Rihanna Gets 6th Platinum Selling Album

In her 8 year career, Rihanna has released 7 albums. Her latest album, Unpologetic crossed the one million sales mark this week, and gives her her 6th Platinum selling album.Of all her album, it's only her first, Music of the Sun that didn't go platinum (It would probably go platinum in a couple of years). You can hate her personal life all you want, but you can't play with her work ethic. Rihanna has been consistent since she dropped her first album in 2005, and she is not slowing down any-time soon. I think dropping 7 albums in 8 years, and having 10 Billboard number 1 singles is no small feat. Congrats, Riri.

Lady Gaga's £8 Million Scotland Mansion Has 60 Rooms

Kon Live/Interscope Records artist, Lady Gaga has been a super success since her debut album (The Fame) dropped in 2008. Because she's always touring, she had been renting a Bel Air mansion for many years ($25,000); but it was reported that she finally got a 60 bedroom Scotland mansion. Gaga had been eyeing the mansion since 2010. It covers a land area of 200 acres, and was built in the 18th century. The mansion went for a whooping £8 million dollars.







Check out pics of the mansion below-

'People Like Kim Kardashian Don't Last Very Long'- Robert Greene

Author of the best selling book, '48 Laws Of Power', Robert Greene said that 'people like Kim Kardashian don't last very long.' He said this during a recent interview with allhiphop.com, where Greene was speaking on celebrity entrepreneurs.

“People like the Kim Kardashians don’t last very long. Probably someone like that is sort of miserable, because she’s probably massively insecure knowing that it’s built on smoke-and-mirrors. I think we are heading into a period of sobriety where we’re going to celebrate people who get things done, who build things, who solve problems.”

As much as I want to agree with him on this, I think otherwise. The Kardashian's are marketing genius's. Not necessarily Kim herself; I think the mastermind is her mother, Kris Jenner. They turned a situation that was meant to be a life-time digress into a business. They got $40 million dollars just last year for their show to keep running for another 3 seasons or so. They have their clothing line; the girls are married to fairly rich men; even the younger ones are cashing out off the family fame. Think about it, for every product Kim endorses with a single tweet, she gets paid $10,000. She has lasted for over 5 years; ,I don't think she is a flash in the pan' type.

Jaden Smith Shows Up In iron-Man Costume For Date With Kylie Jenner

Will Smith's son, Jaden Smith has been hanging out with Kim Kardashian's sister, Kylie Jenner a lot lately. Recently, Jaden was invited on a date by Kylie Jenner, and he showed up in an Iron-Man costume. By the way, Jaden is 14, and Kylie is 15. It's really funny that they are hanging out, cos recently, when Will Smith was asked about the similaries between the The Smith family and the Kardashian's, he said- " the idea of fame or exploitation or orchestrating the media is sometimes even less than desirable for us." Indirectly bashing The Kardashian's.


Anyway, it is all love amongst the kids. Check out the pics below-

Below is what Kylie Jenner had to say about the outing-

He’s crazy. He has fun, I just let him have fun with all his stuff. He showed up at dinner with me and my friend Pia. We invited he and his friend and he showed up in an Ironman costume, it was really great.









Hmm!

JD At Google Office

So So Def boss, JD has been off the music scene for a while now. He is currently in the studio working on Mariah Carey's yet to be titled 12th album. JD brought us multi-platinum selling artists like Kris Kross, Da Brat, Xscape, Jagged Edge, Bow Wow...but, he is more focused on his social media site (global14.com) right now. I am on the site everyday, and I love it. JD is building that online business empire. And he has been holding meetings with a lot of top dawgs in the 'WWW' business world. Check out a pic of him at Google office below...all casual. I actually put this up cos some people feel he is washed up or something. He isn't, he just switched up his hustle. I think he doesn't get the props he deserves...for someone that started his label at 20, and produced multiple platinum selling artists.

Ghostface Killah Says Illmatic Made Him Work On His Rap Skills

Wu-Tang Clan elite lyricist, Ghostface Killah spoke on how he had to step his pen game up after he heard Nas's Illmatic (1994) album. Illmatic was released a year after Wu-Tang Clan's debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). Read his words below-





“When I used to listen to Nas back in the days, it was like, ‘Oh shit! He murdered that.’ That forced me to get my pen game up and like, ‘How can I try to catch it how this nigga’s catchin’ it?’ It’s just things like that. You know? The whole fuckin’ Illmatic album! The whole Illmatic album forced you to go ahead and do shit. You know, you jump on [1995’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...] after, and you fuck around like, ‘Oh shit!’ You just try to throw your darts around. It was inspiration. He dropped that second album [1996’s It Was Written]. That shit was murder too…things of that nature.” 

