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Fire Starter: McFlys
OK, it's no secret the lengths sneaker heads go to cop a pair of exclusives, but the Maloof brothers (no, not the casino owners), Michael and Charles, might be taking it to the next next level. The two Canadians launched McFly2015.com in April in hopes of getting the suits over at Nike to actually release the Web site's namesake McFly 2015s, which Michael J. Fox sported in "Back to the Future Part II." So far the brothers have attracted close to 9,000 MySpace friends and the endorsements of a few notables, including indie band Whirlwind Heat — who told their fans to check the site — and Kanye West, whose Graduation album cover features the Dropout Bear sporting the kicks. Step to that.
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Mixtape Monday, VMA Edition: Nas Plans Fourth-Quarter Comeback; Jim Jones Searching For Cam'ron
— by Shaheem Reid and Jayson Rodriguez, with additional reporting by Rahman Dukes and Sway Calloway
(The VMAs were all the rage over the weekend, but Mixtape Monday doesn't sleep! Check out what we found on the ground in Vegas — everything from Kanye West's rehearsal to 50 Cent busting out a big wad of cash to Eve rocking the mic in the club — at www.VMA.MTV.com)
MC: David Banner
Representing: Mississippi
Mixtape: Spare Clips: The Mixtape
411: David Banner is scratching the surface in Hollywood while trying to stay consistent with his music. His next LP, The Greatest Story Ever Told, will be out October 9, and he recently dropped a street record/mixtape called Spare Clips that features some of the collaborations he's done over the past year that didn't make the cut. T.I., Busta Rhymes, Rick Ross and even Tupac are found on the mixtape.
Joints To Check For:
- "Suicide Doors" (featuring UGK and Kandi). The song is pretty much on-point, but Pimp C's line "my n--s got a MySpace page" is going to make you forget every other lyric on the record. He's off the chain with his verse!
- "45" (featuring Snoop Dogg and Tupac). Banner samples 'Pac's voice but gets a new verse from the Dogg as they rhyme about the right to bear arms. That's definitely a theme on the mixtape, given its title and the name of its first track, "9 mm."
- "Anybody Can Get It" (featuring Lil Jon, E-40 and Bone Crusher). This one is a touching ballad ... nah, just playing. Of course these dudes are going to try to get as crunk as possible, with warnings of ripping the club up with unsavory characters and various other types of wilding out.
Don't Sleep: Other Notable Selections This Week
- The Empire - Southern Slang 7: Everything You Want to Be
- DJ Fade and DJ Ty Boogie - All Star Blends, Vol. 2: Double Up
- Nu Jerzey Devil, DJ Warrior, DJ Rush and Dubb - South Central'z Own Part II
- DJ Teknikz - Class of 07
'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar
- Justin Timberlake (featuring Fabolous) - "Summer Love" remix
- Swizz Beatz (featuring Young Jeezy, Eve and Elephant Man) - "Money in the Bank" remix
- Twista (featuring Bone Thugs-N-Harmony) - "We Ain't No Hoes"
- Stat Quo - "Here We Go"
- Lil Wayne (featuring Juelz Santana) - "Prostitute" remix
- Chamillionaire (featuring Krayzie Bone) - "The Bill Collector"
Celebrity Faves
VMA maestro Timbaland recently hooked up with another super-producer, Kanye West. 'Ye didn't think the drums he was using on his smash hit "Stronger" were shaking up the club as much as they should be, so he called on Timbo for some help. Tim didn't see anything wrong with the original version of the song, but he made some new drum sounds anyway.
"He's a funny dude," Timbaland said last week while in Las Vegas for the VMA festivities. "I love Kanye. That boy is something else. He is a perfectionist, but what is he perfecting? I'm like, 'Kanye, I'm the King. The King is not gonna steer you wrong.' He was like, 'You got that. You know what you got!' I said, 'What's wrong with what you got?' "
The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground
Nas says he's definitely coming out with a brand-new album this year. It's '07, "The God Year," according to the legendary MC, so there's no better time to release new material — even if he's still reveling in how he ended last year.
"I celebrated having another #1 album in the country," he said of his last LP, Hip Hop Is Dead. "I was on the Virgin Islands on New Year's Day, I got the news I had another #1 album. I think I made some heads turn. I did my thing: no radio. Not much radio spins. Now I wanna have fun with the radio. I'll still try to reach for a higher ground and come sometime in December.
