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Gucci Mane was released from Fulton County Jail at around 12:15am. He still has to fulfill the community service that he owes the state, but he was released much earlier than his one-year sentence dictated, presumably for good behavior. Now he’s free to perform at SummerJam here in NYC on June 6th, and there’s a couple other big appearances that we’ll see him at too ; )

Here is Gucci Mane’s full statement:

“First and foremost I would like to thank my legal counsel Dwight Thomas and Michael Holmes for their excellent representation, as well as my label Asylum and Warner Brothers Records for sticking with me through my situation and helping me through my time behind bars. Most importantly, I want to thank all of my fans for their support while I have been away. Your letters and your words of encouragement helped me make it through. None of my success would be possible without you.

I have made some mistakes in my life that have hurt a lot of people who care about me. I have worked very hard to get past them, but those mistakes have brought me to where I am today, and they will not be repeated. These past six months have been a difficult time but fortunately I have learned a great deal from my experience. I was able to do a great deal of soul searching; I am coming out with a new attitude towards life.

Unfortunately, my incarceration also came at a pivotal point in my career, just as my first major label album was dropping. I was forced to miss what should have been one of the proudest moments of my life. This is something that I will make sure never happens again. My time in jail was trying, but I grew from it and am now a stronger and better person. I want to continue on a positive track and truly focus on being a role model to my fans and my community. I am looking towards the future with a newfound respect and appreciation for the law and a strong dedication to my music and my career.

With that in mind, I have already begun to make positive strides towards the future. I have launched a new label, 1017 Brick Squad Records in affiliation with Asylum/Warner Bros Records, and I am working with a new team.

I am looking forward to getting back to business and to start making hits. I am extremely excited about my new album, The Appeal, which will be dropping at the end of the summer. Over the course of 2010, 1017 Brick Squad records will also be releasing albums from my artist Wacka Flocka Flame as well as my group Brick Squad, which features Wacka, OJ Da Juiceman and myself. In July, I will be heading out on a nationwide tour, hitting venues across the country and continuing the movement.”

Legendary Gangstarr artist Guru has succumbed to cancer after a lengthy bout with the disease.

The artist, born Keith Elam, died on Monday April 19. He was 43 years old.

Solar, Guru’s partner, expressed sadness over the loss.

“The world has lost one of the best MCs and Hip-Hop icons of all-time — my loyal best friend, partner, and brother, Guru,” Solar said in a statement. “Guru has been battling cancer for well over a year and has lost his battle! This is a matter that Guru wanted private until he could beat it, but tragically, this did not happen. The cancer took him. Now the world has lost a great man and a true genius.

Guru, a Boston native, rose to fame in the 80’s as one half of Gangstarr, the iconic rap group with DJ Premier.

The group released six highly regarded albums in their tenure until 2003 when they broke up. After his successful run with Premier, Guru founded 7 Grand Records with producer Solar.

Solar went on to tend to the rapper as he fell ill, seemingly controlling the flow of information and access to Guru. Many of his family members complained that they were denied their right to see him.

Solar also said that Guru wrote a letter to fans and sent it out through a press agency.

“For the fans that reached out with love and support, I can’t tell you how much that meant to Guru and myself. Guru prepared this letter (read below) while he was in the hospital for the fans,” the producer continued. “I hope now that Guru has moved on to a better place.”

In the letter, seen below, the rapper explains his illness, expresses gratitude to supporters and offers some parting words for DJ Premiere.

I, Guru, am writing this letter to my fans, friends and loved ones around the world. I have had a long battle with cancer and have succumbed to the disease. I have suffered with this illness for over a year. I have exhausted all medical options.

I have a non-profit organization called Each One Counts dedicated to carrying on my charitable work on behalf of abused and disadvantaged children from around the world and also to educate and research a cure for this terrible disease that took my life. I write this with tears in my eyes, not of sorrow but of joy for what a wonderful life I have enjoyed and how many great people I have had the pleasure of meeting.

