What is this?

Rapper Bow Wow carrying a purse? 

Well, actually it's a murse - a man purse. Produced by Louis Vuitton, these little things are quite popular amongst men - mostly metrosexuals (???)

Source: Bossip

Tim'm West discusses the history of Hip Hop and why Gay Hip Hop makes sense.

 

 

 

In 1994, Tupac Shakur was ambushed, beaten and shot at the Quad Recording Studios in New York. He insisted that friends of Sean 'Diddy' Combs were behind it. New information supports him.

By Chuck Philips, LA Times

NEW YORK -- Cameras flashed as paramedics carried the victim into the glare of Times Square on a stretcher. Blood seeped through bandages from five gunshot wounds.

Tupac Shakur had been beaten, shot and left for dead at the Quad Recording Studios on New York's 7th Avenue. As he was borne to a waiting ambulance through a swarm of paparazzi on Nov. 30, 1994, the rap star thrust his middle finger into the air.

It was a portentous moment in hip-hop -- the start of a bicoastal war that would culminate years later in the killings of Shakur and rap's other leading star, Christopher Wallace, better known as the Notorious B.I.G.

The ambush at the Quad remains a source of fascination and frustration to music fans and law enforcement officials alike. No one has ever been charged in the attack.

Now, newly discovered information, including interviews with people who were at the studio that night, lends credence to Shakur's insistence that associates of rap impresario Sean "Diddy" Combs were behind the assault. Their alleged motives: to punish Shakur for disrespecting them and rejecting their business overtures and, not incidentally, to curry favor with Combs.

The information focuses on two New York hip-hop figures -- talent manager James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond and promoter James Sabatino, who is now in prison for unrelated crimes.

FBI records obtained recently by The Times say that a confidential informant told authorities in 2002 that Rosemond and Sabatino "set up the rapper Tupac Shakur to get shot at Quad Studios." The informant said Sabatino had told him that Shakur "had to be dealt with."

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By Jared Odero

With Kenya still riven by ethnic violence, the country's rappers are using music to try to end the bloodshed. Ann McFerran of the Guardian newspaper, recently met members of the rap group Hip Hop Parliament, who live in one of Nairobi’s informal settlements. Their music is centered upon ‘conscious hip-hop’ which does not care about tribe,
but love for all.

Nickson Mberam has carried a machete and been ready to kill. "In this situation," says the dreadlocked Kenyan hip-hop artist, "you turn into somebody you're not." Rapper Richy Rich agrees. "We've been through chaos," he says. "We've felt anger and guilt. I've looted, I've stolen food - because I had nothing to eat."

At least 1,000 people have been killed in Kenya and 300,000 left homeless in the violence that erupted after the disputed election victory of Mwai Kibaki in December 2007. A fragile power-sharing deal between he and opposition leader Raila Odinga may have been brokered last week by Kofi Annan, but Mberam and Rich have witnessed, and continue to witness, horrific violence in the Nairobi slum that is their home. Now they're taking action.

Along with other hip-hop artists - including 23-year-old Tim Mwaura, who mops floors by day in a fast-food restaurant, and performs fast-flowing poetry by night in the Kenyan capital's ghetto clubs - they have formed the Hip Hop Parliament, a collective determined to denounce, through rap, the violence engulfing their communities.

At the centre of this is what they call "conscious hip-hop". Roje Otieno, Hip Hop Parliament member and presenter on Nairobi's Ghetto Radio, defines the term: "We don't play traditional drums like our fathers, nor do we depend on western culture. We don't care what your tribe is: our hip-hop is about love." When Annan arrived in Kenya, the Hip Hop Parliament presented him with a written declaration of peace. "We're not MPs," explains rapper Judge Franklin Milan, "but MCs, members of the community."

The violence has been depicted as tribal in origin. Kibaki depends on the support of the Kikuyu, the country's largest ethnic group, while Odinga is of the Luo tribe. But these rappers insist they grew up unaware of the differences between them. "I didn't know he was Kikuyu," says Otieno, a Luo, gesturing towards Mwaura. "We're paying the price for what happened at independence." The Republic of Kenya was formed in 1964 with Jomo Kenyatta as president; a Kikuyu, he redistributed land that belonged to other tribes. "Our parents lived in different parts of Kenya but came to Nairobi, where we grew up," adds Otieno. "It was only later, when our parents told us to marry according to our tribe, that we realised it mattered to them. Today, we are the victims of the situation."

