Rap Radar

In case you haven’t heard, Eminem is back! And I for one, am diggin’ both the song and the video for, “We Made You.” The single is ten times better than that awful, “Just Lose It” (albeit, a bit funny). Plus, “We Made You’s” chorus is actually more catchy than it is gimmicky. After the jump, peep the the five best things about Shady’s new vid. “We Made You”, why would we play you?!

Fat Jessica Simpson

You could’ve easily thrown a blonde chick with big boobs in daisy dukes and sworn it was Jessica Simpson. But leave it up to Em to take it a step further and make fun of her recent weight issues. The Jess look-a-like gyrates in front of a General Lee styled ride with her stomach bulging out of her shorts.

Shots Fired At Jason Mraz

At the 1:52 mark,  Em mocks singer/songwriter Jason Mraz. The funniest thing this is that he looks a lot like Jason Mraz. It’s one of the better parts of the video. Am I the only that caught Em mentioning John Mayer, but visually mocking Mraz?

Eminem Back In Pink Alf Shirt

Who can forget this Shady picture? A young Eminem rockin’ the shit out of a pink “Alf” shirt. At the 2:55 mark, Eminem reprises the pic. The shirt is a little different and a little more pink, but hilarious nonetheless. Charles Hamilton is somewhere right now, slitting his wrist.

Appears To Pay Homage To “Guitar Hero

At various points of the video, including 2:44, Em is standing on a black surface as red, blue, yellow and green icons wiz by him. Video game heads will instantly recognize this from popular the “Guitar Hero” series. Now, I assume Em included this because of the song’s Rock star influenced hook. But, could Shady be a closet “Guitar Hero” fan? I mean he’s gotta be better than it than Jim Jones’ crew at “Rock Band,” right?

Porno Palin

Kudos to Eminem for securing the starlet, “Serra Paylin” to appear in his video. Unless my eyes are mistaking me (They did yesterday when I thought Dr. Dre’s wife was, Chyna. SMH), this is the same actress who appeared in a recent porno flick in tribute to Alaska’s MILF Governor.

What are your favorite parts of Shady’s new video?

—Broken Cool 

Follow on Twitter: Broken Cool

Yes, Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” is being used to slang kids meals at Burger King. A song about fat asses selling fast food? Makes sense. Watch for a brief Sir Mix-A-Lot cameo.

Spotted: woooha

—Broken Cool

Unlike any other music genre, Hip-Hop thrives off guest appearances. Sometimes these collaborations are so plentiful, you end up forgetting whose album you’re listening to. Hit the jump for seven collaborations that your ass will never see before you die. And if you have, will never happen again.

7. Eminem and Cage
After Eminem said, “Bought Cage’s tape, opened it, and dubbed over it” on “Role Model”, that pretty much sealed the deal of a future collaboration. Even if  Em ran into Cage, he probably wouldn’t recognize him since he looks like a lost member of Kings Of Leon these days.

6. Cam’ron and Beyoncé (Again)
On the Jay-Z diss track, “You Gotta Love It” Cam said, “Beyoncé, fiancee?/ Check my second LP/ I might bring her back/ That’s your girl, that’s your world/ Had the thing fucking singing ’bout slinging crack!” Cam of course was referring to the song “Do It Again” off his 2000 album, S.D.E. I’m pretty sure you’ll never see this collaboration again. Why? Not because of Cam’s beef with Jay, but because he refers to Beyoncé as a “thing”. Guys, if you ever want your girl to claw your eyes out like a cat, call her a “thing.”

5. Dead Prez and Flo-Rida
I promise you this collaboration will never happen. If it does, I’ll start a website called ImSouljaBoysNumberOneCanadianFan.com and proclaim him as the second coming of Rakim.

4. Spliff Star and Memphis Bleek
Hip-Hop fans could not handle the elevated-weed-carrier-vibe a collaboration like this would bring. Let’s not forget, Bleek has actually sold records, so it’ll be hard for Spliff to control his jealousy. Afterall, only one person walks away with $10,000 for saying, “Wave your hands in the air.”

