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…

Interview by Soo-Young Kim

Complex: Your new album is called Sex Therapy. Have you ever had a bad sexual experience you needed therapy from? Maybe when you lost your virginity?

Robin Thicke: [Laughs] I’m gonna skip that one. What else?

Complex: Alright. What are your favorite slow jams for getting busy?

Robin Thicke: “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye. “Adore” by Prince. There’s the “Bump N’ Grind Remix,” R. Kelly. “I’m Fucking You Tonight” by R. Kelly and Biggie is a good one. [Laughs]

Complex: [Laughs]

Robin Thicke: Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together.” And I do that song in concert. So what else are we missing? Oh, let’s say D’Angelo’s “Brown Sugar.”

Complex: Those are classics. And are you sure you don’t have any amusing stories of the best—or worst—sex you’ve ever had?

Robin Thicke: A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell! These are wild questions. [Laughs]

Complex: Nicki Minaj is featured on your record, “Shakin’ It For Daddy” and you lend a verse on Leighton Meester’s “Somebody to Love.” If you were a single man and you had to pick one of these girls to take on a date, who would it be?

Robin Thicke: I’d have to go with Nicki Minaj. I like the way she raps.

WATCH THE VIDEO: “Sex Therapy”

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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…

DOWNLOAD PILL’S NEW MIXTAPE 4075: The Refill HERE.

Interview by Damien Scott

Complex: Everyone knows you’re from Atlanta, what part do you hail from?

Pill: I’m from the West Side of Atlanta. But Zone 3, Zone 4, Zone 1, Thomasville—I still got my Thomasville I.D. if you wanna see it.

Complex: What’s Thomasville like?

Pill: That’s the projects. I done stayed in Thomasville, I done stayed in Edgewood. So when I say I’m from Atlanta, I’m from all the gutta parts of Atlanta. I done stayed in Kimberly Courts, I done stayed at Adamsville. I been here and there all my life, you feel me? It’s great to receive the attention that I’m receiving and be able to show people the whole point of the visual, because of the simple fact that there’s a lot of people talking but ain’t really walking. For me to be able to give that visual meant a lot. To the people that were in it, it kind of uplifts them in a certain way because it’s kind of like, “Damn, somebody that’s really from here is doing something!”

Complex: As opposed to some people who just shout it out…

Pill: A lot of these guys say they’re from them places but they really ain’t from there. I ain’t ever seen them [Laughs]. And I’m from everywhere. I ain’t ever seen ‘em, at all. A few of them, a few of them cats I could vouch for that’s out the A, but a few of them I can’t.

Complex: Why did you move around so much when you were younger?

Pill: Honestly speaking, my mother was addicted to drugs. I would say from the time I was seven years old until the time she passed. May she rest in peace. She passed two years ago, I found her in Thomasville Apartments. I mean, I was always at an auntie’s house, I done stayed with a teacher, a brother, a cousin, a friend, a girl—I was always with someone. Then, you know, being in the trap and shit and traveling all your life, you really can’t get your own spot down there, so it’s like, it’s just kinda what happened…

Complex: You were bouncing around Atlanta from such a young age. When do you start selling drugs?

Pill: I went back and forth with it in my teenage years and got a little more deep in it when I got to 18, 19. I started out selling green and what not. That was just to keep a little money in my pocket, keep some fresh shoes on my feet, get fresh for the girls—for the fly ladies and what not. I know by the time I was 10 or 11, I was already smoking, already rollin’ blunts [laughs]. I was already rollin’ up like I still remember me and Lil’ Terry, Cut Throat, and I think Tre Bo’. That was the first I really hit some weed.

Complex: [Laughs]

Pill: [Laughs] A little bit after that, I started doing this thing: we used to walk around with a little sheet of paper saying we were collecting the money for the football team for a trip to Disney World—but we were hustling though [Laughs]. Of course we were scheming, but we couldn’t get no jobs at the age, so we had to put money in our pockets. That moved on to the green and the green kind of finagled into the—of course I graduated high school though, through out all of this. I was one of the first males in my family, well, actually the first male in my family to graduate high school.

After high school it got a little more heavy. I started to really see that I could make some money. My cousins were already serving yay then, but I just wanted to rap and do all that shit but they was like, “Shit, man, you need some money in your pocket.” So I ain’t have no choice. There was a time when I went straight from the studio, straight back to the trap. From the trap to the after party. I actually left from the trap to come up here, you feel me? Sometimes that’s the only place I got to go, to be honest with you, and it’s instilled in me. I gotta get away from it, of course, and I’ve been distancing myself from it because of the simple fact that I know it can be detrimental to my career. So I’ve been distancing myself from it, trying to become a better person and to teach other people not to do it, and telling them little young niggas in the hood not to do it. But, it is what it is.

Complex: At one point did you make the decision to pursue rap full time?

Pill: Probably last year.

Complex: Last year?

Pill: Probably last year or the year before that because I was still making good money in like ‘06 or ‘07 and I wasn’t spending that shit. But you know I started out rapping with Killer Mike in high school. I was on a few mixtapes with him and what not but like, say 2006, P. City was doing numbers! I’m talking about that thing was going ham sandwich—that shit was Trill! Like, bank rolls bustin’ out your pockets, we call them thigh pads. You can’t even keep it in your pocket it used to be so hard. That in itself was an addiction. Making fast money, you can go blow a thousand dollars, still make all of it back, still have money in your pockets, get fresh all week, and go make it rain. Pop bottles and all that, get in a fight and do it all again in that weekend. That used to be so fascinating to a lot of people, but to us that was just regular life. That’s just what it is, it ain’t like, “Yeah, that’s what I want to do when I grow up!” [Laughs]. You know what I’m saying? That’s what it was, nigga, that shit just was us.

Complex: Like, “I wanna grow up to be a drug dealer.” [Laughs]

Pill: Exactly like, “I can’t wait,” or raise your hand in class and be like, “I wanna sell drugs when I grow up!” [Laughs] A nigga was a victim of circumstance, that’s everybody. When you in that shit, family members done did it, everybody done did it. You know, it’s in you. You’ve been around it since you were a child. You probably held peoples bombs when you was a child or were the look out man, or did this, that, and the third, but there was always a way to make some money on the streets. It might not have always been right but when you can’t get no god damned job or when you dropped out of school…

Complex: It seems to be the only option.

Pill: A lot of people that decide they want to drop out of school probably don’t want to do shit else with their life. And I felt myself going down that same path at one point so I was like, “Man, what the fuck I’m doing?” I gotta posses some sort of talent, I gotta believe in myself some kind of way. So I need to tighten my belt up and tie my shoes a little tight and go on and go for it. And it turned out pretty good for me, you know what I mean? It’s overwhelming to me. I just want to thank everybody for fucking with me ’cause it’s surreal to me right now, man. I try to remain calm although I’m very excited on the inside. People are always like “You ain’t that excited! You ain’t that excited! How you feel? You just made the New York Times! You just did this!” I be like, you know, it is what it is, man, I’m cool.

Complex: So you said you were rapping while trapping, when did you start jotting down rhymes?

Pill: I was writing raps when I was in Kindergarden, it was always in me. I remember my first rap, that shit was like “My name is Slick Tie, I like to rap. I rap on the microphone and talk my crap. I be on time, on the line. When I’m on the microphone I start smoking the dimes. ‘Cause I’m the king of kings and I’m the cool of coolest. Step up to me? You must be foolish. Got a nine in the front and the gat in the back. Yeah, I’m a true mac.” [Laughs] Shit that was when I was five years old! That shit sounds better than a lot of the bullshit that’s out now! You can call my old elementary school teacher from when I was like in third grade because I always remember that. She used to make me recite that in front of the class, so I was always performing as a youngster. I was always on stage a youngster, like talent shows and shit like that. Playing an instrument or doing poetry. I wrote poetry, too. I played the trumpet, I wrote poetry, I played football, baseball, basketball, I drew. I did everything, nigga.

