Prodigy
Photo: MTV News

On Wednesday, a New York judge granted Mobb Deep's Prodigy a second medical reprieve from his scheduled 3-and-a-half year prison bid, which was set to begin that day. However, there seems to be some confusion regarding the rapper's health.

Prodigy was hospitalized recently after experiencing severe lung pain, according to an interview with his attorney Irving Cohen on Thursday (February 14).

But in a blog post on his Web site Wednesday afternoon, Prodigy wrote: "Who cares what they say, they say a lot. Spell/ pronounce my name right when it's time ... I did Connecticut twice in a row, B.B. King's in New York, then Boston, Albany and New Hampshire. So I don't know why they wanna say I'm sick in the hospital. I'm very good, getting that show bread."

Representatives close to Prodigy also confirmed he had not been hospitalized. When reached by MTV News Thursday, Cohen had no comment regarding Prodigy's blog entry.

Last month Prodigy also reportedly suffered complications from his sickle-cell anemia condition and was granted the first of his now two temporary extensions of freedom. Originally, Prodigy was set to begin his prison term — stemming from a 2006 gun charge, to which he pleaded guilty in October 2007 — on January 8.

The date, however, came and went without his compliance. According to previous media reports, prison officials requested the rapper be granted an additional postponement as the facility was ordered to be properly equipped to deal with his medical condition.

Prodigy's bout with sickle-cell anemia has long been a public matter: The rapper has often cited his blood disorder and related complications in his lyrics. Last year alone, he was hospitalized three times for his condition and reportedly underwent a hip-replacement surgery.

While he's been waiting for his prison sentence to begin, Prodigy has been promoting his forthcoming solo project, H.N.I.C. 2, now due April 8. Several songs have leaked to the Web, however; the first official single is slated to be "Real Power Is People," for which he shot a video recently in New York at the Queens House of Detention in Kew Gardens.

• Mobb Deep
• Prodigy of Mobb Deep

Prodigy
Photo: MTV News

A New York judge yesterday granted Mobb Deep's Prodigy a second medical reprieve from his scheduled three-and-a-half year prison bid, which was set to begin on Wednesday.

Prodigy, who held a farewell concert last week in New York, is now scheduled to begin his prison sentence on February 20. The rapper was hospitalized two days ago, according to his publicist.

Last month Prodigy also suffered complications from his sickle-cell anemia condition and was granted the first of his now two temporary extensions of freedom. Originally, Prodigy was set to begin his prison term — stemming from 2006 gun charge, to which he pleaded guilty in October 2007 — on January 8.

The date, however, came and went without his compliance. According to previous media reports, prison officials requested the rapper be granted an additional postponement as the facility was ordered to be properly equipped to deal with his medical condition.

Prodigy's bout with sickle-cell anemia has long been a public matter: The rapper has often cited his blood disorder and related complications in his lyrics. Last year alone, he was hospitalized three times for his condition and reportedly underwent a hip-replacement surgery.

While he's been waiting for his prison sentence to begin, Prodigy has been promoting his forthcoming solo project, H.N.I.C. 2, now due April 8. Several songs have leaked to the Web, however; the first official single is slated to be "Real Power Is People," for which he shot a video recently in New York at the Queens House of Detention in Kew Gardens.

• Mobb Deep
• Prodigy of Mobb Deep

50 Cent
Photo: MTV News

Artist: Prodigy

Representing: Mobb Deep

Independent Album: H.N.I.C. 2

411: If we have the technology to increase a woman's bra size to a D cup, even though she was born to have a pair of As (shout out to "Double A" Arn Anderson), people shouldn't be surprised that we have the technology to make Prodigy's voice rap in Chinese, even though he's not bilingual. His new album, H.N.I.C. 2, is the first LP that will be available in over 1,400 languages.

"Voice translation," Prodigy said of Voxonic, a machine that can copy the tone of his voice rapping and reproduce it in just about any language. "When I heard it, I was like, 'That's not real.' I couldn't believe it. That's crazy."

But the only language we Mobb Deep allegiants really want to hear is the Dunn language. Last week in New York, Prodigy gave a farewell concert, in which he performed both of his solo opuses, as he prepared to go to jail for anywhere between one and three years. P said that besides his kids, the person who is probably taking his sentence the worst is his partner, Havoc.

"Hav feels like he's getting locked up," P said. "Me and Hav have never been apart for more than two weeks, probably three. We never let three weeks go past without us in the studio working on a new song — new Mobb Deep song, new Prodigy song, new Hav, whatever — in our entire career! ... It's definitely something new to us, and we'll have to adjust to it.

"Me and Hav always talk about how we could never break up," V.I.P. added. "Our goal is to break the record for longest-running group in hip-hop. Our goal was to have the most longevity. ... We think about that all the time. We always try to keep Mobb Deep relevant and up there."

No new Mobb albums until P comes out (although the duo have a million unreleased records in the stash). He is leaving us with H.N.I.C. 2, though, the follow-up to his 2000 solo debut, which spawned one of our all-time favorite cuts, "Keep It Thoro" ("Doin' it past yo' delf you way out your jurisdiction.")

The independent album comes out on March 25, and he'll soon be releasing a DVD with a video for each song. He was inspired by watching "Heartless," a movie by Queens group the Live Squad that tells a story through six music videos.

Joints To Check For:

» Dirty New Yorker." "Return of the Mac, that was me playing," P explained of the difference between last year's mixtape and his real album. "That's me on my downtime, me and Al[chemist] f---ing around. Less than a month we made that. When it comes to H.N.I.C.2, I don't play no games at all. I'm real serious. I recorded about 30-40 songs for this album. I picked the best 14 or 15. I decided to put lot more information in the album than I did before. I can articulate myself better."

» "Real Power Is People." "Soon as you put the album on, the first song is called 'Real Power Is People," P said. "It's incredible. The chorus goes 'F--- jewelry./ F--- rims./ Let's spend on our protection./ Get armor, get cameras./ Get with it, little n---as. This is man's sh--./ Real power is people./ Real strength is in the street.' When people hear it, they're gonna be like, 'P is on some sh-- right now.' "

» "Illuminati." "[When] we did 'I Shot Ya,' I was planting little seeds of information," P said. "I said, 'Illuminati want my mind, soul and my body.' ... That was it. Then I jumped into something else. I left people like, 'What is P talking about?' I left it for all these years. A lot of people started saying it after that. Pac called himself 'Don Killuminati.' DJ Clue has 'Cluemanati.' Jay-Z samples my voice on 'D'Evils.' I could tell I sparked something. I was like, 'Yeah, it's working. People are interested.' That's where I tried to take it on this album. Put more secret government, the illuminati sh--. Racial issues. Real factual sh--. People will be like, 'What are you talking about right there?' They'll want to research that."

