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| T.I.'s Turmoil Inspired Grammy-Nominated <i>Paper Trail</i> Posted: 06 Feb 2009 05:00 AM PST 'With so much struggle going on, he wanted to speak from the heart,' DJ Toomp says of Best Rap Album contender.
If adversity is the spark that creates exceptional art, then T.I.'s Paper Trail should be the runaway winner for Best Rap Album at the Grammy Awards on Sunday. "I think that T.I. should win, because he has a solid album, a huge presence and a great story," Hot 97 News Director Minya Oh — a.k.a. Miss Info — told MTV News last week. The "story" she's referring to, of course, is the rapper's 2007 arrest on federal weapons charges. As a previously convicted felon, the Atlanta lyricist faced upward of 30 years in prison for his offense. His recording home, Atlantic Records, partnered with T.I. to post a $3 million bond, and the rapper was confined to house arrest for months. He lost endorsement deals, his career was in jeopardy, and his future freedom was uncertain. Then T.I. announced he would return to writing his rhymes down — instead of composing them strictly in his head — and channel his emotions into his next album. "T.I. rebounded by doing what a very great artist does: It's pouring your life — whether good or bad — into the music," XXL magazine's Bonsu Thompson explained. "He put [his heart] into his art. His biggest single was 'Live Your Life,' and if you listen to the lyrics, he was speaking about himself." Paper Trail included a number of introspective songs, including the first track to surface from the project, "No Matter What." The pensive number found the rapper recalling his faith, firing back at all the gossip surrounding his case and revealing his bravado in the face of turmoil. "Facing all kinds of time, but smile like I'm fine," he rapped on the song. "You know how usually on the album I'll do one record, like 'I Still Luv You' [or] 'Still Ain't Forgave Myself,' " he told MTV News in May about Paper Trail's concept. "It's gonna be significantly more of those [types of records] on this album. I guess you could say there are definitely more songs that are just as introspective, just as personal, just as well-written." Tip's frequent collaborator, DJ Toomp, also noted that the rapper was dealing with more than just his gun case; he was also still grieving over the murder of childhood friend Philant Johnson. Johnson was tragically gunned down in Cincinnati following a T.I. show in Ohio. "On this particular album, he was going through ups and downs — and not even with his case, but losing friends along the way," Toomp told MTV News on Thursday (February 5). "And with so much struggle going on, he wanted to speak from the heart and put real thought into it, go into more details. Sometimes you can go in the booth and just spit. And you may cover something but not get the gist of everything. But he said, 'Let me put my pen to work.' I was hesitant at first, but after I heard the first few songs, I knew he was on the right path. He was able to paint more pictures." The album wasn't all melancholy, though. He scored back-to-back #1 records, replacing himself at the top of the charts with "Whatever You Like" and "Live Your Life," featuring Rihanna. And the King of the South defended his throne with the mercurial "What Up, What's Haapnin'," targeting nemesis Shawty Lo. "It's a lot of bullsh-- out right now," Tip said to MTV News before his album dropped. "I'm not gonna front. I feel it's definitely about time for somebody to come back out and kick this thing back in gear. The rotation is suffering right now. I intend to do something about it. It's just a matter of when." 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 Photos Related Artists |
| Dawn Richard Explains The Origin Of Danity Kane Comics Posted: 06 Feb 2009 05:00 AM PST 'She can control people with her voice,' Richard says of her singing heroine.
Former Danity Kane member Dawn Richard is a comic book geek, and her love of comic art led her to create her own character when she was in high school.
