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Young Jeezy's album "The Recession" drops next Tuesday September 2nd & there appears to be some significant anticipation for it here in Atlanta. Here's one of the tracks featured on the album that people have been talking about since footage of Don Cannon & Young Jeezy working in the studio surfaced on the net.

Download "Circulate" by Young Jeezy

A Tribe Called Quest frontman, "Q-Tip", is gearing up to release his upcoming album "The Renaissance" & it appears the fans just can't wait. Check out this "UNOFFICIAL" video for Q-Tip's new single "Gettin Up". Despite it being an "unofficial" video it still comes out pretty good. Okayplayer?

We're positive we've seen this video before, but Kanye is re-releasing it with a few changes we believe.......A little something to go with your coffee & toast.  Good Morning!

By now many of you already know what happened with rap artist Yung Berg over the weekend.  In case you didn't, like to hear it? Well hear it go....

It's been a rough Monday & sometimes you have to deal with people who may act a certain way towards you.  Sometimes you just don't want to automatically assume that person or individuals at the job are racist if they happen to be of another color so you really have to sit down & think it all out.  Check my man Jay Smooth in this video on how to deal with people whose actions could be perceived as racist.  

Soul singer "Maxwell" is about to hit the road for the first time in six years. There was a point in time here in Atlanta when Maxwell had the ATL on lock with his soulful music. His shows here in the ATL brought out the ladies & good music with his band. From the reports, it appears that nothing has changed with the exception of Maxwell cutting his signature "blowed out" afro-like hairstyle. The North American tour is scheduled to begin in Boston on October 8th & making eventual stops in larger markets such as New York & Los Angeles. Maxwell makes his scheduled stop here in Atlanta on November 12th at the Atlanta Civic Center. Atlanta is a huge market for soul artists & fans so we're not surprised cities like ours & Philadelphia have stops scheduled on this tour. The whole tour is setting up the pending release of his upcoming album called "Black Summer's Night". This is the longest period of time since releasing any new material between projects. Maxwell's 1996 debut "Urban Hang Suite" set him up as a sex symbol in the soul music world & he followed that momentum with the subsequent release of "Embrya" in 1998 & "Now" in 2001. www.myspace.com/maxwell

It's not hard to see that T-Pain is one of the few artists today that has got the game ONSMASH. He dropped a new mixtape to called "Pree Ringz" that you can download from the link below! It's all in support for his upcoming album "Thr33 Ringz" which he explains as what best describes the music industry today.

"The Thr33 Ringz concept is 'cause the industry is just like a circus," he explained. "You got the strong men, tattooed dudes, bearded ladies, elephants, tigers, and all kinds of dumb crap."

This would also explain this most recent obsession with wearing top hats in videos & live performances. "I got the most number 1's..... "I'm not just saying that. It's really on the charts. I got 11 number ones [in one year]. In the history of time, The Beatles got 13. So if I woulda got two more in that year I woulda beat The Beatles. That's why I'm the ringleader."

Download T-Pain's new mixtape "Pree Ringz"

01. Intro (Feat. DJ Khaled)
02. What U Need
03. Cocky (Feat. DJ Khaled)
04. Somebody Tell Em
05. I Know (Feat. Young Cash)
06. Like I Outta
07. Don't Stop The Party (Feat. Young Cash)
08. Freakin' (Feat. Tay Dizm & Gorilla Zoe)
09. This Dat Shit
10. Got To Go
11. Reborn
12. Ain't No Love (Feat. Young Cash)
13. Up & Down
14. I'm Madd (Feat. Tay Dizm)
15. Superman (Feat. DJ Khaled)
16. Dig That
17. Young Cash - I'm A Freak (Feat. T-Pain)
18. Nappy Boy Or Die (Feat. Young Cash)
19. Let's Go
20. We Got Love
21. Tha Truth (Outro)

DOWNLOAD: T-PAIN - PREE RINGZ MIXTAPE
http://sharebee.com/7d5baba8

Apparently there was supposed to be some type of "Jodeci Renunion Tour" that was to kick off in Sydney, Austraila. Sounds janky if you ask me.  As a person who travels to other countries fairly often, I've noticed that it's not uncommon for some artists that are no longer popular here in the United States to take gigs overseas to make a quick buck. Nowadays you could say a quick "Euro" because the dollar ain't worth much these days.  The people of Austraila got jerked over the weekend when the so-called "Jodeci Reunion Tour" only produced a possible crackhead & a drunk onstage. Devante Swing & Mr. Dalvin were no where in sight.  K-Ci & JoJo were the only members that appeared on stage for the performance & at one point during the show JoJo passes out drunk on stage while K-Ci keeps singing like Tyrone Biggums.  The video is rather sad & funny all at once. Crack is wack!