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By Carol Kino

IN nearly four decades of collaboration Alexander Melamid and Vitaly Komar were known for conceptual art projects that both celebrated and skewered mass culture. In the early 1970s in Moscow they created paintings that purported to examine Socialist Realism, but the work’s irony was so obvious that they were branded as political dissidents. By the late 1990s they were training their satirical sights on elephants and the art world, teaching the beasts to paint and establishing an international market for their work.

Yet in 2004 their partnership abruptly ended. While Mr. Komar continued to show his work in galleries, the gregarious Mr. Melamid seemed to go underground. Some wondered if he had given up on making art.

It turns out that Mr. Melamid has been hard at work, as was clear on a recent afternoon in his cavernous studio in Chelsea. Propped against the walls were some impressively monumental oil portraits of cardinals, monks, priests and nuns, curious subjects for someone who often describes himself as “an old Jew from Russia.”

“I am repenting for my sins,” he proclaimed theatrically in heavily accented English. “I am born-again artist.”

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DonnaJean Records has signed the Christian Hip-Hop artist DPB. His first album, "Re-Identity", will be released world-wide in March 2008 in retail stores and on all major digital download outlets.

Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) March 6, 2008 -- DonnaJean Records has signed the Christian Hip-Hop artist DPB. His first album, "Re-Identity", will be released world-wide in March 2008 in retail stores and on all major digital download outlets.

Jim Garrard, founder and CEO of DonnaJean Records, says "We have been truly blessed to have signed this amazing artist and songwriter to both our label and publishing company. I cannot wait for the world to experience the amazingly talented DPB. Not only does this take DonnaJean Records into the world of Christian and hip-hop music, but with DPB's talent and songwriting it allows us to make a positive difference through music."

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Cadence Weapon's Rollie Pemberton says he's looking for something more in rap music _ and just may have found it in French existentialism.

The Edmonton rapper, who tackles gossip, failed love and selling your soul on the new album, says his mind has already turned to a possible concept disc based on the ideas of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.

It would be a more cerebral turn that the new release, ``Afterparty Babies,'' which outlines party tales and relationship woes, but that doesn't mean it won't be able to rock a party, Pemberton says in an interview at a Toronto pub
.
``You can make a pop song out of anything,'' says Pemberton, noting he's already got a few Sartre-inspired songs under his belt.

``I miss the mystery of (buying a) record and you're like, `I don't totally understand this initially.' But you listen to it a couple more times, or maybe look up certain words.''

``Afterparty Babies,'' Pemberton's second full-length album, is likely a little easier for most people to digest, offering a lyrically dense series of vignettes that revolve around the 22-year-old's friends and hipster life in Edmonton.
The affable artist says he regards it as a concept album, and offered both praise and criticism for the effects that southern rap and uber-producer Timbaland's chart dominance have wrought on popular music.

``I feel like a lot of people are getting away from the idea of the album,'' he notes. ``It's gone away from album and away from (even) singles to the point where it's cellphone ringtones more than anything.'' Timbaland, known for his collaborations with Justin Timberlake and Pussycat Dolls, is said to be working on the first-ever mobile phone album. Once a month, he plans to release a song and corresponding ringtone through the U.S. phone company Verizon.

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By Kelefa Sanneh

NEWARK — Lil Wayne had three things to explain. No. 1, a religious confession: “I believe in God and his son, Jesus. Do you?” He interpreted the roar as an affirmative response. No. 2, a professional confession: He said he was nothing without the fans, adding, “Make some noise for what you created!” Noise was made. No. 3: Same as No. 2. More noise.

It was Sunday night at Newark Symphony Hall, and a sold-out crowd had been waiting nearly three hours. With increasing impatience, people sat through the warm-up acts or wandered out into the lobby, where they could buy T-shirts that said, “Stop Shootin’,” or pose in front of a giant airbrushed Lil Wayne backdrop ($15 per picture, including a cardboard frame). By the time he arrived onstage it was almost 11, and some people in the crowd were beginning to wonder whether they were going to get their $51.87 to $138.79 worth.

Forget a good or even great show; what they got, instead, was a peculiar, riveting hourlong performance that felt positively historic. A few years ago people chuckled when Lil Wayne, from New Orleans, proclaimed himself the “best rapper alive.” Then he proved it with a series of mixtape releases unequaled in hip-hop. And now he’s pressing on, going somewhere beyond the reach of superlatives.

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By Michelle Quinn

Apple Inc.’s iTunes music store jumped ahead of Best Buy as the No. 2 U.S. music seller as consumers switch from CDs to digital downloads. 48% of teenagers bought no CDs at all in 2007, up from 38% in 2006. Music downloads continue to grow, though, with iTunes leading the way.