"My teacher said, 'I'd like you to draw your alter ego. ... And I had been performing before all of this, and people would always say I was different onstage than I was in person," she explained about the inspiration behind Danity Kane Comics. "I had a lot of insecurities growing up. So does every kid. I never was insecure onstage. I always felt like that was home, so I created Danity Kane based on that. ... The character was always there. I just made the comic book so that people could see how she was created. She later described the story to her Danity Kane bandmates, and they named their group after it. "She's a woman out of this world," she told MTV News. "She's an alien, but she looks like us — very beautiful. She comes from another planet, and, basically, she can control people with her voice. She's a singer. That's what they do, but they protect Earth." She added that there are many parallels between Danity Kane and Dawn Richard, since both have seen the dark side of the music industry. "There's this villain who owns a record label as a front — hint, hint, hint, hint — and he wants to take over Earth, and they kidnap her and take her over to Earth. She joins the record label not knowing what the record label is and becomes huge. Thus, the triangle of who's honest, who's not. ... She fights evil to protect us." But Richard isn't relying on other people to do the creative work for her. She is hands-on when it comes to working on the comic. "I do the sketches, and then I give it to an illustrator," she said, adding that the response from the comic book community has been positive. "I never thought it would be that big, and I never thought it would be that hard, 'cause I had to do it all on my own," she said. "Distributors don't necessarily gravitate to new things. I had to do it all on my own. Hopefully, it gets big enough." Richard plans to expand her comic book empire sometime next year when she adds a manga-style book to the series. "It's going to be February of 2010 that we're going to do a whole series in the manga style. We have to go into a whole 'nother audience. It's a whole 'nother world. They're like how DK fans are ... it's amazing. I love it. They're very faithful." Related Videos Related Artists |
| The Story Behind Radiohead's Grammy-Nominated <i>In Rainbows</i> Posted: 06 Feb 2009 05:00 AM PST The band shook up the music industry with the pay-what-you-like release on the Internet.
The Recording Academy gives out Grammy Awards for great music, not great ideas. But it's impossible to think about Album of the Year nominee Radiohead's In Rainbows without talking about not just what was on it, but how that music made its way into the world. Just like the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band broke the mold 40 years ago by exploding the boundaries of what popular music could encompass, Radiohead shattered expectations with their seventh album by advancing the radical notion that some fans will gladly pay for music they've already gotten for free.
The English group has blazed a singular path for more than a decade by making albums that challenge, entertain and confound even as they melt in more and more experimental sounds and textures on top of singer Thom Yorke's frequently claustrophobic, inscrutable lyrics. But, working again with longtime collaborator/producer Nigel Godrich, Radiohead toiled for more than two years on the songs that would make up In Rainbows, often expressing the frustration of the deliberate process on their Dead Air Space blog, but giving few clues as to what sounds they were cooking up or when they would unleash them.
Free from their album deal with EMI, the group had the luxury of time — but that soon turned into a creative noose as sessions stagnated and Radiohead took to the road in the summer of 2006 to air the music out in small theaters and at big festivals like Bonnaroo. By the fall of 2006, they were back on the horse and, in early 2007, it seemed as if they were finally rounding the corner. And then a long silence was followed by the 18 words that changed the game, perhaps forever: "Well, the new album is finished, and it's coming out in 10 days," guitarist Jonny Greenwood announced on Dead Air Space on October 1, 2007. "We've called it In Rainbows." Ten days? Rather than wait around as their album was inevitably leaked, Radiohead rushed it out onto the Internet 10 days later, as promised, and, in what the New York Times called the "most audacious experiment in years," they offered the 10 tracks DRM-free with just a tiny transaction fee and a name-your-own-price scale. Numbers were hard to come by, but the experiment appeared to be a fantastic success, as Radiohead's brash move remained headline news well past the day they released the physical version two months later. By most accounts, the experiment worked financially as well, resulting in the band's best sales figures in years — and reportedly hefty profits — when the box set and CD version were later released. Those two years of angst resulted in some of the most enticing songs the group had produced in years, from the