Exclusive: Vince Staples says "the best thing about the West Coast" is "most the people that's out now is actually about something."
With his Hell Can Wait EP released yesterday, Vince Staples spoke with HipHopDX from the studio about his take on the state of of authenticity in Hip Hop in a clip that premiered as a part of today’sDX Daily(October 8).
“These niggas is playing bro,” he said. “Everybody sell cocaine and they making $30,000 per shipment and got three shipments a week but they still rapping even though you gotta pay taxes and you gotta stress your ass out, go on the road, and all this other stuff. You gotta spend money to make money but you was making more money selling your little cocaine than you doing rapping but you’re still rapping. It don’t make no fucking sense. C’mon bruh, these niggas ain’t really doing half the stuff they [saying]. The one’s you not thinking about is probably the one’s that’s doing it. That’s probably the best thing about California, the West Coast, whatever you want to call it. That’s the best part about where we at with music ‘cause most the people that’s out now is actually about something.”
Earlier today, HipHopDX released the full interview with Staples in which he addresses No I.D.’ssupport and his status at Def Jam.
“I got a good ass manager,” he said. “I got a good ass A&R. No I.D. is in there pressin’ niggas for me. I don’t even be over there, but it’s all the same. It’s a business so you gotta act like it’s a business. The second you stop going to work is the second you fuck your whole shit up. So, I go to work. The label is my boss and they gotta cut my paycheck. It’s all a compromise. They compromise you by giving you money before you even do anything. So you have to compromise by giving them something that they can do something with. And, that’s where I’m at right now and I got no problem doing that because what the fuck else am I going to do? I didn’t graduate from High School.”
Jesse Helt, the homeless man who wasMiley Cyrus‘ date to the2014 MTV Video Music Awards, got some not so great news on Tuesday (October 7).
The 22-year-old man was sentenced to six months in jail for violating the terms of his probation. Jesse was taken away in handcuffs after the hearing, where he asked the judge for leniency. He said he would “like to be viewed as a good person, not as a nuisance to society,” according to Page Six.
Jesse was arrested on misdemeanor charges back in 2010, but moved to Los Angeles the next year and never met with his probation officer or completed his community service
Kanye seems to be holding a major grudge against Jay Z since his absence from the wedding. They have been walking on thin ice in regards to their friendship ever since. Kanye wasn’t going to let that big diss go and he definitely let it be known that he was still angry at his X Games performance on June 7.
Kanye West Disses Jay Z: Not The First Time
Kanye has been showing his anger toward Jay Z ditching his wedding for awhile now. At Kanye’s X Games performance on June 7, the rapper first ignited the hip hop feud.
Kanye completely dropped Jay Z’s name from his performance! Jay Z, Kanye is trying to tell you something. He is STILL mad you didn’t attend his wedding.
The two rappers are bros and we’re sure they’ll work things out sooner or later. However, Kanye is not one to let go of a grudge easily.
HollywoodLifers, can you believe Kanye dissed Jay Z yet again? Will Kanye ever get over Jay Z missing his wedding? Let us know!
Rihannaheads into the airport to catch a flight out of town on Tuesday afternoon (September 30) at LAX in Los Angeles.
The 26-year-old singer’s ex-boyfriendDrakeis opening up about their failed relationship and joking about who he should have been more like Chris Brown!
Drake was performing with Lil’ Wayne, who was rapping his verse from “Loyal” and then did a little dance. “I just been listening to too muchBreezy lately, I just had to do it,” Weezy said.
“Maybe I should’ve brought that s–t out earlier. Maybe I could’ve made that s–t work with Rihanna a little better,” Drakethen joked about the dance moves.
"Zlatan wants to get my shirt, and I want to get his," said Artyom Dzyuba through a smile a month ago after Russia thrashed Lichtenstein 4-0.
The Spartak Moscow striker entered the field at halftime, set up Alan Dzagoev for a move that ended in an own goal by Franz Burgmeier, got fouled in the box to win a penalty and finally scored his very first goal for the national team from Aleksandr Kokorin's assist. This was definitely his night, and he was making plans for the visit to Stockholm to meet his role model.
That the Russian media went wild in jubilation was rather bizarre. After all, it was a routine home win over minnows who were not supposed to pose significant threat anyway. One simply can't praise someone for playing a good 45 minutes against them as though he has just lifted the World Cup.
There was an explanation for those strong emotions, however. Fabio Capello has ignored Dzyuba for so long that it became almost ridiculous -- more so than Jogi Low's refusal to call up Stefan Kiessling.
Finally, at long last, the Italian coach changed his mind, and the admirers of Dzyuba talent could shout that they were right all along.
