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Step Up 2 The Streets Soundtrack

Boost Mobile Anthem 2.0 Commercial

We Made It: Busta Rhymes & Linkin Park

Fergie to Star in Candie's Only at Kohl's Campaign

The Game Plays Playboy Photographer

Flavor Flav in New Dr. Pepper Commercial

Atmosphere's When Life Gives You Lemons

Smirnoff Sponsors 80s Launch For Parish Clothing

Plies: Definition of Real = Certified Goon?

Lil Wayne: Tha Carter III Cover Art

No Matter What: T.I. Releases Single


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« February 24, 2008 - March 1, 2008 | Main | March 9, 2008 - March 15, 2008 »

March 06, 2008

Final 5 on MTV's America's Best Dance Crew

BreakSk8 of Kokomo, IN

BreakSk8 of Kokomo, IN

As Randy Jackson Presents America's Best Dance Crew draws into its final elimination rounds, ProHipHop brings you the last five crews standing before this evening's 10 pm showing on MTV takes them down to three.

More About: BreakSk8

Fysh N Chicks of Los Angeles, CA

Fysh N Chicks of Los Angeles, CA

More About: Fysh N Chicks

JabbaWockeeZ of San Diego, CA

JabbaWockeeZ of San Diego, CA

More About: JabbaWockeeZ

Kaba Modern of Irvine, CA

Kaba Modern of Irvine, CA

More About: Kaba Modern

Status Quo of Boston, MA

Status Quo of Boston, MA

More About: Status Quo

[All Photos courtesy MTV/Chris Polk except that of Status Quo courtesy Warner Bros.]

Jamal Woolard to Play Biggie Smalls in Notorious, Extras Now Being Cast

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fox Searchlight has cast rapper Jamal Woolard, aka Gravy, in the role of Biggie Smalls for the upcoming biopic Notorious.

In addition:
"Derek Luke, Angela Bassett and Anthony Mackie also have been cast in the movie, Searchlight said. Luke will play Biggie record producer Sean "Diddy" Combs, who offscreen is an exec producer on the film. Mackie will play rival rapper Tupac Shakur, while Bassett will play Biggie's mother Voletta Wallace..."

"The movie -- directed by George Tillman Jr. and produced by Huntsman, J. Paul Huntsman. Voletta Wallace, Wayne Barrow, Mark Pitts, Bob Teitel and Trish Hofmann -- goes into production this month and is set for release in January."

That's the kind of role that can really help or hurt a performer's career but is much better for an actor than a rapper.

However, it's far superior to being allegedly shot in the rear before a radio interview.

Extras are now being cast:

"We are looking for young males and females ages 18-30, or at least look this young, who resemble and can portray the following: Rappers, Thugs, HOT girls, crackheads, Big Beefy Security/Bouncer types, Basketball players, students. We also need lookalikes for Puffy, Jay Z, Mary J Blige, former Mayor David Dinkins, Busta Rhymes, Craig Mack, DJ Mister Cee, DJ Enuff, Faith Evans, Total, Charlie Baltimore."

Best of luck everybody!

Fashion: Clipse & Play Cloths, Fabolous & Crocs, Viktor & Rolf, Soulja Boy & S.O.D., Nelly & Troop, T.I. & Playboy, Jonas Bevacqua @ MAGIC, Money Clothing

The debut of the Play Cloths line from The Clipse has been pushed back at least till August.

Fabolous is touring for Crocs!  But will he wear them?

Graffiti inspired fashion from Viktor & Rolf.

Soulja Boy mumbles his way through an S.O.D. Money Gang clothing line demo.

Nelly's relaunching Troop Clothing.

T.I. and T.I.P. have a Playboy t-shirt.

KarmaloopTV spends a day with Jonas Bevacqua, co-founder of LRG, while in Las Vegas for MAGIC.

Money Clothing presents the Waist of Money belt and the Swag Bag money-lined duffle.

March 05, 2008

MCEO: Talib Kweli & Mick Boogie Mixtape

Talib Kweli & Mick Boogie - MCEO mixtape

Talib Kweli & Mick Boogie - MCEO

URB interviews Talib Kweli & Mick Boogie regarding the MCEO mixtape.

Due Monday via illRoots.

Update:
Here's the download links page.

