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Is Lil Wayne trying to be the next 2Pac?

Many people I know either love or hate 2Pac. He is a very polarizing figure because of his opinions and personality, so of course people will take sides on the topics of controversy he brought up. Many see 2Pac as a great person, speaking for the underprivledged who had no voice of their own. Others see Pac as a bad guy who glorified thug life and violence for the black community. Some people also point out the fact that he was a studio gangster, and a backup dancer to the Digital Underground before he became Mr. Thug Life at Death Row Records.

However, 2Pac became VERY controversial after his first shooting and after his affiliation grew with Death Row. Prior to this, he never claimed any gang sets or anything, but he was starting to affiliate himself with Suge Knight and bloods. This put his life in danger and when he started living like a real G, he got killed for it.

Lil Wayne is starting to do the same thing; he is affiliating himself with bloods and is living more dangerously than before. The difference is with Wayne, his music doesn't touch people the same way 2Pac's did. 2Pac always had a message for you, like each verse was written like a poem, where Wayne's songs can sometimes have a message, but are held together by his one liners, punchlines, and quotables.

Wayne continues his 2Pac emulation by doing an insane amount of music. Before 2Pac's death, he was in the studio nonstop to make material and get out of his contract with Death Row so he could go indie. Lil Wayne makes a huge amount of material to make himself hot on mixtapes, something that wasn't as prevalent in 2Pac's time.

Many people these days make comparisons to Wayne and his addictions to drugs, saying that he may die soon if he continues on this self destructive path. Tupac Shakur was killed involuntarily, where Wayne might be killing himself slowly. However, the way people may twist it, they may make Wayne out to be a martyr the same way 2Pac was.

Obviously Lil Wayne wasn't as outspoken and controversial as 2Pac about the ghetto and civil rights, but in terms of music, Lil Wayne is the hottest right now. Hopefully Lil Wayne will turn his drug problem around and be able to live a long productive life. It's not worth putting your own life in danger to emulate a legend who is dead and can't even enjoy the status they achieved.

JAY-Z SIGNS $150 MILLION DEAL WITH LIVENATION

This video is from Reuters and talks about Jay-Z's new record deal with LiveNation that is reported to be $150 million. Jay-Z definitely won on this deal because no other label could offer this much. However, it's a risk and a big one for LiveNation, who along with Jay, is experimenting with a new model to earn money through music. Seeing that record sales are doing bad and iTunes is the biggest seller of music, people question whether LiveNation's approach with Jay-Z is the right way to do it. They say maybe things should go digital, while LiveNation does more with live shows and merchandise.

JERMAINE DUPRI STARTS "TAG RECORDS" FOR TAG BODY SPRAY

JD claims that his goal is to promote artists "10 times more" than other labels without having artists have a required set of record sales to get promoted. This has apparently NEVER been done in the music industry and he's working with Tag body spray to do this.

There will be album releases and tours along with Tag body spray commercials with the music featuring this artist.

This isn't just Jermaine Dupri and Tag, but Island Def Jam is involved as well. He claims that Def Jam is the "best record label in the world".

Cashis and the New West Movement

You may or may not have heard about him....but Cashis is one of Shady Records' newest talents that has yet to be unleashed on the hip hop industry. He is a very talented rapper who claims The O.C. but has some claims of being from Chicago as well.

Cashis has recently been working on various mixtape material, if you want to check it out go to Datpiff.com and do a search for Cashis. He's a pretty good lyricist and obviously Eminem sees something in him to invest time and a record contract into Cashis.

Cashis has been on the mixtape grind as of late and has been doing collaborations with various artists like G Unit, 50 Cent, Hot Rod, Dirty Blacc, Nate Dogg, Mistah Fab, and more. He's currently doing smaller time shows in various parts of the country for his Bogish Boy tours.

According to Cashis, he has worked on many songs with Eminem for his upcoming album and has also worked on songs for Eminem's new album. This is exciting to see, because the only commercial release with Cashis to date is "You Don't Know" from the Re-Up compilation album (featured Eminem, 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, and Cashis).

