MTV News |
- Gucci Mane's Writing Has Become 'More Lyrical' In Jail, Zaytoven Says
- People's Choice Awards: Will 'Twilight' And Adam Lambert Win Big?
- Vampire Weekend's <i>Contra</i>: Pan-Ethnic Pop, With Tzatziki Sauce!
- Blink-182, Eminem, Drake Lead Readers', Experts' Most-Anticipated 2010 Releases
- Lady Gaga, Green Day, Pink To Perform At Grammy Awards
- Shawty Redd's Peers Call Murder Arrest 'Shocking'
- Timbaland Wants An End To Gossip About Himself, Tiger Woods
- Casey Johnson Autopsy Rules Out Foul Play
| Gucci Mane's Writing Has Become 'More Lyrical' In Jail, Zaytoven Says Posted: 06 Jan 2010 03:50 AM PST 'He's really putting more thoughts in his raps,' producer exclusively tells Mixtape Daily.
The O.D.: A Mixtape Daily Exclusive When Gucci Mane calls his friend and producer Zaytoven from jail, they don't waste time by talking about frivolous things like the Atlanta Falcons not making the playoffs. The two are mapping out more records. "We stay working," Zaytoven said Tuesday via phone from Atlanta. "He calls me from jail with new raps all the time. He raps [them] to me, and I tell him to leave it on my voicemail, so I could hear it over and over again."
Gucci Mane went to jail late last year, just weeks before the release of his The State vs. Radric Davis LP, for a probation violation. In December, Gucci called MTV News from jail and said that not only does he have a follow-up album already done and awaiting a spring release, but when he gets home (which should be in less than a year), he plans to record and release yet another project in December. The LPs are called The State vs. Radric Davis: The Appeal and The State vs. Radric Davis: The Verdict. Zay, who will work on both new albums, said incarceration hasn't slowed Gucci's stride. "We're working as if he was out," the producer said. "I done been with Gucci so long and he's been locked up so many times, it ain't nothing new to us. The songs he writes, I have the track sitting and waiting on him when he gets out. Sometimes [during our phone calls], I play him my ideas for a track or a hook I got so he could be writing and getting ideas for it. The crazy thing is, when he gets out and comes to the studio, we do something all brand-new. We almost forget about what we been doing [while he's in jail]." When Gucci gets out this time, Zay said we'll hear an enhanced LaFlare. "He's still doing his shining and iced-out thing, but the raps now got more lyrical," Zay promised. "He's in jail, so he's really putting more thoughts in his raps, more lyrical content. He's coming with a whole lot of different ideas. Rather than just party music or trap music, he's coming with a lot of strong ideas and lyrical content in his stuff. It gives him a chance to really listen to what he's saying, and he's putting his words together in a different way without no beat." For other artists featured in Mixtape Daily, check out Mixtape Daily Headlines. Related Videos |
| People's Choice Awards: Will 'Twilight' And Adam Lambert Win Big? Posted: 06 Jan 2010 03:50 AM PST From a Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner reunion to an 'American Idol' rematch, tonight's show boasts lots of drama.
If you're the tuxedo-and-tie kind of movie fan, then the Oscars are for you. If you prefer a more laid-back evening of back-patting, then perhaps you're more into the Golden Globes. But, this time of year, if you're a true populist, there's only one awards show to turn to: the People's Choice Awards. On Wednesday night (January 6), the biggest stars in movies, TV and music come together for one big, unpredictable, random party to celebrate each other and the fans who voted for them. We'll be there to bring you all the breaking news, natch — but to help get you in the mood, take a look at some of the potential story lines we'll be monitoring:
Old School or New School? Awkward Encounter? Spinning the Strongest Web 'Idol' Chatter Favorite Movie For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com. Related Photos |
| Vampire Weekend's <i>Contra</i>: Pan-Ethnic Pop, With Tzatziki Sauce! Posted: 06 Jan 2010 03:50 AM PST Band's new LP is a musical melting pot, to fans' delight (and bookish critics' derision).
Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig is the kind of guy who thinks really deeply about the social ramifications of gyros. I know this because he told me. "I've always loved gyros," he said. "I recently read an interesting article about how they came up in America. The modern gyro was kind of invented in Chicago, and it's kind of a sad story, because some people made millions [and others didn't]. The Kronos foods corporation really owns gyros in America, because of their ads. You see them everywhere, and they're always the same: they've got a girl, and sometimes she looks like Brooke Shields, and she's holding a gyro. I don't think they've taken a new picture in, like, 25 years, but it's effective. It makes you associate gyros — which are not necessarily the most attractive-looking food — with babes. It's that simple, and it works."
In an effort to further illustrate this point, Koenig then produced his iPhone, and showed me a picture of the Kronos gyro girl in question. And yes, she did sort of look like Brooke Shields. She also looked like an amalgamation of every race on the planet: brown, vaguely wavy hair, slightly dark skin, broad nose, wide smile ... all things to all people, clutching a rather greasy bundle of meat, wrapped in pita bread and smothered in tzatziki sauce. You can probably guess where I'm going with this. Ever since they burst through the blogosphere in 2006 — first with a handful of pan-ethnic demos, then with a full-fledged album that inexplicably became a modest hit in 2008 — Vampire Weekend have basically been the Kronos gyro girls of rock. Their music is a culturally ambiguous hodgepodge, with bits of African soukous, hints of ska, drips of soca and calypso reigned in by rigid, downright-erudite private-school phrasing, finished in a decidedly Anglo, Upper West Side sheen. Their sartorial style — boat shoes and piqued Polos, the occasional keffiyeh mixed in for good measure — is equally grab-bag. They seemingly take at will, without fear of social ramifications or significance. They are virtually the reason italics were invented; they are a cultural anthropologist's wet dream, or nightmare, or both. That ambiguity certainly has something to do with their popularity (so does their penchant for writing wiry, whip-smart pop), but it also carries a cost: Vampire Weekend are easy targets, punching bags for angry musicologists and book-smart rock critics. They are perhaps the most derided band in blog-dom, partially due to their success, but mostly because of songs like "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa." Perhaps all of this is justified, perhaps it's not. But it's important to note that it exists. Because, on their second album, Contra (which hits stores next week but is currently streaming on their MySpace page and is readily available on bit torrent sites everywhere), they've decided to answer their critics. Not necessarily with their music — which is still heavy on African influences, not to mention bubbly dub and dancehall synths, Mariachi horns and even a stab at T-Pain-ed Auto-Tuning — or their lyrics, which are filled with politically (and culturally) loaded words like "Horchata" and "Diplomat" and "Philly Cheesesteak." No, on Contra, Vampire Weekend come out punching conceptually. At its heart, Contra is an album about conflict, about answering critics and claiming what's theirs, even if it belongs to someone else. Like Koenig told me back in November: "We have this very basic theme for this record: It's conflict, the idea of conflict, more than actually participating in it. That's such a basic idea, and you can explore it in a lot of different ways. The primal instinct that sometimes we have, to be like 'F--- everybody else, it's me versus you.' ... It's related to our identity as a band. When you're in a situation where you all of a sudden get people writing about you and saying things about you, of course you're going to have a lot of people who try to identify you by a series of bullsh-- signifiers." It's apparent in the subtle classism of the barrel-rolling "Cousins," the wide-eyed naivete of "Holiday," and the accusatory tone — and digs at authenticity — in the album-closing "I Think UR A Contra." There is a refined, bookish indignation at play here, an outrage, and for the first time, Vampire Weekend are taking the fight directly to their detractors. There's a reason they called it Contra, after all: It's an album of opposition. Of course, though I couldn't get Koenig to admit it, I'd like to believe this is also the reason why the album cover looks so much like one of those Kronos gyro ads. It's a loaded image, to be sure — a vapid, WASP-y Connecticut girl in pastel Polo — but it also might just be Vampire Weekend's final kiss-off to their critics, too: a visual representation of every bad thing that's every been written, said or even thought about them and their music. It's sort of brilliant if you think about it ... the Kronos Quartet strikes back — minus the greasy meat and tzatziki of course. Questions? Concerns? Hit me up at BTTS@MTVStaff.com Related Videos |
| Blink-182, Eminem, Drake Lead Readers', Experts' Most-Anticipated 2010 Releases Posted: 05 Jan 2010 02:33 AM PST MTV News readers (and a couple of experts) tell us which albums they can't wait for!
