Besides scoring big at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards and appearing in Drake‘s “HYFR” video as a masked Bar Mitzvah guest, all’s been quiet from Lil Wayne as her readies his forthcoming album Devol. Today comes a new tune of Weezy’s, off DJ Stevie J’s The Appreciation Volume 4 mixtape, and the song, “S.A.S.A.R.A.F” is a acronym for the endearing phrase, “Skate And Smoke And Rap And Fuck.” That pretty much says it all, doesn’t it, folks? Refrain from all of those activities at the moment and check out Wayne’s latest below.

Lil Wayne – “S.A.S.A.R.A.F.”

No word on if this enchanting sonnet will have a home on Devol.

Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter IV is out now on Cash Money. Purchase it on eMusic.

lil wayne skates, refrains from smoking, rapping... or anything else

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Justin Bieber is launching a full-on call to the dancefloor — even though he’s still too young to gain entrance into the clubs. While his new album Believe is still but a few weeks from release (get on that, Internet), his Ludacris-featuring opening track “All Around The World” found its way online today (May 25), and its arguably Bieber’s most dancey track yet. In fact, is this an Enrique Iglesias/Chris Brown leftover? Because it sure sounds like it to us. See for yourself below.

Justin Bieber feat. Ludacris – “All Around The World”

“All around the world / People want to be loved / all around the world / They’re no different than us,” sings the 18-year-old pop star on the heavy dance-ready tune, produced by Bieber’s frequent collaborators The Messengers (“Never Say Never”, “Mistletoe”).

Bieber could practically be a house artist on a beat-driven, rave-y banger like this. It’s a clear example of how he’s taking baby steps to “swaggy” adulthood through the evolution of his music — keep the content G-Rated, but make the beat something the older club-going crowd can enjoy. So far, it’s working.

What do you think of “All Around The World”? Does it make you want to pick up Believe on June 19? Let us know what you think on Facebook, Twitter, or in the comments below.

Swedish electro-pop duo The Sound Of Arrows are criminally unrepresented in today’s pop scene — maybe they should throw Justin Bieber onto a remix of one of their tunes? (We kid — seriously, don’t do that.) It’s a shame, because the magnificent wonder of the video for their song ”Conquest” — featuring unicorns, floating crystals and even a DeLorean —is a sight to behold. Just maybe don’t watch it at work, because a dancing woman’s breasts, covered in nothing but paint, might raise an eyebrow at your office. But otherwise, check out the NSFW clip above.

“Conquest” comes off the duo’s debut album Voyage (which was excellent enough to make our list of our 10 Favorite Albums of 2011).

[Via PopJustice]

Today kicks off Memorial Day weekend, and the perfect person to help ring in the summer season is party-meister Pitbull, who performed a handfull of his hits during the Today show’s outdoor concert series. Mr. Worldwide got the crowd cheering with “International Love,” “Give Me Everything”, “I Know You Want Me” and “Back In Time”, the lead single from the Men In Black III soundtrack. Watch him break a sweat below, and look out for his seventh studio LP, Global Warming.

Pitbull – “International Love” (Live On Today)

Pitbull – “Back In Time” (Live On Today)

Pitbull – “Give Me Everything” (Live On Today)

Pitbull – “I Know You Want Me” (Live On Today)

It sounds like we should keep our eyes peeled for Watch The Throne 2. To be sure, Jay-Z and Kanye West both have plenty to do once they’ve wrapped up their tour behind their first joint LP. (Jay-Z has music to write for a film adaptation of Annie, starring Willow Smith; Kanye has a Kardashian to date). But the two appear serious about a sequel, according to West associate Mike Dean. In an interview with Quiet Lunch, Dean rattled off the projects occupying his own time, and called out Watch The Throne 2, saying “it’s coming.” Watch below.

Dean, a longtime West friend who handled production on much of ‘Ye’s acclaimed My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in addition to Watch The Throne itself, told the magazine he’s working on the G.O.O.D. Music album in addition to the Jay-Kanye team-up album. (Fast forward to 5:34).

The notion of a follow-up to Watch The Throne had come up before: Jay-Z had hinted at it late last year, though he suggested he and Kanye might knock out their own solo albums first. Based on Dean’s comments, though, it sounds like perhaps a new Throne might be further along than we had reason to think.

Which would you rather hear first, a Watch The Throne 2 album, or new solo projects from Jay-Z and Kanye? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter or in the comments.

[Via That Grape Juice]

Ingrid Michaelson is one with her fellow music artists, both past and present, in her new video for “Blood Brothers”, off her album Human Again. In the time-lapse video, we see the singer-songwriter — with the magic of a team of make-up artists — turn into Madonna (circa her Marilyn Monroe era), David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust, Lady Gaga during her hairbow phase, KISS‘s Gene Simmons, Beyonce, John Lennon and, most impressively, Amy Winehouse.

