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Fire Starter: VIP Smiles
As shorties, some of us used to be scared to take trips to the dentist, but as we've gotten older, we learned that nothing is scarier than having a yucky mouth. That's where Dr. Catrise Austin and her Manhattan, New York, practice VIP Smiles come in. What's so gangsta about this doc is that when you go into her office for a checkup, not only will you be serenaded by some of today's dopest urban music by acts like Robin Thicke, but you can also watch DVDs like Katt Williams' "Pimp Chronicles" and Kid-N-Play's "House Party" while she works on your teeth. A nine-year vet, Dr. Austin has worked on Common, Busta Rhymes, Slick Rick, Wendy Williams, Malik Yoba, Carl Thomas, Isaac Hayes, Toni Braxton, Big Tigger, Missy Elliott and model Eva Pigford. She also has the equipment to travel anywhere to work on her clients — like the time she had to hook someone up in the studio of the "Late Show With David Letterman."
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Mixtape Monday: 50 Cent, Akon Become Phone Friends; Wyclef Lifts T.I.'s Swagger
— by Shaheem Reid, with additional reporting by Rahman Dukes and Brennan Williams
Producers/Hosts: Sway and King Tech
Representing: Legendary hip-hop
DVD: "Freestyle Fanatiks"
411: Obviously Sway is no stranger to Mixtape Monday — he works with us at MTV News. But as pure hip-hop fans, we had to put you guys up on his new DVD "Freestyle Fanatiks." Sway made a name for himself with his partner King Tech on the radio way before he hit the small screen.
The "Wake Up Show" has been one of hip-hop's most legendary radio shows, not just because it has gotten exclusives like Biggie's last interview and introduced the world to people like Eminem, but the team (along with DJ Revolution) has made performance an integral part of the show. Yeah, you rap? You have to rap on their show. You do beats? They might even call on you to beatbox. Sway gives some insight.
Joints To Check For:
- "Pharrell segments." "Because of the nature of 'The Wake Up Show,' everybody gets to hang out while everybody raps," Sway said. "So you might get an A-list artist like Pharrell and underground artists like Planet Asia. Maybe [Pharrell] heard of them, maybe he didn't. But after he heard them rap, immediately he was like, 'I wanna work with you.' This was just last year.
"We also had Pharrell and [Neptunes partner] Chad [Hugo] a little before [the Clipse's] 'Grindin' ' came out," Sway continued. "It was good to see Pharrell and them. ... They came from the [Virginia] mountains to [Brooklyn, New York, neighborhood] the Flatlands. It was a real humble environment. Then we had them rate a lot of legendary producers who impacted and influenced them, like Marley Marl, Mark the 45 King. Then out of the blue, Pharrell just started making beats with his mouth. He started imitating all the hot beats he made like 'Grindin',' then Chad jumped in. We were like, 'That sh-- is dope.' You know how it is in hip-hop when you reach a certain level — people think you lost it or you're totally detached or lost in the clouds. It was cool for us and our audience to find out that behind these dudes' success was a lot of training and true skills as musicians."
- "Linkin Park segment." "Linkin Park didn't always sound like the sound they came out with," Sway said. "Prior to Mike [Shinoda]'s success, there was a group called Styles of Beyond, which he signed recently. Truth be told, it was always said that Mike's style grew from there. Our thing was, 'Congratulations on your success with Linkin Park, but we know where you come from, and you haven't had to account for your mic skills. We know your mic skills come from Styles of Beyond.' At the end of it, you gotta show and prove. And he came in and started bussin'."
- "Common segment." "Me and Common were battling with the gear at that time," Sway joked. "At that time, he was wearing the yarn hats and I was wearing the head wraps. So we always wanted to naturally see who had the hottest top gear. I would wind up winning. ... More importantly, he's been coming to the show since '93. He would set the tone for artists outside of Cali when the show was just in Cali. He always came in blasting on the microphone. Common is like a brother to us at the show. We asked him about post-Erykah Badu, Electric Circus, but for the most part he's a gladiator on the mic."
Don't Sleep: Other Notable Selections This Week
- Cutmaster C - Farewell to the Summer
- DJ Mello - I'm On Some Sh-- Vol. 2
- Icadon and Redman - "Icadon Is Going Wild With Redman: The DVD"
- J. Armz & Cutmaster D.C. - How to Be an MC 80's Edition Volume 1
- Superstar Jay and Big T - Heaven Only Knows
'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar
- Kanye West - "Flashing Lights" and "The Good Life"
- Beanie Sigel (featuring R. Kelly)- "All of the Above"
- The Dream (featuring Fabolous) - "Shawty Is a Ten"
- 50 Cent - "Come and Go" and "Man Down"
- Keyshia Cole - "Shoulda Let You Go"
Celebrity Faves
To know what Jermaine Dupri is feeling these days, all you have to do is listen to his freestyles on the Internet. JD has been loving songs like Kanye West's "Can't Tell Me Nothing," Soulja Boy's "Crank That," Freeway's "Big Spender" and Cassidy's "Drink and My Two Step" — and he's been making his own unofficial remixes by rapping on the songs.
"Whatever is poppin' in the club, I might do," JD explained. "I go to the clubs a lot and I be in the club, and the records really be moving me. I write my raps right there in the club. I think of the whole rap, and as soon as I leave the club, I go straight to the studio. It's just fun. It ain't really no pressure. I'm not trying to become the greatest rapper alive. I'm just rapping. If you don't like it, you don't have to download it."
The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground
Not that Styles P ever needs any validation — his credentials speak as loudly as Lil Jon on a crunk record — but the Ghost says he expects to be on the Hottest MCs in the Game list the next time the MTV News Brain Trust convenes.
"That list was crazy," Styles laughed about the controversial first countdown.
