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In celebration of Def Jam’s quarter century in the music business, XXL has selected a handful of the label’s roster, past and present, to grace the cover of the November issue.

XXL’s new issue will include memorable tales from the MCs about the famed label, along with a complete discography of Def Jam releases and a comprehensive timeline of the brand’s biggest moments. Behind the scenes masterminds, Russell Simmons, Lyor Cohen and Kevin Liles sit for the first time to share their memories and Rick Rubin also takes a look back at the legacy of Def Jam.

XXL’s November issue hits stand on October 27.

Source: XXL

Common is a lucky man.

Diddy’s BlackBook iPhone app is in correlation of him covering the front of BlackBook magazine’s October issue. The app gives iPhone users the ultimate guide to Diddy’s top picks for the best places to dine, drink and shop to 50 cities around the globe.

Read parts of the interview below as he talks about Obama, Last Train to Paris, turning down a roll in The Devil Wears Prada, and his love life.

How does he feel about Obama’s performance, nine months into his tenure as president?

“Honestly,” he says, “I’ve seen him at least try to do more things in the first few months than I’ve seen Bush do with his entire eight years in office. The attack that’s going to come on him in the near future is so predictable. People are trying to set him up for failure. I’m going to give him the leeway to fix some of these problems that, even for me, feel damn-near insurmountable. I just think it’s going to take time.”

The definition of Last Train to Paris: Energetic, emotional, limitless, important, heartfelt, flamboyant soul!”

Few people know that Combs turned down the part of the fashion designer played by Daniel Sunjata in 2006’s The Devil Wears Prada.

Combs knew it would be foolish to piss off the queen of the contemporary fashion world. Besides, he says, “She hasn’t been the person to kill dreams. She’s been the person to make them happen. It wasn’t like they were portraying her in a bad way. It was just that I knew what was in the script and what she’s like in real life were different. She’s bricked one or two of my collections, but she’s also called 15 minutes later with some helpful advice about who I should get to fix it.”

Porter left for the last time when, pregnant with Combs’ twin daughters, she discovered he had fathered a child with Sarah Chapman, a photographer from Atlanta.

“Love is something I strongly connect with,” Combs says, “but it’s not something I’ve conquered. I really can’t sit here pretending to be the premier expert on love. I’m still searching for the type of love that will give me peace and take care of me.”

Whats’s it like writing for Kanye?

Young Jeezy: First of all, Kanye fucking flew in the ’copter to Hawaii, so I was all on it anyway. When I got there, I saw dolphins in the swimming pool, so I’m like, “What the fuck.” He would play songs and be like, “So what you think?” And I’d be like, “Well, shit, you might wanna change this,” because I’m looking at it from a street nigga’s perspective, you know what I’m saying? I kinda just came in and gave my input and made sure all the dots connected. You gotta go in with the mindset that you know who you’re dealing with or who you’re writing for. ’Cause I done gave niggas some jewels and niggas like, “Yo, this shit is crazy.”

So is it like acting in a way?

Young Jeezy: I wouldn’t even say acting, it’s more like me being somebody that probably listens to some of their music and knows what I wanna hear from them.

From that kind of music.

Young Jeezy: Yeah, because at the same time, it’s friendly competition. That’s why all my features always been G like that. I knew what “Put On” was to me. I was like, “You know what? If I put Kanye on this motherfucker…he ain’t never been on no shit like this.” And when he heard it—he tells me all the time—he said, “That’s one of the best verses I ever done.” And I knew he was gonna do that when I gave it. When he sent me the verse back and I heard it, I was like, “Yup.” But I heard him on it. You know what I’m saying? And it took the song to a whole ’nother level.

You’re a good listener.’Cause you listen to all kinds of music.

Young Jeezy: Yeah, and I wasn’t scared to push the envelope with certain things. To call my last album The Recession was taking a chance. Because—now I’ma keep it 100, I’ma keep it 103—I even had to catch myself explaining why I did “My President is Black.” Niggas called me from the pen like, “Yo!”

Source: Complex

In the October Issue of Complex, they interview the Clipse discussing their clothing line Play Cloths, and new album Till The Casket Drops.

It seems like Till The Casket Drops is very disconnected from the industry as a whole. Like, “Fuck that, this is what we’re on.”

