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| Posted: 01 Sep 2008 05:03 AM PDT Plus: Slim Thug, Boss Hogg Outlawz Serve & Collect again; Busta Rhymes gives Grafh's debut a boost.
Artists: Slim Thug and the Boss Hogg Outlawz Representing: Houston Independent Album: Back by Blockular Demand: Serve & Collect II 411: The hogs are out in a major way in Houston. Slim Thug is chillin' in the cut right outside of his favorite barbershop, the Right Touch. Besides the jaw-jacking going on inside over a game of dominoes, it's unusually quiet for a Saturday afternoon — until the Harleys come out. About 75 people — men and women, young and old — come cruising on their choppers. Thug gets a grin on his sometimes-expressionless mug. He got his first Harley when he turned 21. Funny thing is, he didn't know how to drive one and had to get one of his homeboys to ride it home for him. Thugga has since learned how to handle the two-wheeler very well. "This is one of the things we do out here," Slim explained, standing next to his good friend Gotti, formerly of Cash Money's Boo and Gotti. This week, Slim releases the sequel to last year's Boss Hogg Outlawz's Serve & Collect via Koch Records. Slim is now fully independent. "I was never signed directly to [Pharrell's] Star Trak," he said. "[There was an understanding] that if he did this many beats for me, he would put his imprint on [my album]. It was never nothing between me and Pharrell. We did good work together. I appreciate everything he did for me. It ain't no beef with Jimmy Iovine or Geffen. I love them for everything they did for me. I just like to move independent. I got off the label, and now we're moving with Koch." Slim says he just couldn't "click" with the major and is back to moving units almost the same way he did when he first started. But thank goodness he doesn't have to distribute his own records hand to hand. "Being with Koch is [like] a smaller major," he explained. "They got a helluva radio group over there. They do a wonderful job and give people major-label looks as far as the radio." Back by Blockular Demand: Serve & Collect II features Thugga and his Outlawz Young Black, Chris Ward, J-Dawg and his captain, Killa Kyleon. "It's the whole Boss Hogg Outlaw gang," Slim said. "It's really like a sampler of all the talent on my label. We did it last year with Serve & Collect. We got a lot of love from that. We got Ray J on there and Lil' Keke on there. Not too many guest appearances. The next Slim Thug solo is definitely coming out, if not this year, early next year. It's called Boss of All Bosses. The title ain't change. As far as the Boss of All Bosses, I done work with so many different artists and producers. I don't know who or what songs I'm gonna put on there. And I'm still working. I got over 150 songs. I'm gonna keep working, and whenever it drops, then we'll know." Joints To Check For "Ride With No Ceiling." "Riding [cars] with no ceiling — it's pretty much giving you the culture of Houston and how we do it," Kyleon explained. "It features all of us. We're flossing, balling and having fun." "Same old Houston," Slim said. "We gonna keep it the same. We still talking about candy-painted cars on fo's. Chopped and screwed hook, giving you that H-Town view." "Time." "That J-Dawg solo record with Keke, that's my jam right there," Ward said. "That's what I'm rolling with." "When we get together, nobody sounds alike," Thugga said. "Everybody got their own style, man. This whole record, man, is strictly for the streets. From the beginning to the end. I love all the music, not just because it's my music and my people on there rapping on there with me. I love that kind of music. It's not really for the radio or BET or MTV. It's for what we do. For the streets." "On the cool, though, we work so much, I don't remember the whole CD," Dawg added. "We been finished with that." "Keep It Playa." "[It's] the new single we got with Ray J," Slim said. "We did a record for the playas, and when we played if for Koch, they went crazy for it." Don't Sleep: Other Notable Selections This Week » Nina B - The Icon 'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar » 50 Cent - "Here I Am" freestyle The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground Game is admittedly a little loco. That's part of what makes him one of the best in rap right now. And to make tracks for him, you might have to get just as crazy as he is. "Whenever I call a producer and tell them how I want the beat to be, I paint a picture," he said. "I called Just Blaze, and I'll be like, 'Yo, picture Jay-Z being in an elevator in the Bronx. ... It's broke, and all of sudden he presses the garage button and it shoots through the roof. He lands on Jupiter. And he walks out in all black. I want that record!' And Blaze will be like, 'All right. I'm about to do that record.' "When you listen to my album and people say, 'You know how to pick beats' — nah, I know how to pick scenarios and producers who understand my scenarios and know how to transform them into music," he added. "When it comes out the speakers, it sounds like what I asked for." Two of Game's obvious go-to guys on L.A.X. are Cool & Dre. They have his current single, "My Life," and might have his next as well. "Cool & Dre did that beat," he smiled when talking about "Money." "It's Miami, sounds Miami. If it is the next single, we gonna shoot the video in Miami. 