Absence clearly does make the heart grow fonder. At least that's what it sounded like from the responses we got from readers to our story on 2010's most-anticipated albums. "I jus want some new Missy [Elliott], I can't wait for that new [Christina Aguilera] sound — sounds awesome already," SanDudecoolie wrote, adding, "Miss My Chemical Romance and Gorillaz and the Airwaves. Kanye can't do wrong in my book so excited for that too."
A bunch of you were really stoked for the reunion album from Blink-182 and TMBTommy said he "can't wait" for the second album from Katy Perry, who he said brings "something new & refreshing to the scene." Carl Mello, director of purchasing for the 28-store New England-based Newbury Comics chain of record stores, said he's confident the new album from R&B veteran Sade will be a hot item (because Pitchfork said so), but was holding out for MGMT's Congratulations. "That's probably one of the more exciting ones in our wheelhouse," he said. "Because there's a local connection — their manager is local — and it's a Newbury band from top to bottom. That first one did great for us." He also predicted that Vampire Weekend's Contra and Spoon's Transference would do well in the chain, and while he loved the rumors of a new album from New York's on-hiatus Strokes, he said, "I'll believe it when I see it." J.S. in NWI was one of several MTV readers who were salivating over the sophomore effort from Lady Gaga, in addition to getting pumped for the second albums from MGMT and the Dead Weather and the next Arcade Fire disc. A couple of you were curious about Eminem's Relapse 2 and DGO232 added The Game, Lupe Fiasco, Lil Wayne, Outkast, Dr. Dre and Kanye to the list. There were bids for My Chemical Romance, Gorillaz, Drake and Ludacris and one from LAsalvi09 for a disc we forgot to put on our list, the new Linkin Park. But for TheKingMac11, there was only one answer to the question, "T.I.P.!!!" On the hip-hop side, there's one album that Reggie Hawkins, format manager for Sirius/XM's Hip-Hop Nation thinks everyone is hungry for: Drake's Thank Me Later. "He crosses genres as far as a hard-core hip-hop audience and a wider one," said Hawkins. He was also looking forward to the Nas/ Damian Marley collabo, Distant Cousins, Young Jeezy's delayed Thug Motivation 103 and Em's Relapse 2. "I think this one will be a totally different sound from the first Relapse," predicted Hawkins, who books talent for the Shade 45 station as well. "I think it will be way more hip-hop because Just Blaze is working on it." While the Blink fans were vocal, Mello said he's not putting on his pants and jacket just yet. "You get to be new twice, right?" he said. "When you first come out and when you first come back — it's sink or swim based on the first song they put out, so you never know." He had higher hopes for the "Eclipse" soundtrack, based on the track record of the team behind the "Twilight" and "New Moon" albums, who he said have done an excellent job of curating those releases. "They pick the things that should be there while still being mildly adventurous." Related Artists |
| Lady Gaga, Green Day, Pink To Perform At Grammy Awards Posted: 05 Jan 2010 06:04 AM PST Dave Matthews Band and Zac Brown Band also added to roster for January 31 show.
The 52nd annual Grammy Awards added some heavy artillery to the roster of performers taking the stage on January 31: nominees Green Day, Lady Gaga and Pink. The trio of superstars, plus Dave Matthews Band and the Zac Brown Band, were announced on Tuesday (January 5). They will perform at Los Angeles' Staples Center alongside a previously announced slate that includes Beyoncé, the Black Eyed Peas, Taylor Swift, Maxwell and Lady Antebellum. More artists and presenters will be revealed soon, according to a press release from the Recording Academy.
With the addition of Gaga and DMB, all five nominees for Album of the Year — which also include Beyoncé, the Black Eyed Peas and Swift — are now slated to play live on the show. This year's Grammys are shaping up to be a potentially big night for the ladies, as Beyoncé leads the pack with 10 nominations for I Am ... Sasha Fierce, followed by eight nods for Swift's unstoppable Fearless album, six each for Maxwell, the Peas and Kanye West and five each for Jay-Z and Gaga. Upon learning of her fistful of nominations last month, Gaga took a moment to thank the people who have really made her success possible, her fans, while performing in Boston as part of her Monster Ball tour. "So, thank you to all of you little monsters," she told the crowd. "This year, you were nominated for five Grammy Awards. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be where I am today, so thank you!" Related Videos Related Photos Related Artists |
| Shawty Redd's Peers Call Murder Arrest 'Shocking' Posted: 05 Jan 2010 04:40 AM PST 'The stamp he has made in the beat game, it's crazy,' DJ MLK says of the Atlanta producer.
