50 Cent believes that every time he puts out an album negros want to see his downfall, particularly his rap colleagues. And although he insists his latest album Before I Self Destruct isn’t different from any of his previous albums, however the immense pressure that comes with releasing an album makes him feel like Britney Spears. Guess he might as well pull out a razor and start shaving. He tells MTV,

“Well, the title itself is a representation of the cycle of success from an artist perspective,” he said. “I feel like the general public turns you into a favorite by consuming your material. We all start from an underdog space. And after they consume it, they begin to resent you for not bearing the same pressures. Because you’re in this financial space where they know you’re not under the same circumstances they are. … This is why they like nothing more than to see Britney Spears when she’s shaving her head and swinging at the cameras. We should be covering her more now. They covered it during the confusion, but the intensity, that’s less than when she made the comeback.”

This one’s for all our DMV readers, if you’ve ever wanted to have a nice evening filled with great live music then Zanzibar is where you need to be on Friday, November 20^th! Come out and experience “A Night of African Hip-Hop & Soul” with Grammy Nominee Wayna and DC’s very own Tabi Bonney.

Who: “A Night of African Hip-Hop & Soul” with Wayna & Tabi Bonney

Where: 700 Waterfront Street SW

Washington, DC

When: November 20, 2009 @ 8 p.m. *Doors open @ 6 p.m.*

To purchase tickets in advance, visit www.circle360entertainment.com. For more information on the event or about table reservations call 630-709-8536.

Complex: 50’s been baiting Jay-Z recently. As someone who’s had issues with both of them, how do you feel about him going after Jay?

“Oh yeah, I already did that Jay-Z thing. 50’s just doing what I’m doing. Nobody went at Jay, I went at Jay. Now everybody wants to get at Jay, not saying anything about Beanie Sigel, that’s personal and I stay out of that. He’s just a man and he’s got all the right in the world, but I feel like I did something that people have been wanting to do, but everybody is scared because Jay-Z is so lyrically inclined to cut your throat and your career in half that nobody wanted to do it. But me? I just don’t give a fuck sometimes.”

Complex: What do you think that the result of that battle would be?

” Jay-Z will fuck 50 up in a battle! It would be so fast and over with. 50 is funny, but Jay is witty. Jay-Z is not to be toyed with. If he fuckin’ responds, if he feels like you’re really pissing him off and he responds, he’s gonna fuck you up! He would fuck me up, I’m just glad he didn’t fuckin’ respond, so I didn’t have to go dig in my fuckin’ bag and try to fuck him up. I definitely think that Jay-Z didn’t come at me like he came at any other rappers because I definitely would have been more disrespectful and once you start a beef with me you better be ready to go the whole motherfuckin’ 12 rounds because I will try to chew your fuckin’ ear off like Mike Tyson. I’ll do it and I think he knew that—I’m disrespectful. So Jay, he did the right thing and just kinda let it die down and I let it die down ’cause it wasn’t anything really. It was fuckin’ fun and I really admire Jay’s career. I just really don’t care too much for the man himself.”

The Game already knows…nobody wants it with Hov. So, 50 Cent needs to stay in his lane ’cause he’s never gonna get a response from Jay. Jay-Z been off that!

Word is Rihanna is becoming quite a diva…especially when it involves her having to wait! The Bajan beauty has been in London promoting her new album, Rated R and apparently went straight into b*tch mode when her driver picked her up three minutes late. A snitch reveals,

“She was with a massive entourage and one was on the phone to the driver, asking where he was. Suddenly Rihanna started shouting in the face of this guy, saying: ‘Where the f*** is my car?’ After another minute, she squawked, ‘I mean it guys, you’ve now got 30 seconds to get me my car or someone is losing their employment. I f***ing mean it, 10 seconds and I get nasty’.”

According to the snitch, the driver arrived a few minutes later and was so shook that his ass almost drove the wrong way down the street.

In related news, in a recent interview with ATL’s The Bert Show on Q100 Rihanna admitted that despite her beatdown drama with ex-boo Chris Brown, she does miss him at times and still listens to his music.

When asked if she misses Chris Brown:

“Um…sometimes. Actually yes! Uh..there are a lot of reminders. Like a lot of hotel rooms, like places that we’ve been to together. Um…music, there are different things that come up that are just reminders of your ex. I’m sure you know what that feels like.”

