Day in Pop Report for 12/11/2014
Forest Hills Drive was released on Tuesday (December 9th) and industry forecasters predict that it could sell over 300,000 copies during its first week of release, according to Billboard. If the sales number reach that threshold it will also give Cole his biggest album sales week of all-time. His 2013 release "Born Sinner" sold 297,000 copies its first week of release. The projected sales would also give Cole the only hip-hop album of the year to surpass 200,000 in weekly sales and become the biggest week for a hip-hop album of 2014, beating Rick Ross' Mastermind, which set the record in March with sales of 179,000 copies.
According to the New York Times, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said that the sound of "Oh" in Jay Z's song has "essentially no quantitative significance" to Eddie Bo's original. In the 15-page decision, Judge Kaplan further explained his ruling. ''Run This Town' bears very little and perhaps no similarity at all to 'Hook and Sling - Part I," Judge Kaplan wrote. 'The melody and lyrics are entirely different. The lyrics do not contain the word 'oh.'" Read more here.
In the post she admitted that it's "s**tty iPhone quality" but also professing her hope that the song has potential for full release sometime down the road. "We spent a day on it and never touched it again," the singer wrote on her Tumblr, adding that "it was not a good song." She also noted that she'll likely never release the other three-quarters of the song, but that he thought "there was something about these bridge melodies I thought was pretty," hence the release of the snippet. Read more here.
Keef has put up a pre-order for the self-released album on iTunes, with a track list for the collection now available for viewing. The album will feature the highly anticipated title track that features Kanye West. According to iTunes, the album will be available to hear on December 16, and will not feature much in the way of collaborations. Of course, this comes on the heels of a number of mixtapes and collaborative projects from the Chicago rapper, as well as his recent parting from his label, Interscope. Check out the track details here.
Now TMZ has unearthed footage showing that the rapper's anger over the matter has been simmering for quite a while. Back in June, Puff was performing with Ma$e at Story nightclub in Miami when he briefly aired his grievances about the beat. 'I gave that sh*t to this n***a, this n***a stole this s**t from me. But at the end of the day, s**t is still hard," he said before the DJ played a snippet "0 to 100″. Read more here.
But hey, with this idea proposed on the Lego website, there has to be room for at least one more set.Lego's idea factory is asking fans if there is interest in a Daft Punk Lego Set. Yes, you read that right. Like, little yellow dudes with helmets and tiny instruments and turntables and a little record crate. It might be the most adorable idea ever conceived by anyone. As you can tell from the "Legos Ideas" page, this idea has been up for a while. But, with support building, you need to use your social media power to make this a reality. Read more and see an image of what they might look like here.
"The next album is like the end, end, end," he told WSJ. "The trite way to say it is I'm over rock 'n' roll. Which is strange because rock 'n' roll is getting back into me. For a lot of years, I cared too much and wrestled with what it meant to carry on a legacy. "My legacy was greater in my mind than what other people were giving me credit for. When I started to go off it, people started to say, 'Oh, by the way, you were really good. Can you start playing that s-t again?'" Meanwhile, he admitted that it's impossible to separate yourself from "the commercial import of the past." Read more here.
Flanked by her Angels, Swift took a page from Derek Zoolander for the live debut of "Style," showing off a little Blue Steel and proving that she, can in fact, turn left. And of course, for the night's final performance she showed off her red lip classic thing and good girl faith in a see-through lace black nightie over a bra and highwaisted underwear ensemble--bellybutton perfectly hidden once again. Read more and watch the performance here.
With the promise that more dates are still to be announced, the new tour leg is set to kick off on January 2nd in Chicago at Joe's On Weed and the final announced stop on the tour is on April 25th in Medina, Ohio at Thirsty Cowboys. Paslay will also be taking part in the Crash My Playa event in Riviera Maya, Mexico on January 25th. The concert will also feature performances from Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line. Paslay is launching the tour in support of his self-titled debut album. He had this to say, "2014 has been such an amazing year for me with 'Friday Night' being my first No. 1 as an artist and the release of my debut album. I can't wait to be back out on the road continuing to share my music in the New Year." Check out the tour dates here.
For the women, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift have all made the list. Things get interesting, though, with regards to the rest of the guys. They are four One Direction members, with Niall Horan and Harry Styles landing at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively. Liam Payne is firmly planted at No. 4, while Louis Tomlinson squeaks onto the list at No. 9. Which means that Zayn Malik is the only One Direction member to not make the top 10 list. Read more here.
So why did he decide to do his own version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"? "'I hate Christmas songs, it's true," Smith admitted but then explained why he made an exception. "But ['Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'] is the only song I would ever attempt to sing, because of Judy Garland singing it, and Frank Sinatra singing it. To me, it sounds more like a classic jazz standard." Read more here.
Now, though, he's finally stepping out into the uncharted world of original production. In preparation for his upcoming Burning Bridges EP release in late December, the rapper has shared "In My Life," featuring John Legend. Over swaggering, horn-driven production, Ludacris grouses about made up stories about his private life, including the claim that he's involved with reality stars--'I live in Atlanta but do not have an Atlanta Housewife." He takes aim at web-based gossipmongers, too: 'Bloggers barely believe their own lies, turning the computer screen into a mirror, look at your own lies." Read more and listen to the track here.
