But that hasn’t stopped everyone from working the phones. With Riley, the Golden State Warriors’ Jerry West and the Dallas Mavericks’ Mark Cuban forced to focus on other business, this summer’s biggest powerbroker might be none other than 31-year-old Jayceon Taylor.

Taylor, who is more commonly known as the rapper Game, has taken his talents from the recording studio to the court. In recent weeks, he has worked as the player-coach-GM for Go Ham, a team in South Central L.A.’s famous Drew League, a pro-am circuit that quickly has become a must-stop for any NBA fan depressed by the ongoing lockout.

These days, the best way to see NBA talent is to watch Game’s team. He has recruited an impressive rotating roster that has had Kevin Durant(notes), Ron Artest(notes) and recent No. 2 pick Derrick Williams(notes) – among many others – make appearances. The league’s reigning MVP, Derrick Rose(notes), is currently mulling a pitch from Game to play.

“In the beginning I had to sell something like, ‘If you play on the team, I’ll go wherever you’re from and we can do a show or something,’ as a favor to him,” Game recently told Yahoo! Sports. “But now the word on the Drew League is everywhere, and guys are hitting me up to play.

“Durant hit me on Twitter saying, ‘I want to play in the Drew League.’ I never met him until he came down, and now we’re cool.”

Game rose to stardom six years ago when his debut album “The Documentary” earned two Grammy Award nominations. The former member of G-Unit also has had two hit songs with rapper 50 Cent, and is coming out with his fourth album on Aug. 23 entitled “The R.E.D. Album.” Considered one of the driving forces in reviving West Coast rap, he also has acted in a handful of movies.

A Compton, Calif., native, Game grew up in an area where the daily business often involved drugs, gangs and street hustling. He showed some promise on the court while playing at Compton High School and Cerritos and Harbor colleges, but he never fulfilled it because he was too attracted to street life.

“I was a gangbanger. That’s what I got into,” said Game, a former member of the Cedar Block Piru Blood gang. “My brother got murdered when I was 13, and my other one right after high school. I got into that life, and I found it to be something suitable to me. When I did basketball, I tried to balance them both.”

That didn’t always work: Game claims he was shot in his ankle, chest, arm and stomach during his time in college. By the time he got to Harbor, it was clear he wasn’t going to make a living playing basketball.

“So I tried rapping,” he said, “and, obviously, that was the thing for me.”

He now spends his weekends at the Drew League. Since it was established in 1973, the Drew League has showcased numerous NBA players, college stars and street legends. The games are free to spectators, who pack the hot, small gym in Leon H. Washington Park, just north of Watts in one of the city’s toughest neighborhoods. Alvin Willis developed the league 38 years ago as a place where the local children could learn “life lessons,” and current league director Dino Smiley has carried on that tradition since 1985.

Smiley doesn’t tolerate bad behavior – by the fans or players. The rap music played during timeouts doesn’t include cussing, and it’s not surprising to see rival gang members cheering near each other. The P.A. announcer provides a running commentary and doesn’t shy from heckling the players.

“Even though it’s in this neighborhood, it’s good, it’s safe,” Game said. “There are never no problems here. It’s always a family environment. It’s cool.”

When Game first tried to enter a team in the league a year ago, Smiley resisted because of Game’s background. A few years ago, Game served eight days in jail on a weapons charge after witnesses said he threatened an opponent with a gun during a pickup basketball game at another L.A. park.

After joining with Toronto Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan(notes), who also is from Compton, Game convinced Smiley he had changed his ways and was allowed to form Go Ham this season.

“A lot of these courts I was banned from,” Game said. “But once I got a little older and settled into my family life, my kids, I had to come here and holler at Dino Smiley. He said, ‘Yo Game, you’re a menace.’ I was like, ‘Man, I’m 30 now. Chill.’ He said, ‘We are going to let you put a team in, but we don’t want no bull, no nothing.’ ”

Smiley kept a watchful eye when Go Ham lost for the first time but said all Game did was show respect to his opponent.

“He’s a fun guy and he really loves the league,” Smiley said. “He tells me that on Friday nights he can’t sleep and he gets excited to play.”

“He’s really not like what he raps about,” said “Steel” Bill Crawford, who coaches Problems, another team in the league. “He’s a good dude.”

NBA players long have made appearances at the Drew League, dating to the days when David Greenwood, Byron Scott and Lester Conner played. But Game has increased the league’s ties to the NBA. In addition to recruiting NBA players to join his team, he also mentions his scheduled games on his website and Twitter account (@thegame), which has more than 500,000 followers. Smiley has been considering moving the league to a bigger venue because of the growing interest.

For Go Ham’s most recent game, their roster included DeRozan, Williams, Raptors forward Ed Davis(notes), Houston Rockets guard Terrence Williams(notes) and former D-League player Mike Efevberha. Durant has played in two games to become eligible for the playoffs, and had one memorable off-the-backboard dunk. Sacramento Kings guard Tyreke Evans(notes) turned down Game to play on Pooh Jeter’s(notes) team, but Rose said Monday he is considering playing with Game. Other NBA players who have suited up for Go Ham include J.R. Smith(notes), Michael Beasley(notes), Wes Johnson(notes), Shannon Brown(notes), Austin Daye(notes), Joe Smith(notes), Steve Blake(notes) and Joey Dorsey(notes).

“We had a few NBA stars sprinkled in before, but now we get to see Durant, Artest,” Crawford said. “Against us, [Game] had a whole NBA starting five.”

Rose said it’s not hard to see the appeal of playing with a leading hip-hop artist.

