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| Bonnaroo Taps Bruce Springsteen, Phish, Beastie Boys As Headliners Posted: 03 Feb 2009 09:00 AM PST Snoop Dogg, Nine Inch Nails, Animal Collective will also perform at Manchester, Tennessee, festival.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Phish and the Beastie Boys have been tapped to headline the 2009 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, scheduled for June 11-14 in Manchester, Tennessee. It's the only North American festival date for Springsteen and Phish — who, according to organizers, will be playing " a full two-set performance as well as an additional late-evening set" — and a bit of a homecoming for the latter, since each member of the group has performed at the festival over its seven years (including frontman Trey Anastasio and bassist Mike Gordon sharing the stage in 2006).
Joining Bruce, Phish and the Beasties on the bill are more than 70 acts, including vets like Nine Inch Nails, Snoop Dogg, TV on the Radio, Wilco, David Byrne, Elvis Costello and Al Green; established rock acts such as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Decemberists and the Mars Volta; plus much-buzzed up-and-comers like MGMT, Animal Collective, Bon Iver, the Crystal Castles and Chairlift. Oh, and don't worry, longtime 'Roo heads: Béla Fleck is playing too. A Bonnaroo spokesperson said the final lineup will include more than 120 bands and over 20 comedians. Tickets for the 2009 fest go on sale February 7 at noon ET on the festival's Web site. General-admission tickets for the four-day festival start at $224.50, though, like other summer fests, Bonnaroo is offering a special installment plan, with sets of tickets available for five payments of $50. There's also the option to buy a Bonnaroo "Green Ticket," which helps build and maintain sustainable improvements to the festival grounds in Manchester. The list of confirmed artists for the 2009 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band |
| T.I. Explains Arrest, Helps Troubled Teen In Scenes From New Reality Show Posted: 02 Feb 2009 06:35 AM PST 'Road to Redemption' premieres February 10 at 9 p.m. on MTV.
NEW YORK — Apologies to Ol' Dirty Bastard and Trick Daddy, but T.I. might be the rapper who most loves the kids. "My children," Tip told a roomful of media Monday evening (February 2) when asked what he would miss most next month after he enters prison. The King of the South was in NYC to promote his new MTV reality show, "Road to Redemption," which debuts February 10. The eight-episode arc will follow the recording star as he honors probation commitments, promotes Paper Trail, and prepares to do a year in jail. The Atlanta lyricist is scheduled to do a prison stint following his arrest on federal gun charges stemming from an incident during the 2007 BET Hip-Hop Awards weekend. Tip was under house arrest during his arraignment and sentencing. After a judge ordered the rapper to jail, Tip gave a heartfelt speech during a press conference. The show's title is, in part, from his words that day. "I'm proud of ['Road to Redemption']," he told MTV News before Monday's screening at the Norwood. "We worked hard. It started in my house while I was in house arrest just as an idea. We didn't even know if I would leave my house to be able to do it. It just manifested, and I'm proud of it." In the premiere episode, T.I. offers to tell "the whole story," alluding to the reason why he attempted to purchase such heavy artillery in the first place. In a confessional-style testimony, Tip recalls the 2006 shooting death of his best friend and assistant Philant Johnson. Prior to Johnson's murder, T.I. had a history with guns, but his desire for firearms subdued as he gained success. "The one time I needed [a gun], I didn't have one," he said during the show's opening minutes. He blamed his anger over Johnson's death and subsequent paranoia for creating a "train of thought" that led him to illegally attempt to buy guns. Throughout "Road to Redemption," Tip is challenged with changing the lives of seven kids. They range from a number of cases, including a high school dropout-turned-drug dealer. "We're gonna help him whether he wants it or not," the rapper said in the segment before being introduced to the teen and opening up about his own tribulations. T.I. said the show features a number of scenarios, only one of which is him preparing to be away from his family and the spotlight while behind bars. "You'll see all the things that go into what I do," Tip told MTV News. "The work I put in to maintain this level of success and stardom. ... You see me deal with kids in a way that may surprise you. "The sky can be the limit," he added later. "All you have to be willing to do is accept it." Related Videos Related Photos Related Artists |
| Ne-Yo's <i>Gentleman</i> Blends Retro And Euro To Earn Grammy Nods Posted: 03 Feb 2009 05:04 AM PST The Album of the Year nominee manages to be a Rat Pack homage with club-banging beats.
