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Dr. Donya West, Kanye West’s mother, suddenly died last night, individuals close to the rapper confirmed. The cause of death was not released immediately, but she was reportedly in the Los Angeles area when she died. Kanye West chronicled his love for his mother in “Hey Mama,” a song from his album Late Registration. In the song, Kanye raps, “(Hey Mama), I wanna scream so loud for you, cuz I’m so proud of you / Let me tell you what I’m about to do, (Hey Mama) / I know I act a fool but, I promise you I’m goin back to school /I appreciate what you allowed for me I just want you to be proud of me (Hey Mama).” West eventually performed the song in front of his mother and Oprah Winfrey on the TV host’s highly rated show. “’The city of Chicago is hurting for Kanye West. We know how much he loved and valued his mother and we just ask other cities to join us in pray for Kanye,” said Kendra G, a Morning Show co-host at Power 92 in Chicago”

Jay-Z’s name has been all over the news recently. Why not? The rapper has a new album out based on one of the most publicized movies of the year. Now, Jigga is speaking out on a lot of issues.

Recently Jay visited Los Angeles radio station KPWR Power 106’s Big Boy’s Neighborhood. The morning show asked Jay many intriguing questions and Jay did his best to answer.

When asked who he would retire, he paused for a long time. Without naming names, he simply said “It’s a lot of them.”

Later, he was asked if Beyonce and Jay were on tour, who would headline?

“She would, of course,” he said. “She absolutely headlines that tour. [I’d be] the supporting act.”

In response to Kanye West’s Big Brother, he clarified some stuff. He was asked if they really told Kanye to buy two tickets. He said that they did, but it wasn’t entirely as Kanye presented it.

“He had 4 tickets. He wanted 6,” he noted.

In a surprising twist, Jay also mentioned who he would have in a super-group.

“Eminem for some cross over money. Then, we’d have Andre 3000 for that alternative money,” he added.

Jay’s new album American Gangster is in stores now.

If Chris Brown had his way, his latest album — the recently released Exclusive — would’ve been named Graduation instead. But according to the fleet-footed dancer, once Kanye West caught wind of the potentially overlapping LP titles, he … er … politely requested Brown consider renaming his project.

“At first I was naming it Graduation because I was 18,” Brown explained to MTV News. “But then Kanye was like, ‘I heard Chris is naming his album Graduation. I’m naming mine … .’ [He laughs.] I was like, I’ll change mine because I respect his reason more with [The] College Dropout and Late Registration, all that, so it kind of went with his. So I was like, I don’t need mine to be Graduation, you know, I’ll change mine to Exclusive, because I’ll make an album exclusively for my fans.”

Brown wasn’t so exclusive when it came to putting the project together — the Virginia native worked with Lil Wayne, T-Pain, Will.I.Am and other guests to make it happen. But the singer’s next single, the Stargate-produced “With You,” features Brown solo. According to him, the matching video — which he has already shot — also showcases Brown more singularly than his previous clips.

“I co-directed it as well,” he said of the video. “And it shows me more solo. Like, it shows the grown side of Chris — it doesn’t show the kiddie side. ‘Cause with this album, I wanted to blend, I wanted to do all different visuals of me. The first [video] ‘Wall to Wall,’ the acting, the vampires, the spookiness, then you go to ‘Kiss, Kiss,’ that had the little goofy part, now this one is solo, the main [performer] is me. Me freestyle dancing — just showing people me naturally, not a choreographed routine, just me dancing and showing you what I’m capable of. But at the same time, just having fun with the camera, and just one-on-one time with me and my audience.”

Brown’s label, Jive Records, recently announced plans for the singer to head out on a co-headlining tour with Bow Wow beginning December 6. The tour — which will also feature Soulja Boy, Lil Mama, Shop Boyz and Sean Kingston on select dates — is slated to run through Christmas and end two weeks into the new year. But Brown said to expect the tour to extend beyond the holiday season and the States as well.

“We doing it for the down South side [with the lineup], but me and Sean Kingston, he got it for like the south, south, in Jamaica,” Brown joked. “And then I got it for Virginia, so we gonna go crazy. It’s like a holiday tour, but I’m taking it worldwide. It was just fortunate that it started on the holiday, but once it starts, it’s gonna go worldwide.”

In a recent interview with the Baltimore Sun, Donda West, Kanye West’s mother, said her son was comparable to Jesus Christ.