Atlanta producer Shawty Redd has had success in the clubs, the streets and the charts since he bowed his head in the rap game in the late '90s, working with everyone from Snoop Dogg to Gucci Mane — but his peers were definitely shocked to hear that he was arrested for murder on Friday. "I really couldn't believe it," producer Zaytoven said. "You hear a lot of rappers going through that type of trouble, but a producer? That's my first time hearing that. I was just shocked."
On New Year's Day, Henry County police responded to Redd's 911 call. According to authorities, he told them that a man visiting his Hampton, Georgia, home, 35-year-old Damon Martin of Detroit, had been shot. After several hours of questioning, Redd was arrested for homicide. Redd, born Demetrius Lee Stewart, is due back in court on January 12. According to Zaytoven, Redd didn't have a rep for being a troublemaker. In fact, Redd's work ethic and sound inspired Zay, who moved from the West Coast to ATL several years ago. "I was new to Atlanta," Zay explained. "I was coming from California. He had the sound of what's going on down there. If I wanted to learn how to please the people out here in Atlanta, that was the to-go-by guy. He was the guy to listen to if you were trying to please the artists or trying to sell them beats — he's got the sound. It's very theatrical." "It's South music," DJ Scream added. "It has a lot of bass. It's always good for the clubs, people's car systems. I think people forget 808 is the foundation of this. That's the reason why they play his records in the club. It's why his songs don't die out. Those bass lines, they're real 'hood and real gutter. He's real music at the same time. That's really the best way to explain. Of course, he's real versatile. He did the track with Snoop to show his versatility." In 2008, Redd had his most commercially viable production effort with Snoop's "Sensual Seduction," with a sound reminiscent of late-'70s and early '80s funk/soul. Before that, Redd produced the majority of Young Jeezy's first album, Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101, and helped Jeezy turn the mixtape game upside down, helming key tracks from Young's timeless Trap or Die mixtape. "Classic. Both of them. Trap or Die, that's a street Bible. Everybody plays that to this day," Scream said. "Of course, Jeezy's first album, classic. Even though there were other producers on both of those, Shawty Redd stood out. I think that's the best chemistry Jeezy has is when he gets in with Shawty Redd." "It has a lot to do with him and the chemistry he's had with the artist," Zaytoven agreed. "It's like Dr. Dre and Snoop — when you get that chemistry, that music can last for years and years to come." "You always hear his records. The stamp he has made in the beat game, it's crazy," DJ MLK offered. "I don't know no club where you not hearing a Shawty Redd beat. No club. The bass, the 808s, just to feel it as a DJ, to feel it in the club, the club is rocking — a lot of energy." Redd got his breakthrough as a teenager, on rapper Drama's debut LP, Causin' Drama, with the hit "Left, Right, Left." " 'Left, Right, Left' — that's my first dose of him. I was like, 'Damn.' Straight progress," MLK said. "You can tell he takes producing and beatmaking seriously. That's his craft. I never would have thought that the guy that made 'Left, Right, Left' made Trap or Die or 'Air Force Ones' or 'Sensual Seduction.' Then the mixtape he came out with, Shawty Redd Reloaded, it is still him. I was like, 'Wow. He's serious. For real, for real.' " " 'Left, Right, Left' with Drama — that was the first time I heard Redd," Scream remembered. "I didn't know who he was. I remember buying the album, opening the album credits, like, 'Shawty Redd, whoever this n---a is, this n---a is dope.' Then I didn't hear nothing from him until he got with Jeezy. I remember opening the Jeezy album and seeing his name in the credits. I put two and two together." Before his arrest, Redd was working on a slew of projects, including tracks for radio personality/ artist Stewie Rock, Young Jeezy and members of Jeezy's C.T.E. "He's definitely among the top of them," MLK said about the producers coming out of Atlanta. "A lot of people f--- with Shawty Redd, Zaytoven, Drumma Boy — those are the names that if you're any type of artist, you try to get that sound. You have to go to those names. There are a few others of course, but Shawty Redd is among those top names. His name is spoken a lot. "I was shocked, but I never pass judgment," MLK said of Shawty's arrest. "Hopefully, he'll be good. That's all I could say. I just pray for him. Nobody knows the real situation until he comes out and tells it ... but it's shocking." Related Artists |
| Timbaland Wants An End To Gossip About Himself, Tiger Woods Posted: 04 Jan 2010 10:00 PM PST Producer wishes online rumors about a beef with Jay-Z would stop.
