Steven J. Horowitz

Bay Area rapper Kreayshawn pays her haters no mind. The 22-year-old rose to prominence last May when the video for her swagged-out ode to anti-materialism, “Gucci Gucci,” went viral, logging almost 35 million YouTube views – and more than 33,000 “dislikes” – to date. With her Columbia Records debut Somethin’ Bout Kreay now slated for a summer release, Kreayshawn says she couldn’t care less if people dismiss it.

“I think there are people who are just waiting to hate. This could be the best album in the world and they’ll hate it anyway,” Kreayshawn, born Natassia Gail Zolot, tells Rolling Stone. “I’m not really concerned with trying to turn haters into believers. I just think it’s going to be a fun-ass album for my fans that I have now, and for people who have only heard one song.”

Kreayshawn enlisted producers Diplo, Boys Noize, DJ Two Stacks and Jean Baptiste to broaden her hyphy-leaning sound. “One song will be like, super hip-hop, and one song will be like Bay Area hyphy music, and another will be like Chicago house juke music and one will be New Orleans crazy booty-bounce music. And one will be a crazy, witch-house-sounding track,” says Kreayshawn. The LP also features guest appearances from 2 Chainz, Kid Cudi, Sissy Nobby, DB tha General, Chippy Nonstop and V-Nasty.

Album cut “Twerkin’” features a hook from the track’s producer Diplo, who Kreayshawn says inspired her to pursue her film career (she’s directed videos for Soulja Boy Tell’em and Lil B). “When I grow up, I want to be like Diplo, for sure,” she says. For the Kid Cudi-assisted “Like It or Love It,” she says the pair drew from punk’s influence. “We were in the studio and we kind of made a new song with a whole new genre … [Cudi] actually played some guitar on the song and we made a break there with instruments,” Kreayshawn says. “The song is just like, punk. If you like it, then do it. Do whatever you want if it makes you happy.”

Since inking a rumored $1 million deal with Columbia in June 2011, Kreayshawn has laid relatively low, appearing as a featured guest on tracks by 2 Chainz and Juicy J and building up her performance chops with a headlining slot on last year’s Noisey college tour. In the meantime, other white female rappers have penetrated the game like Iggy Azalea and Kitty Pryde, whose “Okay Cupid” video has drawn comparisons to Kreayshawn for her aloof delivery and teen appeal.

“I saw her stuff. She’s cute. I love kitties,” Kreayshawn giggles. “I wouldn’t say [her flow is] similar at all. Her style is super poetic and well-written. My style is more like freestyle, crazy, whatever I’m thinking of. Ponies and blah blah blah. But her shit is tight, for sure.”

With her self-described “super upbeat” and “uptempo” debut arriving in a few months, Kreayshawn says she’s also cooking up duets with Insane Clown Posse, Sissy Nobby and pop-rap duo Millionaires. The former Berkeley Digital Film Institute student is also itching to pick back up the camera soon, and she hopes to record a new mixtape while promoting Somethin’ Bout Kreay, which will be released as a special-edition cassette tape for 100 fans. As for those haters? “I hope that this makes them think that they should shut up and listen to my album every day of their lives.”

RollingStone.com

For rapper Killer Mike, independence is key. The Atlanta native born Michael Render launched his career with 2003′s “Monster” (Columbia Records), but label issues delayed the highly anticipated follow-up. Three years later, in November 2006, his second album, “I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind,” was released through his own Grind Time Official imprint.

For his sixth album, “R.A.P. Music,” the 37-year-old took a different route. With four indie releases to his name, Killer Mike parlayed voice-over appearances on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block into a record deal with the company’s Williams Street Records, which will release “R.A.P. Music” on May 15. The partnership proved unusual but fruitful: In addition to pairing Mike with a pitch-perfect producer in underground rap legend El-P (a relationship forged by Williams Street’s Jason DeMarco, who handled A&R for the album), the label also gave him creative freedom.

“For me, independence is what has given me a 10-year career,” Killer Mike says. ” Ice Cube’s success for a few years was going gold independently. For Odd Future, staying independent has worked. If a label wants to change your life and give you a million dollars, I’m not going to tell you, ‘Don’t do it.’ But, for me, independence has worked.”

Killer Mike’s relationship with Adult Swim goes back five years, during which time he’s performed voices for the show “Frisky Dingo” and provided the song “Blam Blam” to the soundtrack to “Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters.” The soundtrack experience led Mike to approach DeMarco about doing an entire album. With producers Flying Lotus and Clams Casino in mind for the project, DeMarco paired Mike with El-P eight months ago for a test run in Atlanta. The session yielded three demos and a “bromance” that led to a full-length collaborative effort.

According to DeMarco, the chemistry was immediate. “El’s and Mike’s aesthetics are so defined that the songs almost came into being fully formed,” he says. Williams Street, which also has released albums by Cerebral Ballzy and Cheeseburger, plans to integrate tracks from “R.A.P. Music” into Adult Swim shows and hopes to work the album through the rest of the year. “When a record like this is really good,” DeMarco says, “it has a longer life span than one with just a couple of great songs.”

Killer Mike’s manager Joe Baker explains that working with Williams Street opens opportunities to tour through the rest of the year and gain new fans from El-P’s “backpacker” fan base. Baker says Mike and El-P will co-headline a tour this summer with opening acts Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire and Despot.

Given his experience so far with Williams Street, Killer Mike hopes to release more solo albums in 2013, and intends to record all future solo sets with El-P. In addition, he confirms plans for a group album with Big Boi and Pill, references recent studio sessions with T.I. and Grand Hustle signee Iggy Azalea and is looking to compile a sequel to 2009′s “Underground Atlanta.” He and El-P have already begun picking beats for the successor to R.A.P. Music.

“I hope it does whatever they need it to do so they’ll cut us a check to do another album,” Killer Mike says. “I want this record to go gold, I want it to come out of nowhere and shock the shit out of everybody. Hopefully word-of-mouth and smart use of money will help that happen. I want Adult Swim to say, ‘We’ve got to do this again.’”

Billboard.com

With her debut album Go! Pop! Bang!, Rye Rye just wants to have fun. The Baltimore native, who established relevance as M.I.A.’s choreographically gifted hype woman, has spent the past four years attempting to lift her career from the party rap trenches. Her staggered attempts to crack the mainstream—“Bang” and “Sunshine,” both featuring M.I.A.—were virtuous, but fizzled upon impact. The baby-voiced spitfire had been eclipsed by her mentor, whose star had already risen with “Paper Planes” years prior.

On Go! Pop! Bang!, the 21-year-old firecracker delivers, intent on proving she’s the club’s true lifeline. Long overdue, Rye Rye’s introductory opus is insatiably sweaty and aggressive, shape shifting between songs without letting the beat drop. Previously released anthems dot the tracklist: “Bang,” “Shake, Twist, Drop,” “Sunshine,” “Boom Boom” and “Never Will Be Mine” featuring Robyn all have a home on the offering. But it’s in sequence where they thrive, cozying up to bizarre attempts at party fodder (“Better Than You” outright samples Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton’s “Anything You Can Do” from Annie Get Your Gun) and mainstream back-pats (“Crazy Bitch” featuring Akon, “DNA” featuring Porcelain Black).

For Rye Rye, introspection isn’t a concern. She spends most of the LP asserting her bad bitchness through hypnotic raps, chanting choruses suitable for a game of double dutch. “I’ma shake it to the ground and bring it back up / Twirl it all around, yeah, you know what’s up,” she deadpans on “Shake It to the Ground.” It’s about as deep as it gets.

But that’s not the point. Rye Rye has waited in the wings for years, finally getting her shot at making an impression without having to bank on gimmickry. The creativity is there, set against a feverish backdrop care of producers like Bangladesh, The Neptunes and RedOne. They’re glam jams without unnecessary spitshine, confident with a touch of arrogance. Top 40 success may not be the outcome for Go! Pop! Bang!, but Rye Rye at least sounds like she enjoyed making it—a rarity in the pop realm.

BlackBookMag.com

After nearly three decades of making music, Sade Adu still has a hard time letting fans in, preferring to limit her press ops and take decade-long stretches between new album releases. But the British-Nigerian singer and her band are inching back towards the spotlight with the May 22nd DVD/CD and Blu-ray release of Bring Me Home – Live 2011, which chronicles their mega-successful Sade Live tour. The 54-date trek touched down in Europe, America, Australia and Asia and celebrated Sade’s platinum-certified 2010 LP, Soldier of Love.

Despite the tour’s success, Sade’s frontwoman approached the idea of a live LP and behind-the-scenes documentary with typical temerity. “Initially I didn’t want to do it, because I had this feeling that it was a great moment and I was afraid we couldn’t convey the atmosphere and the feeling of the whole tour,” says Adu. “There’s always that fear and trepidation. But you have no choice but to go on because you’re in it.”

Directed by Sophie Muller, who also designed and produced the tour, the 20-minute documentary compiles rare footage of Sade behind-the-scenes that chips at the notoriously elusive singer’s shellacked persona. In one scene, she harmonizes “Amazing Grace” with her backup singers; in another, she gazes pensively into a mirror during a rare moment of open reflection.

For Adu, returning to the stage after a 10-year hiatus was admittedly daunting. She rebuffs her celebrity but says that collaborating with Muller gave her the confidence to perform like a “gladiator.” Explains the 53-year-old singer, “I’m tough. I’m a Nigerian. I’m into the moment and I put my entire self into that. I suppose I am reluctant to share my life. My life is in the songs, and I’ve already done that. I don’t think our fans have those expectations from me.”

Muller, whose work with Sade stretches back to the Eighties, encouraged the band to go grand onstage without compromising the intimacy of their songs. They conceptualized the show as a negotiation of extremes: tour opener “Soldier of Love,” for example, is set against a towering slow-exposure backdrop of passing clouds, while Sade duets with a naked electric guitar-saxophone combo during her perormance of “Promise,” perched on the lip of the stage.

“Each song has its own personality and we wanted the whole visual panorama to completely change, dependent upon the character and atmosphere of the song at the moment,” explains Adu, adding that she hopes to take her live show to Africa “if” she tours again. “That’s what I felt was something great about this show. You’re in this tiny miniscule theater, and then suddenly, you’re in a stadium. It was an overriding sensation.”

Already, there’s a two-year stretch between Soldier of Love’s release and that of Bring Me Home. But Adu says she no immediate plans to record new music or return to the stage, although extracurricular activities could keep her star from dimming. “I’ve got some plans for some projects that I’ve been thinking about for a long time. I think I’ve got a lot of energy,” says Adu with some restraint. “As far as music goes, that’s something that I’m not very pragmatic about. I let it sort of appear and grab me. It could be two years or 10 years. I don’t make plans like that. It somehow happens.”

RollingStone.com

A version of T.I.’s single “I’m Flexin’” has sold 2,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The song, which features Def Jam artist Rick Ross, has been available in the iTunes store since Jan. 24 as part of the DJ Cortez and DJ Ransom Dollars mixtape “Fuck the Competition Vol. 3.” But something isn’t right: T.I.’s Grand Hustle camp has never licensed this version of the song for retail, and hasn’t seen any revenue from these sales.

It’s an issue that’s plagued rappers who often use mixtapes as promotional items, rather than product for sale. Grand Hustle CEO Jason Geter speculates that DJs partner with distribution companies to mutually profit from major mixtape releases. “Fuck the Competition Vol. 3,” distributed by Green Light Records through SongCast, is also up on Amazon and Rhapsody, where the “Flexin’” remix is available for purchase.

“No one should be seeing money off of a T.I. record if we’re not seeing money off of that, period,” says Geter, who co-founded Grand Hustle with T.I. “With Amazon or iTunes or any major distributor, they should be held accountable.”

Both iTunes and Amazon have copyright infringement policies that allow anyone to lodge complaints. (ITunes vows to “terminate the accounts of users who violate others’ intellectual property rights” in its copyright policy.) Rights-holders must specifically request that a song be taken down, yet despite this safeguard, tracks often reappear in the digital stores shortly after their removal, requiring artists and management to constantly track the use of their music. Neither iTunes nor Amazon responded to repeated requests for comment.

T.I. isn’t the only rapper who has found his songs for sale without consent. New Def Jam Recordings signee 2 Chainz has struggled to keep his mixtape material off digital sites. In November 2011, he released his breakout mixtape, “T.R.U. REALigion,” hosted by DJ Drama. Then unsigned, the Atlanta native put up the non-DJ version for sale on digital platforms to profit from the project, which comprised original content. After signing his deal, 2 Chainz’ team removed the tape from iTunes as he transferred the masters to the label, but tracks continue to appear on the digital retailer on other compilations. “T.R.U. REALigion” wasn’t taken down from Amazon, where it’s still available for purchase.

One of the tape’s standout tracks, “Riot,” can be found on iTunes in remixed form on the compilation “We Turnt Up Vol. 6,” released through AMB Digital, a label affiliated with the Independent Online Distribution Alliance/the Orchard. According to SoundScan, the anthem featuring Warner Bros. artist Gucci Mane has sold 1,200 copies since first appearing in the store on Feb. 1. “We Turnt Up” credits the song to “2Chainz & Gucci” — a slight name variation that doesn’t register through any basic search on retail sites. The tactic frequently helps deter artists and management from finding unauthorized tracks. On “We Turnt Up,” other names are also modified, such as Rick Ross (“Rozay”), Alley Boy (“Allley Boy”) and Jim Jones (“Jimmy Jones”).

