Who's Hot, And Who's Not

I got to know from you guys- who is hot in hiphop right now, and who is not? There is a lot of talk about rick ross being the hottest right now, and i think i can buy that, but i want to hear from you guys. Please, remember that i said HOT, not the most lyrical or the person who has sold the most rap albums, but just plain simple- who's hot.

I know people will still get me wrong and start mentioning eminem, and jay-z and them. When last did you hear a song from those guys on the radio? And when was the last time they featured on someone else's track and made an impression. I just want to know who you think is hot right now.

I would like to mention some other people that are on the scene and making waves. Nicki Minaj still has her buzz from last year, although i can't say it is on the level it was last year. Maybe lil kim was right- maybe she is just a burning match. But, i think otherwise, because she is very versatile, and skilled.

Lil Wayne? I still don't get that his 6 foot 7 foot song- i think it is not hot  enough to be an album single- and the first single at that. But he is still moving units from his EP I Am Not A Human Being, so that gives you an idea that people are still waiting on new material from him.

Drake? I don't know...i guess he is just aight right now. But i do believe he still has a lot to give.

Whiz Khalifa is definitely hot right now, and his album just dropped- Rolling Papers. I haven't gotten it yet, so i can not rate it. I am going to know how much it did in its first week in stores today. But already, estimations don't put him above the first week of lasers.

Yeah, that takes me to LUPE FIASCO. Lupe is not the type to jump on so many songs, because of his style, but he is doing pretty good. The official first single off the album (LASERS) "The Show Goes On" has already been certified GOLD; that means it has sold 500,000 copies as a single. I think that is pretty good. So, as for this year, Lupe Fiasco still has the highest selling rap album- that is for rap albums that dropped this year.

Yeah, you got to mention the guy who put lupe on- Kanye West. Kanye still has the buzz from last year, but i was really thinking he was going to own the first quarter of this year with that ALL OF THE LIGHTS track. That track is a banger, and i thought it would performance better than it is doing so far.

Wale is also hot, and a lot of people are complaining about his move to Rick Ross's Maybach Music imprint. Me, i think it is a smart move. He signed with the label this year, and he is already everywhere...i am just happy he is not going to end up like J.Cole. Cole has a lot of talent, but i guess jay-z does not have his time, because seriously, he is meant to have dropped his album by now. I guess the Roc Nation is not going to be as strong as jay planned it to be.

I got to mention my man GAME, even though he is more or less bubbling under the radar. He has been dropping dope mixtapes for the last 24 months or so, but i think we need an album from him, so he needs to work on that. He was widely complemented on the dopeness of his last mixtape- Purp and Patron, which was a double cd mixtape. I downloaded it and i got to say it was beyond what i expected from game. But, i think he needs to focus more on getting his album out.

Okay, those are all the artist i recognize...artist that made my radar, pls feel free to add yours. Thank you.

Lupe Fiasco Ready For Nationwide Tour

After dropping the number one album in the country last week, selling 204k copies of his LASERS album, lupe fiasco is ready to tour. And he has announced the tour dates, which would begin on March 27. I think that is great, and i know he is the happiest man right now. Touring would do him a lot of good- treat his fans, get him more fans, and further boost the sales of his album- past and present.

Below are the tour dates-
Lupe Fiasco Tour Dates:

Mar. 27: Los Angeles, CA (DUB Car Show - LA Convention Cntr.)
Mar. 31: Durham, NC (Duke University)
Apr. 1: Ann Arbor, MI (University Of Michigan)
Apr. 13: Albany, NY (SUNY Albany - Washington Ave. Armory)
Apr. 16: Keene, NH (Keene State College)
Apr. 19: Oxford, OH (Miami University)
Apr. 21: Phoenix, AZ (Mesa Amphitheater)
Apr. 24: New York, NY (Roseland Ballroom)
Apr. 25: New York, NY (Roseland Ballroom)
Apr. 26: New Haven, CT (Yale University)
Apr. 28: Bristol, RI (Roger Williams University)
Apr. 29: University Park, PA (Penn State University)
May 1: Baltimore, MD (Meriweather Post)
May 6: New Orleans, (LA Congo Square--Appearing with Performance w/Band)
May 7: Boise, ID (Boise State University)
May 11: Lewiston, ME (Bates College - Grey Gym)


I think, right after he gets off touring, he should rest for about a month, and then shoot another video. Then start preparing for a worldwide tour.

Lupe Fiasco Reacts to Lasers Number 1 Chart Position

It is no longer news that Lupe Fiasco's long awaited LASERS album is finally out, and that it debuted at number 1 on the billboard top 200 albums. That means it is the number one (best selling) album for this week in the country of U.S.A. I think that is a great achievement for any rapper, not to talk of a very conscious rapper. I think he needs to be popping some champagne bottles right now. And tho think this is a person that the label (atlantic records) wasn't paying attention to. They preferred to put their money on B.O.B. No disrespect to bobby ray, but The Adventures of Bobby Ray sold just 80k in its first week, with all the commercial singles he dropped, and lupe's LASERS did 204k first week. Now, who is smiling all the way to the bank? Who is laughing last?

