The Hip-Hop Herald 11.19.09: GUCCI! GUCCI!

Posted by Patrick Robinson on 11.19.2009

This week, Gucci Mane is heading off to jail, 50 Cent and Beanie Sigel team up to take on Jay, Pete Rock and CL Smooth reunite, what T-Pain, Lil Wayne and Ne-Yo's mothers are up to and Soulja Boy talks about expanding his fame as a producer!

Just a quick one this week all. Unfortunately, I've been getting very little sleep due to stress and other factors of late, so I ended up collapsing yesterday from sheer exhaustion on the dining room floor. The dog helpfully came and sat on my legs for 2 hours, probably to ‘protect' me or something, but actually ended up making it more difficult to get off the floor which grew increasingly comfortable as it warmed up a little. Floorboards are quite cold, even in the summer.

The News

Top Story

Gucci Mane In Jail



Although sources have yet to confirm what Gucci Mane's specific charge was, his latest legal problem arises due to it being a violation of his parole. The 12 month stay in Fulton County Jail can be cut in half, if Gucci demonstrates good behavior.

Gucci Mane has been free for less than nine months, after a previous probation violation landed him in jail from late 2008 until March of this year. The initial charge was for assault, dating back at least two years.

Recently, Gucci broke his silence since his sentencing on November 12 and now accepts that he was completely to blame for his legal plight:

"I have accepted full responsibility for my actions and I am ready to deal with what is in front of me right now. Thankfully, my label is still moving forward with my album release so I will have plenty to look forward to when I get out. I am remaining positive and want my fans to know that I am grateful for their loyalty and continued support. I will get through this."

Gucci Mane's attorney, Dwight Thomas, said, "In court, Mr. Davis was extremely articulate and he was remorseful for his conduct. He was able to convince the courts that he was not deserving of the 2-year prison sentence he was facing."

Oh great, so now that he's in jail, we can look forward to even MORE material coming from him, as it seems that when a rapper becomes jailed, more tracks appear than ever before in an attempt to keep them relevant. The inexplicably popular Gucci Mane already gets on my nerves so this will make the next 6-12 months AWESOME I TELL YOU!

50 Cent & Beanie Sigel Team Up



Since Beanie Sigel's initial attacks on Jay, Jay has replied and Beans has now started a new buzz surrounding a move to G-Unit Records.

Now, 50 Cent is saying that time will tell.

"I had a meeting with him today," 50 told MTV in an interview last Thursday. "First we gotta start with the music — where's the music? Then we have to get into what it would take to bring him over to G-Unit as a record company. You can't sign a deal in a conversation — it's a process. We'll see what happens."

Because what we all really want, as opposed to a Beanie Sigel album, is a Beanie Sigel album with 8 guest appearances from 50 Cent as this is what inevitably happens on every new signee's album over there.

However, things are heating up with this rumor. The two have recorded a new song, "I Go Off," which just adds to the notion that something is brewing between Sigel and G-Unit. Furthermore, the two seem to be aiming their words at Jay-Z, but this is cemented when 50 mentions Jay by name.

"Yeah, you changed, man. You let the money change you, Jay. You used to be from Marcy," 50 says. "Now, you's a 'Pass the Grey Poupon' ass n****. You don't want the shooter? I'll take him."

"I live by the comrade's creed. Strategy," he says as the song ends.

I'll be honest, I thought that said "I Get Off" to start with and I suppose it's a sad state of affairs when I can easily see 50 making a song like that without hesitation.

Also, I don't think 50 is one to be talking about where people used to be from. I mean, from New York streets to Connecticut anyone? And no, he can't claim he lives in NY as that house burned down mysteriously remember?

Beanie Sigel opened up more this week too claiming:

"I ain't even lace my sneaks up, yet. I'm ready to jump in the ring."

He went on to talk about his opponent's skills as well as his own:

"Jay can rap. He can spit but yo, I'm nice. Yeah, I'm nice...You don't understand. The competition? I'm nice, yo.

People judge people from their wealth. When he say 'The Greatest Rapper' and all that, he equates that with his accomplishments. I'm talking about line for line. Let's go. I'm nice!"

Well, it's good to know Beanie Sigel is nice, I'm sure you couldn't have understood that after the second time, let alone the fourth time.

"At the end of the day, [Memphis] Bleek's fake too. F*** outta here. I ain't trying to hear that. Bleek got the same characteristics."

Does anyone really follow Bleek releases anymore anyway? No offense to the dude, but I just never found him to be a particularly engaging rapper.

"Lil Wayne professed the 'Greatest Rapper Alive' and was getting the momentum. Lil Wayne can rap, Lil Wayne can spit, in my point of view. I like Lil Wayne. He should have kept moving with it and then Jay come and tell Lil Wayne he gonna pass the baton to him [then] Lil Wayne falls back."

