If this type of thing interests you (as it should), and you haven’t see it yet, XXL posted Part 1 of a two part interview with ?uestlove of the Roots earlier today. He talks in great detail about what will no doubt be 2 historic performances at Radio City Music Hall tonight and tomorrow. He urges anybody who has tickets to arrive early as the notoriously stodgy venue has them on an airtight schedule.

So what should someone know before coming to the show?
The one thing I wish I could stress to New York City above all is that the Roots are the most professional organization when it comes to promptness. It’s imperative that they show up on time. I don’t want them to think “Erykah is gonna show up around eight, so I’ma show up around then.” You have to be there for the opening act. First of all, there is no opening act. Usually the best part of the show, at least for us, is the surprise you get at the beginning. If New York knew like I knew, they will be there 24 hours beforehand to catch this. They need to be on time. None of that fashionably late stuff.

He also talks about what these shows mean for East Coast hip hop as well as hip hop in general, and touches on issue of corporate influence on the culture. When asked whether Jay (or The Keyser Soze of Hip Hop) would be making an appearance, he laughed and gave a non answer which basically means you lucky stiffs who copped tickets are gonna get to see Jay perform tonight. With The Roots. And Nas.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to kill myself.

Cam is on track to do around 150,000 his first week.

Fat Joe calls Paris Hilton’s LP Phenomenal

Does Hyphy music promote a culture of death? I know it makes me want to kill myself.

Announcing the First Annual Weed Carrier Awards. I love it.

The Top 10 is now sans hip hop after Mobb Deep’s spectacular flop.  

"Ice Cube hosts his first mixtape as part of the Listen N Learn mixtape series, which utilizes the influence of hip-hop to educate youth on the impact of Black-on-Black Crime…"

Florida Teen, who killed 6 year old girl when he was 12, gets 30 years for gun possession 

Tolerance for The N-word Is a Test for Potential Jurors

Telecoms deny illegally handing over call records

It’s about time somebody ‘Tubed this. Here’s part 1 of 6 clips of the interview Nas and Rakim sat down for with MTV. In this one they talk about what its like to be considered one of the greats.

Go here and download all 6 podcasts in mp4 format or, just go here and click play

Violence Breaks Out at Mobb Deep Release Party, Fan Gets Knocked Out

Diddy settles 10 year old lawsuit 

Where Is The Voice Of Protest In Today’s Music?

British rock star Pete Doherty squirts blood at an MTV camera crew. 

Don’t believe the hype, that 9/11 video from the Pentagon is neither new, (I’ve seen it several times) nor does it prove anything.

Iranian President: "Do you think you are dealing with a 4-year-old child?"

Mexico threatens to sue the U.S. for closing it’s borders.

While I’m glad they shouted Yonkers on the cover, at the same time I’m mad that they also included The Hamptons, as if there is anybody who actually reps there.

01. Intro
02. Busta Rhymes Speaks
03. Papoose – Out In NY (produced by DJ Green Lantern)
04. Busta Rhymes & Nas – Rough Around The Edges (produced by Hi-Tek)
05. Jim Jones Freestyle
06. Remy Ma – Banned From NY
07. Lloyd Banks – My House (produced by Timbaland)
08. Styles P., Fat Joe, Wyclef, Snyplife – The Way We Get Down (produced by DJ Green Lantern)
09. Swizz Beats Interlude
10. DJ Kay Slay Ft. Ghostface, Raekwon, Kool G. Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Lord Tariq – Five Deadly Venoms
11. Busta Rhymes Speaks
12. Tru Life Feat. Akon – Ride Out (produced by DJ Green Lantern)
13. Swizz Beats Speaks
14. Prinz (Blackhand Ent.) – In New York
15. Busta Rhymes Speaks
16. Red Café – Cook It Up & Serve ‘Em
17. J.R. Writer – Dipset NY
18. Jae Millz – Uptown (produced by DJ Green Lantern)
19. Swizz Beats Speaks
20. Cory Gunz – BX Borough
21. Hell Rell – Fuck Around
22. DJ Scratch Speaks
23. Uncle Murda – Murdera! (produced by DJ Green Lantern)
24. Busta Rhymes – Definition Of New York Interlude
25. Stack Bundles, Maino, Jae Millz, Cory Gunz – New York (produced by DJ Green Lantern)
26. Mike Beck Feat. Fat Joe, Tony Sunshine – Where We From
27. Maino – Bed Stuy Anthem (produced by Scram Jones)
28. Grafh (Blackhand Ent.) – Tryin’ To Rep
29. Stack Bundles – Violence
30. Joell Ortiz – Ill Street Blues Freestyle
31. Busta Rhymes Speaks
32. Flawless – Click Clack
33. Busta Rhymes Feat. Swizz Beats – New York Shit (produced by DJ Scratch)

DJ Green Lantern & DJ Kay Slay – On My New York Shit

So while Cam sits in the bing for the weekend, one of his capos chops it up at the Playoffs with his arch nemesis. 

