Ice Cube announced his 9th studio album 'I Am The West'

Gangsta Rap-legend Ice Cube announced a new album titled I Am The West.
As Cube told Rap-Up:

I AM THE WEST…is the name of my new record. After completing about 65% of my music, this is the perfect title. This shit is cocky, no apologies,West Coast gangsta shit. I can’t help it. That’s what I do. June seems too tight for a release, but July is very doable. We’ll see how things go. Now that I have my title, I can work on the concept of my photoshoot and artwork. I want to provide early merch before the drop date.

For 7 or 8 years now the West Coast has been trying to do music that appeals to the South and Mid-West. The words, “too West Coast” would be heard throughout the industry whenever our music was played. Even by our own dj’s. Left coast MC’s were now trying to change their sound to cater to all the followers. We lost our way. Thank God for b-boys like Snoop, The Game & WC for keeping the West alive, but we were all guilty of over reaching. No more. At least not from me. I do it how I feel it; not how I think it should be done. Radio fucked us up. I hate the politics at radio. I don’t know who to pay to get my shit played. Having a hot song is not enough. Ridiculous.

I AM THE WEST. It’s coming….

My personal thoughts are mostly focused on how he's gonna do it: is Cube gonna go back to his original style or is he goin' to stick into the dirty south-ish gangsta rap style he had on his last release Raw Footage, 2008.
I honestly hope that he is going to take the West back to the style of music they had in the 80's and the 90's, and stay away from rapping about scarin' people to chruch or wearing locs.
Whatever it will be, I'm still already very hyped.

Sources: thisis50.com & Rap-Up.
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Creating a Kanye West-style beat

Yo! I'm up with my first beat-creating tutorial so far. This tutorial is based on creating beats like Kanye West's - the ones he did in College Dropout, Late Registration and Graduation. NOT 808s & Heartbreak.

In this tutorial, I'll mostly concentrate on explaining how Kanye makes his beats and tell you some basic facts about the beats and by that give you a hand on creating them beats.

The number one thing you need to know about 'Ye's beats is that he uses samples. Kanye's samples are from all kinds of music, 'Stronger' contains the famous vocal samples from Daft Punk's 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger' and 'Good Life' samples the Michael Jackson classic 'P.Y.T', so the range is wide.
What Kanye usally does is that he takes a vocal sample and either slows it down (like in Stronger & Good Life) or pitches it up (The Glory, Jesus Walks, Gold Digger, for example) and uses it to build up a melody. He also uses much instrumental samples (Everything I Am), or both (I Wonder). To get a basic view, check out the following video:



Now, you wanna know how.
Pretty much the most difficult thing in sampling is finding the sample.
But that's not that hard neither: just go through your parents'/grandparents' CD collection, or if you listen to soul/blues or whatever you want to sample, it's even easier (just remember, for Kanye style beats soul samples are the key).
If neither is possible or doesn't give good answers just go to YouTube and search for songs from The Temptations, The Emotions or whoever you are thinking for.
Another, easier, option is just checking a sample for a Kanye song and take another song by the exact artist to get a sound like 'Ye.

Other thing that you'll notice about Kanye's songs are drum lines.
Listen to the beginning of 'Heard 'Em Say' or the break on 'Stronger', you'll notice that the drums aren't that simple.
Yes, Kanye uses live percussion, but with a proper Kanye drum kit you can easily create something similar enough.
Keep the tempo to 100-110 BPM (beats per minute) - that's how Kanye usually does it. Stronger runs 104 BPM.
Use kicks that hit often, add percs, and (important) - feel free to try a unique snare sample. That's really Kanye-ish (Good Life, We Major).

I'm pretty much done on this tutorial, but I'll give you a small summary on what I have explained:

- Use samples. Soul samples and rock samples. And don't forget vocal samples
- Keep the tempo to 100-110 Beats Per Minute
- Use fast drum lines

I'll drop a link to this good Kanye West drum kit by HHS.
It also includes a couple drum and melody loops sampled from his songs/productions.
It's not perfect but it is a really good one to start with.
Download kit.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to subscribe for hip-hop news, beat creating tutorials and much more, and follow me on Twitter, check my beats and add me on MySpace and sub + add on YouTube.
Peace out!

Pimp My Desktop!

This may sound geeky-ish, but everybody knowst that a true swagga stays fresh everywhere, everytime.
But it's not just Gucci down to the socks, you gotta have a swag in everything!
So follow these instructions to pimp your PC desktop:

RocketDock is a useful fresh program which lets you add a Mac-style bar to your desktop, and you can simply drag icons to it and change the icons even easier than it is without the program!
Download RocketDock here!
To add sweet icons or get a new dope wallpaper just go this site and search for what'chu want!

Are u wise enough to use Windows 7 or XP? But still a Vista fanboy? No worries, the Vista RainBar lets you add all those fancy notebooks, clocks and just about everything that you love in Vista's workspace to your desktop eazy 'nuff. Download here.

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for:

- More useful information on programs and other PC crap
- Hip-hop and rap music news
- FL Studio packs/tutorials
- Music

..and much more, so don't forget to subscribe!
Also follow me on Twitter, and make sure to check my beats, songs and add me on MySpace and YouTube.

My top 25 favorite DJ Premier beatz:

25. Peer Pressure - Mobb Deep (Listen)
24. Game Over - Smooth B (Listen)
23. None Of Y'all Betta - Jadakiss & D-Block (Listen)
22. The One And Only - Snoop Dogg (Listen)
21. 2nd Childhood - Nas (Listen)
20. Battle - Gang Starr (Listen)
19. A Million And One Questions (DJ Premier Remix) - Jay-Z (Listen)
18. When I B On Tha Mic - Rakim (Listen)
17. Def Wish II (East Coast Gang Starr Re-Mix) - Compton's Most Wanted (Listen)
16. Something 2 Ride 2 - Royce Da 5'9" (Listen)
15. My Mind Spray - Jeru The Damaja (Listen)
13. Much Too Much (Mack A Mil) - Gang Starr Listen)
13. Moment Of Thruth - Gang Starr (Listen)
12. D. Original - Jeru The Damaja (Listen)
11. D'Evils - Jay-Z (Listen)
10. Who's Gonna Take The Weight? - Gang Starr (Listen)
9. Full Clip - Gang Starr (Listen)
8. Nas Is Like - Nas (Listen)
7. N.Y. State Of Mind - Nas (Listen)
6. DWYCK - Gang Starr (ft. Nice & Smooth) (Listen)
5. Ain't The Devil Happy - Jeru The Damaja (Listen)
4. Now You're Mine - Gang Starr (Listen)
3. Classic (DJ Premier Remix) - Kanye West (ft. Nas, Rakim & KRS-One) (Listen)
2. Supa Star - Group Home (Listen)
1. Rite Where U Stand - Gang Starr (ft. Jadakiss) (Listen)