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  1. Obsessively blogging about pop music, pop videos, pop stars, and pop culture from inside the MTV headquarters in Times Square. We also have a slight Jonas Brothers problem. And a little fixation with Tokio Hotel.

    Contact us as buzzworthy@mtv.com and follow us on Twitter at @MTVBuzzworthy.

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Spankin' New Music Week is coming to MTV November 23 through 27. It's a celebration of five new mega-albums that are all being released in one big mega-week.

Lady Gaga's dropping The Fame Monster Limited Edition, which if you're sharp enough you've already heard The Fame: Monster on MTV's The Leak (a whole week early!). Rihanna's Rated R also hits on Monday and you've already seen new videos for "Russian Roulette," and "Wait Your Turn." Meanwhile, Shakira's long-awaited, hotly anticipated She Wolf album drops next week.

Beyonce has the Deluxe Edition of I Am, and on Tuesday, Britney's releasing the Deluxe Box Edition of The Singles Collection.

So what's in store? We have interviews with Gaga, Shakira and Rihanna, MTV News sat down with some of the girls as well, and we'll have performances, videos, and more. It's an unofficial "ladies week," but because we're not biased we're not forgetting that 50 Cent also recently dropped his fourth LP, Before I Self Destruct and we sat down and talked to him too.

Check in next week for more Spankin' New stuff on MTV, and, until then, watch Rihanna's "Wait Your Turn" video.

If we decide to file Chris Brown's new video, "Crawl" (directed by Joseph Khan and taken from his forthcoming Graffiti album) as another chapter in his never-ending apology to the world and Rihanna (which, let's face it, is exactly what we're going to do), then one thing is pretty clear: Chris Brown sure has a funny way of apologizing.

"Crawl," is a rather pretty ballad concerned with overcoming adversity, something Brown is entirely familiar with. In the video, Brown's mechanical heart skips a beat every time he's haunted by the ghost of a lost love.

Strangely enough, the lost love in question is R&B temptress, Cassie. That may or may not sit well with another R&B temptress we all know and love.

Elsewhere in the clip, Brown perches on a skyscraper (City Of Angels/Wings Of Desire nod, maybe?) and dances in the snow covered streets of L.A..

Nothing says, 'I'm sorry,' like dancing in the snow.

Rihanna's brand-new video, "Russian Roulette," directed by Anthony Mandler, is a dreadful and dark approach to end of a relationship. And while her emotional, cinematic "Russian Roulette" video can be interpreted as a somewhat literal look at the powerful song's metaphor, it's Rihanna's symbolic way of saying "No, REALLY, I'm done," leaving the past behind, and leaving little doubt that she hits back HARD.

It's Friday and Hurricane Ida is lashing against the east coast. So what better time to watch Rihanna dance around in various states of undress, nearly get attacked by what looks like a baby panther (or really testy black cat), lovingly call her assistants bitches and flaunt that too-cute-for-words Barbados accent of hers?

Check out this behind the scenes video of Rihanna's Rated R album cover photo shoot with legendary photographer Ellen Von Unwerth.

And while we all wait with bated breath for her album to drop on the 23rd, continue to get amped by checking out leaked tracks from Rated R like "Hard" and "Russian Roulette."

Rihanna is really, really back. If I may, I'd like to invoke a phrase popularized (if not invented) by the great American poet, Black Rob: "Like whoa."

Initially, when the visual motif surrounding Rihanna's Rated R began rolling out it was dark, it was film noir, it was post-war Berlin, it was lots of scarves and eye patches and trench coats.

But as Rihanna's singles have begun trickling out, and the each of those singles have gotten their own cover art, you may have noticed something: Rihanna seems to be losing layers of clothing at an alarming rate.

First there was the "Russian Roulette" art, in which Rihanna was dressed primarily in black masking tape. And now we get the art for her new, Young Jeezy-assisted banger, "Hard," in which she's wearing even less.

The heart flutters at what this lady is gonna dress up (and I use "dress" rather loosely) next.

Hopefully you didn't miss Rihanna on yesterday's episode of It's On With Alexa Chung. Yes, Rihanna -- whose new single, "Hard" could be the next "Umbrella" -- did touch upon the outpouring of fans who've supported her decision to speak out and help encourage other women who've been the victims of abuse. But she spent most of her time on It's On With Alexa Chung totally relaxed, joking around, meeting her fans (one of whom received a Rihanna makeover) and having fun with fashion -- specifically Alexa Chung's Museum of Rihanna Art, which exhibited some of Rihanna's best accessories to date and gave her the chance to discuss how and why she's adopted such edgy looks. It was a great look at a woman who's clearly taken back the power which is hers, moved on, and is back to being a fun-loving young woman who's living her life.

