Nas Fans Create Online Petition For Def Jam To Release "Lost Tapes 2"

Lupe Fiasco fans aren't the only supporters attempting to pressure major labels into action, and nearly 700 have already signed.

Earlier this year, Queens, New York emcee icon Nas said in an interview that he had plans to release a second installment of his Lost Tapes. The September, 2002 release featured previously unheard songs by Nas, produced by the likes of Alchemist and L.E.S.

Whereas the original collection of songs came by way of Nas' then-label Columbia Records, the emcee alluded that his post-2006 home, Def Jam Records, would be responsible to release The Lost Tapes 2. Based on leaked emails, and interviews since the first announced in June of this year, the project has been delayed by the label home to Kanye West, The Roots, Rihanna and Ghostface Killah.

Fans siding with Nas have created WeNeedLostTapes2.com, a petition side hoping to sway the New York-based label into releasing the collection of songs.

The site states, "We the fans of Nasir Jones, have been waiting for the follow-up to the 2002 classicLost Tapes. This was a record of compiled tracks that did not make Nas albums, but put together for the sake of the fans. Since its release almost a decade ago, it has received critical acclaim and quickly became a fan favorite.

It has come to our attention that Nas has in fact completed the follow-up, titled Lost Tapes 2, and is waiting for you (Def Jam) to green-light the project and give it a release date. We do not like to go into speculation and rumors, but it seems as though you do not want to release Lost Tapes 2because you don't want it to count as an official album since Nas only has 2 more albums left to fulfill his contractual obligation to Def Jam."

At press time, 677 signatures had been collected.

Nipsey Hussle Speaks On Going Black Independent

Nipsey Hussle: Honestly, I was always independent before I signed to Epic [Records]. The way that Epic heard about me was thru our movement as All Money In: what we was doing in L.A. as far as mixtapes…as far as the touring we was doing just in our region. So when we got with Epic it was kinda like we started working together. But, just to keep it completely 100, I’m in the process of negotiating my release right now. And we just gonna go back to doing what we been doing, as far as an independent company and serving our region. But it wasn’t really no big fallout with the label or nothin’ like that, it’s just Epic went through internal changes: they fired the president, Amanda Ghost, [after] actually becoming a subsidiary of Columbia [Records]. Half of they staff is gonna be laid off or fired. And the original staff that brought me in the building, that shared the original vision of really what Nipsey Hussle was, they’re all gone. So, being fair, it ain’t really nobody in particular that we can point the blame on, it just kinda was like a [dissolving] of the core team that started on the project. So it serves both interests for us to just go back to what we was doing originally. I’ma walk away with all my masters; I’ma walk away unobligated, with my brand built. And it’s all love and respect for everybody at Epic. We took a chance together. It was a lot of money spent, a lot of success together, and it’s no hard feelings.
Full Interview: HipHopDX

Ashanti Gives Nelly A Special Performance

Ashanti brought Nelly on stage during his 5th annual “Black & White Ball.”

Wiz Khalifa Q & A Session

wiz q&a
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During a brief Q & A session, PIttsburgh's Wiz Khalifa reminisced on his early childhood days. He admits that he was always a joke telling, charismatic child and getting into music was a natural progression for him.

Wiz Khalifa Announces New Single, March 2011 Album

Although he still has no title for his debut album, Wiz has announced that "Roll Up" will be the title of his next single.

After "Black & Yellow," Wiz Khalifa has green on his mind. The young emcee recently announced that his next single will be "Roll Up," a song that will be on his upcoming debut. For now, that album remains untitled but it seems it will get a release in March of 2011. 

"I'm definitely looking forward to my next single coming out," Wiz told MTV recently of "Roll Up." "I'm looking forward to my album dropping in late March, which is gonna be exciting for me and the Taylors worldwide. Like I keep saying, always keep building on top of my brand, keep doing what I'm doing and make new fans."

As for "Roll Up," Wiz said he came up with that song after speaking to his people about "a look."

“The next single is called ‘Roll Up,’ surprisingly. Really, I just needed another single and we were trying to come up with a look and then me and [my manager] talked about it,” Wiz added. “We talked about it for three minutes. And then I came up with that song.”

It seems Wiz is close to coming up with a title for the album. In the video version of the MTV article, Wiz asks someone off camera if he could announce the album title, but it seems the answer was, "No." 

Obama Signs Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal

President Barack Obama brought the 17-year-old political struggle over the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy to a close Wednesday, signing legislation that end the ban on openly gay men and women serving in the armed forces.

