J. Cole has a huge appetite when it comes to his career. Although he’s got a platinum single, a gold album and a Grammy nomination for best new artist, the protege of Jay-Z says he wants more.

Watch as ThisIs50 & Young Jack Thriller speak with Fabolous for an exclusive interview.

Fabolous is killing the competition right now! In our interview he talks about who he stunts for, his incident with Ray J, he says he does not watch “Love & Hip-Hop”, new mixtape “Death Comes in 3′s”, 50′s initiative to feed a billion people with SK, his coat drive & much more!

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MTV caught up with 50 Cent, Common, and some of today’s most popular new hip-hop acts to find out what their resoltions would be for 2012. A handful of non-hip-hop artists also give their resolutions in the clip.

New Jersey hip-pop upstart Michael Francis has been releasing some captivating music over the last few months and is definitely garner a lot of attention just under the radar. With the official release of his debut mixtape Cold Heart Chronicles en route, Francis linked up with KarmaloopTV to discuss being compared to The Weeknd, his origins in the art of emceeing and the latest on CHC. Be sure to get your advanced copy  Here (the official tape will feature several bonus cuts), cause even dealers need some soulful tunes out here.

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Red Cafe stopped by the KarmaloopTV offices to chop it up about working with Ryan Leslie and share his thoughts on some of the hottest new names in the rap game, Kendrick Lamar and A$AP Rocky. “What else?,” the Bad Boy Records signee (who’s been through many-a-contract in his career), also touched on some of the mistakes he made early at the start of his career and gears us up for his debut album which will drop in the new year. Red has had some poppin records over the years so let’s hope he’s found the right situation that will help take his career to the next level. Look for his new mixtape, Hell’s Kitchen, coming soon as well. #ItsFinallyMovin

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While in St. Louis performing at S.L.I.M.’s release party, 2 Chainz sat down with Julia Beverly of Ozone Mag to talk about his name change, what he learned from Ludacris & Lil Wayne, & what kind of cars he buys after a long day of ridin’ around and gettin’ it.

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-Background Info: Name. Age. Hometown. School or Work? Your role in the music industry. What are you about?

I’m 22 & I’m from Newark, NJ. I graduated from Malcolm X Shabazz in 2007 my role in music is the art of hip hop & I’m solely about speaking what I’ve been threw & what’s around me.

-Explain the title of your latest project “In The Land Of Korruption.”

A while back I’ve created the term “Korruption” which is the act of someone controlling something that isn’t originally theirs, can be anything. As time went by my peers caught on to term & lead me to title the mixtape “In The Land Of Korruption” basically saying that where I’m from is “Korrupted”. In the video “Welcome 2 Da Jungle” it shows a girl entering “Da Jungle”(where I was raised) & it looked as though I was gonna harm her because me & my team were wearing ski mask, but at the end of the video she was “korrupted” & in a result was wearing a mask as well. That was the visual of how it can look to be “Korrupted” in the land of korruption.

-How long did it take you to put “In The Land Of Korruption” together? Any setbacks?

It actually only took me 1 month to put together “In The Land Of Korruption” with the exception of 6 songs, “Leo Life” “Leo I Am” “True Lies” “Text Me In Da A.M” “Living Room” & “Welcome 2 Da Jungle”. Originally Leo Life, Leo I Am, True Lies, & Text Me In Da A.M were suppose to appear on an all original mixtape of mines titled “August Rush” expected on August 20th, 2011(my birthday) but I had my son on August 10th, 2011 so all my focus was on making sure he was healthy. I recorded & released “Living Room” on father’s day to help promote my mixtape “iLive Dat Jungle Life” which was released on May 20th, 2011. As for “Welcome 2 Da Jungle” I recorded that a week after the release of my video “Arguments”. I truthfully wrote that song cause it was suggested to me by my label mate Nimi Hendrix of Secret Society.

-Can you sing at all? If so, why don’t you sing more?

Strange you asked that cause I actually can sing but my voice isn’t strong enough in my opinion to actually sing on a song. I’d be good for back up vocals but as far as being a main voice, not likely to happen

(more after the break)

-Any favorite tracks off of “In The Land Of Korruption”? If so, name two.

