MIXTAPE: LUPE FIASCO VS JAY-Z - FROM MARCY TO MADISON ST.

Trackstar put together this mixtape pairing Jay-Z and Lupe Fiasco called From Marcy to Madison St. You can download the mixtape here. Trust me on this one, this mixtape is super dope and really creative.

- Drew

SNOOP DOGG - I WANNA ROCK (REBEL MIX)

With Jay-Z recently hopping on the official remix to Snoop’s “I Wanna Rock,” Ronnie Rebel decided to throw some others on the track and create a 16 minute remix, featuring Rihanna , Grafh, Bun B, Raekwon, Young Jeezy, Joel Ortiz, Red Café, Cassidy, and Jay-Z. You can download the Rebel Mix here.

- Drew

JAY-Z & SNOOP DOGG - I WANNA ROCK (REMIX)

Jay-Z links up with Snoop Dogg and they both drop brand new verses on the Scoop Deville produced track "I Wanna Rock." Judging from the amount (and quality) of people that hopped on this track, it looks like Scoop's track was one of the hottest beats of the year!

- Drew

IS JAY-Z ILLUMINATI?

The internet has been heating up with a lot of talk about Jay-Z being a part of a secret society or a member of the Illuminati. Although this has yet to be proven, Jay-Z uses quite a but of occult imagery and masonic symbols in many of his videos and lyrics.
Vigilant Citizen is a website devoted to understanding the symbols that urrounding us by discovering their origin, which is often found deeply hidden in occult mysteries. The site goes beyond the face value of symbols in pop culture to reveal their esoteric meaning.
Vigilant Citizen recently took a look into the occult symbolism in Jay-Z's videos for "On To The Next One" and "Run This Town." Take a look for yourself, get educated, and the make your own decision. Is Jay-Z is part of some sort of occult order, or is he just using symbolism to get the internet talking?

"Shortly after the American continent said goodbye to 2009, Jay-Z came on TV and said “On to the Next One”. The video premiered on 01/01/10, which in Kabbalistic numerology equals 3 (0 + 1 + 0 + 1 + 1+ 0 = 3). The number 3 is an important theme of the video. The release date also contains three 1’s, which is reminiscent of the three bars representing Jay-Z’s album The Blueprint 3. This is just an example of the occult aura surrounding Jay-Z latest works.

During the video, a black skull and a silver skull are displayed with liquid pouring on them. The symbol of the human skull has always been of utmost importance in occult Brotherhoods. The Knight Templars (ancestors of the Freemasons) made new members drink wine (representative of blo0d) from a human skull as part of their initiation. This practice is still found in some rites of Freemasonry."

- Drew

MIXTAPE: COOKIN' SOUL X DON CANNON - THE RED ALBUM

Cookin' Soul and Don Cannon link up for a blend tape called The Red Album featuring remixes of classic tracks from Jay Z and The Game. You can download it here.

- Drew

VIDEO: JAY-Z FT. MR. HUDSON - FOREVER YOUNG

Jay-Z is back with a brand new video for my least favorite track from Blueprint III, "Forever Young." This track samples Alphaville's song of the same name, and features production by Kanye West. The video is directed by Anthony Mandler and is third single from the album in the U.K.

- Drew

VIDEO: U2 & JAY-Z - SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY

Here's a clip of Hov performing Sunday Bloody Sunday with U2 live at the MTV Music awards in Europe... Let's see what Oasis thinks about "The Mayor of New York City" now. This performance is dope!

- Drew

JAY-Z ANNOUNCES BP3 TOUR

Jay-Z announced his plans to start his North American tour in February of 2010. The BP3 tour will be stopping at arenas in major markets including Houston, Dallas, New Orleans, Atlanta, Greensboro, Washington, Boston, Pittsburgh, St Louis, Indianapolis,Denver, San Jose, Los Angeles and more. Jay- Z will be joined by Young Jeezy. Tickets go on sale November 13th.

