The Hip-Hop Herald 02.04.10: Have A Baby By Me

Posted by Patrick Robinson on 02.04.2010

This week, Tila Tequila and The Game are crazy, Kanye West avoids criminal charges, Rick Ross talks his new album, Naughty By Nature plan a comeback, Michael Jackson is still being sued after death and much more!

I was getting ready to write The 37th Chamber last Friday, and in preparation, I had downloaded the new J. Cole mixtape and was planning on talking about it, considering I'd mentioned him, Drake and Kid Cudi in The Hip-Hop Herald previously.

Needless to say, I've managed to prove to myself that I should never ever EVER click on something that I don't recognize, as in this case, it turned out to contain a Trojan and worm made by our good friends in Sweden.

The main issue was that this installed a process on my computer that took up 50-90% of the CPU usage, meaning trying to do ANYTHING was damn near impossible. It took almost five minutes to open up a Firefox window and the virus scan (which turned up NOTHING because AVG free isn't exactly the greatest virus scanner in the world…being free and all) took 7 hours. SEVEN HOURS. So yeah, that's why there was no column on Saturday. I swear, I'm going to destroy this computer one day.

The News

Top Story

‘Play The Game' In More Ways Than One



The Game has answered allegations made by Tila Tequila that he is the father of her unborn child. On January 29, Tequila posted dozens of Tweets on her Twitter page (twitter.com/officialTila) detailing the situation. Earlier in the day, both parties were speaking cordially, with Tequila announcing she would be going to Game's Dr. Dre studio session later that night.

Initially, the reality TV star/model flip-flopped of the rumors of Game's paternity, denying it herself but posting conflicting information from other sources.

"Why do y'all think that @ihateGame is the father of my child??? I NEVER said anything about him! Why do ya'll say that??? Lol," she Tweeted before reposting a Game tweet stating "To My Unborn child (2Pac's voice)."

UGH Twitter stories…it's been a slow news week.

The Game himself did a short interview on TMZ clarifying Tequila's quotes, after additional statements from her detailed she was going to Game's studio and his promise to take her shopping for baby clothes.

"I was actually in the studio thinking about the song Tupac made about his unborn child. My son's mother is pregnant, so I'm in that lane," Game explained. "I guess she took it and ran with it…Recently she was in the studio to mess with my boy Avante Rose. I didn't see her, I was there with Dre. I wouldn't use 50's stick [to sleep with her]…I never seen her. But you know [the wrestler] Hunter Hearst Helmsley also goes by the Game, maybe she's talking about him"

Yeah because Triple H would be stupid enough to potentially have himself excommunicated from the McMahon family and the WWE Universe.

Following the video clip, Tequila was furious and Twitter-blasted Game as a deadbeat father and liar.

"Game not only lied to the world, to you guys, to me, but he also lied to his other baby mama which I didn't know he had! So he f***** himself," she chastised. "I was there all last night too and pictures on TMZ even show me leaving his studio at 6am!!! That's a punk b***h there. COWARD. GAME=DEADBEAT DAD. Just wait. 9 months from now I'm gonna take the paternity test to PROVE IT. Game just f***** himself. SMH…"

Furthermore, Tequila boasted of making Game "relevant" again, and alleged he was calling her attempting to apologize.

HAHAHA Tila Tequila ‘making someone relevant' has made my day.

You know how we're always joking that Game tends to be slightly bipolar with everything? Well I think he might have met his match in terms of crazy unhinged behavior.

Kanye West Avoids Criminal Charges



Criminal charges against Kanye West and his manager Don Crowley have officially been dropped, after the pair fulfilled their community service obligations.
According to TMZ, West and Crowley's attorneys appeared in a Los Angeles court on January 29 and provided proof that the pair worked 50 hours at the Red Cross and completed an anger management class.

Kanye and his manager's attorneys struck a deal with a judge to dismiss the charges if they successfully completed the court mandated services.

West and Crowley were hit with criminal charges after they smashed two photographers' camera equipment during an altercation inside of LAX on September 11, 2008.

They were originally charged with vandalism, battery and grand theft but all charges have officially been dismissed.

