It’s a sad day for hip-hop. The legendary Heavy D, the one known as ‘The Overweight Lover,’ died today in Los Angeles at the young age of 44. According toTMZ, it appears that Heavy, born Dwight Myers, died of an heart attack, but this has not been confirmed. Heavy recently performed at the BET Hip Hop Awards last month. May God Bless and comfort the Myers family. RIP to a true legend.
Last night in New York City was the premiere of the highly-anticipated VH1 documentary produced by Ice-T, ‘Planet Rock: The Story of Hip-Hop and the Crack Generation.’ The film, which features hip-hop luminaries such as Snoop Dogg and the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA and Raekwon, dissects how the crack epidemic ultimately created the multi-million dollar industry that is now hip-hop. (more…)
Since the moment the world laid their eyes on Justin Bieber, it was evident that the young boy had some flava. When he first made way into music, J.B. and his camp made it known that the Canadian pop-singer had some hip-hop influence. From his Ludacris-featured smash “Baby” to his friendship with Sean Kingston and their collaborative up-beat record “Eenie Meenie”, J.B. was getting the attention of the hip-hop community.
What came as a shock for me was Justin spittin’ a few bars for Tim Westwood while out in the U.K. To my surprise, it was actually….half-way decent. The “Baby” singer continued to build his hip-hop rep with a 2010 BET Award nomination, a collaboration with Kanye West & Raekwon and a freestyle over Cam’ron & Vado’s “Speaking In Tongues”, where he introduced his rap alter-ego; Shawty Mane.
What would make Shawty Mane unique as an emcee would be his ability to keep his lyrics clean without being corny; which is a rarity in hip-hop. Check out 5 reasons why Justin Bieber could become a full-time hip-hop artist inside. (more…)
(Picture courtesy of Fresh2deathdaily.com)
“Beef” has always played a significant role in hip-hop culture. From ‘The Bridge Wars’, to LL Cool J versus Kool Moe Dee, to the most popular hip-hop beef amongst Generation Y, Lil Wayne versus Jay-Z. What seemed to have started out as the changing of the guard in 2003, has since turned into a long-standing love/hate relationship between two of hip-hop’s biggest names. Check out the eight-year timeline of Lil Wayne and Jay-Z’s lyrical rivalry inside. (more…)
The UK hip-hop export touches down in the City of Brotherly Love to add his own British spin on the Jigga x Yeezy track.
Jay delves a little more into his best-selling book, Decoded, to talk about the parallels between hip-hop and poetry.
Press Telegram reports that legendary hip-hop vocalist Nate Dogg died last night at the age of 41. No word yet of the cause of death, but Nate suffered two strokes withing the last three years. Our prayers go out to his family.
(From: MTV.com)
Last week, Diddy topped the Forbes list as hip-hop’s richest artist. MTV caught up with Puff to discuss the accomplishment. In his own words, those are investments..not liquid cash!
(MTV.com)
MTV spends a day with Bun B on campus where the instructor teaches Religious Studies 331 .
