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It wasn’t so long ago that Rock The Bells was a revivalist show, about reliving the past. I mean, hell, the name: “Rock the Bells”. Last year’s edition was all about legends, and by legends, we mean established stars (people that’ve been around the block) performing classic albums (stuff that’s been around for over ten years) in their entirety—Doggystyle, Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Illmatic and so forth. All great stuff really, but the backwards looking nature of the show might have implied hip-hop has already gone through its brightest moments long ago.

That’s going to change. This year’s RTB, presented by our buddies at Guerilla Union, will now be headlined by the new generation of hip-hop stars. Wiz Khalifa and Kid Cudi this year will share the headlining duties along with esteemed veteran Nas, who with Life Is Good coming next month will focus on new material. Filling out the top of the bill are twenty-somethings J. Cole, Lupe Fiasco, Mac Miller, and Kendrick Lamar. Now lest people start thinking this was going to be a new jack festival, we still have plenty of legends to justify the “Rock the Bells” name, with Ice Cube, Dipset, Method Man and Redman (performing Blackout in its entirety, so the concept of performing whole albums isn’t dead at all), a reunited Hit Squad–EPMD, Das EFX, Keith Murray, and K-Solo–and special appearances from Missy Elliott and Timbaland, and a reunited Bone Thugs-N-Harmony on the bill.

And that’s just the top of the bill. We have more names for you–do check out the flyer after the jump–but we should mention the venue and dates–and here’s another twist–we’ll be seeing more than one day of RTB at each venue. San Bernadino’s Nos Events Center will host RTB on August 18 to 19, Shoreline Ampitheatre in the Bay Area will be August 25 to 26, and the Tri-State area will have RTB in Holmdel, New Jersey at the PNC Bank Arts Center for September 1 to 2. We’ll have more information as to what to expect each day and when tickets are on sale and will post it once we get our hands on ‘em.

UPDATE: Shoreline Ampitheatre tickets presale will go down this Friday, May 18, from 10 AM to 10 PM Pacific time. Special presale password is “HISTORY”. Check out Live Nation for tickets. We’ll have more info here and on our Facebook page when it comes available. read more »

Two couches, two mics, and time to burn. Hip-hop’s closest analog to Matt Pinfield, Hot 97 DJ and Rock The Bells Festival host Peter Rosenberg sits down with Nas during SXSW earlier this month, and discuss for an half hour Nas’ two decade long career (and a bit about Rosenberg’s weight) in front of an Austin crowd. And naturally, the topics start with Large Professor’s “Live at the BBQ” (Nas’ first major appearance on wax, continues up to his latest single to date, the Heavy D co-produced “The Don”, and touches on Jay-Z, Damien Marley, getting a phone call from Michael Jackson, the Rock the Bells Fesival, and more. Now, admittedly, this is not the most lucid Nas interview (SXSW does things to people, to say the least), but we don’t get too many chances to to see figures like Nas speak this unguardedly.

Rock The Bells, the hip-hop superfestival that has also become a Bay Area fixture every summer since 2005, just concluded west coast run last weekend with a show at the Shoreline Ampitheatre in Mountain View, Calfornia. We’ll have backstage interviews and other exclusive materials from the show later, but for now, take a look at the photos that Madelynn and Amari Kenoly took for us in the crowds and press pits.

Probably the nicest flow Nas had in recent memory? I think so. Funny how Nas never really embraced his original qualifier since Illmatic though heads never forgot… that is until now. This is “Nasty”, and it is due to be included on his very positively-titled project, Life Is Good.

Hat Tip: Okayplayer.com

Guerilla Union has announced this year’s Rock the Bells Festival lineup, which will tour with stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Boston. As with last year’s event, Rock the Bells is going classic, bringing in some of the biggest hip-hop artists around to perform their most memorable material. This year’s headliners are no strangers to the now-classic summertime hip-hop festival, as Ms. Lauryn Hill, performing songs from Miseducation, and Nas, performing from Illmatic, set to grace the same stage. Joining them on the classics tip are Cypress Hill, Mos Def and Talib Kweli as Black Star, half of the Wu-Tang (GZA, RZA as host, Ghost and Rae, and Masta Killah), Erykah Badu, Mobb Deep (along with Big Noyd), Immortal Technique, Black Moon, Souls of Mischief, Evidence of Dilated Peoples, and Slaughterhouse, the supergroup of Joe Budden, Royce the 5’9″, Joell Ortiz and Crooked I. For the cool kids, there’s Mac Miller, Blu, Exile and Fashawn, Childish Gambino (aka, Donald Glover of TV’s Community), Random Axe, Macklemore, Big KRIT, Freddie Gibbs and Roc Marciano, all there on support.

