Day in Pop Report for 08/15/2014
The rapper announced that his "Tha Carter V" album will be released on October 28th and also unveiled the cover which shows him as a child with his mother. He said during the interview that his mother didn't even know that he was using the photo and suspected that she might get a little upset since it is not one of her favorite photos. You can see the cover art and watch the interview here.
The video, which premiered Wednesday night (Aug. 13) on Twitter, was directed by Samuel Bayer, who also made Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," and includes rare behind-the-scenes footage and outtakes from his 1991 video for "In the Closet." And of course, some of those signature Michael Jackson dance moves. The song was originally recorded in 1998 and according to Sony, America band members Dewey Bunnell and Gerry Beckley gave Jackson's remake their blessing: "We're honored that Michael Jackson chose to record it and we're impressed with the quality of the track," they said in a statement. "It's really poignant." more on this story
The film topped the box office charts the week of its release, grossing over $94 million in its first weekend, and has grossed a total of $176 million so far. An unlikely sales success, the album is actually based on a mixed tape (that'd be a cassette) that the main character - Chris Pratt's Peter Quill (also known, with tongue in cheek, as Star-Lord) - plays in his Walkman. The tape, which appears in the film's trailers, includes '70s hits like Blue Suede's "Hooked on a Feeling," the Rasberries' "Go All The Way" and Elvin Bishop's "Fooled Around and Fell In Love," as well as a few '60s gems like the Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." more on this story
DJ Million Dollar Mano made the split a very public one yesterday while taking to Twitter to diss West's fans, who were apparently harassing him online. Mano took the annoyance to the next level when he started spewing insulting tweets about Ye's fanbase. "Gonna have a fun day blocking these Kanye stans that are happy I don't DJ 4 him anymore hahahahaha! "A lot of u fans are low key gay and want more than a fan/relationship with the men they look up 2. Guys with man crushes need 2 just accept their homosexuality." more on this story
Taylor sat down with the host for a very special edition of his Teen Nick show Ew! where she showed off her acting skills playing Natalie, the new girl in town who loves to chill out all the time, eat apricots and wear scrunchies. The two, of course, became quick BFFs talking about Band-Aid collections, making popsicle stick castles (alone, of course) and drawing mythical characters. Natalie's really into pegacorns - a pegasus and unicorn combo. But of course, Taylor makes it very clear, one must never, ever get back to together with an ex. Like, ever. Also on the show, Taylor announced that she'll be performing at the VMAs on August 24. The Red singer also plans to make a big announcement on her Yahoo! Livestream next Monday, Aug. 18 at 5 p.m. EST/2 p.m. PST in New York City. But, she preferred not to let Fallon know much about that, only saying it could be one announcement or or more than one. She's so mysterious! Watch her Fallon appearance here.
The Def Jam Recording's 30 Year Anniversary Concert is set to take place at Brooklyn's Barclays Center on October 16th and will feature appearances from a who's who of hip-hop stars. here reports that the show will include Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, DMX, Fabolous, Jeremih, EPMD, Foxy Brown, Jhen� Aiko, Onyx, Method Man, Redman, Ashanti, Ja Rule, Warren G, and still more stars that will be announced at a later date. The anniversary box set will be a limited edition that will include a section curated by label co-founder Rick Rubin dubbed Selections From The Roots of Def and an assortment of the greatest hits from the label's last 30 years.
But Win seems to be nowhere in sight, it's instead the artwork on the walls that's doing the singing. Yes, the pink-eyed paintings have been mic'd up for the clip and sound suspiciously like Win Butler. One thing we can assume though is that it will not be as controversial as their previous video for "We Exist," which featured Spider-Man actor Andrew Garfield in drag. Watch it here.
