Drake Denies Rumors About Leaving Young Money; Nicki Minaj Talks About Sophomore Album

December 3rd, 2011 | By

Rumors have been flying that Drake was going to leave Young Money. These allegations spurred after he decided to leave one of his management teams. While he was performing at a concert in Hartford, Connecticut, he addressed these rumors, confirming that he will not be leaving his hip hop “family”.

“I’ll tell you if you wake up in the morning and you think Young Money ain’t my team, you out of your motherfucking mind,” he said. “My brother Lil Wayne is all the way in Australia right now, but I got my camera on in the back and I just want to let him know how much me and Hartford got for him. So if you got love for Lil Wayne, make some noise!”

You can see the video below:

On the other end of the spectrum, Nicki Minaj, also a Young Money artist, talked about her Sophomore album “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, which is scheduled to be released on Valentine’s Day 2012. She recently dropped a teaser single called Roman in Moscow, where she raps from her alter ego’s perspective “Roman Zolanski”.

“When I say it’s a teaser, it’s like a trailer to the movie, it’s like setting the stage and I just wanted to touch the surface. It’s the wackest thing on Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded.”

Nicki Minaj was nominated for Best New Artist for the 2012 Grammies. She said that there will be a video for the single coming soon, then went on further, explaining the song.

“Well, he was there [in Moscow] secretly because [alter ego] Martha wanted him to go there, so they put him in this thing with monks and nuns; they were trying rehabilitate him,” she continued. “But I can’t tell exactly what happened, you’ll just see it in the video format, but let’s just say he got out of there.”

You can see the interview here:

Busta Rhymes Signs with Cash Money Records

November 21st, 2011 | By

The rumors have been confirmed by Busta Rhymes himself. He has indeed signed with Cash Money Records. The vet rapper made the confirmation while on the Funk Master Flex radio show. Busta has been pretty busy lately – he was on Chris Brown’s latest album and has won multiple awards for it. If you look into his musical history, you’ll notice that he has a knack for associating himself with the winning teams. The same goes for his newest decision to get down with Cash Money Records.

Just look at their track record and you’ll see why he made this choice. They have a lot of big names under their belt right now like Nicki Minaj and Drake. Some people may not like the idea of Busta Rhymes signing a contract with CSR, but there are a few good reasons to why it is definitely a good decision.

For one, hooking up with Cash Money will get him full access to some of the top names in the industry, including Lil’ Wayne, Nicki and Baby, among others. How many vet rappers can you say are still in the limelight today? Other than Jigga Man of course. With CSR, Busta will be able to stay in the spotlight for as long as he can put forth tight work. He’s been doing great so far, so we’ll see if he can do even better under their record label.

Let’s face it, if you want to make big money, you have to target the youth. And the youth today aren’t into lyricism like the last generation of hip hoppers, so Busta should do farely well financially under Cash Money Records.

Drake’s Album “Take Care” Leaked a Week Before Release Date

November 7th, 2011 | By

Last night, Drake’s album called “Take Care” was leaked and has already been downloaded thousands of people. The Young Money rapper/singer is playing it cool, saying “I am not sure if the album leaked. But if it did thank god it doesn’t happen a month early anymore,” on Twitter. This is a common trend in the music industry, and some folks believe that it is the stars or their record labels doing this on purpose as a stunt to get people listening to certain tracks, leading them to buy the full album.

Drake’s new album has popular singles like “Headlines”, “Make Me Proud” (featuring Nicki Minaj) and “Marvin’s Room”.

He also went on to tweet: Listen enjoy it, buy it if you like it…and take care until next time.”

Other notable songs from the leaked album include a song produced by Just Blaze called “Lord Knows” which features Rick Ross and “Take Care” featuring Rihanna. The album is set to be released a week from now on November 15.

This isn’t the first time that this has happened to Drake; his debut album “Thank Me Later” was leaked on the net 15 days before its release date. Of course, this didn’t slow down his album sales one bit. It sold over 445,000 copies during the first week and even topped the Billboard’s Top 200 Album Chart at number 1.

Have you heard Drake’s leaked album? If so, do you think you’ll be buying it? How well do you think it will do on the charts

Phonte Talks About Collabing with Drake; T.I. Not to be Released this Month

August 30th, 2011 | By

There were reports that TIP, aka T.I. was going to be released from his 11-month jail sentence tomorrow. He was originally scheduled to be released on Sept 30^th and it looks as though that will be his release date. His lawyer spoke on the matter, stating that he isn’t kept in the loop about prison releases.

“The Bureau of Prisons makes all the decisions once [someone goes] into the federal system then the federal prisons is the governing body as to when he’s released, the judge has no control over it,” he explained. “And you don’t have any real contact with them, they don’t communicate with you and they don’t tell you when exactly he’s gonna be released.”

On the other end, Phontigallo, aka Phonte, speaks about Drake naming him as one of his inspirations for songwriting. At the BMI Urban Awards over the weekend, Drake was awarded for being “Songwriter of the Year”, and he gave thanks to Kanye West, Phonte and Andre 3000 for inspiring him. This is what Phonte had to say about collaborating with Drizzy:

“To my knowledge, it’s not happening. We’ve made contact with each other but all of my attempts to make something real happen have led to a dead end,” he said. “I saw that he dedicated his BMI award to me and while that was a very noble and thoughtful gesture, I’d much rather he had dedicated himself to finishing a verse for one of me and 9th’s songs. That, to me, seems like a more tangible way of showing gratitude. But with that said, I’m still a fan and I think he’s an incredibly talented artist. When Take Care drops, he’s got my money.”

Looks like there won’t be any collabos with Phonte and Drake anytime soon.

Drake’s Uncle Passes Away and Ja Rule Gets Sentenced to Jail

July 18th, 2011 | By

A lot of folks were looking forward to the Drake concert that was supposed to take place on July 16th in Orlando, Florida at the Universal Orlando Resort (as part of the Universal Studios Concert Series). The reason he canceled the concert was due to the death of his uncle (the second artist in Young Money to have a death in the family this month – Nicki Minaj’s cousin died on July 4th).

“We regret to announce that Drake will not be able to take the stage at Universal Orlando Resort due to a death in the family,” a rep for Drake said in a statement released today. “He hopes that his fans understand the situation he finds himself in and know that he fully intends to return to the area in the future. He thanks Universal Orlando Resort and his fans for their continued support.”

Other unfortunate news was also received for other artists – but on a more criminal note. For one, Ja Rule will be serving another 2 years and has to pay $1.1 million owed from income taxes from earnings from 2004 to 2006. He failed to pay the $3 million that he was ordered to pay. He will also be serving time for attempted criminal possession of a weapon back in July of 2007. He pleaded guilty to the charge.

“I in no way attempted to deceive the government or do anything illegal,” Ja Rule said, reports the AP.

“I was a young man who made a lot of money — I’m getting a little choked up — I didn’t know how to deal with these finances…” said Ja Rule.