Alright,
it's been a long time since the last news but here we go:
Mobb Deep did not get ƒ12.000,- for a 15 minutes show,
but $15,000.- ex hotel and flights. That makes ƒ30.000,- for
a 15 minutes show, ƒ2.000,- per minute.
Osdorp Posse is finishing their next album. It’s said
that it’s going to be a double album. And a special video clip
to promote the single ‘Ondergronds Verzet’ will be
released anytime soon.
Fat Joe's manager has signed a MC a couple of weeks ago called
Big Kev, it's said this kid has a lot of skills, we'll see
if he can prove his skills and can maintain ‘Big’ in his
name and keep on living.
Outkast's next album has been pushed way back to a yet to be
announced date in July. That's 5 whole months, but I think it'll be
worth the wait.
Ras Kass has lined up a quite impressive squad of producers
for his next album titled "Van Gogh" which will drop
somewhere this summer. Beats will be done by Premier, Da
Beatminerz, The Alchemist, Rockwilder and Self-Sientific.
Bryan 'Baby' Williams and Ronald 'Slim' Williams, the
two founding members of the Cash Money label, just bought a
complex in New Orleans called the Magnolia Projects.
Their intention is to let the residents live there without having
to pay rent. I think this is a great example of giving something back
to the community, or what!
Www.hieroglyphics.com said Del's album will be released on
April 11th instead of March 21. "Both Sides Of The Brain"
will just be one of many Hiero projects to come this year. Del also
did a song for the Playstation game "Street Skater
2", it's called "Followers" and it will
also be on his next album. In addition there will be a line of skateboards
featuring the Hieroglyphics logo available soon. Somewhere
in March the Souls Of Mischief will also release their new
stuff. The single "Medication" will be released with
a half hour snowboarding-video. Their album will drop this summer
and in the meantime Pep Love will release an album called "Ascension".
Casual is busy on new material too, and a Hieroglyphics calendar will
be available on the site soon. The Souls are still busy mixing their
collabe album with The Pharcyde called "Mighty Pythons".
Delicious Vinyl said that the Pharcyde are still together altough
Tre and Fat Lip both will have solo projects out soon.
The group is supposedly mixing their new album right now. Fat Lip's
album "Revenge Of The Nerd" is said to be released
mid-2000. Also signed to Delicious Vinyl is a group called 'Blackpack'
which features producer J-Swift and Filthy Rich, and
they will release their album "Blackpack". It will
be hilarious with dope skits and nice lyrics.
The Pharcyde will be touring Europe in April and May, www.sohh.com
reported these tour-dates:
04/22/00 Chemnitz GER Spring Jam Festival
04/23/00 Prague CZE Akropolis
04/24/00 Magdeburg GER Factory
04/26/00 Berlin GER Kesselhaus
04/27/00 Copenhagen DEN Pumpehuset Club
04/28/00 Arhus DEN Voxhall
04/29/00 Cottbus GER Glad House
04/30/00 Bielefeld GER Forum
05/03/00 Vienna AUT Szene Vienna
05/04/00 Ljubljana SLO To Be Announced
05/05/00 Ebensee AUT Kino Ebensee
05/06/00 Freiburg GER Jazzhaus
05/07/00 Weinheim GER Cafe Zentral
05/08/00 Munich GER Georg Elser Halle
05/09/00 Salzburg AUT Rockhaus
05/10/00 Stuttgart GER Roehre
05/11/00 Biella ITA Babylonia
05/12/00 Zurich SWI Rote Fabrik
05/13/00 Fribourg SWI Frison
05/15/00 Frankfurt GER Batschkapp
05/16/00 Hamburg GER Fabrik Hamburg
05/17/00 Dusseldorf GER Stahlwerk
05/18/00 Brussels BEL VK Club
05/21/00 Manchester UK Manchester University
05/22/00 Glasgow UK Arches
05/24/00 London UK Forum
05/25/00 Amsterdam NL Melkweg
05/27/00 Paris FRA Columbes
Goodvibe, the underground label which signed last year to Atomic
Pop (www.atomicpop.com) boasts a nice line up: Bahamadia
has recently signed with the label, and Phil Da Agony, Spontaneous
and others were already signed. Bahamadia's album "BB Queen"
will be released in April and has production by the Ummah and
DJ Premier. Spontaneous will release his first album "Spur
To The Moment Music" which will feature the likes of Xzibit,
The Alkaholiks and Heltah Skeltah. Of course one of
the biggest signees of the label were The Slum Village, who
split with their previous label, A&M, and will now be releasing
their album "Fantastic Vol. 2" on the label somewhere
around May.
Drum 'n Bass artist Roni Size has contacted human beatbox Rahzel
for a track on his upcoming album which will be released in June.
The official Death Row site says the following albums will
be released this year:
-Tha Dogg Pound Aftershock EP
-Tha Dogg Pound Dogg Shit
-Makaveli Lost Scriptures
-Michel'le ?
-Milkbone ?
