Xzibit
Photo: Loud

New York turntablist crew the X-ecutioners have a good excuse for taking more than four years to record their new album. It is Built From Scratch. Acclaimed vinyl manipulators Total Eclipse, Sinista, Roc Raida and Rob Swift also took the time to recruit a stellar lineup of guest musicians, which includes Linkin Park, Xzibit, Dan the Automator and the late Big Punisher.

The X-ecutioners' track with Xzibit will be the album's first single, while the Linkin Park collaboration is scheduled to be the second. Track titles have not been confirmed.

DJ Premier, Pharoahe Monch, the Beat Junkies, Kool G Rap, Inspectah Deck, the Tom Tom Club, beatboxer Kenny Muhammed and hardcore rappers M.O.P. also make appearances on the album, due September 25 on Loud Records.

Built From Scratch is the follow-up to 1997's X-pressions, one of the first turntablist albums.

The cover of the new record will be a replication of Public Enemy's classic Yo! Bum Rush the Show, which features Chuck D and the gang in a basement room huddling around a turntable and mixer.

The X-ecutioners' version of the cover will feature the four members of the group along with hip-hop innovator Kool Herc, scratch inventor Grand Wizard Theodore and Grandmaster DXT, who, as Grandmaster DST, popularized record scratching on Herbie Hancock's "Rockit."

• The X-Ecutioners
• Linkin Park
• Xzibit
• DJ Premier
• Pharoahe Monch

NEW YORK — Bruce Mayfield, a 30-year-old rapper for the Wu-Tang affiliated American Cream Team, was shot and killed Saturday morning over a money dispute, police said.

Officials believe Mayfield, who rapped under the handle of Chip Banks or just "Bankie," was gunned down by Alfred Dancy around 7:40 a.m. at the corner of 129th Street and Fifth Avenue in Harlem, according to the New York City Department of Corrections Public Information Office.

The rapper was transported to Harlem Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival to the emergency room, a hospital spokesperson said.

Dancy, 28, was arrested near the scene by officers who found a .45-caliber semi-automatic weapon on him, the gun they believe was used in the shooting.

According to the DCPI's preliminary report, Dancy was injured while being taken into custody and was also taken to Harlem Hospital, where he was treated and then released into police custody.

Dancy was arraigned on a felony murder charge and is being held at the Manhattan Detention Complex without bail until a Thursday court date.

Mayfield, who hails from Harlem, helped form American Cream Team in 1997 with B-Twizzy, Lord Superb, Rhyme Recka and Trife. The Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon took the group's name from a verse in "Motherless Child," a song included on Ghostface Killah's Ironman (1996).

Under the guidance of Raekwon and Wu-Tang Clan producer Oli "Power" Grant, the Cream Team contributed to the RZA-produced "Ghost Dog" soundtrack, Method Man's Tical 2000: Judgement Day (1998) and Raekwon's Immobilarity (1999), among others.

The American Cream Team had been working on their debut album, tentatively titled Only in America, and produced and performed several cuts for last year's "Black and White" soundtrack, with Mayfield taking a solo turn on the song "Stand for Something."

• Ghostface Killah
• Inspectah Deck
• Killah Priest
• Method Man
• Ol' Dirty Bastard

The MCs of Wu-Tang Clan don't have the same harmony as roommates as they do with their rhymes.

That's what they discovered when they holed up in a Los Angeles house together to begin work on their third album, The W.

"Can you imagine, like, 10 of us going to the supermarket and shopping?" GZA said recently. "The bugged-out part about it is instead of all us collaborating like how we do with our rhymes, everyone does their own thing in the supermarket, and by the time we get back to the bus, we have 12 loaves of bread. And there's no room to put sh--."

The W arrives in stores Tuesday and is the Staten Island, New York, group's first release of new material in more than three years. Most of the Clansmen spent the time since 1997's double-disc set Wu-Tang Forever recording and promoting solo and side projects.

The guys said they deliberately steered in the opposite direction of popular hip-hop and reverted back to the basics this time around, using their 1993 debut, Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers, as their touchstone.

"We had to sit back and listen to the radio," Inspectah Deck said. "It's going out of control now — it's real technotronic. We want to put the gravy back into it, the soul food back into it."

"We just sayin, 'Yo, the era of the real live hip-hop is back,' " he said. "They about to bear witness to a change, and the whole change is gonna come from [breaking] through the illusion. It's not all about the money, the cars, the jewelry, the fame. ... We're taking it back to the essence of hip-hop, just beats and rhymes."

ODB does turn up via previously recorded rhymes on the menacing "Conditioner," also featuring Snoop. Another Dirty track was pulled from the album after the rest of Wu deemed it "too crazy," RZA said.

"He understood that we could not wait for him [to finish his legal obligations]," RZA said. "But at the same time, he got a great representation on the album. And we told him 'Yo, if you stay focused on what you doing and you get outta there ... we'll drop another [album] soon." [RealVideo]

For a full-length interview with the Wu, check out the MTV News feature "Wu-Tang Clan: United They Stand."

• Ghostface Killah
• Inspectah Deck
• Killah Priest
• Method Man
• Ol' Dirty Bastard

Raekwon may be known as the "Chef" of Wu-Tang Clan, but he won't be the only member of the hip-hop group working the pots and pans in an upcoming Wu-Tang documentary.

"A lot of it has to do with us in the kitchen — cookin', throwin' food, havin' debates, speakin' about things," Wu-Tang MC GZA, who is directing the project, said recently. "With real fine editing, it could be nice."

GZA has been compiling footage for a documentary on the Staten Island, New York, group ever since Wu-Tang reunited in the spring to begin work on their third album, The W (November 21). The rappers holed up in a house in Los Angeles for two months during pre-production for the LP.

"I'm trying to finish it up, but as time goes on, there's always more I want in there," GZA said about the film, which has no release date planned yet. "Documentaries sometimes can be shot over 10 years. You plan to stop in two, but you still gotta catch more."

GZA originally planned to make a documentary about himself and began shooting footage while he was on a solo tour in Europe. He found the experience so liberating that he decided to broaden his plans and tackle a Wu documentary.

• Ghostface Killah
• Inspectah Deck
• Killah Priest
• Method Man
• Ol' Dirty Bastard

Sonicnet Music News

Rapper Redman is aiming for a December 12 release date for his fifth solo album, which is slated to feature collaborations with Method Man and D'Angelo, as well as his Def Squad group mates.

"It's not different; it's just gonna be enhanced from the last album I did," Redman said. "Every album I just try to step it up. I don't try to overdo myself, overpower myself. I'm not lookin' to go platinum or triple platinum. I'm just tryin' to do get-on-the-road music so I can go on tour."

The album follows 1998's platinum-certified "Doc's Da Name." Songs Redman has written for the as-yet-untitled LP include "Uh-Huh" and "We Don't Know How To Act."

Erick Sermon, a member of Def Squad along with Redman and Keith Murray, will executive produce the album, while Rockwilder (Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes), DJ Twinz and Canadian hip-hopper Saukrates also will help out on the production. "All of it's family," Redman said. "No outside sh**, just all family."

Redman's Def Jam publicist said D'Angelo and newcomer MC Lady Luck will also appear on the album. Redman and Lady Luck performed a duet called "Come And Get It" on the recently released "Backstage Mixtape" soundtrack.

Murray, who has been incarcerated since 1998 for assaulting a teenage fan in 1995, will appear on Redman's album via prerecorded material. Redman and Sermon have staged rallies for Murray's release and have recruited the support of such artists as Busta Rhymes and Fat Joe.

If he can't meet his goal for a December release date, Redman said he will likely drop the album in February after taking some time off for the holidays. The New Jersey MC plans to mount a tour early next year.

Redman said he and Wu-Tang Clan rapper Method Man plan to put out another collaboration album about this time next year.

"We're both from the same realm; just different cities, different mothers' stomachs," Redman said of the pair's chemistry. "Personally, we're really the same. We like the same kind of sh**, we're not too loud, we're very humble. It's like mind-to-mind; we don't really gotta talk about it. It just happens."

