Preview: Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Watch The Throne”

On July 8, 2011, Jay-Z hosted an intimate listening session for the looming, game changing, genre bending Hip-Hop opus Watch The Throne. Roughly 20 people were invited to the exclusive event, which interestingly enough included the two teenage New Yorkers that purchased the first two copies of the album on Amazon.com’s preorder. They were there along with their parents, who were gracious enough to tolerate a long evening for the sake of their kids. Where to begin? There was so much to absorb of the evening so I’ll write this similar to the way Watch The Throne was crafted…free-flowing and without rules.

There were some ground rules for the session though. 1) No live tweeting. We could say we were there and that’s about it. One journo from The Fader was kicked out with the swiftness for tweeting specifics. 2) No quoting exact lyrics in write ups. Why? Because, although we heard a lot, Watch The Throne is not finished. Lyrics may change. 3) No specific song titles. They aren’t set either.

So, here is the song-by-song rundown of Watch The Throne.

Song # 1

‘Iron Man’ Composer Sues ‘Ghostface’ For Millions Over Sample, Name Use

 The man who composed the original 1966 theme to “Iron Man” has filed a lawsuit against Ghostface Killah, Razor Sharp Records and Sony Records, claiming they illegally used his “Iron Man Theme” on Ghost’s 2000 album Supreme Clientele.

Songwriter Jaques “Jack” Urbont filed the lawsuit on June 30th, in United States District Court, Southern District of New York.

Urbont is the legal and beneficial owner of an undivided interest in the original copyrighted musical composition and sound recording for the theme for the “Iron Man Theme” and the music from the 1966 television show.

Urbont is a world-renowned songwriter, who has composed, orchestrated and conducted music for episodes of TV shows like “Mission Impossible,” “Mannix,” and others.

Additionally, Urbont composed the themes and lyrics for “The Guiding Light,” “One Life to Live,” “General Hospital,” and the TV representations of “Iron Man,” “Captain America,” “Hulk,” “Submariner,” and “Thor.”

He also has composer credits for TV shows like “All My Children,” “That 70s Show,” “Oprah,” “Rosie,” “20/20, and “The View.”

Urbont has also worked with artists like Sammy Davis Jr., Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, George Burns and others.

Urbont claims that he owns the exclusive rights to the “Iron Man Theme,” and that Ghostface Killah, Sony, and RZA have been using his work, resulting in substantial revenue for Ghostface.

Ghost, born Dennis Coles, debuted in 1996 with his album Iron Man.

Exclusive: Former LA Times Writer Chuck Philip’s Demands Apology From Newspaper Over Henchman Retraction

(AllHipHop News) Former Los Angeles Times reporter Chuck Philips is demanding an apology from his former employer, after the paper published a retraction in relation to a March 17th, 2008 article involving the robbery of rapper Tupac Shakur.

Philips was the author of an article titled “An Attack on Tupac Shakur Launched a Hip-Hop War.” In the days after the story was published, the Los Angeles Times initially supported Philips reporting that Rosemond hired unknown gunmen to rob Shakur.

But shortly afterwards, thesmokinggun.com revealed that certain documents within Philip’s article had been forged by a known con man named James Sabatino, who is in prison until 2013, on fraud charges.

The Los Angeles Times eventually published a front-page retraction to James Rosemond and Sean “Diddy” Combs, while Rosemond later filed a $100 million lawsuit against the paper that was settled out of court for $200,000 in Rosemond’s favor.

Philips was eventually let go by the Los Angeles Times during a round of layoffs that was attributed to budget constraints at the time.

But Philips, who is a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, told the Los Angeles Weekly, that the Los Angeles Times’ lack of support and the front page retraction ruined his career and credibility.

James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond Apprehended

Music mogul James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond was apprehended in New York City today (June 20th), after a brief foot chase with authorities.

According to reports, federal agents spotted the Hip-Hop mogul near The W Hotel around Union Street in midtown Manhattan early this morning.

He fled when approached by agents, who caught and tackled him, reports say.

Arresting agents apprehended Rosemond during the foot chase near E. 21st Street.

Rosemond is currently indicted for his role in a massive cocaine conspiracy ring, which allegedly shipped hundreds of kilos of cocaine to studios in New York and sent millions in proceeds to the West coast.

Two of Rosemond’s associates have also been charged with the murder of Lowell “Lodi Mack” Fletcher, who was shot and killed in the Bronx.

Rosemond’s capture today ended a two week manhunt that started on May 29th, when it was announced that federal agents were seeking him.

Last week, AllHipHop.com broke the news about Rosemond’s alleged involvement in the 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur, inside The Quad studios in Manhattan.

A convicted murderer and associate of Rosemond’s named Dexter Isaac, claimed Rosemond paid him $2,500 to rob Shakur, who was subsequently shot five times.

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Lil Boosie Accused Of Threatening D.A.; Prison Guards In Trouble

(AllHipHop News) Rapper Lil Boosie is in more trouble as he serves a prison sentence for possession of marijuana and fights a first degree murder charge.

Lil Boosie, born Torrance Hatch, is being investigated for threatening East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III.

While Boosie has lyrically attacked Moore on songs in the past, police believed there was a credible threat against the District Attorney, who is leading the investigation into the rapper’s possible involvement in as many as five murders

“I can confirm that we received information relative to a credible threat against District Attorney Hillar Moore and the District Attorney’s Office,” State Police spokesman Lt. Doug Cain told The Advocate.