This Week's Top 20 Most Downloaded Songs On the Internet

According to Nielsen SoundScan data, below are the top 20 most downloaded songs on the internet this week-







20. Next To Me- Emeli Sande

19. We Own It (Fast & Furious)- 2 Chainz & Wiz Khalifa

18. #thatPOWER- will.i.am feat. Justin Bieber

17. #Beautiful- Mariah Carey feat. Miguel

16. Thrift Shop- Macklemore & Ryan Lewis feat. Wanz

15. Highway Don't Care- Tim McGraw with Taylor Swift

14. My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up)- Fall Out Boys

13. Stay- Rihanna feat. Mikky Ekko

12. Dragon Wheel- Darius Rucker

11. Boys 'Round Here- Blake Shelton feat. Pistol Annies & Friends

10. I Love It- Icana Pop feat. Charli XCX

9.  Mirrors- Justin Timberlake

8.  Radioactive- Imagine Dragons

7.  Clouds- Zach Sobiech

6.  Come & Get It- Selena Gomez

5.  Get Lucky- Daft Punk feat. Pharrell Williams

4.  Just Give Me A Reason- P!nk feat. Nate Ruess

3.  Blurred Lines- Robin Thicke feat. T.I and Pharrell Williams

2.  Cruise- Flordia Georgia Lines feat. Nelly

1.  Can't Hold Us- Macklemore & Ryan Lewis feat. Ray Dalton

Kerry Washington Speaks On Getting death Threats

Kerry Washington has come a long way from her minor role in Save The Last Dance. She played one of her biggest roles in last year's very controversial movie, Django. In a recent interview, she spoke on how airing out her political views at the National Democratic Convention got her multiple death threats.

"I come from a family where people really participate in the democratic process. I don’t think that being an actor should prevent me from continuing to do the things I do. A lot of people fought for me to have the right as a woman to be able to participate, and as a person of color, and so I don’t want my acting to get in the way of that. I do it as an American. And blowback? Absolutely. After I spoke at the Democratic National Convention — our show has a very active life on Twitter and Facebook — I couldn’t go near any of it because there were threats to my life, sexism and racism. It was shocking that me speaking at a convention incited all this anger. Thank God for block on Twitter! (necolebitchie.com)"

That's one thing with social media, especially twitter; the public now have easier access to celebrities. I don't mean they can reach them easier, but celebrities read tweets about them, and some of them ain't so nice some times. There are some tweets @ some celebrities I read, and wonder how the celebrities deal with all the negative energy coming their way from people that just don't like them.

Nature Names His Top 5 Dead Or Alive

Every week, SOHH get musicians name who they consider 'top 5 dead or alive' in hip hop history. They caught up with Nature (from the 90s rap crew, The Firm...AZ, Foxy Brown, Nas) recently, and made him spill his list.

Ice Cube. Ice Cube was one of the dudes that I was really listening to when I was younger. He was articulate and he just had a style that was kind of dope. He just drew pictures with his words. It was just real dope to me.

Snoop Dogg. Snoop Dogg's first album was incredible. It was well put together. He's a real laid back guy. He was just dope. I never knew his career would last as long as it would but I was just loving everything they did. At the time, East Coast rap was kind of quiet. His music kind of just jumped out at me.

Mobb Deep. They embodied everything that was my hood. When they had the trucks and shirts on in the "Shook Ones" video, those are things I would see on a daily basis. I knew the people they were rapping about so I could verify some of the things they were rapping about. They were the first ones to actually do their thing in my hood after the Maryley Marl area. They were dope and a bunch of kids and at the time, we all were.

A Tribe Called Quest. I thought they were dope. I thought they were different and it wasn't about the gold and diamonds. They were from Queens and just rocked out. Back in the days when we were really young, nobody was thinking about being solo. Everyone had their own little groups.

Slick Rick. He always had the style. His story-telling was incredible too. I don't think I recall a picture of Slick Rick with sneakers on. Slick Rick had everything. He would talk about the Gucci socks in rhymes. I was kind of new to it because nobody in the hood really dressed like that. It was so different.

