(an old photo of Jim, with me and Joe Budden at Game’s concert in NYC)

Awww man! Mikey Fresh’s first exclusive new music : )

Mikey was in the studio tonight with our pal Jim Jones, getting the sneak peek at Jimmy’s Ghost of Rich Porter mixtape, which finally drops on March 23rd.

Jimmy blessed us with this premiere…a song that he did with Gucci Mane before Gucci went to jail last November, called “Haunting.” Produced by 1.2 for Jetlag Ash Mgmt.

New Music: Jim Jones feat. Gucci Mane and Sen “Haunted” (Clean, CDQ) (download link)

Related: Jim Jones talks about The Ghost of Rich Porter with Complex.com

Update: Mikey: Before I bounced I got a few mins to talk to Jimmy about the project’s delays, the eerie recording process and the possibilities of a Ghost of Jim Jones.(VIBE)

Congratulations go out to singer Keyshia Cole and her fiance Daniel “Boobie” Gibson! Insiders tell me that just after 1am this morning (March 3rd), Keyshia gave birth to a healthy baby boy, the couple’s first. Gibson, a basketball player with the Cleveland Cavs, was by Keyshia’s side for the birth, which took place in Cleveland, OH.

And folks in Hollywood were telling me that my old friend Manny Hailey (Keyshia’s longtime manager) was out at PhilippeChow-LA when he got the good news. It was shots for everyone in the house courtesy of Uncle Manny ; )

UPDATE: yes, the baby is a junior, Daniel Gibson Jr.

Related: earlier today, Monica tweeted that Keyshia was in labor.

The good folks at the Complex Media Network (who keep the lights on in our humble web home) have teamed up with Suzuki Cycles to celebrate their monster Hayabusa GSX1300R motorcycle (have you ever seen one of these things?! They’re like 1.5 the length of another bike, and a whopping 1075cc’s more power than my old beloved dirtbike)….So if you can rhyme and ride, enter their BusaBeats MC Battle!*

Details:
“Right now, go to www.busabeats.com, write a rhyme about the new Suzuki Hayabusa and you might wheel it home. You’ll have the chance to unite with a celebrity producer and get your beats heard.” And you will also win….

Prizes:
“Grand Prize is a Hayabusa customized by Nick Anglada, the baddest bike on the block with 1340cc of urban muscle. Rockford Fosgate and Blue Mic will be providing an assortment of prizes for the 2nd place through 5th place winners including, and not limited to, 2-Way DJ loudspeakers, stands, punch plugs, Under Pressure Bass CD as well as an assortment of stylized Blue Microphones.”

Whoa, this is a lot of potential loot….and all it takes is a clever verse about a bike. GOOD LUCK!

(*this is sponsored content*)

Here’s the scoop:

Multiple sources have confirmed to me that Shyne Po has signed a 7-figure deal with Def Jam.*

This ends a bidding war that had industry bigwigs vying for Shyne’s attention, flying to Belize, calling and courting, ever since the Brooklyn emcee was released from prison and deported to Belize back in October.

For Shyne to turn down hard-court pressure from Jimmy Iovine/Dr.Dre and others and instead join LA Reid back at his last known recording-residence actually seems like an inevitable move….because I’ve been hearing that Shyne has been pow-wowing with veteran manager Kyambo “HipHop” Joshua for a while now. Joshua and his HipHopSince1978 partners, Gee Roberson, also manage Lil Wayne, Drake, Young Jeezy and more. Meanwhile, my old friend Al Branch is both a partner in HipHopSince1978 and a high-level exec at Def Jam…see how that works? Synergy!  Now there have been recent reports of new label-wide pressures, but with this team in place, Shyne is in good hands.

As for the logistics, the plan is for Shyne to work out of London, it’s a buzzing hip hop hub with all the necessary facilities. Oh, and about that first verse which appeared on an early DJ Khaled album leak (and is allegedly scratched from the final tracklisting)…I’m hearing that Shyne didn’t intend that verse to be his first look. After nearly a decade inside, he’s allowed a little time to figure out what direction he’ll take.

*(obviously in this climate, these kinds of numbers are few and far between, so this certainly signals that labels see value in legacy or storyline. Drake got a reported 2 million last year. And of course, this is Shyne’s second time around in a bidding war.)

My buddy Green Lantern keeps giving new life to this Snoop Dogg megahit : ) This time with Florida, Brooklyn, and Atlanta on the roll call….

