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The rumors of De La Soul's death have been greatly exaggerated, but while we wait (and wait, and wait…) for a new album, the legendary hip-hop group's Posdnuos and Trugoy have struck out on their own with a different project. The duo's latest is the conceptual rap group First Serve, a collaboration with French producers 2 & 4. As far as we can tell, it's not about the Australian Open: Instead, the pair are taking their skills old-school, or rather, back to school.

First Serve finds the duo taking on the roles of a pair of seventh-graders, Jacob "Pop Life" Barrow and Deen Whitter, who dream of hip-hop fame. (Don't we all?) They dropped a mixtape under their new identities a month back, but "Pushin' Aside, Pushin' Along" is the first official release from First Serve's upcoming album -- a teaser that's got us cheering on the sidelines already. We must've missed it when it hit the web during the LANA DEL REY INTERNET EXPLOSION, but now that the dust has settled, we're going to be bumping this until Wimbledon. The track's beat rides on a staccato keyboard and a chipmunk-voiced sample -- think Kanye West circa "Gone" -- and the rhymes are as smooth and smart as we've come to expect from the long-lived MCs. "Sorry, Ma, I'm a microphone fiend," Trugoy raps, and it shows. Venus Williams swag.

+ Listen to First Serve's "Pushin' Aside, Pushin' Along."

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Tags De La Soul, First Serve

Over here at MTV, we're all atwitter with excitement for the 2011 mtvU Woodie Awards, happening during Austin's South By Southwest Music Festival on Wednesday, March 16, at midnight (ET/PT)! This year's lineup is hotter than ever, with "Community" star and Woodies host Donald Glover and scheduled performances by Wiz Khalifa, Sleigh Bells and Two Door Cinema Club. We sat down for a little Q&A with three of the hottest 2011 Woodies nominees: Lil B, Chiddy Bang, and Woodies veterans Matt & Kim. This time around, Matt Johnson of Matt & Kim went on the record about getting naked on stage, getting violent in his latest music video, and doing keg stands fit for the whole family.

Q: What were some of your favorite moments and performances from last year's Woodies?
Matt: There were a lot of artists that we knew and liked and respected. I was really excited for Cam'ron and Rick Ross. But I have to say one of the great moments that I saw was my brother... There were kegs backstage, and my brother decided that it was a great idea to do a keg stand. And it just happened to be caught on camera. My parents DVRed the show because I was in Europe when it originally aired, so when I came back for the holidays they played it back for me, pausing right when you see my brother's feet sticking up in the air. They were like, "That is your brother doing a keg stand on television." And I thought, "Oh, man, he is so busted right now!" But it's amazing for an awards show to tape something like that and put it on the air.

Q: You are huge fans of hip-hop and incorporate it into your sets and shows. Would you be open to collaborating with hip-hop artists in the future?
Matt: Definitely! Mike D [of the Beastie Boys] did a remix of "Cameras" for us, and we had De La Soul do original verses on a remix for "Daylight." I’d love to do something original or do a performance with someone I love. I think the Woodies is the perfect place to do that.

Q: If you’re going to collaborate with anyone, it should be Lil' Kim so you could perform as "Lil' Matt & Kim."
Matt: (Laughing) "Matt & Lil' Kim!" That would make my Kim super happy. In the end, all she wants to do is dance anyway. So I think we’ll just put Matt and Lil' Kim together, and [Kim] will be booty shaking on the side.

Q: In interviews, you seem to always be asked about your perpetual smiles. But then in your video for "Cameras," you beat the crap out of each other! Are you going for a new roughneck image?
Matt: We definitely end up getting pinned to the cute category because we enjoy what we do, and Kim’s got to smile, and we’re going to be ourselves. We’re not going to put on that bored face you see so many people wear. It's just so boring. But all the same, we don’t want to make a music video that features swing sets and lollipops. That’s going to make people vomit, including me. We decided if we’re going to be ourselves and we’re going to play upbeat music, it's best to counteract it with lots of fake blood and violence.

Q: If Wiz Khalifa invited you to party backstage in his dressing room at the Woodies, what do you expect would happen?
Matt: Judging by the amount of smoke that wafts around in his music videos, I think it goes without saying -- not that Kim and I would partake in that! But we are huge fans, and I cannot wait to see him perform this year. I feel like his backstage party would be pretty chill, there would be some lounges and couches. And let me tell you, if there is one thing that I like doing better sitting down, it's dancing sitting down.

Q: What advice would you give to this year's first-time Woodies performers?
Matt: Go with everything you got. If you saw our performance last year, we had eight people stripping their clothes off as backup singers! At the Woodies you get a chance to do whatever you want creatively because it's not the same people deciding what you can and can't do, like at the Grammys.

