Diamond In The Ruff
''Diamond in the Ruff'' is the fourth studio album by American hip hop recording artist Freeway, released worldwide by Babygrande Records on November 27, 2012. Conception Background As the ex-Roc-A-Fella artist signed one-album deal with Babygrande Records in July 2012, ''Diamond In the Ruff'' represents his first full-length project since 2010's critically acclaimed '' The Stimulus Package'', a collaborative album with Seattleite producer Jake One. The album includes features from Wale, Marsha Ambrosius, Vivian Green, Suzann Christine, Nikki Jean, Miss Daja Thomas, Alonda Rich, and fellow Philadelphian artists Neef Buck and Musiq Soulchild. The production is handled by the likes of Jake One, Needlz, as well as Bink! and Just Blaze, who have both worked on his debut album. Gimel "Young Guru" Keaton, the sound engineer behind 10 of Jay-Z’s 11 albums, was slated to mix the entirety of the project. In 2010, Freeway told SLAM Magazine "the whole album is soulful and real. It's ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Freeway (rapper)
Leslie Edward Pridgen (born August 6, 1978), better known by his stage name Freeway, is an American rapper. Originally hailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he first gained recognition after appearing on Jay-Z's fifth album, '' The Dynasty: Roc La Familia'' in 2000. The following year, he became a member of the Philadelphia-based hip-hop collective State Property, which were signed to Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella Records, an imprint of Def Jam Recordings. After releasing their debut album, Pridgen signed to Roc-A-Fella as a solo artist and began work on his debut album, '' Philadelphia Freeway'' (2003). Upon release, the album peaked at number five on the ''Billboard'' 200 and saw positive critical response. He released a follow-up, '' Free at Last'' (2007) to moderate reception before he and fellow State Property cohorts were dropped from the label. In 2009, Pridgen was briefly signed to Cash Money Records, although his next three albums: '' Philadelphia Freeway 2'' (2009), '' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Music Download
A music download is the digital transfer of music via the Internet into a device capable of decoding and playing it, such as a personal computer, portable media player, MP3 player or smartphone. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyrighted material without permission or legal payment. Music downloads are typically encoded with modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) audio data compression, particularly the Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format used by iTunes as well as the MP3 audio coding format. According to a Nielsen report, downloadable music accounted for 55.9 percent of all music sales in the US in 2012."All music sales" refers to albums plus track equivalent albums. A track equivalent album equates to 10 tracks. By the beginning of 2011, Apple's iTunes Store alone made 1.1 billion of revenue in the first quarter of its fiscal year. According to the RIAA, music downloads peaked at 43% of industry revenue in the US in 2012, and has ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rhymesayers Entertainment
Rhymesayers Entertainment (sometimes abbreviated RSE) is an American independent hip-hop record label based in Minneapolis. History Rhymesayers Entertainment was co-founded in 1995 by Sean Daley (Slug), Anthony Davis (Ant), Musab Saad ( Sab the Artist) and Brent Sayers (Siddiq). Former members of the Headshots crew. Beginning in 2008, Rhymesayers Entertainment sponsors the annual Soundset Music Festival, a popular attraction that takes place over Memorial Day weekend in Minneapolis. The music festival was postponed in 2020. Rhymesayers released Prof and Dem Atlas from their label in 2020. In 2020, Rhymesayers was among the many labels distributed by Alternative Distribution Alliance that left the company after ADA moved all of its business to the Indiana-based Direct Shot Distributing. Controversy erupted when Direct Shot received numerous complaints from retailers over delayed or missing shipments. As a result, Secretly Distribution became the current distributor for Rhym ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive with a respective county. The city is the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the United States by both population and urban area. New York is a global center of finance and commerce, culture, technology, entertainment and media, academics, and scientific output, the arts and fashion, and, as home to the headquarters of the United Nations, international diplomacy. With an estimated population in 2024 of 8,478,072 distributed over , the city is the most densely populated major city in the United States. New York City has more than double the population of Los Angeles, the nation's second-most populous city. [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georgia, Fulton County and extends into neighboring DeKalb County, Georgia, DeKalb County. With a population of 520,070 (2024 estimate) living within the city limits, Atlanta is the eighth most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast and List of United States cities by population, 36th most populous city in the United States according to the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census. Atlanta is classified as a Globalization and World Cities Research Network#Beta +, Beta + global city and is the principal city of the much larger Atlanta metropolitan area, the core of which includes Cobb County, Georgia, Cobb, Clayton County, Georgia, Clayton and Gwinnett County, Georgia, Gwinnett counties, in addition to Fulton and DeKalb. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Statik Selektah