For 2 Chainz’ manager Teknikz, battling mixtape profiteers in the digital realm has become routine. “We constantly have to go after them,” says Teknikz, who also manages Travis Porter and Jose Guapo under Street Execs Management. Teknikz physically sifts through online retail sites and makes a list of who illegally distributes their content. “It comes down to doing research and seeing who’s putting your stuff up,” he says, adding that repeat offenders are a constant hassle. “I was just doing this a month ago, and now I have to go back and do it again.”

Mixtapes have appeared at retail for years, legally or not. Throughout the ’90s, they were often labeled as “for promotional use only” while bootlegged and sold out of car trunks and on street corners. DJs and rappers often earned profits from those sales. With the rise of the Internet, mixtapes were sold on websites and some even appeared at physical retail as label-sanctioned releases.

Some labels have stepped in to regulate the unauthorized sales. Bad Boy Worldwide VP of marketing Jason Wiley says the imprint monitors mixtapes from artists like Machine Gun Kelly and French Montana since it’s beneficial in the long term to promote free material. “It’s a constant battle,” Wiley says. “We’re always tracking our sales, tracking our numbers, seeing how it relates to fans and tour dates. So, in doing all of that, we’re looking at this person buying and selling a song illegally.”

It’s still unclear if distributors are aware that they’re perpetuating copyright infringement. The Orchard, for one, declined to comment. ­Either way, Grand Hustle’s Geter sees the major labels as the answer.

“When you say [a T.I.] record sold 1,700 copies, on a big scale, that’s nothing,” he says. “But [those sales] add up at the end of the day. It’s going to be a problem if major labels don’t address it and make these companies accountable for their actions.”

Billboard.com

For his sophomore album, “Strange Clouds,” B.o.B hopes to take his corporate connections sky high.

Following the success of his 2010 gold-certified debut, “B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray,” the Decatur, Ga., native looked for ways to boost his image, striking deals with Target and Coca-Cola in addition to a pre-existing Adidas sponsorship and an appearance in an Electronic Arts Sports videogame. The singer/songwriter, who cracked both pop and R&B markets with the singles “Nothin’ on You” and “Airplanes” (peaking at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100), wanted to expand his business portfolio with his second album and use those ties to introduce his music to a wider audience.

“I definitely see the benefit behind building a brand for whatever venture you catapult yourself into,” B.o.B says. “But for me, the driving force has always been the music-it’s just a way to get my music heard by more people and [potentially] more fans.”

With “Strange Clouds,” arriving May 1 on Rebel Rock/Grand Hustle/Atlantic, the 23-year-old signed a deal with Target to promote the album through TV and online campaigns. His conversations with the big-box chain date back to “The Adventures of Bobby Ray,” but the partnership was solidified after he played them several cuts from his new project. TV spots and online ads begin April 29, and culminate with a New York event on the album’s release date. Target will also sell an exclusive version of the set with five bonus tracks.

Target doesn’t typically work with rap artists, but the company has previously signed exclusive deals with several rock and pop acts including Pearl Jam, Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin. Marsha St. Hubert, director of marketing at Atlantic Records and product manager for “Strange Clouds,” says, “B.o.B isn’t just a hip-hop artist, although he raps and makes hip-hop music. He also has the ability to do more. He sings, he plays instruments, he has a broader and more universal appeal. That’s probably what makes the partnership with Target so unique.”

That diversity is evident on “Strange Clouds,” which teeters between the grittier rap sound of his mixtape fare and the pop sheen of “The Adventures of Bobby Ray,” which has sold 597,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. (“Nothin’ on You” and “Airplanes” have sold a combined 7.5 million copies.) The album is led by the platinum title track (1.2 million copies), featuring Lil Wayne, touting a buzzy, Southern-influenced beat and such radio-unfriendly lyrics as, “Stay on the greenest greens, call us vegetarians.”

While B.o.B plays to hip-hop audiences with guest appearances from Grand Hustle label head T.I., as well as Nicki Minaj, Chris Brown and Trey Songz, he balances the urban angle with pop and even country artists making contributions. Taylor Swift duets with him on “Both of Us,” while OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder croons on “Never Let You Go” and R&B songstress Lauriana Mae contributes to “Chandelier.” As with his debut, production comes courtesy of pop masterminds Dr. Luke, Cirkut, Benny Blanco and Alex Da Kid. The album’s pop-geared single, “So Good,” is also approaching platinum (869,000 copies).

B.o.B dates his musical flexibility back to his adolescent years. “I had always had that approach and could talk to everybody-from the jocks and cheerleaders to outcasts, nerds and gangsters,” he says, describing himself as “a drifter.” Later on, he says, “I developed a wide range, and it grew with my music career. I feel like I can speak different languages when it comes to music.”

The artist plans to perform on the European festival circuit beginning in July, returning to the United States in August for a headlining tour he claims will continue for two years. He’s already at work on an upcoming mixtape and has been recording songs with T.I. for a collaborative album titled The Man and the Martian, which will be released after “Strange Clouds” and T.I.’s forthcoming “Trouble Man.”

“The last album was about the songs. The songs were bigger than Bob,” B.o.B’s manager Brian “B-Rich” Richardson says. “This album is about B.o.B the brand, and letting people know who he is.” Richardson notes that partnerships were in place for the first album with Nintendo, Adidas and EA Sports. “Each album cycle, you have to get bigger,” he says.

Beyond his touring and recording, however, becoming an entrepreneur is a top priority. ” Will Smith, T.I., André 3000 and Cee Lo Green are artists who have longevity in entertainment and the business world and even beyond music,” B.o.B says. “No matter what road you’re on, it’s going to keep moving regardless of what happens, good or bad, high or low. You’ve got to keep moving on that road and make the best situation out of whatever is thrown your way.”

Billboard.com

Usher doesn’t want you to just listen to his seventh album Looking for Myself – he’d rather you feel it. To debut his Euro-splashed LP, coming out June 12th, the R&B sexophile integrated himself into two performances of Off-Broadway’s “Fuerza Bruta,” a senses-stimulating live experience combining vigorous slam dancing, surgical lighting cues and participation from a clumped standing-only audience.

A foggy haze permeated the cavernous performance space at New York City’s Daryl Roth Theater, where the 33-year-old theatrically sequenced the entirety of the project to strobing lights and choreographed moves. A booming voice introduced the night as “a journey for each of the senses,” and warned the audience, “what happens stays here. Consider yourself lucky.” Those in attendance for the first of two pre-public performances took note, heeding commands to crouch low to the ground and pump fists in the air.

Emerging from the dark, a fauxhawk-coiffed Ursh, clad in a snow-white suit accented by a black tie, trotted across a conveyor belt in beat to the Diplo-produced “Climax.” As the tempo galloped and his pace quickened, he clutched his stomach as a gunshot fired and blood spread across his torso, leaving the evening’s protagonist injured but able to mingle with fellow players as the crunchy title track, produced by Empire of the Sun, boomed through the system.

That sense of wounded ache counteracted his desire to command the crowd, a balance struck tightly on Looking for Myself. The LP piggybacks on the ephemeral club appeal of his recent hits, including “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love” featuring Pitbull and David Guetta’s “Without You,” and weighs it against vulnerable demi-ballads à la “Papers,” pointing the pen inward while reflecting on the concept of fidelity.

At his most frivolous, Usher dominated the room. As the audience shuffled to accommodate the constantly shifting set pieces, he orchestrated flash dance parties, bringing attendees onto a pint-sized stage to boogie to the sounds of the album’s second single “Scream,” produced by Max Martin and Shellback. Even when he splayed across a makeshift couch during the Jim Jonsin-helmed “Let Me See” featuring Rick Ross, patrons bounced to the PG-13 lyrics (“She said she want to take her shirt off, be my guest,” he sings) while lights flashed and acrobats raced along a silver curtain 30 feet above the ground.

But it was when the pace slowed that Usher’s trademark sensitivity shined. The album reached emotional fever pitch during a Rico Love-penned “Dive,” where actors slid across a taut see-through tarp covered in pools of water, sustained above the audience’s head. “I don’t mind playing in the rain,” Usher naughtily coos over an unresolving melody. Later, against a cloudy and mechanical beat on an unnamed track, he sings a different tune: “I admit that I’ve been careless,” he confesses.

It’s those pocket moments of introspection that humanize the robotics of Looking for Myself. With two public performances at “Fuerza Bruta,” both taking place tonight (April 28), the veteran entertainer reasserts himself as a master of rapturous dance fodder, capable of turning a room into a thumping rave with ease. But the conflicted odes of self-reflection show the hero isn’t as valiant as the beat would have you believe – an uncertainty that keeps him grounded, even when the volume is cranked up high.

RollingStone.com

When noise-rap trio Death Grips informally met with Epic Records executives Antonio “L.A.” Reid, Christopher “Tricky” Stewart and Angelica Cob-Baehler in October 2011, it didn’t expect to leave the meeting signed to the label.

The Sacramento, Calif., band, which consists of rapper Stefan Burnett (aka MC Ride), producer Andy Morin (aka Flatlander) and drummer Zach Hill, had amassed a loyal following through viral videos and riotous performances since forming in December 2010. Its first recording, “Full Moon (Death Classic)” — a stilted breed of electro, metal and hardcore rap-served as a raucous appetizer for a free mixtape titled “Exmilitary,” which was greeted with critical fanfare upon its debut in April 2011.

But it was the group’s unsettling, low-budget video for the song “Guillotine” that caught Cob-Baehler’s attention. In October, after a courtship by several labels following the mixtape release, Death Grips ventured to Sony’s Los Angeles headquarters. There, MC Ride tagged the company’s bathroom with graffiti before the meeting, demonstrating a sense of rebellion that sold executives on the threesome. What’s unusual is how the group responded to Epic’s pitch, especially given its anti-establishment attitude.

The deal was ironed out in less than five hours. The label convinced the group that it was on the same page, promising not to compromise its artistic integrity or assume its publishing rights.

“We were kind of taking things with a grain of salt,” Hill says. “That’s generally what we do with anybody on the outside that’s coming into the inside. But it became very apparent that these people really understood what we were doing and to not mess with it. They generally believed in this as something that was different.”

“It’s a unique signing to Epic, in the sense that the music isn’t easily digestible at first,” says Cob-Baehler, the executive VP of marketing at Epic who is heading the A&R effort for Death Grips’ upcoming debut, “The Money Store.” “But if there ever was a time to get fearless about signing, it’s now. If you want to break the mold in any way, you have to go into unchartered territory. The fact that people keep saying this is such a unique or unexpected signing confirms that it was a great one.”

Immediate plans include releasing “The Money Store” through independent retail on Record Store Day (April 21) and its follow-up “No Love” in the fall. Certain that fans will flock to Death Grips through word-of-mouth (“This band cannot be explained-it has to be experienced,” Cob-Baehler says), the group has partnered with BitTorrent to release a music video for “I’ve Seen Footage” through the controversial downloading service. In addition to performing at this year’s Coachella festival, the band is already fielding offers to play gigs in 2013.

So far, the pairing of the Sony label and the aggressive hip-hop band has been mutually rewarding. “We saw eye to eye in a sense of saying, ‘Let’s just do this. Let’s not get caught up in record sales or money-let’s just do this because we love music and we want to shake things up,’” Cob-Baehler says.

As for the group’s perspective, Hill says, “We’re in control. It’s obvious that people have picked up on it as far as who’s running Death Grips, and that’s how it’s always going to be. [Epic] is here to help us with what we say we need help with. And that’s how it’s going down.”

Billboard.com

When Melissa Lonner, senior entertainment producer for NBC’s “Today,” booked Brit pop quintet One Direction in January, she scheduled the group for a routine in-studio performance. But once news broke that the boyish fivesome would be at 30 Rock, a deluge of fan emails flooded the show’s inbox, forcing NBC to relocate the appearance to Rockefeller Plaza. That was when the New York Police Department got involved. Spurred by reports of swelling public appearances by the band in other markets like Toronto and Boston — the latter of which attracting some 5,000 screaming fans to Natick Mall — the NYPD contacted NBC security to ensure measures would be taken to maintain order.

When the group often referred to as 1D finally did appear in midtown Manhattan on March 12 — the day before its chart-topping debut, “Up All Night”, arrived on Columbia Records — an estimated 15,000 fans descended on the plaza, spilling onto the surrounding streets. It was an unprecedented turnout for an act that had yet to release an album stateside. (“Up All Night” debuted at No. 2 in the United Kingdom when it was released there on Nov. 21.) But even beyond that: The crowd for 1D — which consists of Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles (ages 18-20) — ranked among the biggest “Today” has seen. Only Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and Chris Brown have drawn that kind of turnout to date.

“Keep in mind, Justin and Chris have had hits in the U.S. and are known in the U.S.,” Lonner says. “One Direction is relatively unknown with no hits yet. They basically exploded, and all the adults are saying, ‘Who are these people, and how do they know about it?’”