Wait, wait, Beans has forgotten to add: "Hopefully I can get a Wayne guest spot on my next album". That and the reason Wayne has fallen back is because he's dicking around with his Rebirth project, and the fact that he's heading off to jail soon. THAT, and he doesn't need to tell anyone he's the ‘Greatest/Best Rapper Alive' anymore as he successfully brainwashed ½ the hip-hop listeners in the world into thinking so on some level due to the sheer amount of times he said it.

"Kanye [West] coming at [Jay], if you listen to the 'Big Brother' record, it's the same thing...You got Carleen talkin' 'bout he can buy two tickets. Carleen is the lady he sent to call the police on me, yo!"

I understand very little of that above statement. So making a song calling someone your big brother is going at them now? I guess I'd need a brother to understand that. And is Carleen a guy or a lady who went and found some police?

"That's one thing about me, I ain't no liar and [Jay] knows that shit...Go back to the B. Coming record, 'I Can't Go On This Way.' Listen to the beginning of that record. All you gotta do is listen to it, 'Trust, karma, team, us, Roc, solid, damn.' 'D'Evils.' Listen to the music..." He continued to add that lyrics from that song were directed towards Jay-Z as subliminal rhymes.

REALLY? This is like fortune telling. It's convenient for those that want it to be. Then again, I never ended up listening to the whole B. Coming album.

Beans added that more records would be released featuring 50 Cent and added that he feels "great." He alluded to signing with G-Unit but made no declaration.

Just do it, but you'll either end up the way of M.O.P., Mase or Mobb Deep (what's with all the M's?); on an Indy, M.I.A. or half missing, half in jail which could be difficult for one man to accomplish.

Pete Rock And CL Smooth Reunite!



Pete Rock and CL Smooth reunited last week to perform in London's Relentlentless Garage in Highbury. After the show, the duo appeared on the Dan Greenpeace radio show to talk about Wendy Williams' role in breaking their first single, "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y)," the Sylvia Rhone era of Elektra Records, and the feeling of performing onstage.

"Wendy Williams was the first one [to play our music]" said CL. "I remember her distinct words on the air. She was like 'Oh my God, I love this! Oh my God Pete Rock and CL Smooth, these new guys!"

They explained that the change of administration within their old record label Elektra in the mid 90s led to a huge change in Hip Hop, for the worst.

Pete said, "What happened back then--not to talk bad about anyone--but I think when Sylvia Rhone came in the picture is when things started going haywire. And all the real rap groups that were once part of Elektra were no more. So, it was like a change that was coming to Hip Hop music. And it was about the dance and the club hits. But at the same time, we still practiced our craft and made other records and still put out our stuff independently. We didn't bank on any more majors once we got off of Elektra."

With their most recent (yet brief) reunion, the two artists say that being on stage is still an addicting experience.

"It's nostalgic," said CL. "It's almost like an out of body experience…When you're by yourself and you're performing it's cool and you enjoy it, but when you're with that group it's like you're with the Beatles. It's just awesome…like you don't have to try hard, it's just natural."

Despite their working together, both artists expressed that they did not know what would come out of this most recent reunion tour.

"I enjoy not knowing [what's going to happen in the future]," said Pete. "I don't want to know what's around the corner. I just want to think positive, and by the time I turn the corner, I hope that there's something beautiful in the basket."

WOW. I honestly thought these two would never get back together but from the sounds of things, it looks like they are on the right track. 2010 might be the year of Reunions as Organized Konfusion were alluding to a joint effort once more earlier in the year. Whatever happened to the reissue of Internal Affairs anyway? I'm still wanting to buy a copy and it's kind of hard to do so when they sell for about $50 on eBay.

T-Pain, Lil Wayne And Ne-Yo's MOTHERS Team Up



The mothers of T-Pain, Lil Wayne and Ne-Yo have teamed to create a new talk show, Dinner Table Discussions.

Aliyah "Mama Pain" Najm (T-Pain‘s mother), Jacida Carter (Lil Wayne's mother) and H. Loraine Smith (Ne-Yo's mother) will serve as hosts of Dinner Table Discussions, which aims to present a quality and informative program.

I vaguely remember reporting they were in talks earlier in the year…someone else might remember better.

According to the women, their aim is to create a show that will enhance their viewers "educationally, economically, socially and culturally," by discussing current events, important topics, interviews and feature segments.

"Our vision is to be a premier talk show that delivers a creative and informative format that assists viewers in educating and solving challenging issues," Najm said in a statement.

