Archive: October 2010 (1-10 of 120)

Oct 29 2010 04:48 PM ET

Lil Wayne headed 'straight to the studio' after leaving prison, says label head

Filed under: Music, News and tagged: , ,

lil-wayne-babyImage Credit: Arnold Turner/WireImage.comLil Wayne is expected to finish his Rikers Island sentence next Thursday, Nov. 4. That very day, the rap megastar will likely make a bee-line for one of his favorite places on Earth: the recording studio.

“Me knowing Wayne, he’s going into the studio,” Cash Money label head Baby (a.k.a. Birdman) tells the Music Mix. “He hasn’t been able to rap for months. I think after seeing the family, popping a few bottles, it’s back to basics. Family first, that’s what we believe in, that’s what we’re loyal to. After that, I think the same day he comes home, he’s going to go straight to the studio.”

Wayne’s first priority when he enters the booth for the first time since March will be working on his long-promised project Tha Carter IV. Baby expects that album to arrive in the first quarter of 2011, though no release plans have been finalized.

Baby is also looking forward to working with Wayne on a sequel to Like Father, Like Son, the collaborative album that the mentor and protégé released in 2006. “We’re planning on putting that out Father’s Day weekend,” he says. So what should fans expect to hear next June? “Just me and Wayne being us, the father-son thing. [We're] bringing that Cash Money/Young Money sound, that traditional hard-body rap, the music that we do together — that gangsta s—, straight up.”

The next year is shaping up to be a busy one for the label. Along with Tha Carter IV and Like Father, Like Son 2, Baby anticipates new releases from Cash Money/Young Money artists including himself, Drake, Jay Sean, Bow Wow, DJ Khaled, Tyga, Lil Twist, and more. Drake’s sophomore full-length will likely drop next summer. “He’s in the lab right now,” says Baby. “You never know with Drizzy — [the album will be done] whenever he’s ready.”

(Follow The Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)

More on the Music Mix:
Lil Wayne sends fans a letter from solitary confinement
President Barack Obama listens to Miles Davis, the Rolling Stones, and Lil Wayne

Oct 29 2010 04:23 PM ET

Jason Aldean talks Kelly Clarkson duet (listen!) and rapping on his new album

Filed under: Music and tagged: , ,

jason-aldean-clarksonCountry singer Jason Aldean’s fourth studio album, My Kinda Party, doesn’t drop until Nov. 2, but you can hear what could be its second single, a power ballad duet with Kelly Clarkson called “Don’t You Want to Stay,” on EW.com today. Listen to the full track below. Rumor has it Aldean and Clarkson will perform the song at Nov. 10′s 44th Annual CMA Awards on ABC. We asked Aldean about it when he phoned us this afternoon, and all we got out of him was a coy “maybe….” (Update: The Country Music Association has now confirmed the duet will happen.) Aldean did say he’s loved Clarkson’s voice ever since he watched her win American Idol. He’d never met her before, even though she’s no stranger to Nashville. (She’s dueted with Reba McEntire, with whom she filmed an episode of the concert series CMT Crossroads, and she surprised the audience at the 2006 ACM Awards by joining Rascal Flatts onstage to sing their hit “What Hurts the Most.”) ”When I was listening to this song, it was a pretty short list of who I thought could pull it off and who I wanted, and she was on top of it. We went in to cut her stuff, and I come into the studio with my wife and my two girls,” he recalls, laughing. “She’s a sweetheart. She wasn’t a pop star who was there to handle her business and leave. She was very cool, very personable, and very grateful that we had thought of her to do the song.” READ FULL STORY »

Oct 29 2010 02:29 PM ET

YouTube delights: Five singer-songwriters you should get to know

Before Justin Bieber was the Justin Bieber, he was just kidrauhl, a boy singing to his computer from home. Before Greyson Chance was Ellen’s personal popstar, he was just greyson97. Indeed, more aspiring young musicians are turning to YouTube these days in order to find audiences for their music. After all, why should you play cheesy covers at your high school’s unattended open mic night when you could play cheesy covers to an online audience that will actually listen? Millions of people use YouTube every day, and many users (including yours truly) have found the website to be a treasure trove of great independent musicians. Though some of these singers possess gargantuan online fanbases, they often don’t get the media recognition that smaller, studio-supported artists might receive. Let’s change that!  After the jump, check out five singer-songwriters who have made their mark on the web in the last year. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 28 2010 06:15 PM ET

Robyn's NSFW 'Indestructible' video: Watch it here!

