I caught a few minutes of this on TV and one of the interesting moments was when he talked to Toure about his father, Melvin Combs (who’s murder when Diddy was 3 ultimately steered him away from the streets.)
He says that contrary to popular belief, his father never worked for Frank Lucas or Nicky Barnes. He says that his father was just as big as them (after the standard “I’m not trying to glorify” of course.)
He also mentions that he had to research his father’s hustler history through microfilm at the library, because his mother never talked about him.
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Free download of Exile’s Radio Bonus Album in celebration of his upcoming August 31st AM/FM release via Plug Research. The amount of submissions were so high that not everything could fit on the official AM/FM album, hence the free download.
AM/FM will feature various producers remixing the original Radio tracks, while Blu, Fashawn, Shafiq Husayn, Samiyam, Free the Robots, DJ Day, Clutchy Hopkins, Evidence, Alchemist, Krondon, Muhsinah, Aloe Blacc, Grouch and Eligh go over the originals.
Here’s the NoDJ re-release (with four new tracks) of the Tampa MC’s 4:57 mixtape, executive produced by J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League.
5:01 Overtime is symbolic of me no longer having to work a 9-5, and now being fortunate enough to be able to pursue my music full-time. Ironically enough on my last day of work I go into OVERTIME. -Laws
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Here’s some more footage from Yela and Travis’ performance at the Famous Stars & Straps show in L.A. Up top they do an untitled track that should emerge on one of their albums sometime soon. After the jump, Yela covers a few classics and lets the drummers get wicked.
“bitch I said that I’m amazing, not that I’m a Mason”
Rawse breaks down the epicness of the record and how he basically packaged the concept and presented it to Jay as a platform to address the Illuminati bullshit. He explains that he hadn’t even titled the song yet when he played it for Jay, but as soon as he did, Hov knew what it was gonna be.
“I know if I’m on a record with Jay-Z, not only are my rhymes gonna be on point, not only is the flow gonna be intact, but the way I say the words … The title of the record, the meaning of the record, is the title big enough for the expectations of this collaboration? A lot of people were like, ‘Wow, that’s what you gonna title the record?’ I’m like, ‘Why not?’ That’s what hip-hop’s about. Let’s get to the point. It’s so much speculation, so many whispers coming out of the sewers. Why not do a record and call it ‘Free Mason’ and we do what we do on it and they’ll know when they hear it. The title may throw them off, but it’s a good thing. They gotta hear it, and when they listen to it, everything that’s running through their minds, it’ll be answered. That was the whole idea when I brought it to [Jay].”
