Day in Pop Report for 08/21/2014
Radio.com reports: He was charged with sexual battery in July, after a woman alleged that he invaded her personal space at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, according to Page Six. The incident, according to the cops at the time, appeared to be accidental, but Ray J allegedly escalated the situation by throwing a tantrum that caused him to be removed from the hotel and resulted in him kicking a window of a police car and spitting in an officer's face. More.
On Wednesday (Aug. 20), the 34-year-old rapper, born Radric Davis, pled guilty to a gun charge that carried a maximum sentence of 10 years. He got off relatively lightly with 39 months, 28 of which he must serve starting yesterday since he's already spent 11 months behind bars awaiting the ruling. After his release, the rapper will remain on parole for three more years. Guccin requested to serve his term on the west coast rather than in his native Atlanta, in a prison with a drug rehab program. more on this story
The incident allegedly happened in Hawaii, back in November of 2013, when Oxman photographed Bieber jumping into the water from a cliff at Shipwreck Beach. Bieber, who apparently does not have as good of a sense of humor as Jay Z - whose diving photo went to meme status - then commanded his bodyguard to "Go get his memory card and do whatever you have to do to get that card," according to Billboard. That led to Patterson allegedly grabbing Oxman in a chokehold, destroying his camera and taking his memory card and keys as Bieber watched on, until another photographer on the scene captured the scuffle on his phone - at which point Patterson let go of Oxman and reportedly said, "You think I'm that stupid to get caught by one of your little phone cameras?" Now the incident is coming back to haunt Bieber and Patterson in the form of a lawsuit.
In fact, attention is immediately drawn to a blink-and-you'll-miss-it segment in the bottom right of the video at its beginning (via Fuse), which lists the credits of the song being played. It's "She Came to Give It to You," the R&B star's new single with Nicki Minaj, and it's off the album UR. Wait, what? The singer hasn't yet confirmed the development on his social media, but it's possible that a Cheerios ad just announced the name of Usher's new album that's out sometime this year. more on this story
But on 1989, she'll be moving away from the aftermath of a breakup to the moment you bounce back from it, girlfriends in tow. "[Red] was a devastating record. It was about dealing with an intense heartbreak," she told Fusion (via Billboard). 1989, however, is all about "the phase after that where you brush yourself off and you're okay� [Writing Red] I was very enamored by romance and the idea of that." Even though 1989 will show a different side of Swift's songwriting, it appears to be no less diaristic than her previous albums. More.
Ora was at a DKNY event to launch new fragrance MY NY at Madison Square Park on Tuesday (Aug. 19) when the reporter asked her to address rumors that Calvin Harris might release, well, something. No one knows what, because once Harris was mentioned, her publicist stepped in, saying, "We're not discussing anything personal." Ora smiled, said, "thank you, bye bye," and walked out of the interview. more on this story
Opening with a steamy jungle scene surrounded by sexy dancers, it's not long before butts begin flying all over the screen, with the dancers gyrating on one another as Minaj spits the track's rapid-fire lyrics. The jungle scenes are interspersed with images of the rapper and her ladies dancing in a white room wearing matching booty-baring denim shorts and white tank tops, reminiscent of the single's now-infamous cover art. Minaj strips down to a tiny pink bikini for a workout scene, dropping in a couple of quick but conspicuous product plugs, with shots of a Beats by Dre speaker pill and a cooler packed with bottles of the rapper's Myx Fusion cocktails, which is also represented with giant block letters. The clip's big superstar cameo moment comes towards the end, when Minaj saddles Drake for a steamy lap dance, with the Canadian rapper visibly overcome by the experience. The clips closing moments also features shots of MInaj posing provocatively in a steamy spring pool. Watch all of the steamy action here.
The country singer premiered "Shattered Glass" today (Aug. 20) via The Ellen DeGeneres Show. The song was revealed through a lyric video, which includes children - and, briefly, Paisley himself - holding up signs featuring the track's lyrics. "Shatted Glass" itself is a bit of a mid-tempo ballad that prominently features acoustic guitar, slide and piano before erupting into a much louder tune with pounding percussion and electric guitar on the chorus. "Bust that ceiling out / The sky's the limit now," he sings. "Time to make up for the past / Rear your head back and roar / Like you ain't ever done before." Check out the song here.
