Maino and Fabolous jump on the remix to Marsha’s new single.

Marsha Ambrosius feat. Maino & Fabolous – Hope She Cheats On You (Remix) | Mediafire

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Bonus No DJ cuts from Maino’s Art of War mixtape, available here:

Maino feat. Styles P & LA The Darkman – I’m Not The One | Mediafire

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Maino feat. Sheek Looch & Mista Raja – Snitching | Mediafire

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Last night, I had a sneaking suspicion that the beat was J. Cole’s doing and earlier today, his “Who Dat” co-producer Elite confirmed it to me.

J. Cole – The Plan (prod. J. Cole) [via YAF] | Mediafire

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It’s sweet, no time for sleep when you’re Elite

Previously: 9th Wonder & J. Cole team up for NBA Elite 11 Soundtrack

These sort of posse cuts are never in a shortage. Samples Ohio Players’s “Funky Worm”/N.W.A.’s “Dopeman.” Props to Splash.

DJ Suss One ft. Maino, Sheek Louch, Styles P, Fat Joe, Jim Jones, Waka Flocka & Ra Diggs – Let ‘Em Lay (Remix) (prod. J-Buttah) | Mediafire

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Previously: DJ Suss One feat. Maino – Let ‘Em Lay (Video)

Jay will be releasing Decoded, his first book, on Tuesday November 16th through Spiegel and Grau, an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. In case you were wondering what was that logo on his Twitter background + avatar, or on the t-shirts he’s been seen sporting nowadays, it was inspired by Andy Warhol:

Featuring an image of Andy Warhol’s Rorschach on the cover, the beautifully designed, fully-illustrated book decodes 36 songs from JAY-Z’s extensive catalog. By telling the stories behind some of Jay-Z’s most famous and provocative lyrics, Decoded offers an intimate, first-hand account of an artist, his work, and the culture that so powerfully shaped him.

I’d be interested in knowing which songs he chose more than anything.

Says Jay-Z:

When I first started working on this book, I told my editor that I wanted it to do three important things. The first was to make the case that hip-hop lyrics—not just my lyrics, but those of every great MC—are poetry if you look at them closely enough. The second was I wanted the book to tell a little bit of the story of my generation, to show the context for the choices we made at a violent and chaotic crossroads in recent history. And the third piece was that I wanted the book to show how hip-hop created a way to take a very specific and powerful experience and turn it into a story that everyone in the world could feel and relate to.

Order the book now from his Facebook page.

Previously: Q-Tip says new Jay-Z album this Spring

In the new issue of XXL, Kanye addresses how he felt when President Obama called him a jackass before an interview with ABC News.

When Obama called me “jackass”, after the Taylor incident, I thought that the person to be speaking off the record. Obama has way more important stuff to worry about than my public perception. He was trying to pass the healthcare bill. And if he said that to relate to the room or lighten the room up and the whole mood, then I’d be more than happy to be the butt of all of his jokes if it in the some way helps his overall mission. I’m a soldier of culture. I’m resilient. I’m sure I’ll still beat him in basketball. [via KarenCivil]

There’s video of the infamous moment after the jump.

Ye is two for two with US presidents right now.

Throwback: Malik Yusef ft. Kanye West & Adam Levine – Promised Land

Continue reading this post…

I didn’t know this was still an issue. In a recent interview with AHH, Common said he’d eventually be willing to work with Ice Cube, on a movie of course. Here they are photographed at the 2006 VH1 Hip Hop Honors with Crazy Toones and Fab 5 Freddy.

“Point blank, when Cube and I had beef, I was a fan of his first and foremost, I grew up like loving Cube,” Common told AllHipHop.com. “I still respected him as an artist, but I had to come at him. It’s like a boxer; if somebody challenge you in the ring, you got to go at him. But we all good now, and maybe we can produce a movie together or something.”

Sounds good. Lonnie even said he was gonna fall back from acting and put out The Believer album that he had to put on hold to promote Just Wright and shoot a pilot for AMC:

“I stopped and did promo for Just Wright, then stopped and did this TV show and was doing a couple other things that I needed to do,” Common told AllHipHop.com in an exclusive interview. “But now I’m focused, and working and I’m really- in all reality, I believe that the new album will come out in the spring. I’m looking at around April or May for the new album. It’s called The Believer. I had that title for a while to be honest. The time has come.”