My loyal best friend, partner and brother, Solar, has been at my side through it all and has been made my health proxy by myself on all matters relating to myself. He has been with me by my side on my many hospital stays, operations, doctors visits and stayed with me at my home and cared for me when I could not care for myself. Solar and his family is my family and I love them dearly and I expect my family, friends, and fans to respect that, regardless to anybody’s feelings on the matter. It is my wish that counts. This being said I am survived by the love of my life, my sun KC, who I trust will be looked after by Solar and his family as their own. Any awards or tributes should be accepted, organized approved by Solar on behalf myself and my son until he is of age to except on his own.

I do not wish my ex-DJ to have anything to do with my name likeness, events tributes etc. connected in anyway to my situation including any use of my name or circumstance for any reason and I have instructed my lawyers to enforce this. I had nothing to do with him in life for over 7 years and want nothing to do with him in death. Solar has my life story and is well informed on my family situation, as well as the real reason for separating from my ex-DJ. As the sole founder of GangStarr, I am very proud of what GangStarr has meant to the music world and fans. I equally am proud of my Jazzmatazz series and as the father of Hip-Hop/Jazz. I am most proud of my leadership and pioneering efforts on Jazzmatazz 4 for reinvigorating the Hip-Hop/Jazz genre in a time when music quality has reached an all time low. Solar and I have toured in places that I have never been before with GangStarr or Jazzmatatazz and we gained a reputation for being the best on the planet at Hip-Hop/Jazz, as well as the biggest and most influential Hip-Hop/Jazz record with Jazzmatazz 4 of the decade to now. The work I have done with Solar represents a legacy far beyond its time. And we as a team were not afraid to push the envelope. To me this is what true artists do! As men of honor we stood tall in the face of small mindedness, greed, and ignorance. As we fought for music and integrity at the cost of not earning millions and for this I will always be happy and proud, and would like to thank the million fans who have seen us perform over the years from all over the world. The work I have done with Solar represents a legacy far beyond its time and is my most creative and experimental to date. I hope that our music will receive the attention it deserves as it is some of the best work I have done and represents some of the best years of my life.

T.I. will finally get to roam free today for the first time since he was locked up for weapons charges last year … but he’s still gonna have the curfew of a 16-year-old schoolboy.

T.I.’s attorney tells TMZ the rapper — who’s been serving the last 30 days of his sentence under house arrest — will officially be done today.

T.I. will now be placed under 23 days of supervised release … which means he’ll have to be home by 11 PM unless he’s performing, when he’ll have to be in by 1 AM.

The rapper — real name Clifford Harris — will also have to complete 400 hours of community service and will be on probation for three years.

My Chick Bad Remix Video(BTS) from DTP TV on Vimeo.

Blake, 53, was the leader of the Shower Posse, which was founded in Brooklyn and responsible for over 1,400 slayings in the United States during the 1980’s.

Authorities accused Blake of shipping over 1,000 tons of cocaine into the United States and using the proceeds to purchase massive amounts of weapons.

Blake fled the United States. He was eventually sentenced to 28 years in prison for the crime, although he only served nine years of the prison term.

Sources told AllHipHop.com that Blake was working on a screenplay of his life when he died with director Curtis Scoon and Nick Cassavetes (John Q, Alpha Dog, The Notebook).

Prior to his death, Blake even called upon Murder Inc. boss Irv Gotti to become involved in the process of bringing his bloody tale to the silver screen.

“I spoke with Irv Gotti, [and director] Curtis Scoon. Irv Gotti is a young man where I think he’ll bring the best out in this movie, show the rawness of this movie,” Blake told AllHipHop.com in a video statement in August of 2009. “This movie’s not just about gangsta and drug dealing, it’s about a culture that nobody has ever seen. I have the utmost confidence in Irv Gotti, I know he can get the job done.”

Blake was already the subject of an episode of BET’s popular series American Gangster and he has also been profiled in magazines like FEDS and Don Diva.

The Shower Posse is still active in the United States and the U.S. is attempting to extradite the criminal organization’s current leader, Christopher “Dudus” Coke, who is accused of selling crack and marijuana in the United States through the Shower Posse.

Sources told AllHipHop.com that an attempt was made on Vivian Blake’s life in September, while his brother Paul was killed in November.