“We’re all the same under a different name,” sings the 32-year-old songstress on the midtempo tune. Let this be a call for beef-loving artists to simmer down and their feud-seeking fans to stop pitting singers (especially the ladies) against one another. They’re all one!

Human Again is available now. Purchase is on eMusic.

[Via Popdust]

Fans of electronic music, get ready for some news that will literally make you short-circuit: Daft Punk have gone into the studio with Giorgio Moroder. If you’re asking yourself who Giorgio Moroder is, first thing’s first — slap yourself. Hard. Second, wise up to the fact that the Italian producer revolutionized modern dance music in 1977 with “I Feel Love” (and these other Donna Summer hits), and kept the floors and charts filled with smashes like Blondie’s “Call Me”, Irene Cara’s “Flashdance…What a Feeling”, Phil Oakey’s “Together In Electric Dreams” and Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away”.

Alas, it doesn’t seem like the Grammy/Oscar winner was enlisted to write or produce for Daft Punk. Rather, he’s contributed a rap of sorts. What?

URB reports the following:

During a one-on-one interview at International Music Summit in Ibiza, the producer behind genre-defining songs such as “I Feel Love” and “The Chase” revealed that he recently went into the studio with the French duo.

The robots asked the Munich Machine to go into a vocal booth and speak about his life. In the studio were multiple microphones of various vintages from the ’60s to today. When Moroder asked the engineer why they had so many mics, he replied that the mic they would use would depend on what decade of his life he was speaking about. When Moroder asked if anyone would know the difference, the engineer replied “They will know.”

Disco has been in the news lately, though not all of it has been headlines to get up and dance over. Moroder’s former muse Donna Summer passed away last week at the age of 63. A mere three days later, Bee Gees legend Robin Gibb, 62, died. Both had been battling cancer in recent years.

Donna Summer's classic album covers

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In addition to 72-year-old Moroder, Chic member-turned-hit-making-producer Nile Rodgers stated earlier this year that he’d been collaborating with Daft Punk as well.

Excited, DP fans? Intrigued, at least? Let us know your thoughts below, or by hitting us up on Facebook and Twitter!

Drake and Chris Brown have yet to team up on anything besides their respective (alleged) Rihanna disses, which makes this recently surfaced collaboration between the two of them noteworthy. The two artists teamed up way back in the day on “Yamaha Mama”, their take on Soulja Boy and Sean Kingston‘s collab of the same name off 2008′s iSouljaBoyTellem. We’re not exactly sure when this was recorded, why it was shelved, or why they decided to rework this harmless love song, but some things were never meant to be known.

Listen to the Polow Da Don-produced track below.

Drake feat. Chris Brown – “Yamaha Mama”

“This I swear / had my share / of women that I been with / I’m young, can you blame me?” raps Drake. No, and that was exactly Russell Simmons‘ point in his recent Rihanna-supporting blog post directed at you and Brown.

Check out Soulja Boy and Sean Kingston’s original version — how do you think it compares to Drizzy and Breezy’s take?

Soulja Boy feat. Sean Kingston – “Yamaha Mama”

Drake’s Take Care is out now on Young Money. Purchase it on eMusic.

“My sister, not only does she work hard on tour, but she likes to play hard on tour,” says Katy Perry‘s older sister Angela Hudson in a brand new sneak peek from the pop star’s upcoming big-screen movie Katy Perry: Part Of Me 3-D. And she’s right — in the minute-long preview, we see the “Wide Awake” artist and her sis (who works for the singer) take in some sun and some fun at a water park to relax during Perry’s lengthy 2011 California Dreams tour.

“Anytime we go to a city when we have a day off, she always likes me to explore something fun with her,” Hudson says, though it’s not always too much fun for her — Katy convinces her sis to go with her on a bungee-jumping ride, despite the fact that Angela is scared of heights.

Katy Perry’s documentary/concert film Part Of Me will be released in theaters July 5, so keep the fireworks explodin’ for one more day!

katy perry: pretty on stage in paris

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Chris Brown slows it down for his video for Fortune single “Sweet Love”, and makes things real sexy — well, that is, if you’re idea of sexy is watching him climb under the sheets with a hologram and walk down a wet street lined with scantily-clad women who begin floating in the air, Exorcist-style, when he walks past them.

Later, at the end of the clip, Breezy and his crew of bro dancers get all interpretive by grinding their hips and gyrating in front of their lady conquests. We’re not sure if we should be turned on or utterly creeped out by this vid. Think we’re leaning toward the latter.

See Breezy on the set of "Sweet Love"

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No Doubt will drop their first album in over a decade on September 25, but we’ll be getting a taste of the group’s new tunes much sooner than that. The SoCal band will perform at the 2012 Teen Choice Awards, their first live performance since 2009.

