Detroit hasn’t screamed this loud at a baseball park since Kirk Gibson was hitting home runs in the 1984 World Series. Hip-hop history was made as Jay-Z and Eminem co-headlined the Motor City’s Comerica Park (home of the D-Town Tigers for the past decade) on Thursday night (September 2), the first of two shows on consecutive nights.

While Jay’s high-grossing touring schedule helped him to top this year’s Forbes’ “Hip-Hop Cash King” list, Eminem took a much-needed sabbatical to deal with a myriad of personal issues. Now beyond his darkest hour, Em had one of his brightest moments ever onstage. Not only did he gift his hometown with a seemingly endless string of hits, he pulled off some major surprises. After D12, 50 Cent and the G-Unit — acts that fans likely expected — came out for performances with Em, Slim Shady pulled off a shocker. Dr. Dre came out, first stunning the people then delighting them with smashes.

After his name appeared on the Comerica big screen, the man heralded by many as the greatest producer of his time came out to the opening notes of his world-famous “Next Episode.” Then the familiar first keys of “Still Dre” were played.

“Haters say Dre fell off,” the Doc rapped. “How n—a? My last album was The Chronic.”

After that, the Shady/Aftermath duo took it back to Dre’s Chronic days with Read the full story

 Nashville, Tennessee rapper Young Buck has released a statement regarding his tax battle with the IRS and reports of a planned $5 million dollar lawsuit against G-Unit leader 50 Cent.

Young Buck filed for Chapter 13, which allowed the rapper to keep all of his possessions, as he pays back an estimated $12,500 per month, over the next five years.

“I was forced to file bankruptcy, not because I am broke. “ Young Buck said in a statement. “But because I have to get my finances back in order and deal with the contract situations I was in. Now I have a clean slate and full control over my own life and career.”

Representatives for Young Buck also confirmed his bankruptcy status has negated “any and all contractual obligations held by the filer, which in the case of Young Buck, includes his recording and publishing contracts with G-Unit Records, thus allowing him to shop for another deal.”

Young Buck also shot down reports that he would be filing a lawsuit against 50 Cent, G-Unit and former manager Sha Money XL.

“Where did that rumor come from?! I have not filed suit against anyone, although, maybe that’s not a bad idea,” Young Buck told AllHipHop.com in a statement.

Rapper 50 Cent has promised to take a break from Twitter over the next week, as he finishes up a new album titled The Return of the Heartless Monster, which is due to be released on September 6th.

50 Cent broke the news about the album with a series of tweets earlier in the week, when he revealed the album title and release date.

Today (September 1st), the rapper stated that he would go on hiatus from sending out his daily raunchy, humorous tweets, until his album is completed.

“Ok ladies and gentalmen [sic] I’m writing my new album. I will not be on twitter again till sept 6 This album will be a classic.”

The rapper caught the spelling error in what he tweeted would be his final message to his 3,070,000 plus followers until next Monday.

“Motherfu**ers I know how to spell gentleman I was typing fast f**k you. sept 6 until then b**ches suck deep and ni**as lick the holes right.”

According to 50 Cent, the new release is scheduled to hit the net around 12:00PM on September 6th.

Young Buck is planning to take on rival and G-Unit leader 50 Cent for an amount that could be as much as $5 million dollars.

According to the Nashville City Paper, Young Buck will sue 50 Cent for his freedom from his G-Unit recording contract, which has prevented him from releasing material, or recording guest appearance tracks with other artists.

Young Buck, born David Darnell Brown, filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection, to pay off his debt in a structured, timely manner.

The Nashville rapper will file a lawsuit against 50 Cent, G-Unit and Sha Money XL.

“Mr. Brown intends to reorganize his debts and pay off the IRS in a timely manner through Chapter 13,” Lynda Brown told the City Paper. “We hope to secure the return of his personal property quickly. He will also be filing a lawsuit in the next 30-60 days against his former manager, G Unit label and Mr. Curtis Jackson.”

In a previous statement regarding his debt to the IRS, Young Buck claimed his tax troubles were the result of inept business practices.  

“This IRS situation came about because I trusted accountants, lawyers, and managers to handle my business for me while I focused on making music,” Young Buck told AllHipHop.com in a statement. “From now on, I am going to stay on top of my own business.”

