The cold winds are here so cuffin’ season’s coming. May as well find music for the season, starting with Bridget Kelly’s Every Girl EP. The Roc’s latest female offering has a strong, sultry voice and songs written by Frank Ocean, Ne-Yo, The-Dream and others making the small appetizer worth a listen. Read the rest of this entry »

Maturity and Hip-Hop go hand in hand like a hobo and an almond-shaped bar of Olay yet Phonte Coleman has made an earnest living from being that guy you revere as a professional artist–and turn around and get chummy with at your local pub. The past few years have been exciting for loyal disciples of the the former Little Brother’s congregation as he has walked the unbeaten path to musical lore with his rap and blues hybrid, the Grammy-nominated ensemble, The Foreign Exchange. Read the rest of this entry »

T.I.’s making the press rounds, which includes a trip to see Sway & Devi Dev over at ‘Sway In The Morning” on Shade 45. How their interview with the Kang differed is they actually got him to spit a few lines, Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a threat to tradition that’s being floated in the world’s most popular sports league, England’s Premier League, that would end its adherence to the relegation/promotion system. According to a story by Yahoo! Sports’ Martin Rodgers, an increase in American ownership has made the move a serious consideration.

“‘There are a number of overseas-owned clubs already talking about the avoidance of promotion and relegation in the Premier League,’ said Richard Bevan, chief executive of the powerful League Managers Association, which represents the interests of head coaches in English soccer. ‘If we have four or five more owners, this could happen.’”

Scary. The English Premier League and the rest of the world’s major soccer leagues utilize the unique system that relegates a league’s bottom-feeding teams (sends them to a lower professional division) and promotes a lower league’s winners to the next-level league. It’s a system that allows world soccer to stand alone in comparison to American sports leagues. In the case of England its practice dates back over a century and creates an ultimate importance within the regular season’s framework. Smaller clubs battle for the right to play against the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal, while mid-level clubs joust to avoid falling into oblivion.

The relegation/promotion system (especially in the EPL) makes every result do-or-die and the atmosphere that comes with such a structure ensures that teams don’t flounder along just to take from the league’s year-end bounty. It also ensures the English equivalents of a Tampa Bay Rays or Cleveland Cavaliers don’t bomb entire seasons just to proclaim “there’s always next year” and lay in wait for a potential draft pick.

Although the richest clubs always vie for the title, destitute clubs’ mad-dash scramble at the end of every EPL season to avoid relegation fosters the greatest final weeks in any professional sports league. It’s an energetic situation that American leagues can only dream about and it avoids the hokey, pre-manufactured attention generators that eight-team, postseason American playoffs create.

English legislators and Football Association officials should fight tooth and nail to keep this Americanization of a completely non-American sport from occurring. It would be a shame to see foreign, money-hungry influence dictate a system that has worked for over a hundred years.

[Yahoo]

It would seem that Asher is just making shit just for the sake of being visible. Every song he releases is for a different project and he’s taking fans every which way. The good news is he’s been pretty consistent with entertaining screenplays and here’s yet another one for the chamber. Read the rest of this entry »

No disrespect or slights sent towards B.o.B or Meek but my initial thoughts still stand because, hot damn, Playboy Tre stole the show on “Epic.”. Read the rest of this entry »

Come one, come all to all the collectors of limited edition collectibles and alluring household objects. Lucky Bunny a.k.a. Rich DeSimone has concocted a sequel to his signature successful piece, the Grenade Bunny toy with an extremely limited release that sports a hand painted rust finish and oxidized appearance. Read the rest of this entry »

MTV:

“If I worried about how I’m gonna look saying this, then I wouldn’t make half the music I make. People nitpick at me for being emotional or tapping into my emotions, but like, man, we all die one day; that’s just how I want to be remembered. Read the rest of this entry »

“Now the kid in band class’s got’em on the bandwagon.”

XV and friends craft a song for those who played them to the left back before each artist’s name started ringin’ bells. Read the rest of this entry »

You should know by now ASAP Rocky spends his free time letting his mind get lifted like Apollo 13 in a cloud of blunt fog. No biggie. He’s young and the cannabis is bringing out the best of his wonder years and his linking up with super production outfit The Olympicks proves it. Read the rest of this entry »

Will and Jada Pinkett Smith Become Part Owners of the Philadelphia 76ers [Vibe]

‘Modern Family’ Most-Watched show on DVR [NYDN]

The Best Of 5-Second Films, Part 2 [Uproxx] Read the rest of this entry »

Hmph. Been waiting to hear what these two cooked up since this pic first surfaced. Tonight, we get “Here Ye, Hear Ye” and… Read the rest of this entry »

Remember, Timbaland is “above” Hip-Hop these days. Pitbull’s career deals with more numbers than The Price is Right so he’s technically bigger than Hip-Hop. I think the two should work together. What say you? Read the rest of this entry »

The ubiquity of TMZ is so ridiculously high, one could speculate that they’re some axis power who conspires to start trouble just so they can present it to us. Regardless, our entertainment is better for it. They recently got wind of a bar fight in Vancouver that involved Transformers star, Shia LaBeouf. Read the rest of this entry »

This might be one of the better things cancer has ever produced. In an effort to further spotlight the disease that plagues our people and help raise awareness for the American Cancer Society, Brooklyn based Hip-Hop label Coalmine Records did us all a favor and recruited some of our favorite MCs for “Beautiful,” a track about keeping the faith. Complementing M-Phazes’ deep chords and Mela Machinko’s hopeful hook, OU, Kweli and K.R.I.T. each spit sixteens specifically reminding us to keep our chins up and take nothing for granted.

The stream below is the full version, which I bought on iTunes for a buck because all proceeds go to the American Cancer Society’s continual search for a cure. Do someone you love a favor and follow suit.

Talib Kweli Feat. Big K.R.I.T., Outasight & Mela Machinko – “Beautiful” (Produced by M-Phazes)