Complex: A true renaissance man.

Pill: You feel me? [Laughs] I did everything! Slung, hung, skateboarded! Nah, I ain’t really skateboard, but I tried and I skimmed my fucking self in all types of ways. I just wanted to do everything because the lifestyle I was leading as a child, I was already… I shot a pistol when I was five.

Complex: Why?

Pill: ‘Cause I was in the ‘jects. I was staying in Kimberly Courts. They were robbing people on the bus, they were robbing the ice cream truck. You couldn’t walk down the streets of Kimberly Court with out somebody taking something from you. They were finding bodies in the woods. I still remember jumping in the bushes from bullets—me and my momma. You had to learn how to pick up a pistol as a child, in case you had to use it. A lot of people is like, “I’ve been trapping and shooting pistols since I stood four feet.” Well I’ve been trapping and shooting pistols since I stood like, three feet [Laughs]. I was just spitting Tip ’cause I know he dead ass and seen it too, ’cause he was in that same lifestyle. So as a youngster it’s kind of how they do it overseas, you take the boy out to the woods and teach him how to shoot a rifle. But when it’s with us, people say, “Oh, that’s messed up!” But he needs to know, and I needed to know.

Complex: What happened the first time you shot a gun?

Pill: I shot a .40 when I was five years old. I asked my brother if I could see and he let me see it. He probably didn’t think I knew what to do with it like, “This little nigga don’t know what he doing. He probably ain’t even strong enough to pull the trigger.” I leaned up against the wall and BAH-POW! Of course it threw me back against the wall and the adrenaline rushed and I was like, “Oh, I wanna shoot it again! C’mon!” He was like, “Boy, get your ass in there, you not supposed to do that shit!” [Laughs].

Complex: How did your friends and family react when you told them you wanted to focus on rapping?

Pill: They gave me a little flack at first but then they started to embrace me a little bit more because they started seeing the older cats were like, “Stay on what you’re doing, that shit’s good.” ‘Cause I started performing right in the trap, at this place called The Ham. You know, “Trap Goin’ Ham,” all that shit. So that was the first time I did that and I brought back to the hood and they were like “Yeah!” I incorporated a few of my peoples names into my raps ’cause of my problems and niggas started to get behind me. They started to come to my shows and it made me feel good because at first they were like, “Aw, this nigga ain’t trap no more, that nigga want to rap! He don’t want to get money no more!” I was still around though ’cause that was the only place I had to go at the time, so of course I would still pick some up or chop something up or drop something off, just to keep some money in my pocket. But I had to make sure that my goal was in sight. I had to make sure there was a bigger picture and that I could be a better man than I was being. Once I brought the CD to the ‘hood, they were like, “Oh shit, that boy Psych! That boy Psych finna’ blow up!”

Complex: Psych?

Pill: They call me Psych in the hood. It’s short for Psycho.

Complex: Where’d the name Pill come from?

Pill: Pill came from football. And I just finagled it into the medicine because as I started to get more serious with the rapping, I was like “Okay, Pill the medicine. I’m the cure for rap cancer.” I was saying that years ago. First it came from football. Julian DeMario Johnson gave me that name. Him and Jamal Johnson. Lil’ Mario, we used to call him, he died in an accident, years ago. I scored a few touchdowns and Jamal would be like, “Oh, here’s the Pill!” ‘Cause that was his name for the football. Like throw me the pill, pass the pill.

Complex: Your first mixtape, 4180: The Prescription, is what got everyone interested in you. How did that tape come about?

Pill: I just basically made sure I had a bunch of tight ass beats. I knew I had to get some classic shit that people ain’t heard in a minute, I had to get some shit that everybody ain’t rapping on, and I probably had to get one or two of the hottest songs on the radio. I wanted to make sure I did me. I didn’t want to compromise my creativity by just trying to put out a bunch of shit that’s on the radio or a bunch of shit that I think people might like. I did what I think I might like. I ain’t record in no big time studio or no shit like that. I recorded that shit in a basement. I just had a tight ass engineer with some expensive equipment and we set up the studio in the basement. He had a nice studio in his spot but his spot got broken into. So I was like, “Damn that just fucked up my studio!” So we had to bring him from Alabama, a guy by the name of Scrag Lee with grade A music. He actually produced “Trap goin’ Ham”, thats why you hear “Grade A on the beat”. We brought him from Alabama, set up shop, went in, non-stop.

Complex: One thing I liked about the mixtape was your sense of remorse about the trap life. It’s not glamorized or glorified…

Pill: That’s something I do anyway because I don’t want the other kids to follow in my footsteps. There’s a lot of young kids that look up to rappers and I’m starting to realize that kids are going to be listening to me. Of course I’m going to talk about what I talk about but I’m going to find a way to stick a message in there. I am going to talk about the trap and I am going to talk about the struggle and I’m also going to talk about how we need help and I’m also going to let people know that it’s fucked up out here. It’s ugly. Ain’t really much money for not many people, in whatever profession they have. I just want to uplift the people, man, I wanna be the sound track to their lives. I want to be able to make the people feel like they were right there with me when I was going through it and so they can have better judgment on the decisions they make coming up, whether it be adults or kids, young and old, whoever the listener is, I want to make sure that they can take something from my music and apply it their everyday life.

That’s why I made sure in that mixtape I incorporated all types of beats to show people my versatility on each type of beat so they won’t try to put me in this box of “just some nigga that sold dope and rapping about it.” I’m trying to enlighten some people about the shit that’s going on and that we need help out here and it’s fucked up cause they tearin’ the projects down. I got some new shit I just did with ILLFONICS about my mama. She passed away and it took a lot for me to write that song. I want people to get in my mind. Walk down those same streets I walked down or stand in front of the same stores I stood in front of or running from the police—I want them to feel like they’re running, so it can be exciting. It can make you laugh and it can make you cry. I want it to be timeless music. When I do it, that’s not even something I think about. It’s something takes a hold of me and it just comes out. If that’s what comes out then I’m glad.

Complex: You have a very intricate rhyme style, who were your rap influences?

Pill: Of course Tupac. Of course Biggie. Jay-Z, he was always real fly with it, a fresh kind of dude. Then you got Raekwon, Redman, Method Man.

Complex: A lot of New York dudes…

Pill: A lot of New York rappers and what not but then again you have OutKast, who were god damn huge to me. To hear OutKast, to hear Cee-Lo, to hear MJG, to hear Devin the Dude, Too Short, to hear Scarface. I listen to everything. I had the Fat Joe tape when he was still with Tommy Boy and they had the little characters on the back. Whatever was poppin’ at the time, whatever was good. I can’t even front like I was always listening to gangsta’ shit. I mean I took a liking to Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek. I remember when Talib and Hi-Tek had that video in the rain and shit, you remember that shit? Of course Common was the shit, I still remember his beef with Ice Cube. I listened to Cube, N.W.A. was always the greatest. I remember I thought Eazy-E was the coolest motherfucker walking the earth and I wanted them shades! I really got a Jheri curl when I was a child. Seeing that and being able to remember that music is good because that’s when real rap was real rap. Now you got a lot of bright colors.

Complex: What’s real rap to you?

Pill: Real rap is talking about what you’ve been through. Real rap is personifying your experiences as a person and throughout life. If you can’t personify the truth, you’re not making real rap. That’s just shit that entertains the people, that’s just entertainment. Real rap is when you can really talk about some shit that really went down.

Complex: Do you feel like rap is full of entertainers now?

