RapCity A.M. News Round Up: Jay-Z Talks ‘The Throne’ and Hip-Hop Culture

August 15th, 2011

Common is releasing an autobiography entitled, ‘One Day It’s All Make Sense’ on September 13^th. Here’s the description of the book,

In One Day It’ll All Make Sense, Common holds nothing back. He tells what it was like for a boy with big dreams growing up on the South Side of Chicago. He reveals how he almost quit rapping after his first album, Can I Borrow a Dollar?, sold only two thousand copies. He recounts his rise to stardom, giving a behind-the-scenes look into the recording studios, concerts, movie sets, and after-parties of a hip-hop celebrity and movie star. He reflects on his controversial invitation to perform at the White House, a story that grabbed international headlines. And he talks about the challenges of balancing fame, love, and fatherhood.

Sounds interesting, preorder it here.

Despite Jay-Z and Kanye’s album capturing our undivided attention for the last couple weeks, Rolling Stone has named Eminem the “Kind of Hip Hop”. Other rappers named were Nicki Minaj, Gucci Mane, Drake, Big Boi, Kid Cudi and more. Read more at Rolling Stones.

Jay-Z talked with 99 Jamz’s Lorenzo Thomas about ‘Watch The Throne’ album title and protecting hip hop culture. As he explains hip-hip’s influence on society he says, “It’s just protecting the music and the culture. It’s people that’s in the forefront of the music. Watch the Throne, you protect it. You just watch how popular music shift, and just how Hip Hop basically replaced rock and roll as the youth music. The same thing can happen to Hip Hop. It can be replaced by other forms of music. So we making sure that we put the effort into making the best product so we can contend with all this other music, with all the dance music that’s dominating the charts right now and indie Music that’s dominating the festivals.” Listen to more of the interview here.

Tags: common, eminem, jay-z, Kanye West