Grammy-award winning singer Robin Thicke is an expert at writing sensual music the ladies love. Don’t think that makes him soft though—he’s still your favorite rapper’s favorite R&B crooner. His fourth LP Sex Therapy drops on December 15th, and we think there’s a pretty good chance that keeping it in rotation will help you get laid. Seriously.
Given the theme of the album, we set out to get some sexual confessions from the man who landed the gorgeous Paula Patton, but (always the gentleman) he refused to “kiss and tell.” Instead, we got him to reveal his favorite tunes to get down to and why he thinks Nicki Minaj is a dope date. Check out the quick Q&A and watch the “Sex Therapy” video below…
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We’d like to believe Young Jeezy wasn’t speaking only of himself last summer when he proclaimed that “trappin’ ain’t dead.” We would like to think he was talking about the future generation of rappers who are going to build upon what he and other rappers like T.I. have built. We’d like to think that because one of our favorite new rappers comes from the trap: Tyrone “Pill” Rivers. You may know him as the guy who made the trap anthem of the year, “Trap Goin’ Ham” and the accompanying video which had the viewer riding through his neighborhood, and taking a peek at all that really went down (the clip was also named Complex’s #5 Internet Music Video of the Decade).
We know him as the dude who was co-signed by Andre 3000 and made one of the best mixtapes of the past year, 4180: The Prescription. But that was pretty much all we knew. To learn more, we invited Pill to the Complex offices while he was working on the follow up to 4180, 4075: The Refill (which dropped today, download link after the jump) to find out exactly who the man behind the music was. Read on to learn about how he came up, what he thinks of the rap game now and why he’d rap even if there was no money in it for him…
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Before Outkast accepted the award for Best New Rap Group amidst a sea of boo’s at the ‘95 Source Awards, no one really knew what rap music from Atlanta was supposed to sound like. Fourteen years later, and a quick listen to the radio might convince you that the only things going down in the “A” are choreographed dances and drug dealing. Twenty two year old, Jonesboro, GA native Ladonnis “Donnis” Crump wants to help change all that. Or, at least, help bring the climate back to ‘95 when you could pretty much rap about whatever you wanted as long as the music was good and the lyrics were dope.
With his 10 Deep sponsored mixtape “Diary of an Atlanta Brave” causing a major buzz in the industry, Donnis came by the Complex office to talk about why he loves New York City, how he managed to snag J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League production for free and why he didn’t sign with DJ A-Trak back in ‘07. And with New York currently in a frenzy over Jay-Z’s Blueprint 3 and his Sept 11th concert at Madison Square Garden, Donnis hit us with an exclusive freestyle over Hova’s “Run This Town”. Read on to listen to the freestyle and read the full interview below…
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Photo by Melo-X
Around 2006, New York did not have an identity. You can probably blame bitter rivalries between the city’s elder statesmen for their overall creative slump. To redefine the sound of the city, it might take a refreshing sound, like the electronica-driven sound of Europe’s dance scene, to change the tide. Enter Mickey Factz.
The Bronx-born MC began pushing the envelope by sampling forward-thinkers like N.E.R.D. Three mixtapes (Flashback, Back To The Future, and Heaven’s Fallout) later, and the 23-year-old attacked the blogosphere, releasing a new song every day this Spring with influences ranging from Portishead to The Prodigy (no, the other P). In this recent interview, Mickey puts his personal stamp on the Supra sneaker brand and talks about how he was rocking dance music influences before Kanye.
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According to Dark Man X, his life is a journey just like everyone else’s. It just so happens that we get a front row seat to his. So we get to see all the high points'like him changing the landscape of rap with his Ruff Ryders crew over a decade ago'and the low points, like him getting arrested seven times in one year.
We caught up with DMX in July while he was working on his seventh and eighth studio albums, Walk With Me Now and You’ll Fly With Me Later, to speak to him for our “Talking Heads” column in our August/September issue. Dude gave us more gems than we could fit inside the magazine, so here’s the uncut interview, where X talks about his scariest nightmares, how to evade the cops in a Ferrari and most importantly, how to dodge groupies…
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Whether or not you relate to his All-American suburbanite persona, it's been hard to ignore Asher Roth lately. After signing with Steve Rifkind’s SRC Records (home to Akon and Wu-Tang), the white boy from Morrisville, PA made a big splash last month with his Don Cannon and DJ Drama assisted mixtape The Greenhouse Effect.
