“I believe in the future of wireless energy and I believe that Duracell Powermat is the company to bring on the revolution,” said Mr. Carter. “I’m partnering with Duracell Powermat because they’re providing the solutions for the future.”

Jay-Z was announced today as Duracell Powermat JV‘s spokesman, putting himself in the electronics business, and investor. Duracell will be unveiling new products this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. With a baby finally here, Hov can use the extra money. ha!

Update: Full statement by Jay-Z on Duracell after the jump.

Source: NYMag
Statement: Roc Nation

Post from: KillerHipHop

News: Duracell Batteries Announced Jay-Z As Spokesman

Kanye West returned to Twitter early this morning to get some things off his chest and announce an ambitious new company called Donda.

Sounds like Kanye West has big plans for 2012 and is trying to change the world like Steve Jobs did. Check out his full statement after the jump.

I have started a new company and I’m so excited about the name…. it’s got the best name ever of all companies of all time!!!….

The name of the company is DONDA. DONDA is a design company which will galvanize amazing thinkers and put them in a creative space to bounce there dreams and ideas.

I used to blog all the time an fit was a way to get my opinion out…Dr Dre redesigned headphones and made more impact off of one product.

I am assembling a team of architects, graphic designers, directors musicians, producers, AnRs, writers, publicist, social media experts…app guys, managers, car designers, clothing designers, DJs, video game designers, publishers, tech guys, lawyers, bankers, nutritionist ..doctors, scientist,teachers.

DONDA will be comprised of over 22 divisions with a goal to make products and experiences that people want and can afford…I want to put creatives in a room together with like minds that are all waaaay doper than me

We want to help simplify and aesthetically improve everything we see hear, touch, taste and feel. ..To dream of, create, advertise and produce products driven equally by emotional want and utilitarian need.. To marry our wants and needs.

This will all take time but I wanted everyones to know what I really care about… I care about people. I care about my fans..I care about people who have never heard of me… There are over 7 billion people on the planet now.

The Watch the Throne tour was a small example of what a Donda Experience can be.

This one of our projects to be released this year called 2016 OLYMPIC’s … It’s a semi sic-fi since 2016 is only 4 years away. We would also like’ to design the MTV awards. We’re taking everything 10 steps at a time LOL!

I wanted to put this in the world in hopes that the people who can actually make a difference will stand up and reach out. We need as many amazing powerful smart talented wealthy people to be involved… Come get on board… don’t just sit there… reach out

We can collectively effect the world trough design. We need to pick up where steve jobs left off.When I said wealthy I wanted to point out there are so many billionaires in the world that can come together and help to redesign it. Help education. School systems were designed to turn people into factory workers.

Schools should be designed to prep human beings for real life. Spike Jonze and I want to do a Summer school that tries new forms of cuuriculim. Math classes should teach addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, accounting and money management aaaaaand cut!!! ….

I know this is not a very rapper thing to say but I haven’t bought a new car or piece of jewelry in about 2 years…I invest every dime back into creativity… hiring amazing creatives paying for flights, offices … etc…My area of expertise is in music, my passion is in music design film and products… my strength is connectivity…

There are so many broken systems from the economy to school systems jail systems… we need experts for this…We need scientist and top world designers to directly affect governments. If anyone would like to reach out email us at contactDONDA@gmail.com.

Can Kanye create the next Apple?

Post from: KillerHipHop

Kanye West Announces New Company “Donda”

50 Cent speaks on his new album, his business ventures, new headphones and Street King On CNBC Power Lunch.

Check out the video after the jump.

Post from: KillerHipHop

50 Cent Speaks On His Business Ventures and Street King On CNBC Power Lunch

Steve Stoute speaks to the Life Files about branding the Jacob The Jeweller Watch.

“Without curiosity there will never be innovation”

He also speaks on recruiting Jay-Z to ghost write “Still D.R.E” for Dr Dre.

Steve Stoute’s new book The Tanning Of America is out now on Amazon.

Post from: KillerHipHop

Video: Steve Stoute Speaks On Developing The Jacob Watch and Working With Jay-Z

Jay-Z and Kanye West have a lot to celebrate this week after their Watch The Throne album went staight in at Number 1 in 23 countries. According to HitsDailyDouble they sold 426,661 copies in the first week.

