Rock the Bells is coming into its 10th year, and is set to be huge.  The event happens out in California and should draw a big crowd.  ODB’s widow is trying to put some of the show to a halt, but we expect it to go on as planned.  There’s a lot of money on the line and it’s expected to be huge. 

Rock The Bells 2013 features a lineup of some of Rap’s most iconic figures, as well as some of its most promising acts. Bone thugs-n-harmony, E-40, Too $hort, Juicy J, Rakim, Tech N9ne, Talib Kweli and Wu-Tang Clan are among the veteran acts slated to perform at the festival, which is celebrating its 10-year anniversary and is scheduled to kick off September 7 and 8 at the San Manuel Amphitheater in San Bernardino, California.

Big K.R.I.T., Black Hippy, Bodega Bamz, Brother Ali, Common, Curren$y, Danny Brown, Dilated Peoples, Dizzy Wright, Dom Kennedy, Earl Sweatshirt, Flatbush Zombies, Hit Boy, Hopsin, Immortal Technique, Jhene Aiko, Jurassic 5, Kid Cudi, Lecrae, Prof and Snow Tha Product are among the other acts on the bill.

“We have curated a multi-generational line-up that includes the best and brightest artists in the genre,” says Chang Weisberg, owner and founder of Guerilla Union, the company that puts on Rock The Bells. “It is not just great Hip Hop music. It’s great music, period. It’s a collection of artists who represent, respect and recognize everything that Rock The Bells…has accomplished in its storied history.”

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There’s nothing like a widow to put an end to a major hip-hop festival because she’s not getting a cut of the money.  ODB’s wife is saying that the Rock the Bells festival isn’t going to happen without her, and that her son should be part of the event.   She has taken the matter to court, and could throw a monkey wrench into the whole thing.  Holograms are new technology, so this should create some interesting legal issues in the future when other dead artists get “brought back to life.” 

Days after the announcement of a digital performance of Ol’ Dirty Bastard at this year’s Rock the Bells Festival, Dirty’s wife, Icelene Jones has announced her disappointment.

Jones, the administrator of the estate of ODB says she is the only person that can approve the use of her late husband’s likeness, according to a press release.

“I am disappointed that Rock the Bells would not contact me directly about the use of my husband’s image,” Icelene Jones said in her statement. “I am looking forward to talking to Wu-Tang about this matter and coming up with a positive solution in order to bring my husband to the stage once again.”

Jones also added that her son, who has performed at Rock the Bells events in the past, also wants to be a part of the festival.

“My son, Young Dirty Bastard, [also known as] Boy Jones has always performed at Rock the Bells and looks forward to working with his Uncle RZA every year.”

The estate has issued a cease and desist order against Rock the Bells organizers. The estate also claims to have sole control of Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s lyrics, performances and likeness.

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Will Smith doesn’t come off as the kind of dude who would let his family fall apart.  The actor got some attention when his son Jaden hinted that he’d like to be emancipated from his parents.  Of course that’s not going to happen in this life or the next.  Will and Jada have an interesting marriage that has gotten a lot of attention from the public. Their kids make more money than nearly all of us, and they also don’t believe in punishing their kids.  We’ll see how all this works out in about 15 years in a Vh-1 special about what it was like in the Smith household. 

Even though Jaden Smith has said he wanted to be emanicapted when he turns 15, the rapper-actor no longer seems interested in the idea of leaving his parents’ house. ”I’m not going anywhere,” Jaden says during an interivew with “Ellen,” which also featured Will Smith. “The thing that people don’t get is everything at his house is free.”

Actor Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith have received both criticism and praise for their modern approach to raising their two children, Jaden and Willow Smith. During a recent interview with The Sun, Smith shared the details of the pair’s modern parenting techniques and even spoke on 14-year-old son Jaden wanting to be emancipated for his next birthday.

“He says, ‘Dad, I want to be emancipated.’ I know if we do this, he can be an emancipated minor, because he really wants to have his own place, like ooh. That’s the backlash. On the other side, if kids just want to have command of their lives, I understand,” Smith explained.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Jaden also hopes to make his mark in both Hollywood and in the world of Hip Hop. He’ll star alongside his dad in the upcoming film After Earth and on the music end he released his own mixtape titled The Cool Cafe: Cool Tape Vol. 1 just last year. The actor/rapper has also appeared on records with Justin Bieber and sister Willow Smith.