He is part of what he calls the "New West Movement" and his goal is to bring the West Coast back to the mainstream popularity that it once held when 2Pac was "king of the west". People who feel the same way and are trying hard to bring the West Coast back are The Game, Bishop Lamont, and a huge group of west coast artists.

With a bright future ahead of him, Cashis needs to take advantage of the Shady Records connection to build himself up into a million dollar asset for Shady Records and really bring the West Coast back.

Will Detox ever come out?

The creator of The Chronic and 2001, Dr. Dre, has been having us on hold for the past several YEARS as we wait for his upcoming album Detox. With the popular concensus that both The Chronic and 2001 are HIP HOP CLASSICS, it's gonna be a difficult task for Dr. Dre to match, if not surpass the quality and popularity of his first 2 albums (not including Aftermath compilation here).

Let's face it. Dre has set the bar extremely high, and he's had a lot of his Aftermath roster come and go in the time he's been working on this album. He's even had time to go from a chubby producer to a buff dude on the MTV awards. He's got all the time in the world to do these things which take a lot of time, but he's still not done with Detox.

This really makes you wonder if he's even going to drop the CD at all. If we never got the album, I wouldn't be surprised, but at the same time, if Dre releases it and it isn't up to standard...Dre basically lost. If he was to quit today, his last album was 2001 and he ended on a good note. If Detox is worse than 2001, then he ended on a bad note.

Hopefully this classic in the making will come out soon. Even Snoop Dogg is pissed and wants it to come out. Hurry up Dre!!

50 Cent and his New Plan

50 Cent has made it known that he's displeased with the way Interscope has handled his projects, both for his own solo album and the G Unit solo/group albums. It seemed that in the beginning when 50 was the newly signed star, Eminem and Dre did everything for him to make sure he succeeded. I mean they were getting paid off him, so it's only right.

Fast forward to today, 50 Cent is still Interscope's biggest star, even to the point where it seems 50's presence on the label is hindering other artists from getting their shine. With the current drought in sales, the label doesn't seem to be willing to throw a lot of moeny into a project that has no guarantee of selling. 50 Cent and G Unit actually have zero guarantee of making a lot of sales because grimy NY gangsta rap isn't what's in.

Look around. You got Soulja Boy, you got the trap style music from Jeezy, you got Lil Wayne, you got a lot of southern clubby music going around. That's whats actually selling, especially in the ringtone market. G Unit makes gangsta hits that don't appeal to radio stations.

So what is 50 Cent gonna do? You know if anyone can come up with a way around it, it's Curtis Jackson.

It seems as if 50 Cent is setting up his whole operation online now, with the mixtape distribution through the internet to get buzz. He's back to mixtape grind mode like he was during his early years with Shady records. Instead of letting the label help push and using their dollars, he uses internet promotion which is much cheaper and he's catapulted himself high in internet traffic because of his celebrity status. It seems to be a great way to build buzz for his upcoming G Unit album huh?

YOUNG BUCK - IT'S NOT OK

http://realtalkny.rawkus.com/2008/04/topic/topic/beef/young-buck-its-not-ok/

Brand new Young Buck song, talkin a bunch of real topics. Really cool track, be sure to check it out. Is he talkin about the 50 Cent situation? At least he's smart enough to not talk badly about 50...look what happened to Game.

RANSOM VIDEO - LOVE TO HATE ME

Carter 3 Pushed Back! New release date June 10!

What the hell is the hold up? The Carter 3 was slated for being released May 15, but now apparently it has been pushed back to June.

Wayne is the king right now and his name is buzzing, so he should know what he's doing, but he should watch it because his popularity could dwindle in the next month. Not likely, but possible.

If we recall, Carter 2 dropped in 2005. It went Platinum and Carter 1 went Gold.

Wayne's goal is to try to make music on this album that will stick with you forever, and this is why he's taking his time with the album. He wants to put songs that he did collabs with people he respects and admires, not ones his label set up.

Hopefully this doesn't kill Wayne's buzz, but I guess it's keeping the word "Carter 3" in our minds.

Stay tuned for more updates on C3.