3. Skillz and Diddy, Ma$e, Will Smith or Jermaine Dupri
Anyone remember the original version of Skillz’s “Ghostwriter?” At the end of the track, he said he’d spill his guts if he weren’t compensated for his pen game. And after getting sticked for his paper one too many times, Skillz made good on his word. Personally, I would’ve omitted Will Smith from the song. I’m pretty sure the guy that mows Big Willie’s lawn rakes in paper than your favorite rapper.

2. Hot Rod and 50 Cent
Tell me you don’t love this video. Hot

Rod wouldn’t even have to do anything for me to kick him off stage. I’d be mad he was there to begin with. The ship has sailed on

Hot Rod’s GGGGGGG career. Most people only get one shot with Fif to do

right right thing—unless you’re Yayo or Banks.

1. Charles Hamilton and Heltah Skeltah

Here is how rappers used to dress. Here is how some of them dress now. Why this collabo will never happen? Because Charles Hamilton would probably shit  his pants stepping into the studio with Ruck and Rock.

What are some collabos that you don’t think will ever happen?

—Broken Cool

Here is a pic of T.I. and Shawty Lo backstage at Young Jeezy’s concert at the Philips Arena in the ATL last night. Shawty Lo looks thrilled to be friends with T.I. again and almost has this, “Ok he likes me now…I better be careful” look on his face. For some reason, this photo reminds me of the one featuring The Game and the guy that got knocked out by the barber:

T.I. and L-O Pic spotted at TSS via Ozone

—Broken Cool

I’m a wrestling fan (any slick ass comments about that and you’ll be receiving a Batista Bomb with the quickness) and while watching Wrestlemania 25 last night I noticed the WWE’s former white-boy rapper turned American hero John Cena channeled one Slim Shady for his ring entrance.

You’ll remember Eminem doing something very similar at the MTV Awards several years back. But instead of baseball caps and jean shorts, it was blonde hair and white tees:

MVf0LQ2J1RI

Fun fact: John Cena raps better than both Flo-Rida and Charles Hamilton.

—Broken Cool

The homie Adam Aziz from Broken Cool is guestbloggin’ this week at the Double R. Welcome to the team, my dude. He brings us the following: 

This is recent footage of Canibus performing in the MIA. And while it does look like it’s a sell-out crowd of maybe 40-50 people, everyone in attendance appears to be enjoying themselves…even the requisite white girl on side stage hoping for a “Second Round K.O.” after the show.

For y’all info: Adam Aziz is a former bigtime editor at HHNLive.com and StreetCred.com. Peep his blog Broken Cool. And follow the God on Twitter.

My homie from The Scratch days, The Gooch wanted to give his take on the beat-jackin’ accusation-filled, finger-pointin’ foolery goin on between Charles Hamilton and Black Spade. The following views don’t necessarily reflect YN’s, but this is my house and I live here. The floor is Mr. Cantor’s.

There’s been much debate going on in the rap blogosphere today about whether or not Charles Hamilton beatjacked St. Louis producer/MC Black Spade for a track he claims he produced and uploaded to his Myspace player in 2007. There’s apparently a dialogue going on between all parties involved (Kenny Fresh, of Freshselects.net; Black Spade; and Charles Hamilton), obviously Spade is sticking to his story, and Charles to his.

After carefully listening to each track multiple times, it’s obvious that there are similarities and differences between them. Any time producers are working with samples, there’s the possibility that two different beatmakers can flip the same sample in similar ways. Still, it’s rare that producers will use the same types of drum sounds, the same swing on the rhythm section, same tempo, and so on. Because Spade’s version is a rough mix, you need to listen to each track with a pair of headphones, and you can very clearly hear that young Charles was working off Spade’s skeleton of a track. The whole beat is noticeably beefed up. There are some portions that sound like they have overdubbed vocals and additional layers of keys added, which Charles alluded to in his defense that he actually made the track.

