As he preps for the Hova tour and readies his debut album (Attention Deficit, due November 3), Wale’s busier than ever…but not too busy to chat with Complex about his MTV gig, his live band, and touring with Jay. Read on for the interview and to listen to “World Tour”…

NEW SINGLE: Wale “World Tour” feat. Jazmine Sullivan

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Interview by Ralph Warner

Complex: So how was the VMA experience for you?

Wale: It was cool, with the exception of some things that weren’t in the script. But it was a good experience, it was a lot of pressure but I think we did a pretty good job.

Complex: How did you end up getting the MTV gig?

Wale: They just had a couple people that they were looking at, a couple different bands and stuff, but they liked what I do. They had been to the live shows and they were really excited about [them]. So they wanted to kind of put that into the VMAs.

Complex: How much time did you get to rehearse?

Wale: I’ve been playing with that band for years but we had like three days to rehearse.

Complex: You had guys like Cudi and Daniel Merriweather come share the stage with you. How did you decide on your special guests?

Wale: Me and MTV kind of decided together. It was one of those things where we put our heads together, came up with a list of people, and just picked.

Complex: What’s your opinion on the whole Kanye thing?

Wale: I don’t even have one on that. I really can’t speak on that.

Complex: Any good post-VMA party stories?

Wale: Nah, I just chilled with a friend of mine. We just went to a lot of different places—like real low-key places where nobody was, that type of thing. Me and A-Trak and a few friends went out and chilled.

Complex: How’s everything coming along with the album? Is Attention Deficit complete?

Wale: The album is done man, dropping November 3. I’m excited about it, we got this tour with Jay-Z and Lupe that we’re about to do. I think the energy is good in hip-hop right now. So I’m excited about that.

Complex: What’s one thing that you think your fans can look forward to on the album?

Wale: I think a lot of raw emotion, the kind of emotion that’s been missing from hip-hop for a while.

Complex: Going back to the idea with the whole house band and everything, the Roots are Jimmy Fallon’s house band. Could you ever see yourself doing that type of thing as a regular gig?

Wale: Yeah, somewhere down the line. I think those guys are a lot more sharp than we are, in some elements. But I definitely could see myself doing something like that. I don’t know if I would do it as much as they do it, but at some point, yeah.

Complex: Can you talk about your working relationship with your band UCB?

Wale: Well we’ve been playing with each other for about five-and-a-half years. Before I even signed a record deal we would just do little hole-in-the-wall stuff. But they’ve been playing for 13 years in D.C. so we jam real cool, we’re all just good friends, you know. So it wasn’t difficult at all, that was something that we could do in our sleep. We’ve done so many shows together now in the past year. That’s not even counting the ones that we started doing five-and-a-half years ago. It just got real intense this past year though.

Complex: What do you think your performances at the VMAs does for your career?

Wale: I really don’t know, I’m really too close to my brand to know what the general perception is. I hope it’s doing something for me but I really couldn’t tell you.

Complex: What are you up to between now and the time the album drops?

Wale: The tour with Jay, we’re doing a lot of major colleges. Just get ready for the album on November 3. It’s just the tour, that’s a lot right there. There’s so many dates.

Complex: What are your thoughts on getting an opportunity to go out there with Jay?

Wale: It’s great, I’m excited about it. I’m just really excited to make new fans on the tour because I’ve only done headlining tours. We haven’t had the opportunity to open for people that much. I also got a single right now, “World Tour,” that’s just been released like two days ago. That’s pretty much it, that and the tour.

• CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE COMPLEX RAP POSTS!

