Eminem Becomes Most 'Liked' Living Artist On Facebook

Em continues to dominate social media, surpassing Lady Gaga and trailing behind Michael Jackson in Facebook popularity. 

Detroit's biggest name is making even bigger feats in the digital arena. This week, social media tracker Famecount.com found that Eminem has not only joined Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber in the ranks of Youtube's Artists-With-One-Billion-Views Club, but has now surpassed Gaga as the most "liked" artist on Facebook. He currently has 28.88 million Facebook fans, while Gaga is close behind with 28.87 million. Both are led by Michael Jackson, who maintains 29.13 million fans.

"Within the last few hours Eminem has become the world's most popular living person on Facebook," said Famecount founder, Daniel Dearlove. He went on to praise the rapper's successful year in music.

Of course, it's easy to perceive the numbers as arbitrary and to write them off as yet another tallying-trend brought on by obsessors of social media. However, these particular numbers represent a paradox in Eminem's large-scale success within the mainstream. As someone whose popularity is rooted in sentiments of the anti-popular, Em's emergence as the social media king seems almost counter-intuitive.

MJ, Eminem, and Lady Gaga are trailed by Bieber and Rihanna, the latter of whom is the fastest growing star on Facebook.

Raekwon tells iHipHop why it's important to have RZA production involved in future Wu-Tang projects.

Despite some of their previous disagreements over Wu-Tang Clan’s production style, Raekwon says he has no doubts in RZA’s production abilities in any future endeavors. Back in 2007, Rae was very outspoken about RZA’s production style, saying RZA was “trying to create too much of an orchestra, piano.” Ultimately, Raekwon and RZA reconciled, but there hasn’t been a proper Wu-Tang Clan album since 2007’s 8 Diagrams.

With individual members concentrating on solo efforts, or non-RZA led projects such as Wu Massacre and Shaolin Vs. Wu-Tang, Rae explained that a project sonically led by RZA could still be successful.

“He would definitely have to govern it,” Rae told iHipHop, in regards to RZA taking the production reigns. “But more or less, we would definitely have to seek other ways of making it more classical. It’s just all about RZA being able to not work as hard as he has to.”

RZA is currently shooting his directorial debut, The Man with the Iron Fists, which has limited his production work. In the interim, producers such as Allah Mathematics and Bronze Nazareth, who Rae refers to as “another Wu disciple” have handled a bulk of the production duties. Ultimately, Rae says the long-since buried spat between RZA and himself turned out to be a positive.

“I think that’s what people want to see anyway,” Raekwon added. “They wanna see cats come together and rhyme over a Just Blaze or a Kanye [West] or whoever. Maybe even a new cat.”

As previously reported, Raekwon’s Shaolin Vs. Wu-Tang will be released on March 8. Havoc, Sean C & LV, Alchemist, Erick Sermon and Bronze Nazareth are among the producers listed on the project.

Lil Jon To Release "Crunkest Hits" Collection, Tracklisting Revealed

Hits with Usher, Ying Yang Twins, Too Short, Mystikal, Krayzie Bone and Jadakiss return the CD on March 8th's compilation.

Atlanta, Georgia rapper/producer/deejay Lil Jon will release a Crunkest Hits collection on March 8th. The releases comes courtesy of The Orchard, who purchased TVT Records, where Jon was an artist throughout the early '00s.

The Tracklisting To Lil Jon's Crunkest Hits:

01. Get Low featuring Ying Yang Twins
02. Bia’ Bia’ 2 featuring Too Short & Chyna White
03. Yeah! featuring Usher
04. Throw It Up featuring Pastor Troy
05. I Don’t Give a Fuck featuring Mystikal & Krayzie Bone
06. What U Gon’ Do featuring Lil Scrappy
07. Put Yo Hood Up
08. Get Crunk featuring Bo Hagon
09. Nothins Free featuring Oobie
10. Who U Wit
11. Stop Trippin’ featuring Ludacris
12. Cut Up
13. Knockin Heads Off featuring Jadakiss & Styles P
14. Weed N Da Chopper featuring Project Pat

Man Jailed After Stealing Various Items From Lil Wayne Video Set

Twenty year-old Marco Nigete apparently stole items in hopes that it would bring him closer to meeting Weezy F. Baby.

Over the weekend Cash Money Records superstar Lil Wayne was reportedly at Glendora, California's Citrus College for a video shoot with rapper Porcelain Black. During the shoot, a 20 year-old man named Marco Negrete allegedly stole a purse, a laptop, a wallet and two tickets the weekend's NBA All-Star game.

According to The Whittier Daily News, Glendora Police used GPS tracking with the laptop to find Negrete, with the items in his home. Negrete, who is believed to be a dancer extra in the video, was jailed.
At press time, none of the possessions belonged to Lil Wayne.

HipHopDX will keep you updated.
(February 21)

UPDATE: TMZ.com has learned that Marco Nigete told authorities he stole the items, in hopes of returning them, in an act to meet Lil Wayne.

M1 of dead prez Confirms Upcoming Collaboration Album With Stephen Marley

As "Information Age" wraps up, the RBGz are hard at work on a stic.man solo, and doing a full-length with Stephen Marley.

