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March 27, 2009 T.I. is going to the pokey for a year and a day.
An Atlanta federal court just sentenced the 28-year-old rapper on federal weapons charges related to buying machine guns and silencers.
T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris, was also ordered to pay $100,300 in fines.
He has between 30 and 60 days to report to prison.
March 24, 2009 As previously reported [click to read], Dipset Capo Jim Jones will be showing up at the Manhattan Criminal Court today. The appearance deals with his alleged altercation with Ne-Yo’s manager Jayvon Smith last Christmas.
According to XXLmag.com, Jones’ attorney Scott E. Leemon is looking forward to seeing the trial postponed. “I expect the judge to set a new motion schedule based on the D.A.’s failure to respond to my discovery request,” he stated.
March 13, 2009 
Wisin y Yandel have filmed the video for their new single Mujeres en el Club with 50 Cent.
The New York rapper and the Puerto Rican duo became friends after performing in the same concert in Caracas.
The funny thing is that Wisin y Yandel don’t speak English and 50 knows nothing of Spanish. They need a translator when they hang out and talk!
The video is going to come out very very soon…for now, we’ve managed to scoop up these pics of W y Y with 50 from the video shoot!
wisin y yandel in 50 Cent March 10, 2009 
Woah - now Breezy is calling out Usher and crew for clowning him the other day:
Usher may have retracted his recent statement slamming Chris Brown, but we hear he may have been forced to do so.
“Have a little bit of remorse, man. The man’s on Jet Skis? Like, just relaxing in Miami?” Usher (r.) questioned indignantly after seeing photos of Brown cavorting in Florida following Brown’s alleged battering of Rihanna. But just days later, the R&B star took back his statements, which he made in a video for Jermaine Dupri’s “Living the Life” series.
March 10, 2009 Before renowned Hip Hop producer J Dilla passed away in 2006 due to complications from the Lupus, he had already recorded a number of unreleased tracks, including music he produced during his stay in the hospital. More than three years after his death, Dilla’s mother Maureen Yancey, who is better known as “Ma Dukes,” [click to read] along with Dilla’s idol and respected Hip Hop producer Pete Rock [click to read] are planning to release a posthumous project of Dilla’s unreleased beats and samples, called Jay Stay Paid [J$P], late this spring.
Executive produced by Ma Dukes, J$P will feature music pulled off of Dilla’s old floppy disks and DATs, as well as later tracks laid down during Dilla’s time spent in the hospital. Ms. Yancey assures that the project was not rushed, nor was it done haphazardly.
March 3, 2009 While Cash Money Records, fronted by acts Lil Wayne [click to read] and Birdman [click to read], is currently raking in the dough by the millions, a former employee is wondering where his cash is at.
Tristan Jones, aka“T-Mix,” has recently filed a lawsuit against the New Orleans record label stemming from an alleged breach of contract. In the suit, Jones states that he signed an exclusive production deal with Cash Money in November of 2005, which also included his expertise in programming, arranging, and mixing.
February 26, 2009
When reflecting on Hip Hop during the 21st century, a proverbial tip of the fitted cap has to be given to J.D. Tucker. Better known as “Dr. Teeth,” Tucker helped provide visuals when artists such as Slim Thug, Paul Wall and Mike Jones were first introduced into the national consciousness. Having literally and figuratively shifted his focus away from the small screen, Tucker and The Guess Firm are preparing for the fifth annual Historically Black College and University Film Festival and Seminars at Texas Southern University. The festival kicks off Saturday, February 28 in Texas Southern’s MLK Building Auditorium. During a brief phone call, HipHopDX looked to find what products of the HBCU system can expect when trying to enter into a recession damaged entertainment industry, and if the veteran director is “still tippin’.” HipHopDX: This is the fifth annual HBCU Film Fest. How many years have you been involved in it? DX: Since you’re specifically targeting HBCUs, do you think there are any extra steps a student at an HBCU needs to take as far as entering into the game?
J.D. Tucker: I’ve been involved with sponsoring this and paying for it out of my own pocket from day one. This is my pet project.
J.D. Tucker: I do. I came out of the HBCU system; I went to Texas Southern. At the time I was there, our resources were very limited, but the talent level was high. We didn’t have all the bells and whistles, but we would maximize the little we had. That allowed me to use low resources and still have high quality output.