For more, check out rockthebells.net. The flyer is after the jump. read more »

Nasir Jones can finally claim a major award, and somehow it wasn’t a Grammy. For ESPN, Nas directed, narrated, and scored “Survival 1,” a documentary broadcast on ESPN’s E:60 newsmagazine show. The story follows two amputees in Liberia, victims of the recent decade-long Liberian Civil War, who put aside their desolate prospects by participating in an soccer program designed to help amputees. That feature just won a Emmy for sports broadcasting, the first ever award Nas has won, as he described it, “of this magnitude.”

Hat tip: Okayplayer.com

While we’re waiting for Mix Master Mike to get on stage, The Beastie Boys have pre-emptively responded to the leaking of their new album, Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. II, by putting it online and streaming it off of the album’s website, http://hotsaucecommittee.com/. Here’s “Too Many Rappers [new reactionaries version],” featuring Nas, as posted on SoundCloud:

Check the jump for the rest of the album… read more »

Here is the Letter that is floating around the Net….

From: Nas

To: LA Reid, Steve Bartels, Steve Gawley, Michael Seltzer, Joseph Borrino, Chris Hicks
Subject: PUT MY SH*T OUT!

Peace to all,

With all do respect to you all, Nas is NOBODY’s slave. This is not the 1800’s, respect me and I will respect you.

I won’t even tap dance around in an email, I will get right into it. People connect to the Artist @ the end of the day, they don’t connect with the executives. Honestly, nobody even cares what label puts out a great record, they care about who recorded it. Yet time and time again its the executives who always stand in the way of a creative artist’s dream and aspirations. You don’t help draw the truth from my deepest and most inner soul, you don’t even do a great job @ selling it. The #1 problem with DEF JAM is pretty simple and obvious, the executives think they are the stars. You aren’t…. not even close. As a matter of fact, you wish you were, but it didn’t work out so you took a desk job. To the consumer, I COME FIRST. Stop trying to deprive them! I have a fan base that dies for my music and a RAP label that doesn’t understand RAP. Pretty fucked up situation

This isn’t the 90’s though. Beefing with record labels is so 15 years ago. @ this point I just need you all to be very clear where I stand and how I feel about “my label.” I could go on twitter or hot 97 tomorrow and get 100,000 protesters @ your building but I choose to walk my own path my own way because since day one I have been my own man. I did business with Tommy Mottola and Donnie Einer, two of the most psycho dudes this business ever created. I worked well with them for one major reason……. they believed in me. The didn’t give a f**k about what any radio station or magazine said….those dudes had me.

Lost Tapes is a movement and a very important set up piece for my career as it stands. I started this over 5 years ago @ Columbia and nobody knew what it was or what it did but the label put it out as an LP and the fans went crazy for it and I single handlely built a new brand of rap albums. It’s smart and after 5 years it’s still a head of the game. This feels great and you not feeling what I’m feeling is disturbing. Don’t get in the way of my creativity. We are aligned with the stars here, this is a movement. There is a thing called KARMA that comes to haunt you when you tamper with the aligning stars. WE ARE GIVING THE PEOPLE EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT. Stop throwing dog s**t on a MAGICAL moment.

You don’t get another Nas recording that doesn’t count against my deal….PERIOD! Keep your bulls**t $200,000.00 fund. Open the REAL budget. This is a New York pioneers ALBUM, there ain’t many of us. I am ready to drop in the 4th quarter. You don’t even have s**tcoming out! Stop being your own worst enemy. Let’s get money!

-N.Jones

Guitar god Santana links up with Nas for a cover of the classic AC/DC track “Back in Black,” included on the rocker’s concept album Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time. The bristly remake sees Nas rapping over spidery guitar riffs that lash at a busy percussion section. ….Whatcha guys think? Comments?

Carlos Santana featuring Nas – Back in Black (AC/DC Cover) by Hypetrak