MTV News |
- Taylor Swift Thanks Fans For 'Magical' Year
- Did Eminem's Lyric About Adam Lambert Go Too Far? Fans Weigh In
- Blink-182 Biopic Moving Ahead -- With Or Without Blink's Blessing
- Allen Iverson Gets Some Brotherly Love From Philly MCs And DJs
- Lil Wayne Protege Gudda Gudda Introduces Himself On New Mixtape
- Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan Explains Why He's Giving Away New LP For Free
- Adam Lambert To Appear And Perform On ABC's 'The View'
- 30 Seconds To Mars' <i>This Is War</i> Has Monks, But No Kanye West
- Jason Derulo Promises 'High-Energy' Opening Set For Lady Gaga Tour
| Taylor Swift Thanks Fans For 'Magical' Year Posted: 07 Dec 2009 02:33 AM PST Singer also blogs about Grammy nods, Christmas and her upcoming birthday.
Taylor Swift has had quite the year. Her 2009 was huge, from a rumored romance with a "New Moon" star to filming a movie to hosting "Saturday Night Live" to having Joe Jonas write a song about her, not to mention all those albums she sold and all those awards she won. And she knows she couldn't have done it without the support of her fans. That's why when Swift took to her Myspace blog to update her fans on all her latest comings and goings, she made sure to thank them for making this past year incredibly successful. "Thank you again for everything you guys have done to make all of these magical things happen to me," she wrote on Sunday, adding, "I was talking to my producer, Nathan, today about everything that's happened this year. We were being nostalgic and going back to this time four years ago, three years ago, two years ago. Now this year. We just can't believe it." Swift also wrote that the holidays are her favorite time of year, fitting for a girl who spent a good portion of her childhood on a Christmas tree farm. After noting that she's playing the Z100 Jingle Ball this Friday in New York City (she was visited by Taylor Lautner at Saturday's show in Los Angeles), she added that she was "counting down to my birthday. I'm only a teenager for another week! I'm starting to practice saying 'Twenty' when people ask me how old I am. Weird. Cool? I guess it's inevitable, so ... Awesome!" The singer is also looking forward to January — that's when she finds out just how many of her eight Grammy nods will yield her a trophy. She's still reeling from the news that she's been recognized on such a grand scale: "Earlier this week, [my producer] had a last-minute-get-over-here-right-now-and-celebrate party at his house, because the news had just broken: We were nominated for 8 Grammy's." Related Photos |
| Did Eminem's Lyric About Adam Lambert Go Too Far? Fans Weigh In Posted: 07 Dec 2009 04:53 AM PST Fan reactions to 'Elevator' span from 'it's very wrong' to 'it's just lyrics.'
Last Thursday, a pair of brand-new Eminem songs hit the Net, one of which, "Elevator," contains a lyric directed at Adam Lambert, Lance Bass and Clay Aiken that may be using an anti-gay slur. "Sorry, Lance, Mr. Lambert and Aiken ain't gonna make it/ They get so mad, when I call them both fake/ It's all these f---ing voices in my head, I can't take it/ Someone shut that f---ing baby up, before I shake it," he raps on the tune — with the "Fake/ It's" combination sounding a lot like a common anti-gay slur.
This isn't new ground for Slim Shady, who has come under fire from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, which cited his use of anti-gay slurs on earlier tracks like "Criminal" and "Kill You." But what do the fans think? MTV News hit the streets to find out. "I mean, what else can you expect from Eminem?" said Matt Ray of Denver. "It could be real offensive to some people, but it's just lyrics." Rachel DiMasi admitted that she likes Eminem, but wished that he had picked a different target. "I think that it's very wrong," she said. "I love Adam Lambert and I think he's a great artist." New Yorker Claire Henry doesn't like Eminem using the word, but doesn't think it's actually malicious. "He's just saying it to be offensive, to get a rise out of people. I don't think he really means it. I don't think he's actually homophobic." Her friend Blair Gershenson didn't see it the same way. "I don't really like the lyrics at all," she told MTV News. "I don't think Eminem deserves a pass just because he's famous. I think that he shouldn't be saying these things and he should really understand who is out there and who is listening and the things that happen because of what he says." Related Artists |
| Blink-182 Biopic Moving Ahead -- With Or Without Blink's Blessing Posted: 07 Dec 2009 02:33 AM PST Planned movie would document the band's early days.