I would hope that nobody that comes to this site actually cares about this stuff, but since I have a feeling some of you do, (and you know who you are) here are the nominations for the 2006 BET Awards.  

With Mobb Deep’s 2nd week numbers at about 36,675, I’m gonna go ahead and call this one as a flop. Time of death: 5-16-06, 9:15 p.m. I hope all of you people who said the G-Unit move was a good look, and those of you who got tattoo’s and praised your boss like he was the Second Coming, are happy with yourselves.

Young Jizzle had the weapons charges he picked up a couple of months ago dropped.  

So this chick that Game is supposed to be engaged to is the daughter of a Congressman? And it looks like that negro really did cover up that butterfly tat. 

Young Zee and his manager were stabbed after the Ice Cube show last Friday.  

The Roots first single from the Game Theory album, Don’t Feel Right.

More new Method Man – Take The Heat – produced by Dr. Dre. 

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Apologies for the downtime today, there have been some issues with my server and I procrastinated on something I should’ve addressed this weekend. Hopefully I’ll be moving to a new server tomorrow, which is likey to cause a bit more downtime, but will also make everything much more stable and reliable in the long run.

Thanks to all of you for hanging in there, I really do appreciate everybody who comes through everyday, including the overzealous G-Unit fans and all of you non spelling, run-on sentence motherfuckers. No lie, there were comments posted damn near immediately after the site was back up, before I even knew it was available, and that’s real.

Snoop Permanently Banned from Performing in the U.K. That seems a little harsh.

Cam’ron’s Most Ridiculous Outfits

Premier is too busy working on the Chrisitna Aguilera LP to work with M.O.P.?!

Envy’s wife considers suing Star 

Did someone in Ja Rule’s crew slap the shit out of a chick at Plumm (formerly the infamous Nell’s) the other night?  

Bummed out because you missed Cam’s anti-sandal press conference earlier this year? Not to worry, he’s included a video of it on a DVD that accompanies a limited edition of Killa Season.  

Bill Cosby is at it again. I hear what he’s saying, but why not go tell it to the men in prison that he’s talking about, rather than a bunch of Spelman graduates?

DJ Khaled ft. Kanye West, Consequence and John Legend – Grammy Family 

There has been much back and forth over the past week about the Star incident, and while most people seem to agree Star finally crossed a line he should have never even approached, a number of people have also come forward in support of his tactics. Cedric Muhammad of BlackElectorate.com weighed in on the controversy in a column on Friday titled: A Star. Bigger Than ‘Nigger Nonsense.’ More Than A Sound Bite.

In speaking to those of my friends who listen to the program regularly there is a consensus that Star’s words look and sound worse out of context on paper and in audio bites than when delivered during the flow of his program. Furthermore, there is a majority opinion that folks who don’t listen to Star’s show simply can’t understand or maybe even accept that such comments – while offensive to some, while listened to in context and the flow of the show – are not out of the purview of what Star ‘does.’ No one that I have spoken to actually believes that Star would ever literally follow through with what he was heard describing this week. As I have written in the past, very devoted and very careful listeners know that while Star is genuine and bold, he is also a master of rhetorical devices – satire, dialectics, polemics, reverse psychology – dramatizing his points in very uncomfortable but compelling ways.

The article is type long, but it’s an interesting read, even though I’m inclined to disagree with his outlook on the situation. The one thing I’ve always liked about Star, that Muhammand also touches on, is the way he throws alot of the stupid shit our generation does back in our faces and tries to make us see just how stupid we actually look and sound. I also understand that he said what he said to get a reaction from Envy, but I fail to see how broadcasting remarks like those across the tri-state area at 9:00 in the morning is an acceptable way to get attention under any circumstances.  

Big Tigger and Egypt take over for Star. I guess 105 can say goodbye to it’s rating’s lead.

50 producing the next Tupac album? 

Dipset banned from BET over a pillow fight? 

A Tribe Called Quest reunion tour? I’ll believe that when I see it.

The Greatest Rap Video’s Ever?  

Was Karl Rove indicted on Friday? His spokesman says no.

The National Guard to Patrol Mexican border.