Photo: So Icy/Aphiliates

• R. Kelly
• Saigon
• Young Jeezy
• 50 Cent
• Gucci Mane

Cam'ron
Photo: Asylum

Celebrity Favorites

Cam'ron is getting to the money and apparently has no time for holding grudges. When Killa is cruising, he's not having flashbacks of old beefs. Despite past musical feuds with Nas and Jay-Z, the Harlem Diplomat says that he keeps their music in rotation. A classic is a classic.

"To be honest, I've been listening to a variety of stuff," Cam told us a few weeks ago, when asked whose music he enjoys these days. "The last album I bought was Plies' album. I like Plies a lot. Basically, being in Florida, you feel him even more when you're in that atmosphere. [Lil] Wayne is my man. I got stuff like Jay-Z's first album, Reasonable Doubt, [Nas'] infamous Illmatic, stuff that makes me think. [A lot of] new albums are like, 'Eh, whatever.' But I got a lot of '97, '98 stuff in my car, '96. Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. ... I always listen to DeBarge. DeBarge is always in the loop. John Legend. Beyoncé's new CD is in there. I do a lot of mixtape R&B stuff. I even got the Force M.D.s."

The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground

From the South to the North and everywhere in between, OJ Da Juiceman is getting love from his fellow hip-hop dignitaries. Jadakiss has him featured on "Who's Real," R. Kelly has him on the underground record "Superman High," and there are plenty more collaborations in the works.

"I did a song with Saigon; it's called 'What Would You Do for Pu---," he said. "I'mma have this record with Cassidy. I got in the 'Hustler's Anthem' remix with Busta Rhymes and T-Pain. I got in touch with Grafh — he said he wants to do something. [Tony] Yayo got on the remix to 'Make the Trap Say Aye'; it's a bunch of people. I'm working with everybody that extended their hand out. Me and Ron Browz about to do something. I did song with D-Block that's a real record."

And in addition to all that, Da Juice is currently working on a follow-up to the project he released earlier this year The Otha Side of the Trap.

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

• Mixtape Daily Video: Jay-Z, Cam'ron, Drake, Jadakiss & More

• Mixtape Daily: Other Notables, Eminem, Jadakiss, Kanye West And More

• Cam'ron
• Jay-Z
• OJ Da Juiceman
• Jadakiss
• Saigon

Nas and Damien "Jr. Gong" Marley
Photo: MTV News

Artist: Saigon and Statik Selektah

Representing: The Yard

Independent Album: All in a Day's Work

411: Twenty-four hours to live? Nah, 24 hours to create. The musical vibe between Statik Selektah and Saigon was so potent, they made an entire album in one day — the aptly titled All in a Day's Work.

"This ain't my real album that everybody is waiting for," Sai clarified, distinguishing this project from his long-awaited Just Blaze-produced project, Greatest Story Never Told. "This is just a project I did with a up-and-coming dude, Statik Selektah. I know a lot of people heard of him. He's from the Bean. We came in to do a song for 'Grand Theft Auto.' We just vibed and clicked. Next thing you know, we had six, seven songs done.

"First I was like, 'Let's do an EP,' " Sai continued. "Then we got up to eight songs. I was like, 'Two more, you've got an album.' This is the first time somebody has put together an album in a day and put it out in a week.  It was top three on the hip-hop charts on iTunes. We put it out all digital. I'm trying to get people accustomed to buying my music digitally ahead of time. I got ratings higher than dudes with real albums."

Saigon said that for the most part, he wrote the songs right there on the spot, but for a couple of records he got his Dr. Frankenstein on, taking a verse he already had in his book and piecing it together with another one he had lying around.

"What really inspired me with Statik was that East Coast feel that's been gone away for long," Gon told. "He brought me back to the hip-hop that I grew up on — that whole Wu-Tang era, the slow samples, the sped-up samples. Everything started flowing from there."

Saigon's album with Just Blaze still doesn't have a label, but the two are still working. "We just keep upgrading and upgrading," he said. "We're trying to keep it up to par. I don't have a home for it because hip-hop is going through a transitional phase. I put a lot of work into it, so I just don't want to throw it out there and it don't get the support it deserves. I'm just waiting, that's why I did All in a Day's Work."

Saigon's next mixtape, Warning Shots 2, is due in July.

Joints To Check For:

» "Lady Sings the Blues."  "I liked the sample," Saigon said about the track. "It sounded like she was sad. I took away from the sadness and added my element to it. I think the record came out hot. The worst thing I did to a woman to make her sing the blues was I f---ed my girlfriend's aunt. The aunt was young, the aunt was poppin.' My girl was saying, 'My aunt wants to meet you. She's a fan.' I was expecting it to be a regular aunt. The aunt is usually older.  I met her aunt, she was hot. The aunt threw me the wink, I slipped her the number. It went down from there. I confessed [to my] girl. I can't lie too good. I'm a bad liar.

"I said, 'I'm gonna do a few tracks for the ladies [on this album],' " he added. "I did a breakup song called 'Lose Her.' If you don't want your girl no more, just lose her. Get rid of her. Just play the song for her and she'll get the message."

» "The Rules." "We snatched up the sample from [Busta Rhymes'] 'Woo Hah!! [Got You All in Check]' on there," Sai explained.  "It's talking about nowadays in hip-hop, you don't have to pay no dues to shine. Like I said, a lot of dudes come in on other dudes' backs and they get thrown right in the spotlight. When we came up, you had to grind. Even if you knew somebody, you had to prove yourself as being dope. You couldn't come out with one dope verse and people say, 'He's that next dude.' My number one rule when it comes to life is probably treat people how you want to be treated. Respect everybody, try your best to be positive and righteous."

