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In their new testimonial series for Noisey, video producer Orson Whales and prolific hip-hop journalist Kris Ex take a deeper look at Pusha T’s upcoming debut album, My Name Is My Name. The first episode, “A Name I Call Myself,” gathers insight from Push-A-Ton himself, as well as The Wire stars Tristan “Mack” Wilds and Anwan “Slim” Glover, to paint a picture of the project beyond the beats and rhymes.

Featuring Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell, Rick Ross, Young Jeezy, Chris Brown and more, My Name Is My Name hits stores and the streets on Oct. 8. Pre-order the album on iTunes now and get “Nosetalgia” as a free download.

My Name is My Name might seem like a rather obvious statement and dubious title for a record, but after checking out the first in a series of video “testimonials” (this one is called “A Name I Call Myself”), the origin becomes infinitely clearer.

Watch episode one after the jump…

He’s got the party anthem with “Get Like Me,” the funky R&B cut with “Rick James” and now Nelly serves up something for the streets with “100K,” featuring 2 Chainz. It’s the latest track off his upcoming album, M.O., which drops September 30. Even if you’re not quite balling like Nelly, you can pre-order M.O. on iTunes now.

Stream “100K” after the jump…

It doesn’t seem that long ago when Lil Wayne was falling on his ass skating, but credit to the guy, he’s put in the time and effort. In fact, Weezy even played coach to Meek Mill while out in Miami recently, teaching him the basics on his very own half pipe. Yeah, this ain’t pretty. Stick to the dirt bikes, Meek.

Watch the video after the jump…

Just 24 hours after debuting Uncle Murda’s new record “Wu Wuu Wuuu,” Funkmaster Flex returns with another premiere from East New York’s finest. With fellow Big Apple-natives Vado and Waka Flocka Flame, Uncle Murda takes us through a visual trip of Brooklyn, Queens, and Harlem in the video supporting his Fugees-sampled single.

Watch “New York City” after the jump….

It’s not often you see a documentary that attacks a subject from two different perspectives, but Rihanna’s “Half Of Me” documentary does just that. Hearing not only from Rihanna and what her fans mean to her, some of her fans also give their opinion on her. In between RiRi’s Diamonds tour, fans give testimonial of how much she inspires them and how her music has empowered them to follow their dreams and make them a reality.

Watch the short “Half Of Me” documentary after the jump….

J. Cole was in Manhattan promoting his involvement with the video game, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, last month, but he got on the phone with Noisey to discuss plenty of topics outside of gaming. Speaking with Ernest Baker, the Roc Nation rapper explained why he still feels like he’s got something to prove, even after out-selling Kanye West’s Yeezus, responded to the criticism that his music is “boring” — taking a blasphemous jab at the hood classic, Soul Plane, in the process — and offered a few words on Kendrick Lamar’s “Control” verse (for real this time).

On out-selling Kanye West:

I don’t wake up every day like, ‘I got a great status in the rap game.’ No, I feel behind. I don’t feel like I’ve done enough. I only get brief moments to appreciate things. I might get a two minute thought of like, ‘Wow, you really did sell more than Kanye. You currently have sold more records than Kanye West’s album, which came out the same day.’ Then I’m back to focusing on what’s next.

Check out more quotes from J. Cole after the jump…

Coming straight outta Chattanooga, Tennessee, Isaiah Rashad is an MC we’ve been keeping tabs on for some time now — and for good reason. First spun by Hot97′s Peter Rosenberg back in June, the budding MC has officially dropped his new single, “Shot U Down,” today. Over a soothing beat, Rashad displays the type of hungry rhymes, compelling flows and even singing ability that’s garnered the interest of one of rap’s strongest crews (sorry, no clues!).

While we keep our eyes peeled for this kid’s next release, check out his July mixtape,Welcome to the Game, to get better acquainted.

Stream “Shot U Down” after the jump…

As announced earlier this week, A$AP Rocky is holding down a regular spot for the second season of Noisey‘s hilarious Back & Forth series. And for the first show, the Harlem rapper sits down with the always colorful (literally and figuratively) RiFF RaFF. The two share a few of their favorite things, including women, lean and hairstyles. Rocky also says he used to question RiFF RaFF’s identity, but came to believe he was authentic. Guess he didn’t read that L.A. Weekly article.