Brandon Flores wants to make a movie about the early days of Blink-182. The only problem? He can't seem to get Blink-182 involved. Flores, 24, is a filmmaker who grew up in San Diego (Blink are from nearby Poway, California) idolizing the music and antics of Mark, Tom and Travis, and at the beginning of the year — after a viewing of 2005 docu-drama "Lords Of Dogtown" — he decided that someone should make a movie about the band's early days. And that someone should be him. "I saw that movie and I thought, 'The guys in Blink deserve a movie like that about them,' " Flores told MTV News. "They have an awesome life, and they're one of my favorite bands. So the idea got in my head, and over the summer — right around the time of the Blink reunion tour — my friends and I started writing a script about their early days." Called "Blink," the film follows the adventures of Tom DeLonge, Mark Hoppus and original drummer Scott Raynor as they start a band (in DeLonge's garage), begin playing shows and slowly earn a fanbase. It also documents their struggles — including Raynor's exit in 1998 — and ends with DeLonge and Hoppus meeting Travis Barker, forming the Blink that millions of fans know and love today. Determined to make the film as accurate as possible, Flores and his friends have spent the majority of the year interviewing fans who were at Blink's early shows, and they count Mark's sister Anne's 2001 band bio Tales From Beneath Your Mom as inspiration for the movie. They also began calling Blink-182's management company, with the hopes of securing the rights to a few early songs for the film. So far, no luck. "We've been trying to get in touch with their management, or even the guys in Blink, because we'd like to use their songs in the movie," Flores said. "Or maybe we could even get the guys to do a cameo in the film." (MTV News' attempts to reach Blink-182's management for comment proved unsuccessful by press time.) Even if Flores doesn't get Blink's blessing, he's still planning to make the movie ("I guess we'll just try not to show any Blink songs in it," he said), and, as such, he's begun the casting process, placing ads on Craigslist in the hopes of rounding out the cast. Everything was going swimmingly until one of those ads ended up being linked to on AbsolutePunk.net, which suddenly turned his little movie into very big news and drew the ire of Blink fans everywhere. "We've been getting a lot of angry e-mails, people asking me why we're making a movie, if the guys in Blink are still alive or saying we're going around trying to make up history, since we weren't there at the beginning," Flores said. "I try to tell them that I'm a Blink fan, and I'm trying my best not to f--- up history. We've been getting help from a lot of fans who were there at the beginning. We want to do this right." So, armed with some promising headshots ("We've gotten a lot of Marks, and we're close to casting one") and a $55,000 budget, Flores is hoping to do just that. The plan is to start filming "Blink" in April, and Flores and his crew are busy scouting locations. They're also not giving up hope of securing a Blink song or two, or maybe even that elusive cameo — something Hoppus didn't seem opposed to when MTV News contacted him about the film on Monday (December 7), even if he had no idea what we were talking about when we asked him. "No, I didn't know anything about the movie. I wonder how it pays?" Hoppus wrote in an e-mail. "Should I try out for the part of Tom?" For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com. Related Videos Related Artists |
| Allen Iverson Gets Some Brotherly Love From Philly MCs And DJs Posted: 07 Dec 2009 04:27 AM PST Beanie Sigel, Freeway, DJ Drama and others celebrate A.I.'s return to the 76ers.
Allen Iverson is suiting up Monday night (December 7) and returning to the Philadelphia 76ers. The city's hip-hop community has nothing but brotherly love for A.I. after two seasons away from his original team. "We still know A.I. is a great player," Philly native DJ Drama said. "I look for him to really come back and ball. I think, at this point in his career, his main goal is to get a championship ring. I think the city is excited to have him back. I see him flourishing, having a great year with the team."