» "The Reason." "I'm talking about how the game flipped over from it being about talent to guys just chasing the ladies," the Yardfather said. "I think hip-hop is reflective of life. It used to be a time when females used to try and follow what we did. Now it's like vice versa. When dudes go in the studio, they're thinking, 'What are the girls gonna like?' Even to the point where men are wearing purses and tight pants. Like we're almost morphing into females. I feel sorry for the generation after us. I know it's stylish and all that, but where are the warriors? Where's the next generation of young strong men? We're gonna miss that if we don't keep it the way it's supposed to be."

Don't Sleep: Other Notable Selections This Week

» Maury Povich - I Am Not The Baby's Daddy

» Rich Boy - Pacc Man

» Lil Wayne & Juelz Santana - My Face Can't Be Felt

» LA the Darkman & Willie the Kid - Certified Hustler

» DJ Koolaid & B.B.E. - Street Radio Vol. 10 Welcome 2 SwaggaVille 2009

'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar

» Jadakiss featuring Styles P. - "One More Step"

» Shawty Lo featuring Gucci Mane  - "Put Em Up"

» N.O.R.E. featuring Nina Sky - "Shoulders Move"

» Rick Ross featuring Kanye West and T-Pain  - "Maybach Music 2"

» Lady Gaga featuring Chamillionaire - "Poker Face" (unofficial remix)

» Beyonce featuring and Kanye West - "Ego" remix

The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground

Nas!!! Rocking that Mets gear, repping for Queens. Esco is about to go on tour and put out an album with Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley called Distant Relatives in June. Meanwhile, the QB rap legend is sounding masterful on guest appearances such as Rick Ross' "Usual Suspects" and Jadakiss' "What If."

On the Jadakiss record, Nas raps, "What if I was just another corny rapper?/ What if I went first instead of Notorious?/ Who would tell my story after?" It's both a morbid and provocative question. We asked Nas to answer it himself.

"You never know [who would talk about my legacy]," he said in L.A. during the Rock the Bells press conference. "That's why we make a song like that."

Nas also said that he and Marley picked their album title because "we're all related. We're all in the human family. We gotta act like family sometimes. It's good to acknowledge your family. It's a crazy world out here. Sometimes it gets separated, it gets segregated. We gotta remember what this is about." ...

After coming within an eye-blink of death, Crooked I says he has renewed sense of urgency to put out music, and the material has to have deep messages. So much so, it seems plans for the group LP featuring Crooked, Glasses Malone and Bishop Lamont have been put on hold.

"We were going to do that," Crooked recently told MTV News of the project. "There are some things going on with that right now."

The project, named No Country for Old Men, was supposed to take aim at some West Coast legends whom the trio felt were trying to thwart the rise of up-and-coming talent such as themselves.

"You've got people like Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre. You've got all these people on the West Coast," he began to explain. "The 'Men' stands for 'mentality': No country for this old mentality. We don't want to deal with this mentality that says we can't like each other, we can't unify. That's why I like the South, because the South unites.

"Whether they feel each other or not, I see them on the video together. I see them on songs together. I see huge stars reaching back into the community of newcomers and pulling them up. You don't see that on the West Coast. It's because of the Crip and Blood mentality.  Growing up with the gangbanger mentality, I cannot like you and never had met you. You live over here and I don't like you. It's easy to bring that mentality into the industry. They're like, 'I'm not messing with that dude.' Why don't you? It would help your business. We look at the O.G.s in the industry like you laid down the foundation, now we're left here stranded and we don't have no country."

"There's a lot of blocking that was going on," Crooked said of some elder West Coast MCs. "The new West movement was fed up. We're trying to wake them up."

Despite the sour feelings, Crooked said that after assailants tried to shoot him a couple of weeks ago, he wants to go in a completely different direction.

"After this stuff, man, I've been really thinking. That [album is] cool. That's something that needs to be said. But right now ... I've been in these [life-threatening] situations before. Last time I was in this situation, my brother got shot. You can only cheat death but so many times.  Old people say you get three signs and you're outta here. I'm working on my fourth or fifth sign. I'm like, 'If I die tomorrow, I'm gonna say some real things today.'

"My focus now is if Ice Cube, Snoop, Dre, none of them dudes wanna reach down and help the new dudes, that's fine. Maybe I'll call them and have a healthy conversation about it and move on. I'm not in that zone no more. I want to leave a body of work behind that matches a Biggie or Pac. God is good. If I would have laid on that pavement and stayed there — no disrespect because I love Bishop and Glasses — but all I would have is No Country as my most recent body of work. I can't go out like that right now. Right now I need to focus on something that's gonna be around forever."

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

• Mixtape Monday: Nas, Saigon and Crooked I

• Nas
• Saigon
• Crooked I

Snoop Dogg
Photo: MTV News

Artist: LL Cool J

Representing: Queens

Mixtape: Return of the G.O.A.T.

411: "Pray to God, not LL Cool J." The Queens icon has his priorities in order. He calls himself the greatest of all time but will be quick to tell you that his 24 years as a hip-hop star have been a huge blessing. He'll be very frank when speaking about how some of his music may have suffered through the years because he was focused on setting himself up in Hollywood. But can you really blame somebody for trying to get some of that long-range money?

He's paused all his acting over the past couple of years to rededicate himself to his rap art and recorded a few albums worth of material for his Exit 13 LP (due in July). He also just finished a mixtape with DJ Kay Slay called Return of the G.O.A.T.

