Fader

The moral of this video: if you are a dude and not wearing a shirt and are sort of sweaty and rubbing your chest tats on FADER 51 cover star Keri Hilson's first-90210-era Shannen Doherty bustier, you're probably not going to get too far into the boobie-hula before Ms. Hilson starts reading you pages from the Don't Be a Douche handbook, even if you are fine as hell. However, if you are a swag-tsunami'ing, glistening-mouthed rapper approximately five feet shorter than Keri Hilson, she will let you rub her leg on the sectional, if you sing her name in your signature melody ("It's Keri, babaaay"). We love the drama of the small screen, almost as much as we love this track. Bonus: you can cancel your Amber Alert on Rich Boy! He cameos.

Never in our wildest dreams did we think anything could replace the sing song sounds of the NYPD's omnipresent chirps in the pleasure centers of our brains, but Bobby Valentino's WEEEOO-WEEEOO-WEE has somehow done it, at the same time becoming even more inescapable on the streets. And now there's a video.

It's official: this is the last version of "A Milli" that we will ever post… unless Cindy McCain covers it to appeal to the "that one" vote. And even then probably not. The Roots, live at the Fillmore in Miami with a special guest appearance by Weezy Baby. A Milli's by ?uestlove.


Download: The Roots f. Lil Wayne, "A Milli" (Live in Miami) (via Okayplayer)

Ever since Pharrell and Chad began focusing their energies on making mosh-pit music for college beerfests in N.E.R.D., we've been wondering where our next anti-gravity space beats were coming from and, further, if they would be a mere redux of Neptunesian splendor, or if they'd build on the meme. But of course! Brave and fealty FADER 45 cover star Polow da Don Dada took up the relay, and of course he's concocted a characteristically lush tableau of elastic basslines and a dude-chorus hollering like a down-South cheer section, making futuristic beats new with hefty personal flavor. Polow: we like how you think. Atop his gaseous anti-gravity beat-cloud, two more FADER cover stars, lady Ms. Keri Hilson (FADER 51) and Lil Wayne (FADER 47) put their heads together for an impeccable jernt that scolds dudes for coming at ladies with their drooly wackass C-game. We completely relate, especially when we're walking down the street and some 'bag shouts something grody from down the block. [For awhile in the summer we were doing daily intra-office street harrassment reports.] So thanks for this Ms. Keri, we will bump this in the iPod next time some nasty road-warrior tries to grab at our booty meat. NOTE: GLAD TO SEE YOUR RECORD IS FINALLY DROPPING.


Download: Keri Hilson f. Lil Wayne, "Turn Me Off"

We missed the Michael Phelps edition of SNL on Saturday night—we were judging a Bloody Mary contest—but from the looks of these two clips ("Got Money" after the jump), Wayne won the gold medal in Individual Rapping in Purple Jeans and Playing a Guitar (Kind Of).

Bonus: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton more...

How funny is it that Demarco, an almost exclusive auto-tuner, flat out ignored the fact that this is not a Lil Wayne song, focusing only on Wayne's chorus and removing The Game entirely? Not really that funny probably, but we are searching for a little levity considering this remix is about as depressing as it gets. Happy Friday!


Download: Demarco f. Lil Wayne, "My Life (Fallen Soldiers Refix)"

Between this and Cassie's "Official Girl" video, we could very easily make this about how horny Lil Wayne makes us, but T-Pain deserves his own post. Not because he makes us hornier than Wayne does (impossible) but because, well, he inspires us. The video is some fancy green-screening by Syndrome and reminds us of that scene in It where the clown pops up out of the shower drain. Appropriately, the album for which it is a promotion, Thr33 Ringz, comes out just before Halloween, but Teddy, of course, has given us the new Pree Ringz mixtape to build anticipation. Listen to and download it below.


Download: T-Pain's Pree Ringz Mixtape

When we first saw the lineup for this song we were, like every other jerk on the rapternet, pretty excited. And then we hit play and the first voice we heard was MIA's. Some sites are even inserting her into the lineup, á la every time Wayne gets sampled he's "featured." Dubious. But we're sure she's getting paid so good for her and very exciting. The sample itself though, along with our previous assertion that "Jockin Jay-Z" was inspired by ARE Weapons, lends credence to our theory that on Kanye's next album he will just be rapping over shit he found on Bradford Cox's blog. And then our jobs here will be over. Expect to see "Swagger Like Us" on both TI's Paper Trail and Jay's Blueprint 3 according to Clifford the Grump.

Stream: T.I. ft. Jay-Z, Kanye West & Lil Wayne - SLU (Swagger Like Us) (via Kanye)

Wayne is getting a reputation for collecting talented rappers and then kind of just forgetting about them. We're sincerely hoping the Kidd Kidd—who we stumbled upon in a couple of songs leaked late last week—won't be the latest of which. Kidd Kidd was at one time one fourth of Wayne's old Sqad Up crew, but these new songs bring up a whole slew of questions other than the whereabouts of Gudda, Supe and Young Yo: Is there a Sqad Up reunion on the horizon? Is Kidd Kidd the most uncreative rap name ever? The closest thing he has to a MySpace page is the old Sqad Up page, but the bright side to that is that now we have an excuse to link this old Sqad Up freestyle where a considerably younger Kidd, then known as Nutt the Kidd, easily outshines all of Sqad Up until around the two minute mark where Wayne actually outshines the sun.


