The march to King’s Landing has been an interesting one and today, the Roc Boys are in the building as they officially unveil the songs that made the cut for their collaborative effort, Watch The Throne. Read the rest of this entry »

In spite of it’s demoralizing qualities, YG’s “Toot It & Boot It” feels so good it might just make your pastor scream ‘f*%k a b!tch!’ So, as with any song with such influence, their comes a remix. Thanks to his Def Jam labeling, this fully-inked up & comer enlisted Uncle Snoopy and Cousin Curtis to take this coastal smash to big league levels. Read the rest of this entry »

Sheek Louchiano cold rocks the party that rocks the body. And he tends to do it in the after hours spot with Dennis Coles, Jeremih, the entire D-Block cartel and that girl you’re in that rocky relationship with. Don’t be mad when she comes in the house @ 7 a.m. smelling like a Don Gorilla. There ain’t no plot and when you’re in the club with a bottle of bub, sometimes there doesn’t need to be. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re not familiar with YG, it’s probably because he’s not that good of a rapper. However, he does know how to craft some decent songs. Since Def Jam signed him for the latter and can’t count on him for the former, they brought in the Big back-ups – Sean and K.R.I.T.. Read the rest of this entry »

Apparently L.A. Reid is out at Def Jam. And the harbinger of doom himself, Shyne, is here to tell us why.

Shoot up the club, Urban Daily:

You’re talking about Lucian Grainge who replaced Doug Morris?
Yeah, and I know LA Reid ain’t gonna be there no more. I don’t know what’s happening over there. It all depends on who takes over and his commitment to hip-hop music. I think that’s why…. It’s really tricky. I don’t like to judge nobody or throw anyone under the bus, but I don’t think there was a strong commitment to hip-hop from LA Reid. I was on my way out the door a few times and he begged me to stay. Now that he’s leaving, that’s definitely the door opening for me to spin off myself, you dig. I don’t know the direction they’re going in. I don’t know if they’re gonna put another guy in there that don’t care about hip-hop music. You understand? We need people like Russell [Simmons] and Lyor [Cohen] and Jimmy Iovine, people that bled and got their hands dirty and were in the trenches. We need the Eisenhowers that are gonna be there on the warfield with us to keep this going, and L.A. Reid wasn’t that. I’m interested to see who they’re gonna put in there. If anything, I might do everything through Cash Money or somebody else, but it’s a real question mark with Def Jam right now.

Last week, a letter Nas had written to Def Jam made its way on to the internet where he was talking about how they only gave him $200,000 budget for the album and he wasn’t having that. Was it a similar situation with you?
Yeah yeah yeah! You know, I wrote a letter too! I got a blog on MTV, I’m surprised they haven’t posted that up yet. It was called “Def Jam Is Dying.” I feel the same way. I’m all with what Nas is saying. Absolutely! He’s 1000% right! In the letter I wrote, it says “Def Jam is dying thanks a billion L.A. Reid. Middle finger to you too.” You know, because he don’t care about us, man.

It’s crazy that you’re telling me this, I said that he don’t understand that Nas and Ghostface are modern day prophets. When he was perming his hair and getting pedicures and manicures, Jimmy Iovine and Russell were putting in work. R&B dudes used to run it, and then this hip-hop thing came along and hi-jacked pop culture, and I don’t think L.A.’s one of those dudes that likes that.

At the end of the day, it’s about great music and great people making music. Nas is really a hero. What he did for hip-hop is indisputable, and L.A. Reid don’t get that! This is not about Def Jam the brand, it’s about the Nas brand! It’s about the music he makes. You need a machine behind you that believes in that. These dudes aren’t doing that. You got executives out there that get an act that sells a few million, and now they think they’re geniuses. Then you get a person like Nas, who is a legend and has a legacy, and you got a machine that doesn’t know how to preserve this legacy.

In my letter, I talk about how unless you give LA Reid a song with Ne-Yo on it, or one of his R&B singers, you’re outta luck! That’s not hip-hop!

Hate to say, “I told you so,” but the writing was on the wall. It’s just a fantastic dose of crazy that Shyne is questioning the decision-making over at Def Jam when his contract is on the top of the list of bad moves the label has made. That’s like Isiah Thomas having disclaimers against the Knicks’ front office back when he was a coach.

Make sure you go cop those new Rihanna and Ne-Yo albums dropping later this year.

Even though A3C was at the forefront of our minds this week, we still had work to do around here:

– To the surprise of no one, Kobe picked himself to win in one-on-one against LeBron.