Does Robyn ever quit? It surely doesn’t seem that way, with the amount of music and videos she manages to churn out—and quickly! The electro-fied Swedish minx, who’s prepping her third album release of the year with Body Talk on Nov. 22 (after Body Talk Pt. 1 and Body Talk Pt. 2 dropped this calendar year), just put out the Not Suitable For Work video for her sythy and sexy “Indestructible.” There’s lots of sex! None of the sexytime portions include Robyn—two other beautiful people get those honors—but the songstress does show up throughout wearing some super-cool tubes with colorful water flowing through them. It’s hard to explain, maybe a little trippy. Just watch here:

READ FULL STORY »

Oct 28 2010 06:00 PM ET

Katy Perry, 'Firework': Watch sparks fly in her new video

Filed under: Music and tagged: , , ,

Katy Perry’s cups really do runneth over. You need pie topping? Done. PG-13 playtime for Elmo? Done. Fourth of July sparklers? Done (despite most indoor fire-safety standards, apparently).

But this time, her overachieving boobs are enlisted for a cause: boosting the self-worth of young people (gay, sick, not-skinny) who feel marginalized by the world’s narrowly-applied standards of beauty and sexuality.

And if you’re keeping track, her “Firework”clip, posted below, now constitutes the third entry this month for an unofficial It Gets Better theme song by a major 2010 pop star (see also: Pink’s “Raise Your Glass,” Ke$ha’s “We R Who We R”). READ FULL STORY »

Oct 28 2010 04:03 PM ET

Lady Antebellum, 'Hello World': Watch the new video here

Filed under: Music and tagged: , ,

Lady Antebellum see dead people in the new clip for their “Hello World,” premiered very early this morning on ABC’s Music Lounge.

Unlike The Sixth Sense‘s unfortunate lady bicyclist, however, this traffic accident ends on a more uplifting note. Watch it here: READ FULL STORY »

Oct 28 2010 12:03 PM ET

Far East Movement lands at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100 chart for second straight week

Filed under: News and tagged: , , , ,

Far East Movement’s plane still soars at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Their “Like a G6″ tops the chart for the second week in a row. Bruno Mar’s “Just the Way You Are” holds at No. 2, while Rihanna moves up a spot to No. 3 with “Only Girl (In The World)”, switching places with Nelly’s No. 4 “Just A Dream.” “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love” from Usher stays at No. 5.

Trey Songz rises four places to No. 6 with “Bottoms Up.” It’s the highest he’s ranked in his career. Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream,” Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite,” and Flo Rida’s “Club Can’t Handle Me” all sit tight at No. 7, No. 8, and No. 9. while Pink’s “Raise Your Glass” moves up one place and rounds out the top 10 at No. 10.

What do you think of this week’s singles chart? Surprised at how well Trey Songz is doing? Happy Pink’s new single is cruising up? Let us know.

(Follow The Music Mix on Twitter:@EWMusicMix.)

More on the Music Mix:
Kid Rock on Steven Tyler’s ‘American Idol’ judgeship: ‘I think it’s the stupidest thing he’s ever done’
Sugarland leads this week’s Billboard 200 albums chart
Taylor Swift’s ‘Speak Now’ on track for year’s biggest sales week
Kanye West and Jay-Z are making a full album together

Oct 28 2010 11:30 AM ET

Tony Bennett at the World Series: God bless him!

Filed under: Music and tagged: ,

Tony-BennettImage Credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty ImagesTony Bennett, 84, absolutely nailed his a cappella performance of God Bless America last night at game one of the World Series in San Francisco. (Check out the clip below.)