Young Chris said Iverson will take his hometown team back to the championship series and win a ring. "What does it mean to the city of Philadelphia to have Allen Iverson back on the 76ers? Leadership, loyalty, success as a family. It's about more than just basketball," Chris declared. "You couldn't give a ticket to the game away before; now it's sold out," Philly's DJ Omega noted of Iverson's return. "It's great for the city. I feel Allen Iverson represents Philadelphia, in a sense that we have a swagger to ourselves that it's us against the world. It's beautiful that somebody who has such an influence on us could leave and come back. It's going to be a good look." "It's a good thing," Freeway said of Iverson's return. Free has tickets for Monday's game, but due to a show in Detroit, he won't be able to go. "A.I. is a good baller. [His return] is going to elevate not only the team, but the city. He's gonna elevate the city. I know I ain't been back to a Sixers game since he ain't been playing. It's gonna be good for Philly. He's bringing positive energy back to the city. I'm glad he didn't retire. It's perfect for him to be back. Philly is where he really did his thing and put his stamp down. This is the perfect place for him to retire. He might as well get in and get a ring and keep it moving." While Free said he's going to make it to future games, Beanie Sigel said he'll be at the Wachovia Center on Monday when #3 takes the court. Iverson's current squad goes against his old team, the Denver Nuggets. "That was hurtful," Beanie Sigel described about Iverson getting traded from the Sixers to the Nuggets two years ago. "You didn't know if he was getting traded because of the franchise or if he wanted to leave. When you think of Philly, that was it right there. When A.I. was here, the city was good. A.I. was connected to the community. He wasn't the type of person you would have to go to the game to see him. After the game, you could go to see him at Friday's bustin' a grub. Or go to any local club and catch him with his people. When A.I. was in the city [the first time], he was from Philly. He'd be at any spot a normal person would go to. It's a good thing now. The nights seem good. People will start coming out to see the boy." Iverson played 11 seasons with the 76ers — 10 as an All-Star and as the MVP in 2001 — before being traded in December 2006 to the Denver Nuggets. A.I. was traded from Denver to the Detroit Pistons last November, where his play was limited due to injuries and his unwillingness to play in the role of a non-starter. Before this season started, Iverson signed with the Memphis Grizzlies but soon left the team because of his limited role. Several days ago, the Virginia native announced that he was retiring, only to re-sign with the team that drafted him out of Georgetown in 1996. An emotional Iverson was brought to tears as he expressed how pleased he was to not have to give up the sport he loved. "When I saw that, I was crying with him," Beanie said. "I was crying with him. I looked at A.I. and I looked at myself with the connection with Philly. When you from Philly and this is the city you love ... and when they support you, there ain't no feeling like that. I know what it's like for him to be away from Philly. It's a connection. It's hard for me to leave this city. People say, 'You gotta get out this city.' Where I'mma go? I don't live in the inner city, the 'hood. I don't sleep here, but I gotta be here every day. Got to. Even with me, that's where my music comes from: the city. I gotta be out, connected to the street for my music to come out the way it do. I can't just watch the news. So I know how A.I. felt when he's going back to a place where people genuinely respect and love him here. He's gonna bring so much revenue to the city besides him just playing every night. The whole city should support him. They should give him his own street: 'Iverson Boulevard.' " Related Artists |
| Lil Wayne Protege Gudda Gudda Introduces Himself On New Mixtape Posted: 07 Dec 2009 03:51 AM PST 'Guddaville is just me expressing how I feel about a lot of different things,' he tells Mixtape Daily.
This Week's Main Pick Street King: Gudda Gudda Holding It Down For: Young Money/ Cash Money Mixtape: Guddaville Real Spit: New Orleans native Gudda Gudda has a bunch of superstars in his camp, including Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj and Drake. Dude might be next in line to blow. Gudda, who's been down with Wayne for around a decade, has been lacing family records like "Thinking to Myself" (his verse about Kunta Kinte steals the show!) "Bedrock" and "Every Girl" with his laid-back, spoken-word flow. This week, though, Gudda steps to the front with his own mixtape, Guddaville. "The theme behind Guddaville, I'm taking people on a walk through my eyes," he explained. "Every time you heard me been a group project. Guddaville is just me expressing how I feel about a lot of different things, taking you in my world." Gudda — a New Orleans native — has been mentored by Lil Wayne. Weezy liked his look and wrote Gudda his first rap. After that, though, Gudda stepped his game up through the years. He's going to be good money on Young Money. One of Gudda's biggest inspirations has been N.O. hero Soulja Slim. He shouts him and former Hot Boys member Turk out on the mixtape. "Soulja, any young dude, period, not just a rapper, any young guy from New Orleans, he was like our 'Pac. So, you know, we all look up to him. I had to acknowledge him. We bumped heads in a lot of different places. It was sad to see him go. I'm gonna continue to acknowledge him. As far as Turk, we speak at least twice a week from jail. I always holla at him. Turk will be home soon." You can download Guddaville on HotNewHipHop.com. You can also keep up with Gudda on his Twitter page. Joints to Check For
» "Welcome to Guddaville." "This is the intro to my mixtape," Gudda said. "On that song, I'm venting a lot. Just letting people know what's going on at the time. What I been going through. Different things with different people. I just let it all out on that track. I had to put that all on paper. This is a good intro into my world." » "Always Love You" (featuring Nicki Minaj and Short Dawg). "Me and Nicki was in the studio one night trying to get something going. We heard the Whitney Houston sample, pulled the beat up, and Whitney was on the sample saying, 'I will always love you.' The obvious choice would have been to speak on a female or dude. We was like, 'Let's speak on our cities and how much we love where we from.' I was like, 'We could get somebody else on it.' I ran into Short Dawg. He was like, 'Let me hear the joint. ... I love it.' He put a verse on it. We did it. New Orleans, H-Town, New York." » "Getting to the Money" (featuring Tity Boy). "Basically, I was in the studio, I heard the beat. Instantly, the hook popped up, the lyrics started coming. The beat, I just had to do it. I laid it down and said, 'It gotta have that ATL flavor.' I said, 'Let me call my homeboy and see if he'll jump on it.' I hit Tity up, he sent it back two days later. The rest is history." For other artists featured in Mixtape Daily, check out Mixtape Daily Headlines. Related Videos Related Artists |
| Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan Explains Why He's Giving Away New LP For Free Posted: 07 Dec 2009 01:27 AM PST 'Song for a Son,' first song from Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, is streaming free now.
