I WILL BE IN OTTAWA FOR 4 DAYS WITH CONSPIRACY AND MOTHER GODDESS. SEE YOU ON MONDAY!
LOVE, MINDBENDER
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IS THIS RACIST?



"THAT ONE."
HMMM....

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I STILL THINK NAS IS THE GREATEST, BUT EMINEM IS CERTAINLY TOP 5 ALL-TIME:

Eminem has been voted the greatest rapper alive by fans and readers of VIBE Magazine and its website.

Although Em hasn't released a full solo album since 2004's Encore, his fan base has shown that it remains tremendously loyal.

Vibe broke the competition down tournament style, placing a slew of emcees into four brackets: the Notorious BIG bracket, the 2Pac bracket, the Pimp C bracket, and the Big Punisher bracket. The number one seeds in each bracket were, respectively, Jay-Z, Eminem, Lil Wayne and Andre 3000.

After voting each week from July 21 to August 4, the final were decided. Eminem and Jay-Z made it to the final four, as expected. Somewhat unexpected was Game's defeat of Andre 3000 in order to make it to the semifinals, and Ludacris' defeat of Lil Wayne in order to claim the same spot.

Eminem, who had beaten Nas by a slim margin to claim a final four spot, and Jay-Z made short work of Ludacris and Game, respectively. The two legends faced off in votes, and after over 920,000 votes, Em beat out Hov, retaining 61 percent of the votes to Hov's 39 percent.

"It’s obviously an honor to have won the fans' support by being voted the Best Rapper Alive,” said Eminem to the fans on Vibe.com. “I don't think that there is any one rapper that is simply the best though. Everyone who was in consideration and many others are the best at certain things, and at what they do. But since VIBE's offering the distinction, hell yeah I'll accept!"

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FINALLY: SOMEONE WITH ENOUGH SENSE TO NOT SIGN TO DEATH ROW!!!

Blu has finally confirmed what some industry insiders have known for a while: Suge Knight was once interested in signing him.

The Los Angeles emcee spills the details in an interview with Jeff Weiss, who interviewed him for L.A. Weekly's cover story on Los Angeles' emerging crop of rappers. Faced with the possibility of pursuing deals with Death Row or Roc-A-Fella Records, Blu decided to spurn both and link with upstart indie Sound in Color, which distributed his critically acclaimed Below the Heavens [click to read], release in August 2007.

"My cousin was engineering at Death Row and he played the CD for Suge right when he got out [of prison], and had already signed Left Eye and Crooked [I]," Blu said. "My boy told me, just come with me and we'll get signed by either Suge or Roc-A-Fella."

Death Row Records, besides Kurupt's 2004 album, Against Tha Grain, has not released an active artist's album of new material since Michel'le, Knight's spouse at the time, released Hung Jury one decade ago.

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I DIDN'T KNOW JIM JONES SMOKED CRACK. WOW!



T.I. IS 10 LEVELS ABOVE JIM IN EVERY WAY IN LIFE.

Jim Jones has recently made clear his feelings about being left out of the “Swagger Like Us” single .

“I think it was deliberate,” Jim Jones told Complex.com. “I really do think it was deliberate; maybe in my sick twisted mind I’m a little crazy. People know who set the precedent as far as fashion in this industry and people know who damn near changed the world as far as fashion...in the past five years I stepped in and gave them a taste of what rock and roll looks like from my side. I guess people would say from an urban side, and it seemed to catch on like wildfire, to the point that people was going to stores and asking for that Jim Jones look.”

The Diplomats member is now working on a track called “Jackin’ Swagger From Us,” featuring Lil Wayne and Juelz Santana. The song will use the same M.I.A. sample from the original record.

In addition to expressing his less than enthused feelings about being excluded from the track, Jim Jones also had a few words for the artists on the record, including rapper T.I.

“I don’t feel like he possesses any swag. Not like that. It’s fabricated. They’re watching other people, then they try and do it. You know people that dress like T.I.? You know people that go out and say let me get a T.I. outfit or do you know people who say, 'Yo, you’re looking like Jim Jones?' Which one? Lemme hear it! When the bitches want to fuck you and the niggas want be like you, who got the swag? Niggas with money and fame always going to look like they doing something ’cause they got the camera in front of them. But the cool dudes always stick out no matter where they at.”

This week, radio personality Clinton Sparks spoke with T.I. and filled him in on Jim Jones’ recent comments. Tip had this to say:

“Well you know what, that's very funny that either one of you should mention that because my clothing line Akoo will be in stores in November and I believe there will be quite a few people going out to get it. So hopefully, I can step my swag up a little bit. Maybe I can meet his standards. I ain't trippin' over that, man.”

T.I. dismissed the comments made by Jim Jones, calling them “entertainment” and opted not to speak too candidly about the subject.

The two had worked together on Jim Jones' debut album On My Way To The Church.

WWW.HIPHOPDX.COM

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KANYE IS A NUT. BUT I LOVE HIS DEDICATION TO HIS VISION:

Kanye West Says 'Love Lockdown' Video Was Inspired By 'American Psycho'
Rapper also explains what led him to write his book, 'Thank You and You're Welcome.'

By Jocelyn Vena

After Kanye West unveiled the new video for his single "Love Lockdown" on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" on Tuesday (October 7), he admitted that the clip's modern look was inspired by a chainsaw-wielding maniac.

"On this album, I kind of embody Patrick Bateman from 'American Psycho,' " he joked on the show, adding, "You know at the end of the movie [that] he didn't really kill anyone. [I just liked] the clean aesthetic and the way he was all about labels. I wanted to express all of that in the video."

The rapper, who sings on the single, explained that he was ready to try a different direction on the upcoming album 808s and Heartbreak, which was recently slated for a November 25 release. "I had all these ideas and I just needed to get it out as an artistic vision," he said. "I don't have a rapper's name, [but] I have really good taste and anyone who likes it probably has really good taste too."

In addition to opening up about his late mother, Donda West, the rapper also talked a bit about his unlikely turn as an author and the philosophy behind his book, "Thank You and You're Welcome."

"I wanted to come up with a theory that applies to my life in 2008, not someone else's thousands of years ago. I wanted to make a book for non-readers, like myself," he said. "I only read when necessary, so me and my friend designed this book."

WWW.MTV.COM

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LOVE