Gorilla Zoe
Photo: MTV News

In the clip for Gorilla Zoe's latest, "Lost," the Atlanta rapper battles his own demons, delusions and even confronts himself.

"This whole album, I'm not copying nobody's style. I'm finnin' to take it to Jupiter — follow me. Take off!" Zoe said. " 'Lost' will really reach your deepest depression — your most vivid, confused visuals in your life. The things you go through, that confuse you — anything that's not a great feeling. People aren't joyful all day. I wanted to make a couple of songs that will touch people, make them say, 'Hey, man, I feel like that too.' I was feeling like that at the time. I know [there's] no one way to make a hit. A hit is a hit. The video we wanted to touch down on — no clubbin', a whole bunch of jumping up and down — we wanted to make a real video. I think that's my best video to this day."

Zoe's second LP, Don't Feed Da Animals, is now in stores, and the Atlanta MC says he's thankful he had more time to record, unlike his debut Welcome to the Zoo. The expanded recording schedule gave his mind time to travel.

"I'm known for them street, club, abstract records," he explained. "I got one called 'Sh-- on Em.' It goes, 'I doo doo, I boo boo, I poo poo.' It's basically talking about putting on — that would be an equivalent of pulling up for no reason in [a car]. That's crazy. A guy is talking to a girl and she don't hear what he's saying because she's looking at your car. I got one called 'Helluvalife,' featuring Gucci Mane and OJ Da Juiceman. Me and Gucci was in the club one night and he was like, 'Man, we living the life. We do what we wanna do, buy what we wanna buy.' Coming from where we from, it's crazy. The record is a club banger. I got records for the ladies ... 'Talk Back' — which is self explanatory — and "I Got It,' which is a money-spending record."

Zoe's next single, "What it Is," features Rick Ross, who also makes a cameo in the "Lost" video.

Gorilla Zoe is currently on the second leg of Lil Wayne's I Am Music Tour.

"It's crazy, man, to be out there with Wayne, T-Pain, Keri Hilson, Gym Class Heroes," he said. "Just to be out there with everybody, you have to step it up. I just do what I do in front of 2,500 people or 25,000 people. I'mma crank it up. Everybody knows that."

• Gorilla Zoe

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

Young Jeezy
Photo: Jason Campbell

Artist And DJ: Gorilla Zoe and DJ Teknikz

Representing: Atlanta and Block Entertainment

Mixtape: Joog Music

411: He's from the A, so why did we take Gorilla Zoe out to Queens, New York? Well, since pictures of everyone from 50 Cent to Keyshia Cole to Method Man grace the walls of Hall of Fame, the famous Jamaica music hot spot, it was only right. His being a hustler doesn't hurt either. Zoe once owned his own retail music shop in Georgia; that's how he first linked with Teknikz, who would stack his tapes and CDs at the store. Now the two are pairing up for Joog Music, which Zoe hopes will keep the fans happy until his next official album hits the streets.

Zoe broke it down for us: Jooging is about clocking a few extra dollars here and there. "Making a joog, man, that's getting money, that's hustling, man," he said. "Say if your girl calls you talking about, 'I need you to pay my phone bill, and it's $240,' but it's really $80, then she got you for a $160 joog."

We hope Zoe can make a few extra dollars with his next album, due later this year, called Don't Feed the Animals. "I done ate," he said. "They shouldn't have fed me, so now it's time. Uncaged, baby."

Joints To Check For

» "Waddle," featuring Gucci Mane. "This was just for the mixtape, but we put it out there and it took off," Zoe said. "So they playing it on the radio in Atlanta and Houston [now]. Soon as it went out there, they asked for a clean version. If you ever walking around with 20, 30 grand in your pocket sticking out, your jeans hanging off ya a--, you walking with a waddle. I like to have fun, pimp."

» "51 Rounds." "If you play with me, it's over for you," Zoe said, matter-of-factly. "You know how Brett Favre's aim was back in the day? He would hit [Shannon] Sharpe in the chest with the rock. That's what I'm talking about. You don't want that."

