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| Common Praises Kanye's Singing; 'Everybody' Is Calling Jadakiss: <i>Mixtape Monday</i> Posted: 06 Oct 2008 05:00 AM PDT Plus: Estelle plans new mixtape; Playaz Circle get political.
Artist: Playaz Circle Representing: College Park, Georgia Mixtape: The Campaign 411: The title of Playaz Circle's new mixtape, The Campaign, has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the entire country is talking about the upcoming presidential election. Of course it does! Don't be ridiculous.
"We chose that title to keep it conceptual with the election year," Tity Boi told us, live from the group's adopted headquarters at Riverdale, Georgia's Frozen Palace club. "We felt like we were campaigning for the streets. This is just the first of many. It's going down major. We brought DJ Scream on the Southside. We decided to twurk with shawty because he's one of the hottest DJs in the street. I said, 'Let me and Dolla do our footwork. Wrap it up. It's about to be a Saran [wrap].' " "This is the prelude to our album, Flight 360," Dolla Boy added. " 'The Campaign' itself is just a mixtape song that didn't make the album that still needed to be fed to the public. Me and Tit did our thing on a major stage. We done been across the country. We seen different fans; we know what they want. Flight 360 is just a collection of great music of any generation from the smallest to the biggest." Ludacris, Lil Wayne and Jagged Edge all appear on the album. "Look What I Got" is the first single.
Joints To Check For "D-Boys R Us" (featuring J-Hard). "The title is self-explanatory," Tity said. "I'm a D-Boy, duffle-bag boy." "You just gotta see the swag," Dolla added. "Swag? What is it? How do you get it? It has to be a natural thing. It has to be inherited through birthrights. Check me out from head to toe, custom-made." "Boyz Iz Back." "You might be familiar with it because it uses the same beat from [T.I.'s 'What Up, What's Haapnin' ']," Dolla explained. "T.I. put it out, did his song to it. It's a Drumma Boy track. Real hot. I heard it. We had it for a long time, too, though. ... It shows the diversity — that each artist is able to come up with a hot song in your region." 'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar » Ryan Leslie (featuring Fabolous and Keri Hilson) - "Addiction" remix Celebrity Faves U.K., big up. Ya mahhhhhh-sivvvvvvvve! We had a great time in London last week. Our current favorite British heroine, Estelle, has gotten kudos for singing the mainstream hit "American Boy," but she hasn't forgotten where her career blew up: the mixtape scene. She promises a CD for the streets soon. "It's coming," she promised. "I've done mixtapes forever. I've been in the game almost 10 years. When I started, [mixtapes] were just picking up. I feel [making them] is a good way to get to the kids who are not sold on your album and might not like the single you put out. They get to figure out whether they like you or not."
Estelle — whose favorite DJs include Drama, Clinton Sparks and Neil Armstrong — is still not sure whose material she'll use to craft the mixtape. "I don't know who I wanna put on there," she said. "I'm having this moment of Marvin Gaye, Coldplay, Santogold and really old-school reggae. God knows what's gonna be on there. I mean, primarily on a mixtape, you take a bunch of songs and just rip them. But I'm having a real Coldplay moment right now. I'd love to sing on a [new] Coldplay song. And I use one of the Coldplay songs in my set, 'God Put a Smile Upon Your Face.' " The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground After all these years, Common still has a huge smile on his face when talking about his critically panned, fan-shunned Electric Circus. He says he wouldn't change anything about that album, because it showed he couldn't be contained to one musical format. Although he expects Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak to get a warm reception, Com nevertheless thinks that Kanye is having an Electric Circus moment: Yeezy is singing all over his new LP instead of rapping.
"I love it," Common said of West's upcoming project. "Let me tell you, as an artist, you wanna be free. You gotta do what you feel. You can't just cater to the audience. You gotta say, 'Hey, y'all, this is where I'm at.' For him to do an album called 808s and Heartbreak, you know that's where he is at this moment. I heard some songs, and I think it's fresh. I think the people are ready for it." Common's own album Universal Mind Control drops in November. "Last couple of albums, I felt a little more free," he said of the evolution in his songwriting. "I just wrote whatever comes to me. [In the past], I would overthink things. I'd be like, 'OK, I did a song for the ladies, so I shouldn't do that again.' I was at a point where I was like, 'Man, I want to make people move and enjoy the music.' " Although Common's been busy working on the next "Terminator" film and had to push back the release of his album, he doesn't think fans will color him neglectful. "I'm not concerned with it," he said. "I feel I've established who I am as a hip-hop artist. I think people respect that people are multitasking. If you're doing both passionately and do them well, people can respect them. I'mma do my best at that. I'mma create my music. Overall, I feel that both [my professions] sharpen each other." ... It's one of the worst-kept secrets, at least to those of us who are really in the know in the industry (ahem!), but Jadakiss was supposed to announce that he was joining the Roc-A-Fella family years ago, during Jay-Z's "I Declare War" concert in New Jersey. Jada and the other two members of the LOX — Sheek Louch and Styles P — were poised to make the jump from Interscope to Roc-A-Fella/ Def Jam back then, but the paperwork wasn't finalized in time.