Unnoticed & Astor Quitman Music. The story line for Unnoticed were based off true events but I think I like my choice of words the most. I was able to paint a picture & prove a point in the same verse. Astor Quitman Music is like my “free spirit” song. The only song on the mixtape that has no real topic but I speak the realest words I’ve written throughout the entire project on it.

-Where exactly are you trying to go with your music?

I wanna go as far as I possibly can with my music. I don’t mind being the super star, but I also don’t mind being the guy in the background. I started writing because I love music, I don’t want fame to destroy my passion, I don’t want fame to destroy my childhood pastime.

-What was your first good experience with music? (vivid detail)

I was 15 years old & me & my brother Na Blood was working on our 1st mixtape ever “Welcome 2 Murdaville” at the time I was going to a school across town from my peers in the north section of newark which was Barringer High school, but my friends & family were at Malcolm X Shabazz high school in the south section. That year Boost mobile & Nextel phones were very popular & so were ringtones. I made a song titled “Get It Poppin Right” which was like a spin off to Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like Its Hot”. There was a store downtown Newark that allowed us to get customized ringtones on our phones. I went there & made my song a ringtone for my personal use not expecting the outcome to be what is was. Within a week my ringtone was on 1 out of every 3 phones in Newark. It was insane! My younger brother called me one day after school & said “Brazy! Listen to this!” He then remove the phone from his ear & put it in the sky so I can hear his surroundings. A group of women no less than 13 of them were singing my song together. That same week I’ve signed 3 autographs for the first time. I went from being a popular kid in school to being a popular kid in Essex County New Jersey in a matter of days. I watch that ringtone become the most requested ringtone in Northern Jersey until ringtones were no longer cool. That had to been my best music experience ever!

-What do you think it is you give back to the music community?

A real artist. Not someone who talks about the same thing in every song, not someone who cares more about making money than making music. A real artist. Someone who can make good music & be lyrical, someone that enjoys writing music more than listening to it. Lot of the artist out today can’t even stay on topic in a song. Like how can you talk about shooting a gun or selling drugs in a R&B song? A lot of these artist rap just because they think they can & worst of all people allow & embrace it. I just wanna give you all some real hip hop.

-If you could collab with any other artist, who would it be and why?

Hands down it would be Drake. Not only is his music great to me but his beat selection fits my needs more than any other artist I’ve heard period! I think our styles will fit perfectly with each others being that no one will have to step out of their comfort zone.

-How old were you when you first got into recording? Nervous?

I recorded my first song at 11. I wasn’t nervous at all. I’ve been rapping since I was 3. I learned to write it down when I was 9. From the age 9 to this very day I’ve performed in front of multiple people. Truthfully I can’t finish a song without letting someone hear my first verse of the song first. So when it comes to live performances I was never nervous. My 1st time recording was in the comfort of my own home. Tapes were still out & my karaoke machine worked wonders!

-Do you do any producing? If so, anything we can hear?

I honestly have no faith in myself at all when it comes to producing. I know it may seem strange to say but facts are facts! I’ll stick to rapping

-What keeps you motivated?

My family, my friends, & my city, the people I have behind the wall who has nothing to depend on but us. My dead brother. Honestly I’m afraid to let him down. I’m afraid to quit cause he’ll be upset with me. Most of our conversations started with him saying “bro when you get on…” I can’t let him down, I can’t quit

How far will you go genre-wise? What genre does your music fall in?

My music falls in the Hip Hop genre. As far as me trying new genres, I doubt it. I love almost all genres but I have no plan on singing & I can’t play an instrument so Hip Hop is the place for me

-Who are some of your favorite rappers?

Jay Z, Drake, Project Pat, UGK, Gucci Mane, The Lox, Andre 3000, Big L, 2Pac, Biggie, Common, & Nas in no order

-Do you have any idols within the industry?

I don’t really think I do. There’s no one that I see & think “I wanna be like him” or “I’d do that like him”. My idol is an imaginary person I’ve made up in my mind. I don’t wanna sound cocky when I say this but when I see his face its me. My idol is me, in the places I wanna be, in the future. My imagination is my idol.

