I’m not ashamed to admit that I was seven years old in 1984. I happen to have been lucky enough to say that by the time Def Jam found its' legs, I was old enough to be along for the ride. The label created and provided the platform for hip-hop music to truly thrive in a time when it was still young and considered a fad. It’s first single, T La Rock and Jazzy Jay’s “Its Yours” (which Nas would later sample on his classic debut) set the tone for what would become an amazing string of artists who are now icons in hip hop: LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys (whose “Licensed To Ill” gave the culture it’s first Billboard Top 200 #1 album), Slick Rick, Public Enemy, and EPMD.

You can’t go to any corner of this earth and not find hip-hop’s fingerprints somewhere. Def Jam is part of the reason for that...

Def Jam, and their ethos of allowing the artists to be themselves, is the blueprint for every other independent record label that ever created anything remotely close to hip hop music. Uptown Records, Bad Boy Entertainment, Rocafella Records, and Death Row Records all gave the world memorable music, and they all owe a debt to the house the Rick and Russell built. It’s not enough to simply say that Def Jam is important to hip-hop. DEF JAM RECORDINGS IS HIP-HOP. Today you get Ghostface, The Roots, Rick Ross, Young Jeezy, Nas, Method Man, and Redman music straight from Def Jam. Jay-Z became a household name after his tenure in it’s hallowed halls, even briefly becoming it’s president. Some of the hip-hop/r&b joints you’ve jammed to at the club were provided via DefSoul. They gave you comedy with Def Comedy Jam, breaking acts like Chris Tucker and Bernie Mack. Def Poetry Jam introduced a larger audience to the joy, pain, and beauty of performance poetry. Def Jam even gave us video and film directors: Hollywood filmmaker Brett Ratner got his start shooting videos, including clips for Redman, LL Cool J, and Public Enemy’s first video “Louder Than A Bomb”. He has since directed great music videos for Mariah Carey, Mary J Blige, Jodeci, Wutang Clan, P. Diddy, and Madonna. He also directed a little film called Rush Hour, and the sequels that followed. Guess what record label did the soundtrack?

Def Jam, and their ethos of allowing the artists to be themselves, is the blueprint for every other independent record label that ever created anything remotely close to hip hop music.

But Def Jam’s biggest contribution to us all is that twenty-five years after it exploded onto the scene, it’s still here. It’s still relevant, and it’s become a symbol of respect, and a reminder of all the things we love about the culture. Def Jam has been a huge part of my life, from my earliest days as a military brat and hip-hop ambassador around the world to my later development as a writer and filmmaker. This label’s legacy plays a huge part in the foundation of my own company and the documentary film I am currently developing/directing, “Tougher Than Leather”, about the globalization of hip-hop culture, and how it changed the world. You can’t go to any corner of this earth and not find hip-hop’s fingerprints somewhere. Def Jam is part of the reason for that, and just like that very first single, hip-hop is still yours.

The book, titled Dancing With The Devil, is slated for release in February. In the first chapter of the book featured on Curry's site, Curry claims that Diddy likes to steal his artists shine and overcharge his artists.

"Puff has an annoying habit of inserting himself into the songs and videos of all the artists on his label and its common knowledge that many Bad Boy acts resented him for this," Curry writes. "Asked about his practice in the July 1995 issue of a magazine aimed at black teenagers, Puff said: 'I like performing with my artists. I like talking on the records and I like being in the videos. It protects my interests in terms of what I’m going to do in the future. Say if a company tries to remove me. It's going to be hard to remove me and still have my acts and [have] the same level of intensity and the same flavour and feeling'."

"Puff charged the artists for his appearance on their records and videos, usually without [them] realizing it until they receive their royalty statements," Curry writes. "That’s when they discovered that their large sums of money had gone to fees which were doubled, tripled and even quadrupled because of Puff's 'special appearances". He charged artists, for example, for having his Bentley in his videos-which he insisted upon- then took tax credit for business use of a car."

Curry appeared on Diddy's Forever, Notorious B.I.G.'s posthumous album Born Again and Diddy's The Saga Continues. He is well known for his appearance on the 2001 hit "Bad Boy For Life".

