By Calvin Stovall -

On Monday, Hot 97’s Peter Rosenberg called Nicki Minaj’s new song “Starships” “one of the most sellout songs in hip hop history.” Ignoring the irony of a Hot 97 employee calling anyone or anything a “sellout,” the true issue at stake here is an artist’s right to branch out beyond the limits of their genre or art form. Since when did hip hop have the right to claim an artist as ours and ours alone? Especially when that artist has shown ambition beyond hip hop from jump. Read the rest of this entry »

(Photos from left: Frank Micelotta/PictureGroup, Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

By Dan Reagans

So by now you’ve all heard the news that pop princess Rihanna, and ex-boyfriend R&B sensation Chris Brown have reunited on his techno smash remix of “Turn Up The Music”, and her racy smash “Birthday Cake” remix, confirming recent rumors about the ex-power couples reconciliation. Read the rest of this entry »

(Photo: Courtesy MTV)

By Calvin Stovall

Where is Dame Dash? It’s not that the Roc-A-Fella co-founder is hard to find; if you spend enough time in New York’s SOHO neighborhood, you’re bound to run into him at a Curren$y show or trendy art gallery. But as much as Dame may be enjoying his downtime from the spotlight, his presence is greatly missed by the hip hop world. Read the rest of this entry »

(Photos: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images; Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

By Dan Reagans

Of course by now hip hop heads have surely grown weary of Kimberly Jones throwing shots, taking stabs and clawing at Nicki Minaj. While I must admit I’m not the biggest Barbie around, one must agree that the rivalry between the two female MCs has transitioned into more of an catty annoyance than a lyrical competition. As fans, we’ve seemed to have lost the real objective of the battle, so it’s high time these ladies call an end to the drama.

The latest swipe in the conflict came during the Queen Bee’s guest appearance on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live, where she suggested that Nicki just actually may be a stupid h*e for making the song “Stupid H*e.”

Although Lil Kim is a legend, and Minaj has clearly been influenced by the rap icon, there isn’t any salvageable good quality music to be derived from this ongoing rap beef. All we’ve gotten out of it is Kim’s Black Friday mixtape and Minaj’s occasion subliminal diss tracks like “Roman’s Revenge.” Not much of the material from either side can be characterized as standout. However it’s almost certain that a musical collaboration between the two would make for some racy and creative content to put out to the masses.

We may be a ways off from hearing the two powerhouses collaborate on a record together, and a call to Minister Farrakhan may not be in order, but a truce should be the way to go here.

Despite all the cheesy headline grabs that all the back and forth may garner, real Lil Kim fans don’t want to see the legend wasting all her camera time making slighted comments on Minaj’s latest and greatest.

While this isn’t the only hall of famer versus hot-shot star beef we’ve been privy to of late, both parties might want to take a cue from Drake’s short lived beef with Common (which happened to have more battle potential than this one). The brewing rivalry between Toronto’s own and the Chi-town vet came to a close after Drizzy opted not to engage in the verbal jousting since it wasn’t a good look for hip hop.

“That situation is not a hip hop moment or a battle for the sake of musical integrity,” Drake told nahright.com about his conflict with Common.

Whether you agree with Drake or not, one must come to grips with the fact that we obviously aren’t going to get classic battle rap material the likes of Nas’s “Ether”, Jay-Z’s “Takeover” or Tupac’s “Hit Em Up, from Kim vs. Nicki. It certainly doesn’t feel like it today, so the two lionesses may as well call a truce.

Peace over cat-fights beef.

(Photo: REUTERS/Mike Cassese)

By Calvin Stovall

Jeremy Lin is Notorious B.I.G. in ‘93. He’s also Nas in ‘91. 50 Cent in ’02. Every other rap phenomenon we’ve watched take the game by storm from out of nowhere. In sports, the overnight celebrity is rare — AAU, the NCAA and scouting practices ensure that we know who’s talented enough to make it before they get to the pros. The Internet has had a similar effect on the rap game. The blogosphere and magazines like Fader and Spin act as the minors and college ranks, providing a space for new talent to be discovered and monitored before they get a shot at the big time. Once a rapper’s buzz reaches a certain level, he graduates to the majors, signs a deal or stays indie, starts getting press in XXL, The Source and VIBE and is thrown into a deep pool of up-and-comers until he proves he’s worthy of greater accolades. For the most part, if you want to be a famous rapper, you have to go through this system.