Def Jam artists "Karina" & "LL CooL J" performed a free show for listeners of V-103 on Friday Night. With rapper, actor, & movie star "LL CooL J" as the obvious headliner, it all went down at Center Stage on West Peachtree Street to a enthusiasticly large & mostly female audience. Newcomer "Karina" was rather impressive debuting as a young up & coming singer on Def Jam records at only 17 years of age. The girl can sing in seven different languages & also plays the piano. Of course she didn't sing in all seven of those languages last night, but she still did her thing nonetheless. Overwhelmingly the person everyone wanted to see was clearly Mr. James Todd Smith. LL ran through a number of songs in his lengthy catalog to the screams of the various girls & women in attendance at the event. We could have sworn that we even saw grandmothers in there wanting to lick LL's lips. We also noticed WSB news reporter Jaquitta Williams at times try to even hold her own composure during the show, but she also fell victim to the excitement & energy in the place as the muscular hip hop veteran performed. Most of the brothaz like us who grew up on LL miss the more lyrical side of James Todd Smith as his music in this later part of his career has been more geared to the ladies. It's not exactly cool to be driving up the block blasting LL's new single "Baby" featuring The Dream without getting a number of stares from people thinking you're "Fugazi". It's a good song, but not something most dudes would ride to. LL released a great mixtape he dropped earlier this year with DJ KaySlay that made successful attempts to draw back in some of his male listeners. We asked LL if he was going to continue to drop more mixtapes for his male fans that want less "lovey dovey" fair, but more raw or edgier material. LL stated because of the mixtape he had some ideas to further take advantage of it's success.

"You know man I thought of that because of the response on the mixtape. I was thinking of incorporating a number of the mixtape songs into some of my shows" said LL COOL J. LL did indeed perform a new song that night which sounded similar to 50 Cent's "I Get Money", called "You Better Watch me."  Much later in the evening long after we had left the venue, we were in the car listening to DJ Premier's satellite radio show on Sirius satellite channel 40 when the same song debuted on the air. It was definitely a song we felt comfortable with while driving down the street banging out the car stereo system. Regardless, LL is definitely a legend even if he cannot get many of his male fans back on board and no one can take that legendary status away from him.


Download "Baby" by LL Cool J featuring Dream

Check out LL performing his new single "You Better Watch me" off of his upcoming album entitled "Exit 13"

Barack Obama choses Joe Biden as his Democratic running mate for V.P.

John Legend links up with Andre 3000 for his new single called "Green Light".  This joint is a little more uptempo than most of John Legend's past work & sounds very hot.  This joint could get the "Green Light" to be a global hit.   Peep the video

Download "GreenLIght" by John Legend featuring Andre 3000

According to the AJC, an Atlanta woman has taken out a restraining order on Shaquille Oneal.  Alexis Miller, 23, alleges that O'neal 36, threatened to ruin her rap career when she ended an intimate relationship with him just last month.  Miller is an independent artist going by the name "Maryjane" & has a 19 month-old son.  The terms of the restraining order instruct Shaq to not contact or come within 200 yards of the singer who lives in Fulton County. 

Heineken held their Red Star Soul Series here in Atlanta Wednesday night featuring performances by writer turned singer Bryan Michael Cox, British Soul sensation Estelle, & Lyfe Jennings. Look who we ran into last night after the show was over. It was none other than the former model turned Diddy baby momma the beautiful Kim Porter. Diddy's baby momma was looking good as she boarded into her big black truck. Damn this woman had two kids not too long ago & still looks good. Now that's a MILF. If Sean Combs don't want ya, we'll take ya baby! We don't have Sean Combs dollars, but we'll do ya right (Wink)

Former ATL resident Da Brat just got sentenced to 3 years in state prison for hitting an employee of Jermaine Dupri's Studio 72 with a rum bottle.  Da Brat, whose real name is Shawntae Harris, was also sentenced to seven years probation & 200 hours of community service.  The incident happened at a Halloween party at Jermaine Dupri's Studio 72 on October 31st of 2007.  As she was being led out of the courtroom she said "I Love Y'all as her relatives responded back "We Love you, too".

