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

Rick Ross
Photo: Bryan Bedder/ Getty Images

LOS ANGELES — It's not mo' money, mo' problems for Rick Ross.

"Mo' cars, mo' clothes, mo' money means mo' dough to blow," the Miami up-and-comer raps on his new single, "Blow." The track, the follow-up to Ross's breakthrough "Hustlin'," is going to radio stations Monday and will be followed with a Benny Boom-directed video. Port of Miami, the MC's debut LP, is set for an August 8 release.

"This is my time to shine," Ross said at June's BET Awards. "[The album] is just a Rick Ross testimony, 'cause now you know how hard it was in order to get to this point. It's really easy to say it took me 12 years, but now I really detail and give you some instances that I had to struggle through."

Jay-Z, who signed Ross to Def Jam after a fierce bidding war, has said the MC is known for showcasing "the [darker] side of Miami" (see "Jay-Z Gets Behind Rick Ross To Show He's 'Still In The Rap Business' ").

Cool & Dre produced "Blow" and several other tracks, while Jazze Pha, DJ Khaled and "Hustlin' " masterminds the Runners also contributed production to Port. Guest spots include Akon on "Cross That Line," Lil Wayne on "I'm a G," Mario Winans on "Get Away," Lyfe Jennings on "It's My Time," Carol City Cartel (Ross' group) on "It Ain't a Problem" — and, of course, Jay-Z and Young Jeezy on the "Hustlin' " remix.

Ross said he's also hoping to get Beanie Sigel, Trick Daddy and Ne-Yo on the LP before he hits his deadline, although "Blow" and his likely third single, "Push It" — which borrows its soundscape from "Scarface (Push It to the Limit)," the Al Pacino movie's theme — are solo joints.

"It's just a motivational record," Ross said of "Push It." "No matter what you're doing, you got to push it to the limit. You got to push yourself and be the best you possibly can, and that's what Rick Ross is all about."

Along with finishing Port of Miami, Ross has also contributed to Dre's "Chevy Ridin' High" and DJ Khaled's "Holla at Me" and is starting to look at movie scripts.

"I'm just big at whatever I do, no matter what it is, man, so you will be seeing me everywhere," Ross said. "I'm a hustler."

• Rick Ross (Hip-Hop)
• Lil Wayne
• Akon
• Jazze Pha
• DJ Khaled

Ciara
Photo: Vince Bucci/ Getty Images

BEVERLY HILLS, California — Ciara wants to clear up a rumor about her upcoming second album.

"I always say I want to do Goodies to the 10th power, but the title is not going to be 'Goodies' again," Ciara told MTV News at the ASCAP Pop Music Awards earlier this month. "I have to make that clear because somebody wrote somewhere that I called it Goodies to the 10th Power or something crazy, but I'm like, 'No, no way!' "

Ciara has an idea of what the title will be, although she wasn't ready to share it just yet — and she wasn't willing to elaborate too much about the music or her collaborators, either.

"You tryin' to get too much information and I can't tell you!" she exclaimed. "But I will say that Jaz is going to be involved in this project, that's a given," she confirmed, referring to her mentor, Jazze Pha.

The singer is also working with Sean Garrett, the producer/songwriter behind "Goodies" (as well as a long list of hits that includes Destiny's Child's "Lose My Breath" and Chris Brown's "Run It!," among others).

"We're actually going in [to the studio] this week and I must say I'm excited about that," Ciara said. "Sean is like my brother — we always fight in the studio — but the cool thing is that the fight makes a good record, so it's worth it."

Certainly, the music won't stray too far from Goodies, but Ciara doesn't want to rehash the same ideas, either.

"Things are definitely changing, but in a good way," she said. "The person that I am hasn't changed, but the music, the creativity, the production are something different, but still me. I want to stay true to who I am."

Of course, these days, Ciara is also an actress, and her debut movie, "All You've Got," was released on DVD last week (see "Ciara Happy She Didn't Have To Spike Volleyball Movie With Music"). She noted that lining up her next film is definitely a priority.

"I have an idea of something that I'm doing, but I can't tell you what it is," she said. "I will tell you that from this experience, I really am convinced that the sky's the limit, and there's so much more that I want to contribute to the film world."

• In Focus: Ciara
• "All You've Got" Photos

• Ciara
• Jazze Pha

T.I. in "ATL"
Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures

When it comes to music, T.I. is so confident that he calls himself the King of the South. When it comes to making films, he realizes it's a whole different ballgame. He still has to prove himself and admits he doesn't know how good he is just yet.

In a few weeks Tip makes his feature-film debut in the Chris Robinson-directed "ATL," which is poised to be a sleeper hit for the spring. The cast alone — which includes Hotlanta hip-hop luminaries like Big Boi, Killer Mike, Bone Crusher, Jazze Pha, DJ Drama and T Mo Goodie — should put plenty of people in seats, and the engaging story revolves around a group of friends struggling to break out of the ghetto.

The film hits theaters on March 31, three days after T.I.'s new LP, King, lands in stores (see "New T.I. Songs Leak — Swizz Beatz Calls Track With Tip 'A Whole 'Nuther Level' ").