Now that this is over, I hope that Kanye does actually take the time to take a break like he said he was going to.

Rick Ross Plans John Legend Collaboration



Rick Ross and John Legend recently finished a new collaboration called "Sweet Life," with a video as well.

"It's a lot of Internet, a lot of online chatter going on — a lot of talk of this new Rick Ross/ John Legend collaboration," Ross said. "I'm confirming it. It's official. We got another record. ... Ah man, I don't know how to describe this one. 'Magnificent' was one of my favorite records off Deeper Than Rap. But the new John Legend [collaboration] is most definitely next-level vibe. We back at it. It's most definitely creative. Shout-out to John Legend — I think he makes a huge contribution to music. Myself, I try to get better and better with every rhyme I make — every rhyme I bring to the table, I want to make sure it's more potent than the last. I'm setting this album, Teflon Don, to be the album of my career," Ross added.

You know, that whole paragraph is one big pre-hip-hop album release cliché. From the "next level vibe" to it being "creative" and the "album of my career" bit at the end. Seriously, why is it that most hip-hop artists, even some of my favorites and a lot of the really good ones too, end up giving the most uncreative responses when dealing with their new albums.

Why can't someone come on and say "I'm really excited about this album, I hope the fans love it and view it as some of my best work to date"? No it's got to be all, "SUPER CREATIVE" business that really, hasn't existed in hip-hop for a long time. When was the last time you heard something in hip-hop that was truly CREATIVE? In other words, it was outside the box, pushed the boundaries or brought something completely new to the table? Kid Cudi's record comes close and the occasional tracks that pop up here and there such as Canibus' style on "Poet Laureate Infinity" with the whole mixing different verses together and all.

Rarely though, do we actually see proper creativity when someone promises it and I'm sorry to all you Rick Ross fans out there, but I seriously doubt he's coming with anything genuinely creative.

" 'Mafia Music 2' is the first release from my album Teflon Don," he explained. "It's real exciting. A lot of people don't know Teflon Don was my original rap name — so it's coming back around full-circle. For me, it makes sense to come back with 'Mafia Music 2' because my hunger is the same from 'Mafia Music 1.' It's a new year."

So it's a new year and we're celebrating it by digging up the past. THIS IS GOING TO BE AWESOME I CANNOT WAIT TO HEAR RICK ROSS' NEW ALBUM! YEAH!

Teflon Don is due to be released later this year.

PLEASE realize that was sarcasm.

Wondering Where Lloyd Banks Has Been?



Lloyd Banks has been hard at work as there are talks that an official LP may drop around summer and a single with Juelz Santana called "Beamer, Benz or Bentley" dropping in the next couple of weeks.

This is the only thing I have heard about the entire project and already I don't want to listen to it. Has hip-hop really become that irritating to me? I feel like an old man yelling at kids to get off my lawn.

"I'm just starting back," he said. "I've been so focused with taking over the street and people hearing me back on that market — so when I come with the official records, they'll appreciate it more. 'Beamer, Benz or Bentley,' It's a club record, party record, car record. It's a lot of energy and something new. It's a sound that ain't out there right now."

Has Lloyd Banks really been taking over the street recently? To the best of my knowledge, I think DRAKE has been doing that quite successfully, what with the Cash Money / Young Money marketing machine and Lil Wayne behind him. Lloyd Banks though? I thought the guy retired.

It could be a guilty pleasure though. I'm always up for something to play in the car whilst driving around. Not very good driving weather at the moment here in Sydney. We've gone from heat waves to thunder storms to Singapore levels of humidity to the occasional nice day in the space of about two weeks.

Banks is about to go back on an overseas tour lasting from February until April. In the spring, he is due to start a U.S. tour with G-Unit, during which he'll be recording the album and hopefully coming up with a name for the project. On the street level, a Lost Tapes-style mixtape of unreleased songs is coming soon. Banks also has V5 coming soon.

"I got a few new followers behind V5," Banks said. "People just catching on. For those who been following me since last September, they should be familiar that it's the fifth volume of the Five and Better series — my personal favorite. I kind of envisioned it this way. I told them I was gonna give them five mixtapes in a year."

