Firestarter: Cap 1

2 Chainz had a heck of a come-up. The rap veteran may have dropped his solo debut just last year, but it was his experience in the game that ensured its success. Cap 1 has a similar experience — maybe that's why he gets along so well with 2 Chainz.

"I did a lot of writing and behind-the-scenes work with different artists out of Chicago, and came up with Shawnna," Cap explained to Mixtape Daily of his early days, which also included a solo deal with Motown records around 2000. "Throughout that whole movement of Shawnna being with [Disturbing tha Peace] is how I came to meet with Chainz and this is going back like 2001 [or] 2002."

As two underdogs in the rap game, Chainz and Cap made a pact: if one of them caught steam, they would include the other in their plans. Deuce, of course, featured Cap 1 on the Mike Will Made It-produced "Wut We Doin" from 2 Chainz's Grammy-nominated Based on a T.R.U. Story. "Me and Tit just had our bond. We were kinda like two of the same — had the same walks of life, going through the same things just trying to get somewhere better," Cap said. "That's my brother and he kept his word and that's where we are today."

In March, Cap released his long-anticipated T.R.U. 2 It mixtape. Not only does the tape feature contributions from the likes of Wiz Khalifa, Juicy J, Young Jeezy and Game, but more importantly, it showcases the lyrical grit that has kept Cap ...

Even though we are still a few weeks away from the official start of the season, it's not too early to predict which song will be deemed the song of the summer.

One duo that have a legitimate shot at that title are Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo, known as Icona Pop. The Swedish pop DJs' bonafide hit is inescapable, and the girl-power anthem will no doubt carry its way through the summer months.

But what is so surprising about "I Love It" is that the pop-dance track was actually released in Sweden a year ago. It first gained attention in the United States as the theme song for and was featured on an episode of "Glee." The song is now sitting comfortably at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts after peaking at #7.

MTV News recently caught up with the stylish pair at 102.7 KIIS-FM's Wango Tango in Los Angeles, where they admitted they are still getting used to their newfound fame.

"It's very surreal that we met on my couch in Sweden and now we are here [at Wango Tango]..."Hjelt said. "We couldn't be happier. We have really tried to take it in; we are super excited. This is such a good start for us."

It certainly is only the beginning for these two, who have a busy few months ahead of them. In addition to kicking off their first-ever headlining tour in North America on August 12, Icona Pop are hard at work on their debut album, which they hope to release by the end ...

French Montana has some pretty awesome friends. Not only does his debut album, Excuse My French, feature a who's who of rap and R&B stars, none of his vocal contributors ever bothered to send the Bronx, New York, MC a bill for their services.

"The only person I paid was Max B. That's about it," French told on Wednesday of his longtime friend, who is featured on the album's opening track and is currently serving 75 years in prison.

That means that Birdman, Rick Ross, Diddy, Drake, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, 2 Chainz, Snoop Dogg, Fabolous, Trey Songz, the Weeknd, DJ Khaled, Raekwon, Ne-Yo, Mavado, Ace Hood, Jerimih, Scarface, Machine Gun Kelly, Red Café, Los, Chinx Drugz and Young Cash all showed up for free on the 13-track (19, if you count all the various bonus songs) LP. Certain artists like Diddy, Ross and Wayne appear more than once.

French Montana Kept His Tigers Despite PETA's Objections?

There was one feature that French couldn't clear, however, from his Interscope labelmate Lana Del Rey, so instead, he just called Ne-Yo and Raekwon and added "We Go Where Ever We Want" to the LP with no hard feelings.

Montana said it's his relentless work ethic that leads his musical peers to want to help him out. "Honestly, Sway, I just feel like I've been blessed for everybody watching my grind," he said. "They see that I grind for everything that I want, I make it happen, so I just feel like people love to help people who help they self, ...

NEW YORK — It wasn't the Sex Museum, but the mood was decidedly sensual at the aptly named Art of IV Play Gallery on Wednesday night. The-Dream turned up to celebrate and stream his May 28 release and yeah, the girls were fanning themselves, but it wasn't just the tepid air conditioning: The superstar producer/singer's album packs that much heat.

An organizer for the album "listening experience" revealed to MTV News that they briefly considered hosting the event at New York's Museum of Sex, where visitors can take classes on, um, fellatio at an "oral fix bar" or catch an exhibit on fantasy in the Internet age. Fitting for an artist who's spent the better part of five albums plumbing the depths men and women go to in the name of love, sex and desire. And in fact IV Play tracks like "Pu--y" and the pounding "Slow it Down" (featuring Fabolous) underscore that point.

Ultimately, though, the Helen Mills space in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood was cleverly transformed into a gallery; oversize reproductions of Dream's erotic album art were mounted on the walls. And large projections of his "Roc" video (kind of like video installations) played behind a bartender who grew panicked as the Ciroc supply began to run dangerously low by hour two. But this was The-Dream's night, and the North Carolina native, dressed in a black, was in good spirits, turning on his Southern charm as he graciously posed for a stream of Instagram uploads with fans and industry folk.

With lines snaked around Seventh Avenue, a surly bouncer ...

If Kendrick Lamar had his druthers, rap's current fascination with Molly would fall by the wayside. It's a message he addressed in his latest video, flashing the words "Death to Molly" on the screen at the end of the clip.

Molly is the pure powder or crystallized form of MDMA, a drug commonly used in ecstasy pills. It is known to induce a state of euphoria and has found its way into the lyrics of rappers like Trinidad James, French Montana, Mac Miller, Kanye West and Rick Ross, who found himself in hot water after rapping about slipping the drug in an unsuspecting woman's drink on Rocko's "U.O.E.N.O."

