Jadakiss Works With Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne For New LP, Talks LOX September 29, 2008

Jadakiss might be a fast worker, but Def Jam is proving to be pretty swift, too.

The Yonkers MC is still “a few joints away” from finishing up his third album, Kiss My Ass. But his new label is pushing forward with his project right away. They—not him, he said–recently leaked the Jay-Z-assisted “Who Run This.’

“They rolling the ball a little quicker than me,” Kiss told XXLmag.com about his Roc-A-Fella debut. That’s why it’s going down [like that.]

“I still got my mixtape I got to finish, then the album,” he added.

So far Kiss has secured features with Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne (“Death Wish”), and he’s cooking up something with Ghostface and Raekwon.

The potential first single, “By My Side,” featuring Ne-Yo has recently been serviced to radio. However, Jada still isn’t sure if that’ll be the first clip from his album. He also has records with Avery Storm, Barrington Levy, and his D-Block brethren to choose from.

It’s been four years since the release of his last album, ‘04’s Kiss of Death (Interscope), but the LOX front man is happy to still be relevant enough to be releasing material.

In between albums, the rapper dealt with a gun charge that was hanging over his head and a change in labels, from Interscope to Def Jam, that, according to Kiss, has inspired his material.

“This [album] I did by myself,” Kiss explained. “I do all of them by myself, but I did this whole project in the D-Block studio. It gives it a raw sound, just gives it my whole element. It’s all me, all inspired by me.”

Next up for Kiss will be a mixtape, then he’ll drop his LP. Right after that, a D-Block compilation titled No Security Needed will hit the streets. By 2009, he said, the trio of Sheek Louch, Styles P, and Kiss should be ready to come together for their long-awaited LOX LP.

“We riding the wave right now,” Kiss said of juggling all his projects. “We got the surf boards, we just waiting on all the waves.”

Last Solo LP By Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes Set For Release September 29, 2008

Late rapper Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes of TLC fame will have her final solo album released on November 11 through Mass Appeal Entertainment.

The 12-track project, titled “Eye-Legacy,” will feature collaborations with Miss Elliot, Chamillionaire, Lil Mama, and Bobby Valentino.

The first single, “Let’s Just Do It,” featuring Missy.

The songs on “Eye-Legacy” featuring unreleased vocals from Lopes.

Previously, the TLC star released a solo album, Supernova, that was only released in Europe and a failed union with Death Row as a solo artist–under the name N.I.N.A.–resulted in no material being released.

“We hope people understand the message in Lisa’s music and appreciate her as not just a member of TLC, but as a solo artist as well. This album is Left Eye’s musical gift to her fans and adds to the beauty of her legacy,” the Lopes family commented in a statement.

The fiery rapper long hoped for a solo career as successful as her her collaborative work with TLC had become. At one point Lopes even challenged her group mates, T-Boz and Chili, to all release solo albums the same day and to determine the winner by album sales.

Lopes died in April of 2002 in Honduras during a car accident. She was only 31. A documentary on her last days wad produced by VH1 titled “The Last Days of Left Eye.”

What Happened To G. Dep? September 29, 2008

Rapper reappears in Internet video…says he’s still down with Bad Boy

G. Dep, the former Bad Boy Records “Harlem Shake” pioneer, has seen better days. Today World Star Hip Hop posted a video of the rapper, who’s been under the radar for years, sitting in a park in New York discussing his desperate strides toward making a comeback.

Most recently, Dep dropped the DJ E.Nyce–hosted mixtape Deponomics. Now he says, “We got the G.Ometry coming soon. We’re trying to holla at Primo [for beats].”

The Harlem native started off as a “cameo rapper” on Bad Boy, before dropping his critically acclaimed debut album, Child of the Ghetto, in 2001. The song featured the hit single “Special Delivery” and “Let’s Get It,” made the whole world do a goofy dance called the Harlem Shake, and catapulted Dep into blinding star status.

But soon Dep (along with Loon and Black Rob, other fellow Bad Boy artists from the early millennium) quickly saw his career dissolve. On January 15, 2007, Dep was arrested for breaking a display cell phone during an argument with a T-mobile rep, the New York Daily News reported. Dep’s bail was $750. Unable to pay it, he remained locked up in N.Y.’s Rikers Island for 23 days.

Many fans wondered how did things get so bad. Dep admitted to the Daily News that before Child of the Ghetto, he signed a $350,000 five-album contract with Sean “Diddy” Combs.

“There’s a lot of things I should have looked into,” Dep told the Daily News. “At the time, I didn’t think about it too much…. When you got P. Diddy pulling up in the Johnson projects in a sky-blue Bentley, you don’t ask a lot of questions.”

Dep eventually blew the money and fell victim to a drug addiction.

In the World Star Hip Hop video, Dep— wearing a brown hoodie and looking somewhat lost—said that he accepts his current standstill on the label.

“Right now, the situation over there is like, if you’re not in motion, you’re in slow motion,” he said. “So, slow motion is better than nothing. So right now we’re on our grind. We just gon’ get our thing going and y’all gon’ see it live…whenever it happens…it’s going to happen sooner than later.”

Janet Pays For Jermaine’s Heavy Drinking September 29, 2008

I watched a cute video that Janet Jackson shot of her little boo Jermaine Dupri boozing it up at a condo before their crew headed to Jermaine’s 36th birthday party at Tenjune in New York City. She should have monitored his alcohol intake but instead the heavy drinking continued and she apparently paid the price for it – with a lap full of his vomit.

