The Hip-Hop Herald: 03.13.08

Posted by Patrick Robinson on 03.13.2008

Prodigy's acting a fool, Fat Joe acting a fool, rappers getting the chance to legitimately beat each other up and Eminem and DJ Premier on a track? You'd better believe it, all this and more inside!

Funny story, I still haven't got that blood test I mentioned last week.

NEWS TIME!

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Prodigy Acting Out Again

I mentioned that Prodigy (of Mobb Deep) ends up on the losing end of pretty much every beef he's been involved in. He seems to be on that track again.

In a particularly long blog, that I can't seem to find a link to (but here's a link to my source of reporting this), Prodigy is sending shots at some of hip-hop's most prolific artists.

After proclaiming himself and 50 Cent to be the "future of the planet", despite Prodigy being a veteran in my opinion, rather than a pioneer at this point in his career, he states that "Everybody copies Prodigy's rap, slang, dress code, tattoos, hairstyles, jewelery [sic] and more. Same for 50." I don't know about that, I still see people with hair so they're not exactly copying the bald look these two are rocking. Nor do I see people with big 5-0 tattoos on their back, or mumbling incoherently and calling it slang. And I imagine most of us can hardly afford a chain or Rolex (which is what I imagine they own) so I don't know where he's getting that from.

Then he proceeds to attack a long list of emcees including; Cassidy, Fat Joe, Jim Jones, Cam'Ron, Lupe Fiasco, Talib Kweli, Joe Budden, Jay-Z, Nas, Phonte, Saigon and Keith Sweat.

Well the Cassidy attack seems largely unprovoked considering the beef between Cass and 50 simmered out years ago, no surprise about Fat Joe, Saigon or Cam'Ron though.

Jim Jones is an interesting one as 50 and Young Buck have often stated that "they like Jimmy" so he's not attacking him due to following orders from 50.

Lupe Fiasco and Talib Kweli I didn't think he'd bother with given the sharp contrast in their respective styles. Kweli is one of the most low-key dudes in hip-hop in that he's hardly ever involved in any kind of disputes, with other artists or anybody really.

Joe Budden, another confusing one as you wouldn't think he'd be appearing on the radar of someone who obviously considers himself a mainstream stay due to his association with 50, nor Keith Sweat.

Now Jay-Z and Nas, that's interesting. Nas we know G-Unit have problems with but Jay's done remixes with the G-Unit crew and you can't see any reason beyond his association with Nas for this attack. Prodigy goes on to say "they are both musical punks and street punks." which seems pretty weird given neither of them has proclaimed any type of street-hustler affiliation in YEARS (American Gangster was a concept album so that doesn't count). And musical punks? Jay's last album was his 10th number 1 album and Nas is releasing one of the most anticipated albums of 2008 soon (even if you don't like Nas, admit it, you're still interested to see how Nigger is going to turn out). PLUS, anybody remember how the feud with Jay turned out? That's right, Prodigy in a ballerina's outfit at Summerjam.

But why Phonte you might ask? If you read Phonte's blogs on MySpace (if you have a MySpace ADD THEM and subscribe to the blog, they're extremely insightful and entertaining) you know he's the first person to offer praise to a rapper people largely would hate on. I mean, he managed to convince me to give T-Pain a go.

The answer stems from a small piece where Phonte paid respects to Mobb Deep but said that they have since fallen off (which most of us would agree on). Prodigy's response is that Little Brother wouldn't know what falling off is like, since in order to fall off, you have to "fall on" (his words, not mine) something first. I can't talk for us in Australia, but I get the feeling that Little Brother have a pretty strong following in America. I know a lot of my friend's here listen to them, but only cause I've put them onto them to begin with but nevertheless, they have a small, but extremely dedicated fan base. Their success isn't measured in plaques, but rather the reception the fans give them for their music so saying Little Brother have never ‘fallen on', is ridiculous. It's like trying to compare apple and potatoes.

Then comes the most laughable part of the entire blog. Prodigy breaks from his negative rants and begins praising Soulja Boy as "original, innovative and unique".

How the hell is Soulja Boy original, innovative or unique? Sure, he's managed to capture a lot more fans than the average ringtone rapper, but that's mainly based on his mainstream appeal and his ability to craft an extremely catchy song. The only reason I can see for this praise is that Soulja Boy is unfortunately the hottest thing in rap at the moment but I bet if Soulja Boy was convicted of burning kittens alive tomorrow, Prodigy would hop off his nuts pretty damn fast.

Anyway, to wrap this up, he then laments on every single media outlet that covers hip-hop such as The Source, XXL, MTV, BET and Vibe as well as 99.9% of websites that cover hip-hop. Well done P, you've managed to alienate the vast majority of your fan base.

The Fat Joe Saga Continues…

Well as the title says, the saga is indeed, continuing as Joe's side of the story came out shortly after Papoose's. Joe says that Pap didn't touch him and that he had an equal number of guys with him when he entered the room. He then goes on to say that Pap called him after the fight to clear things up and doesn't want any more trouble.

Cassidy also got his side of the story out as rumors were circulating that he set Pap up. Truth be told, Cass has said that he had already left the room and was walking away when Joe and company entered and that his motivation for meeting with Pap was to touch base for possible collaborations in the future (which would be pretty interesting). This seems to match Joe's side of the story as he claimed that he knocked on each and every room before he found Papoose, hardly a set-up if you will.

