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| Jennifer Hudson's Shy Mother, Happy Brother And 'Easygoing' Nephew Remembered Posted: 27 Oct 2008 04:07 AM PDT Singer/actress often told press that her family kept her grounded while she rocketed to fame.
With the announcement late Monday afternoon (October 27) that the body of a young boy found dead in an SUV was in fact Jennifer Hudson's 7-year-old nephew, Julian King, the Hudson family was dealt another heavy blow. Before Hudson's mother, Darnell Donerson, 57, and her 29-year-old brother, Jason Hudson, were found shot to death in their South Side Chicago home on Friday afternoon, those who knew the Hudsons described them as a close-knit family. And the singer/actress herself often said her family is what keeps her grounded. Donerson was a shy, quiet woman who supported her daughter's success but didn't need to bask in it like a typical stage mother. She even declined to attend a recent taping of Oprah Winfrey's show, in which Hudson would be promoting her latest film, "The Secret Life of Bees." "She doesn't want the attention," Hudson recently told Australia's Sunday Telegraph, "while at the same time, she's extremely proud and happy for me." Hudson's father died when she was a teenager, and Hudson and her mother had a close relationship. Donerson encouraged her daughter to perform, and often enjoyed singing songs by the Temptations at home. "She would always sing that to us," Hudson told ABC News when she was promoting "Dreamgirls." When Hudson first found out she was up for an Oscar for "Dreamgirls," the first thing she did was call her mom, she told the New York Post at the time. "She was so excited," Hudson said. "It was like, 'Wow!' She was just getting set to take my nephew to school. I always call my mom first." And when Hudson went to the ceremony, she brought her mother along as her date and, of course, thanked her in her acceptance speech when she won Best Supporting Actress. "I'm so grateful to have my mother here celebrating with me," she told the crowd. Hudson often returned home to Chicago to visit her family, because that's where "my life is normal," she told The Associated Press. "When I go home to my mom, I'm just Jennifer. And I love that. I don't like when people tell you everything you want to hear. I want to hear the truth, you know what I mean?" Jason Hudson had also been living with their mother ever since being shot two years ago during a home invasion. "We nearly lost him," Donerson's cousin John Buckner told the Chicago Sun-Times. "He was more or less a happy individual, trying to get his life straightened out." Jason had been working as a mechanic, and friends described him to reporters as a fun guy who liked barbecue, sports and video games. "He was a real nice guy," his neighbor Hiriam Hill told ABC News. "Nobody ever had any bad blood against this man." On Jason's MySpace page, he jokingly listed his occupation as "player." Already, a huge outpouring of his friends are commenting on the page about how much they miss him. His quote on the top of the page reads, "Life's too short for bulls---, keep it gangster." At a press conference Saturday, Hudson's older sister, Julia, pleaded for the safe return of her son Julian, whom she described as an "easygoing" kid who went by the nicknames "Juice Box" and "Dr. King" and preferred staying home with his grandmother than going outside. Buckner told the Sun-Times that Julian was doted on, and that he was a "happy-go-lucky kid, a spoiled little kid." Related Videos Related Artists |
| 50 Cent Signs On As Executive Producer Of 'Intense' Jam Master Jay Documentary Posted: 27 Oct 2008 03:29 AM PDT 'Two Turntables and a Microphone' delves into the tragic murder and 'creates some clarity,' Fif says.
We already know that 50 Cent is releasing the movie "Before I Self Destruct" alongside his album of the same title. However, the Queens mogul told MTV News exclusively on Friday that he's planning to add even more to the set when it drops in December 9. For a limited time, he'll also be distributing the documentary "Two Turntables and a Microphone," which centers on the life, legacy and untimely death of Run-DMC's Jam Master Jay. "It's intense," he said. The documentary was produced in part by JMJ's cousin, Stephon "Phonz" Watford, and 50 Cent was recently brought in as an executive producer.
