Mellow Man Ace, the &quot;Godfather of Latin Rap,&quot; recently spoke with Downtown Weekly about a number of topics related to his nearly thirty years in the rap game, including his involvement with the Legends of the Golden Age concert and how he&#39;s managed to stay motivated and relevant in an industry with an infamously short attention span.

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a long journey, it&rsquo;s been an amazing journey, I live in the journey,&quot; Mellow Man Ace said. &quot;I don&rsquo;t take any of it lightly, I wake up everyday with the same hunger and passion that I had when I started [doing] hip-hop.&rdquo;

Mellow Man spoke positively about the current hip hop scene, saying he&#39;s a fan of artists like Joey Bada$$ and Action Bronson, but he wishes that music execs and those in charge of programming would give underground hip hop artists more attention.

<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://thegrawn.com/2016/09/hiphops-golden-era-dtla-mellow-man-ace/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1475189558881000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFZ-jhXficWNM7q63lScdxn0FEW5w" href="https://thegrawn.com/2016/09/hiphops-golden-era-dtla-mellow-man-ace/" target="_blank">You can read Downtown Weekly&#39;s full article with Mellow Man Ace here.</a>

Mellow Man Ace is currently one of over a dozen classic hip hop artists participating in the Legends of the Golden Age concert, which seeks to take audiences back to the golden age of hip hop.&nbsp;<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.eventbrite.com/e/legends-of-the-golden-era-concert-tickets-27479826902&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1475189558881000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGZKWJ9QKWMLbEDr0C79X3GRaztSw" href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/legends-of-the-golden-era-concert-tickets-27479826902" target="_blank">You can reserve your tickets now for the landmark event, which takes place next weekend,&nbsp;October 1-2, in downtown Los Angeles.</a>

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By Michael Lacerna for RAPstation.com

Mellow Man Ace, the &quot;Godfather of Latin Rap,&quot; recently spoke with Downtown Weekly about a number of topics related to his nearly thirty years in the rap game, including his involvement with the Legends of the Golden Age concert and how he&#39;s managed to stay motivated and relevant in an...

Mellow Man Ace talks the state of hip hop, Legends of the Golden Age concert

Jay Wayne Jenkins, better known by his stage name Young Jeezy, celebrates his 39th birthday today.

Jeezy released his first album,&nbsp;Thuggin&#39; Under The Influence, in 2001 under the name Lil J. Since then, the Atlanta rapper has been nominated for multiple Grammy awards, has taken home two BET awards for &quot;Hard&quot; and &quot;Put On,&quot; and has scored multiple chart topping hits, including &quot;Soul Survivor,&quot; a single off of his major label solo debut,&nbsp;Let&#39;s Get It: Thug Motivation 101.

While Jeezy doesn&#39;t consider himself a musician, going as far&nbsp;<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=http://www.xxlmag.com/xxl-magazine/2005/10/im-a-king/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1475188944384000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEoukSAXnRWSIdw06A_xU-R8g8OWw" href="http://www.xxlmag.com/xxl-magazine/2005/10/im-a-king/" target="_blank">to tell XXL in 2005</a>&nbsp;that&nbsp;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t even want to be no rapper...The only time I&rsquo;m rapping is when I&rsquo;m in that booth. I don&rsquo;t walk around with no pad or no pen. I know I got love for this music &rsquo;cause it&rsquo;s a hustle,&quot; he&#39;s earned a reputation for taking his credibility as an artist and entertainer seriously.&nbsp;&quot;I&rsquo;d rather be in the hearts and minds instead of on the shelves,&rdquo; Jeezy said.

Jeezy also has a reputation for charity: the rapper opened up his own home to shelter those displaced by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and in 2007 he hosted a charity toy drive that gave away a thousand toys to a thousand needy kids in the Atlanta area.

&nbsp;

By Michael Lacerna for RAPstation.com

Jay Wayne Jenkins, better known by his stage name Young Jeezy, celebrates his 39th birthday today.

Jeezy released his first album,&nbsp;Thuggin&#39; Under The Influence, in 2001 under the name Lil J. Since then, the Atlanta rapper has been nominated for multiple Grammy awards, has taken home two...

Young Jeezy is a little less young today

KRS One had already made a name for himself as part of the hip hop trio Boogie Down Productions, but with the release of &quot;Return of the Boom Bap&quot; in 1993, he cemented his place as one of the greatest solo rappers in hip hop history.&nbsp;

Combining his immense talents as a lyricist with the production skill of fellow music legend DJ Premier, &quot;Return of the Boom Bap&quot; was well received at the time of its release and has only become more celebrated as time has progressed. &quot;When it comes to rhyming skills, he still has few rivals,&quot; Rolling Stone wrote about KRS One in their review of the album. &quot;His raps combine cultural literacy, wild imagination and absurd wit with mad street flavor. KRS expresses ideas with such exuberance that the zany logic of some of his assertions goes down like candy-coated pills.&quot;&nbsp;Five years later, The Source named the album as one of the best rap albums ever made.