Dzyuba didn't mention Zlatan Ibrahimovic incidentally -- he really tries to emulate the great Swede. A couple of years ago, the striker mentioned in an interview that he wants to play like Ibrahimovic and was mercilessly ridiculed. Nevertheless, he was absolutely right. While their talents can't be seriously compared, Dzyuba has certainly picked his idol correctly.
At 196 centimeters, Artyom is even taller than Zlatan, and his technical abilities are much better than those of a regular old-school centre-forward. Dzyuba is not only strong in the air and physical in the penalty area, but also has a good ball control. His vision is well above average, and he can play as a second striker and send quality through balls to his teammates.
After a patchy start to his career, Dzyuba burst on the scene with Rostov -- netting 17 goals in 28 games.
Sometimes he is even capable of unorthodox decisions that baffle his opponents. He might be light years behind the real Ibrahimovic, but it will be difficult to think of a striker who resembles the unique PSG star more than Dzyuba.
It took Artyom a long time to win over Spartak fans, as he was usually discarded in his young days because of indiscipline. In 2009 Spartak sent him on loan to Tomsk after a strange incident during the preseason camp in Austria when midfielder Vladimir Bystrov accused Dzyuba of stealing money from him in the dressing room. The striker denied the allegations and vowed never to talk to Bystrov again but was able to return to his club only when the latter was sold back to Zenit.
After a positive 2011-12 season, which saw him included in the provisional squad for Euro 2012 but left out at the last moment by Dick Advocaat, Dzyuba was benched by new Spartak coach Unai Emery. His frustration was such that he referred to the Basque specialist as a derogatory term that loosely translates to 'little coach' when talking to the media after the 5-1 drubbing at the hands of Dinamo.
- Yokhin: Russia's plan for 2018 World Cup potentially disastrous
Emery was fired on the same day, but Dzyuba didn't make himself any favours with such a behaviour, earning the nickname of 'igrochiska' -- a 'little player.' Using foul language when talking to fans didn't help him either.
Dzyuba was loaned out again after falling out of favour with Valery Karpin. He went to Rostov, and this time it proved to be an inspirational move. The team was built around his talents, their self-confidence skyrocketed and the striker netted 17 goals in 28 games, finishing just behind CSKA Moscow's Seydou Doumbia in the scoring charts.
Rostov even won the Russian Cup, and that was the first silverware in Dzyuba's career because Spartak have gone trophy-less since 2003.
It was obvious that the in-form striker deserved a chance to prove himself for the national team, but Capello thought otherwise. He was disappointed with Dzyuba's performance in the 45 minutes he got against Northern Ireland in Belfast in August 2013, during which Russia didn't shoot on target even once, and never called him up again.
Some said that the real reason behind the decision was that Dzyuba is simply too cheerful and easy-going for the Italian's liking.
Fabio Capello has been left with little choice but to name the striker in Russia's upcoming match against Sweden.
The campaign to include Dzyuba in the World Cup squad was immense, and when Russia failed to qualify for the second round from an easy group, many a pundit reminded that the team lacked a quality, tall centre-forward who could be useful in the games versus South Korea and Algeria.
Upon returning to Spartak in the summer, Dzyuba became central to the plans of new coach Murat Yakin, and enjoyed his best month so far for the Red-and-Whites, scoring three braces in August, including two goals that enabled his team to beat CSKA 2-1 in the big Moscow derby. Even Capello couldn't possibly ignore him now, and the Russian Zlatan was given a rare chance to shine against Liechtenstein. He took it with both hands, and now the big question is whether Capello can fully admit his mistake.
Will Dzyuba be named in the starting lineup for Russia on Thursday for the first time in his career, at the age of 26? The whole country is waiting to know the answer, and there is a good chance that it will be positive. Anticipating what is rather amusingly branded as the Battle of Titans, the Russian Football Union offered fans to participate in an unusual contest and design a shirt that Dzyuba will gift Zlatan.
The results were farcical in the extreme, as the original winning version read: "Bests do not born. They become."
Dzyuba even signed that shirt before the language was corrected, now reading: "The best are not born. They are made."
The striker hopes to show the message after scoring in Stockholm -- which, fitting in with Dzyuba's career so far, will probably earn him a yellow card.
David Sherman/NBAE/Getty ImagesWith Kevin Love gone and a young team behind him, is it time for Ricky Rubio to rise in Minnesota?
At the heart of Ricky Rubio’s game is, well, heart. Joy. Generosity. This is a guy who, when he finally arrived in Minnesota in 2011, two years after he was drafted fifth overall, explained his love for passing by quoting Magic Johnson in charmingly broken English: “A basket make one guy happy, an assist two guys happy."
He was just what the Timberwolves needed. Two years removed from trading Kevin Garnett -- the only franchise cornerstone the team had ever known -- the Wolves’ starters in 2008-09 were Sebastian Telfair, Randy Foye, Ryan Gomes, Craig Smith and a rookie named Kevin Love who stepped up when Al Jefferson went down with a torn ACL.
