Classic Cuts Hip Hop News 9/11/12

Dream Hampton's recent allegations about Nas supposedly using Jay Electronica and dead prez as ghostwriters on his 2008 album Untitled caused pandemonium that went past the initial allegations throughout the internets for much of the latter half of August. Just as things began to simmer down, dead prez recently spoke their peace on the situation with the Sway In the Morning crew. The duo remained steadfast in their claims that their contributionsUntitled were limited to production, co-creating choruses, and bouncing around ideas. You know, the typical services of a producer.

Sway posed the question 'I would love for you guys to clear up the latest controversy about Nas and if someone wrote lyrics for Nas ever for a project,' to which stic.man wittily replied 'How that sound?'
'Nah. Ghostwriting as far as someone saying 'Come and write my verse for me?' That didn't happen,' said stic.man. 'But we did get to work with Nas extensively on the N-Word album, the Untitled album, collaborated, co-writing hooks and doing a lot of production is what I did. That rumor just jumped out of somewhere, but it was bigger than us and it had nothing to do with what we did. We were just thankful for the opportunity.'
M-1 chimed in, expressing his disdain for the whole situation, adding 'It's funny how something like this can discredit an artist, totally. Even just the rumor of this has this feel. I feel like it's funny.'

'Nas is a phenomenal artist. He's been the cornerstone for definitely a whole generation, and his movement is strong, he's amazing, he's as brilliant as he's ever been. No matter what, whether he collaborated with somebody, Nas is who he is because he is alive and doing what he's doing. That shouldn't even be questioned at all. I feel like the issue at all is trivial. I feel like in the face of people who doing real things and making real contributions, let's look at that.'

stic.man finished by spinning the question, asking 'How many rappers or just entertainers have books out that's written by somebody else?'
The full footage can be seen below.

http://hiphopwired.com/2012/09/06/dead-prez-further-denies-nas-ghostwriting-allegations-video/



Cee Lo Green is expanding his relationship with NBC, by developing a sitcom for the network. Green already works as a judge on NBC's The Voice, and has clocked more new ventures with the nework, including producing, and possibly starring in, a scripted series. Spearheaded by Sony Pictures Television, and Happy Madison, the project will be launched under Primary Wave TV, and Green's company, Emerald Productions.

Penned by Ali Leroi, of Everybody Hates Chris fame, the comedy will be loosely based on Green's life, and how he juggles his personal and professional commitments. 'Cee Lo is one of the most unique artists that the entertainment world has ever seen,' said co-executive producer, Andrew Jameson of Primary Wave. Jameson-a former president at Maloof Productions- is also a partner at Emerald Productions. 'I am excited to be his partner and look forward to extending his creative vision into the television world.'

Jameson is the man behind Cee Lo Takes the U.K.: Christmas With All the Goodies, a Christmas special which aired across the pond, produced by reality tv giant, Mark Burnett.

Still riding off the success of his 'F-ck You' single, Green has inked a bevy of business deals. Among his other ventures include a growing acting resume, a non-scripted show with NBC, a performance residency in Las Vegas, and being named the chief creative officer of Primary Wave Music where he will work with artist to develop, and co-write music.



Back in the day at the 1994 Source Awards, Tupac allegedly dissed A Tribe Called Quest, and the beef was on. The urban legend is that ATCQ, who are members of the Zulu Nation, were ready to step to the late rapper after he infamously cut off their acceptance speech for the Artist Of The Year Award. However, according to Busta Rhymes, the entire incident-Pac bumrushed the stage to perform 'Out On Bail'-was a big misunderstanding.
Speaking to Young Jack Thriller of ThisIs50.com, the Dungeon Dragon, who has 'experienced some profound sh-t in Hip-Hop,' detailed how things almost got out of order.

Note: that time Suge Knight threw blatant shots at Sean 'Diddy' Combs and Bad Boy was the 1995 Source Awards.

'Tribe had got the award for Best Hip-Hop Group of the Year. I don't know if Pac's people at the time knew that Tribe was still getting their award and doing their acceptance speech, but he pressed play while they was doing their acceptance speech,' said Busta. 'So it looked like Pac just went out there and started performing on some, 'F-ck the awards sh-t, 'I'm just gonna do my sh-t on top of them ni--as, whatever!' So it looked crazy from the front because it was like, these ni--as is in the middle of their acceptance speech and then yo sh-t just come on and you just com eout there and bogart their sh-t, and it just looked like a crazy disrespect to Tribe. So the beef started immediately.'

Ego Trip's: Big Book of Rap Lists pointed out a suspect soundman as the real cause of Pac's too early performance start. According to Busta, he held private convos with Tupac and acted as a mediator to get the separate camps to squash any sort of tension.

'I don't know if too many people knew about this at the time when it went down or even after, that it was a big misunderstanding,' says Busta, who was closely affiliated with Tribe. 'Me and Pac had a conversation about that, and Pac made it clear to me that he didn't mean to do that, that wasn't his fault and he don't understand why or how it happened that way. But you know how it go, you're music start rolling, you going to do what you supposed to do. Pac was actually trying to see how we could coordinate getting a public truce going on BET; Rap City was still on the air. I was actually trying to coordinate that and I was communicating to Tip via Pac and Pac via Tip, and the vibe was amazing. Everybody was like, 'Yo, no doubt, no problem, let's the world see it' and it never happened.'
Check out the full interview below.

http://hiphopwired.com/2012/09/09/busta-rhymes-says-tupac-dissing-a-tribe-called-quest-was-a-misunderstanding-video/