11. Alfamega's Secret Past
Alfamega was originally a member of T.I.'s Grand Hustle Records. This changed after the ever reliable Smoking Gun website outed him as a former DEA informant, a no-no in many hip-hop circles. Consequently, Mega was publicly kicked out of Grand Hustle by his boss via a radio interview. After the information leaked on the web Alfa consistently tried to dismiss the rumor, much like Rick Ross before him. Still, that wasn't enough to save his career in a culture that generally frowns on "snitching."
10. Akon or Con Man?
A Smoking Gun investigation of Akon's alleged criminal past revealed some discrepancies. Akon has been arrested several times, but the man who titled his 2nd album Konvicted has never served time.
9. Dr. Dre in Pumps and Mascara
At the height of the Eazy-E vs Dr. Dre beef in 1992, the feuding friends traded insults non-stop. Just when it appeared as if Dre had sealed the deal with "Dre's Day," Eazy-E rebounded with "Real Muthafuckin' Gs." Eazy-E attacked Dre and Snoop, dubbing them studio gangsters who had never really witnessed the harsh realities of the "hood," but that wasn't the highlight. He devoted plenty of airtime to Dre's past as a member of the electro-pop group World Class Wrecking Cru' saying that he dressed in drag outfit while in the group. "Damn it’s a trip how a n-gga can go so quick from wearing lipstick to smoking on chronic at picnics," he rapped. Eazy also threw in a promo pic of Dre from 1986 dressed in pumps and mascara to boot.
8. Eve's Dirty Secret
Ma$e ran into Eve at a strip club years before she became a rap star, but he never mentioned it to anyone. Some internet jerk who stumbled upon pictures of Eve from her stripping days, on the other hand, wasn't so nice. In 2003, as Eve was in the middle of revamping her image in her new career as an artist and actress, unflattering pics of her in full-on stripper outfit surfaced on the web to the amusement of many. Some of the photos showed the Ruff Ryders' first lady in a compromising position with another woman. She later denied being a lesbian, saying that the other lady had been Photoshopped into the original pictures. But there was nothing doctored about the sex tape which turned up a couple years after the stripper expose.
7. Eminem's N-Bomb Fiasco
In a desperate attempt to paint Eminem as a racist, The Source founders Benzino and Dave Mays emerged with a tape that caught a 17-year old Marshall Mathers using the N-word. On one of the songs from the 1988 tape, an amateurish Eminem spewed hateful venom at black women: "All the girls I like to bone have big butts/No they don't, 'cause I don't like that nigger shit/I'm just here to make a bigger hit."
Eminem later explained that he wrote the song out of anger, having gone through a nasty break-up with his black girlfriend. He apologized and took the time to detail the entire saga on "Yellow Brick Road," one of his best songs ever.
6. Young Buck's Emotional Breakdown
Before he was unceremoniously dismissed from 50 Cent's G-Unit crew, Young Buck spent plenty of time airing the group's dirty laundry. In various interviews, the Tennessee rapper claimed 50 owed him some royalties and that he was getting screwed in his deal. To stir up buzz for G-Unit's T.O.S. album, 50 unleashed an old phone conversation with Buck to the web. Throughout the call, Young Buck mentioned that he owes 50 some money while telling his boss about his own financial plight. At some point, he broke down over his dismissal from the Unit, "Sh*t got me confused, man," he said repeatedly. To which 50 Cent coyly replied, "You'll be alright, don't worry about it."
5. The Source's Fall from Glory
When pioneering hip-hop magazine The Source went bankrupt, the last explanation its Board of Directors expected to hear was, "Um...sorry, Dave and I spent all the money on weed and bling bling." Like a 7-headed dragon, their problems multiplied and attacked from various angles. A Manhattan lithographer sued for $30,000. A 5th Ave. jeweler petitioned for a $36,000 dent. The magazine's travel agent was owed $142,000. Former Editor-in-Chief Kim Osorio filed a sexual harassment lawsuit. Osorio's description of The Source work environment sounded like something straight out of a movie: a "raunched-out workplace where executives watched porn, smoked pot and called female employees b*tches."
4. Lies, Lies, Baby
3. Officer Rick Ross
Though Rick Ross modeled his rap persona after a famous drug kingpin, Freeway Rick Ross. In reality, Ross' past most resembles that of the men who cuff drug dealers than a kingpin. When photos of a young Rick Ross in prison guard uniform turned up on the web, Rick Ross consistently denied the reports. He insisted that it was a doctored image aimed at assassinating his character. It was after a pile of documents from the Florida State Department of Corrections later showed that Rick Ross had, in fact, worked as a Corrections Officer that he finally owned up to his noble past. "In the game we in, it's real competitive," Ross later explained. "Competitors have to do what they have to do to eat."
2. Nas and Jay Had Something in Common
Many theories exist on why Jay-Z and Nas found themselves embroiled in one of the most dramatic feuds in hip-hop history. Was Nas envious of Jay's commercial exploits? Was Jay dissing Nas' girlfriend on "Is That Your Chick"? Nas' ex-girl Carmen Bryan claims she's the unintentional brain behind the beef. Both MCs initially tried to conceal the fact that Carmen, who has a daughter with Nas, had anything to do with the feud. In her memoir, Bryan reveals intimate details of her romp with Jay-Z and how it impacted the beef. In the same vein, Jay-Z admitted to the affair on "Super Ugly." Disgusted by her son's rhymes, Gloria Carter demanded that Jay apologize publicly to Nas and his family. He obliged.
No comments:
Post a Comment