NEWS ABOUT: rap music
rap music stories: 69 news briefs
MUSIC REVIEW
Lyrics, though awkward, manage not to be petulant
Pitchfork Jun 29, 09 5:20 PM CDT
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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.”
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Astronaut pairs with unlikely collaborators to benefit charity
USA Today Jun 23, 09 2:01 PM CDT
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What’s next for a man who’s walked on the moon? For 79-year-old astronaut Buzz Aldrin, it’s recording a rap song, USA Today reports. “I'm not too good at carrying a tune, but I do have rhythm,” says Aldrin, who collaborated with Snoop Dogg, Soulja Boy, and Quincy Jones on “Rocket Experience.” Buzz has “the biggest buzz on the streets right now,” says Snoop. “I only work with the best.”
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MTV Jun 20, 09 7:21 PM CDT
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Drake is not only dating Rihanna and prepping to sign with a new label for his debut album in the next few days. The Canadian-born singer is also winning support from the likes of 50 Cent and Jamie Foxx, MTV and Sohh.com report. "He can go as gangster as he wants, but when he sings, that is the X-factor," said Foxx, who recently sang with Drake on a remix of his Foxx's single, "Digital Girl."
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OPINION
Young musicians' education is priceless
The Root Jun 18, 09 2:29 PM CDT
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Black Music Month, also known as June, used to celebrate visionaries like Duke Ellington and Billie Holliday. “In an age in which Auto-Tune and ringtone hits dominate, should we even be celebrating Black Music Month?” asks Erin Evans in The Root. “The answer, of course, is yes.” Evans argues that the month is more important than ever, even though “much of the new school deserves a failing grade.”
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Youths find freedom through rap
Time Jun 2, 09 1:30 PM CDT
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You might not expect to hear freestyle rapping in Mandarin, but that sound is growing in China as youths grab hold of the outlet hip-hop offers, Time reports. “This music is free and creative. We can say what we want,” says one rapper. “There are no restrictions.” Even so, another artist points out, “the main concern is social stability. I can’t say anything that gets close to politics.”
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'80s rap superstar rushed to Fla. hospital
Pensacola News Journal May 29, 09 3:07 PM CDT
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Tone Loc is on the mend after collapsing during a concert early this morning in Pensacola Beach, Fla., the News Journal reports. The 1980s rapper, 43, fell victim to the heat and the stress of a 12-hour journey from California, his manager said. The mastermind of megahits Funky Cold Medina and Wild Thing was rushed by ambulance to a nearby hospital, where he was treated and released.
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Concert Review
Kanye, record execs come to hear buzzed-about rapper
Village Voice May 28, 09 10:53 AM CDT
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Child-actor-turned-rapper Drake had fans and luminaries like Kanye West enthralled at a small New York show Tuesday, where the as-yet-unsigned artist tried to live up to the buzz. “Drake's greatest gift is his ability to translate his love of rap's many styles into his own music,” Chris Ryan writes of the Lil Wayne protégé in the Village Voice . “His stage presence had a degree of effortless charm and showmanship that suggested a real star quality at work.”
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MTV May 27, 09 3:08 PM CDT
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Kanye West says Jay-Z’s new album, Blueprint 3 , will not feature the Auto-Tune effects West himself has relied on in the past, MTV reports. “We actually removed all the songs with Auto-Tune off of his album to make the point that this is an anti-Auto-Tune album,” said West, who is producing the record. “Even though I released an album that has all Auto-Tune!”
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New album pushes Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown to no. 2
Associated Press May 27, 09 1:19 PM CDT
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Eminem's new album Relapse has sold more copies in its first week of release than any other album this year. The Detroit rapper's first album in nearly five years sold 608,000 copies and is his fifth straight No. 1 album. His last disc, 2004's Encore, sold 711,000 in its first four days and went on to sell 5.1 million copies.
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48 hours before prison, Atlanta rapper
sells out arena
Atlanta Journal-Constitution May 25, 09 9:18 AM CDT
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TI returned to his native Atlanta to play a sold out "Goodbye Bash" last night, just two days before he reports to a federal prison for a weapons conviction. Many of his fans expressed support for the convicted rapper, whom they described as a role model, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution . "Going to prison is like waking up in the morning," shrugged one producer. "It happens to everybody."
