Yep, Nas Probably Used Ghostwriters On "Untitled"

Remember that horrible feeling you got when you first found out that Santa Claus wasn’t real?

That was the same pain thousands (millions, maybe?) of hip-hop fans endured the other day when news came out that Nas, one of hip-hop’s most celebrated lyricists, didn’t pen most of the lyrics for his last album, the militant-sounding Untitled LP.

Christmas has been ruined.

If you were in some kind of slumber, here is the obligatory summarization of what happened:

1) Veteran writer dream hampton, who has penned work for every publication from The Source (when it was still “The Bible”) to The Village Voice, said while answering a question about Jay-Z making an album like Untitled, that Jay-Z writes what he feels and that stic.man, one half of dead prez, and Jay Electronica, largely wrote Nas’ controversial Untitled album, which, if you remember, was supposed to be called Nigger before politics and Wal-Mart got involved.

2. Frank William Miller Junior, a former Hot97 employ, backs up dream in this blog post.

3. The Internet says WTF and forever halts dream's original conversation (about the role hip-hop should play in helping the people, or something like that).

4. Nas fans attack.

5. Jay Electronica and stic.man both deny the claims, without really denying the claims. 

6. Nas fans attack.

7. dream stands her ground.

8. Nas fans attack.

(This whole thing makes me realize how passionate Nas fans are. Where the f*ck were ya’lI at when I try to argue Nas >> Jay-Z or that Nastradamus is a good album?)Essentially, what we have here, if you cancel out all of the noise from Nas Stans, is a bunch of voices yelling. I trust one voice the most, and that would be the most credible one, which is dream hampton.    

Here's an interesting interaction that occurred between stic.man and dream hampton yesterday:

For me, the most damning stuff is when dream says: “I heard whole bars you’d written and performed…verbatim by Nas.” A statement like that, coming from a women who has sent 20-plus years building her reputation as a credible person, shouldn’t be discarded. Something like this could tarnish a legacy, forever. Why would she risk it?

I can ignore what stic.man and Jay Electronica are saying because, if they are ghostwriters, they are just doing their proper ghostwriting duties of shutting the f*ck up.

The truth is, if they say something about pening Nas verses, there might be legal implications, and the same goes if dream hampton is found lying.

She’s not lying. (And miss me with that she's a Jay-Z-Stan sh*t. Child please, grow up.)

My only gripe with dream: you can't just throw out this nugget, and casually say whatever, just because. We need facts: What songs? Were they entire songs? Etc. I think she’s past the point of ignoring this now.  

As for what happens to Nas if it’s true … nothing, really. We’re talking about the man who made Illmatic and It Was Written, two of the greatest rap albums of all time.

Just because he got help on his fifth best album means little, to me, at least.  Nas’ greatest skill was his ability to flip street narratives, not as a participant, but as a bystander, who’s spent years observing the madness surrounding him. The Untitled album as a project is a complete departure from previous projects, doing away with those street narratives and focusing on racism and the plight of black people.

What I think happened, and I have no real proof, is this: Nas announces that he wants to make this incredible album about the N-word. He sits down to write the album and realizes he might be out of his depth. He calls upon stic.man, who, with M-1, has been making these revolutionary songs for years, for help.

I think there are various kind of collaborations, maybe stic.man throws him a couple of verses, and, yada yada, we have a Nas album that sounds more like a Dead Prez album. 

Lauryn Hill's Mug Shot Released From Tax Evasion Arrest

Lauryn Hill was arrested back in June for tax evasion, and she is currently awaiting trial to receive her sentencing.

While the former Fugees member could do up to 3 years in the slammer, her mug shot has just been released by the United States Marshals service.

Lauryn is free due to a $150,000 unsecured bond and goes back to court for her hearing on November 27.

Lauryn pleaded guilty for tax evasion to a District Court in New Jersey back in June.

She has 6 kids, including 4 sons and 2 daughters, and is known for releasing one of the greatest R&B albums of all time: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. 

Chad Johnson Releases Statement

Shortly after news broke that Evelyn Lozada has filed for divorce, her soon-to-be-ex-husband Chad Johnson has released an official statement.

According to OCNN Report, the NFL wide receiver says the following:

"I would like to apologize to everyone for the recent events that have occurred. I would like to wish Evelyn well and will never say anything bad about her because I truly love her to death. I will continue to be positive and train hard for another opportunity in the NFL. To all the fans and supporters I have disappointed, you have my sincerest apologies. I will stay positive and get through this tough period in my life."

We wish the best to both of them.

Janelle Monae Named the New Face of CoverGirl

Janelle Monáe is the latest gorgeous face to grace the glossies of CoverGirl's advertisement campaigns, joining the likes of P!nk, Taylor Swift, Drew Barrymore, Sofia Vergara and Ellen DeGeneres.

"I believe it's time that women truly owned their superpowers and used their beauty and strength to change the world around them," said Monáe in a statement. "One of my core values is to help redefine what it means to be a strong and beautiful woman in the music and fashion worlds and to empower the wonderful things that make us unique."

