Eminem-3am

Hopefully you managed to download the track before it got taken down...

...now enjoy the 34 second trailer to the video for 3am, which should be with us this weekend.

Looks like we're in for a cinematic experience.

As the other post got taken down, the news that was included in that post was also lost, so it's relisted with some new additions below:

-Dr. Dre and 50 Cent are the only features on Relapse.

-Relapse 2 will be out later this year.

-He repeated his respect for T.I. and Lil' Wayne, as well as Kanye West. Addressing the allegations made by Lil' Wayne that 'Eminem was scared to work with him', he apparently wanted to work with Wayne but didn't have the time.

-Most of the album will be more like 3am, not We Made You (Thank God!).

-The tracklisting for Relapse is here: http://www.digitalspy.com/music/a154404/eminem-relapse-tracklisting-released.html

-I'll have 'Old Times' Sake' Ft. Dr. Dre on Tuesday.

Enjoy:

A Lot of News

It's been a busy few hours.

Firstly, the artwork for Asher Roth's upcoming album, Asleep In The Bread Aisle, was released a few days back. Click the pic for a better view.

A funny picture, although according to Asher we should 'look into the picture and try and find the hidden meaning'. Maybe 'bread' is money, and he's just taking a nap in a money-filled genre/industry? Doing his own thing?

Decide for yourself. He has stated many times that the album won't just be light-hearted efforts in the vein of 'I Love College', which is given further emphasis by the above statement.

Still a great picture though.

The artwork for Asher's next single, Lark on my Go-Kart, is also light-hearted, and can be seen here: http://i.kanyelive.com/uploads/7f8739_asher-go-kart-cover.jpg. Seems as though this should be a fun track too.

Secondly, 50 Cent is following Eminem's suit and also apparently looking to release 2 albums this year. The first, Before I Self Destruct, is scheduled for June.

Thirdly, Wale's debut album has finally been given a confirmed title-Attention: Deficit.

Can't wait to hear this, as Wale has easily become one of my favourite rappers of recent times, on the strength of his mixtapes and features. The first single is also confirmed to be 'Chillin' featuring Lady GaGa. This can clearly be seen as a move to break the mainstream, and will hopefully work out for Wale.

Finally, and most importantly, Kid Cudi has 'announced' that he is 'retiring' from music after his debut album. In a long post on his blog yesterday, he announced that he was sick of the fame, and sick of people claiming he has 'changed' since becoming famous.

This may be simply an impulsive reaction, or a truthful statement. One factor was inevitably the recent altercation at a Reebok event that he was scheduled to perform at, during which he was rumoured to be arrested-all very unusual for someone who is known for being so 'normal'.

(One side of the story says it's because he was wearing Jordans when he turned up and wouldn't change, whereas Cudi claims it was because they were 'unprofessional' and the sound systems sounded like 1980's boomboxes)

Add into this recent comments by Wale on Joe Budden's YouTube channel about Cudi. Cudi and Wale's friendship is well-documented, and they are apparently quite close, however Wale feels 'it's now a different Cudi'. (The video can be seen here-watch it, just to see how funny Wale is!-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP9XORSXQNs).

It's unclear how this will all turn out, and could all be an empty, angry threat that will be (hopefully) taken back. I'll keep you posted.

May 19th?

Relapse is coming on May 19th. (For those of you under a rock, that's Eminem's upcoming album, originally due last year)

Oh, this may be of interest to you too: Interscope Records announced that Slim Shady is dropping two albums this year, Relapse and Relapse 2.

Apparently, the first single/video will be premiering on radio and television simultaneously on April 7. This is in addition to Crack A Bottle, for which the video should be coming soon, although it's unclear whether that is actually one of the three artists' (Dre, Em, 50) song, or whether it's just a collaborative effort that may, or may not, feature on all of their albums.

Relapse 2 doesn't have a release date yet, but in a seperate statement Eminem said that he's currently in the studio working on that project and it will come out in the second half of this year:
"A lot of people were expecting Relapse to drop last year, I was one of them. Then Dre and I went back in the studio in September for a few days, and that turned into six months. We were on such a roll; we wound up with a ton of new music produced by Dre. Putting out Relapse 2 will let everyone get all of the best stuff."

In related news, 50 Cent confirmed that Before I Self Destruct will be coming after Relapse, no doubt due to the lack of hype generated, and resounding failure of the singles he has put out so far. (I actually think some of them we're decent, but there you go)

Also, turns out May 19th was the last date given for Lil' Wayne's rock album, Rebirth, but that has now been shifted to a 'TBA', as his label (Universal I think) are worried it's going to be largely crap.

On that note, the video for Prom Queen has been released and isn't too bad, the song grows on me by the day. I would add it here, but the links are all down at the moment.

An update: I have added the function below that allows you to email blog posts to people. For those of you who like what I'm doing, please use this and send it to anyone you think might enjoy it. Also, the comments will no longer be full-page and will instead appear in a pop-up window. Let me know if you prefer this, or if you want it back to full-page.

Slices of News, With a Side Dish of Info.

Lupe Fiasco has returned...maybe. An indie/punk-style band randomly surfaced called Japanese Cartoon.

No idea where they just appeared from, but they had a few songs up on their Myspace account that got some reaction. The Lupe relevance is that the lead singer, 'Percival Fats' (...come on, how can that be a real name!?) sounds EXACTLY like Lupe putting on a British accent.

