Hip Hop Herald 11.30.11 Bow Wow's Tax Trouble, 50 Cent's EP, Black Eyed Peas' Hiatus, Nicki Minaj's New Album, More
Posted by Bill Wannop on 11.30.2011
News and thoughts on 50 Cent releasing an anniversary EP, Bow Wow getting in trouble with the IRS, Black Eyed Peas taking an indefinite hiatus, Nicki Minaj releasing her new album on Valentines Day and more!
Welcome one and all to the Hip Hop Herald. The column will deal with anything related to hip hop whether it be underground, mainstream, or the new-age pop infused rap (you know the stuff Timberlake and Timbaland make). We will cover news, opinions, release dates as well as feature some music and of course videos.
Be for we start, be sure to check out some of our exclusive interviews as well as follow me on Twitter.
It seems that this topic seems to rear its ugly head far too often in terms of musicians, but Bow Wow is now among the long list of hip hop stars (including Lil Wayne, Xzibit, Nas) that is having tax trouble.
TMZ reports that a tax lien filed in Florida by the federal government says that the Young Money/Cash Money emcee, real name Shad Gregory Moss, owes the IRS $91,105.61 for unpaid taxes from 2006.
Bow Wow has been out of the limelight for a while now and is currently readying his Young Money debut Underrated in 2012. I say it time and time again that the main problem that face anyone who comes into a lot of money quickly, is the ability to manage it. A lot can be said for simply hiring someone to take care of your finances to make sure everything is in order.
At least in this case, the amount is somewhat small (compared to other high profile stars, and Bow Wow should have no problem paying it off.
50 Cent To Release 10 Song EP
50 Cent seems determined to get his name back in the limelight, starting with a new 10 song EP that he plans to release next week. The EP is in honor of the 10 year anniversary of his first mixtape. 50 also plans to shoot a video for every track on the album. 50 Cent has guaranteed that his next full length official album would be released in December but so far no date has been given and it is looking more and more like it will be pushed back to next year.
I think that 50 Cent is at a cross roads right now in that his stock is at an all time low, and you could make the case that he has had the biggest decline in popularity out of any hip hop star in the last couple years. People just don't seem to care about what he has to say anymore. That has not stopped him from continuing to try to stir up trouble in order to get his name back in the media. Recently 50 has been on T.I. questioning why his wife did not take the rap for his drug related arrest. T.I. simply responded that he will not engage in any sort of Twitter beef.
What has truly surprised me is the difference in career moves of 50 Cent and Rick Ross since their beef. Ross has been all over the radio and is in the highest demand in terms of guest verses. It seems like every new album coming out has a Rick Ross appearance. While 50 Cent has basically been MIA for the last little while.
It will be interesting to see if 50 can turn things back around, or who or what he will place blame if his latest album is not a success.
Black Eyed Peas Take Hiatus
While it has been long rumored, the group officially announced that they would be taking an indefinite hiatus from recording new material as a group.
After tonight's performance in Miami, Florida, Black Eyed Peas will begin its indefinite hiatus from recording and releasing new music. Taboo plans to spend time with his family, while apl.de.ap will focus on being an ambassador for education in the Philippines. Fergie is looking to start a family.
"[Y]eah, that's one of the things that we want to do," she said. "I've just been touring since 2003 and like anything things get monotonous and your doing the same thing every night. I'd like to go days without wearing make-up and watching my football games. Doing my footwear collection and my fragrances...Just going where the day takes me."
Frontman Will.I.Am. will likely focus on his solo career as well as working on other artists albums.
This is not surprising as the group has been one of the most popular club/pop/rap groups of all time. They do always seem to take these sorts of breaks but then come back a drop a monster record. It helps them to stay fresh in the minds of fans and prevents them from becoming oversaturated on the airwaves.
A bunch of smaller releases have been announced recently, with the aforementioned album EP from 50 Cent as well as a new five track EP being released from Lil Kim.
Lil' Kim has announced the release of an upcoming five-track EP, set to impact around the holidays. The album was not given a concrete date but is expected to be released before the end of the year. It is somewhat fitting that the two biggest showboaters/beef starters/liars would release EP's around the same time to try to re-ignite their careers. Look for Lil Kim to sell something like 1 million copies through paypal as well as 50 Cent to blame poor promotion for the lack of success of his EP.
In bigger news, Nicki Minaj has announced that her next album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded would arrive in early 2012 on February 14. Everyone has now completely forgotten about Lil Kim…
The rest of the dates can be seen below (new updates are underlined, while anticipated releases are highlighted in RED)
November 25
Mobb Deep – Black Cocaine EP
December 6
Amy Winehouse – Lioness: Hidden Treasures
The Roots – UNDUN
Mistah F.A.B. – I Found My Backpack 2: The Lost Notebook
Bow Wow – Underrated
Naughty by Nature – Anthem, Inc.
DJ Envy – Audio Uprising Vol. 1
T-Pain – rEVOLVEr
Robin Thicke – Love After War
Rap-A-Lot Records – 25th Anniversary Collection
Kooley High – David Thompson
December 8
Chino XL – RICANstruction
December 13
Roc C – Stoned Genius
Juvenile – Rejuvenation
Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa – Mac + Devin Go To High School
December 20
Tha Joker – The Phenom
Young Jeezy – Thug Motivation 103
Common – The Dreamer, The Believer Tyga – Careless World: Rise of the Last King
December 31
Waka Flocka Flame – Triple F: Friends, Fans, & Family
January 17
Ja Rule – Pain Is Love 2
Necro – The Murder Murder Kill EP
January 30 Kid Cudi – W Z R D
February 14 Nicki Minaj – Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded
Pushed Back
Swizz Beatz - Haute Living [2012]
Fabolous – Loso's Way 2 [2012]
Big K.R.I.T. - Live From the Underground [January 2012]
Rick Ross – God Forgives, I Don't [2012]
Other Recent Announcements T.I. – Trouble Man [March 2012] Chris Brown – Fortune [March 2012]
Masta Ace & Doom – MADOOM [2012]
Kool G Rap & Necro – The Godfathers [2012]
Akon – Stadium [TBA]
Mad Child – Dope Sick [Feb 28]
Planet Asia – Black Belt Theatre [Feb 28]
B.o.B. – Strange Clouds [March 2012]
What I Am Listening To
I had the chance to check out the latest album from Mobb Deep, and I must say that I was unimpressed. To me the album is nothing like their classic sound from early in their careers and I was really let down by the album as a whole. I would go as far to say that the songs on the EP were likely the worst songs in the duo's catalog. The production was uninspiring and the lyrics were somewhat boring to me.
I think 50 exhausted all his drive/creativity from 02-06. Everything from him since (other than that G-Unit Elephant in The Sand mixtape) has been mediocre, and I have no idea how he could fall like that from a pure rap standpoint. Lloyd Banks has been putting out quality stuff since 03, and even Yayo has a few gems here and there since that time.
Posted By: SS87 (Guest) on November 30, 2011 at 12:45 AM
50's decline is strange, really no one cares about him or his antics anymore. The "beef" with T.I. was really sad, and it was funny when T.I. straight ignored it.
Lil Kim, another decline. You'd think her team would be able to push her a bit more after she got out of jail, but I guess those antics don't matter anymore.
Posted By: Ant-LOX (Guest) on November 30, 2011 at 02:58 AM
Just sayin' there is so so so much wrong with The Roots not being higlighted
Posted By: Chaos Theory (Guest) on November 30, 2011 at 06:11 AM
Copyright (c) 2011 411mania.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
Click here for our privacy policy. Please help us serve you better, fill out our survey.
Use of this site signifies your agreement to our terms of use.
