The 2008 Paid Dues Festival proved yet-again to be heaven on earth for hip hop fans across the board. 5,000 plus of them made the trip to San Bernadino on March 22nd to throw their hands in the air from 2 pm to midnight.

The line-up satisfied all tastes from the Cardboard City native Yak Ballz to the old school rhymesayer Fatlip to the west coast veterans The Living Legends to the political poet Sage Francis. Other performances included Isaiah, B Dolan, Mac Lethal, POS, Omni, Busdriver, Kool Keith, Boot Camp Clik, The Visionaries, Hieroglyphics, Jedi Mind Tricks, Dilated Peoples, Little Brother and surprise appearances by Psycho Realm and E-Swift of the Alkoholiks.

Real hip hop stand up!

Dilated Peoples

POS reppin’ the Murs For President movement

Cashmere chicks running the merch booth!

The official line-up has been released for this year’s Paid Dues Festival in San Bernadino. Check out who MURS has in the cards for this year! You don’t want to miss it!

This past weekend was one for real hip hop shows for the Stampede crew.

 We were in the building for Evidence’s show at Little Temple  on Friday night and for the LuckyIAm/The Coup show at Crash Mansion on Saturday night.

 Evidence put on a RAW show — sold out the Little Temple — had everybody sweating — and performed his entire Weatherman LP in order with guest apperances by DJ Babu, Rakaa, Sick Jacken and Chace Infinite. 

Saturday night was just as hot with The Instant Messengers, Lucky I Am and The Coup tearin’ it up at the Crash Mansion downtown LA.

Lucky rocked it as always and gave plenty of Paid Dues shout outs — buy your tickets for March 22nd!! 

The Coup were amazing as always , even without Pam the Funkstress on the tables. 

Coming up in live shows:  MURS in Santa Barbara on February 29th, and Hip Hop 4 Education with Immortal Technique/Mystic/etc. downtown LA on March 8th!

Look for us there!

Terrace Martin has recently contributed his extraordinary musical talent to
the new Snoop Dogg reality show on the E! Network. Premiering Sunday,
December 9th, “Snoop Dogg’s Father Hood” allows viewers to live a day in the
life of Tha Doggfather as he heads up the Broadus family, and further
establishes himself as a bourgeoning icon. Terrace’s original music and
production can be heard throughout the series, and includes the “Father
Hood” theme song. Having just signed a label and production deal with Warner
Bros. Records, Terrace is continuing to develop and expand his successful
career.

Check out Snoop Dogg’s Father Hood on the E! Network

Premiering December 9th at 10:30 p.m./9:30 p.m. (c)

MURS has been busy preparing for his new album “Murs for President” to drop on Warner Brothers and also shooting a new music video for brand new single, “Better Than The Best”. Check out the photos of the president himself campaigning throughout the streets of Los Angeles.

Check out whats been goin’ on lately in the lab…

Kanye asks Timbo to rework the drums in “Stronger”:

John Mayer and Yeeeeezy Collabo:

After 3 weeks of what many came to know as “hip hop summer camp”, the Paid Dues Festival tour has come to a close.

Murs showed incredible leadership and stamina as the organizer, the host and the headliner of 12 revolutionary shows across the country.

The pioneers of paying their dues took a major stand for independent hip hop as they took to the streets for the first indie hip hop tour EVER and rocked thousands of old and new fans.  Hip Hop history was made and thanks goes out to all of the fans and artists who made this milestone possible!

Get ready for Paid Dues 2008!!

www.myspace.com/paidduesfestival

Friday night the Sneaker Pimps tour stopped off in Downtown Los Angeles. The event was a fusion of sneakers, art, skateboarding and music. There was a shoe/painting installation from Mister Cartoon too!

As many of my friends know, I’m a huge sneaker fan, so this was the perfect event for me to be at. But the main reason I went was to go check out our good friend Paul Wall and his group “Expensive Taste” perform. They put on a dope show! Paul is one of those artists that’s just mad cool, genuine and humble. He personally walked outside and navigated through the mass of people trying to get in the event and made sure Double R and me were cool to get in. I don’t know too many artists that would do that. Redman’s performance was dope too…I can’t wait to see Wu-tang at Rock The Bells along with MURS and everyone else on the line-up!

Technorati Tags: Redman, Murs, Sneaker Pimps, Paul Wall

Murs, promoting his new album Murs for President, just visited the world famous Wake Up Show, the most listened to hip-hop radio show on the planet!  Eleven million people tune in weekly to the show, hosted by Sway and King Tech, and Murs made sure not to disappoint by debuting the world premiere of his new single, Dreadlocks.  Listen here and find out for yourselves:

Murs on the Wake Up Show

Technorati Tags: Murs, Murs for President, Dreadlocks, Wake Up Show, Sway, King Tech

“Live At The BBQ” concert series that ZUNE threw on Thursday 7/12/07 was at the Los Angeles State Historic Park (downtown LA.) Performers were David Banner, UGK, E40, Collie Buddz and Common.

I got to the venue just as UGK ended their performance which was a bummer because this is the one group I really wanted to see. Common’s performance was incredible. He sang some old joints and some new, including a freestyle. Check out the freestyle footage by clicking the link below…

Common Freestyle

It was good to see all of our folks there…Choc (thanks for the shoutout), Skee, Roddy Rod, Barry Benson, LP, Jycorri, Troy Marshall, Hapa…Since it was a community event taking place in LA it would have been nice to see an LA group take stage (i.e. Beat Junkies, Murs, Pac Division, Dilated)

Here’s Roddy Rod (Jive), Me and RocBarry (Interscope/Geffen)

I was told that ZUNE had anticipated a crowd of 5,000 which the park was well staffed and equipped for but it felt more like maybe 1,500. Everyone that did attend looked like they enjoyed the event…

The production value of this event was top-notch. Big ups to Zune for putting together a really dope event.

Much love to Byze Uno who hooked me up with the talent pass which made for easy parking and easy access in and out the joint.

Technorati Tags: Murs, Pac Division, Skee, Common, UGK, David Banner, Collie Budz, E40, Zune, Los Angeles Hip Hop