J.Cole Interview & Freestyle On Tim Westwood

Tim dropped the classic instrumentals while Cole spitted. Damn. Props RR.

Interview:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Freestyle:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Eminem’s ‘Recovery’ Explodes At No. 1 On Billboard With 741,000 Copies Sold

Damn… the final numbers have came in. Spotted at Billboard.

“Recovery’s” debut week sales surpasses the first week of Eminem’s last set, “Relapse,” which began at No. 1 in 2009 with 608,000. It also beats the opening of 2005’s “Curtain Call: The Hits” which entered at No. 1 with 441,000 in 2005.

Eminem’s new album also wows digitally, as downloads made up 255,000 of its first week. That’s the second-biggest digital week for an album in history. Only Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends” notched a larger frame, when it debuted with 288,000 downloads in the summer of 2008.

Server Switch: Complete

It looks as if everything worked as planned everything is switched over to the new host, sorry for the downtime if any.

Drake On Overused Punchline Flow

SMH … Spotted at RR.

AllHipHop.com: How much do Young Money artists bounce off each other? I noticed you have similar inflections and cadences or rhyme patterns. I noticed this one thing that Nicki said, “It’s going down. Basement.”
Drake: Well, that flow has been killed by so many rappers. And, I never want to use that flow again in life. [Laughs] I wanted to take if off my album, because I was like, “I shut ‘em down. Onyx.” I hate the fact that that rhyme is still in there. To be honest, that flow, you can trace it back to like…I trace it back to Big Sean (artist on Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music). That’s the first guy I heard utilize that flow throughout the duration of a verse. I’ll give him that credit. I think Kanye got it from him. Me and Wayne found a dope way to do it. I don’t want to sound cocky, but the best way its been used was on “Forever.” Those lines just all individually make so much sense. They’re all punchlines. Then a bunch of rappers started doing it and using the most terrible references in the world. I don’t want to offend somebody…I hate that rappers picked that flow up. I wish they had left that for people that know how to use it. [They go like] “It’s a parade! MACY’S!”

Eminem Covers Billboard Magazine

Spotted at RR.

On being the best-selling artist of the last decade
“I don’t think I’ve actually stopped to think about it,” Eminem says by phone from his home in Detroit, while on a brief break between trips to promote Recovery. “I never thought that my life would amount to this. But to be able to sit back and digest it is so strange to me, because I still feel so regular. I don’t understand what people think the big deal is about me. It’s a very strange relationship that I have with fame.”

On his approach to “Recovery”:
“I would go back and listen to songs off The Marshall Mathers LP, The Eminem Show and some of Encore and ask, ‘Why don’t my music feel like this anymore?’ ” Eminem recalls. ” ‘The Way I Am,’ ‘Criminal’ and ‘Toy Soldiers’ were songs that meant something. I wanted there to be a reason why I was making each song, instead of making it just to make it.”

On taking his time before touring:
“I’ll do these shows and see how I feel afterward, then set up a couple more,” Eminem says. “I’ve had to relearn to do shows sober, because there were so many years that I didn’t know how to do it. Alcohol, Valium — all these things were crutches for me so that I didn’t have to feel anything when I went onstage. Everything right now is a step at a time, a day at a time.”

On caring more about critical reception than sales:
“Honestly, as long as people enjoy the music, that means the most to me,” Eminem says with unabashed sincerity. “I could sell 80 million records in the first week, and if my peers or fans of real hip-hop didn’t like it, it really wouldn’t mean anything.”

More on the quality of his past albums:
“I was pretty much in full-blown addiction while I was creating ["Encore"],” he says, “and as far as Relapse, when I first got sober I got really happy because I was not a prisoner of addiction anymore, so life was brand-new to me. I was like, ‘Shit, man, trees are beautiful again. What a nice day it is.’ I don’t think I was paying attention to what the average listener might like or not like.”

Big Boi Covers Ozone Magazine

Ozone:

You have a song called “Shine Blockers” with Gucci Mane on the album. That caught a couple people off guard. You must be paying some attention to what’s going on out there.
That’s why I do stuff like that, to throw people off. I’m still in the strip clubs and the clubs. I listen to everything from Gucci Mane to Johnny Cash. I’m gonna bring out the best in whoever’s on a song with me. I’m not gonna do anything halfway, I’m gonna make them bring it. I saw comments on the ‘net like, “I can’t stand Gucci, but he’s bustin’ on Big Boi’s song.” You have to let people grow and get better and accept it. If you can’t, get the hell on.

You have a wide range of features on the album, everyone from Lil Jon to Jamie Foxx. But none of them necessarily stole the show with their appearances. How did you get all of these big personalities to contribute to your sound and vision?
Everything has to be organically done. I did a song call “Night Night” and B.o.B was recording down the hall, so he got on it and smashed it. I had one song that I wanted Prince on, but I couldn’t get him. Then I wanted Beyonce and Rihanna, after that didn’t happen I was like, “Fuck it.” Then I saw Jamie Foxx in L.A. and we knocked it out.

You also have George Clinton on your album on “For Your Sorrows” with Too $hort. What was it like working with him?
We always started out on funk, so it was great. We worked with him before on “Synthesizer” from the Aquemini album. He has a plethora of information. He loved the record “For Your Sorrows.” He shot it back within a day. It’s about organic positive energy. You have to respect your forefathers

Drake’s Thank Me Later Album Sales

… Above explains it all. But all in all though, it was a great album.

Dr. Dre Responds To “Under Pressure” Leak

Seems like he aint made though …. Interscrope.

“I want to set the record straight for everybody who’s been waiting to hear my music.The song that’s on the internet is an incomplete song that I’m still working on. When it’s ready, you’ll be hearing it from me.”

T.I. Covers XXL (July/August 2010)

MTV:

“What people don’t take into consideration is the reason that I was eligible for certain agreements that they weren’t eligible for was because I made myself a useful member of society. Most muthaf—as catch cases and get time. My n—a, you wasn’t doing sh– when you was out here, so wasn’t no reason for them to keep you out here. Please understand the G code that I learned from, if you speak out your mouth that a muthaf—a is telling on somebody and you can’t come with indisputable, irrefutable facts to support that statement, that makes you the sucker,” T.I. said. “You are now in violation of the G code. And there ain’t nobody, nowhere in naan jail sayin’ I was on they paperwork.”

Drake To A Release R&B Mixtape & Predicts Album Sales (Audio)

Yuuupp you heard it right. A new R&B mixtape from Drizzy himself will be released soon. Drake called in to Big Boy’s Neighborhood to talk about his album and his prediction to how much he is going to sell.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.