Unfortunately, another hip hop icon has passed on. Heavy D, born Dwight Errington Myers, died at the far-too-young age of 44. is reporting that
“He had gone to the doctor the day before,” Winter told New York’s “He had what appeared to be flu-like symptoms.”
“He said he had a touch of pneumonia, maybe from traveling,” cousin Ruddy Phillips, 50, told the Daily News after speaking with the entertainer’s dad. “He just got back from England.”
The Overweight Lover was conscious though experiencing trouble breathing when he was transported to Cedars Sinai Medical Center after a 911 call was placed at 11:25 a.m. PT on his behalf Tuesday. However, he was pronounced dead at 1 p.m. PT. Although an autopsy has been performed, the coroner is declining to announce any cause of death until toxicology tests are conducted due to Heav taking various medications.
Until they find out what happened, its useless to speculate. But the one thing we can agree on is that this is tragic, and he had a lot more life to live. I can honestly say that I slept on his last couple of albums, but in honour of his legacy, I give you Now that we found love. Check it out below.
According to our family over at , Weezy is considering hanging up his microphone after his latest album is released.
“I’m bowing out still on top,” he says. “I’ma make y’all want me when I retire. I’ma make y’all be like, ‘Nooo!’ I ain’t leaving out this bitch when y’all be like, ‘Yeah, it’s about time, dawg.’ Carter IV might be my last one. I’ma make y’all be like, ‘Fuck!’ Yeah, nigga, I’m gone.”
Oh man, I cannot wait for this! If you haven’t seen the show, Dexter, you are not living your life the proper way. It’s a huge success, and follows Michael C. Hall as a serial killer that you can’t help but root for. And our boy Mos Def will be appearing on the upcoming season. I’ve been a fan of Mos’ acting career (mostly), and I’m excited to see what he does with this role.
According to Billboard, Mos will play “a hardened ex-con who claims to have found religion yet seems to continually find himself surrounded by violence,” and Dexter will show “who he really is.”
is reporting some news that’s kind of surprising to me in some ways. Method Man, one of the kings of the Wu-Tang Clan (and also short-lived star of a terrible TV-show with Redman) has starting trying to grow up. He’s come out to say that he wants to start getting away from the image he’s so carefully cultivated.
“When you get older and you’ve got kids and your kids are going to school and you know [their] teachers…and they see how active you are and concerned [you are] with your kids’ education or well being, it’s hard to sit there and be taken seriously if people are always talking about he’s always high…which is totally not the case,” he said. “When I first came out, I was young, we were doing our thing, we smoked a lot…and we didn’t care if the world knew. Now, I have to use more discretion because of my kids. This is not for me; everything I do if for them now, so I use a bit more discretion and I don’t put weed as a forefront anymore.”
I thin Snoop said something similar a few years back. But here’s hoping Meth can stick with this.
I woke up this morning and decided to check the news just like any other day. I was still blinking away the sleep when up popped a post from that Nate Dogg has passed away at the age of 41.
While the cause of his passing is still yet unknown, we here at 4080 wanted to take the chance to pay a small tribute to him.
While Nate hasn’t released much since 2008, much of that can be attributed to his health problems in recent years. Nate Dogg suffered two strokes back in 2007/2008. Regardless of his modern day output, the man was a huge influence on hip hop. It seemed more and more that Nate’s biggest strength was the skill he brought to his collaborations. Even if his success as a solo artist was not as high as hoped, his efforts as a featured guest on numerous songs really added something special to the mix.
Don’t believe me? Remember his turn on Warren G’s Regulators?
He’s done work with everyone from Mos Def to 50 Cent, and did so with the same skill and style that made him famous. Even if you don’t love the work he’s done, he’s been a big part of some massive, massive hits. I mean, Ludacris’ Area Codes isn’t exactly what I want in my headphones, but you can’t doubt that the song blew up.
Rest In Peace, Nate Dogg. You had a hell of a career.
No, this is not a repeat from 1997. , posted by CNN in January of 2011, notes that the LAPD somehow has new leads after many, many years of failure in catching anyone for Biggie’s murder.
The CNN story, while interesting, really offered nothing new on the crime and really no major detials of the big break. The gist of the article is in the excerpt below:
Retired Los Angeles Police Detective Russell Poole, who worked on the Wallace case, told CNN that he believes Knight was behind the murder, even though the Death Row Records’ boss was serving time on a probation violation at the time.
“Suge Knight ordered the hit,” Poole said, adding that he believes it was arranged by Reggie Wright Jr., who headed security for Death Row Records.
