Say What! — Jay-Z Says ‘I Was a Horrible Performer’ + More

Jay-Z recently spoke with the Los Angeles Times about his early days as a performer, before he was the highest grossing rapper in the game. "All my early years? Forget it. I was a horrible performer," said Hov. "DMX tore me to pieces. I remember being stunned...He had me really working, but I had to figure this out. If you want to be a headliner, you better put on a headline show." Word. [LATimes]

The music biz's great Canadian hope, Justin Bieber, is down with rap. "I like hop-hop a lot. I'm really glad they've taken a liking to me," he told MTV. "Having Luda [on my song 'Baby'] and having Lil Wayne give me shout me out on UStream and, like, you know - it's cool." He then threw a little jab at his fellow pop stars, many of whom, like Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers and Justin Timberlake, came up through slightly less thorough channels. "I think it's because I didn't go through the Disney route," he noted. "I didn't go corny, but, like, at the same time I've been cool and collected." Shots fired? Nah. [MTV]