After she delivers her new album on June 25th, Dessa and company are hitting the road as part of the Parts of Speech Tour. Starting in Omaha, NE then heading out West for the majority of July. Check out the cities/dates up top and get your tickets here.

PREVIOUS: Dessa – Warsaw (prod. Paper Tiger)

Raekwon took to Instagram earlier today to reveal that he and Jay-Z are finally getting in the studio to put in work. With Rae finishing up his F.I.L.A. album and Hov reportedly working on his next solo LP, it’s up in the air as to where the actual music will end of living. But one can hope that the final product results into some of that classic drug/crime talk. Shouts to Lenny S for making it happen.

Guerilla Union recently announced the official line-up to this year’s Rock the Bells festival. And while some artists come at no surprise (Wu-Tang Clan, Black Hippy, Immortal Technique, Tech N9ne, etc), a shocker came as it was revealed that there will be “original virtual performances” by both Ol’ Dirty and Eazy-E. More holograms? According to founder Chang Weisberg, the answer is no…

It’s an original virtual performance, not a hologram. I never used the word hologram. There are a number of multimedia visual effects that will be applied that will definitely at the very least make the performances look like a hologram. People’s minds will be blown.

Whatever the case may be, we’ll just have to wait and see on September 7-8 when the festival kick starts in San Bernardino, CA. Check the other cities/dates here and hit the jump for the full list of expected performers.

Black Entertainment Television have just announced the nominations for this year’s BET Awards ’13 and Drake leads the pack with 12 nominations. Drizzy’s nominated five times in the “Video of the Year” category for “Started From the Bottom,” “HYFR (Hell Ya Fuckin’ Right),” as well as his collabos for Kendrick Lamar’s “Poetic Justice,” 2 Chainz “No Lie,” and A$AP Rocky’s “Fuckin’ Problems.” Kendrick Lamar and 2 Chainz are both tied for eight nominations with A$AP Rocky snatching up five.

The BET Awards 2013 takes place at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles on June 30. Hit the jump for the complete list of nominees.

Or, “so now when your favorite struggle rapper somehow garners 500,000 YouTube/VEVO views they will receive a gold plaque.”

The RIAA announced “the integration of streams to its historic Gold & Platinum (G&P) Program, the industry’s premier award for recognizing artistic achievement in the marketplace.” What, exactly, does that mean? Well, if an artist’s song (and/or video) gets streamed from the likes of Rdio, Rhapsody, Spotify, Xbox Music, MTV.com, VEVO, Yahoo! Music, YouTube and others enough times, that song and/or video now qualifies for gold and platinum certification.

After announcing this, the RIAA then started passing out these awards like they were those dry communion discs at a church, giving everyone from Adele to Kanye West to Kendrick Lamar to Whitney Houston gold and platinum digital song certifications.

If this walks like a duck and talks like a duck, then you’re probably right to assume this is another slab of musical fuckery thrown on the grill.

Look, I get what the RIAA is trying to do with this integration of digital streams, as they’re trying to keep up with the ever-changing pace of the music world. However, handing out a gold plaque to anybody with 500,000 views or streams is kind of a moot point when an artist can “go gold” and no longer need a half a million people to actually do so. For example, I watched Pusha T’s video for “Numbers On The Boards” twice yesterday; does that mean that I accounted for “two” streams or just one? As such, what does this mean for other artists who have the same amount of views and streams, but aren’t on the same level of “prestige” as their more popular contemporaries? For example, Pac Div – according to this new integration – would have “gone gold” for “Mayor” (which, as of this post, has 708,218 views) and “hit platinum” for “Anti-Freeze” (1,267,265 views). And I haven’t even begun to touch upon the other “potentially gold-streaming singles” such as, say, Nelly’s BET UnCut staple “Tip Drill” (which, according to one link, has hit 652,459 views).

To me, there’s so many loopholes and unclear jibba-jabba that I don’t see how this “new integration” is ultimately beneficial. Sure, it’s cool to see your favorite artist get some acknowledgement for their work, but what happens if a song like “The South Gon’ Hold It Down” “goes platinum” as well? I feel that this new “rule” definitely needs more work and clarity before actually being implemented. But what do I know, I’m just a bootlegging pirate let the RIAA tell you.