Don't Sleep: Other Notable Selections This Week

» DJ Obscene - Poe Boy Radio, vol. 1
» DJ Delz and Snatchatape - Quality Over Quantity, Vol. 4 (hosted by Termanology)
» DJ Kronik and Flo Rida - Freestyle Kronikles
» DJ Whoo Kid and 50 Cent - Return of the Body Snatchers, Vol. 1

'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar

» Rich Boy featuring Nas, Lil Wayne and John Legend - "Ghetto Rich" remix
» DJ Felli Fel featuring Kanye West, Fabolous, Ne-Yo and Jermaine Dupri - "Finer Things"
» Jim Jones featuring the Game - "Love Me No More"
» Usher featuring Young Jeezy - "In This Club"
» Focus featuring Busta Rhymes and Bishop Lamont - "Shine"

Fire Starter: DJ Scream

In the ATL, he's as respected as Drama when it comes to breaking new acts. He's backed Shawty Lo and Rocko in the streets with mixtapes, and he worked with Soulja Boy Tell'em before he was the digital king. He just dropped a collabo mixtape with J.Kwik, featuring Gucci Mane, titled Trap-tackular. With new mixtapes on the way featuring Big Kuntry, Young Dro, a sequel to the Soulja Boy project and the return of his signature Heavy in the Streets, now on Volume 13, Scream is poised to make a lot of noise in 2008.

Celebrity Faves

"Crunk" doesn't always mean fast. Lil Jon has been taking his time preparing his Crunk Rock album for years. While building what he feels will be a classic, Jon has been enjoying spending his side time in the club, carrying out the job that let him break into the industry: DJing.

"It's fun to just rock a crowd," the Atlanta music maven said. And what's his bread-and-butter song every night, no matter what club he's in?

"Flo Rida! Get 'Low,' " he answered. "If the crowd ain't really moving, and you wanna get on and just attack 'em ... take it to another level right way, you drop the Flo Rida. Yeah, man, they just wanna dance. That's a universal record. Any kind of crowd, they gonna get up and move. Tempo has been down a lot lately. Now the tempo is getting back up. It was just the West Coast doing it with all the hyphy stuff. Now on our side, the South, we're bringing the tempo back up."

The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground

50 Cent didn't expect to win a Grammy this year. He felt he deserved it, but winning wasn't even a thought.

"I did say, 'Kanye gets the trophies, 50 gets the checks' [in a previous interview]," Fif recalled. "I was saying that because when the awards shows came, they overlooked me, forgot to acknowledge my accomplishments. Anytime the Grammys came, every time the award shows came, they overlooked me. You know why — because of where I come from and how I was raised. They project that to middle America. Oh my goodness, their kids might wanna be like me!"

The Mixtape Monday fam has been playing a lot of the G-Unit's Return of the Body Snatchers mixtape the past week ("Ohhhhh--K. Ohhhhh-K"), and 50 already told us there's a part two coming in a couple of weeks.

"We still got the respect, but we got the hate/respect," DJ Whoo Kid said last week. "Some people hate 50's success so bad, they don't wanna give him his props. I guess he's assuming that he has to bust his again in 2008 and get it poppin'. If you hear how some of these songs sound like album cuts, imagine how the album is gonna be. He's not playing. He's making sure the G-Unit album is on point. He's pressing Yayo and Banks to give 150 percent. He's not accepting any wack records. Even when I heard these joints on Body Snatchers, I was like, 'Are you serious?' I fainted twice. A lot of these joints sound like they need to be on the album."

The Unit are about to go another tour, this time in Canada and Australia, and Whoo Kid says they'll have another Stateside run around May.

"We're praying to God that Eminem gets his album done, so it can be some incredible sh--," Whoo said. "A [Dr.] Dre, Em and 50 tour. That would be a good look right now." ...

Rick Ross was recently in town to shoot the video for "The Boss," featuring T-Pain, and the Miami kingpin did it up large in the Big Apple. Double R shot the clip at the Trump World Tower in Manhattan, high (high!) above the city on the 72nd floor.

"We just wanted to do something new, something refreshing," a shirtless Ross told us from his trailer. "The album is incredible, so we wanted to bring them incredible visuals. Between the movement, Ricky Ross, DJ Khaled, Poe Boy [Entertainment], we shoot so many videos in Miami that we cover so much ground. And I been in so many videos in the last year, I wanted to do something different. So I only thought it would make sense to come to the birth place of hip-hop and put it down like a real boss — suck up the atmosphere, the Manhattan skyline. That's what bosses do, we migrate. We're spreading our hustle up here in New York City, and it's just incredible."

Ross is putting the finishing touches on his Trilla album, which is now due March 11. The Florida heavyweight has more singles than Pacman Jones in a strip club, but he said most of the tracks released so far were to keep his buzz going amid album delays. He's had the tracks for Trilla laid out and sequenced almost from the beginning.

"I didn't just come back and format a regular album," Ross explained. "I drew from Pimp C, UGK, Bun B; them my uncles in the game. I drew from trill, which is a down-South term for being real. And I took from Michael Jackson's Thriller, and I came up with Trilla. And we did some different things. Meaning, like, before I even wrote a song, I actually put the music in order [the way] I would want to hear an album musically, and that's the order I wrote the records. I did a lot of different things."

"Maybach Music," featuring Jay-Z, and "Luxury Tax," featuring Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne, and Trick Daddy, are "gonna be the biggest records in the streets," according to Ross. But even as he's pushing Trilla, he's already at work on his next project, a street movie and album collaboration with Birdman from Cash Money. "It's called 'H,' " Ross said. "It's about honor, homicide, hustling, and it's about heroin. Think a next-level 'Menace II Society.' " ...

Even Marlo Stanfield said himself: It's just "not possible" for Omar to jump four stories off a balcony and not have gone to his final glory. The controversial shoot-out scene on "The Wire" a few weeks back is still being talked about.

Michael Kenneth Williams' character Omar had the tables turned on him and was ambushed by henchmen working for Marlo Stanfield (played by Jamie Hector). Seeing he had no way out, Omar took a literal leap of faith.

"These things are taken from real events," Hector told us last week about Omar's dramatic plunge (turns out, Omar suffered a severely injured leg in the fall but is still robbing and killing). "When you have somebody determined to survive, he's gonna survive. It's like, when you got somebody determined to win, they're gonna win. Some people may keep it moral and ethical, spiritual. This cat looks at his man [dead] on the floor that was giving him the blueprint of how to get Marlo. [Omar] had four guns coming at him. Big guns. What he did was remarkable. Real talk, I probably would have done the same thing."

Hector said he and the cast are definitely not enthused that "The Wire" is ending in just a few weeks, but he has loved working in the ensemble.

"It's fun, we enjoy it," he beamed. "When you get a chance to jump into some shoes you would like to portray as actor, you always wanna get a part that has meat. The entire script, though, not just your part. You want a script that has weight [for] the entire ensemble. Meaty, good, it makes you wanna watch everybody's work. The writing was off the chain, the casting was done properly. The actors bring it. It was a blessing and still is. The blend is a beautiful blend.

"Snoop? Felicia Pearson will crack you up," he continued, getting more specific about his character's accomplices Snoop and Chris. "There's always something funny coming out of her mouth. Once you meet her, it's like meeting Tupac. That energy. Ahhhh! That thing that you can't fake. I'm just laughing thinking about it. She has the set on edge everyday. It's just comedy. Gbenga Akinnagbe, who plays Chris, he's knowledgeable. His mind is always working beyond the set. You sit back and watch the kid. He's working, trying to figure out the next thing. He does an amazing job."

Hector also laughed about all the jokes Method Man cracks on the set.

"You saw what he did to his uncle?" Hector says about the betrayal exacted by Meth's Big Cheese character on Prop Joe. As all "Wire" fanatics know, Joe was set up by his nephew Cheese to get his head blown off by Marlo and Chris.

