Exclusive! Papoose: Everyone Thought Drake's Album Was Sweet (@drake @papooseonline)

Brooklyn MC Papoose chopped it up with VladTV about superstar Drake, saying his last album was "sweet," and he believes that several people agree with him, but are too afraid to say it publicly.

"A lot of people felt like that, that was the energy at the time about his album. I just spoke about it, everybody was saying it behind the scenes...but they scared to say it publicly. I'm not one of them dudes. That's not to say that he don't make some good records from time to time, but that particular album, I felt like it was sweet."

Check out the interview above.

Method Man Calls Out Imposter for 'Catfish' Antics

Frederick M. Brown, Getty Images

After the movie-turned-MTV-reality-show ‘Catfish: The TV Show’ premiered in 2012, the computer savvy are more careful about who they talk to online. However, even those who don’t use certain social networks fall victim to the “catfish” trend. Method Man included.

Earlier today (April 22), the Wu-Tang Clan member took to Twitter to call out the person responsible for creating a fake Facebook profile to pose as him in an effort to meet women.

While it looks like the page has been removed, the person who created the Facebook profile has yet to be revealed.

This isn’t the first time an artist has been involved in a catfish scandal. MTV’s ‘Catfish: The TV Show’ detailed just what can happen when someone believes they’re dating a rapper. For some time, Keyonnah had an online relationship with a person she thought was Bow Wow. However, hosts Nev and Max proved that it wasn’t actually the rapper at all. Instead, it was a girl by the name of Dee Pimpin. Not only was Keyonnah furious but she also made it clear that she did not swing that way. A few weeks after the episode’s premiere, Bow Wow invited all parties to BET’s ’106 and Park’ to sort it out.

In other catfish news, one man posed as a woman to attempt to convince rapper Romeo as well as NBA players Paul George and Kenyon Martin to send him naked photos. Rap group World’s Fair have also admitted to being catfished while they were at SXSW.

Brian Williams Sharpens Rap Skills With Snoop Dogg's 'Gin and Juice' on 'The Tonight Show' [VIDEO]

Brian Williams is flexing his rap skills again. On last night’s episode (April 21) of ‘The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,’ the ‘NBC Nightly News’ anchor did a rendition of Snoop Dogg‘s classic 1994 track ‘Gin and Juice.’

Thanks to Jimmy Fallon and his video editing crew, we find a number of Williams’ newscasts spliced together to cover the Snoop song. While Williams does most of the song solo, fellow anchor Lestor Holt makes a cameo as well as a couple of other foreign correspondents who add more energy to the cover.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the anchor rap on TV. He’s also done Sugar Hill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight,’ Young MC’s ‘Bust A Move,’ Warren G’s ‘Regulate’ and another Snoop track, ‘Nuthin.’

Fallon has started with the ’80s and has now gone into the ’90s when it comes to these Brian Williams rap renditions. We’re curious to find out which current track he’ll get Williams to do next.

No New Friends: Nicki Minaj Flicks It Up With High School Crew (@nickiminaj)

Queens MC Nicki Minaj has been showing off her natural beauty a lot lately, and even promises to get back to her Hip-Hop roots with her upcoming album, Pinkprint. She continues to take it back while hanging out with old high school friends.

The crew went to the Performing Arts High School in NYC together and are still a tight-knit bunch. Check out pics of the crew above.

Jay Z's Stolen Master Recordings at Center of Extortion Plot

Otto Greule Jr., Getty Images

A collection of Jay Z recordings, valued at $30 million, is at the center of an extortion plot after being stolen by a former studio intern over a decade ago.

According to Billboard, producer Chancey Mahan allegedly demanded that Hov pay him over $100,000 to get them back.

Mahan, who worked with Jay from 2008-2009, was in possession of the 1998-2002 recordings, which went missing in 2012.

The former employee told police that he reached out to Live Nation to tell them that the recordings — which included master tracks of Jay’s songs like ‘Holla’ and ‘I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)’ — were in storage and he planned to auction the recordings unless he received a $100,000 “storage fee.”

