Swizz Beatz prepares for a Busy Year

Up until his work on The Blueprint 3, Swizz Beatz had been relatively quiet for most of last year. That will not be the case for this upcoming year. He has a long list of projects that stem from work with his own crew and work for other artists. Aside from production work on music, alone, it has also become the job of Swizzy to work with the growing Ruff Ryders Entertainment brand.

This year, Swizz Beatz has a lot that he wants to get done. The project that will probably last him for most of the year is the new Jay-Z album. After taking 2008 off to start Roc Nation, Hov wants to release a new album every year, the way that he did during his prime. His last album, 2009’s The Blueprint 3 was hailed as a classic. The song’s that stick out the most on the album happen to be the ones produced by Swizz Beatz. Because of that, Jay wants him to handle most of his upcoming release.

Aside from the work with Jay-Z, there are plenty of acts on his Ruff Ryders label that are planning new albums. After three years of push-backs, Eve left Interscope Records and signed to the newly-established Ruff Ryders Indy to release Lip Lock. While she plans to work with a wide range of producers, she wants Swizz Beatz to be a part of the project more than anyone else. Her album will also be released this year.

DMX last released an album back in 2006. For that album, he worked with a lot of producers, which led to less work from Swizz Beatz. His last album was not one of his best releases and he has returned to the Ruff Ryders label and to working with Swizz Beatz. It is said that they are constantly working together on the new album from X. DMX does not want to waste any more time with pushing the album back, he is ready to release the album in 2010, also.

Along with new releases from The L.O.X. and Ja Rule, Swizz Beatz has also signed on to work with T.I. on his comeback album. Not only is T.I. preparing an album, but Young Jeezy is too and he has enlisted the help of Swizz Beatz. Last year, had it not been for Jay-Z, Swizz Beatz would have fallen off. This year, that is not the plan of Swizz Beatz, he is working with any and everybody. He is not only working on one comeback album, but four comeback albums. He is also working with Jadakiss on his Top 5 Dead or Alive album.

Swizz Beatz will have the busiest year of his career in 2010 and he is very happy about this.

DJ Clue is looking to Build Desert Storm label

In 1998, DJ Clue launched his Desert Storm label. The same year, he met a young rapper from the Brooklyn area named Fabolous Sport. Together, they dominated the mixtape scene until their work was noticed by an executive from Elektra Records. Before the end of 2000, DJ Clue had reached an exclusive distribution deal with Elektra Records. In 2001, Fabolous released his debut album, Ghetto Fabolous.

The album would be a platinum success for the label, earning DJ Clue props for his work as an executive. After the success of Fabolous’ album, Clue would sign R&B act, Mike Shorey, to his label. He would pair Shorey with Fabolous and they created such hits as “Baby.” But, in the long run, they did not have the type of chemistry that DJ Clue would have preferred. The only notable star on Desert Storm remains Fabolous.

After the release of Fab’s Real Talk album, another platinum success, DJ Clue began working to move his label over to Def Jam for distribution. For years, DJ Clue had been an official DJ of Roc-A-Fella Records, which had a deal with Def Jam at the time. While Clue did his executive work for Elektra and later Atlantic Records, he had begun with an artist deal with Def Jam. In 2006, the label switched to Def Jam in a trade, so to speak.

The product of this deal was Fabolous’ fourth album, From Nothin’ to Somethin’, which was another platinum hit under his belt. For years, Fabolous had been picked as the next artist to blow from New York City. A lack of consistency stopped this from happening. The only thing that Fabolous has remained consistent at is being the flagship artist for Desert Storm. Once the label moved to Def Jam, Mike Shorey was replaced by Ne-Yo as the hook singer.

For the past four years, DJ Clue has watched Desert Storm receive backdoor treatment at the label in favor of Kanye West and Rick Ross. It is often said that rappers without those names are often ignored by Def Jam. The recent breakup of the Roc-A-Fella roster has even DJ Clue without an actual deal with the label. Fabolous owes one more album to Def Jam and after that he is free to record for any label of his choice.

