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Rap Sheet: The Straight Dope

• Wheeling and dealing: NY Mag gets former heroin kingpins (and snitches) Frank Lucas and Nicky Barnes on the phone to recollect about the good ‘ol days when they were running the most prolific heroin drug rings in NYC history.

• Two cents worth: Irv Gotti offered 50 Cent some advice from his reality show soapbox on VH1 concerning the album battle promise with Kanye, “He said he was gonna stop rapping. Now, you’ve got a bunch of people saying, ‘Shut up. Didn’t you say you was gonna shut up? Aren’t you a man of your word?’ He needs to say, ‘Let me just fall back and make records now.”‘

• Name-calling: Nas spoke with Rolling Stone recently about the controversial album title he’s rolling with, comparing it to the birds and the bees, “It’s like talking to your child about sex. It’s hard, but it’s important. It’s probably going to make people uncomfortable.”

• Open book: Kanye West on his new literary endeavor, “It’s dope….10 bucks. I teamed up with co-author J. Sakiya Sandifer to make my literary debut with Thank You And You’re Welcome!, an entertaining volume of “Kanye-isms “– the creative, humorous and insightful philosophies and anecdotes used in creating my path to success. It captures the same wit, playful irony, and piercing insight found abundant in my lyrics.”