If anyone’s ever doubted the work we’ve put in, consider this the “I told you so” they all deserve. Stephanie Wang, writer for the Tampa Bay Times, has graciously given us a wonderful article about the I Care About Me movement we’ve been working so hard on. Delving deep into the words of our young ambassadors, as well as the main objective of the organization; the article provides an awesome way of reaching those audiences who we’ve yet to hit in order to further our message to the masses. Check out the article in its entirety here, and feel free to pass it along to whomever would enjoy hearing about the positive things our crew is spreading around. Thank you all for your support!!!!

http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/article1211155.ece

Don’t be surprised to see Raheem Morris driving on I-75 in a U-Haul truck folks, as the Bucs’ coach of three years was fired yesterday, after leading the Buccaneers to another unsuccessful season which ended in a staggering 10 straight losing streak.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Glazer family for the opportunity they gave me to be the Head Coach of the Buccaneers,” Morris said in a statement his agent provided to ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter. “I was honored and blessed to have spent the majority of my coaching career with the same (class) organization. I grew up with the Bucs and I was fortunate enough to be part of a Super Bowl victory there.”

The city, apparently, is not hurting at all by this decision, as many people to to Twitter and Facebook expressing their relief over the removal of Morris with high hopes that a better, more mature coach will replace him. His age was purported to be a large factor in the Buc’s failure, not being able to give the young players the correct mentorship required, unlike Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, whose age has not faltered against the behemoth team.

So will the Bucs finally see some sunlight next season? We can only hope so, maybe ESPN will even care about our games again. Dammit man

Hip Hop, like political boundaries, has always drawn out clear lines in which artists are patriotically aligned too, whether it’s the East coast, West coast, South, Mid-West , (and supposedly North.) It’s interesting to note though, that the height of the boundaries didn’t take completely shape until the mid-west finally came into play as the fourth and final coast around the mid to late-90’s when Chicago hip-hop received help from Cleveland and eventually St. Louis. Now briefly fast forward fifteen years and take a good look at those boundaries again…. They’re almost gone. This is thanks to artists who broke out of these coastal cages and reached out to artists of other coasts in order to blend the best of each coast. Outkast made music with Raekwon. Nas recorded a fire track with Scarface. TI can record a track with Big K.R.I.T and make a remix to Watch the Throne, (another example,) and execute both just as flawlessly. Now you have crews like Slaughterhouse that have three coasts represented, and a fourth coast is brought into play with Yelawolf being signed with them under the Shady umbrella. The BET cypher proved that the NY cat didn’t have to be the most lyrical one; and the down south rapper wasn’t spitting at two miles per hour. It was all just one unit of styles that meshed because the individuals worked well together, not because of where they were from.

So why can’t these politicians learn from hip hop and make an attempt to blur these political boundaries that they so seemingly need to destroy others over. Biggie and Pac aren’t the US and the Middle East; they’re the individual soldiers and civilians who are forced to give their lives every day for a war they never had any part in creating, just upholding because it was they’re duty.

The most beautiful part of Hip Hop is the true freedom associated with it. The radio doesn’t play what you like? Shut it off and plug your iPod in – problem solved. The internet has given equal opportunity for all artists and gives the people the chance to tune out whoever they consider bullshit and focus on those they prefer. Wouldn’t it be nice to do this for our government? If we don’t want you, we should be able to shut you off. If I don’t want you using my taxes to pay for a war I don’t want part in, I’m cranking up the volume on this Pusha T mixtape on you and driving off. The Hip Hop fan is a direct influence on this “government” of urban music. If only our voices were heard this well in politics huh?
If everyone in every government sat back and realized the major changes that have occurred in hip hop throughout these wonderful 30+ years, they could learn a thing or two. Rap beefs are rare occasion; we’d rather hear awesome collabs than a diss track. If only wars were treated as such… but in the end what do I know? Fuck it…

When Irv Gotti was on RapFix Live with Sway not too long ago, he was granted the floor with an opportunity to air out all of his gripes with the music industry he’s had a significant part in. After discussing his issues with Def Jam’s lack of a president and troubles with his former label Murder Inc., Irv shifted his attention to the way our music is changing. During his rant, he makes a hilarious remark about how artists like Jay-Z are liable to make a record sampling Martin Solveig’s “Hello.” Despite the studio laughter, however, Irv kept a completely straight face to prove that it’s actually not funny at all. Hip Hop, in his opinion, is diminishing in favor of a more pop, electro sounding type of music. Is he wrong? Latest albums from Hip Hops most prolific figures like Jay-Z and Kanye as well as newcomers like J. Cole have featured dubstep heavy beats that would make anyone in the club whip out a fresh pair of glowsticks. In fact, even our dance culture has taken to incorporating 80’s b-boy style pop n’ locks over dubstep and electronic beats.
It’s also pretty interesting to note that when Nas claimed that Hip Hop was dead back in 2006, Hip Hop had already been brewing a new style of rapper, known as the backpack/hipster rapper, who brought lyrics back into an ad-lib ladened genre but also incorporated style from rock and 80’s retro culture. Through its development we’ve seen rappers such as Lupe Fiasco, Charles Hamilton, Mickey Factz, and others who threw away the boom bap and 808 heavy beats for guitar synths and techno beats in a much more artistic form of their self expression and mission to display their uniqueness to the Hip Hop genre.
So was hipster rap actually the rebirth of Hip Hop after the original died out according to Nas? Or was this new style just the start of a transformation into a brand new genre that is what Irv Gotti is warning us about? Only time will tell for sure, but we can all speculate. What do you think?

