Jay-Z’s American Gangster is his second post-retirement album, it also marks Diddy’s return to the production booth. Through osmosis with The Hitmen, Diddy contributed six songs to the album; The Hitmen were a big part of Bad Boy’s sound during its heyday.

Jay-Z and Diddy told EW how that super combo came together.

Diddy: When I heard he may make another album, I was like, ‘’You need to let me executive-produce that album! Even Ali had a coach. Jordan had a coach. That’s what I do best!

Jay-Z: Puff gave me a call [in early September]. He’s always talking about ‘’Let me executive-produce an album.’’ And I was always like, ‘’Man, I’m a boss in my own right. What are you talking about?”

Diddy: We have competed with each other over the years. But I was like, ‘’I still want to be involved in the project.’’ He told me he had the concept of blaxploitation with a contemporary sound. I said, ‘’I got a bunch of those [beats].”

Jay-Z: He’s like, ‘’You gotta come by, man — I’ve never asked you to come by the studio ever.’’ That night, I went over, and he had all these lush arrangements. I’m like, ‘’What are you doing with all these?’ He’s like, ‘’I don’t have anyone to give ‘em to.’’ And that was the foundation for the sound [of the album]. I was surprised from the source — you forget that, with all the things he does, he’s a producer at heart.

Diddy: After working with Biggie, Mary J. Blige, and Faith Evans, there wasn’t a lot of artists who inspired me to put time in and really grind out in the studio. [But Jay and I] were just two artists in there, and the vibes just fit. He must have finished four songs in a weekend’s time.

What stuck with me was Diddy’s line about not having anyone to give his beats to.

He’s down South messing with Yung Joc and Gorilla Zoe, for sure they aren’t gonna be using any Hitmen beats. Are there really no rappers in New York? How about the original Band? Haven’t heard from Babs or that Philly kid, Ness.. since the season finale.

I find it hard to believe they - especially Babs - can’t come up with something.

Early freestyle anyone?

On the eve of American Gangster’s opening weekend, New York magazine was able to get Frank Lucas (played by Denzel Washington) and his rival, Nicky Barnes (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.) together for the first conversation between the two in 30 years, “Lords of Dopetown.”

Like most dealers who’ve left the life, especially when it’s involuntary, both Lucas and Barnes said they shouldn’t be glorified for what they did.

Nicky Barnes: No one should be elevated because of what they did in the drug business. The way we operated - there was a lot of violence, like, ten to twelve homicides, to keep the whole operation running. You can’t glorify that. It’s not something Frank or I would tell any of our children to get into.

Heroin wreaked a lot of havoc and a lot of pain in the black community. I shouldn’t have done it. Maybe I was aware, but I just didn’t give a fuck. I wanted to make money, and that’s what I did. Looking back, I wouldn’t have made those decisions, but it’s a hell of a lot different and much easier to sanitize yourself after the fact.

Frank Lucas: I have remorse. I never sold nothing to a kid in the street, but I found out that my people had. I didn’t want to sell to kids. I didn’t want to make them junkies. I didn’t want to be a part of it.

I justify it by saying during my time, I couldn’t get a job on Wall Street, not even washing toilets. I went to school three days and the teacher wasn’t there two of them. I had to make a living. I didn’t want to be just a damn bum in the street. So that’s what I did.

Later they talked about hip-hop, Frank Lucas isn’t a fan, but he’s knows of Diddy.

Nicky Barnes: I never thought anything like this would happen. When hip-hop first started, everybody - I mean the music entrepreneurs - predicted that hip-hop would be dead in five years. They said, “Those motherfuckers ain’t gonna make no money.” But hip-hop rolled along, and look what they’re doing now. They got Jay-Z, Damon Dash, Kanye West, 50 Cent. These guys are doing something legitimate.

Frank Lucas: At least Nick knows the names. I don’t know none of them. I know Puffy Combs, because of his father.

Nicky Barnes: Oh, Melvin! Melvin Combs.

Frank Lucas: Melvin used to be at my house a couple of times a week. I’m proud to see Melvin’s son like that.

Puffy did say his father was in the streets. Even though he was killed early in his life, he said that’s where he got his hustler spirit from.

The best thing Puffy ever did was take that energy to hip-hop and the million other ventures he’s into.

Any cog in the music industry machine knows someone who got into hip-hop to be a manager, producer, promoter, rapper, or label owner. When the drug business got hectic or just dried up, a lot of them saw hip-hop as the place where the new ‘easy’ money was.

Azie talked about it, here you have Nicky Barnes and Frank Lucas lookin on. The cash, and the social life and material things it afforded, is what they really miss. There is no doubt they would love to be in Jay-Z, Diddy or even 50 Cent’s shoes.

