Hip-Hop Artists Express their Political Side

New York, NY – This year’s election has become crucial to a lot of people and lately Hip-Hop has begun their involvement in the political race expressing their views, as you can hear it in their records. Ever since presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama began his race and finally defeating Senator Hillary Clinton, a lot of different Hip-Hop artists have expressed their thoughts and their support on the situation at hand. They recently left these comments with MTV News.

Diddy, who has expressed his strong political views since 2004 when he launched his own voting campaign, Vote or Die, expressing the Hip-Hop community to vote in that year’s election. This election year, he expressed his thoughts on Obama and pledged his support.

“Today is one of the greatest and proudest moments of my life. Wednesday (June 4) of Obama’s nomination. Not just as a black man, but as an American. Senator Obama becoming the Democratic nominee for president is history in the making and proof that we do live in the greatest country in the world!”

As a matter of fact, Young Jeezy has also had his share of expressed political views as some of his verses in a couple songs have voiced them. He agrees that anyone could do a better job than the president we have in office now. This is what he had to say.

“For real, as bad as we try to ignore it and act like it ain’t got nothing to do with us, it’s real. What [the rest of the country] feared for a long time, a black president, it could possibly happen right now. I know however it comes out, [the election] is gonna affect all of us. It’s like trying to fix a record label that’s bankrupt. These different households, middle class or people on Wall Street waking up bankrupt every day when the stocks ain’t the same. It’s a hard job for any one person to fix the country. It’s a lot of people. I can’t make everybody happy in my family. I know damn well can’t nobody make everybody happy in the country. You gotta deal with too many issues.”

Another Hip-Hop artist that has been in the news of late and has been known to stir up controversy has also added his own thoughts on the presidential election and the country’s problems. Nas expressed his anger and his views on the situation with the Sean Bell case including the black community. He has included a song in reference to Obama to be featured on his next studio LP dubbed ‘Black President,’ produced by Green Lantern. This is what he told MTV News during a recent interview.

“There never been a president to address the slaughter of young black people by this country’s police, when your government’s police are killing one section of people, that’s genocide. There’s never been a president to even acknowledge it. You don’t acknowledge that? That’s a big thing President Obama has to recognize when he gets in office. I’m five presidents in and I ain’t seen nothing happen to stop the police murders on young, black people. Why would I believe in the system? With that being said, I think Barack can cure that disease and help cure the country. Not just in that area with us blacks, but also with all Americans. Women are getting treated like dogs. You know how hard it is for a woman to prove she was raped? The system is warped. They throw young guys who’s starving in jail just trying to survive on the streets. Throw them in jail forever. Young kids, 18 years old, executed in Texas. Yet, child predators get to come home and do it again. I think it’s so much our president can do. [Obama] seems like a human being. I say that because a lot of presidents don’t seem like human beings. They seem like straight-up businessmen who care about nothing but the business. Nah, you gotta care about the people.”

With Nas’ album on the verge of release and the presidential election on the horizon, there are a lot of issues that have yet to be resolved or even touched. This is only beginning our Nation’s first Black President’s road to the White House.

On the real, only Nas could deliver such a powerful record to a nation of non-believers. And if Obama has gained the support and the trust of most of the Hip-Hop community, we will see our first Black President, which honestly I am looking forward to. This is history in the making, now if only 2Pac were alive to see this happen as he once said, “Although it seems heaven sent, we ain’t ready to have a black president.”


Plies Defines ‘Real’ Working with Ne-Yo

New York, NY – It has become evident that Plies is making a major name of himself, not only in the south, but initially worldwide. His debut album was released no longer than a year ago and his craving to get back in the studio has spawned him his most recent sophomore LP. This time around he defines the true meaning of real, however with a more subtle method straying away from his most usual gutter approach. With his single ‘Bust it Baby, Pt. 2,’ he incorporated the sounds of J.R. Rotem and the vocals of Ne-Yo to release his most commercial R&B/Hip-Hop crossover. Now on the eve of the release of his next studio album, he recently spent some time with MTV News to shed some light on the whole Usher ‘Love in this Club,’ situation and his experience working with another talented R&B artist, Ne-Yo.

