J-Banks

— by Shaheem Reid, with additional reporting by Rahman Dukes and Brennan Williams


Artist: Styles P

Representing: D-Block

Mixtape: The Phantom Menace


411: Styles P describes the D-Block studios as "Jedi Knight School." "Their job should be no easier than ours was," SP the Ghost explained about his new crew of young boys that he introduces on his new mixtape, The Phantom Menace. Among the crop that you'll hear are Buckey, Bully and A.P.

"Our job," he continued, talking about the early days of the LOX's mixtape marauding in the mid '90s, "was to make a large amount of bars that were pinpoint accurate and hit home. So you hear me letting them go ape, go nuts."

One young Jedi who will not be swinging his light saber under the D-Block umbrella anymore is J. Hood. As you must know by now, he's left the camp because it was taking too long for his debut, Tales From the Hood, to drop. Styles was the first one J. told that he wanted out. Hood has since popped up onstage with onetime D-Block foes G-Unit, and there is YouTube footage showing J. dragging his D-Block chain on the sidewalk.

"I don't understand Hood though, because Hood came up to me before all the stuff on the Internet," Styles said. "He was unhappy. I got love for Hood. He came up under us, he was unhappy, his album wasn't out. So I was like, 'Cool, you want out, there's no fine. I'll go talk to the lawyers, no problem.' A week later, I see the Internet stuff, him dragging the D-Block chain. It's dumb."

Styles says that he can sympathize with artists wanting to leave their label, but he insists that he and the LOX would personally hand Hood's music to DJs and the songs didn't stick — thus, the delay on the album. The Ghost, however, says there won't be a delay for his next LP; he has December 4 as a target date. SP has determined the title of his third solo LP will be Super Gangster, Extraordinary Gentleman. And yes, the LOX are a little closer to finding a recording home.

Joints To Check For:

* "We'll Eat You." "We're 'hood. When you in the 'hood you like R&B too," Styles explained of him and his crew rapping over Fantasia's "When I See You." "I love her song and what she did. But we always try to take it to another level and show we're mean all around the board. Some people could just go hard on hard-core beats. You gotta be able to take an R&B beat and body it and still be able to give off that 'hood vibe. Buckey did the hook on that. He's straight outta Philly. He's a tyrant."

* "Where My Homies" freestyle. "I come from listening to rap. I'm an MC," SP said. "A lot of people don't pay homage to the old school, what was poppin'. Me, that was my era. I'm a hip-hop head, a hip-hop baby. Ill and Al Scratch's 'Where My Homies,' that was poppin' in every crib, every car, every 'hood. They was asking, 'Where my homies?' 'Creepin' through your neighborhood.' So it's me paying homage. Then me, I like to pick old beats so MCs — not so much the young boys because they think it's a new beat, but older MCs — would know we still feel them. We still feel their work."

* "Please Listen to My Mixtape." "We flipped EPMD's 'Please Listen to My Demo,' " the Ghost said. "This is my art. For some people it's a job, for some people this is art. This is my job, my art, my everything. [My engineer] Poobs picks the beats sometimes. We build on everything. He was hitting me since last year like, 'You gotta do the "Please Listen to My Demo" joint.' I murdered it. That's what we do."



Don't Sleep: Other Notable ********** This Week

* DJ Blazita - The Playin' Catch Up 2
* DJ Bobby Black - Down & Dirty 27 (Hosted by Attitude)
* DJ Q - The Best of Curtis
* DJ Scoob Doo - "Streets Talk DVD 4"
* DJ Skee and Snoop Dogg - Terrace Martin: Signal Flow
* K. Sparks - Eclectic



'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar

* Justin Timberlake (featuring Beyonce) - "End of Time" remix
* Kanye West (featuring Beanie Sigel and Freeway) - "Can't Tell Me Nothing" (Roc-A-Fella remix)
* Dem County Boyz - "Spiderman"
* Bishop Lamont - "No Stoppin" and "American Dream"

Source-MTV

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ImOnMyBkShyt

the hardest out

boywonder310

I still fucks with D-Block but damn when is these niggas going to stop fucking with this mixtape shit and start putting out some albums. Jada has not dropped an album, no Lox albumm, Hood didnt get to put out an album, and no Sheek album.

Stay Fly

co-sign....if you wanna make a name in this rapgame...you gotta drop an hot album.....damn

jade_18

props on the info

CreativeMind

They're currently wrapping all those projects up, so they can release them on time. They got a new deal with Def Jam now. So, they're getting all the propers worked on before they drop. But no later than the top of the year, we should be seeing their albums.

gunitmovement2

word, they fell off man no label fucks with them

districtx202x

styles p always gonna b a real nigga. his mixtapes r betta den most ppls albums.
record labels these days r signin one hit wonders and shyt.

Black Superman

J-Hood cant make hot music

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+SmokE+

styles a real dude cant wait for his new mixtape

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Spike S.S.K.

hope they put out some new shit soon man
J-Hood is just stupid, he dug his own grave by doing that
just ignore him and he'll be working at Burger Kings by next year

Shoupin

j hood right to leave, lox is a dead movement

Gttm303

Props for this

robinh00dz

i feel da ghost on that one hez a chitown hood nigga just lik me