Pop singer, reality TV star and Hulk Hogan's daughter Brooke Hogan sings "Fallen" with Stack$ in the Second Cup Cafe. "Falling" is the first song off Brooke Hogan's second album, Falling. Take a look:
Beyonce received a fan book as a gift from the Beyonce Fan Club. She posted the following video of her exploring the new fan book on YouTube. Beyonce's been everywhere lately. Her Sasha Fierce character is unusual but her recent videos - including Single Ladies and Halo - are very likeable and should allow her to not only keep her current fans but also add new ones.
Billboard Names Chris Brown Artist of the Year for 2008
Chris Brown has been named Artist of the Year by Billboard magazine.
Rihanna - who is dating Chris Brown - was named Best Female Artist.
Leona Lewis was named Best New Artist. Alicia Keys had the Top Hip-Hop Album. Flo Rida's "Low" was the Song of the Year, Bon Jovi had the highest grossing tour and Taylor Swift was named Topped Country Artist. Billboard's Year in Music feature for 2008 can be found here.
We all know about Britney's big Circus release that has already hit #1 but she's not the only artist making a comeback. Brandy is another artist back with a new album after four years. Her new album is called Human. Rapper Common also has a new album. Common has also been busy designing shirts for Microsoft.
People has an article about Heroes star Hayden Panettiere's upcoming album that says she is into pop, rock, hip-hop and R&B.
"Like pop, rock - maybe more of an R&B thing," the 18-year-old actress-activist (and now singer) told PEOPLE Thursday at the Stuart Weitzman Oscar suite in West Hollywood. "I have such eclectic tastes in music. I love rock, hip-hop, I like pop. I love Natasha Bedingfield and [singer-songwriter] Anna Nalick."
People says the album is due out this spring from Hollywood Records. There are a few songs already on Hayden's MySpace page. There haven't been any episodes of Heroes lately but Hayden keeps busy - such as appearing in ads for Candie's with a cute little puppy.
Timbaland's Scream With Nicole Scherzinger and Keri Hilson
In case you haven't seen it here is Timbaland's video for "Scream." The music video features Nicole Scherzinger and Keri Hilson. Nicole's been in the magazines lately - most recently gracing the cover of Men's Fitness.
The video was uploaded to Timbaland's YouTube channel which contains the following message from Timbaland.
"My mission is to blow up the boundaries and tear down the limits," says Timbaland. "I'm taking my music outside of the box. I'm not getting away from what I'm known for; I'm just going to a place where it's all about the music, not about the labels on the music. That's why I call it Shock Value--from the artists to the production, it will shock the system."
A new video from Kanye West that shows a woman in lingerie committing a violent act on a person in the trunk of a car has raised eyebrows. You can see the video here on Universal Music's YouTube channel. They don't allow embedding for the video. Usually videos without embedding don't do very well but this video is quickly approaching half a million views and it was just uploaded on February 12, 2008. The video is also embedded in Kanye's blog here. Bloggers are saying the actress in the video is Playboy model Rita G. You can see some of the blogosphere discussion here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
14-year-old Chantel "Chani" Christie is releasing her new single for the independent label, Jean Rah Fya Records with producer Ralph Stacy. Chani's single titled "Here We Are Again" will be released on January 25, 2008. You can hear it here on Chani's MySpace website. Chani is the daughter of NBA power couple, Doug and Jackie Christie
Chani State, began her musical journey singing and studying music at an early age. She has worked with vocal coach Nick Cooper who trained Beyonce, Jordan Taylor and many others. Chani was recently chosen as the Kids Outreach Spokesperson for the YMCA of Metropolitan Washington DC for 2008. Chani also has a new reality show titled "Coming Up Christie" in which she goes through the vigorous works of releasing her first single called "Here We Are Again".
Mary J Blige tells musician wannabees that they need to understand what is happening with music and the Internet. She says they need to be computer savvy and warns that they industry is changing. Blige says, "music stores are closing every day." She's right. The industry is changing and know one knows exactly where it is going to end up.
Two new Best of Tupac CDs called Thug and Life are being released in time for the holidays. Tupac's mother Afeni Shakur assisted in the creation of the CDs. Here is some information about the new CDs from a Amaru Entertainment/Interscope/UMe statement.
