Archive: October 2011 (81-90 of 123)

Oct 12 2011 10:20 AM ET

Chris Brown, Busta Rhymes, and Lil Wayne win big at the BET Hip Hop Awards 2011

Busta-Rhymes-BET

Image Credit: Chris McKay/Getty Images

It was another big year for Chris Brown at the BET Hip Hop Awards. Only this time around, the rapper/singer wasn’t in attendance — though he tweeted a thank you message.

Brown, who appeared via a pre-recorded video (watch below), won three awards, alongside his “Look At Me Now” collaborators Busta Rhymes and Lil Wayne, including Best Hip-Hop Video, People’s Champ Award, and the Reese’s Perfect Combo Award (which, as it turns out, is not so much about candy, as it is musical collaborations.)

Busta Rhymes, who was named the winner of the Sweet 16: Best Featured Verse, accepted the trophies on their behalf. Lil Wayne, who was also absent from last night’s show, walked away with two of his own BET Hip Hop Awards for both Best Live Performer and Lyricist of the Year. Click below for Brown’s video and a complete list of the night’s winners, including awards for Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Waka Flocka Flame. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 11 2011 06:26 PM ET

It's not deflating, haters! Despite press rumors, Beyoncé says her baby bump isn't fake

Filed under: Music and tagged: ,

Beyonce on 'Sunday Night HD'

Is Beyoncé wearing a prosthetic stomach?

Rumors started circulating about the very pregnant Sugar Mama after footage of her appearance on Sunday Night HD, an Australian talk show, began to surface online.

In the clip, Beyonce’s belly appears to deflate as she sits down, leading some viewers to think she’s faking her bump while a surrogate carries her child.

But before you conspiracy theorists get your tinfoil hats ready, Beyoncé’s rep, Yvette Noel-Schure, has already said the fake-bump rumors are “stupid, ridiculous and false.”

Aren’t there plenty of rational explanations for this? Awkward shadows cast from those unflattering TV lights? Maybe some wayward Spanx rolled down the wrong way? Plus, we’ve already seen The Pregnancé in a bikini, and it’s real.

Don’t make Jay-Z come after y’all. You can watch the video footage for yourself after the jump.

READ FULL STORY »

Oct 11 2011 05:40 PM ET

Rihanna compliments Chris Brown once again in the press -- is she being too kind?

rihanna

Image Credit: Samir Hussein/WireImage.com

No one should be defined by a personal assault, and Rihanna has certainly proved that in her life post-Chris Brown, releasing two albums — 2009′s dark, artistically risk-taking Rated R and 2010′s pop bonanza Loud — touring the world, and generally retaining her position as one of the biggest stars in the Hot 100 universe.

But there is one thing about Rihanna that is becoming problematic, and it has a lot to do with her public relationship with Brown. In multiple interviews (the most recent coming in the new issue of Esquire, in which she was named Sexiest Woman in the World), the 23-year-old seems to go out of her way to compliment the dude who may or may not have bitten her face during an altercation a few years ago, and most certainly left her looking like this. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 11 2011 04:24 PM ET

Adele, Lady Gaga lead American Music Awards nominations

Filed under: Music and tagged: , , ,
adele

Image Credit: Matt Sayles/AP Photo

Much like the MTV Video Music Awards, the actual statuettes handed out at the American Music Awards are almost entirely beside the point.

While nobody can ever really recall who won awards seconds after they are handed out, the AMAs always provide a tremendous TV broadcast, full of performances from artists plugging high-profile fall albums. In the past few years, they have really upped the ante on the on-stage components of the show, which have made it a can’t-miss for pop music enthusiasts.

Of course, they’re still going to hand out awards too, and the usual suspects dominate the list of nominations, which just came out today: Adele, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift lead the nominations, with Rihanna, Lil Wayne, and Beyoncé all picking up multiple noms themselves.

There are a handful of interesting head-to-heads going on in the nominations, too, as former Destiny’s Child members Kelly Rowland and Beyoncé will compete for Soul/R&B Favorite Female Artist, and former lovers Rihanna and Chris Brown square off for Soul/R&B Album.

Check out the full list of nominations below. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 11 2011 04:00 PM ET

The Academy Is... break up: A tribute to a great, underrated band

William-Beckett

Image Credit: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

After nearly a decade of delivering killer post-emo pop-punk hooks and confounding copy editors at magazines, Chicago-based quintet the Academy Is… have decided to break up.

“After nine years and three albums, the Academy Is… have decided to go our separate ways,” the band wrote in a statement on their official website over the weekend. “The music we have made together is a gift to you. From this point on, the Academy Is… belongs to you. Feel free to listen. Listen as loud as you like.”

Though they only released three albums (2005′s Almost Here, 2007′s Santi, and 2008′s Fast Times at Barrington High), the group left a memorable mark on the strange postmillennial decade in pop-punk that saw the rise of emo and the dominance of bands like Fall Out Boy (whose frontman, fellow Chicago native Pete Wentz, got the band signed to Fueled By Ramen).

Their 2007 single “Neighbors” became an unofficial party anthem among kids pogoing in their Vans, but by far the band’s greatest achievement — and in the end, their final album — was Fast Times at Barrington High, a hook-filled sorta-concept-album about the senior year of high school. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 11 2011 03:52 PM ET

Heart2Heart: Is the new Lance Bass-backed boy band for real? Watch here

Move over, Rebecca Black. The Internet has a new horrifically-bad-but-OMG-it’s-kind-of-catchy tune to get out of their collective heads.

