Name: Royce Da 5'9"

Mixtape: Build and Destroy

Hometown: Detroit

Joints to check for: "What We Do," "Renegade" featuring Eminem, "She's the One" featuring Eminem, "Life Goes On."

Previous mixtapes: Royce has kept a steady presence on the underground scene for years.

The 411: If it's not one thing it's another for Royce. He's had well documented record label problems with Tommy Boy and Columbia, and now he's embroiled in a lyrical feud with D12 and onetime good friend and multiple-time partner in rhyme Eminem.

Royce, who already released Rock City 2.0, returns to his mixtape roots with a double CD of album cuts, rare records, unreleased tracks and freestyles on Build and Destroy. Ever wonder what Eminem would sound like over a Neptunes beat? Royce answers your curiosity, with him and Slim Shady rhyming about harlots on "She's the One" over a track credited to Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo.

"Get me drunk and I'll drink anything you can think/ What up Ms. Bitch?," Em rhymes, addressing a girl with disrespect.

Em, who came up through the underground ranks with Royce, pops up on a few cuts throughout the double CD, including a version of "Renegade" where he duets with Da 5'9" and not Jay-Z as we've heard on The Blueprint.

Royce does show there's more to him than his association with his former hometown homeboy. He drops his punchy one-liners and metaphors on tracks like "King of Detroit" and "Running," using production from the likes of Just Blaze, Kanye West and the Alchemist.

Also just touching down on the underground circuit are CDs from other underdogs on the move. Philadelphia's longtime lyrical annihilator Gillie Da Kid brings Appetizers. Signed to Cash Money Records, Gillie, who made noise as part of the collective Major Figgas, features a bunch of his solo tracks and performances with his rhyme mates.

Holding it down for Harlem, the Hot Ones get back on their grind, with a new arsenal of material via The Best of the Best Vol. 1 1996-2003. They have several freestyles of some of your favorite beats, like "What Up Gangsta" and "Pump It Up," but they also bring back a couple of their previous bangers like "Good Morning America," which features Cam'ron.

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

• Royce Da 5'9"

DJ Wats' <I>Heavy Income</I>

• Name: DJ Wats

• Mixtape: Heavy Income

• Hometown: Brooklyn, New York

• Joints to check for: "F--- Eminem & D12" by Royce Da 5'9", Kanye West freestyle, "Bacardi" by Fabolous, "Gutter" by German Luger

• Previous Mixtapes: The Murder Inc. Mixtape: Two Sides of a Coin: The Truth About 50 and Cradle to the Grave

• The 411: DJ Wats ends all the speculation about Royce Da 5'9" 's relationship with Eminem by adding Royce's dis freestyle to his playlist. The love is gone, at least on Royce's behalf. Em's one-time running mate jokes that Slim Shady wants to pinch Elton John's booty, compares D12 to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and foresees the crew getting beat up by B2K.

  Kanye West, who hosts the mixtape, continues to give the streets a sampling of what's to come of him as an MC with "Home." West incorporates his soulful sampling by using a continuous loop of a lady singing "home" as the backdrop of his narrative.

  "I met this girl when I was 3 years old/ What I loved most was she had so much soul," he rhymes, setting up a love story, using a female as a metaphor for his hometown of Chicago.

  Fellow MC newcomer German Luger, who is down with DJ Twinz (Lil' Kim, Redman, Memphis Bleek) and Rockwilder's Muzik Park production company, also gets his buzz going with "Gutter." Over the Twinz's sinister soundscape, Germ sarcastically scoffs, "I tried to tell these kids out here, they don't listen/ How you gonna try to tell crooks they can't cook in hell's kitchen?" before declaring that it is his destiny to be a great lyricist.

  Meanwhile, Fabolous brings the party flavor with "Bacardi." A Fab song wouldn't be complete without the BK native's punchlines, so he throws plenty of those on a bass-heavy track that sounds like it came from a square dance.

