MTV News |
- Rick Ross Responds -- In Song -- To Grammy Awards Snub
- Nick Jonas Says 'Who I Am' Was Intended For Someone Else
- Lady Gaga Says Her Dad Thought She Was 'Mentally Unstable'
- Outasight And Ameer Bring New Perspectives To Hip-Hop
- Lil Wayne's <i>Rebirth</i> Pushed To 2010
- Ke$ha Dishes On Her 'Bizarre' Collaboration With Diddy For 'Tik Tok'
- Eminem? Britney? Taylor Swift? Readers Weigh In On The Best Song Of 2009
- Timbaland Tells Story Behind Katy Perry Duet, 'If We Ever Meet Again'
- Raekwon Says Praise For <i>Only Built 4 Cuban Linx ... Pt. 2</i> Is 'Crazy'
| Rick Ross Responds -- In Song -- To Grammy Awards Snub Posted: 10 Dec 2009 02:04 AM PST Ross criticizes Deeper Than Rap's omission from Grammy noms over Beyonce's 'Video Phone.'
Apparently, Rick Ross has taken exception to being overlooked in the nominations for the 2010 Grammy Awards. The Bawse did not receive any nods for his acclaimed latest LP, Deeper Than Rap, which has received critical acclaim and debuted at #1 on the Billboard albums chart. Ross responded on Thursday (December 10) via an unofficial remix of Beyoncé's "Video Phone." Over the track, he begins: "My paint wet, I ride slow/ The girls sweat, while my AC cold/ Stand-up guy, but my top fold." A few bars later, he gets into his Grammy omission. "What I think bout the Grammys? I think they all haters," he declares. "What they all think bout the album?/ They think it's amazing/ What I think about the album?/ I think I'm the greatest." This year, the Grammy committee nominated Common's Universal Mind Control, Eminem's Relapse, Flo Rida's R.O.O.T.S., Mos Def's The Ecstatic and Q-Tip's The Renaissance for Best Rap Album. Nominees for other rap categories include Drake, Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Beastie Boys, Nas, Fabolous, Kanye West, T.I. and the Lonely Island. Since the release of the LP, Ross has been keeping busy with a slew of remixes, both unofficial as well as those sanctioned by his peers such as Diddy and the Clipse. His group Triple C's released its Custom Cars & Cycles LP in October and he has been steady with guest appearances alongside the likes of Gucci Mane, Red Café and his good friend DJ Khaled. Meanwhile, Ross also has been working on his next LP, Teflon Don. That project is due in 2010. Related Artists |
| Nick Jonas Says 'Who I Am' Was Intended For Someone Else Posted: 11 Dec 2009 03:50 AM PST 'I was like, 'This song is about who I am. Why am I trying to give it to someone else?' ' he says of keeping album's title track for himself.
Nick Jonas admitted recently that his new album with side project the Administration, Who I Am, is about his quest to find true love. But, as it turns out, it was also about his quest to find himself. After initially writing the title track for someone else, he decided to make it all about him — which makes sense, given the song's title.
"The funny story about 'Who I Am' is I was actually working with some other artist that we've worked with in the past ... and I kept playing them this chorus," he told MTV News, explaining that the artist just wasn't feeling what Nick was selling them. "So finally, when I was sitting there, I was like, 'This song is about who I am. Why am I trying to give it to someone else? I should just write it for myself' ... And it came out of me. What I'm talking about in the verse is when it sounds like I'm talking about someone, it's really about me talking about myself and realizing you need to know yourself before you can find love." Nick and his band recently shot a video for the song at a very legendary venue, and he said the clip is more stripped-down than the song itself. "It's not as deep," he said. "It's a real artistic video. It'll be at Capitol studios, which is legendary. It'll be shot in black-and-white. [It shows a] performance with some pieces intercut with it that will actually be shot really soon. It's coming together." Related Videos |
| Lady Gaga Says Her Dad Thought She Was 'Mentally Unstable' Posted: 10 Dec 2009 07:29 AM PST 'We didn't talk for months after the first time he saw me play,' singer told Barbara Walters about her father's reaction to her performance style.