In 2008, Sha Money XL claimed that G-Unit had paid Young Buck over $10 million in royalties as an artist on G-Unit Records.

Young Buck has publicly denied receiving anywhere near that amount from the label.

Rapper 50 Cent returned to his Twitter account today (August 28th) as promised.

The internationally known rap star commented on today’s news that socialite Paris Hilton was arrested in Las Vegas for possessing cocaine.

Hilton was charged with felony cocaine possession on Friday night (August 27th), after police stopped her boyfriend’s SUV after witnessing marijuana smoke emanating from the vehicle.

The rapper claimed that Hilton has been snorting the drug for years.

“Paris got cought with some cocaine last night Man that b**ch been sniffin that yola,” 50 tweeted. “We was in mia a couple yrs ago she was gettin fucked up.”

50 also blasted Kanye West, who also recently joined  Twitter.

“I just looked at kanye page what the f**k kind a spaced out tweets are those…f**k that I aint never looking at that s**tagain.”

Actor/Rapper 50 Cent recently shared one of his biggest movie career regrets and said he wished he could have ventured into Hollywood earlier in his life.

From Fif’s perspective, he would have invested the same amount of dedication he has for music to the film industry.

“I regret not going into film production faster. I [have] an interest in the storytelling process in filmmaking, but I never really allowed myself to go into it with the same type of focus and excitement that I do with music.” (VIBE)

50 recently appeared on “The View” to discuss the mindset he had to dig into for his role as a drug dealer in the new movie Twelve.

“It’s a totally different experience for me because I’ve been away from that for a very long time,” 50 Cent said in an interview on “The View.” “In this actual project, the character’s actually darker. I’ve never done anything with those motivations. There’s a scene in the actual film where he’s excited to trade the drugs for a woman’s virginity. That’s darker than anything I’ve experienced…Well, I mean just my motivation. I didn’t come there to actually hurt anyone. It was just what the environment provided for me without any requirements…Like they don’t say, ‘You need a master’s [degree] to be a drug dealer.’ Everyone’s eligible. You have two hands [and] two feet… Run, the cops are coming.” (The Boom Box)

The rapper-turned-actor also made headlines earlier this summer for losing around 50 pounds for his role as a cancer victim in the upcoming film, Things Fall Apart.

“It’s about a Heisman hopeful who could possibly be going to the league and everyone is assuming he’s gonna make it and then he’s hit with an illness,” 50 explained in an interview. “I had a friend of mine who actually experienced cancer and it’s what motivated me to write this screenplay. You don’t have to make everything personal, but that project was. That’s why I committed to playing a role where I lost 54 pounds. I had to discipline myself enough until I achieved it but… I got it. (Cleveland News)

Although Fif has released a few films via straight-to-DVD, the rapper recently pointed out the benefits of skipping out on theatrical releases.

“They’ll spend a $120 million on a film or a whole bunch of money making a film and then a whole bunch of money promoting it a year before it actually comes out and the money they get back in theaters is just the money they spent,” 50 explained in an interview. “And then it goes straight-to-dvd and everything is profit there. Some of the movies I’ve done recently, I was financing and I’ve already seen a 60 percent return on what I’ve [been] involved with. They don’t understand, they’re looking at it and going, ‘Well, it went straight-to-dvd,’ and they don’t realize I’m gonna get another $800,000 off each one of these projects. You can sit there and say ‘It went straight-to-dvd’ my a** … They’ll try to figure a way to discredit whatever you do because I come from that. I have a lot, so I’m conditioned to the people who haven’t been through that and can’t get to the next level…If they look at their favorite artists, they don’t have an opportunity to be in a film…” (93.3 Tampa Bay Radio)

 

 

(AllHipHop News) Forbes has dropped its annual list of the top money makers in Hip-Hop music and rap mogul Jay-Z has topped the list for a second straight year.

According to the report, Jay-Z, born Sean Carter, raked in $63 million over the past 12 months.

He will pay the government about $22 million, more than any other artist earned on the entire list, excluding Sean “Diddy” Combs, the #2 earner with $30 million.

“We put together this list by applying the same rigorous methodology we apply to our research for the Forbes 400, the Celeb 100 and other specials,” Forbes writer Zack O’Malley Greenburg told AllHipHop.com.