'Money' is gonna be a big record. I'mma let the streets pick the single. If I had my way, 'Let Us Live' would be it. That's my favorite joint on the album probably." ... The art of making love is like ... well, T-Pain and Lil Wayne will tell you all about it on their joint project. We've been hearing about the full-length collaboration for months. Pain finally got specific and told us about one of their records. "It's the most awesome record in the world," he said of his favorite track, "Damn, Damn." "It's basically about what the girl is saying during intercourse." Pain also broke out into song, revealing an excerpt from the Thr33 Ringz track "Therapy": "I say, 'One, two, three, four/ Get the hell up out my door.' " "[The track] is just for the crazy women out there," he said. ... It's about time. DJ Green Lantern is getting that cook up just right. He and Grafh are going in on the Oracle 2 mixtape. The street CD should be out in a couple of weeks. Grafh's debut LP, The Evolution, is slated to arrive within the next three months or so. "We first did the record with my boy Prinz the Pistoleer," Grafh said of his first single, "Like Ohh." "A lot of rappers showed love and wanted to be a part of it, but Busta was the first one to reach out. He came through, showed love, tore it up with a crazy 16 [bars], then came down to the video with the 'whoo-ha' Busta Rhymes flava. That originally was the remix, but we made it the official single because Busta smashed it. Because everybody showed so much love, the remix is getting crazier. Shout-out to Jim Jones, he jumped on it. Swizz Beatz jumped on the remix. Bun B, Jadakiss is on the remix. It's crazy, and it's growing. I'm glad everybody is being receptive. When they show that love, I gotta shoot it back." Grafh's original debut LP was called The Autografh, but since it sat on the shelf for so many years, he just leaked the LP online for free. "This is my first official release," he said. "I got caught up in the politics. I never got a chance to release an album. The Evolution involves change. I'm more mature in the game. I'm growing as a man. My point of views have broadened." For other artists featured in Mixtape Monday, check out Mixtape Mondays Headlines. Related Videos |
| Lykke Li, Live In New York, By Kurt Loder Posted: 29 Aug 2008 03:01 AM PDT All eyes were on the Swedish pop phenom.
NEW YORK — Swedish pop phenom and possible Stateside star-to-be Lykke Li played the second date of a U.S. minitour on Thursday night, a sold-out show at a Greenwich Village nightclub. The crowd seemed very NYU, and many of them were singing along to the songs. This was no tremendous surprise: Li's debut album, the dazzling Youth Novels, was only released in this country last week, but her various European videos have already scored more than 2-million hits on YouTube. Li's record was produced by Björn Yttling, of Peter Björn and John, who also helps craft the songs she writes. The sound is stripped down and the music is hard — impossible, actually — to label. It's irresistibly danceable (Li is a big hip-hop fan), but it's not "dance music." It has the rhythmic punch and melodic propulsion of rock (her mother was a member of an all-girl punk band back in the '80s), but it's not strictly "rock music" either. The album also contains one of the year's most ravishing ballads — a track called "Tonight" — which makes her work all the harder to pin down. (Li's name, by the way, is pronounced "Licky-lee," and uttered as if it were one word.)
The club she played, a relatively new venue called Le Poisson Rouge, was ideal for her current show, which is very straightforward. Some 600 people were arrayed at tables and up on risers around a circular stage in the middle of the room. The high-end lighting technology seemed to reflect the state of that particular art, and the sound system was that rare thing, a model of both bone-shivering power and absolute clarity. Since Li's music includes some subtle details that might otherwise go missing, this was a perfect environment. She has an unusual three-piece band: a keyboardist who switches off between synthesizer and piano, a guitarist who alternates between bass and nylon-string acoustic (no electric guitars, but he riffs anyway), and a drummer who can do a lot of interesting things just clacking away on the rim of his floor tom, which has a cowbell taped to its top. The group is very tight, and Li, who's only 22, takes the stage like she just bought it, whipping the air with her long blonde hair (gone is the tight little bun of the Euro videos), occasionally feeding her powerful alto through a raspy megaphone, and at one point tossing off a little solo on toy trumpet. She gave the enthusiastic crowd pretty much what it expected off her album, including the overseas hits "I'm Good, I'm Gone" (also the first single here) and "Little Bit," as well as such standout tracks as the dreamy "Dance, Dance, Dance" (a song which isn't exactly what you might assume it to be). Every now and then she whacked a tambourine, smacked a cymbal and turned her boot heels into a very persuasive rhythm instrument. People were eating it up. Halfway through the performance, she scanned the room and announced, "It's all right to kiss at my shows." Sweet. I doubt if anyone took her up on that, though. All eyes were, and who knows, may remain, on Lykke Li. For more sights and stories from concerts around the country, check out MTV News Tour Reports. And send your own concert pics, videos and reviews to MTV News You R Here! Related Photos Related Artists |
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