Wyclef Jean is being sued by diamond dealer to the hip-hop stars, Jacob the Jeweler, for an unpaid bill totaling over $300,000.According to the Associated Press, the suit was filed yesterday in a Manhattan court, claiming Wyclef has a debt for watches and jewelry he bought over a period of several years.

The suit claims the Haitian rapper bought the jewelry between March 2002 and January 2006 for $765,100. Jacob and Company Incorporated says Wyclef still owes $319,680, despite “repeated demands for payment.”

The Jeweler, born Jacob Arabov, was sentenced in June to 2 1/2 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to falsifying records and giving false statements to investigators about a multi-state drug ring. He was accused of helping to launder over $270 million in drug money for the Black Mafia Family (BMF) and began serving a 30 month federal prison sentence last month.

Reps for Wyclef could not be reached for comment. We at Hiphopspy have to say why waste so much money on bling. I mean whats the point.

Legendary Cold Crush Brothers member, Easy A.D, in collaboration with business partner and Hip Hop historian Anthony “A-Tone” Hovington, has announced the launch of the Classic Hip Hop Concert Series, a set of multiple concert events showcasing the forefathers of the Hip Hop culture.A.D. and A-tone started Classic Hip-Hop LLC back in in 2005 in hopes to “preserve and promote the positive aspects of Hip Hop culture.”

Since its inception, the organization has collaborated with the renowned Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, which will be premiering the Hip Hop Won’t Stop exhibit at the Natural Museum of American History in 2009.

The Classic Hip Hop Concert Series will supplement this exhibit by holding its first show on November 22 at Constitution Hall. After the November 22nd debut, the series will run nine more shows across the country through September 2009.

For more information, visit www.classichiphopllc.com
We at Hiphopspy know the History some of you young Cats need to show the respect and support due to the legends of Hip Hop. Catch the show if it comes to your city I know I will.

Rick Ross previously being employed as a corrections officer has been making waves on the net for the past week. While Ross has been adamant that a C.O. has never been his occupation, The Smoking Gun revealed otherwise. Lost in the mix has been how these revealing pictures surfaced in the first place.There have been accusations that have linked Trick Daddy to being the one responsible for leaking these pictures to sources. Many may know that Ross and Trick haven’t always been on the best of terms so the rumors incited Ross to call Trick Daddy a “sucka.”

Trick adamently denied he had anything to do with the pictures reaching the internet.

“Where’s the blog or the video that shows me saying I leaked the pictures?” Trick asked. “Somebody tried to use me to try to start some mess. They wanted to use Trick and I won’t let it go down like that. Whoever did leak the picture, why don’t they just be a man and say it? Don’t try to lean on my shoulder and put shit off on me.”

“I don’t have no comment to say about the picture and no comment to say about the situation,” Trick said. “I am not going through no type of problems with Rick Ross or nobody else in this Hip Hop game. Definitely not anybody from my hood. Anybody know, love or respect Trick knows that is out of character for me. I don’t do shit like that!”"

So does the fact that Rick Ross called Trick Daddy a “sucka” change anything?

“What does a person say when someone says somebody did something like that? It’s just a lot of bad judgment,” Trick concluded. “All of the instigators out there always want to compare me to Rick Ross. The only way to get around all that is to truly show that we have love for one another.”

On July 24 Abkco Music Inc. filed a suit against Lil Wayne and Cash Money/Universal for allegedly releasing an altered version of the Rolling Stones’ song “Playing With Fire” without permission. Abkco seeks unspecified damages for what it believes is the use of “a clear derivative of the Rolling Stones song with the original lyrics altered in a recognizable way.”The song was originally a B-side to the single “The Last Time,” and it can be found on the 1965 Rolling Stones album Out of Our Heads. Abkco’s argument centers on the original Rolling Stones lyric “But don’t play with me, ’cause you’re playing with fire.” The Lil Wayne song of the same name features a similar interpretation of the lyric, with Wayne saying, “But you can’t blame me if I set this stage on fire.”

