In the midst of an ongoing legal battle with his son's mother, a new conflict has arisen in the personal life of 50 Cent. The home where former girlfriend Shaniqua Tompkins was living, located in Dix Hills, a section of New York's Long Island, burned to the ground beginning at 5:00 am this morning. The house in question was the subject of a lawsuit by 50's ex-girfriend Shaniqua. After an unsuccessful attempt to have child support payments raised to $50,000 per month, 50 sought to have Tomkins evicted from the residence on the grounds that she allowed another man to move in.
Dix Hills Fire Chief Larry Field called the fire "suspicious" and arson squad investigators were on the scene. - Hip Hop DX
Docta Joe
I Like the old cover better but of course people gotta bitch too much and had the album title changed... People gotta stop watering down our music... whatever Nigger or Nas it's the same shit to me! Nas said before: 
Definitely look out for more music from Rich Boy this year. He is one of the better up and coming rap artists out right now.
He released a mixtape recently, titled "Bigger Than the Mayor"
Download it here: Bigger Than the Mayor
Docta Joe
"While the title for NaS’ upcoming album is no longer “Nigger,” the Queens rapper isn’t shying away from controversy surrounding the project.
According to an entry on Miss Info's blog, the Queens emcee is taking a “politically incorrect, unsubtle approach” for the video for the album’s recently leaked song, “Be A Nigger Too.” The video is set to premiere at an exclusive viewing next week.
"Rik Cordero and Nas shot the video last week in LA (and some parts here in NY) and the concept will be very familiar to movie buffs,” Miss Info wrote. “I can’t give away any more, but I’ll say that there will be some celebrity cameos. And not the usual ‘Hey, these are random rappers that I don’t know that well but who will show up when I shoot a video and pretend to party with me in this rented space with the rest of my casted modeltypes’ cameos.”
The promo poster for the video shows a person’s feet in the air and bound by rope, with a forest area as the backdrop." - Hip Hop DX
Today's album is "Exit 13", which is set to be LL Cool J's 13th and final album, completely a 20 year contract with Def Jam Records. This album is going to be the first album from LL to have the parental advisory sticker since G.O.A.T.
Today's album is the highly anticipated, "Terminate on Sight", G-Unit's 2nd studio album. The title was originally scheduled to be released on June 24th, but has since been pushed back one week to July 1st.
It seems Saigon's long awaited album might take even longer to come out. Apparently Saigon's album has been getting delayed because of Atlantic Records.
"I am NO LONGER ON ATLANTIC RECORDS, thank you God," Saigon says via his Myspace."I took legal action and got my manager Chris, my lawyer Theo, my homies Gee Roberson and Just Blaze and we got the fuck up out of there... No, I didn't get dropped so you haters don't get excited, I fought these people very very hard to leave."
"Atlantic Records felt I needed a party song, or a sexual song or something like the other artist they have up there," he says of "Pain In My Life" not getting pushed hard as his single. "On one side of the token they're telling me they need to market me to the youth yet they want me to use adult content.. This didn't make sense to me. They wanted me to tell 12 and 13 year old kids that its cool to be strippers and gangbangers."
Here's what Just Blaze, one of Saigon's big supporters, had to say about the situation.
"We have been quietly working to get released from Atlantic. Sometimes you need to do things without talking about them. And get what you want. We finally got that…With 100% ownership of the masters," Blaze states. He also makes mention that leaving the label and owning all the masters is a rarity. - News from Hip Hop DX
Docta Joe
2 Nights after the Montreal Glow In The Dark Concert I'm still thinking about the whole show and how I saw Lupe Fiasco, N.E.R.D. , Rhianna and Kanye West perform their best songs in my presence... Now I wasn't sure exactly how many people attended the show but there was a hell of a lot fans. Because of this I was pissed off over the simple fact that so many people were rockin the Kanye Shades and T-shirts... I wanted to be the only one... But that feeling died down very quickly as soon as Lupe started his performance. 
The Album Watch album for today is "Bottom's Up", which is set to be the third studio album from one of Detroit's best, Obie Trice.
Obie Trice has been working on the album since 2006. Obie Trice told MTV in an interview in 2007 that he was "a few songs deep", but it's been a while since we've heard any news from him. He stated that he'd like to get work done with Eminem, Jazze Pha and Young Buck (which might not happen now with all the shit thats been going on with G-Unit)
The production for the album is expected to be made up of Dre beats, Eminem beats and more underground producers. Personally I'm happy to here there's more variety in the production because Eminem sort of held "Second Rounds on Me" back with his monotone production. If Obie Trice does actually release this summer 2008 like he plans to, it's gonna be the year of Shady/Aftermath.
Head over to Bun-B's Myspace page to preview his sophomore solo album II Trill. In stores tomorrow May 20th!!! UGK do it Big!