Patrick Owen Baril (born January 23, 1982), professionally known as Statik Selektah, is an American record producer, disc jockey (DJ) and radio personality originally from the Boston, Massachusetts area. He is also the founder of Showoff Records. In 2010, he formed the hip hop group 1982, alongside American rapper Termanology. He has resided in New York City since 2004. Life and career Statik Selektah was born on January 23, 1982, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He was introduced to music at a young age, experimenting with his parents' eight-track machine, cassette recorders, and turntable. By middle school, he was already DJing school functions, but he was inspired to be a professional DJ after hearing DJ Premier and Funkmaster Flex scratch and mix records on Hot 97 in New York City. Statik began doing radio at Phillips Exeter Academy's WPEA, where he also occasionally DJ'd some of the Afro-Latino Society Parties. Naming himself DJ Statik, (the "Selektah" came later after hear ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Freedom Of Speech (mixtape)
''Freedom of Speech'' is an official mixtape by American hip hop recording artist Freeway in conjunction with Rocksmith and KarmaLoop. It was released on October 16, 2012 as prelude to his long-awaited album, ''Diamond In the Ruff''. Background On February 10, 2012, Freeway has announced that he would release a mixtape consisting of 12 original tracks. For this project, he partnered with streetwear clothing line Rocksmith Tokyo and fashion retailer and culture outlet KarmaLoop, the latter of which also partnered with him to shoot videos for songs from the mixtape, including "Master Of Ceremony", "Let You Know", "We Up" and "Real Shit". For Freeway, the partnership was a natural decision, given his long-standing relationships with both companies. Tom Keough, Special Projects Coordinator for KarmaLoop, also expressed his excited to take part in the release of ''Freedom Of Speech'': "It was an easy decision to partner Rocksmith and Freeway on this project for KarmaLoop Music. These ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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KarmaLoop
Karmaloop is a streetwear e-commerce company. It was founded in 2000 by Greg Selkoe and purchased by Shiekh Shoes in 2016. History Karmaloop was founded in 1999 by Greg Selkoe in his parents' basement in Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. Selkoe's interests in break dancing, graffiti art, and fashion influenced his decision to focus his business on urban style and streetwear. His initial concept for Karmaloop was to provide universal reach for hard-to-find boutique streetwear brands. The Karmaloop brick and mortar store on Boston's Newbury Street launched in 2005. The store carried products available on the website as well as limited edition items, and was often used as a testing ground for new products. In a 2010 interview, Selkoe revealed that the store "never made a penny," and in 2011 it closed. In the meantime Karmaloop's online presence grew to a number of websites including online retailer Karmaloop, women's fashion site MissKL, flash-sale site PLNDR ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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SLAM Magazine
''Slam'' (stylized in all caps) is an American basketball magazine in circulation since 1994. History Founding and early years ''Slam'' was launched in 1994 as a basketball magazine that combined the sport with hip hop culture at a time when the genre was becoming increasingly popular. Launching as a quarterly with an initial circulation of 125,000, it was founded by publisher Dennis Page at Harris Publications, and he hired Cory Johnson to be the first Editor in Chief. Its first issue had a cover story on Larry Johnson of the Charlotte Hornets (written by future ''Fortune'' editor Andrew Serwer) and a feature on then-Cal freshman Jason Kidd. Many of the magazine's lasting features, such as In Your Face, Slam-a-da-month, and Last Shot all began with that first issue. From 1996 to 1997, ''Slam'''s total annual-unit sales rose 25 percent, with advertising revenue increasing by more than a third; by 1998, the magazine was published eight times per year. Ownership ''Slam''s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American Rapping, rapper, businessman, and record executive. Rooted in East Coast hip-hop, he was named Billboard and Vibe's 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time, the greatest rapper of all time by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' and ''Vibe (magazine), Vibe'' in 2023. Known for his complex lyrical ability—which often uses double entendres and word play—and Braggadocio (rap), braggadocio, his music is built upon a rags to riches narrative. He served as president and chief executive officer of Def Jam Recordings from 2004 to 2007, and founded the entertainment company Roc Nation the following year. A protégé of fellow New York City-based rapper Jaz-O, Jay-Z began his musical career in the late 1980s; he co-founded the record label Roc-A-Fella Records in 1994 to release his first two studio albums ''Reasonable Doubt (album), Reasonable Doubt'' (1996) and ''In My Lifetime, Vol. 1'' (1997), both o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |