Lil Wayne has a knack for making it rain. This is unquestioned. No matter the timing, no matter the circumstances, the rapper wants to throw dat cash! Hey, when you gots insane amounts of bank, flaunt it. With that in mind, The Chive created this amazing photo gallery of Weezy making it rain in all sorts of interesting situations … ones you might not typically associate as the most natural fits for his notorious strip club behavior. For instance, here’s him right after the royal wedding … … and in President Barack Obama’s Situation Room, during the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan last year. Someone’s gotta lighten the mood: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looks understandably shocked, but the rainmaker does what he’s gotta do. Follow the link above for a dozen more of these gems.
‘I feel like it’s my responsibility to be the greatest I can be,’ he says in the magazine’s April/May issue. By Jocelyn Vena Justin Bieber on the cover of Complex magazine Photo: Complex Justin Bieber appears bloodied and beat up on the cover of Complex magazine, and it’s a far cry from the Biebs’ well-groomed image. Inside the April/May issue, the 18-year-old opens up about his childhood and his very public relationship with girlfriend Selena Gomez. He also discusses his upcoming album, Believe, pledging that it’s “go big or go home” once it drops later this year. “I feel like it’s my responsibility to be the greatest I can be,” the magazine cover boy says. “If I start making terrible music, I don’t expect people to like me. If I’m making great music and there’s no reason for people to dislike me, that’s when it’s going to make me upset. People just need to take a chance and listen. If they don’t want to take a chance, then I don’t know. That’s going to be the biggest problem: to make them feel like it’s cool for them to like my music.” Bieber hopes the new album will show his growth. It will include a number of collaborators, including Mike Posner, who produced lead single “Boyfriend,” set for release on March 26. “I just rap for fun; it’s nothing to take seriously,” he admits. “On my new album, I’m going to do a little bit of rapping,” he adds before giving a preview of a few lines from “Boyfriend.” “Tell me what you like, dear/ Tell me what you don’t/ I could be your Buzz Lightyear/ Fly across the globe/ You don’t even need to fight, dear/ You already know/ I can make you shine bright/ Like you’re laying in the snow, burr,” he raps. The superstar also goes into detail about his work ethic, saying that he sets the bar high for himself. “When I release something, I want it to be the best,” he says. “When I release my fragrance, I want it to be the #1 fragrance — I don’t want it to be the ninth-best-selling fragrance. My Christmas album went double-platinum worldwide. Christmas albums don’t do that, and that still wasn’t good enough for me.” What do you think of Justin’s new magazine cover? Tell us on our Facebook page! Related Videos Happy Birthday, Justin Bieber! Related Artists Justin Bieber
‘I was too young to understand everything in it, but I understood everything in it,’ Cease tells MTV News of 1994 track. By Rob Markman, with reporting by Sway Calloway Notorious B.I.G. Photo: Bad Boy The Notorious B.I.G. had plenty of hit singles, like “Big Poppa” and “Hypnotize,” but more often than not, his album cuts were just as memorable. He may have only given fans two albums before he died on March 9, 1997, but Biggie crafted a catalog that is still celebrated 15 years after his death . Songs like “Gimme the Loot” and “Ten Crack Commandments” resonated with fans without music videos or radio play. Till this day, one of Lil’ Cease’s favorite B.I.G. songs is “Everyday Struggle,” from Big’s 1994 debut, Ready to Die. “I’m sure I was about 13,14,” Cease said, recalling his age when his friend first tracked the record. “I was too young to understand everything in it, but I understood everything in it.” On” Everyday Struggle,” the Notorious