Nas LENGO LILIKUWA KUTENGENEZA SANAMU LA Jay-Z HALAFU KULINYONGA KWENYE Summer Jam YA 2002

  Nas intended to hang a robotic dummy that resembled Jay-Z at Summer Jam 2002.

A video has surfaced of a robotics team making a Jay-Z figure that Nas originally intended to hang at Summer Jam 2002.

The clip portrays a team making an animatronic figure with Jay's face on it. Esco intended to hang the dummy during his performance at Hot 97's festival, but the radio station forbid him from doing it.

After the station shut it down, the Queens, New York native hopped on the phone with Angie Martinez and went off about his beef with Hov, which had reached critical mass around that time.

 Freeway AELEZA KWA NINI ALIVAMIA MAHOJIANO YA Jay-Z Press Conference KWENYE MJI WA Philadelphia

  Freeway addresses his presence at Jay-Z's press conference in mid-May.

Much was made of Freeway's presence on stage as Jay-Z announced via a press conference in Philadelphia that he would take part in a two-day "Made in America" art festival in the city.

"When I out about the whole festival, and Jay was going to be in Philly, I hit him...and he said 'come down,' and that's what happened," said Freeway in an interview on BET's "106 & Park." "Before he went on stage, he tapped me like, 'C'mon,' and I went up there."

Freeway explained why he wasn't part of the photograph that Jay took with the Mayor of Philadelphia and several sponsors. "[W]hen it was time to take the picture, obviously I wasn't dressed for the occasion. So I slid to the side."

"People understand it, but nowadays with the internet, people wanna make jokes," he continued. "The jokes and everything, when people was making a joke out of it towards me, it was like cool, it was funny to me too. But as far as people trying to put it on Jay...it wasn't even like that. If you got two ounces of sense, you would know that you cannot be near Jay-Z if he don't want you to be. I was on stage with the Mayor of Philadelphia and Jay-Z. If they didn't want me there, there was no way I could've got up there."

"That's the big homie, man... I not going to come around somebody if they don't want me around, because I will feel uncomfortable."

 

Q-Tip WAUNGANA NA Dr. Dre KWENYE "Low End Theory"

 Q-Tip explains how Dr. Dre was the benchmark for A Tribe Called Quest's recording of "The Low End Theory."

Over the course of several years, Dr. Dre and Q-Tip have, in several interviews, provided a timeline of back-and-forth inspiration beginning in the late '80s.

Q-Tip has stated that NWA's 1988 release Straight Outta Compton was a direct influence on A Tribe Called Quest's 1991 album The Low End Theory. In turn, Dre revealed that Tribe's project greatly inspired the Compton rapper/producer's 1992 classic, The Chronic.

In a recent interview on Shade 45's "All Out Show," Q-Tip spoke to Rude Jude and Lord Sear about the nature of his drawing inspiration from Dre for The Low End Theory. "Everybody deals with shit in a competitive way. But not in like an egregious way, how shit looks a little bit today," explained Tip. "But more like one-upsmanship in the music. Tryin' to stay fresh...just keeping your eye on that dude. And for me, personally, when I went in, that dude was Dre."

"The group was NWA, and to me, that was the benchmark. And of course I was listening to everything else around..."

"The bar was set very high," continued the ATCQ member. "Musically, my main thing was Dre. That was like, trying to make something he would like and appreciate in a way. Musically."

Canibus ATOA KITAU CHA MISTARI KWENYE Rap Battle

 UPDATE: After forfeiting in the third round of his "Vendetta: Battle Royale" against Dizaster, Canibus pulled out a notepad.

Canibus was slated to partake in the rap battle "Vendetta: Battle Royale" against Dizaster when things took a strange turn.

The event, which took place Saturday, June 9th at Exchange LA, marked the first time that Canibus took the stage for a one-on-one battle. While wearing an arm sling/cast, Canibus took place in the pre-scheduled three round rhyme bout before ultimately forfeiting. However, ‘Bis was intent on continuing to rhyme, and as various source footage from "King of the Dot"'s Ustream page shows, Canibus pulled out a notepad and began rhyming previously written verses with varying degrees of success.

Things got tense halfway through the pre-written bars, when fans rained down a cascade of boos on Canibus, causing him to pause to address the crowd.

“Yo, y’all wanna hear this shit or not?” he asked. “Yo, don’t be a dick man. I came out here and you paid me my bread, they paid their bread…let me spit my shit!”

Canibus has yet to further explain exactly what happened during the battle. His Twitter feed hasn’t been updated since before the battle, but that hasn’t stopped fellow emcees from weighing in. A portion of the battle can be seen below.

