Chrisette Michele In Essence Magazine

Chrisette Michele is featured in the April 2009 issue of Essence Magazine and she is interviewed by Jill Scott. Jill's song "He Loves Me" is M.Y.'s song of the week! Make sure you pick up your copy of Essence on stands now.

Inside the pages of XXL magazine

Talk about juicy drama! The March issue of XXL gives just that. Finally the Dipset crew speaks out on the abrupt departure and missing Cam'ron and the dismantle of the group. The revelations in the interview goes to show that loyalty truly isn't everything.

Before reading the interview I'll be honest, I thought that there was some real grimy activity going on in the foreground. But now that I've read it I think I understand both sides; I do however feel there are some thing's that were chosen to remain a secret, but that's just me I happen to be very suspicious of shady characters.

This interview was a little different. Vanessa Satten (the person that conducted the interview) interviews all of the remaining members of Dipset; they consist of Jim Jones, Juelz Santana, and Freekey Zekey.

What's great about it is that there are different parts and sides to said drama and that makes for a buffet of answers. Here are a few excerpts from the XXL interview.



Juelz Santana on his contract issues with Cam'ron,

"It was a bad deal. He owned so much of my sh*t and everything, he just practically, owned more than what I owned, and it got to a point where I just wanted to get the situation right. I didn't want nothing back. And it's like he wasn't trying to get it right. He wasn't trying to give me what I felt like I was owed. It's like he directed us, and when we got to brick by brick. All he was doing was directing us, and when we got to the top of the building, he don't even wanna share the sandwiches. It's lunchtime now. He wanna give us pieces of a sandwich, and he got one big hero, and we getting pieces. Like, 'Come on now. The building is built. You gotta respect us on another type of level'. And as far as clearances... I was running in that same lane Wayne was running in. But I couldn't...Nike, I did that commercial-that got pulled. I'm still damn near in some shit with them. Just wild shit he didn't clear. I was on over half those remixes that Wayne was asked to be on. Not that the asked Wayne before me, or they asked me before Wayne, but, you know, me and Wayne had the whole I Can't Feel My Face"

Juelz on having a fake title on Diplomats,

"Yeah. It's, like, Cam is still Diplomats. We was all put in a situation where Cam told us we had roles that we never really had. We had invisible roles. And it got to a point where we was like, Damn... To be honest, Jim was never the capo, like on paperwork. I was never the [vice] president. Cam owned everything."

Freekey Zekey on why he can't mend the relationship between Cam'ron & Jim Jones,

"Cam needs to humble himself and be like, 'F*ck it, we here, let's rock out'. That's my honest opinion. And Cam know I love him. This is basically my shout-out to him".

Jim Jones on why he and Cam fell off (subliminally),

"I don't know. Somebody told me that you never know who your friends are 'till y'all have money. And I don't know what he meant by that, when he told me, but a bit of it makes sense, because when you broke, you thick as thieves, and you do everything together. But when you get money, you seem to get jaded."

Jim on being the pillar of Dipset,

"I was one of the pillars to hold the whole thing up. I did what I had to. I did what we agreed I would do. That would be take care of the business and whatever else I had to do to make Cam'ron famous and make us some money. And once Cam got famous enough, then he would be able to make us all artists and make us into something that would be relevant to making some paper. That's what went on...I don't know if I always aspired to rap. I don't know that that was my thing. I just knew that I had it. I just had something in me since I was younger that-since school, since high school".

Jim on loyalty,

"Loyalty becomes a bad thing when the person-or anything that you're being loyal to--doesn't have the same love, respect and loyalty for you. If they just use your loyalty and have an ulterior motive for you, then what good is it? it's just crazy that you'd be willing to put your life on the line for something you believe in... And that person or that thing doesn't appear to do the same thing, or doesn't have a way to do the same thing, if it came down to it. So it was like, hmm".

Jim on possibly jinxing the feud *eyebrow raised*,

"I think I might have jinxed us. Me and Cam was talking a long time ago about somebody that was breaking up. I was saying that would be kind of crazy if we was to break up but fake it--like, act like we was mad at each other and then get back together and make all this money off of it. And Cam was like, "Why would you say something like that? Don't start talking no stupid sh*t." I'll never forget that. And now I'm like, What the f*ck, is this an ill paradox? I be thinking about that sh*t all the time. Hopefully, we could get this money, 'cause Lord knows there's a lot of private jets".

Interesting, I know! I don't feel that crazy after reading this interview when I said I thought the break-up was a marketing ploy, who knows I'm probably still bugging, or am I?

I believe that Cam left for more reasons other than the falling out between he and Jim. If you can remember, he was shot in October of 2005 twice by unknown carjackers trying to steal his car at a stoplight and might have still been going through some other personal issues. Either way I see why the group may have needed to back stab Cam; they had to eat...right? Luckily, we get to get all sides of the story because conveniently enough, Cam'ron is the cover boy for XXL's April issue. We will finally get the full spectrum of the truth.

This issue of XXL is on stands now! Make sure you pick up your copy.

Inside the pages of Vibe Magazine

So, I'm probably among the 5% of the population that still reads Vibe (out in public) and as you know Kanye West was February's cover boy. There were of course some controversy surrounding the cover. Mainly and most importantly the fact that Kanye looked like a 40 year old scruffy bum.

The interview inside was one to remember, I think. Kanye's interviews are always very complex and personal and his Vibe interview was that and then some. Kanye sure does not know how to bite his tongue and if he did, I'm more than positive he wouldn't have one by the end of the hour. With that said here are some excerpts from the interview that really caught my attention.

Kanye on the paparazzi,

" I haven't done anything violent. They make it seem like I actually went and hit paparazzi. I haven't. I was restrained. I'm good at restraining myself from committing violent acts. I know how to control my temper. That one paparazzo made it a bigger deal. I just put my hand up, and he felt like he had more right to my personal space than I did. I put my hand up to stop him from shooting me"

Kanye on music,

"Music is easy for me, and it should be. I'm a professional now sometimes I zone out, completely Jordan out on a track. Like "Say You WIll". I did that beat in 10 minutes."



Kanye on his ever changing style,

"No, I don't try, I do. There's some people that try and then they get scared and then their sh*t ends up sounding like it sounded before. I'm the dude that says, 'Bam-808's, taiko drums, and a whole bunch of lasers. This is what I'm going with'. And I'm not waiting to see if someone likes it or not. This is what I'm putting out. I like it, it's good, and it's on you. I'm not a museum. I'm not here to be an archive of old concepts. I'm new. For all the kids who wear lumberjack shirts now and used to wear neon last year, this is the music they listen to. I make the soundtrack of our lives and who we are and who I am."

Kanye on wanting "less fans" and posing nude (ooo la la!),

"I made a decision. I wanna make popular music, but I want less fans. I want the freedom of having less fans. It's like the freedom of having less money. If you have less money, you have less responsibility. It's like Bjork, if she wanted to pose naked, people would draw all type of things into it. I definitely feel like, in the next however many years, If I work out for two months, that I'll pose naked. I break every rule and mentality of hip hop, of black culture, of American culture."

Ummm Kanye, I beg to differ on the notion that people with less money have less responsibilities. I think that broke people would have the most responsibilities, it's called debt and bills.Kanye may not be understood but somehow he is respected. His genius is on another level and he continuously pushes the envelope; but how far is he honestly going to push it? Doesn't everything have it's limits?

The February Vibe issue is on stands today! Make sure you pick up your copy to read the full Kanye West interview; it's pretty deep.