"Phonz was working on that project for five years," 50 explained. "He came to me, and I shot my [interview] portion that's on the documentary. We met in Atlanta the first time and ended up shooting in Amsterdam." Besides Fif, some of Jay's other protégés and peers — such as Onyx, Rev Run and Russell Simmons — as well as some of his childhood friends sat down to talk for the cameras. Although the filmmakers don't come out and say who they think the killer is, they do infer that at least two people in Jay's inner circle know who committed the atrocious crime. Jason " Jam Master Jay" Mizell was gunned down six years ago this week while in his Queens studio. Although several theories have been reported and rumored over the years, the police have never officially named a suspect in the case. The case remains unsolved. "It's not a random act of violence," 50 opined. "People just don't walk in your studio, shoot and kill you with several other people around, and no one knows anything. I believe the documentary sheds light on it — a little bit. It creates a clearer picture of what actually happened at that point. People just heard, 'Jam Master Jay got shot.' They don't understand the circumstances. [The film] creates some clarity." Anyone that knows 50's history knows that JMJ was an early mentor, giving 50 his first real step into the music business. "He was somebody who impacted my career — you can say in the biggest way," 50 remembered. " 'Cause in my career, I was just in the infant stages, developing my song structure around Jay. The first time I was in the studio, [it was] with intentions of recording songs for an album with Jam Master Jay. He taught me how to count bars. I could rap already. I knew what I wanted to say, but he was showing me how I had to get it out around the right time. [He would say,] 'That sounds crazy, you have to say it earlier in this verse.' " Jam Master Jay's family is planning to commemorate his memory this year with a candlelight vigil on Thursday in Queens and a memorial tribute in Brooklyn on Saturday. For more information, see the Jam Master Jay Foundation 4 Youth MySpace page. Related Videos Related Artists |
| Jennifer Hudson's Nephew Found Dead, Police Confirm Posted: 27 Oct 2008 02:50 AM PDT The body of 7-year-old Julian King was found Monday morning.
The tragedy enveloping Jennifer Hudson's family took another grim turn when Chicago Police Department Superintendent Jody Weis confirmed that the body found in an SUV on Chicago's West Side on Monday morning (October 27) was that of Hudson's 7-year-old nephew, Julian King. An autopsy for the boy was scheduled to take place Tuesday, and Weis would not comment on whether the child was killed inside the vehicle or at the home in which Hudson's mother and older brother were found shot to death on Friday. Hudson and her family had offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the boy's safe return on Sunday, but the prospects that the child had escaped harm became slim Monday with the discovery of the white Suburban that had been reported missing from the original crime scene. The vehicle was part of an Amber Alert for King that was canceled Monday morning when police were alerted to the SUV. Members of the Hudson family went to the medical examiner's office early Monday afternoon to identify the body of the boy, who had been missing since Friday. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, police said the body of the young black male found in the SUV was shot once in the head in the backseat of the vehicle. Earlier, it was reported that bullet casings were found in the boy's room at the original crime scene on Friday, though Weis would not comment on that during Monday's press conference. Police were tipped off about the Suburban early Monday morning by a 75-year-old resident of the neighborhood, who told the Sun-Times that his dog had been barking unusually at the suspicious vehicle. The Chicago Tribune reported that a car belonging to Hudson's slain brother, a 1994 white Chevrolet Suburban with Illinois license-plate number X584859, was reported missing from the crime scene, and the SUV containing the body of the boy matched that license-plate number. Weis said that Chicago police were "pretty optimistic" about solving the case, though no weapon has been recovered yet. He also said it's possible that "other individuals" might turn up in connection with the case, though at press time the only person detained by police in the case is 27-year-old William Balfour, who denied involvement in the disappearance of the boy. Law-enforcement sources told the Tribune that after initially cooperating with police, Balfour had stopped talking to authorities. Balfour, out on parole after serving a seven-year prison sentence for attempted murder and kidnapping, is the estranged husband of the missing boy's mother, Julia Hudson. Since being taken in for questioning, he has been transferred to a state facility for violating his parole, officials said. Police are testing Balfour's clothing for gunshot residue, the Sun-Times reports. An unidentified police source told the Sun-Times that Balfour's alibi on the day of the killings has been contradicted by his pregnant girlfriend, who has been interviewed by police. Balfour was arrested at the girlfriend's home on Friday night, and a family friend said Balfour had recently threatened to take King away. A source said that police had tracked Balfour's whereabouts on the day of the slayings through his cell phone. A neighbor who lives on the block where Balfour was arrested told the paper that he remembers seeing a man matching Balfour's description drive up in a white SUV and park on the block around noon on Friday, three hours after the slayings. The neighbor said the man reached into the glove compartment, got out of the car carrying what appeared to be a bottle of liquor and walked into the house where Balfour was later arrested. The Sun-Times also reported that police had been told that Balfour and Julia Hudson had been at the home that was the scene of the slaying earlier in the day Friday and may have argued, though Balfour's mother denied her son was at the Hudson home that day. Related Videos Related Artists |
| Kanye West Swears He Didn't Leak 'Robocop' Posted: 27 Oct 2008 06:56 AM PDT 'I'm pretty upset about it, but that's the way life is sometimes!' rapper blogs.
