Representing: Mobile, Alabama

Mixtape: Bigger Than the Mayor

411: Buried Alive, the follow-up to Rich Boy's gold debut, comes out this summer, but he's dedicated to warming it up like Kane this spring with Bigger Than the Mayor.

"I decided to call it Bigger Than the Mayor because where I'm from — I don't know about everywhere else — the kids don't even know who the mayor is," the Mobile, Alabama, native said. "It's a lot of local celebrities that's bigger than the mayor where I'm from. You can take me in the room, you can take the mayor from whatever city in the room. Them young kids gonna know who I am before they know the mayor. It ain't no ego. Don't get it twisted, I'm bigger than the mayor. Holla at your boy.

"It's just the beginning," he added. "My mixtape is what's going on in the world today, you know what I'm saying? The average generation person — like me, myself and I, the boys from out my neighborhood in Mobile, Alabama — that's what we represent, what's all on this mixtape. My album is what I rather prefer for the world to be. On my mixtape, I get in the booth and do what I feel. The album is more of a thought process. The album is way harder than the mixtape."

» "Haters Wish." "It's a sample my boy Super Villain did," Rich said. "I co-produced the track with him, threw a couple of sounds on there. It's called 'Haters Wish.' It's what the haters wish to do. 'They wish they could feel the wood in my 83.' Laid-back summertime, let's ride. It's a real feel-good song. It's what I am, what I represent. Haters wish they could do this; haters wish they could do that."

» "Wrist Out the Window." "My homie Shawty Lo showed me some love on this," Rich said. "Gucci Mane is on this thing. It's a hit, straight classic. Super Villain did the track too. He sent it to me, it was just automatic. He had the Gucci Mane sample on there: 'My wrist out the window.' He made me feel like it's something on there. Artists be playing themselves, saving all their hard songs for the album. I got so many hard songs, I decided, 'I'mma put some of the hard songs on the mixtape, some of the hard songs on the album.' You got to feed the people, man. People want music out there. I took it back to the basics, man. A lot of cats be talking about their wrists — 'wrist this, wrist that' — I might as well make an anthem for them."

Don't Sleep: Other Notable Selections This Week

» Big Mike and DJ Thoro - Grind House

» DJ 31 Degreez and the Game - Diary of a Gangsta

» DJ Mello - Street King 2

» The Empire, the Cartel and Young Jeezy - The Mixtape Monster

» Termanology - Da Cameo King

'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar

» Bizzy Bone (featuring Joe Madden) - "I'm The One"

» Cassidy - "I'm Illie"

» Nelly (featuring Akon) - "Body on Me"

» Shawty Redd (featuring Snoop Dogg) - "Drifter" remix

» Skillz - "Sick"

» Young Buck (featuring the Outlawz and Snoop Dogg) - "Driving Down the Freeway" remix

Fire Starter

When your record company is called We the Best, there's a lot of weight on your shoulders. But Ace Hood has DJ Khaled, hip-hop's most vocal cheerleader, in his corner, and the Miami tastemaker has bet the house on his young protégé. Ace is the leadoff artist from Khaled's Def Jam imprint. The MC's lead single, "Cash Flow," features Rick Ross and T-Pain. Ace also just dropped a mixtape called Ace Won't Fold.

Celebrity Faves

"I didn't know what Chuck D was sayin' [when I was young], man," he said. "Try that one! It wasn't until I was older that I understood the conscious message. That was when it was goin' down, you know? It was goin' down. Your man KRS-One, Rakim — that was hip-hop.

"That hip-hop was better than now," he added. "When I'm in my car, I'm bumpin' that XM old-school [station]. Let me tell you somethin': Public Enemy was so ill, 'cause here you had the most militant, black, conscious rapper in the world, and then you had the little dude in the Gucci suit with the clock. It was like oil and vinegar. Salt and pepper. They didn't mix, but that was what was so dope about 'em. '911 Is a Joke!' "

The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground

June 24 is already bursting at the seams with hip-hop releases: Nelly's [article id="1584680"]Brass Knuckles,[/article] the Game's L.A.X. and G-Unit's [article id="1585813"]Terminate on Sight[/article] are all scheduled to drop that day. 50 Cent says he expects at least one of his opponents to fall out of contention — forcibly.

