Ice Cube - Raw Footage (Artwork + Tracklisting)

Album drops August 19th.

01. What is a Pyroclastic Flow?
02. Jack In the Box
03. It Takes a Nation
04. Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It
05. Hood Mentality
06. Why Me? (feat. Musiq Soulchild)
07. Cold Places
08. Do Ya Thang
09. Thank God
10. Here He Come
11. Get Money, Spend Money, No Money
12. Get Use To It (feat. The Game & WC)
13. Crack Baby
14. Tomorrow
15. Stand Tall
16. Take Me Away (feat. Butch Cassidy)

Black Milk - "Shut It Down" + "Say Something" (Live)

HHO Soiundcheck presents Black Milk dropping 2 songs from his album, Popular Demand.

Ludacris Announces New Album(s).

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

Luda tells MTV that he's recording his sixth album. Damn, has it been that many already?

He is also linking up with DJ Drama to drop a Gangster Grillz mixtape. Stand Up.

Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival.

It's going down this weekend. KRS-One, Primo, Buckshot, etc etc. Hip Hop Official will bring you the highlights next week, so stay tuned.

Spread love, it's the Brooklyn way (c) Biggie

Nas Conference Call - Full Audio

For those of you who are still interested in Nas after all the media hoopla the past 2 days,this is the full audio of the conference call Nas did yesterday for his upcoming album Untitled.

He talks about the original name of the album and the reason for the title change, the internet leak, Jesse jackson, "Sly Fox" and his motive behind the music.

It's a little long, almost 10 minutes, but worth the lesson.

Pac Div on Okayplayer TV.

The West Coast's next big thing, Pac Div catches up with Okayplayer TV at their performance and the Key Club in L.A. That reminds me, we linked up with the crew last week at the Standard and got a nice little interview with the trio coming up soon. Keep it locked for that...

They also caught some live performances from the show, what do you know?

[INTERVIEW] David Banner

Here's Part 2 of our David Banner interview. Here the rapper/producer/actor talks about his upcoming album, his production style, and life after hip-hop. This cat is a great interview...he's very insightful and well articulated. And the homie Nas calls him one of the great new leaders.

In you missed Part 1 of this interview, catch up.

After the video I got some bonus downloads for ya, a couple of cuts of his upcoming album.



**BONUS**

DOWNLOAD: David Banner - "Shawty Say" (feat. Lil Wayne)
DOWNLOAD: David Banner - "Suicide Doors" (feat. UGK & Kandi)

Common - "Announcement" (Live)

Com performs his new single live from Amsterdam. So you know what that means.


RELATED: Common - "Announcement" (Download)

[VIDEO] Nas - "Sly Fox"

Speaking of Nas...

Here's the new video directed by the new Hype Williams Rik Cordero for Nas’ new "anti-Fox News" track from the Untitled album.

Mos Def performs Dilla's "E=MC2" (Live)

This is a cover/tribute to the late James Yancey aka J Dilla and his song with Common "E=mc2" performed by Mos Def and Chris "Daddy" Dave & Friends.

Nas Responds to Jesse Jackson.

This is from an excerpt from a conference call Nas did with the media this afternoon (courtesty of Def Jam and the Best of Both Offices). Nas reacts to the Rev. Jesse Jackson and his recent comment made about cutting off Barack's balls [pause.]

Make sure to cop that new Nas Untitled album this Tuesday, July 8th.


Keep it locked to Hip Hop Official for the rest of the conference call.

Graffiti is Good.

Current TV interviews legendary photographer Martha Cooper about her experiences documenting the evolution of graffiti, b-boying and hip-hop culture during the 70's in New York City. It's a nice little history lesson from an unexpected source: a middle aged white women who was introduced - then became immersed and fascinated with the culture - but was unaware of it's full impact at the time. Today Martha's photo's are iconic imprints of the electrifying beginnings of our beautiful culture.

Pay attention, kiddos...this is the reason us old heads love real hip-hop so much.


"As soon as it became popular, I lost interest in documenting it." (c) Martha Cooper... Ain't that the truth, sister.


(Spotted at Miss Info's)

Westcoast Wednesday.

The Wascals - "The Dips"

I owed this song on cassette single (RIP) and played the shit out of it in 1993. The J-Swift produced beat was so ill to me when i was 13, and it still holds up today. Few people remember the Wascals, but you might be familiar with their "most popular" single "Class Clown," but this song right here was always their dopest track in my opinion. And my opinion is the final word in this blog.

So who the hell where The Wascals? They were a L.A. based group comprised of super young emcees Bucwheed, Spit-Anky, Alphie and St. Imey, they were signed to Delicious Vinyl Records and were originally produced by J-Swfit (the genius behind Bizarre Ride to the Pharcyde). They were often compared to their labelmates The Pharcyde and were referred to as "The Baby Pharcyde," but they reminded my a little bit more of a pre-pubescent Souls of Mischief.

They released 4 singles in 1993, and recorded an album called Greatest Hits (how retarded) that was supposed to be released in 1994, but the four members did not get along with each other (something tells me this group was manufactured) and they broke up just before the album was set to be released -- then Delicious Vinyl shelved the album. And it sat there, and sat there, and sat there, collecting dust until 2007 when Delicious Vinyl finally released the album, 14 years after the singles were first released. Too little, too late.

Out of the four members of The Wascals, only Bucwheed did much of anything after the break-up. In 1998, he changed his name to Buc Fifty, turned street, and dropped a few albums. His work with Alchemist is actually pretty dope.

Fuck You, McDonald's.

The iNternets Celebrities take aim at McDonald's and their bullshit Breakfast Only Served Til 11 AM rule. In they're newest video, they attempt fast food time travel in order to confuse the Golden Arch's space time continuum and take part in Futuristic Brunch. Most Excellent.

Bill and Ted have nothing on these dudes.

These Are The Breaks.

(Our weekly look back at the original songs that your favorite Hip-Hop records sampled)


Since the 4th of July was last week, and some idiots are still lighting off fireworks in my neighborhood I thought this week's entry of These Are the Breaks should be firecracker-related. Confused yet? Don't worry...these things tend to work themselves out.

Mass Production was a Virginia-based funk band in the late 70's and early 80's, and one one of the largest of its time - in size, not stature. The group included 10 band members. Although, they are somewhat obscure, they had one hit record, titled "Fire Cracker" (see the connection?) which hit number four on the R&B charts in the late summer of 1979.

LISTEN: Mass Production - "Firecracker"

The song would later be sampled and flipped into one of the raunchiest and more controversial rap songs ever.


The song, 2 Live Crew's "Me So Horny" also borrowed its hook from a Stanley Kubrik's classic movie, Full Metal Jacket, in a scene where a Vietnamese hooker propositions 2 American soldiers. Me love you long time.