Recently, Hip Hop hermit Jay Electronica hit the tweets with a slew of messages announcing a new song he would be releasing which would change the game and bring him back to the light in a style similar to his 2009 modern classic “Exhibit C.” For 12 hours, Jay Elec would tweets out small messages detailing what exactly was going down in an unknown studio somewhere in the New York City area. Appearances by the Mobb Deep duo and Roc Nation engineer Young Guru kept the internet on it’s toes as to what new song what would released.

After a small eternity, the track was finally released;

As many of you are already aware, Jay Electronica is the 2nd signee to Jay-Z’s label Roc Nation. His first artist, the lyrical monster J Cole, recently released his debut album “Cole World: The Sideline Story” which garnered an impressive 215,000 sales amid a slew of less lyrically inclined artists. We’ve also seen the newly crown King of the West Coast Kendrick Lamar spit rhymes of deep thought and emotion and how he’s also gained a large following. Now comes to bat the next rap swordsman who is promising to bring the “real rap” back. So, I have to ask, although its already almost 2 years in; is this new decade promising to bring back the real rhymers, and not those who are more defined by their ad-libs than their actual lines? Assuming Jay Electronica manages to gain the attention of the same crowd Cole won over, his success should only be inevitable, seeing as this is the very same man who 2 years prior was considered the 2nd Nas and the 3rd Rakim. He’s already been given co-signs from some of the greatest to ever do it including; LL Cool J, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Bun B, Jay-Z, Nas, and more. If he does come through, will this spark others to follow suit?

Yes that’s right, we’ve got Cole World: The Sideline Story, and after extensive listens and re-listens, I’m going to tell you why you should go cop the homie J. Cole’s debut album. With 19 tracks spanning topics from women, struggles, hope, the good life, and more; this piece of work definitely lived up to what we expected it to be. By this point, most people who were hardcore fans like myself had given up on Cole due to the release of a few less than great singles and what seemed to be his shift from MC to mainstream puppet. This album will also silence those people, as Cole’s armor piercing lyrics are as tough as ever. The entire project was formulated as a “This is what I can do” style, incorporated multiple styles and a variety of features in order to let the world know that J. Cole wants everyone’s respect, whether under or above ground.

The intro begins with a clip of what sounds like J Cole telling his friends the story of his getting signed, from there we get sent into the first real song, Dollar and a Dream 3, which is just as good, if not better, than the previous 2 versions. He continues to tell you why he’s better than you, and by the end of the song, you would be wise to bow down if you didn’t initially agree.

The interlude tells a hilariously ironic story about how our homie was pulled over and thrown in jail just seconds after finding out that he was going to be signed by Jay-Z. He spends what he refers to as “The easiest night in jail.” The interlude’s sample of “The World is a Place” continues on into the next track “Sideline Story,” which ended becoming my personal favorite track.

The production on the album exceeded my expectations. If you know me then you know that a J. Cole production is not something I’d run to click on, but none of the songs had sub-par production, even with him in charge of the vast majority of production work.

Cole World: The Sideline Story drops September 27th and can be pre-ordered on iTunes here. Make sure you check it out and even if you do cop the leak, support the new generation of rappers and shell out the couple bucks. In the words of Cole himself, “This food for thought costs the same as two #3′s.”

Understanding the concept of fulfilling the fan’s needs are something that is lacked in hip-hop these days. Despite the fact that many artists have once graced magazine covers and the tops of chart, there seems to be a sort of “limbo” they enter in which the proper hype for an album isn’t dropped, and the necessary attention for a successful album becomes unattainable. Album push backs, bad single choices, and negative media attention can all further contribute to this. So after all is said and done, what should they do?

Young Jeezy is a prime example of this. His latest album Thug Motivation 103: Hustlerz Ambition, which was originally slated for a release almost 2 years ago, has yet to hit the streets, (or nets.) With the fans getting restless, and pressure mounting, Jeezy decided to feed the world with two mixtapes, the single “Shake Life,” and most recently, the final track list. Despite attempting to let us know that he is still confident, the lack thereof is more than evident. Jeezy is struggling. It’s not an easy feeling to rile up the masses only to continually let them down, especially with many turning a cold shoulder to him. Details over the delays aren’t known, so whether this is Jeezy’s doing or his label Def Jam is completely unbeknownst to us.