Lady Gaga has certainly made her mark over the past year, not just with hit singles like "Paparazzi" and "Bad Romance" but also with the level of performance art she brings to their live and television renditions, which include her "dying" at the VMAs and performing with her piano on fire at the American Music Awards.
And if music lovers were surprised by Gaga's performances at the beginning of her career, imagine how her father felt. When she sat down with Barbara Walters on her "10 Most Fascinating People of 2009" special, which aired Wednesday night, she explained that it took a while for her dad to get comfortable with her act. "It wasn't really so easy for my dad, especially in the beginning," she told Walters. "We didn't talk for months after the first time he saw me play, and my mother told me he was afraid I was, like, mentally unstable." Gaga has since written a song about her dad and says the two are back on speaking terms. But the performer knows there are people who are still unsure of the sincerity behind her bizarre pop star persona. "[I want to clear up the fact] that [people think] I am artificial and attention seeking, when the truth is that every bit of me is devoted to love and art and I aspire to be a teacher to my young fans who feel just like I felt when I was younger," she said. "I felt like a freak. ... I want to liberate [my fans]. I want to free them of their fears and make them feel like they can create their own space in the world." Among other things, she described herself in the interview as "an Italian girl from New York." "I am a songwriter. I'm a performance artist. I'm a daughter and a sister," she told Walters, adding, "I had this dream and I really wanted to be a star and I was almost a monster in the way I was fearless in my ambition." The one question that made Gaga flinch was on the issue of her sexuality in the context of her hit "Poker Face." "Well, I do like women. [But] I've only been in love with men," she explained. "I've never been in love with a woman, but that's really what the song is all about: Why, when I was with my boyfriend, was I fantasizing about women?" When directly asked if she's had sex with a woman, she became momentarily flustered before answering, "Well my goodness ... I certainly have had sexual relations with women, yes." Related Videos Related Artists |
| Outasight And Ameer Bring New Perspectives To Hip-Hop Posted: 11 Dec 2009 03:50 AM PST 'Sight brings his 'suburban perspective,' while Ameer speaks the 'truth,' in Mixtape Daily.
Firestarter: Outasight It's so obvious and you hate to say it, but Outasight looks nothing like the Yonkers music royalty we know that come from the outskirts of NYC. The LOX? Nah. DMX? Nope. He'll never even be mistaken for running with Mary J. Blige's camp, but as we know in hip-hop, you don't have to look bone-gristle hard to make an impact. Twenty-six-year-old Caucasian MC Outasight says he's proud to come from an area that spawned so many dope acts and is looking forward to receiving his own recognition. "I certainly respect it amazingly," 'Sight said about Yonkers' lineage.
"I grew up and saw it. I'm a little bit from a different area," he added. "For me, it's more of a suburban perspective, coming from Yonkers but at the same time being so close to New York City, so I'm able to hopefully conjure those two vibes — a little suburban, a little urban comes to together, different perspectives on it." 'Sight was mostly raised by his grandmother, but had his mom's love for music, listening to artists such as Stevie Wonder. At 8 years old, he got some of his first hip-hop LPs, such as A Tribe Called Quest's Midnight Marauders, De La Soul's Three Feet High and Rising and Black Sheep's A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing. He started rapping and singing, and still uses both in his music almost two decades later. "I been doing music my whole life. Singing and rapping were both separate entities," he explained. "Then Mos Def and artists like that inspired me. I saw you can do it — you can sing and rap and make it jell. I started taking my craft more seriously and just kept working on it. It's just a natural thing. It's never planned out. It kinda flows and goes from there." Last year, 'Sight's video for "Good Evening" got some play on mtvU and MTV2 and in March he released his mixtape From There to Here and gained the attention of several key music- industry insiders from Chris Lighty to Russell Simmons. He just recently finalized a deal with Asylum/Warner, and his debut album From Here to Eternity is slated for next year. "It's a funny story," he said about how he got his name. "My original MC name was Outsight, which [meant] 'insightful but outside the box.' It was all right. Sometime I can have a bit of a mysterious nature. I was living in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, dipped back to Westchester, came back six months later and a friend of mine was like, 'You're, like, out of sight,' 'cause he hadn't seen me. I thought it was a dope name. It has a '70s feel to it. But it's real and I stuck with it. I like it. Outasight." Firestarter Overtime: Ameer Ameer, which means "King" (it's his given name), had thoughts of disappearing from the 'hood, which influenced his new mixtape Gone Til Novembuary. Homie got his wish during a stint in the Army — he went from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to Croatia and Bosnia.
