We caught up with Big Boi again as he had finished filming for tomorrow night's "Wildlife" episode for NBC's Law & Order Special Victim's Unit. The versatile rapper/producer/actor took a few minutes to answer some questions for Blender (see him above scrutinizing our list, perhaps).

Without giving anything away can you tell us about your role on the upcoming episode of Law & Order? 

I play this musician “Gots Money” who’s part of an exotic animal smuggling ring, and I help SVU  to expose the corrupt animal smugglers who are trafficking illegal animals

Might you be appearing on L&O again in the future?

Hopefully more in the future, it was a positive experience and the cast was amazing.  I’d love to expand my type of roles even more to allow people to see me in different lights, so If its right fit I’d consider it.

What spots (restaurants/stores/etc) do you like to hit when you come up to New York (where Law & Order is shot)?

I’m southern, so anything that’s country fried in NYC I’m there, Virgil’s, Dinosaur BBQ, all of that!

How’s Sir Luscious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty coming along?

The record is basically done just doing some final tunings on the record since it drops top of next year, I’m just planning on giving everyone that  funk pop grime hip hop that everyone loves from Big Boi. Best believe that.

In September you freestyled about the Recession for Blender. Could you do a quick one about the election of Obama?

If you check out my song “Something’s Gotta Give” Mary J has an amazing line where she goes “I know you feel my pain, and the only hope I have that help me deal with the drama, is that maybe in November I'll be cheering for Obama.”

This summer, Gavin Rossdale cracked the Top 40 for the first time since 1995—when he fronted the British grunge band Bush—with the ballad “Love Remains the Same,” from his first solo album, Wanderlust. It’s also been a good year for Rossdale personally: He and wife Gwen Stefani of No Doubt had their second son, Zuma Nesta Rock Rossdale, in August. Blender.com recently caught up with Rossdale to discuss his big solo hit, his Hollywood career and what he’s heard of the new No Doubt album.

Since “Love Remains the Same” appeared in the Nights in Rodanthe trailer have you found more middle-aged housewives showing up at your gigs?

Getting some plus-sized underwear thrown at me, is that what you mean? I think it’s more than just that trailer. Before Nights in Rodanthe, the song was on Hot AC [adult contemporary]. That definitely creates a whole different thing: “Wow, I haven’t seen some of these people here before.” The song’s been out since June, and it doesn’t show any sign of slowing up. It became one of the songs of the summer. That’s an interesting feeling, because I’d sort of gotten used to being slightly more obscure.

So you were competing with the Leona Lewises and the Rihannas for song of the summer?

That would be a quick race. I’m sure they’d win it, so I wouldn’t try to compete with them. Maybe I’d win a running race against them, though.

I bet you could outrun them. So on this album you worked with Bob Rock, who has produced Metallica. Were you easier to work with than Metallica?

I worked longer hours, that’s for sure. And no therapy sessions. But every morning when I’d come in, Bob would be like, “How are you doing?” And I’d say, “I’m doing fine.” And he’d say, “No, really, how are you doing? Are you OK?” “Yes, I’m fine, Bob, leave me alone.” After two years of therapy with Metallica, he couldn’t help it.

You’ve been in some movies over the years, including Constantine and last year’s How To Rob a Bank. Why do you always end up playing the bad guy?

Probably because that’s how I’m seen. Probably because I’ve got the British accent. I usually get killed as well, so I’m usually dead and bad, or bad and then dead. So yeah, I’ve got to try and break out against the typecasting. But it’s pretty good fun. Problem is, whenever I do films, all the gaffers and the electricians are like, “Hey, where’s the record, man? What are you doing?” And I feel like a geek—I’m in a suit or something with a blown-off face.

What kind of scripts do you get now?