If it were truly the fault of Def Jam, however; Young Jeezy would have let the world know about his label issues. So one can only assume that it is a 50/50 at fault decision. As of lately, a new date of 01/03/12 has been spotted around Twitter and Facebook, perhaps marking a new release date, but by now, no one really cares. Why Jeezy won’t just release the album to poor sales and immediately get to work on a new album is a mystery to us. Rather than just falling and getting back up, the Snowman is holding on to every ledge possible to avoid a slip and fall. It’s almost pitiful to watch as we all know that it’s just not going to happen. Will TM 103 become another Detox? Let’s just wait and see.

Yepp, you betta believe it! These amazing kicks were made in honor of the famous Tampa district known as Ybor City, where in the late 19th century many Spanish, Cuban, and Italian immigrants moved into the city and worked in cigar factories, which became a staple of this great place. If you live in the area and are planning on copping of pair of these babies, you better run to the SPOT, as they have an exclusive 100 pairs that come in a special edition box with custom insoles. You better hurry though, because although they’re not dropping until 11 A.M tomorrow, many are already there;

Even renown hiphop head Combat Jack had something to say about em;
“The Cigar City’s are ideal for fall! The tobacco brown colorway, accented with a cigar leaf textured leather, maroon swoosh, and mustard detailing visually blends together perfectly. The best feature is on the side panel area where the outer material can be torn off to give the effects of a burnt cigar.”

With a price tag of $150, you better believe those things won’t be there for too long, so RUN DAMMIT!!!!

Female pants? What part of overcoming oppression required us to put on spandex and play it off as fashionable? How big-headed do you have to be to pretend that you can do this and expect us to still think of you as great? Did you think that getting Lauren London pregnant solidified you as a real man? #C’monGuy get outta here with that. Please buy some Levi’s immediately and never pull something like this ever again.

Yepp yepp, despite not having half the buzz he did in the previous installment. Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter IV is still the total package, a solid album with a few good singles and a great ensemble that reaches beyond his Young Money crew.

Going H.A.M straight from the intro, Wayne lets the world know why he’s still no relinquishing the arguable title of G.O.A.T. Unlike other rappers who serve time, Weezy never lets anything slow his hustle down. You’d think he was allowed to record in a prison cell and must have a microphone installed in his bathroom the way he consistently keeps dropping fire. His work ethic is something to be envied; if half of the rap industry worked as hard as him, hip-hop would be much greater than it is right now.

This is by no means an a**-kissing review though, and its becoming apparent that you guys like to let Wayne get away with murder sometimes. No ones judging his lyricism, but when I heard, “Stunna, I got em, I’m back on them bitches/ All about my riches, my name should be Richard”…. I had to pause the track and shake my head for a thorough minute.

Production on the album was completely top notch. Weezy is one of a handful of rappers who for some reason are the only ones capable of grasping the fact that all you need is a dope beat over dope raps to be successful. I don’t know what the rest of the industry is thinking. For this album, Lil Wayne gets assistance from heavyweights such as Bangladesh, Detail, T-Minus, Noah “40″ Shebib, Polow da Don, Jim Jonsin, Kane Beatz, Boi-1da, Willy Will, StreetRunner, and Cool & Dre.

Features on this album were dope. Cory Gunz did his thing. Tech N9ne damn near stole the song for himself, only to have Nas (yes, Nas) show up and spit pure hellfire over the beat. Andre 3000 even spits a verse that seemed like he was 80% his old self again. Drake, Rick Ross, John Legend, and others also lent a helping hand in making the album much more well rounded…. until someone showed up and almost destroyed the whole album. Yes folks, I’m talking about Shyne.

Our favorite Belizean Jew single-handedly ruined what was a dope song and made me wonder what Wayne had put into his Sprite that morning before letting him spit bars of unintelligible struggle into a microphone.

One thing I notice about Wayne is his constant attempt to branch out into other genres. We already saw him auto-tune a club-pop track with “Lollipop” a while back, which he did a great job on. Then we saw him bomb at rap with his album, “Rebirth” in which he failed to recognize that rock isn’t a fad like everything else he does. Rock needs more than just a random interest in order to execute well. On this album he attempts the Acoustic Soul type with his song “How to Love” another song that although popular, I think he couldn’t do well.

Overall, this album is the ish. I’ve had it for about a week now but for those of you simpletons, it’s officially available today. Make sure to cop the deluxe version too, nobody wants to see your regular version guy. So pull that debit card out and enjoy. I’m Out!!