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| Should Britney Spears Get A VMA Do-Over? Perez Hilton, Carson Daly, Others Weigh In Posted: 02 Sep 2008 05:00 AM PDT 'If you want to make a big splash, what better platform?' Daly says.
[Editor's note: Even though we work for the same company, at press time we honestly do not know whether Britney will be appearing at the VMAs this weekend.] Should Britney get a do-over? Last year at this time, people were primed for Britney Spears to make a comeback, which was to be heralded by a Video Music Awards performance to top all others. We all know how that turned out. All that comeback talk was a bit premature when Britney was still on the edge as far as her mental health was concerned. But now that she appears to be on the mend and is recording a new album, how can she rebuild her career? And should appearing or performing at this year's VMAs play a part in that? Can this year's VMAs signify a true comeback, the one she was meant to have last year? And what does she need to do beyond that to remain on track? We asked a few key Britney-watchers what the pop princess should do to reclaim her throne. "If you want to make a big splash," Carson Daly said, "what better platform than the VMAs?" "I think she should definitely show up," Perez Hilton said. "She's been nominated for several awards, and that's what entertainers do. Just her being there is an indication that she's getting back to normalcy." "I would tell her, 'Get dolled up, look amazing, and just enjoy the show,' " said Jordan Miller, webmaster for Britney fan site BreatheHeavy.com. "That's what people want," Hilton said. "They want to see her smiling. Even if all she does is smile and wave, I say that's mission accomplished." Only if Spears is ready to pull off a truly memorable performance should she even think about getting back on the stage. "I don't think it's an option," said Ken Baker, E! executive news editor. "For her to perform doesn't make any sense right now. She doesn't have anything to sell." Unless the product is herself — but Baker thinks she's doing a better job simply by getting her personal life back in order. "She doesn't need image rehab," he said. "And she's not ready to do a performance. She should wait. No offense to MTV, but she'll have other opportunities. It might be better timing to wait until her album is out, perhaps early next year." "Don't perform unless you can be as good or better than you were back in the day," Hilton cautioned. "If it's not 110 percent ready and rehearsed, don't do it. You don't want a repeat of mediocrity." Hilton suggested that once Britney is ready to perform, at the VMAs or otherwise, she ought to redo "Gimme More" with an entirely different routine. "This time, do it right," he said. "Have the hair looking good, wear something that fits, don't be allegedly drunk before you're onstage, know your choreography, don't be lethargic and take it seriously." He doesn't expect her to sing live, but if she can manage an effective lip synch, that would be just enough, he said, to make people think, "This is how it should have been done." "It doesn't matter what song she does, as long as it's memorable," said TMZ Managing Editor Harvey Levin. "If she does 'Gimme More' and does a good job, that could work. If she does a cameo in someone else's performance, that could work too. Whatever she chooses has to be something she can pull off." In order to pull it off, however, she needs to figure out something that might take more than a week's worth of rehearsals. "Forget about what dress to wear or her weight, because those things come later," Daly said. "This is more than a makeover." What if Britney nailed a VMA performance? The whole debate over whether she should appear, not appear, perform, not perform, open the show, not open the show is beside the point. "What does all that really buy her?" he asked. "How long does that last?" While our memories of VMA performances often outlast our memories of the actual winners, ultimately Britney needs to figure out if she's running a sprint or a marathon. "Remember the 'Rocky' where Sylvester Stallone had to go to a log cabin in Siberia to find himself again?" Daly asked. "He was chopping down trees and running in the snow to rediscover why he was a fighter. Someone needs to take Britney to a studio in Siberia and ask her, 'What are you doing? What kind of story do you want to tell in song?' And what if she wrote a song that was actually moving? "She really needs to figure out if she's passionate about music," he continued. "I don't want a lot of ballads, OK?" Hilton countered. "I don't want it to be too deep. I don't want Britney writing her own songs. I think that's a bad idea." "You don't want her to evolve too much," Baker said. "That would be a round peg in a square hole. Her voice has a certain