The Hip-Hop Herald: 05.08.08

Posted by Patrick Robinson on 05.08.2008

Jay-Z is setting up trust funds, heaps of Kanye news for some reason, 50 Cent gets his chain snatched...and does nothing about it and Foxy Brown is getting sued AGAIN!

For those of you having trouble with pop-ups, I found a really easy and extremely effective ad-on for Mozilla FireFox browser. Simply search in Google for Ad block, follow the install steps and you can then disable any and all pop-ups from the root website rather than trying to block them individually.

On an unrelated note, I've been hearing that a lot of people that bought GTA IV are having troubles with it freezing 5 minutes in or freezing on a regular basis for a few seconds. However, most of the people that I know haven't had these troubles and I'm wondering if I should get it if there's no refund policy or something similar in place. Opinions anyone?

The News

Top Story

Jay-Z Is For The Children

After the fallout from the Sean Bell case over the last few weeks, Jay-Z has established a trust fund for Bell's children. Nicole Paultre (who legally changed her name to Paultre-Bell) and Jay-Z have been working closely since she appeared in the Rocawear "I Will Not Lose" campaign but did not want to initiate any activity during the trial.

Trust funds are typically used as a way to put aside money for a child's future and usually the money becomes available when they reach a certain age, begin school or University or when they graduate.

Now that the trial is over, Jay-Z will resume his efforts to establish the fund in the form of a stock-based trust. A stock-based trust fund is probably the easiest to maintain as (if the stock is relatively low-risk) the value will increase over time without anybody contributing to it, as dividends will do that for them.

No word on how much it will actually be, but given Jay's appearance in Forbes magazine alongside Diddy and 50 as the three richest men in hip-hop, you'd have to assume it will be a healthy amount.

This is a truly admirable thing to do. Instead of calling out the verdict or trying to create a lawsuit, Jay is going the route of "unfortunately we have to accept some things" and is making sure that the children will receive the best possible life they can without their father. I myself had a trust fund opened when I was a baby by my parents and all my relatives put in a bit of money as well. When I began University, it meant that all my fees would be accounted for and I didn't have to pay anything (except for when I failed a subject), nor did my parents need to use any money outside the trust account.

If you're a prospective parent or know somebody who is about to be, suggest they open a trust fund for their child. When they realize how expensive college life can be, they'll thank you.

John Legend And Andre 3000 To Collaborate

After a busy year so far, involved in campaigns in Africa and opening his new record label (and first signee Estelle's new album), John Legend is preparing for the release of his third album which is still untitled in September of this year. So far, only two producers have been listed, will.i.am and The Neptunes but one song in particular is being mentioned and could possibly be the first single for the album.

"Green Light" is a collaboration track with Andre 3000, which is being described as futuristic, and a bit more poppy than the usual work we've seen from John Legend. He's also looking outside the usual label's marketing techniques for other companies that promote different products for their perspective.

"I want to go beyond what the label machine always does and think of some cool ideas. Labels get into a creative rut. I want an ad firm that launches other products to use their knowledge to launch my music. It'd be cool to get ideas from a firm that can still reach my marketplace. We're taking proposals now."

I think that's very true and in some cases, you don't even see advertisements for the album until 3 days before it comes out. I mean, how many ads have you seen for Foxy Brown's new album? Well…it is Foxy Brown but you get my point.

I'm looking forward to this album, his debut, Get Lifted remains one of the best contemporary R&B albums I've heard in my life and his work with Andre 3000 could make for an extremely entertaining listen. If anything, I'd like to hear it to see what Legend sounds outside his usual comfort zone.

Common And Kanye…No More?

Common is opting for a new electro sound for his eighth studio album, Invincible Summer and will be doing so without the help of Kanye West.

No there's no typos in that above sentence, no matter how much you wish there were. Common has enlisted the help of The Neptunes and Mr. DJ (who produces for Outkast…so it might not all be bad) this time round:

"Kanye was focusing on his 'Glow in the Dark' show, so he hasn't been able to make it to the studio to weigh in. But it worked out well, organically. The Neptunes & Mr. DJ came up with a fresh sound for me."

Calling the music feel-good summertime music sounds good in theory, and very few people do feel-good music like Common but…does anybody remember the last time Common strayed seriously out of his comfort zone?



Now, I stand by my opinion that this is by no means, an utterly horrible album, but it's certainly a bad COMMON album when you compare it to his other work. This was also a time when he was working with The Neptunes and whilst they can make some good beats, most of the time, they are clearly hit or miss, and end up missing most of the time.

The absence of Mr. West is a little unfortunate as I felt Kanye was really coming into a new style on Graduation and would have loved to hear Common rapping over tracks like "Homecoming" or "Good Morning". Heck, if we're going the electro route, let's see if Kanye couldn't come up with something like "Stronger" again!

If he is getting on board with Mr. DJ who produced the bulk of Stanktonia and a few tracks on their later works, it might not be that bad as Outkast really do push the boundaries musically and often make extremely entertaining music.

I'll still but the album regardless, if only because I have every other Common album (even the aforementioned Electric Circus) and I have issues with completionism. Which is a word I've just made up by the looks of it.

More Kanye News…

After Kanye West said in an interview with Scratch magazine, "I'll sample drums off of a Pete Rock instrumental album if they're open,", Pete Rock responded in his interview with Hip-Hop Connections magazine,

"I believe it! I hear my snares out there, and I'm like, ‘Wow, that's fuckin' crazy, man!' I feel like that's lazy shit. You obviously don't love it as much as I do, because for you to not go out there and find it on your own…you'll find so much if you just take the time out to go dig, man. We do all the hard work so y'all can just snatch our records up and listen for open snares and kicks? That's some wack shit. I respect cats that come with their own sound."