"Cheese was the one who put him there for $50,000," Jamie began to explain. "It was beyond $50,000 though. It was the principle. He felt his uncle didn't have the water to carry the organization. I was with Method Man yesterday. The streets hate him now. The streets can't stand Marlo. They love you, they love the character, but his actions. ... That was [Cheese's] blood. His kin. His uncle wouldn't even turn on him with Slim Charles."

Meth concurred last week, while in Chung King studio previewing some of his new tracks with Redman. "Yeah, man, I'm getting a lot of flak over that character too, 'cause he's so cold-blooded, boy," he said.

"All those seasons on there, if you really watch, Joe's been holding [Cheese's] hand, man," Meth continued. "He's protected me from getting killed or locked up. But at the same time, he's been holding my hand. He's been like, 'Nah, don't do that.' 'Nah, don't punch him in the face.' 'Nah, don't spit on him' You know what I mean? And after awhile, you know, you just want to come from up underneath that and do your own thing. He's so cold-blooded. Yo, stop stopping me in the street, asking me why I did that to Joe. It's a television show, man!"

"Method Man, that's my dude, though," Hector added. "He's naturally funny. He's also a good business man. He's where he's supposed to be, when he's supposed to be there. I enjoy working with him."

Hector said that around five or six episodes into his tenure with the show (he's been a menacing fixture for the past three seasons), the producers told him that they had plans for Marlo to stick around for a long time.

"I'm trying to catch that ball and keep it, like the [New York] Giants did,' he said of his new popularity. "Catch it like my man Tyree did at the last minute."

• Mixtape Monday Video: Prodigy, Method Man, Rick Ross & More

• G-Unit, DJ Obscene, Flo-Rida and more

• 50 Cent
• Rick Ross (Hip-Hop)
• Prodigy of Mobb Deep
• DJ Whoo Kid

Mobb Deep's Prodigy at his farewell show in New York on Wednesday
Photo: Dave Goodson

NEW YORK — For a farewell show, Prodigy's performance Wednesday night at B.B. King's Blues Club & Grill was short on sentimentality.

The Mobb Deep star pleaded guilty in October to gun-possession charges and next week will begin serving a three-and-a-half-year prison bid. The sentence has put the brakes on his rejuvenated solo career just as he's gearing up to release his latest album, H.N.I.C. 2, which he's been feverishly promoting.

But for P, the finale, as it was billed, turned out to be business as usual. There was barely any time for tributes.

"Standing next to me, this is my brother here," said Havoc, the other half of Mobb Deep, midway through the set; he flanked his partner onstage throughout the set. "I've known him like 20 years. We went to high school together. It's been since like '88 or '89. I've known him a long time, I consider him my brother. Give it up for family!"

"It's a celebration, though," Prodigy quickly cut in during the cheers, ending the only words of recognition for him all night.

With that, DJ On Point launched into "Shook Ones Pt. II," the Queens duo's classic hit. The crowd — littered with fans holding swirling cups of Hennessy, clad in Champion hoodies and Timbs — went wild.

"I got you stuck off the realness/ We been the infamous/ You heard of us/ Official Queensbridge murders," Prodigy spit, as the 30-plus members of his entourage onstage, including Cormega, chanted along.

P and Hav quickly transitioned into "Quiet Storm," then Prodigy kicked "Keep It Thoro" from his debut solo LP, before the M-O-B-B connected with their G-Unit era and went into "Have a Party."

Prodigy kept the capacity crowd off balance for the majority of the night. Vintage Mobb tracks were performed between a number of standout cuts from the upcoming H.N.I.C. 2.

"Real Power," with its woozy, minimal beat and chanted chorus, made it feel like a New York summer night in 1994.

"F--- jewelry, f--- rims," P rapped on the grimey track. And sure enough, before the song, P took his hoodie and chains off. His crew did the same and a chain went flying into the crowd as someone pumped their fist a little too enthusiastically to the song. Maserati Fox dived off the stage and parted the crowd to get it back.

Prodigy brought out Un Pacino for another new track, "Three Stacks"; Mega joined him to spit a quick a cappella verse.

But after 90 minutes onstage and with the time nearing midnight, P began a list of shout outs: to 50 Cent, to G-Unit, and to his grandmother, "the original H.N.I.C."

P then dove into one more track to end the night, "Dirty New Yorker," from his new album. But it was only for one verse, and by that time Prodigy's voice was getting hoarse.

However, it was a fitting cap to the evening. "Everyone, one love," P said plainly as he exited the stage. "We had fun."

• Prodigy Feels Vulnerable

• Mobb Deep
• Prodigy of Mobb Deep

Game
Photo: Annette Brown/Getty Images

Artist: B.G.

Representing: Chopper City/ New Orleans

Mixtape: Hood General

411: Come NBA All-Star Weekend, we might just see a Hot Boys reunion: The four members have all been talking among themselves about dropping an album this year. Some new songs have been recorded, and B.G. says he wants to try and Don King a show, since the All-Star Game is going to be in their hometown.

"I'mma reach out to Juvie and Wayne and see if they wanna come together and do a Hot Boys reunion [show]," he told us last week. "Everybody come together, and we can go out with a bang."

We will stay tuned for that. In the next couple of weeks, Gizzle will put out a new mixtape with DJ Drama, Hood General, to lead into his album Too Hood to Be Hollywood.

"The same way I came in the game, that's the same way I'm going out — G'd up and soldiered down," B.G. said of his LP concept. "What you see is what you get. Everything I ever did that crossed over, I made the game cross over to me. I'm not too 'hood for Hollywood — I'll go to Hollywood and turn it out. But [at the same time,] I'm too 'hood to be Hollywood. I love these streets. It gives me the inspiration."

For his mixtape, B.G. used a bunch of new producers. The album, which was executive produced by T.I., features Cool and Dre, Mannie Fresh and Scott Storch.

Joints To Check For:

"I Hussle" remix (featuring Young Jeezy and Maino). "This was hard on the album, but it's even harder on the mixtape," B.G. said. "Jeezy is one of the realest in the game. We see each other in Atlanta. When he's in the N.O., we get down heavy. That's my partna. I was listening to the record, and I was [thinking], 'Who's the perfect person to get on there?' That hustle talk. He talks that talk like regular conversation."

"Slippin." "Every real G across America is scared of slippin'. Everybody I know is scared of slippin'. I know I am. ... On this mixtape, I didn't really rap over anybody's beat, because I wanted to do me. I got some freestyles, but it's mostly songs. I ain't wanna do nobody else. I could have got on the song and made you feel like you should have gotten me for the remix. But I decided to not steal nobody else's crack."

"Born Hustla." "I'm just spitting that rough, rugged, raw B.G. flavor. The streets of New Orleans where I was raised. Representing uptown."