And after decades of delays, it returns in 2015. Moviegoers were treated to a teaser trailer or the flick over the summer and today's release gives us a longer and more detailed look at what's to come. From the looks of this clip, director George Miller and star Tom Hardy are poised to leave Mel Gibson's 1979 original in the dust, and with all due respect to Gibson, we're glad that he lost interest in being a part of the film years ago. Hardy, who is perhaps most well known as "Bane" from the most recent Bat-film, The Dark Knight Rises, is now in the lead role, and judging by the trailer makes Mel's take on the character look a bit quaint. We start out with a dark screen, and we hear Hardy's voice saying, "My world is fire and blood." What it's not full of, apparently, is water, which might make the film hit a bit closer to home than the original did. But the landscape looks drier, the vehicles are more badass, and the bad guys look a hell of a lot scarier. But it's not only about the title character. "You're not the only one, Max," we hear a voice say. "Out here, everything hurts," says a voice that we know belongs to Charlize Theron. "You want to get through this? Do as I say. Now, pick up what you can and run." She's not talking to Max, she's talking to a group of refugee looking ladies behind her. She'll surely meet Max, but we don't see that in the trailer. Instead, what follows is a series of high energy action scenes, scored, oddly, by classical music. A few years ago a scene like this may have called for industrial metal, but the choice of an orchestra gives the film a more timeless feel. Interestingly, the score was by electronic musician Junkie XL, so one wonders if the same music will be in the completed film. Watch the new trailer and the trailer for the original Mad Max film here.
He demonstrated his considerable chops on 'Untitled" and 'My Darling Nikki (Interlude)", and now he's adding to his oeuvre with '25." Featuring an introspective Kendrick Lamar on the chorus, the song finds Punch discussing his own past. 'My Korean war vet grandfather's affliction was stress, and I inherited his heart condition," raps Punch, his voice measured and contemplative. Read more and listen here.
'I would love to have dinner with Reba McEntire," he told the country newsletter. "She's my lifelong crush. I think she'd have amazing advice and be hilarious at the same time. I'd order a very nice bottle of red [wine]. As far as food, I'd leave that up to her." When we sat down with Lynch back in April during a gondola ride at The Venetian he admitted that he hadn't been on a date in a while, but told us some of his picks for the perfect date. 'Oh gosh. You know, I haven't been on a date in years," he said. 'I love great dinners. [And] I think anywhere on the water is a great date for me. Probably the perfect date would be somewhere in Northern California on the coast. Maybe in Big Sur. I just recently visited and there are some really awesome lookouts. I think a picnic on the edge of one of those cliffs would be amazing." Read more here.
In the visual clip for the single from his recently released album 2014 Forest Hills Drive, an ode to the childhood home where he grew up, Cole is at his most soulful, delivering the track while standing in a simple room. Starting out as a silhouette, he's surrounded by walls that are projected with grainy home video footage and screen saver-like graphics. "This is my canvas/ I'mma paint it how I want it," he raps as images of a home, presumably his childhood one, appear behind him on the wall. Read more and watch the video here.
The performance, naturally, was perfectly timed with his favorite day of the week. Makonnen's choice of song was "Tuesday," his weeknight out anthem, which first led Drake to take notice and sign him to his label October's Very Own. While his label head, who also appears on the song's remix, didn't make an appearance, Makonnen represented OVO in one of their top season tees. The R&B crooner also got into the holiday spirit, wearing a Santa hat Watch it here.
At the Observatory in Santa Ana, Calif., Bronson made like Best Buy on a Black Friday and threw a bunch of electronics into the crowd--and not just handheld items like headphones or video games. The rapper gave away flat screen TVs, gaming consoles and iPads, Complex reports, treating his audience to an early holiday. Holding a beer without spilling during a concert is hard enough, but doing it while clutching a flat screen? That has to be a record. Afterward he sent out a tweet asking crowd members who took home the swag to tweet their hauls and they obliged. One very happy looking crowd member tweeted a pic of his new 42″ Sharp TV onto of his car. Watch it here.
"What inspired me as a kid was really was illustrating my thoughts on that sheet of paper," he says to begin the video. Paper in hand, Kendrick then spits off a few a cappella rhymes, taking a page from Forrest Gump's book explaining, "Life is like a box of chocolates/ Quid pro quo something for something that's the obvious / Flow so sick, don't you swallow it." Kendrick keeps flowing, changing things up, taking the pen to the pad to cross things out and re-write. Later he explains, locking himself in the studio helped him stay out of trouble before dropping a freestyle about his mom and dad raising a king. Read more and watch it here.
But, while she is a very important person in music, she is not Time's Person of the Year. Swift was on the magazine's shortlist for the prestigious honor, alongside Russian Presiden Vladimir Putin, Apple CEO Tim Cook, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. She made the cut because, as the magazine explained, she's "one of the world's top-selling pop artists, who this year shook up the music industry by pulling her music from streaming service Spotify, which she believes should compensate artists more." But, Time's Person of the Year is--drumroll, please--the Ebola fighters. Read more here.
Additionally, The Hollywood Reporter notes the masked hero will appear in Captain America: Civil War, due in 2016. This is big news as fans have clamored for Spider-Man to make an appearance alongside other Marvel heroes on the big screen. The process has taken years due to slow-going negotiations between Sony and Marvel. The news comes as leaked emails between Sony Pictures top brass Doug Belgrad and Ms. Pascal are poured over by reporters. An attack on Sony Pictures internal communications began November 24 with hackers releasing sensitive documents over the past two weeks. Read more here.
Studio executives also see this as a way to reboot the Men in Black series which lost money for the studio in 2012 with Men in Black 3. MIB stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones will most likely not appear or have major roles in the Jump Street crossover. The paper adds that Sony is "eager to move ahead" with the project with a 2016 or 2017 release planned. Hill's co-star, Channing Tatum, will also return. Twitter reaction has been�interesting. Read it here.
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