READ CHAPTER 1 HERE

Predictably, the flick garnering outright adoration and even a standing ovation at its first screening at this week’s SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL is the gripping “Tyson” documentary by director and miraculous Tyson wrangler JAMES TOBACK. Told entirely in the lisping voice of the former champ in footage culled from countless hours of interviews, the father of six recounts his rise and fall, from early days being bullied as a fat kid (”It was kill or be killed”), and being forced to defend himself in juvenile detention at age 12, to his training with legendary Cus D’Amato (”I knew all the skullduggery … most of these guys lost the fight before it even started”), to his days as world heavyweight champ (”Once I get in the ring, I’m a god”), and ultimately, his grisly public fall from grace (”I lost the desire to be a champion”) including a prison term and the infamous ear biting incident. Along the way, it’s revealed, Tyson squandered almost $400 million and lost nearly everything he’d ever earned, physically and emotionally. Toback has known the boxer since 1985 and was able to capture a raw and previously unseen look at the fighter. In Tyson’s words, “Jim, he just elicited all this stuff out of me, I don’t know how he did it.” Far from glossing over the fighter’s problems and controversial missteps, Toback’s subject instead offers a shockingly open assessment of his tumultuous life, verbally beating himself into a corner again and again. The film is slated for commercial release on April 24. Read more HERE.

FOX 10 Exclusive: John Hook talks with DMX

Written By: Gane-McCalla

There is a major crisis going on in America. If we do not avert this crisis we may see the destruction of America as we know it. We will no longer be able to compete with other countries, thousands more people will be unemployed, our cities will become centers for poverty, violence and drug addiction.

No, this crisis is not our financial crisis or the collapse of of the auto industry. This crisis is way more severe than either of those. The crisis is the collapse of the urban educational system, a crisis has been swept under the rug by the American media and government for years.

The urban education crisis is hardly a new one for years the American government has neglected the educational needs of the poor African Americans and Latinos who occupy many of our city centers.

It is no coincidence that the cities with the highest drop out rates also have the highest crime rates and highest murder rates. Students who are unable to obtain quality educations find opportunities in the world of drugs and crime. The cycle continues from one generation to another, in poor neighborhoods with poor schools plagued by by crime and no opportunity gives birth to another generation with the same problem.

Bailing out the urban educational system is not just a money problem. For too many years Americans have fought against things, communism, drugs poverty isn’t it time to fight for something? If Americans are to solve this problem first we must realize what a major problem it is and realize that the future of our country is at stake. As in most problems the solution must come from hard work, innovation as well as funding.

By baling out the urban education system we would not only reduce the crime rate, relieve our overcrowded jails and provide jobs for inner cities, we will also be breaking the cycle that keeps poor people of color in the same neighborhoods, repeating the same cycles of violence, drugs and poverty.

We have seen the heights a person of color can reach when given the proper education and opportunities in Barack Obama. How many future leaders, innovators, artists and businessman turn to crime or despair because of a lack of educational opportunities.

As someone who has worked in the some of the worst schools in Boston and the South Bronx, I’ve seen the overcrowded classrooms, the over-stressed, unprepared teachers, the metal detectors at the door, the gangs and lack of art and athletic programs to keep students interested in school. However I’ve also seen the desire to learn, the thirst for knowledge and the belief in the USA as a beacon of opportunity.

In Baltimore last year, students went on a hunger strike to protest the cuts in after school programs. John McCain said one thing that I agreed with during the campaign and that was that education is the civil rights issue of the 21st century. While de jure segregation has been gone for more then 50 years from our public school system, the system is still inherently separate and unequal.

The few blacks and latinos lucky enough to live in neighborhoods with decent school systems have a fair chance at the American dream, the masses who are trapped in inner cities with few routes out. Because property taxes fund school systems, rich neighborhoods get lots of money to fund their schools while poor neighborhoods are forced to suffer, creating a class and race based form of de facto segregation.

Bailing out the urban education system will take more than money. It will take people willing to sacrifice and believe in the future of this country. If Obama can inspire people to work for him to get elected hopefully he will be able to inspire people to follow his lead and work as community organizers in urban neighborhoods.

Here’s some of the national High school Drop out Rates According to The Wall St. Journal

New York: 53% of all students drop out

Here’s a Music Video I Did With Some of My Former Students in the South Bronx About the Drop Out Crisis

The Movement: Droppin Out

This wave of White House pardons is Bush’s latest, as he has less than two months in his presidency. A pardon cannot be overruled.

Forte was arrested at Newark International Airport in 2000 and charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine and conspiracy to distribute. Police caught him accepting a briefcase with about $1.4 million worth of liquid cocaine in it.

Forte was hit with a 14-year sentence in a federal penitentiary under minimum sentencing laws even though it was his first offense and he was a non-violent offender. He began his bid in jail in 2001 and has fought the laws vehemently.

Through the ordeal, he maintained his innocence and turned down a plea deal.

Damn Bush is trying to be a lil more gangsta before he leaves office aint he?