What up doe,
thank God it's Friday.

I know that I have to talk about myself too here, but there's not much to say. I have to mix some new songs today, like "Mind Control" and "Bad Motherfucker". I have to write to some beats from Century Sam and Evan. I have to finish these NOW magazine reviews and get a few extra CD reviews done for some friends. I have to make money cause I'm broken in my pocket at the moment. Like, A LIFE-ALTERING, OMG-I'M-AT-THE-CROSSROADS REALIZATION. I have to be so driven and focused that I don't ever think that I deserve a marijuana break, cause that's a distraction that does not help things happen. (Peace to Prakash. Can we do the "Sober November"? I like the ring of that! And I'M SORRY I haven't gotten you the Brother Ali interview... that's another thing I have to do today!!) I also have to get some fucking employment poppin', cause I got to pay for a plane ticket to Texas next March, cause I'm going to SXSW!!! Woo-hoo, Mary Zondanos is the best!! I also have to get $$$ to pay for the car that Robyn just gave me yesterday. A FREAKING CAR! Dodge Neon, 1998, at that. Now, there is kindness, there's extreme generosity, and then there's ROBYN KING. Easily one of the most giving people I've ever met in my life... what an angel! I need to make some magic. Why isn't my mojo on? I had it. I gotta get it back. And peace to the fuckers at Philaflava.com who think that I should hang it up cause it ain't happen yet... too fucking bad. Your dreams are dead, my dream is my reality. This shit is in my blood and heart and soul. I couldn't stop rapping if I got a brain transplant. All I think about is hip hop. And it's time I get p-p-p-paid from my passion! I mean, most people think this shit is dead anyways. I'm keeping hope alive. E'ry day, dunny. Erry muh'fuggin day.

Now onto the news!

GANGSTAS TALKING GANGSTA:



REALLY, RZA?



THIS IS ABOUT LIL WAYNE'S "PUSSY MONEY WEED" SONG... DID HE PULL A JACK MOVE? HMMMM....


In October 2005 JP got a call from an Atlantic A&R by the name of Damon Eden. Damon told JP to make it to Miami (9hrs away from where we live) the next morning to meet super producer Jim Jonsin down at SouthBeat Records (Do the research). So we hit the road and went to Miami. JP rapped for Jim Jonsin, Obviously Jim was impressed because he GAVE JP three hot ass beats, and told him to do something over them. JP recorded a rough draft to "Life" down at South Beat recording studio. So Jp brought the tracks back home, within that week he found Versatile and they went and recorded the final version of "Life" Produced by Jim Jonsin (I just uploaded it back to JP's myspace page...Listen to it). And sent the track back to Jim and Damon, within the next week he recorded the other two tracks that Jim gave him. So in the mean time, Jp makes a demo and submits it to the djs (Chris Holiday and Nick @ Night) over at 93 BLX in May of 2006. They start bumping the tracks around June and July of 2006 on the radio during the prime hours of their shows. Jp starts performing the track at shows along the Gulf Coast. Months later, maybe around August of 2006 JP gets an email from Jim Jonsin, saying "Man stop playing that track, Lil Wayne brought that beat from me". What type of shit is that? Business? Ok, I understand money talks and Wayne is a star. Now its Nov. 2007 and Lil Wayne finally, two years after JP recorded it and exposed it to the Gulf Coast, releases the single. And to be honest, Lil Wayne did not do the track justice, and didn't come harder than JP and Versatile on that track. 2 fuckin years later he drops "PMW" ! If you wanna check it out you can find it on www.allhiphop.com under Mediazone. The industry is shady!


