With the 54th Grammy Awards show taking place this Sunday, J. Cole recently sat down to speak on his nomination for Best New Artist. Look and listen as the North Carolina emcee delves into the process of releasing his album before the Grammy deadline, as well as him saying that he has already moved on to the next project. Make sure you tune in, as one of the biggest night's in music takes place at 8PM EST on CBS.

Arguably two of the hottest emcees in the game right now, Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q chopped it up with radio personality Peter Rosenberg for Hot 97 as they continue their interview campaign. The conversation touches upon subjects like touring with Drizzy Drake, their music history and the respective hype surround them among other.

Kendrick is incredible and Q is definitely getting pretty dope himself. Sat down with them and talked about a lot including why Schoolboy Q put out a record that sort of promotes drinking and driving.

A pair of old school hip-hop flavors, Timbaland and Missy Elliott, will both be bursting back onto the scene come this summer, as the Virgina artist recently revealed to MTV that they both will be releasing albums in June. It's been three years since Timbaland has let loose a project and even longer for Missy (seven years). Timba disclosed that the two do not want to get too far ahead of one another, and that is why the drops will come relatively at the same time. You ready?

M.I.A.'s performance during this year's Superbowl Halftime Show has split people within the industry and beyond apart. While some praise her for flashing the notorious finger into American TVs, others deem this act as rather unfortunate and even led the NBC and NFL to apologize. Either way, it is safe to say that the Sri Lankan born UK raised singer is one of the most polarizing recording artists of modern day pop culture. Reason enough for SPIN Magazine to reissue their 2010 article Deconstructing M.I.A. which highlights "her life and art and everything" in the wake of the release of her latest album /\/\/\Y/\. Read some portions of the piece and feel free to discuss below.

I. Music
Never much of a singer or dancer, she worked in the tradition of technically limited geniuses like Madonna and Miles Davis, who only used exactly the amount of talent necessary to make a scene.

"She's got a million ideas," says Rusko, one of the producers on her new album. "When we record her, we fix some of the out-of-tune notes and keep some in. A lot of recording with her is happy accidents."

2007's Kala was supposed to be the record where she went pro. Timbaland was on tap to coproduce (he ended up doing one track). But when the U.S. government denied her a long-term work visa, she regrouped and recorded throughout the third world, culling performances from Nigerian MC Afrika Boy and a 30-piece Indian drum circle, among others. On Kala, the sounds of third-world slums hammer at the gates of first-world pop; "I put people on the map that never seen a map," she sang on "20 Dollar."

In a sense, /\/\/\Y/\ is a map, a global picture of the matrices of technology, power, and money. The technology theme gestated during her pregnancy, where the housebound mom-to-be became obsessed with new media. (Google is thanked in the liner notes.) "XXXO" turns on a metaphor about flattened identities in the iPhone era; "Internet Connection" is a meditation on aloneness inspired in part by a three-hour bout with customer service; "Lovealot" is the story of Russian Islamic teen terrorists who met online; and the album-closing "Space Odyssey" turns the floaty phrase "My lines are down, you can't call me" into a double metaphor for romantic disconnection and techno-alienation.

II. Her Poltics
In 2004, M.I.A. and Diplo released their first mixtape, titled Piracy Funds Terrorism, comparing downloaders to suicide bombers. It established her unique political posture, charging herself with being the chief Western voice of Sri Lanka's Tamil minority, an ethnic group that has been subject to systemic oppression at the hands of the country's Sinhalese majority. This has forced her into a problematic rhetorical relationship with the militant separatist Tamil Tigers, whose most extreme tactics include the use of child soldiers and many suicide bombings (which they are credited with popularizing). M.I.A.'s father founded a nonviolent forerunner of the Tigers, called EROS, and while many early stories on her fabricated a Tiger connection, she strenuously claims he was never in the group. In 2008, she said, "I don't support terrorism and never have," and she doesn't support the Tigers. Other statements ("Give war a chance"), suggest a radical-chic identification with violent rhetoric that recalls '60s groups the Weather Underground and Red Brigades. Detractors point to her use of tigers in her videos and on her website; in 2008, a Sri Lankan–American rapper named DeLon posted a parody video of "Paper Planes," featuring images of Tiger atrocities.

M.I.A. throws herself into this mess headlong, embodying the impulse to incite and also to heal. If her comments often seem contradictory, that too is a kind of message. "If I represent anything, it's what it's like to be a civilian caught up in a war," she said in 2005. In other words, she represents not just struggle, but dissonance, a kind of permanent refugee status.

III. Her Business
M.I.A.'s only hit began to bubble up just as the global economy started to tank. "Paper Planes" was built around a sample of the Clash's "Straight to Hell" and its refrain ("All I want to do is [boom boom boom] and take your money") circled a nexus of capitalism and nihilism, the rallying cry for the AIG gangstas torching our 401(k)s.

