Tag: Hip-Hop/Rap (81-90 of 722)

Dec 4 2012 05:43 PM ET

Jay-Z chronicles his Brooklyn concert in short behind-the-scenes documentary: Watch it here

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Couldn’t make it to Jay-Z’s much-heralded Barclays Center concerts? No worries — Hova’s new mini-documentary has you covered.

Thanks to “Where I’m From,” a new video posted on Jay’s Life+Times site, you can enjoy an intimate look at how the larger-than-life rapper went about inaugurating his hometown’s newest stadium this fall. Clocking in at just under 25 minutes, the video shows Hova rehearsing for his Barclays Center opening nights, as well as the intensive work put in by his hard-working team.

And shots! The short doc shows the all-black-everything rapper doing shot shots shots shots shots shots with his colleagues, as well as him brandishing his Metrocard to board the subway from Manhattan to his gig in Brooklyn with this nice lady.

Check out Jay-Z’s self-uploaded “Where I’m From” documentary in the video below:

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Dec 4 2012 04:09 PM ET

You haven't heard 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' until you've heard DMX's version -- VIDEO

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What’s his name? It’s DMX — and he just dropped a f—load of Christmas cheer on all y’all.

During a recent visit to New York’s Power 105.1, the rapper was asked to put his own spin on the timeless Christmas tune “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Dark Man X complied, waving away a lyrics sheet and reciting the song from memory so excitedly that he sped ahead of his accompaniment.

By the time DMX got past the preamble, he was ad-libbing and sing-rapping like some sort of enchanted hip-hop elf — leaving the radio station with a version of “Rudolph” that deserves to become a classic.

Even Ja Rule has to admit that DMX killed it. Watch here:

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Nov 29 2012 05:35 PM ET

Sia does 'Diamonds,' which she wrote for Rihanna: Watch the video here

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Rihanna is having a solid week, which means Sia Furler is too.

As you probably know, the Australian singer and songsmith actually wrote and produced Rihanna’s top Unapologetic single “Diamonds,” and now she’s actually singing the thing herself. She, along with Stargate, performed the No. 1 song at yesterday’s Norweigan-American Achievement Award ceremony in New York. (Stargate, it should be noted, was the night’s honoree.)

Sia, of course, has been on quite the streak lately, lending her talents to successful singles like Flo Rida’s “Whistle” and David Guetta’s “Titanium,” both of which also made the top ten of Billboard’s Hot 100.

Take a listen to Sia’s “Diamonds” rendition in the video below and let us know how you think it compares to Rihanna’s: READ FULL STORY »

Nov 29 2012 05:04 PM ET

Gwyneth Paltrow is having a hip-hop week: Hear GOOP's rap picks here

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Image Credit: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

While we at EW like to live every week like it’s Shark Week, it looks like Gwyneth Paltrow’s on a whole other tip right now.

As Lady GOOP’s latest newsletter invaded inboxes across America Thursday, readers learned not only what Paltrow had for breakfast (crepes) and what TV show’s she been obsessing over (Homeland), but also that she’s been rap strong this week.

“It’s Hip Hop Week,” reads the newsletter, before delving into a trio of tracks that the actress has been jamming these days. Unsurprisingly, one of her pick is “Clique,” the Cruel Summer single featuring Big Sean, Jay-Z, and Kanye West. She’s also been getting into “F—ing Problem,” the A$AP Rocky song that counts Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and 2 Chainz as guests. Lastly — and rather oddly — is “Bad Ass Strippa,” the 2004 track from Romani-British rapper Jentina that was later mocked by Lady Sovereign in “Sad Ass Strippa.”

You can listen to all of GOOP’s hip-hop week picks with the videos below. But first, be sure to heed Gwyneth’s post-script warning: “Explicit lyrics. Do with that information what you will…” 

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Nov 28 2012 06:15 PM ET

Steven Tyler apologizes to Nicki Minaj for 'cornfield' comment, which almost certainly wasn't racist

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Not only is Nicki Minaj starting trouble with the American Idol judges sitting next to her, but she has also started beef with people who are no longer with the show.

Last week, Aerosmith frontman, former Idol judge, and scarf industry propper-upper Tyler gave Minaj—and the rest of her Idol cohorts—what for during a conversation with MTV News. “I know that they’ve got something going on on the judges’ panel, [and] it shouldn’t be that, it should be just the opposite: They should have something going on, which is called camaraderie,” he said.

“They should have something going on so thick and beautiful that they can lay it over the new talent that’s trying to birth itself. It needs to be birthed, not judged by ‘entertainment’ factors, it needs to be judged by people that [are] honest, true, that have the ‘it’ factor. Not the ‘it’ factor because they can fight. The f— is that all about?”

Tyler took particular umbrage with Minaj’s approach, saying, “These kids, they just got out of a car from the Midwest somewhere and they’re in New York City, they’re scared to death; you’re not going to get the best. If it was Bob Dylan, Nicki Minaj would have had him sent to the cornfield! Whereas, if it was Bob Dylan with us, we would have brought the best of him out, as we did with Phillip Phillips. Just saying.”

Obviously, Tyler was continuing his “Midwest” riff when bringing up the idea of a “cornfield.” But Minaj didn’t see it that way: READ FULL STORY »

Nov 28 2012 11:32 AM ET

Album sales: Rihanna wins her first No. 1 with 'Unapologetic,' Adele hits 10 million

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Image Credit: Simone Joyner/WireImage

Maybe all those topless tweets are working?