Lauryn Hill ASHINDWA KULIPA KODI ......!! JAMANI WASWAHILI TUJIPANGE KABLA MAMBO KUHARBIKA....!

 UPDATE: Lauryn Hill faces a $100,000 penalty and will go before a judge.

Lauryn Hill has been charged on three counts of failure to file tax returns from 2005, 2006 and 2007.

According to Philly.com, the U.S. Attorney's office in New Jersey filed the charges earlier today. Between 2005 and 2007, Ms. Hill earned $1.6 million in income from royalties and operating four companies: Creations Music, Inc., Boogie Tours, Inc., L.H. Productions 2001, Inc. and Studio 22, Inc.

The former Fugee faces a maximum $100,000 fine and is scheduled to go before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael A. Shipp on June 29th.

[June 7]

UPDATE: Lauryn Hill took to her Tumblr account to post a lengthy response to the charges brought against her for failing to file tax returns. Read the full post below.

“For the past several years, I have remained what others would consider underground.  I did this in order to build a community of people, like-minded in their desire for freedom and the right to pursue their goals and lives without being manipulated and controlled by a media protected military industrial complex with a completely different agenda.  Having put the lives and needs of other people before my own for multiple years, and having made hundreds of millions of dollars for certain institutions, under complex and sometimes severe circumstances, I began to require growth and more equitable treatment, but was met with resistance.  I entered into my craft full of optimism (which I still possess), but immediately saw the suppressive force with which the system attempts to maintain it’s control over a given paradigm.  I’ve seen people promote addiction, use sabotage, black listing, media bullying and any other coercion technique they could, to prevent artists from knowing their true value, or exercising their full power.  These devices of control, no matter how well intentioned (or not), can have a devastating outcome on the lives of people, especially creative types who must grow and exist within a certain environment and according to a certain pace, in order to live and create optimally.

I kept my life relatively simple, even after huge successes, but it became increasingly obvious that certain indulgences and privileges were expected to come at the expense of my free soul, free mind, and therefore my health and integrity.  So I left a more mainstream and public life, in order to wean both myself, and my family, away from a lifestyle that required distortion and compromise as a means for maintaining it.  During this critical healing time, there were very few people accessible to me who had not already been seduced or affected by this machine, and therefore who could be trusted to not try and influence or coerce me back into a dynamic of compromise. Individual growth was expected to take place unnaturally, or stagnated outright, subject to marketing and politics.  Addressing critical issues like pop culture cannibalism or its manipulation of the young at the expense of everything, was frowned upon and discouraged by limiting funding, or denying it outright.  When one has a prolific creative output like I did/do, and is then forced to stop, the effects can be dangerous both emotionally and psychologically, both for the artist and those in need of that resource.  It was critically important that I find a suitable pathway within which to exist, without being distorted or economically strong-armed.

During this period of crisis, much was said about me, both slanted and inaccurate, by those who had become dependent on my creative force, yet unwilling to fully acknowledge the importance of my contribution, nor compensate me equitably for it.  This was done in an effort to smear my public image, in order to directly affect my ability to earn independently of this system.  It took a long time to locate and nurture a community of people strong enough to resist the incredibly unhealthy tide, and more importantly see through it.  If I had not been able to make contact with, and establish this community, my life, safety and freedom, would have been directly affected as well as the lives, safety and freedom of my family.  Failure to create a non toxic, non exploitative environment was not an option.

As my potential to work, and therefore earn freely, was being threatened, I did whatever needed to be done in order to insulate my family from the climate of hostility, false entitlement, manipulation, racial prejudice, sexism and ageism that I was surrounded by.  This was absolutely critical while trying to find and establish a new and very necessary community of healthy people, and also heal and detoxify myself and my family while raising my young children.

There were no exotic trips, no fleet of cars, just an all out war for safety, integrity, wholeness and health, without mistreatment denial, and/or exploitation.  In order to liberate myself from those who found it ok to oppose my wholeness, free speech and integral growth by inflicting different forms of punitive action against it, I used my resources to sustain our safety and survival until I was able to restore my ability to earn outside of it!

When artists experience danger and crisis under the effects of this kind of insidious manipulation, everyone easily accepts that there was something either dysfunctional or defective with the artist, rather than look at, and fully examine, the system and its means and policies of exploiting/’doing business’.  Not only is this unrealistic, it is very dark in its motivation, conveniently targeting the object of their hero worship by removing any evidence that they ‘needed’ or celebrated this very same resource just years, months or moments before.  Since those who believe they need a hero/celebrity outnumber the actual heroes/celebrities, people feel safe and comfortably justified in numbers, committing egregious crimes in the name of the greater social ego.  Ironically diminishing their own true hero-celebrity nature in the process.

