"I call Drake at least once a week," Lil Wayne told Hot 97's Funkmaster Flex last night, phoning in from Rikers. "I actually call three or four times a week, but he only picks up for me once a week." He was laughing when he said it: Wayne, of all people, knows what it is to be one of the most famous rappers on earth in the month after your record comes out. You tend to be a little busy. "I just feel like every time I pick up the phone to dial a number, I feel like I'm a bother, because I'm in jail. I don't have nothing else to do but talk to you, and that might not be what you want to do at the time," he explained. Which is probably true, though Wayne did note that Young Money henchman Mack Maine answers "every single time." Then the jail phone started beeping, signaling the interview was at a close. Read the whole semi-depressing, but basically honest and sincere transcript at MTV, or listen to "Right Above It," the pretty great single from Wayne's forthcoming I'm Not a Human Being, below. Drake, you'll be happy to learn, found time to rap on it:

More »

all portraits by Paul Quitoriano

Marlo! With a beard! Smiling!

A paintball tournament with cast members from The Wire sounded like one of the best id-fulfilling charity events ever, even better than a five-martini lunch with Sterling-Cooper executives. (Though maybe not as a good as a strip-club field trip with the Sopranos.) So when the announcement went out that Jamie Hector, the actor who brought to life ruthless young kingpin Marlo Stanfield, had organized a Cops and Robbers face-off between "The Streets" and "The Law" in Long Island City, count us as one of the many Internet-nerds/box-set owners very excited about such a prospect.

More »

The heartbreaking genesis of this song? Lil Wayne heard his protégé Drake's collaboration with Jay-Z, "Light Up," over the radio in his cell in Rikers, where he's serving a year and day on weapons charges. Once the center of the rap universe, Wayne was left a spectator. But not for long--a day later, Drake's team had him set up over the phone, contributing a new verse to the song all the way from Rikers, where he describes himself as "Feeling like Elvis, 'Jailhouse Rock'/I'm not Tupac, I'm the new 'Pac/Behind bars but the bars don't stop."

More »