.

Speaking of album delays 50's album has been delayed again to a new expected release date. Before I Self Destruct is now forecasted to drop on November 17.

The tracklisting for Before I Self Destruct, which features the likes of Swizz Beatz and Nate Dogg (HOLY CRAP TWO IN ONE DAY) with production from Jake One and Dr. Dre will be his last studio album under Interscope.

I'll review it I suppose, although as we shall see a bit later, Wale's album is coming out in November too so I'll probably be more interested in that if it gets pushed back closer to 50's album.

Lil Wayne Is A Father Again



Lil Wayne has another child, as Lauren London has reportedly given birth to their child. Lennox Samuel Ari Carter weighed 7 lbs, 12 ounces at 21 inches long, according to unconfirmed reports. Lil Wayne was supposedly present when London birthed the baby.

Both Wayne and London confirmed that they were having a child together after the constant media attention and scrutiny hit a fever pitch by the fans. The rapper confirmed his paternity last month in an interview with DJ Fuzzy of Los Angeles' Power 106.

London pleaded with the fans as rumors emerged that Lil Wayne may not be the father.

"Rumors are false. Why won't they just let us be? Wayne is indeed the father and there's no question," she wrote on her Twitter page. "We are celebrating a life."

This is Lil Wayne's third child and London's first. Former singer Nivea is presently pregnant with the rap artist's fourth child.

Wow, where to start. Well, firstly, how exactly did Lil Wayne end up with Lauren London AND Nivea. Now Nivea isn't exactly a 10, but she's far from ugly, and Lauren London is the sole reason I started watching the ATL movie with T.I. and her in it a while back, but Wayne…well you know, it's Lil Wayne.

I'll let you be the judge, with pictures!

Nivea:



Lauren London:



Rick Ross & Co. Take On Floyd Mayweather



After getting venom thrown their way by Floyd Mayweather, Rick Ross and Freck Billionaire are answering via the new Triple C's helmed diss "Go (War Remix)." Last month, Mayweather derided both artists in an interview, framing Ross as a fraud and joking "when I need someone arrested, I'll call him."

Personally, I'd call Shaq.

Regarding Freck Billionaire, Mayweather accused him of being a thief for stealing an expensive watch after defaulting on contract obligations with Mayweather's Philthy Rich record label. According to Mayweather, Freck failed to disclose a previous signed contract that resulted in the boxer being sued.

"F**k Floyd Mayweather! You spoke my name," Ross began. "Forever getting robbed / Bloods took your jewels / Can't beat the IRS baby boy / Just pay your dues!"

In addition to alluding to his alleged IRS problems, Ross belittles Mayweather regarding his mainstream appeal, and a previous strip club incident where the boxer allegedly threw fake $100 bills into the air.

"Even your name lame / Ain't no Mayweather Punchout! / Catch him in Florida / I'm a need another lawyer / Why your daddy employer / Go by the name of De La Hoya?!...We standing on the bar / Throwing real money / Holla Mayweather when you see a fake hundred."

Is this possibly because Mayweather also has the 50 Cent affiliation?

"I think it's a bitter cheap shot, totally untrue from an egotistically frustrated person," Freck said. "I'll respond to Floyd when I see him face to face. I don't go back and forth on blogs, that's his style."

Would you REALLY want to get into the face of someone who punches other people in the face for a living? Nice sentiment Freck but yeah, I'd get the hospital on standby.

Despite this proclamation, Billionaire does deliver a verse chastising Mayweather's recent actions.

"Talking greasy because you're 39-0? / Real life bitch n**** 39 and hoe / I'm his toughest opponent yet / I'm nothing like Marquez."

You know that line would actually hold a lot more weight if Mayweather was actually 39.

At press time Floyd Mayweather could not be reach for comment, and is completing a final public workout in preparation for his anticipated September 19 PPV showdown with Juan Manuel Marquez.

Lil Mama Apologizes For Stage Jump

Lil Mama has apologized for jumping on stage at the 2009 Video Music Awards ceremony after she leaped on stage during the finale performance by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. "I did not mean any disrespect towards Jay-Z or Alicia Keys. I admire them and look up to them as role models," she said in a statement. "‘Empire State of Mind' had my emotions running high. In that moment I came up onstage to celebrate my two icons singing about NY."

If stage jumping is the thing to do right now, may I suggest someone jump the stage at a Soulja Boy show and beat him with his own shoes for 37 seconds? Whatever you do after that is fine but 37 seconds should be enough time for a decent YouTube video of the event to circulate quickly.