Billy Corgan has never been a guy who has followed trends. When everybody was making grunge, he made an intricate, heavily produced album (Siamese Dream). While most musicians were toying with the third wave of punk, he wrote a sprawling double-disc concept album (Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness). And when people demanded an album that sounded like Smashing Pumpkins, he made one that reminded many of Depeche Mode (Adore).
That may be why in an era when everybody is trying to figure out how to sell music (variable pricing, tiered pricing, deluxe editions, et cetera), Corgan has decided to give away three years' worth of work for free. On Monday (December 7), he unveiled the first song from the 44-track opus he's calling Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The tune is called "Song for a Son," and it's currently streaming at Spinner.com (and will soon be available on the Smashing Pumpkins' official Web site). The six-minute tune first made an appearance on the Smashing Pumpkins' anniversary tour in 2008, but the final version is dramatically different from its live incarnation. "[The tour version] sounded like a very straight-ahead version of it," Corgan told MTV News on Friday. "It was like a bar band playing it." The new version has several different movements and at least two huge guitar solos. "I got back into the guitar after playing a few shows with Dave Navarro," he said. "I can't beat [his] abs, so the only way I can compete is with guitar solos." Teargarden by Kaleidyscope will be unveiled four songs at a time in a series of 11 EPs, all of which will be available for a free download. When the project is completed, Corgan (the remaining original member of the Smashing Pumpkins) will sell the 11 discs as a collector's item. But why would a band whose previous album (2007's Zeitgeist) went gold decide to give away so much product for free? It's something that Corgan has thought about a lot. "The simplest thing was: Let's just take away the money part of it," he said. "What I like about it is, it takes away the passive-aggressive situation of asking somebody to buy something. I've never liked being a pitchman. I have to create the quality, and I have to assume that the quality will create the interest, and the interest will come back to me somehow." Corgan expects the entire Teargarden by Kaleidyscope project to take three years, and he intends on seeing it through to the end. And he's not concerned about the possible consequences. "If it doesn't work, at least I don't have to be a pitchman," he said. "I can just be me." Related Artists |
| Adam Lambert To Appear And Perform On ABC's 'The View' Posted: 07 Dec 2009 06:11 AM PST 'American Idol' runner-up will make it back to network on Thursday after canceled bookings.
Apparently, the third (or fourth) time is the charm. After having a series of bookings canceled by ABC, "American Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert will finally make it back to the Disney-owned network on Thursday.
Lambert will visit with chatty ladies of "The View," one night after he appears on Barbara Walters' special, "The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2009," according to the "View" Web site. Lambert, 27, will not just sit on the couch and chat with the "View" panel in a pre-taped interview, but he will also perform on the show. The singer, who was booted from a spot on ABC's "Good Morning America" in the wake of the controversy over his American Music Awards performance last month, was subsequently uninvited from a previously scheduled appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and an unconfirmed slot on "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve," both ABC programs. The singer confirmed the two lost gigs via Twitter last week, telling fans, "Yes, sadly friends, ABC has canceled my appearances on Kimmel and NYE. :( Don't blame them. It's the FCC heat," he tweeted. When contacted by MTV News last week, a spokesperson for the Federal Communications Commission enforcement division said that, per policy, she could not confirm whether the organization was investigating the incident, but noted that as with any investigation into possible indecency, the FCC would not begin any action unless it received complaints from consumers. ABC had come under fire from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) for canceling Lambert's appearances last week. But the organization applauded this latest move to book him on "The View." "ABC has taken a step towards fairness by inviting Adam Lambert to perform on 'The View,' " GLAAD president Jarrett Barrios said. "GLAAD has been advocating against the double standards that have been applied to Lambert as an openly gay performer. We thank community members and allies for voicing their concerns with ABC so that entertainers like Adam have the opportunity to be broadcast into living rooms across America." Related Videos Related Artists |
| 30 Seconds To Mars' <i>This Is War</i> Has Monks, But No Kanye West Posted: 07 Dec 2009 12:01 AM PST 'He's phenomenal on the song, and it will be out at some point,' Jared Leto says of missing collaboration with the MC.
