Pusha T’s new album Fear Of God 2: Let Us Pray, is delivering that hotness for the Fall/Winter season. Yea I said Pusha T! Released  November 8th under Kayne’s G.O.O.D Music label, this album has that ‘moving weight’ vibe paired with great lyrics.  If you are into commercial rap then maybe this isn’t the album for you. In its first week Billboard has the album listed at 8th on the Rap albums chart, 10th on the Hip-Hop/R&B chart, and 66th on the top 200. Blasphemy! We all know numbers never depict how dope an album is, but we know it means a lot of cats are sleeping on the album. So wake up and got get this!

Pusha T has some big name  features on here, but still slang’s that dope-ness on his solo tracks. Some of the hits include:

• Alone in Vegas
• Body Work ft. Juicy J, Meek Mill and French Montana
• What Dreams Are Made Of
• Trouble On my Mind ft. Tyler The Creator

Justin Bua is one of the great artists of our generation – capturing hip hop culture in all that he does in only a way someone of the culture could. Now we see that in The Legends of Hip Hop out today.
The book is an intimate and poignant look at the visionaries and the pioneers who have helped build and mold the world of hip hop.

Bua profiles and paints fifty key figures, including everyone from Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash to President Obama and Jay-Z, providing a portrait of each legend in a style reminiscent of the great masters. The artwork is accompanied by an engaging autobiographical narrative that contextualizes the impact each icon has had on Bua’s personal life and on the hip-hop culture at large. With a foreword by Chuck D, this landmark volume is more than a celebration of hip hop; it is the definitive word on the subject as told by Bua, one of hip hop’s leading artists and a legend in his own right.

Buy it on his site where you can also find information on his Bay Area and LA book tour.

People have been studying the throne before Jay-Z was officially king, but Georgetown University has made it an official class. The course, “Sociology of Hip-Hop: Jay-Z” is a 3 credit course offered this semester. I figured it would be taught by Toure but noted educator and author Michael Eric Dyson is giving out the grades.

RapFix interviewed Jigga and he had this to say:

“Well obviously Jay-Z is one of the greatest entertainers of the world today,” he said. “Not only is he a remarkable rhetorical genius, he’s also a man of deep sympathy and empathy for those who are lost and vulnerable, but especially under-educated youth of all cultures and stripes.”

The course covers Jay-Z’s book “Decoded,” Adam Bradley’s “Book of Rhymes,” Zack O’Malley Greenburg’s “Empire State of Mind,” as well as other articles and films about hip-hop in general. I wish they had this as an elective when I was in school.

The deck has always been a medium in which artists musical or artistic can collaborate together, The Museum Of Skateboarding History in Stuttgart Germany has put together a unique exhibition detailing some a biggest bands who really made an impact on the Skateboarding scene.

via : http://www.freshngood.com/?p=52428

People everywhere are honoring Nate Dogg with their remixes on YouTube. One of the most popular is seen here, with a bunch of YouTubers going artistic with it. Using a mix of instruments and a cello, they have rennovated a classic…and it actually sounds pretty dope.

Snoop recently visited Mr. Cartoon for this one of a kind commemorative tattoo, honoring his late 213 group member and friend, Nate Dogg.  The work is incredibly awesome, I guess Kat Von D isn’t the only one with kick ass portraits!

" data-image="http://nerdlike.com/wp-content/uploads/snoop_nate_dogg_tattoo_01.jpg" data-site="Nerdlike.com">

" data-image="http://nerdlike.com/wp-content/uploads/snoop_nate_dogg_tattoo_01.jpg" data-site="Nerdlike.com">

Think about some of your favorite emcees. Ghostface, Jay-Z, Eminem, Nas… There’s mystique, madness, brilliance and lots and lots of flash. Can’t you see them in the Marvel world as Hulk , Iron Man and the like? If you can’t, Alex Delarge sure can. I’m still not sure about Drake as Spidey, but  Ye as the Hulk makes so much sense. Peep his slideshow.

Santa came for everyone this year – even you! Check out The Fall, the latest album from the Gorillaz with a tech twist. A majority of the album was written by Damon Albarn on his iPad, with other undisclosed instruments featured as well. WTF.COM.

