Never one to pass up an opportunity, Diddy & The Game gathered the troops for a body’s-still-warm tribute to the fallen King of Pop, which includes Usher, Polow Da Don, Mario Winans, Boyz II Men and yes, the return of Chris Brown. Don’t mind the station call-out as the verse comes in – the track debuted yesterday on Los Angeles radio’s Power 106 fm.
Check out The Game, Chris Brown, Diddy, Polow Da Don, Mario Winans, Usher and Boys II Men - "Better On The Other Side (Tribute To MJ)" Naturally, deep down Brown has to be thanking his bitch-slapping stars for the opportunity to get his name next to a legitimate star or two without the stinking cloud of bullshit his association would bring under traditional collaborative circumstances. After all, Michael Jackson died just a few days after Brown pled guilty to felony assault on Rihanna, which some may have forgotten for a moment in light of the fact that Hollywood icons are dropping like flies and some long-overdue balance to the Hollywood force has recently been brought. Brown may be an abusive plankton, but the man little bitch can dance his ass off – and he owes a good 97 percent of his technique to Jackson. The lyrics aren’t exactly strokes of genius – the Game’s most distinguished line is Who’s Michael Jackson? / You’re Michael Jackson / I’m Michael Jackson / We all Michael Jackson. Not exactly "We Are the World". Diddy, meanwhile, does what Diddy does best, talking over the beat like he’s having a fireside shat (typo but I’m leaving it), waxing redundant about Michael’s music, his dancing, his “philantropy.” It’s a wonder there aren’t any Sting samples.
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On iTunes, the current top five albums, and seven of the Top 10, are all Jackson releases, with The Essential Michael Jackson, Thriller and Off the Wall all leading the pack. At one point on Friday in the iTunes Store, nine out of the top 10-selling albums and 40 of the top 100-selling songs were by Jackson. Things are the same at the Amazon MP3 store, where Jackson is listed as the service’s top-selling artist of the week. Last.fm also documented the unprecedented jump in people on their service listening to Michael Jackson in the moments following Jackson’s death, with a peak of roughly 42,000 MJ songs being played on the service between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET thursday.
50 Cent's been studying up to see whose style he can jock next what his competition is these days.
"A lot of different artists out there that they’d be surprised that I got their CD," the rapper explains, "you know what I mean? And I play it… because of the competitive nature of the art form, I don’t shout it out or I don’t even let em know I’m listening, you know I just let it.. stay there because it might cause them to say something that makes me have to compete with them," 50 says. If you're looking for new music from the man, look no further; check out his new track " I'm Paranoid" right here.
Diddy is in talks for a deal with Diageo, the world's largest brewery company in the world. If signed, he'll promote the Guiness and Red Stripe beer brands, according to Advertising Age. In 2007, the Hip Hop entrepreneur teamed up with Diageo to promote its Ciroc vodka brand. As the face of the Ciroc Vodka brand, Diddy has generally been credited for the upturn in the drink's sales. He's not exactly breaking new ground, though. Jay-Z has signed a deal with Bud Select, Common supported Smirnoff and Kanye West backed Absolut. Diddy's attempt to juggle three alcohol brands, however, is ambitious. For the most part, artists have involved themselves with one endorsement at a time. In addition to the potential deal with Guiness and Red Stripe, Diddy also has his own clothing line, fragrance line, and continues to be involved in the music industry. The funniest part? He can't rap worth a damn, his production is weak and he's best known for riding Biggie's coattails all the way to superstardom.
Bow Wow finally got his wish. Bow Wow confirmed on Friday that his label Columbia Records had released him from his contract. Earlier this month the rapper begged the label to release his saying the label just wasn't right for him. 10 top 10's, 10 million albums sold. Yeah, that sounds all kinds of wrong. "Wanna thank them for the release," Bow Wow wrote on his Twitter account. Get ready for illiteracy: "and also thank them 4 err thang. i made all my hits with them. and i have nothing bad 2 say about em. luv...10 top 10 records, 10 million sold, tours etc...thanks. now im able to expand and take things to another level. my fans get ready its on now! 'jus signed my term of agreement from sony' thank u 4 all da hardwork and dedication. liz, b nolan, ayelette, bolo, mike, demetrius, darrel j etc. Steve B. Rob String. footy, yall hold it down. if it wasnt 4 yall i wudnt be here yall help build da bow wow brand. and alos lisa wiggins."
Lil Wayne is getting ready to release his rock-inspired Rebirth album and photographer Jonathan Mannion took fans behind the scenes for a tour of his gallery that features artwork from Weezy's next album. Mannion explains how the two came up with the concept saying "we did a lot of research, we were looking back a lot of old RollingStone pictures." Check out the artwork:
Jonathan Mannion started his career by shooting photographs for Jay-Z's Resonable Doubt album and later went on to photograph sports stars like Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson and Lance Armstrong.