When Mahan went to the storage facility on Friday (April 18), he was arrested by LAPD and detained for questioning, but not arrested. Authorities then contacted Jay Z.

TMZ reportedly talked to Chauncey who denies that he tried to extort the Brooklyn-born rapper.

The producer told the gossip website that Hov “was a stupid kid smoking blunts” who was irresponsible with his creative works.

Chauncey said that he requested $100,000 as compensation for keeping the recordings safe for over a decade. He also added that the master recordings sounded terrible.

As of now, LAPD will hold on to the recordings until a judge decides who is the rightful owner.

New Music Releases — May 2014

HBK Gang

It’s just as they say: April showers bring new hip-hop releases in May. Or something like that.

After celebrating the 20th anniversary of Nas’ ‘Illmatic’ and finally seeing Future’s ‘Honest’ hit stores, there are plenty more albums to indulge in. One of the more notable efforts is IamSu!‘s ‘Sincerely Yours,’ which drops May 13.

The Heartbreak Gang’s leader is naturally next in line to continue the momentum YG’s ‘My Krazy Life’ gained for the West Coast scene when it dropped last month. IamSu! has yet to achieve solo mainstream success but he’s been featured heavily on hits like Sage the Gemini’s ‘Gas Pedal’ and LoveRance’s ‘Up!’ The fact that he’s a prominent figure in the Bay Area scene means you shouldn’t count him out.

Atmosphere will represent hip-hop’s underground sect when ‘Southsiders’ drops May 6. This will be the duo’s first effort since 2011′s ‘The Family Sign.’ Fellow rhymer Blu will debut ‘Good to B Home’ on May 20.

Rounding out the list of new releases is hip-hop’s rebellious veterans. The always busy Tech N9ne will drop ‘Strangeulation,’ which also features artists from his Strange Music label. Anti-establishment rapper-turned-movie star Ice Cube will follow-up that release with ‘Everythang’s Corrupt’ — his first album since 2010′s ‘I Am the West.’

Another possible release to keep an eye out for is Chris Brown‘s ‘X.’ The ‘Loyal’ singer announced that the project was finally seeing the light of day on May 5. However, the lack of promo and no word of a tracklist or cover art makes this date seem highly unlikely. This would be the latest of multiple delays for what’s supposed to be Brown’s last album. He obviously has more pressing matters at the moment.

Check out the all of the May release dates below.

May 5

Chris Brown, ‘X’

May 6

Tech N9ne, ‘Strangeulation’

Atmosphere, ‘Southsiders’

May 13
IamSu!, ‘Sincerely Yours’

Ice Cube, ‘Everythang’s Corrupt’

May 20
Blu, ‘Good to Be Home’’

Nas Teams Up With Microsoft, Google to Offer Tech Scholarships

Larry Busacca, Getty Images

Nas is empowering the youth through technology. The veteran rhyme-slinger is partnering with Microsoft, Google and others to give tech scholarships to African-Americans and Latino students.

According to Betabeat, Nas’ company, QueensBridge Venture Partners, is participating in the Opportunity Fund program, which provides financial aid for minority students who want to become programmers, engineers and developers in the tech world.

General Assembly (GA), a New York tech vocational school, created this initiative to bring diversity to technology.

“This is the start of what hopefully will be a contribution to what will be a more diverse and accessible community worldwide,” said GA CEO Jake Schwartz.

“One of the biggest concerns is that what we’ve seen is that the students who do the best are the ones with the most skin in the game,” he continues. “It’s very hard otherwise for students to succeed. It requires commitment and focus.”

Students who attend GA through the Opportunity Fund will also have to spend over 100 hours teaching coding to kids in underprivileged neighborhoods.

“Being able to sort of create a program where these scholarship students have to tutor, we kill two birds with one stone,” said Schwartz.

Now that’s illmatic.

Next: Hip-Hop Community Shares Memories of Nas’ ‘Illmatic