During his conversation with The Sun, Smith also spoke on not punishing his children and shared that he and his wife instead ask that they explain why they believe there actions were right.

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Kanye always seems to have something to complain about.  After bumping his head in front of the media last week, he’s out in public getting mad about all kinds of other things.  The father-to-be has done a lot of amazing things in his career, but some are wondering if he’s starting to get soft and flaky.   But he’s worth over a hundred million dollars or something insane like that, so maybe we need to shut up about him.   Going crazy seems to get the bills paid these days.  Good for Kanye

Last night (May 15), Kanye West revealed two new, unreleased songs at an invite-only show in Manhattan, New York’s Roseland Ballroom. The hour-plus set, part of Adult Swim’s Upfront party, featured West inside of a three dimmensional pyramid-shaped screen, dressed in all white, going through songs from his entire career.

The new and unreleased songs he revealed were the talk of the night. One is presumed to be titled “Awesome” or “So Awesome” and is said to be dedicated to Kim Kardashian. The other, is said to be titled “Yeezy Season,” and it was only revealed in snippet form. No official confirmation on either title has been made.

On the track many have called “So Awesome,” Kanye West asks, ”Why would you ever listen to the people trying to hate on you?” According to Rolling Stone, he then adds, ”Baby, you’re awesome. Don’t let nobody bring you down. You’re so awesome.” He continues, adding “I’d rather do nothing with you than something with somebody new.” The song also features West talking about himself, saying, “I’m also awesome.” Video footage of the performance can be found below, courtesy of Erika Ramirez for Billboard.

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BY:  John “Hennry” Harris

Young Money superstar Drake is showing he is the leader of the new school as he leads next month’s BET Awards with 12 nominations.  Frequent collaborators 2 Chainz and critically acclaimed Kendrick Lamar follow Drizzy’s landslide nominations with 8 nominations a piece.

He started from the bottom, but now he’s on top at the BET Awards: Drake has 12 nominations. BET announced the nominees Tuesday. Rappers Kendrick Lamar and 2 Chainz are up for 8 awards each. Drake is nominated three times for the top prize, video of the year. His hit, “Started from the Bottom,” will compete with his collaborations with 2 Chainz (“No Lie”) and A$AP Rocky (“Problems”). The top award has 10 nominees, including Justin Timberlake‘s “Suit & Tie,” Kanye West‘s “Mercy,” “Adorn” by Miguel and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis‘ “Thrift Shop.” (Entertainment Weekly)

Best Collaboration — 2 Chainz f/ Drake, “No Lie” — A$AP Rocky f/ Drake, 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar, “Problems” — French Montana f/ Rick Ross, Drake and Lil Wayne, “Pop That” — Kendrick Lamar f/ Drake, “Poetic Justice” — Justin Timberlake f/ Jay-Z, “Suit & Tie” — Kanye West f/ Big Sean, Pusha T and 2 Chainz, “Mercy” Best Male Hip Hop Artist — 2 Chainz — A$AP Rocky — Drake — Future — Kendrick Lamar Best Female Hip Hop Artist — Azealia Banks — Eve — Nicki Minaj — Rasheeda — Rye Rye Video of the Year — 2 Chainz f/ Drake, “No Lie” — A$AP Rocky f/ Drake, 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar, “Problems” — Drake, “Started From The Bottom” — Drake f/ Lil Wayne, “HYFR” — Kendrick Lamar f/ Drake, “Poetic Justice” — Macklemore & Ryan Lewis f/ Wanz, “Thrift Shop” — Miguel, “Adorn” — Rihanna, “Diamonds” — Justin Timberlake f/ Jay-Z, “Suit & Tie” — Kanye West f/ Big Sean, Pusha T and 2 Chainz, “Mercy” (10 News)

Next month’s BET Awards will be hosted by none other than Chris Tucker.  Safe to say that the rap game is locked down by YMCMB and Roc Nation !!

BY:  John “Hennry” Harris

Grammy-winning rapper and producer Kanye West continues his string of bad luck as days after walking into a street sign and gashing a lil booboo his head, photos of his $750,000 Lamborghini being damaged at Kim Kardashian’s mansion are surfacing online.

Two days after Kanye West walked into a pole in Beverly Hills, Calif., and struck his head, his car reportedly got crunched by a gate at Kim Kardashian’s L.A. house. TMZ.com reports the incident happened last Friday when West’s $750,000 Lamborghini Aventador, which had been recently serviced, was being delivered to Kardashian’s home. The driver pulled through the entrance, but before he could make it all the way in, an automatic gate started closing and damaged both sides of the car. (ABC News Radio)

Wow !! What a week for Kanye .. smh .. maybe he should consider changing the name of his new album I am a god !!!

The use of codeine and Molly keeps going up among young black kids, and a lot of people are looking to the rappers as the primary spokespersons for the products.   Maybe somebody needs to speak up about some of this.  It’s getting to be a mess and Chief Keef is signing up to continue the tradition of rappers getting big money from white corporations to teach black kids how to kill themselves and each other.  Tragic and sad. 

Whatever you call the combination of promethazine and codeine laced prescription cough syrup–Lean, Drank, Purple Sprite–and a soft drink of choice, it’s use as a recreational drug has long been rampant. Whether you admit to it or not, it can be  easily be abused. One rapper in particular who’s been boasting about his bad habit of sipping on that lean is Chief Keef.

Lately, the Chicago rapper has been showing images of promethazine bottles and the ubiquitous styrofoam cups that drank users prefer on his Instagram. We got a feeling that Keef doesn’t have a particularly bad cough, though.

Although Lil Wayne contends that he suffers from epilepsy, many attribute his recent extended hospital stay to abuse of “Texas tea.” Soulja Boy, who makes a cameo on Sosa’s Instagram feed with a cup in hand, was recently spotted sharing many images of his heavy drank sipping as well. It looks like Keef went extra hood and occasionally sips it out of a baby bottle. Make sure your baby daughter KayKay who you’re shelling out that child support dough for stays away from those, buddy.

For more click here(hiphopwired)

Wu-Tang Clan and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony fans are abuzz as the groups are slated to perform with late group members Ol’ Dirty Bastard (Wu-Tang Clan) and Eazy-E (Bone’s mentor) at the upocming Rock The Bells music festival.

According to reports, Ol’ Dirty and Eazy-E will be resurrected for virtual performances this summer.

Not only will the Wu come together as they did most recently at Coachella this year, but they will also be accompanied by a virtual rendition of the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard. One of the last major performances from the entire Clan, ODB included, happened during the inaugural Rock The Bells in 2004. Meanwhile, Bone Thugs will be joined on stage by a virtual performance from the late Eazy-E. The Compton rapper was a mentor for the Cleveland rap group and had signed them to his Ruthless Records label. (Complex)

This seems inevitable as last year Snoop Dogg Lion and Dr. Dre shocked the music world at Coachella when they performed with a Tupac hologram.

“What up, it’s Doc Dre, backstage, Coachella, 2012 and I want to thank everybody out there for all the love and support,” Dre said in an interview. “As you know, we had a hologram of Tupac Shakur show up as a part of our show. I want to thank a couple of companies out there that made my idea come to life. I want to say what’s up to AV Concepts which actually projected the hologram. I want to say what’s up to Digital Domain for actually putting the image together. They did an incredible job — it was strictly for Coachella, get it right. I want to get rid of all the rumors out there. This was not done for a tour. If a tour happens, we’ll see. This was done strictly for Coachella 2012, baby, just for you.” (Interscope Geffen)

BY:  John “Hennry” Harris

Jay Harris no relation, a standout wide reciever for Exton (Pa.) Downington East High, had what many would see as the opportunity of a lifetime.  Ranked ,by ESPN’s Recruiting Nation, as the 17th overall best senior in Pennsylvania and No. 2 wideout prospect in his state, has decided to forgoe his pending football scholarship to persue his rap career … WTF ??!!!! O-o !!!

Jay Harris is quoted as saying, “I’ve always had this in the back of my head, but never had the courage to tell my parents that this is what I want to do.”

MSU associate athletic director, John Lewandowski, officially said that Harris rejecting his scholarship was a mutual decision, yet there is more to this story.

Harris posted a video of himself rapping under the name Jay DatBull on YouTube called “DatBull 4 Life” which features the football phenom smoking weed excessively and rapping about easy women, good drugs, fast money, you know, all things ratchet.

It is believed that this is what led to the mutual decision of Jay Harris rejecting his scholarship.

This young man needs some guidance and in a hurry !!!  Much like his name his decision is “DatBull” !!!

Check out the video and let us know if you think Jay DatBull has a rap career ahead of him.  DatBull 4 Life