Full interview here.

Common brought up Ice Cube’s name/the beef as recently as the Finding Forever era on the original version of “Next Time” (the MP3 dates back to December 8th, 2006 to be exact) that was destined to be nothing more than a FF throwaway track until it was included on the Just Wright soundtrack, with brand new lyrics though.

Sidenote: I was thinking about this beef earlier this week and if Lonnie was going to try and patch things up with Cube, for PR reasons of course, now that Lupe’s trying to get him to run for Mayor of Chicago.

Trae appeared on Angela Yee‘s show last week to promote his Can’t Ban Tha Truth mixtape and to discuss his ban from a certain Houston radio station and how it all got started after a shooting happened at a Trae Day celebration last year and a host at that radio station blamed him for it, Trae later got on a mixtape and called her a “fat ass.”

Long story short, for one they banned my music. They shooting out texts and emails not to play my music, don’t play no remixes with me, don’t say my name. My son was just born, they had a picture of him on the website. Make sure you snatch down all the pictures of anything to do with him, like on some kiddie sh!t.

Hit the jump for another video and an audio clip from the interview, where he talks about the effects of the ban and which artists have been supporting him through out this time and they talk about his Angels By Nature campaign.

Trae also spoke to XXL about appearing on the show and playing a piece of audio where Pimp C accuses the same radio station of “reverse payola” when he didn’t wanna open for Baby and Lil Wayne in Houston.

Continue reading this post…

Drake spoke to PopEater on the set of his Kodak shoot about how his music is life-driven, how he has to watch what’s going on in his own life and speak on it in a third person perspective otherwise he’d have nothing to rap about. He gives the example of how Kanye’s raps are (still) very ego-driven and how he feels like no one else has ever opened up to the world like he has.

The platinum-selling artist talks about his writing process, the proliferation of rappers willing to expose their vulnerable side and why, despite arena tours, critical recognition and one of the biggest selling albums of the year, he still doesn’t feel completely successful.

Previously: Lil Wayne feat. Drake – Gonorrhea (Tags)

Q-Tip spoke to XXL for this Hennessy Artistry Series that he’s co-curating with The Roots, and shed some light on his future projects. When asked if he’s fed up of the music business and if he’s ready to just start acting, he said that he’s about to work with Barbara De Fina (producer of all the Scorsese movies from Raging Bull to Gangs of New York) on a film that’s accompanying his next album. He also mentioned that he’ll be playing Miles Davis in a new play. When asked to shed light on the new Kanye album, he had one of the better, more complete answers we’ve heard as of yet:

XXL: You’re also slated to appear on Kanye’s new album. What can we expect from that project?

Q-Tip: This album is, in a good way, going backwards. He’s such an artist. He knows exactly what he’s doing. When he did [808s & Heartbreaks] that was such a departure from College Dropout. But now he’s stepping backwards so this album will be more of a sonic extension of College Dropout and Graduation but he’s doing it with a new attitude. He’s looking forward but reaching back, which is interesting. It’s a calculated toe in yesterday’s water if that makes any sense at all (laughs).

XXL: It’s definitely a daring next move. What’s your next musical move?

Q-Tip: You know, I hate to sound self-involved but I feel like I haven’t peaked yet. I have a lot to give still. I still look the part… I still got it. I’m getting ready to work on stuff for Mary J. Blige… Kanye and I are gonna continue to work together. We’re doing some stuff for Jay-Z’s new album that’s coming out in the spring, and then after Jay’s thing I’m gonna start recording my new album…Kanye should be working on that, too.

Last week he tweeted about working on new records for Mary J. Blige and Beyonce, and that him and Kanye were “zoning in” on Jay.

He also noted that the ATCQ documentary might not make Sundance this year, but if Michael Rapparport needs help promoting the film, that might be the last we’ll see of any sort of Tribe reunion.

Previously: Consequence – Got Me Trippin (prod. Q-Tip)

Novel feat. Jazze Pha – Dear Hip-Hop (a.k.a. Lauryn Hill) | Mediafire

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Props to Low.

Previously: Novel feat. Joell Ortiz & Colin Munroe – Walking On Air