MC Breed passes away

While details are still being confirmed, several sources told AllHipHop.com that the rapper died early this morning.

“He’s no longer with us,” said a tearful friend, who shall remain anonymous. “We are in the process of putting together a benefit concert, hopefully at Saint Andrews to raise money for a funeral,” the source told AllHipHop.com.

MC Breed, born Eric Breed, was a 15-year-veteran who was born in Flint Michigan.

He worked with a number of rappers, including Too $hort and Tupac Shakur.

On September 5, Breed was admitted to an Atlanta area hospital and placed on life support, after he collapsed when his kidneys failed, during a game of pickup basketball.

His condition began to improve and he was taken off of life support a few days later.

Kanye West Explains Latest Arrest; Says Paps Above The Law

Rap star Kanye West addressed his most recent encounter with photographers via his blog yesterday (November 15).

In a lengthy entry, West, who was momentarily detained in London Friday morning (November 14), explained his side of the confrontation outside a nightclub in Newcastle in the United Kingdom.

“I am protecting my personal space since there are no laws to protect that for me,” West wrote. “I’m a normal person that’s just famous. I refuse to sneak in and out of back doors and kitchens of hotels, etc.”

According to the multi-platinum rapper/producer, the incident occurred when an aggressive photographer attempted to capture his exit from the nightclub on film without the Hip-Hop superstar’s permission.

As his security guard yelled “get the camera off him,” a statement which was originally attributed to West in the photographer’s complaint, the rapper himself raised his hand to block the lens’ view.

West explained that it was never his intent to assault the photographer.

Three hours after the original incident, five members of the Northumbria Police Department appeared at the rapper’s hotel room, explaining that since a complaint had been filed, he had to be taken into custody.

Kanye West was later released without charge.

In his statement, West raised a strong case for regulation against the current practices of celebrity photographers.

“Paparazzi give real photographers a bad name,” West said. “A picture is worth a thousand words, theirs are worth a thousand dollars. Right now the paps are above the law and the people they shoot are below it. What should be illegal is pictures taken with the intent to sell, like drugs with the intent to sell or crossing customs with enough merchandise to have the intent to sell. The exploitation of my image is the problem. It produces a ‘by any means necessary’ behavior that cause the paps to drive recklessly on freeways, jump over fences and invade privacy all in an effort to get that money shot. You shouldn’t be able to sell a picture of me without my permission…let us not forget the paps killed Princess Diana.”

West was involved in a similar altercation in late September in which he responded much more violently to the papparazo involved.

The rapper initially faced felony charges for destroying the photographer, was later cleared of those charges as well.

Bump J Busted On Bank Robbery Charges

Chicago rapper Terrance “Bump J” Boykins has been arrested and charged with a 2007 bank robbery.

According to Chicago’s WBBM, federal authorities attained the emcee earlier this week after he was stopped by local police during a routine traffic stop. He has been the target of a nationwide search by Chicago FBI’s Violent Crimes Task Force since September 2008.

J was indicted before a federal grand jury on one count of bank robbery and violation of federal firearms statues.

A witness believes there were two men, including J, involved in the January 4 robbery of a Chase Bank where they were equipped with handguns and forced bank employees to hand over more than $100,000.

J is currently being held without bond at the Carbondale Police Department until he returns to Chicago where he will be officially charged and placed behind bars. If convicted, J faces up to 20 years in federal prison.

The other suspect in the case has yet to be charged.

Bumpy J who was at one time signed to Atlantic Records, has recorded songs with fellow Chi-town rapper Kanye West and Rhymefest and has dropped several mixtapes including 2006’s DJ Drama hosted “Chicagorilla”

West ‘uses Dressing Room Floor As Toilet’

Rap superstar KANYE WEST shocked his fellow celebrities backstage at a pre-MTV Europe Music Awards party in Liverpool, England on Wednesday ( 05Nov 08 ) - when he reportedly relieved himself on the floor of his dressing room.

The Stronger hitmaker was in the city to perform and collect the Ultimate Urban prize at the MTV ceremony on Thursday ( 06Nov 08 ).But his alleged behaviour at the star-studded bash the night before stunned pop duo The Ting Tings, who had to share his dressing room at the party, reports Britain’s The Sun newspaper.Drummer Jules De Martino says, “We ask for a lot of unusual things on our backstage rider but that ain’t (sic) one of them!”

Lupe Fiasco says LupEND Will Be A Three-Disc Release

To much dismay from his fans, Lupe Fiasco has stated his third and final album will indeed be LupEND. Though many supporters of the Chi-town rapper aren’t worried about the quality expected from this project, their bitterness lies in the fact that his catalog in Hip Hop will only be three albums deep. However, after an announcement during a show Halloween night, Lupe Fiasco clearly had a treat that would sweeten up his fans.

Addressing his crowd in Chicago at the Congress Theater on Friday, Lupe revealed the album will be not one, but three discs in length. “The name of the next album is LupEND. That’s Lup E.N.D. So, if my mathematics serve me correct from a fabulous Chicago public school system, it’s not one album ladies and gentlemen…it’s three.”