Like everything about her, M.I.A.'s own connections to capitalism are complex. This year, she turned down licensing offers from Coke and Pepsi, and recently said, "Money is the enemy of music." Yet, in 2008, she told this magazine she was "polluting the mainstream" by licensing "Galang" to Honda. It's a measure of M.I.A.'s heart-tugging power over leftoid music fans that this engendered debates about the nature of selling out and quaintly harkened back to the early days of punk. Reflecting a less tortured impulse, her own actions, and those of her fiancé, Benjamin Bronfman, suggest a positive relationship between wealth and power.

IV. Her Aesthetic
"When i met her, she was silk-screening her own covers for the 12-inch for 'Fire Fire,' " Diplo recalls of the pre-Arular M.I.A. "I was amazed. It was hand-painted, with these Molotov cocktails and her tiger prints and stuff. She always knew this was the angle."

The mix of hyper-bright and vaguely insurgent is a thread she's followed in making the now-standard pop-star move into fashion design. M.I.A.'s own look can run from futurist-aerobics instructor to new-wave pirate to dancer in an old X-Clan video to queenly candy raver. Early-'90s photos of African slum kids carrying AK-47s and wearing Michael Jordan jerseys donated by American charities goes a long way toward explaining this.

"She samples styles and mixes colors and prints the same way she constructs music," says designer Carri Munden, who has worked with M.I.A. since the "Galang" video. "It's chaos. But the end result is unique, and she is one of the only female artists on her level to be completely in control of her own style."

Indeed, in an era in which music occupies an increasingly thin, crowded cultural bandwidth, being a "multi-platform" operation is essential. "Even when we were working on tracks, she'd be putting pictures together and getting images off Google," says Rusko. "She was always thinking about the whole package."

M.I.A. smartly gives this strategy its own global-revolutionist cast. "The Kala artwork and sound and clothes are all about being worldly and representing the idea of the whole world being mashed up into one," she said in 2008.

V. Her Life
Ironically, /\/\/\Y/\ is actually less steeped in the iconography of terror and revolution than her previous work. Those close to her credit the shift to something more basic that isn't easy to discern from outside. Confrontational videos and guerilla media tactics aside, her life is more normal than ever.

"She's content now," says Rusko, who lived in the L.A. home she shares with Bronf-man and traveled with her to Hawaii while recording /\/\/\Y/\. "Her life is a lot more settled now. She's got the baby. When we were recording, she'd do vocals, then go upstairs to be with the baby for a couple hours. There wasn't much drama."

It shouldn't be shocking that the less hard-knock her life has gotten the more hits she's taken and the more paranoid of the press she's become. When M.I.A. first arrived in 2005, the gorgeous, impossibly cool singer with the exotic background and "freedom fighter" father made for ideal copy. Five years later, the image has flipped. In the lengthy Times Magazine profile, writer Lynn Hirschberg mustered a wide range of evidence (the food she eats, the house she lives in, the way in which she gave birth) to imply a disconnect between M.I.A.'s radical political rhetoric and her comfortable lifestyle. M.I.A., who sings, "I fight the ones that fight me" on "Lovealot," walked the walk by tweeting Hirschberg's phone number and posting an incendiary dis track on the N.E.E.T. site.

"That writer was setting her up," says Boots Riley. "An artist has access to media now that allows you to hold a writer accountable. Her move was brilliant."

The track is at once confrontational and wounded. Titled simply "I'm a Singer," it gives off a sense of awe at the values of a world that cares about the words of a pop star and ignores the real suffering of real people. ("Babies lying in the ditch / Thinkin' if they had a Kyte phone, you'll see this shit").

The old mirror paradox is back in play — scale, proportion, focus, all out of whack. "All I ever wanted was my story to be told," she sings on /\/\/\Y/\. For someone so skilled at image manipulation, that's hardly the whole picture. But if tomorrow night, the CIA black helicopters of her wildest fantasies really do swoop in and remove her to some undisclosed location for waterboarding and Justin Bieber–enhanced interrogation, and "I'm a Singer" was her final statement to the outside, its message would be clear enough: In the end, it's really all just art.

This story originally appeared in the August 2010 issue of SPIN.

The minds behind IllRoots.com and newly-implemented IllAmerica clothing line, Mike Carson and Mike Waxx have both made quite the name for themselves before even being able to (legally) buy their first alcoholic drink. At 19 and 20 years of age (respectively), in addition to running one of the premier hip-hop blogs as well as jump-starting a clothing collection, the two Chicago cats have also made impressive strides in the realm of videography. Having shot videos for Kanye's G.O.O.D. Music outlet and developed a noticeably close relationship with rapper Big Sean, the come-up has been nothing short of rapid and impressive for these guys. In accordance, Interview Magazine recently caught up with the now New Yorkers to speak on how it all got started. See an excerpt below and follow here to check the piece in full.

