Lil Wayne
Photo: Samir Hussein/ Getty Images

The Carter household is getting crowded.

Lil Wayne welcomed another child into his brood — his second this year and fourth overall — when singer Nivea delivered a baby boy on Monday. A source at the rapper's recording home, Universal/Motown, confirmed the birth to MTV News on Tuesday (December 1).

Wayne's Young Money cohort Mack Maine first broke the news about the birth on Monday via Twitter when he sent a message to his followers while on the way to the hospital.

"I'm currently at da hospital!!! Few minutes away from havin anutha nephew," he wrote. "Uncle Mack ya heard me ... LUV!!!!!"

Approximately an hour later, he announced the birth of Neal Carter.

"Thank god!!! Baby Neal was born healthy to Nivea Nash and Dwayne Carter!!!! Thanx 4 all the blessings n support!!!! Love ya heard me!!!"

In October, Wayne confirmed Nivea was expecting his child after rumors swirled that the pair had reunited. In an interview with a British radio station, the Cash Money star responded in the affirmative when asked about having two women pregnant at the same time, the other being actress Lauren London, who gave birth to Wayne's son on September 9. Wayne then added he would be having another boy.

"[I'll have] three sons," he said.

It's unclear if Nivea, who was previously married to The-Dream, and Lil Wayne are currently together. The pair dated briefly before she hooked up with The-Dream. MTV News' calls and e-mails to Nivea's camp had not been returned at press time.

The rapper welcomed his first son into the world last year, in 2008, when he announced the news during his acceptance speech at the 2008 BET Hip-Hop Awards. His lone daughter, Reginae Carter, 10, was born to the rapper's ex-wife, Toya Carter.

• Lil Wayne

Eminem
Photo: Tim Mosenfelder/ Getty Images

Way back in October 2007, Lil Wayne told Mixtape Monday he had the perfect track for him and Eminem to get down on. At the time, Slim Shady was on hiatus from music.

But now, with an album already released this year and in the midst of completing another one, Em and Wayne have finally gotten together for a song. Sure, they both had verses on this year's "Forever," but that was a Drake track, and Wayne has said that he wanted Em on his own album.

According to Wayne's management, the new Weezy/Em song is called "Drop the World" and will be included on Rebirth, which is now due December 21, the same day as We Are Young Money, the family album from Wayne's Young Money artists. Also on December 21, Em will re-release Relapse, subtitled The Refill, and Relapse 2 is due sometime next year.

Amazon UK posted a track list for Rebirth on Monday (November 30), but Wayne's label would not confirm the lineup. That track list also includes collabos with Nicki Minaj, Kevin Rudolf and Shanell.

Earlier this year, Em told radio personality Angela Yee he was definitely all for a collabo with Weezy F. Baby.

"There hasn't really necessarily been a time for me to go to collaborate and sh-- lately, because I been so locked down in the studio," Eminem said. "But I'm open for whatever. There's a lot of rappers in the game I respect, especially right now."

• Lil Wayne
• Eminem

Shakira
Photo: MTV News

Shakira probably isn't the first name that comes to mind when you think of hip-hop. But since the Colombian pop superstar enlisted the services of Pharrell and Lil Wayne on her latest album, She Wolf, that could change.

"[I'm] starting to understand and assimilate and internalize hip-hop music and hip-hop influences, so I'm trying to incorporate them within my own music," she told MTV News. "Which is a new thing in my life, and I'm completely over the moon. I'm like a kid with a new toy. I'm playing with these new ideas."

The video for her collaboration with Lil Wayne, "Give It Up to Me," recently debuted, and while she realizes she'll never be the next Foxy Brown, Shakira explains that her use of hip-hop is just what music is about today: There are no genre rules anymore.

"I'm never going to be a hard-core hip-hop singer," she said. "I come from Colombia, but I think music today ... it's about bringing elements that belong to different universes, even though they're opposed or similar, and making them exist in this big melting pot that the world is today. The world has shrunk and we're just a big neighborhood, and it's kind of cool."

