Foreign Policy 101: Jay-Z's Feud With The Game

Rapper can't quite nail a return to his glory days on new album

(NEWSER) - 50 Cent, once at the forefront of rap music, returns with Before I Self Destruct—but his fourth solo effort isn’t impressing the critics. “Though packed with tough beats, dense production and 50's most ferocious delivery in years, the gloats about shootings, drugs and bloody 'hoods feel about as fresh as a Saw sequel,” writes Edna Gundersen in USA Today . The album “isn't likely to renew 50 Cent's currency.” More»

Rap Genius breaks down Jay-Z, Ghostface Killah, and more

(NEWSER) - Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ song “Empire State of Mind” is everywhere, even at the World Series. But do you know what the lyrics mean? If not, Rap Genius (formerly Rap Exegesis) can clue you in the way it educated Nick Antosca of the Huffington Post. Some of the explanations the site offers:

• Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, “Empire State of Mind”: “Catch me in the kitchen like a Simmons whipping pastry” refers first to cooking up crack, second to fellow rapper Rev. Run’s daughters and their clothing line.

Rapper will keep his language PG while performing for Yanks

(AP) - The lyrics to Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind" are sometimes as raw as New York, but it looks like the rapper will clean things up when he performs his city anthem at the World Series. A source close to the rapper says Jay-Z won't utter curses or other raunchy stuff in his hit when he and fellow New Yorker Alicia Keys sing at Yankee Stadium tomorrow night. More»

Rapper made it to $150 million thanks to business tactics, not musical talent

(NEWSER) - Believe it or not, it might do you good to take some business advice from shot-nine-times rapper 50 Cent. After all, it was business savvy more than rap music that helped build his $150 million empire. Business Insider takes a look at how he did it:

• His endorsement with Vitamin Water is his best known and most lucrative source of revenue; when Coca-Cola bought the parent company in 2007, he netted $100 million

Rap's up-and-coming name follows in the footsteps of Kanye West, Andre 3000

(NEWSER) - The premise of Kanye West protégé Kid Cudi’s Man on the Moon: The End of the Day is that he’s “not on the same planet as other rappers. The truth is that he’s not in the same genre,” writes Julian Benbow for the Boston Globe. The debut album “is a lot of things. It’s spacey, adventurous, and ridiculously intriguing if only because it’s so different. But it’s not rap”—more like “experimental and emotional hip-hop.” Elsewhere: More»