In April, another all-male English import, the Wanted — a quintet with a style a bit more built for the post-teenage demographic than 1D — is booked for an in-studio performance at “Today.” The appearance comes in anticipation of the April 24 release of the Wanted’s self-titled debut, a seven-track EP arriving on Island Def Jam and complemented by a 10-song deluxe edition. The group’s full-length debut, Battleground (Island Def Jam), which appeared in the United Kingdom in November and is slated to arrive stateside this fall, is certified gold there and has already spawned two No. 1s on the U.K. chart. According to Lonner, if the demand for the Wanted is anything near that of 1D, “Today” will once again move the show outside. With extra security in place, of course.

Not since the reigning days of Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync and 98 Degrees have boy bands crashed pop culture with such fervor. In the past few years, solo starlets including Bieber, Gaga, Katy Perry and Rihanna have presided over the pop charts. But as summer approaches, 1D and the Wanted are spearheading what could very well be the next boy band boom. The story is a familiar one: Backed by big-name managers, fresh-faced groups assemble, win over potential fans through grass-roots marketing, attack the charts with slick pop fare and sell out tours in seconds.

Without so much as releasing an album in North America, 1D and the Wanted have already accomplished feats that took past boy bands years to achieve. Ahead of “Up All Night”‘s U.S. release, 1D’s breakout single “What Makes You Beautiful” became the highest-charting debut for a U.K. artist on the Billboard Hot 100 since Jimmy Ray’s 1998 hit “Are You Jimmy Ray?” when it bowed at No. 28 on Feb. 22. (“Are You Jimmy Ray?” entered the chart at No. 26.)

In the United Kingdom, “Beautiful” is mammoth: The summery track entered the singles chart at No. 1, selling 540,000 copies (according to the Official Charts Co.) and winning Best British Single at the BRIT Awards in February. In the United States, 1D has shut down malls with in-store signings and appearances from coast to coast. Fans even chased the group’s car through Manhattan following a performance at Radio City Music Hall on March 9, where it appeared as the opening act for fellow boy band Big Time Rush on the sold-out Better With U tour. 1D and the Wanted have contemporaries — Big Time Rush, JLS, Mindless Behavior and others-but while all have found success at retail and on the road, that success pales in comparison to the explosive rise of the two British acts.

This week, “Up All Night” tops the Billboard 200 with 176,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan, unseating Bruce Springsteen and holding off Adele to make 1D the first British band — let alone British boy band — to enter the top spot with its debut album, something not even the Beatles could accomplish. (The Fab Four’s 1964 Vee-Jay Records debut, Introducing . . . The Beatles, reached No. 2.)

Despite still being a month out from its domestic debut, the Wanted has also soared in the States. Last August, Island Def Jam went to radio with “Glad You Came,” from the group’s U.K. sophomore album, Battleground.

Initially a slow build, “Glad You Came” took flight after the song was featured on the Feb. 21 episode of “Glee,” breaking the record for highest-charting single by a British band since Take That’s 1995 hit “Back for Good.” The Take That track reached No. 7 on the Hot 100. “Glad You Came” sits at No. 3. In January, the group made its U.S. debut on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” accompanied by a sold-out stateside trek that ran from January through February. When the Wanted returns in April, the group will have already lodged two No. 1 singles in the United Kingdom.

Simon Cowell, who signed 1D to his Syco Records imprint after the group’s appearance on the U.K. version of “The X Factor” in 2010, is no stranger to boy bands. In 1999, Cowell, working with 1D manager Richard Griffiths, helped male pop group Westlife sell more than 40 million albums worldwide, according to Griffith’s company Modest! Management. The demand for all-male pop groups may appear to be sporadic, but according to Cowell, it always comes in algorithmic waves.

“It’s a track-oriented chart at the moment,” Cowell says. “When we used to put records out years ago, two singles was the norm, three singles was a lot. And you have these solo artists now who could be, with collaborations, putting out seven or eight singles a year.”

Cowell credits Bieber and his manager Scooter Braun — who also manages the Wanted — as the drivers for putting young adult stars back on the map. “I’ve done this long enough that everything in music and entertainment in cyclical,” Cowell says. “[Even if] you go back to the Motown days, every time, it always comes back to 12 o’clock. It felt like that time again.”

A full version of this article can be found in this week’s Billboard, which arrives in two Tiger Beat-tastic versions (1D and The Wanted).

Billboard.com

Brandy is definitely in her zone. Following the release of her underrated, under-promoted 2008 album, Human, the former teen star retreated from the spotlight – a place she’s been centered since her first meeting with Atlantic Records at 15 years old. After several years of personal strife, including sagging sales of Human and severing ties with her recording label, Epic Records, the 33-year-old talent is ready to shed her skin and start anew.

“I think a lot of the struggles I’ve had are what I needed to go through to get to another place,” she says. “Everything is pretty sudden. One day I just woke up and I changed my mind about everything. I felt like I wasn’t fulfilled. I was acting simultaneously with singing as a kid, and I just felt like I have this talent, why am I not using it? Why am I not trying everything and doing everything I can do?” Snapped back to reality after a near four-year hiatus from her solo career, Brandy is back to basics with the upcoming release of her sixth album, Two Eleven, releasing in June. The LP, which features production and writing from Sean Garrett, Bangladesh, Rico Love, Frank Ocean, Drake and Noah “40” Shebib, comes on the heels of reality show stardom with her family (VH1’s Brandy and Ray J: A Family Business) and hand wave appearances at red carpets. Her public standing shrunk; her star dimmed.

But with Two Eleven, a reference to her birthday (February 11th) and the day her mentor Whitney Houston passed away, Brandy is signifying a reinvention of sorts: she’s signed with a new label, RCA Records, shifted out of her comfort zone and is embracing reality. It’s a near confrontational way to reclaim her artistry. “It’s taken a minute for me to really figure out the type of artist that I am, the type of music that I need to sing to reconnect with my audience. I just know with this album, I wanted it to be as honest and as real as possible,” she says. “Sometimes, you can get caught up in wanting to make hits and wanting to get on the radio and performing on everything that’s out there. I just wanted to stay true to who I was. That’s why it’s taken me so long to figure out the right home for me to put my music out there with. Other than that, I wanted my album to represent honesty and clarity and struggle and pain, as well as love, with a different sound and a different edge. That’s what this album is.”

Her first steps back into the pop culture arena came with a handholding counterpart. Fourteen years after their chart-rocking, she-for-all “The Boy is Mine,” Brandy and Monica reunited to record the Rico Love-penned “It All Belongs to Me,” the first single from both Two Eleven and Monica’s upcoming album New Life, due in April. On the sassy back-and-forth, the two unite instead of fight, staking materialistic territory in the wake of a breakup (“That MacBook, that shit belongs to me / So log off your Facebook,” they sass on the chorus). For Brandy, the intention was to release a solo single, but opportunity was too sweet to dismiss.

“I was so focused on my project and what I needed to do to get my music back out there, but when an idea like this comes along, this is more than just a song; it’s an event. It’s the reunion of two artists that made history together. It’s bigger than the song itself,” she says. “Of course I wanted to come out first on my own so I can stand on my own two feet, but who knew that this Monica thing would come along? I couldn’t say no to that. That would be stupid.”

The duet was more a matter of circumstance than opportunism. When Brandy and Monica paired in 1998, it was during their tempestuous teens, right when their careers were hitting full stride. The song became the best-selling track of that year, and won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group. But industry politics turned them on one another. Only once did they grace the same stage to perform the back-and-forth cut: at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards. It took years of maturity to look past their petty squabble, which was admittedly without a basis, for the girls to woman up. After Brandy left Epic Records in 2009 and resigned with RCA Records in August 2011, she found herself at the same label home as her former foe. The imprint asked her if she would consider doing a collaborative cut with Monica, and after reconnecting with the Atlanta songstress, the wheels started spinning.

“The first time, we didn’t know each other. We just went to the studio and recorded the song. There was no chemistry there, really, because we didn’t really have any time to sing with each other,” says Brandy, who has since filmed a video for the song with Monica and performed the track live several times. The two are in talks to do a summer tour together, though nothing is set in stone. “We would be dumb if we didn’t do a tour. Something has to happen in order for that not to happen, something where you’d have to be like, ‘Oh, they called me to be in Avatar 3. Sorry Monica, I gotta do that movie!’ That would be the only thing that would stop me.”

Important to Brandy was keeping Monica close in the weeks following Whitney Houston’s death. Brandy had maintained a close relationship with the late singer throughout the years, and conversed with Whitney and Monica during Grammy weekend in February 2012. They had just spoken before Whitney retreated to her room, where she soon passed. Management insisted that no questions be asked about the loss of her mentor, but Brandy was quick to reference her, explaining that she was important enough to inspire Two Eleven’s title. “Some of the titles I was working with were Rebirth, Reincarnation, Reinvention, Resurrection… I just felt like Two Eleven describes all of that. It’s the day I was born, and each year, I evolve and change with time,” she says. “It also has a whole new meaning to it because I gained my angel. My icon is my angel now. It’s all tied in there and I just think it best represents who I am and the responsibilities I have moving on.”

Shying away from the smooth piano-infused tones of Human, Brandy roughs up her sound on Two Eleven, maintaining the powerful productions of previous records but mashing in genres outside of her comfort zone. “It’s definitely R&B, but it has the crossover appeal. It’s grittier, it’s edgier, it’s just different type of R&B. It’s not your regular smooth, soft with the beat type music,” she describes. “It’s just taking risks and hearing how I sound over different types of music, and I wanted an album that different people can listen to. Not just R&B, but pop and hip-hop. I wanted everyone to have something that they can listen to on this album.”

Part of her evolution comes in the form of the team involved on Two Eleven. Normally, Brandy aligns with a particular producer such as Timbaland or Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins to helm the bulk of an LP, and uses additional beatsmiths to color the gaps. But for Two Eleven, she’s piecing together a versatile offering of “gritty” R&B with pop and hip-hop overtones, working with a spread of musicians to expand her sound.

Notable contributions come from Odd Future’s resident crooner Frank Ocean, who previously penned “1st & Love” off of Human under his government name Christopher Breaux. For “Scared of Beautiful,” Ocean lends his writing chops for a deeper cut about a woman coming to terms with her beauty. “His music speaks volumes, and I was able to experience that before everyone else knew,” she says. “I always knew he was really special and I just wanted to see how we could vibe, what we could come up with together in the studio this time around. He’s just a genius. I think his songs have so much substance and so much depth, and you need that on an album as well.”

While self-imposed, the hiatus from her solo career came after departing from Epic Records, on which she only released Human. Brandy took the opportunity to breathe – she’d been active in music for more than a decade – and make her home at a label that would back her recordings and creativity – no questions asked. It’s at RCA where she found her footing – “They would do everything in their power to get my music out there” – and got her musical career back on track. But her creative reemergence also inspired her return to acting. As far back as her early teens, Brandy was a screen diva, holding court on television as the star of Moesha and appearing in films such as 1998’s I Know What You Did Last Summer and 2001’s Osmosis Jones. It took a cameo on CW’s 90210 to get her back into character, followed by recurring roles on Drop Dead Diva and The Game. She doesn’t care for reality television anymore and is entertaining the idea of developing and starring in a scripted series a la Moesha. “That’s where I’m from. I was raised on television. I need to continue to keep that up,” she explains. “It’s just like it was meant to be, for me to get back into it and with developing my own show now, I want a show that represents everything that I am and more, and just take risks and challenge myself to be somebody different than who I am, as well. I’m ready though.”

Television paved the way for her foray back into Hollywood. In July, Brandy will star alongside Kim Kardashian, Vanessa Williams and Lance Gross in the Tyler Perry film The Marriage Counselor, where she plays a woman named Melinda. Though she wouldn’t go into specifics about her character, she describes Melinda as “running from a past that’s so hard for her to face.” It’s a familiar circumstance for Brandy, who had spent the last few years coming to terms with her future while growing from previous hardships.

“It may not be the same exact situation or the same circumstance, but no matter what, pain feels the same in any situation,” she says. “I was definitely having to pull from the most painful experiences that I had to connect with Melinda, and that’s a hard thing to do when you’re excited and happy to be doing a movie and working with Tyler Perry.”

With her singing and acting careers in full swing, Brandy looks back on her resurgence over the last year as a blessing. Stating that “positive thinking and including God in everything I do” is the key to success, she’s finally ready to take on new challenges, looking at former mistakes as stepping stones to putting her professional life back on track. “I’m just excited to entertain and discover more and more about myself, and through these great experiences like doing an album, doing different roles, all of this stuff, it’s just reminding me of why I’m here and why I’m on this planet. I just want to continue to do everything that I’m supposed to do,” she says. “It’s all a gift. I’m just so thankful. I just want to be able to do whatever it is that I’m meant to do. I’m just excited to discover more and more about me, because I forgot. I really forgot. I’m reminded more and more every time I experience things like I’ve been experiencing them over the last year.”

YRBMagazine.com

Machine Gun Kelly is more vulnerable than his “wild boy” persona lets on. The Cleveland, Ohio rapper, whose clamorous live sets and fanbase of “ragers” have branded him a contender for hip-hop’s resident rocker, reveals a softer side on his Half Naked & Almost Famous EP, his first official release through Diddy’s Bad Boy label and a companion piece to a 90-minute documentary.