“Kanye keeps it real,” she said. “He touches the people. You never know how words can save a person’s life, physically or otherwise. People like Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi or, in my view, Barack Obama, or Jesus Christ — people whose job it is to tell the truth — I see that in Kanye. Now, people like you are gonna go, ‘Oh, Kanye’s mom said he’s like Jesus!’ but … when you have a gift, you didn’t get it by yourself. … Your truth is your truth.”

Donda was in town promoting her new book “Raising Kanye” which chronicles her time raising Kanye West as a single mother.

Kanye West’s new album “Graduation” is in stores now.

NEW YORK - It’s not like Kanye West needed an ego boost, but here it comes: Sales figures appear to confirm his “Graduation” album outsold 50 Cent’s “Curtis” in the much-hyped rap sales showdown.

Although Nielsen SoundScan figures for the albums’ first-week sales were to be released Tuesday night, West’s label was already proclaiming victory — although Def Jam president Jay-Z was careful not to rub it in.

“We’re not gloating,” Jay-Z told The Associated Press. “He’s celebrating his win. … in his mind, he believed he could win the whole time.”

Both albums appeared to have sold well over 500,000 copies since being released Sept. 11, but 50’s performance was still a considerable letdown. His last album, 2005’s “The Massacre,” sold 1.1 million in its first week.

Last month, 50 didn’t think of West as much of a competitor: “It’s great marketing on Def Jam’s part, by putting us out there at the same time and make like we can actually be compared on some level,” he told The Associated Press. In another interview, he said he would retire if West outsold him.

But while West is enjoying a No. 2 position on the charts with his hit “Stronger,” 50 has struggled to connect with radio. None of his songs have matched past smashes like “In Da Club”; even his single “Ayo Technology,” featuring Justin Timberlake and Timbaland, is languishing at No. 19.

50’s album was originally due to be released in June on Interscope Records, a division of Universal Music Group, but was pushed back to Sept. 11. Soon after, Kanye West, whose album was supposed to come out sometime in late summer, pushed his date to Sept. 11 as well. But Antonio “L.A.” Reid, chairman of Island Def Jam, also a division of Universal, says it wasn’t initially intended to be a jab at 50.

“The decision was really driven by the (MTV Video Music Awards), because the VMAs were on Sept. 9 … we wanted to use it as a launching pad again for this album,” he said.

Once they realized 50 was scheduled to release his album on Sept. 11 as well, Reid asked West if he wanted to push his album so it wouldn’t compete. But West was up for the challenge.

“Only after that did it become a competitive thing,” he said. “It was never intended to be a gimmick.”

It ended up the music industry version of Ali-Frazier, with the avalanche of pre-fight hype to match. 50 routinely trash-talked West, but it seemed to be in good fun: The pair appeared on the MTV Video Music Awards and BET’s “106 & Park” together, and on the cover or Rolling Stone. Both admitted the battle was a great marketing tool.

“The rivalry helped both of them” said Jay-Z. “It was definitely one of those moments in the game that was exciting, everybody could pick a side and weigh in on and have an opinion … it garnered a lot of attention.”

50 Cent didn’t immediately release a statement about his apparent loss. Whether he would make good on his threat to retire was unclear; Reid said he hoped he wouldn’t.

“I would like to think that nothing could be further from the truth,” he said. “I’d like to see him making music for the next 25 years, he’s that talented.”

Jay-Z, who is featured on a new 50 Cent remix of his hit “I Get Money,” said this setback could actually benefit 50 in the long run.

“The worst thing about success is it makes you complacent. I think when you face any type of adversity it makes you dig deep … everyone goes through it, all the greats go through it,” he said. “In his music, he hadn’t gone through any type of adversity. … he’ll come back and make great music.”

If so, 50 may end up being a thorn in Def Jam’s side. In a recent interview, a miffed 50 threatened to release projects whenever Def Jam had a high-priority release.

In light of West’s victory, Jay-Z considered that threat a good thing.

“We would really appreciate that,” he quipped. “If he can do that, I will fax over our release dates effective immediately.”

50 CENT SAYS THE SALES RACE AIN’T OVER YET: Rapper concedes first round battle to Kanye, but claims the war rages on.

Rapper 50 Cent says it’s still too early to tell who’ll win in his race with Kanye West to sell the most copies of their new albums.

Despite being outsold by West 2 to 1 on Tuesday’s first day of release, and West’s “Graduation” album pulling into a six-figure lead over 50’s “Curtis” by week’s end based on projections, 50 says he’s still confident that he may emerge victorious in the long run.

