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Fire Starters:
The Shop Boyz
Maybe it was the Kiss face-paint in the video, but they finally got us. You can try to fight it, but when the Shop Boyz's "Party Like a Rockstar" comes on, you're going to sing that joint to yourself for about 30 minutes after it goes off. The song — which the Boyz describe as " 'hood rock" — is picking up so big, Universal Republic signed Atlanta natives Demetrius "Meany" Hardin, Richard "Fat" Stephens and Rasheed "Sheed" Hightower a few weeks ago and put a rush on their debut LP, Rockstar Mentality. Originally slated for June 26, the demand for the Boyz has caused the label to push the release date up to June 19. And don't be surprised if you hear a "Party Like a Rockstar" remix with Jim Jones on it soon.
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— Shaheem Reid and Jayson Rodriguez, with additional reporting by Rahman Dukes, Yasmine Richard and Bridget Bland
Producer: Devo Springsteen
Representing: G.O.O.D. Music
Mixtape: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly
411: If you ask producer Devo Springsteen about Kanye West and company, it's still all good. Springsteen, who laid the beat for "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" from West's Late Registration, is readying a few G.O.O.D. Music-related projects despite rumors of dissent swirling around the pastel set. He recently produced a track, "Misunderstood," for Common's forthcoming Finding Forever; he's about to put out a Bacardi-sponsored mixtape highlighting Consequence and GLC; and he's in the studio with 'Ye working on his next album.
"I don't know the ins and outs, legally, what is what, but I know I just got back from L.A. and I was in the studio with Kanye, Common and Sa-Ra, and I know I'm going to Japan on tour with Consequence at the end of the month," Devo said. "So it's still there and it still exists and everyone is still putting out records. GLC's album is gonna have a G.O.O.D. Music logo. I'm in talks to put out a G.O.O.D. Music major-label album. It's definitely still there. ... There's not a central distribution place [at the moment], but the movement is still there."
In addition to working with the fam, Springsteen said he has sessions scheduled soon with Britney Spears, Aretha Franklin and Dead Prez. He said to expect a Dead Prez/ Nas collabo he produced called "Association" to hit the Net soon, but in the meantime, he also said to look out for big things from West's Graduation album. "[He's] about to be on some whole different global superstar sh--," Springsteen said. "He's already a star, but on some other bigger sh--. Some Spice Girls sh--."
Springsteen just released his The Good, the Bad, the Ugly mixtape, which heavily features Consequence and GLC.
Joints To Check For:
- "I Try" (featuring GLC and Crucial Conflict). "That's just a crazy Midwestern-flavored record," Springsteen said. "I've never heard GLC go in like that. The whole record is just a sick, party record. And the video for that record is on the mixtape too. I thought this was a Kanye joint, but then GLC told me one of the members of Crucial Conflict [produced] the record. It's just so hard, but it's fun too. It reminds me of a Chicago-styled Scarface."
- "Blowin' My Phone Up" (featuring Consequence). "I produced this record, and it's also on versions of Consequence's album," Springsteen explained. "The whole record is a reference to cell phones. It's my ringtone now. It's the sickest ringtone. I think everyone should get this mixtape just to put that MP3 on their phone. You'll see what I'm talking about when you hear it. It's crazy. The whole thing is metaphorically going through your phone. For some reason that's the vibe Consequence caught off of [the beat]. That's pretty much his doing, and I kind of worked phone elements into it. But whenever people hear my phone go off, they say, 'Who is that? What is that? That's sick.' So this is a way everybody can get that joint."
- "Big Fame" (featuring Sa-Ra). "A lot of people who heard the buzz of Sa-Ra aren't familiar with their music," Springsteen said. "I think this is a good song to find out their lane and what they're about. They're on a whole other level of sh--. And it's real sexy and dark, but it's hard too. ... It's hard to describe their music. Is it hip-hop? Is it trip-hop? It's a little bit left, but it has a knock to it. It's definitely not a space-age thing, but you do have to have some kind of imagination. Those guys can be really big and do well. [After] hearing them, Kanye wanted to change his whole style of making beats to be more along that sexy, kind of '80s vibe. This [track] is a good way of checking them out."
Don't Sleep: Other Notable Selections This Week
- Dexterity - "Reggae Madness" street DVD
- DJ Clue - It's Me Snitches
- DJ Kool.Laid - Street Radio Vol. 6
- DJ Lazy K and Freekey Zekey - Streets Most Requested
- DJ Woogie and DJ Man Dog - Fully Loaded Clip
- Drugs on Music - "Cocaine City 8" street DVD
'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar
- Aasim - "Rain and Sunshine"
- Common - "The Game" and "The People"
- The Fixxers - "Can U Werk Witdat"
- Garcia (featuring N.O.R.E. and Pitbull) - "Dejalo" remix
- Murphy Lee (featuring Yung Dro) - "Hatin"
- Stat Quo - "Here We Go"
Celebrity Faves
Her "Lip Gloss" is cool and poppin', and Lil Mama says her favorite flavors are watermelon or the shiny glittery kind. The teen, however, won't tell you the exact brand she favors until she gets her sponsorships correct. The kid knows business already. On the music tip, she liked Rihanna's "Umbrella" so much, she threw a verse on it and is hoping it can be an official remix. "Rihanna was telling the guy she's his protector, so he can stand under her umbrella," Mama explained. "What I did was embrace the lyrics, using the umbrella as me the protector, the bad weather being people who feed negative energy. People are going to try and destroy what they feel is perfect so you have to ride out with whoever your partner is."