On cuts like “See My Tears” and “EST 4 Life,” Kelly points the pen inward, reflecting on his mainstream ascent and questioning what the future holds. The five-track set also includes two previously released tracks – the blistering “Wild Boys,” featuring Waka Flocka Flame, and the Cassie-assisted “Warning Shot,” where Kelly barks over bombastic soundscapes.

“I’m probably one of the wildest, most out-of-control people in the industry,” says the 21-year-old, who was arrested for disorderly conduct in January after a gig in Florida. “I don’t give a fuck about the masses; I’m not here for them. I’m here to make an impact on the kids who truly care. I’m not going to beg for attention and shit.”

MGK is at his most raucous in the documentary, which was shot during last year’s Warped Tour and features footage of him coughing up blood from a throat infection (“We fuckin’ bleed this shit,” he boasts) and tripping on mushrooms (“I’m definitely a boomer”).

“I was a huge punker growing up,” says Kelly, whose real name is Richard Baker. “On my body, shit, if you want to talk about rock stars, I’ve got Tommy Lee’s Mayhem (logo) tattooed on my wrist. I got fuckin’ Chili Peppers on my elbow. I got scars all over my fuckin’ hands from fighting and just dumb shit. Hip-hop influences my talent, but I think that punk and everything else I listened to growing up was who my idols were. That’s why drugs also got involved in my life. I idolized the wrong people, like Nikki Sixx and Kurt Cobain.”

Kelly’s rise has caught the attention of Tech N9ne, who invited the rapper to join his Hostile Takeover; the trek will hit 90 cities in 99 days and kick off on March 24th in in Kansas City. The rapper’s history of road rage preceded him, resulting in an imposed list of guidelines for him to follow over the three-month run. “No afterparties, no clubs, no smoking…We have a very bad road reputation,” Kelly says. “Rules are meant to be broken.”

Kelly, who is diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, also plans to showcase his more extreme and subdued sides on his upcoming summer debut LP, Lace Up. Recorded before he signed with Bad Boy last August, it features a collaboration with Tech N9ne – but the rapper remains tightlipped about the rest. When asked why “Warning Shot,” which originally featured Livvi Franc on its hook, now features Cassie, his tongue turns cold. But he assures that he maintained creative control over the project.

“Lace Up is going to be recognized by the Grammys. It’s going to be one of those things that goes down in history as one of the best albums, period. It’s kind of like Adele’s 21. It was this perfect time in a person’s life, and she made a soundtrack for it. Lace Up is the same way,” says Kelly. “When it’s time for you to know who I am, it’ll be the right time. I’m not going to convince you to know who I am. I don’t care.”

RollingStone.com

When newly signed Roc Nation artist Rita Ora visited Clear Channel with label boss Jay-Z on Feb. 23, it was simply to present music and videos from her untitled debut. But in a rare move for rotation-based radio, executives were so moved by what they heard that they walked the Runners-produced single “How We Do (Party)” to New York’s top hit music station WHTZ (Z100) to premiere the cut on DJ JJ’s afternoon show, which is syndicated nationally through iHeartRadio and SiriusXM. Shortly after, it was moved into rotation on the station without a campaign for radio adds.

The premiere was unorthodox for Clear Channel and Roc Nation, whose roster includes J. Cole, Bridget Kelly and Willow Smith. Shortly after the single’s debut, the label revved its marketing strategy, pushing up the single’s rollout and capitalizing on the sudden attention surrounding the British singer.

“Z100 definitely raised the exposure level tenfold, which puts everything into the fast lane. We were in go mode before; now, we’re speeding,” Roc Nation publicist Jana Fleishman says. “I think Jay just knew it was the right time and how strong the music is, how it’s such a perfect fit for the station.”

Jay-Z is known for remaining at arm’s length from artists signed to the label, making his presence highly unusual and possibly influential on radio execs. His appearance with Ora follows a similar experience in 2005 with then-unknown Rihanna. He introduced her and her debut single, “Pon De Replay,” to Clear Channel personnel, who physically drove the single to Z100′s studio to break the Caribbean-inspired jam.

“We’re kind of seeing a similar pattern to what we saw in 2005,” says Z100 PD Sharon Dastur, who estimates that JJ’s show reaches 2 million listeners in New York. “[Jay] putting his seal of approval on something has meant a lot over the years. But we heard other songs in addition to that where we were like, ‘This girl is going to be a superstar. There’s actually something there and we want to be in on it from the ground floor.’”

Columbia Records senior VP of promotion Lee Leipsner credits Clear Channel for taking a chance. He says the company’s artist integration program into radio and online properties was a driving factor for launching “How We Do (Party),” and that Columbia was prepared to shuffle marketing strategies to accommodate the publicity. “You want it to be radio’s idea. Sometimes, when it comes from them, it makes it that much more credible,” he says. “It hasn’t happened in a while. It got so homogenized and so passive and safe that nobody was taking chances anymore. Now, they [are].”

For Tom Poleman, president of national programming platforms for Clear Channel Radio, Ora’s music and presentation were convincing enough to break the radio mold. “It doesn’t always need to be planned out perfectly, and spontaneity and the emotions is what makes our medium special,” he says. “The planets aligned really nicely in this one because we had someone who was mentoring a new artist, and the mentor happens to be one of the biggest stars we put on the radio station. That was an opportunity for a great radio moment.”

Whether the massive debut of “How We Do (Party)” guarantees future success, both Roc Nation and Clear Channel view the exposure that came from breaking the single on mainstream radio as capturing lightning in a bottle. (A Roc Nation rep confirms that Ora’s “How We Do (Party)” was “loosely inspired” by the Notorious B.I.G.’s 1993 song of the same name; he doesn’t receive a credit on the song.) “No one can predict the future,” Dastur says, “but for the song to be world-premiered on Z100 in New York City, the No. 1 market in the country, it got a lot of attention from all sorts of media outlets.”

Billboard.com

MTV’s “Hottest MCs in the Game VII” kicked off on Monday (February 13), and so far Wale, Wiz Khalifa and Big Sean have already been revealed as the #10, #9 and #8 picks, respectively. MTV News’ Hip-Hop Brain Trust have already come up with a final list of the year’s Hottest MCs, but several other experts from the hip-hop community weighed in on the rappers as well.

Steven Horowitz, News Editor at HipHopDx.com shared his opinion on Big Sean’s past year.“I think Big Sean had a surprising year, I don’t think anybody thought he was going to do as well as he did,” Horowitz says, addressing Sean’s label situation under Def Jam Records/G.O.O.D. Music. “Being signed to G.O.O.D. Music is both a gift and a curse. You have Kanye’s stamp of approval but he’s not going to hold your hand and Sean proved that he’s a hustler when it comes to getting his music out there.” Listen to the full explanation above.

Tune in to MTV2 on Sunday, February 19, at 10 p.m. ET/PT to catch “MTV2 Presents: Yo! MTV Raps Classic Cuts,” then watch “Hottest MCs in the Game VII” immediately after at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT before capping the night off with “Sucker Free Certified” at 11 p.m. ET/PT.

RapFix

For Karmin, it took 36 cover-song videos to go viral.

The Boston-based pop duo set up its YouTube account, karmincovers, on Aug. 11, 2010, and for the next eight months posted amateur cover versions of hits by Katy Perry, Bruno Mars and Rihanna. But it was when Amy Heidemann and Nick Noonan uploaded their rendition of Chris Brown’s BET Award-winning, Grammy-nominated “Look at Me Now,” on April 12, 2011, that Karmin’s account went into hyper-drive.

Today, karmincovers has more than 765,000 subscribers. And Karmin’s version of “Look at Me Now” has logged 54 million-plus views alone.

Last summer, that online success led to a deal with Epic Records — the first act signed to the label by new chairman/CEO Antonio “L.A.” Reid. Karmin’s major-label debut album, “Hello,” is due in April and expected to feature contributions from such marquee hitmakers as Christopher “Tricky” Stewart, Dr. Luke and Claude Kelly. All songs will be originals. On Feb. 11, Karmin will perform on “Saturday Night Live,” becoming only the second act — behind Lana Del Rey, who appeared on the Jan. 14 episode — to perform on the show before the release of its debut since Natalie Imbruglia in 1998.

Cover songs are nothing new on YouTube. With 60 hours of footage uploaded to the service every minute, amateur musicians have saturated the site with self-helmed clips, most of which log handfuls of views. But YouTube has also become a launching pad for unsigned talent. Justin Bieber (RBMG/Island), Greyson Chance (eleveneleven/Interscope) and Dondria (So So Def/Island Def Jam) all landed label deals after first attracting attention by covering top 40 hits.

“Imagine you have the best idea in the world, but you don’t have the finances or the connections or the wherewithal to bring that all to life,” Karmin’s Heidemann says. “That’s what we can do now.” Noonan adds, “YouTube is kind of the platform of the future.”

But have labels warmed up to amateurs profiting from covers? Although most covers posted to YouTube don’t generate revenue, users can sell these tracks legally by obtaining mechanical rights from services run by RightsFlow and the Harry Fox Agency. Last May, Karmin released a 15-track collection — “Karmin Covers Vol. 1″ — to iTunes after securing the proper licenses from rights-holders to songs including “Grenade,” “Jar of Hearts” and “Teenage Dream.” According to the U.S. Copyright Act, the group would’ve paid 9.1 cents on the dollar to the rights-holders for every unit sold. The set has sold 13,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and peaked at No. 27 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart. But for Karmin the release wasn’t about sales: It was about marketing.

“At the end of the day, we did not monetize these cover videos,” says Nils Gums, Karmin’s manager and president/CEO of the Complex Group, an artist management group that assists acts in driving monetization through new-media specialization. “It was strictly a promotional tool for us, so it was sort of in a gray area. But I think it worked out, because it became so popular.”

Online synch rights have improved in recent years thanks to YouTube’s Content ID system that identifies uploaded songs and its settlement with music publishers on synch royalties. In December, the streaming service acquired RightsFlow to assist with licensing music tracked by the system by taking a song’s digital fingerprint and allocating a slice of ad revenue to copyright holders.

According to Harry Fox senior VP of licensing, collections and business affairs Maurice Russell, it’s not always easy for amateur artists to track down copyright holders for mechanical rights, which can impede protocol. “It would be difficult for a common title to sometimes determine which one you need to clear if you don’t know the writer,” he says. “And then let’s say you did know what you needed, but for whatever reason you can’t find the publisher, you might not be able to get through.”

Some songwriters don’t mind the amateurs and instead consider the clips to be added promotion. Dutch producer Afrojack, who co-wrote and co-produced Brown’s “Look at Me Now,” welcomes such renditions. He believes it encourages listeners to track down source material and strengthens the original marketing momentum.

“It’s always promotion. I don’t know how it was 10 years ago, but I know I don’t care if there’s cover stuff. It’s better [to have] promotion than loss of money,” says Afrojack, who’s working on a solo album and executive-producing Paris Hilton’s sophomore LP. “These kinds of spoofs and covers, they never get played on the radio, as far as I know. So it’s just a fun online promotion.”

But it doesn’t always go so smoothly.

Released by Samples ‘N’ Seconds/Fairfax/Universal Republic (except in the United States), Australian singer/songwriter Gotye’s summer 2011 hit “Somebody That I Used to Know” peaked at No. 1 in Germany, Belgium, Australia and New Zealand, but didn’t appear on any of Billboard’s charts until late last year. The song features New Zealand singer Kimbra and a sample from the Police’s 1983 No. 3 Billboard Hot 100 hit “King of Pain.”

On Jan. 6, Canadian quintet Walk Off the Earth posted a quirky rendition of Gotye’s song to its YouTube channel, walkofftheearth, featuring the quintet playing different parts of the track on just one guitar. WOTE had been posting videos to YouTube since June 2009 to the tune of 4.8 million total views. But the cover video immediately went viral, averaging 3 million hits per day, and at press time, the WOTE clip had registered more than 49.5 million views.

Although WOTE cleared the mechanical rights to sell its cover on iTunes, the group has been engaged in a battle to keep the song up for sale. Since releasing the cover to iTunes through its own SlapDash Records on Jan. 6, the track was pulled several times and reinstated, only after the group disputed the takedown. The band is unsure of whether Universal Music Group or iTunes orchestrated the removal, but some speculate that UMG considers WOTE’s cover a wrench in the marketing plan for Gotye’s version, which entered the Hot 100 after WOTE’s video went viral. At press time, a representative from UMG hadn’t responded to requests for comment.

“That has nothing to do with anything that was done on our part. That’s pretty much all I can say,” WOTE singer Sarah Blackwood says. Since going viral, the still-unsigned group says it has been vetting major-label deals and booked a spot on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” “We’re not really sure if it is someone else’s camp who’s doing that, or if it’s iTunes or what. Unfortunately, it’s been taken down a few times. And we keep getting it back up. So we’re doing something right.”

Some label executives have faith that audiences are curious enough to connect the dots between a cover and its original. “I don’t particularly see a downside to it,” says a top marketing executive who asked to remain anonymous. “I don’t know why anyone would. It’s not the artist out there doing the song. It’s a different version of karaoke.

“If the Gotye cover takes off, people will track it back to Gotye,” the exec continues. “There’s nothing wrong with that. I’d understand what the issue would be in the short term, but in the long term, it could help the whole thing.”

