MTV's Mixtape Monday - Feb. 6th '06

Artist: Young Jeezy

Representing: The corporate thugs and the thugs in the street.

Mixtape: Can't Ban the Snowman

411: Last time Jeezy and DJ Drama combined efforts to put out a mixtape (Trap or Die), a street movement started that snowballed into just about 2 million copies sold of Thug Motivation 101: Let's Get It and 10 million bootleg Snowman shirts. In late 2005, Jeezy put a call in to Drama and said it was time to do it again.

"It took me about a month to do it," Jeezy said of recording Can't Ban the Snowman, which he promises won't be his last street album this year. "I did it while I was on the road. The streets were saying, 'Does he still got it?' They really wanna hear back from the Snowman, baby. They're waiting for me. I've got to feed the streets. My thing is being consistent. I ain't no lazy dude. Every time I get a chance, I'm gonna do what I do. Some people say, 'Well, why don't you just wait for your new album?' But come on, man, I do this in my sleep."

Jeezy raps over beats like N.O.R.E.'s "I'm a G" (Jeezy also appears on the still-unreleased official remix of the song) and Jay-Z's "U Don't Know" and some new instrumentals. Look for the Snowman to appear in a video for the "Get Throwed" remix with UGK, and Hype Williams has shot a Jeezy vid for "Bang" featuring Lil Scrappy and T.I.

Joints To Check For

* "I'm Back." Jeezy says things got so emotional while he was rhyming in the booth, he couldn't stop rappin'. "It's the intro, it's like six minutes long," he said of the freestyle. "No hook, no nothing. It's just all the sh-- that's going on that I haven't spoke on. My life, the whole baby-momma issues, the CNN sh--, what they thought the Snowman was about. I feel better now that I got it off my chest. We letting mutha----as know I ain't going nowhere. My n---as was going crazy over that sh--. Muthaf---as know my intros be crazy; they gonna sit there and listen to it."

* "Ya Dig." "The whole snap movement is going on in ATL, and I wanted to put my input in that sh--," Jeezy said. "I really don't do that type of music, but I wanted to let n---as know if it came down to it, I was good. I'm just having fun on there. It's clubby. ... The sh-- is one of them joints that come on and muthaf---as lose it."

* "Burnin Up" featuring Slick Pulla and Bloodraw. "Shorty Red did the track," the Snowman said. "It's one of them street anthems. ... We're just trying to stay in the street. The whole putting-an-album-out-through-a-label is one thing, but when you've got love for the streets, that's where you come from; you want to stay solid with that. You don't want to slip up none."

Don't Sleep: Other Notable Selections This Week

# Dutty Laundry's Hood Classics Legend
# DJ Finesse & DJ Gully's Future Hitz 10
# DJ Delz & DJ Furious' Outta Control Vol. 3
# DJ Envy's Bad Guys 6-8
# Evil Empire's Be South #8
# DJ Finesse's R&B Takeover 2K6: Part 2
# DJ Jelly & MC Assault's Southern Style DJs/R&B Crunk
# Papoose's A Threat and a Promise Volume 1
# Rob E Rob's Sex Jams Part 2
# DJ Watsman's That Coke Pt. III
# Venem's Spittin' Venem
# DJ Warrior's Ill Street Dues 3
# Wordsmith's Statements & Stipulations
# Young Buck and DJ Drama's Case Dismissed: The Introduction of G-Unit South

'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar

* All-Star featuring Yo Gotti and Lil' Wayne - "Grey Goose" remix
* 50 Cent - "Not Rich and Still Lyin"
* Juvenile - "We Rock Like That"
* Maino, Fabolous & Young Jeezy - "Freestyle"
* Ne-Yo - "When You're Mad"
* Papoose - "Law Library"
* Purple Ribbon All-Stars featuring Killa Mike, Lil Wayne, Bubba Sparxxx and Remy Ma - "Kryptonite Remix"

Celebrity Favs

Ghostface, who's on tour with Wu-Tang Clan right now and releasing a solo LP, Fishscale, on March 14, says he enjoyed getting a shout-out from Young Jeezy in the "Go Crazy" song and video. "That's my n---a right there," said Ghost, who has a cameo in "Go Crazy." "He wanted me to come through, so I flew to L.A. and popped my head up in the video right there. It was an honor for him to say my name in the song anyway. He wanted me to get that little light in his video and I took that."

The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground

You read last week how Kanye West's Grammy-nominated "Gold Digger" was originally intended to be a song for Shawnna (see "Road To The Grammys: The Making Of Kanye West's 'Gold Digger' "), but that's not the only Late Registration record that Kanye meant for someone else. One of his closest comrades, Common, actually recorded verses for "Heard 'Em Say" and was going to use it for his Be album before deciding against it. The beat for Kanye's "Celebration" and "Gone" were also made during Be's sessions and supposed to be Common songs. "Crack Music" — beats, rhymes and all — was cooked for Diddy, but the music mogul said it didn't fit the feel of his upcoming album.

"We sat there and we did the beat together and I just passed on the beat," Diddy explained. "I told him that I wanted something different. And he asked me if he could use it for his joint. People ask me if I have a problem passing on certain types of beats. I'm making a movie, so even if a scene may be an incredible scene ... It's like taking a scene from 'Heat' and putting it in the middle of 'Goodfellas' or 'Scarface.' It still may feel the same but it's not the exact scene you may have wanted for yourself. I'm cool with it. I love the song. I loved when we first did it. Actually, I co-produced it but he ain't give me the credit. So you need to holla at me, Kanye."

As beefs go, it's no Jay-Z vs. Nas or KRS-One vs. MC Shan, but it could get really interesting if it goes any further. It seems Christina Milian has a dis song aimed at ex-boyfriend Nick Cannon ready for her new album. Surprisingly, he's not too heated.

"Isn't that crazy?" he laughed. "It's like, what is the world coming to? It's a sad day in hip-hop. Hey, I've got nothing but love for her. That's what sells. I think she should really dig deep and tell all the bad stuff I did. I actually like the record, it's on my ring tone."

Nick admits he did do her wrong, but added that their relationship "didn't end on a bad note. We're still friends. I talked to her the other day. Sometimes you gotta get your aggression out some way. I lift weights, she makes dis records. I was the bad guy, so it was coming to me."

The rapper with the hottest record in the streets has hooked up with "the best rapper alive." Jay-Z's latest signing at Def Jam is Miami's Rick Ross, who has 'hoods across the country singing, "Every day I'm huss-a-lin'."

"I laid the record the beginning of November," Ross said of his bubbling "Hustlin'." "Two weeks later I went to [DJ] Khaled. Khaled went hard with it, and a month later the bidding war was on."

Ross said it didn't take Jay-Z too long to come up with the right offer.

"I sat down with a lot of people and ultimately [Def Jam] came with the best situation," the husky, gravely voiced MC explained. "I feel comfortable with their system. It's obvious they know what they're doing. We wanna win big. They wanna win big. So we knocked it out.

"It was love," he added about his meeting with Jay. "I can't even front. We sat down, chopped it up. He knew what time it was. He knew what I needed, I knew what they needed. It was easy."

Ross said his Def Jam debut LP, Career Criminal, is coming this summer with a guest appearance from Jay.

Double R has been making records on the Miami underground for years and hustling in the streets even longer than that while waiting for his big shot, which has finally come. "I kept it gangsta and I hit my number," he said. "I made it out [of the 'hood] alive. I didn't get indicted, so I won. A n---a is focusing on the future."

Source: www.MTVNews.com