Pusha T Delays Album Release

Rapper Pusha T has announced that his upcoming album, previously expected to be released on Black Friday, has been pushed back. The album is still untitled and he's still piecing together what tracks will stay and which ones will be scrapped, which led to the initial release date being canceled.

“No, I’m not putting it out on Black Friday. The actual album is not finished, and I don’t have a title for it,” he said in an interview with Bootleg Kev. “I’ve been making records. I’ve got eight records. I don’t know what’s going to make the album. We’ve definitely found a groove, though."

"I can honestly say with ‘Ye executive producing this thing, it’s going to be a masterpiece," T added. "Lyrically, know one thing, lyric-driven. Street, for sure.”

Kanye West Freestyles For 15 Mins

Rapper Kanye West took part in a long freestyle showcase in Krakow, Poland. West performed at the Coke Live Music Festival and freestyled for close to fifteen minutes after a performance of his hit "Runaway." He was joined onstage by G.O.O.D. Music rapper Pusha T.

The two performed an extended version of "Runaway" and surprised fans with West's lengthy freestyle.

Chiddy of the duo Chiddy Bang freestyled for nine hours straight earlier this year and currently holds the world record.

Amber Rose Exposed In More Nude Pics

Amber Rose has found herself in the center of another nude pic controversy. More explicit photos of the voluptuous vixen have surfaced online--coming just months after graphic images of Rose appeared on several blogs. She decried the previous controversy, claiming that the photos were stolen off of her computer and published without her consent. She hasn't issued any statement regarding the newest images.

In the photos, Rose is completely nude and posing on a bed.

The seemingly-endless stream of naked Amber Rose images is causing much speculation amongst media and fans as to who exactly keeps leaking these pics. Many believe that Rose herself may be releasing the photos onto the Internet to generate publicity. The sexy socialite is currently dating rapper Wiz Khalifa and has been a fixture on hip hop and gossip sites for the better part of three years--ever since she rose to fame as the longtime girlfriend of Kanye West.

"Watch the Throne" Tour Adds Dates

Kanye West and Jay-Z's upcoming "Watch the Throne" tour has garnered such a huge reaction from the public that more dates have been announced to the tour's itinerary. The tour has been significantly altered, with some venues enjoying two nights of shows from hip hop's dynamic duo.

There will now be two shows in Atlanta, GA, and a second show in Toronto as well.

There were several other dates added, which are included below:

10-28 - Atlanta, GA - Phillips Arena
11-14 - Ft. Lauderdale, FL - BankAtlantic Center
11-15 - Miami, FL - American Airlines Arena
11-19 - Atlantic City, NJ - Boardwalk Hall
11-22 - Montreal, QC - Bell Centre
11-24 - Toronto, ON - Air Canada Centre
11-27 - Pittsburgh, PA - Consol Energy Center
11-29 - Kansas City, MO - Sprint Center
12-03 - New Orleans, LA - New Orleans Arena
12-16 - Tacoma, WA - Tacoma Dome
12-17 - Vancouver, BC - Rogers Arena

Dave Chappelle On Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z, & Kanye West

Reclusive comedian Dave Chappelle gave his thoughts on bootylicious femcee Nicki Minaj during a recent radio interview. Chappelle has become less vocal than in his mid-2000s heyday, and this was his first interview in almost five years. The funnyman was also asked about Jay-Z and Kanye West's Watch the Throne album.

"I just downloaded it yesterday," Chappelle said when asked for his opinion on Watch the Throne. "I haven't listened to the whole record. Real talk. Actually, I did see Kanye at Coachella [music festival]. Which was great...He ripped it, it was a good show."

Dave was to the point when he was asked about Minaj. "Nicki Minaj? Yeah, she's a good looking girl," Chappelle said. "You keep asking me about all these girls. Nicki Minaj is a good looking girl."

