Kweli traveled all the way to the motherland to bring this one to life. Excellent track, dope video. If you still don’t have his latest album, ‘Eardrum’, you’re losing…get it!

Based on outward appearance and reputation alone, most people wouldn’t normally associate Mobb Deep’s Prodigy with a “fine institution of higher leaning” like Morehouse College. Not to say that rappers and college don’t mix (don’t let the dropouts fool you), but in this particular case, the two are worlds apart. For starters, Prodigy, born Albert Johnson, has painted himself as a, well, “thug” for much of his career (cut it out, I can hear you laughing from here), while most Morehouse students and alumni are anything but. Seriously. Recently, while reading an article in the Village Voice documenting the rapper’s final days before beginning a 3 year prison sentence, I stumbled across a shocking bit of info that links P to ‘The House’ in a major way:

Prodigy carries a gun. It’s how he was raised. Though Albert Johnson comes from a long line of influential men–his great-great-grandfather, William Jefferson White, founded Morehouse College in the basement of his Baptist church in Augusta, Georgia

It’s almost unbelievable, I know. But imagine, in this age of bizarre hip-hop pairings, Morehouse officials jumping at the opportunity to align themselves with Prodigy based on this fact. Might we hear about young P receiving an honoray degree form the institution in the future? Or maybe delivering the keynote speech at one of their graduations? I seriously doubt it. But hey, these days you never know.

[via Village Voice]

After being teased with a screen capture on Kanye’s blog last week, the long awaited video for ‘Flashing Lights’ has finally made its way to web. While I love the twisted plot and the featured ‘eye candy’ (damn, Rita G!), I’d be lying if I said I was totally blown away by the video. After ‘Can’t Tell Me Nothin’ the whole slow-motion, Kanye plus model in the desert concept just doesnt hit as hard this time around. Guess I was expecting a little more. There are few rumors going around that this may only be a trailer, or at least one of several videos that were supposedly shot for the track. Who knows…But for now I guess I’ll take what we have. At the end of the day, Kanye’s still one of the few hip hop artists whose videos continually go above and beyond the usual cookie cutter joints that flood the market. Peep and discuss.

Timbaland and Verizon Wireless are preparing to embark on the next phase of mobile music: full length mobile albums.

As Verizon’s mobile producer in residence, Timbaland will produce one song per month throughout 2008. Each month, he will work with a different artist on a track while touring the country on the Verizon Mobile Recording Studio Bus, which will also capture making-of footage for V Cast subscribers on a dedicated Timbaland channel.

Each mobile Timbaland track will be released days after it is produced. Songs will be released as a full-length download, ringtone and ringback, and will be available only through V Cast and Verizon. At the end of the year, some sort of compilation “album” will be released exclusively through Verizon, according to Ruth. Whether the music is worked to radio during the exclusive period or made available via broader distribution afterward is up to Interscope.

Over the past few years, the music and mobile phone industries have cashed in tremendously on the growing popularity of mobile music–ringtones in particular. In 2007 alone, more than 220 million ringtones were sold, raking in a whopping $567 million in sales. Add to that the growing number of hip hop artists that are practically molding their careers around the creation ringtone-friendly music, and you can easily see why the mobile market has become a goldmine for the music and mobile phone industries. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the greatest hip-hop producers of our time!

In honor of his birthday and legacy–its been nearly two years since Dilla passed away–Stones Throw has dropped the lateast (and last) installment of J. Dilla tribute podcasts, “Thank You Jay Dee Act 3″ mixed by J. Rocc. Listen, learn and get familiar.

To commemorate the legacy of the Wu-Tang Clan, Guitar Center has teamed up with Wu frontman RZA, and legendary electronic pioneer Bruce Forat to release a series of limited edition Roland MV-8800 drum machines–8 units to be exact. With such a small quantity being produced, these babies aren’t gonna come cheap. At a hefty price of $5,999, each unit comes complete with Forat customizations, including a custom paint job inspired by Wu’s “8 Diagrams” album, and a private tutorial session with RZA himself. I know the “limited-edition” title gets thrown around quite a bit these days, but for the tutorial session alone, this collaboration certainly earns it! Look for it in stores this month. Couple page scans from the latest Guitar Center mailer after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Officials at Roosevelt High School outside of Washington, D.C., are doing their part to crack down on an alleged underground “fight club” operating within the school. This isn’t some Tyler Durden, beat the crap out of your opponent kind of fight club though. Not at all. In fact, no physical acts of violence actually take place. Instead, members of this fight club face-off in verbal match ups and share videos of the events on sites like YouTube and MySpace. Simple freestyle battles captured on video. Unfortunately, school officials don’t seem to see it this way. According to one news report, students that have been featured in the videos have been punished by the school, and parents are now being warned about the club’s growing popularity on campus. A little extreme, don’t you think? It seems like yet another case of hip-hop culture being misinterpreted in all the wrong ways. So sad. You be the judge, check out the video clip above (direct link)…full story at the link below.

Fight Club Rants Run Rabid Online

Still can’t figure out the artists behind those classic album covers that Erykah Badu recreated for her “Honey” video? Quit wrecking your brain. Here’s a nice little guide from Soul Bounce to help you out…peep.

Love him or hate him, Kanye West is easily one of the most entertaining, outspoken, and above all, quotable figures in all of hip-hop. His tone and choice of words may not always go over well with fans critic, but at the end of the day you can always count on getting a good laugh and a bit of depth from some of his one-liners—or “Kanye-isms” as he calls them. His upcoming book “Thank You And You’re Welcome” is filled with them. This week Kanye revealed three pages from the book Read the rest of this entry »

Gnarls Barkley goes 60’s Psych Rock with this new tracked entitled “Run”. As bizarre as it may sound to some, I’m actually feelin this. See what you guys think:

[via Mission Freak]