Rubio, though, was a star. At least, that’s what we’d heard for so long. In 2008, the NEXT issue of ESPN the Magazine touted him as “the best point guard you've never heard of.” An Eastern Conference exec didn’t stop there, calling him “the European LeBron James” and “a top-three pick.”
"If I can do some magic,” a 17-year-old Rubio told Chad Nelsen back then, “I do it." But by the time Rubio arrived, Love had become the face of the franchise, more or less by default. I mean, look at that lineup -- what other option was there? It’s hard not to be sucked in by 31-point, 31-rebound games amid 132 losses (an NBA high) in the two seasons spent waiting for Rubio. By 2010-11, Rubio’s rookie season, Love had turned into a double-double machine headed for his first All-Star appearance. He was a superstar. He was Minnesota’s superstar, and everyone knew it.
Everyone except David Kahn. Instead of offering Love the team’s only five-year maximum contract extension, the Wolves GM infamously handed the power forward a three-year deal with a player option for a fourth. The fallout from that move is well known, with Love forcing his way to Cleveland this past summer for an admittedly attractive package including Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett.
But its impact on Rubio is harder to gauge. At the time, the common perception was that Kahn wanted to reserve the five-year max for Rubio, his own draft pick, rather than Love, who was selected by former GM Kevin McHale. Injuries and the lockout limited Rubio to just 89 games in his first two seasons, and last season, with the Wolves saddled with the pressure exerted by Love’s contract situation, Rick Adelman nearing the end of his coaching career and a combustible roster with a suspect bench, the 23-year-old point guard again struggled to live up to the immense hype once foretold for the floppy-haired teen.
Now two years later and with Love in Cleveland, it’s Rubio who wants the five-year max contract from a GM who didn’t draft him. To earn that contract in a point guard-heavy league, he’s going to have to make a better case for himself not as the best player on the team, necessarily, but as its leader.
Viewed charitably, Love led by letting his play do the talking, shouldering scoring and rebounding loads no other Timberwolves player could take on and setting a tone that was stoic yet steadfast. He worked hard -- harder than he’s given credit for -- and did a lot for the organization off the court with his coat drive and other community-oriented activities. Viewed less charitably, Love cared more about his own numbers than the team as a whole and when he led, he did so unevenly, with weeks spent moping followed by a sudden decision to air locker room grievances in public. No matter his words, he set a tone on the court of unearned entitlement, complaining about calls and lagging on defense, particularly in transition. For his part, Rubio often seemed to defer to Love’s seniority and position as Best Player on the Team. But as the team’s relationship with Love frayed over the summer, that changed.
In a much-circulated interview with French station Canal+ in May, Rubio was up front about some of Love’s shortcomings as a leader, while also pointing out problems from the coaching staff on down. “He leads in scoring, in other things,” said Rubio, according to a translation. “But in voice he is not the type of player that wants to be or that can be [a leader], no? Still, it did not have to have been him -- even I can take a step further and start to be the definitive leader."
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Noah Graham/Getty ImagesAfter ceding control to Kevin Love in his first three seasons, the stage is set for Ricky Rubio to lead.
One of the newest (but also most veteran) Timberwolves players, Mo Williams, thinks Rubio has started to take those steps. “From the time I’ve been here, he’s taken that level,” Williams said on the first day of Wolves training camp. “Yesterday he was reading a book on the way up here and it was in a language I can’t read so I said, ‘What kind of book is that?’ And he said, ‘It’s a book on how to be more aggressive and lead and things like that.’ That lets you know it’s in his mental. He wants to lead and he’s in a great position now. It’s not, ‘Whose team is it?’ It’s his team.”
Rubio’s glaring flaws -- inconsistent midrange shooting and finishing -- might never go away. That might not also matter a bit when it comes to stepping into a lead role with the Timberwolves. The things he does do well were enough to make Minnesota 11.3 points better per 100 possessions when he was on the court last season. As new coach Flip Saunders observed recently, if Rubio scores zero points and the team wins, no one is happier; if he scores 20 and they lose, no one feels worse.
He’s certainly making the effort. The book on leadership, the way he’s tried to shut down any questions about his next contract, the hundreds of shots he takes at practice, his commitment to Spain’s national team: All of it points to someone serious about improving himself. But just as important is finding his way back to the joy that animated his early days in Minnesota.
That pass through the legs of reigning NBA Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki to a waiting Anthony Tolliver as the Wolves sealed a win over the defending champion Dallas Mavericks came in Rubio’s fourth game in the NBA. Nutmegs don’t win championships, but look at the giant grin on Tolliver’s face as he runs back down the sideline after hitting the 3-pointer. A mechanically sound shooting stroke is a fundamental, but the foundation of basketball -- of any game -- is play.