February 21, 2009
One of the artists hard at work for an impressionable 2009 is Bay Area talent The Jacka. Having toured with C-Bo and Yukmouth prominently in the earlier part of the decade, the rapper’s recent Street Album lived up to its name in intention. “These songs are songs that I had strictly made for the prisons,” Jacka told HipHopDX last week. He continued, “We sell a lot of CDs to prisons. We had to keep it real gutter. A lot of people talk about the dope game and the hard, street life, but we’re really givin’ you the life. Some of this shit might sound simple and plain when we rappin’ about it, but to the dudes livin’ this life, it’s real.” The project also features Messy Marv and Keak Da Sneak. With an awaited studio album in tow for March, Jacka was adamant that, “This wasn’t made for reviewers or magazines or other rappers, this is only for prisoners and the streets.” He added, “It did way better than I thought it was gonna do.” Among the 21 tracks mixed by Big Von from the retail mixtape release is “Addiction,” a first-person commentary on losing a battle with drugs. For The Jacka, a song this is a testament to his risk-taking artistry, as well as the way the street rapper empathizes with his streets. “For a major artist, who’s trying to get on and get on the scene, it’s no a good idea to do [records like] that. It’s a chance you’re taking. But the way that I did it was, I’m putting myself in the shoes of somebody who’s actually on the shit, using the shit. A lot of my closest friends is on heroine or coke or something. In our generation, those are serious drugs!” He notes the closing lyrics to the song as indicative of the thin line between love and addiction, in this case tilted towards the latter. “I’m doing it for the people on it. At the end of the song, ‘If I didn’t love you, I would’ve kicked you a long time ago / Even though it’s better off if I let you go.’”
February 21, 2009 
If you are an avid TI fan, you are in luck as he has launched a short tour before heading to the clink:
TI February 13, 2009 
There’s an old saying that goes, “If you don’t rap for something, you’ll fall for anything.” Okay, so maybe those aren’t the exact words. They’re still ones that have served as the foundation over the last decade for Zion I, a progressive Hip Hop duo made of emcee Zumbi and deejay/producer AmpLive.
Underground legends in Oakland, Zion I has won over hearts and car stereos with social-awakening bars and forward-thinking beats. It’s no exaggeration to say that where Bay Area icons Del tha Funkee Homosapien and Souls of Mischief left off, Zion I picked up with CDs like Mind Over Matter, True & Livin’ [click to read] and this month’s The Take Over. But hey, Amp and Zumbi aren’t mad that the masses aren’t terribly familiar with their sound. They just don’t necessarily want to hear the complaints either about the lack of diversity in music when they’ve been rapping something different since ’97.
zion 1 February 13, 2009 T.I.’s had an eventful week. After two Grammy performances [click to read] and the debut of a new show, MTV’s Road to Redemption [click to read], Tip is quite the busy emcee. Recently, he spoke on a variety of issues, ranging from jail time to why he would purchase an album by Katy Perry. in this interview with Blender [click here], T.I. reveals information about his upbringing and more.
On selling drugs as a young man:
“When we were hustling, we had a certain discipline about ourselves at a young age. We carried ourselves like adults. We played at times, but we weren’t the silly kids. We knew how to take a joke, we knew how to crack a joke, but we ain’t no joke. Also, ain’t no room for bein’ silly and playin’ when you’re in and out of jail a lot. …I’ve been arrested somewhere around 32 times.”
On spending time in jail:
February 4, 2009 
Today, we learned that this year’s installment of Bamboozle Left, the weekend-long blowout of Orange County mall emo in a parking lot (I’ve been!), has an unexpected headliner. Mr. Curtis Jackson, who apparently has some time to kill while waiting for his perpetually delayed “Before I Self Destruct” album to become even more relevantly titled, will head up the Saturday show opposite a gaggle of the usual suspects for these sorts of things, including P&H faves Brokencyde, who I simply must see live before the year is out. While the jokes about this pairing will come fast and easy, this seemingly absurd booking has a strong chance of actually being a pretty fantastic way to close out the weekend and a useful move for Mr. Jackson.
February 4, 2009 Rapper Q-Tip will star in the new independent film
“Holly Rollers” as an Ethiopian drug dealer.
Q-Tip will be starring opposite Jesse Eisenberg and Danny A. Abeckaser in the film, inspired by true events, which tells the story of a man in a Hasidic community who was caught trafficking ecstasy into the United States.
January 27, 2009 
Jay-Z has warned fans they may have a long wait to hear his highly anticipated forthcoming album The Blueprint 3.
The 99 Problems hit-maker began work on the record last year and was widely expected to have released it by the start of this year. But Jay-Z is in no hurry to release the follow up to 2007’s acclaimed American Gangster LP, and refuses to put a timeframe on its completion.
January 22, 2009 Recently, Phonte of Little Brother spoke his mind on Kanye West’s latest album, 808s and Heartbreak [click to read] on the Conspiracy Worldwide Radio podcast.
When the topic of Kanye was brought up, Phonte made no secret of how he felt about Ye’s latest project. “I heard pretty much most of the Kanye album,” he said. “I didn’t like it. I was just like ‘get the fuck out of here.’,” continued Phonte. “I think if you’re gonna make the creative leap to sing, then really sing. Let your voice come out, and let people hear all the eccentricities and all the little idiosyncrasies in your voice. That’s what makes you uniquely you…Imagine if Aretha Franklin used Auto-Tune on ‘Respect.’”
“I honestly thought it was an act of cowardice
Phonte added that he thought Kanye was “biting T-Pain,” and concluded by saying that 808s and Heartbreak was a “case of the reach extending the grasp.”
January 20, 2009 In the past few years, producers who have done full-length albums have used their lyrical skills in an attempt to wow their fans. However, that’s not the case with California beatsmith Exile. With his newest release, Radio, Exile has manifested an eccentric instrumental project that uses purely the sounds of the radio, whether it is songs, commercial breaks, or static.