We, as local artists, have to work 10 times as hard, just to get heard by the industry. And then when you do get heard, 9 out of 10 times we get fucked over. Get ya shit copyrighted, trademarked, and if any Producer gives you a beat in your f**kin' hand and says here it's yours, spit over it. Get it in writing! Between the money we put into the professional recording and mixing of that track, promoting the song, it being played on the hottest radio station on the Gulf Coast, and that whole Miami trip, yeah we got fucked over!

~~~

ASKING QUESTIONS IS THE ONLY WAY TO FREEDOM:

People Are Whistling in Wind if Jesuit and Vatican Connection to the New World Order and U.S. Government Remains Hidden

Why do all politicians and influential media figures in the mainstream and the alternative run for the hills when the "V word" is mentioned?

By Greg Szymanski

April 1, 2007

People are just whistling in the wind and following false information when it comes to trying to stop fascism in America without addressing the New World Order connection with the Vatican and its henchmen in the Jesuit Order.

According to credible researchers not afraid to touch the Vatican connection, there is no hope at saving freedom in this country and around the world unless the Vatican and Jesuit Order are exposed.

Then why do the mainstream media, most in the alternative media and every single last politician on Capitol Hill avoid the Vatican connection like the plague?

The reason many truth-telling Christians give is that "all roads lead to Rome" and people in positions of power in the media and government are paid to protect the real perpetrators of evil – The Vatican and especially the Jesuit Order.

Ask why people like Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and all the CNN and MSNBC commentators never mention the Vatican? Ask why supposed friend of the people and Presidential candidate Ron Paul and Rep. Cynthia McKinney never mention the Vatican? Ask why big shot radio broadcasters in the alternative media like Alex Jones never mention the Vatican?

Furthermore, why don't people in Hollywood like Charlie Sheen and Rosie O'Donnell, who have supposedly come-out for 9/11 truth, never mention Vatican and Jesuit ties to New World Order and Illuminati terror?

The reason is very simple according to a number of truth-telling patriots: The reason is they all are either uninformed, cowards or working with the Jesuits and Vatican, protecting their evil ways why laughing at Americans all the way to the bank.

Furthermore, why won't any of the above-mentioned political and media figures enter in an intelligent debate about the Vatican's wealth and control over U.S. foreign and domesticv policy? Ask yourself if Ron Paul is really working for you, the people of America, why does he run for the hills when the Vatican question is raised?

The following emails sent to the Arctic Beacon by 9/11 truth seeker, Phil Jayhan, and author of the Vatican Assassins III, Eric Phelps, should give the reader an incite never told anywhere in the mainstream or alternative media.

First Eric Phelps, who has gone on the record saying Rep. Paul works for the Vatican-led NWO since both the control of the political left and right is Jesuit strategy working at its best. In the following emails he addresses Avro Manhattan and broadcaster Alex Jones as well as Hutton and Mel Gibson:

On Manhattan:

Avro Manhattan, the greatest 20th century historian on the crimes of the Vatican, was indeed a Jesuit Temporal Coadjutor. He was a member of British Intelligence (MI5, MI6); was a personal friend of MI5/CIA/KGB agent Kim Philby; was a Fabian Socialist by which wicked organization the Jesuits put Lenin in power in 1917; was a personal friend of the Order's Irish Catholic Fabian Socialist, Irish Home Ruler and friend of Stalin enjoying the red carpet into Moscow during the reign of "Koba;" and was a friend of New Ager Freemason H. G. Wells---the writer of The Time Machine depicting the loss of the history and culture of the White Protestant peoples then being preyed upon by cannibals.

Manhattan was also a great promoter of the Pope's Cold War Hoax. He never exposed Rome's control of Moscow or Peking. Avro was a most successful Jesuit Temporal Coadjutor and is described as such in VAIII.

On Jones and the Gibsons:

Unfortunately, Alex Jones is indeed a Jesuit Temporal Coadjutor. The detailed work he has performed and his many lower-level conclusions are absolutely correct. But when it comes to the grand question of "Who Rules?" he fades away into the woodwork refusing to even mention the "J" word. This keeps people agitated and produces the fear he seeks to induce. His intense facial expressions, his abrasive voice and his obvious collusion with coadjutors of power such as George W. Bush, Michael Moore and David Gergen, reveals his true part he has been ordered to perform.

All your points are correct. Butch Paugh has an allegience to Opus Dei Hutton Gibson that he will never break. Of course Opus Dei Mel Gibson is the dear friend of William J. Fulco, the Jesuit who oversaw the all-seeing-eyed Jesus of The Passion.

Tony Alamo has paid the price for resisting the Order with his time in prison. But he remained faithful, and is a great encouragement to me. My request to you is that if you believe Jones is the Coadjutor that he in fact is, then please join with me and others in exposing this agent provocateur. For he will ultimately lead his followers to blame all Jews in general (as does Piper, Makow, Marrs and others) when the blame for the NWO---the return to the Pope's Dark Ages---should be clearly placed on the Jesuits and their master, the Black Pope.

And regarding Charlie Sheen and Jones related to 9/11, Phil Jayhan comments:

