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LOS ANGELES – The Grammy Awards will feature star-studded performances by music icons Bob Dylan and Dr. Dre.
Dylan, a 10-time Grammy and lifetime achievement winner, will join nominee Mumford & Sons and The Avett Brothers for a salute to acoustic music, while Dr. Dre will make his debut on the Grammy stage when he joins protege Eminem.
It will be Dr. Dre's first performance on live television in a decade. Eminem, who leads all nominees with 10, also will be joined by Maroon 5's Adam Levine.
The Grammys also announced Thursday that Zac Brown, Eva Longoria, Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas will present awards.
The Grammys air live at 8 p.m. EST Sunday from Los Angeles.
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http://www.grammy.com  Share on Facebook ·  Bookmark on Delicious  | Posted by news
| Sat, September 25, 2010 at 7:12 AM |
 Dr. Dre Another Hip-Hop star is getting in the cognac business. Dre's been real busy these days between his new brand of laptops and his long awaited album, however now he can officially add Cognac to his repertoire. According to AHH, Dr. Dre's brand new cognac should be available in stores at the end of this month, beginning October.
The producer /rapper, Dre, released info about Aftermath Cognac as early as August 2008. This drink will be first alcoholic drink from Dr. Dre and Interscope/Geffen/A&M Records. Abecassis Cognac will dealing with the production and distribution of the new Aftermath Cognac, and will help present a new 80-proof sparkling vodka product which will be available as flavored and unflavored. Of course, the Cognac release coincides with Dre's follow up album, Detox - which is more than highly anticipated.
Has cognac replaced clothing lines as the new "side" business in Hip-Hop? | Posted by news
| Sat, September 11, 2010 at 10:45 AM |
 Dr. Dre Super producer Dr. Dre has settled a million-dollar lawsuit with his longtime recording studio, Paramount Recording Studios.
Paramount filed a $1,220,500 lawsuit against Dr. Dre, claiming the rapper and his label, Aftermath Entertainment, failed to pay the studio bill, which ran from April of 2009 until June of 2010.
Dre had recorded at the studio for the past 10 years, allowing him to receive a lower rate for the studio's services. Dre was supposed to settle the bill in July of 2010, but failed to do so.
Dre, born Andre Young, recently settled up with the studio in regards to the outstanding balance.
Reps for Paramount revealed that they had reached an amicable settlement with Dre, who is working on his album, Detox.
Source: AH  | Posted by manifesto
| Tue, August 10, 2010 at 11:50 PM |
 Wu-Tang Clan's GZA/Genius, a.k.a. Gary Grice, has a 7th studio album Liquid Swords II slated for release this fall. Given that this album's 15-year-old predecessor is one of my top 10 favorite LPs of all time, the surprisingly top-shelf execution of fellow Clan member Raekwon's Cuban Linx sequel last year and that the RZA is overseeing the entire project, I'm a bit excited to hear what GZA comes up with.
I'm guessing I'd be extremely hard-pressed to find anyone under the age of 20 who feels the same way. I could scour any one Chicago public high school full of rap fans and likely not find a single individual checking for an album from a 43-year-old dude named Gary.
Here at the beginning of the century's second decade, many of the rappers I enjoyed in my youth are either on the "wrong" side of 40 or fast approaching, and many are still recording albums. Method Man, the youngest member of the Wu, is 39. Jay-Z is 40. Dr. Dre is 45! Ice Cube, 41, still manages to s**t out a album here and there between writing, producing and starring in terrible, family-friendly movie fare; I don't know how he has the stones to release any gangsta material after gracing celluloid with his nauseating, forced ghetto bonhomie.
Loyal readers of this column know that I consider myself a crusty, out-of-touch old fart when it comes to contemporary hip-hop: I'm a loyal devotee to the art and culture, but largely from the perspective of the way things used to be.
When I listened to hip-hop as a teenager, I viewed it as music for the youth and assumed that reaching one's 30s would preclude them from appreciating the music in any capacity. While I can't conceive a force that would prevent me from abandoning an art and culture I've sworn devotion to by the ink on my right forearm in just a year (I write this column seven days outside of my 29th birthday), my tastes haven't exactly evolved much in the past decade. The collection of rap CDs in my truck is, more often than not, anachronistic and obscure; I enjoy lesser-known acts that evoke memories of what I was bumping in high-school, and little to no representation of the current Top 40 is ever in rotation.
But can one ever really get too old to appreciate rap music? (lyrically anyway - a good beat knows no generational boundaries) Moreover, is it appropriate that many of these older rappers are still churning out new material? A good R&B artist can put out records about lovemaking and heartache until he starts farting dust (see: Ronald Isley). But I think that a rapper's hubris - a veritable mainstay of the genre - doesn't hold up well as he/she continues to age.
When I was younger, I embraced the bang-bang, my-d**k-is-bigger-than-yours aesthetic of hip-hop. But as I witness all these rappers get older, sire children and sprout gray hairs - and as I get some age under my own belt - I think of a popular nugget from Shawn Carter: "We don't believe you, you need more people." In fact, Jay is a perfect example of someone who rapped at his finest with something to prove 15 years ago, yet can't rap about s**t in 2010 that's believable to me outside of yacht vacations in Cabo San Lucas, using Benjamins as fireplace kindling and coconut oil-massaging Beyonce's ever-vacillating booty.
I want to hear more records with ol
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