Q: What projects are you working on now?
Matt: We have another music video in the planning stages that we will be shooting in a month. And it will be followed up with some jail time possibly. We're definitely going for "go big or go home."

Tags Beastie Boys, Cam'ron, De La Soul, Grammys, Lil' Kim, Matt And Kim, mtvU-Woodie-Awards, Rick Ross, Wiz Khalifa

UPDATE: The entire show is now available online. What are you waiting for??

Whether you're an old-school head (think Eric B & Rakim, Run DMC, Sugar Hill Gang) a recent convert (think: Eminem, 50 Cent, Weezy) or just a big-time Tracy Morgan fan (Think: "Brian Fellows' Safari Planet"), you're not gonna want to miss tonight's 2008 VH1 Hip Hop Honors.

Here, we've rounded up the best behind-the-scenes dirt, backstage photos and red carpet reportage to get you your most readiest for the big night. Here's a few reasons you'll want to tune in tonight at 10pm:

+ Tracy Morgan's hosting, and he's not afraid to give it up for the most powerful woman in politics: Tina Fey.

+ Gym Class Heroes' Travis McCoy is heading up the backstage interviews, and you won't wanna miss him reminiscing with Busta Rhymes over Slick Rick's jewels.

+ This year's honorees are some of the biggest names in hip-hop: Cypress Hill, De La Soul, Naughty By Nature, Slick Rick and Too $hort. Yahurd?

+ The performances are gonna be HOT. We're talking Kid Rock, Lil Jon, Cee-Lo, Fat Joe, Flavor Flav, Wyclef Jean and much, much more.

+ There's nothing like seeing history in the making. Find out which of this year's moments will join Nelly and Ciara's tribute to LL Cool J as one of the best moments in Hip Hop Honors' history.

+ The guys from Naughty by Nature have so many skillz they can even kick it a cappella. Hip-hop hooray!

+ You'll get to see Gym Class Heroes, Busta Rhymes, De La Soul and Bun B showing off their favorite hip hop moves. (We still say the Running Man's timeless).

+ Even the rehearsals are dope. From the Public Enemy runthrough to Travis McCoy's Cypress Hill tribute, all we can say is BRING IT.

+ And speaking of Cypress Hill, you'll want to hear why they had a police escort in Illinois. Plus find out how De La Soul passes the time when they're on the road.

+ The spontaneous infomercials. Despite his apparent lack of coordination, we're thinking Katy Perry's boyfriend might've missed his calling.

+ It's all about the style. Special shout-outs to Cee-Lo for his shiny, velour spacesuit and Biz Markie's for his 45-pound bling... thing.

PLUS, get even more prepped with videos from some of tonight's top performers and honorees. We've been waiting All Summer Long for such a Vivrant Thing, and now Something's Gotta Give before we Get Low and go Insane in the Brain. So check out hits from Cypress Hill, Naughty By Nature, Busta Rhymes and Lil Jon and try not to go loco. Like we did just there.

Tags 50 Cent, Biz Markie, Busta-Rhymes, Cee Lo, Ciara, Cypress Hill, De La Soul, Eminem, Gym Class Heroes, Lil Wayne, LL Cool J, Naughty By Nature, Nelly, Public Enemy, Slick Rick, Too $hort, Tracey Morgan, Travis McCoy, Vh1 Hip Hop Honors

When the video shoot for Erykah Badu's "Honey" stretched into a nearly 24-hour-long affair, Erykah, ever the detail-minded pro -- and perhaps making up for the long stretch between 2003's Worldwide Underground and her upcoming album, New Amerykah -- stayed on task for every minute of the epic event.

Christopher Robinson, of Robot Films, directed the video; he's also pretty much Alicia Keys' right-hand director man, responsible for "Fallin'," "A Woman's Worth," "Karma" and "You Don't Know My Name" to name a few. "No leisurely pace here," wrote Robot Films president Jeffrey Rhodes of Erykah during the December 2007 shoot. "She was awake, alert and moving at supersonic speeds the whole 22 hours."

And it shows.

Check out the finished product above; the video puts a feminine twist on Outkast's "Hey Ya!" video, shouts out classic hip-hop, funk and soul albums and artists like the Ohio Players, Nas, Eric B. & Rakim and De La Soul, (watch for an Olivia Newton-John send-up too) makes not one but two Beatles refs, and pays tribute to a sadly dying institution: the Mom & Pop record shop.

Tags Alicia Keys, Celebrity, De La Soul, Eric B. & Rakim, Erykah Badu, Music, Nas, Olivia Newton John, Outkast, The Beatles, video, Videos