And is Alex Jones unaware of all these allegations, many of them documented, regarding Charlie Sheen? Is it possible Alex Jones is unaware of them? Is it possible that Charlie Sheen was chosen to come forth with these issues of 9/11 simply because he could be so easily written off and discredited? Because if his testimony attracted more attention than they suspected it would, that these allegations would be brought, and the tough questions asked? And who benefited directly from him coming forth? We saw above that the two people who benefited the most were Alex Jones and Charlie Sheen, in that order. And then in short order, CSPAN. And who owns all of the News Media in this nation? We all know that it is 110% owned by the bad guys! Thus we have to ask ourselves tough questions when we see them cover an issue, that they themselves would like to go away. Who benefits? Whats the purpose? Were they simply using Alex Jones as an unwitting dupe? Or are they in the process of making him the next Rush Limbaugh? Who is 10 miles wide, and a 1/2 an inch deep....

Alex Jones claims to be the Father of the 911 Truth Movement. This is an extremely arrogant claim, when so many millions are and have become a part of it. He makes these claims because he was the only one who 'predicted 911' before it happened. How was he able to predict 911 first of all? And if he is so able to connect the harder dots, why is it that Alex Jones cannot and will not connect the dots regarding the Vatican? Is this more Hufschmid talk? No. Alex Jones goes on and on and on about the Globalists, and has mentioned the Illuminati hundreds of thousands of times in his short career, and to my knowledge never made the connection publicly that the Illuminati were created by the Vatican! Why not? Is all it takes is about 5 minutes on a google search to find these truths out. Seriously, 5 minutes on google will show you that both modern branches of the Illuminati were created by the Vatican. So why is Alex unable to make the connection between the Illuminati and the Vatican, while being able to predict 911? Could it be because he is a plant, and controlled opposition? Sometimes as I have learned in being part of 911, disinformation takes many different faces. Sometimes disinformation comes in the form of information overload, and with a little bit of gate-keeping thrown in, or if you will, sometimes disinformation comes in what a person doesn't hear, and what isn't spoken about, what dots are NOT connected, etc...

And let me say here that Alex Jones is not my Father. The Truth is my Father. And will allow the Truth to guide me withersoever it may lead me, and couldn't care less about the destination. If I find that the Girl Scouts had something to do with 911, and actively helping to suppress it, I would preach these truths as well, and ask the appropriate questions as well, those darned lousy Girl scouts.. [Said like angry Homer]

It is obvious that Alex Jones wants to be the leader of all of us, and claim us as his own. Or else he would never make such arrogant statements claiming to be the "father of 911." It is also obvious he wants all of us to come under the single umbrella leadership of himself. Why? What are his motives? Do we want him as our fearless leader? Are we willing to throw away our independence and lose this in favor of a "False Unity?" To become Ditto-Heads of yet another person? To become mind numbed robots of yet another possibly controlled personality? To be ever learning but never able to come to a complete knowledge of our own slavery and actually seeing the face of those who have enslaved us? Can you ever possibly hope to break free from your captor if you first don't know your a slave, and secondly without ever seeing and knowing the face of that captor, slave owner?

And in closing I would like to point out that all I am doing is asking relevant questions, and doing the very thing that Alex Jones tells me to do in most of his broadcasts. Which is to check into all the things he is claiming and see for myself if they are not so. And I have started to do that very thing, and found Mr. Jones of questionable character, as well as weighed him in the balance and found him to come up wanting. As well as finding that many things he says and claims are simply not as he paints them. Thus, since I am only doing as he commands everyone who listens to him to do, I hope you will all understand my own motives and the reasons for my own questions regarding Alex Jones, and some of those whom he has paraded in front of us as '911 truth heroes.'

WE NEED SOME NAS UP IN THIS PIECE NOW:



PRODIGY, YOU CAUGHT A BAD ONE. I KNOW YOU'RE A CROOK SON, NOT A SHOOK ONE:



THE NEW G-UNIT VIDEO. I WONDER IF IT REALLY 'FEELS GOOD' FOR EVERYONE TO HEAR THIS MUSIC:



WHAT ELSE CAN I LEARN FROM JAY-Z TODAY? LET'S SEE:

A drug lord's story reminded him of his own, so Jay-Z returned to the street-based tales of his past, hoping for a fresh connection with . . .
By Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
November 4, 2007
BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- "SEE, that's Fort Greene right there, the projects, and I went to school right here -- this is George Westinghouse," says Jay-Z, looking through the window of his gray Rolls-Royce as it chauffeurs him into his past.

"Marcy Projects is about five minutes straight down," he says, pointing east toward the housing development where he lived as a youth. "See that? That's one thing I liked about going to school here," he adds with a smile, indicating a road sign that reads "Jay St."

Jay-Z, 37, doesn't return often to this Brooklyn neighborhood, where he grew up as Shawn Corey Carter. Stardom and wealth have taken him away to a Manhattan home and the globe-trotting life of a hip-hop star and major-label record executive.

It's his role as a recording artist that's brought him back on a warm fall day, to rehearse for a taping of the "VH1 Storytellers" show on a soundstage at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. As the car inches through late afternoon traffic, past the courts where he used to play basketball and the corners where he once sold drugs, he finds that his emotions are stirred.

"Yeah, man, it's the place that made me," he says softly.

As it happens, Jay-Z's physical homecoming parallels the artistic journey he made on his new album, "American Gangster," which comes out Tuesday.

