Tru Life, a.k.a. Roberto Rosado, and his friends allegedly had a fight with some other guys at a Midtown club called Pasha on the night of June 15. They ran into the guys later, and Tru Life and his brother went after them, cops say, stabbing two men and killing one:

About five and a half hours later, the police said, the two brothers were among the group in the lobby at 330 East 26th Street. Several people drew knives, and in the violence that followed - part of which was captured by a surveillance camera - Mr. Guerrero and Mr. Gray were stabbed, the police said. Mr. Guerrero died from injuries to his internal organs and blood loss, according to a complaint filed in Manhattan Criminal Court.

Tru Life is from the Lower East Side, and over the course of his career has had well-publicized beef with Cam'ron's crew and with Mobb Deep, as captured in this documentary:

[Pic via]

The WSJ finds that the comically oversized pendant industry may be in peril:

"A lot of these rappers simply don't have the money for real stuff anymore," says Jason Arasheben, who crafts custom jewelry for wealthy clientele, including Saudi royals and Hollywood movie stars, at his California boutique called Jason of Beverly Hills. "It's to the point where they are wearing imitation jewelry, and that's ridiculous."

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Consider what's at stake here: we would lose the opportunity to idly play "Who has the most idiotic chain?" (Answer: Rick Ross, pictured, with himself as a pendant). Luckily for rappers, there is a template to follow in this situation. Country music has known how to combine flashy style and low cash for decades. Meet the future of hip hop fashion totems:


The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

[WSJ. Related: Since when did the WSJ start hiring reporters who can casually use hip hop slang in stories and sound competent, rather than sounding humorously stiff like, you know, WSJ reporters trying to use hip hop slang in stories? WHAT'S THE WORLD COMING TO YO?]

According to his publicist:

But Vannasing said Burton apparently had a dispute with some people, perhaps at the airport.

"They followed him to the mall because they knew he was coming," Vannasing said. She added that Burton was at the mall with another rapper, D.J. Shabbazz.

He was shot in the head while he stood near the Beverly Center entrance with several other men. The shots sent diners at nearby restaurants scrambling. Police have detained a suspect, but haven't given their version of what happened.

Dolla was rightly described as up and coming. He'd signed to Akon's label, recorded tracks with Lil Wayne, and even modeled for P. Diddy's clothing line. R.I.P.
[LAT]

Dolla - Make A Toast

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

MAN I WANT TO THANK EVERYBODY. THIS IS A REAL HONOR! THIS WHOLE YEAR HAS BEEN SO OVERWHELMINGLY POSITIVE.... FROM THE YEEZY'S TO THE LOUIE VUITTONS.... FROM HEARTLESS BEING THE NUMBER ONE SONG ON RADIO FOR THE FIRST QUATER OF THIS YEAR TO AMAZING BEING THE THEME SONG FOR THE NBA PLAYOFFS. IT MEANS A LOT TO BE ABLE TO GET RESPECT FROM MY CORE AND PEERS EVEN THOUGH EVERYBODY KNOWS I GET A LITTLE CRAZY WITH THE CLOTHES SOMETIMES. I'M ON VACAY RT NOW WITH A WHITE T ON.

IT'S NICE TO READ SOMETHING POSITIVE FOR A CHANGE! PHARRELL PIONEERED WHAT I DO NOW. HE WAS THE ORIGINAL TO BREAK DOWN DOORS BETWEEN "REAL FASHION" AND HIP HOP WORLDS, DOING BEATS FOR NOREAGA AND RUNNING AROUND WITH THE MODEL CHICKS. ROSS GET'S REAL FRESH. TI HAS A GREAT EFFORTLESS SINCE OF STYLE. JAY HAS SET MAD TRENDS AND IS THE SINATRA OF OUR ERA. NOBODY IS AS FRESH AS RALPH LUAREN HIMSELF, ONLY ANDRE 3000 AND BENTLEY GET CLOSE BUT THERE'S STILL WORK TO DO.

I THINK OLD MEN DRESS THE FRESHEST, NOT TRENDY AT ALL BUT SOMETIMES STILL COLORFUL AND INTERESTING. THEY'VE FIGURED OUT WHAT LOOKS GOOD ON THEM AND THEY STICK IT. THE UP HILL BATTLE WE HAVE AS HIP HOP ARTIST IS HIP HOP IS ROOTED IN TRENDS. TRUE STYLE AND TRENDS VERY SELDOMELY MEET. THAT'S WHY WE HAVE A TENDENCY TO WEAR STUFF THAT'S LAUGHABLE 2 YEARS LATER. WHEN I CAN SEE CRAZY STUFF I'VE WORN AND PEOPLE LAUGH AT ME, ALL I CAN DO IS LAUGH WITH YOU AND THINK, I HAD FUN THOUGH. THANKS AGAIN, MR. WEST

Remember now, Kanye: you're supposed to be less of a HUGE DOUCHE these days.
[Kanye's Blog; Pic via. Paragraph breaks inserted for sake of eye health.]