Malice: This album is like redemption for me. We’ve been through so much with the label, with so much in our lives. Around Hell Hath No Fury, it was just rough times. You could probably hear it in the music. We had a lot of dead weight around us that got cleared out. This time around, everything is freer; we’re in a happier place. You can really hear the change in the music. Listen to “I’m Good.” You can feel it that we’re better. Definitely. Hell Hath No Fury is about when it was more raw. This album is more along the lines of Lord Willin’. And you know Hell Hath No Fury is my favorite album.

Why is it your favorite album?

Pusha: It’s everything I want to hear in rap. My taste isn’t the most commercial of tastes. When I put on an album, I find those records I like. If I’m listening to Ross, I’m listening to “Mafia Music.” If I’m listening to Jeezy, I’m listening to track 17. That’s what I want to hear.

Let’s talk extracurricular activities. You guys have Play Cloths now, which seems to be doing pretty well. Where’d that come from?

Pusha: This whole thing was born, honestly, by the fans. When we were doing the We Got It 4 Cheap series, we were doing shows packed with 500 or 1,000 kids per night. Not only were they reciting the words to the mixtape, but they were also pointing at the Bathing Ape jacket.

On the new October issue of Essence which displays Mary J. Blige on the cover, she answers questions from fans regarding her career.

Do you feel any pressure to keep pumping out hits because of the younger artists?—Angie Kyles, Los Angeles
MARY J. BLIGE: I feel no pressure. I pump out hits for my fans. They just want to hear from me. I don’t compete with the young generation, I learn from them. I listen to what they’re saying, so I can get a little bit of that, so we can cross, so we can have an understanding and hear each other.When I listen to your music I can’t help but feel the emotion, whether it is joy, pain, anger or bitterness. How do you control and channel your emotions to give us these great performances?—Adina Oubre, New Orleans
Every lyric in my songs is real to me, so I channel the words and the feelings. Whatever those different songs are, they really are relatable to me. And then the fans give me the energy back, because they’re basically saying, “It’s us too Mary,” so I just take it to the next level.

I always wondered why, and I’m not hating on Faith Evans (I love her too), but were you to be the First Lady of Bad Boy?—Erica Neal,Columbus, Ohio
If I wasn’t signed to MCA, it could have been me, which I believe Puff would have wanted. But I understand Puff is a businessman, so he had to go get his First Lady, which I understand. It took me a couple of years to understand, but you know, after a while I was like, “Oh, okay. He had to do that,” because he didn’t have a female artist over there.

Will you ever sing “I Don’t Want to Do Anything Else” [her duet with Jodeci's K-Ci] live again? Angela Ervin—Greensboro, North Carolina
No. I mean, if I sing it with someone else, yes.

Do you feel any pressure to keep pumping out hits because of the younger artists?—Angie Kyles, Los Angeles
I feel no pressure to pump out hits because of the young artists. I pump out hits for my fans. They just want to hear from me. I don’t compete with the young generation. I learn from them, I listen to what they’re saying, so I can get a little bit of that, so we can cross, so we can have an understanding and hear each other.

Props: str8nyc

XXL’s October issue on newsstands September 15 excerpts of the interview below.

Because you had so much time to live with this new album, do you think it’s your most thoughtful body of work?

No, it’s just the approach. I don’t think it changed the music any. You can look at it both ways. The Blueprint was all natural. You could tell the rawness of the spontaneous thoughts. Or you can have someone who plans and plots and makes sure everything is the same. Lyor [Cohen, CEO of Warner Music Group] asked me, after he listened to the [new] album, “Did you mess up by putting an album out every year? Should you have taken your time and done it like this one?” And I was like, “No, it’s just process.” I don’t think The Blueprint was bad. But this album has to come out. It’s just really cohesive. It feels really good.

What would you say is The Blueprint 3’s grand statement?

I keep using this phrase “new classic,” because it has classic sounds and instrumentation, like how music was recorded before. That’s why the whole album cover [features] white instruments just left in the corner, no color. It’s all about the instruments. It feels classic in that approach, but it’s new subject matter, new flows. It’s not like an Amy Winehouse thing: a take on what was already done. I mean, if you listen to “D.O.A.” just the sax alone, those type of sounds. The subject matter is right now. It’s a hot-button issue right now.

What’s puzzling is that your own buddies, like Kanye and Pharrell, wear the brightest shirts and tightest jeans, but you’re clearly not going at them. You’re going after the cats that are trying to be like them, and not themselves. Correct?