Our favorite people over at the RIAA have announced today that they are changing the way they gauge their Gold, Platinum, Multi-Platinum and Diamond record selling measuring standards. With the steady increase in virality via sites such as Youtube, Vimeo, Spotify and iTunes, the RIAA will now take audio and video stream counts into consideration when judging if a song acquires the coveted Gold or Platinum numbers. We can probably thank viral videos like “Harlem Shake”, “Gangnam Style” or everyone’s favorite “Call Me Maybe” for these changes. Read the rest of the article here. What are the Dopehouse’s thoughts on this? No bueno?

In the new issue of Interview Magazine, Erykah Badu conducted a Q&A with Kendrick Lamar in which he gets K. Dot reavealed his top 10 favorite rappers (in no particular order: Jay-Z, Nas, 2Pac, Snoop Dogg, B.I.G., Eminem, André 3000, Rakim, Kurupt, DMX). Kendrick also revealed an odd tour rider which includes: Fruity Pebbles, baked chicken, a bottle of Hennessy, and Polo socks. Head over to Interview’s website to read the full interview.

PREVIOUS: Kendrick Lamar & Steve Aoki Interview w/ KarmaloopTV (Video)

Or so Hollywood.com is reporting. The report goes on to read that ‘Ye was spotted on a downtown rooftop in Atlanta with Paul Rudd and Christina Applegate. Whether or not this is simply a cameo or more than that has yet to be revealed. Other celebrities spotted who are rumored to appear in the Anchorman sequel are Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Harrison Ford, Sacha Baron Cohen, Liam Neeson and Nicole Kidman. [Via]

PREVIOUS: Anchorman: The Legend Continues… (Official Trailer)

Dammit! In what I’m sure comes as a shock to many of us, Vic Mensa just revealed to XXL that the (incredibly talented) Chicago collective Kids These Days has official broken up.

It’s never going to be an “I hate you” type of situation. For the most part it’s a happy settlement. There were certain moves made by some people that weren’t all the way stand-up moves, but at the end of the day there isn’t really any bad blood. It’s not like I can’t be in the room with everybody in the band, and I wish everybody the best. But the band breaking up wasn’t my ultimatum, I didn’t bring that to the table, but once it was brought to the table it kind of opened up a world I’d already been living in in my own head for a while. I just see it as a great opportunity. Kids These Days was great and it was a lot of fun, but now I want to do something different. And I produce now, too.

Check the full interview here; which includes more talk of the break up, Vic’s plans for his solo career (INNANETAPE coming soon), a premiere of his new music video (which you can check here) and more.

A couple weeks after going platinum, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ latest single “Can’t Hold Us” has reached the #1 spot the Billboard Hot 100. Making the duo the first artists in the chart’s nearly 55 year history to have their first two singles take the top spot. Who needs a major?

PREVIOUS: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Perform On The Colbert Report (Video)

A week after revealing the release date for Watching Movies With The Sound Off, Mac Miller announces his next tour, The Space Migration Tour w/ Action Bronson, Chance the Rapper, Vince Staples and a few of my best friends. Hit the jump for the official flyer, stops and dates.

How’s that for a slick twist of irony, “stuck in the 90s”-era hip hop fans?

Despite signing a new deal with Sony, dropping a song that sounds like Rick Ross had his way with a schizophrenic Red Fraggle after he slipped a molly, mickey and a roofie in her champagne, and paying nearly $1,000,000 in back taxes, the once-prolific Lauryn Hill is headed to the bing on July 8th (and has an added three months of house arrest thrown in the mix for good measure) for failing to do what every American who earns a paycheck has to do every single year (and instead claiming in some non-sensical logic that quasi-reeked of “holier-than-thou” arrogance) that she didn’t have to because of the one-armed man or something, the icing on the cake of this rather depressing fall from grace for one of urban music’s most beloved figures.

Then, seemingly to twist the knife further into the backs of every Rawkus Records-loving, J Dilla faithful who fell in love with hip hop’s neo-renaissance period during the late nineties/early Aughts, the guy who once boldly proclaimed on radio that he was the reincarnation of 2Pac, did a terrible remake of Grease and had a music video with Pauly Shore got sprung from the pokey this morning…