Until recently, he had no plans to make a record, but when he got an early look at the movie "American Gangster," starring Denzel Washington as 1970s Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas, he was immediately inspired to create an album based on the film.

Sort of.

"The album is not about the film," explains the rapper, who completed the collection in a typically fast three weeks. "It connected with me on an emotional level. It was so similar to the neighborhoods that I came up in, and things that happened there. And Denzel's character as well . . . you know, his laid-back persona, that's pretty much how I am.

"It's really about the emotions of that life. I would take an emotion that I felt was important, or things that resonated with me . . . and make a song.

"But none of the emotions are current emotions. I mean, success is, because that's the thing that I've dealt with, but none of the songs are currently how I feel now. . . . It's like writing a book, going back to all these things, these emotions that I thought were buried. Because as a person you grow and you add layers on who you become. So I never thought that I would get back to that place.

"I didn't just want to go back to that place because it's the cool, popular thing to do. That seemed reckless to me. I think when you achieve a certain level of success, your job as a person who's reached the top of your field is to push it further -- try new, different things so people won't be afraid to. Not to play down."

Keeping it rolling

THE car parks in the Navy Yard, now a busy business and industrial complex, and Jay-Z strolls toward the soundstage, dressed casually in loose jeans, white Nikes and a black "Crooks From Hell" T-shirt with a cartoonish design of a masked man behind bars.

He has a hug or a friendly fist-tap for crew members and other workers inside the building as his band warms up, but along with the easygoing approachability is an unmistakable air of stardom.

He wears that quality easily too. He's accustomed to it after a decade of consistent popularity, an unusually long run in the hip-hop world. He's sold around 25 million albums in the U.S., and such collections as "Reasonable Doubt" (from 1996), "The Blueprint" (2001) and "The Black Album" (2003) are among the consensus classics in the hip-hop canon.

Along with such common hip-hop perks as a clothing line, the success has also helped him win a girlfriend named Beyoncé and, in 2004, the title of president and chief executive of Def Jam Recordings, the iconic rap label that's now part of the Universal Music Group and the home of such artists as Kanye West, Nas, Chingy and Beanie Sigel.

His track record in that office has been mixed, but all the old-line music companies are struggling these days, and at least he can point to the breaking of four new artists -- Rihanna, Young Jeezy, Rick Ross and Ne-Yo.

As an artist, Jay-Z's taste for the unpredictable led to a 2004 collaboration with Los Angeles rock band Linkin Park. A writing collaboration with Coldplay's Chris Martin on last year's "Kingdom Come" was less notable, and the album, which ended a three-year retirement, was the lowest-selling and worst-reviewed of his career, with much criticism directed toward his lyrics about luxury products and exclusive resorts.

Jay-Z dismisses the concerns, claiming to be proud of the work and satisfied with the sales of about 1.5 million. But as he gets ready to run through the seven new songs he'll perform on "Storytellers" (the show will be shown Thursday on VH1), you get the feeling he wouldn't mind making a point.


Jay-Z puts on pair of sunglasses and joins the band, which will back him at the next day's taping and also on a rare, if short, concert tour that begins at the House of Blues in West Hollywood on Tuesday.

Sliding his rap easily into the soul-music groove of "Pray," he sounds commanding as he delivers the album's first full song, spoken by a young man preparing to enter the game.

"Everywhere there's oppression the drug profession flourishes like beverages," he raps with his distinctive combination of force and fluidity. "Refreshing sweet taste of sin / Everything I seen made me everything I am."

The appetite for his "American Gangster" album has been intensified by the unusual nature of the project and by its attachment to the highly anticipated movie. And from the sound of the songs he's rehearsing, the challenge and the subject have inspired his most powerful work since those early landmarks.

The three-act saga is built on samples from the 1970s, the movie's time frame. Devised largely by Sean "Diddy" Combs' production team the Hitmen, it goes beyond the obvious Marvin Gaye, Barry White, Isley Brothers and Curtis Mayfield sources to include the work of lesser-known but potent artists such as the Wichita group Rudy Love & the Love Family, Florida soul guitarist Little Beaver and upstate New York funk brigade Larry Ellis & the Black Hammer.

"I think the truth is timeless," Jay-Z said earlier in the car. "I mean, the music is '70s soul samples, but the emotions are forever. The truth goes across all boundaries and all time, I believe.

"I think the reason I've been able to have such a long career and still garner the kind of attention I can right now is because there's truth there. People relate to that. And whether the truth is about an island in St. Tropez or is about Marcy Projects, it doesn't matter, as long as it's the truth."

Taking care of business

JAY-Z's Brooklyn excursion comes at the end of a day at the Universal Music Group's midtown Manhattan headquarters. Stepping from the 27th-floor suite of Island Def Jam Music Group Chairman L.A. Reid, where the two have been meeting to discuss release schedules and plans for "American Gangster," he walks to his office to collect a few items, chatting with employees and bumming a stick of gum from one.

"You know where we're going, right?" he says to the driver, settling into the back seat and opening a takeout container of salad. "If you could stop at a store and grab me a water?"