Tom Breihan wrote the popular Status Ain't Hood blog for The Village Voice. Now he writes for Pitchfork:

First things first: This Asher Roth album is going to sell. Sorry, kids. This guy's label has done as good a job of introducing a new artist that any major could be expected to do in 2009. It doesn't matter if the tastemakers like it or not, since the folks in charge have done really masterful work convincing everyone the world that the tastemakers like Roth, that Roth is a serious bottom-up grassroots phenomenon who's risen through the internet ranks and convinced begrudging serious rap higher-ups of his worthiness.

The majors learned a long time ago that any white rapper needs big-time co-signs from famous black dudes before they can cross over to white pop audiences; those co-signs are what makes it OK for the white pop audiences to take the white rapper seriously. Asher doesn't have anything on the level of Dre signing Eminem, but that mixtape with Drama and those YouTube clips of actual rappers half-heartedly endorsing Roth are enough.

Plus he's got a legit party-anthem hit single, one with an incredibly canny sample underlying it. Then there's "Lark on My Go-Kart", which is not actually a good song, but which does have that Seth McFarlane pop culture reference onslaught working for it; it's the sort of song that makes people feel smart for getting the non-jokes. Seth McFarlane is bullshit, but he's remarkably lucrative and popular bullshit.

So I have to admire the beauty of Roth's marketing campaign. In Asher, the majors have this appealing, well adjusted kid who can sort of rap. And they've finally landed someone who knows how to use the internet. Asher's maybe the first pop rapper other than Soulja Boy who knows how to use all this silly web 2.0 bullshit to lend himself the appearance of massive success.

It's as close to a perfect storm has we're going to see anytime soon. My guess is he sells 300K in his first week, at least. If a second single manages to stick, he'll go platinum, easy. If Asleep in the Bread Aisle was actually a good album, he'd sell twice that.

Next up on the mic, the festively-haired Touré who is often seen talking about things on tv, and has written for Rolling Stone and The Daily Beast:

A lot of people feel resentment about the ascension of Asher Roth because they didn't realize that Asher is inevitable. If it wasn't him, it'd be someone else; if it wasn't now it'd be next year.

Many of us are still holding on, deep in the cranium, to that 80s mentality, when hip hop was black and relatively underground. We are as far from that as the Somali pirate is from home. Asher is the face of the majority of hip hop fans. It's inevitable that eventually one of them would get onstage. It seems shocking to see a blonde suburban kid getting buzz so quickly while your favorite grimy black super-wordsmith is still struggling to get heard but the music biz isn't a meritocracy. It's never about who's the best. If it was they'd just raid the southern Baptist churches. There's tons of great singers there. But they need lookers and more they need salespeople. If Britney Spears was on American Idol she wouldn't win because she can't sing (or dance). But Britney can sell a song and a persona and a brand. That's what the music business is about. Asher may not have the skill of Doom but he's intelligently presented an image that's appealing to many hip hop fans who enjoy listening to and looking at someone who reminds them of themselves. There's nothing wrong with that.

It may irritate some hip hop fans that Asher is suburban and doesn't pay homage to black culture and the ghetto (things Eminem does) but suburbia thinks hip hop is theirs and they're not wrong. Asher isn't unique, he's going to be followed by many more like him. Once upon a time rock n roll was filled with black artists. When your grandkids roll around you'll tell them once hip hop was filled with black artists. Hopefully they won't look at you like you're crazy. (By the way, Tom, I'm looking at you like you're crazy for that line "silly web 2.0 bs." Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter aren't silly or bs. This is the way the world connects today and it's not going away soon. But if it's any consolation, my grandfather agrees with you.)

Closing it out is the feared and respected Byron Crawford of XXL and his own eponymous website:

It's obvious Asleep in the Bread Aisle is gonna be a miserable commercial failure. The first sign was the other day, when Asher Roth went on XXL talking about how the label failed to ship enough copies to stores. At first, I thought there might be some truth to this, since these rap labels have been known to fuck things up like that. Then it occurred to me: if the label really thought this album would be a commercial success, why would they only ship 100,000 copies to stores the first week? They probably realized the demand just wasn't there. Maybe they read a post I wrote the other day about how it's obvious people don't really give a shit about Asher Roth, despite all of the support he's received from the TIs. Then it was announced yesterday that Asleep in the Bread Aisle is only expected to sell about 70,000 copies its first week out. Which gives the lie to Roth's claim that the label didn't ship enough copies to stores.

