Rock Shots

Most of us want to be musicians, turns out, musicians want to be us. we invited a few into our studios and let them go wild

Take equal parts sex and Rock and Roll and add a dash of your Recreational Intoxicant of choice. Now shake it, baby, shake it. Oh, and garnish with a camera. That's the recipe for a rock shot. We grew weary of the predictable photo shoots of hip-hoppers and hard-core tuffs that other magazines run-cross your arms, make a hand gesture, glower. Click. So instead of shooting ghetto glam shots of the stars, we shuffled them into a studio along with some girls with serious depth of field and invited them to take some pictures. At the beginning of each shoot, our guest photographers--Nelly, Ja Rule, Korn's Jonathan Davis, DMX and Xzib-it--were surprisingly shy. Fortunately, they all took advice gracefully. (Like, do you think you want to ask her to take her thong off?) Once things got rolling, the perfectionism that got each to the top of the music game came into play. The hardest part for us? Trying to quell rivalries. Each star wanted to know how he stacked up against the rest. Each wanted to be sure he was the best because they all wanted to be asked back.

It's not particularly hot in our studio, but Nelly still suggested that Miss January 2002, Nicole Narain, take off all her clothes. Of course, once she did, it began to sizzle. "I think his favorite shots were of me turning around,'' says Nicole. "He's a butt guy. I'd turn around and show him a little ass and he was like, 'Hey, all right, now we're talking.' '' Yeah, well, he's a guy who knows where the party's at, as one of the hits on his nine-times-platinum debut, Country Grammar, makes clear. And this guy is no Sisqo--his follow-up, Nellyville, spawned two top 10 songs simultaneously and continues to sell bucketloads. In fact, Nelly changed the hip-hop map. By putting St. Louis on it, he disrupted the distinctions between East Coast, West Coast and dirty South. Still, his favorite spot may well prove to be the Playboy Mansion. Nelly says he's ready to help us out again. "Anytime, anyplace--let me know,'' says Nelly. "And if you don't ask me again, I'm going to be mad. I might call your ass.''

Ja Rule laid down the law when he got behind the camera. He wanted two girls, and he wanted them to be game for his bold artistic vision. Ja's rule number one? Start the party right. Sure, he had a camera in one hand. In the other he switched between a flute of champagne and a smoke. "I like the playful shit,'' Ja Rule said by way of a pep talk for Miss June 2002, Michele Rogers (who is brunette), and Miss May 2002, Christi Shake (who is blonde). "Come on, give it to me now. Whenever you see this camera start blasting, just work.'' That was a clever--and effective--tactic, as it turned out. Just look at these photos. No wonder he had such fun. Even a guy with three platinum records and movie roles in Crime Partners, Half Past Dead and The Fast and the Furious was impressed with a day spent in our shoes. "Could I be Playboy's personal rapper?'' he asked. "Birthday parties, bar mitzvahs--whatever y'all need.''

Jonathan Davis sings in the hardcore behemoth Korn. The band redefined the term family values with their tour of the same name--and they discovered Limp Bizkit. As if that weren't enough, the band's albums Follow the Leader and Issues both debuted at number one on the charts. (Their latest, Untouchables, sold just as quickly as the others but had the misfortune of debuting while Eminem was hogging the number one slot.) Sure enough, when Davis followed us into the studio, he had issues. His fiancée had given the ixnay to Jonathan's shooting a Playmate. Luckily, she's porn star Deven Davis, and she volunteered to be his model. Those of you who have studied Perfect Pink in Paris know why Jonathan's ball and chain was more than welcome in our studio. Together, they assembled a particularly intimate portfolio. We're a bit worried, though, about their steamy romance--their kids would be children of the Korn.

When we let DMX try his hand at our job for a day, we held high hopes. And not because he's a creative multitalent with successful careers in hip-hop and Hollywood. Nope. We were excited because he's the guy who named an album And Then There Was X. It's a philosophy we rate high. And DMX didn't let us down. In fact, there were moments when we thought he was ready to declare, And Then There Was XXX. "How could anyone not love this?'' he asked as he crossed his arms in an X to show our Special Editions model Heather McQuaid just how he wanted her legs. We assume it was a rhetorical question--we all love it. Like everybody else, we have days when we wake up hungover, cranky and unable to sing the praises of public transportation. And even though we will never star opposite Jet Li--as DMX has done twice, in Romeo Must Die and Cradle 2 the Grave--our moods brighten when we walk into the office to find women lined up in the lobby to pose for test shots, happily removing their tight tops and begging us to take more Polaroids of them--from behind.

Xzibit pulled up to the studio in his silver Escalade and surveyed the situation. April 2002 Cyber Girl of the Month Carolee Bass was standing there in a red mesh top and a buns-hugging denim skirt. The cameras were loaded and the lighting was just right. You could tell he understood how special the task was. "You know what the word of the day is?'' he asked. "Hef.'' His gratitude was matched only by his tireless professionalism--Xzibit stayed for four hours and shot more than a dozen rolls of film. During that time his metamorphosis was completed. He went from nervous neophyte to fastidious artiste, climbing up ladders, adjusting the lighting, directing his model. "I'm not your run-of-the-mill photographer, man,'' he said after about three hours of shooting. "I have vision. It's all about translating emotion onto film, permanently catching that so I can display it for the millions of people who enjoy reading Playboy. I'm no joke, brother.'' We settled onto the couch with a bone-dry martini, waiting for his enthusiasm to flag. Hours later, it wasn't even at half-mast.

See Sexy and Nude Behind-the-Scenes Video at Cyber.Playboy.Com.