Day in Pop Report for 07/23/2014
Andrea Pellegrini, a former publicist at ICP's Psychopathic Records label, initially filed suit against her former employers last August, claiming a culture of "constant and pervasive harassment," which included label employee "Dirty Dan" Diamond making lewd and threatening comments towards her. Pellegrini also charged that Diamond presented her with a glass dildo, stating that she'd need it after he noticed her Facebook status had been updated to indicate she was single. According to the Detroit Metro Times, Diamond admitted under oath to making the sexually aggressive statements to Pellegrini at work, but downplayed the dildo, calling it "a work of art" and should be not construed as sexual harassment. He went on to allege that after Pellegrini turned it down, he passed the dildo on to Kid Rock as a gift. Last week, Pellegrini's attorneys subpoenaed Kid Rock to produce the dildo as evidence in the lawsuit against Psychopathic Records. more on this story
The winning bidder for this "Shine a Light with Katy Perry" package will be able to choose among 5 Midwest concert locations, part of her ongoing Prismatic World Tour including Chicago (Aug. 7, 8) , Grand Rapids (Aug. 10) , Auburn Hills (Aug. 11) Columbus (Aug. 12) and Cleveland (Aug 14) Veterans Matter, a national program of 1Matters, a 501 (c) 3 not-for-profit with roots going back to 1990, was started by founder Ken Leslie in 2012 after he learned that the biggest obstacle facing thousands of homeless veterans eligible for waiting long- term housing assistance was simply the lack of a rental deposit. Veterans Matter provides that deposit directly to the landlord and has now housed 350 veterans in six states. "Katy's huge heart and compassion for those in need is well documented. Homeless veterans are being beaten, robbed, and even killed on the streets of our nation; we'd be outraged if this happened overseas. In addition helping raise funds, she is also letting these vets know that America has not abandoned them," said Leslie. Veterans Matter partners with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Veteran Affairs (VA) to provide rental deposits to homeless veterans that qualify for voucher-assisted living but can't fund the initial housing costs. More details.
According to Gawker, West's audition tape was very unlike the general quality of his music - which is to say, it was bad. Really bad. He mysteriously wore an afro wig in the audition tape and seemed uncomfortable in his own skin, which cost him the part to Andre Benjamin, aka OutKast's Andre 3000, who's currently starring in the Jimi Hendrix biopic, Jimi: All Is By My Side. "This is for the role he lost to Andre Benjamin and it's very obvious why - he's a terrible actor," an anonymous tipster told Gawker. "He's wearing a ridiculous afro wig that he brought himself to the interview. He seems insecure and wooden through the whole tape, including some gems like: 'I did it much better in my dining room' and after the audition asking 'It's not great like I leave the office and not-so-great?'" more on this story
In interviews, Del Rey had been rather tight-lipped and vague on the song's meaning, though it seemed to either call out her critics or, possibly at the same time, admit how she rose to prominence so quickly. In a new interview with Complex, Del Rey explains that both are kind of true. "It's commentary, like, 'I know what you think of me,' and I'm alluding to that," Del Rey explained. "You know, I have slept with a lot of guys in the industry, but none of them helped me get my record deals. Which is annoying." more on this story
The Instagram included a quick video teaser of the tour documentary, featuring black-and-white footage of the successful co-headlining campaign. The HBO special will pull from concert footage shot at the duo's two-night residency at the Stade de France in Paris on Sept. 12-13, meaning the final product will include a quick turnaround from creation to airing. The Paris shows mark the On the Run tour's only international showcase at the moment; Beyonc� and Jay Z have been sticking to North American arenas for the jaunt, with a wrap-up date of Aug. 6. Check out the trailer here.
"We've never allowed our stuff to go digital. When you do it right, you can all succeed," he said. "We do digital the best we only know how. Digital will be handled at garthbrooks.com. It will be the only place you can get Garth Brooks' music." In a new report from USA Today, Brooks is predicted to become the best-selling solo act in history with the launch of his digital catalog. "If he sells a million downloads of his 18-disc catalog - a possibility, considering that he sold almost a million copies last year of Blame It All On My Roots, a Walmart-exclusive box set containing four discs of cover songs - he'll blow past Elvis Presley in gold and platinum album certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America," USA Today reports. more on this story
Former Ultra artist Kaskade was mentioned as being among the producers whose music had been used without authorization. Now both Phan and Kaskade have fired back at Ultra Records, with the makeup celebrity claiming that she had full authority to utilize the music in her clips. Kaskade has gone on to offer Phan his full support. According to TMZ, Phan's lawyers stated that Ultra gave Phan full permission to use the songs, and that the clips have helped promote the label and "showcased [them] to an international audience." Kaskade used his Twitter account to let it be known that he's happy Phan chose his tracks for her videos. Kaskade went on to add that "copyright law is a dinosaur, ill suited for the landscape of today's media." Read the tweets here.
