Thanks to modern technologies like ignition keys with embedded chips and factory installed security immobilizers, it's getting harder and harder to steal new cars. As a result, the number of cars and trucks stolen in the United States dropped by 13.1 percent in 2008 compared to 2007, a trend that has been continuing for five years. Total thefts for the year could actually end up under 1 million for the first time in 20 years.
Owners of older cars on the other hand aren't so lucky. One of the main driving factors behind car thefts is to strip the vehicles and sell the parts. The main market for those parts is older, high volume vehicles, so the same vehicles are the ones that tend to get stolen. Here's the top ten stolen vehicles for 2008:
This is probably one of the weirdest things I have ever seen. Its crazy that doctors haven't been able to treat this or even know why this is happening. I feel bad for this kid, imagine every time you cry, water or even yawn this happens.
Ricky Rubio won't be coming to the NBA until 2011 at the earliest, sources told ESPN.com today. Rubio and the Minnesota Timberwolves were informed late Monday night in Spain that Rubio's former club, DKV Joventut, had agreed to trade his rights to FC Barcelona. Rubio will be able to get out of his Barcelona contract in the summer of 2011, when the fifth pick of last June's draft will be free to join Minnesota.
The news came as a blow to Wolves general manager David Kahn, who spent the past several days in Spain negotiating with officials from DKV Joventut, trying to present a worthy counteroffer to the one already on the table from Barcelona for the rights to the 18-year-old point guard.Joventut had shown itself willing to accept a discount on Rubio's astronomical $8.11 million buyout, with FC Barcelona reportedly offering $5.28 million.
The Timberwolves' offer, which could include only $500,000 in cash under NBA rules, would presumably have revenue streams from Rubio's endorsement deals and his four-year, $15.2 million NBA rookie-scale contract ($3.27 million salary in 09-10, $3.51 million in '10-11, with team options for $3.76 million in '11-12 and $4.76 million in '12-13).
LIL' WAYNE - OFFICIAL WHITE LABEL 2ND EDITION (MIXTAPE)
Here's a new Lil' Wayne mixtape called "Official White Label" which features some unreleased joints. After downloading this mixtape I can see why these songs were unreleased, Boo Boo!
Hip Hop Official caught up with Jurassic 5's Chali 2na for their Artist of the Week series. Chali 2na released his latest solo album, Fish Outta Water, last July.
The Man-phibian Chali 2NA talks about his main goals in crafting his solo album and how his son has inspired his music.
Good ol' TMZ always finds some funny sh*#! Here's a video of a commercial that just surfaced in which Christopher "Kid" Reid pushes 2-for-1 suits for a store in Carson, CA.
Cypress Hill's Smoke Out returns this October 24th. The two day festival will feature performances from Cypress Hill, Slipknot, Deftones, Bad Brains, Pennywise, Goodie Mob, and more.
JAY-Z: HATE (FT. KANYE WEST) & A STAR IS BORN (FT. J. COLE)
Here are two band new leaks from Jay's upcoming Blueprint 3. The first is a song called "Hate" featuring Kanye West, and the second is a song called "A Star is Born" featuring J. Cole. Of the two, I definitely prefer the Kanye joint. The Blueprint 3 is coming September 11th.
Should we be worried yet? We can't help but notice that each new track leaked from Jay-Z's upcoming Blueprint 3 (due on September 11) has been worse than the one that preceded it (see above). First Hov gave us the awesome "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)," followed by the nearly as excellent "Run This Town." But this week we got a trio of half-baked Timbaland-produced jams, leaked in ascending order of stinkiness...
VIDEO: YOUNG CHRIS FT. FREEWAY & BEANIE SIGEL - LAST 2
Three of Philly's finest are back with a brand new video for the track "Last 2" from Young Chris' recently released Network mixtape. The mixtape features Beanie Sigel, Freeway, Rell, Twista, Black Thought, Curren$y and more, and is mixed by Don Cannon. If you haven't done so already, you can download the mixtape here.
The 2 disc reissue of Dr. Dre's The Chronic is set to be released on August 31st with 7 bonus tracks... Amazon has posted snippets of both discs, which include the unreleased tracks. You can listen to them here. Let's see what else gets released from the vaults of Death Row.
Here's a brand new track from West Coast rapper Nipsey Hussle featuring the Doggfather called "Gangsta's Life." Nipsey is part of the new breed of rappers that are set on carrying the torch of traditional West Coast Gangsta rap. Nipsey has been compared to Snoop, but I feel he definitely has his own thing going on. Look for an upcoming project featuring both Nipsey and Snoop in the future.
