Snoop Dogg – I Wanna Rock (The Kings G-Mix) ft. Jay-Z

Snoop and J Hova? Damn.

Re-release of Snoop’s Malice N Wonderland drops March 9th.

Some visuals for “On to the Next One” off Blueprint 3. SWIZZY!

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I love this track. Seems like a lot of people aren’t feeling it but it’s the shit. FREE GUCCI!

Hopefully we will be seeing Big Boi’s upcoming solo album Sir Luscious Left Foot sometime soon.

Pill - Afro Sheen

Another banger off Pill’s upcoming mixtape titled 4075: The Refill. Andre 3000 approves and so should you. Keep an eye on this guy - he’s gonna be next in line.

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• Robin Thicke – Meiple (Me I Play) ft. Jay-Z
• Robin Thicke – Shakin’ It For Daddy ft. Nicki Minaj (prod. Polow Da Don)

Robin Thicke is cool in my book most of the time - he has a damn good voice and has some catchy ass songs. This time he recruits Hov for the lead single off his upcoming album Sex Therapy dropping December 15th. Ladies?

P.O.S. drops some visuals for his track “Never Better” off the album of the same name! Dope video! Hey - Kanye liked it too!

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Official video for “Empire State of Mind” featuring Alicia Keys. Off Hov’s Blueprint 3 - but you knew that.

• Lil Wayne – Wasted
• Lil Wayne – Swag Surfin’

Thank god. The real Weezy F. Baby is back. Off his highly anticipated No Ceilings mixtape - which is sure to bring some credibility back to Wayne. Yup - he lost some in my book with all that Rebirth garbage.

I’m sure you can guess the beat selection based off the song titles.

Full mixtape drops on Halloweezy.

On a side note - Wayne could face a year in jail for weapon possession charges in New York. Damn - read more here.

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Timbaland – Rumors ft. Keri Hilson & Jay-Z

When I immediately looked at this track I figured it was sure to be a hit in the making. Not so much - but a new Jay verse is always nice. I hate slamming Timbaland but I haven’t heard any fire from him lately…just saying.

Shock Value 2 drops Nov. 23rd.

Kid CuDi’s set from the Chicago Sprite Green Event. Looks pretty dope!

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Jay-Z preforming “Empire State of Mind” on a London talk show.

A pretty dope behind the scenes look on how the album art for Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 3 came together.

Jay-Z - Venus Vs. Mars (CDQ) (Look ma no tags!)

Jay-Z - Venus Vs. Mars (Prod. By Timbaland) (TAGS)

Another Jay-Z and Timbaland leak. It’s on the tracklist for Blueprint 3 but this is a tagged up version from Shoot 5 Ent’s The Layout mixtape. Man - someone in Timb’s camp needs to get their shit together.

Also Hov is gracing the cover of XXL Mag’s October issue.

Bonus: Jay-Z - Dig A Hole (Original Just Blaze Version)

Shouts to the New Music Cartel on another BP3 leak. Shouts to Nation.

Jay-Z - Reminder (Prod. By Timbaland)

Jay-Z - Off That (Ft. Drake) (Prod. By Timbaland)

Looks like The Blueprint 3 sprung a leak. These two Timbaland produced tracks are both dope but the Drake track really doesn’t live up the hype in my opinion. “Reminder” on the other than give me hope that Blueprint 3 should be a pretty dope album. I’m not impressed with Timbaland’s production on either of these to be honest. Where the Yeezy tracks at?

Speaking of Drake….

Birdman - Money To Blow (Ft. Drake & Lil’ Wayne)

shouts to illRoots.

Also as a little bonus - here is some footage of producer Rick Rubin talking with Russell Simmons on what it was like to work on the track “99 Problems” with Jay-Z. Dope stuff.

Jay-Z - Run This Town (Ft. Rihanna & Kanye West)

Brand new video for Jay-Z’s “Run This Town” featuring Kanye West and Rihanna on the hook. We will see is this video stays up all night - I’ll put up a better quality video as soon as it drops. Looks like MTV Germany jumped the gun and beat out MTV USA.

The Blueprint 3 drops September 11th.

And below a video and remix for “Digital Girl” which originally featured Yeezy and The Dream but Drake hops on board for the remix. Funny it’s Jamie Foxx’s track but I could give two shits.

