Rest in peace Michael Viner who sadly passed away this week. It might not mean much to the newest jacks, but if you're over 25 you should know all about the Apache breakbeat. If you're over 30 and you don't know, then you're not a hip hop head. Ask me again and I'll tell you the same. Recorded by Viner's Incredible Bongo Band, one of the original breaks from hip hop's infancy is beaten only by Funky Drummer in terms of the number of times its been sampled in hip hop songs. Nas' Made You Look is probably the last big song to utilise the break. Outkast's B.O.B was probably the last notable time it was used in the noughties. For a quick overview of the band look no further than Bongo Rock: The Story Of The Incredible Bongo Band. Michael Viner, HIPHOP.COM salutes you!

Nick Cannon has been busy in the lab preparing an Eminem diss. It's probably true. He's been super quiet since the Em diss landed a few weeks ago and, no matter who you are, no matter how much you lack anything even resembling 'gangsta' (not saying that applies to Nick), it's hard to hear someone call your wife 'a s**t, b***h, c**t' and not feel some way about it. So what's he going to have to say for himself? There's bound to be some defence of Mariah and several good reasons why she's not a SBC, but what is he going to have for Marshall? There's bound to be some sort of reference to Foolish Pride, but it remains to be seen how deep Mr Wild'n'Out will go. But then what, if anything, will Eminem have to say in return? It's already obvious who the better emcee is, but Nick can spit competently so he won't embarass himself on that front even if he'll lose points. Whose going to do the beat? Will any 'name' producer put his hat in Nick's ring, no fishsticks, and risk alienating himself - it's most likely to be a 'he' - with the juggernauts of this rap ish? If Eminem decides to, he can quite easily get Dre and 50 to wade in and that might just be game over. 'Cos you know Nick can't get Mariah to start spitting that raw.

Another tracklisting for Blueprint 3 - not too long now until its on the shelves - has arrived. This one must be official as it was from Jay's actual site. It seems Alicia Keys, not Nas is going to lace Empire State Of Mind. That makes it a whole different song. If this tracklisting is the final one, and it might be until Jay changes his mind or goes in Baseline Studios and cooks up even more heat, then it's kinda guest heavy. But intriguingly so. Wonder what the tunes with Drake and Kid Cudi sound like? And is the track Venus vs Mars inspired by the standard male / female relationship textbook by John Gray - Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus?  The video for Run This Town is also building steam for what is sure to be one of, if not the, albums of the year. It's kinda cool. Jay, Kanye and Rihanna are all looking very swaggerish in all black. A crowd of folks in some underground cave like spot, waving bats and pipes around seem to be having a good time. It looks like a cross between a Black Panther rally and a gathering of a semi-gothic angry mob/thug niccas out to serve some street justice.

With Jigga in mind, Game got one of the few people who hates Jay-Z more than him to step in the booth. Step forward Jaz-O. Can't front, the beat to Gangsta’s Ride is pretty nice. Jaz spits in the way he used to when things were all good and Original Flavor were getting open. All he needs now is Dehaven up in the mix and the cipher will be complete.

The Slaughterhouse album did a nice 20,000 independent units. Go get that. In a way, it's probably a good thing that some fans couldn't find the album. I'm sure the group themselves obviously won't feel like that but the fact that people are fiending for it is very good, and it has to be said, well deserved, good publicity. The album is very, very good. They even deserve props for actually releasing a record. Word to The Four Horsemen. That said, should it ever happen, I'd definitely cop that album the day it dropped at 9.31am. Still, this album is obvoiously not going to be the only one from the supergroup. Let's also hope it inspires more and more emcees to do like Slaughterhouse, Ed OG & Masta Ace and Buckshot and KRS-ONE. Right now, it seems the real hip hop is over there in collaboland.

Lastly, regardless of what's been said by some, got to say we're feeling the new heavily auto-tuned joint from Pitbull featuring B.O.B. entitled Across The World, produced by Jim Jonsin - check it out.

If you missed the last news installment, click HERE