Additionally, Reuters reports Abkco believes Lil Wayne’s version, which is included on Tha Carter III, uses “explicit, sexist and offensive language” which could reflect poorly on their company and the Rolling Stones. Representatives for Lil Wayne and Cash Money/Universal have yet to comment on the lawsuit. Tha Carter III is currently the number two album in the country with RIAA certification of over 2 million units shipped. We at Hiphopspy know Lil Wayne doesnt have a chance going up against the Rolling Stones, they got crazy money. They been in the business for 40 years and could buy universal if they wanted, there is not a bigger group in the world in any genre of music. If Wayne thinks he has the money to make this go away he is fooling himself, the rolling stones are all billionaires,and billionaires dont lose cases, and they dont settle out of court for little money. The Rolling Stones have sold out every concert for the last 20 years, they only do concerts in stadiums that hold 60,000 people minimum at 100 dollars a ticket, you do the math, Lil Wayne cannot sell out a stadium anywhere,never has never will. Everytime they tour they clear half a billion or more.They probaly are going to take all the money he made off carter 3 and then some. Wayne is going to learn a hard lesson on this one.

The recently leaked Game song featuring Lil Wayne titled “My Life” is already making waves on the internet. But it is not because of the obvious two top tier emcees on the song. The issue at hand is the version that leaked onto the net with Game spitting the following lines:”You see them 24’s spinning, I earned ‘em/and all the pictures of me and Em, I burned ‘em/ so there ain’t no proof that I ever walked through 8 Mile/and since there’s no Proof, I’ll never walk through 8 Mile”

Moments after the version leaked and began to spread, another version of the song - which is the album version according to an Interscope representative - hit the net without the controversial lines. Along with that came a statement from Game clearing up the lyrics.

“When I originally wrote the song ‘My Life’ I was trying to think back on events that affected my life and how they changed me,” Game says. “When I first got signed to Aftermath and G-Unit I was exposed to so many different people from Dre to Em to 50 to Proof. I always identified with Proof. We were always cool and he would reach out to me when ever I was going through something.”

Game goes on to explain how the song was not meant to be offensive by any means and was clearly taken out of context.

“I remember when Proof died vividly and now every time I think about going to Detroit I get depressed. That is what I was trying to say in that verse and the more I looked at I realized that people would take it the wrong way…the way they are taking it now that it leaked. So I decided to change it so that this bullshit wouldn’t happen and now it’s happened anyway,” he continued.

In the end, Game apologizes for that version of the song even being heard by the masses.

“For the record, this is not the version on my album, this is not the version that radio will get and this is not the version that I just shot the video to. Furthermore, I apologize to anyone who took this the wrong way as that was never my intention.”

We at Hiphopspy believe Game didnt mean to diss Eminem or Proof. It wouldnt of been good to diss Eminem and be the one who brings Em back to the mic after 3 years in exile. We could only imagine the wrath that Eminem would of spit to protect his friend Proof and himself. Whoa backpedal Game,real fast!

Tony Yayo has never been the one to keep quiet on his discontent for other rappers. Calling into Jenny Boom Boom’s show on Hot 93.7 in Connecticut, Yayo released a kamikaze of insults toward G-Unit’s three biggest current foes; The Game, Young Buck and Fat Joe.Stating that The Game was a “television blood,” Yayo mentioned their first encounter in which he saw Game wearing a different color. “When I met Game, he had on a brown flag. He wasn’t even blood, get out of here man.”

Equaling calling Young Buck a “television crip,” Yayo went at Buck the hardest because of his recent emotional split with G-Unit. “I guarantee, when Buck comes out with that mixtape, it’s gonna be a lot of exposing. I could expose Buck in so many ways. From females, to money, to what you had in your bank account, to your IRS, everything.” Yayo continued, “You cried in front of the biggest mess hall ever chump. You ain’t nothing,” he said referring to the taped phone call between Buck and 50 Cent.

Not wanting to leave Fat Joe out of the diss-frenzy, Yayo made his opinion straight-forward on the Bronx emcee. “You just a fat waste. Just go somewhere and die.”

With buzz circulating about a near-death shooting aimed at Harlem rapper Max B last night in New York.
A press release was issued today claiming he was scheduled to perform at Hot 97’s Who’s Next concert Tuesday evening July 22 at SOB’s but before hitting the stage a disruption occurred.”I heard a shot and then n*ggas cleared the room,” Max said. “I had my shades on so I ain’t really see who let off the shot. N*ggas want me dead, I don’t know who, but you know, everybody want me dead. They want the Biggavelli out the game - I’m about to take over the game so they want me out.”

