First of all, let it be known that Janet Jackson is one of my favorite artists and dancers of ALL TIME. I've listened to Design of a Decade weekly since it came out. There isn't a Janet Jackson song or video I don't know and love. Janet's tribute to Michael Jackson at the 2009 VMAs was one of the greatest acts of artistry I've ever seen in my life. But you know what WASN'T one of the greatest things I've ever seen in my life? The outfit Janet wore for her American Music Awards performance last night. Janet's performance was great -- She did "If"!!! She channeled Michael! But OMG the outfit!?!?
Janet's AMA outfit was part naughty Pocahontas, kinda Robin Hood, and a little California gold rush. Janet's pants looked like army-issue Hammer pants, and the whole ensemble felt kinda like Shrek but with better cleavage.
+ What did you think of Janet's AMA outfit?
What makes Lil Wayne so damn good at rapping? It's a question that will haunt scientists, scholars, and historians for ages. But perhaps the answer is right in front of us.
The folks over at Global Grind have been playing hip-hop detective, and they may have stumbled onto a break in the case.
The answer might just lie in the bottom of Weezy's ubiquitous Styrofoam cup. Who says? No less an authority on the subject than Weezy F. Baby (don't forget the Baby), himself.
Wayne told popular British DJ Tim Westwood, "Whatever the hell was in my cup the only reaction I made was I got more popular, more successful, did a lot more things than I’ve ever done..."
This is true! He made some jaw-dropping mixtapes (like Dedication 2) and a stupendous album (like The Carter III) and some absurdly dope videos ("Got Money" to name one of a dozen). Now with success comes consequences (or so I've been told). And as Wayne mentioned to MTV News, his cup, more often than not, contains an illegal, not-good-for-your-longevity mixture of cough medicine and fountain soda commonly known as syrup. But Weezy has a different name for it.
Speaking to Tim Westwood about himself in the third person, Wayne said, "Whatever he was drinking must be a m-f’in success potion."
So let's call it that. A success potion. And let's just hope he doesn't overdo it on the success. (It may or may not be hard to do in jail.)
+ Check out GlobalGrind's photos of Lil Wayne and the Stryofoam cup that rarely leaves his hand.
Friday the 13th often means scary and ominous things, but it doesn't have to be that way. I hereby dedicate this Friday the 13th post to the final in a series of exclusive MTV Tokio Hotel photos. Enjoy two more so-amazing-they're-almost-scary photos of Bill Kaulitz and another photo of Tokio Hotel after the jump. And check out more MTV exclusive Tokio Hotel photos here. And stay tuned for Tokio Hotel's Buzzworthy Blog fan questions!
(Credit: Michael Greenberg, MTV)
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Lady Gaga's The Fame: Monster is still two weeks away, but that hasn't stopped the new songs attached to this re-issue of The Fame from surfacing.
We've heard "Bad Romance," "Alejandro," and "Dance In The Dark," and now comes possibly the mostly hotly anticipated track from The Fame: Monster: "Telephone," featuring Beyonce.
Now as is sometimes the case with these things, it's worth noting that this isn't officially official, though it certainly sounds certified. But it is a follow-up to Beyonce's "Video Phone (Extended Remix)," which features Gaga and will be featured on Beyonce's I Am...Sasha Fierce deluxe edition.
Both The Fame: Monster and I Am... Sasha Fierce deluxe edition are due out on November 23rd.
+ Listen to Lady Gaga's "Telephone," featuring Beyonce, here.
Alicia Keys' "Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart" is a dawn-breaking, tears-streaming heartbreaker. It's got airy vocals, swathes and keys and a tumbling, hard beat.
Here's the thing. Things are going REAL WELL for Alicia. I mean, girl has a new album in the chamber -- The Element Of Freedom, out next month -- she's playing the VMAs and the World Series with Jay-Z, singing a hot hook on the Top 5 hit "Empire State Of Mind."
But all that aside, nobody does broken hearts like Alicia Keys. Even at the top of the game.she can pull heartstrings like the end of The friggin' Notebook.
+ Listen to Alicia Keys' "Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart" here.