I am thrilled at the prospect of not downloading this. I shall save myself some bandwidth this month for sure.

"It's sequenced like an album. I wanted to go through different zones," he added. "I had records like 'Sh---y City,' which had significance because it's part two from the 'Sh---y City' that was a part of the Gang Green series. The record 'Look Ma,' it's my most personal record on the album. I'm speaking to my mother. I got a young mom — she appreciates it and she loves to see me successful. 'Rather Be Me,' I had that record for a few years. My favorite record is 'I Do.' I was getting up to the beat for two weeks. I had a good zone on this mixtape."

Well he is enthusiastic about it which usually makes listening to the music more tolerable. Who knows! He might come with an album that doesn't make me want to break something.

Naughty By Nature Comeback



Naughty By Nature has mapped out a 2010 year that includes a new album and Treach-centered reality show. The group's last full length offering IIcons was released in 2002. Because of the layoff, Naughty has released two singles over the past six months to reintroduce themselves to their original fans and a new generation of potential listeners.

"We working on a brand new Naughty album now, it's called Anthem 8," Treach disclosed in an interview. "It'll be out before the summer we got 2 singles on iTunes, ‘Get to Know Me Better' and ‘I Gotta Lotta.' And we shopping a reality show called A Tribe Called Treach. We doing all that and got that in motion."

Even with the music industry vastly different from their early to mid 90s popularity peak, the group has maintained themselves through constant touring, particularly on the international front.

"We tour all year round. We're about to go to Australia with Busta Rhymes and Kid Cudi," Treach revealed. "We keep it moving. Hip-Hop is a movement, we ain't stingy and just doing it for Naughty, we doing it for all of Hip-Hop."

This is the first I'm hearing of this. Honestly, why can't we get some decent promotion for artists coming out! Dead prez were at the recent Big Day Out festival thingy we had which mostly features music I don't listen to, but in the past few years, they've had I think, Pharoahe Monch and someone else, can't remember who, pop up fairly unannounced. This year, dead prez got that treatment.

Since the early 90's, Treach has maintained steady film work. Now with TV booming again, the East Orange native is looking to take his talents to the small screen with his own spin on the reality TV genre.

"Mine is a docu-reality [show]. We see the majority of them and everybody is rich and famous. They shopping all day and going through drama and doing parties," he explained. "Our thing is about the tribe; our group, production, management, movies, family life, [and] homies in the hood. If you leave the hood they say you forgot where you came from, if you stay you're doing something you ain't got no business…We all live in the outskirts no further than 10 minutes out…Their dreams are our dreams. We ain't just made it and been like ‘we made it, y'all better get y'alls.' We're like, what can we do to help….Just like Flavor Unit pulled us out."

I think that's one of the reasons why Jadakiss and D-Block have remained fairly popular over the years – they all lurk around New York when not on tour so they've essentially remained locals for their career.

Naughty's close friend and fellow emcee Apache (Anthony Teaks) was laid to rest last week after passing suddenly from an undisclosed illness.

Both parties featured extensively on each other's early albums (Apache Ain't Shit, Naughty By Nature), and Vinnie detailed it was Apache who convinced Flavor Unit to give them a shot.

"Our big brother passed away, we just buried him," he said. "He's definitely a Hip-Hop legend and another Hip-Hop icon. He gave birth to Naughty By Nature. He told Flavor Unit ‘if y'all don't sign Naughty, I'm not messing with y'all.'"

At press time, Naughty By Nature's Anthem 8 album does not have a set release date.

With the Cypress Hill album coming out this year too, it looks like we're possibly seeing another year of comebacks much like 06-07 was. The main problem with a group like Naughty By Nature will be their production. Since I can't see them getting a big budget like those on the Majors do, I worry that they're going to get stuck with no-name Producers who should essentially remain no-name. Then again, they could come with quality and I will happily retract any ill feelings.

