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| Kanye West Calls VMA Show-Closer 'Love Lockdown' His 'Favorite Song 2 Date' Posted: 09 Sep 2008 04:59 AM PDT Plus: T-Pain talks to MTV News about his contributions to West's upcoming album.
Kanye West almost literally took his new song "Love Lockdown" from the studio to the stage. In a blog post on his Web site, West said the track, which he performed at Sunday's VMAs, was the one closest to his heart. He said he wrote the song "a week and a half ago. It's my favorite song 2 date!! Go where your heart takes you...." Artwork for the song has also surfaced, but West's rep was unable to be reached for confirmation that it's legit. Reports have swirled that "Love Lockdown" is the lead cut from West's upcoming album, slated for December release. Although Kanye hasn't officially confirmed news of the LP, T-Pain will apparently be involved in some shape or form. The two have been working together a great deal lately.
"It's returning favors," Pain said recently in New York of his multiple collaborations with West. "We keep going back and forth. It's a lot of stuff people don't know that's going on with me and Kanye. We always catch each other in L.A. at these studios, man. He'll call me to his room, I'll do a hook for him. I'll go back down, probably make a couple beats. I'll call him down: 'Yo, do a verse for me real quick.' He'll go back up, he'll make something, call me back up. It's been going like that for a couple of months now." Although his exact role on Kanye's new album is still unclear, the Louis Vuitton Don will definitely be featured on Pain's upcoming album, Thr33 Ringz (due November 11), on "Therapy." "It's just about the crazy girls, man," Pain said. "Some girl, you didn't know she was crazy when you first start talking to her. Then all of sudden, she started having mood swings, PMS, all kinds of crazy stuff." The duo also have a track called "Go Hard," which is a featured cut from DJ Khaled's We Global. Now that the 2008 VMAs have come and gone, check out all the winners, the most surprising moments, the best red-carpet fashions and more at VMA.MTV.com. Related Videos Related Artists |
| Jonas Brothers Respond To Russell Brand's VMA Comments Posted: 08 Sep 2008 10:51 PM PDT British comic had lambasted young group over purity rings during VMAs.
Now in the U.K. promoting the "Camp Rock" film after their appearance at the Video Music Awards last weekend, the Jonas Brothers spoke with the BBC about Russell Brand's controversial verbal jabs at them during the show. Brand poked fun at the boys for their purity rings and abstinence pledges. "For us, it's cool to see that he recognizes we are gentlemen," Nick, 15, said. His older brother, Kevin, 20, speculated that Brand miscalculated the audience. "I think he focused on certain things and didn't move off of them," he said. "People's attention spans in America need more than that." They also seem to be fans of the comic. "I think he did a good job [at the show]," Nick said. "We saw him on Conan O'Brien and thought he was hilarious." And the boys didn't let Brand's comments spoil their night. The trio, who performed their single "Lovebug" during the show, just let it slide off their backs. "We had a lot of friends there and everybody's so nice. We had a good time," Kevin added. Other celebrities already reacted negatively to Brand's comments about the Jonas Brothers. During the show, "American Idol" winner Jordin Sparks rushed to the band's defense, saying "I just have one thing to say about promise rings. It's not bad to wear a promise ring, because not everybody — guy or girl — wants to be a slut." And Paris Hilton also defended the group after the show. She said, "I don't pick on them. That's something cool for a kid to keep, so don't pick on them for that." And Paris' (sort of) namesake, celebrity blogger Perez Hilton came to their defense as well, telling MTV News after the show, "I think those Jonas Brothers are good kids, and we shouldn't be making fun of them for promoting good values." Now that the 2008 VMAs have come and gone, check out all the winners, the most surprising moments, the best red-carpet fashions and more at VMA.MTV.com. Related Videos Related Artists |
| Can Britney Spears Ever Be 'Britney Spears' Again? In <i>Bigger Than The Sound</i> Posted: 10 Sep 2008 05:00 AM PDT The pop star might have swept the VMAs, but was it enough for a real comeback?
