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Eminem wins, loses at Grammys

Eminem took home two trophies at Sunday night's Grammy Awards, but considering he had been nominated for 10 awards, it's hard to consider his night a success. Record, song and album of the year were among the categories Eminem was nominated, but neither of his two wins came outside of the rap category. That brings his Grammy total to 13, all hip-hop honors. And even a loss within that genre was a surprise. Eminem and Rihanna's "Love the Way You Lie" was considered a front-runner in the overall categories of record and song of the year, yet didn't even manage to win the rap award for either. It's no secret that I'm not as big a fan of Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind" as my counterparts to the East predictably are, but when given a chance to reward a song about the struggle with domestic violence or yet another ode to New York, which one do you think the Grammys should have picked? Sure, in the country category a tale of despair might be cliche. But in hip-hop, it was unprecedented. And it likely deserved to win more than just its share of Eminem's best rap album award for Recovery. In addition to his two wins over Eminem in the rap record and song categories, Jay-Z also won best rap performance by a duo or group with Swizz Beats for "On to the Next One." Eminem's other award was given to "Not Afraid" for best rap solo performance. Speaking of performances, Cee-Lo, dressed as a giant peacock, sang with Muppets and Gwyneth Paltrow, apparently to soften the blow of singing a song called "F--- You" on national television. It didn't prevent the CBS censors from having an itchy trigger finger with the mute button. They were busy again during Eminem's performance with Rihanna, which midway through became interspersed with Skylar Grey singing "I Need A Doctor," foreshadowing the arrival of Dr. Dre (as if the numerous teases for the performance hadn't spoiled the "surprise" already). Perhaps the performance of an alleged Detox track will help the long-delayed album actually get released this year. (We're still not holding our breath.) Click here for a list of all the rap Grammy winners since 1989.

Gang Starr's Guru dead at 43

Nearly two months after suffering a heart attack and falling into a coma, legendary Gang Starr MC Guru has died. Guru, whose real name was Keith Elam, was 43.

"The world has lost one of the best MCs and hip-hop icons of all-time -- my loyal best friend, partner, and brother, Guru," longtime collaborator Solar said in a released statement. "Guru has been battling cancer for well over a year and has lost his battle! This is a matter that Guru wanted private until he could beat it, but tragically, this did not happen. The cancer took him. Now the world has lost a great man and a true genius."

Guru, one half of the legendary duo Gang Starr, suffered a heart attack and fell into a coma in late February. He had what was considered "successful" surgery on March 1 and reportedly was in stable condition, but information was funneled through Solar and was not always in line with what Guru's family was saying. Some statements since February -- including a long, sometimes bitter farewell letter -- have been attributed to Guru, but it is unlikely that he ever emerged from the coma.

"He's still in a coma," Premier told the Vancouver Sun on April 8. "There have been a lot of rumors going around. I deal with his family directly, and get my updates from them. ... He's breathing, he's alive, and he's fighting to maintain."

Gang Starr's last album was released in 2003, although he and DJ Premier never officially broke up. Guru continued with solo projects, including the critically acclaimed Jazzmatazz series and an album last year.

Gang Starr's Guru in coma after heart attack

Guru, one half of the legendary duo Gang Starr, suffered a heart attack and is currently in a coma awaiting surgery. After multiple news reports surfaced Sunday, Premier confirmed Guru's condition in an interview with Sirius XM radio station Hip-Hop Nation on Sunday night.

"Guru is in a coma and will go under surgery tomorrow afternoon," Premier said.

Guru, whose real name is Keith Elam, is 43 years old. Gang Starr's last album was released in 2003, although the pair have never officially broken up. Guru continued with solo projects, including the critically acclaimed Jazzmatazz series and an album last year.

Around 7 a.m. Monday morning, Premier followed up with a message on Twitter: "Guru is getting ready for surgery, pray for the best!"

A mix of shock and get-well wishes from other MCs have been pouring in on Twitter all day.

"Tell me this isn't true!" Ice-T wrote. "That's my real homie!"

B-Real added: "Our prayers are with Guru and his family. Premier and Guru were some of our oldest friends in the game. Get well brother."

Solar, another longtime collaborator and producer for Guru's 2009 solo album, Lost & Found, released a statement on the MC's behalf on Monday at noon ET:

"Guru is struggling with a serious health issue. And we appreciate all your love and well wishes. We continue to hold out hope that Guru will make a full recovery from this. And ask that his privacy on this matter be respected. Again, thank you for all your support through this trying time."

Jay-Z, Diddy not amused by Bulls mascot's 'Single Ladies'

Chicago Bulls mascot Benny the Bull has never been afraid to mix it up with the high-priced talent in the floor seats at NBA games. Just because he was working All-Star Saturday in Dallas -- home of the 3-point, skills and slam dunk contests, among others -- didn't mean he'd change his routine.

The difference, of course, is the front row contained All-Stars of its own, so Benny did his best to make Jay-Z feel comfortable with a spot-on performance of Beyonce's dance in the "Single Ladies" video.

