Following last year’s list that included an Eminem snub and Jay-Z being named #1 for 2009, MTV returns with it’s Hottest MC’s list starting on October 18th. The list is based on MC’s who have released music and been active in 2010 plus follows a criteria of: artistic execution (lyrical ability, flow), commercial success (charting hits, radio spins, album sales), cultural impact (business acumen, putting on other big artists), digital metrics, buzz and other intangibles.

Let the debates and arguements begin!

Props to MTV & Jayson Rodriguez

more details after the jump…

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Is this the lead off of that Lil Wayne birthday album? This isn’t the whole video but I’m not sure I’m a super fan of the preview. (via Motion Dose)

I am a fan of this new R.Kelly song and Nat-King-Cole-replica video though….after the jump
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The song “Free Mason” is a big enough event, and with strong enough content, that I don’t understand how this teaser trailer adds to the conversation. I would absolutely love to see footage of the recording process (and clearly Ross’ in-house videographers Spiff-TV caught this all), but 30-seconds of Jay and Ross vibing, with Trey Songz observing, along with 60-seconds of intro and outro….marginally insulting.

I’m posting this more to see if you guys disagree than for the actual video. But I definitely encourage fans to listen to the actual collaboration. Nice piece of work. Especially on the eve of Ross’ Teflon Don drop, this Tuesday. The meat of all SpiffTV’s footage will appear on their upcoming Teflon Don: The Bossumentary DVD.

Previously:
New Music: Rick Ross feat. Jay-Z “Free Mason” (CDQ)
Jay-Z dismisses Illuminati conspiracy theories on “Free Mason”

Clearly, I should have logged off about 10 minutes ago…because when you’re on the internets too late on a Friday night, you enter the Twilight Zone and things get loopy…..case in point, an email from Tila Tequila’s new website, MissTilaOMG, tipping off her exclusive scoop that Playboy is suing Drake, Cash Money Records and Universal Music Group for not clearing a sample in the song “Best I Ever Had” from their holding , the 1975 Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds’ song “Falling In Love.”
So many things here are making me want to go lay down….Playboy Music? A Tila Tequila exclusive…that isn’t about Tila? The fact that this sample still hasn’t been cleared for a mixtape that’s been out for over a year, and was even re-released in stores? I usually ignore litigation stories, but I really just noticed because of this motley combo of players.
Then again, sample clearance missteps are nothing new and rarely personal…Even cases like The Fugees vs Enya, it’s just sloppiness on an admin level. I’m sure Drake and Playboy Enterprise’s lawyers will smooth it over with sparkly chunks of change or a private serenade in the Grotto.
But let’s just soak in this quote from Tila’s post:
“Well…Drake is cool and all, but it kinda DOES sound like his song. DAYAM!! SO DOES THAT MEAN HUE HEFFNER IS DRAKE’S GHOST WRITER???”

*blank stare* (but thank you to OMG staff for the tip.)

Here’s the original….Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds’ song “Falling In Love.”

And here is Drake’s “Best I Ever Had”

MTV just premiered this rock-ish clip from Weezy and ¡Mayday! that was shot in Miami right before (one of the times) he turned himself in to the court….(thanks to Shake/2DopeBoyz for the heads up)

Director David Rousseau spoke on the pressure of the shoot:
“It was basically a ‘Mission: Impossible’ [scenario]: This is your mission if you choose to accept it. Everybody is onboard, because everybody knows what’s at stake. Unlike T.I. and some of these other guys that’s disappeared while they were in, the point is to keep Wayne [visible] on TV and everything for whatever time he’s in. There was a plan in action. Slim and Baby really could foresee that. He’s at the height of his career. You can’t let that momentum slip.”

Previously:
Lil Wayne freestyles w/ ¡Mayday!, plus a preview of “Knockout” (ft. Nicki Minaj)
NMC Exclusive: Drake feat. Lil Wayne “Miss Me” (CD Quality) (Updated)
Exclusive: Lil Wayne calls from Rikers, “I got in a lil’ trouble…I can’t live without the music“

(*iQuit imminent)

zzzzzzzzz….i’m sorry, I dozed off somewhere between the book promo and the railing against the very bloggers who have made her a household name…ahem.

I was amused Kat’s masterful name mash-up….”Rocska Ackcrosta.”

Rocska Ackcrosta is Kat’s imaginary Hindu vee-jaying video-modeling deity who does deep hamstring stretches in front of a live studio audience.

But aside from that, who knew phonebook dictation could be so dull.

Are you not entertained? Increasingly less so….

After the jump, watch the video that made Kat so hoppin’ mad. And listen to Kat’s interview with the homie Angela Yee….

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Erykah debuted her “Window Seat” video at 3:33 in the morning. Which was different. The clip, however, brings back 2 Chicago mainstays, Chike and Coodie, who directed Kanye’s “Thru the Wire” and other classics. Very good peoples. In this clip, Erykah basically walks through a crowded area and strips. Yikes! Mother of 3?! She looks fantastic. (Erykah’s New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh) drops this tuesday, btw)

Update: Thanks to reader Thomas for adding his insight on the “meaning” of the video in the comments section. Now Chike/Coodie’s signature vintage soft-look film effect makes sense too. Reminiscent of a 60’s-era news reel.

Update 2: Thanks to the homie DJ Brainchild for more Badu insight in the comments. And ItsTheReal explained Erykah’s opening Matt and Kim credit. Ah-ha! **Watch the Matt and Kim public nudity video that inspired “Window Seat”….after the jump

(Btw, Erykah clarified the writing on the sidewalk at the end of the video….that, and R.Kelly’s amateur home movie project aka “Echo,” after the jump)

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see you later when this hole in my head heals.

no, wait…to be fair, if I were a prepubescent girl living in a grain silo, I’d probably love this….if my silo was wired for interweb. Its not that bad.

On Weds, South Park kicked off their 13th season with a episode definitely engineered to create controversy…less so for social commentary, which they do pretty well, but more so because they “went there” by including this year’s many celebrity passings, drawing in Billy Mays, David Carradine, Ed McMahon, Patrick Swayze, Farrah Fawcett, Bea Arthur, Walter Cronkite, Natasha Richardson, Michael Jackson, DJ AM and more.

Honestly, it’s one thing to include all these celeb cameos…but another thing to just waste them. The plot here is too lame to balance out the “shock value.”

I enjoy fine art along with my pop art, and even though I don’t pretend to be an expert on the modern art scene, I stay up on the big stars and find my own personal favorites (like Ruscha, Prince and Yue Minjun). But some things just seem abstract for abstract sake. Yi Zhou is an acclaimed globalista who makes big multi-media art installations (not my fave medium) and even showed at Sundance…but aside from Pharrell’s C.I.A.-ready knife skills, the best part of this piece is the soundtrack by Ennio Morricone (especially the scratchy record-player white noise). On the other hand, this clip below, of Pharrell fighting Flat Eric (the puppet from French producer Mr. Oiso’s famous Levi’s commercial) looks very promising : )

After the jump…you can see the original Flat Eric Levi’s commercial…
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