In between releasing their debut and touring with One Direction, the group have started mentally planning to release their second album by next May, when the band embarks on their world headlining tour. "We definitely would like to have another album out there some time next year," drummer Ashton Irwin told Billboard. "We'll start working on it and see what happens." The band understandably hasn't had time to start recording it while on tour. "We've been on tour [with One Direction] for a few months, so we've just been playing lots of tour and doing lots of promo," he added. "We haven't had much time to get back in the studio at the moment. I think when you're on the road you've got to just live out what's happening, then when you get back to the studio you've got a lot to write about. I don't want to write the same album again, so I go out there and see what life has for me, and then I'll go back and I'll write about it. "We've got a lot of time coming up, actually, to write and record again, so I'm really looking forward to that 'cause I'm feeling like I miss that at the moment." more on this story
"GDFR," which is an acronym for "going down for real," employs an instantly memorable horn drop, along with rhymes from rising hit-maker Sage the Gemini, to create what could have been the song of the summer had it been released a couple months earlier. If the song accomplishes anything, it will be having teenagers singing along to the phrase "double entendre" while on the dance floor, regardless of whether they actually know what that is. more on this story
But that's not all. The 21-year-old singer is now streaming a preview of her song "Too Close" via E! Online. "Too Close" didn't make the tracklist of the standard version of My Everything; instead, it's one of the two exclusive tracks featured on the Target release of the album. "I've been thinking about you, boy it's killing me and I gotta let you know," she sings on the 30-second clip, mulling over what could happen if she and her potential love interest "get too close." More including a link to the stream here.
While a release date remains to be announced, Yearwood will be giving fans a preview of that music this fall as she'll be a part of Brooks' world tour with her longtime backing band. "I can't even find the right words to express how excited I am to be releasing new music," Yearwood said at an event last night that celebrated her Food Network series Trisha's Southern Kitchen. "I chose the title PrizeFighter because it feels like an anthem for all of us. It's about fighting for what you believe in, and never giving up, even when it's hard. It's a message we all need to hear. I'm so looking forward to working with the amazing staff at Sony. Music is what feeds my soul, and I'm grateful to them for giving me the chance to share what I love." In an interview with Billboard earlier this year, Yearwood said she's in the early stages of looking for tracks to cut. "Next on my list is to really sit down and figure out which of these songs to keep," she told Billboard. More.
The band returns some of that fan love with the release of IRL, a new black and white short film based around their 2013 tour. The video utilizes images captured along the tour in cities including Chicago, Denver and San Francisco, juxtaposing backstage interviews with concert shots and fan interactions along the way. "Back in 2013, just before we embarked on our IRL tour, we decided to capture the passion and dedication of our die-hard fans, the HDYNATION (Hoodie Nation)," explained band member Josh Young (AKA J2K) in a press release. "The Flosstradamus IRL short-form documentary is us recognizing the cult-like following of the people who support us night after night. They deserve a spotlight just as much as we do; it's a reciprocal relationship. When we meet fans, they always show us so much heart and spirit; they are the force that has built a community around our music and shows. Some of the fans we met on the road had come to see us five, six and even seven times in under a year. That level of commitment is rare and really special to us; we felt it needed to be highlighted." Watch the full short film above and get excited for the group's upcoming #HDYNATIONTOUR, which kicks off on November 8 in Chicago before winding up in Los Angeles on December 29. See the complete itinerary and the short film here.
"I love anything that encourages young people to find what they're passionate about and gives them a chance to do that," Hayes told Rolling Stone Country. "I know for me, finding music really early on really changed my life. I don't know what my life would've been like if I had not found music as early as I did. We were just stoked to get the invitation to this. It's a big event and there's been a history of phenomenal performers, so to be included in the invitation was a pretty big deal." more on this story
"Holy Ghost" is also in part celebratory, with Jeezy promising to make the most out of his success on the hook: "And ain't nobody gave us nothin', so we drug dealin'/ You know we coppin' Louie loafers just to thug in 'em /And when you made it that far, you should be makin' a toast/ Got the seats reclined and I be doin' the most." Jeezy's Seen It All arrives Sept. 2 on Def Jam. It also features contributions from Rick Ross and The Game - on "Beautiful," which surfaced earlier this month - Future and Jay Z, who was moved to tears when writing his verse about his past for the Cardo-produced track, which was allegedly supposed to appear on Jay's Magna Carter Holy Grail but didn't make the cut. Listen to the new track here.
The two work together well on "Let The Show Begin." Cam remains gruffly charismatic in his career's sunset years, while Estelle retains the flighty vocal pipes that first enamored her to these shores. Introduced by a spoken word section from Couzin Bang, Estelle kicks things off by comparing herself to Tina Turner, Diana Ross and Erykah Badu, like the R&B version of Rick Ross' "MC Hammer." Cam'ron entertainingly apes her singsong flow, and comes through with a hilarious at an unnamed 40-year-old hater: "quit your b***hin', man / what you sellin', fossils?" Check out the video here.