By all accounts, the making of 30 Seconds to Mars' This Is War was anything but by-the-book.
There was the $30 million breach-of-contract lawsuit filed by (then) label, Virgin Records. There was the very real possibility that the album would never see the light of day. And there were the many delays in production, the stop/start recording sessions and the sheer amount of ideas (Tibetan monks, fan-only "audio experiments") the band tried every step of the way. It was enough to wilt the will of even the most steadfast band, but somehow, 30 Seconds to Mars didn't quit, and War will finally hit stores Tuesday. And you'd think they'd be really anxious to put all this behind them, but surprisingly, they'd do it all over again — exactly the same way. "[This] wasn't a record where we just stumbled upon everything. Certainly when you make mistakes and you fail, that's the best, and I love to fail. ... I don't avoid failing because you learn from that, in a way that you could never learn from anything else. Failure is one of the greatest teachers. And we failed a lot on this record," 30STM frontman Jared Leto told MTV News. "It's an ambitious album. It's an album that invited the world to sing and to record and to experiment. To confess. And it is a spiritual record in a way. It is of the spirit world rather than cerebral or just purely guttural. It talks about faith and fighting for what you believe in and the idea of community. ... It was an opportunity for us to embrace the community around 30 Seconds to Mars and really to create the record that we've always dreamed of." And with the first single, "Kings and Queens," already a fixture on modern-rock radio, it seems like all that hard work is paying off. But given the rather contentious legacy of This Is War, there are still some sticking points even today. Like, for example, Kanye West's much-discussed cameo on the song "Hurricane." When fans pick up their copies of the album, they'll no doubt notice that West's vocals are absent from the track, a casualty of some last-minute legal wrangling. But, in true 30 Seconds to Mars fashion, Leto swears that the West-ified version of the song will be heard someday, somehow. "He sang on the song, but I think, you know, you have to ship the album and get it manufactured, and they were working out the back-end stuff that's boring to talk about, to figure out all the rights of one record company and the rights of another," he sighed. "It has nothing to do with me or Kanye. But he's phenomenal on the song, and it will be out at some point. I don't even know if it will be in the first pressing, but we'll get it out there." Related Artists |
| Jason Derulo Promises 'High-Energy' Opening Set For Lady Gaga Tour Posted: 07 Dec 2009 01:04 AM PST 'There's a lot of dancing,' he tells MTV News.
Jason Derülo only has a few weeks to put the finishing touches on his opening set for Lady Gaga's Monster Ball Tour. The "Whatcha Say" singer has been tapped to join the tour starting December 28, and he still hasn't talked to Gaga — who is currently on the road with Semi-Precious Weapons and Kid Cudi — to plan what his part of the show will look like.
"Oh, not yet, man! Not yet. We just both have crazy schedules," he told MTV News at KIIS-FM's Jingle Ball on Saturday in Los Angeles when asked if he's talked to Gaga. "My schedule is so crazy that I had Thanksgiving in Ruby Tuesday's!" He did say the show would be high-intensity and involve plenty of fancy footwork. "My stage show is really high-energy," he said. "There's a lot of dancing. I've been dancing my entire life. A lot of people don't know how well I dance, because I didn't dance much in the 'Whatcha Say' video, just a little flavor-ish. The 'In My Head' video, I'm definitely going to pull out lots of stuff on that one." With "Whatcha Say" being such a big hit for the singer, who is set to drop his debut album in early 2010, he's already looking forward to releasing his next single. " 'In My Head' is gonna introduce Jason Derülo a little bit more," he explained. "I'm really excited for people to kind of understand that I really am a music lover and pull from a lot of genres. I'm just a music lover, so that's going to be the product of my album. 'In My Head' has rock guitars, rock drums. It's just really, really exciting." Related Artists |
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