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— by Shaheem Reid, with additional reporting by Rahman Dukes
Artists: The Clipse
Representing: The Black Cards (listen to the mixtape to find out what that means)
Mixtape: We Got It 4 Cheap Vol. 2
411: The story of Neptunes protégés the Clipse gets deeper every time you speak to them.
"We were on Arista Records," the group's Pusha T. said. "Boom, big merger happens, we moved over to Jive/ Zomba ... [but] Pharrell and the label heads got into spats and Pharrell was like, 'Listen, you're not going to get this music. You don't have no type of marketing plan for my group, you don't know nothing about them. Why don't you let them go?' Sh-- got personal."
The Clipse then came to find out they weren't even signed to the Neptunes' label, Star Trak, as they'd thought. Pusha says he, his brother Malice and the Neptunes are in court with Jive/ Zomba, and a decision is expected on October 18.
"We're ready to hit the street and do what we been doing," Malice said. "This little hiatus was unfortunate, but whatever. You learn from everything. Our new material [for the album] is crazy. We're happy with it and ready to release it."
In the meantime the Virginia duo are continuing to do shows and keep their name alive on the mixtapes: They just released the second installment in the We Got It 4 Cheap series with their crew, the Re-Up Gang (Sandman and Ab-Liva are also in the group). Pusha says there are at least seven offers on the table from various labels for a Re-Up Gang album, but they cannot move forward until the legal situation is resolved.
Joints To Check For:
- "Play Your Part." "We used [the instrumental track from Mobb Deep's 'Cobra Clutch'] — we all agree that was the hardest beat of the year," Pusha said. "As a collective, we felt we needed to do some sh-- over this. The Mobb is definitely one of my favorite groups. They f---ed my life up. We was fighting in Virginia when 'Shook Ones' came out. [Part] 1 or 2, it did not matter."
- "Ultimate Flow." "I think it's hot," Malice said. "I think it shows how well we mesh together; in and out like double Dutch on that track. The [freestyle] I like best is the one over the Game's 'Put You Onto Game' beat ['What's Up']. When I got the Game's album, I knew he came across some fire. That beat is just thunderous. I like the impact it makes. It inspired me."
- "Zen." "We had the beat for a while. We knew it was a keeper," Pusha remembered. "When there was a definite structure set for the Re-Up Gang, we was like, 'We gotta dig in the crates and look for that f---ing track.' We was sitting in front of the speakers playing it and I said, 'Liva, find a melody for that sh--.' He was just humming. I started penning in the words. It was the first real Re-Up record we did."
Don't Sleep: Other Notable Selections This Week
- Six Fix Figga Entertainment's Children of the Corn
- Dirty States TV's The David Banner Experience
- DJ Wreck's R&B Thuggin Part Six
- DJ Papa Smurf's Traffikin'
- Rhymfest's Brand New
'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar
- 50 Cent - "Window Shopper"
- "Just a Touch"
Trina (featuring Kelly Rowland) - "Here We Go" - Slim Thug (featuring Young Jeezy) - "Diamonds" remix
- Three 6 Mafia (featuring Trick Daddy and Project Pat) - "Stay Fly (Still Fly Remix)"
- Warren G (featuring Ice Cube, B Real and Snoop Dogg) - "Get You Down Part II"
- Juelz Santana (featuring Young Jeezy) - "Crack"
- Juelz Santana - "It's Like Clockwork"
- Juvenile - "Rodeo"
- Tony Yayo - "What I Need"
- Grafh (featuring Swizz Beatz) - "Ain't Tellin' "
Celebrity Favs
"This is hell, Rell," Dipset member Hell Rell remembers saying to himself when he was sent to Elmira Correctional Facility in upstate New York in 1997. The MC's words turned into his moniker. Rell just released a mixtape called Streets Wanna Know and has an official album on the way called For the Hell of It with cameos by Cam'ron, Mya and Paul Wall. Rell has a song out right now called "The Grand Finale" where he samples the theme from "He-Man." It'll take another rapper to sample "Thundercats" to even think about topping that. He ... has ... the powww-errrr!
"That was my favorite cartoon, right there," Rell says of "He-Man." "Every time I came home from school, I would do my homework and then watch TV. I always had that beat stuck in my head. I don't watch cartoons right now, but I be f---ing with 'Dora the Explorer,' 'cause my nieces mess with that."
The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground
Since Game released his UknowWhatItIs Volume 4, everybody has been asking: Just how did Game come to collaborate with actor Katt Williams? Katt, as you know, is the pimp Money Mike from "Friday After Next."
"Money Mike called me," Game said. "He said he heard the Young Gunz was [dissing him] and said he had this track against the Young Gunz. I'm thinking, 'Money Mike? This track is gonna be wack as a mutha----a.' I like Money Mike, but I didn't know what he would do lyrically. He brought the track in the studio, and we was dying all night. So I told him I'd put 16 [bars] on it and we'd slap it on the mixtape. When you get dissed by a comedian and it's a legitimate dis and people thinks it's funny, it's pretty much a wrap.
The MC formerly nicknamed "The Hurricane" (see "Game Working To Make Hurricanes — His Shoe Line — A Force For Good") also says he's done going at the G-Unit (see "50 Mocks Fat Joe, Jadakiss, Game, Nas In 'Piggy Bank' Video").
"Yeah, it's pretty much true," he said about leaving his beef with the G-Unit in the rear-view. "At this point, what are they going to do? The '300 Bars' [freestyle] pretty much solidified my victory. They came back with '300 Shots,' but it was irrelevant and nobody was talking about it. I don't even think it was legitimately aimed at myself. You can't come back from '300 Bars.'
"I wish them guys well, whatever they do from now on, trying to climb out that hole," he added. "It's a hole I dug real deep. 50 just gotta sit in that hole and think about his next move, it has to be strategic because it's pretty much over for them cats."
Another Game record on the street people have been talking about is a song called "Here We Go Again" with Dr. Dre. Game says the record was leaked and is not meant for his upcoming album.
"That was something that was bootlegged," he explained. "It was a beat that Dre produced a long time ago. I wrote the verse and Dre spit it. I don't know how it got out. But when I found out that it was out, I put a hook on it and some extra verses and made it do what it do. It's hot in the streets. But that's what it's all about — that's the mixtape game. That's why I am as potent as I am as an MC."
While Memphis Bleek is working on his new LP, he's given lots of new music to the mixtape circuit. He just slid off about nine songs to DJ Kay Slay and a few others to DJ Clue. Slay has already jumped on the opportunity and put together BedStuy Do or Die, a joint venture between Bleek and Papoose.
"Papoose is doing his thing," says Memph. "He's a problem out there right now."
Bleek also has collaborations in the can with Corey Gunz, Peedi Crakk, Maino, N.O.R.E. and says he might even be recording with Dead Prez. As for when we'll hear a Bleek solo mixtape, it probably won't be any time soon.
"I feel like I don't want to do no whole Bleek mixtape because I do albums," he said. "I might be giving away too much of myself. People might not want that."
For more on the role of mixtapes in the music industry, check out the feature "Mixtapes: The Other Music Industry."
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Photo: MTV News
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