Don't Sleep: Necessary Notables
Mixtape: Swine Flu
Starring: Tony Yayo
Key Collaborations: The tape is hosted by universal 'hood king Mac-A-Zoe, and Lil Boosie is featured on "My Cadillac." "I met Boosie at Buck's house," Yayo told us of their first encounter back in the day. "Between Boosie and Gucci, them n---as is my favorite in the South."
Essential Info: OK, the obvious question: Why’ "I think my flow ... everything is serious about me," Yayo said. "I feel my flow is serious; I feel like I'm the most underrated. Swine Flu is an epidemic. I'm about to start an epidemic ... I wanted to use what's relevant right now to get people's attention. I learned that from 50."
Another thing he learned from Fif was to never stop the war.
Yayo says he got Mac-A-Zoe from the Zoe Pound to host the underground CD via a phone call from prison. G-Unit's personal public enemy #1 shouted out the Zoe Pound on the hit "The Magnificent," and has worked with Pound member Redd Eyezz in the past.
"Being all the stuff that's going on with Rick Ross, I had to get Mac-A-Zoe to host the mixtape for me. Mac-A-Zoe said him and Ross used to be cool. ... I got in contact with Mac-A-Zoe through Sha Money. We're all Haitian ’ me, Zoe, Sha Money and Whoo Kid. Sha Money called me with Mac-A-Zoe on the phone. We're kicking it on the mixtape. He's basically saying Rick Ross is an impostor. I agree with him. This guy is talking about bricks, I'm 'phony Yayo' and I sniff coke and smoke crack. All this delusional sh--. I don't know where [Ross] is getting it from. But you're the n---a that's a cop. I'm gonna make a movie. Don't push my back to the wall where you try to make it seem like I can't eat, or try to destroy my brand."
Like G-Unit member Lloyd Banks, Yayo says he's fed up with Interscope Records, but he still owes the label one more album. But Yayo isn't in a rush to drop an official LP ’ he's just excited about staying relevant on the mixtape circuit.
"It's all politics," the Southside Queens native said. "I never thought Interscope cared about me anyway. G-Unit the label pushed me more than Interscope."
Swine Flu comes out next week and a part two will follow shortly after.
"Me, I don't see myself going to Hollywood and doing all that acting sh--," he said. "N---as know Yayo for wilding out and all types of crazy sh--. I'm going back to my street element."
The Last Word on Ross: "This n---a got t---ies, thinking he looks better than me. He's confused. Then the n---a is on the cover [of XXL] with these fake Louis Vuitton glasses talking about swag. You gotta put that on the record. I been fly, I been doing this." Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this beef is going to end anytime soon.
Mixtape: Hottest in the Hood.Com, Volume One: Welcome to Bad Boy
Starring: Red Cafe and Diddy
Key Collaborations: Diddy as the host, with Lloyd Banks, Juelz Santana, Lorel and Busta Rhymes on the "Hottest in the Hood (Remix pt. 2)." Fabolous and Paul Cain on "We In Here." "Take Off Your Clothes."
Essential Info: Yup, we told you about this mixtape awhile ago. The Arm and Hammer Man, Red Cafe, is making moves. This mixtape not only celebrates more bread and much-needed promotion coming in with his signing to Bad Boy, but the Brooklyn bruiser has just started his own Web site. (Look at the title of the CD and we'll give you one guess what the name of it is.)
While Red serves the curbs and cooks up that Bad Boy debut, he's getting his collaboration game up on everyone from OJ Da Juiceman, Cam'ron, Maino, Jadakiss, Rick Ross and the G-Unit. Yes. The G-Unit.
"This project is star-studded," he said of his album. "I don't just grab people and put them on the record just to have a name on the record. If an artist come that I'm thinking is gonna sound good on the record and he don't sound good, even if he's five-times platinum, he can't be on that song. This is a work of art for me. Just for name, I can't have nobody come in and mess up my art. For the most part, that's how I move. I need every record to sound crazy and classic ’ or as close to classic ’ as possible."
By MTV News, Shaheem Reid, with additional reporting by Rahman Dukes
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