Keyshia Cole
Photo: Jeffrey Mayer/ Getty Images

Representatives for Keyshia Cole have released a statement to refute rumors that first surfaced on Monday suggesting the singer's mother had passed away in a fatal car accident.

Perez Hilton was one of the many to post messages on Twitter about the matter. The gossip blogger asked, "Some awful rumor about Keyshia Cole is floating around. Anyone heard if this is true or not????"

Cole's label, Interscope Records, has put out a statement saying there is "no truth to it."

"Imani Entertainment has received a huge amount of inquiries in regard to the rumor about Keyshia Cole's biological mom, Frankie Lons, having recently passed in an automobile accident," the statement read.  "The rumor has absolutely NO truth to it — Frankie has not been in any accident of any kind and is doing well at home in Atlanta."

Cole's manager, Manny Halley, confirmed the information to MTV News. In an e-mail, Halley said Frankie is "100% alive" and added that he recently hung out with Frankie, Cole and the singer's sister Neffe, and all are well.

The three women star in Cole's BET reality series, "The Way It Is." The show chronicles the singer's professional life, but it is perhaps best known for capturing intimate family moments as Cole rebuilds her family with her biological mother, Frankie. Cole was adopted as a youngster and Frankie spent time in prison and dealt with a drug addiction. The family reunion was broadcast on air and led to turbulent confrontations. This season, the show's third, has dealt with Frankie's new boyfriend and the clashes with her family — most notably Neffe — over her relationship.

Cole and her mother, Frankie, were recently featured on the March cover of VIBE magazine.

• Keyshia Cole

The Fray's self-titled album
Photo: Epic

It's been four years since Denver rockers the Fray released their debut album, but clearly their fans have not forgotten the "How to Save a Life" group. The band's self-titled second album will debut at the top of the Billboard albums chart next week with sales of 179,300, according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan.

That top debut will push Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's Working on a Dream — which held the spot for just one week — down to #2 with sales of 101,600, a 55 percent slide. Country singer Dierks Bentley will debut at #3 with Feel That Fire, which sold 71,200 copies.

The rest of the top 10 is mostly full of the usual suspects, once again. Taylor Swift will continue her strong chart run with Fearless, sliding down to #4 with another 63,900 moved, enough to push her over the 2.5 million mark. She's followed by Beyoncé's I Am ... Sasha Fierce (#5, 51,400), Nickelback's Dark Horse (#6, 47,300), new entry Kidz Bop 15 (#7, 38,400), Jamie Foxx's Intuition (#8, 36,600), Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak (#9, 33,900) and Keyshia Cole's Different Me (#10, 33,600).

Further down the chart, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus debut at #14 with 26,000 copies sold of Lonely Road. Florida melodic metalcore rockers A Day to Remember pop in at #21 with sales of 21,700 of their third studio album, Homesick. Best New Artist Grammy winner Adele's debut, 19, jumps 29 spots to #27 on sales of nearly 17,900, and she'll likely see an even bigger jump next week. Adele's iTunes live EP, iTunes Live From Soho, will debut at #105 with sales of 6,300.

Another Best New Artist nominee, fellow British crooner Duffy, saw a double-digit percentage leap for Rockferry, which was boosted to #53 with sales of 11,500. A number of other Grammy-winnings artists were helped by the awards show, including Coldplay (#31, 16,700), Leona Lewis (#42, 12,700) and Jennifer Hudson (#47, 12,100). Expect Album of the Year winner Raising Sand from Robert Plant and Alison Krauss to have another huge bump next week. Sand flies back onto the charts at #68 thanks to about 9,400 new converts, a 286 percent increase from the previous week.

Elsewhere on the chart, "American Idol" season-six third-place finalist Melinda Doolittle's full length debut, It's Your Love, will land at #58 in its first week with close to 10,900 units moved. Franz Ferdinand's Tonight: Franz Ferdinand nose-dives 50 spots after last week's top 10 debut, down to #59 with 10,700 in sales. Cannibal Corpse bring their Evisceration Plague in at #91 with 7,500, and just a few customers behind is the latest from Ben Kweller, the country-tinged Changing Horses at #92. Indie darlings Heartless Bastards debut at #150 with sales of 4,200 for Mountains.

The top 10 might get shaken up a bit next week by new albums from Lily Allen, "Saturday Night Live" viral faves Lonely Island and the latest from Bobby Valentino.

• The Fray
• Leona Lewis
• Bruce Springsteen
• Duffy
• Adele

Lil Wayne (file)
Photo: Paul Morigi/ Getty Images

UNIONDALE, New York — It might not seem that way, but this is probably the most pivotal point in Lil Wayne's career.

