01st Feb2012
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14th Jan2011
Def Jam Cipher Session: Southern Edition (Part 1) (Video)
Def Jam Cipher Sessions w/9th Wonder, Big Remo, Thee Tom Hardy, and Rapsody
15th Dec2010
Hypemen(@itsthereal & @jensenclan88)Podcast Episode 18 w/Pete Wentz(@petewentz)
EPISODE 18: Former Fall Out Boy Pete Wentz joins the Hype Men to discuss his Roc-a-fella chain + Jay-Z as Def Jam president + Lupe, Cool Kids and Chicago hip-hop + touring with 50 Cent + working with Pharrell vs. working with The Neptunes + Kanye dissing Fall Out Boy on their own remix + Tyga getting pulled over in Pete’s car + what rappers Pete tried to sign to his label + more!
Hypemen Podcast Episode 18 w/Pete Wentz
Speaking of tumblr… also check out BlackPplimitatingWhitePpl.tumblr.com
08th Dec2010
Hypemen (@itsthereal & @jensenclan88) Podcast Episode 17 w/@Vashtie
EPISODE 17: Hip-Hop renaissance woman Vashtie joins the Hype Men to discuss burritos + Air Jordans + Andre Agassi pumps + the origins of Rosewood + the HawthoRNe movement + directing Justin Bieber’s first video + the future of Child Rebel Soldiers + true New York City artists + Spike Lee + making Def Jam cooler + the aging problem in hip-hop + Xzibit memes + more!
07th Dec2010
Juan Epstein Podcast w/Redman
Topics covered include: Def Jam’s loss of cultural relevance, the best tour he ever went out on (Hard Knock Life in ’99 – I was there), DMX, beating up the soundman, the internet’s impact on shit talk, groupies, Jay-Z back when he was a regular guy, being a regular guy himself, his few beefs including the short lived static with Mobb Deep, respect over financial success, the criteria for being considered one of the best of all time, Jersey in general and Newark specifically, his long history of collaborations, says he wants to do an album with Jamiroquai, he claims he has a freestyle over a Dilla beat that was ultimately used by Q-Tip (presumably “Move/Renaissance Rap“) that he’s gonna send to Peter and Ciph, Biggie and copping trees from Branson.
13th Nov2010
Shyne: Just Your Average Rapping, Lamborghini-Driving Orthodox Jew
We direct your attention to an an entirely delightful profile of the rapper-cum–Orthodox Jew Shyne in today’s New York Times. The Belize-born, Puffy protégé, who spent nine years in jail for opening fire in a nightclub while hanging with Diddy and Jennifer Lopez, now lives in Jerusalem, goes by the name Moses Levi, studies Torah, and is certain, “My entire life screams that I have a Jewish neshama [soul].” (Someone, please, make the T-shirt. Hanukkah is just around the corner!) According to Shyne, at the time of his arrest he was “already praying daily and engaged in his own study of Judaism … but only became a practicing Jew, celebrating the holidays, keeping kosher and observing the Sabbath under the tutelage of prison rabbis.” His conversion has not diminished his rapping: His albums Messiah and Gangland are set to be released shortly with Def Jam. Shyne is also adamant that rap and Judaism are not mutually exclusive, and provides super-excellent quote in support of this theory: “There’s nothing in the Chumash [Torah] that says I can’t drive a Lamborghini,” and “nothing in the Halacha [Jewish law] about driving the cars I like, about the lifestyle I live.” This line of thinking raises a whole other set of questions, first and foremost among them: Is Dom kosher?
28th Oct2010
“You Know What? You Acting Like A Real B*tch Right Now”: Shyne Apologizes To L.A. Reid
A great leader has the unique ability to admit when he’s wrong. Without this ability you suffer the fate of Napoleon and end up dead on your way to Russia.
I was wrong about my assessment of Chairman Reid. After I stopped being all Carl Thomas emotional and things like that, I thought about the facts. Fact is L.A Reid was there when I was locked, a few feet away from death row and the Black Panthers. L.A. was on the visit floor on Rikers Island looking at me through them blinding bars, showing me he believed in that gang boy revolutionary music I make. A bond forged at the nadir of suffering [that’s] unbreakable. That’s why I chose L.A. Reid over all the other distributors. We already went through it. I’ll never forget what L.A. did for me behind that b-wall. Caged like an animal, stripped of all my rights; he gave me freedom— freedom to follow my vision. Freedom to make my momma smile after so many tears and sleepless nights weeping for her baby boy like Rachel the matriarch weeps for the Israelites.
23rd Oct2010
Hypemen (@JensenClan88 & @ItsTheReal) Podcast Episode 10 W/Combat Jack
EPISODE 10: Industry insider @Combat_Jack" href="http://twitter.com/combat_jack" target="_blank">Combat Jack joins the Hype Men to discuss what the heart and soul of early Rocafella + Dame Dash asshole moments + the Hitmen’s resentment toward Puffy + 50 Cent and The Madd Rapper + the nicest rapper you’ve never heard + what the New Boyz bring to the table + comic books + his Complex list + more!