ethereal warm electronic blanket of "House of Cards" to the slow-pulse, fuzzed bass trip-hop of "All I Need," the pastoral acoustic scramble of "Faust Arp" and the chilly, twisty jazz of "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi." Even amid the sometimes ominous-sounding tracks, there is a warmth in the spare music and (slightly) more approachable vulnerability in singer Yorke's spooky falsetto that gave In Rainbows an ever-so-thin bridge back from the rock/electronic hinterlands the group had been perched on since their landmark 1997 album, OK Computer. In an October 2007 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, guitarist Greenwood said the band partly released In Rainbows the way they did to "get it out quickly, so everyone would hear it at the same time, and partly because it was an experiment that felt worth trying, really." As for the variable pricing, he said it was a "fun" experiment to make fans stop for a moment to ponder what music is really worth. As for the music itself, Greenwood said the idea was to get back to the more studied experimentation on the band's fourth album, 2000's Kid A. "In that we were spending longer experimenting and trying stuff out — it wasn't so much of a performance-based thing, like Hail to the Thief," he said. "Other than that, it's the usual thing of turning up with these songs and the pressure is, 'Don't f--- it up, don't record them badly, don't do bad arrangements of them, and do them justice.' " Those efforts were rewarded with the group's third Album of the Year nomination, as well as a pair for "House of Cards" and four other nominations related to the album. But, despite the group's career-long march to keep evolving their sound, not everyone is counting on them to win big Sunday night. "I think if it turns out to be an unimaginative year, Radiohead will do really well," said New York Times music critic Jon Caramanica. "It's a totally fine album. You might have some industry people resenting them for their unconventional distribution method — then you might have some who are more progressive, who want to support that. But generally speaking, a vote for Radiohead, right now, is a vote for the status quo. It's not 1995 — like, Radiohead is very much a part of the firmament. You might as well be voting for R.E.M." Whether or not he was impressed with the album, Caramanica couldn't deny that he became part of the now-legendary story it told. "I did not buy that record," he said. "I have that record, but I did not buy that record." So, as always, Radiohead did it their way, surrendering not an inch to the pressures of a floundering music industry and tossing a puzzling wrench into the works with a brave experiment that just might light the path to music's future. 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 Photos Related Artists |
| Game Takes Sides In 50 Cent/ Rick Ross Beef Posted: 05 Feb 2009 01:26 AM PST 'I'm kind of low-key riding with 50 on this one,' onetime Fif protégé tells Seattle radio station.
You know things aren't looking good when your enemy's enemy is laughing at you. While Rick Ross contends he's not yet excited by anything 50 Cent has thrown his way, the Game — 50 Cent's former protégé and constant thorn in the side — sure is. The Game called Seattle's KUBE 93 on Thursday (February 5), and when DJ Eddie Francis asked him what he thought about beef between 50 Cent and Rick Ross, the Game had a shocking reply. "For the first time in four years, I'm kind of low-key riding with 50 on this one," he said. "For the first time in four years, I'm siding with this dude." The Game said things are not looking good for Ross. He laughed about the most recent 50 Cent video, in which 50 took the mother of Ross' son shopping after she revealed some personally damaging details about their relationship. "He's taking [Ross'] baby momma shopping," the Game laughed. "She's trying on fur coats, and he got the Stevie Wonder jam in the background." Since Rick Ross released "Mafia Music," the track that threw the initial jab at 50, he has been on the receiving end of a verbal beatdown. Fif released his own dis track, "Officer Ricky," and followed it with a taunting YouTube video. 50 also released an animated clip addressing Ross on ThisIs50.com. Ross hasn't been nearly as active. "We gonna give him 48 hours," Ross told Shade 45's Angela Yee. "Time to come up with another [track]!" He also called Hot 97 to speak with Miss Info on Monday and released a video for "Mafia Music," which took a subtle shot at 50. The Game did offer to help Ross out, telling the Miami rapper to get in touch with him as soon as possible. "Rick Ross, reach out to my folks. If you can't, find Eddie Francis up in Seattle. Call him, and then have him call me up on three-way so I can get you up out of this mess. "Rick Ross, holla at your boy, man," Game continued. "50 eating you, boy." Related Videos Related Artists |
| T.I. Says Grammy 'Swagga' Performance 'Will Be A Thing To Remember' Posted: 05 Feb 2009 01:07 AM PST Getting Jay-Z, Kanye West, Tip and Lil Wayne together onstage is no small feat.