"It was really a weird 24 hours for me," he told the station. "Ironically, right before we found out that Robin died I had tweeted Josh Groban. He and I are on Rising Star and we're good buddies. We worked together with Robin the first time we worked together." Paisley had previously worked with Williams on his television show The Crazy Ones and had only fond memories of the actor. "It's surreal. I don't understand. He couldn't have been a nicer guy. There's footage somewhere of me playing guitar and him making up a song in between takes," he said. "He was so brilliant. I was playing a Johnny Cash groove and he was making up a dirty song that was really funny. I'll miss him. Everybody liked him but obviously he didn't think as much of himself. That's really sad that he couldn't see himself the way we saw him. It's tragic." more on this story
The fest, a Halloween-themed EDM affair in Houston, Texas, hits Sam Houston Racepark on Oct. 25-26 - just in time, naturally, for the witching hour. Bassnectar and Francis will headline the Saturday, Oct. 25, date, while Kaskade and Garrix are the main draws on Sunday. A-Trak, Borgore, Cedric Gervais, Excision, Flostradamus and Zeds Dead are also among the artists heading to Texas for Halloween. Check out the full lineup here.
Well, good news, the joke is on them because "YOLO" is now in the Oxford English Dictionary, reports Billboard. Yup, now it is only a matter of time before you can use "YOLO" in Words with Friends. In fact, it is only a matter of time before "Words with Friends" is in the Oxford English Dictionary. But that isn't the only new term to land in the dictionary. Find out some of the others here.
The new mixtape is 13 songs deep and includes a handful of already-released songs. including "RIP Slim Dunkin." Gucci vs. GuWop is also available via iTunes. It's not the only Gucci album coming this month, either. A collaboration with Young Thug, 1017 Thug 3: The Finale, is coming Aug. 29. A Chief Keef collaboration will follow next month. Stream Gucci vs. GuWop here.
While the visual clip for "Recognize" - a taste of his recent studio debut, PARTYNEXTDOOR TWO - has those celebrity cameos, to its credit, it doesn't play them up. Instead we get a grainy, home-recorded video � la Lana Del Rey that flickers between dark shots of the lead singer in an arcade, behind shutters in a house, Rodeo Drive at nighttime, a game of hoops, and a yacht. Drake only appears to spit his verse toward the end in the smoky arcade and behind him, a blink-and-you-might-miss-it Kylie Jenner nonchalantly bops along to the music. Watch it here.
"Weight of Love" focuses on a group of women who live on what appears to be an island in an old, dilapidated lighthouse. There's certainly a cult-like quality to the arrangement, perhaps spawned by their continued viewing of the religious fervor of the "Fever" video on their television set. Note that the clip does feature a few images of topless women, so the video is definitely NSFW. The video was directed by Theo Wenner, who also helmed the video for "Fever." Watch it here.
Among those measures included banning "kandi," the brightly colored beaded jewelry often sported and traded by dance music fans at parties. The move has raised ire among some of those fans (including Electric Daisy Carnival founder, Pasquale Rotella) who've publicly criticized the kandi ban for demonizing the jewelry and aligning them with drug culture. Mad Decent founder Diplo has now responded to the growing controversy with a statement delivered via Twitlonger. He said, "So� I never wear Kandi and I understand it's not drug related culture inherently .. We just had serious issues with kids hiding it .. and there was a definite relationship between safety and security and made it so we had to ban certain items. We have teamed up w dancesafe .. Cooperated w police and medics to really handle the last three parties and We have set up free water stations at all the mdbp .. All I care about is people coming to enjoy music and have a safe and good time.. Everything else is secondary .. I would trade 100 thousand angry ravers to have 100% safe and happy street parties when we started it on philly 6 years ago." Read the rest here.
