Nardwuar checks in with Chance The Rapper for his latest interview. Watch the video above. [Al Lindstrom]

/A few guns are always loaded during awards season in Hollywood to try to takedown the competition. The most common tactic is to take aim at the veracity of movies based on true stories, smear campaigns basically, against a filmmaker’s interpretation of real events. This year, the first smear campaign is against a song….

Hip Hop entrepreneur Diddy spoke briefly on the impact the Notorious B.I.G. has had on his music career during a recent interview with Vlad TV and revealed that the late rapper serves as a muse for who he hopes to become. Diddy also said that hearing Biggie rap encouraged him to push his limits as…

“Weird Al” Yankovic has settled a lawsuit that his company Ear Booker brought against Sony Music in March 2012. The lawsuit was among many brought by musicians contending that record labels have breached contracts by improperly treating digital downloads as “sales” rather than “licenses.” As a result, Yankovic only received about 15 percent of shared…

Talib Kweli, whose Gravitas album is now available, recently spoke with HipHopDX about how the collection is different from previous projects he’s released and what fans can expect from the set. “The first thing that they can expect from Grativas is to have a direct relationship with me,” Kweli said exclusively to HipHopDX. “Gravitas is direct to…

Dave Smith Instruments today officially introduced the Prophet 12 Module – the power and sound of the Prophet 12 Keyboard, in a synth module. Each of the Prophet’s twelve voices is composed of a brand new hybrid digital/analog architecture that sounds different than any other DSI line of synths, yet ‘retains the true Prophet vibe’….

Here’s a great video that provides a unique look at drum ambience. It’s of a drummer playing the same beat but in different ambient locations, then smoothly edited together into a seamless piece. It’s a great lesson on what real ambience actually sounds like. Remember this the next time you’re dabbling with reverb presets. You…

Yee Luxury Bobby Ray returned to Power 105 to plug his new album, Underground Luxury. During the visit, he discussed making the album, working with its collaborators, his thoughts on Future and T-Pain and more. [Rap Radar]

Sony Corp. is reportedly exploring a sale of Gracenote, a subsidiary business that operates a database covering 180 million tracks and whose audio recognition technology is embedded in various mobile devices and music services including Apple Inc.’s iTunes. The company hired Silicon Valley dealmaker Frank Quattrone to explore divestiture options, according to Bloomberg, which broke…

“Invest In Quality Equipment While it’s true that the musician holds far more responsibility for catchy tracks than the production equipment, a poor set of tools will still prevent an otherwise amazing single from reaching its potential. Ideally, you will have the space necessary for a home studio, although even a small apartment nook can…