“You may have heard the rumors… and yes, we will be performing on the Teen Choice Awards in July!” the band wrote on their Twitter page. The 2012 Teen Choice Awards air July 22 at 8 p.m. EST on Fox. The Gwen Stefani-led group were previously nominated for three Teen Choice Awards, and won “Choice Music: Tour” for their 2004 Singles Tour.

Songs on No Doubt’s as-yet-untitled album include “Push And Shove”, which the band previewed during their premiere webisode chronicling the making of their sixth studio album.

gwen stefani: always in style

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It seems long before Lana Del Rey was serving as a handbag muse, the Born To Die artist was designing her own line of shoes. Thank goodness this 2009 Keds Collection ad starts, “I’m Lana Del Rey, and I’m a singer”, because the lips, the hair, and the beach girl-vibe much more resembles singer’s former self, Lizzy Grant.

Watch the Gangsta Nancy Sinatra as she skips along a boardwalk, eats cotton candy, and shows off her bling on her perfectly manicured nails while riding Coney Island’s famed Wonder Wheel — all while quoting Francis Ford Coppola. And wake us when LDR comes out with a clothing line inspired by the all white dresses she wears during her televised performances.

What do you think of Lana’s kicks? Tell us below or on Facebook and Twitter. 

See Lana Now!

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Will.i.am brings his act to Londontown in his video for “This Is Love”, the Steven Angello-produced single off his forthcoming solo album, #willpower. The Black Eyed Pea starts things off slowly, playing a will.i.am-branded piano in front of the city’s Tower Bridge. Eventually, clubgoers pop up via will’s laptop (do they have Skype in nightclubs now?) and Dutch singer-songwriter Eva Simons, rocking the most intense, gravity-defying mohawk we’ve ever seen, provides some fierceness on the hook.

Though the video starts off promising with an interesting outdoor locale, Will.i.am’s low-key piano-playing, the random, confusing club scenes and the giant distraction that is Eva’s hair never really gels together. “This Is Love” comes off like a bunch of separate concepts were thrown into one video. And maybe we’re just a little bit more cautious with our personal computers, but we really wouldn’t recommend leaving a laptop out in the rain like that. Then again, this is will.i.am — we’re sure he can afford to get a new will.i.am-branded PC.

Reality television’s newest singing competition, Duets, premiered on ABC last night (May 24), though chances are you didn’t watch it: the show debuted with an average of 6.7 million viewers. (That’s nearly half of what the debut episode of NBC’s The Voice earned last year.) Are these disappointing figures due to a lack of promotion, or a lack of interest, as TV is already over-saturated with people singing and judging singing? (We wouldn’t be surprised if people need a breather from singing competitions as American Idol ended its 11th season on Wednesday night.)

We’ll have to wait and see how the show builds momentum the rest of the season, but they certainly kicked things off with a bang: judges Kelly Clarkson, Robin Thicke, John Legend and Jennifer Nettles opened the show by performing Robbie Williams‘ “Let Me Entertain You”. It’s a fitting song choice, as the judges really will be pulling double duty as entertainers, since they’ll be performing along with the contestants throughout the course of the show.

Check out one of the series’ first duets — contestant Jordan Meredith performing Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” with none other than Kelly Clarkson. That shouldn’t have been too nerve-wracking for her, right?

Did you watch Duets? Let us know what you think of the show on Facebook, Twitter, or in the comments below.

robin thicke goes solo on 'gma'

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Fresh off the series premiere of Duets on Thursday night (May 24), Robin Thicke was back to entertain us once again, this time as part of Good Morning America‘s Summer Concert Series. The ever-dapper singer took the stage in Central Park to serenade fans — and to make them swoon with his perfectly coifed pompadour, leather jacket, tight black jeans and a tiny t-shirt that showed just a lil’ bit of skin whenever the “Pretty Lil’ Heart” crooner moved.

The reality judge told GMA what sets his musical competition apart from the pack: “What’s fun about it is because you get to see a free concert almost every show from John Legend, Jennifer [Nettles], Kelly Clarkson and myself. So instead of just following the amateurs you also follow us trying to pick the right songs and execute a great duet with very limited preparation. So it’s exciting and unpredictable. It’s gonna be fun.”

Did you tune in for Duets? Are you adding it to your singing competition roster?

It’s been almost a year since Beyonce last took the stage, and now the new mama is back in dancing shape and ready to thrill her fans once again. Tonight, the pop diva will perform her first of four shows at the Revel Resort in Atlantic City, performing in the 5,050-capacity Ovation Hall. But even a four-night stint takes months of planning, as evidenced by this behind-the-scenes video.