Don't Sleep: Other Notable Selections This Week

» Superstar Jay - The Wire (2008 Is My Year) » DJ Chuck T - Battle for Supremacy (UGK vs. Outkast) » J. Armz - How to Be an MC Vol. 49 » Snyplife - Best of Snyplife 2

'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar

» Kanye West (featuring R. Kelly) - "Flashing Lights" remix » Big Noyd (featuring Joell Ortiz) - "Ghetto" » Kidz in the Hall - "Driving Down the Block" » Buckshot & 9th Wonder - "Go All Out" » Ryan Leslie (featuring Kanye West) - "Diamond Girl"

Fire Starter: Alex Melamid

The famed Russian painter is the father of video director Dan the Man, who helmed the lens for Prodigy's grizzly "Mac 10 Handle" clip. After the younger artist introduced his father to 50 Cent and his crew, the elder Melamid got inspired. Between 2003 and 2005 he spent time with a number of rap icons, from Russell Simmons to Snoop Dogg to Kanye West. The result is "Holy Hip-Hop!," an exhibit that's set to be on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit from February to April. The show will feature 12 life-size portraits of a number of hip-hop's elite. "I thought it would be interesting to paint the men of hip-hop using the traditional European style I have been perfecting for 40 years," Melamid said of the project.

Celebrity Faves

Scarface has been coaching football for his son's JV league team, making albums and searching movie theaters for the perfect gory horror movie. But when he was recently in New York, Brad Jordan also told us he was also going to try to hear Jay-Z name-drop him in the song "Ignorant Sh--" on American Gangster.

"I gotta hear it, man. I get stuck off Jigga and can't get off one song," he said. " 'Lost Ones' is where I stopped on the last album. And I have the whole album."

When asked who he would pick if he could record an album with any MC, he actually named two: Hov and Beanie Sigel. That's cheating, but who's gonna tell Uncle 'Face he can't dream of an all-star trio?

"That's my brother from another planet. Jay-Z is an animal," he said. "Jigga, Beanie — it would be my pleasure to get on there and do something with them. Do a whole album! Wouldn't that be great? I look forward to doing that. The fans want it too. Jay, Beans and 'Face."

The guys may want to throw Freeway in the mix as well. The two have an astonishing track called "Baby Don't Do It" on Free's meagerly promoted Free at Last.

The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground

Game is about 80 percent done with his next album, LAX, according to his camp. The man his DJ, Nu Jersey Devil, is calling "A-Game" has been working with producers Cool and Dre and Scott Storch, among others, but there's word now that he and Dr. Dre are hooking up again too.

"[Dr. Dre] dropped some stuff off," Nu Jersey Devil said. "But I'm not sure if Game did anything to them yet." Game has been working in Miami and Los Angeles and should be ready to drop sometime this spring. The Compton, California, native has also reunited with his estranged brother, Big Fase, but that hasn't stopped Game from continuing to tell his guys that LAX will spell el fin for him.

"He's fed up with all the BS," Devil said of Game's plans to retire. "Unless something tremendous happens with this album, he'll probably fall back and play the executive role. But this album is sounding better than his first two. He's at his peak. I'mma do everything in my power to keep him going. I think everything will be good."

Game's next mixtape is tentatively titled Am I My Brother's Keeper and should hit the streets a little before his album. (For more on Devil's work, keep reading.) ...

Flo Rida is breaking digital records, sitting atop the "TRL" countdown and resting comfortably at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the fourth straight week with "Low" (featuring T-Pain). But the rise of the Opa-Locka, Florida, native had its share of waves. As the youngest of seven — all the rest are girls, including a twin sister — Flo said he felt pressure to succeed from a young age. The pursuit left him with some tough choices to make along the way. One was taking a job at the MGM Grand — one that didn't have anything to do with flashy Vegas lights.

"I was pulling silverware of the trash," he recalled. "It was crazy. I had to go through all the food in the garbage, looking for forks and knives, so they could recycle them. At that time in Vegas, it was snowing. But I've had plenty more jobs since."

The main job right now is putting the finishing touches on his debut, Mail on Sunday.

The Poe Boy/ Atlantic project is set to feature collaborations with fellow Sunshine State rhymers Rick Ross, Brisco and Plies, along with Lil Wayne and Trey Songz.

Flo said he's choosing between three or four songs that could be the next single before his album drops in February. He's got records in the can with JR Rotem, Jazze Pha, and Cool and Dre. But ultimately, he may test out the songs in the strip clubs, where "Low" first took off. According to Flo, an exec from Atlantic suggested he spit on the bouncy track since he had roots in the 305, where bass music once ruled. Flo agreed but never thought the track would crossover like it has.

"We took it to the strip club just to test it out," Flo explained. "But the girls acted like they heard the record a thousand times before. I thought ['Low'] was gonna be big, but not this big." ...

Prodigy said the reason he doesn't keep security around him is because he just doesn't like rolling with strangers, period.

"It be a bunch of bullsh-- we have to deal with," P said of why many artists carry firearms, illegal or licensed. "I'll speak for myself: I don't like new people around me. I don't trust people. ... I don't want nobody to know where I live, I don't want nobody to know my movements. A lot of people feel like that. I got a Porsche — 50 bought us Porsches. I can't fit security in my car! Maybe they can fit in another car, then you gotta pay for another car."

P also said resources come into play. A tight security team could cost upward of tens of thousands a day.

"People is out there hustling, striving to survive," he added. "Everybody can't afford to always have a hundred dudes around you. I'm like 90 percent always by myself."

Besides weaponry, Prodigy also takes a cue from 50 and the G-Unit, as far as protection goes, by bulletproofing his vehicle. His Suburban came to over $120,000 once he armored it.

"A lot of my friends got murdered in their cars. What the f--- I look like riding in a regular car [when] Yayo, Banks, 50, everybody got bulletproof trucks? So I'm gonna be the one to get killed? Nah. I bought a bulletproof truck too. My man E-Money Bags got killed in his car. Big, Pac, my man Stretch out in Hollis." ...

Nu Jersey Devil's elevation from DJ/ producer/ in-house A&R man at Black Wall Street has been anything but hellacious. He's getting booked for shows to rap — not spin records — simply from word of mouth. He put the word out on the Net some time ago that he was going to seriously start rhyming, and promoters from as far away as Germany are shelling out greenbacks to get him onstage. You have to love the hip-hop hustle.

"I love it," the Atlantic City, New Jersey, native said about rapping. "It's something I wanted to do since I was a kid but never did it. But n---as kept pushing me. Game was always like, 'I think you should do it.'

"Game and them keep it gangsta," he added. "No matter how G I keep it, I'm too much of a pretty boy, so people don't believe me. So I do it for the ladies. I still keep it gangsta, but females buy records. That's my lane."

Devil, who is Game's DJ and business associate, said that after the response he got from appearing on Lil Wayne's "Bandana on the Right Side" last year, he decided to finally give it a try.

"Everybody loved it," Dev said. "I ain't get no bad reviews from it. Lil Wayne was impressed."

And with the younger listeners — who happen to be buying a bulk of the music these days — not exactly holding MCs to any type of lyrical standard, let's face it, could Devil really sound any worse than some of these guys out there with "hit" records? He doesn't think so.

"At that point, I was like, 'I hear all his other type of stuff going on, I might as well do it.' There's nothing I can't do. I'm comfortable in the booth, I can do my own beats. I'm trying to keep my hands in every cookie jar I can."

NJ is giving the listeners a chance to hear for themselves very soon with the release of his From the Block to the Yacht mixtape, which is joint venture with up-and-coming Miami rapper Stacks.