B.I.G. rapped with a hustler’s remorse. Rather than brag about his crack sales, like rappers often do, Big painted a picture of the downside of the street life. He rhymed about his mother’s disappointment with his lifestyle, the murder of his close friend “Two Techs” and horrific dope-fiend binges. “I don’t wanna live no mo’/ Sometimes I hear death knockin’ at my front door/ I’m living every day like a hustle, another drug to juggle/ Another day, another struggle,” he rapped on the hook. “Just that right there was our story. I was out there 11, 12 years old trying to do that, trying to hustle, trying to get out there and make money,” Cease said. Lil’ Cease estimates that Biggie was 19 years old when he recorded “Everyday Struggle”; to be able to paint such a vivid picture at such a young age was a rarity. “Just the music, the beat, the production and then the way Big was rhymin’ — me knowing Big was only 19 years old when he was writin’ all that stuff,” he said. “I watched Puffy listen to it, I watched [Hot 97 DJ] Mister Cee and [former Source magazine editor] Matty C and ’em listen to it. They was lookin’ at Big like he was a robot. “It just made me feel proud because I was actually a part of that,” Cease said. Join MTV News as we celebrate the Notorious B.I.G.’s life on the 15th anniversary of his death. From now through Sunday, we’ll be rolling out exclusive and commemorative content from Biggie’s closest friends, collaborators and biggest fans. To join the conversation on Twitter, hit @MTVRapFix using the hashtag #biggie15. Related Videos Remembering Notorious B.I.G. Related Artists Notorious B.I.G. Lil’ Cease
‘Big was very protective of me, like overprotective,’ Lil Kim tells ‘RapFix Live.’ By Rob Markman Lil’ Kim on RapFix Live Photo: MTV News In the 1990s, there was no R&B band quite like Jodeci . While Boyz II Men, with their clean-cut image, were cut from a more traditional R&B cloth, K-Ci, JoJo, Dalvin and DeVante were the bad boys of the genre. No wonder they fit in so well with rappers, collaborating with the likes of Raekwon, Ghostface Killah and Redman. They almost cooked up a collaboration with Lil’ Kim as well, but the Notorious B.I.G. put a stop to that. “Big was very protective of me, like overprotective,” Lil’ Kim said when she appeared on the March 7 episode of “RapFix Live.” In the early ’90s, Jodeci got their start at Uptown Records, where their talent was cultivated by a then-unknown Sean “Puffy” Combs — whom fans now simply call Diddy . Under the young executive’s watch, the quartet released their multiplatinum 1991 debut Forever My Lady, but somewhere down the line the relationship soured. Kim recalled one incident where she and Diddy’s Bad Boy crew had a run-in with Jodeci in a hotel. “Me and Keisha from Total were in the hallway talking to Dalvin and I think JoJo,” she remembered. “Puffy and Big were looking for us, and when they found us, Big just started draggin’ me by my coat and Puff was like, ‘We don’t eff with them. What are y’all doin’ talkin’ to them?’ ” Despite the incident, Jodeci later wanted to include Lil’ Kim on a remix of their 1995 single “Luv U 4 Life” and offered her a lot of money to do it, but Big, who was both Kim’s musical mentor and lover, vetoed the feature. “At that time, it was the beginning of my career; I hadn’t seen that much money for one record,” Kim recalled. “So Big comes to where I was stayin’ and he’s like, ‘You ain’t goin’ nowhere, I’m gonna out there to see what’s goin’ on,’ ” Kim remembered of Biggie’s interference while laughing. “He locks me in the room; he was like, ‘Oh you ain’t gonna go do no song with them.’ ” Join MTV News as we celebrate the Notorious B.I.G’s life on the 15th anniversary of his death. From now through March 25, we will be rolling out exclusive and commemorative content from Biggie’s closest friends, collaborators and his biggest fans. To join the conversation on Twitter, hit @MTVRapFix using the hashtag #biggie15. Related Artists Notorious B.I.G. Lil’ Kim Jodeci
