1. He once held a record in the Guinness Book of World Records.

It’s no secret Busta raps at excessive speeds. I mean really, how many times did you have to listen to his verse on “Look At Me Now” to catch the first three lines of his verse? In 2000, Busta Rhymes was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for having said the most syllables in one second. The title belonged to voice-over actor, John Moschitta, previously. A little known rapper from Chicago stole the title back from the New York MC a few years later.

2. His rap name comes from a former football player.

When Rhymes began rapping, he went along with the trend of hip-hop. Everybody who was anybody had “Ski” in their rap moniker. Busta Rhymes was no different. His first rap name was Chilly-O-Ski. Soon after giving himself that name, he and plenty of other people decided it was corny. Chuck D of Public Enemy rechristened him Busta Rhymes after the former Minnesota Viking, George “Buster” Rhymes. Could you imagine saying, “Yo, did you hear Chilly-O-Ski’s new song? That’s dope, son!” No? Us either.

3. He’s been featured on more than 300 songs.

Remixes have become the norm in hip-hop. When a hot song drops, we sit and speculate who is going to be on the remix. More often than not, Busta is on the remix. Not only subjected to remixes, most of Rhymes’ biggest hits are tracks where he breezes in, drops a hot 16, and bounces. Case and point, The Pussycat Dolls’ first single, “Don’t Cha” got spins. However, when Busta hopped on it, the track became a Top 5 hit on the Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles chart in 2005. His collaborators range from people like house music sensation, Tiesto, to DMX. His wild energy and preciise delivery are a couple of reasons he lands on everyone’s track.

4. Busta Rhymes has only had one album debut at number one.

Out of the eight discs he has released, five have gone platinum. Out of the five that have gone platinum, none opened at number one. 2006′s The Big Bang is Busta’s only disc to sit atop the album heap for at least a week. Ironically, The Big Bang is one of his lesser selling projects. In spite of hits like “Touch It” and “I Love My Chick,” it’s only sold 613,000 copies after opening week sales of 209,000 copies. That means one third of total sales of this album came from the first week. Yikes!

5. He left Leaders of the New School before getting their record deal.

Busta hit the scene as part of the rap group, Leaders of the New School. If you remember, the group ended on the set of Yo! MTV Raps. Many don’t know Busta and Leaders of the New School broke up and got back together before they got their deal. In an interview with VladTV, Rhymes recounted the tale of getting kicked out for not giving Dinco D and Charlie Brown a ride. “Me and Leaders of the New  School weren’t getting along from before the first album. When you hear “Too Much On My Mind,” I don’t have a verse on it. They started recording while I was on the outs with the group and the person who wanted to sign Leaders of the New School didn’t want to sign us if it wasn’t the same members he saw perform months earlier. They asked me to come back and I agreed, but I had a few stipulations. The main one was that they had to let me use two of my solo songs on the album. So I did “Feminine Fatt” and “Show Me A Hero” by myself because of that.”

6. He was once a clothing designer.

Everyone knows Busta Rhymes can rap and act, but what they scratched their heads about was if he knew anything about designing clothes. Rhymes proved he had a little bit of knowledge when he debuted his clothing line, Bushi, in the late 90s. Like most start up businesses, profit was damn near invisible for the first few years. As the profits continued to find their way to the rapper’s pockets at a snail’s pace, he became increasingly bored with the venture. Rhymes decided to cut his losses and close up shop. He donated the leftover merchandise to local charities and went back to being a rapper full time.

7. Getting a record deal was the reason for growing his dreads.

Since entering the rap world in 1989, Busta has been seen with his trademark dreadlocks. Many attributed his locks to his Jamaican heritage. They would be wrong. The actual reason is far less cultural. When he got his record deal, he decided he wasn’t going top comb or cut his hair because he didn’t have to anymore. He hacked his locks off in 2005 when he left J Records to join Dr. Dre’s Aftermath stable. He said cutting his hair was symbolic of a new beginning at a new label.

8. Busta Rhymes is the Susan Lucci of rap music.

Daytime soap actress, Susan Lucci, is famous for having been nominated for an Emmy 18 times since 1978 and only winning once in 1999. When it comes to rap, Busta is in the same boat. Despite having some of the most creative videos of the 90s, Busta Rhymes has never won a MTV Video Music Award. He’s been nominated 15 times. He is second to Britney Spears in shut outs. She was shut out of 17 nominations until she went home with three trophies in 2008. The Video Music Awards isn’t the only place Busta has been left out. With nine nominations, the Grammys have never recognized Rhymes for his work. This year might be different, with “Look At Me Now” being such a huge record, it’s bound to get nominated in the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration category. He has a pretty good shot at winning that one.