The Throne To Debut At Number One

We all watched and tomorrow morning, The Throne will sit on top of the Billboard Charts. According to HHD, Watch The Throne moved an estimated 426,661 copies. This marks Kanye West’s fifth number one album and Jay-Z’s 12th. Sweet baby Jesus!

Mercedes May Have Donated "Otis" Car

Mercedes Benz most likely donated the now-infamous "Otis" Maybach that Jay-Z and Kanye West used in their recent video for the hit single. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the car company could have directly supplied the Maybach for the shoot.

Neither Jay-Z or Kanye West have spoken publicly about where the car came from. It is now being auctioned for charity.

“It isn’t clear how deeply Mercedes was involved in the video’s production, but company spokesmen suggested the video’s producers worked with officials in the company’s German headquarters,” reported Jonathan Welsh via Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy blog. “West and Jay-Z could not be reached for comment.”

Introducing the King of Hip-Hop

Now more than three decades old as a recorded medium, hip-hop is deeply embedded in popular culture – to the point where its stars seem not only larger than life but also, as Rick Ross once put it, "deeper than rap." But even as they sell out arenas and top the pop charts, rappers still court the respect and esteem of their hip-hop peers. The title King of Hip-Hop still means something.

In that spirit, just as we did in June with the Queen of Pop, we've crunched a pile of data to try to determine who is the current King of Hip-Hop.

We're not looking for the all-time greatest, although many of our contenders would vie for that crown. Some of them have only been recording a couple of years; others have been in the game since the 1990s. But that's what makes hip-hop exciting – it's plausible for someone who was watching cartoons when Jay-Z dropped his debut album to emerge as a contender for the title.

As with our Queen of Pop tally, in naming the King of Hip-Hop we focused on the very recent past: from 2009 through the first seven months of 2011. We ranked 20 solo rappers (no groups – sorry, Beasties) who have dropped an album during that time. We looked at album sales, rankings on the R&B/hip-hop and rap charts, YouTube views, social media, concert grosses, industry awards and critics' ratings. In alphabetical order, our contenders are: Big Boi, B.o.B, Diddy, Drake, Eminem, Fabolous, Lupe Fiasco, Gucci Mane, Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Lil Wayne, Ludacris, Nicki Minaj, Pitbull, Rick Ross, Snoop Dogg, T.I., Waka Flocka Flame, Kanye West and Wiz Khalifa.

All of our contenders are men except for Minaj, who reappears from our Queen of Pop survey. We like to think of "King" as a gender-neutral term, and the fact is that Minaj has earned the right to compete in this arena. It would feel strange to leave her out – as a rapper, she's had a world-beating couple of years, with a chart-topping album, block-rocking singles and a slew of killer guest appearances. Frankly, she deserves to be called a hip-hop king just for her giant-killing appearance on West's hit "Monster," in which she crushed West and fellow guests Rick Ross and Jay-Z with one blow.

Fans of the rappers, and the acts themselves, take these sorts of rankings pretty seriously. (We learned that firsthand in the comments section of Queens of Pop.) We stand by our data, but of course we know that no King of Hip-Hop index can capture swagger or flow – if it could, the all-time title might go to Q-Tip or Rakim. As you'll see, it turned out to be a fairly exciting contest. Our top overall contenders were pretty evenly matched, with five different rappers leading at least one tally each.

Let's start with the tally that comes with the biggest bragging rights: album sales.

9 pages of FACTS By ---> Rolling Stone

Jay-Z & Kanye West's "Watch The Throne" Breaks iTunes Sales Record

Hov and 'Ye's collaborative album becomes the highest selling digital album in history for first-week sales.

Jay-Z and Kanye West's collaborative album Watch the Throne, which was released exclusively to iTunes last Monday (August 8th), has broken a record for the online store.

According to reports, the LP has become the highest selling album in the store's history for first-week sales, moving about 308,472 copies to break Coldplay's previous record with 2008's Viva La Vida, which sold 155,000 copies.