On The Record: Welcome Back Britney! (Maybe) On Sunday, minutes after Tom Brady's ACL exploded, taking the dreams of thousands of Pats fans and millions of fantasy GMs with it, I received about a bajillion text messages from my friends, most of whom were drunk, in various degrees of grieving and looking to shatter the record for "most electronic messages that wantonly abused the F-word" (875, set last year when the Giants upset the Pats in Super Bowl XLII). And while I'd love to spend this week's Bigger Than the Sound discussing both the karmic aspects of Brady's injury and my friends' butchering of the English language, I've come to the sad realization that I am not Brandon Funston nor William Safire (though I did write a column like him last year). Also — believe it or not — there are actually people out there who think fantasy football is dumb and a waste of time, so rather than bore them or embarrass my pals or encroach on B-Fun's turf, I've decided to stick to what I know best: writing about Britney Spears. See, nestled in all those desperate, drunken Brady texts was a single message from a friend of mine — a guy who doesn't care about football at all but really loves the Video Music Awards ... like, he's never missed a single one, has viewing parties at his house and can tell you who won the Video Vanguard award in 1987 (he's weird). After he read my "VMA Predictions" column from last week — in which I went an "impressive" three-for-eight but did nail Britney winning Video of the Year — he sent me a message that simply read, "Are you prepared for a world with Britney in it again?" It was an unsettling sentiment to consider, but come on — it was Britney we were talking about. She shaved her head and beat up cars with umbrellas, had two kids and ran over members of the paparazzi. She now existed in the same realm as the Tom Cruises and Michael Jacksons of the world: someone we followed with a morbid curiosity, never quite sure what she'd do next, but quite certain that it would never be good. There's no way she'd ever reclaim her throne, even if she did win Video of the Year. It was, for all intents and purposes, over for her — right? Not so fast. As you probably know by now, Brit Brit walked away with three Moonmen on Sunday night, and she looked great while doing so. She was gracious, charming and avoided any margarita-fueled meltdowns. She was, the logic went, back. Or at least on her way to getting there. We were apparently willing to forget the previous two years of her life and once again anoint her the Princess of Pop. And I prepared to exist in a world with Britney Spears at its epicenter. But then I got to thinking: Can Britney Spears ever really be Britney Spears again? Can anyone? Well, no. The halcyon days of "Britney Spears: Superstar" are gone forever, and they will probably never come back. We will never again be amazed by her scintillating onstage exploits (The stripping! The kissing! The python-ing!) or her naughty Rolling Stone covers, never again debate the merits of her videos or her music (though it is somewhat ironic to me that "Piece of Me," which won Video Of The Year, is perhaps Brit's least interesting video) or her influence on a generation of young girls. She will never again be considered the next Madonna or draw the ire of the American Family Association or open terrible Cajun/Italian restaurants in New York City. Of course, this has less to do with Britney as it does with the era in which we live, because at this point, I'm not even sure anyone can agree on what a "superstar" is anymore. Does a superstar sell millions of records? Well, Lil Wayne did, but you'd be hard-pressed to argue that he's any higher than fourth in the rap hierarchy (I'd put him behind Jay, Kanye and probably even Diddy), and by that logic, you could probably argue that the two biggest superstars in rock are Chris Daughtry or Chad Kroeger. Does a superstar stop traffic wherever he or she goes? Well, that happens every time Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson leave their house, and I don't know if I'd consider either of them to be stars of the highest order. Does a superstar even have to do anything these days? Yes? Well, Paris Hilton and Heidi Montag would beg to differ. If anything, when Britney roamed the Earth, things were easier. There were just a handful of world-uniting, mega-selling superstars on the planet, and most of them happened to be in boy bands (or dating a member of one). It was easy for everyone to believe that she'd carry the music industry for the next three decades because, well, there really was no one else who could do it. These days, there are just too many so-called superstars ... all of whom we're supposed to be interested in, yet none of whom are particularly, you know, interesting. Is Rihanna a star? Unquestionably. Is she interesting? I don't think so. The Jonas Brothers? Tokio Hotel? Taylor Swift? The only interesting thing about them is their outfits (or hair, or both). Miley Cyrus? Well, she's interesting, but only for reasons that are illegal, so let's just move on. None of that is exactly breaking news, but I think it's all reinforced by what we saw this past weekend at the VMAs. Britney's appearance was a media hailstorm from the minute it was announced, with "What will she do?!?!?" hyperbole gushing forth by the bucket load. And we couldn't wait, because no matter what happened, we were sure it wasn't going to be good. But when the show went live, we got Britney in a skit with that dude from "Superbad," we got Britney calmly welcoming us to the 2008 Video Music Awards, and we got Britney graciously accepting her three awards. And that was it. To me, Britney seemed more like a proud soccer mom accepting an award at a PTA luncheon than she did a superstar. But apparently I am in the minority with that opinion. Because now, Britney is back ... and possibly better than ever. But that's how slim the pickings are these days, how far the definition of "superstar" has been stretched. If a mother of two whose last album sold less than 850,000 copies can be considered a superstar just because she looked pretty and displayed good manners, well, then perhaps the idea of a superstar should just be abandoned altogether. But maybe I'm wrong. As a society, we love nothing more than a good comeback, and if anything, Britney seems poised for one now. Will she ever attain the heights of her glory days? Who knows. Am I slightly terrified that she will? Most definitely. But at the moment, I have more pressing matters to attend to. Namely, trying to scoop Matt Cassel off the waiver wires. Questions? Concerns? Comments? Hit me up at BTTS@MTVStaff.com. Related Videos Related Artists |
| Late Comic Mitch Hedberg's Legacy Endures With <i>Do You Believe In Gosh?</i> Posted: 09 Sep 2008 02:41 AM PDT 'Twenty years from now, it will only be bigger,' longtime manager says of comedian's fanbase.