For all the ladies trying to make their way in the world without doing all the "favors", check out this new video by ATL's own "Ne-Yo" called "Misss Independent" from his upcoming album "Year of the Gentleman". Fellas there's some eye candy in this video. Peep the ATL resident's game...the video & the song is hot. 

It seems like Karrine Steffans has opened the floodgates for women to release these tell all books about their time with various male celebrities.  It's one thing coming from self admitted groupies & hangers-on, but to come from women who wish to be respected in their professions it's a definite black eye especially for women of color struggling to be taken seriously.  Former Editor-in-Chief, Kim Osorio, has written a new "tell all" book alleging she had sexual flings with 50 Cent & Nas among other statements found in her memoirs. Osorio's statements may give other women a black eye in the game, but 50 Cent brazenly says her black eye comes from his "balls" smacking her. (Ouch!)

"I messed with Kim a while ago, she licked on my balls before the deal...when they weren't worth much. She licked my balls once & now she's a star. I got some advise for all aspiring women journalists, it may not make the best sellers list, but lick my balls and you are on the road to the riches!"

After his Buckhead restaurant closed recently leaving former employees without pay for a number of weeks, it's rumored that Jermaine Dupri maybe out of his executive gig at Island Def Jam. According to a number of street & many online sources there's word that the little man is falling on more hard times. It's been a rough year so far for Jermaine Dupri from his recent beef with many deejays such as Greg Street, his club Studio 72 not really taking off as a consistently popular nightspot, his Cafe Dupri restaurant payroll issues & subsequent closing and now it's rumored that he's to be relieved from his post at Island records in the very near future.  In April, Jermaine Dupri had teamed with Tag deodorant spray to help jumpstart their new record label Tag Records that was to be distributed through Island Def Jam.  

We tried to avoid posting the back & forth online videos of the so-called "$100,000 dollar Madden challenge" that Bow Wow issued to The Game before feelings get hurt, but damn this recent video of The Game going at Bow Wow was just too funny.  Yeah it's ignorant as hell, but what makes it even funnier is that The Game's bus driver also gets in on the act! LMAO! 

ATL residents Young Jeezy & Nas both dropped a new joint that's to appear on Jeezy's upcoming album "The Recession". Check out this joint below called "My President Is Black". Fitting we'd put this joint up now considering that in a few hours Barack Obama is scheduled to announce his VP choice.

Download "My President Is Black"

Last night in Atlanta there were two big shows going down that drew large turnouts in terms of the number of people & the demographics of those attending. Samsung & AT&T sponsored Nelly's performance at the Tabernacle Tuesday night & it was packed as hell. People were elbow to elbow like sardines to see Nelly perform from his catalog of hit records. He was also assisted with surprise performances from perceived friends in the music business such as Jermaine Dupri & ATL's own Goodie M.O.B. who reunited on the stage for the first time in years. One thing that was clearly evident is that you could see Nelly's demographic range was rather wide in terms of his fanbase. There were women there in there 20s, 30s, & even 40s attending the show. Some of these women were single & some came with dates with us assuming they could have been married or in a relationship. There were surprisingly a lot of guys there that appeared to be big fans of Nelly as well. Not sure if they fit the gay or bi-sexual demographic but many of them were snapping pictures of Nelly as if it was Sanaa Lathan naked on the stage. To a corporate sponsor or advertiser that's a plus because the gay community tends to have more disposable income & spending power. (Pausing to search "Nelly" in Dictionary)



Several blocks north of the Tabernacle there was also a free show sponsored by Scion, the car company who's parent company is Toyota. They've been running a number of Scion sponsored free performances in Atlanta for a few years now bringing in artists like Slick Rick, Wu-Tang, Brand Nubian, Nice & Smooth & many other hip hop artists both old & new. Last night's show featured southern lyricist Bun B as the headliner which brought a number of fans in a particular demographic that would lean more southern in terms of regional tastes but range in age anywhere from 21-40 & mostly male. It's new territory for the sponsors in some respects, but even more so from the fans who will come to expect every show to be free & more of the same. Sort of like a Pandora's box worth of free music & concerts that someone has to pay for. These corporate sponsored events could also prove to be very tricky for the artists in a number of ways because the artist's actions could ruffle the feathers of the corporate big wigs who write the checks.