Golden State Warriors forward Stephen Jackson says he has requested a trade and prefers to be dealt to the Cleveland Cavaliers or any of the NBA's three teams in Texas. Jackson's wishes are rooted in a desire to play for a team that consistently makes the postseason, he says, something the Warriors have done only once in the past 15 seasons.
"At this point, I'm 31 years old. I have four or five years left," Jackson told Dime Magazine on Friday. "I want to be in a situation where I can continually be in the playoffs and get another ring. So that's where my mind is at now." "It's not about a decision I made," he told Dime Magazine. "It's just things are in the air right now. I really can't get too much into it right now."
When prompted with a question from the event's host about the Warriors' playoff chances, Jackson, who was attending the event with former teammate Al Harrington, told the crowd: "I don't think I'll be a Warrior next year. I'm looking to leave."
Check out the homey from Corporate repping Tradition in this YouTube video. MT was recently in town all the way from Cincinati, and you know he had to make the trip out to Tradition! If you are ever in Ohio, make the trip out to Corporate... They carry everything from AKomplice, Play Cloths, Nike and more! Spotted at 50Yen.
Here's another Timbaland produced Jay-Z track called "Ghetto Techno." Supposedly, this track will no appear on Jay's upcoming Blueprint 3. So far, alot of the leaks from the album have been getting mixed reviews... What do you guys think?
Kobe Bryant has been sporting a custom designed Nubeo watch that features whiskey saphire crystals and a luxury yet sporty look. The Black Mamba MVP was designed by Nubeo specifically for Kobe’s on-court persona The Black Mamba and captures Kobe’s essence pretty well. The powerful looking watch is made primarily of black ceramic, titanium, and rubber, along with other materials. Inside The Black Mamba MVP is a Valjoux 7750 automatic mechanical movement that powers the striking wrist watch. Kobe is personally involved with Nubeo, being featured in the press release, and had a hand in the design of the $285,000 custom Black Mamba MVP.
One of the west's best drops off a little something for his fans to enjoy. Seeing how we haven't heard much from the rapper in a while it's nice to know he's still in the lab going to work. NoSleepForADay EP dropped on his myspace and is here for your downloading pleasure.
Here's another track from Chace Infinite's upcoming project called I Would Have Killed That. This track is called "The Path" and it features the beat DJ Khalil did for 50's track "I Still Kill." Look for Chace on the upcoming Tradition mixtape!
"I decided to attack the beat Khalil did for 50 Cent feat. Akon “I Still Kill”. In classic Self Scientific fashion…instead of talking about the desire to kill someone, I talk about life and my attempts to understand the path Allah has laid. I used the ORIGINAL hook with the homie Kobe. You can tell Akon used the same melody and slightly re-wrote the words. You would have never heard it on the radio but,this is what it what have sounded like, as a Self Scientific song." - Chace Infinite
TMZ reports DJ AM also known as Adam Goldstein was found dead this afternoon in New York City. Law enforcement sources tell us he was found in his apartment at around 5:20 PM. We’re told drug paraphernalia was found at the scene. Sources tell TMZ prescription pill bottles and a pipe used to smoke drugs were found by DJ AM’s body this afternoon. DJ AM had not been seen or heard from for a few days and one of his friends went to check on him, but got no response after knocking on his apartment door. The friend called the police, who broke down the door and then found DJ AM’s body.
Tradition will be hosting an artshow on Saturday, August 29th called "Burst The Bubble." This show features over 25 artists, and showcases the artwork of local talent from Thousand Oaks, Westlake, Agoura, and more. Featured artists include William Carroll, Thom Suzumoto, John Garcia, Hell Kite, and more. Support local artists!
Opening Reception: Saturday, Aug 29th 7:00 - 11:00
Here's yet another Jay Rock banger called "I Know" featuring K.dot and Ab-Soul. This joint is day 23 of Jay Rock's 30 day Takeover. K.dot and Ab-Soul are pretty dope too. You can download it here.
Here's the homey Dom Kennedy's new mixtape "Best After Bobby." Once again Dom continues to crush the doubters, dude should be signed real soon! Keep it up Dom. Peep the track list below:
1. Kept It Thorough 2. Notorious DOM Pt. 2 3. DOM Good 4. Best You Never Had 5. Best After Bobby Speech Part 1 6. Idontwannafuckeverygirlintheworld (Ft. cARTer & Jason Madison) 7. Player Shit 8. 8 Questions 9. Arrived On Time 10. King Of LA (Interlude) 11. D O Muah 12. Cooler 13. Toast 14. Left Side, Right Side (Ft. Ree$e & Skeme) 15. Best After Bobby Speech Part 2 16. My Patna And Dem (ft. Ree$e) 17. Up And Down Remix (Ft. Rich Boy) 18. On And Off Switch (Ft. Like & Mibbs of Pac Div and Mykel 19. Wish Me Luck! (Ft. BrandUn DeShay & TiRon) 20. Compton, South Central 21. I Hate Summers 22. They Say I’m
The GT3 RS will supposedly be packing another 40 hp over the outgoing model, developing 450 hp at peak output. Harnessing those extra ponies will be a seven speed, dual-clutch transmission that will provide seamless and ultra-quick shifts through steering wheel-mounted paddles. Top speed is 194 mph for only a mere $115K.
