HHC Digital’s rap round-up…
By Richard Watson

Bucking the worrying decline in beat-digging, 9th Wonder dug in the televisual vaults for the week’s most amusing clip, flipping the classic Family Ties theme song something lovely before shutting things down with the timeless ‘Care Bear Countdown’. Also on the TV tip, upcoming emcee Amen brought the drama – and, apparently, Johnny Drama (pictured) – with his Entourage-inspired Queens Boulevard free LP.

Get your cake up! Demonstrating the utmost sensitivity towards cash-strapped fans, Lil’ Wayne and Birdman celebrated Weezy’s birthday with a diamond-decorated cake. Ice aside, it looks like a pretty run-of-the-mill sponge joint to us. Predictably, man-of-the-people Masta Ace was in more frugal form as he schooled budget ballers in the art of the no-frills grill.

The Jay-Z /Oprah love-fest went beyond nauseating (how come nobody ever played Ms Winfrey the AZ line about having enough clout to “bust in Oprah’s mouth?”) and T-Pain made an angsty apology to Jigga on wax, although something tells us the tremulous tone in his voice may actually be the result of some sort of obscure music production software. Amidst all this slushy stuff, then, it was almost refreshing to see 50 Cent still royally ripping the piss out of old enemies Fat Joe and Rick Ross, and making cracks about Kanye and Lady Gaga’s “gay tour” – which, by the way, has now been canceled.

Jadakiss took us on a tour of Sean Connery’s Harlem sneaker store, but Rick Ross and his Triple Cs cronies broadcast live from outside “Bucking-ham Palace”, where they were “smoking one on Queen Elizabeth’s front porch”. They also identified UK universities as top spots for picking up whores, information woefully absent from The Times’ Good University Guide 2010.

Finally, in the depressingly frequent hip-hop deaths closer, RIP to the legendary Mr Magic, who passed away last Friday.