Kanye West wasn't kidding when he said his new album would feature the sound of the retro-rific 808 drum machine on every track. Over the weekend, a new song from the upcoming 808s & Heartbreak leaked: "Robocop," the one 'Ye collaborator Mike Dean said is supposed to get some added magic from Grammy-winning keyboard legend Herbie Hancock before the album drops November 25. But West swears he wasn't behind the song's sneak peek. "I did not leak Robocop!!!" he wrote on his blog on Sunday. "That's not even the finished version. I'm pretty upset about it, but that's the way life is sometimes!" The leaked version does sound a bit rough, but from the heartbeat drum pattern to the emergency siren effects to 'Ye's Auto-Tuned vocals, it fits right in with the future-shock motif of "Love Lockdown." In the tune, a deadpan West laments that a love has turned cold and, from the sounds of it, kind of surveillance-y. "Who knew she was a drama queen/ That'll turn my life to Stephen King's/ Checking everything like I'm on parole/ Up late night, like she on patrol/ I told her it's some things she don't need to know/ She never let it go," West sings over the spare track, which also features a thrumming bass line and some strings near the end. At a listening party earlier this month, the rapper debuted a number of the album's tracks, including "Amazing" with Young Jeezy and "Tell Everybody You Know," featuring Lil Wayne, who Dean said sounds "a lot like Axl Rose" on the track. One of West's previous collaborators, rock producer Jon Brion, provides strings on "Welcome to Heartbreak," while a song called "Say You Will" is said to be reminiscent of early George Michael. "Heartless" is currently slated to be the second single from the album. Related Artists |
| All-American Rejects Give Their Alternate Selves Hell In New Video Posted: 28 Oct 2008 05:00 AM PDT Tyson Ritter explains 'Gives You Hell,' the first single from When the World Comes Down.
The All-American Rejects just shot the video for "Gives You Hell," the first single off their upcoming When the World Comes Down album, and here to provide you with a brief synopsis is frontman Tyson Ritter: "It opens with me laying there looking like a bag of rock and roll hit me, and I get woken up by a light that comes through the window. ... And there's an alternate version of me, like this stiff J.Crew guy, and he's out to get the alternate version of me and our band. It's kind of like 'Bill and Ted, Part 2,' " he explained. "The video basically pits one neighbor against another terrible neighbor, who lives on a completely opposite schedule. He's not on the grid — he's not on, like the song says, 'a 9-to-5 pace.' And this guy's living the cookie-cutter life, with his white picket fence, and his wife who brings him lemonade when he's washing the car. So it's kind of like the clash of those worlds; only at the end, there's kind of a twist, where the two worlds kind of flip-flop. Yeah."
Sounds, uh, awesome? Luckily, MTV News was on set with AAR last week in Los Angeles, and we can attest to the fact that the "Hell" video is actually much better than Ritter's explanation lets on. Directed by Marc Webb (who, in addition to his work with acts like My Chemical Romance, Fergie and Evanescence, helmed AAR's video for "Move Along"), the clip features the Rejects gallivanting about — and summarily destroying — a house that's littered with vintage amps and supermodels (it's also painted with stripes for whatever reason). Next door, the so-called "J.Crew" Rejects look on disgustedly and try to ruin the real Rejects' good times, until — like Ritter said — the great conflict at clip's end, when everything is solved thanks to the unifying power of rock. Or something like that. It's all in keeping with the message of the song, which, once again, Ritter was kind enough to explain: "It's kind of this tongue-in-cheek way of looking at someone you hate, whether it's your mom, for some reason, or it's your teacher at school, or it's your boss at work," he said. "It's just someone who makes you struggle, and it's giving them the finger, you know what I mean?" Totally. And though Ritter might take a less-than-serious approach to describing his song and his video, he said that When the World Comes Down (due December 16) is anything but. "When the World Comes Down is ... kind of about the times right now, about the struggle of, uh, everything. Whether it's how crappy your school's getting or, I don't know, anything," he said. "It's, like, also about how tomorrow could be better. I don't know, it could be apocalyptic. It's like the apocalyptic, romantic view on the world. That sounds about right." Related Videos |