"He grew up a rich kid, silver spoon in his mouth. His dad is a millionaire," NJ said Stacks being referenced in the CD title. "Me being from the 'hood, the other side of the track. We met through Game. The whole thing is produced by me, Steve Morales, Scott Storch and my new production crew, Surround Sound. It's impeccable, man. I don't like to consider it a mixtape — it's more like an album."

Dev says he'll have an official single out soon. One of his choices is an untitled track with Game, while the other is another song with Lil Wayne that has yet to be named as well. Devil also launched his own clothing line, Heaven or Hell, and if you check the Web site you'll see some of his more tenured rapper friends, such as Rick Ross, modeling his hoodies and T-shirts.

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

• Game
• 50 Cent
• Prodigy of Mobb Deep

Game and Dr. Dre
Photo: Aftermath

• Game
• Dr. Dre
• Prodigy of Mobb Deep
• B.G.
• Scarface

Patrick Stump
Photo: Scott Gries/ Getty Images

Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump has been named one of the un-sexiest men of 2007 by Boston alt-weekly The Phoenix. He lands at #95 on the list, right next to Larry King and Jon Heder. ...

Prodigy, who will start serving a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence on a charge of gun possession for which he was indicted in October, plans to issue his second solo album while behind bars. H.N.I.C. Part 2 will drop in March, feature production from Mobb Deep group mate Havoc and Alchemist, and be integrated with Voxonic technology, which converts a voice into hundreds of languages with near-perfect accuracy. Prodigy also released a statement regarding his upcoming sentence, saying, "Throughout my life, I have always lived through adversity. I'm a survivor. You don't understand the mental power that I have. While I'm locked up, I'm going to be writing lyrics, working on the script for my second feature film, 'Dope,' and finish writing an autobiography of my life, which will be finished by the time I'm released. My mind is going to be focused, and I'll have time to think and map out my entire plan. The experience will make me a tougher, stronger person. I'm gonna work on getting out faster, so I can get back to doing what I do best. When I get home, it's gonna be on!" ...

R.E.M. have christened their forthcoming album Accelerate and set an April 1 release date for the effort. The album was produced by Jacknife Lee (Bloc Party, Snow Patrol) and will feature "Until the Day Is Done," "Living Well Is the Best Revenge" and "Staring Down the Barrel of Middle Distance." Expect the band to tour in the spring. ... It's not like she was expecting an Oscar nomination, but a nod for the worst? In a poll conducted by AOL's Moviefone Web site, 58 percent of respondents gave Lindsay Lohan the dubious distinction of turning in the worst performance by an actress in 2007 for her role in "I Know Who Killed Me." Another one of Lohan's box-office bombs, "Georgia Rule," finished second among the more than 3.8 million voters, just behind the Eddie Murphy comedy "Norbit," as the biggest waste of $10. "Norbit" also earned the comedian the title of worst performance by an actor. ... Eddie Murphy and "Good Luck Chuck" producer Tracey Edmonds got hitched during an intimate New Year's Day ceremony on a private island in French Polynesia, according to People.com. Johnny Gill was reportedly Murphy's best man. ...

Radiohead singer Thom Yorke has hit back at the boss of his former label, EMI Music, after claims that the band had rejected a nearly $6 million advance for their new album while demanding the copyrights to older titles. In a December 29 post on the group's official Web site under the heading "FYI — if you care — for your information," Yorke wrote, "We did not ask for a load of cash from our old record label EMI to re-sign. That is a L I E. The Times in the U.K. should check its facts before it prints such dirt. What we wanted was some control over our work and how it was used in the future by them — that seemed reasonable to us, as we cared about it a great deal. [EMI boss Guy] Hands was not interested. So neither were we. We made the sign of the cross and walked away. Sadly." Yorke said the group was upset about the airing of "dirty laundry" in public. Separately, Yorke told BBC Radio 4 that releasing In Rainbows solely as a digital download — the physical album hit stores this week — would have been "stark raving mad" because 80 percent of fans still buy physical releases. "We didn't want it to be a big announcement about 'everything's over except the Internet, the Internet's the future,' 'cause that's utter rubbish," Yorke said. "And it's really important to have an artifact as well, as they call it, an object." Yorke, in one of his first public comments about the decision to release In Rainbows under a pay-what-you-wish scheme, explained that Radiohead had a "moral justification in what we did in the sense that the majors and the big infrastructure of the music business has not addressed the way artists communicate directly with their fans. ... In fact, they seem to basically get in the way. Not only do they get in the way, but they take all the cash." He also denied reports that In Rainbows was downloaded more than 1.2 million times in its first week, but, in keeping with the band's silence on sales, would not confirm how many times it was actually downloaded. "It's total nonsense. ... We're the only people who know, and it feels wrong to say exactly what happened," he said. "But it's been a really nice surprise and we've done really well out of it." ...

The presidential race will bleed over into late-night TV on Wednesday night (January 2) when David Letterman chats up Democratic contender Senator Hillary Clinton and Jay Leno welcomes Republican candidate Mike Huckabee on the respective comeback episodes of their shows. Chingy will perform on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," while Lupe Fiasco will play on the "Late Show With David Letterman," with Robin Williams also appearing. Letterman struck a deal with the Writers Guild of America that will allow him to return to air with writers, but Huckabee and Chingy will be crossing the picket line with their appearances on Leno's show, as the writers' strike continues. ... "L.A." Reid, Denzel Washington, Steven Spielberg, Brett Ratner, Billy Joel and others partied Sunday on a private yacht owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and Jon Bon Jovi and Robbie Robertson performed at the shindig, according to Fox News. ...

Staind's Aaron Lewis, along with members of Boston, Tesla, Stryper and other bands, will join host Dee Snider of Twisted Sister at the fifth anniversary Relief Fund Charity Concert, to be staged February 25 at Providence, Rhode Island's Dunkin' Donut Center. The event is being put on by the Station Family Fund, a group founded by survivors, family members and community members affected by the Station fire, the February 2003 nightclub tragedy that claimed 100 lives. Proceeds from the show will go to the survivors of the fire, many of whom did not qualify for Social Security benefits. ...

The lineup for Dave Mustaine's Gigantour 2008 has been revealed. The trek, to launch in mid-April and run through late May, will feature his band Megadeth, as well as In Flames, Children of Bodom, Job for a Cowboy and High on Fire. ... P.O.D. have set an April 8 release date for When Angels & Serpents Dance, the band's forthcoming LP. The record will feature a guest appearance by Suicidal Tendencies mainman Mike Muir. ... Former Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland's band, Black Light Burns, have begun work on material for their second album, which is set for release in early 2009. Borland said in a statement that the new stuff is "a lot more guitar-heavy than it is synth-heavy. The feeling/tone is a little more fun and weird compared to the darkness of the first album." The effort follows the band's debut disc, last year's Cruel Melody. ... Hatebreed were forced to postpone the final concert in their Stillborn Fest series after guitarist Frank Novinec broke his ankle. No word yet on when they'll make up the gig, which was supposed to happen Sunday in Rochester, New York. ...

A lawyer who previously represented Death Row Records boss Marion "Suge" Knight in a $130 million lawsuit over ownership of the onetime gangsta-rap powerhouse is asking a judge to set that judgment aside. According to the Los Angeles Times, in a hearing set for Wednesday attorney Dermot Givens is asking that the judgment be voided because of what he claims is new evidence that the plaintiff, singer Lydia Harris, and her imprisoned drug-dealing husband, Michael, allegedly duped a Los Angeles judge into ruling against Knight. The motion contends that Harris hid from the court that she had filed for bankruptcy five years before suing Knight and that she never claimed an ownership stake in Death Row during that legal proceeding. The motion also alleges that recent sworn testimony by the couple shows that Michael Harris, an alleged crack kingpin, was the real party of interest in her lawsuit against Knight; Michael Harris sued Knight in 1996 claiming he helped finance Death Row, and was awarded a $300,000 out-of-court settlement. Lydia Harris filed a separate suit in 2002 claiming that she and Knight started the label together and that he cheated her out of millions in profits. ...

James Brown's final recordings have been caught up in the legal feud over the late rock legend's estate, according to The Associated Press. Brown recorded an album in Los Angeles in summer 2006, but courtroom disputes over who should get his music royalties are preventing the release of the tracks. More than 50-60 additional unreleased songs recorded by Brown are also reportedly in the archives. ... The Jersey Boys have a bit of a problem on their hands. Tommy DeVito, ex-bassist of Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons — on which the "Jersey Boys" story is based — is being sued by the widow of a man who also wrote a story about the group, according to TMZ. Donna Corbello says her late husband Rex Conrad Woodard's yet-unpublished book was the basis of the Broadway smash, and she is reportedly seeking a declaration that he is the volume's "joint owner" so she can get some of the future profits from the production. The suit was recently filed in a district court in Texas. ...

It's Hammer time all over again. MC Hammer is about to launch a new Web site that he hopes will rival YouTube as the online hub for sharing and watching dance videos, according to AP. He is the co-founder and chief strategy officer of DanceJam.com, which will go live later this month and profit from Internet advertising. Perhaps the site will reverse Hammer's hard luck — he filed for bankruptcy in 1996 with nearly $14 million in debts. ... Evan Farrell, an indie-rock bassist who played with the Magnolia Electric Co. on tour and, earlier this year, left the Rogue Wave fold, died the weekend of December 22-23 after sustaining injuries from a house fire in Oakland, California. He was 33. "He was a fixture in our community and a bright spot in all of our lives," Secretly Canadian, the label the Magnolia Electric Co. call home, said about Farrell in a statement. "He was exceptionally talented, funny and genuine."

12.28.07

Brandy is in the clear — according to TMZ, the Los Angeles city attorney will not be filing charges against the singer over the multi-car crash that claimed the life of a woman in December 2006. The attorney had until the end of the day Friday (December 28) to file criminal charges against Brandy in the incident. The singer's attorney, Blair Berk, reportedly responded with a statement, saying, "These past 12 months have posed an extraordinary hardship for Brandy and her family, who have been unfairly forced to live under a cloud of suspicion initially caused by the ill-advised and premature press release sent out by the California Highway Patrol accusing Brandy of wrongdoing before the police investigation was even finished. However, Brandy continues to be mindful that she was so fortunate to be uninjured in this accident and there was a life lost that should be remembered." Brandy is, however, still facing a $50 million wrongful-death suit from the family of the victim, Awatef Aboudihaj. ...

Yung Joc was seven hours late to an arraignment on a felony gun charge on Wednesday and was scolded by the judge in the case after an arrest warrant was issued. But the rapper (born Jasiel Robinson) tried to clear his name in a statement released through his lawyers. "I have the utmost respect for the laws of this country and would never deliberately commit an act that would jeopardize my freedom, my family or my career," he said, according to TMZ. "I've worked very hard to achieve my goals, and it's unfortunate that this current situation has garnered more attention than the many donations I've made and the charitable work I've done with various organizations. ... I'm proud to be a citizen of America, where we are taught to believe that every person is afforded the presumption of innocence. That being said, I have full respect for the judicial system and its due process. I look forward to resolving this situation and moving forward to a positive and prosperous 2008." Joc is due back in court on January 25 in connection with his arrest Sunday at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, where authorities said he tried to take a loaded gun onto a flight. He faces a possible sentence of up to 18 months for the charge. ...

Lil Wayne told MTV News a couple of months ago that he was planning to drop Tha Carter III: The Leak on December 18, with the official Tha Carter III LP to follow February 12, but he actually slipped out a five-song EP called The Leak through Rhapsody and Amazon on Christmas Day instead. The disc features "I'm Me," "Gossip," "Kush," "Love Me or Hate Me" and "Talkin' About It." "Gossip" has been rumored to be a dis song directed toward 50 Cent, but as Weezy told Mixtape Monday in late October, "I recorded that song in 2006. ... I don't make records or say anything about people. I don't beef with people. Everybody knows that. ... My words are more important than you."...

Radiohead decided to split with their longtime label EMI in the fall after the company's new boss, Guy Hands, rejected a deal that would have cost the company more than $20 million, according to the London Times. The U.K. outlet reports that the band had been offered a $6 million advance by Hands for In Rainbows, but demanded more. An EMI spokesperson who was not named told the Times that, "Radiohead were demanding an extraordinary amount of money, and we did not believe that our other artists should have to subsidize their gains." The bandmembers reportedly responded that they believed more big-name artists would be leaving EMI and accused Hands of not negotiating seriously with them. The deal Radiohead sought also reportedly included the handing over of some of the copyrights to their back catalog, a move that could have cost the label millions in future earnings. Band manager Bryce Edge told The Times, "We couldn't move ahead with EMI because Guy Hands irrevocably refused to discuss the catalog in any meaningful way. We sold 25 million records, and we have the moral rights over those six albums. We wanted a say in how they are exploited in the future. We were not seeking a big advance payment, or a guaranteed marketing spend, as discussions never got that far." ...

Members of Angels & Airwaves, No Doubt, 30 Seconds to Mars, Bad Religion, Journey, Pennywise — as well as the Roots' ?uestlove — will hammer away at the skins when they perform at a January 5 drum-off hosted by former Jane's Addiction member Stephen Perkins. The Guitar Center contest, which began three months ago, will culminate with a show at the Music Box @ Fonda in Hollywood that will also feature performances by the four finalists in the store's competition. ... "The Beyoncé Experience - Live," which came out in DVD form in late November, will be broadcast for U.S. troops stationed in Iraq on New Year's Eve via the AEG Network. The programming block will also include Celine Dion's "A New Day" and Garth Brooks' "One Artist, One City, One Time." ...

It's official: David Letterman has reached a deal with striking writers and will return to the air with a full staff on Wednesday. Jeff Hermanson, a Writers Guild of America executive, told Reuters that talks between the union and Letterman's Worldwide Pants production company had led to a "full, binding, independent agreement" that features provisions for paying writers for work distributed online. Protesting writers have been demanding compensation for Internet-content. Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Kimmel are also returning to the air on Wednesday, and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on January 7, although none of those late-night hosts will be coming back with their respective writers. ...

Jessica Simpson is enjoying Nashville as the relocated singer/actress records her upcoming, yet-untitled country album there. "Nashville is a very warm city," she recently told Billboard.com. "The people are friendly and kind. There is a sense of community, which thrives on music. There is no animosity ... only respect for one another's talent." The effort is due in 2008 through Columbia Nashville and will be the follow-up to 2006's A Public Affair. Simpson didn't provide many more details on the project, and when asked if she would be hitting the road to support it, she said, "Since the record is in the beginning stages, there hasn't been much talk about a tour just yet." ...

Meanwhile, Franz Ferdinand's third album doesn't have a name yet either, but the band has shed some more light on the successor to 2005's You Could Have It So Much Better. "I suppose we're heading back to the idea of dance music," frontman Alex Kapranos told RollingStone.com. "It's more of a dance record than a rock record." The band has tapped an unlikely producer — Brian Higgins (Kylie Minogue, Cher) — for some of the songs. "It appeals to my contrary side," Kapranos said. "And I don't like the distance between bands and pop music there is now. Dr. Dre or Timbaland or the Neptunes are making the songs you've never heard before, not the indie kids strumming their f---ing guitars." ...

Chris Rock has jumped into the 2008 presidential-election conversation, comparing Senator Hillary Clinton to the current commander in chief and voicing his support for rival Senator Barack Obama in a recent interview with The New York Times. "I love Hillary Clinton, but to me she is the Democratic version of George [W.] Bush: someone who is running, and the only reason you know who this person is because of their name. ... She has much more in common with George Bush Jr. than she does with Oprah Winfrey." He added, "It's neck and neck against a woman whose husband was the president, and [Obama is] a black man that no one knew a couple years ago. That is an unbelievable achievement." ...

Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn are divorcing after 11 years of marriage, according to People.com. The "Into the Wild" director and "Beowulf" actress have two children together, boys ages 14 and 16. ... In another marital development, Marilyn Manson and Dita Von Teese's divorce still isn't finalized yet — Von Teese filed in December 2006, citing Manson's alleged infidelity and partying — but they are now legally permitted to marry other people, People.com reports. Their marital status was terminated Thursday, but the ex-couple have yet to settle their finances. Manson, 38, has been dating Evan Rachel Wood, age 20. ...

While Josh Groban is enjoying a record-setting run atop the charts with his holiday album, Noël, Variety reports that the rest of the music business had a horrible Christmas week. Overall music sales during the Christmas shopping season were down 21 percent from last year. From the week of Thanksgiving through December 23, 83.9 million albums were sold, a steep decline from 2006's total of 105.28 million.

• Fall Out Boy
• Prodigy of Mobb Deep
• Lindsay Lohan
• Radiohead
• Brandy

Nas<BR>
Photo: Columbia

Nas openly admits it: he's been haunted. Not by Jay-Z's taunts on the heavily rotated dis fest "Takeover," not by seeing several of his ties with friends like Cormega and Nature dissolve, not even by the ghosts of his deceased Queensbridge housing projects compatriots like Ill Will. The bane of Nas' existence, at least in terms of his rap career, is his classic debut, Illmatic.

Considered to be one of the main catalysts that got other MCs to refocus on lyrics, Nas' 1994 LP has been a measuring stick critics and fans say he has not been able to artistically match, despite the fact that all of his subsequent LPs have outsold it.

On his fifth solo LP, Stillmatic, which is slated for a December 18 release, Nas makes it very clear that he's not trying to duplicate any of his past efforts (on the album's intro he says he would never try to make another Illmatic and he's moving on). He just wants everyone to realize he's still worthy of being heralded as rap's lyrical messiah (see "Nas Out To Prove He's Stillmatic").

Out to prove he's truly divine, the self-proclaimed "king of rap" throws another handful of verbal lightning bolts Jay-Z's way on "Ether." Nas struck a blow at Jay earlier this year via mixtapes on "Stillmatic," which did not make the album's cut. With "Ether," Nas likens Jigga to J.J. Evans from the '70s TV show "Good Times," and cigarette cartoon character Joe Camel.

Nas also makes claims that Jigga used to get chased through the Marcy projects by "real thugs," was a sex slave to Foxy Brown and only admitted to stabbing Lance "Un" Rivera to cover up for a friend (see "Jay-Z Pleads Guilty To Stabbing, Faces Three Years' Probation").

As far as Nas' friends are concerned, he's broken even. Once-estranged rhyme partner AZ joins him on freestyles on "The Flyest," but it looks like he's no longer considering Mobb Deep's Prodigy as one of his brothers from another mother. P, who has often collaborated with Nas in the past, is the subject of a verse on "Destroy & Rebuild."

The cut's thematic outline is a proclamation that all the weak links from Queensbridge (Prodigy is actually from Lefrak City, Queens, but has become synonymous with the Queensbridge houses by shouting them out in his music) must be annihilated in order to make it great again.

Asking Nas' clique the Bravehearts to help him get back stolen jewelry and indirectly dissing Nas on songs are among Prodigy's committed atrocities, according to the tune's author. Nas' former Firm groupmates Cormega and Nature also garner disdain-filled verses on the track.

Taking a more conceptual approach, "Rewind" is a dose of Nas' vintage, lucid storytelling. Sort of like a "Pulp Fiction" on wax, he narrates a day in his life — where he starts off with a sexual romp and later commits a murder — from ending to beginning (even phrases like "hell no" get pronounced "no hell"). Meanwhile, "Second Childhood" paints a portrait of adults in the 'hood unwilling to grow up and accept responsibilities.

"My country sh---ed on me," Nas sings on "My Country," where he sometimes condemns America while speaking of the plights of African Americans.

The album's first single is "Got Ur Self A ... " and samples A3's 1997 tune "Woke Up This Morning," which is used as the opening theme for "The Sopranos." "We had a meeting with [record label executive] Steve Stoute," said the track's producer, Megahertz. "He'd given us the a cappella for the song and asked if I could design music around it."

After a couple of hours of trying to figure out what type of beat to lay around the words "Got yourself a gun," Megahertz molded pianos and strings that sound like they could've been played at the coronation ceremony for an 18th century king.

"This is real hardcore," Nas says on the record. "Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit soft/ Sip cris, get chips, wrist gliss, I floss ... "

The video was shot two weeks ago in Los Angeles by director Benny Boom. His label is trying to keep the clip's concept under wraps, though a spokesperson for Columbia did disclose that several photos of the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur would be used.

Besides Megahertz, other production notables such as Large Professor, Swizz Beatz and DJ Premier contributed tracks to the album.

Stillmatic track list, according to Columbia Records:

• "Stillmatic (The Intro)"
• "Ether"
• "Got Ur Self A ..."
• "Smokin' "
• "You're Da Man"
• "Rewind"
• "One Mic"
• "Second Childhood"
• "Destroy & Rebuild"
• "The Flyest"
• "Braveheart Party"
• "Rule"
• "My Country"
• "Poison"
• "Every Ghetto"

• Jay-Z
• Nas
• Prodigy of Mobb Deep
• Kid Rock
• Limp Bizkit

Jay-Z and Michael Jackson
Photo: Walik Goshorn

UNIONDALE, New York — When hip-hop's reigning microphone king needed a little help driving home the point that he wasn't about to relinquish his crown anytime soon, he simply placed a call to none other than the self-proclaimed King of Pop.

Jay-Z, the headliner at Thursday's Hot 97 Summer Jam 2001, shocked the sold-out crowd at Long Island's Nassau Coliseum when he brought Michael Jackson onstage during a break in his performance. Although M.J. didn't perform — not live, anyway, considering a sample of the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" was used in the set-closing "H to the Izzo" — just his presence was enough to elicit the loudest pop of the night from a crowd that had already seen performances by Ja Rule, Destiny's Child, R. Kelly, Ludacris, Eve, Nelly and Outkast. (Click HERE for photos from Summer Jam.)