"Johnny Cash began his musical career at Sun Records," said museum founder Bill Miller in a press release. "Sun was the launch pad for several young men whose music would forever impact the world. Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and Johnny came from similar backgrounds and humble beginnings. Once they walked through the door at the Memphis Recording Service, their lives would never be the same." On display will be the famous drum set used by W.S. "Fluke" Holland, who was Cash's drummer for 40 years. The drum set was used on numerous Sun Records recordings including Cash's "I Walk the Line," "Folsom Prison Blues" and "Ring of Fire" as well as Presley's "Blue Suede Shoes." Holland's drum set is legendary in the country music community as it was the first full drum set to appear on the Grand Ole Opry stage. more on this story
Her response? "Oh my god, I want to vomit. That's amazing." Trainor, who beat out Jessie J, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj and Iggy Azalea for the honor, did what any person in that situation would do: She called her mom (who gets a shoutout in her hit song). But her interviewers, Mix 104.1's Karson and Kennedy, decided to have a little fun with it and pull a harmless prank on Trainor's mother, who was working out of her jewelry store in the singer's native area of Cape Cod. more on this story
But while those artists have tried to improve on it, in their own ways, Chris Brown knows that the original is pretty flawless. So instead of doing a straight cover, Breezy went with a more comedic approach, adding his own ridiculous lyrics to the ballad. Brown posted his rendition in a Instagram snippet with the fitting caption "Lol!" The singer made the song undeniably his own subbing Smith's original lyrics - "Oh, won't you stay with me? / 'Cause you're all I need/ This ain't love, it's clear to see/ But darling, stay with me'- with "Oh won't you stay with me / 'Cause I bought your new weave/ Now I done spend my cheese / B***h, you owe me." Listen here.
These few second clips helped generate a massive fan base for the teen singer, who currently commands three million followers. And after hopping over to YouTube to post full-length acoustic versions of pop hits like Lana Del Rey's "Summertime Sadness," Mendes earned himself a deal with Island Records. Wherever Mendes goes, his fans are sure to follow, which was made evidently clear after the release of his self-titled debut EP of warm, affable pop in late July. The singer called on his legion of fans to support the record and they responded in overwhelming fashion, sending the EP to the No. 1 slot on the iTunes chart mere minutes after it hit the internet. The release would go on to debut at No. 5 on the Billboard 200. "I wasn't expecting it to hit No. 1 in like 35 minutes," the 16-year-old marveled during a recent phone interview with Radio.com. "All I can say is that my fans just killed it. They're a complete army. I was just blown away." Talking about the EP, Mendes singled out the track "Show You" as his favorite of the bunch. "The song is about how people are always telling you that you can't do something because you're too young or whatever, and how you have the power to show the world that you can do whatever you want," he explained. "It's a pretty empowering song." Growing up in, what he calls, "not a musical family at all," it was the internet that inspired his initial desire to play guitar and sing. At 10 years old, he was really obsessed with watching people perform covers on YouTube, often coming home from school around four o'clock, heading straight to the computer where he would stay until eight at night. "I was inspired by the way people would take popular songs and make them their own. That's what really brought me into music. I was not a good singer when I first started," Mendes recalled of his musical beginnings. "I was really oblivious to how bad I was, which I guess helped me in the long run because I just didn't stop. I sang for hours and hours every day. With lots and lots of practice, I eventually got better." Mendes recently celebrated his 16th birthday while on the road with Austin Mahone, Fifth Harmony and The Vamps, with the tour being an exhilarating experience for the "Life of the Party" singer. "It's insane. I'm on a real, massive tour. It's absolutely unbelievable," he marveled. "Like right now, I'm standing in a parking lot and there are five tour buses and it's just really cool." more.