| Eminem's <i>Relapse</i> Due For Release On December 23? Posted: 27 Oct 2008 03:41 AM PDT Amazon.com posts release date for unspecified Eminem CD
While a spokesperson for Eminem's label, Interscope, told MTV News "there's been no date scheduled for it," a listing posted Monday on Amazon.com suggests that an LP from the Detroit MC will be in stores just in time for Christmas. The post lists the name of the release as "TBD," despite the MC's announcement earlier this month that the album would be titled Relapse, and provides no information regarding the CD's tracklisting. Relapse marks Eminem's first release of new material since 2004's Encore, which, to date, has sold more than 5.1 million copies in the U.S. In a recent interview with BBC Radio's Zane Lowe, Eminem said he didn't feel the need to rush Relapse's release. "I've accomplished enough with the music that I haven't had to go out there and do other things to oversaturate," he said during the interview. "That's probably what I take pride in most. ... But, at the end of the day, it's kind of catch-22. I love the attention, but I don't like too much of it. ... There's no desire to be that big again. Whatever happens, I'll take it, but that's definitely not what I'll be recording the songs for." He also revealed that he reteamed with his mentor, Dr. Dre, to craft the tracks that'll appear on Relapse, including the cut "I'm Having A Relapse," which Em previewed for the first time this month on his Sirius Satellite channel, Shade 45. "For the last five months I've been working pretty much straight with Dre," he told Lowe. "There's going to be a lot of material, more so than I've had on an album with him producing before. Obviously, [Dre's] beats are insane, but aside from that, I can rap. I can write and not worry about what the beat has to sound like and how loud a snare drum is. All those things are taken care of for me. I feel like a spoilt rapper. I get to pick and choose everything." Related Artists |
| Danity Kane Update: Cassie Is 'Not Joining,' But Has Shannon Bex Left? Posted: 27 Oct 2008 03:06 AM PDT Group's rep does not comment on Bex's rumored departure.
As the fallout continues from Danity Kane parting ways with Aubrey O'Day and D. Woods, speculation was rife in the blogosphere that R&B songstress Cassie would be joining the group as its new frontwoman. And on Monday (October 27), rumors began spreading that Shannon Bex has left the group as well — leaving only Aundrea Fimbres and Dawn Richard as Danity Kane — based on information a "source" told Elvis Duran from New York radio station Z100. Bex had said she was "shell-shocked" by O'Day and Woods' departures. On Monday, MTV News reached out to a rep from Atlantic Records, the group's label, who shot down rumor #1 but did not address rumor #2. "Cassie is not joining DK," the rep said. "Cassie is set to release her second solo album in spring of '09." But what about the Shannon rumor? At press time, the rep had not responded to repeated queries on that issue. Duran's blog post reads in part: "You remember Shannon, the nice, quiet, married girl who was a great team player. Well, guess little momma has more b---s than all the rest of them! Tired of the drama, cat fights and Diddy, she hands in her microphone and tells Mr. Badboy Worldwide where to stick it!" On the season finale of "Making the Band 4" earlier this month, Diddy told O'Day, "See, your attitude is gonna have you in a dark and lonely place. ... What you need to do, at the end of the day, is humble yourself," and told Woods that she got "caught up in the wrath" of O'Day. Related Artists |
| Living The Lyric-Free Life With Ratatat, By John Norris Posted: 27 Oct 2008 12:35 AM PDT Three albums in, electro-rock buds are doing just fine.
You might say they're "transformers," the guys of Ratatat. I have twice now been witness to their transformative power, most recently a couple of weeks ago when I watched a club full of thousands of keg-tappers — the sort that Evan Mast and Mike Stroud might have known at Skidmore College a decade ago — turn into dancing dudes, a blissfully bro-hugging throng transported by blips, beats and power chords. And not singing a single, solitary word.
