(photo via Yvette Davilla)

After having Pete Rock kick off the “Black Fist Fridays” Throwback at Noon series, Mister Cee tapped Questlove to spin his favorite tunes this afternoon. He mixed it up with an incredible selection of classics from J. Dilla, Mos Def, Tribe, and all the oldies. Quest dedicated his set to Dilla, who he says was his mentor.

It was also hilarious that Questlove said one of the main reasons he was able to remain great friends with Jay-Z for over decade was because Hov is also a secret nerd at heart. The Roots drummer admitted their bond comes from a nerd-like place.

Listen: Questlove’s Black Fist Friday Guest Mix on Hot97

Download: Questlove’s Black Fist Friday Guest Mix on Hot97 (Audio)

Hit the jump to see 10 Facts About J Dilla You Might Not Know.

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Awesome Plug Research duo Quadron released a gorgeous soul album earlier this year. They’ve done a string of shows opening for Raphael Saadiq, and releasing some great Remix EP/Maxi-Single (remember those?) projects as well. Here, Coco covers Lauryn Hill’s “Ex-Factor” with awesome results.

Damn, I miss Lauryn Hill.

After the jump to check their cover of Michael Jackson’s “Baby Be Mine”

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Our co-worker DJ Mr. Cee invited Kiss FM’s Ed Lover to take over the Hot97 Throwback At Noon for a special tribute mix to Yo! MTV Raps.

New Mix: Ed Lover’s ‘Yo! MTV Raps’ Throwback at Noon mix

This Sunday, MTV2 is bringing back that iconic hip hop video show, Yo! MTV Raps, with a special episode called Classic Cuts. The show features the original host, Ed Lover, along with our pals like Shaheem Reid, Jayson Rodriguez, Peter Rosenberg and more…as well as yours truly, Miss Info. We’ll be talking about “classic cuts” like ATCQ’s “Scenario”, Ice Cube’s “Today Was a Good Day”, Geto Boys’ “Mind’s Playin’ Tricks On Me” and more. And the show hunted down the legends behind the songs and their contemporaries, interviewing Q Tip, Scarface, Ice Cube, Wiz Khalifa, DJ Khaled, Questlove, Busta Rhymes, Mac Miller, Machine Gun Kelly, Young Jeezy, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Phife, Fat Joe, Common, Mike Epps, Ice T, Meek Mill, Tyga, and Naughty By Nature. The show airs at 12 midnight this Sunday, Dec 4th…right after the MTV2 Sucker Free Awards (which I think I’m also on, lol).

Thank you so much to the Sucker Free Awards team and the ‘Yo! MTV Raps’ Presents Classic Cuts team for inviting me to be part of their shows : )

MOBILE USERS…listen to Ed Lover’s mix…
After the jump
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This afternoon, Miss Info hosted an epic Q&A session with The Diplomats for The Red Bull Music Academy’s Five Out of Five concert series. The big four from Harlem, Killa Cam, Jim Jones, Juelz Santana and Freekey Zekey closed out the week of RBMA events with an incredibly candid story-telling session about the making of their 2003 classic, Diplomatic Immunity. They shared everything from who really created the name The Diplomats, Juelz’s awkward audition, and of course, all the complicated relationships between the Roc-A-Fella family and the Dipset crew….

Mikey: Dipset fans, this 2-hours long session was f*ckin incredible. All the little side stories of how Cam’s was mad as hell when he first met Juelz…all the drama surrounding the “I Really Mean It” video…their experience at Roc-A-Fella’s Baseline Studios…and of course, the build up of tension with Jay-Z. I can’t even  begin to explain how epic Cam’s Hov impersonation was!! Video can’t even give you the full scope of it. But check out this clip of the guys explaining why they ended up beefing with Jay-z during Cam’ron’s time as a Roc artist. We’ll make sure to bring you more footage of the hilarious Dipset stories. (Props to Nigel D for the footage)

MissInfo: Un-friggin-believable. Honestly, I’m dead tired because I stayed up all night checking album credits and watching Dipset youtubes in preparation for today. So I’m in no mental state to break down all the hilarious gems from today. But we will edit some clips soon. I got great feedback from all the Dipset fans who were there, and I hope that the upcoming footage provides you guys with clarity and entertainment.
(PS: I know that traditionally, the Red Bull Music Academy sessions focus more on the nuts and bolts of music production, from samples to engineering, to lyric analysis. That’s not what Dipset does. But Just Blaze, Young Guru, Heatmakerz, Opera Steve, Lenny S, Skitzo, Duke Da God are great resources for that. Meanwhile, if certain folks can’t appreciate how Cam, Jim, Juelz and Zeke re-live their creative process with anecdotes, rather than through liner notes….then you’re missing the forest for the trees. #message)