  Also new on the streets is a joint venture between current mixtape king DJ Kay Slay and an up-and-coming contender, Big Mike. Titled Racial Profiling (Slay is black, Mike is white), the CD features three new Jay-Z tunes — the remix to "Excuse Me Miss," "Stop" and MC Punjabi's "Beware of Boys," where Jay guest-stars. Also Black Rob pops up with "BR Part 2." A Shady Records posse cut with 50 Cent, Eminem, Lloyd Banks and Obie Trice titled "You Gonna Die One Day" makes its way onto the mixtape as well.

  In addition to Slay and Mike, the G-Unit crew also appear on DJ Clue's latest, Operation Desert Storm, via "True Loyalty." Nas and the Bravehearts' "Eat These Bullets," Jadakiss' "Dope Game" and Loon's "This Ain't Funny" are other selections on the CD.

For a full-length feature on mixtape culture and the role of mixtapes in making a rapper's career, check out "Mixtapes: The Other Music Industry."

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

• Royce Da 5'9"
• Fabolous
• Kanye West

Royce Da 5'9"
Photo: Columbia

Even though he has been signed to Tommy Boy Records, Game Recordings and Columbia Records, Royce Da 5'9" has yet to put out an album.

Rock City, the debut from Eminem's one-time right-hand man, was pushed back several times, and in the process, Royce tried to make commercially viable, radio-friendly songs and dealt with label politics. Now, after years of learning the music industry, Royce feels as though he's finally on the right path.

"I made a lot of mistakes and I learned from them," Royce said. "The album getting pushed back, that's part of the game. It comes with the territory, so I just rolled with it. It's really about how you bounce back, and I feel like I really bounced back good off of everything. Every time I fell down, I feel like I jumped back up."

The jumping back Royce speaks of comes with the November 26 release of Rock City [Version 2.0] through Koch Records, home to the Ying Yang Twins, Onyx and others. Originally scheduled for a 2000 release on Columbia Records, the new Rock City album does not have the commercial cuts Royce recorded in order to appease Columbia. Instead, it will feature the Detroit rapper flipping the harder, more lyric-driven style he first introduced with Eminem on "Bad Meets Evil," a song from Eminem's major-label debut, 1999's The Slim Shady LP.

Rock City [Version 2.0] features production from the Neptunes, DJ Premier, TrackMasters, Reef, Alchemist and others. Royce favorites such as "Boom" and "Soldier Story" are included, as well as newer selections "Off Parole" and "Nickel 9 Is." The first single, "Mr. Baller," features the Clipse and Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes.

After a number of ups and downs, Royce feels releasing the album in this configuration is his best option. "It's more updated," he said. "We took some songs off and replaced them with newer stuff. Instead of me sitting around, this is like the best decision."

Eminem still appears on the hook of "Rock City," but the album is no longer being executive produced by the D12 mastermind. Eminem, who used Royce as his hype man on a number of his early tours, also secured Royce a ghostwriting position for Dr. Dre's 2001 album, as well as a spot on DJ Clue's 2001 record, The Professional 2.

Even though they were good friends for years, Royce said he and Slim Shady have drifted apart. "I don't really talk to Slim that much no more like I used to," Royce said. "That's my man, don't get me wrong, but we don't talk a lot. You know how you just grow apart from somebody? I really just feel like I need to do things myself.

"The things that Slim did for me in the past, I feel it's coming back to haunt me," he continued. "He's not riding with me like that no more. Back in the day, it was 'Royce that,' 'Royce this,' 'Royce that.' Now he's doing his own thing. I'm not on his label. ... If I go to a label [now], they want to know Eminem's involvement, or 'This is Eminem's man.' I'm just trying to break away from that.

"His friendship is more important to me than [being in a situation where] every time I talk to him, I need a favor," Royce said. "I don't want to put myself in that position. That's chump status. I do me. I don't depend on Slim and we don't really talk like that, but that's my man."