Greenburg, who is also penning a business-focused biography on Jay-Z told AllHipHop.com that information was gathered “concrete data” provided by companies like Billboard, Pollstar, Niesen Soundscan, the Recording Industry Association of America.

Additionally, Forbes conducted its own investigative research through interviews with executives, lawyers, media buyers, label executives and various artists.

“This year’s rankings show that Hip-Hop’s most financially successful artists continue Read the full story

It’s official: 50 Cent’s G-Unit has inked a deal with EMI Label Services to market, promote and distribute releases from the popular New York-based record label.

The first release under the new deal with be Lloyd Banks’ third solo album H.F.M. 2 (Hunger For More 2), which is slated for a November 23rd, release date.

Lloyd Banks’ release will be followed by Tony Yayo’s untitled follow-up to his 2008 solo debut Thoughts of a Predicate Felon.

Yayo’s album, which will include the single “Pass the Patron,” will land in stores in early 2011.

“It’s refreshing to see the EMI staff excited about my project, they have the passion and energy I haven’t seen in while,” Lloyd Banks told AllHipHop.com in a statement today (August 13th).

Mike Harris, executive Vice President and General Manager for EMI Label Services, was excited to welcome G-Unit, one of Hip-Hop’s best known brands, to the label.

“G-Unit is a huge force,” Harris stated. “Lloyd Banks knows how to deliver a lyrical punch and his single has already generated huge anticipation for the album.. Tony Yayo is a totally unique talent, and ‘Pass the Patron’ already has the Hip-Hop world buzzing about his album coming out next year.”

For weeks, fans speculated where G-Unit might end up, with most of the chatter hinting to a deal with Def Jam, where former G-Unit Records President Sha Money XL serves as Executive Vice President.

With the move to EMI, G-Unit Records is no longer under the Interscope/Universal umbrella of record labels.

“The EMI staff is creative and willing to think outside the box,” Tony Yayo explained to AllHipHop.com in a statement. “They are fans of my music and career.  I’m looking forward to marketing and promoting my upcoming album with them.”

Terror Squad leader Fat Joe has refused to keep silent on his issues with 50 Cent and explained why the G-Unit frontman is not only a liar but a has-been rap star.

From Joey Crack’s perspective, 50’s brand has continued to diminish since his 2003 debut, Get Rick Or Die Tryin’, which sold over 11 million copies worldwide.

“When he did that first interview dissing Fat Joe with you [Sway], with the candlelights and all that, he lied,” Joe said in an interview. “When he said no one knows Fat Joe in Africa, I saw that interview from Africa and I had 70,000 people out there. There isn’t a country I ain’t touch in Africa…You talk about album sales — he went from selling 10 million albums to not even going gold this last album. So, he lost nine-and-a-half-million fans in four years. I don’t really trip off him…The latest one he’s going at: Puff Daddy. He has beef with Jadakiss, he has beef with Cam’ron. Anybody we consider dope in New York, he has went at them. There ain’t nobody he ain’t touch. Fat Joe ain’t out here trying to battle-rap everybody in the world.” (MTV)

Earlier this week, 50 released a video mocking the rapper’s speculated Darkside, Volume 1 first-week album sales.

“I just listened to Fat Joe’s record and this is all I have to say.” 50 then puts up a copy of Fat Joe’s Darkside, Volume 1 which has an animated smiley face crying with tears pouring down its face. “I didn’t mean to do this to you Joe.” 50 then proceeds to mock his rap rival with footage of a woman and men crying, all taken from different sources. The video concludes with a message reading: “Only 5,000 copies sold…d*mn Joe!” (This Is 50)

Despite Fif’s prediction, Joe’s latest solo LP went on to sell over 12,000 copies.

“Re-Tweet: E1Music Congrats to @joeycrackts for selling 12,320 copies of The Dark Side this week & being the #2 indie album!!!”

“”Why they mad at me for putting out good music real music music they can’t make!!! DARKSIDE!!!” (Fat Joe’s Twitter)

Last January, 50’s Before I Self Destruct was certified gold by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for shipping out over 500,000 copies to retailers.

50 Cent has another Gold certified album on his hands. The rapper’s 2009 effort “Before I Self Destruct” was recently certified Gold by the RIAA due to sales in excess of 500,000 copies. Led by the single “Baby By Me,” 50 Cent’s “Before I Self Destruct” closed out a strong decade of hit albums and singles for him. (Examiner)