Common and McLovin remake Training Day. Funny stuff. [Nah Right]

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Find out what a girl’s alcoholic beverage of choice really says about her. [Holy Taco]

The Hundreds teamed up with SE Bikes to create this two-wheeled banger. [Daily Drop]

Looking at almost naked pics of girls you’ll never meet is always fun. [Double Viking]

Don’t feel bad if you’ve put on weight recently. Here are some advantages of being fat. [Flisted]

Check out the 10 most controversial iPhone apps. [Coed Mag]

The show birthed an insane number of comedy VIPs in screenwriting, acting, and directing, and nearly all of its members continue to work with each other on various projects; Reno 911!, cult comedy classic Wet Hot American Summer, and the new Comedy Central show Michael & Michael Have Issues (premiering this Wednesday) are but three. After the jump, watch The State’s 10 Best Skits and check out a (now updated) chart we ran in our February/March 2008 issue that details the cast’s interlocking post-State collaborations…

THE BACON SONG

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LOUIE’S LAST SUPPER

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DOUG & DAD
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TEACHERS’ LOUNGE

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DEATHFIGHT 5000
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THE JEW, THE ITALIAN, AND THE REDHEAD GAY
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FAST FOOD

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BARRY & LEVON ON PLANET GROOVY

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GANG FIGHT!
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INTERNATIONAL SIGNS

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BONUS: COMPLEX’S STATE COLLABO CHART! (Click to enlarge)

On deck for the skater is his official clothing brand, RS by Sheckler (available at JCPenney). Who will buy Ryan’s budget-friendly collection of T-shirts, jeans and accessories? “The kids at the skate parks that like what I wear,” he says. “Their parents are not going to drop $80 on a pair of jeans that their kids are going to put holes in. So go buy $39 jeans and have [the kids] put as many holes in them as they want.” Ryan was recently in town to promote RS, so we got up with him to talk about TV breakups, bad injuries and his favorite rappers. Read on for The Complex 7 as well as pics from the RS collection….

Interview by Jaeki Cho

#1: WHAT’S YOUR NUMBER ONE DEAL-BREAKER FOR A POTENTIAL GIRLFRIEND?

Ryan Sheckler says: Just demanding and wanting too much of my time. For me it’s God, skateboarding and family. I keep myself out of a dating situation unless I find a girl like a lawyer who is doing her own thing. I think having a girlfriend who doesn’t have a job, who doesn’t do anything but sits around and waits for you is really complicating.

#2: WHAT’S THE WORST WAY YOU’VE BROKEN UP WITH SOMEONE?

Ryan Sheckler says: That was on the second season [of Life of Ryan]. I had this girlfriend named Kayla, beautiful blond girl. I have a really short attention span, especially with women. I got over the situation and I was traveling too much so I couldn’t do it. And the producer of the show said, “You got to break up with her on TV.” I was like, “Fuck, man.” So with four cameras and 15 production assistants, I went up to her and said, “Babe, this isn’t going to work anymore.” It was the hardest breakup I had to do. TV breakups are hard. You don’t want to look like a dick, but you don’t want to look like you are shutting her down 100%.

“Big up…to all my haters!”

#3: WHAT HAS TO BE IN YOUR FRIDGE AT ALL TIMES?

Ryan Sheckler says: We always have Red Bull [laughs], fresh fruit, cheese, everything…the freezer’s loaded too. We have a lot of Hot Pockets.

#4: WHAT’S THE MOST EMBARRASSING PIECE OF CLOTHING YOU’VE EVER WORN?

Ryan Sheckler says: I wore this plain white shirt with a vest over it at the MTV Awards, and then I saw a picture of it. I went, “Oh, God.” It was just a plain white T-shirt with a vest and a [Red Bull] necklace. It just didn’t work and I was so embarrassed. I hope it wasn’t a K-Fed moment, but it was a moment that made me say, “I’ll never wear a vest again.”

#5: WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE SNEAKER OF ALL TIME?

Ryan Sheckler: My favorite sneaker is my fifth shoe that’s coming out with etnies called Sheckler 5. I’m never leaving etnies—lifetime contract with them [laughs]. It’s basically a mid-shoe with a brand-new toe we made out of G2 Platinum—the stuff that they put in bulletproof vests—so when you skate your heels don’t get too much impact.

RS by Sheckler collection display at the Red Bull Space in NYC.

#6: IF YOU HAD A WEEK-LONG HOLIDAY, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

Ryan Sheckler says: I’ll go to Atlantis in Bahamas. I went there during spring break this year and it was insane. The story is, I got home from Australia on a Monday and we had St. Patrick’s Day on Tuesday. So on St. Patrick’s Day night, my friends and I were saying, “We’re going to the mountains for spring break.” And then someone said, “What mountains? It’s supposed to be hot. Let’s go to the Bahamas.” So 10:30 p.m. at night we got 7 tickets, got our stuff, our passports, and then next morning we flew to the Bahamas. The legal age there is 18, so I finally got to gamble. I was gambling out there, and I won like 12 grand.