Maybe Ne-Yo knew something we didn't when he decided to call his third album, Year of the Gentleman. After a somewhat lackluster second outing, the in-demand songwriter and lid-loving dance machine stormed back to the forefront of the R&B game with a string of smash hits that catapulted him into Album of the Year Grammy contention. With six Grammy nominations this year — to add to his 2007 win for Best Contemporary R&B album — Ne-Yo (born Shaffer Chimere Smith), 29, is used to writing inescapable hits for other artists. From his 2004 breakthrough for Mario ("Let Me Love You") to Rihanna's "Take a Bow" and Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable," the "So Sick" songwriter has had a pretty sick track record. Ne-Yo named Gentleman in homage to the Rat Pack era of the 1960s, when stars like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin always looked their best while singing the songs that made the ladies swoon, much the way he tries to do.
But while Ne-Yo wanted to capture that smooth sensibility in his lyrics, his longtime writing partners in the production duo Stargate had different ideas. "It was definitely more suave on the lyrical side, with all this talk about being very sympathetic and gentlemanlike on songs like 'Miss Independent,' " Stargate's Tor Hermansen told MTV News. "But we wanted to make [the music] very urgent and contemporary sounding but with classic melodies. We didn't want to go retro with the production." In a break from the usual modern R&B style, the album is all Ne-Yo, with no featured guests on any of the songs, four of which were produced by Stargate. In a review of the album, a Rolling Stone writer jokingly wrote that while Ne-Yo intended it to be an homage to the Pack, it was "actually a superb concept album about what a great boyfriend he can be." None of the songs tell that story better than radio staple "Miss Independent," a slinky, spare slice of future funk in which Ne-Yo praises his girl because she "work like a boss, play like a boss/ Car and a crib, she 'bout to pay 'em both off/ And her bills are paid on time." But it was with the club-banging "Closer" that Ne-Yo closed the deal. The album-opening first single with the propulsive Euro club beat and pleading chorus, "I just can't stop," is classic Ne-Yo 2.0: remix ready and slathered with the kind of girl-power boosting message that gets women on the dance floor in gaggles as the men line up beside them saying, "Yeah, what he said!" Hermansen said one of the first things Ne-Yo said he wanted to do with Gentleman was to really shake up his sound. "The first record we did was an uptempo song, which we've never really done with him before," Hermansen said. "We started ['Closer'] with a live guitar, and he got on it. And as soon as it was done we said, 'This is something we've never done before.' We wanted to blend a European club feeling with a soulful melody on top. It's very simple, but it also drives, which really works in a club. People go crazy in the club, but they can also sing along to it." That mix of European beats and classic American R&B set the tone for the sessions, which Stargate's Mikkel Eriksen said helped open up Ne-Yo's sound to new fans across the globe. "He was very excited about it, which is why we're never afraid to throw curve balls at him, because he's so versatile," Eriksen said. "That blend really works throughout the whole world — Europe, U.S., Asia — and he's such a soulful singer that it's obviously a soul record, but there wasn't too much thinking about genres." With his sensitive, silky vocals and a musical box of tricks that moonwalks from soaring Beatle-esque pop ("Stop This World") to 1960s Motown acoustic soul ("Back To What You Know") and Justin Timberlake-style android-with-a-heart balladry ("Lie to Me"), Ne-Yo did serve up a bit of everything on the album, but even he didn't expect how well-received it would be. As confident and smooth as he is, Ne-Yo told MTV News in December that he was blown away by his Grammy nominations. "They came up and they told me, 'Oh, by the way, you got six. It wasn't just that one,' " he said. "That works too! Damn! That means that I have six chances to win a Grammy. One nomination would have been enough for me. How do you do anything but smile at that? ... This is the Grammys. This is not a game!" But it's probably not just luck that got Ne-Yo all those nods, it was his willingness to stretch beyond his musical comfort zone. "He didn't want to do just traditional R&B," said Hermansen. "He had done that, and we had done that. We wanted to step out of that and see what other things we could put together to make contemporary R&B interesting. The fact that he went in and wanted to change his sound and the R&B sound is what made this special." Will Lil Wayne grab all the gramophones? Is Katy Perry going to tell her girl rivals to kiss off? Can Coldplay march off with a win? MTV News is all over the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, so stay tuned for interviews, analysis and more before, during and after the big night, Sunday, February 8. Related Videos Related Artists |
| Watch Lil Wayne Bowling With Katie Couric For Grammy Special! Posted: 02 Feb 2009 06:03 AM PST 'All Access Grammy Special' also features interviews with Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake and Katy Perry.