"There are situations in our communities, cities, states and even nationwide that people have made us aware of and they want to resolve the issues, but they just don't know where to get help or how to properly handle certain issues," Najm said.

In addition to discussing relevant topics, Dinner Table Discussions will also provide solutions for young people as well.

Dinner Table Discussions is scheduled to launch in 2010.

If we can leave their son's careers off the show, I think they have good intentions here. I'm sure people are going to tune in simply because of the names attached initially, and if they can make a strong starting impression, I'm sure people will keep coming back. Either way, I hope this works out, mainly because I want to see what the various rappers' mothers are like. Does Mamma Pain talk with an auto-tune? Has Lil Wayne developed his uh, ‘looks' from his mom or BIRDMAN? Does Ne-Yo's mother…ah, sing?

50 Cent Refusing To Work With Game And Dre


Could you turn down a request from this man? I think not

The bad blood between 50 Cent and Game continues to linger as 50 recently said he wouldn't work with Game, even if Dr. Dre made the request.

"No, I wouldn't do it. I'd be on a record, on a song, on the [Detox] album, but not on that record [with Game]. That's not making a song, that's making an event — things for people to talk about," 50 told MTV. "So there's a verse there that you think would be great for both of us, I just say, 'Erase his verse and put something in better than that.' "

Talk about being an idiot for the sake of anti-progress. Is he seriously that scared of Game outshining him on a track? And for those G-Unit Stans claiming that Before I Self Destruct is the best rap album of this time period (yes, someone did such a thing on my review), I can agree with you if the time period in question is 12:00am November 16 to 11:59pm November 16. Anything other than that and it's a seriously questionable statement.

Soulja Boy Wanting To Increase Production Fame



In more horrible news, Soulja Boy now wants to garner respect as a producer after having supposedly gained some as a rapper.

Soulja Boy spoke to MTV about producing on Kanye West's next album.

"I've been in the studio with Kanye. I did three tracks for him back-to-back," Soulja Boy divulged.

Dear Kanye,

Please use just one if you have to use one at all.

As reported earlier, Kanye will be returning the favor by producing on Soulja Boy's next album titled The DeAndre Way. Soulja Boy claims he has learnt a lot working with Kanye.

"As a producer, I think I've grown tremendously," explained Soulja Boy. "Working with him, collaborating different beats. Him showing me a lot of stuff I didn't know. Me showing him a lot of stuff he didn't know. He had an ear for my sound. Of course I had an ear for all the stuff he did. Genius! You know what I mean?"

As reported earlier, Soulja Boy contributed to Rihanna's latest album titled Rated R. Soulja Boy also revealed that he also put something together with Jamie Foxx:

"I was in the studio with him a couple of days ago working on a new beat for him," revealed Soulja Boy. "My portfolio is only getting longer and longer."

As is my headache. Seriously, ok, I can understand on some small level the appeal behind him as a rapper. Sure, he makes fairly inoffensive dance music and isn't exactly taking over the world anymore. But as a producer? He has made probably 3 of the Top 10 Worst beats I have ever heard in my entire life of listening to hip-hop and really doesn't bring anything worthwhile to the table. Perhaps the sessions with Kanye have taught him something about making a beat that doesn't sound like an abortion in audio format, perhaps not. Either way, I'm not particularly eager to see the result.

Sales Figures

The Blueprint 3 sold 33,000 copies this week, giving Jay's latest a total of 1,271,000, creeping ever so slowly towards double platinum. Beyonce's I Am...Sasha Fierce climbed quite a few places this week, selling 16,000 copies mainly due to touring and her newest video for "Video Phone" with a new verse from Lady GaGa in it.

Tech N9ne's K.O.D. is moving well for an independent release with 6,200 copies sold this week giving him a total of 47,000 overall. Kid Cudi broke the 200,000 mark with 6,100 copies of his debut album giving him a total of 203,000. Triple C's album sold 3,400 copies, for a total of 21,000 now.

Debuts this week saw Wale move 28,000 copies of his debut album. The number seemed quite low to many, however, in a previous interview, Wale said that only 30,000 copies were going to be shipped anyway in a move he had talked to Interscope with beforehand. Rounding out this weeks figures is Wyclef Jean who released Toussaint St. Jean: From The Hut, To The Projects, To The Mansion making it easily the longest album title in memory, and sold 3,300 copies. Perhaps this is Karma biting him for Canibus finally (yes I'm still a bit sour about that ordeal).

Next week, all eyes are certainly going to be on 50 Cent, but can Rakim make an impact with his first album in 10 years?

The Signoff

Apologies for the shortness again, after December 3 will be done with classes for LIFE hopefully so I believe a fair amount of stress will be off my shoulders and I'll be able to spend a lot more time here each week.

Until then, catch you Saturday!