Never shy about expressing himself, the multi-Grammy winner went on an 86-tweet bender in the space of about three hours ending Thursday, according to his verified account on the micro-blogging site.

West wrote about everything from his late mother to his goal of reshaping the American school system, as well as his aspiration as a future design dervish to “pick up where Steve Jobs left off.”

“I just wanted to share what’s been on my mind,” he wrote near the end of his flurry, which received prominent coverage in US entertainment media.

West wrote at length about his new company — named Donda after his mother, who died in 2007 — saying its goal is to “make products and experiences that people want and can afford.”

The firm aims “to help simplify and esthetically improve everything we see hear, touch, taste and feel,” West tweeted.

It also will allow him to “dream of, create, advertise and produce products driven equally by emotional want and utilitarian need.”

West’s messages dropped names like Michael Jackson and director Spike Jonze as well as fellow hip-hop tycoons Jay-Z and Dr Dre.

But his sometimes grammatically-challenged tweets mostly focused on his new company and its potential global impact.

“We need scientist and top world designers to directly affect governments,” he tweeted, adding that he was “assembling a team of architects, graphic designers, directors musicians, producers, AnRs, writers, publicist, social media experts… app guys, managers, car designers,” and others.

“We can collectively effect the world trough design. We need to pick up where steve jobs left off.”

He added: “We would also like to design the MTV awards,” without alluding to the fact that he disrupted its ceremony in 2009 by leaping onstage during an acceptance speech by budding superstar Taylor Swift, and grabbing the mic from her.

West sounded like he was well beyond that embarrassing episode, and is focusing his energies beyond even musical ventures like his multi-million-selling “Late Registration” and “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.”

“What good is fame and prestige if you can’t use it to help people,” he wrote.

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple,” he said, alluding to a famous quote attributed to Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw.

“But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”

source form: yahoo

Five years later, the same trio has amassed the most cash in the past half-decade. Jay-Z leads the pack with $251 million, thanks largely to a bevy of deals including a 10-year, $150 million pact with Live Nation  (for more, see my Jay-Z biography Empire State of Mind). Next up is 50 Cent at $216 million, roughly half that sum coming from the sale of his VitaminWater stake in 2007. Diddy rounds out the top three at $158 million, boosted in recent years by his lucrative Ciroc vodka agreement.

“These particular acts all made a conscious decision to be businessmen,” says Dan Charnas, author of The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop. “They have their artistic careers. But in many ways those careers are somewhat divorced from their trajectories as entrepreneurs and investors.”

One possible exception to that rule: Kanye West, who ranks No. 4 on the list with $100 million. The prolific rapper/superproducer has minimal outside business interests when compared with his colleagues on this list, but his extensive production catalog, steady string of platinum solo albums and rigorous touring schedule have placed him among hip-hop’s elite earners.

Full List: Hip-Hop’s Top 10 Earners Over The Past 5 Years

These earnings estimates encompass pretax earnings from May 2007 to May 2011 for artists whose work is primarily classified as hip-hop or rap. The totals include income from record sales, downloads, films, merchandise sales, endorsements, books and other ventures; management, agent and attorney fees are not deducted. Earnings are calculated once a year and based on data from Pollstar, Nielsen SoundScan, the RIAA and individual record labels, as well as interviews with numerous lawyers, media buyers, managers and many of the artists themselves.

Because our scoring period ended in May, No. 6 Dr. Dre’s $80 million total does not reflect the major payday he received a few months later. In early August, handset maker HTC paid $300 million to buy a 51% stake in Beats By Dr. Dre, the company he and Interscope Records chief Jimmy Iovine cofounded. Each stands to take home about $100 million before taxes this year.

Conspicuously absent from the Cash Kings 2007-2011 list is Bryan “Birdman” Williams. He earned more than enough over the past five years to rank among the top ten—and likely the top five—but we didn’t estimate his earnings for Cash Kings lists until 2011 because we deemed him more executive than rapper (he was included this year because most of his peers now have a similar job description).