So, with Papoose claiming he knocked him in the jaw and wanting to set up a one-on-one fight and Joe claiming Papoose called him to apologize, the truth still seems up in the air. If they do want to fight, though they could always try…

BET To Host MMA Show

If you're not familiar with the term, MMA stands for Mixed Martial Arts. BET is intending to host a new show called Iron Ring soon where teams captained by some of hip-hop's most well known players will fight it out in an MMA environment.

You didn't read that wrong. They're actually going to let some rappers beat the crap out of each other for our entertainment.

Floyd Mayweather (who's everywhere at the moment) and Rick Ross will be captaining the "Money Mayweather Boys", Nelly "Team Nelly" (how very original), T.I., Big Kuntry, Young Dro, DJ Drama and Alpha Omega "Team Grand Hustle", Juelz Santana and Jim Jones "Dipset" (again, how original), Lil Jon "Head Busters" and Ludacris fronting "Team Luda"

Teams will be competing for a grand prize of $100,000 which I'm assuming will go to cover medical bills, and then hopefully a charity of some sort. Iron Ring will be debuting on March 18.

This could be extremely entertaining for the wrong reasons as many a time I've dreamt of somebody kicking Lil Jon's ass and it makes me angry that we don't get BET here in Australia. Somebody YouTube that for me stat!

Fat Joe Loves 50

Because why else would he be announcing he and his boys are buying front row tickets for Wrestlemania? As we reported last week, 50 will be accompanying Floyd Mayweather to the ring and Fat Joe intends to heckle him from ringside. I've been reading in the Wrestling Zone though that front row tickets have probably been sold out since the moment they went on sale so I doubt that any of this will come to fruition.

Rapper Gravy To Play Biggie

A film called Notorious based on Biggie's life will begin production in New York on the 24th of March and is due in theatres January 16 next year. Brooklyn rapper Gravy has been selected to play the part of Biggie after rumors were circulating that Sean Kingston was going to be chosen.

Here's a picture of Gravy from a mixtape cover:



And here's a photo someone has helpfully put alongside a picture of Biggie.



I don't think it's the most brilliant comparison but it's certainly good enough to pass for the silver screen. I don't know what Gravy sounds like and I'm very surprised Guerilla Black wasn't chosen as the man has drawn Biggie comparisons to himself his entire career down the way he looks, and the way he sounds.


Guerilla Black

Anyway, this should make for some phenomenal exposure for Gravy and all the best to him for it.

Well, When You Roll With G-Unit…

DJ Whoo Kid, the official DJ for G-Unit is planning to retire soon. He claims that "Hip-hop is a violent, ruthless business. When you're popping, they have ways of deading you. I just want to be the one to dead my career". Well if you're going to associate yourself with G-Unit who pride themselves in rapping in a violent manner, something like this is bound to happen.

He has a house in Hawaii and is planning to move to Thailand in the near future. Whilst I've never been able to stand his "whoooooooo kiiiiiiid" nonsense, it's good to see someone knowing when to stop as well as properly planning a retirement.

Another UGK Album?

Bun B has explained that there will be a new UGK album coming soon. It will be the last one to be released under the UGK name and is being made possible due to the large amount of unreleased material the duo recorded after Underground Kingz.

Most of us these days are pretty skeptical about post-humus releases what with all the terrible 2Pac and Notorious material being released but I don't think there's a worry about that, Bun B isn't trying to delude himself: I think that album itself is going to be a little bit weird".

Bun B's solo album, II Trill is set for an early April release.

Eminem And DJ Premier Collaborate

Wow. I honestly never would have pictured Eminem and Premier collaborating, not because of any personal reasons, but because their styles seem drastically different. Premier often produces a less bass-heavy beat whereas Eminem often uses his own production (which is incredibly bass-reliant) so it's not the first ‘dream' collaboration that comes to mind.

According to Premo, he got a call from Em saying that he wasn't too happy with a track he'd done for himself and was asking him to give it that "DJ Premier sound". Premier has stripped away the beat and replaced it with his own but kept the vocals the same as the original version. The track called "Keys To The City" seems to have Premier pretty worked up "He attacked the track with a new style, just fucking ridiculous, kind of like how he came with ‘The Way I Am' but even more lyrical like the old Eminem.".

The album is still untitled (originally thought to be called King Mathers but this seems to have fizzled out) but will be dropping later this year.

Quickies

As I mentioned last week, DJ Muggs is working on the score for the upcoming movie, Street Kings. Featuring alongside Keanu Reeves will be The Game and Common as well as Forrest Whitaker.

Remy Ma and Papoose are set to be married this summer. Remy has a new album called PunisHER set for release sometime later this year as well.

The Game is still in prison contrary to rumors that circulated earlier this week. He was moved from Twin Towers Correctional Facility to an unnamed prison "due to his gang related background" according to a representative for Game.

Emeka Onyejekwe, a 26 yr old Law Graduate working for one of the top 10 legal firms in the world gave up his day job in order to pursue a career in rap under the name Mekka Don. Over the next six weeks, there will be new videos on YouTube chronicling his change from an easy lifestyle to that of the rap world. After this, he will release his first mixtape entitled Law And Order hosted by Mick Boogie (and you couldn't ask for a better host in my opinion).

Before we go…
Well, I've got a job interview tomorrow, and my teeth out on Friday so the nerves are a bit everywhere to be honest. Time to unwind and review something (shameless future plugging).

See you next week (if I'm not too doped up on painkillers)!