On Sept. 26, David Banner joined fellow MC Master P, music industry executives and scholars to discuss offensive language in hip-hop music before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Reading from a statement, the 33-year-old Mississippi rapper/producer tenaciously defended hip-hop from its detractors.

During his testimony, Banner said, “If you fix our communities, we’ll fix our lyrics.” (more…)

  Rating:
  Review Date: September 18, 2007
  Website: Kanye West Website
  Label: Roc-A-Fella Records

Kanye West “Graduation” Album Review
My apologies for posting the featured review late this week, but I had to let Kanye West’s “Graduation” marinate for a couple days. In that time, one of Kanye’s verses from Everything I Am kept jumping out at me: (more…)

After a five-year absence from the U.S. pop album chart, the hip-hop troupe UGK scored its first No. 1 on Wednesday with “Underground Kingz.”

The Jive Records release sold 160,000 copies in the week ended August 12, according to Nielsen SoundScan, the best sales week ever for UGK and its members, Bun B and Pimp C. UGK’s previous best was 2001’s “Dirty Money,” which opened at No. 18 with 98,000. (more…)

Veteran Chicago rapper Common must be feeling special: He has the first No. 1 album of his career with “Finding Forever,” which sold 155,000 copies in its first week in stores, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

It’s the seventh studio album from Common (whose given name is Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr.) and it finds him back in tandem with fellow Chicagoan Kanye West as the primary producer. Common also has been making noise as an actor, and in November, he will share the screen with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe in the Ridley Scott film “American Gangster.” (more…)