The real question is: why isn't Asleep in the Bread Aisle the commercial success we thought it might be? It could be that the album sucks balls. I know it's gotten a few favorable nods from critics, but those people are obviously on the TIs' payroll. My boy Ian Cohen over at Pitchfork gave it a 2.7, and I'd say that's about accurate. The album was leaked to the Internets a good 10+ days before it hit the streets, on 4/20. Maybe hundreds of thousands of people were planning to cop, like they did that Lil Wayne album last year, but then they heard it and decided to get some weed instead. If the album was even aiight (say, a 5.7 on the P-fork scale), it probably would have sold way better. The streets are hungry for bullshit right now - that new Jadakiss album sold about twice as many copies its first week as Asher Roth is expected to sell, and it's a Jadakiss album. If the album was genuinely worth a shit, we might have a new Eminem on our hands. I think there is still a hunger for a great white hope in hip-hop, even though we're living in an age when race is supposedly no longer relevant.

Maybe you'd like to form your own opinion? Here's the Lark video:

Asher photo via: Emily Sandifer

See the other funny thing Rick Ross is known for is being a guy who took his name from a famous coke dealer and rapping about coke-dealing nonstop, but also having once been a corrections officer. Which he tried to lie about, but then got nailed with the evidence, oh well. Everybody's gotta eat! But instead of just saying "Fuck it, it was a job, and screw 50 Cent and his jokes, just listen to my music," Rick Ross has decided to go the "Canadian Girlfriend" route by just saying really vague, ominous things:

Of his stint on the side of the law, Mr. Ross said, "The truth is more sinister than the obvious," suggesting an undisclosed layer to his time there.

Mmm hmm.

"Right now as we speak, I got two of my best friends that's on the run from two separate cocaine conspiracy indictments," Mr. Ross said. "This is a reality that I can't glorify."

Except on his album, or in media interviews! Man, I sure have become even more of a hater in my old age. Anyhow, fans of Gawker reader 50 Cent agree.
[NYT]

SOUTH PARK MURDERED ME LAST NIGHT AND IT'S PRETTY FUNNY. IT HURTS MY FEELINGS BUT WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM SOUTH PARK! I ACTUALLY HAVE BEEN WORKING ON MY EGO THOUGH. HAVING THE CRAZY EGO IS PLAYED OUT AT THIS POINT IN MY LIFE AND CAREER. I USE TO USE IT TO BUILD UP MY ESTEEM WHEN NOBODY BELIEVED IN ME. NOW THAT PEOPLE DO BELIEVE AND SUPPORT MY MUSIC AND PRODUCTS THE BEST RESPONSE IS THANK YOU INSTEAD OF "I TOLD YOU SO!!!" IT'S COOL TO TALK SHIT WHEN YOU'RE RAPPING BUT NOT IN REAL LIFE. WHEN YOU MEET LITTLE WAYNE IN PERSON HE'S THE NICEST GUY FOR EXAMPLE. I JUST WANNA BE A DOPER PERSON WHICH STARTS WITH ME NOT ALWAYS TELLING PEOPLE HOW DOPE I THINK I AM. I NEED TO JUST GET PAST MYSELF. DROP THE BRAVADO AND JUST MAKE DOPE PRODUCT. EVERYTHING IS NOT THAT SERIOUS. AS LONG AS PEOPLE THINK I ACT LIKE A BITCH THIS TYPE OF SHIT WILL HAPPEN TO ME. I GOT A LONG ROAD AHEAD OF ME TO MAKE PEOPLE BELIEVE I'M NOT ACTUALLY A HUGE DOUCHE BUT I'M UP FOR THE CHALLENGE. I'M SURE THE WRITERS AT SOUTH PARK ARE REALLY NICE PEOPLE IN REAL LIFE. THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME TO DRAW MY CREW. THAT WAS PRETTY FUNNY ALSO!! I'M SURE THERE'S GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN THIS... THAT'S HOW YOU KNOW IT'S ME!

This is, in all sincerity, the greatest thing that Kanye West has ever written. We stand with you on your path to not-bitch-acting, Kanye. If you want to be an intern one day, just let us know. [Kanye's Blog. Pic via]

In January Notorious, the biopic about the life of deceased hip hop legend Biggie Smalls, was released. One of the centerpieces of the movie's soundtrack was "Letter to B.I.G.," an in memoriam-type song by Jadakiss—a rapper that Biggie helped put on, with his group The Lox. Jadakiss told MTV: "it's nothing fabricated on there. It's gotta be all real on there. Everything was personal."

