R & B singer/AT&T pitchwoman Jill Scott has added to her portfolio with a line of full-figure undergarments for the Ashley Stewart chain, including bras that she's designed based on cup-related frustrations that, in the past, required her to wear two of the contraptions at the same time. (One was for lifting, the other was for shaping. How on earth she was able to move around with that kind of layering I'll never know.) This is probably one of the smartest musician-related "brand extension" moves I've seen in a while—after all, most women who have to avail themselves of bras do tend to need reinforcements at least once every two years or so, and it's not like foundation garments can be easily made at home—although I have to say that I generally like my underthings to have a little more, shall we say, plunge than the looks on offer at present. [Concrete Loop / AshleyStewart.com]
Latest by DaeSu: Yeah, I can see Jill Scott being involved in such a thing. When I saw her in Boston two months ago, she ad-libbed a song with only the words "Pinky Toe," which was her way of saying her heels were more »
Al Green was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award at last night's BET Awards, and to celebrate him, the producers had Jill Scott and Anthony Hamilton pay tribute to him in song. And then came Maxwell, who brought down the house (and inspired the above YouTube user to pull out her video camera) with his version of "Simply Beautiful." Apparently this performance is something of a prelude to a trilogy of albums he'll be releasing over the next three years, Black Summers' Night, although given that most of the Google results I'm finding about the album are anticipatory message-board posts from late 2007, it would seem the release date is still in question. (A better version of the entire tribute is here; Green's performances are linked here.) [YouTube]
Between Erykah Badu's New Amerykah Vol. One—which sounds to your friends at Idolator like the album to beat in '08—and late-'07 goodies by Jill Scott, The-Dream, and Mary J. Blige (with points going for a hip-hop crossover like Lupe Fiasco), the past three months have been very good ones for R&B. Add to that list Jive/Zomba's mid-January release of Love Behind the Melody, the second album by Raheem DeVaughn, which is as solid and alert and enjoyable as anything I've heard this year. Enjoy the metaphor-happy (not to mention toy-instrument-sounds-happy) "Customer," and if visuals aren't necessarily, you know, your thing, you can at least now see and hear DeVaughn's "Woman" after the jump.
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Bruce Springsteen's Magic sold 335,000 copies last week, a total that put the New Jersey singer at No. 1 on the just-released SoundScan charts. The album is Springsteen's eighth career chart-topper, although the first-week total is substantially less than the 525,000 mark set by The Rising back in 2002.
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Rascal Flatts topped this week's SoundScan chart, with their latest album Still Feels Good selling 547,000 copies; the country-pop outfit's last album Me & My Gang sold 722,000 copies in its first week a year ago, and this week it actually moved up to No. 38 on the charts, with 18,000 people deciding that they had to own that "Life Is A Highway" cover.
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Common Finds Himself On Reviewers' Minds
Every week, we round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Today's entry is Common's Finding Forever, which hits stores in the U.S. tomorrow:
As expected by pretty much everyone who's ever heard a note of music in the last five years, Norah Jones' Not Too Late took the top spot on this week's Billboard 200. The adorable singer's third full-length sold 405,000 copies—a jump from last week's No. 1-worthy total of 132,000, but a steep drop from the first-week sales of her previous album, Feels Like Home, which topped the million-sold mark in its debut week.
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The list of winners from last night's BET Awards is full of fascination and surprise for any nerd who can't help but care. Did the right "feat. T-Pain" win Best Collaboration? (Yes.) Is Missy Elliott doing better than any female artist who actually released an album in the last year? (Lil' Mama was robbed!) Did UGK deserve "Best Group" and "Best Video" more than Playaz' Circle and Ashanti or was it just a tribute to the passing Pimp C? (Both.) Kanye over Lil' Wayne? (Weezy will have to settle for Viewer's Choice.) Chris Brown over Ne-Yo? (A tragic tear under a tilted hat.)
