Jay Z

According to an article in page six of today’s NY Post Kanye and his “Big Brother” Hov may not be getting along due to disagreements about tour expenses. Kanye West’s vision is to have a very elaborate and expensive layout for the each show that the two elite rappers do on The Throne tour. West’s desired set up would cost approx. 400K a show. Jay-Z on the other hand already has an agreement with Live Nations in which he must pay back funds budgeted to him by the company for the tour and therefore is being somewhat more of a penny pincher than his Watch The Throne collaborator. More details from the NY Post are as follows:

A battle royal has broken out behind the scenes of Jay-Z and Kanye West’s new album, “Watch the Throne.”

Sources say the rappers — who call themselves The Throne and are releasing their expected blockbuster collaboration Aug. 8 on iTunes and four days later everywhere else — are barely speaking to each other as they iron out the details of their upcoming tour.

Live Nation’s presale event on Thursday was delayed, but tickets for the tour are slated to go on sale today, with shows at the IZOD Center Sept. 27 and 28.

The sources say West wants flashy concerts with “next-level production,” which would cost more than $400,000 per show. Jay-Z is said to be meticulous about costs and already has a larger, long-term advance from Live Nation that he has to pay back.

“Jay-Z can’t deal with Kanye,” an insider told Page Six. “Jay is a stone-cold businessman. He wants to recoup all of his money from Live Nation. But Kanye wants to upstage rock stars with a blowout show. He doesn’t care about costs. He has a lot less to gain from the shows.”

West is expected to agree to the conditions of the tour next week, but the business brouhaha between the powerhouse artists might have affected their backstage relationship.

Industry insiders were shocked to see West and Jay-Z perform separately with Young Jeezy last Monday night at the Highline Ballroom. “We were expecting them to come out together to perform a track from the album,” a source said. “They didn’t even go out together after the show.”

“Jay-Z is fed up with West’s antics,” another source said. “He doesn’t even want to be around him.” However, the two are expected to perform together at a listening party tonight at The Rose Planetarium in Central Park, according to The Post’s Dan Aquilante. A Live Nation rep said, “No comment.” The rappers’ reps didn’t get back to us.

Let’s hope none of these money matters rock the throne to the point where they affect the tour and the overall WTT experience for the two rappers loyal fans. Watch The Throne is out on iTunes August 8th.

- @Middz_

….in Connect Four. Ha! Well at least this proves that Shawn Carter has some minor memory of the cons, although I doubt that will do much good for Cons’ chances of getting that desired sit-down he’s requested with Hov. Watch this not so game of thrones to re-up on cons slander ammo.

- @Middz_

Dealer: SD

Def Jam’s parent company Universal Music Group is predicting that the most anticipated hip-hp album of the year will move 400,000 units in it’s first week. This would give WTT the highest first week sales figures of any hip-hop album thus far in 2011 (a title currently held by Lupe Fiasco’s L.A.S.E.R.S). Furthermore they predict that half of the copies sold will be physical copies, meaning th eother half would obviously be through iTunes. The label expects that 75% of the demand for the product will be fulfilled in the first ten days.

UMG seems a bit conservative in their prediction being as Jay-Z and Kanye West’s last solo albums each sold over 450,000 in their first week.

This article by Billboard further highlights the current issues with WTT exclusivity with iTunes and Best buy for the Digital and Physical/Deluxe versions of the album and their separate release dates respectively.

- @Middz_

Dealer: HHU

Apparently a large number or independent record store owners are up in arms over the fact that Def Jam,  Jay-Z and Kanye West are only releasing the Watch The Throne album on iTunes and in Best Buy stores (for a limited run). The retailers are concerned that not having access to this highly sought after album will significantly hurt their sales.

- @Middz_

The letter, which was posted by Billboard earlier today, reads as follows:

By (independent retailers)

Dear Jay-Z and Kanye West,

Independent record stores serve our communities. Our passion is music, and we convey this to the millions of customers who come to our stores. That’s what we do.