Though nothing was said on the possibility of LupEND being a concept album like The Cool , Lupe did give titles to the acronym E.N.D. “Let’s see, E, we’ll call that one Everywhere. N, we’ll call that one Nowhere. And the last one D, we’ll call that Down Here. So, LupEND is actually a triple CD.”

With an encouraging smirk and the audience in complete bedlam, Lupe rhetorically asked, “[Are you] happy now?”

Kanye West & Alicia Keys To Headline The AMAs

Mega-platinum selling artists Kanye West and Alicia Keys have been officially scheduled to perform at the American Music Awards (AMA) show in Los Angeles, California next month.

According to Newsday, both West and Keys, who are nominated for numerous AMAs, will be headlining the event as Ye is expected to perform new songs like “Love Lockdown” and “Coldest Winter” from his upcoming album 808s and Heartbreak. The performance will follow his highly received appearance at last month’s MTV Video Music Awards.

Keys, who is currently starring in the movie The Secret Life Of Bees, is expected to sing songs from her multi-platinum selling album As I Am including “No One,” “Like You’ll Never See Me Again,” “Teenage Love Affair” and “Superwoman.”

Keys leads this year’s award show with five nominations in such categories as “Artist of the Year,” “Favorite Female Pop or Rock Music Artist” and “Favorite Soul/Rhythm & Blues Music Female Artist.”

Lil’ Wayne and Kanye also receiving multiple nominations for “Favorite Male Hip-Hop Artist” and “Favorite Hip-Hop Album.”

Other nominated artists include Jay-Z, Chris Brown, Usher, Three 6 Mafia, Jordin Sparks, Rihanna, G-Unit, Mariah Carey and Mary J. Blige. Newcomers The-Dream and Flo Rida will go head-to-head for the “T-Mobile Breakthrough Artist Award.”

Hosted by comedian Jimmy Kimmel, the AMAs will be broadcast live from the Nokia Theater LA on Sunday, November 23.

R. Kelly Wins Lawsuit Against Promoter, Singer Awarded $3.4 Million

A Los Angeles judge today (October 6) ordered a Georgia based promoter to pay $3.4 million in damages to R. Kelly for failing to compensate the singer for his 2007 ‘Double Up’ tour.

Kelly filed a lawsuit against Leonard Rowe earlier this year claiming that the promoter owed him millions from the 35 city tour.

Kelly also claimed Rowe sold non-existent shares from the tour to various investors.

“I agreed to let Leonard Rowe promote my tour because he convinced me
he was an underdog who deserved a chance to prove himself,” Kelly said via a statement. “Like the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished.”

Rowe now faces lawsuits from the duped investors. Last month, Rowe was ordered to pay over $700,000 to R&B singer Ne-Yo for breaching a contract related to the ‘Double Up’ tour.

Tupac Producer Johnny J Dead of Apparent Suicide

According to a number of reports, Jackson, who was incarcerated on a DUI charge, allegedly jumped from a tier in the prison, resulting in his death, although the official cause of death has not been determined.

Johnny J., who was born in Mexico and raised in South Central Los Angeles, is best known for the body of work he recorded with the late Tupac Shakur.

He started in the music business at the age of 16, but his first taste of success came in 1990, when he produced the Grammy nominated hit single “Knockin’ Boots” for pioneering “Spanglish” rapper Candyman.

Around 1993, Johnny J started an affiliation with Shakur, which would eventually produce hundreds of recordings land the producer work on a number of high profile releases.

He produced tracks on albums like The Above The Rim soundtrack, as well as Tupac’s Thug Life album, Me Against The World and All Eyez On Me, which contained the hit single How Do U Want It, which was a Johnny J. production.

Johnny J. was prolific as well, having produced or scored music for movies like Blood Diamond, The Fan and The Big Hit.

Johnny J. also released a solo album in 1995 titled I Gotta Be Me and many of his productions on Tupac Shakur ended up on posthumous releases like Until The End Of Time, Better Dayz, R U Still Down (Remember Me) and others.

Johnny J. also worked with a number of artists, ranging from Tatyana Ali and The Outlawz to Lil’ Eazy E’s group The Kings of L.A.

A documentary on his life was also being produced at the time of his death.

Kanye West’s HBO Show Put On The Shelf, Producer Says Its ‘Too Hard-Core’ For Network

Kanye West’s long awaited HBO show won’t be seeing daylight anytime soon as a producer of the show recently revealed that the network is not supporting the project.

Last year, Kanye announced that he had joined forces with Curb Your Enthusiasm producer Larry Charles to develop a series revolving around his life and it would feature elements from Curb Your Enthusiasm.

However, according to Larry Charles who recently spoke to ComingSoon.net, HBO is currently not backing the show.

“It was really good, but … I think it was too hard-core for HBO. Also, HBO’s management shifted. HBO doesn’t have a good track record when it comes to black shows, and I felt like that may have had something to do with it also,” explained Larry Charles. “I don’t see a lot of shows about that experience at all. This was very entertaining and we showed it to a lot of people. People gave it a very good response, and it seems to be on the shelf right now. The management has shifted at HBO so we’re waiting to see.”

An HBO representative confirmed to MTV that the show has been in development but nothing has materialized. A rep for Kanye had no comment.

Traxster & Scarface mashup

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