– Patrick Chung helped convince Bill Belichick that Randy Moss was expendable. Read the rest of this entry »

Sheek Luciano is a full bird colonel as far as industry vets go and his behind-the-scenes command has earned him the opportunity to call Def Jam his base of operations for the time being. To celebrate his newfound enlistment, he’s recruited DJ Green Lantern as his executive officer and along with Termanlogy, Sean C. & LV, Termanology and the rest of the Lox, Donnie Def Jam: Guerilla Warfare Vol. 1 is the next East Coast weapon of mass destruction. Read the rest of this entry »

Redhead Robyn continues to make music that males have no business singing out loud but will secretly enjoy. With all the vacationing she does when she should be promoting her album, you’d think studio time was out of the question. But she’s a baller, bitch. She makes it happen. Gearing up for the 2nd RiRi album in under a year, she links up with the duo who should name their kids Ne-Yo & Rihanna: Stargate. Read the rest of this entry »

Saying “Jizzle” out loud doesn’t exact breed the purest of thoughts but Young Jeezy wants you to think of it as “Who Dat” on steroids. Spinning both of these records back-to-back may cause an earthquake in some small cities. Shawty Redd on the track, Lil Jon for extra calamity. TM103 on the horizon? Awww skeet skeet! Read the rest of this entry »

Who knows what this album will eventually be called. I’ve seen Reggie Noble “0″ 9 ½,  Reggie’s Oodles of O’s and now it’s simply being touted as Reggie. Quite frankly, Redman could call this joint Mud Ducks & Grape Jelly and it wouldn’t change the fact the Funk Doctor is putting it down regardless of mainstream attention, concrete release dates or whatever the little tykes call music. Read the rest of this entry »

He may not be their biggest draw, but Def Jam should award Ne-Yo a lifetime contract to do whatever the eff he pleases. Always keeping his name in his labelmates’ album credits while still keeping a couple hits for himself. Every time he’s set to release an album, it’s usually the same song-and-dance. Dangerously walking the plank of the endangered R&B species and overpopulated Pop waters, and his lead off singles are always dazzling and over-the-top. Read the rest of this entry »

If gazing into Erykah Badu’s eyes can trick you into rocking curtains for outfits, what kind of magic is behind RiRi’s pretty brown rounds? Would she have you playing air guitar as she crawls at your feet? Force you to perform 45 minute solos in between her knees? Perhaps she would dive head first into your mosh pit… Read the rest of this entry »

To prequel Rawse’s transformation into the Teflon Don this summer, Def Jam and Maybach Music Group deliver The Albert Anastasia EP for you to stuff your face into until it’s numb. Starring Diddy as Meyer Lanksy, John Legend as Lucky Luciano, Yo Gotti as himself and DJ Clark Kent, The Runners and a host of others as the Gambino Producer Family, Rick Ross smells like money Read the rest of this entry »

Here at TSS, we get a lot of music submissions. We go over them all with a fine-toothed comb. As is customary in this line of work, a lot of the things we get are mediocre to bad. Generally, we pass over these songs to give shine to the material one or a few of us genuinely enjoys. We don’t go around bashing submissions. That’s not our style.

If these songs would have come to us from any other artist, I would have listened, said “wow, that’s really bad,” and keep moving. However, these tracks aren’t from any artist. These songs are from someone who has just been signed to a (reported) million-dollar contract. I touched on this before, but L.A. Reid signing Shyne is a slap in the face to Hip-Hop for a few reasons:

1. Shyne is terrible.

2. Rockwell Knuckles, Donny Goines, The Kid Daytona and Playboy Tre are all unsigned despite actually putting out material and being, you know, good.

3. Shyne was signed seemingly for the fact that he’s been in jail for the last eight years, which is problematic in its own right. It’s not like you’ll see L.A. Reid or anyone else champing at the bit to sign some kid fresh off of a four-year bid at an accredited university or anything like that.

4. $1 Million?! Somebody tell L.A. that it’s not 1998 anymore and labels are trying to be frugal with their money.

5. Did I mention that Shyne is not that good of a rapper, at least not in his post-prison form?

Bonus Reason: Didn’t Def Jam also ruin a seemingly easy lay-up called Wu-Massacre not too long ago by stupidly trying to rush Meth, Rae and Ghost into a project? This is the same project that only had the three members of the group actually show up on a couple of tracks together? Right. L.A. Reid might have finally lost it.

Po’s newest efforts show him spitting over Rihanna’s “Rude Boy,” Alicia’s “Unthinkable” and Drake’s “Over” as part of what we shall now call “Shyne Poops On The Hits.”

To paraphrase Aziz Ansari, these songs aren’t my cup of tea.

That’s because I don’t like thin slices of monkey dong in my tea.

I wasn’t even a big fan of Shyne before he went to the clink, but this is just atrocious as he’s come out sounding like Napolean Dynamite and Eli Porter’s love child.

Besides dropping audible Down Syndrome, Shyne also calls himself the next thing since BIG died and disses 50 Cent. Hey, 1999 called and said it wants its subject matter back.

When L.A. bought Shyne, he also bought my unending attention every time a new Shyne track drops. I will not dismiss his brand of at-best mediocrity. In fact, I will be there at every turn finding new ways to explain to our readers just how much his new “music” will make you question why God created sound. Be prepared. This may be a grueling process for all parties involved.

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Download – Shyne – “Rude Boy” Freestyle

You can stop now if you want

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Download – Shyne – Unthinkable Remix

Wow, you must really hate yourself

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Download – Shyne – “Over” Freestyle

Don’t kill yourself. You have so much to live for. I apologize for what you just witnessed.

The music industry wants you to believe that we, the Internetters, are the reason they’re losing money. Feel bad for them if you want. But remember this is the same industry that just flushed millions of dollars down a caca-filled porcelain MC named Shyne. Read the rest of this entry »