From the resurgence of deep house to the hip-hop influenced bass rumbles of Flume and the kitchen-sink experimentalism of artists like SOPHIE and myriad of alternative sounds in between, electronic dance music has moved beyond the visceral, hands-in-the-air euphoria of prime time big-room bangers that power festival main stages. For Porter Robinson, falling into the circuit of main stage marquee DJs determined to keep crowds dancing happened almost by accident. After an early single topped the Beatport charts, an ambitious promoter hit the young producer up with an offer he couldn't refuse. "My origins, my roots are not as a DJ," Robinson explained during an interview with Radio.com. "I didn't go out watching DJs, I didn't go to clubs, I was seriously 15 years old in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, just at home writing electronic music for many, many years. Then I had a song I released that was a Beatport No. 1 and I started getting requests to go DJ. This guy was like, 'I'll pay you $500 to come to Portland and DJ my party.' I was like, well, let me learn how to DJ and I will do that for you. For one reason or another, my DJing happened to go really well. Not to say I wasn't proud of the music I was making at the time, but I almost feel like I chanced into it. I just kept taking the opportunities that were given to me and doing my best at all of them." For his beautifully crafted studio full-length debut, Worlds, Robinson has pushed the boundaries of his sound well beyond the confines of big-room bangers to explore a dazzling array of sounds and emotions across the album's 12 tracks. Among the album's intriguing highlights comes in the form of "Flicker," a track that has roots in the late Detroit hip-hop production legend, Jay Dilla. "I very much love chipmunked-up soul beats. Just late Jay Dilla-t stuff," Robinson explained. "I think that the reason I love soul samples is because of the Daft Punk Discovery album, which remains my favorite album of all time. So when I heard the same style of records in a hip-hop context I was really, really in love when I was younger. I was messing with soul samples and made this little beat just for fun, at least I thought. Then I'd made this MP3 of taking a bunch of titles I had in a notepad and ran them through a Japanese text to speech program and it spit out this basically nonsensical Japanese text and I cut it up into this little rap and I was just so charmed by that. It's the two sides of me, very much� that's one of my favorite songs on the album." More on this story.
Kimbra (full name Kimbra Lee Johnson) must be quite happy then with the very mixed, but very extreme reaction her latest single, "90's Music" has received over the past four months. Look through the over 1,700 comments for that song's video and you'll find that while some people are very sure Kimbra is a member of the Illuminati, most others are struggling to decide whether the track is a "Lady Gaga rip-off" or a "manic feast of frenzy for the senses" or "an overproduced POS." But the most common opinion from those who choose to publicly voice theirs is that they like the track, it just took some time to come to that conclusion. "It's definitely a polarizing song for a lot of people," Kimbra said laughing. "But I think it finds its way under the skin." With shout-outs to Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, R. Kelly, Nirvana, TLC and Aaliyah, the track's lyrics focus on that not-so-bygone era we all seem to have a particular fondness for, but the sound is something from the future with Kimbra's staccato delivery sounding almost alien as she questions nostalgia and its place in our memory. "That's the deeper side of that song," she explained. "We change and we grow and we remember time, but we remember it completely differently, you know? We look back and it comes back slightly skewed and therefore we are changed by it and feel differently about things in our past." Kimbra says she chose the track as the first single off her upcoming album, The Golden Echo, because it sets up this record as one that's not necessarily going to follow all the rules. "I wanted to introduce the idea of playfulness," she explained. "I think of it as a statement song." A lot of the playfulness on her sophomore album - out August 19 on Warner Bros - stems from collaboration. Not much of a surprise being that Kimbra's most successful work to date is Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know," a collaboration that earned her two GRAMMYs in 2013 including Record of the Year. Kimbra now lives on a farm in Silverlake, CA where sheep graze outside her window, but her gramophone statue still sits in Australia, packed away in storage like a lot of her previous apartment. "I don't know where to put it, I don't want to have shrine or anything," she said. "It's a bit of an awkward thing to work out. I'll have to think about it and find a nice place when I get it back." more.
When I got back to Brooklyn, I immediately spliced up the song and programmed a beat and played it for Angelica the next day. Upon first listen, she freestyled the first verse, chorus and post chorus. I knew when she ripped through that chorus that we had something very special. After the session, I was really excited and called and told my dad about it. He was really intrigued and said, "please send me this song when you're done with it". He actually did pester me for the song a few more times, but he passed away only several months later. In the months leading up to his passing, I just wasn't able to write much more than I had, so it stayed in our little song vault. We managed to finish this song in the spring of 2014 with Matt finishing off the writing and programming. Angelica's lyrics regarding the power of friendships really seemed to resonate with the situation, because when the song was conceived, there seemed to be very little comfort to be found in life. We all lean on each other in the toughest of times and this song was literally that helping hand. Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself here and learn more about the group and the EP right here!
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