Upon its release last week, Watch the Throne rocketed to number one in 23 countries worldwide. Final first-week sales, inclusive of digital and physical units, will be reported on Wednesday.

Source

Pictures Source

Kanye West Joins Prince Onstage

Rap superstar Kanye West joined musical legend Prince onstage during the Purple One's concert at Way Out West 2011 in Sweden. Prince was performing his classic 1987 tune "If I Was Your Girlfriend" when West came onstage.

Kanye led the crowd in a call-and-response and had the entire audience waving their hands.

Kanye has been promoting Watch the Throne, his collaborative album with Jay-Z, which hit stores last week.

Jay-Z Explains Album Title

Jay-Z gave an in-depth explanation of the Watch the Throne album title. According to Jay, the title is meant to inspire fans to protect hip hop music and culture. He wants fans to preserve the music.

"It's just protecting the music and the culture, like, it's people that's in the forefront of the music," Jay told radio host Lorenzo Thomas. "It's like, 'Watch the throne,' protect it. You just watch how popular music shift and how hip-hop has basically replaced rock n roll as the youth music. The same thing could happen to hip-hop. It could be replaced by other forms of music. So it's just like making sure we're putting that effort in making the best product, so we can contend with all these other music."

"With all dance music that's dominating the charts right now, indie music that's dominating the festivals and still holding off rock n roll," he continued. "Just to hold our place and make sure -- the hip-hop culture is still the most dominant form of music around the world."

"Otis" Maybach To Be Auctioned

Rappers Kanye West and Jay-Z are putting the vehicle from their “Otis” video up for auction. The specially-made Maybach will be donated with benefits going to the victims of the East African drought. Over 2 million people have recently fled their homes in Somalia due to the worst constant drought the region has seen in decades.

Over 12.4 million people have been affected by the East Africa drought and famine.

"What is happening in the Horn of Africa is the most severe humanitarian emergency in the world today, and the worst that East Africa has seen in several decades," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement. Clinton also revealed that the U.S. was donating an additional $17 million to the nations around the Horn of Africa.

Birdman On "Watch the Throne:"

Birdman shared his thoughts on Jay-Z and Kanye West's Watch the Throne album. The Cash Money founder says that the album reflects an older perspective in hip hop, and he still believes that hip hop is a younger man's game.

He also alluded to Lil Wayne and Drake doing something similar.

"It's older versus younger," Baby said in an interview. "I listened to a few songs [off Watch The Throne] and it feels like an older feel to me. I think with Drake and Wayne, they young. They young cats. You got 23 and 28. Then you got Jay-Z and them, who are older and really on their way out the game. Then you got Wayne and Drake and them, who are still youthful [...] So, it's two different types of music all the way across the board. But what they're doing is great -- I think it's great for the game, great for the business, great for retail as a whole. I just think when Wayne and Drake get together is going to be something real special also because we more youthful."

Otis Redding Resurgence Continues

Kanye West and Jay-Z sampling and name-dropping Otis Redding in their latest hit "Otis" has contributed to a young generation of music fans becoming more interested in the late soul singer. Now Musiq Soulchild, Timothy Bloom, violinist Ken Ford and legendary Stax Records guitarist Steve Cropper are taking part in an event highlighting the career of the Macon, GA legend.

"An Evening of RESPECT" takes place in the singer's hometown on September 4th

“The Big 'O' Youth Educational Dream Foundation was founded to fulfill Otis’ dream to enrich the lives of young people by enabling them to continue their education through the many programs that we support,” stated Otis' widow Zelma Redding. “This is our fourth ‘An Evening of Respect’ and we are excited about celebrating Otis’ 70th birthday in the city he loved, Macon. We are honored to share this very special ‘An Evening of Respect’ with Stax Records, Atlantic Records and Steve Cropper.”

"Otis" famously features a chopped-up sample of Redding's iconic hit "Try A Little Tenderness."