"I'm really into [the idea of having] a summer album," he added. "But they say the fourth quarter is for big dogs. I been doing the fourth quarter for years, so I guess I'm at home in the fourth."
Esco is already halfway done with the project, and he expects to have the first music from the album hit in October. The collaborations with Will.I.Am that he previously told Mixtape Monday about have been scrapped.
"Nah," he said when asked whether those records would be making the cut. "Some landed on other people's albums. It wasn't time for that type of sh--, so I let 'em go. But Will's a genius. I worked with new producers, but I'm sure me and Will gonna holla again."
You're probably wondering about his answer to the requisite "Is DJ Premier going to be working on the album?" question. Well, as for Primo's involvement, Nas gave a mysterious "who knows?" The powerful poet wasn't any more forthcoming about the title for his next one, but he did say to expect something "powerful and provocative."
"I can't reveal it yet," he said. "But if you remember, the original name for Hip Hop Is Dead was N---a. It was ahead of its time. [When the news leaked,] Def Jam immediately went out there and said I was being facetious. But that was the name of my album. I don't be out there with everybody. But I want them to know I'm heavily involved. That's why I do the titles I do. Hip Hop Is Dead was a great substitute. It was perfect timing for that joint."
Timing was not on his side for the would-be Hip Hop Is Dead singles and videos "Hustlers" (featuring Game) and "Black Republican" with Jay-Z.
"Yeah, man, I like to just put it out there that we shot a video for 'Hustlers,' " Nas explained. "These guys still got the video, actually. The guy who shot the video, [R.] Malcolm Jones, is a different type of cat, man. I don't know what's going on with it, but they took too long. They been needing time. Then Spike Lee was set to [direct] 'Black Republican,' but me and Spike couldn't come up with the perfect idea, so we let it ride as one of them tracks that was just there. [Hip Hop Is Dead] to me was gonna be shot like Thriller. But sometimes I feel like I don't wanna do that. I don't wanna hog up the radio waves, hog up the video waves. I let everybody else eat, 'cause I'm eating. Been eating for so many years. I ain't hogging it up. That's basically it."
However, he might go hog-wild (no pork on his fork, though) for the new album.
"I gotta hog it up," he said of his new outlook. "People think [the videos] didn't happen 'cause it couldn't happen, and that's f---ed up 'cause I leave a lot of my listeners out there and they be fighting for me. I don't wanna feel like I'm leaving them out there. Just 'cause I'm in the cut, I don't want them to feel like I don't give a f---. Everybody else is doing as many videos as they want to. When it came to me, I was cool with it. I have a lot of real n---as out here that's behind me and f--- with me. I'm so in love with them real n---as, I don't see nobody else. But I need to push my sh--. It's important. It's the norm."
Over the summer, Nas was one of the acts on the Rock the Bells tour. "That was amazing," he said. "I wasn't on all the dates. It's a great tour. We had 40,000 people in San Francisco alone. Wu-Tang were incredible. I'm thinking about doing the next one and taking it global. I'm thinking about jumping in with [the promoters] and taking it all the way global."
Sony will release a Nas yet-untitled greatest-hits LP in November, before the new studio LP drops. It will feature a couple of new records, including his collaboration with Cee-Lo. ...
Jim Jones is not signing to G-Unit. Rumors were bountiful last week that the Dipset/ Byrd Gang trendsetter would be signing to 50 Cent's label after the two appeared together on BET's "Rap City," but Jones says it was just an interview.
"50 was hosting 'Rap City' and he wanted Jim Jones to be his guest," he said. "That was a good look for me, I needed that. I been in my house for a couple months, I ain't been doing nothing. Why not come back out with the number one n---a in the whole entire music industry? Know what I'm talking 'bout?
"People love the controversy, people like to hear more than what it is," he added. "They automatically think if I'm next to him, somebody with his power and money and what he represents, that he's automatically trying to pull the wool over somebody's eyes and sign me. But we have a mutual respect and understanding for one another. I respect his hustle because he came in this game and in a few years changed the whole game and grossed more money than anybody else. With the hustle I'm on and the grind I'm on, it goes both ways. I went up to BET to chop it up with him."
Jim again reiterated that he's never had beef with 50.
