38 HIPHOP//RNB
KANYE WEST Foundation Mysteriously Closes
Hmmm curiouser and curiouser! At the end of last month, Kanye West’s charity foundation unexpectantly closed down, much to the surprise of everyone… including it’s employees! The foundation was set-up in 2007, with the intent of reducing the high school drop out rate within the US. The foundation awarded grants to underprivilaged students unable to afford education. Kanye’s mother (and English professor) Dr. West was said to have been heavily in- volved and dedicated to the success of the foundation. After her death in 2007, the companies productivity, appeared to decline. Former excutive of the The Kanye West Foundation, Joseph Col- lins, suddenly released a statement saying, ‘I am reaching out to let you know that the Kanye West Foundation has officially closed it doors.’
RAKIM PLAY’S The Capital
NY
THE GUESTLIST NETWORK | MAY 2011 Tabatha Taylor
Having provided vocals for Plan B, Professor Green and The Streets, rising UK singer Ny has just dropped her new track Be With You featuring Giggs. Whilst on tour with N-Dubz, we talk about her rise to fame.
Widely renowned as one of the world’s most influential rappers, New York-born, Rakim will be preforming June 2nd, in London’s Jazz Café. Rakim (aka William Michael Griffin Jr.) Rakim has gained a reputation as an exceptional live performer. Unlike most rappers he insists on performing without the support of hypemen, backing vocals and gold teeth! His ability to engage and move the crowd is said to be unrivaled; ‘There’s a sense of pride to a performance like Rakim’s, as though he’s representing ideas instead of bling,
spitting history instead of hype, tapping into a time-honored tradition with a respect that many modern MCs lack in their cheesy styles’. Rakim will be performing in the capitol for one night only, if you’re not there… then where the hell you gonna be!
For more information on Rakim and Eric B. see previous page. TGN have chosen them as this months Legends. For tickets to the gig, go to ticketmaster.
co.uk
SOULJA BOY AND
DRAKE COOKING Up a new track
So you’ve got the release of your debut single, Be With You out. You’re working with Giggs on it, how was it working Giggs? Yeah really good, the producer, Davinchi- I worked with him quite a lot and when we finished the track and we were like, “Hmm we need a feature”. So I was like “the only two people I want on the song is Drake or Giggs”. So they were like “OK, I think Giggs will do it right now” so we called him up and he came down and did it!
Nice one. So what have you taken away from working with Giggs? You know every artist is different. He’s quite a funny character. I don’t think it comes across in his music but he’s very quirky and he’s got a really good sense of humour.
Over the years Soulja Boy has col- laborated with a number of A-list artists, including Gucci Mane, Lil B and Snoop Dogg. The rapper is now in the process of recording a tune with Drake. Soulja explains that the collaboration came about after Drake called the Atlanta rapper to congratulate him on his recent Juice mix tape. Soulja Boy explains, “Me and Drake got something coming - crazy... Drake called me and was like,
‘Man, I like the Juice mix tape. I like the ‘Zan with That Lean’ too. He named four songs from the mix tape that he really liked.” Soulja Boy also revealed that the pair have already made plans to hook up in the ATL and hit the studio together for a week. This isn’t the first time the two have worked together as Drake and Soulja Boy performed Soulja Boy’s hit single “Pretty Boy Swag” at a concert last year in Los Angeles.
The UK Grime scene is mainly made up of men. How have you pushed your way forward in such a male-dominated profession? Well I think I just got used to being one of the only females from that scene. I literally just made myself be known, by staying relevant, by jumping on beats and doing remixes to start. Like I did remixes with Lioness on it and obviously she’s a female and amazingly talented as well. Then originally on my mixtapes I
had a lot of the guys that I thought were good and talented at that time.
How important is it for you to rep- resent yourself as an independent female? It’s always gonna be a male industry. Well you can’t say it always will- we might take over! But while it is, you’ve gotta be strong, you’ve gotta know what you’re doing and stick to your guns and it’s good to have other strong females friends. Like I’m really close to Tulisa from N-Dubz because you know, you’ve gotta have allies!
Yeah how is it all going? It’s so exciting. We pulled up on Isle of Wight and there was screaming N-Dubz fans outside the bus. So that was quite surreal to wake up to a load of kids outside and you’ve still got eye crust in the corner of your eye!
Tell us about your album that’s going to be out, what can your fans expect from it? Yeah just, you know I’m always me. I’ve got my style. I’m a really honest worker so a lot of honest writing. And good vibes, fresh and something I think that everyone can relate to. I mean Be With Me is definitely a good bench mark to go on from.
If you were invisible for a day, what trouble would you get up to? Oooh! If I was invisible today, I would get off my tour bus and walk through the crowd! But generally, I’d probably try get into some crazy meetings and find out secrets. Probably go to the UN or something! Find out what’s going on and what the secrets are!
If you had a swimming pool filled with anything in the whole world, what would it be? I think it would have to be filled with… I’m thinking Skittles! Red Skittles!
Can you give The Guestlist Net- work an exclusive? Well it’ll probably be a single called, ‘Burn It Down’ but as I said it’s really down to the fans and what they want from me. I love listening to what they want and delivering that. But the Be With You video’s going to be out on the TV this week. So that’s really exciting!
You can catch Ny on 9th June at Cargo. For more information on tour dates and music go to
www.nyoffical.com
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