ProHipHop Rounds Up Recent Hip Hop Headlines

ProHipHop returns to a weekly schedule here at Hypebot with a roundup of the last month’s highlights in hip hop business news.

• Kanye West’s mom Donda West passes and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons swiftly moves to protect their brand.
• This season’s commemorative albums include a two disc Best of 2Pac sold as separate albums and an Eazy-E compilation Featuring Eazy E.
• Stones Throw releases Badd Santa Xmas Album in an exclusive deal with Urban Outfitters.
• Saul Williams remixes Nine Inch Nails on Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D and releases NiggyTardust!, produced by Trent Reznor, with a binary pricing option.
• Mixtapes go legit as DJ Drama releases Gangsta Grillz: The Album.
• Common endorses Barack Obama in a Vote Hope PSA and goes beyond endorsing the 2008 Lincoln Navigator with a deeper partnership with Lincoln Mercury.

• 50 Cent has been promoting JBL’s audio gear with Pontiac.  He’s also enlisted MTV CRIBS to help him sell his house.
• Diddy does a deal with Diageo to build the Ciroc vodka brand.
• E-40 has a 40 Water Birthday Bash where he debuts his new energy drink.
• Chamillionaire brings the pain to Weak-Minded Industry Clowns via a multi-part YouTube attack.
• Matt Sonzala joins SXSW and takes the transformative journey from HoustonSoReal to AustinSurreal.
• An interesting restaurant competition is emerging in Florida as the Hip Hop Grub Spot challenges the Hip Hop Soda Shop with a guerilla marketing campaign that includes a series of YouTube videos and a Rick Ross Turkey Give Away.
• ProHipHop has harsh things to say about Global Grind but gives a big thumbs up to MC Hammer’s DanceJam.
• A blog to blog discussion regarding Soulja Boy’s success with Crank That (Soulja Boy) takes multiple twists and turns always to return to the Crank Dat dance phenomenon.
• SugarSkull helps ProHipHop debut a new Widgets category to house such previously added widgets as ReverbNation’s TuneWidget and Smif N Wessun’s Digital Lyric Album for their release The Album.
• ProHipHop was recently nominated for the Billboard.com Best Music Blog competition and also recently launched the ProHipHop Network @ Netvibes.

From ProHipHop