The Hip-Hop Herald: 05.15.08

Posted by Patrick Robinson on 05.15.2008

The ongoing trial of R. Kelly, Suge Knight gets KTFO, DMX arrested TWICE in one week and more Papoose craziness! All this and more inside.

Ooooh wee! 38 hours without sleep and I indeed went a little funny. Not a "ha-ha" funny either, but the, "why's he staring at the fridge door and not blinking" funny. Needless to say, I'm well rested, and looking forward to finishing up at Uni by the end of June.

I also think I'm suffering from mild withdrawal symptoms as I normally buy a couple of CDs a month, but it's been about 2 months since I've bought any and well…I find myself with money in the bank and don't know what to do with it. Since this is one of two of my only days off during the 7-day week, I think I might go see if I can't burn a hole into my bank account.

The News

Top Story

The Trial Of R. Kelly

Well, the case has taken six years to begin, but it looks like things are finally on the way as Jury selection began last Friday. The judge and attorneys attempted to find 16 jurors, with four alternates from a pool of 150. The candidates have been asked questions and depending on their answer and their knowledge of the case before now, they will either be selected or declined.

On a quick side note, Steve Cron, a defense lawyer from Santa Monica, who actually has no link to the case, gave his thoughts on the Jury selection process.

"They got a jury for the Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson trials, they'll find one for this trial, too."

Weren't they both found innocent in the end though?

The defense had previously filed a motion to delay the case due to the publicity surrounding it but this has since been denied.

On top of this is the emerging claim that a woman who was supposedly involved in a three-way between herself, the alleged ‘victim' of the original video tape, and R. Kelly was paid off by one of Kelly's aides to recover a sex tape of their encounter and return it to the aide. Whilst it is unclear as to how much the woman was paid, she had in fact been paid and a tape was returned.

Strangely enough, the underage girl involved is denying that it is her on the tape and may end up being part of the defense as a witness. Kelly faces up to 15 years in prison if found guilty.

Every time I hear about this case, and new developments I think of two things.

1) The only defense that R. Kelly needs -



2) The only evidence the prosecution needs –



Suge Knight Knocked Out

In what many are calling karma, and more still are calling hilarious, Suge Knight was indeed, knocked out on Sunday in Shag Nightclub, Los Angeles.

According to initial reports, Suge was involved in an argument with a man who was screaming "I want my money!" at Suge, who then proceeded with his entourage, to assault the man. The victim was thought to have initially struck a blow on Suge's head, which knocked him out cold for about 5 minutes.

Later reports according to a witness who was at the scene indicated that a third party was videotaping the incident on a mobile phone. Suge saw and put the man in a headlock, and took his phone away from him. After this, the man went to a vehicle outside, opened the trunk, took out an "unidentifiable object", and struck Suge in the back of the head, leaving a gash and causing the blood that can be seen in photos provided by TMZ.

This assault supposedly knocked him out for 10 minutes, longer than previously reported. I also think that the "unidentifiable object" was most likely a tire iron, as for those of you that have ever had to change a tire before, you'd know that that's probably the only thing in the trunk that could knock somebody out like that.

After the incident, a woman in Suge's entourage ran to get into a car…and promptly crashed into numerous other cars outside the club, adding to the confusion. Suge was eventually taken to a hospital but is opting not to file a police report, stating that he would deal with the incident internally.

Before we wrap this bit up, I'd like to suggest to whoever it was that knocked Suge out, to leave the country, and possibly move permanently to Antarctica cause that dude is mad as hell right now.

But of course, being the hip-hop heads we are, we can't leave without mentioning this:



DMX…Where Are Your Brains?

DMX was arrested twice last week, the first incident relating to driving dangerously on the highway.

X was caught on photo in a 1996 Chevy Nova II in Arizona driving at 100 miles an hour in a 65 mph zone. A minute later he was caught on another camera, this time at 114 mph and three minutes later, caught on ANOTHER camera, this time at 101 mph. The police charged him with racing on a highway, reckless driving, two counts of endangerment, three counts of criminal speeding and driving with a suspended license.

After being released on bond, he was then arrested again at his home in Arizona for animal cruelty and drug possession. X was charged with seven misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty and four drug possession charges. Initially, when the police tried to issue the search warrant, he attempted to barricade himself in his bedroom, but eventually came out and offered no further resistance.

The animal cruelty counts come as a result of a previous incident when neighbors complained of a bad smell, and police discovered dead pitbulls, and more that were on the verge of death, through starvation and injuries from fighting. They also discovered what appeared to be training equipment and grounds for fighting the dogs.

It's hard to believe these days, that just 10 years ago, people were heralding him as possibly one of the greats and many were comparing him as an East Coast version of 2Pac. Hopefully, he'll pull himself together, STOP DRIVING (seriously, back in 2004, he was arrested about 4 times I think), and make some quality music.