88 Keys Talks "Watch the Throne"

Rapper/producer 88 Keys recently shared his experiences working with Jay-Z and Kanye West on the Watch the Throne album. Keys produced the opening track, "No Church In the Wild."

"Everybody in the room just started going crazy," he said of playing some of his instrumentals.

Keys says the day after playing his music for the rappers, he met singer Frank Ocean. "He actually had a talking intro part that he put on there. I thought it was pretty dope, it was pretty comical. But I guess it didn't make the final cut."

Video Jay-Z & Kanye West - Otis Premier

WATCH THE THRONE: Kanye West & Jay-Z - Otis © 2011 Roc-A-Fella Records, LLC

"Watch the Throne" Cover Artist Speaks

Ricardo Tisci, designer for fashion house Givenchy, designed the distinctive album cover for Jay-Z and Kanye West's Watch the Throne; and he shared his gratitude at being tapped for the high-profile project. He also revealed some of the inspiration behind his work on the cover.

The artwork throughout the album is striking, and Tisci utilized several shapes, religious symbols and animal faces for the artwork.

"I am honored to have been asked to be part of this incredible music moment with such amazing artists," Riccardo Tisci told AllHipHop. "I am impressed by the amount of respect they have for music and art. We share the same way of working : like a family."

Tisci also stated that he wanted the artwork to symbolize the “masculinity of two of the most iconic rap figures of our time."

Kanye Influenced Big Sean's Jewelry

G.O.O.D. Music star Big Sean credits Kanye West with forcing him to step up his jewelry game since he's become a star. Sean says he's a 'pharaoh' and said that Kanye's taste in gold greatly influenced Sean's own taste.

"One thing Kanye has introduced me into is stuff like Balmain and gold accessories," Sean revealed in an interview. "That's one thing he really turned me onto. Like, dope a** gold accessories. It wasn't until I was around him to where I was like, "D*mn, I really want a Rolex." Or gold a** bracelets that's fresh as h*ll. So he turned me on to gold jewelry heavy. Now, I feel like gold jewelry is necessary because I feel like I'm a f*cking Pharaoh. You gotta rock gold if you're a f*cking Pharaoh man."

9th Wonder On "Watch the Throne"

Superproducer 9th Wonder shared his early thoughts on the newly-released Kanye West/Jay-Z album Watch the Throne. The producer voiced his disappointment in the album via his Twitter page.

"It has nothing to with the STYLE of rap, subject matter, NOTHING..its the FEELING for me..u can KILL 50 people in a song as long as it bangs," 9th Wonder tweeted. "As a musician/beatmaker/active participant in hip-hop, I want to be SCARED when I hear something, like when I heard Aquemini...."

"It has nothing to do with samples vs. keys...cause I ROCKS with The Neptunes, Swizz, etc," he continued. "I understand expansion/experimentation in music, but its not for me."

"#WTT as a whole is not for me. I can rock with New Day & The Joy," he added.

"Lemme tell yall something, I am not a follower, never will be, if something is dope, cool, if not, then cool, but I don't follow. #STANDTALL," he said finally. "Thank you God for giving me the ability to listen to music objectively, despite how big the artist is."

Kanye West Vents His Frustration

Just when you thought Kanye West was done nailing himself to a cross every six months or so--Yeezy had another spazz moment in the U.K. this weekend. During a performance at the Big Chill Music Festival in England, West took time to explain to the audience how hard it is being one of the most acclaimed artists in the world.

"I walk through the hotel and I walk down the street, and people look at me like I'm f*cking insane, like I'm Hitler," he said. "One day the light will shine through and one day people will understand everything I ever did, ever said, was to throw myself on the blade for the sake of someone else. For the sake of people, for the sake of New Orleans. For the sake of honest music. For the sake of honest judgement."

"This is my most important gig of the summer - but I'm really frustrated," he continued. "I only have half of my voice. I just want things to be right. This is the reason we started half an hour late...There is so much bullsh*t going on in the music industry right now. Someone needs to make a difference."