Shakira also praised the talents of her collaborator Weezy, explaining that his rhymes and work with Timbaland influenced her sound. "I absolutely adore [him]," she said. "I love his rapping and with Timbaland, it's great. It's opening up another influence for me."

• MTV News Extended Play: Shakira

• The Evolution Of: Shakira

• Shakira
• Lil Wayne

OMG Girlz
Photo: Major Productions

Taking a break on Monday from a shoot for the second season of her BET reality show, "Tiny & Toya," T.I.'s fiancée, Tameka "Tiny" Cottle, talked up her latest project, a girl group called OMG Girlz.

Tiny, who knows a bit about being in a girl group thanks to her 1990s run in Xscape (not to mention her hand in penning TLC's mega-hit "No Scrubs"), said she's helping to shepherd the debut by the group, which features her daughter, Zonnique (a.k.a. Star) as well as the offspring of Lil Wayne and his ex-wife, Antonia "Toya" Carter, Reginae (a.k.a. Baby Carter).

The preteen/teen quartet (ages 11 to 13) also includes members Basha (a.k.a. Beauty) and Lourdes (a.k.a. Lolo). They got their start last year when Tiny and her production partner, Kiesha Babi, began talking to Zonnique about her singing ability and encouraging her to form a group. (You can check out the OMZ Girlz's music here.)

Zonnique was actually already a veteran of one short-lived two-girl act, QT Posse, and Tiny suggested she hook up with Reginae to see if they could get something going. When Baby Carter proved her inherited rhyming skills to Tiny, the music industry vet knew she was on to something. "She started rapping for me and I thought this would be great," Tiny said.

As a mother and a survivor of the girl-group mill, Tiny's making sure her daughter's crew doesn't fall into the usual music industry traps that are typical for young acts. "I'm definitely using my experience and telling them the things I've been through," she said. "I don't want them to go through things I went through, so I tell them stories so we can avoid going in that direction."

OMG has played a few shows here and there, appearing at the SoulCircus in Charlotte, North Carolina, recently and at a charity event in Chicago, where they performed their first single, "Ain't Nobody," snippets of some of the other songs Tiny has helped write for them, and a few covers that they dance over.

"We're getting calls all the time and we have shows booked through March," said Tiny. So far, she's co-written seven or eight songs for the group's debut along with Babi, and the women have been encouraging the girls to get their feet wet with songwriting, since, as Tiny knows, that's where the real money is. "Kiesha and I wrote 'Ain't Nobody,' but Reginae wrote on that one too," she said. "We're trying to coach them to write, and they've come up with good stuff."

The Timbaland-style "Ain't Nobody," which sounds like TLC-meets-Rihanna, is a teen love lament, with the girls complaining about boys they're no longer interested in who won't take a hint: "Ain't nobody thinking bout you/ I ain't never had a boy that be sweatin' me bad as you do/ But I'm just not that into you/ I know it's hard but you should try forgetting me," they sing over a futuristic keyboard squiggle.

Baby Carter breaks in midway with a few bars in which she does Daddy proud, rapping, "My name is Reginae/ But you can call me Baby Carter/ They love me and they hate me cuz I'm Weezy F's daughter/ Yeah, I'm a brat and I think it's my world/ And I'm stuntin' like my daddy, cuz I'm daddy's little girl/ When I walk up in the spot, upgrades the room/ And if you standin' next to me, I will upgrade you too."

Despite some conspicuous-consumption lyrics (Baby says she wants a laptop and a Benz for her birthday), Tiny said the idea with OMG was to keep it clean and wholesome and provide some fun party music for younger fans. "It's definitely music that's OK for kids," she said. The focus now is on finishing the album and getting a record deal, as "Ain't Nobody" hits radio before the end of the year.

As for the girls' famous fathers, Tiny said Weezy has already promised he's working on a song for them that he's going to finish before he goes to prison next year. "Tip, you know it! He already told Star he's going to do a song with them," Tiny said. "They're excited."