Grab the album now…again, for FREE, on their website.

via cos

Gotdamn.

The idea to build the Hip-Hop Word Count came out of having hundreds of heated & passionate discussions about Rap music: Who was the best rapper of all time? Which rapper had the smartest songs? Which was the most popular champagne in Hip-Hop during 1999-2003? Which rapper uses the most clever metaphors? Which city’s rap songs use the most monosyllabic words? Does living in higher altitudes create a natural proclivity for Gangster Rap?

How can analyzing lyrics teach us about our culture?

The Hip-Hop Word Count locks in a time and geographic location for every metaphor, simile, cultural reference, phrase, rhyme style, meme and socio-political idea used in the corpus of Hip-Hop.

The Hip-Hop Word Count then converts this data into explorable visualisations which help us to comprehend this vast set of cultural data.

This data can be used to chart the migration of ideas and builds a geography of language and is the engine for a K-12 teaching curriculum.

While I wouldn’t consider Big L to be ‘gangsta rap’, he is in fact included in this interesting book done by aye jay. Just as it sounds, the book is done in the fashion of pure novelty, featuring a series of images in thick black lines of the most popular gangsta rappers from hip-hop.¬† Expanded from 20 to 48 pages to include even more of the music’s superstars, this collection is a witty hall of fame of gangsta rap.¬† via deadalicious

[nggallery id=14]

Rap songs are famous for their double entendres, clever turns of phrase, and general ingenuity, but that doesn’t mean things always make sense the first time around. Enter Understand Rap, a very funny pop-cultural reference book based on the website of the same name, which precisely explains the confusing lyrics and terms used in rap songs using language that even the most un-hip person can understand. The juxtaposition of a dry, academic tone with hip-hop terminology results in a book that’s as entertaining as it is informative.

While I would love to say that her performance blew me away, I just can’t bring myself to do it. Hill went hoarse after the second song, consistently taking breaks and reverted to singing the low parts to all of her songs. Half way through her set, she deviated from the originally scheduled program [classic acts doing their classic albums in their entirety] but no one seemed to mind. This was after all, the infamous, Lauryn Hill.

[nggallery id=6]

New video from the dynamic duo from Inglewood. Features Playboy model Felicia Gomez.

Directed by Jerome D.

I have had algoriddim’s djay for twenty minutes, and have already created a master mix of Janelle Monae and Daft Punk.¬† I am so bossy.

If you aren’t familiar with this minimalistically-fabulous software, algoriddim hails out of¬†¬† Germany,¬† and their DIY djay software is a major mixing tool.¬† It allows even the most techie challenged person to turn their iTunes dashboard into a mix, scratch and blending machine.¬† What sets djay apart from the rest?¬† It allows you to use your own iTunes library instead of the generic noises¬† and sounds in traditional programs.

Review

Now, I am no DJ, but I am a music lover…so I am familiar with tempo and what sounds good together [and of course, what doesn't].¬† I opened up djay on my desktop and grabbed two tracks that I felt semi-confident about mixing and went to work.

After the small learning curve that comes with learning how to DJ in 30 minutes, I was on my way to magic.¬† The cool thing about algoriddim’s program is that once you know what all the little bells and whistles do, it’s pretty easy to navigate.¬† You drag and drop your tracks from a sidebar that pops up, containing all of the tracks in your iTunes library.¬† If your tracks are legit, artwork will even pop up on the records.

After about an hour, I realized that DJ’ing wasn’t a natural born gift of mine…but you know what was?¬† using the Automix button.¬†¬† OMG, this thing was a Godsend, and incredibly fun.¬† All you do is select a playlist, or your entire collection if you like, and push the AUTOMIX button; djay does all the work for you.

To make life even cooler with djay, it has a complimentary app for the iPhone that takes your djay experience on the go.  With full access to all of the desktop features, you can work the two turntables individually, scratch and cue music in real-time and control high quality effects, looping, skipping and cue points. The best part is anything you create on your iPhone automatically appears in the iTunes library, and vice versa.