Soulja Boy's Crank That Tops SpiralFrog Top 10

Soulja Boy's Crank That tops SpiralFrog's Top 10 February Downloads chart:

"The Top Ten Most Downloaded Songs on SpiralFrog for the month of February are:"

1. Soulja Boy Tell'em - "Crank That (Soulja Boy)"
2. Timbaland - "Apologize"
3. Rihanna - "Don't Stop the Music"
4. Snoop Dogg - "Sensual Seduction"
5. Rihanna - "Hate That I Love You"
6. Rihanna - "Umbrella"
7. Fergie - "Big Girls Don't Cry (Personal)"
8. Sugarland - "Stay"
9. Rascal Flatts - "What Hurts the Most"
10. Colbie Caillat - "Bubbly"

Official Site:
SpiralFrog

Albums: Webbie #4, Shawty Lo #13, Plus Divas!

Webbie's Savage Life 2 debuts at no. 4 on the Billboard 200 album chart while divas Janet and Erykah battle it out at the top.

I'm very impressed by Erykah Badu's current campaign.  She is everywhere!

Top 10 Albums on the Billboard 200:

1. Janet Jackson - Discipline
2. Erykah Badu - 4th World War
3. Jack Johnson - Sleep Through the Static
4. Webbie - Savage Life 2
5. Alicia Keys - As I Am
6. Hannah Montana 2 (Soundtrack)/Meet Miley Cyrus
7. Soundtrack - Once
8. Soundtrack - Juno
9. Sara Bareilles - Little Voice
10. Amy Winehouse - Back to Black

Shawty Lo's Units in the City debuts at no. 13.

March 04, 2008

Hip Hop Harry: Move those Feet Due March 11th!!!

Hip Hop Harry: Move Those Feet dvd


Hip Hop Harry: Move those Feet

Hip Hop Harry: Move those Feet is due on DVD March 11th from Allumination.  And, if you can't wait, Hip Hop Harry: Fun with Friends is already available!  Yay!

Hip Hop Harry: Fun with Friends dvd

Hip Hop Harry: Fun with Friends

From the Product Description:

"It's the Emmy Nominated, live-action, high-energy learning series that has taken children s programming by storm featuring episodes from the TV series that won a Parents Choice Approved Award in 2007! Meet Hip Hop Harry, the lovable, huggable rapping teddy bear whose favorite theme is I Love To Learn!"

"Always 100% positive fun, Hip Hop Harry uses music, dance and rhyme to help teach youngsters about language, social skills and problem solving while he gets them up on their feet and out of their seats for hours of exercise for both mind and body!"

Datwon Thomas: New XXL Editor-in-chief

Datwon Thomas, Editorial Director of KING, is the new Editor-in-chief of XXL and he's got quite a job ahead:

"I won’t take the job lightly. The game is in a tough spot. Lagging sales, declining buzz, warring factions, creative slump and various other factors make the details of my job tougher than expected. I’m here though, ready to grip up and bust some for a culture that’s slipping into uncharted territory that looks a little grim. The fact that a lot of good hip-hop is still out there helps make my job that much easier. I, with your help, will find that hip-hop and give it the platform that it rightly deserves. Wish me luck, I’m going in."

Best of luck, Datwon, sounds like you're going to need it.

But there's hope.  I hear Eminem's got a new album on the way!  Maybe you could put him on the cover?

Via Nah Right Lite.

BME Click Clothing: Lil Jon's Upcoming Fashion Line

In addition to the Little Jonathan Winery, Lil Jon's coming out with a clothing line called BME Click Clothing.

Damion Hickman Design is doing the web design for this site, using the BME Recordings logo, as well as the winery site and both will launch later this month.

Related ProHipHop Coverage:
Little Jonathan Winery is Lil Jon's, Label by Damion Hickman Design

Bomb Squad to Release Album, Tour World

Bomb Squad Logo

Bomb Squad Logo

The Bomb Squad, best known for their production for Public Enemy, have announced their first Bomb Squad album.  I'm surprised they haven't put out an album before, since they've worked with so many people and have released their beats in a variety of forms, but it's on the way:

"After many successful years in the studio, the BOMB SQUAD is now gearing up for their debut solo album this time with Hank Shocklee and Keith Shocklee serving as the front men for an album that will feature a combination of futuristic live electronics, visuals and vocals.  Hank Shocklee describes this new venture by saying, 'I want to be a hybrid of man and machine as opposed to being a performer that uses machines.'"

Apparently they're debuting their new effort at the Winter Music Conference in Miami Beach at the end of the month in preparation for the album release and world tour.

Bomb Squad on MySpace

Little Jonathan Winery is Lil Jon's, Label by Damion Hickman Design

Little Jonathan Winery Homepage

Little Jonathan Winery Homepage

Since there's no information on the Little Jonathan Winery site and Idolator points out that the claims that Lil Jon is behind it are coming from gossip sites, I figured I should check out what I could.

The domain littlejonathanwinery.com is registered to Damion Hickman of Damion Hickman Design so I called those folks and it turns out they're the designers of the label and the webiste but that's the extent of their involvement with this project.  Their responsibility for the web design also explains their registration of the domain.

