Tag Archives: Music

Sugarhill Gang’s “I Want My Name Back” DVD Release Date & Trailer

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Sugarhill Gang's "I Want My Name Back" DVD Release Date & Trailer

Pioneering Hip Hop trio The Sugarhill Gang is the latest Rap act to document their frustrations with their label. Following Crooked I‘s Life After Death Row documentary about his own struggles, the trio of Big Bank Hank, Wonder Mike and Master Gee are preparing the DVD release of I Want My Name Back. The documentary includes interviews with Naughty By Nature, and Grandmaster Caz.

The One Village Entertainment production will hit stores on June 11. According to a press release, the longtime Sugar Hill Records flagship artists are telling “the shocking truth about how greed and betrayal led to the band’s fall into obscurity. From chart-topping superstars to broke outcasts, band members Master Gee and Wonder Mike were left with almost nothing…not even their names. In their own words, this is the true and tragic story of the former original members of The Sugarhill Gang.”

via:hiphopdx

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Mike WiLL Made It To Release Instrumental EP, “#FuckVerses”

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Mike WiLL Made It To Release Instrumental EP, "#FuckVerses"

Atlanta, Georgia-based producer Mike WiLL Made It has worked with the likes of Jay-Z & Kanye West, 2 Chainz, Future and Rihanna throughout the last several years. Today, the 24 year-old revealed to Pitchfork.com his plans to drop an instrumental project later this year with an edgy title, in #FuckVerses. This project, which is tenatively planned for summer release, will follow his 2012 mixtape, Est. In 1989. “When I was growing up, all the producers that were big at the time, I used to like hearing their instrumentals,” said WiLL in a press statement. “With the Est. In 1989 series, and now with #FuckVerses, I wanted to show people the growth; from rap, to now R&B and Pop and Rock, my sound is so diverse, and these projects allow me to give my fans music and show off my growth at the same time.” Jazz is an element in #FuckVerses, that may surprise Mike WiLL fans. “With #FuckVerses, I feel like with music, the first thing that catches people is the hook and the beat,” Mike said. He adds that some of these creations may still be sold to other artists. “Later on, you’ll hear full songs on some of these beats, and with some of these hooks—we’ll take it to another level. But right now, this is for the listeners that are fans of good production and new sounds. It’s a new genre of music, and it’s called Eardruma.”

via:hiphopdx

T.I. Makes His Label Demands

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T.I. Makes His Label Demands

Former Atlantic Records hip-hop star T.I. isn’t trying to hear any conversation about signing with any new label if they aren’t talking the right amount of money. During a recent radio interview, Tip made it plain that he knows his worth and only wants to discuss signing with a label that understands how many ways he generates revenue.

“I am currently a free agent. Everything’s coming out my pockets. Y’all do me all the favors you want to,” he told 94.3. “There’s nothing wrong with a helping hand. [laughs] You know what the problem is, nobody wants to pay fair market value. I done went into all the distribution houses, the Sony‘s, the Universal‘s and the Warner’s of the world and it’s across the board. The consensus is pretty much unanimous, they want to be in business, they just don’t want to pay to be in business. And so I’ma tell you like this — you might be able to catch you knows who’s out of you knows where but you ain’t gonna be able to get no ‘King’ on your roster, man or anything less than eight-figures. I’m just gonna tell everybody, let that be a message to you. I can nickel and dime myself to where I’m going.”

“You got the recording industry, publishing, you got touring, you got merch, you got film, you got television, you got fashion, you know what I’m saying?” he continued. “Technology. That’s eight areas of business, right now currently, that I’m generating streams of revenue from. If you feel like you want to participate in all eight of those things, it’s going to cost you about 50, 60 million [dollars]. But if you only want one or two of those things, then come to the table with 12 or 15 [million dollars], we can talk about that too.”

via: hiphopblog

Eve Recalls Her Early Career With Ruff Ryders

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Eve Recalls Her Early Career With Ruff Ryders

