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.
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)
Here’s the cover for Boo-Boo’s new work of fiction, Playground, which is set for a November 1st release.
Thirteen-year-old Butterball doesn’t have much going for him. He’s teased mercilessly about his weight. He hates the Long Island suburb his mom moved them to and wishes he still lived with his dad in the city. And now he’s stuck talking to a totally out-of-touch therapist named Liz.
Liz tries to uncover what happened that day on the playground – a day that landed one kid in the hospital and Butterball in detention. Butterball refuses to let her in on the truth, and while he evades her questions, he takes readers on a journey through the moments that made him into the playground bully he is today.
This devastating yet ultimately redemptive story is told in voice-driven prose and accented with drawings and photographs, making it a natural successor to The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
Loosely inspired by 50 Cent’s own adolescence, and written with his fourteen-year-old son in mind, Playground is sure to captivate wide attention – and spark intense discussion.
Pre-order here.
Spotted: HHNM
Previoulsy: Curtis – Street King Energy Track #7
A sober and clear-minded KiD CuDi speaks to Complex Editor In Chief Noah Callahan-Bever for their October/November issue. In the magazine’s third cover story with the rapper/actor in three years, he speaks about cleaning up his act, recent career moves such as his highly publicized separation from managers Pat & Emile, his relationship with women, fucking with other people musically (he still doesn’t, btw), making up with Wale, working on a rock album, being sober and the TV show.
So not a lot of features in your future?
I’m not interested in being someone’s look. And that’s what it is nowadays—a look. It’s hard for me to charge people, because I do my stuff for free. I do all my stuff with Jay and Kanye on the house, because it’s a brotherhood. Besides them, I can’t really hit nobody with a fee, because then that’s a dispute. What I want to charge, motherfuckers might not have a budget for!On top of that, it’s a commitment when you do a song with somebody. Like, “We need a single, we need the video.” And then—like I said in the last interview, being that I don’t fuck with most people musically—it’s tough for me to want to bend and be a part of people’s projects.
Full story: Complex.
Behind the scenes from the cover shoot after the jump.
Scans of the first couple of pages of Rozay’s feature in the new issue of GQ courtesy of Def Jam.
Spotted: RR
Previously: Rick Ross Photoshoot for GQ
Here’s the cover for Tip’s upcoming novel Power & Beauty which he penned with author David Ritz. The book is due out through Harper-Collins in October and is available for pre-order now.
Previously: T.I. Is Out of Jail
Some behind the scenes footage from P and Wiz’s Urban Ink cover shoots.
Subscribe in a reader
.