There are things Rubio needs to do better to be a more productive player, but there are already things he does that few players can. To call this upcoming season a fresh start for Rubio is to discount all he’s already gone through in his first three years in the league. But with running partners as athletic as Wiggins and Zach LaVine, it’s a chance to follow his own advice and change his face. To not only be handed a team, but to make it his. To do some magic.
Steve McPherson contributes to the TrueHoop Network, Grantland and other publications. Follow him @steventurous.
With Justin Bieber, a pop star with many connections in the hip-hop world, coming under fire this week for an unearthed video of him making a racist joke at age 15, it seems as if everyone in the music sphere is eager to voice their opinion on the issue. Following Lupe Fiasco's comparison of Bieber to Donald Sterling, Usher, the singer's former mentor, has come out in defense of Bieber.
Usher, who covers this month's issue of Nylon magazine, spoke on Bieber: "I gave every bit of advice and always told him it was up to him if he really wanted this. Now that he has it, as an adult, it's his to manage. Do I turn my head in shame based off of what I see, what I know? Nah, I don't because it's all part of life's process. Am I in it with him? Yeah."
Though he clearly isn't disappointed in Bieber, Usher did say: “It’s unfortunate. I hate some of the things I hear. Is it all true? I don’t know. But I will tell you this: Success comes with a price. Every person that has grown up, grows through something. It ain’t just perfect from the beginning.”
Then asked about his mentorship of Bieber in the singer's early days, Usher was quick to praise the practice of established artist taking young talent under their wings, saying he benefitted greatly from Diddy's help early on in his career:
“Artist development made me who I am,” he said. “Somebody took the time to help me find what it is that works for me as an entertainer and who I am as a music maker.”
Stay tuned for more musicians' responses to Bieber's racist joke -- there will inevitably be more before this story blows over.
[via]
[Update: Usher Makes Another Statement] Though Usher already commented on Justin Bieber's actions after the first racist video surfaced, today he has spoken out once again. The R&B singer published a statementto his Instagram account this morning, in which he came to Bieber's defense once more.
In the post, the singer argues that Justin was young and naive during the filming of the videos, and is "unequivocally not a racist".
Read his full response below.
At my core, I am a person that supports growth and understands without judgement, that growth often comes as a result of pain and continues effort. As I have watched Justin Bieber navigate difficult waters as a young man, I can tell you that he hasn't always chosen the path of his greatest potential, but he is unequivocally not a racist. What he was 5 years ago was a naive child who did not understand the negative power and degradation that comes from playing with racial slurs. What he is now is a young man faced with an opportunity to become his best self, an example to the millions of kids that follow him to not make the same mistakes.
The “Drake vs. Lil Wayne” tour came to an end on Saturday at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands, Texas and if you didn’t know, it ended in a tie which means the whole tour was a draw at 17-17.
As there was no winner, Weezy and Drizzy hinted to the crowd about doing a sequel of their joint tour next year after they both release their Tha Carter V and Views From The 6 albums, as well as start the first show in Houston picking up where they left off.
Hit the jump to check out footage of the Young Money rappers telling the crowd about their plans for next year!
It's a tough one gentlemen... having both entered motherhood recently, who do you think is the hotter MILF, Kim Kardashian or Amber Rose? Vote below and let us know your opinion in the comments. To make things fair, we've only included photos of both Hotties prior to their pregnancy. Enjoy!
Each of these Hotties shares some similarities in their personal lives; both are now moms, they are both really hot and are (or have been) romantically linked to Kanye West. Vote now and let us know who you think is the hottest Milf!
To be fair, we really wanted to include Lola Monroe in this article. Maybe we'll pit the winner of this round against Lola in the next segment of Hottie vs Hottie
Paula Patton has filed for divorce from her husband of nine years, Robin Thicke.
Alas, it seems as if Robin Thicke's massive, depressing "Get Her Back"campaign (and the resulting album Paula) have failed in their mission.TMZ is just reporting that Thicke's wife of nine years, Paula Patton, has filed for divorce.
Coming shortly after some very revealing transcripts from a "Blurred Lines" court proceeding surfaced, Patton's filing follows roughly seven months of separation. Citing "irreconcilable differences," Patton is filing for joint custody of her and Thicke's four-year-old son, Julian. That's pretty surprising considering Thicke's struggles with various substances, but as he said in the aforementioned deposition, he's been trying to stay clean.
David Sherman/NBAE/Getty ImagesWith Kevin Love gone and a young team behind him, is it time for Ricky Rubio to rise in Minnesota?
![Usher Comes To The Defense Of Former Protégé Justin Bieber [Update: Usher Makes Another Statement]](http://thumbs.hh.ulximg.com/public/article/600_1402003201_bieberusherfb_30.jpg)
