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- Drake: I'm 'Learning About Myself' Through My Music
- Lloyd Banks, Bow Wow Start Off 2010 With New Mixtapes
- Ke$ha Is Excited About 'Really Genuine' Debut Album
- Timbaland Says Someone Tried To Sabotage His Relationship With Jay-Z
- Drake Says <i>Thank Me Later</i> Only Includes Collabos That 'Make Sense'
- Nick Jonas Gives Exclusive Update On Solo Tour
- Soundgarden's History, From <i>Deep Six</i> Upstarts To Reuniting Legends
- Eminem Talks About His Friendship With Elton John
- Kanye West Says He's Back In The Studio
| Drake: I'm 'Learning About Myself' Through My Music Posted: 05 Jan 2010 03:50 AM PST 'As I learn, I choose to share with my fans,' rapper says.
No curtain to pull back, no façade — Drake wants to share his world like Mary J. Blige. The 23-year-old Toronto native says he is going through a personal and professional evolution. "I'm learning about myself. That's what my music is about," he said recently. "I don't necessarily know all the time who Drake is. I take it day by day and learn as much as I can about myself. As I learn, I choose to share with my fans. I'm just an artist that isn't scared of being open."
Drake says being in front of the camera on "Degrassi" as an adolescent has helped him open up musically. "My journey, as far as growing into a man, is shared with the people. My whole life is like that. I grew up on TV, I've always become accustomed to sharing my life with the world. At least now I get to do it in my own words ... so I'm not a character. I have a little more grasp on who I am. I'm more eager to share it now. Me growing into an artist is me growing into a man." That growth involves partying as well as getting his business done — Drake and Fabolous recently performed together in Cleveland at LeBron James' 25th birthday, with Drizzy also performing his verse from the hit "Forever" at the shindig. On New Year's Eve, Drake and the Young Money All-Stars performed at club Cameo in Miami to kick off 2010. Related Videos |
| Lloyd Banks, Bow Wow Start Off 2010 With New Mixtapes Posted: 05 Jan 2010 03:50 AM PST Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek also reconnect for a new Reflection Eternal tape, in Mixtape Daily.
There are no more breaks in the music industry, especially in the streets. During the holiday season, cats were either dropping mixtapes or hyping up releases that are soon to come. Fab, don't worry. We're not gonna sweat you over not dropping on Christmas as promised. As long as you bring that Loso quality, we'll wait. Lupe and DJ Absolut coming soon? We're definitely anticipating that one, as well as Jay Electronica's new tape. Is there anything out right now as dope as "Exhibit C"? Styles P and Green Lantern coming next month? Young Jeezy promising to come any day now? 2010 is going to be a nutty first quarter, and that's just on the streets. In any event, here is a special edition of Don't Sleep, where we highlight some of the tapes that came in the past several days. Don't Sleep: Necessary Notables » Lloyd Banks' V5 DJ Collaborator: DJ Whoo Kid
Necessary Notes: Banks isn't pulling any punches. You should've seen all the smiles on the faces on Jamaica Avenue in Queens when the bootlegger opened up a box of brand-new burned copies of Banks' latest installment of microphone terror. Banks sounds a little hungrier on this one (his voice is raspier and louder on tracks like "Sh---y City 2"). The early word from the Unit is that the crazy mofo named Banko is going to actually drop an LP this year in addition to all the underground heat. Can't-Miss Tracks: "Power Back" and "Rather Be Me" » Bow Wow's G2 (Greenlight 2) DJ Collaborators: DJ Ill Will and DJ Rockstar Necessary Notes: That retirement Bow talked about in the wake of his last LP, New Jack City II (released in April 2009), was shorter than WWE wrestler Hornswoggle's. The 22-year-old Ohio player (he lives in MIA now, BTW) was back to dropping freestyles in no time. He even signed a brand-new record deal with Cash Money last year and has a new album due for this summer. As we learned from the original Greenlight, everything's a go. This is not your little's sister's Bow Wow anymore. How could he top the first Greenlight's shock value of "Regrets," on which he talked about sipping syrup, smoking weed and being high out of his mind? Well, Bow, fresh off the set of his film "Lottery Ticket," shouts out that purp on "I Do This" to open the mixtape. He also warns Diddy that he has eyes for Cassie on the You So remix of "Say Something." Also, for a little trip down memory lane, check out the video for a Mixtape Daily interview with Bow from early 2009. Can't-Miss Tracks: "I Wanna Rock" freestyle and "Shine" » Reflection Eternal's The Re:Union DJ Collaborator: DJ Statik Selektah Necessary Notes: Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek reconnect for their new LP, Revolutions Per Minute, due this spring. Talib and Tek go ham with 30 tracks of new flav, previously unreleased gems and hits, baby! Can't-Miss Tracks: "Just Begun" (featuring Mos Def, Jay Electronica and J. Cole) and "The Thrill Is Gone" (featuring Styles P) Other Heat This Week » DJ Whoo Kid, Raekwon and DJ Scream - Coke Up in Da Dollar Bill For other artists featured in Mixtape Daily, check out Mixtape Daily Headlines. Related Videos |
| Ke$ha Is Excited About 'Really Genuine' Debut Album Posted: 05 Jan 2010 03:50 AM PST 'It kind of accurately documents my life over the past four years,' singer says of Animal.