People are always talking about how edible lingerie is such a great idea (I personally disagree), but is this just doing to much? Not to mention the bacon is RAW, I don't see how any couple is about to get excited over this, but it is kind of funny and interesting. Any ladies into this?
DOWNLOAD: TURNING POINT DEMOS & LIVE ON WNYU 1988-1991
Once again, Blogged and Quartered is on it, releasing another great selection of unreleased tracks and rarities from another one of my favorite hardcore bands. This time Turning Point gets the treatment, with their 1988 Demo and a live recording from 1991 on WNYU. Turning Point were possibly the best Straight Edge band to ever come from New Jersey... Although short lived, Turning Point made their mark with their original song structures and musicianship. Do your best to find their album, It's Always Darkest Before The Dawn... It's one of my favorite hardcore albums ever released! There is a link to download the recordings and more information here.
The demo was recorded July-August of 1988 at Bill Cribbin Studios in NJ. This is by far my favorite Turning Point recordings. Many of these songs were later re-recorded for the band's first s/t 7" on Hi-Impact Records released December of '88. Great record, but i'll take the demos any day. Eight of these ten tracks were released on the Turning Point discography released on Jade Tree Records in 2000, which i highly recommend purchasing.
The live set was recorded on WNYU's Crucial Chaos show on February 7, 1991. Fourteen tracks, spanning the band's output from '88-'91, including a few unreleased tracks. I cleaned up this set as best as possible, fixing any sound problems, removing tape hiss, boosting the sound, and editing the tracks to make it sound as "professional" as i could. I think it came out excellent. The band played an incredible set which deserves to be heard this way. I prefer many of these versions to the official releases, especially the LP tracks, as the raw production and added energy put these recordings over the top. Classic stuff, check it out.
Here's the newest leak from Raekwon's upcoming, Only Built For Cuban Links 2. This track was produced by Dr. Dre, and it bangs! You can download "Catalina" featuring Lyfe Jennings here. OB4CL2 coming soon!
BEANIE SIGEL FT. FREEWAY - SICKER THAN YOUR AVERAGE
Here's the new Beanie Sigel joint called "Sicker Than Your Average" featuring Freeway. This is my new favorite track this week. Beanie's flow is incredible, too bad his albums sales don't reflect it. Check it out here.
VIDEO: THE MAKING OF DJ KHALIL'S "KINDA LIKE A BIG DEAL"
Here's a inside look at the homey DJ Khalil making the smash hit "Kinda Like A Big Deal" by the Clipse featuring Kanye West. If your not familiar with DJ Khalil then just peep his myspace and I guarantee you have bobbed your head to one of his tracks and didn't know it. The dude is incredible.
I'm not sure if I want Live or 2K yet, they both look dope. Its crazy how these games are getting better and better. Peep Kobe's body movements and pivots, crazy!
Rass Kass has been putting in work lately, steadily releasing tracks since he became a free man... He was incarcerated in 2007 for violating his parole by flying to the BET awards and was recently released in May... Rass Kass has been dropping heat, and this new track "Mili Vanilli" is no exception... Look for a special appearance by Rass Kass on the upcoming Tradition mixtape!
DRAKE FT. EMINEM, KANYE WEST, & LIL WAYNE - FOREVER
Drake has the internet going nuts... The news of his newest track leaked a few days ago, and it got everyone talking. Drake pulled out the big guns and enlisted Eminem, 'Ye, and Weezy for his newest track called "Forever." Looks like they saved the best for last, because Em murdered this track.
TAPEMASTERS INC. X DRAKE - BORN SUCCESSFUL (MIXTAPE)
Drake has been all over the streets lately, here's a new mixtape from Tapemasters Inc and Drake called "Born Successful." There are lots of dope joints on this mixtape, my favorite has to be "Winner." You can download the mixtape here.
Here's a new joint from our homey Diz called "Show & Prove" also produced by the homey Moonshine. Diz and Moon got the ill chemistry and keep making classics! You can download it here.
For all my iPhone people, here's some apps you may have not been aware of. I'm pretty sure Jay might have most of these so everyone else hurry up and get to purchasing.
