Where in the world are the Grandmaster Flashes of today? You know the rappers who told a story that many folk could relate to. Nowadays hip has hopped its way into the bowels of shame. No, I’m not talking the Talib Kweli’s of the world either, I’m talking mainstream rappers whose controversial rhymes are landing them in hot waters, mainly because of heavily misogynistic-laced lyrics. Some have offered apologies to the public, while others would rather snub their nose at us than muster up an “I’m sorry.” It truly is a jungle out there for some of these rappers, and it makes one wonder if they’ll keep from going under. Ah-huh-huh, huh, huh.

Before there was Nicki Minaj, Azealia Banks, Lil Mama, Remy Ma, Rye Rye or Kid Sister…before there were iPods, wireless Internet or digital music stores…there was the golden age of hip-hop; where female rappers such as Yo-Yo, Lady of Rage, Roxanne Shante, Da Brat, Mia X and Jean Grae were a mainstay on the scene-always delivering enthusiasm, originality and wisdom in a verse. They rapped persuasively apart, and also came together to make masterful collaborations (ex. Ladies Night and Ladies First). Of course, none of this is to say that present day female artists aren’t throwing down in the studio, but that back-in-the-day, raw talent and frill-less music videos could go a long way, especially when you already have the qualifying skills to be regarded as a true rap/hip-hop legend.

QUEEN LATIFAH

Queen Latifah is inarguably one of the most highly regarded female emcees of all time. She had a powerful, even flow that made audiences want to stop and listen.  In her heyday, she produced energetic songs that were socially and politically conscious, often dwelling on gender issues and street violence. She gave us classics like “U.N.I.T.Y,” “Just Another Day,” “Ladies First,” and “Come Into My House”.

Source: WENN

From The Grio

Is hip-hop destroying black America?  To answer this question fairly, we must first discard the distorted image of hip hop that mainstream media has passed off for the past 20 years.

Hip-hop is a movement consisting of four main artistic elements: DJ’ing, rapping, breaking and graffiti.  But at its core, it is a philosophy based on the idea that self expression is an integral part of the pursuit of peace, love and unity. It was created by young visionaries who tapped into their greatest potential and gave birth to one of the most important cultural phenomenon the world has ever seen.

Shaped by the spirit of Africa, The Carribean and black America, it is a culture that binds us under the belief that we must strive for excellence through our respective art forms, as well as within our souls.  It’s a lifestyle that unites people from the U.S to Nigeria, France to Brazil, Japan to Mexico, often unable to speak each other’s language but fully capable of understanding all that makes us who we are.

Read more on TheGrio.com.

With a new Rihanna-like haircut and a signature “tongue out the mouth” pose, Miley Cyrus has been photographed with more rappers than Debra Lee at a BET awards show. This isn’t new though, Miley has always loved her rappers (even though she shouted Jay-Z out in a song despite never having listened to his music. Oops.) Yes, she has a boyfriend, but where is he?  From Juicy J to Pharell, check out this list of rappers Miley Cyrus might be dating in 2013.

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Juicy J

The end of 2012 was all for Juicy J due to his smash hit, “Bandz A Make Her Dance”. Miley must be  getting the memo because she’s been photographed all over instagram with the former (or recent) member of 3 6 Mafia. Bandz might make Miley Dance this spring.

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When will people learn that Deb Antney is something like a gangster when it comes to managing rappers. If you do business behind her back and she doesn’t get her cut, you will pay.

According to TMZ, Antney is suing rapper French Montana for securing deals without her knowledge or consent. Subsequently, she was also cut out of her 20 percent management cut.

Deb is suing French for at least $50,000 in damages. The icing on the cake? He was served papers at an Atlanta concert earlier this week.

The suit, likely filed in Atlanta, states that French signed into an exclusive management deal with Deb’s company, Mizay Entertainment, in November 2010.  She was to be responsible for all his deals and apparently French was pleased because he was quoted as saying she has the management thing “down pat.”

Unfortunately it didn’t work out at all. In fact, French has been managed by Gaby Acevedo since at least 2012 and often gets the credit for most deals involving French.

Antney, who is also rapper Waka Flocka’s mother, has been revered for years as a great manager, especially for hot, upcoming talent. Not only did she have a deal with French, but she also managed acts such as Gucci Mane and Nicki Minaj at the early points in their careers (some would argue that Gucci is still in the early point of his career but he’s had a fair amount of success in the south). She even tried to help jumpstart Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta co-star Rasheeda’s career but she chose to stick with her husband.

No word on how French or his team plans to respond.

French must not have heard about Deb: she will work hard for you but don’t cross her!

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Kendrick Lamar has been hailed as one of hip-hop’s latest “saviors” with his razor sharp skills and ability to make the listener visualize the story he’s trying to tell. He seems keenly aware that he’s doing great things for the state of music.

K-dot, as he’s affectionately known, recently released a video for his latest song “Poetic Justice” and it featured a beautiful young lady named Brittany Sky.  Ironically enough, she was not the original lead chosen but when Kendrick was finally involved with the process, he revealed a different vision. As he told Miss Info:

“We had another girl for the lead but I had an idea where I just wanted a little bit of a darker tone [girl] in the video. It’s almost like a color blind industry where there’s only one type of appeal to the camera.

“I give [Brittany] the credit, too, for just being there, and being a natural, genuine young lady. She wasn’t  all in the open, trying to jump in [front] of the camera. She was cool, just chilling. I always kept in the back of my mind  like ‘you don’t ever see this tone of a woman in videos.  No disrespect, I love all women, period. But at the same time, I still feels like it needs that balance.”

