Rap Radar

Three months ago, Kid Cudi was arrested and detained for a domestic dispute in a NYC apartment. In the October 2010 issue of SPIN, he tells Sean Fennesey that he was left shook from the experience.

“If I’m gonna be going to jail, I’m not gonna be doing this no more,” Cudi says, adopting a childlike voice, masking the incident’s seriousness. “I had a newfound respect for T.I. and [Lil] Wayne. I only spent 15 hours in there! I was scared straight, going through the shakes, having no food, being held captive. It didn’t matter who I was in the world.”

Below, Charles Aaron gives a rave review of the Kid’s new album, Man On The Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager. Issue on newsstands now, cheapskates.

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With “Mechanic” gaining momentum, Reek Da Villian brings the cameras back into the studio to document his rise in the hip-hop game. This time around, he also bigs up J.Cole and Nas’ pen game too.

Previously: Reek Da Villian Freestyle

For week seven of Crooked I’s Hip Hop Weekly series, he jacks Budden’s instrumental off Padded Room. Get use to these. There’s 45 more to go.

Last Week: “HHW Reloaded 6 (Medicine)”

DJ Suss One rounds up some of your favorite rappers for the official remix to his Maino-featured record. That’s a whole lot of “knee grows” and verses to lay down.

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Jay-Z’s literary venture, Decoded, is set to hit bookstores November 16th. The cover, (which also doubles as Hov’s profile pic on Twitter) is an image from Andy Warhol’s 1984 “Rorschach” paintings. Inside, the book will feature illustrations and decode 36 of Jigga’s songs. Accompanying the hardcover edition, Random House plans to release Decoded as an eBook and iPhone/iPad application. Below is an excerpt from Jay on the project.

“When I first started working on this book, I told my editor that I wanted it to do three important things. The first was to make the case that hip-hop lyrics—not just my lyrics, but those of every great MC—are poetry if you look at them closely enough. The second was I wanted the book to tell a little bit of the story of my generation, to show the context for the choices we made at a violent and chaotic crossroads in recent history.  And the third piece was that I wanted the book to show how hip-hop created a way to take a very specific and powerful experience and turn it into a story that everyone in the world could feel and relate to.”

Days after Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift at last year’s MTV Awards, President Barack Obama called Yeezy a “jackass”. Over a year later, Ye reacts to the Commander-In-Chief’s quip in the new issue of XXL.

When Obama called me “jackass”, after the Taylor incident, I thought that the person who taped that wasn’t supposed to tape it. Obama was supposed to be speaking off the record. Obama has way more important stuff to worry about than my public perception. He was trying to pass the healthcare bill. And if he said that to relate to the room or lighten the room up and the whole mood, then I’d be more than happy to be the butt of all of his jokes if it in the some way helps his overall mission. I’m a soldier of culture. I’m resilient. I’m sure I’ll still beat him in basketball.

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You better get the camera out her face. HHC drops off what may be the next offering off Pink Friday. She spoke on the track awhile back with MTV, but it doesn’t really stand out like she claimed.

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UPDATE: Now without tags

miss p via nqm

UPDATE 2: Explicit CDQ of the first single for Pink Friday.

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Pusha T’s mixtape The Fear Of God, was to scheduled to drop last Tuesday, but four days prior, he had a change of heart. Speaking with Karen Civil, Pusha offers an explanation for the hold up.

I don’t have the features, so I don’t really want to say just yet. It’s just about being the first solo perspective of myself and seeing me in that light. Of course, it will always be street and lyric driven Hip-Hop. I think the dichotomy of the Clipse is one of those things where Malice is more of the thinker and the introspective one and I’m usually known as the wordplay one or the one who is a bit more brash. When we attack records, he usually takes that part and I usually take the wordplay aspect. But it’s not that I don’t think or I’m not introspective or have a conscious side to me. So I think you’re going to see all of those sides of me on the mixtape.

Curtis not cutting hair until my album is done I’m going hard this time fuck it. My music is crazy right now

As previously reported, 50 Cent is taking the Jay-Z approach and not clippin’ the dome until the completion of his fifth solo album. Let’s go Curtis!

Maino’s rise to power continues in the second installment of his film, If Tomorrow Comes. This clip also features the video for “Soldier” off his slept-on debut.

Previously: If Tomorrow Comes: The Film Pt.1