-How many visuals do you have for Korruption? Do you plan on making anymore vids?

As of now I only have one video for “In Da Land Of Korruption” which is a song titled “Welcome 2 Da Jungle” I have about 3 more videos from this project coming but those are secret so stay tuned!

-Is there any other place besides DatPiff Mixtapes where we can hear your music?

http:www.youtube.com/brazyboy252
http:www.wearesecretsociety.net
http:www.reverbnation.com/brazyboy
http:www.meetthadealer.com
http:www.grindahz.com
& a few other places I don’t know off the back but you can always googled Brazy Boy

-You have 3 solo projects now, what have you learned after making these three projects?

One thing I’ve learned is you can never wait on or rely on ANYONE. If you want collabs on your project, get them all done before you release a “release date” for your project. One engineer for a project is always better than multiple & promotion goes a long way.

-Your newest project was rated 4 stars out of 5. How do you feel about this?

Honestly if it was rated 1 out of 5 I’d be happy, I’m just happy people gave me a chance & listened. I don’t care too much of what people think I’m just appreciative to the fact that I’m what they’re thinking about. For this specific rating I’m very thankful. More thankful for the people who took their time out to listen & rate because they didn’t have to, yet they did. That means so much to me.

-According to DatPiff Mixtapes you have 138 downloads for Korruption, how do you hope to get your numbers up?

I think that’s good for a mixtape being out less than a month. I’m proud of those numbers & thankful for all 138 people who downloaded it. Hopefully those numbers can grow monthly as it did in this month, but if it doesn’t I don’t mind. I still have 138 more reasons to smile & keep moving forward.

-We noticed you have a couple of Drake covers. Is there something about Drakes music that sets him apart?

Everything! He’s flat out different & amazing to me, but the covers on this project has nothing at all to do with his music. They were solely based around his beat selection. The beats Drake choose to use are like my dream beats. I’d kill to have his producers.

-Two albums that stood out to me in 2011 were _________________ and _______________ because ______________.

Watch The Thrown and Take Care. Who in the world wouldn’t love an album from Jay Z & Kanye West together? I’m quite sure even Beanie Sigel has a copy of Watch The Thrown. Not only was it anticipated but it was great. They didn’t let me down. I share the same feelings about Take Care. It was good to hear Drake’s growth & maturity threw his music. Once again another album that wasn’t a let down.

-Two mix tapes that stood out to me in 2011 were _______________ and _______________ because_______________.

I’d be lying if I said I listened to any signed artist mixtapes this year. As for unsigned artist Photo973 “Spotlight: Through The Wire” & Tax G’s “Cadillac Talk” Photo973′s mixtape was short but great. All originals & like “In The Land Of Korruption” it was put together in a month. Its always good to hear new music from Tax G. His style & sound are completely different from any artist I’ve ever heard.

-If you could play an instrument what would it be and why?

It would defiantly be the piano. I don’t know why I’m so drawn to that instrument but I am. Even when I write & record my music, for me to get into the feel of the song I close my eyes & move my fingers as if I’m playing the exact notes of the song on a piano. I never noticed it until someone pointed it out to me

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At his very first CNN Hereoes event, 50 Cent stopped on the red carpet for an interview with the host network in which he talked about he charitable work where he’s using the sales of his Street King energy drink and SMS Audio headphones to buy meals for the hungry. Fif is hoping that his business model will encourage a new generation of entrepreneurs to incorporate a charitable component into their company’s objective.

T.I. chopped it up with MTV about the type of records that fans can expect on his upcoming album, Trouble Man. Tip explains how the theme of the project is based on events that he’s personally experienced and classifies the music as “Intellectually ignorant.”

Alicia Keys stopped by BET‘s 106 & Park to talk to talke about her new hobby on the 1′s and 2′s as DJ AK-47, her baby Egypt and family life with Swizz Beatz, as well as new music she’s working on. Ms. Keys also discusses how she’s been drawn to Tumblr and being the executive producer of the new Broadway play, Stick Fly.