Miss Info asks Cam’ron about Mariah Carey’s trip to Harlem during the “Oh Boy” days….
and Juelz remembers a visit to Destiny’s Child’s dressing room…
After the jump..
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(#30, Public Enemy’s Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age: I knew  Complex wouldn’t let me down by leaving this gem off their 50 Greatest Worst Rap Album Fails. I remember my outrage when this album dropped. Actually, the outrage started when I had to read the album title out loud repeatedly to figure it out what it meant. Which actually makes it favorite bad rap titles.)

My buds at Complex got balls for this one. Rather than their usual 50 heaps of praise on a hip hop legends (or someone just newly hot), this time they’ve compiled a list of the not so proud moments in hip hop, the un-triumphant releases, the s–tstains on some stellar careers. I don’t know how they span 30 years worth of mediocre, horrible, and a few amazing albums…I usually have to look through my crates of old cds to even remember that The Ecleftic happened. But I’m pretty sure some of these fails will be hotly debated.

Do you agree with the low points?
Plus an old Shortie anecdote ; )
After the jump
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Mikey: This is hiliarious and I’m sure Weezy will receive much Twitter slander for his epic jam session to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies.” I’m not sure what got him so hyped, but with his flip cam in hand and Bey cranked up, Wayne proceeds to dumb out in front if his boys.

MissInfo: What is with the Beyonce/Destiny’sChild karaoke with these YM-ers? Weezy’s zoning out to “Single Ladies”….and just last weekend, Drake did that weird zooted rendition of The Weeknd x Destiny’s Child “Say My Name”?
Is Matthew Knowles sending out his resume reel or  something?

If you missed the Drake “Say My Name” clip, it’s posted after the jump!
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Wow. Totally completely wow. Watch this vintage TV clip from the mid-90’s of the late great Notorious B.I.G. performing “Big Poppa” with a live band, back-up singers, Puff Daddy and Lil’ Cease…on MTV’s The Jon Stewart Show. Can you imagine? 1994-1995: Jon Stewart actually had a hour-long talk show on MTV that competed with the big boys like Dave Letterman and Jay Leno. Obviously it failed. But the same team created The Daily Show later, and just look how great it’s become.
But getting back to BIG….this would have been one of the few and biggest TV looks that Biggie could have gotten at the time. I don’t know that they were as open minded to hip hop on the Tonight Show as they are now? And you can hear the influence of the g-funk trend in the cheesy jazzified live band and singers. I still love it though.
Props to ThaaRapBasement for the gem.

Related:
Vintage Footage of Biggie Playing a Joke on DJ Big Kap
The Notorious B.I.G. in Fader’s 2011 Icon Issue (Excerpts)
Unreleased Music From Tupac, Dissing The Notorious B.I.G., Nas, Dr. Dre & more.
Still Always Miss Big Poppa….#RIPNotoriousBIG (Updated: DJ Clark Kent, Maino and more pay tribute)
Shaquille O’Neal Remembers The Notorious B.I.G.

Earlier this afternoon, part of 2 of my crazy ass talk with DMX was released on VIBE.com. In this section we talked about everything from what X hates about today’s hip-hop (Skinny jeans!), Nicki Minaj, Drake, his story behind his beef with Jay-Z, Ja-Rule and a bunch of other Darkman X craziness. But actually I think things are about to get even more interesting… let me ask you guys, do you think Ross really reached out to X?

stay tuned!

VIBE: Damn. Have you even been able to have a conversation with Jay?
DMX: I’ve not talked to him yet, since. But I had a show November 18th, before I got locked up–No November 12th I had the show. And somebody in the crowd was like ‘What’s up with Jay-Z’ and I was like ‘Fuck Jay-Z’. And it ended up all over the place. So he called Swizz, Swizz called me, and he tells Swizz ‘Yoo, why your man dissin me? I was gonna do a song with him’—Coulda, woulda, shoulda. Fucking bullshit. I don’t wanna hear that shit. And like ‘Yo, can you just get him to say he ain’t mean it’—NO! I’m not saying that. What I did say is if he wanna talk to me, I’m man enough to let him know why it’s ‘Fuck You’, but it’s still ‘Fuck You’! That’s what it is. I’ll let you know why, I can do that. It ain’t like you gotta worry about me running up on you shooting you. It ain’t that serious. You don’t owe me nothing. But if you want an explanation as to why it’s ‘Fuck You’, I’ll be more than happy to tell you why.

