Kandi Gives The History Of Destiny’s Child’s “Bug A Boo”: Pop School

Sam Lansky
May 16th, 2013 // Leave a Comment
Kandi Pop School Destiny's Child
Don't Bug

Class is in session, and now it’s time to sit up straight and get an education! And in the case of Pop School, it’s artists who are teaching you a lesson on their classic hits. Start taking notes!

Kandi penned some absolutely monster hits around the turn of the millennium — and while Destiny’s Child‘s “Bug a Boo” wasn’t her biggest (she gave the group their first Hot 100 #1 single with “Bills, Bills Bills,” but “Bug a Boo” failed to match that song’s chart success, peaking at #33), it is one of her most memorable. Part of the song’s charm then was in the brilliant specificity of the details; now, if they feel deliciously dated, they still capture the zeitgeist marvelously. Between “Bills,” “Bug a Boo” and TLC‘s “No Scrubs,” Kandi specialized in articulating frustrations over a certain type of man — the type who would inspire a woman to throw her pager out the window. More »

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Ciara Invites Future & B.O.B. To The “Body Party” After Party: Hear The Remix

Kyle Robertson
May 16th, 2013 // 1 Comment

Because one party is never enough and everyone knows that the fun only begins at the after party, Ciara has released a remix for her steamy single “Body Party,” featuring rapper/boyfriend Future and platonic friend B.o.B.

What’s special about this after party you might ask? Well, the beat is a bit snappier, and Future’s cyborg crooning is no longer relegated to the background. As for B.o.B., he turns out a turnt up closing verse.  Join CiCi’s remixed party below. More »

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Bruno Mars Covers ‘Entertainment Weekly’ With A Jungle Cat, Talks About “Going Away For A While”

Carl Williott
May 16th, 2013 // 1 Comment
Bruno on Ellen
bruno mars ellen
Mars strips it down for "When I Was Your Man." Read More »
Billboard Performers
christina aguilera pitbull
Bruno & many others will perform at the BBMAs. Read More »
Moonshine Jungle Dates
Bruno Mars Moonshine Jungle world tour press photo
See when Bruno Mars is performing in your city. Read More »
Glee Does Bruno
glee locked out of heaven
Watch the FOX show take on "Locked Out of Heaven." Read More »
bruno mars ew cover

Bruno Mars covers this week’s Entertainment Weekly for the mag’s summer music preview issue. In keeping with the “jungle” aspect of the singer’s Moonshine Jungle World Tour (which starts in June), he’s accompanied by a black leopard. As for what we can expect from his tour? “I don’t think I would feel too comfortable like, wearing a harness,” he joked to EW. “I want the music and the sound to be rockin’, more important than the visual effects and tricks or whatnot. I don’t want to get lost in that. I’ve definitely seen bands before they made money kind of change their thing on the next tour, and I prefer it when it’s a little more raw. We always change it up, you know? It’s live, and that’s a big element of the show.” More »

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Ginny Blackmore Performs “Bones” Acoustic: The Idolator Sessions

Sam Lansky
May 16th, 2013 // Leave a Comment
Ginny Blackmore "Bones" Acoustic
Lovely "Bones"

The lovely Ginny Blackmore paid a visit to Idolator headquarters last week, and she came bearing gifts — not only a set of macaroons for our editorial team (delicious), but the greatest gift of all: the gift of song. (Bear with me!)

After the songstress chatted for awhile about her origins, songwriting career and obsession with turn-of-the-millennium R&B, she turned her attention to performing her debut single, “Bones,” a luminously gorgeous and aching ballad. Live, it reveals her powerful vocals and disarming stage presence; there’s talent and charm to spare here. (The way she sings, “It sucks being a woman in love with an unkind man” in the first verse is one of my favorite things that’s ever happened in our studio.) Come and lay your bones down with it.  More »

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Britney Spears To Start Recording New Album With Will.i.am Next Week

Carl Williott
May 16th, 2013 // 1 Comment
britney spears will.i.am

Britney Spears is scheduled to start recording her new album with will.i.am next week, according to Will himself. The Black Eyed Peas frontman is executive producing the album and told Billboard before they hit the studio, “We’ve had these juicy sessions, where we’ve been bonding, building the trust and comfort. I’ve never worked like this before — not even the Peas.”

The multi-hyphenate previously said he planned to have several lunches with Spears to get a sense of the real Britney and “what she’s excited about in life,” hopefully so they’d emerge with songs that “come from her heart.” His recent Billboard comments expanded on that plan, with him admitting to basically trying to interview the singer: “I said, ‘Let’s talk about things you’ve done in you career, what you’re happy about. Let’s talk about spending time with your kids, let’s talk about your breakup. Let’s talk about how now you’re single, how independent you might feel.’ We started talking about all that stuff. So I said, ‘do you mind if I write this down? I don’t mean to impose but I want to interview you.’” More »

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Diplo May Not Like Daft Punk’s ‘Random Access Memories,’ But Fatboy Slim Does!