Who knows? Sometimes the charts do. On this week’s charts, Gotye’s version is No. 27 on the Hot 100, up from No. 31 the week before. It jumps 18-13 (89,000 units, up 24%) on the Hot Digital Songs chart. And Gotye tweeted his approval (“genius and clever,” he said) of WOTE’s YouTube cover. As for Kimbra, “Settle Down” (Warner Bros.), her debut EP, is No. 26 on the Heatseekers Albums chart.

The other side of the coin: In 2006, 23-year-old Dutch singer Esmée Denters became a YouTube smash after posting videos of covers of hits by Beyoncé, Alicia Keys and Christina Aguilera. Less than a year later, Denters signed to Justin Timberlake’s Interscope imprint Tennman and began working with Mike Elizondo, Stargate and Ryan Tedder for her debut, “Outta Here.” But as the LP’s release date staggered to 2009 in her native Netherlands and to 2010 in the United States and United Kingdom, her steady stream of cover clips slowed to a trickle, a byproduct, according to former Tennman GM Navin Watumull, of Tennman/Interscope’s fear of a YouTube account shutdown following a temporary suspension in 2009 due to suspected copyright infringement. Even with more than 166 million views on her personal YouTube account and 19.5 million views on her Vevo page, Denters couldn’t cross over. Since its 2010 release, “Outta Here” (which was only released digitally) has sold approximately 1,000 copies, according to SoundScan.

“She was somewhere in the most-subscribed people on YouTube,” says Watumull, who exited Tennman in January but still manages label signee Brenda Radney, who also signed to the imprint after posting covers to YouTube. She hasn’t yet released her debut. “If you start off doing covers and you get famous for singing covers, and you start singing original music, at that point, the audience is going to question what you’re doing.”

For Karmin, the challenge of crossing over to the mainstream with original material was daunting. Heidemann and Noonan, who are engaged, developed artistically while attending Berklee College of Music in Boston. Describing their initial recordings as “super hippie,” the pair built a following before trying its hand at cover songs. Audiences have warmed up to new tracks, including buzz single “Crash Your Party,” with fans tweeting their original lyrics at them instead of praising their covers.

“That was definitely a concern, [but] the transition so far could not be smoother,” Noonan says of breaking out of the cover mold. “Before, our Twitter account was all, ‘Check out this cover video.’ Now, it’s all quotes from ‘Crash Your Party’ or from video links of [cover] videos. We tried to do the covers creatively so that people saw that there was a little more than the karaoke thing going.”

The pair recently released the Dr. Luke/Cirkut-produced single “Broken Hearted,” co-written with Claude Kelly. Like many artists who ditched their cover strategy upon signing to a major label, Karmin doesn’t have any immediate plans to continue building its career on the backs of others’ songs.

“I wouldn’t say that we’re past it. We just haven’t had a lot of time to do that because we’ve been focused on these other things,” Heidemann says of posting more covers. “It’s a natural progression to focus on building up your Vevo channel, which is where all these official music videos live. We’re working with YouTube to transition a lot of our stuff. It’s where artists are discovered these days. It’s incredible. But we’re definitely not abandoning it.”

Billboard.com

Rarely is a breaking artist as polarizing as Lana Del Rey.

The 25-year-old songstress became one of 2011′s most seemingly organic upstarts. Following the release of her breakout single “Video Games” and its vintage-shaded video, apparently filmed and edited on her Macbook, the Lake Placid, N.Y., native racked upwards of 13 million YouTube views and has sold 20,000 copies of her double A-side “Video Games” single since its October 2011 release, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It debuted and spent three weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Singles Sales chart. Joining Ellie Goulding and Jessie J, Del Rey recently signed with Next Model Management.

But it’s her all-important authenticity that’s had the Internet atwitter. Multiple blogs have painted a target on Del Rey, whose previous musical incarnation as Lizzy Grant, her birth name, was almost entirely wiped from the Web. On the surface, her tactics could appear calculated: Del Rey’s 2010 5 Points Records debut, Lizzy Grant aka Lana Del Ray, was on iTunes for only two months before vanishing from the store, while her website and social networking profiles were deleted and relaunched under her current guise.

Has a major label been silently orchestrating one of 2011′s greatest indie viral success stories? With her Del Rey debut, “Born to Die” (Interscope), arriving Jan. 31, the pillow-lipped singer/songwriter is the new year’s buzziest commodity, becoming the first artist since Natalie Imbruglia in 1998 to play “Saturday Night Live” (Jan. 14) before releasing her first major-label LP. She’s confirmed for “Late Night With David Letterman” on Feb. 2 and scheduled to appear on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” later the same month. Still, character assassination attempts on the Internet are a daily threat, even if acclaim outweighs the conspiracy theories.

“The Internet’s been well-established for 14 years,” Del Rey says. “It’s not like 1962 where you can’t find out about me. My intention was never to transform into a different person. What other people think of me is none of my business. Sometimes, it hurts my feelings. But I have to just keep going. The good stuff is really good. Some of the other stuff is difficult, but I’ll be able to tour now, probably sing for a while. That’s nice for me.”

Sites like Hipster Runoff, which (at press time) has dedicated 29 posts to Del Rey since last September, have taken her integrity to task, needling her artistic reinvention and dissecting supposed misconceptions. From the start, Del Rey has felt the sting of Internet ire, which coincided with her rise in stature. “I began getting messages on my personal Twitter account, really creepy messages, like, ‘The blogosphere that created you is about to destroy you,’” she says. “And within three days, the strangest things were happening.” At @LanaDelRey, she has 93,000-plus followers. Her bio: Everything I want I have. Money, notoriety and rivieras — I even think I found God — in the flash bulbs of your pretty cameras. It’s in all-caps.

Many of the attacks question her personal history. Sharpening her octave-spanning pipes in a church choir, Del Rey initially came to New York as Grant, performing at open-mic nights with the likes of Lady Gaga (then known as Stefani Germanotta). She soon signed an indie deal with 5 Points Records to release debut EP “Kill Kill” in 2008, followed by her full-length, “Lizzy Grant aka Lana Del Ray,” on the imprint.

The record, finished in 2008, collected dust for two years before its release. During a performance at the CMJ Music Marathon in 2009, she met her current manager, Ben Mawson, an entertainment lawyer (with the United Kingdom’s SSB Solicitors) intent on untangling her contractual obligations. Contrary to reports, Mawson claims that he and co-manager Ed Millett had nothing to do with naming her, or dictating her direction, instead negotiating her out of her deal with 5 Points and agreeing on joint ownership of the album.

“I’m a lawyer,” says Mawson, also of Hear No Evil Management. “And if I gave her advice on dressing, it would not be right.” His first move was to pull the album from iTunes two months after its release, so as not to confuse future consumers of music sold as Lana Del Rey’s. He hopes to release it as a collection of B-sides and claims it’s nothing that she’s ashamed of, but is more surprised by the overanalysis of past decisions. “It’s pretty crazy, this whole whirlwind of attention. Some of it’s great, but obviously, there’s been a lot of stuff — which is basically total fancy — about what she is and where she’s come from.”

David Kahne, who produced Grant as well as albums for Paul McCartney, Regina Spektor and Kelly Clarkson, thinks otherwise. Agreeing to work with her in 2008 after 5 Points connected them, he witnessed the beginnings of her reinvention from a platinum blonde guitar-cradler to an alt-indie princess. Contrary to what Del Rey asserts, Kahne is under the impression that she bought the rights back from 5 Points to stifle future opportunities to distribute it–an echo of rumors that the action was part of a calculated strategy.

“I think Lizzy Lana owns it, so [her team] wanted it out of circulation. That’s why they bought the rights from them,” Kahne says. “I think she wanted to be Lana Del Rey and didn’t want to be Lizzy Grant. That was her family name, and she’s very dramatic. She wiped [out] this other person. I think she actually thinks that she’s that other person, and she probably is. So that was the decision that she made, that she didn’t want traces of that whole person around, as far as I can tell.” He hasn’t worked with her since 2008.

To jump-start her transformation from Grant to Del Rey, she relocated to London and spent 2010 taking meetings with “every label,” but, she says, she was repeatedly rejected. Though his work with Del Rey ceased after they recorded three post-album songs, including “Yayo” and “Gramma,” Kahne observed the physical transformation that’s become a focal point of criticism.

“She looks different. [She] doesn’t sound different to me, though,” Kahne says. He claims that she was operatically trained, which Del Rey denies. But when it comes to songwriting, he praises her abilities. “She’s a clever writer, but she definitely has a very powerful angle on the image, the perfume of the thing that she wants to be. I think she probably didn’t feel that she was far enough into that, and by making this change, she’s more like what she wanted to be in the first place.”

According to Del Rey, she wrote more than 70 songs during her time in England, and soon filmed DIY videos for “Diet Mtn. Dew” and “Video Games.” A verbal agreement with Stranger Records to commercially release the latter gave Del Rey’s camp wiggle room to reacquire the song rights in case of a major-label signing. “[It was] a very free single deal. If we got a record deal for an album, they would let her take the single back and get the rights back,” Mawson says. “I just realized the other day we didn’t sign anything… It was a verbal agreement from chatting and then we confirmed by email.”

Labels came full circle when the BBC’s Radio 1 played “Video Games” last summer, thanks to Mawson’s European connections, and her Internet buzz kick-started. The artist began fielding offers from imprints that previously denied her, deciding eventually on a joint deal with Interscope Records in the United States and Polydor Records in the United Kingdom without holding any grudges.

“Signing someone and spending a lot of money, it’s a very dangerous thing to do. Largest failure-to-success rate in any industry,” Del Rey says. “I never had any help, and I really needed help.”

The timing of the deal and her video’s viral release raised eyebrows in the blogosphere. News of her signing broke in late October, but the ink on the contracts had dried in July, fueling conspiracy theorists to assume that the machine had helped with the clearance of copyrighted material included in the videos and promoted her material. It’s not unusual for labels to pull invisible strings for new artists, but rarely is the artist afforded both the creative and marketing freedom that Del Rey has had.

It’s here where her labels, which provided her a budget for videos and album completion, as well as hired a publicity firm (Shore Fire Media) in August, deviate from standard practices. Polydor president Ferdy Unger Gamilton says, “Apart from the strength of the song and the video [for "Video Games"], this shows how the world operates now. Something like this can just gather its own momentum. So many have been reached by it without traditional media or marketing.”

The viral factor of “Video Games” paralleled several breakout Internet sensations of 2011: Del Rey associate the Weeknd, and Frank Ocean. And for Del Rey, the gone-viral marketing method, which often hangs still on quality of music and artistic mystique, was key for convincing label executives wowed by her ability to navigate different Web cultures. She was embraced beyond genre lines, a Net star on sites like Stereogum and Pitchfork, and also popping up on sites like In Flex We Trust, MissInfo.tv and 2DopeBoyz.

“I don’t think she’s any sort of heavy-handed marketer. I think she basically has it down from start to finish. That’s what’s the allure is, in terms of what I saw and what other people are seeing. You have an artist and it’s all just so honest,” Interscope executive VP of A&R Larry Jackson says. “There’s no video treatment we’ve come up with. We haven’t produced the records. It’s 100% solely her. That’s the most honest part. And that’s all that matters. The honesty is the marketing.”

Translating her music to the live stage after a two-year hiatus, Del Rey tested new material at Brooklyn’s Glasslands in September, taking the stage for a secret show under the alias Queen of Coney Island. Not meant for review, the gig drew criticism from attending writers, tipped off by rogue tweets, who criticized her shaky delivery and live band of session musicians.

“I was noticeably scared,” says Del Rey, who popped her gum into the microphone throughout the performance. “I don’t get onstage trying to be spectacular. I act like it’s sort of still about the singing for me, because that’s all I have so far, are the songs.”

Del Rey didn’t allow the litany of mostly harsh comments on YouTube clips from the show deter her. She upgraded her official New York debut to Bowery Ballroom, where she performed to a sold-out crowd, and then played to packed houses in London and Los Angeles. The reviews have turned laudatory. (“The comment-board fights and blog posts don’t detract from the fact that she can actually sing,” the Village Voice wrote of her Bowery gig.)

On her tracks, Del Rey, who initially described herself as the “gangster Nancy Sinatra,” disaffectedly intones about both eternal and finite romance over cinematic arrangements garnished with hip-hop drums. Though indie artists like Bon Iver and St. Vincent shape-shift to respectively appear on cuts by rappers like Kanye West and Kid Cudi, Del Rey casually massages hip-hop into her stand-alone compositions, working directly with such producers as Jeff Bhasker (West, Jay-Z) and Emile Haynie (Cudi). Bypassing the almighty guest feature has supplied her enveloping tracks with a unique twist on indie-pop.

“I brought Emile in because the beats were still raw and hard to get… sort of the danger I wanted to incorporate,” says Del Rey, who slings hip-hop slang (“You so fresh to death”) on her cowgirl anthem “Blue Jeans.” Friendships with the Weeknd’s Abel Tesfaye bolster her hip-hop credibility, but it’s her effortless infusions that punctuate her tunes. “She wanted to integrate hip-hop into it because she loves [it] and added some beats to make it a bit more radio-friendly and palatable for a broader audience,” Mawson says.