"Sometimes things can lose context and perspective," McGraw told ET Canada. "I reacted in an instinctive, defensive way from my perspective of what was going on. I think it was an unfortunate situation I think all the way around. But it happened, it happened in a split second, it was pure instinctive reaction. I think you just got to move on." He added: "It is one of those things that happen, nobody feels good about it, but there's nothing that could be done about it. You are in that position, you are out there, you are vulnerable, things happen and sometimes you react. There's nothing to be said about it." Last week, TMZ posted a video from the show which showed several female fans grabbing McGraw's leg, reportedly when the slap happened. In a statement from his rep to Billboard, McGraw explained that he was just trying to keep the show moving. More.
"Burnin' It Down" drops to digital outlets and country radio Tuesday (July 22), but the Cleveland show marked the first time he'd played the song publicly. "I wanted to do something for you guys tonight that we haven't done yet," Aldean told the crowd at Cleveland's Progressive Field in a video posted on YouTube. "We've been saving it for you guys this week, because this is our first stadium show of the year. And when I tell you nobody's heard this song, nobody's heard this song." "Burnin' It Down" was produced by Aldean's longtime producer Michael Knox and written by Chris Tompkins, Rodney Clawson, and Florida Georgia Line's Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard. Florida Georgia Line is currently on Aldean's Burn It Down Tour this summer (along with Tyler Farr), and Hubbard also cowrote "Black Tears," a song on Aldean's 2012 album Night Train. In terms of sound and arrangement, "Burnin' It Down" is not just another "My Kinda Party," "She's Country" or "Night Train." "Sonically, this track definitely feels like something different for me and what I have typically put out as the lead single off my previous albums," Aldean said in a press release. "I've pretty much always gone with a really guitar-driven song that's pretty in your face, and this is more of a laid back thing with a really cool groove. We played it live for the first time this weekend in Cleveland and Cincy at the stadium gigs, and I'm excited to see how it takes off from here. There are some different things on this new album, and I hope this sets a good tone for what's to come." Watch the official lyric video for "Burnin' It Down" and read more here.
Young Chop will do this by playing a key role on two of the year's most anticipated rap albums, Kanye West's seventh solo LP and the sophomore album from Meek Mill. Now armed with his own production team, Chop spoke with XXL, revealing slight details on these projects. On his work with West, Chop said, "That song that we have is a hit. I'm talking about a super hit." He would go on to praise West's talent and studio ethic, saying "He was in on every session. Just really coaching ni-as on how to make s-t sound great. That's what I learned. When you hear my new s-t, all that s-t I learnt from 'Ye." If you are surprised to hear this, it is probably because you recall Chop's anti-Yeezy quote after West released a remix of "Don't Like". Details here.
The Giver: Music Collection, coming just a week before the release of the film, will feature 10 songs from various artists - including an original song from OneRepublic, titled "Ordinary Human." OneRepublic are joined on the soundtrack's tracklist by Capital Cities, Jake Bugg, Aloe Blacc, Tori Kelly, Bruno Major, Rixton, Sheppard and NeedToBreathe. The band will also contribute "I Lived," from 2013 album Native. For OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder, writing a track for the film was a personal project. "The Giver is a favorite book of ours and we're all incredibly thrilled to see it brought to the big screen," he said in a statement. "It's a huge honor to contribute our music to a movie that's not only an amazing story, but also has a cast of actors that we admire so much, like Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep. We hope our fans are just as excited about it as we are." Listen to the song here.
While lead producer Eric L. Gold cited the "the financial burdens of Broadway" as the reason the production shuttered, Williams has his own theories. The spoken word artist thinks the play struggled because it touched on an uncomfortable topic. "The idea of having a play that centers around, How do you stop the cycles of gun violence in our community? It's weird to hear someone feel like the story is generic when it's the front page of every f-king paper to date," he told Rolling Stone, adding, "I also cannot go without saying that there was something deeply embedded in a lot of the reviews that went deeper than just a dislike of the play." Williams even revealed that the production team had an inkling the musical wasn't going to be well-received. "We've known what was going on all along," he added. "Every day at rehearsal, Kenny Leon was saying, "Let's be very clear with the fact that this play is probably going to be hated coming out the gates." more on this story
It's a song that Snoop Dogg and Pharrell explored lyrically a decade ago and so, with that historic benchmark in mind, Ice Cube has to take it to the next level, visually. Obviously a simple club scene will not do. Instead, Cube is taking it to the laboratory. For reasons that are unexplained, Cube, Redfoo and 2 Chainz all have excessively large bobble heads in this video. Our best guesses about why are limited to it being a part of their character development - you see, the gentlemen are all dressed in their best doctor/lab tech gear so perhaps their heads are huge to contain all the brains needed for these highly technical scientific experiments related to measuring the drop of the booty. Or perhaps it's simply a visual gag. The world may never know the true answer as director Will Kindrick has contributed some fine work to the program Yo Gabba Gabba! One can only assume it is, by design, almost impossible to discern his motivations. Then there is the matter of the holograms. All of the ladies who are the subject of the booty experiment, whose measurements are badly needed to explain specific, burning scientific questions, are presented in holographic form. There appear to be three of them, often replicated into a line of repeating women, all dropping while these scientists tinker with their measurements and flip switches on the booty machine. It appears that the end result, already achieved at the time this video was filmed, is to make the booty drop. Congratulations to this crew on their successful and methodic proof of an unnamed theory Watch the video here.