Heart2Heart, a group whose appearance seems to be a leftover relic from the glory days of the boy-band years, released a video this week for their new single, “Facebook Official,” an insightful lyrical examination of the corporate takeover of an increasingly capitalistic society.

Just kidding. It’s about changing your relationship status on Facebook.

Watch the epic video—complete with choreography—below: READ FULL STORY »

Oct 11 2011 12:01 PM ET

Hank Williams Jr. attacks Fox, ESPN in 'Keep the Change'

Ronald C. Modra/Sports Imagery/Getty Images

Hank Williams Jr. isn’t content to keep quiet these days.

Not long after his “Are You Ready for Some Football?” theme was dropped from ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” due to his controversial statements about Obama on “Fox and Friends,” the 62-year-old country singer’s lashing out at ESPN, Fox, and anyone who’s backing the “United Socialist States of America,” as he calls it, in a new version of his song “Keep the Change.”

“So Fox ‘n Friends wanna put me down / Ask for my opinion / Twist it all around,” Williams sings in the song, which he posted on his web site on Monday. “Well two can play that gotcha game you’ll see.” Early in the song, he insists that “This country sure as hell has gone down the drain / We know what we need. We know who to blame.”

READ FULL STORY »

Oct 11 2011 11:12 AM ET

'The Muppets' indie-riffic soundtrack to feature Feist, Nirvana covers, and more

Muppets

Image Credit: Scott Garfield

Smells like fleece-foam-and-fake-fur spirit! The soundtrack for the upcoming Jason Segel-helmed Muppets movie has been revealed by Billboard.com, and Kermit and friends are getting lots of help.

Amongst the contributors: Canadian songstress Feist (who provides vocals on “Life’s A Happy Song,” alongside Mickey Rooney), Flight of the Conchords star Bret McKenzie (he pens four originals), harp-fond folkie Joanna Newsom (she guests on the beloved “The Muppet Show Theme”), Andrew Bird (he takes on “The Whistling Caruso”) and human co-stars Segel, Amy Adams, and Chris Cooper.

Also on the slate? Covers of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Cee Lo’s “Forget You” — performed by the Muppets Barbershop Quartet and a clutch of singing chickens, respectively — and several 20th-century classics in their original form: Paul Simon’s “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,” Starship’s “We Built This City.”

Find the full tracklisting after the jump: READ FULL STORY »

Oct 11 2011 10:49 AM ET

Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa are 'Young, Wild & Free' on new single: Hear it here!

Snoop-Dog

Image Credit: Jason Merritt/Images for Bethesda Softworks

Snoop Dogg has been always been very public about his adoration for a certain recreational herb.

Fellow rapper and Pittsburgh native Wiz Khalifa shares the same affinity for said substance, which is why those two have made for logical bedfellows on wax; in fact, their tag-team effort on “The Weed Iz Mine” is one of the great underrated hip-hop tracks of 2011.

The smoke-friendly pair have dropped their latest collaboration, a summery track called “Young, Wild & Free” that also features Bruno Mars crooning a sweet nostalgic hook.

According to the still screen on the YouTube video delivering the song, “Young, Wild & Free” is the first single from the soundtrack to a forthcoming film called Mac And Devin Go To High School that should be out some time early next year.

Kick back and fire up “Young, Wild & Free” after the jump. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 9 2011 12:45 PM ET

Mikey Welsh, former Weezer bassist, dies at 40

Filed under: Music, News and tagged: , ,
Mikey-Welsh

Mikey Welsh, former bassist for the alternative rock band Weezer, has died. Welsh, who was 40, was found in a Chicago hotel room on Saturday afternoon. The cause of death is still undetermined pending autopsy results, but according to the Chicago Tribune, authorities suspect narcotics were involved.

It seems Welsh predicted the date and place of his death on Twitter two weeks ago. He tweeted on Sept. 26: “dreamt i died in chicago next weekend (heart attack in my sleep). need to write my will today.” He then added: “correction – the weekend after next.”

The Vermont-born Welsh performed with Weezer from 1998 to 2001 and played on the album Weezer (a.k.a., the Green Album), which contained the hit “Hash Pipe.” In 2001, Welsh left the band after suffering a nervous breakdown. (”I took some time to get some help for something and they basically took off on me, abandoned me,” Welsh told EW in 2002. ”The way it went down was pretty lame.”) After leaving Weezer, Welsh began a second career as a painter.

A statement posted on the official Weezer web site lauded Welsh as “a unique talent, a deeply loving friend and father, and a great artist,” calling his time in the band “vital, essential, wild, and amazing.” “Mikey was never one to shy away from the absurd, dangerous or strange, and he did so with a gusto few others had,” the post reads. “No one had quite the stage presence of Mikey, nor have there been many who pulled the types of shenanigans he did at shows.” According to the band’s site, Welsh had been planning to attend Weezer’s show on Sunday at Chicago’s RIOTfest. Current Weezer bassist Scott Shriner posted on Twitter, “Really bummed about Mikey. My heart goes out to his family and friends. Such a talent… He made a mark on the world with his art.”

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