Off the DJ Premier vs Pete Rock DVD that dropped in Japan. Via DJPremierBlog

On linking with Kanye in Hawaii and a possible collaboration with Nas.

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MTV’s first-ever Sucker Free Summit with panelists Fat Joe, Bun B, Miss Info, Elliott Wilson, DJ Drama, Ron Artest, and Vibe EIC Jermaine Hall.

The Sucker Free crown winners (see the winners list here) were determined with votes from 50 other tastemakers like Angela Yee, Funkmaster Flex, Uncle Ralph, Green Lantern, Cipha Sounds, Peter Rosenberg, Noah Callahan-Bever, Datwon Thomas, Chuck Creekmur, Eric & Jeff Rosenthal of ItsTheReal, Clinton Sparks, Don Cannon, Greg Street, Michael “5000″ Watts, Julia Beverly, and more.

So I understand Vibe has gotten a bunch of folks all riled up with this Greatest Producer of All Time tournament thing they’ve been running for the last couple of weeks. I don’t know, I haven’t even looked at it (I know better). In this clip, the homie’s Riggs Morales (Shady Records Director of A&R), Jerry Barrow (Nodfactor.com, former E-I-C of Scratch) and Peter Rosenberg (Hot 97) discuss the list with Black Milk and Sean C. and LV on Grind Music Radio.

The video is from the back, but the audio is straight from the soundboard and that’s all that matters.

At Peter Rosenberg’s Noisemakers last night, Pete Rock finally admitted that he’s working with Kanye on Good Ass Job, after denying it last month by saying he was in Hawaii for “just a vacation.”

[22:15] [Rosenberg: First of all shout out to Kanye for making hip-hop so big that when you hear somebody's traveling to Hawaii, you're like "oh my god." So what's up with this Kanye thing?] Yeah I’m working with him. That’s it, that’s all I could say. [Rosenberg: You went out there to Hawaii?] Yeah, I went out there… He feels like a little brother to me, like my little brother that’s doing it. We got along just fine. He’s definitely hip-hop… [24:10] He takes it to another level. We had these musicians and we did this song. They played around my little raggedy beat and made it real big. [Rosenberg: Did you hear him rhyme?] [Exhales] Yup. I love the way he works. He goes from one room writing rhymes, and then goes to the another room fixing a beat, and then he goes in another room to do something else.

He then talks about wanting to work with Eminem & Jay-Z.

[25:40] [Rosenberg: There's an Eminem record dropping this year too, have you ever had any contact with Em?] I would love to. I never [met him.] He’s a producer too. [Rosenberg: I feel like he could still benefit from Pete Rock. I love Renegade and all, but I feel like he could still..] I love Eminem, I think he’s one of the dopest. Ever. I started questioning Jay-Z when he got at him on that joint. I take nothing away from Jay, I just thought Em’s verse was incredible. [Rosenberg: Why has there not been a Jay record? I talked to him, I know you're one of his favorites and yet there's never been anything. Was there ever going to be anything?] We never worked together, I always wanted to. Actually I gave him a beat that I did for Kurupt, “Yessir”. I was hoping that he used it.

The full two hours after the jump.

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Taken from an interview BDK did, along with dozens of other legends, for the book “How To Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC”.. which is more of a required history lesson than a how-to for dummies.

BDK tells the author that in the golden age, a freestyle was a rhyme you wrote. It was “free” of “style” in the sense of subject matter. As in not a story about a girl, poverty, etc. Off the dome freestyles we’re just playing around on the corner to see who’d mess up first. He also says when you look at the greatest lyricists, they wrote their rhymes.

He doesn’t address rappers using the instrumental-of-the-month and calling it a freestyle. Which seems to bother some people, but not me. It’s definitely not the first word to have changed meaning throughout history.

Congratulations.

If Drake is not a household name for everyone just yet, the 23-year-old is on the front porch, ringing the bell. That he’s done it without even putting out an official album shows just how far he’s come in 12 months. What a journey it’s been for the Toronto native in 2009.

I first met Drake last year in Los Angeles around Grammy time. Lil Wayne’s co-manager Cortez Bryant introduced me to Drake as a new “singer” that they were working with. Drizzy was cool but barely spoke: At the time, there was no way I’d envision him as having a shot at making the MTV News’ “Hottest MCs in the Game” list, let alone finishing in the top three. He was a “singer,” right?

Everyone — including Drake — is probably surprised at how much he’s achieved this year. On the basis of its quality and impact, Mixtape Daily can say that So Far Gone isn’t just the top mixtape of 2009, but one of the greatest of all time. As a body of work, the project is better than most albums from the past few years.

Continue reading @ MTV.com

Flo-Rida being nominated for Best Rap Album is the most outrageous thing I’ve read all year. No BP3 because the cutoff is August 31.

Kanye leads in (rap) nominations, as he should.

No Rap in the Album of the Year, Best New Artist, or Record of the Year categories.

Best Rap Album
Common – Universal Mind Control
Eminem – Relapse
Flo Rida – R.O.O.T.S.
Mos Def – The Ecstatic
Q-Tip – The Renaissance

Best Rap Solo Performance
Drake – “Best I Ever Had”
Eminem – “Beautiful”
Jay-Z – “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)”
Kid Cudi – “Day ‘N’ Nite”
Mos Def – “Casa Bey”

Best Rap Song
Drake – “Best I Ever Had”
Kid Cudi – “Day ‘N’ Nite”
T.I. & Justin Timberlake – “Dead And Gone”
Jay-Z – “D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune)”
Jay-Z, Rihanna & Kanye West – “Run This Town”

Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group
Beastie Boys & Nas – “Too Many Rappers”
Eminem, Dr. Dre & 50 Cent – “Crack A Bottle”
Fabolous & Jay-Z – “Money Goes, Honey Stay”
Kid Cudi, Kanye West & Common – “Make Her Say”
Kanye West & Young Jeezy – “Amazing”

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration
Beyoncé & Kanye West – “Ego”
Keri Hilson, Kanye West & Ne-Yo – “Knock You Down”
Jay-Z, Rihanna & Kanye West – “Run This Town”
The Lonely Island & T-Pain – “I’m On A Boat”
T.I. & Justin Timberlake – “Dead And Gone”

Full list @ Grammy.com

Duke & Pusha have a tourbus chat on the changes in the mixtape game and how music is distributed today.

Part 2 after the jump. “NahRight’s my niggas”

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_{On meeting Kanye}

Kweli recalled stories dating from his teenage years to the more immediate past. He discussed how coming from an academic family where both his parents were professors influenced both him personally and his content musically. He then looked back on the days before he broke onto the rap scene, when he was working in clubs, and remembered smoking a blunt with Biggie and Tupac and being in a cypher with Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Busta Rhymes at the club.

Stories about the two groups he has been involved with—Reflection Eternal with Hi-Tek and Black Star with Mos Def—also surfaced. He called “Respiration” “probably one of my favorite records I’ve ever done,” named Mos as one of his closest friends (“our mothers hang out,” he said), and spoke on working with J. Dilla and the influence that Slum Village had on his style. Other topics that came up during the hour-and-a-half talk included his days with Rawkus Records, his early experiences with Common and Kanye West, his relationship with John Forte and Jay-Z, and more.

Noisemakers, which was on hiatus over the summer, is set to return as a bimonthly series this fall. Past guests have included DJ Premier, Raekwon, Q-Tip and ?uestlove. Reflection Eternal’s next album, Revolutions Per Minute, is slated for release later in 2009. -XXL

Talib speaks on Jay-Z cosign and recalls his favorite Kanye tour stories after the jump.

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