Feb 22 Houston, TX (Toyota Center)
Feb 23 Dallas, TX (American Airlines Center)
Feb 25 New Orleans, LA (New Orleans Arena)
Feb 27 Atlanta, GA (Philips Arena)
Feb 28 Greensboro, NC (Greensboro Coliseum Complex)
Mar 03 Washington, DC (Verizon Center)
Mar 07 Norfolk, VA (Scope Arena)
Mar 11 Boston, MA (TD Garden)
Mar 16 Pittsburgh, PA (Mellon Arena)
Mar 19 St. Louis, MO (Scottrade Center)
Mar 20 Indianapolis, IN (Conseco Fieldhouse)
Mar 22 Denver, CO (Pepsi Center)
Mar 24 San Jose, CA (HP Pavilion)
Mar 26 Los Angeles, CA (Staples Center)

- Drew

VIDEO: DAME DASH REACTS TO BEANIE & JAY-Z BEEF

MTV Shows

Dash’s name has popped up in headlines dealing with Beanie Sigel’s recent lash-out against Jay-Z. During some recent interviews, Beans accused Dash of shady business dealings when the two were putting out the State Property PRO-Keds sneakers.

“Him and the licensee who licensed Roc-A-Wear went behind my back and obtained the license to the company that was licensing PRO-Keds and stopped making the State Property PRO-Keds,” Beans said on Philadelphia radio station Power 99. “It was all geared towards Roc-A-Wear.”

Dame said he did not want to address any specifics regarding Sigel, but did say he did not want any beef.

“I love Jay, I love Beans — what’s the reason for beef?” Dash responded. “That’s stupid. What’s the reason for beef? People die, people don’t feel good — I want people to laugh. What’s up, y’all?”

Dame was shocked to hear Beanie on the radio.

“I was surprised. I was hurt for him, more or less, because I know that ain’t him,” Dash said. “But I don’t want to speak on that. Whatever [Beanie's] going through where he’s got to do that … I could understand where he may look at things and feel that way. I can see that. He’s probably got a lot of people around him and nobody to really tell him what’s going on. It was a different environment for Roc-A-Fella back then. I feel bad for those cats. I love those cats. I hate that they struggle. I hate it. I hate to see anybody struggle. I don’t embrace that. I’m not one of those dudes that get happy when I hear something bad about somebody I had a bond with. I really loved those dudes. You see Ski down there, I knew Ski for 20 years. That’s my man. Sometimes people have different agendas for why they don’t wanna be my friend. But at the end of the day, I’m always there for them.”

- Drew

BEANIE SIGEL - WHAT YOU TALKING 'BOUT (JAY-Z DISS)

I know we are a little late with this one, but for those of you that haven't heard it here's a track from the Broad Street Bully called "What You Talking 'Bout" going after Jay-Z. Let's see how Jay responds!

"I'm so bad, I'm a smooth criminal, I'm a thriller holding a snub with a glove that don't glitter..."

-Drew

MIXTAPE: JAY-Z & NAS - DEADLY DUO

Hevehitta and DJ Unexpected put together this “Deadly Duo” mixtape focusing on Nas and Jay-Z. This mixtape features demo tracks, unreleased songs and break beats from the two. DJ Unexpected gets his “Look What I Found” on for the break beat section, and gives you the break beats / samples that were used for both Illmatic and Reasonable Doubt. You can download the mixtape here. Check the track list below.

01. The Twin Towers (Intro – Produced By DJ Unexpected for Diggers Union Local 1200)
02. Jay Z – Broken English (Demo Track)
03. Nas Speaks On The 80’s (Interlude)
04. Nas Feat. AZ & Nature – Time (Unreleased – Produced By Dr. Dre)
05. Jay Z Feat. Sauce Money – Nothing But Love (Demo Track)
06. Nas Feat. Kool G Rap & White Boy – #1 With A Bullet (Unreleased)
07. Jay Z Feat. Sauce Money – Ripping It Up (Demo Track)
08. Nas Speaks On Illmatic (Interlude)
09. Nas – Nas Will Prevail (Demo Track)
10. Jay Z Speaks On Being A True MC (Interlude)
11. Jay Z – The Greatest MC (Demo Track)
12. Nas – Yeah Yeah Yeah (Freestyle)
13. Jay Z – Pass The Rock (Demo Track)
14. Nas – Death Anniversary (Unreleased)
15. Jay Z Feat. Nas – Dead Presidents (Live Performance)
16. Nas Feat. Jay Z – Black Republicans
17. Jay Z Feat. Nas & Ludacris – I Do It For Hip Hop

- Drew

TIMBALAND FT. KERI HILSON & JAY-Z - RUMORS

Here's a new leak from Timbaland's upcoming album, Shock Value 2, called Rumors featuring Keri Hilson and Jay-Z. Shock Value 2 is due out on November 24th and will feature appearances from Christina Aguilera, Shakira, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Kings of Leon, Miley Cyrus, Paramore, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, Brandy, Drake, Chris Brown, Keri Hilson, Britney Spears, and more.