Prodigy Had Warned Nas Of Jay-Z



Although Prodigy of Mobb Deep and Nas' relationship is now a strained one, the two Queensbridge emcees were once friends. Looking back to that time, Prodigy revealed in a just-published, two-part lost interview with PlanetIll.com that he warned Nas that Jay-Z dissed him as early as 1997.

"So now I ain't peep it back then when [it] came out, but down the line when I'm in the studio talking to Nas around that time I peeped it," said Prodigy, speaking about Jay-Z's song "Where I'm From."

"I'm like 'Aww he talking about me in that song, yo, and he bit our shit with the little plastic cups in the hood,' and if you do the research and history of it, Jay-Z was on some speed boat in the Bahamas Versace type of shit."

Prodigy continued, explaining his role in Jay-Z's perceived change in subject matter, and Memphis Bleek's role in the beef. "Then 'Shook Ones' came out, then Jay came with the plastic cups, football jerseys in the projects, taking jabs at us and I was like 'Nas, what we need to do is go at these n****s because number one, his lil' man is trying to shit on you; talking about your life is written and all this shit. That's when Memphis Bleek was trying to take lil jabs at Nas. I was like, 'These n****s is going at us subliminally,' and I was like, "F*** that, we need to go at those n****. Let's make a song about them, son."

According to P, Nas didn't see the need to beef at the time. " [Nas] was like, 'Nah nah that n**** ain't nobody to be doing that son.' I'm like, 'Son, I'm telling you it's gonna be a problem,' and he like, 'Nah. I'm like aight cool.' 'Cause in my mind, I'mma address it on my own anyway. I don't give a f*** what this n**** do. I love you Nas but I'mma handle this 'cause you buggin."

It's an interesting "What If?" scenario, but what if the Nas-Jay beef had played out differently, what if it had never occurred? Arguably, they might not have made Stillmatic and The Blueprint which many people, myself included, believe were the turning points for their careers at that time. I reckon Jay would have maintained his status somewhat, but probably be reduced to a 50 Cent like position in that most hip-hop fans don't particularly like you, but you're getting money from external ventures so crappy album sales don't really matter.

Nas I reckon though would have ended up on the underground front, probably in a position similar to MF DOOM who as I've mentioned in the past, is kind of like a mainstream artist of the underground in terms of popularity and acknowledgement.

Nas Talks Distant Relatives



In other Nas news, he recently spoke to the Miami Herald recently about his upcoming collaboration with Damian Marley, Distant Relatives.

"Reggae and Hip Hop are cousins," explained Nas. "Go back before the '90s and think about the music that was playing on the ghetto blasters and you'll hear it."

Nas also elaborated on how the collaboration came to be. "I've worked with a lot of reggae artists, like Sizzla and Supercat, but not until Jamrock did I get a chance to work with Damian,'' he said. "I love his music and I'm a big fan of Bob Marley and the whole family."

As for tour dates, Nas was non-committal, but believed fans could reasonably expect them in the future. "We haven't worked out any tour dates yet. But I'm sure Damian and I will do something soon."

Hahaha I kind of want the album first before they go on tour, makes more sense because then people can know what to expect at the shows.

A portion of the proceeds from Distant Relatives will go to charity projects in Africa. "It's overdue, and I want to help build whatever we can there."

"Strong Will Continue," which is believed to be the first single, was released last week.

I'm excited about this because I think we will get a record that is passionate and meaningful without being preachy or forceful.

Michael Jackson Sued



I said at the time of his death I wouldn't be featuring any news stories in regards to Michael Jackson unless it was fairly interesting, and this is an exception. Michael Jackson is now being sued thanks to a videotape that was shown on the television show Michael Jackson's Private Home Movies.

Now that is a seriously, seriously unfortunate name for a TV show considering the rumors that were constantly flying around him during his life and even after his death.

In the video, Jackson sings and dances along to R. Kelly's "Ignition" while sitting in a car with movie director Brett Ratner while in Miami on vacation. According to TMZ, the estate of Michael Jackson is being sued as a result of the video because Jackson did not pay to sing "Ignition" which is copyrighted by Universal Music Group.

