Day in Pop Report for 08/22/2014
According to 29-year-old Cory Kobe, he and his father Robert Kobe attended Williams' show at DTE Energy Music Theatre in Michigan on Sunday, and said his father's death was an accident. "I want to make sure that this young man gets fair treatment," Kobe told the Detroit Free Press of the teen, who was taken into custody after he shoved his father. Cory explained that the Kobe family actually knew the teen. "There are a lot of indications that there was no malicious intent," he added. "Did you ever have an uncle who picks on you but doesn't mean to hurt you? That was my father," he said. "My father was double this kid's size. There's no way that kid's just going to come up and clock my dad." More here.
In response to rapper Earl Sweatshirt's criticism of the video, Romanek said: "[Earl] stated clearly that he hadn't seen the video and didn't even intend to watch it. So, respectfully, that sort of invalidates his observations from the get-go. And it's this one uninformed tweet that got reported on and rehashed, which started this whole 'controversy.' "We simply choose styles of dance that we thought would be popular and amusing and cast the best dancers that were presented to us without much regard to race or ethnicity. "If you look at it carefully, it's a massively inclusive piece," Romanek added. "It's very, very innocently and positively intentioned. And - let's remember - it's a satirical piece. It's playing with a whole range of music-video tropes and clich�s and stereotypes." More here.
As was reported then, this report states that the couple's trip to Cuba was properly licensed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control under the "people-to-people" educational exchange program, a program that President Obama enacted in 2011 to make it easier for Americans to visit the country legally. The couple's license was issued to a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote education in the fields of art, architecture and the decorative arts. Though they were concerns that Bey and Jay may have abused the terms of the license by taking part in too many "tourist" activities including visiting with Cuban musicians and artists including young artists from Cuba's top art school and walking through the Old City of Havana accompanied by Miguel Coyula, one of the city's leading architects. It was confirmed that Bey and Jay's trip did not include "meetings with Cuban officials or typical tourist activity such as trips to the beach." More here.
The legendary boxer declared the three mid-2000s titans irrelevant, which didn't fly with 50 Cent. Never one to let a slight go unchecked, 50 took the beef to Instagram. 50 stares at the camera in disbelief: "I woke up. Looked at the computer. The computer say Floyd say "F**k T.I., f**k Nelly. F**k 50. I'm like, 'What he say f**k me for? Nelly f**ked your first baby mama Melissa. Then took your f**king fiance. Say f**k that, n***a." 50 continues to clap back with a second video set in his expansive backyard, in which he challenges Mayweather to a special edition of the Ice Bucket Challenge. Details here.
Morrissey has penned another manifesto about his label drama - yes, he claims again they have severed ties, despite the label's insistence that they haven't, and he has the breakup emails to prove it - and now he thinks that his new album World Peace Is None of Your Business is going to be pulled from shelves. In a post on his fansite True to You, perfectly titled "Please Close the Door Behind Me," Moz talks about how his relationship with Harvest started to crumble when they wouldn't let him make a music video for any of the songs, instead offering to foot the bill for lyric videos. "� None of [the videos] gave any clue as to what World peace is none of your business intended to be, or is," he wrote. "The films were OK, but they went nowhere and stayed there." When Morrissey pushed back about creating a proper video for "Instabul," his label apparently told him to make another spoken word video: "The label responded with frosty aloofness, and I suddenly realized that we were not, after all, of the same species. I ploughed into them insisting upon 'proper band videos, where the band play and I sing' - an evidently confusing concept that required seven weeks of explanation, detailed graphs and several drawn up maps." The main cause of his strife with Harvest? Label head Steve Barnett, if you ask Morrissey. The former Smiths frontman thinks his album was released only "to get Morrissey out of our Inbox." "� Despite the blinding flash of teeth and smiles, it doesn't take much for the coin to flip and suddenly we're all compromised and shattered," he opined of his falling out with Barnett. "All you need to do is disagree with the vanity of the label boss and your beheading will be slotted in between bottles of the most average champagne on the market. Just one weak-chinned drone can assert the fist of injustice and all of our efforts are flushed away. And thus �they were." Now Morrissey feels like the future of his album is at risk and, considering many of his videos were recently pulled from his Vevo, his paranoia doesn't seem unfounded. "I might be wrong, but I think World Peace Is None of Your Business will instantly disappear from iTunes and record stores and every download-upload-offload outlet on the planet, because Harvest technically have no right to sell it," he laments. Read his full letter here.
For the official remix of her single, "This Is How We Do," Perry employs divisive but consistently hilarious rapper Riff Raff, who comes in at about 1:50 in case you want to get to the beef of this song. Topping things off, the artwork for the track features Perry in Riff Raff cornrows, just in case you questioned Perry's involvement or dedication to this reworking. More here.
According to USA Today, Sheeran said Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley of FGL have reached out to the British singer. "We haven't discussed it further than a conversation, but it's something we both want to happen," he said. This wouldn't be the first time Sheeran has teamed up with a country artist. After opening for Taylor Swift on her Red tour, he and Swift released their duet "Everything Has Changed." More here.