Pill: Yeah a lot of them are just entertainers basically. I mean no disrespect to nobody. Get your money and it is entertainment at the end of the day but damn what happened to it being art in its truest form? That’s what hip-hop used to be. You rapped about what you just did down the street. I remember seeing old tapes of shit where they were just beat boxing and shit and I was like, “That’s what I want to do!” So I automatically started rhyming. I automatically started battling when I was a child. I remember I was in a little group back when I was in first, and second grade and it was like you had to have the the tighter group.

Complex: Talk to me about your creative process. When you write a song do you actually write it out or do you keep it all in your head?

Pill: No, I write. I’m not one of them guys that be like, “Oh, I ain’t write this by the way” or “Yeah, I come off the top!” I freestyle too but I respect the art form, you feel me? I’m a writer. I could be on the train, I got to pull my note pad out. If I hear some shit in my head, I got to write it down.

Complex: What can people expect from the new mixtape?

Pill: I’m going to show that I’m growing at least a little but I don’t want to stray from the formula at all. That’s what people like, so that’s what I want to give the people. I just want to keep people jamming. I’m not going to be one of these guys who is like, “Fuck this shit! I ain’t got no Rolls Royce!” or “I ain’t got no Lamborghini! I’m mad as hell!” That’s not why I do it, I do it for the love. I’d be doing this shit if I ain’t have a dollar or if it weren’t profitable to me. A lot of niggas are claiming they’re making a bunch of money, but they ain’t off of that music shit right now because it’s ugly. Tapes ain’t selling like that. Imagine what type of loss I’m taking and I’m giving away these CDs for free! ‘Cause it’s all about the music. If people can’t hear it then what the fuck are you doing it for? If you’re just doing it for the money, then what the fuck are you doing it for? Straight up, of course I want a lot of money, to live comfortably but that’s not why I’m doing it. I got people that’s on my back right now. Family members that need me right now, homeboys that need me right now. It’s a lot of people that depend on me right now. That’s probably the only reason why I feel like I need money right now, but other then that, if I was just already straight or already rich, I wouldn’t give a damn. I’d do all free shows. But a lot of people just do it for the money and that ain’t good, man. That’s why I think the music went down with in the past couple of years. I don’t want to be solely responsible for it but I want to be credited with bringing this shit back to what it was, real music, real hip-hop.

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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…

EXCLUSIVE: Donnis “Run This Town Freestyle”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Interview by Damien Scott

Complex: So, your mixtape got a pretty good response considering no one knew who you were. Did that make you nervous at all?

Donnis: I don’t even take that as a bad thing. It’s cool. The track “Underdog” explains everything. Kinda where I was at in my mind frame. I lived in Tokyo for two and half years so I was on streetwear before. I was in line with Japanese kids trying to buy Bape. When I came back home my whole mind frame was different. I loved the dance music they were on but when I came home it wasn’t the cool thing to do. So I was like, well, what the hell to do next? So I just put myself in the closet and just wrote, wrote, wrote and built my relationships. And I was like, Alright, I’m going to do what the hell I think should be doing next.

Complex: Tokyo? Let’s take it back a little bit. When did you first start rapping?

Donnis: Kriss Kross’, “Jump Jump,” I was like…hell yeah! I’m not going to lie to anybody. [laughs]

Complex: [Laughs]

Donnis: It kinda just started there, man, and I just kept growing a love for it. I’m from the south so you know the bass music, then after the bass music we really just started to establish ourselves with TLC, Outkast and the entire Dungeon Family. I watched my city just really put on for itself. From there I was living like in what people would consider slums. We moved out to the ‘burbs, I was a regular kid who was in love with fashion and music and it just was…you know school just wasn’t the first priority. I had to make a choice so I went into the military. I went into the military did my two and a half years in Tokyo and then did my time in Denver.

Complex: You went to Tokyo with the Army?

Donnis: Yeah, through the military. The funny thing about it was everybody here was like, “Tokyo, wow!” and I was like, “Hell no!” I put Virginia and shit, I was trying to stay close to home [laughs], but I got out there and for the first few months I was just like “Yo, this is so shitty” and then I was like, You know what? Lets just make the best of it. And I just started making music out there…

Complex: How did that work? Who were you rapping with out in Tokyo?

Donnis: There were other kids in the military, so there was the older guy which is my dude D-Focus who did who did “Over Do It”?. He was doing his thing and his career and I was like, Well, there’s nothing else to do, lets just go ahead and make these records. So I spent everyday making records, then on the weekends–I’m only 19 so you know I’m getting drunk as hell you know on the weekends [laughs]. Basically me and him just came together and we were working, working, working. I was doing shows around the base. I was living in an area called Fussa, which is about 30 minutes outside of Tokyo, so I would do shows around there, around the clubs around bases. And then promoters just started hearing about me just like if you were rocking out here. I got asked to an area called Reppongi which is in Tokyo, then I did a show at a spot called the Warehouse out there and from there it just kinda got stupid. I hooked up with DJ Master Key, that was my partner in crime, and he would just take me everywhere to like the biggest clubs, and I would just open for him.

Complex: So you were underground in over in Tokyo. Did you meet any other artists out there?

Donnis: Yeah, that’s when other artists start coming. T.I starts coming over there and everybody else and I would open for them. Then it was like, I had to make a decision. By that time I was like, I’m in love with Tokyo, I don’t really want to leave. I had to make a decision: do you want to do music for real in the states? You could only go so far if you don’t speak Japanese [laughs]. You’re going to be that stupid kid speaking English [laughs]. Everywhere you go around the world, once America stamps it you know everybody else is going to stamp it. I just had to make the decision, so I was like, Forget it, I’m leaving. So then I came back to the states, did my thing in Denver, finished my time and then shot out to New York. I stayed out here for about a year then just kinda grinded it out. I kinda explained it best on “Underdog,” A-Track offered me the contract and I was like Nah, so he was like, Aight and kinda went with Cudi and Cudi blew up and it was like that’s when I kinda went into the dungeon.

Complex: How’d you meet up with A-Trak?

Donnis: I met A-Trak in my second week out here. He heard “Party Works” on my MySpace page and he called me while I was in the military. I was in Denver and I had like a month left and he was like “Yo this is crazy!” I knew who A-Trak is but I was like, You’re stupid, there’s big labels, I’m not listening to you. Then we just built a relationship and I kinda saw what he was up to and what he was doing. He kinda explained everything to me and we just kept an open relationship and we were always trying to make something work.

Complex: Why didn’t it work?

Donnis: It didn’t work because at the time I was under a different management team than I am now and I didn’t see the build that it takes. I’m still thinking, at the time, that you just go into a record label, they like you and sign you. They could think you’re super talented but they don’t care unless everybody else cares. So I kept doing that, and at the time I just was pushing the “Party Works” single that they wanted. At the time I was tired of the single, he was tired of the single.

Complex: How soon after you passed did he sign Cudi?

Donnis: He had already signed Cudi. He asked me in November of that year around Thanksgiving. They were still in talks with Cudi and they had just signed him or whatever. From there we just kept our relationship. I just kept going and looking and then I found nothing was happening so I ran back home. I was like, You know what? I didn’t get nothing so I went home and I just started working, man. I’ve been working on this mixtape since last November. I just worked and worked and worked and was looking for a sound that was still me and so I could tell my story and people could quit being like, “Oh all kids who are fashionable are hipsters.” It’s just something that I really wanted to fight, it’s not a derogatory term but you can’t just put a bunch of people in one group because I don’t sound anything like Cudi, who doesn’t sound anything like Mickey Factz, who doesn’t sound anything like Hollyweird. It was just like me kinda wanting to go in and show the people I could really rap and that I wasn’t all just about dancing and partying which is what they thought. I look at me not doing the deal at the time as a blessing in disguise because there was a lot of work to do still, I would have hated to come out with the ill party song and not been able to back it up as a real MC.

