Compton, California rapper The Game has sparked controversy in rap circles, after a performance in Bordeaux, France, last night (July 5), where he called out Jay-Z.
The rapper, flanked by two members of his entourage, stormed onto the stage during his performance at the Le 4 Sans, where he immediately took aim at Jay-Z, one of rap’s biggest stars.
"I’ma tell you like this. I don’t care what a n***a say. This is how I am coming out today. F**k Jay-Z. Straight up. And if you don’t like that, I am pretty sure you can find an exit some where. This is a Blackwall Street party. We sayin’ f**k Jay-Z."
The rapper and the crowd repeated the explicative six times in unison, before The Game labeled the Roc-A-Fella founder an "old ass n***a."
As the crowd began to chant, Game launched into an impromptu freestyle over Jay-Z’s "Death of Autotune" instrumental.
The Game’s scathing diss to Jay-Z comes just days after the Brooklyn-bred emcee dropped a freestyle at The Palms in Las Vegas concert last Friday (July 3), which name checked The Game, Jim Jones, Damon Dash and Jaz-O.
"I ain't talkin' about gossip, I ain't talkin' 'bout Game/I ain't talkin' about Jimmy, I ain't talkin' about Dame/," Jay-Z rapped.
The Game is currently touring across Europe until August 15, with confirmed dates in Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Australia and other countries.
He is also working on a new movie titled House Arrest starring Stacey Dash, the cousin of former Roc-A-Fella CEO, Damon Dash.
Under the ruling, the two men will hold their temporary powers until August 3. McClain and Branca’s estate control allows them to negotiate a settlement with concert promoter AEG Live over Michael Jackson’s now aborted 50 concert comeback tour.
Additionally, the co-estate holders can begin the arduous process of reviewing Jackson’s assets, which include a 50% stake in the Sony-ATV Music Publishing catalog (worth $1.5-$2 billion), and his own Mijac Music Publishing.
The latter contains the late star’s music library which is reported to have hundreds of unreleased songs and videos.
Katherine Jackson applied to be sole administrator of her son’s estate shortly after his death, but before the emergence of a 2002 will.
The document names Branca and McClain as administrators. However, Katherine Jackson’s attorney’s argued against the appointments based on concerns about the “financial leadership” abilities of the two men.
Branca had previously been fired by Michael but was reinstated just days before his sudden passing.
After August 3, another hearing will be scheduled to determine who will oversee the estate going forward.
L. Londell McMillan, attorney for Ms. Jackson, shot down reports that the legal dispute would turn into a bitter, public sideshow.
“We have no reason to believe this is going to turn into a nasty fight over millions and millions of dollars,” McMillan told the Associated Press. “We will be working to ensure that Mr. Jackson’s legacy will be treated with dignity. Mr. Jackson’s life and legacy will be memorialized tomorrow, and we will move forward.”
Today at noon, a public memorial service for Michael Jackson will commence in Los Angeles at the Staples Center.
The service is expected to be shown through closed circuit in over 100 theaters in the Midwest and South.
Of the 1.5 million that registered online, 8,750 names were selected randomly to receive a pair of tickets to attend the service.
Expected participators for the funeral include Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Hudson, Smokey Robinson, John Mayer, Rev. Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III, Magic Johnson, and Kobe Bryant.
The event will also be broadcast on all major news outlets such as CNN and Fox News.
Last week Michael Jackson’s music posted 2.3 million downloads, making him the first artist to exceed 1 million downloads in 7 days.
Hip-Hop star Lil Wayne has hired a former FBI geneticist in his attempt to avoid being prosecuted in New York on a gun charge.
The rapper has enlisted Bruce Budowle to challenge DNA results linking Lil Wayne to a .40 Caliber handgun found on his tour bus following a performance with Ja Rule at The Beacon Theater in New York in July of 2007.
According to The New York Post, Budowle will argue that Manhattan prosecutors used an unreliable testing method in their attempt to link Lil Wayne’s DNA to the gun.
Budowle testified on behalf of prosecutors in the murder trial of Scott Peterson, who was convicted of killing his wife Laci Peterson.
Defense lawyers for Lil Wayne have dismissed the arresting officer’s allegation that she smelled marijuana emanating from the bus, resulting in the search which uncovered the gun.
Lil Wayne’s lawyers also maintain is a legal firearm registered to his manager, Cortez Bryant.
Lil Wayne has pleaded not guilty to two felony charges of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.
If convicted, he faces up to three and half years in prison under recently passed New York gun laws
Drake Talks to The 'Plex about BET Awards, Torn ACL, Signing a Deal and Best I Ever Had Video
Complex: Everyone’s been waiting on this video. Can you take us through the making of it?