» "Rumble in the Jungle." "That's the intro to the mixtape," Zoe explained. "I just really wanna show people what the mixtape is [about]. If it starts like that, you know it's crazy."

Don't Sleep: Other Notable Selections This Week
» DJ Dolla Sign - King of Bankhead: T.I. vs. Shawty Lo
» DJ Finesse and Janet Jackson - I Am Legend
» Jay-Z - Classic Gangster: Presented by Jayswing and Flipout
» Papoose - Build or Destroy
» P-Cutta and DNA - RnB Chronicles 25

'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar

» Common - "The Light '08"
» Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige (featuring Swizz Beatz) - "You're Welcome"
» Joell Ortiz - "90s Freestyle"
» Rakim - "Word on the Street"
» Redman and Method Man - "Broken Language 2008"
» Rick Ross (featuring Jay-Z) - "Maybach Music"

Firestarter: Teyana Taylor

She got the co-sign from Pharrell and appeared on one of the highest-rated episodes of MTV's "My Super Sweet 16" last year, but if you still don't know who Teyana Taylor is, you better look the teen up on the Net. Her Jazze Pha-produced lead single "Google Me," from her forthcoming debut, From a Planet Called Harlem (an ode to her home borough), lays it down: She's superb, she's a big shot, and she's a star. She's pretty modest, too, believe it or not. But when you can croon and spit bars like one of the fellas, you can get away with a big boast or two.

Celebrity Faves

Mike Epps joked that he made the original Superman dance when he used to jump off his top bunk bed back in the day. While his kids love Soulja Boy Tell'em, Epps is into more lyrical artists. "I'm loving Jay-Z's new album," he said. "Pimp C, that UGK. That new Scarface is tight. Of course I'm loving that Lupe Fiasco. I'm digging Kanye all the time. Common Sense is off the hook."

The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground

"Pound for pound, ain't nobody seeing me," Young Jeezy told us last week in Atlanta. "I'm often duplicated, imitated, but I'm still me. I believe in what I say. I believe in what I do."

Jeezy is definitely feeling himself right about now. He's been working on his third solo LP for several months down South, and he thinks it's almost ready.

"My new album? It's gonna drop when I'm droppin'," he said with a devilish grin, laughing at his own joke. "I'm not playing, you dig? I said it. This LP ... 'this LP' is all I'm gonna say. When it comes out. That's all. I'm being real arrogant right now, because I feel what's going on. My third LP is gonna drop for real."

Jeezy's album isn't expected until the summer, and of course there's talk of the Snowman connecting with DJ Drama for another mixtape beforehand. If you listen to Mr. 17.5 though, his next mixtape is coming way sooner than that.

"[The fans] are screaming for a mixtape," Jeezy said. "That's all they want. We're going in the studio and putting that together right now. We'll have it out by the morning. Twenty-four-hour turn around."

You can catch Jeezy on an assortment of guest spots in the meantime, for Shawty Lo's "Dey Know" remix ("I get my 87s tayyyy-lorrrred"), Rick Ross' "Luxury Tax" and Usher's "Love in This Club."

During a recording session, Usher had just left the studio and Jeezy was in there after him. Jeezy heard "Love in This Club" and was like, "Let me get on that," "Club" producer Polow Da Don recalled. "I was like, 'Man, I don't know.' He said, 'Just let me do the verse, dawg. If you don't wanna keep it, cool.' I played the version that night at [Jermaine Dupri's] club, and Usher went crazy. That was the first time he heard it."

The music hasn't hampered Jeezy's philanthropic and charitable endeavors. Last week, he donated a wheelchair-accessible van to the family of 13-year-old Davon Jenkins, whose mother, Tamara Jenkins-Wilson, won a contest sponsored by Jeezy's "Make Your Dreams Come True" contest.

"Sometimes my dreams are somewhat farfetched, but sometimes people's dreams are just that close," the Snowman explained. "You gotta make that happen for them." ...

He's one of the biggest DJs on the West Coast, so it's only right that when he drops singles, he makes a movie out of it. DJ Felli Fel wrangled Diddy, Akon, Ludacris and Lil Jon for his first single from Go DJ, "Get Buck in Here," and the follow-up features three Grammy winners and an MC who always makes big records.