It's been more than three years since a drug overdose cut short the life of 37-year-old observational comedian Mitch Hedberg, and ever since, fans and friends of the man Time magazine once dubbed "the next Seinfeld" have been asking themselves some variation of the same question: What could have been? Since his body was discovered in a New Jersey hotel room on March 29, 2005, those who knew Hedberg — who once said he was against picketing but didn't "know how to show it" — and those who simply admired his brilliance have wondered what would have come of his still-burgeoning career. One of those people is Dave Becky, Hedberg's longtime manager, who believes the comic is more popular now than he was at the time of his death. "There's been kind of a comedy boom in the last few years, but I think the kids just really dug Mitch, and everyone passed it around, and people just kind of found him," Becky explained. "It's all ages, but I just know lots of kids in school have found him, because I have nieces and nephews who've all just discovered him and dig his stuff. He was very relatable, he was brilliant. I think that, in the last couple of years, when comedy suddenly ... you know, Dane Cook plays arenas and sells tons of records. People have been going out and discovering comedy, and people went, 'Oh, here's this guy I never heard of who's great.' Mitch was super-special and was about to explode. Unfortunately, he passed, and it happened posthumously." Much like Sam Kinison (who died at age 38 in a car crash) and Bill Hicks (who died at 32 from pancreatic cancer) before him, Hedberg's death came at the comic's prime. He'd secured some television development deals and was a fixture on the national club circuit. He was a sharp-as-glass-shards, sometimes-edgy comic who bore a striking resemblance to Rush frontman Geddy Lee and made almost-too-obvious observations about life's subtle peculiarities ("Is a hippopotamus really a hippopotamus or just a really cool opotamus?"). He died with an allegiant fanbase, one that's only grown in spades since his untimely passing. In fact, an obituary MTV News ran on Hedberg still generates consistent traffic. "Death didn't hurt him at all," joked comic and Hedberg pal Doug Stanhope. On Tuesday (September 9), Hedberg's final comedy CD, Do You Believe in Gosh?, hit stores, giving fans one last taste of the man who said he wasn't a household name because most of his fans lived in apartments. Hedberg's offering has already topped iTunes' comedy chart and was the #7 most-downloaded album of the day, as of press time. According to Becky, Hedberg was the kind of comedian who loved being onstage. While other funnymen see club gigs as a springboard to bigger and better things, Hedberg was content with staying a stand-up. "He really wanted to be one of those guys who was just known as a stand-up comedian and would end up playing arenas and just touring, but he was building an audience and was right at that time when comics who traditionally did clubs were starting to do theaters, and he would have been one of those guys who played Madison Square Garden," Becky said. "He was starting to sell tickets and was about to become that guy who goes and has large amounts of fans." Were he alive today, Becky doesn't think Hedberg's style would have changed much. He worked clean, which, these days, is rather rare in comedy, making his jokes accessible to everyone. "I actually think Mitch was edgy in just how forward-thinking and brilliant he was, but really, at the end of the day, he was relatively clean and had jokes about food and koala bears ['My apartment is infested with koala bears — it's the cutest infestation ever'] and escalators ['An escalator can never break: It can only become stairs']," he said. "I think he was always going to just be observational, so maybe if he had had kids, he would have jokes about that. I think his material was always going to remain pure and observational and his take on the way he sees the world. "He didn't have a lot of jokes about sex," Becky continued. " ... I think his comedy would have evolved to wherever life took him. If he spent more time in Europe, he'd have jokes about things he saw in Europe. He would just take everyday life and things that he sees and make jokes about them." Stanhope doesn't necessarily agree that Hedberg is more popular now than he was in life but admitted the man was a genius. "He was pretty well-known when he was alive, and he worked way too much, because way too many people wanted to see him," Stanhope said. "I hear about him just as often as I used to. I did a Norwegian tour once where, during the middle of my set, some Norwegian guy yells out, 'I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to too.' He was heckling me with Hedberg lines." While many have compared Hedberg's style to that of comedian Steven Wright, Stanhope never thought of his friend as an observational comic. "It wasn't observational at all — it was triple-observational," he said. "The comparisons to Steven