"Jerkin' " stars the New Boyz also want to get in on the OMG album, and one of Wayne's protégé's, Lil Chuckee, has already jumped on the remix of "Ain't Nobody."

• T.I.
• Lil Wayne

Gucci Mane
Photo: Rick Diamond/ Getty Images

The most important album of Gucci Mane's career is scheduled to surface in stores December 8. For Gucci, the title The State vs. Radric Davis took on an all-too-real relevance a couple of weeks ago when the rapper was sent to jail for 12 months.

He violated the terms of his probation, and at a time when he should be on the road promoting, Gucc is behind bars. He does have a slew of mixtape tracks holding him down in the streets and the clubs. A Gucci set is necessary for just about every hip-hop dance floor now. For the mainstream, the Zone 6 rep left a calling card: "Spotlight" with Usher. Meanwhile, "Wasted" with Plies continues its chart success.

Things couldn't be better for Gucci, career-wise. Despite the LP's grave title, The State vs. Radric Davis finds Gucci in many jovial moments.

The weightiest part of "Heavy" is the beat. Producer Shawty Red makes a track that sounds like it came out of a cartoon and was pimped with roaring bass for the booty-shake clubs. "Real heavy, real heavy," Gucci raps on the hook. "Somebody help me, my chain heavy/ My ego is toooo big/ It's getting' heavy/ My head is gettin' tooo big, it's too heavy."

Jazze Pha uses piano as the soundscape for "The Movie." The track sounds as if an old Charlie Chaplin movie was filmed in today's ATL trap.

"I'm jumping out my coupe with the missing roof," Gucci raps. He then tells the ladies out there he is not looking for any type of serious relationship. " 'Do you remember me from last month?'/ I can't remember nothing but my last blunt," he jokes.

Gucci totally changes his stance on the Zaytoven-produced "I Think I'm in Love." He raps about a woman he feels is "God's gift."

"Bad Bad Bad" has Keyshia Cole on the hook. That record takes a harsh look at love lost. "I can do bad, bad, bad all by myself," Keyshia sings on the chorus. Meanwhile Gucci pleads his case: "I'm a bad boy, but there's still so much good in me/ If you take me out the 'hood, there's still the 'hood in me."

The title says it all on the Rick Ross-featured "All About Money," as does "Sex in Crazy Places" with Bobby V, Nicki Minaj and Trina.

"Stupid Wild" features both Cam'ron and Lil Wayne. The trio stunt and once again plant their flags for being the owners of the rap game.

"Wilder than a jaguar, wildin' in a Jaguar," Weezy spews on the Bangladesh-produced track. "Please don't play with me, I'll put this pistol on your grandpa."

"Let's do the furs, his and hers," Cam comes in on the second verse. "Started gettin' on my nerves, so I hit with the 'burrr'/ ... And your wifey, we use her for her food stamps."

• Gucci Mane
• Lil Wayne
• Cam'ron
• Trina
• Nicki Minaj

Drake
Photo: MTV News

The Cash Money/ Young Money synergy continued recently in Miami. All the family was there: Lil Wayne, Drake, the Birdman, Nicki Minaj, Lil Twist, Lil Chuckee, Mack Maine ... everybody. Wayne and his Young Money camp shot the video for "Bed Rock," while Birdman corralled Drake and Weezy for "4 My Town (Play Ball)," the next single off his album Priceless, due Monday.

"Me, Birdman and Wayne, we got this new song — I guess you could say it's like another 'Money to Blow,' " Drake said on set. "[The] three dudes that brought you the original are coming back, trying to make it just as big. It's cool, man, to come out here and see the classic Cash Money feel. Everything is really big. It's borderline cartoon. All the best things — the best cars, the best-looking women, the lights. It's one of those videos that's fun to do."

Birdman continued to say that while Drake is family, he has his own niche.

"Me and my son been working 20 years, literally. Working with Drake brings a different spark," Birdman said about working with Wayne and Drake. "[Drake's] got a different spark. He's him. He brings him to what we do. It's a different look. It brings something else to it. What I love about him is he does his own thing. He has his own thing with our thing and it makes it bigger. Drizzy!"