When he had first started Desert Storm, DJ Clue wanted the label to become something along the lines of the next Bad Boy. This never did quite happen, though. Because of his mixtape series and the work with Fabolous, DJ Clue never expanded the Desert Storm label the way that he envisioned. More than anything, the label serves as a management team for Fabolous, who has his own crew on the side. Beginning in 2010, DJ Clue wants to sign more artists to Desert Storm.

Often, both DJ Clue and Fabolous state that they are very happy on Def Jam. But, the Loso’s Way album from Fab was widely-ignored by the label. Despite the recent stagnation from Fabolous, there are many other labels that would be glad to have him on their roster and they would pay more attention to him. While Def Jam does not show interest in helping smaller hip hop labels grow their roster the way that they did when Irv Gotti built his label under them, other labels are more nurturing.

The main New Year’s Resolution from DJ Clue is to rebuild his Desert Storm label, but it is unclear where he will choose to do this.

Soulja Boy is almost done with “The DeAndre Way”

When Soulja Boy first came into the game, he was written off as a one hit wonder. Using his song, “Soulja Boy,” he rose to the top of the charts. Veterans of the hip hop game and veteran hip hop fans did not approve of Soulja Boy’s music. After the release of his debut album, the teen sensation ended up feuding with West Coast legend, Ice T. Many rappers, including the likes of Kanye West and 50 Cent rose to his defense.

Following his debut album, directly, came his next album. The first few singles off of the album flopped and people were beginning to think that their predictions had come true. So far, he was a one hit wonder until he broke through with “Turn My Swag On.” The song had quickly become a top five hit and Soulja Boy began to dominate radio once again. He would follow that hit up with a song for the ladies, “Kiss Me Thru The Phone.” Despite all of the success surrounding the rapper, he still had many doubters.

Coming into 2009, Soulja Boy said that he is not the slow rapper that he appears to be. The never-ending “hip hop is dead” conversation took place and Soulja Boy blamed Nas for the death of hip hop. This led to a slight backlash towards the rapper, but did nothing to slow the popularity of his music. During the summer, he announced that he was going to show the world that he actually can rap. He would later announce his third studio album, The DeAndre Way, which was to be released before the end of 2009.

However, the popularity of his last album and his work with Kanye West and Snoop Dogg held this process up. Now that he is almost done working with other artists, Soulja Boy has been hard at work on his own music. Recently, he spoke on his long-awaited third album and he said that he will be done with the album in two weeks. For this new album, he will no longer be on Interscope Records. Instead, he has moved his label to distribution from Universal Records.

The DeAndre Way will be released on July 28, 2010 (the rapper’s birthday) through his own imprint, Stacks on Deck, and Universal Records.

Lil Wayne completes 20 Tracks for “Carter IV”

Right now, Lil Wayne has a lot on his plate. Last year, he successfully introduced the world to his new Young Money crew. They have proven to be a crew of hit-makers. Sadly, enough, Wayne will not be with them as they prepare their solo careers. His 2007 gun charges in New York have caught up with him. For the remainder of 2010, Lil Wayne will be serving time in prison. Just because he is going to be away does not mean that the music will stop.

Before the end of 2009, Wayne released We Are Young Money, which was an album with him and the Young Money crew. He had initial plans of releasing Rebirth, his own album, in a package with this album. At the last minute, he decided to release his album with Young Money as his 2009 album. With that decision came the choice to push Rebirth back until 2010. There has been talk of this album since October of 2008.

When Rebirth was pushed back until 2010, it was one of many push-backs from its original February 2009 release date. The album has since been set for a February 2010 release date. But, recent rumors said that the album had been pushed back for five months into a June release. The camp of Lil Wayne came out to deny those allegations and said that there will not be any more push-backs of Rebirth.

All of the talk of Rebirth has led to many forgetting about Tha Carter IV. Once his previous Carter album had been released, Wayne promised that a fourth installment was on the way. He also promised a remix album of Tha Carter III. This remix album evolved into an album of its own that he ended up calling Rebirth. He had planned to quickly release that album and then move on with Tha Carter IV. His initial plan was to release Rebirth early in 2009 and release the next album late in 2009.