While Spike Lee was cracking up a few seats down, Jay and Diddy, who was sitting in the next seat, strained to pretend they couldn't even see the mascot dancing two feet in front of them. Come on guys, lighten up and give some props to a fellow performer doing his job -- entertaining the crowd.

Dr. Dre sues Death Row

Dr. Dre filed a lawsuit against his former record label in federal court Thursday in Los Angeles, claiming it released a new version of The Chronic without his permission and hasn't paid him royalties since he left Death Row in 1996.

"When it came to paying artist royalties and honoring limits on Dr. Dre recordings that could be released, the 'new' Death Row Records, to quote our client, 'forgot about Dre,'" attorney Howard King said in a statement. "This lawsuit will make sure they remember."

The label, renamed WIDEawake Death Row Records after the original went bankrupt and was purchased by WIDEawake Entertainment Group, released The Chronic Re-Lit last year. A Dr. Dre greatest hits collection called Chronicles also was released in 2007 by Death Row. Neither were released with his permission or his cooperation, according to Dre, whose real name is Andre Young.

Dre also claims in the suit that his original contract did not include digital distribution rights, yet the new owners of the label have been selling digital copies of The Chronic. The album originally dropped in 1992.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for false advertising, trademark infringement, breach of contract and misappropriation of publicity.

Dr. Dre has only released one solo album since The Chronic, 2001 in 1999. He has been working on his next album, Detox, on and off for the past decade.

'A Nite in Rock Island'

It's been a while since we heard from The 411 Online's hometown. Rock Island represent:

Jay-Z wins 3 Grammys

The Grammys hadn't even started and already four of the five hip-hop awards had been handed out. Jay-Z grabbed two of them -- Best Rap Solo Performance for "D.O.A." and Best Rap Song for "Run This Town" with Rihanna and Kanye West. The latter added a second award -- and the only one presented live on the broadcast, Best Rap/Sung Collaboration -- to bring Jigga's total to three for the night. 

Once presenters Mos Def and Placido Domingo figured out how to open the envelope and read "Run This Town," Rihanna and Jay-Z stepped to the stage and thanked the absent "genius that is Kanye West" in a speech kept brief.

Soon after, Wyclef Jean was given a solo spotlight to make his pitch for continued Haiti support.

Eminem's Relapse won Best Rap Album honors, which comes as no surprise to us, but is still a disappointment. The Grammys could have picked up some more credibility by not making the obvious choice. (Q-Tip's The Renaissance would have received my vote.) Em's "Crack A Bottle" collaboration with Dr. Dre and 50 Cent also won Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group, putting our first-ever predictions at 2-for-5. (We apparently overestimated the influence of Justin Timberlake on Grammy voters.)

One of the early highlights was a Beyonce medley that included an angry performance of Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know." Did Jay-Z do something we don't know about? Jay did win the face off with B in the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration category, as his Kanye collabo beat hers. In fact, West had a 60 percent chance of winning, lending a hand to three of the five nominees.

In a bizarre twist, what was presented by Robert Downey Jr. as an opera performance quickly turned into a Jamie Foxx set that grew to include T-Pain, Doug E. Fresh and Slash. Foxx closed with "I apologize for the auto-tune Jay-Z." Eminem, Drake and Lil' Wayne also performed.

Beyonce finished with a record six trophies for a female artist, beating the five she, Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys and others had won at previous shows.

All of the hip-hop winners for this year and since 1989 can be found on our Awards Tour page.

Rap Grammy predictions

The 411 Online has kept a record of every rap Grammy ever awarded, but we've never tried predicting who would win before. That changes now. It's not easy getting into the warped mind of the Grammy voters, who often overvalue pop artists, fall in love with creating repeat winners or just generally have no clue.

Here are our predictions (in bold):

Best Rap Solo Performance
"Best I Ever Had," Drake
"Beautiful," Eminem
"D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune)," Jay-Z*^
"Day 'N' Nite," Kid Cudi
"Casa Bey," Mos Def

Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group
"Too Many Rappers," Beastie Boys & Nas*
"Crack A Bottle," Eminem, Dr. Dre & 50 Cent^
"Money Goes, Honey Stay," Fabolous & Jay-Z
"Make Her Say," Kid Cudi, Kanye West & Common
"Amazing," Kanye West & Young Jeezy

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration
"Ego," Beyoncé & Kanye West
"Knock You Down," Keri Hilson, Kanye West & Ne-Yo
"Run This Town," Jay-Z, Rihanna & Kanye West*^
"I'm On A Boat," The Lonely Island & T-Pain
"Dead And Gone," T.I. & Justin Timberlake

Best Rap Song
"Best I Ever Had," Drake
"Day 'N' Nite," Kid Cudi
"Dead And Gone," T.I. & Justin Timberlake
"D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune)," Jay-Z*
"Run This Town," Jay-Z, Rihanna & Kanye West^

Best Rap Album
Universal Mind Control, Common
Relapse, Eminem^
R.O.O.T.S., Flo Rida
The Ecstatic, Mos Def
The Renaissance, Q-Tip*

*-who we'd pick, given the choices
^-actual winner

More: Every Rap Grammy from 1989-present

Dr. Dre: No rush to 'Detox'

Dr. Dre is a notorious perfectionist, so it comes as no surprise that he takes years between albums. But we've entered our second decade of waiting for Detox, as Dre's last album was released in November 1999. He might have thought it was safe to hide out overseas, but Great Britain's The Guardian newspaper caught up with the hip-hop legend this weekend and asked him what the holdup was.