Not bad things. But the problem is, the better the scripts, the less chance of me getting it. There’s always 10 really fantastic A-list actors. I did read for the De Niro film, The Good Shepherd, with Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie. I did like six auditions for the part that Billy Crudup ended up playing. I was reading when they had Leo [DiCaprio] playing the lead, and then they switched to Matt Damon. If the lead actor changes, it clearly changes the entire casting. So I blame it on the casting [switch]—that’s what I like to think. I was disappointed. I just wanted to work with De Niro because he’s so brilliant.

When I Googled your name earlier, one of the first things to come up was pictures of you and Gwen and your son Kingston going to Bed Bath & Beyond. What’s the greatest length you’ve gone to avoid the paparazzi?

It’s impossible. It’s taking the mystique away—it’s really fucked it up. I do not want to see the Beatles coming out of Subway, you know what I mean? What a cack thing. “What’s he up to?” “Oh, he’s shopping at Bed Bath & Beyond.” It’s so lame. But it’s part of the fucking landscape.

So what’s it like being 50 percent of one of the most beautiful couples in the world?

I have no idea, I’ll ask one of those couples the next time I see them.

But you and Gwen are always rated as a highly attractive couple.

I think that this whole tabloid thing is so harsh on music. Even when I was getting killed in the music press, I preferred that to the tabloid world. These are such depressed times, of course I understand why those magazines exist. But I miss that mystery, don’t you? Bed Bath & Beyond, however you slice it, isn’t that cool.

No Doubt are supposed to put out an album next year. Have you heard any of the new material?

Just the odd ska beat. But I don’t know what it’s going to be like.

What are the chances of Bush reforming?

Quite high. Wanderlust was going to be a Bush record for about two or three months. And then the guitar player, Nigel [Pulsford], who originally was the one who didn’t want to tour anymore, suddenly didn’t want to leave his family. I understand. I think he felt that he missed his daughter growing up the first few years. It would have been a great year for Bush; it would have been a really good return. No one stole anyone’s motorbike or wife, so it’s always possible.

Here at Blender HQ we'll use any excuse to bust out our old Topsiders and Nantucket Reds, so it was with great joy that we skipped down to the wharf to meet up with Manchester UK electro-rockers The Whip to spend an afternoon of boating and catching up during their recent visit for the CMJ Music Marathon.

Watch our interview with The Whip below.

Blender: We’re at a barbecue and Feed The Animals comes on the stereo. What happens?
Girl Talk: People stop grilling and start taking off their shirts and throwing them in the air, or just start eating really fast. The album’s intense.

B: What’s the most painful place you’ve ever been sunburned?
GT: My lips. I was in Australia in the summer; I tried to go surfing, and I was putting sunblock on once an hour, but it wasn’t enough – my lips actually burned, hurt for days.

B: We’re at the ice cream truck – what are you licking?
GT: I’m midway into housing a banana split. I’ll probably have hot fudge sundae stuff all over my moustache area and I’m not really licking but just chomping on a banana. I don’t eat ice cream that often, but when it’s game time, I get serious.

B: Ever get lucky in a Jacuzzi?
GT: I’ve been with my girlfriend in a Jacuzzi all alone and it did not work out for us. When we get in a Jacuzzi we’re more about endurance. How long can we maximize this situation, as opposed to, you know, having sex and leaving. 

B: What sport would you like to see added to the Summer Olympics?
GT: Maybe an endurance competition of how long you could stay in a Jacuzzi. You’d be in there and you’d be fed one beer every half-hour. You’re allowed to pee in the Jacuzzi and then it’s just, How long can you last? I’ve crossed the two-hour-mark myself.

B: Have you ever peed in a public pool? 
GT: Yes, almost all the time. If there’s some fun stuff going on, or if there’s a line for the bathroom or anything like that, it just goes down. I honestly just don’t even think about it.

B: Would you rather see Obama or McCain in a Speedo?
GT: Barack would be great to see in a Speedo.  He looks like he probably does a few pushups every day. I wouldn’t mind checking that out.