It was this schism and the hypocrisy, violence and social cannibalism it enabled, that I wanted and needed to be freed from, not from art or music, but the suppression/repression and reduction of that art and music to a bottom line alone, without regard for anything else.  Over-commercialization and its resulting restrictions and limitations can be very damaging and distorting to the inherent nature of the individual.  I Love making art, I Love making music, these are as natural and necessary for me almost as breathing or talking.  To be denied the right to pursue it according to my ability, as well as be properly acknowledged and compensated for it, in an attempt to control, is manipulation directed at my most basic rights!  These forms of expression, along with others, effectively comprise my free speech!  Defending, preserving, and protecting these rights are critically important, especially in a paradigm where veiled racism, sexism, ageism, nepotism, and deliberate economic control are still blatant realities!!!

Learning from the past, insulating friends and family from the influence of external manipulation and corruption, is far more important to me than being misunderstood for a season!  I did not deliberately abandon my fans, nor did I deliberately abandon any responsibilities, but I did however put my safety, health and freedom and the freedom, safety and health of my family first over all other material concerns!  I also embraced my right to resist a system intentionally opposing my right to whole and integral survival.

I conveyed all of this when questioned as to why I did not file taxes during this time period.  Obviously, the danger I faced was not accepted as reasonable grounds for deferring my tax payments, as authorities, who despite being told all of this, still chose to pursue action against me, as opposed to finding an alternative solution.

My intention has always been to get this situation rectified.  When I was working consistently without being affected by the interferences mentioned above, I filed and paid my taxes.  This only stopped when it was necessary to withdraw from society, in order to guarantee the safety and well-being of myself and my family.

As this, and other areas of issue are resolved and set straight, I am able to get back to doing what I should be doing, the way it should be done.  This is part of that process.  To those supporters who were told that I abandoned them, that is untrue.  I abandoned greed, corruption, and compromise, never you, and never the artistic gifts and abilities that sustained me.”

 

Tha Dogg Pound WARUDI NA  "Doggy Bag" Tracklist & Artwork

  Death Row Records is back for their second unofficial album from Daz Dillinger & Kurupt. This one features two alternate mixes from "Dogg Food," as well as Nate Dogg, Snoop Dogg and Warren G.

Death Row Records/WIDE Awake Entertainment will release Doggy Bag from veteran Gangsta Rap duo Tha Dogg Pound on July 3, as reported by DubCNN. Daz Dillinger (f/k/a Dat Nigga Daz) and Kurupt were formerly signed to the label founded by Suge Knight and Dr. Dre in the 1990s. These recordings were kept by Death Row, who was purchased by WIDE Awake in 2009.

The group's mentor, Snoop Dogg, along with Nate Dogg, The Lady of Rage, Warren G and Crooked I are featured on the 15 recordings for sale on Doggy Bag. Original and alternate mixes for early singles "Let's Play House" and "Me In Your World" are included.

Tha Dogg Pound released their first group album, 1995's Dogg Food on Death Row. The album would become a record-breaking #1 independent debut and multi-platinum success for the pair. In 1997, Kurupt left Death Row to form Antra Records while Daz stayed on to be the Musical Supervisor for the notorious label. By 2001, Daz had left Death Row and Kurupt returned to serve briefly as label president with Suge Knight, before departing in the mid-2000s a second time.

Daz and Kurupt have released seven studio Dogg Pound albums since Dogg Food. Death Row has previously released an unofficial DPG album, 2001's ironically-titled 2002.

The tracklisting to Doggy Bag is as follows:

01) Like Dis
02) Every Single Day (Feat. Nate Dogg, Snoop Dogg)
03) Gigolo
04) Everybody Needs To Slow Down
05) I Don't Care What the People Say
06) Me In Your World [Original] (Feat. The Lady of Rage)
07) Let's Play House [Original] (Feat. Warren G, Michel'le)
08) These Reasons
09) It Might Sound Crazy [Remix] (Feat. Too Short)
10) Farewell To My Enemies [Interlude]
11) Save a Life (Feat. Prince Ital Joe)
12) Big Pimpin' (Feat. Snoop Dogg)
13) U Ain't Tha Home (Feat. Crooked I)
14) Life I Lead
15) N.Y. 87 (Feat. Deadly Threat)