9. He would’ve rather been a member of A Tribe Called Quest.

As mentioned earlier, the relationship between Busta Rhymes and the other members of Leaders of the New School was tumultuous. They fought over everything. Busta’s increasing popularity as a solo act was a big cause for arguments. Rhymes was getting so much attention as a solo act because he was featured on a handful of A Tribe Called Quest records without the other Leaders of the New School members. Busta gave an interview where he stated, “I always wanted to be in Tribe. I would always leave Leaders of the New School after a beef and call Q-Tip to find out what studio they were at. I have so many cameos on Tribe records without Leaders of the New School because Tribe always embraced me when I was going through my frustrations with Leaders of the New School. Tribe always considered me family.”

10. Sean Connery isn’t a fan of Busta’s lateness.

Oscar winning actor, Sean Connery, is notorious for being extremely punctual. When shooting the film, Finding Forrester,  Busta arrived on set two minutes late and was greeted by a late slip from the Scottish actor. Considering Sean Connery also served as one of the film’s producers, Rhymes couldn’t get too beside himself otherwise he would’ve been out of a job. The rapper did like 2pac when he got shot five times, he took the slip and smiled.

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Beyoncé is rumored to have called Gaga “tacky” after her appearance at this year’s Grammy Awards, where she entered the ceremony inside of an oversized egg. Gaga reportedly thinks that Beyoncé isn’t talented since she doesn’t write her own songs nor does she play any instruments.

“Lady Gaga doesn’t see Beyonce as an artist – she doesn’t play instruments, she doesn’t write her songs,” an insider tells MediaTakeout. “[In Lady Gaga's eyes] Beyonce’s just an empty shell… [Lady Gaga] would like fans to know that she’s a real musician and Beyonce is a dancer that has a nice voice.”

Both Gaga and Beyoncé have new albums coming out soon, and Gaga and her record label want to be sure that Gaga comes out on top.  Interscope recently paid for an ad on Twitter that shows up if  you search for “Beyoncé” on the social networking site. The ad reads “Like @Beyonce’s new song? Listen to the original song she samples, @MajorLazer’s #PonDeFloor” and links to the Major Lazer song on iTunes.

This wouldn’t be odd at all if Interscope had anything to do with Beyoncé’s new project, or if they were even the label that released the Major Lazer song. However, Interscope isn’t involved with either project — Beyoncé is signed to Columbia, and Major Lazer is with the independent label Downtown Records.

We reached out to Interscope to ask about why they were pushing the Major Lazer record even though they had no involvement in it and received no response.

Shots fired??

It looks that way to us!

RELATED: Beyoncé “Girls (Who Run The World)” [NEW MUSIC]

RELATED: Beyoncé Takes On Childhood Obesity In “Move Your Body” Music Video

Snoop revealed on Twitter that he and the Game are working on new music with the good Doc.

“What can be more gangsta than dis?”, Snoop Dogg wrote in the caption of his Twitpic. “We n the studio right now!!! get ready for the west coast takeover. this is how the west was one!!!”

How exactly will they execute this “West Coast takeover”? Well, there are no specifics on what music for whose album is getting blessed for this studio session but Snoop’s next album Malice in Wonderland comes out in December. Maybe they’re getting some work done for the eternally delayed Detox?

Or maybe it’s for the Game’s R.E.D. Album?  With 50 Cent essentially having one foot out of the door at Interscope Records, the Game resigned directly to Jimmy Iovine’s juggernaut label after being banished to sister imprint Geffen following his much maligned fall out from G-Unit. The controversial Compton rapper is taking over the spot of his nemesis 50 Cent as the label’s new centerpiece under Eminem and Dr. Dre.

The Game hasn’t worked with Dr. Dre in three years but if this picture is any indication the upcoming his follow up to last year’s L.A.X. should be a monster.

Follow me at Twitter.com/Youngpharoh

BN:

50 Cent wants to release an album with Eminem, it has been revealed.

The ‘Candy Shop’ rapper would release an LP with the ‘Lose Yourself’ star “in a heartbeat” – but only if they each wrote half the LP and merged the singles intermittently onto the CD, rather than singing and writing together.

