The Hip-Hop Herald: 04.17.08
Posted by Patrick Robinson on 04.17.2008
Alicia Keys is crazy! Or is she? Well, Foxy Brown sure as hell is. Plus, what T.I.'s been up to while on house arrest, Pimp C's reluctance to do "Big Pimpin" and why Noel Gallagher is being an idiot.
I think one of the best feelings in the world is when you find something you were previously looking for, but ultimately gave up on. Or the feeling you get when you find some chocolate left over from Easter buried under a stack of paper in your room. Either way, I'm stuffing myself full of Cadbury mini-eggs while trying to remain conscious of the fact that dinner isn't quite ready yet.
Just a quick note, if you read this as soon as it's up on the site, it won't have sales figures as I have work early and I won't be able to access them before having to submit this article. However, if you check back in a day or so, they will most likely be up by then if you're interested.
On that quick note, a lot of people ask why there is such an emphasis on sales, particularly with the recent "Sales War" between Kanye and 50, or why 50 is constantly bragging about going Platinum. To me, and many other people I know, sales figures don't mean anything. Look at Soulja Boy's album. That was far, far from being a critically acclaimed album, yet is probably going to go Platinum by the end of the year. However, I DO like to see my favorite artists doing well monetarily. It's kind of a downer when you hear an awesome album, only to realize it sold less than 20,000 copies in it's first week of sales as ultimately, the artist isn't getting paid as much as feel they deserve. So, sales to me are pretty much a point of interest, but not criteria that I would grade a rapper on.
The News
Top Story
Alicia Keys…You So Crazy!
On Monday, an interview with Blender magazine by Alicia Keys was printed and some of the comments immediately struck out as being quite out of character. Keys portrays herself, and is in fact, an intelligent woman so things such as accusing the Government of creating gangsta rap as "a plot to convince black people to kill each other". She added that the East Coast / West Coast feud of the 90s was fuelled "by the government and the media to stop another great black leader from existing" in regards to 2Pac and The Notorious B.I.G.
Before we go on and address Keys' rebuttal, I have a feeling that Blender magazine have misconstrued quotes from interviews in order to appear more controversial than they are. I can vaguely remember it happening recently but can't for the life of me remember who was involved.
Keys' rebuttal in full:
"I feel it is necessary to clarify the comments that were made during my recent Blender magazine interview since they have been misrepresented. Anyone who knows me and my character, knows that I am not a conspiracy theorist or, by implication, a racist. My comments about 'gangsta rap' were in no way trying to suggest that the government is responsible for creating this genre of rap music. The point that I was trying to make was that the term was over-sloganized by some of the media causing reactions that were not always positive. Many of the 'gangsta rap' lyrics articulate the problems of the artists' experiences and I think all of us, including our leaders, could be doing more to address these problems including drugs, gang violence, crime, and other related social issues."
Now that is more sensible. However, she was right when she stated that the media added fuel to the fire in regards to the East Coast / West Coast feud. Biggie and Pac were good friends before all the fiasco started and it was truly sad that their lives ended without the chance of reconciling with one another.
One other point that was brought up was the fact that she is wearing a gold pendant in the shape of an AK-47, which seems a little strange as Blender quoted her as stating that it symbolized "strength, power and killing ‘em dead", again, the quote seems quite out of character and naturally, once you factor in her response, the comment begins to make sense.
"Additionally, regarding the 'AK-47' reference, 'AK-47' is a nickname given to me by some of my friends in jest, as an acronym for Alicia Keys and a metaphor for wowing people with my music and performances, 'killing 'em dead' on stage."
Dear Blender, stop misquoting people, you inevitably end up looking ridiculous and in search of a major story when there in fact is none.
Foxy Brown's "N**** Moments"
The Hip-Hop Herald, now with random Boondocks references!
Anyway, Foxy Brown has been serving time on Rikers Island (a 241 day sentence) since late August 2007 for violating her probation because of an assault charge made in 2004. Her attorney has stated that she hasn't received special treatment and has been serving time under the worst possible conditions at Rikers Island in an attempt to break her spirit.
Well, it does suck when anybody has to go to prison, but most of the time, there's a good reason you're there in the first place. In this case, as well, if she was to receive special treatment, people would begin to criticize the legal system as favoring celebrities when it comes to legal woes. Damned if you do, damned if you don't really.
The trouble isn't over yet though. Brown is due in Kings County Supreme Court on May 5 for a hearing regarding the incident where she assaulted her neighbor using her Blackberry that led to her violation of probation and subsequent arrest. For those that didn't know or have forgotten, when a neighbor asked Brown to turn her music down, she threw her Blackberry at her instead.
The May hearing is in regards to the original offense from back in 2004, which I think was when she attacked a worker at a manicure place for who knows what reason. To make matters worse, there is still an unresolved matter with the State Of Florida
Sorry to derail completely there, but whenever I hear Flo Rida or the word Florida, I think of this.
