Every wonder why you see and hear the same 20 artists on the rotation on radio & television? No, it’s not because people are calling the radio stations requesting the songs incessantly.  The answer: media-consolidation. 90% of the media is controlled by only 6 companies: GE, Newscorp, Disney, Viacom & Time Warner. Compare that to 1983 when media was owned by 50 companies.  According to FreePress.com, “media consolidation means less diversity in programmingand ownership, fewer voices and viewpoints, less coverage of local issues that matter to communities and less of the unbiased, independent and critical journalism we need to prevent abuses of power.”  Media-consolidation has affected the balance and diversity of today’s music, which is especially evident when it comes to hip hop

Waka Flocka Flame also speaks on his hipster appeal.

XXL magazine has revealed its latest cover, which features Waka Flocka Flame and the tagline “Everybody Loves Waka!”

During his interview for the cover story, the “No Hands” rapper spoke on how his Brick Squad crew is the new version of camps that include Wu-Tang Clan, Cash Money Records and Roc-A-Fella.

“I got a whole label, man. We fire. We the new Wu-Tang, Roc-A-Fella,” he said. “We what these labels are trying to create right now. We the new Cash Money. Squad! Flockaveli was the return of gangsta. I brought gangsta back, man.”

He also spoke on his hipster appeal, stating that his younger brother is the epitome of hipster so that gives him respect for them. “I’m a hipster in my own sense. My little brother’s a hipster a little. Like, he’s a real fuckin’ hipster. Like, a rock-star hipster, so I fuck with ’em. U grew up fuckin’ with ’em. So it don’t matter. I’m with that. I smoke harder than them no matter what. I’m a ‘Flockster.’”

Slaughterhouse also says that it’s possible the album won’t drop on its June 12th release date.

Slaughterhouse has been recording their Shady Records debut welcome to: Our House, releasing on June 12^th. But according to the group, the recording for the album is complete and Eminem is still mixing a few records for the project.

During an interview with MTV News, Royce Da 5’9 said that all the vocals have been knocked out but that a possible album delay could occur. “The album is done. In terms of vocal recording, we’re done. Marshall is still in the process of mixing, we still got a couple of records that we’re missing,” he said. “We’re on pace for June, worst-case scenario, we’re looking at July, but it’s definitely coming, 100 percent.”

Joell Ortiz explained how the album has both upbeat and introspective records, deeming the album “personal.” “It’s a really personal album, but there are records like ‘My Life’  which are celebratory,” he said. “There are records were those core Slaughterhouse fans will get their ‘Ohs and ahs’ like ‘OK, the pen is pushing. It’s themed, but we take you on a ride through this album. Y’all gonna enjoy it.”

It looks like Akinyele has been raking it in with his new Vegas strip club Lollypop’s.

It looks like Queens rapper Akinyele has found second life away from the rap game. According to a recent report from AllHipHop, the “Put It In Your Mouth” rapper has recently opened up a highly successful strip club out in Las Vegas, Nevada.

With his two business partners Cliff Dutton and Jay, Akinyele recently cut the ribbon on his new gentleman’s club Lollypop’s in the heart of Sin City. According to him, the club made a whopping $5 million in one week when it first opened on the weekend of Floyd Mayweather’s fight with Miguel Cotto.

“We decided to officially launch Lollypop’s and align ourselves during the Mayweather vs. Cotto fight weekend and I can proudly say there are now two winners,” said Akinyele. “We’ve been thrilled and amazed to see lines of both men and women still coming at 8 a.m. and this has been every single night, better yet morning I should say, over the past 10 days.”

Akinyele is also apparently utilizing his Hip Hop connections for Lollypop’s. DJ Whoo Kid and Don Cannon have already been spotted spinning records at the club.

by SEAN RYON

Nas and Raekwon count “Verbal Intercourse” and more recently, “Rich and Black” as some of their most memorable collaborations.

But will the day ever come that the lyrical duo will do a joint album together? Raekwon, for one, says it’s on God’s Son.

“I mean, whatever Nas wants, that’s my nigga,” the Chef told XXLMag.com. “As far as an album? We talked about that—Me and Nas sat down like real niggas like, ‘Yo, wassup! We need to do that!’ If everybody want that and me and him be able to sit in a room and business is correct and we both respecting what it is, I’m down.

“So whatever happens in the future, hey, you know what I mean,” he added. “He know how I get down. My clips is loaded. It’ll be a rhyming album, I know that, but whatever. That’s a good friend of mine so, whatever.”

For such a collaborative album could ever come to fruition, though, Raekwon is looking forward to Nas’ 10th studio album, Life Is Good, which is scheduled to hit stores on July 17.

“I support anything he does,” Raekwon said of his fellow New York City rhymeslinger. “He’s a revolutionary such as myself and I look up to him and he looks up to me.  He tells me this like, ‘Yo son, you like one of my only true friends.’ So it feels good to cover that department with a brother. Like a lot of relationships I have with artists, it ain’t just music.  It’s brotherhood, it’s that respect we carry when we see each other and it’s always like that.”

As for his own album, Raekwon hesitated to delve into the specifics, but did mention that’s he’s always cooking up heat in the lab.

“I’m very unpredicatable but at the end of the day I’m working,” Raekwon offered. “Sometimes things change in my life.  It’s like, ‘Hold up that ain’t feel good. That felt good.’ And that’s how I look at anything I do.

“I’ve been in the business for almost 20 years,” he added. “I understand what it means to be a legend in a great way and still be a brand that’s relevant. All I’m trying to do is broaden that, you know what I mean?”—Chanel Clark