B13 Peer Review

When I pulled up to  Mama June Shannon ’s house in Hampton, Georgia the first thing I noticed was the blinds … or what was left of them. By the looks of tattered white plastic barely hanging in the window, I assumed a cat had  gone to town  and ripped them to shreds. But alas, no felines inside. Just June’s three-legged dog Jelly Bean. I flew in from New York City and arrived around 10 a.m. for our photo shoot — June’s first since  dropping 300 lbs.  and undergoing a  drastic body transformation  for WE tv’s  From Not to Hot . In the kitchen, a catered breakfast of eggs, bacon, biscuits, hash browns and an assortment of pastries covered the table. I said a quick hello to June as she grabbed a couple of muffins and some hash browns (she ate with her hands, no fork) and headed upstairs to have her hair and makeup done. PERRY HAGOPIAN In the meantime, I meandered around her “dining room” an area off to the right of the kitch...

Kevin Mazur/WireImage Brooklyn, NY – Tupac is officially a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as he was inducted posthumously last night (April 7) at the ceremony held at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Snoop Dogg handled the honor as he reflected on his friendship with the West Coast icon. From their first meeting to the day Tupac died, The Doggfather expressed the importance of remembering his humanity. “While many remember him now as some kind of thugged out superhero, Tupac really was only good and he represented through his music like no one before,” he said, according to a transcript from Rolling Stone . “It’s the fact that he never shied away from it. He wore it like a badge of honor. With an unapologetic voice, Pac embraced those contradictions that proved we ain’t just a character out of someone else’s story book. To be hum...

As far as legacies in rap collectives go, it’s hard not to put the Wu-Tang Clan at #1 in any statistical category. The Shaolin MCs have more moving parts than an octopus, thus enabling them to rack on more wins on sheer volume alone. But as even some of the Wu-Tang members or other Hip Hop legends have discovered, duplicating magic isn’t as easy as announcing it. So the likelihood of an up-and-coming artist winning off a remake doesn’t bode that well for excitement all the same. Don’t tell that to The Faze, the Cali native whose name has been buzzing in his Inland Empire region for some time now. He’s been touched by the spirit of the GZA/Genius and RZA/Abbott beats for a Liquid Swords tribute mixtape. And to top it off, he’s not even a super Wu-Tang Clan head. Go figure. HipHopDX: Did you get a chance to catch up with any members of the Wu ...