Today in 2002, 50 Cent released Guess Who’s Back?, his first official mixtape following the Power of the Dollar LP on the Full Clip Records indie imprint.
It was this offering that would catapult Curtis Jackson into the public eye. Eventually, the project would gain the attention of Eminem via his attorney/manager Paul Rosenberg and Shady would ultimately sign 50 Cent to Shady Records/Interscope and a new Hip Hop icon would be born.
Guess Who’s Back features production from Trackmasters, Clark Kent, Sha Money Xl, and featured street anthems like, “Your Life’s On The Line”. It also had the controversial song, “Ghetto Qu’ran” which allegedly led to his almost deadly shooting in 2000.
The album charted on Billboard setting up the G-Unit era and a lengthy career that continues today. 50 Cent would go on to release his mega Interscope debut, “Get Rich Or Die Tryin’” and become a top charting and live show sellout artist.
Salute to Fif for this timeless and necessary piece of Hip Hop history!
All Robert McCall wanted to do was move to Italy and live a peaceful, retired life. But no, the local mafia had to come and disturb his and the community’s peace. That is the plot of The Equalizer 3, starring Denzel Washington and directed by Antoine Fuqua.
The film is the fifth collaboration between Fuqua and Washington but makes for the reconnection of the Man on Fire star and that film’s co-star Dakota Fanning.
SZA has officially claimed the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. SZA’s ascent to the top of the charts came behind the power of “Kill Bill.“
This is the first time SZA sits on top of the chart, taking the pole position after the release of the Doja Cat remix a week ago. “Kill Bill” was previously at the four spot.
SZA has announced a new set of tour dates, returning to North American markets and also adding ten new European dates.
The Live Nation-produced tour’s European leg begins on June 1 at Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam and travels to Paris, Berlin, London, and other cities before coming to an end on June 21 at 3Arena in Dublin. The S.O.S. Tour will then turn around and return to North America, beginning on September 20 in Miami at the Kaseya Center, stopping in Brooklyn, Houston, Los Angeles, and other cities until coming to an end on October 29 in Phoenix at the Footprint Center.
Tickets for the European leg will be available starting with local presales on Wednesday, April 12, at 10 am local time. If any tickets remain, a general sale will occur on Friday, April 14, at 12 pm Local Time on szasos.com. North American dates will start with the Live Nation presale on Thursday, April 13, at 10 am local time. The general on sale for The S.O.S. Tour will begin on Friday, April 14 at 12 pm Local Time on szasos.com.
The full run of tour dates are available below.
THE S.O.S. EUROPE TOUR DATES:
Thu Jun 1 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Ziggo Dome*
Mon Jun 5 – Paris, France – Accor Arena*
Wed Jun 7 – Zurich, Switzerland – Hallenstadion*
Fri Jun 9 – Berlin, Germany – Mercedes-Benz Arena*
Sun Jun 11 – Cologne, Germany – Lanxess Arena
Tue Jun 13 – Manchester, UK – AO Arena*
Thu Jun 15 – Glasgow, UK – OVO Hydro*
Sat Jun 17 – London, UK – The O2*
Sun Jun 18 – London, UK – The O2*
Wed Jun 21 – Dublin, Ireland – 3Arena*
*With Support from RAYE
THE S.O.S. NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES:
Wed Sep 20 – Miami, FL – Kaseya Center
Fri Sep 22 – Tampa, FL – Amalie Arena
Sun Sep 24 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena
Tue Sep 26 – Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center^
This past weekend, NYC graffiti enthusiasts as well as those lucky enough to be in town for the weekend had the opportunity to meet and greet two of the Rotten Apple’s most prolific writers; NICEO CM and STEM YNN.
Both artists were on hand in Lower Manhattan’s graffiti haven Scrapyard NYC, where they signed copies of books, prints, canvasses and everything else with their name on it for those fortunate enough to get their hands on some of their limited pieces. The exhibit/signing, which was dubbed the “Real Graff vs. Anti-Graffiti” show, drew new fans and faithful supporters of the dynamic duo, who hail from the Upper West Side of Manhattan and the Flatbush section of Brooklyn respectively.
