Game And Others Join Jamie Foxx On Tv Special

[SNaKe]

Obviously, Jamie Foxx hasn't forgotten about acting as he fulfills his desire to sing. After all, he's got the summer popcorn flick "Miami Vice" coming out later this year, and for his chart-topping new LP, Unpredictable, he used some of his acting chops while singing.

Foxx smiled when asked about "DJ Play a Love Song," a song from the album about meeting another guy's girlfriend in a club bathroom and being strapped with a Beretta handgun for protection.

"I said, 'I'mma completely be the character in this,' " he said. "When you get into your record, there's parts when you're a character. Even with 'Unpredictable,' I try to play different characters"

Foxx says there's a method to the madness: He wants all the theatrics in his music to translate to the stage. Last month he filmed a special for NBC where Mary J. Blige, Stevie Wonder, Game, Snoop Dogg, Angie Stone and Common came out and rocked the mic with him. The hour-long show is described by Foxx's label as "a musical journey of Jamie's life," incorporating songs from Unpredictable and reaching back to his hometown of Terrell, Texas, where he was raised in the church and became a classically trained pianist.

Foxx said the special is just the beginning: He wants to take his show on the road soon.

"Uh-huh," he said when asked whether he'll be touring. "All of these things, we did this for a reason. When we go out on the road, like we did with the special, all of this becomes a hip-hop/R&B play. It all plays out onstage and those relationships I'm talking about on the record are actually gonna be played out for you onstage. This the first time anybody has ever done this." (No dates for the tour have been announced yet.)

Foxx spilled the beans about some scenarios we'll see on the special, like him and Game playing a mental chess match to win over a female. "We're actually going for the same girl in a sense, so we use that," he said about a portion of the show that highlights "With You," in which Snoop Dogg also appears. "It's me getting the girl, leaving, looking at him, then we play 'DJ Play a Love Song.'

"I tell you, [it was] crazy," he added about the taping of the special. "I invited 3,000 of my friends. The show opens up with my grandmother, and there's this little kid playing on the piano. It morphs into my fingers playing [live] in front of the people. You see my life flashing back, and all the things I'm going through as far as an artist now. I end up at a club."

"Jamie Foxx: Unpredictable" airs January 25 at 9 p.m. on NBC.