Watch part 1 after the jump…

Kid Cudi’s Cud Life Tour has made headlines for his custom-made spacesuit and extravagant stage set, but that isn’t the only way he’s been wowing fans. On a recent stop, Cudder gave his loyal followers a preview of some brand new material. This may well just be a freestyle or a skit for his live shows, but we do know that Mr. Rager is setting his coordinates on that Man on the Moon 3 album, which is due out 2015 and will hopefully feature old pals Plain Pat and Emile.

Watch the footage after the jump…

(Via Dat New Cudi)

Despite a premature celebration on Twitter, The Weeknd’s Kiss Land did not top theBillboard 200 albums chart this week, but it wasn’t far off. The Toronto crooner’s album debuted at No. 2 with 96,000 first-week copies sold — less than 3,000 behind Keith Urban’s Fuse, which came out on top with a rounded figure of 98,000 sales.

Meanwhile, 2 Chainz’s B.O.A.T.S. II: Me Time landed at No. 3 with more modest first-week sales of 63,000. Last year’s debut, Based on a T.R.U. Story, topped the charts with 147,000 copies shifted. Finally, Janelle Monáe scored her best sales week and first top 10 album after The Electric Lady sold 47,000 units to claim the No. 5 spot.

(Via Billboard)

J. Cole brings us another profound video/short-film in support of his Billboard-topping, gold-certified album, Born Sinner. “Crooked Smile” takes a very human look at the paths of two very different people: Cole, a kid trying to make his way by selling a little drugs, and a DEA agent, who’s assigned to arrest the rapper at his sister’s birthday party. The video ends with the message: “For Aiyana Stanley-Jones. And please consider your war on drugs.”

Purchase Born Sinner on iTunes.

Watch “Crooked Smile” after the jump…

(Via Noisey)

Currently “working around the clock” on her upcoming album, Solange holds fans over with a cute new video off last year’s True EP. Ms. Knowles keeps it all the way retro, sporting shameless ’80s-style outfits and pulling out some cheesy pop moves in a Houston flea market. Also: Bun B has a mean two-step game (jump to 2:23). “Lovers In the Parking Lot” is produced in partnership with The Creators Project, a partnership between Intel and VICE.

Watch “Lovers In The Parking Lot” after the jump…

In the beginning of Grand Theft Auto 4, Niko Bellic was just trying to live a normal life. The first few missions were all about getting set up in America, maybe going on a date, and essentially laying low until everything blew up. It was boring as sin. Within a few minutes of booting up GTA 5 I had gone on a jetski chase and chased down a hijacked yacht on the highway. One supposes that’s just the basic difference between New York and LA.



Grand Theft Auto 5 is out, and one 8 gb installation later, it’s just as huge as I imagined it could be. The scale of the world Rockstar has built is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in a game before. Within a few hours of play I’ve walked through I don’t know how many unique environments that could have practically anchored another game, but just provided one more detail here. I’ve come across a full railyard that may have just been set dressing. I scaled a big fuel container for the hell of it and raced through tunnels that snaked beneath the whole city. Los Santos is gorgeously realized, from sunsets to smog. The developers have taken those staggering panoramas I remember from Red Dead Redemption and applied them to something as dense as an urban landscape, and it’s incredible. Visually, this is the sort of game that makes me wonder why we need next-gen at all.

The three character system (two characters, right now — I haven’t met the third) works surprisingly well. Each character has their own set of missions, though they spend a fair amount of time together. You can switch between them at any time in the open-world section, where you find them doing whatever it is they do on a giving day — get drunk, eat tacos, etc. During missions, the game largely takes over which character you’re controlling at what time. Really, what this does is borrow a tactic that sprawling novels and movies have been doing for a very long time — the multiple points of view not only give the story scope, they give life to the setting by allowing us to see it through different sets of eyes.

The dialog, in a basic way, is excellent — the characters sound like real people talking, albeit in absurd situations, and that’s a feat. The old notion of “satire” by relentless stream of contentless parody is getting a little worn. Yes, Rockstar’s vision of America is like our own but even more violent, cynical and ridiculous. It’s not as interesting as it once was. Rockstar proved some serious writing chops in Red Dead Redemption, and even Max Payne 3, but so far, it feels like they’re falling back on old tricks rather than pushing things forward.