Katie Couric went bowling with Grammy nominee Lil Wayne, sharing strikes, bowling advice and high fives, for her "All Access Grammy Special," airing Wednesday on CBS. But it's what the rapper revealed during the interview that will leave fans really floored.
The MC, whose real name is Dwayne, discussed with the CBS anchor his reasons for dropping the "D" from his first name. "I dropped the 'D' 'cause I'm a junior," he said, referring to the fact that he is named after his dad. "He's not in my life, and he's never been in my life, so I don't want to be Dwayne." During Wayne's interview, he explained that he touches on topics like Hurricane Katrina in his songs because "I believe that music is another form of news. Music is another form of journalism to me. So I have to cover all the areas. You get Lil Wayne's take on the new president, money, the economy, women, whatever." When Couric asked if he had any questions for President George W. Bush regarding the way Hurricane Katrina was handled and if he had any questions about it, the New Orleans native responded, "I'm gangsta, and gangstas don't ask questions." At the end of the clip, he summed himself up as: "I'm a rapper. And I am a gangsta. And I do what I want." The show will also feature interviews with Grammy nominees Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Justin Timberlake. Will Lil Wayne grab all the gramophones? Is Katy Perry going to tell her girl rivals to kiss off? Can Coldplay march off with a win? MTV News is all over the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, so stay tuned for interviews, analysis and more before, during and after the big night, Sunday, February 8. Related Artists |
| 50 Cent Taunts Rick Ross: 'You're So Unimportant' Posted: 02 Feb 2009 01:26 AM PST Following a dis track called 'Officer Ricky,' the G-Unit general even interviews Tia Kemp, one of Ross' ex-girlfriends, in video.