The Daily Nail -- a blog run a Las Vegas-based woman who's endeavored to paint her nails a different color and style every day -- dipped her tips into white meat yesterday when she painted her nails in honor of bacon. Even if you're a vegetarian, you've got to hand it to The Daily Nail (get it? HAND it to her?) -- her bacon-nail-painting handiwork is impressive. Almost as impressive as the Pepsi product and Doritos nail tribute someone wanted badly enough to turn into a reality. (Check out Pepsi and Doritos nails after the jump.)
Plus, check out more scary nails and All Lacquered Up -- the blog authority on all things nails, polish, and celebrity nails. (Yes, really.)
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Earlier this year, R&B crooning sensation Trey Songz did a remix of Jay-Z's "D.O.A." which, among other things, posited the idea that Trey Songz was just trying to be the best Trey Songz he could be, not some kind of R. Kelly re-tread (in case you thought he was). Trey Songzalso took some shots at R. Kelly, saying that he was too old to be using AutoTune. (The feud was basically like The Hills with more singing.)
Funny thing is, while Songz is hardly a re-tread of R. Kelly, he does share some qualities with he who was trapped in the closet, especially on two of the singles from his '09 platter, Ready.
On "LOL :)" (yes, that's WITH a smileyface emoticon) and "I Invented Sex," Songz comes with an irrefutably catchy melody ("LOL :))"and wanton sexual arrogance ("I Invented..."), respectively; two staples of the R. Kelly repertoire. Personally I like "LOL :)" (which you can jam to your heart's content here) the more because a) Soulja Boy and Gucci Mane are on it b) it's incredibly playful, as any song about texting should be and c) IT'S CALLED LOL SMILEY FACE.
Not that there's anything particularly wrong with "I Invented Sex," which you can watch in all its NSFW/ walked-in-on-someone's-sex-tape glory below, as well as an MTV News Trey Songz interview about the "concept" surrounding the video.
In 2006, Rihanna was just starting to become a big deal. She had released her second album, A Girl Like Me, and found some success with the single, "SOS," but was nowhere near the level of "Umbrella" success she'd find the next year. In this MTV video interview, taken from that period, Rihanna briefly talks about all the places she's seen and people she's met in during that dizzying year.
There's a certain harrowing air to the clip, isn't there? Rihanna talks about growing up and experiencing so much. You have to wonder how she must be feeling now, after all that she's seen and experienced in this tumultuous year.
Thankfully, it seems like Rihanna is ending 2009 on a real upswing. She appeared on Good Morning America to finally give her side of the whole Chris Brown issue. She wisely used it as a platform to make an appeal to girls, imploring them not to stay in abusive relationships. Then, this past weekend, Rihanna joined Jay-Z onstage at UCLA, triumphantly joining Hov during "Run This Town." Here's hoping things just keep getting better for Rihanna in 2010. Her new album, Rated R, drops November 23,
As Lady Gaga's The Fame: Monster's official release date looms on the horizon (the re-issue of Gaga' 2008 album, peppered with new tracks is due on November 23rd), it's only natural (given the way things are these days) that bits and pieces will start leaking.
We've already consumed and processed "Bad Romance," a reunion of Gaga and her go-to producer RedOne ("Poker Face," "Just Dance"). Now we get "Dance In The Dark, produced by Fernando Garibay (who's worked with Britney and Will.I.Am).
I am no Nostradamus/Amazing Kreskin, but this joint has "batten down the hatches; we've got a hit" written all over it. It's got a crunching techno beat with rough keys draped all over it. But more importantly it's got one of those patented Lady Gaga mantra-style hooks (especially the pre-chorus chant of "She's a mess/She's a mess/She's a mess")
+ Listen to Lady Gaga's "Dance In The Dark," and get ready to hear a lot more of it.
It's the question on the tip of everyone's tongue. No, not, "How will Lost end?" It's, "What happened to Thursday?!"
You remember Geoff Rickly and the boys, right? After the success of their Full Collapse album, they were supposed to be emo's big hope, dragging the sub-genre, kicking and screaming (naturally), into the arena to stay.
Things didn't go according to plan, Thursday didn't become the American Radiohead, and the New Jersey band wound up splitting with their major label and going underground (again). But their true-blue fans held on, and so did Thursday, which brings us to "Circuits Of Fever" (from their forthcoming Common Existence album). It's an impressionistic video for a rather shoe-gazer-ish song. The swirling atmospherics match the flashing imagery, and the rhythm is perfectly synced with the random pieces of machinery featured in the video. Welcome back, dudes!