Each album contains one previously unreleased recording and one new remix along with nine classic tracks. Each album is available in edited and explicit versions. The collections were assembled with the assistance of his mother, Afeni Shakur, who is also the executive producer of the albums. The CDs represent different key phases of 2PAC's evolution and shows how his talent hit a high note right from the start and never wavered.
THE BEST OF 2PAC - PART 1: Thug features the previously unreleased "Resist the Temptation" and a fresh mix of "Dear Mama," featuring Anthony Hamilton, whose original Grammy-nominated version went Platinum and charted Top 10 Pop and #1 Rap. Also included are "Trapped" (2PAC's debut single), the Grammy-nominated "California Love" (with Dr. Dre), the double Platinum, #1 Pop/#1 Rap, Grammy-nominated "How Do U Want It" with K-CI & JoJo, and Top 10 Rap "So Many Tears." The remaining tracks are "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted," "I Ain't Mad At Cha," "Hail Mary," "Changes," and "Unconditional Love."
THE BEST OF 2PAC - PART 2: Life highlights the previously unreleased recording of "Dopefiend's Diner" featuring 2PAC using a vocal sample of the melody line of "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega in addition to the acoustic remix of "Thugz Mansion" featuring all three verses by 2PAC. The album also brings together the Top 5 Rap "Brenda's Got a Baby" and Gold, Top 15 Pop/#2 Rap "Keep Ya Head Up." The tracklisting adds "Definition of a Thug Nigga," "When I Get Free," "Until the End of Time" (RP Remix), "Never Call You B**** Again," "They Don't Give a F*** About Us," "Still Ballin" (Nitty Remix) and "Ghetto Gospel."
Tupac has sold nearly 40 million albums just in the U.S. A YouTube search for Tupac returns 53,000 results. Two great Tupac resources are The Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation's website and 2Pac Legacy.
Soulja Boy has an album coming out October 2nd called SouljaBoytellem.com. The song "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" has already been a Billboard and ringtone hit. It was also an Internet hit with millions of views on MySpace and YouTube. Isn't it a little tacky to name your album after your website? Not if you are Soulja Boy -- the AP notes that Soulja Boy dotcom album title is a "nod to his Internet fame."
Long before his hit "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" topped Billboard charts and became a top-selling ringtone, the song reportedly helped him receive 10 million MySpace visits. And on YouTube, a myriad of fans have uploaded homemade video clips featuring their own versions of the song's accompanying dance steps. The track, now unavoidable on urban radio, centres on electro-pan drum plunks, a nearly indecipherable chanted chorus and lyrics mostly about how Soulja Boy enlivens the party.
Now his major-label debut "SouljaBoytellem.com" - an aptly titled nod to his Internet fame - is a largely self-produced collection of similarly rudimentary rhymes, infectious hooks and space-age, synth-heavy beats. Yet the disc is about as formulaic and ultimately disposable as hip-hop can get. He's got the requisite rump odes ("Booty Meat" and "Donk"), product placement jams ("Bapes" and "Sidekick") and dance-move ditties ("Snap and Roll" and "Let Me Get Em"). Undeterred by his own lack of depth, on the album closer "Don't Get Mad," he says: "Don't get mad cause the kids like me." Soulja Boy may have a point: he has a populist's ear for what the most young rap listeners crave: frothy, party-rocking anthems.
Soulja has been criticized for his derogatory lyrics. Media Girl notes that Soulja Boy used the word "hoe" in his "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" song 30 times. You can hear this more clearly if you listen to a reading of Crank It by Sam Harris. AllHipHop has an interview with 17-year-old Soulja Boy here but there's nothing in it about the lyrics.
The video below contains an instructional dance video from Soulja Boy.
Kanye West is helping MySpace pick featured artists for their MySpace Music homepage this week. Mashable lists a few of Kanye's selections which included both popular and unknown artists.