Just last month, the Internet fanfare reached new heights following the unauthorized leak of the intensely slick video for “Born to Die,” making her a top trending topic on Twitter and earning praise from West, who broke his social network silence to post the clip to his account. For Del Rey, the relief wasn’t the assurance of reaching a global audience, but rather having a budget for her art. “The good thing is that the record is beautiful. And I get to do so many things that I love. I get to work with [director Yoann] Lemoine and finally, I don’t have to make my videos by myself anymore. Thank God. It’s embarrassing,” she says. “I’m just going to get help in all the right ways.”

For an artist whose homemade approach shifted her career out of obscurity, her labels aren’t concerned with losing her indie prowess. “It’s not about old-school label tactics and all of that crap. It’s really about helping an artist who has a clear-cut vision for herself, really bringing the muscle to make this work on a worldwide level,” Jackson says. Unger Gamilton adds: “The real brilliant artists move the mainstream toward them, not the other way around. She’s doing something that no one else is doing, and it’s just going to draw people in. It’s already drawing people in.”

In anticipation of “Born to Die,” the voluptuous-voiced songstress has been teasing the Web with sneak peeks of the project, releasing a graphic, found-footage video for “Off to the Races” and a YouTube clip of her song “Yayo.” Her single, “Born to Die” was recently iTunes’ Free Single of the Week. Del Rey also plans on “extensively touring” the international circuit through the new year. But she’s almost entirely unplugged from the online realm, save for sporadic tweets and Facebook updates.

“I’d rather it was just as simple as being just the songs and no one else talking about it at all, because it makes things more bittersweet instead of just clear and easy,” she says. “It just seems to have taken a funny turn. I’m not really sure if it’ll come back around. I don’t know. But the record is really good. I have that.”

Billboard.com

Skylar Grey
Dominion
Tuesday, December 6

Better than: Remembering how much you listened to Evanescence back in the day.

Skylar Grey has hustled the last couple of years, writing hits for everyone but herself along the way. The 25-year-old helped pen 2010′s “Love the Way You Lie,” turning the enigmatic songbird into a hot hip-hop commodity; she went on to notch vocal and songwriting credits on Diddy-Dirty Money’s “Coming Home,” Lupe Fiasco’s “Words I Never Said” and Dr. Dre’s Eminem-assisted “I Need a Doctor.” Her cantaloupe coo was swoon-worthy yet elusive, reducing even the hardest of top-40 audiophiles to burbling sing-a-longers.

For Skylar, not showing face has been her biggest asset. Releasing mug-shrouding promotional pics and launching a bare-bones website only thickened the mystery surrounding her. But click-savvy surfers shredded her intended secrecy—although her vocal resemblance to the chick singing on Fort Minor’s 2006 track “Where’d You Go” made it a bit easier to do so.

In the mid-naughts Skylar Grey was Holly Brook, a singer who supplied the Linkin Park offshoot with a radio-ready hook and then found her 2006 debut Like Blood Like Honey collecting dust on her label’s shelf. Instead of boo-hooing, Brook dyed her red mane black, shipped off to the Oregon woods and began penning tracks that eventually found their way to the British music producer Alex Da Kid, who molded them into Billboard gold and platinum.

When it came time for Grey to come out from behind the curtain and get lead credits on some pop hits, she seemed ready; she had helped shepherd some bona fide hits, and the support of both Interscope Records and Alex’s KIDinaKORNER imprint. But the stilted summer single “Dance Without You” underperformed, and it was back to the lab to work magic for her 2012 debut Invinsible.

Earlier Tuesday night, Grey had opened for 30 Seconds to Mars’ Madison Square Garden blowout. When she arrived onstage at Dominion her unwashed hair cuddled her porcelain face, which was emotionless—especially when compared to her best hooks’ aching moans. Icy, anthemic drums powered the opening number “Beautiful Nightmare,” during which she gazed to the back of the venue with convincingly dead eyes. Drifting out of and into the spotlight, she tried to maintain her façade—not exactly what you’d expect from a go-getter who buzzed herself onto the radar, but instead from someone gradually coming to terms with the expectations attached to her rise.

The jaunty, Evanescence-recalling bop of new cuts like “Weirdo” and the Marilyn Manson-aided “Can’t Haunt Me (Zombie)” was sharp, and they could throw Gagas of the world for a loop next year. Throughout the brief set, Grey kept stage banter to a minimum, although at one point she did murmur “Don’t mind if I do” while stripping off her tight leather jacket.

Instead, the music talked. Her medley of hits slung for others rallied the crowd, which chimed in, while an endearing cover of Radiohead’s “Idioteque” teased at least a break from her focus. But the distance between her and the audience remained intact. As she sang her closing number “Invisible,” she at first wallowed at the back of the stage, then gradually edged closer to the spotlight. She got there, but it took some time.

Critical bias: I interviewed Skylar as Skylar earlier this summer, and may or may not have told her she should consider a career in hip-hop.

Overheard: “Wow, she sounds nothing like she looks on her website.”

Random notebook dump: Yeesh, she needs a shower. Maybe some conditioner, too.

Set list:
Beautiful Nightmare
Dance Without You
Tower
Coming Home/I Need a Doctor/Love the Way You Lie
Weirdo
Idioteque
Can’t Haunt Me (Zombie) featuring Marilyn Manson
Invisible

VillageVoice.com

Just two years ago, J. Cole was a rap hopeful with just a dollar and a dream. A deal with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation helped put him on the map, while several mixtapes paved the way for his chart-topping debut. Now, the Fayetteville, NC native has the game on lock, proving why it’s a Cole world after all.

For the past few years, J. Cole has been a little nervous. The Fayetteville, North Carolina native, who first cracked the game with his breakout mixtape, The Warm Up, in 2009, has since amassed a fiendish following, selling out shows around the globe and rewarding fans with a few free album-quality mixtapes. But when it came time to drop his debut, Cole World: The Sideline Story, released via Roc Nation in September 2011, he wasn’t sure what to expect. Was his fan base extensive to the point where his album would succeed on a mainstream level? The uncertainty alone was enough to break the otherwise stoic rapper’s confidence.

“I didn’t have a clear definition of success. I didn’t have a clear-cut sales number,” explains the 26-year-old of his trepidation. “Like, ‘If I do this number, then I’ll be successful.’ Because it was so vague, the success was so vague. I wasn’t sure if it would sell and how well it would sell, you know what I’m saying?”

Lucky for Cole, the numbers were in his favor. After years of relentless grinding and several album delays, the underdog swiftly became the overlord when Cole World bowed atop the Billboard chart with 218,000 copies sold in its first week. All of this without so much as a Top 40 single or direct co-sign from his Roc Nation boss, Jay-Z, who publicly forced Cole to stretch his LP’s deadline to include their collaboration, “Mr. Nice Watch.”

But in an era where hashtag rap reigns supreme, Cole’s success isn’t just a testament to his grind. For the self-proclaimed 2Pac aficionado, lodging his debut at the top of the charts – and wildly exceeding sales projections – was more a victory for rappers with something to say. With his second official mixtape, The Warm Up, and last year’s Friday Night Lights, Cole proved to be a double threat: not only was he capable of mining experiences from his personal life and dissecting them in rhyme, but he set them to self-helmed, soul-infused production. Cole considers the LP’s success not just a triumph for himself, but for the culture – and its future.

“I feel like because this album wins, then hip-hop and the future win. And all these other artists who are coming out now and are actually talking about real things and got musical substance will win, too,” says Cole. He raps from the perspective of both a man and woman arguing over an abortion on album standout “Lost Ones,” one of his realest – and most heralded – moments on wax to date. “Nobody knew that that type of music could be successful, commercially. I feel like if you can balance being successful and remaining yourself, you’ll be the artist that you want to be.”

Cole’s insistence on digging deeper than his peers makes for an album that’s equal parts flash and reflection. Cole World, largely produced by Cole with additional assistance from No I.D., L&X Music and Brian Kidd, features marquee guest appearances from Trey Songz on second single “Can’t Get Enough,” Missy Elliott on third single “Nobody’s Perfect” and Drake on “In the Morning.” But for every collaborative cut, there’s emotional excavation, like on “Dollar and a Dream III” and “Daddy’s Little Girl,” where he describes a grown woman on the wrong path.

Though, perhaps his biggest coup was finally landing a guest verse from Jay-Z. After Jay heard The Warm Up shortly after its release, Cole became the flagship artist for his newly launched Roc Nation shingle, resulting in a collaboration on “A Star is Born” – a pass-the-baton moment included on 2009’s The Blueprint 3. But as the deadline neared for Cole World, Hov was yet to stand next to his signee. Cole was waiting on the email containing Jay’s verse for “Mr. Nice Watch” right up until the eleventh hour, when Jay pulled some strings to manipulate the deadline. From the outside looking in, it could have been a test for Cole, who was still on edge about the album’s potential.

“That makes a great story, if he had tested me. At the end of the day, Jay might be busy and get it done but will push it to the limit,” says Cole, who debuted the duet during a listening session several weeks before his album’s release at New York City’s Santos Party House. “I do that all the time. No matter how big or small the artist is, some people are like that. I’m one of those people, too. I can’t really speak on that, I don’t know if he was testing me or not. I don’t know if he was just busy.”

Busy or not, Jay has essentially remained hands-off with Cole’s career – unusual for a rapper who knows the difficulty of getting put on. But his general co-sign – in conjunction with Cole’s lyrical abilities – has granted him access to next level opportunities. He’s landed a coveted guest spot on the remix to Beyonce’s “Party,” where he replaces Andre 3000’s verse, as well as a cameo on the remix to Rihanna’s “S&M.” He also opened for Jay-Z’s “The Blueprint 3” tour in 2009 and expanded his pop audience with a supporting slot on Rihanna’s “LOUD” tour earlier this year. The gigs have given him some shine on a more mainstream level, but he’s still got more steps to climb.

“I feel like I am officially in the game, but I also feel like I’m not where I want to be. I’m far from it. I got a lot more things to do. I got a lot more respect to get,” he says. “Kanye [West] and Jay-Z are doing arenas. I got a long way to go before I can do an arena. I want to perform in an arena or stadium one day, depending on how big this thing gets. An arena? That’s 20,000 people coming to see you. To do a tour of arenas and then headlining that? That’s incredible. So I’ve got a long way to go. I know I got a long way to go.”

But when you look at how far he’s come, his situation seems ideal. Born in Germany and raised in Fayetteville, Cole was brought up in a racially mixed household with split musical tastes. On one end, his mother cultured him with Marvin Gaye and Eric Clapton records, while his stepfather sold him on Ice Cube, 2Pac and Dr. Dre (“It was the best mixture,” he says). His exploration of hip-hop began at a ripe seven years old, with requests to his mom to foot the bill for tapes by Kris Kross, LL Cool J and 69 Boyz.

It wasn’t until he was in his pre-teen years that his appreciation for rap took on new dimensions. Cole didn’t begin studying the art of lyricism until the age of 12, when his perception of rapping shifted from being a fan to wanting in on the action. Citing Eminem, Royce Da 5’9 and Canibus as early inspiration (“All of these super lyrical rappers who had a battle rap side”), the aspiring emcee would emulate the braggadocio style in his amateur rhymes, spitting peacock couplets while at lunchroom roundtables and football games.

During his teenage years, a mentor bestowed Cole with his first rap name, “Therapist,” which he proudly wore up until he made the switch while attending St. John’s University in New York City. For Cole, the moniker represented something that wasn’t exactly himself – he always knew he felt more comfortable as his government name.

“You’d be around the city in a corner store and someone would be like, ‘Yo, Therapist!’ And it was a little awkward,” he recalls, laughing. “It feels like someone knew my secret identity or something. I’d be with one friend who knew me as Jermaine and someone would be like, ‘Yo, Therapist!’ and I’d be like ah man, what’s up? So I always knew in high school that I didn’t really love it, but my mentor had given me that name and I felt like if they liked it, then I had to like it. When I got to school, I decided I needed something different. J. Cole was just a name that a couple kids called me in middle school, like one of my homeboys. He’d be like, ‘J. Cole!’ It felt more real, it felt more like my real name. I liked that better.”

While attending St. John’s, Cole honed his craft, applying what he’d learned from listening to Nas, 2Pac and Eminem to his increasingly nimble rhymes. Under his freshly minted name, J. Cole took to the Internet to plant his artistic seeds, releasing his debut mixtape, The Come Up Vol. 1, hosted by DJ OnPoint in 2007. But it was with his 2009 mixtape, The Warm Up, that he accrued a strong enough following to make the collection of tracks one of the buzziest releases of the year. Celebrating the tape with listening parties in the Big Apple and his native Fayetteville, Cole reminisces on the time as a period of purity – one where he was blissfully blind to the hardships of the music industry and stresses that it would bring.

“I remember it being a real innocent time. I didn’t know better. I didn’t know what I know now and shit,” he explains. “I didn’t know what I was up against. I didn’t know it would take me two more years to put out an album. I was just happy to be releasing a mixtape and I felt it was great, and I was hoping the world would like it. I just remember innocence, like I didn’t know nothing about the game.”