• D'Angelo
• Ghostface Killah
• Inspectah Deck
• Killah Priest
• Method Man

The hard-hitting HBO prison drama "Oz" has inspired a hard-hitting hip-hop album.

Snoop Dogg, Cypress Hill, Method Man, Master P, Trick Daddy, Kurupt & Nate Dogg, Goodie M.O.B., Jadakiss and Styles of the LOX, Devin The Dude, and Three 6 Mafia have all recorded new music for an "Oz" album to be released January 9 on the EMI-distributed Avatar Records label.

"The hardcore, often violent and controversial themes contained in the show create a perfect forum for some of the most aggressive rappers in the industry," said the label's CEO in a press release announcing the project.

A label spokesperson confirmed that Master P and Method Man will both be making cameo appearances on the weekly series when season four resumes in January with eight new episodes. Other musicians who have appeared in cameo or recurring roles on "Oz" include Treach of Naughty By Nature, Evan Seinfeld of Biohazard, L.L. Cool J, David Johansen, and Sandra "Pepa" Denton.

The album is also doing double duty as a fundraiser for the Innocence Project, which helps to free wrongly accused death row inmates through DNA testing.

The organization, which is headed up by celebrity trial attorney Barry Sheck (who defended O.J. Simpson, among others), will receive a substantial donation and a royalty from album sales, according to the label.

"The artists have all come together for this project as a way to give back, as they all personally know someone in prison," the label spokesperson told MTV News.

• Ghostface Killah
• Inspectah Deck
• Killah Priest
• Master P
• Method Man

Sonicnet Music News

While the Wu-Tang Clan insists its new album returns the group to a raw street sound, the first video from "The W" finds the Clan straying far from the streets into a fantasy realm of caveman suits and time travel.

The new Wu album won't arrive until November 21, but on September 16, the nine-member Clan donned furry costumes and rapped along to the party tune "Gravel Pit" on a massive, "Flintstones"-style set made of fake rock, bones, and palm trees to shoot one video for three new songs. Along with "Gravel Pit," the Wu is also cramming the street number "Be Careful" and "Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)" into the video, which is expected to clock in at about 10 minutes.

Though Saturday's 100-plus temperatures in Los Angeles forced three of the group's scantily clad dancers off the shoot because of heat exhaustion, all of the Wu-Tang endured, despite the discomfort their costumes added to the sweltering conditions.

"I'm surprised they're not dying on me," director Joseph Kahn (Sisqo, Backstreet Boys) said. "You gotta love it, though. We've got the ghetto Bedrock, and the Wu-Tang are a bunch of pimp 'Flintstone' people, and all of a sudden a kung-fu fight is gonna break out in the middle of it."

All of Wu-Tang's original members participated in the four-day shoot, except troubled co-founder Ol' Dirty Bastard, who is serving time in a court-ordered drug rehab program (see "O.D.B. Progresses In Treatment Program"). Cappadonna is filling his spot, though Wu-Tang's upcoming album, "The W," will include previously recorded rhymes by O.D.B.

You can catch a lot more on the Wu-Tang Clan on Monday afternoon's premiere edition of "Direct Effect," which will carry an MTV News television report filed from the set of the video. The new daily hip-hop show airs at 5:30 p.m. (ET).

Direct yourself to

• Ghostface Killah
• Inspectah Deck
• Killah Priest
• Method Man
• Ol' Dirty Bastard

On Thursday, the Wu-Tang Clan's Ol' Dirty Bastard appeared in Los Angeles Superior Court with a representative of the Impact House drug treatment facility to request that the rapper start the second phase of the program.

Since his progress has been favorable, O.D.B.'s request was granted, and he will be receiving 12-hour supervised passes to leave the facility to do fellowship work.

Back in June, the controversial rapper, whose real name is Russell Jones, was sentenced to spend 180 days at the Pasadena, California, facility after pleading no contest to violating his probation in March (see "Ol' Dirty Bastard Sentenced To Drug Treatment").