Carl Williott
May 16th, 2013 // 2 Comments
daft punk random access memories photos

Daft Punk‘s Random Access Memories has apparently sparked a civil war within the world of dance music. First, the French Robots maligned the current state of EDM, essentially calling it unimaginative. Then Diplo responded with some comical critiques of the duo’s new album via Twitter. Now British DJ Fatboy Slim has stepped in to defend the album.

On Wednesday, Fatboy Slim told reporters, “I love ‘Get Lucky.’ I think it’s a breath of fresh air after all that EDM, sort of Euro stuff, it’s like, ‘That’s how good dance music can be’. That’s Daft Punk’s job, is to kick the rest of us up the arse and go, ‘Come on, it’s getting a bit stale.’” He added, “I prefer the disco-y bits to the more Tron-y bits, but that’s not a very full review! But well done to Daft Punk for being a breath of fresh air.” More »

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Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Take A Picture”: Hear The Crowdsourced Summer Song

Sam Lansky
May 16th, 2013 // 1 Comment
Carly x Nicki
Carly Rae Jepsen's new single gets a Nicki verse. Read More »
Carly's Kiss
Carly Rae Jepsen's ultra-poppy Kiss LP reviewed. Read More »
"This Kiss"
Carly Rae Jepsen This Kiss Video
Watch Carly Rae Jepsen's latest video. Read More »
Carly's Big Break
Carly Rae Jepsen
Jepsen talks about her assist from Justin Bieber. Read More »
Carly Rae Jepsen Take A Picture Single Artwork

Well! Fairytale princess Carly Rae Jepsen premiered her new single “Take a Picture” last night on American Idol. Here’s the good news: This means that Carly Rae Jepsen has a new single. Here’s the bad news: This provides less opportunity for her to promote her objectively flawless track “Tonight I’m Getting Over You,” which peaked at the blistering heights of #8 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, so everything is hopeless and there is no joy left in the world. (If it’s any consolation, Wikipedia reports that the song “has become a top ten hit in Belgium.” Sigh.) More »

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Justin Bieber, Frank Ocean, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Score O Music Awards Nominations

Carl Williott
May 16th, 2013 // 1 Comment

The 2013 O Music Awards nominations are out. And reading the list will handily remind you that you are one of the olds. Unless you’re not one of the olds, in which case, you’ll probably hashtag the eff out of these nominations. Because the awards celebrate “the best in digital music,” so of course they act like the trendy cousin and drop a bunch of inside jokes that the Grammys and Billboard Music Awards don’t get but laugh at anyway. Case in point: there are categories called Our Favorite Musical Cat, Fan Army FTW and Too Much Ass For TV. We don’t know what any of that has to do with celebrating “the best in digital music,” but we do know that Frank Ocean is up for the Ass one, as well as for Must-Follow Artist On Twitter.

Ocean’s two nominations tie him with Beck for the most nods. It’s ironic that Beck is honored by the digital-centric awards, since his most recent release was sheet music (which is why he’s up for Analog Genius). Justin Bieber is nominated for Fan Army FTW for the Beliebers, facing off against the legion of stans like Demi Lovato‘s Lovatics, Beyonce‘s Beyhive, Ed Sheeran‘s Sheerios and Selena Gomez‘s Selenators. Breakout rap duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis is up for Best Web-Born Artist, along with Kitty, Baauer, FIDLAR and Angel Haze, although we don’t really think those last two fit in that field.  More »

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Frank Ocean Joins Drake For OVO Fest 2013

Sam Lansky
May 16th, 2013 // Leave a Comment
TIME 100 Gala TIME'S 100 Most Influential People In The World at Jazz at Lincoln Center - Inside Arrivals

Drake is throwing a music festival in Toronto this summer, because Canada, right? The 4th annual OVO Fest (named after his October’s Very Own label) kicks off August 4 at Toronto’s Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, with tickets going on sale this Friday (May 24) at 10am — and now he’s fleshing out the line-up, adding Frank Ocean and James Blake to the roster. (They’re both performing on August 4, while Drake will be hitting the stage with “special guests” on August 5. Last year’s guests included Nicki Minaj and Snoop Lion, so they’ll probably be pretty good this year, too.)

It’s shaping up to be quite a festival summer, no? See the poster below. More »

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Kanye West Performs New Song “So Awesome” Live, Calls Himself “The Worst Kind Of Celebrity”

Sam Lansky
May 16th, 2013 // Leave a Comment
Kanye West Performs Roseland Ballroom Adult Swim Upfront

Kanye West had quite an evening last night at the Roseland Ballroom, where he performed a 90-minute set as part of the Adult Swim Upfront; halfway through, he went on a lively rant about his role in celebrity culture and the paparazzi (which has probably gotten much worse since The Dawn of Kimye, so sure, it would probably be on my mind, too).

“I ain’t no muthafuckin celebrity,” he reportedly said. “There’s one thing about me — I’m a terrible, terrible terrible celebrity. I don’t know if you really know there’s one thing about me but I’m the worst kind of celebrity. All I do is make real music. All I do is sit in the studio and make real shit. And that’s it. And that’s motherfuckin’ it. That’s motherfuckin’ it!” More »

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