Complex: So now you’re back in Atlanta…

Donnis: I’m in Atlanta and I’m recording my ass off I’m rapping over every beat I could possibly rap over.

Complex: Are you making connections? Are people sending you beats?

Donnis: I’m online and I have a production crew I’m really cool with, they’re still my boys called the Track-Aholics and they would send me beats. It was like I’m writing and writing and we’re just really trying to develop the style really to make sure that we could compete with radio and still get that respect. So we’re working on it working on it song after song. I came up with the idea to do what I call “Snack Packs.” I don’t want to just throw a mixtape out there and it gets over looked. So we start with snack packs which is going to be a song and a video. First one, “Blueprint”, got a good response, bloggers start putting it up and stuff second one was “Watch for the Hook” and the third one was the “Claremont Lounge” one we did.

Complex: Were you meeting any big name producers?

Donnis: At this time I got a call from a girl. When people call you for shows you don’t go sit down and have coffee with them you just go do it. But she was like “Yo, I’m at Starbucks you should come by.” So I was like, OK. She happened to be really good friends with Kenny Bartolomei who is part of the J.U.S.T.I.C.E League. I didn’t know who he was at the time, she brought him to the club that night, we was just partying, “Party Works” happened to go off in the club and everybody was just like, “Donnis, yeah!” He heard it and he was like “Yo, you should come by the studio.” That’s kinda how this project really started, I blew up his phone a million times, we got into the studio together, he played me stuff and then I really found my love for music again. I found the sound that I was looking for. So along with them I just sent in different songs to different people and they were like we see it, we feel like you got it. I went and sat down with Needlez I played him a bunch of stuff and Needlez was like I believe it, I think you got something. They believed in me. I went to underground producers because who am I still? I’m just a kid trying to get it poppin’. 10 Deep saw one of the Snack Packs, they saw one of the videos and then they believed. Then we started playing them a bunch of music, they were like, “We see what you’re doing, we’re willing to take a chance.” They took a chance on me like not knowing how other people would react to a mixtape that wasn’t really a mixtape it was more like an album. I didn’t rap over anybody else’s beats, they were beats specifically made for me or just given to me. It’s just a bunch of people taking chances and I guess it’s kind working out.

Complex: How was it working with the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League?

Donnis: They’re good dudes. Kenny told me when he heard my stuff: “I believe it, I just want to play it for the guys.” They heard it and I guess they were impressed and they were like, “Well, lets do it.” They had me come over and they would just play me stuff. I’m like one of the only people to get free beats from them with the exception of Drake. So they believed in it that much that they thought that it could go. I guess so far, so good. Now I’m getting to sit down with you guys [Laughs].

Complex: You keep talking about forming this “sound.” How would you describe your sound?

Donnis: I feel like I kind of got my own lane, but I think I if you mix T.I., Andre3000, Hov and Kanye you kinda get who I am. And I’m a huge fan of all of those artists, I grew up on a little bit of all them. It’s kinda like when you mix that all together, man, at the end of the day I feel like that whole theme is just kind of a story for me at least this is kinda just chapter one, where I’m the underdog, and a lot of people just didn’t believe and shutting doors on me. You’re like, Can we get a meeting? And people cancel on him and shit like that, so now we get to be the ones like, We got something to do so we’ll catch you later. This is part one of the story.

Complex: Over the past couple years, the most popular music coming out of Atlanta has been snap or trap rap. Was it hard for you to break through that?

Donnis: I’m trying to open the door for Atlanta right now. Because in Atlanta it’s really hard to get on the radio unless you’re in the trap or you got a dance, it’s just really hard. Unless you combine the two then you run radio, “I’m slangin, I’m slangin!” [laughs]

Complex: [Laughs]

Donnis: It’s really hard, I love my city, man. There are so many people doing something different in Atlanta that’s not that. But you don’t get a chance to see them. I had to leave home to be able to shine a little bit, I still got to go home and have my spokespeople such as DJ Jelly and all those cats down there be like “Yo, you need to listen to this because this is what’s good” or whatever. Because Jelly heard “Party Works” and “Dope Girl”, some old records of mine and he was like “Yo this is hot, what’s going on?” and I was like “I’m on the next plane home.” Because Jelly broke Outkast and like he’s that guy. For him to tell me it’s hot it’s like, OK something can happen with this here. I really just had to leave home for to make it happen. I’m putting it on my back so I can put on EMB and Hollyweird who don’t have a dance, they’re not in the trap. They just got a story to tell. Just take it back to what Atlanta use to be. With Outkast and Ghetto Mafia and these other people who wanted to just really spit because they had to keep up with Wu Tang and all them other people. It’s like Atlanta got so big that Atlanta stopped caring about competing with everybody else and was just like, You know what? We gonna do what we want to do. And you know what? We want to dance, we want to sell drugs [ laughs]. It’s like we can still have hip-hop down south. There are some people who do the trap thing that I’m not even mad at. I’m a huge Jeezy fan, I’m a huge T.I. fan, I’m a fan of Pill who is up and coming. Pill is the official spokesperson for the trap if you want to ask me. When’s the last time you seen someone in a video really cooking crack? It’s just amazing to me. He got like a regular girls pussy poppin in the video, [laughs]. I mean there’s people who are really doing it then there’s people who are just imitations and people playing games and people who don’t need to be rapping they’re just rapping because it looks fun on TV.

Complex: I heard you say earlier that you want to move up here from Atlanta. What’s good? Why leave Atlanta?

Donnis: I know Atlanta, I love my city. I love it up here. I’m a huge fan of restaurants and… don’t get it messed up, ain’t nothing up here messing with Waffle House [laughs], but I’m just a huge fan of culture and I just want to expand. There just so much going on out here as far as different communities. Y’all going to think I’m crazy. But being down in Atlanta I didn’t know about Orthodox Judaism. I came up here and I was like, What is this? What’s going on? I’m serious, man, I’m from Atlanta. Check out the Snack Pack video and y’all will see where I’m from. I got the one lane bridge [laughs] I didn’t know. I didn’t know how to use a Metro Card and all that. For me it was just crazy dude. It’s like I need to expand some more. I’m learning everyday. The more I’m up here, the more I travel, the more I learn, the more I get to talk about.

Complex: Makes sense.

Donnis: I just got to get away from home. I’ve been in Atlanta my whole life so why not try something different? After New York, you may catch me in Paris or something. It’s all about learning, traveling and experiencing. If you watch the Snack Pack, and you watch the first one I did over “The Blueprint” that’s literally two minutes from my house. I live where there’s fucking train tracks, cows and a one lane bridge. Anywhere we want to go it’s 15 minutes down the road. That’s where I’m from. For me I kind of have to travel and bring it back home and put everybody on and so on and so on. I think I’m up on shit enough to be able to do that.

Complex: You spoke about Cudi earlier. Do you have a relationship with any of the “new generation” of rappers?

Donnis: I feel like our new movement is just a bunch of crabs in a barrel and everybody is just looking out for themselves. For the sake of hip-hop, dude, I’m down. I don’t know Drake individually, me and Cudi had a really good relationship before everything popped off. I just seen him in the street the other day and he congratulated me, so it’s all love if we can take hip-hop to the next generation and make them want to do it and do it properly then lets go.

Complex: You’re currently unsigned, what would your ideal label situation be?