Like Eminem, Royce has transformed himself into a music-making machine. After waiting years for the release of his first album, Royce is already well into his second collection, which he said will be released next year.

"I got 20 joints right now," Royce said. "I've got the next album done pretty much already. All those new joints, I'm holding to put it. As far as all the new stuff, I'm holding it for the next album. It's like the new me. It's much different from anything that I've been doing. It's like the best material I ever did in my life. It's just crazy. I'm thinking better. I've got piece of mind. I'm not depending on nobody. I'm just doing me.

"You'll hear the difference in the new material," he said. "I'm coming back to my underground fanbase. I'm not even thinking about radio when I go in to do records. I think rap is going back to that. I'm just fed up. I tried to appeal to radio. It just don't work. People don't want to hear me doing that. People want to hear me doing what I came into the game doing, which is just be lyrical. I think people respect me for my lyrics and if they feel like I slight myself or water down my lyrics to appease a different crowd, they don't like that."

So after a career that has already had more delays than an airport in a snowstorm, Royce is looking forward to the future, not his rocky past.

"I worry, but then again I can't worry myself to death about it," he said. "I've got to take the opportunities that are given to me. If somebody's willing to take the risk with me, then I'm riding with them. I'm not just going to sit around. I've got a family to feed. I ain't really have a choice. I want this album to come out and I want to move forward."

• Royce Da 5'9"

Courtney Love's lawsuit against major-label conglomerate Vivendi Universal Recordings, Inc., scheduled to be heard Tuesday (June 18) in Los Angeles County Superior Court, was adjourned to August 20. The former Hole frontwoman is seeking to free herself from her record contract, citing breaches of contract, good faith and fiduciary duty, among other claims. ... Tommy Lee is the latest addition to the Rolling Rock Town Fair, which will take place on July 27 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. The former Mötley Crüe drummer replaces Alien Ant Farm, who continue to recover from last month's bus accident. ...

Gavin Rossdale will go solo for a song on the soundtrack for the upcoming Vin Diesel flick "XXX." The LP, expected to be released in August, will feature the Bush frontman in collaboration with drummer Josh Freese (A Perfect Circle, Guns N' Roses). ... Another former GN'R drummer, Matt Sorum, organized an all-star band that included Slash, Moby, Robbie Williams, Dave Navarro and the Cult's Billy Duffy to perform classic rock hits at Moomba in West Hollywood on Friday. The group closed with the Who's "My Generation." ...

New and unreleased material from Dan the Automator, Royce Da 5'9", Jurassic 5's Chali 2na and Akil and other underground rappers will be compiled on the soundtrack to "One Big Trip," which will be released as a companion CD to the DVD of the documentary, due August 13. Del the Funky Homosapien, the voice behind the Gorillaz hit "Clint Eastwood," contributed the title track and is featured on four other songs. ... Dillinger Escape Plan guitarist Ben Weinman suffered a punctured eardrum and concussion in a recent car accident that also injured the band's tour manager. The group's road trip is continuing as scheduled; the next performance is Tuesday in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

So Happily Unsatisfied, Nine Days' follow-up to 2000's The Madding Crowd, is due September 17. The first single, "Good Friend," will hit airwaves in mid-July. ... The Dixie Chicks and Sony Music have made amends. The trio, who had accused Sony of cheating them out of millions of dollars in royalties, settled their legal dispute and will release their new album, Home, on Open Wide Records — a joint label between the group and Sony — on August 27. ... Girls Against Boys will embark on a month-long tour beginning September 5 in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. The tour brings it all back home to the Bowery Ballroom in New York on October 4. ...

06.17.02

Wrestling star and one-time co-host of "Celebrity Deathmatch" Stone Cold Steve Austin (real name Steve Williams) is currently being investigated by police in San Antonio, Texas, after he allegedly attacked his wife, Debra, on Saturday. According to police reports, Debra — who performs alongside her husband as part of World Wrestling Entertainment — suffered a swollen cheek and eye and bruises to her back and shoulder. Austin was suspended by WWE last week after he failed to appear at one of the company's live television broadcasts. ... Sean Woolstenhulme, guitarist for the Calling, is leaving the band to join his brother Rick Woolstenhulme in Lifehouse. The Calling will continue their tour, which kicks off July 14 in Lansing, Michigan, as planned. ...