He says it's been a good day, not too hectic, and he seems relaxed as he eats his late lunch and talks about his passion: hip-hop. He gives every topic serious thought and laughs easily, but he maintains a certain reserve, looking straight ahead or out the window as he speaks.

What he sees on the New York streets is a vibrant culture that's been moving to the rhythms and imagery of hip-hop for nearly three decades. That reign is now being questioned, as the genre's CD sales have fallen even more sharply than those of pop music overall, and the bold artistry that made it a significant social and aesthetic force seems in short supply.

"It's just the way of the world," Jay-Z says of the sales decline. "Our fans are younger, so our fans live on computers. Other genres still have an adult audience, and as adults we're not stealing music off the Internet. We'll pay for the convenience of not having to wait for it to download, right? We will go to the store and actually pay for it just so we won't have to deal with that.

"Kids, they're on there all the time. . . . I think the consumption of hip-hop is the same, if not higher. It's just not happening with sales."

As a label head, he's faced with the challenge of dealing with that reality, and solutions remain elusive. He's more confident about hip-hop's creative potential, even at a time when radio is dominated by disposable party jams with ambitions the size of ring-tones.

"Yeah, that's affecting society as well, just in general," he says. "Everybody wants a quick fix. But everything is not microwaveable. You have to invest into an entire work. That's one of the reasons I'm proud of the album that I made, that it's a complete piece of work. . . . Going about it like that in these times may not be the smartest thing to do, but I think it's necessary.

"We have to mine it creatively and get back to being that voice, that social voice, a voice for oppressed people everywhere. I think as we grew we got away from some of those things, but that's natural. . . . It's growing pains. We'll get there.

"Kanye West is doing a fantastic job at it. . . . You got OutKast, you have Dr. Dre, you have Eminem, you have Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse and their whole thing. Those artists have to put out albums, because people emulate success. You just got to make great music. We'll figure out the model and let the chips fall where they may after that. But great music still sells."

His salad is gone and the car is in Brooklyn now, the place that made him. He seems amused when he's asked what kind of kid he was, and when he smiles his round features give him the look of a little boy.

"I was a great kid. Very happy, a little shy. A reserved and even-keel kid. . . . I'm still even-keel for the most part, but I didn't like being shy at all. So I told myself I didn't like being shy. . . . I like saying what's on my mind."

That personality adjustment led to trouble, though. Soon he was out on these street corners selling drugs to customers who pulled up in their cars. "It's just how you grow up and the things that you see," he says. "For the most part, growing up where I grew up you don't see doctors and lawyers walking around. There's no one to emulate but drug dealers. They're the only successful people in the neighborhood. They're 18 years old, driving better cars than your father, and you're like, 'What's going on?'"

In "Pray," which he calls a tale of lost innocence, he transforms those memories into simple but vivid verses: "As I head to my homeroom I observe the ruins / Dope needles on the ground / I hear a car go vroom / Drug dealer in the BM with the top down."

As he fires out the words onstage during the rehearsal, his band bathing his images in vibrant washes of soul-shaded hip-hop, Jay-Z seems reconnected with his deepest roots, speaking again to the kids on the street:

"I ain't choose this life, this life chose me."

AIIGHT THEN, JIGGAMAYNE.
OH, SO YOU WANT TO GIVE ME -MORE- INFORMATION ABOUT YOU? MMKAY.
from the good people of WWW.XXLMAG.COM

What’s the state of Roc-A-Fella Records at this point?

Um, I won’t call it reunite ‘cause we never really went anywhere. But, the perception of it is we did. We’re still here—Kanye’s album came out, my album came out last year, regardless of how your view is of Kingdom Come, double platinum album, you know what I’m saying? Kanye had a triple platinum album, so you know, we’ve still been doing what we been doing, we just didn’t have that run. People used to that run, you know. So I want to put that back together. Kanye just came out. My album comes out then Freeway and Beans to end the year. And then you know, maybe start up next year with Chris and Tru Life and everybody together and take that run at it again. Everybody is clicking on all cylinders.

The thing about Roc-A-Fella is when we had what we had; it was a bunch of hungry guys. You got a bunch of hungry guys, throw ‘em in a pit you going to get some amazing music. You know, think of all the stuff that came out of Baseline. You know, all them records came out of one place. Them records were descended around Blueprint. Like, I was doing that album and people was peeking in and everybody was like, “What did you take?”

People were coming to studio before I got there after I left. I would walk in the studio and be like, “Nah you should say the hook like—boom, flip it like this on this type of shit.” Everybody was inspiring each other. So it’s hard to get that thing again ‘cause everybody is everywhere. If I had advice for any crew, I’d just say, “Yo, go somewhere together.” If you go somewhere together and you put a new crew of hungry guys in one place the results are going to be there.

Let’s talk about Tru Life and Uncle Murder. What attracted you to each of them to bring ‘em to Roc-A-Fella?

It was more on who they are. I’m attracted to superstars. I think they both stars in they own right. Tru Life is an absolute superstar. I think you can figure out the rest. Snoop Dogg is a superstar, however he rhymes. He’s going to be a superstar forever. He couldn’t ever had a punchline his whole life, but his flow is… He could just talk over the record. I think what Uncle Murder is, is a movie. Like he represents the come-up. That Brownsville, I-will-never-go-around-there type come-up. Like, what’s going on around there?