"Me and Slay was just talking: 'Let's do a mixtape,' " Cool J explained, while riding in his Bentley down Linden Boulevard in his Queens neighborhood. Cool J is home, and the 'hood has come out to show him love. Everyone is either asking for an autograph or a picture, or telling him how fine he is.

"I said, 'OK. Let's knock it out. Let's hit them something hard, something hot,' " he continued. " 'Let's do something for the fellas so they don't feel I'mma oil my chest up, roll around in some feathers with my toenails painted.' ... So I said, 'Slay, let's do it.' Slay is hot. I have a lot of respect for Slay."

LL's mixtape is going to have a mixture of him freestyling over beats that are out there right now, some exclusive songs, and artists like Sheek Louch rapping over some classic LL instrumentals.

"They representing me, giving me love," he added. "Rhyming over some of my old beats to really make the mixtape official, so that young cats could get an opportunity to hear some of my earlier material without me doing it. Hear other cats' interpretation. I like that actually. I like to hear other cats spitting it. I loved when Game gave me props [on 'Game's Pain.']. I thought that was fly. He wasn't trying to ride and be all extra with it. ... It was a nice little show of love and kept it moving."

Return of the G.O.A.T. is LL's first official mixtape.

"I do things when I feel it," he explained of why it took him almost three decades to do one. "I don't do things because everybody else is doing them. Like clothing lines. Let's take that for example. I did a clothing line in '87, Troop. It was everywhere. They talk about clothing lines. Then I did the clothing line with Fubu. It was everywhere in the '90s. Then I did the Todd Smith and this thing with Sears recently with the LL Cool J brand. People talk about Def Jam, I owned a piece of Def Jam. I sold it back. People don't really know my history. I own my own catalog. These are things that people don't understand that's going on in LL's life. I'mma do a mixtape for no money, just to show cats how nice I am on the microphone. You have a whole generation of people who think all I ever do is love songs."

LL just released "I Cry" with Lil' Mo. That song will be on his album. "I got Def Jam behind me," he said with a smile in the barber's chair at his favorite spot, Head's Up. "It's the new Lakers. The energy is great."

Joints To Check For

» "Laptop Gangsters." "That's just a freestyle I call 'Laptop Gangsters' because these guys get on the Internet and become laptop gangsters," he said. "They have all these theories and ideas of what they think real hip-hop is and what it isn't. The reality is, most of them guys [weren't born] when the music was created. ... Now they wanna get on the Internet and tell me what's what. I'm kinda touching them up a little bit and dealing with that."

» "Who Want It With the G.O.A.T." "We used that Rick Ross 'The Boss' beat," he said. "I think it's important to just set the tone for what I feel I've contributed to hip-hop and this culture. It's not just about love songs — even though I invented that and brought it to this music. Now you almost can't have an album without it. It's become a part of the blueprint. As the first solo rap star in the history of our culture, sometimes you have to speak and let people know what you're really feeling. I felt a mixtape was the way to do it. Plus, I'm not looking for money from Slay. I'm not trying to get paid off the tape. It's not always about a dollar all the time. Money ain't my god. I'm paid, but it ain't my god. God is my god."

» "Zodiac Driller." "It's gonna be the summer of the G.O.A.T. all summer long," he said. "The mixtape is gonna drop, album is gonna drop. I'mma rearrange the game. I'm gonna get the game refocused. A lot of guys are gonna try to throw a single out here, throw singles out there, none of it's gonna work. I'm gonna win, and that's what it's gonna be."

Don't Sleep: Other Notable Selections This Week

» DJ CL - 28 Blends Later
» DJ Fade and Grafh - Burn 'Em Down
» DJ Haze and Nu Jerzey Devil - BWS Radio 4 (The Black Wall Street Takeover)
» DJ Smallz - Southern Smoke Radio

'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar

» Common (featuring Pharrell) - "Universal Mind Control"
» Gorilla Zoe (featuring Sean Kingston) - "On the Corner"
» Jasmine Sullivan - "Need U Bad"
» Rich Graham - "I'm Lookin for You"
» Rick Ross (featuring Triple C, Flo Rida, Shawty Lo, Birdman and Trey Songz) - "This Is the Life" remix
» Styles P - "Music"
» Young Chris (featuring Lil Wayne) - "Paradise"

Celebrity Faves

Not much has changed on Chris Brown's rap radar. His favorite MC is still Lil Wayne. He loves what Kanye West is doing, and obviously he and David Banner are as tight as Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol are on the court. On the set of the video for Banner's "Get Like Me," C. Breezy didn't even take a water break. When he wasn't shooting scenes with the Mayor of Mississippi and Yung Joc, Brown was battling in a dance-off.

The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground

"Let's take it back to the old school. Let's take it to Union Square." Snoop Dogg wants to keep the original spirit of mixtapes alive on his next street CD with DJ Drama.

"It's gonna be a mixtape with just me and Drama," Snoop told us of his next project. "I feel mixtapes are losing their essence. Mixtapes means mixing, turntables, records. Not CDs, computers — you understand. Go back to the element of mixtapes where it all started, where it all began."

Snoop is also masterminding Gangsta Grillz CDs for Tha Dogg Pound and their new affiliate, Terrace Martin.