Donnis: I have no problems with majors. It’s just that the right situation has to be the right situation. Real talk, I’ve been broke this long so I think I could wait a few more months. I’m not bugging out. My whole plan was to make them call me and not me call them. Because when you call them they don’t want to answer. So you got to give them a hard time. It’s just a fucked up game the way it is right now. I’m so blessed to be breaking through right now because, how do you break through now? It took a clothing line to make people recognize me, you know what I mean? So the next kid that doesn’t have that opportunity what is he suppose to do? It’s really hard to break through right now. You just have to keep dreaming and keep pushing and take those right opportunities. I can’t express that enough. It’s crazy. A clothing line has broken like the last two or three rappers. The one rapper who didn’t break through the clothing line was already rich! [laughs] So I don’t know how they do this any more. shit is crazy, it’s real crazy.

RELATED: Download Donnis’ “Diary of an Atlanta Brave” Mixtape!

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.

Interview by Richard “DJ Treats” Dryden

Complex: When did you start rapping over electronica-driven beats?

Mickey Factz: As of 2006, we just got bored. We sampled N.E.R.D and In Search Of… and we wanted to do something different from the jump. We felt that music was just going in the same direction'nobody was trying to be innovative. Then after that, I wanted to personally do Flashback, which was rapping over all old school beats, but we wanted to revitalize the beats behind it and Precize mixed some of the beats over. He did maybe 65 to 70% of the music over, and he made it sound more futuresque which was leading up to Heaven’s Fallout.

Complex: So were you familiar with the music, or were you an actual fan of it?

Mickey Factz: I was familiar with it 'cause I grew up on hip-hop, I grew up on Pun, I grew up on R&B, I grew up on gospel. That's the foundation. Most kids my age grew up on those three things. In the midst of Flashback, I did some records that were very weird to my ears 'cause I was listening to alternative and electro and house and stuff but I wasn't into it. Once we started to record for [Heaven's] Fall Out, I just fell into that whole scene.

Complex: Where does gospel come into play?

Mickey Factz: Gospel cause your parents made you, hip-hop cause you wanted to rebel and R&B 'cause you wanted to get a girl. Summer of '07, I personally knew this is stuff that nobody is going to rap over. Truth be told, we were recording this before Graduation. We did those before Kanye put them out.

Complex: So you feel that now this is a sound that you own?

Mickey Factz: Right. This is a sound that I created with GFCnewyork, with Precize. We've made a sound that is very hard to duplicate because we've done it so well, to the point that now we're trying to make a newer sound. Now as you see, people are starting to sample MIA, Santogold and things of that nature, but you know GFCnewyork will always be ahead of the curve. We've got a couple of tricks up our sleeve when it comes to the next couple of releases.

Complex: Where do you stand in terms of your perception the artists and DJ's of that world, and collaborations with them?

Mickey Factz: I would love it more than I would like to collaborate with U.S. artists. I want to be a global artist so if these artists from China and Japan and Europe or Australia, if they want to collaborate, I'm more than willing to do it because my music will then be spread out through their region, and they'll be like, 'Wow this guy's already been doing it, this guy seems more authentic.'

Complex: Right, rather than being on some name-dropping shit.

Mickey Factz: Exactly. We wanted to have a grassroots following in Europe and Asia and Australia. Before we even dropped music we were touring these places.

Hit “NEXT” to find out if Mickey feels like an outcast in the Bronx, and why he’s crowning himself the Supra king.

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…

Interview by Damien Scott

Complex: What's the scariest nightmare you've ever had?

DMX: Somebody dropped me off in the middle of the ocean. You got about 15 minutes to realize you're dying, you know, just struggling the whole time. Wasn't cool at all.

Complex: Was it a reoccurring dream?

DMX: No, the reoccurring dream is the journey.

Complex: The journey?

DMX: Yeah, like how with video games, you clear each board and you go onto the next one? My dreams are like that. But I've had the same board. Like, I was dreaming about this board three times, you know? It's a journey. When I move on, when I walk out of the picture, a new board appears. And each board has a challenge. I think it's symbolic of my life.

Complex: Damn. On to a lighter subject. What TV shows do you always TiVo?

DMX: South Park. All time favorite TV show ever. I'm the biggest South Park fan in the world. And I'll fight anybody who tells me different than that.

Complex: What's your favorite episode?

DMX: The one with Paris Hilton. Everytime she coughed, she'd cough up cum [Laughs].

Complex: [Laughs.] One of the best. What's your favorite body part on a woman?

DMX: Well, it would have to be the coochie.

Complex: Over titties and ass?

DMX: Yeah, I like ass. But you don't fuck ass though. It's the pussy. Therefore, it gotta be the pussy, know what I mean?

Complex: Touche. What are your top three songs to have sex to?

DMX: I don't even listen to music when I'm fuckin'. I don't have sex. I fuck. You know, when you fuck, there's nothing to focus in on but just fuckin'. There's no song to get you in the mood, there's no rhythm you have to listen to. It's just straight fuckin'. You know what I'm saying? Toss, catch, fuck. Roll over, catch, fuck, you know what I'm saying?

Complex: The toss and catch is kinda extra, but yeah, I feel you. When you were younger, what was the most embarrassing thing to happen to you in school?

DMX: I was a problem in school. I didn't really get embarrassed in school…. It was picture day and I had on a sky blue and white plaid suit with the black elevator shoes and a red stripe down the side.

Complex: And that was embarrassing?

DMX: Yeah, kind of. Because everybody else was dressed like, nicely. And I looked like a fuckin' throwback.

Complex: Well, that's not too embarrassing. Were there any dreams you had as a kid that you wished you pursued?

DMX: There really wasn't any'I wasn't like a kid without a purpose or a plan or anything, but I wanted to do it all. I wanted to be a fireman. I wanted to be a lawyer. I wanted to be a race car driver. I wanted to be a fucking criminal.

Complex: You wanted to be a criminal?

DMX: I wanted to be the best criminal in the world. At 14, I was drawing up plans just to rob the local grocery store. Serious bank shit. Like, “All right, you go around this way. The exit's here. We're gonna come around here. Two people.”

Hit “NEXT” to read part 2 of this interview, including DMX’s thoughts on his reckless driving, and groupies!

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.

Interview by Joe La Puma

Complex: Now that the Greenhouse Effect mixtape is out, what are you working on?

Asher Roth: We're really in album mode right now. The studio album is looking like the start of the year, around February, but we'll see how that plays out. I'm working with the Cool Kids, I'm actually in the studio with them right now and Devin The Dude. There are a couple other surprises, but I'll keep those as surprises. You can expect some real, real, cool, people, man. And people who do what they do and do it well.

Complex: Is it true that you moved to Atlanta?

Asher Roth: I moved to Atlanta, Entourage style, with three of my buddies. [I] grabbed a place and everything like that, and set up shop in the A. It's been great so far. You know, I'm a little white guy, real fair skinned, so as far as the dog days of summer go, it's more or less in the house with the AC. But Georgia is great, man. Atlanta's cool because it’s a city with trees and I dig that.

Complex: Have you been to Magic City or any of the strip clubs down there?

Asher Roth: Not yet. I hear about them all the time; Claremont Lounge and Magic City. I have yet to, but I don't think I'll leave Georgia for good until I do.

Complex: What did you major in when you were in college?

Asher Roth: I was in elementary education, actually. I still have a passion to teach. I find the little ones to be pretty enlightening and real honest and pure. Not conformed by society, TV and things like that yet.

Complex: Given rap's current economic woes, do you think it was a smart move to leave college early?

Asher Roth: I mean, definitely. I think when you get an opportunity like one that was presented to me, that's a chance of a lifetime. You know, at the same time I was in school, I was more or less in school to be in school. Leaving school has actually helped me so much, because I'm really finding out who I am and what I really care about. It's going to be interesting because I still have a passion to go back to school.

Complex: How do you feel about John Brown's comments where he implies that you copied his suburban persona?

