News: DMX Pleads Guilty To Attempted Aggravated Assault

Written by Cyrus Langhorne
Rapper Earl "DMX" Simmons has reportedly pleaded "guilty" and accepted a plea deal for attempted assault charges he received earlier this year while incarcerated.

DMX -- who originally pled not guilty -- copped a plea and pled guilty to attempted aggravated assault (a felony) back on May 22 -- after an incident in which he verbally threatened guards at Tent City, Arizona, back in February. The serial law breaker is due back in Maricopa County court for sentencing on Monday. (TMZ)
The rapper's incident reportedly took place while he was in lockdown.
Joe Arpaio says Simmons became upset Sunday after being told he could not have a meal he took from a serving tray. Arpaio says Simmons then threw the tray and its contents at an officer, who wasn't injured. Simmons has been on a bread and water diet as punishment for an earlier jail violation. (Associated Press)
X previously stated his innocence regarding the assault.
"Many of you know me as DMX but right now I am speaking to you as Earl Simmons," he said in a statement. "For the record, I want to state 'I Did Not' physically touch or hit an officer. This is just another attempt to destroy my credibility." (Statement)
Currently on an appearance tour, X recently spoke on returning to hip-hop.
"Just love what you do man," X explained. "Do it for the love of it and you'll get there eventually. You know what I'm saying? That's what it is, man. Gotta keep it one hundred. I've been locked up for a few months, so I ain't really heard [about rock and hip-hop fusing] you know what I'm saying? So I'm waiting to hear it, once I hear it, I'll let you know how I feel about it. I was born ready for this [tour] man. BFW, 'Built For War' that's what we do all day, it's nothing. It's not a motherf*cking game man, this is what we do. It's what we built for, it's how we get down. Real talk. That new [Jadakiss] and Swizz Beatz] joint, you know what I'm saying? 'She's phony, she's fake, she's fake, that's the type of people I hate.' Aigght? I'm on the remix, check that sh*t out son, real talk." (AllAZHipHop)


News: Andre 3000 Co-Signs Today's Hip-Hop, "Nothing Is Wrong W/ Rap At All"

Written by Cyrus Langhorne
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 15:30:00
OutKast 's Andre 3000 recently spoke on the status of hip-hop and dismissed the idea of the genre being negatively impacted by the new wave of emcees.

"Ain't nobody rapping no more, everybody singing," he said in an interview. "I'm just going to be honest with you: I listen to old music. I don't even listen to rap that much, and not in a Kanye West]-I don't listen to rap no more-kind of way, but I listen to what I'm working on and old, old rap...Nothing is wrong with rap at all. And the reason why I say that is because at any given time, you got to love rap because the only thing rap has ever said to people is "we gon' tell how it is." That's the only thing that they've ever said. They didn't say, "We gon' sell a million records." They didn't say, "We gon' get these endorsement deals"- none of that. Rap was always "I'm just gon' tell it like it is...So my message to all the kids doing it is do it [now] because this is the only chance you're going to get to do it...because you going to start getting older and you going to start editing yourself." (Vibe)
Ja Rule previously said hip-hop was in a state of emergency around late April.
"We fighting against other genres," Rule declared in an interview. "We fightin' against motherf*ckin' rock. We fightin' against pop. We fightin' against these other genres of music. We need to be together as a whole and not separating ourselves between West and East and South. I think New York is making a strong comeback right now. I think we doin' our thing, we got Maino, we got Red Cafe. I think New York is making a surgence. I got my acts outta New York, I'm coming with a crazy album right now. But you know as a whole, it's not about New York...it's about hip-hop. We all in this together. So when I think about it, that's really my feelings on the situation." (57th Ave)
Murder Inc. head Irv Gotti recently described the shady business practices of record labels.
"See, the music business is d*ck riders for the better part," Gotti said in an interview. "I understand that it's logic, I accept it but they're d*ck riders. So they want a Dream beat right now or they want a Polow Da Don or whatever like that. They d*ck riders. And I know and I can say that with the utmost confidence because they d*ck rode me for a large time and I wacked 'em in the head. Murder Inc. got all the hits, everyone's calling me. The illest sh*t I ever did was I made someone pay me $50,000 just to get on the phone. I was an a**hole at the highest level. I said, 'Yo listen man, send me $50k and I'll get on the phone, if not f*ck outta here yo,' I was an a**hole at the highest, yo, a quarter, you heard me, $250,000, I ain't stutter,' click. He sent that paper." (MTV)
Big Boi , who previously called out Jive Recordsfor their OutKast delays, recently spoke on making peace with the label.
"The push backs have just really been trying to get the situation together with the record label, and trying to learn a new system," Boi said in an interview. "There are some talks going on right now. I can't really release it right now. Probably within the next week or so, there will be a big announcement coming out and the album will be out this summer, believe it, it's done, it's it in the can and I'm very happy with it. We got to clearing it up. It was just a new system and releasing new music in a new system that hasn't really been apart of our careers. It's been a change but I think we've reached some type of median right now which is going to lead to that big announcement that is going to come up in the next week or so. I'm just very happy about the situation right now. I can't wait to let the world know when it's coming out." (Word of South)