In a surprise performance The Game joined Nas on stage at a New Year's Eve concert and said his upcoming third CD would be his last. He told fans at the Los Angeles House of Blues that his CD will be titled LAX and will be available in June, according to HHNLive.com. Last year, he told QD3.com, "Right now I'm just taking a break from hip-hop, just enjoying my time with my family and my friends, just readying myself for my next, last album... Yup, I'm done," he said. "I think three classic albums are good for me." His first album, The Documentary, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 2005 as did his sophomore effort, Doctor's Advocate, in 2006.

Singer R. Kelly's publicist is fast at work responding to media coverage of the lawsuit filed on behalf of Ne-Yo (born Shaffer Smith). News broke yesterday that a claim against Double Up Tour promoter Rowe Entertainment alleges Smith was fired from the tour  because, "an unknown representative of R. Kelly urged Rowe to terminate Smith from the tour given the audience's and critics' more favorable reaction to Smith than the reaction to R. Kelly." In response, Kelly's publicist, Allan Mayer, issued this statement: "The idea that R. Kelly had anything to do with Ne-Yo being dropped from the Double Up tour is just plain silly. As we said at the time, Ne-Yo was dropped because of a contractual dispute with the tour promoter, and in fact Ne-Yo is not suing Kelly but only the promoter. Ne-Yo may think blaming the situation on R. Kelly will improve his chances of collecting from the promoter, but if he does, he is sadly mistaken."

DMX has revealed that his recently announced forthcoming album is part gospel. He told MTV.com that Walk With Me Now and You'll Fly With Me Later will be released as two separate CD's, the first secular, gruff rap tracks and the second, "without cursing - how ‘bout that one? No songs about [expletive], no songs about robbing, just straight ‘Give God the glory.'  No official release date has been set.

Rapper Skillz released his annual year-end wrap-up, with an accompanying video. "The '07 Rap Up" is a recap of what popped off in 2007 pop culture and the video (directed by Chris Robinson and his Robot Films), collects actual clips from many of the moments. Skillz has been creating the "Rap Up" tracks since 2002. "It's become a tradition now," The Virginia-based artist told AllHipHop.com. "Like, if I don't do it, people gon' be like, ‘Why he ain't do a rap-up?' If I do it, every year I'm gon' try to do it bigger and better." But Skillz is not a once-a-year-hit-wonder. He is working on an album titled Million Dollar Backpack and, for the past five years, has been doing a weekly version of his wrap-up every Friday for the E! Network's "Daily Ten." "The '07 Rap Up" video will be available online until Jan. 28 at www.SoVeryFresh.com.