If you happen to pass by Sean Combs, be sure to wish him a happy birthday, as the man better known as Diddy turns 40 years old today. While it's bizarre to think if Diddy as a guy in the depths of middle age, it's also odd to think that he isn't older. Diddy has been such a dominant, ubiquitous force in pop culture since the '90s that it's almost as if he has always been with us. There have been countless highs (smash hits like "It's All About the Benjamins," "I'll Be Missing You" and "Bad Boy for Life") and devastating lows (most notably the death of his friend the Notorious B.I.G.), but he has certainly changed the face of hip-hop and gave rise to the idea of diversification among pop stars. He's dabbled in fashion, fragrances, restaurants and alcohol, and his empire is constantly expanding.
They say hip-hop is a young man's game, though that's mostly because the art form itself is only about 30 years old. Still, there aren't a whole lot of artists who are aging as gracefully as Diddy is, though a handful of these 40-and-over elder statesmen join him. (Jay-Z enters the club in December.)
RZA
Age: 40
Early Career: Built grimy beats and rapped psychedelic nonsense alongside his Wu-Tang Clan brothers on the instant classic Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers
Today: Spends equal time in the music world (mostly behind the decks) and the film world (where he both acts and provides scores for friends like Jim Jarmusch and Quentin Tarantino).
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By Steven Roberts
16 years ago if I said that there would be a commercial for a skateboarding shoe featuring Ice Cube on a NBC Sunday afternoon broadcast, you probably would have looked at me like I was crazy. Trust me. In 1993, Ice Cube was probably the most controversial artist in the world and it was months after the L.A. riots. He wasn't going to be featured in any commercial on any network. And this was two years before some cable sports network decided to broadcast something called the Extreme Games featuring skateboarders, inline skaters, etc.
Fast-forward a few years, and low-and-behold, people were hyped after seeing the commercial for Nike Skateboarding, which has been circulating on something called the internet (it's like a series of tubes) since.
Recently, Nike released the commercial to promote the release of Paul Rodriguez's (affectionately known as P-Rod) signature skateboarding shoe the P-Rod III. P-Rod is riding around enjoying an ideal day of skating as Cube's "It Was A Good Day" plays in the background. Towards the end, he loses control of his board, which rolls into the street in the path of an oncoming lowrider. He turns to see an angry Cube grill him and commence to drive over and crack his board. P-Rod is left to walk home with a broken deck. If you look close enough you can see the Good Year Blimp and it says "Ice Cube's A Pimp." (It doesn't really, wouldn't that have been dope?)
Fifteen years ago today, O.J. Simpson was approached by police to turn himself in as a suspect in the murder of his ex-wife and a friend in Los Angeles. Simpson fled, leading to the most notorious low-speed chase in history. Simpson hopped into his white Ford Bronco (driven by friend and fellow former football star A.C. Cowlings) and lead police down the highway, seeking asylum as the world watched. In the pre-Internet era, footage of the chase became some of the first real viral video, as it was passed around and parodied on the news, in late-night comedy sketches and in music videos. Since the chase (and the subsequent trial) became part of the fabric of Los Angeles, leave it to two of the city's most notorious residents to provide commentary. In 1994's clip for "Natural Born Killaz," Dr. Dre and Ice Cube laid down a horrorcore-esque tale about being psychopathic killers. A white Ford Bronco appears in the clip, and Cube rhymes, "I'm down with Dre like A.C. is down with O.J." The cinematic clip also features a handful of cameos, including an ironic guest spot from Tupac Shakur at the end of the video.
"Young funky little JD"? "Mr. Make It Rain on Them Hos"? "DJ show me love/ He say my name when the music stop"? Really?
I'm not saying Korn singer Jonathan Davis has never spent time in a strip club (he is married to a former porn actress, after all). And I'm not saying he's never worn fat chains and rained money down on Cheyenne while she worked the pole on the Cinnamon stage at Shotgun Willie's. Or that a DJ hasn't stopped the music when he rolled in with his Bakersfield crew.
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So that breakbeat from the song "Ashley's Roachclip" is one of the most sampled beats in hip-hop, and possibly pop. It hadn't been sampled for awhile, but then Lloyd and Lil Wayne brought it back for their song "Girls All Around the World." So blogger FourFour decided to make a mix of songs that use the beat.
But wait -– MTV News producer Joseph Patel writes in, “Aw man, they're missing Ice Cube's ‘Jackin' For Beats,’ Nice & Smooth's ‘Down The Line,’ and the most famous one: ‘RUN'S HOUSE.’ Suckas.”
So have we missed any others?
Hey, remember last week how we told you about The Loder Files? Those amazing moments in the MTV News archives where the legendary Kurt Loder (and still on top of his game, we might add) did his cool, smokey-voiced everyman interviews with some of the most interesting figures in music?
Yeah, well, we've arrived at Week 2 of The Loder Files and this one's crazygood. It's Kurt Loder at the home of a 20-year old Ice Cube (um, not in Compton but nearby), in 1989 (NINETEEN EIGHTY NINE!), right after the release of Straight Outta Compton.
Kurt and Cube talk about success, ride around the 'hood in Cube's jeep, and man, look at that cellphone! They were flossin'!
Also, Kurt and MTV News superproducer Tami Katzoff chose Ice Cube this week to coincide with the MTV-wide kickoff of the 20th Anniversary celebration of Yo! MTV Raps all month. Go to yo.mtv.com for more.
· Kanye West was really serious about that Connect Four battle with Beyonce. TMZ says that the game is now part of his tour rider and must be provided backstage for all his shows on his upcoming Glow In The Dark tour.
· Attention SOHH, Pitchfork, and Billboard (and Reuters and NME and...): The new Gnarls Barkley video for "Run" has not been banned by MTV. It debuted on MTV.com and debuts on TRL Thursday. [UPDATED: This video totally needed some edits in the UK because it didn't pass their seizure test! But not here. It's good to go on both sides of the Atlantic!]
· We here in the hip-hop corner of the Newsroom have notoriously debated the Hottest MCs and the Greatest MCs of All-Time before. But we've always wanted to do a Greatest Producers of All-Time show, too. And if we did, the Bomb Squad would definitely be in the mix. Hank and Keith Shocklee are responsible for the dense, layered and noisy rhythms of the early Public Enemy albums, plus Ice Cube's first solo album, Amerikkka's Most Wanted, his best. (It's worth noting that obtuse sampling laws would probably prevent both albums from ever getting made today). Finally - FINALLY - they are working on their first solo album, plus a world tour. Some of the old-timers 'round the way are excited.