"That was something that was overlooked a lot. The South wasn't really getting their respect," the Dogg said about aligning his camp with Mr. Thanksgiving. "Now the South is highly respected, and DJ Drama was one of the backdrops to it from his mixtapes and the stuff he does. I felt like putting him with Tha Dogg Pound could only bring that boost to the West Coast and show that love and show that unity. He's the king of what he do, we the kings of what we do — why not bring both worlds together? We're gonna take a few beats from artists who really didn't rap on their beats how they supposed to. Then we gonna put some new music down, and we gonna do what we do."

Look for all those mixtapes within the next month or so. ...

Will Saigon's Abandoned Nation be joining Jay-Z's newly formed Roc Nation? It seems like a move that makes perfect sense, right?

"Rumors are gonna be rumors," Sai said last week in Queens about the speculation that he might sign with Jay now that his tumultuous tenure with Atlantic Records is over. "You can't fight the rumors. Just Blaze and Jay-Z are good friends. ... It's gonna be big. Where we go is gonna be big. It's gonna make history."

Saigon said that within the next month, he's going to announce where he'll release The Greatest Story Never Told. He has also set a tentative release date of September 30 for the long-delayed LP. Saigon categorized Atlantic as a "dance label." "They wanna make dance music and party music. That ain't my lane," he said. "The person who signed me to Atlantic Records quit three months after I got signed up there. I tried to work it out, but they made me a lot of empty promises." Wherever the Yard Father goes — whether it be with Young Hov or not — his label home has to "care about insightful music."

Saigon's new song "Gotta Believe" was produced by Just Blaze. Just also sings on the track under his alias Red 5. "That's one of Just Blaze's many alter egos when he records. Remember [Jay-Z's] 'PSA'? That's Just Blaze [speaking between the verses]. Even 'Show Me What You Got.' Flavor Flav called Just Blaze and said, 'Thank you for putting me on the record,' when that's really Just Blaze doing that 'Show me what you got/ Sh-sh-show me what you got!' Flav ain't even know it wasn't his voice. Just is creative like that."

Saigon also cleared up that Just Blaze isn't biting T-Pain's style by using the vocoder effect on his voice while singing the hook.

"We did [the song] a year and half ago before the craze," Sai explained. "We actually referenced it for T-Pain. This is when T-Pain was still coming up. He tried to charge us 100 grand. So I was like, 'Yo ... you sound good on it. Just keep [the song with your voice on it].' This was before the Auto-Tune mania."

This summer, Saigon will be touring Germany with Jay-Z and Rick Ross on two separate outings. He and the Bawwwse also hit up Scandinavia for some dates. The Yard Father just returned from Beijing, where he performed as part of a Complex magazine promotion.

"It was a wonderful experience to see all these Asian kids who don't even know the language say all the words to your songs," he said. "They really knew 'Come Again' and 'Pain in My Life.' That was big over there. They really like 'Pain in My Life' a lot. It was a beautiful experience. I walked about three or four miles of the Great Wall of China. It was an amazing experience. I wouldn't trade that experience for nothing in the world."

Viral videos for "The Color Purple" and "What a Life" are already in the can. There's also a video for "Gotta Believe" going into production soon.

• Mixtape Monday Video: LL Cool J, Snoop Dogg & More

• Snoop Dogg
• DJ Drama
• LL Cool J
• Jay-Z
• Saigon

Saigon
Photo: Verne B

Saigon's been in the news a lot lately, and not always under the best circumstances.

In August he was pulled over for making an illegal turn and subsequently arrested for carrying a weapon. The rapper was driving someone else's car at the time and claimed he was unaware that there was a pocket knife stored in its console. Saigon is due back in court to face the charge on December 5.

And then there was a recent run-in with Mobb Deep in September at a showcase sponsored by New York hip-hop radio station Hot 97. Saigon blogged about it, talked about it and, according to him, has said all he's going to say about the incident. (To hear the Mobb's response to the altercation, check out Mixtape Monday.)

But for every dark cloud, the rain eventually stops pouring and makes way for sunny days. In other words, Saigon can take it a bit easier now as a new headline makes the rounds: He finally has a release date set for his debut album.

The Yardfather phoned MTV News to give us the exclusive that his Just Blaze-produced project, The Greatest Story Never Told, is scheduled to hit shelves December 4.

Guess there really is no such thing as bad publicity after all.

"I feel good about the timing, and I'm totally confident about coming in the fourth quarter with the big dogs," Sai said over the weekend.

It has certainly been well documented that the rapper has been waiting a long time for the album's release, from his early alliance with Mark Ronson to his later, sometimes rocky collaboration with Just Blaze.

Saigon and Blaze went back and forth in blog posts earlier in the year, clashing over the delay of Sai's lead single, "Come on Baby," due to sample-clearance issues.

But Sai and Just eventually quashed their differences, and in September they filmed a clip in New York for the single, featuring Swizz Beatz, with director Edwin Decena at the helm.

Just Blaze also recently premiered the long-rumored remix to "Come on Baby," featuring a guest verse from Jay-Z, at Jay's 40/40 sports club in Manhattan on Saturday night, where there was an impromptu afterparty celebrating Kanye West and LeBron James' "Saturday Night Live" appearance.