Anyway, read the about Lupe's reaction as told by hiphopdx.com below-

As previously reported, Lupe Fiasco began the week atop the sales charts after selling 204,000 copies of his third album, Lasers. According to Lupe, his doctor has him on vocal rest, so in lieu of an interview, he took to Twitter and responded to the news with a rhyme composed as a series of tweets, writing the following:

“Love got me thru it / Best fans ever made the whole world care / Had 51st & 6th looking like Tahrir Square / Took Gaza Strip's politics / And put them number one and shit / Took the myth that conscious don’t equal commercial / And mothafuckin’ pummeled it / Apologize for dumbing it / But look what has become of it / All Black Everything / Some old white southern woman humming it…”

The Chicago emcee addressed his previous statements about the emotional toll creating the album caused, referring to what seemed to be a thinly veiled reference to suicide on “Beautiful Lasers” by saying, “From the backseats of phantoms I thought of leaving thru suicide doors.”

There were also mentions of the Fiasco Friday protest, a short-lived feud with RapRadar.com and admission that Lupe modified the stance he took on “Dumb It Down” in hopes of repairing his strained relationship with Atlantic records. All told, the bars amounted to a total of nine Twitter messages, including condolences for Nate Dogg and those affected by the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan.


and there it will remain, for atleast another week, right at number 1, hahaha yeah nigguh, stay strong Japan, Nate Dogg REST IN PEACE!!!
about 19 hours ago
Retweeted by 100+ people via web
Lupe Fiasco
LupeFiasco
 

Lupe Fiasco's Lasers Album Projected to Sell 200k

Over one day sales projections, lupe's third awaited album, "Lasers" is projected to sell over 200k copies in its first week in stores- according to hitsdailydouble.com

His third Atlantic Records studio album, Lasers, will debut at #1 next week with between 220-240k in sales, the second biggest of the year next to Adele and the best start of his career (hitsdailydouble.com)

I think that is huge for lupe and the fact that rappers are not selling as much as this right now. And also, his first album, FOOD AND LIQUOR sold 81k in its first week in stores; while his second album, The Cool sold 143k in its first week, so this is definitely an improvement.

Lupe Fiasco Talks Contemplating suicide

Lupe Fiasco, one of the, if not the most lyrical emcee of the new breeds of rappers, recently touched on an issue that led him to depression, to a point where he actually contemplated suicide. I feel him, and i respect him for coming out to talk about it. There are two things that through my search for self-discovery, i have found that man most want on this earth- they are Love (acceptance), and getting his desire satisfied. This two things, when not gotten are the reasons we have WARS in the world today, and all the other domestic dispute all over the world. And, lupe was at a point when he was not getting acceptance (because he was far beyond his time...far beyond what the general public could comprehend with their shallow minds.), and he also was not getting his hearth's desire (to get his music out there)

Read more below-
Interference began, he says, after executives insisted that The Cool - and its million-selling single Superstar - were considered failures. A fractious process reached rock bottom when Atlantic's chairman, Craig Kallman, told him his verses and performance on a new song the label wanted him to record, called Nothing On You, were "wack". (That was before the song, with Lupe's verses removed and new ones written by its original guest vocalist, his friend B.o.B, became a worldwide hit last year.) "That was the tipping point," he says. "It was less about the bruised ego but more the audacity of it. It was mentally destructive. I say it with a certain laissez-faire now because I'm past it, but back then, hearin' that shit, it fucked me up. I was super-depressed, lightly suicidal, at moments medium suicidal - and if not suicidal, willing to just walk away from it all completely." (The Guardian)

Personally, i think we all have our places on this earth- we are all special and unique. I think the problem is that Atlantic records execs should have known that lupe was not going to be good for a song like that. That song is too poppish for a lupe. Anyway, i feel how lupe would have felt when they told him his verse was wack- wow! Lupe, wack!!? Nah! Never. He was just put in the wrong place.

Read below how he was specifically told by execs at Atlantic records to dumb down his music-
"I was specifically told" -- Fiasco chuckled -- "'Don't rap too deep on this record.'" He laughed some more. "That was a specific order from the top. 'You're rapping too fast or too slow, or it's too complex.' ... There are consequences and combat that comes from that process and the eventual compromise. With me, though, I'm not writing about someone else. I'm writing about me. This is my life. It's very personal for me. So for somebody to kind of put their fingers in that and play with that, it becomes more damaging." (Chicago Sun-Times)


In other news, lupe's new album drops on march 8th, that's just a couple of days from now, so you can pre-order it.