Death Row Photographer Releasing Book

Simone Green, former photographer for the notorious Death Row Records has announced the release of her upcoming book Time Served On Death Row Records: My Days and Nights. The book is due January 13, 2012, and features several never-before-seen images and stories regarding one of music's most infamous labels.

Green shares her first-person experiences with superstars like Dr. Dre, 2Pac and Suge Knight.

Below is an excerpt from the book:

"Alone in his office Suge said, “I want you to do everything we got going on. If we go out of town or do an awards show. Whatever we do I want you to do the photography. I want you to be the Chief of Photography.” Yeah, so I heard.

“Also, I want you to go out and buy 10 small cameras that you can disperse to different people in the company and they can report back to you with whatever they get.” He even said, “If somebody gets a beat down they’ll get that on film. Whatever might happen we’ll have it on film.”

"I wasn’t sure what that was really about, control issues maybe, the important thing about this moment was that Suge Knight, Godfather of the hottest thing happening, wanted visuals of everything happening in his realm, and he just put me in charge of it all, I was officially on Death Row…..and life was good..."

Gwyneth Paltrow On Biggie Vs. 2Pac

Hip hop superstar Jay-Z was recently interviewed by his buddy, actress Gwyneth Paltrow for a magazine. Well, Hov returned the favor and asked Gwyn some music-related questions. Running down a list of classic musical rivals, Jay-Z asked Paltrow for her take on several of the biggest names in music in a rapid-fire "Who's better" Q&A.

Q:Miles or Coltrane?
GP: Miles
The Beatles or The Rolling Stones?
GP: Beatles
Patsy Cline or Billie Holiday?
GP: Billie H 
Biggie or Pac?
GP: Biggie by miles
Michael or Prince?
GP: Prince!

Big Sean Appreciates Lil Kim's Praises She's Definitely A Legend In My Eyes

After learning that Lil Kim endorsed him in a recent interview, G.O.O.D. Music's Big Sean voiced his appreciation and his desire to work with the Queen Bee.

"Word? D*mn, she said that? Sh*t. That's crazy. Nobody ever told me that," Sean said in an interview. "She's definitely a legend in my eyes. I came up on the Bad Boy era with Biggie and Ma$e and her. I would definitely love to work with her and she's the sh*t, man. That's crazy. I'm speechless, for real...I'm really listening to a lot of older stuff too like Notorious B.I.G., that whole Bad Boy sh*t and 'Pac...That's so f*cking dope, that Lil' Kim sh*t. You've got to get me her contact so I can call her."

Last month, Kim mentioned Sean and Wiz Khalifa as two artists she was currently into.

"I'm really loving Wiz Khalifa. I like him a lot. I think he's a dope artist," Kim told Rap Up. "And also another up-and-coming artist, his name is Big Sean. I think he's hot."

Lil Kim Talks Biggie & 2Pac

Hip hop conspiracy theorists have been trying to turn the deaths of 2Pac and the Notorious B.I.G. into some kind of Area 51, 'Who shot JFK?'-style CIA cover-up and it looks like Lil Kim is one of them. Kim recently claimed in an interview that she thought Pac and Biggie were 'too powerful' and the government just had to stop it.

"I will say this though, I will say that I always felt like Biggie and Tupac's deaths were bigger than how they tried to make it out to believe it to be," Kim explained in an interview. "It's bigger than [former Death Row Records owner] Suge Knight being involved. I think it was even over his head. Them two were very powerful guys. They both could have ran for mayor just like Arnold Schwarzenegger and probably [have] won. You know, I think the government was looking at it like, 'We could not have these two hood dudes with this much power running for mayor and something like that and winning.' They would have lost control, I think. I think it was way deeper than what people would like it to be."

Please.

Rap fans need to stop acting like Pac and Big were Martin and Malcolm. And Arnold Schwarzenegger became the governor, Kim, not the mayor.