I think people were surprised that you signed Murder cause his image initially overshadowed his skills. But I think people see him developing—

Yeah, that’s what happens. And that’s another thing about people now. People don’t process things. They don’t let things happen. Everything has to happen now. People listen to a song one time and they have an opinion on you. How? How? You can’t process a song the first time you hear it. You gotta—you definitely don’t know what the guy is saying all the way. Right? It could be some things you miss. I think it’s too fast. You gotta let people grow. He’s a star. Like, Rhianna. She wasn’t Rhianna when I signed her. She definitely wasn’t that girl. She actually wasn’t the girl that’s on TV now. But I seen the star. Right? That’s the skeleton, right. The foundation. You take that and you let them grow. Let ‘em grow. You let ‘em grow. Keep writing, keep writing, keep writing and you know, some people fulfill there expectations, some people crash along the way. And that’s why we have tough love. We’re building the tough ones. We’re not just putting it out—overnight. Nah, you put in your work. At least here you do. It ain’t never been any different.

So are you saying it wasn’t that you didn’t believe in Kanye, it’s that he just had to pay dues? Are you shocked that Kanye ascended to a superstar in his own right?

As a solo artist? Yes. But not after his first album. When I first heard the album, I was like, “Oh, he’s good.” When the album starts coming in. Before the album start coming in he would just rhyme—you don’t understand… He would, rhyme, rhyme, rhyme. And he had great music and I seen that so many times. So my advice to him was like, “Yo, you can make seven albums a year. You don’t have to make one. You can be on everybody’s album. That’s what I want to see.” But he wanted to be an artist. So we was like, “Ok, let’s keep him close, he’s genius as far as making music, and we’ll figure that part out.” He started making the College Dropout album, it was like, “Whoa. We’re not just appeasing this guy. He’s making a good album.” So, that’s us. Our relationship is like that because that’s us. That’s Roc-A-Fella Records. If you know anybody, you know how we are; it’s tough love, bruh. You’re not going to be given anything. And if your personality can’t handle that, you’re going to have a problem with that. And you’re going to hear the truth of what people think about your shit.

Obviously everyone keeps asking you about your reaction to the “Big Brother” song. When he first played it for you was it a lot for you to take?

No, it was great. I was actually—I was like “Shit.” It was emotional. Not emotional like crying, but song cry.
[Laughs]

I was more so, “Wow, he made that record. Like, how big of a record.” For me, it was a big thing. People aren’t confrontational and they don’t want to confront their problems and they don’t want to admit certain things and say certain things. I was taken back, like, “Wow.” And the hook is outrageous technically. “My big brother was Big’s brother/Used to be Dame and Biggs’ brother.” It was a string of how he put the hook together, “Who was No ID friend, and No ID is my mentor now let the story begin.” It was big on so many levels. I think it’s the second best record that he wrote since “Jesus Walks.” Anytime people dancing about Jesus in the club with champagne in their hands, I don’t think anyone’s ever done that.
[Laughs]

But what’s brilliant about the record is that it helped him grow. Because it was going in the wrong. It coulda went the other way. He coulda just been behind my back talked about it and been upset but he put it out there. And it made us tighter. It made the relationship stronger. It was like, “Wow,” come give me a hug. It was like a big thing for him—and for me too. He was saying a lot of great things too. You don’t say that in hip-hop we don’t love our brother! [Laughs] Wow, he loves his brother. It’s not very hip-hop, but it’s actually more gangsta than anything because it was his honest and true emotion. That’s why you let everything out as an artist. Right, wrong, or indifferent—you know, whatever it is. Even if what he’s saying is not completely accurate. It’s ok because it his truth and he’s letting it go. And we can talk about it now.

So with the whole 50 thing, were you surprised he won the SoundScan battle?

I knew he’d beat him the whole time. What 50 didn’t know was that Kanye is an artist. There’s no way he could lose. If 50 won, it wouldn’t have made a difference. The album that this guy made—I knew it was going to be hard to beat that album. So whether you beat the sales figure or not, there’s no way around it. The guy’s an artist. At the end of the day people are going to look at the albums. That’s it. So I knew there was no losing in that.

It was Kanye who came up with the idea to go head-to-head right? Were you with the idea at first?

To be honest with you, Kanye called me and I was like, “Man, you ready for that?! ‘cause I know 50. He’s liable to trip ya girlfriend in the party. You ready?’”

You know, I thought it was great. Fantastic. Took me 2 seconds. I mean, no one’s going to get hurt. 50 Cent sold a gang of records. You know what I’m saying? Maybe his ego is bruised a little bit, but he sold 700,000 records.

I think people are surprised Beans is back with the Roc and got a single
featuring R. Kelly. What happened? You and Kells made peace?

Nah! Nah! I don’t care about none of that. I’m not that guy. I’m not the guy that’s going to try to stop anybody or stop anybody’s way of artistically expressing each other. He’s on Jeezy’s album. Ross. I mean everything is everything. Like, our relationship is not in the right place. That has nothing to do with Beanie. Beans wants to do a record with R. Kelly—fantastic. I hope it’s great. We ain’t gotta have dinner at the studio together, but make the record.

