On Friday, a link to three-minute making-of video for a scrapped, Hype Williams-helmed clip of "XXXO" appeared on M.I.A.'s twitter. The footage shows M.I.A and a small group of dancers (including Beyoncé choreographer Jonté) painted head-to-toe and gyrating to the song's hissing, whirling beat. There's also a tiger. And there's M.I.A. wearing side-slit leggings and Timberlands and looking really awesome in one scene, and in a metallic, skeletal chest plate thingy looking very uncomfortable in another.

"XXXO" isn't Williams' only aborted video with evidence floating around the Internet, where even music videos receive trailers, teasers, and making-of EPKs. The trailer for Rick Ross' "Live Fast, Die Young" has been removed, but the blog posts touting it remain. An 11-minute behind-the-scenes clip for "Robocop" remains just a Google search away.

And then there are the dozens of videos Williams made (and completed) over the course of the past ten years, very few of which rise above being adroit. What happened?

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​The Maysles Institute's documentary film series "Country Rap 2: The Gulf States" and its accompanying program "Katrina: Five Years Later"--both opening this weekend--tie the rich spirit and deep history of Southern hip-hop to recent tragedies like Katrina and the Gulf oil spill. Films about Miami bass (2 Live Crew: Banned in the U.S.A), bounce (Ya Heard Me?), Southern rap (Dirty States Of America, The Carter), Delta blues (The Land Where Blues Began), and New Orleans jazz (Jazz Parades) stand alongside histories of the Black Panther Party (Lowndes County Freedom Party) and the Miami University football team (The U). Alabama up-and-comers G-Side will perform at the venue on Saturday. (And all of this in New York City, a/k/a the town that booed OJ Da Juiceman!) Via e-mail, we spoke to co-curator Bertolain Elysee about the event's expansive intentions, why libertarians should love 2 Live Crew's Luke, and Lil Wayne and Lil Boosie's particular kind of political activism.

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​The familiar conceit of this past Sunday's New York Times Magazine article "Sissy Bounce: New Orleans's Gender-Bending Rap," goes something like this: There are some gay rappers in New Orleans. Rap's usually really homophobic. That's crazy, huh? Contrasting the apparently enlightened attitude of New Orleans bounce with mainstream hip-hop's homophobia in order to wrap a chin-scratching, Times-friendly thesis around a rowdy, obscene style of Southern dance music is probably good for the genre's visibility. And the assertion that rap is gay-unfriendly is so well proven by now that the piece's writer, Jonathan Dee, doesn't even deign to provide any examples to support it. Fair enough: hip-hop's track record, when it comes to addressing homosexuality, is abysmal. But do we really know for a fact that rap remains completely unenlightened, circa 2010?

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​In the aftermath of Dennis Hopper's death this past Saturday (J. Hoberman's obit is here), tributes to the actor didn't even try to construct an easy narrative out of his chaotic life. How could they? Hopper was many things at once: the actor who pushed the "method" style way past its breaking point; the '60s icon turned rightwinger who publicly voted for Obama; the sensitive art photographer and abstract expressionist; and the nut who, threatened ex-wives and co-stars with guns and once attempted to blow himself up with dynamite in front of live crowd. He was far out in every role, from art-house classics to chintzy afternoon HBO staples like Spacetruckers, but was nominated only once by the Academy for his onscreen work--Best Supporting Actor, for Hoosiers.

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​"Glo-fi" or "chil-wave", that sub-sub-sub genre of electronic indie pop, was kind of a big deal at SXSW this year. Well, as big of a deal as something solely focused on trying to sound like Christopher Cross on muscle relaxers can be in 2010 at a constantly internet-streaming, forever re-tweeted music festival. Big enough though that New York Times' Jon Pareles dropped this awesomely brutal piece about why the scene is well, bullshit.

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​Gucci Mane's new album, The State vs. Radric Davis is in stores today, but the insanely prolific, remarkably consistent Atlanta rapper has been in jail since November 12th. This is Gucci's second stint in jail for a parole violation this year. Both sentences stem from a 2005 incident in which Gucci attacked a promoter, served six months for the attack, and was released under the agreement that he would take rehabilitation classes and do some community service--which he's now failed to do, and gone to jail for failing to do...twice.

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​The New Orleans sludge legends Eyehategod--a band of squirming, perpetual outsiders--have remained masters of miserablist metal for twenty years now. Dominated by weighty blues riffs, punctuated by bursts of hardcore, and anchored by lead singer Mike Williams' growl, the sound of the New Orleans-based band mixed and matched styles of punk and metal before that sort of thing was fashionable. Add battles with addiction and the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the band--temporarily derailing the group and leading to Williams' arrest for drug possession--and Eyehategod more than live up to their return-to-touring tagline: "Twenty years of abuse." The band plays a show on a boat this Saturday, along with Pig Destroyer and Goatwhore as part of the (though varied and ever expansive) still predominantly indie CMJ. Via e-mail, we spoke to EHG lead singer Mike Williams about the show, Hurricane Katrina--something Mike's tired of discussing on other people's terms--and how and why the world getting more and more terrible makes Eyehategod's devastating music sound that much better.

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