Kendrick wanted to be clear that he wasn’t trying to add to the whole “light-skinned vs. dark-skinned” argument that often happens so he tweeted to Miss Info, who originally alluded to it being a “light vs. dark” issue:

“Not Light “Vs” Dark tho. More about “BALANCE”..Givn every shade of woman life, not jus what da industry thinks is “Hott” 4 camera. When u put the term light “Vs” dark continues it as a BATTLE. My point 4 poetic was to spark the idea of making it an EQUAL.”

He went on in his interview with Miss Info saying that he knows his video is just a drop in the bucket and he was just glad he could do his part to counteract colorism in the music industry.

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There is no reason on earth why the IRS needs to come after a person twice for unpaid taxes.

But when you’re Snoop Dogg, apparently there is a reason. For the second time in the last five years, the government is after Snoop (or Snoop Lion or real name Calvin Broadus) for trying to evade them.

This time, the IRS is looking for a payment of $101,952.44 from 2009 and $444,317.85 from 2011, for a grand total of $546,270.29.  They’ve put a federal lien against him for said taxes.

Back in 2008, the IRS was after him for more than $400,000 in back taxes. As soon as Snoop was made aware, he paid them off and cleared his debt.

Now, while I’m sure Snoop has an accountant or two on his payroll, it seems like it would make sense for him to either seek entirely new employees or hire someone to watch them so things like this won’t happen more than once.He’s got to be pretty high way too often for allowing this to keep happening.

TMZ reach out to Snoop’s reps but haven’t received any comments.

It is amazing that, for the most part, it seems like average working people do the very best we can to pay our taxes on time so that Uncle Sam isn’t sending us letters about owing something like $500. Meanwhile, celebrities always find a way to go years without paying only to owe hundreds of thousands of dollars and not give it a second thought.

Are we, the working class, doing something wrong by trying to so hard to do things the right way? If so, I’ll be that because I’m not trying to have the IRS come after me for even five dollars of unpaid taxes!

AP Photo/Peter Kramer

Eve was the first lady of Ruff Ryders back in the late nineties, back when DMX’s bark was all over the radio and before Swizz Beatz wore skinny pants and fedoras (both former members of Ruff Ryders by the way). And she surprised us by being one of few women in the game whose content focused more on her lyrics. Eve released “Gotta Man” and “Love is Blind” and fought for her shine as a one of the top female artists in the game despite competition from Foxy Brown and Lauryn Hill.

So if you missed Eve, she’s on her way back! The Grammy-winning artist has not released an album since 2002′s “Eve-Olution.” But the best part about the comeback is it will be on her own terms. Her album will be released under her own independent label, the recently formed FTR Music, or From the Ribs Music. The album, “Lip Lock,” will be distributed through Sony/Red on May 14 and feature Snoop Dog and Chrisette Mitchele. In an interview with Billboard, she also talks about her troubles with her former label Interscope.

Eve recently gave a taste of what to expect when she dropped the single “She Bad Bad,” this past October. The video, posted on January 8, has over 1.2 million views on YouTube.

She revealed that we should expect a new single, “Make It Out This Town,” to drop in the new few weeks.

“It is a track about being in a dark place — or you could literally say being in the town that you’re in but you have bigger dreams or bigger hopes… just making it out of that situation and knowing that you can do whatever it is that you put your mind to. It’s a song that I’m dedicating and using with my partnership with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America,” Eve told Billboard.

I, for one, am looking forward to another comeback from a familiar face. Eve is making a power move by starting her own label and calling the shots.

However, we are living in different times, and there is a high correlation between comebacks and your social media following or reality TV presence. So hopefully Eve’s got some tricks up her sleeve over these next couple of months to make her relevant again before her album is released in May.

After the jump, check out the “She Bad Bad” video, ICYMI.

You would think this would be obvious, but being an award winning musician does not automatically qualify you to suddenly become an actor. In fact, there really is no connection at all; but for some reason, these artists have fooled themselves into believing there is.  Sure there are the few exceptions like Will Smith, who was able to cross over into acting without any acting training at all; but let’s be real, most musicians are NOT and will NEVER be Will Smith. Somehow, that didn’t stop them from trying. Here are 10 singers or rappers who tried their hand at acting… and failed:

Photo Credit: PNP/ WENN.com

50 Cent

Sure the autobiographical movie, Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ had something of an interesting story line, and some might say it was worth it just to see 50 cent’s booty alone; but when you actually look at more than 50 cent’s behind, he is a not so good actor. This was another case of “acting” like yourself…and even though the movie was about him, he still had a hard time making his own storyline seem convincing.

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If Nicki believes NYE superstitions, she’ll be having another successful year in 2013.  She’s taking her “talents” to Las Vegas to ring in the new year.

According to EURWeb, Nicki will be at Pure nightclub as we ring in the new year. The club states that Nicki will be throwing a huge bash while doing the countdown at midnight and celebrating with all the partygoers.  Oh, she’ll be making an estimated $5 million for the appearance.

Here’s the thing: Nicki probably won’t even be there all night. Although it states that she’s hosting the party, doors open at 8p and as we all know, celebrities don’t show up to anything when doors open.  So the likelihood is that Nicki will arrive at 11p, party for an hour, do the countdown, collect the check and be out.

I’d wear a multi-color wig and some leggings and perform “Hickory Dickory Dock” for $1 million if Pure wants to save some money!

But seriously, that’s great for Nicki who will also be doing a concert in New York City on Christmas Day. That’s a working woman for you.

We’ve also heard that Beyonce will be performing in Vegas at the Wynn for $4 million dollars and Jay-Z will be doing a show in Brooklyn at the Barclay’s Center.  It seems performing on NYE is one of the easier ways for celebs to make money.

What are your New Year’s Eve plans?