In his first verse, Jadakiss (who's wearing Coogi in the video) says, "In your memory I keep Coogi in my closet." Why? Well, Biggie did love those crazy ass Coogi sweaters. But a more important reason: because, a good source tells us, Coogi paid Jadakiss tens of thousands of dollars to drop their name in the song.

Maybe save the product placement for normal, non-memorial-to-my-deceased-friend songs?

Jasper (pictured at far left, with Kanye and Karl Lagerfeld and the crew) got so mad about anonymous internet commenters calling him and his crew "gay" because of their colorful photos from Fashion Week that he struck back. On his blog! (Post title: "Watch What You Say To Me"):

People were saying that we dress "gay" and that we're "clowns" among other things. And for the record, aint NONE OF US "gay"or a "clown".

Okay, fine. And to illustrate his point he posts the following video, from the gun range.

We pop them thangs too, don't get it twisted....
I'm not on no tough sh!t, I just know how to defend myself. I learned how to shoot guns correctly in my highschool R.O.T.C. class.

He's also prepared to defend Karl Lagerfeld, if it comes to that. [via Animal NY]

Activity Day from ibn jasper on Vimeo.

When he's not arranging flowers with Martha (presumably in an exceedingly clean way), Peter has so many other hobbies! He was a member of the classic hip hop group V.I.P. Party Boys, makers of such hits as "Sugar bRitches.":

Not that there's anything wrong with being a party boy. But there is something wrong with being perhaps the worst aspiring contestant on the White Rapper Show—so bad that Jimmy Kimmel, of all people, feels justified in mocking your flow:

And was that Peter doing his strip tease on Pants Off Dance Off? Yes, I think it was (watch if you really want to).

Good for Peter for doing his thing, I guess. But as for you, Martha: You want beef? It's beef, oh yea! We're onto you and your inferior brand of rapping florists. Come on. You can do better. I hear Redman makes lovely bouquets.

[Thanks to tipster S. You have plenty of time on your hands.]

According to a MediaTakeOut.com snitch claiming to be in the know, 50 put a hefty 7 figure amount in a hedge fund. And the fund, in turn invested some of the money it raised into one of Madoff's funds.

But things could have been worse for the popular rapper. The snitch explained to MediaTakeOut.com, "Luckily [the fund] disn't invest all its money with Madoff, or 50 would be in even worse shape."

Fairly impossible to tell whether this vaguely-sourced, grammatically awkward anonymous snippet is really true. But maybe it will at least spark a feud! Remember, when asked about his online habits, 50 said: "You better look at Perez Hilton, ThisisFifty.com, Concrete Loop, Gawker — you can skip Media Takeout. Because they are 50 Cent haters."

So there you have it—snitches telling haters that 50 lost a trifling sum with Madoff. RESEARCH: he also told Choire Sicha in that interview:

Q: Did you get hurt in the last couple weeks [with the stock-market dive]?

A: Nah. No. Well yeah, a little bit. Everybody took a little bit.

50, email us with the truth, thanks. I know you're reading.

Not really. [The Fader, The Fader]

"Rap icon Doug E. Fresh - best known for his '80s hit "The Show" - has been socked with three foreclosure actions by banks looking to collect more than $3.5 million in unpaid mortgages on a trio of his Harlem homes."

Not to mention another almost half mil in credit card debt and back taxes. Come on, somebody help this man! This is the rapper friendly enough to bring kids urgent heart health messages! The Post says Doug E.'s just about to open a chicken and waffles place in Harlem. So if you love hip hop say OH- YEAAAAAAA, and then go buy $4 million in chicken and waffles. For the love. [NYP]

Step One: John Forte goes to Exeter, makes friends with Carly Simon's kid, then makes friends with Carly Simon.
Step Two: John Forte goes to jail.
Step Three: Carly Simon records one of Orrin Hatch's soulful ballads and then is like "Okay now you owe me, old man."

Hatch - who wrote the country ballad "Are You Lonely Here With Me?" which Simon recorded - quickly got on board.

In 2005, the senator convinced the Justice Department to move Forté from a Pennsylvania prison to one at Fort Dix, NJ, just 25 minutes from his mom's home in New Brunswick.

Hatch also arranged for Forté to have his guitar with him in prison, a perk not afforded many inmates.

USA! Justice! [NYP, pic via]

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