Isn’t it amazing, that after years over commercial dominance, Ja Rule can’t get a single to stick in 2012? Surely the fact that his pinnacle was ten years ago plays a huge factor, as well as the current landscape of rap. However, the biggest setback may be that, while “Real Life Fantasy” is an extremely solid introspective from the former Murder Inc star’s upcoming Pain Is Love 2 album, it’s not at all what we’ve come to expect from the man’s radio records. Instead of the questionable singing and FM-freindly concepts Ja used to drop like clockwork every six months, the open book heard amidst this Hype Williams-directed visual is unfortunately too honest to make a splash on Clear Channel, and past bad blood halts it’s spins on the only Sirius channel that matters.

Still, when you’re behind bars for damn near two years, maybe having piece of mind means more than some SoundScan numbers.

There’s a crucial epoch in a buzzing artist’s career where it is vital that they progress without straying too far from what got them their pedestal to begin with. If the people are digging your music, deviating from the proven formula may backfire and result in a mortal wound for one’s ascension to the top. Read the rest of this entry »

Mizz DR

Music-Video Director Hype Williams Finally Making Another Feature Film [NYMag]

Stuff Hip-Hop Fans Like: Really Tiny Backpacks [Broken Cool]

88-Keys Talks the Making of “No Church in the Wild” [Billboard]

Young Mom Gets Two DUI’s in Three Hours [Gawker]

Burger King Freshens Image, Kicks King To The Curb [USA Today] Read the rest of this entry »

“6 Foot 7 Foot” itself is a classic re-emergence for Weezy. Minimize the hook, maximize the verses, and utterly exploit the wordplay. Sounds like a winning formula to me. Then it’s only the next natural step for Hype Williams to sit in the director’s chair, and put together an interesting Inception-themed video filled with your random assortment of hoes, hundred dollar bills and a lot of smoke. Read the rest of this entry »

Life’s been a blur over the past month, so just a few days ago I was searching the TSS archives to makes sure I hadn’t missed Kanye’s “All Of The Lights” video. Ever since the first snippet dropped way back when I knew that this would be epic. So much that I was worried the final product wouldn’t live up to my beautiful dark twisted expectations. It didn’t, but at the same time I check the pulse of anyone who says they don’t like this song. Read the rest of this entry »

There are acts of grandiose, extravagance, and then there’s the act of Kanye. While the latter isn’t exactly an adjective, the English language could have a legitimate case on adding another word into its ever growing library. The ripe, young culture of Hip-Hop has benefited greatly from an one Kanye Omari West since he officially revealed himself to the commercial masses back in 2003. Other musical genres have a had a multitude of polarizing figures and rap music has its fair share of legendary icons that defined the face of the movement, but none have consistently pushed the boundaries of what is allowed in the realm of beats & rhymes. Read the rest of this entry »

Gassed by million$ and talking flagarant in his fronts, Diddy is winning because Bad Boy Records is powered by everybody NOT signed to the label. Whatever stamps the ticket to that Last Train To Paris, I guess. With cameos by Swizz Beatz, more laws broken from the Big Bawse Man and Nicki Minaj throwing some not-so-subtle jabs to Lil Kim, the rooster gets his day, yet again. Read the rest of this entry »

Thought I’d crossed over to the darkside? Yeah right. The only reason this video is getting play is because of A.) the title’s correlation to starting off the day and B.) the T.I. feature. My rod and staff were used to comfort me during the typing of this post. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve seen these pictures from the set of Nicki’s upcoming “Massive Attack” video shoot and the impure thoughts have outweighed any worthwhile words I could feign about actually “anticipating” one of her videos for the actual music. Really, I think I’ll skip the video because these stills are enough, seeing her, Amber and all those hams in one photograph. But it left me with one question that seemed worthy of posing for everyone to weigh in on. Read the rest of this entry »

In these times when even the megastars have to claw and scratch for their numbers, it comes at no surprise that some of the oddest pairings imaginable spring up to shift some of the buzz back in their favor. When it comes to Pop music’s reigning queen and outlaw Beyonce and Lady Gaga, their sales pitch revolves around America’s universal pastime: playing on the telephone. Read the rest of this entry »

Big city lights. The Blueprint 3. Black n’ white backdrop. With the warm-up taking place yesterday at Yankee Stadium, Jay & Alicia unveil their mini-movie with the expertise of the one & only Hype Williams. Read the rest of this entry »

Live and direct from Cons TV. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s more than a video. It’s More Than A Game. Read the rest of this entry »

Ahh…a once lost but now found Hype Williams-directed video for “My Chrome.” All the way Read the rest of this entry »

Swizz swears he’s nice.

Really, this dude must think he’s infinitely ill. Granted, anyone would be gassed up when your partial production credits are a scrollathon of hits, but somebody please let this dude know that he’s really not been that dope lately, and that he flat out sucks as an MC. When you can help other artists sell 100 million records, but can’t go platinum on your own merit, that should show you what position you’re best suited for in the game. Read the rest of this entry »