However, Universal Motown did not have faith in the Rebirth album and Lil Wayne ended up only releasing one album, We Are Young Money in 2009. Now, 2010 is currently set up for these two Wayne releases. He, along with his representatives, has promised that there will not be any more delays with Rebirth. The album has been completed for some time, but there have been so many delays that it has yet to be released. Now ready to get to his masterpiece, Lil Wayne is gearing up for the release of Tha Carter IV.

During the downtime waiting for the release of Rebirth, Lil Wayne records for Tha Carter IV. He hopes to release Tha Carter IV before the end of this year. When speaking of the fourth installment of his album series, Wayne said that he has already completed twenty tracks that could possibly appear on the album. Tha Carter IV should be expected in either the third or fourth quarter of 2010 on Young Money and Universal Records.

MTV denies Kanye West being Banned from Telethon

By now, the Kanye West story needs no recap. Everyone knows about how the rap star made a complete idiot of himself on national television. His ignorant acts even led to West being labeled a “jackass” by the president. To avoid causing any more trouble, Kanye West took a break from the public eye.

The recent tragedy in Haiti has led to many people setting aside their differences to come together for this one cause. Even Kanye West planned to do something for the victims. All of the top stars in the entertainment industry have teamed up for a benefit concert to air tonight at 8:00 pm on many television networks. The guest list has been steadily increasing with one notable name missing.

That name is Kanye West and rumors said that he had been asked not to attend the concert. Executives from MTV have come out today to deny these charges. After his outburst at the Video Music Awards and his infamous comment during the Hurricane Katrina telethon, it is easy to see the networks wanting Kanye to keep his distance. They are now denying these statements.

Executives from MTV said that they have reached out Kanye West, but he has taken it upon himself to not attend.

Eminem and Shady Records may go Indie?

As long as Eminem has been recording music, he has been on Interscope Records. His deal with the label stems from Dr. Dre’s relationship that has lasted for nearly nineteen years. After Dre left Ruthless Records, he and Suge Knight proposed the idea of Death Row Records to the head of Interscope Records, Jimmy Iovine. A hardcore rock fan, Iovine loved the sound of the music and he gave them a chance.

Dr. Dre would spend the next five years with Death Row until he had enough of the way that his partner, Suge Knight was going around treating people. Right after he finished working on the first 1996 album from Tupac, All Eyez On Me, Dr. Dre would leave Death Row. He would take with him artists that he had been working with during his Death Row days. They made up the roster of Aftermath Entertainment, also distributed by Interscope Records.

The first three years of Aftermath got off to a rocky start and Dr. Dre’s legacy was at stake for a little while. All of this changed when he heard a white rapper from Detroit named Eminem rap for the first time. Dr. Dre listened to his demo and he ended up flying Dre to Los Angeles and the trip resulted in Em signing to Aftermath Entertainment. Before the signing of Eminem, releases from the label failed to cross the platinum mark. However, after Eminem released his debut album, he would sell 9 million copies.

The success of Eminem’s first album led to Jimmy Iovine reaching out to him directly. He granted Em with his own label, Shady Records. Soon, Eminem signed himself to a joint-venture deal with Aftermath. In 2000, he signed D12, a group of his childhood friends to the label and he also signed other Detroit-area rappers to the label. Starting in 2002, Eminem and Shady became the cornerstone of Interscope Records. Later in the year, he would solidify his status as a legend, when he signed 50 Cent.

When Dr. Dre signed Eminem to Aftermath, he put his own rap career on hold. When Eminem signed 50 Cent, he made a similar move. However, unlike his boss, Eminem announced a comeback. After he made the announcement, he acted upon it. The result was Eminem releasing his first album in five years, Relapse. Led by the hit single, “We Made You,” Eminem took over the rap game one more time.