Hip Hop duo dead prez is at work on their tenth album, Information Age. Speaking with Mikey T The Movie Star, the group's co-founder M1 confirmed another higher-profile project in the works. "There's a number of albums we're working on, simultaneously. Being that we've been in this [industry] for a minute, we're able to work on more than one project at a time. We're also working with Stephen Marley on a project."

Stephen, who worked on Nas & Damian Marley's Distant Relatives album last year, has recorded with dead prez previously, on the Black & White soundtrack for "Dem Crazy." Last year, Marley signed another respected New York emcee in Lost Boyz member Mr. Cheeks.

M1 revealed that partner stic.man is also presently recording his second solo album.

Just Blaze Names His Top 5 Emcees of All-Time

No Kane, G. Rap, Rakim, KRS, Jay, Big, Cube, Pac, Nas, L, Em, Slick Rick or Cool J. So who made his list?

A lot of rappers and producers have been giving their Top 5 of All-Time lists of late, and Just Blaze is the latest. Just may also have the list that will have the most people up in arms. Eschewing the the usual consensus picks like Kool G. Rap, Jay-Z, and Rakim for other emcees from the same era. The New Jersey bred producer hit SOHH with his list and provided explainations.

Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys has to be in my Top 5, as a group. And you gotta remember, one thing about the Beastie Boys is that none of them ever really had "verses". Everything was them playing off of each other. They write collectively. It wasn't like, "I'm gonna write my verse and then you're gonna write your verse." You can't break them up. They deserve a spot on my list. So I'm gonna have to say that's one.

Prodigy
I would have to go with '95 Prodigy. I loved everything about him back then. There was a point where he was the best out, in my opinion. You think back to how many great opening lines Prodigy's had in songs. From "Shook Ones" to "Survival of the Fittest" to "Godfather Part III" to "Quiet Storm", he was the maestro to the opening line. So I would definitely put mid-1990's Prodigy on the list.

The D.O.C.
D.O.C.'s gotta be in there. You gotta remember with him, there really wasn't a West Coast vibe around his era. He was from Texas [and] formed a group with artists who were from the West Coast, but his album just felt more universal. I think what we consider these days as the "West Coast" sound was more so like the G-Funk era. Up until that point, everything that for the most part was coming out in terms of hip-hop was still different spins on it. It was like the East Coast sound was more rhymes and imitation and then D.O.C. kind of came out of nowhere, relatively unknown, from Houston, rapping the way he [did]. He's definitely one of the greats. He put out one album and that one album still stands the test of time even to this day.

Brother J
I've gotta keep it to what I listened to growing up and so I have to name Brother J from X-Clan. If you listen to a lot of those old X-Clan albums, they specialized in just jacking everybody else's beats and rhyming on 'em. So listening to an X-Clan album felt almost like you were at a house party. It sounded like somebody was just on the mic freestyling. His rhythm, his flow, his vocal presence, the knowledge he was kicking, all those factors are important. At the time, a lot of people were trying to kick knowledge but not too many could do it like him. Whatever you listen to at 12, 13 years old, it always sticks with you for the rest of your life. Even though he was rapping over everybody else's beats, his rhyme, his cadence, his flow, his rhyme patterns and just what he was saying in general, it's always stuck to me over the years. I can still go back to those first two albums.

Chuck D
My last pick would probably be Chuck D. Public Enemy's concept and pride in black nationalism at the time was important. It was such a movement more so than anything else. He might not have had the best rhymes or flow, but his voice and his presence made you stop and listen. His voice was one of the few that actually had the ability to control the people.

New Music: Timbaland f/ J’Royal Price & JimmyCodean – ‘Hot Mess’

This week’s installment of Timbaland Thursdays comes in the 11th hour with the release of “Hot Mess” featuring J’Royal Price and JimmyCodean. Over a slinky club beat, Timbo chants about wanting to get with a girl but having to turn her down because of her questionable behavior. “Hey, look at that girl standing there in that little bitty dress/ I think I wanna but I…/ Her girlfriend looking like a hot mess,” he emphatically barks on the chorus. Fix up and look sharp with the latest from Mr. Mosley.


Timbaland f/ J’Royal Price & JimmyCodean – “Hot Mess”

Video: Jennifer Hudson – ‘Where You At’

Foxy Brown Announces New Album, Weighs In on Lil’ Kim vs. Nicki Minaj

Foxy Brown is plotting a comeback. With her wild antics landing her in trouble over the past few years, Brooklyn’s Don Diva is getting back into the music biz, revealing that she’s got an album in the works.


The embattled raptress told Billboard that she is finally going to release her oft-delayed Black Roses album as a double-disc LP with hip-hop records on one CD and “dancehall rock” on the other.

“I’m in the studio every night, slaving. It’s going to be the first double CD from any female rapper in history, so it’s going to be really big,” she explained. “One side is going to be straight hip-hop and hardcore records, and a couple big radio joints, and then the other side is dancehall rock… I personally want it to drop around August or September.”