The show was scheduled to only take place on Saturday, but with such a large turnout until closing, STEM and NICEO came out for an encore appearance on Sunday for those who didn’t catch them on the 22nd.
STEM YNN(Your Neighborhood’s Next) and NICEO CM(Criminal Minded) have been killing the Tri-State and beyond for the past five years with their whole car, freight train productions that seem to be rolling out daily. STEM, who has perfected the art of caricature along with NICEO and his underground-to-commercial letter formation have created an unprecedented team that has brought pride back to NYC graff.
A white battle rapper got the exposure he was not looking for after he was punched in the face by his opposition for calling his opponent a “n***a”.
William Wolf, who is white, spit a few solid bars at his opponent, Philly’s Avenue C , saying, “I ain’t like these other battle rappers, they talk too much, saying I can’t use the n-word in this battle, my n***a….” Before he could get the last word out of his mouth, Avenue C delivered a hard right jab to Wolf’s mouth.
White Battle Rapper gets punched in the face after calling his opponent the n-word. pic.twitter.com/N2uVla4nwQ
With news anchor Don Lemon’s abrupt firing from CNN, rapper Rick Ross made light of the situation by offering the prime time television host a job at his popular chicken wing establishment.
After it was announced yesterday that Lemon was fired from CNN after 17 years, the Bawse offered Lemon a job as a fry cook at one of his Wing Stop restaurants.
“Just found out Don Lemon was terminated from CNN. Damn, dawg,” the MMG capo said in a video on his IG story. “But guess what? The brothers got your back We hiring at Wingstop. And for some reason I believe you know what you doing with the lemon pepper wings, so man, just send over your résumé … I’ma make sure I get you in front of the right grill, brother. Stay solid, brother.”
Ross then came up with an alternative for Lemon, which was a pitch to his Rapstar Energy Drink partner. “Just came up with a wonderful idea — well, really, Don, you helped me come up with this,” he said. “I need to hit the team over at Rapstar Energy Drink and let ’em know we should introduce the Don Lemon flavor. What y’all think? Aye, Don, we got you brother!”
Rick Ross offering Don lemon a job at wing stop after he got fired from CNN has me in tears!!! pic.twitter.com/LrtOYS7YEG
— Shannonnn sharpes Burner (PARODY Account) (@shannonsharpeee) April 25, 2023
Lemon announced his sudden departure from CNN in a tweet, saying theire were “larger issues” behind his firing.
“I was informed this morning by my agent that I have been terminated by CNN,” he wrote. “I am stunned. After 17 years at CNN, I would have thought that someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly.”
Teyana Taylor recently shared how she was disappointed with how little Pharrell pushed for her success when she was signed to him early on in her career.
The R&B singer inked a deal with Pharrell’s Star Trak imprint back in 2007 when she was just 15 years old. Teyana released From a Planet Called Harlem while signed to Star Trak, but said she negotiated her way out of her deal in 2012 because she wanted a certain level of creative independence within the industry. Taylor then joined up with Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music.
In a recent interview with Angie Martinez’ IRL podcast, Taylor said there was a time during her tenure at Star Trak that she was frustrated by the way Pharrell handled her career.
“Getting signed to a man, it was like a figure to me … I looked at these people like figures. Whether it was as a dad, as a brother, it didn’t matter. So it’s like, you didn’t see me, you didn’t hear me, you didn’t protect me. you kind of just like fed me to the wolves type-shit without probably even knowing,” she told Martinez. “Some of those conversations still need to be had.”
She continued: “I had a really, really, really, really deep and honest conversation with Pharrell, because, you know, he was the first person to sign me. He was Skateboard P, I was Skateboard T. You cannot tell me that wasn’t my pops. I really looked up to him. He didn’t have kids at the time, and he wanted kids. He’d be like, ‘Yo, she call me her pops.’ He was really proud of that.”
She went on to say that she was like Pharrell’s “baby twin,” but that as her career progressed he didn’t do much to elevate her to the next level.