Nearly half of all teenagers bought no compact discs in 2007, accelerating the music industry's painful transition from CDs to digital downloads, according to a report released today.

One big beneficiary: Apple Inc. Its iTunes music store, which sells only digital downloads, jumped ahead of Best Buy Co. to become the No. 2 U.S. music seller. Apple trailed only Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which mostly sells CDs.

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At the end of the last year it seemed like one of the few happy stories to emerge from an otherwise difficult year in hip-hop. UGK, the Port Arthur, Tex., duo that influenced a generation of Southern rappers, returned after a five-year hiatus. They came back bearing a sublime single, “Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You).” And they came back bearing a great double album, “Underground Kingz” (Jive/Zomba), which made its debut atop Billboard’s album chart

Without a national radio hit or a video, the California rapper Turf Talk is taking a grass-roots approach to promoting his CD “West Coast Vaccine (The Cure).”

Then, on Dec. 4, the news arrived: Pimp C — the duo’s flamboyant half, a slick drawler and an even slicker producer — had been found dead in his hotel room. His bereaved musical partner, Bun B, gave a handful of eloquent interviews, trying to explain what he had lost, what fans had lost.

“I appreciate the concern,” he told Vibe. “But I wouldn’t ask anyone to stop their life, because Pimp would’ve wanted us all to keep grinding.”

50 Cent, above, challenged Kanye West to a sales battle and lost: Mr. West’s “Graduation” has outsold 50 Cent’s “Curtis” by about half a million copies.

If you’re looking for a two-word motto for hip-hop in 2007, you could do worse than that: “Keep grinding.” This was the year when the gleaming hip-hop machine — the one that minted a long string of big-name stars, from Snoop Dogg to OutKast — finally broke down, leaving rappers no alternative but to work harder, and for fewer rewards. Newcomers arrived with big singles and bigger hopes, only to fall off the charts after selling a few hundred thousand copies, if that. Hip-pop hybrids dominated the radio, but rappers themselves seemed like underground figures, for the first time in nearly two decades.

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NEW YORK (AP) — G-Unit rapper Tony Yayo was sentenced Thursday to 10 days of community service after pleading guilty to harassment of a recording rival's 14-year-old son.

Yayo, whose real name is Marvin Bernard, admitted in Manhattan Criminal Court that on March 20, 2007, he got out of a sport utility vehicle and "glared" at James Rosemond Jr. in a way that was "meant to threaten physical violence."

The 29-year-old Bernard, an associate of rapper 50 Cent, initially was accused of slapping the boy, who is the son of Cynthia Reed and Jimmy "Henchman" Rosemond, Czar Entertainment executive and manager of one of Bernard's rivals, The Game.

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HOUSTON — On Friday night here at Warehouse Live, 48 hours and 1,500 miles from the Grammy Awards, more than a thousand fans gathered for a different sort of musical celebration.

The concert was advertised as a solo show by Bun B, the Port Arthur, Tex., rapper who has been a defining figure in Houston hip-hop for more than 15 years. But the concert also functioned as a tribute to Pimp C, Bun B’s partner in the pioneering duo UGK, who was found dead in his West Hollywood, Calif., hotel room on Dec. 4. On Dec. 6 it was announced that, for the first time, the duo had been nominated for a Grammy. “Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You),” by UGK featuring OutKast, was up for best rap performance by a duo or group.

This was Bun B’s first show since then, and it was a tough, courageous one. In the crowd there were dozens of different varieties of “R.I.P. Pimp C” T-shirts, some homemade. And onstage Bun B was joined by a coterie of rappers and friends, including Pimp C’s mother, widely known as Mama Wes. She was easy to spot in a sporty red military shirt with “Mama” emblazoned on one pocket. And from time to time, if you looked closely, you could see her lips moving in time to the beat.

As he accepted one of many ovations, Bun B said he felt so good, “it don’t make no sense.” Later he delivered a different message: “I miss him.” Either way he was confirming fans’ hopes and fears. Yes, Bun B is still going strong. And yes, Pimp C, an illustrious rapper and producer and provocateur, is still gone.

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SEATTLE, Washington: The title aptly applies to the content of ROADBLOCK: Still Breathin', a raw, emotionally-charged rap saga about growing up in troubled times in East Africa and finding refuge in the Emerald City – Seattle. Producer/Rapper B Plenty, the lead artist on the BUZHFAM Entertainment outfit, says his life influences remain the driving force behind his zeal for making music.

"Experience teaches you a lot about life, and about yourself," says Abdi Yusuf, who is more popularly known by his rap name B Plenty. Experience taught him humbleness, courage in times of need, and the pursuit of the fulfillment of one's ultimate goals.

