March 29, 2024

About the author  ⁄ Adam Fleischer

Who Should Buy The Clippers? We’ve Got Some Ideas

by 04/30/14

Beyond the lifetime ban and hefty fine that the NBA slapped Donald Sterling with on Tuesday, the league’s commissioner, Adam Silver, also announced that he’s maneuvering to make the Los Angeles Clippers owner sell the team. The punishment came after the 81-year-old made racist remarks in a recording that surfaced over the weekend.

If Sterling is indeed forced to sell the franchise, the result, of course, is that someone(s) else will then own it. Who could those someones be? A number of wealthy celebrities have already expressed interested in buying the Clippers, and though buying a pro sports franchise can be an expensive endeavor, here are some others who should consider.

Dr. Dre And Jimmy Iovine
These two have proven time and again that they can come together to make some pretty powerful business moves. From their musical collaborations at Interscope and Aftermath to headphone company/streaming service/brand-that’s-everywhere Beats by Dr. Dre, Jimmy and the Doc have what it takes to run a big company, and work well together. Add to that the fact that Dre is an L.A. native and Iovine has been a West Coast transplant for years now, and these two could be a good fit.

Top Dawg
If it’s not an elder generation of rap influencers that go after the Clips, why not the new kids that are runnin’ things? Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith and his eponymous label ‒ with artists like Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Jay Rock and Ab-Soul ‒ rep L.A. to the fullest. Top Dawg sits courtside at ...

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50 Cent Doesn’t Think Drake Is ‘Dangerous Competition’ For Jay Z

by 04/30/14

Having had issues with everyone from Ja Rule to Rick Ross at various points during his career, 50 Cent is something of an expert in the art of musical warfare. For the latest hip-hop bout, though, he’s just an observer on the sidelines ‒ but he’s still got a few thoughts on the situation.

“I don’t think it’s a dangerous competition for Jay,” he told Hot 97′s Funkmaster Flex of the recent spat between Jay Z and Drake. “At all.”

The two rap stars have been exchanging jabs of late, though things don’t appear to have gotten too heated just yet. Earlier this year, Drake told Rolling Stone that he didn’t appreciate the frequency with which Hov was rapping about art; Jay responded on his “We Made It” remix with an apology to “Mrs. Drizzy.”

The Toronto native seemed to fire back earlier this month on “Draft Day,” boasting that he was focused on “Just hits, no misses.” Then, this week, Jigga sent what many perceived as a subliminal shot at Drake on DJ Khaled’s single “They Don’t Love You No More,” rapping, “Wrong sport, boy, you know you’re soft as a lacrosse team.”

How much things escalate remains to be seen, but Fif believes that a winner will be determined not just by the tenacity of the rhymes, but the entirety of the songs.

“I don’t know [who I'd choose lyrically],” he said. “It’s gonna be what musical chioces. the production choice count, too. It’s the same ‘Ether’ ...

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Plies, Cassidy Drop Donald Sterling Dis Tracks

by 04/29/14

The outrage directed at Donald Sterling hasn’t subsided just because the NBA decided to ban the Los Angeles Clippers owner for life. Everyone from fans to media have taken aim at the 81-year-old, and now a few rappers are getting involved.

On Tuesday (April 29), both Plies and Cassidy fired lyrical shots at Sterling, who has been embroiled in controversy since Saturday, when a tape of him making racist remarks was released online.

Plies doesn’t pull any punches. His track, titled “Donald Sterling: Racist Muthaf–ka,” spends its entire two minutes and 42 seconds laying into its subject.

“Said you made us mutherf–kas? Nah, we made you,” he raps at one point, referencing one of the many discriminatory statements that Sterling had made on the tapes.

Later, he takes a broader brush to wonder what this latest incident means for society as a whole: “They say the world that we live in is a beautiful place/ How the f–k that is case if you still judged off race?”

This isn’t the first time that the Florida rapper has used his musical platform to speak on a hot-button current event with racial overtones. In April 2012, he released the song “We Are Trayvon,” shortly after the shooting death of the 17-year-old.

Philly native Cassidy also weighed in on the recent events, using a portion of his “Move That Dope” remix to voice his anger:

“The Clippers owner Donald Sterling should get the hell smacked/ How the man don’t like n—as when most of the Clippers the ...

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Better Watch The Throne: Game And Ed Sheeran Have A Joint Album Coming

by 04/29/14

Game is still sorting out a label situation for his next solo album, but he’s focusing on something else, too.

“I’m working on a joint album with Ed Sheeran that we trying to drop probably end of the year, beginning of 2015,” Game told MTV News this week. “That is gonna be crazy.”

The genre-crossing relationship may seem a bit curious at first thought, but it began from a place of mutual respect. “It happened with a tweet,” the Los Angeles rapper explained. “He tweeted something about Jesus Piece, I responded, we exchanged numbers on the DM, and then we got in the studio. We were just planning to record one song; we ended up doing like seven.”

Back in January, Sheeran told MTV News that the two had in fact worked on 11 songs together. Whatever the exact number is, the chemistry was strong enough that the two wanted to turn it into a full project.

“Ed came up with the idea to start working on a joint album, and we started doing it,” Game said. “That was like in five hours. We was just going. He was on that guitar. Acoustically, he’s a genius, man, so when he does that, what comes out of me is songs like ‘Dreams’ and ‘Hate It or Love It’ and ‘My Life.’ The songs that we got, they’re real songs. And I can’t wait for people to hear ‘em.”

Since they first got up, the two have become fast friends. In November, Sheeran attended ...

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Outkast Turns 20: A Look Back At Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, By The Numbers

1994 was an incredible year for hip-hop, and particularly its new blood. It brought us debuts from Nas and The Notorious B.I.G., as well as new discs from the likes of the Roots and Gang Starr. It was also the year that Outkast put themselves and on the map, and helped shine a brighter light on their native Atlanta.

With their debut album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, the duo of Andre and Big Boi ‒ just 18 and 19, respectively ‒ laid a groundwork for what would become a legendary career.

Today, that seminal debut turns 20. Full of smoked-out funk and rhymes that balance pimp-talk and self-awareness, we take a look at the disc by the numbers.

31: Letters in the Album Title
According to Oxford, the longest word in the dictionary has 45 letters. Though it’s not quite as long, and not in the dictionary (though let’s be real, it should be), the album’s title comes close, with a whopping 31 letters. Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik definitely rolls off the tongue better than pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis, too.

17: Verses from Both Andre and Big Boi
The two fresh-faced MCs struck a perfect balance on their debut, as they each rapped the same number of verses. It averages out to one per song on the 17-track release, though some had more (two each on “Player’s Ball”) and some less (none on “Funky Ride”).

20: Peak Position on Billboard 200
With the five albums that followed their debut, Outkast always reached at least No. 2 on the Billboard 200. However, with Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, the duo couldn’t climb higher than the 20th spot. Still, the ...

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