A few weeks back, I got a phone call from Kanye West and J. Sakiya Sandifer, who recently published a slim self-help book called Thank You and You're Welcome. My interview with the co-authors turned sour midway through, when I dared to ask Kanye what he thought of Eminem's album. "This is like Andy Kaufman going in, and they're like, 'Do Mighty Mouse!'" the rapper noted. "He's like, 'I don't want to do Mighty Mouse!'" (I think that he was supposed to be Andy Kaufman in that analogy, and I was the inconsiderate audience. Sorry, man, I was on deadline!)

Luckily, Kanye was in a forgiving mood. "I don't get offended anymore, actually," he said. "How did you like the book? I mean, it's like a 15-minute read." At this point, it emerged that I did not, in fact, possess a copy of Thank You and You're Welcome. So we all agreed to schedule another interview for the following week, by which time I would have been able to read the book. Their publisher sent over a copy; I read it cover to cover and drafted what I thought was a list of interesting questions. But when the co-authors called me for our second interview, things only got stranger. What follows after the jump is my testiest exchange with West and Sandifer — most of which did not make it into the printed version of our Q&A.

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Take it from Trent Reznor: Nine Inch Nails’ summer tour with Jane’s Addiction "just got that much cooler." Bear in mind that this is a tour whose acronym spells NIN/JA, so it was pretty cool to begin with. Anyway, the reason Trent’s so extra revved up right now is that they’ve just added Street Sweeper, the new project from Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello and The Coup‘s Boots Riley, as an opening act. Apparently, this little radical superduo has been kicking around for a while already, but this is the first I’ve heard of it, and I’ve gotta agree with Trent. Morello and Riley are a match made in protest-music heaven.

Street Sweeper’s subtly titled song "Fight! Smash! Win!" (currently streaming over at their site) suggests that their sound tends more toward the funk-rap-metal Rage template than the mellow Guthrie-ite Nightwatchman side of Morello’s music. Riley’s revolutionary lyrics are on point as always. Sounds like these guys could have some great work in store. Anybody else looking forward to hearing what else Street Sweeper is cooking up?

More on Tom Morello and Boots Riley:
Tom Morello’s top five protest songs
Morello’s last album, The Fabled City, got an A– review
So did the Coup’s Pick a Bigger Weapon

For fans of the Clipse, the Virginia rap duo’s upcoming third album, Till the Casket Drops, is a big deal, indeed. So it was with great pleasure that I ventured out tonight to hear the album’s first teaser single, the appropriately titled "Kinda Like a Big Deal," which features a guest spot from Kanye West and should be released for public consumption on March 9. Super-instant react: It’s dope. The song finds the Thornton brothers in a far more upbeat mood than 2006′s supremely bitter Hell Hath No Fury – it just might be their first bona fide party track in years.

That vibe starts with the beat, a burner courtesy of DJ Khalil that opens with a blazing electric guitar lick before falling into a wicked sampled organ, guitar, and drum groove. Pusha T leads off with some vintage braggadocio: "The third time’s the charm/After two classics, another stripe upon my arm." Pusha also finds time to crow about "how it feel to blow a hundred thou in a recession/With no second-guessing." Recession rap this ain’t. Next up is Kanye, who delivers a swaggering verse that will remind listeners of how great he is when he actually raps. If Kanye’s lyrics comparing himself to "the black Marshall, mixed with Jay" are any hint, maybe he’s planning to get back to rapping full-time soon, lord willing. (Trivia note: I’m pretty sure I recognized a couple of Kanye’s punchlines, like the one mentioning "alligator souffle," from a verse Yeezy spit on an early version of T.I.’s "On Top of the World" that I heard last year.) Pusha’s brother Malice follows with a sick verse of his own. Clever lyrics (of course), a tight beat, and a Kanye cameo: All in all, this single should make for a strong reintroduction for the Clipse.

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