This album represents Jigga’s 12th Number 1 album and Kanye’s fifth.

UPDATE: Final Numbers are in:

Digital: 320,893
Physical: 115,186
Total: 436,079

Props: RR

Post from: KillerHipHop

Watch The Throne Debuts At Number 1 – Sells 436,079 Copies First Week

Rolling Stone Magazine have infamously been known to create titles for people who have reached a peak of success. It seemed like this time around it was Hip-Hop’s turn to make its crown.

“Now more than three decades old as a recorded medium, hip-hop is deeply embedded in popular culture – to the point where its stars seem not only larger than life but also, as Rick Ross once put it, “deeper than rap.” But even as they sell out arenas and top the pop charts, rappers still court the respect and esteem of their hip-hop peers. The title King of Hip-Hop still means something. In that spirit, just as we did in June with the Queen of Pop, we’ve crunched a pile of data to try to determine who is the current King of Hip-Hop.”

The article Rolling Stone wrote seemed very long and just jabber mouthing, so I took the time to try to make this sound as simple and easy to read just for our KillerHipHop fans. Check after the jump how Eminem was crowned, ‘King Of Hip-Hop’.

The way Rolling Stone did it is that they gathered as much data as possible from the top 20 rappers they believed was in control of the Hip-Hop game. They first started off with Album Sales.

These were the albums sales of their last solo album they’ve made. So for Eminem it would be “Recovery”, for Drake it would be “Thank Me Later” and for Rick Ross it would be “Teflon Don” and etc.

Now let’s turn to their radio-singles of Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop & Rap Charts.

Now it seems like Mr. Aubrey Graham took this ballot by beating his successor by a couple hundred points. This success in Billboard was granted to Drake because of his hit singles off of “Take Care”, but the album sales weren’t as high as Eminem, Weezy, and Hova.

Now let’s turn to their Youtube video views

“When tallying the views racked up by our contenders’ official music videos, we were reminded of an ironclad YouTube rule: Pop rules.Of the 10 videos we tracked that were viewed more than 100 million times, nine were Top Five hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including Jennifer Lopez’s “On the Floor” featuring Pitbull, Katy Perry’s “E.T.” featuring Kanye West, and Jay-Z’s team-up with Alicia Keys, “Empire State of Mind.” (As for that 10th video, “Price Tag” by Jessie J featuring B.o.B., it topped the pop chart in Britain.)”

Self-explanitory, right? Well now let’s turn to their Touring

Seems like for Eminem & Jay-Z they were both rewarded with $7.5 million with the joint concert they had in Detroit & Yankee Stadium but their total sales were unavailable. In other hands, people love going to Lil’ Wayne concerts since he grossed at the top of the list. It’s not only tickets that are the one being counted for but also merchandise. Ladies love having Lil’ Wayne on their shirt.

Now let’s look at their Social Networking numbers

With the world going Social Networking crazy, it’s very important for celebrities, not just rappers, to have their numbers up. More numbers equal more promotion to the people. The public loves using twitter because they get to follow their idols and have a somewhat fictional relationship with that person even though they have no relationship towards one another what-so-ever. But it gives an opportunity for fans like myself to get first hand exclusives from their favorite artist, themselves. So this chart is very big in claiming who is “King Of Hip-Hop”.

Now let’s turn to their Album Reviews

I found this part of the data process very boring and irrelevant. But you can see that the staff at Rolling Stone are huge fans of Yeezy.

Now let’s turn to their final data process which is Awards

There are two very interesting facts about this chart. 1) Drake has over 40 awards but has never been able to win the most precious award of all and that’s a Grammy. With being nominated six times, he still hasn’t hit the post-award show with Grammy’s in his hands. 2) Diddy has been in the game since early 90s, but till this day he has not won not one single award. This is very shocking to me because he has led success to many careers with Bad Boy Records.

Finally as all the data charts being process, we finally have a winner.