Nicki Minaj Finally Gives Lil Kim The Respect She Deserves

Nicki Minaj came in the game dissing Lil Kim. She even had a full length song (Roman's Revenge) going at Lil Kim on her debut album back in 2010. And through the years, whether it's a new song, or an interview, she has done nothing but put Lil Kim down; when it was obvious from her style of rap and on-screen character that she must have been a big Lil Kim fan. But, in a recent interview, Nicki finally gave Lil Kim some respect.

"My favourite female rappers? Foxy Brown, Lil'] Kim, Lauryn [Hill and then Remy Ma. Like, when Remy came out, I was very, very excited about her. But, with the Foxy, Kim and Remy, they were all from New York too so, and it's no disrespect to any other female rappers but those are the ones that I felt like, 'Oh, okay, yeah. I could get into that.' They sounded like me when I spoke and you know, I just thought they made an impact. But, I always loved Missy because she was playful and I always said, Missy and Left Eye, they weren't afraid to be goofy at times and I loved that as well." 

This is cool. I think why Nicki Minaj is so great with what she does is because she embodies all the rappers she mentioned above. She took a little from all of them, and then added her own thing to the mix.

Kanye West' Yeezus Possible Album Cover

For a couple of years now, a large amount of the public have the belief that Kanye West worships the Devil. Whether that is the truth or not, Kanye has been using this as a marketing tool since then.  He named his new album Yeezus, and had Christians attacking his blasphemous acts. As long as he is getting attention of the masses, it is all good in Kanye's world. Now, a new album cover just hit the internet, and is supposedly going to be the album cover for Yeezus. As you can see below, it portrays Kanye West nailed to the cross, like Jesus.












Well, we don't know if this going to be the album cover, but how do you think the public would react at this? Tupac pulled this off on his The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory album, but he died 2 months before it was released. Kanye's Yeezus album is set for a June 18 release date, so we will know whether this is really going to be the album cover in a couple of days.

This Week's Top Selling Rap Albums On Billboard Top 200 Chart

French Montana's 'Excuse My French' is the highest selling rap album on Billboard Top 200 Albums chart this week, selling 49,755. These are not huge numbers, but it is not surprising. French Montana is not the type to sell huge with albums; he is more of a rapper that sells singles. His Pop That song has sold over a million copies already.




Check out the list of the top selling rap albums on Billboard top 200 chart below-





French Montana- Excuse My French- 49,755 (49,755)

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis- the Heist- 24,000 (754,000)

Lil Wayne- I Am Not A Human Being- 15,000 (453,000)

Kendrick Lamar- "Good Kid, M.A.A.D City"- 8,800 (905,000)

Eve- Lip Lock- 3,500 (12,000)

LL Cool J- Authentic- 2,700 (26,000)


Snoop Lion- Reincarnated- 2,600 (40,000)

Gucci Mane- Trap House 3- 2,500 (2,500)

Nicki Minaj Ready To Go Back To Authentic Hip-Hop

Although Nicki Minaj's first album had her rapping on a lot more songs than the ones she sang on, her second album was more of a  pop album. A lot of people said she made the change too early in her career. And it happens that her intentions, which were too sell more, didn't work out as planned. Her first album, Pink Friday sold over 1.8 million copies, while her overly pop oriented second album, Pink friday: Roman Reloaded sold just 800k...and that's with the help of a re-release with 8 new singles.





Now, she is ready to go back to just rapping, straight up hip hop. In a recent interview on Hot 97 Radio, she said...-

"If I really wanted to right now, I could go back in and make another pop song to sell all this stuff, and I'm choosing not to do it. I'm choosing to get back to my essence and just feed the core hip-hop fan. I feel like I did it, I don't need to do it again. I don't know how I'm gonna feel after the third album, but I know for the third album, I've just been getting back to that place where I was right before I dropped my first album, which is kill everything." 

Tone Trump Names Top 5 Dead Or Alive

Tone Trump is a rapper signed under Young Jeezy's label (CTE- Corporate Thugz Entertainment), and in a recent interview with SOHH, he revealed who he considers the Top 5 Dead Or Alive in Hip Hop.

Beanie Sigel. I'm going to put Beans in my Top 5. Obviously I have him on here for what he did for my city. He brought gangsta rap back. People know the Roots were doing their thing but it was something different. Beans brought back gangsta rap and made it cool. He made rapping cool in Philadelphia with the whole State Property movement and the Roc-A-Fella sh*t. So I've got Beans for that.

