(Credit: Mel D. Cole/Villageslum.com)

MTV staff writer/ resident hip-hop historian/soothsayer timmhotep aku sees the future of hip-hop in Wale. Knowledge is dropped accordingly:

This is Wale. His name is pronounced “Wah-Lay.” Familiarize yourself with his face, learn his songs, be an early adopter, because in the coming months you’ll be seeing a lot of him. And when you do see him, you’ll be able to brag that you were up on him before anyone else was.

Hailing from Washington, D.C. and reppin’ the whole DMV (D.C., Maryland, Virginia), Wale is basically where hip-hop is going. While’ve all been worrying about stuff like gas prices, the recession, and a presidential election, rap has been in the midst of a renaissance. Tough-guy posturing and stereotypes are being supplanted by a new breed emcees of who pride themselves on eclecticism and lyricism.

Wale loves Seinfeld, rhymes over go-go music and has a jones for streetwear and sneaks. He’s got the co-sign of folks like Jay-Z, Lindsay Lohan, the Roots, and Mark Ronson, who signed him to his Allido Records label. And best of all, the dude can rap. Watch when he blows up — we’ll be standing here arms folded like “toldya so.”

+ Watch Wale below in the Roots’ new “Rising Up” video with Chrisette Michele and in Amy Winehouse’s “Valerie” video (minus Amy), check out Wale’s MySpace page and The Mixtape About Nothing and catch him on the Rock the Bells tour this summer.

(Credit: Lyndsay Siegel)

Pan-pop shapeshifter Santogold changes gears faster than a Formula 1 racer, and ever since we heard her breakthrough single, “L.E.S. Artistes,” she’s had us mesmerized by her haunting hooks, droned-out chants, and electro beats, fronted by powerhouse pipes that conjure images of a closed-door meeting between Nelly Furtado and Grace Jones. And while her sound is anything but formulaic, it’s definitely no accident — Santi’s no radio rookie, after all. She studied music in college, sang in a ska-punk band, and scouted talent in the A&R department of a record label. She then ditched the day job and sharpened her songwriting and production chops on neo-soul rocker Res‘ 2001 critically acclaimed album, How I Do (an album we love to this day), and she co-wrote Ashlee Simpson’s “Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya).”

Eventually, Santogold stopped playing record label Robin Hood (i.e. learning from the big-timers to bring up the small-timers). She took back the creative control she was giving other artists and started working her mojo on her own projects. “We began trying to write pop songs to sell, which made us depressed,” she explained, in the third person, “so we started writing songs for ourselves instead.”

Which is why we’re now starting to think — and hope — that she’s taking over the world. Not only did she appear on Mark Ronson’s Version album, but she signed to Downtown Records, where she released her hotter-than-a-stolen-tamale self-titled debut, which she banged out in just eight weeks and released in spring 2008. The buzz on that, meanwhile, is only getting louder. Throw in Bud Light Lime and Zune commercials, plus a Converse deal and a just-announced opening slot on Coldplay’s tour (somehow we couldn’t see M.I.A. — with whom Santo toured — and Chris Martin cooperatively sharing a stage), and it’s becoming abundantly clear why Santi White makes albums, but Santogold — the girl with “gold record” practically built right into her name — sells them.

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If Beyonce Knowles is the type of girl you’d want to have tea with, Solange Knowles is the type of chick you’d wanna do shots with. At least we would. Girl is astute, blunt as a spoon, and totally fearless, daring to take the TRL stage in killer heels only days after breaking her foot. And while she’s just 21, she’s got an Erykah Badu/ old-soul vibe about her, which explains why her “I Decided” single, off her upcoming album, SoL-AngeL and The Hadley Street Dreams, has a retro Motown sound, while the video has more history than an archaeological dig.

Here’s what the solo artist and mom — “My son’s definitely a tour bus baby. He was up on the bus last night at 11 o’clock last night playing hot hands with my band,” Solange said of her son, Daniel — told us about her new moniker, her irresistible new video, and knowing when to say “eff you.”

Buzzworthy: The video is amazing. What inspired the historical theme?

Solange Knowles: I saw the movie Across the Universe, which was inspired by the Beatles, and I loved how they mixed archival footage in with the actual performances of the songs. So I thought it would be cool because I didn’t just want the video to be another glossy R&B-chick, no-message, no-creativity type of video. I just wanted to visually express what the album is like. So I traveled through all the different eras to get to this guy. I wrote the entire treatment from top to bottom, and I co-directed the video with Melina. It was final say, up to me, which was a blessing, because every artist doesn’t get to do that. Thank God it was a decent idea because my label would’ve lost their bonkers if it wasn’t!

Buzzworthy: What was it like working with Cee-Lo?

SK: He is incredible. He’s a genius how he conceptualizes. I was telling him ever since I’ve been divorced and dating how I’m very very skeptical and feel like I will always be in a fragile state. And he was like, ‘Yeah you’re kinda like a sand castle. You don’t wanna be blown away!’ I was like, ‘You smart MF’er!!’ He was really cool. Very fun!

BW: How was working with Mark Ronson?

