'Midwest Diva' Aims to Be Next Britney

Says his generation 'disarmed' the N-word

(NEWSER) - Becoming a teen drug dealer was “natural” for Jay-Z, and it didn’t scare him a bit, given his environment in the projects, he tells Oprah in her O Magazine. “At some point, you become addicted to the feeling. The uncertainty and adrenaline and danger of that lifestyle,” the rapper says. He was shot at once, but made it through: “When you're a kid, with little bony arms—no wonder nobody could aim.” More»

Mogul discusses business, music as release approaches

(NEWSER) - As he comes full circle with the Sept. 11 release of The Blueprint 3, exactly 8 years after the original Blueprint, Jay-Z discusses his journey from the projects of Brooklyn to the top of Forbes’ Hip-Hop Cash King list with Billboard. “We—Usher, Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé, myself—are becoming the people that we looked up to musically growing up, like Marvin Gaye and Frank Sinatra,” he says. More»

Lyrics, though awkward, manage not to be petulant

(NEWSER) - Somehow, rapper Drake recorded an album concerned mostly with “the stresses and travails of fame, even if he recorded the damn thing when he wasn’t famous in any meaningful way”—and then became famous thanks to said album, writes Tom Breihan for Pitchfork. Though he’s “not a great rapper,” Drake’s So Far Gone “still scans as one of the most compulsively listenable mixtapes of a great year for mixtapes.” More»

Looking to break into the biz? Use one of these pseudonyms.

(NEWSER) - With Diddy constantly changing his rap name, you might think all the good ones have already been used. But no: There are an awful lot of awesome pseudonyms still left, and Jesse Gissen lists his favorites on XXL :

• Sirius Black: “This bad ass dude from the Harry Potter series is known for practicing black magic, breaking out of prison and being able to turn into a werewolf. Seriously, it doesn’t get any better than this.”

He's back in studio, comparing himself to legends

(NEWSER) - Famously egotistical rapper Kanye West is back in the studio—and comparing himself to Kobe Bryant and Maya Angelou in a typical-for-him, all-caps blog post . Unlike many rappers, he promises he won’t get worse with age, because “true poets get better,” he writes. There’s just one problem: “First of all Kanye, you’re a rapper. You’re not a poet,” writes Joe Anello on College News . More»