“He’s not confrontational at all. He’s literally one of the sweetest people in just the whole wide world, you know what I’m saying? So, it wasn’t that he didn’t protect me, it’s just that a lot of hands started going into the cookie jar … it’s P, he not ’bout to be like. ‘No, y’all n-ggas back up,’” she explained
“Maybe he was hurt about some things. You don’t know. It could’ve been a thing of pride and ego at the time. We don’t know. To me, as a 15-year-old, it was, you didn’t protect me. You let everyone mishandle me. I signed to you. You let everybody get in the way and everybody break us apart. You didn’t protect me.”
Fast forward to the 30:14 mark to hear her feelings about Pharrell.
Much more successful than their debut, The Infamous is hailed as a New York classic. Its gritty underground style is a staple in the hardcore movement going on at this time in New York. This album helped New York Hip Hop separate itself from the mediocre backpacker style that was popular a few years prior. Havoc and Prodigy‘s production shaped a new sound that could separate them from any NYC crime rhymer at the time.
Helping to pave the way for future artists like The Diplomats or A$AP Mob, The Infamous promoted a sound a lifestyle that appealed to a side of New York that wasn’t being spoken to or about by the politically charged artists that came in the late 80s and early 90s. Much like Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), Mobb Deep acted as street prophets, spitting the truths of the hood without trying to be outwardly righteous about it. Featuring artists like Ghostface Killah, Nas, and Q-Tip, this project is a titan among its peers.
The album was a commercial success debuting at #15 on the Billboard 200 and #3 on the R&B/Hip Hop charts. The album was certified gold within the first month of its release, and the three singles from the project all made appearances on the Billboard Hot Rap Singles chart, with “Shook Ones Pt. II” and Survival of the Fittest” both making it on to the Billboard Hot 100.
Last year, West Coast rap icon Snoop Dogg announced that he was the new owner of the legendary, yet infamous Death Row Records, however, the label’s former owner Suge Knight says that :”Tha Row” has fraudulently fallen into the hands of the Doggfather.
In February, Snoop acquired the imprint through MNRK Music Group (formerly eOne Music), but in an exclusive interview with TMZ, Knight claims that the deal was totally illegal.
In an interview given from a California State Penitentiary where he is serving 28 years for manslaughter, Suge says the original owner and proprietor of Death Row Records Michael “Harry-O” Harris committed bankruptcy fraud to get the company from him.
Suge contends that Snoop was only able to acquire the label because it was forfeited when a lawyer failed to attend a court proceeding, prompting a default judgement that transferred it into the possession of MNRK in 2013.
Knight doubts the legitimacy of the deal, saying, “First of all, you gotta look at it like this: I am Death Row. So I’m quite sure when it’s said and done, [2Pac’s] All Eyez On Me and Makaveli will definitely come back to me, and the rest of the stuff.”
He added, “But one problem with that is: Snoop has a partner, which is Michael Harris. They committed fraud, they bankruptcy fraud. I didn’t lose my company by doing anything wrong; they went in and the lawyer didn’t show up, and they got a default judgement. I settled the judgement. They turned around and said I didn’t settle the judgement. But they committed bankruptcy fraud which we just found out for sure last week. When they filed for bankruptcy in ’95, they said it didn’t have anything to do with Death Row.”
A previously unseen interview with the late Tupac Shakur was released yesterday(April 23) where the pop culture icon talked into his plans to “move away from music.”
Entertainment Tonight shared the otherwise unseen footage as FX’s Dear Mama docuseries premiered this weekend, which explores the relationship the late rapper/actor had with his mother, Afeni Shakur.
Talking to ET about Gridlock’d, the first posthumous silver screen release after his untimely death, ‘Pac delved into putting more time into acting and his movie career, while putting music to the side in order to focus more on his desired craft.
“I just want to push the envelope and work, work, work,” he implored. “I want to move further away from the music and start wading myself into the acting more.”
Shakur also spoke about All Eyez On Me, his first album on Death Row Records after his unexpected release from a New York State Correctional Facility and the last album put out beofre he was killed, which he says was fueled by emotions.
“The album that’s out now is just my emotions, it’s emotional, but it’s not thought-provoking,” he said. “So I want to do some thought-provoking work with my music, and I can do that if I’m working in the films because I grow and learn more things and have more to talk about.”
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