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Jay Electronica Says He May 'Never See The Value Of A Grammy' In Respect: Mixtape Daily Year-End Awards

Posted 12/15/10 7:00 am EST by in Mixtape Daily

Jay Electronica might be hip-hop's underground — and Erykah Badu's — darling, but he's also been chosen as our Firestarter for MTV News' Mixtape Daily Year-End Awards.

Beginning his reign on the rap Internet boards, the New Orleans MC who recently signed with Jay-Z's Roc Nation broke into the mainstream with the release of his "Exhibit C." The aforementioned track, which was proceeded by "Exhibit A," nabbed larger-than-life production from super-producer Just Blaze.

Jay recently sat down with Respect, a photo-driven hip-hop magazine, and spoke to Editor-In-Chief Elliott Wilson about the rap world and what executives, including Universal Republic's Monte Lipman, attempted to woo him onto their label rosters.

" 'Exhibit C' magnified everything. Everybody was coming at one time. Read More...

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DJ Drama Says 2010 'Was The Return Of The Mixtape': Mixtape Daily Year-End Awards

Posted 12/14/10 7:00 am EST by in Mixtape Daily

By Hillary Crosley, with reporting by Jayson Rodriguez

This year, RapFix screamed "Big Meech" while going "Hard In Da Paint" and grooving to "Kid Frankie" as we drove a "Beamer, Benz or Bentley" — OK, maybe not that last part but — frankly, we couldn't have been happier.

Now, after careful consideration, a bit of arguing and a lot of shrewd choices, the MTV News Hip-Hop Brain Trust presents our Mixtape Daily Year-End Awards for the Top Mixtape DJs of 2010. Check out MTVNews.com for the official list as well as the video at the top of this post.

RapFix is celebrating the awards with a behind-the-scenes interview with comeback kid DJ Drama about getting back into the groove — both he and the mixtape game in general — in 2010.

"Naw, I can definitely feel that in a way. It may've started like mid-last year," Drama said of people who said the DJ reign reignited recently and the tide began. "I remember even coming into 2010, the two first tapes I dropped were Cam's Boss of All Bosses 2 and I think the Yo Gotti. I remember a blog had done post like 'Gangsta Grillz is back, DJ Drama is back.' I kinda felt [like] I didn't know I went anywhere but I understand from the outside looking in." Read More...

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L.E.P Bogus Boys Say They Were 'Always Fans Of La Roux': Mixtape Daily Year-End Awards

Posted 12/13/10 8:19 pm EST by in Mixtape Daily

By D.L. Chandler, with reporting by Jayson Rodriguez

Pop group La Roux and two rappers from Chicago? The combination's not as far-fetched as you might think.

Gritty Chicago rap duo Mooney and Count aka the L.E.P Bogus Boys — fresh from having their DJ Drama-hosted mixtape Don’t Feed The Killaz, Vol 3 placed on the MTV News Mixtape Daily Year-End Awards' Top 10 Mixtapes of 2010 list — recently talked about working with buzzing electro-pop twosome La Roux on their fresh track and video "Goin’ In For The Kill."

"Well first shout out to Mega[man] who actually produced the record for us," Mooney said. "We was, always you know, a fan of La Roux, you know, we heard it. He sent it over … soon as we heard it, instantly bam, we came up with some verses for it."

Mooney also shared their visual creative process and how Hollywood films played a part in influencing the song's intense bank robbing theme. Read More...

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Big K.R.I.T. Says K.R.I.T. Wuz Here Was Almost His Swan Song: Mixtape Daily Year-End Awards

Posted 12/13/10 6:55 pm EST by in Mixtape Daily

By D.L. Chandler, with reporting by Jayson Rodriguez

Big K.R.I.T.’s critically-acclaimed debut mixtape K.R.I.T. Wuz Here was almost his last release. The soulful Mississippi rapper-producer spoke about what could've been for MTV News' Mixtape Daily Year-End Awards' Top 10 Mixtapes of 2010 list. RapFix is celebrating the awards with behind-the-scenes interviews featuring North Carolina's J.Cole, Mississippi's Big K.R.I.T. and Illinois' L.E.P Bogus Boys on the making of their award-winning projects.

"K.R.I.T. Wuz Here was almost my last hurrah, it was like the last project I was gonna put out and I was like 'Man I’m goin’ back to Mississippi," the Island Def Jam signee said. "Because it’s hard to survive, you know, independently making music and I was totally selling beats and that’s how I was making my money. It was just me giving my all, man and that’s why it was so many songs on it."

K.R.I.T. also explained briefly what drove the direction of his LP. Read More...

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J.Cole Aims To Produce More In 2011: Mixtape Daily Year-End Awards

Posted 12/13/10 5:56 pm EST by in Mixtape Daily

By Vanessa Denis, with reporting by Jayson Rodriguez

J. Cole doesn't plan on stopping his grind with recent release of his third mixtape, Friday Night Lights. With New Year's Ever just weeks away and the Roc Nation MC is already looking towards his 2011 resolutions.

"In 2011, after I release the album and the rest of the singles, I’m sure I’m gonna promote, promo on the album, promo on the run and then tour the album," J.Cole said. "I’ll probably be touring the album for a large part of the year."

The album Cole is referring to is his as-yet-untitled debut, which will be his first major label effort. But the MC has his eye on more than just earning accolades for his lyrics.

"I really want to focus on features and a large part of production — that’s gonna be my thing for 2011," the North Carolina MC said. "I feel like this mixtape opened some eyes up a little bit but this album is gonna open ‘em up even more on production level." Read More...