Asher Roth: Man, that's water under the to bridge to me. I mean, it's just obvious that rap is in the suburbs now. And I'm not going to be anything that I'm not. I think it's very obvious that I am who I am. I think rap is in the burbs and that's that.

Complex: Why do you think that rap has been so present in the burbs?

Asher Roth: Well, it's interesting because, you know, I've been listening to hip-hop since 7th grade. It's been interesting because listening to rap and being a fan first, when I'm listening, there isn't people who are speaking stuff that I live. I'm like, “Wow I buy these hip-hop CDs.” And a lot of people that look just like me buy these hip-hop CDs and come from where I come from. So that's kind of why I started doing it, because I had a passion for hip-hop and it was like, “Yo, no one is doing what I do, so I'll do it.” I don't want to do the whole “should of, could of, would of” stuff. I have a real passion for it, and I definitely think the suburban kids are buying hip-hop. It’s always been in the burbs for the most part.

Complex: Now who's the toughest dude in the game that you've hung out with thus far?

Asher Roth: I mean, to be honest with you, the dude that's kind of like, “Whoa”…It was actually my dude Steve Rifkin. Like, the first time I met him I was like, “Man, this dude is going to slap me across the face.” Steve Rifkind’s a bulldog, but if you get to know him, he’s a real big homie. For the most part everyone's pretty cool, man. I don't think anybody wants to be like “Yo, don't ever look at me wrong.” I don't think people want to be ever be angry like that.

Complex: If it came down to it, what rapper do you think you can beat in a fistfight?

Asher Roth: [Laughs] To beat in a fistfight? I don't know man. I'm 5-10, but a buck forty-five so I don't know about a fistfight. Maybe a submission hold'that's where I stand my chance. But no, man'I'm a lover not a fighter for the most part.

Complex: Eminem's been kind of M.I.A lately. Do you think that he’s threatened by new artists like yourself?

Asher Roth: Nah, I don't think Eminem is threatened. I think that he's one of the best that has ever done it. I think that Em is just living his life. You know, he's an adult now; he's got responsibilities that I don't have. I don't have a child to raise and a family to take care of. I'm sure he's going to come back out because he has a passion for the music just like everybody else. But you know, that's just what happens when you get older. When you have other responsibilities in life.

Complex: A lot of people have pointed out that there are similarities between you and Em. If he came back and called you out, how would you deal with it?

Asher Roth: Him and I are different artists. I think the music's going to portray that as time goes on. The comparisons are just…it's cool to be compared to Em, but he's one of the number one selling artists of all time. I'd rather be compared to him than pretty much anybody else. I think content and everything we rap about is completely different. We're different artists. We just happened to be under the same genre.

Complex: You said that you started listening to rap at 14?

Asher Roth: It was around 7th grade, so I think it was like 1998, about 10 years ago. Before that I was on some Dire Straits, to Bruce Springsteen…my mom had Earth, Wind and Fire and stuff. It's funny because I was talking to my publicist yesterday, we were cracking up like, “Yo, the first CD I ever bought was Dave Matthews Band Crash!” And he was just like, “Yeah man, you really are from the burbs, aren't you?”

Complex: Everyone was on DMB in the burbs.

Asher Roth: Everybody. Everybody was jamming to that stuff. I mean, that's what it was. That was my first year, and my first rap CD I ever bought was Jay-Z's Vol. 2 [...Hard Knock Life]. That kind of goes to show how late I got into it.

Complex: Speaking of Jay-Z, you’ve talked before about having to audition for him when you were shopping for the deal. Do you think he regrets signing Pittsburgh Slim to Def Jam instead of you?

Asher Roth: I have no idea man. I have no idea what Jay thinks. I'm sure he has no regrets in the world he's chillin'.

Complex: What was it like rapping for him?

Asher Roth: That was awesome. Being able to actually meet him and kick it with him and pay a little homage and everything'that was so cool for me. I'm still a kid, man. I'm still 22 years old. I'm a child, just growing up, so it’s fun to meet one of your idols growing up. And that was pretty much the experience. It was cool for him to be like, “Yo, I approve. I think you’re dope.” Like, “Do your damn thing.” So that was cool.

Complex: You address him passing on you in “Roth Boys.” Did it frustrate you at all?

Asher Roth: No, I think everybody's got their gripe with commercial music. I think that everyone who really does music is like “Ah, man, how did stuff like this make it on the radio?” Everyone gets mad, but life is too short to hold grudges or anything. I don't hold a grudge at all. More power to everybody that does music. Do what you do and do it well, as long as you want to be doing it. You know, no hard feelings at all.

Complex: Some critics of rap music like to say that it’s exploitative because it plays into the worst stereotypes about black people. Do you ever worry that you might be playing into stereotypes about suburban white people?

Asher Roth: Not so much, because I'm really making honest music. I'm not like trying to make something up and actually exploit it, like it’s not you and you pretend that it is. I think really what I'm doing is just bringing light to stuff that's been kind of covered up for a while. Like I said, I think hip-hop's been in the burbs for a long time. When I dropped that “Milli” remix, so many people reached out to me and said, “Wow, you finally said something that I've been feeling for so, so long.” I think that's really what it is.

Previously: White Beef: John Brown Vs Asher Roth

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.

“75 Bars (Black’s Reconstruction) Rising Down (2008)

“Get Busy” Rising Down (2008)

“Birthday Girl” f/ Patrick Stump Rising Down (2008)

“Rising Up” feat. Wale & Chrisette Michelle Rising Down (2008)

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]

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

If the slogan “Shit Happens” had a spokesperson it could be dancehall superstar Beenie Man. His 2004 smash Back To Basics should have been a joyful exclamation point on a rich, varied, and controversial career. But the album was crafted in the months following a car accident in which Beenie sustained serious injuries; while he recovered, his longtime road manager and business partner was killed in a drive-by shooting. His new album, Undisputed, didn't find him in a more peaceful frame of mind. He recorded it following the losses of both his older brother and younger sister to what he calls “freak accidents,” and yet another senseless murder claiming friend and dancehall personality Bogle. But don't expect melancholy odes about those living in the sky. “You have to think about the people you love in a joyful way, not a sad or mournful way,” says Beenie.

For “The King Of Dancehall,” joyful equals doing what has always come naturally and celebrating life's more explicit ["illicit"?] pleasures. Building on Basics, blatant cross-genre-hopping is kept to a minimum with Brooke Valentine (”Dutty Wine”), Akon (”Girls”), and Scott Storch (”Jamaican Ting”) blending in with the slick, electronic rhythms from heavyweights like Don Corleon and Tony Kelly. Beenie lays his game down quite flat all over “Hmm Hmm” and “Dreaming of You,” and playfully brags, “International models me dating,” on “Girls.” “My World” adds to the surprisingly ecstatic mood, with Beenie and Lady Saw running tings over Jon Jon's sliding synths and staccato claps. “I've never been down or out or flopped,” Beenie says confidently. “For 13 years I'm standing firm.” Even when shit happens.

By Toshitaka Kondo
Photo by Steve Carty/Contour Photos

Little Miss Sunshine, a low-budget ensemble comedy about a dysfunctional family on a road trip, wasn't expected to kill at the box office. This past weekend, it was the nation's number three film, and its earning stand at $23 million and climbing. One explanation for the movie's popularity is Paul Dano. The 22-year-old actor is brilliantly understated playing Dwayne, the sullen son who follows Nietzsche, hates everyone, and has taken a vow of silence until he can escape his family and go to the Air Force Academy. When he absolutely must converse with his kin, he scribbles notes on a pad. Why didn't you think of that? Check out the full interview below from our June/July 2006 issue.