His voice and punchline-heavy flow might bear some similarity to that of a certain Detroit rapper from 8 Mile, but Roth has managed to establish a unique persona with his recent remakes of Lil Wayne's “A Milli” and Jay-Z’s “Roc Boys.” We spoke with Asher while he was in Chicago en route to working with The Cool Kids. In this exclusive interview, Asher talks about growing up on Dave Matthews, impressing Jay-Z, and why he’s not worried about his suburban rap rival John Brown.
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It was a rainy night during the first week of February when ?uestlove from The Roots spoke with Complex about the band’s eigth studio album, Rising Down. That same evening, he granted Complex access to Battery Studios to get the full scope of the dark and stormy album, which finally hit stores today. ?uest had this to say about the crew’s evolution:
Between the last album and this album, I think the one thing I take for granted that I have to keep reminding myself [of] is that not everyone's an engineer. In the beginning, we were on a mission to prove to people we can be boom-bappy. We lost ourselves in terms of us wanting to prove, ‘Ahh, see, you think that's a drum machine right there don't you? Nah, nigga that's me!” So now the pendulum is swinging on the other side and we want people to know that this is us. That was the main mission of the Game Theory album. It just continues with this [album]. You truly know that it's a band.
After the jump, watch all 4 Rik Cordero-directed music videos from Rising Down.
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According to Fat Joe and Cassidy, they were all in the same hotel room when Papoose allegedly tapped Fat Joe’s chin. In Fat Joe’s interview with Big Tigger, he claimed Yo Gotti, and Gucci Mane were there too. In all the comotion, there was no mention of the whereabouts of groupies.
[Via Rapbasement]
Photo by Dirk Linder
Josh “DJ Shadow” Davis is hearing voices again. Already known for constructing mostly instrumental albums like his classic 1996 debut, Endtroducing….., Shadow is now working with vocalists from multiple genres on his third solo album, The Outsider. “[I'm doing] something different than I've done in a long time, which is embrace the vocal side of [music],” Shadow says. “I don't think I would be served at all by doing an instrumental album right now.” Shadow's reacquaintance with words has already received positive feedback. The Outsider's first single, “3 Freaks,” a Keek da Sneak and Turf Talk collaboration that marks Shadow's foray into hyphy, has been a hit on Bay Area radio since fall 2005. “I never get my music on the radio,” says the Davis, California, native. “But to hear “3 Freaks' played next to a 50 Cent song is really gratifying.” And though he stresses the diversity of this album, Shadow isn't worried about alienating longtime followers. “I think I might lose some fans,” he says. “But hearing 17-year-old kids coming out of school singing “3 Freaks'” is a lot more gratifying than listening to some 35-year-old bitch about what I'm doing and not doing on his blog.”
Interview by Thomas Golianopoulous
From the August/September 2006 issue on newsstands now
“I done been on crack; I've punched a girl out,” tells Young Dro. “One girl just met me and I paid all her notes and stuff!”
For the record, these were merely ludicrous rumors. Fittingly, Djuan “Young Dro” Hart addresses the illegitimate gossipmongers on “Don't Believe That Shit,” a Spanish-guitar-laced backhander off his debut, The Best Thang Smokin' (Grand Hustle/Atlantic).
Although Dro, born 27 good years ago in Bankhead, Atlanta, has far from reaped the commercial success of his patna' of 12 years and label honcho, T.I., the dark-skinned, agile, and flamboyant rapper is very much a bona fide star'and there's a price to pay for glistening that hard.
Not that Dro worries about hype or innuendo. He's refreshingly modest, a keen listener, and most impressively, he isn't the least bit shook to be funny. “I'm very jokeable,” he explains. “But in actuality, I use that to let you know I'm serious. Like I once told a girl: 'You keep laughing at me; I'mma laugh you right outta your panties!' And sex is not laughable.”
Equally not laughable is Dro's spit game. Articulate and charismatic to a fault, his debut showpiece is abundantly littered with rhymes and flows that are as callous as they are gracious. Over the machine-gun lazy bounce of “Gangsta Shit,” Dro strong-arms phrases and clauses just because he can. And even on the swagger-ridden, radio-friendly first single, “Shoulder Lean,” his cadence is exceptional; it's all in the way he manipulates his voice and tone.
Equally fascinating is how much ground the self-proclaimed Cartier boy's motley rap style covers. For as much as he loves Raekwon, Biggie, and 'Pac, he also idolizes Goo Goo Dolls, Staind, and Vanessa Carlton. Additionally he's a fan of mere mortals. You've just got to see him say it in his earnest, prosaic style: “I like people in general. I live for people; I live to see people live.”
By Omar Dubois
Photo by Tina Greenberg
