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Fire Starters:
Hurricane Chris
Like his name suggests, Hurricane Chris is causing quite a storm. The Shreveport, Louisiana, native has a burning hit on his hands: "A Bay Bay," a bouncy salute to his DJ, Hollywood Bay Bay, that sparked a catchphrase in the streets. Now, backed by New York exec Bryan Leach (and Mr. Collipark, who is executive producing Chris' yet-untitled debut), the rapper is the lead artist on Polo Grounds Music and is set to introduce Shreveport's ratchet movement: one part crunk, one part hyphy. Let's just hope this movement actually moves.
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Mixtape Monday: DJ Drama Bounces Back; Jay-Z And Freeway Cash In; Fabolous Remembers Stack Bundles
— by Shaheem Reid and Jayson Rodriguez, with additional reporting by Rahman Dukes and Bridget Bland
DJ: DJ Drama
Representing: Thanksgiving in the summer
Mixtape: Gangsta Grillz 16: The Streetz Been Waitin
411: His official Gangsta Grillz album is nowhere in sight (read more on that below), and he still might have to change his moniker — we have the sinking feeling that the nickname "Barack O'Drama" might catch on this summer — but things are just right in DJ Drama's world. Since January — when police raided his studio and arrested him — Drama has toured all over Japan, Europe and hit at least 36 states in America, playing gigs and/or promoting himself. This summer, he'll be backing T.I. on the Screamfest tour, and soon there will be an announcement regarding a major move that he and the Aphilliates are doing on Atlanta radio.
And oh yeah (snap your fingers here), he has his first mixtape out in the streets since the RIAA tried to shut him down five months ago.
"I'm on and poppin'," Drama said last week, just after completing the 16th installment of his Gangsta Grillz mixtape series. Last weekend in Atlanta was Hot 107.9's annual big concert, the Birthday Bash, where T.I., the Game and the Shop Boyz were among the performers. So, with the city already in a frenzy, he wanted to add fuel to the fire.
"A little bit of everything," Mr. Thanksgiving offered about what he was serving on his mixtape. "I wanted to come back strong and repent myself, so it's hosted by me. Me on the cover. I got Tip, Big Kuntry, La Da Darkman, Gucci Mane. Lil' Boosie ... Gucci Mane and Boosie are like the hottest n---as in the streets. ... There are definitely some exclusives on there that are made just for the tapes — USDA, Gucci Mane, Willie [the Kid] — but then there are songs that are [new,] like Playaz Circle's 'Duffle Bag Boyz,' which is crazy-big in the A right now.
"This is a tape for the masses, so I wanted to do something everybody could rock to," he added. "It's about making the streets happy. People tend to forget that before Gangsta Grillz, [I] was doing mini albums — it was a regular series. What it was based upon was the hottest songs in the streets of the A."
Drama says the game hasn't been the same since he's taken a break. Many of the other prominent DJs have dropped product less frequently, and some of the new guys that have been stepping up — according to Dram — haven't been too innovative.
"Start being creative and stop making a million Lil Wayne tapes," he scolded. "How many Wayne tapes you gonna make, man? It's a drought in the mixtape game."
Obviously, a big question comes to mind when talking to Drama: Is he worried about putting out a mixtape while the feds are keeping a close eye on him? His stance is that he did nothing wrong in the first place and isn't doing anything wrong now. He's going to continue to give away his CDs.
"Get it how you can get it," he said. "It's a statement for me. It's nothing more than feeding the streets. We're giving out 15-20,000 at Birthday Bash. I'm in city to city, state to state all the time. I'm doing my thing, going back to my roots — hand to hand — giving them out. If there's another way of getting it, so be it, I don't have control over that. But it's a promotional item, as all [mixtapes] are."
Drama and his partner DJ Don Cannon's case is still pending.
"I'm off pre-trial," he said. "I still haven't seen a day of court yet. Behind the scenes, it's still going on, but hopefully soon I will have more positive information when things are settled."
