As opposed to last year, when the Teen Choice Awards spread the wealth among a bunch of olds (Fergie, Timbaland), this year's slate of music-related winners was highly concentrated. By which I mean that if a nominee in one of the Fox-produced event's music categories wasn't associated with the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, or Chris Brown, it didn't stand a chance of emerging from the evening with a surfboard. (But hey, at least this resulted in good news for Lil Mama.) Music winners after the jump.
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Grandpa Ice-T and young Soulja Boy may have quashed their beef, but a clip of Ice-T bitching about Soulja last October ("Soulja Boy? The fuck is that? It's garbage! And if the dude doesn't like it, I'll punch him in his face.") that recently popped up on YouTube just may reignite it. Not only does it add a violent threat to the mix, it also casts serious doubt on Ice-T's claims that he was being goaded into dissing Soulja Boy on the mixtape that started it all. Even if Soulja ignores this cane shaking, Lil' Mama ("'My lip gloss be popping?' Get the fuck out of here.") and Mims ("We came all the way from Rakim to 'This Is Why I'm Hot'...) may step up to the star of Surviving The Game with some sequel beef.
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Latest by FunkyJ: Weird...
I had a dream where Frank Sinatra was dissing modern popular music during one of his concerts the other night...
Now I'm really freaked out! more »
Todd Martens of the Los Angeles Times is taking a midseason look at the contenders for the Grammy Awards' fourth or fifth most prestigious award: Best New Artist, which has been given in the past to such luminaries as Paula Cole, Arrested Development, and A Taste Of Honey. Looking at all the exciting music produced by those who qualify for the award, it's really anyone's guess who will take home the prize next February. No wait, the winner's definitely going to be Duffy, isn't it?
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Lil Mama told SOHH over the weekend that her album VYP—which has fallen off the Billboard charts after just two months in stores—was completely botched by Jive. "My fan base is out of this world and the youth really look up to me and I know for a fact my album wasn't promoted correctly because people would come up to me like, 'Oh your album is out?' Or, 'This is the second one?' " Well, perhaps the ultimate recognition-booster in today's frenetic music world—a single with T-Pain—will help lift her profile. "What It Is (Strike A Pose)" is certainly deserving of it; it's a pretty straightforward track that has a big chunk of of old-school charm. Also: I'm pretty sure T-Pain is actually singing without AutoTune enhancement—you can actually hear him inhale at one point! [YouTube via THIS IZ HIP-HOP / SOHH via RealTalkNY]
Puerile stoners will be in for a surprise on June 28, when WEEN kicks off a "Don't Judge Me...EmPower Me" tour with help from Lil' Mama and MC Lyte. "Our tour begins in New York City at a most opportune time given the unprecedented national debate about the leadership of women in American society. WEEN's fast growing network of artists, executives and professionals will deliver vital and exciting information to thousands of young women on June 28. After many months of preparation, we are enthusiastic about the launch and our goal is to provide young women with the tools necessary to make informed professional and personal life choices," said Gene Wee...sorry, Valeisha Butterfield, founder of the Women In Entertainment Empowerment Network. In advance of the tour, WEEN held an "I AM WEEN" event in March, at which they gave away prizes including "a funky WEEN couture T-shirt." I know some folks from college who'd kill for one of those.
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Madonna's Hard Candy was last week's top-selling album, shifting 280,000 copies in its first week of release and leaving every other commercially available offering in the dust. Candy was the only album on this week's chart to break the six-figures-sold mark; Mariah Carey's E=MC2, the runner-up to Hard Candy, sold 95,000 copies.
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Lil Mama's VYP: Voice Of The Young People has a lot more drama (and meta) than her previous singles would imply, so it's a good thing that "L.I.F.E." spotlights the side of Lil Mama that can't be appeased with lip gloss. The side of her that dresses up like a pregnant teenager with an abusive thug of a boyfriend and a mom sprawled on the couch with a bottle of Jack! The ballerina may be a bit much, but it's refreshing to see a rap video that doesn't celebrate the joys of yay-slinging. [YouTube]
Usually we've used our "upcoming releases" tag to highlight albums that have been in eternal limbo, but today is a brighter day. Because today, we've found out about a few long-awaited albums that finally have release dates. Alas, none of them have that week-long Raconteurs lead time—the dates mostly fall in the later part of the spring—but hey, any glimmer of hope in the record industry these days is something to cheer, right? After the jump, news on now-really-upcoming-for-sure (we think) releases by Lil Mama, Lil Wayne, and Al Green.
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And now he's dragging Lil Mama along with him, as evidenced by the "Scream"-biting video for "Shawty Get Loose," the latest attempt to let the Top 40-listening masses that the pint-sized rapper has other songs besides "Lip Gloss." Whoever had the idea that ripping off paying homage to a video that's most well-known for its '90s-music-biz budget-breaking aplomb—and trying to perform that tribute on what's clearly a pretty tight budget—was the best way to reinforce the CB/MJ connection seems kinda misguided, you know? Especially given that at this point in time, calling Lil Mama the "next Janet Jackson" sounds like a way to doom her future career prospects. (At least wait until her album has a release date!) [YouTube via ONTD]
Latest by rhythmchyc: @30f: I was speaking about the video, only, actually. And the room with all the TV screens simply reminded me of the Diddy video and all its gloss. So sorry I can't feel like this was materialistic. more »
"Everyone needs T-Pain, Maura. Haven't you figured that out?" Jess asked me when I griped about the new Lil Mama single, which features T-Pain and Chris Brown, to him. And I can see his point in a way; Lil Mama's follow-up single to "Lip Gloss," the not-bad-at-all "G-Slide (Tour Bus)," was one of those songs that managed to hit only in the alternate pop universe of TRL, and her album's been pushed back so much, she probably won't be very lil by the time it comes out. So starpower can only help her career. But!
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Idolator
As opposed to last year, when the Teen Choice Awards spread the wealth among a bunch of olds (Fergie, Timbaland), this year's slate of music-related winners was highly concentrated. By which I mean that if a nominee in one of the Fox-produced event's music categories wasn't associated with the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, or Chris Brown, it didn't stand a chance of emerging from the evening with a surfboard. (But hey, at least this resulted in good news for Lil Mama.) Music winners after the jump.
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Though maybe balm might be more important now that the weather is chapping the hell out of 'em.