But the system is flawed. Sure, blogs serve as a great proving ground — you earn your stripes by building your buzz and as you go from blogs to magazines to TV, you hopefully improve incrementally — but who was the last star that this system produced? The vast majority of rappers fostered in the blogosphere struggle to make the next step and many don’t last past a year. Take a look back at your old XXL Freshmen covers — a lot more Charles Hamiltons and Pills than Drakes and Nicki Minajes.

That’s because Drake and Nicki, like Jeremy Lin, took the road less traveled. No one took Drake seriously initially because of his Degrassi background, so he was overlooked by the system and had to work outside of it. While at the time he was surely upset about not getting the same predictive accolades as peers Wale, Cudi and B.o.B, his exclusion turned out to be a blessing. He went around the gatekeepers and created his own lane. Nicki did the same, so did Odd Future.

Jeremy Lin’s path through the D-League and free agency is currently proving the ineptitude of his sport’s system for assessing talent. In the future, best believe NBA teams will start valuing a player’s smarts a lot more in scouting just like 50 made the rap world see the true value of mixtapes. Phenoms don’t come out of nowhere on purpose. All 30 teams had a chance at Jeremy Lin in the draft and Drake was putting out mixtapes and videos long before So Far Gone blew. Since we couldn’t recognize on our own, they had to break the mold and force us to look at things differently. So stop trying to find rap’s next big thing on the blogs, he’s not there. When the time comes, he’ll make himself known. Until then, sit back, keep your hands high and enjoy the Jeremy Lin phenomenon.

(Photo: PA Photos /Landov)

By Dan Reagans

“You know dead rappers get better promotion” – Jadakiss,  ”We Gon’ Make It”

I love music. On the eve of music’s biggest night (the Grammy Awards) the world lost one of its brightest icons, Queen of Pop Whitney Houston. While the initial shock still lingers but slowly subsides each day, I took time to reflect on her uncanny legacy, and revisit her enormous catalog of hits.

As I pondered on a music-based topic to Sound Off about I came across the latest posthumous album of the late Lamont “Big L” Coleman, L Corleone. Released this Valentine’s Day in anticipation of the 13th anniversary of the fallen MC’s passing. Big L was murdered in the streets of Harlem on February 15, 1999. While Big L recorded a large body of work, he only released one studio album — Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous (1995). Since his untimely demise there have been five posthumous releases composed of  unreleased songs and freestyles.

While I just may be the biggest Big L fan, and will forever support any of the respective movements from my fellow Harlemites, L Corleone and other previous posthumous efforts are not up to the same standards displayed on his debut album. Although he isn’t the first artist to have unreleased and dated material added onto his discography (i.e. : Tupac, Big Pun, Notorious BIG, Amy Winehouse, and others) this latest effort should serve as a filter of exploitation…or lack thereof.

As of late, it appears as if the desire to remain relevant has become greater than the fear of tarnishing a legacy. Great music is timeless and shouldn’t be force fed to younger generations. There are more creative and innovative ways to reintroduce past artists who inspired us to the younger masses. Diddy showed us in the ’90s with his much celebrated “sampling era” and Jay-Z pays homage by incorporating a Biggie line in numerous songs to “big up” his brother.

Releasing discarded or subpar material just for the sake of relevance or anniversaries is not the way to commemorate one’s legacy. Diddy even set aside his “we won’t stop” moniker and closed the book on Big’s catalog after releasing the last of two posthumous albums, The Duets: the Final Chapter.

While we can surely expect a Whitney Houston greatest-hits album in the near future one can only hope that it captures the icon at her peak as opposed to a compilation of never-meant-to-be-released music.

It’s not far-fetched to think that most artists would want to be remembered at a time when they were on top of their games, but we need to find more ways to reintroduce them in that same manner of creativity that we first fell in love with without diluting their voice, message and legacy. We can never recreate the magic and charisma they once possessed, but we dare not present them to this new generation in a less than bright light they once commanded.

Artists are authors in their own right and should have a say in how they are presented to the world.