When did you realize you wanted to act?
I always liked performing to a certain degree whether it was acting or singing, just in school. The film thing never seemed like a reality when I was going to high school. It didn't seem like a feasible thing, 'Oh, I can be an actor.' It still doesn't make sense to me that I can do what I'm doing and live off it because it is so fun and interesting.

How did your family take you doing this?
My parents were really cool and luckily they are really supportive. I grew up in midtown Manhattan and then I moved to Connecticut for middle school and high school because the apartment was too small. I definitely wanted to get out of there when I graduated and get back here to New York.

How did you latch onto Little Miss Sunshine?
I got the script, read it, was really into it, met with the directors John and Val and auditioned. It went really well and I was hoping that I would get the part, the movie then gets pushed and pushed [back]. Every time I go to LA, I meet with John and Val because they want to see how much I'm growing and see if I was too old for the part. I must have hoped to get that part for over two years. I was always wondering when and when it would happen and then it did.

When you were reading the script, were you thinking, 'Okay, when do I talk?'
I guess so. That's the unique thing about the character and also proved to be the most challenging part of the film and one of the most challenging things I've ever done. It's very uncomfortable. You have to get used to not talking, especially on camera, you're used to responding to things and I found myself very self conscious the entire time. I had never done this before. But that was pretty cool.

Were you method acting like Brando and walked around on set not talking for two weeks?
Nah. I did it a couple of days on my own and I tried to not to not talk around my family which was impossible not to yell and get pissed off. We had a really great week of rehearsals where we stayed in character. We drove around and did family activities like go to lunch or go bowling and I wasn't talking and it was really fun.

What scene did you do in the audition?
The one where I'm talking to Steve Carrell's character and I'm using the notepad. Then I did the scene where I learned I'm color blind and started screaming. Then we did the scene at the end when I'm talking to my uncle.

That scene where you break down must have been really tough because the movie is a comedy but you don't want to play it for laughs.
No you don't. That was a rough scene. It's hard to label the film for me because it's not just a comedy to any of us. It's certainly a little different than what people would think is a comedy.

Why was it so hard getting it made?
Gosh, I don't know dude. It was such a good script. It was really well written. We had an awesome script to work with. I think maybe they didn't know how to market a movie where the grandpa is snorting heroin. But people have responded to it well.

What's next?
I did Weapons, which is a small indie film with Nick Cannon, Fast Food Nation, which is directed by Richard Linklater and is an ensemble.

Did you read the book before you read for the role?
No. I'm a hardcore meat eater because I'm so scrawny where if I stopped eating meat, I'd die. I did read it, and I definitely don't eat fast food anymore. Recently, I drove down to Virginia, which is an eight-hour drive, and I nearly starved to death because I couldn't find a quick place to stop and eat. I ate mad granola bars that I picked up from a gas station. Reading that book traumatized me from the whole fast food thing. I play a kid who works in a fast food restaurant…I don't want to say too much about the part.

Interview by Thomas Golianopoulos
Photo by Christy Bush
June/July 2006

Snarky Daily Show correspondent Rob Corddry is the latest birdie to leave Jon Stewart's nest. He ends his four-year run on the Comedy Central fake news show today to star in the upcoming Fox comedy TV series The Winner, slated to be a midseason replacement. While it likely won't appear on the air for months, you can get your fix of Corddry here, in this extended version of an interview about his DVD paintball flick from Complex's Aug/Sept issue.

In Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story, paintball's long-ignored camouflaged warriors can finally see their story told. Rob Corddry, 35, best known as the tufted correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, plays Dukes, a disgraced former champion who attempts a comeback after a 10-year ban for cheating. Shot cheaply on digital video by director Brant Sersen and largely improvised with Corddry's friends from the Upright Citizens Brigade, the hilarious mockumentary, which had a very limited theatrical release, warrants its growing cult following. In honor of Blackballed's DVD release, we spoke to Corddry about critics, the power of paintball, and whether it's okay to masturbate to your likeness.

You received serious money to play Bobby Dukes, right?
Let's just say that my manager can pay his electricity bill…most of the time…almost every month.

So is Blackballed a low low-budget schlock film or a really professional YouTube masterpiece?
It's the gonzo porn of paintball movies.

At least one critic described it as a “very, very long sketch that doesn't know how to end.”
I will review those reviews right now by saying they were way off base. If anything, my performance is what seems like it will never end. The movie is like 89 minutes long! What else do you guys have to do? You will stay 'til the end, critic! You can watch it twice in an afternoon, for God's sake. Get high halfway through. It's a different movie if you watch it high. Play Dark Side Of of The the Moon while you watch it, 'see what happens.

Have you detected much jealousy on The Daily Show set since it was finally picked up for DVD release?
Are you kidding me? [Fellow correspondents] Ed Helms, Jason Jones, and Dan Bakkedahl are really kicking themselves for turning down the role of Bobby Dukes. So yes. And believe me, I lord it over them. I actually have a copy of the movie hanging so when you open the door to my office it smacks you in the face.

Are you, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, and Mo Rocca competitive about who's sold more DVDs, or had a semi–lead lead-role in a film that's actually been in theaters?
Well, yes. You know we have bi-weekly meetings; there's the Correspondents Club in Gramercy Park. We get together and we smoke cigars and we drink scotch and we talk about how well we're doing, and then we jerk each other off and soak in a tub…and fence on Saturdays.

Do you anticipate wildfire DVD sales will lead to sequels, an animated series, and videogames?
You know what'd be great? If they just made a movie of the movie and Cameron Diaz played me. That'd be hot. Would it be okay to masturbate to that? 'Cause it'd be sort of like masturbating to yourself. Think about it. I pose that question to your readers.

Should more sports involve weaponry?
I've always said we should mix sports, like paintball and downhill skiing. Or let's just kill ice dancers. I don't care what sport you mix it with as long as they die.

Did firing a paintball gun make you feel empowered?
Firing a paintball gun is not like firing a real gun. You have to contort your arm in this really girly way, and you just kind of slap the trigger with your middle finger. It just feels kind of…dirty.

Will paintball be to your film career what baseball was to Kevin Costner's?
I made a pledge to myself years ago that the minute somebody started comparing me to Kevin Costner I would quit and enter a monastery. So this interview is over. Thank you.

Well, given that sucess is pretty assured, have you already given notice at The Daily Show?
Ooh…shit! Am I supposed to give notice? that’s polite isn’t it?

Yeah
Oh crap! God, I guess I should huh?

Interview by Justin Monroe
From the August/September 2006 issue on newsstands now.

Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story is available now on DVD.

Keanan Thompson has had a hell of a career so far, especially considering he's only 28. A supporting member (and accidental pilot) in this week's number one flick, Snakes On A Plane, Thompson honed his comedy chops on, um, the Nickelodeon show Kenan & Kel. Best known as an emerging star on Saturday Night Live, Kenan spoke with Complex for our Aug/Sept 2006 issue, and here's an uncut muthafuckin' version of the muthafuckin' Q&A.

Photo by New Line Cinema

So what's your work week like at SNL?
We pitch on Monday and some people start writing on Monday. I start on Tuesday and I write all night. The deadline is 10 a.m. Wednesday. You forget about going outside of the building for the next 12 hours. We all have offices and everyone goes in their individual focus area and some people collaborate. We see what characters work for the week or whatever characters are going well. Wednesday is table reading and Thursday is first day of rehearsal. Friday is rehearsal.

Is it super competitive to get material on the air?
It's very competitive because there is only an hour and a half. At the table reading, we go over 45 sketches and then only eight actually make it on the air. So it's tough.