They released a Myspace bulletin which 'dispelled' these rumours, claiming Lupe only 'finances the band, and does their production.' Sounds ludicrous? It is. Head over to http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=440389226 and listen to their songs (especially Heirplanes) to make your own judgement.

Secondly, the battle that was hyped up on here long ago rages on. 50 Cent vs. Lil' Wayne. If you have some spare time, head to the following link to hear a radio interview with 50, whereby he goes in pretty hard on Lil' Wayne, as well as a few shots at Kanye. He does however talk some sense at certain points, especially about Wayne not acknowledging 'Louisianimal'.

Listen to the interview here: http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshhaqRtC7MEvFl76jbE.

To finish with, Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 fame has done a very revealing interview with MTV.com recently which gave some clue as to whether a Blink-182 reunion would ever happen, and the future of +44.

When asked about a Blink reunion, it was said that 'the future is wide open.' I think most fans of Blink/+44/Angels and Airwaves always believed that somewhere down the line they will reunite, and this only adds to that belief.
When asked about +44, an answer was given that very few people will have expected: Hoppus is going solo. Although he didn't say +44 was over, he did say that both himself and Travis Barker want to finish their solo albums first. It was common knowledge that Travis Barker had an album coming, but Hoppus' first solo effort was not. They've been working on tracks with one another too, so I'd imagine this could turn out very well for them both.

The Aftermath Bandwagon Rolls On...

As previously "reported" on here, the recently leaked Eminem track 'Crack A Bottle' (also wrongly referred to as 'Number One') was a placeholder version, with Eminem filling in Dr. Dre's vocals as a guideline for how he should lay down the verse.

Well, earlier in the week the full song leaked with Dr. Dre doing his verse, and for good measure 50 Cent pitching in with a verse on the track too.

I'm as yet undecided on the track, although it is growing on me. However, the three of them have done and will do better. This song was never confirmed to 100% be on any of their albums so it may never be released, but I am hoping for better from the trio, especially when working together on one track.

50 Cent also leaked a track called 'I Get It In' just a day after the 'Crack A Bottle' leak. I prefer 50's track to Eminem, purely for the inexplicably addictive Dr. Dre beat. Lyrically, it's never going to win any awards, but it's a half-decent track to listen to and a decent album track. Not sure if it would be single quality though, predominantly due to the fact it sounds a lot like a heavily improved version of 'Just a Lil' Bit.'

Oh, and did I mention the Detox track that leaked yesterday? :)

The track has been accredited to both Bishop Lamont across the internet, but it seems the track was destined for Detox, despite there not actually being a Dre verse on the song. A few articles state that Dre is furious that this track has leaked, especially as it is unfinished, and he wanted it on Detox.

The track is called 'Could Have Been You' and features 50 Cent, Bishop Lamont and R. Kelly. It's clearly an unfinished version, so take any opinions I give with this in mind: It's decent, but not great. The beat is actually similar to the new 50 Cent track, and doesn't jump out at you. However the lyrics tell a decent story, with each man telling the tale of a girl and how they have underestimated their ability to please her.

If you want either, drop me an e-mail. And of course leave comments and sound your appreciation!

Enough Lists: News Time

And we're back. Some of the news in the post first surfaced a couple of weeks ago, but as I'm sure you can appreciate, it's been a busy period.

First off: The 50 Cent/Lil' Wayne 'thing' I posted on last month. Well, read 50's reply to the whole thing here: http://www.sixshot.com/news/13477/. He makes a valid point, seeing Lil' Wayne has remained suspiciously silent about it all. He also compliments Kanye West...!

Secondly, Lupe Fiasco has confirmed that the first single from Everywhere, the first disc of LupEND, will be called 'Shining Down'. No news on a date yet, if I had to guess though I'd say around March/April.

Finally, a piece about someone who I've rated for a while, and probably doesn't get the credit he deserves: Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes. As well as singing from time to time, the guy is a versatile rapper.

From the earlier, more hip-hop based Gym Class stuff, to the indie-hiphop style they are known for now, and all the way down to verses on Kidz In The Hall's 'Lucifer's Joyride', Travis has always proven to be a talented MC.

He's now getting his shot at mainstream solo stuff, as he recently signed a deal with T-Pain's Nappy Boy label. Personally, I think he could bring something to the table at Kanye's G.O.O.D. Music label, but T-Pain isn't a bad producer and clearly has some good friends in the music business, so hopefully he will get some good stuff out of him.

Lil' Wayne dissing 50 Cent? You decide...

http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/audio/id.6184#comments

Seems that some people have discovered this song (click above), whereby Lil' Wayne apparently takes shots at 50 Cent. I can only imagine that this arises from the line 'I'll pour syrup in your Vitamin Water'.

(n.b. Vitamin Water is a drink 50 Cent released and made a lot of money off)

If it is a diss track, as much as I think Lil' Wayne is a good entertainer, 50 Cent would kill him. The most memorable diss tracks of recent times are 50 Cent's. Think about it: Fat Joe, Ja Rule, Murder Inc. and Jadakiss were all in the prime of their careers. They went back and forth with 50, and where are they now?

I don't actually like 50 Cent much, but this is his style, this is what he does. Wayne is not making a good move going after him.

Assuming this is actually a diss track of course.