#7: WHEN’S THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?

Ryan Sheckler says: I don’t usually cry when I break bones, but I cried after I broke [my right arm]. Second day after my surgery, I was in the most pain of my life. First, they took out all the ligaments from my wrist, and cut out both sides of my elbow. Then they strung it all through my arm, put two plates, four screws, and the screws are still in [my right arm]. It was supposed to be a two-hour surgery, but they found so many more things wrong that the surgery turned out to be six-and-a-half hours. I was out the whole time so I don’t remember anything until I went home to my bed four hours later. The pain was so insane that I threw up the food I’d eaten. It was so bad. And I hate taking painkillers, so I was just trying to tough it out, but I had to take them. It didn’t even hurt breaking it as bad as it hurt after the surgery.

BONUS QUESTION:

Complex: What are your thoughts on the hip-hop community embracing skate culture?

Ryan Sheckler says: I absolutely love it. I just love the fact that they embrace [skate culture] by rocking the same shit we are rocking. They are giving skaters way more hype now. And I think skateboarding is so big now, it’s actually legit to copy some shit. My favorite rapper is Lil Wayne by far. Him and Baby are one of the coolest and most legit dudes. But I’m also really tight with Snoop. So I love Snoop and I love Wayne.

We recently spoke to Craig about $5 Cover—yep, he’s excited about it—and also to put him through The Complex 7 treatment. Read on for Craig’s thoughts on women with big toes, New Balance sneakers and string cheese, plus a trailer for $5 Cover…

Interview by Jaime Acevedo

#1: WHAT’S YOUR NUMBER ONE DEAL-BREAKER FOR A POTENTIAL GIRLFRIEND?

Craig says: I’m married but I think I can still answer it. I would say this: a lack of a sense of humor and unusually big toes. I’m just not into that. If you’re a really beautiful woman and you’re wearing sandals and it’s like, God just gave them a little bit of a comeuppance. [Laughs.] Just to keep them a little more grounded.

#2. WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE SNEAKER OF ALL TIME?

Craig says: I want to say something sexy like Converse or Nike but unfortunately I have wide feet, and everybody who has wide feet knows that you have to buy New Balance. So even my high-end shoes, they’re New Balance, with the big, blaring “N” on the front of them. It still doesn’t beat the Hush Puppies that came out with the Star Wars. I remember I bought a pair of Darth Vader shoes and I was so excited by it, but by the end of the evening my feet were bleeding. Converse is just a killer. I like Converse, but I think for directing, if you’re going to be standing for 16 hours a day, you can’t do it in Converse.

#3: WHEN’S THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?

Craig says: I cried at the inauguration, like a baby. [Laughs.] I don’t know what it was. I think it was just a day that even my most cynical friends had a hard time being cynical and I couldn’t help it. When the President came out to the podium, I thought to myself…I’ve always lived my life thinking history was something for my parents and my grandparents to experience. I remember watching the space shuttle explode as a kid because I got up early and I always watched the shuttle launches, and I remember thinking, “I’m watching something that will be remembered.” That day [of the inauguration] I had two of my children with me and we were watching history. It was nice.

#4: IF YOU HAD A WEEK-LONG VACATION, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

Craig says: I’m resisting the urge to just immediately blurt out “Amsterdam.” [Laughs.] For a number of reasons. I think I would need something more interesting. What I’d really like to do is….I’ve always wanted to truly do a safari. I’ve always wanted to see an elephant in the wild, not in a zoo. I just want to have that experience one time before I die.

#5: WHAT HAS TO BE IN YOUR FRIDGE AT ALL TIMES?

Craig says: Diet Coke and string cheese. It’s so compact, you hold it in your hand, it stays pretty fresh. You can keep it for a long time, and apparently if you’re on the Atkins diet, you don’t gain any weight off of it…but I don’t think that’s really true.

