(UPDATE: footage of Kartel x Mavado, thanks to Mavado’s manager Julian via DJ Rampage)

(UPDATE 2: you can watch more clips on Alliance’s Youtube, which doesnt allow embedding, no idea why…hello?)

Peace as a contagion? That’d be nice, wouldn’t it?

A week after the Young Jeezy x Gucci Mane x DJ Drama on-air truce in Atlanta, another long-running feud has been publicly resolved….My boy DJ Ness hit me early in the morning last night’s (this morning’s) West Kingston Jamboree, when Mavado called up his arch-rival Vybz Kartel for an onstage declaration of unity. According to reports, the truce was facilitated by Carlos “Dudus” Coke (note: he’s not exactly “the president” as I was led to believe, but…um…actually a local heavy, accused of drug trafficking, and more) along with Mavado’s Gully Crew, Kartel’s Gaza crew, and more. Mavado’s manager Julian Jones-Griffith tweeted “Big up d President, a him mek it apn. ( That’s a good look) crowd loved it also 20k stron”. Now this isn’t the first time, “community forces” have brought Mavado and Kartel together for a public show of peace (a la Game and 50’s reluctant hug in 2005) but hopefully it’ll stick this go ’round.

(photo of Mavado and Vybz Kartel onstage, via Crumbs/LivUpRecords

After the jump, more photos…also Ness breaks down some of the Mavado vs Kartel beef history (which resulted in numerous altercations and diss-songs ranging from “MoFraudo” to “Battyman Kartel.” Yikes!)

(photo via Crumbs/LivUpRecords)

(“Gully and Gaza shaking hands in Unity. Big man ting dat.” via Showcase NYC)

(“The crowd Went crazy with the back and forth performances. They looked genuinely happy . Bless.” via Showcase NYC)

This recent Source.com post gives the background leading up to this morning’s concert, and DJ Ness also sent me his overview of the multi-layered beef. But what’s missing from this account is: the beef is all an offshoot of an older beef, Bounty Killer vs. Beenie Man. Mavado and Kartel were under Bounty Killer. But Kartel was friendly with Beenie and even went to Beenie’s wedding to Bounty Killer’s ex-girlfriend….

Here’s what Ness says:

Mavado & Kartel came up under Bounty Killer & were all in the same camp, the Alliance… Round late 2006 Kartel left the camp.. Eventually Kartel & Mavado started fueding & its been going on for some time…

Around this time, Mavado started blowing up like crazy thanks in part to commercial hits stateside & in Jamaica… Kartel was banging out just as many hits in Jamaica, but they didn’t translate into hits on commercial radio stateside… But I feel this just helped his underdog status… This has been going on for prolly like 2 or 3 yrs I wanna say…? I’m not too sure…

Late last year they had a clash/battle onstage at Sting 2008 & it was nutz cuz they both agreed to go head to head onstage to settle the score as to who was the better artist. It’s still up for debate who actually won… Although I personally think Kartel won but that’s just me… & it was so ill to watch cuz you have to give them both props for putting their image on the line & leaving it up to the people to decide who was the better artist…There was soo much security on stage… They’re trying to outperform one another with lyrics of their own songs… As a music fan, it’s one of the most amazing & intruiging things I’ve ever seen onstage in my life especially since modern day rap artist I don’t think would ever have the ballz to put their name on the line for the public to decide on a stage like that… Mavado comes out in all black with an undertaker like mask & a few minutes later Kartel comes out in an army outfit & the crowd looses it!!! You don’t even have to understand wtf they’re saying… Just watching the crowd react to them cutting each other off & watching all the activity onstage is jus beyond description & make no mistake the crowd was ina fkn frenzy…

Imagine Jay Z & Nas agreeing to a battle at the peak of their beef onstage for the people to decide the clear winner!? That shit was sick… The thing is this… Mavado is more known as a “singer” with hood lyrics… While Kartel is known as a lyricist… So that’s where the comparison gets tricky…But hopefully that gives you a lil snapshot of how this all came about… Granted I’m sure I’m missing a few key pieces here & there… But that’s the jist of it…& why it so iLL that its over for now…

*crying*

But I also cried buckets at this one line in a People.com story about the Tiger Woods mild-crash scene….