Universal Music Group is now seeking $3,000 for Jackson's use of R. Kelly's "Ignition." R. Kelly has not commented on Universal Music Group's lawsuit. Following Jackson's death, R. Kelly was one of many singers who created tribute songs for the famed singer.

Now is that not seriously absurd or what? Firstly, it means that I will now have to erase all those videos of me that people have taken singing "I Believe I Can Fly" whilst in the car because I'd rather avoid a lawsuit if possible. Secondly, I think it highlights the silly nature of some copyright law.

Anyone who drives a car, or is frequently driven somewhere by a close friend, answer me this, do you sing in the car? If the answer is ‘no' you are a LIAR! Just kidding, but honestly, who can say with a straight face that they have NEVER sung along with the radio or CD in the car?

Now our home movies aren't being distributed for profit like the TV show is but look at the amount they want - $3000. Don't you think they could have saved a lot of hassle by sampling calling up Jackson's estate and saying "Hey, since you guys are in the business, you'll know all about copyright laws and you'll have to pay us for using R. Kelly's song in the show". I bet Jackson's lawyers would have jumped onto it and transferred some money that same day.

But no, Universal, who frequently disable YouTube videos from being embedded (and have been a source of sheer frustration from yours truly when trying to find videos by artists under the Universal Music Group umbrella) decide to make it a lawsuit.

Murs And 9th Wonder Hooking Up For New Release



Murs and 9th Wonder have a critically-acclaimed history of doing full-length projects together. Dating back to 2004's Murs 3:16, the duo has executed three total albums (2006's Murray's Revenge, and 2008's Sweet Lord, initially a pay-what-you-want digital release).

Late last week, Prefix Magazine pointed out that Murs quietly announced the latest in the series. The Living Legends emcee had tweeted that the next joint effort is set to release on March 30. Reportedly titled ForNever, this will be the fourth in the series.

Recently, Murs did another collaborative album, Felt 3: A Tribute To Rosie Perez with Slug and Aesop Rock. 9th Wonder has been working on albums due next month from Sadat X and Erykah Badu.

I think Murs embodies one of the aspects that made rap so entertaining back in the very early 90s and late 80s. He works well with individual producers or fellow rappers, or a very small group of them. His collaboration with 9th, the Murs 3:16 album is definitely one my favorite albums of all time and Murs' flexibility and ability to work with such a small number of artists I think will make him ironically, one that will last as opposed to someone who works with whoever and never manages to achieve really solid results with any of them.

John Legend Working With The Roots



According to PrefixMag.com, John Legend is enlisting the creativity of The Roots for his fourth album, Wake Up Sessions. Roots drummer ?uestlove recently announced that he and his bandmates will produce not only a few songs on the LP, but the entire album. This is not the first time Legend has collaborated with Hip Hop artists in producing his albums' music. The Soul and R&B singer has produced with Kanye West, will.i.am, and The Neptunes.

Legend's third studio album, Evolver released to mixed reviews, but topped the Billboard R&B and Hip Hop charts at No. 1. Although there is currently no release date for the collaborative effort, Wake Up Sessions, it is expected that the album will drop sometime this year.

This should be a return to form for John Legend I think. My friend and I were just saying the other day that he had somewhat begun to lose his way in the R&B world. If you listen to his first album then Evolver, you'll see what I mean. The Roots of course, have always done spectacularly in a producing role so working with an artist like John Legend who is naturally talented should yield impressive results.

Sales Figures

Alicia Keys is probably just one week away from Platinum with 37,000 copies of Element Of Freedom sold putting her at 965,000. The Young Money compilation continues to plod along with 19,000 copies sold for a total of 270,000 this week.

Jay-Z and Eminem continue to sell similar numbers with both this week moving close to 14,000 copies for a total of 1,578,000 and 1,805,000 respectively. Likewise, Kid Cudi and 50 Cent sold close to 6,600 copies this week each for totals of 289,000 and 379,000 respectively.

Next week, all eyes on Rebirth! Will the leak hurt the sales or will it still chart well?

The Signoff

That's all for another week folks. Hopefully I don't have any PC issues this week. I'll try and avoid downloading anything and everything hahaha.

Catch you Saturday!