Before his scheduled performance at the Loft, Bun B was spotted arriving at the Samsung show to the delight of true fans who recognized him there, but it may not fly over well with Scion once word gets out about it. This is the internet age with camera phones & text messages so once people saw "Bun B" at the Samsung show a lot of people who got word that Bun B was at the Tabernacle went & abandoned their trek to The Loft & headed to the Tabernacle thinking he was going to perform there instead. I received several messages about it as well from a few people who didn't quite make up their mind as to which event to attend. To the average fan they may be thinking ".....why should I go see Bun B when I can go see Nelly, Goodie MOB, Bun B & everyone else at the Tabernacle?" Despite the potential for disaster in that respect, the Bun B show at the Loft managed to turn out a decent crowd. If the corporate sponsor was a large radio entity like Radio One & the artist showed up at another rival station's event on the same day around the same time it could have been rather costly for the artist politically in terms of future radio airplay & exposure through interviews.



Another local example of corporations buying into a built in audience for more lifestyle marketing success involves the popular "Art, Beats, & Lyrics" event that started in Atlanta a few years ago. The event now has expanded to many other cities throughout the U.S. & the admission is free, while Jack Daniels also plugs their product throughout the event.
www.jackdaniels.com/abl

Shifting from alcohol to caffeine, Starbucks even gives away free music in their stores every Tuesday in their featured artist of the week program. I've walked in to find cards at the register offering a free download of various artists such as new soul artist "Ledisi" among others. As our country drifts more into a recession many people simply do not have the additional cash to spend for concerts & even music.

The point is that I've noticed that many people, at least here in Atlanta, have become so accustomed to getting into the concerts free that I've heard people scoff at paying to see an artist for anything more than $20. Most brothaz & sistahs would rather spend that $20 on some drinks at the bar or for gas on the way home. It's rather ironic because we've witnessed people pay $100 to get into a club with the wrong dress code, but refuse to pay more than $20 to see a good concert. Maybe impressing some females by paying to skip the line is more important to that person's ego. (Shrugs shoulders). We wouldn't be surprised to see in 5 years that more than 80% of all of the big concerts that come to town are sponsored by larger corporations depending on the particular demographics they are trying to reach to sell their products.

Things Done Changed

Hip Hop icon DJ Red Alert will be celebrating 25 years on radio! The NY native & now ATL resident has been putting it down for hip hop for an even longer period of time & is still as humble as ever despite his legendary status in the music industry & hip hop culture. There have been countless times where we've met artists & so-called celebrity deejays with heads larger than Mount Rushmore when they've only been in the game for 14 minutes & 15 seconds. Most of us here at ATLSTATUS just aren't "Hollywood" & we really are just working people. DJ Red Alert has thrived on that same work ethic while avoiding the "Hollywood" label through his humbleness & talent. There are some artists & deejays that we just don't go out of our way to greet, but it's that everyday warm personality over the years that continuously commands our respect & appreciation for DJ Red Alert. There are too many countless stories we could repeat about the greatness of DJ Red Alert, but we'll continue to salute him as we approach October as it marks his significant benchmark in entertainment. You can catch DJ Red Alert on Sirius Satellite radio Channel 43 "Backspin" & locally in Atlanta on Grown Folks radio 102.5 FM on Sunday nights from 7pm-10pm. Uncle Red we salute you!

After gaining notoriety from appearing as "Flava's Choice" on the debut season of the "Flavor Of Love" show, Nicole Deannae Alexander, better known as "Hoopz" has been relatively quiet in the entertainment world as of late. It seemed not that long ago that the Detroit native was getting paid to host many parties around the country & was a fixture at various events following the show's conclusion.

ATL resident Professor Griff of Public Enemy recently expressed his support for the former Dekalb County Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney for President. The former Dekalb County Congresswoman is the Green Party's nominee for U.S. President. On a sad note, Professor Griff recently lost his home to a fire prior to this video being recorded. Check out the video below to hear what he has to say about his choices & his concerns regarding the upcoming election.

Most of the time record promoters can sometimes be like
DJ Khaled when pushing a record to various deejays around
the country. With so many albums due to be released in the
coming month, one of the most important markets to break a
record is definitely in Atlanta. Many of us deejays have been there
when speaking to an over the top record promoter who sounds
like he's trying to sell you a used car, but this video of DJ Khaled
pushing his record to a local Atlanta deejay is just hilarious.
It sounds like DJ Khaled could sell water to a whale & ice to
an eskimo. DJ Khaled has a new album called "We Global" that's
about to drop in September so he needs those multiple club & "BDS"
spins on the local radio stations. Sounds like somebody is about
to get a check, so as DJ Khaled says in the clip......
"Let's....Get... Moneeeeeeeeeey!" LMFAO!!

Download "Go Hard" by DJ Khaled Feat. Kanye West and T-Pain