Uh-Oh, someone must have been high at the factory.
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The stars came out in Las Vegas to watch Jay-Z add yet another feather to his hat. Take a look at some photos from the 40/40 Grand Opening in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photos of Al Sharpton, Beyonce, Solange, Ne-Yo, etc, after the gap (more…)

I might be biased but #2 is definitely better than the #1 choice. And what about that move from King James (#6)? That one looks like it came straight out of the Michael Jordan playbook.

See also:
Top 10 In Your Face Dunks of 2007

Here’s Suge’s lost twin, alongside fellow Def Jam riders Fabolous and Freeway.

For those of you who care about these sorts of things, Lupe’s second go-round Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool barely registered on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. It debuted at No. 15 with 143,000. For the rest of us, it’s still the No.1 rap album of 2007.

Skillz - The Rap Up 2007 - Dope lyrics, wack beat.

Skillz is a renowned ghostwriter who claims to have penned songs for Foxy Brown, Diddy, Will Smith, Jermaine Dupri, and others. He’s been putting it down on the mic since ‘92, and has three solid albums under his belt. But it’s his other accomplishment that made Skillz popular.

For the past five years, the incredibly talented Skillz (b.k.a. Mad Skillz) has been bringing us yearly reviews. Every year, around this time, Skillz takes inventory of the main events that rocked the worlds of hip-hop, R&B, and pop. He’s probably busy recapping 2007 as we speak. Maybe, he’s still waiting for one more celebrity divorce to wind things up for ‘07.

I’ve created a playlist of all the Rap-Ups for your listening pleasure. These things are like taking a history lesson on urban music. My favorites are 2002 (I still have a tape-recorded version of this one) and 2006 (too many quotables, including: “Nas said ‘hip-hop was dead’ but northern cats spit all year tryin’ to bring New York back. Y’all need to lighten up son, get a hug. The only time New York came back was on Flavor of Love“).

Check out the previous Rap-Up songs after the gap. (more…)

Let me interrupt our program to give a special shout out to two gentlemen who just pulled off two incredible feats: Clyde Smith and Elliot “YN” Wilson.

YN defied shut-eye to deliver 24 blog entries in 24 hours. He even threw in a 25th entry for good measure. Similarly, Clyde churned out 25 blog posts in 12 hours. This was either a competition or a coincidence of some sort. These two men have been known to bump heads occasionally, so I can’t say for sure.

Either way, props to Clyde and YN. Your courage is something we should all strive to emulate.

Here’s wishing everyone a terrific 2008.

Word has been going around that Diddy, Irv, and Dame Dash are on the list of possible replacements for Jay-Z, who recently announced that he’ll step down as Def Jam president at the end of his contract. L.A. will need all the help in the world to find a suitable substitute. I say give LL the job and let’s see if he’ll perform better than the man he couldn’t stop criticizing.

Who do you recommend?

“Paper Trail’s on the way. We bout 30% into it, and everythang’s going great…”

Live and direct from House Arrest Avenue.

Most artists can either sing or rap. Some can even juggle both with impressive results (Lauryn Hill, anyone). Ciara may be the first to lack talent in both areas. Sure the girl can dance her way through traffic, but her mini-rap towards the end of “That’s Right” is ass backwards.