• Saigon's "Come On Baby" Video Shoot

• Saigon

Nick Bollea's car after the Sunday crash
Photo: Tim Boyles/ Getty Images

Nick Bollea, Hulk Hogan's 17-year-old son, was discharged from a hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Monday morning (August 27) after being involved in a car accident the previous evening. Police said Bollea, who was featured in VH1's "Hogan Knows Best" reality series, was driving his Toyota Supra at a high speed along state route 60 when he lost control of the vehicle and slammed into a raised median at 7:30 p.m. in Clearwater. The car reportedly flipped over, and the rear of the vehicle collided with a palm tree. Bollea and one of his car's passengers, 22-year-old John Graziano, were airlifted to the Bayfront Medical Center following the crash. The nature of both Bollea's and Graziano's injuries was not immediately known, but a police spokesperson characterized them as serious. Graziano remains under the hospital's care in critical condition. Alcohol is not believed to have played a role in the accident, but police continue to investigate the crash. No criminal charges have been filed. ...

Jordin Sparks doesn't have a name for her debut album yet, but she's got a release date set in stone: November 20. In anticipation of the 19 Recordings/ Jive disc, the "American Idol" champ drew back the curtains on her first single on Friday, debuting "Tattoo" on AOL's Pop Eater blog. The track hits radio Monday. Sparks told The Associated Press that the effort was partly modeled after one of her own idols, Kelly Clarkson — but that she's a bit nervous to be following in the wake of Clarkson and Carrie Underwood's success. "They've risen the bar so high and I'm like, 'I hope I can reach it,' " she said. "Hopefully [my LP will] sell well and people will like it." ...

The runner-up to Sparks, Blake Lewis, is following suit — he just signed to 19 Recordings/ Arista and is planning to drop his first album late this year as well. Hit-maker du jour J.R. Rotem is already on board for the effort. ...

It's no McDonald's parking-lot tour, but Missy Elliott will be featured in a new Doritos ad campaign debuting September 17, Billboard.com reports. In the clip, she is seen working on a new song and snacking on Doritos Collision, different-flavored chips that spur her to fuse a little country into her hip-hop track. A contest to be held on SnackStrongProductions.com will allow visitors to create their own mash-ups using Elliott's track, although the prizes have yet to be determined. The site also features a help section in which Elliott will give tips. ...

Listen up, punk-rockers: Unreleased and rare tracks by Panic! at the Disco, Gym Class Heroes, the Used, Cute Is What We Aim For, Sparta, Head Automatica and more fill up Press Play: Volume 1, a new comp that was put together by Photo Finish and Alternative Press. A portion of the proceeds from the September 25 release will go to the Keep a Breast Foundation, a nonprofit organization that fights breast cancer. ...

The Disney Channel will air a special dance-along version of "High School Musical 2" on September 8 at 8 p.m. ET, People reports. Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens and other castmembers will instruct viewers on how to mimic their dance moves during the opening and closing numbers. ... Russell Simmons has stepped down from his post as CEO of Phat Fashions, the company he founded in 1992 that spawned Phat Farm clothing. "I leave the division and the brand in great hands. There are so many things I want to achieve, and this is the appropriate moment for me to move on to my next business venture," the hip-hop mogul said in a statement. ...

Mos Def is sounding off about José Padilla, the Guantánamo detainee who was convicted earlier this week of supporting terrorism. "We all know the history of insufficient evidence or testimony under duress — at the very least, legal circumstances that demand some sort of reinvestigation ... basically saying these people are not the criminals they're being made out to be," he told The Associated Press on Thursday. Mos Def will participate this weekend in the 10th annual Black August benefit concert at New York's Nokia Theatre. The event serves to create awareness about people who its organizers, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, believe have been unfairly convicted — Talib Kweli, Saigon and Dead Prez are also on the bill. ...

Music, martial arts and chess ... how could members of the Wu-Tang Clan not be involved? RZA and GZA are participating in the Hip-Hop Chess Foundation's first-ever Chess Kings Invitational, set for October 13 at the San Francisco Design Center. The rappers will talk on the tournament's Life Strategies panel about how music, martial arts and chess — activities the organization uses to promote nonviolence — have affected their lives. ...

Muse have plotted a handful of September dates with Juliette and the Licks: Seattle (September 9); Portland, Oregon (September 10); Orem, Utah (September 12); Dallas (September 16); Morrison, Colorado (September 18); Mesa, Arizona (September 20); and Irvine, California (September 21). Muse will also hit the San Diego Street Scene on September 22. ... Ben Kweller just squeezed out a new seven-track live EP, Ben Kweller: Live and Solo at the Artists Den, that was recorded December 13 at New York's Solo House. The disc of rarely performed songs is available now at digital outlets. ...

System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian will shoot a video for "Praise the Lord, Pass the Ammunition," from the rocker's solo debut, Elect the Dead, at an undisclosed venue in Hollywood next week with director Greg Watermann (Mudvayne, Lamb of God). Extras are needed for the video — those interested in auditioning can e-mail Watermann at serjvideo@gregwatermann.com. ... The track list for Thrice's upcoming LP The Alchemy Index: Vols. I & II - Fire & Water has been revealed. Fire will boast six cuts, including "The Messenger," "Backdraft" and "Burn the Fleet"; Water will also contain six tunes, among them "Open Water," "Night Diving" and "Kings Upon the Main." Look for the discs to hit stores October 16. ...

A writer/producer who worked on "In Living Color" and created Nickelodeon's "Roundhouse" is suing the Walt Disney Company, claiming it stole his idea for "Hannah Montana," Reuters reports. In the suit, Morris Taylor "Buddy" Sheffield says he pitched Disney Channel executives the idea for a kids' show about a high school student who leads a secret life as a pop star. Sheffield also claims Disney could owe him and his production company millions in lost profits and damages, and he wants compensation for legal fees. A Disney Channel spokesperson told the news service the network had no comment. ...