Other notable names on the list: No. 8 Snoop Dogg at $73 million and No. 9 Ludacris at $68 million. Once the embodiment of West Coast gangster rap, Snoop revealed a softer side on the silver screen and in his reality-TV show Father Hood; he also boosted his bank account with international tours and a bevy of endorsement deals.

Similarly, Ludacris appeared in two Oscar-winning films and inked endorsement deals with Tag body spray and Trojan Magnum condoms, among others. His latest venture: A deal with spirits producer Birkedal Hartmann to create a cognac called Conjure.

“[They] have a very open view of themselves culturally,” says Charnas. “They don’t want to be the kings of the ‘hood, so to speak. They want to be as big as they can be.”

The same can be said for 50 Cent, whose fortunes have fallen a bit in recent years compared to some of the other names on the list; he earned a relatively low $6 million in 2011. Look for that to change in 2012, with a new album on the horizon—and perhaps more importantly, new products to shill. The Queens-born rapper recently released a headphone line and an energy drink called Street King.

Knowing 50, he’s probably more excited about the latter—part of the reason he’s on this list. When I asked him if he got more amped up over performing or creating new business ventures, he didn’t hesitate before responding.

“Closing a deal,” he said, “is a bigger deal.”

source form: forbes

Linh 3T is one of Vietnam’s most talented hip-hop dancers 

Linh, also known as Linh 3T, was ranked among the top four Asian dancers at the the large event, Redbull BC One 2011, told DTiNews that he pinned hope on a community of professional hip-hop dancers emerging after the recent competition Moscow in November.

Many people say that hip-hop dance has gone down hill since it was first introduced to Vietnam. What do you think about this?

I agree that the quality of hip-hop in Vietnam is declining. The industry has been saturated because of a lack of proper attention to professionalism. I highly appreciate the professionalism of competitions like the “Hanoi Jam All Style Battle”, where dancers have a real chance to compare their skills, which are judged other competent dancers. That’s the reason why I accepted to act as a member of the competition’s jury.

I was on the judge panel for the programme before I attended the Redbull BC One in Russia. The work of a judge is quite difficult. You have to, not only decide the winner, but provide some guidance for the younger dancers to develop their talents.

How has your life changed since you returned to Vietnam from the Redbull BC One 2011?

Since I came back to Vietnam from Russia, I’ve kept my initial goals. But I do have more friends than after the competition.

Many people think that you are the number one b-boy in the Vietnamese hip-hop scene after you were rated among top 16 b-boys in the world. Is that the reason why you left the Bigtoe crew to set up your own crew?

I do not think that I deserve to be ranked at number one. I’d like to send my gratitude to the audience who supported me. I and 20 other friends had plans to set up a new group before attending the competition in Russia. I didn’t leave Bigtoe because I’m “full of myself”.

I decided to set up the S.I.N.E or “Saying Is Not Enough” with the aim of devoting all my effort and ambition to dance and validating it as a form of art. When I’m done dancing myself, I plan to begin training the next generation.

What are your expectations for the Vietnamese hip-hop?

I think that any expectation for the whole community should be based individuals. For myself, I will try to become a role model for young dancers. I hope that this will, at least in part, help contribute to the development of a professional hip-hop community in Vietnam.

source form: dtinews

DJ Mr.35 is a famous Vietnamese DJ for big music and Hip Hop event in Hanoi. Cuong 5ven is a member of Mister Band and an actor in film, “Dance of Passion”, which won Silver Lotus at the 17^th Vietnam Film Festival while Hai 2D is a member of Mister Band. He is the winner of showcase H2 Dance Streetkingz Merinda 2008 and Hiphop in the City 1 + 2, Ringmasterz and works as a choreographer. Antei is a dancing talent from S.I.N.E team.

“I luv Move It 2012” program is for youths who love dancing, especially Hip Hop dancing.

At the program, dancers in Hanoi also had an opportunity to join Hip Hop Dance Competitions: Freestyle Battle 1vs1 and B-boy battle 2vs2. These competitions are activities to start project, “Move it 2012”, launched by the Event and Program Support Department, under the Association of Students in the International Economics University.

