The Hip-Hop Herald 02.26.09

Posted by Patrick Robinson on 02.26.2009

Rick Ross believes he can outsell 50 Cent, Bone Thugs offer up some questionable collaborations, details on the new Diddy album, Flo Rida breaks the record once again and Fat Joe's crew prep their debut album!

Well, I've sat here for about 20 minutes wondering what to write here. Nothing managed to come up in that time so…

Yep nothing, still.

The News

Top Story

Rick Ross vs. 50 Cent Round: I've Lost Count



Rick Ross says if you judge him on making music, then his Deeper Than Rap album should make a bigger splash on the SoundScan charts than 50 Cent's Get Rich Or Die Tryin'.

"That's for sport," Ross said about his diss raps aimed at 50. Ross says his underground records won't overshadow the hits on his album. "My freestyles as you could hear them, 'Kiss My Pinky Ring,' I do them in 20 minutes and put them out there. Those crumble empires. People listening to how potent the music is. That's all this really is for me. I'm not really excited yet. All this is a platform for me to show people how talented I am. How much better of a lyricist I am. So if [50] sold 10 [million], my next album should sell 12."

What makes a man who hasn't managed to go Platinum yet think he's going to be able to go DIAMOND (+10 mill) with his next album? Let's factor in now, the slump in the economy, the declining album sales, the fact that it's Rick Ross and not say, The Eagles (hold the record of 29 million copies sold). There's also the major issue that the album is due out in about a month's time, and neither of the two singles released have actually charted on the Billboard Top 100 yet.

So not to put a damper on things, the proverbial ‘wet blanket' if you will, but let's be realistic for a moment. I seriously doubt that we're going to see another album sell as much as Get Rich Or Die Tryin' has in years.

" 'Cigar Music,' that song is, after you release a song like 'Mafia Music,' it's like playing chess," Ross said. "Once you clean the table, once you make your moves, once you're satisfied with your result, once you understand the opponent, at some point you gotta sit back and fire up your cigar. That's what I did that record for. It's the calm after the storm. It's timeless music and a preview to let than fans know how much my music has matured. Shout-out to Bink [who produced the track]. I think it's a record that can be appreciated by people who really love clean music."

As a player of chess for many years, what I've found happens nine times out of ten after a chess game, is another game is immediately set up. I usually lose both games, mainly because I rarely try to plan anything or form any type of strategy. Stupid? Yes. More amusing to watch your opponents wondering what you're attempting to do? Significantly.

Deeper Than Rap has guest spots from Nas, Mary J. Blige and Lil Wayne, and last week on 106 & Park, Kanye West revealed he will be featured on "Maybach Music 2."

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony Commit Career Suicide

No, there's no other way to put it.

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony are set to collaborate with Britney Spears ex and paparazzi favorite Kevin Federline a.k.a. K-Fed.

In a recent interview, Layzie Bone with K-Fed in tow explained their plans for the new project.

"It's gonna be viewed and doubted by a lot of people," Layzie stated. "As Bone Thugs-N-Harmony with a brand new platform, we're coming to show everybody what type of real hit makers we are. We're gonna make a multi-platinum album and party with the paparazzi. We coming to prove y'all wrong TMZ! Kevin Federline is gonna be platinum when Bone Thugs N Harmony is done with him."

I would LOVE to know WHY they think the man who sold 6,500 copies of his first album in it's first week, and actually holds the record for lowest score on Metacritic, and who has largely fallen into obscurity (there is justice in the world) will go multi-platinum. Sadly, Bone Thugs themselves haven't tasted Platinum success since BTNHResurrection in 2000.

Federline echoed Layzie's words, expressing his desire to make art that will be taken seriously by fans and the media.

"I appreciate these guys coming and looking at this project for what it is. All I really want to do is make music."

Producer LT Hutton confirmed the theme for the first track will be the stalking tactics of the paparazzi.

"We got a song we're about to do called 'Paparazzi music," Hutton verified. "It's a soundtrack for when you're chasing people down."

The song is rumored to include a surprise appearance from Vanilla Ice, although the former multi-platinum rapper has not confirmed these reports. Also, K-Fed's new album may receive production from Mo Thugs Records producer's Thin C and HC The Chemist.

At press time, a tentative release date has not been announced for the K-Fed / Bone Thugs project.

Look, at least Vanilla Ice has some form of credibility in the hip-hop community given his efforts essentially paved the way for the acceptance of white rappers today. However, K-Fed? The only thing I can think of that he's done of worth was STOP rapping. Please don't start again.

New Diddy Album Coming



Diddy has announced the released date and name of his sixth LP, which is titled Last Train To Paris. Diddy has described Last Train To Paris as "Electro-Hip-Hop Soul Funk," which will usher in a new movement called "train music."

"Last Train To Paris is deeper than any of the other stuff I have ever made, it's a profound love story," Combs explained. "It's me with my shades off. It's the truth."