Reggie Wright Jr. told CNN he had nothing to do with the murder, and Knight has repeatedly said he had nothing to do with the crime. Poole said he retired early from the LAPD, in part, because he was thwarted in following leads in the Wallace case involving police officers, some of whom worked off-duty for Death Row Records.
“I think I was getting too close to the truth,” Poole said. “I think they feared that the truth would be a scandal.”
One of the officers Poole said was involved is David Mack, who was sent to prison for robbing a bank in 1997, the same year Wallace was killed.
Poole said Mack owned the same type of car driven by the gunman who shot Wallace, and Poole said a friend of Mack’s resembles a police sketch of the shooter.
Basically conjecture and conspiracy theories at this point. Still, at least something is starting to happen. Now in another 20 years they may get around to looking into Tupac’s murder too.
In what has to be an unexpected news article for most weekdays, Canada’s has run a story about President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. The story? Apparently Museveni has released a “wildly popular” rap video. The Globe has this to say:
The new hit isn’t exactly gangsta, though. It’s more poor-African-farmer than Straight Outta Compton. The rap’s lyrics have Mr. Museveni turning millet into a hen, into an egg, eventually into a cow and then a wife.
Political analysts expect Mr. Museveni’s new rapping skills to win him more votes, especially among the young.
This must be a welcome change for him, as the Ugandan government has been under intense international criticism over proposed legislation that severely criminalizes homosexuality.
Update: Not sure if this is the legitimate video or not, but it’s what I found when I googled for the video:
I hesitate with posting things like this until they are truly confirmed, but this one really caught me off guard.
According to (a website that has been pretty reliable in the past) Eyedea, one half of Eyedea and Abilities, has passed away.
The details of what happened, at this point, are speculation. says
“It is with great pain and sadness that I tell you my son Mikey (Eyedea) has passed away,” Averill wrote on Facebook.
The cause of death for Eydea remains unknown and his mother requested privacy.
“At this time we kindly request your respect and our privacy as we process this devastating loss. On behalf of Mikey’s family, close friends and fans, thank you.”
I don’t know what to say exactly other then the fact that this quite tragic. Eyedea, while not exactly a huge commercial success, was an imaginative and creative artist. The music that he and Abilities made together was original and helped put Rhymesayers on the map.
Apparently Hova and the Oracle had a meal together and to talk about their success and the need to give back. It’s a fascinating read, and worth checking out.
They focus a lot on how the two of them got their respective starts in business, and what they learned along the way. Considering how different their lives were, it’s interesting to see how similar their business acumen and philosophies have become.
Canadians and American hockey fans often fret about the state of the NHL, particularly the financial health of the league’s franchises. If you watched any of the Olympic hockey tournament, you probably heard a commentator or interviewee talk at some point about how the Canada-U.S. gold medal game would be ‘good for the game,’ as though the sport was on the brink of irreversible obscurity and needed a 21st-century or to get Americans to finally pay attention.
This narrative has taken hold in the media, and shapes how a lot of people think about the league; ‘Can the NHL survive?’ seems to be the eternal refrain, and existential angst – unlike the brash confidence of the NFL – is the NHL’s prevailing emotion. But is it warranted? Is hockey really an afterthought for most Americans, a sport undeserved of being considered, along with baseball, football and basketball, among the ?
Turns out, not really. The for Sunday’s night gold medal game – measured at 17.6 – were through the roof, scoring higher than any hockey game since the aforementioned Miracle on Ice (1980). Moreover, aside from the NFL, the game was the second-highest rated sporting event of the year, behind only college football’s BCS championship game in January (18.2). Not too shabby.
Also compelling are recent NHL attendance figures. And while large crowds aren’t nearly as lucrative as national television deals, attendance figures are at least indicative of the local popularity of a franchise, which of course is key to its survival. , total NHL attendance so far this season is 15,506,836, or about 16,929 per game. In comparison, the NBA’s average is 17,048, while total attendance for the entire was 17,146,404.
By those metrics, the NHL is clearly healthy. It’s attracting basically as many fans as the NBA and is on pace to surpass the NFL, the continent’s dominant league. The real disparity between the NHL and the other major sports leagues – and the source of all this angst – is television coverage. And fortunately, that’s not critical to the league’s survival. Sure, it’d pad the owners’ wallets some more, but the NHL’s continued absence from American t.v. sets ( really doesn’t count) is hardly a threat to its well-being.
If Sunday’s epic gold medal game taught us anything, it’s that hockey is alive and well south of the border, and will continue to be well into the foreseeable future.
