Grind Mode Magazine

The latest issue Grind Mode Magazine has just dropped, featuring an exclusive interview with cover star Bun B of the Underground Kings (UGK).  Bun B talks candidly about his career and life in the light of the passing of partner Pimp C.

 

Also featured are interviews with The Lo (formerly Camp Lo), R&B sensation Lloyd (as he builds off ‘Girl’s Around The World’) and DJ Lex – The Silent Killah.

 

But that’s not all as Grind Mode connected with Dr. Dre’s latest talent Bishop Lamont to see how he looks to put the West Coast firmly back on the map.  Also schooling readers, Grind Mode got an exclusive interview with former Bloods street gang member Dashaun ‘Jiwe’ Morris to find out more about his life and his recently published book.

 

With all this, plus the usual high quality editorial content, reviews, and more, Grind Mode is the place to be.

 

To get all this for FREE simply visit www.grindmodemag.com today – If you’re not in Grind Mode you’re simply not Grindin’

       “No idea’s original,” Nas rapped in his 2001 album, Stillmatic. With this fact, Nas has made a career out of neither losing his touch nor reinventing himself.  In 2006, when he released his last album, titled Hip-Hop is Dead, he made the news media look foolish, exploring the name so feverishly they inadvertently confirmed that the genre was as strong as ever.  So when Def Jam Recordings and a hostile media shot down his proposed title for his next album, N*gger, he reached back into his familiar bag of tricks and recycled one; on May 27^th, he announced plans for a mix tape entitled The N*gger Tape, just weeks after two tracks from his upcoming album, dubbed “N.*.G.G.E.R.” and “Be A N*gger Too,” were leaked online. 

       For better or for worse, Nas gets his way in his songs and among his fans, even as his frequent appearances in the news stale.  Although he has cited a desire to point out the hypocrisy in hip-hop as his main reason for courting the word “n*gger,” this point has already been made at least once when Hip-Hop is Dead sold its millionth copy.  If Nas has proven anything, it’s that his mastery of rhythm may be surpassed by his mastery of controversy. 

       After reneging on the former title of his ninth studio album, Nas stood firm, stating, “the people will always know what the real title of this album is.”  More accurately, people will retain what they wish to.  His hardcore fans, unlikely to be offended by the title, will remember it.  For those who don’t buy the album anyway, there will be little more than an aging news story with which to begrudge him. 

       By agreeing to give his next album a benign title, Nas has ensured that after months of free publicity, he will upset few.  Even civil rights activist, the Reverend Al Sharpton, praised Nas, calling the name change “a partial victory.”  In effect, Nas is now demonstrating that his commercial success thus far has been no coincidence.  He has revived his own methods of getting into the news: treating news anchors like advertisers, attacks like endorsements. 

       And yet Nas once too said “nothin’ lasts forever.”  Even he knows his attention will die down after the album’s release.  Ultimately, it will be his music that prevails or falls short. 

        With that, the media will have their say.  They may—and likely will—criticize Nas, but they should know this; the more they disparage his seeking of attention, the more they feed it and the more they sound like a broken record.  Meanwhile this record, untitled or N*gger, will beat on.

This editorial appeared in Grind Mode Magazine's June 2008 issue.  To subscribe free, visit GrindModeMag.com

The Grind Spot

2 Pistols

Takin’ Aim at Da Industry

Interview by Kenyetta “Native” McKinney

 

Grind Mode: What first got you started in the music business?

2 Pistols: I would say that my brother did—he was doing music for a little minute.  When my mom wasn’t in jail, we had these talent things that we used to do on Thursday nights, and my brother was Big Daddy Kane, I was LL Cool J, and my mom used to play like Anita Baker.  I really liked football, but my brother kind of drug me into doing music, and then I fell in love with it—real deep love with it from there.

 

Grind Mode: Now you mention football and your love for it.  Are you happy that you chose music over football?

2 Pistols: I mean, yeah, because with this, I feel I control my situation a little bit better.  The label controls it somewhat, but for the most part I do have a big hand in my situation, and in football I could have went out there and got hurt, and people would have looked at it like “I aint messin’ wit’ him no more because he’s injured, and who knows how he’s going to be from there,” and a team might not want to be bothered with you anymore, but say I put a album out, and it brick—and it don’t do too good, but I go out and record a record something else and make another hit.  I have that to fall back on again.

