Lil Wayne Plays A Modern-Day Robin Hood In 'Got Money'

Lil Wayne Plays A Modern-Day Robin Hood In 'Got Money'

Cash Money Millionaire Lil Wayne always has the dough, but in his new video for "Got Money," he's giving back to the community — just not with his own moolah. Based loosely on Spike Lee's "Inside Man," Weezy is practically a modern-day Robin Hood as he plays one of the masterminds of a bank heist in which he and his team plan to give the loot to the citizens in his New Orleans hometown as compensation for what they lost because of Hurricane Katrina.
Toward the beginning of the clip, Weezy and his model-looking accomplices storm the bank and strong-arm the establishment. While the workers empty the vaults, Wayne makes it rain, letting his hostages get some of the greenbacks. During the performance scenes, Wayne's collaborator T-Pain joins in, wearing a T-shirt that says "He Sings ... ," while Wayne's shirt reads "He Raps ... ." And there are a bunch of other guests, such as Ray J, but we won't spoil the surprise.
We can give away that Wayne's artist Mack Mane (remember when Wayne says, "Mack, I'm going in," at the beginning of "A Milli"?) raps the last verse, making the TV version a remix of sorts. The video debuts Monday on MTV, MTV2, mtvU, MTV Jams, MTV Hits and MTV.com, with airings all day starting at 6 a.m. ET.
The N.O. Fireman hasn't just been showing up on his own music-video sets. He recently completed clips with David Banner for "Shawty Say" and the Game for "My Life." The latter finds Wayne and his West Coast homey doing some soul-searching in a graveyard, among other places.

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T-Pain Says He And Lil Wayne Are Making Progress On Joint Album, But First Up Is His Thr33 Ringz LP

T-Pain Says He And Lil Wayne Are Making Progress On Joint Album, But First Up Is His Thr33 Ringz LP

We've had it all wrong: T-Pain isn't actually Teddy Penderazdoun. They're two different people ... well, entities. Pain is still Pain, but Teddy P is about a foot taller and North Carolina Tar Heel blue.
Pain introduced the mascot to MTV News last week on the set of his album photo shoot. Pain's LP Thr33 Ringz is due in September. DJ Khaled, Busta Rhymes and Pain's partner in crime, Lil Wayne, are all present and accounted for on the record. T-Pain also told us that his project with Weezy is definitely taking shape. "T-Wayne is an entity that's just gonna take over a side of the game," Pain prophesied. "It's two artists that done collaborated with every artist in the industry except each other. Being that we getting together, this T-Wayne movement is getting crazy.
"He's sending me blank tracks, I'm sending him blank tracks," Pain elaborated on the project. "He's sending me tracks with hooks, I'm sending him tracks with hooks. It's just our hectic schedules are keeping us from recording. ... But we both have studios on the bus. So we take that tour bus anywhere we go — it's a done deal."

Pain and Wayne collaborated on the next single from Tha Carter III, "Got Money," as well as the first official single from Thr33 Ringz, "Can't Believe It."
" 'Can't Believe It,' I just wanted to simplify things," he said. "Basically I got a lot of stuff on my albums that's not that simple. I'm not getting away from the simplicity of things, it's just basically a way to calm things down. Then I put Wayne on it and he keeps murdering tracks I'm sending him. It's just another world, it's unexplainable."
Pain describes the meaning of Thr33 Ringz as music being a three-ring circus with him as the ringleader.

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Timbaland Working On Shock Value Sequel

Timbaland Working On Shock Value Sequel

Timbaland is currently working on the follow-up to his smash album Shock Value. The follow-up, entitled Shock Value 2 already has a few tracks completed and according to MTV News, Tim wants to stay away from working with some of the same folks he included last time, just to keep everyone guessing.
"Shock Value is really like the Now [That's What I Call Music!] compilation," he said. "That's my goal for this — not [to showcase] me as an artist. Of course I'll do my little part, introduce some people. It gives me room to go tour across the world. People request me. I put on a show. I put on a musical show."
"Right now, I have a song with Madonna that I didn't put on her album. I saved [it] in case I wanna do one for me," he revealed. "Of course I'mma do one with Beyoncé. Of course I'mma do one with Jordin Sparks, Rihanna. It's a lot of people. I'mma do one with The Jonas Brothers. I'mma try to have 10 major ones."
The producer also told MTV News that there will be guest appearances by Hip-Hop artists including T.I., T-Pain and Jay-Z. "Jay was really on the last one, but he wanted to change [the song]," Tim told MTV. "I said, 'Look, man, I gotta put out an album. You're killing me.'"
Besides working on Shock Value 2, Timbaland recently said he may be producing one of Jay-Z’s upcoming LP’s in its entirety. He has also been working with Missy Elliot and Chris Cornell.

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T-Pain, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake And More Are Our Favorite R&B Acts Of 2007

T-Pain, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake And More Are Our Favorite R&B Acts Of 2007

Top 10 R&B Acts of 2007

1. T-Pain
So 'hood, so good, Teddy P. was to R&B what Lil Wayne was to rap: a track showstopper whose versatile talent made his guest vocals a must-have for a plethora of artists. His presence was persistent, and while he'll never be heralded among the great voices of all time, you can't forget that the hits came incessantly. Pain's reign saw his computer-enhanced vocals pop up on records by top-of-the-food-chain acts like Kanye West and R. Kelly (twice) as well as street warriors DJ Khaled and Plies.
More importantly, Pain established his songwriting and producing acumen on Chris Brown's "Kiss Kiss," as well as on T-Pain's entire LP, Epiphany, which spawned the smashes "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')" and "Bartender."