Claiming the incident was just “a regular day at work,” Max saw the event as a bad move on the shooter’s behalf due to the extra publicity he’s receiving.

“Obviously whoever shot wasn’t trying to shoot me, they was too scared to shoot me so they just made it look like they was doin’ something big,” he added. “All they did was get me wavy, get me extra interviews and have everybody talk about where Max B got shot at. They get no recognition for that. I do.”

In addition to the exposure received from the shooting, Max spoke on his new Wavie Crockett mixtape with Big Mike and a mistaken shout-out to Jim Jones’ Byrd Gang on one of the tracks.

“Shout-out to Big Mike,” he said. “I had to bring it back to the game. I brought it back to the essence. I distinctly shouted-out Byrd Gang in the middle of one of my songs by mistake. I am not a Byrd Gang affiliate.”

Despite no longer working with long-time partner Jim Jones, Max expressed gratitude to the Byrd Gang leader “for the opportunity” and wished them along with The Diplomats the best of luck with their careers.

The 2007 version of Scott Storch was a force to be reckoned with. Not only was his catalog of production credits diversifying between Hip Hop, R&B, and Pop, but he also continually cranked out radio hits and Billboard chart-toppers. At the height of his career, he was valued at $70 million and was featured in Forbes magazine, a feat seldom seen in the slumping music industry today.In 2008, he isn’t looking so great.

The 34-year old Miami resident is seeing the effects of poor financial decision making which has subsequently put him into debt. Rumors of his financial woes began earlier this year, as reported Storch had listed his $20 million dollar yacht on eBay for the shockingly low cost of $600,000. Since then, it’s been reported that Storch has also evaded real estate taxes that amount to $500,000. Then there’s the case of his missed child-support payments.

After his 2004 rise in success, Storch reconciled with his former girlfriend Vanessa Bellido, who 12 years earlier birthed his son Steven. Wanting to do the right thing, he brought them to Southern Florida, which Bellido described as “one of the happiest times in our lives.” Three years after that, he began paying child-support for his second son of a different mother in Jalen Daniel.

While this shift in Storch’s life was occurring for the better, his entertainment ventures took a turn for the worse. Including a failed signing in reality TV star Brooke Hogan, a feud with former collaborator Timbaland, and a struggle to keep his producing top-notch, it is assumed Storch couldn’t handle the limelight, which simultaneously put a strain on his relationships with both mothers and children. At the start of this year, he has been MIA in delivering payments for both children, putting him another $46,000 in the hole.

Infamous, co-producer of Lil Wayne’s record “Mr. Carter” and budding beat-maker himself, sees Storch’s situation as one that abruptly catches music artists off-guard because of its financial insecurity. “There’s no 401k plan in the music industry. You can’t be stupid and just throw your money away.”

Despite little to no promo outside of the internet, it will be officially revealed tomorrow by Soundscan that Nas’ Untitled album sold approximately 113,000 units. I’m not going to place “in its first week” at the end of that sentence, because how this industry has chosen to center their support (or lack of) around the strength in first week sales is just ridiculous.Yes, Def Jam, even though you didn’t work hard to get Nas the airplay or video play he deserved –just like you failed to do last time– Nasir still managed to pull it off. And would you look at that: unlike these ringtone rappers who bag paid-for airplay and a #1 hit on the charts, Nas can move over 100,000 copies in the first week. Now that’s what you call a following.

Now that Hov has washed his hands of his Deaf Jam duties, I wonder who LL is going to blame now. Why? Forget hip-hop; IDJ is the new R&B label. Rihanna got a re-release of her album after dropping a million and one singles, Ne-Yo is on album three, they’re still vigorously pushing The Dream even though his album was a flop, they’re working on a new artist named Karina Passian, etc etc. In short, what a joke this label has turned out to be. We knew L.A Reid was a bad idea from the jump.

Hiphopspy never cares how many units a artist is moving these days. But NAS is a top 5 all time rapper that we will follow till the end.