Spelling explained, "It's been a hard year. It's been a very public year. We're working on it� marriage takes work and in light of everything that happened, we're working toward a positive outcome. We're a family and we're staying together as a family and committed to that." Tori said she has no regrets about putting her personal life on display. "Obviously, if it hadn't been made public initially, I wouldn't have done it. I never would've gone that path. I would have kept it private and dealt with things, but it was so public when everything came out, that I felt that was the best choice at the time." Spelling is now back to work on the ABC Family show "Mystery Girls" with her friend and former "90210" co-star Jennie Garth. "It's about two girls who in the '90s were on a hit mystery show. It's a little wink, wink at '90210.' Jennie Garth's character goes off to live in suburbia, while Holly, my character, kind of clings to fame. We reunite 14 years later and open our own detective agency." more on this story
As the country singer-songwriter gears up for the release of his new album Ignite the Night on Aug. 19, he's giving fans a preview with "Gonna Wanna Tonight," released yesterday (July 22). Written by Shane McAnally, Jon Nite and Jimmy Robbins, "Gonna Wanna Tonight" is one of three tracks on the album that Rice didn't write himself. A song Rice said is likely to be his next single, he recently told Radio.com the story behind the more sensitive track. "People talk about how they're tired of hearing, get a girl in your truck, drive her around, take her down the dirt road, however you word it," Rice told Radio.com. "I brush that off real quick. Trust me, these people I'm seeing at these shows are doing that. And they're doing that because that's their life. I'm singing about it because that was my life before I was touring all the time." And he's not lying. Rice said this was his life growing up in North Carolina. "We had a Walmart, wasn't a whole lot to do there. Get a girl, put her in your truck, drive down a dirt road, crank the music up, roll the windows down. It's the truth," he said. "I love that country music sings about it because that's the way people are living and that's what 'Gonna Wanna Tonight' is. It's, 'If you want to do all these country things throughout the night, girl I'm here for you. Let's just do it and I hope you're gonna wanna tonight.'" Check out the song and read more here.
The track hit iTunes and other digital retailers yesterday (July 22). "Wasted Years" features Dougy Mandagi, lead singer of Australian rock band The Temper Trap, who are best known for the 2008 hit single, "Sweet Disposition." The song's emotional lyric video boasts images of rapturous fans in the crowd at Angello live shows shot in his home country of Sweden. "We just wanted to have a song where our worlds collided a little bit, something that speaks to all of us, so I wanted to create something that was different but also honored the Temper Trap style," Angello told Rolling Stone about the collaboration. "I also wanted to find a great balance between dance and indie, and I kind of held back a lot just to create that moment where it's about the melodies and the songs." Check out the song here.
Lovato is staying healthy and fit by following a mostly raw diet. "I try to eat raw food whenever possible. I don't eat it all the time just because I'm the type of person that if I do something, if I go all one way, I get burnt out� "I'm gluten-free and dairy-free because I'm allergic to them. I just eat vegan and raw as much as possible and it's really changed my body and made me feel better." more on this story
The clip finds Gervais and a comely model taking a late-night road trip out into the desert for a bonfire party, hitting the open road in style behind the wheel of a sleek Ford Mustang muscle car. The bonfire generates an entirely different kind of heat, with Gervais and his companion taking the party back to a roadside hotel for a more up close and personal kind of celebration. There are a couple of moments that cross over into NSFW territory, so watch with caution. Watch the video here.
Interestingly, Danish director Martin De Thurah shot the whole clip in Mexico and somehow found the most European looking extras available. The story details a revolution, or what appears to be a revolution fueled by love, where giddy couples are torn asunder by much more clearly Latin officials. And, of course, Robyn dances with abandon to underline the show of passion the video aims to depict. R�yksopp and Robyn released the Do It Again mini-album on May 26. Check out the video here.
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