 

Grind Mode: OK, I hear that.  Because in the music industry you definitely can fumble because artists just don’t make money from record sales alone anymore, so what would you do to secure your financial stability and longevity, 2 Pistols?

2 Pistols: Money wise, I got this guy named Kenny Rushen down in Tampa where I’m from, and he does this thing called “House Hustlin,’” and he’s heavy into real estate, so that, and I really want to get into movies and acting and stuff, but for the most part, real estate will be where I make the most of my money if this does not work out to be as big as it needs to be.

 

Grind Mode: You’re good right now, 2 Pistols, with the single “She Got It” blowing up.  I just wanted to know your contingency plan.  Now you used to do promotions in Tampa too right?

2Pistols: Yeah, I did promotions and used to bring different artists through.  That’s how I got my name really hot.  I’d bring Fat Joe, Rick Ross, and it used to be like Rick Ross is performing at Club 112 and also performing live is 2 Pistol, and that’s how I made a name like that.

 

Grind Mode: How long have you been in the game overall?

2 Pistols: Like ten years here and there.

 

Grind Mode: OK. Now I read that you were influenced by Biggie and Jay, so we see you have love for the East, but now who are some of the others that have influenced you?

2 Pistols: I’m still being influenced everyday, from different individuals.  I like UGK, the Cash money movement, and I have other artists that’s behind me—that I’m trying to get a situation for them.  Anyone with a movement—like Dipset where there’s the artist, then you put others on.

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New York stand up! Brooklyn MC extraordinaire J-Live is back with his 4^th album, Then What Happened?”  Kicking matters off with “One to 31,” J-Live takes a fine beat from Jazzy Jeff to show he’s still not playing.  Other collaborators include Jurassic 5’s Charli 2na and DJ Nu-Mark Nicolay, and Evil Dee of Da Beatminerz.  Clear intellectual rhymes once again stand at the forefront of J-Live’s work and, while others chase pop hits for the airwaves, his strong 90’s b-boy stance continues to hold its own. 

However, don’t front as cuts like “The Upgrade” have an immediacy and appeal that are hard to ignore.  Elsewhere J-Live shows his hip hop background and upbringing on “The Understanding” while the signing off “You Out There” has enough comfortable well-trodden originality to make you sit up and take notice.  If you wondered where the real hip hop was at, then check by J-Live and see what happened, and looks set to keep happening.  Indeed, there are those stay true to a pure hip hop aesthetic.

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Editor’s Word:

Hip-Hop Community & Change

Hip-Hop artists have really come a long way from the days of just being an artist, to how Jay Z so poignantly put it: “I’m a businessman.”

While at the National Hip-Hop Team Vote 2008 Campaign hosted by Dr. Ben Chavis of HSAN, I came to the realization that Hip-Hop, a genre often criticized, has a lot of good to offer ailing souls.  Souls that too, want to reach the same plateau of their favorite artists, and if their favorite artist says that it is time for change, then ultimately they are following suit, and it just so happens that I, Grind Mode Magazine, and GrindModeConnect.com could be a part of such greatness that was witnessed at the Liacorous Center in Philadelphia, PA, greatness that spelled our for us that it is time for change and healing. 

We all know in our hearts, and in our spirit man, that it is time for a change like we have never seen before.  We are in a fight for our lives, and if you have a vehicle to express such, and ‘sway’ others to wake from mental slumbers, then I feel that it is yours as well as our duty to do so.

In this issue, we caught up with some of today’s hottest stars and industry leaders—Dr. Ben Chavis, T.I., Ciara, Russell Simmons, Flo Rida, Gorilla Zoe, Chrisette Michelle, Styles P., as well as 2 Pistols—as they discuss change and their consciousness.  So sit back, relax and stan in Grind Mode!  And if you’re really grindin’, then you need to be roamin’ wit’ us, so make sure to sign up at www.GrindModeConnect.com.

Native

Editor-in-chief

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