"I'mma be tearing it up," he promised of his lyrical activity over the next few months. "You heard [my lyrics] on 'Stop Skeemin' ': 'Why wasn't I on it?' That's why I [say that]. Not that I'm mainstream industry, but I am an MC. When I hear [of] something like [the Hottest MCs list], I'm like, 'I'm not on the radar?' "
SP has been on a tear, no doubt. Freestyles and street leakers like "Super Gangsta" have been in abundance. It's all a setup for his next solo LP, which will be coming before the end of 2007.
"Third album will definitely be out in November," he advised. "I'm taking it there. I'm trying to make my mark as I usually do. Just trying to step it up, being that I'm solo on the independent tip. I'm just trying to work. I had my ups and downs, been through a lot. I'm just continuing to work. I'm glad the people noticed it. I'm just trying to load back up so they could get a feel that the kid is coming. It will definitely be something epic, I'll say that. ... I strategically made this one. I wanted to make some sh--. I'm gonna keep working and put pressure on these boys. I got fyyyy-errrrrr!"
Styles probably won't use the title The Phantom. He was thinking about Five Star General as well, but Cash Money's Baby has swiped that title already. Then SP was toying with Super Gangsta/ Extraordinary Gentleman, but the name was a little long. To make a long story short, he's just mulling over titles now.
SP is branching out as well. He'll be doing his own street DVD soon called "Gangster Chronicles."
"It ain't gonna be just me," he described. "I'll have Jim Jones, Busta [Rhymes], Cassidy, Swizz Beatz. I'm giving you the angle. ... We see 'Smack' and all these DVDs, but it will be nice for artists to speak to artists on the real street level. It will take us a month and a half [to complete]."
Styles will be shooting a straight-to-YouTube video for "Super Gangsta" within the next week. ...
Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Madonna and Whitney Houston: With all those legends lined up to either finish collaborations or get in the studio for the first time with Akon, you would think his dance card would be filled and he might not have time for anybody else. Not if you're 50 Cent. 50 has the Akon collaboration on his LP Curtis, and the in-demand singer says he and Fif are going to do even more songs together.
"It's one of them records where it's almost like you get so successful, people assume you lost your street feel. You lost your edge," 'Kon, on the Miami set of Wyclef's "Sweetest Girl" video, said about "I'll Still Kill." "I'm at my highest point on the pop side, but I started with street records and still can go there. It's not a problem. 50 is the same way. It's just 50 is thinking more business now. He's thinking radio, crossover, but at any moment, he can switch up and go there. Don't get it twisted, we still will kill. SSK [SoundScan Killers] all day.
"We'd talk for hours on the telephone," he added about making the record. "At the time, I was in Europe moving crazy, he was doing his thing, getting his album together. But we'd still be on the phone like, 'Listen to this. What you think?' Shortly after the song was completed, we met face to face, gave each other a pound, gave each other a hug, like, 'N---a, we got a hit.' Now we're gonna do more records for both [our upcoming albums]. We'll swap out. Whoever's album it feel right on, that's where we gonna put it."
Are we ready for Akon the movie mogul as well? He's putting together a film called "Cocaine Cowboys" that will center on the importation of narcotics into L.A. and Miami decades ago. It's looking like his next album will be the soundtrack to the project. ...
Wyclef is a legend in the rap game. He's a member of one of Our 10 Greatest Hip-Hop Groups of All Time, so why does he need to keep making records that appeal to the youth of today? Swagger. He says that's the influence T.I. is having on 'Clef's forthcoming project, The Carnival II: Memoirs of an Immigrant.
"He taught me the swagger," 'Clef said about Tip. "The generation where I'm from is very lyrical. In this generation, it's all about the swagger. Sometimes you might be kicking an ill verse, and another cat will come in and tip his hat a certain way and say one word. So I added the swagger to my rebel music, and it's working with this generation.
"He was one of the cats that really impacted me," 'Clef continued. "T.I. came and checked for me in an era where my music career was lukewarm. Even though I did the Shakira thing and it blew up, in the sector of hip-hop, people was like, 'Does 'Clef still got it? Does he still do beats?' "
As you know, T.I. has been co-signing for 'Clef, getting a bevy of the refugee's tracks for T.I. vs. T.I.P. Now Tip is co-executive producing Carnival II.
"When somebody like that tells you, 'Yo, this is crazy,' it's almost like, 'Maybe I can do this for another 10 years.' When I went in the studio, I started playing him beats," 'Clef said. "Me, I can lay down 15 songs every half-hour. To find a young blood who's so fast and so quick like that, I was impressed. I was thinking, 'Do these artists really still exist?' 'Cause you hear these records, then you go to the studio and sometimes it takes people hours, days to lay verses. Not Tip."
For Carnival's first single, the remix of "Sweetest Girls," 'Clef added Raekwon the Chef to the lineup that already included Akon and Lil Wayne.
"I'm always eclectic, since my first project," 'Clef described. "I think it's way more accepted now. It was important that we don't forget the generation the Fugees came from, like the Wu-Tang Clan. So getting Raekwon on the remix rhyming next to Akon and Weezy, I think it's great." ...
Detox isn't dead — it's just taking a really long time to come out. We're not even going to speculate anymore on the release date of Dr. Dre's LP, but 50 Cent recently said he did two songs for the album, and Warren G said he reunited with his big brother to work on the project as well.
"I've been helping him come up with records," G said. "Hey, that's what I do, that's what I've done since day one when we did The Chronic."
Warren, who appears on MTV's "Celebrity Rap Superstar," is almost done with his next solo LP.
"I got a bunch of new talent I'm gonna display on my new record," he said. "It's great right now. I gotta do four or five more records."
Hungry for more hip-hop coverage? Sink your teeth into our "Hottest MCs in the Game" feature.
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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