Drake: Yeah. The video is directed by Kanye West. Basically we decided, as opposed to taking ourselves super serious, we just wanted to have some fun with it. Myself, being a young man, a young single man at that, I kind of wanted to be real about the way I function with women at this current point in my life. Which is, I don’t have one woman that I call my girl. There’s different girls in my life that play different roles and I see at different times, but collectively they kind of make up the roster of happiness for me [Laughs].
Complex: Understandable. So what’s the concept?
Drake: The concept of the video is, I’m a coach at a high school and the girls of my life are all on my high school basketball team. Throughout the video you see us prepping for this big championship game, and my team ends up losing. You see the looks on their faces at the end of the video, but the moral of the story, I guess, is win or lose, you can still be the best to somebody. When women see the video and see all the breast and ass, hopefully they don’t take offense. Hopefully they see the real meaning.
G.T.P Gridiron Classic fantasy football league is underway if your a football fan please join and lets have some fun
The death of Michael Jackson has inspired a return to rap by rapper-turned-preacher Mase.
"I'm excited. Mike [Jackson] passed away. It lit a fire under me and made me want to go in the studio and do something," Mase told DJ Self of New York's Power 105 FM after the legendary pop singer died.
Still, Mase said that he knows nothing of about contemporary rappers and needed help finding out Hip-Hop's top talents.
"I asked my lil' nephew and said, 'Who is the hottest thing out there?' He said 'Drake, Drake.' I said I gotta see what record he got and I said I'm going to jump on a joint."
He said he eventually got the re-make to DJ Self to break the record.
"You know I stay with a couple [rhymes] under my sleeves. I just need a place to play them," Mase said.
"I just love both of them. I know we had a lot of bad altercations and stuff like that. I got love for the family, man," the Harlem-bred artist said. "At the end of the day, my kids are supposed to know their kids. Their kids are supposed to know mine.
Jim Jones called into the station and apologized to Mase for their past exchanges which were very public.
"I just wanted to tell you I tip my hat to you. I apologize to you for anything I ever done when I was younger," Jim Jones said in a brief conversation with Mase. "I'm good like a fresh pair of [Air force] 1's," Mase concluded.
The lawyer defending Jay-Z against a lawsuit filed by former employees is seeking to withdraw from the lawsuit, claiming the mogul has failed to pay the legal firm for their work.
According to The New York Post, Michael DiMattia recently wrote a letter to Manhattan Federal Court Judge Loretta Preska, who is presiding over the case.
Certain employees of Jay-Z’s 40/40 club claim they were denied hourly wages and were compensated only by tips.
In July of 2008, Judge Preska ruled that the club owners violated New York labor laws after reviewing the earning reports for various employees, who showed they were not paid for working over time.
Almost 400 employees could be eligible to collect money should the 40/40 club eventually lose the lawsuit.
Rex Burch, a lawyer representing the workers, was shocked at the mogul’s lack of payment, which does not stem from financial hardship, as Jay-Z earned over $82 million dollars from 2007- 2008.
"It's astounding," Burch told the New York Post. a lawyer for the workers. "For rap's biggest mogul, you'd think this amount of money would be chump change."
According to Billboard, the rapper’s new solo album The Blueprint 3 will be distributed by Atlantic, although that deal is only for the third installment of the rapper’s Blueprint series of releases.
Jay-Z offered to have the Roc Nation imprint be distributed through his longtime home Def Jam over four years ago.
Island Def Jam Music Group (IDJ) also distributes Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella imprint, which has such superstar artists as Kanye West, Jadakiss, Beanie Sigel and others.
“You have to figure, this is like four years ago, and to them it was just like, 'Are you crazy? No! Make a song,' " said the mogul, who bought his way out of his Def Jam contract for an estimated $5 million.
The rapper also revealed that executives at IDJ were not fully capitalizing on Jay-Z’s entrepreneurial abilities.
"To me it was like, I've sold companies for huge amounts of money. I'm an entrepreneur - that's what I've been all my life,” Jay-Z told Billboard. “I can't just sit here and make records and not do anything else. Why wouldn't you want to do this with me? I felt under-utilized.”
On the management side, Roc Nation handles the careers of Wale, Melanie Fiona, Mickey Factz and others.
As the release date of their joint LP (Survival Skills) approaches, Buckshot and KRS-One have declared their single "Robot" as the official "Death of Auto-Tune" track. KRS-One made the bold statement this past week in Chicago at a Rock the Bells tour stop.
The duo’s lead single is a scathing critique of the deluge of Auto-Tune inspired songs that have dominated the airwaves over the last few years. The title is a direct indication of what the artists feel is a lack of human creativity and drive in urban music.
