This Wale kid has certainly blown up, huh? Even as he heads to NYC to record his debut album this summer, it seems like he just keeps dropping joints and making leaps at every drop of a dime. On a weekend where The Carter 3 leaked, people are still talking about Wale's Mixtape About Nothing...and for good reason. It's a collection that further justifies us putting him on the cover six months ago. In celebration, Wale, URB.com and New Era cooked up a proper fit. We're giving away a hat every day this week, keep reading to find that link (among others).

Are you one of five people on the internets that don't know much about Wale? Read our cover story on the man from URB #150. Will at Imeem has some seriously studious videos on the DMV's keys, if reading is too much work on a Monday morning.

OK, so you just want one of those damn hats, huh? That Wale x URB x New Era? Click here to win your very own fitted.

And if that wasn't enough, peep Wale's just-dropped mixtape about nothing. It's actually about something, so it's nothing to fuck with.

The Roots Stay Alive
The Illadelph Halflife has turned into a deep, deep catalog of top-notch hip-hop, but where does rap's premier band go now?
By Kevin Polowy
URB #153

Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson is about to set the record straight. The congenial Roots drummer with a football lineman’s frame and unmistakable ‘fro is sitting dead-center in the middle of a large leather couch in the green room of a Chelsea recording studio. “We work hard and get paid accordingly,” he says, with barely a hint of conceit. “No one’s crying that they’re in the poor house. We do extremely well for what we do.”

What they do. It was the title of the second single off their third record, and the amount of play its sneakily satirical video pimped on a popular reality TV channel that once upon a time aired music programming helped elevate The Roots from niche alt-rap group to hip-hop mainstay. It’s what they’ve done—and done extremely well—that’s gotten them here. They’ve defied the odds and far surpassed hip-hop’s short life expectancy rate. They haven’t just survived, they’ve flourished. And with their new album, Rising Down, they’ve released an astounding 10 albums. (Or is it only eight? More on that later.)

“The secret to longevity is us being able to achieve some sort of fluidic chemistry,” says Black Thought, né Tariq Trotter, the Illadelphia, Pennsylvania outfit’s other charter member. It’s an hour later, and the 35-year-old wordsmith is beat, blunted and slouched in the corner of the same couch, tired eyes atypically visible sans trademark shades and Yankees cap tipped low. “We have an understanding of each others’ boundaries and each others’ limits.”

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MAY OH SIX
ISSUE ONE:THIRTY:SIX
DIPSET //HARLEM SHUFFLE

The Diplomats are making moves with mixtapes, swagger and a crack-infused deconstruction of the English language
THE COUP //FOOT SOLDIERS

A new album and label proves this group is yet to be crushed

GHOSTFACE KILLAH //THE KILLAH’S BACK

The rapper may be an elder statesman of hip-hop, but he’s far from gettin’ old NOW ONLINE >>
MSTKRFT //FUZZ GUN

Dirty dance tracks from this production duo linger like a hook-up who won’t go home

NOMO //BURNING SPEAR

This eclectic eight-piece gives afrobeat a Michigan makeover

DAILY OPERATIONS

Diatribe: Raymond Roker

Diatribe: Josh Glazer

Our Tribe: the extended family

Word2URB

FORWARD

SMITHSONIAN HIP-HOP, EAGLES OF DEATH METAL, ¡VIVA MORRISSEY!, PAUL OAKENFOLD

MASSV

THE ORB, URB’S 15-YEAR ANNIVERSARY PARTIES,
DRE’S BIRTHDAY, BRING ‘EM HOME

B-SIDES

MF GRIMM, JUANA MOLINA, THE FEVER AND MIKA MIKO

STYLE

SUPER FURRY ANIMALS ARE THE NEW FIERCE TREND

MUSIC REVIEWS

GNARLS BARKLEY AND THE STREETS JOCKEY FOR LEAD POSITION

SINGLES

THREE 6 MAFIA, SEU JORGE, MR. LIF + MORE PLATES
OF HOT WAX

HEY DJ/MIXTAPES/CHARTS

MASON & ZEPH, MILOSH, JAMES MURPHY,
UP, BUSTLE & OUT

IN-STUDIO

KRUCIAL KEYS, COOL LAPTOP BAGS, MPC HISTORY

FILM REVIEWS & PREVIEWS

LARRY CLARK ON LA TEENS, SNAKES ON A PLANE

HYPERMEDIA

BOOT CAMP CLIK, THE MAE SHI, PAUL MOONEY

PARTING SHOT

KELLY ROWLAND MEETS HER MIAMI MATCH

The Devil Inside

From politicking to poon-hunting, Eagles of Death Metal wildman Jesse “The Devil” Hughes is the governor of raunchy rock. What do you expect from a guy who worked for Sonny Bono and has a Sex Pistol on speed-dial?