- Drew

VIDEO: THE MAKING OF JAY-Z'S BP3 ARTWORK

Photographer Dan Tobin Smith said Greg Burke, the creative director on the project at Atlantic Records had seen the Letter ‘E’ I had shot with the set designer Nicola Yeoman and I guess he had it in the back of his mind when he was thinking of ideas for Jay-Z’s new artwork for Blueprint 3. I think Greg and Jay-Z had lots of ideas about what the album meant and it seemed to be about taking it back to the source, in terms of the music itself and then subsequently the artwork. For the album and the idea was it was very much about the music and all the things that make music. The 3 is represented by 3 bars which is of course the old way of writing ‘3’ so that seemed to work really nicely with the idea behind the album and the set design that evolved. We all liked the idea that the installation was almost machine like, like all these things were interlinked. That’s why everything is packed and jumbled together. Like it had kind of grown out of this corner.

I think it was a brave approach for Jay-Z as all his previous albums have had him on them. I love still life, and the way I shoot is quite old school. It took 3 days to shoot, was all shot on 10×8 inch film, so the quality in the whites is fantastic, so much subtle tone. We worked long and hard on the colour work on the post and even in a single page mag advert I can see that effort. You could blow the image up to the size of a building and it would still hold up. It seems the album is about that old school crafted production so its nice that that same method went into the shoot.

The reaction has been really good. Kanye put it on his blog which was nice. I’m sure some people want to see Jay-Z on the cover but at least they will talk about it. I love the idea of this kind of still life photography being so looked at. When they see the rest of the shoot for the singles I think it will grow on some of the people who were maybe less enamoured with it. There has obviously been comparisons to the letter E, some people not realising it was me who shot it! It was great that we shot it and the whole experience was great, everybody worked together really well.



VIA: It's Nice That

- Jason

VIDEO: JAY-Z "ANSWER THE CALL" CONCERT

On Friday, Jay-Z hit the stage at New York's legendary Madison Square Garden for his "Answer The Call" 9/11 benefit concert. The concert sold out in under a minute, and Fuse TV aired it live. If you are anything like me, you aren't going to stay home on a Friday night to watch a Jay-Z concert on TV. Check out the full footage of the show thanks to mrworldpremiere.net.



- Drew

VIDEO: JAY-Z ON LETTERMAN

Jay-Z was on Late Night With David Letterman last night, to promote his recently released Blueprint 3 as well as his upcoming 9/11 benefit concert. The interview is pretty hilarious....

- Drew

JAY-Z FT. KANYE WEST & ADELE - NEVER CHASING PAVEMENT

Here's a hot new Jay-Z joint called "Never Chasing Pavement" which is a remix by Urban Noize. The original song was Jigga's "Never Change." The joint is fire, check it out here.

- Jason

VIDEO: JAY-Z NAMES HIS FAVORITE RECORD

Rhapsody sat down with Jay-Z (CEO of Everything) for their segment On The Record. Jay goes with MJ's Off The Wall from 1979.
In related news, the release date for Jay's Blueprint 3 got pushed up to this Tuesday, and will release the same dat as Raekwon's OB4CL2.

- Drew

JAY-Z FEAT. ALICIA KEYS - EMPIRE STATE OF MIND

Damn Hov does it again. This time with Ms. Keys on the hook. When BP3 drops it's gonna be blasting everywhere I go. Now I'm going to pray that all of New York's best rappers all come together for the ultimate remix! I wont throw out any names but lets all pray together on this. Thanks to Hypebeast and download here.

- Richard

JAY-Z RECREATES ALL HIS ALBUM COVERS

Here's a fresh little commercial Rhapsody put together for Jay-Z's upcoming Blueprint 3. where Jay recreates all of his album covers.

- Drew

JAY-Z: HATE (FT. KANYE WEST) & A STAR IS BORN (FT. J. COLE)

Here are two band new leaks from Jay's upcoming Blueprint 3. The first is a song called "Hate" featuring Kanye West, and the second is a song called "A Star is Born" featuring J. Cole. Of the two, I definitely prefer the Kanye joint. The Blueprint 3 is coming September 11th.