Kirsten Dunst's penthouse suite at a hotel in Manhattan, New York, was robbed earlier this month, according to court records obtained by AP. Thieves got away with a $13,000 handbag, cell phone, $2,500 in cash, an iPod, two digital cameras and ID cards belonging to the actress, who had been in the city to shoot scenes for her upcoming flick "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People." One suspect was arraigned Wednesday on burglary and grand-larceny charges, and is being held on $50,000 bond. ...

Hellyeah — the band featuring members of Mudvayne, Pantera and Nothingface — are on the hunt for a dozen women they'd like to act as their "Hellyeah girls." The winners will be featured in the band's 2008 calendar — to enter, contestants need to post an audition video to Break.com and send a link to the clip to hellyeahtv@gmail.com. ... The Dillinger Escape Plan will headline a U.S. tour this fall set to kick off October 4 in Cleveland, Ohio. Just five dates have been confirmed, but more will be announced in the coming weeks. The trek will also feature A Life Once Lost, Behold ... the Arctopus and Genghis Tron. Dillinger's forthcoming LP, Ire Works, lands in stores November 13. ...

The resurrected Jesus & Mary Chain are heading back to the studio to record their first studio album in nine years. The band will also treat four West Coast cities to more concerts: Las Vegas (October 20); Anaheim, California (October 22); Los Angeles (October 23) and San Francisco (October 26-27). ... Queen guitarist Brian May has finished his doctorate in a crazy little thing called astrophysics — he was awarded his Imperial College qualification on Thursday in London. May had been an astrophysics student before joining the band 37 years ago but dropped out as Queen became successful. His thesis? "Radical Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud." ...

Ted Nugent is at it again. The controversial right-wing rocker went on a profanity-spewed tirade at a concert last week, according to video footage posted on LiveLeak.com. With machine guns in his hands, a camouflaged Nugent yelled, "Obama, he's a piece of sh--, and I told him to suck on my machine gun. ... And then I was in New York. I said, 'Hey Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset.' " He also went off on Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer before saying, "Any questions?" and shouting, "Freedom!"

08.23.07

In one minute, out the next: Nicole Richie checked herself into the Century Regional Facility in Lynwood, California, on Thursday (August 23) to start serving her DUI sentence — only to find herself checking out less than an hour and a half later due to overcrowding. Richie had been sentenced to serve four days in jail. "At this time, the criteria for a female arrestee sentenced to 30 days or less for a nonviolent offense is as follows: the arrestee is booked, screened and usually released within 12 hours," the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said in a press release issued to MTV News. "This procedure is based on jail overcrowding to manage population levels mandated by federal court guidelines. Based on the mandated guidelines and Ms. Richie's 96 hours sentence, she will be treated in the same manner as other inmates with a similar sentence." The jail is the same one where Paris Hilton served a portion of her DUI sentence. ...

The Kelly Clarkson train is slowly getting back on the tracks. After the early-summer one-two punch of dumping her manager and canceling the tour in support of My December, the singer has booked the first two shows of what is expected to be a fall/winter outing. The dates — an October 10 show at Verona, New York's Turning Stone casino and another on October 15 at New York's Beacon Theater — are in venues decidedly smaller than some of the arenas Clarkson had been originally booked to hit as part of her scotched 35-date summer tour. The full itinerary for her rescheduled trek is expected in two weeks, according to a management spokesperson. ...

Justin Timberlake is joining the cast of "The Love Guru," a sports comedy starring Mike Myers, Verne Troyer and Jessica Alba. The Myers-produced film is set to begin production next month in Toronto and tentatively be released in theaters June 20. Timberlake will play a hockey player tangled in a love triangle with the top player on a team owned by Alba. ...

Though she's not likely to attend the ceremony given her doctor's orders to take a break from touring and making appearances for the rest of the year, Amy Winehouse is one of the leading nominees for England's Music of Black Origin awards with four nominations for Best U.K. Female, Best R&B Act, Best Video and Best Song for "Rehab." Also nominated for four awards is rapper Dizzee Rascal. The show will take place September 19 at the O2 arena in London, with the winner chosen by a tally of public votes on the event's Web site. A number of American acts are also nominated, among them Kanye West, Common and 50 Cent in the Best Hip-Hop category; and Amerie, Robin Thicke and Ne-Yo, who will battle Winehouse in the Best Song category. Rihanna has a pair of nominations, including one for Best International Act, in which she'll face off against Diddy, Akon and T.I.. ...

In related news, Paolo Nutini has reshuffled his tour plans following news that tour partner Winehouse tabled her U.S. trek until next year. The Scottish singer/songwriter's jaunt will now run from September 7 in Buffalo, New York, through October 28 in New Orleans. "I'll be thinking a good thought for her, she is a remarkable talent. In the meantime, I'm truly excited about this upcoming tour of North America — I guarantee it will be my best yet," Nutini said in a statement. ...

Rapper Saigon was arrested at 1:45 a.m. on Wednesday in New York on Manhattan's West Side after police stopped him for a traffic violation and allegedly found a switchblade-like knife in the car console. According to his lawyer Scott Leemon, the rapper (born Brian Daniel Carenard) was pulled over while driving someone else's car in what Leemon called "another example of NY's finest targeting a member of the rap and entertainment industry ... the small pocket knife was found in a console in the car, not in his possession. As such, I am hoping after further investigation this will be another example of a rapper being wrongfully arrested." Because of a prior felony assault charge, the weapon-possession charge was bumped up to a felony, according to Leemon. Saigon was released on $1,500 bail and is due in court again December 5. ...