"Finer Things" brings together Jermaine Dupri — who signed Felli to So So Def/ Island Def Jam — Kanye West, Fabolous and Ne-Yo.

"The song is basically talking about how I can give you the finer things in life," Felli told us recently in L.A. "[I'll] treat you better than that next person can. Give you the things you deserve. They all come from their own perspective about giving women the finer things. It's a real lyrical song. It's interesting. It's a record that moves you. It's a club record, radio record. I'm excited about it."

Dupri is excited to have Felli on his squad.

"With the Felli Fel sh--, we should sell over 500,000 copies of the single ['Get Buck in Here']. It's looking crazy for him. I didn't expect that to happen. The second single should be big too. It's not gonna be big collaborations for the whole time, but it's that type of record. It's a DJ album.

"I think he wanted to be a producer more than anything," JD added. "I think he started to realize that producer door wasn't opening the way he wanted it to open. From that point, he was like, 'I'mma make me a record — I'mma produce the record, but I'mma make a record.' At the same time, he gets to live out that dream as a producer. He produced every song on his album, as well as be a featured artist on the song with these artists."

"Jermaine and I go way back," Felli described. "When he offered me the situation, it made sense. Jermaine as a producer, he saw my vision. He gets it, man. I think he knew where to take my project, and he believes in it."

Dupri was originally thinking about putting out a Felli EP first before coming with a proper album later this year. Felli says that all might change.

"Album, EP, [either way] I'mma put a lot of songs on this project," the DJ said. "It's a party, feel-good type of album. The whole DJ/producer thing, that's kinda where hip-hop started. ... It's coming back to that. It's a good time to be a DJ." ...

Come on, guys. It was all wavy just at the end of last year. Jim Jones and Max B were cruising in a black Bentley coupe like the 'hood's Batman and Robin. The duo even rapped verses for us in advance of the release of the Byrd Gang's street CD, Harlem's American Gangster. But as One-Eye Willie himself has said, "Love Me No More." True indeed.

By now, it should be obvious why Max B isn't in Jimmy's latest video. The two have more friction than Barack and Hillary. Last Wednesday, Max B put Jones on blast with a freestyle dis over Rocko's "Umma Do Me" beat. Biggavel (that's shorthand for Biggie, Jigga and Makavelli, Max tells us) spit: "I won't help you/ So don't ask me/ Where's my paper/ B---h, you owe me."

"No disrespect, but they do the sh-- that Diddy do," Max told Mixtape Monday about Jones and company, inferring his teammates don't write their own lyrics. "But even though Diddy don't write rhymes, he writes checks. These n---as don't write checks. They just steal rhymes. Milli Vanilli 2012, Girl You Know It's True the LP. They ain't right over there."

Max said he hasn't been paid by Jones for contributing to his album Harlem: Diary of a Summer, for which he claims he wrote choruses to seven songs and later helped write the Dipset capo's biggest hit, "We Fly High."

"Last time we spoke was a couple months ago," Max said. "And it was ugly. And there's no way possible in this lifetime can the differences be settled. Biggavel wants out."

While Max may or may not be justified in being disgruntled over his money situation, there's still one thing we should keep in mind: B hasn't officially had any of his own music released, and Jim did post bond for over $1 million to get Biggavel out of jail for his alleged connection to a 2006 murder and attempted robbery.

He's still signed to Byrd Gang Records, but Max said he'll be reppin' his new set now, the Green Gang. He's about to put out two mixtapes, Million Dollar Baby 2 and PD3: The Adventures of Wavy Crocket, the third installment in his Public Domain street series.

Jim Jones could not be reached by MTV News at press time — he was literally flying high on a flight.

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

• Mixtape Monday Video: Young Jeezy, Gorilla Zoe & More

• Young Jeezy
• Usher
• Gorilla Zoe
• DJ Felli Fel

Photo: MTV News

• Young Jeezy
• DJ Felli Fel
• Gorilla Zoe