Big L Press Kit

Shout to DiggersUnion



The press kit has a great biography on Big L, plus some photos you might not have seen before. Also included in the press kit, is three unreleased Big L tracks with no dj tags on them. It’s too bad Big L was killed before his signing with Roc A Fella Records.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Angie Martinez interviews Maxwell - July 7th 2009

On the day that Maxwell's long anticipated album "BLACKsummer'snight" dropped in stores, Maxwell showed up at Hot97's studios to do an interview with Angie Martinez. Check out the link below to download it. Good interview. Bout 21 minutes long. They touch on the Michael Jackson tribute on BET and the ceremony they had that was airing when Maxwell arrived. They talked about his new album, and whether or not he will ever do an "autotuned" record. lol.

Check it out.

Angie Martinez Interviews Maxwell - 7-7-09

PASSWORD: crowncitymedia.net

Jay Z pimps the whore that is B.E.T.

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON SEARCHING FOR CHET BAKER.





BET had their awards show recently, and they hastily put together a tribute to Michael Jackson after his death, that several artists were to perform including Neyo, Jay Z, Dream and Chris Brown. However, Chris Brown was told by BET that he would not be able to perform.

According to those close to Brown, both Chris and his handlers practically begged BET to allow him to take part. Chris Brown grew up with MJ's music and considered him his idol. He wanted badly to take part in this tribute.

However, BET said no. And now it's coming out that the reason that Chris Brown was denied the ability to pay tribute, is that Jay Z himself told BET that if they allowed Chris to perform, then he (Jay Z) would not perform.

Now at first glance, you might say "good for Jay Z". I mean too little attention seems to go to the fact that Chris Brown did in fact beat up Rihanna. At the time he got a lot of criticism, but we tend to overlook things like that when someone has a talent such as athletics or music (see Kobe Bryant, R. Kelly, etc, etc, etc).

However there's a more serious aspect to this situation, that I'm not sure people are aware of. At what point does a company, in this case BET, decide that they're going to allow an artist to tell them how to run their company, and let that artist dictate policy?

I realize Jay Z is probably one of the more powerful artists out there. And him saying "I'm not going on if Chris performs" that would no doubt have repercussions as it pertains to ratings and the such.

But don't you take a stand somewhere?

I realize we're talking about BET and they sold their soul a LONG time ago. The network has embraced genocidal behavior and glorified it and built their reputation on it. There's nothing good on BET worth watching, for someone wanting to see healthy examples of African American life or culture. I mean, does anyone even REMEMBER that they refused to air a lot of rap videos that were positive in tone? Artists like Tribe Called Quest, Camp Lo and Brand Nubian among many many more, because they were deemed "irrelevant" to their demographics they were going after? Perhaps not enough killing and drug dealing and sex in their videos, I suppose.

Unless you want to see mindless drivel and reinforced negative stereotypes of African Americans as thugs and sexual deviants and objectifying of women, then there's no reason to even turn to that channel.

However, this goes to the larger idea of a company having standards. BET and MTV started out as a way for labels to market their artists. Artists would hope to get their videos played on these channels, and perhaps get to stop by one of their hip hop countdown shows to get their faces out there for promotion. Exposure. They needed BET and MTV to build their names.

However now that the names have been built up, it's like the inmates are running the asylum. This is no different than a magazine interviewing a subject, and that person saying they won't do the interview unless they get full editorial control. And then the Magazine folding like a deck of cards and giving that editorial control, thus not revealing anything the subject doesn't want.

I mean, look at just today's news. The Washington Post was setting up to sell access to it's reporters, and by extension their contacts in the White House for anywhere between 25,000 and 250,000. That would buy, "off the record, nonconfrontational access" to congressmen, members of Obama's administration and going so far as to offer the paper's own reporters and editors, according to a Politico article. That has since been cancelled after the uproar, but you get the point?

With the ascension of blogs in the culture now this is even more prevalent. And if it's not a publication sacrificing whatever journalistic integrity it might have had, it's a blog or a magazine selling it's soul and just putting out a total blowjob of an article in hopes of attracting an interview or an exclusive from that person in the future.

It's shameful. It reeks of selling out, and it's sad that companies like BET have zero integrity, zero honor, and absolutely NO SPINE in their backing down to Jay Z's threats.

Yeah, if Jay Z walked that would have hurt the awards ratings. But this is a tribute to Michael Jackson. This is the BET AWARDS SHOW, not the Jay Z Tribute. Not the JAY Z AWARDS SHOW.