~~~

FINALLY: CAM'RON SPEAKS!
PEACE TO www.missinfo.tv WHO MADE THIS HAPPEN:

I asked Cam why he seemingly dropped off the face of the planet this past spring, especially after that infamous youtube clip. One minute he was telling 50 Cent it was going to be a hot summer, and the next minute, Cam was M.I.A. But he said when the beef with 50 cent, the Tru Life and Jim Jones’ beef, and his altercation with Tru Life, all happened one right after the other, he got hit by a family emergency that took priority. Cam’s mom suffered a number of strokes that left her paralyzed on her left side. He moved her to Florida for a while, set up her rehabilitation and therapy, and kept an eye on her: “I told her, you not dying on my watch.”
[sidenote: I’m glad to hear Cam’s mom is doing better, Ms. Frederica is a real character. Back in the day, she even got her son to give her some burn on a song, “Me, My Moms, and Jimmy,” off Confessions of Fire album. “You think Cam’s nice, he’s a son of a gun,” lol.]

Cam says that while he was dealing with the personal, there were business issues as well. “Also, me and Asylum weren’t seeing eye to eye at the time. But we recently worked things out. We had a conversation with the lawyers and with Todd (Moscowitz), so now we’re straight. I wasn’t gonna drop the mixtape until that happened….”

But all the while, Cam said he was also watching how other people were reacting to his absence.

“Even when I had my mom situated, she had the help she needs, the physical therapy, everything was right–that was like a month ago—I still laid low, because when I come out it’s gonna be done it right. But I just sat back and bugged out at how everyone else was acting.

I heard all the rumors, mad felonious shit, fake shit.
And I would tell n—as, my moms just had a stroke, and they’d be like ‘Oh, ok, so are you still coming through?’ Fam, what is wrong with you?”

(Which does seem mad shady, but I cant say I’m surprised. This business has a way of messing up peoples’ priorities. Anyways, I asked Cam, ‘What about all those Cam’ron sightings? The last time we spoke was when you posted the youtube video, so I didn’t know if those rumors were real or not.’)

Exactly. I ain’t talked to nobody, but I kept hearing all these stories. Cam was in a car crash. Cam was begging for a deal. Some hood DVD dudes were up up on [140th st] to try to find me. Folks were asking for interviews.
Im like Bigfoot, its crazy!