After Jay plucked him from the unsigned circuit, he quickly got hip to the game, immediately setting to work on what would become his debut. Cole hit the studio with super producer No I.D. for the album’s first session in October 2009, though he says songs for the project were conceived as far back as 2007. His tendency to think ahead has already played into his sophomore album, for which he’s already recorded a “gang of songs” and recently revealed that he intends to release in June 2012.

He doesn’t want to gab to the press like he was doing in the preceding months to Cole World, and after wrapping up his international tour, he plans on sealing himself off from the public. “It’s so early on. But I could put out a second album right now,” he says. “I have that many songs, but of course, it’s not that simple. You really want to make a body of work. I’m saying all of this to say, I’m staying away from talking it up too early. I’m just really trying to get my direction right now. I’m making beats, I’m writing rhymes. I’m not sure what it’s going to sound like. It could be totally different from this album, or it could be a continuation. I’m not sure. But I’m working and building.”

Another project that he’s keeping quiet on is his joint studio album with Kendrick Lamar, which originated as a mixtape. Though the two haven’t hit the studio since laying down cuts including K. Dot’s “HiiiPoWeR,” Cole spoke with the Compton rapper about flying him out to London to spend a week recording their collaborative LP. “At the end of the day, you’re dealing with two solo artists who are on the move all the time,” he explains. “At some point, you’ve got to connect. I think it will happen.”

In the meantime, fans don’t have to worry about Cole entirely going into hibernation. He’s already filmed a video for “Nobody’s Perfect” with Missy Elliott, which he plans to release at the top of the year, and recently popped up on tracks by Omen, Wale, Elle Varner and Elite. There are a few more collaborations and unscheduled freestyles in the pipeline to impact while he’s recording album number two in January and February, but for Cole, the quantity of music released has nothing on quality – his newest benchmark for success.

“I just want my albums to improve and I just always want to keep up the quality. I want the next album to kill this album, and I want the album after that to kill that one. It’s not even about killing it… I just want to maintain a bar for myself – a high bar,” he says. “Of course, I want to do big numbers, but my focus is not on numbers. My focus is on the album. Like, how good can I make this album? Can I change the game musically? How can I come back and shock the game for real? I went through so many hoops of fire just to get this album out. I had to go through a lot of red tape and shit, but this [next] album, nobody can’t tell me nothing. I’m excited about that freedom.”

YRBMagazine.com

After declaring bankruptcy along with her group TLC in the mid-’90s, Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins has filed for Chapter 13 for the second time this year after defaulting on mortgages on her Atlanta, Georgia home and failing to keep up with medical bill and car payments.

Watkins, an Atlanta, Georgia resident, filed on October 31, 2011 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court after failing to keep up with mortgages on her Duluth, Georgia home, valued at $1.2 million. The documents reveal that Watkins owes creditors $768,642.99 on the home, and has assets that total $1,716,508.

The papers specify her monthly income, which amounts to $11,700 — just $1,200 of which stems from TLC royalties — and that her estimated average future gross monthly income will be $10,500. T-Boz pays $8,821 in monthly expenses, including two mortgages on her primary residence, two vehicles, medical bills and more. She also is owed $250,000 in child support payments, though it is unclear why they have not been collected. Watkins will pay $2,880 per month for a commitment period of 36 months to repay the debt.

Watkins originally put her 9,654 square feet house up for sale in 2009 for the asking price of $1,250,000, an uptick from the $1,122,700 she paid to purchase the residence in July 2001. The mansion is located in the Sugar Loaf Country Club, described as a “prestigious and successful luxury” community in Southeast Atlanta.

Though largely unreported, the singer originally filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, declaring Chapter 13 on February 25, 2011. She developed a plan to pay the sum of $2,500 per month for a period of 60 months. Watkins was dismissed on July 19, while the case was terminated on September 13 after she “made distribution of all funds paid into the hands of the Trustee.”

Watkins’ financial troubles began as early as June 1995, when she originally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with her group TLC. During an episode of VH1′s “Behind the Music,” the trio, consisting of Watkins, Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas and Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, discussed the incident in detail, explaining that a poor recording contract with LaFace Records through their manager Perri “Pebbles” Reid’s Pebbitone shingle caused them to slip into the financial red.

“The bad thing about the deal was that Pebbles had us signed to so many deals. She just had her fingers in the pot all across the board,” Lopes said on the show, claiming Reid was making business decisions without their approval. Even after severing ties with Reid, the trio was forced into bankruptcy after selling 10 million records on account of amounting expenses and debt to their record label.

“People to this day still do not believe that we were broke — but we were, OK?” said Watkins. The group made $5.6 million in profit, but the sum was cut down to a mere $50,000 per member after paying back their label for funding the album and its promotion; managers, lawyers and accountants; and income taxes.

Over the past few years, Watkins has appeared on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” and as a consultant on “The Celebrity Apprentice” where she was fired for volunteering to return to the boardroom. The 41-year-old, who suffers from sickle-cell anemia, revealed in October 2009 that she overcame a potentially fatal brain tumor, from which she suffered for three years.

Billboard.biz

Last Wednesday, veteran rapper Busta Rhymes appeared at the launch of Google Music to support his partnership with the newly launched platform — an announcement that came in confluence with his surprise signing to Cash Money Records, revealed the same day.

The former Universal Motown recording artist, whose career-long manager Chris Lighty broke the news of his departure from the shingle in May 2011, has been plotting the alliance since splitting with his former label home. The deal, which Lighty describes as an “outside the box” venture, is a four-album contract with Cash Money, which will handle all physical distribution, as well as a one-off digital distribution agreement with Google Music, which holds exclusive online sales rights for Busta’s next album, “E.L.E. 2: End of the World” (due first quarter of 2012).

With 20 years of experience in the industry, Busta forged the unorthodox deal because of the “newness” and “freshness” that Google Music is bringing to both the digital realm and traditional distribution model. “The climate continues to shift in music and this business, and we always look for new ways to go about being swift and changeable, but being always remainable,” he says. “I come from pre-Internet — not trying to sound like a dinosaur, but the success of [our records] wasn’t always determined by how much it spun on the radio. The people are tastemakers, as opposed to politics and budgets and marketing funds and things of that nature. This situation embodies all of that. You have that outlet of 100 million, 200 million Android phones, YouTube, Google itself and every other medium that comes as a perk with the situation. It exposes your music.”

The promise of being the sole urban artist on GM’s initial platform was added incentive for his team to align with the program. “We’re being promoted as one of the main acts with the launch. [That wouldn't] happen at iTunes right now,” says Lighty, COO of newly formed management company Primary Violator. “Obviously, iTunes is number one. Google Music presented a viable option for Busta to grow his footprint and it seemed like the right partnership for us to do right now, given where Busta Rhymes’ career is, to refresh him digitally.”

The arrangement has already resulted in the digital servicing of his Chris Brown-assisted single “Why Stop Now,” released as a free offering with Google Music’s launch to anyone with a Google+ account — a requirement for GM accessibility. Though Lighty wouldn’t disclose the impressions-to-date, he insists that it’s yielded some of Busta’s most significant returns. “It’s definitely been bigger than any of our iTunes sales or impressions that we’ve received in the past,” he said. “To be able to be selling them on the phones, to be able to sell them online and on the online market, it’s a great opportunity for us.”

Cash Money co-CEO and founder Bryan “Baby” Williams was involved in the discussions between Busta and Google Music from the start. Williams had cultivated a relationship with the Brooklyn rapper for many years, placing his rapid-fire rhymes on tracks with CM artists including Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj and Drake, who performed with Busta at the GM launch party. Though Williams is unsure which company will handle digital distribution post-”E.L.E. 2,” Google’s strategy to heavily promote Busta was convincing enough.

“I just wanted to make sure things were the way they were supposed to be, as far as with the staff promoting him and marketing him. Googlewas on point with what we wanted to do and we’re going to make it work,” says Williams. “They’re a new brand and I’ve been doing this. And they respected what we wanted to do, so it’s been so far, so good.”

A newcomer to the music retail industry, Google opted to focus its energies into Busta after hearing several tracks from his upcoming album and strategizing on how to create unique marketing prospects.

“When Busta Rhymes played us his new tracks, we saw an opportunity to do something unique with him and offer his music exclusively on Google Music,” says Tim Quirk, head of global content programming at Android and Google. “Busta’s passion for the project allows us to work together and extend the reach of the partnership through other Google properties, such as YouTube, to offer creative features like ‘Spit Like Busta,’ ” a YouTube competition where users can upload their rendition of Busta’s verse from “Why Stop Now” for a chance to be spliced into its upcoming music video.

Busta’s deal may be a new model for the music industry, but he’s equally anticipating the effect it will have on future distribution models. “This was just another one of those moments that defines a significant turning point in my career, and in music and business,” he explains. “It was just an amazing idea to have [Google] willing to partner up with the most powerful record company in music, which is Cash Money. Cash Money is a very unique, special home to be a part of, because they don’t do sh– conventionally, either. So it was just an ideal opportunity and something that’s going to go down in the history books, because a deal like this has never been done before.”

Billboard.biz

On Feb. 13, 2009, the mixtape paradigm shifted.

Aligned with Lil Wayne, the then-unsigned Drake, who’d spent the few years before releasing buzzy mixtapes (rapping over hits), unleashed his almost entirely original mixtape “So Far Gone.” He did so on his website, October’s Very Own, which quickly went into bandwidth overdrive. Reportedly, to date, there have been millions of downloads.

Drake — whose platinum debut, “Thank Me Later” (Young Money/Cash Money/Universal Republic), bowed atop the Billboard 200 the following year (July 3, 2010) — had redefined the mixtape model for the digital era. (He released three free songs through October’s Very Own as recently as last week, with second album “Take Care” due Oct. 24.) Far from its adolescent iteration, the mixtape-a compilation of music generally distributed outside of label purview-had evolved from a mere display of DJ skills to a promotional tool packed with exclusive freestyles to an actual album-before-the-album, one that could spawn chart-topping singles like “Best I Ever Had,” without labels at the helm.

In hip-hop today, free, original mixtapes have become standard. They’re offered on websites like DatPiff.com and LiveMixtapes.com, which have erased CD-peddling bootleggers from city street corners. DJs — like Doo Wop and DJ Clue — who once shouted over tracks on popular tapes like ’95 Live and Springtime Stickup, have been almost entirely weeded from the equation. And where MCs once hijacked beats from others to serve as the sonic quilt for their release, mixtapes have become a creative survival of the fittest. Rappers who dropped freestyle mixtapes can no longer show-and-prove through lyrics alone-original beat selection, artwork and overall artistry determine worthiness.

The original mixtape approach has also crossed genre lines. Artists in the R&B realm have likewise adopted the format, most recently The Weeknd and The-Dream with “Thursday” and “1977,” presented as a “free album.” Pop singers have even dabbled in mixtape releases. JoJo, whose label disputes have been made public over the past few years, dropped her debut mixtape “Can’t Take That Away From Me” in September 2010, while dance diva La Roux teamed with Major Lazer for May 2010′s “Lazerproof,” a collection of artist-approved original remixes.

“The game favors people that can produce quality music and then turn right around and produce more quality music-which is not a given,” Atlantic Records VP of A&R Zvi Edelman says. His signee, Wiz Khalifa, leveraged free, original mixtapes like 2010′s “Kush & OJ” and 2011′s “Cabin Fever” into the building of a dedicated fan base that helped, along with an intensive touring strategy, make his Atlantic/Rostrum Records debut, “Rolling Papers,” one of the few hip-hop debuts to sell more than 500,000 copies (it’s now at 570,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan) in 2011.

A batch of newcomers — such as J. Cole, Big Sean, Dom Kennedy, Mac Miller and Smoke DZA — has adapted to the consumer demand for free, original rap music. The philosophy is often described this way: As a reward for artists remaining loyal to them (by giving away original music), fans return the favor by buying concert tickets, merchandise and “real” albums from record labels. The result is a give-and-take relationship that keeps rappers in control of their brand and marketing, and iTunes playlists full of free albums disguised as “mixtapes.” The payoff is an active fan base, which labels and management hope stimulates retail purchases.

“Active consumers will support [you] and go out and buy your album, buy your concert tickets and your merch. The passive consumer will download it for free, talk about it and that’s it,” says Al Branch, GM of Hip-Hop Since 1978, which manages Drake, Nicki Minaj and others. “The active consumer is very reactionary, and you can get that consumer to respond quite quickly.”

What exactly distinguishes an album from a mixtape? “These days, mixtapes are really albums,” Rostrum Records founder/president Benjy Grinberg says. “The difference, is that you don’t make any direct money off of it. But the benefits of building the reputation of the artists are pretty amazing.”

From many artists’ standpoint, the freedom of creating an original mixtape is limitless. Big K.R.I.T., who was scheduled to release studio debut “Live From the Underground” (Def Jam) on Sept. 27 (it’s now due early 2012), built his career with free mixtapes including “K.R.I.T. Wuz Here” (2010), “Return of 4eva” and “Last King 2 (God’s Machine),” the latter two released this year. All of the self-produced tapes employ samples and audioclips from films-two major hoops to jump through, as far as clearances, with a retail release.

“When you’re talking about an album, some samples you can’t clear. And it causes you to get more creative,” the Meridian, Miss.-born K.R.I.T. (real name: Justin Scott) says, noting also the pleasures of working within the system “Drawing deep in myself and coming up with content and subject matter-and as far as writing lyrics, really taking out more time to piece together a story, making hooks more melodic. It’s a growing experience.”