That is, of course, because Ratatat is that rarest of breeds: an instrumental band that has something bordering on mass appeal. Still, for their part, the shaggy duo think the fixation on their being wordless wonders is all a bit much. "Yeah, I wish it would just stop," Stroud admitted, "but I don't think it's going to. I mean, people are just used to having a singer, you know what I mean?" And breaking through in the way they have without one is pretty remarkable. Ratatat straddle the rock and electronica worlds, jokingly describing their sound as "non-jazz — everything but jazz." But unlike other indie instrumentalists, say, Mogwai or Tortoise, or for that matter even Daft Punk, they create what are essentially lyric-less pop songs. Listen to "Falcon Jab" from the guys' latest album, LP3, released in July, and you wait and wait for the vocal to kick in; on other tracks, you sometimes find yourself making up your own words. "I just think we're both really attracted to melodies," Mast said. "I listened to a lot of electronic music in college, and so much of it is beat-based, but I always gravitated to songs with a nice melody." That said, Mast has no interest in writing lyrics, often finding them the "weak link" of a song, and insists it would be a mistake for anyone to think Ratatat will one day give in to some inevitability of having vocals. "I read a review the other day that said, 'These songs are cool, but it'd be really cool if Santogold sang on them.' I was like, 'You just don't get it.' " From the get-go back in 2001, Stroud said, they never even considered having a singer, adding that they are under no illusions: "I think we knew going into this the limits of being an instrumental band. We're not going to be the hugest band in the world or anything." Maybe not, but they're doing just fine. I caught up with Ratatat at Daddy's, their favorite dive bar in their stomping grounds of Brooklyn, and though their general demeanor tends toward the dry and wry, they had to be enjoying the fact that, at 30K and counting since July, LP3, their third and most accomplished record, is outpacing sales of its predecessors, 2004's Ratatat and 2006's Classics, which featured the snarling breakout hit "Wildcat." "I think this was definitely a freer approach," Mast said. "We'd get an idea and we went with it. With Classics, we'd really labor over things, but this time we'd plow through it, and I think the songs ended up more cohesive, beginning to end." Still, there's a lot going on, as the new album eschews Classics' rockier tendencies in favor of something more dense, adventurous and even exotic. There's the flamenco guitar of "Mi Viejo"; a spacey, staccato "Mumtaz Khan"; "Gipsy Threat," a Wild West gallop through another galaxy, and "Mirando," the single that snaps, crackles and pops its way into your head and refuses to leave. Also on the album is a "Mirando" remix by YACHT's Jona Bechtolt, which, by the way, actually does include a vocal of sorts — a deep voice muttering the words "My older brother has a gun." If it sounds like there's a lot going on in LP3, that's partly because of a potpourri of instruments that the guys discovered in an old house in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York, where they sequestered themselves to make the record, with few distractions. According to Mast, "It was just a ton of new toys to work with," among them, a Mellotron, a talk box, an Iranian drum called a zarb, a flute bought in a toy store and, best of all, a harpsichord. "We've been trying to get good harpsichord sounds for years using synths, and it's not the same thing," Mast said. "And you feel so different when you're playing it. I like how your hands look really huge because the keys are so tiny." I am a sucker for the harpsichord too. New Ratatat songs like album opener "Shiller" and "Dura," with a lead melody on harpsichord, are irresistible — and pretty much unplayable on tour. "We tend to avoid certain songs and don't play them live," said Mast, who explained that they can't take a harpsichord or string section on the road with them, and would prefer to not do the songs at all, rather than compromise them. It's an issue that creeps up a lot for Ratatat — how they can replicate their ever more complex recorded songs (which may include as many as 100 tracks) in a live situation, without bringing scores of musicians out with them. What about the idea of a one-off show, or a very limited tour with a full orchestra, I suggested. "Yeah, that sounds cool," Stroud said. "You want to front us?" Um, no. For the moment Ratatat are content to have one additional player on the road — a keyboardist — and say they may add at least a percussionist in the future. And to their creative credit, Mast said translating the songs live is the last thing they think about when recording. "We try not to think about it at all," he said. "We usually just make the songs as complicated as they need to be and not worry about the live show, just figure that out later." No complaints from the Ratatat crowds, who can number as many as 7,000 in Los Angeles — their biggest market, they say — and can get almost as frenzied as Girl Talk or Dan Deacon devotees. As for those artists' practice of letting fans bum-rush the stage, Stroud and Mast are down — to a point. "I think it's fun," Stroud said, adding that they've had upwards of 50 onstage with them at some shows, though Mast recalled one time that they were playing floor level, "and everyone was wasted, so all our stuff started getting unplugged. And when your guitar stops making noise anymore, it kind of takes the wind out of your sails." The wind still behind their sails — and their sales — Ratatat tour Europe next month. Their latest video, "Shempi," is comprised of creepily distorted images of the ageless ABBA. For more of our conversation with Mast and Stroud, go to rhapsody.com/ratatat. Related Artists |
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