Artists Swarm Atlanta for Recent BET Hip-Hop Awards

Atlanta, GA – From one annual award show to another, BET just recorded their infamous Hip-Hop Awards show in Atlanta this past weekend with quite successful attributes. Throughout this past weekend, the City of Atlanta was swarming with heavyweight artists as predominantly 80% of the Hip-Hop industry was probably in the ATL to attend the prestigious event.

The Atlanta Civic Center was packed to capacity as fans and artists filled in the arena for the recording of the biggest award show for the Hip-Hop world. ATL native, the TrapStar, Young Jeezy opened up ceremonies at the show with the surprise attention of the icon Jay-Z joining him on stage. DJ Drama was the house DJ, while Miami’s own DJ Khaled served as the MC. Mike Epps hosted the entire show providing some comic joints and cracking on artists from Lil Mama to Kanye West to Snoop Dogg.

Performances throughout the whole night electrified the crowd as hit singles were being performed left and right. Another ATL native, Gucci Mane, possibly had the most performances of that night as his guest features shined through the whole night. He came out with Mario for the song ‘Break Up,’ then with Plies to perform their mega club hit ‘Wasted.’ He also appeared on stage with Soulja Boy, Shawty Lo, and OJ Da Juiceman for ‘Gucci Bandana.’ He then ended the night performing with Wale on his debit single ‘Pretty Girls.’

Some winners from that night have included:

MVP of the Year

Jay-Z

Rookie of the Year

Drake

DJ of the Year

DJ AM

I Am Hip-Hop Award

Ice Cube

At press time, the fourth annual BET Hip-Hop Awards hosted by Mike Epps will be set to air on October 27.

Keep posted to 24hourhiphop.com for a full review as soon as it airs on BET.

At least BET made up for where MTV messed up when it came to Hip-Hop. They gave Jay-Z MVP of the Year, that’s respectable, all while giving Drake Rookie of the Year. It was even more respectable when Busta paid tribute to another fallen DJ, Roc Raida. All in all, we await the airing of the show on BET.

Alicia Keys Discusses New Album ‘The Element of Freedom’

New York, NY – Alicia Keys has been working quite excessive lately and on some powerful joints at that. We recently heard her on Jay-Z’s ‘Empire State of Mind’ off of ‘The Blueprint 3.’ Her piano skills and her vocal talents harmonized the entire chorus, giving it life and making it a New York anthem.

It the midst of that, she also released her own new single entitled ‘Doesn’t Mean Anything’ leading into the release of her new album ‘The Element of Freedom.’ The single is a powerful ballad with her vocals laid across it. Keys recently released a statement to MTV News about her new album:

“The music is really strong, and the drums are really aggressive, but my voice is vulnerable and delicate eliminating all of the boundaries and all the limitations, so that you can feel your freedom and express your freedom in every way you possibly can, and that’s what I did with this album.”

Sometime last month, MTV briefly spoke with Keys about the single and the elements behind it.

These were her comments:

“The sound of it is very different — it almost feels like you’re flying, it takes you there. It has that piano, heavy-drum feeling. But the song touches you in this way. You dream of having all these things, you dream of going all these places. But what’s the point of doing that, having that, if the one you want to be there isn’t with you?”

She even added comments about the upcoming album and what she plans on incorporating into it:

“There’s a feeling theme and I think somewhere in there, there’s a balance. It’s like one side is strong and one side is vulnerable. So that’s the theme throughout the album. It has this kind of strong, edgy feel. But it’s also intimate and vulnerable and delicate.”

At press time, ‘The Element of Freedom’ has been set to be released on December 1. The video for her latest single has also been set to air on October 16.

Alicia Keys has always been able to release a mega hit album and with piano skills added into the mix, the albums have always catered to many people young and elder. Her 2007 album ‘As I Am’ was a powerful album, hopefully this one will equal or sound better, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Video of Tim Westwood Interviewing Lil Wayne

London, England – Tim Westwood of BBC Radio 1 recently interviewed Lil Wayne while backstage on his tour bus in London inquiring current events that people were curious to know about. The interesting part of the video was towards the end when Westwood went into MTV’s list of the Hottest MCs of 2009. It seems as though Wayne was so busy on tour that he forgot to check the list, he asked Westwood who was number 1 since he came in at number 2, Westwood answered Jay and Wayne was okay with that, but actually thought Drake was going to be number 1.

Here is the Video Interview: