T-Wayne Album Coming Out?

I hope not. This would be terrible for real hip hop.

Via HipHopDX.com

Love him or hate him, T-Pain is a hard working man in the music business. He's already got a new album coming out this year titled Thr33 Ringz. He's also been featured on more than a few singles this year with a variety of artists in the rap and R&B worlds and he's already building buzz for the upcoming T-Wayne collaboration with Lil Wayne.
"T-Wayne is an entity that's just gonna take over a side of the game," Pain told MTV recently. "It's two artists that done collaborated with every artist in the industry except each other. Being that we getting together, this T-Wayne movement is getting crazy."
He went on to explain that even though they both have incredibly busy schedules, they are taking time to make sure the T-Wayne album begins taking shape as they continue recording away from one another.
"He's sending me blank tracks, I'm sending him blank tracks. He's sending me tracks with hooks, I'm sending him tracks with hooks. It's just our hectic schedules are keeping us from recording. ... But we both have studios on the bus. So we take that tour bus anywhere we go...it's a done deal."

Fans of the two or those anticipating the collab album will not really have to wait for work from the pair. They have already worked together on Wayne's Tha Carter III and they have a single coming out for Thr33 Ringz. Pain spoke on their most recent duet, the first official single off of his album, a track called "Can't Believe It."
"'Can't Believe It,' I just wanted to simplify things. Basically I got a lot of stuff on my albums that's not that simple. I'm not getting away from the simplicity of things, it's just basically a way to calm things down. Then I put Wayne on it and he keeps murdering tracks I'm sending him. It's just another world, it's unexplainable

The Seventh Seal Due This Fall

SO MUCH GOOD NEWS TODAY. GOOD NEWS OVERLOAD!!!

Via HipHopDX.com

After a brief stint on Aftermath Records that saw his highly anticipated collaborative album with Dr. Dre permanently shelved, it would be easy to assume Rakim picked up that nasty habit of only releasing a new album every six years. While most us of were scrambling to hear the limited amount of leaked material from Oh My God via the Internet, Ra promised what he felt was a less compromised sound via his own label.

With Hip Hop’s Digital Age in full effect, Rakim Allah has the arduous task of proving he can continue to evolve and adapt. During a brief encounter backstage at Rock The Bells, Ra explained the delay with The Seventh Seal and the process of seeing sounds.


HipHopDX: What’s going on with The Seventh Seal?
Rakim: You can expect that two to three months from now. I’m going hard on that and I’ve got some surprises on there. I’m really ready to just let the world hear it.


DX: You listened to jazz and played saxophone as a child. How did that influence your style and your ear for music?
R: I think it let me see music a little more and let me see more colors. My moms and my pops loved music. Coming up being around jazz and the Motown sound, and letting that soak in [helped]. I played the sax and the drums a little bit and that just helped me see the music a little more.


DX: You have such an extensive catalog, but you’re still creating music. As much as you respect your classics, is there ever a point where you want people to pay more attention to the newer material?
R: The old stuff is what got me here though. That’s like my foundation. I love that for what it is, and that’s what makes people understand me. They need that to know what I’m about to do next. So, in no way do I shrug my shoulders at the old stuff. That’s my legacy.


DX: With the industry the way it is with low sales and all the downloading, what would you consider a success for this project?
R: Well I have my own label [Ra Records] now, so I want to be a success in terms of sales. But, more importantly, I have to keep my integrity and hit that Rakim standard. If I can hit that standard I’m cool. I was never a big-selling artist. I was sort of underground my whole career, but eventually my albums touched platinum. So I still consider myself underground. Like I said, I just want to reach that Rakim standard and have everybody understand that I’m still that dude. If people see that I’ve progressed with it and I’m mature with it, then that’s my success.


DX: You’ve worked with some of the best producers out and you are rumored to have a very discriminating ear. What does a producer need to bring to put you in that zone?
R: You know what’s difficult for me? I hear music differently, so a lot of times I won’t pick the beats that are the norm. I don’t pick what people expect a rapper to rap on. I pick the more intricate beats, where as soon as I hear them I can see something—a title or a mood.


That’s what influenced me so much about jazz. A lot of jazz records didn’t have words, but as soon as you played them it put you right in the mood. You could almost see the smoky bar and the jazz players around you. So, when I can see the music before I even start to write to it, that’s the direction I tend to lean toward. A lot of times it’s not the big million dollar seller or the club banger. It’s really just something I can mess with to make people say, “Okay, that’s that Rakim classic thing right there.” So, yeah it’s a little difficult picking beats with me.
Rakim's latest effort, The Archive, Live Lost and Found, has been distributed via Koch and is currently available in retail and digital formats.

NaS's Next Two Albums To Be Produced By Dre and Premier?

...I...I...I am ecstatic. I HOPE TO GOD this is a reality.

Via HipHopDX.com

No matter how much anyone has enjoyed a Nas album, nearly everyone has clamored for the day that Nas and DJ Premier would link up for an entire album. There was rumor of the two collaborating awhile back but it unfortunately never came to fruition. While Premo has reportedly been busy with his own projects, he mentioned to DX awhile back that Nas never reached out to him for Untitled. But it appears that Nas is now taking the first step in making the dream album come true.

While performing at a concert on July 15th, Nas directed an appeal towards DJ Premier in front of the fans attending. What Nas wants is an entire album produced by the legendary Premo. Whether or not this dream comes true is still a mystery. But Nas isn’t done with his dream collaborations yet.

“I want to do an all-Dr. Dre album,” he told MTV News recently. “A whole thing with Dre and a whole thing with Premier, and drop ‘em on the same day. That’s the real thing. All right, I said it. That’s what I really wanna do.”

While there have been no preliminary talks with either Dr. Dre or DJ Premier, one has to wonder if either of these projects have the remote possibility of coming to life.

Stay tuned to DX for more on this as it develops.


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