NBA all-star Shaquille O'Neal recently co-signed rap group D-Block, and took a second to explain to those misguided enough to actually look to Shaw for rap advice exactly why he thinks the New York group are "legends." "I just wanna say one thing, a lot of people sleeping on them D-Block cats," Shaq said in an interview. "Them cats are legends. Them cats are legend. D-Block, I'm with y'all. I'm with y'all all the way. No, there ain't a [collaboration] record coming out. I'm just saying, you know a lot of people put together crews, but this is like one of the first crews that all three cats is hot. D-Block, whoo, outta here." In somewhat related news, O'Neal was recently traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and rumor has it that Shaq found out via Twitter, of all places. In response to someone saying "is it true u a cleveland cavalier" Shaq wrote "I didn't hear dat yet." Later someone wrote "U CLEVELAND BOUND! Shaq found out he was traded thru twitter! lmao!hahahaaaaaa" and Shaq replied "I kno right." Does everybody talk like they're retarded these days? I'm ready to swear off this internet shit once and for all.
From this angle, new rapper Maino sure sounds like a little bitch. The aspiring rapper recently talked about the public's adoration of hip hop moguls like Jay-Z and how it hurts new emcees from New York trying to make a name for themselves. He didn't directly call out HOV, but Maino did question why Jay-Z signing Uncle Murda to Def Jam never produced an album. "Who's New York's biggest star, Jay-Z right?," Maino said. "So you mean to tell me that there is no one capable of becoming a Jay-Z? The problem with New York is that we don't produce stars no more we still stuck on the old stars. I don't think that it's just that niggas can't make good music. Take me for example. I have proved hands down that I make good music right? But when Jay-Z puts out a record its gone be like, the biggest thing since the steering wheel...I'm glad Diddy signed Red Cafe cause nowhere is opening up an avenue for a new nigga. Instead of concentrating so much on his self, he opening it up for a new nigga. Murda was signed nothing came out of that...The OG's school you...So it being no camaraderie and no connection it makes it that much harder for a nigga to make it to that point to be a Jay-Z." You also have to be goddamned incredible at what you do, as Jay-Z is. Maino, you sure as hell won't ever be a third as good - or as successful - as Jay-Z.
Kanye West made a surprise appearance at an L.A. film festival last week, where he debuted his new short film We Were Once A Fairytale. Directed by Spike Jones, the film was originally intended to be a music video for Kanye's 808s & Heartbreak track "Nightmares." In the film, West plays himself drunk at a club where he meets a beautiful woman and they start having sex before he passes out. He wakes up with his pants down and finds out he was humping a pillow and he runs to the bathroom where he vomits rose petals. West then cuts his stomach spilling out more petals then pulls out a small demonic-looking rodent, which is connected with an umbilical cord.
Producer Timbaland recently talked about his ongoing feud with fellow producer Scott Storch, which started back in 2007. Talking with G-Unit's DJ Whoo Kid, Timbaland talked about the advantages Storch had when he worked with Timbo and Dr Dre. "I can't beef with a guy, we had a serious friendship," Timbaland says. "He worked with me for years, after he stopped working with Dre, he started working with me. And the dude is hot, the boy is hot. I think he's good on his own but when me and Dre got him together, we bring something outta Scott you've never seen." Timbaland went on to talk about how the beef between the two started. "You know what it is, his crew and everybody getting to him got to him. I'm a bigger person and I told Scott sometimes he's weak. And everybody's getting in his ear blah, blah blah...and it's not even like that...Scott has gone through a lot of pain...You gotta be patient [with the industry hate] because you can't feed into it. I'm 30-something years old, freak I look like feeding into somebody whose 20-something years old?" The man's got a point. Let's just hope he stays away from Chris Cornell from here on out.
Eminem made a surprise appearance on his Shade45 SiriusXM station earlier this week, where he annonced that he'll be performing at this years VooDoo Festival in New Orleans on Halloween. Saying that this will be his only live performance this year, Eminem went on to break the news that he is currently in the studio finishing up the second Relapse album, which we can expect to hit stores in the fourth quarter (September-December). Eminem went on to confirm that he recently shot the video for his next single "Beautiful," and it should be hitting soon.
Rapper Drake has been in the middle of a bidding war, with several labels clamoring to sign the Canadian former actor. It seems that Universal may win, after a battle mainly between Atlantic, Universal, Def Jam and Interscope Records - sources on the West Coast are reporting that Drake has signed his music contract with Universal. Nothing has been announced but an official statement is expected soon.