I’m not insinuating that Charles stole this beat of Black Spade’s Myspace page. That seems a little extra. Stealing songs off of Myspace pages doesn’t require much energy, but a little, and I doubt a dude like Charles Hamilton is going in like that. Maybe this Black Spade fella sent the beat to someone (anyone with an internet connection, take your pick), who then in turn gave it to Charles. Charles probably gets a lot of beats emailed to him. So he downloaded it, put it in a folder of beats that he gets from a bazillion producers who send him tracks, he does what he does with it, and here we are now. That doesn’t seem to be too far outside of my realm of imagination. These things happen.

Still, if what Black Spade says is true, that he made the track and just humbly uploaded it to Myspace, it’s basically his word against Charles. Charles says he made it first. So where did Black Spade get this rough version of the track from? And why would he flat out approach you about it after a show at SXSW?

To prove his innocence, Charles sent YN the Pro Tools files for “Shinin,” which he subsequently sent to me. I was expecting to see a session with the whole beat laid out, but when I cracked the session open, all I saw was the raw vocal tracks and a two track of the original instrumental. There was an intro section added. I have no clue why Charles sent this session out. If anything, it’s an admission of his guilt. If he wanted to prove that he was in fact the creator, he should have been able to produce the stems for the track itself (meaning: the individual tracks, with the kick, snare, hi-hat… etc. separated). The date on the session is March 17, 2007. Again, that doesn’t really jibe with what he’s put forth so far, which is that he created the song in 2006.

In reality, this is all a moot point. “Shinin” was available on The Pink Lavalamp, a free downloadable mixtape. If the beat was in fact stolen, it was the backing track on something that never made any money in the traditional sense of the way recorded music earns money for an artist (songwriter) and producer. You could be mad that Charles is performing the song at shows, and earning money in that respect, but other than telling the guy to stop performing it, there’s little that can be done. This is the plight of the producer in the mixtape era. You know who should really be bitching? Frankie Beverly and Maze! They gave one guy a career, and another guy a legitimate internet beef, without you having to do shit but press a few buttons in a computer program. The nerve…—Paul Cantor

It’s been a minute—well, five years actually, since we’ve heard from Marshall. But on May 19, that’s scheduled to change with the release of his fifth solo album, Relapse. Truthfully, Em has big zapatos to fill. And to ensure customer satisfaction is guaranteed, the homie broken cool added his 2 cents to see that it’s met.

NO AKON…IN FACT FEW GUESTS IF ANY

Each night before I go to sleep I say a prayer and it goes like this:

God, I know Eminem jumped on Akon’s “Smack That” and tore it

keep “Relapse” free of any Africans who aspire to do Country music. Thank you.

Seriously though, I REALLY hope the Pop&B world didn’t get into

one exception on the guests issue…keep reading…

Besides Jomo’s play, there’s a documentary that he and Dame Dash have been workin’ on for awhile now. A special screening of This is Jim Jones took place today for us media types and one woman seems to have taken the most thorough notes.

“Chapter 8 shows Jim and Dame with their adorable sons shopping at Niketown (dropping $3000 in one hit) with Dame telling cameras

This blogger’s hit me about gettin’ down with the team. Well come with shit like this and I’ll put you D. See!

“What’s happening sir? It’s your day finally! The moment all of the hip hop community has been waiting for. Your return into the game. It’ll be interesting to see your first interview with DJ Drama tonight. I wonder what Drama has to say. What you have to say. I’ve decided to give you another chance.

See everyone big ups you and that OJ dude and while i can’t stand OJ, you’ve had some hits at least. Let’s start off your return right though. No mention of Young Jeezy, Boyz N Tha Hood, Block Ent., or any other rapper you dislike okay? We’ll see if the hype is really just hype or if you really still have skills because those Wilt Chamberlain tapes sucked. I only listened to Pt. 6 (i don’t know which version) but it was horrible. Well I know your gonna be a busy man so I’ll let you go. Show Me What You Got Gucci!”

Good Job: Sermon

Sidebar: Is there a decent Gucci Mane photo out there? That nigga needs a photo shoot as soon as he touches the town.