Our friends at TheYBF told us now that Swizz Beatz has made it known that his divorce from Mashonda is almost final, he and his boo Alicia Keys are hiding no longer. Alicia was the host of last night’s Gotham Magazine’s Annual Gala at Capitale last night. And of course, she brought Swizzy along for their first official red carpet appearance as a couple. The couple even rocked their Louboutins together. Swizzy in his own Christian Louboutin shoes for men that he designed. And Alicia in the new booties along with her Catherine Malandrino dress.

Nine months after Michael Jackson’s death, his estate has signed one of the biggest recording contracts in history, giving Sony, Mr. Jackson’s longtime label, the rights to sell his back catalog and draw on a large vault of unheard recordings. The deal, for about 10 recordings through 2017, will guarantee the Jackson estate up to $250 million in advances and other payments and offer an especially high royalty rate for sales both inside and outside the United States, according to people with knowledge of the contract who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak about it publicly. It also allows Sony and the estate to collaborate on a wide range of lucrative licensing arrangements, like the use of Jackson music for films, television and stage shows and lines of memorabilia that will be limited only by the imagination of the estate and the demand of a hungry worldwide market. “We think that recordings will always be an important part of the estate,” John Branca, an entertainment lawyer who is one of the estate’s executors, said in an interview on Monday. “New generations of kids are discovering Michael.” “A lot of the people that went to see ‘This Is It’ were families,” he added, referring to the Jackson concert film released in October. “ ‘This Is It’ was one of the few films allowed into China. So we think there are growing and untapped markets for Michael’s music.” The first recording covered by the new contract is the “This Is It” soundtrack, released last year, and Sony plans a new album of unreleased recordings for November. Sony’s contract is a bet on the continued appeal of Mr. Jackson, whose sales spiked after his death in June at the age of 50. With overall record sales on a decade-long plunge, mega-deals like this one have become rare, and Mr. Branca said the deal “exceeds all previous industry benchmarks.” Five years ago Bruce Springsteen signed a deal with Sony worth a reported $110 million, and in 2008 Live Nation and Jay-Z struck a $150 million deal for recordings, concert tours and other rights. Demand for Jackson music has leveled off after the initial rush — in the weeks after his death Sony scrambled to replenish retailers’ stock of any and all Jackson titles — but remains high. Last year Mr. Jackson was the biggest-selling artist in the United States by a wide margin, with 8.3 million combined album sales and 12.4 million downloads of single tracks, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Mr. Branca said that since his death Mr. Jackson has sold more than 31 million albums, about two-thirds of them outside the United States. But as record sales have tapered off over the last decade, licensing has emerged as the biggest growth area for revenue from recorded music. And given the success of the Beatles and the Elvis Presley estate in reissuing and repackaging old albums as well as finding new uses for their music — like “Love,” the Beatles’ hit theatrical show by Cirque du Soleil — it is not hard to imagine the direction that the Jackson estate might take in using old recordings in new ways. “It’s not just a record deal,” said Rob Stringer, chairman of the Columbia/Epic Label Group, a Sony division. “We’re not just basing this on how many CDs we sell or how many downloads. There are also audio rights for theater, movies, computer games. I don’t know how an audio soundtrack will be used in 2017, but you’ve got to bet on Michael Jackson in any new platform.”

Trina was the victim of theft recently, her cell phone was stolen and personal pictures she snapped on the device, including nude images, were leaked online.

The Miami rapper told MTV News on Monday (March 1) that her phone was taken during the BET Hip-Hop Awards in October and the criminal has attempted to shake her down for hush money.

“[The images are] me on a very upset day — I think I was in Canada, upset crying,” she explained. “Just personal stuff. Photos in the studio. I think [one] was me having an allergic reaction, breaking out. I just think it was my personal stuff and for someone to do that is so, so wrong. So now I’m actually having it looked into by the FBI and it’s gonna be a bigger situation that just leaked photos. Hopefully we can deal with the situation and put an end to it.”

Trina admitted she took some racy photos of herself, however the set also contains several of Trina holding up her arm, which appears to have a rash of some sort, and she explained those pictures were taken in order to show her doctor — the rapper broke out but wasn’t sure what was causing the ailment.

Her doctor, she said, diagnosed her with Urticaria, which essential is hives and has since gone away.