Posted: Wednesday – February 10, 2010

Drake, hip hop’s most hyped lyricist of the moment, will headline his first North American solo tour this spring.

According to his spokesperson, the Grammy Award nominated Lil Wayne-cohort will take fellow Canadian rapper K-OS and New York City based synth-pop band Francis & The Light out on ‘The Away From Home Tour,” starting April 5 in a city to be determined.

This marks the 23-year old’s first concert outing since tearing his ACL (knee ligament) while performing as part of Lil Wayne’s ‘Young Money Presents: America’s Most Wanted’ music festival last July.

He’s since had to endure knee surgery and undergo rehabiitiation and thereby took a brief hiatus from recording his eagerly anticipated debut album, which may finally see the light of day next month.

The upcoming 25-city tour is in tandem with The Campus Consciousness tour, hitting colleges & Universities across the country and promoting green technology. Not only will the former ‘Degrassi’ star’s tour bus use bio-diesel, but he’s also decided to adopt biodegradable and recyclable products on the bus and backstage.

Drake has also vowed to make his tour rider agreement more eco-friendly.

Note-worthy stops are planned for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, as well as Bamboozle.
See below for a complete list of ‘The Away from Home’ tour dates.

‘The Away from Home’ Tour Dates:

4/6 Charleston, IL Eastern Illinois University
4/7 Columbus, OH Private Location
4/9 State College, PA Penn State University
4/10 Boston, MA Private Location
4/11 Lock Haven, PA Private Location
4/14 East Lansing, MI Michigan State University
4/15 Rochester Hills, MI Oakland University
4/16 Morgantown, WV West Virginia University
4/21 Orlando, FL University Central Florida
4/22 Greenville, SC Furman University
4/23 TBA
4/24 New Orleans, LA New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
4/26 Kansas City, MO University of Missouri – Kansas City
4/27 Lexington, KY University of Kentucky
4/29 Lowell, MA University Mass Lowell
4/30 Syracuse, NY Private Location
5/01 Boston, MA Private Location
5/01 East Rutherford, NJ Bamboozle Festival
5/04 Worcester, MA Holy Cross
5/05 Towson, MD Towson University
5/06 Cheney, PA Cheyney University
5/07 Ithaca, NY Private Location
5/08 Plymouth, NH Private Location

Posted: Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Drake doesn’t even have a debut album and he is almost a household name, almost but the 23-year-old rapper is on the porch ringing the bell. All of Drake’s accomplishments in the last year, have come basically from his mixtape “So Far Gone.” Drake even made this years “MTV Hottest MCs In The Game” list. Now the Canadian rapper’s mixtape has made MTV’s mixtape daily “Mixtape of the Year.”

Songs like “Best I Ever Had” and “Successful” began picking up radio airplay, Drake began getting offers from just about every major label. Yet he elected to stay with Lil Wayne’s team and inked with their Young Money label, with distribution by the Universal powerhouse, which quickly released an altered version of the mixtape as an EP — and which has led to Drake receiving two Grammy nominations for “Best I Ever Had,” a song that was originally released on a mixtape! From the Net to the streets to the Grammy red carpet: Hands down, this is our mixtape of the year.

Source

Posted: Thursday – December 10, 2009

“In the lane of “Forever”, but not really. It’s that type of triumphant feel. I’m excited about it.”

After only playing the hook for “Off That” for The Blueprint III, some fans were definitely off the track from Jay-Z’s album as they had expectations of an actual verse from rapper Drake.

As the rapper continues to finish up his debut album Thank Me Later, fans might have a second opportunity to actually hear the two rap back and forth for a track titled “Light Up”.

With the album being pushed back from its February release to March, Drake will have some more time to ensure that he makes that great first impression that everyone is anticipating from him since he created So Far Gone.

Catching up with Rap Up, the Young Money member spoke on his emotions towards the record and waiting on the green light from Jay.

“I actually did the record, with Jay-Z, last night in the studio. It’s crazy. I’m really, really excited about it. I just did it, I hope he likes it.”

The rapper seemed to have a lot of pressure going through his mind as he tried to craft the right record that would suit both artists and create the greatest possible outcome.

“It’s a special record. I woke up, cause at first I was like I don’t know what type of hook I wanted to do and I really wanted to make a rap record.”

With past gems such as “Best I Ever Had” and “Successful” and recent works with Alicia Keys on “Un-Thinkable”, the young sensation clearly has a knack for great music. Unfortunately for Drake, he has set the bar even higher for himself so hopefully he can reach it.

Posted: Saturday – December 5, 2009

Drizzy Drake, Young Money’s resident all-star and now a Grammy nominated rapper, is relinquishing more details on his highly anticipated debut. As previously reported, Drake had the world up in arms waiting for him to release Thank Me Later on Valentine’s Day of 2010. Now unfortunately for stans of Young Money’s Young Angel, that alleged February 14 release date is no more.

