Summer Jam is right around the corner, literally. The annual Hot 97 rap event goes down this Sunday, June 1st, at the Met Life stadium. We surmise that this year will be just as eventful as any other year, or perhaps more so, due to the return of once-banned 50 Cent and once-insulted Nicki Minaj.
We spoke to Miss Info and Laura Stylez of the Hot 97 team to get their take on Summer Jam, who they're personally looking forward to seeing perform, among other things.
"A lot of the stand out performances, you remember them, but you don't necessarily remember the year or who else is on the line-up. And I think that even for this year, there's so many back stories, really rich back stories from 50. This is his first time being on the Summer Jam stage since he was banned, and we all remember very vividly when he was banned, and chairs being thrown and the craziness...So it's like, what is he gunna do? And at the same time, Nicki coming back, it's sort of a redemption story there too because of the controversy last time she was in the line-up. There's a lot of really interesting things that could play out," Miss Info tells us.
"The great thing about Summer Jam is we stream all the backstage goodness, live, on the web," MissInfo says. In the backstage area the Hot 97 crew does live interviews with artists performing at the show, and Info went on to detail a story of a fan puking in the live audience while interviews were going down. Not the loveliest sight to see, we're sure.
Laura Stylez spoke on those performers she's excited to see, "I can't wait to see The Roots," she said, "I'm really curious about the friends that they're bringing. Of course, I wanna see Nas. And I really wanna see Nicki."
Following the Summer Jam talk with the two Hot 97 ladies, Ashlee Ray spoke to each radio personality individually.
Laura Stylez talks about growing up in the West Coast and heading to NYC to do radio, and how she gets along with her male counterparts Cipha Sounds, Peter Rosenberg and Ebro. Miss Info talks about kicking off her career and writing for just about every magazine publication that does hip-hop: from VIBE to Rolling Stone, she's a seasoned vet at this point in the game. She also talks about the whole idea of being a 'journalist,' and how in our day the line between journalist and blogger has become hazy, but she offers some pointers on how to differentiate the two. Finally, we speak to both women about their new reality T.V. show "This Is Hot 97" and if they actually plan to make a porno together (No).
Check out all four segments with Miss Info and Laura Stylez below. Keep your eyes peeled for plenty of Summer Jam coverage from the HNHH team!