Ski Beatz on 90s Hip Hop and Upcoming Album, Karate School Part 3

October 2nd, 2011 | By

Accordin’ to Ski Beatz, a producer/rapper that’s been around for decades, the hip hop industry is repeating history. In an interview with Planetlll, he talks of how 90s music was inspired by the 70s and how today’s music is now being inspired by 90s hip hop.

“Camp Lo is a perfect example of that sound. The 90’s is like the 70’s now,” Ski Beatz explained to PlanetIll.com. “You know what I mean? A lot of [people are] getting hip to that 90’s sound. I just came back from Paris yesterday and all they wanted to hear, they didn’t want to hear anything that was on the radio, all they wanted to hear me spin was all 1990’s music. You would’ve swore I was Kid Capri in Paris.”

He’s been working with Dame, who is now independent, so a lot of the sampling Ski Beatz was doing can’t be done for budget purposes. But they came up with a solution for that:

“Well, the original reason was we [had] an independent label and I was doing like a lot of sampling when I first hooked back up with Dame and he was like ‘Yo, we independent. We not gonna be able to clear the samples. We ain’t got no budget for this.’ So I said ‘Yo, we’ll just replay them.’ We’ll find some musicians and we’ll replay it,” said Ski. “But we took it a step further we got the musicians but turned the musicians into our band, our in-house band.”

And it looks like Ski Beatz will start spittin’ rhymes again for his upcoming project, “Karate School Part 3″.

“I might do something later. I think on this Karate School Part 3 I might do a feature on a track with somebody, it all depends. [I’ve been] rhyming lately so I might do it…That’s my first love I gotta do it,” he explained.

Jadakiss and Kendrick Lamar Debate the Winner of Old Rap Battle Between Nas and Jay-Z

September 12th, 2011 | By

How could we ever forget the battle between two of the biggest rap artists of our generation, between Nas and Jay-Z? Well, the debate between who won the 2003 battle still goes on between the opposing views of Jadakiss and Kendrick Lamar. Everyone has their views on who won, but who can dare say that “Ether” by Nas wasn’t a hot track?

The argument may never truly be done on whether Jay-Z or Nas won the rap battle, but here is what Jadakiss had to say.

“I didn’t really like the ‘Takeover’ beat,” admitted Jadakiss. “But the words—you know what the words are! It’s like the Declaration of Independence on the battle tip. What he’s saying is crazy. I like the laaaaayyyyymmmmme part. It was heavy, but Nas’ ‘Ether’ sits on the mantle when it comes to battle songs.”

He then added an “A-Plus grade” for the song Ether.

On the other end, Kendrick Lamar had this to say, “Truthfully, I felt like everybody wanted to go against Jay-Z because Nas was the underdog. But I was riding with Jay because he was saying more facts. ‘Ether’ was powerful, but I always thought Jay had the upper hand.”

It seems this will be a lifelong battle that will not end unless the two of them have a rematch that gives one or the other the title. Who do you think won the rap battle between Nas and Jay-Z?

Ja Rule Drops Beef with 50 Cent

May 29th, 2011 | By

It has been a long while since Ja Rule had beef on 50 Cent, especially with conflicts and other arguments the two hip hop artists had. But, with Ja Rule declaring truce, it looks like everything will turn out just fine.

Ja Rule is making sure he has everything settled before going to prison for two years and he is doing just that through dropping the issues he had with 50 Cent.

Ja Rule says that, “I’m cool. We ain’t beefing no more. We’ll never collaborate. That’s just what it is. You don’t have to be at war with somebody, but it’s also kind of like U.S. and another country that they may not get along with. We don’t gotta go to war, but we’re not friends either. But we can coincide inside of a world. He’s doing him, and he’s not thinking about me, and I’m doing me and I’m not thinking about him.”

Although he argued back at 50 Cent’s taunts regarding Ja Rule going to prison, he was ashamed at lashing out, especially since he said that he was taking the Twitter attacks seriously.

Nevertheless, Ja RUle is looking forward to better relations among fellow music artists, especially in cutting off grudges against 50 Cent. Ja Rule is ready to take on things a better, even expressing how he was angry that he let 50 Cent get to him.

Ja Rule is to spend two years in jail for having a loaded semi-automatic gun in his sports car.

Nelly to Perform at the Grand Opening of Palace Theater

July 5th, 2010 | By

We all know Nelly as being the rapper from the Mid-West, dropping hot tracks like “EI”, “Country Grammar” and “Hot in Here”. He has become one of the nation’s top rappers and that’s exactly why the Palace Theater in Branson has decided to use him for their grand opening. It is said that he will be performing there on August 21 (tickets will begin selling on July 12th). We haven’t heard a lot from him lately, but he is set to release an album this Fall.

“It’s important to Branson to get a spark. In the economic situation the world is in right now, people will pay for great entertainment,” said theater manager Paul Dunn.

What’s funny is Branson strip is a town that is used to having country, gospel and blue-grass concerts. So having a hip hop concert should be a bit interesting. Not sure how many of its town’s residents will show up, but there may be some out-of-towners who may swing by just to see Nelly.

“The shows are getting a little monotonous. They each have a comedian, they sing, they have female singers, they bring their kids on. It’s entertaining, but when each show is exactly alike, you need a little variety,” said Kimble.

“We are going to modernize our entertainment here. Branson has the best shows, but we are going to bring entertainers that are hot now, everywhere, even worldwide,” said Dunn.

Lil’ Wayne’s World

December 25th, 2009 | By

There’s been a lot on the plate of Lil Wayne, dealing with everything from court dates, hip hop albums and his new rock album (yeah, he’s dipping in pretty much everything these days). You may not have heard a lot from him this year, but we have heard from others like Gucci Mane (who’s been sentenced to 12 months in jail for violation of probation) and Drake who have been said to have taken Lil’ Wayne’s template for their own use. So far, it looks like it’s working. In some songs, Drake even sounds like Lil’ Wayne, like in the song “You the Best” (I thought it was Lil’ Wayne when I first heard it). The Carter came back to release “We are Young Money”, which features various artists. It was created by Cash Money, Young Money and Universal Motown. Lil Wayne has been working with various artists, piecing together the group Young Money– two of them being Drake and Nicki Minaj. Nicki is taking charge in the female rapping industry and is known as today’s hardest working female rapper. Other artists in Young Money include Gudda Gudda, Jae Millz, Tyga, Lil Chuckee and Lil Twist.

Also on Lil’ Wayne’s plate is his rock album, called “Rebirth”, which was accidentally leaked onto the internet when Amazon shipped out 500 or so pre-ordered CDs to customers. Rebirth was made by Universal Motown and Cash Money Records. Next year, Lil’ Wayne is scheduled to appear in court on Feb 9th for a gun possession charge that occurred in 2007. He is also set to start his sentence the same day. So far, his new group Young Money has produced two hits, “Every Girl in the World” and “Bedrock”. Hopefully Lil’ Wayne’s absence won’t slow down their productivity.