2. Beyoncé
B bodied everybody. Her competition had to throw in the towel this year when she established that no one is in her lane when it comes to this thing we call entertainment. B'Day (released in September 2006) continued to sell like Blue Magic on a Harlem, New York, street corner in the 1970s; her Beyoncé Experience tour was sold out across the country (hey, she still deserves a standing ovation for falling down all those stairs in Florida and hopping back up); and those videos ... have mercy! Fans couldn't get enough of "Get Me Bodied," "Irreplaceable" and "Upgrade U."

3. Justin Timberlake

How can the Prince of Pop be on an R&B list? Did you listen to the album? Justin's FutureSex/LoveSounds (released in September 2006) stormed into '07 on the strength of Timbaland's mud-sopped funk, brutal bass and clean synths and Timberlake's suburban-rebel charm. "My Love," "LoveStoned" and "Summer Love" rocked every iPod, stereo player and stadium on his tour. Meanwhile, JT and the SoundScan Killer himself, 50 Cent, hooked up for "Ayo Technology."

4. Akon

He threw a kid offstage, got nasty with an underage girl in a club and probably cost Gwen Stefani a few million in sponsorship money, but alas, Akon remained a worldwide draw. "I Wanna Love You" and "Smack That" carried over from last year, while "Don't Matter," "Mama Africa" and guest spots on records such as DJ Khaled's "We Takin' Over," Plies' "Hypnotized" and Wyclef's "Sweetest Girl" sustained his popularity this year. Plus — and it's a very big plus — his scouting continued to pay off with the overwhelming success of the man he signed to a recording contract, T-Pain. We'll see if new additions to his roster, such as Brooklyn MC Red Café and TLC's Chili, pay off in '08.

5. R. Kelly

"Did she say there was other guys there? Were there other guys therrrrre?" The outlandish writing stayed at a premium for the King of Rhythm and Blues throughout his Double Up LP ("Real Talk," "Sex Planet," "Sweet Tooth," "Same Girl" and its remix) and the new chapters of "Trapped in the Closet." When he stepped outside of his own projects, Kells levied an onslaught of memorable guest spots including Snoop Dogg's "That's That," Young Jeezy's "Go Getta," Ciara's "Promise" remix and Fat Joe's "Make It Rain" remix. Even Michael Jordan didn't win the MVP every year — but that doesn't mean his game wasn't lethal.

6. Rihanna

Rih Rih chopped her curls into a slick bob, ditched the cute singles in exchange for sexy anthems and in the process became a tabloid target and ubiquitous presence on magazine covers. It started with her sexy hit "Umbrella" and the even sexier accompanying visuals that netted her a VMA win for Video of the Year. The Barbadian beauty's rumored romances with Shia LaBeouf and Josh Hartnett made headlines and helped her break away from the pack of teen starlets, putting her in the company of superstars like Beyoncé, Fergie and Gwen Stefani. Her third single, the Ne-Yo duet "Hate That I Love You," helped to showcase Rihanna's maturing vocal chops and proved she's not a one-hit wonder-er-er-er.

7. Alicia Keys

Since her debut, we've watched Miss Keys evolve from Harlem's ghetto songbird, cooing about the pains of love, into a global voice of indignation, raising the spirits of women and rallying against social injustices. She's as likely to fight for the rights of AIDS patients as she is to fight against radio formats. "No One," the lead single from her third album, As I Am, sounds nothing like a top 40 or R&B hit, yet the song has rested comfortably near the top of both charts. Add in the acting credits under her belt, including this year's "The Nanny Diaries," and there's no question about Keys' ability to push the R&B game to even further heights.

8. Chris Brown

One of these days C. Breezy is gonna become the first artist to literally dance his way into people's living rooms. There's no way cameras and TV sets are gonna be able to keep containing the Virginia native's explosive star power at the rate it's rising. Brown released his sophomore album, Exclusive, which features the MJ-esque "Wall to Wall" and the T-Pain-assisted smash "Kiss Kiss." He stole the show at this year's Video Music Awards with his rousing performance. And then he took his act to the big screen with a breakout role in the ensemble cast of "This Christmas." It's time to start watching ya back, Ursh.

9. Ne-Yo

He was great on his tour with R. Kelly ... all two dates of it. Oh well. Despite his differences with the Pied Piper (Ne-Yo alleges he got kicked off the tour because he was upstaging Kelly), everybody else loves the Las Vegas native. He has another platinum certification on his résumé thanks to Because of You, and his reputation as a writer was boosted with Beyoncé's irrevocably dope "Irreplaceable" and his duet with Rihanna, "Hate That I Love You." Still, the perennial overachiever hit us upside the head for good measure with Fabolous' "Make Me Better," a track he co-wrote and on which he sang.

10. Amy Winehouse

Amy, baby! Rich with throwback soul and lyrics so real that many of them have replayed themselves in tabloid headlines, Winehouse's Back to Black may just be the R&B album of the year. The British songstress had everything in place: The artistically bountiful music (from a chick whose personality came across as real as any MC from the 'hood) was rewarded with multiple Grammy nominations, critical coos and a platinum plaque.

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