Some established acts lean on mixtapes as marketing tools for pending retail albums. Lil Wayne is an example. He dropped freebie “Sorry 4 the Wait” through WeezyThanxYou.com six weeks before “Tha Carter IV” as an apology for the latter’s delay. Wale, whose second set “Ambition” (Maybach Music Group/Warner Music Group) is scheduled for release Nov. 1, offered his most recent mixtape, “11-1-11,” through Hulkshare.com, a file-sharing site that immediately buckled under the weight of posting the link to his million-plus Twitter followers. The tactic of crashing servers by releasing tapes on low-capacity sites-a growing trend among artists like J. Cole and the Weeknd-appears to only ramp up demand.

“It’s like a never-ending commercial,” Wale says. He estimates that 1.2 million people downloaded 11-1-11 in the first three days-a feat flaunted in label press releases, and retweeted all over. But he’s realistic about the residual effects. “I’m definitely not going to get 1.2 million album sales in the first week. That’s just the reality of it,” he says. “I just hope that the majority of the people who love the mixtape go out and support ‘Ambition.’”

Even on smaller scales, the model can shine. New Orleans’ Curren$y released his third studio album, “Pilot Talk” (Roc-a-Fella/DD172/Def Jam) in 2010, avoiding the sample clearance issues of his mixtapes by employing live instrumentation and production from Ski Beatz. The now Warner Bros. Records signee utilized online mediums like Ustream and Twitter to build a relationship with fans and deliver free mixtapes such as 2008′s “Fast Times at Ridgemont Fly” and 2009′s “How High with Wiz Khalifa,” helping the non-mixtape “Pilot Talk” sell 52,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

McKenzie Eddy, a singer/songwriter and president of BluRoc Records who handled A&R for Curren$y’s album and its sequel (“Pilot Talk II”), says, “Free records and selling records-it’s all about having something to drive the building of your brand. Giving away albums is equally as important as selling them.”

Some major labels have begun to embrace the format by repackaging the giveaways as retail EPs. Universal and Young Money/Cash Money pared down “So Far Gone” to a seven-track EP with two new cuts. It was released in September 2009 and has sold 608,000 units, according to SoundScan. Last year, Def Jam monetized its first mixtape with Fabolous’ “There Is No Competition 2: The Grieving Music EP,” an adaptation of its free companion.

Def Jam senior VP of A&R Sha Money XL, says that major labels’ adjusted attitude toward mixtapes isn’t only rooted in compensatory motives, but also in the emphasizing of talent-to build careers with longevity. “We’re doing this because rappers want their artistic abilities to be displayed,” he says. As president of G-Unit Records, Sha helped 50 Cent craft his career through steal-your-hit-style mixtapes in the early ’00s. And Sha signed Big K.R.I.T. to Def Jam. “You can rap over someone else’s beats, but it’s not as impactful as giving them a song you created.”

The mixtape revolution began as a presentation of turntable skills by such DJs as Lovebug Starski, DJ Hollywood, Brucie B and Kid Capri. By the mid-’90s, it became the battle of the strongest Rolodex, with turntablists like DJ Clue and Funkmaster Flex netting exclusives for their own street and retail releases.

But around the turn of the millennium, artists had begun to assimilate the mixtape model. Instead of offering new tracks and freestyles for DJ-administered mixtapes, prolific groups like G-Unit and Dipset strategized on how they could use the model as a full-length promotional vehicle for studio albums. DJs were elbowed into secondary roles, and became known more for facilitating underground distribution to bootleggers and corner stores.

Flex, a DJ at WQHT (Hot 97) New York and host of MTV’s Funk Flex Full Throttle who released four gold-certified retail mixtapes between 1995 and 2000, put his career as a mixtape DJ on ice when he noticed the shift. “The artist started to want better control,” says Flex, who has refocused his non-Hot 97 energies on his InFlexWeTrust.com. “Some DJs were only as big as the exclusives they got.”

Mixtape culture reached critical mass in January 2007 when DJ Drama, one of the few DJs to persevere with his Gangsta Grillz brand, was arrested along with DJ Don Cannon and 17 others in a police raid on their Aphilliates Music Group headquarters in Atlanta-a part of the RIAA’s quest to put an end to mixtape profiteering. “A lot of us, including myself, had to find other avenues,” DJ Drama says. “After that raid, it got a little scary and nerve-racking.” He has since abandoned mixtapes as a revenue stream, instead releasing them for free in a tastemaker role.

Indeed, for artists who have constructed careers on a mixtape foundation, signing with a major may not always be the end-goal. Acts like Odd Future and Tech N9ne have sidestepped major labels, releasing albums on their own imprints and distributing through companies like RED or Fontana. “You don’t have to put out a commercial album to build your fan base,” Grinberg says. “You could have an artist who’s on a major and an artist who doesn’t have a label or a manager-they can both get a mixtape out there and compete. It really levels the playing field.”

Once a foul-mouthed tough chick with a chip on her shoulder, Nicki Minaj has blossomed into one of rap’s most arresting emcees. Now, she’s ready to prove herself with the release of her highly anticipated debut, Pink Friday.

Three years ago, Nicki Minaj sat hunched on a cramped staircase in her native Queens, her crispy black hair tucked behind a pair of chunky gold doorknockers. “Y’all bitches better sharpen ya mothafuckin’ No. 2 pencil – ‘cause I stay on point!” she shouts, waving a brick of Benjamins on reserve for a manicure. The tirade, capped by a pointy acapella freestyle, landed on 2007’s The Come Up DVD, introducing a hardened urbanite with raw, unmined talent.

Today, Nicki clicks her black stiletto heels into a bright studio in Manhattan’s Garment District. She dismisses an egg white breakfast that isn’t to her liking and sifts through a rack of couture, giving the green light to select designs. A personal handler – one of the many on her team – clears the set to make her comfortable as she ducks behind a curtain for makeup and pampering.

Ever since her mentor Lil Wayne welcomed her to his testosterone-fueled Young Money gang on the strength of her DVD appearance, the 25-year-old has sped down the hip-hop highway to become the new decade’s first rap diva. Over the past year, Nicki became the first solo female emcee to top the Rap Songs chart since 2002 with the saccharine “Your Love,” effectively ending rap’s estrogen drought. In October, she shattered a Billboard record by becoming the first rapstress to simultaneously land seven songs (a combination of both solo and featured tracks) in the Hot 100 chart and sell a combined 4.29 million copies.

The numbers are on her side, but Judgment Day arrives on November 22, the day her hyped debut Pink Friday hits stores. Earlier this year, her Cash Money cohorts nudged her into the studio to begin cold recording the LP, attempting to capitalize on the buzz from animated verses on Ludacris’ platinum-certified “My Chick Bad” and Young Money’s “BedRock.” Initially, Nicki balked at the demand, worried that her talents were better suited for 16-bar guest contributions.

“I was so afraid to put out an album for fear of failure,” she later admits, stretched across a dressing room couch in a yellow Harajuku Lovers tee and flowing sweatpants. “I wanted to put my album out on Valentine’s Day of 2011. And my label was like, are you fucking crazy?”

With a fan base that’s expanded from hip-hop to mainstream pop (even Regis Philbin branded her “the next Lady Gaga” following a performance on his show), Nicki isn’t ditching her aggressive hood past. Pink Friday carefully straddles the line between boisterous hip-hop and glistening pop, boasting an eclectic roster of guests including Rihanna, will.i.am, Drake, Kanye West and Natasha Bedingfield (who appears on “Last Chance”).

Pop has a heavy hand in the full-length, but Nicki panders to the hip-hop sect with the harsh “Roman’s Revenge.” The track, which sports a wobbly electronic beat and saucy lyrics, pairs her gay alter ego Roman Zolanski with Eminem, who also used the beginning stage of his career to rap from the perspective of a character.

“We both have our own world, and we’re just colliding. I feel like we’re on a freaking collision course or something. But it’s very equal,” she explains. “I want a piece of that Slim Shady world because I feel like it may have subconsciously influenced me.”

Fans who have been lured into the Minaj matrix by her mystique will also see a more introspective side of the Harajuku Barbie on the album. Typically on wax, Nicki can flip from pointy and aggressive to British and ditzy over a span of two bars, leaving listeners in the dark about the girl behind the mic. One minute, she’s a squeaky British valley girl like on Mariah Carey’s “Up Out My Face (Remix),” and the next, she’s back to being Roman on Trey Songz’s “Bottoms Up.”

But where she used the bulk of her 2010 recordings to take listeners to metaphor heaven, she strips away the gloss and allows herself to become vulnerable for the first time since her stark 2008 track “The Autobiography.” On “Dear Old Nicki,” for example, she addresses why she changed from the feisty around the way rap chick to female emcees’ saving grace.

“I’m going to talk about my family and a little bit of dysfunction – or I should say, lots of dysfunction. And I’m just going to talk about me and self-searching and why I made the choices [I did],” she says, differentiating between her aliases and Onika Tonya Maraj – her birth name. “Onika is not Nicki is not Roman. People will never be able to figure me out. I can tell you my whole life story from beginning to end, and then tomorrow, I’ll be just a different person.”

Her identity is as shape-shifting as her rainbow collection of wigs, but her history is written in stone. Growing up in Queens, New York, a young Onika attended the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts (of which Fame was based), slinging her first rhyme to impress her next-door neighbor, Jennifer. “I started saying it to everybody,” she says with a giggle. “I thought that they were laughing with me, but they were really laughing at me.”

Reared on a healthy diet of Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh, Nicki spent her adolescence studying hip-hop and developing a taste for couture from admiring her supportive mother’s fashion expertise (“She was wearing only the flyest shoes and dresses”). But where she spent countless hours locked in her room penning rhymes, hip-hop became a necessary escape from life’s harsh realities. On “The Autobiography,” Nicki details a traumatic episode where her substance-abusing father tried to burn the house down with her mother inside. It was one of the many situations that molded her into the hotheaded firecracker barking on The Come Up DVD.

It wasn’t until she met Wayne that she finally found a strong male figure capable of nurturing her love of rhyme. His oversight on her 2008 Sucka Free mixtape and her breakout 2009 tape not only cultivated her eccentricities, but also stamped her with a co-sign from a member of the hip-hop elite. Under the Young Money skein, the two joined forces with the rest of the squad to release We Are Young Money in December 2009, later earning gold certification for the album and a platinum plaque for “BedRock” in June.

But Nicki quickly learned a harsh lesson. Wayne could only take her so far as a solo artist, and his incarceration this past March left her and the YM camp to their own devices. His absence jolted her, not just on a personal level, but also taught her that making it to the top of the game doesn’t reward with automatic bulletproofing.

“At any given moment, you can experience your last day, whether it’s going to come back, as in his case, or whether it’s gone forever,” she slowly states, citing Remy Ma as another incarcerated emcee who often crosses her mind. “I can’t stop, I don’t know when this is going to end. I don’t know if this is going to end. I don’t know how long I’m going to have.”

The sobering reality put her into beast mode. Her buzz not only grew in the wake of Weezy’s imprisonment, but her willingness to experiment turned her saltiest haters into believers. According to Nicki, her pivotal 2010 moment wasn’t when “Your Love” hit the top of the charts – it was with a show-stopping guest appearance on Kanye West’s “Monster,” a giveaway track where she eclipses Jay-Z, ‘Ye and Rick Ross during a blackout verse.

“That has to be the breakout Nicki Minaj moment. That was my moment,” she says. Nicki laid down the verse after ‘Ye reached out to her through his former arm candy Amber Rose, hopping on a flight to Hawaii where she met up with West and laid down the track’s first vocals. “People paid attention because of who was on it and because I held my own and I stayed true to my crazy animation, and it’s like I didn’t have to take my fun stuff out. I was able to incorporate Nicki Minaj on a record with Jay-Z and Kanye West. And I think people know that’s a difficult task in itself.”

Her success as an emcee has also jostled hip-hop’s gender lines, uncorking the forgotten female rappers of yesteryear. It’s no coincidence that Lauryn Hill returned from self-imposed exile or Rah Digga followed up her 1999 debut with her sophomore album this year. Some female emcees forgoing comebacks, like Foxy Brown, have co-signed Nicki and praised her consistent wins, but artists like Lil’ Kim have blasted Nicki for forgetting to pay homage to past femcees.

“These girls aren’t mad at me. They’re mad at themselves,” she states, shooting down questions on why she never took Kim’s bait. “[It’s] jealousy, insecurity and being broke. When you haven’t capitalized and you see I’m about to capitalize on this shit like it’s never been done before, then you’re mad at yourself.”

Nicki gets the last laugh. Plotting an international tour for 2011, the baddest bitch in the building is climbing the charts with her singles “Right Thru Me” and the will.i.am-assisted “Check It Out.” Wayne will rejoin the Young Money fam upon his release from prison. All eyes are on the year’s highest achieving female rapper, whose debut album could position her as one of the year’s most successful musicians.

“I know that is a classic album. I have never been this proud of anything in my life,” she says. “I just think that it’s such a dynamic body of work. I’m no longer afraid to drop it. Now, I know it’s time.”

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