T.I., 29, and wife Tameka “Tiny” Cottle, 35, were arrested on drug charges following a routine traffic stop in West Hollywood late Wednesday night (September 1). 

Mark Pope, a Los Angeles Sheriff’s deputy, has verified the news, and says the arrests were made for possession of a controlled substance, after police officers smelled marijuana coming from the rapper’s vehicle. “A narcotics investigation” ensued, according to AP, and they were arrested afterwards.

The newlyweds were booked at the West Hollywood sheriff’s station and bail was set at $10,000. They were released around 4a.m.

The drug charges could mean big trouble for T.I., who is currently serving three years probation from felony weapons charges that sent him to jail for seven months last year.

In other news, Tip is scheduled to release an album later this year. King Uncaged will be his first post-incarceration album and will reportedly feature collaborations with the likes of Kanye West, Lady Gaga, Swizz Beatz, and Young Dro, amongst others. The LP was initially slated to drop in August but has been pushed back several times. The latest delay was caused by his movie Takers, which debuted at the top of the box office over the weekend, pulling in over $20 million.

Lil Wayne will commemorate the day he gets out of prison by releasing the fourth installment of Tha Carter series on the same day.

Young Money Entertainment president, Mack Maine, revealed the news during an interview with MTV News and according to him, the plan was always to release Tha Carter IV on the same day Weezy was set free and because they had so many songs to choose from the label will also put out an EP.

“Tha Carter IV plans we had and still have are to put Tha Carter IV out the day he comes out [of prison],” said Mack. “He had so many songs for Tha Carter IV, we said let’s just put these 10 songs out [on I Am Not A Human Being] and double-back for Tha Carter IV.  He has more songs for Tha Carter IV that are still strong.”

Macksays he got together with Baby and Wayne’s manager Cortez Bryant to pick out some of the songs and then called up the Louisiana-bred MC to let him hear their selections.

“We had a listening session out here. It was me, Baby and Cortez. I let [Wayne] know these are the ones we picked. He already picked six of them from back there. I let him hear it over the phone. I book him a studio session -- kinda like I did for the Light Up remix with Drake. I book him a studio session and let him listen [to the tracks] over the phone,” continued Mack.

The I Am Not a Human Being EP will be released on Weezy’s birthday, September 27th.  The first single Right Above It has already been sent out to radio stations.

Tha Carter IV will hit stores on November 5th and according to Mack, the label is even toying with the idea of not releasing any singles for the LP. “We might just drop the album that day,” he said.

Fans who attended one of the Rock The Bells concerts this year noticed that Lauryn Hill didn’t perform her classic songs the way they were originally recorded, and according to the female MC, she did that on purpose. Rearranging the songs and improvising while on stage help her feel like the songs are fresh.

“There’s been such a long period of time where I haven’t been able to communicate where my mind is, where my consciousness is, where my ideas are,” said Hill while talking to MTV News.  

“I have to upgrade [the songs] a bit so that they’re still exciting and fresh and they’re new. There’s something almost jazz-like [about] the way I approach performances. I’m not sure if the audience really understands. We need, or at least I need, a certain amount of spontaneity, a certain amount of improvisation every show. I might have gotten spoiled from The Fugees days. We used to improvise a lot. It kept it so fresh and exciting. I need that.”

The singer/rapper still hasn’t confirmed or denied any plans to release new music in the future. But one of her unreleased tracks titled Repercussions hit the radio a few weeks ago and landed the star back on the Billboard charts after more than a decade.

Apparently Rick Ross didn’t respond fast enough to Slim Thug’s question regarding a song of his that leaked recently so the Texas MC took to the place where everyone goes to air out their grievances: Twitter.

Tweeting about his day yesterday evening (August 29), Slim wrote, “Just threw @rickrozay cd out the roof of the coupe haters get no play in my ride.”

“Naw yall ain’t gotta stop f*cking wit him for me I just heard what he had to say about me so if you don’t f*ck with me I don’t f*ck wit u #datsall,” he continued. “I reached out [to] ask if it was a diss if it was old he shoulda just said dat but no response to me mean he still feel like dat.”

Torchof Triple C’s responded to Slim, tweeting, “Not U2 @slimthugga aka Slim Sukka I promise this aint the attention U want.”

Adding, “I’m not a Slim Thug I’ma Fat Makk I don’t give a fukk I’ll push ya hat bakk…,” before asking his followers, “Should I make a trending topic out [of] this guy yall?”

Causing Slim to retort by saying, “I wasn’t talking to the HELP I got mo money [than you] and Gunplay put 2gether.”

Rossdidn’t directly address Slim’s tweet but wrote a message on his official Twitter account that read, “[Real n*ggas] pick up phones…a boss would kno better!! #trillsh*t.”