The “Move It” project is a Hip Hop Dance competition that drew the participation of famous Vietnamese artists such as: Duy Khoa, Thuy Trang, Thai Thuy Linh, BFB Band, MK, Mr. T, Yanbi. “Move It 2012” this year, to end on April, 2012, is expected to bring a new breath and feeling to dancers and dance lovers.

source form: qdnd

The sharp work was Kyle Abraham’s fascinating “Live!: The Realest MC” by his troupe, Abraham.In.Motion. It examines identity from his perspective as a gay, black, college-educated hip-hop artist. He takes hip-hop on a postmodern journey, combining the loose motions of postmodern dance with tighter hip-hop moves and attitude.

The piece, for four women and three men (Abraham among them), moves between humor and tension. On video, a white woman with a Southern drawl explains how hip-hop is a lifestyle.

A female quartet gets the dancing off to a slow start, but things get interesting when the men gather for a slo-mo trio of barely contained aggression. Toward the end, one of them in a tracksuit with bedazzled stripes, the other in a silver sequined tank top, interpret the same recorded hip-hop dance instructions: one tough, the other deliberately flaming.

Abraham finishes with the same split personality in one body, careening between being an angry, tough, deep-voiced man and a child crying about getting spit on for being gay. You don’t know what to feel — and that’s intriguing.

Kate Weare’s “Garden” has less bite. There are things to like, including the arresting sight of a tree suspended upside down over the stage.

There’s elegantly austere dancing, as well. Two couples lean against, cradle and touch one another; at one point, the women ride on the men’s undulating backs as if they were seahorses.

The problem is there are only stereotypes rather than substance in the relationships onstage. There’s a beautiful 10-minute dance somewhere in “Garden,” but it’s 32 minutes long.

Still, with eight groups, there’s something for everyone. This program runs again Sunday night, and you can catch every program at least once before then.

source form: nypost

“You won’t find anything like this at any school,” said Shawndra Angel, a Hayward resident who battles Interstate 880 traffic weekly to bring her young children to the studio for voice and music lessons.

At first, the Unity Gathers Many Xperiences studio — or UGMX — looks like any Hollywood counterpart. Singers lay tracks with ultrathin microphones while audio engineers fine tune the recordings on glistening monitors. Over on the dance floor, a choreographer with crazy moves puts her charges through a grueling choreography until they almost drop.

But look closer at who’s there and why, and the studio begins to resemble a youth center on a social mission.

Hallie and Charles Angel wrote and recorded their first song there. Titled “I’ve Been Waiting for You,” it’s a short, upbeat number dedicated to their father, who is doing hard time in prison. Hallie is 8. Charles is 6.

“Whenever I come here, I think it’s a miracle,” Hallie said recently at the studio. “I get to sing. I get to play piano. I get to write songs. It’s a whole different world.” Charles, especially, was having a hard time dealing with their father’s absence, getting into fights at school, failing tests and losing interest. Desperate for help, Angel enrolled them in a hip hop studio she had heard about from a corner store owner, and crossed her finger’s they wouldn’t throw Charles out after the first week.

“He was uncontrollable,” said Mike Robinson, the studio’s founder and director. “But about two months in, he started to get it.”

The boy settled down at home and school. As Angel put it, “UGMX is saving my babies!”

That’s not exactly how Robinson planned the business.

Growing up black in Las Vegas and San Jose in the 1980s, he favored Madonna and Ted Nugent and rappers Curtis Blow and Run DMC, threw in Latin sounds for good measure and dreamed of becoming a famous DJ some day.

“My older brother, Johnnie, kept telling me not to give up my day job if I tried,” Robinson said. “He was right.”

Robinson instead built a successful landscape sprinkler business in San Jose before moving into the lucrative telephone card business. But the day jobs eventually didn’t do it for him. Still in his 30s, he traded a six-figure salary to open a risky “artist development company.”