No, he's not in trouble professionally. He continues to blow up like the planet Krypton: his records are selling, magazines still want him on their cover, artists still want them to guest on their songs. For the immediate future, he's doing about 10 times better than great. But now he has more responsibilities: Can he hold the weight of headlining an entire arena-concert tour?

Obviously, with Tha Carter III being not only lauded as a classic but also the top-selling album of last year, Weezy has had no problem filling venues for his I Am Music Tour. Especially with a lineup consisting of the almost equally hot T-Pain, Keyshia Cole, Gym Class Heroes, Gorilla Zoe and Keri Hilson, the show has a little something for everybody. But let's face it, as big as Wayne is right now, he could have Conrad Bain from "Diff'rent Strokes" opening for him and he would sell tickets.

Friday night at the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, Wayne and company showed that getting people in is easy — the venue was packed. But the question is, can Weezy have a show so dope they want to keep coming back every time he comes around with future projects?

The answer is, don't doubt the Kobe Bryant of rap. Immediately, the audience saw production values bigger than anything he's done as a solo artist. His band members were lowered on separate structures from the ceiling to the stage, as were his DJ and the DJ's turntable set. A cube of big screens surrounded the DJ. While everybody came down, Weezy jumped up from under the stage.

"Mr. Carter" hit a few moments later, and the whole Coliseum started singing, "Hey, Mr. Carter, tell me where you been?"

"It's about to get real stupid in here!" Wayne smiled as the crowd rapped along with every lyric. Jay-Z didn't come out for his part of the song (he was probably on his way to D.C. for inauguration weekend), but Wayne's partner in crime T-Pain came out — via a Segway scooter! Pain had entertained earlier in the night with a circus-like stage show that included a stripping midget who mimicked Britney Spears. Pain and Wayne told the audience they wanted to battle.

"Pain, skate your a-- back out here," Wayne said to his friend after they performed "Got Money." Pain had sung his part on the song while driving.

"Am I trippin', or aren't I the feature king?" Weezy asked the crowd, who approved with screams. "Thank you very much. I'm here all night!"

T-Pain countered with, "In 2008, was I not on the most features?" The concertgoers once again gave loud approval.

They decided to have a "feature-off," where both played portions of songs on which they'd made cameos, from "Out Here Grindin' " to "Swagga Like Us."

"I got so much swagga, I am not doing the muthaf----n' verse!" Wayne insisted.

Like the great Anaheim Angels-turned-New York Mets save king Francisco Rodriguez, Weezy closed out strong with "Lollipop" and his last number, "A Milli."

After spending most of the night suspended in the air, the guitarists put their feet on the stage for the first time all night, rocking out as Weezy laced the crowd with his record's popular quotables.

The New Orleans king exited the same way he came in: through the stage floor. He had Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" playing — as he always does — when he left. See you on the next run, Wardie!

• Lil Wayne
• T-Pain
• Gorilla Zoe
• Keri Hilson
• Keyshia Cole

Jamie Foxx at the <i>Intuition</i> release party in New York Wednesday
Photo: Johnny Nunez/ WireImage

Foxy ladies and Patrón. Expect both when Oscar winner Jamie Foxx throws a bash. Fresh off his Diddy-hosted birthday party in Las Vegas ("He said he wanted to pay for it. That was important," Foxx told "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno), Foxx held a shindig Wednesday at New York nightclub Home in honor of the release of his third album, Intuition. The album hit stores on Tuesday, competing against new projects by Soulja Boy Tell'em, Plies and Keyshia Cole. Vibe magazine sponsored this one.

"This Jamie album is jamming," one woman at the bar said of Foxx's first LP since 2005's Unpredictable. DJ Envy mixed choice cuts from the LP with a wide array of songs from his normal club playlist, including Bell Biv DeVoe's "Poison" and Jim Jones and Ron Browz's "Pop Champagne," the biggest record in New York right now.

"Digital Girl" was among the Foxx records played. "I wanna see what's under there," Kanye West raps on the record. "There now, put it in the air/ Yeah, load it on my MacBook Air/ It's a new form of macking, don't be old-fashioned, update your passion/ Only reason I be iChattin'/ It's when it's time for some action/ I wanna hit it way way out like John Paxton."

Foxx didn't engage in his usual wild antics, such as standing on top of the bar and pouring liquor straight from the bottle into women's mouths. Instead, the all-purpose entertainer posed for pictures with his fans. Later in the night, he went to the DJ booth with Envy and sang lyrics and ad-libbed to another record off his album, "I Don't Need It."

"I don't need it/ I got options," he sang. "You wanna spend my time?/ You wanna spend my dough?/ You got love for sale?/ I don't need it."

