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Metropolitan State College of Denver’s radio station, MetRadio, has been around over a decade, and according to Colorado emcee D.O. it has barely featured any hip-hop. He’s looking to change that, by launching a hip-hop show called “Black Hollywood.” (The station is on frequency 91.7 FM, which can only be heard on the Auraria Campus and the station’s website.)

“We’ve been on the air for about four weeks now,” says D.O., a student at Metro State who partners with DJ Fresh Tuesday through Friday from 4 to 6 p.m.

They’re trying to have a theme for each day of the week: Tuesdays are all about the new music being released, Wednesdays about the political landscape, Thursdays a free-wheeling day. On Fridays they invite Colorado hip-hop artists to the studio. In between, the talk focus on the latest hip-hop music from a national and local level, even though he’s not trying to hunt down anyone for shine.

“I’m not chasing cats,” D.O. says. “They’ve known what I’ve been doing and they know how to get at me.”

In the meantime, D.O. is currently promoting his new mixtape, A-List Music: The Fresh Tape, which is available for free if you can find him. He also plans on dropping his fifth album, Resilience, on January 1, 2009.

Lil Kim facing $2.5 million lawsuit
Lil Kim was slapped with a $2.5 million lawsuit this week by Brookland Media, a company launched by hip-hop producers The Trackmasters. The lawsuit states that Kim breached her one-year contractual agreement by demanding that the company give her a more lucrative deal. According to the lawsuit, Kim refused to record her album unless Akon and Wyclef Jean were added as producers. But it looks like the courts are on Brookland’s side, allowing the company to withhold $200,000 that would free Kim from her Atlantic Records contract as well as forbidding Kim to negotiate with any other record labels. Brookland claims that they’ve already spent $250,000 towards Kim’s album and other promotional items pertaining to Kim’s career.

Naughty By Nature reunites
Naughty By Nature was recently recognized for its contributions to hip-hop at this year’s VH1 Hip-Hop Honors telecast, and now they’ve also announced that they’re working on a new album with all three members – Treach, Vinnie, and producer Kay Gee, who left the group in 2000.

"It was ironic because we decided to work on an album before the honors came about," Vinnie told SOHH.com. "We were like this is probably the best time to be doing the album anyway. This is a great platform to launch everything."

"We don't consider it a comeback," added Kay Gee. "We never went nowhere. The website is still up, it's alive and kicking. The brand is still alive and kicking. All we doing with this new album now is injecting some new energy into it and giving peoples what they've been asking for from us."

The group says they’re about a third of the way through recording the album with a projected release in summer 2009.

Eminem best rapper alive?
In a massive March Madness-type of bracket, VIBE Magazine held a tournament of sorts to determine the best rapper alive, decided by fans. The brackets pitted rapper against rapper with fans voting for their favorite. The rapper receiving the more votes would move on to the next round. While rappers like Scarface, Nas, and Lil Wayne were supported, they couldn’t beat out the final four of Jay-Z, Eminem, Ludacris and The Game. In the finals, Jay-Z and Eminem went head-to-head and surprisingly, Eminem won in a landslide victory. After the announcement of his victory, Eminem released this statement.

"It’s obviously an honor to have won the fans' support by being voted the Best Rapper Alive,” Eminem said. “I don't think that there is any one rapper that is simply the best though. Everyone who was in consideration and many others are the best at certain things, and at what they do. But since VIBE's offering the distinction, hell yeah I'll accept!"

There’s still no word on when we’ll get a new album from Shady.

NEW RELEASES
Devin the Dude
Landing Gear
Even though Devin may be unknown to national radio listeners, he’s one of the most respected rappers/singers in the industry. But don’t take him too seriously; he keeps his comedic raps about beers, blunts and sex in the forefront of this album.

Jake One
White Van Music
Jake One is a Seattle producer who has contributed hot beats for everyone from De La Soul and MF Doom to Nas and 50 Cent. On his debut album, he’s called up a bunch of emcee to spit over his beats including M.O.P., Freeway, Little Brother, Posdnous (of De La Soul), Young Buck, Elzhi, Royce Da 5’9”, Busta Rhymes and a variety of other folks.

Wu-Tang Clan
Soundtracks from the Shaolin Temple
Not sure how this one slipped under the radar, but this collection of songs features almost every member of the Wu-Tang Clan plus extended family like Killah Priest, Bronze Nazareth, Shabazz trhe Disciple, Hell Razah, and non-Wu members like Sean Price, MF Doom, C-Rayz Walz, and Lord Jamar. The album not only features beats from RZA, but Hi-Tek, Preservation, Stoupe, Cilvaringz, and more. -- Quibian Salazar-Moreno