DMX: I do like Nicki Minaj—how she getting at em. Haven’t heard the album, but the couple of singles I’ve heard—“Did It On Em,” you know what I’m saying? That “Boom boom boom.” Some shit, “Bang”—whatever. I like her style. And Kiss got a new joint too that I’m feeling.

VIBE: Speaking of Nicki, how are you feeling about Lil Wayne and Drake?
Hmmm…no comment. I don’t like Drake. It’s nothing that he did to me, He actually is talented. He’s very talented.

read more after the jump…

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(Tupac in a car with a man is believed to be Haitian Jack Agnant, the former friend that Pac accused on the song “Against All Odds” of being involved in the Quad Studio shooting.)

We all saw the headlines:

“Inmate Confesses to Shooting Tupac Shakur in 1994”

So are you sure you know who shot Tupac at Quad Studios?
Well if you read the same prison confession that I read yesterday….then the answer is:
No…

It was the kite read ’round the world. Seventeen years after Tupac Shakur was shot in the lobby of Manhattan’s Quad Studios, a man named Dexter Isaac released an explosive statement to Allhiphop. The site ran both a detailed story as well as a jpeg of a typed letter, in which Isaac accused controversial music exec Jimmy “Henchman” Rosemond of paying him to participate in a 1994 robbery of Tupac Shakur, which left the rising rap star with 5 bullet wounds. Three men were said to have attacked Pac. He survived the shooting, only to be killed in Las Vegas two years later.
Isaacs, who is currently serving a life sentence in The Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, said he wanted to come clean because he was upset Henchman had accused him of cooperating with a drug investigation.

Here’s an excerpt of Dexter Isaac’s letter (full version after the jump):

Jimmy…I have kept your secrets for years… How dare you call me an informant!…
Mr. Rosemond, if I was an informant like you, I would’ve been home for years ago with my family, not doing life in prison.
Now I would like to clear up a few things, because the statute of limitations is over, and no one can be charged, and I’m just plain tired of listening to your lies.
In 1994, James Rosemond hired me to rob 2Pac Shakur at the Quad Studio. He gave me $2,500 plus all the jewelery I took, except for a ring he wanted for himself… He said he wanted to put the stone in a new setting for his girlfriend at the time, Cynthia Ried [sic]. I still have as proof the chain that we took that night in the robbery…

Isaacs then goes on to hint that he knows details of Tupac and Biggie’s murders. And even throws Diddy into the mix (“Jimmy, you and Puffy like to come off all innocent-like but as the saying goes. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”).

But no where on Isaac’s letter, or in Allhiphop’s companion story does this prisoner ever confess to shooting Tupac. Not once. But most of the early coverage skewed it that way…

Time Magazine: “Inmate Confesses To Shooting Tupac Shakur in 1994”
MTV News: “…an imprisoned man has admitted to shooting the late rapper/actor during a robbery at Manhattan’s Quad Studios in November 1994.”
Gawker: “Some Guy: I Shot Tupac”
NYDailyNews: “I shot Tupac Shakur in 1994 robbery on orders of rap manager, claims convicted murderer Dexter Isaac”

The absolute best (and by best, I mean worst) abuse of reading comprehension came from the Huffington Post. They sent a tweet headline that read:
“@HuffPostEnt: SHOCKING: Inmate admits to shooting, killing Tupac Shakur ”

Wow, forget the confession, the real bombshell is that Pac was a zombie from ‘94 to 96. (Thankfully, they’ve since fixed that ridiculous error.) (Update 3: New favorite worst headline: “I Shot Tupac Kapur…“)

If Dexter Isaac really did admit to shooting Tupac, then he also signed himself up for an attempted murder charge to go along with his current life sentence…
More on this, photos and video…
After the jump
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Probably one of the more talked about tracks we anticpated for Tha Carter IV actually won’t appear on it anymore. Swizz Beatz has spoken many times about this record he produced for Lil’ Wayne that he envisioned as a follow up to Eminem’s “Stan” titled “Dear Anne.” Today we get the full track as it won’t appear on Weezy’s upcoming new album.

New Music: Lil’ Wayne – “Dear Anne (Stan Part 2)” (prod. by Swizz Beatz)

via KC

Swizz Beatz talks to The Source about the making of “Dear Anne”…
And watch the original Eminem feat. Dido “Stan” video…
after the jump…..
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