On the Birdman's official Twitter page, it was announced that Wayne's Rebirth LP and the Young Money album have both been pushed back to December 22.

• Drake
• Lil Wayne

Photo: DrJays.com

• Robin Thicke
• Rakim
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Kidd Kidd
Photo: Dream Big

Fire Starter: Kidd Kidd

We're going to keep flying through the green light this month in the Fire Starter section. The hot talent from the South keeps emerging. So far, we've brought you Pill and Donnis out of the ATL. This week, we take it to New Orleans for Kidd Kidd.

"Kidd Kidd, my face on every wanted poster" — you might not have recognized the voice, but Kidd was on one of the biggest singles of 2008: Lil Wayne's "Mrs. Officer." The downtown New Orleans native linked up with the uptown N.O. legend (Kidd says downtown cats are known for being grimy, while uptown fellas are famous for stuntin') more than six years ago as part of Wayne's side clique Sqad Up. The collective — which also included Gudda Gudda and T-Streets, who are now down with Wayne's Young Money label — released a slew of mixtapes and underground, independent albums on Wayne's now-defunct Money Yung'N Records.

"Wayne, he works hard," said Kidd, who is known primarily by the nicknames "Peanut" or "Nutt" in his hometown. "You've got to give it up to him. He's a hard worker, so I feel like if I'm around you, I have to work just as hard as you. When he's in the studio, I'm in there. I have to make sure I'm on top of mine too. It was just about being at the right place at the right time."

Since last year, Kidd has ventured out to do his own thing and has linked up with music-industry vet Sha Money XL, who played an integral part in 50 Cent and the G-Unit's rise to fame.

"I want to see the best for him," XL told Mixtape Daily. "I got the label deal too. We're gonna put out records regardless, but it's more for me to get him out there as big as he can be, 'cause he's a star. I want to see him rise to the top. If another major comes in and got the right money, we can do it. L.A. Reid, all y'all know we get to it. We can get to it."

Kidd's first stop to making sure everyone knows his face and his music is the mixtape New Kidd on the Block, hosted by DJ Whoo Kid and DJ Scream. The CD has a mixture of freestyles and new songs, as well as old records he recorded with Drake and Wayne.

"I wanted to put those songs out there, because somebody else was already trying to," Kidd explained. "It wasn't out there how it was supposed to be, so we put those on there."

Some of the records Kidd dug in the crates for was "My N---a," which lent some melodic inspiration to Drake's "Best I Ever Had' and the original version of "Forever" — sans Eminem and Kanye West (Drake and Wayne's verses are totally different form the version you hear on the radio).

"What a lot of people don't know, ['Forever'], it was a me, Drake and Wayne song, the original before they did the remix to it."

He also flipped his own version of Drake's "Fear," which is about Kidd's introduction to the rap game. "It's letting people know, 'Don't be scared of me. Just give me your ear and let me do me,' " Kidd explained.

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

• Mixtape Daily: Jay-Z, Robin Thicke, Nicki Minaj, More

• Drake
• Lil Wayne

Leighton Meester
Photo: Steven Roberts/ MTV News

NEW YORK — She already made "Good Girls Go Bad" with Cobra Starship and looked for "Somebody to Love" with Robin Thicke. Now Leighton Meester's about to "Make It Rain" with Lil Wayne.

Yes, Lil Wayne.

The "Gossip Girl" star revealed her latest collaboration to MTV News before performing at the new American Eagle store in Times Square on Tuesday night, where she sang a medley of cuts off her yet-untitled album, including a remix of the Cobra Starship track.

"I met [Wayne] a few months ago, and he's honestly — I don't even know if he'll want people to know that he's incredibly polite and respectful," she said about the hip-hop wunderkind, with whom she actually presented the award for Best Song From a Movie at the 2009 MTV Movie Awards. "He's so talented and very funny. And really optimistic, and super supportive of me, which I've really, really appreciated so much."