"Who knows, in the future, you might see some Jimmy and 50 songs," he said. "Everybody else do it. I keep looking at the game and hear everybody beefing, but ain't nobody die yet. I think it's all a publicity stunt. I'mma go get my money because nobody wants beef. Where I'm from, you start beef when n---as start dying and the only person that died was my man Stack Bundles, God rest his soul. That was due to real circumstances we go through every day when you coming up on the streets. That's a f---ed-up situation to even have to mention. The game is bullsh--, so I rather go get my money."
If you're wondering, Jim has no idea what Cam'ron thinks of all this or anything else — his once inseparable homie is nowhere to be found.
"Finding Cam's like finding Nemo," he laughed. "When you see him, tell him I'm looking for him. Smell me?"
You couldn't find Cappo in Las Vegas over the past weekend for the VMA Awards. Ballin' is tailor-made for the city, but Jim's a bit upset he didn't get any nominations.
"I had the #1 song in the world last year statistically, and I didn't get nominated for anything, so why should I come out there? ... Nobody had more spins than me. ... They gonna tell me the Jones don't get nominated?"
Still, he managed to look on the bright side. "But we win some, we lose some. We take the good with the bad. I'll be back."
Jim's next album is due to drop in March, while the Byrd Gang album is coming in November. ...
DJ Toomp has plenty to be thankful for, from the recent birth of his daughter to the numerous production credits under his belt working with T.I. But if it weren't for Toomp missing a flight from Atlanta to New York late last year, the producer might not have had the chance to work with Kanye West on his much-hyped Graduation project. And considering he laced 'Ye with — in a collaborative effort — "Can't Tell Me Nothing" and "Good Life," along with manning the boards on his own for "Big Brother," you could say Toomp is very thankful to have missed his plane.
"If I would have caught that flight, dude, me and [Kanye] might have never knew we had that chemistry," he explained.
Toomp made the trip in the first place because his business partner, Bernard Parks — with whom he formed NZone Entertainment almost three years ago — convinced the producer to open up his network beyond the ATL.
As 2006 was coming to an end, Toomp trekked up to New York, and a BMI publishing rep named Big John suggested he go pay Kanye a visit over at Sony Studios. Toomp said he had met 'Ye before, but he wasn't so sure how receptive he would be now, having garnered so much success and fame since they last talked. Instead, Toomp was surprised at how well they clicked.
"I started on some sounds and the beat was coming together," Toomp said. "All of a sudden, we lost the whole song we were working. The keyboard went out and we were like, f--- it, 'cause I had a plane to catch [back home]. But just that little vibe, we knew we had something. And he was like, 'I'm going to come to Atlanta.' I just said, 'As long as you make it out there.' "
It actually ended up taking Kanye a minute to make it down to the Peach State. Before he made it down there, he actually floated Toomp a beat he had been working on that he wanted to touch up. The track was intended to be a remix to "I Got Money," from Young Jeezy's The Inspiration, which Toomp produced.
"Kanye just really had a lot of ideas in his head and wanted to let them out somewhere," Toomp said. But once 'Ye added the strings and sample familiar to what would eventually become "Can't Tell Me Nothing," Jeezy wasn't interested in hopping on the track, according to Toomp. "I think it was kind of too far left for Jeezy at the time. But once it came together, I saw where Kanye was going."
So the remix was into a totally new track, and that's how "Can't Tell Me Nothing" was born — and why the Jeezy ad-libs were embedded in the track. Once the track started heating up in the 'hood, the Snowman recognized what he passed on and laid a verse to it.
Since then, Toomp has gotten calls from people looking for beats — Juelz Santana, Fat Joe and, surprisingly, from T.I., who didn't work with Toomp for his recent album, T.I. vs. T.I.P., to the disappointment of many.
Toomp said the two got together during the Fourth of July to talk about working with each other, but nothing has come up yet. Toomp explained money was the issue dividing the two.
"Without going into details, it ain't no different than situations with the Mannie Fresh and a few other producers," Toomp said.
"You're building a house," he continued. "And you see that you're treated like the person who is just putting the gutters on, then that's a problem. And it was like that for the past three or four albums, but I still hung in there. So hopefully now I can get a little bit more respect if we come to the table again, 'cause I done proved myself. You know I'm about to get another Grammy with Kanye, hands down. You don't even have to think about it."
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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