Fox Boogie, who released the Lil’ Kim diss track “Massacre” last month, also weighed in on the beef between Nicki Minaj and the Queen Bee, who she doesn’t feel is handling the situation properly. “Had she let the people say, ‘Oh [Nicki], you’re trying to be Kim, you’re a fake Kim,’ then it doesn’t come directly from her. But when you’re using that as a platform to bring your new album out, that’s like, ‘Oh my God, wait a minute.’ I don’t condone it at all; I don’t think it’s cute.”

She noted that Kim is known for this type of behavior. “And at some point, it’s like, ‘OK, Kim, you’ve had a problem with Foxy, you’ve had a problem with Nicki, you’ve had a problem with Faith [Evans], with Charli [Baltimore], with everybody,’” she stated. “It’s like, enough already. I choose to stay out of it. Put out great music, and that’s that.

Jennifer Lopez Lets Fans Decide Ending to ‘On the Floor’ Video

Jennifer Lopez is putting the power in her fans’ hands. The singer-actress is letting the public decide the ending to her “On the Floor” music video.


The RedOne-produced single from J.Lo’s upcoming album Love? has already hit No. 2 on iTunes following its release this week. The Pitbull-assisted clip, directed by Taj, will make its debut March 3 on “American Idol” and VEVO.

The announcement was made this morning on Ryan Seacrest’s 102.7 KIIS FM show. “‘On the Floor’ the video is going to be released with two different endings,” said Seacrest. “You can vote on which one you like better and the one with the most votes will premiere March 3 on ‘American Idol,’ the same night that the top 12 [contestants] are revealed.”

J.Lo added, “You get to do what I do. Like I go in there with my videos and I start editing and picking all the shots I like and the things that I like and what I feel the best kind of feeling for the record is. You guys get to do that. We picked two different ones and we weren’t sure.”

Viewers will have the option to choose which version they like best. “It’s just different shots. You just decide like, ‘I like the way that feels or I like the way that feels,’” explained the “Idol” judge.

J.Lo’s seventh album Love? will feature production from Tricky Stewart and The-Dream, and a potential collaboration with Rick Ross.

J.Cole Freestyle At House Of Blues

New Video: Gucci Mane “Weirdo”

Rick Ross God Forgives, I Don’t Blog 1

RICK ROSS 'GOD FORGIVES, I DON'T' BLOG 1 FT. DJ TOOMP from DRE FILMS / MAYBACH FILMS on Vimeo.

DJ Khaled & Ace Hood On Next Single

DJ Khaled & Ace Hood On Next Single from Andy Boy Genius on Vimeo.

Just Blaze’s re-OPEN-ed Grand Finale

Latest: Remy Ma's Appeal Denied

Rapper Reminisce Smith, a.k.a. Remy Ma's attempt to get out of prison early was turned down by the New York State Court of Appeals Thursday (February 24).

The former Terror Squad member and her lawyers sought to have her conviction for a 2007 shooting overturned.

Remy was originally convicted May 13, 2008 and sentenced to eight years for the shooting and that injured Makeda Barnes-Joseph, following an argument.

Her defense had argued that the judge had not properly properly informed jurors before they rendered their guilty verdict during her 2007 trial.

Shaheem Reid Presents: 'Introducing Young Swift'

Dr. Dre [World Premiere of 'I Need A Doctor' Video Featuring Eminem]

MTV Shows

Lupe Fiasco Thought About Committing Suicide While Making His Latest Album "To Keep From Killing Someone Else"

 

Lupe Fiasco has put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into his upcoming 'Lasers' album.

The project was once rejected by his label Atlantic, he tried getting released from the label, fans organized a rally/boycott to get the album put out, now finally, on March 8, it will see the light of day.

There are still some battle scars left on the Chicago rapper, even if you can't see them.

In a recent interview with Details, Lupe talks about contemplating suicide while trying to get this album out. He even raps about it on the song "Beautiful Lasers."

"If you feel like you don't want to be alive, you feel just like I am," he raps.

A lot of his frustration stemmed from the fact Atlantic wanted him him to be something he's not. Trying to force poppy, syrupy records that might be fine for other artists but not Lupe down his throat.

"The creation of Lasers was a very painful, dark, f*cked-up process," he says. Adding that he definitely thought about suicide if only to prevent himself from "from killing somebody else,"

Creatively, Lupe knows his limits and what he's capable of musically even after Atlantic rejected his album initially for not being pop enough, he stayed on course.

"I don't know how to do what Kanye does," he says "I don't have that Midas touch."

He does however have the ability to make great songs that his fans enjoy.

Brutal New Rihanna Photos Surface From Chris Brown Assault

New photos of Rihanna reportedly taken shortly after Chris Brown beat her have shown up online.

MediaTakeOut.com has published photos of Rihanna which appear to have been taken at a hospital back in 2009 ... following the brutal attack.

No comment from Rihanna's camp ... at least so far.

Shortly after the incident, TMZ published a photo of Rihanna's injuries. Brown eventually plead guilty to assaulting Rihanna and was ordered to stay away from the singer.

However, just this week, a judge agreed to allow Brown to once again have contact with his ex-girlfriend.