What was the best sketch you've done that hasn't made it on the air yet?
I thought the Colin Powell sketch was great, but it didn't go how we wanted it to. It was a brilliant sketch, but it got a weird reaction from the in-studio audience. Certain jokes that worked earlier didn't necessarily work with the audience. But you never really know. That's what makes it so exciting. There is this one sketch, where Barry White's illegitimate son Gary White has a public access talk show. [Laughs.] Crazy ideas like that.

What's the adjustment like for you moving from LA to NY?
I jumped out here and it was a storm. I've been though three winters now. I had to get a car this year though, all that walking, cabbing. I'm black, man, I can't catch no cab in the city. When I moved to Brooklyn I had to get a car.

Is it tough doing the show live?
Hell yeah. Going back to that sketch, that sketch been on my mind all weekend. It's mind boggling how there was such a crazy difference between the dress rehearsal and when it aired. We had a better sketch, and there were less windows of silence. Not even a couple of chuckles. So you've got to keep going and we made it through it. It always feels shitty. I thought it was funny, I was still having fun with it. Whether they were getting it or not, it's not my fault. People who see it on TV will take it how they take it.

How were you cast?
I auditioned. Tracy Morgan had just left the show. I was in Barbershop 2 and I came out here to audition. Lorne [Michaels] was cool. Having to audition by doing stand-up in a club, that was scary. That was my first time auditioning.

What happened the first time you saw the script for Snakes on a Plane?
The first time I saw the script for Snakes on a Plane, I was like, “There you have it. There it is. What else is there?” During shooting, Samuel L. Jackson kept saying “It's Snakes On A Plane motherfucker. That's what it is.” He had a heavy argument with that. He was like, “Call it Snakes On A Plane.”

How did you feel about the buzz behind the movie?
It's crazy. It's pretty awesome. People are just having fun. X-Men has been done before. Superman has been done before. But Snakes On A Plane with Sam Jackson, everybody wants to hear what he has to say. People are waiting for a line that they can put on a T-shirt. 'Eat snake motherfucker.' 'My Sam Jackson is all about yelling. You have to yell.' It's hard man, after Dave Chappelle there's not really much you can do that hasn't been done before.

What character do you play in Snakes?
I play Flex's childhood friend, Troy. Flex plays a rapper and I'm part of the posse or entourage. Then, all of a sudden, I have to fight off snakes. I always get the worst movie names: Russ, Roy, Troy, Dexter, Albert. Where are the Maliks and Jamals?

Are all of the snakes animatronic?
Some of them real, then they had some rubber ones. Some of them were real snakes. They made my hair stand up.

I heard there were some re-shoots to make it from PG-13 into R, were you a part of them?
Yeah, I got to put a couple of cusswords, some F-bombs up there.

So you've made a healthy transition into adult work. I don't even think of the Nickelodeon thing anymore.
That's good. It can't be denied. It is what is. Or it was what it was. We're in 2006. The SNL thing, that's what's happening. I'm a dedicated fan and employee of the show.

How old were you when you started acting?
15.

Was it hard growing up in the spotlight?
Nah, it was awesome. We [Kenan and Kel Mitchell] used to love going to the mall and trying to get chased by girls. It was exciting. Going to the movies and seeing which little ghetto girls watched the show. It was great. Then we grew up and it started being real. Grown people started hitting us up like, “Do you want to do this project, that project.” It was a good experience though. I know it's going to be a lifelong thing. I've gone too far to ever retreat back to the shadows. I want to go further. If I got Puff Daddy status, I wouldn't even mind that.

Critics hated another movie you were in, Fat Albert, but it made money.
They wanted kids to follow it. Kids watch that movie like crazy. It's kind of like how Good Burger was. I hope Snakes On A Plane will be like that. Kids were never taking that tape out.

What have you been doing this the summer?
We're shooting this movie called Weinerz. One of the [toughest jobs to get] in this country is as a driver of the weinermobile. The character I play really wants to drive one so he turns his life savings into his own weinermobile. It's shooting in Salt Lake City.

So after SNL, it's movies.
Yeah.

What SNL characters are you working on?
We did so many characters but it's almost mind boggling how hard it has been for me to figure out one person to run with. I don't want to do any old character. I want to do something that is really great and funny. We're getting closer to it. That Gary White thing would have been pretty funny and we will probably still try that again. Once I get that 5-minute platform on live TV, that's all I need, five minutes of live TV.

How long are you going to stick around?
Until they kick me out. I'll be there for a couple more at least.

Interview by Thomas Golianopoulos
Aug/Sept 06

Fitting together like Chicago's yin and yang, superstar producer Kanye West found his 180-degree opposite in Rhymefest when they met the mid-'90s. Where West is bold and brash, 'Fest is understated. However, when the two combine, as on Kanye's Grammy Award winning “Jesus Walks,” which Rhymefest wrote the hook to, and Fest's debut album, Blue Collar, it's a beautiful thing. In anticipation of his July 11th release date Rhymefest lit up NYC's Central Park at Marc Ecko's Save the Rhinos concert; alongside Lupe Fiasco, Common and Rakim. Complex caught up with the man to talk about New York falling off, and keeping his city on the map.

The stage is set, but the bill seems slanted.

Three Chicago dudes, one New York dude. What is that?

With the south shaking up hip-hop’s landscape, do you think Chicago is going to eclipse New York this year?

Chicago hasn't been in the shadow of New York. Chicago has just been in a dark room. New York is all mixed up. Y'all gotta get it right. When you say, “we gotta bring New York back,” that's already an admission of loss. New York is upper-middle management now. All these guys that use to rap and stuff have record labels and are doing big things now; concentrate on that. You all passed the torch to us, and now you're shaving off our budgets. I got a New York manager, a New York business accountant, a New York record label. They're like, “let's get these Mid-western guys, let's get these southern guys.” We're on the lower end of the totem pole.

What’ll have everybody on their Chi-Town shit?

Chicago will only have a big year, if we decide to mobilize. There's no reason Common shouldn't be on Lupe's album. There's no reason I shouldn't be on Kanye's album. If we don't mobilize then the world will never look at us as one and they'll never connect the sound with the city. On my album I have this new artist, Mickey, Bump J, Carl Thomas, and Kanye. It is important for me to help develop my rap community and my city.

Being in the middle of the east coast and west coast, does Chicago have an identity crisis?

Being in Chicago you have to be a little more diverse than a lot of other places because you have to meet the needs of so many different things. We have the gang banging of the west coast, we come to New York, they say we sound country like the south. We've taken the lyricism, the attribute of dope lyrics from the east coast, so it's kind of the best of three worlds.

How do you remain a priority on a non-traditional rap label like J Records?

Rhymefest is a special project, whereas Busta Rhymes was a self-made guy when he got there. Cassidy is a product of Swizz Beatz. Rhymefest is something that J Records can say, “we believed in, we helped develop this artist.” So it has to be timed. It has to be right and it has to be special. Shit, if I fail they might as well shut their rap department down. They might as well not have one. I brought everything to the table. I got a Grammy already before I got a record deal, co-wrote Jesus Walks, I have Jesus Walks-like songs on my album. I have the help of Kanye, NO I.D., Mark Ronson, Cool & Dre, Just Blaze. Everybody's saying the music is great. If the artist is doing his job, if the publicity is good, then the label gotta make this work, or we'll have egg on our face.

Are people ready for another “Jesus Walks?”

People want substance. They want an album they can sink their teeth into. This is the resurgence of hip-hop right now. Ghostface did better than Bubba Saparxxx in his first week. And Bubba Sparxxx got way more radio play. Kanye? What's the chance of him making it? A dude like him that raps the way he raps? What's the chance of people really liking Rhymefest? A dude like me, I'm blue collar. In times like this when gas prices are high, don't nobody wanna hear about your fuckin' grill. Not dissin' nobody with grillz but I just think times are changing. A new era is coming in.