The ROADBLOCK album was released July 1, 2007, marking Somali Independence Day. B Plenty says, despite his American citizenship, he is still a Somali at heart. He speaks the language fluently and sometimes adds a few Somali words in his rap lyrics. But his latest release, posted on the BUZHFAM website, is entitled " Ma Rabno" (We Don’t Want). The song, playing over a rhythmic reggae beat, addresses Somali warlords by name and follows with a "Ma Rabno" chorus between pauses. Listen Here!

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By Richard Winton

The rap artist known as The Game pleaded no contest today to a felony firearm charge for pointing a gun at another player during a pickup basketball game last year in South Los Angeles.

50 Cent smacking The Game

Deputy Dist. Atty. Tien Pham of Central Trials said the artist, born Jayceon Terrell Taylor, was sentenced in Los Angeles Superior Court to 60 days in county jail, three years formal probation and 150 hours of community service.

Taylor, who is scheduled to surrender to authorities in the next week, pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm in a school zone. Two other counts, of making criminal threats and of exhibiting a firearm in the presence of a peace officer, were dismissed as part of a plea agreement, officials said. He could have faced more than five years in state prison if convicted on all counts.

Taylor allegedly got into an argument last Feb. 24 with a player on an opposing team during a basketball game at the Rita Walters Educational Learning Complex in South Los Angeles.

After punching the opposing player, Taylor pulled a gun from his red Cadillac Escalade and threatened to shoot the man, prosecutors charged.

A one-time star basketball shooting guard at Compton High School, Taylor boasts in songs and videos of his past connection to the Cedar Block Piru Bloods gang.

In 2001, while dealing drugs, he was shot several times when a group of "clowns" broke into his house, Taylor told The Times in a November 2006 interview.

The hip-hop star was arrested May 11 at his Glendale home by police executing a search warrant. Following the arrest, a video appeared on the entertainment website TMZ.com that appeared to show the rapper with a wad of money inside his jail cell. Disciplinary proceedings were started against an LAPD officer after internal affairs investigators determined he had videotaped Taylor in the jail.

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The hip-hop performer, a member of the group UGK, was found in a West Hollywood hotel in December.

By Richard Winton

Rap artist Pimp C, an influential hip-hop figure who had recorded an ode to getting high from cough medicine, died accidentally at a Sunset Strip hotel because of the combination of a medical condition and cough syrup, the Los Angeles County coroner said Monday.

The 33-year-old Pimp C, whose real name was Chad Butler, was found lying on his bed at the Mondrian Hotel in West Hollywood on Dec. 4 after he failed to check out as expected. The coroner's report said the death was "due to promethazine/codeine effects and other unestablished factors."

Ed Winter, assistant chief of the coroner's office, said the levels of the medication were elevated, but not enough to be deemed an overdose.

But Butler had a history of sleep apnea, a condition that causes the sufferer to stop breathing for short periods during sleep. In tandem with that malady, the cough medication probably suppressed the artist's breathing long enough to bring on his death, Winter said.

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By Robert Urban
Feb 2005

Few current pop music styles elicit more diverse, emotional reactions from gay male music fans than the phenomena of rap. Many gay and bi guys love the groove, the attitude, the hyper-masculinity, the hot stars, the divas, the technology and the poetry; but many rightfully draw the line at hate-filled homophobic hip-hop lyrics by the likes of Eminem and Beenie Man.

In solving this dilemma, Art has done what Art has always done. It has divided itself--via some miraculous process of aesthetic mitosis--and moved forward. The once exclusively hetero art form of hip-hop has given birth to a movement of distinctly queer rappers, who in turn are grabbing it by the horns and making it their own.

Here's a survey of four equally different, yet equally fascinating, gay/bi male practitioners of “Homo-Hop.”

Award-winning, Chicago-based rapper Scott Free is a consummate songwriter and a master lyricist/poet. In a lifetime devoted to his art, he has triumphed not only through styles of hip-hop, but also punk, acoustic, folk, lounge, rock, electronica and more--emerging as a pop laureate of not just our queer culture, but of our whole modern age. Scott’s astounding new CD They Call Me Mr. Free includes numerous spitfire raps of terrifying intensity. Not only does he lash out at the straight world’s hatred of queers, but he also confronts hypocrisy within the gay establishment itself.

There are scathing condemnations found in tracks like “When Queers Become Rock Stars”:

Tim'm West is one of the poetic art's most brilliant hopes, an artist of magisterial authority and tremendous coloristic range. In true 21rst century fashion, this interview was conducted via IM, perhaps the first interview this author ever did in that fashion. Read on and get a glimpse into a poet's heart.