Foxy Brown celebrated her expansion from rapper to CEO on Saturday with a launch party for Ill Na Na Records. With Funkmaster Flex spinning records, rap cats Cam'ron, Guru, Craig Mack and Loon helped Fox Boogie pop a few bottles at New York hotspot Ohm. ... Blame it on the rain — Wyclef Jean's free concert, initially scheduled to take place in Coney Island, New York, then off the shores of Manhattan on the Intrepid war ship, was cancelled due to rain on Friday. The persistent performer plans to give it another go at Manhattan's South Street Seaport on Thursday, June 20. ... Echobrain, the band featuring ex-Metallica bassist Jason Newsted, have been hit with a trademark infringement lawsuit by Dallas punk-art ensemble Echo Drain, whose slogan is "God Awful Music for God Awful People." Echo Drain, who have been touring since early 2000, allege that Newsted's band liked their name and intentionally stole their identity. ...

Another star will be added to Hollywood's RockWalk with the induction of LA punk band X. The ceremony will take place Tuesday, June 25 at noon, and original members John Doe, Exene Cervenka, Billy Zoom and D.J. Bonebrake will be in attendance to add their handprints and signatures. ... ABC is in the process of creating a biopic chronicling the rise of the Go-Go's which is expected to air in February, according to Variety. No word yet on whether actors will be hired for the shoot, though the Go-Go's are anticipated to participate in the picture. ... MuchMusic Video Awards were handed out on Sunday night to Nickelback (Best Video), Shakira (Best International Video - Artist), and Nelly Furtado (MuchMoreMusic Award), among many others.

• Courtney Love
• Tommy Lee
• Slash
• Moby
• Royce Da 5'9"

Da Beatminerz's <I>Brace 4 Impak</I>
Photo: Priority

When you're in need of the sonic equivalent of an earthquake, the always hyper Busta Rhymes is a good man to call. Da Beatminerz did just that for "Take That," the lead single (which also features the Flipmode Squad and Vinia Mojica) from their debut collection, Brace 4 Impak, which is scheduled to arrive in stores July 31. Other guests on the album include Talib Kweli, Naughty by Nature, Pete Rock and Royce Da 5'9".

Anchored by brothers DJ Evil Dee and Mr. Walt, and rounded out by Baby Paul, Rick Black and Chocolate Ty, Da Beatminerz helped New York return to hip-hop prominence in 1993 by producing the debut album from Black Moon, Enta Da Stage. The collection contained gritty, bass-heavy instrumentation that was as dark as solitary confinement and a marked contrast to the largely pop-friendly music coming from the Big Apple at the time.

Subsequent work with everyone from the Cocoa Brovaz to Rah Digga to Next to Mark Morrison solidified the Brooklyn crew's standing as one of hip-hop's most respected beatmaking collectives.

Although they had been planning on releasing their own album for several years, Da Beatminerz decided to wait before unleashing Brace 4 Impak. "It's always been a dream of ours, but we waited for the right time to do it," Mr. Walt said. "I felt that right now is the time to do it because we needed to get our ideas together and get focused on what we wanted to bring out and present to the people. Musically, it's kind of the same stuff we've given you before, but it's a little brighter. But it's still bass-heavy.