My thing is, it felt like folks were tryin’ to strong arm me into showing up for shit.
Like, no disrespect to BET, but I was watching one day and they announced ‘Cam is gonna be on 106 and Park. He’s gonna talk about his new album…’
I just started laughing, like, what is you talking about? Nothing about that was true.
What’s so funny is that in the past, I always had to go through mad shit just to get them to play a new video or whatever. But now I’m seeing those two tell me what I’m doing.
But nobody can force me to do anything or be anywhere….I can afford to chill out. I mean, I get 1.5 million dollars just to hand my album in, but I’m still not rushing.

I could have come back a month ago….but instead I said, ‘Alright, Duke, block all my calls, shut down the interviews…’

(So what about the rumor that you were seen shopping for a deal at some indie label…)

I went to meet with my man Jeff Kempler, I’ve known him for years, and now that he’s [executive vice president] over at Virgin, he called me over to catch up. So then we walked around the office, and Fat Joe’s label [Imperial Records] is in the same building.

(I guess it was your silence that was making folks jump to conclusions…)

“Yo I’m killin’ n—as with my silence! Me not saying nothing is driving people crazy…”

(Well since it’s clear you’ve been keeping up with the Cam’ron rumor mill, what did you think about what your peers were saying? 50 Cent joked about you being missing….)

But here’s the funny thing about it. They all say Cam’s missing… You look at 50 Cent and Kanye West. They came out after, like two years since their last records. Meanwhile, I put out a movie, an album, executive-produced four albums this summer…Y’all n—as be missing. I be out every year, fam.

(During an interview with MTV, Jim Jones said finding you was like “finding Nemo.” And in a youtube interview with Mikey Fresh, Jimmy said “Cam’ron is in his own world.”)

He’s right, I live on Pluto, and I take a spaceship home every night. Hahaha…

(Well, I guess you’re about to phone home. Next week, you’ll be back out with a double mixtape, Public Enemy #1. Are you working on a new album as well?)

Yeah. Actually I was in the middle of recording the album when everything happened. I had maybe a full CD of music since May or June. Now I’m looking to drop the album in February or March, 2008. But with all this nonsense going on, I had to put out this double CD real quick. And you know how I am, I don’t like to sit on old tracks so I decided to throw like 40 songs on there and make the mixtape free.
The video we posted on [killacamspace] was just to make fun of the way ppl was acting. But in the hood, it was nothing like that. Everybody just been showing love like ‘Yo, please come back out. We need that.”

(So, what is the state of Dipset right now? I’ve talked to Jim Jones about his new projects and new record deal. And last week he told me about his new mixtape, which is dropping one day before yours. But he made a point of shouting out “Dipset for life.” Which seemed encouraging to me…Have you and Jimmy talked yet?)

I still haven’t spoken to Jim. But Jim ran with me for over 10 yrs, he worked hard, and I wish him the best of luck.
Everybody thinks I’m mad at Jim. Why am I mad? I told people for years that Jimmy was gonna be a star. So its better on my resume…I wish him the best.
The only thing is, him being with 50, I can’t really run with that. Hang out with who you want to hang out…but me, I can’t really do nothing like that.

(What did you think when 50 brought Jimmy and Juelz onstage with him to perform “Ballin’?”)

Actually, that was a great move for 50. First, he had Jim and Jeelz, then he brought out Remy Ma and J-Hood, then I even saw Whoo kid on TV with Gillie the Kid goin’ at Lil Wayne. I commend him for that. You’re really snatching a person from they own set. And then you also are seeing these n—as’ potential…

(So do you address this on Public Enemy #1?)

I make a comment but I keep it moving. On the first joint, I talk for like 6 minutes. I still get at 50. The Tru Life shit. I clear that shit up. And I also address the NYPD, the Intel squad…How they dragged me in during the whole Jay-Z and 50 Cent beef and tried to get me to talk about them….all that shit.

(And knowing how Cam talks trash with the best of them, I’m pretty sure that will be an entertaining 6 minute rant. But before we hung up, I had to ask him about that cryptic message he sent my homies at MTV last week: “Killa Season again, you little yentas***,” “November 7th. Cam’ron is anonymous. Dipset!”
Uhh, Cam, do you know what a yenta is?)

Hahaha, of course! You know my lawyers are Jewish, they be saying that all the time. So then I was watching Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Larry David—I fucks with Larry—he called Ted Danson a ‘yenta.’ Yo, I fell out laughing. That shit was crazy. I said, that’s exactly what all these folks are doin’, gossiping about me. Yentas. That’s where the ‘Cam’ron is anonymous’ came from too. Did you see that episode? That’s my shit. You have HBO On Demand? Its episode 52….

(For the record, that episode really is hilarious. I have to admit, I thought Cam was off his rocker when I first read that message….but now, I kinda love it. Random pop culture references are my shit! lol…)

~~~

Can't leave rap alone, the game needs me!
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