Four years ago independent music stores across the country banded together to create Record Store Day. Our goal was to counter the negative media coverage about the supposed demise of record stores brought on by the closing of the Tower stores and to respond to the music business practices that fans deemed to be manipulative and onerous.

We reached out to the artist community to see if they would join us, and the response was overwhelming, with words of support coming in from Paul McCartney, Erykah Badu, Tom Waits, Chuck D, the Foo Fighters and countless others. Working with their label partners, many of these musicians created limited edition works of art, including vinyl and CDs made especially for music-specialty retail. Hundreds of these artists took the opportunity to perform, DJ, and interact with their fans in our record stores. Here in the U.S., Record Store Day lifted the entire music business by 8% and contributed to the growth in music sales. Record Store Day is now one of the biggest music events in history, with millions of people participating worldwide. We also continue to work throughout the year with labels, artists and managers and run regular promotions via physical independent retail and recordstoreday.com.

We are responding to the bad news that your new album will not be available to independent record stores until after iTunes gets a window of exclusivity. We also learned that the deluxe version (which is what the true music fans who shop our stores will want, by an overwhelming majority) will only be available at Best Buy exclusively for a period of time. We believe this is a short-sighted strategy, and that your decisions will be doing great damage to over 1,700 independent record stores — stores that have supported you and your music for years.

We know that you are busy, and that you put most of your energies into creating great music, but we are writing to you in the hope that you will hear us and take the time to rectify this matter. As representatives of the independent record store music community, we are asking you to allow record stores and music fans equal access to your new album. (more…)

Young Jeezy held a special 6th year anniversary concert for his debut album “Thug Motivation 101 last night in NYC. MeetThaDealer was in the building, But so were guest’s that included Jay-Z, Kanye West,Fab, Bun B & D Block.

Footage courtesy of RTNY

Posted By : Young Heezy #MTD101

WATCH THE THRONE TOUR (Powered By VoyR)

9/22/11 Detroit, MI Palace of Auburn Hills
9/24/11 Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre
9/25/11 Montreal, QC Bell Centre
9/27/11 East Rutherford, NJ Izod Center
9/28/11 East Rutherford, NJ Izod Center
9/29/11 Washington DC Verizon Center
10/4/11 Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center
10/6/11 Chicago, IL United Center
10/7/11 Chicago, IL United Center
10/8/11 Minneapolis, MN Target Center
10/10/11 Denver, CO Pepsi Center

10/13/11 Tacoma, WA Tacoma Dome
10/14/11 Vancouver, BC Rogers Arena
10/16/11 San Jose, CA HP Pavilion
10/17/11 Sacramento, CA Power Balance Pavilion
10/19/11 Los Angeles, CA Staples Center
10/20/11 Los Angeles, CA Staples Center
10/21/11 Las Vegas, NV MGM Grand Garden Arena
10/25/11 Dallas, TX American Airlines Center
10/26/11 Houston, TX Toyota Center
10/29/11 Atlanta, GA Philips Arena
10/30/11 Greensboro, NC Greensboro Coliseum
11/1/11 Baltimore, MD 1st Mariner Arena
11/3/11 Boston, MA TD Garden

1st week in Aug is when it all goes down. Watch the documentary for the making of Watch The Throne in the meantime. It has to be good to be rich, black, and know that your music will be heavily sought after everytime you drop something.

By Trademarkk

(more…)

Yea, Aug 1 digital, and Aug 5th physical copy of the forthcoming Watch The Throne album by Kanye West and Jay-Z. Here’s a track off that super heavily anticipated album. Trademarkk approved.

Like I said once upon a time, this kid Frank Ocean is about to walk these R&B dudes in the game. He’s already on two tracks off that forthcoming Watch the Throne album. Well put it like this, if he doesn’t end up on Mars after that, then downhill he shall go, because it doesn’t get bigger than Jay and Ye’ these days.

By Benjamin Trademarkk

Jay-Z covers Delta Airlines in flight magazine, SKY. You can check the article here.

Rap Radar

Posted By : @InspHECK_MTD