New Law Passed In California

California state lawmakers have recently passed a bill that will prohibit electronic cosmetic facial surgery without a physical examination being done within 30 days of the procedure.

The bill has been titled the Donda West Law after Kanye West's mother, who passed away in November of 2007 due to complications following her surgery. Shortly after her death, it was revealed that West had not received medical clearance prior to her surgical operation.

Assemblywoman Wilmer Amina Carter, primary author of the bill, told the Los Angeles Times, "Sometimes patients may think they are well enough for cosmetic surgery, but in reality are not. This bill will potentially save lives."

After approving a few minor changes, the state Assembly will send the bill to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for the final decision. Governor Schwarzenegger had vetoed a similar bill last fall.

I'm glad they're taking action because this was something that could have been prevented really easily. I'm sure people will still try and bypass it, but then at least we can't wave pitchforks saying the law should have stepped in.

Murs Dropped From Warner Bros.?

According to Shabooty.com, a music and entertainment blog, Murs has possibly been dropped from his label Warner Bros Music Group.

Deemed exclusive, the website claims that a reliable source has revealed that Murs was dropped from Warner Brothers, but neither Murs or his manager have responded to the claims.

Before signing to Warner Brothers, Murs was an artist on Definitive Jux, home to artists such as El-P, Aesop Rock, Mr. Lif, and more. Roughly a year ago on September 30, 2008 Murs released MURS For President (which I tried to review but wasn't able to for various reasons). The album was Murs' first on Warner Bros. The album featured appearances from will.i.am and Snoop Dogg along with production from 9th Wonder and more.

In recent years Warner has severed ties with artists including Lil Flip, Lil Scrappy and most recently Wiz Khalifa. Murs is currently on tour and will be making stops in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Dallas, Raleigh, and Albuquerque later this month.

I hope he hasn't been dropped as the label seemed to be a good fit for him. All I can say is that if it's true, GO TO E1 MUSIC (formerly Koch)! I'm willing to bet that Koch/E1 has a much better album completion ratio than any other record label out there for hip-hop right now.

Police Officers In Trouble Over Rihanna Incident

Two LAPD officers are under investigation after rumors surfaced that they are responsible for leaking a photo of Rihanna's beaten face after a domestic dispute with ex-boyfriend Chris Brown. Nine year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, Rebecca Reyes, and her roommate, rookie officer Blanca Lopez, were dismissed with paid leave after a search was conducted at their home, as part of the investigation on how the photo was leaked.

Shortly after the Clive Davis pre-Grammy Award party in February, where the altercation took place, the now infamous photograph of the R&B singer's bruised and bloodied face appeared on entertainment gossip website, TMZ. Officials are looking into who took the image, how it was distributed to the gossip website, and for what compensation. According to the LA Times, Reyes' attorney Ira Salzman stated, "My client did not do anything for financial gain… she did not sell the photo."

So they're not disputing the fact that she distributed the photo by the sounds of it. A photo of Rihanna after the incident would have surfaced eventually though.

Following the leak, TMZ officials reported that the photograph was obtained by a person closely linked to the investigation for $62,500. According to a California state law that was implemented this year, it is strictly prohibited for peace officers or law enforcement officials to expose classified information including video, images and reports, whether it be for financial gain or not.

Oh well there goes my statement earlier. They'll be in trouble either way.

Wale's Album Pushed Back



After a busy Sunday night at MTV's VMAs, Wale took to Twitter to announce he was voluntarily pushing his album release date to November. The Interscope/Allido signee was slated to release his debut album, Attention Deficit on October 22, and his official album artwork was released via various blogs and Web sites last week.

"ok..i pushed my own album back two weeks..just two weeks..I'm goin on tour with Lupe ...and i scheduled a lot of talk shows," Wale wrote. "ok..Lupe and Jay-Z..lol...i think it's ok to push it back Just TWO weeks..to handle that tour ..no? I'm glad y'all understand..thnx for the love."

While I get sick of albums being delayed, at least we get a reasonable explanation for this one. It actually makes a lot of sense from a marketing perspective too. If the album drops before the tour, he can't premier any ‘new' material to surprise fans with. If it drops after the tour, he can probably create a lot more hype in those two weeks and some people at the shows who may have been undecided could well buy the album based off his performance.

While Jay-Z has announced a series of upcoming tours, neither Jay-Z, Lupe Fiasco nor anyone from their respective camps has confirmed the tour. If the tentative release date holds firm, Wale's album would hit stores November 3.

Wale's single, "Chilin'" with Lady GaGa actually got played on MTV this morning while I was eating breakfast. Needless to say, I pretty amazed considering we usually get The Black Eyed Peas (who also got played) or other terrible, terrible ‘hip-hop' artists played on MTV.