The song in question is titled King Boss and during the track the Miami rapper spits the line, “She dated Slim Thug, but now she f*cks with me. She finally made it to the biggest boss, luckily.”

It is reportedly an old track that simply found its way to the Internet but no one from Ross’ camp has confirmed or denied that. It’s also unclear if Ross even meant the line to be a diss, as he and Slim have collaborated together in the past.

As the tension and excitement builds in the months leading up to the release of Kanye West’s still untitled 5th album, Kanye West is “all about the fans” and will be releasing a  new song every week until Christmas.

Kanye, who tweeted the announcement Sunday night (August 22nd), stressed the importance of giving back to the fans.

He also let the fans know how hard he has been working to ensure that his label, G.O.O.D Music, puts out a quality product.

"I know y'all need the music so I'm dropping 1 new song every weekend until Xmas.  It may be my song, it may be a new Jay song, etc," Kanye tweeted.  

A minute later the Chicago based MC/Producer coined the impromptu releases as “Good Fridays”.

"I'm calling it good Fridays. Yall know every Friday yall gone have a new joint from our family. We look at the game completely different now,” Mr. West added.  “It's about the fans. No more holding back. That's why I dropped see me now... It wasn't about me it was about the Summer the BBQs etc.”

Kanye then talked about what he’s been working on as of late and let the fans know about his dedication to his music and the art he creates.

He is working on projects for Pusha T, Raekwon, Mos Def, Swizz Beatz and Pharrell Williams.
 
“Swizz looked at me the other night and said man are you getting sleep and I told him I can't sleep... My people need this new music,” Kanye recalled. “Yall make all the hard work worth it.... We been up to 5 am every night working on everything Pusha, Rakwon, Mos, Swizz, Skateboard etc. “

Additionally, Kanye is in the process of creating a movie that will go along with the much anticipated album he has been working on in seclusion.   

“In Prague organizing the movie based around the album... I just wanna thank everybody for the overwhelming response to the Power remix!,“ he tweeted.  

Kanye West will perform at this year's MTV Video Music Awards which air live September 12 at 9 p.m. The appearance marks his VMA return after a notorious onstage interruption during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for her VMA Award.

Fans and industry professionals have often commented on the demise of artists who sign to Diddy’s Bad Boy Records. For a while it seemed that the career of every rapper or singer that signed with Combs took a turn for the worst, and naturally everyone blamed the CEO. But during a recent interview with VIBE, Diddy denied having anything to do with those one-time celebrities falling off the map.

 “There’s an off perception that needs to be addressed about me that I have ever robbed somebody or mistreated somebody. Or tried to be ruthless or whatever in this game,” said Diddy.

 “Like, all this year I’ve heard people say, ‘Where’s Carl Thomas, where’s Black Rob, where’s G.Dep? Where are these artists?’ And for some reason they go ahead and equate that, because those artists aren’t with me, that I’ve done something wrong or malicious or conniving. It’s something that I do have a problem with because they don’t have no proof that I’ve ever done nothing like that.”

 Further defending himself, Diddy pointed out that most artists have a short life expectancy in the music business anyway; not everyone can have longevity. 

 “But people don’t understand this game that we’re in. You have a short life expectancy.  It’s rare to be a me, to be a Jay-Z, an LL, a Nas,” he explained.

 “That sh*t is a rarity. That’s not even one percent of the rappers. If you look any artists that were on Ruff Ryders…Def Jam…Roc-A-Fella, Jive, where they at? It’s not like anything was wrong with them. It’s just that you have a four, five-year average in this game…”

 The remainder of Diddy’s interview will be featured in the August/September issue of VIBE.

Lil Boosie is set to release a new album next month, according to MTV News. The LP, which will be titled Incarcerated, will be a follow-up to his 2009 effort, Super Bad: The Return Of Boosie Bad Azz and features collaborations with Webbie, Foxx, and Lil Trill amongst others.

 Talking about the forthcoming project, DJ Drama said that the LP is real street music and lives up to the standard that Boosie set in his previous works.

 “Lil Boosie is one of the most important Southern and street artists of this generation, period,” said Drama. “Boosie always gives you the ghetto in a real and authentic way.  The music on Incarcerated lives up to that standard. I hope and pray for Lil Boosie to get through his struggle.”

 The Louisiana-bred MC has been incarcerated since last year and most recently he was hit with a first degree murder charge in relation to the death of Baton Rouge man by the name of Terry Body, whom he allegedly paid a hit man to kill and drug and conspiracy charges behind an attempt to smuggle in drugs into the prison where he is being held. He has plead not guilty to all of the charges.