It's once again the time of year for us all to come together and raise awareness for planetary problems without actually doing anything to fix them. This Earth Day I'll be participating in an event that will illustrate to the local community just how much of the city will be underwater should the sea level rise one meter--I'm sure everyone will take it to heart.

On the brighter side of things, this Earth Day weekend includes another holiday which isn't about Greens celebrating, but celebrating the green--I know where I'll be this Sunday afternoon!

Oh yeah, and there's rap music to talk about.

Despite all of his federal troubles, T.I. made the blogs with a new track, "Hunt Em Down" which was subsequently removed from share sites due to copyright issues. Clifford is saying its an old track that was shelved, and won't be on the forthcoming Paper Trail. Of course, you can still snag it off DJ Teknicks' If You Buyin' We Sellin' mixtape. Also, there's this interview.

In Weezy news (and there's a lot of it), "Big Spender," a Nicki Minaj track featuring Lil Wayne (first heard on The Come Up DVD) dropped, the Carter III cover came out to boos from across the blogosphere, and then a week later Rolling Stone named Wayne the best MC of 2008--an honor which also brought out the boos. If you're looking for a Lil Wayne related laugh, have a listen to Cassidy over "A Milli"--it's a total joke. Way to expose yourself doggie.

The most underrated MC out of Alabama, Rich Boy, has dropped his newest mix, Bigger Than The Mayor. I honestly haven't spun it yet, but from the feedback I'm getting it's hot. Check the interview at DJ Booth and then cop the mix.

Ice Cube and Game covered XXL this month, and the cover art is nice. Big up to the West Coast. Let's hope these two are cooking some good albums--judging by the first singles ("Big Dreams" and "Gangster Rap Made Me Do It"), Los Angeles looks to be coming hard this summer.

Wiz Khalifa is freestyling, DMX is inciting riots at his shows, Vanilla Ice is getting arrested and Stat Quo is dropping awful tracks. If that's not crazy enough for you, Bill Cosby has a rap album coming soon.

In hipster rap news, the Cool Kids were caught on tape performing a remix to "Black Mags", and recently dropped a new track, "Oscar". Also, the Knux respond to hipster rap allegations. Yawn.

R. Kelly has a new hairstyle. I don't care what any of the haters say, I love this guy.

From the albums-that-will-never-see-the-light-of-day department, Just Blaze said something about Saigon's project. I didn't bother to read it, but you can click the link if you want (just to be clear, I'm not reading any more on that album unless it's a fucking release date).

The best video of the week goes to (I can't believe I'm saying this), Speedknot Mobstaz and Twista with "Money To Blow". In close second is a video that I never thought would actually be made, Three Six Mafia and DJ Unk's, "I'd Rather." Academy Award winners, indeed. Take that every other rap artist. (Since I'm giving out awards for videos of the week, Playaz Circle and Phonte get the bronze medal for "Paper Chaser").

And last but not least, Akon is a complete fraud. Surprise, surprise.