There's Something About Remy…

Remy Ma and Papoose were set to tie the knot on May 12 however, the proceedings were cancelled when it was discovered that Papoose was carrying on him a key that could open her handcuffs. Miss Info (whom I think is a bitch, but that's neither here nor there), has reported that Papoose was carrying a small skeleton key on his key chain, and has been doing so for all the times he has visited Rikers Island and hasn't had a problem.

He gave up the keys once he was informed he could not enter with them, but as he was about to enter the bus that would take them to the island, he was thrown into a jail cell and later taken to the warden. At this point, he was accused of trying to break her out of prison with the key and while no formal charges have been pursued, he has been banned from visiting Rikers Island for six months.

Added to this was Remy's sentencing where she was given 8 years in jail. Papoose was seen yelling at the victim of the shooting that Remy has been jailed for "all you want is money!" and even demanded that he be locked up himself.

There's something about Remy that makes Papoose crazy.

New Foreign Exchange Album

Phonte of Little Brother, and Nicolay, known collectively as Foreign Exchange are planning on releasing a new album later this year titled, Leave It All Behind.

From Nicolay's MySpace blog:

"Let me cut right to the chase... the new FOREIGN EXCHANGE record is almost finished!

We are currently working on one of the last tracks, which is the title track, 'Leave It All Behind', already one of my personal favourites. Some other song titles that I can confirm at this point are 'Sweeter Than You' and 'House Of Cards'.

We first started working on this record back in 2006, and it feels good knowing that the finish line is finally in sight. It's been quite a journey!

We are both very proud of the record and can't wait for you to hear it."

Phonte also professed that the album won't be a "Connected Part 2" and will have a "totally different record with a different energy". We were just talking about Foreign Exchange recently over in The 37th Chamber so this should come as good news for a lot of people.

Jay-Z Responds To Noel Gallagher

A couple of weeks back, Noel Gallagher, part of Oasis, spoke out against hip-hop at the Glastonbury festival, particularly with Jay-Z as one of the headlining acts. Jay-Z has finally addressed these remarks by saying:

"We don't play guitars, Noel, but Hip Hop has put in its work like any other form of music. This headline show is just a natural progression. Rap music is still evolving.

From Afrika Bambaataa [playing] in the Bronx and Run DMC going platinum, to Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince winning the first rap Grammy, I'm just next in line."

Nice to see that his signature bragging hasn't diminished either ha ha. Jay-Z wrapped it up by stressing the need to respect each other's genre of music, and move forward. Good man, by avoiding a Kanye-esque bitch session, he's taken the high road and Gallagher will look like an idiot now.

Sales Figures

Last week I accidentally mentioned that Bun B and Kidz In The Hall's albums were coming out this week, however, I screwed up the dates (or rather, the website I took the figures off did) and the sales figures will be released NEXT week for those albums.

Anyway, Mariah edges close to a Platinum certification, her 87,000 copies this week bringing her total to just under 830,000. Rick Ross finally manages to reach 500,000 with 17,500 sold, placing him at number 34 on the charts.

Lyfe Jennings drops to number 12 selling just over 31,000 copies. The Roots and Alicia Keys take out the number 28 and 29 spots respectively, Rising Down selling just under 21,000 copies and As I Am selling 16,600 copies.

Further down the list, Atmosphere continue to sell with When Life… selling 13,500 copies this week. Trina and Shawty Lo actually break 100,000 copies this week with 102,000 and 104,000 copies respectively.

Next week, there should be Kidz In The Hall, Bun B and Foxy Brown to look forward to.

Quickies

Nas is set to rap from the perspective of a cockroach for his upcoming album. I think this track is going to walk a fine line between absurd and brilliant.

Ludacris had the gym at his old school, Benjamin Banneker in Atlanta named after him as well as taking part in a tree planting ceremony speaking out against gang violence, rape and drugs.

Jim Jones, who recently spoke out about how his uncle and father passed away due to AIDS related causes, will be attending the National HIV Testing Day ceremony in New Jersey and will be speaking about his personal experiences with the disease as well as the importance of being tested.

Busta Rhymes' hype man, Spliff Star was arrested in Sweden on a suspicion of drug possession. Whilst nothing illegal was found in Busta's room, an unidentified substance was recovered in Spliff's room and he was subsequently arrested and released after leaving a urine sample to be tested.

Ne-Yo's third album, Year Of The Gentleman has been pushed back to an August 5 release date as the current single, "Closer" remains outside the Billboard Top 100 singles chart.

Random Timbaland Picture


KEEEYAHHHH BITCH!

Before We Go…

Well another week has gone by, the weekend approaches, and I need to find myself some food. I'm starving. Catch you all in the Top 5 next week!