"Sometimes you have the trends that's not that cool," Kendrick explained to MTV News correspondent Sway Calloway when they sat down for a one-on-one after he came off stage at this weekend's Hangout Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama. "You may have certain artists portraying these trends and don't really have that lifestyle and then it gives off the wrong thing. And it becomes kinda corny after a while," he continued without pointing the finger at any artist in particular.

As a high-school student in Compton, California, Lamar remembers being a switching from basketball jerseys to button-ups when Jay-Z pushed a hip-hop fashion shift with his 2003 single "Change Clothes." Sometimes, Kendrick argues, there are trends that aren't so cool, like the constant promotion of the popular party drug in their music.

"When everybody consciously now uses this term or this phrase and putting it in lyrics, it waters the culture down," ...

That's right, Wolf Pack fans — "The Hangover" is back with the third and final installment in the comedy franchise, and boy, does it have a lot to live up to.

"The Hangover III" finds Alan (Zach Galifianakis) at a crossroads in his life: after the death of his father (Jeffrey Tambor), he stops taking his medication, and Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms) and Doug (Justin Bartha) agree to come together to help him get rehabilitation and treatment at a facility in Arizona. But en route to their destination, a ruthless gangster kidnaps Doug and threatens to kill him unless the other three produce Chow (Ken Jeong), who made off with $21 million in gold bars during the group's first round of misadventures in 2009.

The second installment made a boatload of money — one big enough to get the cast to Thailand and back — but it was critically derided, thanks in no small part to its similarities to the first film. But how much are critics liking "The Hangover Part III" so far? Take a look at a few reviews from around the web:

Maybe It's Not As Good As The Original
"While it may not recapture the exact same giddy thrill as the first film, this film manages to clarify what the overall story of the trilogy is in a way that I found satisfying and quite fitting." — Drew McWeeney, Hitfix

How Is This One Different?
"Director Todd Phillips inexplicably aims at making a standard action movie, complete with car chases and break-ins that compound the sense of ...

Jennifer Aniston isn't afraid to shake what her mama gave her. Need proof? Check out the new trailer for her summer comedy,

The film re-teams her with her "Horrible Bosses" co-star Jason Sudeikis, who plays a slightly desperate, low-level drug dealer who recruits his stripper neighbor, Aniston, to play his wife on a road trip to Mexico. He devises the con in order to pick up marijuana for his horrible boss, this time played by Ed Helms.

Why the scam? "Me, crossing the border alone? Huge red flag. Families, they don't' get a second look," Sudeikis pleads, as Aniston grinds up against him at her place of employment. She agrees, and soon she's heading over the border with him, a "dork who lives in my building" (played by Will Poulter) acting as his son and a "little gutter punk" he recruits to play his daughter (played by Emma Roberts).

Along the way, their RV breaks down, they end up befriending a pair of swingers and, of course, things don't go as planned at the drug pick-up. In order to get out of some hot water with some Mexican drug lords, Aniston strips down to her lacy unmentionables.

Perhaps the only moment to upstage Aniston's impressive pole dancing abilities is Poulter's mastery of Left Eye's rap in TLC's "Waterfalls." Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber ("Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story"), the movie opens August 9 and also features Nick Offerman, Thomas Lennon and Kathryn Hahn.

Don't call it a comeback, but 2013 just might be the year of Paris Hilton's pop culture renaissance, and she's got some major players co-signing the whole thing.

While it may seem like her former BFF, Kim Kardashian, has stolen the spotlight away from the hotel heiress as the most-buzzed-about reality starlet du jour, Hilton has been making strides to reclaim her spot at the top of the socialite heap. Not only has she graced the big screen in Sofia Coppola's latest, but she's also plotting her return to music, signing a headline-making record deal with hip-hop empire Cash Money Records.

She hit Cannes last week to promote her involvement with Coppola's flick, based on her own real-life experience with a group of Hollywood thieves and partially shot at her home. This week, she also scored major buzz by singing with YMCMB, which MTV News confirmed on Wednesday. After releasing her self-titled debut in 2006, Hilton first teased her sophomore project last year. And now it's well on its way, according to the label's co-founder, Birdman.

"She's always supported us, and we've supported her. It was a friendship first," he shared with the L.A. Times of his relationship with the star, whose previously collaborations with the crew includes her 2012 single with Lil Wayne "Last Night" and appearing in Rich Gang's video for just this month. "She played us music, and I was taken aback. I was impressed by her music, and I didn't know she could sing so well."

He added, "Controversy and all ...

On May 25, 1983, the third installment of George Lucas' "Star Wars" movie saga was released into theaters. Thirty years later, "Episode VI -- Return of the Jedi" remains quite a controversial film among "Star Wars" fans, largely due to the tiny inhabitants of the forest moon of Endor.

The introduction of the Ewoks, the furry creatures who figure prominently in the movie's climactic battle, caused a disturbance in the Force so great that people are still griping about it, and loudly. Heck, Stephen Colbert even ate one on the air.

Since 30 years have passed, and episode VII on the way, MTV News got three experts to weigh in on the debate.

Writer/producer Andrew Zilch, a "Star Wars" fan since childhood, couldn't help but notice the ever-swelling hatred of all things Ewok. "I started to realize inevitably any discussion about 'Return of the Jedi' would always devolve into total Ewok-bashing," Zilch told MTV News. "It would always be like, 'The Ewoks ruined the classic trilogy, blah blah blah...' "

So, Zilch decided to do something about it. "I thought it would be funny to write a song from the perspective of someone who really earnestly defends the Ewoks and feels like they were treated unfairly over the years," Zilch said. With the help of a few co-workers at HBOlab, he created an accompanying video in 2008 to celebrate the Ewoks for the film's 25th anniversary. The clip features "Episode VI" star Billy Dee Williams and has gotten nearly a million YouTube views.

J.J. Abrams Suggests 'Star Wars' Spin-Offs ...