James Bomb, part of Public Enemy&#39;s S1W group, has just dropped his first solo single, &quot;Trapped Music.&quot;

On the blues influenced &quot;Trapped Music,&quot; Bomb details the problems of modern society that have been glorified and commercialized by modern hip-hop. &quot;I&#39;m too advanced for this heroin dance music,&quot; Bomb raps. &quot;Rap fused with the confusion of the prescription drug you&#39;re using, or the molly that Miley&#39;s on. Black entertainment via Viacom.&quot; The track was written by James and Eric Muhammad and was produced by Public Enemy&#39;s Chuck D.

Bomb was part of the Unity Force security group with Professor Griff. When Griff joined Public Enemy, Unity Force joined Public Enemy as the S1W group, which performed alongside Public Enemy in iconic, military style uniforms.&nbsp;

Besides his work as part of the S1W group within Public Enemy, Bomb also worked with the group on 2015&#39;s &quot;Man Plans God Laughs&quot; album, where he wrote the song &quot;Mine Again,&quot; a tribute to African history and culture. 
 
By Michael Lacerna for RAPstation.com

James Bomb, part of Public Enemy&#39;s S1W group, has just dropped his first solo single, &quot;Trapped Music.&quot;

On the blues influenced &quot;Trapped Music,&quot; Bomb details the problems of modern society that have been glorified and commercialized by modern hip-hop. &quot;I&#39;m too adva...

Public Enemy S1W's James Bomb drops solo single

The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers announced on Thursday that it will be awarding A Tribe Called Quest their Golden Note Award. &nbsp;The award will be presented during the 29th Annual Rhythm and Soul Music Awards at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles on June 23rd. &nbsp;The ceremony will also include a tribute to Phife Dawg, who recently passed away in March due to complications with diabetes.

A Tribe Called Quest unleashed their signature fusion of jazz and hip hop with 1990&#39;s People&#39;s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, and they went on to release four more albums in a career that spawned nearly 10 years. &nbsp;Critics and fans alike regard their two following albums, Low End Thoery and Midnight Marauders, as seminal hip hop classics. &nbsp;Along with fellow Native Tongues&#39; groups De La Soul and The Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest helped to forge a positive, jazz-inspired brand of hip hop that stood in stark contrast to the gangster rap that dominated radio airwaves at the time.

Past recipients of the award include Puff Daddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, Lauryn Hill, Pharrell, and LL Cool J. &nbsp;Concerning the music of A Tribe Called Quest, ASCAP released this statement, &ldquo;A Tribe Called Quest influenced a generation with their fusion of hip-hop, jazz and socially-conscious lyrics. They continue to inspire decades later and are more than deserving of this special honor.&rdquo; 
 
By Ryan Donberg&nbsp;for RAPstation.com

The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers announced on Thursday that it will be awarding A Tribe Called Quest their Golden Note Award. &nbsp;The award will be presented during the 29th Annual Rhythm and Soul Music Awards at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles on June 23rd. &nb...

A Tribe Called Quest to Receive ASCAP Golden Note Award

The Foreign Exchange&#39;s latest album &ndash; &quot;Takes From The Land Of Milk And Honey.&quot;

Matthijs Rook, better know as Nicolay is a well known hip-hop and R&amp;B producer from the Netherlands. He is one half of The Foreign Exchange, a group created with American rapper Phonte. The two artists created Foreign Exchange the independent label and have been releasing music since the early 2000&rsquo;s.

Since his first release, Nicolay has changed direction in his approach to managing the music industry and evolving his own sound. Nicolay attempts to keep an analogue sound to his music with the use of live instruments rather than using samples. In an interview with HipHopDX (<a href="http://hiphopdx.com/news/id.39123/title.nicolay-hip-hop-is-a-young-mans-game">which you can read here</a>) Nicolay recognizes the change of style in his music, comparing the first album that was strongly influenced by hip hop to the newer neo-soul tracks. &nbsp;

Nicolay opens up with his opinion on artists and rappers in the hip hop scene today. He has an understanding of the importance of online presence stating &ldquo;I think especially nowadays with the fact that it&rsquo;s very much a young man&rsquo;s game with social media, and a lot of these guys are spot on with all of that.&quot;&nbsp;

During the interview Nicolay starts talking about his own collaborations with young artists in the past, and most notably with Wiz Khalifa. Connected by a friend of Nicolay&rsquo;s at BBE, the producer was impressed with the teenager&rsquo;s flow. After meeting and building rapport, Nicolay decided to put him on the track, with what&nbsp;used to be off his solo album. &ldquo;Wiz Khalifa is somebody that I worked with back in 2005 and he was like 15-years-old. I had him on one of my solo albums before anybody even knew who he was.&quot;&nbsp;Nicolay mentions a sense of pride having been involved with the younger Wiz and seeing how far he has progressed.