Jamie Foxx Feat. Drake, The-Dream & Kanye West - “Digital Girl (Remix)

Well apparently this rumored tracklist is quite wrong. A lot of newcomers on this one, as well as some veterans of the game. Should be quite interesting. I’ll assume most of the production is still Kanye West? I like where this is going, should be a solid album regardless. Should of kept Nas on that “Empire State of Mind” track though.

Confirmed via Jay-Z.

Fabolous drops another dope video from his smooth party jam laced Loso’s Way. Glad they snuck Jay into the video but they should have snuck him in a verse in the original track. I like this one.

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Good God. Mickey Factz blacked out on this one. He beasted the shit out of all 3 beats while some how switching up his flow perfectley to match the beat. I’ll leave it to UK radio host DJ Semtex for some parting words.

Mickey Factz passed through my show on 1xtra and blacked out, hard. He kinda kills it, goes in, smacks it, etc. He sharpens his blade across Hip-Hop, Dubstep, and Funky House. Not many MC’s can do this. Seriously, aside from Asher Roth and a few others, very few people can actually freestyle live on air. Pre-written stuff is cool, etc. but you would be surprised at how many people ‘don’t feel well’, or ‘have a cold’, or ‘are tired’ when asked if they want to grab the mic.

I really thought I was going to have to play some serious catch up after not blogging for a few days but not much really dropped. Thankfully I got some good stuff from the homie Add-2 as he drops this promo video for his upcoming track “Superman” which will be featured on his Tale of Two’s City 3: The Rise & Fall mixtape that drops August 28th. Video looks to be dope.

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Preview/trailer for the “Run This Town” video. Jay. Rihanna. Kanye.

Longshot - Healthy Self Esteem (Prod. Brandon Allday) (MP3) | Link

Chicago MC Longshot and producer Brandon Allday of Big Quarters came together to create a fresh new track for Longshot’s new mixtape Future of Chi. This is a behind the scenes look on how everything went down. YouTube description:

New track from Chicago based artist Longshot, called Healthy Self Esteem. Produced by Brandon Allday of Big Quarters. Coming soon the break down your doors single from Longshot called The Real U produced by Jake One on Rhymesayers entertainment. Keep your eyes open.

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Jay-Z explains his new album cover. Reminds me of one of my favorite albums ever.

“These things are like the forgotten pieces in hip-hop,” Hov explained. “It’s still about music. It’s not about radio, making gimmicks — it’s still about making music. Those things are piled in the corner. These are the forgotten things about music. It’s still about music. It’s not about radio, it’s not about making gimmicks, it’s about music. The three stripes that everybody is asking about is made from the original [number] three. The first three they made on the wall was someone carving. If you look at [the number] 3, all they did was connect lines. The whole thing about this album, how I approached it, is that I wanted to make a new classic to start that all over again — to go back to making classic albums like the ones we grew up listening to.”

If you forgot what it looks like - check it out here.

1. What We Talking About (Produced by Kanye West)
2. D.O.A. (Produced by No I.D.)
3. Weigh Me Down Feat. Kid Cudi (Produced by Kanye West)
4. Unforgiven (Produced by Kanye West, Additional Production: MGMT)
5. Run This Town Feat. Rihanna & Kanye West (Produced by Kanye West)
6. Empire State Of Mind Feat. Nas (Produced by Kanye West & No I.D.)
7. When It Comes To This (Produced by Timbaland)
8. Always Feat. Drake (Produced by Kanye West)
9. Scenes From The Past (Produced by No I.D., Co-produced by Kanye West)
10. Everyday A Star Is Born Feat. Mr. Hudson (Produced by Kanye West)
11. Already Home (Produced by Kanye West)
12. Forever Young Feat. Mr. Hudson (Produced by Kanye West)
13. Thank You (Produced by No I.D.)

Bonus Tracks:
14. Sound Of The 70s (Produced by Kanye West)
15. We Made History (Produced by Kanye West)

Well there ya have it. I know I’m happy to see lots of Kanye production, not sure about so much Mr. Hudson…and that MGMT track? Looks like a monster though.

Also this tracklist might not be totally official - so things could change.