Rick Ross told 50 Cent on Friday that he'd give him 48 hours to come up with a new response after the Miami lyricist shrugged off "Officer Ricky (Go 'Head, Try Me)," the G-Unit rapper's dis song following the first musical volley shot by Ross on "Mafia Music." Well, 50's been pretty busy ever since. Over the weekend, he launched a number of verbal attacks directed at Ross on his Web site, ThisIs50.com. On Saturday, 50 started with a video blog where he denied Ross' claim that he wilted at the sight of the Boss during last year's BET Hip-Hop Awards. "I don't remember seeing him," 50 said. "You're so unimportant, I don't even remember." In the clip, Fif also said he'll relentlessly attack Ross, and like Ross, he won't stop because of label pressure. "I'm deciding to f--- your life up," 50 said into the camera. "Rick Ross, I'm gonna f--- you life up ... for fun. This is not new. I do this all the time." 50 went on to explain that he purchased court transcripts from Ross' family court case with the mother of one of his children (presumably in response to Ross' jabs about last year's "suspicious" fire at the home of one of 50's ex-girlfriends). He then warned Ross, "I think it's fair to say that I know you now and everyone else will know you." Later that day, an animated parody of Ross and 50 appeared on the site. In the video, 50 is shown locked up in jail with Ross serving as a correction officer. Throughout the clip, 50 taunts Ross: "Officer Ricky!" On Monday (February 2), 50 showed just how familiar he is with Ross now. The rapper featured himself in a clip with the mother of Ross' son, Tia Kemp. During the eight-minute-long video, 50 interviews Kemp, who mocks Ross' boasts on his records. "It' sort of embarrassing to me, because as you listen to his raps you would definitely believe him," she said of Ross' financial status. "It was surprising to see he spends $200 dollars a month on food, $300 dollars a month on clothes, his jewelry is rented [and] possibly not real, his cars are being leased, he doesn't know where the money came from to put a down payment on a million-dollar home. I just want to prove the facts today. It's all real, coming from Tia." Kemp told 50 that when she dated Ross she moved in with the rapper during her pregnancy. While she was cleaning the house she learned Ross had once been a correction officer, which she said he denied. According to Kemp, his sister confirmed the matter that later was referenced by TheSmokingGun.com. A little more than halfway through the video, 50 ends the interview with Kemp, promising more to come. He then takes Kim on a shopping trip through New York, where the pair stop at a fur store for a coat before later going to the Gucci store to buy shoes. "This is gonna be fun," 50 said of mocking Ross. Related Videos Related Artists |
| Erykah Badu, Jay Electronica Blog Child's Birth In Real Time On Twitter Posted: 02 Feb 2009 09:05 AM PST 'Morning, I'm in labor,' soul singer tweets on Sunday.
Artists have always done strange things to win our attention, right? And lately, we've seen how musicians are using micro-blog site Twitter as an über-marketing tool. This weekend, one pair of artists took things further than we expected, as Erykah Badu and her beau, upstart rapper Jay Electronica, sent tweets of their daughter's birth in real time. The ever enigmatic Badu kick-started the experience, telling the more than 4,500 followers of her Twitter blog, "Fatbellybella": "Morning, I'm in labor." The Grammy-winning singer gave updates on the time between her contractions before going AWOL. Presumably Badu was, you know, giving birth when she disappeared. But Electronica kept sending updates throughout the birth on his page, "JayElectronica." Badu and Electronica chose to forgo delivery in a hospital and instead opted for a home birth with a midwife. According to updates, it looked like the midwife may have been running a bit late. "Labor has begun," Electronica wrote. "Everybody stand back. No hospitals. No doctors. No medicine. We're waiting for the midwife to show." While waiting for the midwife, Electronica described the vibe and sent messages to rapper Talib Kweli ("I'm build for this sh--") and producer Just Blaze ("You should be here"). Electronica also compared the atmosphere to a scene from "The Color Purple." He wrote that only a few family members were present in Badu's Brooklyn home, including her daughter Puma. The rapper told followers he was sending the tweets between watching contractions and rubbing Badu's feet. He even blogged about Badu's water breaking, how far along she was dilated and when she started pushing. "I see the head, full of hair," he wrote. Just over 20 minutes later, Badu gave birth. "Feb. 1 2009 my first child, my daughter born at 130 PM exactly," the new father wrote. "It's the happiest day of my life." Later, Badu, who has two children from previous relationships with rappers Andre 3000 and the D.O.C., popped back online with a message to fans. "I can't believe it's over," she wrote. "Home birth, no painkillers, about five hours, she was a little past due date, but I didn't mind waiting. Breath." Related Artists |
| Jennifer Hudson Lip-Synched Super Bowl Performance Posted: 02 Feb 2009 06:17 AM PST Producer insisted that Hudson and Faith Hill use pre-recorded tracks.