Initially, Eminem had planned to release two new albums in 2009. The first half of the year was supposed to be headlined by Relapse. The second half of the year was supposed to be headlined by Relapse 2. When Eminem recorded the first album, he created enough music for multiple albums. Because of this, he had hoped to package the music that was left off of the initial album to create another album.

However, Interscope Records did not like this idea. They forced Eminem to scrap the album and begin to record another album. To honor the promise that Eminem made to his fans about releasing two albums in 2009, they allowed him to re-release Relapse as Relapse: Refill. This will serve as the official preview of Relapse 2. The fact that Interscope Records forced him to re-record his album enraged Eminem.

For the past few years, Eminem has been growing impatient with the Interscope label. It is possible that he has finally had enough. As long ago as December 2009, there have been rumors of Eminem possibly moving his Shady Records to an independent label. In 2008, he had signed up-and-coming rapper, Charles Hamilton to the label. He was hailed as one of the rappers of the future. But, a feud with Soulja Boy led to him being dropped by Shady/Interscope and Jimmy Iovine allowed his debut album to leak to the internet.

With all of this and some other issues, Eminem may just pack his bags and go the independent route for his future music releases.

Clash of the Titans: Game vs. Memphis Bleek

Until 50 Cent challenged Kanye West, no one had ever thought of it being a big deal when two artists released albums on the same day. The way that the record labels operate, it happens very often. But, ever since the 50 Cent battle with Kanye West that captivated the fans, hip hop media has been trying to set up another epic matchup that would compare to theirs. While many clashes of the titans’ battles have been set up, there has yet to be another since their scuffle.

Due to the label politics, often albums end up being pushed back or pushed up to improve record sales. Because of that, Kanye West and 50 Cent did not have their planned rematch in 2008. One thing that has never been set up is pitting two actual artists against each other when they have an actual feud. It appears that may be happening soon if the release dates for Game’s The R.E.D. Album and Memphis Bleek’s The Process stay the same.

Dating back to 2002, Game and Memphis Bleek have been involved in a feud. The feud stems from the name of their label names. When Game was in the process of signing to Aftermath, he and his brother ran a record label named Get Low Recordz. Back in 1998, Memphis Bleek created a record label that he named Get Low Records. Game claims that his Get Low label has been around much longer than Bleek’s and that he stole the name.

Many call their feud petty, but it is one of the longest-standing feuds in hip hop. At times, the feud has been so crazy that Jay-Z was brought into it. For the past three years, the feud has remained dormant, but Game brings it up from time-to-time. Memphis Bleek has said that he is ready to put the feud behind him, but he also knows how to market himself and he may decide to use the feud with Game to do so.

While Game and Memphis Bleek are enemies, on their album, they are working with some of the same people. Recently, the rapper that has been in demand, aside from Gucci Mane, has been Rick Ross. Since both rappers are involved in issues with 50 Cent, both have a reason to work with him. Currently, Rick Ross is the primary target of 50 Cent’s. Currently, both Memphis Bleek’s The Process and Game’s The R.E.D. Album are supposed to be released on March 23, 2010.

Game’s album will be released on Star Track Entertainment and Interscope Records, while the new album from Memphis Bleek will be released on Get Low Records, Mass Appeal Music and E1 Music. If things stay the same, March 23 will be a big day for hip hop.

Ja Rule reaches deal with Murder Inc. Records

While he was promoting his 2007 album, The Mirror, Ja Rule announced that he had formed his own label, Mpire Records. Now that Murder Inc.’s roster is dwindling and at a fast rate, Ja has announced that he was never an official artist on the label. He said that he will spend the remainder of his career trying to build the acts on his Mpire label.

Despite Ja Rule going the independent route with this new movement, he still needs distribution and much like Ruff Ryders, Murder Inc. does distribute other labels. Currently, Irv Gotti is securing a deal with a label group and when he does, he will begin to rebuild his onetime powerhouse. Unlike Gotti, Rule has never had a powerhouse, but he would love to have one.