Ke$ha has already made a mark on the charts with her debut single "Tik Tok," and now the pop singer is hoping to strike again with her full-length, Animal. The album, which features cameos from Diddy and 3OH!3, shows both the singer's party side and her sensitive side.
"I'm excited about it because it kind of accurately documents my life over the past four years," she told MTV News. "And I think any girl, and hopefully guys too, can relate to the record. I talk about pretty much anything — you name it. ... I think that throughout the album, what I'm really proud of — I think every song you can tell it's me. It's all really honest — almost to a fault — and really genuine." For the album, Ke$ha hit the studio with super-producers Max Martin and Dr. Luke, with whom she has grown very close. "It was exciting to work with Max and Luke — a little intimidating at first, but now they're like family," she explained. "I've been to Sweden, like, three times, just kickin' it with Max and Luke — I've, like, lived at his house for months at a time when I didn't have a car and no way to leave. "So ... they feel like family now," she continued. "But I'm really lucky to be surrounded by so many talented people. Everybody I worked with on the record is immensely talented." Speaking of working with family, Ke$ha worked with her mom, songwriter Pebe Sebert, on "Your Love Is My Drug," a track that delves into the sordid details of her love life. "I wrote a few songs with my mom who's a sick writer and taught me everything I know about songwriting," she said. "My mom and I are best friends, so it really comes naturally. She taught me how to write my first song. I can also be really honest with her. We're like best friends and there are no really forbidden topics." |
| Timbaland Says Someone Tried To Sabotage His Relationship With Jay-Z Posted: 04 Jan 2010 01:09 AM PST The producer explains his theory with Mixtape Daily behind the leaks of his Blueprint 3 collaborations.
The O.D.: A Mixtape Daily Exclusive How sweet it is: 2010 is here, and the Mixtape Daily family promises you we will have our most productive year. We already have a ton of exclusive content in the cooker. And we're starting off by getting to the heart of a much talked-about matter: Timbaland and Jay-Z.
Ever since the Tim-produced tracks from The Blueprint 3 leaked, people have been speculating about whether the two had problems. But the producer himself has a conspiracy theory about the leaks. "There's no beef between us," Tim expressed to us not too long ago, admitting that the two had a serious talk about the premature release of songs the two collaborated on, most notably a record called "Rumors" that also featured Keri Hilson. "Me and Jay is kinda weird," Timbaland said recently in New York, when asked when he and Young Hov would work together again. "Musically, I take friendship very serious. Me and Jay, sometimes people think we have falling-outs. We don't have falling-outs, it's that we don't communicate at the proper time. I take friendship very seriously. I wanna tell him how I might feel about a situation. The last time we talked, he understood how I felt. He saw my point with the Keri stuff being leaked out and everything. I had nothing to do with that. I would never do that to him. Nothing against his wishes. It bothered me so bad, I went on hiatus for a minute, because I would never disrespect his wishes. Like, 'I'm trying to do this with my album, please don't let that song get out or no leakage.' ... Four months later, the song is leaked. I felt so bad, because I would never want my friend to feel like we had some miscommunications." Tim explained that someone hacked into his engineer's e-mail and stole the files of Blueprint 3 songs "Venus vs. Mars" and "Off That," the first to be leaked from the album. He said they hadn't determined a destination for "Rumors," though they thought it wasn't right for Blueprint 3 or for Tim's Shock Value II. They decided to leave it in the vault, but it somehow made its way onto the Internet last fall. The super-producer says the leak was a blatant attempt by an unknown mastermind trying to damage their relationship. "I felt like, 'What in the world? Who is trying to sabotage our friendship?' " Tim recalled. "That bothers me. I respect my friends, because I don't got a lot of them, and he's one of my friends in the music industry. I felt like, 'I'll remove myself. If people wanna play us against each other, I'll bow out.' We talk about personal stuff. I don't want him to feel like he can't talk to me about certain things. We both said to [each other] one day, we know we don't need each other musically, but we are friends. I'm like, 'I hope you realize that. But I want you to realize that me and you are like Dre and Snoop.' Sometimes I don't think he understands that. When we get together, we do make magic." For other artists featured in Mixtape Daily, check out Mixtape Daily Headlines. Related Videos Related Artists |
| Drake Says <i>Thank Me Later</i> Only Includes Collabos That 'Make Sense' Posted: 04 Jan 2010 01:36 AM PST 'If I get people's verses back and they don't coincide with the vision I have, I'll do the whole album by myself,' he tells MTV News.