Wright were so lacking. Wright looks weird and says things that are funny and clever, but Hedberg was an actual person who thought like that. I see Steven Wright as someone who sits down and tries to think up stuff, but Hedberg was someone who thought like that. He was so ahead of his time — not on a comedy level, but on a human level. There are very few people that I ever felt inferior to, on every level." In celebration of Hedberg and Do You Believe in Gosh?'s release, several comedy clubs across the country will be hosting comedians Hedberg was close to — including his widow, Lynn Shawcroft, who will be performing at the Hollywood Improv at 10 p.m. with Al Madrigal, Todd Glass and others. Similar events have been set for New York; Kirkland, Washington; Cincinnati; Minneapolis; and Austin, Texas "Everyone loved Mitch and loved his comedy," Becky said. "Many comics have been influenced by him, and a lot of people got into comedy because of him. His legacy will remain forever. Twenty years from now, it will only be bigger, where people will be saying, 'He's one of the most brilliant comedians of all time,' and that he's a 'legend,' which he is." Related Artists |
| Posted: 09 Sep 2008 12:34 AM PDT Leader gave ring to Meghan McCain, John's daughter, to deliver to Palin.
Russell Brand might be the best thing to ever happen to purity rings. Though the British comedian was roundly flamed by Jonas Brothers fans for relentlessly mocking the boys' abstinence symbols during Sunday night's VMAs, the ribbing might actually be a blessing in disguise for the movement. "I've received a good amount of feedback," said Jason Burtt, national director of Silver Ring Thing, a program that asks teens to pledge to remain virgins until marriage. "Nothing negative, but mostly positive support from all over the country from people interested in the program." Burtt's Christian organization, which doesn't sell purity rings, runs more than 70 programs a year for teens in which they spread a message of abstinence until marriage, offering a ring to those who complete the course. Burtt has gotten more than two dozen such messages since Sunday, and he said the very public commitments from the Jonas Brothers and Jordin Sparks have certainly helped put the issue in the public eye. Silver Ring Thing founder Denny Pattyn, an evangelical Christian youth minister, appeared on "The Today Show" Tuesday morning (September 9), and he told MTV News that he's been getting quite a few requests from media organizations in the United States and England to discuss the issue. But more important, he ran into John McCain's daughter Meghan backstage at the show, and the two had a talk that he hopes will soon connect him to Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. "We had a long talk about Sarah Palin and her daughter's pregnancy and them maybe getting more involved when they come to Pennsylvania where I live," Pattyn said. A year after the movie "Juno" and Jamie Lynn Spears' pregnancy made headlines, the topic of teen pregnancy received renewed attention when it was revealed that 17-year-old Bristol Palin is expecting and that her mother favors abstinence-only sex education in schools at a time when teen-pregnancy rates are on the rise again. "This is a big, big to-do," Pattyn said of the flap in his community over the Jonas Brothers/ Brand issue. "It's fantastic for an organization like ours, and we think this will open up some major things." Pattyn said he gave Meghan McCain one of his group's rings to give to Governor Palin for her daughter "to let her know we're supporting her and praying for her." Sales are up overall this summer at PromiseRingsOvernight.com, according to John Cabouch, director of e-commerce operations for the Culver City, California, company, which owns a number of sites that sell the rings. "It's not just what happened on Sunday, but we've seen an uptick in general in the past couple of months," he said. "There seems to be a growing interest in this type of ring, and from what we've gleaned, it's just being talked about more in social circles, especially among young people." Cabouch speculated that the attention from the VMA dustup can only help sales but that he thinks the kind of unofficial endorsement from celebrities like Sparks and the JoBros will likely validate a belief in the rings and make young people think that it's not so "kooky or geeky" to buy one and make a pledge to abstain from sex. Sales of purity rings have been through the roof at jeweler James Avery, where spokeswoman Sara Hegener said there has been a "huge swell" over the past few months. "There's a lot of buzz with the Jonas Brothers and these purity rings, and I like to think some of it is tied to that," she said, noting that sales of the company's signature "True Love Waits" ring were up 78 percent in July over last year and up 113 percent in August. While Sparks clearly took issue with Brand's steady barrage of jokes at the Jonases' expense — sassily telling the audience, "It's not bad to