With reporting by Renaud Jean-Baptiste

Tons of hip-hop hits are built on samples of older songs, and Fat Joe’s latest single, “Another Day,” is one of the latest examples.

For his Rick Ross, French Montana and Tiara Thomas-assisted single, Joey sampled Queen Latifah’s 1993 cut “Just Another Day.” And though she ultimately gave him the go ahead, the rap legend was a little hesitant at first.

“Latifah’s my girl; she love it, she cleared it,” Fat Joe told MTV News. “We all get funny when people redo our songs. You get slightly offended but then you be like, ‘That’s Joey, that’s my brother.’ So Latifah, she cleared it, I got on the phone with her.”

Joe absolutely beamed when Latifah’s name came up in our interview; even with all that he’s accomplished in his own career, it’s hard for the Bronx, New York MC to hide his admiration. “Queen Latifah one of the dopest female MCs that ever lived, and where she took her career, a whole ‘nother level what she’s done for hip-hop music, so it was an honor to even touch her sample,” he gushed.

Like the original song, the Terror Squad honcho’s musical tale tracks the downside of living in the hood. The video, which dropped over the weekend, captures that stress visually.

“Growing up in the Bronx, and seeing things haven’t been changing, people still going through struggles,” he said. “It’s just an ordinary day in the hood.”

At the end of the video, which premiered on MTV Jams on Sunday, a ...

Now that we’ve officially declared “X-Men: Days of Future Past” the second best “X-Men” movie ever made, it’s time to talk about what doesn’t work in the movie. To paraphrase Will Ferrell on “Saturday Night Live?” Needs more J-Law.

And I don’t just say that as a writer for a website that is mildly OCD in its obsession with the starlet. Jennifer Lawrence is an integral part of “Days of Future Past,” and an essential part of selling the movie to a new generation… But the way Lawrence is used is not to the full extent of her awesome abilities.

A little bit of back-story for those who have yet to see the movie, skirting spoilers as much as possible. “Days of Future Past” takes place in 1973, a decade after “X-Men: First Class” and thirty years before the first “X-Men” movie. So the intention of the filmmakers seems to be to split the difference between Lawrence’s depiction of Raven/Mystique in “First Class” and Rebecca Romijn’s in “X-Men.”

Before I get to the next part, I want to emphasize: both these actresses are awesome, and there’s a reason Mystique is a fan-favorite character. But in the first two “X-Men” movies, at least, Romijn plays her as a monotone, Terminator-esque badass. In “First Class,” Lawrence does not.

When we leave Lawrence’s Mystique at the end of “First Class,” she’s on her way to embracing her bad side, joining up with Michael Fassbender’s Magneto in the newly ...

The story of how actor Ramon Rodriguez got involved in FOX’s new drama “Gang Related” isn’t that surprising — agent delivers script, actor auditions, offer is made — but what happened once he was cast is kind of a shocker.

The new show (which premieres tonight, May 22), casts Rodriguez as Ryan Lopez a cop on a task force taking down gangs in LA, who secretly is working as a mole for one of those same gangs.

Though ultimately Rodriguez found the complex part irresistible, at first he was “hesitant” to try out a network drama.

“We had a great meeting, and they told me how they really wanted to push the envelope,” Rodriguez told MTV News. “They were very aware of the great shows on cable.”

Even the script, though, wasn’t enough to convince him, at least based on the title.

“The first script they sent me was called ‘Gang Related,’ I don’t know if I really want to do that,” Rodriguez said. “But as I got into the story it was interesting, it was a complex character, in a really difficult situation.”

So Rodriguez accepted, and then things got weird. The pilot was directed by Allen Hughes, a veteran director, which isn’t the strange part. This is:

“We had worked on a Nike commercial, which was my first gig in front of a camera,” Rodriguez said. “It was an awesome experience, and how I got into the business.”

Once on set, though, Rodriguez discovered that the experience wasn’t (initially) as memorable to Hughes as it was to ...

If you’re the kind of person who likes to jam out to tunes while in transit, imagining that the music issuing from your headphones is your own personal soundtrack, then BOOTS has a new video for you.

The mysterious/elusive/pick-your-word producer, responsible for about 80% of Beyoncé’s surprise, self-titled album as well as his own excellent mixtape, WinterSpringSummerFall, dropped the video (unsurprisingly) sans fanfare this week.

A gentle meander filled with trains, flickering views of Paris and shadowy figures in a movie theater watching what appears to be art installation “The Clock” (although I could be mistaken), “EST” is a strange kind of exploration of time and how we move through it.

Check it out below:

Brenna Ehrlich

Brenna Ehrlich is a reporter for MTV News as well as the senior writer/editor for the O Music Awards. In the past, she served as associate editor at Mashable, penned a netiquette column for CNN and co-authored the blog and book "Stuff Hipsters Hate." She likes trying not to die in moshpits and listening to songs on repeat. Follow her on Twitter @BrennaEhrlich for news on cats and punk bands.

NEW YORK — What better way to unwind after a stressful week than to party with thousands of people that adore you? Seems like a winning formula to forget your worries. And that’s exactly what Macklemore & Ryan Lewis did on Wednesday night.

Following a controversial few days — sparked by Mack’s dressing up for a surprise show over the weekend in a costume that some perceived to be mocking Jewish stereotypes, the Seattle rapper and his partner-in-song, Lewis, hit the stage at Manhattan’s Hammerstein Ballroom for the first American Express Membership Experiences Concert Series. Macklemore had earlier addressed the controversy, saying he never meant to offend, and Ryan Lewis told MTV News on Wednesday afternoon that it was a “massive misunderstanding.”

By last night, the fellas seemed ready to party, imploring fans on multiple occasions to “turn the f–k up!” And the Shark Face Gang happily obliged.

Exploding pyrotechnics and a wave of cheers marked the show’s official start, as Macklemore — backed by a band, as always — launched into “10,000 Hours,” off of 2012′s The Heist. From there, he took it back a bit, performing “Crew Cuts,” off of 2009′s The Vs. EP.

It wasn’t just about rapping, though. In between songs, Macklemore often told stories, like the one about the summer he came to the Big Apple when he was 17.

“I would go out, and I would get these really weird costumes,” he said. “I would put on these really weird outfits, like these plaid outfits, a whole ...