Apparently Damion Hickman was designing labels for a winery or wineries prior to launching his own company and Lil Jon's camp found out about him via word of mouth.  Though Damion Hickman Design does other forms of design, their online portfolio includes numerous examples of their wine labels for different companies.

So, yeah, Lil Jon's going upscale with the Little Jonathan Winery and that's a good look.

Via Blogs Is Watching.

Related ProHipHop Coverage:
BME Click Clothing: Lil Jon's Upcoming Fashion Line

Thisis50's Chris "Broadway" Romero to Speak at Virtual Worlds 2008

The announcement for Virtual Worlds 2008, happening in New York in early April, mentions that a speaker from G-Unit Records will participate.

Turns out that speaker is Chris "Broadway" Romero and he's clearly participating due to the creation of Thisis50, 50 Cent's social network powered by Ning.

I just joined Thisis50 so I could check out the stats that were available and it says I'm the 100,686th member which matches up with the number of members per page and the number of pages displaying members.  That's pretty good though one has to wonder if requiring registration to view the site beyond the homepage pushes that number up or down.

Generally I do think it's a doofus move to require registration to check out the pages of a social network, since you miss out on all sorts of casual search engine driven traffic, but with a phenomenon like 50 Cent and free registration there are reasons it might work.

One big reason is that the traffic is more focused and there's a lot more demographic info immediately available which makes marketers and advertisers happy.  Given that 50 Cent can regularly promote the network as he does all his other stuff, he can continue to benefit from the traffic spikes that come from such attention, while building a longterm base of fans.

Are 100,000+ members good given the size of 50's fanbase which is presumably much, much larger?

If you've got comments on the topic of the walled garden as it relates to a social network like Thisis50 please send them to me or send links to your posts on the topic to:
clyde(at)prohiphop(dot)com

On a related note, send all hip hop pr, including press releases, newsletters and embeddable video links, to me at:
hiphoppress(at)netweed(dot)com

Related ProHipHop Coverage:
PROJECT 150: Meet 50 Cent via Bragster & Thisis50.com
G-Unit Clothing: 50 Cent Reclaims His Brand

DanceJam Launches, So Why the Delay?

So DanceJam finally launches and it's kind of underwhelming.

Not that there's anything particular wrong with it except that why did it take so long to launch a product that doesn't seem to use the expert content they put so much time and energy into developing?

It is possible that it just got lost in the categorization schema that doesn't really do anything to forefront premium content.

The simplicity of the platform, which is a good thing, does raise the question of why didn't they just use KickApps and launch months ago with MC Hammer as the figurehead?

I assume embeddable videos are to come but they don't seem to have them yet though that was also mentioned as a feature.

In any case, it's good to see it finally launched and we'll see where it goes from here.

Update:
Here's why they can't use KickApps.  Nobody will let you play with $4.5 million for a KickApps project.

Related ProHipHop Coverage:
DanceJam to Launch in Mid-January [Maybe]
ProHipHop Takeaway from MC Hammer Interview: DanceJam to Stack Major Skrilla
Hammer and Geoffrey Arone Meet the Press w/DanceJam
MC Hammer Survives TechCrunch40, DanceJam Soon?

March 02, 2008

Hip Hop Album Releases for Mar. 4: Akwid, Black Spade, Cadence Weapon, Cuete Yeska, Flame, Rakim, T-Nutty & Young Bop, The Winnie Coopers

Flame - Our World Redeemed cd

Flame - Our World Redeemed

To receive this report separately each week, please visit Weekly Hip Hop Albums and sign up for our free weekly newsletter delivered every Monday with Tuesday's releases.

The following new releases are available from Amazon.

Akwid - La Novela
Bizzy Bone - Ruthless
Black Spade - To Serve with Love
Brotha Lynch Hung - Snuff Tapes
Cadence Weapon - Afterparty Babies
Cuete Yeska - Legend of a Gangster
Flame - Our World Redeemed
Layzie Bone - Thugz Nation
Rakim - The Archive: Live, Lost & Found
T-Nutty & Young Bop - Re-Up
The Winnie Coopers - Worth the Weight [Import]

For a database of upcoming and past releases with updates,
please see Hip Hop Albums @ netweed.

Hypebot: Michael Nash, Mobile Sales, AmieStreet, iTunes, Build Last.fm Widgets, Facebook Music & Film, Ad Supported Music, PiraBoogle, Videos

Music industry news from Hypebot:

Warner Music Group announced that Michael Nash will be promoted to Executive Vice President, Digital Strategy and Business Development, succeeding WMG CEO Edgar Bronfman's brother-in-law Alejandro (Alex) Zubillaga.