"I'm in one piece. For the people that didn't make it out, I wanna send prayers to their family," he told MTV News. But he won't be speaking too much about his time in the military in his music, as it's too serious a situation for that. "People are actually dying at war — I don't play with the name or fame of it. I know some of my friends are really not here. I wasn't out there killing nobody, I was just doing what I had to do — doing my job." In his downtime, he took up rapping. "I got serious when I went to Albany, [New York]," the Mount Vernon and New Rochelle native said. "We had an hour and a half for lunch. I would take 15 minutes, drive to the studio, record for an hour and drive back. As far as the music — dexterity, truth. You're gonna hear life's truth." For other artists featured in Mixtape Daily, check out Mixtape Daily Headlines. Related Videos |
| Lil Wayne's <i>Rebirth</i> Pushed To 2010 Posted: 10 Dec 2009 08:37 AM PST Long-delayed rock-influenced album is now scheduled for February.
Stop me if you've heard this one before: After bumping around to various December dates, Lil Wayne's perpetually delayed rock-influenced album Rebirth has now been pushed to a 2010 release. Wayne's Cash Money boss, Baby (a.k.a. Bryan "Birdman" Williams), announced on Twitter Wednesday that the album, which has had more than half a dozen release dates so far, has now been pushed back from a December 21 street date to February 1. "Rebirth album pushback Feb. 1," Baby tweeted, adding, "Young Money [coming] out December 21." So, while the compilation album from Weezy's Young Money All-Stars, which was supposed to be bundled with Rebirth, appears to still be on track for a holiday release, fans will now have to wait a few more months for Wayne's disc. A spokesperson for Wayne's label, Universal, did not return requests for comment on the latest delay in the album, which the rapper has been tinkering with nonstop as track after track from the effort has leaked over the past six-plus months. "Yes, the album is still rock," Wayne told Billboard magazine about the disc in October, after confusion arose over whether it really represented a trip to the rock side for the rapper fond of strapping on a guitar onstage. "I play guitar on 80 percent of the songs, and there's a lot of rock influences and rock beats. I also have Travis Barker on the album. But I don't want people to think I'm trying to do something I can't do. Don't think you're going to put on the album and hear me screaming and singing. "When I said I was doing a rock album, it was about doing a freedom thing," he continued. "This album isn't hip-hop. When I do my Carter albums, I know I've got to rap, I know I've got to spit. I know the words I've got to say and the subjects I've got to talk about. I also know the things I shouldn't say, the things I shouldn't talk about. There's none of those limits on this album. I say what I want, how I want. That's what this album is: a freedom album." While frustration among fans is growing due to the multiple delays for the first new studio album from Wayne since 2008's smash Tha Carter III — it was first slated to street in April, then May, then August, then several dates in December — it's worth keeping in mind that Carter III suffered a similar fate prior to its release and went on to be the best-selling album of the year. Though Wayne's camp is not discussing the reason for the latest delay, the new February release date, if confirmed, does fall around the time that the rapper is expected to be sentenced to a one-year prison term following his October guilty plea for attempted criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree. Related Artists |
| Ke$ha Dishes On Her 'Bizarre' Collaboration With Diddy For 'Tik Tok' Posted: 10 Dec 2009 03:36 AM PST 'We all were hanging out and I was so intimidated ... but he was the nicest guy,' she tells MTV News.