-Soopafly Like It Or Not
-Tupac yet untitled quadriple disc set
Bone Thugs & Harmony’s MC Flesh-N-Bone was
arrested this month on weapon charges, while the group also kicked
out member Bizzy Bone for not showing up in the studio and
at performances.
Priority Records say they will release Suace Money's
album "Middle Finger U" in March. The album will
feature Jay-Z, Lil' Kim, Puffy, Big Jaz, Shaq and Memphis
Bleek and production by Premier, Marley Marl, Clark Kent and
Prestige.
Thirstin Howl III is about to drop two (2!) albums soon. It's
said the second one will be an all-Spanish LP.
Launch said Xzibit started his own production company
called Open Bar Recordings. One of the forthcoming projects
will be the Golden State Warriors album which has been in the
air for quite a while now. Xzibit's third LP will drop on Loud
Recordings anytime soon and will feature quite a few Dr. Dre
produced tracks. Other guests featured on the album are Diamond
D, The Alchemist, Daz, Soopafly, Mobb Deep, Jayo Felony
and Method Man.
LL Cool J's album titled "G.O.A.T." (greatest
of all time) has been pushed back till May 2. Rah Digga's album
will be in stores April 4. Run Dmc's album "Crown Royal"
is slated for a February 22 release. Afu-Ra's album is said
to have been pushed back all the way till the Summer. Da Brat's
new album is slated for an April release. It will be titled "Unrestricted".
Davey D reported that Arrested Development is getting
back together. Speech mailed him to tell him they were in a
new Atlanta studio, put together by Outkast, busy recording. All the
original members will take part in the producing of the album.
Prince Paul is recording a follow-up to his 1996 "Psychoanalysis"
album, which will be titled "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly",
he is joined by The Automator and Dust Brother's Mike
Simpson. Paul Barman, who y'all already heard on his most
recent project "So...How's Your Girl Doing?" album
with Dan The Automator, will be featured on the album as well, he
just dropped his first EP called "It's Very Stimulating"
on WordSound Recordings. It features some real funny titles
like "MTV Get Off The Air Part 2" and "I'm
Fricking Awesome". Prince Paul is also busy with his
solo album which will be released somewhere next year, it'll be titled
"Politics Of The Business".
Kool Keith's upcoming album will be himself as he told Launch.
It will feature the person Kool Keith is in regular. He was also a
guest-editor for the online version of Spin-magazine (www.spin.com)
for five days from Monday February 14th.
The Black Eyed Peas will drop their new album in May. The album
will feature guests such as Jurassic 5's Charlie 2na,
De La Soul, Les Nubiennes, Mos Def, Wyclef, Macy Gray and Esthero.
In addition to the Playstation video game Wu-Tang will
have a line of model figures out, made after the popular Wu-Tang comic
book series "Nine Rings of Wu-Tang", available on
Image. The figures will probably be designed by Todd McFerlane,
the artist who also created the popular Spawn series, also
on Image. The first three figures will be Prince Rakeem, Gostface
Killah and a villain called Kryle. Rza will also
be releasing a documentary on his trip to China, it probably
will be shown on several festivals.
Snoop Dogg will start shooting his first movie somewhere this
month. The flick which will be called "Bones" will
have Snoop acting opposite Pam Grier. Snoop will play a ghost
returning from the grave to take revenge on the person who killed
him and destroyed his hood. Meanwhile Death Row Records will
release a "Snoop Doggy Dogg's Greatest Hits" album
with some old cuts but it will also contain some unreleased material.
The release is set for March 28. Here's the tentative track listing:
- "Nuthin' But A G-Thang"
- "Who Am I (What's My Name)"
- "Gin & Juice"
- "Murder Was The Case (Remix)"
- "Ain't No Fun"
- "Doggfather (Remix)"
- "Doggy Dogg World"
- "Vapors"
- "Keep It Real"
- "Midnight Love"
- "Eastside"
- "Too High (Poly High)"
- "Usual Suspects"
- "Eastside Party"
- "Snoop Bounce"
Snoop will release his next album "The Last Meal"
at No Limit and will then split with the record label, I think
he might be heading for Dre's Aftermath, now Dre was also trying
to lure Xzibit away from Loud. Snoop says he also want to give
more attention to his own label though, called "Dogg House
Records".
Jeru The Damaja will release his album "Heroz 4 Hire"
this month on his own label called Know Savage Prod. On February
22, but since it is quite a small label it may be kinda hard to find
but you have to say it has an illustrating title. This is all I know
for now.
Big L's posthumous album will be titled "The Big Picture"
and will be released by Rawkus this Spring. By the way, peep
the Ebonics remix on the D.I.T.C. album.
According to www.Eminem.com Em's next album will be called
"The Marshall Matter", and six cuts on that one will
be done by Dr. Dre.
Native Tongue-affiliate Chi Ali has been put on the
'Most Wanted' list by the NYPD Task Force, because of
the murder of a guy who supposedly owed him $300. At the official
NYPD internet site I couldn't find Chi-Ali among the wanted persons,
I think he should be under the Bronx section...
All Natural's Tone B. Nimble and Capital D will
drop a new album titled "Second Nature". It's their
follow-up to the underrated "No Additives, no Preservatives".
