Hip Hop’s Finest Nas and Jay-Z Make Sweet Music…
Who would have thought that hip hop archrivals Jay-Z and Nas would bury the hatchet and more importantly begin working directly with one another. Times have changed and they both feel it's time to call truce, get the full lowdown on this week’s Outside Trax…
Mariah’s Miracle Comeback
In November 2004 she was still mired in a deep slump that was on the verge of killing her career ("Glitter," anyone?). But she had a full album's worth of hot new material in the can that she was sure would rocket her back to multiplatinum status. "We Belong Together" — which is nominated for Grammys in both the Record of the Year and Song of the Year categories — became Carey's sweet 16: her 16th #1 hit, the most ever by a female artist. (Mariah has since broken her own record with "Don't Forget About Us.")
Justin Timberlake Is Back With Pals In Tow
Justin Timberlake has already recorded collaborations with Snoop Dogg, Will.I.Am and Nelly Furtado for his second solo album, and now he's contemplating whether to do more.
"I feel that I'm in kind of a good place with the small cast that I have right now, because they're heavy hitters, definitely," he said recently. "But I'll have to see which direction it goes. If it makes sense, then I'll do it, but if not, I don't want to push it."
Will.I.Am is also producing tracks for the album, along with Timbaland and Rick Rubin In fact, after collaborating on back-to-back Peas tracks (the first being the smash "Where Is the Love?"), Timberlake and Will formed their own production team called the Jawbreakers. Along with tracks for each other, they've worked with Charlie Wilson and Macy Gray.
Nas, Jay-Z and The Sordid Past!
Jay and Nas may be trying to forget about their beef, but someone is trying to stir up old memories. Carmen Bryan, Nas' baby's mother and Jay's ex-lover is following Superhead's lead and writing a tell-all book about her affairs. Her new book is titled Sex, Drugs and Hip-Hop — Oh, and Did I Mention Love? In the book, reports state that she divulges information about her numerous sexual encounters and relationships with celebrities. Among those celebs will be NBA star Allen Iverson and Jay-Z. Carmen goes on the record about her relationship problems with Nas.
"We had an argument and he was like, 'I'm a king, Carm. Do you know how many girls would love to be in your shoes right now?' That was his favourite line," she says in the magazine. "I never had to deal with lots of groupies calling me, but I heard things. I asked Nas about some of them. Way after we kind of broke up, I asked him about Lil' Kim, Eve, Mary J. Blige. The only one Nas ever admitted to dating was Mary," she said about Nas' past relationships.
We'll see how this affects Nas and Jay's business relationship.
Diddy Promises Big Year for Bad Boy
Bad Boy went from a roster of talent like Biggie and Ma$e in the 90’s to a roster of… well, Making the Band R&B singers. In 2006, label head Diddy is vowing to change all that and hopes to bring Bad Boy Records back to prominence. The labels latest release, a posthumous album from The Notorious B.I.G. titled Duets: The Final Chapter is currently at the three spot on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Diddy may ride this wave and release an album of his own this year.
”Right now, our focus is breaking new talent, new artists,” he tells MTV.com. ”The future of the label is, we’re gonna take it spin by spin, single by single, album by album make sure we rebuild the empire in the right way. We're honest with ourselves that we have not performed at the level that we're supposed to perform at, for champions. We're like the New York Yankees and we should get judged on that. If we don't win the World Series, that's a failure to us. And so that's the way we're doing it — but we're not doing a lot of talking, we're doing a lot of action."
Missy Scores With Disney
Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott will be joining with producer Mike Simpson of the Dust Brothers to score the upcoming Disney film Stick It. The film was penned by Bring It On writer Jessica Bendinger and stars Jeff Bridges as the coach of a competitive gymnastics team. Disney initially approached Elliott about placing her song "We Run This" on the movie's soundtrack.
"I've always wondered what scoring a film would be like, and this fell into my lap at a great time," Elliott told Billboard Magazine. "I've been doing the artist thing for so long that you get to the point where you want to venture into other projects."
In related news, Missy is also currently working on her next studio album, as well as writing songs for Monica and Fantasia. She is nominated for five Grammy Awards for this year's ceremony, taking place on February 8 in Los Angeles.
Nas Launches New Label Under Def Jam
The buzz surrounding the news of Nas joining Jay-Z at Def Jam has just gotten bigger with the recent revelation that God Son's coming album will be released on his own imprint, the Jones Experience. As SOHH previously reported, Nas announced his signing with Def Jam earlier this week. His new contract involves a joint venture between Island Def Jam and Sony Records, Columbia's parent company, with the companies working as financial partners on Nas' first two albums under a four album deal. For the initial two albums Def Jam will provide A&R, promotion and distribution and the labels will both share in the marketing costs.
"I've been in this business a long time and know what a great deal is," Nas told Billboard Magazine. "I signed a significant and excellent situation."
While each album reportedly has a recording budget of $3 million including advances for Nas, other sources say he has already received a substantially higher advance. Sony will still own the masters from Nas' 11-year career at Columbia and also retain the right to release a greatest-hits collection not shared with Def Jam. The Queens, NY MC would be responsible for delivering two new tracks for the Sony hits set and Sony would be allowed up to three tracks from the albums released through the joint venture.
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