wear a promise ring, because not everybody, guy or girl, wants to be a slut" — the brothers themselves don't seem too put out by the taunting. On Tuesday, they talked to the BBC, and Nick said, "For us, it's cool to see that he recognizes we are gentlemen," then complimented Brand for his comedic chops, saying he did a "good job" hosting the show. Brother Kevin was equally complimentary, saying the teasing didn't ruin the siblings' night at all. "We had a lot of friends there, and everybody's so nice," he said. "We had a good time." He did, however, speculate that Brand may have not been in tune with the audience's sense of humor. "I think he focused on certain things and didn't move off of them," Kevin said. "People's attention spans in America need more than that." A number of studies have shown that teens who take purity pledges tend to delay becoming sexually active for about 18 months longer than teens who don't, but that when they do become active, they are more likely to have unprotected or risky sex, though Pattyn said he does not support those findings. Now that the 2008 VMAs have come and gone, check out all the winners, the most surprising moments, the best red-carpet fashions and more at VMA.MTV.com. Related Videos Related Artists |
| Usher, Tameka Foster Expecting Second Child: Report Posted: 09 Sep 2008 02:08 AM PDT Couple's first son, Usher Raymond V, was born in November.
Usher and his wife, Tameka Foster, are expecting their second child, People magazine reports. The couple welcomed a son, Usher Raymond V, in November. Usher, 29, recently told People that he is very excited about fatherhood. "I'm so proud to be a father by the time I'm 30," he told the magazine last month. "I'd hate to be 80 years old and not be able to run with my kids. I need to still be able to do flips when they're in high school! "Having a child just completed the story," he told the magazine. "I already had a giving heart, and I wanted to do something to mentor children." The singer also opened up to Essence magazine in a July interview. He described his son, nicknamed Cinco, as an "extension of his union" with his wife, whom he married in August 2007. The news comes in the wake of Usher's recent announcement that he will kick off a ladies-only tour called One Night Stand later this fall. Now that Usher is a married family man, he hopes this tour, in support of his latest album, Here I Stand, will prove that he's still sex-symbol material. "The ladies like to see that masculine build," he said. "They question if I still got it. "There's only a few artists that can pull that off," he added. "I feel like I've had such a connection with my audience. This album, I felt like, was definitely the type of one that was more intimate. So what better way to get up close and personal than to make it all women?" Related Artists |
| Driving Miss Spears (And Mr. Brand) At The VMAs Posted: 09 Sep 2008 01:41 AM PDT For an MTV staffer, the opportunity of a lifetime came at short notice!
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| McCain-Palin Campaign Continues Playing Heart's 'Barracuda,' Despite Band's Protest Posted: 08 Sep 2008 11:29 PM PDT Republican presidential campaign says it obtained proper license to use the song.
Republican nominees John McCain and Sarah Palin have ignored Heart's request to stop using their song "Barracuda" at political events, CNN reports. On Tuesday morning (September 9), the 1977 hit played before McCain and Palin showed up for an outdoor rally in Lebanon, Ohio. Heart's Ann and Nancy Wilson initially complained when it was played at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, before Palin's appearance last Wednesday and after McCain's speech on Thursday. Palin gained the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" while on her high school basketball team, and Republicans are likely using the rock anthem to remind voters of the Alaska governor's reputation as a tenacious leader. "The Republican campaign did not ask for permission to use the song, nor would they have been granted that permission," read a statement from Heart's camp. "We have asked the Republican campaign publicly not to use our music. We hope our wishes will be honored." Later, in an e-mail to EW.com, the Wilson sisters said that "Sarah Palin's views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. ... While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it there." The Republican Party did in fact obtain the necessary license to use the song, which can be played when a venue pays a blanket fee to ASCAP, the organization that protects music copyrights. While the Wilsons are clearly upset, "Barracuda" co-writer and former Heart guitarist Roger Fisher (Nancy's ex) has a different outlook. He's happy to receive the publicity, he told Reuters last week, and he pledged to give part of the royalties from the song's use to Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's campaign. Related Artists |
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