By Calvin Stovall

If you don’t suffer from epilepsy then you made it safely through The Throne’s new video for “N***as in Paris.” The fact that it wasn’t actually shot in France bummed me out at first, but the flashing lights, Masonic imagery and classic shots of Kanye bopping were enough to make me run it back a few times. As impressive as the fancy camera work and editing were (the updated concert vocals were a nice touch, too) after a couple watches I was left asking, “What was the point of that?” These days, it doesn’t matter how much hype a video has or how amazing it actually is, most fans will only watch it once or twice online and then never think about it again.

Gone are the days of Rap City, when a video was as important for promotion as anything. Back then, videos were the only way other than the radio to hear new music until the album dropped. They were also one of the only ways for fans to actually see the artist and build a connection. Now Twitter and the non-stop flow of interviews and exclusives coming from blogs provide a much deeper and more relatable picture of an artist than a four-minute clip of them posing and lip-syncing. 106 & Park and MTV JAMS are still rocking, but neither is enough to save music videos from becoming the latest media to be killed by the Internet.

The video themselves can’t do anything about it either. From M.I.A.’s “Bad Girls” to Freddie Gibbs’ “Thuggin’,” artists are still finding captivating and creative ways to bring their music to the screen. The very best may get a favorite stamp on YouTube and enjoy some buzz from the blogs, but after the initial rush, most videos come and go with little to no fanfare.

The Internet doesn’t have to be the death of the music video, though. Like music, magazines and other media that struggled at first to find their place on the web, music videos simply need to evolve if they want to survive. If the people creating videos can find a way to make the universality of the web work in their favor instead of against them, the music video could go from struggling medium to a golden era. But how? I’m no expert, but I do know less is more. I applaud Rick Ross’ work ethic, but there is no need to shoot a video for every song off of your mixtape. The bad acting and low-quality visuals in the “Yella Diamonds” video were entertaining, but only the first time. If all the creative energy and money spent on making six average videos were put into figuring out innovative ways to make one or two, we might figure something out. It also couldn’t hurt to ask the fans. There is an obscene amount of user-generated content available on Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube that artists could be mining for inspiration. If music videos are going to survive the next decade, some big changes will have to be made. Judging from our culture’s past, we’ll figure something out.

(Photos: PictureGroup)

By Dan Reagans

While hip hop may have been founded and based around lyrical jousting it is now safe to say that those elements of rap music have evolved a great deal into something more bizarre. The latest rap acts to get caught up in heated verbiage was Mississippi veteran spitter-producer David Banner and the self-proclaimed Based God Lil B.

Over the years hip hop heads have seen beef go from insults to fist fights to gunshots and sex tapes. Although the beefing art form is no longer at its worst, it has become more ridiculous and humorous.

In playing the part of a hip hop griot, David Banner’s controversial song “Swag” noted the digression of moral ethics in today’s music, most notably caucasian rapper V-Nasty’s unapologetic use of the N-word, along with the regular message of rappers glorifying guns, drugs, sex and violence and calling it swag. While Lil B took offense and put out his own version of the song “I Own Swag” filled with a plethora of indirect disses aimed at Banner, the Based God took to Twitter to say he meant no disrespect toward Banner in any way. He even went on further to say that he had just got off the phone with the veteran MC and that everything was cool.

Has throwing stones and hiding your hand become the new beef or just a publicity stunt to sell records and stay relevant?

While this isn’t the only recent old school vs. new school beef to end before it started  (i.e.: Common vs. Drake) it does shed some light on the true climate behind these verbal onslaughts. Common made his shots at Drizzy public just after his album The Dreamer, The Believer hit stores, and Lil B made blog headlines again this week after making his latest reconciliation with Banner public knowledge. Obviously there’s something to gain from these metaphoric squabbles, so sayeth Drake during his interview with NahRight.com on whether or not he’ll respond to Common’s disses.

“No. Because despite how it’s been worded by him that situation is not a ‘hip hop moment’ or a ‘battle for the sake of musical integrity’…it’s a ploy for attention around the release of an album.”

Goodbye good ole fashion rap beef and hello reality tv hip hop.

(Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)

By Calvin Stovall

Chris Brown’s quest for redemption will come full circle this Sunday at the 54^th Grammy Awards. Three years ago, Brown’s career was almost ended after an altercation between him and then-girlfriend Rihanna led to felony assault charges. In the years since, Breezy has reclaimed much of his fan base and even extended it by venturing further into acting and rapping, two crafts he flirted with earlier in his career. His hard work, and a stunning performance at last year’s BET Awards, all seem to have gotten him closer to regaining America’s favor, but his upcoming Grammy performance will be the ultimate test.

But even though America is fully capable of forgiving Chris for his transgressions, that does not mean they will soon forget. No matter how many stages he kills or tantrums he throws, Brown’s decision to assault Rihanna will forever be in the first paragraph of his Wikipedia page. Michael Vick can tell you, this country has a great memory for stuff like that.

Though he will never truly be able to escape his past, what he can do is atone for it. Rihanna has already forgiven him publically, and judging by the millions of listeners and DJs who made “Look at Me Now” Billboard’s #1 hit of 2011, most fans have too. Because we all love to see the redemption story play out in full, our culture is brilliant at setting the stage for it. First you have the TMZ cameras and scathing tweets to tear you down to your absolute lowest. Then you must show remorse, serve your time, and take enough media lashings to evoke the slightest amount of pathos from the general public. Chris didn’t hit that level until almost a year after the assault when many fans started saying, “he’s a kid, he made a mistake and did his time. Let’s give him another chance.”

Then it was about reinvention. The incident ruined the golden boy image that made him famous, but more tats, blonde hair and a rap mixtape all transformed him into music’s heartthrob bad boy. He’s run with the role ever since— literally, in 2010’s Takers where he pulled off one of the greatest runs from police ever caught on film, and figuratively, on Twitter where he’s beefed with everyone from Frank Ocean to Raz B.

The next chapter of his redemption story was the most pivotal. Now in perfect position for a comeback, he had to deliver with the product to truly regain his standing in our good graces. Two monster singles and unforgettable performances at the BET Awards and VMAs last summer handled that, and now he stands before the ultimate test. The stage is set for him to bring a proper close to this chapter of his life with the performance of his career. Sunday night we will see if Breezy can rise to the occasion.

(Photos: Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images; Jeff Fusco/Getty Images)

By Calvin Stovall -

Ever since the Janet Jackson debacle in 2004, the folks who plan Super Bowl halftime have let their fear of another nipple gate scare them away from making the halftime show everything it could be.

In the years since Janet shocked the world when she had a wardrobe malfunction during her performance with Justin Timberlake (does anyone even remember the name of the song they performed), we’ve had to sit through nearly a decade’s worth of washed up acts who fail to match the intensity of the big moment. Last year’s decision to pick the Black Eyed Peas was an obvious reach for a younger audience, but instead of choosing cookie-cutter pop acts that err on the side of caution, the committee needs to be bold and create a halftime experience worthy of the 100 million viewers that tune in.

For this year’s festivities- they dragged Madonna out of oblivion and teamed her up with Nicki Minaj and M.I.A to give the allusion of newness. Nice try, but that won’t cut it for next year’s big game. For 2013, which will mark the Super Bowl’s first return to the city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, they better go hard or go home.

If you’re trying to keep in tune with the Bayou theme, you could easily organize an N.O.-only medley featuring everyone from Lil Wayne and Aaron Neville to Wynton Marsalis— why not celebrate the city’s rich culture?

If that’s not accessible enough for the massive audience, how’s this for 2014? New York City will be hosting (well, the Meadowlands of New Jersey will be hosting) and the lights may be brighter than any Super Bowl we’ve ever seen. No one person could handle that, but what about a couple? A power couple to be specific.

By February 2014, Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s parental hiatus from the spotlight should be over. With Blue Ivy celebrating her second B-day, Hov and Bey will be able to leave their princess with a babysitter in order to bless the world with a comeback performance worthy of their star power. Think of it as a massive date night for the super couple. Adding Kanye West, their unpredictable heir to throne, would probably give organizers pause, but I’m sure he could find a way to sneak onto the stage and make the FCC thank God for the five-second delay.

Come on guys, let’s take a chance and give the people what they really want. While we are looking forward to seeing Nicki do her thing, you guys should be reminded that we the fans have been on timeout for far too long.