David (2:25 PM): well hello

David (2:26 PM): nice to catch you

Tim'm West (2:26 PM): hello.

Tim'm West (2:26 PM): yeah...rare.

Tim'm West (2:26 PM): LOL

David (2:32 PM): your time is limited and precious, so let's get started...........how did you get the idea for front porch to begin with?

David (2:35 PM): from what I read, front porch seems like an extension of your didactic and altruistic impulses

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Gay rap sensation QBoy fulfilled one of his lifelong dreams recently - meeting his musical idols Salt-N-Pepa.

His interview with the queens of hip hop is part of a documentary for BBC digital network 1Xtra.

The documentary about the return of Salt-N-Pepa by Made In Manchester productions has been co-produced by QBoy.

This is the rapper's first radio production credit.

He pitched the original idea to document the influential career of the rap trio, being a long time die hard fan himself for many years. During the production he went to New York to interview them.

"Meeting Salt-N-Pepa has been my dream since I was a teenager," said QBoy.

"They are my idols and biggest musical inspiration - I always have tried to be as entertaining yet political and meaningful as they were.

"I'm glad my idea got picked up because I've always wanted people to realise how much impact they had on hip-hop and mainstream pop music, especially the younger generation who might not know much about hip-hop's history."

Made in Manchester Productions Creative Director Ashley Byrne told RadioToday.co.uk: "Salt N Pepa are currently enjoying a revival in the United States thanks to a major VH1 reality series and we are delighted that they've taken time out of their busy schedule to speak exclusively to Made in Manchester in New York about their lives and legacy"

The programme will also include an interview with the DJ Spinderella at her home in LA as well as Trevor Nelson, Omar, Jill Scott and Ciara.

Made in Manchester Productions' first production for 1Xtra follows hot on the heels of the company's critically acclaimed 'Laughter and Tears: The Les Dawson Story which was presented by Jo Brand and broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in October.

Ashley Byrne added: "We are proving once again that Made in Manchester can work right across different networks and genres. With commissions for the World Service, Radio 4, Radio 2, 1Xtra, ITV and BBC Local Radio, we are showing that there are no no-go areas for this company."

Salt-N-Pepa - Push It will be broadcast on BBC Radio1Xtra on 23rd January 2008.

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By Tom Breihan

Over the weekend, Albany's Times-Union newspaper reported on a steroid-trafficking investigation that implicated a few famous musicians. Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, Timbaland, and Wyclef Jean, along with the unbelievably obnoxious slapstick institution Tyler Perry, have all supposedly received shipments of illegal steroids. Thus far, this is basically nothing more than a PR nightmare for everyone involved. The Times-Union article noted that nobody has any evidence that any of the celebrities involved broke any actual laws (it's not illegal just to own these drugs, somehow), so nobody's facing any prison time. And anyway, these reports are apparently based on unnamed witnesses, so this stuff might not hold up in court even it was illegal to receive these drugs, and Blige's reps have already kicked out a denial. Still, the report begs the question: Why would any famous musician take steroids?

By Eric K. Arnold

In the world of hip-hop, there are rappers and then there are stars - artists with larger-than-life personas whose appeal transcends mere rhyming skills. We don't just want to listen to them rap, we want to dress like them, act like them, be like them and hang out with them.

Sunday night at the Fillmore, a sold-out crowd of enthusiastic young people got their chance to hang out with one of hip-hop's newest stars, Lupe Fiasco. The 26-year-old Chicago rapper isn't a gangster or a killer - he's been called a hip-hop nerd, albeit in the most complimentary way. A protege of both Jay-Z and Kanye West, Fiasco's intellectualism - not only in his lyrics but behind the music as well - stands out in a genre largely defined by violence, misogyny and criminal behavior.

Fiasco has filled a void in hip-hop by presenting himself as a regular guy, an everyman with something to say. His credibility doesn't rest on his arrest record but on what he says in his records. He's not quite as conceited as West - on his current MTV smash "Superstar," he raps, "Wanna believe my own hype but it's too untrue" - but he's just as confident, and perhaps just as ambitious. Unlike many of his rapper peers (and the music industry in general), Fiasco can still sell hard copies of albums in an era of digital downloads and ringtones, a point he didn't fail to make at the Fillmore.

"We sold a lot of records - 400,000-500,000 - real talk," he told the crowd. In doing so, he added, "we broke a lot of rules and we broke a lot of boundaries."

Despite being told that his appeal was limited to nerds and skaters, Fiasco remained undeterred. "I like nerds and skaters," he announced, as the crowd roared with approval.