Its A Lifestyle: January 2007

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Jay-Z To Re-Launch Cherry Coke

Jay-Z's push into the world of advertising and marketing continues, as the mogul's Rocawear company will help soft drink giant Coca-Cola relaunch its Cherry Coke line of soda.

According to industry trade publication Brand Week, Jay-Z will help design the can and the television commercials, in addition to appearing at the relaunch of the Cherry Coke brand on Feb. 7 during New York's Fashion Week.

Coca-Cola hopes the new union will be fruitful, as the Cherry Coke brand has relaunched three times since its debut in 1985, and has seen sales lag behind rivals' cherry cola products.

Jay-Z's can will feature a cityscape design, and a full marketing blitz for Internet, radio, TV and print will start early next month. A Jay-Z song will be featured as the commercial's soundtrack.

The rapper landed the deal with coke after an eight-minute video clip from Jay-Z's Radio City Music Hall started appearing on various Internet file trading sites.

"It's his new opportunity to expand his standing in the business world," Jameel Spencer, CMO, Rocawear told Brand Week. "Besides just recording, he's making TV commercials and campaigns for brands . . .who is better than Coke? They're the biggest...His role is helping brands not get it wrong the way McDonald's did with African Americans rapping about French fries... There's a reassurance that they won't appear like an out-of-touch uncle trying to act cool."

In related news, Jay-Z will appear in a new Superbowl XLI commercial with former Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula, promoting Bud Light.

The rapper, born Shawn Carter, has been co-brand director for Budweiser Select since Oct. 2006.

Jay-Z also recently announced a partnership with GM to produce "Jay-Z Blue," a custom color for the auto maker's Yukon Denali SUV.

From allhiphop.com

Sunday, January 28, 2007

9th Wonder and Little Brother Part Ways

Wha?!?!

"First, I want to say that Little Brother has not been dropped from Atlantic," Rapper Pooh told HipHopGame. "At this time we are in the process of negotiating our release from the label due t a difference in philosophies."

"We asked to be released," Manager Big Dho added. "I think we may just put the album out on Asylum to close our deal, but it's definitely a wrap for us at Atlantic. We weren't happy with how things were going and we decided we wanted to leave and on their end, they decided that they didn't want to deal with that either."

"It's no big deal though," Dho added. "Nobody on our end is mad or has any ill feelings towards their company."

"It wasn't a situation where they decided to drop us due to lack of sales," Pooh said. "If that was the case, they never would have opened up the budget for us to record Getback ."

Getback, Little Brother's third album, is close to completion but has no release date yet.

"We as a group just felt that it was not in our best interest to remain in a situation where our needs were constantly being overlooked. We didn't have an A&R for The Minstrel Show. We don't have any type of relationship with our current A&R. There are just a lot of internal issues that ended up working against us."

Pooh also addressed the rumors regarding producer 9th Wonder's involvement, or lack thereof, in Little Brother's Getback. "Little Brother has decided, in the best interest of the group, for Little Brother and 9th Wonder to part ways. There are no hard feelings and no beef. This is just a decision that had to be made so all three of us could move forward and continue to provide the world with dope music.

Little Brother's latest mixtape, And Justus For All, mixed by DJ Mick Boogie, will be available for download February 13. "The decision to release And Justus For All via download was a decision made by us. After the Drama situation, we felt it was in the best interest of all of us to just give this mixtape away with the current climate of the mixtape scene."

And Justus For All will be available for download February 13. More details on where to download it will be given closer to the release date.
-Reported by Brian Kayser

-article from hiphopgame.com

Throw Some Cheese On It...

YouTube To Share Revenue With Users

And if you haven't heard it yet, Kanye West absolutely murdered "Throw Some D's"

Kanye West - Throw Some D's Freestyle/Remix

Peace to who everyone who's been hitting us up. We are definately getting down with all of ya'll, and we mean that sincerely. No hogwash.

Also we're getting everything together for our upcoming podcast, so anyone out there who wants to put the world onto their favorite rapper's favorite rapper, get at us.

Peace

Friday, January 26, 2007

'Cause Our Whole Attitude Is Fuck Losin'...

We've been kinda shaky, but trust It's A Lifestyle is going strong and making moves. Expect a podcast in the near future, It's A Lifestyle TV, and we're asking all of you who check us out regularly to send us something you made. It could be a video, a song, t-shirt designs you're selling, it's whatever. If you've got something you want a lot of people to see, we'll show it.

For now, we got some shit we've been loving and would love to share with ya'll.