Directed by Tom Gould and premiered by Noisey's YouTube page, the visuals begin with Bronson, clad only in a hospital gown, escaping from a hospital on an old-school motorcycle. The song's chopper movie aesthetic pays homage to the 1969 film of the same name, starring Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. Bronson proceeds to ingest copious quantities of LCD and wreak havoc on a bar full of bikers, before a consultation with a visionary Native American on horseback sends him speeding off towards a climactic final image: our hero, standing on a mountain plateau, electric guitar in hand, jamming down the sunset. Watch the video here.
No word yet on who T.I. will play in the film slated for a July 15, 2015 release, but he will be joined by Michael Douglas, The Hobbit's Evangeline Lilly, The Strain's Corey Stoll, Judy Greer and Mad Men's John Slattery. T.I. has appeared in four films including American Gangster and Identity Thief, and a handful of TV shows like House of Lies, Boss and Single Ladies. more on this story
A clip has surfaced (via Billboard) from West's much talked about London appearance at a private club in July and it is literally five seconds of Kanye West saying the title of the expected collaboration, "Piss On Your Grave," three times. There is hardly any backing music during the clip to gain any sort of idea how Macca fits into the track. This is truly for the desperate, but when it comes to something like West + McCartney, who isn't desperate? Check out the clip
Rice wrote "Ready Set Roll" with Chris DeStefano and Rhett Akins, his producer and executive producer respectively. When he met up with the two songwriters he was impressed with how the song came together and wanted both to be a part of his project. "By the end of the day we went from that [writing 'Ready Set Roll'] to hearing what Chris did in the studio," Rice told Radio.com. "While we were writing the song he was building the track that made it sound like it sounds on radio today. At the end of the day we had a full song. I heard it and was like, 'Why would I do this with any other producer?' 'Ready Set Roll' was a big day. I found my producer. I found my executive producer and I wrote a Gold Record." Ignite the Night is Rice's third studio album and first major-label release. He says the 15-track album is "packed full of fun." While the party songs like "Ready Set Roll" and "We Goin' Out" prevail on the album, he also shows his sensitive side on several tracks like "Carolina Can" and "Jack Daniels and Jesus." Rice said the album runs through his life and tells people a lot more about him than the fact that he likes to drink Jack Daniels. "I wanted to show more depth," he said. "We did that with a song like 'Carolina Can' which is a ballad that I wrote with Scooter Carusoe, who is one of my favorite writers in town. He's very deep. There's a lot going on in his head and my head so we got together and wrote the song about where I'm from and my life now how it is so crazy but when I need someone to remind me who I am, Carolina can. That going home aspect." More.
The creation of my premier single "Ransom" started as more of a match making game than anything else. During a writing session, my producer was running through a few tracks he had been working on and introduced me to this maniacal, seductive track. I'm a fan of left-of-center-crack-the-whip-and-break-out-the-ball-gag music, so needless to say it was love at first listen. One of the best decisions I ever made was almost falling out of my chair and screaming, "This is it! I need to write to this!!" The imagery of a bank heist immediately came to me because I have a fascination with the Bonnie and Clyde story. I've always dreamed of falling madly in love and going on a dangerous adventure (without hurting anyone of course). As a proud functioning member of society, I thought it would be a good idea to live out my fantasy through song. It's awfully hard to get good singing acoustics in prison from what I've heard. On another level, I wanted the lyrics to channel the Joker from Batman. He wasn't motivated by money, fame, or revenge. He did whatever the hell he wanted just because he felt like it. It was about the cat and mouse game and the fun in the power struggle.The lyrics "3-2-1 just for fun" were written for exactly that reason. No nonsense makes no sense after all. Structurally, the choice of having a lyric-free chorus was very intentional. I'm a big fan of vocal hooks because they are something your audience can listen to and catch onto quickly. I toyed with the idea of having a wordy chorus, but it didn't quite fit the mood as well as a bunch of ohhs, doot doots, and heys. I must say the making of the "Ransom" video was one of the crowning jewels of my career thus far. Neoclassical French inspired props, a candy feast, living the gem face robot fantasy, and having dinner orgies with some of the most respected queens in the business was pure bliss. There's no other way to describe it, and there's no other way I envisioned bringing this song to life. This song was a huge win for me on a personal and professional level. I have so much faith in it. It's like having a favorite songchild. You know you shouldn't because the others are awesome too, but you do anyway! Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself as you watch the video here and learn more about Moxxi right here!
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