Raekwon. I'm going to put Raekwon the Chef in there. I have him on there because of the Purple Tape. You can't talk about hip-hop without talking about the Purple Tape. One thing I've got to give it up to Rae for is that he's always shown love to n*ggas on the come-up. He didn't forget about the n*ggas on the come-up. He's a n*ggas that's always watching what's going on and showing love. He's legendary.

LL Cool J. I'm going to pick LL Cool J. His longevity is one thing but also his battles were classic. He battled with everyone and then went on to host the f*cking Grammys. You look and see he's the first n*gga on Def Jam and look at where he's come to now. Salute to LL.

Black Thought. He's one of the ultimate emcees. He's an emcee's emcee. I remember hearing that record he did off of Big Pun's [Capital Punishment] album, they go back-and-forth. Coming from Philly, you know we learned a lot by just watching Black Thought hold it down. The legendary Roots crew, you can't talk Philly without speaking of Thought. So big salute to him.

Young Jeezy. I'm going with the "King of the Trap." I definitely have to pick the "Snowman." He signed Tone Trump, so you gotta love him for that. You have to give a lot of credit to T.I. for what he did with Trap Rap but he helped take it to another level. He brought so much credibility to hip-hop. He was so authentic and raised the bar.

Will Smith Indirectly Bashes The Kardashians

In a recent magazine interview, Will Smith was asked about how similar his family is to The Kardashian's, and in a bid to make the difference clear, he slicks in a little diss.




"For our family, the entire structure of our life, our home, our business relationships—the entire purpose is for everyone to be able to create in a way that makes them happy. Fame is almost an inconsequential by-product of what we’re really trying to accomplish. We are trying to put great things into the world, we’re trying to have fun, and we’re trying to become the greatest versions of ourselves in the process of doing things we love. So the idea of fame or exploitation or orchestrating the media is sometimes even less than desirable for us."



The part in red is the 'indirect bashing'. Word has it that Kim Kardashian's mother was the one that brought up the idea of having the Kim Kardashian sex-tape out there, sort of like a publicity stunt. And we all know that tape was what brought The Kardashian's to Limelight.  And till this day, Kris Jenner still makes all the moves behind the scene to market her children to the world. This is what Will Smith was referring to in the last sentence above.

2shotz Gets Himself A White Bentley

It seems like a competition right now with the Nigerian musicians, on who is balling the most. A few days ago, M.I showed the world his Bentley. Now, comic rapper, 2shortz is showing off his new white Bentley. The price is anything from $150-$200k....that's nothing lower than 25 million Naira.



Check out the pic of 2shortz and his Bentley below-

Outkast's Andre 3000 Loses Mother

What a sad news. One half of the legendary rap group, OutKast, Andre 3000 lost his mother (Sharon Benjamin-Hodo) 2 days ago. She actually died on his 38th Birthday, Monday 27th 2013. Read more on this below-

Andre "3000" Benjamin's mother Sharon Benjamin-Hodo has passed away, a representative for the musician and actor confirms to Billboard. Benjamin-Hodo was the founder and guiding force of The Starlight Camp for underprivileged children, which she ran out of the New Morning Light Missionary Baptist Church in Conley, GA -- the church of her husband, Pastor Robert Hodo. In lieu of flowers, continued support of The Starlight Camp is appreciated by the family, Benjamin's spokesperson notes. (Billboard) 

Official First Week Sales Of French Montana's 'Excuse My French' Album

The numbers have come in for French Montana's Excuse My French album. After a full week in stores, the album sold 49,755. That's actually around the range I believed it would sell. He was expecting to sell at least 200k first week, but he is not the album type artist, he is more like a rapper that makes hot singles. At least, his Pop That did pretty good, and it sold over a million copies. And his Freaks single with Nicki Minaj is doing pretty good on radio ad in clubs.

Styles P Recalls The Lox Beef With Rocafella & G-Unit

Around the early 2000s, every one was beefing with every one on the east coast. Jadakiss and Jay-Z had their thing, and that led the whole LOX (sheek louch, jadakiss, and styles p) to go against the whole Rocafella crew, but it was more of Jadakiss and Beanie Sigel going back and forth. But what made it very interesting was the fact that Jada and Beans used to be cool before that..like real homeboys. When Beanie Sigel and Jay-Z fell out, Beans said he regretted going at Jadakiss. He said he was riding for Jay-Z, and that he never really had any animosity against Jada. And with the G-Unit beef, there was nothing personally, it was strictly on wax.