Feed The Animals is available for download at illegalart.net

"I feel like it would be good for me to create another thing, another band basically," Mercer says. "It would be with other people, I just don't know who yet." The singer adds that he's been busy writing songs for his yet-to-be-determined band mates to record with him.

As for new Shins material, Mercer isn't sure yet whether the band's next album will be on Sub Pop Records, the label that released the first three Shins LPs. "We really enjoy working with them, so it'd be something that we'd love to do if it ends up being our best option," he says.

 For more from Mercer, read Blender's new Sub Pop oral history.

T-Pain on writer's block ...

Blender: You come out with songs and hooks non-stop, do you ever suffer from writer's block?
T-Pain: Nah, I don't usually write. When you try to make it all clever and shit you get stuck. You say the most clever things when you don't think about it.

On strippers ...

B: You write a lot of songs about strippers but it seems like you really want to help them out instead of just gawk at them ...
T: I do. I've been to a lot of strip clubs and I've heard a lot of life stories. It's saddening. This one girl showed me a bunch of pictures of her kids and told me how she really wanted to be with them but she couldn't because she can only strip out of town because everyone in her city knows her.

B: How do you get to the point with a stripper where they start to open up to you like that?
T: When you tell 'em you don't really want a dance they're like, What's wrong with you?! And I'll say, I'm tired. And they're like, You think you're tired — check this out. They start pullin' out cell phones and pictures and stuff. It gets pretty stupid.

B: Do you ever wish you never started talking to them in the first place?
T: Nah, it's actually interesting to me. I can get more songs like that, too.

B: You're like a journalist.
T: Yeah, exactly.

B: I saw you showing off your fingerstache on BET recently. Is that catching on within the hip-hop community? Is Lil Wayne getting a fingerstache now?
T: No! I don't think anybody else is going to do that. Birdman laughs at me every time he sees it, he just thinks it's incredibly stupid. It hurt like crap, but it's so worth it. Actually, it's gone now because tattoos only go seven skin layers deep and the skin in between your fingers is constantly chipping away. It's kinda hard to keep a tatto on your hands.

B: So you wouldn't try to get the fingerstache redone?
T: Nope, that was it.

On PMS ...

B: You're known for touching on sensitive subject matter in your songs, any controversial new tracks?
T: I got a song called "One of These" about girls when they get their periods and they kinda switch up on you. It's pretty bad.

B: What's the worst experience you've had with that sort of thing?
T: I got kicked out of a bed. I didn't know what was going on. I didn't do anything. There was a lot of crying — I don't know what happened.

B: Have you ever been hit by a woman?
T: Nah, never got hit, trust me.

On food ...

B: What do you eat while recording?
T: Right now I'm on a diet so I let my bodyguard pick stuff.

B: So, like, salads?
T: [incredulous] Not so much salads. Gotta be some kind of meat and hot. I don't do cold.

B: Sandwiches?
T: Yeah, salmon or some kind of crazily cooked chicken.

On getting his chain stolen ...

B: Any story songs on the new record?
T: There's one called "Havoc." It's a true story about when I got my chain snatched in New York the night before my first album dropped. Somebody snuck a gun in the club and stuck it in my stomach, but I wasn't going to give my chain up — it was my first chain. He pushed me back and as I was fallin' he snatched the chain and ran out the club. It was pretty weird. It's such an in-depth story, it's like a 5 minute song.

B: Did you find the chain on eBay?
T: Nah. We found it, though. He stole it to sell back to me ... but I didn't buy it back.

B: Is that guy still alive?
T: [ominously] No, he's not alive.

During SXSW, baby-faced Cali rockers Drive A torched the stage at our Blender party, spewing out classic rock riffs while clad in plenty of black leather. In this interview the group talk about the lyrical genius of Buckcherry (!) and reveal their marching-band roots (!!).

Paula Abdul is nuts, but we love her. In this exclusive Blender.com interview, she gives away some Simon Cowell secrets (kinda) and tells us the one song that makes her dance more than any other. You'll never guess what it is ...