Everyone loves a concert they don’t have to pay for. And when the lineup consists of Fabolous, Busta Rhymes, Keyshia Cole, Swizz Beatz, Ludacris and more, well it doesn’t get much better. Recently Boost Mobile RockCorps just wrapped a nationwide tour in New York City. Technically the concert wasn’t free because in order to get a ticket you had to volunteer at least four hours of community service. But, aside from that, the only money spent was on concessions.

In 2002 the Greenbucks Foundation started RockCorps with the intention of using music encourage youth to serve their communities. In 2005 RockCorps got corporate sponsorship from Boost Mobile and has since grown into a nationwide effort reaching more than 30,000 youth. RockCorps teams up with non-profit organizations in major US cities and in exchange for a minimum of four hours of work, volunteers receive a free ticket. Buying a ticket is not even an option. The only way to get a ticket is to volunteer your time. Read More »

Onstage, a man with a mic is rhythmically delivering more words than you’d typically hear between breaths. Most of what he says is hard to make out, until the entourage of anywhere from 2-30 highly animated friends chime in for 16 measures. Bass is blaring from speakers. There’s no band in sight, just one man with turntables and possibly his Mac … Where might you be? At a rap concert. But to prove that hip-hop shows span a much wider range, Common and Q-Tip, who performed to a sold out crowd last weekend at Times Square’s Nokia Theater, blessed the audience with sounds that celebrated scratching, rhyming over tracks, drums, keys, a bass, guitar, and the only “hype men” were Common’s three background vocalists (one male and two ladies).

Last month 2K Sports kicked off their third annual Bounce Tour, making stops in several major U.S. cities and Toronto, making their way to New York this past Sunday. Q-Tip and Common are the headliners, both of whom are playable characters on NBA 2K8 and also appear on the game’s soundtrack. As avid fans of hip-hop and 2K8, this wasn’t an event that Dime could miss.

Q-Tip opened with one of his new songs but it was Tribe hits like “Bonita Applebum” “Check the Rhime,” “Electric Relaxation,” and “Scenario” that got the crowd really amped. Read More »

The following appears in Dime #36, on newsstands now…

On the same night in late-July when 2K Sports gave us a very-early sneak peek of NBA 2K8, they brought NBA ballers Andre Iguodala, Gerald Wallace, Rudy Gay and 2K8 cover guy Chris Paul to Rucker Park for the first-ever outdoor, nighttime motion-capture session. In between the guys donning the mo-cap suits and having their moves recorded for the game, we got with each of them to talk about their personal anthems and the soundtracks to their teammates’ lives …

Chris Paul, New Orleans Hornets My Personal Anthem: “Lil’ Wayne – I can’t think of just one song. Wayne’s my boy, so he sends me music all the time, lots of stuff that isn’t even released. So I’m always listening to different songs of his.” My Team: Tyson Chandler: “I’d go with a crazy rapper, like The Game. Plus Tyson’s from Compton.” Read More »

Tomorrow, Chamillionaire will drop his sophomore album, Ultimate Victory (Universal Records). A couple weeks ago I spoke with Chamillionaire about his forthcoming release and what he could have been on the basketball court…

Dime: Living in NY, your first single, “Hip-Hop Police” seems especially relevant. Chamillionaire: [The song] is actually not even about the police who stand outside of shows. I’m talking about police in hip-hop, not just actual police themselves. This could be anyone who’s trying to take down someone who’s coming up. You got all these artists trying to do what they love and make a living but they’re under a watchful eye. We all make mistakes, and when a rapper makes mistakes it’s like they’re charging him with murder. I talk about The Chronic, The Blueprint, The Clipse … it’s the music that matters.

Dime: You have Slick Rick on that track. What was it like working with a legend like him? Chamillionaire: He’s real cool, real humble. He came to studio by himself, no jewelry, and he seemed like he didn’t wanna do the record at first but we talked for a while and then just started to work on making music. We weren’t planning on cutting the single … it just turned out that way. And he was really cooperative with the video. Some rappers think costumes are corny but he was cool with it. Read More »

In hip-hop, maybe more so than any other musical genre, artists are constantly forced to defend their credibility. That said, as a producer, there are very few in the game who can touch Swizz Beatz. For the better part of the last decade, Swizz has been making hit songs for Nas, Jay-Z, DMX, Busta Rhymes, Lil’ Kim, Eightball & MJG, Beyoncé, every member of The LOX, and more.