He said: “Unless we was doing something where half of it was his and half of it was mine. And conceptually, maybe if he came up with the first six songs and I built the last six songs and we just featured on each other’s records, you know what I’d mean? We’d do that in a heartbeat.”

However, the 34-year-old hip hop star says their already-hectic work schedules might stop them from collaborating.

VIA SOHH:

Grammy-winning rapper Eminem has reportedly sold the most albums of the past ten years, outselling other rappers such as Jay-Z and Nelly.

Slim Shady’s combined totals also out-sell the No. 2 holders, The Beatles‘ 27,591,000.

1. , 31,127,000. First charted: 1999. Eminem, 36, is the top male artist and the top , and the #2 rap artist. Nelly’s 2000 debut, Country Grammar, is his best-selling album. It has sold 8,454,000 copies. 10. Jay-Z, 19,379,000. First charted: 1996. Jay-Z, 39, is the #3 rap artist of the decade. 2003′s The Black Album is his best-selling album of this decade. It has sold 3,338,000 copies. Jay-Z was the #152 album-selling act of the ’90s. (Yahoo News)

His marketing strategy behind the comeback album Relapse was recently released to the media.

While Eminem hasn’t relied exclusively on Twitter to get the word out, the effort has produced some impressive results. According to Compete, Eminem.com reached 113,868 unique visitors during April, while the most popular of his tweets — which linked to TheRelapse.com on May 7 — reached at least 41,704 people within just one week, according to an analysis of data provided to AdAge by Tweetreach. And data provided by Native Digital, the start-up behind music-buzz tracker We Are Hunted, suggest that Eminem was the most-talked-about artist on Twitter last week, the week before the album’s release. (AdAge)

Check out our Urban Daily ‘Noisemakers’ gallery below:

VIA DX:

It took less than 24 hours since the leak of Eminem’s highly anticipated comeback effort Relapse to generate some controversy. Nick Cannon has taken issue with Eminem’s “Bagpipes From Baghdad,” which takes shots at Cannon and his wife, singer Mariah Carey.

In a new blog posting, Cannon responds to the track saying, “I’m taking full action on you Eminem. I don’t know why no one has stood up to your bitch ass yet. But I guess it’s going to take a corny, wack rapping, boy toy from Nickelodeon to set you straight. And trust, I am going to be relentless. Even though I got a lot of other obligations and occupations, you are my new full time job ‘homey’!”

Listen to “Bagpipes From Baghdad” below:

Cannon also brought up one controversial moment in Eminem’s past, referencing the freestyle in which Eminem disparaged black women.

“I asked myself should I go find this Bitch and just whoop his little ass? Let’s not forget about Eminem’s amateur mixtape rants of calling African Americans Nigger and how he hates “Black Bitches”. How did we let him get away with that in the first place?! He is a natural born racist in disguise. Someone tell this coward that he finally barked up the wrong tree.”

You can read the rest of his rant by clicking here!

Does Nick Cannon have to get all up in that arse?! What do YOU think?! Share your thoughts!

OnSmash had it first, but Eminem’s “3 A.M.” video is out [click here to read]. If you don’t have Cinemax, you can check out this crazy video here at The Urban Daily.

What do YOU think of this video? Share your thoughts in the comments section!

After many years and many hits, Snoop Dogg and long time recording company Interscope/Geffen Records have parted ways, according to Chronic Vacation.

As of press time, no details were available on the split

Founded by Jimmy Iovine in 1990, Snoop Dogg immediately became one of the major players at the label through his affiliation with Death Row Records. The first major release from the pairing was The Chronic from Dr. Dre, whose lead single, the Snoop Dogg assisted “Ain’t Nothin But A G Thang” helped propel the album to multi-platinum status.

Snoop Dogg’s own debut album, 1993′s Doggystyle followed in The Chronic’s footsteps and was certified quadruple-platinum by the RIAA.

In 1998, Snoop Dogg parted ways with Death Row/Interscope and Snoop spent the ensuing years with Master P’s No Limit Records and later hit the independent circuit, releasing mix tapes and albums with long time collaborators, Tha Dogg Pound.

The new millennium saw the Dogg return to Interscope under Geffen Records where he released three albums.

There is no word on what Snoop’s next move will be, but reliable sources say the split will lead to bigger and better things for the Dogg Father.

SOURCE: HipHopDX

Hip-Hop website OnSmash.com acquired, what’s being billed as the official tracklist to 50 Cent’s Before I Self Destruct album.