“According to [Kimberly Harris, Tiger's neighbor and first on the scene] who said she heard a loud “knocking sound” and saw tail lights that night, she and her brother found Woods, 33, shoeless and snoring in the passenger seat of his 2009 Cadillac Escalade.”

WHAT!? This is like a scene out of 30 Rock…the after after after after-party.

So….remember when that song came out over Thanksgiving weekend? That Young Jeezy “Trap or Die 2″ with an added verse from Gucci Mane. Well, the fun part was hearing all the experts talking about how it was it was a fake song, that it wasn’t a sign of any new development in the Gucci x Jeezy beef, how it was just a beat that Gucci had for a while so that’s how his verse emerged…I started to say that the ice between Gucci and Jeezy had thawed, but you can’t convince folk of anything that they don’t want to believe. Plus, it was supposed to be on the low….so, I left it alone. But, low and behold, tonite, down in Atlanta, Young Jeezy appeared on DJ Drama’s Hot107.9 Atlanta radio show (which is a major step forward too, given their recent history), and then Drama conferenced in Gucci Mane from the Fulton County Jail….and all three men said that they were putting aside their years of bad blood, and moving forward in peace…and hopefully music? Either way, this is good for hip hop, so kudos to all three.

(thanks to Illy, Dre and Yessie for sending me the audio, and thanks to Latrice for her insight)

Part 1: Young Jeezy and DJ Drama and Gucci Mane
jeezydrama1.mp3

Part 2: Young Jeezy and DJ Drama and Gucci Mane
jeezydrama2.mp3

and in this clip, Drama conferences in Gucci Mane to talk with him and Jeezy together….

Music: Young Jeezy’s “Trap or Die 2″ featuring a new verse from Gucci Mane

Young Jeezy - Trap Or Die 2 feat Gucci Mane.mp3

Previously:

Gucci Mane x Miss Info: Gucci has a message for Jeezy on “My Own Worst Enemy”

Young Jeezy x Miss Info: Jeezy speaks out on his beef with Gucci and “24-23″

DJ Drama reacts to Young Jeezy’s XXL accusations

Zach: “Does anyone ever tell you, you seem like the black Byron Allen?…”

I hadn’t watched any of Zach Galifianakis’s “Between Two Ferns” interview series on Funny or Die until I saw this clip today on EW’s PopWatch blog. How did I miss this all this time? I know how…because Zeus was waiting for this special day to rain absolute hilarity on my crappy mood. So  I’ve spent the past 30min. watching these clips, and now I’m fully ready to hit the streets again and be my normal moderate-to-very grouchy self! Sunshine!

But seriously, these are awesome. I posted a couple other favorites after the jump…including Zach with Natalie Portman, and Zach with Bradley Cooper (The Hangover), and Zach with John Hamm (“Mad Men”)

Zach: “You’re an accomplished actress, you’ve graduated from Harvard, you’ve done some great international charity work….what…is your phone number?”
Natalie: “That’s private.”
Zach: “I know.”
Zach: “You shaved your head for V for Vendetta, did you also shave your V for Vagina?”
*DEAD*

Zach: “You’re on the cover of Details magazine, which is a really good publication if you have run out of cologne…”
Bradley: “(why does it have to be like that? why do you have to be mean?)”
Zach: “Just asking questions.”

Zach: “The women in the show sure are pretty. Do you ever get around to fingering any of them?”

I just wish I could figure out how to play these without any annoying skipping. Does it happen to you?