The coming-of-age flick revolves around five friends who frequent a roller rink called Cascades. That place is based on Atlanta's legendary Jellybeans rink, where Outkast, Goodie Mob, TLC's T-Boz, hitmakers Dallas Austin and Jermaine Dupri and others hung out back in the '80s. The film was produced by Austin, T-Boz and Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment.

On Tuesday night in New York, T.I. previewed "ATL" for a small crowd. Suffice it to say the film is much more than another variation on Bow Wow's "Roll Bounce." The picture, which is based in part on Austin's life, captures the essence of Atlanta's culture, from the authenticity of the language to the clothes.

One aspect of the city's culture, anyway. "My coming-of-age would have been a whole 'nother movie," T.I. said last summer on the set of the film (during a day that found him and fellow cast members like singer/actor Jason Weaver learning how to maneuver gracefully on skates). "My coming-of-age would have been on some 'Boyz N the Hood' sh--. I went to the skating rink just to pick up girls and kick it — it was an early club scene to me. It wasn't as symbolic for me as it was for some other people."

In the movie, T.I. plays a Mechanicsville, Georgia, high school senior named Rashad, who is so focused on trying to raise his younger brother, Jellybean (played by Evan Ross Naess, son of singer Diana Ross), that he pushes his own dreams of becoming a cartoonist to the back burner in the hope of getting his sibling out of the 'hood. He finds escape in going to Cascades every Sunday and stunting on the skates with his crew, the Ones.

"It's got a lot of grown-man situations," T.I. said of his role. "We get to watch how he handles them and how he finds sense in all the madness."

T.I. has a natural onscreen presence, delivering the same kind of ruminating-yet-cool swagger that he does in song, and his unpolished, genuine delivery recalls Ice Cube in "Boyz N the Hood." And being a native of ATL definitely didn't hurt. "There's a world of difference" between making records and films, he said. "You make the record when you feel like it: Whenever the inspiration hits you, you go into the studio and record. Making a movie is on their time, when they say it's time to do this or that."

"He's so cool," Tip's love interest in the movie, Lauren London (probably best known for Pharrell's "Frontin' " video), said of her co-star. "He's so genuine and real. It's been such a pleasure working with him."

"ATL" also deals with social class in the black community, and takes a decidedly dark turn when Big Boi's character, drug dealer Marcus, is introduced into the mix. Big, whose real name — Antwan Andre Patton — appears in the credits (T.I. is credited as Tip Harris), is a visually gravitating scene-stealer who can be hilarious one minute, dauntingly callous the next. And during one scene in particular, he had some members of Tuesday night's audience covering their eyes.

"I can't really judge [my performance]," Tip said in January during a photo shoot for his forthcoming album. "It's my first time acting so I don't have nothing to judge it on. I'm just waiting for the response."

For more on T.I. and Atlanta's hip-hop scene, take a look at "My Block: Atlanta" and " 'Great Day In Atlanta': A Historic Photo Exposed."

Check out everything we've got on "ATL."

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• "ATL" Photos

• T.I.
• Big Boi
• Killer Mike
• Bone Crusher
• Jazze Pha

Jazze Pha and Cee-Lo
Photo: Getty Images

CULVER CITY, California — Cee-Lo is reuniting the Goodie Mob and working on his third solo album, but right now he's most focused on Happy Hour.

No, he doesn't have a drinking problem. Happy Hour is his upcoming joint album with fellow Atlanta producer Jazze Pha.

"It's 60 minutes of well-dressed drama," Cee-Lo said in explaining the collaboration, due on shelves in February.

"Happy Hour" is also the title of the just-released first single and video.

"It's really self-explanatory," Pha said. "You know, the ladies get off work, it's ladies' night, so come kick it with us."

"We'll be your hosts for the evening," Cee-Lo added.

Pha and Cee-Lo first worked together on Trick Daddy's 2002 single "In Da Wind" (Pha as a producer, Cee-Lo as a guest rapper) and then again that year on Field Mob's "All I Know."

"We just go back historically for some time, being friends and being cordial, professionally and personally," Cee-Lo said. "In Atlanta, it's a community there, music-wise" (see "My Block: Atlanta").

Along with co-producing, Jazze and Cee-Lo both sing and rap on Happy Hour. And several of their friends make guest appearances, including Pha protégé Ciara ("Lose Your Cool") and the Pussycat Dolls, for whom Cee-Lo produced "Don't Cha."

The Dolls track, "Disco Bitch," is an ode to Rick James and was first meant for their album, but Pha and Cee-Lo felt it better fit Happy Hour.

Other guests on the album include Aaron Hall, Mannie Fresh, Keith Sweat and Nate Dogg.

As for that Goodie Mob reunion, Cee-Lo had only this to say: "The near future."

• Cee-Lo
• Jazze Pha
• Ciara
• Pussycat Dolls
• Trick Daddy

Stars Collide At The 2008 VMA Weekend Parties

• Colby O'Donis
• Korn
• Game
• Calle 13
• Paris Hilton

Pharrell, Mary J. Blige, T.I., Game, Remy Ma, Nick Cannon At The 2005 'Vibe' Awards Red Carpet

• T.I.
• Game
• Ludacris
• Mary J. Blige
• Nick Cannon