&quot;We will be here forever. Forever and ever,&quot; KRS One says during the intro for the album, in a statement that sounded like boasting when &quot;Return of the Boom Bap&quot; was first released but has turned out to be a self fulfilling prophecy -- KRS One is still out there, performing and representing the same &quot;real hip hop,&quot; and &quot;Return of the Boom Bap&quot; is to this day regularly cited by professional critics and classic hip hop fans alike as one of the best albums in the genre. 
 
By Michael Lacerna for RAPstation.com

KRS One had already made a name for himself as part of the hip hop trio Boogie Down Productions, but with the release of &quot;Return of the Boom Bap&quot; in 1993, he cemented his place as one of the greatest solo rappers in hip hop history.&nbsp;

Combining his immense talents as a lyricist with...

23 years ago today, KRS One brought the Boom Bap back

Zion I is an indie Hip-hop duo based out of Oakland, California. He recently addressed a crowdfunding campaign to support his forthcoming album,&nbsp;The Labyrinth.

Contributing fans will be entitled to exclusive content, as consolation for their support. The package will include autographed CDS and vinyl, exclusive videos, behind-the-scenes content, as well as what they exclaim as &ldquo;limited edition swag&rdquo;.

The&nbsp;Labyrinth&nbsp;Campaign will commence until the album&#39;s scheduled release on October 21st&nbsp;of this year. Be sure to check out the movement here, as well as not missing out on the opportunity to support the cause!

<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/zion-i-the-labyrinth-campaign-music-rap%23/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1475174192056000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE1zHdVmV6AG7tH-gd_nL1ubvuPpQ" href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/zion-i-the-labyrinth-campaign-music-rap#/" target="_blank">https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/zion-i-the-labyrinth-campaign-music-rap#/</a>

Zion I is an independent hip-hop tandem, composed of Baba Zumbi and Amp Live, attesting to sixteen years of distinct content and experience in Hip-hop underground, debuting in 2000 with his album,&nbsp;Mind Over Matter, which was nominated by&nbsp;The Source&nbsp;Magazine as Independent Album of the Year.

The duo attests to taking the indie route as an artistic choice, and this imminently led to the formation of their Mind Over Matter Records, operating under the goal of &ldquo;releasing music with full freedom and creative control.&rdquo;

&ldquo;The Labyrinth&nbsp;is my vision of the healing energy that music in general, and Hip Hop specifically can have in the world&rdquo; as written on Zion I&#39;s funding webpage, &ldquo;I know that most people don&#39;t think of our culture that way, but I do... This music can truly transform lives for the better. I am the perfect example of it.&rdquo;

The campaign marks Zion I&#39;s first fundraising effort, and remains both enthusiastic about connecting with fans, believing that their support contributes directly to the artist as well as the cause.

By Jods Arboleda for RAPStation.com

Zion I is an indie Hip-hop duo based out of Oakland, California. He recently addressed a crowdfunding campaign to support his forthcoming album,&nbsp;The Labyrinth.

Contributing fans will be entitled to exclusive content, as consolation for their support. The package will include autographed CDS...

Indie Hip-hop's Zion I Commence The Labyrinth Campaign

Lupe Fiasco is an internationally-acclaimed rapper and producer born out of Chicago Illinois. His career began at age eighteen, when a younger Wasalu Muhammad Jaco took to the basement recording scene, eventually rapping for a group called Da Pak. Atlantic Records soon got a hold of him, and in 2006, Lupe Fiasco blasted off to the charts with his debut album&nbsp;Food and Liquor.

Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Lupe&#39;s premier record narrates the stories of Chi-town, draped in beauty, but dripping with grime. Like iconic artists like Common, Mos Def, and Talib Kweli, Fiasco gained recognition for pioneering the conscious Hip-hop movement, dishing out cutting-edge rhymes and rhythms to rally the masses against social maladies.

Stark realism became a constant with Fiasco&#39;s style as he progressed through the industry, following up the conscious movement with&nbsp;Lupe Fiasco&#39;s The Cool,&nbsp;as well as his critically-acclaimed&nbsp;Lasers, which debuted at #1 off the US&nbsp;Billboard&nbsp;200. While nominated Best Rap Album, the record featured the ground-breaking track, &ldquo;The Show Goes On&rdquo;, which was also nominated as Best Rap Song at the 2012 Grammy Awards.