Eve had a lot to prove when she broke into hip-hop in the 1990s. In an interview with VIBE, the former Ruff Ryders First Lady talked about how she was perceived as the only woman in a male-dominated crew and how much harder those perceptions made her work. ”If anything, I probably overcompensated as a woman. With dudes, you have to snatch the respect,” she said. “You earn it, gain it, snatch it. I also was adopted compared to everyone else. They’re from Harlem and Yonkers and here’s this girl from Philly, so I had to prove that I could write like them or better than them. I had to prove that I wasn’t a groupie. I did whatever I could to gain that respect and let them know I didn’t need them to carry me.”

via:hiphopblog

Lauryn Hill Writes Open Letter

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laurynhill

Check out the letter below:

It has been reported that I signed a new record deal, and that I did this to pay taxes. Yes, I have recently entered into an agreement with Sony Worldwide Entertainment, to launch a new label, on which my new music will be released. And yes, I am working on new music.

I’ve remained silent, after an extensive healing process. This has been a 10+ year battle, for a long time played out behind closed doors, but now in front of the public eye. This is an old conflict between art and commerce… free minds, and minds that are perhaps overly tethered to structure. This is about inequity, and the resulting disenfranchisement caused by it. I’ve been fighting for existential and economic freedom, which means the freedom to create and live without someone threatening, controlling, and/or manipulating the art and the artist, by tying the purse strings.

It took years for me to get out of the ‘parasitic’ dynamic of my youth, and into a deal that better reflects my true contribution as an artist, and (purportedly) gives me the control necessary to create a paradigm suitable for my needs. I have been working towards this for a long time, not just because of my current legal situation, but because I am an artist, I love to create, and I need the proper platform to do so.

The nature of my new business venture, as well as the dollar amount reported, was inaccurate, only a portion of the overall deal. Keep in mind, my past recordings have sold over 50,000,000 units worldwide, earning the label a tremendous amount of money (a fraction of which actually came to me).

Only a completely complicated set of traps, manipulations, and inequitable business arrangements could put someone who has accomplished the things that I have, financially in need of anything. I am one artist who finds value in openly discussing the dynamics within this industry that force artists to compromise or distort themselves and what they do, rather than allowing them to make the music that people need. There are volumes that could (and will) be said.

 

Scarface Blasts Hip Hop Executives

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Scarface Blasts Hip Hop Executives

Scarface voiced his anger towards the current state of hip hop in an interview with HardKnockTV. The Southern rap pioneer explained why he feels White music executives have tainted the genre. “I feel like we losing it,” Face said in the clip. “I feel like the people that are in control of what Hip Hop does is so f**king White and so f**king Jewish and so they don’t give a f**k about what the culture and the craft really is about.”

“Let me say this sh*t right because I want this to be as offensive as I can f**kin’ make it for these old-ass punks that’s running these record labels that’s in the powerful positions to dictate what the Black community hears and listens to. I f**king hate that sh*t. That sh*t pisses me off,” he added. “There’s no f**king way that you can tell me that it’s not a conspiracy against the Blacks in Hip Hop. You put out f**king records that make us look stupid. You make us look dumb. You brainwash a generation of Hip Hoppers with this f**king crud and then when these other rappers come out, splitting it down the middle, these other rappers’ sh*t sound like ‘Wow!’ Y’all look great!’ ‘Y’all look stupid!’ … Then motherf**kers start going over here and pretty soon, Hip Hop is White now.”

via:hiphopblog

Chris Brown Unsure About Rap Album

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Chris Brown Unsure About Rap Album

While Chris Brown has shown a passing interest in flexing his hip-hop muscle over the years, the singer revealed in a recent interview that he doesn’t know if he’s ready to record an entire hip-hop album. “For me, I think I would have to progress more as an emcee first,” he said in an interview with Power 98. “It’s just me having fun and showcasing who I am. So an album, I would really have to be taken a hundred percent serious as a rapper. I like Rap. I love it. Music is my passion. Even on my album now, there’s a couple songs that I rap on. But as far as a whole album, I don’t know if the world is ready for Chris Brown, the rapper.”

“Music is for everyone,” he added. “When you put genres on music, you segregate it… I want to always be able to do any kind of music I want. When I get older I might want to do a Country album. Next year, I might want to do an all Hip Hop album or Alternative album. Just making sure that anything that goes down, showing my audience or showing people that have a creative mind that you can do anything you want, it’s just about believing and loving what you’re doing in a positive way.”

via:hiphopblog