Earlier in the week, Foxx caught eyes and ears all over the Internet when he did some serious joking on actor Terrence Howard. Foxx told syndicated radio host Big Boy that Howard dissed his music. Foxx, in turn, did a spot-on impersonation of the "Iron Man" co-star and riffed on Howard's album sales.

"He's gotta come holla at me. He really went hard on me on this interview on CNN. This is when he was pushing his album that went plastic," Foxx said. "This is the same dude who does the same character in every movie. ... Terrence, you gotta come holla at me."

• Jamie Foxx Releases "Intuition" In NYC

• Jamie Foxx
• Diddy
• Kanye West
• Keyshia Cole
• Plies

Lil Wayne
Photo: Johnny Nunez/ WireImage

There are typically two places you can find Lil Wayne: in the studio or on the stage. And for most of December and January, Weezy will be spending the majority of his time on a tour bus on his I Am Music Tour.

The 24-city outing will feature support from Gym Class Heroes, Keri Hilson, T-Pain and Keyshia Cole and is slated to kick off on December 14 in Miami at the American Airlines Arena. The tour is currently slated to run through a January 19 date in Worcester, Massachusetts, and it will be Wayne's most ambitious outing to date in support of his multiplatinum smash, Tha Carter III. The album has just spun off its fourth hit single, "Mrs. Officer," and Wayne has made no secret about wanting a sequel to the album in stores soon.

Even though he lost out to Kanye West at Sunday night's American Music Awards in the Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Male Artist category, West offered his Lucite trophy to Weezy in honor of the New Orleans rapper's stellar year.

I Am Music Tour dates, according to Lil Wayne's label:

· 12/14 - Miami, FL @ American Airlines Arena
· 12/18 - Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
· 12/19 - Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
· 12/21 - Los Angeles, CA @ Gibson Amphitheatre
· 12/22 - Los Angeles, CA @ Gibson Amphitheatre
· 12/23 - Oakland, CA @ Oracle Arena
· 12/26 - Detroit, MI @ Joe Louis Arena
· 12/27 - Chicago, IL @ United Center
· 12/28 - Philadelphia, PA @ Susquehanna Bank Center
· 12/29 - Greensboro, NC @ Greensboro Coliseum
· 12/30 - Washington, DC @ Verizon Center
· 12/31 - Atlanta, GA @ Philips Arena
· 1/2 - Charlotte, NC @ Bobcat Arena
· 1/3 - Hampton, VA @ Hampton Coliseum
· 1/4 - Cleveland, OH @ Quicken Loans Arena
· 1/8 - St. Louis, MO @ Chaifetz Arena
· 1/9 - Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center
· 1/11 - New Orleans, LA @ New Orleans Arena
· 1/14 - Montreal, CAN @ Bell Centre
· 1/15 - Toronto, CAN @ Air Canada Centre
· 1/16 - Uniondale, NY @ Nassau Coliseum
· 1/17 - Hartford, CT @ New England Dodge Music Center
· 1/18 - Atlantic City, NJ @ Boardwalk Hall
· 1/19 - Worcester, MA @ DCU Center

• Lil Wayne
• T-Pain
• Gym Class Heroes
• Keyshia Cole
• Keri Hilson

T-Pain
Photo: MTV News

At the end of the "Can't Believe It" remix, T-Pain says that Auto-Tune is almost up. What? Why would Pain, whose Thr33 Ringz debuts at #4 on next week's Billboard albums sales chart, extinguish his signature sound now?

"Not for me," Pain clarified, "for everybody else." The singer — who told DJ Skee in a separate interview that artists such as Ron Browz have used the Auto-Tune effect poorly — told MTV News that his biters need to pay up. Hey, if Diddy can collaborate with Pain and pay him for using the Auto-Tune, so can you other guys.

"I gave T-Pain one point on my [upcoming] album for using the Auto-Tune," Diddy revealed on Sunday night during "Total Finale Live."

"Sign the papers," advised Pain, who also worked on his friend Kanye West's 808's & Heartbreak. "Diddy actually gave me royalties on this album just for using Auto-Tune. He signed the contract and everything. If I can do that with Diddy, somebody else better be signing something. It's Diddy. He didn't have to involve me at all. ... I'm writing and producing on his album, and he gave me extra royalties on top of that for using something I just brought back."

Pain said that Diddy's new material is in the lane of his singing-heavy hit "Last Night."

"I gave him eight tracks," Pain said. "Eight songs. I don't how many he's gonna use, but I'll tell you how many I gave him. He's doing a little more singing. He's more like the Euro style. He's keeping it hip-hop but bringing some Euro in it. Very electronica."