Yeah, once it becomes… A trend is a trend. I follow trends. I set trends. Now, when a trend becomes a gimmick, it’s time to get rid of it. As far as hip-hop. Like, when they were saying “bling bling” on CNN, it’s time to never say that word again. It was just about the aggression of everything. I saw everyone, ’cause it was successful, following one path. You turn on the radio, and that’s all you hear. I’m not saying I hate T-Pain. What I’m talking about is a trend that’s becoming a gimmick. And if we continue down this path, we’re going to open the door for another genre of music. Same way when rock was doing hair metal it opened the door even wider for hip-hop to come through and put rock music in trouble for 10 years and more. Right now, there are a lot of indie bands coming out, which is making rock more exciting: the MGMTs and the Kings of Leons. You keep messing around, making generic music, people are going to start turning off one at a time. And if these guys [keep] making great music, guess what? [Fans are] gonna go to them. If you look back in the history of music, that’s what happens all the time. I’m just saying, Stay up. Be aware. Be innovative. Let’s keep making this shit interesting. I love Drake. I’m not hating on young people. Like, when people say that, I’m like, What are you talking about? It’s just stupid. I’m not hating on young people. I love Drake. I worked with him on the album. Every time they ask me what I’m listening to, it’s So Far Gone and Kings of Leon. Them two [acts] owe me money. I’m not Bill Russell, [saying] Michael Jordan ain’t shit. I’m saying Lil Wayne and Kanye are like LeBron and Kobe. My job as someone at the forefront of the game is to leave it in a better position than when I came in. Same way that Russell [Simmons] left it to me. ’Cause this thing saved my life. Literally. So I have a responsibility to it karmically. And after that it’s on you. I did my part. I made “D.O.A.” I said it. I made the statement. I made the push. Here, y’all take it from here.

The complete interview will be available in the October 2009 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, on newstands September 15th. Snippets of the interview is below.

Oprah: So tell me how you got into the drug dealing.

Jay-Z: It was natural.…

Oprah: Because drug dealers were your role models. There wasn’t a teacher or a lawyer or a nurse or a doctor or an accountant in the neighborhood?

Jay-Z: Well, we were living in Marcy by then, so, no. And if anyone did become something like that, they moved out. They never came back to share the wisdom of how they made it. If anyone made it, you never knew it. That’s why I’ve always said that if I became successful, I’d come back here, grab somebody, and show him how it can be done.

Oprah: When I met you a few years ago, we discussed our disagreement over the use of the N word and misogynist lyrics in rap music. Do you believe that using the N word is necessary?

Jay-Z: Nothing is necessary. It’s just become part of the way we communicate. My generation hasn’t had the same experience with that word that generations of people before us had. We weren’t so close to the pain. So in our way, we disarmed the word. We took the fire pin out of the grenade.

Oprah: Do you and Beyoncé have a pact that you just won’t talk about each other?

Jay-Z: Yeah. When you’re a public person, you have to keep some things to yourself, or else people will just—

Oprah: Eat it up. I know. But can I ask how in the world you kept your wedding a secret?

Jay-Z: Late planning!

Oprah: So here we are, talking on a Sunday afternoon. If you weren’t sitting here with me, what would you be doing?

Jay-Z: I’m gonna get killed for this, but I’ll tell you anyway. There’s a great pizza spot we go to every Sunday. It’s our tradition. It’s a small place in Brooklyn, you can bring your own wine, and there are candles there. It’s a nice date.

Source: Oprah.com

That deal is the end result of what has been described as one of the biggest bidding wars the music industry has seen in ages. No one party is willing to share all the details, but Atlantic Records and Interscope’s Jimmy Iovine were certainly both in the mix, and at one point, Universal Motown president Sylvia Rhone apparently threatened Drake with legal action to prevent him from going elsewhere. In the end, he signed directly to Aspire, a company co-run by his manager (and Young Money CEO) Cortez Bryant, with major label distribution through Universal Republic. Although his Wikipedia entry and various news items list his label as Cash Money/Universal Motown, Drake is quick to say, “I went through Universal Republic because I don’t fuck with Motown. At all.” The details are more than academic, since the Universal affiliation is what allows Lil Wayne and Young Money to own a piece of the project. But even though Wayne has been touted as an executive producer in previous interviews, Drake indicates that putting a YM logo on the disc is more of a nod to his mentor than a structural reality. “I respect the fact that Wayne put me in this position,” he says. “But as an artist, I have to do my own thing at this point. I’m not sure if that’s gonna be a struggle in the next couple months, to set myself apart. I don’t want it to feel like a disrespectful thing, but I know it’s a bridge that I’m going to have to cross as far as becoming my own person.”

Source: Fader