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Big K.R.I.T. Credits British Singer Adele With 'Hometown Hero': Mixtape Daily Year-End Awards

Posted 12/13/10 1:19 pm EST by in Mixtape Daily

By D.L. Chandler, with reporting by Jayson Rodriguez

Meridian, Mississippi MC/producer Big K.R.I.T. has become one of the most compelling rap acts of 2010 — and the MTV News Hip-Hop Brain Trust justly placed the 24 year-old rapper alongside some other notable names in the Mixtape Daily Year-End Awards' Top 10 Mixtapes of 2010 list. RapFix is celebrating the awards with behind-the-scenes interviews featuring North Carolina's J.Cole, Mississippi's Big K.R.I.T. and Illinois' L.E.P Bogus Boys on the making of their award-winning projects.

Big K.R.I.T. — which stands for King Remembered In Time — released the critically-acclaimed K.R.I.T. Wuz Here, as a free download mixtape initially. The project was so well-received that the syrupy-voiced K.R.I.T. eventually inked a deal with Island Def Jam, prompting his new label to make the freebie an actual release. On one of the album’s strongest tracks "Hometown Hero," K.R.I.T. shared with MTV News the background on how the song was created, using British vocalist Adele’s "Hometown Glory" as source material.

"Adele was introduced to me by a guitarist named Mike Hartnett that plays for a band called Rehab,"
K.R.I.T. said. "We was just riding around and he was like, 'Man have you heard this soul singer Adele?' and I was like 'Nah!' and we just rode to the whole CD and it got to 'Hometown Glory' and I was like 'Man I have to sample that!' " Read More...

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J.Cole Says Picking Songs For Friday Night Lights Was A 'Fight': Mixtape Daily Year-End Awards

Posted 12/13/10 12:22 pm EST by in Mixtape Daily

By Vanessa Denis, with reporting by Jayson Rodriguez

On November 12, J.Cole, born Jermaine Cole, released his highly-anticipated mixtape Friday Night Lights and garnered significant attention on sites like DatPiff, where he's nabbed over 120,000 downloads to-date on that site alone. MTV News chatted with the MC about Friday, which earned him a slot on the Mixtape Daily Year-End Awards for one of Top 10 Mixtapes of 2010. RapFix is celebrating the awards with behind-the-scenes interviews featuring North Carolina's J.Cole, Mississippi's Big K.R.I.T. and Illinois' L.E.P Bogus Boys on the making of their award-winning projects.

"I’m tryna make the best project I can make," J.Cole said. "Like, pick the best songs and some of those were songs where I really had to bite the bullet and sacrifice and say ‘OK, this won’t go on my album.' "

The sacrifice worked in his favor because the 22-track project included a significant amount of depth as well as diversity.

" 'Enchanted' for instance, I had to fight myself to put that out, because I knew it would make the tape better because that’s an album song," he said. Read More...

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Fabolous, J.Cole And More MTV News' Mixtape Daily Year-End Songs

Posted 12/13/10 7:15 am EST by in Mixtape Daily

By Hillary Crosley, with additional reporting by Jayson Rodriguez, Rahman Dukes, Steven Roberts and Richard Sancho

This year, RapFix screamed "Big Meech" while going "Hard In Da Paint" and grooving to "Kid Frankie" as we drove a "Beamer, Benz or Bentley" — OK, maybe not that last part but — frankly, we couldn't have been happier.

Now, after careful consideration, a bit of arguing and a lot of shrewd choices, the MTV News Hip-Hop Brain Trust presents our Mixtape Daily Year-End Award for the top mixtapes of the year and the standout cuts from each project. Enjoy!

Lloyd Banks' V5

» "Rather Be Me." "My record is gonna sound like that. How it's put together from top to bottom and ends like a movie," the Punch Line King said. "That's the route I wanna take my album. 'Rather Be Me,' is a deep record. It's one of the joints. I didn't let nobody hear it when I was recording it. I was in the zone. It felt like a movie to me. It's crazy, because a lot of people think I'm talking to somebody in particular, but it's not. It's talking to anybody that's a coward. If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. When you hear the little funny things like, 'Banks doesn't want to be G-Unit.' N---a, I am G-Unit. This [tattoo] been right here on my hand. Before anybody was signed, it was me, Tony Yayo and 50 Cent. To take that away from me is like taking away my legacy, to a certain extent. We worked too hard for somebody to tell me to drop my G-Unit." Read More...

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Fred The Godson Explains The Origin Of His Name

Posted 12/1/10 5:45 pm EST by in Mixtape Daily

By Alvin Blanco

During a trek up to The Bronx, MTV News connected with Fred the Godson, one 2010’s Hottest Breakthrough MCs. While discussing his new mixtape, Armageddon, the BX spitta also revealed how he came up with the "Godson" moniker.

Turns out Fred, who suffers from asthma, got his name after convincing his doctor that, despite his condition, he was okay to perform at a show.

"I was telling her, I said listen I got a show tonight," recalls Fred. "She was telling me No, you shouldn’t do it. Your levels is bad, you got asthma. I don’t think it’s a good idea. Read More...

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Young Chris Teams With DJ Drama And Don Cannon For Re-Introduction

Posted 12/1/10 2:55 pm EST by in Mixtape Daily

The 215 is definitely alive thanks to Young Chris’ latest mixtape offering, The Re-Introduction. The set puts DJ Drama and Don Cannon back together to cook up their classic Aphilliates flavoring throughout the 11-song collection. The pre-album, as the Young Gunz alum’s label head Rico Love calls is, is the first new music from the MC’s union with Division 1.

"My first passion is hip-hop and I want to give him the album that we both never had," Rico, a noted songwriter for the likes of Usher and Beyoncé told us. "This is like me living my dream vicariously through him. And just watching the process of me looking at guys I grew up idolizing and admiring and now I’m gunning for them. I want their spot."

Read More...

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