News

Starting November 21st, Billboard will have a new policy for artists to make the charts, based on criticisim by critics and artists alike of it's current policies. For example, Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" debuted at number one, but was sold at a very discounted price. It's new policies are as follows:

-Albums priced below $3.49 will not be eligible on the Billboard album charts during their first four weeks of release and will not count towards sales data presented by Nielsen SoundScan.

Ludacris is back in the game and reminding us who thafuck he is with his new mixtape “1.21 Gigawatts (Back To The First Time).”

Ludacris goes in on this mixtape with the flow we've expected to hear from him ever since “Phat Rabbit”. I'm sure this mixtape will please his fans as a far as flow goes. The content is nothing we haven't heard before, that is to say, it's pretty typical. But this entire mixtape isn't Ludacris doing anything drastically different-- I mean, the title alone is a pretty good indication that he's trying to get back to his roots.

Kendrick Lamar had interesting chat with XXL about his interlude on Drake's "Take Care", called "Buried Alive".

Check out some of what he had to say on that track and on working with Drake below.

XXLMag.com: What was your first meeting with Drake like? You speak about it some in the verse.

50 Cent covers XXL Magazine's December 2011/January 2012 Issue with not one, but five covers. Check em all out below.The five covers are in celebration of the 5 faces of 50 Cent and in honor of the 50's fifth EP coming this January. It will have been ten years that 50's been in the game, since his first mixtape "50 is the Future" back in 2002. He will be discussing the current conditions of music and his, as of yet, untitled fifth studio album.

This year, Kreayshawn and V-Nasty of The White Girl Mob have been criticized for their group's use of the N word. While many have spoken out about this, Trina recently said that she doesn't "see what the big deal about it is." Miami's Trina also said that it's a "matter of respect" and that there are more serious topics to think about.

Raekwon spoke to GQ about Wu-Tang Clan, his own success as an artist, and his relationship with Ghostface Killah. Check out some excerpts below.

On Wu-Tang Clan:

GQ: From the very start, Wu-Tang always had critical support. How important has that been for the group?

Tyler, The Creator announced the name of his upcoming album, "Wolf", set to be released in May 2012. He recently spoke to Spin on it, and it seems he will be going in a different direction with his music on this album.

Some people call it the “hashtag” rap flow or the “pause, stop” rap flow or the “supa dupa” flow. Whatever the name, there’s still controversy about who created it and Ludacris has some scathing words for Drake and Big Sean on his new track “Bada Boom,” on which he targets innuendo that he bit that style from them.


Although Luda doesn’t mention names, it is quite obvious he is addressing Drake and Big Sean.

Outspoken, Gary, Indiana/CTE rapper Freddie Gibbs has weighed in on Fat Joe’s recent comments about closeted gay rappers in the hip-hop industry.


When asked about his thoughts on Fat Joe’s comments and his views on gay rappers and artists, Gibbs admitted that he probably would not work with them.

Sir Michael Rocks, who was recently signed to Curren$y's Jet Life Recordings spoke to HipHopDX about it and what's next. Check out some of the highlights below.

On Their Friendship Before He Was Signed:

Kendrick Lamar, Boi-1da and T-Minus spoke with MTV on the making of Drake's "Take Care," check out some of what they had to say about it below.

Kendrick Lamar on "Buried Alive":

Drake’s highly anticipated sophomore album “Take Care” was officially released today...but most likely you’ve been listening to it for the past week if you downloaded the leak, nonetheless now that it’s official let’s discuss it.