O.D.B.'s probation violation stems from an incident back in January when he was kicked out of Impact House for allegedly getting drunk following a New York court appearance (see "O.D.B. Likely To Get Two Years Behind Bars, Prosecutor Says").

The rapper is due back in court on December 20 for another progress report.

Before that, the rapper will turn up on "The W," the next album from Wu-Tang Clan, which hits stores on November 21 (see "Wu-Tang Clan To Spell Out 'The W' In November").

• Ghostface Killah
• Inspectah Deck
• Killah Priest
• Method Man
• Ol' Dirty Bastard

While the tour to support the album kicked off already, details are still being hammered out about the upcoming release of "Lyricist Lounge, Vol. 2."

A press representative for the project said that The Notorious B.I.G., Snoop Dogg, Redman, Rza, Q-Tip, Macy Gray, Common, Pharoahe Monch, Dead Prez, Mos Def, Rah Digga, Gang Starr, Nate Dogg, Prodigy, and Ghostface Killah are among the artists contributing tracks to the album, which is now slated to hit stores on November 7.

Beanie Sigel, M.O.P., Talib Kweli, Coco Brovas, Kool G Rap, Punch & Words, JT Money, Master Fuol, Royce 5'9", and Dilated Peoples are also confirmed to kick in music for the album.

The first single, "Oh No," and its video will come courtesy of Mos Def, Pharoahe Monch, and Nate Dogg, who teamed up on the track. The rappers are joining director Jeff Richter (Nine Inch Nails, Black Rob, DJ Rap) in Los Angeles this week to shoot the clip, which promises to be a performance-heavy video populated by playas, hustlers, and sweaty dancers.

Mos Def is also on the road with a Lyricist Lounge-inspired tour that also boasts Master Fuol, Slum Village, and Tha Outsidaz.

If you can't wait until the album arrives, here's where you can catch the Lyricist Lounge tour:

• 9/20 - New Orleans, LA @ House Of Blues
• 9/21 - Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
• 9/23 - Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House Of Blues
• 9/27 - Boston, MA @ Avalon
• 9/28 - Winooski, VT @ Higher Ground
• 10/1 - Washington, DC @ Nation
• 10/2 - Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory
• 10/4 - Lawrence, KS @ Liberty Hall
• 10/5 - St. Louis, MO @ The Firehouse
• 10/6 - Detroit, MI @ St. Andrews Hall
• 10/7 - Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave

• Notorious B.I.G.
• Ghostface Killah
• Inspectah Deck
• Killah Priest
• Method Man

Cam'ron, the 22-year-old former All-City baller, is ready to drop his new album, "S.D.E.," on September 19.

"The title of the album [stands for] 'sports, drugs, entertainment,'" the MC explained to MTV News. "Basically, [those are] the three elements of my life. I played ball, went away to school... didn't work out, so I came home, hustled, [went on] probation, and now I'm doing music. That's what works best for me."

Guests on the album include Destiny's Child, Prodigy of Mobb Deep, Noreaga, and the always unpredictable Ol' Dirty Bastard, whose presence in the studio, Cam'ron said, was an act of fate.

"He wrote it, 10 minutes, went in there, punched in his lines, and left. I never seen him again, ever." [RealAudio]

Cam'ron made a name for himself in the summer of 1998 with a barrage of hit singles that included "Horse & Carriage," a duet with rapper-turned-minister Mase, and "Pull It" with DMX. Before either Cam'ron or Mase were signed, they were in the Harlem rap group Children Of The Corn along with Cam'ron's cousin, Bloodshed, who passed away several years ago.

His first album since 1998's gold-selling "Confessions Of Fire," "S.D.E." will be released on Epic Records, the parent company of Untertainment, an imprint of Epic founded by Lance "Un" Rivera that folded last summer. "What Means The World To You," the Armando-produced lead single from "S.D.E.," is currently on radio.

• Cam'ron
• Destiny's Child
• Ghostface Killah
• Inspectah Deck
• Killah Priest