I'm back in the Midwest and it's hot, humid and full of extreme fucking weather. California makes it easy to forget tornados and lightning, for real. Inclement skies aside, I'm busy as all hell and apologize for the lack of updates and decreasing post quality. Stick with me here though, I promise I'll provide.

The artwork and tracklisting for Busta Rhymes forthcoming album, Blessed is floating around and doesn't look too bad. Whether or not Busta will return to form remains to be seen, but it looks like this album is following the industry formula: there's a Cool & Dre track, a Dr. Dre beat, T-Pain collabo and of course some Neptunes production.

Oh, no, it must be Bobby! The first video off RZA's Digi Snax is out, and it ain't bad. "Can't Stop Me Now" is definitely getting me excited for what's next.

I swore that you wouldn't hear about dude again on this blog, but I'm reneging on that promise: Curren$y dropped a track off a forthcoming mix, and as Shake says, the coverart is too good not to mention. I'd also agree that the youngster is definitely following the formula Weezy laid down (a pattern I like to describe as "working.")

Hipster-hop hating continues with Mazzi responding to Mic Terror. Absolutely hilarious shit here. The publicity is great, the thug posturing ludicrous. This may be an indication that the genre (that is, rap) is losing all credibility, but I'm not certain.

Jean Grae is retiring, I guess. Meh, what have you done for me lately? A little known fact about Jean Grae: her best track was a hidden gem known as "The Blend" that appeared on a disc produced by The Herbaliser called "Blow Your Headphones." I highly recommend it if you're unfamiliar with her.

RIP Camu Tao.

Don't look now, but there's a video for W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.

9th Wonder talks about Lil Wayne, Pharrell makes Madonna cry, Bun B sheds some light on posthumous Pimp C releases and talks about teaching Weezy to spit, and Rick Ross talks tiger attack.

The most important news of the week is that Saigon has been released from Atlantic with full ownership of his masters. Maybe we'll actually get to see a fucking album. More than one track has already made its way to the net. Interview here.

Finally, Nas has bowed to corporate pressure and changed his album title. And so it goes, no more "Nigger." At least Al Sharpton approves. This situation deserves one big SMH. Seriously, was this just a publicity stunt? Do artists actually have any power to produce challenging material anymore? I was anticipating this album like nothing before, but now it seems that not only has it been "castrated" as eskay says, but the entire message, the entire symbolic point of the thing, has been completely blown. SMH again.