Back on track, the Florida incident relates to a time when Brown supposedly sprayed hair glue on a man in a hair store before resisting arrest when police arrived at the scene.
The funniest thing about this whole story, apart from the fact that Foxy Brown has some truly bizarre ways of releasing her anger, is the statement from her attorney, Chaz Williams.
"She has had time to sit and be idle, and really take an in-depth look into herself, and she's gonna come out and start rebuilding her career through her music and through television." Williams, on his belief that Brown will come out of prison a changed woman DESPITE the fact that she spent time in solitary for getting into a shoving scuffle with another inmate, refused to take drug tests, and was verbally abusive to a correctional officer.
Did you know she's aiming to air a reality TV show? I would watch that if it was Foxy Brown walking into random stores and assaulting the people inside with whatever products that shop happens to be selling. Like, she walks into a candy shop, and starts throwing gummy bears at people. I think that might be just me watching that though.
T.I. Is For The Children
As part of his plea deal with the courts, T.I. was required to serve 1500 hours community service. On April 10, T.I. took on eighteen students as part of the FOR ME Inc's Music Producer Workshop where he will go over the fine details of the Entertainment industry in regards to hip-hop.
I think this is a fantastic idea as it serves three purposes. Firstly, it's part of his community service and it's in relation to something he enjoys at the same time. Secondly, it's keeping him active musically, when I imagine many in his position would have given up. Finally, he's going to be educating these students on (I'm assuming) the details of the industry that you DON'T hear on record, such as the relationships between artist and producer, the A&R, the label heads etc. Things that up and coming musicians would NEED to know before they try and fully break into the business.
He has also addressed his next album, Paper Trail and said that the sound, spearheaded by DJ Toomp is going to be very futuristic, on some "2010-ish". Needless to say, after the good, but not groin-grabbingly good T.I. Vs. T.I.P., I'm really looking forward to this album and again, given his restrictions in regards to his house arrest, he should be able to spend a lot of time on this project.
DJ Whoo Kid Back In The Game
After reporting last month that DJ Whoo Kid was planning to retire, the man himself has dispelled these rumors as an attitude he was feeling at the time.
" You know when you're fed up with the same thing over and over? I grew up in the Run-DMC era, the Rakim era, where the music was everything. It just felt like there was a soul to the music. Now, everything is just to get done, to feed the public, to feed the ringtones...it just sounds so ignorant. The dancing...we look like monkeys; that's just my opinion. I was just at that fed-up mode where I don't even know what to think."
It's sad but true that the motivation in many hip-hop artists is to make a ringtone rather than a song and probably will be for a long time to come.
Whoo Kid has admitted, that he doesn't want to be deejaying at the age of 40 but will still be active in the game in some form or another. He intends on furthering his own hip-hop related business ventures and then quietly enjoying life from the sidelines. Whoo Kid's next project is a mixtape with DJ Drama and Lil Wayne may even be involved, despite some less than flattering comments made by Wayne in regards to 50 last month.
The mixtape should drop before G-Unit goes overseas on tour according to Whoo Kid.
"I Don't Know About The Flutes"
At the ASCAP "I Create Music" expo in Los Angeles, Bun B gave the crowd a humorous anecdote in regards to Pimp C's reluctance to do the "Big Pimpin" record with Jay-Z.
By the time Jay approached UGK about collaborating on the record, the group had established a very loyal, yet almost underground following and Pimp C expressed his concern on working with a mainstream artist such as Jay.
On the Timbaland, beat Pimp C said "This got a lotta flutes man, I don't know about them flutes, man". However, eventually Bun convinced Pimp C that it wasn't "a UGK record, this is a Jay-Z record" and thus the song was born. Funnily enough though, Bun explained that the song wasn't expected to be a hit, and that the song meant to receive the push was going to be "Things That You Do" with Mariah.
Bun B performed "Big Pimpin" with Jay on the Houston stop of his "Heart Of The City" tour.
Blaming Hip-Hop…
Well if you read my articles on "Defending Hip-Hop" last week and yesterday, you should know my feelings on those people that like to use it as a scapegoat or criticize it as a less than legitimate art form.
Anyway, in the UK, there is a musical festival called Glastonbury which features Jay-Z as one of the headlining acts. Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher is calling the idea of Jay-Z performing at the festival "wrong".
"If you start to break [tradition] then people aren't going to go. I'm sorry, but Jay-Z? No chance. Glastonbury has a tradition of guitar music and even when they throw the odd curve ball in on a Sunday night you go 'Kylie Minogue?' I don't know about it. But I'm not having Hip Hop at Glastonbury. It's wrong."
Oh you know what, I'm just going to come straight out and paraphrase a line from Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back and do something I usually don't do. F*** Noel Gallagher. F*** him up his stupid a**.