The first-week sales figures for Rihanna latest record are in, and the news is good: Billboard reports that Unapologetic has landed at No. 1 this week, a career first. The album — her seventh in seven years — brought the singer her strongest sales week ever, with 238,000 copies sold.

This breaks Rihanna’s streak of having the most No. 1 hit songs without a No. 1 album. (Last week, her latest single “Diamonds” became her 12th to top the Hot 100, passing Whitney Houston to become the artist with the fourth-most top singles.)

“We are so proud and happy to deliver Rihanna her first #1 album in the U.S.,” Island Def Jam president Steve Bartels said in a statement. “Taking an unusually short runway and turning it to an advantage — like the unprecedented 777 Tour — is a testament to the teamwork, ingenuity, ethic, and belief in the legacy of this artist that showed in every single hand that touched this project.”

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Nov 26 2012 03:09 PM ET

'The Walking Dead' star Norman Reedus: What's On My iPod

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On monstrously popular cable-TV beast The Walking Dead, Norman Reedus plays Daryl Dixon, an expert zombie killer whose lack of social graces are made up for with his efficiency with a crossbow.

It’s a stretch for Reedus, who tends to prefer painting or working on sculpture to taking out the undead. And, of course, expanding his musical horizons. When EW gave Reedus a call while he was deep in the heart of Georgia shooting the last episodes of the show’s current season, and he talked about the ways that music not only helps him get into character, but also lets him dictate his mood wherever he might be.

Check out his selections below, and hear all the songs on our customized Spotify playlist.

The Black Angels, “The First Vietnamese War” 
“I can’t remember how I first got introduced to them, but when we first started this new season, I played that for our entire cast. I kept putting it on my iPod and passing it over to Andy [Lincoln] before shooting really violent, desperate scenes, and I was like, ‘This song should be on the soundtrack to our show.’ It’s so heartfelt, and it sort of described what we were shooting at the time: Getting into that prison and what people had to go through. It really felt like us.” READ FULL STORY »

Nov 26 2012 12:48 PM ET

50 Cent's new single 'My Life' featuring Adam Levine and Eminem: Hear it here

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Image Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

50 Cent is a weird case among rappers, isn’t he?

He put out one of the best-selling hip-hop albums of all time in Get Rich or Die Tryin’, and his personal narrative (trained by Jam Master Jay, shot nine times, re-discovered by Dr. Dre & Eminem, made a ton of money off Vitamin Water) is as ingrained in the popular consciousness as any mainstream star’s of the past two decades.

On the other hand, he’s had a string of duds and non-starters, both in the music world and in the straight-to-DVD universe. Lately, he tends to grab headlines only for Twitter-related nonsense. But he’s still a prodigious talent, and his upcoming album Street King Immortal might be the thing that puts him back on top of the rap world.

That album’s new single “My Life,” which features Adam Levine and Eminem, is submitted as Exhibit A. It falls into some of the traps that 50′s other work tends to fall into (he doesn’t seem to know what his audience wants nor what bandwagon to hop on, so he just tries to do everything), but the Levine-crooned hook is an undeniable earworm, and Slim Shady’s guest verse is the best thing he’s done in 2012 (which means is 73,000 times better than his phoned-in guest spot on the Rihanna album).

Give “My Life” a spin below: READ FULL STORY »

Nov 26 2012 11:49 AM ET

Nicki Minaj already blaming Walmart, Target for low 'Pink Friday' sales [UPDATED]

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While speaking to New York’s Power 105.1, Nicki Minaj presented the public with a preemptive explanation as to why her latest offering — Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded – The Re-Up, released Nov. 19 — is suffering sales-wise. The official first-week tally for the album (which is a rerelease of her last album, plus eight new songs) won’t be in for a couple more days, but early indications of low sales have already put Minaj on the defensive.

“It is hard to get the album because the stores basically said that the last few re-releases they had put out did not do well and they didn’t want to take a chance,” Minaj told the radio station. ”So, Target and Walmart is not selling the album. Target is actually my biggest retailer — they’ve always been my biggest retailer. They’ve sold the most Nicki Minaj albums ever, so, thank you, Target. But I wish you could’ve sold this one.”

She then moved on to discuss Best Buy, which she says “only took limited [quantities] because they’re like, ‘Oh, we don’t know, we want to play it safe.’”

“So it’s very difficult and it kind of sets you up to fail,” she added, explaining that a number of her fans “have been driving hours – literally hours! — to get one CD. But it is what it is, and I appreciate the support, and I’m excited about the music.”

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Nov 21 2012 02:02 PM ET

Album sales: One Direction top Billboard 200 for second time this year

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Image Credit: Chris Lopez

They may have had a trophy-free night at last weekend’s American Music Awards, but One Direction still have the votes of more than half a million album buyers (you know who you are).

For the second time this year, the British boy band has snagged the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart thanks to their sophomore effort Take Me Home. And taken to many homes they were: the group moved 540,000 units in the week, a vast improvement from the 176,000 their record-breaking debut Up All Night earned them back in March.

The new numbers give them the third largest debut week of the year, with only Taylor Swift’s Red (1.2 million) and Mumford & Sons’ Babel (600,000) surpassing them.

Of course, when someone goes up, someone’s gotta come down. Swift’s three weeks atop the chart came to an end, dipping to the second spot with 145,000 for its fourth week. (That puts Red‘s running total at 1.89 milli.)

Rounding out the top three this week is The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 soundtrack, which pulled off 93,000 in sales for the frame — a decent showing, but markedly less than their first installment’s soundtrack (which debuted at No. 1 with 165,000) or the New Moon edition (which moved 153,000 units).

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