Download “Episode 10 With Combat Jack” Directly
(Source: hypemen)
15th Oct2010
All Good Just A Week Ago: Roc-A-Fella Co-Founder Kareem “Biggs” Burke Arrested on Federal Drug Charges
To call Kareem “Biggs” Burke a “silent partner” would be an understatement. Throughout the roughly 10 year reign of Roc-A-Fella Records, the general public probably heard this guy open his mouth once or twice, if that. In any event, it looks like the Feds are gonna be trying to get him to spill his guts:
The NY Post reports:
Kareem “Biggs” Burke, co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records, which launched the career of superstar rapper Jay-Z, was among 43 people arrested today in a massive drug sweep spanning from New York to South Florida, authorities said.
Also nabbed was Matthew Stang, a writer and senior ad rep at High Times magazine, a well-known chronicle of chronic culture.
“In the case of the High Times employee, it’s a case of art imiitiating real life,” said Jim Hayes special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Burke was nabbed early this morning by ICE agents at his home in North Bergen, NJ, Hayes said.
The 18-month investigation into the vast narcotics network – headed by Geovanny “Manny” Rodriguez Perez – resulted in $1 million in seized profits and 177 pounds of marijuana, Hayes said.
At least another seven people are expected to be arrested as a result of the operation, dubbed “Green Venom,” he said. Investigators used state and federal wiretaps to catch the drug smugglers, authorities said.
Over the last 20 years, Perez used violence to intimidate competitors, according to authorities.
“He has created a super drug distribution network that has controlled the marijuana market in NYC,” Hayes said.
13th Oct2010
Shyne Wants Off Def Jam: “I’m Trying To Get With Cash Money”
I cannot say I didnt see this coming… I also cannot say that I overstand why he would even consider going to slave for Baby as opposed to slaving for Def Jam…a slave is a slave is a slave…He isnt signed to them, but he’s in a contract so…wait, whats the difference again?
*kanye shrug*
Says Shyne:
“They gotta care about [what we've done] the way Jimmy Iovine cares about that, the way Lyor Cohen cares about that,” Shyne added. “I’m definitely not gonna scrap everything I recorded. I put in so much, I’ve come so far. From the first record I did when I got out to the new records I’ve done while going to all these different countries, I ain’t scrapping nothing. I paid for that. I’m not signed to Def Jam anyway, I just need to find another distributor. I might just have Cash Money do everything. Who knows? That’s the beauty about being in the business for yourself. You can decide where you want to go and what you want to do.”
I’m definitely trying to get with Cash Money but the Def Jam thing is a question mark right now. I’ve been fixing to get up out of there for a while now because [Island Def Jam CEO] L.A. Reid don’t care about hip-hop. The people up there, they don’t know what they’re doing. When you don’t have a strong leader, where you gonna go? They don’t care about hip-hop music. You give them a hip-hop record with an R&B singer, you “might” have a chance. They don’t care. You got The Roots, Ghostface, Nas, probably the best hip-hop roster you could imagine and they do nothing. L.A. Reid doesn’t want nothing to do with
08th Oct2010
Nas’ Letter To Def Jam: “PUT MY SH*T OUT!…Nas Is Nobodys Slave”
From: Nas
To: LA Reid, Steve Bartels, Steve Gawley, Michael Seltzer, Joseph Borrino, Chris Hicks
Subject: PUT MY SH*T OUT!
To: LA Reid, Steve Bartels, Steve Gawley, Michael Seltzer, Joseph Borrino, Chris Hicks
Subject: PUT MY SH*T OUT!
Peace to all,
With all do respect to you all, Nas is NOBODY’s slave. This is not the 1800′s, respect me and I will respect you.
I won’t even tap dance around in an email, I will get right into it. People connect to the Artist @ the end of the day, they don’t connect with the executives. Honestly, nobody even cares what label puts out a great record, they care about who recorded it. Yet time and time again its the executives who always stand in the way of a creative artist’s dream and aspirations. You don’t help draw the truth from my deepest and most inner soul, you don’t even do a great job @ selling it. The #1 problem with DEF JAM is pretty simple and obvious, the executives think they are the stars. You aren’t…. not even close. As a matter of fact, you wish you were, but it didn’t work out so you took a desk job. To the consumer, I COME FIRST. Stop trying to deprive them! I have a fan base that dies for my music and a RAP label that doesn’t understand RAP. Pretty fucked up situation
26th Aug2010
Russell Simmons Unveils “Coexist” Banner Near Ground Zero – Gothamist
Russell Simmons is a real Renaissance man: he was the co-founder of the Def Jam label, he’s tried to clean up rap lyrics, and he’s mentored Ashley Dupre. And now he’s literallyunveiled a message of peaceful coexistence to opponents of the planned mosque and community center, by hanging a giant “coexist” banner in the windows of his apartment.
Simmons apartment on Liberty St. overlooks Ground Zero. Each letter of the banner features different religious and spiritual symbols. Like Bloomberg, Simmons is a big supporter of the planned center: “I was trying to figure out ways I could reach people and promote a message of tolerance…The fact that it is a public discussion, that there’s so many against it is what I think is disappointing to me, that so many people don’t know that we founded our country on the First Amendment,” he told the AP.
Not everyone is as taken by the statement however: “It looks more like astrology signs,” Ayo Aduroja, 45, of Staten Island, told the Daily News. But some people are always going to be hard to satisfy: construction worker Andy Sullivan said he could accept a mosque built five miles away from Ground Zero…but not if it involved Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. “With this particular guy, I’m starting to get a very bad feeling. I’m a street guy from Brooklyn, so I go with my gut.”
08th Aug2010