On the hunt for killer B-sides? How about Killers B-sides? The band — which put out its last studio album, Sam's Town, less than a year ago — is planning to pump out a rarities disc before the end of the year, Brandon Flowers recently told Billboard.com. The band's cover of Joy Division's "Shadowplay," rendition of Mel Tillis' "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" and "Spider-Man 3" soundtrack contribution "Move Away" are all on the tentative track list, which may include new material. The Killers have also teed up a different new song for release December 1: "Don't Shoot Me Santa," the band's next Christmas charity single for the Red Campaign. "Last year we were able to raise over $100,000 from the one song ['A Great Big Sled'], and hopefully we'll be able to do it again," Flowers said. ...

The Decemberists aren't planning just any old tour — on their upcoming trek, dubbed "The Long and Short of It," the indie-rockers will mix it up by playing at least two nights in 13 cities. They're also parsing the trek into "long" and "short" shows — the former ones will showcase their poppier material and the latter gigs will revolve around the band's epic songs. The jaunt runs from October 28 in Chicago through December 9 in Seattle. The Decemberists have also slapped together a new EP — The Perfect Crime #2 drops September 25 and features four tracks, including a remix by Junior Boys. ... Morrissey's tour plans are perhaps even more ambitious: For what is expected to be his last sweep through the States for a while, he'll hole up in Los Angeles for a marathon 10-night stand at the Palladium (October 1-13), play a four-night stand at San Francisco's Fillmore and a five-night one at New York's' Hammerstein Ballroom (October 28). Dates for the full trek are from September 21 (Las Vegas) through November 4 (Atlanta). ... Last but not least, Bright Eyes have beefed up their tour regiment, stretching their run from September 13 in Denver through November 19 in New York. ...

Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore doesn't have too many kind words to say about Avril Lavigne and John Mayer these days — although he's got plenty of respect for a certain avant-garde legend and another classic-rock hero. "I am playing with Yoko Ono, and she's well past 70 and she rocks," he told Spin for the magazine's September issue. "Neil Young rocks. It's certainly not John Mayer or Avril Lavigne. Those people don't rock. If that's the young generation in the culture, then [forget] it. In the underground, the old guys are cool. I like the fact that the older we get the more we can rock." ... Ramones fans, get ready to be bombarded: More than four hours of unreleased and rare concert material is being piled onto "It's Alive 1974-1996," a double-DVD set poised for an October 2 release. With performances of a whopping 118 songs, the set is highlighted by unissued video footage of the band's New Year's Eve 1977 gig at London's Rainbow Theatre — the show was previously captured in audio form, as the band's noted It's Alive live album. ...

Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder will perform at the world premiere of the Iraq war documentary "Body of War" at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11. The movie, which tells the story of paralyzed Iraq war vet Tomas Young — who appeared on stage with PJ at Lollapalooza — features two new songs written by Vedder, "No More" and "Long Nights." ... Talk about product placement. Southern-rap-news Web site MemphisRap.com claims Master P and his son Romeo have teamed up with T-Mobile to promote the new Sidekick LX by writing a song called "Sidekick" for their upcoming Miller Boyz album, due September 4 on P's new profanity-free label, Take a Stand Records. ... Fred Durst is in negotiations to direct "Comeback," an inspirational Pop Warner football drama starring Ice Cube, according to The Hollywood Reporter. ...

Samuel L. Jackson will emcee Save the Children's 75th anniversary event at New York's Lincoln Center on September 6. The event, to feature a performance by Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, will also serve as a tribute to former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, as well as Melinda Gates, for their humanitarian efforts. ... If you have tickets to see enigmatic metal-masked rapper MF Doom anytime soon and the guy onstage doesn't look, or even sound like, the Super Villain you know and love, you might be onto something. Bloggers have been abuzz over the past week about several recent West Coast Doom shows that have reportedly featured an impostor taking the stage in place of the rapper and performing (some say lip-synching) in Doom's place. The first sign that something was up, according to a fan who wrote into the Byron Crawford blog, was that cameras at a recent San Francisco show were strictly prohibited. The disgruntled fan wrote that Doom appeared 100 pounds lighter than usual during the 20-minute headlining performance. A spokesperson for Doom had no comment. ...

A forensics expert backed up defense claims made in the Phil Spector murder trial — and refuted by a prosecution witness on Wednesday — that Lana Clarkson might have continued breathing after she was shot at the music producer's mansion. Prosecutors sparred with the expert, Dr. Werner Spitz, afterward. ... The biggest ticketing agency in the country and the world's biggest concert promoter appear headed for a breakup. According to reports in Hits magazine online and Variety, internal documents about the negotiations from Ticketmaster said it is "doubtful" that Live Nation will renew its agreement with Ticketmaster when their current agreement expires at the end of this year. The loss of the Live Nation business, which Variety said accounted for about 15-20 percent of Ticketmaster's U.S. business in 2006, could mean Live Nation is gearing up to launch its own ticketing venture.

[This story was originally published at 8:00 pm E.T. on 8.23.2007]

• System of a Down
• Thrice
• Hellyeah
• Dillinger Escape Plan
• The Joseph & Mary Chain

• N.O.R.E.
• Saigon
• Soulja Boy Tell'em
• DJ Smallz

Saigon
Photo: Brad Barket/ Getty Images

NEW YORK — Saigon is tired of acting like a rapper.

Although the decorated underground lyricist landed a recurring role as himself on the HBO hit "Entourage," Saigon has made it clear he would much rather be living out his days as a real MC instead of just playing one on TV.

Well, the wait may finally be over for him.

