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Lil' Wayne: "I Grew Tired of Rapping"

Ever since 2004, Lil' Wayne has called himself "the best rapper alive since the best rapper retired," obviously referencing Jay-Z. Then, he flat out called himself "the best rapper alive." Now, if you look at the tattoo written over his right eye, he is music. With his latest switch towards making a rock album called 'Rebirth,' it might be safe to say that being the best rapper alive is a thing in the past to him.

"Honestly? I don't want to be the best rapper in the world," Wayne told Rolling Stone. "If I have a rap album I'm dropping, then I want it to be the best rap album. But I want to be the best. Period. Now. My favorite rapper hasn't done what I'm doing."

Lil' Wayne is going to be the cover story subject in the latest edition of Rolling Stone that is coming out this Friday. His album, 'Tha Carter III' has officially been certified triple-platinum in the US less than a year after releasing the album this past June. Now, he is aiming to be the best artist in music by targeting the rock crowd by recording a rock album slated to hit stores this summer. The album has already produced a top 20 US single 'Prom Queen' and another single 'Hot Revolver' with 'Let it Rock' star and label mate Kevin Rudolf.

While Lil' Wayne isn't exactly Luther Vandross on the microphone or even like his label mate Jay Sean, he's been known lately with the help of autotune to sing from time to time, from his #1 hit 'Lollipop' to The Game's hit single 'My Life.' Lil' Wayne goes on to talk about the moment that convinced him to consider another path towards musical dominance since he feels he is not there already.

"The rock sh-- just comes from what my life is now. I've grown into this person," Wayne told the magazine. "I woke up one morning and had three or four women in my bed where I not only didn't know their last names, I didn't know the beginning letter of their first names. All I know is, they're the most beautiful women in the world, and I was in my own place, in whatever city I as in. And I could have thrown a dart at the map, and I'd probably have a place there too. I knew my driver was waiting downstairs for me. When my nose finally cleared from all the weed I had smoked, I smelled food in the kitchen and I knew it was my chef. Then I look on my phone and see a message and know it's from a popular woman everyone knows. And when I went in the studio that night, I couldn't just rap, 'Yeah, n---a ... .' "

Lil' Wayne has been nonstop recording for about four years now. The constant lyrical exercise has caused some to think that Lil' Wayne is burning himself out. To an extent, he concedes to that train of thought.

"I never said, 'Lil Wayne is going to rock, everybody.' I just got - I'm not going to say 'so good' at what I was doing, but it became such a regularity for me that I got tired of it," Wayne said. "And then I said, 'You know what? I'm not going to rap on this one.' I always knew I couldn't sing, but I also knew I had a voice that isn't heard by many and that I could learn how to stretch it and make songs sound good. Therefore, I practiced that."

While singing shouldn't be something he should make a habit of, so far the music has been better than expected. Lil' Wayne may be continuously working unimaginably long hours churning out hits, but he is reassuring us that this is just a part of who he is and perhaps, even an extreme version of what we all should aspire to be.

"You look at yourself and say, 'You ain't the best,' " he explained. " 'Show me you're the best. Show me you can play the f---ing guitar without lessons. Show me you can make a hit song and make everybody tell you, "I love what you're doing." Show me you can do that.' And then I come out that door and jump back in my body. I do that every night."

What do you guys think of the pace Lil' Wayne is on? Do you think he can become the biggest thing in music? Do you think he's even the biggest artist in rap right now? Drop us a comment and let us know what you're thinking about.

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Role Reversal: Katrina Kaif and Salman Khan

Salman Khan and his lovely girlfriend Katrina Kaif haven't had the most stable of relationships. It seems like there's always something that's just not quite right with those two. The on again and off again way that Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif handle things seems the norm for them these days. But would we really have it any other way?

That's why just as the news of the couple calling it quits came through, it wasn't surprising to see them together at public events. In fact the relationship is like a drug addiction. It's like how a smoker would talk about kicking the habit. They're clean for three weeks and the next thing you know they have a cigarette dangling from their lips. The couple should just get over it and admit that in some weird way; they're made for one another. Their relationship antics at least make for some good juicy gossip (because their movies don't garner press anymore), since their careers are questionable at best.

Katrina Kaif's debut in Bollywood was admittedly pretty much a dud in the box office. To be honest it's not like this is her first and only dud. As far as box office atom bombs we have 'Humko Deewana Kar Gaye' and 'Yuuvraaj. This however, was okay when it seemed like Salman Khan was at the peak of his success. At the time Salman Khan was her knight in shining armor when all she had was good looks and a crazy accent that we still can't place the origin of.

Now Katrina Kaif (known as 'Bollywood Barbie' to you-thank you very much) is sticking by her man (cough *meal ticket*). She is reportedly telling people that he is an icon and will always be iconic whether his films are successful or not. We think that's, uh, very sweet. After all, if he can stand by her side when she makes bad career moves; so can she.