Probably the biggest collabo Pain has coming up is more time with Justin Timberlake. JT surprised Pain by sending over vocals for the "Can't Believe It" remix a couple of weeks back.

"He sent it to me, I added what I did to it, and we got a remix now," Pain explained, adding with a gold-toothed grin, "I think that's what he did it for. I think he figured, 'If I do a remix, I can get him on my album.' That's how I got everybody on my album."

"Freeze," with Chris Brown, is the next single from Thr33 Ringz, and while Pain claimed to have beaten C. Breezy a couple of times during in-studio dance battles, he said Ciara — who appears on "Blowing Up" — didn't step into the ring with him.

"She don't dance too much in the studio," the Florida native said, adding that his sessions with CiCi were quick. "We did that song at the same time we did [Ciara's] 'Go Girl,' " Pain said. "She works fast. I work fast. We were working in two separate rooms and met right in the middle. I said, 'I'm done. Here you go.' She said, 'I'm done. Here you go.' "

In December, Pain kicks off the I Am Music Tour with Keyshia Cole, Gym Class Heroes and his pal Lil Wayne.

"It's weird because both of us got that [I Am Music] tattoo without knowing we was gonna get it," Pain said. "He's got it on his forehead; I just got it on my arm. I call it the T-Wayne Tour 'cause it's gonna be a highlight. People been waiting to see that."

• T-Pain Wants Credit For Other Artists' Auto-Tuned Tracks

• T-Pain
• Diddy
• Keyshia Cole
• Chris Brown
• Lil Wayne

50 Cent performs in Albany, New York 9.13.08
Photo: Mr. whatspoppin.net

ALBANY, New York — On Saturday night, 50 Cent took a page out of Kanye West's book and told the crowd at his concert he would be debuting a brand-new song from his upcoming album — not via mixtape, not via radio, not via blog, but via live concert performance.

"What I want everybody to do right now is take your cell phones out, get your cameras out," Fif urged the audience at the Times Union Center. "Tonight, Albany, New York, I'm gonna give y'all an exclusive. I'mma perform my first single off my new album, Before I Self Destruct."

Then, the bass-heavy beat from Kanye West's new song, "Love Lockdown," came thundering through the speakers. Was this a miscue by DJ Whoo Kid? bewildered fans in the crowd wondered. Nope! G-Unit knew exactly what they were doing: 50 began singing the song — "I'm not loving you ..." — clearly mocking Mr. West.

"That's what y'all are left with," Fif said, after covering the first verse. He was making reference to the much-ballyhooed SoundScan battle between himself and Kanye just over a year ago, when both MCs released albums on September 11. 50 was soundly thumped in the battle: More than 300,000 more fans favored 'Ye's Graduation over the Queens native's Curtis.

"I'll forgive y'all for that one," 50 said.

It seems a Kanye/ 50 second round could very well be on the horizon. 50 said Before I Self Destruct is coming out on December 9, and West's 808's & Heartbreak is reportedly slated for a December 16 release date. But we all know how easily in-store dates can change, and even if the releases remain a week apart, it's going to be intriguing.

On Saturday night, 50 fed a rabid audience with more than 20 songs from his catalog, rocking the stage for close to two hours.

G-Unit — featuring Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo — started their set with "Rider Pt. 2" wearing military jackets, and the focus on the group's latest LP, T.O.S.: Terminate on Sight, continued with records such as "Straight Outta Southside."

Although the album was considered a commercial flop, the crowd was very familiar with the material and rapped along. Later, 50 took it back with "Candy Shop" and the hard-hitting "I Get Money"; the greenback anthem shook the arena to its foundation.

More hits followed with "P.I.M.P." (50 brought out a white fedora for that one) and "Gunz Come Out." The Unit's attention then steered toward the underground with mixtape cuts like the boldly titled "I F---ed Your Girl."

"Now, I been here before, but this is Tony's first time," 50 began explained to the crowd. "I want y'all to help him out."

Yayo said, "I want my man to rock with me" — and then pulled Flavor Flav, of all people, from the crowd. Whoo Kid dropped "So Seductive" and Flav and Yayo began doing Flav's signature dance — it was a classic moment.

Surprisingly, that was Flav's second show-stealing moment of the night. LL Cool J — who surprised the crowd with an unannounced, multi-song set earlier in the night, as he did in New York in July — said at one point that he needed two guys and five girls onstage with him. While most of them appeared to be random fans, one of the guys ended up being Flav.

"You — money, right there," L said to his friend of more than two decades before the reveal. "Come onstage!" Flav and company all danced to Cool J's "Around the Way Girl."