The new album, her followup to last year's Alive, is due out Oct. 14. The album cover, also now released, finds the songstress adopting a commanding "come at me, bro" goddess pose. Sweet Talker will include contributions from an all-star cast of artists, including Diplo (of course), Tricky Stewart, The-Dream, Max Martin, and 2 Chainz, who will feature on a track titled "Burning Up." More here.
Set in a high-end hotel room with various items of women's clothing strewn about the place, the clip features the singer surrounded by a bevy of beautiful women in various stages of undress lounging around, although this there is no explicit nudity anywhere in the clip. At one point, two women in lingerie make out on the bed while two more leave the room as room service arrives with more champagne. The Weeknd also highlights his line of cut and sew merchandise, sporting a spiffy letter man jacket emblazoned with his readily identifiable "XO" logo. Watch the new video here.
Now the "Summer" DJ is offering up a brief teaser of his next single, "Blame," with a 15-second preview via his Instagram page. The tune features the vocals of British singer John Newman, best known for his 2013 hit, "Love Me Again," which was nominated in the British single of the year category at this year's BRIT Awards. In the brief teaser Harris plays on his Macbook Pro, Newman's distinctive vocals can be heard over big, bouncy major-key pianos is what sounds like another big hands-in-the-air hit for the Scottish DJ/producer. Listen to the clip here.
Their full-length will arrive Sept. 16 on Warner Bros. Records and, of course, includes their hit single. It also features 13 tracks and seven interludes, which, according to a press release, "pay homage to their parents' nationalities." In addition to their album, Nico & Vinz have also recorded a new song dubbed "Find a Way." The track was inspired by the upcoming film The Good Lie, a modern take on the Lost Boys of Sudan that follows a group of young Sudanese refugees who escape their country's civil war, landing in America. More here.
The Denver Post's Nick Groke reports that a fan asked White if he'd be willing to recreate the viral photo, but White declined. "I can't make that face again," he reportedly said. "But I'll smile for you." Other pictures that surfaced from the batting practice found White, glove in hand. Reverb notes that he even took batting practice and snagged some fly balls. More here.
"We can make no promises about the safety of any animals involved in the creation of this record. It is the best rap group album since RTJ1!" Killer Mike said via a press release on the project. Hot New Hip Hop reports that the album will include a cameo from Travis Barker. RTJ2 is due out on Oct. 28. Listen to a stream of "Blockbuster Night Pt. 1" here.
Lupe Fiasco is ready to make things more personal for his superfans: he's ready to write them a song. Last night (Aug. 20), Fiasco tweeted that he would be happy to write anyone a one-verse song for $500 in cash. And it seems you get a lot of control over the work for you money, but you've gotta handle delivery on your own. He tweeted, "I will personalize a 1 verse song for you. $500. You pick the instrumental, mood & subject. 1 physical copy which you must come pick up. COD." See the other tweet here.
The tour is scheduled to kick off on October 21st in Pensacola, FL at the Vinyl Music Hall and will be wrapping up on November 24th in New York City at Irving Plaza. Prior to the fall tour, B.o.B has also announced that he will be headlining both the University of Utah's Redfest 2014 on September 19th and University of Central Florida's Homecoming Week "Concert Knight" at Orlando's CFE Arena on October 20th. Dates here.
While the former just kind of came to him in the studio, the same cannot be said for his latest single, "Bend Ova" had a more direct source of inspiration. In an interview with 92.3 AMP/New York (a CBS Radio station), Jon said the words "hands on your knees / bounce that ass like a yoga ball" were inspired by watching women dance on YouTube. "Whenever I do songs like this, I always look at videos of women dancing," Jon said. "You know, you go on the Internet, you gotta be able to paint a picture, so you need to see. I'm looking at videos and in this one video I'm looking at this girl's ass is so big and she's got yoga pants on. Her ass is so big it looked like a yoga ball to me�And everybody's been in the gym, everybody's bounced a yoga ball once or twice. You know what a bouncing yoga ball looks like. That's where that line came from." Bouncing yoga balls isn't Jon's only interest. He also admitted his plans are to get more time on TV. He'd like to extend his brand to some unexpected places. Find out where here.
It's a dramatic change of pace from the song's first visual, which found Q on a tropical beach, soaking up the sun with only squadron of ladies as companions. Now he's in New York City, on the Astroturf-lined roof of the Standard Hotel, living it up with a rowdy crew. The footage is interspersed with vines and Instagrams. Q's fanbase clearly loves to dance, using the towering "Man Of The Year" as a jumping off point. Flips, shoulder rolls, moody poses in sewer grates-nothing is off the table for the devoted fanbase. Watch the video More here.
But now Villegas is ready to enter a more adult world, in her professional career and in her style. She tells us the reason she recently went blonde was to finally look a little older. "My hair's always been dark brown," Villegas said. "I went through a couple of stages where I dyed the tips red, blue and purple but everyone was always like, 'Oh, you look 15! You look so young, how old are you?' So I [wondered] what can I do to look my age? I know looking young is cool but�I don't always want to be cute." Villegas says the change made her not only feel older, but feel like a new person. The former child star told us she didn't really start wearing make up until she was 14 or 15, despite her life on the set, and that now, as an artist with her own single, "That's Me Right There" featuring Kendrick Lamar, she's working with her hair and make up artist to learn the tricks of the trade. Her other favorite place to pick up tricks? Those 15 second Instagram beauty videos. More here.
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