Foxy Brown Planning Comeback With Help From Jay-Z, Shyne

[Gotti......Xl]

Foxy Brown Planning Comeback With Help From Jay-Z, Shyne


If you saw Jay-Z's "Fade to Black" over the weekend, or were lucky enough to cop tickets to his "farewell" concert at Madison Square Garden last November, then you saw the show that not only spurred a reunion for him and R. Kelly, but the historic show that instigated Hov and Foxy Brown to start rolling like Bonnie and Clyde again.

"I think that sparked the whole, 'Oh my God, they love us,' " Foxy said during a recent mixtape shopping spree in New York. " 'Cause we didn't [do anything together] for a couple of years, it was so unexpected. He kept saying, 'I got Kells coming out, I got Beyoncé,' they never expected Foxy. I tell you, I never saw 30,000 mutha----as roar like that in my life."

If you ask Foxy, she'll tell you she's signed to Jay's S. Carter Records and that together, she and the Jiggaman will be unstoppable in 2005. (Jay says nothing is solidified on the business end.) "It's '96 again," she boasted, referring to the year she and Jay dropped their first albums.

"This is a rebuilding process for me," she continued. "The streets are begging for me to come back. They gotta listen to these bullsh-- female artists right now. They just gotta settle right now, and I don't think hip-hop should have to settle. They had a great teacher, but mommy's home right now. When I come back, it's a problem. I'm so back. I'm knocking out five joints a night — I'm a complete beast right now."

Foxy said ever since she left Def Jam last year in the wake of what she called mishandling of her never released Ill Nana 2: The Fever (see "Foxy Brown Claims She's Misunderstood, Collaborates With Lauryn Hill On New LP"), she's been wooed by everyone from 50 Cent to Shyne to Jay-Z.

"I sat down with every [label] president. They are like, 'Boogie, what do you need? You know how to make a hit record.' That's the bottom line. We been doing that since '95. It's a formula. You know me, I thrive off of controversy. I thrive off n---as talking. I get a kick out of that. Whatever I make has to be so serious, it has to be ridiculous. I gotta shake New York up."

And to do so, Foxy has a new album mapped out. She plans on calling it Black Roses and has guest appearances lined up from Luther Vandross, Dido, Jay-Z, Mos Def and Shyne.

"My best friend Barrington Levy has a song called 'Black Roses,' " she explained. "He's been traveling all over the world and never seen a black rose in no other garden. When he found his black rose, he knew that sh-- was special. Y'all n---as can have all the female rappers in the world, but there's only one black rose. I feel that's me.

"I make my best records in pain," she added. "When I'm happy, you're getting the party joints. When I'm bleeding, you're getting the 'Open Book,' the 'Broken Silence.' You're getting the real grimy dark records. The Black Roses album, when I tell you it's a monster, Black Roses is a problem. Luther sings 'The Letter' over. Me and Dido are crying like, 'Give me one more chance, one more kiss.' I got Barrington Levy, Hov, Mos Def. I'm bleeding on this album. I do the reggae sh-- on this album. I'm bleeding, it's crazy."

There is still no release date for Foxy's project.

Credit: Shaheem Reid for MTV News
Photo: Def Jam