It seems that since their meeting a few months back, Wayne's been a fan of Blair Waldorf's budding discography — and even picked which track he'd be featured on. "I sent him a couple of my songs," she said. "He's been diggin' on them for a while. Then he heard ['Make It Rain'], and he was like, 'All right, I'm gonna kill it!' "

While many musical partnerships can be conducted without both artists being in the studio together, Meester and Weezy got some face time during the song's recording — a feat for any artist, considering Wayne's notorious nocturnal office hours.

"It was like, literally, 4 o'clock in the morning," Meester said of the time she showed up at the studio to watch Wayne work himself into her song. "He was so sick — he didn't even write anything down. He just, like, vibed to the music and dances. I don't even know how he does it; he's amazing."

• Leighton Meester, Pete Wentz Help Launch American Eagle In Times Square
• Star Gazing: Leighton Meester

• Leighton Meester
• Lil Wayne

"Best Rapper Alive" mixtape
Photo: DJ Trackstar

Don't Sleep: Necessary Notables

Mixtape: Best Rapper Alive?

Headliners: Lil Wayne and Royce Da 5'9"

Co-Stars: DJ Trackstar and the Smoking Section

We Can't Stop Playing: The "D.O.A." freestyles; the "Ignant Sh--" freestyles

Essential Info: This is just a mixtape you put on and forget about the fast-forward button. This is one of those gem mixtapes, because you know there's a guarantee that lyrics will be as sharp as a Peyton Manning pass. DJ Trackstar plays Butch Lewis, promoting a dream rhyme fight between Weezy F. Baby and the Nickel Nine. Trackstar took beats that Lil Wayne and Royce Da 5'9" rapped over separately on mixtapes and on proper albums and mixed a tape to make it sound like the two were battling for an entire CD. He even has a score card with the track list.

Obviously, there is no way to judge a battle between the two, because these verses weren't recorded for that purpose, but it's dope nonetheless listening to the two abuse each track worse than Manny Pacquiao dismantled Miguel Cotto in the ring Saturday night.

We know Wayne composes his bars in his head and doesn't write anything down. Royce recently stopped by the 1515 headquarters and told us how he attacks his rhymes.

"I got a lot of different methods," said Royce, who released the LP Street Hop late last month. "Right now in my career, I don't have a particular go-to method. It's all different ways I do it. Everything starts with the music. I gotta have the actual beats. I come up with concepts sometimes without hearing any music, but I can listen to a beat and say, 'This concept that I have in my mind matches this beat.' I might sit on a concept for years. I got a song called 'Taxi Driver,' and I had the concept, but I had to wait on the right beat. I got a Mario Winans beat, and I had to make it mesh. It starts with the beat, then concept, then the flow, then the words. The words are the easiest part.

"I prefer to have everything mapped out," he added about going into the studio. "I'm a technician when I write. I prefer to have everything mapped out. I like to go in there with all the tools already, then it's an easier day for me."

Mixtape: Blockstars 2

Headliner: DJ Kay Slay

Co-Stars: Cam'ron, Jim Jones, Beanie Sigel, 50 Cent, Maino and Mike Beck

We Can't Stop Playing: Sheek Louch's "Everyday"; "Warm It Up" by Styles P; "Self Destruction 2010" by various artists

Essential Info: We listen to the Drama Hour on Hot 97, but there's nothing like throwing on a Kay Slay mixtape and hearing the Drama King start to yell. You don't know if he's gonna call somebody out or shout somebody out, but for damn sure, Kay is going to let you know you are listening to his tape. It's all good. Right about now, Kay is in full burn mode. He's starting to warm it up for his next LP, More Than Just a DJ, which hits January 20.

Salute to all the DJs out there expanding your brand and making it happen. You guys continue to drive the culture.

Other Heat This Week

» Rakim - Seventh Seal (independent album)
» OJ Da Juiceman - 6 Ringz: The Michael Jordan Edition
» Kevin Cossum - Hook vs. Bridge

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

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