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As predicted last Friday, this week's SoundScan charts were pretty rough, with no album breaking the six-figure sales total mark and only two—Bruce Springsteen's Magic, off 42% from last week, and Kid Rock's Rock N' Roll Jesus, down 55%—breaking 75k. Magic just edged out Kid Rock's album for the top spot on the chart, although that Waffle House brawl Kid got into over the weekend will surely boost his sales next week. (At least he hopes.)
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Kid Rock's Rock N' Roll Jesus sold 172,000 copies last week, and that total was enough for the oh-so-classy guy to wrest the top spot from Bruce Springsteen, whose Magic suffered a 60% sales decline and sank to No. 2. Jesus is Kid Rock's first career No. 1, and its success probably ensures that he'll be getting into scraps with minor celebrities at award shows before his next album drops too.
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Every Tuesday, hundreds of albums are unleashed on the world. Every Monday, your Idolators will look at a few of those albums, and give you a thumbnail context for them—who the artist is, what the record will sound like, and who will probably buy it (or, at the very least, download it). This week, we look at new releases from Chicago MC Lupe Fiasco, solo Pea Fergie, Canadian foppers The Hidden Cameras, and the voices that embody those Bratz dolls your younger cousins are always toting around.
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Latest by dollywould:
Buying your daughter a Bratz doll pretty much guarantees they'll be pregnant, anorexic, Coke-addicted and/or illiterate by 10. more »
In case you missed our first installment: A few months ago, Idolator's Michaelangelo Matos sent out an e-mail to a handful of his associates with a proposition: Give me a list of your 100 favorite R&B songs. Well, those months went by and the only person to turn in a completed list was...my mother. In our second installment of Kathleen Turner's 100 Greatest R&B Songs of All Time (with bonus YouTube links), we learn about her "intense British connection," why you should just say no to drugs, and how she feels about a certain pied piper of R&B:
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Latest by Trackback: I wrote the Fall Movie Preview over at Rotten Tomatoes: Meanwhile… Maybe We Ain’t That Young Anymore delivers some live Billy Idol (1982), then shares some live Radiohead in two parts before giving a tip of the hat to more »
Once again, we present Rock-Critically Correct, a feature in which the most recent issues of Rolling Stone, Blender, Vibe, and Spin are given a once-over by an anonymous writer who's contributed to several of those titles—or maybe even all of them! After the click-through, a look at the new issue of Vibe:
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Once again, we present Rock-Critically Correct, a feature in which the most recent issues of Rolling Stone, Blender, Vibe, and Spin are given a once-over by an anonymous writer who's contributed to several of those titles—or maybe even all of them! After the click-through, a look at the new issue of Vibe:
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We're running through the complete list now, but for the time being, since Grammy.com seems to be completely hosed, here's a rundown of nominees in the biggest Grammy categories. Kanye West leads all nominees with eight nods, while Amy Winehouse picked up six; initial surprises include "Hey There Delilah" getting nominated for song of the year (!) and Bruce Springsteen being shut out of the Album Of The Year running in favor of Herbie Hancock. PHooray, you can all argue about Wilco again!
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Latest by n/a: Kanye West is the most unprofessional self-centered person in the entire music industry. He deserves nothing due to his poor sportsmanship. If any athelete acted like him they would be history. My Mom died recently too but I don't think more »
Idolator
R & B singer/AT&T pitchwoman Jill Scott has added to her portfolio with a line of full-figure undergarments for the Ashley Stewart chain, including bras that she's designed based on cup-related frustrations that, in the past, required her to wear two of the contraptions at the same time. (One was for lifting, the other was for shaping. How on earth she was able to move around with that kind of layering I'll never know.) This is probably one of the smartest musician-related "brand extension" moves I've seen in a while—after all, most women who have to avail themselves of bras do tend to need reinforcements at least once every two years or so, and it's not like foundation garments can be easily made at home—although I have to say that I generally like my underthings to have a little more, shall we say, plunge than the looks on offer at present. [Concrete Loop / AshleyStewart.com]
Every week, we round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Today's entry is Common's Finding Forever, which hits stores in the U.S. tomorrow:
