Nas
Photo: MTV News

Artist: Glasses Malone

Representing: Blu Division/ West Coast

Mixtapes: Gangstas Don't Dance and F--- Glasses Malone

411: G.Malone is an equal-opportunity entertainer. The Cali rapper has two new mixtapes dropping soon — and not just to meet the demand from his growing fanbase. Gangstas Don't Dance is gonna be released specifically for those who have been following him since he made his name spittin' as part of the Black Wall Street camp. And the other one, well, he might be able to explain that one better himself.

"I did a mixtape for all the haters," he said, adding that he plans to launch a Web site to sell "F--- Glasses Malone" gear. "I had to cater to the haters. ... It's a mixtape for all the people that dislike my success or dislike what I got going on. They can buy all the 'F---Glasses Malone' merchandise, the 'F--- G.Malone' merchandise, get all the apparel. They can support me by hating that way. So I made a mixtape that's sure to piss everybody off."

Gangstas features G.Malone alongside his crew, Blu Division. He said that mixtape is more uptempo and more along the lines of a traditional mixtape, on which they hop on other people's beats. It's more for the G's to get their boogie on to.

"It's a way we could put out club music without having to make club music," he explained. "So we talking a lot of sh-- on a lot of the popular dance records or records that encourage dancing."

In the meantime, G.Malone is wrapping up his long-awaited debut album, The Beach Cruiser, set for a June 3 release on Hoo-Bangin'/ Cash Money Records. The tentative second single, "Go Big," is due later this month, and Malone said he has been recording material for possible future projects with Mack 10 and Mistah Fab.

Joints To Check For

"Like Suge" from F--- Glasses Malone. "It's a song that I dedicated to a lot of people that get bad reputations, or bully reputations, out on the West Coast, and I made a song just for them," Malone explained. "A lot of people are gonna dislike me for making the song, because it's proppin' one of the industry's most-hated moguls, which is Suge [Knight], who is one of my favorites, as far as all the great business and all the great moves he did."

"Certified" remix (featuring Lil Wayne, Bun B and Kam) from Gangstas Don't Dance. "You seeing the video [for the original] right now with Akon on MTV," G.Malone boasted. "I'm pretty sure the remix is gonna get the club rocking like the original did."

"House N---a" from F--- Glasses Malone. "It's a song where I get [a lot] off my chest about people who tend to repeatedly persecute hip-hop," Malone said. "So that was my response to them, for acting like they're trying to help the culture itself, but in reality they're helping people who are trying to destroy the culture. Because if you wanted to help it, I feel like these certain people could have done a lot of things in closed environments instead of in the world to see, so they could discredit hip-hop. "

Don't Sleep: Other Notable Selections This Week

» DJ Blazita - Philly Heat 2
» DJ Delz - D187 Hood Radio, Volume 16 (Hosted by: Rick Ross)
» DJ Self and Young Jeezy - Street Certified, Volume Two
» The Empire and Lil Wayne - The Drought Is Over 5 (Grand Closing)
» HeveHitta and DJ Unexpected - Bun B: Southern Royalty

'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar

» Busta Rhymes - "Don't Touch Me (Throw Da Water on 'Em)"
» G-Unit - "I Like The Way She Do It"
» Nas - "Let's Go"
» State Property - "Ocean's Seven"
» Styles P - "Am I in the Right Game"

Fire Starter: St. Laz

Gunfire has taken some of the best hip-hop has had to offer, including Tupac Shakur, the Notorious B.I.G, Big L and Freaky Tah. It also recently struck down upstarts like Cavlar and wounded rising rappers like Max B. Brooklyn rhyme-spitter St. Laz has responded with his new video for "Starve the Ghetto," in which he takes the violence in hip-hop to task. "This entire American culture has been indoctrinated with violence since the popularity of Western movies, which were 100 percent about shooting and killing [being] worn as a badge of honor," he explained. "This is why, till this day, gun violence is so glorified. It's the American way."

Celebrity Faves

This month, MTV is celebrating the 20th anniversary of one of the most influential TV series ever: "Yo! MTV Raps." That's right, we said it. You know how everyone is always reminiscing about "back in the day"? These are those days! The show ran from 1988 to 1995, and exposed hip-hop, in all its youthful essence, to a worldwide audience. If you were too young to have watched it back when it was on (and that's likely), then just know that "Yo!" was your favorite rapper's favorite TV show. So how are we celebrating? Go to Yo.MTV.com and you'll be able to check out highlights from the best episodes, all your favorite videos, live freestyles from legends like Slick Rick, Big Daddy Kane and Biz Markie, plus some of the funniest, smartest and best moments from hosts Fab 5 Freddy and Ed Lover & Dr. Dre. Check out the little montage we put together from some of the artists who rocked the show.

The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground

Nas' controversially titled album Nigger has been delayed more than a New York-bound car in the Battery Tunnel on a Sunday night. But the Queensbridge rapper is still determined to put out his project.

With the highly charged song titles and hot-button topics he's addressing, however, he's finding out it hasn't been so easy to pull in collaborators. That's why, Nas explained, he's looking to team with more left-of-center acts.

"I always want to work with different dudes when it's time to put together a record, so I was just out there, listening to tracks from different cats and seeing what's good out there," he said. "Cats that make music that says something to people, you know what I'm saying? So I kinda wanted to work with more cats out there that's doing something different.

"I don't wanna reveal everybody that I worked with yet," Nas added. "Because I'm still working [and] still finishing up the record. And I think I want that to speak for itself."

Esco was also hush on whom he's supporting in the Democratic presidential primary. Similar to 50 Cent, who initially endorsed Hillary Clinton and is now undecided, Nas didn't want to commit to one candidate when he's still feeling out their platforms. But he did say he was particularly fond of Barack Obama.

"This election year, I'm still not really sure where I sit with politicians," Nas said. "I'm not really trustin' [them] still. But I think this election is the best thing we could ask for right now, coming out of [George W.] Bush. What better candidates could you ask for other than Hillary and Obama? So, you know, this presidential run, it makes more sense than it ever did before.

"I'd love to see Barack Obama become the president. He's the face of America, hands down," the rapper said. "There's no two ways to look at it, man. The man's got what it takes. He's serious. As a kid, you always think, 'We'll never see a black president,' you know? 'There'll never be a black president.' And you always feel that way. Everybody's always grew up that way, black and white. So I think now, with Obama having a great chance of winning, I think [with] black and white, there's been something lifted off their shoulders. It's like, 'This can happen. This can be great.' And it's about time." ...

R-E, U-P, G-A-N-G! The Brothers Thornton, also known as the Clipse, are in full Re-Up Gang mode right now. The VA duo were in Texas for South by Southwest, with Ab-Liva and Sandman to round out the crew, and delivered a warning about their upcoming Re-Up project.

"We been banging over everybody else's beats, destroying them," Pusha T said of the We Got It 4 Cheap mixtape series. "Now we gonna get on originals and do what we do."

Pusha said it's an exciting time for them right now. The lyrics are always on point when it comes to the crew, but he said it's about building the Re-Up sound. He cited Dame Grease as a favorite producer of theirs and mentioned the Neptunes and Swizz Beatz as other possible producers on the project. Pusha said he wanted the Re-Up Gang to have a recognizable sound away from the Clipse, kind of like the Ruff Ryders had in the '90s.

The fellas are still getting the most mileage out of their recent mixtape, the third installment of We Got It 4 Cheap. Pusha said that will be the last mixtape anyone sees for a while, until the Re-Up album drops. He didn't give a date. Once the demand is up for Re-Up, he said the official album will follow. The feared lyrical foursome is set to film two videos from the DJ Drama-hosted We Got It 4 Cheap.

"We're setting the foundation right now," Pusha said. "It should be stressful, but it's been fun. When we do Clipse, it's all business. But right now, with the excitement we get from Ab-Liva and Sandman, it should be fun for our fans to follow what we got coming."

"All the girls standing on the line for the bathroom" have a mean case of the sniffles. N.E.R.D. sing about what goes on behind (some) closed lavatory doors on their new single "Everyone Nose." With sneezes aplenty underneath their rhymes, Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo and Shay Haley broach the subject of socially snorting cocaine.

Yes, when the girls go in the bathroom, they're powdering their faces with that other white stuff, N.E.R.D. say. The song has been stirring up controversy thanks to a rumored fight on the set of its video shoot last Wednesday.

"We love the reaction that we get [from that song]," Skateboard P told us recently. "They know what we're talking about."

"Me, personally, I'm shocked it's being embraced the way it is," Shay added. "I feel like it sticks out like a sore thumb in comparison to what you hear every day on the radio. We're definitely happy. It's just our personal observation of what we've seen over the past couple of years, so we felt like making a party record out of it."

N.E.R.D.'S third album, Seeing Sounds, will be out later this spring. ...

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

• Mixtape Monday Video: Nas, N.E.R.D., Re-Up Gang & More

• Nas
• N.E.R.D.
• Clipse
• Re-Up Gang

Photo: MTV News

• Glasses Malone
• N.E.R.D.
• Nas
• Re-Up Gang