LL's set combined his timeless hits with cuts from his new LP, Exit 13. During his latest single, "Baby," he handed out roses to the women in the crowd.

However, one person in the venue was not feeling so festive. Keyshia Cole stunned the crowd by walking offstage after performing just a few songs, barking at the soundman just before she left.

Ne-Yo performed a set just after Cole left the stage. The singer/songwriter tore things down with tracks from his own albums, including the just-released Year of the Gentleman — but when he started to play some of the monsters he's written for others, like Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable," Jennifer Hudson's "Spotlight" and Rihanna's "Take a Bow," the crowd went insane.

Two of the advertised performers for the night were no-shows: Young Jeezy (whose named had dropped off the bill days before the show) and Plies. The latter MC is slated to perform with 50 and the Unit at Baltimore's 1st Mariner Arena on Friday.

• LL Cool J Live

• 50 Cent
• Kanye West
• Keyshia Cole
• Ne-Yo
• LL Cool J

Plies
Photo: Atlantic

Plies insists a trio is better than a duo. After his first single, "Bust It Baby Pt. 2," featured only one guest star (Ne-Yo), he's going in for the kill by giving fans a pair of collaborators (plus himself, of course) on his next two tracks.

"That record, I feel, is a helluva second single," he said of Definition of Real's "Please Excuse My Hands," which features Jamie Foxx and The-Dream. "To come behind a #1 record and have a person who's currently relevant in Dream, one of the better songwriters to come through this industry, and then do the Jamie Foxx thing, the boss of all bosses — I wanted to try something differently than I did on my last album.

"Even my third single, '#1 Fan,' with Keyshia Cole and J. Holiday," he added. "I wanted to load up two big features on that record as well. Try something different. A lot of times you get a feature, and it's just you and that other artist. I wanted to see if I could bring something different to the game, see if I can force people to follow my trend."

The video for "Please Excuse My Hands" is almost here, and Plies said he's getting positive reviews thus far. He said the record describes a scenario we've all been through: when lust takes over our minds.

"I think at some point in time, we always see that person from afar or in a club or in an elevator that allows us to look at them, and in our mind, we already lived that [sexual] situation out," he explained of the cut. "To run with that whole concept, 'Please Excuse My Hands,' the male embracement of that record has been crazy to me. When I go to radio stations, I hear DJs, jocks tell me, 'Man, I love this way better than "Bust It Baby." ' I thought it was gonna be a female-driven record."

• Plies: The Next Hip-Hop Superstar?

• Plies
• Jamie Foxx
• Keyshia Cole

Keyshia Cole and the Game in the "Pain" video
Photo: Jorge Peniche

Through his statements in recent interviews — like the one in last month's XXL magazine, in which he spoke of his suicidal thoughts ("There's some good days, some bad days," he said. "Sometimes I'm beat down by my demons, sometimes I beat down my demons") — you would think the Game made his next LP, L.A.X., with a heavy heart. The ferocious Compton MC said he felt quite the opposite. He told MTV News he made his record "free-spirited," with a "free mind and free conscience."

"It's my third album," he said on the L.A. set of his video for "Pain." Keyshia Cole is featured in the clip and on the song. "I dropped the first album, classic. Came back with Doctor's Advocate, classic. [Now] its number three on my road to being a hip-hop legend. All my favorite rappers are legends, and I want nothing more than to be considered among the top, elite MCs.

"I decided on [the title] L.A.X. because that's the major airport here," he added. "I figured people fly into LAX coming and going. I consider myself like that airport, because anything coming through and leaving California gotta come through me."

"Pain" shows Game's undying love for hip-hop, as he references everyone from New Edition to Nas.

"Public Enemy and N.W.A is on my boombox," he raps. "Had to say, 'Today Was a Good Day' had the 'hood buzzin'/ Ice Cube my favorite rapper/ Y'all n---as can't tell me nothin'/ Everybody's first bootleg was 'Boyz N the Hood.' "

"Me and Keyshia came up around the same time," he said of their collaboration. "We always wanted to get in the studio together but never had the chance because both our careers took off at the same time. She blew to superstar status on the R&B side. I blew up on the rap side. I knew she would come in and kill it. And she did."

Keyshia Cole gives a tribute to the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul at the end of the song. "See, Mary J., I want you to understand you paved the way for me. I'm givin' homage to you."

"He was doing a tribute [to hip-hop], and it's rarely done," Cole said of the collabo. "I really could feel his pain because of the tribute I did to Mary. ... It's a really nice record."

L.A.X. comes out July 8.