SK: Mark was great. I met with him the day he won the Grammy. So I was like, ‘I’m not gonna hear from him again!’ But he sent the music, and he’s just really hot right now. And very cool how he takes this old sound and kinda modernizes it. I love that about him!

BW: What made you decide to use the name SoL-Angel?

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Comparisons between Amy Winehouse and 24-year-old Welsh singer-songwriter Duffy go together like Velveeta and shell mac. But Amy Winehouse’s horn-flanked Mark Ronson productions are intentionally post-modern. However, watch Duffy’s “Mercy” video with your eyes closed, and you might actually mistake that voice for Aretha Franklin’s. Open them, and you’ve got a Dusty Springfield dead ringer. We’re hooked.

Watch her brand-new “Mercy” video, and check out an exclusive Buzzworthy clip of Duffy discussing the inspiration behind the video.

We’ve read (admittedly) more than our fair share of Mark Ronson gossip lately — he was bitten by a dog (boo), and he broke up with his girlfriend (um, YAY!?), but worst of all: Pam Anderson wants to hit that?

Now you listen here, Pam. (You too, Winona Ryder. We know how you love the nerdish musician boys). We’ve steadfastly adored Mark for longer than the duration of your last two marriages combined. True, you may look better in an obscenely revealing red bathing suit, but if you so much as lay an acrylic-tipped finger on Marky Mark, we will call upon our resources (Jagged Edge, awesomeness, whoever wins America’s Best Dance Crew and possibly Randy Jackson himself, but that hasn’t been totally confirmed yet) and challenge you to an R&B dance off like the one in the Nivea video below.

Consider yourself warned.

PS: We hear Josiah Leming isn’t too busy these days.

Well, she at least showed up to last night’s 2008 Brit Awards. And at this point, showing up is half the battle. She didn’t walk away with any awards, but she did perform two songs — “Love Is a Losing Game” and “Valerie” — with Mark Ronson, who picked up an award for Best Male Solo Artist (an award second in importance only to the unofficial MTV Buzzworthy Obsession of the Year award), but unfortunately he did not strip on stage to celebrate his win. (Boo!) Instead, he accepted the award by saying “I’ve never felt so British or so male before in my life.”

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Let’s talk about Grammy hair for a second, shall we? Not even Fantasia’s two-tone skunk style concerned us as much as Kelis’ and Mark Ronson’s dueling Little Dutch Boy ‘dos, which suggest that they perhaps patronize the same hair stylist. (Resisting… overwhelming… urge… to make … lame Stevie Wonder joke). Or they’re really into No Country For Old Men. Or this guy.

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(Photo via Dlisted.com)

We know we should be concerned about what may or may not be in Mark Ronson’s right hand, just above the Coke bottle, but really, we don’t. Why? Because Mark Ronson is so hot that we’re not positive if this is an actual photograph of him or if it’s some modern-day reimagining of high Renaissance art created by baby angels or something. And we also don’t care because it’d be too ironic and redundant to be carrying coke AND Coke in the same hand. Anyway, this photo was snapped the other day while he was en route to visit Amy Winehouse (so you never know), but maybe it’s a piece of paper on which he’s written down some more ideas for their joint Chanukkah-Christmas album. Yes? No? Maybe?

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Believe it or not, there’s more than just gin and opiates behind Amy Winehouse (who, according to MTV.uk, is on suicide watch, though Pagesix.com reports that she’s trying to shape up for the Grammys, but only after a major holiday bash/bender). The Dap-Kings, a Brooklyn-based funk-soul collective, are the true unsung heroes of Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black album.

Mark Ronson recruited the Dap-Kings as Amy Winehouse’s studio musicians, and they’re responsible for Back to Black’s lush, brassy 1960s sound. And while the Mark Ronson-Amy Winehouse association may have made more listeners familiar with the Dap-Kings, they’ve been quietly, masterfully putting out Stax-style soul albums with nary a note of mimetic schmaltz for over a decade. (We saw them perform at Mercury Lounge a few years ago, around the release of Dap Dippin’ With Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, and we were surprised that lead singer Sharon Jones — a female James Brown, less the wife-beating stuff — didn’t leave behind a trail of embers in her wake, because the woman is truly a barnburner.)

+ Check out Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings’ brand-new video, “100 Days, 100 Nights,” off the widely heralded album of the same name.

Is Amy Winehouse, who’s been confirmed to perform at the 2007 mtvU Woodie Awards, looking a bit better these days? Of course, she’s set the bar pretty low, so at this point she looks “decent” any time she isn’t bruised and splattered with blood. But check out this shot of her taken last week with the Olsen twins (even though you’re not supposed to call them that anymore or whatever — who cares? Uh… they’re still twins!) at a London launch dinner celebrating their new fashion line The Row. Either despite or because of the Bonnie Raitt-esque piebald white streak… and also probably because of not running around town like a total basehead… she’s looking not half bad!

In other Winehouse-related news… VMA DJ and Buzzworthy obsession Mark Ronson told MTV UK that he’s headed back to the studio in the very near future to work on her third album. Hopefully he won’t leave her new tracks in the “loo.”