Just before the release of Usher’s ‘Love in this Club, Pt.2,’ there was actually another version that featured Plies and the vocal talents of Mariah Carey instead of Beyonce. Apparently, as we all can come to a conclusion as we know which version made the radio and which one was cut. Plies had this to say about how that whole situation went down.

“For me, I never allow myself to ever take anything personal in this business,” he explained record. “I know a lot of times [there’s] so much political stuff tied into a decision. It was good [for] me, because I got a call from Usher, and he let me know he was clear about the situation. He loved the verse, he loved the record, but on their end, they ended up going with the version they went with. For Usher to even consider me to be a part of the situation, that was good enough for me.”

Plies omitted additional comments about Ne-Yo, giving him the proper respect as an artist and expresses that it was a blessing to work with him.

“To have the dude that has forced his will on this game, whether it’s from the songwriting side or singing his own #1 records, for me he’s a person I always wanted to work with. He’s just a person I didn’t think I would get a chance to work with this early in my career.”

“He approached me and told me he loved what I was doing musically. It was weird for me, because I probably told him nine of his records I was a true fan of. We agreed that at some point we wanted to work together. To have the opportunity to work with somebody I respected from a distance, see his journey to where he’s currently at, not only was it a great feeling, it’s something that was a part of my life that. I thanked him so much for helping me provide for my family. I know he gets tired of me texting him. I appreciate it. I think it’s important for me to remain as humble as possible and let the good things and bad things help mold me.”

At press time, Plies sophomore LP ‘Definition of Real will be released tomorrow alongside another Southern Hip-Hop artist,Lil Wayne. His second single ‘Please Excuse My Hands’ has already received a good amount of radio rotations. He has already slated the title of yet his next studio album, ‘The Realest,’ due out sometime next year.

Listen to the way Plies is talking, this dude sounds intelligent. I’ve never understood him until now, what is up with that? And another thing, does he really think he can outsell Lil Wayne? He has got to be crazy. We’ll just have to wait until next week to see the outcome of sales for both albums.


T.I. Talks Hollywood Biz

Universal City, California – Regardless of all the legal troubles that has been haunting the ATL native,T.I. is somehow receiving movie offers that he plans to do after his prison sentence is complete. Apparently Hollywood recognized his talents in both ‘ATL’ and ‘American Gangster’ that they ignored his legal problems and offered him three different movie contracts, to add to that, he even secured a reality series with MTV.

During the MTV Movie Awards this past weekend, he had a chance to shed some light on the offers that he’s received and how he’s looking at the whole situation.

“I have a few films that I am in the process of working on, as a producer as well as an actor. Some with Screen Gems, some with New Line, as well as a documentary in the form of a television series with MTV.”

“I’m just looking forward to continuing my success in the film industry. I want to do all kinds of movies. I want to do romantic comedies, action movies, dramas, tons of different things”

He has confirmed that he has signed a three motion picture deal with Screen Gems with the first film to be ‘Bone Deep,’ while the second is entitled ‘Boulevard.’ T.I. described ‘Bone Deep’ as a young hip-hop version of heat, while ‘Boulevard’ will be a dramatic theme which sets him as the lead role. At the time, he stated that he was interested in having Chris Brown join him as a young thief in the film. The third film has yet to be disclosed.

At press time, T.I. is set to begin his year prison sentence sometime next spring, while his next studio album ‘Paper Trail’ has been set for a August 12 release according to his myspace page.

It’s honestly good to see that T.I.P. is high spirits about his movie career regardless of the fact that he’s awaiting a prison sentence. While the release of ‘Paper Trail’ should keep fans at bay for the next several months because we all know he’s not going to be serving the full year.