- Drew

JAY-Z - GHETTO TECHNO (UNRELEASED)

Here's another Timbaland produced Jay-Z track called "Ghetto Techno." Supposedly, this track will no appear on Jay's upcoming Blueprint 3. So far, alot of the leaks from the album have been getting mixed reviews... What do you guys think?

- Drew

VIDEO: DIARY OF JAY-Z (TRAILER)

MTV Shows

To celebrate Jay-Z dropping his 11th album, The Blueprint 3, MTV News is bringing you the blueprint of his career! Let the clips play through, there’s 3 videos. On the 3rd one Jay says “The game right now, seems like everybody is following what everybody else is doing.. and that’s not rap, rap is about being rebellious, if everyone over here is doing this, then i’m gonna do that.”

- Drew

VIDEO: JAY-Z FT. KANYE WEST AND RIHANNA - RUN THIS TOWN

Here it is! The long awaited video for Jay-Z's "Run This Town" featuring Kanye West and Rihanna. Blueprint III is due on on September 11th... Peep the official track list below.

1. “What We Talkin’ About” (featuring Luke Steele of Empire of the Sun)
2. “Thank You”
3. “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)”
4. “Run This Town” (featuring Kanye West and Rihanna)
5. “Empire State of Mind” (featuring Alicia Keys)
6. “Real As it Gets” (featuring Young Jeezy)
7. “On to the Next One” (featuring Swizz Beatz)
8. “Off That” (featuring Drake)
9. “A Star is Born” (featuring J. Cole)
10. “Venus vs. Mars”
11. “Already Home” (featuring Kid Cudi)
12. “Hate” (featuring Kanye West)
13. “Reminder”
14. “So Ambitious” (featuring Pharrell)
15. “Young Forever” (featuring Mr Hudson)

- Drew

VIDEO: JAY-Z'S BODYGUARD VS PAPARAZZI IN CROATIA

Paparazzi have a lot of balls. Watch until the end, Jay-Z's bodyguard was about to destroy this guy.

- Jason

VIDEO: FABOLOUS FT. JAY-Z - MONEY GOES, HONEY STAYS

Here's the newest video from Fab's Loso's Way album for a track called "Money Goes, Honey Stays" featuring Jay-Z.

It Was All Good Just a Week Ago
Shoe Box Full No Sneakers Tho
Just Moved In Its Been a Week Or So
Brand New Coupe So The Seat Could Go.

- Drew

JAY-Z : THE BLUEPRINT COLLECTOR'S EDITION (ARTWORK)

Def Jam Records is releasing this "Collector's Edition" of Jay-Z's Blueprint series which features The Blueprint, The Blueprint 2, and an empty space for the upcoming Blueprint 3. I'm pretty sure any Jay-Z fan should own both of these records...

Now that Jay-Z has left Def Jam, Hov’s former label is looking to cash in on Jay one last time.

Def Jam will release The Blueprint Collector’s Edition consisting of Jigga’s first two classic albums, The Blueprint and The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse.

Jay-Z’s collector’s set will be packaged in a collectible slipcase with a poster. There will be space to insert a third CD.

The Blueprint Collector’s Edition releases September 8, three days before The Blueprint 3 arrives on September 11 through Atlantic Records.

- Drew

JAY-Z FT. KANYE WEST & RIHANNA - RUN THIS TOWN

Here's the official single from Jay-Z's upcoming Blueprint 3... This track is called "Run This Town," and features Kanye West and Rihanna. People have been hating on this track already, but I think it's a pretty fresh track for a radio single. Feel free to voice your opinion in the comments section.

- Drew

VIDEO: THE MAKING OF JAY-Z'S D.O.A.

Producer No I.D. gets some shine in this video called "Let The Story Begin: The Making of D.O.A." This song was the first single from Jay-Z's highly anticipated Blueprint 3.

Recently we got to catch up with No I.D. about the making of “Death Of Auto-Tune.” We caught him while in Atlanta, on a brief stop before he headed back to New York to finish up Jay-Z’s highly anticipated BluePrint 3 album. This interview takes place at the St. Regis Hotel in the famous Buckhead region of Atlanta.

- Drew

THE GAME - I'M SO WAVY (JAY-Z DISS)

The Game goes for the 2009 version of Ether, with his track dissing Jay-Z called "I'm So Wavy." I can't wait to see what Jay responds with...

"D.O.A? no... T-Pain Stays, Old N*gga goes..."