Hip Hop Hoop News

Derrick Rose Situation and NCAA: This week the University of Memphis was stripped of the school's 38-win season and its Final Four appearance in 2008 because former point guard Derrick's Rose allegedly had someone else take his SAT's for him after he reportedly was unable to get a satisfactory score on his ACT's in three prior attempts. Memphis also has to return the money the basketball team generated during its run in the NCAA tournament that season. Let's be clear about something up front: Rose was not named in the report. However, people around the country are filling in the blanks as he's the only player who seems to match the description in the report. If you're like me, you're probably wondering how exactly the NCAA strips a team of experiences that have already been lived. Sure they can eliminate numbers in an official record book, but it's not like anyone can erase the game's that were played from existence. That's especially true since Memphis participated in the NCAA championship game in 2008.
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Jay-Z's Blueprint 3 Final Tracklisting & Production Revealed: The effort will see Jay-Z return to collaboration vocally and musically with Kanye West, Timbaland, The Neptunes and No I.D. The album also features newcomers Al Shux, J. Cole and Luke Steele. The tracklisting is as follows:
View Tracklisting at Hiphopdx.com

Sources: Iverson Close to Deal With Bobcats:
Dime Magazine's web site reports that Allen Iverson and the Bobcats already have agreed to terms on a contract that will be signed within a week.
I'm told by a great source that's not true. However, that doesn't mean Iverson won't be a Bobcat. It sounds like there's a good chance that will happen. My source says definitively that Iverson's first choice is to play for Larry Brown again in Charlotte, and that there have been serious discussions about making that happen.
However, there are complications. As Brown told me and ESPN.com's Chris Sheridan, the team's payroll and roster both stand in the way. With the Bobcats inching toward the luxury-tax threshold, it's problematic to make Iverson a fair offer, even in a depressed economy. Minutes are another issue: With Raja Bell, D.J. Augustin and restricted free agent Raymond Felton on the roster, where would Brown find sufficient playing time for a nine-time All-Star who averaged nearly 42 minutes his first 12 NBA seasons?
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Slaughterhouse: What the Games Been Missin'

It's a rarity to see a group of young rappers with similar drive and focus set out to achieve a common goal. So you can understand my doubts when I first heard the mention of Slaughterhouse. Sure, it was a good idea in theory; four MCs at pretty much the same stage in their careers uniting to make an album to appease the people. But usually these things don't go as planned. How often do we hear these dudes throw out the "we should do an album together"when talking about a contemporary hip hop artist. I remained dubious when I learned the quartet who formed the group----Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, Royce the 5'9', Crooked I. I never really listened to Joe Budden (mood music mixtapes weren't bad though), I had only heard a couple verses from Joell Ortiz, I listened to some old Royce when he was runnin with Em, but Crooked I is the only one I could truly say that I bumped. So although I was intrigued by the idea, I wasn't blown away about it.

Shout out to my boy Dub who put me on the the group. The first track I heard by the group was Onslaught, and I was very impressed. Each MC came with a different flavor and more than exceeded my expectations. I already knew that Crooked I was a murderer when it came to assailing the mic, but I was in the dark on the skills of the the remaining members. While I listened to each member leave their imprint, it dawned on me that they would all come to the table with their best material. There would be no way any one of these cats would want to be seen as the weakest link. Sure, you could choose your favorite verse, but you couldn't deny that they all came with it; Onslaught was a befitting title indeed and so was Slaughterhouse. So after several months of features and tracks being released by the group, I started to anticipate the release.

This group was for real and they built even more of a following while preforming on the Rock The Bells Tour. The self titled Slaughterhouse album is one of the best pure hip hop album's I've heard in quite sometime. They didn't follow the prototypical album formula: a commercial hit, a song for the club, the street banga and let's not for get the song or two for the ladies. What they did do was go all in on each track and while maintaining a topic for every song. Most rappers these days don't make any attempt to grow as artist and just put tracks on albums without any depth. So if you're looking for watered down run of the mill hip hop, don't buy this album. Because with this group, you get four artists who show that they still care about what they do and still posses passion for the music.

The Question on The Answer

Let's take a second and reflect on something absolutely ridiculous occurring in the NBA right now, Allen Iverson is not on an NBA team. This is an outrageous, tragic, and extremely disrespectful to one of the best players that has ever picked up a rock. This Legend, two years removed from being the third leading scorer in the NBA, ninth in assists, and fourth in steals is now suddenly abhorred while names like like cancerous, poisonous and chemistry killer have been casted at him like stones. We're talking about one of the fifty greatest of all time who is abruptly "washed up". How did this happen? Let's take a look at the trade between Denver and Detroit that's threatening to push Iverson into early retirement.