Just got home from the Garden, had an amazing time and truly feel like I was in the building for a big big moment in hip hop history. Obviously at this point Jay-Z is as mainstream as he is rap, but it was still moving to see someone you’ve watched and been around develop into this icon. Mary J Blige killed it, Beyonce killed it, they were attitude and showtime personified. But overall, it was just fun being in this middle lounge area, smack dab in the middle of the floor, with friends, and their friends. While me, Angie, Ebro, Jill, Adrienne, and Ashley did the couch dance…I could see Hov’s inner circle, TyTy, Beyonce, OG Juan, and others celebrating as well. And looking around the sold out area, everyone else was too. At first I was frustrated because my cell wasn’t working, but it was actually very liberating…hey dummy (me), just enjoy the show. Backstage the big discussion was whether or not this was the show of Jay’s career. Its between this and the Fade the Black concert (maybe the Fade to Black show had the stronger music )…I’m not sure, but this one certainly had all the stars aligned, emotions, purpose, guests (Rihanna, Kid Cudi, Pharrell, Kanye, John Mayor, Swizz, Diddy, Santigold), great staging, hitchless audio, live band, live dj (Neil Armstrong) and a very polished stage presence.

UPDATE: Check out Concrete Loop, they posted some beautiful photos from the concert…

MissInfo: yes…it was a good, sweaty, hiphop night. And Rae was happy and verklempt.

(Erick Sermon, me, Reggie Noble, and Lil Cease)

(Diddy was a trooper, he thugged it out on that stage…yes that was the view of the stage from Scram Jones’ DJ set-up. And it was steamy like a split baked potato. Uncomfy)

More Coverage from last night over at XXL Mag (Rae wishes Jay-Z a good release week) and RapRadar  (performance clips) and MTV Mixtape Daily (Sha, where were you?!)

After the jump….more video clips, as well as me and Angela Yee’s photos from the party!

(Lowkey was chaperone, Dallas was the mayor)

(thanks to Angela Yee for twitpic-ing this funny photo and the one below of Rae…wait a minute! Leah Rose is calling us Looosers! LOL)

(Rae with 2 “fly colored Asians”…note to self: stop smiling so hard. yeesh. gummy.)

Last night was one of those perfect hip hop moments….Raekwon (and his brothers Kay and Don) and the Capitol staff (hey Chris Green) set up a listening session for Only Built for Cuban Linx 2 (Sept 8, 2009) on the rooftop of the Capitol/EMI building in NYC. This being the first time a hip hop event has been held on the roof (last week, a rock act threw a drumstick off the roof and has since been banned, lol), everything fell into place: the weather, the crowd (including my old pals Angela Yee, Reef, Hawaii Mike, Mel, and more), the food/drink, and of course, the music.

The sequel to Rae’s holy grail, that Purple Tape 1 (called that because the original cassettes were  purple plastic), holds true to the feel of the original…never chasing a 2010 sound, but because of that, sounding unforced and still fresh. It doesn’t recreate the instant hits of OB4CL1 but nothing ever will. (Maybe only The Chronic was successful in hitting twice on the same level?) Needless to say, next week, I hope people support, because this is artisanal rap, not conglomerate rap. And seeing Rae and his brother Kay up on that small stage, with the Empire State Building on the left….reminded me that the music and the fans can grow up and not just apart.

RELATED: “House of Flying Daggers” video, Raekwon’s Noisemakers interview, Rae on Nas

PS: Saw Dallas Penn there, and we discussed how the listening session looked like a Rochesters sale. (Dallas, was the one girl with the double-wide that same chick Bucky from Flavor of Love?)
Peep Dallas’ and BDot’s RapRadar footage of Rae performing after the jump….

RAEKWON – ONLY BUILT 4 CUBAN LINX 2 PROMO CONCERT from dallas penn on Vimeo.

(I have this weird pained expression on my face for some reason…but seriously, I was a very happy camper. Thanks to Eddy Shades for sending over the pic : )

(Jim Jones and Asher Roth were doing alot of trashtwittering…but they never got to play each other, instead The Jones Family prevailed over Pac Div in the finals.)

