The epitome of Los Angeles Hip Hop, Kendrick Lamar and the Game hold it down for their hometown on the set of the Game’s newest music video “The City” from his DJ Premier approved, The R.E.D Album. Video directed by Matt Alonzo.

PREVIOUS: Soulja Boy – Too Faded f. Game

Just over a month after bringing Blue Ivy Carter into this world, Beyonce and Jay-Z go against the typical celebrity/gossip mag showing and share the first photos of their daughter to the world themselves. Hit the jump.

PREVIOUS: Jay-Z – Glory f. B.I.C (prod. The Neptunes)

On the 6th anniversary of Jay Dee’s untimely passing, Mister Cee tapped Questlove to spin some of his favorite records as part of his Black Fist Fridays series on Hot97. With an incredible mix of Dilla, The Roots, Ghostface, Mos Def, ATCQ, etc… this is definitely gonna be my soundtrack to the weekend.

Shouts to Miss Info on the heads up and head if you missed Pete Rock’s guest session last week, check here.

DOWNLOAD: Questlove’s J Dilla Tribute Mix
RELATED: 10 Facts About J Dilla You May Not Know [Complex]

What’s PAPER magazine you ask? I have no clue. But I figured some dopeboyz would enjoy the side-boob. *shrugs… thanks Low. UPDATE: More shots down bottom.

Will Jay Electronica’s anything even see the light of day at this point? I’m still waiting on “Dear Moleskine,” and that song is about 2 years old now. Anyways, The Well Versed spotlighted his and nine more upcoming projects on their latest list. Click below to check it out.

READ: [The Tens] The 10 Most Anticipated Hip Hop Albums Of 2012

To help celebrate the life of Christopher Lee Rios, Hot97′s Mister Cee put together an hour-long tribute mix. Shouts to B. Dot on the find.

DOWNLOAD: Mister Cee’s Big Pun Tribute
RELATED: Mister Cee Interviews Pete Rock

James Dewitt Yancey. February 7, 1974 – February 10, 2006.

RELATED: The 50 Best J Dilla Songs [via Complex]

On February 19th, MTV will launch the seventh installment of their controversial Hottest MCs in the Game series. Until then, hit the jump for the 25 artists in contention.

2 Chainz
50 Cent
Big Sean
Common
Drake
Eminem
Fabolous
French Montana
Jadakiss
JAY-Z
Jim Jones
Kanye West
Lil Wayne
Lloyd Banks
Maino
Meek Mill
Nas
Nicki Minaj
Red Café
Rick Ross
T.I.
Wale
Wiz Khalifa
Yelawolf
Young Jeezy

Oh man, I can already imagine the riot that’s about to begin in the c-section…

When I put this (2)Dope Opinion asking whether you preferred Ghostface Killah’s Ironman or Supreme Clientele, it was pretty evenly split down the middle. Now, 9th Wonder adds his counterpoint to Sean Price’s declaration that GFK’s sophomore album is better than his first:

Ironman sounded more like a pure Wu-Tang album. Supreme Clientele had JuJu from The Beatnuts and a lot of other producers contributing to Supreme Clientele —- which again, were dope records. But Ironman sounded more like a classic, pure Wu album.

As far as it not being a true solo record like Sean Price said, that’s just a trademark of Wu-Tang Clan. Raekwon’s album was featuring Ghostface Killah. That was the best set-up ever, making albums featuring cats to let you know what’s coming up next. Cuban Linx worked so well with Ghostface being all over it, it just made perfect sense for Ghostface to put out an album featuring Raekwon and Cappadonna. And it was still Ghostface’s album. He still owned it.

You can read the entire thing over at Complex.

The Chicago-reared producer and Executive Vice President of A&R at Def Jam spoke to Complex about his new job, his contributions to Jay and ‘Ye’s 2011 album and, interestingly enough, the negative impact Nas’ debut album has…

In the 2000s there were a lot of records where you had to get a big name guy for your single or else it didn’t really work out for you.

Yeah. I always joke with Nas and tell him it’s his fault, that Illmatic caused a problem. Before that, when I started doing music, there wasn’t a concept of, “I could work on a Public Enemy album,” or an Ice Cube album, or A Tribe Called Quest, or Gang Starr. It was a closed issue. You didn’t submit a beat to Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth.

When Nas didn’t have a DJ-producer in his set-up, he reached out to some of the better people and they respected him enough to work on it. That was the, “Oh wow. You can work with these guys?” Then you had Puff put together The Hitmen and have success, and I think that’s when it turned into, “Well, using a lot of people might work better.”

READ: No I.D. Talks Def Jam, Kanye West, & How He Affected “Watch The Throne”