+ Watch Rihanna on MTV's It's On With Alexa Chung.

+ Check out more photos of Rihanna on It's On With Alexa Chung after the jump.

Read more...

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,

Rihanna's new record, "Hard," is leaking like the pipes in a third-floor walk-up apartment. Even Rihanna herself isn't immune to the piracy that haunts the airwaves these days. And maybe that explains the eye patch she's rocking in the newly released "Wait Your Turn" video off Rated R (watch it below.) It's very Captain Jack Sparrow-meets-Marlene Dietrich, no?

Anywho, "Hard." It's produced by two of everyone's favorites, the radio killers Tricky Stewart and The Dream. In a recent interview on Rap-Up.com, Stewart said, "We delivered a very, very big record, but I can’t say what the name of it is or anything, just for the simple fact that it’s actually top secret."

Well, loose lips sink ships and loose singles get leaked, dog. According to Stewart, who describes "Hard" as a monster, this will be his and Dream's only contribution to the album (much like "Umbrella" was their sole contribution to Good Girl Gone Bad).

Rihanna's "Hard" is well...hard. It's got a slight reggae vibe, with some incredible percussion and a really top-drawer verse from Young Jeezy.

+ Listen to "Hard" right here. Will it be bigger than "Umbrella"? Can anything be bigger than "Umbrella"? Let us know what you think in the comments!

Bold, bright makeup looks -- like Lady Gaga's baby pink lipstick, the spring green eyeshadow Adam Lambert rocks on the cover of his For Your Entertainment album cover or the statement-making dramatic deep-dark makeup choices Rihanna makes -- are a fun way to play with color, especially as winter rolls in. But neon looks aren't always easy to achieve. So I called on Doe Deere (that's her above), who's a model, musician, and owner of makeup line Lime Crime.

Doe Deere's constructed an entire modern-day Rainbow Brite universe of unicorns, cupcakes, candy, and cats (not to mention science!) So she's just the perfect person to show you how to properly apply crazy-bright, highly pigmented fluorescent lipsticks and shadows to get the perfect Gaga/ Lambert/ Rihanna/ pick your popstar look.

STOP what you're doing because whatever you're doing is NOWHERE NEAR as important as the precious time you're about to spend or already have spent staring slack-jawed at the glorious artistic masterpiece that is Adam Lambert's just-released For Your Entertainment album cover.

Reactions to Adam Lambert's For Your Entertaiment cover art have ranged from Very Bowie to fan art gone wild to the resurrection of Jem And The Holograms to "gayer than anything man can conceive of."

To be sure, Adam Lambert is fully in on the joke -- he just Tweeted: "Thank you to those who appreciate and understand that the album cover is deliberately campy. It's an omage to the past. It IS ridiculous." (Except homage is spelled with an "h." Oh well. He's got singing going for him.)

Anyway, I LOVE ridiculous. I LIVE by ridiculous. And I love that the art direction for For Your Entertainment was basically like "Um, so, let's take Prince's Purple Rain album art, Rihanna's Rated R cover art, and Steel Panther's Death To All But Metal cover art, add Kate Gosselin's wig but spray paint it blue, mkay? But let's ALSO paint Adam's nails black too, because that's always symbolically dark." I also love that it looks like the kind of mural you'd see airbrushed onto the wall of a crumbling skating rink. The only thing that truly makes no sense is the budget-looking font used for Adam Lambert's name. I think my accountant uses the same font. Boring! MOAR SPARKLES PLZE!

Therefore, embracing all that is fantastically fun about camp, and admitting that it's great to worship at the altar of glam and Glambert, here's how YOU can get Adam Lambert's For Your Entertainment album art look! JUST in time for Halloween!

+ NEON YELLOW/ GREEN EYESHADOW: Try Bloody Mary's Neon Yellow eyeshadow. Apply liberally to corner of eyes after making cat-eyes with hardcore amounts of black eyeliner. The more the better. Then make a sullen but beautiful pouty face. (Watch Tidal-era Fiona Apple videos for inspo.)

+ SHEER PINK LIPSTICK: I believe "baby pink" is the look Adam's going for. NARS' Roman Holiday completes the pretty picture, no? And so appropriately titled!

+ KATE GOSSELIN WIG: I mean, that's exactly what's going on here. Get a Kate Gosselin wig, some blue spray paint, and then spray the f+++ out of it.

+ SPARKLY STAR GLITTER: Because you've already come this far. Makeup For Ever's star glitter was pretty much invented for Glambert.

+ RAZOR: All excess body hair was shed for this shoot. Do it like you mean it. Because it's time for miracles, y'all.