"I'm working hard on it. I'm stopping to work on other artists in-between, but the minute it's done and I feel it right here, that's when it will come out," Dre told The Guardian. "Hopefully the beginning of 2010."

But that timetable was ambitious, and even Dre quickly admitted that the key word in that quote was "hopefully": "You'll probably hear something in a year or so," he told Slam magazine for their March issue. That puts the latest ETA at January 2011, but undoubtedly he'll have another excuse ready by then. Perhaps too much time in the clubs?

"I have to go out to clubs now," Dre told The Guardian. "You need to understand what people are listening to."

He didn't say if that same kind of Detox research from several years ago still helps him today.

It's become a nearly annual winter ritual for Dre to tease the release of Detox, dating back at least to 2002 in The 411 Online's records. That January he said he it could be done by the end of the year, a statement he's echoed in one way or another in January 2006, December 2006, December 2008 and now January 2010. (Dre did not, however, address it in our interview with him in 1995. Back then, it was the Dr. Dre-Ice Cube reunion album that was perpetually on hold. Still waiting for Helter Skelter.)

More than just fans are fiending for another hit of Dre's golden touch.

"He's gonna drop it. He's just ... a perfectionist," Warren G told Hard Knock TV. "When he feels right, that's when he's gonna let it go. I think he's close because when he starts working with Snoop, that's when I know he's getting down to the wire."

And Snoop Dogg certainly won't be the only one making a guest appearance.

"Me and him are supposed to do a record on there," Warren G added. "He said as soon as he finds the right record, with the right melody, we'll do it. I think it'll be something that the world would love to see 'cause it's never been done. The publicity on it will be huge. It's like, 'Warren G and Dr. Dre doing a song? That's crazy.' I'm open. I'm with it."

Who knows if that collaboration will become that "perfect song" Dre mentioned he is searching for.

"I don't think I've done that record yet," Dre told The Guardian. "I'll know what it is when it comes; I know exactly what it is in my head, but I haven't done it yet. It's close. ... Once that sound is right, once that mix is right, it's a feeling that you get. It's unexplainable."

And of course, once Detox finally does hit stores, Dre thinks there's only one way to listen to it: Through his Beats by Dr. Dre line of headphones. "I just want to get my music out and make sure that it's heard in the right way," Dre said, who added that speakers might be next because so many people are listening to music "the wrong way" -- on cell phones, MP3 players, etc. "Once it gets to your computer, everything's compressed. It's like smashing sound. So we're trying to fix that."

Let's hope the repairs are done on time, or we may never see Detox.

Review: RAKIM, The Seventh Seal

You know the saying, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all"? There is no one we'd rather apply that to than Rakim. Largely responsible (along with Eric B) for securing this writer's interest in hip-hop as more than a fad, Paid In Full was named my "best album of the millennium" 10 years ago. It was also the choice for the first Hip-Hop Classic when The 411 debuted in 1994. Even his solo comeback album was listed among our picks for the Best of 1997.

Now, 10 years since his last effort, The Master (which we were also kind to), Ra returns with The Seventh Seal. This was supposed to be Oh My God with Dr. Dre, but like so many other projects in the Aftermath pipeline, it never materialized, forcing The R to start over. Unfortunately, the impact of his success on the 2002 single "Addictive" with Aftermath singer Truth Hurts seems to have clouded his judgment. Rakim starts strong with "How to Emcee," then proceeds to not follow that formula for the rest of the album. After the opener, the rest of the album is heavily R&B-laced.

Every track seems to have a different singer on the hook, perhaps in an effort for that one radio hit. The low point comes at the end, when a healthy portion of No Doubt's "Don't Speak" provides the basis for "Dedicated," distracting from what otherwise is probably Rakim's most personal track of all-time. I preferred when Rakim used samples of his own lyrics to provide the hooks. This new approach seems desperate. It didn't work for L.L. Cool J a few years ago -- and he can get away with being a bit soft at times -- and it certainly won't be welcomed by those expecting Rakim at his rawest. Sadly, the grittiest thing about The Seventh Seal is the handful of sand passing through his hands on the cover. Rakim's lyrical ability alone saves this album from our worst rating. Lose the singers, stay true to yourself -- and that's not to say you can't evolve -- and trust that your fans will follow. Click here to find out how to buy this album.

-- Mason Storm

More reviews from The 411 Online
RAKIM, The Master
RAKIM, The 18th Letter
ERIC B & RAKIM, Paid In Full