As it’s projected, the effort, speculated to perhaps be 50 Cent’s final with Interscope Records, features four tracks – as well as a vocal guest appearance from Dr. Dre. The album also includes a song discussed to MTV months ago, “Norman Bates Motel,” with Dre on the boards and Eminem rhyming alongside his most successful Shady Records artist.

Mobb Deep producer Havoc, Eminem, Jake One and Scott Storch also contribute production. Sha Money XL returns as a producer, with several of the acts he manages. Pop sensations Scott Storch and J.R. Rotem also contribute tracks.

Guests are limited to G-Unit, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Nate Dogg and newcomer Dave Young.

01. Intro
02. Came To Win (Produced by Red Spyda)
03. Get Up (Produced by Scott Storch)
04. Need Your Hate (Produced by Dr. Dre)
05. Here For A Reason (feat. Nate Dogg) (Produced by Tha Bizness)
06. Good To Be A Gangsta (Produced by Ty Fyffe & Sha Money XL)
07. Don’t Mess With 50 (Produced by Don Cannon)
08. Trust In Me (Produced by J.R. Rotem)
09. Norman Bates Motel (feat. Eminem) (Produced by Dr. Dre)
10. Bitch I’m Sorry (Produced by Needlz)
11. All For You (Produced by Hi-Tek)
12. No Time To Lose (feat. Swizz Beatz) (Produced by The Individuals)
13. Lonely At The Top (Produced by Play-N-Skillz)
14. You Need Us (feat. Lloyd Banks & Tony Yayo) (Produced by DJ Khalil)
15. Different Path (feat. Dave Young) (Produced by Havoc)
16. I Get It In (Produced by Dr.Dre)
17. Somebody Forgive Me (Produced by Jake One)
18. My Reign (Produced by Eminem)
19. Ready For War (feat. Dr.Dre) (Produced by Dr. Dre)

Check out “I Get It In” (Produced by Dr. Dre) below:

At the young age of 18, Soulja Boy has received many opportunities to do things just years he could only dream of. With his new online animated series, Soulja Boy Tell’em, SB can check ‘starring in his own cartoon’ off the list.

“I always wanted to do a cartoon since I was younger,” Soulja Boy explained in a press statement. Expressing his commitment to his viewers, he added, “I am excited because I think that the subject matter will give my fans what they would expect from me.”

Brian Washington, marketing director of Interscope Records, views this series as a new form of media that only Soulja Boy could pull off. “Soulja Boy is one of the most charismatic artists of his generation. His ability to speak to his fans and, just as importantly, the way in which he does so, makes him such an innovator in how music and entertainment is consumed and discovered today.”

The premise of the animated web series focuses on Soulja Boy enjoying his new found love for Hip Hop with his friends, but it comes at the expense of missing high school. Attempting to keep them in line is the real-life character of Alfonso Ribiero (Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s “Carlton”).

Soulja Boy Tell’em: The Animated Series, which starts today, can be seen on SouljaBoyTellEm.com.

With this year’s Christmas season landing dead-smack in the middle of one of the worst recessions in decades, there are a few Hip Hop heads who may not be able to swing the $349.95 price tag on the original Beats by Dr. Dre headphones. As such, Dre has partnered with Monster and Interscope/Geffen A&M Chairman Jimmy Iovine for a specially priced edition of his signature headphones.

While talking to Billboard about all business ventures under the Aftermath/Interscope umbrella, Iovine gushed, “Dr. Dre’s headphones are doing really, really, really well. It’s a fabulous product. We’re building a lot there.”

The new Beats by Dr. Dre Tour in-ear headphones will be available in limited quantities at a pre-launch retail price of $149.95 by mid-December 2008 at the Apple Store, Amazon.com and beatsbydre.com.

For those in a tax bracket that allows for splurging, the original Beats by Dr. Dre headphones have been released in limited edition Cleveland Cavaliers and Ron Herman colorways, for a retail price of $699. All three versions are equipped with noise-canceling technology and the line’s signature bass. As Eminem notes on the recently leaked track “Number One,” “Beats quake like Waco/just keep the bass low/speakers away from your face though.”

“Our Ron Herman boutiques are the quintessential environment where one can experience the unification of fashion, music and culture,” noted Ron Herman. “Beats By Dr. Dre are more than just headphones, they are a fashion accessory.”

SOURCE: HipHopDX