Joints To Check For:
- "Cockin Them Thangs" by Willie the Kid. "That's my intro back in the tape," Drama said. "That's basically Will spitting, doing what he does best. You could say he's my co-host for this tape. We're laying his groundwork. We're gonna drop my album first, then drop Willie's. ... When the time is right, I'm gonna take [the weight] off my shoulders, then put it on his. Don Cannon produced this record, so it was only right to start the tape off with this. Cannon has been working overtime. I don't even see him, he's working so hard."
- "2 of America's Most Wanted" by DJ Doo Wop. "It's an honor to me to have him," Dram said. "He made a song called '2 of America's Most Wanted,' where he's speaking from my perspective of the day and what happened with the raid.
"Doo Wop just hit me one day," Dram added about how they came to know each other. "I'd been shouting him out in my interviews for years. I've always given props to [his legendary mixtape] 95 Live and what it meant in my career. He reached out to me one day, asked me for a favor, and I was like, 'C'mon OG, anything you need. He's still doing his thing, and it's important for us to respect the n---as that came before you and pay homage. If it wasn't for the tapes he made over a decade ago, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing. And for him to make a song about me is very humbling, because that's one of my OGs. That's him showing respect to what I've been able to accomplish. That's a good feeling."
- "Show You What It Is" by USDA. "That's something that possibly might be on my album, it possibly might not be on my album," Dram said rather ambiguously. "It's a club banger, me and Jeezy, so you know what's up.
"My album's in limbo right now," he continued about Gangsta Grillz: The Album. "It is in my record label's [Atlantic] hands. We're working on getting a release date. I don't think I'm going to shoot a video for 'Takin Pictures' [a song that features Jeezy, Willie, Jim Jones, Rick Ross, Young Buck and T.I.] on account of them. We're still working; my album is hot. But until all parties are happy, I'm going to do what I do. I'm back to what I do best: Kill these streets."
Superstar Jay pays homage to Stack Bundles …
Don't Sleep: Other Notable Selections This Week
- Superstar Jay - R.I.P. Stack Bundles
- DJ Khaled - We the Best
- DJ Culture - Block Movement 11: Welcome to Dallas
- DJ Bobby Black - Down & Dirty 25
- Young Mase - I'm From Detroit City
- D.N.A - Dipset4Life
- One Soul Ent. Presents - Welcome to the Truth City
"We the beeeessst!" ...
'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar
- Swizz Beatz - "Top Down"
- Mr. Vegas - "Hot Wuk"
- LL Cool J - "Queens" (featuring 50 Cent, Mobb Deep, Kool G Rap and Tony Yayo)
- Papoose - "Support System"
- Juvenile - "Everything" (featuring T-Pain)
- Keith Murray - "Nobody Do It Better" (featuring Tyrese)
Celebrity Faves
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Fabolous and Stack Bundles
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Fabolous released his From Nothin' to Somethin' LP last week, but the last few days have been tainted because of the death of his friend Stack Bundles. He says he wishes the masses could have seen Bundles' work.
"They would have loved him," Fab said. "He was a good dude. I seen him after he got his situation with Jim Jones, he was saying that he got his chance and he was really happy.
"One of the favorite experiences with Stack I had working with him was my Loso's Way mixtape," Fab added. "Stack's energy, man, his energy was uncanny. He came in the studio and puts his verses together; he zoned out to it. We had the beat flowing in the studio, and he would walk back and forth and bop. Then after a while, he would say, 'I got it!' The energy in the booth, he always had that fire. It was like a spark plug. It's sad to see that that energy was taken away. [The masses] didn't get to see him in the forefront yet. They didn't see him in his own light yet."
The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground
When you make $83 million in one year, you damn right you're a "Big Spender." Jay-Z — or should we say Mr. #9 on Forbes magazine's annual Celebrity 100 list (above Donald Trump, Steven Spielberg, 50 Cent and Kobe Bryant) — has hopped on another one of his artists' lead records. In the song, Freeway and Jay trade verses about becoming "Roc millionaires."
"I'm trying to get that big paper," Free said about the record. "It's the first single off the album Free at Last. [Me and Jay] go in and out on the last verse; we go eight and eight [bars] on the first two verses. It's crazy. We just talking that money; what we want, we get. It's beautiful. We got Dame Grease on the production; we're just trying to bring it back to where Roc-A-Fella is supposed to be."
