(Above: Pharrell & HHS Staff @ HipHopSite retail store in 2006.) As HHS re-enters the scene, we’re keeping a close watch on what’s going on in this industry, and the new breed of rap websites. All due respect to those who have been doing it the last few years, holding it down while we closed [cont.]

Seems like everyone moved their release dates around to make sure they weren’t competing with a little old artist named B.o.B. and his Atlantic Records / Grand Hustle debut, The Adventures of Bobby Ray. Atlantic’s direct deal preorder packages are done with, so let’s see where the best place to cop this album is…… Itunes [cont.]

One thing surrounding the controversial, untimely, and tragic death of Guru is the fate of his yet-to-be released recordings. We all know that Guru has been recording exclusively on 7*Grand Recordings over the last few years with Solar. What this means, sadly, is that the recordings under the label that remain unfinished or in the [cont.]

This just in, Little Brother’s official webstore, 5th & Fashion, is offering Left Back with a limited edition Left Back t-shirt in a package deal for $30. Maybe we were late on this, maybe it was just announced. Either way, support your favorite artists, or don’t be mad when they disappear.

Of course, Cypress Hill is not the only group with an album dropping on today 4/20, there’s also Little Brother’s Leftback, Kurupt’s Streetlights, Devin The Dude’s Do Not Distherb (Suite 420), and Truthlive’s Patience, also each in stores now. But Cypress Hill is the only one of these groups that is dropping multiple, confusing alternate [cont.]

We usually like to run these articles on street date Tuesdays, but here it is a day late. We know many of you rushed right down to your local record store Monday night at 11:59 to support the flourishing music industry. But since nobody out there downloaded the album illegally and some of you haven’t [cont.]

Here we are on the (supposed) eve of the release of Dr. Dre’s first single from his third and apparent final album, Detox, aptly titled “Under Pressure”, a collaborative track with Jay-Z. The internet has been ablaze the last few weeks with talk of the single, with everyone wondering what exactly it will sound like. [cont.]

Decisions, decisions. We know each and every one of you is going to be first in line at your local mom and pop shop with $50 in your hands to cop the new albums from Erykah Badu, Meth + Ghost + Rae, Usher, E-40 right? Surely the only way to get these never heard before [cont.]

Damn, Luda’s been mentioning Conjure so much in his lyrics lately, you’d think he owns a stake in the company. Oh wait, he does. Ludacris has his own brand of cognac called Conjure. From cooking with Conjure on Martha Stewart to releasing a mixtape around the liquor to name dropping it in every other verse, [cont.]

This song by Indeep in 1982 summed up how Hip-Hop saw its beloved DJ – as a superhero. In the beginning, the DJ was the main attraction. People came out to parties just to see their favorite DJ rock the house. The “rapper” at that time was just a guy who carried the vinyl, introduced [cont.]

Growing up I was the biggest Public Enemy fan in the world. A geeky 6th grader obssessed with Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Terminator X, Professor Griff, Harry Allen, The Bomb Squad and the S1W’s. As a student of MTV in the 1980′s, I dug all the pop music stuff, but the hair band shit that [cont.]

57. According to OHHLA.com, 57 rappers have used or currently use the prefix Lil’, Little or Young (including all of the ridiculous spellings of this word) in their rap names. Keep in mind the site only tracks rappers who have actually released a real album. So the seemingly endless amount of mixtape and Myspace rappers [cont.]

Today sees the release of two major major-label releases, from Gorillaz with “Plastic Beach” and Ludacris with “Battle of The Sexes”…. Both releases are available everywhere, but the question is, who has the best deal on each album? Let’s take a look. As far as Gorillaz “Plastic Beach” is concerned, it’s available in FIVE different [cont.]

What’s the hardest thing to do in rap? A hit record? Please, it seems that anyone with a cute gimmick can get one of those. Get a platinum album? Nope. Even with the decline in album sales, every year someone is bound to sell a million records. Get 5 Mics or win a Grammy? No [cont.]

Yesterday morning, a statement was released on behalf of Guru, which read “I am doing fine and I am recovering! I’m weak though… [7 Grand partner] Solar is the only person who has the accurate info on my situation. Any info from anybody else is false! I appreciate your well wishes and all the love!” [cont.]

Hip-Hop has always been a “boy’s club” where female emcees are seen as welcomed guests rather than active participants. But it was never this bad. It never got to the point where award shows had to literally discontinue its best female artist category because there was no one to give it to. There used to [cont.]

There’s been lots of speculation as to what exactly is going on with this company lately. As the one of the internet’s longest running, pioneering hip-hop websites, we’ve had a long, great history as one of the first online news and information sources for hip-hop since our birth in 1996. The site was started by [cont.]