For some reason Iverson became the scapegoat for Detroit's downfall and Denver's rise to prosperity in the mighty West. Unfortunately these media know it alls and Iverson detractors fail to recognize all the factors that contributed to the fortune and failure of these two teams. What they are doing is coming to conclusions based on different fallacies to place the blame on Iverson. It's assumed that Denver improved as a team solely based on the Billups/Iverson trade, yet there are other influences that can not be ignored. Marcus Camby was traded and replaced by a healthy Nene. This was extremely important, Nene had gone through two injury plagued season before returning to the line up at 100%. He was a much more active player on offense than Camby and a more than capable post defender while Camby was more of an weak side shot blocker and of the ball defender. Another factor was that the West was a lot less competitive than the previous season. Denver one 50 games in probably the toughest conference in history and drew the Lakers, the best team in the league, and was over matched. With Billups, they won just four more games and drew more favorable match ups on their way to the Western Conference Finals where they were again eliminated by the Lakers. It could be pointed out that they were not swept this time and that they played the Lakers very tough. With Iverson gone, Melo was assumed the role of Alpha Dog and led the Denver offense, but it is unfair to give all the credit due to Billups and blame Iverson for the previous failures.

Hopefully this offseason will end with Iverson playing for a team and having to prove himself yet again to all his doubters. Currently the last two teams in the running are the Charlotte Bobcats (reunited with Larry Brown) and the Miami Heat (teamed with Dwayne Wade). Although I'm an Iverson fan, I do understand that there are some changes that do need to be made to his game for him to fit in with either of these teams. He needs to become more of a distributor to show other GMs that doubted that he can remain in this league while being a worthy contributor to a winning team. Allen Iverson has had an illustrious career, he deserves to have it end on a note where it is recognized as such.

Free Agent News: Iverson, Milsap, Odom

According to ESPN's Marc Stein, the Clippers have turned their attention to more of a traditional point guard, Ramon Sessions, to add their Baron Davis and Eric Gordon rotation. If anyone was paying attention to the Clippers last year, Eric Gordon really started to pick up his game towards the end of the season after being inserted into the starting line up. He ended up averaging 16 ppg while shooting a very respectable 39% from three point range. That is very impressive, especially for a rookie. The interest in Iverson never made much sense to me, especially when you consider Gordon's contributions, Baron Davis' style of play, and rookie sensation Blake Griffin.(Let's not forget about coaching dud Mike Dunlevy) Although Iverson thrives while playing along side bigger point guards that can defend the 2 spot, the pairing with B. Diddy would be a failure. Baron is not enough of a consistent play maker to play along a player like Iverson. Its' bad enough Griffin was cursed before playing his first NBA game by being drafted by the Clippers, no need to add fuel to the fire. (Still love ya though Ivo)

Utah has matched the contract offer from Portland for Paul Milsap, something that everyone expected. This signifies the end of the Boozer era in Utah and they will actively pursue a trade. Word on the street is that Miami is looking to facilitate a trade for Boozer while trying to sign Odom as well. If the Heat are able to pull that off, they would put a very competitive team on the floor and give Wade more of incentive to sign the extension. But are they championship material?----I would say no, but on the other hand, if Boozer doesn't pan out, he would be a free agent next year as well as Jermaine O'neal. That would give the Heat more than enough cap space to sign a big fish in 2010 (Bosh, Stoudemire?)


The Lamar Odom saga continues and I have to admit as a Laker fan I am scared as hell. Talks are still stalled while a plethora of rumors float over message boards and fan sites. Inconsistent contract offers between 3 and 4 years with ranges of 7-9 million per have left fans confused about what's really going on. The bottom line is that the Lakers need Odom and Odom needs the Lakers. If Odom signs with Miami (his preferred destination outside the Lakers) he would be making less money will lose his shot at competing for a ring. The Lakers on the other hand would lose out on a player that is irreplaceable. What makes it so difficult is that Odom is one of those rare players that is capable of starting anywhere else but has sacraficed and accepted the role of sixth man a la Manu Ginobilli and Jason Terry. No one else would be able to replicate his production of the bench, nor do the Lakers have the money to even come close to a fill in.

Hip Hop Hoop News

Murdered on your own Shit

An interesting article about Rappers who have bbeen outclassed on their on songs. Check it out.

Hiphopdx.com: “Eminem murdered you on your own shit.” - Nas “Ether”
Regardless of where you stand on the Jay vs. Nas war from almost a decade ago, there is no question that he got that line right. But Jay-Z is far from the first emcee to have their own show stolen by a guest. This is by no means all of them, but here are some of the most memorable. Beginning with…you guessed it:
Eminem on Jay-Z’s “Renegade” (2001, The Bluprint)

On the Odom contract situation....

LA Times: Many in the Lakers’ organization believe that Odom wants to accept Buss’ offer — and so do those close to Odom — but he has failed to convince Jeff Schwartz, his agent. If the two sides do begin negotiating again, Lakers sources said Buss, if he’s willing to talk, will lower his offer to Odom.

Richard Jefferson Cancels Wedding at Last Minute.....Classy Move

Yahoo.com: ost weddings go off without a hitch. But every once in a while, the blessed event gets a surprise twist. This past weekend, NBA star Richard Jefferson's wedding left guests asking a big question: "Where the heck is the groom?"
According to the New York Post, Jefferson was scheduled to marry former New Jersey Nets dancer Kesha Ni'cole Nichols. Alas, a few days before the big day, Jefferson called off the ceremony and broke up with his fiancée...

