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Missy Elliott & Timaland releasing new solo albums

One of the great duos in music, producer Timbaland and singer-rapper-producer Missy Elliott, are getting ready to return, albeit with separate solo albums. In an interview with MTV, Timbo has revealed that he and Missy will end their long hiatuses and drop new records in June. "Right now, we're preparing to get both our videos, our first singles, shot kinda at the same time," Tim said. "We want to do it as a movement and spontaneously." Missy's album will be her first since 2005's 'The Cookbook.' In the interim years, she's worked as a songwriter and producer for other artists, and last year, she told People magazine that she'd been diagnosed with Graves' disease, an autoimmune disorder. "I'm 30 pounds lighter because I've been exercising." the MC told People last year. "My thyroi

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Too $hort filming 10 videos for upcoming album

Bay Area rapper Too $hort has announced that he will be featured in 10 new videos from famed filmmaker and documentarian Joslyn Rose Lyons. The video series is directed and produced by Lyons’ company Jog9 Productions and is meant to promote Too $hort’s upcoming album, No Trespassing, due out February 28th on EMI, Lyons’ company has developed quite a resume since releasing her first feature documentary “Soundz of Spirit” (SOS) in 2002. The first in the series is the song “Double Header” featuring Wallpaper. “I wanted to showcase another side of Too $hort. I wanted to explore a more story-driven and cinematic theme to his songs,” Lyons told AllHipHop.com. “I hope these videos will be inspiring, something different from what we might expect to see.” In 200

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Raekwon & La The Darkman heading to Canada on tour

Wu-Tang Clan emcee Raekwon and longtime Wu-Tang affiliate La The Darkman are hitting the road later this month for a cross-country Canadian tour. They'll start up in Whistler on February 20th, make their way down to Victoria and Vancouver and then head east, ending the tour in Quebec City on March 4th. The tour dates can be found below: February 20th Whistler Canada at Garfinkles February 21st Victoria Canada at Club 9one9 February 22nd Vancouver Canada at Fortune Sound Club February 23rd Castlegar Canada at Element February 24th Calgary Canada at Desperados February 25th Edmonton Canada at Chrome Lounge February 26th Regina Canada at Distrikt February 27th Winnipeg Canada at Marquee Event Centre February 28th Thunder Bay Canada at Crocks March 1st Ottawa Canada at Ritual

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Sophomore effort by Pete Rock & CL Smooth is re-released

After the success of 2010's deluxe reissue of Pete Rock & CL Smooth "Mecca and the Soul Brother", Traffic Entertainment is proud to announce the release of Pete Rock and CL Smooth's 1994 classic, "The Main Ingredient" in the same deluxe packaging and expanded content concept. The album never gained the traction as the pairing's full length debut, which followed the 1991 EP, "All Souled Out," and yielded the biggest hit of their con-joined career, "They Reminisce Over You." But "The Main Ingredient" is nonetheless Pete and CL's most critically applauded work, a definitive symbol of the tempered consciousness and roughneck rhythm that defined the era. Pete Rock laid these backdrops in Rockland County, where he moved and built a studio after leaving Mount Vernon in 1993 (the cover shot

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J Dilla honored 6 years after his passing with Dilla Day Detroit

Six years ago today, the late, great J Dilla passed away after losing his battle to Lupus at the age of 32, after he was hospitalized with pneumonia. Dilla produced and remixed tracks for everyone, including A Tribe Called Quest, The Pharcyde, De La Soul, Busta Rhymes, Common, Erykah Badu, D'Angelo, Janet Jackson, The Roots, and his own group, Slum Village. In honor and in celebration of his mark on music, J Dilla will be remembered this Friday (February 10) with a concert at The Fillmore in Detroit. Branded as “Dilla Day Detroit,” the celebration seeks to recognize J Dilla's musical legacy and will feature Busta Rhymes, Jay Electronica, Phife of A Tribe Called Quest, Guilty Simpson, along with Phat Kat, Danny Brown, and the Nick Speed Orchestra. While those are the confirmed

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Chuck D sounds off at DuSable Museum in Chicago

Public Enemy’s legendary front man, Chuck D, unleashed some profound, and enlightening thoughts on a capacity crowd at the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago. As part of Black History Month, the museum facilitated the “Crown Royal Black Salutes Chuck D” event and he promptly ripped through a plethora of today’s hottest sociopolitical issues. Handing the “Fight the Power” rapper the mic was akin to lighting the fuse to a bottle rocket in a crowded café: all anyone could do was look on in astonishment — and wince — at some of the things that jettisoned out of his mouth with rapid fire explosiveness. Even his wife, Dr. Gaye Theresa Johnson, a professor of African American history at the University of California-Santa Barbara, chucked a few spellbinding stat

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