(Left: Me on the left lookin like spongebob squaretangerine. Right: Matt and Kim and Ninjasonik spanked Asher Roth’s crew in a surprise upset…and Kim also “served” Asher’s boy with her dirty dancing. LOL! PS…me n ninja made peace ; )

What a blast was had at the Converse Band of Ballers!….the good folks at Converse (with Anomaly and Cornerstone) brought together a very motley crew for their first ever music x basketball tournament to celebrate the launch of their new Converse Weapon Evo sneaker….And with $10k cash on the backboard, the teams battling it out were…Asher Roth and the Roth Boys…Matt and Kim with Ninjasonik and The Brooklyn Crew….coach DJ Atrak and Fool’s Gold….Pac Div from the Wessiiide…superproducer Diplo and his Mad Decent crew…and Jim Jones and The Jones Family (literally). The Joneses won the final game (just like the Village Voice predicted) against Pac Div but it was no cakewalk…everyone fought to the sweaty end, lol.

(As your humble host, I did my pseudo-courtside-commenting, twit-picing, and sweating like a can o’ coke…but also got the ustream crackin too. Truthfully, I knew you horndogs would want to see my besties-for-the-day Rosa Acosta and Xio from the Drake video. Enjoy them, along with Rosenberg, Atrak, Jimmy, and my chubby upper arm area.)

After the jump….Diplo/Mad Decent summarized the true meaning of the game…Atrak spills the secret to Jim Jones’ success…Rosenberg comforts Asher…more pics…and XXL’s video clips of Jimmy’s win and his trophy acceptance speech….Me: What you gonna do now, Jimmy? Him: I’m gonna get high!

(Confession: I tried to instigate by asking if Jimmy had ever hit off Diplo for using his “Paper Planes” beat…didn’t work. lol)

(tweet of the day)

(the ‘Thals came thru…the humidity put an extra spring in Eric’s ringlets)

(I jumped for joy when I saw this pic of Rosenberg comforting his sweet prince Asher after his loss….ok, actually, this was taken before the tournament….but it was weird how Peter knew the full names and addresses of all the Roth Boys ; )

(your moment of zen (c) The Daily Show)

(XXL covered the festivities and caught The Jones Family on the court)

(Another XXL clip: Jim Jones…err…graciously accepts the first ever Band of Ballers trophy.… (Jimmy) “We told y’all, for all the shit talking we was doing on Twitter, we talk shit and flush the toilet. You know what I’m talking about!? Ballin’!! …” (Me) “What are you gonna do now Jimmy?” (Jimmy) “We gon’ get high!“) (thanks to Dre and Nahright for the quote)

(thanks to Lala and the gang from Complex for the cute pic)

(and thank you to Stan, Derek, and Jake from Anomaly. Dru and Maridi from Cornerstone. HairbyAndrea. Gary and Heather from Mac. and all the friends who came thru)

I have no words…this is the bestest thing I’ve seen in a long while. Its so good I told Complex’s NCB that I wish I could attach it to a wristcuff and use it as my sole communication device….like Stephen Hawking’s voicepad.

While, the only name-shout that worked for me was “Gucci!”….I literally spat up Honest Tea when I clicked on Flex, R.Kelly, Sean Simpleton Kingston and all of the Prodigys.

Jimmy is on there 4 times! He’s like Michael Keaton in Multiplicity!

This is like a rap fan’s audio version of a scratch-n-sniff book. Endless hours of fun. Just awesome.

Mikey loved it too…after the jump…

Alan’s friend from TooNewYork blog says: “…the other day at six flags in new jersey. my boy bought the picture from the ride of him when we got off when he saw his face…we promised we wouldn’t post it on “cyber space” but what can you do…I SEE YOU KILLA CAM.”

First off…shame on you, Alan, for breaking your promise to Cam. (jokes) But on another note…thank you, Alan, because this photo and story is awesome.

(like the rest of youse don’t go to amusement parks?)