For over a decade, Nicolay has been there to witness the changes which the music industry has transitioned through. In the interview, the hip-hop producer comments on the struggles of adapting to new music consumption saying, &ldquo;The only thing we can control is the music; we can make the music as good as we can.&quot;&nbsp; Nicolay tries to keep an optimistic approach to the way music consumption has changed stating that, &rdquo;Before&nbsp;streaming we wouldn&rsquo;t normally reach internationally for instance.&quot; He goes on in the interview to express the importance of keeping an optimistic attitude and not giving into surrounding negativity leading towards a downward spiral in the music industry.

You can check out the latest releases and news on <a href="http://www.theforeignexchangemusic.com/">The Foreign Exchange here.</a>

&nbsp;

By Courteney Tobin for RAPstation.com

&nbsp;

The Foreign Exchange&#39;s latest album &ndash; &quot;Takes From The Land Of Milk And Honey.&quot;

Matthijs Rook, better know as Nicolay is a well known hip-hop and R&amp;B producer from the Netherlands. He is one half of The Foreign Exchange, a group created with American rapper Phonte. The two...

Producer Nicolay speaks out on changing his sound

Taboo, of the Black Eyed Peas, came up from the east side of LA along with fellow members,&nbsp;Will.I.Am&nbsp;and Apple. He has always made it his goal to be a provider for his family, and after his first son, Taboo never wanted to NOT be able to be there for his family and more than just a financi...

TABOO: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

G-Eazy and Jeremih have dropped &quot;Saw It Coming,&quot; a new song from the upcoming Ghostbusters reboot soundtrack. The track features a mix of the Oakland rapper&#39;s rhymes and some smooth hooks from Chicago singer/songwriter.

<a href="https://youtu.be/E9GcEf4evrM" target="_blank">The new track, &quot;Saw It Coming,&quot;</a>&nbsp;is the latest scarily catchy theme song to be featured in a Ghostbusters movie, following Ray Parker Jr.&#39;s original theme and Bobby Brown&#39;s &quot;On Our Own&quot; for the 1989 sequel. Since the song calls back the iconic &quot;Who You Gonna Call?&quot; line from the original Ghostbusters theme, Ray Parker Jr. is given a writing credit on the song.

The soundtrack for the upcoming film will also include a new track from Missy Elliot, featuring Fall Out Boy. 
 
By Michael Lacerna for RAPstation.com

G-Eazy and Jeremih have dropped &quot;Saw It Coming,&quot; a new song from the upcoming Ghostbusters reboot soundtrack. The track features a mix of the Oakland rapper&#39;s rhymes and some smooth hooks from Chicago singer/songwriter.

The new track, &quot;Saw It Coming,&quot;&nbsp;is the latest sc...

Jeremih and G-Eazy team up for "Saw It Coming"

Appreciation for Prince&#39;s epic body of music is at an all time high, and music marketplace Discogs has just announced that a rare copy of Prince&#39;s &quot;The Black Album&quot; has sold for $15,000.

Discogs is an online marketplace for hardcore record collectors. Before today&#39;s Prince sale, the most money somebody paid for a record off of the site was a rare copy of David Bowie&#39;s self titled album, which later received a wider re-release as &quot;Space Oddity.&quot;

Before you go and plan your retirement around the sale of &quot;The Black Album&quot; that you have in your record collection, take note that this isn&#39;t a regular copy of the album. While &quot;The Black Album&quot; eventually received a wide release in 1994, the album was originally planned to come in 1987, but was shelved by Prince at the last minute. A few promo copies of the 1987 pressing of &quot;The Black Album&quot; managed to get in the hands of club DJs before Prince changed his mind, and now the few surviving copies of that version of the record are worth thousands to collectors.

Between this and the previous, record holding Bowie sale, it seems like the best way to increase the value of a record is for the artist to pass away. It&#39;s tragic and macabre, but anything that motivates people to seek out Prince&#39;s music can&#39;t be completely bad. 
 
By Michael Lacerna for RAPstation.com

Appreciation for Prince&#39;s epic body of music is at an all time high, and music marketplace Discogs has just announced that a rare copy of Prince&#39;s &quot;The Black Album&quot; has sold for $15,000.

Discogs is an online marketplace for hardcore record collectors. Before today&#39;s Prince s...

Public Enemy S1W's James Bomb drops solo single

A Tribe Called Quest to Receive ASCAP Golden Note Award

Producer Nicolay speaks out on changing his sound

TABOO: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Jeremih and G-Eazy team up for "Saw It Coming"

Rare Prince album sets record sale price

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