"I don't think any rationally sane person can look at America's war on drugs and say it's working." Not exactly the words you'd expect coming from a district attorney, but the diligent, ambitious David Soares is not your typical D.A. Since winning the office in New York's Albany County in 2004, the Democratic maverick has been criticized by organizations (the Albany Police Officers Union, for example) for being soft on drugs. Critics point to Soares' crusade against mandatory sentencing drug laws that have disproportionately incarcerated poor people of color. Soares shot back by targeting high-end steroid distributors, implicating a parade of professional athletes in the process. Next up: creating alternative incarceration programs and locking up "the true drug kingpins and violent offenders." Notice has been served.

As part of Disney's aggressively cheery and irrationally popular High School Musical, Corbin Bleu sold around 2 million more records than Beyoncé in 2006 - and even though you might not (yet) know him, your little sister definitely has his ever-smiling mop-topped mug taped inside her locker. "I'm a happy person," says Blue, who is of Italian and Jamaican descent. "I think it might even get on people's nerves sometimes. Why be sad? There's no point." The eternally perky heartthrob has parlayed his unprecedented success into a solo pop album, Another Side (Hollywood) - so it's not just showtunes and jazzhands for this babyface.

For over a decade, TJ Chapman has been breaking Southern rap records - far longer than it's been cool to do so. With his TJ's DJs record pool - and crucially, its website tjsdjs.com, which brings the latest regional hits to a global audience - he's come a long way from his days as a personal manager for Miami bass maestro Beatmaster Clay D. But the father of three still isn't getting much sleep - he co-manages up-and-coming Atlanta rapper B.O.B., who is signed to Atlantic, and he still listens to any song e-mailed his way. "It's a job in and of itself," he says with a heavy sigh. "But you never know what you might find."

VIBE's September 2007 Juice issue was photographed by a group of artists and ingenues in their own right - the New Power Generation, behind the camera. Below, some of the photographers talk about what went on at their respective photo shoots.

When a beaming Jordin Sparks strode onto the stage of American Idol to belt, whimper, and illuminate Shirley Bassey's "I (Who Have Nothing)," the tears in her eyes were real - it was clear a star was being born. The daughter of former NFL cornerback Phillippi Sparks, Jordin was shockingly composed during her run on Idol, but she certainly sounds her age gushing about her tastes in comedy - "Oh my God, I love Ben Stiller in Zoolander!" - or the wonders of Stephen King. ("He just has this way of scaring you into reading!") Now, after ruling the American Idols Live '07 tour, she'll start recording her debut album (due from J Records in November), having nothing no more.

We go to OnSmash first, both for the raucous message boards and for the well-edited, and updated-daily, video selection. "We focus on stuff we feel is being slept on," says Hoffa, the twenty-something New Yorker known as OnSmash's "ringleader" (he has a day job, as do his cohorts - they prefer anonymity for legal reasons). "It gets a co-sign in our community if it's one of the videos we choose." Which means essential rap videos (remember those?) typically before they hit BET, as well as clips from TV appearances, street DVDs - anywhere a rapper is making a statement … or a fool of himself. And OnSmash serves as a hip hop YouTube: the clips are picked up by hundreds of blogs, giving the site impressive reach and clout. Even if they don't capture all that traffic, Hoffa isn't bothered. "We want to be proud of it," he says. "I don't want to do anything based on sheer volume. The day that happens is the day I lost."

She's got dimples as deep as a Chicago pie and a smile that almost distracts us from her flawless figure, but Lauren London is much more than the sum of her parts. "I really wasn't a vixen," says the woman who cut her teeth as a video model when she was only 18. "The girls would go hang out with the rappers, and I'd call my mom to pick me up because I had to go to school in the morning." After her first gig opposite T.I. in ATL (Warner Bros.) and her role as Turtle's love interest on HBO's Entourage, she was offered a part in the upcoming holiday flick This Christmas (Screen Gems) - without an audition. Talk about visions of sugarplums.

Tension in portraits. From our September 2007 Juice issue.