"That was something Louch had set up," Jada told us. "[Jay] was supposed to bring out the Roc chains. It didn't happen, but Steve Stoute and Hov reached back out to me [years later], and we made it happen. Def Jam and Interscope are in the same system. It's just a matter of passing the contract over there and them saying, 'Don't call this number; call this number.' Ruff Ryders let it go down, but they still involved in the equation." The Black Babe Ruth's Kiss My Ass is being cooked right now. Lil Wayne, the LOX and a few others are on the set. "I got Ghost and Rae on there," he said. "I'm trying to get some of that Purple Tape element on there. It's gonna be good. [But Def Jam] ain't even letting me mold my joint. I keep going to these dinners at Mr. Chow's. Once I get another good week in the studio by myself, we gonna wrap that thing up. Plus, I got a few mixtapes coming. The West Coast joint, and of course I'm gonna do one for New York. Maybe another R&B joint. I'm just doing joints, baby. "I got that M.O.P./ Statik Selektah joint," continued the cameo king, who recently jumped on New Kids on the Block's "Summertime." "I did something with Juelz Santana. The new Ross album. I should be on that new Hov album, The Blueprint 3. It's like a trickle-down effect. If we come back and do this same interview in two or three weeks, I'mma have a whole bunch of stuff to tell you. My BlackBerry, my Sidekick is filled up. My Gmail is filled. Everybody is calling. Everything is falling in line. I know how to get it hot. Hop on everything! You see me on the Slim joint, the 'Hi Hater' remix. I gotta catch one or two more big R&B joints, and we should be where we need to be in the next couple of months or so." The first official single off Kiss My Ass is "By My Side" with Ne-Yo. "It's for the ladies," Jadakiss said. "We trying to make big music. We're trying to do it big for the ladies. [The women] still gonna cop before they get their hair and nails done, so we gotta cater to them. We gonna always show love to the streets, but we gotta show the ladies we acknowledging them this year. Heavy!" ...
Lupe Fiasco is determined not to be the "Superstar" on his record label, 1st & 15th. He has his third album on freeze for now while he helps to cultivate albums by his artists. "Matthew Santos, Sarah Green — I'm actually working on putting their records together, so I won't start working on my album until next year," he explained recently in Los Angeles. "I gotta be CEO. It's my company, so I got to step back, because if I start doing my stuff and their stuff, I'd be like, 'Yo, why don't you come do this hook? Why don't you give me that song?' So I'm just trying not to be selfish." Lu is giving all his acts hands-on training. "I actually take them out on tour with me, let them perform, let them open up for me," he said. "Everything I do, I bring all my artists to do it. So I don't even give them advice as much as put them in an arena where it works, where it's real time. It's them, and they get a chance to see it in real life, and they take from it what they need." For other artists featured in Mixtape Monday, check out Mixtape Mondays Headlines. Related Videos Related Artists | |
| Jennifer Hudson Escapes 'American Idol' And 'Dreamgirls' Cover Songs On Self-Titled Debut Posted: 06 Oct 2008 05:00 AM PDT 'It introduces Jennifer the person versus all the characters,' singer/actress tells MTV News.
Jennifer Hudson has a new kind of spotlight on her now that she's finally released her self-titled debut album. While she's been known as an "American Idol" contestant, an Oscar-winning Dreamgirl and Carrie Bradshaw's assistant in the "Sex and the City" movie, now she's ready for her close-up as ... Jennifer Hudson. "It introduces Jennifer the person versus all the characters," she told MTV News about her new LP. (Read about yet another side of Jennifer — the fiancee — in our Newsroom blog.) "It shows my versatility as a vocalist coming out of singing the cover tunes from 'Idol' or 'Dreamgirls.' "
But that was only one of the challenges Hudson faced when making the album. Working with everyone from Timbaland to Ne-Yo to Robin Thicke, Hudson wanted to prove that she can handle ballads and more upbeat fare, like her midtempo single "Spotlight." "So many different people come up to me and say, 'I'm a huge fan,' and I say, 'Oh my God, what am I going to have for everyone [on the album]?' " Hudson said. "That was the biggest challenge, [but] nobody knows my potential the way I do." Hudson hooked up with fellow "Idol" finalist Fantasia for a track called "I'm His Only Woman," in which the two ladies battle it out. But in real life, Hudson couldn't have been more excited to reconnect with her old friend. "It was such an honor to have her. I had two people on my wish list: One was Whitney and the other was Fantasia," she said. "I went into the studio with Missy [Elliott] to hear the song for the first time, and she said, 'I know you want to do a duet with Whitney, but I'd want to hear Jennifer and Fantasia.' " Hudson thanked Robin Thicke for working with her on her favorite track on the album, "Giving Myself," a song that she said shows her fans she can do anything she wants when it comes to her music. "It's unexpected from me, but it still is me," she said. "I love how [Thicke] allowed me to be me but introduced another side. He introduced a more vulnerable side vocally, but yet he put it with the ballad side of Jennifer." Related Videos Related Artists | |
| Obama's Youth Appeal Could Decide Election, Poll Shows Posted: 06 Oct 2008 05:00 AM PDT Survey says 61 percent of young respondents would vote for Obama if election were held today.