Drake won't jump on just anybody's song for a guest appearance, and he also won't accept just anybody's verses for his upcoming debut, Thank Me Later. The 23-year-old MC said his collaborators have to fit into his musical plan.
"I really don't bank on collaborations unless it makes sense," Drake said recently in Toronto. "If I get people's verses back and they don't coincide with the vision I have, I'll do the whole album by myself. I'm not really worried about the special guests. It's about linking to me and my story. There's people that just add to my story." One of those people is Jay-Z. As we've previously reported, the Jiggaman laid down bars for the Thank Me Later track "Light Up." "When I heard that beat, the drums that they had come up with, it was like, 'Man, this is a moment,' " he said. " 'This sounds like where I'm at in my life.' So, we took it, and [producer Noah "40" Shebib] did what he does to pieces of music that I see potential in — he took it to the next spot. Jay-Z's on it. The song is phenomenal. It's done now. "So far I've done a couple songs where the individuals have been willing to come into my world," Drake added. "I'm not making the song with the purpose of carefully placing them, like, 'This record serves this purpose, so you can dance in the clubs.' It's about continuing with the vibe that I have and being honest." Luckily, Drake's vision has resonated with hip-hop fans. "I love the fact that I can tell my story and people enjoy it," he said. "And it's catchy. That makes me feel good. The fact I have to perform these songs over again, the fact that they have integrity, I never tire of them." Thank Me Later has a tentative March release date. Related Videos Related Artists |
| Nick Jonas Gives Exclusive Update On Solo Tour Posted: 04 Jan 2010 03:47 AM PST 'They were really happy for me and it means the world,' Nick says of his brothers' opinion of his show.
Nick Jonas just kicked off his solo tour with his side project, the Administration, and hopes to see family and friends in the audience while he's on the trek. However, friend and "Camp Rock" co-star Demi Lovato tweeted she'd be too sick to come see him play his first show in Dallas. "I think she's going to try and come out to the L.A. show. She wrote and was like, 'So sorry, can't make it.' She was feeling under the weather," he explained to MTV News while checking in from the road in Nashville. "It's all good. I will see her again I'm sure. You can't help when you get sick."
After all, Nick certainly understands — back in November he had to cancel a show with his brothers when he came down with an infection. Now he insists he's healthy again. "I'm feeling great, feeling healthy, ready to rock," he said. Thankfully, this tour for his first solo effort, Who I Am, is running smoothly so far. "I thought it was great," he said about the first show in Dallas. "It's kind of hard to believe it's all happening, to think I'm on tour now is an incredible thing ... after that was done I realized I'm going to be on the road for the month. "I think it is [sinking in] now that I have seen my tour bus," he continued. "And people are starting to get more familiar with the material ... [Also the fan response has] been great so far, and seeing them and pouring my heart into this performance every night is a lot of fun." With the entire month of January booked, Jonas has time to perfect his new material with the band, but notes that he's already comfortable with "Rose Garden" and the band's first single "Who I Am." " 'Rose Garden' was a lot of fun. 'Who I Am' was amazing, and then we took some Jonas songs and we kind of made them our own. 'Inseparable' ... it was a good one." Jonas added that his brothers couldn't help but gush about his performance. "They were so proud of me," he said. "They were really happy for me and it means the world." Nick Jonas will be giving MTV News exclusive updates every Monday during his solo tour! We'll also have loads of our usual Jonas Brothers coverage, so check back regularly! Related Artists |
| Soundgarden's History, From <i>Deep Six</i> Upstarts To Reuniting Legends Posted: 04 Jan 2010 03:42 AM PST Grunge rockers move past their acrimonious breakup to do a handful of festival dates.