#6: WHAT’S THE WORST WAY YOU’VE BROKEN UP WITH SOMEONE?

Craig says: I was going out with a girl who was the lead in a play that I wrote. And I kind of just needed to keep things copacetic until closing night. [Laughs.] You know what I mean? ‘Cause what if I broke up three nights before the closing and then she started being schizo. It was back when my dad was alive and we were producing it and I remember my dad saying, How about you wait till Monday morning to break up with her after the closing? [Laughs.]

#7: WHAT’S THE MOST EMBARRASSING PIECE OF CLOTHING YOU’VE EVER WORN?

Craig says: I don’t know if the kids know about this, but there’s this thing called “layaway.” There was this leather-jacket store called Merry Go Round. They had the “Beat It” Michael Jackson leather jacket. I started putting money on layaway, and I finally purchased it. I wore it one time in public. I wore it all the time in front of the mirror doing my Thriller choreography, but then it was like everybody, myself included, loved Prince, so I was in this difficult place. I can’t really wear this jacket anymore because I’m into Prince, but I’m not going to wear any of the pantyhose and heels like Prince does, so I think I’m just going to stick with these fat laces that I’m going to slip through my Pumas, and I’m going to stop dressing like the artists I listen to.

$5 COVER TRAILER:

What happens when a completely contrived reality series moves to a real-ass New York City borough home to real-ass people who will really blast a second hole in that ass if you look at them the wrong way? The world will find out tonight at 10 PM EST when MTV premieres The Real World: Brooklyn. Well, it would if the show'with all its manipulated racial, sexual, religious and socioeconomic tension'weren’t complete bullshit.

The eight fraudulent fame whores whose names we won’t even put on blast here were no doubt guarded from the Brooklyn realness, so Complex can only imagine what could have been if they’d stopped being polite and actually experienced these hallmarks of real life in BK…


NYPD SODOMIZATION
• Brooklyn is famous for its friendly police force, which serves and protects the community by performing free prostate exams on men'especially non-white men in predominantly non-white neighborhoods'with retractable batons, broomsticks and anything else that can be shoved lovingly up someone’s ass. Just ask tourist board reps Abner Louima and Michael Mineo (above, crying tears of joy). The bloody good times that could have been!

HASIDIC JUDAISM
• Williamsburg brims with hipster douche bags who live 20 to a flea-ridden loft and think they’re pushing the boundaries of art with wheatpastings that are best used as toilet paper. We’re sure The Real World Brooklynites were really tight with them. The nearby Hasidic Jewish community, not so much. You haven’t broken challah bread if you haven’t been stared at by a mob of 25 to 100 Hasidic men whose eyes seem to say, “Go back to your own kind, goy.” And no, they can’t get you Matisyahu’s autograph.

CONEY ISLAND BEACH
• In the good old days, life was a beach, and then you died of a heroin overdose. The Requiem for a Dream days when zombie addicts camped out underneath the boardwalk of Brooklyn’s most famous attraction are mostly gone, but if the cast was lucky they could still have caught a nice tan and hypodermic needle before hitting the carnival for some quality time with a bearded lady.

THE WEST INDIAN AMERICAN DAY CARNIVAL
• Every summer, BK’s Eastern Parkway catches fiyah for the West Indian American Day Carnival, which is marked by flags, skimpy costumes, riddims, dutty wining, a three-day contact high and 15 cops huddled on every corner. We can’t think of anything more intriguing than dropping The Real World cast, including the show’s first post-op tranny, Katelyn, into the middle of it. If there’s anything Caribbean people love, it’s lily white people and batty (lady)bwoys.

DIRTY, FILTHY, NASTY SEX
• Once upon a time, Third Avenue straddled the Brooklyn Queens Expressway with loads and sticky loads of seedy strip clubs and porn shops. Thanks to quality-of-life-obsessed former New York City Mayor Adolf Rudolph Giuliani and gentrification, much of the smut and nut has been mopped up, but a few outposts remain (you know, way out, where they’ll only bother those people). Nothing boosts ratings like the world’s filthiest, nastiest sex. No seriously, all the dirt from the BQE makes it the most wonderfully disgusting experience. It may be too late for the cast, but you should still check it out. Just be sure to bring wet wipes.

