Rap Radar

Nearly 48 hours after Cory Gunz was bagged in the Bronx for packing a gun, he spoke with the NY Daily News on his arrest. If convicted, he faces three years in prison.

“This was a big mistake on my part. I didn’t have any intentions of harming anyone or committing a criminal activity. So many young people look up to me and I need to fight though this. It’s been really hard, really stressful. When the smoke finally clears people will understand what was going on.”

To commemorate the 15th anniversary of B.I.G.’s passing (March 9th), the late Frank White returns to the cover of XXL. Rare photo. Issue hits newsstands on February 7.

The XXL team spoke to some of those closest to Big for an in-depth look into his life and death. From his kids T’Yanna Wallace and Christopher “CJ” Wallace and their mamas, Jan Jackson and Faith Evans, to his closest friends like members of Junior M.A.F.I.A. and others, many got their chance to share stories and more to pay homage to the beloved MC. Most even disclosed rare, never-before-published photos of Biggie from their personal collections, which are featured in this month’s issue. Since Big was the most swagger-jacked rapper of all time, there’s a list of the 100 best Biggie bites, a look a what The Notorious One might have looked like at 40 plus much more in the magazine.

A$AP Rocky along with designer Jeremy Scott, make their cover debut on Complex. Written by Joe La Puma, the issue hits newsstands February 7th. But why wait? Read it here.

Complex: Why do you think hip-hop is so fascinated with fashion and vice versa?

A$AP ROCKY: As black people it was our thing to show that we’re not living in poverty and that we can afford extravagant things—that kind of stuck with us. So when our great-grandparents were putting on their favorite outfits, it was to put on a front for the hard time. And hip-hop is a bunch of people that never had nothing. Fashion is just an expression. It’s an art. It expresses your taste. Good taste is important in hip-hop. I wake up saying I’m going to look the best I can and do what the fuck I want to do. And that’s what it’s all about. I don’t know if I articulated it good because im pretty high right now—and I have a lisp and I’m going to Mars right now.

Jeremy Scott: [Laughs]. The thing is hip-hop is one of the only communities that really started its own trends.

A$AP ROCKY: Wow.

Jeremy Scott: That’s why I’ve always been inspired by hip-hop artists, because they transform things—even just the jean, turning it around, inside out, sagging it—all these different things. Yes, of course we get little things from other music movements, but hip-hip has been like, Pow! It’s really inspiring and it’s the only new music that has come along in eons. Rock and roll has been around—it’s changing forms. But hip-hip is major.

Tunechi will soon be adding author to his resume. AP reports he has signed with Grand Central Publishing to release Gone Til November, which will feature diary entries from his stint at Rikers Island. The pub is set for a November 28 release.

Back in November of 2010, Dwayne Carter was released after serving 8 months for his gun charge. During that time, he interacted with fans through a series of letters and journals through his site.

hhdx

Esco’s It Was Written turned 15 years old back in July. And in a recent interview with XXL, he reflects on his sophomore album.

What was your inspiration for “I Gave You Power?”
A Premier beat. Just a beat from Premier… in the studio. Back then I was around a lot more guns and my reality was that. There was no armed security back then, it was just us moving around so that was a lot more in my world.

I remember you had “Silent Murder” on the cassette. What made you put a bonus track on cassette at a time where things were moving to CDs?
Well, the cassette still wasn’t dead. They was still sellin’, so we figured, the cassette is what we grew up on. CDs is takin’ over so we need an extra attraction to get people to not buy the CDs, and also try to keep the cassette alive. We needed something to help keep the cassette alive so that’s what we did with Stretch and that was his last works, that was his last works with me. I miss him. I do. I think about him from time to time. Great dude. He was a real good dude.

I still got my cassette. Read the entire article here.

For The Source‘s upcoming issue, Rick Ross returns as Man Of The Year. Below is an excerpt of the Bawse speaking on his near fatal health condition written by Kim Osorio.

“I went and seen an actual neurologist to tell me what was really going on. My condition was basically extreme exhaustion,” says the boss, “…it was a real eye-opener for me.” 

After the jump, Big Sean makes his first major print cover as the issue’s Rookie Of The Year, written by Kazeem Famuyide.

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XXL gives us an exclusive behind the scenes look at Curtis and Money’s photo shoot for their December/January cover. Pick up a copy or 5 at your local newsstands now.

thisis50

Hip-Hop’s Cheech and Chong take the cover of this week’s Rolling Out issue. In the excerpt below, Snoop and Wiz respond to the public’s take of the pair promoting marijuana.

Snoop: We push having a good time with ourselves and not pushing it on you. We celebrate marijuana because of the joy it brings us. Our relationship was us enjoying that first. Once we put one in the air, we could talk about anything.

Wiz: Some people take a little here and there. Whatever gets you by. We don’t encourage marijuana use for people to be doing what we’re doing. We celebrate it because of how it makes us feel.

Max B has a story to tell. Despite being behind bars, Max will add author to his resume with his upcoming memoir. The project will also be released on Blu-ray.

Max Biggaveli is currently serving a 75 year sentence for orchestrating a murder and robbery back in 2006. In March of 2010, the rapper was granted an appeal in the murder case. So wavy baby.

50 is back to hitting the books. Curtis is preparing his next publication, Formula 50: A 6-Week Total Body Transformation Plan which will focus on metabolic resistance training (MRT) and will include a nutrition guide.

Last month, the rapper just released Playground focusing on bullying and tackled the keys to success on The 50th Law in 2009. Formula 50 is scheduled for a January 2013 release. Get fit or die tryin’.

hhdx