“With his dominant album sales, YouTube views and social-media scores, Eminem takes the title as the current King of Hip-Hop. Unlike our Queen of Pop ranking, which Lady Gaga took in a walk, Marshall Mathers’s win was somewhat closer – note the fairly tight point range among our top three.”

As you can see Eminem truly deserved his recognition as “King of Hip-Hop” but with new albums coming out by Drake & Lil Wayne, T.I. being released from jail, Jay-Z & Kanye’s Watch The Throne, who knows who can take the crown next year.  Don’t forget that J. Cole is also dropping his freshman album this September, so this raises more questions on who deserves the crown. Another notable statement is that, Nicki Minaj was also voted in the top 10 range and that is a first for a female rapper. She was also nominated in the top 10 of ‘Queen of Pop’. Her success seems to keep climbing and climbing.  Hip-Hop’s future seems bright and is ready for any changes. Seems like Mr. Mathers has the throne and Hova & Yeezy has to watch that one.

What do you guys think about Rolling Stone’s decision on “King Of Hip-Hop”? 

And who would you crown as “King of Hip-Hop”? 

Leave your comments below and we’ll make sure to reply as many as possible.

Article by Eric Kidd. (Follow Me On Twitter – @EricTheKidd)

Post from: KillerHipHop

Rolling Stone Magazine Introduced Eminem As ‘King Of Hip-Hop’

The business also known as Jay-Z topped Forbes 2011 Hip Hop Cash Kings List for the fourth time in 5 years.

“What’s 50 grand to a muhf*cka like me, Can you please remind me?”

Jay pulled in $37m thanks to his tour, royalties and other business interests. His Watch The Throne counterpart Kanye West also made the list landing in 3rd after Diddy.

A drug dealer will also be happy after a popular smoker made the list for the first time.

Check out the full list after the jump including it’s first female member. Guess who?

Forbes 2011 Hip Hop Cash Kings List

Jay-Z – $37M
Diddy – $35M
Kanye West – $16M
Lil Wayne – $15M (tie)
Birdman – $15M (tie)
Eminem – $14M (tie)
Snoop Dogg – $14M (tie)
Dr. Dre – $14M (tie)
Akon – $13M
Ludacris – $12M
Wiz Khalifa – $11M (tie)
Drake – $11M (tie)
Pharrell Williams – $10M
Timbaland – $7M
Swizz Beatz – $6.5M
Nicki Minaj – $6.5M
Rick Ross – $6M (tie)
50 Cent – $6M (tie)
Pitbull – $6M (tie)
T-Pain – $5M
B.o.B – $5M

Source: Forbes

Post from: KillerHipHop

Mogul Talk: Jay-Z Tops Forbes 2011 Hip Hop Cash Kings List

Swizz Beatz sat down with Deirdre Bolton on Bloomberg Television’s “InsideTrack” to talk about the iTunes era, the business model behind his monster mondays and teaching at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Post from: KillerHipHop

Video: Swizz Beatz Explains The Business Model Behind Giving Away Free Music

Karmaloop CEO Greg Selkoe sat down with his new Karmaloop TV Creative Director Pharrell to speak on what they got planned for the future.

Greg Selkoe started Karmaloop in his bedroom and is now bringing in revenue over $100m a year. Thats an inspiring guy!

Post from: KillerHipHop

Business: Pharrell and KarmaLoop CEO On CNBC’s Power Lunch

Engadget reports that The Sleek By 50 headphones endorsed by 50 cent have been cancelled and are no longer going into production.

A press release stated that:

“Sleek Audio and G-Unit Brands, Inc, 50 Cent’s Licensing Company, Cancel Plans to Develop Products Under the “Sleek by 50″ Brand”

The press release further stated:

“We will be re-evaluating our Wireless Hybrid over-the-ear headphones at a later date. Currently we are working to bring our new, U.S.-made in-ear products to the market,” said Mark Krywko, CEO of Sleek Audio.”

50 cent spent a lot time promoting the headphones on his website, in his music and in press conferences. At this time there is no news on why the deal went sour.

Could this open the door for a Beats by 50 line of headphones instead?

Post from: KillerHipHop

NEWS: Sleek By 50 Headphones Cancelled!