One of the highlights of Sunday's 51st Annual Grammy Awards will be the performance of T.I.'s "Swagga Like Us" that's scheduled to feature the song's full lineup of Jay-Z, Kanye West and Lil Wayne together onstage for the first time. The Best Rap Song-nominated track, produced by West, employs a sample of M.I.A's "Paper Planes" and was one of 2008's most talked-about collaborations.
So what took these four superstars so long to perform it together? "I mean, you know, we all are considerably busy," Tip jokingly told MTV News this week. "We all have different things going on. You can't really get Kanye out of Paris. You can't get Jay off a boat. And you can't get Wayne off that bus. "And I'm ripping and running across the country doing all I can to remain at the top of my game," he added. "So, all of us have our things going on. But it will be a thing to remember." Tip was decidedly evasive when he was pressed for details about the performance. But the Atlanta rapper did reveal that the four lyricists agreed on an overall theme for the Grammy showcase. The process will result in each artist displaying a different variation on how the song applies to them. "We'll all provide our own swag toward that theme," a tight-lipped T.I. said of the concept. Anything else? "Nothing that I care to share," he said. "I'm not gonna give away the whole performance. But just know that everybody offers something new and creative to the performance." 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 |
| Blink-182 To Reunite At The Grammys Posted: 05 Feb 2009 08:24 AM PST Press release lists band as presenters at Sunday's awards show.
Long-suffering Blink-182 fans, your prayers have been answered. Or, at least, taken a step toward being answered. On Thursday (February 5), the Recording Academy announced that Blink-182 will reunite at Sunday's 51st Annual Grammy Awards ... as presenters. It will mark the first time that all three members of Blink — Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker — have shared a stage together since December 2004. They announced they were going on "indefinite hiatus" in February 2005, and since then have been trading barbs and focusing on new projects — Hoppus and Barker with +44, DeLonge with Angels & Airwaves.
But in recent months, that frosty relationship seems to have thawed. First, Hoppus wrote a blog announcing that he, Barker and DeLonge had begun spending time together, fueling rumors of a full-scale Blink-182 reunion. Then, in an exclusive interview with MTV News, Hoppus said that he and DeLonge were "friends" again, and that "the future is wide open" for a Blink reunion. Before we get too ahead of ourselves, let's get back to this Sunday. It's not known whether Blink will be doing anything besides presenting at the Grammys, but the fact that they were sandwiched between Kate Beckinsale and Natalie Cole in a press release also announcing Diddy, Green Day, LL Cool J and Will.I.Am as presenters seems to indicate that they won't be doing much else. Phone calls to representatives for the Recording Academy were not returned by press time, nor was an e-mail to Hoppus asking 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 Videos Related Photos Related Artists |
| 50 Cent Explains Why 'Baby Mothers' Are In On Beef With Rick Ross Posted: 05 Feb 2009 02:58 AM PST Ross debuts another video online, but source says it's not about G-Unit's general.
The 50 Cent/ Rick Ross beef took another turn on Thursday (February 5), with 50 commenting on the situation and Ross apparently not. To recap, Ross released a video on Wednesday, apparently aimed at 50 Cent, just one day after premiering the clip to "Mafia Music," the track that first ignited his feud with the G-Unit star. After the "Mafia Music" video plays, Ross cryptically says he's not excited, seemingly referring to 50's taunts. However, Ross warns "but I will be," perhaps alluding to new response from him. The visuals for Ross' new song "Gang Related" debuted online Thursday morning, with Ross lyrics that include mentions of furs and threats that "fake tough guys, it ain't even in your blood." But a source inside Ross' camp debunked the idea that the song is diss toward 50, telling MTV News on Thursday afternoon that the verse was recorded over a month ago. In an interview with Florida radio station Power 96 on Thursday morning, 50 Cent defended his onslaught against Ross, which has included the New York artist flying the mother of one of Ross' children to New York to record a video interview that he posted on his Web site, ThisIs50.com. "He went into a space that you don't go into when you're just rapping," 50 explained on the DJ Laz morning show. "The first thing he said is about my baby mother and he started actually talking about, 'I love to pay her bills, I love to pay her rent, Curtis Jackson, baby mother, I ain't asking for a cent.' He went straight to that issue and I just went to his issue in that same space. "I'm not picking and choosing and saying, 'Let me pick the worst possible thing to talk about Rick Ross.' I'm saying, 'Well, let me see what the situation is with your baby's mother.' " Related Artists |
| Beyonce Slammed By Etta James For Singing 'At Last' At Inaugural Ball Posted: 05 Feb 2009 06:31 AM PST 'I can't stand Beyonce,' James says during Seattle concert.