First off is Sean Price's new album, Jesus Price Superstar. Sean Price, formerly known as "Ruck", has a flow that the average rapper might not be able to hang with. Phonte of Little Brother came through and killed "Let It Be Known".

Sean Price- Jesus Price Superstar

Speaking of Phonte, for all of ya'll who've been waiting for some new Little Brother material, we've got something to keep you guys going until Get Back.

NEW Little Brother f/ Mos Def & Talib Kweli - Let It Go (remix)

And since today is one of those Fridays, here's some of our favorites from the Little Brother Catalog. Each one of these is going to be in top rotation once you hear it.:

Little Brother- The Listening (2003)

Foreign Exchange- Connected (2004)

Rapper Big Pooh- Sleepers (2005)

Little Brother- The Chittlin' Circuit (2005)

Little Brother- The Minstrel Show (2005)

DJ Drama and Little Brother- Seperate But Equal (Gangsta Grillz)

Happy Friday

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Un Un Un I Still LOVE H.E.R

Teriyaki Boyz ft Mr.West, who have notoriously been known to be dripped up and draped out in Japans own Bathing Ape, were this time around in some ultra exclusive OG Troop[If you don't know please GOOGLE it] Not a huge fan of the japanese sensation but this song is actually pretty dope, maybe it was just cause of Kanye's conributions so thats worth a download

Kanye West: I Still Love H.E.R.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Avon Barksdale Comes Back For Season 5

With all of the chaos of The Wire's last season, there's a lot of talk about what's going to happen from here. Thanks to AllHipHop.com, one thing fans have to look forward to is the return of Avon.

'The Wire' Earns Critical Acclaim, Cast Members Expand into Hip-Hop

With compelling stories and a diverse line up of actors, The Wire has become the must-see show, according to critics and fans of the HBO series.

The popular drama, which has been praised for its realistic portrayal of inner city life in Baltimore, has been called the best show on TV by numerous publications including Time and Entertainment Weekly.

The Wire recently made EW’s list of the top 10 TV shows of 2006.

The series, according to critic Gillian Flynn, is "a wrenching, brilliant indictment of pragmatism and complacency, but it's never miserable to watch...the actors are flawless; the writing is lined with empathy, insight, and quick, shocking slaps. Never has a good gutting been more appreciated."

As viewers prepare for The Wire's upcoming fifth season, two members of the show’s cast are spreading their wings with pursuits into music.

Wood Harris (Avon) is putting the finishing touches on his first untitled rap album, while Idris Elba, (Stringer Bell) is opting to make his mark as a DJ.

"Actually [my album] is getting mixed right now. My mixer on there mixed [Dr. Dre's] The Chronic album just to give you an idea of how dope it's gonna be," Harris revealed to AllHipHop.com. "It's just fresh, eclectic, diverse, kind of like Cody, but not at all and I do all of the music."

As for what fans can expect musically from the release, Harris stated the project would be "a mixture of Hip-Hop" that will incorporate his classic rock influence.

"It's got real music in it, real things in the lyrics," Harris said. "Not like diamonds. A little bit of money talk just because you come from no money to making money and you start talking about it."

As Harris prepares to invade rap circles, Elba’s foray into DJ’ing is one of many things the actor has on deck for 2007.

"Next year is a heavy year for me, man," he said. "I got five films. I'm not in television anymore. I'm in the film world. The DJ thing is taking off for me nicely and I'm gonna put together a DJ album."

"I just gotta do my thing," Elba continued. "I got a foundation I'm trying to start for Sierra Leone, which is where my parents are from. My next movie is coming out Feb. 14, Valentines Day. It's called Daddy's Little Girls, Tyler Perry's movie."

While Harris’ future is secured with musical endeavors, fans are wondering whether Avon will be seen again on the The Wire.

"No need to worry," the actor said. "You'll see Avon next year, season five."
-source: allhiphop

This is great news, but I can't help but wonder how they wrote that article about cast members involved in the music industry without pointing out Big G's work as front man of one of the best Go-Go bands out, Backyard Band aka BYB.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Spacely Sprockets x Dipset Nightriders

Alot of rappers need to take notes on how much love Killa is getting right here.

-video: niketalk

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Talib Kweli x Madlib - Liberation

We had to come out of hiatus to put this out to our people who haven't heard this yet. Many of you know Talib Kewli, super-duper MC and one half of the legendary Black Star. Many of you also know Madlib as one half of your favorite underground artist's favorite rap duo, Madvillian. Over the holidays, they decided record an album free for public download. These links won't die!