Vanity Fair's new cover boy Eldrick "Tiger" Woods, Major League Baseball World Champion Alex Rodriguez and Timbaland. The last guy on that list says all three famous dudes have at least one thing in common: They've been the subject of frequent gossip on the Internet and tabloids. While the aforementioned jocks have seen their love lives become fodder for the rumor mill, the super-producer is angry about the the chatter that his friendship with Jay-Z is in peril following the leak of songs they worked on together.
"The world needs to check themselves," Timbaland told MTV News. "Leave them people alone. Leave me alone. I don't have beef with nobody. I have real friendships, and real friendships are meant to not always be on the right page, if you are real friends with somebody. OK, America? Don't get in my personal life. I have too much money, I will find you. ... Leave me alone. If you don't know about Tim Mosley, don't talk about Tim Mosely. All them Facebooks, Twitter, whatever, whatever, don't be talking. All that talking behind people's back ... I'm a grown man. I ain't got time for all that you say, she say. C'mon, man. Stay outta people's business and just love music." Tim said he feels Woods' pain and thinks whoever the world's best golfer is sleeping with shouldn't be anyone's concern except him his wife's. "Stay out of that man's business," Tim said. "That's his personal business. You don't know if his wife don't make him happy. You don't know what's going on with that man. She could be trying to stab him at night. But do you know that? All y'all see is that he is a black man, he's a top celebrity. To me, it's political and it's prejudice in the game. ... Same thing they did with A-Rod. Just wanna ride people out. It's ridiculous man. Leave stuff alone. Don't have a [public] debate like, 'Should she leave?' or, 'Should he leave?' You're forgetting they have kids. You don't get involved with people who have kids, regardless of what she done or what he done." Timbaland, who released his Shock Value II on December 8 also wants fans to log off of their computers and enjoy a physical copy of his album. "Get back to enjoying the music," he said. "Get off of the Internet and enjoy the music. Ride in your car, run on your treadmill, put Walkmans on, not always your iPod. Realize what you are blessed with. ... Get back to appreciation." Related Artists |
| Casey Johnson Autopsy Rules Out Foul Play Posted: 05 Jan 2010 04:59 AM PST 'Anatomical findings show no evidence of trauma to the body,' an L.A. County Coroner's Office rep tells MTV News.
LOS ANGELES — One day after her body was discovered, marking a shocking end to the life of Johnson & Johnson heiress Casey Johnson, the 30-year-old socialite underwent an autopsy on Tuesday (January 5). Although the cause of Johnson's death remains in doubt, a spokesman for the L.A. County Coroner's Office confirmed to MTV News that foul play has been ruled out. "It's on a security hold," Captain John Kades told us late Tuesday afternoon. "The cause of death is deferred until we get lab results and test results back, so we anticipate six to eight weeks before that is rendered. Any other details about the condition of the remains, or the residence or anything like that, we're not releasing that right now."
Kades did, however, explain that early findings have ruled out any sort of foul play. "That I can confirm," he said. "We did complete the autopsy and the anatomical findings show no evidence of trauma to the body." Barely 24 hours after the news broke, Johnson's friends and acquaintances — including Tila Tequila, who she was planning to marry — continue to publicly mourn. A fixture of the Los Angeles party scene, it is believed that she had been dead for some time before her body was found. Currently, TMZ is reporting that Johnson suffered from diabetes and that insulin syringes were found in her home. Asked about such details, the spokesman insisted that his office would not be addressing theories on her death or what may have been found in her residence. "We're not giving out any details on the case," he explained. "Like I said, it's on security hold; the official word from the Coroner's Office is that we completed the autopsy today, there's no evidence of trauma to the body, and the cause of death is deferred until lab results and test results come back." Related Videos Related Photos |
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