It's funny—we linked up with Big Sean as college students. I remember one weekend in September of 2010, Sean had a show in Ohio, and we decided we would just go and try to connect with him, because this was before we knew him. So we got on the Megabus, went to the show, ended up meeting Sean and he was into what we were doing. Like two weeks later, his manager at the time reached out and said they wanted to do a music video for a song on Sean's mixtape with Chiddy Bang. We had to throw this video together really quick, and we ended up shooting it on our friends' rooftop, which was really spontaneous, but we ended up making it work. Now the video has like 10 million views, and that was just something we did in college.

With music videos being at an all-time high in regards of creativity, it is only right to also highlight the innovators behind the lenses. Meet Matt Alonzo, who has been labeled as a leading force for the 2nd generation of hip-hop music video directors. With visual work for the likes of Ice Cube, The Game, Chris Cornell, The Clipse, Cypress Hill, Xzibit and many more, he has established himself as a sought after name for creative, narrative-based music videos. Check out the mini documenatry Up Close in order to receive an inside look into the director's life past, present and future prospects. Directed by Michael Busalacchi.

Enjoying his share of the spotlight these days, A$AP Rocky dedicates his latest face-time endeavor to Montreality for the site's latest video feature. Joined by the ever-present ASAP Mob, the group delves into a range of personal topics such as their individual and collective stories, their rise to success, and some of the lessons learned along the way. Amidst some of the more contemplative topics, the group also chops it up about the Club Paradise tour with Drake and Kendrick Lamar, their tattoos, as well as addressing the off-handed rumors of A$AP Rocky being featured in the Nas "Nasty" video.

With the month of February being known as "Dilla Month," we'll continue to share music and in this case, projects that highlight the legendary Detroit musician. Bling47, who previously shared with us a pair of remixes and freestyle from J Dilla, has gathered DJs from Detroit to break down samples featured in a few of Dilla's most memorable tunes. Having so far detailed tracks such as "I Don't Know,"(above) "Didn't Cha Know" and most recently "Featuring Phat Kat," check the three part series of Breaks: Dilla Edition in the included three videos. Be sure to check the videos out on Bling47 for addition information as well.

Also to be noted, with tomorrow marking Dilla's birthday, Bling47 has said that they'll be sharing something special so stay tuned for that.

"DJ Dez - Didn't Cha Know"

"Waajeed - Featuring Phat Kat"

Pharrell sits down with the folks at GQ to discuss a number of topics ranging from new gig as consultant for the upcoming Oscars to some of his future fashion endeavors. Check out a portion of the Q&A down below where Skateboard talks about his feature on Rick Ross' latest mixtape Rich Forever, he and Lupe's joint album, and his usage of cries from Blue Ivy Carter on Jay-Z's "Glory." Click here to check the interview in its entirety.

GQ: You and Hans Zimmer are the music consultants for the Oscars. What does that job entail? 

Pharrell: We have to reinterpret some of the music for the nominees. We have to do other music as well that is at times new and original and at others borrowing from movie scenes.

GQ: On Rick Ross' Rich Forever mixtape you rap, "Black boy scoring his life/ I'm scoring the Oscars." How excited are you for this opportunity—especially since you're still essentially a music nerd from Virginia who made it big. 

Pharrell: I'm just very thankful. And I say that a lot because that's the most important message. I answer questions the best I can. But most of the answers usually feel the same. And that's just me being very appreciative of the opportunity, because, like you said, I'm from Virginia Beach, VA. I'm glad that I can exhibit what we can do.

GQ: Lupe Fiasco recently announced that you're working on an album together? You two and Kanye West were working on a project once upon a time, too, your crazy schedules interfered. Think this one will pan out? 

Pharrell: I can't talk about that. Lupe is my man and whatever we're talking about we can't really discuss and get into right now. We're talking about some very interesting things.

GQ: Well, let's talk about something that's done and out now: Jay-Z's "Glory." You produced it. What did it mean to you to assist in making a song for Jay's first born? It's like rap's "Isn't She Lovely."

Pharrell: Uh, that was awesome. But again, that was another covert operation.

GQ: Did you guys record that in the hours after his daughter was born or was it recorded in advance? Obviously, her first cries were added after she was born.
Pharrell: That was, uh... That was, um... Everything was by design. That's all I'll say.

With Iggy Azalea's debut album The New Classic due out in June of this year, it's somewhat of a surprise that the Australian artist has yet to lock down any engineers for the work. She did, however, recently reveal to MTV that T.I. reached out to her and will thus be executive producing her project. Together the two will be searching for the right sound to mesh with what she is trying to ultimately produce. Whatever they decide on, Azalea's album will still be one of the more anticipated ones of the year.