In a recent interview, Styles P revisited these memories-

"With 50, actually, that was actually good for us. Like with Beanie, Beanie's my man, too. That's my homeboy. We became cool. That was more personal. Somebody could've died. We didn't know 50. We didn't know Lloyd Banks. We didn't know Yayo. We didn't have no nothin' for them. We got bars. We could do this shit all day. This is what we do. This is what we're built for. If anything else happens out of it, fuck it, whatever. It was still good for us. 50 had millions at that time. You a multimillionaire. You don't come down to the underdog's level. So for us, it was like, 'Alright, we're gonna use this to show we got bars.' I don't think, unless they would've did something, we would've even cared because we would've seen them. We wasn't gonna risk ourselves, risk our freedom, risk our lives, unless they felt like that and they wanted to do that. But at the time with Sigel and them, that was a different story. That could've really escalated into something nasty because it was more like, 'I know you. I met you. I spoke to you. We've done things before. It's more disrespect taken personally."

Miguel Says Black People Are The Most Judgemental People in the World

Well, I totally agree with him, but ofcourse some people will fight the truth. In a series of tweets, R&B singer Miguel said that black people are the most judgemental people in the world...and he gave his reasons too. I joined the tweets together, and you can read his words below-

"Im proud of my heritage but honestly, black people are the most judgemental people in the world. Shits sad man. We've been conditioned, pre-programmed to hate ourselves. That's why I appreciate those who choose to think and act for themselves regardless of ethnicity or culture. The problem can not be fixed until the problem is recognized. Not everyone is the same thank goodness. And obviously, I love all my fans. Of course EVERYONE is judgemental. I just PERSONALLY believe WE are the most critical of our own" 

We judge ourselves; we condemn ourselves; we judge the white man and blame him for all our problems, playing the blame game. Forgetting that it was our own people that sold us to slavery...for a couple of mirrors and bottles of liquor. We have that crab in the bucket mentality...believing you must take one man down to climb up.We complain about everything, and instead of looking for a solution to our problems, we play the blame game, or we bring the devil or all the Illuminati and conspiracy theory crap into it. It always amazes me how black people in the States have exactly the same mentality as those in my country, Nigeria. I do believe that slavery and colonialism left the whole black race feeling inferior, but times should have changed yesterday, and we should be thinking differently by now. We are our own worst enemy. And as Nas once said, we are the question and the answer.

Gucci Mane Speaks On Signing Chief Keef to His Label

A couple of weeks ago, it was announced that Gucci Mane had signed Chief Keef to his 1017 Brick Squad label. Waka Flocka left the label last month, so Keef should be a good replacement. Of course, Chief Keef is still signed under the parent company, Interscope Records; but Brick Squad will be like his sub label. Just like Big Sean is signed to Def Jam, and is also under Kanye's G.O.O.D Music label. 

Read up Gucci's words on this move below-

"He a big fan of mine and I just see a lot of potential in him. I feel like all these years I've been in the rap game, there's a lot of things that I wish I could have did a different way. So I just feel like if nothing else, I just want to give him some advice so that he can just enjoy his career. Just show him that trouble is so easy to get into. It's really more of a big brother thing. There's a business arrangement of course, but I just really like him as a person. He hard. He for real. The young people take to what's real, what they perceive as authentic." (XXL Mag)

I hope Gucci Mane will be able to keep Keef out of trouble...but the problem is, Gucci is always getting into trouble himself. But, you have to respect Gucci's hustle...Dropping mixtapes like every 3 months, and having them sell like albums. The south always supports their own.

Modenine Says 'M.I Is a Better Rapper Than Ice Prince'

Well, if you are a real hip hop head, you already know that M.I is a better rapper than Ice Prince. It's only people that listen to popular rap music that would say otherwise. I don't even join in this argument anymore; I just keep quiet when I know the person is just about what he/she sees on TV. Anyway, in a recent interview with HipHop World Magazine, the legendary Modenine was asked who he felt was a better rapper between Ice Price and M.I, and he said...

 I can’t just say one name, there are pros and there are cons. I like them for different reasons; both of them can sing , both of them can carry the hooks, both of them can make good songs, both of them can follow, right now I like them for different reasons.

But lyrically M.I. He edges not by a very wide margin but yeah.

That's Mode being diplomatic cos he didn't want to offend anyone, but ofcos, the answer is clear.