T.I. Goes to Jail

May 25th, 2009 | By Safiyyah

T.I., also known as T.I.P. or Clifford J Harris Jr., is one day away from reporting to jail. He was charged in 2007 after trying to buy the guns from undercover agents. He then plead guilty in March of 2008 and sentenced to one year and a day. Before going to jail, he starred in a reality show called T.I.’s Road to Redemption where he spoke to kids around the country about making the right decisions in life and worked with a political thinktank that has ties in Washington. His last concert was held as a farewell to his fans — as you could imagine it was fully packed with 16,000 people. T.I. got a lot of love from his fans; he told them that he would stay optimistic while serving his time.

T.I. is one of the top artists of this time–he’s collaborated with many artists like Rihanna and Justin Timberlake. The song with Rihanna, “Live Your Life” was an instant hit and his collaboration with Justin on “My Love” won him a Grammy — he makes great choices in music, but not so great in life. His jail term will be done in Forest City, Arkansas, leaving behind a wife and children. He must report to jail by 2 p.m. Tuesday, May 26. The maximum time he had to do was ten years, but was spared that since he plead guilty and agreed to do community service. T.I. was born in Atlanta and has come on top of the hip hop music game as one of the best in the area.

New Albums of the Summer

May 25th, 2009 | By Safiyyah

Starting off the summer are various R&B, soul and hip hop album releases. You can expect to hear some smooth tunes during the summer months. In June, expect to hear some new tracks from Genuwine on his album, “A Man’s Thoughts”. He’s been out the game for a minute and we’d all like to hear something new from the r&b king. In the 90s, he dominated the charts and the ladies of course. So in a few weeks (June 23rd) we will see if he can do the same this time around. Then we’re also expecting to hear some new songs from Al B. Sure. Now, we haven’t heard from him in a very long time — over a decade to be exact. His album is called “Honey I’m Home”. Also playing on our radios this summer will be Vanessa Williams, “The Real Thing”.

For some soul, you can keep an eye out for Teena Marie’s 13th album called “Congo Square”, which is a collaboration with her and Faith Evans. Evans’ single, “Can’t Last a Day”, is one of the tracks. Also featured on this album are MC Lyte, Howard Hewert and Shirley Murdock (singer of “As We Lay”). You can expect her album to drop on June 9th. Sharing this release date is Pleasure P, a former singer of Pretty Ricky. On the hip hop side, you can find Mos Def dropping an album called “The Ecstatic”. Also, releasing albums this June are Will Dowing, “Classique” and Laura Izibor, “Truth Be Told”.

Tours for 2009

May 14th, 2009 | By Safiyyah

Hip hop tours are poppin all over the globe. First, we have rumors that Keyshia Cole, Rihanna and Ciara will be touring together, so if you’re looking for a great R&B concert, you should definitely check out the dates and cities to for this show. No dates have been set yet, but keep an eye and ear out. Supposedly, Rihanna would like to team up with strong women for a “women empowerment” type tour. This trio would definitely empower the women in their concert crowds with their soulful voices and lyrics.

Rihanna has a live concert in Dubai coming up; yes it has been confirmed. There will be 25,000 tickets available for sale. No exact location has been set, but it may be in an outside arena…wouldn’t that be lovely?

Beyonce is also on tour, but has told interviewers that she is looking to wrap things up and take two years off to play the role of a wife to her husband Jay-Z, who is also on tour by the way. The two currently try to link their calendars together, so that they can schedule time together. B definitely misses her boo while on tour, so to help her feel better, she has Jay-Zs name written on the nails of her index, middle and ring fingers. This helps her to remember him and even makes her smile she says. Beyonce is really looking forward to starting a family and leading a somewhat normal life.

Eminem’s Relapse CD Review

May 14th, 2009 | By Safiyyah

Lots of reviews have already been given on Eminem’s new hip hop album, Relapse. So far I haven’t come across any who’ve had something nice to say. This new CD is by far the lowest rated yet by Marshall Mathers. It talks about the same old things and doesn’t really show any progression when it comes to Slim Shady’s life and thoughts towards it. The targets are the same — Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, Mariah Carey and, of course, his mother. The only difference here is that Kim isn’t targeted and a new target has been acquired, his step dad, who is subject of rape-incest remarks.

Many of the songs on the 20 track album aren’t that creative. A lot of the beats are rehashed and seem to act as just a frame for his lyrics instead of complimenting them or standing out altogether. The lyrics within these songs are still heartless, but they aren’t as surprising as they were in the past. I guess these days we have gotten used to Eminem. This time around, he really should have focused on reinventing himself and coming up with something a bit more creative. A lot of his fan base are a bit disappointed. It’s funny because at the end of his CD there’s a skit with Ken Kaniff where he is acting like a standup comedian telling the same joke to a different crowd and the people are walking out on him while he’s trying to tell another joke. Sounds a bit like this album situation. Well, not many people are liking Relapse, but hopefully he’ll have a great come back on his next album or this could be the end of the Shady era.

Kelis and Nas Filing for Divorce

May 6th, 2009 | By Safiyyah

Wow, is it just me or did we all think that Kelis and the Hip Hop King would stay together for the long haul? I was pretty happy when the two hooked up and they seemed like a wholesome couple. They got married and everything was pretty silent. Then there were rumors that popped up about Kelis getting arrested for fighting with an undercover cop who was posing as a prostitute. There are multiple sides on this story, but supposedly the female cop was soliciting Nas and Kelis got upset. Then there’s another point of view saying that Kelis started the whole shabang.

Then more disturbing news sufaced from Nas’ ex-wife and baby mother who claimed that he and Kelis tried to get her to have a three-some with them. Now, that’s pretty disturbing. Now after things began to calm down again, we’re hit with divorce papers…where did we go wrong! Well, story has it that Nas found out about a sex tape that involves Kelis and another man — she says that this was “before” her and Nas got together, but he was still pretty upset about the whole thing and was embarassed. He began to treat her horribly and so she’s basically had enough of it. She spent a lot of time in Europe, where most of her fan base is, and she had a toast with a friend of her’s (Nas highly disapproved of her friend because everytime they got together they were at some party or getting into trouble) about the divorce and how she’s going to, “take him for everything’s he’s got”. Sounds like this will be a messy one. Oh…and I forgot to mention, she’s pregnant with Nas’ baby!