Paula Patton splits the December/January cover of Complex with Drizzy.

Read the full feature and peep the gallery here. You can also read Drake’s cover story in its entirety here.

Previously: Drake Covers Complex (December/January)

Complex’s Damien Scott takes a trip to Toronto to interview Drake for the cover story of Complex’s December/January issue. The issue, seen above, will be released December 6th.

Read the cover story here.

Previously: Drake – Hate Sleeping Alone

Hov graces the cover of GQ’s Men of the Year Issue. Above and below we have some shots from the feature by Alex Pappademas, which you can read here in its entirety.

Images by Nathaniel Goldberg

Previously: Rihanna ft. Jay-Z – Talk That Talk (Full)

Drizzy Drake graces the cover of the November / Power 30 issue of The Source magazine. The 8-page-long feature story was written by former EIC of The Source, Kim Osorio where Drake talks about inspirations, his upbringing, his music and more.

Here is a small excerpt from the article where Drake acknowledges that the throne is for the taking.

“When I was a kid trying to figure out what I liked, it was [Kanye] who I related to the most. He was an artist, in every sense, from his cover art to his music. Now, I would say he was a really great competitor….”

The issue hits newsstands on November 15th along with Drake’s album Take Care.

Previously: Drake & Mark Cuban’s NBA 2K12 Commercial (Video)

See the cover with Eminem and Keith Richards here.

“I was never on heroin or cocaine or Ecstasy or nothing like that. I drank syrup and smoked a lotta weed. I wish I could be back on it.”

Read the full feature on GQ.

that Zan took me under… Patron brought me back.

For the November issue, GQ gets Eminem, Lil Wayne and The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards on the cover with interviews with 43 other artists for their ‘The Survivors’ feature. The interviews can be read here starting with Eminem’s. A new one will be put up each day.

Behind the scenes footage from the shoot below.

Continue reading this post…

XXL has revealed the cover for their latest issue which features Nas celebrating 20 years in Hip Hop.

When asked if he was happy with how everything turned out, Nas had this to say:

“Dawg, I was naming my album Life Is Good because of how happy I am about how happy things have turned out,” Nas answered. “Sometimes I may wake up and wish my kids were living with me. That’s the only thing, you know what I mean? Our loved ones that are not around no more, like my mom. That’s the only thing. But other than that, everything is great, even when I’m alone. Even when there’s no one around.”

Check out more excerpts over at XXL.

Previously: Nas – Nasty (Video)

EW has the first three chapters of Playground, Curtis Jackson’s foray into the teen/street-lit market, available for your review.

The book tells the story of a 13 year old bully named Butterball and is loosely based on Boo-Boo’s own childhood. Check out the book’s intro below.

I’ll be the first to admit that not everything I’ve done in my life has been role-model material. I’ve been on the wrong side of the law. I’ve been in violent situations. I’vealso been a bully. I know how a person gets to be likethat. That’s why I wanted to tell this story: to show a kid who has become a bully—how and why that happened,and whether or not he can move past it.

Writing Playground was a personal journey for me.There’s a lot of me in Butterball. I drew on events that happened in my childhood and adolescence as well as things I saw around me. I also tapped into some of the feelings I remember having at that age—feelings aboutmy family, feelings about my future, feelings about other kids on the playground.Living life on the edge has taught me a lot, like the fact that being mentally strong will get you ahead in life. But being a bully won’t get you anywhere. Some kids don’t figure that out until it’s too late. Does Butterball? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson III
New York, New York

Previously: Curtis’ Playground Book Cover

LilWayneHQ leaked the cover, but here’s the final version of Weezy’s latest VIBE cover. In it, he discusses those “old guys” (Wayne just turned “29″) and competition:

“There’s no competition [with any artists]. Music isn’t about competition no more. All the gangster rappers are happy, all the skateboard rappers are happy, all the white rappers are happy… Everybody just happy to do music these days. There are no problems. That shit died a long time ago with them old-ass rappers. We are just making music, making money and having fun feeding our families. Competition is for the old guys.”

He says some real ass shit like that and then says this:

VIBE: You say competition is for the “old guys,” but it sounds like you’re going at Jay-Z with that line, “I got your baby money/Kidnap your bitch, get that how-much-you-love-your-lady money.” Are we looking at it the wrong way?

LIL WAYNE: I know for a fact, music is about perception. You can’t do anything but perceive what you hear. If I know that for a fact, I can never be upset about someone’s reaction to it. I’m not gonna say I don’t know what will happen before I say it [on record]. I do know what will happen. I am aware of it. It is what it is.

But this goes back to the point about them being too rich to beef. More excerpts including an interesting quote about Drake and the London riots (which he probably didn’t know much about) at VIBE.

Previously: Lil Wayne Even Surprised Himself (Video)

Complex.com publishes their J. Cole online cover story and got their in-house writer Damien Scott, Cole’s ex-College roommate from St. John’s University, to write the story of Jermaine’s come up and describe the time they stood in the rain in front of Baseline Studios back in 2005.

Link: J. Cole: In The Zone

Related: Timeline: J Cole’s Sideline Struggle

Previously: J. Cole – Daddy’s Little Girl (Video)