To say that Kanye doesn't love what he does is a bit much I think. Take away the ego and you're left with a man who is truly passionate about not only producing, but rapping as well. The fact of the matter is, Kanye is to a certain extent, going out there and finding the music. Kanye's sampling rarely comes off as lazy and even though yes, 9 out of 10 songs he produces will have a sample, it's become part of his style. To tell Kanye to stop sampling, would almost be like telling DJ Premier to stop scratching. You just wouldn't do it.

Here's hoping the two resolve any issues they have. A Pete Rock / Kanye West collaboration production would be definitely something worth checking out.

Even MORE Kanye West News!

**Warning: Incoming Rant**

"Yo, anybody that's not a fan; don't come to my show. For what?! To try to throw yall to cents in? Yall rated my album shitty and now yall come to the show and give it a B+. What's a B+ mean? I'm an extremist. It's either pass or fail! A+ or F-! You know what, fuck you and the whole fucking staff!!!

I know I shouldn't dignify this with a comment, but the reviewer threw a jab at all the artists. I just wanna know when was the last time you enjoyed yourself. If you can't have fun and loose yourself at this tour it's a good chance you're a very miserable person. I actually feel sorry for you guys.

Your job forces you to not have fun anymore. Grab a drink, holla at some nice girls, and party bitch!!! You don't know shit about passion and art. You'll never gain credibility at this rate. You're fucking trash! I make art. You can't rate this. I'm a real person. I'm not a pop star. I don't care about anything but making great art. Never come 2 one of my shows ever again, you're not invited and if you see me... BOW!!! This is not pop, it's pop art! Chris Willman, kill yourself!"

Ok that long tirade was actually a single block of text, edited by yours truly who does indeed know the power of a paragraph break unlike Mr. West and Prodigy. This comes after Chris Willman of Entertainment Weekly called Kanye "a nut" and gave a somewhat negative review of the "Glow In The Dark" tour saying that "Pharrell Williams is no great singer" and Rihanna needs to amp up the charisma". The final grade was, as mentioned, a B+ though.

The line I put in bold is actually an interesting point though. How many times do you come across reviews that seem to just flat out HATE something and ultimately sound as if the reviewer is unable to have fun anymore? There's a different between hating something and criticizing something and it's a fine line that many reviews I read walk.

The funniest thing about all this, is that the site I sourced this from describes Entertainment Weekly as "one of the most respected and widely read publications for music, movies, television and other forms of leisure activity. According to magazine.org, the magazine was No. 16 in overall domestic circulation and revenue.".

As we all know though, sales don't mean shit and Entertainment Weekly in my opinion is about as credible as a color-blind person's opinion as to which color would best suit the bathroom sink. Entertainment Weekly is also the magazine that seems to have a giggle, and yes it is a giggle, every time Snoop Dogg says something like "izzle" and proceeds to run a story on him to commemorate the fact.

Anyway, back on track, Kanye's rant is a little extreme, though from all other accounts I've read, the tour has been fantastic and applauded for it's creativity.

50 Cent Has His Chain Snatched

At a concert in Luanda a man jumped on stage and stole the diamond chain that 50 Cent was wearing and proceed to run out of the venue causing chaos and confusion as he left.

The man, later identified as Bruno Carvalho was turned in on May 4 by his own parents after footage of the incident began making it's rounds on YouTube and the like.

The incident, which occurred on April 30, is presented here (it doesn't happen until close to the end) for your viewing pleasure.



I'm not sure which is funnier, the fact that with 7 security guys on stage, the whole G-Unit crew, plus a bunch of random dudes some guy STILL managed to get his chain and escape, effectively for 4 days, or the look on 50's face when it happens. Well you can't see the look exactly, but by the way he just stands there dumbstruck for a good 20 seconds, you can imagine he'd look something like this:



Oh, wait…

Sales Figures

There's a couple of debuts this week, starting with Lyfe Jennings, whose album, Lyfe Change sold 80,000 copies this week, landing the number 4 spot. Mariah drops to number 2 this week behind Madonna with 95,000 sold, bringing her total to 741,000.

The Roots also debut strongly with Rising Down taking the number 6 spot with just under 54,000 sold. Lil Mama and Buckshot's collaboration album round out the debuts this week with 18,600 copies and 5,900 copies sold respectively, surprisingly lower than what I would have predicted for each.

Rick Ross should hit Gold in a few weeks, with this week's sales bringing his total to 484,000. After a strong debut last week, Atmosphere take a bit of a drop, coming in at number 41 with 14,000 sold. Likewise, Snoop Dogg dropped 30 places to number 65 with just over 10,000 sold, bringing his total to 301,000.

Next week, there's new debuts from Kidz In The Hall and Bun B.

Quickies

Yung Joc is planning on launching a new record label, as well as a line of sunglasses. I think Soulja Boy is planning on releasing sunglasses too.

Common has joined the cast of the new Terminator movie called Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins

Foxy Brown is now being sued by the woman she hit with her Blackberry last year. She really can't catch a break can she?

Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey are officially married with the wedding taking place late April. Fuck Nick Cannon. And NO, he's not hilarious.

The only thing that can make me feel better after that piece of news is this.


Nom, nom, nom, nom…

Before We Go…

I was meant to be at work an hour ago. I wonder if they'll have noticed me missing. Probably…I'm pretty loud. Oh well, this is the only job I'll ever have where posting photo shopped pictures of Timbaland and 50 Cent will be allowed so I'm content.