By now, you've probably either read about or seen Jennifer Hudson's stirring rendition of the national anthem before Sunday night's Super Bowl. In her first public performance since her mother, brother and nephew were slain in October, Hudson delivered a stunning version of the anthem. But after the game, the show's producer, "American Idol" music director Ricky Minor, told The Associated Press that, at his request, Hudson lip-synched the anthem to a previously recorded track. "This was such an important performance, because it's the first time everyone has seen Jennifer. But she's in such a great place, with such great spirits, and time can heal her wounds. She's on fire right now and totally grounded," said Minor, who has produced a number of Super Bowl pregame performances, including Whitney Houston's iconic 1991 rendition of the anthem, also in Tampa, which is considered one of the all-time greats. Minor explained that he insisted that both Hudson and Faith Hill, who performed "America the Beautiful" before Hudson, sing to the prerecorded tracks the NFL requires them to submit a week before the game. "That's the right way to do it," Minor said. "There's too many variables to go live. I would never recommend any artist go live, because the slightest glitch would devastate the performance." Minor described Hudson as being very calm and prepared for her performance. While many artists try to reach for the Houston standard on the huge Super Bowl stage, he said Hudson's soaring take was more personal than patriotic. "She's from the church," Minor said. "So we wanted to give it a gospel feel, use a little organ, rhythm and really give it a feel that matched Jennifer. We wanted her to emote the lyrics and connect with the song." After the performance, Minor said Hudson returned to the dressing room and anxiously asked him, "How did I do?" "I told her, 'Touchdown!'" Minor told the AP after the performance. Minor added that Hudson's two cell phones lit up "like slot machines" following her performance, including a text from her "Dreamgirls" co-star Jamie Foxx. "His text said 'Amazing. It brought tears to my eyes,' " Minor said. "She's just getting so much love." Hudson, 27, who has yet to discuss her family tragedy in public, will next appear at the Grammy Awards on February 8. At press time, reps for Hudson had not granted MTV News' requests for comment. Will Lil Wayne grab all the gramophones? Is Katy Perry going to tell her girl rivals to kiss off? Can Coldplay march off with a win? MTV News is all over the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, so stay tuned for interviews, analysis and more before, during and after the big night, Sunday, February 8. Related Artists |
| Killers Talk About White House Visit Posted: 02 Feb 2009 01:48 AM PST Drummer Ronnie Vannucci says Barack Obama's White House has a 'good vibe."
Perhaps, last week, you saw the Associated Press photo of the Killers wandering around the White House, looking slightly dazed and decidedly underdressed for the occasion (certainly a first for them). You probably looked at that picture and thought to yourself, "What were they doing there?" We were determined to get to the bottom of this, so we reached out to the Killers themselves to see how they scored invites to Barack Obama's new digs. "We were in D.C., had a day off, decided to pay a visit ... why not?" drummer Ronnie Vannucci told MTV News. "It's important to us, and I personally enjoy American history." Vannucci said the entire band was pretty blown away by the White House tour, even if they didn't get to meet our new commander in chief. "Unfortunately, we just missed him, as he was off to his first big briefing at the Pentagon. However, his staff were very accommodating and friendly," Vannucci said. "We were told [Obama] occasionally rocks our tunes when he's not fixing the country. Although, it's just hearsay at this point — the listening-to-the-Killers part." And in keeping with Obama's new "cool and casual" White House vibe, the Killers decided to dress down for the big event. Well, everyone except their drummer, that is. "We didn't feel underdressed. I wore a nice wool blazer," he said. "That being said, usually bands are able to get away with some dress-code issues. Generally, we're well-dressed men anyway." But behind closed doors, and away from the prying eyes of the press corps, are things really as laid-back as Obama would have us believe? Most definitely. "[He's got a] great house! Good vibe, Nag Champa [incense], candles — your typical White House vibe," Vannucci laughed. "I even managed to bang out Bob Seger's 'Old Time Rock and Roll' on the White House Steinway [piano]. Even the Secret Service guys were cool with that." Related Artists |
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