It’s not every day that little Lotus unveils an entirely new model and it’s even rarer that the company releases a model with more than two seats. The new Evora features a mid-mounted 3.5-liter V-6 producing 276 horsepower and 258 foot-pounds of torque. Lotus claims the 3,046-pound Evora will charge to 60 mph in 4.9 seconds and press on to a top speed of 162 mph. The fiberglass-bodied car is built around Lotus’s bonded-aluminum Versatile Vehicle Architecture, which is lightweight yet exceedingly rigid. Inside, hand-stitched hide and a touchscreen GPS navigation system belie the Evora’s racetrack readiness. The front buckets, says Lotus, are generously designed to accommodate two “American males” and petite rear seats make two-plus-two motoring a possibility for short trips, at least. Pricing for the U.S. market hasn’t been announced yet, but expect the Evora to run close to its prime rival, the $76,300 Porsche 911 Carrera.
I was in my other storage unit the other day and I found some of my hoops letters from colleges that were recruiting my skinny ass in High School. I wanted to post these so peeps can see for themselves that I could actually hoop! Don't be fooled by the tight jeans and chucks, haha. Lots of kids come to the shop and I talk hoops with them and I'm sure they don't believe I was actually decent. I'm am old man now with a bum knee but I'll be back out there hacking little kids! Hahaha! Here's some pics of what I could find: Click to Enlarge
Probably the happiest I got over a letter, then I played like shit in a AAU tourney and never heard from them again! Hahaha!
Kansas State
Texas A&M University
A hand signed letter saying there is no way I couldn't play there? PRICELESS! Hahaha
Here's a funny little video of LA Dodgers Lil Matt Kemp hitting up some of LA's hot spots! Why didn't he shop at Tradition? LOL. Shout of to my homey B at Eazeest for the footage.
You may have already heard that Lil Bow Wow has officially signed to Cash Money Records. The rapper made the admission via his Twitter page with a simple message that read, “BOW WOWSIGNS TO CASH MONEY.” Bow Wow then took to a live stream where he talked further about the deal.
“Its the triple threat Bow, Wayne, Drake. Its about to be real stupid.” “Any Bow Wow fan that I let down..what I am getting ready to do, I got y'all. I apologize to the fans that I let down. It’s finna to go down. Its on now, baby. Me, Drake and Weezy…lets get to the money.”
BEYOND THE VIDEO: DRAKE FT. TREY SONGZ - SUCCESSFUL
Drake and Trey discuss “Successful” while on set, and director Jake Davis provides a short video concept commentary. This is one of my favorite Drake songs to date.
We have heard rumors about the Diamond Supply Co. x The Hundreds Baseball tee for over 6 months. Official pictures have now been released, and this tee is sure to be a grand slam! This limited collaboration tee will come in black, purple, red, and white... expect it to release at Tradition within the upcoming week! Start saving now!
The anticipation for Jay-Z's upcoming Blueprint 3 is building... September 11th is going to be a big day for the music industry! Thanks to 2DopeBoyz, we bring you two new Jay-Z mixtapes. The first is called BP3-Qual, and is brought to you by DJ Noodles and Broken Cool. It features 15 tracks that are mostly blends and mashups. The second mixtape is called The Blueprint Reconstructed, and it is a result of a 14 week remix contest where producers took the original samples used on The Blueprint and created their own remix.
Alex Pardee had a signing at Upper Playground & 5024SEA in Seattle over the weekend. What started out as a normal signing ended in a gruesome bloody mess thanks to a messed up individual... Thankfully no one else got hurt.
"
Within 3 seconds, Lurch rolled up his stained black t-shirt, exposing the lower half of his torso, placed his left hand with the razor blade over the right side of his speckled and girlish beer belly, stared through my eyes, pushed in the blade almost the entire 3 inches, and gracefully sliced it horizontally across his stomach almost the entire length of his torso. There was no blood at all. The skin, tissue, and 2 inches of fat, however, separated from itself as if a tiny Moses had been living in this dude’s beer gut and the razor commanded Moses to part his red skin. Still, no blood...
He then practically teleported the razor to his right hand, rolled up his left sleeve and dug even deeper into his wrist, slashing violently twice, carving a lanky number "11" along a 40 degree slant on his entire forearm. Immediately upon this action, the blood-race was on. Almost to the exact millisecond, his blood began hastily oozing out of all 3 wounds simultaneously, as his stomach incision caught up with his wrist, which was much more immediate. Lurch’s grin was permanent and he looked at me for approval..."
You can read Alex Pardee's story of the event here.
I seen some info on this crazy phone online earlier this week but forgot to get around to posting it. So the phone's clear glass changes with the weather of your surrounding outdoor location which is pretty unique I must say. Forget waiting on your weather man on tv. If this comes out I'm hoping Verizon picks it up so I can get one (Sorry AT&t people). Looks pretty cool I must admit. Can't wait for more info to come out about it.
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