Make that $2-million on Doom against Wayne.

Update 2/3: On second thought, this isn’t “ether”, and to have labeled it as such is actually an insult to the word and all that it stands for in hip-hop. True, 50 succeeds at delivering some pretty harsh blows to Rick’s character (which is the ultimate goal of any rapper engaging in battle with his/her opponent), however, the method behind his madness here (using his opponent’s ex-girlfriend as a pawn in such an unprecedented fashion) is all too real, too sleazy to sit back and cheer on as one would in a normal rap battle (which this is clearly not). This is the sort of thing that you’d expect to see on daytime televison, not in the midst of a what should be an entertaining rap battle confined to lyrics. What I fear most, though, is that in this age of hip-hop meets new media, this will become the norm. Just as “Nas vs. Jay” gassed up a legion of mediocre rapcats to take their best shots at hip-hop’s elite, this stunt and others like it, will give the go ahead to a new legion mediocre rapcats to take to youtube (and other video outlets) to do what it is that they are not artistically capable of doing on pen and pad, in the booth, or on the mic.

Basic Vocab – Come Get With It

Oh, and, by the way: Late & Pass.

After I spotted preview images of TI’s Paper Trail album cover a couple months ago on the web, I immediately put it down in my book as one of the best hip-hop album covers of the year. In fact, with a little over 2 months left in ‘08, and still without any contenders in sight, it might be the best cover of the year (oh, you think otherwise? drop your picks in the comments.).

However, when I first blogged about the cover here, the one thing that drove me crazy is that I couldn’t find a single drop of info on the artist behind it. Nothing. Nada. Not even a small clue on the websites of Atlantic Records and Grand Hustle Entertainment. But now, thanks to tips from a few awesome Gureala readers, I now have a name and website to put with the work: Ian Wright.

What’s even cooler, is that while looking through Ian’s portfolio (which includes more dope mosaic style projects) another question was answered: the cover isn’t a vector image as I initially suspected. Nope. The shreds of money, notebook paper, envelopes, newspaper and receipts that make up TI’s portrait are 100% real:

Amazing!

(images via Ian Wright)

It’s the cover of T.I.’s upcoming album, Paper Trail, and in my humble opionion, it just might be one of the best album covers that I’ve seen from a hip hop artist all year. The execution is dope, and the concept behind it is pretty clever, I think:

The illustration for Paper Trail pays an obvious homage to my rekindled affinity for writing my lyrics down as well as displays my commitment to keep my art slanted towards the abstract. [MTV]

On first glance, I actually thought the cover may have been partly inspired by the legal troubles that T.I. experienced earlier in the year: scatterd paper, maybe legal docs…the Feds trying to piece together a case against him…him later beating the case and rising from it all to restart his career. Ha! Looks like I was way off. Either way, it’s great to see him take a step away from normal hip hop album cover trends (you know the formula: studio photography, thugged out imagery, simple logo placement), and go with something a little more conceptual and abstract. Props!

In the meantime, I’ve been searching for info on the designer who’s responsible for this. No clues on the Grand Hustle (T.I.’s label) website, or anywhere else on the web for that matter (at least not yet). If you happen to know who she/he is, please drop a line in the comments or shoot me an email!

Then said ghost blogger is doing a pretty half assed job over on Kanye Universecity. That’s my short response to this whole situation.

If Kanye really is doing all the blogging himself, then he should definitely be commended on his efforts. The guy is an international celebrity, with a demanding schedule, and somehow he still finds the time to deliver several blog updates a day–you gotta respect that. However, if it’s all the work of a ghost blogger within his camp (which he denies), then it’s all pretty pathetic. Not because it’s false advertisement, but because I’d expect higher posting quality from such a person. I mean, assuming that a ghost blogger’s schedule wouldn’t be nearly as demanding as Kanye’s, I’d like to think that he/she would have a little more time on his/her hands to compose a bit more than just the one sentence, picture heavy, “oh look cool” type posts that we often see on Kanye’s blog (again, if it’s Kanye himself, he gets a pass, considering his hectic, stadium status schedule and all).

One last thing, and this is something that I’d like to explore further in a future post, I can’t understand why celebrity hip-hop blogs & fan sites feel the need to follow in the footsteps of existing hip-hop news and gossip blogs. Instead of sticking to the exclusive, behind the scenes content that you’d expect from an artist’s blog, many dish out the same news and gossip that can be found on hundreds of other hip-hop sites around the web. So disappointing, so disconnected.

Ok, go ahead and hand me a super late pass on this (and I certainly deserve it considering I haven’t posted much of anything lately…my bad): apparently, while I was away from the interwebs, RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan and Chesspark joined forces to launch Wuchess, a chess-centered social networking site with a hip-hop twist:

Designed for chess enthusiasts addicted to hip-hop music, WuChess.com is the place where your favorite music, movies and celebs will be all while you get your game on. WuChess members will get exclusive offers such as MP3s you can’t get anywhere else, playing a surprise celebrity guest, access to one of a kind video clips and many more surprises. This is hardcore chess with half the stuffiness.

Chess x Hip-Hop x Social Networking…you gotta love it! What I love even more is that Wuchess doesn’t come off as just another social networking site fronted by a hip hop artist. You know the ones…self promotion first and foremost, with cheesy graphics and cluttered user interfaces, and blogs that read just like the gazillions of other gossip and hip hop blogs already on the net. There’s none of that here. It’s all about introducing young members of the hip-hop generation to chess, and offering chess veterans an alternative online gaming spot with comfortable, hip-hop laced atmosphere. Oh, and they even have an account on Twitter!

My only gripe/question to you: Can you get down with the site’s $48 membership fee?

Ha!

[via Nah Right]

Jay Smooth took a trip into his archives and brought out a series of audio clips from a 2002 interview with Q-Tip, in which Tip talks about early Tribe production techniques, shady industry execs, musical segregation and more. Take a listen.

That upcoming album that Tip is speaking of, we’ll finally get that sometime this June. Crazy, right? Pin that on the industry. He’s actually done a few projects (Kamaal The Abstract, Live At The Renaissance, Open) since his last official release (Amplified), however, they didn’t fit inside the mainstream’s little box, and never received a proper release–they’ve since leaked to the web. In the meantime, I’m hoping that this album doesn’t fall victim to any sudden label push-backs between now and June.