“I’m enjoying being a mother, so going back to my old job, it’s a little strange,” admits the BET Award nominee, who is seen as the guiding force behind these comeback performances as she not only sings and dances, but is hands-on in the design of the stage and LED screens, making sure the audience gets the best show possible.

The video offers an interesting look into how much work it takes to put together a live concert, but we recommend watching it just to see a goofy Beyonce dancing next to a private helicopter.

beyonce stuns at the met

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You may have been surprised by Phillip Phillips‘ American Idol win on Wednesday, but the singer’s father, also named Phillip Phillips, revealed an even bigger shocker: the 21-year-old Georgian actually underwent a total of eight kidney surgeries during his tenure on the 11th season of Idol.

“He’s been doing [well], but it’s just grueling hours and it’s just amazing what he’s done through the journey,” the senior Phillips told People. “Eight operations since we started American Idol… He’s hitting 50 percent, but he’s still up there swinging away.”

In addition to snagging the Idol crown this year, Phillips achieved another victory yesterday when his coronation song “Home” rose to the top of the iTunes download chart. Today the plucky guitar jam is still sitting in the peak position at the online music retailer.

Phillip's goofiest 'Idol' Faces

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But according to People, before Phillips can head out on the annual Idols Live Tour, he still needs to undergo another surgery:

The younger Phillips, 21, suffered with a build up of kidney stones and underwent multiple operations to remove them. In the next few weeks, after another surgery to reconstruct his kidneys, he is expected to make a full recovery in time for the Idols Live tour.

“I’m going to get some surgery done, so I’m going to get all better for the tour,” the singer told reporters following his Idol triumph the other day. “It was very tough [getting through the season]. I had great doctors and great people surrounding me [who] really helped out, so it’s just a blessing to be here.”

Will you be heading out to see Phillip and the Season 11 singers when they hit the road this summer?

Sneaky Brits One Direction pulled quite the trick on an unsuspecting group of female fans who had trekked to Sun Valley, California’s Cadillac Cafe, thinking they were simply in for a screening of the boy band’s Up All Night: The Live Tour DVD (out May 29). Turns out the lads themselves were waiting in the wings — er, make that the kitchen — and, as part of VEVO’s Go Shows series, they walked out and treated the shocked young ladies an acoustic performance of their breakout smash “What Makes You Beautiful”.

“I think we like to kind of slow it down a little bit,” said Harry Styles, behind the scenes. “When we play to intimate crowds — a lot of our songs are a lot of fun and really kind of high energy — so when we do it acoustic, it’s nice to slow it down and have less people.”

Flip through 1d's hottest photos

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We gotcha, Harry. So do fries come with that shake?

Up All Night is available now from Columbia. Purchase it at eMusic.

Do you ever wonder how you got to here? Motion City Soundtrack frontman Justin Pierre sets about discovering the answer to that question in “Timelines”, the Minneapolis band’s second single off forthcoming LP Go (out June 12). The upbeat rock cut was made available on iTunes this week, and as an added treat to fans ahead of the holiday weekend, the quartet has whipped together a sepia-toned lyric video — which we’re happy to premiere today!

Pierre delved into his past to come up with the biographical lyrics to “Timelines”, which proved to be quite an emotionally difficult task for the 35-year-old. (Actually, he turns 36 tomorrow, so be sure to wish him a Happy Birthday on Twitter!)

“This one went through no less than eight different lyrical and melody choices before I got it right,” Pierre says. “The chorus was a variation on something the old man used to say. I tried to get universal in theme while remaining specific to things that have happened to me. It’s tough to sum up your life in two verses.”

And before passing the video on to us, Justin provided this disclaimer: WARNING: CONTAINS COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF PERSONAL SHIT!

You heard the man. Now go watch the video, and let us know your thoughts on it below, or by hitting us up on Facebook and Twitter.

We’ve definitely seen in-your-face rapstress Justina‘s sassy side, via her “Bubble Gum” and “Hip Hop Joan Jett” videos. But the New Jersey MC shows off her vulnerability in the video for her Route 80 mixtape track “Another Man’s Treasure”. Of course, don’t get us wrong — she’s still full of fire and tongue-in-cheek rhymes here. “I’m like a cross between Adele and Eminem,” she announces at the beginning of the tune. But pay attention and you’ll hear Justina, who’s half-rapping, half-singing, detail a painful moment in a relationship gone south. Watch the video above.

“This song was fueled by a one insane liquor-filled evening, complete with a real life knock down, drag out brawl, breakup, weeks of anguish and self-realization,” Justina tells us about her inspiration for “One Man’s Treasure”, which marks a change of pace for her. She adds: “Hope my pain made for a good song. And remember, One man’s trash…”

Grab Justina’s Route 80 mixtape here, and let us know what you think of “Another Man’s Treasure”, her tale of love gone wrong, below, or by hitting us up on Facebook and Twitter!