range. Her style has a certain range. But lyrically, she should have more depth. And her album is going to have a lot of personal experiences on it, some intense things that reflect her life. But a lot of it will be the traditional Britney escapist bubblegum dance pop that she's known for. She shouldn't venture too far out of that. She can't run around in a schoolgirl outfit, that page has turned, but her art doesn't have to be a mirror. That would be depressing. You don't want songs about Britney being in a mental ward." Levin thinks Britney's career as an entertainer won't be in music as much as it used to be — she'll still record and put out albums, he predicted, but she'll be more focused on television. "She was pretty funny on 'How I Met Your Mother,' " he said. "If she finds the right vehicle to be funny and charming, the endearing qualities that we're looking for, that could really change her career." The pop-music scene doesn't hold much of a future for the singer as she gets older and her competitors keep getting younger. "She's not 17 anymore," Levin said. "And there's more longevity in something like television." "She should branch out with something new," Miller said. "Definitely not a movie. Maybe a clothing line, where it's not so super-huge that it would monopolize her time." Whichever part of her career she focuses on, she better get ready to promote it, since the marketing plan for Blackout suffered from her lack of involvement. "It's insane for an artist of her caliber to release an album and only grant one interview," Hilton said. "And an interview where she barely speaks at that. She needs to do what's involved — do interviews, do a tour — unless she's not ready to be away from the kids, and then don't do it. Don't release it until you're ready to promote it." "She needs to take every interview, come with half the people she normally does, show up on time — no, show up early — and start having candid conversations," Daly said. "She doesn't have to answer every question, but she can own what happened to her and shift it to be about where she is now." "If she does just one big, splashy interview with Oprah or Diane Sawyer or Barbara Walters, it feels calculated, like too much in too little time," Levin said. "People could write books on what she went through. So to just do one interview almost trivializes it. And to do all of them is almost a bloodletting. So maybe don't do the interviews. Keep the mystery. Speak when you want to. Why does she have to say she's back? It would be better if other people are saying it, not her." Several suggested that she do it symbolically, by using a phoenix motif to signify where she is — she burned out, but she's rising from the ashes. It could be used as an album title or cover art or her eventual Web site redesign. But whatever she chooses, the important thing is that it will be her choice. With the conservatorship slated to end by the end of the year, Spears is about to get back her own decision-making powers. Unless she has another turn for the worse, she'll get "the keys to the car," as Levin put it. Though her problem before was that she refused to listen to advice, she appears to be listening now, and that's what's getting her back on track. "This woman had a hugely serious problem, a life-threatening problem," Levin said. "And they've been keeping her busy as a short-term strategy. They're not thinking way into the future. They just want to keep her productive and relevant." Beyond career goals, everyone agreed that Britney has to put her personal life first — because without improvement on that front, all the plans for her future and possible VMA appearances mean nothing. "Everything she did before tells me she was looking externally for love, acceptance and approval," Hilton said. "It tells me she was feeling empty. So hopefully she feels now like she has self-worth and life has meaning. But she needs to stay under the guidance of a doctor and have therapy several times a week. Because more important than anything, she really needs to determine for herself who Britney Spears is." For more on Brit's history with the Video Music Awards, watch "Pieces of Me: Britney's Best VMA Moments," premiering Saturday at 1 p.m. ET on MTV. Your job's not over yet! Now that you've helped us pick the nominees for this year's Video Music Awards, head to VMA.MTV.com to vote for your favorite in the Best New Artist category. While you're there, check out the latest additions to the performer and presenter lineups, see the best (and worst) of VMA fashion and much more before the show airs live Sunday at 9 p.m. ET. Related Videos Related Photos Related Artists | |
| Taylor Swift 'Shocked' By VMA Nod, Calls Joe Jonas 'An Amazing Guy' Posted: 02 Sep 2008 05:00 AM PDT Country singer nabs Best New Artist nomination for crossover hit 'Teardrops on My Guitar.'