“[The sales] can’t be considered [any one way] anyway because it’s just a few days out,” he tells Billboard. “I guess [the music industry] would consider me to be a hip-hop favorite because of my sales history, and people like to root for the underdog.”

According to data projected from representatives at the four major labels, “Graduation” (Def Jam) leads with 781,000 units, followed by “Curtis” (Interscope) with 603,000.

As previously reported, 50 Cent visited New York’s Hot 97 radio station and expressed frustration about a number of issues regarding the hyped rivalry with West. He said if the Chicago rapper outsells him, he would begin to go round for round, matching his G-Unit releases with Def Jam’s.

“The [fans that aren’t supporting me now] are the same people that supported me in the past,” says 50 Cent. “The impression I gave them was so strong that they have different standards for me. When my music comes out, if it was someone else’s record, it would be a hit because it spun 3,500 times. But they’re looking for the hottest music out at the time from 50 Cent, so if it’s not that, then they show me resistance until I deliver. I’ve only been in the music business for four years and I’m already receiving some backlash. That’s amazing, isn’t it?”

50 Cent said he’s also upset with BET’s “106 & Park” and organizers of the MTV Video Music Awards. On the former, he was upstaged by Jay-Z during an intended showdown with West, and on the latter, he says he received considerably less screen time than Kanye.

At BET on Tuesday, 50 claims he was blindsided by the Jay-Z appearance, and could’ve matched the moment with his own big surprise guest had he been informed ahead of time.

“Every time I do a show, the plans change,” he said. “Now, either I’m going to know exactly what I’m doing on the show or I’m not going to go. Usually if you have a TV show and you do two songs, it’s not optional for you to do two records, and another one off your album. If I knew I could’ve brought a special guest, I would’ve brought Eminem … but that [show] is not what I needed.”

“As far as the VMAs were concerned, Kanye received the upper hand. I ain’t going to front,” he continues. “He had four looks — his song “Stronger,” his new record “Good Life,” he had a performance with Soulja Boy, “Crank Dat,” and then he came out with me. So I feel like Def Jam is doing a better job of promoting the CD than Interscope. Interscope is just relying on my base and the actual music. I was on the VMAs for one minute and 20 seconds. I should’ve just stayed home.”

Kanye West has increased his lead over 50 Cent in the much scrutinized battle between the rap stars, according the Friday edition of Nielsen SoundScan’s Building Charts. Un-weighted sales from eight leading accounts through close of business yesterday (Sept. 13) show West’s “Graduation” (Def Jam) increasing its lead over 50’s “Curtis” (G-Unit/Interscope). The former now leads by 170,000 copies, compared to its margin of 127,000 on first-day sales. West’s newest posts 600,000 on the Friday chart, compared to 437,000 on the Wednesday Building Chart, which posted sales through Tuesday. The report also shows 50 Cent’s set growing from 310,000 on the Wednesday chart to 430,000, while Kenny Chesney’s “Just Who I Am: Poets and Pirates” more than doubles from 107,000 to 232,000. The numbers only reflect sales at the participating panel of Trans World Entertainment, Best Buy, Borders, Circuit City, iTunes, Target, Anderson Merchandisers and Handleman Co. The latter two companies place music in WalMart and other mass merchants.

Graduation Leaks

Kanye West’s “Graduation” came early for fans of the Chicago MC this week. The highly anticipated 3rd album from the Rocafella rapper has leaked in its entirety.

The leak, which comes as a strong dent in Kanye’s plans of outselling 50 Cent on September 11th, started around 1:00 am on Thursday morning.

No details yet as to how the album ended up online two weeks before its release date.

“Graduation” will be available for retail purchase on September 11th.

Q Tip & Common Form Group

In other news, A Tribe Called Quest frontman, Q-Tip,has revealed to XXL Magazine that he’ll be forming a new group with Common entitled “The Standard.”

Me and Common [are] getting ready to form a group,” Q tells XXLMag.com. “We’ll probably run it through the Uni [Universal Records] joint because we’re both on Universal.”

The group, which came as an idea from Common, we’ll start recording material for an album once the two start touring together. According to Q Tip, production will be handled mostly by him however they will be getting Kanye West for a couple of tracks.

“I’m probably gonna do a lot of it,” ‘Tip tells XXLMag. “And we’ll get Kanye [West] on a couple things, but you know, that cat is busy.”