The idea was to train young blacks and other youths for careers in hip hop, a genre that blends rap with R&B and had by then dethroned rock ‘n’ roll for the youth market. At Robinson’s studio, they would study voice, song writing, audio engineering, dance, event promotions, fashion modeling and more. But finding hip hop students wouldn’t be easy. The talent was there, but kids were learning hip hop on their own.

“Most schools don’t teach hip hop,” Robinson said.

So he started hosting music and dance parties for teenagers and young adults in warehouses, where he passed out promotional fliers. The strategy worked, maybe too well. While dozens of students signed up for lessons, the parties began to attract people more interested in making trouble than music. When someone pulled a knife at the last party three years ago, Robinson yanked the power cord.

“That’s when we decided to stop them and concentrate on the positive message of music, building up the studio and live performances,” Robinson said. “This wasn’t ever about gangsta rap. We don’t allow the N-word or the B-word in our studio. We’re about teaching respect, responsibility and community.”

Robinson says the studio averages 300 to 500 youths a month, but the studio basically breaks even. Working-class families can afford only so many $40 voice or $50 choreography sessions, and hardly anyone buys the deluxe package for $800 a month. To stay afloat, Robinson hires professional instructors willing to work for a fraction of their usual fees and he counts on relatives to help manage the studio.

“I’ve worked with lots of professional artists who make a lot of money and behave so badly,” said Diamond Max, an audio engineer who teaches digital mastering. “At this point in my career, I’d rather work with these kids for nothing. This is how I give back to the community.” Early on, the studio caught the attention of the nonprofit African American Community Service Agency in San Jose.

“Basically, we were working with the same kids,” board member Walter Wilson said. “They are the magnet. They’re keeping kids off the streets, out of jail, off drugs and they’re teaching them the values of self-respect and responsibility.”

The studio and agency have become partners. The nonprofit community group serves as fiscal agent when UGMX looks for charitable donations for sending student performers to community events, including the city’s annual Christmas in the Park festival. In exchange, the agency sends youths from its educational and social programs to learn hip hop at the studio.

JD Cuaresma embodies the studio’s professional and social missions as well as any student. He explained how, as a Filipino hip hop fan in a suburban middle school, he was bullied for being a “wannabe” gang member.

“I was on the verge of suicide,” JD said at the studio. “I had to get out.”

Instead of attending a regular high school, he earned a degree from an online school by age 16 and studied song writing, saxophone and piano at UGMX.

He completed 18 original songs in two years and cut a CD at the studio, learning how to engineer the recordings at the same time. Studio manager Johnnie Robinson, Mike’s brother and business partner, said the youngster has enough talent to break into the big time.

That would be his dream, JD said, but for now, “I honestly don’t know where I’d be without this place.”

source form: mercurynews

“Blue Slide Park” holds steady at No. 7 on the Rap Albums chart for the second consecutive week and has only popped out of the top 10 once with a toe-dip into the No. 11 spot on the tally dated Dec. 1

Switching gears to R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, three weeks ago Jay-Z andKanye West’s seemingly unstoppable “Ni**as In Paris” was pushed out of the No. 1 spot after a seven-week reign. Wale’s “Lotus Flower Bomb,” featuring Miguel, crept its way up to steal the spotlight.

Despite losing points this week (down 7% in audience, according to Nielsen BDS), “Lotus Flower Bomb” still has a sizable lead over “Ni**as In Paris,” which sits at No. 2 (and is also losing ground). All but two titles in the top 10 post a decline in chart points, save for Meek Mill’s “You the Boss” at No. 7 and Drake’s “Headlines” at No. 8.

source form: billboard

Listen album “The Baddest  - Toshinobu Kubota”, enjoy high quality music and sharing emotions with friends.

source from: nhacso

Listen album “Here Comes A New Challenger  - Woopy”, enjoy high quality music and sharing emotions with friends.

source from: nhacso

Listen album “The Baddest II  - Toshinobu Kubota”, enjoy high quality music and sharing emotions with friends.

source from: nhacso