It's not unusual for awards contenders to profess shock at being nominated, but Taylor Swift really means it. The country singer, who's going up against the likes of Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry for Best New Artist at the MTV Video Music Awards, never imagined that she'd cross over into the pop world, let alone get a shot at a Moonman. But that's exactly what's happened to Swift, thanks to a little change to her VMA-nominated song "Teardrops on My Guitar." "The single came out on country and got on the top of the charts," she explained. "We put a beat behind it and turned it into a song that they would play on pop radio. For me, it was a no-brainer." Still, the 18-year-old singer was surprised by the song's success. "I didn't think it was possible," she said, recalling her reaction to the nomination. "I was so shocked. I started screaming, 'I get to go to the VMAs!' I didn't think I'd get to go to the VMAs. I'm not that cool. As a country artist, I've been pretty unapologetic about it. [But] it's cool to be included." The "Teardrops" video takes place in a high school, where Swift pines for her love interest, played by musician Tyler Hilton. Though there was talk of a more mature video treatment — after all, Taylor isn't in high school anymore — the singer wanted to set it in a high school to retain the integrity of the song. "We came up with the idea because basically what you see in the video is what the song is about," she said. "We thought maybe we'd make it a more city video, but we got back to basics. I wanted to make a video about what the song was about." Swift's newfound fame has brought tons of tabloid speculation about her private life. The latest gossip is that Swift is dating Joe Jonas. But when probed, she would neither confirm nor deny the news. "For me, in dealing with things that people write, I try not to let it affect my life," she said. "He's an amazing guy, and anyone would be lucky to be dating him." However, Jonas and Swift were seen leaving New York hotspot Tao last week. Although Swift remained coy about her relationship status with the Jonas Brother, there's one guy she definitely won't be taking to the VMAs: Drew, the inspiration behind the song. "He showed up in my driveway this Christmas, and it was awkward because it was three years after I wrote the song," she said. "He was like, 'Hey.' It was definitely weird. I was going to a hockey game with my friends, and it was the most drama you could have when you have to go pick up your friends. "I got over it," she added. "I wrote the song. It's a venting process." Lucky for her, venting produced remarkable results. "To have the ability to stay true to myself and to be played on MTV and on pop radio is something I never thought that I would get to do," Swift said. Your job's not over yet! Now that you've helped us pick the nominees for this year's Video Music Awards, head to VMA.MTV.com to vote for your favorite in the Best New Artist category. While you're there, check out the latest additions to the performer and presenter lineups, see the best (and worst) of VMA fashion and much more before the show airs live September 7 at 9 p.m. ET. Related Videos Related Photos Related Artists | |
| Posted: 01 Sep 2008 05:03 AM PDT Plus: Slim Thug, Boss Hogg Outlawz Serve & Collect again; Busta Rhymes gives Grafh's debut a boost.
Artists: Slim Thug and the Boss Hogg Outlawz Representing: Houston Independent Album: Back by Blockular Demand: Serve & Collect II 411: The hogs are out in a major way in Houston. Slim Thug is chillin' in the cut right outside of his favorite barbershop, the Right Touch. Besides the jaw-jacking going on inside over a game of dominoes, it's unusually quiet for a Saturday afternoon — until the Harleys come out. About 75 people — men and women, young and old — come cruising on their choppers. Thug gets a grin on his sometimes-expressionless mug. He got his first Harley when he turned 21. Funny thing is, he didn't know how to drive one and had to get one of his homeboys to ride it home for him. Thugga has since learned how to handle the two-wheeler very well. "This is one of the things we do out here," Slim explained, standing next to his good friend Gotti, formerly of Cash Money's Boo and Gotti. This week, Slim releases the sequel to last year's Boss Hogg Outlawz's Serve & Collect via Koch Records. Slim is now fully independent. "I was never signed directly to [Pharrell's] Star Trak," he said. "[There was an understanding] that if he did this many beats for me, he would put his imprint on [my album]. It was never nothing between me and Pharrell. We did good work together. I appreciate everything he did for me. It ain't no beef with Jimmy Iovine or Geffen. I love them for everything they did for me. I just like to move independent. I got off the label, and now we're moving with Koch." Slim says he just couldn't "click" with the major and is back to moving units almost the same way he did when he first started. But thank goodness he doesn't have to distribute his own records hand to hand. "Being with Koch is [like] a smaller major," he explained. "They got a helluva radio group over there. They do a wonderful job and give people major-label looks as far as the radio." Back by Blockular Demand: Serve & Collect II features Thugga and his Outlawz Young Black, Chris Ward, J-Dawg and his captain, Killa Kyleon. "It's the whole Boss Hogg Outlaw gang," Slim said. "It's really like a sampler of all the talent on my label. We did it last year with Serve & Collect. We got a lot of love from that. We got Ray J on there and Lil' Keke on there. Not too many guest appearances. The next Slim Thug solo is definitely coming out, if not this year, early next year. It's called Boss of All Bosses. The title ain't change. As far as the Boss of All Bosses, I done work with so many different artists and producers. I don't know who or what songs I'm gonna put on there. And I'm still working. I got over 150 songs. I'm gonna keep working, and whenever it drops, then we'll know." Joints To Check For "Ride With No Ceiling." "Riding [cars] with no ceiling — it's pretty much giving you the culture of Houston and how we do it," Kyleon explained. "It features all of us. We're flossing, balling and having fun." "Same old Houston," Slim said. "We gonna keep it the same. We still talking about candy-painted cars on fo's. Chopped and screwed hook, giving you that H-Town view." "Time." "That J-Dawg solo record with Keke, that's my jam right there," Ward said. "That's what I'm rolling with." "When we get together, nobody sounds alike," Thugga said. "Everybody got their own style, man. This whole record, man, is strictly for the streets. From the beginning to the end. I love all the music, not just because it's my music and my people on there rapping on there with me. I love that kind of music. It's not really for the radio or BET or MTV. It's for what we do. For the streets." "On the cool, though, we work so much, I don't remember the whole CD," Dawg added. "We been finished with that." "Keep It Playa." "[It's] the new single we got with Ray J," Slim said. "We did a record for the playas, and when we played if for Koch, they went crazy for it." Don't Sleep: Other Notable Selections This Week » Nina B - The Icon 'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar » 50 Cent - "Here I Am" freestyle The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground Game is admittedly a little loco. That's part of what makes him one of the best in rap right now. And to make tracks for him, you might have to get just as crazy as he is. "Whenever I call a producer and tell them how I want the beat to be, I paint a picture," he said. "I called Just Blaze, and I'll be like, 'Yo, picture Jay-Z being in an elevator in the Bronx. ... It's broke, and all of sudden he presses the garage button and it shoots through the roof. He lands on Jupiter. And he walks out in all black. I want that record!' And Blaze will be like, 'All right. I'm about to do that record.' "When you listen to my album and people say, 'You know how to pick beats' — nah, I know how to pick scenarios and producers who understand my scenarios and know how to transform them into music," he added. "When it comes out the speakers, it sounds like what I asked for." Two of Game's obvious go-to guys on L.A.X. are Cool & Dre. They have his current single, "My Life," and might have his next as well. "Cool & Dre did that beat," he smiled when talking about "Money." "It's Miami, sounds Miami. If it is the next single, we gonna shoot the video in Miami. 'Money' is gonna be a big record. I'mma let the streets pick the single. If I had my way, 'Let Us Live' would be it. That's my favorite joint on the album probably." ... The art of making love is like ... well, T-Pain and Lil Wayne will tell you all about it on their joint project. We've been hearing about the full-length collaboration for months. Pain finally got specific and told us about one of their records. "It's the most awesome record in the world," he said of his favorite track, "Damn, Damn." "It's basically about what the girl is saying during intercourse." Pain also broke out into song, revealing an excerpt from the Thr33 Ringz track "Therapy": "I say, 'One, two, three, four/ Get the hell up out my door.' " "[The track] is just for the crazy women out there," he said. ... It's about time. DJ Green Lantern is getting that cook up just right. He and Grafh are going in on the Oracle 2 mixtape. The street CD should be out in a couple of weeks. Grafh's debut LP, The Evolution, is slated to arrive within the next three months or so. "We first did the record with my boy Prinz the Pistoleer," Grafh said of his first single, "Like Ohh." "A lot of rappers showed love and wanted to be a part of it, but Busta was the first one to reach out. He came through, showed love, tore it up with a crazy 16 [bars], then came down to the video with the 'whoo-ha' Busta Rhymes flava. That originally was the remix, but we made it the official single because Busta smashed it. Because everybody showed so much love, the remix is getting crazier. Shout-out to Jim Jones, he jumped on it. Swizz Beatz jumped on the remix. Bun B, Jadakiss is on the remix. It's crazy, and it's growing. I'm glad everybody is being receptive. When they show that love, I gotta shoot it back." Grafh's original debut LP was called The Autografh, but since it sat on the shelf for so many years, he just leaked the LP online for free. "This is my first official release," he said. "I got caught up in the politics. I never got a chance to release an album. The Evolution involves change. I'm more mature in the game. I'm growing as a man. My point of views have broadened." For other artists featured in Mixtape Monday, check out Mixtape Mondays Headlines. Related Videos Related Artists | |
| Republican National Convention Scaled Down Due To Hurricane Gustav Posted: 01 Sep 2008 07:40 AM PDT President Bush, VP Cheney and a number of governors sit out the event to deal with storm response.