• Keyshia Cole Helps With Game's 'Pain'

• Game
• Keyshia Cole

Lil Wayne
Photo: Ethan Miller/ Getty Images

Artist: Young Dro

Representing: Grand Hustle

Mixtape/ DVD: I Am Legend/ "The Swag Shop"

411: When you hang out with a guy named Dark Gable, your swag has to be at 110, so you won't get overshadowed. Not a problem for Grand Hustle's Young Dro. If you haven't noticed by the rainbow gators, matching Polo shirts and equally colorful lyrics, the Atlanta native has his own style.

" 'Swag Shop' is a shop where you can whip in and get you a 50-piece swag with extra swag sauce," Dro joked outside of T.I.'s Grand Hustle studio. In reality, "The Swag Shop" is a documentary-style DVD that Dro is putting together with producer Dark Gable. In the DVD's trailer, we see Dro talk to Tip via computer video hookup, touch the town with wife Fantasia and lay vocals in the lab. There will also be some new songs to accompany the release when it hits the streets.

"I'm not going through [the DVD] saying, 'I got swag, swag, swag,' it's just showing," Dro explained. "I'm showing you my regular self. You're gonna be able to see from the way I dress, the oysters I crack open, all the behind-the-scenes stuff."

In the meantime, Dro has his mixtape I Am Legend getting love down bottom.

"People looking at it like an album," he said of the mixtape, while getting ready to leave in his custom Escalade. "[It has a] lot of original songs. We didn't jack for beats too much. Put out a lot of original stuff. We're giving them their money's worth."

Dro's long-talked-about second LP, The Young and Restless, is coming out sometime. We don't know an exact date, but he says this year.

"We're at the last stages of it," he said. "It's about to be a closed casket. I just wanna take my time. It's a lot of people out there rushing." Danjahandz, Mannie Fresh, Akon, Fantasia, T.I., Lil Wayne and Midi Mafia are all on point for the project.

Joints To Check For

» "House on Me." "That's it," Dro says. "If all else fails, put the house on Dro. Place your bets on me. I'm one of the best to have done it, still am. I'm gonna be spitting the gutter fire, hard concrete. Put the house on me. Bank on it."

» "I'm Sick of It." "When I say, 'I'm sick of it,' I really be nauseous," Dro said. "You can see people in the streets trying to do what you do, you really be sick of it. These chicks out here try to play tricks on you, I'm sick of them too. I'm kushed up to where I'm sick of myself. Everybody gets sick of something sometime."

» "Makin' All That Money." "That's for the ladies like my single moms in the club," Young said. "Don't let nobody cheat you, if you not there getting that money. For all my college-tuition chicks. My mousse babies. Not moose-looking women, but ladies moussing their hair. If you getting to that money and you looking good, get your money. I'll break bread with you. I ain't no crab."

Don't Sleep: Other Notable Selections This Week

» J Armz - How to Be an MC 51
» DJ Wats - Iron Man
» DJ Scope - Scope Drop That Edition
» Trapaholics and Andre 3000 - Alter Ego The Mixtape
» DJ Whiteowl and 50 Cent - The Rulers Back 3

'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar

» Baby (featuring Lil Wayne) - "I Run This" remix
» Bow Wow - "Pole in My Basement"
» J Dilla - "Pay Jay"
» Pharoahe Monch - "Broken Heart"
» Shawty Putt (featuring Lil Jon) - "Dat Baby"
» Show Stoppas - "Whoop Rico"

Fire Starter: Mazzi

One of the mainstays of the underground hip-hop collective S.O.U.L. Purpose, Mazzi has been performing his brash rhymes at concerts — opening up for Eminem, Big Pun and Big Daddy Kane, among others — and in corner ciphers. He's also been behind the scenes working radio promotion for Def Jam. Maz recently started kicking up dust, making fun of "hipster rap" and up-and-coming artist Jay Electronica with the new viral video "Lesson A." Just last week, S.O.U.L. Purpose released an independent LP, The Construction, and part of the profits will go to the Boys & Girls Club of America.

Celebrity Faves

"I'm doing the knowledge, E. I'm trying to get paid in full." Lloyd was so young when Eric B. and Rakim's classic album Paid in Full and its title track came out in 1987, he couldn't even say, "What happened to 'peace'?" But he's doing the hip-hop legends some poetic justice on his new record, "Girls Around the World." He flips the beat from "Paid in Full" on the track, which features Lil Wayne.

"Can't get you off my mind; you're like my favorite song," he sings in a high pitch. "Just wanna turn you on, rock you all night long."