Remember a few months ago when Etta James had some nice things to say about Beyoncé's portrayal of her in "Cadillac Records"? Well, apparently the good vibes have dissipated. James unleashed a verbal beat-down on B last week during a concert in which she, believe it or not, threatened to whip the "Single Ladies" singer's butt.
Though she wasn't the first singer to perform it, the 71-year-old James has made the smoldering ballad "At Last" her signature song since it became a hit for her in 1961. Beyoncé sang for President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama's first dance at the Neighborhood Ball two weeks ago. For some reason, that seems to have angered James, who put Beyoncé, and the president, for that matter, on blast during a show at Seattle's Paramount Theatre on January 28. During the gig, she criticized the singer's performance at the inauguration. "You guys know your president, right? You know the one with the big ears?" began her rant, a recording of which was obtained by TMZ. "Wait a minute, he ain't my president. He might be yours; he ain't my president. But I tell you that woman he had singing for him, singing my song — she's going to get her a-- whipped. "The great Beyoncé," James went on. "Like I said, she ain't mine. ... I can't stand Beyoncé. She has no business up there, singing up there on a big ol' president day, gonna be singing my song that I've been singing forever." A review of the show in the Seattle Times noted James' reputation as a bawdy performer, adding that she made "lewd facial and hand gestures" during her opening song, "Come to Mama." Beyoncé won critical acclaim for portraying James in "Cadillac Records," and has performed "At Last" several times since the movie was released, including in front of James, who has not made this kind of public fuss over it previously. A spokesperson for Beyoncé could not be reached for comment at press time. Beyoncé got in hot water with another icon last year at the Grammys, when soul legend Aretha Franklin ripped into B for introducing Tina Turner as "the queen," a title Franklin has claimed as her own. Related Artists |
| 50 Cent Rocks Venezuela -- Check Out The Video! Posted: 05 Feb 2009 12:39 AM PST MC and G-Unit joined Wisin y Yandel onstage in Caracas on Saturday.
50 Cent is a very busy man. He's been working with Dr. Dre and Eminem on his forthcoming album, Before I Self Destruct, as well as their next projects. He'll be playing the Bamboozle Left festival alongside Fall Out Boy and Cobra Starship. He's even found time to get into a war of words with Rick Ross.
But as he promised Ross in one of those messages, 50 also found time to travel to Caracas, Venezuela, for a surprise performance with Wisin y Yandel on Saturday. He helped the reggaetón giants close out Solid Fest at the Hipódromo la Rinconada. Daddy Yankee and Enrique Iglesias also played the two-day festival. "The excitement about being in Venezuela is tremendous, to see the music break the language barrier — and the opportunity to do that in an area where actually they're the bigger artist," 50 told MTV News. 50 emerged from the stadium wings, along with G-Unit members Tony Yayo and Lloyd Banks, to surprise the crowd of 40,000 screaming fans during Wisin y Yandel's set. They performed the official remix of G-Unit's "Rider Pt. 2" called "Asi Soy." This was not the first time 50 had joined Wisin y Yandel onstage: He teamed up with them last summer at Madison Square Garden for their sold-out show during Puerto Rican Day Parade weekend. They also have plans to work on a track for Wisin y Yandel's next record. "We're working with 50 Cent on a song called 'Mujeres en el Club,' " one of the group's members said. "It would be a dream come true. Not just for us, but for reggaetón it would be huge." The group will be featured on "Unscripted: Wisin y Yandel" February 21 at 2 p.m. on MTV Tr3s. Related Artists |
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