The Democrats had their fun in Denver — but due to the approach of Hurricane Gustav, the Republicans have had to radically rethink their gathering this week. The Republican National Convention is still slated to kick off in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area on Monday (September 1), albeit with much less celebration and politicking leading up to the nomination of Senator John McCain as the party's candidate, along with the GOP's first-ever female vice-presidential nominee Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. As it became clear over the weekend that Gustav was headed straight for the New Orleans area — some of which is still recovering from 2005's devastating Hurricane Katrina — the party went into crisis mode and decided to overhaul the convention in an effort to avoid images of Republicans celebrating and engaging in political gamesmanship during a natural disaster. "This is a time when we have to do away with our party politics, and we have to act as Americans," McCain said at a campaign stop in St. Louis, Missouri, on Sunday. "We have to join the 300 million other Americans on behalf of our fellow citizens. It's a time for action. So, we're going to suspend most of our activities tomorrow, except for those absolutely necessary." As a result, the first day of the quadrennial event, which runs through Thursday night, was all but scrapped on Sunday afternoon and stripped down to nothing more than the essential business of the convention. A heavy-hitting roster of anticipated addresses from President Bush, First Lady Laura Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger were all canceled, and attendees will participate only in calling the convention to order, adopting the party platform and getting a report from the credentials committee. Rather than open at 3 p.m. Central Time and go until 9:30 or 10 p.m., Monday's activities will likely only last until 5:30 p.m. After last week's DNC gave Barack Obama an expected bump —between six and eight points according to most polls — the RNC represented McCain's best opportunity to rally the Republican troops around his campaign. The addition to his ticket of relatively unknown Palin, who has strong conservative credentials, had energized the party and would likely have provided for good political theater, but McCain said on Sunday that now was not the time to engage in politics. "We must redirect our efforts from the really celebratory event of the nomination of president and vice president of our party to acting as all Americans," he said, according to CNN. Though organizers have not yet decided what the rest of the week will look like, it's possible that the speeches and activities of the rest of the convention could change as well, depending on the impact of Gustav. McCain also suggested that the convention could be overhauled from a political gathering to a service event that would be a "call to the nation for action." "I pledge that tomorrow night, and if necessary, throughout our convention ... to act as Americans, not Republicans, because America needs us now, no matter whether we are Republican or Democrat,'' McCain said. According to Fox News, the GOP was also considering asking corporations that have planned parties during the convention to turn them into fundraisers for the Red Cross and other relief organizations. The overall theme of the convention was supposed to be "Country First," with each day keyed to a similar theme that reflects the trajectory of McCain's life. So far, the theme has not been tossed out, but it too will likely feel the impact of the severity of Gustav's landfall. While President Bush is in Texas monitoring the storm, the convention will be without a number of the delegates from the Gulf Coast region, who were offered flights back home on the GOP's tab in advance of the Gustav's landfall. Also missing the event will be Republican Governors Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Charlie Crist of Florida, Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Rick Perry of Texas. On Monday, the party will offer those watching at home information on how to help with relief efforts in the Gulf region. The activities surrounding the day one theme, "Service," appear to have been scrapped, but at press time it was unclear if the day two agenda, "Reform," would be thrown out as well. Tuesday's slate of speakers is scheduled to include a trio of Republican presidential aspirants who conceded defeat to McCain earlier this year: former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former U.S. Senator Fred Thompson and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, as well as a short-listed vice-presidential name, former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge. Wednesday's theme is "Prosperity," and the speakers are slated to include vice-presidential