Show me the money!

Last year the rappers who brought in the most bones were Jay-Z, 50 Cent, and P-Diddy.  These rappers make an incredible amount of money.  Mike Tyson also had a tremendous amount of money before he followed the wrong advice and ran around with money with his head cut off.  It’s always sad when somebody loses a fortune through bad advice, and guys like 50 Cent have trusted their own financial sense and been involved in that part of their life.  Looks like it’s paid off 50.

Forbes released its 2008 list of Hip-Hop’s biggest earners for 2008 and in at number one is Mr. Fiddy Cent himself with $150 million, followed by Sean “Jay-Z” Carter and Sean “Diddy” Combs. The trio was also the top 3 in the list last year with 50 Cent overtaking Jay-Z thanks to a lucrative deal with Coca-Cola, selling his stake in Vitamin Water. Kanye West (or is that Kanye “Kanye West” West?) may have beat 50 in the soundscan battle but he comes fourth on the list with $30 million.

As fun as this list is, I’m actually more interested in these rappers’ real names, like Timothy “Timbaland” Mosley and Aliaune “Akon” Thiam. Really, I had no idea. But no matter what, I’m still going to refer to Jonathon Smith affectionately as Lil John. Yeah!

Made Top 3 again in Forbes

Mos Def tries to revive Portland

Portland is a city with a struggling rap scene becuase of low diversity and a general lack of interest.  New York has Jay-Z, Atlanta has Ludacris and T.I., Florida’s got Plies, Snoop and The Game are from L.A..  The northwest has the Portland Trail Blazers and not much hip-hop to talk about.  Mos Def tried to spark a lagging interest in hip-hop with a concert in Portland.  Here’s the scoop.

When I moved to Portland five years ago from Washington, D.C., a few things struck me quickly. First, I saw few people of color, of whatever color or mix of colors. And when I went out to clubs, I saw few people dancing, really getting down; in D.C., kids would dance all night, break in circles at the drop of a hat, and generally treat their DJs like heroes.

I didn’t know it then, but I’d stumbled on two big gaps in Portland’s much-vaunted music scene: There are few hot and sweaty electronic dance music (EDM) clubs in town, and there’s so little diversity that the city struggles to gain legitimacy in the larger hip-hop world — a genre that came out of America’s minority communities and still identifies strongly with people of color. This weekend, on Friday night, two shows highlighted Portland’s growing hip-hop sophistication and emerging EDM scene, and also indicated how much further it has to go.

The first show featured the rapper Mos Def at the Roseland Theater. Though he’s become a wider household name on the strength of his acting in recent years, including in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and “The Italian Job,” he is a deeply respected hip-hop artist, a sharp, smart, outspoken lyricist. Who knows what it took to get him to Portland; it’s been a while, he noted, since he’d been here. StarChile, host of “Hood Radio” on hip-hop station 107.5 and the night’s emcee, even asked the crowd’s help in getting more big hip-hop acts to the city. (Friday’s show was sold out).

Rest of Story

Portland, Oregon

Raw since back in the day

• DOWNLOAD Raw Footage MP3s

My boy Matt was saying he thinks it’s lame that Cube still raps considering his appearance in Are We There Yet? Personally, I think if Cube still has passion for the game then he should release music as much as possible. Here’s part of an article about his new album Raw Footage.

“Going independent in 2006 really re-energized me. It rejuvenated me [and] my feelings for the game,” he said. “Being on [major] record labels is for the birds. It sucks all your energy out. Because the good ideas you come up with, a lot of times they don’t wanna do it. Especially on the promotional tip. They follow these same ancient formulas to sell a record. You gotta be creative in 2008 to sell a record. That’s the first thing. When I started doing it independent, it gave me my swagger back and made me feel like I was doing hip-hop and not just doing records for somebody. I just went back to the essence and stopped worrying about the hip-hop fans and started worrying about Ice Cube fans.”

You don't like my album?

“I wanna take it back to the real hip-hop,” Cube said. “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back by Public Enemy is one of the records I cherish, I love. I wanted to flip that and put the emphasis more on us and our community, on what we’re doing to hold us back. I also wanted to talk about what’s going on in the world and how I feel about it and what I’m ready to do. It’s not a game. People playing hip-hop like it’s a game. Let’s get back to talking about what people going through so we can solve some of these issues.”

Source (Read full article)

Lupe said he will keep performing after next album

Rapper Lupe Fiasco’s upcoming third album will be his last.

The ‘Kick Push’ star has always insisted he’ll make just three albums before quitting – and he’ll bow out next year after his new album LupEND is released.

But he insists it won’t be the end of his career.

The hitmaker says: “I’ll keep performing but I doubt if I’ll make any more albums.”

He’s not alone – rapper The Game recently announced his retirement following the release of his upcoming third album LAX.

Lupe's next album will come out next year

 Source