When you sacrifice your integrity and parley that into favors, there's essentially only one thing you can honestly call yourself after that. A whore.

And that's what BET is. A whore.

Should Chris Brown have been allowed to perform? I dunno. I think he's a scumbag for beating on Rihanna no matter whether she hit him first or not. I'd like to see him get a lot more blowback for what he did than he has gotten. But if he wanted to perform at the tribute, and BET didn't have a problem (and they apparantly DIDN'T until Jay stepped in) then he should have gone on.

That decision is up to BET. or it SHOULD have been up to BET. They should never sacrifice their integrity (or what little they had left) by kowtowing to an artist that at one point was depending on them for promotion.

But that would take balls and a spine, two things BET seems to be in vastly short supply.

Lebron James and the Dunk That Shall Not Be Seen

Lebron James hosts a "Skills Academy" every year in his hometown of Akron Ohio, and at this year's game, Lebron got dunked on by a college basketball player from Xavier, Jordan Crawford. This is one of those things that are must see videos!

Only you won't see it. And that's because Lebron James had Nike confiscate tapes from the only two cameras rolling at that time so the footage wouldn't end up on youtube.

Are you kidding me? Lebron James has really fallen hard in the last several months. There's his bitch out when the Orlando Magic thumped his Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals, and he walked off the court without congratulating the Magic players, or addressing the media.

There's his reportedly telling Trevor Ariza that he was "of course" staying in Cleveland past next summer while trying to entice Ariza to sign with the Cavs. Ariza later declined to sign with Cleveland saying that he wasn't convinced about Lebron and felt that James was simply saying what he had to say to get Ariza to come there. Which would have made Lebron look like even a bigger jackass next summer when he opts out like everyone KNOWS he's going to do.

And now there's this. Lebron James, a man who the media has crowned King James. The man whose high school basketball games at St. Mary's was broadcast on ESPN. A man who bypassed college, went straight to the NBA and proceeded to light up the league, is so thin skinned that he can't stand for people to see him getting dunked on by a college player.

As has been mentioned before, this is a man who has bought into his own hype.

This is someone who's ego has been stroked for so long, and has heard everyone talking about how he's the best baller since Jordan, and has somehow bought into the idea that he's just flat out better than everyone else. That he's in such a league of his own that the mere idea of him getting dunked on is going to do irreparable harm to his ego if it gets out. So he sics his Nike pitbulls on the camera men and they take the tapes.

Now, there's obviously the question of what were the camera men thinking by giving up the tape. Why would you do that? Why would you give your tape to ANYONE? You were perfectly within your right to film there, there was no problem leading up to the dunk, but suddenly Nike wanted your tapes? I'd suggest telling them to do something with that request, but it might not be polite.

Lebron needs to toughen up. He needs to act like he's the role model like he wants people to believe. I'm sure he does many good things in his life for the community in Cleveland, however this pretty much wipes out all of that in the eyes of many, at least for the time being.

He's exposed himself as an insecure child in a man's body. He can't take criticism, which has become evident. He can't take being beaten when everyone assumes he's gonna win (see Magic def. Cavaliers 2009 Eastern Conference Finals), and he's shown now that he can't stand to be upstaged, least of all by some lowly college player.

Sack up, Lebron. Sack up and man up.

Oscar De La Hoya gets owned by fan "Marquez is not gonna QUIT like DLH"

WOW! That's gotta hurt. DLH kept that million dollar smile going though. This is obviously in reference to Juan Manuel Marquez' upcoming fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Whooooooo that has to sting, but hey....money helps that pain go away huh?

Alexis Arguello, Ex Boxing champ found dead today

courtesy of ESPN.COM:

MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Alexis Arguello, who fought in one of boxing's most classic brawls and reigned supreme at 130 pounds, was found dead at his home early Wednesday.

Coroners were conducting an autopsy to determine the cause of death. Sandanista Party's Radio Ya and other local media were reporting it appeared to be a suicide.

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The La Prensa newspaper reported that Arguello -- elected mayor of Nicaragua's capital last year -- was found with a gunshot wound to the chest.

The 57-year-old Arguello retired in 1995 with a record of 82-8 with 65 knockouts and was a champion in three weight divisions. He was perhaps best known for two thrilling battles with Aaron Pryor and fights with Ray Mancini, Bobby Chacon and Ruben Olivares.