Today's album is the highly anticipated "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II" . Raekwon's fourth solo album will serve as a sequel to his 1995 album, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx.The album is to be released as a joint venture between Wu-Tang and Aftermath Entertainment. Featured Producers set to appear on the album include RZA, Dre, Dilla, Erick Sermon, Allah Mathematics and DJ Scratch. Like the first Cuban Linx album, each song on OB4CL 2's tracks will all make up a storyline and each rapper will be playing an implied 'persona' of sorts. Raekwon is the main protagonist, while GZA and Inspectah Deck will be playing the 'supporting roles' .
The album should be sick because production is largely credited to Dr. Dre and RZA and Busta Rhymes and RZA are being named executive producers. RZA explained the collaboration between himself and Dr. Dre like "ying and yang" when it comes to their styles. "The album is gonna attract all the gangstas, nigga; all the thugs and everybody is going to be listening to this shit," says RZA of the album.
This album should be sick. Only Built 4 Cuban Linx is considered to be one of the best albums of all time, so if Raekwon is calling this album the sequel, it's gonna be good.
Docta Joe
Hopefully, somehow, it will be more like Country Grammar than his previous albums. But my hopes are too high personally.
Docta Joe
"According to TMZ.com, Marion "Suge" Knight, controversial founder of Death Row Records was assaulted in Shag Nightclub in Los Angeles Saturday night.
Knight was seen by witnesses arguing with a man, reportedly screaming "I want my money!" According to the reports,Suge and his entourage began assaulting the man.
According to the reports, a third party was video-taping the beating with a cellphone. Knight witnessed this, and attacked the video-taper. The Death Row Records founder put the man in a headlock and took his phone inside the club.
Following the incident, the victim reportedly left the club, went to a vehicle, and opened the trunk. The man removed an unidentifiable object, and as Suge Knight stood outside the club, struck him in the back of the head. The attack left "a large gash" on the back of Knight's head. The hit to the back of the head left Suge Knight unconscious on the sidewalk for a period of about 10 minutes. The attacker reportedly fled the scene. - Hip Hop DX"
Docta Joe
"PHOENIX (Reuters) - DMX was arrested on Friday on suspicion of drug possession and animal cruelty after two searches of his home allegedly turned up weapons, drugs, dog carcasses and abused pit bulls.
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said DMX, 37, whose real name is Earl Simmons, initially barricaded himself in his bedroom when officers arrived at his home at 3 a.m. He eventually surrendered without offering further resistance.
"We are handling this case as we would any other incident of alleged animal cruelty," Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said in a statement.
It was the second time this week DMX, who rose to fame with hard-core rap songs and hit albums like "It's Dark and Hell is Hot," has run afoul of Arizona authorities.
On Tuesday, state police arrested him for driving at speeds as high as 114 miles per hour (183 kph) on a freeway.
Police first raided his home in the Cave Creek community near Phoenix last August. They found 12 distressed pit bulls and three dead animals partially buried on the property as well as a number of firearms.
An indictment was issued on seven counts of animal cruelty after the August raid. Police staged Friday's raid to arrest DMX on charges from their initial investigation. This time, they also found unspecified illegal drugs and five more pit bull puppies, which they removed from the house.
Said Sheriff Joe Arpaio: "With all his money and fame, (DMX) has no excuse for not providing proper care for his animals."
DMX pleaded guilty in New Jersey to animal cruelty charges in 2002 for neglecting some 13 pit bulls, according to news reports. As part of his sentence, he was required to make a public service announcement against animal abuse." - Reuters
Im Out Here- Young Buck
Plead For Your Life- D12 (ft Royce Da 5'9)
Today's Album Watch album is the highly anticipated album from Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III.
Since the release of his last official album, "Tha Carter II", Lil Wayne has made quite the name for himself. In the eyes of tons of people, he is one of the "best rappers alive", while in the eyes of just as many people, he is ridiculously overrated. In the past 3 years, Wayne has released tons and tons of material, though most of it has been half assed.
His upcoming album might turn that all around though. Tha Carter II was a great album and from the looks of it, this album should be no different.
It has been said that that producers featured on the upcoming album will include The Alchemist, Cool & Dre, Diesel, Just Blaze, Kanye West, Mannie Fresh, Timbaland, The Runners, Scott Storch, Will.i.am and Timbaland. In case you've been living under a rock, that's the majority of the biggest name producers in the rapper game, right there all on one album.
Expected guest spots on the album include Birdman (daddy), Enrique Iglesias, The Game, Jay-Z, Juelz Santana, Justin Timberlake, Busta Rhymes and Kanye West.
It is expected that Lil Wayne's 2nd single (the first being Lollipop) will be released in May. The song will be called "A Milli".