Given his history with Irv Gotti and the hits that they created together, Ja Rule has decided that it would be best for him and his label to work with Murder Inc. As it stands, Irv Gotti badly needs someone to generate buzz around his label. Standing alone, Ja Rule is buzzworthy. People always love to tease him about his falling from grace, but any time that his name is mentioned, it becomes headline news.

Just like it was during the old days, Irv Gotti needs Ja Rule and Ja Rule needs Irv Gotti. For the upcoming year, Ja Rule wants to release his own solo album and then an Mpire compilation album. Following that, he wants to begin promoting other artists on his label and to release another album before the end of this year. Ja Rule is hoping to create a similar situation to that of the current movement from Lil Wayne and Young Money.

Apparently, it is still murder.

T.I. will release an album This Year

There was speculation that new music would be coming from T.I. once he was released from prison. Until he was released right before Christmas, it was assumed that he would not be released until May of this year. Given his work ethic, it was expected of him to go directly back into the studio and begin recording a new album. While a long time would have passed since T.I. was recording music, he also has obligations as a family man.

Because of that, most assumed that a new T.I. album would not come until 2011. He has surprised the people. First, he came out way earlier than expected and he was able to spend proper time with his family. Due to his popularity before his prison stint, T.I. went right back in and began recording his upcoming seventh studio album. At one point, he was rumored to have titled an album, King Muzik.

While those rumors proved to be false, it was true that T.I. was working on a new album. Now, he has announced that this new album will be released before the end of this year. Despite his time in prison, T.I. had hoped to release an album in 2009. But, unlike his previous stint in prison, he was not allowed to do so. Now that he is out, he is able to do whatever he likes as long as he reports back to the halfway house before curfew.

After years of being popular, T.I. became a fixture behind his Jim Jonsin-produced single, “Whatever You Like.” Ironically, the news of his new album was delivered by T.I.’s hitmaker. He did not reveal any other collaborations on the album, but it is clear that T.I. will be reuniting with Jonsin for this new album. Currently, the album has no release date, but should be expected in the later half of the year.

This new album from T.I. will be released on Grand Hustle Records and Atlantic Records.

Snoop Dogg to release New Album in March

In five years at Geffen Records, Snoop Dogg had become the top rap artist on the label. Despite his status, his 2008 album, Ego Trippin’, was not promoted by the label. Because of a lack of promotion, the album did not sell very well. Late in 2008, Snoop announced that he was leaving Geffen.

Throughout his career, Snoop Dogg has either recorded for EMI or UMG. The best run that he had in his career came in the late 1990s while he recorded for Priority Records, a subsidiary of EMI. In the fall of 2009, Snoop Dogg was offered the role of Creative Chairman of his former label. While his role is called Creative Chariman, he practically runs the label.

Under the terms of the deal, Snoop Dogg would release all of his future albums on Priority Records. Along with his releases, Doggystyle Records would switch from distribution from Geffen to Priority. The first product from this marriage was Snoop’s tenth album, Malice ‘n’ Wonderland. In the time since the release of the album, it has been hailed as one of the best albums from The Doggfather.

The album has become so popular amongst fans, there has been demand for more music from Snoop Dogg. He has plans of signing more acts to Priority and getting their music out. However, the job of Snoop Dogg is to make money for the label. It does not matter who is releasing music as long as it is selling. As it currently stands, the only marketable artist on the label happens to be Snoop Dogg.

Due to his marketability and the demand for new music, Snoop Dogg has decided to deliver another album this year. In an attempt to capitalize off of his recent classic, this new release will be titled More Malice: Deluxe. Not only will he deliver another album, but also a mini-movie to go along with it. This album will feature five new tracks, five remixes, and two songs from the previous album.

Snoop Dogg has set the release date for March 23, 2010 on Doggystyle Records, Priority Records, and Capitol Records. This release date is also when Game finally releases The R.E.D. Album and when Memphis Bleek will be releasing The Process. Initially, Game was going to release his album on the same day that the first Malice came out. Among the collaborators for the new Malice will be Jamie Foxx.