Peep this clip of Stat Quo gloating about his new status as a free agent, after severing ties with Dr. Dre and Eminem. He also shouts out “the 100 artists that Dre signs but never puts out” and says he’s moved on from the deal. Like most people who walk away from an ongoing contract, he was forced to leave his already recorded debut album behind.

Basically, Dre could decide to release the album — depending on how shitty it is — whenever he wants. That’s not too bad, considering that no one would even know who Stat Quo was without the Shady/Aftermath machine behind him in the first place.

Ludacris - “MVP” (Produced by DJ Premier)
What I really like about this collaboration is that Luda doesn’t adjust his flow tremendously to suit the track. It’s the other way around — Premier tailor-made this beat for Luda’s unique flow. Sure he’s rhyming a tad bit slower than usual but it’s comes off as natural. “MVP” is easily the best song on Theater of the Mind (11/24). As for his claim of being “the first southern rapper on a Premier beat,” hey Chris, you ever heard of a dude named Devin?

• Ludacris - “Call Up the Homies” (Feat. The Game)
• Ludacris - “I Do It for Hip-Hop” (Feat. Jay-Z and Nas)

In a classic case of When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong, an Atlanta rapper shot a man twice and wrote a song bragging about it. “Ask Chad Blue, he knows how I shoot,” rapped 25-year old Rico Todriquez Wright after shooting one Chad Blue. A judge sentenced Todriquez Wright Monday to spend the next 20 years in jail.

Chad Blue, meanwhile, testified to police that he knew Wright before the shooting, but that they weren’t exactly friends. Blue claims that Rico’s friends egged him on to the shooting.

“I heard one of the men tell Rico, ‘go ahead and shoot him’,” Blue testified in August. “When he raised his gun I knew I had to run, but I knew if I ran a straight line, I was dead. So I started weaving, running between houses, trying to avoid the bullets.”

According to the Dublin Courier Herald, Rico Todriquez Wright shot his victim in the thigh and the groin in September 2006 and recorded a song about the incident. The idiot was sentenced to 20 years for two counts of aggravated assault. He will spend another 20 years on probation.

Here’s Joe Budden making fun of some Tibetan monks protesting the oppression of Tibet by Chinese military forces. Joe Budden TV is officially better than any reality show on TV right now.

I can’t believe that Boo Boo has only graced the cover of XXL 5 times in the last 4 months. You see, it’s not the one-eyebrow slant pose that will send this thing flying off the newsstands, it’s those big, black, bold letters right underneath Eye Candy of the Year: LIL WAYNE. Yeah, some 12-year old girl will see it and think that Weezy F Baby is 2008 Eye Candy of the Year. She will then proceed to buy 4 copies of XXL to the alarm of the vendor.

[Raise one to eskay]

“So here we go now, it’s the midnight marauder on your scene…”

I woke up mouthing off the lyrics to “Gettin’ Up” with the gaze of a zombie kid. Now “Renaissance Rap” is stuck in my head for the rest of the day, thanks to this video. Damn, I miss Tribe.

[Props to the indomitable Rik Cordero]

Here’s Jigga promoting Angie’s new show. If this show is as good as they say it is, I’ll consider lifting my moratorium on BET. Monday, November 24th at 11: 30 ET.

DJ Premier produced a song called “MVP” on Luda’s 6th album, Theater of the Mind. This video captures Premo working his musical magic. He also takes time out to name some of the MCs in his Top 20 and Luda makes the list somehow.