That’s why we suggest flipping it the other way: make the geeks famous, and then watch as civilian women struggle with choosing between tertiary fame-by-association and..their natural instincts. Now that’s entertainment! Check out our round up of 5 sure-fire celebrity geek casting choices…

KANYE WEST
• Geek Status: Horrible taste in glasses, underbite (geek demerits for having it be the result of a horrific car accident rather than just needing orthodontia)
• Ideal Beauty: Judging from his lyrics and taste in porn, a bisexual blonde chick with giant titties. Also, given his legendary self-obsession, having no opinions and being made of mirrored glass would help.

MARK ZUCKERBERG
• Geek Status: Founded Facebook, third-grade haircut
• Ideal Beauty: Beautiful, brainy, familiar with computers'gotta go with a classic. Or, even better, our version.

CLIFF BLEZSINSKI
• Geek Status: Invented Gears of War, doesn’t realize the social repercussions of posing with a chainsaw gun he invented.
• Ideal Beauty: Let’s see, someone not turned off by a near-psychotic fixation with massacres…oh! Squeaky Fromme? At least she can’t run away…

NATE SILVER
• Geek Status: Thanks to his groundbreaking stat work with both Baseball Prospectus and his political site fivethirtyeight.com, has become a god both among sabermetrics geeks and rabid MSNBC viewers. Also, frumpy quasi-academic attire.
• Ideal Beauty: Rachel Maddow. But maybe, y’know, into guys.

MASI OKA
• Geek Status: Ivy League grad (and computer science major!), Asian. Don’t front, that’s automatic points! Unless you’re Steve Aoki, in which case you’re just a dirtbag.
• Ideal Beauty: For his sake, we vote for a threesome with Kristen Bell and Hayden Panettiere. It’s cool, we don’t mind him taking our sloppy seconds.

A flashed-based video site in the same vein as YouTube and Hulu, MTV Music will open up the MTV vaults and allow users to play all their favorite music videos, as well as their favorite MTV moments like Unplugged performances. While we’re happy MTV has shown some serious interest in music videos again, we feel like they’re kinda late to the party. For our music video needs, we just hit up YouTube'why should we stop? To answer that question, we analyzed both sites to see which one should be getting our clicks…

INTERFACE

MTV MUSIC: Very clean, very attractive and easier on the eye than YouTube. It just looks cool. MTV Music’s site is anchored by three video categories: Most Viewed, Top Rated and the inventive Vintage Videos which features a bunch of classic videos.

YOUTUBE: By now we’ve all grown accustomed to the YouTube website primarily because most of us use it everyday. That said, YouTube has grown into an exercise in customization. Depending on your tastes, you can have the homepage cluttered with as many recommendation “modules” as you want. Or, you can get rid of all of them.

WINNER: MTV Music

CONTENT

MTV MUSIC: Unlike YouTube, MTV Music only focuses on music related content. So that means most of the clips are music videos and concert footage. The good thing is, they have a lot of content from the Viacom network: MTV, CMT and Vh1. BET is suspiciously absent. We’re sure they’re going to ramp up the content in the coming months, but most of the stuff on here, you can find on YouTube.

YOUTUBE: If it’s not on YouTube, there’s a good chance it doesn’t exist. Because anyone who signs up can upload videos to YouTube, their library of content vastly outshines that of any online video site.

WINNER: YouTube

VIDEO PLAYER

MTV MUSIC: MTV Music’s player is streamlined and clean like the rest of the site. However, under heavy usage it tends to skip and pause a lot.

YOUTUBE: YouTube has had time to test and perfect their player and it shows. Also, because of the breadth of content available on YouTube, their player has more options built in like the ability to show Closed Captions.

WINNER: YouTube

VIDEO QUALITY

MTV MUSIC: All the content on MTV Music so far comes straight from MTV, therefore all the videos are pretty high quality allowing them to still look good when blown up to full screen. It’s not as high as Hulu, but much better than YouTube.

YOUTUBE: One of the reasons YouTube’s player works so well is that the videos they play are of pretty poor quality. Even the videos uploaded by the record labels are very pixelated.