Despite this, Buckshot and KRS are quick to clarify that their song is not an attempt to piggyback off Jay-Z’s Blueprint 3 lead single. The duo point out that their single was released six weeks prior to Jay’s through iTunes and other digital outlets.
"I don’t want people to get the averaged clichéd version and thinking that we’re dissing people,’" Buckshot explained to AllHipHop.com. "What we’re calling out here is the biters, the people that feel like because this guy sold X amount of records doing this, that I’m going to turn around and do it as well."
The group felt the need for clarification was necessary, as the past several years have seen Jay-Z release material similar to both KRS-One and Buckshot. In 2003, Black Moon released the song "Stay Real." Six weeks later, the song’s sample ("Seed of Love," Little Boy Blues) was heard prominently as the musical backbone of Jay-Z’s "Public Service Announcement," off the critically-acclaimed Black Album.
Back in 2001, Jay-Z seminal Blueprint album held a similar title to boogie Down Production’s Ghetto Music: The Blueprint of Hip Hop. In the same year, Queens lyricist Nas would use that fact to disparage Jay-Z during their famous lyrical battle.
Aware that accusations of a publicity stunt for album sales would be leveled, Buckshot dismissed the notion and stated the focus was to give factual information to the fans. Additionally, the Brooklyn emcee explained that a "beef" would be antithetical to the purpose of the LP.
"We are not manufacturing a beef with Jay. There is no love lost," Buckshot told AllHipHop.com. "We are just merely stating facts and people can take them for what they are worth. From an artistic standpoint it is important for people to know what came first… Hip-Hop was started as an option to not killing each other. We were in the ghettos and we were real f**ked up. We created Hip-Hop so we didn’t have to do that anymore. The album is called Survival Skills, because that is what it takes."
Survival Skills hits stores on September 15. It features appearances from Mary J. Blige, Slug, Talib Kweli, Immortal Technique, Naledge (Kidz In the Hall), Sean Price, Smif N Wessun, and Rock. Production contributions include Havoc, 9th Wonder, Black Milk, ILL MIND, Nottz, Marco Polo, and Khrysis.
Fans can catch KRS-One and Buckshot at these select dates:
KRS-ONE & BUCKSHOT Upcoming Tour Dates:
Rock The Bells
Toronto, ONT, CAN - Sunday July 5th
Molson Amphitheatre
Washington, DC - Sunday July 12th
Merriweather Post Pavilion
Boston, MA - Saturday July 18th
Comcast Center
New York, NY - Sunday July 19th
Jones Beach Theater
Vancouver, BC, CAN - Saturday August 1st
Deer Lake Park
Calgary, AB, CAN - Sunday August 2nd
Shaw Millennium Park
Denver, CO - Thursday August 6th
Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Los Angeles, CA - Saturday August 8th
San Manuel Amphitheatre
San Francisco, CA - Sunday August 9th
Shoreline Amphitheatre
Myspace Album Release Show
New York, NY – Friday September 11th
Instead of scrambling to dismiss Jay-Z’s claims on “Death of AutoTune,” the technology’s creator Antares Audio is using the superstar’s stance for product advertisement.
Dubbed the “next generation” of professional pitch correction, Antares Audio has created Auto-Tune Evo.
The new technology immediately deciphers the pitch of any inputted information, and finds the closest match in the scale the user specifies for pitch correction.
Included are minor, major, chromatic, and 26 other historical and microtonal scales.
Other new features for the product are real-time pitch shifting, throat modeling (vocal character modification), a redesigned user interface, and many more.
Hailed as a breakthrough upon its 1997 release, the Auto-Tune primarily was utilized to correct pitch and phrasing mistakes made by singers in their vocal performances.
Through other settings, the device can also be used to create dramatic distortions of the human voice such as echoing, and the now-famous computerized vocal effect first heard on Cher’s 1998 hit “I Believe.”
In recent years, the device has come to dominate the charts after prominent use from hit songwriter T-Pain and Kanye West on his multi-platinum album 808s & Heartbreak.
The Auto-Tune is often confused with its predecessor the talkbox (used by Roger Troutman, Peter Frampton, and Bon Jovi).
That device modifies the sound of instruments when a musician uses different speech sounds via a tube inserted in their mouths.
Jay-Z has stated his new single was created due to the Auto-Tune’s oversaturation, culminating with the mogul hearing the effect used in a Wendy’s commercial.
In a new press release, their new product is dubbed the “unequivocal response” to Jay-Z’s claims, asserting the Auto-Tune effect will remain a staple of the music industry.
However, the company does not address whether their creation will continue to have a future as a robotic vocal effect, or simply return to its original use of pitch correction.
At press time, Jay-Z could not be reached for comment.