With efforts to reach young voters that include everything from concerts by John Legend, Jay-Z and Bruce Springsteen to a just-unveiled iPhone application and hundreds of Facebook student groups, the presidential campaign of Democratic Senator Barack Obama has been going after the demographic hard. According to the results of a new poll conducted by USA Today, in conjunction with Gallup and MTV, those efforts appear to be making a difference, giving Obama a 2-1 lead over Republican rival Senator John McCain among this group, representing the biggest gap between two candidates ever seen in this demographic since exit polling began in 1976. Compare the 61 percent of respondents who said they would support Obama if the election were held today to the 32 percent who said they would cast a ballot for McCain, and the results of the telephone survey — conducted from September 18-28 on a group of 900 18-to-29-year-olds — appear to show that Obama has a decisive lead among the demographic. According to the poll results, the majority of the respondents (64 percent) said they have put "quite a lot" of thought into the election, with 75 percent reporting that they are registered to vote. Nearly all of those respondents (73 percent) said they intended to vote, 30 percent for the first time. Like most of America, young voters said they were most concerned about the economy (28 percent), followed by the war in Iraq (12 percent) and the cost of health care and health insurance (6 percent). The majority of those surveyed (58 percent) said they thought Obama would do a better job of handling whichever issue they deemed most critical, compared with just 27 percent for McCain. The majority of respondents (60 percent) identified themselves as Democrats or Democratic leaning, versus 31 percent who identified as Republican and 6 percent independent. Nearly half of those questioned (44 percent) agreed with something Democratic vice-presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden said in Thursday's debate: that this is the single most important election in the last 50 years. In what appears to be a generational divide between the 72-year-old McCain and 47-year-old Obama, 71 percent of those polled said they thought the Illinois senator understands the problems of young people better than his rival, who came in at just 12 percent. That being said, 59 percent said they did not think McCain — who would be the oldest person ever elected to a first term as president if he wins — is too old to be president, but 55 percent perceived his presidency to be the equivalent of another four years of the Bush administration. Despite Obama's apparent lead among those surveyed, the poll results show that 24 percent of young voters have not yet made up their minds about whom they're voting for, with 53 percent saying they're definitely backing Obama and 23 percent planning to vote for McCain. Based on projections that the 18-29 voting block contains around 40 million voters, the results leave about 10 million undecideds in this demographic, a potentially game-changing group of swing voters that could help tip the election either way. The steadily increasing turnout among young voters in the 2004, 2006 and 2008 primaries indicates to many analysts that the demographic should be out in force on November 4, despite their reputation as unreliable voters, according to USA Today. While Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the youngest person on either ticket at 44, has gotten high marks among her base for likability, youth voters did not appear swayed by her telegenic personality, rating her last among the four candidates (35 percent) in favorability. While McCain garnered a 43 percent favorable rating among respondents, tying him with Biden, Obama was at 71 percent. On the question of whether the VP picks are qualified to become president in the case of an emergency, only 32 percent rated Palin as ready to take over, while 59 percent said they were comfortable with Biden rising to the top job. In a year when history will be made no matter who wins the election, 79 percent of respondents said they thought a win for Obama would be a significant advancement for racial equality in the U.S., while 67 percent said a McCain win with Palin as the first female VP would be considered a significant advancement in gender equality. But perhaps the most important question — "Which candidate would you rather have a beer with?" fell squarely into Obama's court, with 52 percent saying they'd prefer to down some suds with the Democrat, versus only 27 for McCain, with similar numbers for the question of whom respondents would rather have as a teacher. However, 43 percent said they'd rather read McCain's private diary compared to 39 percent who wanted a look at Obama's private thoughts. And, despite his years of experience and wisdom, only 36 percent said they'd turn to McCain for advice, with Obama ringing up 51 percent of the votes in that category. Respondents were nearly split down the middle over who would do a better job of providing benefits for returning veterans (46 to 41, in favor of McCain), with those numbers reversed on the question of who would take better care of the troops currently in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Get informed! Head to Choose or Lose for nonstop coverage of the 2008 presidential election, including everything from the latest news on the candidates to on-the-ground multimedia reports from our 51 citizen journalists, MTV and MySpace's Presidential Dialogues, and much more. Related Videos |
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