M.O.P. Stealing Beats Now?



Kevin Nottingham recently broke the news regarding a beat that was stolen from Kil, a producer from Philadelphia. The beat in question was heard on "Rude Bastard," a track that was recently used by M.O.P. for their album Foundation. The production credits for the song go to Fizzy Womack, which is Lil Fame's alias. Upon hearing the track, Kil decided to send an email to Kevin Nottingham to let him know about this. Below, you can find the producer's words.

"Back in September 2008, M.O.P., Joe Budden, Termanology and Big Shugg came down to Sonar in B'more and me and my peeps go to the show. I pass out beat CDs to Term, Joe and during M.O.P.'s show I give it to Laze E Laze's son (some young n****) who's the hype man. Now, fast forward to September 2009 and I'm listening to M.O.P.'s Foundation album on my way home from work and when track #9 'Rude Bastard' comes on….it's MY FUCKING BEAT! Not the same sample, the SAME BEAT! Drum programming, sample, chops…the whole damn beat! Then my man Mills does the knowledge for me to see who got credit for the track on the album and it says 'produced by Fizzy Womack!'

So…I don't get a check, I don't get credit…I don't even get co production credit! And I'm not looking for no "feel sorry for me" or none of that hoopla…I'm just asking for cats to let ANYONE who ya'll know who loves hip hop to know who did the track so I can @ least get credit from my peers (hip hop fans and other producer's grinding out there) for the beat. I've been grinding @ this beat thing for YEARS and for my first placement for a major artist to be a jack move…it just ain't right…but it is what it is…like I said, do me this justice and @ least let the hip hop heads ya'll know that the boi Kil from Philly gave M.O.P. THAT heat… not no fucking Fizzy Womack."

Lil Fame responded to this by releasing his own statement on the matter.

"It's true. I didn't do the beat 'Rude Bastards' as Kil said….I heard it, it was hot and I rhymed on it…I'd never steal a beat, that's not me," he said.
He also went on to note that Laze, M.O.P.'s manager was responsible for the error.

"I gave him the info for who did the beat. I just saw the finished artwork and my 1st comment was, 'I didn't do that beat why does it say I did?'"

Laze also released a statement saying that it was a "clerical error" that could be fixed easily and that M.O.P. is known for giving young up and comers their big break, citing DR Period, Chris Robinson and Hype Williams as examples.

Hype Williams actually directed M.O.P.'s "How About Some Hardcore" video back in 1993.

"We spent a lot of years making our type of music on purpose for that part of society that doesn't get represented. We left labels and sometimes financial security on sometimes our code alone. So it hurts us that anyone would call the Mash Out Posse thieves. Even in the robbery days it was point blank. And not from the poor," he added.

According to Nottingham, Fame agreed to call Kil to work on the matter. No word on what the outcome of the phone call was.

Now Kil is understandably upset because it must be soul destroying to see your beat supposedly stolen like that, but he did the wrong thing. He should have contacted M.O.P. FIRST to see if something could be organized such as a statement such as Lil Fame released above instead of creating an unnecessary ruckus that now makes him look like the type who complains all too easily instead of trying to sort things out reasonably first.

Sales Figures

Jay-Z not surprisingly came in at Number 1 this week with 476,000 copies of Blueprint 3 sold. Raekwon debuted at Number 4 this week with 68,000 copies sold, more than I expected to be honest and I'm very pleased for him. The other debut this week of interest was Jay-Z's Blueprint Collector's Edition which was released by Def Jam to celebrate the third part of the trilogy and sold 14,000 copies.

Trey Songz sold 45,000 copies of Ready giving him a total of 178,000. I guess singing over anyone and everyone's songs isn't necessarily paying off. Eminem's Relapse continues to sell at a steady rate with 14,000 copies this week giving him 1,425,000. Not far behind was Fabolous with Loso's Way up to 221,000 copies sold.

Rounding out this week's numbers are Beanie Sigel who sold 4,000 copies of Broad Street Bully for a total of 11,000 and Red and Meth made a reappearance on the charts with 2,300 copies of Blackout! 2 for a grand total of 148,000 now.

Next week, Jay-Z will undoubtedly go Gold, but where will Kid Cudi and M.O.P. come in?

The Signoff

That's all for this week folks! I'll catch you on Saturday and seriously, if you haven't already, pick up at LEAST one of the four albums I've reviewed for September as they are all quality releases. New York is certainly making a comeback, but more on that on Saturday.