Ke$ha is having a moment. She just got booked on the Lilith Fair, and her single "Tik Tok" is burning up the charts. She has already collaborated with Flo Rida and Miley Cyrus and sang background for Britney Spears, so it's no wonder she ended up teaming with Diddy in the studio. "Diddy ended up on 'Tik Tok' because one morning, I woke up surrounded by a bunch of hot babes, and I was like, 'I'm like Diddy, man,' " she told MTV News. "Then I wrote the first line of 'Tik Tok,' which is 'Wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy.' " Ke$ha then made the next logical step and took it to her producer, Dr. Luke, who also worked with her and Flo Rida on the hit "Right Round," and the rest is pop-music history. "As fate would have it, I swear to you, about four hours later, Diddy called Luke for the first time ever saying we should do a song together some time," she explained. Diddy surprisingly also had a little bit of time in his very busy schedule to drop by the studio almost immediately to contribute his lines to "Tik Tok." In the song, he raps, "Hey, what up girl?" and "Let's Go." "He agreed to come in that day. It was so bizarre, but as fate would have it, happened in the course of hours," he said. "We all were hanging out and I was so intimidated ... but he was the nicest guy." Ke$ha's debut album, Animal, is due January 5. Related Artists |
| Eminem? Britney? Taylor Swift? Readers Weigh In On The Best Song Of 2009 Posted: 09 Dec 2009 10:51 PM PST You react to the latest Bigger Than the Sound.
On Wednesday, MTV News published my annual "Best Songs of the Year" column, where I picked my favorite tunes of the past 12 months. And, just like in previous years, most of you seemed to disagree with those picks. We got tons of comments from readers, the overwhelming majority of which seemed to fall into one of two categories: "Where's Britney?" Or "Where's Eminem?" See, neither Ms. Spears nor Mr. Mathers made my list, omissions that were attributed to everything from bribery to a massive, inter-corporate conspiracy designed to keep either artist down (while subsequently propping up Jay-Z or Miley or Gaga). Of course, we also got plenty of other comments too, everything from "You should be fired" to my personal favorite, "I haven't heard of half these artists before."
But it wasn't all nasty — we had readers posting lists of their favorite songs of the year, and even the occasional "Good job," too (thanks Mom!). In fact, the response was so overwhelming that I've decided to re-publish some of the best comments here. If you're up for a bit of a debate, read on — and if you want to have your voice heard, do it in the comments below. So, without further ado, here are your picks, reactions, threats and suggestions for the Best Songs of 2009. "Jay-Z's 'D.O.A.' was the best song this year! Hands Down! PERIOD!!! The impact that song had on the industry the day Jay dropped it was mind-blowing." - Asonye88 "I couldn't disagree more with this list. Once again MTV riding the coat tails of non talent. Song of the year goes to Eminem for 'Beautiful.' ... There is nothing special about 'D.O.A.,' he is just saying what everybody else was thinking: Auto-Tune please go away." - NAPTOWN NUISANCE "I think 'D.O.A.' was a pretty dope song because when he dropped it people listened, whether you like the lyrical content or not. He had everyone buzzing the whole time and it set the tone (no pun intended) for his album and I agree with it being number one. I'm surprised Eminem didn't make the list just cause it was his return with 'We Made You,' or Drake with 'Successful' and 'Best I Ever Had.' " - Whozdat02 "Eminem is way better than Jay-Z! The only ones who deserve to be on that list are Kelly Clarkson, Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys, Shakira and Rihanna. There are too many missing on this list, I don't even know the half of them. Kelly Clarkson is the best on the list." - Sille "Two Miley songs and not one Britney song? 