Just keep the gun orders down to something like BB’s or Super Duper Soakers and they wouldn’t have to worry about Feds and snitches turning the lights on at the party.

As you can see Keyshia Cole is on the cover of the new Vibe magazine.

There was some early speculation that it was a fake cover, but this picture is from Vibe’s site. Even without that official confirmation, there is always the top of her breasts, a little cleavage seen in a rare moment (and remembered) from her last video, and the tattoos are in place. Without a doubt she’s looking fantastic. With her hair up like that and the Sophora job, she almost has an Eva thing going for her.

As great as Keyshia looks, the question must be asked, did she feel the need to do a near topless shot to sell records?

I’ve heard the Janet Jackson comparisons, Toni Braxton also comes to mind, but other than being half-naked there are none. Keyshia Cole is nothing like either of them. Her nearest stylistic twin is Mary J. Blige; how many times have we heard that?

Now ask yourself this, has Mary J. Blige ever shown more than her thighs? And that would be because she was wearing shorts at the time. Mary would never do a cover like this. So let’s close that chapter: Keyshia Cole is not the new Mary J. Blige.

Keyshia Cole is the new Keyshia Cole.

In her last Vibe interview..

She talked about, ah hell, I quote it..

“So many girls, when they come into the business, the first thing they want to do is use their sex appeal. I’m just not ready to throw it all out there. Like, “Here it is; take me I’m yours!” My mama [foster mother] didn’t raise me that way. .. When my breasts first got big, I just wore a tank top under everything’ cause they’d be like - boom! - right there. That line down the middle..

For those of you that won’t make it to church this morning (or never go.. like myself) how about a spiritual spark courtesy of Will Smith. I was doing some searching for Norman Vincent Peale videos and a video from Will Smith’s promotional tour for The Pursuit of Happyness came up.

He was asked by the host about the power of positive thinking and Will went into a passionate five minute breakdown of his Secret. He mentioned another Q&A session in Europe where someone asked him why he was preoccupied with happy endings.

He said the question through him off for a second, because there was a tone in this person’s voice that they had real disbelief in thinking of the impossible becoming possible. He defined the impossible as the people who first thought of planes, space flights, and electricity, being the only ones who believed it could happen, before we were actually flying across oceans and lighting rooms with a flip of a switch.

He lives in the realm of thinking of happy endings first, to make them come true in his life later

He also put it in terms of racial discrimination..

“People ask me about racism in Hollywood. Why would I acknowledge racism? When you acknowledge the obstacle you actually give it power. I want to walk through it. I want to walk over it. I want to walk around it. So my preoccupation.. is with the power that we all possess individually.”

Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe are on the cover of this week’s Entertainment Weekly magazine. They sat down for a 2-1 interview, taking the magazine’s questions and bouncing stories and thoughts off of each other. It was a good interview, but the stuff I enjoyed had very little to do with the movie itself.

Stuff like..

Playing Superheros

DENZEL WASHINGTON: I’ll play a superhero. If there were a good one to play, I’m not against playing a superhero. First of all, I haven’t been offered...[To Crowe] Have you been offered any superheroes?

RUSSELL CROWE: [Smiling] A couple.

WASHINGTON: Ha! ‘’A couple.’’ See, I haven’t gotten that. I can’t be Superman.

CROWE: But let’s go through this: What do you get with a superhero role? You get a spandex costume and every now and then a cape.

WASHINGTON: It’s not a good look.

CROWE: [Shrugs] We’re not in the cape club. What can you do?

Training Day 2 ?! Uh, No Thanks

DENZEL WASHINGTON: The way Training Day was originally written, you heard about it on the news. And I told Antoine [Fuqua], ‘’No, he’s got to get blasted. In order to justify him living in the worst way, Alonzo has to die in the worst way.’’ The studio was like, ‘’Oh, maybe he survives - ‘’ I’m like, ‘’Get out of here! Don’t start Training Day 2. We’ve got to kill that guy.’’

Scarface

DENZEL WASHINGTON: Scarface gets more credit than it’s worth. Scarface didn’t change people. People were already living that. Scarface was just a good movie.

Beating Martin Scorcese at His Own Game

RUSSELL CROWE: I reckon Martin Scorsese is sitting somewhere in an office in New York and he sees ‘’American Gangster’’ and he’s like, ‘’F---! And I went with Casino?’’ [Laughs]

The Spit on the Lip Story (This is disgusting)

RUSSELL CROWE: We met on one of those big-ass stages at Paramount. We had to do a scene where there’s a piece of cyclone wire fencing between us. I had to be really rabid and weird, and on the first take, I’m working myself up and a bit of spit comes out of my mouth -

DENZEL WASHINGTON: [Laughing] Oh, right, I remember that!