The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground
Kanyeezee and Lil Weezy: The dream collaboration has happened, and it's going to continue. Last week, Kanye West told Mixtape Monday that he's already done records for Lil Wayne, and there's no telling how many more tracks they'll knock out. Both are determined to give the fans what they want.
"I'm making beats. The dude is the hottest rapper," 'Ye said. "We already made some songs that are incredible. I'm not going to tell you who's on them, but I can talk my sh--, 'cause we already got a couple of bangers under the belt. Hopefully I can deliver some product with him to push it to MTV even more, where hopefully he'll be opening up some award shows and getting his rightful spot. Right now he's ripping down every mixtape, going crazy with it. It's unabashed, raw lyrics. I think it's the realest form of hip-hop right now."
Working with Wayne has caused West to dig in the crates and listen to Weezy F. Baby's old records.
"I went back and listened to this Juvenile album 400 Degreez, and [Wayne] was snappin'," West said. "Lyrically not letting up. I liked his intonation, his patterns, his punch lines, his whole story. That's what got me interested. It's music. It's product before publicity. I need to get off the mic right now and go to the studio." ...
Have trust in your neighborhood Snowman. Young Jeezy said when certain friends of his call on him for guest verses, he drops everything to knock the vocals out. Take DJ Drama, for instance. When he needed Jeezy for a last-minute addition to the "Takin' Pictures" record, Drama got his verse in a matter of hours.
"I love that record," Jeezy said. "Me and Drama been dealing for a long time. That record, Dram called me, it was Saturday. When I'm in the studio, I'm in the studio. Normally I don't go in if I'm not in the studio. I was just hanging out one day, and Dram called me like, 'If you don't do it today, I can't get it.' So I came straight to him. I heard the beat one time, went in the booth and freestyled my verse. People like [DJ] Khaled, Drama, I love them type of records. Any DJs — DJs support us, I support them."
A few months ago, T.I. was making the call to Jeezy for a remix of "Top Back."
"When I heard the beat, I was like, 'Man, I wish I could have got that for my album,' " Jeezy remembered. "When I heard it, it was crazy. Right when T.I. called me to do the remix, I was gonna do a [mixtape] freestyle [over the instrumental]. He called me, I went right in. When he sent the track to me, It just had Young Dro's verse on there. I said, 'Whew, Dro went hard. What I'mma do?' So I just went in. I love that record."
Jeezy is still working on his next solo album, which he thinks will drop at the top of 2008, and on May 22, he and the rest of USDA release their debut, Cold Summer. The release is labeled as an "Authorized Mixtape." "We wanted to do [a USDA] mixtape, but Def Jam is a business," he said. "When they seen what I did with my mixtapes, they wanted to do it."
Turned out, though, the mixtape morphed into a regular release, but it still had the mixtape feel. "When I say it's an album, it really is," Jeezy clarified. "But we leaned more towards the streets. ... It's an album, but it's as close to a mixtape you gonna get. It's close. I'm a 'hood cat. I love real music. When we got in to do the album, my thing was, 'Let's do something they can play 10 years from now.' I didn't want to do nothing that's relevant to this minute. 'Let's think ahead.' "
One of the album's highlights is a "Go Getta" remix that features Jeezy, fellow USDA members Blood Raw and Slick Pulla, as well as Bun B. and Jadakiss.
"I always wanted to hear Bun and Jada on a song together," Jeezy said. "I like Jada a lot. I think he's one of the cats that's underrated. He's hard. To me, what he says makes sense. Maybe not to the mainstream. Bun's the same way. He's one of them dudes that's always gonna give you a real verse. In the South, where we at, a Bun verse is a win-win. He's never gonna give nothing crazy. It's always gonna be what it's supposed to be. When I thought 'bout it — 'cause the label wanted me to do something bigger — I said, 'You know what? I think I want to do it the 'hood way. I'mma shoot a video for it myself.' " ...
Since Fabolous hasn't been out with an album in just about three years, he said he had to make sure his Def Jam debut, From Nothin' to Somethin', went right. Not only was it about getting the right records, he had to make sure he presented the album correctly. So instead of dropping a single and putting the album out right away, he decided to reintroduce himself with the songs "Diamonds" and "Return of the Hustle," targeted toward specific demographics, before coming with the universal-feel single "Make Me Better."
"We definitely wanted to give people a couple of different aspects before I came," he said recently in L.A. "Get them aware that I'm coming. Now the marketplace is so big, so many people are coming all the time ... you want to make yourself as hot as possible. So we dropped 'Diamonds.' It was an awareness record to get attention. What better way to get attention than with some diamonds? You walk in a room wearing some diamonds, people are going to be like, 'Who is that?' The South picked up on that.
"Same thing with 'Return of the Hustle,' " he continued. "It was kinda like a street leak for the Northern/ East Coast [regions] of the country. That picked up well. The video is on MySpace, it premiered on iTunes. Now 'Make Me Better,' this is my lane. I grab everyone in a bunch and say, 'Listen to this.' When you're making an album, it's not enough to just make music. You gotta execute the album right. I wanted to make sure Def Jam executed as well. It's a lot of things that come with it. Plus, 'Make Me Better' doesn't sound like anything else on radio. Everybody is trying to get that Southern-feel club record. So it's a great time to drop that as well. Timing means a lot."
From Nothin' to Somethin' comes out June 12.
For other artists featured in Mixtape Mondays, check out Mixtape Mondays Headlines.
For a full-length feature on the role of mixtapes in the music industry, check out "Mixtapes: The Other Music Industry."
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Photo: MTV News
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