Interview by Joshua Glazer / photography by Bode Helm

URB: The Eagles are quite the motley crew. Who played on the new album (Death By Sexy)?

Jesse Hughes: Primarily Joshua and I. Josh doing the drums and most of the bass and me doing all the guitars and all the vocals. Joey [Castille] plays drums on two songs. Jack Black sings some vocals on a couple of songs.

But it’s you and Josh making the music?
Joshua’s the most genius at everything he does all the time, but when it comes to producing the Eagles, I write the songs and he comes in and tries to capture what it was I was up to. Because when I’m writing, I’m normally writing something I’ve done about 20 minutes before. It’s excited me so much that I have to make a theme song. I kind of try to live everything. I dance through life and I always feel like I need a soundtrack for everything I’m doing, or everything I’ve done is so momentous it needs to be documented. I always want to feel like John Travolta at the very beginning of Saturday Night Fever. When it focuses on the boots and he’s walking and then the long pants, and he’s strutting down the street. That’s what I want all the events of my life to feel like.

How many of the songs are based on real-life experience? Like “I Gotta Feelin (Just Nineteen)”?
Oh that song. I was dating this girl named Lauren. She’s an amazingly hot little 19-year-old. Very inspiring, if you know what I mean. We had about a six- hour session . . . an artistic unity session, if you will. I was really high at the time, it was when I was still doing speed so I was really out-of-my-mind high. I jumped up, threw my boots on, butt ass naked, and I improvised that whole fucking song over a beat into my computer. And sweet little Lauren looked at me — we’d been dating solid for about six months — she put her clothes on, walked towards my door, opened it, looked back at me one last time and shut the door behind her. I’ve never seen her since.

You were doing speed . . . you’re sober now?
Yeah. I mean, I just don’t do speed anymore.

I think you were telling me (ex-Sex Pistol, current radio DJ) Steve Jones is your sponsor.
I’m in good hands. I’m making my own program, if you will. I don’t want to give up everything. I mean, this is rock ‘n’ roll, this isn’t bible study. I want to have a good time. But speed isn’t a good time for me. It’s a bad, dark time and it makes me a bad person instead of a bad, loveable person.

Is there any great insight Steve’s given you? He sounds so wise on the radio.
No, it’s mostly just . . . I mean he’s got a lot of good advice, but he’s always calming to me. Because I get excited, like, “this is going on blah blah blah blah blah. Am I doing this wrong?” And he’s like, “No, settle down. It ain’t going to be easy don’t expect it to be.” It’s actually probably some of the best advice I’ve ever heard in my life.

In your former life, you were a speech writer. Can you tell me anything about that?
I love words and I love talking to people. And those skills were recognized by diabolical messianic powers that be. No, just kidding. I worked for the Republican Party, getting sent out to different campaigns. Sonny Bono was someone I loved and actually adored, would have done anything for. When a candidate is having some problems connecting with his constituency, they’ll send a dude like me in, I’ll get to know some people and then tweak the speeches up. So he’s using slang that he never would have thought of on his own.

That skill transfers to being a frontman.
Oh my god, there has never been a more perfectly political environment than the music business. It’s all about smiling at this guy and making friends with this guy. All that shit is politics. I mean rock ‘n’ roll and politics are the same thing. You’ve got a candidate or a star, they cruise around on a tour bus. They’ve got writers, a tour manager, groupies. They go to a town. They set up their show with big lights and you’ve got a light man and everything. Then you come on and perform, then you shake hands and kiss babies afterwards, sign a few autographs and you’re out of town. There’s no difference.

What about connecting to the audience?
I personally honestly love the audience. If someone crossed the street to piss on me if I was on fire, I’d look up and say thanks. If someone paid some money to see me in a gig, I’m really happy with them. It’s the job of every band to connect with the audience. Some bands go up there and act like you’re privileged to be able to look at them. That’s bullshit.

Tell me one more chick story and I’ll let you go.
I got a million of them. I would just like to say that the Eagles of Death Metal exist to make Little Richard proud and that we’ve come to remind the world that rock ‘n’ roll is about ladies. Beautiful baby girls. And I am reminding girls on this tour every night, quite successfully I’ll have you know. It’s been a lot of fun. I got to make out with twins in Nashville. Put that one in your book of records if that ever happens to you. Two hot-ass identical twins on either arm . . . it was the greatest fucking thing I’ve ever done in my life.

You ever written any songs not about chicks?
Let me think, hold on. I can do it. No. I don’t think I have. No. I’m obsessed, I got a one track mind.