If you remember, Free at Last was supposed to come out July 4 last year. But Free says not only did it take a while for him to get adjusted to the new system at Def Jam once Jay-Z and Dame Dash parted ways, but he went through a spiritual battle that almost brought his rap career to an end.
"Everybody knows I'm Muslim," he began explaining. "I made my pilgrimage, I traveled to Mecca. Me being Muslim, I'm not even supposed to be doing music. It takes away from the remembrance of God. For me and for the other [Muslims] in the world, the time they are listening to my music, they could be reading, studying the Koran. The time I'm doing music, I could be studying the Koran. Me knowing that's the right thing to do and I'm doing something wrong, I had to buckle down and get myself together. 'Do I really wanna do this? Do I really wanna go against my God like that?' I came up with the conclusion, and here we go.
"I got that love for it and the passion," he added of his music. "I'm doing so good, it keeps coming. And I gotta keep feeding my family. So, like [Mike Jones'] song 'What We Do Is Wrong,' that's how I look at it. We all are sinners, but I repent and ask God to forgive for the things I do."
Freeway has a new mixtape with DJ Don Cannon coming out this week called Live Free or Die Hard, and Free at Last — co-executive-produced by Jay and 50 Cent — should be out this fall. ...
Originally, the Fixxers stepped to Interscope Records to get a ringtone deal for their debut group cut, "Can U Werk Wit Dat." But once the execs at the 'Scope heard the entire project, they offered DJ Quik and AMG a full album deal.
"Can U Werk Wit Dat" has been one of the biggest songs in L.A. since February, and yes, the ringtone is popular as well. Call it a win/win. When asked about a potential follow-up, the duo said they have one-half of Gnarls Barkley along for the ride. Lucky for Cee-Lo, Prince was living clean at the time. "He's a different kind of Prince," AMG said about Lo. "He's the prince of pop music."
As the Left Coast duo were putting together tracks for their upcoming collabo project, The Midnight Life, Prince came to mind for a particular track. "It's a real erotic-like record," Quik explained of "The Middle." "We reached out to him because it's a real Prince-like record." Problem was the Purple One has turned over a more devout life since his earlier, raunchier days. "So basically, he's not gonna be on it," AMG said jokingly.
But old friend Cee-Lo came through with no problems, and now the track is set to be the follow-up to "Can You Werk Wit Dat," the hard-partying song featured on "Entourage." In the meantime, Quik and AMG have also been in the studio recently with Yung Joc, T-Pain, Frankie J, Young Jeezy and Jim Jones.
But the Fixxers are still working out which tracks they're gonna give away to other artists and which ones they want to keep for their album. "We're doing old-fashioned hip-hop music," AMG explained. "We're like pirates." ...
First No Limit had its run in Louisiana, then Cash Money did, but if you ask Trill Entertainment's Lil Boosie, it's his fam's turn to run the Bayou State. The Baton Rouge rapper said Trill, which recently released its compilation album Survival of the Fittest — with cuts by Webbie, Foxx and others — is like a mixture of the crews headed by the Big Easy's Master P and Baby, just with a different twist.
"We talk about the struggle and the shine, so that's why people can feel us all over the world," Boosie explained. "But with us, it's more than just a Boosie or Webbie, and we're trying to spread our hustle a little bit more. We got plenty of artists, and everybody got a different sound."
To help them craft that sound, Trill — just like No Limit and Cash Money before it — has kept with its own in-house hit man, Mouse, from day one, Boosie said.
"He did 'Gimme Dat,' 'Bad Chick,' 'Zoom,' 'Wipe Me Down,' " Boosie said. "He's a heatmaker, and we're definitely sticking with him. That's how we started, really, and that's how we made it, so for us, that's what we gonna keep doing."
According to Boosie, next up is the Trill movie "Ghetto Stories," followed by Boosie's second album, Ghetto Child. He said the LP should be out in fall and will be a joint effort with his newly formed Bad Azz Entertainment label.
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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