She added, "Becoming a CoverGirl is truly an honor and a gift. It opens up a new platform for me to inspire women to feel stronger, braver and more beautiful inside and out." Superpowers aside, Monáe is the perfect star to encourage women to be artistic and embrace their own unique types of beauty.

Esi Eggleston Bracey, CoverGirl vp and general manager, agrees. "Janelle is a true force of energy and a beautiful spirit who truly delights in her creative journey, not just the destination," said Bracey in a press release. "We're elated and can't wait to show the world another dimension of her artistic 'superpowers' as a member of our CoverGirl family."

Janelle's first sure-to-be-stunning 10-page ad is set to debut in the September issue of Vogue

Steve Jobs' Home Burglarized

Well, 35-year-old Kariem McFarlin, of Alameda, CA has been arrested and charged with burglary and selling stolen property from the home of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

STORY: Steve Jobs Resigns From Apple!!

According to the San Jose Mercury News:

McFarlin stole computers and personal items worth more than $60,000 from the Northern California home of the late Steve Jobs.

Santa Clara County prosecutor Tom Flattery won't say if the items taken from the Palo Alto home on July 17 belonged to Jobs or another family member. The house was surrounded by a temporary construction barrier in July.

The co-founder of Apple Inc. died last year at the age of 56.

Flattery refused to discuss details about the case.

Prosecutors say McFarlin didn’t know it was the home of Steve Jobs. He remains jailed with bail set at $500,000 pending an Aug. 20 court hearing.

The co-founder of Apple Inc. died last year after a long battle with cancer.

SOURCE: San Jose News

Tika Sumpter Dishes on Her Role In ‘Sparkle,’ Whitney Houston and Her Abs

Tika Sumpter doesn’t follow the mold. The singer/actress/model may be easy on the eyes but she has the talent to shock and awe. In her latest endeavor, Sumpter plays the headstrong pre-med student who treats performing as her side hustle in the 1960s musical flick Sparkle.

PMG caught up with the multidimensional starlet to talk her real-life singing family, working with Whitney Houston and maintaining her killer physique.

When you landed a spot in the cast of Sparkle, what was your initial reaction?
TIKA SUMPTER: I read the script at first and I kept saying I want this part, I wanna be a part of this movie. I put myself on tape and then I had to go to L.A. to meet the producers and all that. When they told me I got it, I was floored. I literally laid on the floor and cried. When you hear that one of your favorite artists is gonna be in the film, you’re like, What?! Whitney Houston’s gonna play my mom?! So many people auditioned for this film for every part, so I was grateful that I worked hard for it and they gave it to me.

What about the script attracted you the most?
It’s just well thought-out. I heard in the original that [my character] Dee [Dolores], she wasn’t really relevant in it at first, so with this, I felt like I played a part where she was and she had a voice. She was strong and independent and thinks she knows everything but also loves her family and would do and say anything for them. She’s kind of a protector, and I love that about her and her strength. She doesn’t really care what people think. She’s like, ‘Look, I’m gonna do what I’m gonna do even if you don’t like it.’

Teens Listen to Music Most on YouTube, Pay for Music More Than Other Age Groups: Nielsen Study

A new Nielsen study says teens prefer free, ad-supported streaming over other methods of listening to music. That finding is actually the least surprising item in a report that puts into proper context the ways teens -- and other age groups -- experience and discover music.

Nielsen's "Music 360" report is the result of 3,000 online surveys into the ways people buy, discover and listen to music. There are a number of interesting findings in the report, such as that both digital formats are seen as a better value than the CD. But Nielsen highlights does a good job highlighting the most valuable aspects of study that relate to young consumers.

Common knowledge holds that teens don't buy music, listen to MP3s instead of the radio and acquire all their music through illegal file sharing. Yet the average teen has more normal listening and discovery characteristics than one might expect given the hyperbole easily found in today's media. Teens are obviously more digitally adept than other age groups, but they have not entirely rid themselves of their parents' media formats.

"While younger listeners opt for technologically advanced methods, traditional methods of discovery like radio and word-of-mouth continue to be strong drivers," said David Bakula, SVP Client Development, Nielsen, in a statement.

Here are a few takeaways from the report:

- More teens listen (how often Nielsen does not say) to music on YouTube (64%) than radio (56%), iTunes (53%) and CD (50%). Common knowledge might hold that teens don't listen to CDs, but there's only a 16 percentage-point difference between YouTube and CDs here.

-- Teens are more likely than other age groups to have purchased music of any format (72% versus an average of 68%) in the last 12 months. It helps that teens aren't always spending their own money: 46% of them used an iTunes gift card in the last year.
 
-- Over a third (36%) of teens have bought a CD in the last year while 51% of them have purchased some kind of music download (could be a single track). The averages for all age groups are 41% and 41%, respectively.
 
-- The kinds would rather save money than win points for being cool: Teens are most likely to buy a CD at Walmart (39%) and least likely to do so at indie retail (4%). They are also the least likely to have purchased music on vinyl or another format other than CD (3% compared to an average of 5%).

-- Only 17% of teens engage in music sharing. That's well above the 10% average but neither a runaway epidemic nor a prime source of discovery or acquisition.