Marking his first interview on Asian soil, Kendrick Lamar caught top with the HYPEBEAST and HYPETRAK familia in Hong Kong during the Beats By Dre’s massive Asia tour. Straight out of the plane the West Coast icon shared first impressions of the Far East, his thoughts on touring with his idol and mentor Dr. Dre, his debut album good kid, m.A.A.d city going platinum, the meaning of TDE and also sent out a very special message to his fans.
Taken from Kwes’ upcoming ilp., released October 14th on Warp Records (preorder here).
From TMZ:
Kanye West has been charged with criminal battery and attempted grand theft for allegedly attacking a paparazzo at LAX on July 19 … TMZ has learned.
Kanye went off on the photog … who dared to speak with him as he left the airport. The photog went to the hospital and has filed a lawsuit. The photog hired Gloria Allred, who has said the attack left her client badly injured.
Just days before the attack Kanye issued multiple warnings to the paparazzi NOT to speak to him.
If convicted of both misdemeanors … Kanye faces a maximum of 1 year in jail.
He’ll be arraigned October 10th.
We attempted to reach Kanye’s lawyer, Blair Berk, but her assistant said she was unavailable “because it’s the highest holy day of the year for Jews” and she was at services.
Fun Fact: The L.A. City Attorney’s office nailed 2 men in the Kardashian fam in 1 day. They filed DUI charges against Lamar Odom this morning. Scott Disick … they’re watching you.
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
2 Chainz keeps his promo moving for B.O.A.T.S. II: #METIME with a stop at MSNBC’s Now.
NEW YORK (AP) — Even though Pharrell is engaged in a battle with Marvin Gaye’s estate over Robin Thicke’s megahit “Blurred Lines,” he wants to make one thing clear — he has incredible respect for the late soul legend.
“I’m a huge fan of Marvin Gaye. He is a genius. He is the patriarch,” Pharrell said Thursday night.
The hit-making singer and producer collaborated with Thicke on the No. 1 smash, which some have said sounds very similar to Gaye’s “Got to Give it Up.” Last month, Pharrell, Thicke and the song’s other collaborator, T.I., filed a lawsuit asking a judge to determine that it does not copy Gaye’s song and a song by George Clinton. It was a pre-emptive strike against future claims from Gaye’s heirs that the song takes from Gaye’s composition without credit.
Pharrell told The Associated Press on Thursday night the two songs aren’t similar at all.
“If you read music, all you have to do is read the sheet music. It’s completely different,” he said on the red carpet during an event for the Calvin Klein Collection during New York Fashion Week.
Gaye “is the king of all kings, so let’s be clear about that. And we take our hats off to him,” he said. “But anybody that plays music and reads music, just simply go to the piano and play the two. One’s minor and one’s major. And not even in the same key.”
The Grammy winner has had a huge year; he was also a collaborator on the other big song of the summer, Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky.”
“I’m thankful. It’s awesome,” he said. “You know, the people are doing it. You know what I mean? They don’t have to, but the fact that they have, it’s a really awesome experience and moment, you know?”
Check out FKA twigs’ latest masterpiece, taken from the forthcoming EP2 (released 17th September on Young Turks). This video is intense (and possibly controversial, I don’t know what’s sensitive these days).
Check out Floyd Mayweather, Canelo Alvarez, Danny Garcia, Lucas Matthysse and more as the fighters hit the scales live from Las Vegas in MGM Garden Arena. Streaming Live at 6:00 Pm.
S.O.B’s has issued a statement about the shooting at their club on Wednesday at Fat Trel’s mixtape release party:
Dear Friends and Loyal Patrons,
For 32 years, we here at SOB’s have prided ourselves on creating a safe and fun environment for visitors to enjoy good food and some of the best live music in New York and the world over. It has been a labor of love and devotion, as this intimate dinner club has allowed us the opportunity to share in the creative process and to be a part of the experiment of music. Sharing the gift of music has been our greatest joy.
SOB’s has hosted some of the finest talent (of established fame and rising stars) from all genres of music, attracting a myriad of different cultures under one harmonious roof. The SOB’s family, along with its internationally acclaimed artists and devoted fans, has peacefully and gratefully celebrated diverse cultures and the music that unites us through its transcendent language for many years.
As you may have heard, an unknown individual recently engaged in violent behavior on our premises during a live music concert. On behalf of the SOB’s staff, our thoughts and prayers go out to all who were affected. This incident was unprecedented in the long history of SOB’s. We are assisting the police in every way possible to bring this person to justice. For nothing is more important to SOB’s than the safety and well being of our customers.
This is a home of peace, respect and positive vibes and we here at SOB’s vow to keep it that way.
We sincerely appreciate all of your continued support for SOB’s over the years. It is you our impassioned fans of great live music and lovingly prepared tropical cuisine who make the SOB’s experience possible. You have our pledge that we will continue to provide an unparalleled and culturally enriching blend of fine cuisine and live entertainment.
Please join us for future shows and honor the positive language of music.
Respectfully and Sincerely,
Robbin & Larry Gold, Owners of SOB’s
And the entire SOB’s Team
After Fat Trel’s show got shot up, he drops a new freestyle over Kendrick Lamar’s record ‘A.D.H.D. If you haven’t got SDMG you can get it here.
Jabb’s birthday is today so in celebration he just dropped a new freestyle, “Friday The 13th”, where he kills shit. Happy birthday bro, Da Oceans EP II coming next year
Nas turns 40 years old on Saturday. Last night, he celebrated his born day with Hennessy at Avenue nightclub in NYC. Guests included Mariah Carey, Jermaine Dupri, Maino, and Special Ed. DJ Mos and D-Nice were behind the 1s & 2s last night, and if you weren’t in the house, here’s the footage from what went down (above).