The president signed the repeal in front an jubilant crowd of supporters at the Department of Interior. “[The repeal] will strengthen our national security and uphold (America's) ideals,” Obama said. “No longer will tens of thousands of Americans in uniform be asked to live a lie.”

Celebrities were also in support of the repeal and expressed their feelings via Twitter over the weekend shortly after the repeal was announced.

“Can't hold back the tears+pride. We did it!i Our voice was heard + today the Senate REPEALED DADT. A triumph for equality after 17 YEARS,” Tweeted Lady Gaga.

Katy Perry retweeted the following from singer Pink:

“SUPPORTING ALL OUR TROOPS! RT @Pink: Congrats 2 US!!! REPEAL of DADT & 17 years of allowing Human Rights Violations. There’s hope after all!”

Kathy Griffin and Ellen DeGeneres were also vocal about their support.

Fabolous- In The Morning (Remix)

Fabolous raps over J. Cole's "In The Morning." Should have seen this coming. Do your thing Fab.

Diddy Sells Dirty Money Jackets For A Good Cause

Diddy seems to be in the holiday spirit as he just announced that Dirty Money jackets are available for purchase, but instead of making a profit he is giving the proceeds to the soldiers at war. The money made will go to the Operation Homefront organization. The jackets, worn by Puff during his Last Train To Paris promo run can be bought at DMCrewJacket.com.

Lil Wayne Performs 6'7 (Six Foot Seven Foot) Live On Saturday Night Live

Eminem and Lil Wayne Perform No Love On Saturday Night Live

Transformer: "Dark Of The Moon" First Official Trailer

The third Transformer’s movie, Dark of the Moon has finally been released. After months of shooting, the movie has finally reached post production status, and will be on silver screens in summer next year.

Transformers Dark of The Moon Teaser (1080p) from Michael Bay Dot Com on Vimeo.

Diddy Explains Altering His Ghostwriting Process

With help from Jay-Z, Drake and Rick Ross, Diddy explains how he co-wrote rhymes on "Last Train To Paris."

On the song “Bad Boy For Life,” Diddy infamously rhymed “Don’t worry if I write rhymes / I write checks.” Since then, emcees such as Pharoahe Monch and Royce Da 5’9”have confirmed being contracted to pen verses for Diddy. However, in a recent interview withNew York magazine, Diddy says some of the work for Last Train To Paris was so personal that he had to abandon his practice of being given rhymes verbatim.

“Before, mostly, I would sit in the room and I wouldn’t even do any writing,” he told New York magazine’s Amos Barshad. “But at the same time, I couldn’t just do that cop-out. I call Mos Def, he says, ‘I’m not writing for you, you write for yourself, ‘cause you can do it.’ And that’s what got me.”

Diddy said the personal nature of songs such as “Coming Home,”  which openly touches on his family life, made it impossible to just have songs handed to him. He added that Dirty Money was modeled after British R&B outfit Loose Ends, and the “flavor and swagger” of Dawn Richard and Kalenna Harper also made it difficult to have them sing pre-written singles. As such, some of the songwriting on Last Train To Paris took a long time.

“This was like sculpting a work of art,” Diddy explained. [Jay-Z and I] worked on ‘Coming Home’ for a month. One month. One record. That man got other shit to do. That’s the way he is with records. It don’t matter what it’s for, he gonna make it be the best record that it can be.”

While Drake, Rick Ross and Jay-Z all helped with the lyrics, Diddy said this album contains the most lyrics he’s ever co-written in his life.

“I get the idea of the song, I go in the studio, I mumble the melody, I put down a couple of catchphrases, I work it as far as I can,” Diddy said. “And then I bring in a co-writer that’s good for the song. A Drake, or a Rick Ross, or even a Jay-Z. I guess I’m blessed with the opportunity, like a singer, that can work with other songwriters. In rap it hasn’t necessarily been cool, but I think that's my own allegiance to the song. If somebody could help me make the song better, I don’t really care what other people think.”

To read Diddy’s full interview with New York magazine, including his thoughts on Auto-tune, the Ibiza club scene and Shyne, visit New York’s Daily Intel blog.

Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon Expecting Twins

Nick Cannon broke the news this morning (Dec. 16) that he and wifey Mariah Carey are expecting twins. The news first was speculated when the singer referred to her as "they" leading people to think it was an accident.

"It's a touchy issue, because you never want to speak on too much stuff too early, but my wife, at one time, she referred to her stomach as 'they,' and that probably wasn't the wrong thing for her to do," he said to E! News.

MTV reports that Cannon explained to his listeners how the news broke to the Obamas.