Download: Kidd Kidd f. Lil Wayne, "Real Shit"


Download: Kidd Kidd f. Lil Wayne, "My Nigga"

When the original "Holla At A Playa" dropped some FOUR years ago, you couldn't tell us Jae Millz wasn't about to get his. Rap is in a very different place today than it was back then. Millz, however, doesn't look to have aged a day, which means that his signing to Young Money makes sense. It also includes an obligatory Wayne guest verse, confirming that Wayne actually knows Jae Millz is on his label. Maybe dude will be able to pick up right where he left off. WANNA WHAT!?


Download:Jae Millz f. Lil Wayne, "Holla at a Playa" (Remix)

Wherefore art Young Money? Lil Weez's once-sprawling rap battalion seems more like an army of one these days, Mack Maine and that little mohawked kid in the "A Milli" vid notwithstanding. But don't despair - there's no reason ex-entourages can't have a rosy future. Just look at one time YM-er Curren$y, who left the clique last December and has been leaking mixtapes every month, rapping over nothing but Souls Of Mischief-ass beats in a NoLa basement with his friends. This video (filmed earlier this year, spotted today on Nah Right) comes from one of them. "Sittin in my livin room, high... / Listenin to Jamiroquai." Who wouldn't take the simple life over Wayne's World?

We finally got past the camped-out burrito eaters to see The Dark Knight this weekend, and all we gotta say is… SO FUNNY. But seriously, we needed a little light times this morning to get over it and of course Wayne was there for us, resplendent in his recently upgraded t-shirt, fitted and tinted accessories. Still robbing banks like The Joker but way more Robin Hood styles. We need some levity. Also of note, this song was produced by a couple of our up-and-coming favorites out of Dallas, Play-N-Skillz, who you can catch in our next issue.

Over the weekend we witnessed the East Coast ding sling revival on Brighton Beach, a recent FADER-featured band play a show in the apartment of one of our editors, a bunch of recent FADER-featured bands at The Yard, the first episode of David Simon's Generation Kill and the most bananas drum parade in Prospect Park, which meant we didn't even pause (pause) when we saw this tagless version of Cam'ron's new joint on our Blackberry. And that folks is a sad day in hip hop. But it's Monday morning, so we're going to give it another look, and it turns out we were probably right in putting it off. (thanks to Young Sav though)


Download: Cam'ron, "Let The Beat Build Freestyle"

While sitting back watching the "A Millie" video over the weekend, we had to stop and ask, does Lil’ Wayne represent the new era of patriotism? We know you checked the video already, so lets take a moment and get deep into the political style genre that is Lil’ Wayne…no seriously. You got your jeans, and your "wife beater" tank, pretty run of the mill. Then, wait a second, a "Don’t Tread on Me" hat!? We’re all turned upside down. Was Lil’ Wayne preparing for the weekend holiday? Or has he just been studying up on his American Revolution-era Gadsden flag history? The office buzz started with, "Who’s his stylist?" and excelled quickly to, "Is Lil Wayne in the running for VP?" While we admit that would be quite scary, we’re gonna roll with his mysteriously patriotic hat and assume that he was testing his garb out for a 4th of July BBQ.

There's already been way too much virtual ink spilled over the never-ending metastasis of The World's Greatest Song About Nothing, so we'll keep it short and sweet in regards to this appropriately random official video that was literally filmed on the way to the filming of another music video that has Wayne finally—because we've been wondering—proving to us that he can write raps while in the bathroom. Also, it's almost impossible to watch this clip and not imagine it backwards. The Pharcyde guys were probably wearing Fresh Jive back then, too.

You may recognize the name Brisco from Wayne's "La La", Flo-Rida's "Birthday " remix, countless Ross and Khaled guest spots, or, less so, as the dude who wants to beat up Yung Berg for reasons we don't have the time to investigate. He recently put up this Drama-screamt-on (OPA LOCKA!!) Gangsta Grillz for free on his MySpace, which proves him to be a little more than the Memphis Bleek of Miami. Dude clearly has been influenced by the less-pensive side of Tupac, which is not a bad thing, and considering he's got basically every major label rapper in the state of Florida riding for him, expect to hear a lot more.

Download: Brisco, Gangsta Grillz: Underworld Rise Mixtape

Since today is the day Carter III is legally available at the retail outlet of your choosing, we figured we might as well talk about it. Is it a classic? No. Is it Wayne's classic? No, probably not. Does it sound better than anything else from this year blasting out of SUVs and airbrushed Japanese sedans? Yes, in fact it does. So of course we will add to its playlist with these two bonus tracks recently posted everywhere, even though they sound nearly identical to each other with a heavy marching band vibe and Deezle on the beat.

Get another one at Nah Right.


Download: Lil Wayne, "Action"


Download: Lil Wayne, "Whip It"

We know that this will probably not be the end of this in the world at large, but it is the end in the FADER office. "A Milli" is now on ice until our weddings, though Jay kind of wrecks it and the Gillie, Bump J, Meek and Peedi video above has to be the first known document of a crab rolling a dutch. So there is still some worth in covering these things.


Download: Jay-Z, "A Billie"

If you're like us, as you go about your day being wildly cool you sometimes have some music nerd epiphanies. Like, last summer we played the fuck out of Kanye and T-Pain's "The Good Life," and so this summer you'd think that, naturally, we'd constantly have Wayne and Pain's "Got Money" on repeat as our summer anthem. Except that song—while pretty good—is not exactly bringing us sunshine smiles. In fact, it's actually kinda dark. So does that make it the polar opposite of "The Good Life?" Not really but whatever, Mack Maine has been on a roll lately, so throwing him on this track is a totally good idea.


Download: Lil Wayne f. T-Pain & Mack Maine, "Got Money" Remix