September 24, 2009 (New York, NY) –After months, if not years of Internet speculation and rumor, the man many call The God MC’s management and label officially confirm that Rakim Allah will release his long awaited new album The Seventh Seal on November 17, 2009. Guest artists include Busta Rhymes, Jadakiss, Maino, Tracey Horton, IQ, Styles P, and others, including Destiny Griffin, Rakim’s own daughter. The artist’s Ra Records shares the imprint in a joint venture with Tuscan Villa and SMC Recordings and is distributed through Fontana/Universal Music Group.
Since its release, the album’s lead single “Holy Are You” has won praise from critics and fans alike. USA Today states, “The God MC previews his long-awaited The Seventh Seal with a lyrically adept reminder of how he earned the name,” with Billboard proclaiming “Rakim is in top form, richly merging self-mythologizing reflections on his legacy with religious imagery.”
His first full album of new material in almost a decade, The Seventh Seal is Rakim’s contemporary observation of the Hip-Hop culture he helped define. While staying loyal to his New York roots, Rakim has created a body of work that encompasses the very best of regional, underground and mainstream styles that are reformed and delivered through his intricate lyricism and the seemingly effortless flow for which he is revered. He has enlisted a slew of production talent including Needlz, Nottz, Jake One, Nick Wiz, Ty Fiffe and more on the album’s well-rounded tracks.
The artist states, “The Seventh Seal is my own revelation…my way of taking the best of what Hip-Hop has to offer, what we as a culture and a community have to offer, putting my stamp on it and leading us forward while constantly respecting what we’ve already accomplished. When you’ve been blessed with a career like mine, you develop a deep relationship with the music, and that love is recognized by the true heads that share it with you. You’ll see us keep building as we break through each Seal…showing the best of what I can do in many forms, bringing the energy and having fun, but first I’m laying that foundation and give my longtime fans the conscious fire they expect.”
Props: 2dopeboyz
Sean Combs covered both BlackBook and Vs’ upcoming issues. You can view more pictures from the issue of Vs here. I’ve included one on the jump, and that’s all I will include. Props to Splash.
“I’m hungry, I’m grounded,” X told MTV News from the red carpet. “I’ve always been grounded. But I’m hungrier. There’s so much bullsh– out there. I’m not gonna get into the names. You know who you are. There’s so much bullsh– out there. The streets won’t let me forget that they need me and I need them.”
Props: MTV
Continuing her promo tour overseas, Keri Hilson stopped by at BBC Radio 1′s Live Lounge to preform records off her In A Perfect World album, along with a cover of Mr. Hudson’s “Supernova.” Why this song is already being covered is totally beyond me.
Here is John Public and Nah Right’s NahMean man-on-the-street opinion series. In this segment they tackle a sensitive topic: God and Hip-Hop.
John explains:
God and Hip-Hop have always had a complicated relationship. We wanted to explore first whether fans of the music wanted to talk about God, but also if the two can successfully co-exist in a mainstream capacity. What we found was unexpected: people WANTED to talk about it and there were a wide-range of opinions on the topic from both artists and fans that raised the question of if the industry and pop culture are truly in touch with what people on the corner and in their homes are talking about. This episode features Skyzoo, stic.man of Dead Prez and a good number of opinionated music consumers talking back and revealing some surprisingly honest perspectives on a topic considered taboo.
We did not post the first two episodes from the series, so pt. 1 and 2 are on the jump.
While the teacher expressed his love and respect for the Def Jam brand, he also fingered them as the reason for hip-hop’s demise.
“Def Jam is the dopest label in hip-hop, in the culture of hip-hop,” he said. “There really would be no hip-hop as we know it today if it wasn’t for Def Jam. But you don’t get that respect without also being the label that single-handedly destroyed hip-hop.” – XXL
Nice women. Bad video. Pricele$$ drops hopefully never October 27th.
Fat Joe speaks on his upcoming Album, J.O.S.E. 2 and the importance of people Tweeting about it. He also talks about starting out wack and why he doesn’t do rap for the money, but for the love. Jose – 2 drops October 6th with features from Akon, Wezzy, T-Pain, Ron Browz, and Swiss Beats. Exclusive Drama Queen footage!
In the 6th installment of his Wizdom of the Week series, GFK explains what you do when your two girl friends bump heads. Ghostdini: Wizard of Poetry, in stores and online next Tuesday (September 29th).