When asked if she listens to Chris’ music:

“When it comes on on the radio, I don’t snob or turn it off. I just listen. You know? I like his music. She adds, “I’ve gotten over it. Um…but there’s definitely constant reminders. And a lot of it listening to the radio and the songs coming on. Songs that were our favorite songs are his songs.”

Yesterday, we reported that Rihanna and 90210 actor Tristan Wilds are supposedly seeing each other after being spotted getting cozy at her house party this past weekend. According to Rihanna, it’s just a rumor and nothing more. She laughed off the false story–claiming she doesn’t even have his number.

CLICK HERE for full interview!

Check out Chi-Town rapper Kid Sister’s new video for her single “Right Hand Hi” off her newly released album UltraViolet. I absolutely love this song and I think Kid Sister is soooo DOPE! Don’t you agree?

ON DECK or OFF DECK?!

Word is Janet Jackson is desperately trying to revive her music career. As you may remember, Janet dropped Island Records last year after they failed to promote her album Discipline and then she decided to take matters into her own hands by managing herself. But, according to the New York Daily News, the singer has released a new greatest hits compilation titled Number Ones after secretly signing a new contract last month with A&M Records, which happens to be the first label she signed with at age 16. And word is A&M executive Jimmy Lovine is making sure that Janet comes out on top with her next album expected to hit store shelves in 2010, by recruiting top producer Rodney Jerkins to crank out some hits for the songstress. A snitch tells NY Daily News,

“Jimmy has given the mandate to make this Janet record a success. He believes that he has the right team in place to finally take Janet back to the top of the music charts. It’s a top priority for the label.”

Hope everything works out for Janet.

Listen to Rihanna give an in-depth track by track preview of her new album Rated R. Here’s an excerpt of what she had to say about tracks “Hard” and “Stupid in Love”.

“‘Hard’ is lyrically–lyrically it’s very different from anything I’ve ever done. It’s very cocky. Um…it’s a lot of bragging Uh, on both my part and Young Jeezy’s part, but that’s the fun in the song. It’s like ‘I’m so hard’. I love it, I love performing it. As cocky as it is, it’s one of the least serious records on the album so it’s fun.”

“‘Stupid In Love’ is the first song that was written on my album. Actually Ne-Yo wrote it a couple days before the Grammy’s this year, so when we heard it was just crazy how it was like a premonition and the lyrics just made complete sense. It’s really about being blinded by love and coming to terms with that and the reality of  the state of your relationship and just saying ‘This is not what I stand for. I don’t want to do this anymore. Eventhough I still love you, this relationship is stupid’.”

Check out Rated R x Nokia’s live concert this past Monday in London.

]]> http://str8nyc.com/2009/11/18/rihanna-talks-rated-r-x-nokia-concert-full-video/feed/ 0 http://str8nyc.com/2009/11/18/john-mayer-wants-the-world-to-give-kanye-a-damn-break/ http://str8nyc.com/2009/11/18/john-mayer-wants-the-world-to-give-kanye-a-damn-break/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:21:15 +0000 J'More http://str8nyc.com/?p=28547 JOHN MAYER WANTS THE WORLD TO “GIVE KANYE A DAMN BREAK…”

Looks like Kanye’s got a friend in John Mayer or least someone who sympathizes with him. Unlike most people, John realizes that the backlash ‘Ye received after ruining Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards was a bit too much– I agree! He tells Access Hollywood,

“If you just woke up now and you looked at the backlash on Kanye you’d think that he actually firebombed the stage. It’s the MTV Video Music Awards, not the G8 summit. Kanye West got in more trouble than the guy who yelled, ‘You lie!’ to the president. [He] got like a two-day slap on the wrist and Kanye West – his entire career is in escrow because he jumped on stage at the Video Music Awards.”

John has a valid point, it’s like Kanye killed somebody. The media didn’t really make a big deal when Lil PaPa MaMa hopped on stage during Jay-Z and Alicia’s set. Why is that?! For one, that type of behavior should be expected ’cause it’s Kanye. Dude is known for just saying crazy sh*t, from his Bush “Doesn’t like black people” rant to his child-like antics at award shows. Secondly, ‘Ye was spotted drinking a bottle of Hennessey before the show even started…so we can really blame it on the ah-ah ah-ah ah-al-co-hol!