The album is the follow-up to his last solo album Press Play, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 upon its release in October of 2006. Since his last solo release, Diddy has been involved in a number of projects, from launching new TV shows with MTV (Making the Band, Run's House), movies (Notorious) to introducing new fragrances (I Am King) and clothing lines from his Sean John fashion empire.

"I've been a businessman for the past two years, it's time for me to focus on being an artist again. I am going to show the world a new refreshing side of me. Get on or get off!"

Last Train To Paris will feature production by Tricky, The Neptunes, The-Dream, Rodney Jerkins (Darkchild), Mario Winans and T-Pain and is due in store September 22.

Train music ey? So I suppose it's sort of like…elevator music to listen to on the train?

50 Contemplates Retirement…AGAIN

In an interview with King Magazine, 50 Cent revealed that Before I Self Destruct may in fact be his last studio album.
"It could very well be my last studio album if it doesn't make sense for me to continue and actually do it," 50 Cent told King magazine.

Aside from Before I Self Destruct, which will be released next month, 50 Cent also plans on releasing a Greatest Hits album. The release of a Greatest Hits album would complete 50 Cent's five-album contract.

In the interview, 50 also compares himself to fellow rapper-turned-entrepreneur Jay-Z concentrating on the age difference between the two:

"I believe that I will have a stronger position as we move forward. What I have on my side is age. In the next five years, they'll be 45 and 44 years old and I'll just be close to where they are now…He's married, he's getting ready to be 40. He's in a different place, he might not even want to run around, and even touring might be out of the question."

I actually picked 50 as one of those guys who wouldn't know when to let go and step away, but to recognize that vulnerability of that age that would prevent touring is admirable.

After several pushback's, Before I Self Destruct, 50 Cent's fourth studio album, is expected to be released on March 24. Fans can expect a more ominous side of 50 Cent with this upcoming album. In an interview with MTV, he described Before I Self Destruct as being "darker" and more "aggressive" than his previous albums.

Suge Knight Gets Some Comeuppance



Suge Knight pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor domestic battery charge on Tuesday, February 17 in Las Vegas. Knight entered into a plea deal with Las Vegas prosecutors, which allowed him to avoid three felony charges, including two drug charges.

Knight was involved in an altercation with Melissa Isaac in August of 2008, in which officers found the mogul holding a knife, while standing over a naked woman, who told police Knight had assaulted her earlier.

Knight was sentenced to 48 hours of community service, fined $340 and ordered to attend domestic violence counseling. Prosecutors noted that it was difficult to convict Knight, as they lost contact with Isaac. Knight also claimed the drugs found on him that evening belonged to Isaac.

Lost contact?! For real, someone needs to check the lakes and rubbish dumps for a body. That man is a psycho. Although his kryptonite is clearly small time barbers.

"Domestic violence is a serious issue in our community, and anytime we can get a domestic violence conviction without a victim cooperating, we're happy," District Attorney David Roger told The Las Vegas Sun. "We're hopeful the defendant will never batter a woman again, or he'll face more serious charges and consequences."

The news comes just days after Knight suffered facial injuries during a fight with an associate of Akon in Scottsdale, Arizona. Although two other men were arrested because of the altercation, Knight was not charged with a crime.

Things just aren't going right for old Suge anymore. Perhaps this is 13 years bad karma catching up to him for supposedly organizing the death of Pac and Biggie.

There's A Nate Dogg Joke Here Somewhere

T-Pain has canceled a concert in Guyana after receiving what a promoter calls "credible death and kidnapping threats." Kerwin Bollers says Monday's performance for Carnival celebrations was called off after email and phone threats from an unidentified source.

Police Commander Leroy Bollers told reporters Sunday that authorities will investigate. T-Pain would have been one of the best-known U.S. singers to perform in the South American nation in years. Legally named Faheem Najm, his stage moniker is short for "Tallahassee Pain" in reference to the Florida city where he was born.

Whoever DID kidnap T-Pain though, could probably just address the note to "All Of Hip-Hop" and get a bit of money from EVERYONE, given he's done a song with virtually EVERYONE in the game. Except for Nate Dogg, whose job he has stolen, and no I'm never going to let up on that front either.

Fat Joe's Crew On The Way



No, not Terror Squad, but K.A.R., which stands for Kill All Rats by the way.

E1 Music (formerly KOCH Records) and Kill All Rats Entertainment are set to release a new compilation album, Joe Crack and Pistol Pete Present K.A.R., on April 7th, 2009. The album features Fat Joe, DJ Khaled, Jadakiss, Ace Hood, Hell Rell, Sean Kingston, Sheek Louch, Tony Sunshine, Raekwon, Dre of the multi-platinum production team Cool & Dre, plus K.A.R. members Rob Cash, Onez, Leader and Mike Beck. The album was executive produced by Fat Joe and Pistol Pete, and A&R'd by Antony Torres a.k.a. Red.