"And at this point, she hadn't told anybody anything because doctors advised us to keep it to ourselves until we get further along," Cannon recalls of the conversation Carey had with Barack and Michele backstage at TNT's Christmas in Washington 2010 on Sunday. "And because of the excitement, because of the emotion, she was overwhelmed [and] she shared with the president and first lady that we are having twins."

The couple has not announced a due date yet. 

'Jersey Shore' Season 3 Returns In January, Same Drama Continues

MTV released the trailer for season three of Jersey Shore, which premieres on January 6th. The only change is that Snooki's friend Deena will be replacing Angelina. Other than that, Sammi still hates Jwoww and Snooki, and Deena joins the crusade in support of the latter two. Vinny, The Situation and DJ Pauly D are still on a mission to smoosh every girl at the shore and this time around, they even have a grenade whistle for better protection against unattractive women. Watch below:

Jersey Shore - MTV Shows

Whoa! Meet The First Man Cured Of HIV?

Looks like there's more than promising news in the fight against HIV/AIDs. A German man has become the first person in human history to be successfully cured of HIV.

In 2007, Timothy Ray Brown, a Berlin man, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. During the course of the treatment of his leukemia, Brown nearly died. Doctors put him through extremely aggressive chemotherapy treatments that destroyed the majority of his immune system, which caused Brown to undergo a risky stem-cell transplant, which apparently cured him of the HIV virus.

After his system was nearly decimated by chemotherapy, Brown’s doctors wisely picked a stem-cell donor who had a genetic mutation that made him nearly immune to HIV. And with Brown’s own immune system all but gone, the healthy donor’s cells repopulated Brown’s system, subsequently curing him of the virus. 

Although Brown’s diagnosis is amazing, it is not easily reproduced. He went through extensive, and nearly fatal, treatments as doctors worked to save his life.

HIV has increasingly become a manageable disease, and many are able to live long, productive lives, so it is doubtful that most living with the virus would want to take such a grueling course of action, or could even afford it, to get rid of the virus. But for now, we know that the virus can indeed be cured.

J.R. Smith Dunk On Gary Neal

Gary Neal tries to come in to get the charging foul but ends up on one of JR Smith’s posters.

Floyd Mayweather Arrested For Poking Security Guard

[USA Today] Floyd Mayweather Jr. was arrested on the Las Vegas Strip recently.

He was charged with a misdemeanor battery complaint for allegedly poking a security guard in the face.

Mayweather remained in custody early Friday at the Clark County Detention Center.

The Nov. 15 confrontation was over parking tickets and Mayweather faces six months in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted.

Mayweather had been free after posting bail on unrelated felony charges following his arrest in a September dispute with his children and their mother.

As a boxer he is 41-0 as a pro but has fought just three times since December 2007.

He was in negotiations last year to fight Manny Pacquiao but the deal fell apart. Said Pacquiao on Friday: "He's facing so many problems. I hope he solves them soon so he could go back to the ring."

Big Boi Talks About Plans For "Sir Lucious Left Foot" Follow -Up, Def Jam

General Patton says he has two solo albums remaining at Def Jam, and touches on his upcoming Funk-driven follow-up.

One of this year's critically-acclaimed and fan favorite albums has been Big Boi's Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty. With so much attention paid to the Outkast co-founder's summer album, Hard Knock TV recently asked him if the artistic freedom of him at Def Jam will continue. "I got a three-album deal at Def Jam, and me and [Andre 3000] got a one-album deal over at Jive - one or two," revealed Big Boi, acknowledging both his group and solo contracts.

Although it may be a year away, Big Boi also touched lightly upon his upcoming third solo outing. "It going real good. I'm like five, six songs into it," said Big. "It's only gonna be like 10 songs; I'm going back to the old school way of puttin' albums together. Hopefully I can be done with it in the next seven or eight months - I'm waitin' on Dre to finish his record, then we can start plannin' on some mo' thangs."

As for the sound of things, the album has yet to be associated with a concept or title, but Big Boi explained, "The album is a Funk-driven album." With Grammy Awards and multi-platinum success, Big Boi also criticized the mainstream in explaining his own agenda. "With there being so many watered-down types of music and the radio is really destroyin' the ears of the kids [by] puttin' out that bullshit, you gotta put out that potent Funk."

MTV Names Kanye West Their Man Of The Year

MTV Shows

He didn’t sell the most albums (that was Eminem) or have the year’s hottest single (that was Usher), but at the close of 2010, there really is no other choice for MTV News’ Man of the Year than Kanye West. After all, no one dominated the pop-culture landscape quite like he did.