"You know what it was, when Eric B. and Rakim was out with 'Paid in Full,' the intensity was a little bit more special," Lloyd said, explaining why he chose to pay homage to that record on his third LP, Lessons in Love, which comes out this summer. "It was also something considered to be sacred. Being a part of this game, you dedicated everything you had to being innovative with your sound. There's a lot of ringtone artists who only come out with a really good song, and they disappear forever. To be back for a third time, it means that we must be pretty good at what we're doing. If we're gonna do it, let's not slack up and get lazy. Success just builds expectation in my world. ... That's what I want to be one day. I want to be a legend."

Lloyd is now planning a "Girls Around the World" video and wants its theme to be based on one of Martin Lawrence's funniest films. Stay tuned.

The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From the Underground

Kanye and Rih Rih. Jay-Z and Queen MJB. Now it's looking like it will be Weezy and Key C. Lil Wayne has his eye on Keyshia Cole to be his tourmate soon after Tha Carter III drops on June 10. Originally, Wayne was in talks with 50 Cent to go out with the G-Unit later this year.

"Um, that one, I don't think is gonna work no more," Wayne said about touring with the Unit. "It was something that ain't went right. I think I might go out with Keyshia Cole. You're bringing two different types of people in there. You got people coming to soothe their souls with Keyshia, and you got people who wanna throw their hands up with me. It's like listening to the radio. I think a concert should be like listening to the radio. When you listen to the radio, and your top-five or top-eight songs come on, it's hip-hop, it's R&B. ... I think you gonna get that from me and Keyshia and whatever in between that."

"I'mma kidnap him and take him on tour with me," Cole told us Thursday, on the set of the new Game video "Pain."

"I think it's a little harder to get him on the stage than it is to get me," she smiled. "We gotta make sure we get together on that."

Speaking of hip-hop and R&B, what's bigger than the collaboration between Usher, Beyoncé and Lil Wayne right now? "Love in This Club Part 2" features the New Orleans nightmare rapping and singing with the reigning king and queen of R&B.

"And it started with a hug, but now we making love in this club," Wayne drones. "We not gonna stop just because the people in the crowd are watching us/ 'Cause we don't give a dayyyummm what they say."

"I ain't gonna front, I actually recorded it with Keri Hilson," Birdman Jr. said. "I was hoping that Usher would keep my little singing part, my little four bars at the end. That's the best part of my verse, everybody was saying. He kept it. I respect him for that. A lot of singers, sometimes you go to singing on their song, and they know you're a rapper. They just chop that whole part off. But he kept that. Usher's a real dude for that. I respect him for that." ...

He's the only Snowman who can heat things up and not melt. Young Jeezy's guest appearances have been impeccable. We're gonna check for his album, but Mr. 17.5 has already made his verses indispensable on the streets, the clubs and for the first time in his career, the very top of the Billboard charts with Usher's "Love in This Club."

After his short hiatus last year (Jeezy says he had to take time to count his money), he came out with verses on remixes of Shawty Lo's "Dey Know" and Rocko's "Umma Do Me."

"I'm in the streets every day," Jeezy told us in his Dirty South Studios. "I was in the club. I was in the strip club, matter of fact. It might have been Onyx. I heard ['Umma Do Me'], and I was like, man. I found out Drummer Boy did it. I know Rocko from around the way. I listened to it, then I said, 'Let me jump on it.' I jumped on it on some mixtape type vibe. I didn't write it or nothing. When I caught up with them, I said it's a gift and the whole nine. That's what real cats do. You see somebody else doing what they do, you throw that lifeline out. Ain't nobody do it for me. I threw that lifeline. Same thing with that Shawty Lo. You throw that lifeline out. I liked the song. [Lo] is from the West Side and they do what they do.

"Matter of fact, I couldn't resist that one," he added of the Lo record. "I liked the beat. I wanted the beat. The beat is crazy. I wasn't sure what they was doing with it. I wanted to get on it anyway. It's like sparring to me. You gotta stay in it. I was like, 'I'm not about to drop [an album] anytime soon. Let me go out and play a little bit.' "

Jeezy's third album is coming out this year (he wouldn't reveal anything more on that subject), but he promises a mixtape before then.

"They want Jeezy, they gonna get Jeezy," he laughed.

The Snowman held true to his word. Over the weekend, a brand-new song called "Put On" was leaked online. The song was produced by Drumma Boy (Rocko's "Umma Do Me") and features Kanye West. Check for 'Ye's use of the auto-tune machine. ...

She obviously has a ton of style and spunk, but does Lil Mama have the poetic acumen to make her a hip-hop mainstay? Songs like "G-Slide," "Shawty Get Loose" and "Lip Gloss" have solidified her as a young, up-and-coming rap star, but a certified lyricist? Not just yet. Mama, however, says that if you listen to the meat of her recently released debut, VYP: Voice of the Young People, there's no missing her distinguished way with words.

