This is pretty interesting…who know they were all child actors before they became huge hip-hop stars. Here’s a small section of the article and then you can check it out in full (including videos) at Complex.com:

There’s no question that Drake is the biggest thing in rap, but the industry is just starting to understand the talent of Noah “40” Shebib, the producer/engineer behind almost all of Drizzy’s music. Last week MTV featured the low-key mastermind in their documentary Drake: Better Than Good Enough, where the rapper confessed, “40 is everything to me. Without 40, I don’t know what I would do.” It’s the rare musical partnership that seems to be clicking on every level, but most don’t know that 40 has something else in common with Drake: he was also a child actor.

No, he wasn’t on Degrassi, but the multi-talented Canadian actually had a surprisingly legit career in movies and TV throughout the ’90s and early ’00s before diving into music. From kiddie TV favorites like Goosebumps to critically-acclaimed indie dramas like The Virgin Suicides, 40 grew up in front of the camera playing a variety of roles that any aspiring actor would be proud to have on their resume. Complex went back into the vaults and dug up clips of his performances to give you a sample of his acting chops.

Full Article

Source: Complex

To be on Rick Ross’ Teflon Don Bossumentary, coming soon (I suppose).

Man…New Yorkers are tough. I can even understand why OJ Da Juiceman got the jeers treatment (no diss, mind you I’m a fan), but I’m actually a bit shocked as to why Mr. Return Of Forever got such a cold crowd at S.O.B.’s last night…damn…

Here he speaks on getting booed:

So apparently, the group Black Sheep weren’t aware of this commercial:

so, Dres spoke on it during a VIBE interview:

“The Choice is Yours” is in a new Kia commercial and some other classic hip-hop songs have been getting commercial revivals too. What’s up with the resurgence of golden era hip-hop in advertising?

I think it’s reflective of a time period of a certain level where it was good feelings. Certain songs just represent a good feeling and I think “The Choice is Yours” is one of those that was so fortunate to have that life. There are songs that-like with when Obama won-you knew where you were and what you were doing and “The Choice is Yours” is like that. I didn’t have any time to do any form of huge promotion globally so at this time that I got an album coming out, it’s such a blessing that so many people are turning their heads to notice, wow Black Sheep, what’s Dres up to? But it kind of goes to the walk of an artist especially from my era-everything was kinda young and this Kia commercial, I didn’t even have anything to do with it.

So you didn’t even know it was going to happen?

I wasn’t even contacted. I have yet to receive payment on it but don’t get it twisted, I will. I’ve been talking to Kia for the past week or two so certain things might be done moving forward in maximizing what we’re trying to do. But Universal, the record label, was basically the ones that signed off on it and gave them permission to use my likeness so that’s a different story that might wind up having a life of itself as well. I wouldn’t say that the label did everything that they were supposed to do but that goes to us being young artists and not understanding some of the things that we were signing. I would say to the artists today-and this is 20 years later-that I’m not the administrator of some of the things that I should be especially so far down the road. But God moves in mysterious ways and I see it as a blessing at the end of the day.

Yea…..

Also…

Lloyd has been catching some minor flack for his comments in the above video, which some say sounds like he deliberately told Chris Brown to cry during the performance. Here is his response from his blog:

“I consider Chris a friend. He’s been through a lot in the past couple years. I never told him to go on stage and cry. We spoke recently, and I told him as a friend that people hadn’t really seen him be vulnerable about his situation last year [with Rihanna]. I thought he was holding back and needed to let that emotion out. Him crying at the BET Awards was real, I could feel it.” said Lloyd.

“I think he cried about a number of things. About the fact that he thought people would hate him forever because of one mistake. Feeling that love on stage was probably overwhelming. Plus MJ being gone and him performing “Man in the Mirror”, that song is powerful, especially for his situation. It pushed him over the edge.”

Responding to the many blogs and fans that took Lloyd’s comments as a negative statement against Chris Brown, Lloyd offered this response, “To say that he was faking or that I’m hating on him, that’s some bull shit. Last week Essence.com asked me what artist most embodied MJ. I told them it was Chris. I never saw MJ perform live, but he [Chris Brown] is the closest thing I’ve witnessed. Chris is back, and I’m just as excited as his fans are. It’s just frustrating that people want to make everything negative.”

Good to know, cause the term alone has definitely been run into the ground 100 times over.

Just learned an incredible amount on hip hip blogging by watching and listening to this.

Her hip-hop interviews (really all of them) are usually pretty hilarious.

This is nothing short of inspiration…take a walk through Sha Money’s new office at Def Jam headquarters.

Source: XXL

I’ve love to hear the background on this one. lol