'Circus' was an amazing song for her and 2009. WTF?" - Christopher "Wow, your [sic] stupid. I haven't heard alot [sic] of these songs ... no Britney realy? [sic] '3' [was] one of the biggest songs of the year. MTV should fire you, also 'D.O.A?' Really? 'SHE WOLF?' Dear God!" - Brad "SERIOUSLY WHAT ABOUT BRITNEY'S SONGS 'CIRCUS,' 'IF YOU SEEK AMY,' AND '3?' WHY YOU ALWAYS HATING ON HER? WELL IT'S OK SHE STILL HUGE DOESNT NEED MTV." - ANDREA "What's the deal here? No Taylor Swift, but you have Smiley Cyrus? Taylor writes her own songs ... that should prerequisite. Maybe they don't like Country-Pop kittens. Maybe they are just narrow minded ... maybe they are just paid plants?" - Nashviller "I love how [the list] has songs that weren't really on the radio that were still amazing! (Matt & Kim and Franz Ferdinand.)" - BSwimr127 "THANK YOU! For one thing: Paramore's 'All I Wanted.' I've been waiting for someone to discover the same thing I did. The song is amazing, no matter what number on the list. You can hear the emotion in Hayley's voice. The song is a triumph, no matter how simple it is; she kills the song like no other. Brand New Eyes is a great album." - Will.24 "Mastodon FTW!!!!!!!!!! Glad to see someone at MTV is paying attention to perhaps the most important metal band this decade." - ConcertConfessions.com "'D.O.A.' = biggest waste of the hottest hip-hop beat of the year, of maybe the past 5 years. 'My Girls' DEFINITELY should have been #1. 'Empire State of Mind' should have been #2. Passion Pit, The Dream, and Drake certainly deserve placement on the list... right?" - YoPrince "Now, I know Jay-Z had a good year, but 'D.O.A.' being #1, I'm not so sure about that choice. I appreciate you not putting Taylor Swift in this list. Also, I think it would have been better if you put 'Paparazzi,' 'LoveGame,' or 'Poker Face' by Lady Gaga, instead of 'Bad Romance.' Now a lot of these songs were great, and I respect your decisions. ... They all did have a special part in 2009, though. Good Job!!!" - Mr. Womanizer "While there are a few choices I completely dislike (Jay-Z, Rihanna), I do agree with a lot of them (especially the Kelly Clarkson and Lily Allen choices). I really loved the commentary for each track, which kinda made me want to check out the ones I'm haven't heard yet. As for a few of my 'Best songs of 2009' that weren't mentioned: Blake Lewis' title track to his 2nd album, Heartbreak On Vinyl (with a nod to old record shops), Amerie's 'Why R U' (easily the best single to come from her in recent years), Janet Jackson's "Make Me' (love seeing her embrace her dance-fans), Pete Yorn/Scarlett Johansson's "Relator" (if you haven't heard this fun little ditty, you're missing out!), and finally, Mandy Moore's 'I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week' (other than having one of the longest song titles this year, she found a balance between folk, country and pop all in one song)." - Coolinout1 Who makes your Best Songs of 2009 list? Weigh in below! |
| Timbaland Tells Story Behind Katy Perry Duet, 'If We Ever Meet Again' Posted: 10 Dec 2009 03:52 AM PST 'It made sense for me and it fits my voice,' Tim says of his decision to sing instead of rap.
One top producer inspired another. Timbaland says Will.I.Am's handiwork on "I Gotta Feeling" spawned "If We Ever Meet Again" on his Shock Value II LP. "When I did this song, I was in love with this record called ... you're gonna be surprised. The record didn't have anything to do with ['If We Ever Meet Again'], but when I heard [the Black Eyed Peas'] 'I Gotta Feeling,' I said, 'I want a record just like that on my album.' I said, 'I gotta do me a "I Gotta Feeling" record.' Me and one of my producers, Jim Beanz, we came up with this concept. I said, '["I Gotta Feeling"] is happy, but I like it.' It gives a good feeling."