That's our trademark and we're going to stick with it." They also stuck to a wish list when assembling the talent they hoped to feature on Brace 4 Impak. "When we came across a song we wanted to do, we thought about who would be perfect on it," Walt said. "Certain songs just fit certain people. This process generated such combinations as the Talib Kweli and Total collaboration on "The Anti-Love Movement" and the Jayo Felony and Ras Kass duet on "Bentleys & Bitches." Despite this verbal firepower, dedicated Beatminerz fans may notice the absence of most of the Boot Camp Clik on the album. While Black Moon appear with Lord Have Mercy on the cut "Devastatin' ... That's Us!" and Cocoa Brovaz are featured with Blackhearted Skavangers on "Extreme Situation," Heltah Skeltah, O.G.C. and others in the loose collective whose music Da Beatminerz had primarily produced do not make an appearance. Evil Dee said that the Minerz are working on new albums from Black Moon and the Cocoa Brovaz, and that they simply wanted to show that they could work effectively with other acts on their own album.

"This is a Beatminerz album, so we wanted to show that we didn't only have one style," he said. "We wanted to show that we could do other things than just make Boot Camp records." That becomes clear after listening to Brace 4 Impak, which also features Krumb Snatcha, David Banks and Nay Nay's "Let's Talk About It (T.R.O.Y.

Remix)," a song with a less dense feel than what fans may expect from the perpetually ominous beat work of Da Beatminerz.

"We're trying to keep the same formula but add some more things to it," DJ Evil Dee said. "Our stuff keeps getting brighter and brighter. But we've still got the gutter and the bottom there. The bottom has to be there.

That's what attracts everybody."

• Busta Rhymes
• Talib Kweli
• Flipmode Squad
• Naughty By Nature
• Pete Rock

Eminem
Photo: MTV News

Royce Da 5'9" knows about doing it himself. After leaving Tommy Boy Records last year, the Detroit rapper independently released "Boom," his collaboration with DJ Premier, and the song became an instant underground hit. Fortunately for Royce, the record bubbled above surface as well. It caught the attention of Columbia Records and they decided to sign Royce, who's made a name for himself on the underground circuit with solo efforts like "Secret Wars" and his many collaborations with good friend Eminem, like "Bad VS Evil." Now the MC is putting the finishing touches on his debut album, Rock City, due July 17. "That's what they call Detroit," Royce said. Fellow Motor City rapper Eminem appears on the title track, which Royce describes as having the same hometown pride vibe as Foxy Brown's "BK Anthem." "It's like a real Detroit-felt album," he said.

Royce said Slim Shady's appearance on the album should clear up the rumors of any friction between the two old chums. "The relationship is the same," Royce said. "The reason people don't see us together no more is, one — we're on two different labels. Two — his sh-- just exploded overnight. The reason you used to see me and him together so much was because I was his hype man. I used to tour with him, but once I signed my deal, I couldn't go on tour with him. I started recording my album." In addition to Eminem, Royce's clique — Detroit native sons D-Elite — will also appear on the album, as will Chicago's Twista. Producers the Neptunes, the Alchemist, Premier, Ty Fyfe and Carlos Broady have all laid tracks. "It's going to be a mixture of a lot of different stuff," Royce said. "I'm going to take a lot of people by surprise. I got the songs for the MCs, the songs for the ladies. 'Danger' is strictly to women. 'Get Your Paper' is a real club song. I got a song called 'Pain' where I'm rhyming like I'm actually in pain. If pain was a person, what would pain say? I'm trying to do a classic album with songs that people will remember and don't just die down real quick." As for "Boom," Royce said the cut will be re-serviced — this time with a chorus — as the lead single to the Carmen Jones soundtrack. The 23-year-old has been testing out some of his material on the current Nelly tour. Royce was recently added to 13 dates on the outing, which includes Sticky Fingaz and Alley Life. And how did he get his moniker? "I ain't the type of person who's real creative with names," said Royce, born Ryan Montgomery. "When I was in high school, my first chain was a Turkish link with a big 'R' on it. My friend started calling me 'Royce' because he said it looked like the Rolls Royce 'R'. '5'9"' comes from when I was on the basketball team. Me and my man was the only people who was 5'9" all four years." He hasn't grown an inch since.

• Royce Da 5'9"
• Eminem
• N.E.R.D.
• Twista