After this release they will drop an all-instrumental album called
"All Natural Beats", which will feature some instrumentals
from both albums.
Mobb Deep's Prodigy is currently working on his first
solo-album titled "H.N.I.C.", the LP will have guests
like Havoc, Cormega, Noreaga, Infamous Mobb, Lil' Kim and Mary
J. Blidge.
LL Cool J got a role for a movie called "Crazy Town".
He will play a school teacher for students institutionalized at a
mental hospital. It's a Warner Bros. project so I think this
may become a big one. His first starring role was in the movie ‘Toys’.
Portland Trailblazers ‘power forward’ and NBA
all-star will launch his own label. It's based in his hometown
Philadelphia, and is titled "Urban Life Music". The
first single is "PHI" by the Philadelphia group
'100 x' and has Rasheed Wallace kicking some lyrics
himself too.
Trick Daddy and his manager were arrested after fighting with
bouncers and police-officers who wanted to remove them from a nightclub
in Miami. They will both have to go to court March 3rd.
Common's official web site is launched at www.okayplayer.com/common.
It's a pretty tight flash-animated site with a biography, discography,
audio files, video clips and some info on his upcoming album "Like
Water For Chocolate", which will be out on March 28. The
site also features a section called "Common's Sense"
where you can listen to some audio clips, in which he explains the
cover of his album and some other stuff. Make sure you peep this site.
Rebirth Magazine (www.rebirthmag.com) had some interesting
news; the NYC female MC Strings who has her Swizzbeats
produced-single called "Pussy" out right now, appeared
in this adult-magazine called "Black Gold Magazine",
which the guys at rebirth claim to read for the articles, yeah right,
especially that Preach dude seems like a person who likes that
type of stuff. (p.s. Does anyone know where to get that magazine here
in Holland?!?)
The dudes at Rebirth also mentioned Declaime (check
The Alkaholiks' second album) have signed to Groove Attack
and will release a full-lenght album somewhere this year. Production
will be handled by Likwit producer Madlib.
Rumours have Master P is making a whole record dissing the
Hot Boyz, a whole f-ing album!!! He'll release it under a alias
"The Wild Boyz" and it will be dropped on "Go
Get 'Em Records". Hmmm, he recently told XXL he thought
it would be silly dissing other people because he was on another level...
Finally! Freddie Foxxx will release his next album on KJAC
Records in May. The album will be titled "Industry Shake-Down".
Charlie 2na said there would be a new Jurassic 5 album
out very soon. It'll be called "Quality Control",
at this moment samples are being cleared, photo's are being taken,
the layout is being produced etc. etc.. He said it's their goal to
have it ready for a late March release. I'll keep y'all updated but
if you can't wait till the next editon peep for yourself at www.jurassic5.com.
The crew will start their next 'Word Of Mouth Tou Pt. 2' this
month, but when I asked them they weren't sure if they'd come to Europe,
altough they sure would like to.
When De La Soul did a NY perfomance this month shit
got kinda hectic, in a positive way this time, when the group was
joined by Macy Gray, Gangstarr, Common, Xzibit, Tha Alkaholiks,
Pete Rock, Prince Paul, Talib Kweli, Pharaohe Monch and M.O.P.
on stage to help De La introducing some of their new music from
their upcoming "Artofficial Intelligence" album,
when Posdunous arrived late because of the birth of his son
Kasai. I'm not sure if the first plan of releasing a triple-cd
set is still in the air, but I'm sure eager to hear some new De La
Soul ish.
Nas will release the compilation album "Q.B.'s Finest"
on his own label 'Ill Will Records' on April 4th. Artists featured
on the album will be Nas, Mobb Deep, Screwball, Cormega, Nature,
Infamous Mobb and Bravehearts. Most of the tracks will
be produced by Havoc.
Camp Lo have been dropped by Profile and are now signed
to Arista Records, and are currently in studio working on new
material for their next album.
Keep an eye on Mykill Miers, he's putting the finishing touches
on his upcoming album "It's Been A Long Time Coming"
which will be released on Blackberry Music in March. The album
will feature guests like Andre The Giant, Planet Asia, Freddie
Foxxx and Dilated Peoples.
Also check for C-Rayz Walz's album, which is said to have some
gems on it. One song is called "Great Voices" on
which he impersonates some of the more recognizable voices in HipHop
like Sadat X, Eminem, Busta Rhymes and Kool Keith. You
might remember C Rayz from last years 12" "The
Specialist" with Apani B. Fly Emcee...
Davey D (www.daveyd.com) reports that Money B seems
to have caused quite a stir with his new singles. One of them is called
"Eyez On A Mill Ticket" which is dedicated to 2Pac,
and on which Money B along with Clee and Whorida's King
San is dissing all those 2Pac impersonators. Money B stated some
of these artist say they were down with Pac, and when they were really
down with 2Pac they should send his mom some money.
As some of you may have heard already Craig Mack has just dropped
his new single "WoodenHorse" which is produced by
Mark The 45 King, and I'm kinda feeling this one.
Aight that's it for this edition...
Loot