On the record, Tim enlists Katy Perry to sing about meeting that special someone — Timbo sings too, instead of rapping. "It's not like it's incredible singing, but it made sense for me and it fits my voice," he explained. "To get somebody else to sing it, it might sound too overdone. I like it better with mistakes — I make mistakes. With me singing it, it gives it a different kind of swagger to it." Look for that song to be a strong contender for a single and video. Timbaland says he wants the clip to be serious and maybe have Katy playing his guardian angel. "I wanna make something deep," he said. "I don't know if I wanna make it like a relationship. I wanna make it like she saved my life with whatever depression I was going through, whether it be drug depression, weight-loss depression — something. ... Will she be around if I go through this again?" Related Videos Related Artists |
| Raekwon Says Praise For <i>Only Built 4 Cuban Linx ... Pt. 2</i> Is 'Crazy' Posted: 10 Dec 2009 03:26 AM PST 'That blew my mind right there,' MC says of placing on Time magazine's best-of list.
Raekwon the Chef is having a good year. "I feel like Martin Luther King right now, just getting the Nobel Prize," he said, closing out 2009 with more accolades. Already voted one of MTV News' Hottest MCs in October, the Staten Island swordsman just received another honor — his Only Built 4 Cuban Linx ... Pt. II album was voted #7 on Time magazine's Top 10 Albums of the Year. "He's still rhyming about cocaine deals, hustlers and urban menace — which makes for an elevated degree of difficulty, since a song about the production of crack ('Pyrex Vision') should be not only impotent in 2009, but deservedly so," writer Josh Tyrangiel said. "The reason it works, like all of Cuban Linx ... Pt. II, is that Raekwon is a poet of grime, a storyteller who understands that rap is less about an easy hook than the collision of carefully chosen words." Linx ... Pt. II was also voted as the Best Rap Album of 2009 by iTunes.
"It's a great feeling ... I just look at all the hard work I put into it and gives me a sense of relaxation knowing that people respected what I did," he told MTV News. "For me, confidence is a mutha----a. That's something that I had, dealing with so many pressures in life right now, as far as making this album. For people to reward me for achieving something so great, it's the confidence that gave me the spirit to move forward. For me to know people are really saluting the album, it just reassures me about hip-hop, that people still look at hip-hop as something people still love. Regardless of whatever is taking place, people are still acknowledging cats from the 'hood such as myself making great music." The Chef says he was most surprised by the Time accolade. "We know Time is one of the most real magazines you can get on any level — politics, whatever is going on. That blew my mind right there. Even when we glanced at it, it didn't have no rappers on it. I was like, 'I must've been competing with a lot of different types of music, whether it be pop, alternative, country or whatever.' That blew my mind. To be in the top-10 list with everybody, it was crazy." The Chef, who is currently on tour, says his album cycle doesn't end now that he got some kudos — he's going to continue pushin'. "This was an important album for the world, for hip-hop," he explained. "I wanted to keep it moving and do all the videos for the album. I wanna do the dirty video ['Ason Jones'], the 'Kiss the Ring' video, 'Cold Outside.' Just letting everybody know we appreciate people still believing in what we can do. I give all the credit to the fans. They allowed me to rewrite my history again and not really take for granted the part I played in this business. Like, 'Yo Rae, you still ill, but you gotta make sure you know what you gotta do and not let nobody take you away from what you believe in.' I knew this album wasn't going to get any airtime, but I wanted people to know I still gave them something from the heart." Rae's next album will be a group effort with fellow Wu members Ghostface Killah and Method Man. "Everything is still underground right now. We're still putting pieces together and making sure we give the world what they want," he said. "But everything is coming out how it's supposed to be. We're still in the operating room right now." Related Artists |
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