Accredited for providing his unique, intellectual and highly-influential brand of Hip-hop, Fiasco rejects the misogyny he sees abundant in modern music, as he explains with his song &ldquo;Hurt Me Soul&rdquo;. Interestingly, Fiasco also disagrees to the idea cencorship in music, esteeming it a vital tool in essence of the movement: &ldquo;If we&#39;re going to [censor things] that are offensive, then we are going to have to blind and deafen everyone. Come on man, let&#39;s focus on education and literacy and poverty.&rdquo;

While among modern Hip-hop&#39;s most prominent advocate figures, Fiasco is also a storyteller at heart, tracing all the way back to his childhood background in theater arts. Critics have also noted his vivid imagination, which shamelessly steps outside the box on frequent songs, such as &ldquo;Gotta Eat&rdquo; which addresses such issues as poor nutrition and drug hustling, narrated through the perspective of a cheeseburger.

At present day, Fiasco continues the conscious Hip-hop movement through numerous facets, adding business and philanthropy to his palette. Nevertheless, Lupe Fiasco is one of Hip-hop&#39;s most iconic modern artists, extending its movement against social issues through the art of music.

By Jods Arboleda for RAPStation.com

Lupe Fiasco is an internationally-acclaimed rapper and producer born out of Chicago Illinois. His career began at age eighteen, when a younger Wasalu Muhammad Jaco took to the basement recording scene, eventually rapping for a group called Da Pak. Atlantic Records soon got a hold of him, and in 2006...

Spotlight Artist: Lupe Fiasco

Today marks the 34th&nbsp;birthday of the one and only Cash Money Kid, Lil Wayne!

Wayne began his career as early as age nine, when Cash Money Records adopted him into the family in 1991, making him the label&#39;s youngest member. Gaining acclaim as a member of southern Hip hop group, Hot Boys, Wayne&#39;s first certified-platinum came through their hit-album&nbsp;Guerilla Warfare.

Cash Money&#39;s flagship artist would also showcase his talents as a solo artist, and in 1999, Wayne&#39;s solo debut,&nbsp;The Block Is Hot, would also accomplish RIAA platinum, followed by later solo records,&nbsp;Lights Out&nbsp;in 2000, and&nbsp;500 Degreez&nbsp;in 2002&mdash;both of which earning gold status.

Beyond his prior three records, Wayne began his&nbsp;Tha Carter&nbsp;series albums, with its third installment ranking his most successful project to date.&nbsp;Tha Carter III&nbsp;sold over one million copies in the US upon its first week, and eventually scored in the Grammies, winning Best Rap Album, featuring hit singles such as &ldquo;Lollipop&rdquo;, &ldquo;A Milli&rdquo;, and &ldquo;Got Money&rdquo;.

Taking on a creative dive, Wayne pursued a rock-Hop album, and 2010, released&nbsp;Rebirth,&nbsp;ranking RIAA gold despite receiving mixed responses. Wayne&#39;s&nbsp;Tha Carter IV, came out in 2011, and upon its first week, sold 964,000 copies nationwide.

While fans await the frequently-delayed fifth installment to&nbsp;The Carter&nbsp;series, Lil Wayne&#39;s very decorated catalog and work ethic stand next to none. On September 27th, 2012, Wayne officially outscored Elvis Presley as the male with most entries on the&nbsp;Billboard&nbsp;Hot 100 chart, counting 109 songs. Aside from this, the Cash Money Kid has sold well over 100 million records across the globe, acclaiming him &ldquo;one of the best-selling artists of all time&rdquo;.

This year, not too long ago, Lil Wayne bid farewell to Birdman himself and Cash Money Records, which was shortly followed by his latest single &ldquo;Grateful&rdquo;, a song reflecting on Wayne&#39;s season of &ldquo;feeling defeated&rdquo; leading to his decision to make a change.

Although rumored for his rostering among Drake&#39;s OVO label, Weezy remains a very prominent figure and perhaps the most productive artist the business has ever seen. And regardless of&nbsp;Tha Carter V&nbsp;or what banner Weezy chooses to raise, Lil Wayne is undoubtedly considered among Hip-hop&#39;s greatest.

Happy Birthday, Lil Wayne!

By Jods Arboleda for RAPStation.com

Today marks the 34th&nbsp;birthday of the one and only Cash Money Kid, Lil Wayne!

Wayne began his career as early as age nine, when Cash Money Records adopted him into the family in 1991, making him the label&#39;s youngest member. Gaining acclaim as a member of southern Hip hop group, Hot Boys,...

Mellow Man Ace talks the state of hip hop, Legends of the Golden Age concert

Young Jeezy is a little less young today

23 years ago today, KRS One brought the Boom Bap back

Indie Hip-hop's Zion I Commence The Labyrinth Campaign

Spotlight Artist: Lupe Fiasco

Weezy Turns 34!

Sight

Sound

Story