Mobile music is on track to reach $17.5 billion in sales despite a decline in ringtones.

Top indie artists and labels are embracing AmieStreet's fan sets the price model.

iTunes has made a questionable claim to being the #2 music retailer in the US.

Last.fm posted strong growth spurred by addition of free on demand music and launched a showcase for its outside applications and widgets called Build Last.fm.

Facebook has added easy to set up Music and Film launch pages.

AD SUPPORTED MUSIC DEBATE: Last week guest commentator Bill Houghton wrote that ad supported music was not sustainable.  Marc Cohen who works in ad supported music disagreed in a guest rebuttal. Now Bill Houghton is back with another commentary that an ad supported MySpace Music is doomed before it launches. Join the debate.

PiraBoogle proves torrent search ease.

Free Jobs Posting: Beggars Group needs a NYC based IT wiz.

VIDEOS: Highlights from the MIDEM Free Music Panel, an interview with Andrew Dubber of New Music Strategies, R.I.P. Dave Clark Five lead singer Mike Smith, farewell to Hendrix drummer Buddy Miles

On OurDigitalMusic: Why Amazon Is Officially The Best Place To Buy Downloads, 10 One Hit Wonders That Drive Me Crazy and The Eagles & Moody Blues to perform at grand opening of the first Hard Rock Cafe Theme Park.

See ProHipHop's Hypebot Industry News category for past roundups.

Kidz Bop 13 Debuts at #4 on Top Albums Chart

Kidz Bop 13 cd

Kidz Bop 13

Kidz Bop 13 debuts at no. 4 on the Billboard 200 album chart with a tracklist that includes the Shopboyz' Party Like A Rockstar.

Kidz Bop 13 is the "seventh consecutive title in the primary Razor & Tie line to debut in the top 10."

Top 10 Albums on the Billboard 200:

1. Jack Johnson - Sleep Through the Static
2. Alicia Keys - As I Am
3. Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
4. Kidz Bop 13
5. Soundtrack - Step Up 2 The Streets
6. Soundtrack - Juno
7. Sara Bareilles - Little Voice
8. Chris Cagle - My Life's Been a Country Song
9. Mary J. Blige - Growing Pains
10. Taylor Swift - Taylor Swift

Jim Jones' Harlem's American Gangster debuts at no. 19 with 25,000.

Cool Kids' 88 on Major League Baseball 2K8 Soundtrack

The Cool Kids' single 88 will be included on the Major League Baseball 2K8 videogame soundtrack.

The placement comes through a deal between 2K Sports and Pitchfork Media in which Pitchfork picks half the tracks.

Though the Cool Kids won't be part of the 3rd Annual Pitchfork/Windish Agency SXSW event, this year including 2k Sports, they will be making multiple appearances at SXSW.

The Cool Kids are gonna be big but I guess "how big?" remains the question.  However far they go it's already been fun to watch.

Available from Amazon:
Major League Baseball 2K8 is due March 4th:
Xbox 360 ~ Playstation 2 ~ Nintendo Wii

Big Moe: Unfinished Business Cover Art

Big Moe: Unfinished Business cd

Big Moe: Unfinished Business

Big Moe's posthumous release Unfinished Business is due March 18th from Koch/Wreckshop.

Official Announcement:
KOCH Records and Wreckshop Records to Release Brand New Posthumous Album, "Unfinished Business," From Houston Legend Big Moe

SXSW 2008 Hip Hop/Rap Schedule & Coverage

Here's the official schedule of Showcasing Artists: Hip Hop/Rap at SXSW in the 2008 Music Festival.

Austin Surreal is posting breaking news as new showcases and events solidify as well as pointing to events like panels and so forth that aren't included on the Showcasing Artists schedule.

Also worth checking for SXSW Music coverage:
Austin Hip-Hop Scene
SXSW Baby!
imeem's SXSW 2008 Guide
Austin Chronicle: SXSW Blog
Complete coverage on Austin360.com

Singles: Flo Rida's Low #1, Elevator #28

Not only is Flo Rida's Low no. 1 for the 10th week on the Hot 100 singles chart but Elevator featuring Timbaland jumped from no. 100 to no. 28.

Top 10 Singles on the Hot 100:

1. Flo Rida - Low feat. T-Pain
2. Chris Brown - With You
3. Rihanna - Don't Stop the Music
4. Sara Bareilles - Love Song
5. Alicia Keys - No One
6. Timbaland - Apologize feat. OneRepublic
7. Snoop Dogg - Sensual Seduction
8. Sean Kingston - Take You There
9. Webbie, Lil' Phat & Lil' Boosie - Independent
10. Buckcherry - Sorry

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