"I know Michael Jackson better come from behind that muthaf---in' curtain," Jay-Z said during what had to be 90 of the longest seconds of his career. Jigga had just announced Jackson to the crowd, but the music icon failed to make his entrance. The audience seemed to think Jay was joking — who would expect Jackson to appear at such a hip-hop-heavy concert?

But Jay quickly figured out that with cargo as precious as this, it's probably best to hand-deliver it to the crowd. "You want me to go back and get him myself?" Jay asked a girl in the front row. "OK, I'm 'a go get him."

Seconds later the two walked out and posed for photos together. In one of the pictures, Michael struck a b-boy stance with his arms folded. Jackson's only words to the crowd were "I love you all" before he exited the stage, but Jay-Z fans can expect to hear more from him. According to Roc-a-Fella Records, Jackson will make a guest appearance on Jay's next album, and although Jay attempted to return the favor, his contributions are not currently scheduled to appear on Jackson's long-awaited new LP.

Jackson wasn't the only guest Jay brought out with him, however. His Roc-a-Family crew Beanie Sigel and Memphis Bleek stayed onstage with him throughout the performance, and Missy Elliott popped up to perform "Is That Your Chick" and a verse from "Get Ur Freak On." Violin player Miri Benari was brought onboard for "Big Pimpin'," while EPMD showed support for Beans and Bleek by performing "So Wat Cha Sayin'" with them before Erick Sermon went into "Music."

Jay began his set by arriving onstage backed by what seemed to be all the tenants of Brooklyn's Marcy Houses project. He told everyone how focused he was before going into his verses from Mya's "Best of Me" remix.

"There's a lot of sh-- going on in rap music," he stopped to tell his fans. "A lot of cats yappin'. Y'all know what I do — your boy handles his business."

Jay then started to freestyle, shooting back at everyone who's been dissing him lately. Hardest hit was Prodigy of Mobb Deep. Not only did Jay make fun of P's small frame by saying, "We got money stacks bigger than you," but Jigga poked fun at the Queens rapper's past, saying, "You's a ballerina, I seen ya," and showing photos of an adolescent Prodigy at his grandmother's dancing school. The photos, displayed on four huge screens that hung over the stage, showed Prodigy in leotards and a sparkling jacket.

But the fire Jay spit was nothing compared to the venom the audience spewed on Destiny's Child. The crowed booed in unison as soon as the group was introduced. On the song "So Good," Beyoncé Knowles put a little more bass and feeling in her voice when she sang, "This is for the haters who thought we wouldn't make it."

Keeping their game faces on, the girls finished their set, closing with "Survivor," but their determination did not impress the crowd, which booed after practically every song — especially when the girls would taunt the audience back by sarcastically saying, "Thank you."

Although the audience members showed R. Kelly love, they were left disappointed by his relatively brief performance. He didn't do either of his two hit songs with Jay-Z or his current single, "Feelin' on Yo Booty." His show was limited to "Home Alone," during which he brought out Keith Murray, "I Wish" and its remix, and an a cappella rendition of "R&B Thug."

Jadakiss proved you could make your appearance short but still keep it sweet. Coming out toward the end of Eve's set, 'Kiss received an ovation that was only overshadowed by Jay-Z's and M.J.'s as he performed "Put Your Hands Up" and "We Gon' Make It."

For the past two years, Summer Jam's luster was somewhat tarnished by violent outbreaks because of the people bumrushing the doors of the concert's former home, New Jersey's Continental Airlines Arena. This year you had to show your ticket just to get into the coliseum's parking lot, cutting down on unruly loiterers.

"I don't think anybody is thinking about [violence]," said one audience member. "Everybody is here to have a good time. You know how long we all been waiting to see this show?"

• Jay-Z
• Michael Jackson
• Ja Rule
• Destiny's Child
• R. Kelly

Jadakiss
Photo: MTV

Sometimes when you talk to Jadakiss, it's hard to get a straight answer out of him. Take discussing the casting of the video for his next single, "Knock Yourself Out," for example.

"I might not get kids this time," explained the MC, who featured dancing children in his video for "Put Your Hands Up." "I might get midgets, or some fat girls to do the [Harlem] Shake." Produced by the Neptunes, "Knock Yourself Out" features Jada "miseducating them like Lauryn Hill" as he promises one member of his harem a blank check to buy jewelry, among other things.

"I just called [the Neptunes] up," Jadakiss recalled nonchalantly of the cut's origins. "I needed them [to appeal to] the bitches and the clubs. It's still grimy, though." The rapper is more serious when discussion turns to his first solo LP, Kiss Tha Game Goodbye. Originally scheduled for a May release, the album was pushed back to August 8 despite the strong buzz created by "Put Your Hands Up," the instant underground classic "We Gon' Make It," and his many guest appearances on R&B tracks. The delay is only helping to build anticipation, Jadakiss explained.

"The same thing happened with Big's [Life After Death] and it went seven times platinum," he said. "It's comin' now. The wait is up. I'm happy with it." While he was not able to secure an Eminem appearance as planned ("Jadakiss Finishing Up Solo LP; Joined By Eminem, Nas, Dre"), 'Kiss recently finished a track called "Ugh Huh" with his longtime compatriot DMX, and Nas finally laid down his rhymes for "Show Discipline." "Dirty South Scenario" features Fiend, 8Ball and Yung Wun and was produced by Swizz Beatz. Swizz also supplied the haunting, piano-powered track "Jada's Got a Gun," with a chorus that plays off of Aerosmith's "Janie's Got a Gun." Jadakiss, who spent a few weeks recording some tracks in Los Angeles, also teams up with Snoop Dogg, spreading California love on "Cruisin'." Here, Jada keeps the party going by scoping girls at the Beverly Center before spreading bullets around like chicken pox. "We Gon' Make It," an underground hit last year, featured Jada and his fellow LOX member Styles interchanging lines about street mayhem. The two MCs plan to do a whole album following in the vein of that song.

"We sit there and write the whole thing together," Jadakiss said of how the track developed. "He says the parts he wants to say, and I say what I want to say. When we throw the beat on, we make the whole sh-- pop." The song's beat caused controversy earlier this year when Ras Kass threatened to sue the track's producer, the Alchemist, claiming he had been sold the same beat ("Alchemist Responds To Claims Of Double Dealing").

"That controversy is with Alchemist and Ras Kass," Jadakiss said. "He played the beat for me, I paid him his money and I laid my vocals on it. I ain't got nothing to do with that other sh--. I ain't get a call from Ras Kass, no nothing, so I'm good. The album is my only concern for the next six to eight months." Jadakiss will soon be heard alongside Prodigy and Butch Cassidy on "Livin' the Life" from the compilation Violator the Album: V2.0, due July 24 ("Busta Rhymes Leading Violator 2.0 Charge"). 'Kiss is also being rotated on Jermaine Dupri's white-label release "Hate in Your Blood," which also features Freeway.

• DMX
• Jadakiss
• L.O.X.
• Ras Kass
• N.E.R.D.

G-Unit, DJ Obscene, Flo-Rida and more

• 50 Cent
• Prodigy of Mobb Deep