nominee Palin, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (another short-listed VP nominee), former eBay CEO and McCain national campaign co-chair Meg Whitman, RNC "Victory" Chairwoman and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, and McCain's wife, Cindy. Convention organizers have not yet announced any alterations to their plans for Wednesday. The final night's theme is "Peace," and it was expected to include a host of men who had been mentioned as possible VP candidates — Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, Crist and Kansas Senator Sam Brownback. McCain was also on tap to deliver his acceptance speech then, but the campaign has not yet decided if that address will happen as planned. Before the storm hit, the 39th nominating convention for the GOP was to host 2,380 delegates and 2,227 alternates, though those numbers are likely to be impacted by a number of Gulf State delegates leaving the Twin Cities to deal with storm damage back home. McCain needs 1,191 pledged delegates to secure the nomination, and though there was some grumbling that delegates might balk if McCain picked Lieberman or Ridge as his running mate, the choice of the solidly conservative Palin appears to have appeased those dissenting voices. Here are some other notes on the four-day event, all of which are subject to change/cancellation depending on Gustav's impact: » After ridiculing the Democratic National Convention for erecting a stage for Obama's outdoor acceptance speech that it said was "God-like," the RNC has promised that the dais at the Xcel Center in St. Paul will be lower to the ground and provide a more intimate field than Denver's 80,000-plus-capacity Invesco Field. » The first convention in the Twin Cities since 1892 was scheduled to bring 45,000 delegates, alternates, journalists and visitors to town. That's not counting the thousands of protesters, some of whom will likely join Rage Against the Machine for a show September 3 at the Target Center in Minneapolis. More than 50,000 people are expected to march from the Minnesota Capitol to the Xcel Center on the first day in a protest urging the end of the Iraq war, and Rage guitarist Tom Morello will also be among the stars performing on Monday at St. Paul's Harriett Island Park as part of union-sponsored Take Back Labor Day event. Already on Sunday, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported that nine protesters from Veterans for Peace were arrested after a rally of around 250 that started at the State Capitol and wound its way through downtown behind a flag-draped coffin. The nine were arrested after leaving the parade route and crawling under security tape near the Xcel Center. » Opening on Labor Day, the RNC is the latest a major-party convention has ever taken place, in part due to the Olympics, which forced a delay of the Democratic convention as well. It will set up the first election in 80 years in which neither a sitting vice president nor president will be vying for the presidency. And with Bush canceling his planned Monday address, it will also mark the first time since 1968, when then President Lyndon Johnson did not speak in Chicago, that a sitting president has not given an address at his party's convention. » Republicans have vowed to make their convention one of the most technology-friendly ever, with a special zone set up for bloggers in the Xcel Center, an effort that will be all the more crucial for those writers keeping an eye on the news outside Xcel as they cover the re-worked schedule of events inside. When the convention ends, McCain and Obama will engage in an intense 60-day sprint to the finish line on November 4, with three debates on the schedule, as well as a face-off between Palin and Democratic VP nominee Senator Joseph Biden. Depending on how he handles the aftermath of Gustav and how much of the RNC schedule is washed out because of the storm, McCain could also be facing the prospect of either no bounce in the polls due to scaled-down RNC, or a possible bigger bump if he is visible in hurricane relief efforts. Obama will likely attempt to show his presidential stripes in the storm's aftermath as well. Either way, the next two months promise to be a bare-knuckle fight between two men who have repeatedly vowed to rise above the typical Washington dirty tricks but have found themselves unable to break from the pack and must now conduct a battle in the potential shadow of a major disaster.
Don't miss out on the action: MTV News and our Street Team '08 will be on the ground at the Republican National Convention to sort through all the speeches, streamers and ceremony and find the information you need to choose our next president. Head to Choose or Lose for nonstop coverage of the 2008 presidential election. Related Videos |
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