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RapRadar May 21, 09 3:53 PM CDT
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Jay-Z confirmed to RapRadar today that he has left Def Jam Records after more than a decade. The news follows an unconfirmed report on HitsDailyDouble that the rapper bought out his contract for $5 million. Jay-Z, 39, owed Def Jam one more album, but he was eager to move on to his new Roc Nation venture under the Live Nation umbrella. His Blueprint 3 , with Kanye West as a producer, is expected out this year.
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The only thing truly historic is how bad the lyrics are
Us Weekly May 21, 09 8:59 AM CDT
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Spencer Pratt is a celebrity, and he wants the world to know it. The Hills “actor” and newly minted “rapper” released his first single, aptly titled “I’m a Celebrity,” last week. Pratt—aka “The Great White”—dubbed himself “a part of music history” and told Us , “First I took over TV, magazines, and the Internet—now I’m going after the airwaves. Nothing can stop The Great White.”
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New York Times May 21, 09 2:41 AM CDT
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A flamboyant, high-profile New Jersey gang lawyer has been charged with murder for his role in the death of a key witness against his clients, according to law enforcement authorities. Former prosecutor Paul Bergrin, 53, is accused of leaking the name of a confidential witness to gang members who shot him dead in the street, and of hiring a hitman to target another witness, reports the New York Times . He has also been charged with coaching witnesses to lie and paying others to leave town.
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Rapper excited to play show he'll remember later
MTV May 20, 09 11:25 AM CDT
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Some 2000 lucky Eminem fans got to see a rarity last night: a mini-concert in which the rapper was sober, MTV reports. “This might actually be one of the best shows I’ve ever done, ‘cause when I get offstage, I’m actually going to remember it,” Eminem told the audience at the 35-minute set in his hometown of Detroit.
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MUSIC REVIEW
Daily Telegraph (UK) May 14, 09 1:43 PM CDT
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Eminem’s new album, Relapse , is as crude as you might expect, but his unflinching examination of his drug addiction has floored some critics. Overall, people love it or hate it. "The power of Relapse comes from Em aiming his beat-downs at his truest target, himself," Rob Sheffield writes in Rolling Stone. It's "a more painful, honest and vital record than anyone could have expected at this late date." "For anyone who carried a glimmer of hope that this talented if perverse MC had a great album in him," Greg Kot writes in the Chicago Tribune , "Relapse is a wake-up call."
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MTV May 12, 09 3:50 PM CDT
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The Hills’ Spencer Pratt has designs on the rap genre, MTV reports. “I’ve always known that I secretly am the hottest rapper in the game,” said the exceedingly white reality star, who plans to record an album on the heels of his single, I’m a Celebrity . The self-glossed “white Jay-Z” insists that track is not a plug for his upcoming appearance on I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!
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Denver Post May 11, 09 3:41 PM CDT
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A novel afterschool program, developed in Chicago and Cleveland and just now hitting Denver, uses rap music to make kids better students, the Post reports. “They learn about similes, different poetic devices,” the program’s founder said. They “learn to rap a Shakespearean piece.” One decidedly non-Shakespearean result: “I got to go to college to get my education/So I can be in a situation/That's better than the federation.”
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Singer's actions 'a thousand percent wrong' says member of Smoke Jumpers
Associated Press Apr 3, 09 3:42 PM CDT
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A song criticizing Chris Brown is getting radio airplay in Chicago, LA, and New York, among other markets. "My Flow So Tight," by a little-known dance group called Smoke Jumpers, features the repeated line: "Chris Brown should get his ass kicked," the AP reports. A website for the group hyped the song as "the official Chris Brown dis record."
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Lyrics threaten to break lovers arm, legs
Guardian (UK) Mar 30, 09 5:18 AM CDT
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A French musician's rap about beating his girlfriend has so enraged activists that they're lobbying to have him banned from an upcoming rock festival, the Guardian reports. OrelSan sings about a broken arm, broken legs, and a wished-for miscarriage and "slow death" for his lover in his song Sale Pute , or Dirty Slut . Women's groups, the Communists and Socialists blasted the song as "incitement to hatred," a criticism echoed by government officials.
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GLOSSIES
Rolling Stone Mar 25, 09 2:35 PM CDT
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It’s been 20 years since self-described “1 Hit Wonder” Young MC released Bust a Move , but the rapper is happy the song has held up as well as it has, he tells Rolling Stone. People aren’t “going to get a babysitter to go to a club and hear about you shooting people and raping women,” he says. “They’ll go … to hear Baby Got Back or Bust a Move or Wild Thing , because that’s a fun time out.”
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