“You listen to their music. They come out and see you play,” Rose said. “Rappers want to be hoopers, and hoopers want to become rappers. I don’t know why both of them are just like that, but we have a connection somehow.

“I would consider playing because I like his music. He’s a cool guy, a real guy, and he can play a little bit.”

Recruiting NBA talent, however, hasn’t led to easy wins for Go Ham. With Baron Davis(notes) and Matt Barnes(notes) among the spectators watching, Go Ham dropped to 5-3 after losing to a team without any NBA players in Nova Stars. Game, who compares his game to that of former Los Angeles Lakers guard Eddie Jones, had two points on a fast-break layup. Go Ham’s roster changes from week to week while most of the opposing teams include guys who have played together for years. Tied with two other teams for fourth place in the Ray Lew Division, Game’s team is fighting to make the postseason.

“The NBA guys come out here and get a little relaxed and don’t go as hard on ‘D’ as they do on offense,” Game said. “We are all having fun, and I don’t mind that. But we have to play a little bit more ‘D.’ ”

While Game has enjoyed playing, he still prefers his chosen calling.

“Being a rapper is definitely cooler,” he said. “People don’t even know some NBA players. If you ain’t Kobe [Bryant] or Carmelo [Anthony] they might just walk past them and say, ‘Oh, you’re tall. What do you do, play basketball?’ As a rapper, you get all the perks.”

The show, was scrapped due to safety concerns.

Rihanna’s Loud tour has already received headlines across the country, for low ticket sales forcing her to cancel a lot of the stops.

Rihanna tweeted after the show.

“DALLAS!!! We set the stage on FYAH tonight!!! LITERALLY!!! I’m so pissed, I was havin so much fun wit yall too!!!” Rihanna tweeted shortly after the stage caught on fire. “I gotta come back man!!..Heading into a production meeting to find out exactly what happened!!! Keep u posted.”

Back then, the unwritten code implied that an artist must “pay dues”, such as battling other MC’s in the streets or hosting parties held in city parks or apartments, before they can be respected as a true rap artist. This code was enforced musically and collectively by those already anointed, rather effectively destroying the fragile careers of artists who had bypassed these rites of passage and crossed over into the mainstream by way of a marketing strategy.

The two most notable causalities were MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice, both of whom won Grammy Awards, at a time when such honors was considered a scarlet letter in the music’s culture. Such brutal attacks proved that the music was, indeed, larger than any man, and no feelings would be spared to safeguard the musical frontier which had refused to join the empire

Today, we see events like the annual Hip Hop Honors, which decided to commemorate The Dirty South for their “dominance” in rap music over the last decade, a dominance measured by sales, not talent, and is clearly a result of the over-exposure that comes from squeezing a successful product for everything it’s worth. The landscape has been mangled. Artists that were previously banished are now celebrated, like the actor-turned-rapper and exemplar of pop star, Drake, who has shrewdly conformed to the south’s unique interpretation of rap music and has seamlessly integrated with its clique, despite the fact that he hails from Canada, thousands of miles away.

In 2010, Drake, the canuck, who has outrun a sure exile by about fifteen years, wears his mainstream accolades with pride and is adored by fans, which are appearing more and more like the crowd at the Mickey Mouse Club and less like a classic “park jam”. Just like Ice, who was harshly vilified and torn from grace, he has bypassed the code and has been inserted into the chain-wearing, campaign-popping world of dancing floozies and big rims. Most certainly under a team of business advisers, he masquerades as a tried and true member of the Dirty South and whistles “Dixie” all the way to the Canadian bank.

It is truly a sad state of affairs, and the real victims are the abandoned artists who are still out there. Much like the Samurai of the far east, whose ideals were smothered by their countries’ desire to join the industrial surge of the west in the 19th century, they remain on the fringe and never receive what’s rightfully theirs. These forgotten souls, remnants of the original colonies and second-generation frontiersman, like Slum Village, Guilty Simpson, Aesop Rock, Madlib, Oh-No, MF Doom, Kool Keith and Del the Funky Homosapien press on, following the original commandments of hip hop, equipped with the technology of the day and a skill set that’s 30 years evolved.

They receive no support from major radio stations, which are in the pocket of the evil syndicate and only serve as a promotional tool for the mainstream acts, and they certainly are not honored with an award show honoring their “dominance”. They aren’t even invited. Their fan base consists of hip hop romantics, and their work fits the description of cult classic. Like most of our distorted perceptions of history, the present time period will be remembered as the era of the Dirty South and artists such as Drake, while those who has taken the art where it should be melt into obscurity.

So, if you enjoy the new breed, understand that you are perfectly normal. Many have adopted the music that was hijacked and taken from the ghetto by the same people who use all of their interests to control them. However, just know that when you claim to be a fan of hip hop, the music you enjoy is not in it’s pure state but rather, is a deformed mutation of it.

To the rest of the fans, keep it real.

View the original article on blogcritics.org

Absolut has filed a lawsuit against the song’s alleged co-producer/writer Kia Shine.

DJ Absolut says Shine, whose real name is Nakia Coleman, agreed in December 2008 to pay him 20% of all proceeds that came from the use of his beat.

But Shine secretly went to Drake last September and cut a deal to get a 25% interest in the song’s copyright – an arrangement that has already netted him $1 million, the lawsuit claims. The lawyer for DJ Absolut says Shine’s representatives have refused to return his calls. “Kia Shine needs to uphold his end of the agreement,” said Muir’s lawyer, Brian Levy. “It wasn’t my client’s desire to resort to legal action to get him to do it. We’ve reached out to him, but he has not chosen to respond.”