He's hand picked the featured artists that are on the MySpace Music homepage, which include Mos Def, Jay Z, Feist, Daft Punk, Justice, and more. The purpose is to offer known and unknown artists face time on the popular network. As part of this guest curator spot, Kanye West has also done an exclusive behind-the-scenes video interview during his stay in London, talking about his upcoming album "Graduation" which is to be released September 11th. This is further hyped by the rivalry going on between Kanye West and 50 Cent, who will also release his album on the same day.
Kanye also has a MySpace page of his own. Here is Kanye's video for "Stronger."
The New York Daily News reports that rapper Reme Ma has been charged in a shooting of her "friend" Makeda Barnes-Joseph in New York.
After filling up on thin-crust pizzas and downing fancy drinks early yesterday, the Grammy-nominated rapper - known for her work with Eminem, R. Kelly and Fat Joe - left the eatery's VIP section and piled into the Cadillac with three men, witnesses said.
Barnes-Joseph walked outside and slid behind the wheel of her Nissan Maxima, a college graduation gift from her mom.
About 10 minutes later, Remy Ma got out of the SUV, got into the Maxima and shot the woman twice in the midsection, police sources and witnesses said.
Barnes-Joseph was in stable condition at St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan yesterday.
Dressed in designer jeans and looking disoriented, Remy Ma, whose real name is Remy Smith, surrendered to cops at the 6th Precinct stationhouse in Greenwich Village about 8 p.m. yesterday. She was charged with attempted murder, assault and possession of a weapon.
Barnes-Joseph was said to be in stable condition at the St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan. The shooting may have been over money. The Wikipedia entry says Remy Ma was said to be "enraged over $2000 USD that was missing from her purse and believed Makeda to be involved with the theft." Remy Ma's MySpace page can be found here.
Crunk is one of the new additions to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. The dictionary defines crunk as "a style of Southern rap music featuring repetitive chants and rapid dance rhythms." MTV reports that crunk made it into the latest edition of the newspaper because the dictionary's editors followed its use from hip-hop magazines to sports magazines and finally to daily newspapers.
"There's only one rule for a new word getting in: If it's likely to be found in printed reading matter - magazines, newspapers, novels - it's likely to get in," Peter Sokolowski, an associate editor for Merriam-Webster, told MTV News. "Our entire staff reads and marks everything we can get our hands on: Vibe magazine, magazines on pregnancy and sailing, math journals, physics journals, soup-can labels, menus. Basically, when a word gains a critical mass of citations, we'll include it.
"We try to include words that aren't just trends," he continued. "We're looking for words that will be referred to in the future and people won't need any explanation to know what it means. If the editor of a newspaper can publish a word and he or she expects readers to know what it means, we'll include it."
Sokolowski said that in the case of a word like crunk, they had followed its use from the pages of hip-hop publications to magazines like Sports Illustrated and finally into Time and The New York Times. And yes, he's aware that including crunk in the dictionary suggests that it's no longer a "cool" word (this actually happened sometime around 2002), but that's just another part of the process: When your parents know what a word means, it's probably about time to include it in the dictionary.
Merriam-Webster's editors also could have searched the term on YouTube. There are 16,700 video listings for "crunk." They also could have taken a look at Lil Jon's bling. For more of Merriam-Webster's new words read this post on the IWJ.
Avril Lavigne and Lil' Mama have teamed up for a new music video for Avril's single "Girlfriend." The remix is by Dr. Luke. You can see the music video here.
If you haven't seen the original video for Avril Lavgine's "Girlfriend" you can watch it here. And if you are not familiar with Lil' Mama you can see the great video for her song "Lip Gloss" here.
People has an 
A new video from Kanye West that shows a woman in lingerie committing a violent act on a person in the trunk of a car has raised eyebrows. You can see the video 
14-year-old Chantel "Chani" Christie is releasing her new single for the independent label, Jean Rah Fya Records with producer Ralph Stacy. Chani's single titled "Here We Are Again" will be released on January 25, 2008. You can hear it 
Soulja Boy has an album coming out October 2nd called 
Crunk is one of the new additions to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. The dictionary defines crunk as "a style of Southern rap music featuring repetitive chants and rapid dance rhythms." MTV 
Avril Lavigne and Lil' Mama have teamed up for a new music video for Avril's single "Girlfriend." The remix is by Dr. Luke. You can see the music video 