It's artists with opinions as shortsighted as this that have created such heavily defined lines between genres and as soon as you try and cross genres, you immediately get called a sell out. For fans, it's almost taboo to listen to some genres as they supposedly go against the principles of the music they usually listen to.
Jay-Z is currently undergoing his aforementioned "Heart Of The City" tour, which, as I reported last week, is going to earn him approximately $33 million. Combine that with the $150 million deal he signed with Live Nation and I'd say that Glastonbury is lucky to have Jay.
Now if it was somebody who was more "flavor of the month" like a ringtone rapper, I could understand Gallagher's frustration. But it's not. It's Jay-Z, who I believe is the most successful rapper of all time. His discography, while featuring some less than stellar work, still includes one certified classic album, one almost classic album and many individual track highlights on other albums. His career spans more than 12 years and he has one of the most consistent work ethics of any rapper coming from the mid 90s.
Gallagher is also suggesting that Jay's presence has lead to the poor ticket sales as only 100,000 tickets sold on the first day whereas previous festivals have sold out within hours. To be honest, I'm willing to bet that a decent percentage of people who bought those tickets want to see Jay-Z. You've got to admit that the people that were already planning on going, weren't going to be deterred by Jay-Z as he is fairly inoffensive personality wise.
I'd love to see Jay absolutely bring down the house just to get Gallagher to shut the hell up.
I Normally Don't Wish Ill On Anybody…
However, for Wendy Williams, I'm willing to make an exception.
Nicole Spence, Williams' former publicist has filed papers with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in March claiming that Williams' husband, Kevin Hunter demanded sexual favors from her on more than a dozen occasions since 2004. More employees involved with the Wendy Williams Experience are supposedly coming forward to support the claims made by Spence.
In regards to Hunter himself, "They say he often called women bitches and used alcohol, and they describe his violent outbursts against Ms. Williams.". I hope that they take Williams and Hunter to the cleaners and get them fired and out of work. This may seem like a horrible thing to say, but Williams has been involved with idiotic and slanderous gossip and shared personal information regarding some rappers on more than one occasion. Frankly, I'm sick of people like her on the radio. F*** Wendy Williams. F*** her up her stupid a**.
Sales Figures
Leona Lewis takes out the top spot with her debut Spirit selling 205,000 copies whilst the next Hip-Hop / R&B entrant is Ray J who managed to move 39,000 copies. Rick Ross continues to stay strong coming in at number 8 with just over 34,000 sold, bringing his total to 416,000. I imagine he'll be Gold by the end of May, if not earlier.
Diddy's groups, Danity Kane and Day26 are still performing well. The former sold 27,000 copies bringing their total to just under 400,000 whilst the latter moved 24,000 copies bringing the total of their self-titled debut album to 265,000.
Flo Rida (HA!) sold 21,000 copies dropping him out of the Top 20 coming in at number 22 this week. Gnarls Barkley, despite many favorable reviews, is struggling with 18,300 sold this week, bringing their total finally over the 100,000 mark. Likewise, Trina and Snoop Dogg only managed to move just over 18,000 each bringing their respective totals to 65,000 and 264,000. Many are claiming that the mediocre reviews of Snoop's album are causing it to suffer, but I think it's more the fact that "Sensual Seduction" freaked out his usual fan base. Needless to say, if you haven't listened to Ego Trippin' yet, you should as it's experimentation actually makes for an entertaining listen.
Quickies
RZA has launched a new website in partnership with ChessPark.com called WuChess.com where people can challenge other players from across the world and even RZA himself. RZA is also working on his third Bobby Digital album titled Digi Snax.
Eminem going to be giving his first major performance in almost two years on June 24 when he performs at Nelson Mandela's birthday. The event is going to be hosted by Will Smith and as the two have traded shots in the past, it will be interesting if the two get along.
Busta Rhymes is going to be collaborating with Linkin Park on "We Made It" and have started shooting a video yesterday. Busta's next album, now titled Blessed is set for a June 17 release.
Slim Thug sat down with Interscope Chairman, Jimmy Iovine and is negotiating his release from the label intending to become his own boss and release his music the way he sees fit.
Bill Cosby is planning on releasing a rap album. No he's not going to be doing any rapping himself (a small part of me is somewhat disappointed after hearing this…only a small part though), but he will be contacting rappers he feels embody the message that hip-hop should send to the youth of today. Dear Mr. Cosby, get Little Brother on your album.
Rumors are circulating that Beyonce will retire after her next album in order to scout for talent for Jay's upcoming label, The Carter Music Group. In other news, they have actually admitted they're married.
Before We Go…
Well, that's it for this week folks. I've been playing The Godfather and Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 almost solidly since last Friday and I've developed a pain in one of my arms from waving it around. Of course, this wouldn't happen if I actually did something resembling exercise once in a while but you know…when you get a car you kind of stop walking places. Or at least I did.