2 Chainz returned to The Breakfast Club this morning and spoke on how he celebrated his birthday, his new album B.O.A.T.S. II: #METIME, how different his sophomore album is from the debut album, collaborations, touring, legal issues and more.
Later on, DJ Envy announced that 2 Chainz would be one of the performers at the 2013 Powerhouse concert at the Barclays Center on November 2nd.
Get More:
Gucci Mane, Music News
French Montana sat down with MTV and told them the stuff Gucci Mane said about him were true regarding his dealings with Waka Flocka’s mom Deb:
Whoever writing that, they gotta be real close to him, cause the situation that he was talking about with me, he wasn’t lying. I was there with Deb. I don’t know how much money he gave her, but it was money involved… That situation he was talking about on Twitter I can say that’s real.
Kendrick Lamar & Meek Mill are set to headline Power 105’s Breakfast Club Powerhouse Concert. The show is going down on November 2nd and the other acts on the show are Trey Songz, 2 Chainz, Meek Mill, Big Sean, K. Michelle and SchoolBoy Q. Pre-sale tickets will go on sale on Thursday, September 19th at 10am to Friday, September 20 at 5pm. Tickets go on sale to the public on Saturday, September 21 at 10am.
More info can be found here.
From the New York Times:
Twitter, which began as a side project in a small but failing start-up seven years ago and grew into one of the world’s largest platforms for public conversation, is about to take its biggest step yet into maturity: selling stock to the public.
The company announced on Thursday — in a tweet, one of the 140-character messages that are the backbone of the service — that it had filed paperwork with regulators to eventually sell shares in an initial public offering. However, it had filed the first documents months earlier under a special provision of securities law that allows a company with less than $1 billion in annual revenue to keep its financial data secret until it begins actively marketing its stock to investors.
Twitter’s caution follows the disastrous I.P.O. of its archrival, Facebook. In May 2012, Facebook sold $16 billion in stock to investors, only to see its share price sliced in half in the ensuing months as shareholders worried that the company could not make money from its billion users.
More recent news stories have the number at 39 and rising. From Reuters:
A co-ordinated car and suicide bomb attack on a Shi’ite mosque in the Iraqi capital killed at least 33 people on Wednesday evening, police and medical sources said.
Worshippers were leaving the mosque after evening prayers when the car bomb exploded, and as onlookers rushed to help the wounded, a suicide bomber blew himself up in their midst.
Policemen saw a second man fumbling to detonate an explosive belt and managed to stop him, but an angry mob overcame them and stabbed the would-be-suicide bomber him to death.
A further 55 people were wounded, some critically, in the blasts, which took place in the northwestern Kasra district of Baghdad.
It was not immediately clear who had carried out the attack, but Sunni Islamist militants who view Shi’ites as non-believers, have been regaining momentum and striking on a near daily basis this year.
From BBC News:
Thirty-seven people have died in a fire that engulfed a psychiatric hospital in north-western Russia, officials say.
The blaze occurred in the village of Luka, in Novgorod region. The timber-built hospital housed some 60 people.
A nurse who tried to guide patients to safety was among the dead, Russian media report. So far 15 bodies have been recovered at the scene.
The fire broke out just before 03:00 local time (23:00 GMT Thursday). A patient smoking may have started it.
Officials had previously ordered the building to be closed because of safety concerns.
The fire started in the male ward and spread quickly through the single-storey Oksochi hospital, emergency ministry officials say. TV pictures later showed the gutted building.
“Medical personnel saw a patient who was shrouded in flames. It’s possible that he was smoking in bed and the mattress caught fire,” regional governor Sergei Mitin told Russia’s Interfax news agency.
He added that the ward housed severely ill patients.
50 Cent visits Hot 97 and, in addition to speaking on Kendrick Lamar’s verse on ‘Control’, also spoke on what’s going on with G-Unit, Nas and more.
From BBC, where you can read more on the story:
US Secretary of State John Kerry has described as “constructive” talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on securing Syria’s chemical weapons.
The two men began a second day of talks in Geneva by meeting UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to discuss the wider issue of peace in Syria.
Talks between Mr Kerry and Mr Lavrov on the weapons issue began on Thursday and could continue over the weekend.
Mr Kerry said they were working hard to find “common ground”.
The BBC’s Paul Adams in Geneva says this is a moment of diplomatic momentum over Syria which has not been seen for a couple of years and both parties want to make the most of that.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday called Damascus’s decision to join the Chemical Weapons Convention “an important step towards the resolution of the Syrian crisis” and said it showed the “serious intention” of President Assad “to follow this path”.
The leaders of Syria’s other key allies, China and Iran – meeting at a regional summit in Kyrgyzstan – also welcomed President Assad’s move.
But Syrian rebels say it will not stop the killing. Free Syrian Army spokesperson Louay Moqdad told the BBC Mr Assad still has plenty of conventional weapons at his disposal and he is attempting to “buy time” with the help of the Russians.
The Weeknd performs ‘Pretty’ on the Sony Outdoor Stage for Jimmy Kimmel Live!
I almost forgot that Beyonce’s Mrs. Carter tour was still in effect. Here’s some footage of her performing ‘Irreplaceable’ and ‘Love On Top’ in Fortaleza, Brazil.
From Al-Jazeera:
Fighting is continuing in the Philippines as government forces clash with Muslim rebels holding more than 100 hostages in the southern port city of Zamboanga.
Residents were sent fleeing on Thursday as government troops attempted to flush out rebel fighters from areas of the city, with the fighting leaving houses on fire.
An unidentified group of gunmen launched a separate attack on a town on the island of Basilan, local media reported.
The Philippine government has warned Muslim rebels, to end peacefully a standoff “at the soonest possible time”.
