Common is easily like my No. 2 favorite artist ever. Seriously. Dude is so ill on his rhymes and yet somehow he remains underrated as an artist in my opinion. With his new album “The Dream/The Believer” due at the end of the month (Dec. 20), Common Sense decided to pay homage to his lifelong homie Nas by dropping flame on his track “Life’s A Bitch.” I bet folks didn’t know he listened to Illmatic like that, huh? Ha.

Easily one of the hardest tracks of the year, Nas dropped another banger after he asked the homie Rick Ross to tag-team on the track “It’s A Tower Heist” for the upcoming film, well, “Tower Heist,” starring Ben Stiller. Although this isn’t a video like most, Nas and the Boss are featured in the studio recording while it shows previews of the upcoming flick. Like they said, even Donald Trump can get it.

Nasty Nas is back. Watch as he takes this new music video to his roots of Queensbridge where the OG still gets mad love from the locals. This new song Nasty is the first lead single off of the Life Is Good album which is his 10th studio album and is slated for an early 2012 release.

Since Cole couldn’t land the hip-hop King of Gotham City, he wanted to throw Nas on their last minute.

Yeah, I was trying to do a last minute Nas thing but I couldn’t. I didn’t have enough time, and then I laid a new verse on the slot I saved for Jay but I ended up not liking it. So I ended up keeping it two verses. It’s cool, it still worked out.”

Nas and Jay-Z had one of the greatest (behind Biggie and Pac) hip-hop rivalries of all-time. HOV was reportedly sleeping around with Nas’ girl and so they went back and forth with diss tracks where Nas dropped the best diss track ever produced called “Ether.” I don’t know about y’all, but I think it would have been dope if Cole could have landed Nas for this album. Unfortunately, at least this time around, we won’t  be able to witness such a thing. But who knows?

This is only the Sideline Story ..

I find shit like this cool as fuck! Watch as the legend Nas (with the help of Kurput and Daz Dilligner) pay homage to Snoop Dogg by performing The Next Episode. Then after the jump Wiz Khalifa and Game do their thing over Nothin’ But A G Thang and Murder Was The Case. All of this went down at this weekend’s BMI Urban Awards in Los Angeles where Snoop was presented with the BMI Icon Award.

Source – RU

Rappers are competitors and that’s why it’s to no surprise that Lil Wayne is trying to steal some of the Jay-Z x Kanye West x Watch The Throne buzz by dropping his official tracklist to Tha Carter IV. Check it out. It has some interesting features including the obvious Drake, T-Pain, Cory Gunz, Rick Ross and then Tech N9ne, Jadakiss, Nas, Shyne and Busta Rhymes. Dope rappers need hot beats. I wonder who’s on the production boards…

Standard Edition

01. Intro
02. Blunt Blowin’
03. MegaMan
04. 6 Foot, 7 Foot (Feat. Cory Gunz)
05. Nightmares of the Bottom
06. She Will (Feat. Drake)
07. How to Hate (Feat. T-Pain)
08. Interlude (Feat. Tech N9ne)
09. John (Feat. Rick Ross)
10. Abortion
11. So Special (Feat. John Legend)
12. How to Love
13. President Carter
14. It’s Good (Feat. Drake & Jadakiss)
15. Outro (Feat. Bun B, Nas, Shyne & Busta Rhymes)

Deluxe Edition (Features TBA)

16. I Like the View
17. Mirror
18. Two Shots

I’ve never been to a Rock The Bells but hopefully 2011 changes that.  This year’s line up has a nice mix of old school legends with young and up and coming talent. From Lauryn Hill, Nas, Raekwon, Black Star, Mobb Deep, Ghostface, Slaughterhouse, Mac Miller, Curren$y, Big K.R.I.T., Freddie Gibbs, Childish Gambino – there’s an artist for everyone. Also, with these big festivals you can always expect a big surprise or two. Get your tickets while they last!

08.20 San Bernardino, CA – San Manuel Amphitheater
08.27 Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre
09.03 New York, NY – Governor’s Island
09.10 Boston, MA

Source – RTB

This weeks throwback is a compilation track with some of the best rappers. Its off Don Cartegena, which was released by Fat Joe in 1998. Album peaked at #7 on the Billboard 200 and was Fat Joe’s 3rd album. Enjoy.

Give it up to Mr. Kanye West!  He went from most hated to being booked to one of the biggest musical festivals of the year.  Along with Kanye – Kings of Leon, Afrojack, DJ A-Trak, Cee-Lo, Lil B, Lauryn Hill, Nas, Damian Marley, Paul Van Dyk, Ratatat, Steve Angello, The Black Keys, The Strokes, and Wiz Khalifa will also be headlining this year’s Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.  Check out the full list of performers here.

Your Throwback for this week is the classic Nas joint featuring Foxy Brown, AZ, and Cormega, aka The Firm.  It’s off the album It Was Written. This one is a request from P.C., so enjoy this shit!