Rosie Alvarez

Corey Haim Linked To Illegal Prescription Drug Ring [Radar Online]

Pants On The Ground’s “General Larry Platt” Sued [AHH]

Dame Dash Breaks Ground On New Little League Baseball Diamond [Broken Cool]

ESPN Shows To Air On ABC [Variety]

Waka Flocka And His Eye Address His Attackers [Ozone] Read the rest of this entry »

What do The Isley Brothers, four-letter words and a million abrasive bars have in common? No, it’s not Mr. Big’s last stay at Rikers Island. It’s the initial offering of From Marcy To Madison St.–the follow-up to last year’s MTV-featured Trackstar The DJ & TSS Present Best Rapper Alive? (Royce Da 5’9″ Vs. Lil Wayne). Read the rest of this entry »

Less than three days ago, I was literally shaking ice out of my boot. This afternoon I was driving with my window open and hand hanging out, full-blasting music and enjoying that ever-so-subtle scent of Spring for the first time in what felt like fooor-eeev-eeer © Sandlot. I’m coasting with the bassline from Above The Law’s “Summer Days” playing for all my fellow five o’ clock commuters to enjoy. I couldn’t believe it.

At a mere 55°F, the song choice might have been a stretch…but dammit, it just felt right. Read the rest of this entry »

Everything about Theophilus appears as the antithesis to Hip-Hop is supposed to be. That’s true. Even the name “Theophilus” doesn’t rightly fit the mold. In a way, I see the same curse befalling him that set people back from checking acts like Dam and SA-RA’s projects. They’re all just a little bit too far outside the lines of what’s expected from a Black musician and the cookie-cutter mold of what our artists are expected to present themselves like. Read the rest of this entry »

“All this shit is watered down, Now I see how Nas felt…”

Smitty keeps grinding, producing quality material and probably still cashing ghostwriting checks. In a way, I admire cats like him and Stat, guys who dealt with their fair share of poltrix, nevertheless still came away with a few checks and their love for the music intact. Both of factors allowed them to be where they are now creatively with a better understanding of how to be self-sufficient in this business. If you ask me, that > life in front of the cameras and public scrutiny. Put out the content you want, say what you feel…and do it while wearing a doo-doo brown bathrobe and a fitted, sort of how Smitty’s seen operating here. Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s think this one through for a second. If you were a key member of a dynasty that reached many plateaus, yet your skills weren’t necessarily depleted from the low points as you didn’t get your chance to excel in the limelight, you would have a lot of pent-up energy to spare for your future endeavors, right? Read the rest of this entry »

As it stands, I’m probably the biggest Wayne fan here at TSS. Been so since the days of the Hot Boys (Juve was my dude) and when “Bling Bling” was everyone’s favorite catchphrase. So when Beware vented about the over-saturation of Weezy’s road to Rikers, I couldn’t agree more. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, all I take interest in is an artist’s music. Like anyone else locked up, I wish Dwayne a safe stint, but covering what dude ate for lunch during his first day of incarceration or trying to decipher the look on his face as he walked into court is O.D. Enough of that though. On to the show.

At least 72 hours in, not much has changed on the business front. Wayne’s music is still leaking and the internet’s still downloading. This time around Yung Joc enlists the services of the Young Money kingpin for what looks to be Joc’s re-introduction into the mainstream. With a quirky instrumental, J-O-C plays the aggressor warning the competition to fall back before more drastic measures are taken. Weezy, on the other hand, does what he normally does and takes an otherwise generic song and gives it new life.

Now if Yung is the forward thinking type, he cashed in and snagged Weezy for one of his alleged 21 videos pre-Rikers. If not, consider this another one for the archives.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download — Yung Joc Feat. Lil Wayne – “Drip”

[Via]

Since we’re in the interest of keeping up with the times around here, here’s another video Dr. Carter operated on prior to his bid, The Menace featuring Lil Wayne & Mitchy Slick for “Blood Niggaz.”

During a recent sit down with the folks at Fli Pelican spoke with DTP affiliate Small World & producer du jour Boi-1da.  No offense to Small World, but for the sake of this discussion you can fast forward straight to the four minute mark when the Toronto producer clears things up about “Over,” his latest collaboration with Drake.  While people have been trying to place the sample it was all for naught.

There is no sample.Those guitar licks have haunted me the last few days, they sounded so familiar that they had to have come from somewhere.  Even while watching him speak, the gears were still grinding in my brain.  Then it clicked.  Jay’s “D.O.A.” (Death Of Auto-Tune).  But if dude said it wasn’t sampled, it wasn’t sampled.  We’re almost conditioned to assume that anything that contains a certain level of musicality is a sample & it’s almost a disservice to the producers.  If you ever get to talk about music with a producer, especially an accomplished one, they know a great deal about music.  Not only old, dusty records but composition.

So kudos to Boi-1da for sticking up for his work & reminding us that our favorite producers are musicians as well.

