Eminem is reportedly in negotiations to purchase St. Andrews Hall in Detroit, the building which served as the setting for the rap battles in his Oscar Award-winning flick 8 Mile.

According to a source who spoke to the Detroit News, Eminem has been in talks with the Live Nation (formerly Clear Channel Entertainment) for over a month to buy the downtown Detroit concert venue.

As part of the proposed deal, of which the terms are not yet disclosed, Eminem and his manager, Paul Rosenberg, would manage the 1,000-capacity venue, and members of the club's current management team would continue to run the building's day-to-day operations.

"Given his ties to the building and the venue's price, the building is a good investment for him," an unidentified source told the Detroit News.
In his earlier days, Eminem participated in rap battles at the hall's basement, infamously known as The Shelter. He also hosted the 8 Mile DVD premiere party at St. Andrew's in March 2003, and posed with D-12 for the cover of Spin Magazine's August 2001 issue on the venue's front steps.
As SOHH previously reported, Eminem will be featured on 50 Cent's upcoming album, Curtis. Due to hit sheveles on June 25, the disc will also boast guest appearances from Mary J. Blige, Robin Thicke, Justin Timberlake Akon and Nicole Scherzinger , among others.
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Skillz may not release an album as often as your favorite rapper, but he's constantly kept his name in the spotlight with his collection of year-end "Rap Up" tracks. That will all change this summer when he releases The Million Dollar Backpack on Koch Records. The new album will feature collaborations with the late great J. Dilla, ?uestlove of The Roots, Khari Ferrari of Nouveau Riche, Nottz, Bink, Fusion, and Skillz himself. "It's gonna be crazy," Skillz told HipHopSite, "But every rapper says that, huh? (Laughs)"

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The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) recently announced that it has launched an initiative called 'The Stop Campaign' which will aim to end racist and sexist language, images and concepts in the media.

After Don Imus' recent firing for using disparaging remarks about the Rutgers University Women's Basketball team, hip-hop critics and activists in the black community have called for record labels to be held liable for the music they distribute and they've also called on rappers to tone down their denigrating lyrics. Also under scrutiny is the misrepresentation of young black men and women in music videos and films.

"The NAACP Stop Campaign is urgently needed to combat recent remarks and continual visual depictions that cast African Americans in a negative light," said Interim NAACP President & CEO Dennis C. Hayes via a statement. "We recognize the need for balance within the African American community in regards to what music, film, and media we deem acceptable. When it comes to establishing norms, nothing is more influential than the images and concepts delivered into our lives on a daily basis by radio, TV, film and the Internet."
Some of the campaign's numerous goals include increasing the number of African American decision-makers/executives in leadership roles at record companies, television networks, and radio stations. They also plan on mobilizing youth units and branches to address issues of image degradation within their communities through education, peer-to-peer communication and positive imagery.

Various hip-hop radio stations including New York's Power 105.1 and Mississippi's Hot 97.7 have taken action by refusing to play songs with degrading or sexist lyrics.

"What we're doing is holding labels and artists accountable for what they say and how they say it," Power 105 program director Helen Little told New York's Daily News. "We want our listeners to know that whatever they hear here, we thought about it."

"As an African-American owner of four TV stations and one radio station, I am announcing, effective immediately, that music degrading women and other members of our community will no longer be played on Hot 97.7," said Michael Roberts, CEO of Roberts Broadcasting Company which owns Mississippi's Hot 97.7, in a statement to his employees. "The rule applies to all broadcasting operations owned by my brother Steven and me."
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50 Cent is set to change his usual formula for the release of his third album, Curtis.

Aside from Dr. Dre and Eminem production, 50 has usually abstained from resorting to big name producers on his LPs. Instead, the Queens, NY rapper has helped break upstart producers like Needlz and J.R. Rotem. But, this time around Fif reached out to a series of A-list producers.

"To make this album I used a whole different process. I left no stones unturned," Fif told the UK's Tim Westwood during a recent interview. "I been in the studio with Kanye West, Pharrell [Williams]. I got beats from Swizz Beatz. I got music from Polow [Da Don], will.i.am."

"I tried to see what they gon' offer me creatively," Fif continued. "If they had a direction that I hadn't already went in with the producers I was working with prior to working with them and it worked out."

In addition to star-studded producers, Curtis is also set to feature Billboard juggernauts like Mary J. Blige, Robin Thicke, Justin Timberlake, Akon, Nicole Scherzinger (formerly of the Pussycat Dolls) and Eminem.

50 Cent's Curtis is scheduled to hit stores on June 25.
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Russell Simmons and the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) issued a statement April 23 urging the recording industry and media outlets to censor misogynistic lyrics and racist terms from future recordings.

After Don Imus' recent firing for using disparaging remarks about the Rutgers University Women's Basketball team, hip-hop critics and activists in the black community have challenged the record industry and rappers to tone down denigrating lyrics.

"We recommend that the recording and broadcast industries voluntarily remove/bleep/delete the misogynistic words 'bitch' and 'ho' and the racially offensive word 'nigger,'" Simmons said via the statement. "These three words should be considered with the same objections to obscenity as 'extreme curse words.'"

Simmons and the HSAN also called for the formation of a Coalition on Broadcast Standards that would consist of leading executives from music, radio and television.

"The Coalition would recommend guidelines for lyrical and visual standards within the industries," the statement continued. "We also recommend that the recording industry establish artist mentoring programs and forums to stimulate effective dialogue between artists, hip-hop fans, industry leaders and others to promote better understanding and positive change."

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Reverend Al Sharpton is reportedly going to the boardroom in his ongoing battle against sexist and misogynistic lyrics in rap music.

According to the New York Post, Sharpton is planning to buy stock in Time Warner and Universal Music Group, through his National Action Network. The aforementioned labels own Def Jam and Interscope Records.

Sharpton will then attend shareholder meetings to complain straight to the source about rapper's degrading lyrics.

"Some of these stockholders have no idea that they own stock in a parent company that owns companies calling them bitches and ho's," he said.
Sharpton is a planning a decency march next month that will target Sony, Time Warner and Universal Music Group