For many, the Weinsteins’ inescapable awards-season carpet bombing was mere insult added to an even more grievous seasonal injury: moving Piranha 3DD from its original November 2011 release date to the notorious TBD associated with so many Dimension and Weinstein Co. releases. What did you expect, though? Madonna/ W.E. Golden Globe campaigns don’t pay for themselves, right? Anyway, as befits a new inductee into France’s Legion of Honor , Harvey Weinstein is not skimping on the public service, finally rescheduling the blood-and-boobs fishploitation extravaganza for June 1. The good news? That’s only two and a half months away! The bad news? That’s only two and a half months away! Is there enough time and money left after handling the Bully ratings “crisis” to manufacture a PG-13 crusade for this one? How will kids at lakeside summer camps nationwide know how to best deal with flesh-rending fish infestations? Think of the children, save the date, etc. [ STYD ]
‘People are buying that album every day. It’s a classic album,’ Diddy tells MTV News. By Rob Markman Diddy The Notorious B.I.G. had high hopes for his second LP, Life After Death. “I want people to buy [my new] album and just straight up say, ‘Yo, he’s the best. He’s the best ever. He’s the best that ever did it,’ ” Biggie said in a 1997 Source magazine interview before he was murdered on March 9, 1997. Big never got to see the public’s reaction to his 24-track, double-disc masterpiece — it was released on March 25, 16 days after his death. Fifteen years and 10 million copies later, there is no denying the power of LAD. Biggie mixed inescapable singles like “Hypnotize,” “Mo Money, Mo Problems” and “Sky’s the Limit” with dark and brooding underground classics like “Ten Crack Commandments” and the DJ Premier-produced “Kick in the Door.” Everyone has their favorites, even the Notorious B.I.G.’s friend and Bad Boy CEO Sean “Diddy” Combs. “Aww man, Life After Death ? It would probably have to be …,” Diddy responded when Sway asked him to pick his #1 LAD track while the two were on the set of a Miami video shoot in January. ” ‘My Downfall,’ ‘My Downfall’ is my favorite joint.” The Hitmen-produced track is a gut-wrenching display of Brooklyn bravado. “My Downfall” is prefaced by a skit in which Biggie receives death threats over the phone, exemplifying the type of resentment that Big’s success brought out in his detractors. With rap legend DMC on the song’s hook and Diddy adding fiery ad libs, B.I.G. eerily pondered his own death. “Dying ain’t the sh–, but it’s pleasant,” he rapped as if he were foretelling his own fate. It was a theme that was revisited quite a few times on the classic rap LP, particularly on the album-closing “You’re Nobody (Til Somebody Kills You).” For the album’s 15-year anniversary, Diddy said he is planning to release a remastered version of Life After Death, but beyond that, not much else. “We basically gonna let it rock, we have promoted it, promoted his legacy through movies, documentaries, albums, remixed albums, new albums and now it’s time for the fans to have it,” he said. “On the 15th anniversary, we’ll definitely make sure that there is a remastered copy out there, but besides that we’re not gonna do anything extra to extra push it. People are buying that album every day. It’s a classic album and they’re gonna keep on buying it.” A representative from Bad Boy Records told MTV News that at press time there was no Life After Death remastered LP on the label’s release schedule. What is your favorite song from the Notorious B.I.G.’s Life After Death ? Tell us in the comments! Join MTV News as we celebrate the Notorious B.I.G’s life on the 15th anniversary of his death. From March 9 through March 25, we will be rolling out exclusive and commemorative content from Biggie’s closest friends, collaborators and his biggest fans. To join the conversation on Twitter, hit @MTVRapFix using the hashtag #biggie15. Related Videos Notorious B.I.G. 15 Years Later Related Artists Diddy Notorious B.I.G.