CROWE: - and it weaves itself neatly through the fencing and lands right on Denzel’s lip. A glob of white f---ing spit just sitting right there. And I’m going, Oh man, that’s f---ed. I’m doing my audition, and I spit on Denzel Washington. I might as well just go home and hang myself right now. And the thing is, he just kept on doing the scene, and at the end, they said ‘’Cut,’’ and he’s looking at me and the spit’s still sitting there and he goes [wiping his mouth slowly], ‘’I love the taste of warm saliva in the morning.’’

--

You know how many blooper reels there are laying around TV and movie sets? Warm saliva projected from your co-star is a definite reason for a pause in the action. I guess you don’t interrupt a passionate moment. Hah.

Do yourself a favor and read the whole interview at EW.com

Mary J Blige’s “Just Fine” video debuted today. It looks like the next thing she’ll release is a 3 set DVD compilation of the MJB Workout plan. The woman has lost a lot of weight. Going all the way back to What’s the 411, has she ever been this thin?

The song is already a fan certified hit. As someone who was getting tired of hearing how much pain and suffering she’s endured past, present, and three minutes ago, it really is a welcome change listening to a happier Mary let loose.

It’s a great thing the song is so good, because this is not the type of video that changes a person’s opinion of a song. There isn’t much to it. The magician/pyrotechnic special effects are cool and the solo nature of the video does allow you to focus on Mary, but there are some scenes that feel like there could have been more to them. I love the wardrobe changes, mainly because it ties into the fun feel of the song. But to the casual viewer it’s really an indifferent experience.

If you like the song and Mary you’re happy just to see her in action.

This is grown woman Mary, back, and doing “Just Fine.”

Kelly Rowland was at Virgin Megastore UK this afternoon, signing copies of Sims 2: Castaway. If you’re anything like me, you’re wondering, is she in the game, does she have a song in one of the menus, did she do voice over work.. Why would anyone interested in the Sims want Kelly Rowland’s signature on their video game box?

Well, according to Miss Kelly she’s a huge fan of the Sims, Electronic Arts (the makers of the game) found this out and EA has been pushing her as their secret celebrity fan.

Given that she also performed at an EA sponsored concert on Thursday, you’d have every right to believe she’s just a frontin’ fan to cash a quick check. ‘True fans’ were asked to submit questions for an EA online interview going up in a week or so, one person said that exactly..
“How much does EA pay you so you would act as if you really like the Sims?”

EA’s Community and Support Manager answered .. “She really is a huge Sims fan.”

And guess who is claiming responsibility for putting her on to the game?

This past June, Amerie told gaming site Kotaku, “I am addicted to The Sims. I live out a virtual life online. I think it’s seriously cool, but I guess it’s kind of dorky… I’ve got Kelly Rowland into it too, and now we hook up in the game. Beyonce tried to join us, but she wasn’t into it.”

Whether Kelly’s a fan or not isn’t a big deal.

I just found it funny that she was pimping product for no apparent reason.

And for her part, it does help to get her name out. Is that necessary? A comment from another Sims fan kind of puts her post Destinys Child career in perspective..

“It’s publicity. I mean, I hadn’t heard of her before, now I have.”

Diddy is betting he can spin Ciroc vodka into one of the biggest luxury brands in the world. Ciroc vodka is manufactured in France, with the distinguishing feature that it’s made from grapes in contrast to corn, sorghum, rye, wheat, or potatoes used in other vodkas.

Darryl Beeson a “wine guy” describes its flavor.. “Rather than having high proof alcohol’s medicinal flavors, this vodka is clean, fresh and smooth with a lilt of complexity derived from the grape origin. The cold fermentation really does contribute to the final flavor… serve this straight up, shaken over ice.”

Though some aren’t as appreciative of its uniqueness, Diddy believes he can make Ciroc the first choice for “movers and shakers.”

One thing Diddy wants known, who from this point in the story we will refer to as Sean Combs to avoid douche chills, is that this isn’t an endorsement deal - he’s an owner (at least temporarily.)

“This is something that will have my daily attention,” Combs told the Associated Press. “I’m not just a celebrity endorser, I’m a brand builder. I’m a luxury brand builder. It is not an endorsement deal.”

He will be responsible for marketing, deciding where it will be sold, oopsie spottings in paparazzi shots, and everything else necessary to make it tasty.

For his efforts he’ll receive 50% of the profits, which could tally up to more than $100 million when the contract is over.

“I can’t overhype someone into loving vodka,” he said. But once you take that first sip of Ciroc.. “I think we can convert a lot of people.”