Wednesday's Daily Rap

19 November 2008

Rate this article

In today's Daily Rap we see TI testify in a murder trial, Def Jam replaces Shakir Stewart, Damon Dash takes another swing at Jay Z and 50 Cent pushes his album back even further.

TI to Testify

Atlanta based rapper will testify today in the murder trial of Hosea Thomas who along with his brother pardon are accused of shooting and killing TI�s best friend Philiant Johnson after a show in Cincinnati in 2006.

The two brothers followed TI and his entourage from the venue and fired shots which injured three more people as a chase ensued on a highway.

A date has yet to be set for the trial of Pardon Thomas who faces the same charges as his brother.

Def Jam replace Shakir Stewart

Jeff Straughn was appointed the Senior VP of Strategic Marketing at Def Jam earlier this week. Straughn who has been with the company since 2005 replaces the late Shakir Stewart who sadly took his life earlier this month.

Shakir replaced Hip-Hop superstar Jay Z when his three year contract expired at the end of last year. It is still not known what encouraged Shakir Stewart to take his own life, however it is speculated that the well respected Executive was struggling with certain parts of his life.

Straughn has been promoted with the hopes of �building long term partnership programs with the label, its artists and corporate entities to reach mutually beneficial marketing goals.�

Damon Dash speaks out against Jay Z

Former Roc-a-fella boss Damon Dash has took another swing at former business partner Jay Z in the up and coming edition of Complex magazine.

Dame Dash who has not had much success in business since he and Jay Z parted ways in 2004, implied that there has always been a mutual hate between Jay Z and Kanye West, the biggest selling artist on the Roc-a-fella label right now.

Dash explains that he had to address the situation back in 2003 when Kanye joined the label and Jay Z who was expected to bestow his Roc-a-fella chain on Kanye wouldn�t. Industry insiders say the reason for Dame Dash even discussing this now is to help promote the artist he is currently working with, Jim Jones.

Jay Z has yet to comment on the interview and Kanye�s camp have reportedly said there is no problem between the two Hip-Hop heavy weights.

50 Cent pushes album back

Ok so for all of us who were looking forward to a 50 Cent CD for Christmas we are going to be disappointed.

The Queens rapper has decided to wait until the New Year for the rappers last release on Interscope Before I Self-Destruct. 50 is adamant that he needs more time to promote the album and doesn�t want to see the same thing happen to this project that happened with Curtis.

The album which is now set to be released on February 3rd also sees the rapper align himself once again with long time co-hort Sha Money XL who was a major part in the rappers first two projects.

Melanie Cornish