Ice Cube released the tracklisting for his forthcoming album, 'I Am The West.' However, in doing so, he revealed that he could not find time to connect with Dr. Dre on the project, "I didn't get a chance to work with Dre on this record. He's been M.I.A. for two to three months now. But I don't feel bad, because Snoop can't find him either." More tellingly Ice Cube gave an insight into what may be taking Dr. Dre so long to release his anticipated 'Detox' album, "I think, really, it's because people expect so much from him. People expect, when Dre does a record, it [will] change the trajectory of music. Not just be an album and it come out and be good. It has to come and take us in a different direction. And that's a lot of pressure." Ice Cube's latest full-length is due out September 21st with the following track-list slated:
» "A Boy Was Conceived"
» "Soul on Ice"
» "Live in California" (featuring Jayo Felony and WC)
» "She Couldn't Make It on Her Own" (featuring OMG and Dough Boy)
» "Urbanian"
» "Y'All Know How I Am" (featuring OMG, WC, Dough Boy and Maylay)
» "Too West Coast" (featuring WC and Maylay)
» "I Rep That West"
» "Drink the Kool-Aid"
» "No Country for Young Me"
» "It Is What It Is"
» "Hood Robbin' "
» "Your Money or Your Life"
» "Nothin' Like L.A."
» "All Day, Everyday"
» "Fat Cat"

Hum, Dre is putting pressure on himself.  If he doesn't release that album soon, and he takes a decade to release it, and it doesn't live up to the hype - then that is far worse than if he released it after only a year, and it doesn't live up to the hype - people would understand why.  The album, truthfully, hasn't been released and it's already 'played out.'  Hope that he changes the name of it...Detox has been ran in the ground, just by us journalists asking other people when they think that the album will drop.

The forthcoming biopic of the late Tupac Shakur has already gathered the talents of 'Training Day' director Antoine Fuqua and James G. Robinson, the chairman of Morgan Creek productions. Adding to their talents are Oscar-nominated screenwriters Stephen J. Rivele and Chris Wilkinson. The film, which is to focus on the rapper's final days leading up to his death in Las Vegas, is to contain a series of flashbacks, but the signing of Rivele and Wilkinson could be ashrewd move. Wilkinson admitted that he "knew nothing" about the late hip-hop legend before coming on board could give the biopic a fresh perspective. Speaking on Tupac Wilkinson said, "It became clear that he was essentially a 19th century Romantic poet who found himself in the 21st century ... an artist whose character is at odds with his medium ...a really sensitive, very romantic, talented young poet who also could sing, dance, and act. But the realities [of the hip-hop record business] were that he had to create this persona of the gangster." Nobody has been signed up to play Tupac in the biopic but word has it they are looking for an unknown face for the starring role. 

We hope that whoever they get, really looks like Tupac - unlike the Tupac that was in Notorious.

Beyonce Knowles is said to be dropping her father's management company after his bitter divorce from her mother. A source reveals that Beyonce and father, Matthew, have been "drifting apart" both personally and professionally, "Since the [divorce] of her parents, her relationship with her father is becoming strained." But the differing opinions also seep into her career as, "she wants to stay edgy and relevant, where her father wants her to make more 'mature' music." Word has it that a split is imminent - but who is due to step in and manage Beyonce's career? A source revealed, "Jay Z and his team will operate as [Beyonce's] management."

Don't think that anyone will manage her career better than her dad - not even her (and you're really supposed to watch your own career), but that man has done enough shady things to protect the interest of his daughter and something tells us that Jay won't do that.

This saga is getting out of control! Word has it that hip-hop plaything Kat Stacks has called the FBI in against NBA player Carmelo Anthony. As previously reported, Carmelo used his twitter account to offer $5k to anyone who chin-checked Kat Stacks after she questioned his marriage to wife LaLa. Carmelo went on to delete his account before saying it had been hacked. Using her own twitter account, Kat responded, "Don't you ever put my life and my son life in danger!" Stacks continued, "Just filed a police report on @CarmeloAnthony," concluding, "So the FBI getting involved since its an internet case." We can understand her concern, but surely she has been endangering herself for months with her actions???

We hope that the FBI has sense enough to view some of the footage that she's been posting on the Internet - I.e. IF Soulja Boy really had coke in his room and she was around it - then call DHS on that simple whore ... her seed is going to be motherless if she continues down her downward spiral of distruction.  These street cats don't care who you call - Carmelo might care because of his career, but we bet his goons (yes, guys that he probably grew up with that still have 'hood ways and nothing but time on their hands), don't.  One thing that she is succeeding at, is having us talk about her crumby behind everyday, knowing that she is both dilusional and simply not even worthy of being a thought in even a monkey's brain.

Despite the resounding success of his last album, Paper Trail,' Grammy winning rapper T.I. knows where his fame stems from. The self-proclaimed King Of The South is looking to reconnect with the streets with the release of his next single. T.I. revealed, "My next song ... I'm not even sending it to radio first, I'm going to work it from the streets to the clubs. Then as DJs ask about it, I'll deliver it to them. I'm gonna go all the way back to grassroots. I feel that people right now feel I'm going so far over their heads, given my prior success with Paper Trail. They feel like I'm trying to leave my foundation and my demographic behind, which is far from my intention...[I'm gonna release a new song] probably this week - don't look for it on radio, but online and in the streets and in the clubs, you can look forward to a record. A record called 'Pledge Allegiance to the Swag.' I'm just trying to feed the streets right now."

Rihanna has been recreated in wax by Madame Tussauds.  Although she was not present at the unveiling of her waxwork figure, she donated an outfit which she wore to a Balmain show in Paris last Fall.  Rihanna is a beast - though she looks a bit like Raggedy Ann with the red hair, her swagger is always 1,000.