Snoop Dogg featuring Rick Ross, Yo Gotti, Maino, Rosco, and OJ da Juiceman “I Wanna Rock (Interstate Trafficking Remix)” (Produced by Green Lantern)
(Dirty CDQ download)
(Clean CDQ download)
(Instrumental CDQ download)

One of my favorite people in this game : )

Previously: Snoop Dogg feat. Jay-Z “I Wanna Rock (The Kings Remix)”

For all my fellow NY-area hip hop heads…The nice folks at Rhymesayers are celebrating the release of the Freeway x Jake One collabo album, The Stimulus Package, with a concert at the Highline Ballroom tonite. I’ll be hosting (even though it’s not listed on the flyer…so as not to disrupt the old boys club atmosphere? lol), and Brother Ali will also be performing, so definitely come join us.

In fact, Nahright and MissInfo.Tv have a couple tickets to give away….so hit me at missinfo@missinfo.tv with your full name/phone number, if you’d like to go. I’ll pick one winner at random (you gotta be local, obviously). (Thank you to Skye, Bird and Steinthal/ImmaculateInfatuation)

UPDATE: CONTEST CLOSED! CONGRATS TO THE WINNER, CARY! Hope to see the rest of y’all there : )

Related:

Freeway x Jake One The Stimulus Package (iTunes download link)

Freeway x Jake One feat. Raekwon “One Thing”

Brent Rollins’ amazing Stimulus Package artwork

After the jump, check out Freeway and Jake One on Good Fellas Radio last week…
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(Styles P x Jadakiss “We Gon Make It” / Styles P x Pharoahe Monch “My Life”)

Mikey: Last night at the Highline Ballroom, OnSMASH hosted DJ Green Lantern & Styles P’s album release party for their Green Ghost Project (buy it here). The homie Dallas Penn hosted the event with Stalley, Skyzoo, and Sean Price opening the show. Then Styles P. made his way to the stage with drink in hand and was definitely feelin’ nice (understatement), lol. With DJ Green Lantern and his crew behind him, Styles ran through a few mixtape favorites, and of course his Lox brethren came through to perform “We Gon Make It”, “N*ggas Done Started Something”, and more. Consequence and Pharoahe Monch also made cameos. All in all, a good night and dope show… shouts to everyone we ran into Meka, Eskay, Dre, Combat Jack, Dallas, Sowmya, Franz…

Miss Info: It was the center of the real rap universe. And many people was pissy drunk (you know who you are). But it was a good time, with good peoples. At one point, Eskay/Nahright, Meka/2dopeboyz, Dre/Nahright,  Young!/Onsmash, and me were all standing by the bar…NMC braintrust ; )

(l to r: Combat Jack…Dre, Eskay, Young!, me, Meka. Photo by Mikey)

Thanks to the homie DJ Enuff (and Freddy P), he just premiered the new DJ Khaled featuring Young Jeezy, Rick Ross and Plies song “Put Ya Hands Up” on the Rush Hour Mix on Hot97. The song is from Khaled’s upcoming album Victory (March 2nd). And now here you go with the CDQ!
(Update: Dirty version via Young!/Onsmash)

New Music: DJ Khaled featuring Young Jeezy, Rick Ross and Plies song “Put Ya Hands Up.” (CDQ) (download link, clean) (download link, dirty)

Freeway and Jake One are dropping their The Stimulus Package collaboration on February 16, 2010, and….yours truly will be hosting the record release concert at the Highline Ballroom on Feb. 16 as well. (cop tickets!)

But we also got first peek at the next level CD-packaging that Rhymesayers Records and Ego Trip designer Brent Rollins put together. Ok, I’m completely biased because I adore Brent, he’s an old friend, and he did an amazing job designing my “Bling: Hip Hop’s Crown Jewels” book a few years back. But just look at the detail on the Stimulus Package package…the dollars, the worn out wallet, the credit cards that let you download Jake One’s instrumentals…this is an instant hip hop collectible. Is this the best album packaging you’ve ever seen?

It just makes alot of sense to me–when fewer people are buying CDs, create something valuable beyond the digital information burned onto it. Fetishize it!

Thanks to Skye/Rhymesayers and Steinthal/WarnerMusic. You can pre-order your copy here….I know Japanese hip hop fans are gonna love this, they’re packaging-crazy. (peep here and here)

I love how so many artists are combining their forces….a la Dame Dash’s Creative Control series, and the upcoming Freeway x Jake One The Stimulus Package collabo (Feb.16, 2010)…and this DJ Green Lantern x Styles P Green Ghost Project (Feb.2, 2010). It shows a good grasp of the limitations of the market these days, and it often sparks new life into the acts themselves. (and speaking of Freeway x Jake One, I have a goodie coming up tomorrow)

Along with new video “Send a Kite” that Green and Ghost premiered on Onsmash today, the NMC boys have the exclusive daily debut of the accompanying comic series, illustrated by Profesone….

See the 1st page after the jump….

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