"One of the biggest misconceptions about me would have to be my skills," she told us. "They try to compare me to other new female artists who may have been out in the past, who may have got a shot then flopped. Then they be like, 'She's gonna do the same thing. She's not a real rapper. She can't keep up with this person or that person.' But if you put me in the ring with a lot of the top dudes in the spot right now, I'll slaughter them.

"I feel the need to put lyrical content in my songs," she added. "That's what I do. I'm an artist. I don't sit in the studio and dance around. I love to dance. I wish I could go in a room and let somebody write my songs, and I come back and read it and record it. Artists that are out right now, that's what they are doing. They come back in and say, 'Oh, that's it? What's the melody? That's how I sing it?' Then they go in the booth and lay it down and go back to their own pretty life. Me, I'm different. When I write, my soul is into it. I need clarity. When I write, I'm not gonna write, 'Nick nack, patty wack/ Give a dog a bone.' "

In Mama's opinion, there is a double standard when it comes to male and female rappers.

"For one, I'm a female," she said about why she doesn't get the accolades she thinks she deserves. "For two, they hear a song like 'Lip Gloss.' They feel, 'It's easy; it's this, that.' But if a man was to put out the same type of song — different concept, same type of flow on the hook, it's: 'Hot. He's crazy!' When it's a female, never. Then you have people who want the chance to do what I'm doing and instead of giving it to me, they'd rather hate."

The young'in is spittin' insightfully on her next single "L.I.F.E." Life as a shorty shouldn't be so rough.

"Well, I have a record on my album called 'L.I.F.E.,' " she said. "I know people say, 'She always mentions that song,' but 'L.I.F.E.' is one of the strongest records on my album. I talk about the orphanage, teenage pregnancies. It's three verses, and I give you a different story on each verse. Where I come from, my grandmother is a foster parent. I have a lot of cousins who got pregnant at an early age. My father and other men in my family had to deal with not having fresh clothes [growing up]. Going into free lunch and having to eat really quickly then having to leave. You had people who were very offended by their situation. I write about that. This record, 'L.I.F.E.,' it's very touching. [Some of my family] feel like I'm directing [the lyrics] towards them, but it's a very broad song. It's a million young girls who go through that and millions of young guys who go through that."

She also has a concept that will remind you of Daryl Hannah in "Splash." Well, maybe Ariel.

"I have a record called 'Swim' about a guy who can't keep up with me," she continued. "I'm in a different lane. I'm a mermaid, I'm in the ocean and swimming, and he walks on his two feet. It's like the cartoon 'The Little Mermaid.' Except, it's coming from my point of view. In the cartoon, she wants to be where he is. In this song, he wants to be where she is. He can't live that life."

For other artists featured in Mixtape Monday, check out Mixtape Mondays Headlines.

• Mixtape Monday Video: Young Jeezy, Lloyd & More

• Lil Wayne
• 50 Cent
• G-Unit
• Keyshia Cole
• Young Jeezy

Chris Brown, Rihanna, Ne-Yo, More At 2008 BET Awards

• Rihanna
• Alicia Keys
• Rick Ross (Hip-Hop)
• Flo Rida
• DJ Khaled

2008 Grammy Award Nominees: Akon, Fergie, T.I., More

• Akon
• Amy Winehouse
• Jay-Z
• Christina Aguilera
• Justin Timberlake

Snoop, Pharrell, Diddy, Ciara And More At The 2007 VH1 Hip Hop Honors

• Snoop Dogg
• Pharrell Williams
• LL Cool J
• T-Pain
• Ne-Yo

MTV.com Exclusive: Keyshia Cole

• Keyshia Cole

On The Set Of Keyshia Cole's Video For "Let It Go"

• Keyshia Cole
• Fat Joe
• Missy Elliott

Beyoncé, 50 Cent, Jennifer Hudson, More At The 2007 BET Awards

• Michelle Williams
• Beyoncé
• Kelly Rowland
• Jennifer Hudson
• 50 Cent

Chamillionaire, Ludacris, Busta, Jim Jones And More At The 2006 BET Hip-Hop Awards

• Chamillionaire
• Ludacris
• Busta Rhymes
• Ying Yang Twins
• T.I.

Tom, Michelle, Kanye, Twista And More At New York's "M:i:III" Premiere

• Kanye West
• Twista
• Remy Ma
• Keyshia Cole
• Doug E. Fresh

Sucker Free Week Photos 2006

• Kelis
• Mary J. Blige
• Rick Ross (Hip-Hop)
• DMX
• Mobb Deep

Sucker Free Week Photos: Keyshia Cole

• Keyshia Cole