The video, “Living The Life: My Birthday!!!!!!!”, shows Jermaine sweating and wiping his head with a cloth while Johnta Austin says, “He on 10 shots already at the condo. We about to go to the party.” Jermaine talks about not being allowed to walk the red carpet with a bottle of Patrón. But he got his hands on some inside according to Page Six:

JERMAINE Dupri had a little too much of a good time celebrating his 36th birthday. The other night, Dupri and his squeeze, Janet Jackson, went to Tenjune, where, spies say, they shared bottles of Jay-Z’s Ace of Spades Champagne and Patrón tequila with Ne-Yo, Busta Rhymes and Ice-T – until Dupri “vomited in Janet’s lap. Ms. Jackson bolted out of the scene and sped off in her chauffeured Maybach.” A rep for Jackson and Dupri didn’t return calls. A rep for Tenjune declined to comment. Meanwhile, we hear Dupri is under some stress at work. The head of urban music for Island/Def Jam put out his lady’s last album, “Discipline,” which flopped. Our insider said, “[IDJ head] L.A. Reid had wanted to make changes to the album, make it fresher with some newer artists added in, but Janet said no – and Jermaine backed her up. He looks silly right now.”

J-Hud Reveals How Punk Proposed September 29, 2008

Jennifer Hudson wasn’t expecting a wedding proposal from her boyfriend David “Punk” Otunga when he told her to dig in the sand while at the beach on her 27th birthday on Sept. 12.

“I had no clue at all… We went to the beach during the day and he blindfolded me… and he gave me a purple shovel, because purple’s my favourite colour… and I had to dig.

“I ended up digging through all this sand. When I found it, it was like a bunch of beautiful cards… one related to the other, and the last one said, ‘Look around, take the moment in, turn around and I have a gift for you.’”

Hudson showed off her Neil Lane sparkler on ”The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” on Friday. She told Jay that her future husband is “a beautiful guy” and that ”He’s an attorney; he went to Harvard Law School.”

‘TOP MODEL’ TAKES IN OXYGEN September 29, 2008

 

       Reuters is reporting that Oxygen has acquired exclusive cable rights to the Tyra Banks-hosted series from CBS Television Distribution.

 

       Under the agreement, reruns currently airing on MTV Networks’ MTV and VH1 will switch to Oxygen beginning in January.

 

      Banks is also the creator and executive producer of “Top Model,” along with Ken Mok and Daniel Soiseth. Oxygen has yet to announce when and how often the series will air.

BUSTA ROCKS UK GIG AFTER VISA SNAFU September 29, 2008

Busta Rhymes made his scheduled concert appearance at London’s Albert Hall Friday night after winning a court order that allowed him to stay in the country.

 

      The rapper, whose real name is Trevor George Smith Jr., was detained by British immigration upon his arrival at London City Airport on Thursday due to “unresolved legal issues” in the United States, according to promoters of the charity concert RockCorps.

 

      In March, a New York judge sentenced Rhymes to three years’ probation for assaulting his former driver and a fan.

 

       But High Court judge Nicholas Stadlen ultimately decided that Rhymes could stay in the country, saying he did not want to disappoint 4,000 young people who won their tickets by performing community work.

JAY-Z LINE ‘I WILL NOT LOSE’ IN LAWSUIT September 29, 2008

A copyright infringement lawsuit was filed against Jay-Z and the owner of his Rocawear clothing line by a company who claims they took its trademarked name, “I Will Not Lose.”

 

       In March 2007, Iconix Brand Group bought the rights to Jay-Z’s Rocawear for $204 million. However, the rapper was named in the suit because of the plaintiff’s belief that he still oversees the line’s product development, licensing, and marketing.      

       Last year, Rocawear launched an international “I Will Not Lose Campaign,” where celebs gave accounts of how they overcame personal challenges before reciting the “I Will Not Lose” phrase from Jay-Z’s 2001 hit single “Change the Game.”        

       Reggie Tucker, CEO of I Will Not Lose, LLC, claims that his company trademarked the phrase first and was subsequently ignored throughout 2007 after attempts were made to settle the matter out of court, reports Allhiphop.com.

 

      The company’s Sept. 18 filing in Georgia Northern District Court seeks an undisclosed amount of damages for the dilution of their trademark.

PRINCE DISCUSSES JEHOVAH’S WITNESS DUTIES September 29, 2008

Part of being a Jehovah’s Witness requires that members go from door to door spreading the religion’s philosophies, which can be a little dangerous if the person toting “The Watchtower” literature is a world-famous music icon.

 

      “Sometimes fans freak out. It might be a shock to see me, but that’s no reason for people to act crazy, and it doesn’t give them license to chase me down the street,” says rock star Prince, who converted to the religion in 2001 and says he makes personal visits to strangers’ homes.

 

       He tells USA Today that he also carries a Bible with him to business meetings before making any deals.

 

       “There are all kinds of possible deals artists aren’t privy to,” he tells the newspaper. “I love to bring the Bible to the table. I start by asking if they believe in God, then: ‘What kind of business do you want to conduct: Transparent or hide the ball?’ I’ll do tours and albums if the deal is clean.”

NIECY NASH’S FOX SITCOM CANCELED September 29, 2008

After just three episodes, FOX has decided to end its freshman sitcom “Do Not Disturb,” which starred Niecy Nash as the head of human resources at a hip New York Hotel.

 

      The show averaged slightly over 4 million viewers in its three airings and a disappointing 1.6 rating among adults 18-49.

 

       According to Zap2it.com, FOX had initially said the show was being pulled temporarily, but the network has since confirmed it will not return. The comedy will be replaced in the network’s Wednesday-night lineup by repeats of its lead-in, “‘Til Death,” for the time being.

 

       Seven episodes of the show were shot, but it’s unclear whether the remaining four will ever be broadcast.      

       “Do Not Disturb,” which also starred Jerry O’Connell as the hotel’s egotistical general manager, centered on the upstairs-downstairs clashes between the workers.