WINNER: MTV Music

INTERACTIVITY

MTV MUSIC: MTV Music makes an effort at building a community by allowing you to join and upload photo’s or videos from YouTube or your computer, which is surprising since we didn’t think Viacom would let you upload anything for fear of you putting up some illegal ish. The only problem is, the videos you upload don’t become available with all the other videos upload by MTV. You have to go on your Community page to view them.

YOUTUBE:YouTube’s strongest asset is their user community. Once you join, you can upload any video you want (as long as it’s legal) and share it with friends or post it up on your own site. You can also join user groups, subscribe to certain video channels, or even create your own user channel.

WINNER: YouTube

FINAL VERDICT: As a new service, and a Beta one at that, MTV Music shows a lot of promise. The design is slick and cool, the quality of the videos is way better than YouTube and we think after a couple months, when they unlock the vault and throw all their gems on the site (Jodeci Unplugged, what’s good?), it’s going to be one of the premier resources for music videos. But, as it stands now, there’s just really no reason to use it over YouTube. Or all the other video sites that play music videos.

The latest recovering VJ to make a run at it is Vanessa Minnillo, who is jump-starting her acting career with a role in this summer’s action parody Disaster Movie. Whether she’ll transcend the MTV label or retire to become Nick Lachey’s baby mama remains to be seen, but the patterns of history are definitely against her. After the jump, we compiled some of the fly chicks who couldn’t overcome the curse.

IDALIS DELEÓN

This fly Puerto Rican mami had a stint in the '90s as part of the freestyle group Seduction, then parlayed that into an MTV VJ spot. After popping up on the occasional TV role, she’s most recently landed a recurring role on USA’s moderately successful series Burn Notice.

AMANDA DIVA

MTV went the artsy route by enlisting this aspiring rapper/poet to host hip-hop-based shows like Direct Effect and MTV2 video countdowns. After leaving the network and releasing a few mixtapes, it was announced that she has become the new member of R&B group Floetry. She has yet to release a song or perform with the group.

DAISY FUENTES

The Cuban bombshell cut her teeth in broadcasting as a weather girl on Telemundo before becoming the first VJ to regularly appear on both the American and Spanish-language MTV. Since then, she’s continued modeling and hosting past their prime shows like America’s Funniest Home Videos. In 2007, Fuentes’s clothing line was pulled from Kohl’s because of sweatshop allegations.

HILARIE BURTON

This TRL VJ turned actress found some success with the teeny-bopper set with her starring role on the CW’s One Tree Hill. Her all-American good looks and goofy personality were a winning combo when the show devuted in 2003, but her career hasn’t progressed at all in the last 5 years. In her first real attempt to cross over to the big screen, she will appear with Queen Latifah in this fall’s The Secret Life of Bees. Stay tuned.

SUSIE CASTILLO

2003’s Miss USA got a nod from Complex when she appeared in the magazine for a photo spread last year. In all fairness, Susie recently signed on as a spokeswoman for Neutrogena and is still a current VJ, so perhaps she’ll have a bright future ahead of her. However, the fact that her first movie, Underdog, was a flop is not a good sign.

KENNEDY

We’ve always had a sweet spot for the Kennedy. Sure, her horn-rimmed glasses were dorky looking, and she didn’t ooze sex appeal like the ladies on The Grind, but her dead pan humor made us LOL while watching late night episodes of Alternative Nation. After hosting a few failed reality shows, her career is in need of a major boost. Perhaps hosting “I Love The '90s” could be next?

“DOWNTOWN” JULIE BROWN

Julie Brown helped paved the way for tall amazonian black women from the UK like Naomi Campbell, and Melanie Brown. The host of dance shows on MTV in the late ’80s, she’s more known for coining a meaningless phrase “Wubba Wubba Wubba” and posing nude for Playboy.

ANANDA LEWIS

We’ll forever miss the intelligent, funny, and of course beautiful Ananda Lewis. She jumped ship from BET’s socially conscious Teen Summit to host TRL. Her own talk show on UPN (now My 9) tanked, so she now dedicates her time to speaking to kids at seminars.