It's nice to know that when you become such old news in the acting world that you can't even find a decent job, that your twenty-something girlfriend...friend...girlfriend (concubine?)-whatever she is, will stand by your side to reassure you and the world that you are somebody.

So we want to know what our readers think. Do you love Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif? Do you think that they're great actors and that their careers will see a turn for the best? Give us your thoughts.

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Justin Timberlake, It's Time for You to Take on India

By: Alex Gonzalez

Justin Timberlake, you have come a long way from being a random Mickey Mouse Club cast member. You've been in the public eye for well over a decade now and you've gone from being the kid from 'NSYNC that everyone knew about, secretly liked but didn't want to admit it for fear of ridicule to a mega solo pop star who can pull off performing R&B while having those that hated on you earlier wish you'd do a song with their favorite artist. You're a major example of the success someone has when crossing over from pop rather than to pop. India's going through a phase where they know about R&B, but not enough to know when they're hearing good R&B music. As usual there's always that artist that can break the barriers down and Justin, you might just be the guy for the job.

Now Justin, when you first came out as an artist, you were part of the boy band 'NSYNC. You sold more records than you can even count, but to say the music was manufactured is putting it nicely. You were a fan favorite and soon enough, a household name. India knows all about that bubblegum pop music, so in case "Operation: School India on R&B" falls on deaf ears, you can always break out into a rousing medley of 'NSYNC hits. Now, I myself might walk out of the room, but hey, it's better than an entire country turning on you.

The turnaround you made to mostly R&B is very impressive. Of course, hooking up with Timbaland and Danja as your main producers cannot hurt one bit. Timbaland has had a history of using Indian style beats in the past, so if you want to get people hooked on R&B while still having a Desi feel to it, Timbo's the guy to call. You went solo and put out 2 wildly successful albums that experiment with new sounds. I wouldn't call R&B in India new, but you can definitely be a gateway to other R&B artists so they can get their shine there. If they like you, they can get to know artists like Robin Thicke and Raphael Saadiq. India could use a little blue eyed soul.

Now we're hearing that you're not going to put out an album this year and you're not going to tour either. You might want to reconsider that though. You're a busy man, that much is true, but how about making India your chill out spot? You don't have to go tour or make music if you want to, but you can be around the people at least. Be a man about town. Amongst the 15 million people or so in Mumbai and the hustle and bustle that the common man lives with, you could realistically just go about your business without being mobbed. It would be cool if people had stories about running into you at random moments of the day, like having Justin Timberlake sightings. In a way you'd be like Elvis to India.

Lastly, your style has evolved. If we turn back the clock to 1999, you looked like you were advertising Old Navy when they had those ridiculously cheesy commercials. Your hair looked like the result of pleas in vain from your mom to stop bleaching your hair. Luckily for you, you ditched the Justin Guarini from American Idol haircut and the Abercrombie and Fitch gear. Now, people can't see you unless you're wearing a suit or a blazer. The hair is shorter and you even got a big tattoo on your arm. In short, you went from dorky to dapper. You claim to have brought "Sexy Back," but how about bringing that back to India. Next thing you know, dudes in India will be wearing suits just to go grocery shopping or eating at a local hangout. The suit is always stylish, but Justin Timberlake, the suit can become borderline casual gear because of you.

Justin Timberlake, it's not about what India can do for you, but more, what you can do for India. For a country as big as they are, it would be a shame to leave them behind in terms of what is current. R&B is thriving around the world. You know that especially considering how successful the switch was for you. Now, R&B needs to be heard and heard a lot in India and you definitely have the clout, power, and fame to make that a reality. The things you can do to have R&B become a mainstay there could absolutely impact the interest in the genre there for years to come.

What do you guys think Justin Timberlake needs to do to get R&B going at a major rate in India? Do you have another R&B artist in mind that is better than Justin Timberlake or can make the R&B transition for India a lot smoother? Drop us a comment and let us know what you think.

The Bhangra Circuit: Costumes at Bhangra Fusion Competition

By: Dr. Sahib

Over the past 10 years, teams at Bhangra Fusion, a competition based in Michigan USA (www.bhangrafusion.net) have experimented with a number of different costume styles ranging from the modern, to traditional, to the downright bizarre.

Taking a look back, we can appreciate an evolution of on-stage fashion at one of the longest-running Bhangra competitions. It's also good to help people understand what the trends have been and where we are going.

I'm also mostly referring to the men's costumes; the women dance in a salwaar kamiz, which many Desi women are already accustomed to wearing. Most men, however, have never worn anything close to what'srequired for a bhangra performance.

1. Kurta, short lungi, bandanas or head bands

2. Slightly longer lungis, turban usually tied in the typical "sardar" style, brighter fabrics, jewelry

3. Turbans still tied in the "sardar" style but now with turlas (fans). More elaborate jewelry

4. Even longer length lungis, turbans tied in the traditional bhangra style with starched turlas, printed fabrics, phumans (yarn decorations on arms)

So what do you think of the cosutumes? Drop your comments below.