Acquiring a strategic stake in the high-end luxury brand, Swizz continues to build on 12on12’s reputation for unique ‘vinylworks’ and bespoke collectors’ editions by compiling his own exclusive 12” vinyl only compilation featuring photography from his own private collection (The Dean Collection), as the unique work of art for the record. 

Swizz Beatz’s 12on12 is a limited edition deluxe premium double gatefold package that is hand-numbered to a run of 1000 copies featuring a meticulously selected track list celebrating Swizz’s love and passion for jazz across its four sides. 

Swizz’s selections are all intentional taking the listener on a journey from iconic recordings of jazz standards including Miles Davies’ “Round Midnight” and Kenny Dorham’s “Alone Together” through to a reworking of The Weeknd’s hit single “Call Out My Name” by a group of today’s leading jazz musicians – the “New Masters” featuring Immanuel Wilkins.  

The piece of art selected for the cover image ‘Untitled (Grandassas in Car)’ was shot in 1968 during a Garvey Day Celebration in New York by Kwame Brathwaite, who has a long history with jazz having started his career as a co-founder of the African Jazz Arts Society and Studios (AJASS) before going on to photograph superstars like Stevie Wonder and Bob Marley, and jazz greats like Miles Davies and John Coltrane. 

Swizz Beatz says: “Jazz has always been magic to our ears. I feel like it should definitely get more attention! This is the first step to pay homage to the great craft & art. Photography is also one of the best expressions of art and should be shown more often. Art & Music are brothers and sisters so I thought it was a great match. I’m a big fan of Kwame and I also love I’m able to share pieces from my collection through music!” 

Founder & Chief Creative of 12on12 Claudia Moross adds: “Our goal is to create transcending experiences through music and art, the combination of playing the record while exploring the thoughtfully curated artwork commissioned for the sleeve allows for a precious moment of cultural enjoyment. 12on12’s are very much pieces of art that can be collected and treasured. With Swizz’s finger on the pulse and his well-documented history within music and art, the brand will be upping the ante as we look to work with the very best artists, both visual and musical, to curate future Vinylworks. I am really looking forward to the next chapter for 12on12 and with the expertise and passion Swizz Beatz brings to the table I’m really excited for what’s to come for the brand.” 

With global trends growing around nostalgia and legacy artists dominating consumption both within rising vinyl sales and across streaming platforms, 12on12 continue to prove themselves an exciting creative brand capturing a powerful part of the zeitgeist. Sharing the same belief in the opportunity the medium of vinyl presents, 12on12 have partnered with Vinyl Me, Please (VMP) for the release of ‘Long Live Jazz’. 

Claudia Moross explains: “12on12’s partnership with Vinyl Me, Please gives us the opportunity to reach a large, dedicated base of avid music and visual media fans who might enjoy our unique Vinylworks.” 

Listen/stream Swizz Beatz here now.

The post Swizz Beatz Announces New Album & Partnership appeared first on WE SPEAK MEDIA.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff took requests, accommodating DMX’s desire to hear his autobiographical hit “Slippin’” before DMX faced the music over his admission of guilt. The judge called DMX’s fraud a “brazen and blatant” crime that could not go unpunished.

The 47-year-old rapper, known to law enforcement and the courts as Earl Simmons, has been incarcerated since his bail was revoked in January. He sobbed during the proceeding as his lawyer Murray Richman recalled his nightmarish childhood.

“I never went to the level of tax evasion where I’d sit down and plot … like a criminal in a comic book,” DMX said when given an opportunity to address the court.

He said, at times getting choked up, that he “wasn’t following the rules.”

DMX, whose albums include “It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot” and “Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood,” recalled that the judge ordered him imprisoned in January for failing to obey bail restrictions that had allowed him to continue performing concerts while he received treatment for drug addictions.

“It woke me up,” he said.

Before that, he said: “I was in a cloud. I wasn’t thinking straight.”

Richman said DMX, who has appeared in movies such as “Last Hour” and “Romeo Must Die,” has been a model prisoner. Still, prosecutors sought five years in prison for him, citing a lengthy rap sheet and drugs.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Cooper said DMX engaged in tax fraud for six years after having paid taxes previously.

“He essentially went off the grid at a certain time,” the prosecutor said.

Richman said he wanted his client free to support his 15 children and pay back nearly $2.3 million in taxes that are part of a restitution order.

Another defense lawyer, Stacey Richman, called DMX “the American dream,” saying he raised himself out of the ghetto with music that was so inspirational that a former Troy homeless woman called the lawyers to say that hearing one of his songs stopped her from killing herself. The woman now is married and raising a child, Stacey Richman said.

As “Slippin’” played in the packed courtroom, DMX nodded his head slightly to the beat while some of his supporters nodded more enthusiastically.

“I’ve never seen a more horrific background in my life,” he said, describing physical and psychological abuse that left DMX’s teeth knocked out and led him to repeated encounters with the law at an early age.

The judge said that in the court’s view DMX “is a good man.”

“In many ways,” the judge said, “he’s his own worst enemy.”

The post DMX Faces The Music: Judge Sentenced Him To A Year In Prison appeared first on WE SPEAK MEDIA.

We spoke with Murray Richman who told us X has already packed on 40 lbs. Murray says he had been nothing but skin and bones before starting treatment in late August at a New England facility.

The program is almost complete, but Murray wants X to stay another 30 days since he’s been responding so well … they’re letting him take day trips with a friend to a nearby town. 

We broke the story … a judge signed off on rehab after the rapper said his house arrest for tax evasion wasn’t helping him improve. Murray says they’ll tackle the court case once DMX has successfully finished treatment. He’s also not ruling out a tour in the future. 

The post DMX Sober, Extends Rehab Stay appeared first on WE SPEAK MEDIA.