Rakim The Legend is Back in the Booth! Check out his new track at "Holy are You" @ hiphopdx.com

Say My Name, Say My Name

A couple of weeks ago Jay-Z released an excerpt from a freestyle during one of his recent concerts. During Hova's off the top rant, he happened to mention "Game" by name, a shout out that the Compton MC took great offense to. Since being "called out" the Game has gone on a tirade from igniting his crowd at one of his concert in to a "Fuck Jay-Z" chant to recording a diss track. He even had some word's for Jay's famed wife Beyonce...

"I know y'all been hearing about the controversy between with me and Jay-Z, right," Game asked a crowd in Spain. "So I'ma start it off like this, f*ck Jay-Z! That's how Pac felt. That's how Nas felt at one time and that's how I feel...This ain't about B/This ain't about Destiny...You got a bad b*tch, word, ain't no p*ssy like hers/Just ask the Mavericks, Cowboys and the Spurs/I mean, my b*tch don't sling p*ssy like that/My b*tch sling p*ssy on a n*gga from the back, back, back/Black Wall Street, that's the game I bang/And I'm in Mahdrid, Spain..."(From TayDoeTV) (Woah, did he just get at his wifee like that?)

To be fair, all Jay really said in his freestyle was "I ain't talkin bout Game", something that probably wouldn't have bothered me. The fact of the matter is that Jay's venom was really aimed at his former mentor Jaz-o who he clowns later on in the track. (He's still gettin at Jaz-0?)

This situation had me thinking,(a rarity in Hip Hop these days) when is it ok to speak another nigga's name on a verse? I constantly hear about these rap cats sweating bravado whenever another rapper speaks their name; unless one of these cats is singing their praises, it aint cool. I understand the whole "keep my name out your mouth" code, but hasn't this gone a little to far? Now cats are making whole diss tracks when they just hear their names. On the other hand, there has always been suspected tension between the two Rappers from the opposite coast since Game licked some underlying shots at the self proclaimed "King of New York".

Well at least the Game is getting some attention in between albums, and the recipe for success since 50 dissed every nigga in the game is to stir the pot with some of that good ol' beef. Problem is that I'm hungry for some real music and the beef seems a little spoiled.

80's Hoop

There has been a whole lot of significant player movement during the NBA off-season. Richard Jefferson was traded to the Spurs to join an already solidified all-star trio, Shaq joined King James looking for his 5th Chip and Lebron's first, Vince Carter replaced the "Turkish Michael Jordan" on Orlando while Trevor Ariza and Ron Artest swapped places. Let's not forget that the Celtics signed Rasheed Wallace, a player who will undoubtedly strengthen an already tenacious defense. All of these teams were already among the best in the L less than a year ago and they have all greatly improved. If you aren't running with at least three all-stars, you're not in the conversation.

This stacking of franchises reminds me of hoop in the 80s. The decade yielded legendary teams with multiple Hall of Famers.

Philladelhpia 76ers

The 76ers were led by the great "Dr. J", a player that revolutionized the game and was an idol to the best player ever. (I don't have to tell you who that is.) His supporting cast included Moses Malone, signed as a free agent before their championship season whom also won the MVP that season, Maurice Cheeks, and Andrew Toney. Notable achievements by Mo Cheeks was his selection for the all-defensive first team that year. Andrew Toney averaged 19.7 ppg in the 1981-82 championship season.

Detroit Pistons

The volatile team known as the Bad Boys had players that ushered in a new breed of basketball player. They were a tough gritty team that excelled on their physicality. They were led my Hall of Fame point guard Isaiah Thomas, who to this day is still overlooked as one of the best players to ever pick up a rock. They didn't come on as challengers until the mid to late 80s when they drafted Isaiah's back court running mate Joe Dumars (played the best D you could possible play against Mike), Dennis Rodman and John Salley(prototypes for the new athletic forwards that would eventually command the league) to join bruisers Bill Lambier, Rick Mahorn and Vinnie "the Microwave" Johnson.

Boston Celtics

Until the 90s, Boston was known as the most storied franchises in the L. They still hold the crown for most titles in NBA history at 17, three of those won in the 80s. Their teams in that decade were among the deepest in recent memory. We know about the "Larry Legend", but he was apart of the best front line in NBA history playing along with Kevin Mchale and Robert Parish. Throughout the decade the Celtics had many great players don their jersey. Dennis Johnson, Nate Archibald, Bill Walton, and Reggie Lewis.

Los Angeles Lakers

The showtime Lakers were clearly the king of kings during this decade fast breaking their way to 5 championships. They were led by Ervin "Magic" Johnson, a 6'9' point guard whose skills have never been replicated. He was surrounded by one of the best supporting casts ever. James Worthy(One of the most underrated players in NBA history), Kareem(arguably the best center of all time), Byron Scott(automatic jump shooter with an unbelievable mid range game), Norm Nixon, and Bob Mcadoo.

The San Antonio Spurs, Boston Celtics, Orlando Magic, and the Los Angeles Lakers(and to a lesser extent the Cavs) have all stacked their teams in order to go to war with each other for years to come. Each move made was trumped by the next in order to add more star power. One thing is for certain, we're in for one of the most exciting seasons ever.