After quite a bit of speculation and years of saying "never," Soundgarden have announced that they are getting back together to do a handful of festival dates this year. It's been nearly 13 years since the band was onstage together, though we've hardly missed many of the members — frontman Chris Cornell embarked on a solo career and fronted Audioslave, drummer Matt Cameron took up sticks with Pearl Jam, bassist Ben Shepherd recorded with a handful of people and guitarist Kim Thayil could be seen skateboarding around Seattle.
Soundgarden are considered one of the "big four" of the grunge era (along with fellow Seattle-ites Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains). While their sound merged king-size heavy metal with gritty garage punk, the group always seemed to be channeling Led Zeppelin more than Dread Zeppelin. They got their first break on a 1986 compilation called Deep Six, which featured a number of first-generation grunge bands (including Green River, Skin Yard and the U-Men) and became a fetish object among the independent-music community in Seattle and across the country. They scored their next break when Sub Pop distributed their Screaming Life EP in 1987. The band then jumped to SST for their debut full-length, Ultramega OK, which spawned an MTV hit in "Flower" and earned them a Grammy for Best Metal Performance. Following the completion of their second album and major-label debut, Louder Than Love, original bassist Hiro Yamamoto left the group and was replaced by Jason Everman (formerly of Nirvana). Everman was shown the door following a tour and was replaced by Shepherd, permanently setting the "classic" lineup in stone. He joined just in time for Soundgarden to really blow up, as they scored big hits with "The Ugly Truth," "Big Dumb Sex" and "Get on the Snake." Louder Than Love also marked the band's first foray onto the Billboard albums chart. As the '90s dawned, Soundgarden became known as a studly live act, highlighted by Thayil's guitar histrionics and Cornell's Robert Plant sex-yowl. By the time Badmotorfinger was released in 1991 (only a few weeks after Nirvana's Nevermind), the group was still more associated with metal bands than the emerging Seattle indie scene, as they toured with Skid Row and were handpicked by Guns N' Roses as the opening act for the Use Your Illusion tour. But the growing adventurousness of modern-rock radio made "Outshined," "Rusty Cage" and "Jesus Christ Pose" into big hits. On MTV, the group became one of the rare bands to have their videos on both "Headbangers Ball" and "Alternative Nation." Soundgarden's victory lap came during the summer of 1992, when they appeared on the main stage of the second annual Lollapalooza tour with Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam. But the band's true peak came with the release of 1994's Superunknown, a massive hit that went platinum five times. The group had always had crossover success, but "Spoonman" and the melodic, Sabbath-esque "Black Hole Sun" turned them into pop stars. It was during this era that they became true MTV stars, as their videos — especially those for "Spoonman," "Black Hole Sun" and "The Day I Tried to Live" — were in heavy rotation and turned Cornell into a true object of affection for rock-loving girls across the country. The band collected a ton of awards for Superunknown (including a VMA for "Black Hole Sun" and Grammys for that song and "Spoonman"), but the long tour supporting the album put a strain on the band's relationships (most especially between Cornell and Thayill). Cornell wanted to drastically change the band's sound, which is why the band's fifth and final album, Down on the Upside, sounds so disjointed. Their general attitude toward rock stardom had shifted as well. When MTV News asked Cornell about playing arenas back in 1996, he responded with a resounding, "No, we probably won't be. I've gone to a couple in Seattle, and they never sound very good." Shepherd added: "We don't want to play shows where we wouldn't like to go to shows, and we don't go to arena shows." (The group ended up playing plenty of arenas on what became their final tour.) Though "Pretty Noose" and "Burden in My Hand" became modern-rock radio hits, album sales stalled and the band embarked on a somewhat acrimonious tour that ended February 9, 1997, in Honolulu. Next to the Pixies breaking up via fax, the end of Soundgarden has to be the most passive-aggressive band ends of all time. But now that all the water has passed under the bridge, the hardest-riffing grunge maniacs are back in the saddle and ready to lay it on thick. Related Videos Related Artists |
| Eminem Talks About His Friendship With Elton John Posted: 04 Jan 2010 02:38 AM PST The rapper and pop-music elder connected at the 2001 Grammys in an unforgettable duet.
When Eminem found himself unable to pull himself out of a prescription-drug-fueled spiral of self-destruction, he turned to his friend Elton John for help — and continues to do so to this day, as John made clear in a recent interview. But this wasn't the first time the rapper leaned on the pop-music elder statesman for support.
When Em was getting heat for purportedly homophobic lyrics at the beginning of the millennium, he appeared with John at the 2001 Grammy Awards for an unforgettable rendition of "Stan." "We were debating on whether I was going to perform the Grammys or not," the rapper told MTV News after the performance. "I was like, 'The only way I'll perform at the Grammys is with Elton John.' And I was saying it in kind of jest, thinking it would never happen. The idea of it started becoming more, 'OK, this is a way to really flip it around and really f--- people's heads up." Eminem said when the idea for the performance first came up, he was unaware of John's sexual orientation. "Of course, I heard of Elton John," he told MTV News in 2004. "I didn't know he was gay. I didn't know anything about his personal life. I didn't really care. But being that he was gay and he had my back, I think it made a statement in itself saying that he understood where I was coming from." The rapper recently raised eyebrows again with his new song "Elevator," which included lyrics about openly gay singers Adam Lambert, Clay Aiken and Lance Bass that may be construed as an anti-gay slur. Neither Eminem nor John has made any statement about the possibly controversial words. Back in 2001, Eminem took home three Grammys, but it was his duet with John — they embraced after the song and held up their hands together in solidarity — that became that moment everyone was talking about the next day. "It was more so just a statement, period," the rapper said in 2001. "If you really think that about me, you really don't know Marshall. You really don't know me." Related Photos Related Artists |
| Kanye West Says He's Back In The Studio Posted: 04 Jan 2010 06:45 AM PST Rapper blogs that he's inspired by poets to 'find truth and sincerity in a world of processed information.'
After receding from the spotlight for the last few months following his panned bum rush of Taylor Swift at the VMAs in September, Kanye West kicked off 2010 in his classic fashion, with an all-caps blog post boasting about his upcoming return to musical greatness.
"First of all, I want to thank everybody for their constant love and support over these past six years!" West wrote on his blog on Monday morning (January 4). "I'm so happy to be back in the studio making new music. I will bring you the best I have to offer with the same dedication that Kobe [Bryant] has on the court." In his inimitable fashion, West then went on to boast about how, unlike his peers, he's just getting better as his career progresses by following the path laid out by some of the greatest black poets and singers of the last century. "It's funny how so many rappers get worse as their careers stretch out but true poets get better," he wrote. "We will follow in the footsteps of Maya Angelou, [Gil Scott-Heron] and Nina Simone. Their work improved with time. They documented what was happening in culture. That is our responsibility as the modern day artists and poets, to accurately represent what is happening now, so when the powers that be try to rewrite history, you can always look at our works and find truth and sincerity in a world of processed information." Taking on a preacher's tone, West took a swing at anyone who would stand in the way of his attempts to uncover the truth. "Let us soak in positive forces and look down upon those who masquerade as truth tellers and objective fact givers when in reality, everything that is projected has an agenda of brainwashing us, the 'consumer,' the public, to believe what they want us to," he wrote. "Let us look past headlines and deal with just a bit of reality in this new decade. We have our own outlets now. We don't have to believe everything anymore. Now I'll figure out a way to make that rhyme. LOL!!!" Seemingly chastened by the negative reaction to the Swift incident, West went into lockdown mode over the past few months, scotching a planned joint tour with Lady Gaga, avoiding big media events and curtailing his normally regular blog posts.
He apparently spent much of that downtime overseas. According to The New York Times, West jumped onstage with protégé Kid Cudi at a show in Los Angeles just before Christmas and announced to the crowd, "This is my first time back in America for the past, like, three, four months. ... I love the game so much, and I'm so passionate about it that I just can't take [the stress]." That admission was followed by a few new unreleased verses, in which the budding designer admitted, "I'm so anxious, I'm getting anxiety/ Begging one of these ... fashion houses to hire me ... / I said, if you acquire me I could be a quiet me/ Call it verbal dieting/ Give me your herbal chai tea ... / I'll be calm." West's label did not return requests at press time for information on the release date of his next album, the follow-up to 2008's 808s & Heartbreak. Related Videos Related Photos Related Artists |
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