50 also said he was concerned that some knuckleheads might turn the Game-vs.-G-Unit battle into a West Coast/ East Coast situation.

Terminate on Sight's first singles will be "I Like the Way She Do It" and "Rider Pt. 2." The latter was born on the Unit's mixtape Elephant in the Sand.

" 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!' " 50 started singing from "Rider Pt. 2." He smiled as he explained how he used the Roger Troutman auto-tune effect for the opening on the song. " 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!' That don't come out unless you're having a good time while you're making the music. [The fans] appreciate it, and I'm happy that I delivered something they are excited about. Both [Return of the] Body Snatchers and Elephant in the Sand impacted hard. Elephant impacted really hard: over a million downloaded."

"Bill O'Reilly called me 'pinhead' for saying that sh--," Fif raps. "Well, him and Oprah Winfrey both can suck on some di--/ ... Them steroids must've made my money longer, Mary's vocals stronger, Timbaland's beats harder/ Tyler write them scripts/ Wyclef make them hits/ If I didn't know it wasn't true, I'd go and get some sh--."

"I know that I don't get the recognition I'm supposed to get from the establishment," 50 explained of the song title. "I think my peers acknowledged it, that's why I have to constantly compete with artists on the hip-hop level, because the competitive nature of the art form makes me the guy they want to target. They want a title shot every time.

"You hold onto your sanity as soon as you can accept that: that they can say anything they want about us," he added about some of the outlandish things that are reported about him. "It's a fair exchange. In exchange for not having to worry about paying bills, my son is well taken care of, they get a chance to say what they think about me."

Just like they did for the Body Snatchers mixtape, the Unit plan to shoot videos for a bunch of Elephant in the Sand's tracks. Meanwhile, they are also moving on to a special [article id="1583997"]G-Unit version[/article] of DJ Drama's Gangsta Grillz mixtape series.

There had been talk between 50 and Drama about trying to corral some of the DJ's close musical associates, like T.I. and Young Jeezy, on the G-Unit Gangsta Grillz, but that isn't going to happen.

"I looked at it as the third volume of the G-Unit tape would come from Drama," 50 said, downplaying the project. "I don't have the time or energy to get artists [from the] outside to feature on freestyles. You get to that point. Remember, I said to you everybody appears cool. They're in competition."

[article id="1585899"]war of words with Young Buck[/article]

(Over the weekend, G-Unit's war of words with Young Buck heated up when [article id="1585899"]Buck responded[/article] to [article id="1585813"]50's shocking allegations[/article] with a new track, and G-Unit also filmed a video for "I Like the Way She Do It" — check out our report from the set in the Newsroom Blog) ...

DMX, Prodigy, Raekwon, Snoop Dogg, Swizz Beatz, Killer Mike, Xzibit, Keith Murray and so many more sit down with the filmmakers to talk about one of rap's most skilled and charismatic characters.

Jim Jones tells a story of chilling with Pun in the Bronx one winter, when Punisher jumped out of his car and started shooting crackheads with a water gun. Some also recalled Pun getting kicked off airplanes because of his humorous antics. One time, he put syrup and vinegar in Fat Joe's soda at a restaurant, causing his friend to flip a table over.

"He was such a genuine person," DMX says in the film. Later, Snoop speaks on how much Pun influenced him.

In addition to his career and his friendships, Pun's obvious eating problems are broached, as well his family life.

"I was crushed," Redman said about Pun's death. "We should have been on our job as a family to get that n---a back in shape."

"I was extremely pleased," Pun's wife, Liza Rios, said in a statement to Mixtape Monday regarding the film. "It was well-thought-out. It definitely represented Big Pun in full form. Over the years, Pun had become a distant memory in the industry. It is important for the younger hip-hop generation to know Pun and what he contributed to our hip-hop nation. The streets always keep Pun alive, and by creating this documentary, we are able to give back to Pun's loyal fans."

The documentary does not have release date yet.

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