BONUS

Download — Drake – “Over” (CDS)

You can stop procrastinating. Time to hop on the Dave Coresh bandwagon. I have no clue if I should pause that sentence or pray, but you get the idea. Coresh is dope and someone I see big things for in the coming year. The mixtape is presented by pretty much every blog I got to know and respect in Chicago: Fakeshore, Ruby Hornet, DJ Booth and Illroots. Now, you can add TSS to the list of co-signers. Listen, enjoy, and come back in a few months to say “I told you so” to all your friends who miss the boat.

Download- Dave Coresh Formal Introduction Mixtape

What Black Friday is to retail stores, April 20th is for gas stations. Throughout this hazy day, millions of happy, hungry and relaxed Americans frequent these establishments for three simple yet highly important reasons.

1. To buy something to drink, because cotton-mouth is a bitch.
2. To buy munchies and what better place to find munchies than at a gas station?
3. To buy more Dutch’s, Swisher’s or rolling papers because there’s still more chronic to capitalize on.

One place you’re always sure to find Mary Jane creeping around is in the rocky world of Hip-Hop, where it’s 4:20 year round. In their upcoming issue, The Source has an article called “Smoke Signals” examining the love affair with weed and the rising stoner population. Curren$y and Wiz Khalfia, two frequent flyers themselves, offer insight to the ups and downs of being a visibly known weed smoker and Wiz even Read the rest of this entry »

Since ‘nobody did this beat justice,’ Skewby Doobie Do decided to drop bombs all over Red Cafe and Faboloso’s ode to themselves, “I’m Ill.” I can’t say how true Skewb’s bold opening line is, because I skipped the OG, but this Memphis MC definitely confirms his sickness with his slick mix of sarcastic social commentary and witty punchlines.

“He’s alone, not a clone, like the rest of rest of ‘em am
Or the rest of ‘em are, why am I making sense?
That doesn’t take you far, I should move kilos
Or rap about it a lot, become a kid’s hero
The whole elementary pull up in a Bent-a-ley
Throw money on the single moms, think that they’ll remember me?”

That’s beyond ill. That’s going into cardiac arrest directly before being t-boned by a semi.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download — Skewby – “I’m Ill”

Stray Shots

Freck Billionaire – American Terrorist Mixtape

J._Cole-The_Warm_Up

Young Chris- The Network

D.S.G.B.-Till_Death_Do_Us_Part

Wale_And_9th_Wonder-Back_To_The_Feature

Pharrell – In My Mind

Trav Williams & Moonchild – Better Late Than Never EP

Sporty Thievz – Street Cinema

New York City Band with Luther Vandross

M.O.P. – St. Marxmen

Pacewon & Mr. Green – The Only Color That Matters Is Green

Hevehitta And DJ Unexpected Present Talib Kweli – A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

Funkmaster Flex – The Mix Tape Volume II: 60 Minutes Of Funk

Wiz Khalifa – Burn After Rolling

8Ball_And_MJG-Living_Legends

VA – B-Ball’s Best Kept Secret

Stray Shots

Marion Jones used to run the track and field circuit with nearly the speed of light. Now, we’re about to see how fast (34-year-old) lightning can run on the hardwood. Back in ’94, she was a standout college basketball star for North Carolina and with the last act of putting her doping past behind her, she’s going to test that wobbly jumper as she signs with the WNBA’s Detroit Tulsa Shock. Read the rest of this entry »

Upgraded and amplified for maximum enjoyment, the love gurus of L.A. are taking their amore a couple notches in the retail department with the release of A Love Supreme 2.0; a bonus edition of last year’s remarkable A Love Supreme. Along with the addition of “Land Of The Kings” and “Desha Dayana,” this remixed version of their R&B intermission is also featured. Read the rest of this entry »

“Son of a king so why would I ever bow down”

When I used to watch “Run’s House,” Diggy used to be my least favorite Simmons child. Too damn whiny. But little shorty’s balls dropped, he got some hair on his lip, hit the scene and now he’s developed into a cool little dude. Delivery-wise, let’s just say that he’s got most adolescents beat and could easily give the under/at 21′s a run for their money. And since the daughters’ Pastry pet project didn’t seem to catch on and JoJo’s rap career fizzled fast, Diggy’s left carrying the torch for the family. For now at least.

Just wait until Russy hits these blogs with a Vimeo video of his own and a hot sixteen. It’ll be over! Read the rest of this entry »

Gabrielle Santiago

5 Reasons Why Old Spice’s “Smell Like A Man, Man” Commercial Wins Everything [TRU]

Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side’ Eclipses Concept Album Classics [Underwire]

Another Sexy Teacher Confesses to Having Sexy Sex with a Student [Gawker]

50 Must-Hear Bands At SXSW [Spin]

Dear Chris Brown: It’s Called Karma [Soul Bounce] Read the rest of this entry »