Let me just restate part of that last sentence in case you missed it: Tony Bennett, EIGHTY FOUR. The guy was born before the Great Depression, and he still hits that high note at the end with the lung power of singers half his age. Add to that the fact that when Bennett sings about loving America, he brings some weight to the words: The singer was born to Italian immigrants in Queens and saw action in Europe during World War II. (He also, according to historical documentation, misplaced a vital circulatory organ in the Bay Area back in the 60s.)

So we say, God bless Tony Bennett — and America, his home sweet home. Anyone else agree? READ FULL STORY »

Oct 27 2010 06:13 PM ET

Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: Have we heard it all already?

Kanye-WestImage Credit: George Napolitano/FilmMagic.comEarlier this week, Kanye West‘s forthcoming fifth album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, became available for iTunes presale. Along with that came the unveiling of the album’s track listing. Officially released singles like the defiant “Power” and self deprecating “Runaway” are there. And several songs released through West’s free weekly G.O.O.D. Friday series like the Nicki Minaj-assisted “Monster” and “So Apalled,” which features Jay-Z, also made the cut. Not to mention “Devil in a New Dress” and “See Me Now” with Beyoncé–which he dropped rough versions of this summer. And then on Saturday in his culture-clashing short movie, Runaway, Kanye debuted huge chunks of “Dark Fantasy,” “Gorgeous,” “All of the Lights,” “Hell of a Life,” “Blame Game,” and “Lost in the World.” Add all of those up and that’s the entire album.

Bummed out there won’t be any “new” tracks or surprises when you unwrap the packaging come November 22? You shouldn’t be. For one thing, Kanye’s only given us two whole finished tracks that we can probably expect to remain as they are on the album: “Power” and “Runaway.” The cuts featured on Runaway function more so as abbreviated songs to score the movie. We never even heard him rap on “Blame Game”–just John Legend’s crooning over keys. As for the G.O.O.D. Friday gems, Kanye laughed at the idea that those were finished when he leaked them in an interview with MTV after the movie’s premier. “Even though the track listing [is out],” he started, “People, they think that they’ve heard these songs. No, the have not heard these songs.”

And let’s not forget that Kanye is known for adding songs and creating new mixes of tracks at the 25th hour. When his debut album, The College Dropout, was almost entirely leaked by hackers early in 2004, he went back in the studio to best the bootleggers and thirsty bloggers, adding new instruments and drum patterns to it before it had to be submitted to his record label. And just as Graduation, his third album, was due in the summer of 2007 he cranked out “Flashing Lights.” So who’s to say that what we’ve heard is it?

As they do with all pre-ordered albums, iTunes warns on Kanye’s that “the pre-order contents listed here are subject to change without notice and the final product received may differ.” In this case, I expect exactly that.

Do you feel like Kanye spoiled the album for you? Or do expect a couple a new nuggets in your Fantasy meal? Let us know in the comments section.

(Follow The Music Mix on Twitter:@EWMusicMix.)

More on the Music Mix:
Kid Rock on Steven Tyler’s ‘American Idol’ judgeship: ‘I think it’s the stupidest thing he’s ever done’
Sugarland leads this week’s Billboard 200 albums chart
Taylor Swift’s ‘Speak Now’ on track for year’s biggest sales week
Kanye West and Jay-Z are making a full album together

Oct 27 2010 04:42 PM ET

Leighton Meester sings a country ballad for upcoming film; hear it here

Leighton-MeesterImage Credit: PRN/PR PhotosCobra Starship made a good Gossip Girl go bad, and now a Gwyneth Paltrow movie has made her go country.

MTV reports that actress and occasional pop star Leighton Meester has recorded the twangy downtempo ballad “Words I Couldn’t Say” for the upcoming Country Strong (due in theaters December 22), in which she appears as a bright-eyed ingenue alongside Paltrow’s alcoholic, downward-sloping Nashville star. Stream it after the jump:

READ FULL STORY »

Advertisement

TV Recaps

Powered by WordPress.com VIP