50 Cent Launches G-Note Records, Announces Hot Rod As Flagship Artist

A couple defecting label signees can't stop 50 Cent's business hustle. 

The G-Unit boss and Twitter troublemaker has recently announced the development of a new subsidiary label, G Note Records.

The label's flagship artist is Hot Rod, an Arizona-based artist 50 signed to G-Unit back in 2006. "@officalhotrod is the first artist of G NOTE he gonna do his numbers watch," 50 tweeted yesterday. 

The rapper—who's sing-songy flow once drew comparisons to 50 Cent—has developed a more pop/dance-inspired feel, as displayed in his lead single "Dance With Me," released to iTunes Thursday (Dec. 16). 

Hot Rod made his musical G-Unit debut on the 2006 DJ Whoo Kid mixtape G-Unit Radio, Part 22: Hip-Hop Is Dead. Mary J. Blige appeared in the video for their collaborative single, "Be Easy," the same year. And in 2008, he dropped a viral single titled "I Like To Fuck," which picked up steam after Tila Tequila hopped on the remix.

There is no word yet on when Hot Rod's debut album will be released.

Ronnie Ortiz From "Jersey Shore" Indicted On Assault Charge

J. Cole Talks Former Days As A College Student and Bill Collector

Redman Explains Why Him and Method Man Make A Good Team

Redman talks about his relationship with his frequent collaborator and co-star

Redman and Method Man have been together since 1994's Month of the Man when they had just released their respective sophomore and debut albums on Def Jam. The two weed aficionados were soon recording together and eventually released two albums, a movie, commercials and a TV show. 

Redman sat down with The AV Club and talked about why he and Mr. Meth make such a good team.

"Because we don’t have egos," Red explained. "We don’t have animosity. We understand the goal that we’re out to do, and we understand our job. We don’t let animosity and egos get in the way."

When questioned if they didn't have egos in general or just with each other, Red continued. "In general! Just in general, man. Animosity and egos and unloyalty plays a very big role in everything, whatever you’re trying to do. Whether it’s your business, whether you just making one transaction, you gotta be honest, you gotta be loyal. Even if it was just to do one show, you can’t have egos, or the show’ll be messed up. You mad at this, ’cause this thing happened… Put it this way, the shortest thing between people is communication, and we have that. Not saying we don’t have our issues, ’cause we do, just like anybody else would. But we know how to control the issue where it’s not affecting the money and the brand that we created."

'Fast Five' Trailer Starring Ludacirs, Tyrese Gibson and Vin Diesel

The boys with the need for speed are back in town for another go around. In the fifth installment of The Fast and The Furious, Paul Walker plays a former cop who partners with an ex-con portrayed by Vin Diesel. What ensues is fast cars, non-stop action and a whole lot of burning rubber. The movie also stars Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges, Tyrese Gibson, Jordana Brewster and Dwayne Johnson.

Willow Smith Has No Rules

Willow Smith has no rules. This is according to her superstar mother, Jada Pinkett Smith. Jada told Style Magazine, “I’m not saying it’s always perfect, but rules just get in the way. We don’t have rules. We come up with agreements. Kids are little people, and we’re in life to guide them. Trying to rule someone is always an illusion — and it’s no different with children.”

We can see how that might work. Willow Smith is indeed a superstar at the age of 10. Jada recalled a time when Willow disobeyed her parents and set up a page on a social networking site: “I told her not to, so I was so mad. I said, ‘What do you think I should do now?’ So Willow said, ‘Mom, take my computer away’. And I said, ‘How long for?’ She said a month."

Wow! Willow Smith seems like a pretty responsible child. Check out these pictures from Willow Smith's New York performance at Highline Ballroom in New York City. 

Diddy Explains Why He Isn't Married To The Ladies Of The View

Hugh Jackman Injured On Oprah's Australian Set

Wolverine star Hugh Jackman was treated for a serious eye injury after a stunt depacle on set of Oprah's Australian TV special, according to Radar Online.

Jackman rappelled toward the stage at the Sydney Opera House but failed to slow down as he neared the landing spot. He came to an abrupt halt when his leg struck a studio light, forcing a piece of debris into his eye, which started bleeding. He immediately left the stage and received treatment from paramedics.

"I’ve never been hugged by a paramedic,’’ said Jackman before placing an icepack on his eye.

Jackman's two children, who were watching in the audience, were visibly upset but everyone is OK.

As expected, pics of the incident are floating around on Twitter.