There’s an essential disconnect that GTA has struggled with in GTA 4 — the essentially reticent hero just didn’t stack up with the absurd psychopath the players actually controlled. It feels like we’re going to get to control genuine absurd psychopaths in this one, and that could wind up being terribly uncomfortable as well. With GTA 4, I thought . Saint’s Row dealt with some of this problem by making its world so cartoon-level ridiculous that the story was more fun that horrible. On the other end, Rockstar proved that you can make an open world crime game about something more than anarchy with Red Dead. GTA is committed to a certain kind of realism, for better and for worse.
Luckily, driving down Sunset blvd is enough to make you forget about some of those contradictions and enjoy the obsessively, dangerously detailed world in GTA 5. This game is all about spectacle, and it does that better than I have almost ever seen. At this point, I’m still excited for GTA Online, which promises something closer to pure exploration in the necessarily weird world of online multiplayer.
What does everyone else think?

Just days after his much-talked about My Name Is My Name listening session, we now have the 12-songs that will appear on Pusha T’s debut album. Arriving on October 8, MNIMN is lead by the singles “Pain” featuring Future, “Numbers on the Boards,” “Who I Am” with 2 Chainz and Big Sean, and the Chris Brown-assisted “Sweet Serenade.”

The star-studded cameos continues with Rick Ross (“Hold On”), The-Dream (“40 Acres”), Young Jeezy (“No Regrets”), Kelly Rowland (“Let Me Love You”), Kendrick Lamar (“Nosetalgia”), and Pharrell (“S.N.I.T.C.H.”). Production comes from Kanye West, Swizz Beatz, Pharrell, Joaquin Phoenix, Nottz, Don Cannon, Beewirks, Million $ Mano, and Hudson Mohawke.


Check out the lineup below……

as of 12:01 ET the Weeknd's Kiss Land album was released to the general public. As far as I've heard its a solid album… expect a Full review posted later in the week. Until then enjoy it and XO til' you Overdose!!!…

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Day one of Rock the Bells kicked off on Saturday at San Bernadino’s San Manuel Amphitheater with a flashback to a hip-hop legend in Eazy E, who appeared for a virtual performance alongside his protégés Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Day two on Sunday night, another resurrection was witnessed by hardcore rap fans as Wu-Tang Clan honored the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard.

Appearing in hologram form alongside his son Young Dirty Bastard, the two ran through a medley of “Shame on a Ni**a” and “Shimmy Shimmy Ya.” In an interview with AllHipHop, the man behind bringing both fallen rap legends to life, Chris “Broadway” Romero (co-founder of ThisIs50.com) spoke on the career highlight moment.

“It was amazing. The best moment of my career thus far. To create an emotional reaction with the family was my goal; the crowd going crazy and singing along was the icing on the cake. I saw this moment a decade ago and there were moments yesterday where I couldn’t believe what was happening around me.”

Watch ODB’s return with the Wu-Tang Clan below….

It first began with Tupac Shakur at Coachella in 2012, now another rap pioneer was brought back to life at Rock the Bells 2013. On what would have been his 49th birthday, Eazy-E returned in hologram form at the San Manuel Amphitheater in San Bernardino, California on Saturday night. Known as “The Godfather Of Gangsta Rap,” the leader of N.W.A. appeared alongside his protégés Bone Thugs-N-Harmony for a virtual medley performance of his 90s classics “Real Muthap****kin G’s,” “Straight Outta Compton,” “Boyz N Tha Hood,” and “For tha Love of $.”

Along with Eazy-E, the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard of Wu-Tang Clan will also be tributed by virtual performance during Day 2 of Rock the Bells on Sunday night. Other Day 1 performers included Kendrick Lamar and Black Hippy, Kid Cudi, Common, Big K.R.I.T., Jhené Aiko, A-Trak, Pusha T, and Curren$y.

Catch various footage clips of Eazy-E’s viral return at Rock the Bells 2013 below….

Need I say more??? check it out after the break….

Just hours after Kanye West announced the Yeezus tour with Kendrick Lamar, Big Brother shares his own dates for the newly-announced North American leg of his Magna Carter world tour. Jay Z will get the ball rolling in St. Paul, MN on Nov. 30, making stops in Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, Toronto and New York (on four separate occasions) before wrapping things up in State College, PA on Jan. 31. Tickets go on sale Thursday, September 12th at 10am EST on Live Nation and Ticketmaster.

Check out the tour dates after the jump…