The collective has a slew of mixtapes and freestyles and has built a name for itself from the ground up. For this release, Bronx street legend Pistol Pete has teamed up with Joe Crack (Fat Joe) to bring the K.A.R. movement to the forefront for this compilation, along with K.A.R. members Mike Beck, Rob Cash, Leader, & Onez.

I know I'm in Sydney, but I consider myself up to date on the current American music scene. Having said that, I have not heard a single song from the group, apart from their appearances on the seriously misnamed album, Elephant In The Room.

Fat Joe says, "It's been a while since New York has had great new energy like K.A.R. mafia brings to the game. They are the future."

Hip-hop may just be heading to it's grave again.

50 Cent To Be Locked Out

DJ Khaled has been appointed president of Def Jam South, according to MTV. Khaled, known as of late for bringing slews of artists together on his popular posse cuts will officially be taking over Def Jam's southern division, once led by legendary rapper Scarface.

"This is what I've always wanted to do, is be an executive and take it to another level," said Khaled of the move. "L.A. [Reid] just hit me one day. He was like, ‘We should bring Khaled on board. He makes hits, he has relationships.' I got a team of producers and we go in hard. My job is to bring hits to the table and work with new artists and work with established artists. I'm bringing new energy to the game and to the building."

Ok, I don't agree with Khaled HIMSELF making hits, but he certainly has one of the best hip-hop networks since Snoop Dogg (who, some University calculated, was THE most connected artist back in the early years of this decade).

Khaled will oversee such artists' releases as Ludacris, Young Jeezy and Ace Hood. Rick Ross, who has worked with Khaled on numerous projects, will have the fist album released during Khaled's tenure - the upcoming Deeper Than Rap.

As for the beef between 50 Cent and Rick Ross, Khaled maintains that he will remain out it - even though 50 brought his mother into the fray. "I don't deal with negative energy, it's a waste of my time and my time is valuable. I keep negative away and stay positive."

"At Def Jam, we promote music," he continued. "We promote hit records. That's what I respect. I'm always going to represent the music; Rick Ross is gonna represent the music. If controversy comes with it, it comes with it. And boy, ‘Magnificent' — Rick Ross featuring John Legend, that's Ricky Ross' first single — it's a monster. It's gonna be on and poppin'."

Well, if Ross' album is first up, it could well receive promotion to push it over the 1 million mark. As I said though, don't expect to see 50 on any of those artists' releases any time soon. Or any of them on one of his I'd say, it'll be interesting to see if the proposed Akon collaborations fall through or stay solid.

Flo Rida Takes The Record Again

Roughly a week after Eminem, Dr. Dre and 50 Cent broke Nielsen SoundScan's record for opening week download sales with "Crack A Bottle", Flo Rida has broken the record yet again with his single, "Right Round." Flo Rida has sold over 636,000 digital downloads of his latest single, beating the Aftermath trio's mark of 467,000.

Record-setting digital sales of his material is familiar territory for Flo Rida, after seeing his 2008 single, "Low" become the highest-selling digital single of all time, with sales upwards of 4 million copies. "Right Round" will be included on Flo Rida's sophomore effort, R.O.O.T.S. Much like Fergie, whose digital sales record for "Fergalicious" was eclipsed with the meteoric rise of "Low," at least one more of Flo's singles will enjoy a healthy promotional push from MySpace, MTV and his label, Atlantic Records.

The trend of artists breaking each other's digital sales records will likely continue, as digital downloads continue to outpace physical sales. Reuters reports that over 1 billion songs were legally downloaded in 2008.

And I didn't download one of them.

On a serious note, I haven't heard that track either. Perhaps I'm more behind the times than I thought.

Sales Figures

The only new entry to the charts this week was Charlie Wilson's Uncle Charlie which came in at Number 2 with 58,100 copies sold. Mainstays over the last few weeks Beyonce and Kanye West are still performing strongly.

Beyonce jumped seven positions to Number 5 this week with 40,500 copies sold, bringing her total to 1,882,700. 808s… meanwhile came in at Number 8 with 32,450 copies sold and a grand total of 1,360,400.

Jamie Foxx has begun to show longevity over Keyshia Cole, as the former sold 32,550 copies this week with a total of 650,650. Paper Trail is still selling despite T.I.'s soon to be absence from the game, coming in at Number 12 this week with just over 29,000 copies sold and a total of 1,723,800.

Finally, Lil Wayne continues to sell, after going Triple Platinum last week, Tha Carter III sold another 17,000 copies, with a total now of 3,029,800. To round out this weeks numbers, Young Jeezy's The Recession sold 8,500 copies, bringing his total to 784,000.

Next week, we've got new albums coming from Joe Budden and B-Real. After so many years away from the game, can Budden make an impact?

Before We Go…

Time for class, I think I'm late. Oops.

Catch you next week!