‘I don’t have anyone to bounce off of, you understand?’ Jay told MTV News a year after Notorious B.I.G.’s fatal shooting. By Rob Markman, with reporting by Nina Diaz Notorious B.I.G. Photo: Bad Boy The Notorious B.I.G.’s death hit the entire hip-hop community hard. Family, friends and fans mourned when Biggie died March 9, 1997. His children lost a father, his mother lost a son and the rap world lost one of the all-time greats. Big’s friends and collaborators were affected too. In a 1998 interview with MTV News, Jay-Z talked about how Biggie’s tragic death weighed on him and ultimately changed the course of his sophomore album, In My Lifetime, Vol. 1. “A lot of different songs were influenced by what was happening. ‘City Is Mine,’ the first verse, you could just hear it. I think two hooks on there came from songs that he had previously recorded,” Jay said of the LP that he dropped eight months after his friend passed away. Vol. 1 ‘s “City Is Mine” served as a letter to the deceased. On the song’s first verse, Jay raps, “What the deal, playboy? Just rest your soul.” From there, Jay vows that “a world with amnesia” wouldn’t forget Biggie’s name, and then he proceeded to take Big’s reins as the rap king of New York. Though there were some bright moments on Jay’s first Def Jam release, songs like the Kraftwerk-sampling “(Always Be My) Sunshine” were few and far between. Jay’s experience in the studio was different from when he crafted his 1996 debut, when he had B.I.G. to help push his artistic boundaries. “The album to me — this album wasn’t fun to me like Reasonable Doubt, because it was like, it seemed really slow to me, and I didn’t set out to do that, just looking back now and listening to it now,” he said somberly in the 1998 interview. Big wasn’t physically in the studio; Jay revealed that the only song the Brooklyn Don got to hear and give feedback on from Vol. 1 was the dark and brooding “Streets Is Watching.” Still, Big was well-represented on the album. Aside from “City Is Mine,” Big got a special shout-out on “Friend or Foe ’98,” when Hov famously offered to throw some ice up to heaven for “the nicest MC.” Jay also recycled Biggie’s rhymes on the hooks to “Face Off” and “Real N—az.” The Sauce Money-assisted “Face Off” borrowed its chorus from Biggie’s intro ad libs on his 1997 album cut “Nasty Boy,” and “Real N—az” got its hook from a freestyle B.I.G. did over a string of Dr. Dre instrumentals before he passed. Then there was the melancholy “Lucky Me,” on which Jay briefly speculated on his own death and questioned if fame was all that it was cracked up to be. “There’s a lot of emotions on the album, and that was definitely influenced by what was goin’ on and what had happened,” Jay-Z said. On Wednesday’s “RapFix Live,” Lil’ Kim spoke on the Notorious One’s relationship with Jigga . “He and Jay-Z just had this adorable friendship — it was the cutest,” she said. “They were so competitive with each other, but it was such a friendly competitiveness, and I loved it, because that’s how it’s supposed to be when you like somebody.” When B.I.G. passed, that friendly competition was lost. “I don’t have anyone to bounce off of, you understand? We bounced off each other like, ‘Oh that was crazy; I gotta make something crazier.’ When you don’t have that, you don’t have that gauge,” Jay said. “It’s just hard to adjust; you have to find other ways to motivate yourself.” Hov seems to have adjusted just fine. When Biggie died in 1997, Jay only had one album under his belt and was on his way to releasing his second. Now, 15 years later, Jay has built a career that is unmatched with 11 solo albums and a number of collaborative releases with R. Kelly, Linkin Park and Kanye West. But back in 1998, Jay could only use one word to describe Big’s legacy: “Unparalleled. There’ll never be another person to come along to fill that void.” Join MTV News as we celebrate the Notorious B.I.G’s life on the 15th anniversary of his death. From now through March 25, we will be rolling out exclusive and commemorative content from Biggie’s closest friends, collaborators and biggest fans. To join the conversation on Twitter, hit @MTVRapFix using the hashtag #biggie15.
Lil’ Kim stopped by BET’s 106 & Park yesterday to discuss the Notorious B.I.G. on the 15th anniversary of the rapper’s death. It was a pretty standard issue interview until Rosci attempted to ask about Nicki Minaj and was swiftly deaded. Watch the Video on HipHopWired.com
Lil’ Kim stopped by BET’s 106 & Park yesterday to discuss the Notorious B.I.G. on the 15th anniversary of the rapper’s death. It was a pretty standard issue interview until Rosci attempted to ask about Nicki Minaj and was swiftly deaded. Watch the Video on HipHopWired.com
Actor Michael Madsen was arrested Friday on suspicion of felony child endangerment. Madsen was taken into custody in Malibu, Ca., then released early this morning and was in decent spirits on his way out, calling the whole incident a “big misunderstanding.” So what the heck happened exactly? According to law enforcement, Madsen got into a a physical fight with his juvenile son, and when cops arrived, they observed several signs of injury on his son. Madsen also appeared to be under the influence of alcohol at the time. The son did not require medical attention, but Madsen was booked on a charge of child endangerment with cruelty to a child – a felony charge. Then what? Madsen’s attorney, Perry Wander, tells TMZ that “[Michael Madsen] found his son smoking pot and they got in an argument when he tried to take it away.”