As a result of the investigation into the threat against Moore, Lil Boosie ended up getting caught attempting to smuggle codeine into the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

According to Louisiana State Penitentiary Warden Burl Cain, Lil Boosie has not been involved in any violent altercations while he has been incarcerated, although he continuously gets into trouble.

“He has a hard time following basic rules,” Warden Burl Cain said. “He’s getting better though.”

Just three weeks ago, two officers resigned after they were caught letting Lil Boosie make more phone calls that he was allowed to make.

Lil Boosie is due in court on June 22nd, in relation to the indictment for his alleged role in the murder of 35-year-old Terry Boyd, who was killed in October of 2010 in Baton Rogue.

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Facebook stirs privacy ire with facial recognition

Computerworld – Facebook’s move to enable facial recognition across its entire social networking site is raising some eyebrows – and possibly some legal woes — over its privacy implications.

On Tuesday, Facebook announced in a blog post that it was working to make it easier for uses to tag photos of their friends and family members. To do this, it has been quietly rolling out facial recognition technology to a test group across the world’s biggest social network since late last year.

That means Facebook‘s system will be able to recognize the faces of its 500 million to 600 million users worldwide. The company will be able to identify you simply by your face.

Facebook noted that starting in just a few weeks, its system will scan all photos posted to Facebook and will offer up the names of the people who appear in the frame. All of Facebook’s users are automatically being added to the database.

The facial recognition feature is automatically turned on. Users who don’t want the service must go in and manually opt out of it (see video below).

A day after the announcement was made, data protection regulators at the European Union said they will launch an investigation into it, according to the Bloomberg news service, which also reported that authorities in the U.K. and Ireland are looking into the matter.

“Tags of people on pictures should only happen based on people’s prior consent and it can’t be activated by default,” said Gerard Lommel, a member of the EU’s Data Protection Working Party, according to Bloomberg. Such automatic tagging suggestions “can bear a lot of risks for users” and the European data-protection officials will “clarify to Facebook that this can’t happen like this.”

Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.

R.I.P.: Former Black Panther Elmer ‘Geronimo’ Pratt dies

Via CNN:

Former Black Panther Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt, who was wrongly imprisoned for 27 years on a murder conviction, died Thursday in Tanzania, his former lawyer said.

He was 63.

Stuart Hanlon, a San Francisco-based lawyer who helped overturn Pratt’s murder conviction, said he did not know the exact cause of death.

Pratt died in a small village in Tanzania where he lived with his wife and child, Hanlon said.

Hanlon called Pratt a “true American,” saying that he was an Army veteran who served two tours in Vietnam before joining the Black Panther Party.

“He could’ve been a great leader. He was very charismatic,” Hanlon said. “His legacy is that he never gave up. He never got despondent or angry.”

Pratt’s conviction became a rallying cry for rights groups that said he had been framed for his strident activism during the turbulent civil rights era.

Pratt was convicted for the 1968 murder of Caroline Olsen on a Santa Monica tennis court. He spent 27 years in prison before the conviction was overturned in 1997 after a judge ruled that prosecutors had concealed evidence.

Kanye Performs At Gil Scott-Heron’s Funeral

Kanye paid his respects to Renaissance man, Gil Scott-Heron by performing his track, “Lost In The World/Who Will Survive In America” during a memorial service today at Riverside Church in Harlem.

Doubtful that footage was allowed, but according to the NY Daily News, ‘Ye hugged Scott-Heron’s family following the performance.

Ye was also the lone sample on Heron’s last release, Im New Here, where Gil sampled Flashing Lights.

He supposedly gave him the sample for free as well.

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The Syrian Government Has Shut Off the Internet

Dictators and despots ruling Middle Eastern and North African countries appear to have acquired an unfortunate new habit: Shutting down internet service to quell popular protests. Just as in Egypt and Libya, the beleaguered president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, has ordered the internet cut off in large swaths of the country. It is believed to be the first time this has happened in Syria since protests against the current regime began this March. According to the Washington Post, 50,000 protesters took to the streets today to call for al-Assad’s resignation.

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Samsung Demands Next iPhone, iPad

• By Paul Suarez, PCWorld    May 29, 2011 12:58 PM

A few days ago a federal judge ordered Samsung to hand specs, samples, and marketing materials for upcoming Galaxy tablet and Infuse phone products over to Apple.

The order was the latest in Apple’s patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung in U.S. District Court in Northern California. The dispute essentially boils down to Apple alleging that Samsung products look an awful lot like its own.

On Friday Samsung lawyers returned the favor, asking the judge to order Apple to hand over “a sample of the final, commercial version of the next generation iPhone that Apple will release,” the next generation iPad and the final retail packaging and inserts for both.

Court documents posted by This is my next reveal that Samsung asked for the upcoming Apple devices to “evaluate whether a likelihood of confusion exists between the Samsung and Apple products that will be in the market at the same time.”

In other words: show us what the next iPad and iPhone will look like so we can make sure we aren’t accused of copying you again.

According to the documents, Apple rejected Samsung’s request, saying its future devices have “no relevance,” since Apple is basing its case on products that are already in the market.

It’s a gutsy move on Samsung’s part.

The products that Samsung was forced to hand over to Apple’s legal team have been publicly revealed and in some cases released. Apple’s upcoming devices are still a mystery.

[Via Engadget, via This is my next]

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