As a rapper, though, Swizz still has to show and prove. Swizz’s new solo album, “One Man Band Man,” landed on shelves nationwide in late August. While his first album, 2002’s “Swizz Beatz Presents G.H.E.T.T.O. Stories,” is a compilation on which Swizz mostly chants on hooks and lets guys like N.O.R.E., Shyne and Cassidy handle the heavy mic work, “One Man Band Man” sees the produces presenting himself as a true solo artists.

He knows his work on this album will be scrutinized, but Swizz is undaunted…

Dime: If you could produce a track for each of your favorite ballplayers, how would you describe the sound you’d want to evoke? SB: For A.I., something like a T.I. song. That’s his swagger. He’s a lil’ dude scoring a lot of points. T.I. is a lil’ dude who’s scoring a lot of points in the music industry. A song like, “What You Know About That.” Kobe, he’s more of a family guy. No disrespect, but he’s more of a Will Smith vibe. A song like “Summertime.”

Dime: What about Jordan? SB: A Hov song. “Streets is Watchin’.” Read More »

A couple months back I got a package of CDs from a friend over at Red Marketing. On one of the album covers, I saw a pale-complexioned face looking at me with distrusting eyes that seemed to be asking me the same question I was asking it: “Who are you?” The name, Marco Polo, brought forth memories of swimming blindly in a pool, trying to find voices I could only hear. Maybe that’s the key to finding out who Marco Polo is — tuning in just to the sound.

On the album Port Authority, I noticed Marco Polo featured MCs like Kool G Rap, Masta Ace, Boot Camp Clik and Large Professor. While it sounded like just another “real hip-hop,” back to the basics, underground record that I’m obligated to respect but don’t really care to listen to, it was far from that — Port Authority is far from boring backpacker hip-hop. If you haven’t heard Marco Polo’s stuff yet, you’re late, so go do some research. His most recent work you can find on Boot Camp’s Casualties of War compilation, which dropped this past Tuesday. Marco Polo produced two tracks on the album, “I Want Mine” and “My World,” which he gave Dime an early listen to before the Boot Camp album dropped and have since been circulating throughout the office. I got a chance to catch up with the Toronto-bred producer and talk about his career thus far: Read More »

This weekend Microsoft Zune’s summer concert series, “Live at the BBQ,” made its way to New York City. The stage at Brooklyn’s Empire-Ferry Fulton State Park overlooked the East River, offering a backdrop that made you quickly forget about the sweltering heat. The mic was blessed by Baby Cham, Boot Camp Clik, Special Ed, Brand Nubian, The Clipse, The Lox, LL Cool J, and Large Professor who, with Main Source, wrote “Live at the BBQ” — a song that earned Nas his first recognition as an emcee and served as the namesake of this event.

Every performer came with energy. Cham closed his set with consecutive hits “Vitamin S,” “This is Why I’m Hot (Remix),” and “Ghetto Story.” He was one of my personal favorites but with only the early birds present, the crowd’s choral response of “Rah, Rah, Rah” for “Ghetto Story” was a bit lackluster. But by the time The Lox hit the stage a few hours later, it was a very different story. With a larger crowd and the temperature slightly cooler, the crowd and even other performers were going verse for verse with Styles, Sheek and J to the Muah. For a while, Jadakiss and Styles alternated between solo hits, performing “I Get High,” “Knock Yourself Out,” “Locked Up,” and “We Gon’ Make It,” which was brilliantly mixed with the beat of Tupac’s “Ambitionz az a Rider.” As Jada segued from his verse on Nas’ “Made You Look” remix into “Mighty D-Block,” the chanting of “Deeeee-Block” rose from the crowd. ‘Kiss summed up their set well, saying, “We can go for twenty hours performing our hits.” Read More »