Saigon recently wrapped shooting the first video from his debut album, The Greatest Story Never Told, tentatively due at the top of the new year on Just Blaze's Atlantic-distributed Fort Knox label. According to Sai, the long-delayed project now gives him a chance to both reconnect with his increasingly impatient hip-hop fans and introduce newly acquired admirers to his musical talents.

"It's been a long time coming," a smiling Saigon said two weeks ago while on the Harlem set of "Pain in My Life," featuring Trey Songz. "People see my promotional van and will be like, 'Is this guy real? Is he really an artist?' When I taped my first episodes of 'Entourage,' they only had one season done and no one really knew about the show. So I came and taped during the off-season. No one expected it to be so big, and we downplayed it like, 'Yeah, it's whatever, a little look.' But it gave me another opportunity. And I want people to know I'm really an artist and not just playing one. I want people to know I'm real and have a message."

The MTV You Hear It First alumnus first rose to prominence just after the turn of the century. A series of unfortunate events — label woes, personal misjudgments, etc. — kept Saigon from releasing his project, although fans never stopped clamoring for it. And for The Greatest Story Never Told, he's partnered with much of the same producers and executives responsible for making Jay-Z's early albums critical and commercial successes. However, Saigon is quick to point out he's not expecting to sell units like 50 Cent.

"I made music from my heart," he explained of his album and the choice behind the cautionary first single. "I didn't go down to the studio thinking what could get me 20 billion spins. I went in there and thought, 'If you potentially had the world's ear, what would you say?' That was my mentality."

The DJ Cocoa Chanelle-produced "Pain in My Life," much like the rest of Sai's album, is a mixture of the rapper's observations and his experiences in prison. The Q-Tip- and Fatman Scoop-assisted "The Invitation" is a possible next single. Rather than a regular invitation to a party, Saigon said, the track is a metaphor for the distractions that invite kids on the streets to land in jail. "Everything we glorify is nothing but the invitation to get you behind the wall," the rapped said. "Whether it's drugs, girls, whatever."

In addition to production from Just Blaze, Kanye West is also slated to help Saigon shape his album. But don't expect many vocal collaborations. Saigon said he's been waiting too long and has too many things to say to share the microphone during this crucial stage in his career.

"It seems like too many people are scared to be themselves," he said. "I don't know if it's because the labels are pressuring them, but they end up making jingles. That's what I call them.

"Hip-hop has gotten too repetitious," Saigon continued. "It's almost everyone tracing the same picture. If we're artists, and we consider ourselves that, we got to all draw different pictures. We can't paint the same things. And that's why I do me — and I'm going to live or die with that."

• You Hear It First: Saigon

• Saigon
• Kanye West
• Jay-Z

Saigon
Photo: Atlantic

Saigon's burgeoning career — and life — were almost stopped cold on Tuesday night when the rapper/actor and his friend were assailed by two men in New York's Chelsea neighborhood.

"I was coming out of a diner," Saigon said Thursday morning (January 19). "Some kid just approached me, I didn't know if he knew me from the music or what. ... He snatched my [$18,000] chain and I snatched the sh-- back."

While Saigon and his friend were laying their boots to the would-be robber, another man came from behind with a broken bottle and stabbed Saigon in the temple. A brawl between all four men broke out after that.

"I started fighting," Saigon remembered. "I felt the blood coming down but I didn't know how bad I was cut."

As it turns out, he was cut pretty severely. After Saigon started feeling dizzy, he went to his car and pretended like he was reaching for a gun, which scared off the assailants. Instead of rushing right to the hospital though, Sai stayed outside shouting at the men as they fled.

He then tried to catch a cab — he says he didn't want to get any blood in his Mercedes Benz — but when one didn't stop for him, he got in his car and drove to Bellevue Hospital. By the time he got there, doctors told him he had lost four pints of blood.

"I feel strange having strange blood in me, it's weird," he said. "I didn't want to get a blood transfusion, 'cause I don't trust no blood like that. But they said, 'If you don't take this blood, you won't be walking out of here.' I said, 'Give me the blood!' It was some crazy sh--. If I would have stayed [in front of the diner] five minutes longer, I would have bled to death. Nobody ran out of that diner and tried to help us."

Saigon says once he was sewn up (seven stitches in all), the doctors asked if they could have their picture taken with him. The doctors said they recognized him from his guest-starring role on HBO's "Entourage."

Saigon — who often travels by himself and never with any security guards — says he's going to follow advice given to him by execs at his record label. He won't be hiring security but will make sure he has four or five friends with him when he's out in the streets.

"I was kind of slippin' man," he said. "I ain't gonna front."

Sai says the ordeal has caused him to refocus on his music, namely his in-the-works album The Greatest Story Never Told. He said he should have been in the studio recording that night instead of spending idle time at the diner. The LP, which Just Blaze is producing, is 80 percent done and will probably be out sometime this year.

"It ain't like nothing out there," he said of the album. "It's got message in it. Just Blaze is coming correct with some of his best beats I ever heard. We definitely gonna make a strong impact this year."

Saigon did not file any police reports regarding the assault.

• Saigon

Photo: Def Jam

• Beanie Sigel
• Saigon

Sucker Free on MTV: Winter 2007

• Chris Brown
• Lloyd
• Styles
• Jadakiss
• Just Blaze

Bow Wow, Jermaine Dupri, Jonathan Davis And More The Amp'd Mobile/"Stuff" Magazine Pre-VMA Bash

• Bow Wow
• Jermaine Dupri
• Saigon
• Amerie