In a brief interview with MTV News he told the network that the release date had been changed to March. Remaining skimp on details he shared saying,

“Well I’m making great progress on it. I’m hoping for March now. It’s just pulling everybody together.”

Drakkardanoir also mentioned that he had lineup of people he hoped to work with including the famed soul jazz band featuring vocalist Sade Adu, Sade. Moving back into the standard Hip-Hop references, he dished on upcoming features on the album with Jeezy, Kanye and of course, his brother Wayne.

“I had a wish list for my managers of everybody I wanted involved that stem beyond hip-hop. I’m trying to pull it all together. I’m really trying to work with Sade, Lil Wayne will be on it. Young Jeezy, Jay-Z, Kanye will be doing work on it. It’s in the family.”

If Drizzy really does get that Sade feature, you can officially list that man as my hero.

Be on the lookout for Thank Me Later in March of next year.

Posted: Saturday – December 4, 2009

At the Grammy nomination award show which aired on Wednesday December 2nd, hip-hop was there and represented in a big way. Hosted by LL Cool J himself, the nomination show featured all of the nominations for some of the biggest artists and songs of the year.

Beyonce headlined the event with an astonishing 10 nominations including record of the year, song of the year, and album of the year. Her Hubby Jay-z, as well as Kanye West and the Black Eyed Peas were all nominated for 6. These nominations include categories from Best Rap song of the year to Album of the year. The up and coming artists such as Drake and Kid Cudi, were nominated for 3 apiece both fighting in the category Best Rap Song.

Other artists such as Eminem, T-Pain, Common, Flo Rida, and Mos Def also were involved in the nominations in hopes to adding another Grammy to their wall. The 52nd annual Grammy Award Show, will be on January 31, 2010 at the Staple Center in Los Angeles, and will have some of the biggest names in music performing. Here are some of the categories with the nominations of Hip-hop’s best!

Best Rap Solo Performance

•Best I Ever Had
Drake

•Beautiful
Eminem

•D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune)
Jay-Z

•Day ‘N’ Nite
Kid Cudi

•Casa Bey
Mos Def

Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group

•Too Many Rappers
Beastie Boys & Nas

•Crack A Bottle
Eminem, Dr. Dre & 50 Cent

•Money Goes, Honey Stay
Fabolous & Jay-Z

•Make Her Say
Kid Cudi, Kanye West & Common

•Amazing
Kanye West & Young Jeezy

Best Rap Song

•Best I Ever Had
Drake

•Day ‘N’ Nite
Kid Cudi

•Dead And Gone
T.I Ft Just Timberlake

•D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune)
Jay-Z

•Run This Town
Jay-Z, Rihanna & Kanye West

Best Rap Album

•Universal Mind Control
Common

•Relapse
Eminem

•R.O.O.T.S.
Flo Rida

•The Ecstatic
Mos Def

•The Renaissance
Q-Tip

For More information on the nominees and the categories, go to www.grammy.com

Posted: Sunday – October 11, 2009

T.I. didn’t need to attend the BET Hip-Hop Awards to win two trophies on Saturday.

The rapper, who is locked up in an Arkansas penitentiary on a federal weapons conviction, won the best collaboration award with Rhianna for the song “Live Your Life” and the album of the year award for “Paper Trail.” His fiancee Tameka “Tiny” Cottle accepted his awards at the ceremony in Atlanta and read a letter by the rapper, who began serving a yearlong sentence in late May.

“Although I’m not there with you all, I’m there in spirit,” Cottle quoted the rapper as writing. “My road to redemption is almost over. … Thanks for the support.”

Jay-Z was honored as the “MVP of the Year,” while Drake took home “Rookie of the Year,” and Ice Cube received the “I Am Hip-Hop” icon award.

Ice Cube said he was humbled by the award, and he believes his career as filmmaker could earn him more honors in the future. He helped launch the gangsta rap genre with the group NWA, and he starred in “Barbershop” and “Friday,” which he also co-wrote.

“When you get recognized by your peers for a life of work, you got to be humbled,” the rap veteran said. “I’m honored by this. I have 20 more years of work left in me. I hope (BET) is ready to give out two of these awards.”

Rapper Busta Rhymes presented the award for “DJ of the Year” to DJ AM, the celebrity spinner who died of an accidental drug overdose in August.

Kanye West, meanwhile, couldn’t hijack the stage, because the rapper was a no-show. West had been expected to attend the fourth annual awards show. He fell under scrutiny for interrupting Taylor Swift’s award-winning moment at last month’s MTV Video Music Awards.

Jay-Z took the stage with Young Jeezy to perform “Real as It Gets” and rap group Goodie Mob performed its 1995 song “Cell Therapy.”

The award show will air on Oct. 27.

Source: DailyPress